Man your battlestations, it’s time for another quiz. No clue for this week’s puzzle, as you guys are far too good at this already.

Below are magnified fragments of 25 album covers. Most of them are well-known albums, but there are a few obscure covers (or lesser-known albums from well-known artists) mixed in to keep you honest. You must guess both the artist and album cover. In order to keep things simple, live albums, soundtracks and singles compilations will not be used, and with all apologies to our European and Japanese friends, we are going with the covers that appeared in the US record stores…back when we had record stores. Sigh.

The rules are the same as Name That Tune. Each player can make three guesses between updates (“Update” is defined as “The time when I post a comment listing all of the covers that have been guessed correctly”), so everyone will have a chance to contribute. And, just to spice things up, we have a puzzle cover this week, yay! One guess per player of the puzzle between updates, please. Is it on? Oh, it’s on.

1)

2) (more…)

Ted Asregadoo

This is the first time Barack Obama and John McCain have faced each other as competitors rather than Senate colleagues, and it’s clear that the chumminess of that institution cast a long shadow over the early part of the debate. Both were cordial, often agreed with one another, and had trouble defining themselves as candidates with different ideas on addressing the problems of the country.

It wasn’t until moderator Jim Lehrer pushed the two of them to articulate their differences that we saw that chumminess start to evaporate.  One of the overarching themes of Friday night’s debate was about resources and how best to allocate them. Money, jobs, energy, and even troops were the resources in question, and the politics centered on how much for whom. Tax breaks for oil companies and businesses, or tax breaks for families making $250,000 or less? Which was going to do its economic magic and help the economy recover? Trickle down or bottom up?

On energy, the two candidates were pretty much on the same page, and only differed on details of how much and when. What shocks me the most is Obama’s support for nuclear energy. Why, if he’s so keen on preventing nuclear “suitcase bombs” from going off in American cities, does he not see the danger of nuclear reactors as terrorist targets? Also, almost no attention is being paid to the huge costs to taxpayers in setting up nuclear reactors, and once they are set up, how do you deal with the nuclear waste? Yucca Mountain can’t hold it all. His pragmatism on oil drilling is understandable, but it overshadows his commitment to alternative energy — which, when McCain chimes in, makes it sound like both men don’t mean it.

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Yep, another Duran Duran post from Popdose’s resident DD fanboy (or Durannie, as we were once called). Between this, my White Label post on “Hold Back the Rain,” and John Hughes’ post on “My Own Way,” Popdose has officially covered one third of the band’s 1982 album Rio. I’m sure Lord Jefito never envisioned that when he assembled this alleged All-Star lineup of bloggers.

Now, I loved “Save a Prayer” as much as the next teenage girl, but when it came to Duran ballads, my heart lay with “The Chauffeur.” As pretty as “Prayer” is, the lyric never really meant anything to me (yes, I know that Simon’s lyrics didn’t really mean much to anyone). I was too young to call one-night stands paradise, and there was no reason for anyone to say or save a prayer for me.

Maybe the problem was that I just hadn’t heard the right arrangement of it yet.

In 1992, Steve Anderson, the Brothers in Rhythm member who made an earlier appearance in my White Label column on the Human League’s “Love Action,” assembled the most beautiful, absolutely fucking brilliant mix of a track I have heard before or since. Dubbed the “Thunder in Our Hearts” mix –- he samples Kate Bush in the intro, but not, strangely enough, “Running Up That Hill,” the song that features those words –- Anderson strips out the drum and bass tracks, replacing them with tasteful, electronic versions of each. Most of Nick Rhodes’ keyboard tracks are scrapped too, in favor of strings and piano. But it’s not just the new additions that make this mix so good; it’s Anderson’s arrangements and breakdowns that make the re-instrumentation so effective.

There really isn’t anything else to say. If you didn’t care for the original song, this might change your tune. If you are a fan of the song, prepare to be mindblown.

Duran Duran - Save a Prayer (DMC Thunder in Our Hearts Mix)

Between the Devil and the deep blue sea. Those are our options in dealing with this financial mess — or so it seems if you’ve been following events since the initial government bailout of Freddie and Fannie. Our, ahem, esteemed leaders in the Bush Administration have acted in a way that’s all too familiar when there are warning signs in the air: do nothing until critical mass has been reached, then make an unprecedented power grab in the name of security. We’ve seen this before: Bush ignores a report about Bin Laden hell bent on attacking the U.S. - and one method is using hijacking airplanes and flying them into icons of western power. 9/11 happens, and what’s the response? How were we to know that terrorists would use airplanes as missiles?

The run-up to the Iraq war: a case study in scaring the hell out of Americans. You remember, right? That “New Hitler” named Saddam Hussein was this close to getting The Bomb, and if we didn’t act, well, let’s just say mushroom clouds going off in American cities would have been in our immediate future. If that wasn’t enough, just throw in a few references to 9/11, Bin Laden, terrorism and one, two, three, we have a compliant populace ready to surrender those pesky things called rights to the government — all in the name of security and overthrowing the New Hitler.

This, my friends, is crisis politics in a nutshell, and it all comes at a price. How much, you say? Well get this: we’re spending over $300 million a day in Iraq, the cost of creating our newest bureaucracy (The Department of Homeland Security) is roughly $37-40 billion a year, and now with the current financial crisis, Congress is supposed to roll over and play dead while they hand over $700 billion (perhaps $1.8 trillion) to the Treasury Secretary to bail out failing or failed financial institutions. You start to add that up, and you’ll see we’re talking about real money here. Might I add that all of this money is being allocated and spent as both candidates for president are talking about tax cuts. If it all seems a bit unreal, that’s because it is. The debt that the government is incurring won’t be paid by us here and now (because, you know, taxes are evil). Rather, it’s being pushed farther and farther into the future where our profligate debt will be some other generation’s problem. (more…)

Are these quizzes still bringing on the heartbreak, or is this the time you show that you’re for real? Or did I just give you a clue to one of this week’s covers? That’s for me to know and for you to find out. Homer Simpson once said it takes two to lie: one to lie, and one to listen. In 16 years, I never understood what he meant by that.

Below are magnified fragments of 25 album covers. Most of them are well-known albums, but there are a few obscure covers (or lesser-known albums from well-known artists) mixed in to keep you honest. You must guess both the artist and album cover. In order to keep things simple, live albums, soundtracks and singles compilations will not be used, and with all apologies to our European and Japanese friends, we are going with the covers that appeared in the US record stores…back when we had record stores. Sigh.

The rules are the same as Name That Tune. Each player can make three guesses between updates (“Update” is defined as “The time when I post a comment listing all of the covers that have been guessed correctly”), so everyone will have a chance to contribute. And, just to spice things up, we have a puzzle cover this week, yay! Oh, and just for kicks, I flipped one of the covers around (it’ll make sense when you see it). One guess per player of the puzzle between updates, please. Ready, Freddys and Bettys? Time to rock steady.

1)

2)

UPDATE: Expanded looks at the final two covers contained at the bottom.
(more…)

DOWNLOAD THE FULL MIX HERE

This mix all started with an article on Billboard.com that I sent to Jason Hare. It was about how the Who’s album of cover tunes (produced by T-Bone Burnett) is on hold until … well, no one really knows. Anyway, Jason and I had a back and forth about Who covers, and the next thing I know, I have this week’s Mix Six pretty much in the can.

“Dancing in the Street,” The Who (Download)

Do you ever get obsessed with a song and just have to hear the whole thing after listening to a snippet? Well, that’s what happened when Jason sent me a link for live version of “Dancing in the Street” the Who did in 1979. The sample is from an out of print EP called Won’t Get Fooled Again. Instead of doing the obvious and asking him for an mp3 copy, I spent way too much time trolling sites looking for the song. Alas, I came up short. But Jason eventually tracked it down through his own network of Who fans, and now you have a chance to hear it, too. Kids, what we have here is a very rare recording, so get it while it’s hot! (more…)

I’ve never been a big fan of Neil Young — I’ll just say it, it’s that pinched voice of his — but I will admit to liking several of his songs once they were covered by other artists whose voices I found slightly less irritating. I love the Pixies’ take on “I’ve Been Waiting for You,” and I even find Duran Duran’s version of “The Needle and the Damage Done” preferable to the original. Let me guess: you just said something snarky about Duran’s 1995 covers album, Thank You. You’re right, it sucks. Perhaps that’s why they left this off the album; it was too good to make the cut. (It appeared on one of the CD singles of their cover of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” Lou allegedly loved Duran’s version of his song, for what it’s worth.)

However, Nicolette Larson’s version of “Lotta Love,” 30-some years after she recorded it, has forever changed the way I feel about Neil Young and his approach to songwriting.

The Web has not been very forthcoming when it comes to confirming this, but I recently stumbled upon an awesome quote associated to Neil Young about how songs should be treated like houses that anyone can live in. If only the songwriter can relate to a song, then how can anyone else enjoy the experience of listening to it? Songs are for everyone, and the more universal the theme, the more relatable, and homey, it is. Larson, the Jim Keltner of session singers in the ‘70s and runner-up in the Crystal Gayle Hair-Off, allegedly found “Lotta Love” on a cassette while riding in Young’s car. He said, “You want it?” He apparently didn’t have much use for it, but Larson thought it would be perfect for her 1978 debut solo album, the succinctly titled Nicolette. She was right; the song climbed to #8 on the Top 40 and #1 on the AC chart. “Lotta Love,” as sung by Larson, is one of the coziest houses you’ll ever set foot in.

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Okay, last week was just too easy. Time to spice things up a bit.

Below are magnified fragments of 25 album covers. Most of them are well-known albums, but there are a few obscure covers (or lesser-known albums from well-known artists) mixed in to keep you honest. You must guess both the artist and album cover. In order to keep things simple, live albums, soundtracks and singles compilations will not be used, and with all apologies to our European and Japanese friends, we are going with the covers that appeared in the US record stores…back when we had record stores. Sigh.

The rules are the same as Name That Tune. Each player can make three guesses between updates (“Update” is defined as “The time when I post a comment listing all of the covers that have been guessed correctly”), so everyone will have a chance to contribute. And we have a puzzle cover this week, yay! One guess per player of the puzzle between updates, please. Ready, Freddys and Bettys? Time to rock steady.

1)

2)

UPDATE: Expanded pictures now posted for the remaining covers!
(more…)

DOWNLOAD THE FULL MIX HERE

Hello, my Mix Six friends!  I was trolling the Internets the other day and was curious about popular songs in other parts of the world. So after a few hours looking at charts, artist websites, hunting down mp3s and the like, I’ve assembled what I think are a pretty good selection of pop songs from the big world. So, shall we get started?

“Tongolo,” D’Banj (Koko Master) (Download)

One of the most popular Nigerian artists, D’Banj’s music has great hooks and his presence on stage is very energetic — or so I have read. I like his sense of humor, too. Over at his website he has a great intro video that will give you a flavor of his personality.  He is, after all, D’Koko master.

“Watch Out,” Alex Gaudino (Feat. Shena) (Download)

Currently the number one song in Mexico.  Alex is a Italian DJ and Shena is a vocalist from the UK whose voice has been used in a number of dance songs.  While I’m certainly not a guy who frequents discos (not because I don’t like to dance, but because I’m way too old for that scene), I thought this tune, while very good, wasn’t something I would peg to be a number one song.  Then I saw the video and I now realize why it’s so popular. (more…)

My girlfriend Kim (a.k.a. College Ex #2) hated this song from the start.

I can’t say I blame her, really. Not because the song is bad or anything – au contraire, the song is all kinds of awesome – but because she knew what I knew, but what neither of us wanted to admit: we just didn’t belong together. And this song summed up our relationship in 17 words, though it would be another four and a half years before we accepted it:

There are things I want to do
But I don’t know if they will be with you

That’s the genius of Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque: it’s staggeringly economical. The lyrics to “What You Do to Me” are 20 — count ‘em! — 20 words long. The chorus to “The Concept” is “I didn’t want to hurt you / Oooooooh yeaaaaaah.” But nothing from the album pierced me like those first two lines from “Alcoholiday,” because there were things I wanted to do someday – get married, have kids – but I always questioned whether she would be the one that I’d do them with. I now realize, of course, that if you’re not sure if you want to marry someone, it’s a sure sign that you don’t – and shouldn’t – marry them.

But man, did I love her. With everything I had. It just wasn’t enough. Her parents and friends didn’t like me, my family and friends didn’t like her, and our relationship with each other was what Matt Groening once described as Cobra & Mongoose. Nothing was going to hold this one together. That is perhaps the toughest lesson I have ever learned, that sometimes love isn’t enough. I was such a naïve romantic that I truly believed that love could conquer all. Fool. “Baby, I’ve been fucked already,” indeed.

Teenage Fanclub – Alcoholiday