More to lose than your dignity?

So I might have more flakes than Kellogg's, but here's another attempt on a comeback for WNR. I fell pretty hard off the musical wagon after coming to the horrific realization that some spam bots were screwing our site and inboxes in every orifice. I'm now in the process of cleaning up our neglected home and repairing the cracks in the walls to make it all spiffy and easy to maintain again (read as: I've got to wipe out the old inbox and establish a new address for submissions). So, if you've sent anything in via email in the past few months, I'm sorry. Your submissions have most likely been deleted at this time. I just honestly don't have the time to scan through a thousand penis and beastiality emails to find your MP3s. Besides, I don't even have a penis... and that's NOT how you ride a horse. But if you have sent a CD in, I will be going through them this week for reviews. The new submission email address will also be posted up shortly.

I also have to admit that half of my absence is to blame on the fact that I finally got an Xbox 360 with a Live membership a couple of months back, and I just can't put the shit down.


Bitch, you ain't no nerd.
Seriously. Do you know how much fun it is to trash talk with teenagers at 3 in the morning on GTA4? No? Uh, well, yeah... neither do I. But if you ever want to play an INSANELY AWESOME game of UNO or Street Fighter II, you can find me under the gamertag "DJ Lady Byrd." So original, I know. But at least my friends don't have to spend a half hour trying to remember who "Colonel Angus" is in their massively geeky friend lists. (I'm looking at you, Patrick Roche-Sowa of G4TV.)

And now for something completely different.


It may or may not be new to you, but last night I stumbled on a fantastically bad 80s band, so gayly named Seona Dancing (pronounced Shawna Dancing). If it is new to you, you should take a gander at that gentleman on the right up there and see if you can place who it is. I'll wait.

...

Figured it out yet? No, it's not David Bowie... it's funny man Ricky Gervais. Seems his hilarity was unintentional back then. Although the music sounds more like an early Depeche Mode demo and our beloved David Brent is looking strangely hot... the man really can't carry a tune. But it's still interesting to take a peek into Gervais' deep and dark skeleton closet.

What's even funnier than that is his reaction to it being brought up on the Room 101 show below.


I still love you, Gervais. What you did to Carell at the Emmys was brilliant, even if it was just a skit.

Seona Dancing's only two singles, including the B-Sides:
More To Lose
You're On My Side
Bitter Heart
Tell Her

And this post would not be complete without including this classic from another funny man, as well as the recent cover of it for the BuffetLibre Rewind project:
Eddie Murphy - Party All The Time
OH SNAP!! - Party All The Time


Hoping you're still around,
Lady Byrd

All My Bass Are Belong To Texas

The wonderful Abominatron and Manolo Black have brought me down to DJ for you fine Austinites tonight at Club de Ville. This is my first time in Austin (and all of Texas, period), so I hope you kids can show me what a good time Austin really is.

Here is just a taste of what you will hear tonight:
Michael Jackson - PYT (Marquis / Dmerit Remix)
Metronomy - Radio Ladio (Mac 3000 Remix)

And just because I'm in Texas, here is a hilariously odd country song by a native Texan:
Roger Miller - You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd

If you come, please be sure to introduce yourself. I'm curious of just how many readers we have here.

Love,
Lady Byrd

Plundering the Vaults

Ok...I had actually uploaded all of the material about two weeks ago, but never got around to actually posting any of it. So, here I am to sort of do a belated, better late than never edition of plundering the vault.

I grabbed another handful of CD's from my record room. As per usual, the handful covers the gamut of British pop over the last decade or so. It's actually fun to do these sorts of posts as some of this stuff I haven't heard since I bought the CD's way back when.

Lauren Laverne
Ok, I'm not going to lie. I've had a "thing" for Lauren since way way back when Kenickie was around. Well, after Kenickie called it a day Lauren did a one off with Mint Royale for the song "Don't Falter," which is still one of the tweest and coolest summer songs EVER. (I'll post that next week) Soon after that little pop detour she started a brief solo career that sort of ended when her label erm faltered. Today, she's a multi-media darling who appears both on TV and radio and probably makes more money doing that then she ever did singing. Strangely enough, she's actually got her own show on BBC 6 which debuts this weekend (June 7th, 2008) at 4pm GMT. Anyway, here are two songs from her solo single, Take These Flowers Away.

Download: I Fell Out Of A Tree
Download: Some Kind of Other Presence

Magic Hour
American Band alert. Magic Hour was actually from Boston in the good ol' USA and featured the singer of Crystallized Movements teamed up with the masters of sadcore Damon and Naomi of Galaxy 500. The results were for the most part, erm magic. Their second album, Will They Turn You On or Turn On You was the band's masterpiece. It was kind of like a psychedelic Galaxy 500 lost in space and featured actual pop songs that you could tap along too. Of course there was a 20 minute epic at the end of the album but that's a whole other story. For a band that actually had two of the most important members of indie rock in it, Magic Hour hardly ever garnered any press and they ended up quietly fading into obscurity.

Download: Chance Was
Download: Something Else

Outcast
With the release of Portishead's new album a couple of weeks ago and the fact that I didn't really like it at all (it just sounds old) I felt like I should dig out some of my old trip hop records to reaffirm my belief in the genre. Back in the day when Portishead were essentially the flag carriers for the genre(sorry Massive Attack), there were more trip hop bands than people in Britain. A lot were horrible, a lot were ok, and a few were really quite good. Outcast happened to be one of the good ones. Signed to One Little Indian they released their debut album in 1996 and with it's ghostly images, haunting sounds, and seductive vocals it sounded spookier and sexier than most of the competition. I kind of lost track of them shortly after their debut album came out, but apparently the band continued to release material up until 2005.

Download: Nothings Changed
Download: Life and Breath

Soda
No post would be complete without one proper Britpop band from the mid-90's. Soda was a hotly tipped band in the NME way back when. They had all the looks; you know, Puma's and red jeans, denim jackets, etc. They had the sound; kind of like a less trendy Menswear with enough spiky riffs and melodies that were instantly addictive and so memorable that Alzheimer's patients could remember them. They just didn't have the longevity that many of the peers had. Shed Seven they were not and they were promptly dropped in the post-Britpop fallout of the late 90's. But for a short time the world was fizzy with the sounds of Soda.

Download: Inside
Download: Tracy Is A Killer

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

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