Radio Friendly Pop Music

June 20th, 2011

It is day two of “Mavs Victory Lap” week at Lost Turntable, where I post almost everyday in celebration of LeBron James’ lack of a four quarter.

Today, music that one would never associate with professional sports.

Squarepusher
4026 Melt 1
4026 Melt 3
4026 Melt 4
4026 Melt 5
4026 Melt 6
Die-hard Squarepusher fans have my utmost respect, because that dude changes genres more often than I change clothes. He’s done acid house, acid jazz, IDM, drum and bass, glitch, ambient and industrial/noise – sometimes all on the same album, or even the same song. Shit, he even has an album that’s nothing but electronic bass solos. Appropriately enough, said album is called Solo Electric Bass 1, (the “1” is somewhat troubling).

One of his more critically-acclaimed and somewhat more accessible records was his 2006 release Hello Everything. Some versions of this record included a bonus 3″ CD EP called Vacuum Tracks, which is where the above songs originally appeared.

Now, while Hello Everything is a diverse and at times very melodic album, Vacuum Tracks is not. Do you like drone? Well then, you’ll be in monotone heaven with these five cuts. If you like, oh I don’t know, melody, notes, beats, anything resmbling something that might be considered music one would enjoy listening to on a regular basis, then you might want to pass on these oddities. (I listened to this EP once, I don’t think I ever will again.) Still, someone out there loves this shit, and for that person – I am here.

Björk
Where Is The Line (Fantômas Mix)
Where Is The Line (Matmos Rubber Band Remix)
Where Is The Line (Soft Pink Truth Glow Stick Museum Remix)
Who Is It (Vitalic Mix)
One of my friends is moving and she’s trying to unload some of her records (blasphemy!). When anyone I know (and several people I don’t know) attempt this, I am usually called in to go through the lot and determine if they have anything of value. Most of her records, while totally fucking awesome, weren’t of note to serious collectors.

But near the back of her crate were two white-label Björk 12″ with no identifying markers. These weren’t for sale, but she wanted me to record them. After noting that the singles consisted mostly of “Where Is The Line” remixes, I was able to use their running times to figure out the song titles. These remixes were never “officially” released outside of these 12″ singles, which were limited to about 400 copies each. Now, my friend is not a die-hard record collector like me, so I had to ask her where she found these records. Her response: “fucking Iceland.”

So the moral of this story is that if you want crazy rare Björk, then you have to go to the source.

Side note: the Fantômas mix is by Mike Patton and fucking sounds like it, so adjust your volume accordingly.

Posted in Bjork, remixes, Squarepusher | 1 Comment »

Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode

June 20th, 2011

It’s tough to be a “good fan” these days.

By “good fan” I mean someone who ignores the pre-release leak blogs, the torrent sites and the file-sharing services and actually pays their hard-earned cash to buy the album legit when it comes out. Someone who coughs up the extra dough for a physical version, not because they think it sounds better, but because they think music still holds some value, not something that’s as disposable as any other downloaded file on a hard drive.

I consider me one of those people. I try so hard to respect and value the bands I love, even when it seems like they are going out of their way to make it as hard as possible for me to do so.

I’ve expressed my disdain before for “exclusive” tracks. Simply put, I think they are bullshit, nothing more than a cheap way for a band to make a quick cash grab when music sales alone aren’t enough. Things have gotten a little better in recent years. It used to be that “exclusive” tracks on iTunes or on like services were only available if you bought the whole album. At least nowadays they’re usually available individually. So if a group wants to stick a B-side up as an “exclusive” track for iTunes or Amazon, I’m willing to live with it.

But sometimes it just goes too far. And if there’s any band who’s “good” at taking the whole “exclusive” thing too far, it’s fucking Depeche Mode.

When they released Sounds Of The Universe in 2008, they put out several versions. One of them was an awesome Deluxe Box Set Edition that cost around $100. That version came with not only the complete album and a ton of nifty booklets, postcards and neat bonus goodies, but two additional CDs of remixes and demos as well. Sure, it was pricey and a bit excessive, but when you got that version you felt like really got your money’s worth.

Well, not really. You see, there was also another deluxe version that was only available through iTunes on their now-defunct iTunes Pass service. This edition of the album included 18 or so additional remixes, most of which were not made available on the Deluxe Box Set Edition. It cost a bit more than the standard version, but it sure as hell cost less than the $100 that the deluxe box did.

Basically, Depeche Mode was saying that if you really wanted all the content associated with Sounds Of The Universe, then spending $100 for the Deluxe Edition wasn’t good enough. You were going to have to buy the album twice.

Now, I’m sorry, but I feel that if I spend $100 on an album, on the physical deluxe edition of the record, the one that I had to pre-order on import to get, then I feel like I should be getting the best version of that album. I should get the most bang for the my buck.

Well, apparently Depeche Mode doesn’t feel the same way, because they’re at it again. Two weeks ago Remixes 2: 81-11, their latest remix compilation, came out. When this was announced, I knew I had to get it on vinyl, if for no other reason than to match my vinyl copy of their first remix collection. So I went ahead and pre-ordered the insanely expensive 6LP edition.

Since I live in US, I had to pay import price for this box set, so it cost me over $100. I finally got it in the mail last Friday. I clawed my way into the packaging, eagerly anticipating to discover what my $100 got me.

Did it get me a download card with access to digital versions of all the tracks? Nope.

Did it get me any exclusive tracks? Nope.

Does nearly every other (far less expensive) version of the album come with exclusive tracks? Yup.

Did I go ahead and find all the exclusive tracks online with plans of hosting them here? You bet your ass.

Depeche Mode
Master And Servant (RSS Remix)
In Chains (Myer vs Wilder Deconstruction)
Sister Of Night (Ida Engberg’s Giving Voice To The Flame Remix)
Sister Of Night (Ida Engberg’s Walking Through The Light Dub)
Sweetest Perfection (Phil Kieran Vocal Miix)
Sweetest Perfection (Phil Kieran Remix Dub)
Personal Jesus (Alex Metric Dub)
I Want It All (Roland M. Dill Lunar Dub Remix)
The Sinner In Me (SixToes Remix)
The Sun And The Rainfall (Black Light Odyssey’s Further Excerpts)
The thing that really irks me about most of these exclusive cuts is that they aren’t really exclusive. For example, as Depeche Mode’s official site (which I am not linking to for obvious reasons) points out, “The Sun And The Rainfall (Black Light Odyssey’s Further Excerpts)” is an “exclusive” track for not only HMV in England, but also for Nokia in Finland; Napster in Germany; both FNAC and Virgin Media in France;  Net Music in Italy, and for Aspiro in other parts of Europe.

“Regional exclusive” and “exclusive” are not the same thing. Of course, all those stores want you to think that their version is special for some reason, so they won’t mention that.

And in some cases, like with the iTunes or Amazon exclusive tracks, if you don’t live in America or England, you’re just fucked and you cannot buy them. For some reason, if you live in the “wrong” country you aren’t able to buy digital music from other counties. Apparently MP3s can’t be imported and exported. I’m sure there’s a reason for that, and I’m sure it’s for the benefit of billion-dollar record companies and not the consumer.

What’s really fucked is that these aren’t even all the exclusive remixes! The online music store Beatport actually has an exclusive version of the album, but I don’t know if I consider that to be the same thing. Beatport is for DJs primarily, and the versions they have are almost all dub and instrumental cuts for DJs, so I’m not going to share those. But the fact that there’s a whole other version of this album that’s only available digitally and not to people who shelled out $100 for a deluxe vinyl set is kind of fucked up.

And even if you think “exclusive” tracks are just great and not fucking over hardcore fans, the fact that I was still able to find all of these tracks online in just 30 minutes of searching shows that, at the end of the day, they’re a pretty fucking useless way of encouraging MP3 sales.

Posted in Depeche Mode, rant, remixes | 31 Comments »

808 States And Heartbreaks

June 15th, 2011

Go Mavs!

Aw shit, now I have to update my blog five times next week!

Oh well, it if means that LeBron James is sad and angry then it’s worth the work.

808 State
Cubik:98 (Victor Calderone Remix)
Cubik:98
Cubik (Tomix)
Ooops (Utsula Head Remix)
Ooops (Mellow Birds Remix)
Ooops (Eric’s Kup of Hysteria Remix)
Ooops (Eric’s Kup of Hysteria Edit)

So this is weird.

I found this 12″ to “Cubik” a couple week ago, which I promptly bought and listened to. After rocking out to it for a bit I decided to revisit Ex:El, the classic 808 State album from which it came.

Now, I have Ex:El on both vinyl and CD, and I never got around to ripping my CD version. When I popped it into my computer, I discovered that the CD version of Ex:El that I have has a drastically different mix of “Cubik” on it.

Nearly every release of Ex:El just as the regular version, while some also have the Pan Am mix and other additional mixes on a bonus disc. My version of the CD doesn’t have any of those, instead it has a crazy nine minute version of the track that isn’t on any other version! After doing some digging on Discogs, I discovered that this is the “Tomix” version.

Still, it’s weird that no other version of this album has that mix. How the hell did that happen? It’s totally the best version!

Since no digital version of Ex:El has the “Tomix” mix I’m including it here for your listening pleasure, as well as some remixes of the Bjork-featured “Ooops,” which are all from the 12″ single. Enjoy the mixes while I frantically plan to create five day’s of content for next week.

 

 

Posted in 808 State, remixes | 11 Comments »

This Post is Fucked Up and So am I

June 12th, 2011

I’m writing this before game five of the NBA finals.

If the Mavs win this series I promise to update this blog five times next week.

There, so if you don’t give  a shit about basketball and you like my blog then you should still root for the fall of LeBron James.

In order to hype myself up for the game I’ve been listening to Fucked Up all day. You should join me.

Fucked Up – Let Likes Be Cured By Likes
Generations
Colour Removal
Black Iron Prison
No Pasaran
The Light That Never Comes On
Last Man Standing
Circling The Drain
Zezozose
Police
Outro
Opening Reversed
Outro Reversed
Okay, this is a fucked up record…no pun intended.

It was originally released on Schizophrenic Records in 20o4 on a clear single-sided 12″ record. According to Dicsogs, this first printing was limited to a scant 444 copies.

Two years later, Schizophrenic re-released the EP, this time as black-and-blue marble colored record. There are only 400 copies of this one, making it oddly rarer than the first printing. Unlike the first printing, the second printing is double-sided, but the B-side is just a copy of the A-side.

This is a live album, recorded on 8-track in 2002. If you only know Fucked Up from their more recent releases, then the songs here might be a bit of a shock to you. While Fucked Up is still a hardcore punk rock band, in recent years they’ve shown they haven’t been afraid to embrace other genres and styles of music. The Chemisty of Common Life does open with a freaking oboe solo after all.

This shit is straight-up hardcore – and could stand up stylistically with Black Flag, Circle Jerks or early Bad Brains. Melody? Fuck that shit. This is as fast, loud and rough around the edges as punk rock gets. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you want 10 songs in 18 minutes delivered so fast that if you tried to headbang to them all you’d end up tearing your own head off, then this right up your alley. If you want (slightly) more polished versions of these tracks, most are available on Fucked Up’s two singles compilations Epics In Minutes and Couple Tracks.

Finally, there are two secret bits on Let Likes Be Cured By Likes, backwards messages both start and close the album. The last two tracks listed here are those backwards messages playing forward. So if your mom overhears you listening to this album and thinks you’re listening to music with hidden suicide instructions, you can set her straight.

Oh, and go buy Fucked Up’s new album David Comes To Life. It’s a fucking masterpiece.

And go Mavs!

Posted in Fucked Up | 3 Comments »

Occular Remixes

June 8th, 2011

Ever go kinda sorta blind in one eye for a while? Yeah, that’s not fun.

I’m feeling much better now though. I just thought that was a great excuse for delay in updates.

Madonna
True Blue (The Color Mix)
True Blue (Remix Edit)
True Blue (Instrumental)
Ain’t No Big Deal
There are not a lot of classic-era Madonna that can be safely called “rare” but most of these tracks fit the bill. “The Color Mix” of “True Blue” is on some versions of the album, and it’s even on iTunes. However, if you want it on iTunes you have to buy the whole album, which is a giant pile of horseshit. I can’t believe they still do that, it’s so 2002.

Truth be told, “The Color Mix” isn’t that radically different than the original, it’s just a little longer, with an an added instrumental interlude about two-thirds in, with some random vocal samples thrown in for no apparent reason. As for the “Remix Edit”, I’ll be honest, it’s been so long since I heard the original version I couldn’t tell you how this version is different.

“Ain’t No Big Deal” is kind of an oddity. Madonna first recorded the track in 1980 with a producer by the name of Stephen Bray who Madonna worked with a lot during her early years. That version, along with most of the other stuff she recorded with Bray, remained unreleased until 1997, when Bray released it on an album called Pre-Madonna, which included many of her earliest recordings.

This version of the song, as far as I can tell, has never been released on a proper Madonna album. I have no idea why, it’s a fun little song, very 80s and pop. Sure, it doesn’t really stand out when compared to other early Madonna songs like “Material Girl” and “Borderline,” but it’s totally worth a listen.

Gus Gus
Very Important People (Dune Remix)
Very Important People (Francois K. Mix)
Very Important People (Masters At Work Main Mix)
Very Important People (Q-Burns Abstract Message Remix)
Oh, those Icelandic people and their chill electronic music. After buying several GusGus 12″ singles over the years I finally caved and picked up an actual GusGus album – 1999’s Is This Normal. One day I might listen to it even. Sigh. I have too much music. The original version of this track is from Is This Normal, which many people have told me is a very fine album. I dig these remxies very much, especially the “Francios K. Mix,” it has a 70s funk vibe that I find totally groovy. All of these mixes were taken from a 12″ promo single.

Midnight Oil
Blue Sky Mine (Food On The Table Mix)
I haven’t posted anything by Midnight Oil in forever! Not since 2007 to be exact. Well hey, it’s not my fault that they didn’t release a copious amount of remixes and 12″ singles. This mix of “Blue Sky Mine” is odd. It starts out by sampling “Bed Are Burning” before continuing as normal, only to break it down at the end with a drums-and-vocals only bit, followed by a fairly manic guitar bit before it closes once again with the opening notes of “Beds Are Burning.” It’s a Midnight Oil megamix! But not really. Still, it’s good.

Posted in B-sides, GusGus, Madonna, Midnight Oil, remixes | 3 Comments »

My Moonlight isn’t Very Serious at All

May 31st, 2011

I went through and cataloged all my freaking CDs this weekend (I know how to party!) and to my shock I found two discs that are not only worth a ton of money that I actually am okay with selling. (Usually the only stuff I have that’s worth any money is the stuff I never want to get rid of).

So if anyone wants a limited edition Day Of The Dead Soundtrack CD (limited to just 3,000 copies) or a gold-pressed copy of Use Your Illusion II by Guns N’ Roses, send me an offer! Give me money to buy more records! We all win.

Foo Fighters
Doll (Live Acoustic)
See You (Live Acoustic)
For All The Cows (Live Acoustic)
Everlong (Live Acoustic)
As a near-psychotic collector of recorded music, I own quite a bit of concert DVDs. While I love them, they can be kind of a pain. Going to a concert and rocking out is a lot of fun. Sitting on your couch and watching a concert? Not as much fun. With rare exception (Nirvana’s Live At Reading, Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense), I find it hard to watch a concert movie in its entirety – I’ll take a live CD over a live DVD any day.

But I like the music on them, so I finally decided to try to rip all the audio from all my concert DVDs. I’ve been using a combination of DVD Decrypter, Audacity and Format Factory to do it (a good starter guide to this process can be found at Doom9), and as you can tell from those acoustic Foo Fighter tracks (taken from their excellent 2003 live DVD Everywhere But Home), it seems to be working pretty well.

When I rip the audio from the DVD to my computer, it’s usually in the AC3 audio format, which can easily be converted to MP3 using Format Factory or Audacity. However, there’s one problem with converting audio to MP3, that problem being the MP3 format itself.

The MP3 file format is really popular, it also really kind of sucks. This suckage is especially notable when converting AC3 or WAV audio to MP3. When you convert to MP3, a small fraction of a second silence is added at the beginning and the end of the audio track. This is almost never a problem, unless you are converting a live concert or DJ mix, then those microseconds of silence are a fucking nightmare that ruin the whole cohesion of the recording!

And there is almost no way to get rid of them. In most programs, if I delete them they just pop right back after I close them. I can mostly eliminate them in Audacity, but a vestige still remains.

And don’t go recommending WMA or AAC audio as a solution, they do it as well. The only compressed audio format I found that doesn’t add a bit of silence when being converted from WAV was OGG, but since I can’t get OGG files to play on my iPod easily, that’s not an option.

So please, don’t point out the gaps in the audio if you download these tracks. Trust me, they annoy me far more than they annoy you.

David Bowie
Let’s Dance (Bollyclub Mix)
Another DVD rip. This one was taken from the DVD that came with some versions of the Best of Bowie compilation from a few years back. Nearly every other mix from that DVD has since been released and can be found on the Club Bowie 12″ Mixes that you can get on iTunes and Amazon, so I’m not including them here. This particular mix of “Let’s Dance” still hasn’t had a digital release though, so it’s fair game to me.

If more Bollywood music sounded like this I think I’d watch more of those movies.

Flesh For Lulu
I Go Crazy (Dynamix)
I Go Crazy (Instrumental)
These are not DVD rips, just regular old vinyl rips, taken from a 12″ single. I think my obsession with getting every single John Hughes movie-related release (this is from the Some Kind of Wonderful soundtrack) went a bit too far with this one. It’s still a fun track though.

Posted in David Bowie, Foo Fighters, live, remixes | 3 Comments »

All My Friends are Coal-Powered

May 27th, 2011

I would pay a thousand bucks to see a collaboration between the two artists I’m featuring tonight.

RuPaul
Whatcha See is Whatcha Get (D & D Bentley Mix)
Whatcha See is Whatcha Get (RuPaul Talk Radio)
Whatcha See is Whatcha Get (Acapella)
Whatcha See is Whatcha Get (Dubs 2)
Whatcha See is Whatcha Get (Dubs 3)
If you don’t see the inherit humor in a drag queen performing a song with that title, well then there’s no helping you.

I think it’s about time I came out of the closet…as a huge fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race! I hate reality TV, but I find the utter fabulousness of that show consistently fascinating and hysterical. This season was probably the best yet, and not just because someone who was deserving finally fucking won.  I think you can still watch the show on Logo’s website, I suggest checking it out. RuPaul is the shit yo.

I need to get more of RuPaul’s music. She’s a shockingly good singer and has some great tunes. But what I’m really interestedthough isher early stuff. I’ve heard some stuff off of Sex Freak and it sounds crazy. RuPaul was punk rock! Who knew? Anyone know where I can get a copy of that weird record?

Gary Numan
My World Storm (12” Mix)
My World Storm (Instrumental)
This Wreckage (Metalmorphosis Mix)
Are ‘Friends’ Electric? (Metalmorphosis Mix)
For the past few days I’ve been going through all my CDs and cataloging them. Spoiler: I have a lot of CDs.

When you have as many stupid CDs as I do, you start to forget that you own stuff. For example, I completely forgot that I bought a CD single of “Rip” a few years ago, I never even ripped it to my computer (ironically enough). While “Rip” isn’t the best Numan song, the “Metalmorphosis” mixes that are included with it are pretty awesome,  each taking these two classic Numan songs and reworking them into his more modern style. Sure, he does that a lot (he even releases an entire two-CD set dedicated to that) but they’re still worth listening to. I may be a bit bias though, I’d probably listen to a cabaret version of “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” and still dig it.

The “My World Storm” remixes were taken from a 12″ single that I bought a few months back in Miami but never got around to posting for some reason. “My World Storm” is from the early 90s, an era that was not Numan’s best. I still like the tune though, even if it’s more than a bit dated.

Posted in Gary Numan, remixes, RuPaul | 5 Comments »

It Sounds Better Than “Idaho Bishops” I Guess…

May 25th, 2011

It’s raining.

It can stop anytime.

Stupid rain.

Aztec Camera
Backwards And Forwards (Live)
Jump
The Bugle Sounds Again (Live)
Mattress of Fire (Live)
The Birth Of The Tune (Live)
Do you like Aztec Camera? Do you like the fact that I semi-routinely post rare tracks by them? If so, swing on by to the amazing Anna Hegedus’ website. If it wasn’t for her I would have never heard of them, and I buy most of my Aztec Camera to make her happy.

And yes, that “Jump” you see there is a cover of the Van Halen tune of the same name. It sure is…something.

These were all taken from a 10″ single for “Backwards And Forwards.”

Jimmy Somerville
Heartbeat (Armand Van Helden Mix)
Jimmy Somerville was the lead singer of Bronski Beat, and he’s fabulous. The DJ compilation record in which I found this mix, however, was very much not fabulous. It was scratched to shit, skipped like crazy, and overall just sounded like a pile of ass.

Now, I have previously stated my aversion to audio “clean-up” programs that remove the clicks and pops found on vinyl records. They tend to make the recordings sound compressed and distorted, which is way worse than a couple clicks and pops.

I usually just go through myself and remove all the bad parts if possible, but this recording was a mess. While browsing the Internet for good audio editing software I came across ClickRepair and I thought I’d give it a shot. It seems to do a pretty good job, but I’ll be the first to admit that my ears aren’t always trained for this kind of thing. I used it on this track though, so download it and let me know how it sounds.

I would appreciate any input you all have. If you’re an audio geek and really want to see how the program works then download this zip. Included in it are two copies of a live version of Tom Robinson’s “Glad To Be Gay” (I know it’s an odd test file, but it was the most damaged track I could find that I thought was still salvageable). Listen to both to the “before” and “after” tracks, is there anything wrong with the after track? I don’t notice any significant audio degradation. I really want this program to work, it would make my life so much easier!

Utah Saints
Ohio (DJ Misjah Mix)
On Feburary 24th, 2009, I said the following:

“The Utah Saints were neither from Utah or saints, discuss.”

Commenter Rekanize responded with the following:

“New Orleans, once upon a time, used to have a basketball team known as The New Orleans Jazz… in 1979, they were moved to Utah, then known as the Utah Jazz.

Well, New Orleans’s football team is the Saints…

yeah?”

That was over two years ago and it still blows my fucking mind. Shit’s crazy.

This remix is from the same compilation that the Jimmy Somerville track is from, but the side it was on was in considerably better shape, and required no digital touching up.

And, no, this is not a cover of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Ohio.” One could only hope. I assume it’s called “Ohio” because it samples “Fire” by the Ohio Players. This track samples something else though right? What is it?

Update 5/25/11: File was removed because it was actually the album version, and not a remix.

 

 

Posted in Aztec Camera, B-sides, covers, live, remixes, Utah Saints | 4 Comments »

I Spent Five Minutes Thinking of a Title and This is the Best I Could Come up With

May 20th, 2011

Man, the week just flies by doesn’t it? I realize I have not been posting as much as usual lately, but life has been pretty hectic. Everything returns to normal next week though, so expect more quality (and not quality) content coming soon.

Until then, fucking Beastie Boys are dope, yo.

Beastie Boys
Get It Together (A.B.A. Remix)
Get It Together (A.B.A. Instrumental)
Three MC’s And One DJ (Live Video Version)
Negotiation Limerick File (Handsome Boy Modeling School Remix)
Body Movin’ (Kut Masta Kurt Remix Instrumental)
Negotiation Limerick File (Accapella Wet)
Can someone please tell me that the new Beastie Boys’ album is good? I want to buy it, but holy shit To the 5 Boroughs was trash.

Recently the Beasties re-issued their classic work in deluxe editions with bonus tracks and remixes, which makes it hard for people like me to find truly “rare” tracks. I guess these remixes were on the cutting room floor for those deluxe editions though, as they remain rarities as far as I can tell. I could be wrong though. I swear some release in the past had the video version of “Three MCs and One DJ.” Am I just imagining thing? Wouldn’t be the first time. Knowing me my intuition is probably flipped, that’s the only track that’s actually rare, and the rest are all on iTunes somehow and I missed them.

Hey, if I am wrong do me a favor, tell me. But don’t be a dick about it. I appreciate knowledge directed towards me in a non-dickish manner.

The remixes of “Get It Together” are from a 12″ single for the track, and the rest are from an odd vinyl EP called “Scientists of Sound – The Blow Up Factor Vol. 1.”

Posted in Beastie Boys, remixes | 6 Comments »

When will Charles Bronson get his own song?

May 12th, 2011

In an effort to post all the crap I’ve accumulated over the past few weeks tonight’s post is completely random. Anyone who can find a connection between these three artists gets a cookie.

Mmmmm…cookies.

Love And Rockets
R.I.P. 20C (D.eath M.etal T.echno Mix)
R.I.P. 20C (R.I.P.ella)
When I hear the name “Love And Rockets” I think of the chill folk sound of Earth, Sun, Moon. To be honest, my knowledge of their 90s output was practically nil when I picked up the 12″ single that had these crazy remixes of this crazy song, which is nothing more than singer Daniel Ash droning off a list of acronyms behind a pulsing beat. I mean, I like it, but damn it’s not what I expected. Anyone care to comment on the quality of Love And Rockets later material? Anything worth picking up?

Ayla
Liebe (ATB Remix)
Liebe (Minimalism Remix)
Liebe (Cyrus & The Joker)
Aside from what I read on Last.fm five minutes ago, I know nothing about Ayla. I bought this 12″ single because of the ATB remix. And since I’m being honest I’ll confess that I know little about him aside from some remixes he’s done and his debut single “9PM (‘Till I Come),” which I fucking love. I also love this track, although in my opinion it sounds shockingly similar to the previously mentioned ATB track, maybe that’s why ATB remixed it?

Sheryl Crow
Steve McQueen (The Minge Binge Great Escape Mix)
Steve McQueen (The Minge Binge Great Escape Dub)
Steve McQueen (Jorio’s Lectoluv Vocal)
Steve McQueen (Jorio’s Lectroluv Dub)
Okay, I feel as if I should preface my discussion of this song with the following: I HATE Sheryl Crow. For real. I cannot stand her. I hate her stupid whiny voice, I hate her boring inane lyrics and I abso-fucking-lutely hate her hideous cover of “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” I only like two songs of hers, and this is one of them.

I really like this song. I have no idea why. Maybe it’s just because I like Steve McQueen? I don’t consider it a guilty pleasure though. I hate that term. To paraphrase Chuck Klosterman, a song cannot be a guilty pleasure because it’s not actually causing you any harm. Cocaine, now that’s a guilty pleasure.

To me, a song like this is an “angry pleasure.” It pisses me off that I like it so much. Other examples for me include The All-American Rejects’ song “Dirty Little Secret” (which is kind of ironic if you think about it) and Bon Jovi’s “Living On A Prayer.” I really hate that I like those songs.

The horribly-named “Minge Binge Great Escape” version is pretty much just the original sped up. The “Lectoluv” versions are much better, and transform the song into something barely recognizable as a Sheryl Crow tune (which is really for the best).

And for the record, the other song of her’s I like is “Safe And Sound.” That song is so beautiful that it almost makes me want to forgive Crow for “A Change Would Do You Good.”

Almost.

Posted in Ayla, Love & Rockets, remixes, Sheryl Crow | 11 Comments »

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