W45 Grave are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California formed in 1979. The original group broke up in 1985, but vocalist Dinah Cancer subsequently revived the band.
WAgent Orange is an American punk rock band formed in Placentia, California in 1979. The band was one of the first to mix punk rock with surf music.
WBerlin is an American new wave band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. The band gained commercial success in the 1980s with singles including "Sex ", "The Metro", "No More Words" and the chart-topping "Take My Breath Away" from the 1986 film Top Gun. The best-known lineup consisted of singer Terri Nunn, bass guitarist and vocalist John Crawford, keyboardist David Diamond, guitarist Ric Olsen, keyboardist Matt Reid, and drummer Rod Learned.
WThe Dead Milkmen is an American punk rock band formed in 1983 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their original lineup consisted of vocalist and keyboardist Rodney Linderman, guitarist and vocalist Joe Genaro, bassist Dave Schulthise and drummer Dean Sabatino.
WDeath Angel is an American thrash metal band from Daly City, California, initially active from 1982 to 1991 and again since 2001. Death Angel has released nine studio albums, two demo tapes, one box set and two live albums. The band has gone through several line-up changes, leaving guitarist Rob Cavestany as the only constant member; he and vocalist Mark Osegueda are the only members of Death Angel to appear on all of their studio albums.
WDevo is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic lineup consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales, along with Alan Myers. The band had a No. 14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", the song that gave the band mainstream popularity.
WThe Effigies were an American punk band from Chicago, Illinois, United States. The band played its first show in 1980 and was active initially for approximately a decade, undergoing multiple personnel changes with frontman John Kezdy the only constant, before disbanding in 1990. The band released 5 albums and several EPs, most on the record label they founded in 1981, Ruthless Records, which was distributed by Enigma. Later albums were on the Fever Records and Roadkill Records labels. They toured the U.S. and Canada and played notable venues, including CBGB, Maxwell's, First Avenue (nightclub), Mabuhay Gardens, Paycheck's (Detroit), Exit (Chicago) and The Rathskeller, among others. They also received a significant amount of national airplay on college radio at a time when it was the only medium for alternative music.
WThe Fibonaccis were an American art rock band formed in 1981 in Los Angeles. The band consisted of songwriters John Dentino (keyboards) and Ron Stringer (guitar), Magie Song (vocals), Joe Berardi (drums) and later Tom Corey (bass).
WThe Forgotten Rebels are a punk rock band from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1977, the Forgotten Rebels have a discography of seven albums and a collection of EPs and singles.
WGame Theory was an American power pop band, founded in 1982 by singer/songwriter Scott Miller, combining melodic jangle pop with dense experimental production and hyperliterate lyrics. MTV described their sound as "still visceral and vital" in 2013, with records "full of sweetly psychedelic-tinged, appealingly idiosyncratic gems" that continued "influencing a new generation of indie artists." Between 1982 and 1990, Game Theory released five studio albums and two EPs, which had long been out of print until 2014, when Omnivore Recordings began a series of remastered reissues of the entire Game Theory catalog. Miller's posthumously completed Game Theory album, Supercalifragile, was released in August 2017 in a limited first pressing.
WGet Smart! was a three-piece post-punk band formed in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1980 consisting of Marc Koch, Lisa Wertman Crowe and Frank Loose. The band released 2 studio albums along with some singles and EPs over a 10 year career.
WGreen on Red was an American rock band, formed in the Tucson, Arizona punk scene, but based for most of its career in Los Angeles, California, where it was loosely associated with the Paisley Underground. Earlier records have the wide-screen psychedelic sound of first-wave desert rock, while later releases tended more towards traditional country rock.
WPeter Joseph Andrew Hammill is an English singer-songwriter. He is a founder member of the progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator. Best known as a singer/songwriter, he also plays guitar and piano and acts as a record producer for his own recordings and occasionally for other artists. In 2012, he was recognised with the Visionary award at the first Progressive Music Awards.
WAllan Holdsworth was a British jazz fusion and progressive rock guitarist and composer.
WMark Allen Mothersbaugh is an American singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, author and visual artist.
WWilliam Nelson is an English singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter, video artist, writer and experimental musician. He rose to prominence as the chief songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of the rock group Be-Bop Deluxe, which he formed in 1972. Nelson has been described as "one of the most underrated guitarists of the seventies art rock movement". In 2015, he was recognised with the Visionary award at the Progressive Music Awards.
WThomas John Peterson, better known as Tom Petersson, is an American musician who is best known for being the bass guitar player for the rock band Cheap Trick.
WPlasticland is an American Neo-Psychedelic and Garage rock (revival) band, formed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1980 with two members of Arousing Polaris, Glenn Rehse and John Frankovic.
WPoison is an American heavy metal/glam metal band which achieved commercial success in the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s and has sold 15 million records in the United States. The band has charted ten singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including six Top 10 singles and the Hot 100 number-one, "Every Rose Has Its Thorn". The band's breakthrough debut album, the multi-platinum Look What the Cat Dragged In, was released in 1986, followed by Open Up and Say... Ahh!, which was certified 5× platinum in the US. Their third consecutive multi-platinum selling album was Flesh & Blood.
WThe Rain Parade is a band that was originally active in the Paisley Underground scene in Los Angeles in the 1980s, and that reunited and resumed touring in 2012.
WSonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo remained together for the entire history of the band, while Steve Shelley (drums) followed a series of short-term drummers in 1985, rounding out the core line-up. Jim O'Rourke was a member of the band from 1999 to 2005.
WStryper is an American Christian metal band from Orange County, California. The group's lineup consists of Michael Sweet, Oz Fox (guitar), Perry Richardson, and Robert Sweet (drums).
WT.S.O.L. is an American punk rock band formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California. Although most commonly associated with hardcore punk, T.S.O.L.'s music has varied on each release, including such styles as deathrock, art punk, horror punk and other varieties of punk music.
WThe Vandals are an American punk rock band, established in 1980 in Orange County, California, United States. They have released ten full-length studio albums, two live albums, and have toured the world extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour. They are well known for their use of humor, preferring to use their music as a vehicle for comedy and sarcasm rather than as a platform for more serious issues. As of 2000, they are signed to Kung Fu Records.