So yeah, my last post was a little…um…vitriolic in nature. Sorry about that, family gatherings and Ohio bring it out in me. I’ve since calmed down and am not really in a punk rock/experimental mood, so I’ll post the rest of that San Fran comp next time. Tonight I have for you a collection of bands you can’t find on Google. Of course, if you found this post by searching for these bands on Google then I’m wrong. But whatever, just be happy I’m whining about my comments tonight!

The The
Perfect
Soup Of Mixed Emotions
Fruit Of The Heart
I’ve Been Waitin’ For Tomorrow (All My Life!!) Special Mix
I had no idea that ‘This Is The Day’ was by The The until I picked up Soul Mining last week. I was also that The The was like NIN in that it’s really just one dude, Matt Johnson. I was equally unaware that throughout The The’s existence Matt Johnson’s recruited Jools Holland and Johnny Marr to contribute to various albums.

Wow. I don’t know shit.

The first three tracks were originally on a bonus EP that came with the first print editions of Soul Mining. Ironically, the remix of ‘I’ve Been Waitin’ For Tomorrow’ was the B-side to ‘This Is The Day’ – so I guess it wasn’t really the day. I think ‘Perfect’ is on the CD release of Soul Mining, but the rest remain pretty hard to find. At least I think that’s the case, I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I don’t know shit about this band.

Talk Talk
Why Is It So Hard? (12” U.S. Remix Extended Version)
Talk Talk (12” Mix Extended Version)
My Foolish Friend (12” Mix Extended Version)
It’s My Life (12” Mix Extended Version)
Dum Dum Girl (12” Remix Extended Version)
Such A Shame (12” U.S. Remix Extended Version)
I know very little about this band too, so anything I say here would just be stuff I read from Wikipedia. Anyways, these tracks are all off of a weird EP that was only released in Canada and Italy (odd combo). The remix of ‘It’s My Life’ is really just a glorified dub mix, but the rest are great. Actually Talk Talk aren’t that hard to Google, but I needed a third band for this post and I don’t have any !!! songs.

X (Australian Band)
Fuckin’ Rockin’
That’s Not Nice
X, the L.A. punk-rock revolutionaries are hard enough to find online, so imagine how hard it is to get any information on this Aussie punk rock group of the same name? In fact, I bought this live LP by accident because I thought it was that other X. Thankfully, it was pretty good. I know next-to-nothing about these guys too, but I bet you don’t know much about them either, so I don’t feel so bad about it.

Alright, I updated the info/rules on my sidebar, move your pupils to the right and please go over them. The next person to make “a couple” requests will face my wrath.

I am Drago. I will break you.

Sorry for the rage I just spent four days in Toledo with my family. That’s enough to make anyone fucking hostile so excuse my aggression. Let’s Rock.

The Big Thing
Reality Bus
3 Reasons
No Junkies
So I’m at the record store and I see this weird record called In The Elbow Room. On the plastic sleeve protecting it someone wrote “Rave 007.” I’m thinking, “score, James Bond techno” and I give it a listen. To my shock it’s some bad-ass indie punk rock. . I found out later that the “Rave 007” designation that album was given represented that it was the seventh release by the now defunct Rave Records. If the flyer included with the record was any indication, this was one bad-ass record label. I scanned it for your pleasure, here’s the front and back.

Chrome
Anti-Fade
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
Meet You In The Subway
Over the next few days I’ll be posting some tracks from an oddball compilation I got called Subterranean Modern that featured some killer late-70s/early-80s bands from San Francisco. Chrome was a really early industrial band from the bay whose underground status has given them a fairly devoted following in the “noise rock” community. While these tracks are tame compared to some of the industrial music coming out now, nothing sounded like them at the time I bet. The song called ‘I Left My Heart In San Fransisco’ has nothing to do with the Tony Bennett tune.

MX-80 Sound
Lady In Pain
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
Possessed
MX-80 Sound was another great San Fran band from the time who are actually still recording and releasing new music, something you can say about very few bands from that scene. MX-80 Sound can best be described as art-rock, kind of like Talking Heads gone metal I guess. Their shit is really noise-heavy and experimental but a bit more accessible than some of the stuff by Chrome. You can get their first two albums on one CD now and I highly recommend it. Just like the Chrome tune, their version of ‘I Left My Heart…” has nothing to do with the original song.

I got two great, very different, albums for you today. I didn’t bother uploading individual files for these because it’s a safe bet that if you like either of these artists you want all the songs. It feels nice to post something other than a remix of a b-side of an import of something for a change.

Nicks & Buckingham – Buckingham Nicks
This 1973 album by the then-romantically involved Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham has never been released on CD. Supposedly Buckingham isn’t very happy with it and since he owns part of it he’s been able to keep it buried for all these years. I don’t know what his deal is, because this is a great record. It’s also the reason that they were asked to join Fleetwood Mac.

Ian Dury – Lord Upminister
A much less-known album but equally hard-to-find, this was Ian Dury’s first album after he left The Blockheads. From what I’ve read about it the critical and popular reaction to the record was less-than-enthusiastic and even Dury eventually disowned much of it in his later years. While it does have a few slow spots the album as a whole holds up pretty well as it also serves as a good example of that whole punk/reggae cross-pollination that was going on at the time. The opener ‘Spasticus (Autisticus)’ is a hell of a tune and the mellow ‘Funky Disco (Pops)’ is another standout. Originally released in 1981 it was briefly re-released on CD ten years later but has been out of print ever since. The only legit CD copy I’ve seen of this one online was going for 200 bucks and I’ve also seen LPs for sale at nearly half that price. Okay, I like this album but it sure as hell ain’t that good. I bought it for four bucks at The Best Record Store In The Universe.

Check out the new logo action! Being bored and having Photoshop leads to things like that. I made it through April Fool’s Day unscathed which means I only have to get through 29 more days of this accursed month. I traditionally have very bad luck during the month of April. I know it’s just a superstition and I’m sure bad things have happened during other times of the year, but my Aprils really do suck. Throughout my 20-some years of life all of the following have happened to me in April:

• Broken Leg.
• Parents announce their split (actually this was on March 31st, but I told all my friends the next day at school, and no one believed me because it was April Fool’s Day!)
• Near-fatal reaction to Penicillin.
• Severe Fever and flu that almost caused me to fail midterms.
• The most ‘Ever Fallen In Love’ relationship ever…twice.
• Nearly been fired three times due to my own dumb mistakes.
• Mugged and assaulted at gunpoint (on 4/20!)

That’s just what I can think of off the top of my head. Each time I leave my apartment this month I’ll be tempting fate. Everyone direct happy thoughts towards me!

The Alarm
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Live)
68 Guns (Live)
More from that 12” 2-pack I picked up last week. The Dylan cover is a little weak, but the live take of ’68 Guns’ more than makes up for it. For some reason I bet these guys can’t not write an epic anthem.

Echo & The Bunnymen
Paint It Black (Live)
Run, Run, Run (Live)
Friction (Live)
All of these are taken from the 12” for ‘Bedbugs & Ballyhoo’. According to the backcover of said single, they were recorded live at the Karen in Gothenburg and were for the “Bommen” Show on Swedish National Radio. If this is true then Swedish National Radio wins the award for coolest National Radio ever (next to the BBC). We all know ‘Paint It Black’ is a Stones song, but for those of you less into the classics, ‘Run, Run, Run’ was originally a Velvet Underground tune, and ‘Friction’ is a track by Television I believe. All of these tracks are available on that massive Echo & The Bunnymen box set.

Robyn Hitchcock
Spoken Word Intro: One Long Pair Of Eyes (Acoustic)
More Than This (Live)
Another artist on the long list of “people I should listen to more”. This dude is fucking nuts and I love it. The live version of ‘One Long Pair…” is fucking epic because of an crazy-ass spoken word intro that just keeps going. The cover of Roxy Music’s ‘More Than This’ is dreamy fun. Second-best cover of the song next to the one by Bill Murray. I took these off of the 12” for ‘Madonna Of The Wasps’.