Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds: The Memphis 1969 Anthology (1999)

Happy birthday, Elvis!
"Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer, actor and musician. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as "Elvis", and is also sometimes referred to as "The King of Rock n' Roll" or "The King".
Source: Wikipedia

"Suspicious Minds release contains the 33 recordings made by Elvis Presley in Memphis in January and February 1969 at American Sound Studio, 10 alternate takes and 1 incomplete recording. The CD's run for 64:13 and 71:27, thus giving fine value for the money. CD1 contains all of the tracks released on From Elvis In Memphis plus all a- and B-sides of the four singles released from these sessions. CD2 contains the remaining tracks interspersed with alternate takes, one-liners, studio talk and the anticipated, incomplete recording of 'Poor Man's Gold'. Other releases featuring this material have tended to be a bit muddy in the mix, but on this release you get pristine sound with an absolutely clear mix with Elvis' vocal up front and still lots of room for the instruments and the backing vocals".
Source: Shop Elvis Australia

"Elvis Presley never sounded better than he does on these recordings made in Memphis at Chip Moman's American Sound Studios in January 1969. The artist was still on an incredible high following the success of his legendary NBC-TV "comeback" special, which had aired a little over a month earlier. Eager to record some relevant music after a decade of horrible movie soundtracks, Presley decided to work with Moman's smash-making (122 hits in three years) Memphis house band. Indeed, four charting singles came from these sessions--"Suspicious Minds," "Don't Cry Daddy," "In the Ghetto," and "Kentucky Rain"--as well as two critically acclaimed albums, From Elvis in Memphis and Back in Memphis. This two-disc set includes all the music the King recorded during that stint at Moman's studio, ranging from Neil Diamond, Bobby Darin, and Beatles covers to current and old country hits ("Gentle on My Mind," Johnny Tillotson's "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'") to a cover of Chuck Willis's classic "Any Day Now" that tops the R&B original. Of special note is "Long Black Limousine," a song about a huge star returning to her small hometown in a hearse. All the originally released American recordings are available on the From Nashville to Memphis box set. RCA fleshes out this collection with previously unreleased alternate takes (including the in-between studio chatter), as well as the Darin tune ("I'll Be There," a hit for Gerry & the Pacemakers) and a snippet of one previously unheard tune, "Poor Man's Gold." There's been much debate about the mix, but these tracks sounded great on vinyl in the late 1960s, and they'll continue to sound great for years to come, no matter the format".
Source: Amazon.com

Disc 1: Wearin' That Loved On Look - Only The Strong Survive - I'll Hold You In My Heart - Long Black Limousine - It Keeps Right On-A-Hurtin' - I'm Movin' On - Power Of My Love - Gentle On My Mind - After Loving You - True Love Travels On A Gravel Road - Any Day Now - In The Ghetto - Mama Liked The Roses - Suspicious Minds - You'll Think Of Me - Don't Cry Daddy - The Fair's Moving On - Kentucky Rain - Stranger In My Own Home Town - Without Love.
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Disc 2: This Time / I Can't Stop Loving You - After Loving You (Alternate) - Without Love (Alternate) - I'm Movin' On (Alternate) - From A Jack To A King - It Keeps Right On-A-Hurtin' (Alternate) - True Love Travels On A Gravel Road (Alternate) - Power Of My Love (Alternate)- You'll Think Of Me (Alternate) - If I'm A Fool - Do You Know Who I Am - A Little Bit Of Green - And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind - This Is The Story - I'll Be There - Hey Jude - Rubberneckin' - Poor Man's Gold (Incomplete) - Inherit The Wind - My Little Friend - Who Am I? - Kentucky Rain (Alternate) - Suspicious Minds (Alternate) - In The Ghetto (Alternate).
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Elvis.com / Elvis @ Wikipedia / Elvis @ IMDb

VA - X-Mas Tunes, Vol. 1 (1988)

Xmas Tunes, Vol. 1 - 20th Anniversary Free Download: The Norwegian tape label Hypertonia World Enterprises put together their first compilation in 1988. It was an underground xmas comp. with contributions from many artists from Europe and the US. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of this release the label is offering a free download of the hour long tape.

Artists included: Nicole Campau, Laurent Fauconnet, X-omatic (aka Skjit-Lars), Sack, Joe Menichetti & Beverly Slade, George Galvas & The Helmets, F:A.R., Injuryen (Juryen, with Brt from Famlende Forsøk), Leisure Sisters, To Trøtte Typer, Trio Zuter, X Ray Pop, James Hill & Mickey Stein, No Unauthorized, Åreknuteknyterne, Walter Ulbricht Experience, Phantom Limb & The 3 Wise Men and Costes.

Reviews:
«Quite a few of these xmas tunes are those we've come to know & love, some are perhaps traditional in other countries, & some have definately been specially written for this compilation...», Stick It In Your Ear zine
«This is an especially good tape for those of you who have relatives who insist on playing those old Bing Crosby records throughout December. Pop this baby in - there's enough "seriousness" mixed in to pull it off! A definite MUST!!!», But a Twist of the Lip... zine

Norsk: Gratis julemusikk! Det er 20 års jubileum for den første samlekz'n på labelen Hypertonia World Enterprises. Det var en julekassett med "hjemme"-innspilt musikk fra en lang rekke europeiske og amerikanske artister og band. Du kan laste ned hele utgivelsen her.

Download (88 Mb): Rapidshare

Hypertonia World Enterprises / HWE Blog

Bettie Page dies at 85

"Bettie Page, the brunet pinup queen with a shoulder-length pageboy hairdo and kitschy bangs whose saucy photos helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, has died. She was 85.
Page, whose later life was marked by depression, violent mood swings and several years in a state mental institution, died Thursday night at Kindred Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had been on life support since suffering a heart attack Dec. 2, according to her agent, Mark Roesler.
A cult figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957. The photos showed her in high heels and bikinis or negligees, bondage apparel -- or nothing at all.
Decades later, those images inspired biographies, comic books, fan clubs, websites, commercial products -- Bettie Page playing cards, dress-up magnet sets, action figures, Zippo lighters, shot glasses -- and, in 2005, a film about her life and times, "The Notorious Bettie Page."
Source: LA Times

LA Times Obituary / Bettie Page.com / Planet Bettie / The Bettie Page / Bettie Page @ Wikipedia / The Notorious Bettie Page / The Notorious Bettie Page @ Wikipedia / Bettie Page: Dark Angel @ Wikipedia

The Ruts - The Crack (1979)

The Ruts were a reggae-influenced British punk rock band, notable for the 1979 Top 10 hit "Babylon's Burning", and an earlier single "In a Rut", which was not a hit but was much played and highly regarded by the UK BBC Radio 1 disc jockey, John Peel.
The band consisted of Malcolm Owen (vocals), Paul Fox (guitar), John "Segs" Jennings (bass) and Dave Ruffy (drums). As part of the People Unite collective based in Southall in West London the band were active in anti-racist causes, and their song "Jah War" is about the Special Patrol Group's violence in Southall in 1979, in which Blair Peach was beaten to death and Clarence Baker was severely injured.
The Ruts backed Laurel Aitken who was then signed to the Secret Affair record label, I-Spy Records on a John Peel session for BBC Radio 1, in April/May 1980, and also backed Aitken on his support tour to Secret Affair - The line-up was Aitken, Fox, Jennings, Ruffy, Owen and Barnacle.
Malcolm Owen died from a heroin overdose on 14 July 1980 at the age of 26. The b-side "H-eyes" of "In a Rut" was a song against heroin use, and two other songs, "Dope for Guns" from the album The Crack, plus "Love in Vain" (b-side of "Staring at the Rude Boys") were also anti-drug songs.
On 16 July 2007 the band reformed for the first time in 27 years and played a special one off benefit gig for Paul Fox, following his diagnosis with lung cancer. Henry Rollins (of Black Flag), stood in for Owen. They were supported by Tom Robinson, The Damned, Misty in Roots, U.K. Subs, Splodge (Splodgenessabounds), John Otway; and the Peafish House Band which featured Lee Harris, (The Blockheads), Tony Barber (Buzzcocks) and Rowland Rivron, plus Edward Tudor-Pole and T. V. Smith.
Fox, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in mid 2007, died on 21 October of the same year at the age of 56.
"The Crack" is The Ruts first album, released in 1979 and containing the UK hit singles: "Babylon's Burning" (No. 7 in the UK chart in June 1979) and "Something That I Said" (No. 29 in September 1979) The white-reggae-ish "Jah War" which was written in the aftermath of the Southall unrest and the over-use of force by the Metropolitan Police Service's Special Patrol Group in 1979 was also released as a single but didn't make the UK chart.
Source: Wikipedia

Tracklist: 1. Babylon's Burning, 2. Dope For Guns, 3. S.U.S., 4. Something That I Said, 5. You're Just a...., 6. It Was Cold, 7. Savage Circle, 8. Jah War, 9. Criminal Mind, 10. Backbiter, 11. Out of Order, 12. Human Punk (Live), 13. Give Youth a Chance (Bonus), 14. I Ain't Sofisticated (Bonus), 15. The Crack (Bonus).
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The Ruts @ MySpace / The Ruts @ Wikipedia

Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy (2008)

Usually I don't post any new and easily available music here, but today I'll make an exception. Axl Rose and his bunch of hired guns have finally finished their "Chinese Democracy" album, and here it is for your listening "pleasure".
"Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band, led by frontman and co-founder Axl Rose, has gone through numerous line-up changes and controversies since their formation. The band has released five studio albums, two EPs and one live album during their career.
"Chinese Democracy" is the upcoming sixth studio album by American rock band Guns N' Roses, to be released worldwide on November 23, 2008 and in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2008. Once released, it will be their first studio album since 1993's "The Spaghetti Incident?", and their first album of original studio material since the simultaneous release of "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II" in September 1991. Retail store chain Best Buy will exclusively sell the album in the United States.
In a 2007 interview, Axl Rose's close friend Sebastian Bach stated that "Chinese Democracy" will be the first installment in a trilogy of new albums. Bach also remarked that Rose had told him the third, as yet untitled, album has been slated for 2012".
Source: Wikipedia

Tracklist: 1. Chinese Democracy, 2. Shackler's Revenge, 3. Better, 4. Street of Dreams, 5. If the World, 6. There Was a Time, 7. Catcher In the Rye, 8. Scraped, 9. Riad N' the Bedouins, 10. Sorry, 11. I.R.S., 12. Madagascar, 13. This I Love, 14. Prostitute.
Download (136 Mb): Rapidshare

Guns N' Roses Official Website / Guns N' Roses @ Myspace / Guns N' Roses @ Wikipedia / The Chinese Democracy Story @ Wikipedia

Coil - Unreleased Hellraiser Soundtrack (1987)

Hellraiser is a 1987 British horror film exploring the themes of sadomasochism, pain as a source of pleasure, and morality under duress and fear. It is based on the critically acclaimed novella The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker, who also wrote the screenplay and directed the film. In the UK, the film is titled Clive Barker's Hellraiser. It is the first film in the Hellraiser series. Seven subsequent sequels followed with a remake of the first announced in 2007.
Clive Barker originally commissioned a soundtrack for Hellraiser from the industrial band Coil. The music they supplied was rejected, and Christopher Young provided a more traditional orchestral score for the finished movie. Coil's score, which was apparently described by Barker in a complimentary manner as being "bowel churning", has been released in isolation as The Unreleased Themes For Hellraiser and as part of the compilation Unnatural History II (CD) (1995).
Coil's original theme was later covered by the Italian black metal band Aborym on their debut album Kali Yuga Bizarre
The Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser (subtitled The Consequences of Raising Hell) was the fourth album that Coil released in the year 1987. The album was released on the CD, cassette and 10" vinyl. It was the proposed soundtrack to the film Hellraiser. A common misconception is that this version was deamed "too scary" to use, however in all actuality it was turned down because it was not considered commercial enough by the studio. The following quote by Cliver Barker, which was included on the album cover to the vinyl version, may have helped to perpetuate this myth: "The only group I've heard on disc whose records I've taken off because they made my bowels churn"
A-side tracks from the 10"/cassette version and all tracks from the CD version later appeared on the Unnatural History II compilation. B-side tracks from the 10"/cassette version later appeared as a single track on Unnatural History III.
This is the only release on the record label Solar Lodge, with catalog number COIL 1. The cassette version was licensed to Soleilmoon and released in 1990, with catalog number SOL 4. The cassette features a different cover than the CD and vinyl release.

10" Vinyl & Cassette Track List: Side A: "The Unreleased Themes For Hellraiser": 1. Hellraiser, 2. Box Theme, 3. Main Title.
Side B: "Music For Commercials": 1. Airline 1, 2. Liqueur, 3. Perfume, 4. Video Recorder, 5. Airline 2, 6. Natural Gas, 7. Cosmetic 1, 8. Cosmetic 2, 9. Analgesic, 10.Road Surface, 11.Accident Insurance.
CD Track List: 1. Hellraiser Themes, 2. The Hellbound Heart, 3. Box Theme, 4. No New World, 5. Attack of the Sennapods, 6. Main Title.
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The Sonics - Øyafestivalen, Oslo, Norway 09.08.2008

The most dangerous band in the world! Live in Oslo, Norway yesterday! Enjoy!
"If you think Punk started in London in 1977 or New York in 1975 or even Detroit in 1969, you had better take a listen to this. Punk started in the early sixties in America's Pacific Northwest. End of story. This is what you get when you put a bunch of spotty, angry, musically-challenged young men together in a dank cellar with some Danelectro guitars, Silvertone amps, a Farfisa organ and some crappy drums. This is definitely music that parents don't want their kids to hear. Actually, come to think of it, maybe it's music that kids don't want their parents to hear.
The Sonics' sound is noticeably rougher, cruder, and more brutal than that of their musical peers. Although they had a fairly standard instrumental line up for the time, The Sonics made their unique sound with wild arrangements, often disturbing lyrics, peppered with screaming and howling, and electric guitars played through amplifiers customized to achieve the harshest tones possible. Although their chief period of success was coincident with the release of Gibson's first fuzzbox, The Sonics' fuzzy sound was their own creation.
The songs they played were a mixture of garage rock standards ("Louie, Louie"), early rock and roll ("Jenny, Jenny") and original compositions such as "Strychnine", "Psycho", and "The Witch", all based upon simple chord sequences, played hard and fast.
The lyrics of The Sonics' original material dealt with early '60s teenage culture; cars, guitars, surfing, and girls (in songs like "The Hustler" and "Maintaining My Cool") alongside darker subject matter such as drinking strychnine for kicks, witches, psychopaths, and Satan (in the songs "Strychnine", "The Witch", "Psycho", and "He's Waiting", respectively)".
Source: Amazon & Wikipedia

Here's the concert in 256 kbps mp3's!

Tracklist: 1. He's Waiting, 2. Money, 3. Cinderella, 4. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, 5. Boss Hoss, 6. Keep On Knockin', 7. The Hustler, 8. You Got Your Head On Backwards, Baby, 9. Have Love Will Travel, 10. Strychnine, 11. Lucille, 12. Walkin' the Dog, 13. Shot Down, 14. Dirty Robber, 15. Psycho, 16. Louie Louie, 17. The Witch.
Download (114 Mb): Megaupload

Turbonegro - Apocalypse Dudes: Øyafestivalen, Oslo, Norway 07.08.2008

All hail the mighty force of the Turbonegro! This week Turbonegro performed their classic album "Apocalypse Dudes" live from start to finish at Øyafestivalen in Oslo, Norway - to celebrate that it's ten years since it was released. This is one of the best Turbonegro shows I've seen since the 90's, they look great and play like viking gods!
As a bonus they do covers of "Suffragette City" by David Bowie - a single B-side - and "Nervous Breakdown" by Black Flag. The concert also features Ebbot Lundberg from Union Carbide Productions/The Soundtrack of Our Lives and Nick Oliveri from Queens of the Stone Age/Mondo Generator as special guests.

Here's the whole concert in 256 kbps mp3's!

Tracklist: 1. Intro, 2. The Age of Pamparius, 3. Selfdestructo Bust, 4. Get It On, 5. Rock Against Ass, 6. Don't Say Motherfucker, Motherfucker, 7. Zillion Dollar Sadist, 8. Rendezvous With Anus (Feat. Ebbot Lundgren), 9. Prince of the Rodeo, 10. Back to Dungaree High (Feat. Nick Oliveri), 11. Are You Ready (For Some Darkness), 12. Monkey On Your Back, 13. Humiliation Street, 14. Good Head, 15. Suffragette City, 16. Nervous Breakdown (Feat. Ebbot Lundgren & Nick Oliveri).
Download (118 Mb): Megaupload

Turbonegro.com / Turbonegro Archive / Turbonegro Discography / Turbonegro @ MySpace / Turbonegro @ Wikipedia

Henry Rollins on the radio every day!

This week our favorite american boy, Henry Rollins, has been guest hosting Steve Jones's show Jonesy's Jukebox on Indie 101.3.

Download all the shows HERE!

Henry Rollins.com / The Henry Rollins Show / Harmony In My Head / Rollins Archive / Henry Rollins @ IMDb / Henry Rollins @ Wikipedia

Mötley Crüe - Saints of Los Angeles preview @ Amazon.com

Amazon.com just made my day! As a fanatic Mötley Crüe fan I nearly wet my pants when I found out that Amazon has put up previews of all 13 tracks of their coming masterpiece "Saints of Los Angeles". The Crüe has been one of my favorite bands since I was 12 years old - I can't help it :)
Listen to the previews HERE!

"Mötley Crüe (IPA pronunciation: /'mɒtli kru/) is an American glam metal/heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1981.
The band was founded by bass guitarist Nikki Sixx (who was, at the time, in a band called London) and drummer Tommy Lee, who were later joined by lead guitarist Mick Mars (whom Sixx first met at a liquor store, before they met again through a classified ad) and singer Vince Neil. Mötley Crüe has sold over 72 million album copies worldwide, including 25 million copies in the US alone. The band has often been noted for their hard-living lifestyles; all members have had numerous brushes with the law, spent time in jail, suffered long addictions to alcohol and drugs, had countless escapades with women, and are heavily tattooed. Their ninth studio album entitled Saints of Los Angeles is due to be released on June 17, 2008, while a film adaptation of their best-selling band autobiography The Dirt, is due to be released sometime in 2009".
Source: Wikipedia

Mötley Crüe / Mötley Crüe @ MySpace / Mötley Crüe @ Wikipedia