Peter Holsapple and Chris Stamey's 1991 album Mavericks is another welcome recent reissue. As with most things dB's related, this album was criminally overlooked when it was originally released. Collector's Choice seems determined to right past wrongs, having reissued a bunch of dB's related material over the past several years. Kudos to them. The reissue has a handful of bonus tracks and freshly remastered sound, making it a worthwhile purchase for new and old fans alike. This is currently my 5-year-old son's favorite album. He fell under the spell [...]
Shadowcat , a collection of 90s era demos and obscurities by Robyn Hitchcock is currently available from Robyn's homepape, The Museum of Robyn Hitchcock . I already received my copy, and can recommend it to Hitchcock fans--for others this is obviously not the best place to start exploring Hitchcock's music. This is Robyn in stripped-down, mostly acoustic mode. A couple of the tracks--for no reason I can discern--feature vocoder treated vocals (perhaps Robyn was briefly in the thrall of Neil Young's Trans ). Despite the fact that not every track is essential, there are [...]
Good news! The Feelies first album, 1980's Crazy Rhythms , is being reissued by Water Records on February 5th. It's currently available for pre-order at Amazon and on some other sites. According to the track list, it looks like the cover of "Paint It Black" that was recorded in 1990 for A&M's initial CD reissue of the album is included, but I can't vouch for that. Also no word on remastering, etc. Whatever the case, this is most welcome news. Crazy Rhythms was one of my favorite albums released [...]
Yep Roc (or possibly Robyn Hitchcock) decided not to include Hitchcock's second solo album, Groovy Decay on the I Wanna Go Backwards box-set. Instead, they reissued the album exclusively as a digital download. It's now available directly from Yep Roc , on emusic and on iTunes . It's hard to argue with the decision. Groovy Decay (and its demo-heavy doppelganger Groovy Decoy ) is probably Hitchcock's least well regarded album. Hitchcock himself has all but [...]
"Come on over tonight/We'll put on some Cat Butt 'n' do it up right." Guided By Voices "Pendulum" ( Same Place the Fly Got Smashed , 1990) For a band whose released recorded legacy consists of one 7" single, one compilation appearance and one EP, Cat Butt casts a surprisingly long shadow. It might be overstating things to say that Journey to the Center of Cat Butt was the most important album of the last 25 years, if for no other reason than that it wasn't even an album, it was an EP. [...]
As I mentioned in my previous post, few people are less qualified than me to declare what the 10 best albums of 2007 were. My focus on this blog is on music of the past, and I don't keep up with new releases the way I once did. Nevertheless, any idiot can have an opinion, and I certainly have a lot of them. So without further ado, here are my favorite albums of 2007. 1. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky I [...]
1985's Return Of The Living Dead impressed me, mostly for two reasons: it was a smartass zombie flick released when smartass horror films were rare and eerie things, and it had a great soundtrack. During the 80s, both major and minor corporations were still reluctant to touch anything that remotely resembled 'punk rock,' even with the largest safety pin. Still, Return Of The Living Dead , a film presumably marketed to the same teenaged audience listening to stale Foreigner and Bob Seger records (keep in mind, this was before Bon Jovi hit it [...]
Because I'm an important music blogger The Hype Machine wants to know what I think the top 10 albums of 2007 were. There's just one problem. I have no idea what the top 10 albums of 2007 were. The truth is I don't keep up with new music nearly as much as I used to, and most of the posts on this blog are (by design) about old music. Few people are less qualified than myself to decide what the best albums of 2007 were. Still I'd like to participate in shaping the zeitgeist. So I'm asking for [...]
Down in the park Where the Machmen meet The machines are playing 'kill-by-numbers' Down in the park with a friend called 'Five' In Fall 2004, I attended a coffee shop fundraiser for a progressive political organization. The Big Election was coming up and, being in a more sensitive frame of mind than usual, I attended. The weather was pretty depressing, as I recall, and there was a sense of real [...]
This single was released on July 1, 1987, ironically the same day that Phillip " Snakefinger " Lithman dropped dead of a heart attack. Lithman was barely past his 38th birthday. No justice in life indeed. Snakefinger is, of course, most closely associated with the music of the Residents. Lithman was involved in some of the Residents' earliest musical experiments, then went on to found legendary British pub rockers Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers . When that band broke up, he moved to LA to establish a career in mainstream pop music, then returned to [...]
I occasionally post things that I can tell you next to nothing about and hope someone will stumble upon my post and be able to offer more information. Such is the case with this single by Gemini. Despite some creative googling, I can't even offer a release date for this single. Here is what I can tell you: The A-side, "Take Her Back," was written by famed bubblegum tunesmiths Bo Gentry and Joey Levine . The flip side, "Ann" was written by Paul Naumann and Kenny Laguna . The record was produced by Gentry [...]
Some people like to get their holiday shopping done early. I decided to get my holiday blogging done early. So this year I'm posting a bunch of holiday songs all at once--call it a compilation if you like, or think of it as me stopping by to D.J. your Christmas party without having to deal with me drinking up all your eggnog, insulting your guests and throwing up on your sectional. Individual tracks are available for download by right clicking on the links, or you can just download a zip file of the whole thing. 1. [...]
My son Will has been obsessed with Scooby-Doo lately. Obsessed is putting it mildly actually. He was first exposed to Scooby-Doo during a trip to Cape Cod this summer while the Cartoon Network was running a Scooby-Doo marathon. It's been all about Scooby since then, and old friends like Curious George and Thomas the Tank Engine have been mostly forgotten. Since we don't have cable I tend to splurge a bit on DVDs for the kids. I bought Will Scooby-Doo Where Are You! The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons , which features all [...]
Sgt. Shonen's Exploding Plastic Eastman Band Request Mono Stereo by Redd Kross' side project Tater Totz (featuring members of Shonen Knife, Sonic Youth, White Flag and The Three O'Clock) just might be the most self-indulgent album ever released. It's hard to tell if this album is a Yoko Ono/Beatles tribute or parody. I doubt the MacDonald brothers and their friends know for sure, and I'm certain they wouldn't give a coherent answer if asked about it. Perhaps the Tater Totz are neither tribute nor parody, but rather belong to some unique post-modern genre occupied only by themselves [...]
It's about time someone made a product like this . Though there have long been similar products on the market from manufacturers like Ion and TEAC, the Pro-Ject Debut III USB Turntable (with pre-mounted Ortofon cartridge, a built in phono preamp, analog to digital converter and USB output) is the first all-in-one LP-to-computer transfer product that approaches audiophile quality. Without going into too much detail on this, trust me when I tell you that it is not [...]
I intended to write a post on a couple of tracks left off the Yep Roc reissue of Robyn Hitchcock's Black Snake Dîamond Röle , but I see another music blogger beat me to it. Actually, I should thank 2fs at The Architectural Dance Society blog for posting the original version of "The Man Who Invented Himself" and its b-side "Dancing On God's Thumb" because I post on Robyn Hitchcock far too often anyway. As for "Mellow Together," some tracks deserve to be lost--proceed with caution.
I'll get back to semi-regular posting soon. In the meantime, here is a batch of Halloween themed material. For those of you who missed it last year , I included The Velvet Monkeys' cover of "Spooky." Also included is Mudhoney's cover of Sonic Youth's "Halloween" and two "ghost" songs from Robyn Hitchcock, his cover of the Psychedelic Furs' "The Ghost In You" and his own "The Ghost Ship." I've really been enjoying the Robyn Hitchcock box set, I Wanna Go Backwards , recently released by Yep Roc. I'll have more [...]
So it's official, John McCain has become Grampa Simpson, shaking his fists in the air at imaginary hippies. Is this what the GOP wants to run on--culture wars they lost over thirty years ago? I mean I respect McCain for his service, but come on, were people supposed to stop listening to music while he was imprisoned? This is just sad. And another thing, the music in the background appears to be by The Doors, a band that did not play Woodstock.
Once again I have exceeded my monthly bandwidth allowance, so all files are down. My next reset is in 22 days. I have no idea how I keep using up my monthly 25GB of bandwidth. I only have a few files up, and it's not like there has been a massive amount of traffic this month. Anyway, this is all getting to be more trouble than it's worth....I'm just about ready to call it a day.
While Roky Erickson is enjoying some rightly deserved revitalization in the wake of the 2005 career spanning documentary You're Gonna Miss Me , playing to capacity crowds at London's Royal Festival Hall and reportedly working with ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons on a new record, another 60s psychedelic pioneer has yet to enjoy such renewed fame. Sky Saxon's contributions to garage rock and psychedelia are arguably just as important and influential as his Texas counterpart, and his band The Seeds produced some great albums from the psychedelic era. Singles such as [...]
Flowering Toilet
Avicii – Two Million
Beck – I Just Started Hating Some People Today
H&M Lookbook Mujer y Hombre Otoño 2012.
Amanda Mair
