Your favorite pre-alt, US INDEPENDENT power pop rock bands.

brianlux

This is basically a kind of a spin off from the "Who are your favorite lesser known alternative bands" thread.

This is pretty much about a niche/period kind of sub genre that I hope some others here are into.  Chris Stamey, who was one of the central people in this early to mid 80's style of music, termed it US INDEPENDENTS in his book, A Spy in the House of Loud.  Stamey, along with Peter Holsapple formed a the band, The dBs, and as well had a strong association with R.E.M.

R.E.M. was obviously one of the biggest bands to come out of this interesting batch of groups, a band that left  the biggest impacts in the 80's, especially with their first EP and first couple of LP records, specifically the classic Murmur.  But the bigger precursor to all this music had to be Alex Chilton and Big Star.  Without Big Star, much of this might not have happened.

The Replacements also occasionally edged around the perimeter of this kind of power pop with songs like "Within Your Reach", "Hold My Life", among others.  The less punky side of The Pixies and the Violent Femmes could be included here.

Other band in this genre include:

Lets Active

Sneakers

The Bongos

The Feelies

The Individuals

I'm sure I've left some out here.  Who else would you categorize along with these bands and which are your favorites?

lexicondevil

The Plimsouls.

brianlux

lexicondevil said:

The Plimsouls.

Yes, good one!

JOEJOEJOE

Guadalcanal Diary

brianlux

JOEJOEJOE said:

Guadalcanal Diary

Another good one!  I'd totally forgotten about them.  Time to go back and revisit this band.

lexicondevil

The Knack. It's funny that I never got into them back then. I mean, I heard "My Sharona" on the radio all of the time, but that's where my knowledge ended. About five years ago I finally listened to that whole album and it's really great power pop.

1ThoughtKnown

In Canada we had The Pursuit if Happiness. They formed in ‘85 and had a big hit north of the border “Im an Adult Now”.  Classic stuff. 

And I remember liking the Smithereens

JOEJOEJOE

A great current power pop band is Dear Boy

brianlux

Three other bands should be mentioned here:  Talking Heads, Television and Patti Smith's early band.  All were more "art rock" flavored but all of them were influential to the pre-alternative sound.  Talking Heads added  edge and outside-the-box subject matter to the music. Patti Smith bridged beat era poetry and sensibilities to the new emerging sounds.  And Television brought added edge to the sound, intriguing thematic story to the lyrics, and were one of the few early punk era/ pre-alternative bands to not only get away with extended soloing, but did so in exciting ways, drawing from classical influences such as Ravel, Tchaikovsky and Debussy.   Exciting times!

dankind

Still not clear on the requisite type of sound, but Mission of Burma seems to fit the era. 

brianlux

dankind said:

Still not clear on the requisite type of sound, but Mission of Burma seems to fit the era. 

What a great band!  Definitely the right era and definitely a US Independent.  Burma I think was/is more aggressive and punk/art rock influenced than the others mentioned here.   The bands listed so far are more power pop oriented.  If Burma were considered power pop, they blew all the circuits out.  I've always thought they were- not so much underrated as those who know them rate them highly- but under appreciated.  In any case, well worth mentioning- thanks Dan!

They even threw is a little psychedelia.  My favorite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO4iLB6kq6M