Archive for the ‘Thomas Dolby’ Category

Best Of The Biscuit – Thomas Dolby

Thursday, December 19th, 2019

Best Of The Biscuit – Thomas Dolby
Right after I bought and wrote about a radio-only LP live show compilation called Live Tracks, I just happened to stumble upon another one at an entirely different record store. While the previous radio show I bought seemingly a derivative of the King Biscuit Flower Hour, this one is the real deal, a “best of” episode that originally the aired the week of August 7th, 1983. Split into two parts, the majority of the episode is dedicated to a Thomas Dolby concert, while the later bit showcases a few songs from a Missing Persons show. Since there’s so much content here, I’m splitting this into two posts, with the Thomas Dolby up first.

This is not a complete show unfortunately. If Discogs is any indication, King Biscuit broadcasted a more complete (if not entirely complete) version of this very same concert on May 3rd of the same year, just a few months before this “best of” version. That’s some quick repackaging! They might have even repackaged it once more for another program in the following year, or that could just be another Dolby show, hard to say.

Nearly everything Dolby performs here is from his 1983 debut album, or from assorted singles (that would eventually make their way into various permutations of said debut album – it’s been re-issued a lot). The sole exception is “New Toy,” which is a song that Dolby wrote for Lene Lovich for her debut EP. Lene Lovich actually joins Dolby on stage for this one. I have no idea how rare live performances with both of them are for this one, maybe they toured together and played it all the time, or this was a one-off special appearance. Regardless, it’s cool.

Just like the last radio show I shared, this too has commercials. Unfortunately, this time around they aren’t horribly inappropriate beer commercials that feature racist stereotypes and encourage underage drinking. Instead, they’re just commercials for the US Army (boo!). I remember these commercials though, so while I won’t say that it was cool to hear them again (again, boo military-industrial complex!) it did trigger a nostalgia dopamine response. Haven’t heard that “be all that you can be” jingle in ages. It’s also hilarious to me that the army sponsored a radio show with the aggressively anti-imperialist “One Of Our Submarines Is Missing.”

Also, how many die-hard synthpop fans from the early 80s were down with the thought of joining the armed forces? I feel that the military’s advertising budget could’ve been better spent on radio shows featuring AC/DC or Ted Nugent.

Enjoy the show (this one is “properly” numbered by the way) and, for those of you who celebrate Christmas, merry Christmas. I’ll be back next week with the second half of this radio show, hopefully.

Posted in Thomas Dolby | 8 Comments »

10 Years Of Being Lost: I Like Bad Music

Tuesday, March 15th, 2016

If there is one thing this blog has taught me, it’s that  I have bad taste in, well, just about everything.

I guess that’s not entirely true, but in my search to find weird and hard-to-find records, I’ve discovered that I’m more likely to enjoy a substandard piece of entertainment that does one unique thing than I will a by-the-numbers, well-executed work that everyone falls head over heels for. Why else would I own the complete discography of Fireballet?

And it goes well beyond music. For example, one of my favorite movies of all time is Pretty Maids All In A Row. It’s a comedy about a womanizing high school guidance counselor; his favorite student’s affair with a hot teacher; and a series of grizzly murders taking place on campus. It stars Rock Hudson, Telly Savalas and Roddy McDowell, and was written by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

It’s great.

Just kidding, it’s a fucking mess. But it’s fascinating mess! And it’s filled with situations, sub-plots and characters that you just don’t see in more polished work. I love it because its rough around the edges. Ambition, originality and just plain eccentricity goes a long way with me I suppose.

And I think that shows with tonight’s music, a selection of some of the…lesser tracks I’ve shared over the years that I still unapologetically love, no guilt with these pleasures.

Okay, maybe a little guilt.

Billy Idol
Heroin (Durga Trance Dub)
Heroin (Durga Death Dub)
Heroin (Don’t Touch That Needle Mix)
Heroin (Smack Attack)
Heroin (VR Mix)
Heroin (Needle Park Mix)
Heroin (Overlords Mix)
Heroin (Nosebleed Mix)
Heroin (A Drug Called Horse Mix)
Heroin (Ionizer mix)
Was this in the soundtrack to Hackers? I feel as if it should’ve been in the soundtrack to Hackers. Or at least The Net.

I actually just re-watched the video of this and to “Shock To The System,” the other single from Idol’s Cyberpunk, his failed 1993 album that all but completely destroyed his career. I like a few tracks on that record and I think it’s underrated, but even I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a lost classic. Reading about its release sure is interesting though. Did you know that this album was controversial? Apparently, many of those involved in early online communities, such as the the WELL, thought of it to be bullshit and Idol to be poseur. This was even though Idol went out of his way to seek advice and guidance from those in that community during the production of the album. It seems that some just couldn’t get behind the idea of a celebrity using the Internet as a means promotion.

I bet none of those people are among the 40+ million who follow Kim Kardashian on Twitter.

Dolby’s Cube
Hunger City
Howard The Duck
It Don’t Come Cheap
Don’t Turn Away (Lea Thompson Vocal)
Howard The Duck (Mega Mix)
I’m On My Way
Vinyl re-issues of movie soundtracks are hot shit at the moment. I blame/credit Death Waltz for starting the trend. And while I think it’s really starting to get out of hand (I just bought a glow-in-the-dark re-issue of the Fright Night soundtrack), I don’t think we’ve reached maximum saturation yet, mainly because the soundtrack to Howard The Duck hasn’t been re-released yet. And that’s a fucking shame.

BECAUSE THE SOUNDTRACK TO HOWARD THE DUCK IS FUCKING GREAT.

Thomas Dolby. George Clinton, Stevie Wonder. Joe Walsh. They all perform on this album, and they’re fronted by Lea Thompson, who is a shockingly good rock singer. I want to hear her sing “Cherry Bomb,” I bet it would sound incredible.

My favorite of the Thompson-fronted tracks from Howard The Duck isn’t the theme song (although it’s rad), instead it’s “Hunger City,” an intense, 80s pop rocker that really channels the anger and energy of pop-rock like Pat Benatar or even some early Joan Jett. There’s a desperation to the lyrics, and to Thompson’s powerful delivery, that have a surprising aura of honesty to them. This song feels like it was written about someone’s real struggles, and not the struggles of a duck trapped in a world he never made.

The other songs are good fun, but “Hunger City” is a lost classic.

Bell & James
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (12″ Remix)
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (Instrumental)
I love this song so much that I almost typed this entire section in all caps with every sentence ending in exclamation points. THAT’S HOW GOOD THIS SONG IS!!

This is the title track to the film of the same name, and it more or less just tells the story of the film. So not only is this song a funky masterpiece of 70s soul, it also does you the service of saving you from having to watch The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, because that is a bad movie that’s not good. I know I said that I like a lot of things that other people consider to be bad, but this is one instance where I share the critical consensus: that movie is a pile of dog shit.

The song is dope though, some might say it is the second-best song ever written with the word “fish” in the title.

Posted in Bell & James, Billy Idol, soundtrack, Thomas Dolby | 3 Comments »

They Might Be Sakamoto

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

I finally went through and cleaned the rest of the records I bought when I was in Tokyo, as well as everything that wasn’t cleaned before I went…as well as the stuff I’ve bought since I returned to the states.

It took me four hours.

Seriously. I was able to watch the first two Fast & Furious films in the time it took me to clean all the damn things.

So, yeah, I guess I really did buy a lot of records when I was in Asia. So many records! They’re surrounding me! I feel like a hoarder, except, y’know, not as insane or on TLC.

The prospect of listening to/recording all of them would overwhelm me if I wasn’t looking forward to it so much. Although to be honest, now that I see my pile of Japanese anime soundtracks next to my turntable, I’m starting to question the level of restraint (or lack there of) that I had while in Japan. Oh well! I bought those Gundam soundtracks and dammit I’m going to listen to them! I might even share them with you all.

Also, look forward to Kraftwerk. Holy shit. So much Kraftwerk. And Leftfield, Pet Shop Boys, OMD, Primal Scream, Erasure…you know what? I’m just going to stop now. I want to leave some surprises. I’ll just say that I think I got the next few months, if not year, of The Lost Turntable covered now, and it’s going to be full of some really amazing shit.

Speaking of amazing shit. Yo, check this shit out.

001

Ryuichi Sakamoto (with Thomas Dolby)
Field Work (London Mix)
Field Work (Tokyo Mix)
Exhibition
I’ve begun to slowly dig into the Sakamoto back catalog. Right now I want all of it, but I suppose that’ll stop once after I accidentally buy one of his classical or more jazz-influenced records. I’m sure all that stuff is excellent for what it is, but I’ll pass.

As for these tracks, they are from a 12″ single. The original version of “Field Work” first appeared on the Western version of Sakamoto’s 1986 album Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia (an abridged and re-edited version of a Japanese only release that first came out in 1984). Dolby fans, however, probably didn’t discover the track until the 2009 re-release of his 1984 album The Flat Earth, which also included soundtrack rarities “Don’t Turn Away” and “The Devil Is An Englishman.”

The version of “Field Work” on The Flat Earth re-issue is labeled as the “London Mix” but it is actually an abridged version of that mix. The proper version runs at about six minutes in length, while the version on the album is only four minutes long. The Tokyo Mix, as far as I can tell, has never been released on CD in any form, and that’s a real shame because I think its the better of the two mixes.

Also rare to my knowledge is “Exhibition.” Dolby is nowhere to be found on this track, and its certainly not a radio-friendly pop number. Instead it’s a 15 minute ambient soundscape with no beats, no melody and no motifs outside of a constant, looping set of beeps and bloops. It’s kind of like something you might find on The KLF’s White Room album, or maybe on an Orb b-side. Not for everyone, but I find it relaxing and oddly enough, a great track to write to. I’ve certainly heard worse Sakamoto, I bought his disco album. It’s…something.

They Might Be Giants
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) (Brownsville Mix)
Stormy Pinkness
Chalk up TMBG as another band who seemed to be doing their damnedest to make sure their fans have easy access to all of their b-sides and other rarities. Like I said before, I wish all bands would do that, even if it makes my job of finding out-of-print and hard-to-find stuff all the more difficult.

Still, it looks like at least a couple of b-sides slipped through the band’s re-releasing machine. I found these two oddities on the 12″ single for “Istanbul (Not Constantiople),” which also had “James K. Polk” and “Ant,” two songs that have made their ways onto proper TMBG releases.

The remix of “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” is one of the strangest TMBG compositions I’ve ever heard, and if you know anything about the group, that’s really saying something.. The TMBG wiki states that it contains a sample of Kraftwerk’s “The Robots” as well as an unidentified Janet Jackson sample. I couldn’t make that out, but I wouldn’t doubt it. The vocal samples at the beginning of the track are even weirder. What the hell is a white tornado?

“Stormy Pinkness” is weird, but it’s also pretty short (about a minute) and there’s not much to it. So I really don’t have anything to say about that one. I’m glad I found it though.

Posted in B-sides, remixes, Ryuichi Sakamoto, They Might Be Giants, Thomas Dolby | 14 Comments »

This Post Is An Accurate Microcosm Of My Record Collection

Friday, December 16th, 2011

My 80s dance party continues. Seems like the best way to get in the holiday spirit if you ask me.

Eurythmics
Right By Your Side (Extended Mix)
This song is adorable. I want to hug it. So cute, so lovey-dovey, I should hate it…but it’s just so nice!

What’s not nice, however, is my recording of it. The distortion you hear on the track is caused by the record itself, not my recording equipment; my encoding equipment; your speakers; or an evil space monkey. Okay, maybe an evil space monkey is to blame. If anyone has a version of the song that has not been tainted by an evil space monkey that destroys record grooves, let me know. I’ll repay your kindness handsomely.

Thomas Dolby
Airheads’ Revenge
Revenge Rap
Airhead (Def Ears Mix) 
Airhead (Rusty’s Mix)
The subject of “Airhead” is a woman who Thomas Dolby believes to be of sub-par intelligence. It’s a funny song that manages to lay out a few funny insults while avoiding sexist tropes. Even better though, is the “Airhead’s Revenge” track, in which the subject of Dolby’s derision gets back at him…via a dope rap diss track! Oh snap! She’s there to tell him that HE is the airhead, and that he better shut his mouth before she shuts it for him. Kind of awesome, but entirely bizarre at the same time.

The “Revenge Rap” mix is just her diss track, with none of Dolby’s vocals, while the final two remixes are just alternate versions of the original song, with no rapping to be found. So if you like your rap and new wave synthpop segregated (you racist) then you’ll probably like those more.

Enjoy the new wave/rap/wtf hybrid. And just remember that the man who created it is the same man who helped to create the technology that made polyphonic ringtones possible.

Adam Ant
Room At the Top (7″ Radio Mix)
Room At The Top (Extended Version)
Room At The Top (House Vocal)
A song from the 20th century about a person with an 18th century brain in a 21st century head that was written by a man who liked to dress like he was from the 19th century. Fuckin’…80s man…I don’t know. It’s a good song though.

 

Posted in Adam Ant, Eurythmics, Thomas Dolby | 5 Comments »

Willkommen auf der Drehscheibe Verloren

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

I saw Nine Inch Nails last week. Good shit. Want to know how to make me go nuts? Perform a cover of a Gary Numan song. Trent did, rocking out an epic version of “Metal” that had everyone but me bored to tears. I want to start a Gary Numan tribute band. I bet I could get Gary Numan to join.

Anyways, I recorded some of the opening act, which is the Street Sweeper Social Club. It’s Tom Morello’s new band and they were much fun live. I’m reviewing their CD right now and I’m sad to report that the fun didn’t make it to the studio. I’ll give a link to that review in a few days. If you want to check their cover of MIA’s “Paper Planes” go here. The camera work is less-than-good I know.

Speaking of links to reviews…

Hell – Teufelswerk: I very rarely give 5 star reviews (I think) and I don’t toss around phrases like “best album ever” a lot, so take my word for it when I say that Teufelswerk just might be the best electronic album of the decade. This record blew my mind 8 times over, it’s just fucking amazing. This is the best electronic album I’ve heard in a decade, and probably the best since The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld, Aphex Twin’s Richard D. James album or The KLF’s White Room. Yes it is that damn good. I don’t know why more people aren’t talking about this album, it will change what you think house music can do.

Now for some stupid b-sides and remixes

The Pretenders
In The Sticks
This is an instrumental jam, recorded I don’t know when and written by I don’t know who. I grabbed it off of a compilation called “Attack of the Killer B’s” which features B-sides by a ton of popular artists, the next four songs are also from this same compilation. If anyone can give me any information about this tune I would greatly appreciate it.

The Blasters
What Will Lucy Do?
I know this is a cover of a Frankie Lee Sims song because I looked this one up. I knew it wasn’t a Blasters original because it sounds nothing like them. This song is older than your parents. It’s fairly awesome. A live version appears on a Blasters greatest hits compilation, but I think this is a studio cut.

John Hiatt
Take Time To Know Her
John Hiatt is most famous for writing songs that made other people famous, such as “Thing Called Love,” which Bonnie Raitt covered to massive success in 1989. This is uber-80s adult contemporary pop/blues. Dated but fun.

Peter Gabriel
Shock Den Affen
German version of Shock the Monkey. That’s the only way this song could be made weirder. Peter Gabriel actually released several of his albums in German, sadly they are all out of print in America. I wanna hear “Games Without Frontiers” in German.

The Time
Grace
Morris Day has a female reporter stroke his…ego in this silly skit. I think Morris Day is the only Prince protege that has a bigger ego than Prince. It’s kind of sad considering that The Time is best known nowadays for their cameo in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back

Thomas Dolby
The Devil is an Englishman (Extended Version)
An extended remix of the theme song to Gothic, a horrible movie that no one has ever seen. I’ve already written more than anyone else ever has about that soundtrack, which you can read (and download) here.

Jesus & The Mary Chain
Surfin’ USA (Summer Mix)
How the fuck did this happen? They did a lot of drugs right? That’s the only explanation. From a 12” single I think, it’s been a while since I recorded this one.

Posted in B-sides, Jesus and The Mary Chain, John Hiatt, Peter Gabriel, remixes, The Blasters, The Pretenders, The Time, Thomas Dolby | 8 Comments »