Alright, I updated the info/rules on my sidebar, move your pupils to the right and please go over them. The next person to make “a couple” requests will face my wrath.

I am Drago. I will break you.

Sorry for the rage I just spent four days in Toledo with my family. That’s enough to make anyone fucking hostile so excuse my aggression. Let’s Rock.

The Big Thing
Reality Bus
3 Reasons
No Junkies
So I’m at the record store and I see this weird record called In The Elbow Room. On the plastic sleeve protecting it someone wrote “Rave 007.” I’m thinking, “score, James Bond techno” and I give it a listen. To my shock it’s some bad-ass indie punk rock. . I found out later that the “Rave 007” designation that album was given represented that it was the seventh release by the now defunct Rave Records. If the flyer included with the record was any indication, this was one bad-ass record label. I scanned it for your pleasure, here’s the front and back.

Chrome
Anti-Fade
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
Meet You In The Subway
Over the next few days I’ll be posting some tracks from an oddball compilation I got called Subterranean Modern that featured some killer late-70s/early-80s bands from San Francisco. Chrome was a really early industrial band from the bay whose underground status has given them a fairly devoted following in the “noise rock” community. While these tracks are tame compared to some of the industrial music coming out now, nothing sounded like them at the time I bet. The song called ‘I Left My Heart In San Fransisco’ has nothing to do with the Tony Bennett tune.

MX-80 Sound
Lady In Pain
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
Possessed
MX-80 Sound was another great San Fran band from the time who are actually still recording and releasing new music, something you can say about very few bands from that scene. MX-80 Sound can best be described as art-rock, kind of like Talking Heads gone metal I guess. Their shit is really noise-heavy and experimental but a bit more accessible than some of the stuff by Chrome. You can get their first two albums on one CD now and I highly recommend it. Just like the Chrome tune, their version of ‘I Left My Heart…” has nothing to do with the original song.

I got two great, very different, albums for you today. I didn’t bother uploading individual files for these because it’s a safe bet that if you like either of these artists you want all the songs. It feels nice to post something other than a remix of a b-side of an import of something for a change.

Nicks & Buckingham – Buckingham Nicks
This 1973 album by the then-romantically involved Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham has never been released on CD. Supposedly Buckingham isn’t very happy with it and since he owns part of it he’s been able to keep it buried for all these years. I don’t know what his deal is, because this is a great record. It’s also the reason that they were asked to join Fleetwood Mac.

Ian Dury – Lord Upminister
A much less-known album but equally hard-to-find, this was Ian Dury’s first album after he left The Blockheads. From what I’ve read about it the critical and popular reaction to the record was less-than-enthusiastic and even Dury eventually disowned much of it in his later years. While it does have a few slow spots the album as a whole holds up pretty well as it also serves as a good example of that whole punk/reggae cross-pollination that was going on at the time. The opener ‘Spasticus (Autisticus)’ is a hell of a tune and the mellow ‘Funky Disco (Pops)’ is another standout. Originally released in 1981 it was briefly re-released on CD ten years later but has been out of print ever since. The only legit CD copy I’ve seen of this one online was going for 200 bucks and I’ve also seen LPs for sale at nearly half that price. Okay, I like this album but it sure as hell ain’t that good. I bought it for four bucks at The Best Record Store In The Universe.

Check out the new logo action! Being bored and having Photoshop leads to things like that. I made it through April Fool’s Day unscathed which means I only have to get through 29 more days of this accursed month. I traditionally have very bad luck during the month of April. I know it’s just a superstition and I’m sure bad things have happened during other times of the year, but my Aprils really do suck. Throughout my 20-some years of life all of the following have happened to me in April:

• Broken Leg.
• Parents announce their split (actually this was on March 31st, but I told all my friends the next day at school, and no one believed me because it was April Fool’s Day!)
• Near-fatal reaction to Penicillin.
• Severe Fever and flu that almost caused me to fail midterms.
• The most ‘Ever Fallen In Love’ relationship ever…twice.
• Nearly been fired three times due to my own dumb mistakes.
• Mugged and assaulted at gunpoint (on 4/20!)

That’s just what I can think of off the top of my head. Each time I leave my apartment this month I’ll be tempting fate. Everyone direct happy thoughts towards me!

The Alarm
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Live)
68 Guns (Live)
More from that 12” 2-pack I picked up last week. The Dylan cover is a little weak, but the live take of ’68 Guns’ more than makes up for it. For some reason I bet these guys can’t not write an epic anthem.

Echo & The Bunnymen
Paint It Black (Live)
Run, Run, Run (Live)
Friction (Live)
All of these are taken from the 12” for ‘Bedbugs & Ballyhoo’. According to the backcover of said single, they were recorded live at the Karen in Gothenburg and were for the “Bommen” Show on Swedish National Radio. If this is true then Swedish National Radio wins the award for coolest National Radio ever (next to the BBC). We all know ‘Paint It Black’ is a Stones song, but for those of you less into the classics, ‘Run, Run, Run’ was originally a Velvet Underground tune, and ‘Friction’ is a track by Television I believe. All of these tracks are available on that massive Echo & The Bunnymen box set.

Robyn Hitchcock
Spoken Word Intro: One Long Pair Of Eyes (Acoustic)
More Than This (Live)
Another artist on the long list of “people I should listen to more”. This dude is fucking nuts and I love it. The live version of ‘One Long Pair…” is fucking epic because of an crazy-ass spoken word intro that just keeps going. The cover of Roxy Music’s ‘More Than This’ is dreamy fun. Second-best cover of the song next to the one by Bill Murray. I took these off of the 12” for ‘Madonna Of The Wasps’.

I’m so New Wave/post-punk/college-rock tonight that my hair wrote this entire post by itself.

Modern English
I Melt With You (Tokes’ Rock The World Mix)
I Melt With You (Rock The Radio Mix)
I Melt With You (Carl Dub The World)
The promised second-half of my ‘I Melt With You’ remixes. I had another mix of this song but the vinyl was scratched to hell and there was nothing I could do to save it…wow I sounded like George Clooney right then.

Echo & The Bunnymen
Silver (Tidal Wave)
Angels And Devils
Bedbugs & Ballyhoo (Club Mix)
This extended mix of ‘Silver’ was strangely the A-side to the single, while the regular version served as the B-side with the excellent ‘Angels & Devils’. Both of these tracks are available on that uber-huge box set Echo & The Bunnymen released a few years ago. I don’t know if this bouncy mix of ‘Bedbugs & Ballyhoo’ is on it though. More Echo in a few days. Have I mentioned that Echo & The Bunnyment is the best band name of all time? I probably have, but I like typing Echo & The Bunnymen almost as much as saying Echo & The Bunnymen so I thought I’d bring it up one more time.

The Alarm
Spirit Of ’76 (Extended Version)
Where Were You Hiding When The Storm Broke? (Live)
Deeside (Live)
Never been a big fan of The Alarm, but I think I should be. They remind me of Big Country except with even worse outfits and hair. These live tracks and extended cut were off of a 2-LP 12” set. I’ll post the rest of it later.

I’m going to have to change the subtitle of my blog. Because the more 12” remixes I post the less this becomes a place for “forgotten or overlooked recordings”. I’ll think of something incredibly witty and appropriate over the weekend most likely. Or I’ll just eliminate the subtitle all together and be all mysterious and shit.

Modern English
I Melt With You (Bass Meltdown Mix)
I Melt With You (Stop The Radio Mix)
I have so many damn remixes of this song that I’m spreading them out over a couple of days. These are from the 12” single of the 1990 version of the song.

Laibach
Die Liebe
Die Grosste Kraft
German industrial rock for people that think Nitzer Eb is too upbeat. These tracks were taken off of a 12” single that I couldn’t figure out the name of.

Fine Young Cannibals
Ever Fallen In Love (Extended Version)
I’ll take covers that should have never been attempted for $500, Alex. Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh but I’m not the biggest fan of FYC and the original version of this song by The Buzzcocks is one of my all-time favorites, it connects with me in ways that are way to personal and complex for me to explain here. I’m on a quest to collect every cover of this song. As of right now I have versions by Anti-Flag, Pete Yorn, Novelle Vauge, Thea Gilmore, Anorak and this one. Who am I missing?

I’m going to refrain from insulting any of my loyal fanbase tonight. I am in a good mood for some strange reason and I don’t feel like bitching and moaning – yeah, I know, I’m surprised too. Before I forget I’d like to recommend an album that came out this week. It’s Myths Of The Future by Klaxons. These British dudes are at the forefront of a ridiculously titled movement that NME dubbed ‘New Rave’. I don’t know what the fuck that means, but if you like dance and punk then you should check it out. They remind me of LCD Soundsystem but with more actual singing.

Cornershop
Brimful Of Asha (Norman Cook Full Length Remix)
Brimful Of Asha (Mucho Macho Bolan Boogie Mix)
Easy Winners (Part 1)
Easy Winners (Part 2)
I remember when this single first came out. It was pretty big in America but they fucking loved it in England I’m told. I still regularly see When I Was Born For The 7th Time on various “Greatest Of All Time” lists – so maybe one day I’ll get off my ass and actually buy the record. These mixes and b-sides came off a white-label promo. The radio edit of the Norman Cook (AKA Fatboy Slim) remix has been on a few compilations, but I’ve never seen this full-length version anywhere. The mucho macho mix isn’t as good as the Norman Cook one but it gets bonus points for the T-Rex references. The ‘Easy Winners’ tracks are only available on Cornershop singles and holy shit are they trippy.

Devo
Disco Dancer (12” Version)
Disco Dancer (Bonus Beats)
Holy shit great minds think alike. I was already planning on posting these two tracks this week and lo-and-behold, Lost In The 80s has an entire post on the song! He only put up the single version though, these are remixes that were on the 12” single. The 12” version is available on the reissue of Total Devo.

Simple Minds
Dont You (Forget About Me) Long Version
A Brass Band In African Chimes
I expected for extended mix of ‘Dont You…” just to have 8 minutes of the dude going “la la la la” over and over again, but it’s not – it’s actually just 2 more minutes of the “hey hey hey HEY!” When I was a little kid I loved this song but hated The Breakfast Club. Then when I was a teenager I loved that movie but hated this song. Now I’m pretty much sick of both. I’m convinced that The Breakfast Club is my generation’s The Big Chill and unless you are of the age that the movie is about you hate it. Of course if I ever like The Big Chill regardless of my age I’ll pull a Kevin Costner in that movie and off myself (and then get edited out as as a form of pity by the writer/director get put in a shitty western). Anyways…’A Brass Band’ is half a really good song and half incredibly annoying, because it keeps fading in and out (on purpose) so you think it’s over about three or four times before it’s actually over!

I mentioned it before but I’ll say it again to avoid further confusion. A few to the tracks I’ll be posting over the next few days will still be affected by the ‘monofuck’ as it has been come to be known. As for one commenter’s ‘stereofuck’ I do not notice any such effect. Of the tracks I’m posting tonight, I think only a couple of the Husker Du tracks are in the accidental mono. If anyone notices anything sounding funky with the stereo tracks (aside from the usual problems you get from old vinyl records) let me know. I would prefer you email me though if possible. Email addy is on the sidebar. I think everything sounds fine now, but I think we’ve collectively determined I don’t know shit!

Pearl Jam
Come Back (Live)
The B-side to the 45 of ‘Life Wasted’. I hate it when PJ uses live tracks for B-sides, especially since every single concert they perform now is for sale at their website. Since two of their biggest hits were B-sides (‘Yellow Ledbetter’ and ‘Last Kiss’) you’d think they’d release more studio cuts as b-sides.

The Pretenders
Porcelain
Cuban Slide
Precious (Live)
These songs were taken off an EP that was appropriately titled Extended Play. Porcelain eventually showed up on CD last year when they re-released The Pretenders’ self-titled debut as a two-disc deluxe edition. The version of ‘Cuban Slide’ that is on that two-disc set is a little different than this one I think. I don’t know if this amazingly kick-ass live version of ‘Precious’ ever materialized elsewhere.

Husker Du
Everytime
Helter Skelter (Live)
All Work And No Play
I remember a Wayne’s World special on MTV where Wayne and Garth made a list of band names that sounded like diseases. The only two from the list I remember are Husker Du and The Dave Clark Five. That’s a great bad joke. These are some B-sides to singles I picked up a few days ago. Everytime is off of the single to ‘Could You Be The One’ and has never made an appearance on a proper Du CD other than a rushed live album. The other two tracks are from the ‘I Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely’ 12-inch. The latter of the two is over eight minutes long, which I must’ve made it a great song for college-rock DJs to play when they had to use the can or score weed. The punk rock DJ at my school had an NOFX track for that.

Nothing tonight but artists I’ve already posted songs by before. I’m going to have to start expanding my musical horizons or this blog is going to become the “KLF, Depeche Mode and New Order Blog.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but whatever.

The KLF
All Bound For Mu Mu Land
Make Mine A “99”
Stand By The Jams (Featuring Miss Tammy Wynette)
Let Them Eat Ice Cream
I’ve been looking for this single for a very long time and was elated to finally find it at that record show last weekend. The idea of The KLF collaborating with Tammy Wynette always intrigued me and the final product between the two does not disappoint. Essentially a remixed version of ‘Justified & Ancient’ (as are all of these tracks) it shows that there was room for down-home country in Mu Mu Land…whatever the fuck that is.

Was (Not Was)
Tell Me That I’m Dreaming (Traditional Remixed Version)
Tell Me That I’m Dreaming (Souped-Up Version)
Out Come The Freaks (Extended Version)
Man, these guys were weird. This stuff is strangely dated and ahead of its time all at once.

Debbie Harry
Backfired (Extended Version)
This was a single off of Harry’s solo debut Kookoo. I’ve never given Kookoo a listen, most people I know that have say that it peaks with with its great H.R. Giger cover art and goes downhill from there. This track is fun but also comes off as an obvious attempt to recreate the magic from’ Rapture’.

Okay, so some stupid worthless piece of shit is has a bot set up to spam my comment section with rants about how 9/11 was a conspiracy. This person can fuck off and die. If anyone sees a comment like that here please email me right away so I can burn it in the fires of Mount Doom. Anyone who posts comments telling me how right this guy is will also be put on my list of people who will face thy wrath.

That is all. Now enjoy the music.

Wow, so it turns out I’m an idiot. I long suspected as much but I got confirmation today via a comment:

…why mono and not stereo?…

I always thought my recordings were in stereo. Turns out they aren’t. Turns out when I hooked up my new turntable I crossed two wires. Not the RCA ones (I’m not THAT stupid) but the cables going to my external soundcard. In my defense those cables are not marked at all, they are just green, beige and black with no labels on them (thanks Alienware). So yeah, everything I’ve recorded since the beginning of the year has come out mono. Thankfully, only one of you noticed. I’m not going to re-record them because quite frankly, I don’t care that much and I already re-recorded a ton of crap I had once due to The Great Hard Drive Crash of ’07.

Sigh.

At least the same comments section proved that I’m not the only idiot:

I have been hunting for a Devo song for years – it appeared in the movie Tapeheads in the 80’s. It’s the “Swedish” version of Baby doll. I’m not sure if you take requests but this would be a great one to put up.

I’ve warned you all twice now. From now on any requests like the one above will by severely mocked…and then mocked once more.

I recorded these before I discovered the monofuck up (wow, monofuck is an awesome word), so don’t bitch about it.

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Give It Away Now (12” Mix)
Give It Away Now (Rasta Mix)
If You Have To Ask (Disco Krisco Mix)
I can’t do that thing that he does with his tongue. No, not that thing, I can do that just fine (you know what I mean ladies, you know…meh, forget it). I’m talking about that rolling thing he does. That’s so cool. I can’t even pronounce my Rs, let alone roll them – or any other letter for that matter.

Prince
17 Days (The rain will come down, then U will have 2 choose. If u believe look 2 the dawn and I shall never loose.)
It took me longer to type that title than it did to listen to the fucking song. This is the B-side to ‘When Doves Cry’.

Madonna
Vogue (12” Mix)
Vogue (Bette Davis Dub)
Vogue (Strike-A-Pose Dub)
And now as part of my continuing effort to make my blog FABULOUS here are some classic Madonna tracks.