Kiki re-upped

Here's a re-up of the "Kiki's Delivery Service" with the missing song from the english version, "Soaring" by Sydney Forest (the song that plays during the opening credits).








"Kiki updated"

Enjoy!

The Song Remains the Same

I came to Led Zeppelin relativelly late in life, at the old age of 16 (old for a guy who was already becoming a (temporary) metalhead), due mainly to the conservative nature of my mother, who bought into the Christian propaganda that LZ was satanic, especially "Stairway to Heaven". Zoso, of course, was the first LZ album I bought, but when I found the '73 concert film from MSG buried behind a bunch of Duran Duran and Michael Jackson concert tapes in Video Depot in 1987, my life changed.

Funny, to think that many felt that this was not their best live work at all (Richard Cole even said so in his book, Hammer of the Gods) but until the creation of the internet and bootlegs that didn't cost $25 a freakin' CD but rather free thanx to filesharing and Torrents, this was the ONLY LZ concert I had access to, until Live at the BBC and How the West was Won was released. I still think the versions of "Since I've been Loving U", "No Quarter", and "The Rain Song" are the best I've heard so far. The funky visuals from the film, especially "Dazed and Confused", lend a lot as well.

This was grabbed from Utorrents as a FLAC file, which I converted to 320 kbps.








..."This is a song that takes in a manner our forefathers were very used to... The cosmic energy - everyone goes 'YEAH' - BASH!"

"I think this is a song of hope..."

Enjoy!

"...where were you when we were gettin' high?"

This didn't stick with me until later on, although, as everyone else in the U.S., I first heard of them with "Wonderwall". Like Rumours, I had to have something to be depressed about before songs such as "Wonderwall" and "Don't Look Back in Anger" meant much to me. In 1996, I simply felt that they were a pretty decent Beatles homage (right down to the Lennon glasses Liam wears in the video). In the past few years, I enjoy them much more, at least the first 2 albums and their concerts from 95-96.








"...don't look back in anger, I heard ya say..."

Enjoy!

"Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?"

Pink Floyd The Wall meant a lot more to me when I was younger and more angst-ridden (rather than just plain ol' depressed). The album was better than the movie, although I've never seen the movie high like so many people have advised me to (I did listen to the album on a walkman whilst stoned to the gills on good weed in '92. Once was fucking enough. Trauma such as that only needs to happen once in a lifetime. I won't even listen to The Wall whilst drinking, much less under the influence of anything stronger).

This is the Official Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab Ultradisc™ 24 KT Gold version. Although it claims to have superior sound, I guess I would have to have bought one of those $10,000 Technics or Harmon Kardon to really appreciate it, not a $90 Sony boombox from Wal-mart. But, hey, I could get what I could afford. At the time, this set cost about $40 at Slip Disc (our local independant record store at the time); now it runs up to $87 on Ebay. I got it for 4 bucks in 1991 from a friend who obviousily valued cigarettes more than music. Lucky me. Lucky you if this might be what you're looking for.

ripped at 320 kbps. If I knew how to rip in FLAC, I would, since this would probably sound better in lossless...





Disc 1





Disc 2

Enjoy!

The second best album of 1987...

I was aware of U2 before this album came out, or, specifically, before "With or Without You" first played on the radio; some friends of mine in marching band told me about them, around the time The Unforgettable Fire was out, but I didn't invest my lunch money into that record, then (that's how I bought much of my music from 10th grade until 12th; I saved up 7 days of lunch money and had enough to grab the tape on sale at Camelot. When the newest releases were on sale in 1987, they were usually $6.99-7.99).

It was the haunting "With..." that drew me in, plus "I Still haven't Found What I'm Looking For", which fit me to a T, with all the crushes I had going at the time. I got the tape on the Fourth of July, 1987, the same day my mother bought me a Corona electronic typewriter (the equivalent of a word processer in 1992 and Word for Windows nowadays) so I didn't have to write longhand all the time.

This remains my favorite U2 album, with Achtung Baby a fair-to-middlin' second. This is the expanded version that was released a year ago, with b-sides and other misc.





Disc 1





Disc 2

Enjoy!

"Number nine...number nine...number nine..."

It's hard to pinpoint just one Beatles album to call their greatest. Most magazines state that Sgt. Pepper is their best, while others name Revolver or Rubber Soul. To me, it's always been the White Album, their least cohesive of all, at least when it came to true collaboration (Paul even overdubbed Ringo's drums with his own playing on "Back in the USSR" because he was pissed about the initial take). Even with everyone basically using each other as a glorified studio band on their personal songs, the sheer scale of the work is monumental. I must just have a thing for the audacity of double-albums (See Sign O the Times, Kid A/Amnesiac, 1999, Mellon Collie, The Wall, etc., etc.)




LP 1

LP 2

Enjoy!

"Disarm you with a smile..."

Despite all the grunge hoopla in '92 and '93 (and I bought into it, just a bit; I never did the flannel shirt or unwashed hair thing and although I enjoyed the movie Singles, I appreciate it more as an artifact of the early '90's than any kind of Graduate or Breakfast Club generational statement), the band that came out of that time period that meant the most to me was the Smashing Pumpkins. Nirvana was great and Nine Inch Nails articulated a good bit of my angst (although, like the previous post, Rumours, I didn't truly appreciate Trent Reznor's lyrics until I was around 30, not 23), but the Pumpkins, at least with Dream and Mellon Collie, made me feel that this was the band that I would have founded, if I had learned how to play guitar or drums, write music, and convinced others to play in a band.

It was, in a nutshell, how someone felt when, after 4 or 5 years after escaping high school, they still haven't quite gotten over the trauma. I wasn't really picked on (I was 6'3" and about 220 in 11th grade; the principal was more mad about the fact that I wouldn't play football or basketball than he was about my long hair and suspect friends), nor did I not have any friends. I guess that I engaged in a internalized Theater of Class Warfare from seventh grade until I graduated from college. Whatever the ruling class was (Preppies, Jocks, Frat Boys, Bowheads (what My Crowd called sorority chicks in the early '90's, because they all wore color-coordinated ribbons tied in a bow in their hair), I hated it and refused to play the game. Not that they seemed to miss my company, anyway. I most certainily was not Klebold and Harris (although I did wear a black trenchcoat 10 years before they made it verboten to wear to school; however, my inspiration was Ralph Macchio from Teachers and Bender from The Breakfast Club, not mass murder or Sting from WCW), but I made sure that everyone knew that I hated the caste system in school.

Anyway, nevermind my hang-ups, here's the Pumpkins...






"Who wants that honey?"