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Hex (1989 Album)
''Hex'' is the 1989 self-titled debut album by indie pop band Hex, a duo formed by guitarist, songwriter, and lead vocalist Donnette Thayer, previously of Game Theory, and Steve Kilbey of Australian psychedelic rock band The Church. Background Prior to forming the band Hex, Donnette Thayer had been a member of the power pop/ college rock band Game Theory, led by Scott Miller. Thayer appeared on Game Theory's cult classic double album '' Lolita Nation'' (1987), and on their subsequent album, '' Two Steps from the Middle Ages'' (1988). In 1988, following a promotional tour for the release of ''Two Steps'', Thayer left Game Theory to team up with Steve Kilbey as a duo called Hex. Kilbey and Thayer were romantically involved at the time – Kilbey's nickname for Thayer was "Starfish," which became the title of The Church's album ''Starfish''. ''Starfish'' featured the single " Under The Milky Way," a Top Ten hit for The Church which was No. 12 for the year 1988. ''Hex'', the 1 ...
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Indie Pop
Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and subsequently generated a thriving fanzine, Independent record label, label, and club and gig circuit. Compared to its counterpart, indie rock, the genre is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free. In later years, the definition of ''indie pop'' has bifurcated to also mean bands from unrelated DIY scenes/movements with pop leanings. Subgenres include chamber pop and twee pop. Development and characteristics Origins and etymology Both ''indie'' and ''indie pop'' had originally referred to the same thing during the late 1970s, originally abbreviations for ''Independent music, independent'' and ''Popular music, popular''. Inspired more by punk rock's DIY ethos than its style, guitar bands were formed on the then-novel prem ...
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Power Pop
Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a subgenre of rock music and form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and cheerful-sounding music underpinned by a sense of yearning, longing, despair, or self-empowerment. The sound is primarily rooted in pop and rock traditions of the early-to-mid 1960s, although some artists have occasionally drawn from later styles such as punk, new wave, glam rock, pub rock, college rock, and neo-psychedelia. Originating in the 1960s, power pop developed mainly among American musicians who came of age during the British Invasion. Many of these young musicians wished to retain the "teenage innocence" of pop and rebelled against newer forms of rock music that were thought to be pretentious and inaccessible. The term was coined in 1967 by the Who guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend ...
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1989 Albums
1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin Wall in November, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and the overthrow of the communist dictatorship in Romania in December; the movement ended in December 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Revolutions against communist governments in Eastern Europe mainly succeeded, but the year also saw the suppression by the Chinese government of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing. It was the year of the first 1989 Brazilian presidential election, Brazilian direct presidential election in 29 years, since the end of the Military dictatorship in Brazil, military government in 1985 that ruled the country for more than twenty years, and marked the redemocratization process's final poin ...
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Under The Milky Way
"Under the Milky Way" is a single by Australian alternative rock band the Church, released on 15 February 1988, and appears on their fifth studio album ''Starfish''. The song was written by bass guitarist and lead vocalist Steve Kilbey and his then-girlfriend Karin Jansson of Curious (Yellow). It peaked at No. 22 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, No. 24 on the United States ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and No. 25 on the New Zealand Singles Chart; it also appeared in the Dutch Single Top 100. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1989, the song won 'Single of the Year'. It was issued simultaneously in both 7" vinyl and 12" vinyl formats by Arista Records (internationally) and Mushroom Records (Australian region). In 2006, the song was remixed and released as Craig Obey vs the Church. It peaked at number 91 on the ARIA charts. In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Under the Milky Way" was ranked n ...
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Starfish (album)
''Starfish'' is the fifth album by the Australian rock music, rock band The Church (band), The Church, released in February 1988 by Mushroom Records in Australia and by Arista Records internationally. The band's international breakthrough album, ''Starfish'' went gold in America and has remained their most commercially successful release. The album sold 600,000 copies in the United States alone. The first single, "Under the Milky Way", charted on the US Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100, peaking at #24, and at #2 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, leading to significant exposure of the then relatively underground Australian act. In Australia "Under the Milky Way" climbed to #22, and ''Starfish'' reached #11 on the album charts. Background The album was recorded and produced in Los Angeles by L.A. session musicians Waddy Wachtel and Greg Ladanyi. The recording is more sparse and open than its predecessor, ''Heyday (The Church album), Heyday'', which featured orchestral ar ...
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Two Steps From The Middle Ages
''Two Steps from the Middle Ages'' (1988) is the fifth studio album by power pop band Game Theory (band), Game Theory. After having been out of print for nearly 30 years, the album was reissued by Omnivore Recordings in June 2017 on translucent orange vinyl, and as a CD with 11 bonus tracks. The release included a booklet featuring new essays by Mitch Easter, Ken Stringfellow, and critic Franklin Bruno. History Miller intended the album to be "a more straightforward, singles-based record" than its predecessor, ''Lolita Nation'', according to ''PopMatters''. The title of the song "Room For One More, Honey" was a reference to an episode of the American television program ''The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series), The Twilight Zone'' titled ''Twenty Two (The Twilight Zone), Twenty Two''. According to guitarist Donnette Thayer, the serendipitous addition of the sound of clinking wine glasses to "Room for One More, Honey" stood out to her, years later, "because it symbolizes so much ...
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Lolita Nation
''Lolita Nation'' is the fourth full-length album by Game Theory, a California power pop band fronted by guitarist and singer-songwriter Scott Miller. Originally released in 1987 as a double LP, the album was reissued by Omnivore Recordings in February 2016 as a double CD set with 21 bonus tracks. Background and production For Game Theory's October–November 1986 national tour supporting the release of '' The Big Shot Chronicles'', the band took on two new members, resulting in the line-up of Scott Miller (lead vocal, guitars), Shelley LaFreniere (keyboards), Gil Ray (drums), Guillaume Gassuan (bass), and Donnette Thayer (backing vocal, guitars). Thayer, who was then Miller's girlfriend, had been a guest musician on Game Theory's first album, '' Blaze of Glory''. This iteration of the band recorded two albums, ''Lolita Nation'' (1987) and ''Two Steps from the Middle Ages'' (1988). In 1988, Miller told the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' that with ''Lolita Nation'', he "wanted ...
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Scott Miller (pop Musician)
Scott Warren Miller (April 4, 1960 – April 15, 2013) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known for his work as leader of the 1980s band Game Theory (band), Game Theory and 1990s band The Loud Family, and as the author of a 2010 book of music journalism, music criticism. He was described by ''The New York Times'' as "a hyperintellectual singer and songwriter who liked to tinker with pop the way a born mathematician tinkers with numbers", having "a shimmery-sweet pop sensibility, in the tradition of Brian Wilson and Alex Chilton." A Don't All Thank Me at Once, biography of Miller by Brett Milano was published in October 2015, and Miller's posthumously completed final Game Theory album, ''Supercalifragile'', was released in a limited first pressing in August 2017. In 2014, Omnivore Recordings began releasing a series of reissues of Miller's entire Game Theory catalog, which had for decades been out of print. Omnivore concluded the series in 2020 with ''Across th ...
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College Rock
College rock is rock music played on student-run university and college campus radio stations located in the United States and Canada in the 1980s and 1990s. The stations' playlists were often created by students who avoided the mainstream rock played on commercial radio stations. Characteristics An outgrowth of hardcore punk, college rock originated less as a genre term and more as a signal of the medium -- college radio -- by which college rock acts were often heard. As a result, the genre featured a high degree of diversity and eclecticism, meaning that "on college radio ... screaming noise, retro country, avant-garde electronics, and power pop could coexist, linked by cheap-sounding singles recorded by local bands." Acknowledging this variety, some common aesthetics among college rock bands do exist, with some writers characterizing it largely as a combination of the experimentation of post-punk and new wave with a more melodic pop style and an underground sensibility. '' T ...
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The Church (band)
The Church are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1980. Initially associated with new wave, neo-psychedelia, and indie rock, their music later came to feature slower tempos and surreal soundscapes reminiscent of alternative rock, dream pop, and post-rock. Glenn A. Baker has written that "From the release of the 'She Never Said' single in November 1980, this unique Sydney-originated entity has purveyed a distinctive, ethereal, psychedelic-tinged sound which has alternatively found favour and disfavour in Australia." The ''Los Angeles Times'' has described the band's music as "dense, shimmering, exquisite guitar pop". The founding members were Steve Kilbey on lead vocals and bass guitar, Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper on guitars, and Nick Ward on drums. Ward played only on their debut album, and the band's drummer for the rest of the 1980s was Richard Ploog. Jay Dee Daugherty (ex-Patti Smith Group) played drums from 1990 to 1993, followed by "timEbandit" Tim ...
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New Wave Music
New wave is a music genre that encompasses pop music, pop-oriented styles from the 1970s through the 1980s. It is considered a lighter and more melodic "broadening of Punk subculture, 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. The common characteristics of new wave music include a humorous or quirky pop approach, angular guitar riffs, jerky rhythms, the use of electronics, and a distinctive visual style in fashion. In the early 1980s, virtually every new pop and rock act – and particularly those that employed synthesizers – were tagged as "new wave" in the United States. Although new wave shares punk's do-it-yourself philosophy, the musician ...
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Psychedelic Rock
Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound effects and recording techniques, extended instrumental solos, and improvisation. Many psychedelic groups differ in style, and the label is often applied spuriously. Originating in the mid-1960s among British and American musicians, the sound of psychedelic rock invokes three core effects of LSD: depersonalization, dechronicization (the bending of time), and dynamization (when fixed, ordinary objects dissolve into moving, dancing structures), all of which detach the user from everyday reality. Musically, the effects may be represented via novelty studio tricks, electronic music, electronic or non-Western instrumentation, disjunctive song structures, and extended instrumental segments. Some of the earlier 1960s psychedelic rock musicians w ...
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