SAP Music

Good Clean Fun - Shopping For A Crew 7" - 1997

2012-01-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

Looking for a New Year's resolution? Why not try going straight edge? Here are a few songs so inspire you to make the change.

Enjoy!

01 Shopping For A Crew.m4a
02 The Vegan Revolution Drat Dodger Anthem.m4a
03 Sweet Tooth.m4a
04 A Song For The Ladies.m4a

Beauty And The Beast/The Beast Lets Belle Go 7" - 1991

2011-12-31T01:00:00.000-08:00

This one is a one day only type thing. The 7-inch single from Beauty and the Beast. I'm not even really sure why I'm posting this. You can get these tracks anywhere and I don't plan on keeping them up long. Also my rips have plenty of pops and crackles so you might just want to get the soundtrack on CD or downloaded from your favorite digital store. I guess I thought the scans might be interesting for people to see.

Enjoy!

01 Beauty And The Beast - Celine Dion.m4a
02 The Beast Lets Belle Go (Instrumental).m4a

Two in one zip.
Celine Dion - Beauty And The Beast-The Beast Lets Belle Go 7" - 320K.zip

John Mayal - Turning Point - 1969

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

This one won't be up long because it is a pretty easy record to find. This record I've seen quite a bit over the years in the thrift store bins. It is always pretty beat up. My copy isn't great by any means. I also digitized this years ago long before I had click repair to clean things up and I didn't feel like going back. So you'll have to enjoy my snap, crackle and pop copy.

It was one of those records I picked up not knowing much about the music. I looked at the picture and the liner notes and I think I knew I was in for some blues, but that was about it. It is also one of those records that I bought with a bunch of other records and so I didn't get around to listening to it for a long time. When I did finally drop a needle on it I loved it. It one of those records where I understand why it isn't necessarily a classic for the general public like say a Cream record, but if you like blues rock from that era then you'll probably enjoy this record. I certainly do.

I really like "The Laws Must Change". It is a longer number basically about legalizing marijuana. Though I'm not really in favor for legalizing marijuana I do like the sentiment of protest songs. I think much of the sentiment could work for some of the occupy movements around the country. I'm all for calling for change by calling for laws to change through peaceful means. So I really like lyrics like "You're screamin' at policemen but they're only doin' a gig" and "don't throw rocks at policemen but get the knots of law untied." It's a nice change from the sentiment that all policemen are bad.

I also really like "Room to Move" because it really cooks. There is some great harp being blown on that track.

The song "California" is almost 10 minutes long. It wonders and weaves. It seems like the track that was good to trio out to or smoke pot to because of it's spacey mellow quality. However I find that even without the drugs the song can get you into a cool mellow vibe. I also live in California and am partial to songs about the state, just as I'm also partial to songs about Chicago where grew up.

I don't know if this record technically falls into the jam band category (I'm not really good at placing labels and classifications on things), but the songs do have a certain jam quality. The album is live and the songs are generally long. It is a record for people who like music that breaks out of the 3 minute pop song format. Jazz and blues fans I think will find something they like. So if you think you are one of those people, give it a listen.

Enjoy!

01 The Laws Must Change.m4a
02 Saw Mill Gulch Road.m4a
03 I'm Gonna Fight For You J.B..m4a
04 So Hard To Share.m4a
05 California.m4a
06 Thoughts About Roxanne.m4a
07 Room To Move.m4a

John Mayall - Turning Point - Side 1 - 320K.zip
John Mayall - Turning Point - Side 2 - 320K.zip

"Bald" Bill Hagan and his Trocaderons - Music To Strip By - 1966

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

Looking for some saucy music to spice up your love life? How about some music to strip by? I find it funny that back in the day there were complete records devoted to strip music. There are the two classic albums by David Rose which are pretty popular and quite enjoyable. Then I have this one which I love not only for the music, but because Bill Hagan has "Bald" in front of his name. I'm not sure what it is, but "bald" and "stripper" makes me laugh inside. The songs are all in the classic burlesque style, which by today's standards seems almost quaint. I actually throw records like this on anytime because they are fun. In all honesty they may not spice up the love life as much as make for a humorous love life. So maybe if you are looking for a laugh with your lover this could be just the right mood maker.

The most disturbing title of the record has to be the last track, "My Heart Belongs To Daddy." Not exactly the kind of thing I would think that you would want connected to stripping in my opinion. I would think daddy and daughter are a couple words and images you would want to keep far away from the strip show or the boudoir. Might not set the most romantic mood. Take the title away and the song is just a fun stripper track.

Enjoy!

01 A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody
02 Bumps And Grinds
03 Frankie And Johnnie
04 G-String Twist
05 Temptation
06 Night Train
07 The Stripper
08 Party Time
09 Bedroom Blues
10 Second Honeymoon
11 Girdles Aweigh
12 My Heart Belongs To Daddy

Side 1 - Mediafire
Side 2 - Mediafire

Alfred Apaka - Hawaiian Village Nights

2011-12-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas has come and gone and now we have the rest of Winter to look forward to. I thought perhaps some Hawaiian tunes would be a nice escape from the cold. This must have been a pretty popular record back in the day. I say that because I see it over and over again in thrift store bins so it must have been in a lot of households. I liked it enough to digitize. Maybe you'll like it as well.

Enjoy!

01 Kawohikukapulani.m4a
02 Moonlight And Shadows.m4a
03 Somewhere In Hawaii.m4a
04 Harbor Lights.m4a
05 Sunset In Hawaii.m4a
06 Hiilawe.m4a
07 Red Sails In The Sunset.m4a
08 Ka-Lu-A.m4a
09 Blue Hawaii.m4a
10 The Palm Trees Sing Aloha.m4a
11 Tower Of Love.m4a
12 Song Of Old Hawaii.m4a

Hawaiian Village Nights Side 1.zip
Hawaiian Village Nights Side 2.zip

SAP Music Christmas Mix 2011

2011-11-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

Time for Christmas music. I've got an eclectic mix of music and sound bites to kick off the holidays. Check the image above for the track listing and below is a printable insert for a CD case if you'd like to burn a CD.

Enjoy!

SAP Music Christmas Mix 2011

Camouflage - The Great Commandment - 1988

2011-11-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

Before we get into the holidays I thought I should try and squeeze in one more post. This is a record I got from a friend a year or so ago. Very good 80's club track and there are plenty of fun mixes on this 12 inch. Reminds of the vibe of the movie "Bright Lights Big City." Remember the Michael J. Fox movie? New York, dance clubs, and lots of cocaine if I remember. That movie reminds me of New Order and Depeche Mode and this record has that vibe as well. So if you were or still are into that kind of thing you'll like this record.

Enjoy!

01 The Great Commandment (Justin Strauss Remix).m4a
02 The Great Commandment (Just Right Dub).m4a

03 The Great Commandment (7 Inch Edit).m4a

04 The Great Commandment (Acid Commandment).m4a

05 The Great Commandment (Deep Commandment Dub).m4a

The Peeks, Patetico Mondo, Lock/Jaw & The Scarred @ The California Institute Of Abnormal Arts (CIA) - 11.11.11

2011-11-15T18:02:00.001-08:00

Just a quick post to say I had a great time at the CIA last Friday night. Took some photos and created a photo album. You can check that out here. Below are a few highlights.

Troy Walker Halloween Show at Viva Cantina - 10.26.11

2011-10-26T23:50:00.000-07:00

Wednesday evening my son and I headed over to Viva Cantina in Burbank to catch Troy Walker and his Halloween show. Troy performs every Wednesday, but neither of us had ever seen him before. We discovered when we got there that we were in the minority. The crowd was mostly made up of regulars who come to see Troy every week. We also discovered that we were considered you amongst this crowd. Don't lat that statement mislead you. The folks may have been older, but they knew how to get up, shake it and have a good time.

Check out this article on Troy from 1999. It gives you some history and a flavor of the man that is Troy Walker. He's got an amazing story. It was written by Jonny Whiteside for LA Weekly. Whiteside has been a fan for ages and is a Wednesday regular at Troy's shows.

Here are a few photos from the evening. A fuller photo album can be found on my Flickr account here. You probably need a little context to understand the photos. As mentioned earlier it was a Halloween show which is why Troy and the patrons are dressed in costume. You'll notice flapper, sailors, Little Orphan Annie and King Arthur (Or some knight) in the photos. The guy in the cowboy hat, though I don't believe was in costume. Viva Cantina is in the equestrian district of Burbank and so the bar is basically a country bar and attracts a lot of the local cowboys. So I think that guy was just being himself. Also you'll notice that Troy is in two outfits. He began the evening in the sunglasses and turban and performed for about an hour. He then took a break and came back dressed with the fedora and mustache. He then gave us another hour. It was a full evening of pure entertainment.

And the baby doll? What is up with that? Well when Troy first came out in the turban outfit he had a big pregnant belly and then at a couple points in the show he gave birth. First he birthed the little doll and then later on he revealed a stuffed monkey. The monkey ended up being pretty funny because the monkey got stuck on his belt or something and it took about five minutes of Troy bantering and joking with the audience before he got the thing out.

Also I shot a little video which captures the spirit of the performance and the evening.

Troy performs "My Girl" and "Annie Had A Baby" in this clip.

Leadbelly - The Legend Of Leadbelly

2011-10-22T01:10:00.000-07:00

In the mood for some old time blues? This record will fit the bill. Anyone familiar with any sort of blues history knows the name Leadbelly. He holds a place next to Robert Johnson as far as being a legendary blues man. This record is a collection of songs he recorded for Alan Lomax. The record jacket says 8 of the recordings were made in New York in 1939, but it doesn't say which 8. I'm guessing the remaining couple songs were recorded around the same time. Leadbelly died in 1949 according to quite a few sources on the internet. The funny thing is that on the back of this record it says he dies a pauper in 1941. Makes me wonder why the date is so off.

Many of these songs you may recognize. A song like "In New Orleans" you may recognize as "House Of The Rising Son" which The Animals made hugely popular. "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" you will recognize as a song Nirvana covered on their Unplugged record.

Every track is great on this record is great. Each one is filled with heart and soul. Each oozes the blues.

I like playing this album loud in the house. The songs echoing through the hallway are kind of haunting. You can feel the sense of time because of the aged quality of the recordings, and yet they feel very live. It is like a ghost voice from the past echoing through the house. I love it. Maybe you will to.

Enjoy!

The Legend of Leadbelly.zip

01 In New Orleans
02 Goodnight Irene
03 Where Did You Sleep Last Night
04 How Long (With Sonny Terry)
05 John Hardy
06 When The Boys Were On The Western Plains
07 Pretty Flower In Your Backyard
08 Roberta
09 I've A Pretty Flower (With Josh White)
10 Yellow Gal

Lock/Jaw at Guitar Merchant with Fallujah 71 - 09.30.11

2011-10-21T06:39:00.000-07:00

This post is quite late in coming. As you can see by the date in the title, this show was weeks ago. It happened to be in a week where I wasn't feeling great and so I didn't end up processing the photos until last week and then I just never got around to posting them. Just yesterday I realized that I never put the photos up. So better late than never.

This was a show at Guitar Merchant with my son's band Lock/Jaw. Fallujah 71 also played and I took some photos of them. The Peeks and another band played, but I didn't get any photos of them. The venue was cool. It is this little backroom to a music store. It wasn't too crowded and the crowd was basically friends and family from what I could gather. It made for a fun evening. Several times people from the crowd came up to sing with the band. My son join Fallujah for a song and some kids came up to sing with Lock/Jaw as well. It was just that kind of friendly atmosphere. I had a great time.

The entire photo album is here.

Oscar Peterson - In Tune - 1973

2011-10-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

The other night I was looking through records and came across this record. I don't think I had ever listened to it before. Sad I know, but there have been times where I buy a bunch of records and then I never get a chance to listen to them all until much later. This was one of those cases. The reason the album made it from just being browsed to being put on the turn table was the first track "Sesame Street." Could it be the actual song from "Sesame Street?" I had to know. And if it was, was it some cool jazzy version. So I put it on and it was even better than anything I could have expected. It was jazzy, but it had these crazy harmonized voices singing the song. There were parts where they hit these minor chords that were a surprising delight. After just 30 seconds or so I had to call my wife into the room to listen to it as well. It was a hit.

We listened to the rest of the record, which had the very 70's harmonized voices. Some songs were a bit bland and dentist office like, but others had more soul to them. Overall the record was quite good and so I digitized it.

So here is my run down track by track.

01 "Sesame Street" - Best track on the record and a must listen. It's like no version you've heard before.
02 "It Never Entered My Mind" - An uneven song that is good when Oscar is playing, but the vocals are a bit cheeseball.
03 "Children's Game" - Reminds me of an 70's Italian soundtrack. That's good in my book.
04 "The Gentle Rain" - I like this one quite a bit. Moody and I like the rain theme.
05 "A Child Is Born" - Very slow and mellow. Not a stand out, but OK.
06 "The Shadow Of You Smile" - A little too cheeseball. Carpenters-esque vocals without the magic of Karen Carpenter.
07 "Catherine" - I think this is my second favorite on the record. Has a sanitized bluesy quality that is interesting and weird that I like.
08 "Once Upon A Summertime" - Okay again. Would be better if Karen Carpenter had sung it.
09 "Here's That Rainy Day" - Third favorite song. I could see this song making it onto a rain mix some day. Great piano work from Oscar on this track especially in the middle section. Very cool harmonies and the lyrics are solid as well. More minor key goodness. Give it a listen.

So that's the run down.

Enjoy !

Oscar Peterson - Tune In.zip

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2011

2011-10-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

Here it is the full thing for download. It seems like the number of tracks increases every year. The thing is that the overall mix is shorter this year. It runs about 61 minutes which means that on average each track is shorter. Sometimes I think it is great that I jump from track to track, but then sometimes I wonder if it is a bit schizophrenic. I'd love any feedback you have on this.

This year's mix also has a couple slightly original mash-ups or mixes if you will. By that I mean I took existing tracks and made loops and put dialogue over it to make something new. Tracks 5 and 8 have quite a bit of work in them. I don't know if they are as good as last year's mash-ups, but I think there are decent. Also track 38 is a bit of a mash-up, but with much less work. I just took an instrumental track and laid over a story basically untouched. I think it worked out pretty well.

As per usual check the images for all the tracks. If you have any questions about the tracks and what all is in the mix feel free to inquire.

So give it a listen. Let me know what you think. Hopefully you'll enjoy it and you can throw it on at your Halloween parties.

Enjoy!

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2011

Below is an image that can be printed up for a CD case.

Crutch - Disgruntled Employee 7-Inch - 1994

2011-09-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Picked this record up for cheap last year. Went digging in a 50 cent bin and took a gamble on this. I think my decision was made based on the DYI graphic and record company Bong Load Records.

"Disgruntled Employee" is a good track with some punk rock whoa whoa's. There is something about the track that reminds me of TSOL circa 1985 when they contributed the track "Nothing For You" to the "Return Of The Living Dead" soundtrack.

"Kick My Ass" is also a decent rocker. Neither is a classic, but they both are fine to come up on random every once in a while.

Enjoy!

Crutch - Disgruntled Employee 7-Inch.zip

Jonny Whiteside's Messaround - 09.18.11

2011-09-19T17:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening I went to Jonny Whiteside's Messaround at Viva Cantina. The opening band was the Jonny Whiteside Messaround Band, which was basically the house band, at least that is how a couple members of the band described themselves to me. The played a great mostly blues set, but there was some rock and roll thrown in there as well. They were a real pleasant surprise because I went to the show to see my son's band and The Gears and wasn't expecting Blues. It was a nice way to ease into the evening.

Next up was my son's band Lock/Jaw. They did really well. They also attracted a nice contingency of kids in the audience, which it sounded like was something different for this kind of show. Jonny Whiteside himself seemed to appreciate the young energy in the room.

Another cool thing was that Keith Morris of Black Flag and Circle Jerks fame was there at the beginning of the night and saw my son's band play. He told my son he liked their set, which was amazing to here. He's basically a living legend in my son's eyes. Okay I'd say in my eyes as well.

After that the eclectic nature of the evening took a left turn with the band Little Faith. They played Spirituals, many of which I'd heard before. They had two men singing on most of the songs. The band's leader was on keyboard. They also had a great fiddle player. For one of the instrumentals they performed she took lead on "How Great Thou Art." I really enjoyed their set.

Following "Little Faith" was my son's friend's band The Peeks. An interesting side note is that my son got the gig through a real random meeting. A few weeks back Burbank was switching out the electric meters. The day a representative came my son was at home. The man who did the work saw some writing on my son's pants or shirt of something and so he knew he was into some old punk bands. The guy ended up being Chip Kinman of The Dils. Anyway, my son being the social butterfly that he is strikes up a friendship with this guy and then meets his son Giuliano who sings for The Peeks and next thing he knows he's being hooked up to play at this Gears show. When he first found out and told me we both went through the roof. We both absolutely love The Gears. I have their record on vinyl and on CD.

So The Peeks rocked the house. One of their last songs was "White Lightening" and Chip was invited up on stage to help on vocals. You can see him in one of the photos with the glasses. The song ripped and it was great to see father and son having such a great time through music.

Then came The Gears. They may be getting on in years, but they still have got the stuck. Axxel G. Reese and Kid Spike were there from the original line up. The drummer was definitely a younger guy and I'm not sure if it was Brian Redz on bass or not. They had plenty of punk rock swagger and they seemed to really enjoy having the young kids at their show. Most of the time there was a small mosh pit. I say small because the show was in a Mexican restaurant so there wasn't a ton of room, but the kids made use of the space they had. During "Don't Be Afraid To Pogo" it was great to see the usual moshing transform into some old school Pogo-ing.

While The Gears played I noticed that in the back of the room Jonny Whiteside had his son with him and he was rocking out. For the last number he brought his son up to the dance floor my son actually put him on his shoulders and the kid had a great time. At one point Axxel put the microphone up to him so he could sing along. So there was fun to be had for young and old.

So overall I had a great time and on top of everything else the show was free. How can you beat that? Featured here are photos of all the acts. More photos are in my flickr set for the night. You can check them out here.

Black Angel's Death Song - In These Time EP - 1992

2011-09-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

I'm back and should have a stream of records to share in the coming weeks. I finally got around to scanning a bunch of records and record jackets for some records I digitized about a year ago. I couldn't believe it had been so long. It was about a year ago that I got a bunch of records in the 50 cent bin at Ameoba records and now I can share them. One of the nice finds I got that day was this record by Black Angel's Death Song. Now I don't know much or really anything about this band, except that I like the name. The other thing I can tell you is that the first track "Brothers and Sisters" is rip roaring bashed out fun. Not everything in 1992 was grunge on the alternative rock scene as you will be able to hear on this record. The subsequent tracks "What Will It Take" and "In These Times" are okay, but the real highlight it "Brothers And Sisters". Those tracks are a little slower and do bring up memories of guitar driven grunge, Seattle and that whole time. But like I said, they aren't standouts. "Brothers and Sisters" starts off with a great bass riff, then is quickly accompanied by the drums kicking in giving it even more drive. Then the vocals and crunchy guitars join in and you're off to the races. Clocking in at just 1:44 the song delivers with some sing along accessibility and then gets out. Just what you want in a punk rock song. Love it. Hope you do to.

Enjoy!

Black Angel's Death Song - In These Times EP (7-Inch).zip

01 Brothers And Sisters
02 What Will It Take?
03 In These Times

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2011 Preview

2011-09-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a preview of this year's Halloween mix. Enjoy!

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2011 Preview by SAP Music

Lock/Jaw EP Release Show @ Backside Records - 08.26.11

2011-08-27T20:29:00.000-07:00

Last night my son had a EP release show at the local record store in downtown Burbank. They played the songs from their EP, a few covers and a few other numbers. They played about 30 minutes and had did really well. Here are a few select photos from the show of the band and the people who came to see them. Not sure if I can use the word fan yet for them. You can find more at this Flickr Set. Also you can check out their tracks below. If you like them, why not support the band and download the EP? It's just 3 bucks.

<a href="http://lockjaw69.bandcamp.com/album/the-rusty-nails-ep">The Rusty Nails EP by Lock/Jaw</a>

Enjoy!

The Hobbit - 1977

2011-08-09T16:16:00.001-07:00

Having a bit of a rough day. Thought that maybe by giving something back to the world I might feel a little better. This record set is basically the entire soundtrack to the animated movie The Hobbit. If you haven't heard it in a while it is a real treat and a blast from the past. So put it on and take yourself on the greatest adventure.

Enjoy!

01 The Hobbit side 1.m4a

02 The Hobbit side 2.m4a

03 The Hobbit side 3.m4a

04 The Hobbit side 4.m4a

Jan Davis - Flamenco Funk - 1969

2011-07-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

This morning I ventured off to Van Nuys Blvd in search of things of which to take pictures. The street has lots of flavor and there were a few interesting things to shoot. There are also several thrift stores and I thought I would check one out to see what the record selection was like. Because it is a different demographic than Burbank I wondered if I would find some different records. Boy was I in luck. This store had hundreds of hip-hop records from about 10-13 years ago. Clearly a DJ dumped his entire collection in there. I picked up a bunch of records that will eventually make it here. However this record made this list for the first record to digitize. The moment I heard the opening track of Walk Don't Run done with a Flamenco guitar I knew this was going to be the first record up. The whole record is an interesting mix of jazz and funk mixed with Flamenco guitar. You don't hear that every day. On the liner note on the back of the jacket the write writes, "If you think that doing the Frug, Jerk, Watusi or Pony to flamenco guitar music sounds utterly ridiculous; a few weeks ago I would have agreed. Not so anymore." So yes this is a one of a kind type of thing. So hopefully you'll enjoy it.

I do want to apologize that there is a low frequency hum on the rip. I may re-rip it. After getting this all up and done I think I figured out what the problem was with my stereo. In the mean time...

Enjoy!

01 Walk Don't Run (Flemenco)
02 Aquarius
03 Muddy River
04 Flamenco Therapy
05 The Bullfight Song (La Virgen De La Macarenas)
06 International Love Process
07 Flamenco Funk
08 In The Year 2325
09 Flamenco Soul
10 Funky Concerto

Jan Davis - Flamenco Funk.zip

Addendum: Here are the re-ripped tracks without the hum.

Jan Davis - Flamenco Funk - Re-rip.zip

SAP Music Summer Mix 2011

2011-07-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to throwing together a little something for the summer. Sure summer is almost over, but I figured I had to do something before I start into the Halloween mix. The other thing about this mix is that I did really throw this together. There is not a lot of fancy mixing and samples. There are a few edits and some cross fades, but that is pretty much it. As per usual the variety is wide. See the track listing for details. I hope it is enjoyable for you.

Enjoy!

SAP Music Summer Mix 2011.zip

Captain Kangaroo - Just So Stories - 1972

2011-07-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, time flies again. This summer is just whizzing by and I haven't posted anything on this blog in weeks and weeks. To be honest I have been focusing a lot of my free time and energy into making at least one photo each day on my Something I Saw Today blog. I don't see that letting up any time soon. I have been having a blast and I'm really hoping I can do it consistently for a year. Still I will try and post something hear when I can.

Today's record is pretty hammered, but it has some fun stuff. I took my stab at breaking everything up into tracks so that you can skip ahead if you'd like. I'm sure this is going to bring back some good memories for a lot of people. I just barely remember watching the Captain as a kid. I don't really remember any specifics, but I remember that I loved him and that I tried to watch him when I could. I also have memories of good feelings. Listening the his records makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. He's just got one of those voices and personalities. Hope this does that for you as well.

Enjoy!

01 How The Elephant Got His Trunk (Part 1).m4a
02 A Hundred Thousand Whys.m4a
03 How The Elephant Got His Trunk (Part 2).m4a
04 My Favorite Dishes.m4a
05 How The Elephant Got His Trunk (Part 3).m4a
05 How The Elephant Got His Trunk (Part 4).m4a
06 The Elephant's Trunk.m4a
08 How The Rhinoceros Got His Skin (Part 1).m4a
09 To Bake A Cake.m4a
10 How The Rhinoceros Got His Skin (Part 2).m4a
11 Under My Skin.m4a
12 How The Camel Got His Hump (Part 1).m4a
13 The World Is New.m4a
14 How The Camel Got His Hump (Part 2).m4a
15 A Little Book.m4a
16 How The Camel Got His Hump (Part 3).m4a
17 The World Is New (reprise).m4a
18 How The Kangaroo Got His Leg (Part 1).m4a
19 This Beautiful Creature.m4a
20 How The Kangaroo Got His Leg (Part 2).m4a
21 Kangaroo Run.m4a
22 How The Kangaroo Got His Leg (Part 3).m4a
23 Just So.m4a

Captain Kangaroo - Just So Stories Side 1.zip
Captain Kangaroo - Just So Stories Side 2.zip

The Japanese Popstars & Robert Smith

2011-06-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

I love The Cure and I love Robert Smith and so when I heard this track this morning I knew I had to share it on the blog.

Enjoy!

Thick As Thieves At The Mint - 06.11.11

2011-06-12T20:45:00.001-07:00

Before my son's band played this band Thick As Thieves played. They were pretty tight. Played a sort of accoustic hip-hop. Here are some picks from the show. They were a big hit with my 11 year old daughter when they played their mash-up or Airplanes by B.O.B. that also has a bunch of other pop songs mashed in there. It sounded great live. You can also check out the video for that on youtube below.

Lockjaw At The Mint - 06.11.11

2011-06-12T20:17:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I went and saw my son's band Lockjaw play at The Mint. Here are a few highlight photos of their set.

Title Fight, Touche Amore, The Menzingers, Shook Ones - Chain Reaction - 06.10.11

2011-06-11T02:54:00.000-07:00

Just a quick photo post today. Went to a show at Chain Reaction tonight and got some photos. Here are a few selects. I'll also post a link to a flickr page with a whole bunch of photos of the bands and the fans.

The Dance - In Lust 12" - 1980

2011-06-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

I've been gone for a while. I've been playing with my new camera a lot which has been taking up a lot of my free time which normally would have been spent with music. I didn't want this blog to get totally ignored so Ive dug into the archives to find something to post. This record is a pretty good dance record from the 80's. You can find it on other blogs and they may even be better rips than mine. I did this a long time ago before learning a few tricks here and there.

The track "In Lust" has a nice bass line. Reminds me of Japan or Duran Duran bass work. You can instantly check that out with the youtube video below.

Enjoy!

01 In Lust.m4a
02 Into The Black.m4a

SAP Music Too Much Stress Mix 2011

2011-05-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to making some art and breaking up the tracks for this mix. I've been collecting these songs for a long time, throwing them in a folder whenever something grabbed me. There are a few that I threw in last minute, though. The whole thing came together in a Sunday afternoon. What that really means is that it doesn't get too fancy. A few edits here and there, some cross fades and bang its done.

The inspiration for this mix was music to listen to when life or people are driving you up the wall. You want to just scream. Sometimes having some lyrics and a song to scream can be good therapy. Sometimes just playing a few of these songs really loud will help. Maybe your boss is driving you crazy. Maybe you job feels like it is going nowhere. Maybe your love life has everything but love and you just want out. Whatever the case may be I think these songs may speak to you.

A little warning is that unlike most of my mixes, this one isn't family friendly. There are a few spicy sentence enhancers as Spongebob would say. So you may want to refrain from playing in this in the car on a family roadtrip. This is more of a mix to play when you're alone, stuck in traffic, heading to or from work.

As per usual with these mixes, I'm not typing up the playlist. Just click on the image with the track listing to find out what is on the mix.

I'd also like to take a sentence or two to plug my new photo blog Something I Saw Today. I just started it a couple days ago. The quick story is I got a new camera and I'm having a blast taking photos. So I thought I'd challenge myself to shoot at least one photo everyday. So I started a blog which I'm hoping will help me keep up the discipline. I say that, but so far it has been easy because it has been the weekend and I had a day off from work. We'll see if I can keep it up. Anyways, give it a look. Like I said, it is just photos. Hopefully interesting photos on some level.

Something I Saw Today

Enjoy!

SAP Music Too Much Stress Mix 2011

Too Much Stress Mix by SAP Music

Only The Strong 7" EP - 1990

2011-05-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a while again. Busy at work, which is usually the case when I'm not posting.

I've also been working on a new mix which I should unveil on the blog soon. Need to do some artwork and break up the tracks.

I've also been getting take down notices, which has been driving me crazy. Sometimes I just shake my head. I'm wondering who is worried about some 12" record from the 80's which is clearly out of print. Why is some record company worried about it. I just don't get it.

Anyway, here is something from a completely different world. Independent punk rock from the heartland. No corporate crap with this. Just straight up blistering hard core punk. Clinch your fist and get ready to scream. This is one hundred percent adolescent testosterone.

Enjoy!

Enjoy!

01 Essence - Life Cycle.m4a
02 Someday - Face Value.m4a
03 Silent Shore - Insight.m4a
04 One Life Drug Free - Confront.m4a
05 Final Word - Meanstreak.m4a
06 Darkness - Integrity.m4a

Miguel Aceves Mejia - El Gallo Colorado

2011-05-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

A little something for Cinco de Mayo. You gotta love a record with a cock fight on the cover. 'Nuff said.

Enjoy!

01 La Malaguena.m4a
02 Ni El Dinero Ni Nadie.m4a
03 Adorado Tormento.m4a
04 El Gallo Colorado.m4a
05 Homenaje A Pedro Infante.m4a
06 Eso Merece Un Trago.m4a
07 Fiesta En El Corazon.m4a
08 Amor Se Dice Cantando.m4a
09 La Cecilia.m4a
10 Esta Sellado.m4a
11 Prieta Linda.m4a
12 La Espiga.m4a

Miguel Aceves Mejia - El Gallo Colorado.zip

Depeche Mode - A Question Of Time 12" - 1986

2011-04-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

Quick post today. No real story. No real fuss. Just wanted to put something up. I got a bit gun shy after getting a take down notice for the Village People just a couple days after putting it up. I couldn't believe how fast that was. I was going to post 2 other of their records, but clearly someone is still trying to squeeze every last dime out of that catalog and is actively getting things taken off the internet. I guess that is why someone asked me about those records in the first place. I was surprised that they had not been posted a hundred times over. I guess I know why now. Well, I'm not exactly running the other way with some obscure record, so this too will only be up for a while. Hopefully it will last longer than the Village People.

Enjoy!

01 A Question Of Time (Extended Remix).m4a

02 Something To Do (Live).m4a

03 A Question O Lust (Extended Version).m4a

04 Black Celebration (Live).m4a

Village People - Macho Man - 1978

2011-04-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago someone e-mailed me asking if I had some of the Village People records. I did have some of them, but they weren't ripped. The request however was just the sort of thing I needed to prompt me to get on that. So I've ripped 3 Village People records which I'll share over the next bit. Because it is the Village People and you can find these on CD they won't be up long.

The whole ripping was interesting because the records were kind of dusty, which meant I had to clean and clean. I would play and replay, rip and re-rip trying to get as clean of a rip as I could before running the tracks through some clean up software. What this meant was that I listened to these albums far too many times. It also meant that I got to really know some of the lesser known tracks such as "I Am What I Am" and "Sodom and Gomorrah". I found myself humming them for days afterward. By the time I got them fully processed and on the ipod I was sick of them because they were stuck in my head. Give them a listen and maybe they'll be stuck in your head as well. I'm sure you won't need to hear Macho Man anymore, but you might want to give it a listen. There a several different versions of this song, so perhaps this version is new to you. All the tracks on this record are long and not really single length. I think Macho Man runs over 7 minutes.

Enjoy!

01 Macho Man
02 I Am What I Am
03 Key West
04 Medley: Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody
05 Sodom and Gomorrah

Village People - Macho Man

SAP Music Rain Mix 2011

2011-04-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

I've been away for a few days. Sorry about that. I got really busy at work. About a week ago I had a Sunday afternoon that was relatively free and so I had my choice of things to do to relax. I could watch a movie. I could read some comic books. I could digitize some records. I could even take a nap. However what I decided to do was start up a new mix. This mix in fact. It has been a few years since my last rain mix so this is long over due. I had a whole lot of songs built up in my itunes folder for use on this mix. I of course didn't use them all, but needless to say I had plenty to choose from.

This mix is the result of that free time last weekend. Unlike my previous mixes I did not aim to fill an entire CD. I got about 36 minutes done last week and when I listened to it I thought, there really isn't a need to add anything else. So I spent this morning tweaking levels, breaking up and labeling tracks. I threw the artwork together and voila I new mix for the world.

36-37 minutes is a good length. That's about what albums were back in the day. I figure it is also a good length for a morning commute for a lot of people so on a rainy day this may just hit the spot. Coincidentally it is also a perfect length to drive to Pep Boys and get your oil changed while songs are uploading to mediafire. Them Pep Boys are quick. Another bonus is that I could compress it at 320K and keep the one file under 100MB, so you don't have to download 2 parts. Mediafire has a limit of 100MB for their free service.

You'll notice that there are 25 track and I'm sure you are asking how I could fit 25 songs into just a little over 36 minutes. Well, the answer is simple. Almost none of those tracks are songs in their entirety. I tried to get in and get out on a lot of tracks. "Keep things moving" is what I say. So we start off gentle with the sound of rain. We ramp up to some rock, and some head knocking beats and even detour into some country and blues. It all ends how we started with the sound of rainfall. I hope it works for you.

The very last track actually goes out on the sound of rain and a church bell, which I took from the opening of a song. Can anyone guess what from what song I took that? Have a listen and see if you can guess.

Enjoy!

SAP Music Rain Mix 2011

Track listing is on the artwork.

The photo was taken at California Adventure on a rainy day in February 2010. I figured it had a nice contrast of the dreary against the "happiest place on earth".

SAP Music Rain Mix 2011 by SAP Music

Chia Pet - Meha - 1993

2011-03-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

And the music keeps coming.

This is actually from a CD and not a record. Chia Pet was a band from Chicago in the late 80's early 90's. I saw these guys quite a few times as a kid because the drummer was a good skate buddy of mine. For those who have perhaps read everything I've written over the years you may have picked up on the fact that as a kid I was all about skateboarding. My friends and I had a skateboard team and we called ourselves Team SAP. If you ever wondered where the name for the blog came from, well now you have your answer. So below is a picture of Kurt Stevens who drummed in Chia Pet as well as another great Chicago band No Empathy.

I hadn't listened to this disc for quite a few years and I threw it on last week. It holds up great. The opening track is just fantastic. A song about Valerie Bertinelli, Eddie Van Halen and even a reference to Wolfgang Van Halen who was a child at the time, but is now part of Van Halen.

"Talk About It" is also a really big stand out. This song will get up and dancing for sure. And "Meat Beer And Chocolate" not only has a great title, but the song rages as well.

I've also included a scan of a Chia Pet matchbook that I've somehow managed to keep all these years. Came across it recently and decided it needed to be scanned. To tell you the truth, the matchbook is what kicked off my listening to the CD and deciding I should share the music.

Enjoy!

Chia Pet.zip

01 Mole Lake.m4a

02 Teheran En Glas.m4a

03 Meat, Beer & Chocolate.m4a

04 Talk About It.m4a

05 Biscuit.m4a

06 T-Bone Mattias & That Fabulous 60's Muff.m4a

07 Immelmann the Owl.m4a

08 Juan Combe.m4a

09 Kindergarten.m4a

10 Red Snapper.m4a

11 Micro - Eye.m4a

A little over a year ago Chia Pet got together for a reunion. Here is a flyer for that reunion. Palatine was my hometown, by the way.

Here are some Chia Pet videos.

Jump to about the 3:30 minute spot to get "Meat Beer & Chocolate".

And this one is super funky. Wish I had a record or CD of this song. It really gets the feet a shufflin'.

Here is a bonus track from No Empathy. There wasn't a lot of love for Ben Weasel amongst the people I hung around with.

And here's the great original.

And one more No Empathy track.

Stone Fury - Let Them Talk - 1986

2011-03-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Am I on a roll or what? Another post in the same week. This is my companion piece to the More record from the post last week. I picked this up for the cover, especially the hair. The actual music on the record is pretty weak. The first track is okay, and by that I mean it isn't un-listenable. The rest of the record is all rather dreadful and not even in a cheeseball fun way. It's just bad. The badness reminds me of Dirk Diggler's band in Boogie Nights.

Enjoy! (if you can)

Side 1
01 Too Late
02 Lies On The Run
03 Let Them Talk
04 Babe

Side 2
05 Eye Of The Storm
06 Doin' What I Feel
07 Let The Time Take Care
08 I Should Have Told You
09 Stay

Deadmau5 - Raise Your Weapon (Original Mix) 2010

2011-03-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

Taking a break from the record posts today. Thought I'd share a track that I'm in love with these days. Came across this a week or so ago one morning in the car and was blown away. The song starts off slow and quiet and then a drum beat kicks in. It picks up like it is going to be a good little dance track. But then about 4 minutes in you get a big punch right to the gut. I'm not joking there. This bass kicks in that rocks you to the core. The mirrors on my car were vibrating and I felt like I had gone to some sort of bass heaven. The song lyric says it perfectly. "Rippin' my heart was so easy, so easy, launch your assault now." That is what it feels like the bass is doing. I wish I was younger and still going to dance clubs, because I would love experience this in a club. It is the kind of song I could get lost in on the dance floor. Close my eyes and just dance. So put on some headphones and feel this song. Then go find the song for your mobile device of choice because you will want this song with you.

More - Warhead - 1981

2011-03-23T08:28:00.001-07:00

I can't even remember when I picked up this record. I can tell by the symbol in pen on the back that it was a while back because I have a bunch of records with that symbol. Someone marked all their records with that symbol instead of their name and then the whole collection ended up at the thrift store. I purchased a bunch of records from that collection back in the day. So why post this record now. Why even digitize this record now. Well the story goes like this. This last year I bought my first house. Yes, I know. It is exciting. So the house has this long hallway and I decided that for Christmas this year I would hang all Christmas album down the whole hallway. Stay with me, this will work its way back to More. So those Christmas records stayed up until the end of January. They were the last Christmas decorations to come down. Part of the reason it took so long was I couldn't decide what the new theme should be with the records. One afternoon I looked through all the records, specifically for album covers to get some inspiration for a theme. I was toying with the idea of all Sinatra records, metal records and hard core punk records from the 80's. I ended up going with the hard core punk theme. Also during this search I pulled records that I had forgotten about or perhaps never even listened to that might be good candidates for the blog. Well, this record was one of those records. So now two months later it is finally making it to these pages.

I didn't know anything about this band before buying it and even before listening to it. In fact I thought the band name was Warhead up until I began doing research for this blog. I had to rename all my files and re-upload them once I discovered that mistake. Most of my reading came from this very informative article about More and review of this very record. I'm glad I stumbled across it because I was about to post that it was hard to find anything on this band, but as it turns out it was because I had the wrong name.

I gave the record a good solid listen this morning on my morning walk. As I walked I thought about what I might write. They sounded to me like they were part of the whole New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which I then confirmed through that blog review.

The other thing I new I had to mention was the opening of "Fire". It starts off with the lyric "I am the god of hellfire" which of course reminded me of "Fire" by Prodigy. I did some quick research on where Prodigy got their sample. It wasn't from More, but was from Arthur Brown's 1968 track "Crazy World Of Arthur Brown". So how's that for going on a random thread of thought. All I know is I want to track down "Crazy World Of Arthur Brown" now. Needless to say, "Fire" is one of the better tracks. Overall I'd say side one had the better tracks. "Road Rocket" is solid and a decent album opening. The opening riffs remind me of "Blackout" which opening the Scorpions record of the same name, but was release the year following this record. However if I had to choose between the two songs, Scorps would win. "Soldier" pretty good. 'Reminds me of Judas Priest or maybe Rainbow comes to mind as well. Some tasty guitar licks in there. I really like "Depression". Lyrically it kind of reminds me of something a punk band may sing about, but musically it is square in the land of hard rock or heavy metal. The rest of the tracks are standard fair. Listenable, but nothing you want to go back to over and over.

As for the artwork, I dig on the simplicity which is why it was also a candidate for the wall. I also like the name Warhead. It's so 80's. We were all so afraid of nuclear war or nuclear meltdowns. The nuclear war fear has subsided and I think even the meltdown fear has lessened until recent events in Japan. Even still it was a great 80's theme in metal and even punk rock.

The other reason I suspected the album would be somewhat decent was the picture on the back. To me it clearly says that these guys mean business. These guys aren't getting by on their looks, so I had to assume they had some musical chops to get them a record deal. That isn't the case for the next record I will post. I'll leave you with that tease for the next posting, which shouldn't be too far away.

Enjoy!

01 Road Rocket

02 Fire

03 Soldier

04 Depression

05 Warhead

06 Way Of The World

07 We Are The Band

08 I Have No Answers

More - Warhead.zip

01 Road Rocket

02 Fire

03 Soldier

04 Depression

05 Warhead

06 Way Of The World

07 We Are The Band

08 I Have No Answers

Here's a bonus track from the German release.
"Lord Of Twilight"

Spear Of Destiny - Strangers In Our Town - 1987

2011-03-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Picked this record up a few months back. Didn't really know the band, but it looked like some 80's club goodness so I bought it. The tracks are quintessential 80's dance club fair.

About a month ago while listening to one of my favorite podcasts "Stuck In The 80's" this band came up. They came up when talking about Boy George. There was mention that the singer of the band "Spear Of Destiny" sued Boy George because Boy George claimed to have a romantic fling with him. They didn't mention the singers name, but it was Kirk Brandon who was in Culture Club briefly in the very early days before they ever recorded anything. The hosts said they didn't really know the band either, but because I had just picked up the record I actually new the band. It's funny because just a few months earlier and I would have been just in the dark as they were. Wikipedia had this to say.

In his 1995 autobiography Take It Like A Man, Boy George wrote of a romantic relationship with Brandon, prompting Brandon to begin a High Court action against George.^[3] George, taking the witness stand, faced a "malicious falsehood" charge brought against him by Brandon, who was then married with an 18 month daughter. The reason Brandon brought a "malicious falsehood" charge instead of one of "slander" was that Brandon, already declared a bankrupt, could receive legal aid for the former but not the latter. Brandon denied that the pair had once enjoyed a sexual relationship but subsequently lost the case, when witnesses for the defense, including a former girlfriend, confirmed he and George had often been seen together.

After the trial, Brandon's marriage broke down; his wife returned to her homeland of Denmark with his daughter whilst Brandon became addicted to antidepressants (see below). During the trial, George claimed that Brandon had been the love of his life and that he still loved him.^[4]^{[unreliable source?]} In 2010, BBC Television produced Worried About The Boy, a 90 minute dramatisation of Boy George's rise to fame in the early 1980s which included his relationship with Brandon. George was portrayed by the actor Douglas Booth and Brandon was portrayed by Richard Madden.

In January 2008, Brandon sued GlaxoSmithKline UK over personal injuries as a result of taking the anti-depressant drug Seroxat.^[5] Earlier last year, Brandon was awarded the full extent of his claims.

In August 2009, Brandon had a series of heart attacks which led him to have an eight hour operation at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, East Sussex where his aortic valve was replaced with a pig's valve.

Wikipedia has some other interesting things to say about Kirk Brandon. Read more here.

Allmusic also helped fill in the story of what happened to the band. Here's what they have to say.

Released on Virgin's 10 subsidiary, Outland spawned Spear of Destiny's biggest hits yet, "Stranger in Our Town," "Never Take Me Alive," "Was That You," and "The Traveller." The group also toured with U2, an outing which culminated at Wembley Stadium in June, 1987. But before the group could capitalize on their sudden success, tragedy struck. Literally on the eve of an appearance at the Reading Festival, Brandon was diagnosed with Reiter's Syndrome and ordered to bed. He spent a year flat on his back, barely able to move at a time when Spear of Destiny's commercial stock had never been higher. Outland was their biggest seller yet; their first tour of America was beckoning... and the brightest spot on the horizon was the possibility that Brandon might be able to learn to walk again.

They never really recovered after that. They've continued on with various lineups and have been releasing records until as recently as 2006.

As was mentioned above "Strangers In Our Town" was a single from the album "Outland" which was released in 1987. Haven't ever listened to the album, but based on these three tracks I think I'd like to give it a try. If I ever come across it I would pick it up.

I really like "Strangers In Our Town". It starts off pretty dark, which I'm digging on. The overall song actually isn't dark though. Reminds me of INXS from this same time. The other two tracks are okay as well. "Tonight" starts off good, but I think goes on just a little too long. "The Man That Never Was" is the weakest of the three but still not too bad.

Enjoy!

01 Strangers In Our Town (Extended Version).m4a

02 Tonight (Extended Version).m4a

03 The Man That Never Was.m4a

Spear Of Destiny - Strangers In Our Town.zip

This is "Strangers In Our Town" (Extended Version)

Here is "Strangers In Our Town" and "Was That You & Jackstraw) live circa 1987.

Pat Suzuki - Looking At You... - 1960

2011-03-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

I guess it is about time I post this record. I have three albums by Pat. The first I posted way back in 2008. The second was in 2009. They have been very popular requests since I took down the links. Usually I share this record with folks as well even though I had not posted it yet.

So what can I say about this record. Pat is great... of course. The songs are classics. She's cute as a button on the cover as well. If Pat Suzuki is new to you, this is a good introduction, though my favorite record is still "Broadway '59". If you are interested in hearing that record, send me an e-mail.

The video below is an extra bonus I just discovered. It is Pat singing one of my favorite songs also found on "Broadway '59", "I Enjoy Being A Girl". Another cool thing for me is to actually see video of Peter Filichia. I don't really know this guy, but he spells his last name the same as mine and so I've seen his name pop up over the years on the internet. He's a reporter and so I've seen articles written by him. Anyways, it is by pure coincidence that I finally get to see what he looks like because he introduced Pat.

Here is another vintage clip of Pat.

And this is a nice montage put together with lots of great images.

Enjoy!

01 Looking At you.m4a
02 Small World.m4a
03 Cheek To Cheek.m4a
04 He's My Guy.m4a
05 My Funny Valentine.m4a
06 You Better Go Now.m4a
07 You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me.m4a
08 I See Your Face Before Me.m4a
09 I Didn't Know About You.m4a
10 Easy Living.m4a
11 Don't Look At Me That Way!.m4a
12 Let Me Love You.m4a

Pat Suzuki - Looking At You.._.zip

Petula Clark - Downtown - 1964

2011-03-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

I got the new Adele record recently and I simply loved it. Do check it out if you haven't already. I mention that because when doing some reading on Adele, one writer compared her to Dusty Springfield. Now I know that this isn't Dusty, but I often think of Petula Clark when I think of Dusty Springfield. I think it is because they are both female English pop singers from the same era. So I recently picked up this Petula Clark record and digitized it. While listening to it I thought sharing this record might be a good way to celebrate the new Adele record. I probably won't share it for long, because it is Warner Brothers and I'm sure this is readily available somewhere, though I can't find any version of the CD on amazon. Still, I bet the songs are on various compilations.

This record was the first American release for Petula. Before hitting with the single "Downtown" in the States, Petula was already a hit in her home country. She had been performing since she was a child on both radio and TV. She began recording pop records in her teens in the 50's. The single "Downtown" was recorded in 3 languages other than English and was a hit in a whole slew of other countries when Joe Smith from Warner heard it and acquired the rights for America. The song went to number one on the billboard charts. Following the success of that song, this album was released on Warner Brothers in the US.

The album is full of well produced pop tunes mostly on the topic of love, lost love, etc. "True Love Never Runs Smooth" is a great opener. Sounds like something right out of tin pan alley. Reminds me of something out of the Bacharach/David writing room. The same room that produced "Wishin' and Hopin'" by Dusty Springfield the same year.

"Baby It's Me" is an up beat number. Petula's voice and the song itself reminds me of something from She and Him, the Zoey Deschenel project. This video below should give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Good 60's pop.

Track 3 is "Now That You've Gone". My rip isn't very good. It is the most muffled of all the tracks. It's not too bad of a tragedy, because it's not my favorite track.

"Tell Me (That It's Love) has that good 60's almost surf guitar thing going. Reminds me a little of perhaps The Raveonettes. Okay, maybe that is a stretch. Just the opening guitar put me in a Raveonettes mindset.

"Crying Through A Sleepless Night" sounds like something from the previous decade. It sounds a little more hit parade. It even has a sort of faux exotic sound to it. I can't put my finger on it exactly, but it sounds like it is trying to make reference to a middle east vibe, while also having a cowboy Western vibe with a harmonica or something like that. It is interesting. It has a studio choir behind it which I think is what gives me the hit parade vibe. Sounds maybe a little more Doris Day, than something from the 60's.

"In Love" gets us back into the decade with this bluesy number. This is a great track, showing Pet's soulful side. This is a good candidate for a Valentine mix for sure.

"Music" - Not great, but not bad.

"Be Good To Me" - Okay. Would fit in a Lesley Gore set easily.

"This Is Goodbye" and "Let Me Tell You" also would be a good Lesley Gore track. Solid song.

"You Belong To Me" is a great song to begin with and Petula really does a bang up job with it. This song will get stuck in your head. Reminds me of "She's Got You" by Patsy Cline.

And then the record closes with the big hit "Downtown". Such a solid song. I love a song like this that start off with just some simple piano chords and they are just perfect. They set the mood and when you hear them, you instantly know the song. If you don't know it, you probably are thinking, "oh I know this. What is this?". Then after that first verse around 25 seconds in that wall of sound thing kicks in, at least I think it qualifies as wall of sound and the song lifts to a whole new level. By now you are just completely sucked in and helpless to the song. You have to listen to the end and like any really good pop tune, that won't be long. Before you know it 3 minutes is up and the bliss is over. Time to put a dime in the jukebox and cue it up again.

So that's the record. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Enjoy!

Get it here.

01 True Love Never Runs Smooth
02 Baby It's Me
03 Now That You've Gone
04 Tell Me (That It's Love)
05 Crying Through A Sleepless Night
06 In Love
07 Music
08 Be Good To Me
09 This Is Goodbye
10 Let Me Tell You
11 You Belong To Me
12 Downtown

Probably my first exposure to the track "Downtown" was through the B52's. Check it out below.

Here is a link to a great B52's youtube clip that I can't embed. They are all so young and skinny in this clip.

And here is some more awesomeness from Athens, Georgia.

Tito Puente - Dancing Under Latin Skies - 1958

2011-03-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

Today is the first record to be posted that has undergone some audio clean up. I purchased ClickRepair finally and used it to get rid of some of the pops and extra noise. I must say I am quite pleased with the results. There is still a little bit of vinyl sound on there, but I like that. It still feels like a record, but without sounds that stand out.

I picked this record up just a few months back in a thrift store. I have a couple Tito Puente records already in the collection so I was already pretty sure I wouldn't be disappointed. Other than a little dust, which I did my best to clean off, the record was in pretty good condition. I think it was the first record I threw on the turn table the afternoon I purchased it along with some other records. Right off the bat, from the first horn blasts I knew I had found a gem.

If you like some of those lounge compilation discs that were so popular in the late 90's, you'll love this record. This is bid band easy listening lounge music at its finest. Playing this in the house really sets a nice mood when you want to relax. I also was playing the record in the car this morning on the way to work and it made the morning, that much brighter. I'm so happy I've digitized it now and can have it with me on the go.

As a bonus I've found this clip on YouTube of Tito on The Simpsons.

Chances are that this was my first exposure to Tito. Certainly I had heard the name as a kid, but I think this was the first music I had ever heard from him. Thank you Simpsons. That is really my only personal story or experience with Tito Puente.

More info on Tito of course can be found on Wikipedia.

Enjoy!

Tito Puente - Dancing Under Latin Skies.zip

01 Brazil
02 Perfidia
03 Acapulco
04 Yours
05 Dancing Under Latin Skies
06 Tampico
07 Frenesi
08 Port-au-Pleasure
09 Chattanooga Choo Choo
10 Juanita
11 Sand In My Shoes
12 Cuban Pete

Cheryl Ladd - Dance Forever - 1979

2011-02-25T02:23:00.000-08:00

Seemed like I needed to post something again. I must say that I'm a little torn about the things I'm posting. I'm torn because I've now been exposed to some software that can clean up some of my audio. I haven't bought it yet and the thought of going back through all my previous rips just seems like too big of a task. So part of me would like to just get that software and use it on all the rips going forward. The catch is that I'm short on cash and time to rip new records these days and so I'm still working through the backlog of records I've ripped over the last few years. So at some point the audio quality will get a little better. Little pops and things may disappear, but that is not the case with this record. There is still lots of dust and surface noise to remind you that you are listening to a record. Its not too bad. In fact you may only notice it with headphones on. So the record is still quite enjoyable.

While on the subject of enjoyability you may be wondering how listen-able this record is. Records by TV stars are notoriously bad and let's face it I don't think fans were buying the record for the voice. I know I picked it up out of nostalgia for Charlie's Angels which was a favorite show when I was a kid. I remember that the very first model car kit I ever did was for a Charlie's Angels van. Looking back it is kind of funny because they never had a van. Clearly the model company just took a van model, made it pink and then included some decals. Pretty cheap.

Anyways, after buying the record I was surprised to find that I actually liked a few tracks. I like "Still Awake" for instance. It's a catchy little pop number. The singing isn't too bad either. Also in that same sort of light 70's pop feel is "You're The Only One I Ever Need".

"Missing You" is an okay dance number with some disco beats in there. It's not a classic, but I think it could hold up on a dance floor or for a party.

"Whatever Would I Do Without You" has a bluesy flavor that also isn't so bad. Give that a listen.

Enjoy!

Dance Forever Side 1.zip

Dance Forever Side 2.zip

A1		Dance Forever
		Written-By - Matthew Weiner
A2		Better Days
		Written-By - C. Sager* , M. Manchester*
A3		Still Awake
		Written-By - D. Wolfert* , S. Sheridan*
A4		On The Run
		Written By - G. Portland , J. Napoli
A5		Teach Me Tonight
		Written-By - G. De Paul* , S. Cahn*
B1		You're The Only One I Ever Needed
		Written-By - L. Mallah* , R. Patton*
B2		Thunder In The Distance
		Written-By - D. Wolfert* , S. Sheridan*
B3		Missing You
		Written-By - Matthew Weiner
B4		Whatever Would I Do Without You
		Written-By - Matthew Weiner
B5		Rock And Roll Slave
		Written-By - Stephen Bishop

Sergio Franchi - Broadway... I Love You - 1963

2011-02-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

Been pretty busy these past weeks. Haven't even had much time to devote to thinking about this post. All I can think to say is Sergio is has a great voice and I love show tunes. Here is a great selection of classic musicals.

Enjoy!

Broadway... I Love You Side 1.zip
West Side Story: Tonight
No Strings: The Sweetest Sounds
Oliver!: As Long As She Needs Me
The Music Man: Till There Was You
Do Re Mi: Make Someone Happy
Camelot: If Ever I Would Leave You

Broadway... I Love You Side 2.zip
Stop The World - I Want To Get Off: What Kind Of Fool Am I?
The Sound Of Music: The Sound Of Music
The Most Happy Fella: Somebody, Somewhere
Carnival: She's My Love
My Fair Lady: I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face
Milk And Honey: Shalom

SAP Music Anti-Valentine Mix 2011

2011-01-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

As promised here is the first annual "Anti-Valentine Mix". I hope to make this a tradition. It's great to be in love on Valentine's Day, but if you aren't it can be a lame holiday. Having a soundtrack to those feelings may be just the thing you need to get you through all those mocking pink hearts.

As implied by the cover artwork, this is the exact opposite of yesterday's "Valentine Mix". These songs are darker. They are full of pain and heart break. Some are full of anger and perhaps even revenge (see tracks 3 and 4). I've thrown in a couple heart wrenching break ups on there. One not listed in the track listing, but is buried in there is the break up of Ross and Rachel on Friends. Now I never watched Friends beyond maybe the first 5 or 6 episodes, so hearing this dialogue was a first for me. I had no real attachment to the characters and I've never been a Jennifer Aniston fan, but this scene really got to me. I could feel both of the characters' pain. Well done. I guess that is why people watched that show.

Anyway, I've got a great scene from "Lost" in there. I'm a huge fan of that show and recommend it to everyone. Even if they've seen it I tell them to watch it all through again. You make all sorts of new connections each time you watch it. The acting is great and the Michael Giacchino score has to be one of the all time greatest scores, not only on TV but in film as well.

You'll see some of my favorite artists from the Valentine mixes showing up here as well. Romance faves like Sam Cooke could also sing about the pains of love as well. She & Him as well as Cee Lo show up on both mixes.

So if you're in a bad relationship, just got out of a relationship, had your heartbroken, tired of trying to find love or if you just don't get what all this fuss over love is, then this is the mix for you for the month of February.

For a better view of the track listing click here.

Enjoy!

SAP_Music_Anti-Valentine_Mix_2011-128K.zip

Printable CD Cover Below.

SAP Music Valentine Mix 2011

2011-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and so I've pulled together another mix this year of songs to get you in the mood for love. At least I hope they do. Love and romance is sort of a subjective thing, so maybe these songs will connect with you and maybe they won't.

This year I've done the mix in garageband, so it isn't just a playlist. Songs flow into each other and make for a nice continuous listen. I've got some fairly recognizable songs as well as some deeper album cuts. I've got bit of soundtrack score and dialogue from TV shows. There's pop, rock, Hawaiian, R&B, reggae. There is old and and new. It really runs the spectrum of musical flavors.

If Valentine's Day isn't your holiday and you hate it, then check back in tomorrow. I'm got an "anti-Valentine mix" all done and ready to go. It's is pull of break up songs, love sucks songs, I hate you because you broke my heart songs and even one song about VD. Don't want to miss that.

For a better view of the tracks click here .

Enjoy!

SAP Music Valentine Mix 2011_128K.zip

Printable Cover is below.

Styx - Come Sail Away 7" - 1977

2011-01-04T21:43:00.001-08:00

Who would have thunk that finding the 7" version of
"Come Sail Away" would be so hard? A good friend of mine and friend of the blog sent me a message earlier today asking if I had the 7" single version of "Come Sail Away". It runs about half the length of the album version. I wasn't sure, but I thought perhaps I had the record. However I was at work and couldn't confirm it. So in the mean time I thought I would just short cut it and find it online. Surely someone else had digitized this or that it was available on some CD somewhere so I could download it. I searched on and off throughout the say, but I just couldn't find it. I couldn't believe it. In away it actually made me even more excited to get home and see if I did indeed have the record.

Well, as you might have guessed by now I did have the record. I kind of thought I did because I was pretty sure I recognized the cover. Sure enough I did have the record and I had scanned the cover years ago. I must admit that when I was scanning years ago it wasn't for the blog and so I wasn't as thorough which means I didn't scan the back and I didn't scan the record. I'll get around to it and perhaps update the post again, but that's not for tonight. The goal tonight is to just get the post up and get the music to my friend.

A big disclaimer is that the record is by no means pristine. There is some really annoying noise during the opening piano solo, but it passes quickly. Even with the noise and the pops and crackles near the end, the record is interesting to listen to because of it's edited brevity. If you are familiar with the album version you will be listening along and thinking the song is going to go one way and then it goes another. Gone is the instrumental bridge section of the song that normally kicks in at about the 3 minute mark. You know the part with all the synths that sound like lasers at first. It gets all spacey and trippy and then the big guitar chords kick in bringing everything back to the "angels" section of the song.

So have some fun remembering what this song sounded like on pop radio back in the day with this single version of the song. I've included the b-side for kicks as well. More of a prog rock piece really.

Enjoy!

01 Come Sail Away (7" Version).m4a

02 Put Me On.m4a

Here is a cleaned up version. This is the same recording, just cleaned up by a friend. It is a little better.

01 Come Sail Away (Single Version).mp3

Here is the 6 min. album version if you'd like to compare.

New Years Eve 1984 in Chicago

2010-12-31T08:00:00.000-08:00

I grew up in the Chicago area. My early music education came from the Chicago airwaves. It started with stations like WLS, the Loop and WMET. While I gravitated to the more rock oriented stations like The Loop of WMET I still would tune into WLS from time to time. If there was a popular tune say for instance Jukebox Hero by Foreigner or "Centerfold" by The J. Geils Band and you wanted to hear that song, you knew you could tune in to WLS and hear it within an hour or two. It is the blessing and curse of a top 40 style radio station.

Another thing I loved about WLS was that on New Years Eve as soon as it struck midnight they would play this music collage that was basically a history of pop and rock music. It consisted of all the number one songs since 1960. Each year the collage was the same, but at the end they would add a few more hits from that previous year. Well New Years Eve 1984 I recorded the entire thing and have kept it all these years. This was also one of the first things I digitized back in the day, because I knew I wanted to preserve it so I could share it with people. I'm glad I did, because this blog is a great way to share it.

In addition to the music I hope you like the vintage WLS Calendar image I found online. I found a great site that has that entire calendar online. Check it out here. It is another great time capsule.

Enjoy!

WLS Collage New Years 1984.mp3

As a kid I loved the New Year's collage so much that I made some of my own. I would spend hours and days and weeks adding to it a few seconds at a time. There are all recorded on cheap cassette tapes. In the early 80's much of tapes were the cheapest ones you could buy, because I didn't have a lot of money. They were purchased at K-Mart more than likely. The quality may be hard to bare sometimes because of the tape hiss of static on the radio, but in a way that also captures the essence of the conditions within which they were created. These are from around that same time period '83-'84 (maybe even '82, but I'm not positive) and provide a great window into the Chicago airwaves in the mid 80's. I would scan all sorts of stations and so there is quite a variety. You'll also hear some repeats or themes, which perhaps give some insight into what I was liking at the time.

The interesting thing about these is I think they are a sort of precursor to the sample filled world of music we live in then. I find these interesting also because I think it is also a good glimpse at the mind of someone growing up in the MTV generation. The attention span was getting shorter and shorter, so short that just snippets of songs would satisfy. It should be noted that I didn't just make these and forget about them. I would listen to them over and over. There are songs on here that when I hear them even today I hear the next sample on the collage in my head before I hear the actual next lyric of the song.

There are also bits of songs that I didn't even know what the name or artist of the song was. However I knew the little snippet really well because I listened to it over and over. Some songs I would discover the title and the artist years later. One example was "Pussy Strut" by the Waitresses. There is a snippet from that song in one of the collages, but I never knew what the song was. In recent years when I picked up that first Waitresses album on vinyl I was thrilled when I was listening to that song and that snippet came on. It was like finding an old lost friend. There are other examples as well, but that one comes to mind.

So here they are. I've numbered them, but I'm not positive that they are chronological.

Collage #1.mp3

Collage #2 1984 Full.mp3

Collage #3.mp3

Collage #4.mp3

Camouflage - Love Is A Shield - 1989

2010-12-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

More syth pop from the 80's courtesy of my friend's record recently donated record collection. I'm realizing as I post these records from my friend that I don't have any interesting stories to share about when I first heard the song or what I was doing when this song was playing because they are not really from my past. I never heard Camouflage before I got this record and "The Great Commandment". So my history consists of a few listens over the past few months.

What I can share is this. Here is some info on the band from Wikipedia. Also I can tell you that the band reminds me of Depeche Mode. Track 2 "The Story Of The Falling Fighters" really reminds me of some of the darker Depeche Mode output from around this same time. It also has an exotic feel to it. I don't know if it is African or Eastern in influence. I'm not educated enough in world music to pinpoint what exactly is going on there, but when you hear it you'll know what I'm talking about.

"Love Is A Shield" is pretty good too. It's not quite so dark and is more like a mid-tempo dance track. It is also very "Mode"-like, but kind of reminds me of some earlier Depeche Mode.

Enjoy!

01 Love Is A Shield (Extended Version).m4a

02 The Story Of The Falling Fighters (Extended Version).m4a

03 Love Is A Shield.m4a

A Christmas Adventure in DIsneyland - Reposting again

2010-12-25T12:01:00.000-08:00

This is a re-post from a few years ago. The link to the record is not only dead, but the actual file I had on mediafire had been deleted. For whatever reason I felt like I should put it up briefly once again. Maybe because it is a story for Christmas day and I thought perhaps a few lucky souls might stumble across this today and might want to share this with their family. Better get it while it lasts, because I'll deactivate this pretty quickly. Disney is pretty quick with the take down notices. So here is the old post.

So yesterday I gave you an album full of Christmas hymns for a traditional Christmas eve. Today, for the grand finale of the season I'm going the opposite direction. Christmas at Disneyland. By the way, I've been living in Southern California for over a decade and I still haven't gone to Disneyland in December. This record is the closest I've gotten. That is sad.

Anyways, this record is a mix of story telling and songs. I love this record. The story is interestingly weird and contrived. There are a few absolutely great tunes as well, "Jingle Bones" being my favorite. So once all your presents are open and the afternoon boredom sinks in, escape to Disneyland with this record.

On a side note I just wanted to say, that this past month has been very fun sharing all of these records. I've gotten some of my best feedback and comments. It has been great hearing from people that I've helped make their Christmas or that I've brought back some great memories. It has already got me excited for next year. I have a lot more records to share and I've already started digitzing for next years extravaganza.

As for the regular blog, I hope to get back to posting pretty soon. I'll probably take a few days off, but I will be back soon. I've definitely got a great record to share for New Years. Anyways until then...

Enjoy!

01 All Aboard For Disneyland.m4a
02 Disneyland At Last.m4a
03 The Storybook Tree.m4a
04 Fantasyland.m4a
05 Once Upon A Dream.m4a
06 Jingle Bones.m4a
07 Escaping The Witch.m4a
08 Frontierland.m4a
09 Adventureland.m4a
10 The Jungle Tree.m4a
11 Tomorrowland.m4a
12 The Futuristic Christmas Tree.m4a
13 Home At Last On Christmas Morning.m4a

A Christmas Adventure In Disneyland.zip

Holly Golightly - Christmas Tree On Fire 7" - 2006

2010-12-25T08:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone. I know I said I didn't have any Christmas vinyl to post this year, but I actually do. It's not vintage and may not conjure up nostalgic memories of Christmases of yore, but it is still a fun little Christmas record about the Christmas Tree burning down the house. Serves as a good warning about the hazards of real Christmas trees in your house. Longtime readers of the blog know that I love Holly Golightly. She's gotten quite a few mentions over the years and I even posted some photos this last year from when I went to see her. This is a record she released a few years ago for Christmas. I'm pretty sure you can still find it online or at specialty record store so I won't leave the link active for long. You really should go find the record, buy it and support the lady. With that said, my Christmas present today is to share it for a few days.

Enjoy!

01 Christmas Tree On Fire.m4a
02 Hear My Call, Here.m4a

Midnight Star - No Parking On The Dance Floor - 1983

2010-12-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I got another shelf for some records, which meant I could unpack some boxes of records that had been stashed away for sometime. I mentioned this story a few weeks past on a previous post. As I mentioned in that post I've been playing "The Many Faces Of Roger" a lot and have been listening to some of my other 80's electro funk records. That is what brings me to this record. This was one of the records I digitized during the first year that I started digitizing my records. It has always been an absolute favorite of mine. As a kid I loved the single "No Parking On The Dance Floor". I only knew the song from the radio. I didn't own the record or anything. It wasn't until the late 90's I think until I picked up this record. I fell in love with the whole record and have been rocking it for my kids since they were wee babies.

In addition to "No Parking On The Dance Floor" the song "Freak-A-Zoid" is an absolute jam. I think when I first heard it the cartoon Freak-A-Zoid was still fresh in my mind. It was either still on the air or just recently off the air. Cartoon aside, the song is classic. I mean it opens with an electronic robot type voice saying "Freak-A-Zoid robots please report to the dance floor". How awesome is that? You are basically helpless, but to obey and get yourself to the dance floor and start doing the robot. Over 8 minutes of robotic dance glory.

Here is what I assume to be the video/single version of the song. It's about 4 minutes.

The first side opener "Electricity" is a really good electro funk song as well. Has the oh-so-80's electronic voice box thing going on. It is "Electro funk" afterall. Just makes you want to start poppin' and lockin'.

"Feels So Good" is more of a straight ahead R&B/pop song, but I really like it. Kind of reminds me of the smooth production of Marvin Gaye in the 80's. Think "Sexual Healing".

Tracks:
Side 1
01 Electricity
02 Night Rider
03 Feels So Good
04 Wet My Whistle
Side 2
05 No Parking (On The Dance Floor)
06 Freak-A-Zoid
07 Slow Jam
08 Playmates

Enjoy!

No Parking On The Dance Floor Side 1.zip

No Parking On The Dance Floor Side 2.zip

Here is a bonus video in remembrance of the classic that was Freakazoid. I gots to get me some Freakazoid DVDs. I loved that show.

Hank Snow - When My Blue Moon Turns Gold Again - 1973

2010-12-13T13:43:00.000-08:00

So while I don't have any new Christmas records to post this year, this is somewhat in the spirit of the season. Hank Snow. Get it snow? I know. Bad pun.

Jokes aside, this is a pretty good record. The last I checked I didn't see this available on amazon.com except for used vinyl so I take that to mean that it is out of print and perhaps never has been released on CD. That makes it a great candidate for the blog.

This is a double record, so you get a lot of country for your dollar on this release. Actually you're getting it free, but you know what I mean. Actually, I don't know if "country" is the best description of Hank Snow's music. I think it is closer to "cowboy" music if that is a genre. These songs sound like ones a cowboy would sing on the range. A few of my favorites on this record are "Your Little Band Of Gold", "The Answer To The Blue Velvet Band", "I Wonder Where You Are Tonight", "How She Could Yodel", "On The Mississippi Shore"

"Little Buddy" is quite a song as well. It is a song about a man's dog that was killed by a drunk. It could possibly be one of the saddest songs you ever hear.

And my absolute favorite song is "There's A Picture On Pinto's Bridle" which tells the story of a man who is out riding on the trail when he comes across an injured boy and his pinto. The pinto has a broken leg and so the man draws his gun to put the horse down, but the man stops and the boy tells him the story of how when his mother died she wanted him to take care of the pinto. The boy finishes and utters his final words to the man to take the picture of his mother from the pinto's bridle and lay it near his heart when he dies. It's a tearjerker for sure. Below are the lyrics in their entirety.

I'm riding one bright evening 'neath the starlit western sky
The silver moon down on the sage did shine
As I spurred my pony onward, my guitar I softly played
To the tune of some coyote's lonely cry
Just then my pony halted, his ears up straight did go
He trembled as I stepped down by his side
With a glance I saw a shadow, on the prairie there did lie
A little curly-headed blue eyed boy.

O dee ay, dee ay lee, O ay lee O, dee lay ee.

Not very far beyond him his little Pinto fell
His leg was broke as there in pain he lay
And his frightened eyes were blinking as I drew my Forty Four,
Do not kill me his kind eyes just seemed to say.

"Don't shoot him, sir, I beg you, he is my only pal
We've rode the range together day by day
My poor father is a drunkard and he turned me from the door;
Dear mothers up in heaven far away.

O dee ay, dee ay lee, O ay lee O, dee lay ee.

She left me one bright morning, with the angels she does dwell,
We'll meet upon that other range some day
As she kissed my little forehead then a picture she did draw,
From a golden locket as I heard her say.

"My time has come to leave you, the best of pals must part,
Please promise mother always to be true
Thro' the long and lonely hours when your little heart's forlorn
Remember there's an angel watching you.

O dee ay, dee ay lee, O ay lee O, dee lay ee.

Just then the little fellow bowed down his weary head
And this is all his trembling lips did say
Please take care of little Pinto, try and help him to get well
I'm now heading for a round-up far away.

You'll find on Pinto's bridle, a treasure that is dear
Please put it by my heart when I have gone
'Tis a picture of my mother dear, the best pal that I knew,
I'm leaving now to meet her far beyond.

O dee ay, dee ay lee, O ay lee O, dee lay ee...

So there you have it. Give the record a listen. Hopefully you'll find a couple treasures on the record like I did.

Enjoy!

Record 1
01 When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again
02 Your Little Band Of Gold
03 Linda Lou
04 You've Broken My Heart
05 Wasted Love
06 The Answer To The Blue Velvet Band
07 Little Buddy
08 I'm Sending You Red Roses
09 I Wonder Where You Are Tonight

Record 2
10 Seal Our Parting With A Kiss
11 Anniversary Of My Broken Heart
12 My Fillipino Rose
13 How She Could Yodel
14 Your Last Kiss Has Broken My Heart
15 Under Hawaiian Skies
16 On The Mississippi Shore
17 There's A Picture On Pinto's Bridle
18 Journey My Baby Back Home

When My Blue Moon Turns Gold Again Record 1.zip
When My Blue Moon Turns Gold Again Record 2.zip

Palo Verde High School - Show Stoppers - 1972

2010-12-01T09:52:00.000-08:00

What? No Christmas album? Before I get into this record I want to apologize in advance, that I did not get around to digitizing any new Christmas albums for this year's holiday season. I have indeed purchased new Christmas vinyl, but I just haven't been able to digitize them yet. So there will probably be some re-posting and such, but nothing new.

Now to the record.

Before Glee was releasing albums entitled "Show Stoppers" Palo Verde High School in Tucson, Arizona was doing it. In fact this record was recorded way back in 1972 when I was but a babe.

The interesting thing about this record is that it has a very personal meaning to me. In fact probably my earliest memory was going to this performance. I attended this night when I was not even 2 years old and I can still remember where we sat in the auditorium. I was talking with my mother about this over Thanksgiving and she told me she was worried about taking me to this, because she was afraid I'd cry or get restless, but she said once the show started I was totally enthralled and never made a peep.

So why was I at this performance? Well, my older brother Tim was playing Sancho. Other than remembering where we sat, I remember the feeling I had when he sang. I was so impressed and proud. Today when I listen to this record I get chills because his voice is so good. It is funny when you listen to his voice against the other high school students. His voice is just so much more mature and trained.

You'll also notice in the liner notes that the choir president was Tim Milsaps. That is actually Tim Filichia, my brother. To this day he is still involved with show choir. He is the producer and director of a group name Light Entertainment Company. You can check out their web page here.

So record #1 has selections from "Fiddler On The Roof" and record #2 has selections from "Man Of La Mancha". Being biased I recommend checking out record #2 first and just right to "Man Of La Mancha" and "I Really Like Him".

Enjoy!

Palo Verde High School Choir - Record 1.zip

Palo Verde High School Choir - Record 2.zip

Weezer - Pork And Beans 7" - 2008

2010-11-29T01:00:00.000-08:00

I'll give you warning now. These links won't stay live for long. Weezer is pretty mainstream and a big moneymaker for their label, so I'm just going to assume that if the links stay up, I'll have problems.

I have to say, I have been a Weezer fan since the beginning. A few weeks after "The Sweater Song" broke I saw Weezer open for Lush. There were about 40 people in the club, but they rocked the house. I went to see Lush, but came away from that concert loving Weezer. I only knew that first single, but during their songs were so catchy and fun I was instantly hooked from that performance.

The band has had its high points and not so high points. I won't say low points because I don't think there really is a bad Weezer record. This last year they have been on fire releasing 3 records in the span of about a year, Ratitude, Hurley and most recently Death To False Metal. Rivers is truly gifted with writing catchy hooks. They never cease to be fun.

This song Pork and Beans is a classic. It was from the moment it hit the airwaves. I've been at several events where this song has been on and people just start singing along. I picked up both versions of the 7" when it came out because of the 2 B-sides. I love the Psychedelic Furs and so I had to hear "Love My Way" and I was almost as excited to hear their version of R.E.M.'s "Oddfellows Local 151. Document is one of my favorite R.E.M. records. I think it may have been the first R.E.M. CD I owned. So for a short time only check these ditties out.

Enjoy!

01 Pork And Beans.m4a
02 Love My Way.m4a
02 Oddfellows Local 151.m4a

As an added bonus, here is some video of my son a couple years ago performing "Pork And Beans" at a high school battle of the bands performance. I was pretty proud of him. He and his friend Brett really got the crowd going.

SAP Music Christmas Mix 2010

2010-11-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

Every year, no matter how early I think I am starting on the Christmas mix, in the end it feels rushed. Life just seems to get busier in the fall and finding the time to work on the mix is hard. When I do get a Saturday afternoon, it is never enough.

Every year I also feel like the Christmas mix isn't as good as the Halloween Mix, because I get to do so much fun stuff on the Halloween mix. This year I was sampling songs and making loops. I was pulling audio from movies and spoken word records. I spent so much time on that thing making something original. Doing that for the Christmas mix is probably possible, but I think it requires more digging and research, both of which require time and as mentioned before I'm always short on time by the time the Christmas mix rolls around. I'm not selling this mix too well am I? Sorry. Actually the mix is fun and I think there are some good selections that may surprise and delight you.

Enjoy!

SAP Music Christmas Mix 2010 - 128K.zip

Click on the images to read the track listings. Sorry for being such a pain. The less songs I list, the less chance I have of anyone complaining and that way the link can remain active.

You can download a nice high res version of this CD insert here.

Salt-N-Pepa - Expression 12" - 1989

2010-11-22T01:00:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I was further unpacking some boxes of records. I moved this past summer and there were some records that were still in boxes because I didn't have a shelf for them. So I got the additional shelf and began unpacking what I thought was going to be classical, Christmas and Hawaiian records. To my surprise there was a handful of other types of records. 12" dance singles, jazz and blues records, R&B and funk. Some were ones I remembered buying and some I think were given to me. There was about 20-30 records in there that look like they may be great future records for the blog. I still have a lot of work to do to get them on here, so don't get too excited yet. I still have to actually listen to a bunch of them.

One record is Fred Flintstone and Barney rubble and the songs of Mary Poppins. There is a story to go along with it, but the highlight is Fred singing versions of Mary Poppins song with a crumby out of tune guitar. Can't wait to share that.

The other discover was a record by Roger Troutman AKA Roger. It is his first solo record called "The Many Facets Of Roger" and it is amazing. 1981 electro funk. That jam rocked the house hard last night and on into today. So I don't have that record to post yet, but I thought something in the hip hop/funk flavor would be nice.

This was a hit for Salt-N-Pepa back in the day. Another good reason to tie in Salt-N-Pepa to this blog is that they were briefly a mascot to Team SAP. When they had their first hit with "Push It" that song was all over the radio. I remember heading up to Milwaukee to a skate park with a bunch of Team SAP members. We thought the group was called Salt And Pepper, which has the initials S A P. So on that trip that song was like our theme song because of the mistaken interpretation of the name. Anyways, Salt-N-Pepa will always have their place in Team SAP history, which makes them a great addition to this blog. Of course to everyone who has no idea what I'm talking about with regard to Team SAP, this means nothing. So just enjoy the music.

This will probably be the last post before I kick out the Christmas mix later this week after Thanksgiving.
Enjoy!

01 Expression (Half Step).mp3
02 Expression (No Shorts).mp3
03 Expression (acappella).mp3
04 Expression (Instrumental.mp3
05 Expression (Bonus Beats).mp3
06 Clubhouse (Vocal).mp3
07 Clubhouse (Instrumental).mp3

Depeche Mode - Strangelove - 1988

2010-11-16T06:04:00.000-08:00

I have an interesting history with Depeche Mode. The first time I heard them was at a party circa 84 or 85. I remember some girl having a tape and telling the host of the party that he needed to play the tape. The band was great. I didn't catch the name, but I remembered the track. It was People Are People. I remember loving it, but I was too shy to ask this older pretty girl who the band was. She was in high school and I wasn't. Anyway, my close friends and I were into heavy metal so I really didn't have anyone to talk to about the song, but I remembered it.

A couple years after that when I was in High School Depeche Mode got huge in the US. Somehow by that point I had connected the dots that People Are People was done by them, but my impression of the band was that they were just some good looking girlie band. So I wasn't into them at all. I just wrote them off as pop fluff.

Skip ahead to the later half of the decade I had a girlfriend (future wife) who loved Depeche Mode. So of course I got to hear more of them. What I discovered was that they were nothing like I thought they were. They had a dark side, I mean a really dark and twisted side. The album Black celebration was a revelation.

This single (again from my friend) is a good example of that dark twisted side of Depeche Mode. The record has couple good mixes and some b-side mixes of "Nothing". I have double checked, but I'm sure all these mixes have been made available on CD. A few years ago the band released a series of CD's releasing just about every mix or remix of anything they ever released. So if you want cleaner versions of these you can find them on CD.

Enjoy!

01 Strangelove (Highjack Remix).m4a

02 Strangelove (Remix Edit).m4a

03 Nothing (Zip-Hop Mix).m4a

04 Nothing (Dub).m4a

B-Movie - Remembrance Day 12" - 1987

2010-11-12T01:00:00.000-08:00

Here is number two from that stack of records my friend recently gave me. I just finished digitizing them this last weekend and doing all the labels and artwork and such so you should be seeing a more steady stream of them. They are mostly all from 1987-1989 and are of the synth pop variety.

Before getting this record I wasn't really familiar with B-Movie. However the songs "Remembrance Day" and "Nowhere Girl" have become instant faves on the ipod. It is one of those cases where I don't know if it is a case of the song being so good that I'm humming and singing along or that I actually have heard these tracks somewhere in the past and so I do have some connection to them. It is almost like I knew these songs from somewhere else, but I don't know where. Well whatever the story, I've been digging on them a lot the past week or so.

Enjoy!

01 Remembrance Day.m4a

02 Marilyn Dreams.m4a

03 Nowhere Girl.m4a

Kix - Kix - 1981

2010-11-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to get something up post Halloween. Yes, I know I was extremely lazy all October, just posting reposts. I can report that I did spend time in October working on the Christmas mix for the year.

This record was a bit of a surprise to me. I picked this up mostly because of the cheeseball photos, and I thought the music would be kind of cheesy. However I was pleasantly pleased to find that the album actually rocked quite well. It wasn't so much the hairband rock of the late 80's which I wasn't really into, but had a little more new wave influence than I was expecting. Listen to Heartache and you'll hear what I mean. Has a little bit of a powerpop vibe going on. Some songs rock a little harder, and there is the requisite heavy metal falsetto. For instance, take a song like "Kix Are For Kids". This is more in line with say Krokus. "The Kid" is a pretty catchy rocker and "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" is also infectious and closes the album well.

And lastly I'd like to say that even though I've given the music a B+ as far as quality I still stand by my opinion that the album photos are cheeseball.

Enjoy!

01 Atomic Bombs.m4a
02 Love At First Sight.m4a
03 Heartache.m4a
04 Poison.m4a
05 The Itch.m4a
06 Kix Are For Kids.m4a
07 Contrary Mary.m4a
08 The Kid.m4a
09 Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.m4a

Kix Side 1.zip
Kix Side 2.zip

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2009 - Repost

2010-10-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

It is finally that time of year again. For me Halloween is by far the best season for making mixes. There is so much material out there and I have the most fun mashing up and layering things. Also in addition to traditional Halloween songs, pop and rock music is full of songs with dark themes that lend themselves to Halloween. Candy and sugar is another popular theme in pop music which again plays so well into the whole Halloween thing. So this year, you get songs about candy, you get Elvis Costello singing about killing people.

Again to keep myself off the search engine radar, I'm going to avoid typing out the songs and artists on the track list. I have however provided a hi-res image of the liner notes I made for the CD's I made for friends. You should be able to read that to learn who is singing what. Also as always I have put in all the track tags so when you pull these files into itunes you get all the info you need.

Also I highly recommend listening to the whole thing, because I've mixed all the tracks to flow into each other. Also included here is an image that can be used to print out a CD sticker. That would be the image with the circular theme.

As far as the tracks go, I've put a lot more spoken word and dialogue samples on this mix this year. Don't let that scare you off. I made sure to make all those bits as interesting as possible by layering in music and sound FX. I've also done a lot of editing of songs so you get just the best bits. Much of the time, songs don't overstay their welcome. My philosophy was to get in, get the gist of the song and then move on. So the mix is constantly surprising the listener. I think also there may be some tracks that will put a smile on your face because you may have never thought of them a Halloween songs, but I think you'll find in the context of the mix they work quite well. The easiest example of what I'm talking about is the opening track by The Doors. You may be asking "The Doors, how is that a Halloween song?" well once you give it a listen and hear what I've done I think you'll get it.

So have fun with the music. I hope it can provide a nice soundtrack for the month of October. I also hope to get some comments back from people, so feel free to ask questions and or discuss the songs.

Enjoy!

Here is the whole thing in one zip file.

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2009.zip

01 Peace Frog.m4a
02 Swamp Blood.m4a
03 Skeleton Topless.m4a
04 Full Moon.m4a
05 The Final Sound.m4a
06 Terror From The Circus Of Death.m4a
07 Halloween.m4a
08 More Evil.m4a
09 Psycho.m4a
10 Nightmare In My Closet.m4a
11 The Dead Do Rise Vs. People's Playground.m4a
12 Poltergeist In The Pantry.m4a
13 Ghostride.m4a
14 Ghost Ship.m4a
15 The Ghastly Stomp.m4a
16 Haunted.m4a
17 We Are The Witches.m4a
18 You Must Be A Witch.m4a
19 I Put A Spell On You.m4a
20 Spooky.m4a
21 Candy Man.m4a
22 Some Candy Talking.m4a
23 Graveyard Girl (Yuksek Mix).m4a
24 Zombie.m4a
25 The Haunted And The Haunters Vs. Man With A Harmonica.m4a
26 The Boogie Man.m4a
27 Trick Or Treat.m4a
28 Under The Moon Of Love.m4a
29 Night Of The Witches And Dr. Frankenstein On Campus Commercial.m4a
30 Vampire Daddy.m4a
31 Graveyard Rock.m4a
32 Rock Candy.m4a
33 A Spooky Sounding Halloween Story Vs. The Emperor.m4a
34 The Headless Horseman.m4a
35 Astro Zombies Commercial.m4a
36 Goo Goo Muck.m4a
37 Walk Like A Zombie.m4a
38 Season Of The Witch.m4a
39 Halloween Is All Around.m4a

Here's an image to print out for a CD case.

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2008 Repost

2010-10-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a repost of the Halloween mix from 2008. This was the first mix I ever did in garageband. I am still extremely proud of this mix. It holds up very well.

Enjoy!

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2008.zip

01 This is Halloween - Marilyn Manson
02 Everyday Is Halloween - Dangerous Muse
03 I Have No Home - Martin Landau
04 Candy Man - Sloppy Seconds
05 No Costume, No Candy - The Swingin' Neckbones
06 Hallowe'en, Hallowe'en - Oscar Brand
07 The Haunted House Vs The Haunted Mansion - John Carpenter & The Haunted Mansion
08 The Haunted Mansion Organ & Madame Leota - Disneyland
09 Doin' It In A Haunted House - Yvonne Gage
10 Casper The Friendly Ghost (Theme)
11 Little Ghost - The White Stripes
12 Morricone Vs The Martians (Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion Main Title & Martian Graveyard) - Ennio Morricone
13 The Witch (Full Version) - The Cult
14 Evil Walks - AC/DC
15 Vampire - Antsy Pants
16 Sleepy Vampire - Eddie Spaghetti
17 Ghoul Days, Ghoul Days - The Wonderland Singers
18 To Cause A Witch To Die - Vincent Price
19 The Shreik Of Agony (Shreik Of Agony-Cha Cha Cha) - Bob McFadden and Dor
20 Seducing Shining Vampyros Lesbos Zombies - Louise Huebner, Manfred Hubler and Siegfried Schwab
21 Zombie Jamboree - King Flash and The Calypso Carnival
22 We're All Zombies Too - Josh Diamond
23 Count Chocula Goes Hollywood - Count Chocula, Frankenberry and Booberry
24 Dracula's Lament - Jason Segel
25 Lugosi, Orgies & Christians - Louis Huebner
26 It's Halloween - The Shaggs
27 Graveyard - Dead Moon
28 Buried Alive - Black Lips
29 At The House Of Frankenstein House - Big Bee Kornegay
30 Creation of The Female Monster (The Bride Of Frankenstein) - Franz Waxman
31 Over At The Frankenstein Place - Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon
32 Have A Happy Halloween - The Wonderland Singers

Halloween Mix 2007 - Repost

2010-10-05T11:55:00.000-07:00

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) - Jeffrey Jones & Howard Shore
02 Trick Or Treat - Oscar Brand And His Young Friends
03 My Dear Watson - Thee Headcoatees
04 Horrorshow - The Libertines
05 To Make A Witch Pockmarked - Vincent Price
06 Suspiria (Narration) - Goblin
07 Angel Witch - Angel Witch
08 Pass The Witch's Broomstick - Wade Denning & Kay Lande
09 Figments Park (Edit) - De Wolfe Music
10 Kill The Brain And You Kill The Ghoul - Anna & The Psychomen
11 I Walked With A Zombie - Roky Erickson & The Aliens
12 Halloween Hootenanny - Zacherle
13 Surfin' Dead - The Cramps
14 Teenage Zombie Blues - Blowtops
15 Braineaters - The Misfits
16 Among The Dead - Tim Armstrong
17 She's My Witch - The Monsters
18 Lil' Red Riding Hood - Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs
19 The Self Fascination Ritual For Increased Power - Louise Huebner
20 Evil - 45 Grave
21 Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But... - Arctic Monkeys
22 Braineater - Braineaters
23 At The Munsters - Golden Records Kids Choir
24 Casper, Casper (Whatcha Doin' On The Moon) - The Comix
25 Do The Rigormortis - Don Hinson & The Rigamorticians
26 Pacific Ghost Highway... (Intro) - The Ghastly Ones
27 Dinner With Drac - The Ghastly Ones
28 Goblin Dance - Gershon Kingsley & Peter Waldron
29 Hillside Strangler - The Hollywood Squares
30 Blood Lust - Tom Baker
31 Jack The Ripper - The Horrors
32 The Tell-Tale Heart - The Creed Taylor Orchestra/ Kenyon Hopkins
33 Popeye (The Gravedigger) - John Zacherle
34 I Dig You Baby - Bob McFadden And Dor
35 Halloween - Wade Denning & Kay Lande

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2010

2010-10-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year once again. This year I got a good head start on this mix. Started way back at the beginning of August and I wrapped it up the first week of September. So I've been sitting on this for a while.

I've you were reading the blog back then you got a few tastes of some of the tracks that I did for this year's mix. Tracks 15 and 16 were a big step forward for me this year on the mixing front. Because they are sort of the most original tracks and exclusive to this CD, they are my favorites. There are some other interesting things I'm pretty proud of. The Depeche Mode track is super creepy because I laid in some bits of voices from "The Shining". There are some fun spoken word samples sprinkled throughout. There are a few references to "The Son Of Svengoolie" who is a Chicagoland icon. Those are all thanks to youtube. The use of youtube this year to find clips and such was also new this year. In fact the Bette Midler track was taken from a youtube clip someone uploaded of a Son Of Svengoolie show where he played a clip from the original Svengoolie show back in the early 70's when Bette Midler made an in studio appearance. FYI I noticed after the fact that I spelled Svengoolie wrong on my track listing. Ugh! Maybe I'll get ambitious and fix that soon.

Enjoy!

SAP Music Halloween Mix 2010 - 128K.zip

01 P-S-Y-C-H-O (Psycho) End Title - Ben Vaughn

02 I Can't Decide - Scissor Sisters

03 Spirit - Doug E. Fresh

04 Kriminal Living Eye Theme - Maleditus Sound

05 Witches Brew - The Cast of Zoom

06 Vampira - Bobby Bare

07 Mother - The Police

08 Lullaby From Rosemary's Baby (Sleep Safe And Warm) - Claudine Longet

09 Wonka's Welcome Song - Danny Elfman

10 Curse Of The Zombies - Wade Denning & Frank Daniels

11 To Become A Werewolf - Vincent Price

12 Werewolf - Southern Culture On The Skids

13 Major Surgery - Akira Yamaoka

14 Monster On The Campus Trailer

15 The Merry Night Of Halloween (D.C. Don Juan vs. William Conrad Mix) - William Conrad

16 The Count Dracula Tussle (Boris Karliff vs Big Tuck) - Boris Karloff

17 My Daddy Is A Vampire – Meteors

18 Turn Around - They Might Be Giants

19 Svengoolie - Bette Midler

20 A Zombie's Commercial - The Zombies

21 Zombie Girl - The Spazzys

22 Brainwashed This Way _ Zombie _ That Shirt - Meat Beat Manifesto

23 I'm Your Boogie Man - White Zombie

24 Boogie Man - AC/DC

25 The Boogie Man Song - Mos Def

26 Dorothy-My Monster - Companions

27 I Want a Monster to Be My Friend - Marilyn Sokol

28 Mommy's Little Monster - Social Distortion

29 Ghost - Depeche Mode

30 The Ghost Who Walks - Karen Elson

31 Hurry Up It's Ghost Coming! – Nintendo

32 Friendly Ghost – Eels

33 Ghost Band – Rancid

34 The Munster Creep - The Munsters

35 Science Fiction Double Feature (Reprise) - Richard O'Brien

36 The Creature From The Black Lagoon - Hans J. Salter

37 The Creature From The Black Lagoon - The Monsters

38 Grave Robbers (From Outer Space) - Thee Merry Widows

39 Martian Hop - The Ran-Dells

40 Here Come The Martian Martians - Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers

41 Teenagers From Mars - The Network

42 Exit Crypt Music - The Haunted Mansion

Bob City - Swamp Buggy Racin' 7" - 1998

2010-09-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

This is one of the 7" records I picked up last year at Amoeba in a 50 cent bin. I think I bought about 20 records that I knew nothing about. I've been taking my sweet time getting them ready for the blog. This big hold up is scanning the artwork. Anyway, I got nudged yesterday to get to posting something again, because it had been so long. Time flies. Work has been very busy. So I pulled this out today.

Still don't know much about Bob City, but I do think "Swamp Buggy Racin'" is a good rocker of a song. Give it a listen and I think you'll be singing along with the easy to remember chorus "swamp buggy racin'". "Dead Man" is not too bad either.

Hopefully this will tide

Enjoy!

01 Swamp Buggy Racin'.m4a

02 Dead Man.m4a

As a bonus I looked up some Swamp Buggy racing footage on youtube.

Echo & The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar 12" - 1987

2010-08-22T01:00:00.000-07:00

Just this last week a friend gave me a small sack of records. They are all from the 80's and most of them are 12" singles. I have promptly started digitizing them to share. This is the first record from the collection which I'll post over the coming months. Many of these records are from pretty established bands like Echo or New Order or Morrissey or Depeche Mode, so I don't think I'm going to be sharing anything new that a die hard fan hasn't already collected from some other source. However, I do think on of the cool aspects will be the artwork, which may not be so readily available.

"Lips Like Sugar" is one of my favorite songs by Echo & The Bunnymen. On a side note I just have to say I find bands with "and" or "&" in their name to be annoying in this day of itunes. I hate having to keep track of whether I use the "&" sign of the word "and". It seems like I'm always fixing file names in bands like "Echo & The Bunnymen" and "The Jesus & Mary Chain".

This record is great because of the mixes. The 12" mix and the single mix are nice additions to the library. It is also nice to have a dub version of a song. Maybe I'll find a good use for that in some mash-up someday. "Rollercoaster" is a pretty good track as well. It really rocks and reminds me of some of the earlier Bunnymen work, kind of rough around the edges.

Enjoy!

01 Lips Like Sugar (12" Mix).m4a

02 Rollercoaster.m4a

03 Lips Like Sugar (Dub).m4a

04 Lips Like Sugar (Single Mix).m4a

Echo & The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sure 12".zip

The Count Dracula Tussle

2010-08-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

I have another original experiment to share today. I actually did this Saturday, but have only now gotten around to posting it. Similar to the previous post this is a track I did in garage band playing with samples. This one's got Boris Karloff, some screaming women and an evil laugh over a few music tracks. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. It is just one more step forward with me learning how to make things with Garage Band. Let me know what you think.

02 The Count Dracula Tussle (Boris Karliff vs Big Tuck).m4a

The Merry Night Of Halloween

2010-08-06T23:14:00.000-07:00

This week I started work on the 2010 Halloween mix. I was stringing songs together and layer things and generally having some fun. Then I got really into one track. I did more playing with samples than I have ever done before and I'm quite excited about the end result. I find a few of the samples are quite hooky and are stuck in my head. I think that is a good sign. So I decided that I didn't want to wait until October to share this track and so I'm sharing it now.

The track consists of samples of William Conrad reading a poem, "The Merry Night Of Halloween" laid over the instrumental track of "Lookie Looky" by D.C. Don Juan. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Enjoy!

01 The Merry Night Of Halloween (D.C. Don Juan vs. William Conrad Mix).m4a

Run DMC - Walk This Way - 1986

2010-08-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

Who can ever forget how big a deal this was not only for hip hop, but for Aerosmith. I do. I loved the video and I loved the idea of mixing classic rock with hip hop. Rick Ruben really was onto something there. So put on your favorite Adidas and strap some scarves to you microphone stand and sing along.
Enjoy!

01 Walk This Way.mp3
02 Walk This Way (Instrumental).mp3

Kansas - Two For The Show - 1978

2010-07-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a great recording or rip of this release, you have come to the wrong spot. This is a beat up record and I'm sure there are better copies out there. You can also still find this for sale on CD through many online channels. One of the reasons I ripped the record with the thought of sharing was that at the time a few years ago the CD release lacked a couple tracks. However since that time there has been a nice new 30th anniversary edition that has everything the vinyl record had. So if you like what you hear through all the dust and crackling go out and find the record or the 30th anniversary release of the CD.

So a few words about Kansas and how it relates to me. After all that is the whole point of me writing this thing. You can get the music just about anywhere. Hopefully there is some fun in reading about my experiences with the music that you can relate to and get some enjoyment out of it. Then again maybe that is just my self delusion. In which case, please humor me for a few more rambling sentences or paragraphs.

I'm really a music child of the 80's. I was pretty little in the 70's and so my association with a lot of 70's music is after the fact. Such is the case with early Kansas. I knew and listened to Kansas songs for many years purely based on the rock radio staples that played throughout the 80's on into today. "Dust In The Wind", "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Point Of No Return" were what I knew. Short well constructed rock songs, tailored for the radio. I really knew nothing of their more prog-rock roots or leanings. So this album really was my introduction to their earlier work. Some songs are better than others. It is by no means a must have record. If you already are inclined to be bored with prog-rock and it's indulgences you may want to just skip this all together and stick to the radio friendly classic rock staples. However if you like Emerson Lake and Palmer or early Genesis or Yes, you might want to give this a try. There is a good chance, thought that if you like those bands I just mentioned, then you have already checked this out.

After this record on into the 1980's Kerry Livgren became a born again Christian and their music shifted to reflect this conversion. It was during this phase that I was introduced to Kansas. I was listening to the radio when singles like "Hold On" and "Play The Game Tonight" were on the airwaves. They are still decent songs, but you don't hear them too much these days.

My memories of Kansas are tied to a couple things. The first thing is my best friend back in 5th and 6th grade, Jay Nelson. He introduced me to a lot of music. His allowance was more than mine and he bought an album just about every week. For some reason I think he bought vinyl confessions and he may have played it for me one time when I slept over at his house. That could be a faulty memory, though. I say that because Kansas also reminds me of Triumph who were gracing the airwaves also at the time. In case you missed it, the connection to Triumph is the second thing Kansas reminds me of.

In doing research I was looking at the various album covers. For some reason the cover to Audio-Vision didn't ring much of a bell for me. I don't know why I don't remember the cover. It cracks me up because it is a mixture or Mr. Roboto and disco. It's not exactly rock. The Vinyl Confessions cover is kind of boring, but at least it seems like a rock record.

So this one won't stay up long because it is a major label release and I'll probably get complaints if it remains up.

Enjoy!

Side 1
01 Song For America
02 Point Of No Return
03 Paradox
Two For The Show Side 1.zip

Side 2
04 Icarus Borne On Wings Of Steel
05 Portrait (He Knew)
06 Carry On Wayward Son
07 Journey From Mariabronn
Two For The Show Side 2.zip

Side 3
08 Dust In The Wind
09 Acoustic Guitar Solo
10 Piano Solo
11 Lonely Wind
12 Mysteries And Mayhem
13 Excerpt From Lamplight Symphony
14 The Wall
Two For The Show Side 3.zip

Side 4
15 Closet Chronicles
16 Magnum Opus
Two For The Show Side 4.zip