Archive for the ‘Lene Lovich’ Category

Transcontinental Remixes and Rarities

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

Summer is almost over! Yay! Summer sucks. Summer especially sucks in Tokyo, when it’s been like 32c-35c (89-95f) EVERY GODDAMN DAY since July 1st. If you could bottle all the perspiration I’ve sweated out over the past two months then you’d have solved California’s water crisis.

And with that lovely mental picture in all your heads, here is some music.

Lene Lovich
Wonderland (New York Dance Mix Radio Edit)
Wonderland (London Dance Mix)
Wonderland (London Dance Mix Radio Edit)
Don’t ask for my opinion of Lene Lovich, I don’t even know how to pronounce her name. All I know about her is that she was on Stiff Records, so I of course own some of her stuff.

Sheena & The Rokkets
You May Dream
Radio Junk
Rocket Factory
Sheena & The Rokkets were yet another in a long line of Yellow Magic Orchestra protege acts that gained some degree of notoriety in their native Japan during the late 70s and early 80s.

Of all the YMO-associates they’re probably the most different – eschewing the cold, Kraftwerk-inspired aesthetic of their label mates for a far more new wave/punk rock style reminiscent of early Blondie. If you told me they played CBGB’s I wouldn’t be surprised (oh wait, they did).

Even though the group didn’t sound a lot like YMO, the synth-pop pioneers are all over their 1979 debut album Vacuum Pack. All three members of YMO are credited keyboard players on the LP, and each of them wrote a song for the album as well, which are the three I’m sharing tonight. “You May Dream” was written Haruomi Hosono; Yukihiro Takahashi wrote the upbeat and utterly amazing “Radio Junk” (which YMO would perform live) and Sakamoto-san composed the all-keyboards album closer “Rocket Factory.” It sounds absolutely nothing like anything else on the album, and I feel hesitant to even call it a Sheena & The Rokkets track, as it’s obviously a Sakamoto joint through and through.

I may share more Sheena & The Rokkets later, I really dig these guys.

Luscious Jackson
Ladyfingers (Refrigerator Box Remix)
Ladyfingers (Guaranteed Every Time Remix)
Ladyfingers (BD’s Smooth Finger Remix)
Ladyfingers (Smackit Remix)
I’m really glad that me moving to another country hasn’t stopped me from buying completely inessential singles from bands that I wasn’t that big a fan of in the first place.

I’m fairly certain that at least one of these remixes samples “Atomic Dog” though, so there’s that.

Posted in Lene Lovich, Luscious Jackson, remixes | 3 Comments »

Fuck Leno (And the Cards too)

Monday, January 11th, 2010

I’m writing this at 11:11 on 01/10/10. That’s…a lot of ones.

I am disgruntled. All the playoff games sucked this weekend save for the Pack/Cards game. But the team I wanted to win that one didn’t so it was all for naught anyways. Not like it matters though, I think we all know that either the Vikings or New Orleans is going to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Then there’s the bullshit involving Leno. I hate that big-chinned prick. Always have. I only ever watched his show because he tended to have better guests than Letterman and it was the only way I wouldn’t forget to watch Conan. I can’t believe he’s getting his old time slot back! How the fuck does that work? His show sucks and no one watches it! So his reward is to go back to his old timeslot? Kevin Smith once said that in Hollywood you fail upwards, I guess he was right.

NBC is run by retarded crack-addicted howler monkeys. And Jay Leno is a walking taint with a chin. Sigh.

Oh yeah, music! Um, here’s some stuff!

Madonna
Rescue Me (Titanic Vocal)
Rescue Me (Lifeboat Vocal)
Rescue Me (Houseboat Vocal)
This is one of the “lesser” Madonna singles, it cracked the Top 10 on Billboard, but just barely. The fact that it was the follow-up to the kinktastic “Justify My Love” didn’t help that much, and neither did the fact that the song just isn’t that great (in my opinion anyways). These remixes take the song and transform it into a house track in a big way, and one can imagine that this 12” was a big hit on the NYC club circuit at the time – which has always been Madonna’s target audience anyway.

Lene Lovich
New Toy (Extended Mix)
Lene Lovich was born in Detroit but her family moved to England when she was still a kid. That is both the definition of “moving up” and “dodging a bullet” if there ever was one. In the late 70s she was on Stiff Records, adding further credence to my belief that Stiff Records in the late 70s probably had the the best line-up of any label in the history of all things. This extended mix of one of her best tunes (written by Thomas Dolby!) is from a 12” single.

Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew
Spirit (Extended Version)
Spirit (Instrumental)
Spirit (Spirit Dub)
So another MP3 blog might have a song from the Ghostbusters II soundtrack, but would they have the instrumental version and the dub version as well? I didn’t think so, for that kind of useless bullshit you have to come to The Lost Turntable.

Posted in Doug E. Fresh, Lene Lovich, Madonna, remixes | 4 Comments »

SLOW BONGO FLOYD FTW!!!

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Today was the first time since I broke my rib/joint/tendon that I was able to work out. I just got done lifting weights while listening to Fear. I could punch God in the face right now I’m so pumped.

On a completely unrelated note, I finally got around to updating my blog roll, check it out, there’s some good stuff there, especially Friendsound, who get deluxe bonus points for putting up a rare CD by Scanner, one of my favorite electronic acts.

Tonight’s post is full of weird, awesome and weird awesome.

Slow Bongo Floyd
More Than Jesus (SBF Mix)
More Than Jesus (Irresistible Force Mix)
Open Your Heart (11 O’Clock Mix)
Open Your Heart (Piano Mix)
Talk about a surprise. I bought this record on a complete whim, mostly because of the ridiculous band name, and was complete gobsmacked by the unbelievable awesomeness hidden in its grooves. This is some crazy-ass Madchester shit to the 10th degree, house beats layered behind wah wah guitars and trippy-ass vocals. I can find next to nothing on these guys. There seems to be a semi-official site dedicated to them, but it’s bloody awful only giving out the most basic of information. That site mentions two albums, Acid House Inspirational and Brenda Salmons. I can’t find the first one anywhere but it seems that Brenda Salmons was just re-released digitally and you can pick it up on Amazon for a cheap six bucks! I bought it and am listening to it right now. I’ll let you all know how it is in the coming days. However, if you liked The Stone Roses or The Happy Mondays you need to download this shit and check it out, it’ll blow your mind that you haven’t heard it before. If anyone out there has any other rare Slow Bongo Floyd tracks for the love of God hook a brother up.

Heaven 17
Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry Parts One & Two (Uninterrupted Single Version)
Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry (Extended Dance Version)
I’m new to Heaven 17, having recently discovered how awesome early Human League was, I’ve branched out and picked up a few Heaven 17 singles and I have to be honest; I’m a little disapointed. I was hoping that the guys from Heaven 17 took the weird from Human League with them when they left, but it sounds like they didn’t. Based on the insanely dark name of this track I was expecting “Being Boiled” round 2, but instead I got an upbeat dance number about the opression of the working class. It’s not a bad song, but damn talk about not having something meet your expectations.

Lene Lovich
Blue Hotel (Dance Mix)
Lene Lovich was an American singer, but she found much more success in England, having signed to Stiff Records when all the cool kids (Elivs Costello, Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric) were doing it. This remix to one of her best tunes is from a 12” single. If you like it I suggest checking out her other stuff, it’s all pretty good.

Sparks
Rosebud (Extended Dance Mix)
Theme For Rosebud (Cinematic Mix)
Rosebud (FM Mix)
These guys are fucking weird. That’s all I got to say.

Posted in Heaven17, Lene Lovich, remixes, Slow Bongo Floyd, Sparks | 9 Comments »