Throwback Thursday : Bush Tetras

Active on and off since the late '70s, this NYC post punk band never got quite the same kind of attention as bands like Blondie, The Ramones, or The Talking Heads did. Here is their first single and one of the best known Bush Tetras songs, "Too Many Creeps" from 1980.

Side note, whenever I DJ this song, at least one person thinks it is Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth singing - without fail.

Throw Back Thursday : Pylon

It doesn't get much better than this '80s Athens, Georgia band fronted by Vanessa Briscoe Hay. Their music is like brittle sticks snapping under rhythmic punches. There are guitar melodies but even the vocals accent beats as if they too are a percussion instrument. There is nothing extracurricular about their songs, every note and beat is measured and executed with a dancing precision. Imagine a small and powerful motorboat skidding through choppy, rough waters. This is what their pioneering sound reminds me of.

Their unique version of post punk was inspired by (and peers to) bands like the B-52s, Gang of Four, Television, and Talking Heads but in a decades time would become an influence to the next generations of bands like: R.E.M., Sleater Kinney, Deerhunter, LCD Soundsystem, Wedding Present, Life Without Buildings, Fire Party, and Love of Diagrams to name just a small handful of the artists.