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Back from the dead with YMO

Monday, May 2nd, 2022

Hey, how’s this thing work again?

Why the even longer break than usual? Well, the typical “I can’t find anything to share” excuse aside, this year has proven to be incredibly busy for me. Since my last post, I got a new job! I’m still teaching English in Japan, but now I’m working for a company that doesn’t seem to actively hate me, so that’s nice. I am working more hours though, which means it’s harder to dedicate free time to creative endeavors. And since more people seem to be visiting my YouTube channel and listening to my podcast than frequenting this blog, those have taken precedence, sorry.

As I’ve said before though, this blog isn’t going anywhere. On the off chance that I do decide to shutter it for good, I’ll definitely put out an update, but again, that’s not likely.

I got some really cool and rare video game music recently, but I know that most people who read my blog don’t come here for that and would be bummed if my first post in nearly half a year was dedicated to Double Dragon remixes, so I’ll save those for next time. Instead, hey check it out more YMO.

Yellow Magic Orchestra
Tong Poo (Special DJ Copy)
La Femme Chinoise (Acoustic Version)
Where Have All The Flowers Gone? (Acoustic Version)
Greenback Dollar (Re-Mix)
My new job is in an area with some record stores. As you can imagine, this is a problem. Thankfully the really good record store is some distance away, just far enough that I can’t make it there during my usual lunch break. However, if a student cancels their lesson, and that lesson is right before my scheduled lunch break, then I have more than enough time to make the walk and spend too much money on CDs I don’t need!

For example, I bought yet another Yellow Magic Orchestra greatest hits compilation. That brings the total number of YMO albums in my collection to a completely unsatisfying 87. That number is like a dare. It’s sitting there, egging me on to see if I can get to an nice big round and even 100. Goddammit.

Anyways, the compilation in question is YMO Go Home!, which the group released in 1999. It’s a two disc set, and while it’s not as good as what I consider to be their definitive greatest his set, UCYMO, it’s still damn good. In addition to all the bangers you’d want, it also has a few harder to find tracks, which are the ones I’m sharing here. The Special DJ Copy of “Tong Poo”was first made widely available as a part of the 1992 Techno Bible 5CD box set (which I own). I think before that it was only on some promo 12″ singles. It’s not crazy different than the original, but it has enough deviations to make it worth a listen.

When this compilation came out in 1999, it was probably most notable for being the exclusive home of both of those acoustic tracks. They have seen been re-released as a part of the 2005 8CD mega box set L-R Trax, which I do not own because I own nearly every single song in that box set and it usually goes for hundreds of dollars these days. I’m crazy, but I’m not an idiot.

The acoustic tracks are great. “La Femme Chinoise” works oddly well as a slow, acoustic number. The song’s melody sounds surprisingly haunting when plucked on an acoustic guitar. Makes me wish for acoustic re-workings of more YMO classics.

“Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” is a bit, well, weirder? First of all, it’s a cover of a Pete Seeger song. How/why/when the hell YMO decided to do a Pete Seeger cover is a mystery. It’s probably for the best that they kept in an acoustic affair though. Pete Seeger’s quiet, contemplative anti-war ballad didn’t need a sequenced beat. Like the other acoustic number, it’s very good. And again, I hope that YMO have some more hidden acoustic gems in the vault that they’ll release someday.

Finally, there’s “Greennack Dollar,” which is on an entirely different YMO compilation called One More YMO, which collection of live cuts. I think that every track on that compilation was previously released save for this one. It was recorded in Budokan in 1980, but not as part of the December concert that served as the source for their legendary Budokan live album, it was recorded earlier in the year.

If you don’t know, “Greenback Dollar” is a cover of a Hoyt Axton song from the early 60s. So, yes, this is YMO covering a song written by the dad in Gremlins. The world is weird sometimes.

Posted in live, remixes, Yellow Magic Orchestra | 4 Comments »

Bootlegs, 90s hip hop, 80s synth-pop, 2020s depression

Sunday, August 2nd, 2020

Sigh. World sucks and I wanna cry all day but instead here’s a hodgepodge of music to listen to with no rhyme or reason as to why I selected any of it.

Rick Wakeman
Space Oddity/Life On Mars (Live in 1997)
As cases began to spike again in Tokyo, the news kept saying that young people were the primary spreaders of the virus this time around. They were also saying that it was best to avoid crowded spaces as much as possible. So, I went to the one place that I knew wouldn’t be crowded, and would have zero young people: the progressive rock record store.

There are actually a few of these in the greatest Tokyo area, but my favorite is World Disque. The Disk Union Progressive store is great, but World Disque has mountains and mountains of oddball shit. Yo, wanna get Renaissance’s Japan-only EP? How about two live EPs by Gong’s current vocalist? Care for multiple Klaus Schulze box sets? This is the store for you.

I was right, no crowds and I (being 40 years old) was, without question the youngest person there. I correctly (sigh) assumed that cases were going to spike further in the following weeks, and treated myself to several records since I knew I wouldn’t be going out again shopping anytime in the near future. I picked up some of Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come (great), Birth Control (also great), Robert Wyatt (uneven but good) and an album by Darryl Way’s Wolf (surprisingly good).

I also bought a Rick Wakeman 6 CD “official bootleg” boxset for a steal that ended up being exceptionally great. Not only were the performances (which ranged from the mid-70s to the early 90s) all utterly fantastic, but most of it sounded very good too. Sure, they’re bootlegs so they’re a little more bassy and muffled than official recordings, but as I got into the groove I didn’t notice it all that much, especially since Wakeman’s amazing keyboard always seems to shine through any mix and sound crystal clear.

So, there I was, at home getting drunk on absinthe, listening to Rick Wakeman bootlegs, and browsing Discogs when…okay look, long story short I just got another five CD box set of Rick Wakeman bootlegs in the mail and I’m expecting another 16 CD box set of more bootlegs any day now.

Shut up. We all cope with stress in different ways. I apparently cope with copious keyboard solos and absinthe. I can think of more dangerous combinations.

The above is from an exceptionally good sounding bootleg (I think it’s a soundboard or radio recording) from a show in 1997. This medley of Bowie tunes isn’t like the one that he released on piano after Bowie’s death, it’s a full band recording complete with vocals. It’s a good version, even without Bowie. I wish I could pick up who the singer is, but Rick rattles off his name so quickly at the end that I can never make it out. If anyone knows, fill me in!

 

P.M. Dawn
Reality Used To Be A Friend Of Mine (Club Mix)
Mostly sharing for the title. 100% relatable. Although, let’s be real, I don’t think that’s been true since 1999.

Is there a lot of low-key chill hip-hop these days? Excluding Juice WRLD, his lyrics were dogshit and his samples atrocious. I’ve heard a bit of Travis Scott and dig that sometimes. I especially love “Sick Mode” because I can get down on any track that gets you hype about napping. I’ve also listened a bit to Swae Lee. I really dig his delivery and can tell he has a ton of talent, but he’s almost too chill. Not enough melody sometimes. Also, that’s totally music for taking benzos to, let’s be real.

Anyways, this song is cool and probably also good for taking benzos to. Man, I wish I still had some benzos. Yeah, they’re horribly addictive and the comedown is rough, but sleeping for 10 hours straight is AWESOME.

 

Imitation
Thermo Limbo
Exotic Dance
I wrote about Imitation a while back after I happened upon their fantastic first album Original. Since then, I was able to track down their third album, which wasn’t as good as their stellar debut, but still pretty good. I’m still on the hunt for their second one, Muscle And Heat. I suspect that it might be the rarest of the bunch, since the only copy online I can find right now goes for $60. I’m not paying that much for a used LP from the 80s without getting a chance to hear it first, so I’m going to wait until I actually see it in person (if I can ever go to a record store again, sigh).

Anyways, while I haven’t been able to track down that album, I was able to score this 12″ single, which features two songs from the record. “Thermo Limbo” is the better one of the bunch, which a dope beat and good groove, but the out-there spacey “Exotic Dance” is also good. These tracks feature fellow 80s j-pop idol Sandii on back-up vocals, and I bet that they share a bit more with her as well. These sound a lot like Sandii songs, with a slight Hawaiian bent and a cool mixture of traditional and electronic elements. I love this stuff. It’s always my jam.

Posted in Imitation, live, P.M. Dawn, Rick Wakeman | 3 Comments »

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 »

The Devo Live Album Time Forgot

Tuesday, June 26th, 2018

It’s been a while, but tonight here is some music by an artist you might actually know the name of!

Seriously though, I got a few really nice comments on my past few more out there posts, and those do mean a lot to me! So thanks for that.

Anyways….

WE ARE DEVO.

Devo
Jocko Homo (Live)
It Doesn’t Matter To Me (Live)
Going Under (Live)
Somewhere With Devo: Shout/Disco Dancer (Live)
These cuts are from the live album Now It Can Be Told: DEVO At The Palace 12/9/88. I’m going to go out on a limb and say this record has become completely forgotten in the years since its release; I had never seen it in any used store ever until I stumbled upon it a few weeks back, in the middle of nowhere at a used hardware store outside of Tokyo. And the Wikipedia page for the album was rife with typos, listing the album’s recording and release dates in the late-90s and not the late-80s…big difference. I cleaned it up a bit last night.

I suppose the lack of oversight makes sense, this album came out when Devo was a bit past their prime. It was recorded during the tour for Total Devo, an album that in itself is mostly forgotten now, and was poorly-received at the time. Critics then attacked it for being derivative of the group’s earlier (and better) work, but if Devo’s attitude on this album is any indication, they blamed their waning popularity more on changing trends (looking in hindsight, both are probably true). The first three tracks on this album (which I’m sharing here tonight) are acoustic numbers. My suspicion is that Devo was playing with the fact that acts like Tracey Chapman, R.E.M., and The Pixies were replacing acts like them on the indie/alternative charts: the synthpop-backlash was already in effect. At one point in this album Mark even says that “it takes courage to be a Devo fan these days.” This is the attitude of a band that was obviously over it.

But it doesn’t show in their performance, this is a fantastic record. While I would’ve been bummed to the laid-back acoustic version of “Jocko Homo” in concert, having this strange alternative version on my computer is a treat. And when the band cuts the acoustic charade and plugs in the synthesizers, they still sound like prime Devo. And they also still focus on material from their older albums, a rather telling sign. However, the band closes a medley of “Shout” and “Disco Dancer,” two of their more recent (and failed) singles. But both those tracks were standouts on their respective albums (“Disco Dancer” should be a fucking classic) and these epic 11 minute combination of them both is just awesome and should’ve remained a Devo set closer for their reunion tour in the 2010s, I would’ve been happy.

The public has forgotten this record and I think that Devo has too. It’s listed on their website alongside their other albums, but its never been re-issued and is not available on any digital storefront. Devo’s re-released and remastered damn near everything in their catalog over the years, and have even released other live albums since then, so I doubt them skipping this record was an unintentional oversight. Perhaps it’s a time in their career they’d wish to forget. It’s a shame, as the record is quality. If you like the tracks I’m sharing tonight, maybe consider picking it up used. It’s pretty cheap online.

Next post: strange synthy music no one has ever heard of.

Sorry.

Posted in Devo, live | 2 Comments »

YMOh Yeah

Thursday, June 22nd, 2017

Yellow Magic Orchestra
Technopolis (M.S.T. Mix)
Rydeen (Beat Sonic Mix)
Behind The Mask (Live at A&M Chaplin Memorial Studio 7th Nov 80)
I don’t know if the information regarding when and where that version of “Behind The Mask” was recorded is right. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago I picked up YMO Giga Capsule, a special edition DVD featuring live and rare YMO performances. This is not the same as YMO Giga Clips. That’s a different DVD that focused more on TV show performances and music videos. Giga Capsule is a bigger affair, mostly because it’s a two-sided disc. One side is your standard DVD video and features a nice selection of YMO live footage from various concert videos (all of which are annoyingly out-of-print right now). It’s great, but nothing out-of-the-ordinary.

The other side is what’s special, a unique digital experience full of behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, outtakes and more. Of course, that’s what I’ve gathered from reading about it online. That’s because I can’t get the fucking disc to work on my computer. I think the thing will only work using an old 32bit version of Quicktime that is no longer available and doesn’t work on modern 64-bit machines. If anyone does know anything about getting this thing to work on a new PC, hit me up.

Even though I can’t run the disc’s program proper, I can browse the file directories, which led me to some interesting discoveries. Rather amazingly, this one DVD contains YMO’s complete studio discography, as well as the Live At Kinokuniya Hall album. They’re AIFF files, but they all sound pretty good save for the live album, which is blown out for some reason. Anyone with a bit of technical skill could rip all these files off the disc, easily convert them to MP3, and then have every single YMO record on their hard drive! That kind of thing would never happen today.

There are a lot of other random audio files on this disc. Apparently, somewhere on it are the raw instrumental tracks for several songs. Tried my best, but I couldn’t find them. What I could find was this live version of “Behind The Mask.” I got the information behind its source via the disc’s Discogs page. It could be completely wrong, I have no way of checking. I think I just wrote more words in English about this disc than anyone in the history of the internet. If I’m wrong, please inform me with the correct information.

As for the remixes, they’re from a bizarre remix compilation (pictured above) that features remixes of YMO tracks as well as YMO-associates Sandii, Snakeman Show and Melon. As remixes of YMO go, these are some of the better ones I’ve heard. However, as you may know if you read my multi-part guide to the YMO discography, that’s really not saying all that much. Nearly every YMO remix is complete garbage, even the ones by prominent electronic artists like The Orb. I think it’s because YMO are, at heart, a pop band, and the majority of their remixes have been done by artists looking to make the music more like whatever dance music trend is hip at the time. That just doesn’t work.

Like I said though, these aren’t atrocious. And if you’ve ever wondered what YMO might sound like if they were a mid-90s hardcore house act, well then you are in luck tonight!

Posted in live, remixes, Yellow Magic Orchestra | 3 Comments »

Giga YMO (We need to use giga more, it’s a good word)

Friday, June 9th, 2017

I was previously lamenting about my analog-to-digital struggles. But you know what’s dope and super-easy? Converting one form of digital file to another. I used to write for eHow and thanks to that, I know how to convert anything to anything. Seriously, got a RealVideo file you want to convert to ogg vorbis? I got you covered.

These files are not in ogg vorbis I swear. I’m not a lunatic.

Yellow Magic Orchestra
Cosmic Surfin’ (Live)
Rydeen (Live At Hurrah)
Behind The Mask (Live At Hurrah)
Day Tripper (Live At Hurrah)
Ongaku (Live)
Expecting Rivers (Live)
Cosmic Surfin- (Live 2nd Version)
Technopolis (Live On Japanese TV)
Rydeen (Live On Japanese TV)
Kageki Na Shukujo (Live On Japanese TV)
Riot In Lagos (Live YMO Special)
Solid State Survivor (Live YMO Special)
Rydeen (Live YMO Special)
An item on my holy grail watch-list for some time had been the YMO Giga Clips DVD. This video compiles not only all of YMO’s various music videos, but also features a slew of live performances from various concerts and Japanese TV appearances. I would occasionally see it in stores used, but usually for prices close to $100.

Thankfully, I stumbled upon a heavily discounted copy in Kichijoji last week. It was lacking the original booklet, kind of a big deal here, so it was priced to move. I paid less than a third of it’s usual price. That’s pretty amazing.

The above files are MP3 rips of all the non-album versions that are on the disc. So, none of these are music video rips as those are just the album versions.. I also didn’t include tracks that are also available on live CDs. Not for ethical reasons (those CDs are long out of print) but because the versions on the CDs are of higher quality. I also skipped a few TV performances that appeared to be mostly lip-synced, because what’s the point.

As my copy doesn’t have the booklet, I don’t know all the details behind all of these tracks, I don’t have that information. I do know that the “Live At Hurrah” tracks are a 1979 performance at the Hurrah in New York City.

The YMO Special tracks are from a….YMO Special (shocking I know) that aired on Japanese TV in 1983. That special also featured some behind-the-scenes stuff and interviews. That stuff isn’t on Giga Clips, but you do a search for “YMO Special” on YouTube you can find VHS rips of it rather easily.

“Ongaku” and “Expecting Rivers” are from a concert video. I think they’re from the band’s 1983 Budokan performance. That lines up with their wardrobe/instrument set-up in the video. That concert was released on laserdisc only. Which means I’m going to have to buy another Laserdisc player at some point. That makes me angry and sad.

I have absolutely no clue as to where the second version of “Cosmic Surfin'” is from. It appears to be taken from the same tour as the Hurrah show, however.

The remaining clips are all Japanese TV shows. Again, I don’t know which ones because, no booklet.

Posted in live, Yellow Magic Orchestra | 6 Comments »

Black Days

Friday, May 19th, 2017

I had the immense privilege of seeing Cornell with both Audioslave and Soundgarden. And he was probably one of the greatest vocalists I ever saw perform in person. The world has lost an amazing talent and person. And I am heartbroken as I realize that my generation will be sorely lacking in old rock stars.

Soundgarden
Gun (Live ’90)
Get On The Snake (Live ’90)
Superunknown was one of the first albums I bought with my own money to listen to on my own. I didn’t have to buy a lot of music with my own money when I was a kid, mostly because my mom and I had very similar musical tastes. Having a mom who was way into Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana really saved me a lot of money at the time. Thanks mom! My mom is dope.

Anyways, for some reason I can clearly recall buying Superunknown used at a CD Warehouse and playing the shit out of that album. I would listen to it when I played Doom, read comics or mowed the lawn. I honestly think the main reason that album became my default background music was simply because it’s so damn long. That album is 15 tracks and 71 minutes long. And it doesn’t have a single piece of filler on it. That just never fucking happens.  How many classic, amazing tracks are on that album? Six? Seven? Eight? I mean, shit, “Black Hole Sun” might be the worst song on that album, and it’ s one of the greatest rock singles of the 90s. But it can’t hold a candle to “Spoonman” or “Kickstand” or even the title track. It’s downright criminal that Superunknown isn’t spoken with the same reference as Nevermind and Ten. It’s the Thriller or Hysteria of grunge; every song could’ve been a single. And again, at 15 tracks long that’s a holy shit statement.

For the longest time there were countless Soundgarden rarities. Unlike Pearl Jam or Nirvana, there didn’t seem to be anyone keeping track of the Soundgarden archives. Thankfully, that started to come to an end a few years back. Between the deluxe editions of Badmotorfinger and Superunknown, and the 3CD rarities compilation Echo Of Miles, a good portion of the rare Soundgarden tracks worth a listen are now easy to score, and I suggest you do that. Be sure to check out their oddly sedate-but-great cover of Devo’s “Girl U Want” and the amazing Moby remix of “Dusty,” which I prefer to the original.

These live tracks are from the CD single to “Blow Up The Outside World.” To the best of my knowledge, they were never included on any of the various re-issues, but if I’m wrong please let me know.

FYI: the “movie no one saw” that Cornell references in the beginning of “Get On the Snake” is Lost Angels. He’s certainly right, no one saw that movie, but the soundtrack, which included The Pogues, Toni Childs, Soul Asylum and Apollo Smile, was hella dope.

Audioslave
Show Me How To Live (T Ray Remix)
Set It Off (Live From Letterman)
Gasoline (Live From Letterman)
I’ve always felt that Audioslave is an underrated band. At the very least, their first album certainly is. It is such a great record, a fantastic hard rock album that came out at a time when those were few and far between. I got to see Audioslave live three times, and each time they delivered a stand out show. If you’ve never given the band a proper chance, I really recommend that first self-titled record. And while those second two albums don’t hold up when compared to that stellar debut, they both have some solid tracks. Scope them out on iTunes, each have some buried gems. I’m a big fan of “Man Or Animal” and “Somedays,” myself.

Audioslave doesn’t have many rarities to speak of. I think their only commercially released B-side was “We Got The Whip” and you can get that on iTunes no problem. These three tracks were the only ones in my collection that I couldn’t find commercially available.  They’re all from various singles from the first album. The two “live” tracks don’t sound very live. You get zero crowd noise on these. I suspect that they’re rehearsal recordings. They still sound good though. The remix of “Show Me How To Live” is the highlight of the group though. It’s a good remix of a great song that adds some layers of electronic and psychedelic effects. Simple, but it works.

…

Sigh. Why does everything have to suck so much?

Posted in Audioslave, live, remixes, Soundgarden | 1 Comment »

I have nothing of value to add to the current discourse so here’s some ZZ Top.

Friday, May 12th, 2017

Geez.

ZZ Top
Gimme All Your Lovin’ (live)
Sharp Dressed Man (live)
I Got the Six (live)
TV Dinners (live)
Got Me Under Pressure (live)
Legs (dance mix)
Legs (Album Version)
All of these tracks are from the 2008 Collector’s Edition of Eliminator, which was released in 2008 and has been seemingly out-of-print ever since. For some reason (and whatever the reason is, it’s a bad one) all digital versions currently being sold only have the single edit of “Legs.” Some CD versions have the album version still, while others use the single edit. It’s pretty hard to tell which has which just from looking though. Both are perfectly fine versions, I don’t prefer one over the other, but it would be nice to have the album version on the album (duh).

Completely exclusive to this release is the dope as fuck super extended “Dance Mix” which really jacks up the sequencers. It’s basically “I Feel Love” with blues riffs. A great concept that I’m really bummed more people didn’t get behind in the 80s. The live tracks are decent, but let’s be honest, this is an album that was never made to be played live. It’s a studio creation through and through.

I recently bought the remastered vinyl of Eliminator. It came on cherry red vinyl to match the Eliminator car and it sounded great. That is, until it got to “Legs” and it just suddenly cut out near the end of the song. No fade, no breakdown, it just cuts out entirely. What I suspect happened was that they pressed the original album version on a groove that was allocated for the single edit, which is over a minute shorter.  Whatever the reason, it’s pathetic that Rhino, who released the disc, never issued any sort of public recall for the LP. I emailed them twice, with neither message getting a response. I eventually had to return it to my local record store.

Anyways, between the error-riddled vinyl and the out-of-print 2 CD edition, Rhino/Warner Bros. really need to get their shit together on this one. Eliminator is one of the greatest albums of the 80s. They should teach it in music school and the class should be called “how to sell out for cash and still make a kick-ass record.” Because, let’s face it, a Texas blues band adopting a synth-heavy sound in 1984 was about as hard a sell-out as humanly possible. But they made it work.

Posted in live, remixes, ZZ Top | 7 Comments »

Japanese Versions Of The Star Wars Theme

Friday, May 13th, 2016

The best thing about living in Japan is finding 1970s covers albums of sci-fi films.

Okay, maybe it’s not the best thing, but it’s definitely in the top 10.

Toru Hatano
Star Wars Theme
Toru Hatano (aka Toya Hatano) is somewhat of a minor player in the progressive/jazz/electronic scenes of 1970s Japan. In the early 70s he was a member of the psych-rock band Brush!?, who only released one record as far as I can find. In 1977 he released his solo debut, a soundtrack called Love For You followed a year later by a collection of movie themes performed on synthesizer entitled Space Adventure. Since then, he’s worked behind-the-scenes and runs a company that sells insanely high-end audio cables.

As synth cover collections go, Space Adventure is an odd one, and features not only 70s soundtrack standards like Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but also selections from lesser known genre material at the time including Logan’s Run, Capricorn One, Solaris, and even Flesh Gordon (not Flash, Flesh).

It’s not bad, although as someone who has listened to probably over a dozen synth cover albums in his day, there’s not much to make it stand out aside from its slightly oddball song selection. The cover is pretty rad though.

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Damn, it looks like they’re constructing the ELO spaceship.

Jun Fukamachi
Theme From Star Wars
One thing that I was surprised to learn about the 1970s music scene in Japan is how intermixed the jazz, funk and electronic music scenes were. Look into the discography of nearly any major guitarist or keyboardist from the era, and you’ll find that he or she probably got their feet wet in all three genres, if not more. Ryuichi Sakamoto’s first release as a collaborative free association jazz album, and both of YMO’s most prominent guitarists, Kenji Omura and Kazumi Watanabe, were accomplished jazz musicians before, during and after their work with the legendary synthpop group.

The same goes for Jun Fukamachi, digging through his back catalog I’ve found everything from J-pop, funk, folk, jazz, experimental avant-garde, synth-pop and pure electronic music. He even worked on a few of those “Digital Trip” anime soundtracks that I wrote about a couple weeks ago. His main focuses seemed to be jazz and funk though, using synthesizers in way that could be compared to the 70s output of Stevie Wonder, much more organically and with other instruments than his purely electronic counterparts.

And if you know anything about live jazz, with its heavy use of improvisation and free-association jamming, is why this live take on the Star Wars theme lasts over seven minutes. It goes places, man.

I’m crediting this to Jun Fukamachi because it’s listed under his discography at Discogs and I found it in among his solo records at the record store, but it’s really a collaborative effort. I think the band itself is called Space Fantasy. In addition to Jun, the group is also made up of Hideki Matsutake (aka Logic System) and the previously mentioned Kenji Omura. Joining them are Hiroki Inui, Shuichi Murakami and Shigeru Okazawa, all of whom have worked on countless albums in Japan as session players. So if you know anything about the jazz scene of Japan in the 70s and 80s, then this is kind of an all-star supergroup jam session.

To be honest, the album as a whole diverges into free-improvisation a bit too much for my liking, but their take on the Star Wars theme the only improvisational jazz/funk version of it I’ve ever heard, so they get points for originality if nothing else.

Posted in Jun fukamachi, live, Toru Hatano | No Comments »

I’m Still An Alligator

Sunday, January 24th, 2016

Turns out I have a lot of David Bowie on my hard drive(s) and digging it all out/organizing it is proving to be a task better suited for some sort of digital archaeologist. Just counting songs that are properly tagged as David Bowie/Tine Machine I have about 1,300 tracks in my iTunes library. I know I have more buried somewhere though. And I’m fairly certain that I have some singles back in the states that I never got around the properly recording. That’s a real shame because there are a few gems there, including a weird 10+ minute remix of “Fame ’90.”

I continue to be amazed at how much David Bowie is in print now. If you want the 12″ remix of “Magic Dance” then you can go on Amazon and fucking buy it right now. AND YOU SHOULD BECAUSE IT’S AWESOME. You can even go online and get remixes to “Loving The Alien” if you so desired.

So basically I’m repeating what I said in my previous all Bowie post, if you like David Bowie’s music then you should really be buying his music.

Of course, this blog exists because that’s not always possible. So here’s some shit that’s worthwhile yet unavailable.

David Bowie
Fun (Dillinja Mix)
Dead Man Walking (This One’s Not Dead Yet Mix)
Under Pressure (Live)
Moonage Daydream (Live)
Some real oddities tonight.

First up is a remix of “Fun,” which is doubly weird because the non-remixed version of “Fun” was never commercially released as far as I can tell. I have no idea when it was recorded, the story behind it, or if any other remixes were ever made available in any way shape or form. I got this remix off of the Davidbowie.com exclusive Live And Well 2CD compilation. Most of the remixes from that set were made available when Bowie’s mid/90s output was re-released in 2CD sets, but it didn’t make the cut.

After that we have a unique remix of “Dead Man Walking” which I found off of a CD single to the song. Another mix that didn’t make the cut when Bowie’s 90s records were re-released. A real shame too because it’s one of the better ones. While most of the song’s remixes play the dance angle and crank it up to be a club banger, this one puts Bowie on the forefront and tones it down a bit, all while keeping its beat. It’s a cool take on a great track.

Finally, there are two live tracks, both taken from the CD-single to “Hallo Spaceboy.” The live version of “Under Pressure” is relatively faithful to the original save for the fact that the vocals are shared by Bowie’s amazing bass player Gail Ann Dorsey.  However, the live rendition of “Moonage Daydream” is an interesting departure from the original, stripping away a lot of what made it a glam rock tune and replacing it with some industrial/90s’-rock overtones. Bowie would do this a lot when he toured in the 90s, sometimes to more drastic degrees than others. The changes he made to this track are tame compared to how he totally re-worked “Andy Warhol” into batshit crazy drum and bass track during his “Outside” tour.

By the way, does anyone have high-quality MP3s of this 90s tours that they’d feel like sharing?

Posted in David Bowie, live, remixes | 7 Comments »

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