Artists starting with O

Offspring

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Offspring, “Offspring” (Nitro, 1995; original release 1989)
Yes, it’s the same band responsible for all those late-‘90s radio duds, but this is their debut, raw, raging and released in a tiny pressing to near-total indifference at the time. Today it sounds great – classic dark, melodic L.A. hardcore in the mold of TSOL/CH3/Agent orange et al., but with a distinctively chaotic, skittering edge that constantly threatens to combust.
Try 2, 3, 5, 8, 10
7/19/12

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Eggs

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Oh No Ono, “Eggs” (Morningside, 2009)
Danish collective working in the lush, Orch-punk style of Siouxsie, Björk/Sugarcubes, 4AD stuff etc., but this is considerably more twisted with song structures kaleidoscopically collapsing or disappearing into a hall of mirrors. This is what “TRL” would have sounded like in a colony of schizophrenics on Mars.
Try 1/3, 2/2
1/12/11

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Complete Recordings

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Oh-OK, “Complete Recordings” (Collector’s Choice, 2002; original recordings 1981-84)
This pioneering Athens new wave/post punk band featured Michael Stipe’s sister as one of its two frontwomen, but the only qualities it really shared with early REM were a propulsive minimalism and a soft-spoken, ironic but almost mystical sense of the texture of everyday life in a Southern college town. The sound is bare-bones, boppy and free-ranging in crayon-like strokes (drums-bass-and-singsong-vocals-only on 1 through 4, like a missing link between the early Rough Trade stuff like the Raincoats and Lilliput, and the K/Beat Happening stuff that was soon to come.
3 and 4 [=(the “Wow Mini-LP” 7”) are my favorites, but 5 is cool, too. Really, it’s all great.

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Close Up

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Outsiders, “Close Up” (Captured Tracks, 2014; original release 1978)
These guys turned into postpunkers the Sound, but this is still first-wave punk rock, delivered with focus and force. In this still protean era, their music had elements of incipient postpunk angularity, MC5/Stooges-esque swagger/swing, and even pub-rock chug. Excellent songs, too.
Try A/2, B/2, B/4, B/5
10/4/14

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Broken Glass

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Hazel O’Connor, “Broken Glass” (A & M, 1980)
Actually the soundtrack to a rags-to-riches movie about a female punk-type singer (think Mariah Carey’s “Glitter” with safety pins), this is actually more like Bowie’s glam-rock work (“Ziggy Stardust,” etc.) fortified with a cold, hard postpunk edge (“Ziggy” producer Tony Visconti produced this too). Excellent songs by O’Connor, who performs them with fierce drama and clarity, like Siouxsie giving in to her love of Bowie and “Cabaret.”
Try 1/1, 1/5, 2/5.
10/3/13

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