[nitpick]
This Place Sucks was a song…Everything Sucks was the album.
[/nitpick]
And yes, yes it is.
BZZZZZZT!!!
Nice try, but it’s neither.
There’s no ***the ** * there … ever. Not with a big T … not with a little t.
Think about the live album they put out, titled “The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads”
(**vibrotronica ** got the title wrong, BTW.)
If this is still confusing, try thinking of another band, say, Foreigner.
One would never say the Foreigner was a great rock and roll band, nor would one say The Foreigner was a great rock and roll band.
Instead, one would simply say that Foreigner sucks. 
OK, so these guys have already been mentioned a couple of times in the thread already, but I just want to reinterate that any list of “New Wave” bands that doesn’t include The Jam and Madness ain’t no list at all. At all, sir!
Ultrafilter might simply be one of those individuals who uses definite articles more often then your’e used to. My cousin, the missionary priest: “Well, you know, we’ve got the e-mail, now…”
Actually, it’s just this one case–it really grates on my ears to say “an album by Talking Heads” or something like that.
Sham 69 - Borstal Breakout
The Specials (their first album, I think it was self-titled, but I can’t remember)
Social Distortion - Mommy’s Little Monster & self-titled
We still need some old-school NY thrash, maybe some Agnostic Front or Cro-Mags, any fans want to select some ablums?
Mission of Burma - whatever’s got “That’s When I Reach for my Revolver” on it.
The first three Pogues albums
That would be “Signal, Calls and Marches”. Though I would be perfectly happy with “VS.” as my MOB choice.
I would also add The Flesheaters “A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die” as something worth adding although they aren’t that well known today.
Other bands that have not been mentioned yet, in postpunk or new wave:
Psychedelic Furs
Concrete Blonde
OMD
The Police
Unfortunately I have compilations of all those so I can’t single out individual albums.
Re: Emo:
Fugazi, if you’ve heard “Nice New Outfit” and claim it’s not Emo, I don’t know what is.
Dashboard: They are important and deserve to be somewhere, why not in this thread? They are at least influenced by emo, moreso than most of the popular stuff that got labelled as that.
Promise Ring: 30° Everywhere and Nothing Feels Good are both essential both for their musical quality and to an understanding of the transition between old-school and new-school emo. But, as someone else claimed about Nothing Feels Good, you are looking for the quinessential TPR album, I’d pick the Boys and Girls LP. On average it’s a bit slower than some of their stuff, but it has the best emo song ever (Best Looking Boys), and the other songs are a slower, better produced version of the stuff on 30° Everywhere.
It’s not NYC, but it’s the same style:
G.B.H City Baby’s Revenge
and also,
GWAR Hell-O
You could make the argument they don’t belong on this* list, but AFAIC, they’re in.
*There is also an argument that they don’t belong on any list in an essential library. I think that’s just wrongheaded.
Regatta de Blanc, Zenyatta Mondatta and Talk Talk Talk.
Both absolutely should be here, especially the Police. So much of Alternative music comes directly from them. it’s easy to forget how big they were then, and I don’t just mean how popular. They used to have the respect of anyone who was interested in the whole genre of music. It’s hard to think of a band that’s currently productive you can say that about. Especially impressive because they were popular*, which is usually the kiss of death in New Wave.
*I remember when I was a kid listening to America’s Top 40, and Casey Kasem introduced them: “And now at number 22 here’s The Police with some very heavy advice for a girl named Roxanne.”
You’re right man, it was pretty late 
That is no excuse though
I wouldn’t put them in there for one song. I’d say their music is pretty politically charged imho. Not really meant for a emo audience
(minor hijack)
Ok, I know where you’re going with this, but Emo to me connotes two different qualities. 1) introspective, personal lyrics & 2) a less heavy than punk aesthetic. I know Rites of Spring is considered the first “emo” band, and I know their ties to Fugazi are strong (several members being in both), but still…I point out the gripes:
-Emo has become synonomous with this mellower sound, with bands like the Promise Ring, Dashboard Confessional, the Anniversary, Saves the Day, the Get Up Kids etc. exemplifying the feel. I might be reverse-defining here, but it’s true. This is what emo is now. Punk, conversely, has not met the same fate. Although “bands” like Good Charlotte & Blink-182 have half-hijacked the label of punk-rock, bands like the Exploding Hearts remain, bands that sound as much 1979 as 2003. Emo, because of it’s shorter history, I believe is defined more directly by bands of the 90s and the new millenium, of whom I named.
-Also, on the introspective lyrics point: I’d say most of Fugazi’s lyrics are political at their core, not introspective or personal. Nice New Outfit included. Emo has never been and can never be, by definition, politically-charged.
I’m not trying to say Emo is mindless pap (I mentioned the Get Up Kids, who I think belong on this list of essentials somewhere), I’m just saying it’s not heavy or all-encompasing enough to classify Fugazi, who in my mind, is among THE quintessential post-punk bands. If not THE.
(end minor hijack)
That said, I’ll again mention the Get Up Kids & Braid (Frame and Canvas) as two of the more essential emo bands not yet mentioned.
Moving on now.
…apparently, had I checked page 2 (sneaky ol’ page 2), I would’ve seen RetroVertigo nearly sum up two paragraphs in a sentence. But I had fun.
Birdmonster: how about we just say that, given the title of this thread, Fugazi definitely belongs somewhere here? It is essential, whichever category it’s filed under.
I didn’t see this and suprised they haven’t been mentioned yet, but how can you talk post-punk without including The Replacements?
Either Hootenanny or Let It Be.
Or both of them.
I know it’s bad of me to resurrect threads, but I can’t let this one go by without comment.
5 (IMHO) Essential Albums…
Can’t Stand The Rezillos - The Rezillos
Double Nickels on the Dime - The Minutemen
Machine Gun Etiquette - The Damned
The Specials - The Specials
Flipper - Flipper
That noone mentions
The Pixies - Surfer Rosa
makes me sad.
I bought this today for no particular reason and I was curious to see if it got mentioned in here. This is pretty intense - is it their best?
I think so, though most people pick Doolittle. The much-maligned Trompe le Monde is very strong, also.
And, as I feel is my holy musical duty, I should also recommend Husker Du’s 1985 New Day Rising if you enjoy Surfer Rosa. When Black Francis put up the ad to start the Pixies, he wrote that he wanted a band that would be a cross between Husker Du and The Mamas and the Papas. You’ll definitely hear the influence, though Husker Du were more emotionally and lyrically direct than the Pixies.
p.s. For no particular reason, eh? Sure the cover had nothing to do with it?
Didn’t even see it until I was back in the car. I was there to get something for my Secret Santa person, but they didn’t have anything I needed and for some reason, that’s what I decided to treat myself to. If I don’t break this habit of getting gifts for myself when I’m also buying gifts for others, I’m going to be very poor at the end of the month.