I'm Baaaack!

Yep...it's true. After a two year absence LB has been kind enough to allow me to be part of Who Needs Radio once again.

For my first post back I grabbed a few random records from my archive and figured I'd write about them. So here we go...

Revolving Paint Dream
I love old Creation stuff from early in the labels history and Revolving Paint Dream were one of the first bands on the label. They were a mysterious band that were described as a psychedelic pop band that hungrily ingested a variety of influences with a wildly involuntary, style-annihilation internal grace. If they'd only stopped to look to the future they would have been unstoppable. Well at least in the 80's. Not a great deal is known about them but they were led by Andrew Innes who would later join the ever important Primal Scream. The rest of the line-up continues to be shrouded in mystery, but it is safe to assume it was for no particular reason, safe the faulty memories of those likely involved.

Download: Flowers in the Sky (45 Version)
Download: In the Afternoon

The Frank and Walters
Although they are actually Irish this band has been around forever and has lived through more trends in British pop, than most people living on the British Isles. They started way back when shoegazing and baggy ruled the world in the early 90's and worked their way through Britpop and the post-Britpop crash of 97-98 and are actually still around today making jangly, crisp pop for the masses.

Download: Plenty Times
Download: Falling Out of Love

Mainstream
Despite having one of the absolute worst band names EVER, Mainstream were actually a rather good band. Despite the name, the band sounded something like a combination of Verve, Embrace, and a bit of R&B all mixed together. So far as I know they only ever put out one album for Nude (home of Suede) and a whole bunch of singles. "Can Jam," happens to be one of them.

Download: Can Jam
Download: After The Music

Sound 5
Sound 5's perfect pop comes from a band whose members include brothers Danny & Kelvin Andrews, better known as the Sure is Pure remix team. Kevin was also the DJ at the legendary Golden club and the man behind Pharm Recordings which gave the world erm...Blueboy's, "Remember Me."

Download: Ala Kaboo

Enjoy the music guys! Feel free to contact me HERE.

Paul

PS: Sorry it took so long Ally..but I was having FTP issues.

London, Brighton, Rome, Paris

I'm leaving for Brighton this Saturday (via London), so this may very well be my last post until I return in June. I know I just started updating again, but seeing as this is my very first trip out of the States... I honestly just won't have enough time to keep up with WNR while traveling.

There is good news though.

While I'm out exploring the places mentioned in the title of this post, past WNR contributor Paul the Anglophile will be back on-board and (hopefully) keeping this place spiffy. But until Paul gets some material together to post for you, here is a little snippet of the playlist I put together for my travels. Enjoy, and wish me a safe trip!


Ivy League - London Bridges
Ladybug Transistor - Brighton Bound
French Kicks - England Just Will Not Let You Recover
Pengilly's - To London
Donovan - London Town
Telepopmusik - Brighton Beach
Frank Sinatra - London By Night
Johnnie Taylor - Rome (Wasn't Built In A Day)
Magnetic Fields - Love Goes Home to Paris in the Spring
Crystal Fighters - I Love London
Friendly Fires - Paris
Electric Light Orchestra - In Old England Town
The Clash - London Calling
The Smiths - London
Sleeper - Cunt London
Cranes - Paris And Rome

Love,
Lady Byrd

P.S. Did you hear that Project Playlist (playlist.com) is getting sued by major record labels? It's complete bullshit, and once again... greed is the ugly motivator. As long as sites such as Project Playlist and Hype Machine exist, music gets a healthy dose of free promotion (both major and independent). Those dinosaurs at the major labels still don't seem to realize that by attempting to take it away, they're only hurting themselves even more.

I hear a voice and then I'm carried away...

Today's picks:


Right now I am borderline obsessed with the "70s-blended-with-80s" sound of Philly's Hail Social. It's a testament to their music that every emotion I've felt in the past few months has been covered by at least one of their songs. The originals are gold, but the remixes help extend the feeling while still staying true to the original tracks. I DEFINITELY recommend the Designer Drugs remix as part of a soundtrack to your physical activities. No, I'm not talking about sex... I'm talking about working out or biking.

Okay, and sex. Hot, sweaty, make-up sex. Hell, you burn more calories that way anyway. So everyone go out, get in a fight with your significant other, and then do it to Hail Social. You can thank me later for your buns of steel.

MP3sOne U Love
Heaven
One U Love (Pink Skull Mix)
Heaven (Designer Drugs Remix)

Dsico might be a familiar name to you. Not only did I feature his original work on here back in '06, but he's also done a great deal of remixes and mashups. I tend to love his original stuff better, but I did love his remix of ROC's "Sink A Bite Into Life" and cover of Ministry's "Everyday is Halloween". Now he's releasing an incomplete album for free on his site. Some of the tracks are not as well mixed as those on 'City Stirs', but what's to be expected of something that was never finished? The instrumentals are still catchy as hell, and "70s Classic Hits" sounds like Giorgio Moroder had his hands all up in it.

Quote from Luke Collison aka Dsico regarding this new release: "A collection of almost completed songs recorded in the years 2006 - 2007. I suppose I've been a bit busy with other things over the last couple of years and never quite managed to finish these off as an album. Rather than simply let them languish on a hard-drive I thought I might as well put them out in some sense. So here is the entirely free, reasonable high quality MP3 copy of the so called album."

MP3sCome Around
70s Classic Hits
+ Myspace

Could The Indelicates be a reincarnation of The Beautiful South? The lyrics are just as quirky and dark, and Julia and Simon seem to have the same kind of vocal chemistry that Paul Heaton and Briana Corrigan had. Comparisons aside, I'm glad that their songs have made it across the sea and into my ears.

MP3sNew Art for the People
Julia, We Don't Live in the 60s
+ Myspace

Very much a mixture of The Pastels, My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain, you'd almost be shocked to learn that The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are a relatively new band based out of NYC. You'd probably also be stunned to find that such an amazingly cute band only has 1152 friends on Myspace. It's a tragedy that we live in a world where overhyped, one-hit-wonder bands with wanna be Robert Smith singers get thousands and thousands of fans a day, yet talented musicians like TPOBPAH aren't blowing up all over the atmosphere yet. Well, I'm hoping to change a little bit of that with this post. Download these songs, put them on your dreamy mixtapes, and give them out to your friends. It's too beautiful not to share.

MP3sA Teenager In Love
Doing All the Things That Wouldn't Make Your Parents Proud
Kurt Cobain's Cardigan
+ Myspace

Love,
Lady Byrd

What if God smoked weed?

He would probably watch Weeds.


Kevin Nealon on 4/20
I'm no pot smoker by any means (although I have slightly dabbled in Hawaiian ganja), but I am a huge fan of the Showtime series. So when the above video was sent to me via email in celebration of the reefer holiday, I just had to put together an impromptu playlist for all you lovers of Mary Jane, and post it up with the video. And what better time to post it than at 04:20 on 4/20?

Spark up, sit back, and "toke" it all in.


Neil Diamond - The Pot Smoker's Song
Can - I'm So Green
Guided By Voices - Weed King
Daniel Johnston - Pot Head
Weird Al - Yoda Smokes Weed
The Rolling Scabs - My Mom Smokes Pot
Band of Horses - Weed Party
Archers of Loaf - Smokin' Pot in the Hot City
Caesars - Strawberry Weed
Bill Hicks - Beer Vs Pot
mc chris - WiiD (Peanut Butter Jelly Mix)
Horace Silver - Acid, Pot, or Pills
Peter Tosh - Legalize It
Stephen Lynch - What If God Smoked Weed


Love,
Lady Byrd

P.S. Season 4 of Weeds premiers on June 16th, and the soundtrack (feat. Beirut, Oh No! Oh My!, Illinois, Ween, Page France) will be out digitally on June 3rd!

EDIT: I would just like to call out Cynamatik Productions for blatantly copying my post without giving any credit, and stealing bandwidth by direct linking to my files. Bravo, you asshat. How about you try to come up with your own material next time?

Soundtracked.

This post originally began as a collection of cheesy theme songs, but eventually grew into a mass of songs from the soundtracks of movies I love and adore. A good majority of them are 80s classics since I was born in '81, but there are some newer and older gems mixed in too. I had a lot of fun gathering them, since just hearing them brings back tons of good movie viewing memories (read as: being able to eat a box of milk duds without worries). It also reminded me of how much I've always wanted the opportunity to compile a soundtrack for a movie. I have no idea how you get that gig, but I would imagine it takes knowing someone who knows someone, or putting together your own film. Hmm. Maybe one day that dream will come true.

This isn't the list to end all lists, since I'm sure I'll think of more tomorrow that I missed. What are your favorites? Feel free to share any that I missed in the comments! I'll add them to the next list I do.



(Stream above, download below.)
Queen - Flash (From Flash Gordon)
Barry de Vorzon - The Warriors Theme (From The Warriors)
The Dickies - Killer Klowns (From Killer Klowns From Outer Space)
Cherry Bomb - Howard The Duck (From Howard The Duck)
Cyndi Lauper - Good Enough (From The Goonies)
Paul Engemann - Scarface (Push It To The Limit) (From Scarface)
Christopher Cross - Arthur's Theme (From Arthur)
Limahl - The NeverEnding Story (From The NeverEnding Story)
White Lion - Transformers Theme (From Transformers The Movie)
Oingo Boingo - Weird Science (From Weird Science)
Harold Faltermeyer - Axel F (From Beverly Hills Cop)
Tangerine Dream - Loved By The Son (From Legend)
Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (From Say Anything)
Audrey Hepburn - Moon River (From Breakfast At Tiffany's)
Psychedelic Furs - Pretty In Pink (From Pretty In Pink)
Kenny Loggins - Footloose (From Footloose)
Dolly Parton - 9 To 5 (From 9 To 5)
Vangelis - Blade Runner (End Titles) (From Blade Runner)
Angelo Badalamenti - Twin Peaks Theme (From Twin Peaks)
Danny Elfman - Beetlejuice Theme (From Beetlejuice)
Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody (From Ghost)
The Cure - Burn (From The Crow)
Primal Scream - Trainspotting (From Trainspotting)
Kenny Rogers - Just Dropped in (From The Big Lebowski)
Happy Mondays - 24 Hour Party People (From 24 Hour Party People)
The Beta Band - Dry The Rain (From High Fidelity)
Mohammed Rafi - Jaan Pehechaan Ho (From Ghost World)
Naked City - Bonehead (From Funny Games [1997])
Guitar Wolf - Roaring Blood (From Wild Zero)
Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World (From Stranger Than Fiction)


Love,
Lady Byrd

That's Not My Reclaim

My spirits are really down in the dumps today due to losing a best friend and just generally having things go haywire in my life. I won't go into the trivial details, but here are two magnificent bands that are currently lifting me up just enough to move on.

(Stream at top, download below.)






The Ting Tings

Great DJ (IDC Rerub)
That's Not My Name
We Walk (Demo)
Fruit Machine (Live)

Mellow

Rivolizione Sessantanove
Take Me Higher
Shinda Shima
Perfect Colors
Fantastic
It Was Raining

And a track that couldn't be any more perfectly fitting in my current state: Mercury Rev - Holes


Love,
Lady Byrd

Weekend Assault

I still have a ton of emails and a box of albums to catch up on before I can get some stuff together to review, but in the meantime... here is a little playlist of some of my favorites for you to enjoy over the weekend.

Stream at the top, download at the bottom.


Nite Club - Good Life
Metronomy - My Heart Rate Rapid
MGMT - Electric Feel
The Legends - Closer
Midnight Juggernauts - Nine Lives
Chromatics - Healer
Electric Light Orchestra - Here Is The News
Polyrock - Romantic Me

Love,
Lady Byrd

Update! Update! Read all about it!

I had all these wonderful plans to redo the site, start updating more, and all that jazzy jazz. But the truth of the matter is, I'm fucking lazy and I sleep a lot. I also have been getting sick a lot. Florida did it to me, y'all. I just don't have the energy or skill to revamp and spruce this place up, much less keep it updated. BUT, I miss you guys. Granted, I came here to post the other night to only realize that when my host transitioned my site, they lost ALL my videos (time to find my backup files). And although it got me down... wild horses couldn't drag me away. Sure, they may trample me a bit, but not drag me into oblivion.

I do have this favor to ask though, before I make my half-ass "I'm still alive" post. If you know someone who'd be willing to do a little charity work by helping me design a CSS template for Wordpress (I currently use Blogger, and there are better audio plug-ins for Wordpress), please tell them to shoot an email over to me at ladybyrd at whoneedsradio dot com with the subject "WNR design help" so I don't accidentally delete it. I did the current layout myself, but Wordpress confuses the hell out of me. I don't need anything complex or flashy, just a template close to what I have now, except with new logos and a fresh color scheme. I'm thinking I'll come back in black.

I'm also thinking of changing the content of WNR into a hybrid of music reviews, gossip entertainment, and just random shit I find on youtube and other sites. I post a lot of bulletins on Myspace with that kind of bizarre crap, so perhaps not making it "all work and no play" for me over here will motivate me to post more. I plan on still including at least one MP3 with each post, so don't think that I'm going to turn into a skinnier, better dressed... well, all around less scary version of Perez Hilton.

Moving on, here's a little short update on what's going on. The Dean & Britta music video I played a part in last summer (opposite Demetri Martin) finally was completed and posted up on the internet for all to see. Sera Rogacki directed this adorable piece of work, and the ending couldn't be more touching. Watch it here, folks (P.S. I play the waitress. WhoNeedsATan?):


I also made a short trip back up to NYC last month to do a set for the Robot Rock party at Le Royale. There were about a gabillion DJs lined up, so the set was pretty short, but I had a great time and was glad to mingle a bit. I also, for the first time in forever, actually remembered to record the set. You see, usually I have good intentions of doing it, but then I have a few drinks beforehand and completely forget. This time I just waited until about halfway through my set before I started slamming drinks. You can thank those vodka tonics for the sloppiness at the end of the mix though. Here it is in all it's streaming glory:


Tracklisting:

Daft Punk - Face to Face
Calvin Harris - This is Industry
Chromeo - Bonafide Lovin' (David Wolf Remix)
Theatre of Disco - YOA
The Black Ghosts - Let's Get Physical
Klaxons - As Above, So Below (Justice Remix)
Justice - D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT Remix)
Grafton Primary - I Can Cook (Miami Horror Remix)
Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me
Simian Mobile Disco - Piggy in the Middle (Punks Jump Up Mix)
K.I.M. - Wet N Wild (Midnight Juggernauts Remix)
Bonde Do Role - Office Boy (CSS Mix)
20 Fingers - Short Dick Man (RFH Delfos Remix)
Soulwax - NY Lipps
Cazwell - All Over Your Face (Gomi's West 22nd Street Mix)
Eddy Grant vs Digitalism - Zdarlight Avenue (ElectroSound Mix)
Delegation - It's Your Turn (Treasure Fingers Edit)

Download the mix MP3 here: Live @ Robot Rock 2/22/08

Some reviews coming soon, although I'm not promising you when.

Love,
Lady Byrd

P.S. I just want to include that when I went to post this, I couldn't. I had to wait for a chat with my host's technical support, and finally got it all straightened out some 15 minutes later. See? I'm not THAT lazy.

Leaving New York, never easy.

As some of you may know from my recent MySpace postings... I am moving out of NYC in a few weeks for several different reasons. It's not a permanent move, but I am definitely in need of a break from the big city of dreams. After almost 4 years here, I've come pretty far and met many great people, but a lot of my own projects and goals have been put aside due to the fast-paced and ever-distracting lifestyle here.

So, with that in mind... I have decided to move my junk in the trunk to a more spacious living arrangement back in Florida, where I can concentrate on work, WNR, and music. I don't want to remain a forever-renter in NYC, blowing money and shlepping records from venue to venue every week... barely getting enough sleep in a week to sustain a healthy mind and body. Nobody can live like that forever. I want to have something more to show for my work, and I want to work harder at it. Not have it work me harder.

In the meantime, until the move is final and I've setup shop in Florida, my postings on WNR will remain absent. Post-move, however, this site will once again start picking up like crazy with all of the spare time I will have to dedicate here. A WNR redesign and more features are in the works as well.

Thank you to all the fantastic people I've met in this great city, and thanks for all the great and crazy times we've had. I will miss you all dearly.

FYI, the official going-away party will be on 11/15/07 at The Skinny in Lower East Side, where I will be DJing with some good and talented friends of mine. I hope you can all try to make it out and share a goodbye toast with me.

"New York, New York, big city of dreams
And everything in New York ain't always what it seem
You might get fooled if you come from out of town
But I'm down by law and I know my way around

Too much, too many people, too much
Too much, too many people, too much!"

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - New York New York

Love,
Lady Byrd

Cocktail time

My birthday is coming up and I'm throwing sort of a cocktail party at my place next saturday. I hate it when people start switching songs at partys and you hear like 20 seconds of each song. To prevent this from happening, I will make a playlist in advance, press play and lock down my computer. I sat down the other day and started to make the playlist but boy it's hard. My post for today is two songs that probably will make it until the final cut but there are so many things to think about.

- No extensive lyrics, but some lyrics are ok
- Music should not be based on riffs
- Should stimulate conversations without interfering (fuzzy criteria, yes)
- No rollercoaster music. It should be a smooth ride from start until finish

Have you got any suggestions on songs, send me an e-mail!

Holy Fuck
Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen

Yelle
Yelle - Tristesse Joie


--
Eric