MINE FOR LIFE

Friday, September 4, 2009

Underworld - Change The Weather (1989)

Underworld - Change The Weather (from the album Change The Weather, 1989)

I often pick up CD's from odd places that I think might be rare or unusual, even if I don't necessarily plan on keeping the album in my collection. An example this week was when I bought the Underworld album Change The Weather for three bucks. Although not particularly valuable, it is fairly hard to find here in the US. I was familiar with Underworld in the 90's, of course, but I was surprised to discover just how melodic and accessible this earlier album is, from beginning to end. The title track is also the lead track, and sets the tone nicely.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Link-O-Rama

The end of August is always a weird time for me. I split with my first wife over the August bank holiday weekend a few years back and then had my divorce finalized a year later almost to the day. This was also at the time when Princess Diana died and everyone was just in a state of shock anyway.

But time moves on, and I was very happy to realize that the end of August is also my blog anniversary and I can celebrate two years of holding court in cyberspace with nothing but a pair of Snoopy PJ's and a box of ~~compact discs~~ records.

Even though I moan and grumble a bit, I really do appreciate the long term bloggers I have made friends with over the last two years. Speaking of which, and PJ's as well, I was a bit stunned to notice that I have never bothered to link back to one of my longest serving contributors, the weirdly wonderful Barely Awake In Frog Pyjamas, so I am happy to correct that today. I also get to post a picture of a frog:

Without a doubt, that is the most self-satisfied amphibian I have ever seen. Perhaps a Princess was coming down the path at the time?

You would think with my vast store of musical knowledge I could come up with something better than this, but no, I am not going to post the-oh-so-obvious Peter Gabriel here.

Ed Kilbourne - Frog Kissing

The Divine Comedy - The Frog Princess

Also want to mention two other favorites - there's a lot of good stuff at Diggin' In The Vault right now and I'd also recommend RetroUniverse for a decent stroll down memory lane.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

It's All Geek To Me

After a flurry of posts with little actual written content, I decided it was time for a round up of things going on in MFL country. Fasten your seat belt.

I'm not quite sure why I have such a soft spot for the RAH Band. I mean, most of their singles mine pretty much the same sonic territory, they all sound a bit dated, and of course there is really no image to speak of. Maybe that's the point. The "band" is no more than the images on their stylized record covers and inoffensive electrpop fluff. Having said that, I was curiously proud to notice that several of the earlier albums are now included on iTunes and Amazon MP3, including the classic Mystery. I'll have to put up one of those Amazon widget-e-bob thingies. Anyway, the other comment I wanted to make was that while looking for info on A Bigger Splash, a band I posted about recently, I discovered a French band also called A Bigger Splash, who have recorded a delightful downtempo version of "Clouds Across The Moon", a RAH Band classic. I'm not going to post it, because everyone can hear it at Myspace here and then buy it yourselves here if you so choose. How do I know they're French? Well, there's the album cover for one thing... (NSFW, kiddies!!!)

Yeah, no wonder I didn't see it at Wal-Mart.

So, what else is new. Well, one thing that annoys me about living stateside is that I don't have a clue about British telly. I'm still watching League of Gentlemen and Jonathan Creek reruns from ten years ago. I recently discovered That Mitchell And Webb Look, which I thought was pretty funny. The job interview sketch has me in stitches every time.

Remember that (fairly lame) movie Phenomenon with John Travolta? The one where he turns into a genius because he has cancer or some (yeah okay that's enough "written content" - Ed. Sniiiiiiiip)