NERVOUS IN SUBURBIA WEEKLY MUSIC PROJECT

2010-05-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

Damn, apparently I fell asleep for half the year. Looks like the last time I posted was in January. OUCH!!!! Sorry guys! I guess that's what happens when you get in a relationship that takes up all your time. I know, I know...... Well I have some new stuff to share, so I hope you all didn't fall asleep too. WAKE UP and smell the sheet metal! It's time to Jam!

MOON8 - The Dark Side Of The Moon

So I'm gonna start off with a link I found on the web a couple months ago....
This past March, Video game programmer Brad Smith, from Ontario, Canada, did an 8-bit version of Pink Floyd's classic album "The Dark Side Of The Moon" (http://rainwarrior.thenoos.net/music/moon8.html) using nothing but the NES sound chip emulating as if Pink Floyd were transported into an old school Nintendo video game. He recreated the entire album in chip-tune format, and named it Moon8. Brad Smith stated, "No expansion chips were used. This album works entirely within the limits of the standard North American NES."

You can listen to the tracks individually or download the entire album here.

2010-01-04T23:27:00.000-08:00

I know, I know.....I kinda fell asleep at the tail end of the year there in 2009. So let's get this year started off with a kiss kiss bang bang for your buck! And what better way to do it than with some good old !!! & The Royal Family

Former lanky vocalist/drummer member of !!!(Chk Chk Chk), John Pugh permanently broke ranks from the band !!! to focus on another act. His dirty dance project, called Free Blood, with Madeline Davy.

Here's the duo's first video, for "The Royal Family" -- Check out this sleazy cool track from FREE BLOOD - "ROYAL FAMILY"

In the beginning there was.....!!!

You can hear some classic John Pugh as singing roadkill in the !!!(Chk Chk Chk) video titled "Yadnus". In a VW bug, two members of the !!! crew take a ride through some funkified countryside, complete with chick-a-dee wheatfield go-go dancers and Pugh's lead vocal's mouthed by some bygone roadkill. Can you pass the mushrooms, please?
!!! - "Yadnus"

And for some even more classic !!! sounds, check out Pugh on drums in this long lost video for the track, "Hello, Is This Thing On?"
!!! - "Hello? Is This Thing On?"

!!! - Hello ? Is This Thing On ?

Download all three tracks at the following links:
FREE BLOOD - "ROYAL FAMILY"
!!! - "YADNUS"
!!! - "HELLO? IS THIS THING ON?"

2009-10-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

CLUB EPIC - A COLLECTION OF CLASSIC DANCE MIXES - VOLUME 5

01. Young Guns (Go For It!)
Artist: Wham! 6:53

02. She Bop
Artist: Cyndi Lauper 6:24

- -

03. I Could Be Happy
Artist: Altered Images 5:37

04. Brand New Lover
Artist: Dead Or Alive 9:04

05. What I Like About You
Artist: The Romantics 2:55

06. Goody Two Shoes
Artist: Adam Ant 3:29

07. State Of Shock
Artist: The Jacksons 5:40

08. 10-9-8
Artist: Face To Face 5:43

09. Voices Carry
Artist: 'Til Tuesday 4:20

10. A Girl In Trouble (Is A Temporary Thing)
Artist: Romeo Void 6:12
11. Turn Me Loose
Artist: Loverboy 5:37

12. Der Kommissar
Artist: After The Fire 5:41

13. 99 Luftballons
Artist: Nena 3:50

LINK for today's CD

------------------------
but before you go......check out Nena's new version of her classic hit "99 Luftballoons"

Man she looks great 20 years later, doesn't she? Wow......if only! A guy can dream and wish can't he?!

2009-09-30T00:08:00.000-07:00

CHECK OUT THESE REGGAE/DANCEHALL ARTISTS

1. Tarrus Riley

Tarrus Riley - "She's Royal"

Tarrus Riley (ft Konshens) - "Good Girl Gone Bad"

www.myspace.com/tarrusriley
http://tarrusriley.com/

2. Demarco

Demarco - "Duppy Know Who Fi Frighten"

Demarco - "Love Come A Down"

www.myspace.com/demarcotheartist
www.demarcotheartist.com

3. Dennis Brown

Dennis Brown - "Man Next Door" (live)

www.myspace.com/dennisbrown

4. Rockers

directed by Ted Bafaloukos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockers_(film)

5. Norris Man

Norris Man - "Signs of the Times"

Norris Man - "Don't Be Shy"

www.myspace.com/norrisman1

the following tracks from each of the artists listed above:

...but wait that's not all

We'll even throw in the "Reggae Skeleton Dance"

...just in time for your Halloween festivities

2009-09-29T00:14:00.000-07:00

REEF - REPLENISH

Reef were an English rock band from Butleigh, near Glastonbury. The band members included Gary Stringer on vocals, Kenwyn House on guitar, Jack Bessant on bass and Dominic Greensmith on drums. Their second album, Glow, is ranked at number 26 in Kerrang!'s "100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die " list.

However, that's another story. We're here to talk about their, now gold, 1995 debut album release, Replenish. In March of 1995 REEF released their debut single ‘Good Feeling’ which peaked at No.24 in the UK charts.

This was followed quickly by ”Naked” which charted at No. 11 in the UK charts and ensured their first appearance on Top Of The Pops.

The album was recorded in the remote Cornish Sawmills recording studio and in a studio in Bath. And on June 19th ‘Replenish’ was released, charting at No. 9. The album was ranked at #10 on Kerrang!'s 1995 list. The band has a very funky, raw blues-rock 'n' roll essence to their sound built around an intense guitar-driven sound and the raspy howl of front man Gary Stringer. They sound like a bastard stepchild produced from The Rolling Stones and Led Zepplin spending the night with Jimi Hendrix in some shady back-alley street of Nawlins one dark and dreary night.

"We wanted our first album, Replenish, to be a really honest statement. Four people playing in a room and getting something that’s totally their own. It was recorded in the most basic way possible. Minimal room sounds. Up until recently, all I used for effects was a wah-pedal and I only used that on two songs." -- Kenwyn House.

A few facts about the band:

Some of the members of Reef are extremely keen surfers, which explains many of the themes of surfing incorporated into their music and indeed the group's title.
Track 5 on Replenish, entitled "Mellow", features the sound of swans in the final moments, taking off from the estuary where the Sawmills recording studio is located. The track was recorded outside, during a rainy night, on a jetty.
Contrary to the popular belief that Reef chose their name as it is an anagram of Free, the name arose because of a misunderstanding.“We didn’t want anything specific like The Dirty Ashtrays. Anyway, Dom says, ‘Right I’m going to ring up the BBC and find out the name of the girl on the testcard, just for a vague angle, to give us some inspiration. So he rings up and finds out her name is Carole Hersee and Jack mishears him and goes, ‘What? Coral? As in reef? And Gary goes, ‘Reef? Yeah?’

Track listing

"Feed Me" – 3:44
"Naked" – 3:12
"Good Feeling" – 3:47
"Repulsive" – 5:12
"Mellow" – 3:05
"Together" – 3:57
"Replenish" – 2:45
"Choose to Live" – 6:36
"Comfort" – 3:14
"Loose" – 2:56
"End" – 4:16

Link

Reef at Henry Box School

ht tp://www.thereefweb.co.uk/

http://www.myspace.com/reefmusicuk

The Reef Forum

2009-09-01T21:21:00.001-07:00

Check out these rap artists:

Busdriver

Busdriver - "Me-Time (With The Pulmonary Palimpsest)"

http://www.myspace.com/busdriver - raps even faster than Suga Free!
http://www.busdriversite.com/

Blackalicious

Blackalicious - "Make You Feel That Way"

http://www.myspace.com/blackalicious

The Knux

The Knux - "Bang! Bang!"

Bang! Bang! - The Knux

http://www.myspace.com/theknux
http://www.theknux.com/

Tom Green can rap, Yo! Word to ya motha!

Tom Green Owns Xzibit in Freestyle Battle

2009-09-01T00:24:00.001-07:00

THE ZIGGENS - CHICKEN OUT!

The Ziggens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ziggens are a band based out of Orange County, California whose self-described style of "cowpunksurfabilly" combines elements of surf rock, punk, ska, and country. The Ziggens are led by Bert Susanka who sings and plays rhythm guitar. Other members include Dickie Little on lead guitar, Jon Poutney on bass, and Brad Conyers who plays the drums and provides background vocals. The Ziggens have been playing since the early 1990s and have developed a strong following in Southern California.

The Ziggens were contemporaries with Sublime and were originally released under their Skunk Records label. Their song Big Salty Tears was covered and popularized byBradley Nowell on the Sublime Acoustic album. The Ziggens, and more specifically Bert Susanka were also mentioned in the Sublime song "Greatest Hits".

”I light my cigarette and I think
How Bert Susanka made me drink.
Load the box, and I pump that shit.
It’s the Ziggens greatest hits….”
--Sublime, “Greatest Hits,”

Also, Bert Susanka is sampled in the Sublime song Smoke Two Joints in the line: "Smoke cigarettes til the day she died", taken from The Ziggens song titled, "Outside." The Ziggens contributed a track to the Sublime tribute album released in June 2005, Look At All The Love We Found with a cover of the song Paddle Out. The Ziggens are currently with Cornerstone R.A.S., which is a spinoff of Skunk Records.

www.ziggens.com
www.myspace.com/theziggens

The Ziggens

Chicken Out!

Release: 1995
Label: Skunk Records

Tracks:

1. Something About a Waitress
[This should also include cosmotologists (No foolin')]
2. Goober Got a Girlfriend
[A Brad Conyers trip down Mayberry Lane.]
3. That Night in Georgia
[I heard the chorus to this song in a dream...then got up and wrote the verses.]
4. Mystery Lunch
[Thanks to an actual cafeteria worker who lent his talents.]
5. It's Great to Be Unemployed
[...They'd find macaroni and cheese if I was disected...Brad's vocals on chorus remind me of Joe Jack talcum. Also, Jon Poutney sings]
6. Huntington Beach
[My friend told me on the phone that he was afraid to walk his family on the pier.]
7. I Hate Girls and Cars and I Cold Beer
[Poking fun at the lyrical content of rock bands. (Our's included!)]
8. I Am Afraid
[I need that big hand to pick me up and dust me off.]
9. Heart Attack
[...or maybe it's just leftover gas from Burpin' U.S.A.]
10. Burpin' U.S.A.
[This is what two colas consumed at warp speed and a grown man pogo-ing in place will produce.]
11. Sober Up
[Apparently, alcohol cures outside wounds but is lousy on inside wounds. Also, this song contains a fake word.]
12. Mrs. Brown
[The oldest song on the record. I made Brad sing lead because he makes a better deviant. ]
13. Pizza by the Slice
[Ya had to be there.]
14. Real Presents
[Real Presence.]
15. Dinah Shore
[I guess this song proves the Zigs will never be funky. Yes, that's producer R.P. who enjoys mechanics magazines.]
16. Tent City
[See 2 Cor. 5:1-11]
17. Tie One On
[Another one of my older songs (see Sober Up).]
18. Instant Christmas
[...And just in time to send to your jailed loved ones.]
19. Hyundai Monday
[The day to day downer drudgery can be overcome with thoughts of heaven residency.]
20. I'm Eatin to Shove My Feelings Down
[...Formerly a size 30 waist line.]
21. Cheese in Wisconsin
[...Thanks for stickin around...]

Get It Here

2009-08-25T23:55:00.000-07:00

New York Rifles - "Rails"

This is the first video from 'Make a Wish'.

Shot and edited by Brent Williamsmore

http://www.myspace.com/newyorkrifles
http://www.newyorkrifles.com

Portland, Oregon’s New York Rifles are: Scott Young (vocals, guitar), Kari Schafer (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Sean Moultrie (drums, backing vocals), Brent Williams (bass).
Their debut album, “Faraway Faster”, was released on Seattle, WA-based independent record label eMpTy Records. Check out this live performance of The New York Rifles' song off “Faraway Faster”, titled, "Wrong Tennis Shoes".

“Make A Wish” is New York Rifles second full-length, and first for the label In Music We Trust. New York Rifles are rock ‘n’ roll, with a punk heart beating ferociously. They play rock ‘n’ roll like it was played on the CBGB’s stage in its prime. Before the "Save CBGBs" campaign. Before it closed down and was torn apart into little souvenirs to be regurgitated by the Frat boy masses. And, well before it became just a club for bands to play on the same stage that their idols had played. “Make A Wish” embodies old classic-era CBGB's records: the spirit, the drive, the power, stamina, loud guitars, and punk-infused, sweaty rock ‘n’ roll.

Tracks
1. Rails (1:41)
2. Make A Wish (3:23) [MP3]
3. Rubber Side Down (2:51)
4. La la la (4:13)
5. Catfish (3:26)
6. Johnny Got His Gun (4:10)
7. I Know A Girl (2:43) [MP3]
8. Dust (3:49)
9. In the Sunrise (3:30)
10. L.A. Gamble (3:36)
11. Thinner (3:13)
12. Alp & Rose (3:19)
13. A Million Pillows (2:37)

And just for you, cartoon kitties and cartoon doggies, I'm throwing in two live versions of the single above, "Rails", originally recorded for The MastanMusic Hour

New York Rifles - "Rails (Live At Kelly's Olympian)"

New York Rifles - "Rails (Live on The MastanMusic Hour Oct. 07)"

2009-08-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

ROOM TO ROAM - "OBLIVIOUS"

www.myspace.com/roomtoroamband

Room to Roam was a heavy alternative indie rock-n-roll band out of Fullerton, CA that was together from 1991 - 1996. They played a lot of shows in Southern California during that time. They were never signed to a record label and with some help from engineer Geoff Harrington they recorded and self-produced their full length album Oblivious at Saturation Studios in Costa Mesa, CA in November of 1994. The album was released the following year.

In 2003 The OC Weekly voted Room To Roam as number 20 in their "The 129 Greatest OC Bands Ever!" issue.

This is what they had to say about the band:

Published on June 26, 2003

Led by the brothers Gallagher, Pat and Paul, and backed up by Joel McDaniel and bassist Bryan Blume, Room to Roam were fiery, versatile and powerful (Paul even peed on some guy from Holland once). Pat Gallagher was way inspired by Paul Westerberg and Ray Davies, while Paul was more of a Hendrix and punk guy and McDaniel drummed like Keith Moon on crystal meth. The result was a very heavy but eminently listenable sound that covered the gamut from brooding metallic psychedelia ("Steel Woman" is one of the scariest fucking songs ever) to "Fall Again," one of the best pop songs most of us have never heard. Room to Roam could make you groove in unison with the latest in-touch cosmic mind one moment and then have you seriously contemplating homicide the next. If you can get your hands on a copy of the band's album Oblivious, hang on to it. Better yet, play it over and over.

Track Listing:

1. Breeding Ground *
2. Steel Woman
3. Spotlight
4. Slow Burning Fire
5. Oblivious
6. Color Of Blood
7. Jane Rides
8. Amber Waves *
9. Nicotine Tan
10. Fall Again *
11. Sleep And Sedatives ~

Paul Gallagher guitar/vocals
Pat Gallagher guitar/vocals/percussion
Bryan Blume bass
Joel McDaniel drums

Recorded Oct. 94 at Saturation Studios by Jeff Harrington
Produced by Room to Roam
Mixed by Eric Garten
except for * by Curtis Mathewson and ~ by Jeff Harrington
Mastered at Studio One by Ian Miller and John Vestman

backing vocals on "Breeding Ground" by Michelle Walker (Relish)
poofinger music copyright 1995 7IFO records
Room To Roam - "Oblivious"

2009-07-20T00:32:00.000-07:00

So I know I've been on hiatus for awhile. I had a computer melt-down, not to mention a very busy work schedule lately. But I figure yer hankerin' for a hunk a good melting shellac of musical sweetness. So "I'm back to show you I can really shake 'em down!"
Without further ado, I bring you...

Savoir Adore - "MERP"

This video was made for only $99. Using their newly discovered magic skills, along with the magic of Pixilation, Savoir Adore dance, sing, and even fly in their upcoming single "MERP." MERP is from Savoir Adore's upcoming album "In the Wooded Forest", to be released by Cantora Records through Red/MRI. Credits:Executive Producers: Jack Ferry & Melissa SchneiderDirector and Editor: Matthew SemelDirector of Photography: Miguel Drake-McLaughlinSpecial Thanks:Jan HammerFrench Horn RebellionCantora Records

Directed by Matthew Semel from the album, In The Wooded Forest. Savoir Adore was created by Deidre Muro(keyboards) and Paul Hammer(drums) who are based in New York City
a fantasy-pop collective painting songs with imagery and imagination while making fans out of the most cynical of critics.

Savoir Adore's first debut full-length "In The Wooded Forest" is out today through all digital retailers.

The Physical CD will be out September 15th nationwide.

In The Wooded Forest

Savoir Adore

canrcd70

Track list:

1. The Scientific Findings of Dr. Rousseau
2. We Talk Like Machines
3. Early Bird
4. MERP
5. Sarah's Secret
6. The Wooded Forest
7. Space Travel
8. Honestly
9. Bodies
10. Transylvanian Candy Patrol
11. Take Hollow Lane
12. Farewell My Love
13. Wonderlake
14. The Garden

While yer at it, check out this studio performance of lovely "Sarah's Secret"
Sarah's Secret

The Wooded Forest

Their Machines EP dropped on May 17th and is a precursor to their full-length. -- it's a 3-song EP, and they're giving it away on their website for free download. Check it out! You can download the "Machines EP" for Free here and get a sample of songs from the record.

http://www.savoiradore.com/
http://www.myspace.com/savoiradore

Savoir Adore – “We Talk Like Machines”
Savoir Adore – “The Scientific Findings of Dr. Rousseau” (from “The Adventures of Mr. Pumpernickel and the Girl with Animals in Her Throat” EP)

2009-07-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

4TH OF JULY - INDEPENDENCE DAY

A Peanuts Independence Day

Peanuts Motion Comics: Independence Day (Ep. 104)

Aimee Mann - "4th of july" live (jools holland)

Stars & Stripes FOREVER! (Muppets Variation)

x - "4th of July"

John Doe and His Rockin' Band - "Fourth of July"

Performing at Dante's, Portland, OR - June 15, 2007

Floater - Independence Day

Floater performing acoustic version of Independence Day at Musicfest NW 2002

And for your listening pleasure I've included a download link to the recorded version of the above song by Floater called "Independence Day" off of their album titled Burning Sosobra.
You can listen to the track before downloading, by clicking "play" on the media player located below the "Download this File" link on the following page: http://www.zshare.net/audio/62228413ab5076ee/.
Enjoy! And careful out there today.

2009-06-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

The Sound Gallery

Alan Hawkshaw - "Girl In A Sports Car"

Product Details

Audio CD (March 26, 1996)
Original Release Date: March 26, 1996
Number of Discs: 1
Label: Scamp

Tracks:

1. Oh, Calcutta! - Dave Pell
2. Black Rite - Mandingo
3. Punch Bowl - Alan Parker
4. Night Rider - Alan Hawkshaw
5. Riveiera Affair - Neil Richardson
6. Jet Stream - John Gregory
7. Half Forgotten Daydreams
8. Jaguar - John Gregory
9. Life of Leisure - Keith Mansfield
10. Girl in a Sportscar - Alan Hawkshaw
11. Young Scene - Keith Mansfield
12. It's All About the Co-Op Now - Alan Hawkshaw
13. Funky Fever
14. Shout About Pepsi - Denny Wright & the Hustlers
15. Headhunter - Mandingo
16. Blarney's Stones - Alan Hawkshaw
17. Earthmen - Paddy Kingsland
18. I Feel the Earth Move - John Keating, Johnny Keating
19. Penthouse Suite - Syd Dale
20. Snake Pit - Mandingo
21. Boogie Juice - Brian Bennett
22. Detectives - Alan Tew
23. Jesus Christ Superstar - Johnny Keating
24. Music to Drive By - Joe Loss Concertium

Download

The first volume of The Sound Gallery represents the headwaters of the British easy-listening scene. Each song on this one is a prize waiting to be discovered. You will not be disappointed.

...a breathtaking musical exhibition of the finest quality recordings that will alternately excite and thrill, soothe and relax today's discerning music lover.

"The Sound Gallery is a visionary compilation of music's lost genre. Here are tunes, overtures and background music from a time when the whole world was trying to be hip..." -- Daily Telegraph

"Infant synthesizers are taken to the outer limits and brass, wah-wah and bongos create a brooding sense of sex and espionage...****" --Q Magazine

"Extraordinary" -- NME

This album is the first in a planned series that will explore the world of some of the most exciting mood music ever recorded. Mostly originating from EMI's flagship 'Studio Two' label, augmented by offerings from the United Artists label and the KPM Recorded Music Library, 'The Sound Gallery' features tracks from albums recorded over an eight year period from 1968 to 1976. These tracks were recorded using the best available studios (more often than not EMI's Abbey Road Studio Two -- home to nearly all of the unforgettable Cilla Black recordings) with the best session men -- and using the most advanced recording techniques of the day. Tired myopic tastemakers of yesteryear had long dismissed these records but time has now gone full circle and I am very happy to see that these legendarily fabulous recordings are once more available for all to enjoy. -- Jerry Cornelius London February 1995

THE SOUND GALLERY - The Critics' Choice
'If I'd had tuppence for every frenzy induced by these tracks I'd have over a Guinea by now' -- Matthew Glamorre -- Smashing

'The Young Scene -- 'This leering meisterwerk conjures up visions of both Sid James drooling through a bathing beauties contest and the beer-and-fags genius of Stan Bowles, Frank Worthington et al. "Of its time" shall we say' -- Bob Stanley -- St Etienne

'The only way to be fashionable is to be totally out of fashion' -- Gene Simmons -- Kiss

Night Rider -- 'Grooving over rooftops, swinging like a pendulum and all because the lady loves a big organ solo' -- Ben Addison --Corduroy

'A pipe smoking, nylong wearing, police grooving sensation' -- Scott Addison -- Corduroy

'An out of this world slice of intergalactic cheese' -- Frazer Moss -- Professor Head

'If this album were a car it would be an Aston Martin' -- Johnny Dean -- Menswear

'It's here because you're there' -- Barry McCann -- Studio Two Marketing Director

'A music for pleasure classic incorporating enough flutes, horns and wah wah to make your ears stand to attention' -- The Karminsky Experience Inc.

'No point for needless intellectualism' -- Carl Puttnam -- Cud

'I can think of no other album that has brought me such continuous pleasure than this outrageously funny and versatile one' -- Jason King

The Sound Gallery team comprises of the following three devoted experts:

Martin Green
One of Britain's most in-demand DJ's, Martin Green is one of the founding fathers of the world-famous 'Smashing' club. Martin has been DJing since the age of 15 when he played his father's Studio Two collection at his cousin's Barmitzvah. Well-studied with City and Guilds in Tailoring, Plumbing and Home Economics, Martin is considered by some to be an 'all-rounder' but prefers to be thought of as 'deep'. Martin is 27 and his favourite colour is green.

Patrick Whitaker
Known affectionately as 'The Quadfather' for his indulgence in four channelled recordings, Patrick Whitaker first entered the world of Studio Two via EMI's issue of SQ encoded discs and eight track cartridges. Patrick proudly owns every quadraphonic disc issued by a UK record company and is currently searching for the elusive New Zealand eight track quad issue of 'Mandingo II'. Paddy, 29, is one half of top fashion design duo 'Whitaker Malem' and his favourite colour is fawn.

Tristram Penna
An EMI staffer of eight years, Tris' first Studio Two album was 'The Sound Of Magic' by Franck Pourcel, bought for him as a tenth birthday present. He runs the A&R area for EMI's SMD division and would like to hear Strings featured on every record release EMI makes. His heroes are Serge Gainsbourg, Patrick Troughton and Dirk Bogarde. He also digs Pasolini, Kenneth Williams and Swingers. Tris is 33 and would like it to be known that he has no favourite colour.

2009-06-07T15:35:00.000-07:00

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE DIGITAL SHORT: MOTHERLOVER (UNCENSORED)

"The second best idea that [they] ever had" after "Dick In A Box", of course! This version of Motherlover contains explicit lyrics not aired during the SNL broadcast. Starring Andy Samberg & Justin Timberlake, along with Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson, give a whole new take on what it means to celebrate one's mother. Breathing a funky new life to the phrase MILF! And just for you, cartoon kitties and cartoon doggies.......I've included the MP3 for your personal listening pleasure. Adore it like you whore it, baby!

SLATER!!!!
}:>

2009-06-06T21:14:00.001-07:00

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK! ROCKS

Schoolhouse Rock still alive and kicking! In the mid-70s, ABC TV aired these short cartoons, which taught a generation about government, history, grammar, science, and math.

Then came the obligatory tribute album, Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks based on the Emmy Award-winning animated TV series. It was released by Atlantic Records in 1996 and contains 15 tracks, including the original "Schoolhouse Rocky" theme and covers of 14 songs from the series, performed by popular alternative music artists of the 90's.

I remember there was an official video for Blind Melon's version of "Three Is A Magic Number". I don't remember if this was the official video or not.......but either way......here's two videos for from this compilation for your listening and viewing pleasure.

Blind Melon - "Three Is A magic Number"

Pavement - "No More Kings"

UPDATE: The following video was just added to this blog

MARY LOU LORD W/ SEMISONIC - "SUGAR SUGAR

Released April 9th, 1996
Genre Alternative & Rock
Label Atlantic Records

1. Schoolhouse Rocky [Original Theme Music] - Bob Dorough and Friends
2. I'm Just a Bill - Deluxx Folk Implosion
3. Three Is A Magic Number - Blind Melon

4. Conjunction Junction - Better Than Ezra

5. Electricity, Electricity - Goodness
6. No More Kings - Pavement
7. Shot Heard 'Round the World - Ween
8. My Hero, Zero - The Lemonheads
9. Energy Blues - Biz Markie
10. Little Twelvetoes - Chavez
11. Verb: That's What's Happening - Moby
12. Interplanet Janet - Man or Astro-man?
13. Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here - Buffalo Tom
14. Unpack Your Adjectives - Daniel Johnston
15. Tale of Mr. Morton - Skee-Lo

Download

2009-06-02T20:19:00.000-07:00

ASTROSMASH - "16 COLORS"

UPDATE: Apparently the mp3 previously available for download was flawed. I've since updated the link with a "working mp3". Sorry for that. Also this time around, the link takes you to the download page where there is a window you can actually listen to the track before choosing to download it. Adore, my friend!

When someone asks me what I remember about the 80s, I have to say, why the birth of console gaming of course!

Astrosmash was a video game for the Intellivision videogame console written by John Sohl and published by Mattel in 1981.

Intellivision Astrosmash

Actual gameplay footage from the Mattel Intellivision game Astrosmash.

Recorded off of real hardware.

But not only that, Astrosmash is the title of a retro electronica band.

BEAMING ACROSS THE UNIVERSE...
...IS A SUPERSONIC TRANSMISSION...
...TRANSPORTING YOU FROM REALITY...
...INTO THE 5TH DIMENSION...
...WHERE ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE...
...AND DREAMS CAN COME TRUE...

ASTROSMASH: YOUR MUSICAL JOURNEY INTO THE FUTURE.

The foundation of Astrosmash originated in 2001 after the breakup of the Los Angeles area based heavy metal band Tenitus. Dan and Mike wanted to create not just a band, but a colorful, cosmic, supernatural musical experience. They had the concept, all they needed was a name. Many names were considered, but none seemed to capture the idea of the band. Then, while brainstorming about 80's memorabilia, it came in a flash: Intellivision....ASTROSMASH! Dan and Mike loved the classic video game system, so it was perfect to become the world's only Intellivision tribute band. The band has since become a duo with Nino Rebelle on vocals and Dan creating the music. Combining musical elements of psychedelica, space rock, progressive rock, dance music, and british pop with Intellivision and other weird sci-fi sounds, Astrosmash is your supersonic rocket out of the insipid, repetitive music of today and into the beautiful and intense music of tomorrow.

Today I've included a track off of Astrosmash's first EP, The Future, titled "16 Colors"

The Future
Triple Action Records

1. The Future
2. 16 Colors
3. Sunset
4. Bomb Squad

www.myspace.com/astrosmash

This song was a tip of the hat to The Blue Sky Rangers.
The Blue Sky Rangers were the group of Intellivision game programmers who once worked for Mattel back in the early 1980s. The original five members of that Intellivision team were manager Gabriel Baum, Don Daglow, Rick Levine, Mike Minkoff and John Sohl.

There's currently a big retro gaming scene going on right now, along with 8-Bit dedicated music.
Wanna see what all the fuss was about? Download the Astrosmash song above. Watch a game of Astrosmash on the Youtube video above. Or go to GetBack.com and play it for yourself.

http://www.getback.com/game/astrosmash-/2272180

GetBack is essentially a website that gives users access to decades gone - and they have some awesome Intellivision stuff. They're free little Java applets and all ten of the original games are there for your use and abuse.

Or if you wanna own and play the game Astrosmash yourself, then read the following all about the game Astrosmash, thanks to Intellivision!

Astrosmash

INTELLIVISION CARTRIDGE [#3605]
Working titles: Rocks, Meteor! + Avalanche
Design & Program: John Sohl
Instructions posted here | Overlay posted here
Play this game on Intellivision Lives! for Windows & Mac!
Play this game on Intellivision Classics for PlayStation!
Play this game NOW! Download it FREE here!

CATALOG DESCRIPTION
Spin. Blast. And drop into hyperspace to avoid a killer asteroid shower. Power on. Attack computer engaged. Fire a quick burst at the alien antagonists. Got 'em!

Now take a deep breath and relax. But only for a fraction of a second, because more trouble is on the way.

You're all alone in a hostile universe of tumbling asteroids and homicidal aliens. You've got the wits and the speed, but you're awesomely outnumbered.

With a little practice, you may survive...

Battle aliens and tumbling asteroids
Unlimited scoring potential
Hyperspace feature

PRODUCTION HISTORY
Astrosmash started out as a clone of the arcade game Asteroids, called Meteor!. The game wasn't very big, so John Sohl used the extra room in the cartridge to come up with a variation called Avalanche using the same graphics and sound effects. At the last minute, afraid of a lawsuit from Atari, the Mattel lawyers killed the Asteroids-like Meteor!. Rather than risk introducing bugs by deleting code, John simply put a branch around the opening-screen menu straight into the Avalanche! variation, which was released under the name Astrosmash.

John admits he wasn't sorry to see Meteor! go -- he hadn't been happy with the game, much preferring the Avalanche! version.

Astrosmash quickly became one of the most popular Intellivision games thanks in large part to a very simple technique John programmed in: like most arcade-style games, Astrosmash gets faster and harder at higher levels, but unlike most arcade-style games, as you start to lose lives, the game gets easier again. The game then is never too easy or too hard, making it extremely addictive and making it possible for even a beginner to play a single game for over an hour.

The popularity of Astrosmash was such that late in 1982 it replaced Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack as the cartridge shipped with the Intellivision Master Component. By June 1983, the last date for which figures are available, 984,900 copies of Astrosmash had been shipped, making it the most widely distributed cartridge by any of the Blue Sky Rangers (trailing only the APh produced Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack and Major League Baseball cartridges). John Sohl was rewarded with a plaque from Mattel and a better offer from Activision, which he took (after finishing B-17 Bomber).

An Aquarius version was also released, as was an M Network version called Astroblast for the Atari 2600. A musical adaptation, Melody Blaster, was released for the ECS Music Synthesizer. An obscene version, called...well, we can't tell you what it was called, was developed for in-house use only. The story of this version can be found in a TRON Solar Sailer FUN FACT.

BUG: There's no check for the score overflowing -- beyond 9,999,999 points, the scoring routine starts displaying negative numbers, letters, and other ASCII characters. (Ironically, the catalog description promises "Unlimited scoring potential.")

BUG: John simply branched around the code for the Asteroids version of the game; the code is still in the cartridge. Verrrry rarely, when there's a glitch hitting RESET, the Asteroids version will show up on screen. (This would be a dandy Easter egg if it were intentional or reliably repeatable, but it's neither.)

PLAYING TIPS: From Intellivision Game Club News, Issue 1, Fall 1981:

Here is some extra ammunition from John P. Sohl, creator of Astrosmash. [Note: this issue was the only time that Intellivision programmers were publicly referred to by name until the inclusion of credits on cartridges late in 1983. The same issue mentions Mike Minkoff as the creator of Bowling.] Sohl says you'll be unbeatable if you follow three basic rules: don't get hit, shoot anything that moves and never take risks unless you have to.

Sound easy? It is if you practice Sohl's special techniques for hitting your targets.

To hit rocks, fire two shots rapidly. The first will split the rock, the second will explode both smaller fragments. If you are threatened by a rock and a spinner, go for the spinner.
Shoot the fastest falling spinners first. Aim carefully; the extra moment you take aiming usually pays off with a hit on the first shot. Go for spinners at any cost -- if one reaches the ground, you've lost.
Guided missiles are easy to shoot, hard to evade so shoot them high on the screen before they give you trouble. If you miss they'll follow you around. The only way to get rid of them is to lure them off the edge of the screen and use the hyperspace to get away.
The UFO will appear when the score is over 20,000. It shoots torpedoes at your laser base wherever the base is when the shot is fired. So keep moving and you will avoid 90% of all UFO torpedoes.

Precision aiming is important. To get the highest scores, Sohl says to leave the anti-fire on and steer with the directional wheel using the firing button to get off extra shots as you need them. Keep on shooting!

FUN FACT: The unused Asteroids-version code was recycled in the game Space Hawk.

FUN FACT: Late in 1981, Mattel held a series of local "Intellivision VideoChallenge Tournaments" in Washington DC, Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles benefiting Variety Clubs International. Contestants competed for prizes (Grand Prize: an RCA projection TV) playing Major League Baseball, Auto Racing, and U.S. Ski Team Skiing. The publicity was so good, that Marketing took the idea national in 1982 with the "$100,000 Astrosmash Shootoff."

From March until August 11, Intellivision owners were invited to send photographs of their TV screens showing their high score in Astrosmash. Just for entering, they would receive an Astrosmash Shootoff patch, and it was announced that 16 regional high-scorers would be flown to Houston to compete for eight cash prizes.

Over 13,000 people entered, and quickly it became obvious there was a problem. First, because of the scoring bug, many of the pictures showed scores made up of seemingly random ASCII characters. John Sohl had to review the photos and, with an ASCII table, decipher the actual scores. Second, it turned out that no one in Marketing realized that Astrosmash, like many Intellivision games, can be played at slower speeds simply by starting the game by pressing 1, 2, or 3 instead of the disc. (This is a feature programmed into the EXEC.) There was no way of telling who had legitimately obtained a high score and who had played at the easiest speed. There were reports of competitors who literally played for days at the slowest speed, pausing the game (pressing 1 and 9 simultaneously, also programmed into the EXEC) to sleep or go to school.

Unable to decide who was legit and who wasn't, instead of the announced 16, Mattel Electronics wound up flying 73 entrants to Houston for an all-expense paid weekend, September 11 & 12, 1982. There, the entrants competed in 1 hour of timed play. 18-year-old Manuel Rodriguez of Stockton, California won the $25,000 top prize with a score of 835,180.

2009-05-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

Latinos and Morrissey? Connect the dots

I've always been perplexed by the draw and fascination of the rockabilly scene and latinos to Morrissey. I mean his music can't really be deemed rockabilly in any sense of the style, and what exactly is his appeal to the common law latino? I mean he's a morose, depressing, paley white british man with efiminate qualities. That in itself seemed so very far from the Latino in context, for me.

Well it looks like my question has finally been answered. I ran across the following old article from a few years back on the world wide web, discussing Morrissey's growing latino fanbase. This was printed back in 2005 in Orange County Weekly. So with out further ado, read for yourself this fascinating explanation that solves the decades long question.

Their Charming Man: Dispatches from the Latino Morrissey love-in
by Gustavo Arellano

YUMA

The crowd chants, “Me-xi-co! Me-xi-co!” in an attempt to get the singer to acknowledge that the majority of the audience is Latino. He does. “I’m going to sing a couple of more songs,” he tells them, “then all of you can go back to Mexicali.”

And the Yuma Convention Center explodes.

Only one white man in the world—and he’s not the pope—can tell a group of Mexicans in the United States to return to Mexico and not only avert death, but be loved for saying so.

His name: Steven Patrick Morrissey, former lead singer of the Smiths, current saint among countless young Latinos.

The same convention-center audience demographic greets him wherever he performs: Los Angeles, Colorado Springs or this desolate desert town. So he always makes sure to yell out “Mexico” or perform some grand ethnic genuflection to his adoring fans, letting them know that he knows. They always respond in ecstasy; grateful.

By the time you read this, there will have been numerous television reports, radio interviews and newspaper stories revealing that many Morrissey fans are Latinos. They will tell you that history—musical, cultural, transnational—will take place this Friday at the Arrowhead Pond when Morrissey shares the stage with Mexican rock en español titans Jaguares in the biggest crossover attempt since Drake burned the Spanish Armada.

And they will tell you that you should be surprised. You shouldn’t. There’s something logical in this Latino Morrissey-worship. Morrissey knows it, his fans know it, and even academics know it. What exactly “it” is isn’t exactly clear except that it’s there, as plain as the Morrissey tattoo on the left shoulder of the muchacha crying on the floor of the Yuma Convention Center.

NEW WAVE’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT

I received the call at about 2 in the morning: a weak, almost slurring cry for help. “Hey, Gustavo. It’s Ben. Man, I need my Morrissey CDs back. [Long pause] I really miss them. [Longer pause, voice now quivering the slightest bit] I need them.”

Ben follows up the next day with an e-mail: “Please get me those CDs as soon as you can. I am being deprived.”

Ben is Benjamín Escobedo, a 25-year-old Santa Ana Democratic Party stalwart. Across the back window of his car is the salute to Morrissey and his domination of the city in which the singer now makes his home, “Moz Angeles.” He let me borrow his Morrissey/Smiths collection (every CD, even the bootlegs, imports and special editions) for only two days before sending those messages.

Ben’s devotion to Morrissey is a lesser example of what Latino Morrissey fans feel for their god. They wear pins, patches or tattoos with their charming man’s face. They dress like him (rockabilly chic to British mod), carry around his favorite flowers (gladiolas), and cite his songs as answers to every problem they might have. One particular favorite is ending e-mail messages with the line “It takes strength to be gentle and kind” from “I Know It’s Over,” New Wave’s Sermon on the Mount.

Some fans, like Cal State Fullerton graduate student Patricia Godínez-Benjumea, go as far as visiting his house in the Hollywood Hills and dropping off stories they write about him. “His music is the soundtrack of my life,” Godínez-Benjumea says.

“He reaches my innermost thoughts and fears and aspirations and longing. For a long time, I felt isolated and alone. Only Morrissey comforted me.”

Godínez-Benjumea wrote an article discussing how Morrissey saved her life for a school publication. “My friend Maggie told me where he lived and said I should go give it to him,” she said. “Before, I never had the guts to do it. Even when we went to his house, Maggie put my story in his mailbox. I didn’t even tell my husband that I did that.”

Ben has yet to visit Morrissey’s home, but he knows the address. His love affair with the Manchester native began when his brother and friends introduced him to Viva Hate. “When I first heard the album, it blew my mind,” Ben says. “Every time I hear him now, he impresses me more and more.”

Morrissey plays such a big role in Ben’s life that he has a death pact with his friend: whoever dies first will make sure that “Well I Wonder” (”Please keep me in mind/Please keep me in mind”) is played at the funeral.

“Moz speaks to me,” Ben says. “For almost any problem in life, I can think of a Morrissey song. For example, ‘Hand in Glove’ has that line”—and, here, Ben sings—”‘And if the people stare/Then the people stare/Oh, I really don’t know, and I really don’t care.’ That taught me to not care about what others may think of who I love.

“From the very beginning, I knew that Latinos liked Morrissey,” Ben remarks. “In fact, I cannot name one white person who likes Morrissey.”

‘A HEAVENLY WAY TO DIE’

What is it about Morrissey that attracts Latinos? It may be that it echoes the music of Mexico, the ranchera. His trembling falsetto brings to mind the rich, sad voice of Pedro Infante, while his effeminate stage presence makes him a U.K. version of Juan Gabriel. As in ranchera, Morrissey’s lyrics rely on ambiguity, powerful imagery and metaphors. Thematically, the idealization of a simpler life and a rejection of all things bourgeois come from a populist impulse common to ranchera.

The most striking similarity, though, is Morrissey’s signature beckoning and embrace of the uncertainty of life and love, something that at first glance might seem the opposite of macho Mexican music. But check it out: for all the machismo and virulent existentialism that Mexican music espouses, there is another side—a morbid fascination with getting your heart and dreams broken by others, usually in death.

In fact, Morrissey’s most famous confession of unrequited love, “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out,” (”And if a double-decker bus/Crashes into us/To die by your side/Would be a heavenly way to die”) emulates almost sentiment for sentiment Cuco Sanchez’s torch song “Cama de Piedra” (”The day that they kill me/May it be with five bullets/And be close to you”).
“I see Moz as something like Los Tigres del Norte,” Ben says, referring to the conjunto norteño legends who’ve graphed and broadcast Mexican sentiment for the past quarter of a century. “They can take you through the day—make you laugh, smile and cry. And that’s what Morrissey does.”

Comparing Morrissey with Mexican music is an interesting game, but it’s beside the point. Most of Morrissey’s Latino fans, while growing up with ranchera, don’t automatically relate Morrissey to anything Mexican. More immediate to them is the music of their Mexican-Americanized youth: 1980s New Wave, oldies-but-goodies, and the rockabilly rhythms that have been a part of Mexican culture in one form or another since the heyday of the zoot suit. It’s natural, then, for Latinos to find Morrissey appealing: he incorporates all of these styles into his music, in the process singing their life.

“A lot of Latinos in Southern California grew up to oldies and rancheras,” Ben says. “But everyone also listened to KROQ, especially the flashback lunches. A lot of those artists on KROQ were English, and the one that really stuck to people was Morrissey. His music had the style of a lot of the music we were already accustomed to.”

‘I WISH I WAS BORN MEXICAN’

Morrissey once told a Las Vegas audience composed of (what else?) mostly Latinos that “‘Mexico’ is the only Spanish word I know. But it’s the best word.”

That concert was part of 1999’s “¡Oye Esteban!” tour. An advertisement for his concerts that year excitedly screamed, “¡El cantante! ¡El concierto! (The singer! The concert!).” On that tour, Morrissey performed wearing T-shirts and belt buckles emblazoned with “Mexico” and at times even the Virgen de Guadalupe, the spiritual embodiment of Catholic Mexico.

Morrissey’s most famous acknowledgement of his Latino fans, though, came here in Orange County during that same tour. “I wish I was born Mexican,” Morrissey told an overwhelmingly Latino audience at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center. “But it’s too late for that now.” This is the Dylan-at-Newport moment of the Latino Morrissey crowd, the defining moment of the scene, something that everyone attended even if they were somewhere else.

The argument can even be made that Morrissey’s acknowledgement of his Latino lovers goes back as early as 1992’s Your Arsenal; on “Glamorous Glue,” he wondered, “We look to Los Angeles/For the language we use/London is dead/London is dead/Now I’m too much in love.” Elizabethan English and its people have perished, he tells us; long live the Spanglish race of Nuestra Lady de los Ángeles.

Regardless of when Morrissey discovered his Latino worshipers, it’s indisputable that he now tailors his career for them. He lives in Los Angeles, the second-largest city in Latin America, and attends rock en español shows in Huntington Park to see Hispanic troubadour Mikel Erenxtun sing excellent Spanish versions of “Everyday Is Like Sunday” and “There Is a Light that Never Goes Out.”

His current tour eschews the East Coast and Midwest in favor of Latino or nearly Latino enclaves in Arizona, California and Las Vegas. Morrissey’s participation in Jaguares’ Revolución Tour is another show of solidarity with the people who’ve made him a king.

“It’s no secret that he moved to Southern California where there’s a huge Latino base,” says Javier Castellanos, who’s trying to get Morrissey to come to his Anaheim club, JC Fandango, and displays a smiling picture of the eternally dour Morrissey to prove it. “I told him, ‘You know there’re a lot of Latinos who love you.’ And he just nodded his head.”

Anyone attending Friday’s show will most likely hear “Mexico,” a new song he debuted on this tour.

A slow ballad similar to the baroque horror of “Meat Is Murder,” “Mexico” reads like a Chicano manifesto:
In Mexico
I went for a walk to inhale the tranquil cool lover’s air.
I could taste a trace
Of American chemical waste.
And the small voice said, “What can I do?”
I lay on the grass
And I cried my heart out for want of my love.

Other stanzas are just as radical, with the most memorable passage observing that Mexicans in the United States face a situation in which “It seems if you’re rich and you’re white/You’ll be all right./I just don’t see why this should be so.”

After years of searching for contentment, Morrissey found it in the Mexican republic of Moz Angeles.

“Morrissey found us, and we bumped into him, and we fell in love with him,” Ben says. “And he loved us back.”

TURNING MANLINESS ON ITS CABESA

Despite such a devoted fan base, media treatment of the Latino Morrissey phenomenon is universally condescending, if not outright racist. Typical is the following passage from Big Brother magazine on one reporter’s attempt to try to crack the Latino Morrissey obsession at a Morrissey/Smiths convention:

As much as I enjoyed hanging out with Edwin and his friends, I have to admit I had an ulterior motive. I wanted to exhibit their acceptance of me, as a gringo who’s down with the southerners, to gain admittance into some of the other, more thuggier Mexican cliques that were scattered throughout the convention. I was fascinated with the monsters that filled their ranks, and I wanted to photograph them without arousing anyone’s suspicion that I was just another white man exploiting the beaners for his own gain . . . which, in a way, I was kind of doing.

Other articles on the Morrissey Latino phenomenon have called Latino Morrissey fans “an audience of East LA homeboys” (Spin) or “tattooed Hispanic LA gangs” (Select). They describe those fans as possessing “perfect Mayan features” and wearing “the standard barrio uniform of shaved head, baggy jeans and short-sleeved plaid shirt” (LA Weekly). They describe Morrissey’s divine powers to save Latinos from gangs (the British TV show Passengers). Or they’ll sum it up easily by saying that Morrissey’s Latino fans are “warm brown” (Los Angeles Times Magazine).

“It’s hard to tell if the [press is] more upset with Morrissey for not knowing when he was finished,” writes academic Colin Snowsell, “or with the audience for not respecting—or being unfashionably oblivious, too—the tacit understanding that Morrissey was taboo.”

Snowsell, a doctoral candidate at Montreal, Quebec’s McGill University, has made a study not merely of the connection between Morrissey and his fans, but also of the media’s perspective of both. He has presented his observations in major academic symposiums and in his master’s thesis, soon to be a dissertation, “‘My Only Mistake Is I’m Hoping’: Monty, Morrissey, and the Importance of Being Mediatized.”

Ben:”He loved us back.”

A lifelong Morrissey fan, the Canadian discovered the Latino Morrissey phenomenon through occasional articles in the press and his interest in Latin America popular culture. “I was interested first in the fan base itself, but after reading a lot of articles on the subject, I became fascinated with how it was reported,” Snowsell says. “The media seemed to delight in pointing out this phenomenon so they could mock him and Latinos. They’re reporting it as a circus side story: the faded star appealing to non-mainstream audiences. But I say it makes perfectly good sense. I think Latinos have better taste than everyone else.”

Snowsell theorizes that Morrissey’s appeal to Latinos lies in the fact that he represents for them the same hope that he offers to all: an opportunity to transcend your lot in life. “Morrissey was, in short, providing to lower- and middle-class Mexican-Americans the same dual utopian message that he had once provided a decade earlier to predominately Anglo fans in the United Kingdom,” he writes. And what did he offer Anglos? “Escape from the injustices of a social order that confines them to the margin, but escape also from the limited identity options entrenched in peripheral, working- and middle-class culture.”

“There’s something to the fact that the audiences that have liked him weren’t rich,” he says. “His original British fans were poor and lower class. With Latinos, they’re certainly considered peripheral in their country. When they see someone who had a comparable experience, those themes of alienation and disenfranchisement come through. And Latinos pick up on those things and are drawn to him.”

More intriguing for Snowsell, though, is Morrissey’s subversion of gender and sexual roles and what that means for Latinos in a culture where everything begins and ends with machismo.

“Morrissey’s macho, but in a different way,” Snowsell says. “When you think of the archetypal North American male sex symbol, you think of rockabilly icons like Elvis Presley and James Dean. But he’s taken this most masculine of identities and remade it as a fey, wimpy, cardigan-wearing, gladiola-loving singer. When you present that to Latinos, whose culture offers very rigid gender models, it appeals to them because he uses this to show through actions that there are other identity options available. There’s no right or wrong way, and people can choose for themselves. They can be tough and sensitive at the same time.”

DESCENT INTO MORRISSEY

My cousins and many of my Latino friends are Morrissey freaks, but they never introduced me to him. It’s as if people must discover Morrissey on their own terms.

I saw the light recently. With Ben as my Virgil, I descended into Morrissey as we drove through the Imperial Valley to his Yuma show. The plan was to listen to every Smiths album during the four-hour journey out and to Morrissey’s solo work on the way back.

Ben was of no help; all he did throughout the journey was sing every lyric, mimic Johnny Marr’s chiming guitars, and blurt from track to track “This song, only real Morrissey fans understand” or “This song is for Morrissey poseurs.”

It didn’t matter. I’m immediately enthralled by everything that is Morrissey—the gentle yet intensely morose instrumentation; the velvety voice that spoke to me, only me and no one else; his (and my) sad tales of getting picked on in school, despising your environment; the nagging aspiration to be something much more—and in another place.

At the concert, it’s more of the same; the man wins me over, his words come to life and his acknowledgement of my culture is so beautiful. How could I not love Morrissey?

Morrissey sings to the disaffected, and God knows alienation is part of the assimilation tradition—the equal and opposite reaction of the immigrants drive to blend in. We ache; Morrissey soothes.

MALDONADO

Morrissey fans pack LA’s Knitting Factory and mouth every word that José Maldonado sings. He’s the leader of the Sweet and Tender Hooligans, a Morrissey/Smiths cover band with its own cult following in Southern California. Perhaps it’s because Maldonado sounds just like Moz, looks like him down to the pompadour and whipping of the mic wire. Or perhaps it’s because Maldonado is Mexican.

There are non-Latinos in the audience. But the overwhelming majority cheers wildly when Maldonado introduces his new bass player by revealing, “Tonight, the band is 20 percent browner!”

I tell Ben this story, and he smiles. He can. I had returned his CDs, and now I was a believer, too. We stage an impromptu sing-along to “The Boy With the Thorn in His Side.”

“I knew you were going to like Moz,” he beams. “All Latinos end up liking him.”

http://www.itsmorrisseysworld.com/

http://www.myspace.com/morrissey

2009-05-29T18:29:00.000-07:00

Black Lips - "Short Fuse"
"Dont light me up cause i gotta short fuse"

Cartoon Video Directed by the Lips own Joe Bradley, and animated by Chris Taylor www.throneboogie.com , the vid is a schizophrenic fit filled with explosives, mustachioed baddies, and a cameo from a cracked-up Humpty Dumpty taken from their newest release 200 Million Thousand, released on 2/24 on Die Slaughterhaus/Vice Music. .

'The Black Lips have a reputation for crazy live shows that have included vomiting, urination, nudity, band members kissing, Power Wheels races, fireworks, a chicken, and flaming guitars. The frequency of the group's outrageous stage antics has declined, as they claim to have matured "a little bit". Regarding these stage antics, the band said: "People and other bands and club owners can get really mad. We have gotten kicked out of alot [sic] of clubs. Sometimes they want to fight us when it happens. People run away and act scared. But theres nothing to be scared of, its all natural bodily functions. I think it's funny when people get mad."' -- http://www.syarecords.it/blinterview.htm

Don't stare at it too hard.

1. Take My Heart 2:48
2. Drugs 2:33
3. Starting Over 3:59
4. Let It Grow 3:37
5. Trapped In A Basement 2:34
6. Short Fuse 3:26
7. I'll Be With You 2:32
8. Big Black Baby Jesus Of Today 2:56
9. Again & Again 2:48
10. Old Man 2:52
11. Drop I Hold 3:16
12. Body Combat 3:24
13. Elijah 2:52
14. I Saw God 4:29
15. Hidden Track 7:41

http://www.myspace.com/theblacklips

www.black-lips.com

Right click to download the single above.

2009-05-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

The New Face of Bulgaria

Who is the most popular celebrity in Bulgaria these days?

Believe it or not, Azis is one of Bulgaria's top celebrity icons.

Azis (Азис) (born Vasil Troyanov Boyanov (Васил Троянов Боянов) on March 7, 1978) is a very popular folk (chalga) singer who is actually from a Romani background, known for, among other things, his atypical gender expression and his flamboyant persona.

His discography includes: "Celuvai Me" (2003), "Na Golo" (2003), "Kraliat" (2004), "Together" with Desi Slava (2004). Azis has recorded and performed many songs with some of the most popular Bulgarian pop-folk singers, like Gloriya, Malina, Sofi Marinova, Toni Storaro, singer Marta Savić and also the rap performer Ustata.

His diva like songs and duets are both as famous and unique as his sense of fashion.

Azis i Ustata - Tochno sega

He caused a lot of controversy whilst campaigning heavily for the rights of the minority Romany Gypsy population in Bulgaria.

He began his political career in 2005 as a member of the Evroroma political party and ran in the general elections campaign in the summer of 2005, but didn't receive enough votes to become a member of Parliament and then returned to his music career.

In 2006 he performed in the semi-final of the Eurovision song contest, sporting a spectacular outfit and singing a duet with Mariana Popova with the song Let Me Cry.. The song did not make the grand finale, however Azis was well- remembered for his flamboyant personality.

The Bulgarian television programme called Velikite Balgara - (which is the Bulgarian version of the 2002 Greatest Brition from the BBC) elected Azis as the 21st greatest Bulgarian of all time (and was in fact the second ranking living person on the list, after football player Hristo Stoichkov, who was 12th)..

Also in 2006 the folk singing champion married his husband, even though it is not recognized in Bulgaria.

In 2007 Azis became a father to a daughter with his life-long friend Gala. His daughter was conceived via artificial insemination. The baby's name is Raya and it was part of his life-long dream to be a father.

Azis - Nikoj ne mozhe

Azis - Nakarai Me

2009-05-27T23:56:00.000-07:00

STARS OF TRACK AND FIELD - "MOVIES OF ANTARCTICA"

Stars of Track and Field is a three-piece indie pop band from Portland, Oregon, currently on the Wind-Up Records label. Their name is in reference to the Belle and Sebastian song of the same name found on If You're Feeling Sinister.

The band released a new album, entitled Centuries Before Love And War, to the iTunes Store in August 2006 and released a physical copy in January 2007. Several tracks from the album are available on the group's MySpace page.

Stars of track and field - "movies of antarctica"

"Standout 'Movies of Antartica' is a desolate stadium anthem that echoes Radiohead and Coldplay." - Billboard, January 2007

Stars of Track and Field 24hrspodcast interview

24hrs Joe Leary spoke with Kevin Calaba of Portland's Stars of Track on the soggy opening day of Virgin fest in Vancouver in which they discuss everything from the origin of the band's name to US politics.

The band was joined by former AC/DC drummer Chris Slade on DirecTV's original game show "Rock and a Hard Place" hosted by Meat Loaf in which they faced country group Lonestar.

"A little bit poppy, a little bit electronic, a little bit dreamy. All together amazing." - NY Post's Best Songs to Download from 2006, December 19th, 2006

wow......um this kinda gave me the chills.
dunno about you, but take a listen. I really like how they did it. I didn't know how good of a voice he has......wow
Stars of Track and Field sing National Anthem

At the Portland Trailblazers NBA Game at the Rose Garden Arena on December 14th 2007.

PDX rising sons of epic dream-core

http://www.starsoftrackandfield.com/

http://www.myspace.com/starsoftrackandfield

Stars Of Track And Field
Centuries Before Love And War
(Wind Up, 2007)
1. Centuries
2. Movies of Antarctica
3. With You
4. Lullaby for a G.I. / Don’t Close Your Eyes
5. Real Time
6. Arithmatik
7. U.S. Mile 5
8. Say Hello
9. Exit The Recital
10. Fantastic

SXSW Executive Producer Matt Dentlers blog listed Stars of Track and Field as the #4 Band to Watch for 2006. Stars Of Track And Field played live in concert on some cable show of a gig at The Lone Star Lounge in Austin, Texas for SXSW on 03-17-07.

Dang I'm telling you.. matter of time man.....the fire is growing.

I read all these comments on their Myspace page from people who caught the SXSW Texas gigs. Sounds like they're growing fans. Or rather addicted fans you might say. Bunch of quotes like this, "I can't quit listening to the CD, but to see ya'll live cannot be topped." ...And lots of "y'all's". hahahaha

Download the song Century
I threw in an mp3 of the live show that I saw on tv, that I told you about. It's them playing at SXSW.
Down load the official single above
....and download the live version here

2009-05-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

FUN LOVIN' CRIMINALS - "COME FIND YOURSELF"

The Fun Lovin' Criminals are an American alternative rap / alternative rock group from New York City. Their musical style is eclectic, covering such styles as hip hop, rock, blues and jazz. Their songs often deal with city/urban life, often explicitly New York City, covering such issues as organized crime, drugs, violence, poverty and politics. Their debut album, Come Find Yourself, was released in 1995 by Capitol Records and while it was a commercial flop in the US, it sold very well internationally, reaching #7 in the UK album charts. But they are probably best known for the band's biggest hit single to date, "Scooby Snacks", reaching #12 in the US, which features samples from films by Quentin Tarantino, interspersed with rap verses and a sung, anthemic, chorus. The album is very New York-centric, including tracks about the L-train (Bombin' The L), and Mafia crimelord John Gotti (King Of New York), with many smaller references in other songs.

This album is the perfect soundtrack to a hot summers day, sitting under an umbrella or on the front/back porch, sipping down an ice cold Palmed Arnold* from a mason jar for that old time back woods feelin' or cruising the strip in your drop top. Crank it, kick back and soak in the rays, the waves and the good 'ole days

*A Palmed Arnold© (aka Rosie Palm's Victim©...aka A Five Finger Fuck©)

Ingredients:

1/4 of Lemon Vodka
1/4 of Lemonade
1/2 of Iced tea

...serve with lots of ice. Preferably use Lemon flavored vodka for that extra lemony zest, but this mixture is also great for covering the taste of extremely cheap vodka, and/or any other spirits you deem worthy. Enjoy!

Fun Lovin' Criminals - Fun Lovin' Criminal

Fun Lovin' Criminals - Scooby Snacks

This is the original, rarely seen video for the classic track.

Fun Lovin' Criminals - Smoke 'Em

Check out this live version of the Fun Lovin' Criminals performing "Smoke Em'" on the White Room in 1996. A sexy, soulful, jazzy groove with some great bluesy guitar licks

Fun Lovin' Criminals - Come Find Yourself

Label	Capitol / EMI
Orig Year	1996
Release Date	Feb 20, 1996
Studio/Live	Studio
Mono/Stereo	Stereo
Producer	Fun Lovin' Criminals
Engineer	Tim Latham

Track Listing:

1. The Fun Lovin' Criminal
2. Passive/Aggressive
3. The Grave and the Constant
4. Scooby Snacks
5. Smoke 'Em
6. Bombin' the L
7. I Can't Get With That
8. King of New York
9. We Have All the Time in the World
10. Bear Hug
11. Come Find Yourself
12. Crime and Punishment
13. Methadonia

http://www.myspace.com/funlovincriminalsnyc

DOWNLOAD

2009-05-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

STARS OF TRACK AND FIELD - "CENTURIES"

STARS OF TRACK AND FIELD

One band you should definately check out is "Stars Of Track And Field"

They wear ascots...how could you go wrong?!
If you don't like them.......I'll eat my hat!

They are based out of Portland, Oregon, and I see great things happening for them soon. I absolutely love them

Stars of Track and Field burst with indie pop hooks, shoe gazer ambience, and slanted guitar rock. Working from compositions co-written by lead singer Kevin Calaba and guitar player Jason Bell, this three piece that includes drummer Daniel Orvik, concern themselves with subtlety, decisive vocals, lilting harmonies, and interwoven guitar phrasing that's both engaging and warm to the ear. Taking their name from Belle and Sebastian's Brit-folk epic, "stars of track and field you are," they owe as much of their sound to English groups as they do to the surrounding influence of NW indie rock.

Stars of Track and Field - "Centuries" (live at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, CA. 8/22/07)

They remind me of if you threw Simon and Garfunkel, Postal Service, electronica, threw in a little shoe gazer music and other odd bands and you'd get this whipped cream and jalapeno peppers mix. To me......it's liltingly addicting. it's like sugary crack that seeps into your veins and before you know it yer bouncing yourself silly against the walls with dreamy eyes and drooling from the sadness that seams to permeate these songs. Frankly I can't tell if this music is depressing or uplifting. It seams to have both effects for myself. it goes from dreamy silly melodies one moment to sweeping anthemic rock the next.

"Arithmatik" was the first single playing on the radio in the PNW. I love this song as one of my favorites. But the second single was "Movies Of Antarctica". Another great song. Maybe I'll showcase that video tomorrow..........

I think you'd love this band! I've been addicted to them as one of my favorite bands at the moment, ever since I laid ears on them. I can't get enough of them.

hahaha now that I've blushed sweet confectionary sugar about them......you'll probably go......"what's all the hype?"

oh well. just go and let yourself be whisked away. I picture this movie as a soundtrack to unicorns, fairies, clouds and sugary candy. hmmmm weird. The harmonies are what kill me I think.

Stars of Track and Field - "Century" (live at Bumbershoot Seattle, OR. 09/07)

"A little bit poppy, a little bit electronic, a little bit dreamy. Altogether amazing." - New York Post, December 2006

"Like TV on the Radio, the guys in Stars work with seemingly disparate elements: Soft vocals mix with epic rock, samples clash with live sounds and unusual patterns develop within each track." - Orlando City Beat, January 2007

"Good enough to scare the Postal Service gang back into the studio." - The Boston Globe, January 2007

PDX rising sons of epic dream-core

http://www.starsoftrackandfield.com/

http://www.myspace.com/starsoftrackandfield

Stars Of Track And Field played live in concert on some cable show of a gig at The Lone Star Lounge in Austin, Texas for SXSW on 03-17-07.

Dang I'm telling you.. matter of time man.....the fire is growing.

2009-05-21T00:14:00.000-07:00

Stereophonics - "You're My Star"

I always loved this band and this is a great track by the band. This song is taken from the album 'Decade In The Sun - Best Of Stereophonics'. I especially love the lyrics to this song, and seeing as we have a three day weekend coming up, it just seemed a fitting soundtrack to the good times and those who make every day "come alive"! Enjoy! If you like what you hear here, go out and buy the rest of their albums. -- }:>

Stereophonics - "Decade In The Sun - Best Of Stereophonics"
Release Date 12-09-2008
Record Label Fontana International/Vox Populi Records
Album Tracks
1. Dakota
2. The Bartender and the Thief
3. Just Looking
4. Have a Nice Day
5. Local Boy in the Photograph
6. Maybe Tomorrow
7. Superman
8. Pick a Part That's New
9. My Own Worst Enemy
10. I Wouldn't Believe Your Radio
11. You're My Star
12. Mr. Writer
13. Step on My Old Size Nines
14. Devil
15. It Means Nothing
16. A Thousand Trees
17. Vegas Two Times
18. Traffic
19. More Life in a Tramp's Vest
20. Handbags and Gladrags

Lyrics:

You fly with angels wings
You’ve got my blood in your veins
And your eyes see everything
And they shine like diamond rings

You’re my Sunday
Make my Monday come alive
Just like Tuesday
You’re a new day that wakes me up
Wednesday’s raining
Thursday’s yearning
Friday nights
Then it all ends at the weekend
You’re my star

At times I cave right in (at time I cave right in)
But there’s fights we have to win (the fights we have to win)
And your songs we love to sing (la la la la la, la la la la)
May your dreams forever live (la la la la, la la la la)

You’re my star
Yes you are

Its a thrill to see your imagination
Just watching you is an education
What’s in your mind is my fascination
It blows my mind and sets my heart a racing

You’re my Sunday
Make my Monday come alive (you make me come alive)
Just like Tuesday
You’re a new day that wakes me up (you make me come alive)
Wednesday’s raining
Thursday’s yearning
Friday nights (you make me come alive)
Then it all ends at the weekend

http://www.myspace.com/stereophonics

http://www.stereophonics.com/

Download

2009-05-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

MsTaken.com -"Puke In My Mouth"

http://mstaken.com - this is a ladies' response to Lonely Island's "Jizz In My Pants", I posted two days ago. The Pantless Knights got approached by a gal who had an idea for a fake engagement ring to ward off douchebags. The Pantless Knights thought the whole thing was hilarious and told her theywanted to make a music video for it. A few months later, here it is and we hope you like it! also, peep The Pantless Knights' cameos FTW!!! big ups to the girls puking in their mouths!

-beau, peter and david
http://pantlessknights.com

support MsTaken.com and go get the fake engagement ring + douchebag playing cards at
http://mstaken.com

and here's a link to download the free mp3!
http://pantlessknights.com/pukeinmymouth.mp3

CREDITS:
Created by Pantless Knights
Produced by Beau Lewis & Peter Furia
Camera by Peter Furia
Lyrics by Beau Lewis, Peter Furia
Vocals by Erika Shumate & Lauren Curtis
Beat by Ranidu
Starring Michelle Nunes & Kate Siegel

LYRICS:
Douchebags all across the club / Ladies' night straight poppin the bub
Stalker eyes right above his drink / Cheese-dick style, with a shoot and wink
Snatch the ring from its hiding place / Flip the bird right in your face
Leave the bar, to escape your glance / Cross the room, now its time to dance
You sneak behind, dont mind, I guess / Until your dongs on my cocktail dress
Cold as ice, yet you advance / And say you might, jizz in your pants
and I PUKE IN MY MOUTH
Swallow it back, I need some room / Plus I said Ive got a groom
I turn away, you start to pout
AND I PUKE IN MY MOUTH
You ruined my night, esophagus hurts / Take a hint, Im not here to flirt
Round up the girls, its time bounce / Now Ill go brush my teeth

I'm 15 late for my Yoga class / Kick through the door, now I'm up in that ass
Find a spot, last in the room / Focus, breathe, now its time to ohhhhmmmm
Thats when I noticed this guy behind me / Quite a big smell from a guy so tiny
Pit-stained T-shirt drenched in sweat / O-face grin, bad as it gets
He made a grunt, then his body turned / Saw up his shorts to his inner-thigh perm
AND I PUKED IN MY MOUTH
Upside-down, so it's even worse / Son of shiva, what a curly curse
Help me please, I could use a towel cause I
PUKED IN MY MOUTH
Why are there dudes up in Yoga class? / Nonchalant, looking at my chest
Please stop staring when Im on my knees / Plus bearded men shouldn't wear capris
Last week, I was on a site / As I recall, it was a Facebook site
In my bed with a piece of toast / Checked my wall and saw your post and I
PUKE IN MY MOUTH
Soaking in the tub like a f***ing queen / Need to relax, need to feel the steam
A bubble comes up that reminds me of you and I
PUKE IN MY MOUTH
The next day, I put on jeans and PUKED IN MY MOUTH
I opened the fridge and a fruit rolled out, I PUKED IN MY MOUTH
When I saw Tom Cruise in Valkyre I PUKED IN MY MOUTH
I drank a Kombucha and I PUKED IN MY MOUTH
I just felt PUKE IN MY MOUTH
I puke right in my mouth, every time youre next to me
And when you spit your game, its like a train wreck to me
You're such a royal douche, I dont know why you step to me
Forget a rubber, you should go get a vasectomy
PUKE IN MY MOUTH...
---------
TWITTERS
http://twitter.com/pantlessknights
http://twitter.com/mstakenring

FACEBOOKS
http://www.facebook.com/pages/pantless-knights/76437478967
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ms-Taken/88710483704

2009-05-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

Cadillac Tramps - "Tombstone Radio"

* Category: Music » Rockabilly, Blues & Punk
* Release Date: December 15, 1992
* Label: Dr. Dream Records
* UPC: 044688926627

Track listing
1 Intro / Hoodoo Guru
2 Shake!
3 Venice
4 Move To The Hills
5 Drivin'
6 Killin' Floor
7 Cadillac Hearse
8 Lookin' For Some Strange
9 Graveyard Blues
10 Confidence
11 Miles Away
12 Bonedry
13 (Carry My Soul To) The River

The Cadillac Tramps: Gabby (vocals, acoustic guitar), Brian Coakley, John Christian Wickersham (guitar, vocals), Warren W. Renfrow (bass), Spanky (drums).

Additional personnel: Mike Buyuklian (horn), Tony Ter Borg (organ), Jamie Reidling (drums), Beth Carmellini, Jenny Mac (background vocals).

Producers: E., Johnny Wickersham, Brian Coakley (all tracks).

Recorded at For The Record, Orange, California.

All songs written by The Cadillac Tramps, except "Killin' Floor" (Howlin' Wolf).

Alternative Press (1/93, p.54) - "...TOMBSTONE RADIO is on its own wavelength...The Cadillac Tramps have become expert at switching moods and still keeping the fire smoldering...[the] songs are delirious tripping-over-themselves clatter in a thrill-crazy style..."

Download

2009-05-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Lonely Island - "Jizz In My Pants"

Video features guest appearances by Molly Sims, Jamie Lynn Sigler, and Justin Timberlake.(Directed by Kiv)
Copyright - Universal Republic

The first single from The Lonely Island's debut album "INCREDIBAD".

Song Title
1. Who Said We're Wack? 1:16
2. Santana DVX 2:35
3. Jizz In My Pants 2:31
4. I'm On A Boat 2:36
5. Sax Man 2:06
6. Lazy Sunday 2:19
7. Normal Guy 1:04
8. Boombox 3:13
9. Shrooms 0:34
10. Like A Boss 1:46
11. We Like Sportz 2:04
12. Dreamgirl 3:13
13. Ras Trent 2:05
14. Dick In A Box 2:41
15. The Old Saloon 1:05
16. Punch You In The Jeans 2:47
17. Space Olympics 2:55
18. Natalie's Rap 2:27
19. Incredibad 2:54

The Lonely Island (TLI) is an American comedy group composed of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone (aka the Dudes) that writes and stars in other previous parodies for Saturday Night Live, "Dick in a Box", "Like a Boss" and "I'm on a Boat" that have subsequently had huge success both on the show and on the Internet..

Pitchfork recently did an interview with The Lonely Island guys.

Official Website :: http://www.thelonelyisland.com

Download the song above

2009-05-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

The Pack A.D. - "Making Gestures"

The Pack A.D. are a garage-rock duo from Vancouver, BC, formed in 2006. The Pack A.D. consists of singer/songwriter/guitarist Becky Black and drummer/songwriter Maya Miller and have been compared to the likes of The White Stripes, The Kills, and The Black Keys. These girls have embraced the blues/rock tradition of often using a combination of rhythm and lead guitar with a steady drum beat.
The Pack A.D.’s second album Funeral Mixtape was released August 12th 2008 under Mint Records and recorded live off the floor to analog tape at The Hive Studios. The album perfectly encapsulates the intensity and warmth of The Pack A.D.'s music. It consists of 11 tracks in the same blues rock style as their first album, Tintype.
Becky Black's vocals have been compared to Janis Joplin, and the combined duo's live show to long established acts like The Black Keys.

A guitar-drum howling-blues duo, Becky Black and Maya Miller of the Pack are clearly meant to play together...The whole beautiful mess (of Tintype) will have uptown turkeys running in terror back to their Eric Clapton "blues" CDs.
--Adrian Mack (The Georgia Straight) AUG 07

http://www.myspace.com/thepackad
http://thepackafterdeath.com/

Funeral Mixtape (August 2008) – Mint Records

Track list:

1. Blackout
2. Don't Have to Like You
3. Making Gestures -(single)
4. Shiny Things
5. Oh Be Joyful
6. Underground
7. June
8. Dannemora Blues
9. Build
10. Wolves and Werewolves
11. Worried

Read this interview on laist.com
http://laist.com/2009/03/11/meet_the_pack_ad_-_bad_ass_blues_ch.php
Download the single above

2009-05-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

Empire State Human - "Audio Gothic"

Empire State Human, based in Dublin/Ireland, formed in 1999. Band members are Aidan Casserly (vocals), Seán Barron (programming, keyboards, electronic percussion & backing vocals) & Lar Kiernan (keyboards). Empire State Human create contemporary song and instrumental based electronic music, with a retro-electro edge. Their music is a combination of analogue and digital synthesized sound, mixed with powerful rhythms and overlaid with strong pop vocal melodies. Empire State Human have 11 releases since 2002 - Pop Robot, Music For Human, Alpha & Omega, Liquid Blue, Urbanism, Live On Mars, Cycles, Terra Incognito: parts 1>5, Digital City, Popularity? & Rarity?. In 2004 Empire State Human had a number one in the US iTunes dance charts with a cover of "Theme To Halloween". Empire State Human have composed music for films and adverts and in 2008 their song "Liquid Blue" featured in the film "The Viva Voce Virus". Empire State Human are the first Irish band to ever work with an original member of Kraftwerk (Wolfgang Flur). Their new studio album "Audio Gothic", was released in North America in April 2009.

Empire State Human "Audio Gothic"
First track from the March 2009 album from Empire State Human - Audio Gothic

Empire State Human
"Audio Gothic"
Ninthwave Records
electronic/synthpop
2009.04.14
www.myspace.com/empirestatehumanmusic
www.ninthwaverecords.com
Track listing
01 Audio Gothic
02 Camera
03 Ghosts In America
04 Leap Of Faith
05 Melancholic Afro (Feat Wolfgang Flur,yamo)
06 I Work For The Government
07 No Wires
08 Seeing Stars
09 Like Diamond
10 Sitting Solitude

Download the song above

2009-05-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time

From turning down the Beatles to stomping Napster— the most ill-advised,
foolhardy and downright idiotic decisions ever made by The Man.

They Never Even Recouped Their Aqua Net Expenses
#20 As grunge dawns, one label bets on hair metal
In 1989, with hair metal reaching its zenith, the A&R department at MCA
Records finally decided to get in on the act—by tossing a rumored $1
million at L.A. band Pretty Boy Floyd, who at the time had played only
eight shows. The band’s debut, Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz, peaked at No. 130 on the Billboard charts, and the Floyd blew another mil or so of
MCA’s money before the label finally dropped them in 1991 … right around
the time the suits blew a chance to sign a fledgling Seattle outfit called
Nirvana.
Unintended consequence : Around 1992, the Sunset Strip pizza-delivery scene
gets a fresh infusion of talent.

The Vinyl Solution
#19 The industry kills the single—and begins its own slow demise
In the early ’80s, the music industry began to phase out vinyl singles in
favor of cassettes and later, CDs. Then, since it costs the same to
manufacture a CD single as a full album, they ditched the format almost
altogether. But they forgot that singles were how fans got into the
music-buying habit before they had enough money to spend on albums. The end
result? Kids who expect music for free. “Greed to force consumers to buy an
album [resulted] in the loss of an entire generation of record consumers,”
says Billboard charts expert Joel Whitburn. “People who could only afford
to buy their favorite hit of the week were told it wasn’t available as a
single. Instead, they stopped going to record shops and turned their
attention to illegally downloading songs.”
Unintended consequence: The Eagles still top the album charts.

Come Back, Kid
#18 BMG dumps Clive Davis, begs him to return
In 2000, when company retirement policy deemed Clive Davis too old to run
Arista, the label he’d founded 25 years earlier, he was pushed out the door
in favor of Antonio “L.A.” Reid. After loud public complaints from artists
including Whitney Houston and Carlos Santana, parent company BMG was shamed
into giving Davis a nice going-away present—his own label, J Records, along
with a $150 million bankroll. Ironically, while J spawned hits from Alicia
Keys, Luther Vandross and Rod Stewart, Arista reportedly chalked up
hundreds of millions in losses. In 2002, BMG forked over another $50
million to buy J, then two years later ousted Reid and hired a new CEO of
BMG North America: an ambitious young Turk named Clive Davis
Unintended consequence: Rod Stewart’s The Great American Songbook, Volumes
I-IV

Dim Bulb
#17 Thomas Edison disses jazz, industry standards America’s most famous inventor,
and the creator of the phonograph, also had his own record label: National
Phonograph Company, later Edison Records. Naturally, it was the biggest one around
at first but made two fatal errors. One was that Edison Records worked only on
Edison’s players, while other manufacturers’ conformed to the industry standard and
worked interchangeably. The other was that Edison let his personal taste govern Edison
releases—and he hated jazz: “I always play jazz records backwards,” he sniffed. “They
sound better that way.” So after releasing the world’s first jazz recording—Collins
and Harlan’s “That Funny Jas Band From Dixieland”—the company spurned the craze in
favor of waltzes and foxtrots.
Edison Records folded in October 1929.
Unintended consequence: Edison adds “tin-eared A&R” to his list of inventions.

Double Jeopardy
#16 Warner pays for Wilco record twice
When Wilco handed over their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to Reprise in June
2001, acting label boss David Kahne—best known for producing Sugar Ray
albums—reportedly thought it was “so bad it would kill Wilco’s career.” The
band refused to make changes, so Reprise handed them their walking
papers—and the masters to the album. A few months later, Wilco signed with
Nonesuch, which, like Reprise, was a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, meaning
that after shelling out roughly $300,000 to make YHF in the first place,
the corporation was now paying for it again. The record remains Wilco’s
best seller to date.
Unintended consequence: Jeff Tweedy’s poetry collection is published in 2004.

Money For Nothing
#15 MCA’s teen-pop calamity
How sure was MCA that slinky Irish teen Carly Hennessy was going to be a gargantuan pop star? So sure that in 1999 they staked the former Denny’s sausage spokesmodel with a $100,000 advance, $5,000 a month in living expenses and an apartment in Marina Del Rey, California, spending roughly $2.2 million in all on her 2001 debut, Ultimate High. How wrong were they?
In its first three months in stores, Ultimate High sold a whopping 378 copies, putting the label’s investment somewhere in the order of $5,820 per copy sold. Last seen, Hennessy had resurfaced—still looking for her big break—on season seven of American Idol.
Unintended consequence: “Sausage spokesmodel” proves a less embarrassing résumé entry than expected.

Always Read The Fine … Oh, Never Mind
#14 Stax Records unintentionally gives away the store
Soul fans can credit Memphis’s Stax Records for classic hits by Otis
Redding, Sam & Dave and Booker T & the M.G.’s—but the real winner was
Atlantic. In 1960, Atlantic partner Jerry Wexler liked one of Stax’s first
releases enough to pay label president Jim Stewart $1,000 to lease it, and
Atlantic soon contracted to market and distribute all Stax releases. Seven
years later, with Stax reeling from Redding’s death, Stewart finally took a
close look at the Atlantic contract and discovered he’d been bamboozled:
Contrary to industry practice, Atlantic became the owner of any Stax
release it handled. Stax had signed away its catalogue and future.
Unintended consequence: Bob Dole flips “Soul Man” into “Dole Man” during
his ’96 presidential campaign.

The Last Of The Mega-Deals
#13 One label’s big spending single-handedly ends “alt-rock” boom
In 1996, Warner Bros. signed R.E.M. to a five-album contract for a reported
$80 million. It was the most costly record deal in history and elicited one
of the lowest returns. Warner needed R.E.M. to sell at least 3 million
copies of all five records to come out in the black, but sleepy folk-rock
albums like 1998’s Up moved a fifth of that. The execs went further into
the hole by allowing R.E.M. to keep the masters of all their Warner
releases, forfeiting future revenues generated by the band’s popular ’80s
and early-’90s discs. No one knows how much the label lost—but the debacle brought to a close an era in which acts known for their “integrity” could
score huge paydays.
Unintended consequence: Warner executives still hoping “Daysleeper” makes
it on to The Hills soundtrack.

Axl Grease
#12 Geffen pumps millions into (the nonexistent) Chinese Democracy
Ten years ago, Guns N’ Roses still looked like a good investment—they’d
gone platinum 32 times. So in 1998, Geffen Records could be forgiven for
paying Axl Rose a million bucks to complete GNR’s fifth album, promising a
million more if he delivered it soon. (Rose had already spent four years
working on the LP, losing every original bandmate in the process.) Beset by
perfectionism, lack of focus and plain-old nuttiness, Rose never got that
bonus million. But his label kept spending: In 2001, monthly expenses totaled $244,000. Four producers and a gazillion guitar overdubs later, the
album finally was released on November 23, 2008. And Geffen’s in the red for $13 million.
Unintended consequence: A frustrated Rose gets into a well-publicized fistfight
with … Tommy Hilfiger!

Just Be Yourself—Or Else
#11 Geffen sues Neil Young for making “unrepresentative” music
At the dawn of the ’80s, David Geffen signed Neil Young to his new record
label, promising that “commercial” considerations would never get in the
way of art. Young took this to heart, wandering so far off the reservation
with albums like 1983’s synth-driven Trans that Geffen filed a $3 million
breach-of-contract suit: effectively charging the folk-rock icon with not
making “Neil Young” records. Young filed a $21 million countersuit before settling out of court, but remained somewhat bemused by Geffen’s judgment:
“He didn’t seem to comprehend how … uh, diverse my musical career had
become,” Young said.
Unintended consequence: Young’s Happy House and Tejano albums remain on the
shelf.

Youth Movement
#10 Columbia Records loses Alicia Keys, drops 50 Cent

Columbia had a way with young talent in the late ’90s and early ’00s.
First, after plunking down a reported $400,000 to sign Alicia Keys, they
turned her over to high-priced producers who tried to transform her into
Whitney Houston. Frustrated, she bolted—and signed with J Records, where
she has sold more than 20 million albums to date. Around the same time, another languishing Columbia prospect, 50 Cent, recorded “How to Rob” in a desperate attempt to get his label to notice him. But when he was shot nine
times in 2000, skittish execs dumped him—and then watched as he became an
unstoppable one-man money factory at Interscope.
Unintended consequence: Fedoras and bulletproof vests become essential
urban-fashion accessories.

Spy Game
#9 “Digital-rights management” backfires even more badly than usual
In a 2005 effort to combat digital piracy, Sony BMG packaged millions of
CDs with copy-protection software that automatically installed a “rootkit”
on users’ PCs, which, in addition to preventing consumers from making more
than three copies of their legally purchased CD, also made them vulnerable
to viruses and hackers. Sony BMG initially downplayed the problem, but
after the Department of Homeland Security issued an advisory, the label
recalled more than 4 million CDs. Sony was accused of spying on its customers’ listening habits and was forced to pay several million dollars
to settle class-action lawsuits that alleged violations of spyware laws and
deceptive trade practices.
Unintended consequence: Radiohead offer up In Rainbows for a bargain
pay-what-you-like price.

Rap Attack
#8 Warner junks Interscope
When anti-rap crusaders wanted to deliver a body blow to hip-hop, they took
aim at the Warner Music Group, because its corporate parent, Time Warner,
was American-owned and publicly traded. When Ice-T’s “Cop Killer” became
too hot to handle, Warner Music dropped him, but the label still enjoyed
huge rap hits—particularly through Death Row Records, partially owned by
their Interscope label. But when Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole attacked Warner Music in his stump speech, Time Warner panicked, ordering the sale of Interscope to rival Universal. Universal soon became the
biggest record company in the world—in large measure due to Interscope hits
by Tupac, Dr. Dre and Eminem. Warner Music went on a long slide and was
finally sold in 2004.
Unintended consequence: Time Warner shareholders never have to worry about
who killed Tupac.

Something’s Happening, But You Don’t Know What It Is
#7 Music publisher gives away Bob Dylan
In the early 1960s Leeds/Duchess was a legendary music-publishing company
but far from the hippest: It knew Tin Pan Alley but couldn’t find a
Greenwich Village coffeehouse with a compass. Yet when Columbia signed Bob
Dylan in 1961, they steered him to Leeds, where he happily signed a
publishing deal with a $1,000 advance. The following year, Dylan’s new
manager, Albert Grossman, got out of the deal with the disinterested
publisher simply by repaying the $1,000. Dylan’s new publisher, the savvier M. Witmark & Sons, received 237 songs—many of them future standards worth tens of millions of dollars—in just the first three years.
Unintended consequence: The receptionists at Leeds/Duchess never have to
field calls asking what “All Along the Watchtower” is really about.

Nothing Exceeds Like Excess
#6 Casablanca rides strong sales straight to the poorhouse
No record label represents the coked-up inanity of the late ’70s like
disco-driven behemoth Casablanca. In 1978, the label simultaneously shipped
a million copies of four solo albums by each member of their biggest rock
act, Kiss, so they could justifiably claim the records “shipped platinum.”
The albums sold well—but not that well. Record stores returned hundreds of
thousands of unsold copies, inspiring comedian Robert Klein to joke that Casablanca’s
releases “shipped gold and returned platinum.” The label continued to lose
millions a year throughout the late ’70s, until part-owner PolyGram Records
bought out founder Neil Bogart for $15 million in 1980.
Unintended consequence: Hey, man—400,000 extra surfaces to snort drugs
from!

Whoa, Mama
#5 The RIAA sues a struggling single mom for digital piracy.
In the court of public opinion; it’s hard to find a more sympathetic
defendant than a single mother of two, earning $36,000 a year. So what in
the name of common decency was the Recording Industry Association of
America thinking when it went after 30-year-old Jammie Thomas from
Brainerd, Minnesota? The RIAA accused Thomas of using the P2P service Kazaa
to illegally share mp3 files of 24 songs, including Journey’s “Don’t Stop
Believin’,” the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” and Destiny’s Child’s “Bills, Bills,
Bills.” Thomas pleaded not guilty, blaming the shared files on mistaken identity, but last October a jury disagreed and fined her $222,000. That
breaks down to a whopping $9,250 per song—more than six times her annual
salary. At press time, Thomas was planning an appeal.
Unintended consequence: The nation’s toddlers and fluffy kittens rush to
erase their hard drives.

Pay (Somebody Else) To Play
#4 Indie promoters take the major labels to the cleaners
After the payola scandals of the ’50s, the government barred record labels
from paying radio stations to play records. The solution: set up middlemen
to do the dirty work! “Independent promoters” represented the labels’
interests to radio programmers, creating a massive cash flow of corruption.
Even a mid-size hit could cost $700,000 in promo expenses—cash, vacations,
drugs and other illicit rewards for mustachioed DJs—and labels ended up
paying to get airplay for huge artists the stations would have spun anyway.

A lot of coked-up DJs got nice tans, while the labels spent unnecessary
millions and covered their balance sheets in bloody red.
Unintended consequence: Colombian GDP spikes each time Mariah Carey
releases a single.

Detroit At a Discount
#3 Motown sells for a pittance
In 1988 Berry Gordy Jr., reportedly losing millions of dollars on the label
he had founded decades earlier, sold Motown and its incomparable back
catalogue to MCA and investment company Boston Ventures for $60 million.
How bad was that price? The next year, Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss sold
their A&M Records to PolyGram for roughly $500 million. In 1990, David
Geffen got about $700 million for Geffen Records and in ’92, Richard
Branson unloaded Virgin Records to EMI for $960 million. And five years
after buying Motown, Boston Ventures cashed out, selling the label to
PolyGram for $325 million—a return of more than 500 percent.
Unintended consequence: The Motown Atlantic airline, and Berry’s career as
a trans-global balloonist, have yet to materialize.

Tomorrow Never Knows
#2 Decca Records A&R exec tells Fab Four, “No, thanks”
Dick Rowe was not the only record-label executive who passed on the Beatles
in the early ’60s, but he was the only one who brushed off their manager,
Brian Epstein, with the astute prediction that: “Groups with guitars are on
their way out.” Epstein begged Rowe to reconsider, so Rowe hopped a train
to Liverpool to check out the band live. When he arrived at the Cavern, he
found a mob of kids trying to force their way into the club in the pouring
rain. Annoyed, he smoked a cigarette, went home and signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead.
Unintended consequence: The Monkees

THE BIGGEST RECORD-COMPANY SCREWUP OF ALL TIME
#1 Major labels squash Napster
Shawn Fanning’s file-sharing service attracted tens of millions of users,
but instead of trying to find a way to capitalize on it, the Recording
Industry Association of America rejected Napster’s billion-dollar
settlement offer and sued it out of existence in 2001. Napster’s users
didn’t just disappear. They scattered to hundreds of alternative
systems—and new technology has stayed three steps ahead of the music
business ever since. The labels’ campaign to stop their music from being acquired for free across the Internet has been like trying to cork a
hurricane—upward of a billion files are swapped every month on peer-to-peer
networks. Since Napster closed, “there’s been no decline in the rate of
online piracy,” says Eric Garland of media analysts BigChampagne, who
logged users of son-of-Napster peer-to-peer networks more than doubling
between 2002 and 2007. And that figure doubles again if you count
BitTorrent.
Unintended consequence: Your grandmother deciding to trade up from that
dial-up connection

2009-05-10T14:18:00.000-07:00

CADILLAC TRAMPS - CADILLAC TRAMPS

The Cadillac Tramps were a great punk band from the 90's that had a blues/rockabilly vibe to their sound. They still play the occasional show around town. In fact they just played the Punk Rock & Roll Picnic back in April '09 at Irvine Lake, CA. The members have gone on to many other projects such as Manic Hispanic, Flock O GooGoo, Waxapples, Drive By Smile and more. While their debut disc on Doctor Dreams Records has been long out of print, you can still get their "Live" album. I encourage you to go out and grab a copy, pronto!
And now for your listening pleasure, I present to you, The Cadillac Tramps...

Train to Fame 4:12
Life on the Edge 4:20
I'm the One 4:42
Don't Go 3:40
Cadillac Tramps 3:08
Barbed Wire 3:10
Medicine Man 3:14
Lies 3:26
She Fell off the Wagon 3:26
Fightin' Machine 2:11
Feel the Power 2:54
Mr. Politician 3:09
South Africa 4:16
Twenty Years 2:51

The Cadillac Tramps: Gabby (Lead vox), Brian Coakley, Johnny Two Bags (guitar, vocals), Warren W. Renfrow (bass), Jamie Reidling (drums).

Additional personnel: Eric Von (Jailhouse Blues) Herzen (harmonica), Tony Atherton (Sax), Jack Reidling (keys), Beth Carmellini (background vocals).

Producers: E., and the Cadillac Tramps (all tracks).

Recorded at For The Record, Orange, California.

Here's an old performance video of the song "South Africa", from Hart Park in Orange California circa 1991. The vocals are hard to hear but the music's great.

www.myspace.com/thecadillactramps

2006-02-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

KNOW YOUR STATE MOTTO

ALABAMA

State Motto: Audemus jura nostra defendere (We dare defend our rights)

Or rather as we think it should be changed to:

Alabama: Hell Yes, We Have Electricity

Things I've learned about Alabama:

Armadillos sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air.
Armadillos love to dig holes under tomato plants.
There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in Alabama.
There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Alabama, plus a couple no one's seen before.
Possums will eat anything.
Raccoons will test your crop of melons and let you know when they are ripe.
If it grows, it sticks; if it crawls, it bites.
A tractor is NOT an all-terrain vehicle. They do get stuck.
Onced and Twiced are words.
It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy.
Fire ants consider your flesh as a picnic.
Coldbeer is one word.
People actually grow and eat okra.
Fixinto is one word.
A tank is a dirt hole in the ground that holds water for irrigation, watterin' the cows, swimming, or a weekly bath.
There ain't no such thing as "lunch". There's only dinner and then there's supper. Tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're 2.
Backards and forwards means I know everything about you.
'Jeet? is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat?"
You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.
Darn near everyone knows 5 or more cloud types (guess they got to be look'n out for them there ternayders-(translation: tornados).

You know you're from Alabama if:

You measure distance in minutes.
You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
Stores don't have bags; they have sacks.
You see a car running in the parking lot at the store with no one in it, no matter what time of the year.
You use "fix" as a verb. Example: I am fixing to go to the store.
All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal.
You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
You carry jumper cables in your car ... for your OWN car.
You know what "cow tipping" is.
You only own four spices: salt, pepper, ketchup, and Tabasco.
The local papers cover national and international news on one page but requires 6 pages for local gossip and sports.
You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.
You find 100 degrees F "a little warm."
You know all four seasons: Almost summer, summer, still summer, and Christmas.
You know whether another Alabamian is from east, west, north or south Alabama as soon as they open their mouth.
Going to Wal-Mart is a favorite past-time known as "goin wal-martin" or off to "Wally World."
You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good chili weather.
A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola, or pop ... it's a Coke, regardless of brand or flavor. Example "What kinna coke you want?"

Alabama is a state rich in history and tradition. However, there's another side to Alabama you may not know about, a side so strange, so odd, that it can only be described as "Wacky!" From the Coon Dog Cemetery to the World's Largest Chair, you'll find them all along the "The Wacky Alabama Trail!"

MP3 1. The Doors - "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)"

Click on the picture above to view band's website.

ALASKA

State Motto: North to the Future

Or rather as we think it should be changed to:

Alaska: 11,623 Eskimos Can't Be Wrong!

You Know You're In Alaska When....

. .you know which leaves make good toilet paper
. . . .the mayor greets you on the street by your first name
. . . .there is only one shopping plaza in town
. . . .the municipality buys a Zamboni before a bus
. . . .the major parish fundraiser isn't bingo - its sausage making
. . . .you find -60c a might chilly
. . . .the trunk of your car doubles as a deep freeze
. . . .you attended a formal event in your best clothes, your finest jewels and your Sorrels
. . . .you can play road hockey on ice skates
. . . .shoveling the driveway constitutes a great upper body workout
. . . .you know the 4 seasons: Winter, Still Winter, Almost Winter, and Construction.

Check out the odd tourist attractions and hilarious stops in Alaska - Roadside America's favorite places and strange sights suggested by visitors like you!

MP3 2. Chandelle - "Alaska" Click on the picture to view band's website.

For those that are new and unfamiliar with Rapidshare, here are the instructions for downloading files. Step 1 click on a rapidshare link within a post, you'll be directed to the Rapidshare site. Step 2, scroll down to the bottom of that page where you see SELECT DOWNLOAD (FREE or PREMIUM). Step 3, click on FREE you will be directed to another Rapidshare page. Step 4, scroll down to the bottom of that page. You'll receive a download ticket with a timer telling how long of a wait before downloading, generally between 20 - 90 seconds depending on the time of day. Step 5, after timer has expired click on highlighted file and choose whether to OPEN or SAVE. Step 6, enjoy the music!

2006-02-02T22:14:00.000-08:00

Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day!

Groundhog Day 2006 arrived!

Phil saw his shadow!

There will be six more weeks of winter!

Phil started making predictions in 1887 and has become an American institution.
Groundhog Day grew out of a mainly German superstition that if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on February 2-- the Christian holiday of Candlemas -- winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, legend says spring will be early.

“Candlemas” is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course. The older Pagan names were the Pagan Festival of Lights or Imbolc and Oimelc. Imbolc means, literally, “in the belly” (of the Mother). For in the womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision, there are stirrings. The seed that was planted in her womb at the solstice is quickening and the new year grows.

Happy Groundhog Day! Here's your wacky MP3 song about the critter, free for your downloading pleasure! Every Groundhog Has His Day by the band

Visit LIFT OFF at www.myspace.com/liftoff4321

2006-01-26T21:18:00.000-08:00

1987

UK Top 100 Albums of 1987

Welcome to Prince week. Can you find today's musical sample among the UK Top 100 albums of 1987? Be patient, it's a really big long download! (Hint: It's a Prince mix and it's towards the bottom of this blog.) }:>

1. 2. 3.
4. 5. 6.
7. 8. 9.
10. 11.
12. 13.
14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
21. 22.
23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.
31. 32.
33. 34.
35. 36.
37. 38.
39. 40.
41. 42.
43. 44.
45. 46.
47. 48.
49. 50. Licensed To Kill - Gladys Knight 51. 52. 53. 54. 55.
56. 57.
58. 59.
60. 61.
62. 63.
64. 65.
66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72.
73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. Prince - "New Megamix"

80 The World Won't Listen - The Smiths
81 Electric - The Cult
82 Different Light - The Bangles
83 Sweet Freedom - Michael McDonald
84 Revenge - Eurythmics
85 Savage - Eurythmics
86 The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death - The Housemartins
87 Dancing On The Ceiling - Lionel Richie
88 Now Smash Hits - Various Artists
89 Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
90 Every Breath You Take: The Singles - The Police
91 Disco - Pet Shop Boys
92 Fore - Huey Lewis and the News
93 U2 Live: Under A Blood Red Sky - U2
94 Sentimentally Yours - Rose Marie
95 Queen Greatest Hits - Queen
96 Now That's What I Call Music 8 - Various Artists
97 Greatest Hits Of 1987 - Various Artists
98 Communards - Communards
99 Never Let Me Down - David Bowie
100 Now The Christmas Album - Various Artists

And to think that I've got nearly 90% of these albums. Sheesh! }:>

2006-01-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

January 25th

"Because time itself is like a spiral, something special happens on your birthday each year: The same energy that God invested in you at birth is present once again." --Menachem Mendel Schneerson

So this is it......it's my birthday. And I'm spending it packing for my move on Saturday. Nothing like working on your birthday! Although I will interject here to say I was escorted to IHOP for my free Birthday meal of Chocolate Chip Pancakes, which was quite scrumpdiliumpsiously delicious, I might add!

I received a book titled "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" by Oliver Sacks.

I'm very eager to read this book as it is filled with clinical tales drawn from fascinating and unusual cases encountered during his years of medical practice.

It looks like a very good and interesting read to come!

I also received a mail/bills sorting system that should come in handy as I try to get a little more organized this coming year.

But enough about me.......

I know you are dying to know who I share a birthday with on this fine day...

These stars were all born on Jan. 25:
Blues singer Etta James is 68.

Singer Alicia Keys is 25.

And if you need something else to celebrate....enjoy a pint or two today at lunch to commemerate these holidays on January 25th:

JANUARY 25th, 2006

Commemoration Birthday of G.F. Croes - Aruba
Foundation Day (Sao Paulo) - Brazil
St. Tatiana Day (beginning of Winter Holiday)
Burns Night - Scotland
Kirmeline - Lithuania

....This just in.....

Sean Penn's brother Chris was found dead on Tuesday!

Somber farewell to Penn

By Anthony Breznican,

USA TODAYPARK CITY, Utah — Actor Chris Penn's death cast a pall over Wednesday night's Sundance premiere for The Darwin Awards, in which Penn appeared. Chris Penn, who was found dead Tuesday, acted in such films as Reservoir Dogs and Mulholland Falls. AP file photo
"Obviously we are all sad today about Chris," Darwin Awards writer/director Finn Taylor said at the premiere. "Chris was really excited to be doing a comedy. He was such a great character actor ... and he gave an incredible performance that's going to make a lot of people laugh for years to come."

Penn, 40, was found dead in his condominium Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif. Police said it could be six weeks before the cause of death is determined.

"We are investigating whether it was accidental or natural," says Lt. Fred Corral of the investigative division of the Los Angeles County Coroner's office. "We do not rule out overdose, heart attack, stroke, anything of that nature."

Penn was best known for his role in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs as nice guy Eddie Cabot, the pampered son of a drug kingpin. He was the younger brother of Oscar winner Sean Penn. The brothers appeared together in the movie At Close Range with their mother, Eileen Ryan. Musician Michael Penn is their brother.

In The Darwin Awards, a dark comedy from director/screenwriter Finn Taylor, Penn plays a character who tries to blow a hole in a frozen lake with some dynamite. There are unfortunate results for a friend when the character's dog mistakes the plan for a game of fetch.
Penn was not scheduled to attend the festival, a representative for the movie said.

The premiere of The Darwin Awards, which stars Joseph Fiennes and Winona Ryder as investigators who research off-the-wall deaths, went on as scheduled at the 1,200-seat Eccles Theatre in Park City. A party after the screening, which featured a small-venue performance by the heavy-metal group Metallica, also went on as planned.
Go here to find out all about Chris Penn http://www.nndb.com/people/458/000063269/

.....and before I go.......here's your three Birthday Mp3's for the day

1. Just Us Band w/ Lilly Diamond - "Happy Birthday Me"

2. Terry Gajraj - "Today Has Been My Birthday"

3. The Vandals - "Happy Birthday to Me"

2006-01-25T00:25:00.000-08:00

January 24th is the Most Depressing Day of the Year

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

KRISTI TURNQUIST

Reprinted from The Oregonian

What's the matter, Bunky? Got the blues? In a funk? Down in the dumps?

It's not you. It's the day. Yes, you really can blame your trip to Glumville on something other than your own messed-up life. According to a British researcher, Jan. 24 is the -- drum roll, please -- most depressing day of the year.

How has this seemingly harmless 24 hours rocketed to the top -- or maybe it's the bottom -- of the bummer hit parade? According to Dr. Cliff Arnall, an expert on seasonal disorders at the University of Cardiff in Wales, winter woes peak on Jan. 24. It's all quite scientific, as the BBC reported. Arnall's formula takes into account the fact that Jan. 24 comes a whole month after Christmas, and holiday good cheer has fizzled. Not to mention Christmas shopping bills coming due, lousy weather, New Year's resolutions you've already broken, and the sense that you've got nothing to look forward to.

What to do? Sure, it's tempting to stay inside, eat a jumbo bag of and crank up the Smiths' feel-bad classic "Girlfriend in a Coma." But that's the wimp's way out. Experts such as Dr. Kathleen Hall, author of "A Life in Balance: Nourishing the Four Roots of True Happiness," suggests Jan. 24 gloomaholics get exercise; try some new foods; buy something colorful; watch a funny movie; or just take a bath, read, paint or nap to recharge.

And don't worry, Jan. 24 soon will pass. Spring's just around the corner.

Then again, so is April 15.

Pass the Cheetos.

Oh yeah and don't forget tomorrow is my birthday. Make yourself happy by going out and buying me a present! I like that idea!

And now for your listening pleasure...

1. Brobdingnagian Bards - "Hobbit Happy Birthday Song"

2. Cibo Matto - "Birthday Cake"

3. Happy Birthday Party Ad

A virtual pin the tail on the donkey game

...and be sure to check out Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records for more great music!

2006-01-24T00:28:00.000-08:00

2 TO GO...

Happy birthday Countdown continued...

Some Happy birthday facts

Happy Birthday to You, the four-line ditty was written as a classroom greeting in 1893 by two Louisville teachers, Mildred J. Hill, an authority on Negro spirituals, and Dr. Patty Smith Hill, professor emeritus of education at Columbia University. The melody of the song was composed by Mildred J. Hill, a schoolteacher born in Louisville, KY, on June 27, 1859. The song was first published in 1893, with the lyrics written by her sister, Patty Smith Hill, as "Good Morning To All."

"Happy birthday to You" was copyrighted in 1935 and renewed in 1963. The song was apparently written in 1893, but first copyrighted in 1935 after a lawsuit (reported in the New York Times of August 15, 1934, p.19 col. 6)
In 1988, Birch Tree Group, Ltd. sold the rights of the song to Warner Communications (along with all other assets) for an estimated $25 million (considerably more than a song). (reported in Time, Jan 2, 1989 v133 n1 p88(1)

In the 80s, the song was believed to generate about $1 million in royalties annually. With Auld Lang Syne and For He's a Jolly Good Fellow, it is among the three most popular songs in the English language. (reported in Time, Jan 2, 1989 v133 n1 p88(1)
Happy Birthday to You continues to bring in approximately 2 million dollars in licensing revenue each year, at least as of 1996 accounting, according to Warner Chappell and a Forbes magazine article.

Some more Happy Birthday music for your listening pleasure...

1. Happy Birthday Dogs

2. The Gobos - "Birthday Song"

3. Icy Blu - "It's Your Birthday"

2006-01-21T23:13:00.000-08:00

BIRTHDAY COUNTDOWN

*RING* *RING* It’s for you! It’s NINO!

“Wal-mart...do they like make walls there?” --Paris Hilton

Hey gang! How is it hangin'? Mine's hanging a little to the right, but thanks for asking!! Especially since my birthday is coming up! Yay!

Exactly this time next Wednesday, I’m going to be sipping on a , opening dozens of presents, telling people *exactly* where to stick it (hey, it’s MY day! So you can take my attitude and shove it!) and wearing exactly what I came into this lovely world wearing. Nothing but the comfort of my birthday suit! Wouldn't you like to know what color it is?!

It’s a purple !

But anyway, you won't get to see it unless you were invited to the party! Check your tickets folks and make your reservations! Now you might think I’m just some hick that works for a living, but my daily dip in the Information Superhighway Pool doesn’t go unnoticed by the important people. What makes me so confident of my self inflicted importance? Well I’ll tell you: one Brilliant Cracker by the name of Paris Hilton has sent me a Birthday card! And I’d like to share it with you.

BIRTHDAY GREETINGS OF TRUTH by Paris Hilton

Howdy y’all! Happy B-day, Nino! When my little Tinkerbell told me it was your birthday, I was all, "No way, that’s awesome." “The way I see it, you should live everyday like it's your birthday.” And she was all, "Yip Yip Yeah, I’ve partied with that dude in Vegas, he’s da bomb, yo, yip, yip, ruf, ruf, yipe, yipe yipe!." And I was all, "Tink, is SO 1997, I mean really, every woman should have four pets in her life. A mink in her closet, a jaguar in her garage, a tiger in her bed, and a jackass who pays for everything.” oh oops...hehehe we were talking about Your birthday, I got sidetracked for a sec... um where was I? oh yeah Da bomb is so 1997 and I should know, that’s when I was portrayed in: "South Park", y’all! And I was Da Bomb ...And then, Bit-Bit was all, "Ruff ruff yip yip yip aROOOOOOO!!" She’s like SO excited for yer birthday party, dude! Oh, and my little was all, "Yip yip grrr growl COUGH GAG birthday!" My little Crapper in the Furry Wrapper was, like, nippin’ at me like crazy! And I was thinking..............but I was like “I don't really think, I just walk.” Know what I mean? Where was I? I forgot. Oh yeah...I just hope Tinkerbell didn’t me with some alien-herpies-type puppy. That’d be like all weird and stuff and I’d have to get paid by the National Inquirer. “That's hot!”

Well anyhoo, I’s gots ta run! They’re havin’ a 69¢ special at MickyD’s, and getting engaged ain’t gonna fatten me up itself you know!

Love,
Pare!!!!!

Thanks Pear! That birthday card sure beat out my Aunt Pursilla's traditional seven dolla birthday check! Its too bad it came scrawled out in ketcup on a Mickey D's napkin. Oh, and try to hold on to Tink, there. That dog would make a mean hackysack.

Luv,
Nino Urban Demon/ Groupie Beneficiary

PS I've got some presents for you! Speaking of Miss Pear Hilton and birthdays...check out these hot slabs of wax...

1. Paris Hilton - "Screwed" (That's right, here's her new single. Oh the horror!)

2. Altered Images - "Happy Birthday"

3. Arrogant Worms - "The Happy Happy Birthday Song"

Here's to the final countdown to B-day!

2006-01-18T19:37:00.000-08:00

INSANE ASYLUM

aka

Insane Asylum

Check out this 1990 public service message titled "We Care About New York", concerning New York City's rat problem , directed by David Lynch in black and white. Cinematography by Frederick Elmes.

While you're at it, check out this rat of a tune by the Bass Kittens. Bass Kittens - "Rat Patrol"

I'm not sure what it is with religious

nuts and Xtians, but they do the

darndest things. Check out this seriously weird Xtian puppet show: The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson Show.
Who edited this? You may ask yourself, "Is this really how it appeared?" Yes it seems too crazy.

You can read more about this amazing weird puppeteer's work:

David Hart: L.A. Public Access TV Legend

http://www.losanjealous.com/2005/10/13/david-hart-public-access-tv-legend/

Of course it would only be fitting to provide a proper soundtrack to fit the mood of the Xtian Alien Puppet show. Likewise I give you some Hoodoo Gurus, because this martian puppet could have definately used some guitars to spice these crazy songs up a bit.

Hoodoo Gurus - "Mars Needs Guitars"

"I'm a stoneage Romeo, be my spaceage Juliet

We'll take guitars to Mars, and hit the discoteque!"

I've gotta tell ya, there's nothing more sexy than a big, fat, tattooed, punk of a slob, sleeping on the street, while his .40 oz lies quietly draining on the sidewalk, near what he so affectionately calls his bed. And yet somehow I was under the assumption that the insane asylum we call the great big city, never sleeps. I guess I was wrong. Sometimes the city does take a big ass nap, like the rest of us!

And this would be oh so bereft of it's proper charm had we not included a proper soundtrack for your auditory pleasure. What better than the Eurythmics stating just how alive the great big city truly is.

Eurythmics - "The City Never Sleeps"

"You know there's so many people

Living in this house

And I don't even know their names"

So try not to get too stressed, cartoon kitties and cartoon doggies. Go get yer friends to give you a massage or be a true friend and give a friend a massage, and smile all the way through the padded hallways!

2006-01-15T21:25:00.000-08:00

CRY

"Heavy the sorrow that bows the head

When love is alive and hope is dead." --W. S. Gilbert, H.M.S. Pinafore

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Here's today's useless fact:Lobster was so common in 18th-century Maine that it was used forfertilizer. In 19th-century Europe, oysters were the luxury food of theday, and lobster was considered a poor man's food.

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"'Thousands of songs have been composed about tears; almost every movie worth remembering stimulates their flow,' says Jeffrey Cottler, Ph.D., professor of counseling at Texas Tech University, and author of The Language of Tears (Jossey-Bass, 1996)" (Ralston 1998:96).

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Women cry five times more frequently than men (and average five crying spells a month).

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Humans are the only animals positively known to cry emotional tears of sadness and joy, though the vocal cries, whines, and whimpers of young mammals are similarly used to solicit aid from mothers.

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Why does chopping an onion make you cry?
Answer: Unstable chemicals.
Onions produce the chemical irritant known as syn-propanethial-S-oxide. It stimulates the eyes' lachrymal glands so they release tears. Scientists used to blame the enzyme allinase for the instability of substances in a cut onion. Recent studies from Japan, however, proved that lachrymatory-factor synthase, (a previously undiscovered enzyme) is the culprit (Imani et al, 2002).
The process goes as follows:
Lachrymatory-factor synthase is released into the air when we cut an onion. The synthase enzyme converts the sulfoxides (amino acids) of the onion into sulfenic acid. The unstable sulfenic acid rearranges itself into syn-ropanethial-S-oxide. Syn-propanethial-S-oxide gets into the air and comes in contact with our eyes. The lachrymal glands become irritated and produces the tears!

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“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.” --Dr. Seuss

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“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will make me go in a corner and cry by myself for hours.” --Eric Idle

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“That thing, that moment, when you kiss someone and everything around becomes hazy and the only thing in focus is you and this person and you realize that that person is the only person that you're supposed to kiss for the rest of your life, and for one moment you get this amazing gift and you want to laugh and you want to cry because you feel so lucky that you found it and so scared that that it will go away all at the same time.” --Drew Barrymore

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“When a love comes to an end, weeklings cry, efficient ones instantly find another love and wise already had one in reserve.” --Oscar Wilde

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Why do you cry?
brought to you by Quizilla
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------How to cry on cueAugust 25, 2004 Ever been the only dry eye at a funeral? Or failed to produce even a tear as the apparent love of your life sobbed his or her way through the airport departure gates? Then you'd be well aware that sometimes tears are not only warranted but expected. Plus: Instant message stick, Predicting the future, and Lust souls Radar spoke to Tony Knight, head drama teacher at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, and asked him for some tips on turning on the tears any time, any place. Leading up to your first performance, Knight suggests "studying the body language of people crying. What do they look like, how do they move, etc?" Then it's show time.

Find an impulse for crying, such as your late dog or the person you last slept with.
Personalise it and make it completely about you. "Using cliched experiences normally works best," Knight adds.
Cry like Niagara Falls on a rainy day.
If that fails, wave the fumes from eucalyptus oil into your eye. "That really makes the tear ducts well up," Knight says. - Emma-Kate Dobbin

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Here's three MP3's associated with the theme of crying in one way or another. These three tracks are in the classic rock genre as crying and classic rock seem to go hand in hand it seems:

1. Guns N' Roses - "Don't Cry (Original)"

.2. Symphonic Slam - "I Won't Cry"

3. Ae rosmith - "You See Me Cry ing"

2006-01-14T18:51:00.000-08:00

RAP: THE NEW EVIL

Hip Hop's Bad Rap

French Rap Musicians Blamed for Violence

The old debate on the influence of music on behavior has been debated from Elvis to 50 Cent. A Certain sub-genres of hip-hop are associated with different troubling behaviors, when it comes to rap music and French Canadian teens at least, according to a Canadian study.

Researchers Dave Miranda and Michel Claes of the University of Montreal found that kids who listened to French language rap were more likely to use drugs, commit crimes and be in street gangs than those who listened to English language hip-hop/soul. Apparently, English rap is more closely associated with a hedonistic style of music that celebrates luxury and sexual feats. Teens who listen to American rap are less likely to commit theft than those who preferred gangsta/hardcore rap. Ironically those who preferred to listen to gangsta rap, were the least likely to belong to a gang. Somehow I don't find that surprising, noticing the thousands of white suburban kids who listen and try to emulate the gangsta rap persona.

The study of 350 male and female teens was published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

And on a related note: The French parliament is calling for legal action against several rap musicians for allegedly inciting violence and racism in last year's suburban riots. Not wanting to take the rap for the unrest, rap artists and their mentors say the music reflects economic and social reality.

French rappers have been venting the anger of an alienated underclass for over a decade, but the politicians haven't been listening, rappers say. "This makes me laugh," Matteo Ferran, part owner of the record label Street Skillz, says. "Rappers have been saying the same thing for 10 years, warning about what goes on in the suburbs, where kids are miserable. There are teenagers who think about committing suicide -- they have no future." Ferran says suggesting rap is to blame for the riots is a case of shooting the messenger.

Municipal authorities have gone so far as to encourage minority youth to explore their creativity. A city-funded urban renewal project turned a former tobacco factory into a vast center for artists, actors and musicians.

Rapper Prodige Namor has even been running a school for rappers workshops since 1998. He says rap is all about identity. "You have lots of people from... Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, the Comoro Islands, and everybody wants to show who he is and where he comes from. It is a way... to show who they are, what they want to prove."

Amir Kegeri, one of Namor's best students is a 17-year-old of Algerian origin who goes by the stage name of Ace. Kegeri hopes to record an album after he finishes school. He says that his rap singing is "more than just a message, it is a state of mind, it is a culture, it is a life."

The moral of this story, of course, is to not listen to French Rap. French Rap can lead you to a bad rap. If your going to indulge in the deviant music sources associated with rap and hip-hop then choose English speaking American rap artists. Then you can just pose like a gangsta rapper and not be embroiled in the mess associated with gangsta rap. awwww the life of a gangsta! This is what French rap does to your fabulous brain.

And since I'm not very good at following rules and too often times indulge in deviant behaviors myself, I'm offering three French rap mp3's for your enjoyment. See you in prison, gang!

1. 5é Bastos - "Emeute"

2. 0800 - "SOS Suicide MC's"

3. 852 Tunes - "Back In 852"

SLATER!!!!

NINO }:>

2006-01-08T11:57:00.000-08:00

CHEMISTRY LESSONS IN LOVE

While I know I started this blog as a 365 MP3 a day blog, I've been so busy that I've neglected to supply tracks for quite a few days. As recompense I will provide several MP3 over the next few days. Today's theme is love and love lost. Love can be exhilarating, but yet devastating when lost. First I will provide you, the lone reader, an explanation of the way love works from a scientific state of mind. Or in other words, a look behind the tinkerings of the machinery we take for granted as love. And perhaps this will help us all in our quest to find that lingering of all predilections in our lives. I will leave you all with three MP3's concerning the loss of love. If we all could only hold onto that which we so dearly crave, perhaps there would be less pain and loss in the world. Enjoy!

CHEMISTRY LESSONS IN LOVE

How do we make love's first blush linger on? Who hasn't felt that they are the happiest, the luckiest and the only human to fall so completely in love? It's hard to forget and even more harder to sustain the physical and emotional fanfare that heralds love's arrival. There are three states that contribute to the makeup of this thing called love. Lust. Romantic Love. Attachment.

1. Lust is the beginning state that gets us on the hunt for potential mates.

2. Romantic love is the state that narrows our focus and energy to just one person.

3. Attachment, the third and glue to every relationship, encourages us to stick with said partner

long enough to raise children.

While love seems all about flowers and blue skies and hazy picturesque panoramas, it's actually all run by a chemical concoction in the brain. Not as exciting, I'm sure, but love is more about science than teddy bears and roses.

Lust in the intial phase of romantic love is driven by dopamine and norepinephrine levels surging when a person is confronted by the unknown. Much like slowly ascending the peak of a roller coaster.

It often causes such exhilaration that we lose the desire to eat or sleep, or as the French prefer to call it, le coup de foudre ("lightning bolt"). It's much like an addiction, whether it's cocaine or Jennifer in the office next door, it's the same results in the brain. "Romantic love is an urge, a craving, a homeostatic imbalance that drives you to pursue a particular partner, and to [experience] emotions like elation and hope...," explains Helen Fisher, a research anthropologist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The drive of dopamine eventually subsides, followed by romantic love's chemical concoction of vasopressin and oxytocin, hormones that lead to long-lasting attachment. Even though these two chemicals can make us feel warm and fuzzy, they can never match the intensity that dopamine made us feel in the "lust" stage of the courtship.

However, one can invoke the thrill and power of dopamine by embracing new adventures, due to the fact that novelty prompts the brain to pump out this chemical. In other words, new and varied stimuli can be sufficiently arousing to recapture what was initially so exciting about your mate in the first stage. As proof of this fact, several studies have shown relationship satisfaction, as well as more romance, between couples who share exciting experiences, than do couples leading more mundane lives together. Simple factors such as humor and sex can rev up dopamine levels in the brain, allowing partners to recapture the thrill of romantic love, if only temporarily.

Of course in the words of Homer or Tennessee Williams and many other great authors, the simplest way to shake up a relationship is through enforced separation and knock-down, drag-out fights. Arguments trigger a rush of adrenaline, which kicks in during risky, dangerous or new situations. This may explain the old adage, "break up to make up". Dopamine levels rise into high gear, "when a reward is delayed...(as in) wanting the person more when barriers are increased." explains Fisher.

And not to mention let's face it, the 21st century is nothing like the previous ones filled with slow-motion lifestyles, leisure walks in the park along a pristine lake. Today is far and removed from the elegant and gracious times of the past. Today romance is shifted presedence with juggling bills, office deadlines and scheduling errands and appointments. Due to this new factor in the human life cycle, relationships struggle to survive once the "highs" of courtship give way to routine. Our brains are now programmed and our nerve endings snapp to attention agasinst a shortage of time. Folks of the past had all the time in the world in their day to day lives, while we seem to be losing time with our progress. Therefore leading us to feel unsatisfied at the mere lessening of those highs associated with the first stage of romantic love. Therefore you can see how dompamine is much like cocaine and our desire to get the next fix around the corner, never feeling quite satisfied without that rush or addiction enducing chemical caused by the first stage of romantic love.

One other side note of interest,is the influence of scents on the stages of love. One of the most subtle but important forces steering love is the body's own unadulterated scent. Rachel Herz, visiting assisting professor of psychology at Brown Universtiy has found that scent is the second most important criterion for women (after a pleasant disposition). Women are more interested in scent than in appearance, voice or muscle tone. That may explain the abundance of beautiful women who end up with complete assholes. There's nothing that can be said about the power of cologne. People know which cologne drives them crazy, but their preference for one perosn' smell over another's is at the mercy of biological processes that generally operate below the level of conscious awareness.

The source of each person's one-of-a-kind odor is, in fact, his or her own unique immune system. Immunity is inherited from both parents, and due to the fact that the human animal is programmed to follow the simple rule of "survival of the fittest," we are designed to mate with a partner whose profile differs from our own. As pointed out, studies suggest that we like the scent of people with immune systems unlike ours. On an interesting side note, it's been found that couples with similar immune systems have a higher risk of spontaneous miscarriages and have more trouble conceiving.

In an experimental study, directed by Claus Wedekind of the University of Bern in Switzerland, several women were asked to sniff and select cotton clothes that were worn by various men. The women not only favored the shirts of men whose immune profiles differed from their own but also said the aromas reminded them of current or ex-lovers. This is definate proof that immune profiles influenced their romantic choices in the past. On the other hand, T-shirts worn by men who had similar immune systems to the women, reminded the women in the study of their fathers or brothers instead.

One factor that may be an explanation in our sky-high divorce rates is a factor of the study that pointed out that women taking oral contraceptives, however, were dangerously misled in partner preference: They found the dad-and brother-like smells most attractive. The reason behind this is the fact that the pill tricks the woman's body into acting as if she's pregnant. One explanation to the theory behind this reasoning, is that throughout time it would have been beneficial and advantageous for a woman to be around family and kin when she is in such a vulnerable state. Rachel Herz stated that "Marriage counselors say that a [top] complaint from women who want to end a relationship is, 'I can't stand his smell.'"

A few years into marriage a woman may stop using contraceptives, only to find a loss of interest in her mate without knowing why. Herz now advises women who use the pill to try alternate means of birth control before settling down with a partner.

Although this may be a factor in a relationship, it's not a definate end all, be all to a relationship. Once atwo people are emotionally attached, they are disposed to see -- and smell -- each other in a positive light.

Culled from material research from "Chemistry Lessons" - Psychology Today; "Love's First Blush" by Kaja Perina; "Sensationally Out of Step: by Hara Estroff Marano; "Does Love Make Scents" by Carlin Flora.

Today I give you three MP3 equated with lost love:

The first is the original version of "Don't Turn Around" by Aswad. Probably the first ever song that was originally a reggae song and then covered as a pop song. As you know it's usually the other way around. Pop songs so often become reggae covers. But this was born a reggae track. Let the truth be known.

1. Aswad - "Don't Turn Around"

"If you ever think about me

Just know that I’ll be alright

I’m gonna be strong

I’m gonna do fine"

2. Ace Of Base - "Don't Turn Around"

"Don’t worry about this heart of mine

I know I’ll survive

Sure I’ll make it through

And I’ll even learn to live without you"

3. Coverdale/Page - "Don't Leave Me This Way"

"I´m sick and tired

and lonely,

sitting in my room

Staring at the shadows,

blowing smoke rings at the moon."

SLATER!!!!

NINO }:>

2006-01-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

New Years Day

"When I am in solitude, I am in charge." -- Elmo

On this day, January 1, one of my New Years goals is...

...to make new friends!

Play the Goal Making Game!

Ok so who's first? Wanna be my friend? Come join the party.... }:>

"Welcome to the strangest party baby
It’s like we’re staring at the sun
Everybody’s got their invitations
Hopin’ that you’re gonna come yeah"
--The Strangest Party - INXS

January 1st is sacred to the goddesses known as the Three Fates, the German goddess Bertha, the Morrigan, the Parcae, and the Japanese household gods.

Many modern Witches and Wiccans around the world traditionally start off the new year with a spell for good luck and a ritual to bless the new year with peace, love, health, and prosperity for all.

This is a traditional time for ending bad habits and beginning New Year's resolutions.

The first day of January was dedicated by the ancient Romans to the god Janus (whom the month is named after). Janus possesses two identical faces looking in opposite directions: one to the past, and the other to the future. He is a god of gates and doorways, and a deity associated with journeys and the beginnings of things.

FOR LUCK IN THE NEW YEAR
Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the luck they would have throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes of a brand new year in the company of family and friends. Parties often last into the middle of the night after the ringing in of a new year. It was once believed that the first visitor on New Year's Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of the year. It was particularly lucky if that visitor happened to be a tall dark-haired man.
So who of you out there need me to drop by first? hehehehe }:>

Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck. Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes "coming full circle," completing a year's cycle. For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating donuts on New Year's Day will bring good fortune.
Many parts of the U.S. celebrate the new year by consuming black-eyed peas. These legumes are typically accompanied by either hog jowls or ham. Black-eyed peas and other legumes have been considered good luck in many cultures. The hog, and thus its meat, is considered lucky because it symbolizes prosperity. Cabbage is another "good luck" vegetable that is consumed on New Year's Day by many. Cabbage leaves are also considered a sign of prosperity, being representative of paper currency. In some regions, rice is a lucky food that is eaten on New Year's Day.

Happy New Year!

May there finally be Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men.

You can review today's mp3 at the following link

U2 - New Year's Day

SLATER!!!!

THE ICE }:>

HURT (QUIET)

2005-12-24T20:43:00.000-08:00

Hurt (Quiet)

Nine Inch Nails

.....tis Christmas Eve..........I hurt........ouch.....alone

"I hurt myself today

To see if I still feel"

Hurt. Pain. Loss. Guilt

"I focus on the pain

The only thing that’s real"

It's a constant reocurrence in life
a constant source of interruption
...the tick against time
the loss of our life's grounding wires

"The needle tears a hole

The old familiar sting

Try to kill it all away

But I remember everything"

I remember dieing once before

Almost ten years ago

I still have yet to get a tattoo symbolizing that death

the storm before the new beginning

and yet nearly a decade later,

I'm lost in the wilderness again

"What have I become?

My sweetest friend

Everyone I know

Goes away in the end"

How many have lingered?

to grow with

those ones to see your training wheels loosed

your sores to become scars

wounds swollen from infection

"You could have it all

My empire of dirt"

I'd trade it all for a lifetime of peace

solitude

love

safety

naivety?

"I will let you down

I will make you hurt"

Beware of the man

with the dirty halo

Old King Might-As-Well-Be

and his touch of cold

"I wear my crown of shit

On my liar’s chair"

I once new a man

who could do no wrong

everything he touched

turned to gold

never a failure

loss was not an option

"Full of broken thoughts

I cannot repair"

Where has he gone?

Lost in the undertow

Swept out to see

the dark on the horizon

"Beneath the stain of time

The feeling disappears"

Those who stood before me

change through their vocations

words once spoken

have turned to dust

"You are someone else

I am still right here

What have I become?

My sweetest friend"

If I had a nickel

for every soul I've lost

I'd be a rich man

a man the weak would cling to

to rob me of my wealth

"Everyone I know

Goes away in the end

You could have it all

My empire of dirt"

Take everything I own

share it with those in need

bless my soul

I can't use it anymore

"I will let you down

I will make you hurt"

Beware he says

"this crown will only cause you pain"

seven years bad luck

doing double time

"If I could start again

A million miles away

I would keep myself

I would find a way"

Oh to find myself again

the man with the midas touch

he who can do no wrong

a winner in the end!

An interesting side line concerning this song. Trent Reznor when asked to comment on Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt" said the following: "Tears welling, silence, goose-bumps… Wow....that song isn't mine anymore. … It really made me think about how powerful music is as a medium and art form. I wrote some words and music in my bedroom as a way of staying sane, about a bleak and desperate place I was in, totally isolated and alone. [Somehow] that winds up reinterpreted by a music legend from a radically different era/genre and still retains sincerity and meaning—different, but every bit as pure" --Trent Reznor

Hallelujah! You can download a copy of both of these versions to listen to at the following links:

Nine Inch Nails - Hurt (Quiet)

Johnny Cash - Hurt (Video Version)