Since You Been Gone

No, I'm not talking about the Kelly Clarkson song, although both that and the song I'll be uploading today are catchy pop-rock tunes. The song I'm talking about here is Since You Been Gone, a tune written by British musician Russ Ballard, who has written several songs that you'd know but would be shocked to know were written by the same man, including the Frida song "I Know There's Something Going On," the song "New York Groove," a song covered by KISS's Ace Frehley, and "Liar," covered by Three Dog Night; that's a good collection of tunes, even though almost no one knows who wrote the tunes.

The band Rainbow, which literally changed their lineup before they released each album, was around in the 70's and 80's and their cover of this song was one of their biggest chart hits. It was from their 1979 album "Down To Earth" and this was during their pop-rock phase. Throughout their history they had several different sounds, due to their ever fluctuating lineup. They at first sounded like early Deep Purple (understandable, as DP guitarist Richie Blackmore founded the group) then they changed to pop-rock then ended in the 80's with a heavy metal sound. I've heard this song on the radio before, but it's on rare occasions, especially down here in Florida. Thus, you may not have heard this catchy nugget before, making it a great pick for this blog.

Rainbow-Since You Been Gone (4.58 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=21O6CTP9

I'll be back on Friday with a different type of upload.

Happy Memorial Day, Everyone

Since the latest post on the blog, I had been wondering about which song I should put up for Memorial Day today (and I hope everyone has had and will have a nice Memorial Day weekend). I was stumped, but then I browsed through the surplus of songs I have on my computer and noticed that there was a song I have called "Ice Cream", by the British band New Young Pony Club. I only heard the song once, on the Orlando hipster station Real Rock 104.1, and I thought it was catchy enough to download, so that's what I did. Now, many think that Memorial Day unofficially signals the start of the summer, and what else is better for the summer than a cone or dish of ice cream? Hey, I sort of made the song fit today! I didn't think I could even do it… anyway, you may find this rock-electronic song to be catchy also.

New Young Pony Club-Ice Cream (4.65 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=J37N9SZ0

I'll be back Wednesday night with my next upload.

Lit Up Like A F****** Lightbulb

I was thinking of which songs I wanted to upload for this long Memorial Day weekend. Sorry to say, but none of them are patriotic in nature or have anything to do with the military. Hey, I can't think of any good ones at the moment. I'd like to, though, as I'd love to make even more fun out of someone I used to associate with, a fellow wrestling fan (well, he isn't really a wrestling fan anymore) named David Tuthill, who had these disgusting comments to say about the military about a month ago (he's "rfudor", in case you couldn't tell). Here's his MySpace page (he's the one on the right) in case you wish to tell him personally what you think of him being such a cumstain.

Anyway… I'm not sure how I recalled the song, but amongst the vast collection of tunes I have on a plethora of burned CD's, one happens to be a live version of the Buckcherry song "Lit Up." Now this is what I like, not that bold-faced AC/DC ripoff known as "Crazy Bitch." I liked "Lit Up" as soon as I heard it, but the live version is even better. But, before I get to that, I have to mention my memory of my disbelief of the one time I saw the video for the song on MTV (remember, I rarely watch that network) and even though by that time I was already a hater of the network, even I was stunned at how they *edited out all references to cocaine.* Yes, you read that right. Let me change topics before I begin typing in a red-faced rage over what I would like to do to many of the people that work for the channel.

Oh yes, the live version and where it's from. It's actually from Woodstock '99, and the album from that weekend. It's a shame that the event was filled with much rage and hatred and thus became the antithesis of what the original festival was all about (not to mention how corporate it turned out being). I have some ideas of why it happened, but again, it's something that would turn some people off, so instead I'll mention that in this live version, they are able to swear and cuss, and it's something they do all throughout the song and also in the intro to the song, where they talk about doing an 8-ball. I think that this version has more energy and more of a kick to it, so that's why I prefer listening to this rather than the original.

Buckcherry-Lit Up (Live at Woodstock '99) (5.36 MB, 160Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PPTCB1UI

I'll be back on Monday with a new upload.

I'm Digging A Chinese Ditch

This particular blog will be an example of comparing two takes on the same song and my opinion on which one is better. The song I'm talking about today is the song "Chinese Rocks." Who exactly wrote the tune is still a matter of controversy, but what is known is that it was first recorded and released by The Heartbreakers, not to be confused with Tom Petty's backing band. Just by seeing the video to the song, everyone that appears in it, especially the blonde girl in the beginning, looks to be strung out to hell, which is perfect, as "Chinese rocks" is another term for heroin.

It was remade by the Ramones for their "End of the Century" album, most notable for the fact that it was produced, in a bizarre choice by the band, by Phil Spector. Yep, the blonde haired afro'ed (yet stylishly dressed) legendary musical producer who will forever be known for his gun-wielding ways.

I first heard the Ramones take on the song, which is technically known on their album as "Chinese Rock", on a best-of Ramones album. I liked the song, but after I heard the original Heartbreakers version via MP3 download, I suddenly liked the original quite a bit better. As other people have said, the original just sounds sleazier and dirtier-a perfect sound for a song about smack. But, you can judge for yourself which one is better.

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers-Chinese Rocks (2.91 MB, 138Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=P19DHBKA

Ramones-Chinese Rock (2.26 MB, 128Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7RBNBRTR

I'll upload a new song on Friday afternoon.

Honda Odyssey's Are Groovy?

I was thinking of a song to upload when I was watching TV, and a commercial for the Honda Odyssey came on; no, it wasn't the ad where they showed the interiors of a bunch of 70's shag vans and they had it set to the Foghat classic "Slow Ride." I never understood how the 70's vans were connected to the Odyssey, which is as far from being a hippie-mo-bile as you can get, but alas… anyhow, I'm not talking about that ad. Rather, it's a commercial with a bunch of trippy 70's animation and it's set to a funky song.

Well, if you don't know what the song is, it's "Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker)" by the infamous Parliament, of George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic fame. They are amongst the greatest funk bands of all time and even though the original Parliament slash Funkadelic (basically, Parliament was the R&B band and Funkadelic was the rock band, but that changed in the late 70's; their history is vast and complex so I won't get into it) broke apart part due to record company asses and more so due to drugs (just look at pictures of the band in the 70's, especially Clinton; you don't need a piss test to see that they vacuumed up all the drugs they could handle!), they still produced classic albums of amazing songs (such as Mothership Connection, which is where this song came from), this being their highest charting single. In the future I'm sure I'll put up more songs from George Clinton, but for now here's one tune, courtesy of it being on a national TV commercial.

Parliament-Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off The Sucker) (7.95 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EH9U3IK5

I'll be back Wednesday afternoon with my next song.

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me... Watching Porn

Believe it or not, this entry revolves around… porn? Yes. I'll explain how porn got me to upload a particular tune. Personally, I don't understand at all how seemingly millions of guys have gigs upon gigs of porn on their computer. Not that I don't look at dirty pictures or videos… it's just that with me I'd prefer seeing a chick either scantily clad or naked rather than getting dicked by someone, whether it is a video or a picture. Don't ask me to explain. I have some other "non-mainstream" views* when it comes to the type of stuff I see but trust me I hardly look at it compared to many guys. Still, Monday I did something that I'm embarrassed to admit but I'm only doing so on here for the humor factor. I was looking at one of those sites that offer up free passwords to porn sites and I just happened to find one that was to a site that I wanted to check out-I know, I'm a dirty MF'ing thief but we all can't be perfect… anyway, I got the username and password for the site, which I won't name as not only is it none of anyone's business but my own but the username and password don't work for it anymore, and guess what it was?

*but don't worry it's nothing like bestiality or furries or anything of that nature!'

The username was "1234" and the password was "0000". I swear that's the truth. Immediately I thought of Spaceballs and that great scene where Dark Helmet, after finding out that the combination to the airsheld on Planet Druidia was 1-2-3-4-5, states, " So the combination is one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! That's the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!" (although the best scene was the combing of the desert and "We ain't found shit!") I thought, "You've GOT to be kidding me here. No way in hell a username and password that basic could possibly work!" and yet it did, and I was able to download a plethora of videos from the page… you know, maybe I shouldn't bash Mister Saint Laurent so hard for his actions when I download MP3's, movies, and now videos from porn sites illegally…

Anyway, how this all relates to the upload… one of the songs on the videos I illegally obtained featured the girl dancing to a dance remix of "Somebody's Watching Me", a quintessential 80's song from Rockwell, the son of Berry Gordy who got signed to his dad's record label without his dad knowing about it first, but it didn't really matter as the song mainly got popular not due to how catchy it was or how the message of paranoia almost encapsulated the fears of the coke-fueled and nihilist 80's, but instead because Michael Jackson sang on the main lyric and a lot of people apparently thought it was a new song from him. Yeah, it paid off to be Berry Gordy's son and have a nice production and the aid of Michael on the single, me thinks. Still, it's a cool song, I'm not afraid to admit it.

Anyway, I searched online and saw that the dance remake I heard on the video was from the Dutch DJ's known as "Beatfreakz." I downloaded the 12 inch single to the song as it was preferable to the radio edit, which wasn't even 3 minutes long, although the music video to that single is rather Thriller-riffic. As with the Sharam song I put up recently, this only contains the main lyric of the song, but that's ok. I just wonder what the next cheesy 80's song will be that will be remixed for the clubbers of today… will it be "We Built This City?" "Land Down Under?" The Pat Benetar song "We Belong?" Actually, all three ideas sound awesome… and given as Beatfreakz has covered "Superfreak" and the Ray Parker song "Ghostbusters" already, my ideas don't sound so outlandish.

Beatfreakz-Somebody's Watching Me (7.50 MB, 160Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZTKA1M5X

I'll be back on Monday.

A View Of Chinese Democracy, Part 2

Here is the moment you've been waiting for-the six tracks that are purported to being on Chinese Democracy. Yeah, even though the album is allegedly going to come out later in the year (the last conclusive date I heard on it was in September), no one has any clue what tunes will be on it aside from band members believing that a certain song will be included. Really, you can only assume that the title track will be on the album and that's it. Now that it got leaked then it's possible Axl will decide that the tunes will have to be re-recorded-hey, sounds like his kind of logic to me. Christ, it'd be just great for the album to be released so that we don't have to hear about the album coming out and then it gets delayed; the rigmarole has gone on for way too many years and this, along with how the band just isn't the same without Slash in it, that is why for the most part I'm not as amped up for the album as some people are. I mean, if you're an Axl mark or like how GNR sounded when they released that "Oh My God" song for the soundtrack to the shitty movie "End of Days" in 1999 ("Oh my God" was my reaction when I first heard the song on the radio-I thought it was fucking terrible and an insult to the GNR name) then it's understandable why you'd be so excited and wish so bad for Axl to stop being a cocktease and finally release the Goddamn album already. But, if you prefer the sound of GNR as relevant to "Appetite for Destruction" and both "Use Your Illusion" albums and you like the band as a whole and think it's not the same without Slash in the mix, then you'd be more hesitant with the album and you're not so ready to praise it as the best of all time.

After hearing the six songs, I have to say that none of them are "bad," but I was alarmed that none of them rocked out like any song from "Appetite" and some of them seem to blur right into each other. But, I'll go through song by song what I think of each upload, although the comments will be really brief.

"Better": This was leaked earlier in the year. This at least sounds a little different to the other five songs, which is always a plus. But, it's been said that this isn't the "final" version that's going to be on the album, so there you go.

Guns N' Roses-Better (5.92 MB, 160Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8P91HA5P

"Madagascar": This song is most notable for the fact that during the middle of the song there is a sample from a speech from… Martin Luther King, Jr.??? Yes. Talk about pomposity. But, like all of the songs I'll feature today, this isn't bad at all.

Guns N' Roses-Madagascar (6.52 MB, 160Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UAZQ7TNB

"IRS": No, not Irwin R. Schyster. I liked the tempo changes and the guitar work from I believe Bumblefoot; it's either him or Robin Finck.

Guns N' Roses-IRS (5.27 MB, 160Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=N5B9HTLE

"The Blues": This is like a rewrite of "November Rain," with the piano and a violin section. No offense, but it's far from "November Rain," an undeniable classic.

Guns N' Roses-The Blues (5.48 MB, 160Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T6IHA714

"There Was A Time": This is like another rewrite of "November Rain," with a continued use of the violin section, but this time this is more similar to the song than "The Blues" and Rain.

Guns N' Roses-There Was A Time (TWAT)-7.75 MB, 160 Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Z6SS1T6S

"Chinese Democracy": There is a one minute opening where you hear various sound effects and someone speaking Chinese, then you hear a music buildup, then it kicks into a guitar riff that someone says "Rocks you like a hurricane." Yeah, it does resemble the riff to the Scorpions song, but that's a little unfair as musicians always "borrow" riffs and whatnot from earlier sources, whether intentional or not. It's the most rocking tune out of the six and I'd say it's the best of the six also.

Guns N' Roses-Chinese Democracy-5.47 MB, 160Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UXFPJLYL

I'll close this out by saying that I wouldn't mind it if all six of these tunes end up on the album. But, the main thing is that the album FINALLY get released. I mean, I'm sure it's going to end up being a disappointment given that if you work on an album for fourteen years then it'd better be the best Goddamn album in the history of the universe, and judging by that caveat, this album will fall short of the mark. Still, while the career of Axl and Guns N' Roses has taken a major hit due to how the core group of guys bitterly broke up, Axl's obvious mental problems, and how after having such a meteoric rise due to three incredible albums, they descended just as quickly and the band has jerked all of its fans around by having this elusive album that seems like it'll never see the light of day. But, it seems like many of the fans are still willing to forgive the band if the album just comes out; if it ever does, then I'd love to see and hear what everyone thinks of it. The thing is, I'm sure I'll end up buying it once it comes out, so as you can see, no matter how long the wait, people will still want to buy it.

I'll be back with a new upload sometime on Friday.

A View Of Chinese Democracy, Part 1

I figured that it would make more sense for me to divide this into two sections-one where I give the backstory behind what I'll post the next afternoon and how I know the guy who got the downloads, and then the second part would be the songs themselves.

This is a link to an epically long post which talks about how the individual known as Mister Saint Laurent. In case you don't know, he is someone who I used to associate with (I also used to associate with his friends) until various things happened and I decided to stop hanging out with those friends, then MSL bashed the girlfriend of someone I know quite well, so that was it when it came to being pals with him-since then I've feuded with him and it's been ugly. But anyway…

If you do not want to read the epic post, I'll sum it up. MSL *lied* and *tricked* someone by offering up a few thousand dollars to him in exchange for some songs previously unreleased online from the Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy", which I think will come out the day the Cubs win the World Series. I won't get into the history of what has been and hasn't been online previously, or even what's supposed to be on the album; that's mainly because I don't know a lot about it myself except from hearsay.

The story… oh yeah, the story is that he lied by offering up money to people to leak songs from the album that had not been bootlegged online before. The fours songs he got were the title track from the album, "The Blues", "There Was A Time" (some people are referring to the tune as "TWAT"; hey, why not? That may have been Axl's intentions anyhow) and a new version of "I.R.S." Indeed none of them had been bootlegged before. Obviously, those that gave the tracks to him believed he was honest when he stated he was going to give them money (or in the case of one guy, a guitar) in return. He made it clear in the diatribe that he had no intention of paying the moolah (and it's not like he couldn't afford to give someone thousands of dollars, based off of the wealth he brags about), so I can't help but feel some schadenfreude when, after giving the first three songs he got to some friends, the songs somehow got out and were leaked to a messageboard, where it spread like wildfire, garnering a lot of attention-so much so that MSL was interviewed on an Irish radio station about the whole matter. Wow.

While you may have to give admiration for getting the songs made public by such a scheme that in most cases you'd think would never have had any chance of actually succeeding, but again, the way that it was done, where he scammed some people into doing so, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Yet, some people praised how he was an asshole and scammed those innocent people… ok, they're not really "innocent" for illegally having those songs, but they didn't deserve that kind of treatment… Yeah, he claims to be manic-depressive (although who knows what you can believe from him) but that won't get any sympathy from me. The fact that he said in a post that he wanted to know so badly how I would react just makes me laugh. If you think that I care what he and any other hater out there thinks, you got another thing coming… ok, so I'm quoting another hard rock band; an appropriate quote from Axl doesn't come to mind right now.

I'll be back on Wednesday with all the songs, but for now you can look at an interesting link which offers up MP3 downloads of a few songs of the new GNR, mainly live tracks.

Even If You Don't Show Up In Your Chemise Lacoste.

First off, here's a big announcement. The next time I post, which will be early next week, I'll do an epic post surrounding Chinese Democracy, the Guns N' Roses album and how someone I know was the one responsible for leaking four tracks allegedly from the album around this time last week.

Earlier in the year I was watching a movie on one of the HD channels I got; the film was Urgh: A Music War, a rapid fire flick which featured live performances of many different new wave-alternative-underground artists and not much else. It probably will never be released on DVD due to rights issues so that channel showing the movie is by far the best picture you'll get to see, along with the easiest way of watching the film, rather than searching for the VHS tape. One guy I saw on there immediately got my attention.

As you can see in this video, there was a pan up of someone in tights and I assumed it was a chick; imagine my shock when it turned out to be a guy-a dude with makeup on and a bizarre haircut. It proved to be Klaus Nomi, a guy strange even by the standards of the punk-new wave movement.

I had only heard of Klaus one time before; I was at one of those hip trendy cafes that also show low-budget/obscure movies. It was in downtown Orlando in late 2004; the bartender at the place was talking to someone else about "The Nomi Song," a documentary concerning Klaus. Before then I had never heard of him; neither did the guy the bartender was chatting with.

He proved to have a brief musical career, cut short by the fact that he was one of the first celebrity types to die of an illness due to AIDS. It's sad, but after his death he became more well-known as a cult figure who, hey, has some very good (and quirkily good) songs.

For this installment, I'll post the live version of "Total Eclipse," taken from Urgh: A Music War.

I will note that I have heard the original album version of the song, but I, like many people, prefer the live version.

Klaus Nomi-"Total Eclipse" (live)-(5.83 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HT89BBQE

In the future I probably will post some more tunes of his, but like I said, the next time I post, which will be early next week, it will be a very long post related to the upcoming Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy.

My Girl Wants To Party All The Time

Yes, I've returned, and a day early too. Best Sharing has been too much of a hassle to deal with as of late so I decided to go with Megaupload instead; it's very popular, it's quite reliable, and you can just enter the code, wait 45 seconds, then click on the button and you'll download the MP3; it's that simple.

As for this entry, it still has to deal with Eddie Murphy. The last one, I mentioned how James Brown gave him a verbal bitchslap in "Living In America"; part of that may also have to do with how his first record album didn't exactly meet with a lot of acclaim. It turns out that he had more than one album where he sang; no kidding! The fact that even I didn't know that is a good indication of how his singing career turned out. The only other song I've heard from him is "Boogie In Your Butt," which sounds exactly like the inspiration for that awful Tom Green "Bum" song, which is enough for me to damn it, but Boogie, which was mainly a spoken-word track from Eddie, is the shits!

At least "Party All The Time" turned out to be a catchy song. It helped that Rick James (Bitch!) produced the tune.

I won't be uploading that. But I WILL upload the dance remix that made it to the top 10 on the British charts last year. It's from Sharam, one half of the Deep Dish DJ team. I first heard it on the Ministry of Sound Annual album for this year; I have a few of them, and they are always well-done.

I have up two versions; one that's the single track, and the other that appears to be the original version (i.e. the version I have that is on the Annual 2007 album). The former is under 4 minutes, while the latter is almost 9 minutes! Note that the Annual albums are two CD sets where on each CD, all the songs are mixed together, so that's why at the end of the 9 minute track, you hear the beginning of another song before it abruptly stops.

Also, you can watch the original music video for Eddie's "Party All The Time"; I know, a video where you get to see someone record a song isn't exactly pulse-pounding exhilaration.

The video to the Sharam remix of the song, though, is great. It spoofs the Murphy video (I do admit that the implied sniffing of coke by the James impersonator was rather mean on Sharam's part), and the guy who plays Eddie sounds a lot like him, especially if you compare laughs. It goes beyond that, though, by having his girl prove to be someone who DOES party all the time, as she does just that while faux Eddie records the song. She turns out to be a real ho, for lack of a better term, but even with that it is a cool as shit video.

Sharam-PATT (Party All The Time)-Original Version (12.12 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=W2QD3ELC

Sharam-PATT (Party All The Time)-Single (5.85 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L1CRTKI5

I'll be back on Friday with another song.

Up Yours, Best Sharing

I was going to post a new entry but when it came time to upload a song via Best Sharing, Best Sharing decided to be a bitch and not work for me; it still doesn't work, so I am faced with this dilemma, and as I'll be out of town from Friday till Sunday night, I'll announce this:

I will take a week-long break from doing these; in the meantime I'll have the ability to write a few of these on Word and then I can post them whenever I desire. That should make it easier for me to live up to my announced times of when I'll put up the next entry. Hopefully by then Best Sharing will work again, and if not I'll find another similar service to use.

Eddie Murphy, Eat Your Heart Out!

Sunday afternoon, I saw a wrestling show, and on it was the debut of a wrestler from Georgia known as Austin Creed, who as you can see as an Apollo Creed gimmick, which is awesome beyond words. Unfortunately, the sound guy was a real dumbass and played the wrong entrance music for him. I can only assume that he was supposed to come out to "Living In America" by James Brown, from the Rocky IV soundtrack, since it was the song performed with Apollo came out for his exhibition fight vs. Ivan Drago. It'd be awesome to see him again and this time come out to the right entrance music.

You may have heard the song on the radio before during a radio station's "80's night" or what have you, but you most likely have not heard the full almost 6 minute version of the song, and maybe not the random line where James sings, "Eddie Murphy, eat your heart out!" If you don't know the story, I'd have to assume that James is taking a jab at Eddie due to the James Brown Celebrity Hot Tub Party and especially the spoof of him done in the all-time classic comedy movie, Eddie Murphy's Delirious, a show that thankfully was finally released on DVD earlier in the year. If you haven't seen it, you really need to; it has to be the best comedy routine I've EVER seen, no lie. Anyway, I imagine that James was PO'ed with Eddie's comments, although admittedly, he CAN be hard to understand when he speaks in a normal conversation (there was a VH1 show about him, and he was subtitled!)

I know that there are many awesome and funky as shit James Brown tunes to upload and this is more of a song where James somewhat spoofs himself, it's perfect after seeing Austin Creed on Sunday afternoon.

James Brown-"Living In America" (8.17 MB, 192Kbits/second)

http://www.bestsharing.com/files/e6K8bvj272763/James%20Brown%20-%20Living%20In%20America.MP3.html


I'll be back on Thursday.