Archive for the ‘B-sides’ Category

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Babylon B-sides

Tuesday, January 5th, 2021

I hope everyone had a good holiday season and is staying as safe as possible.

I apologize for the lack of posts recently. As I had been saying in many of my previous posts, I was moving to a new apartment last month, which kind of took up all my time. Things are finally settling down now. I got new record shelves built! They’re pretty. Take a look.

These are the first record shelves I’ve had in nearly a decade that allow me to shelve titles without having to sit on the ground or bend over for most of them. As a giant with a bad back, you have no idea how happy that makes me.

I finally got the turntable hooked up to the computer yesterday, but I still don’t have all that much to play on it since we’re on a near lockdown here in Tokyo and I haven’t made my way to a record store in over a month. I’ve been buying lots of new music online, but I haven’t been able to find any used and out-of-print items that I want to snag yet. I do feel a drunken night of Discogs browsing coming on soon though, maybe I’ll try to clean up on 80s and 90s maxi-singles, and stupid European electronic prog rock. Anyone know of any killer weird tracks that are on old singles but have yet to be re-issued? I’m looking for some good 80s and 90s stuff, I haven’t been on a binge of that stuff for a while now and I’m jonesing.

I also got some other plans for content this year. Not on this site, but I’m in the initial stages of setting up another podcast. This one focused on movies. I really don’t want to say more than that, and it’s definitely months away, but I’m excited about it.

In the meantime, here are some B-sides by an utterly forgotten one-hit wonder.

Babylon Zoo
Metal Vision
Blue Nude
Babylon Zoo were a one-hit wonder in both their native UK and Australia with their debut single “Spaceman,” which rocketed up the charts thanks to its inclusion in a Levi’s jeans commercial. The next time someone bemoans that TikTok is killing pop music by promoting forgettable tracks by mediocre artists, bring up that.

While a lot of one-hit wonders can at least claim a modicum of interest in their follow-up singles, Babylon Zoo are not nearly as lucky. From what I can gather, no one bought their second single. And while the group’s debut album got decent enough reviews, their 1999 follow-up, King Kong Groover, was absolutely savaged by the press and sank like a stone the second it came out. Checking up on Discogs, it appears that some members went on to do other things. One of them joined Alphaville for a bit, another one worked with Primal Scream for a while, and their original drummer was in a Celtic group of some regard. Singer Jas Mann hasn’t done much of anything though. He has a Twitter account that he hasn’t updated in more than a year, and despite teasing further Babylon Zoo material several times, nothing has materialized.

Is Babylon Zoo criminally underrated and unfairly maligned? Maybe. Shit. I don’t know. My knowledge of Babylon Zoo begins and ends with songs that were on singles to “Spaceman.” I had a 12″ single for this track eons ago, and even featured tracks from it here at some point. In the many years since then, most of those tracks have fallen back into print, including all the remixes of “Spaceman.” These b-sides are still out of print, however.

Based on these tracks, I’m gonna say that Babylon Zoo were…not bad! Maybe the entire album is dogshit on fire, I dunno, but I dig these a lot. “Metal Vision” rips off Gary Numan’s “Metal” for sure, but it’s a good rip-off and not many people in the 90s were ripping off Gary Numan, so points for originality. There isn’t much to “Blue Nude,” but it has a good groove and a glam, T. Rex type vibe.

Posted in B-sides, Babylon Zoo | 4 Comments »

Obscure covers of obscure songs (one by Jim O’Rourke!)

Friday, March 13th, 2020

So the world is on fire in like every way imaginable but the need for shameless self-promotion lives on!

I have a podcast now! I’ve teamed up with Retronaut Jeremy Parish and fellow music geek Elliot Long to work on Alexander’s Ragtime Band – a podcast all about prog rock (the one true music genre). You can listen to the first episode for free over at our Patreon page and if you like it, toss a few bucks our way so we make even more episodes about songs that have 20 minute keyboard solos.

But if you don’t like prog (for some strange reason) and would rather me ramble on about lubriciously obscure music, don’t worry this blog isn’t going anywhere.

Transmission
Telstar
Happy Holland
This is the second version of “Telstar” that I’ve shared on this blog. The first was by Japanese prog/jazz keyboardist Yutaka Mogi. That was quite an obscure track. This one even moreso. I don’t think that this has ever been shared online ever. Damn shame. It’s dope.

This is by the Dutch artist Transmission, also known as Martin Agterberg. This is his only release as Transmission, and was a single that he put out in 1977. I bought it because I recently discovered the first two solo albums that Agterberg put out under his own name, Flyer and Synshine, and dug them quite a bit. The dude has a vibe to his work, sometimes reminiscent of the Berlin School but other times really bombastic and over-the-top. I’ll probably end up sharing some of it in the future.

I really, really love this version of “Telstar.” It’s probably my favorite to date aside from the original by The Tornados. “Telstar” is a song that screams “give me a drum machine and a sequencer so I can truly come alive” and Agterberg obliges, delivering one of the most purely electronic versions of the song that had been released to date (the drumming might be acoustic, hard to say). Aside from the nearly 100% electronic production, it doesn’t vary all that much from the classic original, because why fuck with something that doesn’t need to be fucked with?

The b-side, “Happy Holland,” is…well…less good. It feels like the theme song to a 1970s Dutch game show, or the background music to a particularly unfunny Benny Hill sketch or something. Music shouldn’t be allowed to be this bouncy. This is criminal bounciness. I kind of hate it and I kind of love it.

 

Jim O’Rourke
Thanks But No Thanks (Sparks Cover)
I recently picked up an obscure compilation from 1999 called Drive From 2000. On the obi strip it advertises itself as a collection of Japanese electric pop music – so of course it opens with American Jim O’Rourke covering fellow Americans Sparks’ glam rock classic “Thanks, But No Thanks.”

At least the liner notes by the album’s producer explain the odd inclusion. Apparently the producer saw O’Rourke DJing in Japan (O’Rourke has lived here since 2000 or so), found out that he loved Japanese new wave music, and asked him to contribute a track. When he found out that O’Rourke loved Sparks, he asked him to perform a Sparks cover because he liked Sparks too. Kind of a cute story.

I wanted to see if this cover by Jim had made its way to other compilations or releases, and it seems that it’s still exclusive to this release. However, in doing my research, I found that Jim has, on multiple occasions, made his love for this track abundantly clear. Here’s a 2011 Tumblr post where he declares that “Thanks But No Thanks” might have one of the best guitar breaks ever written, and here’s a video of him performing the track on stage kind of half-live/half-karaoke style.

 

I get a big Jack White in High Fidelity vibe there. Love it. Anyways, this cover is FUCKING RAD. He absolutely nails the frantic energy of the original and it’s clear that the dude is having just as much of a blast singing it in the studio as he was on stage in that clip.

I haven’t fully digested the rest of this album yet, but I hope to share more of it in the future.

Posted in B-sides, Jim O'Rourke, Martin Agterberg | 2 Comments »

Terri Nunn’s Lost Berlin Song

Friday, January 31st, 2020

Just a single song this week, sorry. I have some good posts ready to go but I want to work on cleaning up the recordings a bit more, so hopefully you’ll be hearing stupid video game remixes and a bizarre version of “Telstar” soon.

Berlin
Overload (Terri Nunn Version)
I’m apparently a reputable source of information regarding the synth-pop band Berlin. I’m listed as a source on the band’s surprisingly in-depth Wikipedia page, which is hilarious to me.

Anyways, as a reputable source of information regarding the synth-pop band Berlin, I’m qualified to discuss this song in great detail. “Overload” is the B-side to Berlin’s very first single “Matter Of Time,” which was released on Renegade Records as a 7-inch single in 1979. Shortly thereafter, Berlin’s lead singer Terri Nunn would quit the group to pursue a career in acting. She would return to the group a short time later, but while she was gone the group recruited Virginia Macolino to replace her as the lead singer. With Macolino behind the mic, the band would re-record their first single, which was re-released by I.R.S. Records in 1980. The group also recorded a sole album with Macolino, the fabulous 1980 synth-punk classic Information. That album also included “Overload” and “Matter of Time,” of course with their current lead singer Virginia Macolino performing the vocals.

Nunn rejoined the band shortly after all of this and the group seemingly forgot their time with Macolino entirely, Information hasn’t been in print since it’s first release in 1980. When the time came for Berlin to release a greatest hits compilation in 1988, they included the then-rarity of “Matter Of Time” with Nunn’s vocals. But this B-side didn’t make the cut. To date, its only release has been on that very first pressing of the “Matter Of Time” single before they re-recorded it with Macolino (and the Macolino version is only on the second pressing of the single and the Information album, so it isn’t that much more common).

Synthpop in the late-70s was still wearing its punk/new wave influences on its sleeve and “Overload” is no exception thanks to its propulsive beat and sense of urgency. It’s must less polished than how Berlin would sound just a few years later on Pleasure Victim, and light years away from “Take My Breath Away.” Dope track for sure, and I’m surprised that it still hasn’t seen a proper re-release some 41 (holy shit) years later. 2020 is a garbage fire world, Berlin, please re-release Information sometime soon and make me feel happiness again.

 

Posted in B-sides, Berlin | 1 Comment »

The most anyone has written about “I Can’t Dance” in nearly 20 years.

Friday, July 5th, 2019

Genesis
I Can’t Dance (The Other Mix)
I Can’t Dance (The Sex Mix)
In Too Deep (Live)
That’s All (Live)
On The Shoreline
Hearts On Fire
Is there a thinkpiece out there about how all the prog acts went mainstream all at the same time? Let’s make a timeline:

  • 1977 – Genesis, with Steve Hackett out of the picture, release And Then There Were Three, they immediately get the biggest mainstream hit of their career to that date with “Follow You, Follow Me.”
  • 1982 – Prog giants John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, and Carl Palmer combine their progressive rock talents and form…Asia, who score a massive adult-contemporary hit with “Heat Of The Moment.”
  • 1983 – Yes go full synthpop with 90215 and hit it huge with “Owner Of A Lonely Heart.”
  • 1985 – Howe and Hackett join forces to form GTR, the poor man’s Asia. Meanwhile, Peter Gabriel releases mainstream art-pop masterpiece So, which garners him pop uber-hit “Sledgehammer.”
  • 1986 – The Moody Blues release The Other Side Of Life, trading in the flutes and orchestras for a keyboard and scoring the hit single “Your Wildest Dreams” as a result.
  • 1987 – Pink Floyd, free from Roger Waters’ mommy and daddy issues, release A Momentary Lapse of Reason, which gives the world the “Learning To Fly.”

Selling out (a term I am not using derisively here) is hard work, and I think that the different levels of success you find here certainly prove that. Yes and Asia were able to find success by updating their sound for the 80s, but neither could get much further than that, and failed to capitalize off that success with their coming albums. Ditto for The Moody Blues, anyone remember anything they recorded after “Your Wildest Dreams?” And can anyone out there remember anything from GTR?

Pink Floyd managed a little better just by resting on their back catalog. You know what’s a great song? Pink Floyd’s “On The Turning Away.” You know what’s also a great song? “Learning To Fly.” You know what’s a fucking terrible song? Damn near everything else on that album. Pink Floyd would sit out the remainder of the 80s-sound era of rock and not record another album until The Division Bell (which also isn’t great but much more in the vein of classic Floyd). Post-Waters Floyd was a touring machine first, an album-maker second.

Of all these acts, the only one who managed to keep their pop momentum going was Genesis. Hell, not only were they able to score pop hit after pop hit from 1977 to 1991 with nearly all the albums they put out, they also were able to continue that pop streak with incredibly successful solo albums by Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford (Mike + The Mechanics are underrated dammit).

But all good things must come to an end. Even if Phil Collins hadn’t jumped ship after We Can’t Dance, I can’t imagine that the band would’ve been able to keep things going in a post-Nirvana world. At least, not in any respectable way. Let’s be real, if Phil Collins would’ve stuck around with Genesis, then we would’ve ended up with Genesis doing some version of that fucking Tarzan song. Comparatively speaking Calling All Stations is a less embarrassing move.

I’ll be honest, while I own a lot of Genesis, I do not own We Can’t Dance. I’m sure that it still has some remnant of their progressive roots on that album somewhere, that somewhere sure as hell isn’t “I Can’t Dance.”

“I Can’t Dance” is without a doubt Genesis as their most pop. While Genesis had their share of love songs, remember that many previous Genesis pop hits covered topics as heavy as drug addiction (“Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”) nuclear war (“Land of Confusion”) and…whatever the fuck “Mama” is about. Meanwhile, “I Can’t Dance” is a biting satire on…jeans commercials.

Man, the early-90s were a simpler time.

The early-90s were also a bit of a nadir for pop music. This was the era of easy listening, quiet storm, and smooth ballads. Other pop hits from around this time include the Celine Deon “Beauty And The Beast” song (which won a fucking Grammy), “You’re In Love” by Wilson Phillips, and Bette Midler’s “From A Distance.” Compared to those songs, “I Can’t Dance” is punk. Sure, it’s a stupid satire about jeans commercials, but at least its commenting on something. At least it’s not Amy Grant (who also was a mainstream pop star at this time).

Did “I Can’t Dance” need two “dance” remixes? No. Did it need one dance remix? Probably not. Did it need a remix called “Sex Mix?” Absolutely definitely not in a million years. But the remixes aren’t bad. “The Other Mix” was done by remix legend Ben Liebrand, and it has that big 80s sound that he was so good at. But the “Sex Mix” (sigh) is even better and sounds a little ahead of its time. It’s almost a proto-big beat tune, which makes total sense considering the remixers were Apollo 440 (before going by that name). Wonder if they ever drop this one in a DJ set?

I took these remixes from two CD singles, one for “I Can’t Dance” and the other for “Jesus He Knows Me.” Sadly, neither had any remixes for “Jesus He Knows Me,” which is a much better song than I can’t dance (with a far more relevant social message) but they did have some interesting tracks. The live songs are fine, they are what they are, live versions of decent Genesis tunes, performed aptly. But the real highlights here are the B-sides. “On The Shoreline” is coulda-been-a-single good. The simple-but-effective riff drives the song with good momentum, and Collins’ vocals are exceptionally strong. It’s a good, propulsive rock song. Meanwhile, “Hearts On Fire” (which is sadly not a cover of the song from Rocky IV) is a dope as fuck love song with a killer bassline and a downright awesome “check out what our samplers can do” breakdown. Fucking loving this track. Maybe I do need to buy We Can’t Dance? I’m nearly 40 years old now, I assume I’m that album’s intended demographic at this point.

If you found this post interesting and want to hear me ramble on even more about prog, then I’ll have good news for you in the coming weeks! If you didn’t find this post interesting and you don’t want to hear me ramble on even more about prog…um…I’m sure I’ll post some obscure game music soon!

Posted in B-sides, Genesis, live, remixes | 3 Comments »

Bleachers – Terrible Thrills Vol. 3 #4 (High Quality Vinyl Rips)

Monday, June 24th, 2019

Bleachers
Foreign Girls (featuring Ani DiFranco)
And, Nothing Is You
And here we are, the final chapter of Bleachers’ Terrible Thrills Vol. 3. This one brings us a reworking of “Foreign Girls” that features folk rock legend Ani DiFranco, as well as “And, Nothing Is You”  which is a remix of “Nothing Is U” that removes most of the electronic effects from the original and replaces them with more acoustic orchestrations.  Both of these new versions feel like more low-key, intimate versions of the originals. While the album versions both started quiet but then built themselves up to grandiose, bombastic finales, these versions both stay sedate for their entirety. I don’t think either surpass the originals (I like my bombastic pop songs) but they’re still great, and DiFranco’s contributions to the new version of “Foreign Girls” are fantastic.

Like before, I have cleaned these up digitally to remove as many imperfections, scratches and other issues as possible. I also gave both a slight loudness boost. If you load the first track into an audio editor, you’ll notice that the very top of the waveform at the loudest part is clipped off just a little bit, but I can’t imagine that it’s clipped to a degree where anyone could hear a problem with it. If anyone does pick up any audio problems with these though, please let me know and I’ll do my best to fix them. I think they came out pretty great.

As fun and exciting as Terrible Thrills Vol. 3 has been, if Jack decides to do this again for his next album, I hope he forgoes the “record club” format for something a bit more accessible. As I mentioned last time, I had to delay uploading the second volume for nearly a month because my copy came to me completely scratched. That’s not fun. I get the appeal of something like this; it gives the music an emotional value that you don’t get from a stream or digital-only copy. But vinyl is intrinsically an unkind format that is easily damaged and incredibly inconvenient. And while it’s (relatively) easy for me to rip vinyl cuts to a digital format so I can rock them on my MP3 player, not everyone is so lucky. Music should be easy to listen to, don’t you think so? At least the cuts were on standard records that preserved the recording quality relatively well, and Jack didn’t go the Joyful Noise route, saving exclusive cuts for shitty flexi-discs or other novelty formats (seriously, fuck that label).

Anyways Jack, if you’re reading this, maybe for the next series you could try bringing back CDs, the most underrated of formats. It’s only a matter of time before CD nostalgia kicks in, might as well get ahead of the curve!

Just don’t put it on tape. If you put it on tape I swear to god…

So yeah, enjoy the rips everyone! And if you missed the earlier releases in the series, you can find part one here, and parts two and three here!

Posted in B-sides, Bleachers, Complete Albums, remixes | 4 Comments »

Bleachers – Terrible Thrills Vol. 3 #2 & #3 (High Quality Vinyl Rips)

Thursday, May 30th, 2019

Terrible Thrills Vol. 3 #2
I Miss The Last Days of Disco
Don’t Take The Money (Demo)
All My Heroes/Hate That You Slow Me Down (with Muna)

Terrible Thrills Vol. 3 #3
Everybody Lost Somebody (with Julien Baker)
Good Morning After a Breakup/Vietnam Documentary

Better late than never.

After receiving a copy of Terrible Thrills Vol. 2 #2 that looked like it was used as a sharpening tool by Freddy Kruger, I got my replacement copy in the mail yesterday, alongside a copy of the third volume in the series. Thanks to Jack for personally responding and helping me get a replacement!

Neither copy look like they were sanding with a brillo pad this time around, so here you go.

Quick note regarding the audio quality though; even with pristine copies of these singles, they were pretty difficult for me to rip. These have a lot of quiet spots, odd intentional distortion effects, and sudden (also intentional) popping and clicking sounds. All of those things make removing things like (unintentional) pops, crackles and other surface noise very difficult.

I have a program called ClickRepair that I’ve been using for probably over a decade. It’s usually very good at scrubbing out any unwanted rice krispie-esque distractions from a record, but these proved difficult even for that powerhouse. Each time I tried to run it through that program, no matter what settings I chose, it would pick up the intentional distortion effects as clicks. The end result sounded like digitally scrambled garbage.

Thankfully, I have another program that also does this task called MAGIX. I mostly use that for EQ adjustments and surface rumble removal (it’s absolutely impeccable at that and makes it worth the price alone). I usually don’t use the click removal features on that because it alternates between too strong and not strong enough, but I was able to tweak it to knock out most of the more obnoxious crackles on each record. Some tiny imperfections remain, but vinyl is an imperfect format (as this entire ordeal clearly demonstrates) so they’re the kind of thing you just have to live with.

Most of the tracks sounds fine, but there are a few minor pops in the beginning of “Everybody Lost Somebody” that I just wasn’t able to scrub out. Sorry about that. However, other distortions in the recording, including some odd vocal clipping that come near the end of the song, are part of the recording so they’re not on me.

I do realize that 90% of the people who listen to these tracks won’t even notice these things, but I also realize the 10% who do will be the ones to leave comments, so I felt the need to elaborate.

Audio and shipping issues aside, these tracks are great. Julien Baker’s cover of “Everybody Lost Somebody” is fantastic. Like Mitski’s take on “Let’s Get Married” it strips the song down letting the lyrics speak for themselves more. I never noticed the lyrics “I think pain is sitting alone in the corner” before, great line. Muna’s “All My Heroes” feels like an amalgamation of modern-day autotuned pop and vintage 80s pop, also fantastic.

Of the “new” Bleachers tracks, which remix/rework album cuts, my favorite is “I Miss The Last Days of Disco,” which is a rejiggering on “I Miss Those Days” with added “disco” beats and vocal effects. It reminds me Antonoff’s other group Fun and “Some Nights.” Very anthemic.

Again, Jack has said that these tracks can be freely shared and copies, so please do with these as you wish and come back after part four comes out, as I’ll be sure to share them too. Just remember that it takes a bit longer for me to post them as I live in Japan and international shipping can be a real asshole. And if you’re looking for part one in the series, I got them here.

I also put all of these up on my YouTube channel so be sure to check that out too!

Posted in B-sides, Bleachers, remixes | 6 Comments »

Who is that playing the guitar?

Monday, May 6th, 2019

The first week in May in Japan is usually “golden week,” a period where a number of national holidays are in a row to allow for a four to six day holiday. This year, with the abdication of the emperor and the ascension of a new one, extra holidays have been added, effectively giving the people of Japan a motherfucking 10 day holiday.

When I say “people of Japan” that’s a bit of a stretch. I sure as fuck didn’t get a ten day holiday, as I’m in the service industry. Ditto for just about anyone working retail. But a lot of office workers are enjoying an extended break, and good for them, they all work too hard and they deserve a break. But the post office also has a fucking ten day holiday. That means that, in a post office not 2km away from my home, my Bleachers EP is sitting in a box of packages somewhere. So, sorry to the new followers I’ve gotten who are checking up on my blog for those rips. It’s not my fault they haven’t shown up yet. Blame the monarchy.

They Might Be Giants
The Guitar (the Lion Sleeps Tonight) [Williamsburgh Mix]
The Guitar (the Lion Sleeps Tonight) [Outer Planet Mix]
Welcome to the Jungle
I Blame You
Moving to the Sun
The Guitar (the Lion Sleeps Tonight) [Even Further Outer Planet Mix]
I almost never, ever seen They Might Be Giants records or CDs here. I would imagine that the group’s lyric-focused college-rock doesn’t translate. But I got lucky yesterday when I happened to find the maxi-single for The Guitar just sitting out at Coconuts Disk in Ikebukuro for a steal of a price at 500 yen (about five bucks). Not only that, it was sealed.

Often I wish I could find out how these oddball and random releases make their way to Japan. Did a college rock DJ bring his collection to Japan and unload it one day? Did a wholesaler buy a shitload of random CDs cheap with the intention of dumping them off at various stores to make a quick buck? Did someone buy two by accident and decided to offload their extra? The world will never know.

In the 13 years I’ve been writing this blog, I believe that this is only the third time that I’ve shared They Might Be Giants tracks. This speaks to how well the group works to make sure their “rarities” don’t stay rare for very long. Nearly ever bonus track, B-side or remix that TMBG have ever released have eventually made their way to a compilation of some sort or another. The only fault I would give the band is that their compilations seems to have no rhyme nor reason to them. They really need a proper re-issue campaign with the rarities included all together. Who knows if we’ll ever get that though, considering that the band seems to still be putting out new music as a lightning pace. Did you know that they put out three damn albums last year?

I didn’t. Sadly TMBG are one of the bands that I’ve lost touch with sine moving to Tokyo. As you can imagine, the group doesn’t have much of a following here in Japan, this EP is the very first CD by the group that I’ve ever come across in the country, and the only vinyl I’ve ever seen are some 12″ singles for Flood-era tracks. A large part of my TMBG-fandom was seeing them live, and since I can’t do that anymore, I guess I just stopped thinking about them. Also, let’s be honest here, I love the group but their output a while ago wasn’t all that great. Nanobots was goofy, but completely forgettable, ditto for The Else and Join Us. Their albums for the past decade or so have just been hovering in three-star limbo. The last album by the group that I listened to with any regularity after its immediate release was The Spine, and the last album by the group that I absolutely fell in love with Mink Car (CYCLOPS ROCK FOR LIFE). Without the dangling carrot of their (still) amazing live shows, I just haven’t been able to keep interest in them. But hey, anyone know if those three albums that they put out last year are any good? I’d love to jump back on board the TMBG fandom if the tunes are there.

Anyways, about these tracks; the “Outer Planet” and “Further Outer Planet” mixes are a lot of fun, and make the trippy song even trippier. To be honest though, I can’t figure out how the Williamsburgh mix is any different than the album version. At first I thought it was just the album version, or a single edit, but it’s a bit longer than the album version. So hey, beats me. The B-sides are cute, 90s-style TMBG tracks with very witty and clever lyrics, “Welcome To The Jungle” is a hilarious-slight-of-hand, taking the title of the GnR classic and nothing else to create an entirely different song that is 100% literal about its titular jungle. “I Blame You” is a bit of a forgettable yet pretty mostly acoustic tune, while “I’m Moving To The Sun” is silly bit of hilarity about a man so fed up with someone that he’s packing his bags and quite literally moving to the sun. Maybe they met my brother.

Posted in B-sides, Complete Albums, remixes, They Might Be Giants | 2 Comments »

Bleachers – Terrible Thrills Vol. 3 #1 (High Quality Vinyl Rips)

Monday, March 25th, 2019

Bleachers
Let’s Get Married (by Mitski)
Mickey Mantle Comes Alive
There are probably two groups of people reading this right now; my regular readers, and Bleachers fans who stumbled upon this site somehow or another.

To the Bleachers fans (I assume you outnumber my regular readers), welcome! Here are some high-quality vinyl rips of those songs you’re looking for. They sound better than the ones you found on Dropbox. Trust me on this. And hey, if you like Bleachers, bookmark me, I occasionally share 80s pop and other shit you might enjoy. And you don’t need to jump through any hoops to download those songs. Just right-click and “save as.”

Now, if you’re not a die-hard Bleachers fan who came here specifically to find these songs (and hence, already know what they are), an explanation/backstory.

In 2016, Bleachers, a side-project of Fun’s Jack Antonoff (who also produced at least one hit song you like – he gets around) released Terrible Thrills Vol. 2, a track-by-track covers album of the group’s debut album Strange Desire that featured new versions of the songs on that album reworked by woman singers.

(In case you were wondering, Terrible Thrills Vol. 1 was a single by Jack Antonoff’s earlier group, Steel Train).

While Terrible Thrills Vol. 2 can be easily purchased digitally on iTunes and other digital storefronts (and I assume it’s on Spotify, but fuck if I care),(edit: apparently this is no longer true) it only received a limited, vinyl-only physical release. That sucker is pretty rare now, goes for about $50 on Discogs. Even if you can’t track down a vinyl copy of it, I highly recommend buying the digital versions. With vocals by such amazing artists like Charli XCX, Susanna Hoffs, and Sia, in some ways, it’s better than Strange Desire itself, not a small feat considering that’s probably my favorite album of 2014.

Now Bleachers’ sophomore effort Gone Now is getting the “Terrible Thrills” treatment for Vol. 3. But this time, Antonoff has decided to do something a bit different. For starters, it’s not a track-by-track collection of covers by women artists, half of it is that, but the other half consists of new versions by Antonoff himself, featuring reworked lyrics and different production. Secondly, it’s not an album at all, and is instead a collection of 7″ singles that are now being released piecemeal.

The first part in the set came out a few weeks back, and I finally got my copy in the mail this week (I live in Japan, shit takes time).  And if this introductory volume is any indication as what’s to come, I’m very stoked to hear the rest of the records when they come out.

The A-side is a cover of the single “Let’s Get Married” that features new vocals by Mitski. I’ll be 100% honest here. I don’t know anything about Mitski at all (I’m a middle-age out-of-touch gay white man in Tokyo, I can’t keep up with everything). But after hearing her take on this track, I’m eager to check out her stuff. The song is entirely re-imagined. What was once a big, bombastic ode to gated reverb (like most of Antonoff’s stuff – and I mean that in a good way) has now been reworked as a ballad with the majority of the instrumentation coming by way of vocal harmonies and simply synths. It sounds halfway between a demo and the fully-fledged final version. Love it.

The B-side is reworking of Gone Now‘s opener “Dreams of Mickey Mantle,” retitled “Mickey Mantle Comes Alive.” It’s an odd rejiggering, featuring purposely distorted vocals and an extended outro that’s a barely audible conversation. Taking what was previously a rather standard (if fucking great) pop song and morphing it into Sleigh Bells-lite was a bold choice, and I’d be lying if I said I’m 100% in love with it. I do like the added drums though, and the new production on the choruses is good too.

I mentioned at the top that these rips are better than the ones that have already been made available. I think the fans that ripped these earlier didn’t really know what they were doing. Not their fault, they’re not idiots like me who have been ripping vinyl for over a decade. While those were just straight-up audio rips, mine have been cleaned up a bit. I ran it through some noise reduction to get rid of the background noise, and also scrubbed it clean of clicks and pops. Finally, I gave it a slight EQ boost to give it a richer, fuller sound. If none of that is your game, then hey, those raw rips are still on Dropbox.

If you do like my rips, please feel free to share them however and wherever you like. Antonoff said himself that we can rip and share these tracks!

Posted in B-sides, remixes | 6 Comments »

Pop Rock by Pot Pixies

Thursday, December 13th, 2018

Steve Hillage
Alone (Extended Version)
Kamikaze Eyes (Extended Version)
Timelines
Before The World Was Made

Steve Hillage is a guitarist whose work has spanned over 50 years, but I hadn’t heard of him until this year – when I stumbled upon his work in one of the most backwards ways possible.

Earlier in the year I was in a record store in Kichijoji when I happened upon this. The album is by Daevid Allen, and it’s called Divided Alien Playbax 80. I knew nothing about it when I saw it, but I was immediately attracted to the cover. It had a crazy vaporwave vibe to it, despite the fact that it came out in 1982. I gave it a quick listen, decided that it was properly weird, and at 400 yen (about four bucks) I decided to pick it up.

 

Unfamiliar with Allen when I bought the album, I learned that it’s a remix album of a prior release by Allen’s previous group, New York Gong. That group would breakup after it’s sole 1980 album, but the group (sans Allen) would continue as the influential no-wave dance outfit Material. Turns out I accidentally bought an album with Bill Laswell on it (that happens a lot). New York Gong, as its name would suggest, was a New York offshoot of Allen’s original group, Gong.

From there, I decided to give Gong a shot and ,long story short, several months and I don’t know how many albums later, I have become obsessed with the group. They’re utterly mad, an the most obvious example of “music made on drugs to take drugs to” that has ever been committed to wax. Not too soon after discovering the wonderful world of the flying teapot (look it up) I started to seek out solo albums by members of the group, starting with Allen and then moving onto Hillage.

Allen’s solo work is…something else. Sometimes great, but often a bit too insane for my tastes. But Hillage turned out to be right up my alley. Much of his stuff is spacey drugged out insanity for hippies, no doubt about it, but he shows a bit more restraint than his fellow Gongers. His songs sound like actual songs, and not dug-induced hallucinations set to something that kind of resembles music. I’ve bought nearly his entire solo discography now, and can recommend all of it without reservation, he has something for everyone. If you like spaced-out Hawkwind-style guitar work, then you can’t go wrong with his amazing debut Fish Rising, or it’s excellent follow-up L. But I really think Hillage came into his own with his 1978 record, Motivation Radio, where he expands his sound to include even more electronic effects and influences.  He continued on with that sound for his next release, Green, which I’ve learned most people cite as pinnacle of the man’s 70s work. However, I actually prefer his 1979 follow-up Open, it’s eclectic as hell, and I feel it’s a perfect amalgamation of guitar-driven prog rock and the synth-pop sound that would define the following decade.

As a solo artist though, Hillage would only release one more proper studio album, 1982’s For To Next. I don’t know how his fans responded to it at the time, but I can’t imagine that many of them liked it. While his previous work always straddled the line between pop and the avant-garde, between progressive rock and synth-pop, this album didn’t just jump over into the pop spectrum, it pole vaulted. Hillage’s amazing spacey guitar sound is still there, but as part as synthesizer-heavy pop numbers, many of which could be mistaken for Gary Numan tracks. It goes to show that Genesis and Yes weren’t the only prog acts looking to synthpop to reinvent themselves in the 80s, that’s for sure.

As much as I like For To Next, I do think that’s its probably Hillage’s weakest effort next to his purely ambient 1979 Rainbow Dome Musick, which is too mellow even more my Tangerine Dream-loving ass. It’s simultaneously not synth-pop enough and not prog enough. I feel like he had to move more in one direction. Either embrace his proggy side, or dive head first into pop ala Inivisible Touch.

 

After working mostly as a producer in the 80s, he’s since committed himself solely to electronic music. Today, he releases music as System 7, alongside his partner Monique Giraudy. They have a prog rock side to them, but they’re much more ambient than anything else. Think The Orb. I sadly don’t have much by them yet, but I’m still listening to his solo stuff so much I’m in no hurry.

Anyways, I’ve blathered on for nearly 800 words without even mentioning the songs I’m sharing tonight! These four numbers come from 12″ singles taken from the For To Next album. The original versions of “Alone” and “Kamikaze Eyes” are on the album proper, while the other tracks are B-sides. “Alone” has a good riff, but it’s the weaker of the two. “Kamikaze Eyes” is a banger of a track, I hope it was the lead single for the album, it’s by far the best number on it. Catchy as hell, good beat, good guitar solo, good lyrics. Great all around. Definitely should’ve been at least a minor hit.

Both “Timelines” and “Before The World Was Made” are instrumentals, and good ones at that. Again, while For To Next isn’t the best album, I really wish Hillage would’ve experimented more with this style, he could’ve had something.

Anyways, if you’ve read all of this (congrats) and you want to know a good starting off point for Hillage’s solo stuff, I say you can’t go wrong with L, Green, Open or Motivation Radio (Fish Rising is good too, but a little rougher around the edges). Also, his Live Herald and Dusseldorf live albums are good starting points too, as they both feature a lot of his best work. He was also a member of the group Khan, and their sole offering, 1972’s Space Shanty, is some good prog-ass prog if that’s your scene.

And if you’re thinking about getting into Gong, well, that’s a bit trickier. I’d say either start with You or Flying Teapot. If either of those albums don’t drive you insane, then you’ll probably dig the other stuff by Gong proper. Be warned there are two Gongs. When the band broke up, it was reborn as Pierre Moerlen’s Gong and they are way more jazz fusion than prog. Seriously. You’ve been warned.

Posted in B-sides, Gong, remixes, Steve Hillage | 7 Comments »

Shohjo-Tai’s Happy Fun Synthpop Fun

Sunday, October 21st, 2018

My neck is killing me and my brain is broken but if I don’t write about stupid Japanese synthpop that literally no one on earth cares about, WHO WILL?

Shohjo-Tai
Forever 2001
Flamingo Island
Space Magic
I’ve been working here in Japan for nearly five years now, time flies. But in that time, I’ve rarely had any of my students recommend any music worth a damn to me. Very early on, someone suggested Capsule, and I got way into them. But most of the time, in the rare cases that students do want to talk about Japanese music, they only bother recommending acts like Mr. Children or Yellow Monkey, who are both fine bands I guess, but just sound like bland rock to me: Japanese Coldplays.

But I was teaching an adorable housewife a few weeks ago who knew that I dig older music, and she was all excited to recommend to me this band. She explained to me that her friends who like “techno-pop” all like this group, even though they never registered any major hits. She assumed I would like them too. And she was very much correct.

Shohjo-Tai somehow released eight albums/EPs in just five years. The general consensus seems to be that their best release is From S, a mini-album that features an assist from Haruomi Hosono and Koshi Miharu. Of course, that one’s a bit harder to find so I haven’t picked it up yet. I did find some good stuff though, especially the tracks from this single, which originally came out in 1985. Both “Forever 2001” and “Flamingo Island” are hella fun, bouncy tracks that probably weren’t hits only for the fact that the Japanese singles market was absolutely flooded with tracks like them at the time. The instrumentation is fantastic on both of those tracks, synthesizer saturation all the way, but with some depth as well. “Forever 2001” features some pretty solid guitar, and “Flamingo Island” is booming with dope bass.

This single was produced by Akihiro Shigematsu, a person whose name I had not heard before. According to Discogs, he didn’t do much, but that might just be because his page lacks his full production discography. Hell, he’s not even credited on Discogs with this release. One fairly notable artist he did work with was Junko Ohashi, another lesser-known idol of the 80s whose work has vaulted back into the spotlight thanks to that strange “City Pop” resurgence.

The final track of the three, “Space Magic” is a bit different than the first two. It’s a dance track first and foremost, with the vocals almost secondary. When I first heard it, I was reminded of Koshi Miharu, so I wasn’t surprised to find that she did, in fact, write and arrange the track. It’s a fantastic tune, and could be mistaken for a YMO b-side thanks to its excellent production and electronic arrangements. The girls of Shohjo-Tai are actually barely present on it, just showing up for a smidge of vocals halfway through and then again at the end. It almost sounds like an instrumental remix of another track, but I can’t find one with more vocals anywhere, so I guess this is it.

If you dig this music and want more Shohjo-Tai, check out YouTube, people have uploaded a lot of their best stuff there. And if I can ever get my hand on From S, you bet your butt I’ll be sharing it here. Gimme that Hosono.

Posted in B-sides, remixes, Shojo Tai | 3 Comments »

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