Alive and Well

I thought I'd let everyone know that I am indeed alive and well. Things were rough, but that was to be expected. My power is still out and I am posting by using a borrowed machine for the moment in an area of town that had their power restored last night. We'll see what happens in the mean time.

Without Further Ado. . .

Another Podcast for your enjoyment during this lovely Hurricane Wilma.

http://box.net/public/themadterran/folders/81679.html

It's simply titled "October" becasue I couldn't think of a better title or even a theme, so here's a group of songs I think go together well. IT might be a little "Dark" and brooding, but I hope everyone enjoys.

1. Rasputina - Call Me Alice
2. Bitstream Dream - Impossible Gardens
3. Aquizim & Mad Professor - Kunta Kinte Dub
4. Moby - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
5. Dandy Warhols - Mohammed
6. The Beta Band - Space
7. Pitty Sing - Telephone (it would do you good for me to do you wrong)
8. Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X
9. Björk - Big Time Sensuality [The Fluke Minimix]
10. Turin Brakes - Panic Attack
11. Depeche Mode - A Pain That I'm Used To
12. Massive Attack - Group Four

Somethings. . .

I know it's been fairly quiet around here. Both Meera and I have been quite busy with lives. I have been continuing the evening shoutcasts though. If you want in on them on Tuesday evenings, just email one of us and we'll let you know what's going on for that week's show.

For the time being, living Florida, we've been watching Hurricanes and I've been preparing to visit dellessa, who has also been kind enough to do some art for the main site, but I haven't quite had a chance to work it out and put it up. Hopefully, we'll finally have a decent logo.

Bear in mind, things are a foot, and I plan to have a new podcast up and ready tyo download before I step on a plane on Thursday. . . hurricanes permitting.

In the meantime, I found this surfing the net a couple days ago. It's an album put out by Soulseek records. It's a nice, independent electronic album that had me going for an afternoon. So give it a listen while we weather Wilma.

More on "Hey Joe"

It's not actually a Jimi Hendrix original. It was written in the early sixties by a man named Billy Roberts, and was first released by The Leaves. Apparently, there were a few issues with royalties with this first version. You can find the Leaves version fairly readily with it's inclusion in the first Nuggets box set. Personally, I also like the version by love I included in my previous mix. You can read more about the history of this song here.

Also, I heard some clips of the East Village Opera Company on NPR's The World program this afternoon. They've taken popular operas and incorporated elements from the progressive and arena rock world of the seventies and eighties. Though none of this idea is really all that new, rock-ified classical music has been around since Vanilla Fudge and Nice with their work from the late sixties, and The Who's Tommy, and most things by Queen, I found what I heard to be pretty interesting. I plan to get the album when I can and I'll give it a fair listen. Just as long as it's better and more honest than the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I'll be pleased. There's more here, including samples and video. http://www.eastvillageoperacompany.com/

Covers. . .

I know this has been a constant theme latey in my posting. Covers of various songs have long been a fascination of mine, depite my protestations that I usually prefer the original. (Which is still true, except for Dylan and White Stripes songs). I was orignally challenged to make a mix of Pink Floyd cover songs, but in all honesty there aren't many that I would put on such a list, espcially since so little of their catalogue has been covered by fairly well known acts. Alas, I had to expand the list to what you see here. I've got a pair of songs from the Lips and Monster Magnet because I really like their covers. They really know how to take a song and make it their own. Secondly, there's a pair of live tracks in the mix that I really like as well, one day, I might do one purely of live stuff. Finally, the Tenacious D is a song that had to be one here, it makes me laugh and really is in keeping with this. (It's also the closest thing to a cover of "Stairway to Heaven" that I actually like. I scavenged around and just couldn't find one.)

Without further ado, my mix

And the playlist:

1. Pink Floyd - King Bee
2. The Flaming Lips - (What A) Wonderful World
3. Tenacious D - Tribute
4. Pearl Jam - Sitting on the Dock of the Bay
5. Type O Negative - Possession
6. Dar Williams - Comfortably Numb
7. Monster Magnet - There's No Way Out of Here
8. Rush - For What It's Worth
9. Nirvana - Lake of Fire
10. Love - Hey Joe
11. Gary Jules - Mad World
12. Monster Magnet - Gimme Danger
13. Animals - House of the Rising Sun
14. Flaming Lips - Bohemian Rhapsody
15. Sparklehorse - Wish You Were Here

Recently Brought to My Attention . . .

It was recently brought to my attention to our wonderful friend Sepunka that Rick Moranis has just released a CD of country music. Upon further investigation of the links provided I was amused. So give this one a listen. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to get my grubby hands on this particular CD.

She also provided this link for the OKGO video, "A Million Ways" which has been amusing the hell out of me at work for a good month. It's so simple, yet somehow, I'm sure it cost a lot of produce.

So thank you, Sarah.

Theme songs.

I know it seems like my posts lately have been mostly to annouce the next's days shows, but that's basically what I've been up to. I finally figured out the trick with playing my turntable through shoutcast with some mixed results. We all listened to Dark Side of the Moon, Days of Future Passed, and Phadrea from Tangerine Dream. I'm hoping to make a record or two part of the regular shoutcasts. In the meantime, he's the theme music I've been playing. I hope everyone finds it even a bit as amusing as I do.

http://box.net/public/themadterran/files/953616.html

I'm also at work at my own podcast which I plan to have up in the next few days, so keep an eye out and enjoy the one Meera put up a bit ago.

I know will.

Tomorrow night. . .

Another shoutcast from yours truly. I plan to be up and running around 10 EST on Tuesday the 4th.

Check http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=mad+terran+music around that time for the station or IM me at "thetainishone" on AIM.

Hope everyone listens in, I've got a surprise lined up with some new theme music for the show.

An Aural Fan Boy Moment. . .

Last night, I finally got my grubby hands on Dar WIlliams and Ani Difranco's cover of "Comfortably Numb" and I have to say, it's one of the best covers I've heard bouncing around music circles. It's on her most recent album My Better Self .

A basic explanation first. "Comfortably Numb" comes in a part of The Wall in which the main character has been stripped down to a complete and utter mess. His manager finds him in his hotel room and they summon the Dr. Feelsgood to get Pink ready for the Show. The song is Pink's rebirth into millitant dictator-like character that proceeds fall to a shambles before "The Trial" at the end of the album.

In the Williams/DiFranco version, their vocals interplay wonderfully that adds to the confusion of the song, though it looses something in the transformative nature of the solo by Gilmour in the original. It seems as though the "doctor" character is pleading more with Pink in this version rather than slapping him around for the Show, but it's that dueting with Williams and Difranco that is just chilling with two voices playing off each other to create the character.

This is contrasted with the Scissor Sisters' version from their self titled album. In that version, they turned it into a dance pop song that was very strange, yet still quite numbing in the way that dance-pop can only be. It still has that differencein the duet, but the Pink character is the one who seems fairly lucid (and a member of the BeeGees, apparently). The Doctor, however is the one coming in waves.

In the original, Pink Floyd, who's to say is more lucid, the outside world or the inner realm in turmoil that's portrayed in the song. Neither version really has that cathartic moment when the lead guitarist steps forward and unleashes the "Comfortably Numb" solo, the solo that when heard drives fanboys to a fervernt froth that makes him want to beat the people of MTV to a bloody pulp becasue the cut it short at Live 8.

If you want to hear each version, just click on the artists names, I've made them all available for download. Give them a listen, see if you agree.

Just annoucement. . .

I'm planning on another shoutcast sometime around 9PM Est tonight, so if you're online, check it out.

http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=mad+terran+music