Ryan's "Stepping out of the darkness and into the light" Mix

Happy Valentine's Day!!!


To celebrate, my very own valentine Ryan Hora has created an extremely magical mixtape for this day of burning hearts and sweet love letters ... Really though, it's an awesome mix for any occasion ... You can shake and shimmy in your kitchen to it ... You can drive all around town to it ... You can take a long bubble bath to it ... You can even work out your taxes to it! It's chock full of intriguing brand new tunes from nowadays, along with some sparkling gems from way back when ...


Thanks, Ryan! XOXO


Now, get ready to step out of the darkness and into the light!

You can download the mix HERE.





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Happy Birthday, Psychic Tuesday!!!


Roughly, 3 years ago (Feb. 17th, 2009) I was looking at the Deerhunter blog and listening to one of Bradford Cox's many incredible "micromixes" on there when suddenly I was inspired and compelled to start my own blog ...


You can view the 1st ever entry I made for this blog on that fateful Tuesday RIGHT HERE.



And below is the 1st ever mixtape I made for it (entitled the "Rainy Power Bill Mix"), which today is 3 years old! Back then, I hadn't discovered a way for folks to instantly listen to the mix, so celebrationally, today I'm presenting the mix as a P.T. flashback ... ENJOY!

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and now ... some random news




Ryan posted this great link full of ridiculous clip art versions of famous album covers ... You can view them RIGHT HERE. Thanks, R!




And HERE is a great link I found listing the "top 5 regrets of the dying" ... It really puts things into perspective somehow.




Also, if you've never seen or heard of it, check out "TV Carnage", which collages a ton of delightful and weird old school television moments together ... YES! View the insanity RIGHT HERE.





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VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS! VIDEOS!




Hey look! Alabama Shakes were on Conan!!!

1.


2.



Some psychedelic beauty, thanks to Julian House and Belbury Poly =




Enter the surreal world of Julia Holter =

Wow! Elise sent this great 80's underground nugget by Trees ... cheers, E! =




Elise also posted this rather awesome India hand puppetry thingy ... thanks again! =




Haha ... David Faust posted some great live Captain Beefheart stuff ... But I'm at a loss for words at 12:58 ... haha ... Gracias, David! =




Wes Reid (Tan Lnz) sent me this rad clip by Hobo Cubes ... danke, Wes! =

I somehow stumbled upon this wonderful 1966 clip of Cherry Wainer & Don Storer ... Groovy! =




This next bit is pretty bizarre ... Lindsay Denniberg is working on a film called "Video Diary Of A Lost Girl" (Teadorra does the soundtrack, too!) and this is the intro ... !!! =






A double decker dessert!



Charlie Sanders posted this nutty "Tim & Eric" clip ... thanks, Charlie! =




Charlie also posted this one ... haha! Merci! =

Six More Weeks Of Winter Mix

This mixtape will be perfect for =

A. Wearing warm clothes and braving the freezing gales outside.
B. Wearing short shorts and playing badmitten in the summery sun outside.



On February 2nd, the ground hog saw his shadow, predicting 6 more weeks of winter ... But so far this particular Winter has been incredibly MILD ... Sooooo I decided to make a mixtape that might be suitable for six weeks of either very cold weather OR six weeks of fairly warm weather ... As always, ENJOY.

Wanna download it?
You can do so RIGHT HERE.






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Speaking of winter mixes, The Advisory Circle's Winter Mix is pretty damned wonderful ... check it =

Also, the Jacuzzi Boys made a pretty rad "Alabama Is For 60s Garage Lovers" mix ... dig =

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Random News Bits =


Check out the Artfolk site news ... It mentions my upcoming "Silent Majority" art show (the opening is March 2nd!) that I've been working so hard on!




Read HERE about that silly and embarrassing Alabama immigration law and just how problematic it has become ... silly lawmakers.




Also, Birmingham's own Urbandy has an incredible debut full-length album out now!
Dig it RIGHT HERE.

Here's a spiffy promo video for it =

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it's V I D E O T I M E ! ! !





A new one from the rather awesome Nicolas Jaar ... hurrah! =




Pure animated bliss, care of M. Ward =




The spooky/creepy new Die Antwoord video =




This one's for Ryan cuz he indeed loves Zola Jesus (she's playing THIS Saturday nite at The Bottletree here in B'ham!) =




Hey look! Bjork was on the Colbert Report! =

Genders collide on this new one from The Magnetic Fields =




Matthew Goodin posted this video called "Jaan Pehechaan Ho", which is from an Indian suspense thriller called "Ghumnaam" (meaning "The Unknown" ) ... but if you've seen the movie "Ghost World", you'll recognize it immediately as the scene from the opening credits! Thanks, Matt! =








Ready for some dessert ???





Jennifer Harrel posted this crazy bit about the delicious, I mean grease-dissolving Fabuloso ... haha ... cheers, Jennifer! =




And Roy Burns posted this next one ... funny how well this scene from "The Empire Strikes Back" translates into a silent movie ... gracias, Roy! =




And finally, Elise posted this video of a cat who gets caught barking instead of meowing ... I don't know what I would think if I caught my kitty Charley doing such a thing! Danke, E! =

Cassette Commotion! program 1

Well, here we are ... the last Tuesday of the first month of 2012 ...


Last year on each of these particular Tuesdays, I decided to release a new "Thrift Store Vinyl Radio" program, and putting each show together ended up being a ton of fun. I haven't completely ruled out doing more of those shows this year, but I did realize recently that I have a HUGE amount of cassette tapes which have really amassed through the years, half of which I have NO IDEA what is on them ...

Soooo I thought it'd be quite an audio adventure to go through them and make a sort of strange "grab bag" kind of mixtape/sound collage radio show out of what I happened to find on them!


My basic "process" was taking handfuls of tapes and randomly placing them in plastic grocery bags, thus separating them. Then, for each show I will dump the load of tapes (one bag at the end of each month) onto the floor and just record stuff from what I come across!


Some tapes have no writing on them whatsoever, so in that respect I'm gonna have to simply say that the track is either "found sound" or maybe just guess at who the artist is ... haha ... I'm stoked about completely RANDOM this process will be! Going to thrift stores and not really having a set item that I'm looking for is such a passion of mine ... I love just suddenly chancing upon all sorts of hidden treasures and odd gems that I never expected to discover ... This will more or less be my attitude and philosophy with this "radio program" ...


And with that in mind, let's pop open the 1st bag and just see what happens! As always ... ENJOY!!!


(The 3rd track on this particular show is taken from a cassette by the local musician, Tan Lnz from Gadsden, AL and his stuff is pretty amazing! Check out his blog RIGHT HERE!)

You can download the mix HERE.






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2 random news items =


1. John Wendel posted this wonderful piece about the music of my favorite band ever, The Smiths that recently aired on NPR ... Have a listen : "Long Live The Smiths' Complete Works" ... thanks a ton, John!!!



2. Listen to this eye-opening piece about Alabama's absolutely embarrassing and horrible immigration law that aired on "This American Life" RIGHT HERE. Shame, shame Alabama lawmakers.







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VIDEO TIME! VIDEO TIME! VIDEO TIME! VIDEO TIME! VIDEO TIME!





1stly, Justin posted this awesome undergroundFrench 1977 classic by Plastic Bertrand ... cheers, J-Unit! =




Ryan posted this sppoky trailer for the new Die Antwoord album ... yikes! Thanks, R! =




And John Wendel posted this intense Boris video for their 2009 song, "Pink" ... Danke, John! =




Roy Burns recently posted this paint-smeared madness by Nurses ... Gracias! =




This 'un by Ant'lrd (Colin Blanton, originally from B'ham) has some rather cool old film footage in it =

Speaking of old film footage, this one by The Caretaker is chock full of it ... Creepy meets sleepy! =




Funnily enough, this next video actually sounds like something The Caretaker would do, but the sound is amazingly produced by actual TREERINGS ... It's a modified turntable that reads treerings and makes piano music out of them! HERE's the article and here's the video =







Dessert is upon us!




Jennifer Harrell posted this 1st one and I think it's hilarious! Kudos to this violinist for his grand sense of humor! Thanks, Jennifer! =




And Jennifer's sister, Sarah Harrell posted this funny early Woody Allen stand-up routine, "The Moose" ... cheers, Sarah! =




Oh Lord! Ryan sent me this ridiculous screaming preacher ... haha!!! Wow! =




And finally, Roy posted this dad and 2 kids performing "Everything Counts" by Depeche Mode ... Excellent! Merci! =

Focal Point : Cocteau Twins

Cocteau Twins.


I don't even know where to start. This band has amazed and perplexed and entertained my ears for so many years. Although they dissolved in 1997, to this day their sound continues to transcend anything and everything else around them. The music of Robin Guthrie and Simon Raymonde seems to be spun from color-soaked dream clouds floating in some ethereal other-world, while Elizabeth Fraser's voice bounces, floats and flies through their sonic atmosphere like some elated angel, a soaring bird, an audible aura ...



And that honestly is the best I can describe their sound ...

... Sigh ...


It feels appropriate that I actually don't have words to accurately explain Cocteau Twins' music because so often, Elizabeth Fraser didn't actually sing lyrics, but rather she just sang sounds and syllables, like musically imitating the sounds a baby would make ... It's been defined as Glossolalia or mouth music, and in a way it sort of sets the listener free ... You find yourself simply listening to the human voice as a beautiful instrument instead of reacting to words and sentences and meanings ...



And on that note, may I proudly present to you the pure ecstatic joy that is Cocteau Twins =

You can download the mix HERE.






Here are a few music videos by Cocteau Twins =





























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Etta James passed away at the age of 73 last Friday, Jan. 20th.
What a voice she had. Rest in peace.







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Dig this new release by Jack Vogt on Birmingham's own Step Pepper Records label ... It's total awesomeness! Listen to it RIGHT HERE.





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Ready for a sheer ton of great V*I*D*E*O*S ???





1st up, Elise sent me this awesome one about "solar bottle lightbulbs", saying "Change the world. I love soda bottle recycling! All kinds - but this one is epic WIN!" ... agreed! Thanks, E !!! =




Peaking Lights are my favorite band right now ... here's their very wonderful video for "Hey Sparrow" =




Wow. I dig stuff like this ... It's an Animal Collective time lapse video of them recording their album "Strawberry Jam" ... neat-o! =

This next one's from Laura and it's Ohama with a cover version of "My Time"by Tona Walt Ohama ... it's weird and pop-arty how these days folks just take clips from movies and make new things out of em! Nice ... Cheers, Laura! =




Yes! A New Wes Andersion movie is on the horizon!!! =




Yes! Crazy, experimental Colin Stetson stuff! =



It's Tuneyards, live on Jimmy Kimmel! So good ... =




Classic stuff!!! Weston Flippo posted this next one ... It's The Cramps live at a mental institution ... Love it ... danke, Weston! =




And this one's for Ryan, cuz he indeed loves Xiu Xiu ... =







A triple-decker dessert is upon us ...



1. Elise sent me this one called "video for Briona" and it kills me ... Not so much funny as it is ANNOYING and CREEEEPY ... yikes! Gracias, "baby girl" ! haha =




2. Speaking of CREEEEEPY, Maz sent me this totally and completely insane McDonalds commercial ... Corporate nightmares! Merci, Maz! =




3.And lastly, this one's from Ryan ... the Magic Poop Collector to the rescue! haha!!! Bless you, Ryan! =