Okay, this post is kind of random and odd. And unless you are die-hard BH Surfers fan or Tears For Fears fanatic it’s probably not your thing. School’s a mother, so I didn’t have time to finish up some big finds I scored last weekend. You’ll see them soon.

Butthole Surfers
The Hurdy Gurdy Man (Jim Melly Re-Mix)
I don’t think I ever have to do acid now, this song has to be the equivalent. I never knew this was a cover until about a year ago, how sad is that? I’ve been a longtime fan of the Butthole Surfers though, I dig their crazy old shit and even their more mainstream stuff like ‘Dracula From Houston.’ Word is they’re working on a new album, can’t wait to hear what that’ll sound like. I just know I won’t listen to it while driving, that’s probably illegal. This is the B-side to a 12” single.

ZZ Top
Legs (Special Dance Remix)
When I was a kid I wanted the ZZ Top car to come and save me from Gym class, never happened.

Dead Or Alive
Spin Me Round (Murder Mix)
If this guy would’ve showed up to take me from gym class I probably would never leave the gymnasium.

Tears For Fears
Mothers Talk (Beat Of The Drum Mix)
Mothers Talk (Long Version)
The ‘Beat Of The Drum Mix’ is mighty odd. ‘Mothers Talk’ always kind of struck me as a serious song, not one that required a break-down that featured a random James Brown sample. To each his own I guess.

Blame the lack of updates on the snow that is currently covering Pittsburgh. I know I am.

Art Of Noise
Paranoimia ’89 (Dance Mix)
Dragnet ’89
That’s not a typo, the name of the song is ‘Paranoimia.’ It’s a remix of ‘Paranoia,’ minus the Max Headroom. The Dragnet theme is silly but fun in a retarded kind of way.

Public Image Ltd.
Seattle (12” Mix)
Body (12” Mix)
These are two of PiL’s most easy-to-listen songs. So if you’ve hated all the other post Sex Pistols John Lydon material I’ve put up on this site check these out. These were taken off of the 12” single for ‘Seattle.’

Eddie Vedder
Goodbye
It might come as a surprise to some of you, but I am an obsessive fan of all things Pearl Jam. I’ve seen them live half-a-dozen times, have an unhealthy collection of concert memorabilia and also have more CDs, LPs and 45s then I wish to count. This song by Eddie is off of the soundtrack to A Brokedown Melody, which is a groovy littler surfer doc.

They Might Be Giants
One More Parade
I forgot where I found this one. It’s off of an album called Rubaiyat, which was a two-CD collection compiled for Elektra’s 40th Anniversary but I don’t have that. It featured a bunch of Elektra artists covering songs by other Elektra artists – self-congragulatory label masturbation at its best. This is a cover of a Phil Ochs anti-war song and is sadly just as relevant today as it was when he first recorded it.

The Pixies
Born In Chicago
Another track off the Elektra collection. This one is a cover of a very old blues song I believe.

I had more to say about the last couple tracks but Blogger keeps crashing and I want to update this fucker so I can go to bed already. Argh.

Jerry Goldsmith
Gremlins Original Motion Picture Score
I can’t think of a movie that was a bigger part of my childhood than Gremlins was. Unlike a lot of other childhood favorites (Star Wars, The Goonies, Monster Squad) I can still remember the first time I saw it very clearly (I hid under the sheets when Stripe began melting). Not only that I remember my Gremlins-themed birthday party and the Gremlins backpack I took with me for my first day of Kindergarten. Some people’s Chirstmas movie is A Christmas Carol or A Christmas Story. Mine has always been Gremlins. I’m sick like that I guess. I even love the sequel. The score to Gremlins was one of Goldsmith’s best in my opinion and it’s a shame that it’s never gotten a proper release. The original LP soundtrack to the film was only a 7-track “mini album” that only featured about half of the film’s score. There are bootlegs out there that have more but they sound like shit from what I’ve been told, which is a bummer. Here I have all of the score that was originally released on that mini-LP.

Joe Strummer
Filibustero (Freestyle Mix)
In 1987 Joe Strummer released his first post-Clash album, the soundtrack to Alex Cox’s western Walker. The movie was a massive flop but the soundtrack is pretty damn good. It doesn’t sound like anything Strummer ever recorded before (or since) and is mostly instrumental music, the kind of stuff you’d expect to hear in an 1850s period piece. This is a remixed version of the main theme from the film, of which the Sex & The City theme sounds AMAZINGLY similar to.

Karen Finley
Party Animal
More from Like A Girl, I Want You To Keep Coming. Karen Finley was a performance artist whose material so offended Jesse Helms that he fought to have her funding from the NEA revoked – so you know she’s amazing. This bit is really intense and a little grating, you’ve been warned.

John Giorno Band
It’s A Mistake To Think You’re Special
Giorno was a poet who founded Giorno Poetry Systems, which was the label that released Like A Girl… Probably not a coincidence that he’s on the album then huh? This is more like poetry with a backing track than an actual song.

Some quick non-music rambling, I saw Pan’s Labyrinth yesterday night and I have to say that it’s one of the most magnificent, beautiful and awe-inspiring movies I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. I can’t remember the last time I left a theater so happy that I saw a movie. Before you start reading this blog posting you need to go see Pan’s Labyrinth!

Turn off your computer.

Steal a car.

(But I have a car)

I said STEAL A CAR!

(okay)

And drive until you find a movie theater that is showing Pan’s Labyrinth. Get out of the car and pick a fight…no wait, just go in and see the movie, it’s really good.

Tom Tom Club
Call Of The Wild (12” Remix)
Call Of The Wild (12” Club Mix)
Genius Of Love (Live)
Wordy Rappinghood (Live)
I’ve posted David Byrne before and some Talking Heads so it only makes sense that I would eventually get to Tom Tom Club. Actually, in compliance with the New Wave Break-Up Fairness Act of 1989 I am legally required to counter a David Byrne post with a Tom Tom Club one. All of these tracks are great and if you haven’t heard ‘Wordy Rappinghood’ before I highly recommend it.

New Order
Sister Ray (Live)
This is a live cover of the classic Velvet Underground tune. I got it off of a stellar compilation entitled Like A Girl, I Want You To Keep Coming.” I’ll be posting stuff from that one over the course of the next week or so. It was a pretty good collection. This live version was recorded on December 1, 1988.

PMS (Pre Metal Syndrome)
Living On The Outside (Fucked Up World)
This track is also from that same compilation. This band was some hardcore metal/punk chick-rock band from NYC. Sounds pretty good, wonder why I never heard of them before.

Cyndi Lauper
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Extended Version)
Fun With V. Knutsn (Instrumental)
Xtra Fun
By popular demand! I know some girls that don’t just wanna have fun, they wanna make my life a living hell on earth. Oh well, maybe that’s fun for them. The second two tracks from this promo single are really just dub remixes and nothing all that special, the extended version of the song is great.

The cool kids like me!

Yay me. I rock. Hard.

It’s kind of sad that I’m this pumped about this.

Depeche Mode
A Question Of Time (New Town Remix)
A Question Of Time (Live)
Black Celebration (Black Tulip Remix)
More Than A Party (Live)
Yes more Depeche Mode remixes. I was going to save these for later but I figured I’d throw in some MP3s to keep the MP3 aggregator sites happy. These are all from the 12” single for ‘A Question Of Time.’

Macross Song Collection
Okay, I don’t know jack about Macross. Part of it was edited into Robotech in America right? That’s the beginning and end of my Macross knowledge. I also don’t like J-pop that much, especially 80s J-pop. That being said, I’m so happy I own a Macross Soundtrack LP – I’m just weird like that. Anyways, I don’t know how to type kanji on my keyboard, and even if I did I wouldn’t know how to type the track titles for this soundtrack, so they are just labeled “track 1”, “track 2” and so on. This album originally came out in 1984 – I don’t know what it is the soundtrack to specifically but I’m assuming it’s for the TV show. I also don’t know who was the composer of this or any of the performers. I’m sure there are people that know more about this than I do and I hope they like it.

Explorers: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack
Now this is some shit I’m experienced with! When I was a little kid Explorers was totally one of my favorite movies, it was right up their with The Goonies and Monster Squad in terms of complete awesomeness. If you haven’t seen it (you suck), it’s about three kids who make contact with aliens and travel to their spaceship. It’s a really silly movie and totally unrealistic, but great for little kids. It’s also an interesting piece of Hollywood history because it stars a very young Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix. The score was done by Jerry Goldsmith (although the soundtrack also features some random 80s tunes) and the movie was directed by Joe Dante. Of course Dante and Goldsmith also collaborated on Gremlins and if you like that score I suggest you come back later in the week.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately, both in comments and in emails. I figured I’d use this post to answer some of them:

“Please repost FILL IN THE BLANK!”

I very rarely repost songs. However if you do want a song you have a much better chance of getting it if you email me. Right now I’m still working on recovering my hard drive that has all my vinyl rips on it, so don’t expect a response anytime soon.

“The Beds Are Burning (Percapella Kangaroo Mix)is the same one as the Percapella mix you posted not long ago. Which is the actual title for the remix?”

EEK! Well you can blame this one on Midnight Oil and not me. The two 12” promos I have different names for the same remix. Sorry about the double-post.

“The single to P Control…is worth close to a thousand dollars!”

Can anyone substantiate this? What are the B-sides?

“What is the “new” Secret (OMD remix)?”

I have no idea, that’s what it was listed as on the single.

Thanks for the input, onto the rocking.

Kate Bush
Running Up That Hill (Extended Mix)
Running Up That Hill (Instrumental)
Some people hate Kate Bush’s voice…well some people suck.

Talking Heads
Radio Head (Extended Mix)
Hey Now (Movie Version)
Hey Now (Milwaukee Mix)
I was surprised by the response from that David Byrne post a few days ago. Here’s some more of him, in Talking Heads form (with a much better song in my opinion).

Cyndi Lauper
The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough (Dance Remix)
The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough (Dub Remix)
When I was in grade school some kids called me Chunk based on the kid from this movie. That’s wasn’t cool. Later I got the nickname Sloth because I was monstrously tall – I guess that’s a little better. This song kicks ass and conjures up images of pirates and hot chicks with red hair.

X
True Love Part II (Dance Version)
I remember a few years ago Spin had a list of bands that were hard to search for online. I’m sure that !!! topped the list and right below them was X. The The and The Who were probably on it too. Anyways, this is a remix of True Love Part II that I got off of a promo single.

More random soundtracks. I’ll have more 80s stuff (as well as answers to a few questions people left me in my comments) in a day or so. Just a reminder, if you use Internet Explorer you need to RIGHT CLICK on these files and save them as zips, or just rename the extensions after you download them. This only happens in IE as far as I know (and no one knows why).

Sex, Lies & Videotape
This is a really great out-there soundtrack that has somehow fallen out of print. I have to be honest, I’ve never seen the movie (James Spader CREEPS ME OUT) but I’m really digging this album, the album is mostly really moody ambient pieces, bookend by two very bizarre tracks that have a lot of guitar samples. I also find it moronically funny that the soundtrack to Sex Lies & Videotape was produced by Virgin Music. I’m simple like that.

Top Secret!
This movie is totally retarded but the soundtrack is surprisingly sophisticated. Another one by Maurice Jarre.

The M Squad
This might appeal to a few people out there for a few reasons. First of all, The M Squad was a crime TV show that starred Lee Marvin, and Lee Marvin was a bad motherfucker that could get shit done – so I’m sure the show has its fans. Secondly, the main theme of ‘The M Squad’ was written by Count Basie, which is pretty cool. But the most notable thing about this soundtrack is that a few tracks are credited to ‘Johnny Williams’ which as many of you probably know as John Williams, yes THAT John Williams.

I know I promised more soundtracks and they are coming but I ran into some technical difficulties. I hope to have three more for you guys sometime this weekend. Unfortunately one of them won’t be Jerry Goldsmith’s long unheard score for Inchon, the Korean War movie produced by Rev. Sun Myoung Moon as the record turned out to be horribly warped. Bummer. Anyways until then here are some more lovely tunes from the 80s.

Midnight Oil
Beds Are Burning (Luongo 7” Mix)
Beds Are Burning (Instrumental Ayers Rock Mix)
Beds Are Burning (Percapella Kangaroo Mix)
I swear I will not post any more remixes of this song. Until I find another 12” that has remixes of it.

David Byrne
Make Believe Mambo (12” Remix)
Make Believe Mambo (Acid Remix)
This is a mambo song by David Byrne, I don’t think we need an acid remix for it to trip us out.

U2
Desire (Hollywood Remix)
Hallelujah Here She Comes
I was one of five people in the late 80s that didn’t like U2, but even I dug ‘Desire.’ This is a very 80s remix that inserts random news clips about violence and politics to give the song that ‘intense’ feel. ‘Hallelujah Here She Comes’ is the b-side to Desire that was also on that B-sides collection U2 sold with their Greatest Hits CD for about two-and-a–half days before pulling them off the shelves because they’re tools.

The English Beat
I Confess (Special Dance Mix)
To the 15 people that have emailed me asking for an extended remix of ‘Save It For Later’: I don’t have one, so stop it already! If I ever do I promise I’ll post it right away and not save it for a later post. Wow that was a bad joke.

Pseudo Echo
Funky Town (Dance Mix)
Man, wouldn’t it be totally awesome if Funky Town was an actual place?!? You totally know George Clinton and Bootsy Collins would live there, fuck they’d probably be the mayor and sheriff (respectively). I don’t think anyone was ever clamoring for a cover of ‘Funytown’ by Lipps Inc., but Pseudo Echo (some band from Down Under) actually pulled it off.

More rare soundtracks! I might even have a second post later tonight if you’re lucky (and I’m not lazy.)

Leviathan
The first of many Jerry Goldsmith scores I’ll be putting up this week. Remember when this movie came out? For some reason underwater sci-fi/horror was the shit in 1989, because this movie, the equally dreadful Deep Star Six and The Abyss (light years better than both of those movies) came out all around the same time. This one is a total piece of shit rip-off of Alien, so it only makes sense that they got Jerry Goldsmith to do the score (he did the score for Alien too). I don’t know why he said yes to this one, but a lot of amazingly talented people somehow got sucked into this movie including Peter “Robocop” Weller, Daniel Stern, Richard Crenna and Ernie Hudson. It was directed by George P. Cosmatos, a man who made the occasional good movie, including Tombstone and The Cassandra Crossing. This was NOT one of those. The score is pretty good though.

Runaway
More Jerry Goldsmith! This is a rather unusual score from him. First off it was performed enitrely on Yamaha digital keyboards. Secondly, it doesn’t sound like the typical Jerry Goldsmith score, it’s occasionally very atonal and jarring. I like it a lot not only because it sounds so unique, but because I’m a big fan of the movie it comes from. Runaway, for those of you who have not seen it, it’s a crazy sci-fi cop/action movie set in the future where robots are a part of everyday life. It was written and directed by Michael Crichton and has a great 80s cast that includes Tom Selleck and Kirstie Alley and also stars Kiss’ Gene Simmons as the evil bad guy! It also had all these sweet killer robots that injected people with acid, and an awesome gun that had heat-seeking bullets. All in all, the perfect action movie for an eight-year-old boy with an amazing ability to suspend disbelief.

Enemy Mine
My junior high history teacher loved this movie a lot. On finals day we had all our work done so he just put in his VHS tape of this movie. We didn’t pay that much attention to it but he was fucking riveted. He was a huge Civil War buff so maybe the movie’s message that we are all brothers and shit really hit home for him or something. Anyways, this score is by Maurice Jarre, who’s best known for his work on Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence Of Arabia, but also contributed scores to films like Fatal Attraction and Witness.

I was able to find some stuff by some artists that I already haven’t posted about 5 milllion times already! So if you’re sick of New Order, A-ha and Ministry (although how could you be?!?) here’s some stuff that might surprise you (and some more Love & Rockets because I felt like it.)

Love & Rockets
Mirror People (Live)
David Lanfair
No Big Deal (12” Mix)
1000 Watts Of Your Love (Live KROQ Recording)
No Words No More (Live KCRW Recording)
These are the rest of my Love & Rockets tracks, so don’t go asking for anymore. I’m actually not that big a fan of the group (I’m more of a Bauhaus fan myself) but I dug most of these especially the live version of ‘1,000 Watts Of Your Love’ which is a live recording from a radio show. On the other hand ‘David Lanfair’ is one of the strangest things I have ever heard, and I have no idea what the fuck is going on when I listen to it. If anyone would like to shed some light on it please do.

Prince
Cream (NPG Mix)
Things Have Gotta Change (Tony M. Rap)
2 The Wire
Get Some Solo
Do Your Dance (KC’s Remix)
Housebangers
Q In Doubt (Remix)
Ethereal Mix
I’ve been told that Prince had mountains of B-sides, rarities and various unreleased recordings that he’s just sitting on for no apparent reason (save for the fact that he’s batshit crazy.) Prince fans are pretty hardcore, so it’s hard to find singles and EPs that feature any of his classic tracks, nearly everything I’ve seen has been from his “Artist Formerly Known As…” period and who the fuck needs that? I was very happy to find this Maxi-Single for ‘Cream’, that includes several hard-to-find tracks and some awesome mixes of that super-great sexy song. Now if I could only find the single to ‘P Control…’

Radiohead
Paperbag Writer
Where Bluebirds Fly
I Am A Wicked Child
I Am Citizen Insane
These are B-sides to two ‘Hail To The Thief’ singles and add further evidence to my theory that Thom Yorke wants to be Aphex Twin when he grows up.