G-A-Y Day(s)- R.E.M.- Chronic Town EP (1982)- Vinyl Rip (24 bit FLAC)

We had to throw in some R.E.M. ON G-A-Y Day(s), especially after we had to pull 69 Love Songs after two "I'm asking you nicely..." removal requests. Oh, well. No one's gonna golden shower on our G-A-Y parade. Here's a pristine vinyl rip of R.E.M.'s first E.P. Think of it as the 70th love song. Murmur is sure to follow. I hope.




From Richard Grabel at NME:

A town is chronic because we are fated to revisit it time and time again. A chronic town might also be a carny town, jammed full of colour, with incomprehensible barkers and terrible secrets stowed away behind the tents.

This chronic music revisits us, reminds us of the wonderfully, excitingly familiar but of nothing in particular. There are of course precedents, influences if you like. Ringing and chiming '60s guitars are part of it. Voices and harmonies that are distinctly American, not by being any kind of nostalgic throwback but inherently, deeply, are a part of it; as is a modern English pop sensibility, an openness to the possibilities of what pop music can carry or suggest.

Chronic Town is five songs that spring to life full of immediacy and action and healthy impatience. Songs that won't be denied.




Mystery is a thing that is lacking in run of the mill pop product. Michael Stipe's voice comes close, gets right up next to you, but his mumblings seem to contain secrets. Intimacy and distance. The voice tells of knowledge but doesn't give too much away. The songs have mystery but are in no way fuzzy. No, they have a cinematic vividness, they paint pictures.

Sometimes the pictures are clear and particular, but shaded and shadowed by the singer's mumblings. Sometimes the pictures are made of sharply seen fragments whose composition is a puzzle. This is the way Stipe scrambles language, plays with it like a dyslexic poet, scatters loaded words around like leaves in the wind. Pete Buck's chord ring memory bells, push buttons of good feelings. Stipe's voice vibrates with wonder, too. It's a voice that is guarded at times, astonished at others. Voices and chords and melodies form rhymes with each other.

"I Could Live a Million Years." Stipe makes such outrageous promises. And makes us believe them. The construction of these songs is classic. There are bridges and balances, put to original use. The logic of these songs makes me smile, makes me want to sing along.




You can read all sorts of things into these songs. Like the thematic balance in "Wolves" between outside and inside, which are also suspicion and relaxation, danger and safety. The verse tells us what's creeping in the garden: "wilder lower wolves." And the chorus invites us in, with a group harmony that is airy and open, to a "house in order," a-a-a-a.

"Carnival" makes us imagine a movie, its entire plot outlined and its scenery suggested in seven short lines. "Diminished carnival...stranger to these parts...boxcars pulling out of town." Perfect economy of expression, a perfect puzzle, perfect enchantment.

Well, not perfect, of course. I suspect these songs could have been mixed better, the guitar given even more of that clearly pitched sound, the voice given even more presence, some extra force. But R.E.M. ring true, and it's great to hear something as unforced and as cunning as this.




Technical Information:

Artist: R.E.M.
Album: Chronic Town E.P.
Year: 1982

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: Vinyl
Avg. bitrate: 3109 kb/s
Sample rate: 96000 Hz
Bits per sample: 24
Channels: 2
File size: 452 MB
Length: 0:20:20


Tracklisting:

01. Wolves, Lower (4:13)
02. Gardening At Night (3:31)
03. Carnival Of Sorts (Box Cars) (3:52)
04. 1,000,000 (3:06)
05. Stumble (5:39)





Chronic Town EP Megaupload Link

G-A-Y Day(s): Elton John- Madman Across the Water (1971)- Vinyl Rip (24 bit FLAC)

Blogger was down for most of yesterday, so that means that G-A-Y Day(s) will more than likely be extended until Saturday. We've hunted down a couple of new posts that need sharing, so we're going to fudge and pretend that the Stonewall Riots lasted wayyyyy longer than they actually did, so that we can pack more posts in. But enough of this housecleaning talk...

Madman Across the Water has one of the most amazing side one's that you'll ever listen to on an album. Side two is another issue, being that the album devolves rather quickly after the flip, which is why Honkey Château is my favorite Elton John album. But what a 'side one' it is. Couple that with a Steve Hoffman analogue remaster and Dr. Robert rip and one has a quality trifecta that shouldn't be missed. Enjoy some Elton John!.



Technical Information:

Artist: Elton John
Album: Madman Across the Water
Year: 1971

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: Vinyl
Avg. bitrate: 2631 kb/s
Sample rate: 96000 Hz
Bits per sample: 24
Channels: 2
File size: 853 MB
Length: 0:45:20




Tracklisting:

Side A:

A1. Tiny Dancer (6:16)
A2. Levon (5:21)
A3. Razor Face (4:44)
A4. Madman Across The Water (5:59)

Side B:

B1. Indian Sunset (6:46)
B2. Holiday Inn (4:17)
B3. Rotten Peaches (4:58)
B4. All The Nasties (5:08)
B5. Goodbye (1:50)


Thanks to Dr. Robert for the rip and original upload!





Madman Across the Water Megaupload Link

G-A-Y Day(s): John Grant- Queen of Denmark (2010)- Deluxe Edition- EAC CD Rip (FLAC)

I completely fell in love with Queen of Denmark the first time I heard it. Only a year old and it already seems to have fallen through the cracks. Sad. This album also gave me a newfound appreciation for Midlake, a band that I've always felt "meh" about. You've got to check out this album. Trust me on this one. Enjoy.




From Daniel Ross at PopMatters:

As a document that collates the range of human emotion from innocence to vengeance, you’d do well to find one more detailed and entertaining than Queen of Denmark. John Grant, newly lonesome after the demise of the Czars, here teams up with God’s own backing band, Midlake, to deliver a master class in expressive songwriting. It’s not as if he’s especially serious about the whole affair, but by virtue of some neat tricks and impeccable delivery, Grant manages to imbue his writing with the lightest gravitas. It’s a canny achievement.

“TC & Honeybear” is a prime example, an initially light story about an imagined romance between Top Cat and friend that slowly, but very perceptibly, expands into a gorgeous, dramatic sweep. What starts with bassoon and flute becomes operatic vocals and crashing sadness as the pair are torn apart. “Please don’t take him ‘cos I love him,” forms the climax. This Grandaddy-esque trick of placing enormous emotional import on the apparently inanimate or lifeless works supremely well. It is telling that this is the only song available to hear on Grant’s MySpace, for what better encapsulation of his tone and quality is there?

Well, the answer is obviously none, but what follows that stellar opening track is generally almost as perfect. Grant takes on many roles, from stargazing youth to bitter dumper, and at all times he remains capable of consummate narrative music. That stargazing youth’s attitude pervades the opening of the quite ridiculous “Sigourney Weaver”, with this hilariously dry description of the titular heroine when Buerke tries to bring an alien back to Earth. “She couldn’t believe her ears,” takes the lyrical biscuit for the whole record. It’s knowing, it’s playful and just about on the right side of stupid, a potent mix if ever there was one.




The only moments when Grant comes close to failing (that’s comparative, he’s still some way off) come when the sentiment of the song doesn’t match the execution. “Silver Platter Club” contains rather worn lyrical themes of entitlement and personal disappointment, but at least in the hands of Midlake the music manages to delight. Dancing around in a carnivalesque fashion to such an effective extent that any thematic clichés are moot, even the clichés can’t completely sink this one.

Closing with a song nearly as strong as the opener is the final ace for the record. The title track is everything that Grant has been building to for the previous 40 minutes or so. We’ve gotten to know his foibles intimately, as well as his strengths, but he reserves genuine, childish and triumphant bitterness for the very end.

The detail knows no bounds. Countering his ex-lover’s “you tell me that my life is based upon a lie,” with “I casually mention that I pissed in your coffee,” is utterly gleeful and spiteful, but the lullaby nature of the piano accompaniment makes it a total sarcastic success. The chorus, such as it is, is a series of staccato chords so beautifully recorded that you can almost hear the fist connecting with the piano. Indeed, partway through the second lullaby verse, the bass mistakenly hammers, a la the chorus, resulting in some audible studio laughter. If anything it adds humanity to the atmosphere. Ultimately that humanity has to come from believing John Grant’s words and performance. With a pop song so brazenly fiery and delivered with such relish as this, it is sealed. Upon this song’s culmination, it is impossible not to hail the arrival of the Queen of Denmark with due celebration.




Technical Information:

Artist: John Grant
Album: Queen of Denmark (Deluxe Version)
Year: 2010

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks

Avg. bitrate:
Disc 1- 871 kb/s
Disc 2- 800 kb/s

Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16

File size:
Disc 1- 319 MB
Disc 2- 107 MB

Length:
Disc 1- 0:51:14
Disc 2- 0:18:44




Tracklisting:

Disc 1:

01. TC and Honeybear (5:06)
02. Marz (3:58)
03. Where Dreams Goto Die (6:04)
04. Sigourney Weaver (3:31)
05. Chicken Bones (3:38)
06. Silver Platter Club (4:11)
07. It's Easier (4:38)
08. Outer Space (3:15)
09. Jesus Hates Faggots (3:48)
10. Caramel (3:35)
11. Leopard & Lamb (4:41)
12. Queen of Denmark (4:49)

Disc 2:

01. That's the Good News (4:14)
02. Supernatural Defibrillator (2:54)
03. Fireflies (3:42)
04. What Time? (7:55)





Queen of Denmark Megaupload Links:

Disc 1
Disc 2

Various Artists- Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of Funky Lagos (2001)- EAC CD Rip (FLAC)

Volume two in the series of three. The final volume will have to wait because we don't have it in lossless. Check out BLO. They're AMAZING! The Fela Kuti guy is a bit repetitive, though. No wonder why he never made it in music. The same riff over and over and over...




Technical Information:

Artist: Various Artists
Album: Nigeria 70: The Definitive Story of Funky Lagos
Year: 2001/2009 Reissue

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks

Avg. bitrate:
Disc 1- 863 kb/s
Disc 2- 808 kb/s

Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2

File size:
Disc 1- 383 MB
Disc 2- 456 MB

Length:
Disc 1- 1:02:02
Disc 2- 1:18:59




Tracklisting:

Disc 1:

01. Monomono- Tire Loma Da Nigbehin (4:46)
02. BLO- Chant to Mother Earth (6:07)
03. Fela Kuti & Afrika 70- Jeun Ko Ku (Chop 'n' Quench) (7:14)
04. Tunji Oyelana and the Benders- Ifa (5:00)
05. Bala Miller & The Great Music Pirameeds of Afrika- Ikon Allah (5:46)
06. Segun Bucknor & His Revolution- La La La (3:29)
06. Peter King- Shango (5:39)
07. Tony Allen & His Afro Messengers- No Discrimination (8:19)
08. Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody Maestros- Akayan Ekassa (3:10)
09. William Onyeabor- Better Change Your Mind (8:24)
10. Bongos Ikwue- Woman Made the Devil (4:10)

Disc 2:

Orlando Julius & The Afro Sounders- Alo Mi Alo (Parts 1 & 2) (8:04)
Ofo The Black Company- Allah Wakbarr (3:30)
Sahara All Stars Band Jos- Enjoy Yourself (5:59)
The Funkees - [Nigeria 70- Dancing Time (3:19)
Afro Cult Foundation- The Quest (8:10)
Joni Haastrup- Greetings (6:13)
Gasper Lawal- Kita Kita (6:01)
Lijadu Sisters- Orere Elejigbo (4:14)
Fela Anikupalo Kuti & The Africa 70 With Sandra Akanke Isidore- Upside Down (14:42)
Shina Williams & His African Percussionists- Agboju Logun (11:34)
Sunny Ade & His African Beats- Ja Fun Mi (Instrumental) (7:13)





The Definitive Story of Funky Lagos Megaupload Links:

Disc 1
Disc 2

Various Artists- Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump- Original Heavyweight Afrobeat Highlife & Afro-funk (2008)- EAC CD Rip (FLAC)

The first volume of an excellent three volume history of 70's era African music...with guitar. Crucial, crucial stuff.




Technical Information:

Artist: Various Artists
Album: Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump (Original Heavyweight Afrobeat Highlife & Afro-funk)
Year: 2008

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 877 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 486 MB
Length: 1:17:29


Tracklisting:

01. Sir Shina Peters & His International Stars- Yabis (6:58)
02. Ify Jerry Crusade- Everybody Likes Something Good (3:26)
03. Bola Johnson & His Easy Life Top Beats- Ezuku Buzo (2:57)
04. Ashanti Afrika Jah- Onyame (4:56)
05. Olufemi Ajasa & His New Nigerian Bros- Aiye Le (3:05)
06. Peacocks Guitar Band- Eddie Quansa (4:25)
07. Peter King- African Dialects (4:56)
08. Dynamic Africana- Lalayo Nta (6:50)
09. Chief Checker- Africa Irie (5:42)
10. Tony Tete Harbor & The Stars Heaters Of Nigeria- Tete Muo Bu Muo (5:12)
11. The Faces- Tug Of War (4:19)
12. Eric (Showboy) Akaeze & His Royal Ericos- Wetin De Watch Goat, Goat Dey Watchman (10:10)
13. The Immortals- Hot Tears (2:50)
14. Rex Williams- You Are My Heart (3:13)
15. Sir Victor Uwaifo & His Melody MaestroeS- Dododo (Ekassa No. 1) (5:20)
16. Eddie Okwedy & His Maymores Dance Band- Happy Survival (3:08)





Nigeria 70: Lagos Jump Megaupload Links

Krister Linder- Metropia OST (2009)- EAC CD Rip (FLAC)

Here's the odd soundtrack that goes with the odd film.




Technical Information:

Artist: Krister Linder
Album: Metropia (OST)
Year: 2009

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 655 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 242 MB
Length: 0:51:41


Tracklisting:

01. Sky Diving (2:57)
02. Look At Me (8:08)
03. Tell Me What I've Done (1:44)
04. You Were Just Thinking (6:42)
05. An Almost Weightless Fall from Grace (3:20)
06. End Station Express (1:28)
07. Shampoo and Brain Wash (2:29)
08. Have I Lost You (1:20)
09. Wrong Hands (2:13)
10. I Have a Pland to Put an End to All of This (2:44)
11. Five Minutes Ago (6:04)
12. An Instrument of Harm (4:08)
13. The Hermit (Metropia Remix) (4:27)
14. Dare (3:57)





Metropia OST Megaupload Link

Merry Clayton- Gimme Shelter (1970)- EAC CD Rip (FLAC)

Since M-E-R-R-Y Clayton got slighted in the Rolling Stone article, we decided to highlight her to lessen the sting. For those who aren't familiar with M-E-R-R-Y, she's the voice behind my favorite Stones songs, Gimme Shelter and my second favorite, Tumbling Dice. She was also background for Ray Charles and sang alongside the amazing Clydie King backing for Joe Cocker. Dear Lord...this could make me go on a Joe Cocker jag. I love me some Joe Cocker. Jarvis too, for that matter. Enjoy the album.




Technical Information:

Artist: Merry Clayton
Album: Gimme Shelter (Japanese Release)
Year: 1970

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 820 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 227 MB
Length: 0:38:42


Tracklisting:

01. Country Road (3:47)
02. Tell All the People (2:57)
03. Bridge Over Troubled Water (5:50)
04. I've Got Life (3:30)
05. Gimme Shelter (3:31)
06. Here Come Those Heartaches Again (3:05)
07. Forget It I Got It (2:55)
08. You've Been Acting Strange (3:19)
09. I Ain't Gonna Worry My Life Away (4:22)
10. Good Girls (2:44)
11. Glad Tiding (2:41)





Gimme Shelter Megaupload Link

The Rolling Stones- Let It Bleed (1969)- SACD Rip (24 bit FLAC)

After we posted On the Beach, I realized that we hadn't posted any Stones albums, which is a glaring omission for the site. So here's an SACD rip of Let It Bleed. It's not my favorite Stones album, but it's got my favorite Stones song on it. This will give us needed time to get an excellent vinyl rip of Exile On Main Street processed for uploading. Enjoy some extremely fat and warm Rolling Stones that your CD player could never handle!




From Greil Marcus at Rolling Stone:

Let It Bleed is the last album by the Stones we'll see before the Sixties, already gone really, become the Seventies; it has the crummiest cover art since Flowers, with a credit sheet that looks like it was designed by the United States Government Printing Office (all courtesy of the inflated Robert Brownjohn), and the best production since, well, "Honky Tonk Women." The music has tones that are at once dark and perfectly clear, while the words are slurred and often buried for a stronger musical effect. The Stones as a band and Jagger and Mary Clayton and Keith Richards and Nanette Newman and Doris Troy and Madelaine Bell and the London Bach Choir as singers carry the songs past "lyrics" into pure emotion. There's a glimpse of a story — not much more. And like Beggars' Banquet, Let It Bleed has the feel of Highway 61 Revisited.

On songs like "Live With Me," "Midnight Rambler," and "Let It Bleed," the Stones prance through all their familiar roles, with their Rolling Stones masks on, full of lurking evil, garish sexuality, and the hilarious and exciting posturing of rock and roll Don Juans. On "Monkey Man" they grandly submit to the image they've carried for almost the whole decade, and then crack up digging it: "All my friends are junkies! (That's not really true...)" And there are other songs, hidden between the flashier cuts, waiting for the listener to catch up with them: the brilliant revival of Robert Johnson's exquisite "Love In Vain," and Keith Richards' haunting ride through the diamond mines, "You Got the Silver."

And yet it's the first and last of Let It Bleed that seem to matter most. The frightening desperation of "Gimmie Shelter" and the confused frustation of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" give the lie to the bravado of "Midnight Rambler" or "Live With Me." Not that those songs don't work — they do, of course, as crunching, soaring dreams of conquest and pop supremacy. They're great numbers. But "Gimmie Shelter" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want" both reach for reality and end up confronting it, almost mastering what's real, or what reality will feel like as the years fade in. It's a long way from "Get Off My Cloud" to "Gimmie Shelter," a long way from "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" to "You Can't Always Get What You Want."




That's not to say the Stones can't move fast and play all their roles at once — they can, right on stage — but the force of the new vulnerability blurs the old stance of arrogance and contempt. The music of these two songs is just that much stronger than anything else on the album — they can't be ignored, and the images and moods they raise blur the old stance of arrogance and contempt. Once the Stones were known, someone's said, as the group that would always take a good old-fashioned piss against a good old-fashioned gas station attendant. And now Mick sings it this way too: "I went down to the demonstration/ To get my fair share of abuse ..."

"Gimmie Shelter" is a song about fear; it probably serves better than anything written this year as a passageway straight into the next few years. The band builds on the dark beauty of the finest melody Mick and Keith have ever written, slowly adding instruments and sounds until an explosively full presence of bass and drums rides on over the first crest of the song into the howls of Mick and a woman, Mary Clayton. It's a full-faced meeting with all the terror the mind can summon, moving fast and never breaking so that men and women have to beat that terror at the game's own pace. When Mary Clayton sings alone, so loudly and with so much force you think her lungs are bursting, Richard's frames her with jolting riffs that blaze past her and take it back to Mick. Their answer and their way out matches the power of the threat: "It's just a shot away, it's just a shot away ... it's just a kiss away, it's just a kiss away." The truly fearful omen of the music is that you know just a kiss won't be enough. This song, caught up in its own momentum, says you need the other too.




You Get What You Need

You remember the Stones' girls, the common, flirty (or was it "dirty"?) machine operator of "The Spider and the Fly," or for that matter the poor girl back home who said "when you've done your show go to bed"? They're all still here on Let It Bleed, with their masks on so you can use them — all the cooks and maids, upstairs and downstairs, in "Live With Me," or the presumably well-mangled victims of The Midnight Rambler. But the real women of this album seem to be women who can shout like Mary Clayton — gutty, strong, and tougher than any of the delightful leering figures that are jumping out of the old Stones' orgy. She can stand up to Mick and match him, and in fact, she steals the song. That's what makes "Gimmie Shelter" such an overwhelming recording — it hits from both sides, with no laughs, no innuendoes, and nothing held back. The Stones have never done anything better.

That's not a pace to maintain, obviously

Meanwhile, as the Rolling Stones close out the Sixties and move into the Seventies with Let It Bleed, a new book's been published, photographs by David Bailey (once the Stones' photographer) of the celebrities who meant something in London these last ten years. It's called Goodbye Baby & Amen — to translate the subtitle, "A Wild Dance for the Sixties." It attempts to capture, in pictures and print, the liberation London found when the Empire was jettisoned, when Christine Keeler cut the boards out from under the platform of the British Establishment, when John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Peter Townshend drove out the old with the noise of the new music, when movie stars and directors and models took art out of the museums and took their clothes off at the same time. The book reaches for that sense of freedom already past, urging images of one long party lasting through the years, some still looking for it.




There's a strange quote from Bryan Forbes, pictured with Nanette Newman, who sings on two tracks of Let It Bleed: "The curious thing is that ideas float in the air and a lot of us explored the same territory; there was no collusion. We weren't committing adultery with each other's permission. We never knew, in fact, that we were sleeping with the same girl." Forbes grasps a sense of excitement and creativity that was unconsciously shared, and the sexuality that pervades his talk only heightens its impact. In London, in the Sixties, when styles on Carnaby Street changed by the day, when each new group was exciting, hen America looked to London with envy, joy, and, really, wonder, one could see a mad pursuit of every next day. They really seeemd to be building some kind of flimsy freedom, those English.

Yet as you stare at the sometimes striking pictures of Goodbye — Marianne Faithful pure against the sunset, Susannah York projecting and restraining sex, i the Beatles and the Stones looking like ' kings of it all, and the weird, scary double-page of Christine Keeler vamping it to a close — you see that the book cannot really bring the era into focus. It's as if these people and the years they lived through were never there at all, like an American friend's vision of rock-and-roll-London at its finest peak of frenzy:

Tonight, to the consternation of the duly delegated authorities, an unkempt mob of anarchists clad in body paint and fright wigs stormed the Houses of Parliament following their frenzied participation in the Intergalactic Sonic Sit-In at the Royal Albert Hall. After laying seige to the speaker's podium, they used their cigarette lighters to fuse the works of Big Ben into a bronze statue of Smokey Robinson ...

Gerard Van Der Leun




America's own Sixties — assassination, riot, war and the cold gloom of Richard Nixon — caught up with London's party: The mad, heroic student revolution of Paris gave the very idea of Carnaby Street a ludicrous tinge, while those same street-fights pushed the Stones into a new disenchantment with "sleepy Lon-don town." You mean swinging London? Then the blinding eye of Godard suddenly revealed the directors of English films as second-rate.

It became hard for Americans to think of London as a city — for most of us, it became the place where the Beatles, the Stones, and the Who all lived. A few years before when Antonioni came to town, he made his movie about a photographer. That seemed to say it all. As the era faded Godard made his first English film — with the Rolling Stones. They and a few others have lasted, and if the rest have lost their meaning, at least to America, that is why Bailey's book, and really his own dated, stylized way of taking pictures, carries a truly pathetic message: "We were there! We really were! It was a grand time ..."

This era and the collapse of its bright and flimsy liberation are what the Stones leave behind with the last song of Let It Bleed. The dreams of having it all are gone, and the album ends with a song about compromises with what you want — learning to take what you can get, because the rules have changed with the death of the Sixties. Back a few years, all of London's new lower-class middle-class aristocracy were out for just what they wanted and they damned well got it. But no one can live off a memory that vanished sense of mastery felt in, when was it, '65, '66? If "Gimmie Shelter" is the Stones' song of terror, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" looks for satisfaction in resignation. And that sort of goal isn't what made "Satisfaction" the unanimous nation-wide poll-winning choice for the greatest rock and roll song of all time. But then the radio stations don't hold those polls anymore. You have to reach for this song yourself.




This is one of the most outrageous productions ever staged by a rock and roll band, and every note of it works to perfection: the slow, virginal choral introduction; the intensely moving, really despairing sounds of Kooper's horn and Keith's slow strain; and then the first verse and first chorus by Mick, singing almost unaccompanied. From there it dissolves and builds again with surges of organ, lovely piano ripples, long lead electric runs by Richards, drumming that carries the song over every crescendo — music that begins in a mood of complete tragedy and fatigue and ends with optimism and complete exuberance.; The song, in a way, is as much a movie as Blow-Up — beginning and ending with a party in a Chelsea mansion, the singer meeting a strung-out, vicious girl, he apparently knew from some years before, when things were different all around. It moves from there into street-fighting and frustration, and then to the strangest scene of all, a young man trying to strike up some sort of friendship with an old man who's past it. The results are much grimmer than anything out of "Midnight Rambler."

I went down to the Chelsea drugstore To get your prescription filled I was standing in line with Mr.Jitters And man, did he look pretty ill We decided that we would have a soda My favorite flavor's cherry red I sang my song to Mr. Jitters And he said one word to me And that was death

From there, of course, it's back to the party.

So in Let It Bleed we can find every role the Stones have ever played for us — swaggering studs, evil demons, harem keepers and fast life riders — what the Stones meant in the Sixties, what they know very well they've meant to us. But at the beginning and the end you'll find an opening into the Seventies — harder to take, and stronger wine. They have women with them this time, and these two magnificent songs no longer reach for mastery over other people, but for an uncertain mastery over the more desperate situations the coming years are about to enforce.



Technical Information:

Artist: The Rolling Stones
Album: Let It Bleed
Year: 1969

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: SACD
Avg. bitrate: 4615 kb/s
Sample rate: 176400 Hz
Bits per sample: 24
Channels: 2
File size: 1.36 GB
Length: 0:42:23


Tracklisting:

01. Gimme Shelter (4:30)
02. Love In Vain (4:18)
03. Country Woman (3:00)
04. Live With Me (3:35)
05. Let It Bleed (5:27)
06. Midnight Rambler (6:52)
07. You Got The Silver (2:51)
08. Monkey Man (4:12)
09. You Can't Always Get What You Want (7:28)




(Use JDownloader to speed up downloading and avoid file stalls.)

Let It Bleed Megaupload Links

Grandaddy- Everything Beautiful Is Far Away Maxi-Single (1998)- EAC CD Rip (FLAC)

What a amazing single this is. That's the thing about Grandaddy- their best work was on their B-sides. That's the key to falling in love with this band: explore the non-album songs. Now is the perfect opportunity for that.

P.S.: As always, thanks to Pherron and his wonderful Grandaddy Discography. This project could never have been accomplished without his help. Also, Under the Western Freeway, Sophtware Slump and Sumday are all being reissued on vinyl this summer.

P.P.S.: If someone has a lossless version of Live at the Art Factory, MU it to us so that we can post it.



Technical Information:

Artist: Grandaddy
Album: Everything Beautiful Is Far Away (Maxi-Single)
Year: 1998

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 901 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 86.7 MB
Length: 0:13:26


Tracklisting:

01. Everything Beautiful Is Far Away (5:13)
02. For The Dishwasher (3:54)
03. Glassy-Dusty (4:20)





Everything Beautiful Is Far Away Megaupload Link

Grandaddy- A Pretty Mess by This One Band E.P. (1996)- EAC CD Rip (FLAC)

As you can tell, we're both back to our personal archiving projects, and being that L&S and I both have a competitive spirit, this battle between two dead artifacts could get bloody. How long will it last? There is no telling. If my count is correct, I'm ahead. Enjoy!




Technical Information:

Artist: Grandaddy
Album: A Pretty Mess By This One Band (E.P.)
Year: 1996

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 920 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 153 MB
Length: 0:23:16


Tracklisting:

01. Away Birdies With Special Sounds (2:00)
02. Taster (4:09)
03. Peeano (1:17)
04. Kim You Bore Me To Death (4:39)
05. Pre-Merced (2:56)
06. Gentle Spike Resort (3:10)
07. Egg Hit And Jack Too (5:06)





A Pretty Mess Megaupload Link

Elliott Smith- Ballad of Big Nothing E.P. (1998)- CD Rip (FLAC)

All these singles and E.P.'s are a reminder that I'd better get my butt in gear and start working on the Grandaddy archiving project that's been in Limbo for the past few months. Oh, well, okay. Enjoy more Elliott Smith!





Technical Information:

Artist: Elliott Smith
Album: Ballad of Big Nothing (E.P.)
Year: 1998

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: CD split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 1269 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 100 MB
Length: 0:11:01


Tracklisting:

01. Ballad of Big Nothing (2:51)
02. Angeles (2:51)
03. Some Song (2:10)
04. Division Day (3:10)





Ballad of Big Nothing (EP) Megaupload Link

Elliott Smith- Division Day Single (1997)- EAC CD Rip (FLAC)

More Elliott Smith in proper order. Enjoy!





Technical Information:

Artist: Elliott Smith
Album: Division Day (Single)
Year: 1997

Audio Codec(s): FLAC
Encoding: Lossless
Rip: EAC split tracks
Avg. bitrate: 821 kb/s
Sample rate: 44100 Hz
Bits per sample: 16
Channels: 2
File size: 33.7 MB
Length: 0:05:45


Tracklisting:

01. Division Day (3:10)
02. No Name #6 (2:35)





Division Day (Single) Megaupload Link