The Rat and The Whale: Wheels on Fire (1980)

If you've even passing familiar with MRML, you're likely aware that this blogger had his musical taste warped by both Bob Dylan and The Clash in roughly equal measure. Hence why I'm always fascinated to find connections, however obscure, tenuous or badly-produced between Dylan and the broader movement I still insist on calling 'punk rock'.


In that spirit, here's an obscurity from 1980 with The Damned's skin-pounder extraordinaire Rat Scabies and his wife ( charmingly labelled Rat and The Whale) doing a slightly under-produced but powerful version of "This Wheel's on Fire" which sort of acts as a bridge between Julie Driscol and Brain Auger's psych-pop version from 1968 and Siouxsie & the Banshees' synth-goth version from 1987.





What do you make of The Rat and The Whale's version of "This Wheel's on Fire"? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the link to download the A-Side** of the single).

BIG THANKS to Ghost100 over at the excellent Power Population for sending is the rip!

** Update!!
Thanks to Roberto, the entire single is now available in the COMMENTS section of this post.
478479478479478479

The Decline Part Two: Well It's Not Billy Idol's Fault

So after kvetching about MRML's first serious decline in visits (see HERE), I've been out digging up bones. Here are some random findings that I'm sifting through.

(Click to enlarge)

• Google Analytics claims that "Billy Idol Live at Poplar Creek"* (See HERE) is my most popular post by a staggering 8 to 1 ratio**. This left me wondering, is Google Analytics fucked or is the world?

• Further on the idea that G.A's the one all fucked-up, their July 2011 newsletter says, "Compared to a year ago, websites have seen reduced pages / visit, average time on site, as well as bounce rate ". No further explanation, just, "Everyone's numbers are down. The End."
  

• Strangely, G.A.'s hard to contextualize stats, as opposed to Site Meter's, show no decline in my numbers at all.

• G.A.'s bewildering numbers did confirm one suspicion, the precipitous decline in this blog's statistical fortunes are partly a result of the death of blog aggregator Totally Fuzzy, which was once my third largest source of referrals.

• I also learned from Brushback that music bloggers all over experienced a rapid decline starting in May, which others have blamed on the rise of social media, primarily Facebook and The Tweety. So that's (at least) two for G.A. being fucked and one for the world.

• One person mentioned that perhaps I've been a little too obsessive in my treatment of certain artists but that doesn't jive with how my two best months ever (March and April 2011) were almost exclusively dedicated to The Stranglers and The Rezillos respectively.

• Another worry that I got mixed messages was about page loading time. I heard all sorts of estimates from normal to slow to extremely sloooow. Since then, I did a few touch-up (lost a side-bar or two, lowered the number of posts per page) and tried to reduce the number of videos. Feedback on loading time is still welcome.
  

So yeah I check Site Meter over ten times a day, most days. I'm not terribly proud of this tic but I won't deny that seeing this blog's visitor numbers die so suddenly has hit me hard. Sure, it's just numbers and this blog isn't just about how many people come here but this sad, little site involves an incredible amount of work. So, during times when the comments grow few (and they still sometimes do), my nervous system needs some kinda neuro-chemical reward to keep this giant time-suck from collapsing in on itself. I love blogging but at the end of the day I still need some proof that I'm not just Dancing With Myself.

* This despite the fact that downloads never passed 200, the visits the day it was posted were normal and it amassed a pleasant-but-not-overwhelming 15 comments.

** I write about Bob Dylan obsessively, not just because Dylan posts do well but because I'm...well...obsessed. Now if I had to boost numbers with weekly Billy Idol posts, I would, despite being kinda proud of that one post, commit blogocide.

Leatherfaced II: "Hurt"

Win some, lose some.

That painfully labour-intensive post on the covers of Leatherface (see HERE) got an underwhelming response*. It's not necessarily unfair; after all, sometimes posts I dash off still get a huge response. That doesn't mean I'm not in a snit, just that I know that I've got no one to blame but myself this time**.
And since failure begets failure, here's Leatherface (though I can't tell you who is all involved in this performance) performing a version of the Trent Reznor song that Johnny Cash made famous, "Hurt".***



* Thanks to all the COMMENTERS, who have lessened the severity of my snit.

** Not that I'm sure I ever do.

*** The reason I put up this mournful tune today, was that it just didn't fit anywhere in yesterday's post.

Leatherfaced!: Frankie Stubbs Growls the Classics

“It’s all about the sound—you know, making the guitar go aarrrraaaaaarrrgggh.”
Frankie Norman Warsaw Stubbs, Leatherface

The idea that the songs of yesterday need a kick in the aarrrraaaaaarrrgggh is a key theme in rock n' roll history - from Elvis Presley to The Rolling Stones to Thin Lizzy to The Ramones to Joan Jett to Redd Kross to Blink 182 and a 100,000 more besides. While there is often bitter division between fans of the original and the cover, there's notoriety and/or filthy lucre to be made as long as the cover strikes a nerve.

Punk rock, and especially it's ever-Green Offspring, pop-punk, has always made use of the nerve-striking cover. Punk bands often throw out a cover, usually a roughed-up radio hit, as the last song of the album or set, which establishes both the band's slightly ironic love of silly pop songs and their unwavering intention to Play Like Hell. (Alternately, some call this trick a shameless play for either college radio or the ladies.)

Leatherface (more HERE) are invariably described as a punk band. Since they are accurately, if citationlessly, described in Wikipedia as a "cröss between Hüsker Dü and Motörhead" and they do indeed Play Like Hell, that's probably a fair description. But for Leatherface, UK veterans of over twenty year's in punk's fetid trenches, covers aren't just crowd-pleasers, they're possibility-openers. Stubb's unholy growl of a voice, his gear-grinding guitar sound and his idiosyncratic lyrics, which manage to be both elliptical and imagistic, are the essence of Leatherface but they can also be limiting. So, the band's eclectic covers list, featuring a jumble of styles, eras and familiarity offset the band's superficial consistency, ensuring they can't simply be pigeonholed.

So now, MRML presents a career-spanning (but surely incomplete) set of Leatherface covers that illustrate some of the different ends to which Stubbs & co. use the words and music of others. For ease of listening and brevity of explanation, we have grouped these songs into four and 1/4 crude but manageable categories, which necessitated the inclusion of a 'one-of-these-things-is-not-(quite)-like-the-other' song in each sub-set. (Sorry about that.)

A. Standards
There's not a lot of Hollywood-sized romance in the words and music of Leatherface but what Stubbs won't often say himself, he'll sometimes quote from others, albeit in a voice all his own. While not all part of any one genre, these songs associated with Elvis Presley, Henry Mancini, Jimmie Davis and Bob Dylan (the only one on this list who actually wrote the song in question) show the band dealing in much grander scale emotional territory then they usually tread.

"I Can't Help Falling in Love With You"
"Moon River"
"You Are My Sunshine"
"In the Ghetto"
"Knockin' on Heaven's Door" ¹



B. Punk Rock/New Wave
Of course a good cover also shows a band's dedication to it's roots, to its heritage. In this set, we find Leatherface reaching back to the past to show from whence they came. Whether it's the proto-punk of The Stooges, the class of '77 punk bands like The Damned and the Angelic Upstarts or those famous faux-punk, new wavers, The Police, Leatherface give these already aggressive songs an extra shot of vehemence.
"I Got A Right"
"Melody Lee"
"Teenage Warning"
"Message in a Bottle" ²



C. Eighties Pop
Quite often the same adolescents who feign a distaste for the popular music of their time will later, from the safety of nostalgia, end up singing those same songs in karaoke bars. Unlike your high school friends, whose embrace of bygone days reveals mostly their own limitations, when Leatherface shake-up over-worn classics (like these ones by Cyndi Lauper, Tracy Chapman, Elton John and The Christians) they can reveal possibly ignored depths therein. That can be quite a feat with the often tinkly and shallow hits of the eighties.
"True Colours"
"Talkin 'Bout a Revolution" ³
"Candle in the Wind"
"Ideal World"



D. Contemporaries
Our final set does demonstrates how the band has kept its ear open to "newer" songs. The band has done so by covering not only bands who they began playing alongside like Snuff and Wat Tyler (not to mention morbid Australian post-punk lounge lizards like Nick Cave, whose "Ship Song" gets an aching full band reading here) but also by doing songs by bands they influenced like China Drum and Dillinger Four.
"Win Some, Lose Some"
"Hops and Barley"
"Doublewhiskeycokenoice"
"Meaning"
"The Ship Song" ⁴



E. WTF?
I know you've all forgiven ABBA, like you forgave The Monkees and like you will forgive N'SYNC soon enough but I harbour that grudge still... (Of course this version does gives the song a good goring.)
"The Eagle"

COMMENTS are good

Well there you have a quick tour of the borrowed items in Leatherface's repertoire, those songs new and old that they chose for a wide variety of reasons, to give a full dose of aarrrraaaaaarrrgggh.


¹ While "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a standard it is, admittedly, of a different sort than the others listed.

² "Message in a Bottle" is not a 'punk' song and, considering the epic romanticism of its lyrics, it might almost fit in the 'standards' category.

³ While "Talkin' Bout a Revolution has a layer of 80's gloss sprayed on it, the song itself is tough-as-nails and without tinkliness or shallowness.

⁴ While Nick Cave, who wrote and recorded "The Ship Song" in 1990, came to prominence well ahead of Mr. Stubbs, I'm sure they've covered some common ground.

(Images of "Papa" Stubbs' courtesy of Rock the Cam)

P.S. An anonymous donour went a Longy way towards making this post possible.


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Leatherface: Eagle 7" (1992)

Leatherface (more HERE) covered ABBA on this 1992 7"? Perhaps a long, detailed, obsessive post on the subject of the band's strange covers that w0uld take weeks of work and hardly be acknowledged is in order? Can you wait about eight hours?


Your thoughts on all things Leatherface can be written in the COMMENTS section (which is where you will find the Eagle link).


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V.A. The Best Punk Rock in England, Son

Here's a 1994 compilation on Snuffy Smile featuring MRML's current muse Frankie Stubbs (in Pope), future muse Duncan Redmonds (usually of Snuff but at this time of Guns n' Wankers) as well as ever-present obsession Bob Dylan who gets a muddily-produced tribute here, in a cover obscure enough to have evaded the wonderful DylanCover.Com, with Midway Still's pop-punk version of "I Want You".


Midway Still - I Want You


Pope - Alone

01.China Drum - Cloud 9 *(2)
02.Chopper - My New Name *(3)
03.Couch Potatoes - User Friendly *(3)
04.Cowboy Killers - Deeply Dippy (3)
05.Doctor Bison - A Place For Us *(3)
06.Exit Condition - Throwing Stick For Underdogs *(3)
07.Funbug - (Sunshine) Ate My Brain *(2)
08.Goober Patrol - Waiting *(1)
09.Guns 'n' Wankers - Gillette *(3)
10.Hooton 3 Car - Sound Of The Day *(3)
11.Horace Goes Skiing - Dream *(1)
12.Midway Still - I Want You *(1)
13.Pope - Alone *(3)
14.Reverse - Clawfoot *(1)
15.Rugrat - Find Me Away *(3)
16.Scarfo - Skinny *(3)
17.Shutdown - Rebound *(3)
18.Skimmer - All Of The Time In The World *(2)
19.The Strookas - It Makes Me *(3)
20.Travis Cut - Permanent Grin *(3)
21.Venus Beads - Within These Wall *(1)
22.Wact - Burnout *(3)
23.Wat Tyler - Not Superstitious *(3)
24.Your Mum - Live And Learn *(3)
(1)previously unreleased song
(2)previously unreleased version
(3)previously released


Let us know what you think of this collection in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the BPRIES link).

Leatherface/Wat Tyler

HEY!
COME CHECK OUT MY TOP TEN LEATHERFACE
VIDEOS OVER AT THE BIG TAKEOVER!

(Don't be afraid to leave a thought behind!)

A Leatherface – Hops And Barley
B Wat Tyler – Discipline
C Leatherface – A Public House
D1 Wat Tyler – Not Superstitious
D2 Wat Tyler – (I Just Called To Say...)

The ever-reliable Discogs says, "15th in Singles Club series. Double 7". Wraparound sleeve in polythene bag, plus photocopied insert (label info one side, letter from Wat Tyler on other). Each band covers the others' songs. D2 is a hidden untitled track, based on the Stevie Wonder song: a tribute to British talk-radio host James Whale ("I just called to say 'James Whale You're A Fucking Cunt'") "

Well we've been prattling on about Leatherface for weeks (see HERE) but as for Wat Tyler, the clown-princes of anarcho-(pop)-punk, I`m a little short on detail. They were a a classic Very English band who were always connected to bands I knew well (Leatherface's cover of "Hops and Barley" is STILL in their set) but whom never found their way into my record collection. Despite being a fixture of the punk scene of the eighties and nineties (they even got on Lookout Records for a bit) the band`s profile is now pretty miniscule on the internet. The Wikipedia entry on the band is almost, non-existent and while we can thank the fucking brilliant blog Kill Your Pet Puppy for this post on the band, compared to the epic posts KYPP is famous for, this one is quite brief. (And speaking of brief posts on WT, I Vomit 4 U has a a good one here). Any one out there who wants to do a guest post on Wat Tyler for MRML is hereby invited.



Well, readers, what do you make of all this then? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the LF/WT split single).


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Amy Winehouse: The Ska E.P. (Bootleg)

So, sadly, today famous British soul-singer/tabloid sensation Amy Winehouse joined The 27 Club. A few years ago, I heard "Rehab" over at NPR (deduct 20 punk points for that!) and was struck by it, not because of my mixed feelings for neo-soul but because the song had three things that can attract me to songs across genres; a sharp hook, a negative in the lyrics of the chours (I'll try to explain that some other time) and a dark and unusual theme. When the song became an omnipresent hit a few months later I was really taken aback, I'd assumed it was too bleak to play as background music on the Weather Channel.


I never followed up my smitten-ness with "Rehab" but I did perk-up when this bootleg of Winehouse covering four ska classics began circulating in 2008.










(Sorry, no link because the British version of the RIAA is too unforgiving for me to risk posting even a bootleg)




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Buffalo Tom: Skins (2011)

Despite the smart way Bill Janovitz and his quarter-century old band Buffalo Tom have with a tune, I've never dug into this Boston alt-rock group's oeuvre. But if within the back catalog there are more songs as indelible as, "Guilty Girls" from the uniformly excellent new album, Skins, then I shall have to remedy my sins of omission.





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Leatherface: Mackem Bastards (1994)

While, I confess to doing my part towards The Great Mid-Nineties Vinyl Glut (see HERE), I'm still not sure how so many bands put out so many singles without all losing the Crimpshrine T-shirts off their back. This beautifully packaged 1994 single from Rugger Bugger has that clasic mix of odd cover (A1), unusual original (A2) and live tracks (B1, B2) that defined so much of the era's vinyl outpouring.

A1 Win Some, Lose Some(Snuff)
A2 Ba Ba Ba Ba Boo
B1 Discipline (Live)
B2 Colorado Joe/Leningrad Vlad (Live)

What's your favourite 7" from this era? let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Mackem Bastards link).





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Leatherface: Smokey Joe (1990)

The Ian Burgess (R.I.P.) produced E.P. from 1990 marks the transition from the fine era of Fill Your Boots to the stunning era of Mush. In fact, "How Lonely" ended up as a central track on Mush and "Trenchfoot" and "The Scheme of Things" became bonus tracks on the CD version of the album (which is NOT in-fucking-print - download only!)

A1 How Lonely
A2 You Wanted Everything
B1 Trenchfoot
B2 The Scheme Of Things
B3 Ideal World

So do you think that it's ridiculous that Leatherface's most revered album, Mush, is NOT in print? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Smokey Joe link).


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Frankie Stubbs (Leatherface): Unhinged (1995)

I neglected to mention that Leatherface mastermind Frankie Stubbs had his solo acoustic debut on Rugger Bugger Discs back in 1995. It's gritty little three-song single that sacrifices little for it's stripped down presentation.

A Truly Beautiful
B1 Moon River [Uncredited] (Mancini, Mercer)
B2 Plebs



COMMENTS.
They are a good thing.
The link for Unhinged can be found in the COMMENTS section.

Frankie Stubbs (Leatherface): S/T 10" (2000)

Not long after re-convening Leatherface Frankie Stubbs put out this little solo acoustic 10". The results are sort of what you would imagine Leatherface would sound like without the electricity. The lack of musical varnish reveals a sound more akin to folk-blues then singer-songwriter. Of course, Stubbs' love of romantic pop is also on display here, as he (re)covers Elvis Presley's "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You" and Nick Cave's "Ship Song". But more talk on that aspect of the Stubbbs' personae will have to wait for a forthcoming post.

A1 Send Hand Shirt
A2 Old Elvis
A3 Sail Boats
B1 Dead Industrial Atmosphere
B2 I Can't Help Falling In Love
B3 Ship Song


Whaddya make of Stubbs acoustic work? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the S/T 10" link.)

Jessie (Ex-Leatherface): S/T (1998)

Before reconvening Leatherface (more HERE), Frankie Stubbs tried one more monosyllabic new band name following the break-up of Pope. Of course, with Stubbs inimitable growl, guitar sound and lyrical bent front and centre it still sounds awfully Leatherface-ish albeit a bit prettier, if you're willing to believe that.

A1 Indestructable
A2 Smarm
A3 Gone Fishing
A4 Everwas
A5 Jack Christ...
A6 As Your Mind Closed Mine Was Opening
A7 Rant

B1 World
B2 Dogsong
B3 Room
B4 Paradoxical Thing
B5 Handful Of Earth
B6 Big Freeze
B7 Truly Beautiful



So? Whadya think of this Stubbs band? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the S/T link).

Pope: JohnPaulGeorgeRingo (1997)

Frankie Stubbs, like so many punk singers before him, learned that a band by any other name does not rock so sweetly. Unless you're in Fugazi or Rancid, the records that bear your punk band's original name are gonna get the praise and the sales. So, even though Stubbs' first post-break-up band sounds rather a lot like Leatherface (though perhaps a bit sombre) the album sunk with little notice. However, Leatherface's American label, BYO Records did sneak some of the Pope tracks onto their Leatherface compilation entitled The Last, perhaps proving that in the punkiverse there's a hell of a lot in a name.

1 Plebs
2 Fine
3 Redhouse
4 Laughing Melancholia
5 Promised
6 Kingsane
7 Cracks
8 Alone
9 Something About America

So why do punk band get stuck with the first name they found notoriety? let us know what you think in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Pope link).

The Searchers: Coming From the Heart

(Image courtesy of Music Station)

Like much of the population of the Western World, I grew up unreservedly loving The Beatles (even though they broke up a few months after I was born). Also, like many, I've always had more mixed feeling for what Beatlemania wrought in their native land. Don't get me wrong, I can hum those once ubiquitous Merseybeat-era hits by bands like The Hollies, The Dave Clark Five and The Searchers but they sound far more frozen in a black & white time.


(tronvierundzwanzig videotaped a German show of the band in this era and considering the obvious limitations it`s an astounding document in eleven parts!)

So how strange was it for me to discover a few years ago that The Searchers had made a break for full-colour modernity in the years between 1979-1982. After having played on the cabaret circuit for much of the decade, the band signed to Sire Records and recorded two amped-up power-pop albums brimming with fantastic songs. The band, never their own primary writers dug into some of the best writing since they'd left the scene. That means diggings up neglected mid-seventies songs like Big Star's "September Gurls" and John Fogerty's "Almost Saturday Night`, covering some of the great writers to emerge from what we called New Wave (John Hiat, The Records`Will Birch, Tom Petty and Mickey Jupp) and, of course the de rigeur Dylan obscurity, `Coming From the Heart``. Though the song is hardly top-drawer Dylan (it`s one a series of never-released songs he co-wrote with back-up singer Helena Springs in the late seventies),`Coming From the Heart`` works quite well in this context (though it may well veer a little too close to the slick sounds of AOR for fans of either Dylan or punky power-pop).

Earlier in their career the band had covered one of Dylan`s finest outtakes, ``Lay Down Your Weary Tune`but only ever played it live.

So, if you`re a lover of power-pop, new wave, obscure Dylan covers or things Beatlesque, my heartfelt recommendation is that you go to Amazon and order the two Sire albums, The Searchers and Love`s Melodies or pick-up The Rockfield Sessions which pairs both albums together.

Leatherface: BBC Sessions (1989-1993)

So here's another edition of Radio Leatherface, this time around we present a round-up of late eighties and early nineties BBC sessions (which may include some crossover with the Peel Sessions available HERE) which provide raw takes of band favourites like, "I Don't Be the One to Say It", "Pale Moonlight" and "Do the Right Thing".

1. Not Superstitious
2. I Don't Want To Be the One to Say It
3. Discipline
4. Peasants in Paradise
5. Springtime
6. Dreaming
7. I Want the Moon
8. Games
9. Books
10. Not A Day Goes By
11. Cabbage Case
12. Do the Right Thing
13. Colorado Joe - Leningrad Vlad
14. Pale Moonlight
15. Books
16. I Can't Help Falling in Love With You


So you wanna hear more Leatherface related rarities? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the BBC Sessions* link.)

* Turns out yesterday I posted the wrong link, so this I`ll post both links today.


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Leatherface: Peel Sessions (1991-1993)

1989 could've been the year that punk re-broke in England. After all, that year saw the release of Mega City Four's Tranzophobia, Snuff's Snuff Said But... and, possibly least auspiciously, Leatherface's Cherry Knowle.

It's not that the band's debut isn't a pretty ripping set of thrashy pop-punk song, its just that unlike MC4 and Snuff, Leatherface didn't hit the ground running full-tilt. The non-ironic covers, the Lemmy-esque growl of Frankie Stubb and the metallic pounding accompaniment were all there but it just hadn't all clicked together. Even Leatherface's second album, 1990's Fill your Boots (which I bought as a result of a glowing review in Maximumrocknroll and Snuff's relentless plugging of the band in interviews), which blazes out of the gate with "New York State" and "Razor Blades and Aspirin" does not approach the heights they climbed to on their 1991 follow-up, Mush. Now Mush jolted me because it delivered so much more than even Fill Your Boots could have indicated. The playing is more controlled, the hooks are more evenly spread out and those lonesome lyrics just reach through the noise and yank those heartstrings you foolishly left hanging loose. ("Not a Day Goes By" is possibly the saddest punk song ever written.)

Out of the entire late eighties British indie-punk scene, Leatherface has probably exerted the greatest influence on the larger musical culture. The band are a going concern putting out vital new music, touring all over the world and, as well, not only do a slew of punk bands cite them as an influence but also CallPastorJerface (my source for all things me-tal) informs me that amongst metal-dudes name-dropping Leatherface is considered pretty de rigeur. Way to go class of '89!

So, after that little essay I present you with my first (hopefully?) Leatherface offering, a collection of never-officially Peel Sessions recorded throughout the early nineties. The set actually acts as a pretty fair introduction to the band, as it contains alternate, rawer version of classics like "Not a Day Goes By", "Do the Right Thing, "I Want the Moon" and their bludgeoning of The Police's "Message in a Bottle".

Track List
1. Peasant In Paradise
2. Springtime
3. Dreaming
4. I Want The Moon
5. Games
6. Books
7. Not A Day Goes By
8. Can't Help Falling In Love
9. Cabbage Case
10. Heaven Sent
11. In My Life
12. Little White God
13. Do The Right Thing

So what's your favourite Leatherface album? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Peel Sessions link.)

UPDATE: The link provided is for the BBC Sessions bootleg, the whole boondoggle is sorted out in the comments section HERE.

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Mega City Four: Android Dreams

To obsessives who are willing to stick aorudn till the bitter end, here's the finest moment from the most-inconsistent album (1995's Soulscraper) of the MC4's career. There are two B-sides here, including the attractive acoustic ballad "Skywide" which is otherwise unavailable. Much more MC4 HERE.

Is this the last great Mc4 tracks? Let us know what you think in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the "Android Dreams" link).


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Meag City Four: Skidding

Two nice non-album B-sides, both warmer sounding than anything on the 1996's aptly-named Soulscraper. Much more MC4 HERE.

Don't forget to leave a COMMENT (which is where you'll find the skidding link).

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Mega City Four: Soulscraper

1995' s Soulscraper is sometimes called MC4's 'grunge album' due to the thicker, chunkier guitar sound that dominates songs like "The Dog Lady" but fear not listeners, Wiz's gift for sad-but-strong hooks (check out "Android Dreams") is still there beneath the thick layer of gunk.

So what do you think of the Soulscraper era of the MC4? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the link as well.)





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V.A. Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan Volume 36

This multi-volume series features artists covering Bob Dylan songs. All of the tracks are recordings of independent origin (ROIO) and hence officially unreleased.

Compiler Jeffs98119 (check out his new blog HERE) is back with another strong entry in this series which could conceivably go on till the last syllable of recorded time. If you know the series well you're gonna expect a mix of artists stretching back to Rambling Jack Elliot, The Jefferson Airplane and Doug Sahm moving through artists like Elvis Costello, Paul Weller and Robyn Hitchcock and ending off with newer artist like The Avett Brothers and MRML favourite, Frank Turner. If one things binds these diverse artists from across the genres and the ages, it's not just recognizing a great song but understanding it.






01 Lay Down Your Weary Tune - Jefferson Airplane (Jan 15, 1966,Kiskano Theater, Vancouver BC)
02 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Joe Henry (Oct 27, 1993, Finale Emilia, Italy)
03 Maggie's Farm - Kris Kristofferson, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Richie Havens, Warren Haynes, Taj Mahal(May 3, 2009, Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY)
04 New Pony - Ron Sexsmith (Jul 14th, 1996, Toronto, ONT)
05 Don't Think Twice, It's Alright - Frank Turner (Jun 19, 2011, Vienna, Austria)
06 Meet Me in the Morning - Sarah Jarosz (Jul 18, 2009, Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, Oak Hill, NY)
07 Nobody 'Cept You - 16 Horsepower (Mar 20, 2000, Doornroosje, Nijmegen)
08 Mr. Tambourine Man - Doug Sahm and Jerry Garcia (Nov 23, 1972, Thanksgiving Jam, Armadillo World Headquarters, Austin, TX)
09 Just Like a Woman - Avett Brothers with Simon Felice (Jun 4, 2011, Mountain Jam, Hunter Mountain, NY)
10 Highway 61 Revisited - David Gogo Blues Band (Aug 23, 2009, Edmonton Blues Festvial, Alberta, Canada)
11 All Along the Watchtower - Paul Weller (Nov 20, 2010, Olympia Theatre, Dublin)
12 Let Me Die in My Footsteps - Roma di Luna (Aug 9, 2008, Hosmer Library, Minneapolis, MN)
13 Odds and Ends - Bottle Rockets (Dec 25, 1998,
Hi-Pointe Cafe, St. Louis, Missouri)
14 The Mighty Quinn - Band of Heathens (May 5, 2010, Piano, Dortmund, Germany)
15 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - REM and Robyn Hitchcock (Mar 15, 1991, The Borderline, London)
16 I Shall Be Released - Robbie Robertson, Elvis Costello, and Rita Coolidge (May 11, 1995, Piazzi San Giovanni in Rome )
17 Love Rescue Me - U2 (May 24, 2011, University of Utah, Salt Lake City)




Your COMMENTS on the series and the artists it covers help towards keeping the series alive!!

Thanks to Jeffs98119 for compiling these and to pdiamond for the images.

• Thanks to Karl Erik @ Expecting Rain for tagging these for iTunes
  

• For V.'s 1-35 of Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan go here