I've been listening to my Wall Of Voodoo albums lately after a demo track from an ROIO compilation (called Heaven Or Anaheim) came up on my iPod. I don't think I'd ever listened to the track before and it prompted me to revisit the WOV catalogue. They were a great band - quite unique in their sound as far as my listening experience is concerned. From their pulsing synth cover of Ring Of Fire from the Stan Ridgway-fronted lineup to the Morricone-Western-styled Far Side Of Crazy after Andy Prieboy replaced Ridgway, WOV seemed to do their own thing in their own little world with, unfortunately, limited commercial success.
Anyone else got any love for WOV here? I noticed Galactic Bulldozer suggested WOV's Red Light and Ridgway's Big Heat on the "Best opening song on a prog band's debut album" thread.
You can get all four WOV studio albums plus a live album and bonus tracks in two separate compilations from Australia's Raven records. Go here:
http://ravenrecordscomau.melbourneit...duct_id=375665
http://ravenrecordscomau.melbourneit...duct_id=444411
Prices are in Aussie dollars which means a discount for most of you - I don't know how much they charge for international postage.
Here's the title track from Call Of The West from the Ridgway-era band:
Blackboard Sky from the Prieboy-fronted band:
Stan Ridgway wrote a song about his time in WOV called Talkin' Wall Of Voodoo Blues Pt 1 (from his 2004 Snakebite album):
In the song Ridgway mentions two band members have passed away. They are percussionist Joe Nanini who died of a brain haemorrhage and guitarist Marc Moreland who died of kidney and liver failure. I'm pretty sure Moreland's death was due to alcohol - Concrete Blonde's hit song Joey was written about the singer's relationship with Moreland.
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