The Cure - Rare 12" Versions - 2007

I bought this album a few years back.  It was an impulse buy on a visit to Amoeba Records.  By that I mean I did not go there to buy the record, but when I saw it I had to pick it up.  There are some good remixes on this record that I had never heard before.  I have a feeling the record isn't in print anymore because I see it going for quite a few bucks on ebay.  I guessing that means that it is out of print.

Another thing I think I am going to do is now post any direct link to download, because it is The Cure.  By that I mean, they are mainstream enough and have the backing of a big label so I think posting a link will just invite trouble.  However as always, if you are really interested in listening to the tracks, drop me an e-mail and I'll see what I can do about sharing the music with you.  In the mean time you can enjoy the album artwork.  Below is the track listing.

Enjoy!

01 Closer To Me (Closer Mix)
02 Love Cats (Extended 12" Version)
03 Why Can't I Be You (FK Mix)
04 Boys Don't Cry (New Voice Club Version)
05 Lullaby (Extended 12" Version)
06 Hot Hot Hot (Extended Mix)
07 Pictures Of You (Extended Dub Mix)
08 The Walk (Everything Mix)

Klark Kent - Music Madness From The Kinetic Kid 10" EP - 1980

This is a record I've wanted to write about for a long time.  I prepped this page actually several years ago (uploading the images), but never got around to writing the post.  Then I ran into the trouble of having my mediafire account wiped out and I backed off on writing anything for a long while.  Well, now I'm back in the swing and I figure I'll try and take out anything that might be a red flag to the powers that be and try to fly a little more under the radar.  I'll try and not list track names or even make it appear that I'm posting music from the record.  Of course if you are interested in hearing this rare gem, contact me and I'll see what I can work out.

Klark Kent was a side project from Stewart Copeland of The Police.  This little EP is a super fun power pop/new wave record.  Even the packaging of the record is fun.  It is a 10" record and the sleeve is actaully in the shape of the letter K.  Another interesting thing about this record from my perspective is that a friend of mine gave this to me for free.  He just wanted me to digitize it for him and burn him a disc.  Can't beat that deal.

Well the EP has 8 tracks.  The first track is stellar and super catchy.  It is my favorite track by far.  The 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th tracks all have echos of The Police musically.  The vocals aren't very Sting-like, but the music is very reminiscent.  To me it shows how much influence Copeland probably had on the sound of the police.  The scans I have included give you the track names as well as the lyrics that were on the inner record sleeve.  Sorry the images aren't better.  I did these several years ago and my techniques weren't as refined.  You can also see that is was pressed on Kryptonite Green vinyl.  Pretty cool.

I don't know if this is available on CD or for purchase anywhere.  You can find the songs collected on a compilation entitled "Kollected Works." It goes for a mint on Amazon.   If you don't have that kind of cash, I'm sure you can find copies of the vinyl on Ebay for a more reasonable price and I'm sure other blogs have featured this record as well because it is an interesting footnote in rock music history.






Enjoy!

Camouflage - The Great Commandment - 1988

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 Dance - In Lust 12" - 1980

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

Depeche Mode - A Question Of Time 12" - 1986

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

Stone Fury - Let Them Talk - 1986

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

More - Warhead - 1981

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

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.

New Years Eve 1984 in Chicago

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

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

Midnight Star - No Parking On The Dance Floor - 1983

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.

Salt-N-Pepa - Expression 12" - 1989

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

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

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

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

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

Run DMC - Walk This Way - 1986

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

Andy McCarroll & Moral Support - Zionic Bonds - 1981

This is one interesting record. One that when I bought it I had no idea what it was. I dug the cover and it looked like it might be a fun power pop record. I didn't pick up on the Christian reference in "Zionic Bonds" and the song titles didn't really give me any indication that this was an overtly Christian record. Some may be immediately put off by the overt Christian preaching of the record and I understand that.

For me I don't really get down with most "Christian" music, but I do actually like this record. Some of the lyrics hit home for me and some don't. So while I don't necessarily agree with all the lyrics, I don't really get down with the murder and Satan worship of Slayer's lyrics either, but I still have "Reign In Blood" on my ipod. So what does that tell you? I don't know, but it is what it is.

There is also something interesting and maybe even punk rock about lyrics that are so not in step with the main stream of rock and roll. There is a feeling or rebellion against the rock status quo that I do kind of respect. The band isn't happy with what they see wrong with the world and they sing passionately about it in rather well constructed pop songs. I think that should count for something. So even if you disagree with everything I just wrote I think you should give the music a chance. The music and execution is quite good and fun in my opinion. It is actually a pretty good powerpop/new wave record.

As for the songs here is what you get. Track one is titled "Sin" and on any other rock record that would be escapist revelry in the pleasures of sin. Not here. It is all about how bad sin is. While the Supersuckers would sing about loving sin, Andy McCarroll & Moral Support sing "I wanna hate it" with a snarly defiant delivery.

"To Know You" has a reggae feel and by that I mean something closer to The Clash's take on reggae.

"How The Kids Are Feelin'" is a quick paced rocker. You can definitely bop around the dance floor with this one and get your pogo on.

"Slippin' and Slidin" is quite a catchy little number and you may find yourself humming along.

"I Am Human" may cause some heads to turn. It is a straight up song about abortion taking a pro-life stance that isn't ever really heard in pop music. Actually I don't know that it is totally an anti pro-choice issue, but I think he is trying to at the very least voice the opinion that perhaps the issue isn't so simple and there may be mutiple lives or ramifications to consider. Maybe I'm being naive giving them the benefit of the doubt.

"King Man" buzzes and jolts along with angular rhythms and guitars and a punk attitude.

"Cyan City" is okay and has moments of "Flock Of Seagulls" in the opening. There is also a laser sound. Not one of my favorites.

"Livin' A Lie" gets back to the new wave pop formula. Still not one of the better songs, but it is okay.

"20th Century" is a pretty good song. It is basically a spiritual testimonial of their belief in a God. If you have a theistic leaning, you may really dig this track, because it is catchy and hopeful. If you're agnostic or an atheist you may just find this offensive and have no connection to it. There is no subtlety in the message. It is as clear as "there is a God" period.

"In Control" again coops some reggae/ska rhythms much like the Police did for a mid-paced pop number. It proclaims "God is in control" when examining the fears and state of the world in the early 80's. I was a kid in those days and the fear of some sort of nuclear world war 3 was very much in the air. America's fear of the Soviet Union and likewise I think the USSR's fear of USA was a real fear. This song actually tries to instill some hope that things will be okay and that there is a greater power at work steering things. it doesn't get into exactly how that works, but the thought that someone or something is looking out for the human race is a nice thought and makes it easier to go to sleep at night, at least easier than the thought of nuclear annihilation.

Enjoy!

01 Sin.m4a
02 How The Kids Are Feelin'.m4a
03 To Know You.m4a
04 Slippin' And Slidin'.m4a
05 I Am Human.m4a
06 Cyan City.m4a
07 King Man.m4a
08 Livin' A Lie.m4a
09 In Control.m4a
10 20th Century.m4a

Zionic Bonds Side 1.zip
Zionic Bonds Side 2.zip