The Federalists

'nother one that done come in through the website...The Federalists.

As of today there are five tracks on their MySpace page. I dig the bottom two the most: "When It Comes To You" and "Oh So Sorry".

Solid stuff, slightly reminiscent of Jeff Tweedy here and there and wouldn't you know it, Wilco are in their top friends...

I dig this in their bio:

"In 2006 we played a showcase for multiple indie and major record labels. The indies told us we were too mainstream; the majors told us we were too indie. This is exactly the line we’d like to walk, being accessible while maintaining artistic integrity..."

Give 'em a shot.

The Mighty Diamonds - Go Seek Your Rights

From what I can gather online, purists hate this record and I guess I can see why...AMG explains:

"Go Seek Your Rights is the type of calculating release that fuels fans' hatred of major labels. For why bother with the expense of keeping three albums in stock when you can cull a batch of tracks from the bunch, delete the originals, and fob fans off with a single inferior record. Eventually Caroline saw the error of its ways and reissued two of the deleted albums, thus making this set totally dispensable...If your prospects are so poor that you'll only ever be able to afford one Mighty Diamonds album, this is a decent choice. It features the trio at its "classic" peak, its sublime vocals wrapping around stellar cultural numbers and the occasional gorgeous lovers/lovelorn song....you deserve better. And the Mighty Diamonds deserve better than this cash-in."

In fairness, though, this does make a pretty good compilation, given that it contains their classic Right Time in its entirety. You could do worse..

What I dig most about the Mightys are the soulful vocals, just a great harmony group...

The Mighty Diamonds - One Brother Short from Go Seek Your Rights

Chicks on Bass: D'arcy Wretzky

I did not forget about this project, did you?

Oh D'Arcy, you crazy chick...I never believed a word Billy said about you until January Y2K...

Smashing Pumpkins - Beautiful from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

rap represented in mathematical charts and graphs

Does laughing at this shit make me a bad person?

Easter eggs: click on each individual chart or graph...

Retro Remixes

This is quite possibly the worst looking blog I have ever seen...BUT...the obsessive compulsive in me really, really digs it...

From what I gather, this cat DJ D collects every remix, bootleg, alt version of a dance/club track he can find and makes compilations of all of those versions available as downloads. So his compilations are themed by song...it's a sickness...I love it.

He's heavy-up on eighties dance and pop, though he seems to make an exception for Mariah Carey...whatever, it's a great idea and fun as hell.

Dig it.

Intensive Care

Got turned on to this one through my site. They wrote in (a while back) and asked me to have a listen at their MySpace page.

I know I have mentioned before that a lot of these types of inquiries come in, and I love getting them, but I do cringe each time...my blog is decidedly not about taste making...like I say in the disclaimer: "I post MP3s as a way to expose other people to music that I dig...", so I am very hesitant to "review" a band's music, endorse them or slam them.

That said, I hear something I like and I want to let people know. Of the tracks on the MySpace page, I am partial to "k", "Memorandom" and "Sirenhorses". It's all a little left-of-center so that alone appeals to me. None of the songs are available for download so pay a visit and listen.

The Clash - From Here to Eternity: Live

Can I really add anything more to this review from Amazon?

"Touted for many years as the greatest live band in the world, the only surprise about this live album is that it's taken so long to appear. Recorded between '78 and '82, it captures the London punk torchbearers in all their fury--Strummer spitting out vocals like every breath is his last, the guitars of Jones and Simenon taut and abrasive. Even after all this time, songs like their debut album's scathing "Complete Control" and the dub-fired "Armagideon Time" blister out of the speakers, sending streams of scouring guitars and tight, chunky reggae rhythms into the atmosphere. Two complaints: no "White Riot," and no songs from Give 'Em Enough Rope, the underrated second album. Instead we have material from the sprawling Sandinista and disappointing Combat Rock. These are minor flaws though. Buy Live: From Here to Eternity for the first 12 tracks alone. From the angry, articulate dub of "London Calling" to the full-on force of "I Fought the Law," this is punk at its pinnacle."

Can you?

UPDATE: The download link was incorrect earlier today - fixed now!
The Clash - Armagideon Time from From Here to Eternity: Live

Gregory Isaacs - The Early Years

I guess you could say this is nothing more than a collection of material from the beginnings of Gregory's career...and you'd be factually right...you'd also be leaving a lot out...

Gregory's output over the last 35 - 40 years is ridiculous...he's the rare artist, like Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder, who can make deeply conscious music without ever sacrificing its accessibility, or commercial appeal. And this record puts his later music in a nice context...seems to be out of print right now, import or domestic...if you know otherwise, leave a comment. Thanks.

The one jam I cannot stop listening to:

Sinner Man from Gregory Isaacs, The Early Years

Rock Books Revisited

A pair of items in this week's NYTIMES book review got me thinking about music books, artist biographies and such.

The first music bio I remember reading was No One Here Gets Out Alive, probably in 1981 or 82. Lots of books about the Stones, of course Hammer of the Gods (I believed it all at the time), almost every Zappa book I could get my hands on...books about the Dead, Floyd, Miles, music industry books and countless others. I have an interesting book on the history of dub I am waiting to tear into...

Then there are the magazines...If only I didn't have to work! At one point I combined it all - I owned a bookstore in New Haven so could waste time professionally. I had it all figured out ;-)

Do you have any favorites? Any genre, any angle...would love to know...leave a comment...

Jah Thomas Meets the Roots Radics: Dubbing

Jah Thomas started out as a DJ but made his mark as a producer, lucky enough to have the Roots Radics as his muse and an incredible stable of engineers as collaborators: Scientist, Sylvan Morris and others...His work on singles is a who's who of late 70s early 80s reggae and dancehall: Johnny Osbourne, Sugar Minot, Barrington Levy...

This is a tight record, through and through...lots of analog dub, real gritty sound...but the last track is the standout...

Jah Thomas Meets the Roots Radics - People's National Party Dub from Jah Thomas Meets the Roots Radics: Dubbing

A bunch of downloads still available...

I have to be offline for a couple of days and thought I would leave you with these reminders...Don't forget to download:

• John Coltrane, until Jan 23


• Jah Shaka, until Jan 25


• Kim Kashkashian and Robert Levin, until Jan 26


• McCoy Tyner, until Jan 28


• Peter Tosh, until Jan 29


• Gob Iron, until Jan 30


• Federico Aubele, until Jan 31


• Alemayehu Eshete, until Feb 1


• Two tracks from Discotheque 72, until Feb 1


• My latest mix, Burning Dervish Vol 17, until Feb 2

Enjoy. See you later this week.

Let's Socialize!

We can be friends on iLike...

Trust each other on MOG or...

Friends (again!) on MySpace.

You can also find my alter-ego on Chowhound, Facebook, Friendster, Goodreads, Jaxtr, LinkedIn, Mashable, MyOpenID, Plaxo, Spock and Spoke.

Yeah so...I guess I get around...Recommend any other spots?

Metal Heads - I am looking for you!

So you may recall an earlier post about a competition a friend of mine launched with a few buddies...a 10-week battle to find the best songs in reggae, across the various subgenres and styles. It has been fun to watch unfold and inspiring...Now I need you to join me in creating the heavy metal version...

Specifically I need at least one person or up to three more people who will commit to the 10-week Heavy Metal Smackdown Challenge, Part One.

Each week the participants will use the first eight of the 24 subgenres recognized in the Metal: A Headbanger's Journey "Definitive Metal Family Tree" to pick a song that best represents that subgenre to them. This will be followed by two "wild card" weeks where the participants can pick another song from any of the 8 subgenres. Each participant will provide me an MP3 of their weekly pick and a few words about the subgenre, band or track, all of which will get posted here and voted on by this site's visitors. At the end of the competition I will compile all of the winning tracks into a mixtape which will be available for download from this site.

Assuming I can get a few challengers I will issue the schedule along with the deadline for each week's submission. If you are interested and willing to commit 10 weeks of your life that you will never get back, post a comment here and let me know. In a perfect world, participants and a schedule will be in place this time next week.

I realize there is a good chance no one will step up - because you fear the challenge.

See you in hell!

OH NO! It's DEVO!

DEVO live in 2008? Very cool!

Live at a Microsoft event at Macworld? Not very...

Still, it's DEVO!