Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

You would think that I would have some big Halloween theme post ready, but I don't. I blew that at the beginning of the month. I figure sharing Halloween music the day of Halloween is too late. And speaking of Halloween music today's your final day to check out the Halloween music I posted earlier this month. It will be gone after today.

With that out of the way, let's get to this morning's random playlist.

Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers
Hey Paula - Paul and Paula from the Animal House Soundtrack
Rockin' The Paradise - Styx
Great DJ - Ting Tings
I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
Something About You - Boston
Traktor - Traste & Superstararna - Pengar/Traktor 7"
More Than A Woman - The Tavares - Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack

So the day started of with Hell, I find that oddly coincidental given that it is Halloween. hey sometimes the stars just align.

Then a pleasant little number from the Animal House soundtrack. That soundtrack is simply great. It has a couple Sam Cooke classics. Sam is my favourite soul singer hands down. Let's not forget Otis Day and The Nights couple of classics. I originally got this record (actually it was a tape) back when I was in elementary school and I wore that puppy out playing Shout and Shama Lama Ding Dong It isn't very long but it can be listened to over and over again.

The Styx track is obviously from Paradise Theater. A great concept record that I still throw on the old turn table and listen to from start to finish. That is really how it should be experienced, though there are plenty of singles to enjoy on their own.

Great DJ is one of my favourite songs of this year. If you haven't heard the Ting Tings yet please check them out. Great fun. You probably know their music from some ipod commercial this year.

"I Will Survive" is probably in the top 5 for all time great Disco tracks. You can't help but sing along with the defiant lyrics. About 11 or 12 years ago when there was a big disco resurgence i listened to that song endlessly. I think I had it on a mix tape that got a lot of play at that time.

Boston. I'm glad this song came up. Yesterday "More Than A Feeling" came up on my walk home and I was thinking I wish this was tomorrow morning because I'd love to comment on this record. As luck would have it this came up and gave me the excuse. This first Boston record is quite astonishing. I mean that in that it has so many classic songs on one record. The batting average on that record is 1000. There are 8 tracks and all of them are great. The production is legendary. At least 6 of the 8 songs are classic rock radio staples. It is hard to think of too many other records that can boast that. I don't think I have to say check it out, because I'm assuming everyone has heard this record and may even own a copy. It is kind of an essential record.

"Traktor". I got this song off of a blog. It isn't in English and I don't know much about the band. The song, though is very catchy. It is kind of a KBD punk/punk rock vibe from the late 70's or early 80's. I don't remember exactly. If you search some of those punk rock blogs that post rare and out of print music you'll find it. I can't remember which one I found it on.

And then as I walked into my office I was hit with another disco classic from the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack. I played this album to death in high school. One thing I wanted to point out is that there were different versions of this record and I don't think I've ever seen it written about or commented on. I'd love to know the story behind this oddity. I have this album on tape from when I was a kid and then later I picked up on a CD and of course I have the record as well. Off the top of my head I can't remember which has which, but there are two versions of Jive Talkin' on the different formats. I'm pretty sure the tape had the studio version, but then either the CD or the record has a live version. I'm sure it had something to do with licensing and when the album or format was released. I don't know the reason, but I find it interesting. If you know the story, I'd love to hear it.

One other story about this record is that when I was in high school I drove my dad's car a 1978 Lincoln Continental. A boat. it had an 8 track player and so I would pick up 8-tracks at thrift stores and garage sales for like 25 cents to play in the car. We had a few staples as I cruised around with my skateboard buddies. One of them was a Saturday Night Fever knock off record. It wasn't the original, it was some cheap cover version my some unknown studio musicians. It was complete cheese and I used to love playing it.

So that is it for today. I gotta start work.

Cheers!

10.30.08 - Morning Music List

Today's playlist was just a joy.

"I Call It Love" - Lionel Richie
"Fight The Power" - The Bare Naked Ladies
"California" - Joni Mitchell
"Won't Get Fooled Again" - The Who
"Baby, I'm An Anarchist!" - Against Me!
"Death Bros." - Cancer Bats
"Here Comes The Feeling" - Asia
"Desperado" - Langley School Project


So what kinds of things to talk about from a list like that. How about recommendations to start. If you've never heard the Langley School Project album Innocence and Despair, you should try and seek it out. This made a splash a few years back after being touted on NPR and other hipster places. It is a record from a high school back in the 70's. The music director loved pop and rock music and so the school choir sang everything from Bowie to The Eagles. The rendition of "Desperado" by Sheila Behman's is sublime. Her voice may not be perfect, but the emotion and feeling is.


Next up I'm going with the safe bet, Joni Mitchell. "California" is from her classic record "Blue". It is simply a must in any self respecting music lover's collection. Her lyrics are great and her delivery and melodies are like nothing else. One of my favorite lines from this song I only recently learned the full meaning of. The line is "I'll even kiss a Sunset pig". Until just a couple years ago I didn't make the connections of what that all meant. The pig is a pig in the police sense and this reference is to the police that were hassling hippies and other young people along the Sunset strip during this time. Before learning that I guess I always just shrugged it off as some sort of surrealistic imagery.


And the last thing I think I'll comment on is about "Won't Get Fooled Again". The whole song is pretty near perfect. The one part I absolutely love is toward the end when there is just the pulsating of the electric piano or organ and then drum runs start fighting their way into the song. Little by little until the full song breaks back in full force. I love the anticipation and the final release in that moment of the song.


Hey, that felt good getting that all out before starting work. I hope it give you something to think about for the day as well.

Cheers!

A New Feature

On my way in to work today I thought of a new feature I could write about that is quick and painless and shouldn't ruffle any feathers. First a quick set up about my mornings. I live relatively close to my work. 2 miles to be exact. Most days I walk to and from work. Recently I've been reading comic books as I walk. Probably not the safest thing, but I mostly walk down neighborhood streets with little traffic. The sound track to my reading is my ipod, which I just throw on shuffle. On an average walk I get 12-20 songs in. On some days I don't feel like reading and I want to just enjoy the morning so I ride my skateboard. This morning was such a morning. I get to work much quicker and don't get in as many songs. What the board does allow me to do is think a little and this morning I was thinking about the blog. Often I listen to my ipod and I really appreciate the wide range of music that can come up when set to shuffle. I thought that could be something I share with people. I don't have to upload the music and artwork and do all that hard stuff. I can just let people know what came up on the ipod, maybe make a few comments and see what people have to say about those songs. Maybe it is a lame idea, but I figure I'll give it a shot. At least it will fill in the days between posting records.

So this morning's list was as follows.

One For My Baby - Frank Sinatra from "Sinatra '57"
Shine on You Crazy Diamond (Part I-V) - Pink Floyd
Is This Love - Whitesnake
Paddle Out - Sublime
Da-Do - Rick Moranis from the Little Shop Of Horrors soundtrack
Springtime - Leatherface

So there is a sampling of the wonderful variety that I get in the morning. So what does this all bring to mind. Well first of all you should seek out this Sinatra version of "One For My Baby". It is from a live album and he has a great intro where he talks to the audience. And then the delivery of the song is the best of any version in my opinion.

The next thing that comes to mind is that I hope everyone saw The Family Guy this last week because they did a parody of Da-Do. It was hilarious. It's about 3 minutes into the episode. Check it out on Hulu.

Okay, that's enough for now. Looking forward to you comments.

Dwarves - That's Rock 'N' Roll 7" - 1990

The whole Dwarves experience is summed up in this quote from Blag Dahlia (lead singer). This is from an interview for Skratch magazine back when they released "The Dwarves Must Die"

SKRATCH: Anything to add?
BLAG: What can I say, except: buy the record, see the band, chew the bubblegum, sleep with the singer?it's the only way to go. The Dwarves rule. We shall return. We've done it again. Hide your daughters.

I love that quote. These guys are everything that is rock and roll. That may mean for good or for bad depending on your perspective.

Or here's another closing to another interview. Again it crystallizes the band. Again Blag speaking.

Is there anything else you'd like to plug or talk about in this?
Yeah, I just want to reiterate what the Dwarves are. We've fucked more groupies than the whole pansy ass Warped Tour put together. New bands don't know how to party, just whine to their managers about the deli tray and act like they care about the kids. We sodomize teenagers and dose them with Rohypnol, we beat other bands senseless and steal their gear, we terrorize promoters and rip off the box office. We kick the shit out of label owners and rape booking agents. We are rock 'n' roll, everything else is just a a pale, tired imitation. How’s that?

This 7" was recorded back in 1990. That's Rock 'N' Roll was originally recorded by Eric Carmen and "I'm A Man" was recorded by Bo Diddley. I've included a little flier I picked up at a show last year. I think I've already written about that night of nakedness. You can read about that here.

Anyways, the songs are great. The record is fun. Check it out if you're into punk rock.

Enjoy!

01 That's Rock 'N' Roll.m4a
02 I'm A Man.m4a

And so it continues

Well, whoever is doing the complaining, they have been very busy because I got another notification this afternoon. I have a feeling these are all coming from the same disgruntled person who hasn't even taken the time to really read or investigate what is on the pages. If they had they would have noticed that I had already disabled any links to music. This one doesn't quite hurt as much, because I had backed it up this weekend. It was a post from back in January, Jacky Ward and Reba McEntire. I am going to add this to the list of URL's I want restored in the letter I am sending to Google. However in the mean time I have just reposted the same post with a few extra comments clarifying that there is no copyright infringement because there is no music on the page. The bummer part for the mean time is that I think I had some comments associated with that entry and those are gone for now. I did not backup everyone's comments.

So that is what is going on today with the blog. It may not be music, but at least it is providing a little drama and story to follow each day. That's got to have some entertainment value, right? Maybe not, but it is therapeutic for me. So indulge me.

All Done

So the new not so improved version of the blog is back up and running.  I've backed everything up and deactivated almost all the links older than a month.  There are still a few active links here and there for things that I think really shouldn't offend anyone.  Things that I was pretty sure were out of print and that I thought maybe still would be nice for people to hear, I left in tact.  I'm crossing my fingers that I don't run into trouble with those things, but I feel a lot safer knowing that I have at least backed up my words.  I know I could have left everything active and just deactivated links as complaints came in, but I want to avoid that hassle.  There would also be a real possibility of losing my account with blogger if they continually get cease and desist orders.  I don't want to test the limits of that.

I would love to hear any suggestions people have on any other options I may have for doing this blog.  I went with blogger because it was so simple, but I'd love to hear about other options.  Leave a comment or send me an e-mail.  Sfilichia@sbcgloabl.net

Also if anyone know how I can put some sort of disclaimer on the site that is more prominent than my little thing to the right I'd love to hear it.  I basically would like to let people know to direct complaints to me and that if they have any requests for something from the archive, they can contact me.  I'd love that to me somewhere near the top of the page, but I can't figure out how to have that and the blog title.

So that is it for now.  It has been a long few days getting all of this done.  I should have something new and interesting to post in a few days.

Thanks again for reading.

An update

When it rains it pours.  After taking just about everything down and starting the big backup process I got another page deleted.  This one is really annoying because I have already taken it down and Blogger then deleted it from my account before I could back it up.  

So now in a paranoid panic I've spent the last 5 and a half hours backing everything up.  My fingers are tired.  Before reposting everything I need to go in and deactivate all the old links.  That is going to be another long process.  I don't actually want to delete the files off the mediafire server because it took so much time and effort to upload and I still may want to use them in the future, but I have to go in and limit the access to them.  I'm hoping by doing that, that I can eliminate these complaints.  I think I'll take my time with that process and just repost as I fix each post.  So things should start reappearing sometime this weekend, if things go as planned.

In case anyone cares, I think I am going to try and fight these complaints.  When I got the first one a month ago I was at first ready to do what I needed to get the lost post back.  It took a lot of reading and such and found out I have to send a letter to Blogger/Google saying I wasn't infringing on any copyrights on their site.  I basically got lazy and never followed through and then the anger faded and I just figured I had lost the post.  Now that I have lost two more I think I will fight to get them back.  This should be interesting and I'll update you on the process as it unfolds.  Wish me luck.

Please stand by

Just wanted to give people the heads up that I am going to be taking most of the archive down temporarily until I can back it up. I got another complaint about a post and so before I lose something else I think I better get aggressive about saving things.

Please bare with me and I will get things back up and running as soon as possible.

M.D.C. - Chickensquawk 7" - 1984

So while I'm backing everything up and getting my act together I thought I'd give you a little something to gnaw on for the next few days. I mean I don't want to stop things completely. I am however going to institute a little change and see how it goes. I'm going to limit how long I keep links to my music active. I'm sure this will piss a lot of people off and some people may decide not to return. Maybe though it will encourage traffic and readers who check in regularly and are keeping up with the current posts. That will hopefully get rid of these people who are searching through the archives looking for something to complain about. With that said if there is something in the archive that you really want to hear, let me know and I think we should be able to work something out. It isn't like I have a ton of regular readers. I'm assuming that it will be you faithful readers who make the requests and that the casual reader and leecher will just give up and move on without asking. I'd love to know what people think about this new tactic. This whole experiment is an evolution and I'm hoping to find a balance that keeps the regulars happy as well as gets rid of or makes the complainers happy. Now to the music.

Here's a fun old 7" from MDC. The jacket actually folds out into this huge vegetarian propaganda poster. Lots of disturbing images of starving people even worse than the cover. I haven't figured out a good way to scan or photograph it, so I just scanned the front and back.

MDC had their roots in Texas, but really made a name for themselves once they relocated to San Fran. The title track here, however, shows off some of their Texan roots with a little country hardcore. Back in the day there were a handful of others also toying with this cowpunk genre. This one was always one of my favorites.

I've never been a vegetarian and never really even entertained the thought, but I do find this song quite catchy and a the lyrics make a good case if not humorous case for the lifestyle. The other two tracks are more standard MDC. Fast, loud and hard core.

MDC is together is some form these days. Dave Dictor is putting on great shows and I recommend catching them if you have a chance. My son saw them this last year and raved about the show. He exchanged a few words with Dictor and said he was very cool to him.

If you dig on these tracks seek out their Millions of Dead Cops CD. It's an absolute classic of the genre.

Enjoy!


01 Chickensquawk.m4a
02 Death Of A Nun.m4a
03 Kleptomaniac.m4a

Big Country - In A Big Country 7" - 1983

Remember when these guys were the "it" thing. Big Country was going to be huge. They were Scotland's U2. But then it never came to pass. I don't know why. They had the cool bagpipe thing going for them. They wrote great songs. In fact this whole album, The Crossing, is still pretty great. I through it on from time to time and listen to the whole thing, not just "In A Big Country" and "Fields Of Fire". The album was produced by Steve Lillywhite of U2 fame and still holds together well. If you are too young to remember these guys in their hey day, I recommend seeking them out.

In writing this post I discovered that these guys didn't really disappear. They've been releasing music all these years fairly consistently. I'm assuming the sales have been modest so as to not make any mainstream waves, but good enough to make a living. That is commendable. I hope to come across some of their more recent efforts to see how it stands up. If you've heard any of their more recent music I'd love to hear what you think. But for now travel back to 1983 for their huge hit single.

Enjoy!

01 In A Big Country.m4a
02 All Of Us.m4a

New Order - True Faith 12" - 1987

I really like the cover of this single. It's very graphic and simple. I thought it also kind of looks like it would work for the month of October. Sure the song isn't seasonal, but the Fall leaf is.

Enjoy!

01 True Faith (The Morning Sun Extended Remix).mp3
02 True Faith (Alternate Faith Dub).mp3
03 1963.mp3

The Hitmen - Bates Motel 12" - 1981

Kind of keeping with the scary theme of the month, here is one from the Hitmen. You all of course remember the Bates Motel from "Psycho". The Hitmen decided to make a song about it.

The Hitmen were a a New Wave band from the early 80's. This song comes from their 1981 release "Torn Together". I don't personally remember them, but I think I have them on some other compilation from that era. I know it is sad that I'm not even sure. I've included the video for you as well. It's pretty low budget and weird, which was true of a lot of videos of the time. That is what made the early days of music videos great.

Enjoy!

01 Bates Motel.mp3

Spencer's Halloween Mix 2007

To keep the Halloween theme going I thought I'd share my Halloween mix from last year with the world. This one is actually more of a play list and doesn't have any fancy mixing. Even without that, think it is a pretty good selection of Halloween songs and songs that kind of relate to the holiday. Some may be a stretch, but it makes for a fun listen.

Maybe some day I'll do a remix of this CD. Looking over the list I can see things that might have been better mashup up or edited. There are some instrumentals on here that could be really cool under some spoken word things. That's a project for another time. This year is just too busy.

As a little update on the behind the scenes hear, I thought I'd let you know that I just started pulling together songs for this year's Christmas/Holiday mix. Just listening through songs was getting me very excited. I can't wait to get them into garageband and start having some real fun. I'm hoping to have something done and ready to post by Thanksgiving or perhaps that weekend of Thanksgiving at the end of November. That way you'll have the mix for the month of December.

Anyways, that is it for now.

Enjoy!

Here is the whole play list in one zip.
Spencer's Halloween Mix 2007.zip

Here are the individual tracks.
01 Ed Wood Main Titles (Edit).m4a
02 Trick Or Treat.m4a
03 My Dear Watson.m4a
04 Horrorshow.m4a
05 To Make A Witch Pockmarked.m4a
06 Suspiria (Narration).m4a
07 Angel Witch.m4a
08 Pass The Witch's Broomstick.m4a
09 Figments Park (Edit).m4a
10 Kill The Brain And You Kill The Ghoul.m4a
11 I Walked With A Zombie.m4a
12 Halloween Hootenanny.m4a
13 Surfin' Dead.m4a
14 Teenage Zombie Blues.m4a
15 Braineaters.m4a
16 Among The Dead.m4a
17 she's my witch.m4a
18 Lil' Red Riding Hood.m4a
19 The Self Fascination Ritual For Increased Power.m4a
20 evil.m4a
21 Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But....m4a
22 Braineater.m4a
23 At The Munsters.m4a
24 Casper, Casper (Whatcha Doin' On The Moon).m4a
25 Do The Rigormortis.m4a
26 Pacific Ghost Highway... (Intro).m4a
27 Dinner With Drac.m4a
28 Goblin Dance.m4a
29 Hillside Strangler.m4a
30 Blood Lust.m4a
31 Jack The Ripper.m4a
32 The Tell-Tale Heart.m4a
33 Popeye (The Gravedigger).m4a
34 I Dig You Baby.m4a
35 Halloween.m4a

Halloween Mix 2008

The last few days have been hard.  I have found that I look forward to this thing every day.  Sure I may write in advance when I'm busy, but I still check in everyday.  I love the anticipation to see how many people have looked at the post and I get excited at the thought that perhaps someone might have made a comment.  Usually no one does, except my loyal friends Matracas and ET (thanks guys), but I still get a rush of anticipation.  So it has taken a bit of restraint the last couple days not to post something new.  I tell myself that it is for the best.

This past weekend I had to go out of town and I picked up a whole bunch of family photos that I plan on scanning.  This is in addition to the other project I mentioned, so my free time is going to be pretty filled for the next few months.  I'm so glad I put all that work in this past summer.

This post is actually the fruits of my summer work.  I actually pulled this thing together back in July and I have been so excited and anxious to get it out there for people.  I started out just pulling together Halloween songs and was going to do my usual type of mix/playlist.  But since I had some extra time on my hands I decided to try my hand at garageband.  I had a blast mixing things together.  Laying spoken word over sound effects and other music.  The final product I think is pretty darn fun.

I also learned that if you take the one file, which is in the form of a podcast and then burn it to a CD itunes automatically breaks up the songs into tracks.  That is of course if you put markers in the podcast, which I have done for you.  I have also posted the individual songs, but I really recommend the whole thing because songs mix and mesh into each other.  Some songs aren't even full songs.  Sometimes it may just be a verse or two and then I get something else going.

So hopefully you'll like what I've done.  Maybe it will inspire you to pull together your own list.  You can also use this for a whole month as a soundtrack to get you into the mood of Halloween.  There's no reason to wait until Halloween when it comes to music.  This can be your soundtrack for the whole month.

I've done my best to provide you with informative tags.  In some cases where I have mashed up several things I may have made up a new name for the track and then put as much information in the tags as possible.  If you are interested in the sources for these songs just give me a shout. 

So until next time which hopefully won't be too long from now,

Enjoy!

Here's the whole thing as one enhanced podcast.

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2008.m4a

And here are the tracks by themselves. You can burn yourself a disk from these tracks, but be sure to make it gapless.

01 This is Halloween.m4a
02 Everyday Is Halloween.m4a
03 I Have No Home.m4a
04 Candy Man.m4a
05 No Costume, No Candy.m4a
06 Hallowe'en, Hallowe'en.m4a
07 The Haunted House Vs The Haunted Mansion.m4a
08 The Haunted Mansion Organ & Madame Leota.m4a
09 Doin' It In A Haunted House.m4a
10 Casper The Friendly Ghost (Theme).m4a
11 Little Ghost.m4a
12 Morricone Vs The Martians (Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion Main Title & Martian Graveyard).m4a
13 The Witch (Full Version).m4a
14 Evil Walks.m4a
15 Vampire.m4a
16 Sleepy Vampire.m4a
17 Ghoul Days, Ghoul Days.m4a
18 To Cause A Witch To Die.m4a
19 The Shreik Of Agony (Shreik Of Agony-Cha Cha Cha).m4a
20 Seducing Shining Vampyros Lesbos Zombies.m4a
21 Zombie Jamboree.m4a
22 We're All Zombies Too.m4a
23 Count Chocula Goes Hollywood.m4a
24 Dracula's Lament.m4a
25 Lugosi, Orgies & Christians.m4a
26 It's Halloween.m4a
27 Graveyard.m4a
28 Buried Alive.m4a
29 At The House Of Frankenstein House.m4a
30 Creation of The Female Monster (The Bride Of Frankenstein).m4a
31 Over At The Frankenstein Place.m4a
32 Have A Happy Halloween.m4a

Download All tracks here