Swell Maps make a glorious clatter on legendary "Jane From Occupied Europe"

Swell Maps : The Helicopter Spies

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On August 16, 1980 Swell Maps, the lo-fi experimental rock band made up of brothers Epic Soundtracks and Nikki Sudden out of Birmingham, released their second album Jane from Occupied Europe to an ecstatic 5 star review from Dave McCullough of Sounds.

He calls it:

"...rip roaring, uniquely uncorrupted FUN!...a bumper album, consistently excellent, a huge, lovable adventure playground to forget the bad times we're in and still emerge with full integrity."

Hugely influential, you can hear future bands Sonic Youth, Nirvana and Pavement in Maps tunes like "The Helicopter Spies". In fact Scott Kannberg of Pavement  says"Swell Maps was a big influence on our early records ... they had these songs they fucked up somehow to make sound really dirty and low frequency, but they had these great songs underneath all this mess".

The Maps would also toss in industrial sound collages like "Mining Villages". Not recorded with radio airplay in mind I assume.

"Collision With a Frogman" flows right out of "Mining Villages". It sounds like a spy theme for a movie about a secret agent who doesn't get any of the girls and, in fact, can't find his hair brush or keys. 

"Secret Island" has a great riff. 

They may have borrowed some elements from Wire and Can but Sonic Youth certainly borrowed something from the Maps."As soon as that Nikki Sudden guitar comes slicing slabbing and all out fuzzifying off that crackling vinyl groove you know you’re gonna rock," Thurston Moore writes. " It’s the best of both whirls: fist-in-the-heart guitar burnin’ rock and ahead-of-its-time songsmith awareness ... The Swell Maps had a lot to do with my upbringing". 

Swell Maps broke up in 1980. Its members headed off to other projects.

Talk of the Town and other great singles from March of 1980

The Pretenders : Talk Of The Town

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On March 30, The Pretenders returned to the UK charts  at #26 with "Talk Of The Town" b/w "Cuban Slide". The song peaked at UK#8 and was immediately embraced by critics like David Hepworth who wrote:

"Talk of the Town" represents the kind of risk more bands should take more often; an undisciplined, almost jazzy sort of ballad thingy with a vocal that hovers above brilliant guitar textures. It takes three plays to pull you towards it and kisses you full on the mouth on the fourth.

The name of the song is inspired by a London nite club. The lyrics are inspired by a kid who would hang outside the clubs when The Pretenders were touring that Hynde says she never talked to"

It's not my place to know what you feel 

I'd like to know but why should I? 

Who where you then? Who are you know? 

Common laborer by night, By day highbrow 

OTHER SONGS FROM MARCH 1980:

The UK #39 hit "Rough Boys" is the first single from Pete Townshend's Empty Glass. Known for its homoerotic lyrics, the song's meaning has been altered by Townshend several times. 

A #72 ht for Fischer Z who would go on to sell two million albums across Europe.

Popular pub rockers Slaughter and the Dogs wear their Springsteen influences on their sleeves.

The all-female Bodysnatchers hit UK#22 with their cover of Dandy Livingstone's "Let's Do Rock Steady". They'd spend the summer touring with their two-tone label mates The Specials and the Go-Gos.

NME described Graduate's single single as an "energetic little beast of comedic intent, with a nice line in machine-gun burst guitar jabs. Difficult to tell which Elvis they mean, the old one should be fairly two-tone by now anyway." In a few years the band will break up and members Curt and Roland will reform as Tear For Fears,

This Rough Trade single is a real grower by art rockers Swell Maps.

It's kind of a toss-up. Which American rockabilly trio from New York State is going to hit it big? Buzz and the Flyers or Stray Cats? Our money is on Buzz.

The new XTC single has a reggae beat and some fine bass playing by Colin Moulding, but the re-worked B side from Drums and Wires,  "Ten Feet Tall", is ten times better.

Notable Singles From February of 1980

Midnight Oil : Back on the Borderline

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With "Back on the Borderline", released in February of 1980, Midnight Oil found the sound that would make them one of Australia's biggest rock'n'roll exports of the next decade. Lyrically, however, the song has none of the political fire to galvanize record buyers. The Head Injuries track failed to chart despite the music video, shot at a TV station.

Swell Maps : Let's Build A Car

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Birmingham's Swell Maps released "Let's Build A Car", in February of 1980.  It was the first of the band's singles Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore purchased. This is from the liner notes he planned to write for a Swell Maps compilation:

the first swell maps singles (i bought for no reason cept what th' fuck) was “let's buy a car” which still to this day gives me a soul scorched buzz'n'rush. as soon as the nikki sudden gtr comes slicing slabbing and all out fuzzifying off the crackling indie vinyl groove you know yr gonna rock. this was important to a dickweed like me cuz the sensibility of the nyc creeps i was pubing with was towards the no wave trip (and if you don't know about no wave nyc 78/79 then..well, don't worry about it) which i of course totally flagwaved.

Notsensibles : ( I'm in Love With) Margaret Thatcher

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Released in 1979, this post-punk attempt at humor did hit the Independent Singles Top 10 in February of 1980.

Spizzenergi : Where's Captain Kirk 

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With "Where's Captain Kirk? "Spizzenergi became the first band to top the newly created UK Indie Chart early in 1980.More than two decades after its release, it was included in Mojo magazine's list of the best punk rock singles of all time. 

The Laughing Clowns :  Laughing Clowns

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When The Saints broke up guitarist Ed Kuepper moved back to Brisbane and formed Laughing Clowns. In February of 1980 the band released its first single, also called "Laughing Clowns". Saints fans were confused by the new sound. Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane wrote 

"Part of the problem was that the band's sound defied categorization. Having to overcome such ludicrous labels as 'jazz-punk' ... [it] was diverse yet moody, at turns melodic or dissonant. It ranged from rock and soul to avant-jazz".

Another Pretty Face : Whatever Happened to the West

Finally, February of 1980 was also the month the Scottish band Another Pretty Face released its debut single. Lead singer Mike Scott would eventually form The Waterboys in 1983.

Got A Rolls Royce

Swell Maps : Vertical Slum

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In June of 1979 the Birmingham art punk band Swell Maps released A Trip to Marineville, their debut album. Founded by brothers Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks, Swell Maps sounds like what happens when teenage boys start a band in the basement after listening to Can and sipping some of mom's hand sanitizer. In other words, I agree with Pitchfork's assessment that it's "weird and wonderful".

The album is not all as musical as the selections posted might suggest. There are arty sound collages that are really just a loud noises and some droning keyboards that might not signify anything at all. It is up to the listener to return again and again to find out what sticks.

"Midget Submarines" is one of the numbers that will certainly stick. This is the kind of post-punk sound that foreshadows Sonic Youth and Pavement.