Known Pleasures

Known Pleasures Ep 16 - Devo

From the 'Rubber Capital of the World' - Akron Ohio, these Spudboys in Ziggurat hats carved out a career in popular music by making the most uncompromising, angular, robotic tunes that really had disaster written all over them. But their rise to prominence coincided with the New Wave movement where to be unusual was the cool thing to be. So, what happened when they were through being cool?
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Known Pleasures Ep 15 - Bauhaus

A group that persistently divided the critics, to some Bauhaus were brooding masters of edgy but elegant, choppy guitar-riffed bass-grooved masterpieces that spoke to the pain they felt amidst an uncaring world. To others, Bauhaus were wallies.
But while the band’s pitch-dark lyrics and highly charged theatrics were just a bit too preposterous for some to swallow, over the course of four diverse albums, and a host of memorable singles, vocalist Pete Murphy and his cohorts carved a substantial, high-cheekboned place for themselves in the post-punk firmament.
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Known Pleasures Ep 14 - Hunters & Collectors

Formed amid the frenzy of the Melbourne new-wave music scene, the brutal hypnotic tribal funk of this six-, or eight-, or 10-piece band (depending on when you saw them) was as massive and thrilling a sound as we’d ever heard. So, what was it all about? Pub-rock legends, or as big a disappointment as Australian post-punk has witnessed? Here we discuss the life and times of Hunters and Collectors.
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Known Pleasures Ep 13 - The Clash

The Clash, perhaps more than any of the rest of the Class of ’77, seemed to be looking for a way out of punk almost from the start. In an era where it felt like music could actually change the world, they set about making themselves “the only band that mattered”. No band since has fought the law and won, like The Clash.
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Known Pleasures Ep 12 - XTC

During the punk years there were many rules to follow. What to wear, what to listen to and what you should avoid listening to. Punk was an all encompassing lifestyle. But one band with one song proudly proclaimed that they played pop music and it opened the gates for many punk and new wave artists to embrace the catchy melodic chorus while still retaining a bit of aggression, a bit of quirkiness and the snotty punk attitude.
So let’s all go Meccanik Dancing with the brilliance that is XTC.
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Known Pleasures Ep 11 - Talking Heads

Despite their success, Talking Heads made a career out of never really fitting in. With no discernable image or direction apart from a desire to stand out, they emerged at the dawn of US punk, played the game their way – and won. How did these very original outsiders eventually Stop Making Sense and go on to triumph in their own Revenge of the Nerds?
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Known Pleasures Ep 10 - The Human League

Forget the waitresses, forget the cocktail bars, forget the brilliantly simple chorus that ensured Don’t You Want Me would be a number one single around the world. While it’s understandable that many people’s memories of The Human League revolve around their global smash hit, for the real story we needed to go back to The Future. How did a bunch of sci-fi loving non-musicians from a grim industrial city in northern England help shape the destiny of popular music and sell millions of records along the way? Welcome to the peculiar world of The Human League.
 
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Known Pleasures Ep 9 - Echo & The Bunnymen

When it comes to influential bands coming out of Liverpool, they don’t get any bigger than Echo & The Bunnymen. (Except for one notable exception).
From the reptilian snap of Crocodiles, the other-worldly Heaven Up Here, the sharpened spine of Porcupine to the pop deluge of Ocean Rain, the Post Punk output of Echo & The Bunnymen cemented their place in the pantheon of New Wave greats and for these reasons they will always be the Fab Four.
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