Forgotten early New Wave...

It was a geographical thing back in the day.

The Feelies and The Bongos were probably my two favorites. Of course, I lived in Hoboken, NJ at the time and both bands based themselves there, so maybe I'm a little prejudiced on this one.

From out of town, The Replacements and Husker Du were the Minnesota reps, Arrogance, Let's Active and The dBs were from North Carolina, Oingo Boingo and X from LA, Pere Ubu from Cleveland, The Romantics from Detroit, Romeo Void from San Francisco etc, etc...

Some emphasized the rock influence, some were more pop, the southerners jangled, and one or two (see Pere Ubu!) were more aggresively "artistes", but they were all among my favorites from that particular pop music movement.

Marty

I thought INXS kicked ass in those days...Big Country was another one. Peter Gabriel (!), first 2 Police albums...that was a really interesting musical era and I played a lot of that stuff in cover bands during that time. First Cars album...man...most new bands today sound wimpy and unoriginal compared to the best of those days.

Marty makes a great point with his geographical perspective. I am from Atlanta and enjoyed a healthy dose of the Athens bands from that era:Guadalcanal Diary, Bill Mallonee and the Vigilantes of Love, Pylon, Love Tractor,Swimming Pool Q's,the Connells, Let's Active, the DB's, Drivn N'Cryn,the Windbreakers (Tim Lee and Bobby Sutliff have great solo projects as well)the B-52's,and of course REM. I also am particularly fond of the paisley underground movement from that era although it is more old fashioned rock and roll as compared to power pop. Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green on Red, Danny and Dusty, etc. The Dream Syndicate is one of my favorite bands. Steve Wynn continues to release great music and the solo work from the various paisley bands is great: Chuck Prophet, Chris Cacavas, Mazzy Star,etc. The German label Blue rose Records is a great source for a lot of these artists.