Buggles Killed the Wannabe Star: Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club

I was pretty damn pleased with myself with the find I had yesterday at the new Ninety-Nine Cent Records here in Portland (on NE MLK near Fremont, check 'em out). The unearthing of the self-titled debut of Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club on vinyl amazed me and perplexed the owner of the shop. I had seen videos of performances on TV shows of the day (circa 1979), but had seen very little information on them otherwise and was surprised to see that they had a full-length, let alone in my hand. You see, this long-winded and poorly marketed little group is more famous for the talent that it suppressed and was later released into the world. The most well-known outburst occurred when Woolley collaborators Trevor Horn and Geoffrey Downes released a new, immaculately produced version and video of an album track "Video Killed the Radio Star."

Yes, Woolley had something to do with writing this song (he has a 50% songwriting copywrite), but it didn't help the group to slap his clumsy name and bland good looks on the record cover. As the leader of the group, it might have done him some good to keep his ego in check, especially when your keyboardist is one of the great producers of the synth-pop era, Thomas Dolby. Let alone the fact you've got Horn at your disposal, the guy who would go on to produce Yes's "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and the Art of Noise, to name a few. Instead, we've got a few good songs, the best being "Video" and the other future Buggles classic "Clean Clean," played and produced in a pretty unimaginative way. Woolley's vocals are a little hammy and unmemorable. To Woolley's credit, his "English Garden" is pretty solid songwriting.

But all the talent that is wasted here is a bit frustrating. Dolby's sole co-songwriting credit goes to a short instrumental "W.W.9." Just two years later in 1981 he released the genius single "Europa and the Pirate Twins" and in 1980 The Buggles released the classic "Age of Plastic" album. Woolley's stayed fairly active in the music scene, including playing and singing on tracks of his former bandmates' albums. But it was truly a revenge of the nerds as the bookish Horn, Downes, and Dolby would become the superstars that Woolley dreamed of becoming.

All that been said, the album is totally worth check out and electicsynthetic.blogspot.com was kind enough to upload it here.

Mother Obsesso

I've been a bit obsessed with the Mother series since I started playing Earthbound (Mother 2) for Super NES on Christmas last year. So quirky, so offbeat, it's the perfect antidote for the "dungeons 'n' dragons" rpg nerdiness that turned me off of the genre (although it's ironically turned me into a nerd now). What really has captivated me with the series, though, has been the music, which is about as weird as video game music gets. But since this is an 80's blog, let's talk about Mother (Earthbound Zero).

While Earthbound barely made a ripple in the states, not even helped by excessive packaging and promos, Mother was a blockbuster in Japan. So much so that they released an official soundtrack with real musicians and vocalists providing a J-pop-esque production of the songs. This included eight songs with original lyrics written for the OST including one with a full children's choir. Needless to say, this was an unheard of feat for a video game released in 1989. I've included my favorite track, a pop song of unrivaled weirdness (except in Japan) with a person named Jermy Budd singing in an unearthly falsetto for the entire duration.

Mother was never officially released in the US, though English translation hacks can be found for emulators (hint). Ditto for Mother 3, which was released for Gameboy Advance in Japan and had an English fan translation created as a patch for the emulator rom. To get a scope of the epic-ness of Mother's release in Japan, check out the promo commercial, which reminds me of Microsoft's "1984." To learn much more about the Mother series and its obsessed fans, visit Starman.net.

Legend Soundtrack Debacle

People who write these sort of blogs wonder about the movie Legend (1985) and why there exists two soundtracks, one by Tangerine Dream and one by Jerry Goldsmith. Curiosity has gotten the best of me and I've uncovered the truth with the help of Wikipedia. Turns out, on the release of the film there were two versions of the film: The first was a 94 minute version (cut down from close to two hours) with the Goldsmith soundtrack that was released in Europe that originally had an alternative ending.

In the US, we got the Tangerine Dream soundtrack in an 89 minute version (guess American attention span was about five minutes shorter in the '80s). Apparently "test audiences complained about Jerry Goldsmith's score and of how teenage audiences might accept the film." I'd have to admit that teenage me would have definitely preferred the Tangerine Dream because of its lush layers of romantic synths and epic scope. This soundtrack really came to reflect the fantasy genre, whereas Goldsmith really shines at jarring, rhythmic sci-fi and drama as in Planet of the Apes, The Omen, and Alien. Legend needed very strong soaring and dreamlike sequences that Tangerine Dream delivered in such pieces as "Unicorn Theme" and the music to Jon Anderson's vocal turn "Loved By the Sun."

The Goldsmith score was eventually used in the DVD release of Ridley Scott's director's cut (he really loves him some director's cuts, doesn't he?), so the original US soundtrack is harder to find. It's worth searching out for though, especially with a pretty good Bryan Ferry number "Is Your Love Strong Enough" featuring Pink Floyd's David Gimour on guitar.

The Name's Bowser...

One of the most bizarre in a long line of weird locally made kids shows, "King Koopa's Kool Kartoons was a local, live-action children's television show broadcast in Southern California during the holiday season of 1989/90. The show starred King Koopa (also known as Bowser), the central arch-villain from Mario video game series. The 30-minute program was originally broadcast during the after-school afternoon time-slots on Los Angeles-based KTTV Fox 11"(Youtube.com) Man, I would love to see a full episode of this show, but we do have the intro and a short clip where some lucky youngster gets the most bad-ass NES accessory of them all.

More proof that De-evolution in real!

First the dreadful Devo 2.0, now this! It shows these young spuds are learning the important sound of things falling apart. Duty Now!

5th Grade Devo | Viral/Other | SPIKE.com