WAX #1
New York funk from 1981, featuring among its membership one Joseph W. Lattisaw, Jr., who I'm guessing must be related to Stacy Lattislaw, since he also sang backing vocals on some of her records.
WAX #2
In 1981, Lonely Boy Andrew Gold helped 10cc out with keyboards on their Ten Out Of 10 album. They offered him a place in the band, but he was far too busy writing the Golden Girls theme tune. A couple of years later, his diary had freed up some, so he decided to join Graham Gouldman in a new band venture while 10cc were on hiatus. They were originally called World In Action, which sounded too much like that really dull ITV documentary show I never watched as a kid, before changing their name to Common Knowledge. Wax was clearly preferable, but chart success continued to elude them until a couple of years later when their single Right Between The Eyes went to Number One in Spain. Soon after they had a UK hit with the song below and one of those awful 80s animated videos that make your eyes bleed after about 30 seconds...
WAX #3
Swedish punks from 1983 with a cassette-only release that translates as "Punk Is Not Dead". You decide...
WAX #4
Italian disco-pop duo from 1984 whose solo single, Rock A Hong-Kong, is sadly unavailable on the tube of you. However, its b-side, Wax Dance, was remixed and re-issued almost 30 years later by Dutch label Bordello A Parigi. This is the result...
WAX #5
Californian rock band who formed in 1991, citing The Ramones and Pixies as influences. Director Spike Jonze worked on some of their videos, including the one below, which was banned from MTV in case it encouraged people to set themselves on fire before going for a jog...
WAX #6
René Pawlowitz is a German techno DJ & producer also known as Shed. Wax is another pseudonym he goes by, producing lots of "tunes" which are so "good" they don't need titles... just numbers. This, from 2008, is 10001. George will be especially pleased to learn that it is 8 minutes long. DON'T DO IT, GEORGE!
WAX #7
LA rapper who claims his biggest influences are Guns n Roses and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince. Not that you can tell that by listening to his most popular tune, from 2012...
WAX #8
Finally, some contemporary K-Pop balladeering that will chill you to your very marrow... before you realise it's no longer appropriate to mock music that's hugely successful in other cultures just because it doesn't appeal to you. I'm guessing this young lady had made a lot of money though, so good on her for finding a way to turn schmaltz into moolah.
And there we have it. Eight pieces of wax to scrape out of your ears. But which are wax on and which are wax off?
Feel free to wax lyrical in the comments box...
I see what you did there with that last sentence
ReplyDeleteCan't pick one as I never got beyond 20 seconds for any of them.
It is Lattislaw week here on My Top Ten.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it is the same Joseph W Lattislaw Jr who sought legal redress when a fellow Washington DC police officer admired his bottom (see link below)? Stacy was born in DC so it is at least a possibility.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/dc-court-of-appeals/1351609.html
I think you're taking your research a step too far now, Ernie...
DeleteRabbit holes are my specialty
Delete#1 remarkably I like this, although the person opined "god that's annoying". Like Mr CC, she is wrong there. I am predisposed to despise #2 because of the two people you mention. I am unfamiliar with the song, unlike the person next to me who is singing along to it! I dislike #2 intensely.
ReplyDelete#1 that is The Person Next To Me, who will now be referred to as TPNTM
Delete#3 the Angelic Upstarts tribute band obvious bobbins (TPNTM "is that 1970s punk?") I share your disappointment at the unavailability of Rock a Hong Kong but Wax Dance is strangely listenable. Like #1 it will be part of Downloads vol. 219. #5 was almost as irritating in its own detestable way as #2. #6 is "children's music". #7 had such a promising start but after 12 seconds it just became drivel, and I can't tell you without swearing how much I hated that vocal and the tune itself. It's even driven our female dog from her cushion to sleep under a pomegranate tree
ReplyDeleteI thought #8 was titled Colin Laundry. Despite our ( TPNTM and I) passion for South Korean programmes neither are fans of the tune. #1 is the best track today.
ReplyDeleteColin Laundry would definitely be a better song title.
DeleteThere's a bloke called Colin Laundry. He's on that book of faeces
Delete