Blog: Songs in Space

The 80's, what would have happened without 80's music? For all the younger crowd reading this, if you haven't dug into the 80's music then do so now. I love all the new bands today, I really do. But quite a few of them are rehashing a sound that was primarily developed in the 1980's. Don't get me wrong there is nothing 'bad' about this, in fact for a lover of that music period it is a delight to my ears. Take some time though to go back and listen to some of the 80's pioneers, you will see what [...]

I remember reading about ...Bender late last year in one of the music magazine I read frequently. It was either Mojo, Magnet, The Big Takeover, shit I can't remember. The review was intriguing classifying their sound as something like a nocturnal blend of a spine chilling take on the blues. I was also quite taken by the fact that ...Bender is comprised of Geraldine Swayne (vocals, guitars, accordion, banjo, piano, bass, viola), James Johnston (vocals, guitars, organ, harmonica, autoharp, viola, cello, piano, bass), Steve Gullick (vocals, guitars, cello, organ, bass, tonka). Holy shite, that is a laundry list of instrumentation. [...]

This one goes out to the gentleman by the name of Joshua who's fine posting can be found here . Joshua has a excellent, well written blog focusing on film and music. A nice read and definitely a site I will add to my daily list of visits. Here's The Secret Machines doing some cool covers. The Secret Machines The Road Leads Where It's Led (EP) Reprise (2005) [...]

It was 1981 and the title of the LP was made to match the album cover, Short Back n' Sides. Creating super stardom in the early 70's with a band called Mott The Hoople, Ian Hunter paved the way for generations of rock music to come. Between 1972 and 1974, Mott the Hoople had seven hit singles and four chart albums. Mott had various personnel changes over the years finally settling on Ian

Time to wander thru the music blogosphere and give some love... This has got to be the hardest working blogger (might just be the cutest too) in the music mp3 blogosphere, always something good at Clever Titles . The best written music blog in the whole blogosphere is right at marathonpacks . Hands down, straight up, all the way, the best. Anyone who is 35, has a bio like this one, posts about The Chameleons, and loves the jingle jangle of C86 is way cool in [...]

Yes, Mudhoney are still going strong after 18 years. And guess what? You guessed it, the Seattle quartet haven't changed a thing in 18 years and are still making urgent, loud rock 'n roll music. Thank the rock gods for that. Mudhoney pioneered the 90's Seattle grunge rock sound and haven't given up that title in the least. Nirvana, Soundgarden, Afghan Whigs - yes but there will always be Mudhoney. Mark Arm (vocals), Steve Turner (guitar), Dan Peters (drums) and Guy Maddison (bass) we thank you for the rock 'n roll. Under A Billion Suns will be available [...]

This one is for FJ Delgado - the man who loves The Who February 2006, freebie CD from Mojo Magazine is The Who Covered. Overall I wasn’t hugely impressed with some of these covers but the ones I enjoyed struck me as a decent rendition of that selected track. Most of these covers are from The Who’s earlier body of work and these are the ones that I liked the best. I hope you do too. Waco Brothers Baba [...]

This one is for FJ Delgado - the man who loves The Who February 2006, freebie CD from Mojo Magazine is The Who Covered. Overall I wasn’t hugely impressed with some of these covers but the ones I enjoyed struck me as a decent rendition of that selected track. Most of these covers are from The Who’s earlier body of work and these are the ones that I liked the best. I hope you do too. Waco Brothers [...]

It was Washington D.C. in the early 80's and there was a young lad by the name of Ian MacKaye who shaped the world of hardcore punk as we now know it. First there was the Teen Idles (1979), then Minor Threat (1980), then Embrace (1985), then Fugazi (1987). Amazingly also in 1980 MacKaye and Minor Threat band member Jeff Nelson found the Dischord Records label, notorious for hardcore punk bands. The year was 1986. MacKaye and Nelson traveled to England's Southern Studios to discuss possible [...]

Let this be the start of a new series on this hardly read blog. I personally own over 1600 CD's but the real joy of my music collection is the Vinyl. Now, thanks to the wonderful technology of Analog to Digital Conversion (which has been around for a long time actually) I will convert some old gems for my/your listening pleasure. So, what band to better start out this series than the best rock 'n roll band in the world...... These two tracks come off a U2 collector's item that I cherish and treasure - Japanese Import 7" [...]

I have been listening to a lot of Belle And Sebastian these days so it is no wonder why my ears tuned in on Austin's The Soft Set. This Austin quintet weave everything that was good from the 60's into everything that was good in the C86 days (80's). The band consists of William Crain- Vocals, Guitar & Harmonica, Matthew Baab- Guitar, Hayden Childs- Organ & Piano, Marshal Crenshaw- Bass & Vocals (very close to but not this Marshall Crenshaw ) and Charles Ewing- Drums, Trumpet and Vocals. Their last album was self released in 2003 (Only Lovers Left [...]

I guess it really does take awhile to start having people read and comment on your blog after starting a new one. Especially in the music mp3 blog arena, there are lots and lots. Aggregators (mp3 ones) are excellent for helping you get readership and two of my favorites are elbo.ws and the hype machine . Because of the proliferation and excess of music mp3 blogs now, even these aggregators will not include you on their site (at least until you establish yourself...). I applied on both and - the hype machine sent me a polite email [...]

Linkage is an important thing to this blogger. To me it is a sign of what the blogger is really about and describes that individual to me. Yes, the type of posts are the main determining factor of that blogger's mindset, but the linkage tells the rest of the tale. A lot of bloggers use their linkage for many reasons. Some link up to others because everyone else links to them, kind of a popularity thing. Others link up to reciprocate being linked to, kind of a thank you friendly thing. But the ones that impress me the [...]

Vancouver's always evolving Indie rock scene has it's share of the best; The New Pornographers, Hot Hot Heat, Pink Mountaintops, Black Mountain and now The Book Of Lists. Formed in August of 2005 from members of Radio Berlin, Secret Three,T.A.L.A and Destroyer the Book Of Lists deliver a sonic plate of late 80's, early 90's rock 'n roll. Chris Frey singer and songwriter sounds like a 'rough' version of Bowie and it is no surprise that Frey is quoted as claiming Bowie and Eno the largest of influences. The music is sonic in the sense of that Shoegazer type sound [...]

He may have a Swedish name, the fact of being born in Sweden, but Gustaf Kjellvander grew up outside of Seattle Washington. Gustaf has been making music since the young age of 12 and now at 25 his maturity as a musician is quite evident. Backed by his band “The electric Pavilion�, Patrik Malmros (Dipper) on drums, Dan Englund (the Songs of Soil band, Lazy Grace Frontier) on piano and Jesper Gunge on bass, Gustaf creates a a beautiful full ("Spectoresque - Wall of Sound") record. Recorded and mixed in ten days at Min Studio/Old Yeller in Malmö Sweden, Radiola [...]