Little Gems: Picked Randomly

Oh boy: one month since I last found the time to post a little something. All I can do is register astonishment and apoligise. Then again: nobody leaves any comments, so I assume nobody's reading this anyway!

I just sent away my Contrast Podcast - contribution to Tim and after having finished here I will listen to this weeks's theme: 'Musicians introduce their own songs Pt. 7'. And I'm really looking forward to find out what was sent in. Next week's topic though is 'Random Shuffle', all you have to do is to put your MP3 player on 'Random' and send in the first song it plays.

Now, I thought I'd make a little random shuffle myself by grabbing a few 7" singles with closed eyes for you to enjoy. They are sorted alphabetically and therefore I might pick some stuff which I haven't heard for a long time indeed ... perhaps for good reasons. But it's all part of the fun, isn't it?

Okay, just returned from the shelf with the 7"s with:


Busters with Laurel Aitken - 'Boogie With The Bartender' (mp3) on Weserlabel from 1989. White vinyl and with very much surface noise. But who cares, ey? Or, as John Peel said: 'Life has surface noise as well.'

Buzzcocks - 'Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)' (mp3) on United Artists, 1978. Brilliant record and certainly one of my all time faves ..... along with The Undertones' 'Teenage Kicks'. But this is filed under 'U' obviously ....

Cadeau De Marriage - 'Pourquoi Es Tu Devenue Si Raisonnable?' (mp3) on Reception Records from 1988. Now, this is really great!! I think I would never have listened to this again by choice for the next 10 years if I hadn't decided to do this random thingy here .... it sounds really awesome on my headphones right now! This is The Wedding Present actually and I must admit I forgot why they decided to translate their name and the title [of 'Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?'] into French at the time. I once saw them at a gig in Aachen in the mid 80's and they were just unbelievable. It was a rather small venue, you know, and I stood right in front of the stage, like 2 metres away from David Gedge, and he played the guitar so fast, you actually couldn't see his fingers moving. Perfect.

Cake - 'Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle' (mp3) on Capricorn Records (1994). This is the backside of 'I Will Survive' from 1997. But I prefer it to the A-side and I'm in charge. There you are ..

Cateran - 'Last Big Lie' (mp3) on DDT Records. It doesn't show a date, although I think it's from the mid 80's. 'Cateran' actually is Galic for 'Hooligan'. At least Peel once mentioned this. Another one I wouldn't have listened to if it weren't for this random theme. Which shows me: I should do this more often

Dear friends, I can only hope you had as much fun as I had. Leave a comment and let me know if you want to listen to another random selection one of these days. And:

Enjoy.

Dirk

Does Size Really Count?

Tuesday afternoon ... and the new episode of the Contrast Podcast is not up yet. Strange how one manages to addict himself to little pleasant things in life, isn't it? Today's theme is 'Short Songs' (less than 2 minutes) and I thought I'd kill some time whilst waiting for Tim to finish his work today and post a few short songs I like quite a lot. Alas I can't tell you about my contribution, this would spoil the fun for the other participants. Especially for Fil from Pogo A Go-Go, I would have thought. Then again: with today's topic it is rather unlikely that two people sent in the same song. Although I'm willing to have a small bet that Fil's choice is gonna turn out to be 'You Suffer' by Napalm Death: excellent for dancing, by the way!! Would have been my choice if I were in the position to be able to transform my records into MP3's ***grrrhhh*** this Wave Editor really does my head in!!!

Aaaaanyway: for those of you who think 'what the hell is he bragging about?' ... click the link above and listen to the Contrast Podcast .... or listen to this ... short into the point, but wonderful:

01:54: Bad Livers - 'Lust For Life' ('91) [mp3]

01:47: Birdland - 'Hollow Heart' (acoustic version) ('90) [mp3]

01:59: Detroit Cobras - 'Shout Bama Lama' ('04) [mp3]

01:59: Ideal - 'Männer Gibt's Wie Sand Am Meer' (live) ('81) [mp3]

01:42: Pop Will Eat Itself - 'The Black Country Chainstore Massacre' ('86) [mp3]

01:24: Primal Scream - 'Velocity Girl' ('86) [mp3]

01:44: Soup Dragons - 'Whole Wide World' ('86) [mp3]

You can buy Bad Livers here and Detroit Cobras here . The others are taken from the original - limited - 7" (Birdland), 12"s (PWEI, Primal Scream, Soup Dragons) and LP (Ideal). I bought them when they came out and I think they were deleted before most of you were born. There you are. But because I'm such a nice guy I will of course help you, should you need further information: just leave a comment. And, of course, enjoy.

Dirk

Contrast Podcast

Dear friends,

before I forget: listen to this week's edition of the mighty Contrast Podcast, if you want to do yourself a favour. It is a real treat. Believe me. The topic was 78 rpm records, which might sound a bit old fashioned and perhaps even boring to you at first sight, but I guarantee this is not the case. So many wonderful songs have been contributed, you really shouldn't miss to listen ....

Enjoy!

Dirk

Sexy Segues ....

It would be interesting to know if this only happens to me ....

Do you remember the old times when you used to make nice little mixtapes for girls in order to impress them with your wide and brilliant musical taste? Okay, most of the times all the work was in vain, because the girls would rather date the bloke who listened to the charts all day, but that's not the point. On these mixtapes, or, nowadays, on CD/MP3 - compilations, I always find myself segueing the same two songs. Regardless of what I think has also got to be on [the limited space of] the tape/CD, I always find myself sitting there, thinking: "now, THIS has just GOT to be followed by THAT, there's no way around it!!".

Not terribly easy to explain and I don't think you will know what I'm trying to say ... so here are a few examples: after having put Pete Best Beatles 'Alamein Train' (mp3) on the tape, there is nothing I can do but follow it up with Terry & Gerry's 'Wait Until You're Older' (mp3). The same is true for Rocketgoldstar's 'Autopilot' (mp3), the only reasonable segue can be done with Clinic's ' The Return Of Evil Bill' (mp3).

There are quite a few combinations I could think of currently, but the above will have to do for the moment. It would be neat to know though if this really only happens to me ...... and if this is not the case, what YOUR segues might possibly be ....


Comments, anyone?

Have fun,

Dirk



Pete Best Beatles: from the 'Sounds For The Sophisticated Music Lovers' - 7"- EP on Strine Records (SM001), Australia 1984. Deleted. Of course.

Terry & Gerry: from the 'Butter's On The Bread' - 7" - EP on Vindaloo Records (UGH7), England 1984. Deleted. As Well.

Rocketgoldstar: from the 'Soul Of A Nu Machine' - MCD on FF Vinyl, Wales 2000. Deleted. Most probably.

Clinic: from the 'Internal Wrangler' - CD on Zorba, England 2000. Still available. Nearly everywhere.