It's sorta amazing that no one's thought to post this out of print monster somewhere in the music blogosphere before, but then Wall Of Voodoo have always been a pathetically misunderstood and underrated band, whose early MTV-generated fame gave the impression of a new wave novelty act, which completely belies their origins, their intent and their absolute musical singularity (Ennio Morricone meets Kraftwerk after a trawl through the bowels of L.A.'s synth punk underground). Few realize that before MTV, Ridgeway and co. were a fixture of L.A. art punk fringe, frequently gigging and jamming together with synth punk titans Nervous Gender, and that their monster ace-in-the-hole percussionist Joe Nanini had previously been a member of Black Randy's Metrosquad. This debut EP captures them at a screaming peak of originality, never more so than on their bleak, severe and searing cover of Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire.
Get it Here
Simply great. At last i get this recording. Wall Of Voodoo even played in Bodø (Just north of the arctic circle in Norway) in the mid 80`s. First big name to ever do a concert in our town since Millie (You know here with "My Boy Lolipop") was in town sometime late 60`s.
ReplyDeleteAre these not the same tracks released (with added live material) as "The Index Masters"?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/Index-Masters-Wall-Voodoo/dp/B000003BFB/ref=m_art_li_1/002-8459244-7012829
The CD seems to be OOP, anyway....
wall of voodoo at its best.
ReplyDeletestill one of my favs
Anonymous-Evidently so. Never knew about this CD! Thanks for the pointer...
ReplyDeleteDon't forget about their AMAZING first LP, Dark Continent.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the live shows on YouTube. Great performances.
One of the first records I ever bought, and still one of my faves. Absolutely essential, people.
ReplyDeleteI just found a copy of this on vinyl a few weeks ago. Amazing record! Thanks for posting it, now I don't need to rip my copy.
ReplyDeleteThe first Wall of Voodoo album I bought was Call of the West, which also still sounds surprisingly fresh! Big thanks for this one!
ReplyDeleteExtremely personal hangup: I just hate hate hate that twang in the singer's voice. This guy must be drinking the same herbal extract as Fred Schneider or something- that somewhat Southern-inflected portentious over-declamatory drawl sends me screaming out of the room when either WoV or the B-52s come on.
ReplyDeletefuzztunnel - different strokes for different folks and all that....
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the WoVD - I think Stan Ridgeway is a genius as well!
Merry Christams
Hi! Is that your copy of the EP in the picure posted here? If so, just in case you don't know, that is a rarer pressing of the EP, as it has the gold accents printed on the bulldog on the front and back cover. I've only seen a couple such versions of this EP around. So, if that is your record, do hang on to it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this. I have this on vinyl and on the "Index Masters" CD. However, since I don't have an active turntable at the moment, I haven't been able to listen to the vinyl pressing in a long time, and I always like to have the original vinyl mixes of these records. So, thanks for making the original vinyl version available.
By the way, Stan is still very much active - touring and making music. Check out his website at www.stanridgway.com
RIP - Joe Nanini and Marc Moreland
Great. Simply great. It's refreshing to hear more 80s music that didn't fit into a niche and deal exclusively with cold beats. Love it. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThanks, been after ROF a while.
ReplyDelete