V/A - "The Madcap Laughs Again!" (2010)

In our on-going series of fine compilations from overrated U.K. music mags, here's Mojo's tribute to Syd Barrett's first solo album The Madcap Laughs. From the March '10 issue, just in time for its 40th anniversary.

Not much else to say about it, really. It's good.

(zip) V/A - The Madcaps Laugh Again! (69 mb)

1. Field Music - Terrapin
2. J. Mascis - No good trying
3. The Besnard Lakes - Love you
4. Race Horses - No man's land
5. R.E.M. - Dark globe
6. Hush Arbors - Here I go
7. Captain Sensible - Octopus
8. Hope Sandoval & The Warm Intentions - Golden hair
9. Hawkind - Long gone
10. Skygreen Leopards - She took a long cold look
11. Cate Le Bon - Feel
12. Jennifer Gentle - If it's in you
13. Marc Almond - Late night
14. Robyn Hitchcock - Dark globe

Buy the original, guy.

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #30

(mp3) Miles Davis - Saeta
Available on Sketches Of Spain (1959)

(mp3) Björk - Storm
Available on Music From Drawing Restraint 9 (2005)

(mp3) The Knife feat. Jenny Wilson - You take my breath away
Available on Deep Cuts (2003)

(mp3) Doris - Whispering pine (The Band cover)
Available on Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby (1970)

(mp3) Arcade Fire - Brazil
Available on Funeral (special edition, 2005)

Crazy Claire

Fucking hell, Claire scared the shit out of me on Lost last night.

Her and Locke/Man In Black/Jacob's Nemesis/Smoke Monster/Whatever make a great team. Claire was always the hottest one on Lost, and her going completely nuts only mader her hotter. Me likey the psycho chicks!

Go Team MIB! Down with Team Jacob!

(mp3) The B-52's - Planet Claire
Available on S/t (1979)

Sleepwalk capsules

Well, I've already done Dream Songs, so I might as well do Sleep Songs as well.

It's interesting how songs with similar titles share similar characteristics. Almost all of the songs I could think of with the word "sleep" in the title were quiet, almost hushed ones, just like the ones in the Blue Songs mix. And when I did the booze theme mix, nearly all of them were country and blues songs, and nearly every song on the Life Songs mix were upbeat life affirming ones.

Funny how that works.

(zip) Metal Bastard's Sleep Songs (84 mb)

1. Bat For Lashes - Sleep alone (2009)
2. Pearl Jam - Let me sleep (1991)
3. Songs Of Soil - Sleep (2000)
4. R.E.M. - The sidewinder sleeps tonite (1992)
5. My Bloody Valentine - When you sleep (1991)
6. The Beatles - I'm only sleeping (1966)
7. David Bowie - Let me sleep beside you (1967)
8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Come into my sleep (1997)
9. The Bronx - Sleepwalking (2009)
10. The Shins - Sleeping lessons (2007)
11. Scott Walker - Sleepwalkers woman (1984)
12. Suede - Sleeping pills (1993)
13. Richard Hawley - I sleep alone (2005)
14. Mark Lanegan - Sleep with me (2003)
15. Nirvana - Where did you sleep last night? (unplugged, 1993)


Pay for your music.

David Gilmour - "S/t" (1978)

This was David Gilmour's first solo album - the first of only three so far. Here he reunited with drummer Willie Wilson and bassist Rick Willis from his pre-Pink Floyd group Joker's Wild.

The fact that the performing trio knew each other so well is quite evident, as the album has a warm, homely feel, quite different from the increasingly paranoid and cold musical direction in which Pink Floyd were heading at the time with Animals and The Wall. You can tell these were just three friends getting together to jam some spacey blues ballads in a comfortable invironment.

That's the main reason I always preferred Gilmour over Roger Waters. The latter became from about Dark Side Of The Moon onwards more and more obsessed with trying to dig at the core of humanity, his writings often stemming from philosophies regarding what it means to be a man, why we do the things we do, why we treat each other the way we do, what it all means and what it all leads to. Which was fine, but with The Wall, possibly the most overrated album of all time, the scale tipped over and the message became so overpowering it actually hurt the music. Don't me started on Waters' post-Floyd solo albums, as I find them practically unlistenable for these very reasons.

No surprise that Gilmour, who always felt the music should come first and the message second, wrote or co-wrote the best songs on The Wall. Songs such as Goodbye Blue Sky, Hey You, Another Brick in the Wall: Part 2 and Comfortably Numb. The latter was actually written for this album, but not included. Come to think of it, Dogs was by far the best song on Animals and it was the only song on there co-written by (yep, you guessed it) David Gilmour.

With that in mind, it makes even more sense this album sounds the way it does. This must have been like a relaxing retreat for Gilmour, to get to go to France with some old chums and make a album with the music up front, full of lush melodies and without having to deal with politics and heavy-handed preachings.

(mp3) David Gilmour - There's no way out of there (recommended!)
(mp3) David Gilmour - So far away
(mp3) David Gilmour - No way

Buy it @ Amazon.com

Caesars - "Youth Is Wasted On The Young" (1998)

You've all heard Jerk It Out by Caesars in the 2005 iPod commercial, but that was ten years into the band's history and a lot of good stuff went down before the world finally decided to take notice.

Caesars formed as Caesar's Palace in 1995 by among other Joakim Åhlund from Teddybears, released their debut Youth Is Wasted On The Young to critical acclaim three years later. I bought the album soon after its release and while I enjoy the other albums by Caesars (or The Twelve Caesars as the are confusingly known in some place), this one stand high above the pack.

It's noisy, energetic psychedelic garage rock with Farfisa organs, sneering vocals, feverish guitars and more hooks than you can shake a stick at. A brilliant record from beginning to end.

(mp3) Caesars - Let's go parking
(mp3) Caesars - You're my favorite
(mp3) Caesars - You don't mean a thing to me

Buy it @ Amazon.com

(Long) Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #29

(mp3) The Doors - The end
Available on S/t (1967)

(mp3) Pink Floyd - Atom heart mother
Available on Atom Heart Mother (1970)

(mp3) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - O'Malleys bar
Available on Murder Ballads (1996)

(mp3) Tom Waits - Sins of my father
Available on Real Gone (2004)

(mp3) Isaac Hayes - Walk on by
Available on Hot Buttered Soul (1969)

Embee - "Tellings From Solitaria" (2004)

Magnus "Embee" Bergkvist is the DJ for Swedish rap group Looptroop Rockers (previously known as just "Looptroop"). In 2004 he put out this solo record which completely smokes everything he has ever done with Looptroop, and it totally deserved the Grammy Award it received in the Best Hip Hop & Soul category.

Instead of Looptroop's usual high energy hiphop, Tellings From Solitaria consists mostly of groovy, laidback beats and smokey, jazzy instrumentals that wouldn't sound too out of place on a Koop record.

The best track on here is most likely Send Someone Away, featuring José González'. González later reworked it into Time To Send Someone Away on his own album In Our Nature three years later.

But I won't put the "recommended" tag on it as will probably get the most downloads out of the three anyway, with González' involvement and all. Instead I would like to direct your attention to City Lights, starring Timbuktu and Daniel Lemma. I'm a big fan of Timbuktu, easily one of my favorite MCs along with Mos Def, Lyrics Born and a couple of others.

An excellent, excellent song. Download it.

(mp3) Embee feat. José González - Send someone away
(mp3) Embee feat. Reinis Zarins Quartet - Shibuya
(mp3) Embee feat. Timbuktu & Daniel Lemma - City lights (recommended!)

Buy Tellings From Solitaria @ Amazon.com

The video for Send Someone Away:

This is my body, this is my blood

My goodness, this mix took forever to straighten out. There were probably ten different tracklistings before I finally got to this one, the ultimate one. And I don't just slap a bunch of songs together, I usually spend a lot of time on these to make they flow right and feel natural as a whole. The right choice of songs and the appropriate order of the songs are extremely crucial.

These are mixtapes, dagnabbit! Mixtapes must be taken seriously.

All ten previous versions included Dylan's It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), until I realised that was the song that screwed up the pace and the flow, and therefor had to be taken out.

It hurt, but it had to be done for the sake of mix. Kill your darlings. Cut off the limb to save the body.

(zip) Metal Bastard's Blood Songs (89 mb)

1. Jarvis Cocker - A drop of Nelson's blood (2006)
2. Smog - Cold blooded old times (1999)
3. Birth Control - Flesh and blood (1971)
4. Jimi Hendrix - Bleeding heart (1970)
5. Nicole Atkins - Bleeding diamonds (2007)
6. Silverbullit - Blood (2004)
7. Ol' Dirty Bastard - Cold blooded (1999)
8. Eels - Fresh blood (2009)
9. Queens Of The Stone Age - The blood is love (2005)
10. Pearl Jam - Blood (1993)
11. VV Brown - Crying blood (2009)
12. Norah Jones - Young blood (2009)
13. Tom Waits - Romeo is bleeding (1978)
14. Whiskeytown - Black arrow, bleeding heart (1995)
15. Coldplay - A rush of blood to the head (2002)

Pay for your music.

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The pre-emptive Valentine's Day post

Have a good one, all ye consumers and conformists. Go on and buy roses and chocolate and sappy little trinkets because society tells you to. Oh you buy all that stuff of your own free will, do you? Riiiiiiiiiight.

Here's a bunch of Valentine's songs to celebrate this non-holiday. A day too soon to beat all the bloggers who will post Valentine's songs tomorrow.

Ha! Suck on that!

(mp3) Billy Bragg - Valentine's day is over
Available on The Peel Sessions (1991)

(mp3) Carissa's Weird - All apologies and smiles, yours truly, ugly Valentine
Available on You Should Be At Home Here (2001)

(mp3) Richard Hawley - Valentine
Available on Lady's Bridge (2007)

(mp3) The Humpers - Plastique Valentine
Available on Plastique Valentine (1997)

(mp3) The Hydromatics - Valentine Frankenstein
Available on Parts Unknown (1999)

(mp3) Outkast - Happy Valentine's day
Available on Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)

(mp3) Tom Waits - Blue Valentines
Available on Blue Valentine (1978)

Songs That Get My Juices Flowing #28

(mp3) Sandra - Maria Magdalena
Available on The Long Play (1985)

(mp3) Terry Callier - Turn you to love
Available on Turn You To Love (1978)

(mp3) Koop - Mr. 50
Available on V/A - För Amnesty (1998)

(mp3) Tom Waits - So long I'll see ya
Available on The Early Years (compilation, 1991)

(mp3) Sonny & Cher - Little man
Available on In Case You're In Love (1967)

V/A - "Jackie Brown Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" (1997)

Jackie Brown is Quentin Tarantino's "lost movie". Every noteworthy recording artist has a "lost album", and every noteworthy filmmaker has an equivalent.

The too-cool-for-school movie nerds ramble on about Reservoir Dogs. Film historians and movie critics seldomly shut up about Pulp Fiction's impact whenever Tarantino's name is brought up. And then of course there are the sad deluded (?) ones who think Kill Bill is the epitome of cinema. Inglourious Basterds though was a step up from the disastrous Death Proof.

So why is Jackie Brown so often pushed aside? Could it be because of the relatively low murder rate? The lack of violence? The fact that the movie takes its time, as opposed to cutting to a bleeding guy in the back of a car the moment the opening credits are over? Is it because it doesn't center around hip young criminals but rather middle aged has-beens who have long since passed their prime? Is it because the film is too "black"? Tarantino himself said he made it with black audiences in mind, and perhaps you need some insight into African-American culture and an extensive knowledge of classic 70's blaxploitation films. Or is it simply because people were expecting Pulp Fiction 2?

Either way, Jackie Brown is most definitely not to be missed. The film even has the best Tarantino soundtrack. No, there may not be a Stuck In The Middle With You, a Misirlou or even a Jungle Boogie to be found anywhere. But the perfect choice of songs, the overall feel of the album, the way the songs fit seemlessly into each scene... It reaches hights Tarantino has been unable to reach before or since.

The film is bookended by Bobby Womack's classic Across 110th Street. At the top of the film, it's played as Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) stands on escalator, The Graduate style, and right at the end of the film she's singing along to it on the radio.

Brothers Johnson's Strawberry Letter 23 was reused (it was previously featured in Pulp Fiction), this time given a much more prominent role. The perfect backdrop for Samuel L Jackson putting Chris Tucker in the truck of a car and blasting him full of bullets. Bloodstone's Natural High is played when Max Cherry (Robert Forster) first lays eyes on the cunning, dangerous and dead-sexy Jackie Brown.

Long Time Woman was a song Pam Grier recorded in 1971 for The Big Dollhouse, and in Jackie Brown it's used when her character is stepping inside a prison cell. Genius! And if Randy Crawford's Street Life doesn't make you jump up and dance, you're probably in a wheelchair.

Haven't seen Jackie Brown yet? Shame on you. Shame!

Buy the movie here and the soundtrack here.

This movie would've killed us/It would've made a mess

There haven't been many updates around here lately. Sorry 'bout that.

I've been busy with all sorts of stuff, like blogging here and most recently here as well. And today I got a shipment of 34 dvds so I'm not likely to get much done any time soon. Carrying 15 pounds of cinematic goodies home through the ice and snow all the way from the post office was a real bitch.

I could really use a car. Someone please give me a car.

Until then I'm just gonna sit her on my ass and watch Coffin Joe hack up another poor soul. Snacks and comfy couch, here I come!

(mp3) Howard Shore - TV or not TV
Available on Videodrome Motion Picture Soundtrack (1983)

(mp3) Jigsaw - I've seen the film, I've read the book
Available on I've Seen The Film, I've Read The Book (1974)

(mp3) Elton John - I've seen that movie too
Available on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973)