First off, an addition to yesterday's post on the Haiti earthquake. It has come to my attention that some folks aren't comfortable donating to a charity their unfamiliar with. These days, I can't blame them. If you're more comfortable donating to a tried and true charity, here's a link to the American Red Cross . If you can afford it, please give a little something. Most out there are likely already familiar [...]
NEW YORK —The following is a statement by Wyclef Jean on yesterday's magnitude 7.0 earthquake outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti: "Haiti yesterday faced a natural disaster of unprecedented proportion, an earthquake unlike anything the country has ever experienced. The magnitude 7.0 earthquake [...]
For a great many years, I avoided country music like it was the plague. The thing was, in my youth the only country I was exposed to was the 60's Grand Ole Opry style, with all the sequins, cheesy orchestration, and more slide guitar in each song than anyone could possibly need on a whole album. Thankfully, the many years I spent on the retail end of the music industry allowed me to open my pallet to a much wider variety of music. Thanks to this, I belatedly became a huge fan [...]
Good morning, and welcome to a brand new year. I for one am incredibly happy to have that last piece of crap year over and done with. This year is already looking better, thanks to now being at a job that I don't dread going to. Yeah, the pay is quite a bit less, but there really is something to be said for actually enjoying the job. I didn't really believe that until all that crap happened. I just went through my first holiday season [...]
The guy in the image at right is Irishman Nick Kelly. The image itself is a variation on one I created out of duct tape and electrical tape. It didn't have a particularly festive feel, so I threw in a background of blue tinsel. Yeah, it's ugly as hell this way, but I wanted to make it appropriate for the holiday theme. Anyway, I think I mentioned before that Nick is working on a project called Gestation , in which he's creating new songs through a [...]
The guy in the image at right is Irishman Nick Kelly. The image itself is a variation on one I created out of duct tape and electrical tape. It didn't have a particularly festive feel, so I threw in a background of blue tinsel. Yeah, it's ugly as hell this way, but I wanted to make it appropriate for the holiday theme. Anyway, I think I mentioned before that Nick is working on a project called Gestation , in which he's creating new songs through a [...]
Now that's one hell of a festive pic right there. His name is Bootsy, and he is funky. Bootsy Collins rose to fame when his band, The Pacemakers, were hired to replace James Brown's backing band, who James hadn't yet fired. He soon would, though, and The Pacemakers would be renamed The J.B.s. Bootsy would go on to achieve even more stardom with the legendary Parliament / Funkadelic. He has also recorded as a solo artist, with Bootsy's Rubber Band, Deee-Lite, and several other groups. [...]
Good morning, and welcome to week two. Not a very festive picture at right. For those who don't recognize the evil geniuses, that's The Monarch and the woman who at the time of recording today's song was known as Dr. Girlfriend, but is now known as Dr. Mrs. The Monarch. If you didn't already know all that, you should be watching The Venture Bros . For several years, the good people over at IGN gave away free mp3s of [adult swim] [...]
I'm going to try doing things a little different this year. Last year, I had a separate post for each day. Because of that, there was only about 6 tracks showing at any given time. That kind of annoyed me. This year, I'm going to try and split the posts up into weeks. Each post will start with one song, and be updated daily until it has 7 songs. Then, I'll start a new post with one song. That way, all the songs should end up on the [...]
Here's a quick one before I get started on the Christmas posts. I was just made aware of one of those 3-d concert movies that will be in theaters in a couple weeks. You know, like U2 and pretty much every Disney property, er, musical act has released. The difference here being that the bands in this one are actually ones that I'd want to see. I've posted about Ben Harper before. I can say from experience that he puts on a great live show. [...]
If you've been a follower of Dexys Midnight Runners since the early days, then you probably already have everything I'm going to post today. Most of their b-sides and things have been issued over the years on expanded versions of albums, and several best-of packages. Many of those, however, have gone out of print, and so I'm stepping in to fill the gaps. Everybody must already be familiar with "Come On Eileen". Unless, of course, you've lived in a cave with no radio or television for the past 30 years. [...]
Another Tuesday with nothing in particular to write about. I'm in the mood for some covers today, I think. Here's a few I've found over the past few years. The Swell Season - "The Auld Triangle" (traditional) I'm still giddy over the Swell Season show last week. This is a live track found streaming on their website. The Polyphonic Spree - "Love My Way" (Psychedelic Furs cover) This was issued as a b-side [...]
It seems that after nearly three years of posting once or twice a week, I've gotten to the point where most of my new posts are revisiting bands I've mentioned before. That's alright. There's a lot of good stuff I've found since I last posted on many of them. Besides, December is almost here, and I'm planning to do the same thing I did last year for the holiday season. One festive song a day, through Christmas. Maybe in December I'll find some new bands, [...]
Wholly crip, I'm a crapple. While leaving my house this afternoon to make my way over to the Swell Season show in Mesa, I missed the last step on my porch and twisted my knee something awful. Naturally, that wasn't enough to keep me from the show, though I did arrive with a pronounced limp. I'm mighty glad that I did decide to go (I'm a bit of a recluse, and rarely do the social thing these days), because it now ranks among the best live shows [...]
I suppose if I had been planning ahead, I could have come up with some interesting reference to Friday the 13th to post today. Oh well, guess I missed the boat on that one. I'm sure there's plenty of other blogs making those references, though, and I hate to look like I'm following the crowd. Here's a band that didn't like to follow the crowd, either (ooh, it's like I'm a real writer). A House formed in Ireland in the mid eighties. They put out three fantastic non-album singles, before [...]
Busy with work this week, so I don't have time to right much right now. Here's three random songs that have absolutely no relation to each other, other than the fact that I like them all. MC Chris - "Fett's Vett" If you're a Star Wars geek like me, chances are you've already heard this one. If you haven't, take a listen now. I pretty sure it's the best sci-fi gangsta rap ever. From Chris's album Life's A Bitch and I'm Her Pimp [...]
Ah, look how young they were there. Yeah, you must know The Frames by now. This is the third time I've posted about them. One wonderful blog reader recently gave me a link to a bunch of their recordings I didn't yet have. The highlight of those was the 4-song demo EP they put out around the time of their second album, Fitzcarraldo , which is also when this pic was taken. The demos are far too good to keep [...]
I think I've mentioned before that I don't consider myself a writer by any stretch of the imagination. That's the main reason I very rarely do album reviews. However, I felt like putting in my two cents on the latest from The Swell Season. So prepare for what will likely be the shortest review anywhere on the web. First, a tad bit of background for those who happen by and aren't already familiar with the group. The Swell Season is fronted by Irishman Glen Hansard [...]
The Fratellis are a three piece rock band from Scotland. They hit it big a couple years back with their debut album, which included extremely catchy songs like "Chelsea Dagger" and "Flathead", the latter of which was used in an iPod commercial. They followed up the success of that first disc with an album called Here We Stand . Their sound at that point had matured, and as a result the album, though quite good, was less successful. People were [...]
Here's a treat for those of you who like remixes. As I've mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of having umpteen mixes of the same track as the b-sides for a single. I am, however, a huge fan of Ashley MacIsaac, and of this song in particular. And since I'm not likely to put these mixes up in a full post on Ashley, here's the promotional single for "Sleepy Maggie". Ashley MacIsaac with Mary Jane Lamond - "Sleepy Maggie" (Radio Edit) [...]
deadbilly's steaming pile of vinyl
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
