Get the mix here, and/or continue reading… (174MB)

In January, I posted a mix CD called The Bastard Love Child of Punk & Disco; First Singles: The 80s in the 70s, Vol 1. It was, as the title suggests, a collection of first singles put out in the 70s who later became more popular in the 80s. That mix contained 25 songs – all A-Sides. This mix is the flip side to every single one of them.

Ever since I was a kid, I loved B-Sides. They were almost always a bit left of center, strange and usually not available on the album. When I decided to make this three volume mix of singles, I figured that I just had to include the B-Sides.

Talking Heads kicked off the first mix and they kick this one off too. “New Feeling” was the b-side to “Love → Building on Fire” Both songs are strong and either could have been the single. In the case of Devo, the flip side to “Mongoloid” was “Jocko Homo” which later became much more famous. This version is the first and, in my opinion, the best.

There are some great songs here. Check out Tubeway Army’s “Oh! Didn’t I Say.” Brilliant stuff. Also, “Don’t Cry Baby” by The Polecats is a creepy, but really fun song. How about TV Personalities “Oxford ST”? And Peter Gabriel’s “Moribund the Burgermeister” – that one is really weird. You’ll like it. Oh! And Pere Ubu’s “Heart of Darkness” – it’s passionate and crazy. Wonderful stuff.

The Police, Japan and Madness all have some good stuff here. Madness, especially. Or maybe Japan, especially. Know what? The whole thing is good. It’s not like a bunch of second rate songs that weren’t good enough to be the release side. For many of the bands, the b-side was simply the other song they recorded.

Here’s the track list…

How about some sample songs?

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Tubeway Army – Oh! Didn’t I Say

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Devo – Jocko Homo

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Thompson Twins – Could Be Her … Could Be You

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Peter Gabriel – Moribund the Burgermeister

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Pere Ubu – Heart of Darkness

Ok, enough of all this. Go check it out!

Just click on the link and save the zip file to your desktop. Then open the zip file with WinZip (or whatever program you use to open zip files). Add to your MP3 library or burn it to a CD-R. Easy as pie!

Check out my other mixes right here…

Words? Who needs words when the music is this good? Here are 19 songs that would have been ruined by words.

It would have been easy to fill a CD with instrumental jazz or late 50s surf music. True, I’ve got Bud Shank (mid-50s jazz surf music before there was surf music), Link Wray and Dick Dale, but there’s so much more.

We start off with a band I heard in a used record store in Morgantown, West Virginia circa 1995, Hoven Droven. I immediately fell in love with their Iceburn meets Scandinavian folk music. Oven more obscure is Pink Floyd with an early B-side take on the not-yet-classic “Careful With That Axe, Eugene.” Speaking of B-sides, how about Simple Mind’s 7″ B-side “Theme for Great Cities.”

I didn’t want to only be obscure, of course. I wanted some classics. That’s where Link Wray and the Ventures come in. But also They Might Be Giants treat us to a fairly straight rendition of “Jessica” while Zappa goes a bit crazy with “Bolero.” Speaking of crazy, check out Scott Walker’s “Part 2.” Eno and Byrne’s song as well.

Dissent’s “Stress” was the last thing they ever recorded and it’s really a shame. They started out as a basic hardcore punk band and began to evolve into something much more complex. Rush is complex. If you’re cool, you’ll know the song. If you’re not so cool, you’ll recognize the song from the start of Primus’s Frizzle Fry LP. I was of the latter group.

When I was a kid and rap was just started to gain some attention, they’d play Herbie Hancock’s “Rock It” video as an example of what rap was (they’d also play Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”). Pretty lame, really.

And lastly, if I ever made a movie, I’d want the Dead Milkmen’s “Vince Lombardi Service Station” to play over the end credits. Let’s try to make that happen, ok?

1. Hoven Droven – Kjellingen
2. Link Wray – Jack the Ripper
3. They Might Be Giants – Jessica
4. Scott Walker – Part 2
5. Dissent – Stress
6. Pink Floyd – Come In Number 51, Your Time Is Up
7. Bud Shank – Going My Wave
8. Mogwai – May Nothing But Happiness Come Through Your Door
9. Dick Dale – Miserlou
10. Frank Zappa – Bolero
11. Weird Al – Fun Zone
12. Simple Minds – Theme For Great Cities
13. Herbie Hancock – Rock It
14. Camper Van Beethoven – Interstellar Overdrive
15. Brian Eno and David Byrne – Two Against Three
16. Ventures – Walk Don’t Run
17. Anthrax – Across The River
18. Rush – YYZ
19. Dead Milkmen – Vince Lombardi Service Center

The cover is a b&w of a photo I took in 2004 of friends Ashley and Nikki on a beach in California. I think it was when we went to Bodega Bay. That’s where Hitchcock filmed The Birds. Interesting, no? The back cover is (obviously) just a little remix of the reversion.

This year, the mixes will mostly feature reversions of photos that I took. I have all these pics, so why not?

So here you go. February’s mix is a mix full of instrumentals. I hope you enjoy such things. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Just click on the link and save the zip file to your desktop. Then open the zip file with WinZip (or whatever program you use to open zip files). Add to your MP3 library or burn it to a CD-R. Easy as pie!

Here are some samples…

Hoven Droven – Kjellingen

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Frank Zappa – Bolero

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Camper Van Beethoven – Interstellar Overdrive

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The Ventures – Walk Don’t Run

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I would like to do more mixes like the road trip mix I did last summer. To refresh your memories, that mix CD was more like a mix tape than anything. It had two tracks, side one and side two, each “side” having ten or so songs on it. The songs were accompanied by little sound bites from educational shorts, noises from cars and general strangeness.

Doing that mix was really enjoyable and I’d like to do it again. I’d probably continue where I left off, making a sort of sequel to the road trip mix.

I’m not really sure how many people actually listened to the first one though. Most folks who are used to CDs or playlists wouldn’t really jump at the opportunity of being “forced” to listen to 40 minutes of continuous music with songs you can’t skip over.

If you haven’t listened to the mix, I’d like you to. You can download it here. Musically, it’s got something for almost everybody. But, like I said, the format (for some) leaves a lot to be desired.

But those who remember making mix tapes will get it.

How you can help is by letting me know what you think of the format and if you think it’s even worth doing another one like it.

So go go go go and download Hot Sun Beating on a Blacktop. You can listen to it on your computer or burn it to a CD. Go ahead.

And while you’re at it, why not check out my other mixes…

Get the mix here, and/or continue reading… (174MB)

In music, and pop culture in general, decades don’t really mean what we think they mean. For example, most of what we call 60s music lasted well into the 70s. Punk rock, generally thought of as 70s music, didn’t really start until 1976 and died out quickly, by ‘78 (take THAT!). Disco started a bit earlier than that and died out a few years into the 80s.

What we think of as 80s music, oddly enough, started along side punk and disco, the same two genres that much other 80s music was derived from.

That’s how trends in music work. Some things will start on their own and then sometimes, those very same things are influenced by whatever else is going on.

Anyway, my point with all of this is that 80s music started in the 70s. And while the title: The Bastard Love Child of Punk & Disco, is true enough, it’s not nearly the whole story.

As you’ll see over the next year and six volumes of proof, 80s music is very much 70s music. Artists like Simple Minds, Midnight Oil, Devo, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, XTC, The Police, Thompson Twins, Human League and many others not only got their start in the 70s, but by the end of ‘79 had released their first single (and in many cases, several albums).

This six volume mix consists totally of first singles (and their b-sides) of bands that had their biggest success in the 80s. All of these songs were released in the 70s. This first volume is 25 of those singles. The next volume will be the 25 b-sides to those singles. And that’s how it will work.

Every other month for the year 2010, I’ll put up one of these mixes. In between those will be other mixes.

As for Bastard Love Child, Vol 1, we’ll start with Talking Heads, go through Devo, Thompson Twins and The Police, winding up with Blondie and The Pretenders. Most will recognize some of the bands by name, but the early sound of some of this music will be basically unheard of.

The Police, for example, sound like a speedy post-punk band, Gary Nueman (Tubeway Army) is heavy on the guitars and missing the synth, a style that was more than reversed a few years later. XTC wasn’t yet the esoteric chamber music they later became, but a fuzz box punk act.

That’s just how it went. As time went by, the bands changed – people changed. But for the next year, you’ll hear these bands, commonly thought of as “80s music” in the early years of their development – the 1970s.

Here are some samples…

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Tubeway Army – That’s Too Bad

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XTC – Science Friction

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Thompson Twins – Squares and Triangles

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The Police – Fall Out

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The Pretenders – Stop Your Sobbing

Get it here! (174 MB)

I’m using a file hosting service called Megaupload. If you have any problems with it, just let me know. It’s easy! Just click the link, put in the little “captcha code,” hit enter and then choose “regular download,” ignore the ads (sorry) and download it to your desktop.

It’s a zip file, so everyone in the universe should be able to open it.

Check out my other mixes here.

Merry merry, dear ones!

Click here to get the whole mix.

And/or you can read a bit about it.

As per tradition, the Christmas Mix CD is now also available as a download!

So let’s just hop right into it and tell you the songs. The songs are arranged in the order of their acceptance into the Union. Delaware is first, Pennsylvania is second, Wisconsin is thirtieth.

Disc One
1) Drop Nineteens – Delaware
2) Polkacide – Pennsylvania Polka
3) Red House Painters – New Jersey
4) Clayton McMichen – Georgia Wildcat Breakdown
5) Impossibles – Connecticut
6) Arlo Guthrie – Massachusetts
7) Mountain Goats – Going to Maryland
8) Charlie Johnson – The Charleston
9) Matt Pond PA – New Hampshire
10) Ed’s Redeeming Qualities – Virginia
11) Valparaiso Men’s Chorus – New York Girls
12) The Devil Makes Three – North Carolina
13) The Softees – Holiday in Rhode Island
14) Billie Holiday – Moonlight in Vermont
15) Sparks – Moon Over Kentucky
16) Arrested Development – Tennessee
17) Johnny Cash – Banks of the Ohio
18) Hank Williams – Jambalaya (Louisiana)
19) The Jackson Five – Goin Back to Indiana
20) The Proclaimers – Sean (Mississippi)
21) The Handsome Family – Giant of Illinois
22) Jerry Reed – Alabama Wild Man
23) Rudy Vallee – The Maine Stein Song
24) Ted Herold – Das Haus Am Missourik

Disc Two
25) Jerry Garcia – Arkansas Traveler
26) Judy Garland – I Wan to Go Back to Michigan
27) Butthole Surfers – Moving to Florida
28) Guy Clark – Texas 1947
29) Polvo – Snowstorm in Iowa
30) The Dead Milkmen – I’m Living in Wisconsin
31) Paddlefoot – Shelf Life (California)
32) Weird Al – Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota
33) Loretta Lynn – Portland, Oregon
34) Jelly Roll Morton – Kansas City Stomp
35) Spike Jones – I Wanna Go Back to West Virginia
36) Billy Joel – Stop in Nevada
37) Groucho Marx – There’s a Place Called Omaha, Nebraska
38) Johnny Paycheck – Colorado Kool-Aid
39) Six Cents and Natalie – Christine, North Dakota
40) Andre Williams – The Only Black Man in South Dakota
41) Frank Zappa – Montana
42) Young Fresh Fellows – Aurora Bridge (Washington)
43) Yonder Mountain String Band – Idaho
44) Roy Rogers – Oh Why Oh Why Did I Ever Leave Wyoming?
45) Camper Van Beethoven – The History of Utah
46) Bob Wills – Good Ole Oklahoma
47) Texas Tornadoes – Guacamole (New Mexico)
48) The Sugarplastic – Arizona

+ Two bonus songs!

Here are some samples…

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New Jersey

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Virginia!

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New York!!

For the liner notes, I decided to say something about each song and something about each state. It’s much too long to put here as text. So here’s a scan of it (somehow I deleted the work and print files for this one… ugh. I do this a lot).

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Illinois

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Wisconsin

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West Virginia

Go ahead, click it and read through it. It’s fun, I assure you.

Click here to download the whole thing in one big zip file.

This will take you to a site called MegaUpload where you will enter a little “captcha” code and click “download file.” There are also some ads. If you had the AdBlocker plugin for Firefox, you would not see them.

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North Dakota

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Wyoming

Also remember, in 2010 I’ll be doing a downloadable mix CD once every month. That’ll give you 12 mixes next year!

Click here to go to the rest of my mixes.

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Missouri?

I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out. I was afraid that a tighter budget would scale it back too much, but with some cheap deals on media and some ingenuity, I think we’ve got a fun little mix on our hands.

And soon it will be in yours!

I was stumped as to what to do about the CDs themselves. I pretty well hate CD labels as they usually throw the disc off balance and just look bad. Last year, I used small ones to replicate record labels and I think that worked really well, but this year, I wanted to venture into another area.

The first two years, I just wrote on the discs and didn’t want to do that again, so I decided to use a stamp. The one I chose pretty well matches the motif of the CD. That thrilled me.

The covers were fun to do and were sort of a challenge for me. I decided to do the entire mix (from the music to the cover, etc) all on Linux. This means no iTunes (gag!) and no Photoshop. I’m a big fan of Photoshop, but it’s not (yet?) made for the Linux operating system. So I had to use a program called Gimp. It’s a really good (and free) program. It does quite a lot and does it well. They’re still a far cry from Photoshop, but they’re getting better with every release. And it’s free.

The packing up for mailing didn’t really work so well. Last year, I used white mailers made specifically for CDs. Well, the budget dictated that I reuse and recycle. I got some cardboard and some envelopes that I had and started the process of packing them up.

I’m in no way complaining about any of this. I love doing this, even the parts that take a long time. I dig this quite a lot.

So here they are, all ready to go! Yesterday morning, I took a little trip to the post office, so you good folks should be getting your mixes this upcoming week. Exciting!

Today is Sarah’s birthday and in honor of such a thing, I thought that I’d post her Halloween Mix.

A few weeks ago, she thought that it would be fun to make a mix on her own. I do mixes for Christmas (though not about Christmas) and she figured she’d make a mix about Halloween.

And I must say, it’s a very fine mix.

Here’s the track listing…

01 – Introduction
02 – The Creatures – Mostly Ghostly
03 – Meat Puppets – Vampires
04 – Whodini – The Freaks Come Out At Night
05 – Squirrel Nut Zippers – Hell
06 – Rockwell – Somebody’s Watching Me
07 – Ted Cassidy – The Lurch
08 – Duran Duran – Nightboat
09 – Handsome Family – Bottomless Hole
10 – Band of Horses – There Is A Ghost
11- The Cure – Lullaby
12 – Tarantula Ghoul and The Gravediggers – Graveyard Rock
13 – Danny Elfman – This Is Halloween
14 – Bobby Bare – Vampira
15 – Burned at the Stake
16 – DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince – Nightmare on My Street
17 – Theme From Gremlins
18 – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You
19 – Don Hinson and The Rigamorticians – Riboflavin-Flavored, Non-Carbonated, Polyunsatured Blood
20 – The Simpsons Halloween Special Theme
21 – Tim Curry – Anything Can Happen on Halloween
22 – Griz Green – Jam at the Mortuary
23 – Rezurex – Devil Woman
24 – Farewell

Get the mix by clicking here!