804. Propaganda, A Secret Wish (1985) In the early nineteen-eighties, the West German electronic pop outfit Propaganda was signed to a fledgling label based out of the U.K. And there they quickly got a strange lesson in the twisty economics … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #804 to #801
808. Shoes, Present Tense (1979) Shoes were always interested in making records, first and foremost. Hailing from Zion, Illinois, the band largely skipped the common step of playing lots of rock club dates to hone their craft. “There’s no way … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #808 to #805
812. China Crisis, Working with Fire and Steel (1983) It is probably a fair measure of the rather arch sensibility of the band China Crisis that the subtitle of their sophomore album is Possible Pop Songs Volume Two. In any … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #812 to #809
816. The Slickee Boys, Cybernetic Dreams of Pi (1983) Formed in Washington, D.C., in the mid-nineteen-seventies, the Slickee Boys took their name from slang used by U.S. soldiers to describe the local young black market peddlers in Korea that dressed … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #816 to #813
820. Bob Dylan, Slow Train Coming (1979) During his nineteen-sixties heyday, the most notorious moment of Bob Dylan’s career came at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, when he flouted tradition and took the stage with a full band plugged into … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #820 to #817
824. Minutemen, Ballot Result (1987) In December 1985, D. Boon, guitarist and vocalist with the punk band Minutemen, was feeling feverish while riding in the back of a van traveling down the Arizona highway. He was lying down, seatbelt off, … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #824 to #821
828. Gang of Four, Entertainment! (1979) “We were trying to invent a new kind of music, a new kind of language,” Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill once told Rolling Stone. “We were using the building blocks of ‘rock music,’ … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #828 to #825
832. Ry Cooder, Borderline (1980) As the nineteen-seventies were giving way to the eighties, Ry Cooder was the musician’s musician. His solidly prolific solo career was bolstered by appearances on other performer’s records, many of which were likely far more … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #832 to #829
836. John Cougar, American Fool (1982) John Cougar was frustrated with the music business grind when he toiled over his fifth album, American Fool. In truth, the singer-songwriter who was born with — and would soon readopt — the last … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #836 to #833
840. The Fixx, Walkabout (1986) Formed in London in 1979, the Fixx were a regular presence on album rock radio throughout the decade that followed. Despite indications that they might be able to cross over to the Top 40 charts … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 1000, 1979 – 1989 — #840 to #837
Coffee for Two 