
Now that I have a great turntable and pre-amp, I've been visiting the archives to see which albums and singles deserve to be re-recorded and re-posted. Obviously, the soundtrack to Urgh! A Music War was one of the first on the list. These new recordings sound light-years better than my last attempt, and I highly recommended you download them even if you have an older copy I posted. I've talked about Urgh! several times over, so I'll keep the intro brief. It's an amazing document of a time period in music, when the punk [...]
Stream a Haiti benefit album with 20+ L.A. punk-leaning bands cover their local influences.
The next time I promise to do five posts in one week I'm going to stick to stupid dance music that I can talk about in 100 words or less. The Bunburys Fight (No Matter How Long) This is the kind of weird, stupid shit I can only find at Jerry's Records . I got this track off of a 123 promo single. The single had no art, just a label that read the following: "In the tradition of famous pseudonyms like Dr. Winston [...]

Every year Cinco de Mayo rolls around and every year I seem to have to Google the date and figure out why we are drinking. As drinking holidays go, and frankly they're all drinking holidays aren't they?, Cinco de Mayo is probably number three behind St Patrick's Day and New Year's Eve. I mean everybody who drinks consumes a little something something on Marathon Day (a beautiful hack holiday in Boston known as Patriot's Day), Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Let's be honest. But Cinco de Mayo is a fun holiday. A time [...]
The ever-iconoclastic Stan Ridgway discusses his songwriting process and how it shaped his latest album, Neon Mirage.
No more voodoo for Stan Ridgway. Stan Ridgway - Aircraft - Aviation - Music - Military

- C'est la faute au mariachis qui jouaient trop fort dans les gradins ! - Et c'est aussi la faute à Domenech , son vrai nom c'est Raimundo Dominguez... T'as vu sa tête avant qu'il se rase la moustache ! Un vrai mexicain ! - Et c'est la faute aux luchadores , ils ont fait peur aux joueurs ! - Et c'est la faute à Luis Mariano ! - Ouais, en plus les mexicains étaient dopés au peyotl ! - Et au [...]
#3. Reinvigorate COMMERCIAL Radio | Truth is, I subscribe to satellite radio, largely for Howard Stern. But I have indeed found myself tooling about on the various and sundry 'genre channels' from time to time and I was hit by an odd notion—I miss the commercials. Howard has commercials which surprised me for a bit at the outset—some he'll read and the regular prerecorded type. It's refreshing frankly, whereas the 'Deep Cut Bullshit Channel' might not have any. It's like a secret handshake club for the ad averse. [...]

I wasn't sold on the whole iPod thing. Oh, I'd had an mp3 player by 2003 and embraced the small device. It held about 500 songs and I would almost daily change out some tracks while drinking coffee. But, the iPods were pricier items and seemed to be overkill to me, clashing with my minimalist nature. Then I earned one as a bonus at work and quickly took to having 20,000 or so songs at my fingertips. It allows me to pull up a playlist of early '80s pop or '70s light rock to keep [...]

There've been a number of commercials for a series called V . It's a remake – I guess the kids call it a reimagining these days - of a series from the '80s. I never watched the original, but a friend at the time was a devotee, so I knew that the premise of V involved visitors from space arriving on Earth and the hijinks which ensued. And while the friend came to mind when I saw the commercial for the new version the other night, I was more struck by the [...]
Image From Here Battle worn and tired Struggle to make it through each day Fighting the demons that engulf my presence Wondering when it will all come to an end Sleep the day away to hide from the anxiety and depression Struggle to see my way clear Battle the thoughts that plague my mind Looking contantly for that light of hope But all I see is darkness The light is not there There [...]

From Wikipedia... "The holiday commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5 , 1862 , under the leadership of Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín . The outnumbered Mexicans defeated a much better-equipped French army that had not been defeated in almost 50 years. A common misconception in the United States is that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico's Independence Day , which actually is September 16 ( dieciséis de septiembre in Spanish), the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico" [...]

Home to various and sundry 1980's underground giants, I.R.S. Records has finally caught up with the present, placing a large selection of its catalog on iTunes for the very first time. From Wired : "Founded by Miles Copeland (older brother of Stewart, drummer from The Police) and Jay Boberg, the I.R.S. roster included R.E.M., Marillion, English Beat, The Cramps, The Go-Go's, Oingo Boingo, Squeeze, The Buzzcocks, The Alarm, Gary Numan, Wall of Voodoo, General Public, Dread Zeppelin, Fine Young Cannibals, Black Sabbath and Concrete Blonde." The selected artists now available can [...]

First things first - RIP Lux Interior... Now, onto the business, and this business was much, much delayed. In April of 2006 I put up the soundtrack Urgh! to much fanfare around the blogosphere (God I hate that "word") so much so that I had to get a server upgrade. Unfortunately, as it was pointed out to me several months ago those files were recorded on a turntable that spun too fucking fast. Since then I had been meaning to re-record the tracks and repost them, but life can be a bitch. Well, I [...]
An exciting email passed my way this week, news that the catalog of I.R.S. Records -- the label known for bringing R.E.M., the Go-Go's, Oingo Boingo and a ton more '80s and '90s acts to the masses -- ... Continue reading "I.R.S. Catalog Reissued Digitally: Oingo Boingo, Wall of Voodoo, the dB's, Let's Active, Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, General Public, more" >

La new wave a parfois engendré de bien étranges enfants... La perception de l'œuvre de Wall Of Voodoo se limite ainsi généralement à la célèbre Mexican Radio , chanson à succès qui apparait régulièrement sur les compilations dédiées aux années 1980. Contrairement à la grande majorité des artistes new wave de l'époque, les membres de Wall Of Voodoo ne sont pas britanniques mais bien américains. Leur carrière fut courte et particulièrement chaotique, marquée par les problèmes relationnels et l'abus de substances illicites. De ce fait la musique, particulièrement éclectique et à mille lieues [...]

This here is a little compilation of our favorite, yes favorite, video sections songs. It's the combination of the song and associated section that has made it to this list. So download em, make a playlist, and name that part or reminisce on the glory days or do whatever you've gotta do. But if these dont make you happy, youre dead to us all.... (In no particular order) The Knife - Heartbeats : AfterLame Radiohead [...]

The Dark Romantics Genre: Alternative / Pop / Rock From: Florida United States As you may expect from their name Florida's The Dark Romantics are not the shiny happy people of the Disney family. They may hail from the sunshine state but judging by their sound they've spent most of their lives in doors immersed in the stories of Edgar [...]
Invisible Sex Klaus Nomi The Cramps The Au-Pairs The Alley Cats Magazine Youtube megapost, I know! All these performances are from the 1981 music film, Urgh! A Music War. Probably my two favourite songs from the film... Invisible Sex - Valium Klaus Nomi - Total Eclipse The following songs weren't actually in the film itself but I think they're better than those featured by the bands in question. [...]

MP3: Lipps, Inc. - Funkytown MP3: Eddie Grant - Electric Avenue MP3: Dexys Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen MP3: Wall of Voodoo - Mexican Radio MP3: Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science MP3: Corey Hart - I Wear My Sunglasses At Night MP3: Modern English - I'II Stop the World and Melt With You MP3 : Kim Wilde - Kids In America MP3: Men Without [...]