Friedmann usually just makes me anxious but that's only because I think the Flaming Lips are quite overrated. He's done quite good work with Cotton Mather, Quasi and Sleater-Kinney so his presence is not neccesarily a turn-off for me. But then neither is Mitchell Froom's.

TapeOp Issue 58 will include John Fry, Jody Stephens, Matthew Herbert, Fade Out Fatigue, Terry Manning, The Posies (!) Awesome! I have some TapeOp around from forever ago, but you know what I haven't seen in forever - Fizz Magazine! I used to read Flipside when I lived in Vancouver a lot too.

Who made the best "poutfta" pop of the '80s: Culture Club, Wham!/George Michael solo, or Style Council? I'm voting for George Michael.

I'm going to have to vote George on this one. Are you really putting Style Council on the "poufta" chopping block? I mean, their Look was mostly Mick Talbot's fault. The outfits may have been Paul's... but, can we talk about someone else? I have Real Feelings for this band;) I would like to toss ABC and Howard Jones in here as a trade.

Re: Smash Mouth

Best of Smash Mouth DVD Universal has released "The Best of Smash Mouth - The DVD Collection" as part of their 20th Century Masters series.

20th Century Masters DVD of Smash Mouth - really? I mean, c'mon. Here I was thinking the 20th Century Masters was a thing of prestige (right), but I keep seeing that idiot Mark McGrath on VH1 and thinking that everything's gone to Hell anyway, so sure. 20th Century Masters of Smash Mouth. Why not. Wait, are they putting out something new? And will there be a 30th Century Masters? Will my children live to see this?

Who made the best "poutfta" pop of the '80s: Culture Club, Wham!/George Michael solo, or Style Council? I'm voting for George Michael.

I'd have to go with Culture Club and say the answer to the question "Do you really want to hurt me?" would be yes. Remember, as Mr. Lowe once said "You've got to be cruel to be kind"

And yes - TapeOp is genius. Except it promotes a bout of gear-lust every two months.

"It's gone legitimate," said Frank Kielb, a Broomall-based talent agent who represents about a dozen tribute acts. His biggest include the locally based "Beatlemania Now" and red-hot Led Zeppelin tribute band Get The Led Out, plus a Journey cover band, Separate Ways, "that's almost more popular than the group officially traveling under that name, because our lead singer sounds a lot more like [original singer] Steve Perry than the guy currently filling that role."

It is a sad day indeed when the Journey tribute band is selling out more often than Journey. ;)

I gotta second Sally_Cinnamon's write-in for ABC. Just the other day, I was walking the pooch with the iPod blasting their first el-pee. That's a solid record, with giant 80s production that *works*. Totally gay (well, not gay so much as girly), and totally excellent.

And the Style Council were extremely not gay! Just 'cause a band places fashion high up on the Look hierarchy doesn't make them faggy! (And I use the term in a non-insulting way, if that's possible.)

It is a sad day indeed when the Journey tribute band is selling out more often than Journey. ;)

I'd amend Sally's comment to "It's a sad day indeed that Journey even has a tribute band."

ha ha! wait, what? ...! :)

Are you really putting Style Council on the "poufta" chopping block? I mean, their Look was mostly Mick Talbot's fault. The outfits may have been Paul's... but, can we talk about someone else?

Actually, for about the first year of the Style Council, Paul and Mick were deliberately playing with gay imagery, apparently as a direct response to how laddish the Jam's audience was. According to the book in the box set, their record company insisted that the video for "Long Hot Summer" be re-cut because there was a scene where Paul and Mick were gazing longingly into each other's eyes while stroking each other's ears.

Stroking eachother's ears? Wait, that's too much information!!! Deliberate gayness. Interesting. Well, there's them playing in the dutch windmill on Heaven's Above, and then there's the champagne uncorking in the beginning of The Lodgers, the Italian boat ride in Long Hot Summer, the banana joke in My Ever Changing Moods... Hmmm, I'm going to have to rethink everything! :)

hrrundivbakshi and the great 48: If I wanted to ask for the best gay band of the '80s, I would have done so directly, without use of quotations and a British slang term that I'm not even sure I spelled correctly. My question and personal answer stands. Your choices in this regard are equally valid.

Dude -- what do you think "poofter" means?

Dude, I know what the term connotes, just like I know what the Look of Style Council connoted. I don't care that anyone was playing or not; I care that the 3 bands I mentioned were playing up a certain image. I wanted to lump Culture Club, Wham!, and Style Council together for a few reasons:

1) To make sure we were only talking about bands who dressed like poofters. Again, if I wanted to focus on bands led by gay members, I'd have been running the risk of leaving out bands with gay members who weren't wearing dresses or tight white tennis shorts that barely cover their balls.

2) To ensure that I wasn't focusing on bands that included or were led by gay musicians - I don't care about that and feel no need to group musicians by quality over such a factor - what you were supposed to include Judas Priest in your thinking? No!

3) To tweak some of you Style Council fans (Mission Accomplished), who can't get over the fact that Paul Weller sublimated his strengths for a few years while Boy George and George Michael kicked out much better music. Keep the faith!

...the 3 bands I mentioned were playing up a certain image. I wanted to lump Culture Club, Wham!, and Style Council...

I've been trying to stay out of this. Do you really think a significant percentage of gay people dress like Boy George? I liked the early Style Council records. I guess I saw photos of them around that time, and I certainly never read that as "playing up" a gay image. George Michael wore jeans and a leather jacket too. Are guys who dress like that "playing up" a gay image? I really have no idea what you're talking about or why.

3) To tweak some of you Style Council fans (Mission Accomplished), who can't get over the fact that Paul Weller sublimated his strengths for a few years while Boy George and George Michael kicked out much better music. Keep the faith!

Pince nez time from the person who actually knows and likes this stuff: you've got your timeline wrong on this in two different directions.

The Style Council were solidly entertaining from their first single in early 1983 through the release of "Have You Ever Had It Blue" in early 1986. This was followed by a terminal plunge into crapness immediately thereafter, barring the dead cat bounce of the pretty good single "How She Threw It All Away" in '87. Weller's solo career has merely been more of the same.

Culture Club's period of viability ran from late '82 (with the release of "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me") through, say, mid-'84 when the run of singles from COLOUR BY NUMBERS petered out. Culture Club were never taken seriously again from the moment the legendarily awful third album WAKING UP WITH THE HOUSE ON FIRE came out in the fall of '84: seriously, there has never been a faster turnaround from superstar to punchline, and the last Culture Club album a couple years later was pretty much entirely ignored. I don't even remember what it was called. But anyway, at the point that Culture Club flamed out (no pun intended), the Style Council still had about 18 months left in the tank.

By contrast, it took over two years for Wham! to become even tolerable. For all the ink that has been spilled about what a pop genius George Michael always was, have you ever actually *heard* Wham's first album, the one with "Bad Boys" and "Wham! Rap" on it? It's just amazingly awful, easily one of the worst albums of its time and place. When "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" came out in late '84, the Anglophile teens of my circle reacted unanimously: "Wait, THIS is Wham!? But...this is actually pretty good!" So actually, the ascendence of Wham! in the marketplace coincided exactly with Culture Club's plummet into oblivion. Regardless, the point stands: by the time George Michael finally figured out how to write a hit, the Style Council had already released four singles he would have given his left tennis-short-clad nut for.

The Style Council were solidly entertaining from their first single in early 1983 through the release of "Have You Ever Had It Blue" in early 1986. This was followed by a terminal plunge into crapness immediately thereafter, barring the dead cat bounce of the pretty good single "How She Threw It All Away" in '87. Weller's solo career has merely been more of the same.

Woah, woah, wooooah Great 48 - I just want to clarify, are you stating that you think that Weller has been crap since '87??!!! I just want to clarify before I even delve into defending his material as a solo persona. Paul Weller, Wild Wood, Stanley Road... I mean, I'll agree that he's had a few rocky patches since Heavy Soul, but I'd be fooling everyone if I didn't take a stand for Weller solo-material vs. the Style Council's discography as a whole. Granted, in my heart of hearts, I'm a serious Jam and Weller (solo) fan, but I also enjoy hearing Style Council because of it's pop goodness (it makes me smile), overall though Weller's solo career has taken over a lot of my collection.

BigSteve and others, I'll try to clarify a final time: I was poking at the homophobia that accompanied the reaction many straight Jam fans, myself included, felt the first time we saw our Mod hero Paul Weller cross the line from fashionable to, I don't know, a little too fashionable - and playing music than no longer rocked. I'm sorry to have brought broad characterizations and Boy George dressed as a Rasta Rabbi in drag into the discussion, but I was trying to put it all - broadly - in context. From that context I had hoped to poke fun at my own homophobia over those groups at that time; the homophobia I suspect at least one or two other people might have experienced (if I'm alone, shoot me); the never-ending impassioned defenses of the music of Style Council, which I still find amusing (shoot me again if I'm alone in this feeling); the fact that after a certain amount of time I found myself able to like the hits of Culture Club and actually think George Michael was talented to the point that I miss hearing a new release by him every 5 or 6 years; and probably more stuff. The question was not meant to be centered around the sexual preferences of the musicians. Sorry if I offended anyone but Style Council fans and those still homophobic in response to the Georges.

...the reaction many straight Jam fans, myself included, felt the first time we saw our Mod hero Paul Weller cross the line from fashionable to, I don't know, a little too fashionable...

To me it was much weirder to witness the willing suspension of belief that allowed most pop music fans to ignore the obvious gayness of both Georges (Boy and Michael).

I never had much use for George Michael, but I still think Boy George was an excellent singer, and it's too bad his career has become a joke. I bought a best-of CD to get the excellent Crying Game, and most of the other stuff held up pretty well. It still sounds very much of its time, but unique all the`same.

Woah, woah, wooooah Great 48 - I just want to clarify, are you stating that you think that Weller has been crap since '87??!!!

Earlier this week in a different venue, I wrote something to the effect of "I wouldn't go see a Paul Weller solo show if he were playing in my living room for free and there was pizza and beer."

So, yeah, I think Weller's been one long festival of dung for two solid decades.

Very interesting the split takes we've had on the many faces of Paul Weller. I know that one of these days I need to try to listen to that Style Council stuff again.

We'll your all gonna hate me but I never cared for the Jam at all. So as a result I never have followed Paul Weller's career. I will say though that I was impressed by news of his recent three nights shows up in NYC where he apparently played Jam stuff the first night then Style Council the next and solo the third...seems like he's OK with all the stuff he's played over the years and hasn't shunned "the old stuff".

Mr. Mod, I have a best of SC comp that I can burn for you if you want some easy (fun) listening:)

I recently got a 4:00pm offer from a friend in NYC to hit the last Weller show but couldn't make it, and am kicking myself for not dashing out the door when I could have, it's a long story, but my friends hit all 3 nights and said it was a hard, long, voyage through Weller's history of song, but worth the sum of the parts nonetheless.

I do really love Weller though. I don't care that he's gone a bit iffy at times with his material. I do think that in recent years he's been rehashing a bit; so my finger is more on the button of songs like Uh Huh Oh Yeh, Woodcutter's Son, It's a New Day, Changingman, Broken Stones, Brushed, and he has great versions of certain songs like Tim Hardin's (Black Sheep Boy), Bobby Bland's (Ain't No Love In the Heart of the City). I dunno. I really love his first 3 albums immensely and since he's signed to Yep Roc, his newer stuff is sounding better than stuff that he's done in a while. I think it was Heliocentric that did that to me. Didn't care much for that one.

And, Steve White is one of my top 5 drummers.

I'll take you up on that Style Council burn, Sally. Thanks. If anyone else cares to hip me to some worthwhile Style Council songs, I'm all ears!

I like a number of Weller's solo albums. The best songs remind me of Traffic, Joe Cocker, Blind Faith, and all that other British hippie stuff I grew up listening to in my uncle's bedroom. I'm not a fan of the long, crooning songs, though (eg, "You Do Something to Me"), although that's often as much as for the genre as anything.

Hey, here's James Taylor and Randy Newman on the Oscars! Singer-songwriters...