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