Archive for the ‘Happy Mondays’ Category

Smashing Mondays

Monday, November 19th, 2012

Hey!

News to me, the Super Deluxe edition of The Velvet Underground & Nico came out last month. I just bought it. Expect an review (with delicious waveforms) later this week or early next week.

News from me: I finally got a good interview lined up for my first feature on the new site. Details to come (on the new site).

News for everyone else: Music!

Smashing Pumpkins
1979 (Moby Mix)
1979 (Cement Mix)
In just a few weeks Billy Corgan will be re-releasing Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as a massive 5CD+1DVD box set filled with demos, B-sides and other rarities. One would think that this would be a perfect time for Billy to re-release these 1979 remixes. That would make sense. That would be a good value to the consumer. That would be something a normal, rational human being  would do.

So of course, Billy Corgan is not doing that! Nope. These 1979 mixes will not be on the Mellon Collie re-issue. More perplexing (I mean, stupid) is that there will be some random brand new remixes of other Mellon Collie songs done by superstar DJ/producer/composer BT. Nothing against BT, I like BT (shit, I met BT once, and he’s a super-nice dude), but those new mixes do not belong on a re-issue that is supposed to be a representation of that album and the era around it. It reeks of a lame cash grab and for die-hard fans like me who want all their classic Pumpkins, stupid remixes and all, in one easy-to-find package, it’s a big downer.

But whatever, thanks Billy, for keeping your head firmly up your ass and making sites like mine relevant.

Also, these are some weird-ass mixes of “1979” and have almost nothing to do with the original song. You’ve been warned.

 

Happy Mondays
Sunshine And Love (Far Island Mix) 
Sunshine And Love (Junior Mix)
Sunshine And Love (12″ Remix)
Stinkin Thinkin (Boys Own Mix)
Stinkin Thinkin ( Junior Style Mix)
I don’t know how many people out there are begging for remixes of Yes Please! era Happy Mondays tracks – but a complete lack of relevance, demand or acclaim (even from myself) has never stopped me from posting music before!

The best of the bunch here are the 12″ Remix of “Sunshine and Love” and the Junior Style Mix of “Stinkin Thinkin.” They’re solid dance mixes, both keeping what is good about the originals while making them ideal tracks “for the club.” The other mixes, especially the other “Sunshine and Love” mixes, just strip out damn near everything about the original versions and turn them into near-instrumental house tracks. And while I love some instrumental house tracks, I want a bit more from my Happy Mondays remixes, thank you very much.

Also, I don’t know about the entirety of Yes Please!, but “Stinkin Thinkin” is a great fucking song dammit and I don’t want to hear anyone say otherwise.

 

Posted in Happy Mondays, remixes, The Smashing Pumpkins | 6 Comments »

Human League Conspiracy Theories and Happy Mondays

Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012

In case you hadn’t heard, I recently completely the epic-length Lost Turntable Guide to Recording Vinyl. You should totally read it. It’s almost 5,000 words though, so maybe you might want to pee first.

Happy Mondays
Bob’s Yer Uncle (The Grid Mix)
Bob’s Yer Uncle (Paul Oakenfold Mix)
These remixes are from a 12″ promo copy I snagged last week, they’re chill as shit. This song is my new jam.

The Human League
All I Ever Wanted (Oliver Lieb’s Main Mix)
All I Ever Wanted (Oliver Lieb’s Alternative Mix)
All I Ever Wanted (The Vanity Case Mix)
All I Ever Wanted (The Vanity Case Instrumental Mix)
I love it when a band’s fans obviously hi-jack Wikipedia and the moderators are none the wiser. Take The Human League for instance. Not only does their wiki have a tremendous amount of extraneous data (not to mention the most needlessly complicated band members section I’ve ever seen), but pages for individual members, albums and even songs are freakishly in-depth and filled with unsubstantiated “facts” and bizarre justifications for why The Human League is no longer the biggest band in the world. For instance, both the wiki for this song as well as the wiki for Secrets, the album from which the song came from, claim that the song/album were not hits because the band’s label was on the verge of bankruptcy when the album came out, and that the BBC had blacklisted the band. I think the whole “it’s 2001 and we’re an 80s synthpop band” had more to do with the album’s lack of success than anything else.

I’m not knocking The Human League, don’t get me wrong, I love them, I just don’t love them enough to oddly rationalize why they’re no longer popular. Shit, I love me some Toadies, but you don’t see me saying that their lack of current success is due to a conspiracy involving Clear Channel, the Freemasons and the Gin Blossoms.

Wait, I may be on to something here…

Anyways, these are good remixes, download them.

Posted in Happy Mondays, remixes, The Human League | 6 Comments »

Lost Soundtrack Of Lost Angels On Lost Turntable Is Lost

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

I’m going out on a limb and posting some stuff from a rare out-of-print soundtrack. The last time I did that I faced the wrath of Steve Winwood, hopefully that won’t be the case today.

The soundtrack in question the soundtrack to Lost Angels, a completely forgotten 80s flick with Donald Sutherland and Adam Horowitz, AKA Ad-Rock from the Beastie Boys. It was directed by Hugh Hudson, who blew his creative wad with his debut feature, the epic Chariots of Fire in 1981. He followed that up with the mediocre Greystroke: Legend Of Tarzan in 1984 and the “holy shit that was fucking awful” Revolution in 1985, a film that damn near killed Al Pacino’s career. After this flick he went on to do a film called My Life So Far a decade later and then I Dreamed Of Africa, a movie that nearly killed Kim Basigner’s career. Dude needs to stop making movies. Hell, maybe he has, I Dreamed of Africa was the dude’s last movie and that was nearly 10 years ago.

Anyways, despite Ad-Rock starring in Lost Angels, the soundtrack was Beastie-less and instead featured a weird combination of established and up-and-coming alternative acts. Album cuts by The Cure, the Pogues, Soul Asylum, Soundgarden and Toni Childs were all included, but since all of those songs are on easy-to-find records I’m not including them here (check out a tracklsting at Allmusic. Instead I’m only focusing on the stuff that’s still pretty hard to find, such as…

The Happy Mondays – Do It Better
Ah The Happy Mondays, the band that bankrupt Factory Records and proved that while acid and ecstasy are a-okay when it comes to writing acid house inspired rock, angel dust and crack certainly are not. “Do It Better” is certainly not a rarity by any stretch of the means, it appeared on the band’s sophomore album Bummed, but this version did not. In fact, I don’t know the story behind this version of the song at all, which I think was exclusive to this soundtrack. If anyone has additional information on it I would be grateful.

Apollo Smile – Let’s Rock
Speaking of wanting additional information. What the fuck happened to Apollo Smile? Does anyone out there remember this chick? She was the poster child for the self-promotion, basically willing herself into record contract and a TV host gig on Sci-Fi Channel by basically proclaiming herself to be a “live-action anime girl” (whatever that means). If you’re a video game nerd you probably recognize her voice as the voice of Ulala from the Space Channel 5 games. Was she a prefabricated creation with little-to-no depth? Possibly. Was she hot as hell and super-cool in a silly nineties kind of way? Definitely! So what the fuck happened to her? A quick search for her online finds that her official site has vanished and all that remains are some embarrassing late-90s fansites that haven’t been updated in a decade. I’m not the only person who has pondered this, check out this article (and this one) for a little more information/wondering. Hey Apollo are you out there? Want to do an interview? This tune, which samples some Led Zep, it totally awesome.

Raheem – Self Preservation
Speaking of Led Zeppelin samples, this rap track from Raheem of the Ghetto Boys samples “Whole Lotta Love.” But the no-doubt illegal sampling doesn’t stop there, as this track aslo lifts from Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” Two classic rock riffs for the price of one, done well and in an original way. Hey Kid Rock, pay attention!

The Royal Court Of China – Love Long Gone
The Royal Court of China, what an awful name for a band from Nashville. Mediocre tune that I’m including just to be a completist.

John Williams and Wayne Shorter – Lost Angles Theme
John Williams is an Academy-Award Winning composer who gave us the themes to Jaws, ET, Star Wars and dozens of other classic films. Wayne Shorter is a legendary jazz saxophonist from the 1960s. Together they created this utterly forgettable piece of music for a movie starring a Beastie Boy. The late 80s were really weird man.

Posted in Apollo Smile, Happy Mondays, John Williams, Raheem, soundtrack, the Royal Court Of China | 7 Comments »