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The Spoilers were a Southern California punk rock/new wave band formed in 1978.
The Spoilers began in Los Angeles, California in 1978. The founding members were Chris Hickey, George Padgett and Dean Stefan. Bill Hickey was also considered a semi-member of the band when he was not attending law school at Berkeley. Their first EP was released in 1978 on White Lunch Records and contained the songs "Has Been" (written by Dean Stefan), "Battling On" (Chris Hickey), "Boys Night Out" (Dean Stefan) and "The Ugly Nancies" (Chris Hickey). Hickey and Stefan were credited with guitar and Padgett with bass.
Under the management of local impresario Stan Bernstein, the band moved from a punk to a new wave band, to fit their image as soft clean-cut suburbanites. Bernstein released a second Spoilers record in 1979, Balloon Water Race, that contained "Focus" (Dean Stefan), "Loose Words" (Chris Hickey), "Mr. X" (Craig Wisda) and "Point Blank" (Bruce Springsteen). A 45 single followed in 1980 on White Lunch Records, of Stefan's "Greta", backed with Hickey's "Loose Words". The single was played by Rodney Bingenheimer on the KROQ as well as on Dr Demento's syndicated show.
The band then relocated south to Los Angeles. A five-song mini album was recorded with Paul Wexler, but was not released due to contractual disagreement with Wexler. Instead, the band left to record a 1980 single on Elton John’s record label, The Rocket Record Company. This single featured Stefan’s "Reckless" backed by a new version of "Battling On".
Kessler and Wisda left the band in 1981. Hickey and Stefan then recorded a 12-song album, produced by Steve Verroca, and using studio musicians.
Chris Hickey went on to release six solo albums, co-lead the alt-folk band Show of Hands with future Beach Boy Randell Kirsch, and lead the alternative band Uma. Both bands released CDs on major labels (I.R.S. Records and MCA Universal, respectively). Dean Stefan released a solo album Trial and Error and wrote much of the soundtrack music to the children's television series, Rainbow Fish . These songs were released as a CD on Sony Music.
New wave is a music genre that encompasses pop-oriented styles from the 1970s through the 1980s. It is considered a lighter and more melodic "broadening of punk culture". It was originally used as a catch-all for the various styles of music that emerged after punk rock. Later, critical consensus favored "new wave" as an umbrella term involving many contemporary popular music styles, including synth-pop, alternative dance and post-punk. The main new wave movement coincided with late 1970s punk and continued into the early 1980s.
Wire are an English rock band, formed in London in October 1976 by Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Bruce Gilbert (guitar), George Gill and Robert Grey. They were originally associated with the punk rock scene, appearing on The Roxy London WC2 album, and were instrumental to the development of post-punk, while their debut album Pink Flag was influential for hardcore punk.
Atlantic Recording Corporation is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of two decades, starting from the release of its first recordings in January 1948, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American labels, specializing in jazz, R&B, and soul by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Ruth Brown and Otis Redding. Its position was greatly improved by its distribution deal with Stax. In 1967, Atlantic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music with releases by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Led Zeppelin, and Yes.
Squeeze are an English pop rock band that came to prominence in the United Kingdom during the new wave period of the late 1970s, and continued recording in the 1980s, 1990s and 2010s. In the UK, their singles "Cool for Cats", "Up the Junction", and "Labelled with Love" were top-ten chart hits. Though not as commercially successful in the United States, Squeeze had American hits with "Tempted", "Black Coffee in Bed", and "Hourglass", and were considered a part of the Second British Invasion.
Ultravox were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was their 1981 hit "Vienna".
Julian Fernando Casablancas is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band the Strokes, with whom he has released six studio albums since their founding in 1998. Casablancas released a solo studio album, Phrazes for the Young, in 2009, and has released two albums with the experimental rock band the Voidz.
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no wave scene as the singer and guitarist of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks.
The Weirdos are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles. They formed in 1975, split-up in 1981, re-grouped in 1986 and have remained semi-active ever since. Critic Mark Deming calls them "quite simply, one of the best and brightest American bands of punk's first wave."
Subway Sect were one of the first British punk bands. Although their commercial success was limited by the small amount of recorded material they released, they have been credited as highly influential on the Postcard Records scene and the indie pop genre which followed.
Tom Robinson Band (TRB) are a British rock band, established in 1976 by singer, songwriter and bassist Tom Robinson. The band's debut single "2-4-6-8 Motorway" was a top five hit on the UK Singles Chart in 1977, and their third single, "Up Against the Wall", is seen by some as a classic punk rock single; while their debut album, Power in the Darkness (1978), is regarded as a definitive late-1970s punk album. Their song "Glad to Be Gay" is considered a British national gay anthem.
Green on Red was an American rock band, formed in the Tucson, Arizona punk scene, but based for most of its career in Los Angeles, California, where it was loosely associated with the Paisley Underground. Earlier records have the wide-screen psychedelic sound of first-wave desert rock, while later releases tended more towards traditional country rock.
The Vibrators are a British punk rock band that formed in 1976.
Systems of Romance, released on 8 September 1978, is the third album by British new wave band Ultravox. It was the final recording for the group with original lead singer, lyricist and co-composer John Foxx, and their first album without guitarist Stevie Shears, who had left the band. Shears was replaced by Robin Simon, making his first and only appearance on an Ultravox album. Though not a commercial success, Systems of Romance had a significant influence on the electropop music that came after it.
Since the mid-1970s, California has had thriving regional punk rock movements. It primarily consists of bands from the Los Angeles, Orange County, Ventura County, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, San Francisco, Fresno, Bakersfield, Alameda County, Sacramento, Lake Tahoe, Oakland and Berkeley areas.
20/20 was an American power pop band based in Hollywood, California. They were active from 1977 to 1983 and reunited during the mid-1990s to the late 1990s. In the mid-1970s, Steve Allen and Ron Flynt played together in Tulsa. Allen and Flynt were graduates of Nathan Hale High School, and both attended Oklahoma State University, where Flynt earned a degree in music. Allen decided to move to Los Angeles in 1977 after fellow Tulsa natives Phil Seymour and Dwight Twilley met with success. Once in Los Angeles, Allen met with Mike Gallo (singer/songwriter/keyboardist/drummer), who had already conceived of the idea and name for the band. Gallo first started writing with Allen, and later auditioned Allen's friend from Tulsa, Ron Flynt, for 20/20. The three-piece band signed with Greg Shaw's Bomp! Records in 1978 to record a single. Between the release of the single, and their first LP on Portrait Records, Chris Silagyi joined the band as a keyboardist.
Punk jazz is a genre of music that combines elements of jazz, especially improvisation, with the instrumentation and performance style of punk rock. The term was first used to describe James Chance and the Contortions' 1979 album Buy. Punk jazz is closely related to free jazz, no wave, and loft jazz, and has since significantly inspired post-hardcore and alternative hip hop.
The Surfin' Lungs are an English surf music band originally from Bracknell, Berkshire, who were formed in 1981 by Chris Pearce and Geoffo Knipe. The original line-up consisted of: Chris Pearce, Geoffo Knipe, Steve Dean and Lee Money (drums).
Jerry Adler is an American rock musician, singer and record producer based in New York City. He is best known as frontman and guitarist of former New York indie rock group The Blam, who wrote three albums before disbanding in 2005. He founded the solo folk project Flugente (pronounced FLOOG-en-teh) in 2006, and released two minimalist albums under the name.
Chris Hickey is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles. He was a member of the punk-pop band The Spoilers, the folky trio Show of Hands, and the alt folk rock band, Uma. He has six solo records and his voice and/or his songs have appeared on records by Sally Dworsky, Joe Henry, Michael Penn, Indigo Girls,, Scott Seskind, Shannon Worrell, Phil Cody, Dean Stefan, and Craig Wisda.