The Boomtown Rats

Nowadays we associate "new wave" with the synthy, jerky pop/rock of the late 70s and 80s, but at the start it was indistinguishable from punk (especially in the UK). Real punk wasn't an actual musical genre, it was an attitude. That attitude was "this urban/suburban world our parents created is crap." That attitude evolved along two distinct lines, synth pop and alternative rock. The former simply abandoned to whole issue and reveled in the electronic inhumanity of commercial pop (whether escapist or critical, it's meant to be highly refined popular dance music) while the latter delved even deeper into the reason being outcast and miserable isn't fun at all.

Boomtown Rats are the start of that alternative rock lineage, but they cross over into the Kinks, Cars, Blondie world on occasion. They are an Irish rock band, and Bob Geldof is their vocalist/songwriter. He's much more famous for his charity work (Band Aid, Live Aid, etc.), but his band was the actual foundation of that work. Their self titled debut is a great self titled debut. The songs are all about who they are, what their friends are like, and why it sucks to be teenagers in a world designed to exclude restless teenagers. It's not an overly confrontational or abrasive album, but it is nice and crunchy, loud and distorted, getting into trouble music. If you like the rock part of punk-rock you should definitely check it out.

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