I'm not sure how I came across this band originally but earlier today I was browsing through my itunes library and stumbled upon a few of their tracks. Even google throws up very little on the band bar a few reviews of the new double cd retrospective and a couple of other blog posts. Originally called the Afflicted and playing 70's UK punk at some point in their career they must have started smoking way too much weed, bought fuzz pedals and changed their name to Afflicted Man. What proceeded was an incredible album called "Get Stoned Ezy". Too freaked out for the punks and too punked out for the freaks. It only contained three tracks but what absolutely amazing songs they are. Imagine Blue Cheer, Saint Vitus or High Rise.

I uploaded the whole album for your enjoyment:

Afflicted Man - Get Stoned Ezy

The universe is all too aware of a little American comic strip called Garfield.

But what happens when you remove Garfield the Cat from Garfield the strip?

A once quasi-funny comic strip turns into a self deprecating journey into the mind of John Arbuckle.

You see a man of isolation, self doubt and paranoia seemingly at the very edge of madness.



See the lot.

I have created my own Garfield Minus Garfield for your enjoyment.

Just did this CD sleeve for my buddy Daniel Blumin's DJ Premium (ie, a limited-edition, hand-crafted CD you get for donating $75 or more) for the 2008 WFMU Marathon.

Obviously it's a great cause, even if you don't live in New York City, because of their great internet radio coverage and their always-edifying Beware Of The Blog, so pull out that PayPal password or credit card and get with the program.

Daniel's compilation, 'Russians Love Their Children Too', is a selection of songs from late Soviet era cartoons & children's films and records, and has an ear-boggling 38 tracks! How's that fer premium?!

Here’s a little podcast for you. It’s a 55-minute mess of overdriven amps, East LA funk, 'Godzilla', Gong, spaghetti western theme music, men in psychedelic-print shirts grunting and D-E-V-O. The sound quality wanders all over the shop but I hope that you like it anyway.



Pines Mix Feb

One of my favorite David Crosby songs is 'The Lee Shore'. Although I'm not a fan of sailing, primarily due to a tendency to turn green and throw up once I'm on any kind of seagoing vessel, the song lends such a sense of freedom and scale. There are many versions of it out there, but this is one of the best, I think, mostly because of the driving, almost-Latin percussion and the stripped-back extended jam at the end.

CSN&Y - The Lee Shore

And this is the fantastic boot whence it came.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Studio Archive 1969

Head here now to grab two of the best late '60s country-folk-rock albums, uploaded courtesy of the great Twilight Zone blog...



The password is: rideyourpony

» Read More

Saw an advert for First Choice travel agents on TV last night plugging their latest range of kid-friendly holiday package deals. Sadly, they used the same Chopin prelude as Serge Gainsbourg ripped off for his monumentally creepy '80s ode to intra-familial love, 'Lemon Incest', which put a whole new spin on the commercial for me.

Anyway, here's Serge and daughter Charlotte in the deeply uncomfortable promo clip for the original version of the song...

I think you'll all agree that anything Gruff Rhys does deserves a listen especially when it's with the ace Boom Bip. If you've got New Year's comedown as bad as me then you need something sprightly to kick your day off and this mix tape by Boom Bip and Gruff is just the ticket...

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/47233-neon-neon-mixtape-mp3

Cool!

British-based designer Jane McDevitt has catalogued her collection of beautiful 1950s and 1960s Eastern European matchbox labels on her Flickr account here....

» Read More

The Gray Field Recordings is one person, R.Loftiss. I think that she's from Oklahoma, but know no more. Anyway, this track is from a limited issue (123 copies!) CD-R called Hypnagogia...



The Gray Field Recordings - Passiflora

» Read More

There's been mention of several JapRock bands on here recently most of which have sprung from the aforementioned book. I've been promising to compile/upload the top 50 list so as a festive treat to keep you busy over the holiday season here it is. (If anyone has any of the missing albums please do upload them). I've also uploaded a mix of some of my favourite tracks from the top 50, i'll include a track listing for it in the comments.

http://rapidshare.com/files/78293433/JapRock_Sampler_Podcast.m4a.zip

= 1. Flower Travellin’ Band “Satori”

http://www.divshare.com/download/2660409-202

= 1. Speed, Glue & Shinki “Eve”

http://www.mediafire.com/?7mnz2ttvxyy

» Read More

Read the chapter on the late '60s Group Sounds explosion in Julian Cope's new book last night.
A lot of Group Sounds records are either sappy ballads or cheesy pop, but one exception was Yokohama's Golden Cups. By far the wildest of the GS bands, a lack of any mind-expanding drugs in Japan at that time meant that the Cups turned to sniffing glue and paint thinner to get high before putting their own unique spin on American garage punk. The insane version of 'Hey Joe' in particular absolutely reeks of Bostik...



The Golden Cups - 'Hiwa-Mata Noboru'

The Golden Cups - 'Hey Joe'

The Golden Cups - 'Got My Mojo Working'

The Golden Cups - 'LSD Blues'

» Read More

Picked this first Wings album up a few months ago in an Oxfam in Barnet. It's somewhat denigrated on allmusic.com, but I like it for its loose compositional style and the Basement Tapes-ey feeling of the recordings.

Download

Not sure if Jarin or anyone else has mentioned this lot yet but Circle are the new leaders of the NWOFHM (or New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal). Now I'm not too sure that this REALLY IS Heavy Metal.. actually i have no idea how to categorise this band...but when I saw them over a year ago the guy on the merch desk told me to expect Judas Priest doing Krautrock.
I guess that's as close as you could get to describing the live experience of Circle...they take a heavy riff, hone it to perfection by way of cyclical repetition, and then beat the shit out of you with it!
But anyway, this looks like it was a big sweaty bucket of fun!
They played on some converted ex-police/army bus thing and a very wise young lady called Kerry filmed it.
Thanks Kerry!