Let’s get ready for the weekend with some wild & woolly American new wave from the late 70s/early 80s. I don’t know about you but some days I feel like the B-52’s are the best band of ever. It was super cool to find this video of them playing “Rock Lobster” live at what looks an amazing gig. Dig Fred’s mustache – one of the best rockstaches you’ll ever see. It was even cooler to find footage of them from 1978 playing “Dance This Mess Around” in a very sweaty looking Downtown Cafe in Atlanta. From there it seemed to make sense to jump to the Fleshtones and then Human Switchboard and Pylon. Have a swell weekend everyone!

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Rats! We totally slept on the simple-minded genius of Mean Jeans last year. Their album Are You Serious? is 25 minutes of good old Ramones-worshiping punk rawk that’s as catchy as it is dumb. Which is to say very dumb! “Outta Smokes”, “Slime Time”, “Let’s Pogo Before U Gogo”. No deep thought, just sing-along good times as you can clearly see from their video for “Steve Don’t Party No More”. Where it took OK Go about four months to create their latest work of art, it took Means Jeans roughly four minutes at most. That’s punk rock, right?

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You may not have thought about Solex lately. Jon Spencer probably, Cristina Martinez definitely. Especially if you are like us and spend nights awake wondering when Boss Hog are going to get back together. Until that glorious day, this meeting of the mid-’90s titans will do just fine. At first, the idea of mixing Elisabeth Esselink’s junkshop electronic wizardry with Spencer’s always-flamboyant vocal interjections and Martinez’s freeze-dried cool seems kind of weird, but then again, it might just make total sense. Judging from this video clip that explains how it all came together, there’s a good chance it will be amazing. The album (titled Amsterdam Throwdown, King Street Showdown) comes out on May 11th.

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Hey kids, have a great weekend! Here’s some fine examples of early-80’s dance tunes from Delta 5, Kleenex, A Certain Ratio and more to get the party started correctly.

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Walter Schreifels may not be a household name, but I bet you’ve heard of at least one of the bands he’s been in. How about Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, Quicksand or Rival Schools? Ring any bells? My favorite band of his was Walking Concert. They only put out one record, 2004’s Run to Be Born, but their angular, jumped-up power pop sound was pretty great. Schreifels has a new album coming out soon that’s his least noisy venture yet. An Open Letter To The Scene is mostly acoustic guitar-based, but judging by the first single “Arthur Lee’s Lullaby”, none of the wit, fire or energy of his best work is missing. Nice video too. Not enough bands utilize the comedic power of the bathrobe in their videos; it’s nice to see Walter taking advantage of it here.

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The Pipettes have been through a lot in the last couple years. After some really good girl group-inspired singles, they put out an uneven and disappointing record, lost some members and generally lost whatever momentum they once had. By the looks of this new video from their forthcoming album, it sounds like they’ve done some welcome revamping of their musical approach. Gone is the slavish devotion to G-groups and the Brill Building. In its place is a bubbly, disco-y, super pop sound that owes more to the modern dancefloor than a stuffy old museum. Well, modern as in 1976, anyway….

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Clear the dancefloor for the Archie Bronson Outfit. The London trio has always been aces at cranking out wiry, post-punk noise, but now they’ve added just the tiniest trace of glitter to their sound. This could be down to hiring ex-DFA member Tim Goldsworthy as producer, or maybe they just felt like loosening up a little bit. It happens to all of us sometimes, even dedicated noise rockers. “Shark’s Tooth” is a highlight from their soon to be released (March 23rd) third album Coconut and the video they made for it is all kinds of awesome. Hard to really explain what’s happening or what it’s all about, but the costumes are incredible.

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It’s one of the ironclad rules of show biz – put a guy in a giant ape suit and you have comedy gold. Whether it’s a dumb ’60s movie (like the cinematic classic Bikini Beach), a silly kids’ TV show or a music video; just get that giant ape running amok and everything is going to be awesome. Case in point, the video for this track by the Art Museums. The song itself is good enough, a bright little pop trifle that perfectly balances the twee, retro-mod sound of ’80s groups like the Television Personalities with the lo-fi buzz of the Woodsist/Captured Tracks contingent. It’s even better when accompanied by a giant ape wearing a Jam parka, riding a scooter and delivering a mixtape to a cute shop assistant. The song isn’t on the band’s soon to be released debut album, Rough Frame, but nine other songs that are just as catchy and fun do appear.

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