Title Of Album: Troublemakers
Year Of Release: 1980
Label (Catalog#): Warner Brothers [PRO A-857]
Genre: Rock, Alternative, New Wave, Pop Rock, Punk
Quality: Mp3
Bitrate: CBR 320 kbps
Time: 1:31:10
Full Size: 295 mb
INFO
It’s ironic that just as the Loss Leaders program was beginning to sound fresh once again (thanks to the late-70s D.I.Y. years), it was all coming to an end. Troublemakers is generally acknowledged as the series’ last, and it’s a fun musical time capsule. The set was compiled and annotated by Jim Bickhart, who successfully infused the spirit and vitality of the earliest Loss Leaders into this collection’s purposeful dedication to music’s newest movement (punk/new wave/indie), while adding lots of previously unreleased material. It’s one of the reasons so many fondly remember (and favor) Troublemakers to this day. The Urban Verbs (a group I must have ignored back in the day) are a blast, and Brian Briggs’ cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Nervous Breakdown” is a real treat. Pearl Harbour sounds a bit contrived these days, but Marianne Faithfull’s rendition of “Working Class Hero” is still far more chilling than John Lennon’s own. His lyrics somehow just ring truer coming from her. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Jonathan Richman’s Modern Lovers, but their two previously unreleased contributions here, produced by Kim Fowley, really hit the spot. And… there are plenty of other groundbreakers from the era, including Public Image Ltd., Devo (an outtake from Are We Not Men?), Wire and Gang Of Four – bands that WB were having a hard time getting radio programmers (and consumers) to even listen to, much less buy. WB Editorial Director Gene Sculatti told us; “The bias against punk/new wave was formidable. I can only imagine what it was like for those guys to go to radio stations with those records – in the midst of media coverage focused on gobbing, anti-social bands — and ask for spins. Especially when the programmers (probably even more conservative in their tastes than the promo men) were used to WB reps coming in with the next Doobies/Rod Stewart/Marshall Tucker Band record that they knew their listeners would love.” It’s interesting, though, to contrast the new kids on the block with what some of what the old troublemakers were up to. John Cale is represented by a previously unreleased outtake from 1972’s The Academy In Peril, while Nico and Marianne Faithfull (newly statused as a ‘veteran’), were both into something markedly different by 1980…a lesson, perhaps, for the new crop, who would eventually get old themselves. An experience most of us got to witness in real time.
1980-7-24 TroublemakersThere are a few reasons the Loss Leaders series ceased to exist. The world’s oil wars of the 70s took its toll on vinyl costs, and the packaging became more expensive to produce. Further, the Independent/D.I.Y. crowd was making cheap music discoveries a major part of their own game plan. WB could have financially absorbed the costs to continue spearheading the movement they instigated in the 60s, but by the 1980s all of the labels were shifting their resources over to video (and MTV), as the freshest way of promoting new artists. It’s no coincidence that Troublemakers includes The Buggles’ “Video Killed The Radio Star,” which even Jeopardy contestants know was the first vid to air on MTV. Vinyl, as the industry was about to find out, was living on borrowed time. So, maybe it’s fitting that this set should begin and end with live excerpts from the doomed Sex Pistols’ final show in San Francisco (the city that also killed The Beatles), as Johnny Rotten asks (not-so-rhetorically, it turns out), “Why should I carry on?” BIG thanks to Slipperman for providing us with the top-notch rip and scans for this final entry. Check out the ad that ran in Rolling Stone in July, 1980, which uses the ‘Loss Leaders’ name for the first time since the early 70s.
TRACKLIST:
A1 – Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The U.S.A. 3:30
A2 – Urban Verbs - Subways 3:39
A3 – Robin Lane & The Chartbusters - Don't Wait Till Tomorrow 3:32
A4 – Wire - Map Reference 41 N 93 W 3:36
A5 – Marianne Faithfull - Working Class Hero 4:40
A6 – John Cale - Temper 4:50
B1 – Urban Verbs - The Only One Of You 4:50
B2 – Gang of Four - Damaged Goods 3:25
B3 – Wire - I Should Have Known Better 3:49
B4 – The Modern Lovers - I'm Straight 4:16
B5 – Devo - Social Fools 2:50
B6 – Public Image Limited - Public Image 2:58
C1 – The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star 4:08
C2 – Pearl Harbor And The Explosions - You Got It (Release It) 2:29
C3 – Nico - My Only Child 3:27
C4 – The Modern Lovers - Government Center 1:59
C5 – Robin Lane & The Chartbusters - Kathy Lee 3:28
C6 – Brian Briggs - Nervous Breakdown - 3:43
D1 – Marianne Faithfull - Broken English 4:35
D2 – Pearl Harbor And The Explosions - Busy Little B Side 3:00
D3 – The Buggles - Clean, Clean 3:53
D4 – Gang of Four - Anthrax 4:20
D5 – Public Image Limited - Swan Lake 4:12
D6 – Sex Pistols - No Fun (Excerpts) 4:35
http://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/CKZKJ75I/VA_-_Troublemakers_(1980).part1.rar_links
http://www.mirrorcreator.com/files/12S0PBPY/VA_-_Troublemakers_(1980).part2.rar_links
Thanks a lot!
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