Aesthetic: 80s cannibal eater
March 3, 2018 8:42 PM

I've just been reminded of Toto Coelho's I Eat Cannibals and I'm obsessed. The sound, the vibe, the silliness, the look, how everyone's so sincere and intense but also having a ton of fun. Can you recommend me any other tracks or anything that has a similar vibe?
posted by divabat to Media & Arts (30 answers total) 21 users marked this as a favorite
Scarecrow People by XTC comes to mind.

Maybe Never Say Never by Romeo Void.

I'm sure Sparks has something to scratch that itch. Maybe Dick Around?
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 10:12 PM on March 3, 2018


Adam and the Ants - Antmusic
Haysi Fantayzee - Shiny Shiny

Early 80s Dance Pop with a strong image is a small niche, even for back then. New Romantics like Adam Ant tended to be darker, and experiments like Haysi are experiments for a reason. That double-time style of synthpop was a thing though, as long as you don't need the image part. You can probably draw a line from I Eat Cannibals through Escape Club.
posted by rhizome at 10:21 PM on March 3, 2018


I Want Candy?

Walk Like an Egyptian?

Walk the Dinosaur?

Almost certainly not, but the song I always got mixed up in my head when I thought of I Eat Cannibals was Body Talk
posted by Mchelly at 10:25 PM on March 3, 2018


Animotion - Obsession

I sometimes think this is the only song the future needs toward understanding the middle of the 1980s ... certainly in the English speaking western world.
posted by philip-random at 10:42 PM on March 3, 2018


Good recs above. Additionally, maybe Madness? Night Boat to Cairo and Baggy Trousers spring to mind.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 11:30 PM on March 3, 2018


Here's Fun With Animals's "Test of Love and Sex". I couldn't find the b-side "3623 AD" online or I would have linked that instead. Apparently that 7" is a rarity. One more disc I regret losing track of in my life...
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 11:58 PM on March 3, 2018


Toyah's aesthetic wasn't so far distant from this: see I Want to Be Free or It's A Mystery.

Perhaps you might enjoy Tight Fit, and their version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight, or their ABBA-esque Fantasy Island.

Some of the Euro-dance music from that era combines sincerity with silliness, for example: Ottowan's Hands Up and Born to be Alive by Patrick Hernandez.

And you might look at River by King Trigger or Tom Hark by the Piranhas.

(Dipping back into the '70s, I'm also vaguely reminded of that era's SciFi disco classics Spacer by Sheila B Devotion and I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper by Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip.)
posted by misteraitch at 12:40 AM on March 4, 2018


Seconding the Adam and the Ants suggestion above. I'd add Stand and Deliver to the mix, for sure.

Other possibilities:

Split Enz, Six Months in a Leaky Boat
Haircut 100, Love Plus One
Altered Images, I Could Be Happy

Sadly, I can't find the official video for the Hoodoo Gurus I Want You Back, which I vaguely recall involving claymation dinosaurs chasing the band around, so keep your eyes peeled in case it ever gets posted to youtube again.
posted by the return of the thin white sock at 12:47 AM on March 4, 2018


Toni Basil -- Hey Mickey
posted by Halo in reverse at 1:16 AM on March 4, 2018




Devo - Whip It

The Waitresses - I Know What Boys Like

[Not sure I have the gist of what you are going for, but these songs/videos remind me a bit of that vibe you describe for one reason or another. I'll try to stop now, but this is a fun little time-travel game!]
posted by Halo in reverse at 1:27 AM on March 4, 2018


Bow Wow Wow - Go Wild in the Country
King Kurt - Destination Zululand
Tenpole Tudor - Swords of a Thousand Men
posted by rd45 at 2:42 AM on March 4, 2018


Belle Stars - Sign of the Times
posted by oh pollo! at 2:44 AM on March 4, 2018


Whot? No Sigue Sigue Sputnik? LOVE MISSLE F1-11.. True 80's Weirdness.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 5:52 AM on March 4, 2018


I'm Too Sexy
posted by jtexman1 at 6:12 AM on March 4, 2018


Try: Kid Creole and the Coconut's Endicott and/or Divine's Love Reaction
posted by eschatfische at 7:15 AM on March 4, 2018


Dead Or Alive - You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)
posted by progosk at 7:24 AM on March 4, 2018


Freur - Doot Doot

Blancmange (though they were a bit less glam) - Living On The Ceiling; Blind Vision

Fad Gadget - Collapsing New People

ABC - Poison Arrow

Human League - Love Action
posted by progosk at 7:51 AM on March 4, 2018


This may be off, but I get a similar vibe (tho maybe a bit darker...) from Shriekback's Nemesis.
posted by vers at 8:27 AM on March 4, 2018


Genius of Love Tom Tom Club
posted by chocolatetiara at 9:07 AM on March 4, 2018


Haysi Fantayzee!
posted by overhauser at 9:40 AM on March 4, 2018




Don't Come Around Here No More by Tom Petty (RIP) and the Heartbreakers has bigger-budget production values than "I Eat Cannibals", but the anarchy always seems to be pretty close to the surface. That's David Stewart of The Eurythmics sitting on the mushroom, playing a sitar at the beginning.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 11:35 AM on March 4, 2018


Big Audio Dynamite - C'Mon Every Beatbox
Hall & Oates - Out of Touch
...and my favorite video ever, Herbie Hancock's Rockit
posted by workerant at 4:09 PM on March 4, 2018


High school graduate, class of '82 here.

The sound, the vibe, the silliness, the look, how everyone's so sincere and intense but also having a ton of fun

I usually sum it up with the word "irreverence." Unfortunately followed in the 90s by the era of "whiny poets."

The recommendations upthread are pretty good --- and you can find a lot of them, plus more, in the Rhino collection "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Hits of the '80s", with single discs available at Amazon. Just search "just cant get enough" in the CDs section. Rhino has been re-issuing a lot of 80s material recently.

Also, you can often find these streaming at 80sforever.ch.
posted by Napoleonic Terrier at 6:02 PM on March 4, 2018


Can't link it here but it's easily findable on YT: "Belly of the Whale" by the Burning Sensations.
posted by sundrop at 8:13 PM on March 4, 2018


Any recommendations for stuff that's contemporary? What this video made me think of was a fair amount of queer musicians who're into neo-80s music and have a fairly similar aesthetic going for them.

(Women would be especially appreciated!)
posted by divabat at 2:11 AM on March 5, 2018


St. Vincent's videos from MASSEDUCTION? Pills / Los Ageless / New York

Janelle Monae? Q.U.E.E.N. / Make You Feel / Django Jane

Marina and the Diamonds? Oh No! / Blue / Froot

Florence + The Machine? Dog Days Are Over

Hell, I'm going to throw in Goldfrapp's Ride A White Horse
posted by eschatfische at 6:07 PM on March 5, 2018


Oh No Ono - Keeping Warm in Cold Country
posted by rhizome at 6:22 PM on March 5, 2018


Spotify playlist!
posted by divabat at 6:55 PM on October 3, 2018


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