My name is Ben Checkness from the Too Vague Podcast
and you're listening to My Weekly Mixtape with
Brian Colburn. Get your leg warmers, get your
checkerboard shoes, maybe a Rubik's Cube. We're
heading to the 80s. Welcome to My Weekly Mixtape,
a podcast that takes the classic mixtape approach
to building a modern playlist. I'm your host,
Brian Colburn. Joining me tonight as guest curator
is Ben Checkness, host of the Too Vague podcast,
as well as one of my weekly mixtapes, Amazing
Patreon Mixtapers. Ben, thank you so much for
joining me on the show. Oh, thank you for letting
me be on. I really appreciate it. I'm excited
to have you. So let's start with the same question
I ask all my guests. Ben, what does the word
mixtape mean to you? Mixtape is something from
my, I guess I would associate it with childhood.
It is something that I associate to, this is
just free -flowing, first words come to mind.
For some reason, malls, roller skating rinks,
all these 80s things come into my head whenever
I think of a mixtape. It's an expression. It's
an expression of your love of music. making it.
In general, I made it for other people, but they
were also used for road trips or things like
that. I have a connection with the late 80s,
early 90s. That's what a mixtape means to me,
the time I spent in my quote -unquote childhood.
Absolutely love it. And tonight we are curating
a mixtape of new wave classics. And I want to
make sure I just say new wave classics and not
80s new wave classics because new wave really
began in the late 70s. And there's simply way
too many iconic new wave songs that came out
between, let's say, 77 and 1980, as well as all
of the. well -known songs from the 1980s. Agreed.
What were you looking for in the songs that you
brought to the table this evening? Well, I was
looking for basically what you said, those new
wave coming out of the rock and roll or popular
music of the 70s, trying something new, something
that's sort of alternative in the time, but it's
a group of bands that kind of pioneered. a lot
of the new music using a lot of electronic sort
of methods and things. But that doesn't necessarily
mean that that is a new wave band. It's just
some people coming out of the UK and then also
just the new wave of popular bands coming to
the forefront. Some of them made it. Some of
them stayed true to that sort of new wave approach
and became alternative. I think there's a distinction
to be made with the difference or the similarities
between new wave and alternative. There's kind
of a transition there. Once we hit about 86,
your new wave bands are established, right? So
they're either pop rock or some other genre or
alternative. What do you think about that? I
feel like in the mid to Second half of the 80s
bands kind of took these pivots where it would
have been indie. It would have been almost that
80s punk sound, which was not like the punk,
like the Ramones, but a little bit more of a
punky spirit in the music. And then the ones
that went alternative. Which I feel like those
three, even though they kind of come from the
same musical lineage, they are three vastly different
directions. So finding the songs that fit the
mold, so to speak, is the challenge with this,
because there are some songs where I'm looking
at it saying to me. This is an indie band. I
know they're lumped into New Wave, but I don't
necessarily feel the New Wave vibe from them.
And then there's other groups where it's almost
the opposite, where they're not a New Wave band
in the slightest. But because of that style of
music being in the mainstream at the time, bands
adapted to the New Wave sound. became a different
extension of who that group was musically. And
I've got a couple of examples of that that I
might pull out tonight as well. The first thing
that comes to mind is David Bowie. I mean, he
embraced the quote unquote new wave going from
his music, which was very like, I don't know
if emo is the right word. Glam is the right word,
but. He made the transition and then you had
your other bands who made those transitions or
rose to the top, should I say, of the new wave
of artists. But to answer your question from
a while ago, I just think mostly electronics,
new wave synthesizers, drum machines, but used
in an interesting way. That's kind of where I
was going for. And then also that time period,
what you said, which was between the late 70s.
And early to mid 80s. Well, I'm excited about
this one. So let's get down to business. All
right. Tonight, as I mentioned at the top of
the show, Ben and I will be curating a new wave
classics mixtape. And we'll use that old cassette
deck approach. Ben, as my special guest, will
begin side A with his first song choice. And
then I'll add a song that I feel. Best follows
up that choice. We'll then flip -flop choosing
songs until we've mapped out 10 songs for side
A. We'll then give our mixtape a proverbial flip,
and we'll map out side B, only this time I'll
kick things off with Ben choosing second. Our
overall goal for the episode is to craft the
best New Wave Classics mixtape possible through
only 20 songs. At the end of the show, you can
take our conversation to the next level by visiting
the episode page at myweeklymixtape .com to give
our final mixtape a listen via the embedded playlist.
And if you like what you're hearing on My Weekly
Mixtape, please consider becoming a Patreon mixtaper
at patreon .com forward slash myweeklymixtape.
And while we're on the topic of Patreon mixtapers,
a few of them chimed in with what they feel would
best kick off. a New Wave Classics mixtape, and
I'd like to give a few shout -outs to them. Cactus
Pete chimed in with Tears for Fears, Everybody
Wants to Rule the World. Mally Hart chimed in
with Depeche Mode's Photographic. And Kevin Seeker
chimed in with Talking Head's Psycho Killer,
specifically the version from the Stop Making
Sense live album. And Ben, before I turn it over
to you to reveal your track one, some of the
fellow mixtapers who follow me at My Weekly Mixtape
on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and
Spoutable have chimed in with their ideal opening
tracks. And just to give you a small sample of
what some of those picks included, we're talking
The Human League, Don't You Want Me, Duran Duran,
Girls on Film, as well as Rio, The Smiths, A
Rush and a Push and The Land is Ours, Dead or
Alive, You Spin Me Round, Depeche Mode, Personal
Jesus, Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams Are Made of This,
Joy Division, Love Will Tea, The Buggles, Video
Killed the Radio Star, A Flock of Seagulls, I
Ran So Far Away, and New Order, Blue Monday,
just to name a few. So, Ben, with that musical
thought out in the atmosphere, I'm officially
pressing the record button on our mixtape, and
the floor is yours. Why don't you dive into the
song that you chose to kick off, Side A. Okay.
This was a difficult decision because I wanted
to establish the mood of this tape, and I wanted
to give it a little bit of punch. This artist
is probably more associated. With her more popular
song, which is Kids in America. You said that
one of your favorite songs was from her. What
was the cover that you really liked from her?
Oh, You Keep Me Hanging On. I love her cover
of that. That came out in the mid -80s there.
That was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed that
one. Well, this track, I don't know if we call
it a deep cut. I'm going to call it a deep cut.
It's from her Teases and Dares album, which is
the album. that she released when she moved over
to mca records i am starting with the track the
touch by kim wilde from her 1984 album teases
and dares love the song love the pick an interesting
way to start things off because as soon as you
said kim wilde i immediately thought you were
going for kids in america because that was the
song that everybody gravitated to and then When
you called me out on You Keep Me Hanging On,
I immediately knew you weren't going for that
one. So an interesting approach to the song choice.
It's more about the mood. I mean, if you listen
to that song, it screams 80s. It screams, let's
go roller skating. I can imagine myself just
with the way it starts out. It sounds like kind
of an organ you would hear in a hockey rink or
whatever. And it just. turns into an electronic
masterpiece. So that's why I chose that one.
I love it. And you actually are giving me the
greatest gift in this episode right from the
beginning. Oh, okay. Because you are letting
me choose one of my favorite bands as my first
pick of the night. Anyone that listens to me
podcasting knows that my favorite album of all
time is 1978 self -titled album from the cars.
And I'm struggling right now because every fiber
in my being wants to choose something from that
album. I could follow your lead and go with a
deeper cut like Bye Bye Love. I could go with
the big hit Just What I Needed or the song that
kicked off the car's career and, dare I say,
New Wave in general, Good Times Roll. But musically,
I feel like all three of those songs don't follow
up Kim Wilde very well because they're a little
bit different vibe. Where the cars self -titled
album leaned into the punk indie rock side of
the band. I think following up the touch, I have
to move forward a few years and go with their
other massive album. Heartbeat city. Oh, because
musically coming out of the touch as much as
the self -titled is my favorite album. A song
like You Might Think follows up the touch musically
and aesthetically better for this mixtape. So
I am going to go with You Might Think. Weezer
covered the song for the Cars movie, so I got
to see a revival of that one. I've covered the
song personally on one of my older albums because
it's one of my favorite songs from the band.
And to me, Heartbeat City is an absolute classic.
Second to me. tied in second place with candio
because i always struggle between that one i
love both albums equally and with the self -title
being my favorite of all time candio and heartbeat
city to me are just equally amazing brilliant
albums but i think following the touch you might
think okay by the cars excellent well get to
cross off the cars off my list i didn't have
heartbeat city as you mentioned but i did have
My very first Cars album was Panorama. Yes. Love
that one. Yeah, that one is very, very electronic
if you compare it to Candio. It's like they really
leaned into the synths for that album in general.
And one of my favorite songs on there is Gimme
Some Slack. Nice. Okay. That's like one of the
punkier ones from that album to me. I absolutely
love Panorama. Give Me Some Slack is probably
the punkiest song on that album. It's got that
attitude with the synths built into it. And then
you got a song that leans into hard rock, like
Don't Tell Me No, which wasn't necessarily a
big hit for the band, but the band recognized
it on the two CD Just What I Needed greatest
hits. And this is really telling me that I need
to do an episode on the car. So I'm going to
write that down right now. And then throw the
playlist back to you for track three. All right.
Excellent. You might think, man, that had a poppy
piano part to it. Man. Let's see. You know what?
I'm going to go with this because one of my favorite
bands of all time is the band Devo. If you can't
tell by looking at my picture on Twitter, which
is a cover. from an album cover from Are We Not
Men, We Are Devo. But let's go with Devo. I think
we should go to something that's closer to what
their pop sound was. And Devo in interviews has
always said they tried to remain as unproduced
as they could because people always wanted them
to be like the cars for some reason. They said,
you know, like, we'll make it sound like the
cars. And it's like, no, we are Devo. That's
what we do. So let's go with something poppy.
Let's go with something on their Oh No, It's
Devo album, which was featured on an episode
of Square Pegs, season one, episode nine, Muffy's
Bar Mitzvah. Do you remember Square Pegs or are
you a little too young for that? That one I'm
not familiar with, actually. Square Pegs was
Sarah Jessica Parker. She'll probably come back.
Just put a pin in that. Sarah Jessica Parker.
Yeah. But the song that was featured on that
show, on that episode, was the song That's Good.
So I am going with That's Good by Devo. Well,
that's a good pick. And that was a horrible pun
coming out of the song. Love the band. You obviously
scooped me on them. I went with something a little
more mainstream for them. I had from 1980s Freedom
of Choice, Whip It. Oh, yeah. I felt like that
had that punky flair that kind of sat in the
new wave vibe with a lot of songs. And I feel
like the punk bands that I listened to in the
90s and the 2000s all covered songs from the
80s new wave era. And there's a reason for that
because it's not too far removed musically. And
following up Devo, I think I'm going to bring
in my first female choice of the night because
we kick things off with Kim Wilde's The Touch.
So I am going to go to 1981. This song I owned
on 45 as a kid growing up, and it was one of
my absolute favorite. songs as a child i spun
this 45 so much it drove my parents nuts and
this song has been covered on punk compilations
it's been redone by pop artists it's been done
a lot because it is to me power pop perfection
embodied into this new wave sound and i'm gonna
go off of 1981's beauty and the beat i'm gonna
go with the go -go's our lips are sealed good
one good one And you scooped me on The Go -Go's.
The Go -Go's, I remember that was one of my first
albums, that Beauty and the Beat. I had for The
Go -Go's on Beauty and the Beat, You Can't Walk
in Your Sleep If You Can't Sleep. Nice. I don't
know if you're going to notice a theme here,
but generally what I try to do with my mixtapes
is, you know, I assume you know the hit, right?
I assume that you know the Go -Go's hits. I assume
you know the Devo's hits. I assume you know the
cars. But I want to kind of expose you to other
stuff, and that's kind of my focus. I don't know
if you've been able to tell so far. So far, yeah,
definitely. I'll be curious if you pull out some
hits, though. Oh, no, no, I'm going to. I'm going
to. Trust me. But, yeah, you scoop me on that.
Get Up and Go is another one on vacation that
was really cool. And Head Over Heels, also on
my list from talk show from 84 before their fantastic
breakup. But yeah, Our Lips Are Sealed is an
excellent pick. Love it. All right. Well, you
know, there was always an association for some
reason between the Go -Go's and the Bangles.
I think there were comparisons made. It was one
of those record industry things where they kind
of linked them because the Go -Go's hit it before.
And you were always trying to get that next great
thing. So there was some sort of an association
there. Although when I think of the Bangles,
besides Susanna Haas, I just think of their sound
as more radio friendly in general. What I want
to do with this following the Go -Go's. is a
song that you may know from them from 1984's
All Over the Place album. It's called Hero Takes
a Fall. Nice. I think it did get some radio airplay,
but it does have a really cool rock and feel
to it. And then also Susanna Hoff's vocals, of
course, stellar. Absolutely unbelievable. I love
her voice. Manic Monday is one of my favorite
songs of all time. And then if you want to fast
forward a couple of years later, which this one
wasn't so much New Wave, but their cover of Hazy
Shade of Winter, I think redefines the song.
Like, unbelievable. For the New Wave aspect of
this, I actually had Walk Like an Egyptian from
86's Different Light in the mix because that
still had that. New wave flair to it, but Hero
Takes the Fall. Excellent, excellent pick. And
coming out of that, I think I'm going to go with
something which is what I talked about at the
top of the show. Here's a band that was not really
known for this sound. And the band I'm going
to talk about is The Beat. Oh, yeah. Or known
in the US as The English Beat. And this is a
band that I've seen live, and they are a ska
band. They fuse pop music, reggae, punk, and
ska into this sound. And if you go back and you
listen to their 1980 album, I Just Can't Stop
It, to me, it's an absolute second wave ska masterpiece.
However, on 1982's special beat service, they
brought in a little bit of a different sound.
And that different sound resulted in one of the
band's biggest hits and a song that to me is
iconic in the new wave sound. And that is Save
It For Later. Oh, yeah. You scooped me on that
one. The exact track this time. Yep. That was
on my list. This song is unbelievable. And it
is a song that is beloved. Because if you think
about the movie 200 Cigarettes, Harvey Danger
covered it. Pete Townsend covered it as a bonus
track on one of his later CDs. I mean, this song
is amazing. Pearl Jam has included it in a live
rendition of Better Man, which is something that
my band started incorporating when we saw Pearl
Jam do it once. And to me, the song is just so
catchy. It's so fantastic. It's so new wave.
And it is kind of an outlier when you watch the
English beat live. But for this playlist, I feel
like it fits perfect. Oh, it does. Absolutely.
So following you up, the English beat, Save It
For Later. Yeah. And that, you know, the saxophones
and the piano in that song. Oh, so good. So good.
Definitely an excellent pick. Boy, English beat.
They are so excellent. I am such a huge fan of
their stuff, too. Do I do this? Oh, boy. And
I don't know if you would consider this. Do we
consider it a new wave? I think it was more considered.
I'm just going off the reggae sound, right? What
I'm going to choose is Eddie Grant from Killer
on a Rampage. I'm going to choose Electric Avenue.
Yes! Because I think that will follow up our
sort of punk ska. and make it just kind of reggae,
reggae -ify it. I don't know where you're going
to go with it from there, but I mean, definitely
heavy synths, really catchy. I was thinking about
Killer on a Rampage using that one, but that
seems more guitar -ish and less along the lines
of New Wave. So I'm going, like I said, with
Eddie Grant from his 1982 Killer on a Rampage
album, Electric Avenue. You definitely scooped
me on that one. One of my favorites. Oh my God.
Yeah. I had that on 45 and that is one of my
favorites from that era. I absolutely love that
tune. I think it's one of the most underrated
songs to come out of the decade because it's
something that was sampled in hip hop in later
years. It's been redone over and over again.
This song is iconic. And when people hear it,
Everybody knows the song, but not everybody knows,
quote unquote, who Eddie Grant is. Oh, yeah.
And that's the weird part. Yeah. Somehow his
embracing this sort of electronic sound of Electric
Avenue just kind of hit with me and was one of
my father's favorite LPs, too. Awesome pick.
Well, I am going to follow that up. I'm going
to lean into that synth that you're throwing
out with Electric Avenue. Okay. And I'm going
to go with a band that if we don't include them
in this discussion, we'd probably be doing the
discussion a disservice in a way. And to me,
this song is my absolute favorite by the band.
And I know there's going to be some people that
are going to be upset that I'm kind of going
with a grand slam home run. But I've heard everybody
from Dave Matthews to the used cover this song.
And as cool as their versions are, no version
is better. Then Talking Heads, Burning Down the
House from 1983's Speaking in Tongues. And for
a movie reference, I always think about Fireball.
Fireball. Fireball from Revenge of the Nerds.
The Alpha Beta frat member sets the whole frat
house on fire. And then you cut to this song.
It's so perfect. Yeah. And the song is just awesome.
So I think you can't have a New Wave mixtape
without talking. about the talking heads. Oh,
yeah. So I want to get them in there. So Burning
Down the House for track eight. Perfect. Yeah,
and coming out of their sound, you know, their
70s sound, it was definitely, it was a turning.
It was kind of, you know, they had their synth
sounds, but that was like what put them on the
map, Burning Down the House, I believe. I mean,
that was such a great song. You mentioned Revenge
of the Nerds. Fun fact, where I live in Tucson,
On campus is the, I believe it's the Tri -Lam
house that they used for the movie. Really? So,
yeah. Yeah, I used to, when I moved out here,
I used to go by it all the time and go, hey,
that's the Revenge of the Nerds house. Oh, that's
awesome. Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's still there,
but I haven't been by there in a while. And then
one other thing about our, what you said with
the talking heads scooping me, I went with something.
a little bit earlier than that. I think I mentioned
on your channel before the song that I really
liked from Speaking in Tongues, you had a, hey,
what would you lead off? You know, what's your
favorite track from this album, Speaking in Tongues?
And it was Pull Up the Roots. But I really had
my heart set on putting from Remain in Light,
1980, Cross -Eyed and Painless. Oh, great song.
Phish does such an amazing cover of that one.
They do? Really? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's another
one that I think fits as far as, you know, the
sound. It's just kind of like rolls, right? So
good. 100%. But anyway, okay, burning down the
house. What score here? We're at track nine.
Track nine. Ah, closers. Coffee is for closers.
So I'm told, but boy, oh boy. There's so many.
Well, you know what? With the popularity of that,
every fiber of my being wants to go something
obscure, but I can't right now. I think that
it's not going to follow this well. So what I'm
going to do is I'm going to go with a song. That's
one of my favorites. That's kind of got a driving
beat that I think compliments Burning Down the
House. It is from the Sweet Dreams Are Made of
This album in 1983. The Eurythmics, Somebody
Told Me. And it's got this bass that's kind of
very haunting and almost sounds like it's being
played backwards. Like the whole sound feels
like it's... So it's kind of haunting, but it's
also got a really cool rhythm to it. And also,
oh, well, oh, well, oh, well, that's that's what
that's like the chorus. So anyway, are you familiar
with that song from the year? Yes, I am. Yes,
I am. You definitely scooped me on the band.
There was no way we were not talking about the
Eurythmics in some aspect, depending on which
direction we went. I had sweet dreams. the title
track from that album. And I also had what I
lie to you, but that's a little bit more leaning
into the punky kind of horn driven version of
the band. And I didn't really know if that would
fit here. I would associate that more with pop,
like right by your side, kind of that feel, right?
Yeah, that's good. I mean, at least we got the
arithmetics and cross that off the list. Yes,
most certainly. And now we've got two big names.
And I think I know how I'm going to close outside
a because to me, if I'm going to close out any
part of it, I want it to be a big statement,
one where it unites the room. And if anybody
wasn't familiar with every single song on the
list, here's one that everybody. Hopefully we'll
be familiar with, and I'm going to make a fist
and raise it up in the air as I'm walking across
a football field. And I'm going to go back to
1985 is the breakfast club soundtrack and go
with the closing anthem from the breakfast club.
Simple minds. Don't you forget about me? To me,
this is probably one of the more beloved, well
-known new wave classics, like a. crowd pleaser
all the way around where this is a song where
even if you're not a fan of the genre this song
kind of crosses over and resonates with a lot
of different people so i felt like this is the
home run song to close out the side with and
then you think 1985 was starting where the music
was starting to shift away from new wave and
this was one of the Kind of, I don't know what
we'd call it, the encores before that tactical
musical shift. So that's how I'm going to close
out side A with Simple Minds, Don't You Forget
About Me. Let me just say, there are so many
John Hughes -influenced choices that you could
have made there, right? I mean, in all of his
movies, he's very particular about the soundtrack.
Like, you look at Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Pretty
in Pink. Like, all of those had really iconic
songs in them. that you can't help but associate
a movie to it. And that's exactly what Don't
You Forget About Me does. You can't not think
of The Breakfast Club, right? I was just going
to say, it's no shock that if you go back and
listen to our 80s soundtrack episode of My Weekly
Mixtape, spoiler alert, this is one of the songs
we talked about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's one
of those ones where it's like you can't help
but think about it, the movie, when you hear
this song. Great way to wind up side one here.
I agree. And that, mixtapers, concludes side
A of our New Wave Classics mixtape, which consists
of Kim Wilde, The Touch, The Cars, You Might
Think, Devo, That's Good, Go -Go's Our Lips Are
Sealed, The Bangles, Hero Takes a Fall, The English
Beat, Save It for Later, Eddie Grant's Electric
Avenue, Talking Heads, Burning Down the House,
Eurythmics, Somebody Told Me, And simple minds,
don't you forget about me. Head to myweeklymixtape
.com to hear all of the songs we've discussed
in this mix through the playlist embedded on
the episode page. Now, before we flip our proverbial
mix over to Side B, Ben, why don't you tell the
My Weekly Mixtape listeners a little bit more
about Too Vague? Yes, the Too Vague podcast is
a podcast I started. As sort of a passion project
that I associate with the death of my father
and it helped me move on. It's about connecting
with people. It's a video game sort of show where
we take a word. In fact, we had you on a couple
episodes back doing the word mixtape. Yes. We
take a word and we examine the definition and
then we tell stories about it and inject some
trivia in there. And then we move on connecting
it to video games somehow. And I kind of was
inspired by you on your show to do the arcade
mix where we were doing the same thing. We were
trying to go back and forth. Because one thing
that I think of, like I said in the intro, arcades
and mixtapes kind of are in the same sort of
drawer, if you will. Oh, by all means. But anyway,
yeah, a show about... Personal stories, trivia,
video games. Try and keep it positive, as positive
as possible. And been doing it for going on two
years now. It's going to be two years in a week.
Awesome. Really love doing it. And I appreciate
you being on. Oh, by all means. And I hope anyone
out there that's listening will go back and check
out other episodes of the show as well as the
one that we did on Mixtapes. Getting me to talk
video games is totally out of my comfort zone,
but we put together a pretty cool arcade there
in my weekly mixtape style, I have to say. Yes,
I had a lot of fun. Same here. So moving on to
side B, I get to kick things off. And I'm going
to go to 1981 for my first song choice. When
I was a kid, I made all of my mixtapes, which
is kind of the impetus for inspiring what we
do each week on this show. However, every now
and then my parents would end up bringing home
a record that was a mixtape. They were put out
by K -Tel. Oh, yeah. K -Tel. Yeah. I haven't
thought about them for a while. I know. Talk
about dusting some cobwebs off your brain here.
Yeah, no kidding. In 1982, they had a record
called Hit Express. Now, as a five and six -year
-old kid, there's a train crashing through what
looks like glass. And there's Hit Express written
across the top. And this was kind of just a mix
of every popular song on the radio at the time.
Like Joan Jett's I Love Rock and Roll, Loverboy's
Working for the Weekend, Journey's Don't Stop
Believin', In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins.
Like it was just a who's who of music. And the
opening song on this compilation was the New
Wave classic, Human League, Don't You Want Me.
from their 1981 album dare and to me this song
just oozes new wave oh yeah it's got this swagger
to it that has a rock vibe but it's brought into
the synth there's almost this punky aspect of
it and when real big fish and zoloft the rock
and roll destroyer covered the song in the 2000s
they brought a little bit more of the punk guitars
to their cover of it and to me It works both
ways because it's just as heavy and it rocks,
but it's also something you could dance to. It's
something you could groove to. And it's kind
of everything I love about new wave because it's
got that rock vibe, but it's not necessarily
a rock song. So I'm going with human league.
Don't you want me to kick off side B? Oh, wow.
That's such a great track to lead with the human
league. Of course, scoop me on that. But I have,
uh, from their hysteria album, the Lebanon and
love actions off of dare, which was more of a,
you know, it's a, it's a lesser known song. Right.
So, but yeah, don't you want me? That's excellent.
Excellent choice. Well, geez, now I got my work
cut out for me here. I think songs that put people
on the map. I don't know if I want to go to,
well, Hmm. This is a tough one for me because
I want to go with something more synthy. For
some reason, it feels like, and I don't know
if this is true or not, but Side 1 felt more
pop -oriented, less electronic than I wanted
initially. And I don't know if this is going
to be a pivot for you or not, but it's a song
that I associate with bands like the Human League,
although they had a lot of other hits. What I'm
going to go for is a song that I believe was,
speaking of your 1980s movie show, a song that
was on Streets of Fire. Do you remember the movie
Streets of Fire from 1984? Of course I do. Yeah,
definitely. Michael Perret also in that one.
I think you talked about Eddie and the Cruisers,
right? Yes. So I'm going to go with a song off
of the soundtrack from that album. And it was
also on the Reach the Beach album released here
in the States. In 1983, the song is Sign of Fire
by The Fix. I mean, I was going to possibly go
with Saved by Zero or something a little bit
more upbeat. Or upbeat, but you know what I mean.
Like something a little bit more notable as far
as their catalog. A one thing leads to another
as another one I could have gone with, but I
love sign of fire so much. So I want to put that
on sign of fire by the fix. Well, you scooped
me on the band, but I actually had one of the
songs you just mentioned. One thing leads to
another on my list. Yeah. To me, that one, it's
got a little like that opening that it's got
that like almost funky new wave vibe to it. And
you as a bassist, right? Oh yeah, exactly. I
mean, the bass part is very standout on that
song. Definitely. And following it up, I have
a couple different ways I can go here. And I'm
going to go with one of my, like I did on Side
A, bands that are not necessarily known for New
Wave, but definitely had a New Wave hit. And
I'm going to go back to 1985 for this one. And
this is a band that former guest Jim Santora,
author of the underrated rock book, chimed in
with this one. And I could not agree more. And
I'm going to go with the album is Love. The band
is The Cult. And I'm going to go with She Sells
Sanctuary for my pick. It's a little bit more
rock heavy. Yeah. There's definitely a guitar
element to this song that hasn't been a lot of
in the songs we've discussed. But make no mistake,
this is a new wave song and Love is a new wave
album. But when you think about Colt, most people
think of kind of the rockier stuff that came
after Love. But this was an era of the band that
I think was truly amazing and fits really well
with the bands we've been talking about tonight.
Oh, yeah. For some reason, I always associate
She Sells Sanctuary with, for some reason, alternative
more than I associate it with new wave. And I
don't know why, that's just probably the way
my brain works, right? There are certain bands,
you mentioned Depeche Mode early on, someone
had a suggestion. For some reason, my brain,
at the time that I really started loving that
music, I link it, you know, not to New Wave,
I link it to that. But I mean, She Sells Sanctuary
is definitely a very cool song to put on here.
I wasn't expecting that, actually. So, good one.
I am not a deep cut new wave person. So my thought
was maybe the little curve balls, like bands
that don't normally do the new wave sound, like
the English beats, save it for later. And this
pick would be kind of my way to branch this episode
out a little bit because I really, some of these
bands I am. When I scroll through my list, it's
just hit after hit after hit. So I kind of wanted
to think outside the box a little bit in kind
of what I bring to this mixtape. And I agree,
the cult could veer a little outside of New Wave,
but there's just enough where musically it ties
into what we're doing here. Yeah. But that leaves
me in sort of a pickle here. Do people still
say that? Leave me in a pickle? I don't even
know. Just visually, that's weird. She sells
sanctuary. So let's... She sells sanctuary. Boy.
I think I may have to do a 180 here, man. Okay.
But I'm trying to think of something that would
kind of match the pace or match the feeling of
She Sells Sanctuary. Okay. All right. I think
I got it. So one of the most difficult album
names to pronounce from 1982. in my opinion,
was Shibu Shiba. And that album was by NXS. And
so the song that I'm picking from that album
is The One Thing. So I've got that on. I think
that's a good sort of connector with She Sell
Sanctuary. It's guitar -ish. It's more the rock
side of New Wave, I think. So, yeah, I'm going
with In Excess, The One Thing. Love it. I went
a little further down into their career, and
I went with the, again, obvious pick, 1987's
Kick and Need You Tonight. Yeah. Which, again,
you think about that's where I come from musically
very much from a rock perspective. The songs
that I'm picking all kind of lean a little bit
in some aspect. And I think because The Cars
was my first love of the genre, I think that's
why. Because the self -titled album from The
Cars is very guitar driven. Yeah. With the synth
mixed in. Yeah. So there are a lot of songs that
you've picked tonight that really lean into the
synth. And I hope we're complimenting it. And
I think In Excess is the perfect pick to come
out of the cult. Especially The One Thing is
one of those. It basically goes from that synth
sound in the first part. to a guitar it transitions
it uses both it's kind of a call and response
thing where maybe it's more of a harmony thing
but it just it sounds like it's a synthesizer
and a guitar together you know right the so it's
like call and response you get your guitar you
got your keyboard you got your guitar you got
your keyboard so i think it works pretty well
And I think I know exactly what I'm going to
follow that up with because I'm going to lean
into that guitar and synth playing well together.
And I'm going to go to 1982. And this is one
of those songs where when I say the band name,
you might not immediately jump because the band
name is not, at least in the U .S., a household
name. But the song is. And I'm going to go. From
1982, the band is After the Fire, and the song
is Der Kommasser. Yeah, yeah. And that song has
the guitar. But then you've got the heavy synth
underneath it. So I feel like that aspect of
the song plays really well coming out of the
one thing by In Excess. Yeah, that's perfect.
That's perfect. And it also gives me an opening.
So that's awesome. Yeah, I do like that. And
it gives me an excuse to go with something a
little bit more synthy, too. So, yeah. Anything
by... Who was the... Rock Me Amadeus was also
one of the... It wasn't After the Fire, though.
It was... That was Falco. Yeah, Falco. Okay.
Let's... And what year was that again? 82. 82.
All right. Let's stick with 82. And let's...
go with. This is going to be tricky for me because
I love Thomas Dolby. I have an association with
that. I remember listening to The Golden Age
of Wireless on my cassette tape when I was in
the morning and going for my runs in the morning.
Absolutely love that. It was released, actually,
Golden Age of Wireless, I believe, was released
twice. It was released once before She Blinded
Me with Science. And then afterwards, including
She Blinded Me With Science, because that was
such a huge hit for Thomas Dolby. Very iconic
for him. But what I'm going to do, as far as
Thomas Dolby is concerned, I'm going off his,
I believe, his second album, The Flat Earth.
And this is a song that was released originally
under a different band and a different style.
The song was the musical part of it, which Thomas
Dolby produced. This was before his solo release.
Houdini's Magic's Wand. That is the music. If
you listen to that. Did you used to watch Soul
Train or American Bandstand? I vaguely remember
it. Yeah. I used to love Soul Train just for,
you mentioned the train before, just the animated
train. intro was amazing. But I think I heard
this song at some point, Magic's Wand, on Soul
Train. But I didn't hear the song that he made
before it was used for that. The song is called
Puppet Theater. And it is a deep cut sort of
B -side. I believe the B -side to I Scare Myself.
Puppet Theater is my choice. from Thomas Dolby's
The Flat Earth album in 1984. That is a deep
pick for sure, because I'll be perfectly honest,
I had She Blinded Me With Science on my list.
I am not that deep into Thomas Dolby's music,
so completely stumped me on that one. I have
not heard that album. Yeah, it wasn't really
super duper popular, but it definitely kind of
leaned into his He started getting into more
just synth, like straight up synth. But back
in those days, in the 82, he had kind of a funky
kind of R &B feel. He was just fascinated by
New York R &B stuff. And Puppet Theater is interesting
because if you listen to the version that was
put out by Houdini, and you listen to this, the
version that he put out, it uses the same music,
but it sounds completely different. One sounds
like a rap song. One sounds like straight up
new wave. So Thomas Dolby did a lot of writing
of songs for people. Like one of the tracks I
was going to have on my list that is, I'm going
to cross it off since Thomas Dolby has been used,
but Lena Lovitch released a song that was entirely
written by Thomas Dolby called New Toy. Is that
also a stumper for you? Yes, I am not deep in
the Thomas Dolby catalog, to be perfectly honest.
Well, I apologize for leaving you a large share,
but yeah, Thomas Dolby, Puppet Theater is my
pick. I cheated and put my phone up to my ear
while you were talking, so I had you talking
in my right ear, and in the left ear I was giving
a little preview of Puppet Theater, so that way
musically I can bounce off of it. Oh, yeah. And
I think I know what I'm going to do. That song
has much more synth than probably anything else
in my list. But I think musically, that vibe
I could capture by leaving the 80s for a second
and going back to 1979. And believe it or not,
this was on another one of those K -Tel compilations.
And that K -Tel compilation was another one my
parents had. It came out in the 1980s because
it was called K -Tel Rock 80. But the song I'm
going for is from 1979's The Pleasure Principle.
And I'm going to go with The Amazing Cars by
Gary Newman. Oh, yeah. Song kicks absolute ass.
It's got such a, again, this might lean into
a little bit more of the rock vibe. Because the
song, even though it's mostly synth driven, is
a rock song. In synth clothing, so to speak.
And there's a reason why Fear Factory covered
this song in the 90s. And just all they had to
do was add a little bit of distorted guitar.
And people were like, this song rocks. It rocked
originally in 1979. So that's why I'm going with
it. Gary Newman's Cars. And did you see that
Trent Reznor, Nine Inch Nails fame, also on stage
had Gary Newman. They did a live version of Cars.
for one of his shows because apparently that
was one of Trent Reznor's big influences was
Gary Newman, Two -Boy Army. Yeah, that's an excellent
pick. I 100 % had that on my list. So we are
at track eight and you have two picks left and
I have one. Okay. Boy, oh boy. Let's go with
something from, you know, an association I make
with that song for whatever reason is a song.
by someone probably not very well known, goes
by Robin Scott, but the band is called M, and
the album is New York, London, Paris, Munich,
and everybody talk about pop music with a K is
going to be my pick to follow up Cars from 1979's
New York, London, Paris, Munich album, M. or
Robin Scott's pop music. Love that song. That
one is a lot of fun. And I don't know why I associate
those two songs, because they are different sounds.
Maybe I saw them back -to -back videos or something,
but something about the feeling for each one.
One is really high up. It's kind of like a compression
and a release thing, right? So you've got Gary
Neumann. Car is sort of a driving kind of song.
And then you've got this, which is kind of on
the opposite side of the coin, but still using
a lot of synths and feeling like it's jaunty
even. By all means, I absolutely love this song.
And I know the movie music and lyrics was a spoof
on the band Wham. However. The songs they produced
for Hugh Grant reminded me of that pop music
vibe. Oh, yeah. And that's actually I'm not a
huge romantic comedy person, but that one I've
seen several times over the years with my wife.
And I always thought it was a really well done
movie. Great soundtrack. Fun songs. Good stuff.
for some reason new york london paris munich
everybody talk about pop music is something that
just pops into my head and i just say it no one
knows what the hell i'm talking about unless
they're from the 80s but exactly well following
that up i think i know how i'm gonna go because
this is my last song pick of the night so i wanted
to do another massive crowd pleaser Similar to
the way I ended Side A with Don't You Forget
About Me. For my last song of the night, I wanted
to do something that, to me, screams new wave,
screams 80s, screams this vibe, but also has
the entire room singing in unison. And one of
the songs from the 80s that... does that. Oh,
so well, as well as for the nineties babies,
because real big fish did a fantastic cover of
this song in the movie basketball. I am going
with aha. Take on me from 1985 hunting high and
low. Let's get the whole room singing in unison,
dancing and having a great time because that's
part of what new wave music is all about. It's
a fun genre and a fun vibe. And I wanted to really,
go out for the night on a fun note. So take on
me. Perfect. Excellent video too. Just the way
they did that video is fabulous. One of the greatest
music videos ever. Agreed. Hands down. And if
you want to look up a fun version of the song,
look up the MTV unplugged version that the band
put out about five years ago. Oh, okay. Beautiful,
beautiful version of the song. Not as fun as
the original, but. Man, that music video, when
I think of music videos, easily one of the first
five that come to mind. Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely.
A -ha was one of my favorite bands of all time.
I had on my list, from Hunting High and Low,
The Blue Sky, which was kind of another one of
those sort of constantly moving kind of songs.
And from Scoundrel Days in 1986, Cry Wolf. Oh,
okay. Yeah, I don't know how into... uh -huh
you were but i was a big fan i was more than
casual i knew more than take on me but for this
mixtape i felt like take on me was where it needed
to go coming out of pop music yeah that's true
that's true and now you have to close out the
whole mixtape too all right well you know what
okay you might be angry at me and this might
not be in the spirit of My weekly mixtape. But
I am going to end this the way I wanted to end
it, even though it might not fit. And I think
you may approve because this artist was mentioned
in a couple of your movie episodes as far as
tracks that you wanted to include. So when I
think of the 80s, I think of this person who
started on a show called Dr. Demento. And I don't
know if you ever listened to Dr. Demento back
in the 70s and 80s. Yep. Well, Weird Al likes
to do what he calls style parodies. And one of
the style parodies he did was Devo, which we
already included on the mix. So I am going with
a different style parody he did of undeniably
one of the New Wave bands, I believe from Georgia,
the B -52s. And the style parody he did was a
song called, you mentioned K -Tel, and this kind
of fits in the same category, called Mr. Popeil.
Yes! So I want to close out our mixtape with
Weird Al Yankovic's style parody on his In 3D
album, Mr. Popeil. What a fantastic way to close.
Oh my God. I mean, look. Weird Al is a household
name, and this is going to be the curveball at
the end of the episode where people are now gripping
onto their wheel trying to figure out what just
happened. But when you listen to this playlist
on myweeklymixtape .com, you will see just how
fantastically perfect this pick is. I 100 % approve,
and I applaud this, Ben. This was a fantastic
way to close out the side. Yeah, it's just fantastic.
Listen to his style parodies. Like he did Devo
better than Devo on Dare to be Stupid. 100%.
I don't know if you ever saw, there was an interview
on one of these Weird Al Yankovic sort of documentaries,
right? Where Mark Mothersbaugh was talked to
about Dare to be Stupid, the song. And he says
basically that it's so beautiful and that he
hates him because of it. Because it's so perfectly
Devo. And it's not, you know, Devo. So but yeah,
the style parody, the B -52s, undeniably a band
from that new wave era. You know, you could have
gone with them with Rome if you want to go a
little bit later on. But I decided to go with
the style parody instead. So there we go. Bravo.
There you have it, folks. Side B of our new wave
classics mixtape, which kicked off with the Human
League. Don't you want me? The Fix, Sign of Fire,
The Cult, She Sells Sanctuary, In Excess, The
One Thing, After the Fire, De Commissar, Thomas
Dolby, Puppet Theater, Gary Newman, Cars, M,
Pop Music, Aha, Take on Me, and Weird Al Yankovic.
You heard it right, folks. Mr. Popeil. Head over
to myweeklymixtape .com to hear all the songs
we've discussed. through the playlist embedded
on the episode page. One other thing I wanted
to, before we close out the episode. Sure. Is
there a band that you think you should have included
that you didn't get to? Because I've got one
specific artist that for some reason just didn't
fit. And I think he definitely belongs in this
list, but I didn't have a chance to. Do you have
any artists like that on your list? I most certainly
do. And if you want to do a round of honorable
mentions, I'm completely down for that. Oh, yeah.
Perfect. You've got the next one. All right.
Sounds good. So then my honorable mention is
from 1983's Power, Corruption, and Lies, New
Order's Blue Monday. Oh, yeah. Boy, I delivered
many a pizza to that song. Yep. I'm so upset
I didn't get a chance to fit that in, and I was
kind of flip -flopping it, and I ended up going
with After the Fire instead. Yeah. Which I think
was the right choice. I think it was the right
choice. One of the songs, and speaking of going
all over the place and experimenting, one of
the bands that I really wanted to include, not
really a band, a person, Joe Jackson. Oh, yeah.
He had so many different hits. He had that sort
of the beat crazy album was sort of like, you
know, big band music kind of sounding. And, you
know, everyone knows Steppin' Out, right? Just
the way that that song goes. But one of my favorites
from him is it kind of has a reggae vibe to it,
and I probably could have used it when we were
in the reggae realm. The Sunday Papers off of
his 1978 album looked sharp. So I wish I would
have had a chance to fit some Joe Jackson in
there, but if it wasn't, just none of those really
fit. Completely agree. Great picks. Ben, this
has been so much fun, man. Why don't you let
people know where they can find out more about
the Too Vague Podcast? Yeah. Too Vague Podcast.
Go ahead and point your browser. I don't know
how people say it these days, but www .TooVaguePodcast
.com. I'm on the social media, but you can get
those through the webpage. All my episodes are
available on your normal Apple, Spotify, Google,
et cetera, et cetera. All that information is
on the website. And if you are interested in
being on the show, think of a word and send me
an email because I'll talk to anyone about anything
and link it to video games. So that's where you
go. www .twovepodcast .com. Well, Ben, thank
you so much for being a guest tonight. And I
also thank you. For being a Patreon mixtaper
and supporting the show as much as you do. It's
so much fun being able to talk with you on the
forums and talk music with you all the time.
I'm so glad you were able to come on the show
to do it with me tonight. Absolutely. I'm so
happy to do that. And it's a, you know, I love
your show. I love what you're doing. I love spreading
the gospel about the mixtapes, so to speak. It's
a wonderful forum and hopefully it'll make a
comeback. Amen to that. And remember, you can
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Mixtape. You can also head to MyWeeklyMixtape
.com to check out the full catalog of My Weekly
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mixtaper at Patreon .com forward slash My Weekly
Mixtape. That's all for this week. Thanks again
for listening. And until next time, enjoy the
tunes.