People are People

I'm a big fan of the cover song. At least once a month, I'm going to try to highlight a seminal song and upload a mix of various versions of said song. This is a fishing expedition for me, too, as usually I'm only familiar with a few different versions of the song. Last time it was Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart", and now I'm presenting a "People are People" by Depeche Mode. The songs vary from synthpop to vocal trance to lounge and hard rock. Oh, and Atrocity. My favorite is the 70's funk inspired version by Sofian. It's just amazing.

1. Flux
2. Stone the Crow
3. Atrocity
4. Dope
5. Gotz Alsmann
6. Implant
7. Planet Girl
8. Sofian

Download here

Omega Massif

Omega Massif is a great recent German Sludge/Post-Metal band. Formed just in 2005, they are a purely instrumental band that have only released one demo and one album to date. They have also appeared on a number of compilations. Recommended to fans of Kongh (available for a listen on the 'Obscure Swedish Doom Metal' compilation).

1. Uter Null
2. In Der Mine
3. Nebelwand

Download

Chipped! - Various Artists

This is a compilation depicting several chiptunes songs (some from renowned composers and some from creative modern artists), I sorted it with six tracks, which currently are:

1. Fight Against Koopa (Yoko Shimomura)
2. Chemical Plant Zone (Masato Nakamura)
3. Inversion of the Goober Reboots (Bit Shifter)
4. At the Zombie Gates (disasterPeace)
5. Mario Airlines (Dubmood)
6. Fast Turtle (Anamanaguchi)


If you are a fan at all of the produciton style popularized by the gameboy, SNES, etc. then I suggest trying this mix out somewat. If not, why not give it a whirl for your open mind? Here's the download link: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mmw0gjndzzj

What'cha think?

Believer Mix, Believer

Believer was/is a crossover thrash and progressive metal band. Here's a mix:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mnimn5mmjng

Andrew WK

http://forums.hipinion.com/viewtopic.php?t=205121

http://www.youtube.com/user/Andrewwkofficial

http://www.heresee.com/ninetteen.htm

http://www.andrewwk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=814

tracklisting:

01 - i came for you
02 - close calls with bal harbour
03 - never let down
04 - ready to die
05 - totally stupid
06 - soundtrack to poltergeist
07 - got to do it
08 - when i'm high
09 - i get wet
10 - i love music
11 - this is my world
12 - the moving room

download via mediafire.com

Plunderphonia

Plunderphonics is a term coined by composer John Oswald in 1985 in an essay entitled Plunderphonics, or Audio Piracy as a Compositional Prerogative. It has since been applied to any music made by taking one or more existing audio recordings and altering them in some way to make a new composition. There is no attempt to disguise the fact that the sounds making up the composition have been "borrowed" in this way, and sometimes the sounds may be taken from very familiar sources. Plunderphonics can be considered a form of sound collage.

EDIT: I've corrected the errors in the original download file, and for your troubles, added FOUR bonus tracks, including John Oswald! Praise BOB!

1. The Evolution Control Committee - By The Time I get to Arizona
2. Negativland - U2
3. DJ Pantshead - Don't believe the Sensorair
4. DJ Pantshead - Machines Dehumanize
5. The Evolution Control Committee - Boards of Canadadidadi
6. Anonymous Opus and Green Day mash up - It's a fine Holiday
7. norelpref - PMS 911
8. The Arm - Track 11
9. John Oswald - DAB
10. Phineas Narco and Ronald Redball - Free Will
11. Doom Patrol - Year of the Rabbit
12. Tim Maloney - Thunderclock

FYI, every one of these songs is available for free, somewhere online. You just have to find it.

Download Here

Hüsker Dü and Amebix

Hüsker Dü was an influential alternative rock band, which began as a hardcore punk band, from Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, United States, active from 1979 to 1987 and comprising guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bass guitarist Greg Norton, and drummer Grant Hart. Mould and Hart split the songwriting duties. Hüsker Dü was never widely popular, but had an impact much larger than sales would indicate. “Husker Du” is Danish/Norwegian for “Do You Remember,” a popular children’s game. Hüsker Dü first gained notice as a punk band with thrashing tempos and screamed vocals, but also with a melodic, soulful edge that became more pronounced in the band’s mid-career, as they drifted away from their early sound.

01 husker du - all tensed up
02 husker du - divide and conquer
03 husker du - bed of nails
04 husker du - diane
05 husker du - whatever
06 husker du - hardly getting over it

Amebix, formed in 1978, was an important UK punk band that many consider to have started the subgenre “crust punk”, by mixing heavy metal with hardcore punk. They established crust as being separate from thrash metal by mixing punk music with metal tempos, as opposed to thrash bands’ mixing of metal music with punk tempos. Influential in the anarcho-punk genre, Amebix’ song “No Gods, No Masters” became a slogan for the movement worldwide. They were originally called The Band With No Name, and shared a squat in Bristol for part of their career. Their music, heavily influenced by Motörhead (and to a lesser extent Lemmy-era Hawkwind), Black Sabbath and early Killing Joke, combined with an ethos and worldview akin to Crass, represented their non-traditional lifestyles.

01 amebix - last will and testament
02 amebix - the power remains
03 amebix - drink and be merry
04 amebix - the darkest hour
05 amebix - right to ride
06 amebix - coming home

download via mediafire

Electric Wizard

Electric Wizard is a stoner/doom metal band formed in the early '90s. Throughout their history, only one member has been constant: Justin "Jus" Oborn, who played guitar and sang. His first band, Lord of Putrefaction, was formed in 1988. They recorded two demos and changed their name to Thy Grief Eternal, later shortening it to Eternal. By 1993, Oborn left Eternal and formed the band that he has become most well-known for: Electric Wizard.

Electric Wizard's history is a fairly interesting one. Their eponymous debut album was released in 1995. This album adopted a style reminiscent of Sleep. Two years later, they released Come My Fanatics..., which saw a change in the band's style. As opposed to singing in a lower register, Jus Oborn sang in a higher octave, added lots and lots of "fuzz" to the instruments, and played some much darker music, somehwhat moving away from their stoner rock roots.

After the release of Come My Fanatics..., Electric Wizard had many problems. Oborn severed a fingertip, collapsed an eardrum, and was arrested for marijuana possession and both other members (the band was a trio at the time) were arrested for other reasons. Over these three years, they released the Supercoven EP.

In 2000, the band released the album that they have become most well-known for: Dopethrone. The album expands upon the style of their previous album and features some sludge traits at times. Overall, the album is a masterpiece and one of, if not the best albums in the doom metal genre.

In 2002, they released Let Us Prey, the last album to feature the original Electric Wizard lineup. After the release of the album, the other two members of the band left (and formed Ramesses). The two of them were replaced. Along with that, however, a second guitarist was added, Liz Buckingham. Electric Wizard mark II has since released two albums, We Live and Witchcult Today.

Now that you know your stuff about the band, you can listen to them. Here's the tracklisting:

1.) "Eko Eko Azarak"
2.) "Return Trip"
3.) "Burnout"
4.) "Dunwich"
5.) "Funeralopolis"
6.) "Satanic Rites of Drugula"
7.) "Priestess of Mars"
8.) "Electric Wizard"

Download link

Witchfinder General

Witchfinder General was one of the pioneering doom metal band. They were one of the few NWOBHM bands in the genre and only released two albums. Their work was highly under-appreciated upon release, however in recent years they have gained much praise.

Track Listing:

1.) "Invisible Hate"
2.) "Love on Smack"
3.) "No Stayer"
4.) "Requiem for Youth"
5.) "Witchfinder General"
6.) "I Lost You"

Download link

Afterstasis' Noise Mix #1

HSQGWERTUIFSZZZHGLHJSBOOOHMCNWOOOPUYT!!!!!!

tracklisting:

01 masonna - anne (parts 1 and 2)
02 aube - aqua syndrome I
03 forcefield - 3rd annual roggabogga motion picture soundtrack
04 masayuki takayanagi - inanimate nature 3
05 john wiese - untitled track 4
06 amm - what is there in uselessness
07 prurient - vertigo
08 sternklang - untitled
09 christopher tree - untitled
10 voice crack - untitled

download via mediafire.com

Labrador Records

Labrador Records is an amazing label out of Sweden, focused almost entirely on indie pop artists - most of whom sing in English. A lot of fun is to be had here - and one of my favorite current bands is published by them.

I tried not to duplicate artists from YZBL's mix a week or so ago - and actually overzealously left off a couple great bands because I mistakenly thought she included them. Whoops.

• [ingenting] - Punkdroemmar
• Aerospace - The Only Things We Share
• Club 8 - Missing You
• Douglas Heart - A Question of Gender
• Edison - Sunday, Lovely Sunday
• loveninjas - I Wanna Be Like Jonny C
• Pelle Carlberg - Go to Hell, Miss Rydell
• Sambassadeur - New Moon
• Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - Loop Duplicate my Heard
• The Legends - Lucky Star
• The Mary Onettes - Void
• The Radio Dept. - Why Won't You Talk About It?
• Waltz for Debbie - Once Upon a Time

Love it!

I Was A Teenage Riot Boi

Saying things like.. "At twelve I was so disturbed to be a boy - and wanted to be a girl so much" is a good way to get into therapy but nonetheless. Hearing Bikini Kill for the first time just blew me away. I loved everything about it - it was so intense, so meaningful and I wanted to be a part of everything about the scene that surrounded them.

Riot Grrrl - or what does or does not fit into the genre - is one of those areas that can be quite difficult to get a firm answer for. For the first of what will likely be three packs, I've opted to go with the strictest interpretation. Feminist minded music that is directly related to the scene and culture.

Four 'songs' in this pack are sung by Kathleen Hanna, or as I like to think, the most amazing woman on the planet. Le Tigre is perhaps the furthest from the strict interpretation of Riot Grrrl but it is hard to deny their presence with her fronting. Julie Ruin was a solo project and obviously she was the lead for Bikini Kill.

Bratmobile is similarly tied to the formation of the movement, and I don't want my emphasis on Bikini Kill to take away from that either.

The next pack in the series will be a mix of progenitors (Girls who were rocking loud and aggressively before the scene existed) and peers who were not technically part of the movement but share a common thread.

• Bikini Kill - Sugar
• Le Tigre - Fake French
• Julie Ruin - Valley Girl Intelligentsia
• Kathleen Hanna - Rockstar
• Heavens to Betsy - Stay Away
• Bratmobile - Girl Germs
• Sleater-Kinney - I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone

Feel it!

WhiffleBallTony's Drone Metal Mix

Drone metal is quite possibly the most niche genre there is. Most tracks exceed 10 minutes in length, contain nothing more than a few riffs and some feedback, and generally don't have too much of a discernible beat. I would describe it as "psychedelic metal". This is pretty much what early Pink Floyd would have sounded like had they been a metal band.

It was originally created by the band Earth in the early '90s with their groundbreaking album, Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version. Since then, several bands have taken Earth's original formula and messed with it to create their own unique sound. The two most prominent bands to do this have been Sunn O))) (named after Earth's favorite brand of amplifier) and BORIS.

Sunn O))) (pronounced as "sun") was formed by Stephen O'Malley, an extremely prolific musician in the doom metal scene, playing in many other bands including Burning Witch, Khanate, and Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine (named after the second track on Earth's debut). O'Malley also founded the metal record label Southern Lord. Sunn O)))'s signature includes some elements of the dark ambient genre. They have become quite possibly the most well-known drone band there is.

BORIS is a Japanese band formed in 1992. Their music has spanned several genres, including stoner rock, ambient, drone metal, and experimental rock. Their early sound was influenced by Earth and the Melvins, among other bands. Since their debut album, Absolutego (which consists of one hour-long song), which was released in 1996, they have collaborated with many artists and released several studio albums, with their most recent album incorporating mainly stoner rock and ambient traits.

Now that you have some background on this compilation, here is the tracklisting:

1.) Earth - "Seven Angels"
2.) Sunn O))) - "HELL-O)))-WEEN"
3.) BORIS - "Dronevil 2"

Download link

YOB

YOB is a stoner doom metal band formed in the late '90s. Their first full-length album, Elaborations of Carbon, was released in 2001. They have released three other albums, Catharsis, The Illusion of Motion, and The Unreal Never Lived (released in 2003, 2004, and 2005 respectively). Over the years, they have gotten much heavier, becoming less of a stoner metal band to playing music reminiscent of funeral doom, incorpating death growls and very heavy, dark riffs.

In 2006, they announced that they had split up. However, as of 2008, the band is back together and recording a new album due out in Summer '09.

This compilation features at least one song from each of their albums. Hopefully you doom fans out there like this stuff. Track listing:

1.) "Ball of Molten Lead" (The Illusion of Motion)
2.) "Ether" (Catharsis)
3.) "Revolution" (Elaborations of Carbon)
4.) "Grasping Air" (The Unreal Never Lived)
5.) "The Mental Tyrant" (The Unreal Never Lived)

Download link

The Replacements

I was extremely pleased, when following the pulse of the rockband forums, to witness an evolution. The song, "Alex Chilton" was offered by many before the game came out, as one of the songs people were not looking forward to. Some even referred to the song as "filler." Once the game came out, that doubt and indifference blossomed up into actual admiration, with many claiming that "Alex Chilton" was the song that they were most pleased with. This made the music gods (and me) very happy.

Anyway,
To further push the "The Replacements are amazing " cause, i decided to put together a mix that showcases the many styles of music The Replacements covered during their strange career. They started out a pure punk band, as evidenced by songs like "Kids Don't Follow" and "We're Coming Out", moving their way through 80s alt pop rock, like the aforementioned "Alex Chilton", as well as classics like "Bastards of Young" and "Anywhere is Better than Here."
they evolved into a singer-songwriter/alt-country band.

Live, they were a force. They were completely unpredictable, mainly in part to the massive quantities of alcohol they would consume before, during, and after their sets. They could be amazing or sloppy, their set lists could include "The hits" or random covers.

Paul Westerberg (vocals,guitar) still records solo albums, most notably 14 Songs, which contained 2 songs that stood out on the Singles movie soundtrack,"Waiting for Somebody" and "Dyslexic Heart." He also pulled off writing and performing the songs on the "Open Season" soundtrack, including "Love You in the Fall" (check it out!)

Bob Stinson (guitar) passed away within the last few years

Tom Stinson (bass) , his brother, is known for being the bass player in Guns N Roses 2.0, despite getting into a public feud with Axl at a show.

Chris Mars (drums) is currently an artist, doing art shows and galleries and art-type arty things.

Download The Replacements mic...you will not be sorry. I promise. Money-Back Guarantee!

tracklist
can't hardly wait (tim version)
left of the dial
anywhere is better than here
i will dare
we'll inherit the earth
kids don't follow
we're comin' out
answering machine
asking me lies
kiss me on the bus
unsatisfied

Ink & Dagger: Devil Children, Unite!

With Halloween right around the corner...

Ink & Dagger were a Philadelphia post-hardcore band during the late 90s. Crossing The Misfits and the Damned with Victorian Goth themes over Fugazi/DC -inspired churning post hardcore, Ink & Dagger took the scene by storm with a compilation of their 7" singles, called Drive This Seven-Inch Stake Through my Philadelphia Heart...

Their careers took off as they moved out of basement shows to headlining large clubs and playing even bigger shows with the likes of the reformed Misfits (ugh...) Many were eager to see this combination of frantic, original music with a stage show consisting of corpse-painted band members covering clubs with fake blood spit everywhere.

As their career progressed, they released the album The Fine Art of Original Sin, which was a big departure. Lyrically, the album was very similar, but due to lineup changes and a progression in style, the band became more experimental; incorporating electronics and psychedelic guitar textures.

Right before the release of their self-titled 3rd album, lead singer Sean McCabe was found dead in an Indiana hotel room, presumably of a drug overdose, but their has never been official word. The band ceased to exist after this.

Download the Ink & Dagger mix by clicking here

comments, suggestions, and requests are greatly appreciated!

tracklist
the road to hell
shadowtalker
the fine art of original sin
full circle
the changeling
cut throat tactics
vampire fastcode ver. 1.5
bloodlust
my lady love

Bush Tetras & The dB's

Bush Tetras were a rock band from New York City, popular in the New York club scene in the early 1980s but never achieving much mainstream success. Their music, sometimes classified under "rare beats", combined funk rhythms and dissonant rock-guitar riffs.
Lead guitarist Pat Place and vocalist Cynthia Sley produced the most distinctive aspects of the Tetras sound. Place's guitar lines were rhythmic and distortion-filled. She had been the original guitarist and one of the founding members of the No Wave band The Contortions. With the Bush Tetras, Pat continued to pursue some of the musical ideas she had explored in that band, although her distinctive slide guitar is absent from many of the Tetras songs. Sley's vocals were half-spoken, half-sung. In songs like "Too Many Creeps" and "You Can't Be Funky," she repeated simple phrases over and over again, creating a hypnotic monotony similar to Place's guitar rhythms.

Along with Let’s Active, the dB’s defined the Southern power pop/jangle pop movement of the early to mid-’80s. The band’s music was a quirky blend of smart pop and psychedelia crossed with the more experimental side of new wave. Though they never received widespread recognition outside of critical acclaim, they provided a key link between Big Star and ’80s alternative guitar acts such as R.E.M.

tracklisting:

01 bush tetras - cowboys in africa
02 bush tetras - moonlite
03 bush tetras - submerging nations (live)
04 bush tetras - too many creeps
05 bush tetras - das ah riot
06 the db's - black and white
07 the db's - dynamite
08 the db's - cycles per second
09 the db's - big brown eyes
10 the db's - amplifier

download via rapidshare

Modern Shoegaze

The 'new wave' of Shoegaze draws influence from both those that went before and some of the brilliant dark wave bands of the past as well. There are many more popular bands in the genre but this is a short walk down the slightly less traveled side.

• 1969 Armstrong - Salient Night
• Air Formation - Tidal
• Auburn Lull - Broken Heroes
• Autolux - Robots in the Garden
• Film School - Go Down Together
• Malory - Sleeper
• Manual - Marbella
• Tearwave - Holding On
• The Daysleepers - Twilight Bloom
• The Meeting Places - Same Lies As Yesterday

Download

Alcest & Amesoeurs Mix

Alcest is a musical project from Avignon, France. Beginning as a raw black metal act in 1999, Alcest later became a vessel for Neige's "memories of another world" as the band evolved into his solo-project. While Alcest still retains some black metal roots, the music now draws more comparison to other genres such as shoegaze and post-rock.

During Summer 2004, Amesoeurs was formed by Neige, Audrey Sylvain, and Fursy Teyssier with the purpose of creating music that reflects the dark side of the industrial era and modern civilization.
Organic, introspective black metal from France, led by Neige (also in Alcest, Peste Noire, Mortifera, etc.), the music combines the early/mid-90’s black metal sound with moments of post-punk and female vocals.

tracklisting:

01 alcest - printemps emeraude
02 amesoeurs - bonheur amputé
03 alcest - le secret
04 amesoeurs - les ruches malades
05 alcest - sur l'autre rive je t'attendrai
06 amesoeurs - faiblesse des sens

download via rapidshare

Love will Tear us Apart

Like most people, the first Joy Division song I ever heard was "Love will tear us apart". It was probably around 83 or 84, and it was a long distance dedication on Casey Kasem's top 40. The song has been sort of an anthem (for lack of a more depressing term) for my own love life, and so much more. In any case, it's probably one of the most covered songs out there. I've collected a few on my work computer here, which I've attached. I've left out the obvious ones, like Paul Young, Swans, Moonspell and Fall Out Boy, and assembled a pack of very diverse artists and their interpretation of this seminal classic.

Love, Love will tear us apart again.

1. Damhnait Doyle
2. Honey Root
3. PJ Proby (prob my favorite, it's just fun)
4. Rebecca Hancock and the Prison Wives
5. Schulz
6. The Shanes
7. Susanna and the Magical Orchestra
8. Wonderlick
9. The Complete Stone Roses (yes, a stone roses cover band covering joy division)
10. A1 People

As always, your thoughts are appreciated.

Lifetime: New Jersey's Favorite Sons

Probably my favorite band of all time, Lifetime was/is a melodic hardcore punk band from New Brunswick NJ, rising out of the same area that gave us bands like Bouncing Souls (who they frequently toured with) and You and I. They bounced around the early 90s playing a heavier. more metallic style before refocusing into the lineup that produced the albums Hello Bastards and Jersey's Best Dancers. Both albums featured songs that combined energetic, hyperspeed drumming, with dual guitars, and Ari Katz's distinctive interestingly enunciated english language, with each song containing 4 of 5 different parts, with few songs lasting more than 2 and a half minutes. What really separates Lifetime from their compatriots is the quality of their lyrics. Lifetime rarely had a typical verse-chorus-verse arangement, with each song almost coming off as a diary entry from a literate diary (in a good way)

springsteen meets husker du meets rites of spring meets bad religion?

This mix i assembled includes things from all of their albums, including their self-titled comeback record. also included is their excellent cover of Billy Bragg's "New England"

Lifetime Mix
1. all night long
2. rodeo clown
3. francie nolan
4. somewhere in the swamps of jersey
5. irony is for suckers
6. knives bats new tats
7. starsixtynine
8. turnpike gates
9. a new england

If it isn't stiff....

Stiff records was a brilliant record studio that flickered in and out of the world. Featuring a primarily punk and new wave featured lineup, they had some amazing artists such as Elvis Costello, The Damned, The Pogues, Madness and Motorhead for periods of time. But this selection is some of their lesser known or more often forgotten bands.

• Any Trouble - Trouble With Love
• Humphrey Ocean & The Hardy Annuals - Whoops-A-Daisy
• Ian Drury & The Blockheads - What a Waste!
• Jona Lewie - You'll Always Find Me In The Kitchen at Parties
• Kirsty MacColl - A New England
• Lene Lovich - Lucky Number
• Lew Lewis Reformer - Win or Lose
• Makin' Time - Here Is My Number
• Nick Lowe - Heart of the City
• Tenpole Tudor - Three Bells in a Row
• The Belle Stars - Sign of the Times
• The Passion Puppets - Like Dust
• The Untouchables - Wild Child
• Theatre of Hate - The Hop

Download

Afterstasis' Doom Metal Mix #3

tracklisting:

01 black cobra - five daggers
02 morgion - canticle
03 nadja - ossification
04 zoroaster - terminally charged
05 northwinds - lost paradise
06 devoid of all mercy - last ride in a rusting truck
07 pantheist - o solitude
08 indesinence - aura
09 year of no light - les mains de lempereur
10 lurker of chalice - this blood falls as mortal part iii

download part 1 here

download part 2 here

The Dickies

Described by AllMusic as the "clown princes of punk rock", The Dickies stood in stark contrast to their more serious peers in California's punk scene: juvenile, kitschy, and party-conscious, although they were rarely offensive. The band never attained widespread popularity in the states, but were warmly received in the UK during the late 1970s punk boom, with their cover of the Banana Splits theme song even denting the UK's Top Five.

• Banana Splits
• Gigantor
• Give It Back
• Killer Klowns From Outer Space
• Nights in White Satin (Moody Blues cover)
• Stukas Over Disneyland
• Toxic Avenger

Download

Industrial Dance Mix

Okay so I had sort of been really heavy thinking about the other set (I probably went through a dozen tracks being put in and taken out over the time working on it) this is the opposite, not something to be really thought of at all. Its a lot of general fun.

Just a group of bands that are fun to dance to.

• angelspit - 100
• Ayria - Six Seconds on all Sides
• Bella Morte - The Rain Within Her Hands
• Crisk. - Beute
• Fear Cult - Sexbeat
• Frozen Plasma - Warmongers
• Funker Vogt - Narayan
• IMPLANT - Don't Feed the Robots
• Mankind is Obselete - Still Right Here
• MIND:STATE - Black Angel
• Proyecto Mirage - Big Holy Machine
• Razed in Black - Blush
• Slick Idiot - Xcess
• Stray - Break Me Free
• Temple of Tears - Wreck Me

Download

Sleaze Sells

Sex and music have an inevitable link. In more recent memory early rock music was the devil's work for encouraging teenagers to have sex (amongst a boring laundry list of other sins). The ties have gone back almost as long as music has existed - Pan playing his pipes, the bawdy minstrels, the courting musics of the past all play their equal parts but regardless, it is tied deeply in our collective unconscious.

Similarly, sex has been an aspect of marketing - both blunt and subliminal - for selling almost any product. That there are bands who have focused on a sort of aggressive sexuality or a tease of it is a natural continuation. In putting this collection together I purposefully avoided bands that use sexually explicit content as a 'negative' connotation. Rape, abuse and the like have their own place in musical discussion but most people are not going to buy something with it explicit as an endorsement. (Okay so there certainly are people but we'll ignore that).

• The Cramps - Queen of Pain

The Cramps were not the first band to sell songs with sex - and they sold music on a lot of other levels - but they were so influential that the sleaze aspects of their music has to be considered - if not identical - inspirational to many who would have come after.

• Betty Blowtorch - Size Queen
• Genitorturers - Lecher Bitch

These two groups are those who I would put into the category of music first, sex second. They certainly have sexually charged songs - even a large portion of their catalogs depending on how literal you wish to be - but are not bands that are weakened without a stage presence or sexual aspect to their songs.

• Gravy Train!!! - Double Decker Supreme
• Rockbitch - Fist Fuck (pt 1)

On the other side of the coin, while these groups may have great musicianship, the sexual aspect of their music and stage shows really are the overwhelming thing you take away. Both have 'audience participation' shows and rarely sink into metaphor, instead going for the blunt answer every time.

I'm not trying to pass a judgment one way or the other, in fact I'd really like to hear other's opinions on it. Something I'm not really decided on myself.

Download

YZBL's Symphonic Metal Playlist #1

Fresh off the presses.

Symphonic metal or opera metal is a term used to describe heavy metal music that has symphonic elements; that is, elements that sound similar to a classical symphony. Symphonic metal is both a genre of metal and a name given to several subgenres of other metal genres, and as such, both forms of usage have slightly varying definitions. The genre refers to bands that combine aspects of varying metal genres, with signature female-led vocals and operatic/classical themes to give the music a feeling of being a symphony.

Most of the list fits that description. Lots of pretentious dutch women, keyboards, melodic guitar riffs and fast drums to make Richard Wagner proud.

Symphonic Metal #1
1. Midnattsol - Konkylie
2. Within Temptation - Our Solemn Hour
3. Together - Lunatica
4. Leaves Eyes - New Found Land
5. After Forever - Evoke
6. Nightwish - Kinslayer
7. Stream of Passion - Passion
8. Tarja Tarnunnen - Damned and Divine
9. The Gathering - Mirror Waters (Semi-acoustic)
10. Therion - Three Treasures

Symphonic Metal #2
1. Autumn NL - Angel of Desire
2. Draconian - Morphine Cloud
3. Fairyland - On the Path to Fury
4. Edenbridge - Fallen from Grace
5. Angtoria - Do you See me now
6. Atrocity - Forever Young (LOL, not necessarily symphonic metal, but hilarious)
7. Battlelore - House of Heroes
8. Elis - Phoenix from the Ashes
9. Epica - Fools of Damnation
10. Apocalyptica - Harvester of Sorrow

Afterstasis' Afrobeat Mix #1

tracklisting:

01 Ofo The Black Company - Allah Wakbarr
02 Blo - Chant To Mother Earth
03 The Funkees - Dancing Time
04 Afro Cult Foundation - The Quest
05 Sunny Ade & His African Beats - Ja Fun Mi (Instrumental)
06 William Onyeabor - Better Change Your Mind
07 Segun Bucknor & His Revolution - La La La
08 Super Mambo 69 - Sweeper Soul
09 Apagya Show Band - Kwaku Ananse
10 Lijadu Sisters - Orere Eljigbo

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YZBL's Sugar Sweet Indie Pop-Rock mix

Hey everyone, it's YZBL from the forums (pronounced Iz-A-Bel, in case you were wondering), and this is my first list. I've been listing to a ton of indie pop music lately, and want to spread the joy. Some of these may lean more towards the Rock side, so I'm calling it an indie pop-rock mix. In any case, you won't find any heartache, only a bottle of wine.

(EDITED - first two tracks weren't DRM free, so no sharey. Thanks Apple!)

1. The Book of Lists - Pebbles
2. Apples in Stereo - Same old Drag
3. China Forbes - Everybody needs Somebody
4. Delorean - As time breaks off
5. Hey Willpower - Hundredaire
6. Benton Harbor Blues - Fiery Furnaces
7. Agua de Annique - Yalin
8. British Sea Power - Waving Flags
9. The Impossible Shapes - She Let me Run
10. The 1900s - When I say Go
11. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Doing All the Things That Wouldn't Make Your Parents Proud
12. Ra Ra Riot - Each Year
13. Voxtrot - The Start of Something
14. The Long Blondes - Guilt

And I'm saving the best for last
15 . Acid House Kings - This Heart is a Stone. This whole album is just amazing. Even better is their DVD. The entire album is done as a Karaoke video.

YZBL's Sugar Sweet Indie Pop