Rock the Casbah - the Clash

[link] Few songs from the 80s got as overplayed as this one.  But few have withstood time as well as  this song. It's bold, irreverent, quirky (that digital watch dixie thing), just a great pastiche of a bunch of cultural things that were rattling around at the time.  And I still have never figured out what it's really about. An excellent piece of pop music, as well, delivered with their signature nonchalance.

Two good introversion songs by Men at Work

Men at Work hit me at a formative time. These two songs in particular (even though one is their biggest hit and was massively overplayed) do a great job of expressing both the dilemma and the escape that introverts experience.

Who Can it Be Now
Upstairs in My House

These guys produced masterful pop. There had been major artists from Australia before, but until Men at Work, no one had so openly expressed their Australian-ness.

Getting the basement ready

Spent some time in the basement last night setting equipment up and seeing if stuff was still working. So far, both bass amps work (one is used for keyboards) and my bass (Hohner headless) still works well.  I have a bass effects box that was getting blinky a few year ago and I basically abandoned it.  I dusted it off and plugged it in (amazingly I had a working AC adapter for it, two of them actually; one must be for something else) and it works fairly well. The PA system is also set up and working.

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Happy House

[link] From 1980. Another of their most well known sounds.  There is a maturing melodicism here and even an approach to danceability, which was an overall trend in the emerging postpunk sound at the time as well. The gothic lines remain very strong.

Lines into Shoegaze

All of the following have been cited as having inputs into the first wave of Shoegaze, which happened in the late 80s, early 90s:

Cocteau Twins
My Bloody Valentine (maybe the first actual SG band)
Spacemen 3
Jesus and Mary Chain
The production style of Phil Spector (particularly his work with the Ramones, which directly leads into the sound of J&MC)

There are undoubtedly others but these are the influences I've seen cited.

Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hong Kong Garden

[link] From 1978, their first and still maybe most recognizable single. They were pretty much exact contemporaries with Bauhaus and should get equal credit for originating gothic rock. They also have a direct connection with the main line of British punk in the form of the Sex Pistols, with whom they shared personnel early on.

Spacemen 3 - Revolution

[link] From 1988.  Held by some to be one of the precursors of Shoegaze.  Certainly the unrestrained guitar sounds qualify. Here they are also carrying forward cores of punk and psychedelia.