A YEAR AND A DAY

[Nearly forgot that it was a year ago yesterday that I started this here blog. So I thought I'd re-post the five songs that started the ball rolling...]

Crash Vegas is a Canadian band that, to the best of my knowledge, has not released anything since their 1995 LP Aurora. I first heard "On and On (Lodestar)" on a Windsor, Ontario radio station while summering in my native Detroit (all the best people summer there, don't you know). A few years later, while visiting Toronto, I specifically sought out the album and this rather haunting track. For me, this has an autumnal, nostalgic quality to it, and it reminds me somehow of The Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreamin'."

[MP3] Crash Vegas/"On and On (Lodestar)"

Like Crash Vegas, Knoxville, Tennessee's Judybats haven't released anything since the mid-'90s. This track appeared on their second record, Down in the Shacks Where the Satellite Dishes Grow, in 1991. It is, to be sure, a product of its time - as R.E.M.-esque jangle-pop was then a very big thing, indeed. This baroque little gem proceeds pleasantly, then ratchets itself into a different stratosphere for the coda. Again: haunting.

[MP3] Judybats/"Lullaby (Weren't We Wild)"

More jangle-pop, circa 1993. This one can be found on the Connells' album Ring. Apparently, it was a fairly big hit in Europe in its day. I guess grunge must have kept it off the American charts. Too bad; it's a beauty.

[MP3] The Connells/"'74-'75"

Eels, of course, is essentially the one-man show of Mark Oliver Everett. "Climbing to the Moon" remains my favorite track of his - from 1998's Electro-Shock Blues. Such a gentle, graceful song. And, as a bit of bonus, Grant Lee Phillips gives an assist.

[MP3] Eels/"Climbing to the Moon"

Radiohead supplanted R.E.M. as my favorite band somewhere around 1995. I liked "Creep," loved "Fake Plastic Trees," but it was this song - heard first on MTV at three in the morning - that inspired me to buy The Bends and begin what has been an intensely satisfying journey. Now, a decade later, "Street Spirit" is still one of my favorite Radiohead tracks. (And, is it just me, or does the ghost of Kansas' "Dust in the Wind" lurk somewhere in its shadows? Yeah, okay... probably just me.)

[MP3] Radiohead/"Street Spirit (Fade Out)"

ERASURE (1986)

I'm not entirely sure why I've decided to go on a bit of an Erasure jag today (and a couple days to come). Maybe the process of compiling my two recent '80s mixes got me back into that sort of nostalgic headspace. Or maybe it was posting the two new Pet Shop Boys tracks that gave rise to the idea, as I've always linked these two groups in my own mind (in each case: two gay Englishmen creating dance-pop from the '80s till today). Then again, maybe I just wanted to capitalize on all of the Thom Yorke/Eraser buzz from last week. After all, just a simple misspelling or typo at the Hype Machine could send any number of unsuspecting searchers my way. Yes, 'tis true... I am a genius of self-promotion.

So, if you're of a mind to, why not take my hand and skip along as I make my journey down the yellow brick road of Erasure's career. You can be whoever you want to be - Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion. But no matter how you slice it, you'll be a Friend of Dorothy.

From the LP Wonderland >>>
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Oh L'Amour"

ERASURE (1987)

From the LP The Circus >>>
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Sometimes"

ERASURE (1988)

From the LP The Innocents >>>
[MP3] [SaveFile] "A Little Respect"
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Ship of Fools"

ERASURE (1989)

From the LP Wild! >>>
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Brother and Sister"

BEST OF MAY

You may already have many of these, but where else will you find them so attractively packaged? (Ha.) (Enjoy.)

Please left-click [here] for said attractive package.

TRACKLIST >>>

01) Delerium [w/Sarah McLachlan]/Silence (Airscape) [remix]
02) Stina Nordenstam/Parliament Square (The Knife) [remix]
03) Boy Kill Boy/On and On
04) The Pipettes/Pull Shapes
05) Director/Reconnect
06) Camera Obscura/Let's Get Out of This Country
07) Mojave 3/Breaking the Ice
08) Tilly and the Wall/Sing Songs Along
09) Brendan Benson/Gold Into Straw
10) The Channels/Lizard Fish Skull
11) The Charlatans UK/Blackened Blue Eyes
12) Elefant/Brasil
13) The Mystery Jets/You Can't Fool Me Dennis
14) The Ark/This Piece of Poetry is Meant to Do You Harm
15) Bic Runga/Get Some Sleep
16) Bjorn Kleinhenz/Pocket of Gold
17) Hello Saferide/Long Lost Penpal
18) My Life Story/Sparkle
19) Asobi Seksu/Thursday
20) The Upper Room/Kill Kill Kill
21) McAlmont and Butler/Falling

PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES

Don't look now, but we're rapidly approaching the mid-point of 2006. This realization has depressed me a bit, as I remain disappointed by so many of the '06 album releases thus far. I mean, lordy, how's a boy to put together his beloved year-end Top 10 list? (Oh hell, let's face it... when the time comes, it won't be a problem.)

Despite not being much of a fan of their previous work, I decided to check out Pretty Girls Make Graves' '06 effort, Elan Vital. Let's just say: I remain not much of a fan of their work.

Even so, I did find myself drawn - moth-to-flame - to a couple of the songs, though the first of them is more of a sound/moodscape. Kind of irresistible and haunting, though - what with that piano-and-bassline thing going on. Give in to the off-kilter groove...

From the LP Elan Vital, 2006 >>>
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Pictures of a Night Scene"
[MP3] [SaveFile] "Pearls on a Plate"

From the LP The New Romance, 2003 >>>
[MP3] [SaveFile] "This is Our Emergency"