Urinals and/or 100 Flowers C or D, RFI, etc.

I love the Urinals to death. I also love 100 Flowers and while I don't think they were as consistently good as the Urinals, I enjoy their music more then Nervous Gender or Human Hands, haven't heard enough Monitor or BPeople. In any case, that's more a taste issue with Nervous Gender, but Human Hands I never got that into.

I made a CD for myself called 100 Urinals which was my favorite tracks from both Negative Capability and 100 Years, it had 42 songs on it, I think!

Urinals fave is definately Black Hole by a mile.

100 Flowers search off the top o' my head: I Don't Have My Own Heart, Poltergeists at Home, California's Falling into the Ocean

I'd rather not compare them to Wire of the Fall, except superficially, because in the long-run they're not going to compare. But those are tough to match. As far as matching amazing pop songcraft and vocal harmonies to ultra-minimalist angsty punk/post-punk, I think they were the best, or at least my fave.

Yeah, thats a pretty great description. It's really the pop thing that has me listening to them constantly. Something the Minutemen usually don't have going on as great as they are.

I haven't heard the more obscure bands that they toured w/, but I assumed someone would mention them and then say they were better.

I read somewhere that their vocals were influenced by power-pop/mod type things especially an LA band called The Last although they appear to have been contemporaries.

Also is there any worthwhile Trotsky Icepick?

Have had 100 Years of Pulchritude on for the last week . It's bee sitting on a shelf for way too long.
The sound has filled out a bit, people are playing things like funk influenced basslines and stuff . Saw somebody say that it is less Pink Flag type minimalism and more Chairs Missing type players finding their own styles and that affecting the resultant sound or something like that.
Have been enjoying this and am now conscious that I haven't listened to the Urinals set in a long time. So not sure exactly what the development between the 2 is. Other than there possibly being more of a pop influence evident. Still has somewhat existential lyrics in a lot of the songs. Can see how something like the Minutemen tie in with this stuff. But seems pop influence became more prevalent and I hear that the later incarnation as Trotsky Icepick stray too far in that direction and become a lot less individual. Could be to do with lineup change too though. I did think Vitus Matare was supposed to be pretty individual though.

Bu anyway glad I do have this. I think I got it as a long box 20 years ago or so. & it dates back to 1990 . So did they just not get much recognition.
Also interesting to hear what the source of the bandname is . A Mao quote.

There's a song on here that really reminds me of Tin Huey's The Comb the song where the singer likes teh girls who dance with the girls cos teh boys won't dance.
Wondering if that is total coincidence or if they might have been aware of each other. Don't think its the lyrics much but the sound of teh song sounds similar.

Listening to the Drawing Fire reissue—-so amazing

I hear as more Mission of Burma than Wire.

Great Urinals cover on this recent Wold of Pooh collection:
https://bulbous-monocle.bandcamp.com/track/strip-club

My Trotsky Icepicks would be Poison Summer and In Exile. Or maybe they're Danny and the Doorknobs? Both great songs anyway.

Same with Melody by Danny and the Doorknobs, from the CD reissue of Keats Rides a Harley. Top Urinals track.

And a mixtape fave for me was Anyone Like Me by Wednesday Week from the Wharfrat Tales comp, which features at least one or the Urinals,and sounds like the Urinals with female vocals, but the history of that band is quite interesting, so i assume more going on there than the urinals influence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wednesday_Week_(band)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjIzhmD00ZI

I saw 100 Flowers in London tonight. It was great, they did a couple of Urinals songs and I bought the Presence of Mind 7" reissue. They covered Courage by the Minutemen which was a nice symmetry since the Minutemen covered the Urinals on that album.

I used to put I'm A Bug on mixtapes in the late 90s, finally get to see them play it 25 years later

I forget whether it was as the Urinals or 100 Flowers but I saw them over two decades back opening for Savage Republic's reunion I think...or it might have been a Mike Watt show, now that I think about it. Great set in any event!