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Tag Archives: New Wave

#62: The Go-Go’s – Beauty and the Beat (1981) Vinyl Download

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Everyone needs albums in their collection that remind them one should never take music too seriously. These albums shoulds say yes, it’s ok that I like some groups that have had a top 40 hit. Yes, from time to time I do enjoy a band that fits into a genre or genres that would otherwise make my skin crawl. Yes, sometimes I wish I was a woman so that I could put one of those towering towel-bun things on my head, slather on a creepy-cream-cheese-or-whatever-the-hell-it-is-mask with my gal pals and let loose. You know, just put on the Go-Go’s and get our nails did while talking about boys or periods or crying or whatever it is chicks chat about when they’re having a tickle-fight sleepover.

You know just live, laugh, love. Lollipop lesbian Lilliputian.

This is one of those albums that will make you disregard all  cohesive thought structure and just let go-go of the world around you. Two of the best songs from the 80′s are on this album: “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got The Beat”. If you’re unfamiliar with these adorable “new wave quirk” behemoths then observe the following:

Nothing displays a carefree attitude better than packing all of your girlfriends into a copper-colored 1960 Buick LeSabre convertible and hitting the open road. This is especially true when you’re adorned in your favorite 50′s regalia while sitting on the trunklid and disregarding all traffic laws. The wind in your hair, bugs in your teeth and cops on your ass.

BUT WAIT THEY GOT IN THE FOUNTAIN! THEY’RE DANCING IN THE FOUNTAIN AND SPLISH-SPLASHIN TO THEIR HEART’S CONTENT! I’M SO JEALOUS OF YOU, BELINDA CARLISLE! DAMN YOUR FREEWHEELING WAYS!

Here again we see them displaying a total disregard for their personal safety as they pull up to their live show in the back of a 50′s pickup. Where are these girls getting such badass vintage whips? Were they servicing Jay Leno as he started out his stand-up comedy career? I must get to the bottom of that.

The biggest thing that upset me about that video is the Farrah Fawcett wannabee crowd surfer the camera keeps cutting to. She is so totally 70′s…it kills my new wave buzz so hard. GET THAT HAIR RELAXED, GIRL. THIS AIN’T A BOSTON CONCERT!

There are plenty of other great songs on the album. My personal favorite of the rest is “You Can’t Walk In Your Sleep (If You Can’t Sleep).” I’m pretty sure this is the only song on the album that was written by Belinda Carlisle. It has a bit more of the ‘tude than the other tracks with its wiggly walking bassline and heavy pop punk foundation. The chorus doesn’t really make much sense but I’ll forgive them…only because the song conjures visions of Carlisle’s bratty nose squenching over and over in a fit of passion.

Click here to download Beauty and the Beat

In my final notes I’d like to put the nail in the coffin as to just how fun the Go-Go’s are. Apparently 6 weeks after this album hit #1 on the charts a backstage video of the girls leaked to the press. The contents of that video, which are reported to be of the sex, drugs and rock and roll variety, really tarnished the Go-Go’s wholesome persona. 

This loss of fan support is hilarious because it seems today that you have to make a scandalous tape to be famous. Or at least if you’re not famous you can “leak” a sex tape in hopes of becoming famous. What’s even more ridiculous is that there isn’t any actual Go-Go’s sex or nudity just some qualude-popping creep who, according to the description of the film I’ve read here, keeps flashing his junk in the hotel room of a Holiday Inn.

Too bad there wasn’t any YouTube back in the day because I bet there would have been an awesome Go-Go’s equivelant to the “Leave Brittany Alone” guy. *sigh*

#25: Pretty In Pink Soundtrack (1986) Vinyl Download

Click here for a random Rebuilt Tranny post!

*download below*

Ok, so I’ve never actually never seen Pretty In Pink. I only have the most basic grasp of what the movie is about. I know there is a guy named Ducky and he wears all sorts of awesome clothes and he’s really funny. I know that Molly Ringwald is in this and she’s really good at expressing sad faces and general disappointment. And there’s this other dude Andrew McCarthy that kind of looks like a serial rapist in the same vein as Ted Bundy. I’m not sure what Andrew McCarthy does but I think Molly Ringwald really digs him despite the fact that Ducky is obviously cooler, with his sick threads and pompadour hairdo.

And to tell you truth it’s not that I haven’t had the chance to watch the movie. Molly has the DVD and by judging her movie habits I’d estimate she’s seen it somewhere in the ballpark of 200 times. That’s a conservative estimate. No, I’ve been waiting to see it because I’ve been afraid that it will ruin the soundtrack for me.

Until I picked this album up yesterday from a guy selling records out of a horse barn in Covington I’d only heard the soundtrack at one other location: Christy’s Rathskeller in Clifton. For those who haven’t been there I’ll give a brief description. The rathskeller is positioned beneath Lenhardt’s German/Hungarian restaurant which inhabits a 19th century mansion built by a Cincinnati Beer Baron from the Moerlein family. As you’d expect from a Germanic demi-castle the basement is dark, dank and smothered in fine wood appointments. Strewn across the walls are pictures from the early 90s of the bar’s patrons donning large metal-rimmed glasses, new jean shorts, and ill-fitting BUM equipment sweatshirts. For some reason, along with their barfly exposé, Christy’s never got around to updating their jukebox since the first Gulf War.

The rathskeller’s jukebox has a copy of the Pretty In Pink Soundtrack. I am a hopeless jukebox hero. Can’t get enough of it. I’m also a sucker for 80s prom songs. So of course I would play something from this disc almost every time I slipped a $5 into the slot. After a few drinks of Wild Turkey and Ginger ale I’d fade away into my past where I had my first encounter with cool in the 80s…..

I was 5 years old in the first half of 1988. In my neighborhood there was a teenage girl who thought it would be a good idea to ask her crush to prom by putting together a jar full of candy with a note attached that stated “Will you go to the prom with me because omg your butt is, like, SO rotund” as an invitation. Of course she was too nervous to deliver said invitation personally so I was chosen for the task. I don’t really know why it seemed like a good idea to send a 5-year-old boy into a classroom before first bell with a memorized poem and a jar full of jellybeans to talk to a high school boy but it was the 80s and things were different back then. Everyone was living the satin dream. Anyway, I forgot the poem as soon as I stepped in the room and just handed this jar of jellybeans to a dude who looked twice as confused as I was. I don’t know if they went to the dance, it doesn’t really matter.

What does matter is that my impression of cool was formed from what I saw when I walked through the halls of that high school in Sandy City, Utah. Big hair, big shoulder pads, tight pants, baggy shirts, maybe some hip kid was rocking the first run of LA Gears. Neon fabric as far as the eye can see. Basically, everyone wanted to look like the cover of this album. Frump on top, party on the bottom.

I’m deathly afraid that when I watch Pretty In Pink my memory of what cool was will be washed away and replaced by Andrew McCarthy’s unsettling upper lip. It will just sit there on my lobes, twitching, eyeing me with imaginary mustache eyes. I just hope the soundtrack and I can still be friends after her best friend Andrew forces his sweaty paw down my pants after I pass out from too much sparkling wine while attending the Fancy Town Ball. My tears will be infinite.

Track List

1. Orchestral Maneouvres In The Dark – If You Leave

2. Suzanne Vega w/ Joe Jackson – Left Of Center

3. Jesse Johnson – Get To Know Ya

4. INXS – Do Wot You Do

5. The Psychedelic Furs – Pretty In Pink

6. New Order – Shellshock

7. Bolouis Some – Round, Round

8. Danny Hutton Hitters – Would It Be Good

9. Echo & The Bunnymen – Bring On The Dancing Horses

10. The Smiths – Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

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Download Pretty In Pink Soundtrack HERE

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