Archive for the ‘David Bowie’ Category

Fuck Up Nazis and Listen to David Bowie

Sunday, July 22nd, 2018

I haven’t been all that political on my blog as of late. To be honest, it’s just been too damn draining, but I felt the need to speak up against this, only because I don’t feel like enough people are.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, James Gunn was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 because a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women and a Nazi started a smear campaign against him.

In a world where everything seems to be falling to shit all around us, I know it might sound trite to have this be a hill I’m willing to die on, but fuck this. This is emblematic of everything wrong with American discourse. Bad faith actors, “fake news,” public shaming, hypocrisy, and the ever-growing shamelessness of the right-wing, who slam a man for jokes he apologized for all while praising a President who admitted on video to sexually assaulting women.

I can’t do much to fight against this, all I can do is share this petition asking for Disney to give the man his job back, and not to kowtow to literal Nazis and literal rapists. Please sign and share it. Let them know.

Also, if you see horribly-written, poorly researched articles about the topic (like this one or this one), maybe comment or email the writers. Let them know how you feel about them being taken on as useful idiots for a right-wing smear job designed only to silence anyone who speaks out too loudly against Trump. Remind them that any article about Mike Cernovich that doesn’t feature the line “a man who has admitted to sexual assault and condones rape” is fucking up. Remind them that Jack Posobiec is a LITERAL NAZI who spreads Nazi propaganda and codes his messages with Nazi symbolism.

And don’t forget that it’s always okay to fuck up a Nazi.

Okay, now David Bowie.

Tin Machine
You Belong In Rock ‘N’ Roll (Extended Mix)
Amlapura (Indonesian Version)
Shakin’ All Over (Live)

I’m really interested in hearing the upcoming Loving The Alien David Bowie box set, which covers the artist’s much-maligned mid-80s output. I’ve always though that a little bit of that kickback was unwarranted. Let’s Dance has a few bad songs on it, but it’s a good album. Ditto for Tonight. I will fight anyone who tells me that “Blue Jean” is not a wonderful 80s pop song.

Of course, there was a lot of less-than-stellar stuff there too, the most obvious being Never Let Me Down, the only album in Bowie’s discography that he seemingly disowned completely. That’s why I’m so interested in buying the box set, as it will include an entirely remixed and redone version of the album that will hopefully strip out some of that horrible 80s production and polish some of those songs into the gems that I know they can be.

It really can’t be understated just how bad that album is though. If it was an album by a band, it would’ve caused them to break up. It led David Bowie to do the opposite and form a band, Tin Machine, just so he could escape from being David Bowie for a while. Yeah, Tin Machine wasn’t perfect either, they also had seemingly had a miss for every hit, but they were at least different, and they really gave Bowie a good place for him to experiment and re-invent himself for the 90s, where he reached another creative high-point, in my opinion.

I occasionally read that the Tin Machine albums served as a precursor to grunge, and while I love them both dearly, I certainly can’t see that. Tin Machine’s sound may be stripped down, but it’s certainly not raw. These albums still sound like slick 80s rock albums, just slick 80s rock albums that are a little less bombastic than what else was going on at the time.

“You Belong In Rock ‘N’ Roll” was the lead single off of the group’s second album, and it failed to light up the charts anywhere. It’s a great tune, if a bit odd. It feels like a cross between “Low” era and “Let’s Dance” Bowie; brooding and off-kilter, but still pop. Not an easy balance to make, but Bowie (of course) pulled it off just fine. Can’t believe it bombed.

The original version of “Amlapura” is an album cut, this version, recorded in Indonesian, was exclusively a B-side and has never been re-released. Same for this live cover of “Shakin’ All Over,” which features a short-but-dope-as-fuck solo by Reeves Gabrels. Wonder if these will get remastered and repackaged for the next Bowie box set? Those things have been really random with the rarities, so it’s hard to tell.

Enjoy the Bowie. And pleas don’t forget to sign that petition.

And if you feel the need to comment in praise of Cernovich, don’t fucking bother, I screen comments for a reason.

I’m Still An Alligator

Sunday, January 24th, 2016

Turns out I have a lot of David Bowie on my hard drive(s) and digging it all out/organizing it is proving to be a task better suited for some sort of digital archaeologist. Just counting songs that are properly tagged as David Bowie/Tine Machine I have about 1,300 tracks in my iTunes library. I know I have more buried somewhere though. And I’m fairly certain that I have some singles back in the states that I never got around the properly recording. That’s a real shame because there are a few gems there, including a weird 10+ minute remix of “Fame ’90.”

I continue to be amazed at how much David Bowie is in print now. If you want the 12″ remix of “Magic Dance” then you can go on Amazon and fucking buy it right now. AND YOU SHOULD BECAUSE IT’S AWESOME. You can even go online and get remixes to “Loving The Alien” if you so desired.

So basically I’m repeating what I said in my previous all Bowie post, if you like David Bowie’s music then you should really be buying his music.

Of course, this blog exists because that’s not always possible. So here’s some shit that’s worthwhile yet unavailable.

David Bowie
Fun (Dillinja Mix)
Dead Man Walking (This One’s Not Dead Yet Mix)
Under Pressure (Live)
Moonage Daydream (Live)
Some real oddities tonight.

First up is a remix of “Fun,” which is doubly weird because the non-remixed version of “Fun” was never commercially released as far as I can tell. I have no idea when it was recorded, the story behind it, or if any other remixes were ever made available in any way shape or form. I got this remix off of the Davidbowie.com exclusive Live And Well 2CD compilation. Most of the remixes from that set were made available when Bowie’s mid/90s output was re-released in 2CD sets, but it didn’t make the cut.

After that we have a unique remix of “Dead Man Walking” which I found off of a CD single to the song. Another mix that didn’t make the cut when Bowie’s 90s records were re-released. A real shame too because it’s one of the better ones. While most of the song’s remixes play the dance angle and crank it up to be a club banger, this one puts Bowie on the forefront and tones it down a bit, all while keeping its beat. It’s a cool take on a great track.

Finally, there are two live tracks, both taken from the CD-single to “Hallo Spaceboy.” The live version of “Under Pressure” is relatively faithful to the original save for the fact that the vocals are shared by Bowie’s amazing bass player Gail Ann Dorsey.  However, the live rendition of “Moonage Daydream” is an interesting departure from the original, stripping away a lot of what made it a glam rock tune and replacing it with some industrial/90s’-rock overtones. Bowie would do this a lot when he toured in the 90s, sometimes to more drastic degrees than others. The changes he made to this track are tame compared to how he totally re-worked “Andy Warhol” into batshit crazy drum and bass track during his “Outside” tour.

By the way, does anyone have high-quality MP3s of this 90s tours that they’d feel like sharing?

If I listened to Life On Mars right now I’d probably cry

Monday, January 11th, 2016

I share rare and out-of-print songs. So it’s what I’m going to do tonight. I don’t know what else to do. I’m not going to eulogize David Bowie. Others, those who knew him, will do a better job at at that. Writing about his music, and sharing the tunes that people can’t easily get, is my own way of dealing with his death.

David Bowie’s discography was massive, and throughout the years many of his recordings fell through the cracks. In fact, my very first post on Lost Turntable was one such song, his theme to the largely forgotten animated nuclear war drama When The Wind Blows. Thankfully, that song is in print now, as are the remixes for it. You can buy them all on Amazon and I suggest you do. It’s a tremendous track.

In fact, in recent years many of Bowie’s rarer tracks have been re-issued in one way or another. His “greatest hits” compilation from last year featured rare and hard-to-find mixes of even his most popular tunes,  and even Sound + Vision was recently re-released, meaning you can find rarities such as the awesome U.S. single mix of “Rebel Rebel,” the radio edit of “Nite Flights” and the saxophone version of “John, I’m Only Dancing.” Bowie completists would do well to check them out. I also recommend picking up the David Bowie box set from 2007, which collects his albums from Outside to Reality, most of which were excellent (I still dig Earthling a lot).

So much work has been done to restore Bowie’s discography that there isn’t much for me to share here tonight. And make no mistake, that’s a good thing. David Bowie was a genius, and you should buy his music.

These are the only tracks I have that are out of print, not crummy sounding bootlegs, and worth sharing. I don’t feel that sharing a track like “Too Dizzy” a song that was so bad it was deleted from later pressings of Never Let Me Down (Bowie’s worst outing by many accounts, including his) would be a proper tribute to the man. I want to celebrate his legacy by showcasing the songs you might not know about, not dredge up stuff best left forgotten.

That being said, let’s start with a Tin Machine song.

Baby Universal
Baby Universal (7″ Remix)
Baby Universal (Extended Version)
I briefly mentioned Never Let Me Down a bit ago. Make no mistake, that is an incredibly bad record. Critics thought so, his fans though so, and in the years after its release Bowie thought so as well. Bowie took such a drubbing from the album’s release that he retreated from releasing albums as Bowie altogether, and instead formed a band called Tin Machine. They released two records, and although neither were particularly well-received by the public, perception on the Tin Machine material has improved over the years. I wholeheartedly recommend the band’s self-titled debut, and I even have fondness for their follow-up, Tin Machine II. It’s a bit uneven, but it does have the best song that Tin Machine released, the fast-paced punk/art-rock/dance hybrid Baby Universal, which I’m presenting here in all its forms. Be sure to listen to the lyrics, which include the classic Bowie line “Hello humans can you feel me thinking.”

Jump The Say (Rock Mix)
Tin Machine wasn’t that much of a critical or popular success, but it sure as hell served to revitalize Bowie creatively. After the group disbanded he went back to being a solo artist and went on a hell of a creative tear through the 90s, starting with Black Tie White Noise. A fantastic if somewhat dated record, much of the album dealt with Bowie’s then-recent marriage to Iman, but not this track. It was inspired largely by Bowie’s half-brother Terry, who lost his battle with mental illness and took his own life some years before.

Lyrically, its one of my favorite tracks on the record, but I always felt the funky production kind of beguiled the song’s dark message and somewhat angry tone, which is why I much prefer this rock remix. It’s still an early-90s dance-rock tune, so it’s pumped-up and overproduced, but the funky wah-wah guitars and more manic elements are removed and replaced with some hard guitar riffs. It gives it just enough edge for the lyrics to resonate a little more, just a bit more bite.

This remix first appeared on a few different singles. I got it from the two-disc edition of Black Tie White Noise. While that version of the album is out of print (for now) the single-disc release is easily available. It is very much an album of its time, for good and bad, but it has an upbeat vibe that’s hard to dislike. If you like this tune, check it out.

Cat People [Putting Out Fire] (Australian Promo Extended Version)
If I had to make a list of my top ten favorite David Bowie songs, I’d go insane – but I think this song would probably make the cut. A collaboration between Bowie and Giorgio Moroder (holy shit!) for an exceptionally bad movie, many consider it to be his creative swan song for the 80s. I wouldn’t go that far, I actually like a lot of Bowie’s 80s output, but this track is a motherfucking masterpiece, largely due to Bowie’s freakishly powerful vocals. He’s downright operatic here, with a bellow that rivals what he delivered on “Heroes.”

If this track sounds familiar to you, that’s probably because it was featured prominently in Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. The version featured in the movie is the one from the soundtrack to Cat People. You can find that on the Sound + Vision box set. It is distinctively different than the version on Let’s Dance, which is also good but far too over-produced (this was a common problem with music from the era, not just Bowie). The version I’m sharing tonight was only included on the original Australian 12″ single, and most likely by mistake. It’s over nine minutes long and features a fucking rad as hell sax solo.

Disclaimer: This is not my rip, I found it on another (defunct) MP3 blog.

Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) (With Nine Inch Nails)
Okay, one bootleg.

This might be my favorite Bowie song. And this version with Nine Inch Nails (from the Outside tour) is just a (scary) monster. A powerful and intense burst of glorious thunder. This is how I choose to remember David Bowie.

As a motherfucking rock star.

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Rare Lou Reed and Lou Reed Covers

Monday, October 28th, 2013

Lou Reed passed away this weekend, and I’m not going to say much about it.  I am incredibly bad at eulogizing, especially so when the person in question is someone I have mixed feelings about.

Lou Reed was a genius. Lou Reed was an asshole. Lou Reed was a revolutionary songwriter. Lou Reed was a hack. Lou Reed was a legendary performer. Lou Reed was lazy and hated his audiences. I feel that all those things are true, and I don’t know how to compose my contradictory viewpoints into anything that would do either him or my own thoughts justice.

So I’ll just say that Lou Reed will be missed by a lot of people, including me. Everyone should listen to his work with the Velvet Underground. If you can tolerate shoddy audio quality, then you also must listen to The Quine Tapes, an amazing 3CD collection of VU bootlegs that feature some of the greatest live performances I’ve ever heard. And listen to Transformer. Because damn.

This is all the Lou Reed-related material I have, enjoy.

Lou Reed
My Red Joystick (Remixed Version)
My Red Joystick (Instrumental Version)
The Original Wrapper (Extended Version)
The Original Wrapper (Dub Version)
The Original Wrapper (Remix Single Version)
Video Violence (Remix)
Satellite Of Love ’04 (Dab Hands Retouch)
Satellite Of Love ’04 (Dab Hands Radio Edit)
Satellite Of Love ’04 (Groovefinder Remix)
This is literally all the rare Lou Reed I have (that was recorded under his actual name…keep reading and you’ll see what I mean). These are all taken from various 12″ singles and I’ve posted them all before. However, I re-recorded everything save for the “Satellite of Love” remixes, so even if you downloaded them from me before, be sure to grab them again – these versions sound so much better than my original rips.

If you’ve never had the joy of hearing Lou Reed “rap” then you’ll be in for a treat with some of these tracks.

New Order
Sister Ray (Live)
From the disgustingly-titled-but-vaguely-interesting compilation Like A Girl, I Want You To Keep Coming, which includes rarities by David Byrne, Debbie Harry and Henry Rollins as well. As far as I know, this live VU cover has never been released on any other album.

Billy Idol
Heroin (Nosebleed Mix)
Heroin (Ionizer mix)
Heroin (A Drug Called Horse Mix)
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Heroin (VR Mix)
Heroin (Needle Park Mix)
Billy Idol covered “Heroin” for his 1993 alubm Cyberpunk, an album that literally everyone on Earth hates except for me and Billy Idol. I re-recorded these tracks too, so if you downloaded them from my site once before and want better copies, download these too.

The Beachnuts - Cycle Annie
The J Brothers- Don’t Turn My World Upside Down
The Liberty Men -Wonderful World of Love
The Hi-Lites -Soul City
I wrote about these tracks before , they’re all from a mid-60s budget compilation album called Out Of Sight. This is how Lou Reed paid the bills before forming VU. He only performs on “Cylce Annie,” but he wrote all of these tunes.

David Bowie & Lou Reed
Queen Bitch
I’m Waiting For The Man
Dirty Boulevard
White Light/White Heat
All taken from Bowie’s 50th birthday bash in 1997. A great show you can find on YouTube I think.

David Bowie
White Light/White Heat (Rehearsal with Stevie Ray Vaughn)
White Light/White Heat (Studio Outtake)
I’m Waiting For The Man (Radio Appearance)
I’m Waiting For The Man (Live) (Another Radio Appearance)
I’m Waiting For The Man (Studio Recording)
I’m Waiting For The Man (Live Bootleg)
I’m Waiting For The Man (Live In Budapest)
These are all taken from various bootlegs, radio rips and other odds and sods I’ve accumulated over the years. In case you’re wondering how the Stevie Ray Vaughn thing happened, Stevie played guitar on Bowie’s Let’s Dance album. He was supposed to joing Bowie on the Serious Moonlight tour, but that didn’t work out. That recording is from the rehearsals for that tour.

I think we can say without question that David Bowie really liked “I’m Waiting For The Man,” I assume he could identify with that song on multiple levels.

Nirvana
Here She Comes Now (Electric Punk Version)
Here She Comes Now (Radio Appearance)
One version of Nirvana’s cover of this VU song has seen official release, the “Smart Studios” version was included on both the With The Lights Out compilation and the Super Deluxe edition of Nevermind. However, Nirvana performed and recorded this song a lot over the years. The “Electric Punk” version is, like the title suggests, more of a punk rock arrangement of the tune, while the radio appearance versions is more in tune with the Smart Studios version – all are great. You can really hear the emotion in Kurt’s voice in all these versions. This cover is how I got into VU in the first place.

David Bowie’s Cocaine Adds Life (Cocaine Bear Approves)

Monday, July 30th, 2012

Another week, another amazing 2LP bootleg. This time it’s from David Bowie.

Cocaine Adds Life

The wonderfully titled Cocaine Adds Life mostly features tracks from mid-70s Thin White Duke Bowie (hence the title), but it also throws in some random 80s stuff on the last side. While Discogs sites the album as coming out in 2008, I think that’s a repressing, and that the version I have actually came out in 1984 (as this site claims). If the back cover of my version is to believed, the bootleg label responsible for this release only printed 200 of these bad boys (mine is number 66), making it a pretty rare find.

Regardless of where and when it came from, and how rare it is, it’s a great bootleg full of some pretty interesting stuff. The first three sides are a complete concert, recorded live at the Rotterdam Sports Palais Ahoy on May 13th, 1976. The recording is from a soundboard, so it’s crystal clear, if a little flat. Although Bowie complains on the recording that he’s suffering from a bit of bronchitis, he sounds great as the band plays through some of his best material of the time, including “Station to Station,” “TVC15” and “Diamond Dogs.”

The final side of the bootleg is a grab bag of bonus cuts culled from a variety of sources. First up is a recording of Bowie performing “Sweet Jane” with Lou Reed on July 8th, 1972 in London. It’s a real rarity, which makes up for the fact that the recording kind of sounds like garbage. After that there’s another super-rare one, Bowie doing a cover of The Beatles’ “This Boy,” performed on July 18th, 1972 in Aylesbury. It also sounds pretty bad though.

That’s followed by “Sister Midnight,” taken from a performance in Toronto on February 26th, 1976, and a version of “Sound and Vision,” that’s from a show in London on July 1st, 1978. These sound bad, but better than the previous tracks.

Finally there are a pair of tracks taken from two shows in Brussels on April 18th and 19th, 1983. The first is a rare live version of “Joe The Lion” and the second is a cover of The Who’s “I Can’t Explain.” These also sound okay, but not great.

Truth be told, the final side is pretty much a wash when it comes to sound quality, although those versions of “Sweet Jane” and “This Boy” should probably be of interest to Bowie completists out there. Like I said before, the real treat here is the complete concert from 1976. It sounds great and is well worth a listen. I hope you like it.

Complete Track Listing

Rotterdam Concert – 5/13/176

  1. Station to Station
  2. Suffragette City
  3. Fame
  4. Word On A Wing
  5. Stay
  6. Waiting For The Man
  7. Band Introduction
  8. Changes
  9. TVC15
  10. Diamond Dogs
  11. Rebel Rebel
  12. Jean Genie

Additional Tracks

  1.  Sweet Jane – 7/8/72
  2. This Boy –  7/18/72
  3. Sister Midnight – 2/26/76
  4. Sound And Vision – 7/1/78
  5. Joe The Lion – 5/18/83
  6. I Can’t Explain – 5/19/83

Here’s to Six More Years of Obscurity

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

Okay, let’s try this again.

I wrote a thing for Nerve. You should read it.

After you do that, come back here. I have music for you. And if you’re visiting here for the first time because of Nerve, well then welcome! Want to listen to the soundtrack to Urgh!? If so, you might find this post of some interest.

David Bowie
When The Wind Blows (Extended Mix)
When The Wind Blows (Instrumental)
I posted those mixes to “When The Wind Blows” before, but if you say you remember that then you’re damn liar. That’s because they were on my very first post ever, which I am nearly 100% certain no one ever read until about six months after I took the files down.

That post was six years ago this month! That’s crazy. I can’t believe I’ve kept this blog going that long, but I’m so glad I did.

A lot of people ask me why I do this. I make no money on this blog (in fact, I lose money on it) and it’s a lot of work. Well, as much as I would like to say that I do it for you, the people who are looking for rare and hard to find music, the truth is that I really do it just as much for me as for anyone else.

By keeping up this blog, I kind of force myself to make adventurous musical purchases, and seek out rare and hard-to-find records with the hopes that I might find something interesting to write about it. During the times when the fun freelance writing work dries up (which is more often than I would like ) this blog literally keeps me sane, especially when it’s my only outlet for writing about music. And getting comments and tweets about how awesome I am certainly has done wonders for my self-esteem when things have gotten rough.

Basically, what I’m saying is that I’d like to thank everyone for sticking with me on what is essentially an entirely selfish endeavor that benefits my own ego. I’m glad you enjoy it, and I hope to keep doing it as long as I can type sarcastic bullshit with a healthy side of snark.

But enough of my humblebragging, I have David Bowie songs for you!

As I mentioned in my original post about these songs back in 2006, “When The Wind Blows” is the title song to a 1986 animated film about an elderly British couple struggling, and failing, to survive the horrors of a world in the aftermath of a nuclear war. It’s not a cheery flick. In fact, that’s an understatement, When The Wind Blows is a soul-sucking succubus of a film that will leave you depressed and without hope.

But the theme song is great! And six years later this extended version and the instrumental version (which is an entirely different recording, not just a studio cut with the vocals removed) remain out of print digitally! So enjoy them, and try to think happy thoughts. If you can’t then the next songs will probably help out with that.

The B-52’s
Roam (Extended Mix)
Roam (Instrumental)
Roam (12″ Mix)
“Roam” was released as a single in 1990, a year after R.E.M. released “Stand” as a single. Because of this I will forever assume that “Roam” is a diss track to R.E.M., in which The B-52’s shred R.E.M.’s promotion of a sedentary lifestyle in favor of a more exploratory state of being. That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.

Stan Ridgway
Salesman (Extended Mix)
Stan Ridgway was the lead singer of the epic Wall of Voodoo before he left the group in the mid-80s to embark on a solo career that most people probably don’t know about, and that’s a damn shame. While I can’t make any claims about his output from the 90s and beyond, his solo records from the 80s were amazing. If you have not, I highly suggest you pick up his debut The Big Heat and his excellent sophomore follow-up Mosquitos.

The best song on The Big Heat is “Camouflage” an excellent yarn about a marine in Vietnam who may or may not have been saved by the ghost of a super-solider. Since The Big Heat is in print and easily available on Amazon (where you should buy it), I can’t post that track. However, I can post this extended remix of “Salesman” which is the B-side to the “Camouflage” single. It’s not as great a track as “Camouflage,” but it’s incredibly catchy and still a solid tune.

Eight YouTube Concert Videos where you can See the Back of my Head – music by David Bowie and The Orb

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

Presented in chronological order.

 

Lollapalooza 2008 – Octopus Project

Far right side with the towel on my head. I was rocking out with a fever at the time and didn’t know it, this was the year Lollapalooza almost killed me.

 

Lollapalooza 2010 – Foxy Shazam

About one second in, with the stupid looking red bandanna on (hey, it beats a sunburned scalp). Blink and you’ll miss me.

 

Lollapalooza 2010 – Band of Skulls

On the right side for pretty much the entirety of the video.

 

Ultra 2011 – Hybrid

Okay, this one is easy. I’m so prominent here that the video should be titled “Footage of the back of a guy’s head with some Hybrid in the background.”

 

Outside Lands 2011 – The Joy Formidable

In this one I’m a little harder to pick out, but you can see me. Right side, taking a lot of pictures.

 

Outside Lands 2011 – Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah

Center-right, quietly enjoying myself while saving energy for Big Audio Dynamite.

 

Outside Lands 2011 – Big Audio Dynamite

We’ve already covered this one. I’m front and center, rocking out like a mofo.

 

Outside Lands 2011 – tUnE-yArDs

Once again, right in the front and almost ruining this poor person’s video. Sorry! I can’t help being a giant!

Ah memories. Anyways, it’s time for a reeeeeeeeeeemiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiix!

Sorry.

David Bowie
Dead Man Walking (House Mix)
Dead Man Walking (This One’s Not Dead Yet Mix)
When I was in high school I used to hang out at a grease pit called Rudy’s Hot Dogs. They had a jukebox where you could play five songs for a buck. My friend Bryan would always walk in with two bucks. He would put the first buck in right when we sat down and play “Dead Man Walking” five times. By the time the fifth play was winding down we would be ready to head out. Then, as we were leaving he would put the second buck in, and do a fiver of Hanson’s “Mmmbop.”

My friend Bryan is kind of a dick.

These mixes are from a CD single. Unlike most of the “Dead Man Walking” remixes from the time, they weren’t on the recent 2CD re-issue of Earthling. Both are pretty good. The “House Mix” is a little too house for me (I know, what did I expect?) but I’m really digging the second one, it’s much more low-key.

The Orb
Toxygene [Fila Brazillia Mix]
Toxygene [Toxic Genes Mix]
Toxygene (Kris Needs Up for a Fortnight Mix)
Delta MKII (Dal Vivo a Roma)
Rose Tinted
When engaging in record buying sprees, I know I have to take a time out when I start buying multiple versions of the same single just for different remixes/B-sides, which was the case with the single(s) for The Orb’s “Toxygene.” I bought both the 12″ vinyl single as well as the CD-single import. What’s worse, I bought them both at the same store, at the same time. Sometimes I think I have OCRD (Obsessive Compulsive Remix Disorder). I treat remixes like Pokemon, I gotta get ’em all. In case you were wondering, “Rose Tinted,” and the first two remixes are from the CD-single, while the “Kris Needs Up for a Fortnight Mix” and the mix of “Delta MKII” are from the 12″.

“Toxygene” is a groovy tune. The original version (not included here since you can get it easily online) is a classic example of The Orb’s blissfully mellow ambient house style. while the “Fila Brazillia Mix” and the “Toxic Genes Mix” were obviously made for club play and are less ambient and more house. They both get pretty intense and fast-paced in parts, but both pale in comparison to the The “Kris Needs Up for a Fortnight” mix, which is 10 minutes of old-school acid house. Crank that shit and piss off your roommate, that’s what I’m doing right now. The remix of “Delta MKII” is crazy, with some odd industrial-type sounds thrown in, and some creepy random vocal samples will disturb the hell out of you.

On the other end of the spectrum is “Rose Tinted,” a great ambient B-side that should go on your “it’s just starting to kick in” playlist. Trippy shit.

My Moonlight isn’t Very Serious at All

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

I went through and cataloged all my freaking CDs this weekend (I know how to party!) and to my shock I found two discs that are not only worth a ton of money that I actually am okay with selling. (Usually the only stuff I have that’s worth any money is the stuff I never want to get rid of).

So if anyone wants a limited edition Day Of The Dead Soundtrack CD (limited to just 3,000 copies) or a gold-pressed copy of Use Your Illusion II by Guns N’ Roses, send me an offer! Give me money to buy more records! We all win.

Foo Fighters
Doll (Live Acoustic)
See You (Live Acoustic)
For All The Cows (Live Acoustic)
Everlong (Live Acoustic)
As a near-psychotic collector of recorded music, I own quite a bit of concert DVDs. While I love them, they can be kind of a pain. Going to a concert and rocking out is a lot of fun. Sitting on your couch and watching a concert? Not as much fun. With rare exception (Nirvana’s Live At Reading, Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense), I find it hard to watch a concert movie in its entirety – I’ll take a live CD over a live DVD any day.

But I like the music on them, so I finally decided to try to rip all the audio from all my concert DVDs. I’ve been using a combination of DVD Decrypter, Audacity and Format Factory to do it (a good starter guide to this process can be found at Doom9), and as you can tell from those acoustic Foo Fighter tracks (taken from their excellent 2003 live DVD Everywhere But Home), it seems to be working pretty well.

When I rip the audio from the DVD to my computer, it’s usually in the AC3 audio format, which can easily be converted to MP3 using Format Factory or Audacity. However, there’s one problem with converting audio to MP3, that problem being the MP3 format itself.

The MP3 file format is really popular, it also really kind of sucks. This suckage is especially notable when converting AC3 or WAV audio to MP3. When you convert to MP3, a small fraction of a second silence is added at the beginning and the end of the audio track. This is almost never a problem, unless you are converting a live concert or DJ mix, then those microseconds of silence are a fucking nightmare that ruin the whole cohesion of the recording!

And there is almost no way to get rid of them. In most programs, if I delete them they just pop right back after I close them. I can mostly eliminate them in Audacity, but a vestige still remains.

And don’t go recommending WMA or AAC audio as a solution, they do it as well. The only compressed audio format I found that doesn’t add a bit of silence when being converted from WAV was OGG, but since I can’t get OGG files to play on my iPod easily, that’s not an option.

So please, don’t point out the gaps in the audio if you download these tracks. Trust me, they annoy me far more than they annoy you.

David Bowie
Let’s Dance (Bollyclub Mix)
Another DVD rip. This one was taken from the DVD that came with some versions of the Best of Bowie compilation from a few years back. Nearly every other mix from that DVD has since been released and can be found on the Club Bowie 12″ Mixes that you can get on iTunes and Amazon, so I’m not including them here. This particular mix of “Let’s Dance” still hasn’t had a digital release though, so it’s fair game to me.

If more Bollywood music sounded like this I think I’d watch more of those movies.

Flesh For Lulu
I Go Crazy (Dynamix)
I Go Crazy (Instrumental)
These are not DVD rips, just regular old vinyl rips, taken from a 12″ single. I think my obsession with getting every single John Hughes movie-related release (this is from the Some Kind of Wonderful soundtrack) went a bit too far with this one. It’s still a fun track though.

This Post is about a Drum Solo…and David Bowie

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

I recently bought the super-awesome-deluxe version of Station To Station. I even reviewed it and gave it five stars. I would have given it 50 if given the chance. It’s amazing, one of the best special editions I have ever bought. Not only does it sound incredible, but it has all kinds of neat goodies and bonuses that really give you a good bang for your buck. It even includes an entire concert, recorded at the Nassau Coliseum in 1976.

Well, not an entire concert. It’s missing a a drum solo from “Panic In Detroit.”

I know that drum solos are not the most…exciting aspect of live music. I recall being subjected to a drum solo at the end of a Coheed & Cambria concert that made me want to fly to Canada and beat the shit out of Neil Peart just to make an example. But still, it’s part of the show! And if this deluxe version of Station to Station really is a historical document, then it has to be there! But I guess if you have to cut something you have to cut something…

Oh wait, it’s included as a “bonus track” on the digital download edition?

Fuck. That. Bullshit.

I paid $150 for the super-deluxe version. It includes five CDs, three LPs, a DVD and more random memorabilia and random goodies than you can shake a Thin White Duke at. Why the hell can’t it include the complete version of the concert? Or even a download card that gives you a code to the uncut version of the song? I’m effectively being punished for being a die-hard fan with money to burn.

Depeche Mode did the same thing with the deluxe edition of Sounds Of The Universe. If you shelled out the big bucks for the deluxe version of that sucker, you got two bonus discs with demos, remixes and B-sides, but you didn’t get them all, there were some “exclusive” tracks that were only available if you bought the iTunes Pass version. So if you wanted everything from the album you had to buy it twice. At least, that’s what they wanted you to do. If you were like me you bought one and downloaded the shit off the other. Or if you’re really like me you found out most of the “exclusive” tracks were really remixes from 12” singles and you just bought those. I, of course, put many of those songs online. So you can see where this rant is going.

David Bowie
Panic In Detroit (Unedited Version with fixed opening and closing)
Panic In Detroit (Original Bootleg Version)
Cat People (Australian Promo Extended Version)

I caved and spent the two bucks to by the track on Amazon. And it’s a pretty good extended version/drum solo. But even its fucked up a little. Has a fade-in and fade-out, while the rest of the tracks on the album seamlessly segue from one to another with no lapse in crowd noise or stage banter. So if you want to incorporate the song into a playlist with the rest of the concert, or replace the cut version with the longer version altogether, there’s a rather noticeable cut when you get to the song.

Well, until I fixed it.

So here’s what I did. I bought the “Unedited Mix” of Panic In Detroit and cut the beginning and end of the regular version into it. so if you replace the original version with this extended cut you won’t notice any sudden cuts or gaps in audio. I also gave it the correct album name “Live Nassau Coliseum ’76” and track number. So if you want, you can download this version and replace the cut version you already have with it.

But here’s where it gets interesting. The Nassau Coliseum concert was heavily bootlegged over the years. I myself have a bootleg of it called The Thin White Duke. The version of “Panic In Detroit” on the bootleg is different, and is actually about five minutes shorter! I don’t know if that’s so the song would fit on a vinyl record or if the version on the official release has overdubs. If you can figure it out let me know.

Finally, I’m also re-uploading the Australian version of Cat People, which is the longest version of that song available. I have no reason for this other than the fact that it’s pretty awesome and I felt like putting it up again.

Hippity Hoppity Bowie

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Damn and fuck I’ve been busy. If it’s not visiting relatives or visiting friends its swine flu, or in the case of this week – work and funerals. I really hope my November is better than my October. Anyways…music!

David Bowie
Fame 90 (with Queen Latifah)
Fame 90 (House Mix)
Fame 90 (Hip Hop Mix)
Fame 90 (Absolutely Nothing Premeditated/Epic Mix)

Fame is a great song. So great that it can withstand some of the most overproduced remix effects that 1990 had to offer, although in some cases it fairs worse than others. The house mix is alright, the Hip Hop mix is good (and not at all hip hop so don’t worry), the Epic Mix is just that – clocking in at over 14 minutes, and the mix with Queen Latifah is the kind of wondrous WTF train wreck that only 1990 could produce. All are worth at least one listen. Although none hold a candle to the original. Why fuck with a classic?

Sugar Daddy
Another One Bites The Dust
So…this is a 1980 hip-hop track that is nothing more than a rap over an instrumental track of Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust.” I don’t think it wants to be a rap song though, as Sugar Daddy (AKA Kevin Woodley – who is apparently BIG on self-promotion) says the word “disco” about a billion and a half times. It’s very Golden Age, with a cadence taken straight out of “Rapper’s Delight” with added “Oh yeahs!” Utterly ridiculous and a hell of a lot of fun.