0018 - A Silver Mt. Zion

Ever since I bought Spiritualized's Medication EP some time in the early 90s, I've been, if not quite obsessed, then certainly very enthusiastic about big build-ups in songs. I didn't realise at the time I first heard Angel Sigh and Feel So Sad that I was discovering post-rock (even if Spiritualized aren't really a post-rock band, what are genres for if not bending?), but they were songs that changed my tastes in music.

0017 - A Produce

A Produce is the name under which southern Californian trance pioneer Barry Craig, er, produced his music. Active for nearly 30 years since the early 80s, he was fairly prolific, releasing nine albums, an EP and a couple of compilations between 1988 and 2011.

Naturally, given this substantial back-catalogue, I have exactly one A Produce track.

0016 - A Noise Agency

So what was it I said in my post about 20/20 - "whenever I hear or read of something as being post-punk, I expect it to either sound like Dead Kennedys or Wire." So it's a big hurrah to A Noise Agency for reinforcing my preconceptions.

0015 - A Flock Of Seagulls

Mention A Flock Of Seagulls to anyone old enough to remember the 80s (and a lot of people who aren't) and they'll think of hair.  Frontman Mike Score's ridiculous barnet is perhaps the most mocked, parodied and generally laughed at hairstyle of all time, although, in fairness, at least it means we remember him and his band.

The Numbers

So that's the numerically named bands out of the way. One thing that's interesting to me is that had you played me each of these before I started the blog, even had I recognised the songs you were playing, I think I'd have been able to identify only 4 Non Blondes and 50 Foot Wave out of the fourteen (and 50 Foot Wave were the only band by whom I actually had a full album, rather than a few songs from a compilation).

There's nothing here that I hate so far, which is nice, and that's despite prog-rock - a genre I have no love for - rearing its head in the shape of 5uu's. I thought they were pretty good though, although not good enough for me to re-evaluate my feelings on prog, admittedly.

On the positive side, I liked 17 Pygmies and 3D Picnic enough to buy an album by each and I'll probably pick up some sort of best-of 10CC at some point. It would be great if I can keep up that sort of strike rate throughout the alphabet (although my wallet might disagree).

On we go to A...

0014 - 8088

I was commenting recently on the lack of information online about 3D Picnic. Relative to 8088 though, the interwebs hold a veritable 30-volume encyclopaedia of 3D Picnic knowledge. The only certain info I can find are the listening stats on Last.fm for the one 8088 song I have, which are, I think (and this is part of the problem), credited to a different, more recent, 8088 (I think, in fact, that there might be three 8088s - this one from the mid-80s, another from the late 90s and yet another from the early 2010s, as well as a DJ 8088).

0013 - The 6ths

Another band of whom I have only the one song [actually, I have two - see update below].  The song is As You Turn To Go and it's not, as I thought before today, by the Magnetic Fields, but by the 6ths.