Weezer - Pork And Beans 7" - 2008

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

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

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

Kix - Kix - 1981

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lester Flatt - Lester Flatt Live Bluegrass Festival - 1974

Lester Flatt and Bill Monroe live. It is a bluegrass fan's dream. Some real fine performances here. The record is just fun from start to finish. There really is no reason to pick apart each track. I also don't think this one's in print so I'm happy to share this one.

Enjoy!

01 Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Instrumental)
02 Lost All My Money
03 Homestead On The Farm
04 Rawhide (Instrumental)
05 Wabash Cann0n Ball
06 Orange Blossom Special (Instrumental)
07 Nine Pound Hammer
08 Flint Hill Special (Instrumental)
09 Get In Line Brother
10 Blue Moon of Kentucky
11 Will You Be Loving Another Man
12 My Little Cabin Home On The Hill
13 Salty Dog
14 Dig A Hole In The Meadow
15 Cumberland Gap

Lester Flatt Live Bluegrass Festival.zip

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

Budget Girls - Get In Your Ear 7" - 1996

Screechy, raucus fun. The budget girls rock. I don't know if this qualifies as Riot Grrrl or just rowdy garage rock. Whatever. Who needs labels anyways? The girls are having fun banging away on their guitars and doing something close to singing. The record has a fantasticly racey cover. Reminds me of some lame Benny Hill skit or Austin Powers. The record also has a "teabagging" track, probably one of the earliest. I don't know that for a fact, but how many songs about teabaggin do you know and how many were before 1996. "Go Away Geek" cracks me the way they screech and scream. It sounds just like some snotty girls in highschool. The thing is it doesn't sound ironic, it sounds sincere. "Pop A Wheelie" and "French One" are also good tracks. The whole 7" is good. If you ever com across it, pick it up, bcause who knows how long these links will be active.

Enjoy!

01 Pop-A-Wheelie Cop-A-Feelie.m4a
02 Teabaggin'.m4a
03 French One.m4a
04 Go Away Geek!.m4a