vinyl

An ’80s treat

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Before I get to the music, I gotta give some love to Ryan, who took the time to post a Q&A with this clown.

So, last night, I hit Half-Price Books while the wife was browsing Target. A fair trade, I’d say. Anyway, they just bought a huge stash of 45s. Fifty cents apiece — gold mine! I got some gems, including M.C. Hammer Turn This Mutha Out, Michael Jackson Bad and Cheap Trick Don’t Be Cruel (with picture sleeve).

But, really, the greatest find of the evening was Tony Basil’s Mickey … (wait for it) .. IN SPANISH. I couldn’t wait any longer to share.


(For those who care, this is the turntable I’m using in my conversions.)

Toni Basil | Mickey

arizona

Sleepwalker

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Sleepwalker was/is an Arizona-based trio that was more or less a side project of three very talented musicians: Jamal Ruhe (bass vocals); Darren Henley (drums); Jon Rauhouse (pedal steel, vocals).

Sleepwalker put out one album, The Man in the Moon, in 1998 on the Tempe-based Hayden’s Ferry label, which specializes mostly in Americana-type artists.

Each of the members is working on other projects (click their names), but Sleepwalker is coming together tonight at Modified in Phoenix to open for Freakwater, so this is the perfect time to feature some of the music.

It’s a minimal combination of steady rhythms and striking vocals, colored by one of my favorite instruments in the pedal steel, which gives the whole thing a mood and downcast temperament. (Quick FYI: Jon Rauhouse is a touring member of Neko Case’s band.) Really, the name is an excellent description of the music’s subtle style.

Sleepwalker | Out of Here
Sleepwalker | Dandelion
Sleepwalker | Shenandoah (traditional cover, see more info here)
Sleepwalker | Pony Bones

cassette, hip-hop, vinyl

A hip-hop x-mas / I&W/Calexico cover art

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We hung Christmas lights on the homestead Wednesday night, and it’s starting to feel like the holidays. Hell, the weather is so chilly in Arizona I’m breaking out a sweatshirt!

Before I get to the Christmas tunes, loyal reader Katharine designed a CD cover for the Iron and Wine / Calexico set I posted from a few days ago. So if you burned a CD or just wanna drop it into your iTunes library, check it out here. It’s really cool. Thank you, Katharine!

Well, I’ve seen lots of Christmas tunes, but not too many on the hip-hop tip. Thought I’d rectify that with this post. So maybe the De La Soul track isn’t a typical cheery holiday tune, but it’s got a Christmas theme. And it’s a remix from a cassette single (cassingle?). We all are suckers for remixes. Cheers and happy holidays.


Run-DMC | Christmas in Hollis
Kurtis Blow | Christmas Rappin’ (from 45 vinyl single)
De La Soul | Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa
De La Soul | Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa (full mix)

vinyl

Half-Handed Cloud EP

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I hit up the great indie record shop Stinkweeds on Saturday. And I found the new Half-Handed Cloud (aka John Ringhofer) What’s the Remedy? EP on Asthmatic Kitty, which features Sufjan Stevens’ assistance. Hallelujah! Judging by my Web stats, getting Sufjan’s name into posts is a boon for traffic.

The EP has five tracks (Sufjan) on a 7″ vinyl (Sufjan) with pretty cool cover art (Sufjan). From Asthmatic Kitty:

“In addition to lots of piano, they both sing, play organ (including its foot pedal bass notes), and occasional acoustic guitar. Sufjan recorded the drums on another day. He created and tracked some additional embellishments (toy piano, banjo, recorder flute, tambourine) a few months after that, and sent the results to John. John was pleased–he trusts Sufjan’s ears pretty well!”

All Sufjan, all the time. Glorious! By the way, I ripped these tracks immediately after taking off the shrinkwrap, thus avoiding the dreaded dust on the vinyl. The longest track on this EP is 2:16. Amazing.

And this post is dedicated to my boy Justin at Aquarium Drunkard, who gave me a major shout-out in his Q&A with Muzzle of Bees. Go get to know him!

(In case anyone was wondering, I use this turntable for my rips.)

Half-Handed Cloud | I Got a Letter
Half-Handed Cloud | Here’s a List

radio rips

Rogue Wave on The Current

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My new obsession is Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current. You can listen to audio streams at a high bit rate, and the station has had pretty excellent in-studio appearances, all of which are archived. (You can support the station here.)

But, you say, the archives aren’t in mp3 format. Well, this is why you come here, yes? I delved into the archives and plucked Rogue Wave’s appearance to convert to mp3. I’m eagerly anticipating Rogue Wave’s Dec. 15 show in Phoenix at Modified with sourceVictoria and Mazarin.

So consider this a preview before the preview next week, when I’ll have RW’s in-studio performance from WOXY and hopefully some new sourceVictoria tracks. (The Rogue Wave setlist includes two songs from the 10:1 EP.)

Rogue Wave, in studio at The Current, Nov. 23, 2005:

1. Publish My Love
2. Bird on a Wire
3. 10:1

Just wanna give a shout-out to all the fine peeps who have linked to me the past couple of days (and slap me if I forgot ya): Dodge (who has a raunchy new contest for you), Chris at Gorilla vs. Bear, Muzzle of Bees, Chromewaves, Brooklyn Vegan, Largehearted Boy, FREE Williamsburg, The Test Pilot and the Perm and the Skullet. Go visit all of them.

>>By the way, Bears are 9-3. If there’s any proof to the cliche that defense wins games, it might be true with this team. Kyle Orton tossed for 68 yards, 0 TDs and 1 interception in Sunday’s win over the Packers at Soldier Field (finally!). I’m feeling pretty good about this team after reading what longtime Bears-killer Brett Favre had to say: “All the years I’ve played against them, I think defensively this is as well as I’ve seen them play. They’re just good.”

radio rips

Live Arcade Fire set

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(Note: Blogger went a little haywire for a few hours Monday night and was not accessible. So I’m going to leave this up as the top post for a little bit today. But fear not, I’ve got some Rogue Wave radio performances for you.)

My wonderful wife, Annie — a die-hard devotee of Arcade Fire after we saw them twice in Austin in September — tipped me off about an Arcade Fire concert from Sept. 29 that was going to be broadcast Sunday on Minnesota Public Radio’s The Current, which is a great station and also just happens to stream content online.

Lucky for you. The 11 tracks are from Arcade Fire’s performance at First Avenue in Minnesota, which includes a cover of David Bowie’s Five Years. Sure you can get it at the iTunes store. But wouldn’t you rather get it here and then donate money to support Minnesota Public Radio that brought you this fine broadcast?

Some favorites of mine in this set include No Cars Go, Laika and Wake Up for the encore. Also the melding of Power Out and Rebellion (Lies) is great, so I just left it as one mp3.

If you leave a comment, my wife is to be thanked. You may love her as much as I do after you hear this.

The Arcade Fire, live at First Avenue (9/29/05, via The Current broadcast):

1. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
2. Crown of Love
3. Headlights Look Like Diamonds
4. No Cars Go
5. Haiti
6. Neighborhood #2 (with some intro chatter)
7. I’m Sleeping in a Submarine
8. Five Years (Bowie cover)
9. Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)
10. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)/Rebellion (Lies)
(check out botched intro; pretty funny. Win says “boo yaa.”)
Encore
11. Wake Up

radio rips

Calexico’s set on NPR

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Joel Didriksen for www.kingpinphoto.com

Here’s the first batch of tracks from the Calexico and Iron and Wine concert that was webcast by NPR last night.

Did what I could with the recording. The webcast is sent at an extremely low kbps to begin with, but hopefully they sound all right. NPR’s site did say downloadable versions of the sets would be available later this week, in which case I can simply split the download into separate tracks.

So, until then …

Calexico, live from 9:30 Club (NPR All Songs Considered webcast):

Yours and Mine
Panic Open String
 Alone Again Or
 Deep Down
 Bisbee Blue
 Crystal Frontier
 All Systems Go