7.25.2009

It's not a Blog- It's a Blog Lobster (Pirate Radio 2 mix)

Another Mix! This is 'Lost- Pirate Radio 2'!
I posted another mix based upon the TV show a ways back (here). Since I have never seen the show, I had to do a lot of research. This 'research' consisted of thinking about sunny weather, daydreaming that I was a pirate, and swimming some.
Arduous.
Out of that came these two great mixes: highly appropriate for sitting around drinking margaritas, dancing in living rooms, wearing thongs/flip-flops.

You'll enjoy this, I promise.
Download 'Lost- Pirate Radio 2' with just one lil' clicky.

And what do we have on such a mix?
A song sung like a boy, like a girl, like a frog. We might hear this song sometime at Bouffant Bangout.

A song about being protected on the subway by the Guardian Angels. This is a finger-snappin', clap-happy disco tune.

This group is a sort of vigilante city patrol, and they mocked it in Sunny.


[{(download the freshly mixed fresh mix here.)}]

More sunny day, happy time, mellow Calypso. Island music.

A song about being stranded in the Jungle, that, if it weren't potentially racist (cannibals in the jungle?!...), you also might hear at BB-out. Is it racist, or not? You'll have to listen to it and see!

One of those new-wave, dance-punk-before-the-fact, snotty girl song. It says: 'Can I have a taste of your ice cream? Can I interfere in your crisis?'
'No! Mind your own business!'


[{(download it here.)}]


A song that sounds like those Indian Youtube singalongs.

Thanks to Charlie for showing these to me a while ago. GIRLY MAAAAAN!


[{(download it here.)}]

A sort of pseudo-cover of a Misfits song, but by Miss Kittin and the Hacker- you can dance to this one, despite the fact that it's lyrics are all like thus: "Mommy, Daddy, can I go out and kill tonight?".

"It's not a rock:

It's a Rock Lobster!"

Here is the track listing for
Lost- Pirate Radio 2 , complete:

Mind Your Own Business--- Delta 5
Rippin Kittin (Glove Radio Mix) ---Golden Boy With Miss Kittin
Rock Lobster ---B-52s
Ten Speed (Of God's Blood And Burial) ---Coheed & Cambria
Standed in The Jungle --- the Cadets
The Guardian Angel Is Watching Over Us--- Golden Flamingo Orchestra Featuring Margo Williams
New Hollywood Babylon ---Don Cavalli
Water--- The Esso Steel Band & Lloyd Simmons
Anna ---Brute Force Steel Band
Cool running ---Champaign
Ain't got not home --- Clarence 'Frogman' Henry
Sunny side of the street --- Big Shell Steel Band
Camilla ---George Symonette


[{(download 'Pirate Radio 2' here.)}]

7.10.2009

Billy Bragg, and Steven Wells: A New England, A New Day, A New Way?

A local journalist died recently, and was lovingly yakked about in the local press. He was Steven Wells, and we wrote loud, short-but-they-feel-longer pieces, about music and general goings-on (like knitting, and how much he despised it).



Sounds like my blog, correct?: but he was, admittedly, better. In part, because he was British, so when he swore (often), it was with words like "SLAG!".


Accident Waiting To Happen - Billy Bragg

[[[ I'm putting a YouTube clip below, because you can maybe only listen to 30 seconds of the above, correct? If you don't have an Imeem.com account at least, correct? Be Honest: has anyone actually got one? (...comments plz...)I do, obv, but do you guys? Or are you all just hearing mini-tiny-itty-bitty clipz? ]]]

So, this qualifies the 'local' aspect, but he'd been here a while and made a life for himself. In fact, he must have deliberately chosen Philly, because he used to be mad famous in England, writing for NME and such. One day he picked up and came here, quite making his mark.
Anyhow, he was famous enough (and impassioned enough, and liked enough) that Billy Bragg wrote about him upon his death.
Now I love Billy Bragg; when I still had a list under the MUSIC section on my Myspace page, he was on there. You understand the relative significance of this, yeah?



(Above is the YouTube version to listen to -IF- you've never heard the song before; if you've heard it a bit, listen to the one at the bottom. It better shows his camaraderie with his audience [funny, because he's a Socialist, get it, Comrade?], his folk and punk roots when he makes them singalong, and how he's funny/charming. These would all be reasons why he and Steven Wells were on friendly terms...)

I won't launch into a grand description of him here, for these reasons:
1) Dude's pretty big- and you are a big girl/boy- so you can figure it out on your own
2) I may write more about him later, maybe vis a vis my "Slept On" series, where I discuss 'really-favorite' music that I never hear my friends talk about

Dig?



Here are some lyrics from that song:

"I was twenty one years when I wrote this song
I'm twenty two now, but I won't be for long
People ask when will you grow up to be a man
But all the girls I loved at school are already pushing prams

I loved you then as I love you still
Tho I put you on a pedestal
They put you on the pill...

I don't want to change the world
I'm not looking for a new England
I'm just looking for another girl

I loved the words you wrote to me
But that was bloody yesterday
I can't survive on what you send
Every time you need a friend

I saw two shooting stars last night
I wished on them but they were only satellites
Is it wrong to wish on space hardware
I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care"

heh

7.06.2009

Pirate Radio- "Lost" and Found Sounds

I have put together two mixes based on the TV series, "Lost."
DOWNLOAD "Lost- Pirate Radio One.zip"
Now, I've never seen this show. I just want to cash in on its popularity while I still can (before everyone realizes that it just is not that good).



My favorite character (again, haven't seen it: this is all overheard hearsay) is one John Locke. Why my favorite?
He uses a machete,
He has been in a wheelchair,
He has no hair.

I would do all these things: I would roll around viciously swording all those who dared not step out of the way of my wheeled chariot (and my head is shaved already!).

He also will defend his property, which I guess means something to those of you who read philosophy.
But as (philosopher) Locke tells us, the natural right to property, in civil society, may come with contractual limits. For instance, a DVD I bought at the dollar store informed me that my right of ownership, granted to me by my purchase, in fact "excludes the use of this DVD at locations such as clubs, coaches, hospitals, hotels, oil rigs, prisons, and schools."
Okay!

On to the mix: since I never saw the show, only two things are guiding the selection:
1) that something about the title/band name/ evokes something "Lost"-y to me: islands, water, fighting, Weird Science, etc.
2) that the songs would be fun enough that, even if you didn't know them, if you heard them in the background at a party, you would like them. So they must be 'party' songs, like funtime partytime, not like dancing partytime. Some you can dance to, though; it is not contractually forbidden.

Whereby a wonderful radio-like mix is made.
(This is the actual contract that I and my computer signed. Computer being digital, it signed it electronically, with a PIN.)

!TRACK LISTING!
for "Lost- Pirate Radio One.zip"


1) Hey There, Little Insect ?? ? ?? Modern Lovers
Funky little ditty. 'Monologue on Bermuda' coming up on a near-future blog (it's by Jonathan Richman, lead guy for ModLovers).
(because islands have insects?)

2) Jailbreak ?? ? ?? Thin Lizzy
Lyrics: "sirens wail, tonight all systems fail; hey you good-lookin' female: c'mere"
(because trapped on an island is roughly jail?)

3) No Fun ?? ? ?? The Stooges
Clapping- pretty much the most fun Stooges song, oddly enough.
(because would being on an island, even if there are polar bears and limbo contests and you get a really good tan base, really be that fun, after a few weeks?)

(download mix here)

4) In The Mouth A Desert ?? ? ?? Pavement
(sand=desert; islands have sand, right?)

5) Perfidia ?? ? ?? The Ventures
Off the sensational follow-up to "Vol 1. Original Hits". Off the 'present' side of the vinyl, not the 'past' side. Apparently, the 'present' is about '62. Surf rock classic. The Ventures covered "Apache"; a later cover by The Incredible Bongo Band is one of the most sampled songs ever. RESPEK!
(because surfing is what islanders do? Also, because this song sounds like sun?)

6) Eisbär ?? ? ?? Grauzone
punk-funk, new wave, whatever you need to call it. Sorta awesome. I got this actually in Germany: how about that?
(because 'Eisbär' in German means 'polar bear', and wasn't there a polar bear one time?)

7) This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) ?? ? ?? Talking Heads
I got this song off a free promo CD that Gary gave me; ehm, it was "She's just not that into you", I'm afraid to say. But this and 5 other really good songs on it. So I took it.
(because the island must be 'the place', whether 'the place' is purgatory, the future, or whatever? Have they even told you what the island actually is yet?)

(download mix here)

8) You Can't Hide From Yourself ?? ? ?? Teddy Pendergrass
Classic Philly soul. RESPEK!
(Cos where are you gonna hide on an island, huh? Riddle me that!)

9) I Think We're Alone Now ?? ? ?? Tommy James and The Shondells
By the band that brought you the ultrafamous "Crimson and Clover" (over and over...). This song, you will remember from your misspent youth- Tiffany covered it!
(cuz, 'cept for the other people there, you are abandoned by all humanity? Except maybe DARPANET or whatever it's called?)

10) Cocoanut Water, Rum, and Gin ?? ? ?? George Symonette
Calypso, which is about the most fun music ever. This songs claims that this drink will cure diseases, make you rich and attractive, and also get you drunk. I partially believe him.

11) Tide Is High ?? ? ?? The Paragons
Another song covered when you were just knee-high, by Blondie this time. This is the old-style reggae, uprock sweetness. Just a delight, a delightful delight.

(download mix here)

12) Sailor Man ?? ? ?? Turbonegro
I gave you a little fireside chat about this song already, here.
(b/c Sailors go to, and get you to, islands? and PIRATES!)

13) Survival of the Fittest ?? ? ?? Mobb Deep
This is an absolute classic hip-hop track; quoted sampled homaged etc in many many tracks. A few classic lines:
"You scared to look, you shook, cuz ain't no such thing as halfway crooks" (EPIC)
"worse come to worse, my people come first"
and, mais oui, the chorus lines: "Survival of the Fittest - Only the Strong Survive"
(Because, there are no welfare programs in the State of Nature, and you cannot get voted immunity on the "Lost" island?