Meera-Devi and The Mad Terran's Music Blog

Myspace link Dump.

2008-04-21T00:11:00.000-04:00

Link Dump since Myspace is stupid.

Picked From the Air

Making Absinthe

Possum Fantasies: Redux

Back to the Mind River

Here are the links to the latest mixes. I've decided to move more of this to my personal Myspace page to keep things easy to follow, but since Myspace is picky about external links, I'll just keep this going for the links and those of you who follow along by RSS.

As with this, in the Myspace world, I am The Mad Terran. Add me.

The Swell Season And the Movie Once

2008-02-08T22:47:00.000-05:00

Amazon.com: The Swell Season: Music: Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova

Quickly, the movie "Once" has become one of my favorite rock movies. Actually, I picked it up because the review on the cover said it was one of the "Best Rock Movies Ever," which I can agree with. It's a beautiful film with beautiful music and one of those saddest, yet hopeful endings I've ever seen. It feels like an honest portrayal of life.

The music itself was what really got to me in many of the same ways Damien Rice's first album 'O' spoke to me. There's real soul in this Irishman's voice. I did some digging, considered getting the soundtrack and stumbled upon this instead. This is the source album where much of the music originated from the film's two stars.

Really, see this movie, listen to this album (or the soundtrack). You will feel better for doing it, like you've experienced . . . something. Nothing life changing, but perhaps gotten a peak at someone else's epiphany so that you might learn from it.

Amy Winehouse

2008-02-07T20:27:00.000-05:00

Amy Winehouse denied visa, won't be at Grammys - CNN.com

I've been meaning to post about Amy Winehouse for some time now. There's been something ruminating the in back of my head for months after I first heard "Back to Black" and it's basically this. . .

Where's the talent?

I've heard it all before. It's always Phil Spector-esque production going back to the old campy, girl groups, or even the power of the Surpremes. Granted, Winehouse has some pipes, and she's got some lyrics, but it always seems to fall short. Also, I hear a lot that harks back to Shirley Brown and the blunt honesty in her music, but still, it just comes up short.

I don't mean to crap on someone while she's down, but what's the big deal about Amy Winehouse? Is it because her songs seem to relate to the various scandals surrounding our American Stars? Does "Rehab" bring soul to the troubles of Britney Spears? Really, it all just makes me yawn.

And besides Lily Allen is hotter.

NASA to broadcast Beatles tune

2008-02-06T15:51:00.000-05:00

CANOE -- JAM! Music: NASA to broadcast Beatles tune

Wow! Really, I can't think of many better songs for this except for maybe "Calling Occupants of Interstellar Craft" by Klaatu, but I think that might be one for Seti to use. It's also a nice way to cross promote the movie's DVD release which I anxious to see. (Del doesn't know it's a part of her Valentine's Day gift.)

"Jai Guru Deva Oooommmmmmmmmmm!"

Reunions.

2008-02-04T08:08:00.000-05:00

I have had that stupid new Spice Girls song "Headlines" stuck in my head for the past two days. Now, I'm perfectly fine with reunions. The Led Zeppelin reunion got my hopes up, and the Pink Floyd one is still one of those indelible moments that might only be equaled by child birth or marriage. Truly, it was something I thought would never happen. (And I still hope for more.)

But the Spice Girls? A group responsible for some of the worst ear worms imaginable? Gah! I'll admit Melanie C. is a fine songwriter, but . . . GAH! This has got to go.

Of course, I write all this with the New Kids on the Block reunion looming like a great shadow that will result in the funniest mooning ever known. After all, watching a group of guys in their late thirties prance around on stage like they're in their teens will be worth it alone. It does make me wonder: what's next? Mili Vanili?

Girl, you know it's true. . . The whole talk causes me to shiver.

How about a Temple of the Dog reunion? A new album, something that truly doesn't suck from popsters from the early nineties. It would be better than a lot of what Chris Cornell has been up to lately. Brad manages to get back together every now and again.

OH! Speaking of good reunion stuff, the Cowboy Junkies have a stellar new release out called "Trinity Revisited" which is their entire "Trinity Sessions" album rerecorded live with a few of their friends (including my old musical love, Natalie Merchant.)

Here's the latest mix including a bit from that old Cowboy Junkies album. Hopefully, it will answer one of the modern world's greatest mysteries "Who's Gene Autry?"

Loving at Night

1. Jesse Harris & The Ferdinandos - You, The Queen
2. Tom Waits - Gun Street Girl
3. Hank Williams Sr. - Hey Good Lookin'
4. Gordon Lightfoot - Summertime Dream
5. Al Green - I'm Glad You're Mine
6. Willie Nelson - Gravedigger
7. Johnny Cash & John Carter Cash - Who's Gene Autry?
8. Hem - Rainy Night In Georgia
9. Cowboy Junkies - Misguided Angel
10. Leonard Cohen - Night Comes On
11. The Irish Rovers - The First Love Of Life
12. Commander Cody & His Lost Plan - Back To Tennessee
13. Shooter Jennings - Slow Train (Feat. The Oak Ridge Boys)
14. Ade Peever - Night On Earth
15. John Prine - Angel From Montgomery
16. Waylon Jennings - The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want To Get Over You)

Afrobeta

2008-01-16T10:54:00.000-05:00

MySpace.com - Afrobeta - MIAMI BEACH, Florida - Disco House / Ghettotech / Funk - www.myspace.com/afrobeta

I think the coolest thing about Afrobeta is that they're local, though the vocalist sounds a bit English, like Sia.

Got to go listen to this!

Syd Barrett, Plastic People Hit Broadway : Rolling Stone

2008-01-14T07:42:00.000-05:00

Syd Barrett, Plastic People Hit Broadway : Rolling Stone

This actually sounds pretty cool. If it's historically accurate, I've no idea, but it's something I wouldn't mind seeing. I know the idea of rock as a means of awakening is nothing new in media, (I've even tried writing about it in fiction myself) but I don't hear about it being documented in real life much.

I also think I can relate to the idea of the Piper at the Gates of Dawn influencing my life. (He certainly influenced my imagination.)

Three Steps to a Disapearance

2008-01-08T10:43:00.000-05:00

Well, Meera thinks this one could have been mixed a bit better, and in hindsight, I kind of agreed. But alas, it's done, and to fix it would have remove some songs I really liked in this mix.

This was my second chance at this mix. I originally started this months ago to be used in the store and it went over nicely . . . except for where I ended it with Lynard Skynard's "Gimme Three Steps." It's a great song, but damn, it just didn't work here.

Three Steps to a Disappearance

1. The Beta Band - Dry The Rain
2. Beastie Boys - Suco De Tangerina
3. The New Up - Tropical Soda
4. Amadou & Mariam - Taxi Bamako
5. Manu Chao - desaparecido
6. Moloko - The Time Is Now
7. Jarvis - Don't Let Him Waste Your Time
8. Jette-Ives - In The Presence Of
9. Radiohead - How To Disappear Completely
10. UNKLE Feat. Ian Astbury - Burn My Shadow
11. Air - Space Maker
12. Beirut - Scenic World
13. múm - Abandoned Ship Bells
14. Jeff Buckley - Lover, You Should've Come Over

Waylon Jennings Live

2008-01-03T20:24:00.000-05:00

Waylon Jennings - Concert Vault - Where Live Music Lives,Streaming Free Music, Live Concert Downloads

Here's something I didn't know, Waylon Jennings wrote the Allman Brother's hit "Ramblin' Man."

This was a hell of a show to listen to on cold night. It's got Waylon with Willie Nelson towards the end and Hank Williams Jr. doing a couple songs too. Basically, Outlaw country at it's finest.

Much Delayed Best of 2007

2007-12-28T11:49:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been ready for a couple weeks now, but I haven't been able to simply get it written up. Every years, it seems like I fiddle around with it, wondering if this truly is it. This year though, it hasn't been from second guessing myself; I just haven't found the time to really write it up.

A lot of the albums listed this year are albums I've raved about earlier in the year. My god, there really has been some good stuff come out. And a lot of it didn't even make it on my own Best of.

I make up my Best of list based off the albums I keep going back to despite some other brilliant find I come across. For example, Amp Fiddler's “Afro Strut” could have been on here. Same goes for The Smashing Pumpkin's “Zeitgeist” or even Alicia Keys newest effort “As I Am,” but for one reason or another, the albums refused to stick around on my mp3 player.

I'll be honest and say I was having a Progressive Rock kind of year where I was discovering new band and gobbling them up on nearly a monthly basis. I think this year's list reflects that.

I'm just going to write about my top three rather than go into an album by album talk this year. Most of these I've written about at length, or talked about at length with one person or another.

Even thought it will be officially released to stores on the first of January, Radiohead's “In Rainbows” has become one of my favorite albums by them. I honestly think it's second only to OK Computer. Meera might dispute that, but it truly is another masterpiece.

Blackfield's “Blackfield II” gets a top nod just by being that brilliant and for exposing me to the first album as well (And the DVD they released later in the year.) I don't know why this made it in the top three and not Porcupine Tree's “Fear of a Blank Planet.” Thematically, they're very similar, but Blackfield spoke to me just a bit more. I think it might have been Aviv Geffen's contributions that tipped it over the edge. Really, Steve Wilson is at his best when he's collaborating with someone, and that combination with the Isreali mindset is brilliant.

It's also Porcupine Tree-lite, which would be good for getting people into the greater body of Steve Wilson's work. (I honestly think I've had something with his involvement every year since I started doing these things.)

Finally, my top three is rounded out by Maynard James Keenan's latest side/solo project Puscifer. This is the decadence both Tool and A Perfect Circle sometimes hint at, but never truly go for since the Opiate EP. When asked to compare to the two, I can only come up with it being a mish-mash along with something special that seemed to crawl out of Maynard's brain.

For the first Underworld soundtrack there was a song included that has since been given a different backing track and seriously fixed. It is seriously my favorite track on the album.

Now, here's the mix with te songs only arranged in an order of best fit. Though I will say that Norah's album was the first I decided would be on the list way back when it came out. I felt the same about Neon Bible too.

Best of 2007

1. Norah Jones - "Wish I Could" from Not Too Late
2. Stanley Clarke - "Châteauvallon 1972 (Dedicated To Tony Williams)" from Toys of Men
3. Blackfield - "Christenings" from Blackfield II
4. Stephen Marley - "You're Gonna Leave" from Mind Control
5. Radiohead - "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" from In Rainbows
6. The White Stripes - "A Martyr for My Love for You" from Icky Thump
7. Rasputina - "The Pruning" from Oh Perilous World
8. The Arcade Fire - "Black Mirror" from Neon Bible
9. Little Atlas - "Contumacious" from Hollow
10. Puscifer - "Vagina mine" from V is for Vagina
11. Christian Scott - "Katrina's Eyes" from Anthem
12. A Fine Frenzy - "Last Of Days" from One Cell in the Sea
13. Porcupine Tree - "Sentimental" from Fear of a Blank Planet

A Progressive Working Environment

2007-12-10T11:20:00.001-05:00

Several months ago I had to go in early for work and I needed. . . something, anything to get through the dreadful morning of 'merchandising.' I'd also been going through a very real fixation with King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King," which lead to me creating this progressive mix using some of my favorite tracks I picked up over the summer.

A Progressive Working Environment

1. Pink Floyd - Let There Be More Light
2. The Alan Parsons Project - The Voice
3. Genesis - Mama
4. Yes - Roundabout
5. Uriah Heep - Traveller In Time
6. Porcupine Tree - The Creator Has A Mastertape
7. Strangecloud - Illusions End
8. Magus - Khyber Pass/Nostradamus
9. King Crimson - The Court Of The Crimson King

Slight Return

2007-12-06T22:15:00.000-05:00

This might be just that, I'm not sure if keeping this is worth it anymore.

Here's some SRV, Son House, Otis Rush, Eddie Hazell and Bootsy Collins.

Axiom Funk - If 6 was 9

2007-12-06T21:49:00.000-05:00

YouTube - Axiom Funk - If 6 was 9

I was working on a You Tube post and this begged to be shared now. Bootsy, Buckethead, and Brain.

Damn.

Loretta's Unicorn

2007-11-23T10:19:00.000-05:00

While drinking and eating at the Field Irish Pub, we were listening to a guy perform who was a member of the Irish Rovers, Ian Millar. He did a couple songs by John Prine, a couple the Rovers made famous, and sitting there it made me want to make this mix. He'd also sang a version of the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" that truly was moving. . . (He did it before he claimed he was too drunk to remember the words).

This mix is currently on rotation in the car too.

Loretta's Unicorn

1. John Prine - Please Don't Bury Me
2. Shooter Jennings - Walk Of Life
3. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Fortune Teller
4. Donovan - Season Of The Witch
5. The Irish Rovers - The Unicorn
6. Nick Garrie - The Nightmare Of J. B. Stanislas
7. Stanley Clarke - Back In The Woods
8. Shuggie Otis - Ice Cold Daydream
9. Pieta Brown - In My Mind I Was Talkin' To Loretta
10. Bettye Lavette - take me like i am (i want to be your baby)
11. Mark Knopfler - Coyote

Happy Thanksgiving.

2007-11-22T15:02:00.001-05:00

A little something different for this Thanksgiving. It's from my favourite Liberal Talk Radio show: The Stephanie Miller Show. And consequently, Jim Ward has become one of my favourite voice actors.

This little bit is just not for kids. . .

Also, I am beginning to formulate my best of the Year. Frightening, huh?

And one final thing, I've been listening to a pair of podcasts off and on Rogue's Gallery and Jazz: Profiles.

Rogue's Gallery is a three hour epic Prog Rock podcast that's already introduced me to a new favourite band Pineapple Thief.

Jazz: Profiles is a series of profiles on the Greats hosted by Nancy Wilson. It maybe demystifying, but I find learning about the legends helps me understand their music. It certainly did with Sun Ra for me.

And for now, a Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I've got a new mix ready to go, but I'm still deciding what to say about it. I promise you, it will have Unicorns.

Reverend Knights

2007-11-15T08:50:00.000-05:00

I know I've promised and promised that I'd keep this current, but it'd been damned near impossible as we slip into the season. One thing comes up, then another. I find myself thinking of things I want to post, but just don't get around to it and have second thoughts about the subject.

For now, I've got two things. . . The picture is one man's personal homage to Bob Marley shaved into his hair. One Love, I guess.

Our mix for this week is pretty much made up of stuff I've been listening to for the past month. It features and Alanis Morrisette cover by Steve Wilson of Porcupine Tree and Blackfield. Some new Sigur Ros and Stanley Clarke, both albums constantly on my mp3 player.

I'm also digging the all out decadence that is Maynard's latest effort: Puscifer. Check out their website too, there's tons of goodies there.

Reverend Knights

1. Steven Wilson - Thank You
2. Little Atlas - Preying
3. The Tangent - Lost In London
4. Pineapple Thief - No one leaves this earth
5. Puscifer - Rev. 22:20 (Dry Martini mix)
6. Blackfield - Lullaby
7. Stanley Clarke - Come On
8. Muse - knights of cydonia
9. Sigur Rós - Hafsol

Halloween Silence.

2007-10-25T21:21:00.000-04:00

I know I've been almost entirely silent the past month, and I know I've posted about this phenomenon, but this has been a nutty month I've hopefully worked out.

Here's two mixes to occupy your week leading up to the great holiday of cavities. I know I'm going to be at work, still working out what my costume will be for the day.

The first mix is like a fun house, the torments changing by the song. They other is like a very odd Masked Ball.

Happy Halloween, everyone! There's a lot of different stuff to chose from here.

Halloween Fun House

1. Michael Jackson - Thriller
2. Tomoyasu Hotei And Ray Cooper - Drug Score 3
3. Rob Zombie - Dragula
4. Monster Magnet - Gimme Danger
5. Toadies, The - I Come From The Water
6. The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown - Vampire Club
7. The Doors - End Of The Night
8. Os Mutantes - Ave, Lucifer
9. Ann Wilson - Bad Moon Rising (feat. Gretchen Wilson)
10. Parliament - Dr. Funkenstein
11. The Prodigy - Mindfields
12. Bobby "Boris" Pickett - Monster Mash

Grand Halloween Party

1. Steve Peregrine Took - Scorpius
2. The Eagles - Journey of a Sorcerer
3. Anton LaVey - The Whirling Dervish
4. the mission - and the dance goes on
5. Blackfield - This Killer
6. Miranda Sex Garden - Serial Angels
7. Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale - Ghost Story
8. Mediaeval Baebes - The World Fareth As A Fantasye
9. Radiohead - Bodysnatchers
10. Rasputina - My Captivity By Savages
11. Bat For Lashes - Bat's Mouth
12. mum - Winter (What We Never Were After All)
13. A Perfect Circle - The Nurse Who Loved Me
14. Ayreon - Computer-Reign (Game Over)
15. Menomena - Airaid
16. Roky Erickson & The Aliens - Night Of The Vampire
17. Red Dwarf - Ending Titles Theme (Howard Goodall)

Radiohead's 'OK Computer' made into a play | News | NME.COM

2007-10-17T19:59:00.000-04:00

Radiohead's 'OK Computer' made into a play | News | NME.COM

This sounds incredibly cool. I've always been tempted to do something like this with a couple of Pink Floyd albums, but it always comes to naught. Pete Townsend even did it with his Lifehouse Project too (what would become their best album "The Who's Next").

I really hope this is released in the States somehow, or made available for download.

Speaking of downloading, get their new album. It is bloody amazing and will be on the list this year. I can feel it. Send them five pounds or so, the young lads from Cambridge deserve it.

Powerful Voices To Make You Weep . . . or Dance.

2007-10-11T20:55:00.000-04:00

For some reason, this time of year is the hardest to keep things up and running. Mostly, it seems to be from problems with computers. I've had four computer crisis on two machines for over the past week, and it doesn't seem to be letting up.

That still doesn't keep me from seeking out and listening to new stuff though.

Over the past few weeks we've seen a whole slew of new releases around the store starting with that Kanye West/ 50 Cent battle on the eleventh of September. (Kanye is still winning that, by the way.) We've seen a new Bruce Springsteen, a new Jennifer Lopez English album and what seems like another lackluster (for gringos only) Gloria Estefan album). We're not going to be talking about those, of course.

Not long after I complained about the lack of hard sounding female singers, and I complained about Heart wussing out Ann Wilson does the most beautiful thing could do: she shuts me up by putting out a steller, hard assed solo record called "Hope and Glory".

There are three things about this record that blew me away. There's a cover of "Goodbye Blue Sky" that takes an almost incidental piece of The Wall and turns it into it's own heart wrenching song. Secondly, there's a killer version of "Immigrant Song" where I can actually understand the lyrics. And finally, there's a cover of "We Got to Get Out of the Place" that makes you wonder what if the Animals had been fronted by a woman? It brings back a depth and soul to the song that somehow has become lost by repeated playings on oldies radio stations. For any Heart/Zeppelin fan, this album is a most listen.

Speaking of classic female voices, we've also got a new one out by Bettye Lavette. Now, I loved her last album "I Got My Own Hell to Raise," but this one new one, "Scene of the Crime" was a duet album with the Drive By Truckers, a Southern Prog-Rock group. It's a kind of swaggering country/blues album you just don't hear anymore because frankly, no one really has the balls to just make it.

I realize Bettye's voice isn't for everyone, nor is it for all occasions, but like tough, hardened women, it's one you better listen to (and be sure to listen to her the first time through.) This record makes it statement right from the get go with "Take Me Like I Am," an unapologetic song to a lover from a very, very bad girl who's just trying to do right.

Another classic voice who finally out a solo album out was Siouxsie, from Siouxsie and the Banshees. Here's a goth tinged dance/art pop album with thumping bass lines by one of the people who sort of invented that whole sound with "Hong Kong Garden." This little album is called Mantaray

Finally, I end this little post with another blast form the past with David Gimour's new DVD Remember that Night. There's a lot I can say about it, there's a lot I would say about if I could come up with the words for it.

When I first put it in, my expectations were fairly low for such a thing, thinking it would be something similar to the show I saw in theaters sometime back in 2006 that was from a BBC Broadcast. That one had a beautiful rendition of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." This one had "Echoes" in it's entirety. It was a version that very nearly made me weep with my volume as high as it could reasonably go. It was jaw dropping and stunning.

It was, in essence, everything I dreamed the DVD could be. Now, if only the laddies could be convinced to so a few charity shows.

I've got more stuff to report on, but this is already a bit to long for a lot of readers.

In closing, get the new Radiohead! It's a real steal right now.

Sorry Folks!

2007-10-05T11:43:00.000-04:00

We've been having computer issues up the ying-yang here in MTM central, so it's made posting and mix creation a rather arduous process.

Still, we've been listening to stuff, and thinking about stuff. I'll get a recommendations list up soon. . . There's some really cool stuff coming down the pike, trust me.

Lord of the Rings Fan Videos

2007-09-23T19:11:00.000-04:00

I was tooling around, bored, looking for something amusing to watch and I came across these. Some of them are absolutely brilliant, some are okay. The video for "Short People" by Randy Newman is a good laugh, and the editing for "Chasing Cars" By Snow Patrol is actually quite touching.

Besides, this gives Meera and Del a chase to stare at Viggo Mortensen as Aragon.

NPR: All Songs Considered

2007-09-23T11:55:00.000-04:00

NPR: All Songs Considered

This is by far one of my favourite music podcasts, even if I've been negligent in listening to them over the many months. This weeks is for the Monterrey Jazz Festival's Anniversary.

Also, dig around, there was a show posted by Bishop Allen.

Yeah, I Pimp Friends

2007-09-22T22:20:00.000-04:00

MySpace.com - CMP(Chimrical Mind Productions) - MIAMI, US - Electro - www.myspace.com/nayurastylez

Yeah, I'm not afraid to pimp friends and people I've met. But frankly, Nayura knows what the hell she's doing. I keep pushing her to get a full fledged album of beats ready, but she just won't do it.

Criminalizing Robot Love

2007-09-22T20:34:00.000-04:00

. . . Or Anti-Droidaphilia.

Here's another one of those mixes that just sort of happened. I started out with a bunch of songs about droids and robots. Then I wanted to use some songs about crime. Then a couple tortured love songs. . . Sprinkle in some Genesis to give it that Old Testament feel for making it seem like we're doing something REALLY dirty. . .

Criminalizing Robot Love

1. Radiohead - Paranoid Android (6:23)
2. The Alan Parsons Project - Genesis CH.1. V.32
3. Tom Waits - I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You
4. Scott Fisher & 1 A.M. Approach - Android Love
5. Jamie Cullum - Wind Cries Mary
6. Carla Bruni - I Went to Heaven
7. Joe Satriani - One Robot's Dream
8. Massive Attack - Exchange
9. Jette-Ives - Proximity
10. King Crimson - Eyes Wide Open
11. Keren Ann - It Ain't No Crime
12. John Lee Hooker & Miles Davis - Murder
13. Jimmy Chamberlin Complex - Newerwaves

Queensryche covers album

2007-09-15T17:03:00.000-04:00

Pink Floyd news :: Brain Damage - Pink Floyd track on new Queensryche covers album

This sounds like it's got some cool possibilities. Queensryche did a hell of a version of "Comfortably Numb" a while back too, so I'm excited about this. I'm also curious which other tracks they're doing.

Led Zeppelin 'reform for concert' - CNN.com

2007-09-12T10:07:00.000-04:00

Led Zeppelin 'reform for concert' - CNN.com

Now, this is cool. What I'd like to know is if John Bonham's son is going to fill in as drummer? If so, he better have some chops.

Livin' 500 Miles By You

2007-09-09T17:43:00.000-04:00

I started this mix months ago when I was feeling my age and started wanting to hear a lot of the songs made famous while I was still just a youngin' in High School all the way back in the good old 1990's. Of course, not all of it from way back when, but it all fits.

Livin' 500 Miles By You

1. Mother Love Bone - Man Of Golden Words
2. Our Lady Peace - 4am
3. Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer
4. Green Day - Welcome To Paradise
5. Candlebox - It's Alright
6. Garbage - #1 Crush
7. The Pretenders - I'll Stand By You
8. Counting Crows - Mr. Jones
7. The Proclaimers - 500 Miles
10. Nightmare Of You - My Name Is Trouble
11. Oasis - Morning Glory
12. Seven Mary Three - Cumbersome
13. Collective Soul - The World I Know
14. Aerosmith - Big Ones - Livin' On The Edge

Covers: "Same Dude"

2007-09-09T11:53:00.000-04:00

Now, I've posted some odd as covers here before, such as Snow Patrol's cover of "Crazy in Love." A cover no one in the store could simply wrap their head around. I've even been thinking about using Jack Ingram's version of "Lips of an Angel" in a mix, but it just never works out. Good songs are just good songs.

Ultimately, Meera would probably tell me it takes a little pocket music theory to change the style of a song.

So here is an amusing gender switch video for R. Kelly and Usher's "Same Girl," done by Mimi and Flo. They've also got their own catchy, theme music.

Little Atlas CD "Hollow"

2007-09-07T13:44:00.000-04:00

Little Atlas CD "Hollow"

Rarely, do I ever feel so excited about a upcoming release. This is a local Miami band that does some top notch Prog Rock. Just from listening to what's sampled on this site, I really hope this is the album to bring them some solid notoriety. Check out "Silence."

The album cover alone is awesome. Their best yet, actually.

Moving in Weird

2007-09-04T22:48:00.000-04:00

Here's a little mix I made with Del in mind. It's short, but no matter how I twisted it, other songs just wouldn't fit in. It was also the first time I really gave the Joydrop track a listen, and it is bloody cool. There's a band I plan to listen to a bit more.

Moving in Weird

1. Fretwork - Fantazia In G Minor
2. The Cars - moving in stereo
3. Shiny Toy Guns - Weather Girl
4. The Killers - Where The White Boys Dance
5. Rasputina - AntiqueHighHeelRedDollShoes
6. Menomena - Weird
7. The Who - Pictures of Lily
8. The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba
9. Violet Indiana - Sundance
10. Joydrop - Metasexual

Safety First

2007-09-03T22:50:00.000-04:00

It seems like I do nothing but these lately, but Meera didn't remember the "Safety Dance." I felt we needed an audio/visual reminder courtesy YouTube's playlist feature. Also, we both needed a moment or two to discuss being old and the merits of my growing my goat-tee a lot longer.

Oh, the Piper at the Gates of Dawn reissue will be out tomorrow. I'm still deciding if I'll make the purchase since all that's new to me is the packaging.

Other new release notes: Isaac Hayes has a live DVD coming out that I am seriously considering picking up.

I've got a new mix coming along shortly. I'm just deciding which one it will be.

On a Sunday Night

2007-09-02T22:16:00.000-04:00

I trawled around, looking for videos that interest me. A few have been on the DVD scrawl in the store. Some of it is just stuff I ran into.

Beloved Monsters

2007-08-28T11:03:00.000-04:00

Now, I've had several mixes laid out and planned in Winamp for weeks now. Some, I've been using in the store, and some I've just had hanging out and waiting for just the right time to unveil. I was talking to Meera about which one to finish up and post, being as vague as possible with the descriptions and she wound choosing the chilled out, singer/songwriter kind of mix. Therefore, Beloved Monsters.

Beloved Monsters

1. I am Robot and Proud - A List of Things that Quicken the Heart
2. Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah
3. Ben Folds Five - Cigarette
4. Andrew Bird - Heretics
5. Natalie Merchant - Beloved Wife
6. Nick Drake - Free Ride
7. Neko Case - That Teenage Feeling
8. Otis Redding - Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
9. Neil Young - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
10. Norah Jones - Wake Me Up
11. Iron & Wine - Cinder and Smoke
12. Charlotte Gainsbourg - little monsters
13. Jackson C. Frank - Cover Me With Roses
14. Jarvis - I Will Kill Again

ROCK AND ROLL!

2007-08-26T21:14:00.000-04:00

I've been indulging in some of my favorite rock movies lately: High Fidelity, About a Boy, Wayne's World, the Wedding Singer, School of Rock and even Airheads.

Now, High Fidelity and About a Boy both deal in deeper matters, and that's the cool part about Nick Hornby's books. They take the everyday, examine it, and just make it cool. It's also good for thinking about the human condition and all that rot. It's all in the brilliant writing in the original novels that translate extremely well into those two films (however much they were changed, distilled, and otherwise distorted to put together a cohesive story that would work well on film.) They're great, really. And High Fidelity should be required viewing for almost. . . well anyone.

The others movies are the visual equivalent to a brilliant pop song. Mostly useless, sometimes a bit novelty, but something you that will make you smile. Airheads is about what's cool about Rock'n'Roll. You might suck, you might have been a dweeb, but still, in the end it's all about "ROCK AND ROLL!" (Hell, School of Rock examines the power of rock and how it changes lives. And it does. Really.)

Sometimes, it's all about one great song or one great show that will people will remember.

Here's a little collection of You Tube postings having to do with most of those movies.

Rabbit Stew

2007-08-23T20:48:00.000-04:00

Here's a YouTube mishmash of this and that. Mostly is a mix of stuff being abused, people, emotions, pianos and guitars. Frankly, it's not for everyone, but there's some cool videos on here.

Magical Watchtower Road 3

2007-08-23T13:31:00.000-04:00

Here's the third and final installment in this particular series of mixes. The final track has been a minor obsession of mine lately. Now, I've heard the song a lot over the years, but somehow, listening to during a car ride a couple weeks ago made me finally hear and go "Wow!" It really is that cool of a song, and I had no idea it was done by the Hollies.

Also, "Walk Away Renee" by the Left Banke got a little bit of a nod from my father. Who knew he liked the Left Banke?

Magical Watchtower Road 3

1. Santana - Evil Ways
2. Heart - Magic Man
3. The Archies - Sugar Sugar
4. The Byrds - Mr. Spaceman
5. The Band - The Weight
6. Wilson Pickett - In the midnight hour
7. ? And The Mysterians - Don't Break This Heart Of Mine
8. THE LEFT BANKE - Walk Away Renee
9. Procol Harum - Toujours l'amour
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Down On The Corner
11. The Moody Blues - Ride My See-Saw
12. Jeff Beck - Let Me Love you
13. Hollies, The - Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress

NPR : Jazz Legend Max Roach Dies at 83

2007-08-18T09:49:00.000-04:00

NPR : Jazz Legend Max Roach Dies at 83

It seems like we're doing this more and more, marking the passage of some beloved great. Max Roach was probably the best drummer who ever lived. And what's so remarkable about this is that he hung out and helped start a movement in jazz by simply hanging out and jamming with so of the other "best who ever lived." This dude used to hang out with Charlie Parker, Mingus, Miles Davis, without him, none of them would have been as cool as they were.

I've been digging into the albums he released under his own bands, and I've been blown away.

Magical Mystery Road 2

2007-08-17T12:02:00.000-04:00

This is the second mix of this little series. There's not much to say about this one other than it's a good way to spend an afternoon.

Magical Mystery Road 2

1. The Lovin' Spoonful - Do You Believe In Magic?
2. The Supremes - My World Is Empty Without You
3. Cream - Strange Brew
4. The Who - Magic Bus
5. The Kinks - Tired Of Waiting For You
6. The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard
7. The Zombies - She's Not There
8. Classics IV - Spooky
9. David Bowie - Space Oddity
10. Traffic - John Barleycorn
11. Blossom Toes - Peace Loving Man
12. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Almost Cut My Hair

Soul Filled Evening.

2007-08-15T21:33:00.000-04:00

A YouTube playlist of some soul favourites. Enjoy.

Magical Watchtower Road

2007-08-06T12:13:00.000-04:00

Finally, a mix. I know I've been slow getting this up, but I've been distracted by just how good it is. I've got two others sitting, waiting to be made and I just can't stop listening to them. I even managed to make a CD based off those three for my parents and they're digging it.

You just can't not like this kind of a lineup.

Magical Watchtower Road

1. The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
2. Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man
3. Mungo Jerry - In the Summertime
4. The Beach Boys - Wouldn't It Be Nice
5. The Youngbloods - Get Together
6. Jefferson Airplane - Blues From An Airplane
7. Kaleidoscope - A Dream for Julie
8. Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower
9. The Doors - Twentienth Century Fox
10. Steppenwolf - Sookie Sookie
11. Janis Joplin - Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)
12. Frijid Pink - Crying shame
13. The Blues Magoos - Tobacco Road

I've got a bike . . .

2007-08-06T12:04:00.000-04:00

40 Years old today and it never fails to impress. And in a few weeks, the 3 Disc special edition comes out.

The Field and Myspace recomendations.

2007-08-02T21:35:00.000-04:00

I was at my favorite traditional Irish pub up in Dania this evening and I heard yet another remarkable performance by their house band, Celtic Bridge. They do trad. Irish music with some rock tendencies that usually remind me of an unplugged Zeppelin or a version of Jethro Tull I'd like.

So when I got home, the whiskey still floating around my head, I started digging around Myspace and the internet as a whole for this little band. Sadly, nothing turned up on it's own, but I was able to come up with something from one of the members, Ade Peever.

I listened to the tracks damn, they were pretty cool. So I kept digging around Myspace and came up with an interesting list of recommendations.

The first I found from checking out some of the friends to Ade Peever, looking for their other projects. When I tell you it's a talented group of musicians, I'm not lying in a music rep kind of way. These people are the real deal.

First I found ShaSha. This is a classically trained violinist who was born in China, educated in the UK, introduced to Irish folk music and somehow found her way to Miami. I don't ask how. It seems a bit like asking the gods how music came to be. The tracks she has up sound like a kind of fusion that sells by the millions around Pledge time of PBS. . .

What I want to know is, why isn't she better known?

The next I found, again from Ade Peever's Myspace page. They're a straight up Blues Rock group from the Leeds. Doesn't get grittier than this without heading straight into the deepest, diviest, gin joint you can find in the deep South. They're called Rain Dogs

Another found me by accident, actually. Well, I found them via a mailer Snocap sends out. I just happened to listen to one of their tracks and I was completely and utterly blown away. They're called The New Up. They are a psych band with a female vocalist that doesn't come off like Jefferson Airplane of Big Brother. Not to say I don't harbor a necrophiliac love for Janis Joplin, but The New Up nearly melted my brain.

Bands like this only hit me once every few years. It was like I heard them in my head and finally something clicked and this band filled in faces and the name for what had been there all a long. I felt that way when I first heard the Flaming Lip's "Yoshimi" and Porcupine Tree's "Lightbulb Sun" and of course, Mars Volta's "Francis the Mute." I stared at my laptop's screen for minutes when I listened to "Chewbacca's Garden."

I told Del that I immediately needed their CD. She laughed, and I'll be purchasing it ASAP.

RSS

2007-07-30T20:44:00.000-04:00

I always thought it was a little more obvious with Blogger, but alas, here is our RSS link. Just copy it and paste into whatever program you prefer.

http://madterranmusic.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Hot July

2007-07-28T21:41:00.000-04:00

It's a long hot July, so here's something to curl up and watch in your air conditioning.

It's a YouTube embed, so those of you following along with Googlegroups will want to go to the main site www.madterranmusic.com

1. Within Temptation - Frozen
2. Rasputina - 1816 The Year Without a Summer
3. Bat For Lashes - What's a Girl to Do?
4. Echo & The Bunnymen - The Killing Moon
5. of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse
6. Green Day - Brain Stew
7. Paranoid Larry - Undercover Cop
8. Blues Magoos - Gotta Get Away

Five Songs for a Better Mood

2007-07-28T11:05:00.000-04:00

It's true, god is a DJ. This morning I woke in a horrendous mood. I got up, got ready for work, not really in the mood for anything. I didn't even bother digging through the mp3 collection to listen to something in the bathroom while I showered. Once I finally got out on the road, I was finally forced to listen to something. . .

Instantly, the Kinks usually put me in a better mood and their "I'm Tired of Waiting for You" came blasting on the radio. After that, "Crimson and Clover" a perennial favorite around here. Then "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge. While we're pulling into the mall, The Supremes "My World is Empty Without You" Came on and finished just as I was getting out of the car.

When you think about it, the DJ on the radio might have been having some issues of his own, but those are some great bloody songs.

To top it off, while I'm in Penny's buying a new pair a pants to replace my workpants, A-Ha's "Take on Me" starts playing and by then, my sour mood was mostly forgotten.

Good songs can do good things. Passionate, great songs can heal.

Fun with Rasputina...

2007-07-27T00:33:00.000-04:00

The first two are their Press kits for the respective albums. I just find this sort of thing interesting.

And the rest just plain fun...

I will spare you my fangirlishness...

Bleeding Threesomes

2007-07-24T19:17:00.000-04:00

Well, the title of this week's mix shouldn't be construed as an indication of my mindset. Really, I just couldn't think of a better name. . .

It's a mix of a lot of stuff that's been floating around my mp3 player or stuff we've been jamming to in the store.

Bleeding Threesomes

1. Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs - Go It Easy Mabel
2. Quidam - Chocbym...
3. Smashing Pumpkins - Bleeding The Orchid
4. Bat For Lashes - What's A Girl To Do?
5. Rasputina - A Retinue Of Moons/The Infidel Is Me
6. Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
7. Kenna - Sunday After You
8. Interpol - No I in Threesome
9. The White Stripes - I'm Slowly Turning into You
10. Digitalism - Zdarlight
11. BigElf - Pain Killers

Those Lovely Chains and Freedom Fairest

2007-07-23T00:56:00.000-04:00

Those Lovely Chains and Freedom Fairest

1. Keren Ann - It's All A Lie (5:40)
2. Lily Allen - Shame For You (4:12)
3. Rasputina - In Old Yellowcake (4:05)
4. The White Stripes - Conquest (2:48)
5. The Fratellis - Henrietta (3:32)
6. A Fine Frenzy - Rangers (4:33)
7. Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - The Maid Needs A Maid (3:21)
8. Bat For Lashes - Sarah (3:57)
9. Kate Mann - Jezebel (3:38)
10. In Gowan Ring - Love Charms (2:37)
11. Midnight Movies - Ribbons (4:04)
12. October Project - Always (3:50)
13. Viva Voce - Believer (3:09)
14. Murder by Death - Those Who Stayed (3:58)

So, I've had this mix clattering about in my head for close to a month, but I just now got the chance to get things together.

Transmitting Our Shouted Dreams of Love

2007-07-15T13:45:00.000-04:00

This week's mix has been sitting on my computer for a weeks now. I tried making back in May, but I had an issue with one of the files. Thankfully, that little issue seemed to resolve itself. It started out as a list from Del of some tracks she wanted in a mix. Then I tossed in some more. And well, it got a little weird.

Transmitting Our Shouted Dreams of Love

1. Voltaire - About A Girl
2. Future Bible Heroes - A You You Never Knew
3. The Bird And The Bee - Again & Again
4. The Peter Malick Group - Strange Transmissions
5. Thea Gilmore - Have You Heard
6. Robi Draco Rosa - Lie Without A Lover
7. James Blunt - Goodbye My Lover
8. The Church - Under The Milky Way
9. Tears For Fears - Shout
10. The East Village Opera Company - Habanera (Carmen)
11. Blue Man Group Feat. Venus Hum - I Feel Love
12. The Shroud - Falling Dream
13. Peter Bjorn And John - Young Folks

Erased by 24 Hours of Bourbon

2007-07-05T22:21:00.000-04:00

And that, my friends and dear listeners is how I wish my day had ended. It really could have had I just not been too tired to put in that kind effort. We are in the midst of the rainy season here in Florida, being deluged by daily showers forcing the locals off for the Fourth and the Tourists into the malls.

Instead of obliterating most of my brain cells, I'm breaking down and posting short mix I've had ready since Monday. It includes a few of our current favourites around the MTM camp. I'm loving the new White Stripes album "Icky Thump." Del is all about the A Fine Frenzy album, "One Cell in the Sea" which is coming out soon. And Meera has been making me dig out my old Verve CDs and give them a listen again. We bonded over the Verve a very long time ago, that and Pink Floyd's the Division Bell in the days before CD burners were common items. (I borrowed those two CDs and one wound up scratched somehow. I never really lived it down.)

Erased by 24 Hours of Bourbon

1. The White Stripes - 300 MPH Torrential Outpour Blues
2. The Snow Fairies - The Love Affairs of a Southern Belle
3. Midnight Movies - 24 Hour Dream
4. Naked Eyes - Always Something There To Remind Me
5. Tom Waits - Jockey Full Of Bourbon
6. Björk - Bachelorette
7. Thievery Corporation - Nouvelle Vague - This Is Not A Love Song
8. The Verve - Sonnet
9. A Fine Frenzy - Almost Lover
10. Mika - Erase

Black Meditations on the Lobster God

2007-06-25T22:47:00.000-04:00

This week it's a mix of this and that. I threw it together, listening to tracks I think would bounce nicely off each other. I've got a bit off the new Jarvis Cocker (the song that samples "Crimson and Clover" beautifully, no less). More from Lily Allen and some of the other usuals.

I also commented to Meera lately that Seal is perfect for this sort of thing. He's instantly recognizable and everyone loves his hits, but he's not someone that's overplayed and you're sick of. No one says "Hey, don't put on Seal" when we crack something open in the store. He's the perfect kind of intelligent popster. There's a lot going on in the lyrics, but still it's something accessible to nearly everyone.

"Kiss From a Rose" is the only exception in his catalog. And even still, it's more popular than the movie it was in ever was.

Sade is very much the same way. No one objects to Sade, and I hope that Lily Allen will be that type of popstar in a few years.

The English have a way with this that the Americans have just forgotten for years now. Our pop is just mass market, microwaveable crud. Theirs is handcrafted, hand carved meals meant to be enjoyed over a lifetime.

Black Meditation on the Lobster God

1. The Kinks - Set Me Free
2. Them - Richard Cory
3. XTC - Dear God
4. Tilly and the Wall - I Always Knew
5. Jarvis - Black Magic
6. Seal - Prayer For The Dying
7. Frou Frou - It's Good To Be In Love
8. Prince - Diamonds And Pearls
9. Sly & Family Stone - I Get High On You
10. The Fratellis - Cuntry Boys And City Girls
11. Klaxons - Isle Of Her
12. INXS - Mediate
13. Gnarls Barkley - The Last Time
14. Liquid Soul - Lobster Boy's Revenge
15. Lily Allen - Take What You Take

Laziness

2007-06-20T22:35:00.000-04:00

My own aside, I've found a lot of what's come out of the Industry just to be complete and utter laziness one the part of the performers and the companies. My prime (and only listed example) is the first video in the playlist. It's a version of "Missing You" with the original artist and Alison Krauss. It's a great song, but an astoundingly mediocre version. It might as well be Karaoke seeing how it sounds like it uses the exact same backing as the original hit did. Frankly, I'm surprised Alison Krauss would do such a thing.

There's more, or course. The recent spate of Beyonce videos from her last album are all cut from the same mold. I know they were all done at the same time over a weekend, but it looks like it was just her, a blue screen and a simple dress and they edited in whatever they like. . .

That being different versions of the same crap.

In response, this YouTube playlist (sorry you Google Groups Folks, for to go to the site) includes some things from bands that actually try to do something different, fun and ungodly exciting.

Sunday Underneath the Willows in the Shadows of the Pavonis Mons

2007-06-20T21:09:00.000-04:00

Here's another piece of headspace I created to while away a Sunday at the store. To one of my associates, she said it'd was perfect for coming down off a serious high. And I was touched. There's a lot of different styles going on in this mix, most of which spawn from talking to different people and wanting to create that type of mix.

It's a mix for a quiet hour before the torrents begin.

Sunday Underneath the Willows in the Shadows of the Pavonis Mons

1. Simon And Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy In New York
2. Tommy James & The Shondells - Sugar On Sunday
3. The Who - Baba O'Riley
4. Pure Reason Revolution - The Twycyn / Trembling Willows
5. Radiohead - Morning Bell
6. Sia - Drink To Get Drunk
7. The Flaming Lips - Approaching Pavonis Mons By Balloon (Utopia Planitia)
8. Portishead - Biscuit
9. The Shins - Pink Bullets
10. Porcupine Tree - Pure Narcotic
11. Wolfmother - Woman
12. Silversun Pickups - Little Lovers
13. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
14. Massive Attack - Eurochild

2007-06-14T08:01:00.000-04:00

I've been working on posting this one all week. (Meaning I think about posting it every time I'm away from a computer and promptly find something else more urget . . . ) It is mostly a collection of different groups I've been listening to a lot lately. There's a lot going on in this one, so beware.

Protect Me From the Ashes of Bille Jean

1. Stabbing Westward - Darkest Day
2. Portishead - It's a Fire
3. Mary Fahl - Time
4. Massive Attack & Mad Professor - Bumper Ball Dub (Karmacoma)
5. Minsk - Circle Of Ashes
6. Monster Magnet - Spine of God
7. Placebo - Protege Moi
8. Fiona Apple - Criminal
9. Chris Cornell - Billie Jean
10. Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
11. Blackfield - Perfect World

So wrong...

2007-06-11T01:24:00.000-04:00

on so many levels.

Memory Almost Full and Carry On

2007-06-07T08:24:00.000-04:00

Normally, when someone talked about Paul McCartney's solo albums (or even Wings for that matter) I simply shrug my shoulders and go "meh." It's just never been my cup of tea. Like Robert Plant's or Roger Water's solo material, you're always expecting there to be more, but for one reason or another, it just falls short of the high expectations. (By the way, "Might Rearranger" by Plant is a stellar album. Listen to it.)

Now, his latest release, "Memory Almost Full," actually surprised me. It's a good, solid album. Having said that, I reminds me of a lot of the albums I've heard by bands influenced by the Beatles over the years. At times, I hear Echo and the Bunnymen, others I hear a Electric Light Orchestra sound, and others (dare I say it?) it reminds me of Klaatu.

Yes, Paul McCartney's album reminds me of a Klaatu album. . . Now isn't that something?

This week, along with Sir Paul, thereare a couple other albums coming out this week. There's Black Light Burns, which I've not heard yet, and I'm eagerly anticipating the first listen. It's Wes Borland's new project after Limp Bizkit disintegrated awhile back. Now, without much argument, Borland was the only real talent in the band. A musician in a group of frat boys. Now that he's teamed up with a couple of the masterminds of A Perfect Circle, I'm drooling. . .

I have heard, and quickly turning into a favourite, "Carry On" by Chris Cornell. I couldn't stand Audioslave. The whole project, all three albums sounded like an absolute waste of time. His new solo album takes things back to the Soundgarden type of Grunge sound we all know, loved and angst to.

But it's not that. Like the previous Pearl Jam album, we hear a man and a sound maturing. It reminds me more of the introspective sound Temple of to Dog had. Hell, I kept expecting to see Gossard and Amment mentioned in the liners.

Listen to his cover of "Billie Jean," the Michael Jackson hit. Instead of it sounding like a prepubescent boy who there could be a real doubt whether he's seen a woman naked, Chris Cornell makes it sound like "Yeah, it's probably his kid," in the way only a former junkie could. . .

Really, it all comes down to this: It's good to have your old heroes making good music again. Refreshing, almost.

The Vigil

2007-06-05T21:55:00.000-04:00

Instead of making mixes, I spent the weekend listening to Doctor Who Audio recordings and Radio dramas. I'm not entirely sure when this was recorded and I haven't had a chance to figure out from whence it came since these audio versions are my first, real introduction to this character and storyline.

I listened to this particular stories while doing the dishes a couple nights ago and I found it quite profound.

We'll be back to music soon enough, and there's tons of new stuff coming along.

Doctor Who - The Vigil

Also, check out This American Life. They've added podcasts and I've been able to catch them all lately, finally.

Skipped the Light Fandango . . .

2007-06-02T10:32:00.000-04:00

Here's another nearly forgotten classic. No one seems to care about the 40 year of this album, though it is one of my favorites. To date, I've only heard it on vinyl. I can't find any Procol Harum on CD in this country.

It was 40 Years Ago Today!

2007-06-01T09:46:00.001-04:00

Yes, Sgt. Pepper was released 40 years ago today.

1967 was a big year for music where some of the greatest albums were released all in the space of a few months. Really, it was the 1966-68 period that were some of the biggest, but alas, it coalesced in 1967. Some of my favourite titles:

Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Doors
Surrealistic Pillow
The Velvet Underground and Nico
Sgt. Pepper
Magical Mystery Tour
Are You Experienced?

And there are so many I'm just not thinking of right now. For the Rock world, it was phenomenal period of growth and development. Why isn't the Industry getting behind it more?

Hopefully, if there's an industry left, 2017 will treat this better for the 50th.

PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN!

2007-05-31T08:47:00.000-04:00

It's been 40 years since it's release and I read this today over at Fleeting Glimpse.

"Piper Confirmed! We are very happy to tell you that EMI have just issued a press release about the upcoming Piper At The Gates Of Dawn re-release. Release date is scheduled for 3 September 2007 and will be a Deluxe 3 CD set, in a DVD sized hardback book format with a reproduction of a previously unseen Syd Barrett notebook. There will be a Stereo disc, mono disc version of the album (different takes of the tracks), and a 3rd disc of all 1967 singles and B sides, plus unreleased edits of 2 tracks (TBC), all in sequence. All music remastered by James Guthrie. A 2 CD standard version of the stereo and mono discs, but without booklet and singles disc, will also be released in a brilliant box and will be priced at deluxe 1 CD price."

So yeah, one of my favourite Floyd albums is finally getting the treatment it deserves. Not that I don't love Dark Side, mind you, but how many times can it be remastered and repackaged and re-released?

Crawdaddy! - Crate Digger - Small Doses of Jackson C. Frank

2007-05-30T19:05:00.000-04:00

Crawdaddy! - Crate Digger - Small Doses of Jackson C. Frank

This is from this week's "Crawdaddy!" an online music zine. I've got to get a hold of some of this.

Happy Little Rumble of Idiot Demons

2007-05-29T08:14:00.000-04:00

In the store recently, I saw a couple of teenage girls making their mother listen to Green Day's "Dookie" album on our listening stations. Now, given that this album is nearly as old as these children, I was amused by the completely horrified look on the mother's face. It was priceless. It said, "What in the hell are they making me listen to." Now, I think she hammed it up, but it was still something to see. I even called a couple of my fellow associates over to take a look at this one.

They were pleasantly amused too. It honestly says something when a nearly fifteen year old album still elicits such a reaction from parents.

That was the impetus for this mix. Okay, maybe it's not one to gross out your parents with songs about wanking, but it's just one to celebrate a little Green Day. . .

But you might want to hide this one between the Led Zeppelin and Doors CDs so your parents won't wonder.

Happy Little Rumble of Idiot Demons

1. Green Day - American Idiot
2. NOFX - Idiots Are Taking Over
3. The Clash - I'm So Bored with the U.S.A.
4. Stiff Little Fingers - State Of Emergency
5. Blue Cheer - Hello L.A., Bye Bye Birmingham
6. Pink Fairies - The Pigs Of Uranus
7. Stray Cats - Rumble in Brighton
8. Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Little Demon
9. Green Day - Brain Stew
10. The Pogues - A Pistol For Paddy Garcia
11. Mano Negra - Patchanka
12. Gym Class Heroes - Happy Little Trees
13. Sublime - Santeria
14. Red Hot Chili Peppers - My Friends
15. Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams

Femmes Turned On By The Space Funk

2007-05-28T10:17:00.000-04:00

So here we are with a new mix for the week. Here's a funk and reggae mix to while away your Memorial Day afternoon. . . So throw on burgers and relax and download this mix.

Oh, and instead of a wishy-washy cover by Blondie, you're getting the original by the Paragons!

Femmes Turned on by the Space Funk

1. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Turn Your Lights Down Low
2. Betty Davis - Anti Love Song
3. Ranking Ann - Feminine Gender
4. Black Merda - Think of Me
5. The Paragons - The Tide Is High
6. James Knight & The Butlers - Save Me
7. Latin Breed - I Turn You On
8. Vern Blair Debate - Super Funk
9. Sly & Family Stone - (You Caught Me) Smilin'
10. Barrabas - Keep on Moving
11. Charles Wright & The Watts - The Joker (On A Trip Thru The Jungle)
12. Scientist & Jammy & The Roots Radics - Flash Gordon Meets Luke Skywalker
13. The Undisputed Truth - Spaced Out
14. The Brides of Funkenstein - war ship touchante
15. Toots and the Maytals - Having a Party

Does this work?

2007-05-24T23:16:00.000-04:00

If it does, I might have learned how to make the embeds work more easily. Less space on your screen. . .

Jarvis by Jarvis

2007-05-24T12:42:00.001-04:00

I know I'm late getting around to this one, but I just finished listening to Jarvis Cocker's new solo album and it blew me away. The songwriting is nice and tight, and it's simply beautiful in it's instrumentation. Despite the sampling used from "Crimson and Clover," the album reminded me more and more of those old Tommy James singles that were bona fide hits. In fact, after listening to it, I played the Crimson and Clover album just to continue that vibe.

Jarvis has got to be one of the best brit-pop albums I've heard in quite sometime.

Listen to it!

Also check out the Aliens album by ex-members of the Beta Band. Now that's out of this world, really taking things back to the Psychedelic era.

Darkness, Darkness

2007-05-24T10:13:00.000-04:00

So here's the latest recording from my record collection. Last night, I pulled this gem out and finally gave it a listen. I liked it so much, I had to share. It's from the country/folk rock band, The Youngbloods. This is there album "Elephant Mountain." It's not the album that had their biggest his, "Get Together" on it, but it's from around the same era.

Keep in mind, this is from vinyl, so the sound isn't like CD.

Youngbloods - Elephant Mountain.

You Tube shot

2007-05-20T23:31:00.000-04:00

Snippet from Help! Watched the movie again tonight, thought I'd share what I think could be one of the coolest music videos ever.

Live on YouTube!

2007-05-19T21:59:00.000-04:00

I might be doing too many if these things, but here's a bunch of live tracks I found attempting to do something else entirely.

Muse - Take A Bow

Jimi Hendrix - Fire

The Vines - Spaceship

Janis Joplin - Ball and Chain

Placebo - Without You I'm Nothing

Radiohead - Where I End and You Begin

Tool - Sober

Finally, if you're looking for some Bill Hicks, this guy's got tons up

Kanał Audytywny

2007-05-17T00:47:00.000-04:00

Since finding Kanał Audytywny's double-CD, Neurofotoreceptoreplotyka Jako Magia Bytu, it has been consistently appearing on my Winamp playlist for the last 6 months, particularly during late nights at the lab. The group is a combination of hip-hop, nu jazz, and trip-hop, which reminds me a lot of Portishead's self-titled album. To sound cliche, the band has an "experimental" sound, but do not let that deture you from listening futher. Though I cannot understand what the singer is rapping/singing about, I like the use of brass instrumentation with the hip-hop and jazz beats. Natalia Grosiak's vocals throughout the album compliment the beats and rapping really well.

Their music sounds "smart" and creative, so I wondered whether the group made any videos to compliment their songs. Naturally, on YouTube, I found the video for "2 pokoje", which features Rahim, who is also part of Pokahontaz and was part of Paktofonika. This was the first song I heard by this group, and since then I've been hooked. The song is dark, and I love playing it at night. In fact, this album sounds best at night.

I believe a comment on the youtube said it best: brak mi słów!

YouTube Embed Party.

2007-05-16T22:26:00.000-04:00

Sorry if this one is just too long, but I got a little eager.

The Aliens - Setting Sun

David Bowie - Loving the Alien

The Killers - Read My Mind

CHarlotte Gainsbourg - The Songs We Sing

Minsk - Planet X (This isn't the Minsk I was looking for, but this group sounds good too)

The Gossip - LIsten Up!

Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks

Flogging Molly - Drunken Lukllabies

Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple

Cobra Starship - Church of Hot Addiction

THe Zutons - It's the Little Things We Do

Razorlight - Before I Fall to Peices

Metric - Monster Hospital

Unforgiven Radioactive Spaceboys for Mother's Day

2007-05-12T22:46:00.000-04:00

So all in all, Del is doing quite well and feeling fine. Everyone's collective good vibes were definitely appreciated.

Here we are, the evening before Mother's Day, and all I've got to offer is a couple mixes that have nothing to do with Mothers or Days, really. The first is one you can rock out to. I made it for the store a while back and finally got around to turning it into a real mix. This is probably the only time you'll see any Metallica track used in one of my mixes around here, so eat it up and enjoy.

The second is the final peice of my Extended Series. It's designed to simply take you mothers out to a whole other place. I mean, who really wants to eat the dry toast in bed. . . ?

Unforgiven Radioactive Spaceboys

1. Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home A Heartache
2. Stabbing Westward - What Do I Have To Do?
3. the tea party - heaven coming down
4. The Smashing Pumpkins - Spaceboy
5. Tool - Stinkfist
6. The Doors - Five To One
7. Filter - Hey Man Nice Shot
8. Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole
9. Monster Magnet - Queen Of You
10. Porcupine Tree - Radioactive Toy
11. Metallica - The Unforgiven
12. Vast - Touched

Extended 3

1. Miles Davis - Yesternow
2. Iron Butterfly - In A Gadda Da Vida
3. Office Of Strategic Influence - The Thing That Never Was
4. Sun Ra - Space Is the Place

Get Well Dellessanna

2007-05-05T08:41:00.000-04:00

GET WELL DEL!

Well, as I type this, Dellessanna is in the hospital undergoing surgery. Everyone has told me it's minor, but I still can't believe in such a thing. To alleviate some of my stress and worry last night, I started listening to some songs that I know she loves and a few she hates with a passion and a fury and intensity that I can't quite begin to describe.

We all know about her hatred of funk, and the first track of this mix in particular. I bloody love it, but ah well. I always play it now just to annoy her, just before I play some song I know she absolutely adores.

Funkytown loves you Del. And the Mad Terran Loves you too.

I'll get a playlist up later on when I've got access to it again. (I forgot to save it and upload it as well.) There's nothing new in this mix anyway.

Tainted Love/Where did our love go?

2007-05-02T23:06:00.000-04:00

In the wake of my anger at work, I came home and chatted with Patrick. He played the perfect song for the occasion: Soft Cell's "Tainted Love/Where did our love go?". What made this even more special was that he played it from vinyl.

Today was the first day I realized how long this song actually lasts - nearly 9 minutes. The track must have been a hit on the dance floor and probably endured several remixes, which brings me to my next point. I wonder if John Digweed spun this during the early part of his career as a DJ.

Apparently, the Pussycat Dolls covered the song, but according to Patrick, it wasn't very original.

Personally, I want to hang the lyrics on my office door, but I doubt anybody would get the significance...

Angels Cantaloops and Water.

2007-05-02T11:25:00.000-04:00

I've got two mixes to post. Both, I think, are a hell of a lot of fun. The first was created through beggining for ideas and themes from Del. The other by begging for suggestings from Meeta.

Oh, before I post, I've heard the new Bjork album, Viola, and it is good. It's bloody insane in spots, but that's kind of what we expect from a Bjork album. Sadly, no beat boxes, but there are some foghorns.

The Angel's Psychic Voyage Across the Bridge of the Gods' Sea

1. The Flaming Lips - SpongeBob & Patrick Confront The Psychic Wall Of Energy
2. The Doors - Angels And Sailors
3. Casper & the Cookies - Barnacle Bill the Sailor
4. Far East Family Band - The God of Water
5. Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge over troubled water
6. Led Zeppelin - The Ocean
7. The Chocolate Watchband - The Uncharted Sea AKA Voyage Of The Trieste
8. Joanna Newsom - Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie
9. Iron & Wine - The Sea and the Rhythm
10. Badly drawn boy - River, Sea, Ocean
11. Vetiver - Luna Sea
12. Snow Patrol - An Olive Grove Facing The Sea
13. Crash Test Dummies - Swimming In Your Ocean
14. Minstrels Of Mayhem - Loch Tay Boat Song

Back to Kissing the Iron Cantaloop

1. Jimmy McGriff - Back on the Track
2. Isaac Hayes - A Few More Kisses To Go
3. Us3 - Cantaloop
4. Gnarls Barkley - Smiley Faces
5. Brazilian Girls - Pussy
6. Mika - Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)
7. Lily Allen - LDN
8. The Bird And The Bee - F*cking Boyfriend
9. Gym Class Heroes - Cupid's Chokehold (Featuring Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy)
10. Stephen Marley - Iron Bars - (Featuring Julian Marley/Mr. Cheeks/Spragga Benz)
11. The Doors - L.A. Woman
12. Kings of Convenience - I Don't Know What I Can Save You From (Royksopp Remix)
13. Rasputina - Antiquehighheelreddollshoes
14. Björk - Amphibian [Film Mix]

And Afternoon of YouTube

2007-04-29T17:16:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry about all the postings and things to those of you reading with us in LiveJournal. And to those of you reading at Google Groups, check out the site itself. It's a lot of emdeds and it should keep people occupied for a while.

Recommendation Time

2007-04-29T10:56:00.000-04:00

I've finally got the links fixed going back to mid-Febuary. If anyone wants anything before that, leave some kind of comment and we'll get back to you. In the meantime, while I figure out what I want to do next, I've been listening to a whole slew of things.

Johnny Greenwood is the Controller. Basically, this is a mix tape from Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead. Trojan Records, the long standing Reggae label gave Johnny Greenwood access to their vaults. Now, he doesn't do any remixes. He seems to have way too much respect for the source material (Hell, so do I) to even touch it, but he put together a mix that gives people a sampling of Reggae music outside the modern Dancehall and the Wailers/UB40 stuff that's litereally everywhere. A lot of it's stuff that's been sampled and covered to death, but it's interesting to hear the originals. We cracked this one open in store and I bought it that evening.

Hot Fuzz: Music from the Motions Picture This is the soundrack to the movie and is an amusing smattering of British music having loosely to deal with the Law. The Troogs, XTC, The Kinks, Adam Ant and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. . . How cam they not go wrong?

Dr. Dog: We All Belong This little album is some clever Beatlesque pop from the middle years. Of course, I love it. The name of the band and the album cover drew me to it going through the racks at work. I listened to it and I found myself in a nice little place of psychedelic swirls and clever lyrics.

Patti Smith: Twelve Okay, usually when an artist of Patti Smith's caliber does a covers album, it usually means she's going to the well and doesn't have any new ideas. (This is especially true when they do a version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit") This album, however, is not that at all. She performs a collection of songs that seem like they were originally written for her. Her version of Soul Kitchen sounds like she's channeling Jim Morrison. Oh yeah, she does a cool ass version of Teen Spirit too.

Florida Funk: Funk 45's from the Aligator State 1968-1975 This is a smattering of what was from my home state before the music industry became so homogenized. This is back when regional acts could get radio play and actually have a hit, and there's some things where that really lay down a hot and sticky groove you can't ignore. The same company put out albums for the Mid-West and Texas too that I'm interested in getting. Look for some of this material in future mixes.

Bow for the Progressive Rock recommendations!

Porcupine Tree: Fear of a Blank Planet There's a new Porcupine Tree album. Yes, I love it. I'd say more, but I'm still digesting it.

Magus: Lucid Dreamer I found this one surfing around CD Baby looking for something new to listen to. It's got a lot of everything I like: Steve Wilson-esque playing, the occasional funk beats, real world news samples, Science Fiction references. If you don't like Prog, you won't like this.

So I made a big mistake. . .

2007-04-25T09:50:00.000-04:00

Some time this past weekend, I accidentally deleted all my podcasts from by Box account. I have to re-upload the recent ones and redo the links. I'll have them up by this weekend or so.

If you're looking for any of the mixes, go ahead and email one of us, and we'll see what can be done.

Bono, Edge pen tunes for Spider-Man musical - 04/19/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

2007-04-19T08:43:00.000-04:00

Bono, Edge pen tunes for Spider-Man musical - 04/19/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

This could be really cool. If I had the talent, I'd steal some video off the DVD's to mash up with "Where the Streets Have No Name." For some reason, that seems like a real Spidey tune.

Cookie Jar of the Soul

2007-04-18T11:56:00.000-04:00

Cookie Jar of the Soul

1. Jack Johnson - Cookie Jar
2. Eddie Hazel - From the Bottom of My Soul
3. Stephen Marley - Inna Di Red - (Featuring Ben Harper)
4. Yabby You & Mad Professor - Blowing In The Wind
5. Sopwith Camel - Dancin' Wizard
6. R.E.M. - At My Most Beautiful
7. Pink Floyd - Country Song
8. Quidam - Bajkowy

This mix started out as a challenge between Meera and I. Somehow, do to our lives getting in the way, we both managed to fail. After a lot of playing, this mix simply became a mix of stuff that's been all over my mp3 player and Winamp. I'm started to think, despite the mediocre reviews, Sopwith Camel was more influential to the modern music world than we people really think. Also, they were anything but mediocre.

A Mix of Trouble

2007-04-15T18:25:00.000-04:00

Things have been topsy turvey for me of late. New jobs. New Geckos. The past 6 months have been crazy.

A Mix of Trouble:
Part 1
Part 2

And in other news...some twit stole some artwork from a Chihiuly Exhibit.
It burns me up.

More YouTube fun

2007-04-10T20:39:00.000-04:00

And if you ever want to put any of these on your iPod, check out www.vixy.net This is really cool.

Satan's Ninjas In The Labrynthian Trailer

2007-04-08T22:19:00.000-04:00

This odd mix started several weeks ago when I was the South Florida Renaissance Festival. I'd planned on doing a mix from the CDs I bought there by the many, many wonderful acts I saw, but somehow it just never came to pass. Unfortunately, one of those extremely talented groups were shilling an album with a production quality that simply made my ears hurt. Another couldn't be read by my computer at all. In all, it turned out ot be a massive failure.

I did get some interesting recordings from the event on my phone, and I plan on compiling something eventually.

For now, however, I've been picking and choosing some of my favourites as I go along with new mixes. One of the things I love about music is that you can jumble up styles and somehow, come out with something that's really cool.

Tonight's little mix is eclecticism at it's finest. Renny Music straight into Prince. How can you not love it?

Del calls the Limeybirds "Scary." I'm still determining if she means it in a good way. . . Personally, I think they're a fine group of singing pub wenches in the finest tradition of the Dixie Chicks or Rasputina. (When you listen to their music, you'll understand what I mean.)

This is also a Marley boys mix, including songs from both Damien and Stephen Marley's albums. This one really bounces around, like ninjas, trying to get to the top of a maze to see the whole thing. . .

Fortunately for us, once in, there's not getting out. Your ass is gonna shake.

Addendum: It helps to post the links to the mix.

Satan's Ninjas In The Labrynthian Trailer

1. The Limeybirds - Old Maid In The Trailer
2. Prince - Gett Off
3. Steppenwolf - Sookie Sookie
4. Dean Fraser - Dahina Dimps
5. Paktofonika - Chwile ulotne
6. Stephen Marley - Fed Up
7. Particle - Roads A Breeze (at 3am)
8. Rodrigo y Gabriela - Diablo Rojo
9. N.E.R.D - Am I High (Feat. Malice)
10. Keller Williams - Ninja Of Love
11. of Montreal - Labyrinthian Pomp
12. The Polyphonic Spree - Mental Cabaret
13. Damian Marley - For the Babies

And just for my own amusement, here's Extended 2

1. McLauglin Santana - Afro Blue
2. Pharoah Sanders - The Creator Has a Master Plan
3. Grateful Dead - Dark Star
4. Jimmy Smith - The Sermon

Echoes and More . . .

2007-04-07T08:21:00.000-04:00

Extended 1

1. Tangerine Dream - Alpha Centauri
2. Far Out - nihonjin
3. Pink Floyd - Echoes
4. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Providence (Extended)

I'm starting a new series. This is one I've wanted to do a long time. Basically, this is a grouping of the really, really long tracks. The sidelong, 20 minute musical bonanzas that take some real listening.

The Wedding in the Underworld

2007-04-01T15:49:00.000-04:00

The Wedding in the Underworld

1. Alexi Murdoch - Dream About Flying
2. Danny Elfman - Victoria's Wedding
3. Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson/Sigur Rós - Journey to the Underworld
4. Eluvium - Reciting the Airships
5. Henry Padovani - Welcome Home
6. Shoes - Fire For Awhile
7. Kate Mann - Old Soul
8. Sigur Rós - Gong
9. Black Sabbath - Fluff
10. Neil Young - Needle & Damage Done
11. Eddie Vedder, Nusrat Fateh Khan - Long Road

Not much to say about this one, at least, nothing interesting yet. Some of it is a collection of stuff I wanted to use in a mix, and others are songs that I've been listening to.

"Needle and the Damage Done" comes from the recent Massey Hall release by Neil Young. It's a live set from '71 that features Neil mostly acoustic and entirely by himself. It's also a set from when some of the future hits were still new. Some of the guitar work is missing, but you get to hear him in his full glory as a singer/songwriter.

And Alexi Murdoch could possibly be a new Nick Drake for our generation. Hopefully, he'll be around to put out more than three venerated albums.

Henry Padovani was once a member of the Police before the broke and became THE POLICE. This is from his recent solo album that's being compared to Manu Chao's solo stuff. Really, it's on hell of a album and hard to believe it's coming from someone with that kind of background. Sting and Stewart Copeland are on the record as well if you're into the Police.

Cellos, Strings, and Curious Things

2007-03-31T21:44:00.000-04:00

1. Melora Creager - Sky is Falling (3:07)
2. Johnny Hollow - Stolen (2:46)
3. Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Doctor Blind (3:57)
4. Christine Gunn - Tempest (2:12)
5. The Shroud - Where the Wind Goes (4:16)
6. Hungry Lucy - To Kill a King (3:47)
7. My Chemical Romance - Disenchanted (4:55)
8. Rasputina - Bad Moon Rising (3:29)
9. Murder By Death - Brother (3:48)
10. Tiger Army - In the Orchard (3:51)
11. Norah Jones - The Sun Doesn't Like You (2:59)
12. Zoë Keating - Arrival (4:34)
13. Placebo - Blind (4:03)
14. Muse - soldiers poem (2:03)

Cellos, Strings, and Curious Things

I'm a bit too blue to gush about it, but I do adore stringed instruments. And I really adore the songs on this mix in particular.

Some Pink Floyd Movie Syncs.

2007-03-23T10:54:00.000-04:00

The last one's not perfect, but it's amusing.

Episode 6: Spring Equinox

2007-03-22T00:12:00.000-04:00

From Lisbon to Madrid

It is time to come out of hibernation and start celebrating spring. After all, yesterday was the Spring Equinox. Rita's Italian Ices celebrated the first day of spring by handing out free Italian ices. I had vanilla, while my friends had mango and cherry. Secretly, I wished passion fruit was today’s flavor.

Granted, it was a bit chilly and cloudy, but spring is in the air. I feel it coming. I noticed the first evidence of leaves on the trees behind my apartment. Students were tossing frisbees on the Cathedral lawn. Finally, it is time to put away the heavy jackets, gloves, and heavy woolen scarves and exchange them for bright spring dresses, tank tops, shorts, and sandals.

In celebration of Spring, Episode 6 of Mixed Triples is a Latin-flavored mix – a bit of Cha-Cha and some Bossa Nova. Spring is also a time of spontaneity, and with that in mind, this mix was not rearranged too many times and nor did I put exaggerated thought into the track selection, unlike the other mixes I typically compile.

Episode 6: Spring Equinox

1. Manu Chao - Mentira...
2. Federico Aubele - El Amor de Este Pueblo
3. Sergio Mendes - Mas Que Nada (feat. The Black Eyed Peas)
4. Groove da Praia - Miss You (Back 2 Remixes)
5. Karen Ramirez - Troubled Girl
6. Sergio Mendes - Samba Da Bencao (feat. Marcelo D2)
7. 2raumwohnung - Wir trafen uns in einem Garten (Bossa Nova)
8. Miki Gonzales - Munaq - El Amante
9. Santana - Corazon Espinado
10. Manu Chao - Bixo
11. Manu Chao - El Dorado 1997
12. Miki Gonzales - Danza del Agua
13. Alex Cortiz - No Strings Attached
14. Santana - Wishing It Was (feat. Eagle Eye Cherry)
15. Mo' Horizons - Cha Cha Cha
16. La Taverne Du Lac - Magic Single Barrel (Mo' Horizons Restyle Radio Edit)
17. Federico Aubele - Esta Noche
18. Ben Onono - Tatouage Bleu (avec chet)
19. Thievery Corporation - Sol Tapado (feat. Patrick de Santos)

Explosions in the Sky at SXSW

2007-03-20T22:23:00.000-04:00

NPR: All Songs Considered: March 08, 2007

In case this has changed by the time you find things, you're looking for the SXSW recording from Explosions in the Sky. Every now and then, I hear something that makes me feel like I could touch the face of God, and this show was one of them.

They're a prog rock instrumental group like Godspeed You Black Emperor, but lighter and more uplifting than their brooding, chugga rock sound.

Also, they've got the complete shows for Paperchase and Eluvium, which I find a bit like listening to angels play progressive music as opposed to hearing God pick up a Fender Stratocaster and abuse it in ways only guitar gods can. (Those of you who've seen Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii know what I mean.)

Seriously, download these shows!

5000!

2007-03-19T22:21:00.000-04:00

Oh, I forgot to mention it. We've had over 5000 hits since mid-summer 2005. Thanks to all of you who've stuck around since then. And thanks to you all who've joined in.

Do us a favour, if you like what you hear here. Tell a friend, and go out and buy a little of the unknowns we dig up.

Favourite retailers:

www.tonevendor.com

CD Baby

And if you can't find it there. . .

Gemm

Or go to the mall and bug them into special ordering!

Your Right to the Groove

2007-03-19T21:59:00.000-04:00

Things are still humming along behind the scenes here at MTM, never fear. I've just been stuck underneath my headphones, planning mixes and listening to some new stuff like I do this time of year. We're getting into a period of some brilliant, big, new releases.

It comes out tomorrow, but if you're into reggae even if it's just Bob, you've got hear his boy Stephen's new album. It's bloody brilliant. It's rootsy with some flashes of Dancehall and Hip-hop thrown in.

Another thing that's been in my playstack a lot lately is a small album I came across on Tonevendor called Like Trees We Grow Up to Be Satelites by a dude named William Lazarus. It's shoegaze rock in the old style and simply sent chills the first time I put the needle on it.

Speaking of needles, from the Neil Young archives, the recent release of his mostly acoustic show at Massey Hall is definitely something to hear. It includes a lot of my favourite songs and some stuff I got to hear for the first time.

Finally, walking around Target this weekend, I found a mixtape put together by Dave Matthews Band that made me smile. I picked it up for 10 bucks. It's a part of a whole serious of Influences mixes by different artists. The one by DMB was the one to really catch my eye with it moving between James Brown, Joan Armatrading, Etta James and Robert Randolph and the Family Band. It kicks ass, go check it out.

This weeks quite late mix is a groove mix. There's nothing more to it but to just get you up off that thang. Just as a warning, it's not for kids, and probably not for Sepunka's out there. . .

Your Right to the Groove

1. The Clash - Know Your Rights
2. Placebo - Daddy Cool (Boney M)
3. Horrorpops - Psychobitches Outta Hell
4. Calle 13 - Hormiga Brava
5. k-os - Valhalla
6. Casper & the Cookies - Hey Mr. Superstar
7. Handsome Boy Modeling School - A Day In The Life
8. Forum Quorum - Your Turn To Cry
9. Peter Bjorn And John - Young Folks
10. Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Frenzy
11. Stiff Little Fingers - Closed Groove
12. Lily Allen - Everything's Just Wonderful
13. Manu Chao - welcome to tijuana
14. Smashing Pumpkins - Girl Names Sandoz

Oh, and after listening to some other things, EVERYONE is talking about Lily Allen and Peter, Bjorn and John. I still love them though.

The Floydian March

2007-03-09T09:33:00.000-05:00

Well, okay, I'm late with another Pink Floyd post. I don't know what was keeping me this time, but I'm coming down with a touch of the flu.

This one had it's genesis while I was picking tracks to listen to in the shower on Saturday. I'd already had another mix ready to go, and after I heard "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" again with "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" I felt it was time for another mix.

The Floydian March

1. Grantchester Meadows
2. Jugband Blues
3. Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast
4. Unknown Song
5. The Gunner's Dream
6. Pigs (Three Different Ones)
7. The Trial
8. Keep Talking
9. Yet Another Movie-Round and Around

OPen Letter to the Music Industry . . .

2007-03-09T08:37:00.000-05:00

Someone posted this on another site, and working in music retail, and after having bought A LOT, I totally agree with this one. . .

Open Letter

Echo & The Bunneymen at Wolfgang's Vault

2007-03-07T12:07:00.000-05:00

I've been a little slow getting a mix out this week. I've got a couple ready to go, but I just need to make them. That said, I'll try to have something for this evening.

I spent the morning, listening to a couple of shows over at Wolfgang's Vault. They'd posted some new ones from the 80's that caught my eye, so I checked them out. First I listened to the and old show from Tears for Fears at Hammersmith during the rise of my favourite album "Songs from the Big Chair." Listening to them this way, let me hear that great juxtaposition of "Broken/Head Over Heels" where they both blend together and one darkness leads into Euphoria.

Times flies, afterall.

Then I started digging around, seeing what's really up there, I can across a show by Echo & The Bunnymen, and this simply blew me away. Their finale actually shows why they were the influence for the Jesus and Mary Chain. . .

This one came from Boston in 1984

My Name is Johnny Cash

2007-02-28T23:22:00.000-05:00

Now, I know a few people who read this little thing have been having bad weeks, so here's a short little mix to remind everyone that no matter how bad it get's. . . you ain't a country singer. Now, that's not meant to do anything, but to hopefully give a few laughs, because who's life sucks more than a country singer's?

Actually, this tribute to the Man in Black started after listening to a song on album he did with June called "Old Shep." Basically, it's a song about a man who has to kill his dog and just can't bring himself to do it. Did I mention this was a children's album? Now, if that ain't a country song, I don't know what is.

I left that song out, finding it just a bit too depressing. I'd rather listen to his version of "Hurt" or "God's Gonna Cut You Down" over that. It's a good song, but just a little frightening for a kid's album. . .

In fact, several weeks ago, on our DVD scrawl, we had a few country video's on it (like we always do). One was a poppy, country song about how much this daddy loves his boy because he's becoming just like him.

And I thought, "That ain't a country song."

Then the song from Cash's post-homonous album "A Hundred Highways," (See the recent post on Rick Rubin) "God's Gonna Cut You Down" came on and blew me away. And I said in my rant, "Now that's country music." It's got God, and bad things that are going to happen.

Now, what's worse than being smited by God? That's the lot of a good Country singer.

Really though, I just made it to amuse Del one night. She's the real country music fan around here. She even likes Keith Urban. . .

My Name is Johnny Cash

1. Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash - 'Cause I Love You
2. Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash - Help Me Make It Through the Night
3. Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson - (Ghost) Riders in the Sky
4. Johnny Cash - Personal Jesus
5. Johnny Cash - Rose Of My Heart
6. Johnny Cash - I Got A Boy And His Name Is John
7. Johnny Cash - The Night Hank Williams Came Town
8. Johnny Cash - Rosanna's Going Wild
9. johnny cash - Country Boy
10. Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson - Crazy

And the first track, and the last track should say it all about how I feel about her.

The Big Apple

2007-02-27T01:01:00.000-05:00

Episode 6 and it's pair, Episode 7, are down for rearrangement and layering. I didn't like the way they sounded. It seemed like some of the tracks were out of place and there was a pause that didn't need to be in funky groovy dance music that supposed to keep you moving.

The MadTerran suggested that I break up the pairs into 3 separate mixes, which is what I eventually did. The tracks are marinating and I hope to have them cooking in a few days or so when I think about how I want the mixes to flow, or rather, how the tracks want to flow regardless how I think about them.

In any case, for your amusement, below is a music fun fact about one of America's greatest cities, New York: origins of the name "The Big Apple".

"The term "the Big Apple" came into common usage in the 1930s when touring jazz musicians referred to a town or city as an apple, making New York the Big Apple.

New York, New York, At The Core Of A Linguistic Debate

Places, people, even animals end up with nicknames derived from things associated with them, or just from the whimsy of one person whose sense of humor appealed to others. Not so when it comes to the largest piece of fruit in America, the Big Apple that is New York City.

The term came into common usage in the 1930s, when touring jazz musicians referred to their destination town or city as an apple, hence the biggest place of all to play, was the Big Apple of New York. But the expression was first recorded more than 20 years before that, and arose from a much more prosaic reference.

Edward S. Martin, an editor at Harper's, notes in a book called "The Wayfarer", a description of how people in the Midwest saw the country as a tree whose trunk ran down the Mississippi, and whose branches spread from coast to coast. Its fruit was the great cities of the nation, with the big apple that was New York, getting more than its fair share of the sap.

The city of New York itself, chose yet another explanation that originates with John F. Fitzgerald, a racing columnist with the New York Morning Telegraph in 1924. At the head of his column was an apple with the skyline of New York drawn on it. Fitzgerald admitted to having first heard the expression in the stables of New York's racetracks. "

Gauher Chaudhry
Webmaster and Editor
Amusingfacts.com

Set the Controls for the Gallows

2007-02-25T23:01:00.000-05:00

When Meera saw the title for this one, she went "Morbid Title," and really, it's got some dark, dark, dark songs in it. But I think the Saybia track it ends on really brings it up into some hopeful territory.

If anything, it could be used as a companion peice to a mix I posted several months ago, and one my favourites "Ambassadors to Nightmares."

This mix took a couple tries to make. I had something wide ranging and wild, then Winamp crashed before I could save the bloody thing. So now, after some patience, I came up with something I like a little better.

"Guardian Angel" should be used in a film.

Set the Controls for the Gallows

1. Peter Gabriel - Signal To Noise
2. Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have
3. Psychic TV - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
4. Genesis - No Son Of Mine
5. Led Zeppelin - Gallows Pole
6. QUIDAM - Not So Close
7. Hans Zimmer - Let My Home Be My Gallows
8. Radiohead - The Gloaming. (Softly Open Our Mouths in the Cold.)
9. Kanal Audytywny - Milosc Robotow 01
10. Saybia - Guardian Angel

Question: Who wants to hear some good, old fashioned, lipsynched Milli Vanili soon?

And from Poland

2007-02-24T11:04:00.000-05:00

And now, I need to take my ass to work, so I'll keep these gems in mind while I listen to the same old crap for the next 8 hours.

A little Prog from Hungary

2007-02-24T10:55:00.000-05:00

Imaginary Popcorn From Osaka to Kansas City

2007-02-22T09:55:00.000-05:00

This week's mix took some time to develop, mostly in that I didn't have a clue what to put together. Somehow, I encountered an odd IDM group called Her Space Holiday, and it spurred me to dig out somemore IDM. I really liked the band's overall sound. They grooved without being too overwhelming. It eventually led to this mix.

I tried to create a mix that had that same type of sound: groovy, without being too much. It bounces around from IDM, to jazz, to funk and I even tossed in a guy on sitar. Yellow Magic Orchestra fits in with another one of my recent fascinations: Japanese Prog. (They were a band that developed electronic music in Japan almost entirely independently of Kraftwerk in Germany.) Bird and the Bee and Gym Class Heroes are a couple of recent fascinations around the store.

Imaginary Popcorn From Osaka to Kansas City

1. Dr. Lonnie Smith - Your Mama's Got a Complex
2. Yellow Magic Orchestra - Day Tripper
3. Kool & The Gang - Jungle Boogie
4. Big Jim Sullivan - Translove Airways (Fat Angel)
5. Her Space Holiday - Something To Do With My Hands
6. Gym Class Heroes - Apollo 3-1-5
7. I Am Robot And Proud - Osaka (Girls Are Short)
8. Hot Butter - Popcorn
9. J Ralph - Kansas City Shuffle
10. Terry Callier - Just My Imagination (Groove Armada Remix)
11. Edwyn Collins & Orange Juice - The Magic Piper (Of Love)
12. Noiseshaper - Walls Of Silence
13. The Bird And The Bee - I Hate Camera
14. Oingo Boingo - We Close Our Eyes

Stalin's Gift

2007-02-19T10:17:00.001-05:00

Stalin's Gift on CNN

Continuing our ongoing American coverage of the Polish music scene, I found this. Stalin gave this building as a gift to the Poles (and he gave similarly constructed gothic buildings to many cities around Eastern Europe).

The building is hated by the old, but embraced by the young as a place to do what. . .

Where American style mullets, see American movies and of course, have 80's night.

Of course, the older population wants to tear it down as a symbol of opression, but who knows, maybe it should be torn down if it's a source of bad 80's music. Even though, it's our bread and butter around here.