RhoDeo 1344 Aetix

Hello,

As we continue the females in the eighties, today a mixed bag of dames, after all we're nearing the end of the gestation of this subtheme, next week Pat Benetar will complete the cycle. For now some big voices one from a small frame who was best known of providing a "paradise by the dashboardlight" and one from a big frame, inbetween a husband and wife band coming out what was at the time the top US indie band. Their contribution to aetix history turned out to be limited to one good album released at the height of success of Talking Heads. Then there's a band who deserved much more success then they had, they were victims of MTV in a way as they had no face to sell, nevertheless they have been one of the strongest of the American post-punk bands.... N'joy

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Ellen Foley was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of John and Virginia B. Foley. Foley attended Webster University. Foley gained high public recognition singing the duet with Meat Loaf on the hit single "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" from the 1977 album Bat out of Hell. Although Karla DeVito is featured on the music video, DeVito is lip synching to Foley's vocals. Her debut album Night Out was released in 1979; the album's single "What's A Matter Baby" was a minor hit, reaching No. 92 on the US Charts. The album itself peaked at No. 152, and was produced by Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson. Foley recorded a memorable duet with Ian Hunter in 1980, "We Gotta Get Outta Here".

She can also be heard on the 1980 Blue Öyster Cult album Mirrors singing on the title cut, and also on The Clash album Sandinista! (also released in 1980), in the songs "Hitsville UK" and "Corner Soul", and on the unreleased track "Blonde Rock 'n' Roll". All four members of The Clash appeared on her second album The Spirit of St. Louis in 1981, and Mick Jones and Joe Strummer co-wrote a number of songs for the album. Jones produced the album, which also featured members of The Blockheads, and peaked at No. 137 on the US charts. The Clash's hit song "Should I Stay or Should I Go", written and sung by Jones, was about the turbulent relationship he shared with Foley at the time.

She released her third (and to date, final) solo album Another Breath in 1983; it failed to chart. In 1984, she sang backing vocals on Joe Jackson's album Body & Soul and had a large role in the music video for Utopia's "Crybaby". Foley was one of four female vocalists to front the band Pandora's Box, formed by Jim Steinman in 1989. Their album Original Sin was the first to feature the song "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" (vocals by Elaine Caswell); both Meat Loaf and Celine Dion had separate chart successes with that song, years later.

The grand opener "We Belong to the Night" is breathtaking and bombastic bliss; a creamy confection of debonair dreams that could only come from the late '70s and the glitter-gutter combo of Mick Ronson and Ian Hunter. The princely poppers provide the perfect atmosphere for Foley's powerful theatrics on her inaugural flight. The second single, "What's a Matter Baby," soars just as high in the stratosphere: a little bit '50s, but a whole lot cosmic. It's a crime music which hides in the recesses of the past, because this gem is priceless, if only for the first two tracks. Ronson's axe is exemplary throughout: shooting over Mars and then swooping back through nocturnal cityscapes. He twists "Heartful of Soul" into "Young Lust" and makes a break for it in "Hide Away." Obviously haunted by midnight Spectors, kindred spirit Hunter supplies the perfect keyboard counterpart: mission control for Ronson's rockets. The swirling storm whipping through Gram Parker's "Thunder and Rain" builds to an almost unbearable compression of intensity. In the eye of this celestial storm, Foley scats, scolds, swoons, croons, pouts, pleads, and purrs in a rich tone that few femme fatales possess, scaling a towering wall of sonic seduction. The sublime proceedings finally slow down to a crawl for fallout "Don't Let Go," but it's just the mourning after an unforgettable Night Out.

Ellen Foley - Night Out  (flac 264mb)

01 We Belong To The Night 5:18
02 What's A Matter Baby 3:37
03 Stupid Girl 4:06
04 Night Out 5:14
05 Thunder And Rain 3:02
06 Sad Song 3:30
07 Young Lust 5:27
08 Hideaway 3:42
09 Don't Let Go 3:56

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Originally established as a side project, the Tom Tom Club comprise a loose aggregate of musicians and artists that got together to record an album. This resulted in, a collection of funky, sprightly little tunes recorded in Barbados with Weymouth's sisters, hubbie and drummer Chris Frantz, and several of the members of the Remain in Light tour group: Adrian Belew, guitar, and Steven Stanley, percussion. Ironically, hoping to toss off a fun album under the radar, the group came out with an album, the best tracks of which, "Genius of Love" and "Wordy Rappinghood," became enormously influential throughout the '80s and '90s, eventually getting ripped off wholeheartedly by many artists.

The following year, the group released a follow-up, Close to the Bone, which was similar in style to its first album but didn't fare as well despite songs such as "Pleasure of Love" and "The Man With The Four Way Hips," but the former song was a minor hit on urban radio in the US. The album was released on vinyl but never reissued on CD. The original British vinyl was put out in six different colors.There was then a 4-year gap until the band's next album, the first version of Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom. On the album, the group adapted a more conventional rock style with a harder edged sound and a hint of menace in the lyrics of some songs. Whereas the previous two albums had been recorded by a loose collective of a dozen musicians, the Tom Tom Club was now reduced to the trio of Weymouth, Frantz and Weymouth's sister Laura Weymouth. There were, however, a number of prominent guest musicians on the record, including Lou Reed and Talking Heads' front man David Byrne on a cover of Reed's "Femme Fatale". The fourth member of Talking Heads, Jerry Harrison, also featured on some tracks. As with Close to the Bone, the album was not a commercial success. The following year,  the group and Sire decided to issue a radically altered version of the album in the US, replacing four songs with four others, one of which, "I Confess," was a total overhaul of the original album's "Mighty Teardrop." The running order of the rest of the album was shuffled while the artwork was revamped. However, the changes had little effect on the album's US commercial success.

The group's next album, The Good the Bad and the Funky, was released in 2000 and featured cover versions of Donna Summer's "Love to Love You, Baby" and Lee Perry's "Soul Fire." Among the musicians on The Good the Bad and the Funky are Jamaican singer Mystic Bowie, Pettigrew and Toots of Toots & the Maytals. The album's release was followed by one European, and several American, tours. In 2002, Frantz and Tina Weymouth, along with their former Talking Heads bandmates, were inducted at the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. In 2007, the band released a special Christmas single called "Mistletunes," containing two specially recorded Christmas songs: "Il est Ne" and "Christmas in the Club," which features Mystic Bowie and scratcher/turntableist Kid Ginseng (Weymouth and Franz's son).  In 2012, the band offered up Downtown Rockers, an EP of new material very true to their earliest work, featuring guest appearances from likeminded newcomers Wild Belle.

Tom Tom Club - Tom Tom Club  (flac 378mb)

01 Wordy Rappinghood 6:27
02 Genius Of Love 5:34
03 Tom Tom Theme 1:25
04 L'Éléphant 4:50
05 As Above, So Below 5:23
06 Lorelei 5:05
07 On, On, On, On... 3:33
08 Booming And Zooming 4:32
Bonus Tracks
09 Under The Boardwalk 5:44
10 Lorelei (Remix) 6:20
11 Wordy Rappinghood (Remix) 6:39
12 Genius Of Love (Long Version) 7:24

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Debora Iyall, a Native American (from the Cowlitz tribe) born in rural Washington and raised in Fresno, CA, moved to San Francisco in the mid-'70s to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. Intrigued by the burgeoning local punk and post-punk scenes, Iyall, Zincavage, Woods, and Derrah formed Romeo Void in 1979. Iyall has said that the name, meaning "a lack of romance," was inspired by a headline on the cover of a local magazine that read "Why single women can't get laid in San Francisco." The combination of Iyall's powerful vocals and searing imagery with the band's muscular blend of dark atmospherics and  a rattling momentum, with Benjamin Bossi's splattering free jazz saxophone coloring everything, made Romeo Void one of the strongest of the American post-punk bands.

Shortly after the group's formation, saxophonist , Benjamin Bossi, teamed up with Romeo Void. The revised lineup recorded their debut single, "White Sweater," and a cover of Jorgen Ingmann's atmospheric 1961 twang-guitar instrumental hit "Apache," for the new local indie 415 Records in 1980. Before sessions commenced for their first album, 1981's It's a Condition, Derrah left the group, replaced by ex-Explosions drummer John "Stench" Haines. One of the masterpieces of American post-punk, It's a Condition received rave reviews upon its release. Perhaps even more importantly, Cars leader Ric Ocasek heard the album and invited the group to his Synchro Sound studio in Boston. The resulting Ocasek-produced EP, Never Say Never, on the back of the enormous dance club and college radio airplay of the single, led directly to 415 Records' ongoing association with Columbia Records.

1982's "Benefactors" kicks off with a less-impressive shortened mix of "Never Say Never," almost completely eliminating Bossi's squalling, Albert Ayler-like solo, fading out before the hypnotic ending and bleeping out a rude word in the second verse. A denser album than the sparse It's a Condition, Benefactors is nearly the equal of the earlier record, with the hyperactive dance-pop of "Undercover Kept" signaling a new interest in musical directness that would reap commercial benefits on their next album.

Like It's a Condition, that third album, 1984's Instincts, was produced by 415's former house producer David Kahne, but it's far slicker than the debut, this newly commercialized approach scored the band their only Top 40 hit, "A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)," which Iyall claimed is an answer song to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," the album is a disappointment in comparison to the stellar work that had preceded it. By the time of these sessions,  relations had become strained in the group subsequently Romeo Void broke up in early 1985. Romeo Void reunited for a few benefit shows in 1992 and later that year released a career-summary compilation, Warm in Your Coat.

The combination of Iyall's powerful vocals and searing imagery with the band's muscular blend of dark atmospherics and  a rattling momentum, with Benjamin Bossi's splattering free jazz saxophone coloring everything, made Romeo Void one of the strongest of the American post-punk bands. Debora Iyall, a Native American (from the Cowlitz tribe) born in rural Washington and raised in Fresno, CA, moved to San Francisco in the mid-'70s to attend the San Francisco Art Institute. Intrigued by the burgeoning local punk and post-punk scenes, Iyall, Zincavage, Woods, and Derrah formed Romeo Void in 1979. Iyall has said that the name, meaning "a lack of romance," was inspired by a headline on the cover of a local magazine that read "Why single women can't get laid in San Francisco."

Shortly after the group's formation, saxophonist , Benjamin Bossi, teamed up with Romeo Void. The revised lineup recorded their debut single, "White Sweater," and a cover of Jorgen Ingmann's atmospheric 1961 twang-guitar instrumental hit "Apache," for the new local indie 415 Records in 1980. Before sessions commenced for their first album, 1981's It's a Condition, Derrah left the group, replaced by ex-Explosions drummer John "Stench" Haines. One of the masterpieces of American post-punk, It's a Condition received rave reviews upon its release. Perhaps even more importantly, Cars leader Ric Ocasek heard the album and invited the group to his Synchro Sound studio in Boston. The resulting Ocasek-produced EP, Never Say Never, on the back of the enormous dance club and college radio airplay of the single, led directly to 415 Records' ongoing association with Columbia Records.

1982's "Benefactors" kicks off with a less-impressive shortened mix of "Never Say Never," almost completely eliminating Bossi's squalling, Albert Ayler-like solo, fading out before the hypnotic ending and bleeping out a rude word in the second verse. A denser album than the sparse It's a Condition, Benefactors is nearly the equal of the earlier record, with the hyperactive dance-pop of "Undercover Kept" signaling a new interest in musical directness that would reap commercial benefits on their next album.

Like It's a Condition, that third album, 1984's Instincts, was produced by 415's former house producer David Kahne, but it's far slicker than the debut, this newly commercialized approach scored the band their only Top 40 hit, "A Girl in Trouble (Is a Temporary Thing)," which Iyall claimed is an answer song to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean," the album is a disappointment in comparison to the stellar work that had preceded it. By the time of these sessions,  relations had become strained in the groupsubsequently Romeo Void broke up in early 1985. Romeo Void reunited for a few benefit shows in 1992 and later that year released a career-summary compilation, Warm in Your Coat.

Romeo Void - Warm, In Your Coat  (flac 430mb)

01 White Sweater 4:48
02 I Mean It 5:40
03 Charred Remains 3:04
04 Talk Dirty To Me 4:47
05 Myself To Myself 3:44
06 In The Dark 4:27
07 A Girl In Trouble (Is A Temporary Thing) 4:18
08 Out On My Own (Dance Mix) 3:51
09 Just Too Easy 3:12
10 Wrap It Up 3:25
11 Flashflood 4:57
12 Undercover Kept 6:08
13 Chinatown 3:16
14 Never Say Never 5:54
15 One Thousand Shadows 3:29

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