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What Have You Done To Deserve These Remixes?

Monday, March 4th, 2013

I have written so much about these three artists that I literally have nothing else to day about them other than that I think they’re rad and that these remixes are equally rad so you should download them.

Pet Shop Boys
Rent (The Francois Kervorkian Remix)
What Have I Done To Deserve This? (Dub Mix)
First of all, the official title of the 12″ single that I got this from is “What Have I Done To Deserve This/Rent.” I totally read that as “What have I done to deserve this rent?” which is something I often thought before I bought a house. Now you can just replace the word “rent” with “mortgage” and really nothing has changed.

Okay, now for some comments on the actual music. The “Francois Kevorkian Remix” of “Rent” is in my opinion the definitive version of the song. Kevorkian transforms the once brief three-minute pop number into a seven-minute epic, but he adds relatively little to the song’s already sparse sound. He just stretches it out with some added breakdowns and instrumentals, and that somehow makes the already sad tale of a loveless relationship even more heart-wrenching. Amazing work.

Kevorkian is a legendary remixer by the way. That awesome mix I put up of “Lips Like Sugar?” That was him. I’ve also shared his mixes of Depeche Mode, Erasure and Gus Gus songs. Dude is prolific.

Madonna
Sorry (PSB Maxi-Mix)
Sorry (Paul Oakenfold Remix)
Sorry (Green Velvet Extended Remix)
What It Feels Like For A Girl (Above And Beyond 12″ Club)
What It Feels Like For A Girl (Paul Oakenfold Perfecto Mix)
Some of these mixes are on Amazon/iTunes, but they’re “remix edits” and not the full uncut versions. Because someone is stupid and didn’t realize that if a fan is going to shell out $5 for a remix EP then they probably want the full uncut versions and not shortened edits. Isn’t that why people listen to remixes in the first place?

Anyways, in case you can’t figure it out, the PSB in “PSB Maxi-Mix” is Pet Shop Boys, so I got some nice accidental consistency with tonight’s post (aside from the typical “songs you’d hear in the best gay club ever” consistency that I have whenever I post dance music). Also, the best mix of this bunch is the “Green Velvet Extended Remix” because it basically takes “Sorry” and transforms it into a 90s acid house track. That’s the kind of shit I can get behind.

Erasure
Who Needs Love Like That (Mexican Mix)
Push Me Shove Me (Tacos Mix)
Love a 12″ single that has remixes with themed titles. Of course, there is nothing Mexican, mariachi, salsa, or otherwise Latino about these mixes. The “Mexican Mix” of “Who Needs Love Like That” is just an extended mix with some very slight alterations, and the “Tacos Mix” of “Push Me Shove Me” is…well…to be honest I don’t know how it’s different because I’m a bad Erasure fan and I don’t own Wonderland. I own 46 Erasure singles, but only half of their proper albums. Sometimes I’m weird.

Posted in Erasure, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, remixes | 4 Comments »

Dispatch From China: Some Like It Hot

Wednesday, December 26th, 2012

As I write this post I am sitting in my room, drinking whiskey and listening to Erasure. However when you read it I will be in motherfucking China, probably freezing my ass off on the Great Wall or exploring the city’s burgeoning punk and metal scenes (I am so stoked to hear Chinese punk, you have no idea). Oh the magic of “post on date.”

However, since I have just spent the past four hours writing various other words for various other articles, blog posts and emails, I am officially out of things to say! So this one will be brief. Good stuff though, at least I think so.

The Power Station
Some Like It Hot And The Heat Is On 
This version of The Power Station’s biggest hit is a megamix of sorts that combines the original album version of the track with “The Heat Is On,” the dub mix of the song. It’s good, but all I could think about while listening to it is the video for the song. It’s 80s as fuck.

The following things happen in this video:

  • A rotoscoped woman dances.
  • An extremely tall female model walks up to a space heater while Robert Palmer sings “feel the heat.
  • Plastic trees burst into flames!
  • The same model from before returns and shaves her already shaven armpit on camera.
  • Robert Palmer (dressed as a priest) sings to a statue of a bird.
  • Stock footage people clap.
  • The model puts on pink lipstick while a statue of a tiger watches.
  • Guitar solo by the dude from Duran Duran, he is clad in ammo belts and 80s metal hair.
  • Model puts a lamp up to her face when Palmer repeats the lyric “feel the heat”
  • Model sunbaths in a black light, with shaving cream on her face.
  • Rotoscoped lady re-appears from lightening!
  • Freeze frame!
  • Song ends.
  • PS: bolo ties.
  • PPS: Neon green eyeliner
  • PPPS: The 80s yo.

Erasure
Always (Extended Mix)
You guys! I almost went an entire year without posting an Erasure remix! What the fuck! If that happened I would have lost my fabulousness (and fuck you Chrome, that’s a word). This is from a 12″ single.

Oh god I just thought something: what if there is there is a club in China that plays vaguely gay synthpop? Oh god I hope there is. I’ll dance my ass off. Fuck punk bars, that’s where it’s at.

 

Posted in B-sides, Erasure, Power Station, remixes | 3 Comments »

Proof that England is Better than America

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

Tonight’s post is fucking awesome. More awesome than me even, and I’m pretty fucking awesome.

The Cure
Lullaby (Remix)
Primary (Red Mix)  
I’m consistently amazed/befuddled as to what previously rare and hard-to-find tracks get a digital re-release and which don’t. For example, damn near everything associated with Disintigration (“THE BEST ALBUM EVER!” – Kyle from South Park) has been remastered and re-released a dozen times over by now, but as far as I can tell this remix remains a bit harder to find. It’s a shame too, because I think it’s actually better than the original. It removes a lot of the instrumentation, stripping most of it down to nothing more than bass, drums and a very sparse guitar riff. It fits the ethereal delivery of the vocals by Robert Smith so much more than the original. I found it on a 12″ promo only release.

I am far too uninformed to make such a statement regarding “Primary (Red Mix),” though. I don’t own Faith, the album from which the original version is from (look, I can’t own everything…yet). I do know that it is not the 12″ version however. That version is only five and a half minutes long, this one is over seven minutes in length. I got it from the CD single for “Close To Me.”

Visage
Fade To Grey (Dance Mix)
There are some songs that I can just listen to overa nd over again everyday and not get sick of them. Midge Ure was at least partially responsible for at least two of them, this amazing track from Visage’s first album, and Ultravox’s “Vienna.”

Finding this extended dance mix has been a little tricky. There are many, many remixes of “Fade To Grey” but as far as I can tell this is the only official extended mix ever to be released. It has been released on CD on various versions of the band’s self-titled debut, but that’s not where I got it. I found it on a 12″ EP that was also self-titled. It also featured an amazingly ridiculous cover. Dude looks like he was about to rock a pirate party, but got sidetracked in the land of The Neverending Story.

Erasure
Run To The Sun (Beatmasters Outergalactic Mix)
Run To The Sun (Beatmasters Galactic Mix)
Run To The Sun (The Simon & Diamond Bhangra Remix)
Run To The Sun (The Diss-Cuss Mix)
The last bit of Erasure that I’ll probably feature in quite some time. I’m actually running out of rare Erasure to share, thanks to the recent re-availability of their singles collections.

I love this damn song, and these remixes are just fab. The “Beatmasters Galactic Mix” especially just makes me want to dance like a spastic monkey for hours on end.

The Blur
There’s No Other Way (Red Sleeve mix)
There’s No Other Way (Rock Mix)
Explain
So in tonight’s post I’ve proven I don’t own at least one seminal album by The Cure and I also barely know anything about Visage. I might as well make it a hat trick and confess that I don’t own any Blur before Parklife. Shut up. It’s not my fault I was born in America. I’ll get there one day I promise.

I love these mixes of “There’s No Other Way” the Red Sleeve one especially, it spaces out the track even more, so much that it almost resembles something off the first Stone Roses album. Baggy indeed. “Explain” is a solid B-side as well. I got all of these off of the 12″ single.

Posted in B-sides, Blur, Erasure, remixes, The Cure, Visage | 4 Comments »

I’ll Bring the Dance Music, You Bring the Rainbows

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

More Madonna. More Pet Shop Boys. More Erasure.

Don’t worry, my next post will be less Castro.

Madonna
Beautiful Stranger (Calderone Club Mix)
Fact: This theme song to Austin Powers 2 is 192% better than any of the actual content in any Austin Powers film.

Don’t argue with me! I proved it with science.

Pet Shop Boys
New York City Boy (The Superchumbo Uptown Mix)
New York City Boy (The Almighty Definitive Mix)
New York City Boy (The Thuderpuss 2000 Club Mix)
If you collect enough remixes, (and I collect more than enough) you start to notice certain names keep popping up. In the 90s I knew the big names like Flood, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and so on, but as my collection of remixes extends into ludicrous numbers, I’m beginning to notice many more recurring names; such as Almighty and Thunderpuss. I have a remix of Erasure’s “Chains of Love” credited to Almighty, and a few Madonna tracks remixed by Thunderpuss, but who are these people?

Well, Almighty isn’t a person at all, they’re a company (complete with a garish website). According to their Discogs page, no one person can be linked to an Almighty remix, they are a nameless mass of remixers and producers whose sole intention is to increase the funkatude of any dance track they get their hands on. They’re kind of like the Illuminati I guess, but with beats.

Thunderpuss, on the other hand, are two people – specifically Chris Cox and Barry Harris. I can’t say I know much of either’s work, but I can say without question that Chris Cox, a skinny white boy from the US, is not related to electronic music legend Carl Cox, a big black dude from the UK.

As for Superchumbo? That’s a dude named Tom Stephan. If you want to know more about him I suggest you read his horrible Wikipedia page, which reads like a press release translated from a foreign language.

Erasure
A Little Respect (Remixed By Mark Saunders)
Oh L’Amour (Acoustic)
Walking In The Rain (37B Remix)
Since I’m already talking about remixers, Mark Saunders is a super-accomplished remixer, mixer and producer. He has a webpage, find out for yourself. Of course, as you already know, Erasure is fucking fabulous, you don’t need to go to their webpage to find that out.

The acoustic version of “Oh L’Amour” is haunting, while the remix of “Walking In The Rain” is…decidedly not. It’s more fabulous than haunting. But it’s so fabulous that its fabulousness may haunt your own fabulous dreams.

Fabulous.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, “Walking In The Rain” is a cover, the original is by The Ronettes.

Posted in Erasure, Madonna, Pet Shop Boys, remixes | 4 Comments »

Outside Lands vs. Lollapalooza in a fight to the death! Soundtrack by Erasure.

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

I’m still decompressing from the past few weeks. I’ve had two weddings (one of which I had to be in) and a cross country trip to San Francisco that included some non-stop record shopping and a three day outdoor festival! All on damaged ribs!

Damn, I’m fucking metal.

As I’ve mentioned here before, I usually go to Lollapalooza this time of year, but that was impossible, so I made the trip to Outside Lands instead. This was not a decision I made lightly. For all of its problems (and there are many) I love going to Lollapalooza. I think that it is one of the most well-organized, affordable and fan-friendly festivals today. My only other modern festival experience has been Ultra, and that was a clusterfuck of greed, drugs and douchbaggery the likes of which I have never seen. It made me miss Lollapalooza even more.

Outside Lands was at least a positive experience, but was it really better than Lollapalooza? Let’s compare.

The Line-Up
Both Lollapalooza and Outside Lands featured many of the same bands: Big Audio Dynamite, Muse, Deadmau5, Arctic Monkeys, Beirut, Ok Go and The Vaccines to name a few. But while Lollapalooza also had Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Cold War Kids, A Perfect Circle, The Cars, Deftones and Crystal Castles, Outside Lands’ exclusive acts included bands like Phish, The Decemberists, Josh Ritter and Best Coast. Definitely much more of a chill/jam vibe that is very much NOT my thing. This led to some pretty big breaks in my schedule where I was at best not doing much and at worst actively avoiding all the stages.
Advantage: Lollapalooza

Stage Layout
Lollapalooza has seven stages (plus a kids’ stage) that are all pretty easy to see no matter what. Outside Lands is a smaller festival, with only four stages. One of them is so small it’s barely worth mentioning, and the main stage is just a clusterfuck of problems. The sound tent for it is massive, blocking the view of the stage for nearly everyone who isn’t in front of it. Furthermore, the dance dome is too close to the stage,  so unless you are close enough to the stage for the music to be loud enough, you’re going to get a constant bass thump mashed up with the music on the main stage. While I do give Outside Lands credit for not putting any of its stages on fucking cement like Lolla does, it’s much easier to actually see a band at Lollapalooza than it is Outside Lands
Advantage: Lollapalooza

Toilets
If you have to piss at Lollapalooza, no problem, there are almost never lines for all of the porta-potties, you just have to know where to look. This is not so at Outside Lands. There were never enough pissers to go around, so the lines got pretty massive. The lines were so intense, in fact, that I saw dudes and women just pissing in the woods. Classy! Making matters worse was that that porta-potty company would routinely plow their truck through the porta-potty area to empty over-used facilities. Their devotion to cleanliness should be applauded, but the cloud of dust and overall disruption the would cause every time they did this did no one any favors. This one is no contest
Advantage: Lollapalooza

Food
Outside Lands has better, more diverse food, no contest. The problem is getting to it. Just like the porta-potties, the lines to the food vendors are fucking nuts at Outside Lands. I never have to wait more than five minutes for pizza at Lollaplooza,but  a typical wait for anything aside from tofu tacos was nearly double that at Outside Lands. Still, the food is really good when you can get your hands on it, so this one is even.
Advantage: Push

Water
Price of refilling a bottle of water at Outside Lands 2011: $1
Price of refilling a bottle of water at Lollapalooza: Free
Also, finding a fucking refilling station at Outside Lands was practically impossible. Finding a beer tent, on the other hand, was incredibly easy. Funny that.
Advantage: Lollapalooza

Weather
It’s fucking HOT in Chicago in the summer. Seriously, like triple digit hot. And when it’s not fucking hot it’s fucking storming. It sucks. San Francisco on the other hand, cool and breezy, with highs in the low 70s all weekend. Can’t beat that shit.
Advantage: Outside Lands

Golden Gate Park
Holy shit this place is beautiful. Grant Park in Chicago is basically a series of baseball diamonds. GGP is actually a park, complete with scenic trails that remain open during the concert. Sure, I had a lot of downtime at the festival, but at least I could walk down to a secluded forest path and just chill. At Lollapalooza there is no such thing as a quiet spot.
Advantage: Outside Lands

Vibe
People at Lollapalooza are dicks. They push, shove and fight their way to the front of the stage, then proceed to talk and text while the music is playing. The crowd at Outside Lands was decidedly more chill and friendly. I rarely had problems with people talking over the music, and I only had one encounter with a dick shoving his way to the front of the stage. Sure, when you got further back there was more talking and more shoving, but you’re going to have that at any fest. Maybe it was that mellow California attitude I always hear about, or maybe it was all the weed…actually I’m willing to bet it was all the weed, but whatever the reason, the kindness of the crowd really made this fest one to remember for me.
Advantage: Outside Lands

The final count may be four for Lolla and three for Outside Lands, but I’m still going to call it a push, because a friendly vibe and weather that doesn’t make my balls sweat off are two factors that really go a long way.

At the end of the day, Outside Lands is a quality festival with a few problems. I saw less bands than I would have seen at Lolla, that’s for sure, but I had a lot more fun seeing those bands than I would have if I saw them at Lolla. It’s hard to say which is better. So if you’re looking for a quality festival, I’d have to say that you really can’t go wrong with either Outside Lands or Lollapalooza. Both do a pretty good job at what they’re trying to do. And while the organizers of Lollapalooza really can’t do much to solve the problems of Grant Park and Chicago heat, the problems that Outside Lands face are actually fixable, giving me hope that the festival will only get better next year.

Just don’t go the Ultra, seriously, fuck those guys. The crowd there booed Erasure. Fucking dicks.

Erasure
Always (Cappella Club Remix)
Always [Microbots Trance Dance Mix]
Always (Microbots Inside Your Brain Mix)
Always (Hey Mix)
Breathe (LMC Extended Club Mix)
Breathe (When Andy Bell Met Manhattan Clique Extended Remix)
Breathe [Acoustic]
Freedom (Motiv 8 Radio Mix)
Freedom (JC’s Freedom Of Flight Remix)
Freedom (Mark’s Guitar Vocal)
Freedom (Mark’s Jail Term Dub)
Now, I know this may come as a shock, but it turns out that San Francisco is a great place to find Erasure singles! It’s also a great place to find Madonna and Pet Shop Boys stuff, so look for them in the coming weeks as well.

As much as I love electronic music, I’d have to say that the best track of this bunch is the acoustic version of “Breathe.” Sometimes a song needs to be stripped of its production for the lyrics to really sink in, and the heartache and pain of “Breathe” really get to you when the song is taken down to nothing more than Andy Bell’s amazing voice and the soft strums of an acoustic guitar. It’s really beautiful.

That being said, the house-as-fuck seven-minute Cappella Club Remix of “Always” is pretty sweet too. All of these are from CD singles, save for the last track, which is from a 12″.

Posted in Erasure | 5 Comments »

Erasing Logic

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

Not much to say tonight, why don’t you go listen to all that music!

Erasure
In My Arms (Dekkard Dub)
Sometimes (John ’00’ Fleming Full Vocal Club Mix)
Sometimes (John ’00’ Fleming Give It Some Welly Dub Mix)
Rain (Jon Pleased Wimmin Dub)
Rain (Jon Pleased Wimmin Vocal Mix)
First Contact (Instrumental Mix)
In My Arms (BBE Mix)
Okay this is the end of the Erasure insanity, for the most part. I still have one more track from this record (the vinyl version of the Rain: Plus EP) that I have to re-record because it was all scratched to hell. So if I can fix that track, I’ll post it. Until then, enjoy the fabulousness. Even without the first track this EP is a real winner. The highlight of course being the remixes of “Somtimes” a song I love so much that I think it could be remixed and remade in an all xylophone arrangement and I’d still dig it.  Althought I worship this track, it has always confused me a bit. I was talking about this track with a friend today, and when pressed I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the song was actually about. The verses are all about love and getting it on, but the choruses are horribly depressing. Now sure, I just summed up nearly all Erasure songs with that little description, but the contrast is even greater here. Anyone care to help?

Underworld
 King Of Snake (Rick’s Bungalow Remix)
King Of Snake (Dave Clarke Remix)
Speaking of confusing lyrics. Shit, if anyone can offer any explanation to any lyrics of any Darren Emerson-led Underworld track I will give them a cookie. I’m going to venture that this song is about snake charmers, or maybe snakes. Nah, it’s probably about GHB. These remixes are from a 12” single.

Posted in Erasure, remixes, Underworld | 4 Comments »

Let Me Eat That Cake

Saturday, December 11th, 2010

This post is brought to you by Octopus vs. Whale Cake.

Its the best cake ever. Words are meaningless now that you’ve seen it.

Annie
Always Too Late (Joakim Dub Mix)
Helpless Fool For Love (Patrick Wolf Remix)
Always Too Late (Joakim Vocal Mix)
I like Annie and these are excellent remixes. But it’s 2:30 AM and I’m out of material. Go look at the cake again!

Erasure
Freedom (Quake Vocal Remake)
Freedom (Untidy Dub)
In My Arms (Love to Infinity Gyrator Club Mix)
In My Arms (Love to Infinity Stratomaster Mix)
The march of fabulousness continues with more Erasure mixes. I have at least one more day of these, possibly two. It depends how much I want to spread the Erasure goodness. Okay, that sounded gross. Go back to the cake.

Posted in Annie, CAKE!, Erasure, OMG LOOK AT THAT FUCKING CAKE! | 6 Comments »

Not Pretty, Still Vacant.

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Fucking hipsters man…

I hinted upon this on my last post. I went to the Girl Talk show in Pittsburgh this Saturday. And while I had a blast at the show. Something struck me a bit…odd about the crowd.

Allow me to list some of the fashion decisions I saw first hand

  • Pink sequin dress with dayglo fanny pack
  • TWO white men dressed like Michael Jackson circa Beat It.
  • A woman rocking a full on Native American headdress
  • JEGGINGS EVERYWHERE
  • Fat men with sports glasses and bushy, unkempt beards (thanks, Dan Deacon)
  • Cute girls wearing sports goggles
  • Short gym shorts on men (also, its fucking COLD here)
  • A green suit guy
  • A man dressed as a banana
  • Two girls rocking full geisha wear

Okay, that’s it. I officially do not “get it” anymore. I’m old. I do not understand what is going on. Why the hell are these kids dressing up in clothes that are intentionally ugly as hell and in most cases, not at all flattering (jeggings notwithstanding) ? I think I know. Its the fucking hipsters man. They’re ruining it for everyone.

There’s been much debate over what qualifies a “hipster” these days. Some people think all you need to be a hipster is a love of ultra-obscure indie bands, but I think that has almost nothing to do with it – at least with the hipsters that annoy me.

Hipsters today…they don’t seem to really care about, or really love, anything. Everything is a joke or a show. Nothing is authentic. They’re pop culture tourists, grabbing snippets of things here and there for their own shallow needs. Some hipster kid sees Heavy Metal Parking Lot, so he downloads some Dokken and buys a cheap denim jacket. A hipster chick sees a Siouxsie and Banshees video so she decides that the Indian headress look is hot this year. Michael Jackson dies, so now everyone is a die-hard MJ fan again, and simply must have a vintage Beat It jacket. The don’t know anything about what they are cribbing from, other than that they think it might make them look uncool in the way that matters the most.

Remember back in the 90s when everyone wore inconspicuous thin-framed glasses? Then Weezer got cool again, and kids started rocking the thick frames like Rivers Cuomo (I’m sure there was more to it than just Rivers, but that’s the only example I can think of off the top of my head). They were so “uncool” they became cool.

Well, they’re no longer fake-uncool, they’re straight-up cool. So now hipsters are rocking aviator frames and sports goggles! Two of the most uncomfortable and disgustingly ugly forms of eye-wear ever devised by man! Just in an effort to be intetionally uncool in a way that might make them seem cool! What’s next? Monocles?

You combine this intentional “uncool” with the casual appreciation with things like 80s culture and vintage fashion, and that’s how a normally cute girl ends up wearing pink sequins, a turquoise blouse with shoulder pads and rocking a fannypack with neon highlights, looking like she was dressed by kids on the special ed bus.

But whatever, fashion has always been moronic, now its just ironically moronic. I can deal with that. The shit that really gets me pissed is the bullshit fake interest in everything. The appropriation of shit I love (80s music and fashion) into knock-off, intentionally “ironic” bullshit.  That’s how you get asshole fake retro-sounding bands like Owl City. Its not like these assholes are really appreciating this stuff, they’re just faking it. Pretending that they think its cool because other people told them that it might be someday. When its runs its course they just sell it all back to the thrift store they found it from and move on.

They kill culture, sucking up all relevance it had and turning into a joke, something they can ironically mock in a pseudo self-referential way while sipping PBR and listening to Broken Social Scene. They ruin it for everyone. Because after the hipsters make their way through a subculture or music scene, anyone who had any actual real interest in it goes away, terrified that they might be mistaken for one of those soulless asshats.

I’m just dreading when they move onto grunge rock (I’m already seeing the flannel look come back). I wonder if they’ll bother with other 90s music trends. Where’s the love for horrible 90s pop music? That’s it, I’m calling it – get ready for the big Jesus Jones revival in 2012!

Erasure
 Oh L’Amour (Tin Tin Out Mix)
Oh L’Amour (Matt Darey Mix)
Solsbury Hill (Manhattan Clique Extended Remix)
The Erasure love continues! Quick disclaimer though, the “Tin Tin Out Mix” is slightly messed up. There’s a very small skip in the middle of the song I could not fix, and the very last note skips once. I couldn’t fix that either. But neither gaff is really worth worrying about. Besides, the “Matt Darey Mix” is much better, and any version of Erasure’s cover of “Solsbury Hill” trumps them all.

Praga Khan
 Love (Insider Remix)
The Moon (C.S. Johansen Remix)
Love (Dan Maze Remix)
Praga Khan’s real name is Maurice. If my name was Maurice, I’d bastardize Chaka Khan’s name for my own personal gain as well. These are from the 12” single to “Love.”

Muse
Super Massive Black Hole (Phones Control Voltage Mix)
Songs about interstellar phenomenon should not be this sexy. From a bootleg 12” called “Indie Rock n Roll Remixed.”

Posted in Erasure, Muse, Praga Khan, rant, remixes | 12 Comments »

Although now that I think about it “Love Missile” sounds gross…

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Saw Girl Talk this weekend. Amazing show…odd people in attendance. Expect a full review later this week.

Right now its pushing 1AM, I have a ton of work to do and I’m tired, so I’m keeping this brief. I think the quality of tunes will make up for it though!

Erasure
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) (Manhattan Clique Extended Mix)
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) (Dan Frampton Radio Mix)
I bought many (many) Erasure 12” singles in Portland. Almost all at 2nd Avenue Records, which was very odd considering most of the stuff in that place was hip hop or punk rock. I was thinking of posting them all at once (making the most FABULOUS blog post ever) but I thought I’d draw it out a bit. I don’t know if my blog can take that music fabulousness at once and survive.

Sigue Sigue Sputnik
 Love Missile F1-11 (Extended Version)
Love Missile F1-11 (Dance Version)
Love Missile F1-11 (Single Version)
Oh hell yeah. I have been looking for this single for years! This totally made the trip to Oregon worth it. Well, that and seeing my family for Thanksgiving.  I love this song so much. It’s just everything great, new, weird, wonderful and stupid as hell about the 80s all in one song, which really makes sense when you find out that Giorgio Moroder produced the track. I own both Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s 80s albums, but nothing on any of them comes close to their remixes, especially the dance mix of this track and the various remixes of “Sex Bomb Boogie” and “Success!” I’ll have to dig those singles out and re-record them. I recorded those back when my turntable was only doing shit in mono. I’m sure they sound great in stereo. For those of you who may not know,  Tony James of the Sigue is now working with Mick Jones of The Clash/B.A.D. under the name Carbon/Silicon and they make wonderfully bizarre pop music together. Check them out.

Pigeonhead
 Battleflag (Lo Fidelity Allstars Remix)
Battleflag (Biopod Mix)
I did not know that Pigeonhead was a band until about 48 hours ago when I looked them up. I always assumed it was a dude who worked with the Lo-Fidelity Allstars. I’m even more surprised that Pigeonhead was an American band! From Seattle! During the 90s grunge boom! The wonders never cease. The Low-Fiedelity Allstars remix was eventually remixed even more and put on that band’s debut album. This version is not the same as that one, it especially diverges near the end. The Biopod Mix actually kind of…sucks, but is worth listening to so you can see how to NOT remix a track with an amazing vocal performance. Rule number 1, don’t bury the lead under stupid distortion effects.

Posted in Erasure, Lo Fidelity Allstars, Pigeonhead, remixes, Sigue Sigue Sputnik | 4 Comments »

Nothing’s caught on fire yet! Let us celebrate with Erasure remixes!

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

So far the transition seems to be going rather well, don’t you think? I’m sure my hits have plummeted, but I don’t care too much about that. I’m content with just the people who really care about this kind of crap reading this, popularity (and the DMCA notices that seem to come with it) is overrated. Still, I like some people coming here, so I’m going to have to re-register with every damn aggregator site, which will for sure be a pain in the ass. And if any of you bloggers who link to me are reading this, don’t forget to change your links! Eventually I’m going to set the Blogger blog on fire. But there will be time for that later.

I kind of picked a lousy time to finally do this move. I got Lollapalooza next week, so there will probably be a very quick update next Monday or Tuesday, and then absolutely nothing for at least a week. Compounding annoyance, the belt in my turntable is starting to go, so I had to order a new one today. While the variance in speed is very minor at the moment, it’s bugging me like crazy, so I’m not going to be recording anything until that belt comes in. Thankfully, this will overlap with my Lolla time, so it shouldn’t be a problem. If the new belt doesn’t fix the problem, then I’m going to have to finally cave in and get a direct-drive table. If that happens, then I’ll fill the downtime with some “greatest hits” of bygone posts. So I’m sure none of you will complain. If anyone out there wants to recommend a good turntable that is NOT an ION USB turntable, please make note in the comment section. Just don’t recommend an SL-1200, I know they are awesome, but I don’t have six hundred bucks at the moment.

Erasure
Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day) (Figures In Crumbs)
Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day) (Twilight 0.2)
Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day) (Dub On The Moon)
Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day) (Tin Tin Out Remix)
Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day) (Twilight Plus)
To the person who complained about a lack of Depeche Mode…well played. I actually wanted to start off Lost Turntable 2.0 with a Depeche Mode post, but I’ve already posted all my rare Depeche Mode several times over! Shit, most of what I posted isn’t even rare anymore since iTunes and Amazon put the singles box sets on their stores. The Erasure singles box sets (which I sadly do not have) are still out of print though! These remixes are not from a vinyl (see above issue) and are instead from a CD single. I apologize for the lower-than-average bitrate, but I did not rip them.

Posted in Erasure, remixes | 4 Comments »

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