One of my favorite songs from Urgh! is “Where’s Captain Kirk?” by Athletico Spizz 80. A band I had never heard of before seeing the film, and became completely obsessed with shortly thereafter.

If all you know about Athletico Spizz ’80 is their appearance on Urgh!, then they can be a pretty hard band to track down online. It seems that there are a lot of bands with the name Spizz in them, such as Spizzles, Spizzerengi Spizzoil, Spizzorwell, Spizzsexual, and Spizzvision. That’s odd, you may think, until you find out that all of those bands are really just a dude named Spizz and whoever was playing with him at the time. Spizz’s stuff is great and is worth checking out if you can find it, but his penchant for changing his name can make it a little difficult.

It also makes Googling the bastard a real bitch.

The late, great Klaus Nomi makes an appearance on side 2 of Urgh! with his signature track ‘Total Eclipse’ as do first-generation Ska-rockers The Members with ‘Offshore Banking Business. Obscure L.A. punk rockers Alley Cats add a solid track to the mix with ‘Nothing Means Nothing Anymore’, and Jools Holland from Squeeze contributes a fun jazzesque tune with ‘Foolish I Know.’ Steel Pulse’s ‘Klu Klux Klan’ is a kicking reggae jam if you’re into that kind of thing (I’m not) and we all know The Go-Go’s signature hit ‘We Got The Beat’ – a song I can’t hate no matter how much I try.

Side three, which features three of my favorite bands of all-time, will be coming later this week. Enjoy side 2.

The Members – Offshore Banking Business
Go-Go’s – We Got The Beat
Total Eclipse – Klaus Nomi
Athletico Spizz ’80 – Where’s Captain Kirk
Alley Cats – Nothing Means Nothing Anymore
Jools Holland – Foolish I Know
Steel Pulse – Klu Klux Klan

I’m a fan of obscure music, 80s post-punk/new wave, and rare and hard-to-find movies, so a flick like Urgh! is the holy grail to me.

This amazing concert film featured live performances by a virutal who’s-who of 80s legends, including Gary Numan, The Police, X, Oingo Boingo and Wall Of Voodoo – and has of course been nearly impossible to find for years. I first heard of it years ago but couldn’t locate a copy until recently, when I found a ratty old VHS copy of it buried on the bottom shelf of my local video store (the amazing Head’s Together Video – located at 2121 Murray Ave. Pittsburgh, PA). Since then I’ve seen several DVD bootlegs, and I honestly think that most of them were taken from the actual video tape at Head’s Together – since they feature the same tracking problems as that worn-down tape. I’m told there was a laserdisc release once, but I’ve never seen it. The movie remains unreleased on DVD, and the latest rumors on the internet credit this to some bizarre legal issue involving home video rights. Other people have blamed its long status in limbo on Gary Numan’s withholding his performance material (I can’t find any evidence supporting that, however)

Making matters even worse, the complete soundtrack has never been available. The original vinyl release contained 27 of the 34 songs featured in the film, and the CD release cut that list down to just 21! Of course the CD is out of print, and the vinyl is amazingly hard to find.

But that’s where I come in! For the next few days I’ll be posting selections from the Urgh! soundtrack, taken from my pristine copy of the LP. I’ll be posting one album side at a time.

So without further delay, here’s side one:

The Police – Driven To Tears
Wall Of Voodoo – Back In Flesh
Toyah Wilcox – Dance
Orchestral Manoeuvers In The Dark – Enola Gay
XTC – Respectable Street

Isn’t that some amazing shit? Stay tuned for tracks from Joan Jett, X, Gary Numan, Gang Of Four and much more in the days and weeks to come. I’ll also be posting links to where you can find out more about this amazing diamond in the rough.

This one goes out to my homey Bendis. Whose endless enthusiasm for obscure and bizarre online music scares even me.

Bill Drummond and Jimi Cauty are two of the smartest men in the history of music. Under the guise of The Timelords, they created ‘Doctorin’ The Tardis’ , one of the biggest hits in the history of the U.K., by simply sampling and remixing two of the most recognizable recordings in the history of the country, Gary Glitter’s ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Part 2′ and the theme song to Doctor Who. Is it an rip-off or is it art? Who knows and who cares, its fucking awesome. It’s probably also the first ‘Mash-Up’ (a mixing together of two or more popular songs to make a new song) in history. Despite its amazing popularity in Europe, I couldn’t find this song anywhere, the only place I could find it at all was on YouTube, so here’s the video.

After raking in the dough from that little creation, the duo renamed themselves The JAMS and they continued their sample-heavy formula on their next album What The Fuck Is Going On, until ABBA (fuckin’ Swedish pricks) threatened to sue for copyright infingement. After burning most of the copies of the album and selling the remaining few for 1,000 bucks each, they reanamed themselves once more, this time calling themselves The KLF (which stood for Kopyright Liberation Front). As The KLF, the duo recorded some of the best ambient house music ever made, and even broke through into the American pop scene with ‘3 A.M. Eternal.’ They then quickly broke up, announced they weren’t going to release any more recordings until world peace was declared and deleted their entire back catalouge.

That’s just the short version of The KLF story, I didn’t even mention the trash metal incident at the Brit Awards, their book on how to create a hit single, their cash award given to ‘The Worst Artist in England’ and the time they burned 1 million British pounds. Google them if you want the rest. This is an MP3 Blog, not a freakin’ encyclopedia.

Unfortunately, a lot of their best music is hard to find. ‘What The Fuck Is Going On?’ is obviously out of print, and everything else they recorded remains pretty scarce. I can’t even find most of their stuff online. If anyone knows where to get a copy of their ‘illegal’ stuff, let me know. You’ll totally be my BFF (best friend forever.)

The KLF – America: What Time Is Love?
This version of ‘What Time Is Love?’ is not on any album, and was only released on the single for ‘What Time Is Love?’ which strangely didn’t feature the original version of the song. The vinyl I have of this was a little banged up, so the first few seconds are a little scratchy.

Despite my punk leanings, I still find myself loving it when a longer ‘dance mix’ of a single I like is released. I don’t know why though, because you sure as hell aren’t gonna see me actually DANCE to any of them.

Making a good dance mix is an artform that is a lot harder than it looks. One only has to hear a bad remix to be reminded of that. I remember hearing a remix of ‘We Will Rock You’ when I was at a Chick-Fil-A in Toledo (my…that’s an odd sentence) that just added some randon scratch noises and an extra beat to the famous ‘boom-boom BOOM’, that was a truly awful listening experience, and don’t even get me going on that remix of ‘My Heart Will Go On.’ That’s the musical equivalent of slaughtered kittens.

New Order – Blue Monday 1988 Remix
New Order – Touched By The Hand Of God (Remix)
There are probably more remixes and covers of New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ than there are New Order songs. You’re not going to hear me complain about it though, I think it’s probably one of the 10 best singles ever released. This 1988 12-inch mix isn’t one of the best mixes out there, but it is one of the most unusual, packed with bizarre vocal and sound effect samples. The remix of ‘Touched By The Hand Of God’ appears as the B-side to the ‘Blue Monday 1988’ 12-inch.

Note: This record was heavily damaged, and although I restored most of it, the last few seconds of ‘Touched By The Hand Of God’ are a little distorted.

Berlin – No More Words
Berlin – Dancing In Berlin
By far one of the most underrated and underappreciated bands of the 80s synth-pop scene, Berlin were much more than their superhit ‘Take My Breath Away’ (a song that wasn’t even written by them.) I can’t recommend their stuff from the 80s enough. Both of these tracks are off the ‘No More Words’ Maxi-Single.

Depeche Mode – People Are People (Different Mix
Depeche Mode – People ARe People (On Us Mix
I’ve never been a huge fan of the ‘Mode. Don’t get me wrong, I think ‘Personal Jesus’ and ‘Break The Silence are great songs, but I just could never really get into them. Although I’m not a huge fan of ‘People Are People’ (always came off as a little too preachy to me) I know this track has its fans, so here are two mixes off the 12-inch single.

I’m feeling 80s today.

Soft Cell – Hendrix Medley
Soft Cell – Martin
Most people don’t know that Soft Cell’s big hit, ‘Tainted Love’, was really a cover of an old soul song from the 60s. I guess Soft Cell thought the best way to replicate their success was to do another cover, this one being an epic medley of Hendrix tunes. The results were…interesting. Judge for yourself.

This second track is another epic from the Soft Cell, this one a synth-pop mini-opera based on George A. Romero’s classic vampire film Martin. Unlike the ‘Hendrix Medley’, this is actually GOOD – a creepy tribute to one of the most underrated horror movies ever made.

Both of these tracks were originally on a bonus EP that was included with The Art Of Falling Apart. On the CD re-issue they were included with the actual record.

Public Image LTD. – Disappointed (Radio Edit)
Public Image LTD. (or PiL for short) was John Lydon’s (AKA Johnny Rotten’s) second band. Not nearly as successful or influential as The Sex Pistols, PiL was actually more innovative than the punk pioneers, combing punk, traditional rock, dance, hip-hop and world music into something entirely new. They also kept The Pistols’ anti-social, F-you attitude, with amazing songs like ‘Disappointed’ a cheery little diddy about how much your friends suck. This is the slightly shorter 12-inch mix.

Echo & The Bunnymen – Do It Clean (Live
I don’t have much to say about Echo & The Bunnymen, except that they probably have the best band name in the history of the world (seriously, name a better one.) This live version of ‘Do It Clean’ originally appeared on a self-titled 1983 EP. It was taken from a concert at The Royal Albert Hall and only appeared on CD once, on a now out-of-print B-side compilation called New Live And Rare.