Top 5 Underappreciated Bands of the 80's

Edwyn Collins 'A Girl Like You' rocks! I hadn't heard it in years when I heard it on the new station the other day. I thought it was a Bowie at first!

Fad Gadget
Cabaret Voltaire
Joe Jackson
Visage
the db's

Hahha... Could you have and underappreciated band in the 80s? The begining of the age of hype?

Oh well, I'll give it a whirl:

Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper

Fleshtones (Maybe that's more 70s...Still they're one of the best bands ever)

Los Lobos (Just because everybody only knows about "La Bamba")

Holly & the Italians/Nikki & The Corvettes tie for the last place as the greta under appreciated girl bands.

Honorable mention to "Big Daddy" for doing a doo wop version of EYe of The Tiger and to Weird Al for being the measuring stick of fame. (If Weird Al spoofs you, you're in, baby!)

i second that on the orange juice. f*cking brilliant stuff!

big country
a-ha (and still going strong!!

Way back in the day, Icehouse was really cool. Before the commercial zenith of Man of Colours. After that, all has been pretty sucky mainstream with the exception of "Berlin" which ranks high still on my playlist.

KTP (Kissing The Pink)
B Movie
Meat Men
999
Japan

1. Fad Gadget

2. Grauzone

3. Human League (appreciated for all their cheesy stuff and not the good stuff!)

4. Mathematiques modernes - in response to David's post... It took me 2 years to find this LP, and I have never been happier. Thank you gemm.com

5. Ruth

Has anybody heard the Pop Group? That stuff is similar to early flying lizards. Kind of dub and cut and paste like mixing this heat with the fall meets flying lizards. I also found the solo album by the lead singer of the Pop Group called "Mark Stewart and the mafia". It is also very cut-and-paste sounding like the LIZARDS. Damn, I with David Cunningham had made more music. I have been desperately looking to find his solo record that he made BEFORE the lizards. Talking about rare!

1. Voice Farm (Super E.Q. Team)
2. Modern English
3. Dif Juz
4. Colourbox (Pump Up the Volume)
5. Gene Loves Jezebel

the bags (well, maybe more 70's)
algebra suicide
let's active and the three o'clock, yeah sure!
the pastels (who are still around)
josie cotton (even though "johnny are you queer" is played out)
xex

Nobody has mentioned Game Theory

Smithereens, The Cult, Prefab Sprout, Vitamin Z and Utopia

oh geez, you want me to pick ONLY five?
lets start with......
1 poise noir
2 45 grave
3 danelle dax
4 a spilt second
5 a toss up between skeletal family and death in june.

and I think someone already mentioned caberet voltare, but I only like their very old stuff.

can you tell I'm a goth? lol.

1 - Redd Kross

2 - The Dickies

3 - Sparks

4 - The Quick

5 - Jellyfish

1. APB
2. Our Daughter's Wedding
3. Martha and the Muffins (later M+M)
4. Eurythmics (only their first abum "In the Garden" which wasn't released in the US)
5. Killing Joke

Bonus:
Freuer

A Certain Ratio
Liquid Liquid
Fad Gadget
Au Pairs
Delta 5

Throwing Muses

Scritti Politti
Out Daughter's Wedding
Five Star
Fun Boy Three
In Tua Nua

And just to add one bonus...The Cover Girls.

1. Japan
2. The Mutants--This was a band that had great pop hooks. They used played in Places like The Mabuhay Gardens, The Stone, Key Stone Berkeley.
3. The Offs--Billy Hawks band Best bay area ska/punk band ever.
4. The Nuns
5. Essential Logic

1. Intaferon
2. The Darling Buds
3. Age Of Chance
4. The Bolshoi
5. Fiat Lux

BTW- Von David- you may be interested to know that Debs from the Dolly Mixtures provided joint lead vocals on Saint Etienne's fabulous 'Who Do You Think You Are?', and most recently was seen as half of the fantastic band, Birdie.

Cheers

HuwsKi

Off the top of my head...

1. Japan
2. Talk Talk
3. Comsat Angels
4. Immaculate Fools
5. The Icicle Works

There's a gizillion more worthy names too...

Trio
Liliput/Kleenex
Game Theory
The Glove
JFA

Altered Images- every song they released was pure gold.
Ausgang
Visage- They don't really get enough credit, in my opinion.
The Church
Danse Society

1. Limited Warranty - Minneapolis's answer to Duran Duran.

2. Face To Face - The original 80s band from Boston with the name. Female fronted pop/rock band.

3. Prefab Sprout - Produced mostly by Thomas Dolby. I love almost everything they've ever done- except the last album.

4. Eight Seconds - Their first album ALMACANTER was brilliant. Sounds similar to The Fixx, but more synth-based.

5. The Godfathers - Rock/Pop. Kind of fit in with The Call

A few others who I thought never got the attention they deserved...

XTC

Blancmange

Japan/David Sylvian

Scritti Politti - Everything they've done has been excellent. Perfect pop.

Oingo Boingo - One of my favorite bands of all time. Amazing energy. "Weird Science" doesn't do them justice.

Split Enz

Nick Heyward (his solo stuff)

The Art Of Noise

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Japan's Kraftwerk

Blake Babies - Juliana Hatfield's early band

The Call

Kim Wilde (In the US at least)

Squeeze - Never got the attention they should have other than "Tempted".

The The - Gotta love Matt Johnson. I think he was bigger overseas, but did virtually nothing here in the US.