I want to set all the preamps on fire

May 23rd, 2013

Okay, so here’s what happened.

A few days ago I wrote a review for Daft Punk’s totally awesome Random Access Memories. As per usual with my uber-geeky reviews, I also went into some detail about the compression of the digital version of the album compared to the vinyl release. Then I went onto say that the vinyl also sounded slightly different, its drums seemed muted, and the bass seemed louder.

I can see what links people clicked on to get to my blog, and I like to do that everyday. It so happened that this review caught on with some people at an audiophile message board. Somewhere there commented that the album doesn’t actually sound like that on vinyl, and that if I had a certain cartridge on my turntable then it would sound better.

Now, I take audiophile comments with a grain of salt, especially when they’re along the lines of “you need this $500 cartridge to really appreciate your music, man.” But I have been unhappy with the quality of my rips for some time now.

This happens every year or so. I get a setup that I think I ‘ll finally be happy with, but then as I listen to more and more music and rip more and more vinyl, I start to pick out imperfections. In this case, I have long suspected that my rips were too, I don’t know how to describe it, muddy, I guess? Like they were muted and muddled a bit. Nothing horrible. I bet 90% of the people who listen to them think they’re fine, but it was bothering me. So I took a little more interest in what this guy had to say.

So then I went to my audiophile message board of choice, Audiokarma and asked about my problem at hand. I even brought audio samples. The people there suggested that I was looking for a more “aggressive” cartridge, and they steered me towards a couple that were much more in my price range. However, one person also suggested that something else could be at fault, that my setup might not be jiving well with my preamp.

Curious, I dug out an old cheap solid state preamp that I bought years ago and hooked it up to my system. Lo and behold, my audio sounded much crisper, the drums were no longer muted, nothing sounded “underwater.” I was happy. For about 20 seconds.

You see, the problem with this preamp is that it sucks. I guess that’s kind of vague, I’ll explain more. It has lousy shielding. it picks up radio frequencies like a motherfucker. If I crank it on full blast I can hear the classic rock station as well as I can my music. Additionally, it has a wicked hum that just never goes away.

So off to Radio Shack I went (yay) to pick up some grounding cable and a ground loop isolator. I figured if one didn’t do the trick the other would.

Hooked up the ground loop isolator, it made things worse.

Tried to hook up a grounding cable, and that presented itself with a whole other heap of problems. See, my turntable has been modified to not need a ground cable hooked up to it. That’s great, however it leaves me nowhere to hook up the ground cable coming out of my preamp. Feeling MacGuvyerish, I tried wrapping one end around a copper pipe in my bathroom (it was a long cable) but that also just made things worse.

So here’s how I stand right now. I have one preamp that gives me no interference, but it sounds like shit. I have another that sounds great, but it’s muddled with interference.

My head kinda wants to explode. Which is bullshit because I have exploding head syndrome so it does that shit already.

I’m looking into some other pre-amps, but this shouldn’t be that hard. I think that if I were able to properly ground my pre-amp then I would at least be able to eliminate the damn hum, and maybe from there I’d figure out a way to get rid of the RFI. Anyone have any suggestions? I keep reading things like “attach it to a three pin plug” but what the hell does that even mean? Wrap it around a three prong power plug? That doesn’t seem like a wise idea. As much as I love audiophile boards, they sure as hell have a hard time explaining the simplest of concepts. In fact, I still don’t entirely understand what a fucking ground loop is, other than that they’re bad and I don’t want them. Is it really such a complex fucking concept to get across?  Argh.

Anyways, I wrote another big thing at Mostly Retro, a guide to Giorgio Moroder’s music. I suspect that if you’re the kind of person who comes to this blog, you already know all there is to know about Moroder, but if you know someone who doesn’t and might be interested, send them my way. I’d appreciate it.

I also started putting “buy at Amazon” links on MR, and whenever you buy something from an affiliate link I get a cut. So hey, maybe check out that article and buy some motherfucking Donna Summer. (There’s also a Donate button there too, just sayin’).

Sigh, I’m fucking exhausted. And I really have nothing to say about tonight’s music other than “I like it a lot,” so enjoy.

DJ Rap
Bad Girl (BT’s Spoken Progenitor Mix)
Bad Girl (Bad Girl Roller Remix)
Bad Girl (BT’s Titanium Dub)

Psykosonik
Panik Kontrol

A Guy Called Gerald
Voodoo Ray (Extended Mix)
Voodoo Ray (Gerald’s Rham On Acid Remix)
Voodoo Ray (Paradise Ballroom Mix)
Voodoo Ray (Penthouse Mix)
Voodoo Ray (Voodoo Raydio Mix)

UPDATE: HOLY SHIT I FIGURED IT OUT AND NOW MY SHIT SOUNDS DOPE AGAIN. I’LL GO INTO DETAIL LATER.

*HIGH FIVES EVERYONE*

Posted in A Guy Called Gerald, DJ Rap, remixes | 4 Comments »

Yearning for Imaginary Remixes

May 13th, 2013

I wrote something at Mostly-Retro about bad concert etiquette, why I think it’s such a problem, and what I think can be done to alleviate the problem. Check it out.

Look, I’m going to level with you. I really want people to read that one. It’s kind of important to me, and I spent a lot of time on it. So if you read it and like it, please share it with a friend via…whatever your favorite social media thing is. I’d really appreciate it. I usually don’t mind that my audience is kind of small, my interests are pretty niche after all, but dammit, I want everyone to read that.

Sorry if that sounds a little vain or self-serving, but it’s how I feel.

Now, let’s walk on sunshine.

Katrina And The Waves
Walking On Sunshine (Extended Mix)
And don’t it feel good.

I am fucking shocked that it took me seven years to get this song on this blog. I’m fucking shit up. I need to go through a Billboard Top One Hit Wonders list and see if there’s any other classics that I missed. Maybe find a 12″ mix of Haircut 100′s “Love Plus One” or something.

…

Shit, now I want that. I hope it exists.

Freestyle Mix by Juanito
Mega-Mix 1991 by Richard ‘Humpty’ Vission
These are two megamixes from one of those special “DJ Only” records I talk about on occasion. Unlike last week’s “rock” remix collection, these megamixes are much more inline with what you would hear in a dance club in the early 90s. Like house music? New Jack Swing? That “People Are Still Having Sex” song? Then you should like these.

I’m not that familiar with Juanito, but I know me some Richard Vission, and I can’t believe that this is the first time I’ve ever mentioned his name on this blog. Dude is a legend. Back in the 90s I had a friend who had piles of burned mix CDs, and I lost count as to how many had “RHV – AWESOME MIX” written on them. I wish I still had access to those mixes, some banger stuff on those.

Of these two mixes, I’m a bigger fan of the Vission mix, but they’re both great time capsules of a bygone era and a lot of fun. I’d make a list of all the songs in both, but my knowledge of 90s house and dance pop is not nearly vast enough to do that. If anyone wants to point out any great lost gems in either mix, please leave a comment.

Just don’t mention the Color Me Badd part in the Vission mix. Best we ignore that.

Posted in Juanito, Katrina And The Waves, Richard Humpty Vission | 6 Comments »

These songs didn’t need dance remixes

May 10th, 2013

New on Mostly-Retro, a review of the amazing Blade Runner soundtrack vinyl re-issue, and a look at an INCREDIBLY stupid movie on Netflix.

And with that out the way, I now present the latest in my continuing efforts to share the dumbest music possible:

Collective Soul - Shine (Souza Mix) 
Queen - We Will Rock You (Bass Kicks Micks)
The Eagles - Heartache Tonight (Hell Freezes Over Mix)
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - I Love Rock & Roll (Dance To This Mix)
The Breeders - Cannonball (Bass Line Mix)
Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way (Rip That Guitar Miques)
Oh boy, these are dumb.

So in the 80s and 90s (and maybe probably today to a lesser extent) there were special labels that strictly released “DJ Only” singles and records. I think I wrote about these before. Typically, these releases would include special edits or mixes of popular tunes, or sometimes they would even include their own “megamixes,” saving club DJs the time and effort (and skill) of having to mix tracks together.

Most of the time these releases focused on “dance” tracks, or at the very least, rock songs with a strong dance focus. I’m sure there is an “Ultimix” record out there with an extended dance edit of “Centerfold,” for example. Also, in nearly all the cases I’ve come across, the songs are just mixes and not remixes. What’s the difference?

Typically speaking, a remix is a song that has been modified by someone who has access to the original masters. Remixers usually remove and/or drastically rework original aspects of a song, and almost always add their own elements as well. Remixes may also use different vocal takes or other outtakes by the original artist.

A mix, on the other hand, is more like a re-edit of a song. More often than not, mixers do not have access to the original masters, so they’re rather limited as to what they can change.  So all they really do is add in a couple extra breaks to the beginning and end of a song, throw in some new beats or maybe extend the breakdown in the middle, all stuff done to make the song easier for DJs to mix into another track, or make the song more dance-friendly. These tracks are all perfect examples of mixes, taking the original song, taking on some extra beats or basslines, and not much else.

That, however, does not make them any less hilarious. A dance mix of “Shine?” What the fuck? “Heartache Tonight?” Why? Who the fuck thought that was a good idea? I guess the hysteria from the then-recent Eagles reunion was fucking rampant.

(Side note: I remember when the Eagles reunion concert aired on VH1 that year, holy shit my dad was one stoked old white dude.)

So yeah, if you like dumb shit (and boy, if you don’t then goddamn are you at the wrong blog) then you should dig these.

And if you like The Eagles, fuck you.

Posted in Collective Soul, Joan Jett, Lenny Kravitz, Queen, remixes, The Breeders | 5 Comments »

Bassheads of the world unite

May 8th, 2013

A couple new posts on Mostly-Retro. First up I got a review of the Astralwerks 20/20 Record Store Day box set (spoiler: it sucks). Then I have part two in my journey down the rabbit hole of Atari “soundtracks” with my look at the Missile Command LP (spoiler: it’s dumb). Check them out both and tell all your friends who like awesome reviews of awesome shit about them as well.

In case anyone was wondering, I’m feeling a lot better now. The rage and anger from the past few days has passed and I’m actually feeling pretty good. I’m feeling so good that I had a post planned out with some really soothing and relaxing progressive trance but FUCK THAT SHIT LETS TEAR IT UP WITH DRUM AND BASS.

Dom & Roland
Parasite
Homicide
Killa Bullet
Dumbo
Dom & Roland is one dude, right? Damn, that’s confusing as hell. Why the hell did he do that?

(Goes to Wikipedia to figure this shit out.)

Oh, so his name is Dom(inic) and the Roland in question is his Roland sampler. Ah, that makes sense. And the fact that I couldn’t figure that out on my own makes me feel like a dumbass.

As much as I love drum and bass, I have a hard as hell time trying to get all the subgenres straight. What would you call this? This is techstep, with it’s sci-fi feel, twisty bass sounds and occasional vocal sample, right? Whatever the hell it’s called, I love it. I could listen to this kind of shit 24 hours a day. In fact, I think if I had to stay up for 24 hours straight, this music would work just as well as coffee. These beats kick coffee’s ass. “Killa Bullet” is the most hardcore shit ever and I love it.

Rob & Goldie
Distorted Dreams
The Shadow
The Shadow (Bing Here Mix)
The Shadow (Process Mix)
True story. I went to Ultra Music Festival a few years back. It was a horrible experience and I advise against it. It was too hot, water was overpriced, and the noise bleed from stage to stage was horrendous. Anyways, Goldie was playing the fest, and I knew I had to make my way to his stage to see him. Goldie is a god of dnb, one of the originators, catching a set by him was simply a must.

I got there a few minutes early and the tent he was playing at was already pretty packed, but I soon found out that most of the kids there were there to catch the act after Goldie, and not Goldie himself. In fact, when Goldie took the stage I heard a number of “fans” bemoan “who’s this old dude?”

This was the drum and bass tent, these people were there to listen to drum and bass. They did not know who Goldie was. He nearly invented the fucking genre (yes, I know that’s an exaggeration  but you know what I mean). That would be like going to a “classic rock” show and asking who Led Zeppelin was.

Fucking heathens.

SPECIAL BONUS TRACK
Mother
Goldie’s hour-long opener to his double-disc sophomore album Saturn Returnz, the Tusk of drum and bass records. Seriously, this song is an hour-long, so clear your schedule before you listen to it.

Posted in Dom & Roland, Goldie, remixes | 1 Comment »

SMASH MONO

May 3rd, 2013

Let’s talk about anger.

Anger for me is fuel. Especially when I’m writing. If I love something and think it’s great, I have a hard time writing about it. I suspect a lot of critics have this problem, that’s why so many of us love to review bad works. It’s easier. It’s easier to shit all over something that sucks than heap praise upon praise over something that’s great. There’s probably something you could read into that about the negative nature of humanity and humankind’s eagerness to knock others down as well. But I’m pissed enough as it is, so I’d rather not dwell on that.

But that’s just one kind of anger, and I guess a better word for it would be outrage. When you see a social injustice and it upsets you, you’re not angry, you’re outraged – it’s anger + indignation. And I guess that’s a good thing. That’s how shit gets done, even if said shit is a mean review of North.

Outrage and anger can be productive. They can be motivators.

But then there’s blind fury, rage and frustration. The kind of feeling you get when you find out you locked yourself out of your car, or stubbed both your big toes at the same time.

Rage is…probably a bad thing. Too bad I’m really good at it.

Now, I’m not the Hulk (I wish I was the Hulk!) and I’m not the kind of person to unleash fists of fury on someone because they look at me the wrong way. No. I’m the kind of braindead idiot who will fly into a blind burst of fury because I hit my head on my desk one too many times while hooking up my new computer. Or I’ll lose it after I find 20 typos in a blog post that’s been up for three years. Most often, I go a bit apeshit when I find out that I’ve screwed up something all on my own, with no one else to blame but myself. I would never beat someone else up for their mistakes and fuck ups, but I’ll batter myself to death if I find out that I’ve washed my laundry on the wrong cycle.

Basically, I’m trapped in an abusive relationship with myself. Don’t worry, we’re thinking about seeking counselling.

Why do I say all this? Well, if you follow me on Twitter (and you should, it’s a real shitshow sometimes), then you know that earlier today I found out that I accidentally recorded several weeks of recordings in mono. Why? Because I got lazy and forgot to reset my settings after changing audio ports.

Now, keep in mind, this isn’t something that should be a fucking problem in the fucking first place. Fucking Windows should fucking remember my fucking audio settings from port to fucking port. And even if if fucking shouldn’t, then it shouldn’t FUCKING ASSUME THE FUCKING DEFAULT IS FUCKING MONO EVEN WHEN MY FUCKING DEFAULTS IN MY FUCKING RECORDING SOFTWARE ARE FUCKING STEREO. FUCK.

Okay, yeah…that’s the kind of rage I was talking about.

Anyways, now I have to re-record about 30 hours of audio. A blast huh?

But don’t worry, even in my fits of smashing rage, I think of other people first. And the first things I re-recorded after finding out about this royal clusterfuck was everything that I shared here. It’s pretty much the sole reason why I’m up right now, at 1am, so the few of you who do actually read the words with the posts know about this and can download proper versions of the songs you got earlier.

So if you’ve downloaded any of the following files, and you don’t want shitty mono versions, download these copies now.

And if you appreciate my efforts to make things right for my own idiotic mistakes, maybe check out my other site and show it to some friends via Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, whatever? I’d appreciate it. Feelings of accomplishment make me rage less, I think.

Eurythmics
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These) (’91 Remix)
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These (Nightmare Mix)
I Need A Man (Macho Mix)
I Need A Man (Edit)
Beethoven (I Love To Listen To) (Dance Mix)
Beethoven (I Love To Listen To) (7″ Edit)

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Brides Of Frankenstein (Mix)
Brides Of Frankenstein (Dub)

Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Born To Run (Live)

Underworld
Underneath The Radar (12″ Remix)

Frank Black & Teenage Fanclub – The Peel Sessions
Handyman
The Man Who Was Too Loud
The Jacques Tati
Sister Isabel

Psychic TV
Joy (credited to DJ Doktor Megatrip with Luv Bass)
Thee Politics Ov Ecstasy (credited to Psychic TV & Jack The Tab)

Garbage
Milk (D Mix)
Milk (Trance Mix)

Dead Or Alive
You Spin Me Round (Like  a Record)
Mighty Mix 2

Bonnie Tyler
Band of Gold (Extended Version)
Band of Gold (Dub)

Röyksopp
Eple (Shakedown Remix)
Eple (Fatboy Slim Remix)

Moby
Porcelain (Torsten Stenzel’s Remix)
Porcelain (Force Mass Motion Remix)

Krust (Featuring Saul Williams)
Coded Language (Roni Size Desert Road Remix)
Coded Language (Roni Size Desert Road Instrumental)

 

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

This Post Is Straight Edge

May 2nd, 2013

Quick self-serving news: new post over at Mostly-Retro, a look at the “soundtrack” LP to Atari’s Asteroids. It’s pretty ridiculous. If you like it, please share it with your friends.

Now for a brief public service announcement for everyone who I turned onto Boom Boom Satellites, you should know that they’re doing a live “360 degree” webcast of their Budokan show this Friday! Check out this link to see the countdown timer. Should be pretty awesome.

Finally, if anyone thought last night’s post was excessively stupid. Don’t worry, so do I. Don’t blog drunk kids. If you’re going to write something stupid, write it sober. Own it.

Chumbawamba
Hear No Bullshit (On Fire Mix)
The Day The Nazi Died (1993 Mix)
There’s a lot to say about Chumbawamba, but for a Cliff Notes version of their crazy history check out this great video by critic Todd In The Shadows. He tackles their crazy career pretty well.

As for these songs specifically, ”Hear No Bullshit” features lead vocals by the UK rap group Credit To The Nation, and it’s a great radical left-wing hip-hop jam that attacks mainstream sell outs, and the fact that too many rappers can’t seem to get past their sexist bullshit when it comes to lyrical inspiration. This song was written over 20 years ago, and judging from disgusting wastes of humanity like Odd Future, it’s sadly just as relevant now as ever.

Same goes for “The Day The Nazi Died.” It’s an attack on Nazi sympathizer politicians, and if you’ve been paying attention to the current clusterfuck that is Greece as of late, you’ll know that this song has once again become topical as well.

Sigh and ugh.

Eurythmics
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These) (’91 Remix)
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These (Nightmare Mix)
I Need A Man (Macho Mix)
I Need A Man (Edit)
Beethoven (I Love To Listen To) (Dance Mix)
Beethoven (I Love To Listen To) (7″ Edit)
Most of these are reposts, I put up the “I Need a Man” and “Beethoven” mixes a few years back. But I wasn’t happy with those rips and recently re-recorded them. So if you have those old rips and like those songs at all (and you fucking should) then you ought to download these new rips and replace your old ones.

The “Sweet Dreams’ mixes are new to this site though. I grabbed them off of a very odd DJ bootleg 12″ called “Disco Ballroom.” However, they were both official remixes and were first released on legitimate 12″ and CD singles. If you’re listening to the ’91 remix and thinking “oh wow, this is the most amazing dance beat ever” well that’s because that remix is by Giorgio fucking Moroder. He may have done the “Nightmare” mix too, but I don’t think so, it really doesn’t sound like his kind of work.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Brides Of Frankenstein (Mix)
Brides Of Frankenstein (Dub)
Another pair of reposts. Put these up several years (and turntables) back so grab them again even if you have them already.

I also said this back when I first posted this track (which is really a megamix), but it’s worth repeating; this cut has one of the greatest basslines ever.

Posted in B-sides, Chumbawamba, Eurythmics, remixes | No Comments »

I AM PREDICTING A HEADACHE

April 30th, 2013

SPOILER I’M DRUNK

Let’s talk about things that suck.

These are some of the things that I think suck the most

  • Imagine Dragons
  • “Men’s Rights” Advocates
  • Whatever the fuck Amanda Bynes is doing to herself
  • APRIL
  • The random painful red bump on my face that showed up out of nowhere yesterday
  • Mean parents
  • Assholes
  • APRIL
  • Geo-political situations keeping you from people you love
  • People who don’t like kittens
  • The inability to prove yourself as a writer
  • Hardees’
  • APRIL
  • Dropping food in the dark
  • Scott Miller dying
  • No one caring about shit you care about
  • Ohio
  • APRIL
  • The Inevitable Heat Death Of The Universe
  • Throwing your back out
  • The fact that Eve 6 still exists and making music
  • Chris Brown
  • The fact that no one has murdered Chris Brown
  • Seriously, fuck Chris Brown
  • Amanda Palmer
  • The death of “longform” writing

So much shit that sucks! It’s everywhere. The world sucks all around you! How do you combat it?

You combat it by focusing on shit that doesn’t suck! What doesn’t suck?

  • Whiskey
  • People who love you
  • Pizza
  • Whiskey
  • Records
  • Movies about ninjas
  • That Crosby Stills and Nash song with all the doots
  • Playing “This Corrosion” by Sisters Of Mercy alone in your room and rocking out like a monkey on mescaline
  • Pictures of kittens in shoes
  • Movies about breakdancing
  • Adorable nephews
  • Monkeys
  • Hypothetical movies about breakdancing ninjas. Okay, real talk for a second. How come no one has made a movie about a breakdancing ninja I would watch the shit out of that shit.
  • Awesome people who pick fights with misogynists, sexists and racists because its fun to fuck with them
  • Walter Hill movies from 1977 to 1984
  • Months that aren’t April, because fuck April
  • Whiskey

Seriously, you gotta focus on the positive and non-suckage of life (and/or drink lots) or it’s all gonna bring you down. And fuck that shit for bringing you down. You’re better than that bullshit! Be awesome! You’re awesome aren’t you? Well then fuck that shit! Go be awesome! I am so awesome. Holy shit. It’s like, woah, how awesome I am.

Yo! Here’s some awesome music to help you be awesome and crush  the evil powers of suck. Rock this shit like He-Man rocked the power of Greyskull.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Born To Run (Live)
Are you ready for some indisputable facts? Cuz you’re gonna get some.

FACT:  Frankie Goes To Hollywood is awesome.
FACT: Born to Run is awesome
DOUBLEFACT: Frankie Goes To Hollywood covering Born To Run is mega-awesome awesome.

Underworld
Underneath The Radar (12″ Remix)
More bold  facts for you. Underworld was an  awesome synthpop band before they were an awesome electronic band.  I posted this eons ago but that rip was less than awesome. I re-recorded it today. Now it has awesome.

Yukihiro Takahashi
Kid-Nap, The Dreamer
I-Kasu!
Japan is the most awesomest place on Earth and this is a fact. Yukihiro Takahashi (which I spell right despite being HAMMERED so I’m proud of myself) is in Yellow Magic Orchestra, a synthpop band from Japan. Since synthpop is awesome and Japan is mega-awesome then YMO is like, so fucking awesome that there aren’t even words.

Takahashi’s solo work, while not as awesome as YMO, is still pretty damn awesome. This is a crazy track, cuz it’s like synth-ska. Hard to explain, but it sounds like a Specials song put through a moog.

(Kid-Nap and I Kasu! are two tracks, but really one long song, so I call them one song because that’s just easier)

BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE II
RUSH (12″ mix)
THE MOST AWESOME

Posted in Big Audio Dynamite, drunkblogging, Underworld, Yellow Magic Orchestra | 4 Comments »

Mixtape Madness

April 29th, 2013

Check it, Drum and bass on cassette was a thing. Who knew?

009

Ed Rush – Live In ’98
Side 1
Side 2
This tape suffers a bit from wear and tear, and from the sounds of things the original source recording wasn’t the greatest either. The opening dips out a bit, and the MC’s vocals can get muddled up at times. Thankfully the audio quality gets better as it goes on. I know there are a few Ed Rush sets from this era that have made it onto music-sharing sites like Soundcloud and such, but I don’t think this one has. At least, I couldn’t find it. If someone does have a better recording of this set please let me know. I’d love a high-quality copy.

Nicky Blackmarket & Ed Rush – Live At The Edge
Side 1
Side 2
Nicky Blackmarket is another early drum and bass DJ, going all the way back to the 1980s. I assume his set is on side one, and it’s pretty good. It starts and stops suddenly a few times early on, probably because of technical difficulties. The second side is the Ed Rush set, and it sounds much more like the Ed Rush I know and love than the stuff on the first tape. It’s still high-energy and intense, but it also has that menacing neurofunk vibe that I fell in with when I first heard Wormhole and had my mind properly blown.

The quality of this tape is a little bit better than the first, but remember that a high-quality tape is still going to sound worse than a low-quality CD. So go in with a bit of lowered expectations. And once more, if anyone out there has better quality rips of either of these sets let me know and I’ll replace the links with those.

Posted in Ed Rush, live | 1 Comment »

Teenage Fanclub Scares the Living Shit Out Of Me

April 25th, 2013

Yeah, that title is a My Chemical Romance reference. Deal with it.

Some quick updates for Mostly-Retro, that other site I have.

Did a quick review for the Record Store Day edition of The Flaming Lips’ Zaireeka. Spoiler: it’s dumb (the release, not my review…I think).

Also put up a ton of pictures from The Joy Formidable concert that I went to last night. That shit was dope.

Frank Black & Teenage Fanclub – The Peel Sessions
Handyman
The Man Who Was Too Loud
The Jacques Tati
Sister Isabel
Frank Black and Teenage Fanclub, now there’s a paring that screams “mid-90s’” if there ever was one.

I don’t really mean that as a slight, but it’s funny to think about just how quickly artists can vanish from the public eye, especially in America. If you’re under the age of 20 (or even 30) then you probably have no idea as to who the hell Teenage Fanclub are, but they were nearly hot shit here in the states for…about 25 minutes.  In 1992 Spin famously chose their album Bandwagonesque over Nirvana’s Nevermind for Album Of The Year, and that made quite the hubbub  Hell, that sentence alone should tell you something about the era I’m talking about; this happened at a time when Spin’s album of the year choice was important to people outside of the Spin offices (sigh, I miss Spin magazine).

This EP came out in 1994, and at that time it was probably safe to say that Teenage Fanclub were a bigger deal than Frank Black in the States, and certainly so in the UK. As a solo act, Frank Black’s popularity has rarely gone above “strong cult act.” I mean, compare him to fellow Pixies member Kim Deal and her  band The Breeders. Sure, they may have only had one hit with “Cannonball,” off of their album Last Splash, but I bet that album has sold more copies than every one of Frank Black’s solo albums combined. As a solo artist, Frank Black just doesn’t really “matter” that much. It’s true now and it was even more true then.

The same can pretty much be said for every Teenage Fanclub release since Bandwagonesque (at least in America). They’re completely forgotten here save for the occasional play of “The Concept” during an alt-rock station’s “flashback” hour. They were going to be “the next big thing” for a while. Now they’re not even a thing.

My point? I don’t know if I have one. I just found this release as an exceptional example of how quickly tastes, legacies and popularity can change. Pop is fickle yo, if you make it, enjoy it while you can.

As far as the music on this EP goes, it’s pretty good, if entirely random and oddball. “Handyman” is a cover. It was originally performed by 1960s R&B/pop singer Jimmy Jones, and was written by Otis Blackwell, a songwriter from the era who wrote “Great Balls of Fire,” “Love Me Tender” and a billion other classic oldies. Frank Black first performed the track on a tribute album for Blackwell.

“The Man Who Was Too Loud” is the only track on this EP that has appeared on another Frank Black release. It showed up, four years later, on the self-titled Frank Black And The Catholics debut LP.

I have no idea what “The Jacques Tati” is. It doesn’t appear on any Frank Black or Teenage Fanclub release from what I can tell. It sounds a lot like Frank Black cuts from the era though, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a song Frank wrote around that time and never got around the properly recording or releasing. I was a film student at one point in my life, so I especially like the line “now we must all try to understand the films of Jacques Tati.” That’s accurate, trust me.

Finally, there’s “Sister Isobel,” a misspelled cover of a Del Shannon tune (“Sister Isabelle”). Nice to hear a Shannon tune that isn’t “Runaway.”

I hate “Runaway.”

 

Posted in Frank Black, Teenage Fanclub | No Comments »

Covers by Toyah and Cyndi

April 22nd, 2013

Some  new stuff over at Mostly-Retro!

In case you missed it, I did a small post on this crazy poster that came with the first edition of Kraftwerk’s Ralf Und Florian album. I don’t think that thing has ever been scanned and shared on the Internet before, so if you know any Kraftwerk fans make sure to send them that article!

Next up, and on a much more serious note, there’s this post on Game Theory’s Scott Miller, who left us all too suddenly last week. He meant a lot to me and I hope that someday he’ll be recognized as the songwriting genius he was. You can find all of Game Theory’s music at his official site now, and I wrote up a quick thing about him.

Finally, and on another sad note, Storm Thorgerson died last week too (man, last week was SHIT.) While  he was most well-known for his Pink Floyd covers, he did a lot of other great work too. I put together a quick little gallery featuring some of my favorites.

Mostly-Retro is going along better than I thought it would, and I hope you all enjoy it and share it with your friends. I have some cool stuff planned for that site in the coming weeks and I hope it all comes together.

Got cool stuff planned here too! So don’t worry about that. Check it! Cool stuff! Right here!

It’s really cool.

Toyah
Echo Beach (Surf Mix)
Echo Beach (7″ MIx)
Plenty
This is a cover. The original was by a Canadian new wave band called Martha and the Muffins. There were actually two Marthas in that band at one point, so they really should have been called Marthas and the Muffins, but I guess that doesn’t really roll off the tongue. What are the odds of having two Marthas in a band anyways? Is that like some crazy common name in Canada or something?

I’m getting off topic. This version is by perennial UK oddball Toyah, and I prefer it to the original. It has less horns and more synthesizers. If you ask  me, just about any song can be improved using that formula, except maybe “Careless Whisper.” And possibly “Baker Street.” Although, I don’t know, that melody in “Baker Street” is so great that I think it could work on anything. You could play that shit on a marimba and it would sound great.

Cyndi Lauper
What’s Going On (Club Version)
What’s Going On (Instrumental)
What’s Going On (Long Version)
Okay, so maybe you all can help me out here. If you go to Cyndi Lauper’s official VEVO channel on YouTube to watch this video (which is awesome by the way), it says “ft. Chuck D” after the song title. But, yo, where the hell is Chuck? He is not in this video, he is not rapping, and I highly doubt that’s him playing the bongos. Pardon the obvious joke, but what’s going on with that?

That being said, I really think that a Cyndi Lauper/Chuck D collaboration would be dope and they should really get on that already.

These mixes are by Shep Pettibone, because he remixed everyone in the 80s.

Posted in B-sides, covers, Cyndi Lauper, remixes, Toyah | 2 Comments »

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