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I grew up in the late 70s and early 80s, and while my first favorite song was Joan Jett’s hard rock anthem “I Love Rock and Roll” My music tastes have tended toward a softer sound. I’ve always been a fan of what is commonly referred to as New Wave, and have been rediscovering it recently. I’ve had Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, and Tears for Fears CDs for years, so recently I’ve been working to find more obscure music from the 80s.

Much of this list includes later New Wave songs, 1988 seems to be a particular favorite for me, which happens to coincide with high school, when I really started to listen to my own thing, rather than what Casey Kasem or Rick Dees told me was popular.

For your consideration is my list of my favorite, lesser known New Wave songs. Everybody knows Duran Duran and Depeche Mode, but there are a lot of lesser known artists and songs out there that are really good.  This list is in no particular order, and probable contains some songs that might not be universally considered “New Wave”, but since this is my list, I’ll include all of them.

Song                                                  Artist
More Than This                                     Roxy Music
Situation                                              Yaz
The Promise                                          When in Rome
Mexican Radio                                       Wall of VooDoo
This is the Day                                      The The
Fascination                                           The Human League
Under the Milky Way                              The Church
Video Killed the Radio Star                     The Buggles
One Small Day                                       Ultravox
Our House                                            Madness
Always Something There to Remind Me    Naked Eyes
Oh l’Amour                                           Erasure
In a Big Country                                    Big Country
Tarzan Boy                                           Baltimora
Things Can Only Get Better                    Howard Jones
Come Dancing                                      The Kinks
One Night in Bangkok                            Murray Head

Click on the song title to link to the music video on YouTube

A few random reviews. These aren’t quite as random as some of Paul’s, but they are random none-the-less:

Leatherheads – This looked amusing, but turned out to be much funnier than I expected. Where I expected all of the laughs to have been in the commercials, there were a lot more in the movie. I’m starting to appreciate George Clooney a lot more than I used to, the comedic back and forth between him and Renee Zelweger was very good. That kid from the office didn’t do much for me, but he played his part well. Rating – Entertaining +

Gone In 60 Seconds - I watched the original 1974 version by Toby Halicki, not the Nick Cage version. The acting is terrible, the plot is ridiculous, and half of the dialog is over dubbed, presumably due to poor original sound (you know, like Ah-nold’s first movies But this movie is a classic 70’s car crash movie. If you had all of the muscle cars destroyed in this movie today in the condition they were in then, it would probabably be several million dollars worth. This is a must see for classic car chase / car crash afficianados. If you aren’t one of those, I doubt you’d have any interest in it. Rating – Entertaining 

The Dukes of Hazzard – When I was growing up, this was THE TV show. I had to clean my room every Friday in order to be allowed to watch it. I lived for this show in the early 1980s. Today I realize that it’s a pretty cheesy show, and I won’t watch it in order to preserve it’s place in my memory. A new(-ish) movie, however, could allow me to relive this show in a more modern sense. I haven’t seen it until now because I had heard it was not very good. Wow, is “not very good” generous for this travesty of a movie. Horrible, just horrible. It wasn’t cheesy like the original show, it wasn’t updated to appeal to the older original fans, it was cheesy in an entirely different way, and they didn’t follow the original characters trying to be serious while being cheesy. This was crap, pure crap. Rating – BAD, YOU RUINED MY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES YOUR B@$T@RD$!  

DeathRace 2000 – Another classic 1970’s car movie. This one is about a car race where points are scored for hitting and killing pedestrians. Did this start the classic “20 points for the old lady” game, or was it based on it? I don’t know, but it’s a ridiculous 70’s style satire movie that, like Gone in 60 Second, is worth the look if you like these types of things. Rating – Entertaining

Accepted – Not a bad movie about a kid who’s plan to make his way through a fake college after not getting accepted anywhere is far-fetched, to say the least, but it’s fun. I’m guessing it took place in Detroit, because where else are there huge empty buildings waiting to be turned into fake colleges? Really, where? Because I’ve been wanting to start my own college, and I need a facility. Soren U. will not be acreditted and credits will not transfer, but for the right price, you _will_ graduate.

It’s interesting that I’ve found several bands recently through their music being featured on TV commercials. Some are new, some are recent, and some are old. Here are a few of my recent favorites:

Band: The The
Song: This is the Day
Album: Soul Mining
Commercial: M&Ms

Commercial: (jerky video for some reason)

Live Performance from 1983:

Music Video:

Band: Röyksopp
Song: Remind Me
Album: Melody AM
Commercial: Gieco

Commercial:

Music Video:

Band: The Teddybears
Song: Punk Rocker
Album: Soft Machine
Commercial: Cadillac

Commercial:

Music Video:

Band: The Flaming Lips
Song: The W.A.N.D
Album: At War with the Mystics
Commercial: Dell

Commercial:

Music Video: