Thursday, July 3, 2025

Count 'em. It's one...two...three...four..Roscoes!

Generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of remixes. Often, they don't add much to the original. Or, conversely, they change so much, that the original is hardly recognizable anymore. However, sometimes, a remix can reveal a cool side of a song that you didn't see before. Such is the case with today's very short One Buck Record (more of a One Buck EP, actually). I stumbled upon these a little like I stumbled upon Midlake itself and their fantastic The Trials Of Van Occupanther., recently resequenced for a better listening experience.  As said on the write-up to taht post, the album was almost a total blind buy, other than a little blurb from a music store employee I believe, and possibly a song I heard on one of those music samplers that were popular with music magazines, in this case Rolling Stone. 

The song that might have been on that sampler, and the one that opens Trials and puts people under the spell of Midlake's strange alchemy? That would be "Roscoe", the song that gets put through the (remix) wrnger on this little offering. The song is perfect, in that it already brings everything the album will do to the table.It's also a weird little tune, as most on Trials are: "if I could change my name to something a little more productive like Roscoe". Say what? 

I don't feel like dancin', no, sir, no dancin' today...

The surprising thing about this song is how elastic it is. Before stumbling upon these remixes, I hadn't necessarily thought of "Roscoe" as a song you can dance to, yet these three variations bring out that part of the song, to various degrees. The 'Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Mix' that opens this EP emphasizes the song's dreamy side, while also retaining a dance-able rhythm. The 'Justin Robertson Remix goes full dance beat with 80s keyboard motifs, that the band probably would approve of, added to the mix. The 'Fading Soul Remix', while also maintaining a dance-able rhythm seems to put an emphasis on the melancholy side of the song. And to remind you how good the original is, I added a live version of the song to the end, if you want a purer "Roscoe" than the very dancehall-ready other three. 

But why would you? These are just way cooler than they have any right to be, which is why I wanted to share them with you. So, get ready to get to know Roscoe 1, Roscoe 2, Roscoe 3 and Roscoe 4. Groovy, baby!

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

All Pearls, No Swine Megapack Part Two

Yeah, yeah, more rummagging, with the first 90's-bound APNS racking up over 60 views AND NO DAMN REQUEST FOR A LINK. It's really easy, folks. Unless, you know, you'd just like to read stuff, which is fine also. 

So, as I've seen some other APNS-related activity for Volume 14 and 20, here's the same deal as last time. You get the megapack with volumes 11-20, I don't have to wander into half a dozen threads to upload. EVEN IF NO ONE ASKS FOR A DAMN LINK!

And then, as a way of saying 'hi' or 'thanks', you can leave a comment on whether you actually like the music you find herewithin...

Deal?

Deal!

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

The David Bowie Alt Album Super Duper Extra Bonus Package

Going along with the second volume of the We've Got You Covered series for all you Bowie-lovers out there and also because I realized some rummaging in Mr. Bowie's back catalogue, especially the Young Americans and 1. Outside alts, here's the simple package reupload deal for, I suppose, all those new visitors from Brazil (Olà!) and Vietnam (Xin chào!)...I don't know how y'all got here, but welcome! Now you just have to simply ask for a link instead of just going through the backlog in vain! 

Anyway, uncle OBG's got you, so here are in one tidy package all alt albums of Bowie that I've done: The OBG version of Never Let Me Down, 1. Outside sequel/side-quel  2.Downtown, and the whole plastic soul extravaganza of Young Americans - The Complete Edition and Shilling The Rubes. This summer I might get back into some Bowie work to go along with these, but to visitors, old and new, here's the Bowie megapackage if any of you need it...or want it...as usual there's tons of info in the accompanying write-ups. 


Update: Heureka! Some have (or one has?) seen how easy it is to ask for a link. Thanks, "unknown"! (Next step: sign with an nickname...any nickname). So, the Byrds alt album mega pack, this one, is now re-upped, as are the two Beach Boys alt albums and Alice Coper's Ruckus At The Movies. That should keep some of y'all occupied...

Monday, June 30, 2025

If you want more cool Bowie covers...well, we've got you covered...

Round two in our round-up of cool Bowie covers, and there's quite a number of 'em. Now, I wouldn't have bet that one of them would come from Dead Or Alive, who I only know as a slightly ridiculous-looking one hit-wonder with "You Spin Me 'Round (Lie A Record)". Then again, I wouldn't have figured that Culture Club would bring one of the highlights of Volume One in this We've Got You Covered series. The other unexpected and 80s-related joker in the pack is Midge Ure's cover of "Lady Stardust". 

The love of Brian Molko for Bowie (and Bowie's embracing of the band) are well-documented, his acoustic cover of "Five Years", done for French television, is still a really nice tribute. As for a less obvious fan, I wouldn't have figured Seal for a Bowie-fan, but his lovely unplugged take on "Quicksand", one of the lesser known Bowie classics, is a personal highlight of this set. Speaking of underrated songs that rarely get covered: Native American rock'n'rolller Stevie Salas covers Diamond Dogs-era obscurity "Dodo". "Little Wonder", from Bowie's little-loved Earthling drum'n'bass album is also a little on the obscure side, Run Toto Run's cover is a lovely, decidedly less noisy reading of the tune. "In The Heat Of The Morning" is one of Bowie's realatively unknown numbers from the pre-stardom Decca era and gets a fabulous reading from The Last Shadow Puppets. Another lost gem from that same era is "The Gospel According To Tony Day", covered exquisitely here by Edwyn Collins. 

The other possibility is of course to take a known number, but give it an unusual new coat of paint. That happens when bluegrass combo Cornbread Red cover "Under Pressure", while also unwittingly launching me down the Pickin' On...rabbithole. Unusual is also the word for the cover of "Ziggy Stardust", not so much because it's an acoustic unplugged version, but because it's done by the decidedly un-acoustic Def Leppard in the middle of a rowdy pub audience! And also unusual: Choir!Choir!Choir! and David Byrne, helped out by a ton of bystanders, making a huge sing-alone cover of "Heroes"! Covers from, among others, Fury In The Slaughterhouse and Hugh Coltman, are close to the originals and more workman-like, but still very fine additions to the series, bringing in some as-of-yet not covered songs to this second volume. 

And that's it. Eighteen high quality covers covering the spectrum of Bowie's music. Nothing more, nothing less. Yup, we've got you well covered again, David.  


Edit: I mislabeled an artist on the comp. It's Cornbread Red, not Iron Horse who cover "Under Pressure". I've changed the tagging in the new donloadable version. 


Friday, June 27, 2025

It's A Green Day...on Blue, Blue Grass...

The first compilation of the secret stash of goodies that was, unexpectedly, the Pickin On... series that I stumbled on by accident, was a pretty safe bet. It was, as a reader pointed out, a lovely compilation, but Neil Young and bluegrass were inherently very compatible, seeing how uncle Neil is in acoustic, country-ish mode half of the time, anyway and Tim Smith & Friends wisely picked from albums that emphasized that style, even though I would love to get "Trans" as a bluegrass album, but that's another story entirely. But yeah, Neil Young covered in bluegrass was a relatively safe pick, whereas this - our One Buck album of the day - is...a little less so. 

I don''t know how many of you are Green Day fans. Me, I'm not some crazy superfan but like most of their stuff. Billie Joe is truly underrated as a songwriter (but I'll get to that a little later on) and Tré Cool is one of my favorite drummers. Green Day's best songs are melodic, catchy, and kick some serious ass. They are also pretty much perfect for a bluegrass treatment: they are quick, they have hooks, and they are done in a straightforwad style (i.e. the famous four chords you need). Bluegrass adaptations do not necessarily work on, say, elaborate prog rock compositions, but punk rock? *Chef's kiss*

These versions really show what a great pop songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong is and always was. Sometimes you had the feeling he just had to squeeze some bad words in there to uphold appearances, because at heart he is a pop writer, whose pop just happens to be harder and quicker than a lot of other people's. Now this would be all fine and dandy, but still wouldn't amount to much if the Pickin On... folks had turned these songs into the 'Bluegrass muzak' a reader feared. 

Thankfully, by the time they got around to taking care of Green Day, the powers that be pickin' had turned to full-fledged modern bluegrass outfits and given them reign to arrange and play these songs like they felt. It also helped that the three bands responsible for the Green Day covers here are three of the best in the Pickin On... stable. They all bring something slightly different to the table. Cornbread Red, Honeywagon and The Sidekicks are real bands instead of studio players drafted together, and you can feel that in these songs and arrangements.

It will of course never not be funny to hear a bluegrass player drawl "Well, maybe I'm a faggot American, I ain't part of the red neck agenda". Especially considering that Green Day's (in)famous 'protest album' American Idiot, which is richly presented here, wasn't so much a reaction to George Bush the younger -era politics, though that shoe fit supremely well, but a reaction from Billie Joe Armstrong to seeing band and fans at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. 

This collection really reminds you how great these tunes are. So, whether you like Green Day, you like Bluegrass, or you just like some damn good pickin', A Green Day On Blue Grass is for you... 

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Ruckus From The Movies: Come And Dance With The Dead, Baby!

Time to revive another series gone dormant. In this case, the long break was almost normal, as I had planned out the first three volumes, but nothing beyond that. So, with this fourth volume, we go in a bit of a different direction. After having featured three veteran hard rock acts, Dance With The Dead are a different proposition. About three years ago or so I had a little summer fling with the music subgenre they call synthwave. And I stumbled onto Tony Kim and Justin Pointer a.k.a. Dance With The Dead. These two childhood friends love two thing: 80s music and horror movies. From these two loves was born Dance With The Dead, whose original songs are mainly horror-themes pastiches of mid-80s synth and AOR rock, with a dash of heavy metal, including big synth riffs (usually by Pointer) and even bigger guitar riffs (usually by Kim). Their proper compositions are fn, if sometimes a little redundant, but they would occasionally remix known rock songs and film themes. Remixing is almost an understantement, as they would add tons of additional instrumentation.  

For this volume of Ruckus At The Movies, the focus of the compilation has changed a tiny bit, from songs that were featured in movies to (note the subtle title change) songs that come from movie soundtracks or were used in movies . John Carpenter's theme from "Assault On Precinct 13" and Carles Bernstein's theme from "a Nightmare On Elm Street" are total classics and so close to what the synthwave sound wants to capture (especially Carpenter's synth scores, obviously), that Dance With The Dead's re-imaginings don't have to go very far. And yet they do, as Kim adds some monster guitar solos that obviously aren't in the originals. 

Maybe these weirdos loving another weirdo explains their cover of Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road", that was written for National Lampoon's Holiday. Then we have a cover of Luniz' hip hop classic "I Got 5 On It", that was used so effectively to spooky effect in Jordan Peele's Us. Now, while Us wasn't perfect - and neither were Get Out or Nope - it sure was a big, bold swing and in today's almost entirely I.P.-driven climate in Hollywood that is an achievement by itself. "Paint It Black" has of course been used in more than half a dozen movies, scoring the end credits of Full Metal Jacket and The Devil's Advocate and most recently featured in The Rock's flop comic book adaptation Black Adam. And finally, these two synthwave pranksters end proceedings with their take on the Theme from Gremlins

So, in order to appreciate today's modest One Buck Record - more of an Ep than a full-length album - you would need to have an appreciation for big chunky'n'cheesy 80s production. If you do, I guarantee a good time with some Ruckus At From The Movies...


Saturday, June 21, 2025

Setting sails on the long river of Gordon Lightfoot's career...

The author of one of those (in)famous 1000 Records You Need To Listen To Before You Die/Become Deaf/Become Incontinent was asked why in his book  he didn't include a single album by Gordon Lightfoot. His answer was sad, but almost understandable. He said that while Lightfoot made great music, there wasn't a single album that would define him as a artist. Which is totally true. Lightfoot made many very good albums, no bad and only a few mediocre ones. But he never had that one classic album that would catapult him into these 'Best Of' or 'Must Listen'-lists. It's terribly unfair. Some artists or bands can have a career of uninspired mediocrity and still make appearances on these lists if they managed an album that became a modern classic for one reason or another, while Lightfoot toiling away at his craft for more than sicty years isn't repaid in kindness. Lightfoot was kind of always there, and everyone can attest to the beauty of his music, but he hasn't really left his footprint (pun fully intended, thank you very much) on music history. Which is why, nstead of music journalists, we let one of the best ever to do the singer-songwriter thing be the judge, jury and executioner:

If you can't trust Dylan, who can you trust, AmIrite? 

Anyway, so this new Lightfoot project. What happened while I was preparing Shanties is, what usually happens when I launch myself into a new project: I go on a music binge and listen to eveything I have from the artist in question. When I worked on Warren Zevon in January, I listened to almost his entire oeuvre, same for Queen a month later. So working on that Lightfoot comp made me relisten, slowly but surely, to all twenty studio albums, plus Sunday Concert and the two Gord's Gold comps. That is a lot of Lightfoot to listen to. First observation: Yes, the standards are really high, because there is nary a bad song among these hundreds of songs, though that ratio is getting worse in career decades three, four and five. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. The idea was to make a career retrospective that covers Lightfoot's career from his debut album Lightfoot! in early 1966 all the way to his last album, Solo in 2020. This retrospective will be three CD-length albums chock full of great music,which I will dole out in single installments. If you are anything like me, in between your record collections and the music you download, you probably have way more music than you get to listen to in short order, so this will come slowly and individually to give you time to listen, but thse albums will eventually make up a nice box set of sorts when complete. For the first two write-ups I will run quickly through the albums the songs come from and occasionally why I picked some of them instead of others. 

Today's first installment of A Life In Song is subtitled Long River and covers the period from 1966 to 1971. I didn't put any of Lightfoot' juvenilia, like the horrid MOR country stuff he cut in 1962, on here, because this really is supposed to bring the best of the best, not cover every corner of his long career. So we'll start with four tracks off Lightfoot!, two showing Lightfoot at his purest, with just him and his acoustic guitar on "Long River" and "Sixteen Miles (To Seven Lakes)". Early and often covered classics "Early Morning Rain" and "Steel Rail Blues" complete the line-up before  giving way to the "Ballad Of Yarmouth Castle" which I have discussed in great length on Shanties. Let me just add here that, on second thought, it being left off his studio albums of the time was probably more a question of bad timing rather than some sort of conspiracy. He debuted the title in January 1966, right after the release of his debut album, but then it was another 15 months before the follow-up, so by that time the topical "ballad" was a bit passé. Next is a song that is a bit of departure for Lightfoot, the very jngle jangle-y "Spin Spin" that dutifully became a hit in Canada and nowhere else and for some reason will not get a decent release from United Artists. This is a version of the song that he recut in Nashville, possibly for a U.S. release that never happened, but it's more driving and, uh, jingle jangle-y, so it gets the nod over the original single version. 

The Way I Feel was a decent follow-up to Lightfoot's debut, here presented by "If You Got It", where Lightfoot sounds so youthful and happy, that I simply had to include it, and "Go-Go Round", which has one of the album's most memorable melodies. And then there's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy", a total classic, and probably in the top ten of Lightfoot songs. Epic storytelling, in every sense of the word. The following year's Did She Mention My Name? has the great title song (with two lines that always make me smile - "Is the landlord still a loser? Do his signs still hang in the hall?"), the vaguely protest song adjacent "Boss Man" with some interesting backing vocals and the two magnificent ballads "Wherefore And Why" and "The Mountains And Maryann", that with their orchestrations would point to Lightfoot's future. Follow-up Back Here On Earth from later in the year has classic ballads "Bitter Green" and "The Circle Is Small" (a decade later pointlessly remade by Lightfoot) and, as a more personal favorite, "Long Way Back Home", one of Lightfoot's numerous wanderlust numbers. 

Sunday Concert was a contractual obligation album, the mandatory live album to get out of his contract with United Artists, but at least Lightfoot loaded it with a number of unreleased songs, including "Ballad Of Yarmouth Castle" and "Apology, the latter of which is feautured here. He signed with Reprise, hoping that they could break him through in the U.S. His debut for Reprise, starting his collaboration with producer Lenny Waronker, was indeed the commercial breakthrough Lightfoot had hoped for, though it took a bit of time. Originally entitled Sit Down Young Stranger, it really took off when "If You Could Read My Mind" stormed the charts in early 1971, more than eight months after the album was released. It was thus dutifully retitled If You Could Read My Mind. If you had to pick an album that comes as close as possible to representing him, it probably would be this one for the early folkie years. Sure, there's more orchestration than on most UA albums, but this is sort of the ideal album of Lightfoot the romantic bard. It was also the first Lightfoot album I ever bought and I love it dearly, resulting in it being represented by a whooping five songs. Even then I had to leave a song like "Cobwebs & Dust" on the outs. Tough choices, everywhere. 

This collection ends with three tracks from 1971's Summer Side Of Life. The title song is so jaunty and well, sunny, that you can easily overhear the lyrics about the young man, seemingly a Vietnam war vet, crying all day long. Like in the equally featured "Sit Down Young Stranger", Lightfoot acknowledges that war ithout taking specific political sides, other than a general 'war isn't great'-attitude. As I stated in my first write-up for Shanties, he felt uncomfortable as a decideldly political writer or protest singer, so contemporary concerns mostly bubble up as subtext. Also featured are the lovely "10 Degrees & Getting Colder", another song about being on the roaad, and his ode to Canadian unity, "Nous Vivons Ensemble", featured here in slightly edited form. 

And that's it, that's Gordon Lightfoot's Life in Song, Vol. 1, with two more volumes coming up in the next weeks to complete this career-spanning box set courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood blogger OBG. So, get on that long river and let yourself be carried by some wonderful melodies and performances of Mr. Gordon Meredith Lightfoot. 



Count 'em. It's one...two...three...four..Roscoes!

Generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of remixes. Often, they don't add much to the original. Or, conversely, they change so much, ...