Tag Archives: 00′s

Themselves – The No Music Remixes (2003) Vinyl Download

Note the autographed copy.

and now…

Note the most awkward album signing of the 21st century.

 I went to see Themselves at the Southgate House in the winter of 2003 with my brother. At the time I had this little Canon digital camera that took its sweet old time capturing precious moments. So, it could take anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds from the time photographer pressed the clicker to when the shutter snapped.

Anyway, I went up to the merch booth after the show with my brother and struck up a conversation with Dose One. We discussed the show and how I worked with a guy that used to tour with him back in the day. While I was trying to help him remember how he used to rap with a guy I washed Porsches with, a guy named Zebediah, I got the brilliant idea that I should get my freshly purchased albums signed.

I asked Dose if it wouldn’t be too much trouble, to which he replied “hell naw” while whipping out black and silver markers. He signed The No Music original LP with a little black Sharpie drawing on the front. It was really quite adorable. For The Remixes he pulled out the sparkle silver job. I thought, “Yo Boy, you better get this histowic moment on record or your crew will NOT believe it. Word is bond!”

I handed Junior the janky little digi, struck the thumbs-up pose and copped a triumphant smile. Dose did his best to look excited and we froze the pose. And then everything hit slow mo. We both could see the little infrared autofocus light on the front blinking, so we just sat there waiting for the flash. And waited. And waited. I had totally forgotten about the totally unreliable snap. It was the longest 10 seconds of my life.

Suddently, Dose One grabbed my erect thumb and shook it. He grabbed that little dude and went down to Funky Town. What you see in the picture is the immediate aftermath of that member molestation. This wiggle ushered in a total loss of cool…and the moment I decided I’d never get an autograph ever again. 

Click here to download The No Music at 320 kbps

Tracklist

A1   Terror Fabulous 4:03  
  The No Music Of Hospitals.
A2   Hat Set For Butler 2:42  
    Remix [Demix] – Themselves
A3   Mouthful 4:12  
    Keyboards, Bass, Guitar – Jerome Opena
  Remix – Controller 7 , Matth
B1   Good People Check 5:03  
    Remix – Hrvatski
B2   Poison Pit 3:15  
    Remix – Why?
B3   Livetrap 2:51  
    Remix – Hood
  The No Music Of Mother’s Milk And Going Deaf.
C1   Only Child Explosion 2:56  
    Remix – Alias (3)
C2   Dr.Moonorgun Please 3:20  
    Remix – Grapedope*
C3   Darkskydemo 4:18  
    Remix – Fog
D1   You Devil You 4:26  
    Remix – Odd Nosdam
D2   Out In The Open 5:35  
    Remix – Notwist, The
D3   Hat In The Wind 7:13  
    Remix – Electric Birds

Beck – Gameboy Variations (Hell Yes EP) 2005 VINYL DOWNLOAD

With the new cooling fan finally installed on my Gibson it’s time to get back into things with an 8-bit uppercut to the nuts. This is one of the most prized black biscuits in my collection. It arrived mysteriously one day as an apology for a late-sent album I won on eBay. At first I had no idea what it was…no markings of any kind on the album sleeve or the disc itself, except for the Headbanger rocking triumphantly in the cover’s upper right corner.

So, I put the disc on and almost instantly it blew the top off of my head. All the kilobytes, nay, megabytes of Nintendo strategy blasted through my domepiece in a volcano of flashing blue/red screens and turbo firepower.

CONTRA DESTROYER

 Doctors were able to locate all but a 4 square inch chunk missing from the tippy top . It’s totally worth it…I just can’t play full contact sports and my friends still call me Poached Egg Baby.

If you’ve never heard this album, or even if this 12″ holds a tender position on your iPod, you must get this rip. I took extra liberty with boosting the BASS when I ripped it to MP3. God, it’s so good.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD GAMEBOY VARIATIONS AT 320 kBPS

1   Bad Cartridge (E-Pro Remix) 2:54  
    Remix – Paza (The X-Dump)*
2   Bit Rate Variations In B-Flat (Girl Remix) 2:44  
    Remix – Paza (The X-Dump)*
3   Gameboy/Homeboy (Qué Onda Guero Remix) 2:37  
    Remix – 8 Bit*
4   Ghettochip Malfunction (Hell Yes Remix) 2:41  
    Remix – 8 Bit*

** Supplementary: Were any of you that little shit who had a Gameboy in elementary school? Maybe you went to Shawnee Elementary? Yeah, you brought your big ass, Nintendo-approved portable GameBoy vault that had a whole slew of games and extra batteries AND headphones. You displayed that personal gaming temple prominently at the berth of your cubby… just so everyone could look but not touch. At lunch you made everyone take turns being your best friend–”Check out this sweet Lightboy attachment,” you said. “The lurid claws of night are of no consequence for my Gameboy and me,” you said.

Yeah, so you let me borrow it. And I had a ball using that Lightboy as I sat playing Tetris on a box of Utah riverbed fossils in the dark seclusion of my bedroom closet. But it didn’t last. You eventually made me give that GameBoy back; despite the repeated trade offerings of my baby brubba. How could you be so cruel?

 

Junior Boys – Hazel 12″ (2009) Vinyl Download

I can never, ever get enough Junior Boys. Come back to the Southgate House soon boys…just don’t mention hot browns next time. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate your attempt to connect with us locals because that was very sweet of you. I just don’t want to run the risk of some dumbass screaming “HOT BROWN, HOT BROWN, HOT BROWN” again after every single song. Every. Single. Song.

Click to download Hazel at 320 kbps

Tracks

1. Hazel (Ewan Pearson’s Extended Disc Edit)
2. Hazel (Album Version)
3. Hazel (Ewan Pearson’s House Mix)
4. Hazel (Ewan Pearson’s House Dub)

 

Phoenix – Lisztomania Remixes 12″ vinyl (2009)

Remixes fantastique from the French getup Phoenix. I always anticipate their releases with great worry…always worrying they’re just one LP away from breaking my heart.

This is because I used to worry they were bitter that Cincinnati put a bad taste in their mouths after their performance at The Southgate House several years back. Because of this, I feared, they would only send us special Cincinnati Remixes with fart sounds replacing the vocals, similar to what Guster did with their album Keep It Together in 2003.

Back then Cincy was, even more so than  now, in this terrible hipster-concert-audience-funk where everyone would shift their weight to one leg, put their hands in their pockets and do their best Helen Keller impersonation. Phoenix kept doing their darndest to get the audience involved by addressing them directly in French accents, “Hello, this is our first time in Le Kentucky, we will play our guitars very best with strong hearts,” but the knit-capped, sleepy-eyed crowd weren’t having it. I don’t think I’ve ever been so embarassed by an anonymous rabble.

So, they’ll probably never come back. Cincy put on a poor performance but so far Phoenix hasn’t returned the favor. I’m seriously surprised they still send vinyl to this market. Maybe they saw me fainting over and over from audience-induced melancholy up in the balcony and took pity. Yeah, that must be it.

Click to Download Lisztomania Remixes

Tracks

A1 Lisztomania (Album Version) 4:02  
A2 Lisztomania (Alex Metric Rmx) 5:05  
B1 Lisztomania (Yuksek Rmx) 5:08  
B2 Lisztomania (A Fight For Love / 25 Hours A Day Rmx) 5:42  

M83 – Digital Shades Vol. 1 (2009) vinyl

Cincinnati Metro was blanketed with 5 inches of fluffy snow this morning and afternoon. The doomsday-loving weathermen told me it’s supposed to snow shower again this evening. So, I figured I’d post this album because it’s a perfect soundtrack for watching the birth of a wintry mix.
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Get comfy, turn up the warmly glowing McIntosh Tube Amp-driven system I assume you all own and behold the beautiful dance of tiny, frozen ballerinas outside of your listening room window to the soothing sounds of M83.
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Blackalicious – Blazing Arrow (2002) vinyl

*download below*

This past Saturday I went to the RJD2 show at Southgate House in Newport, KY. It’s my favorite venue for a number of reasons: it’s a big converted creepy mansion reminiscent of The Munster’s crib, it usually has three shows playing at a time on various levels and it has the best quality sound system within a 100 mile radius. Also, by sheer coincidence they were playing Ray Charles on the patio’s PA system the night he passed so it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Anyway between sets filled with nose-tickling bass the title track from Blackalicious’ Blazing Arrow came on over the PA in the ballroom. Instantly it took me back to 2002 when I was heavy into the underground hip hop scene. Back when I was gobbling up anything coming out of Anticon Records, attending Scribble Jam in the summers and wearing Puma knit caps. I think it went hand in hand with attempting to become one with the decrepit urban landscape of Cincinnati. Wanting to become grittier…more legit if you will.

Over time I strayed from the heart of the hip hop scene. For a long time I thought that I was just growing up but on Saturday night, standing there in the middle of the ballroom of Southgate House amidst the odd mix of hipsters, hippies and oafish frat dudes, I began to reassess my hip hop position throughout the bubbling jaunt that is “Blazing Arrow.” Had I been wrong about hiding this double LP away in the bottom of my crates?

Well, after cleaning off the layers of resin that had accumulated on these discs from my days non-stop bong ripping, I took a listen and can tell you that I was so very wrong for letting this vinyl fester. This is one of the most completely balanced albums that I own. Usually with hip hop from earlier in the decade you get one mood. With Jurassic Five you got fun old school lyrically-driven hip hop. With Talib Kweli you got the real deep shit that made you contemplate the direction of your soul. Sage Francis just creeped you out, like being inside a musty old sleeping bag as a stranger tickles you from within the darkness. Each artist chose to go their own way and we were ok with that.

But with Blazing Arrow you got a little bit of everything. And surprisingly all corners of their musically mansion were tastefully adorned…exquisitely even. There’s never a point in this album where you don’t believe the artist’s ability to work this or that particular flow. It also helps that Blackalicious collaborates with Chali 2NA, Lateef The Truth Speaker, Chief Xcel, DJ Shadow, Hi-Tek, Ben Harper, Cut Chemist, DJ Babu, Zack de La Rocha, Saul Williams, Lyrics Born and plenty of others on this disc.

As I stated before the title track is just a poppin’ and skippin’ number that you can’t help to bob your head to. If you listen to it and your head ain’t moving, and your head ain’t in traction, then you’ve got serious groove problems. Then you go to tracks like “Chemical Calisthenics” where the word conveyor belt goes haywire at the lyric plant and verbs, adjectives, solubles, and isotopes flood the boiler room. On side 4 Blackalicious takes you real, real deep down into your subconscious with the psyche-shattering “Release Part 1, 2, & 3″.

It skips all of the touristy section of the city and hits up the hottest club, the holiest mosque and the dirtiest whore house. It takes you everywhere you need to go to become a true citizen of the Hip Hop Nation, even if aren’t comfortable with your new surroundings at first. Don’t worry, you’ll eventually settle right in.

It makes me sad that I neglected this masterpiece for such a long time. Luckily my ears are still working and I can make up for the lost time. Just don’t make the same mistake I did.

Click here to download Blazing Arrow from vinyl to MP3

Red House Painters – Old Ramon (2001) vinyl

*download below*

I’m really bad at paying attention to lyrics in songs. Most of the time I’ll get into a track just because I like the beat or its sound brings up a long-lost memory. But sometimes I’ll catch just a little snippet of the lyrics and think I know understand the song. Take, for example, the first song of this album: “Wop-A-Din-Din.” For the longest time I thought it was written about a sexy, exotic lover because of the first few verses:

She’s got big green eyes
And a long Egyptian face
She moves across the floor
At her own pace
When I’m here in bed
She’ll jump up on my chest
And when we lock eyes there’s so much love
I wanna cry

Wow, I thought, that’s a pretty intense. Big green eyes, long Egyptian face…this chick must be quite a looker. Yeah it’s a little weird that she jumps up on his chest but she’s probably just primed for some lovins. Those crazy kids.

And that’s how my perception stood for a long time until one day I just happened to catch the wording in the song’s next chunk and it left me scratching my head.

She comes in near
When I scratch under her ear
And she lifts her head
When I kiss around her neck

Won’t go to sleep
When she falls along my side
And two green eyes fade
To a porcelain marble white
And somehow when I sleep
She’ll end up at my feet
And if I roll and kick her out
I might knock her to the ground
But she’ll come back anyhow

Why is he scratching his lover behind the ear and making her sleep at his feet? The song took a total 180 and I actually felt pissed that he was treating her so crudely.

Then I looked over at my cat, Piano Little, as she took a stretch break from her 22 hour nap in a pile of laundry and it all became clear. The big green eyes, Egyptian face, jumping on his chest, scratching of the ear. This wasn’t some sultry Mediterranean fling. Wop-a-din-din is his kitty and I am a fool.

It was really quite obvious after taking n the time to listen to what’s right out in the open. After this I told myself I’d never listen to a song again without understanding its true meaning. And for a while I did listen to the lyrics and found that most of the songs that I liked now really bothered me. They were either too repetitive, too trite or too confusing. Sometimes I just don’t get things.

So I’m back to merely absorbing the tones of the human voice instead of comprehending the underlying message. Yes perhaps that makes me a philistine but maybe if I wanted to read a poem I’d go to the library. Asshole.

Click here to download Old Ramon

Chicago Underground Duo – In Praise of Shadows (2006) vinyl

*download below*

I picked up this record solely because of the ridiculous lineup of instruments. Rob Mazurek uses the following: cornet, organ, celeste, piano, prepared piano, harpsichord, noise box, moogerfooger analog delay and ring modulator. The second half of the duo, Chad Taylor, plays drums, cymbals, mbira, gongs, percussion, vibraphone and prepared vibraphone. I had a look a couple of those up to make sure they weren’t trying to pull a fast one.

I wish my last name was Moogerfooger

Pouring such a complex array of sounds into an album increases the chance that said album will play with the musicality of a clothes dryer simultaneously fluffing a can of pea soup, a toddler and a string of Christmas lights. Chicago Underground Duo luckily avoids this trap and uses each instrument in perfect proportion. What they were able to achieve with such a well-stocked toolbox is seven uniquely alive tracks. Each has its own personality–it shakes your hand differently, tips differently and prepares its hash browns differently. You always want them to get cheese on that shit so you can steal a few bites but they never do, which really pisses you off but you turn the other cheek because they’re just so cool. That and they have a bitchin’ Cadillac they let you borrow while they’re on business trips.

Vibraphone: The rich man's xylophone.

Vibraphone: The rich man's xylophone.

I’d try to quantify or qualify how the dainty pluck of the mbira, or thumb piano, was really a step forward in Taylor’s artistic development but I’m not going to do that. The reason is that this is one of those albums that has the opportunity to mean completely different things to each listener. Each song has a distinct theme but this theme doesn’t box in the listener’s train of thought.This doesn’t mean they aren’t engaging; it just means that they enable you to unleash your inner most thoughts and ride them high in the friendly sky. It’s the magic carpet you can hop on while you’re soaking up the calming effects of a scented candle or smashing a  fat  ass  blunt.

Mbira: Traditional African instrument. So dainty.

Finally, I feel that it must be noted that John McEntire’s engineering on this album is fantastic. Every instrument is perfectly defined and represented with full voting privileges. I’ve never been one to buy a record based on who was working the knobs behind the scenes but I’m going to make an exception this time. He took an album that could have been good and made it great.

8)

Click here to download In Praise of Shadows to MP3 from vinyl

8)

Harpsichord: Black keys make everything cooler.

Harpsichord: Just look at those badass black keys.

Daft Punk – Daft Club (2003) Discovery Remixes Vinyl Download

*download below*

Daft Club was first introduced online shortly after the French duo dropped Discovery. The songs were available for free download as a bonus for purchasing a legit copy of Discovery.  If you bought this you’ll remember opening up the CD case and finding a curious little Daft Card attached behind the plastic CD nipple thing. Initially the address on the front  just led to their fan page and not much else so it stayed dormant in my wallet for some time.

Luckily I kept checking back periodically and one day found the Daft Club MP3 collection unlocked by the individualized 16-digit number on the card’s face.  At first I was megapumped for a batch of free songs by my fav group but soon found out the horrible truth:  the sound quality was total shit.  I could never get into any of the new original songs or remixes because they literally hurt my ears.  I’m still dumbfounded that MP3s from one of the best produced groups on the globo were plagued with the terrible treble shimmer that dominated low bitrate rips throughout the dawn of the 21st century.

Flashforward to 2005.  I was flipping through the used bin at Everybody’s Records in Pleasant Ridge and what’s this?  Daft Club in all its square foot glory staring, maybe even giggling mischievously, at me in the midst of a slew of anonymous electronic records.  “What are you doing here little man?” I thought.

How could this have happened?  At the time I didn’t even know that Daft Club had made it onto CD, let alone vinyl.  And second who would have let this gem fall into the grabby hands of the used bin?  Somebody fucked up hard.

Long story short, I got this baby home and an everlasting love flourished. We’ve been to several Fancytown Balls, taken several weekend trips down Frogtown Road, and shared endless pints of Rocky Road. I keep her secrets and she mine.

But it might have never happened. I might have been forever stuck with her free floozy sister.  I can’t even imagine. Just the thought of those terrible MP3s puts a terrible ring-a-ling-dingin in my fragile ears.  Luckily baby’s medicine is just down below.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD DAFT CLUB – Password: ratrod

Tracklist

A1   Ouverture 2:40
A2   Aerodynamic (Daft Punk Remix) 6:11
A3   Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (The Neptunes Remix) 5:11
Remix – Neptunes, The
Vocals – Daft Punk
Written-By – E.Birdsong
B1   Face To Face (Cosmo Vitelli Remix) 4:54
Producer – Daft Punk , Todd Edwards
Remix – Cosmo Vitelli
Vocals – Todd Edwards
Written-By – T. Imperatrice
B2   Phoenix (Basement Jaxx Remix) 7:52
Remix – Basement Jaxx
B3   Digital Love (Boris Dlugosh Remix) 7:29
Remix – Boris Dlugosch
Vocals – Daft Punk
Written-By – C. Sosa , G. Duke
C1   Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Jess & Crabbe Remix) 5:58
Remix – Jess & Crabbe
Vocals – Daft Punk
Written-By – E.Birdsong
C2   Face To Face (Demon Remix) 6:59
Producer – Daft Punk , Todd Edwards
Remix – Demon
Vocals – Todd Edwards
Written-By – T. Imperatrice
D1   Crescendolls (Laidback Luke Remix) 5:25
Remix – Laidback Luke
D2   Aerodynamic (Slum Village Remix) 3:36
Remix – Slum Village
D3   Too Long (Gonzales Version) 3:12
Producer – Gonzales
Written-By – A. Moore

Kings Of Convenience – Versus (2001) Vinyl Download

*download below*

Ok, so you have to get this one. No excuses. As far as remix albums go this may be the best in all the land.

It’s Excellent stuff.

Preview  of the opening track on Last FM here

Download the Versus vinyl rip here