NARM! NARM!!!

Sleigh Bells

2010-05-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

I emerge from cobwebs to share with you some awesome.

Treats

Buy
last.fm

They are everything I like in music fucked together. Pop beats, shredding, distortion, girly vocals. Brooklyn hipsters, of course, and all that. The lady teaches 5th grade.

1. Tell 'Em+
2. Kids+
3. Riot Rhythm
4. Infinity Guitars*
5. Run the Heart
6. Rachel
7. Rill Rill (Ring Ring)+
8. Crown on the Ground+
9. Straight A's
10. A/B Machines*
11. Treats

The Knife's Tomorrow, In A Year

2010-02-22T12:12:00.000-08:00

hotfile
official site (read it, buy it, sample)

The very best brother-sister Swedish dark electronic music duo reunited for a commission by Hotel Pro Forma (a Danish performance group), is co-composed by Planningtorock and Mt. Sims. The more you read at the above link, the better. It's an incredibly diverse, and evolving, exploration of sound, from atonality and Romantic opera to, near the end, something close to house music and pop anthems.

01. Intro
02. Epochs
03. Geology+
04. Upheaved*
05. Minerals+
06. Ebb Tide Explorer
07. Variation of Birds*
08. Letter to Henslow
09. Schoal Swarm Orchestra
01. Annie’s Box+
02. Tumult
03. Colouring of Pigeons+
04. Seeds*
05. Tomorrow in a Year+
06. The Height of Summer*
07. Annie's Box (alt. vocal)

Yeasayer!

2010-01-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Try Odd Blood(mediafire)
pre-order
They have a blog but I'd rather not show up on their incoming links, despite how early this leaked. last.fm
It's the first great album of 2010. If you're not familiar, they're a electro-folk-pop point between Animal Collective, MGMT, and Passion Pit. There's more joy in this than in All Hour Symbols, from the bildungsroman single Ambling Alp, through the subtle retreat of Madder Red, the contradictory tropical bouncer ONE, to Mondegreen, whose supposed lyrics I can't wait to read. Even the weaker tracks have an emotional kick that disinhibits skipping.

Tracklist:
1. The Children
2. Ambling Alp +
3. Madder Red *
4. I Remember
5. ONE *
6. Love Me Girl
7. Rome +
8. Strange Reunions
9. Mondegreen *
10. Grizelda

Janet's Big 2009 Song Mix

2009-12-24T21:58:00.001-08:00

My narrative medium is the mix!
I have divided it into three parts for download frustration (and also because they're about CD length)(and to minimize damage if I have to take anything down). Each has a bit of art. The art dividers are the download links. Songs with links are to videos, when the video improves the song even more. 8tracks mixes (also imbedded below)1, 2, 3. Naturally, you will pick and choose amongst them, so I've tried to cluster by genre and mood, somewhat.

0 TITLE ARTIST ALBUM

1 Bad Romance Lady GaGa The Fame Monster 4:57
2 Fixin To Thrill Dragonette Fixin To Thrill 4:08
3 I Feel Cream Peaches I Feel Cream 4:33
4 Actor Out Of Work St. Vincent Actor 2:15
5 Turn It on Franz Ferdinand Tonight Franz Ferdinand 2:21
6 Games For Days Julian Plenti is... Skyscraper 3:57
7 1901 Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 3:18
8 Sweetheart Micachu Jewellery 0:53
9 Michael Telepathe Dance Mother 4:15
10 All The Kings Men Wild Beasts Two Dancers 4:00
11 Little Secrets Passion Pit Manners 3:59 (their videos are making me like them even better)
12 Zero Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz! 4:26
13 Glass Bat For Lashes Two Suns 4:33
14 Hell Tegan & Sara Sainthood 3:25 (Amanda Palmer Karaoke Verite)
15 Idiot Heart Sunset Rubdown Dragonslayer 6:09
16 Psychic City YACHT See Mystery Lights 5:09
17 New In Town Little Boots Hands 3:19
18 Summertime Clothes Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion 4:32
19 Daylight Outro Mix Matt & Kim Grand 3:11
20 Moonson Delorean Ayrton Senna EP 3:45

21 M Telefon Tel Aviv Immolate Yourself 3:42
22 Tricky Tricky Röyksopp Junior 5:59
23 The Fear Lily Allen It's Not Me, It's You 3:26
24 Dominos The Big Pink A Brief History Of Love 3:46
25 One Day The Juan MacLean The Future Will Come 4:17
26 Bulletproof La Roux 3:27
27 2012 Gossip Music For Men 3:50
28 Break Up Girls! The Raveonettes In And Out Of Control 4:00
29 The End Vivian Girls Everything Goes Wrong 3:16
30 Hot Song Talk Normal Sugarland 4:06
31 Wet Hair Japandroids Post-Nothing (Promo) 3:12
32 So Bored Wavves Wavvves 3:14
33 The Turn Around The Oh Sees Help 1:03
34 Keep Me In Dark The Fiery Furnaces I'm Going Away 4:04
35 Shelter The xx xx 4:30
36 Stillness Is the Move The Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca 5:14
37 Real Live Flesh Tune-Yards Bird-Brains 3:33

38 People Got a Lotta Nerve Neko Case Middle Cyclone 2:34
39 The Forest Mirah (A)Spera 3:30
40 Avalanches Jordaan Mason And The Horse Museum Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head 2:18
41 Hands Like Roots The Builders And The Butchers Salvation Is A Deep Dark Well 2:18
42 See The Leaves The Flaming Lips Embryonic 4:24
43 Easy Thao with the Get Down Stay Down Know Better Learn Faster 3:37
44 Dog Days Are Over Florence And The Machine Lungs 4:16
45 The Wooden Chair Jenny Wilson Hardships! 3:15
46 Gimme Sympathy Metric Fantasies 3:55
47 Sylvia The Antlers Hospice 5:25
48 Triangle Walks Fever Ray Fever Ray 4:23 (really hard to pick a favorite song. This video looks like her live show.)
49 Bloody Palms Phantogram Eyelid Movies 3:32
50 Fake Out Bear In Heaven Beast Rest Forth Mouth 3:14
51 Trace A Line Au Revoir Simone Still Night, Still Light 3:58
52 On Rose Walk, Insomniac Why? Eskimo Snow 2:08
53 It's All Good Bob Dylan Together Through Life 5:28

Janet's Favorite Albums of 2009

2009-12-14T21:03:00.001-08:00

Subject to editing and the addition of 10 more albums.

30. The Gossip - Music For Men
29. Phantogram - Eyelid Movies
28. Dragonette - Fixin to Thrill
27. The Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
26. The Oh Sees - Help
25. Jenny Wilson - Hardships!
24. Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
23. Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - Know Better Learn Faster
22. The Antlers - Hospice
21. the xx - xx

20. Royksopp - Junior

19. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers

18. tUnE-yArDs - Bird-Brains

a.k.a. Merrill Garber with a ukelele and a laptop.

17. Micachu and the Shapes- Jewellery

Young experimentalists to keep an ear on.

16. Telepathe - Dance Mother
Experimental female electronica duo. Very Brooklyn. Looking forward to their future.

So Fine video
I liked the pink dead rat they had as the cover when it leaked. Ah well.

15. St. Vincent - Actor Out Of Work

Like the other Bush-descendant, a giant leap on the sophomore album. Actor Out Of Work, Marrow.

14. Passion Pit - Manners

All-male dance pop with falsettos and beards. To Kingdom Come! is not the song we thought it was

13. La Roux

Sharp retro-synthpop. If their videos keep improving does that mean their budget's increasing? Of course. In For The Kill, Bulletproof, I'm Not Your Toy.

12. Fiery Furnaces - I'm Going Away

They've taken their own premise in yet another weird direction - less produced, more accessible, and resembling live blues-pop, it's not their strongest, but there's something perfectly deadpan about it. Even in the Rain.

11. Yacht - See Mystery Lights

Listen to these fucking hipsters. Summer Song.

10. Little Boots - Hands

Victoria Heskel is a vulnerably pretty, slightly awkward music nerd who makes energetic catchy spacey electro-dance-pop. She also has a good buzz management system and shares my aesthetic. The album kind of drifts overly cheesy toward the end. New In Town video hobo, gangbanger and whore minstrelry for the times. Other videos try to avoid boots herself dancing. What is a laser harp? It's a harp, made of laser.

9. Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong

I like almost every song. Maybe I'm naive and just like songs about boys by girls and nice simple chords. Maybe I wouldn't like it if it didn't roar with distortion. Maybe I'll be deaf enough to like Times New Viking soon.
Moped Girls I had not seen before. When I'm Gone.

8. The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Yeah, but who didn't list them this year? Stillness is the Move: llama wanker, wanker llama

7. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

This band is better than Spencer Krug's other band[s]. Proggy. Ambitious. Fantastical. Fun. And this is the album that makes it better. They don't make videos, but the do play Nightingale/December Song live (with an obscene number of drummers).

6. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns

Huge conceptual and technical leap forward from her debut. She is a worthy Pakistani-British successor to Kate Bush. Daniel, Pearl's Dream (Lynchy!), Sleep Alone.

5. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

The impression I get of this is that it's one great and one okay EP with a lot of filler, scrambled together. It could lose the covers and the crickets. Then I realized that's still half an hour of better music than anything else ever.
People Got A Lotta Nerve video based on Julie Morstad's drawings. If I listen to this too much I cry. Onward.

4. Fever Ray s/t

(probably the 3rd best album cover, isn't this an odd pattern?)
Truly a grower, and a profoundly lonely album, by Karin Dreijer-Andersson, a.k.a. the female sibling of The Knife. Her increasing influence on that band's sound is evident in the similarity between Fever Ray and Silent Shout. Her and her cohorts are as weird as they want to be, coldly maintaining their performance of electronic shamanism in natural virtuality. When I Grow Up, Seven.

3. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Natch. Also, second best cover. Shut up, I like crawly op-art.

2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
Also wins "best album cover". Decade-defining art-rock trio does electropop. So some of them might be dicks.

Video for "heads will roll" featuring two of 2009's other memes, a werewolf Michael Jackson.

1. Metric - Fantasies

If you're gonna self-release an album, it's good if it's your best, and there's still plenty of budget, and a whole series of Buenos Aires street art by Hollwood Cambodia for each song. Here's the video for"Gimme Sympathy" in which members of the band switch within, seemingly, the same shot.
Emily Haines is also in this excellent video for "Games For Days" with Julian Plenti / Paul Banks of Interpol.

Mica Mica. Chu Chu.

2009-12-11T22:26:00.000-08:00

try Jewellery

Art School: The Band.

From last.fm:

Micachu is the 21 year old songwriter / producer, Mica Levi. She studies composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London . As well as writing more traditional pieces, she writes electronic pop songs, sometimes delivered acoustically. She has worked with a band of equally talented musicians (“The Cluster”) made up of Miss Bienek, Taza, Yvette, Baker Trouble, Mayhem, Kit Downes, GhostPoet and Kwes., but has recently unveiled her amazing new band (“the Shapes”), made up of Raisa Khan and Marc Pell.

Pop stars younger than me set off so much envy. Still, she's all androgynous and adorable and British and a damn good musician, perkily cynical as only the young can be.
video for "Golden Phone"

Track list:
1. Vulture+
2. Lips
3. Sweetheart *
4. Eat Your Heart +
5. Curly Teeth
6. Golden Phone +
7. Ship
8. Floor +
9. Just In Case *
10. Calculator *
11. Wrong
12. Turn Me Well +
13. Guts (w/ hidden track, so really just lots of silence, sorry I didn't split it)

Draculatron

2009-12-11T22:10:00.000-08:00

Hypnogaga

Sounds like: Gay Nine Inch Nails. From Upstate NY. Well, more poppy.
If that sounds good to you, go for it. It's definitely a leap forward from his first, "The Uncanny Valley", which itself is good. Personally, I dig it.

1. Airlock
2. Palm Trees
3. Zero Romance+
4. The Swan+
5. Gamma Ray +
6. Hypnogaga 03:55
7. The Fall 04:43
8. If You Should Ever Sleep 04:11
9. Mountain 03:15 *

tUnE-yArDs

2009-11-24T09:55:00.000-08:00

haha yeah I know caps-sensitive band names are hilarious, but at least it's still searchable.

try

tUnE-yArDs is Merril Garbus with a laptop and some free software. DIY but very far from craftless. She's been opening for the Dirty Projectors, you know, that pretentious Williamsburg group with the hippies cooing?

Tracklist:
1. For You
2. Sunlight+
3. Lions+
4. Hatari
5. News+
6. Jamaican+
7. Jumping Jack
8. Little Tiger
9. Safety*
10. Fiya+
11. Synonynonym+
12. Want Me To
13. Real Live Flesh*

Performing, she does that really impressive thing with layered loops.

TALK NORMAL

2009-11-21T21:24:00.000-08:00

Sugarland

try
buy
Video of "in a Strangeland".
Sort of has no sense of humor. It's just these two women who could totally punch you to death, playing music.
Pitchfork review :P

Talk Normal is churny yowly Brooklyn noise rock duo Andrya Ambro and Sarah Register. They've been around longer than I thought before my favorite Other Music geek Karen, and Marnie Stern, recommended them. I actually bought a CD. I may have to go back for their earlier EPs, although they may be less structurally sound.

Tracklist:
1. Hot Song *
2. in a Strangeland +
3. Bold Face *
4. Mosquito
5. Transmission Lost *
6. River’s Edge +
7. In Every Dream Home A Heartache +
8. Uniforms *
9. Warrior
10. Outside

Oh look, more Vivian Girls

2009-09-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong

Less than a year after their 23-minute-long debut, the girls have released their followup. It's twice as long, twice as fun, and a lot sadder. They continue to pump out speedy, simple, 60s-girl-group-inspired melodies and lovelorn lyrics, in a wall of craftless shoegaze noise. Everything Goes Wrong picks up where their S/T ended, heartbroken, with occasional exceptions. It's hard to pick favorites on this one, because every song's terrific. But as usual, I asterisk my personal favorites.

01 Walking Alone at Night
02 I Have No Fun*
03 Can't Get Over You
04 Desert
05 Tension
06 Survival*
07 The End*
08 When I'm Gone
09 Out for the Sun*
10 I'm Not Asleep
11 Double Vision*
12 You're My Guy
13 Before I Start to Cry

Yello - Live At The Roxy N.Y. Dec 83

2009-09-09T01:07:00.000-07:00

Grab in MP3 on Mediafire (-V0 VBR).

This is an official maxi-single of Yello's appearance at the Roxy in New York City. It's a long medley consisting of snippets from their early works including "Bostitch." The performance is surreal and hypnotic.

Track:

1. Live At The Roxy N.Y. Dec '83 (15:00)

The performance can be seen on YouTube too. Watch as the mustaches lull you in a trance...
Part 1 and Part 2

Yello is best known for their song "Oh Yeah" in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. If you enjoy Kraftwerk-like instrumentation with song lyrics that fit perfectly in film noir soundtracks, Yello hits that spot.

Minimal Compact - Returning Wheel (Classics) [2003]

2009-09-08T00:15:00.000-07:00

Get the MP3 album (-V2 VBR) at Mediafire.

Minimal Compact were one of those new wave/post-punk/experimental bands that nearly touched mainstream success. Unfortunately, due to internal struggles inside the band, coupled with their absence from a couple of crucial venues for promotion kept them from the top. The band members fled Israel for Amsterdam and Brussels due the mounting tensions from war. Nonetheless, they are still regarded as one of the most successful contemporary rock groups from Israel.

What you find here is self-described non-musicians (with the exception of Berry Sakharof, who was a professional guitarist) creating refreshingly honest dark and experimental music. You can read more about them at Trouserpress, Wikipedia, and SwimHQ.

The album featured here is Disc 1 (Classics) of their retrospective anthology called Returning Wheel. Most of their albums are hard-to-find, but this release is relatively easy to find. The rest of the box set contains remixes and rare demos. The remixes are considerably different from the original songs, so it's definitely a different animal compared to the first disc of the set. Read more and purchase the set in various formats at Crammed Discs.

Discogs Info

Tracks:

01. Dedicated (unreleased) (5:03) [YouTube clip]
02. Statik Dancin' (3:42)
03. Babylonian Tower (3:33)
04. Creation Is Perfect (I Am A Camera) (4:21)
05. Next One Is Real (3:47) [Disc O' Dell extended remix on YouTube]
06. Not Knowing (4:06)
07. New Clear Twist (4:49) [YouTube clip]
08. The Howling Hole (3:19)
09. Burnt-Out Hotel (3:56)
10. I Imagine (4:10)
11. Autumn Leaves (4:25) [YouTube clip]
12. Returning Wheel (4:30)
13. Disguise (4:44)
14. When I Go (3:16)
15. Piece Of Green (5:18)

Eskimo Snow

2009-08-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

Why?

It's essentially less-hip-hop outtakes from last year's Alopecia. Yoni Wolf's bone-dry, flat delivery and terror of mortality incline me to characterize Why? as Roast Beef Sings.

1. These Hands
2. January Twenty Something
3. Against Me
4. Even the Good Wood Gone
5. In The Shadows of My Embrace
6. One Rose
7. On Rose Walk, Insomniac
8. Berkeley by Hearseback
9. This Blackest Purse
10. Eskimo Snow

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

2009-07-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

(sendspace)
Buy

I played this for someone recently whose first comment was "have you heard David Bowie playing with Arcade Fire?" That's kind of all the description needed. Epic, multi-movement indie rock from Montreal, with myth-laced lyrics in one of my favorite voices, the same dude from Wolf Parade. The band consists of Spencer Krug (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Camilla Wynne Ingr (percussion, keyboards, vocals), Michael Doerkson (bass, guitar, drums), Marc Nicol (bass, kimbala), Jordan Robson-Cramer (drums, guitar). The album was released last month.

Tracklist:
1. Silver Moons
2. Idiot Heart *!
3. Apollo and the Buffalo and Anna Anna Anna Oh! +
4. Black Swan +
5. Paper Lace
6. You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II) +
7. Nightingale / December Song *
8. Dragon's Lair

New Fiery Furnaces

2009-06-26T10:32:00.000-07:00

Fiery Furnaces' I'm Going Away

Amazon: it releases July 21.

The Fiery Furnaces are an experimental indie band headquartered in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, known among a cult following for their unpredictability and genre-hopping, and consisting at core of the brother and sister Friedberger. Most of the songwriting (often a found-language process) is done by Matthew, but Eleanor's strength of delivery and presence really make the music addictive. I got to hear a preview of I'm Going Away earlier in the month at their live show. It's much more straightforward blues-pop than their previous frenetic lyrical collages, but still has the pastiche spirit. This may be the Fiery Furnaces album for non-fans, in fact, which means that fans may be a bit disappointed that they're maturing. The songs seem closer to their New York abode than albums like Widow City (2007) or grandma-duet Rehearsing My Choir dedicated to their Illinois upbringing. They lament a string of exes (Drive to Dallas, Even in the Rain, Ray Bouvier, Lost At Sea, Keep Me In The Dark) or vaguely indicated petty triumphs and travails (The End Is Near, Cut the Cake, Staring At The Steeple), and only with "Cups and Punches" do they approach their trademark concealed absurdity. Their confidence approaches a retro attempt, which I find similar to Dylan's recent output, to refine the universality of pop cliché beyond irony into something raw, classic, comfortable, and eminently quotable.

Tracklist:
1. I'm Going Away +
2. Drive To Dallas *
3. The End Is Near
4. Charmaine Champagne +
5. Cut The Cake
6. Even In The Rain +
7. Staring At The Steeple *
8. Ray Bouvier *
9. Keep Me In The Dark *
10. Lost At Sea *
11. Cups and Punches +
12. Take Me Round Again

+ Good
* Personal favorite

Jordaan Mason and the Horse Museum

2009-06-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

Are you one of those people that's just listened to Neutral Milk Hotel too many times and need something almost exactly like it, only maybe even sexier?

Divorce Lawyers I Shaved My Head is for you.

01. Bird's Nest
02. Organs For Oceans+
03. Avalanches*
04. Racehorse: Get Married!+
05. The Wrong Parts (Vivian Sisters Singing)+
06. Prayer
07. O Jarhead! O Wife!+
08. Hymn/Her
09. Is Water*
10. (S)Mother+
11. Wild Dogs: Divorce!*
12. After The Glandolinian War
13. Carpenter/Rebuild The Body Out Of Birds+
14. 1990 Was A Long Year And We Are All Out Of Hot Water Now*

Where I found it (has more of a description)

Saw an installation with congruity:
Gregory De La Haba's Equus Maximus. Only, not.

Little Boots

2009-06-03T11:26:00.000-07:00

WARNING: POP TRASH

Little Boots's Hands is an album I've been anticipating since I heard her "Meddle" and "Stuck on Repeat" in late 2008. The first half of the album is stronger. It's your basic British dance-electronica by a hot chick, but with nerd-kitsch braininess.

1. New In Town +
2. Earthquake *
3. Stuck On Repeat +
4. Click *
5. Remedy *
6. Meddle +
7. Ghosts *
8. Mathematics +
9. Symmetry
10. Tune Into My Heart
11. Hearts Collide
12. No Brakes

From last.fm:

Victoria Hesketh (born 1984), known professionally as Little Boots, is a British electronica musician. She sings, plays synthesizers, Japanese electronic instrument the Tenori-on and the stylophone. She is the former lead singer/synth player in Dead Disco.

Hesketh was born in Thornton-Cleveleys near Blackpool, Lancashire and now lives in London. She attended Rossall School, Blackpool Sixth Form College and then the University of Leeds, gaining a first-class honours degree in Cultural Studies, with a dissertation on "The concept of originality in the music of Jamie Cullum".

"Little Boots" is a translation of "Caligula".
Holy crap this woman is my age. What am I doing with my life?

Moebius, Conny Plank, Mayo Thompson - Ludwig's Law

2009-04-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Another 1983 album at Mediafire.

Collaborative album of Dieter Moebius (of Cluster), Conrad Plank, and Mayo Thompson (of the Red Crayola). Basically, it's a long stream-of-consciousness philosophical rants set to bouncing electronics. The monologues steer from deeply insightful moments to random babbling about Karl Popper. As entertaining as the album art when you catch it.

Sky Records rejected the album back in 1983. It took 15 years to get a proper release through Drag City Records. More on the history of the album.

Discogs Info

Tracks:
1 Scientists (0:39)
2 Das Apartment (4:30)
3 The Truth? (5:14)
4 Ludwig's Law (4:21)
5 42 (3:44)
6 Farmer Gabriel (4:51)
7 Gestalt (4:44)
8 Taras Bulba (5:06)
9 Boy Boy Boy (3:16)

Blaine L. Reininger and Michael Belfer - Night Air Plus (2002)

2009-04-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

Night Air on Sharebee

Night Air follows Reininger's and Belfer's personal journeys stranded in one of Europe's capitals. This sentiment is best captured in Birthday Song, where Reininger sings "There's Nothing, Nobody Home / Nowhere to Go, Nowhere to See."

Reininger, along with his other American band mates in Tuxedomoon, fled San Francisco in search of the Europe they admired. Everything turned out differently from what they hoped: they found themselves stuck in gray Brussels with little money, erratic touring schedules, expired visas, and many drugs.

Dissatisfied with working conditions, Reininger shortly left Tuxedomoon. A fortunate encounter with old friend and musician Michael Belfer set Reininger to begin work on the next "solo" album. Together they weave a tense mixture of light and dark textures: glimmers of optimism poking through the loneliness and cynicism. Before everything becomes too serious, Reininger's characteristic humor highlights the absurdity of the situation. Its beautiful melodies and haunting imagery will accompany you after listening.

This reissue includes the epic Crash from Tuxedomoon's What Use? 7" single. It also includes an alternate mix by The Residents.

You owe it to yourself to hop on over to Blaine's excellent Mundo Blaineo site for all things Reininger and Tuxedomoon. Also, check out the video for "Mystery And Confusion" on YouTube.

Release Info

Label: Les Disques Du Crépuscule (Les Temps Modernes)
Release: 1983 (2002 remaster)
Type: Album
Genre: 80s, ambient, electronic, experimental, rock, new wave, synth-pop
Length: 44:11 (1:14:11)

Alain Goutier - Bass and fretless bass
Blaine L. Reininger - vocals, violins, keyboards, piano, percussion, lyrics
Michael Belfer - guitar, electric guitar, lyrics
Steven Brown - organ, saxophone, and synths
Winston Tong - Backing vocals on (2)
Marc Hollander - Clarinets on (5)

Realized 1983 at Daylight Recording Studios, Brussels.

Track Listing
01. Night Air (4:01)
02. Birthday Song (4:10)
03. Beak People (4:47)
04. Mystery And Confusion (4:15)
05. Intermission (2:06)
06. Ash And Bone (6:19)
07. L'Entree De L'Hierophante (3:26)
08. Un Café Au Lait For Mr. Mxyzptlk (5:22)
09. Miraculous Absence (3:47)
10. El Mensajero Divino (5:36)

2002 Remaster Bonus Tracks
11. Mystery And Confusion (7" Mix) (4:01)
12. Bizarre Bizarre (3:58)
13. Windy Outside (6:42)
14. Broken Fingers (4:57)
15. Crash (5:29)
16. Crash (Remix) (4:38) / Remix - The Residents

Vivian Girls

2009-04-08T20:40:00.000-07:00

The Vivian Girls are a garage-rock, lo-fi sort of pop-punk girl-harmony outfit from Brooklyn. They appear generic at first - aggressively generic. Their self-titled album, released in 2008, works using a similar aesthetic logic to Henry Darger, the outsider artist after whose virtuous hermaphroditic preteens they named themselves. Clocking in at just over 20 minutes long, the album, in the most tried-and-true chord progressions and song structures and instruments and lyrics and all, follows the archetypal narrative of any pop album: a love affair. Like Darger drawings, the craft is minimal and derived from magazines, but the emphasis is on a story whose very predictability is its uniqueness. You have to listen to the whole album in order, and though you may find yourself preferring different songs depending on where you are in your own narrative, it's a useful tool for putting yourself in glib perspective.
That said, my favorite song on it has always been "No". It's the concentrated version of the whole album - one minute and twenty seconds; Verse, chorus (with backups), verse, chorus, bridge (my favorite), solo, verse, chorus, verse, end; a gender-neutral voice; lyrics: one word. It affirms the observation I once made that I would enjoy listening to recordings of toddlers having tantrums.

download (sendspace)

1. All The Time
2. Such A Joke
3. Wild Eyes
4. Going Insane
5. Tell The World
6. Where Do You Run To
7. Damaged
8. No
9. Never See Me Again
10. I Believe In Nothing

Darger:

Tetsuo The Iron Man Sndtrk

2009-03-27T06:49:00.000-07:00

KANEEEEEDDDDAAAAAAAA

Lee & I ended up talkin' about Tetsuo the Iron Man, which isn't the best film in the world, but is pretty interesting. (Unless you're Dale, who ended up taking a nap during it.) The soundtrack is pretty awesome -- and so here it is! I done found it on another blog a long time ago -- I think it MIGHT have been Egg City Radio, or perhaps Mutant Sounds (both of which are in the sidebar, and both of which have awesome stuff, so you should check them out). Either way, though -- it's pretty rad, and y'all should check it out, particularly if you like Industrial-Soundin'-Type-Stuffs.

Man Man in a Blue Turban with a Face

2009-03-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

download Man Man - The Man in a Blue Turban With A Face
Debut from 2004 (gotta get my hands on their other two) and a good introduction.
I would compare this band to Tom Waits, Neutral Milk Hotel, AND Gogol Bordello, which is high praise indeed.

1. "Against the Peruvian Monster"+
2. "10lb Moustache"+ (video)
3. "Zebra"*
4. "Sarsparillsa"
5. "White Rice, Brown Heart"*
6. "Gold Teeth"
7. "Magic Blood"
8. "The Fog or China"*
9. "I, Manface"+
10. "Man Who Make You Sick"+
11. "Werewolf (On the Hood of Yer Heartbreak)"

+: good
*: my favorite

DEVO - Loud Shots From The Big Spud Gun [Amended]

2009-03-23T16:17:00.001-07:00

WE DO LIKE MUSIC

This is a fan-compiled DEVO bootleg of a bunch of rare and weird DEVO songs -- the original was 2 CDs long, and it's got a LOT of cool stuff on it. Luckily, some of the stuff has since been officially released on either Pioneers Who Got Scalped or Recombo DNA (which is COMPLETELY essential for any DEVO fan. Pioneers is somewhat as well, as it's got some bonus tracks and about half of Freedom Of Choice in remastered form, but Recombo is essential. For reals. Go to Rhino Handmade. I don't know if it's sold out), so to get Sharebee to take the download, I deleted that stuff, as it's in much better quality on those real releases anyway. But anyway, though -- this is a pretty cool boot.

It also has "Caoutchouc" on it, as it was thought of for a really long time as a hardcore-era DEVO song, but it turns out it's not. I don't know who did it, unfortunately. It's a real good song, though. I wish I knew who did it, though. I wonder if the rest of their stuff is as good?

Mark Mothersbaugh - Joyeaux Mutato

2009-03-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE

For Josh (not the Josh who posts here, but the Josh who could if he so desired), who asked me about this ages ago. It's Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO's Christmas Record. It's pretty rad. This is the Rhino Handmade edition (real out of print), which is slightly different than the retail version (just normal out of print). I think the retail had a different remix of one of the songs or something. But yes. Here you go!

YAY! (This is the retail cover. The Rhino Handmade cover was red and fuzzy and featured a drawing of Booji Boy receiving a present.)

Anamaguchi - Dawn Metropolis

2009-03-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

Their semi-self-published EP!
Rapidshare
sendspace

Last.fm sez, and I interpolate:

Anamanaguchi is a four-piece group (Peter Berkman (guitar/NES), James DeVito (bass), Luke Silas (drums) and Ary Warnaar (guitar/GameBoy)) from New York City that combines guitars with the thick, electronic tones of a hacked Nintendo Entertainment System. With driving, dynamic and melodic tracks, they focus on creating sounds that seem bigger than their hardware.

Major 8bitpeoples players. Known for amazing visuals and energy at their live shows, which I have missed seeing twice already. It's like you're playing a game except you're dancing.

Tracklist:
1. Blackout City
2. Jetpack Blues
3. Dawn Metropolis
4. Danger Mountain
5. Overarrow
6. Tempest, Teamwork, Triumph (At Sea)
7. Mermaid

DEVO - LIVE: The Mongoloid Years

2009-03-16T21:05:00.001-07:00

DEVO!

This one is really out of print, which is sad, because it rules. It's three early DEVO shows; the first few cuts are from Max's Kansas City, and it's shortly before Q came out. The middle one is from a year or two before that, and the last show is really early -- and it's the best; it's with Jungle Jim still on drums, and it's when they opened for Surprise Headliner Sun Ra.... by clearing out the room by enraging the hippies (who were also fucked up on Nitrous provided by the station in big garbage bags). 15 minute Jocko Homo!

The Legendary Pink Dots - The Maria Dimension

2009-03-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

Another immersive classic from the back catalog of The Pink Dots. Contains one of their most beautifully tragic ballads: "Belladonna."

The Maria Dimension (1991) [MP3][FLAC]

Tracks
01. Disturbance (5:27)
02. Pennies For Heaven (4:19)
03. Third Secret (4:29)
04. The Grain Kings (8:17)
05. The Ocean Cried 'Blue Murder' (4:03)
06. Bella Donna (4:07)
07. A Space Between (6:33)
08. Evolution (8:55)
09. Cheraderama (5:00)
10. Lilith (4:11)
11. Fourth Secret (3:03)
12. Expresso Noir (3:40)
13. Home (5:33)
14. Crushed Velvet (6:44)

Also check out Plutonium Blonde, their newest album. Their official site is http://legendarypinkdots.org.

The Legendary Pink Dots - Any Day Now

2009-03-11T20:31:00.000-07:00

The Legendary Pink Dots are a mythical band that began in London, but relocated to Amsterdam in 1984. They are unique in their own right, melding together classic krautrock influences (mainly Can and Neu!) with Syd Barrett's psychedelic explorations. Newcomers may find their discography of over 50 releases daunting at first. Never fear! Despite the large number of releases, rarely are they ever boring or fall into cliché, and manage to explore new soundscapes with every album. Some of the best stuff they done is in their Amsterdam period. The 1980 - 1984 cassette releases tend to be rougher with poor instrumental/sound quality, but the lyrics and arrangements are well-crafted.

They're still together working on numerous side projects, most famous being Edward Ka-Spel's collaboration with cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy called The Tear Garden.

Here are two classic albums by the Pink Dots. First up is

Any Day Now (1988) [MP3]

Tracks
1. Casting The Runes (5:47)
2. A Strychnine Kiss (3:19)
3. Laguna Beach (2:21)
4. The Gallery (3:30)
5. Neon Mariners (4:46)
6. True Love (3:21)
7. The Peculiar Fun Fair (0:32) 8
8. Waiting For The Cloud (10:18)
9. Cloud Zero (5:48) 10
10. Under Glass (7:06) 11
11. The Light In My Little Girl's Eyes (5:01) 12
12. The Plasma Twins (2:55)

You can't beat the ominous gothic organ in the intro track.

I-F - Mixed Up In Hague Vol. 1 (2000)

2009-03-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

Mixed Up on MegaUpload. (Alternate download via BitTorrent.)

I can't stop listening to this mix. Includes rare vinyl remixes from well-known artists such as Giorgio Moroder, Kraftwerk, and Man Parrish (of Klaus Nomi).

Someone else can say it better than I do:

I-f's Mixed Up in the Hague is an excellent dance-history lesson focusing on the electro-disco that's been such an influence on his productions. Wisely avoiding most of the endlessly compiled electro classics ("Planet Rock," "Rockit," "Clear") that tend to bore advanced listeners, I-f instead looks back to the motorized sequencer disco of the late '70s and early '80s with a parade of excellent obscurities. (Featuring track titles but no list of performers is undoubtedly not an oversight but a challenge to potential trainspotters out there.) The more familiar tracks include "Manmade" by Man Parrish, "The Chase" by Giorgio Moroder, a remix (cover?) of Kraftwerk's "Tour de France," "Space Is the Place" by Newcleus, "Problemes d'Amour" by Alexander Robotnick, and "Dirty Talk" by Klein + MBO. The mix is raw and hands-on too, with almost two dozen tracks squeezed into an hour of mixing.

Tracks
01. E.O.G. - Solid Liquid (3:30)
02. Patrick Cowley - Primitive World (1:03)
03. Pluton & Humanoids - World Invaders (4:54)
04. Giorgio Moroder - Chase (5:02)
05. Man Parrish - Manmade (2:34)
06. Jonzun Crew, The - Space Is The Place (3:00)
07. Charlie - Spacer Woman (2:45)
08. Q - The Voice Of Q (2:05)
09. Hipnosis - Blade Runner (End Title) (4:34)
10. Message From Future - Robot Is... (3:59)
11. Alden Tyrell - Love Explosion (5:32)
12. Kraftwerk - Tour De France (François Kevorkian Remix) (1:34)
13. Camaro's Gang - Super Shuffle (1:49)
14. Alexander Robotnick - Problèmes D'Amour (Midnight Version) (2:12)
15. Mr. Flagio - Take A Chance (3:56)
16. Klein & M.B.O. - Dirty Talk (2:34)
17. B.W.H. - Livin' Up (2:03)
18. Doctor's Cat - Feel The Drive (Instrumental) (1:33)
19. Sun La Shan - Catch (1:09)
20. Electronome - Een Drumcomputer En Een Synthesizer III (1:38)
21. Electronome - Influence (4:40)
22. A Number Of Names - Sharevari (Vocal Version) (5:11)

Note about the file: This album is an single MP3 file since standard MP3s aren't terribly good at keeping tracks without gaps. You can play the MP3 file as separate tracks with a player that supports cue sheets for playback like Foobar2000 (Windows) or Cog (Mac OS X). If you still want to split the tracks up to play them in iTunes or whatever, MP3 Trimmer (Mac OS X) or MusiCutter (Windows) are good bets.

Röyksopp - Junior

2009-03-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

preview

This is poppy dancey IDM from Norway, their third LP, featuring vocals from Anneli Drecker, Robyn, Lykke Li, Karin Dreijer (of Fever Ray and The Knife). It comes out March 23. Supposedly it's the less mature of two 2009 releases.

Tracklist:
1 Happy Up Here +
2 The Girl And The Robot *
3 Vision One *
4 This Must Be It + (K.D., the "sequel" to 2005's "What Else Is There")
5 Röyksopp Forever
6 Miss It So Much
7 Tricky Tricky * (K.D., best track)
8 You Don't Have A Clue
9 Silver Cruiser
10 True To Life +
11 It's What I Want *

If any of this sounds interesting download it now, because occasionally blogger's been taking these things down.

The Folkways Collection

2009-03-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Another monstrously huge collection o' music I was made aware of via some silly newsletter to which I subscribe. This one caught my eye because of the particular wonderfulness of the four volume Woody Guthrie set The Asch Recordings, which I splurged on about a year ago and which has gotten an obnoxious amount of play time since. In any case, this is 24 hours of American music of the 20th Century broken out by genre in 1 hour podcasts.

If someone wants to take the time top break it into individual files with proper labels, that would be just dandy!

Copy of how it's described:

The way audio engineer Moses Asch remembered it, it was his sometime collaborator Albert Einstein who told him to create a universal archive of 20th-century sound. And so, in 1948, Asch created Folkways, and set about recording everything under the sun.

“The Folkways Collection” splits the remarkable story of Asch’s label (which was also home to Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, and Pete Seeger, and was transferred to the Smithsonian after his death) into 24 podcasts, each of which features interviews and original recordings from the Folkways archive of 2,000-plus recordings: You’ll hear folk music, children’s music, recordings of frogs, and examples of Allen Ginsberg’s ill-advised forays into the blues. Our favorite episode, No. 23, is dedicated to Phil Ochs — the Greenwich Village folksinger who lived (and died) in Bob Dylan’s shadow.

Link here: http://www.folkways.si.edu/learn_discover/podcasts/folkways.xml

Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Sound On Sound (1979)

2009-03-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Eager Be Bop Deluxe fans following Bill Nelson after he left the group were in for a shock. Gone are the guitar-driven glam/progressive rock solos for robotic anthems dripping in dystopia and irony. The guitar never leaves completely, but it takes backseat to the gurgling and bleeping electronics, synth melodies, blaring sax, and frenzied drumming. You'll never have a dull moment with tracks packed to the brim with odd noises and catchy hooks. The album flies by and before you know it, those 39 minutes are over. Highly recommended if fast-paced new wave with punk leanings (e.g. early Devo and Ultravox!) is your thing.

Revolt into style with Sharebee.

As a bonus, here are the B-sides accompanying the album (vinyl rips only). They have more in common with Quit Dreaming and Love That Whirls than Sound On Sound, however.

Tracks:
01. Don't Touch Me (I'm Electric) (1:50)
02. For Young Moderns (4:24)
03. Stop / Go / Stop (3:09)
04. Furniture Music (3:30)
05. Radar In My Heart (1:36)
06. Stay Young (3:11)
07. Out Of Touch (3:29)
08. A Better Home In The Phantom Zone (4:26)
09. Substitute Flesh (3:28)
10. The Atom Age (3:01)
11. Art / Empire / Industry (2:44)
12. Revolt Into Style (3:23)

Bonus B-Sides
01. Acquitted By Mirrors (4:50)
02. Wonder Toys That Last Forever (3:55)

You may find more Bill Nelson (in his New Romantic phase and beyond) at LA FOLIE DU JOIR. (The Two-Fold Aspect Of Everything is a great out-of-print compilation that captures his '80s period following Sound on Sound.)

Also check out Bill Nelson's own official website. He rarely rests from creating new music, and churns out at least 3 albums per year of varying style (lately more jazz and ambient pieces).

Love Is All

2009-03-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

first album, b-sides, covers

tracklist:

Nine Times That Same Song (LP)
1. Talk Talk Talk Talk +
2. Ageing Had Never Been His Friend *
3. Turn The Radio Off
4. Used Goods *
5. Busy Doing Nothing +
6. Make Out Fall Out Make Up +
7. Felt Tip +
8. Spinning and Scratching *
9. Turn the TV Off
10. Trying Too Hard *

Nine Times That Same Song (B-side EP)
1. Lost Thrills
2. Kiss Kiss Kiss (Yoko Ono cover) *
3. Felt Tip (slow version)
4. Motorboat +

Love Is All Play Five Covers: tour EP that came in a free tote bag Other Music gave me because they felt bad they couldn't buy back all my CDs. "We each picked a song with no other member getting a say, recorded live at practice"
1. Lungleg - Kung Fu On The Internet +
2. A Flock Of Seagulls - I Ran
3. Dire Straits - So Far Away
4. Jed Dmochowski - Golly Gosh *
5. Prince - Darling Nikki

I ripped off Wikipedia:
Swedish band Love Is All are composed of Josephine Olausson (vocals, keyboard), Johan Lindwall (bass), Markus Görsch (drums), Fredrik Eriksson (saxophone), and Nicholaus Sparding (guitar/vocals). Olausson, Sparding, and Görsch had previously been members of Girlfriendo. The trio promptly regrouped after that band's demise and added Lindwall, who had recorded in a side project with Olausson and Sparding called Cat Skills. They finally added the missing piece with saxophone player Fredrik Eriksson. While earning many rave reviews from the blogging community for their blend of art punk and indie rock, the band released several singles, one of which made single of the week in NME. The singles were collected on the debut LP Nine Times That Same Song, released by New York-based What's Your Rupture? in late 2005. After much touring through 2006 and 2007, Eriksson left the band and Love Is All continued on as a quartet. A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night and the remix album Love Is All Mixed Up arrived in 2008, along with Eriksson's replacement Åke Strömer (saxophone, keyboards).

They sound a bit like an updated, more skilled X-Ray Specs with more personal lyrics. They recently released their second EP, A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night, which I also recommend (it's got a bit better production)
Rev. Me is not so excited about them. But I think they're darn fun.

Tipographica - God Says I Can't Dance

2009-03-04T23:42:00.000-08:00

Sharebee Control tower says, "GET ALBUM, breakdown."

Rev. Syung Myung Me is on a Japanese avant-jazz kick, so here's another group in the same vein.

Tsuneo Imahori is most famous for his soundtrack work on Trigun, Cowboy Bebop and various entries in the Gungrave series. But before all that, he played guitar in the eccentric Japanese jazz ensemble Tipographica. Those fans of RIO-type jazz (like Henry Cow and Etron Fou Leloublan) and Frank Zappa in the mid-'70s will feel at home with this. Every song pulls you into its playful unpredictable turns, if harmlessly baffling at times. The Engrish song titles add to the confusion of musical goings on.

Tracks:
1. Friends
2. Control tower says, "TP-1, break down."
3. a) AM 3:28 Shinjuku b) AM 3:45 Kasumigaseki c) AM 5:02 Berlin --> White-collar worker VS Black rubber man
4. And then Last ship is going
5. MC-500 (Japanese room (We have no ZEN))
6. Laughin' photograph
7. Forest tipographical II

You can find more information (in English) on this album on their other albums at Gnosis2000.net.

Lux and Ivy's Favorites (MP3s)

2009-03-04T09:12:00.000-08:00

Received the following on some newsletter to which I subscribe:

The Cramps’ lead singer, Lux Interior, passed away last month. To celebrate his life, the excellent Jersey City radio station WFMU has made 13 hours of his favorite music available for downloading.

Well-known bands like the Kinks and the Stooges are represented — as are Bo Diddley and, oddly, Richard Strauss. But the bulk of the collection’s made up of obscure 45s, novelty songs, garage-band rave-ups: The Collins Kids’ minute-and-a-half-long “Whistle Bait.” The Chips’ “Rubber Biscuit.” Robert Mitchum’s (yes, that Robert Mitchum’s) “Ballad of Thunder Road.” The selections are songs that Lux and his wife, Poison Ivy, named in an interview (and because WFMU’s website can be a bit overwhelming, we recommend the alternate download links provided by Phawker.com). There are 300-plus songs in all — and our favorite by far is the Clovers’ decidedly NSFW reworking of “Dark Town Strutter’s Ball.” The title alone would make Prince blush.

Link here: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2009/02/lux-and-ivys-favorites-mp3s.html

Otomo Yoshihide & Sachiko M - Filament

2009-03-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

MORE BEEEP

This is awesome. This is the aforementioned collaboration project. Again, hyper-minimalist; kinda sounds a little like modem noise, but in an awesome way. There's sort of a Pretentious Dude Cliche that was about how with Jazz, you listen to the notes that AREN'T being played[1], and actually that's really true with this too. Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's real good anyway.

[1] "I COULD HAVE STAYED HOME TO DO THAT"

Sachiko M - Sine Wave Solo!

2009-03-03T18:49:00.000-08:00

BEEEP

Sachiko M worked a lot with Otomo Yoshihide, and I think she still does. I can't remember if she was a member of Ground Zero, or just a band-friend, as she's on some of that stuff, too. Anyway, her thing is that she plays a blank sampler. It's real minimalist noise stuff, but pretty dang cool. Also check out Filament, which is coming up soon.

Jeremiah Aulwurm - Jimmy Jam!

2009-03-03T17:30:00.000-08:00

POOR MISGUIDED FREAK!

My friend Jeremiah made this out of samples of Jimmy James from Newsradio, which is one of the best shows ever don'tchaknow. I asked if I could post this, and he said OK, though he said he should probably do a remix or something. I like it as it is. It's awesome.

Songbook: Ian Broudie

2009-02-28T05:13:00.000-08:00

Ian Broudie is the force behind The Lightning Seeds (well, he basically isThe Lightning Seeds), and has produced a lot of wonderful music for around three decades. This upload is a bit of an experiment, as it's a video file of a recently aired (in the UK) tv show. If that's not ok for this blog, no problem and we can/will delete it - but I thought it might be cool as material from Broudie is kind of hard to come by. There's the Lightning Seeds catalogue of course, and a few other things he's done (including his one solo record), but those should be attainable via convential sources for the most part. The format of this show is basically an interview mixed with acoustic and/or stripped down versions of songs played by the songwriter. There was another show in the same series that aired recently with Jarvis Cocker which was also awesome. I originally downloaded this from a torrent site that caters to UK tv shows, and the file is just under 400mb, so I had to split it into archive parts. So you'll need something that can reassemble .rar files if you wanna grab this. The first three parts are just under 130mb each, and the fourth part is just under 7mb. Hopefully there's enough interest for one or two people to check this out, but I've never done this wth a larger file (or video file for that matter) so I thought I'd give it a try here. Enjoy!

-Download Links-

Part 1:

http://sharebee.com/8572a6a4

Part 2:

http://sharebee.com/bb60f828

Part 3:

http://sharebee.com/d41ade7f

Part 4:

http://sharebee.com/d8ce6fba

Life On Mars?

2009-02-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

GODAWFUL SMALL AFFAIR

Here are some covers of "Life On Mars?" by David Bowie, perhaps his best song and one of the best songs by anyone. This does not include the original, because you should have that already. I thought I had more, but I do not. I could go for remedying that if you want. INCLUDED ARE:

Seu Jorge
Bad Plus
L'aura
Dresden Dolls
Pauline Easy

Patience & Prudence!

2009-02-24T14:25:00.000-08:00

A SMILE AND A RIBBON!

They say it's "The Best Of" but it's basically they ever put out. They never did a record, just a collection of singles. There's some rare stuff on here (though I guess it's all rare). It's too bad that they didn't do better -- they were the girls that saved Liberty, after all.

The Plugz

2009-02-23T07:08:00.001-08:00

Most folks are familiar with The Plugz (also called Los Plugz) from what was arguably one of the best punk soundtracks ever produced: Repo Man.

On it, they perform El Clavo y La Cruz, a very original melding of ranchero and punk and a Spanish version of Secret Agent Man titled El Hombre Secreto, which I think is better than the original.

The Plugz were one of the original 70s Chicano punk groups and are acknowledged as having started the DIY movement for the Los Angeles punk scene.

They were around for about six years, reforming as Los Cruzados in the early 80s. Musically, the Plugz's lead singer Tito Larriva is the frontman for Tito & Tarantula and Psychotic Aztec. He played Hammy on The Pee-Wee Herman Show and Ramon in Talking Heads' film True Stories. He also has been in just about every Robert Rodriguez film.

1979's "Electrify Me" was The Plugz first full length album, self-released on vinyl under their now defunct independent label Fatima. Restless Records reissued this album on CD in the 90s, but they are now sold out and commanding utterly ridiculous prices (e.g., the cheapest copy available on Amazon is $198.99).

An interesting tidbit on this album is their drummer was only 14 years old when The Plugz were formed and was only 16 years old at the recording of "Electrify Me."
Download Link:
http://sharebee.com/a3aa7501

Kirsty MacColl - Live At Fleadh Festival London, 12 June 1993

2009-02-23T00:08:00.000-08:00

This is a (no doubt edited/shortened) collection of songs that was broadcast by BBC Radio of Kirsty MacColl's 1993 performance at the Fleadh Festival in London. It's a short collection of songs, but interesting especially to hear her in a festival performance setting. She was an amazing performer, songwriter and artist, and she died far too soon under tragic circumstances. So if you're a fan of her work, or really just a fan of good music, this should be well worth checking out!

Tracklisting:

01) Free World

02) My Affair

03) Don't Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim

04) Innocence

05) They Don't Know

06) Caroline

07) A New England

08) I Want To Be Sedated

Download Link:

http://sharebee.com/7e05af07

Dee Dee King - Standing In The Spotlight

2009-02-22T23:43:00.001-08:00

Dee Dee King was the short-lived alter ego of Ramones bassist/songwriter Dee Dee Ramone. After an embarassing single a couple years earlier, in 1989 (around the same time he officially left the Ramones) he made his full rap debut with this album, Standing In The Spotlight. Although it's not exactly a straight up "rap" album, I have a feeling Dee Dee might have thought it was. He was kind of a nutty guy, but in a lovable way. A few of the songs were actually more like Ramones songs than anything else (in fact, "The Crusher" was later re-recorded for the Ramones final solo album), but most of them are just bizarre. It also features Debbie Harry doing some backing vocals. Certainly not a musical masterpiece, but interesting and entertaining in it's own way. Give it a listen!

Tracklisting:

01) Mashed Potato Time
02) 2 Much 2 Drink
03) Baby Doll
04) Poor Little Rich Girl
05) Commotion In The Ocean
06) German Kid
07) Brooklyn Babe
08) Emergency
09) The Crusher
10) I Want What I Want When I Want It (Oh Yeah!)

dowload link:

http://sharebee.com/790db710

na^5

2009-02-22T19:46:00.000-08:00

A lovely remix of the Kaiser Chiefs' "Na Na Na Na Naa" by Polysics. Much more Polysics content than Kaiser Chiefs; it'd be fair to describe this as a Polysics song that just happens to sample some people from England.

In any case, I can't think of many things that aren't improved by removing all the content and replacing it with buzzy noises. This track is an illustration of that principle. Is semi-available on a Japan-only Kaiser Chiefs EP.

http://sharebee.com/659a54e0

Beirut - Black Session

2009-02-22T17:21:00.000-08:00

This Beirut performance was recorded/broadcast on November 26, 2007 at Studio 104 and broadcast on Maison de Radio France aka The Black Session. It was broadcast by radio station France Inter. The session features covers of Jacques Brel's 'Le Moribond', Kocani Orkestar's 'Siki Siki Baba' and Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah.'

http://sharebee.com/be3df5d8

Love Is All

2009-02-22T16:08:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the flood, we've had a backlog of uploads.

Download "A Hundred Things Keep Me Up At Night"

Giddy Swedish pop post-punk with sax, a bit like X-Ray Spex. It's their second album, released about 5 months ago.

01 New Beginnings
02 Give It Back
03 Movie Romance*
04 Last Choice
05 Sea Sick
06 Wishing Well*
07 When Giants Fall
08 Rumors
09 Big Bangs, Black Holes, Meteorites*
10 A More Uncertain Future
11 19 Floors*

Zoogz Rift - Nonentity

2009-02-22T12:17:00.000-08:00

ZOOGZ

This is my favorite Zoogz Rift record. They're all pretty cool, though. If you like this -- which is pretty severely out of print on its own -- you can buy MP3s of all of Zoogz' stuff direct from the man hisself, here at his myspace. Zoogz is amazing.

Frank Bennett - Five O'Clock Shadow

2009-02-22T11:15:00.000-08:00

HERE IS A DOWNLOAD OF AN AUSTRALIAN RECORD

I originally sent this to the Cheeze Factory, but if you don't check out that blog, you may have missed it. Also, you suck, it's an awesome blog.

The post today of "Tuxicity" by Richard Cheese reminded me that I've got this record; it's in a similar vein, but the guy's Australian, and I think he did this before RC started. I don't think this record was ever released in the US, and I think it's out of print in Australia, too, so, hooray! Here's the tracklisting:

1. Better Man
2. The Way You Make Me Feel
3. Poems
4. You're Just Too Hip Baby
5. Red Right Hand
6. Love Is Back To Stay
7. Creep
8. Black Stick
9. Disarm
10. Constant Craving
11. With Or Without You
12. Under the Bridge
13. Love Carefully

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

2009-02-22T11:10:00.000-08:00

My other candidate for Best Album of 2009 (as of its first two months)

preview Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
She's pretentious and... how do I put it? Overwrought? Girly? It's the ethereal fantasy-poetry thing. But she's using my favorite heavenly bodies/optical metaphors. The album has an alter-ego premise based on its duality theme that it's a battle between Natasha Khan's "darker spiritual desert self" and her destructive blonde temptress named "Pearl". This does not, however, detract from the music, which is gorgeously produced and more electronic than Fur and Gold.

1. Glass * (the first few lines grabbed me by the neck and the rest of the song proceeded to throttle me)
2. Sleep Alone
3. Moon and Moon
4. Daniel *
5. Peace of Mind
6. Siren Song * (best use of the duality theme)
7. Pearl’s Dream *
8. Good Love
9. Two Planets
10. Travelling Woman
11. The Big Sleep

*Best tracks

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

2009-02-22T11:08:00.001-08:00

It comes out in a few weeks, so buy it, but if you can't stand to wait...

preview Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

01. This Tornado Loves You *
02. The Next Time You Say Forever ("...I'll punch you in your face")
03. People Got A Lotta Nerve (this was already around. Neko albums are such slow growers that I'm only just completely appreciating the first three tracks) *
04. Polar Nettles
05. Vengeance Is Sleeping
06. Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth (meh Sparks cover)
07. Middle Cyclone (some of the best songwriting concentrated here) *
08. Fever *
09. Magpie To The Morning
10. I'm An Animal *
11. Prison Girls
12. Don't Forget Me (Harry Nilsson cover)
13. The Pharaohs
14. Red Tide *
15. Marais La Nuit (this is, as far as I can tell, 30 minutes of crickets)

-limnrix