New Wave Outpost Forum

I particularly like a band called Dear Enemy. Ransom Note is an excellent album. Still have it on cassette.

Dear Enemy! Definitely heard about them. Chris Doheny of Geisha produced a later single of their's in 1986, forgot the name of the song though.

Dear enemy has their album on cd with bonus tracks and then there are some later tracks on YouTube. Computer one is the ultimate song. A great Aussie band that sound like the church is ups and downs.

There's a guy that sells CDs of the several of those bands mentioned for a great price.
He was a distributor for Almacantar Records.


https://www.discogs.com/seller/DecadeXS/profile

Completely forgot about Dear Enemy! "Computer One" for me is one of the best songs of the 1980s, such beauty! Wow. The album's OK, with a couple more songs approaching the main hit's impact. Pity they didn't do more - may have written another classic...

I just remembered there's some compilation albums of local bands out there. I was just surfing discogs last night and I found these.

https://www.discogs.com/release/3648611 ... Clock-Muse

This one includes an early version of the Venetians song "Nothing Changes" (originally called "Girls Cry Boys Talk").

https://www.discogs.com/master/2227915- ... e-Mark-Too

This one has two songs by Dance Park- the drummer was in a later line up of Geisha from 1986-87. This also has some very early songs by Boom Crash Opera, a Melbourne band that has received their fair share of recognition (one of their songs reached no. 8 on the billboard charts), still deserves quite more acclaim o/s in my humble opinion.
If anyone has mP3s of these by some random chance, let me know. Maybe we can do some trading with other mp3s you are after..

I know if they were not mentioned, and don't know if they are lesser known in the states, but Machinations and the Models ?

Models toured in the US in 1985-86 I believe (fun fact : Gus Till of Beargarden was a one time Model for a couple of months back in '81). Additionally, they were in the majority of televised specials broadcasted across the world (Oz for Africa, Australian Made). Machinations didn't have that much success outside of Oz. The bands that really hit the big time in the states were INXS and Icehouse, although there were many efforts to get these bands ahead overseas. Geisha appeared on a US cassette compilation, there was a demo tape with Beargarden songs shopped around to record labels in the states,along with another band called Cattletruck (https://www.discogs.com/release/17649286-Beargarden-Cattletruck-Beargarden-).
As I mentioned before, the Venetians reached no 85 on the Billboard Charts with "So Much For Love", and were on the Chrysalis label. In many cases, Aussie bands were either shopped around to record labels, did brief tours, and if they were lucky got a US release to promote themselves abroad. However, I do feel that it was a hit or miss with some of these labels. Ah well, at least us fans adore and appreciate their music

check out this too:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43490

Extremely obscure Beargarden trivia. I've been trying to figure this one out for a while.

Their 'instrumental' track 'A Dog Barks in a Blizzard of Ticker Tape', which was a B-side to the 12" 'I Write the News' is included on their compilation of unreleased material 'The Word That Refers to the Word That Refers to Walt Disney', which you can find at their Bandcamp here: https://beargarden.bandcamp.com/album/t ... alt-disney

This is an instrumental, and only features the lead singer saying the following line, twice I think, "A dog barks in a blizzard of ticker tape"
However, the Bandcamp has a lyrics dropdown which reads like this:

"brandishing bells,
and rattling hand-drums,
dancers precede the king's Rolls-Royce -
for a program of sacred dramas,
and sports events.

cheerleaders, Brenda McCampbell and Chip Cornelius,
wring mounting decibels
from the frenzied crowd -
as monk-dancers don frightsome demon-masks,
scattering spectators like chaff,
in a game
said to date from the days of Genghis Khan.

the sounds of laughter
ring through trumpets of thigh-bones,
and rosaries of 108 disc-like beads,
each cut from a separate human skull.

most spectacular of all
is the somersaulting of young men
over axe-men balanced on logs.

'all the lakes are brimming!'
sings one peon.

far from seeing such things as gruesome,
they are looked upon as reminders,
of the brevity of life,
and the importance of pomp and pageantry."

I was perplexed by this, because these words are nowhere in the instrumental, so I went digging, and they in fact appear on the vinyl of 'I Write the News'. I don't know if perhaps the version on Bandcamp is an edited copy, and the vinyl version does indeed have these words in it, but would love to know. They surely come from somewhere as it almost sounds like a Mondo Cane style documentary commentary to me.

Seona85 wrote:Extremely obscure Beargarden trivia. I've been trying to figure this one out for a while.

Their 'instrumental' track 'A Dog Barks in a Blizzard of Ticker Tape', which was a B-side to the 12" 'I Write the News' is included on their compilation of unreleased material 'The Word That Refers to the Word That Refers to Walt Disney', which you can find at their Bandcamp here: https://beargarden.bandcamp.com/album/t ... alt-disney

This is an instrumental, and only features the lead singer saying the following line, twice I think, "A dog barks in a blizzard of ticker tape"
However, the Bandcamp has a lyrics dropdown which reads like this:

"brandishing bells,
and rattling hand-drums,
dancers precede the king's Rolls-Royce -
for a program of sacred dramas,
and sports events.

cheerleaders, Brenda McCampbell and Chip Cornelius,
wring mounting decibels
from the frenzied crowd -
as monk-dancers don frightsome demon-masks,
scattering spectators like chaff,
in a game
said to date from the days of Genghis Khan.

the sounds of laughter
ring through trumpets of thigh-bones,
and rosaries of 108 disc-like beads,
each cut from a separate human skull.

most spectacular of all
is the somersaulting of young men
over axe-men balanced on logs.

'all the lakes are brimming!'
sings one peon.

far from seeing such things as gruesome,
they are looked upon as reminders,
of the brevity of life,
and the importance of pomp and pageantry."

I was perplexed by this, because these words are nowhere in the instrumental, so I went digging, and they in fact appear on the vinyl of 'I Write the News'. I don't know if perhaps the version on Bandcamp is an edited copy, and the vinyl version does indeed have these words in it, but would love to know. They surely come from somewhere as it almost sounds like a Mondo Cane style documentary commentary to me.

Ha! I've been wondering about that for some time now as well! Seems like a poem Sam Sejavka (lead singer) wrote lol, wouldn't be surprised if the band just put it there for kicks. I remember reading something about that in RAM magazine, and they mentioned nothing of the meaning.

By the way, the word that refers to the word that refers to Walt Disney is a great comp. Glad the guys released it, also there's this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0Q8BT_jzKc
Apparently this a demo of a song called "Now Wait For Last Year". Although the video shows a live performance, according to the description box (video was posted by the band's bass guitarist, Ross Farnell), the audio is a demo but synced to the live performance of the song. I wish they released it, I think with a bit more polishing it would have made a good album track.

Uvox wrote:check out this too:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43490

I think I've seen some of these names in newspaper gig listings before. Have to check it out. Thanks for sharing!

Cool track! Had never heard it before, and that is quite a crisp copy too, so could easily be polished. I am very curious about this demo tape on the discogs site

A4 Beargarden– The Enthiusiast
A5 Beargarden– Champagne For Jezebel
A6 Beargarden– Up Market
A7 Beargarden– Angel Gear
A8 Beargarden– Slow Clock
A7 Beargarden– Walking Like A Ruin
A9 Beargarden– Worlds Away

Very much appreciate the lyrical quality of Beargarden and these are some eye-catching song titles. Got to wonder what they're like.

With regards to the other bands mentioned, can wholly agree with Dear Enemy (STAY! is extremely underrated in my opinion). A word on the Venetians. I like Rik Swinn's vocals a lot and rate this group pretty highly because Chinese Is is one of my favourite new wave songs. Their first album is definitely the best of the three (Eugene is eerie and reminds of Japan), and while I do think they became overly commercial on the second and third, there are still pieces here and there to like. So Much For Love was really great, and I like Bitter Tears for its guitar work. The music video was nice too, reminded me of 'Touch' by Noiseworks.

Weirdly, this exists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuAByyveMbM

Seona85 wrote:Cool track! Had never heard it before, and that is quite a crisp copy too, so could easily be polished. I am very curious about this demo tape on the discogs site

A4 Beargarden– The Enthiusiast
A5 Beargarden– Champagne For Jezebel
A6 Beargarden– Up Market
A7 Beargarden– Angel Gear
A8 Beargarden– Slow Clock
A7 Beargarden– Walking Like A Ruin
A9 Beargarden– Worlds Away

Very much appreciate the lyrical quality of Beargarden and these are some eye-catching song titles. Got to wonder what they're like.

With regards to the other bands mentioned, can wholly agree with Dear Enemy (STAY! is extremely underrated in my opinion). A word on the Venetians. I like Rik Swinn's vocals a lot and rate this group pretty highly because Chinese Is is one of my favourite new wave songs. Their first album is definitely the best of the three (Eugene is eerie and reminds of Japan), and while I do think they became overly commercial on the second and third, there are still pieces here and there to like. So Much For Love was really great, and I like Bitter Tears for its guitar work. The music video was nice too, reminded me of 'Touch' by Noiseworks.

Weirdly, this exists:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuAByyveMbM

I have been looking for that beargarden demo for awhile now! Strangely enough, track A7 shares the same name as a play Sam Sejavka wrote. If ANYONE has an mp3 of the tracks, that would be amazing. I have been wanting to hear them for awhile

Stay is probably one of my favorite Venetians songs! Great backing vocal from Wendy Matthews ( I think that's her, she also did backing on Beargarden's album. Mind you, Beargarden and the Venetians did several gigs together in the 80s).

Loving this discussion! Hard to find people that appreciate the same bands that I do (esp. Beargarden, Geisha, V-Capri, and The Promise).

Real life:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43773