First some business must be attended to. I am tired of getting variations of the following comment:

“Dude, where are the songs?”

Okay, now I want you to look at the top left corner of the sidebar. See the part that says “songs are only available for a limited time”? Good. Now piss off I got shit to do.

Moving on. A few days ago a commenter asked if I could tape my “record hunts/digs” to show what I go through to find all these bitchin’ LPs. I appreciate the idea and I’m flattered that anyone would care enough about my shitty little site to care that much, but that’s a really bad idea. I’m sure many of you assume that I go on these epic adventures for Pet Shop Boys 12” singles that involve Indiana Jones-like quests into dark caverns of crates that few humans have ever laid eyes on. Sorry, that’s not the case.

Let me go over for you all a typical record-finding journey.

• Step 1: Get out bed.
• Step 2: Leave house
• Step 3: Walk (or drive if I’m feeling lazy) the three or so blocks to Jerry’s Records.
• Step 4: Ask Jerry “what’s new.”
• Step 5: Buy the response.

That’s really about it. No bullshit, 99 percent of the albums I feature on this blog I picked up from Jerry’s Records. I’ll occasionally pick up an album from 720 Records or another local record store but that’s about it when it comes to my local record buying. When I’m in other cities I check out their record stores but Jerry’s is so amazingly amazing (and fucking cheap) that I usually don’t have to (expection: Culture Clash). Sorry to demystify it for you.

Pet Shop Boys
Go West (Mings Gone West First And Second Movement)
Go West (Farley & Heller Disco Mix)
Go West (Farley & Heller Fire Island Mix)
Go West (Kevin Saunderson Tribe Mix)
Go West (Kevin Saunderson Trance Mix)
In an act of solidarity with my fabulous brethern, I am protesting the Republican National Convention (AKA the racist sexist homophobic xenophobe douchebag idiot asshole gathering) by posting the gayest thing I could find; The Pet Shop Boys covering The Village People. These are from a CD single.

Pete Shelley
Homosapien (Special Mix)
Yesterday’s Not Here (Special Mix)
Witness The Change/I Don’t Know What It Is (Extended Combo Version)
Strike that, “Homosapien” is the gayest thing I could find. It’s a sad day when The Pet Shop Boys are out-gayed on my blog. Pete Shelley isn’t gay, he’s bi, but that didn’t stop him from writing one of the most non-subtle songs about doing it with a dude ever (“homo superior/in my interior” – I don’t think he’s talking about the X-Men hanging out in his den). I never heard this song until I saw the amazing video during VH1 Classic’s 80 Hours Of 80s and I never even knew that Pete Shelley had a solo career, not to mention a solo career that started with one of the cheeziest synth-pop albums of the decade. I would love to hear “Homosapien” and other songs from that album redone as Buzzcocks-style rockers. These strange mixes are from a 12” single.

Big Country
Look Away 12” Mix
Restless Natives: The Soundtrack Part I
These are come from the 12” single of “Look Away” and while the 12” remix of “Look Away” is totally awesome and worth downloading, the real treat here is the b-side, which is half of the soundtrack to the film “Restless Natives,” a rarely seen Scottish movie starring Ned Beatty. When researching it I found more than one person proclaiming it to be “the greatest Scottish movie ever made.” I don’t know about that since I’ve never seen it (although the fact that it stars Ned Beatty makes me doubt that claim). Anyways, Big Country did the soundtrack for it and that soundtrack has been notoriously hard to find ever since. In fact it wasn’t made available on CD until 1998, when it was included on a Big Country rarities compilation, appropriately titled Restless Natives & Rarities. Of course, nothing is ever easy and that 2 CD is now out of print, going for upwards of $100 on eBay. Now, that’s fucking nuts and at first I thought it was totally uncalled for, but then I listened to it. This is a really good soundtrack, and if you like instrumental guitar music ala Mark Knoplfer then you have to hear it. But as the “part 1” in the title suggests, this is only half of the soundtrack. If you want to track down the second half and don’t feel like coughing up $100 bucks do some searching (*cough* The Pirate Bay *cough*) and you should be able to find it. If if comes my way I’ll be sure to put up the whole thing here.

Tonight’s post is vagtastical.

Be Your Own Pet
Bicycle Race
Bicycle, Bicycle (Summer Summer EP version)
The only time Pitchfork and I have been in complete in total agreement is in regards to this band. We both loved their first CD, liked very much their second and were completely and totally fucking bummed when they decided to call it quits this month. I had the lucky opportunity to see the whirling teenyboppers from hell when they played Lollapalooza a few years ago and I am so happy I did. Jemina is a fucking monster on stage, spinning, screaming, dancing and puking – she’s the best female rock star since Deborah Harry. I really hope she starts up something else soon, she has too much energy to keep quiet.

Be Your Own Pet has very few rarities so I really had to stretch it with these bike-centric picks. This version of “Bicycle, Bicycle” is not the one that is on the band’s self-titled debut LP, but is instead the version that was on their first EP Summer Sensation. It’s more lo-fi than the LP version but really bitchin and still hyper-energetic and manic. The cover of Bicycle Race is off a Queen tribute compilation.

Siouxsie & The Banshees
Let Go
The Humming Wires
Siousxie could be called the proto-Jemma (she could definitely be called the proto-Karen O.). How come there aren’t any great alternative bands with female lead singers anymore? The Banshees, The Slits, L7, The Plasmatics, Joan Jett and The Go-Gos, remember them? Now what is there? Fucking Paramore, Flyleaf, Evanescence and Tokio Hotel (oh right, that’s a “guy”)? No wonder so many young girls are falling for shitty band with pretty boy lead singers, they have no one to tell them how to rock! Someone should lock Hanna Montanna/Miley Cyrus/WTF into a room with a bunch of L7 records until she’s ready tolead the tweens of America to a glorious revolution of post-glam hardcore punk rock. Don’t tell me that wouldn’t be totally awesome.

The Bangles
Hazy Shade Of Winter (Purple Haze Mix)
Hazy Shade Of Winter (7” Dub Mix)
This is the only song by The Bangles that is ever going to be on this site, unless there is some 12” remix of “Eternal Flame” I don’t know about. The day I enjoy “Walk Like An Egyptian” is the day I jam a rusty ice pick in my ear.

I don’t like that song.

Anyways, these remixes are from the 12” single.

Bananarama
Venus (Extended Mix)
Okay, now I’m really stretching the whole “girl rock” theme I started out with. I just wanted an excuse to finally put this 12” single remix on the site and off of my queue.