GNR, Frank Black and Goldie. Yeah, I didn’t plan this one out very well.

March 29th, 2012

I added an RSS/Google Reader/I don’t know what reader to my sidebar. Does it work? I never use that stuff. Someone tell me, I’ll be your best friend if you do.

Guns N’ Roses
Don’t Cry (Demo)
I never thought I’d get a chance to post some rare and out-of-print GNR, mostly because I didn’t think that there was any rare and out of print GNR. But hey, I love being proven wrong. This demo version of the classic “Don’t Cry” is the B-side to to the 12″ “Don’t Cry” single, which is a nifty record because the cover has a hologram on it.

Hologram covers. That’s some 90s shit right there. I can put this right next to my lenticular comic book trading cards.

Frank Black
The Ballad Of Johnny Horton
Surf Epic
I never thought I’d get to post and rare Frank Blank either! But hey, I found some at a record show last week! These are B-sides to the “Hang On To Your Ego” single, which was a track from Frank’s self-titled 1993 debut. While that track is a cover, I’m fairly certain that both of these instrumental tunes are original compositions. There is another song “The Ballad of Johnny Horton,” but I don’t believe they have anything in common (aside from probably being about Johnny Horton). But don’t pay much mind to that track, instead, focus on the aptly-titled “Surf Epic,” a 10 minute smorgasbord of surf guitar and sci-fi sounds that is brain-meltingly good.

If you don’t own an of Frank Black’s early solo albums then you’re failing at life. Go buy Teenager Of The Year right now. that album has “Speedy Marie” on it. A song that an ex-girlfriend of mine consistently referred to as “like the best song EVER!” Myself, I prefer “If It Takes All Night” from Dog In the Sand, but maybe that’s why we broke up.

Goldie
Inner City Life (Full Length Mix)
Inner City Life (Roni Size Instant Mix)
Inner City Life (Nookie Remix)
Inner City Life (4 Hero Pt. 1)
It’s 2012 and I still don’t own Goldie’s Timeless. So I guess I’m failing at life too. In fact, I hardly own any Goldie! Just some 12″ singles and that song he did on the Spawn soundtrack with Henry Rollins (also, for some reason I own that soundtrack on vinyl, red transparent vinyl, what the hell?!).

Anyways, even if you don’t like drum and bass (and why not? It’s the best thing since sliced Beatles) I still think you should give this song a chance. It’s freaking beautiful.

 

Posted in B-sides, Frank Black, Goldie, Guns N' Roses, remixes | 5 Comments »

Here’s to Six More Years of Obscurity

March 27th, 2012

Okay, let’s try this again.

I wrote a thing for Nerve. You should read it.

After you do that, come back here. I have music for you. And if you’re visiting here for the first time because of Nerve, well then welcome! Want to listen to the soundtrack to Urgh!? If so, you might find this post of some interest.

David Bowie
When The Wind Blows (Extended Mix)
When The Wind Blows (Instrumental)
I posted those mixes to “When The Wind Blows” before, but if you say you remember that then you’re damn liar. That’s because they were on my very first post ever, which I am nearly 100% certain no one ever read until about six months after I took the files down.

That post was six years ago this month! That’s crazy. I can’t believe I’ve kept this blog going that long, but I’m so glad I did.

A lot of people ask me why I do this. I make no money on this blog (in fact, I lose money on it) and it’s a lot of work. Well, as much as I would like to say that I do it for you, the people who are looking for rare and hard to find music, the truth is that I really do it just as much for me as for anyone else.

By keeping up this blog, I kind of force myself to make adventurous musical purchases, and seek out rare and hard-to-find records with the hopes that I might find something interesting to write about it. During the times when the fun freelance writing work dries up (which is more often than I would like ) this blog literally keeps me sane, especially when it’s my only outlet for writing about music. And getting comments and tweets about how awesome I am certainly has done wonders for my self-esteem when things have gotten rough.

Basically, what I’m saying is that I’d like to thank everyone for sticking with me on what is essentially an entirely selfish endeavor that benefits my own ego. I’m glad you enjoy it, and I hope to keep doing it as long as I can type sarcastic bullshit with a healthy side of snark.

But enough of my humblebragging, I have David Bowie songs for you!

As I mentioned in my original post about these songs back in 2006, “When The Wind Blows” is the title song to a 1986 animated film about an elderly British couple struggling, and failing, to survive the horrors of a world in the aftermath of a nuclear war. It’s not a cheery flick. In fact, that’s an understatement, When The Wind Blows is a soul-sucking succubus of a film that will leave you depressed and without hope.

But the theme song is great! And six years later this extended version and the instrumental version (which is an entirely different recording, not just a studio cut with the vocals removed) remain out of print digitally! So enjoy them, and try to think happy thoughts. If you can’t then the next songs will probably help out with that.

The B-52’s
Roam (Extended Mix)
Roam (Instrumental)
Roam (12″ Mix)
“Roam” was released as a single in 1990, a year after R.E.M. released “Stand” as a single. Because of this I will forever assume that “Roam” is a diss track to R.E.M., in which The B-52’s shred R.E.M.’s promotion of a sedentary lifestyle in favor of a more exploratory state of being. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

Stan Ridgway
Salesman (Extended Mix)
Stan Ridgway was the lead singer of the epic Wall of Voodoo before he left the group in the mid-80s to embark on a solo career that most people probably don’t know about, and that’s a damn shame. While I can’t make any claims about his output from the 90s and beyond, his solo records from the 80s were amazing. If you have not, I highly suggest you pick up his debut The Big Heat and his excellent sophomore follow-up Mosquitos.

The best song on The Big Heat is “Camouflage” an excellent yarn about a marine in Vietnam who may or may not have been saved by the ghost of a super-solider. Since The Big Heat is in print and easily available on Amazon (where you should buy it), I can’t post that track. However, I can post this extended remix of “Salesman” which is the B-side to the “Camouflage” single. It’s not as great a track as “Camouflage,” but it’s incredibly catchy and still a solid tune.

Posted in B-52s, David Bowie, remixes, soundtrack, Stan Ridgway | 7 Comments »

Selections From Wipeout 2097 – The Soundtrack (With A Quick Mass Effect 3 Rant)

March 21st, 2012

I’ve been annoyed by something over the past few weeks, and I’ve continually debated with myself if it’s something I wanted to bring up on this blog. But since I’m posting a video game soundtrack tonight, I figure that’s enough of an excuse for me to go on a video game related rant of sorts.

Fucking Mass Effect 3.

If you follow gaming news at all, you know what I’m going to talk about now. If not, a quick summary.

Mass Effect 3 is a video game made by BioWare and distributed by Electronic Arts. As a whole, the Mass Effect series has been widely acclaimed for its amazing story. The characters are nuanced and detailed (with the women actually being characters and not sex objects to be ogled), the conflicts between alien races are fascinating, and the overall themes the games touch on are grand and bold, with some of the greatest dialogue ever to grace video games holding it all together.

The series is also lauded for its high degree of interactivity when it comes to the story. You can choose how to interact with people, how to solve quests, and in some cases who lives and who dies. What’s even more impressive is that the choices you make in one game carry over to the next. So the people and situations I experience in ME3 will vary widely from those experienced by another player depending on how they played the other games in the series.

So you can see how gamers would develop an attachment to the world of the game and its characters, which made playing through the third game all the more painful for them (and me).

Long story short, BioWare fucked up in some pretty major ways when the time came to make ME3, the biggest of which being the ending. Simply put, almost nothing you did actually ends up mattering. The characters you saved/killed, the choices you made, the alliances you forged, none of it really matters. With rare exception, the only difference between the game’s endings is what color explosions you see.

Needless to say, fans were pissed, and since the game’s release, more and more have been sending angry tweets to developers, organizing protests and even filing complaints with the FTC over false advertising. The overall theme of their efforts has been constant: “fix the ending.”

Well, today it paid off when BioWare announced they will be releasing upcoming DLC (downloadable content) that will help to provide “more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey.”

That’s good right? I sure thought so! The fans spoke out and the developers listened!

But I guess it’s bad? I mean, that’s if the gaming media is to be believed.

I follow a lot of gaming journalists on Twitter, and their overwhelming reaction has been one of extreme displeasure. Their basic argument is that BioWare “caved” to fan pressure, and that they’re compromising their “artistic vision” in order to offer what many consider to be fan service and nothing more. Some have even gone as far to claim that this not only sets a dangerous precedent for storytelling in games, but that it also shows that games are somehow a “lesser” form of art.

While some writers have been able to express their distaste in BioWare’s decision with a modicum of class and respect to the gamers who are so passionate about the game, many have simply responded with whiny troll comments, insulting Mass Effect fans’ intelligence. Because we all know that the best way to get someone to agree with you is to insult and belittle them.

Furthermore, I find it curious that the games media is against BioWare for modifying (not CHANGING) the ending of the game, but they seem to have almost no problem with BioWare stripping out content to make overpriced day-one DLC or the fact that you almost need to play multiplayer to get the experience needed to earn the game’s “best” ending.

So, decisions that sour the storytelling experience so BioWare can make more money, those don’t invalidate games as art, but somehow listening to your fans and responding accordingly does? How does that make sense?

As for this setting a “dangerous precedent,” people are giving this instance way too much credit, as if it’s never happened before. Games have had their endings changed with DLC before, Bethesda did it with Fallout 3, and I’m pretty sure that BioWare’s even done it with their games in the past.

Shit, it’s not even unique to video games. Fan reaction often changes the narrative of fiction. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle only “resurrected” Sherlock Holmes after his fans complained to him. Dallas made an entire season of their show a dream to undo the damage they caused (and they retconned the series finale with reunion specials). The makers of the anime Neon Genesis: Evangelion even released an alternate ending to the series to help answer the fans’ questions regarding the show’s bizarre climax. Musicians regularly compromise their artistic vision to sell more records. You can’t just ignore these examples and insist this is something new. Well, I guess you can, but then that just makes you a dick, which is kind of my point.

I wish someone in the gaming press would actually talk about the positive aspects of this, and the positive trends that I hope it might help spread, such as the idea that BioWare and every other video game developer out there should care more about their story and less about figuring out how to squeak out more money from the players. And that when you cut out parts of your story for DLC and skim on the narrative to make us play a boring multiplayer mode, we’re going to take notice and we’re going to call out on it. And when you make bold claims that turn out to be boldfaced lies, we’re going to call you out on that too. You can’t just go around and make shit up and expect it to be okay anymore.

But hey, whatever. It’s just a video game, and I’m sure even the most condescending of people I’ve been arguing with on Twitter aren’t bad people, they just like to get a reaction out of people, and that’s something I’ve certainly been guilty of in the past.

But you know what games don’t need stories? Racing games. Let’s talk about an awesome one of those.

Wipeout XL/2097 – The Album (Selections)


The first Wipeout was released in 1995 for the Sony Playstation, with Saturn and PC ports coming soon after. It’s a futuristic racing game where racers drive not cars, but high speed ships that hover just inches off the ground. It was one of the first games for the PS1 that I played, and I remember it blowing my 16-year-old mind away. It was just so fast! Holy crap! Looking at it now, it seems quaint, but at the time I was just in awe of it.

Wipeout XL (Wipeout 2097 in other Europe) was released a year later. This sequel took everything that was great about the first game and ramped it up to eleven, including the speed. This game was flippin’ fast. Your vehicle would shoot across the track at such high speeds that I remember it was hard to even focus on what was going on sometimes.

In addition to the amazing sense of speed and it’s awesome sleek, futuristic look, each game in the series is also known for it’s excellent electronic soundtrack. Prodigy, The Future Sound of London, Photek, The Propellerheads and many other amazing electronic artists of the era were featuring in Wipeout games, and served for me as an excellent introduction to electronic music past what I was hearing on MTV.

Now that I come to think of it, I think a good deal of my musical tastes were shaped by the soundtracks to the Wipeout games. Without them I certainly would not have discovered electronic music when I did, meaning they probably saved me from a life of late-90s post grunge and indie bullshit. So I was very happy to find a vinyl copy of the soundtrack last week. Since most of the songs on the Wipeout XL/2097 soundtrack were liscened tracks, many of them are available today on CD and digital download. I’m only featuring the ones that are not, enjoy.

Prodigy
Firestarter (Instrumental) 
Don’t worry, it still has the “Hey hey hey!” part.

Future Sound of London
We Have Explosive (Herd Killing)
I never heard of FSOL before Wipeout, and I associate them (and this song) with the game so much that I can never think about one without immediately thinking about the other. I’ve been waiting for a chance to put up a version of “We Have Explosive” for years now, but every other version I own has seen a digital release on Amazon or iTunes. This “Herd Killing” variation, however, has never been released outside of the Wipeout soundtracks from what I can tell. And if it has, any album/single that has it is long out of print.

Orbital
Petrol
A different version of the song than the one that’s included on Orbital’s In Sides album.

The Chemical Brothers
Leave Home (Underworld Mix I) (Edit)
Another alternate version that’s exclusive to this soundtrack, this one clocks in at about three minutes shorter than the one on the leave home single. Great tune, Underworld really put their stamp on it with this remix.

Photek
Titan
The Third Sequence
I could be wrong (I’m wrong a lot after all) but I’m fairly certain that these two tracks by Photek were made exclusively for Wipeout XL. Aside from a 12″ single, I don’t think they ever got any other official release. That’s especially odd considering that “Titan” doesn’t even appear in the game itself, just the soundtrack CD. If you like 90s DnB then you should seriously dig on these tunes, they’re great.

Source Direct
2097
Another track that’s on the CD/LP but not actually in the game itself.  A great tune none the less, very reminiscent of Photek.

Fluke
Atom Bomb
V Six
Hey, two songs that were actually in the game! This version of “Atom Bomb” clocks in at a whopping eight minutes, and is different than the version that would later appear on a Fluke album. “V Six” is a straight up exclusive to this soundtrack, and never saw a release on any Fluke record as far as I know. It’s not as great as “Atom Bomb” (few things are) but it’s a great hard-driving electronic tune, the kind of thing you want to listen to while driving a hovership at 200 miles per hour.

Leftfield
Afro Ride
I want to ride on a giant afro. That would be awesome. This was also the b-side to “Afro Left.”

Posted in Fluke, Future Sound Of London, Leftfield, Orbital, Photek, Prodigy, soundtrack, The Chemical Brothers | 10 Comments »

Pet Shop Hats

March 20th, 2012

Hey, it’s a post with a couple of bands from the 80s. I’ve never done that before!

Pet Shop Boys
Se A Vida É (That’s the Way Life Is) (Mark Picchiotti’s Deep And Dark Vocal)
Se A Vida É (That’s the Way Life Is) (Deep Dish Liquid Remix)
To Step Aside (Ralphi’s Disco Vox)
To Step Aside (Hasbrouck Heights Mix)
To Step Aside (Davidson Ospina Dub)
To Step Aside (Ralphi’s Old School Dub)
To Step Aside (Brutal Bill Mix)
To Step Aside (Ralphi’s House Vox II)
 I have 50 Pet Shop Boys singles now. That’s insane. I’m insane. Want to know something even crazier? I only own three or four proper Pet Shop Boys records! What the hell is wrong with me? I’m a remix addict, that’s what’s wrong with me.

Men Without Hats
Pop Goes The World (Dance Mix)
Pop Goes The World (Dance Edit)
Pop Goes The World (Dub)
Where Do The Boys Go (Extended Version)
 Eurotheme
 Insert obligatory “you can dance if you want to” comment here.

I posted two of these remixes six years ago (HOLY SHIT THIS BLOG IS OLD!) but I felt the repost was neccessary for a few reasons. First of all, no one read this blog six years ago. Secondly, those rips sounded like ass. And thirdly, Men Without Hats kick ass and I wish I had more opportunities to post their stuff.

Both “Pop Goes the World” and “Where Do The Boys Go” are infinitely superior to “The Safety Dance,” with catchy choruses, fun lyrics and amazing melodies. And “Eurotheme” is Kraftwerkian brilliance, I wish it was longer than its scant 2 minutes and 42 seconds.

How were these guys a 1 and a half hit wonder? Pop isn’t fair!

Posted in B-sides, Men Without Hats, Pet Shop Boys, remixes | 9 Comments »

Lets Dance to Songs about Shacks and Fish

March 14th, 2012

Thought I’d take a break from arguing with game developers on Twitter and pounding my head against my desk trying to overcome a case of writer’s block with some happy tunes.

And I totally promise to have that guide to ripping vinyl up…sometime. I started that when I had almost no writing work going on and now I seem to have a ton. I’m not complaining about getting paid to write, but it does make this blog  kind of a secondary concern. And I’m sure most of you would rather me ramble for a bit and post some awesome remixes than go on and on about ripping vinyl.

Right now it looks like the guide will be split into several parts: Hardware, set-up, software, and editing. I think I should be able to get the hardware and set-up parts done fairly soon. Going into detail about software and editing is a bit more complicated though. Still, I really am planning on getting the whole thing done sometime this month. I appreciate your patience.

Now let’s head on down to the Love Shack.

The B-52’s
Love Shack (12″ Remix)
Love Shack (12″ Instrumental)
Love Shack (12″ Mix)
Love Shack (Big Radio Mix)
Channel Z (12″ Rock Mix)
I can’t believe that I’ve had this single for years and have never posted it! What the hell is wrong with me? Maybe it was because my original recording of it sounded like dogshit. It’s amazing what a stellar stylus and a high-quality record washing machine did for improving the quality of my rips (another tease from my recording guide?).

Since I pretty much everything ever put out by The B-52’s, it goes without saying that I think these remixes are sweet. I will always be confused by the “12” Remix” and “12” Mix” titles though. You think they would have called one of them something a little more unique. What makes something a remix and something else a mix anyways? Anyone know?

Bell & James
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (12″ Remix)
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (Instrumental) 
I posted this film’s amazing soundtrack a few months ago, and I’m still bummed that more people didn’t seem to dig it. If you like brilliantly dumb disco then my god do you need to download that record. It will change your life. You will believe that a fish can save Pittsburgh.

If that doesn’t do it for you, then these two added bonus mixes of the soundtrack’s so-good-it’s-life-changing title track should do the job. This song is a masterpiece of everything awesome. Ever. In the history of stuff. Bell &  James should not only get a lifetime achivement award Oscar for their work on this song, they should also get every best song Oscar from 1979 to 2011 as an apology (okay, I’ll let the people who wrote “Fame” keep theirs, but they’re it)!

So yeah, I kind of dig this song, you should download it.

Posted in B-52s, Bell & James, remixes | 8 Comments »

The Citadel Is A Lie

March 13th, 2012

I’m going to try to update more this week. I’m not covering anything for any magazines right now, I’m not traveling at the moment, and I’m done getting my heart ripped out and shit on by Mass Effect 3 (thanks so much for that ending, BioWare). So hopefully I can plow through my massive backlog of electronic singles that I pick up last week.

In other news, I have a new(ish) post at my other blog, Random Record Reviews! Read it. Leave a comment already! I like positive reinforcement.

Also, do you want to buy some of my records? Well, I’ll be selling some on Marth 24th at the Pittsburgh Record Fest, located at Belvedere’s (4016 Butler Street) from 7pm to…whenever they kick me out! Stop by! I’ll be the big guy with exact change.

Daft Punk
Around The World (Kenlou Remix)
Around The World (M.A.W. Remix)
Around The World (Mellow Mix)
Around The World (RAW Dub)
All these remxies are by the duo Masters At Work, names I have seen on seemingly countless singles throughout the years. They’re good, but chill (a common theme for tonight).

Conjure One (Featuring Sinead O’Connor)
Tears From The Moon (Hybrid Twisted On The Terrace Mix)
Tears From The Moon (Robbie Rivera Mix)
Tears From The Moon (Carmen Rizzo Stateside West Chill Out Mix)
If I see a single that has the word “Hybrid” followed by the word “mix” or “remix” then I will probably buy it, as they are my favorite trance act of all time. It’s a decision that pays off more often than not, and it really paid off here. This song is great, and all of the remixes improve on it in their own unique way.

I never heard of Conjure One before I bought this single and I was shocked to find in my research that it’s the work of Rhys Fulber, who started out as a member of Front Line Assembly. From electro-industrial-metal to beautiful progressive trance music in less than a decade? Maybe he switched from heroin to ecstasy or something. Regardless, these mixes are really amazing. Even if you don’t like electronic music I think you should check them out, especially the Hyrbid one, because…Hybrid.

Leftfield
Release One
Release Two
Release Four
Typically I’m not a fan of dub electronic music. I like my tunes with a bit more energy and a bit less weed. But these mixes of “Release The Pressure” appeal to me for some reason. Maybe it’s because most of them cut down on the reggae vocals and replace them with more chill beats. Of the three, my favorite is “Release Two,” it’s build is pretty great.

And don’t ask me where “Release Three” is, because my 12″ single didn’t have it.

Tricky
Christiansands (The Imposter’s Mix)
Ghetto Youth
Flynn
Much like the Leftfield mixes, these tracks are some chill-ass dub. Unlike the Leftfield mixes, they’re a little more uneven. Sure, the “Imposter’s Mix” of “Christiansands” is great (pretty much because it’s just an extended mix of the already amazing track) but “Ghetto Youth” is a bit on the annoying side since it’s pretty much just an incomprehensible reggae-sounding dude babbling over a beat. “Flynn” is barely more than just a barrage of beats, but it’s only two and a half minutes long so it doesn’t outstay its welcome.

Utah Saints
Lost Vagueness (Oliver Lieb’s Main Mix)
Lost Vagueness (Deadly Avenger Infantile Vocal Mix)
Lost Vagueness (Central Club Remix Edit)
Lost Vagueness (Josh Wink’s Deep Interpretation)
And in the “I would have never guessed the source of that sample” department, the vocal track on this excellent song by the Utah Saints was actually lifted from The Pretenders’ “I Go To Sleep.” And I thought their Kate Bush sample was random.

Utah Saints are awesome. Their first album came out in 1993, and their second in 2000, does that mean we’re overdue for a third? I know they’re still around, they just did a mix for Mixmag, so why the hell can’t they put out a new LP? I need more dance music that’s built of blatant vocal samples dammit. Get on that shit.

Posted in Conjure One, Daft Punk, Leftfield, remixes, Tricky | 5 Comments »

Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival

March 6th, 2012

Hope & Anchor is a pub in the Islington borough of London. In 1977, they held a series of concerts dubbed The Front Row Festival. Performances from those concerts were then culled to create a 2LP concert album that was a record for the ages. It’s a crazy album with a wildly diverse set of artists, a line-up that shows a bygone era where an amazing assortment of diverse bands and genres co-existed in an open and free environment.

Not only are a wide arrange of punk and new wave artists featured on the album, but a good majority of the record is devoted to pub rock, an entire genre that most people today probably know next to nothing about.

Pub rock was a very short-lived genre that thrived in the London pub scene (duh) from about 1971 to 1975. It was basically roots rock music, stripped down old style rock and roll that had more in common with rockabilly and rhythm and blues than anything that was popular at the time. In fact, pub rock was a reactionary movement against popular music of the time, especially glam rock and prog rock. Pub rock acts were against bombast and overly complex songs. They wanted to take rock music back to its roots, so much so that many of them wouldn’t have been out of place in the 1950s opening for Bill Haley or Buddy Holly.

But it wouldn’t last long. While taking a nostalgia trip to a bygone era is fun for a while, the scene quickly moved on, appropriating the bare-bones and simplistic style of pub rock while forgoing it’s retro flavor, resulting in the birth of  punk.

However, for an all-too-brief moment, both scenes existed side-by-side, and we thankfully have this album to document the exciting and influential bands that were a part of it.

And Dire Straits.

Wilko Johnson Band
Dr. Feelgood
Twenty Yards Behind
Wilko Johnson has been in a few different bands. For most of the 70s he was in a pub rock act called Dr. Feelgood. Apparently when he left the group in the later half of the decade he took this cover of the 1960s blue song from which the band got their name with him.

The Wilko Johnson Band appears to have been a one-off, this is their only credited appearance from what I can tell. But everyone in the band (Norman Watt-Roy and Steve Monti, along with Johnson) were also in another band called Solid Senders, who released their sole album in in 1978. After that band ended, Johnson joined Ian Dury’s Blockheads.

Both “Dr. Feelgood” and “Twenty Yards Behind” are classic UK pub rock, no punk attitude to be found.  Still, you can hear how it probably served as an influence to the kids who would form punk bands, with its simple chord progressions and fast tempo, but you can also imagine that most probably hated it at the same time since it was pretty tame.

The Stranglers
Straighten Out
Hanging Around
I don’t think I need to say much about The Stranglers, they’re one of the biggest and best bands on this compilation. If you don’t own any Stranglers albums, then shame on you. Go buy some. I’ll wait here till you get back.

See? The Stranglers kick ass. Let’s move on.

Tyla Gang
Styrofoam
On The Street
The Tyla Gang were the brainchild of Sean Tyla, who was the guitarist for the awesomely named Ducks Deluxe, another popular British pub rock band of the mid-70s.  As The Tyla Gang, he seemed to continue the pub rock tradition of Ducks Deluxe, cranking out fast-paced, blues-influenced rock-n-roll. It’s not surprising that he went on to work with Joan Jett for a bit after the Tyla Gang called it quits.

These tracks a pretty solid, although the wannabe blues sound of “Styrofoam” is a bit corny.

The Pirates
Dont Munchen It
Gibson Martin Fender
The Pirates featured on this album are Mick Green, Johnny Spence and Frank Farley. They served as the backing band for the second incarnation of Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, who released their first single back in 1959. They were with Johnny Kidd until 1966, when he died in a car accident. This recording was apparently their “comeback” gig, and their first major appearance since Kidd’s death.

Strangely enough, The Pirates are one of the most “punk” sounding pub rock bands on this album, going for the raw style of R&B reminiscent of early Who and Sonics songs. “Gibson Martin Fender” has an oldies feel for sure, but all that separates “Don’t Munchen It” from a Sex Pistols track are competent musicianship of the band members and quality vocals.

Steve Gibbons Band
Speed Kills
Johnny Cool
Another 60s survivor, Steve Gibbons was a member of the horribly-named group The Uglys, and the even more horribly-named group Balls. His upbringing in the 1960s scene shows with these two songs, which are some of the most “roots rock” sounding cuts on the record.

The Pleasers
Billy
Rock & Roll Radio
These guys are interesting, at least from a musical standpoint, as they sound a bit like everything. They have the guitar solos and beats of 50/60s rock, the bluesy, garage rock feel of early-70s pub rock, and the non-stop energy and enthusiasm of punk/new wave music. I’m surprised they didn’t end up on Stiff Records. They ended up releasing quite a few 7″ singles, but they never put out a proper record. It’s too bad, this pair of songs sure sounds great.

XTC
I’m Bugged
Science Friction
I’m willing to bet that XTC were the only band on this line-up who would site Can and Neu! as inspirations. XTC are legends, I have nothing of value to add to any discussion about them. Both these songs are great, and if you haven’t already, listen to more XTC, they were incredible. Buy Oranges & Lemons, that album is a masterpiece.

Suburban Studs
I Hate School
Not all 1970s UK punk was political or topical, unless you consider the timeless subject of not wanting to go to school to be one of political importance. The Suburban Studs were one of the very first punk rock bands, with their first single coming out in 1977, but they fell through the cracks and have since been forgotten. That’s probably because they weren’t very good when compared to the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Buzzcocks.

But hey, do you hate school? If so, then you can totally identify with this track.

Dire Straits
Eastbound Train
They may be the biggest band on this record (probably by about 100 million records or so), but when this performance was recorded in 1977, the band didn’t have an album to their name, let alone a single. Even though, this sounds like Dire Straits, laid-back and bluesy, with Knopfler’s trademark guitar and vocal styles noticeable from a mile away.

As far as I know, a studio recording of this song has never been released, and the only official releases of it have been on live albums. It’s a good track, but it still sticks out like a sore thumb compared to everything else here.

Burlesque
Bizz Fizz
Another pub rock group that died out with the birth of punk. I know very little about these guys. They released two albums (one studio and one live) but neither came out in the states and neither have been reprinted on CD. I can’t even find them on YouTube. Based on “Bizz Fizz” I can pick up a slight jazz edge to them, but they also have that punkish energy that so many great pub rock bands had. Anyone know if their albums are worth tracking down?

X-Ray-Spex
Let’s Submerge
I really need to get me some more X-Ray Spex. I think they the only first generation punk rock act to have a female lead singer (who had the fucking amazing stage name Poly Styrene), and I’m willing to bet they’re one of the only punk rock acts ever to rock a  sax player (for better or worse). This song kicks ass, although it’s no “Oh Bondage! Up Yours!”

999
Crazy
Quite Disappointing
999 songs can be broken up into two categories. The first is “Homicide” and the second is “everything that’s not Homicide.” That second category has some stand out tunes, like these two upbeat punk numbers, but nothing in it can compare to the singular song in the first category. Another great early UK punk group for those of you who may not know, their first three or four albums are well worth checking out.

The Saints
Demolition Girl
Aussie punk! I don’t know how these guys ended up in England to record a track for this album, but the record is sure better for it. This song kicks ass.

The Only Ones
Creatures of Doom
I’ll be honest, I knew nothing of The Only Ones before listening to this album, although when I started doing my research I found that I had heard their classic “Another Girl, Another Planet” before. They kind of remind me of the Buzzcocks, definite good company to have. They have a pretty big cult following, and after listening to more of the music, it’s easy to hear why.

Steel Pulse
Sound Check
Steel Pulse was a reggae band. They’re in Urgh! I still don’t like reggae, (sorry) so let’s move on.

Roogalator
Zero Hero
Roogalator was a funk band, at least according to their profile at Discogs, but “Zero Hero” is pretty damn punk. I love it. I also love saying “Roogalator” over and over again so much that my roommates must be wondering if I’m chanting to myself. 

Philip Rambow
Underground Romance
Philip Rambow is proof that life is weird.

In the early 70s he was in a band called The Winkies, who were pub rock in sound but glam in appearance. This appealed to Brian Eno, and he called on The Winkies to serve as his backing band for one of his tours. But Eno suffered a collapsed lung just a few shows in, and the entire tour had to be scraped.

But it wasn’t all bad news for the The Winkies. The bit of exposure did get them a major label deal, and in 1975 they put out their self-titled debut. However, the album was a bomb, so the group broke up. Rambow released a couple of solo LPs (one as The Phil Rambow Band and the other just as Philip Rambow), but they were bombs as well.

They got him noticed by someone though, because he got some songwriting work, most notably serving as a co-writer to Kristy MacColl’s classic “There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears he’s Elvis.” He also played guitar on Peter Murphy’s solo debut Should The World Fall Apart.

Pub rocker to glam rocker to pop songwriter to session guitarist for a goth icon. How’s that for a career trajectory?

 

Enjoy the record. If you want to learn more about pub rock, I recommended Jason Heller’s excellent piece at the A.V. Club. It covers the genres high (and low) points quite nicely.

 

Posted in 999, Burlesque, Complete Albums, Dire Straits, live, Philip Rambow, Roogalator, Steel Pulse, Steve Gibbons Band, Suburban Studs, The Only Ones, The Pirates, The Pleasers, The Saints, The Stranglers, Tyla Gang, Wilko Johnson Band, X-Ray Spex, XTC | 4 Comments »

Don’t You Know I’m Loco?

March 1st, 2012

Next week I will have at least one super-awesome post! And the week after that I promise to have my damn guide to ripping vinyl complete!

Right now I promise to offer some classic hip-hop with minimal editorial comment.

Cypress Hill
Insane In The Brain (Extended Version)
When The Shit Goes Down (Extended Version)
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to interview B Real for a story on something I’d rather not mention here. It was a phone interview. Like many phone interviews, I am not given the actual artist’s number. Instead I am given a number to a PR rep, who then transfers me to the artist in question.

When I called in for this interview, the PR rep said to me “do you mind holding for a few minutes? B Real is just wrapping something up.”

It took every fiber in my being not to immediately ask “Is it a joint?”

Because the dudes in Cypress Hill kind of like weed. In case you didn’t know.

Anyways, B Real is a cool dude, real chill…and I think he was high.

Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde
Genius Rap
Genius Of Love (Instrumental)
I love the absolute brazen nature of old school rap when it came to samples. Today a rap group can’t sample a note from a pop tune without getting sued to oblivion, but back in “the day” when no one knew what the hell they were doing, rappers would take the instrumental of a song and just rap over it. Prime example is this cut from Golden Age rappers Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde. In case you can’t tell from the track title, “Genius Rap” is barely nothing more than the duo rapping over a modified instrumental track of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius Of Love.” Imagine if someone tried that today. If Kanye grabbed the backing track to “Rolling In the Deep,” cut a rap track over it and released it as “Rappin’ In The Deep.” Sure, there are mixtapes, and rappers use less-than-legal samples for those, but there’s something to be said for the day when rappers could just steal shit and get away with it. Fucking copyrights.

Also, I love the cover to Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde’s lone album.

Too bad the “Wall Street accountant” look never caught on in hip-hop.

Posted in Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde, remixes | 1 Comment »

Sub-par 80s Music (and a decent track from the 90s) for your listening pleasure

February 28th, 2012

I think I only really like one of the songs in tonight’s post. But what can I say? I’m a man of the people. And I’m certain that some people out there really want songs, so I’m happy to oblige.

Are there any people out there who want to oblige me?

…wait, that sounded dirty. Let me start over.

I’m working on a few articles at the moment, and I’m looking for some people to interview.

Do you like video games? Do you like vinyl? Do you like video game soundtracks on vinyl? Have you bought a video game soundtrack on vinyl. If you can answer yes to that last question (and probably the first three as well) then I would love to speak to you. My email address is in the sidebar. Hit me up.

Did you say no to all those questions? Okay, then do you like Joyful Noise Records? They’re an indie label that specializes in vinyl and cassette tape releases. Have you bought any of their super-crazy limited edition releases? If so, I’d love to hear from you. Email. Sidebar. Do it. You know you wanna.

If you answered no to all of those questions, it’s okay, you can still download these songs.

A Flock of Seagulls
Who’s that Girl (She’s Got It) (Extended Version)
Who’s that Girl (She’s Got It) (7″ Version)
Who’s that Girl (She’s Got It) (Instrumental Version)
I came into this post determined not to make a joke about Flock of Seagulls haircuts. But then I realized that’s all I really know about the group. Then I realized that I had no jokes about it, aside from a pun that described the haircuts as “Locks of Seagulls,” but I’m better than that…at least I think I am.

As Flock of Seagulls singles go, this is pretty minor. It’s from their latter years (1985) and certainly lacks the futuristic, crazy out-there sound of “I Ran” and “Space Age Love Song.” It sounds like a generic new wave song from the late-80s, so at least you can say they were ahead of their time in delivering that.

Heaven 17
Heaven 17 Megamix
This is a mix that combines approximately 80 billion Heaven 17 songs, including “Crushed by the Wheels of Industry” and…other Heaven 17 songs. I’ve officially given up on trying to like Heaven 17. Sorry. But hey, if you do, you’ll probably dig this. It’s like Heaven 17 concentrate! It’s the Colombian cocaine of Heaven 17 songs, pure and uncut. I would say its safer than uncut cocaine, but I don’t want to make that claim since there probably haven’t been studies showing the long-term damage that can result from extended use of Heaven 17 megamixes.

Fluke
Reeferendum
This is the b-side to “Absurd.” I think it was inspired by weed. Just a guess. I know it kind of shits on the 80s theme I had going, but like I said before, I wanted to put up at least one song in tonight’s post that I actually liked.

Posted in B-sides, Flock Of Seagulls, Fluke, Heaven 17, remixes | 1 Comment »

Everything, Everything, Everything, Everything, Everything, Everything, Everything

February 22nd, 2012

This site has not turned into an Underworld fan page, it’s just what I had easily available at the moment. I’m sick, tired and it’s been a long week. When I do get the energy to clean/play/record my recent finds I can assure you that I will have some amazing stuff that’s not dance music.

But there will also be a lot of dance music. So you might want to get used to that.

Underworld
Dirty Epic (Dirty Guitar Mix)
Dirty Epic (Dirty Mix)
Cowgirl (Irish Pub In Kyoto Mix)
Cowgirl (Winjer Mix)
If I was a world famous remixing person, I would make a remix of “Cowgirl” called “The Everything (Everything) Mix.” It would just sample the beginning vocal of the track (where he says “everything, everything”) and build up everything else around that, with the vocal loop never ending. A remix should take the best bit of a song and push it to the front. Fuck the rest.

That being said, these remixes of both “Dirty Epic” and “Cowgirl” are still great even though they don’t do that. Maybe there’s a flaw in my idea. Nah, fuck that. I’m flawless.

Nobukazu Takemura
Mimic Robot (12″ Single Mix)
Cons (Plant Mix)
Resign Part 2
Lost Treasures (2nd Single Mix)
 If and when I ever finish The Lost Turntable Guide to Recording Vinyl, I will have a chapter on vinyl restoration software. Some of that stuff is great, and can really go a long way to restoring even the most battered of recordings. That being said, if an artist incorporates clicks, pops and hisses into their recording, then don’t even bother using it. It will obviously remove those as well.

Which is a really long-winded way for me to explain why these tracks by Nobukazu Takemura haven’t been restored and have a few (unintended) clicks and pops in them.

They don’t have any skips though. If you think they do then you obviously haven’t heard enough experimental electronic music. It’s supposed to sound like that.

If you have never heard of Nobukazu Takemura before, you’re in for a treat. I like to describe his electronic stuff as music a seven-year-old would make if they new how to work a synthesizer, vocoder and sampler. It’s wonderfully kooky and cute.

Posted in B-sides, Nobukazu Takemura, remixes, Underworld | 2 Comments »

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