Free Discs: Batch 3

Oh yes, my little droogies this is the motherload. I finally got around to putting up some of the better promo discs I have from bands people just might have actually heard of. There’s a little bit of everything in here with a lot of it being some sort of electronic leaning. Most of this stuff is pretty decent, I’m either just not into it any more or these are duplicates.

As always email me at freeceedee @ gmail . com if you are interested in any thing.

Cheers! -JL

2 Skinnee J’s- Super Mercado- 1997 Capricorn. B/W Promo tray insert only.

Armageddon Dildos- Lost- 1995 Sire. Full Art. This is the standard release except the cover has a big gold PROMOTIONAL stamp on it.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- “Straight To You” single- 1992 Mute. Promo CD single, includes the then unreleased track “Blue Bird”. Full art. Great for any Nick Cave superfan who must have it all. (Link is to the 3 song EP Mute records released, which is not what I have, but the front art is the same.)

Hot Rod Circuit- Reality’s Coming Through- 2004. B/W Promo tray insert only.

(Claimed!) KMFDM- Retro- 1998 TVT/Wax Trax. Full Art. This is the standard release except the disc and art are marked as PROMOTIONAL.

(Claimed!) Moby- Animal Rights- 1997 Elektra. Full Art. This is the standard release except the disc and art are marked as PROMOTIONAL.

Mountaineers- Messy Century- 2003 Mute. B/W Promo tray insert only.

Neurosis- Eye Of Every Storm- 2004 Relapse. No art and disc is labelled as PROMOTIONAL with all track and album information printed on it.

Nitzer Ebb- Ebbhead- 1991 Geffen/Mute. Full Art. This is the standard release except the disc has a big old PROMOTIONAL stamp on it.

Nitzer Ebb- Big Hit- 1995 Geffen/Mute. Full Art. This is the standard release except the art booklet has a big old PROMOTIONAL sticker on the front.

Si Begg- Director’s Cut- 2003 NovaMute. B/W Promo tray insert only.

Sleep Station- After The War- 2004 Bardic. Promo art similar to final release, but stripped down.

Son Of Sam- Songs From The Earth- 2001 Nitro. B/W Promo art.

Speedy J- Loudboxer- 2004 NovaMute. B/W Promo tray insert only.

T. Raumschmiere- Radio Blackout- 2003 NovaMute. B/W Promo tray insert only.

Tosca- Suzuki In Dub- 2000 Studio !K7. Full Art. This is the standard release except the disc and art are marked as PROMOTIONAL and the promo was not issued in a digipak.

No-Shadow Kick- The Promo EP

Band: No-Shadow Kick
Album: The Promo EP
Label: self-released
Released: Fall 2001
Catalog#: n/a

Rating (out of 10): 6.5

***It’s both funny and sad that I can’t really give links for any of the thousands of words I wrote for the Northeast Performer back in the day. Instead I have to rely on band websites that still happen to have old reviews.

I stumbled upon this No-Shadow Kick EP whilst I was going through my collection and threw it in  CD player only to be reminded how much I really dug these cuts. So today I was noodling on the web and checked out the band site and found they had posted the text of my review so I figured I’d pilfer it to update the blog here. This review originally ran in the April 2002 issue of The Northeast Performer (link is to the Performer Magazine’s site not the actual review). Enjoy! -JL***

If you’re looking for music to chase away the winter blues (so what if it’s April) then No-Shadow Kick’s Promo EP may be just what you’re looking for to put a smile on your chapped lips. This trio of power poppers from Northampton, MA serves up smart, solid, and ever so sarcastic indie rock. The first three tracks are the latest from the band. They cash in on the winter motif with “In The Snow,” a poppy little tune full of one liners and word play aimed at the Yuletide. Sure it’s an easy target, but nonetheless the song will keep you chuckling and acquaint you with the band’s tongue-in-cheek nature. The second track, “Double Nothing,” is the highlight of these half dozen songs. A lovesick indie rock song, it’s full of contemplative angst over the oft-lost gamble that is love. The rhythm section keeps the track punching along on cruise control as guitar drifts through like a breeze. This track is perfect for that mix tape made especially for those long, post break-up drives to clear the head. The last of the new songs is “Monks Don’t Tell Lies,” a slightly dubbish ditty relating a moment of Zen clarity come upon during the chaos of a broken down tour van. The remainder of the promo EP is made up of tracks originally released on their debut full length Basement Make-Out Party. “BMX Song,” “Scarecrow Waltz,” and “The Saviour Made Me Do It” continue to exemplify No-Shadow Kick’s pension for bouncing from sound to sound. Stylistic A.D.D. aside, this EP helps to showcase No-Shadow Kick as a band that one hopes will continue to grow and continue to produce music that strikes a balance between talent and humour. – John Lefler

Free Discs: Batch 2

Latest additions to the giveaway pile:

(Claimed!) DJ REVOLUTION- Sonar Vol. 1 (DJ Mix) 2004 Promo. Cardboard sleeve. 25 tracks from a slew of hip-hop artists including: Dilated Peoples, De La Soul, Akrobatik, Gang Starr, RJD2, Jurassic 5. I’m not 100% sure, but I think this was a giveaway at a club promotion event for Scion cars. I can’t find the track listing anywhere and I’m too lazy to write it all out right now.

(Claimed!) VA- Exposed: Radioactive Records Sampler 1995 Promo. Cardboard sleeve. From my college radio days; it has an awesome/disturbing cover illustration of Next Gingrich dressed like a dominatrix.  (Go HERE and scroll about half way down the page, it’s bright red and black.) 9 tracks. Since I can’t find a web link for the track listing, here it is:
     1. Fatima Mansions- Belong Nowhere
     2. A House- The Strong and The Silent
     3. Black Grape- Kelly’s Heroes
     4. Traci Lords- Control (Olympic 7″ edit- Juno Reactor mix)
     5. Ramones- Cretin Family
     6. Angelfish- Suffocate Me
     7. Dig- Fearless
     8. Live- Supernatural (Acoustic), 
     9. Londonbeat- Come Back (Mo Mo Club mix)

(Claimed!) VA- Floyd …And Out Come the Teeth 2001 Free Sampler Promo. Cardboard sleeve. Fat Wreck Chords/Honest Don’s. Good latter day punk.

VA- PASTE Music Magazine Sampler: Q3 2003. Bound in with a free copy of Paste I got at NEMO. No art, just came in a plastic sleeve. Art and track list found at this PDF. 23 tracks from a range of artists including: Jack Johnson, Incredible Moses Leroy, Black Keys, Natalie Merchant, Clem Snide, Rosanne Cash, Erin McKeown.

If you see something you want send an email to FreeCeeDee @ gmail . com and let me know. Do not request the discs via comments.

Free Discs: Batch 1

Take my CDs. Please! 

I recently moved and unearthed the entirety of my CD collection from the depths of storage and before the light of day I see many many discs that I just can’t justify keeping any more. Sure we had some good times. We laughed, we cried, we rocked, we were apathetic to each other, but now it is time to part ways.

This is where you come in my friends and everybody wins.

These are mostly promo discs I acquired for free during my days as a college radio DJ and later as a reviewer for various magazines so I don’t feel quite right selling, not to mention who the hell would buy some of them? It’s a pretty eclectic mix and sort of obscure, but I’ve provided links where I could find them to help give you an idea as to what they are.

In terms of condition I can’t make any guarantees beyond the fact that they are playable. Some may have radio station call letters scribbled on them (no they weren’t stolen) or the art work is in pretty bad shape.

Over the next few weeks/months/years I’ll be posting lists of CDs I’m giving away for free.

Seriously.

FREE!

If you see something you want send an email to FreeCeeDee @ gmail . com and let me know. Do not request the discs via comments.

These are first come, first served and I will update the lists and remove discs that have been claimed and add more as I come across them.

I will send you the discs at my own expense which means there will be no jewel cases and they will go the cheapest postage possible. No guarantees on when they will get to you. Probably a week, maybe 2 after your requests.

I’d be open for swapping if you too have albums you might be interested in getting rid of in the bargain, just let me know.

Enjoy my good friends, enjoy!

-John

DEADBOLT- Voodoo Trucker PROMO HED 084 Cargo/Headhunter Records 1999. PROMO No Cover art, but there is a tray insert.

(Claimed!) APHRODITE- Overdrive (DJ Mix) 2005. PROMO Cover art, no insert.

WIRE- Life In The Manscape (Single.)EPRO-301 Enigma /Mute Records 1990. Cardboard sleave. This promo single only has the album version of the song. This is not the full maxi-single.

VA (BAUHAUS, THE FALL, MAIN, THE HAIR & SKIN TRADING COMPANY)- Beggars Banquet Catalogue Sampler Phase 1 June 1995. PRCD 6257 Beggars Banquet. Promo Sampler. Cardboard sleeve.

DEVIL MUSIC- Mastul MR 9.0 Mister Records 2003. Hand-made original art cardboard sleeve.

VA- Classic Love Jams TIME LIFE Records 2001. Front cover and tray art.

VA- Dixieland Dance Party (2CD) TIME LIFE Records 2001. Front cover and tray art.

Song of the day: Naked Raygun “Wonder Beer”

Song: “Wonder Beer”
Band: Naked Raygun
Album: Understand?
Analysis: A crisp, refreshing draught of vintage Raygun.

<<REWIND

The first time I heard this song was 1992 or 1993, well after Understand? had come out, but it was still new to me. A friend of mine had found the cassette in the bargain bin of a chain record store and was listening to it in his car when he picked me up to drive around aimlessly as teenagers are apt to do. He’d obviously listened to the album a number of times already and was singing along to every song. He pretty much shunned conversation except to tell me how “grocked” he was to have picked the tape up for a buck. When the sound of a can opening came through the speakers he cranked the volume and was all, “Dude, check this out! This song is fanfuckingtastic!” I was immediately hooked by the catchy riffs and fist-in-the-air, sing-along quality of the chorus. The lyrics were full of the smartass sarcasm that made me love punk in the first place. Underneath the cavalier ‘getting tanked is awesome’ artifice is the message that there is a price to pay for the fun.

My friend was straight-edge at the time and thought it was a grand battle cry against the excesses of alcohol. I said it was a great drinking song, just to piss him off. He called me an asshole and turned up the volume. By the third time he rewound the song I was singing along too and “Wonder Beer” was the best song ever.

FAST FORWARD>>

Maybe not the best song ever, but it still pops into my head more often than I actually listen to the album. Last night at the gym I fired up Understand? for the first time in ages and “Wonder Beer” still stood out as one of my favorites on the album. I put it on repeat and listened to it a bunch of times. It really helped keep my motivation up on the human hamster wheel that is the elliptical machine.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Helicopter Helicopter- Great Big Meaningless

 

Band: Helicopter Helicopter
Album: Great Big Meaningless
Label: Lunch Records
Released: November 2002
Catalog #: LR038

Rating (out of 10): 8

Great Big Meaningless, a repackaging of Helicopter Helicopter’s first two albums –Squids and Other Fishes (1998) and Analog & Electrical Fields (1999), is 60 minutes of woozy rock’n'roll bliss. It’s rare enough to find an entire album that is good from beginning to end, but getting two for the price of one fills you with that warm fuzzy feeling that usually results from two or three empty beer bottles.

Helicopter Helicopter’s songs are built on a solid foundation with the steady heartbeat of drums and pulsing basslines carrying the listener through a trippy tumult. Guitars shift from undulating drones to jagged attacks to poppy chord strumming and back again. All the while lead singers/co-founders Christopher Zerby and Julie Chadwick make great use of the guy/girl vocal dichotomy by harmonizing choruses, dueling on verses, and often just creating chaos singing lines over top one another. At points everything converges into a sludgy whirlpool, but then surfaces out the other side with a razor sharp clarity; a single drum snap or the ringing slice of a guitar bringing things back to order. The lyrics paint scenes that are complimentary to the music’s sense warping tendencies. The music inhabits a dark and seedy world of drugs, booze, sex, insects, sea life, street life, and violence. The bizarre yet somehow familiar scenes are like something out of a William S. Burroughs novel. Throughout these journeys the band makes you feel like both their confessor and co-conspirator as you stumble around their world disoriented, but enjoying the ride.

Not sure what you’d categorize H2 as. It’s too interesting and off kilter for the rock label, but perhaps a new useless genre like ‘post-rock’ would handle the job. Alternative is ridiculously played out, but it fits too. Whatever you want to call it this is a great album for those looking for something pleasantly twisted and moody. -John Lefler

Don’t miss tracks:
Great Big Meaningless
Lucky
Cadillac Drugs
Please Please Tito
Ever Since The Buzzards Moaned

Purchase:
Physical
-Your local brick’n'mortar record shop (You remember those, right?)
-Lunch Records
Digital
-eMusic
-iTunes

(Author’s note: In an effort for full disclosure the original version of this review ran in The Northeast Performer back in 2002 or 2003. They don’t archive their reviews on-line so I took the liberty of reclaiming my own work from my hard drive and giving it an overhaul because I really dig this album and it’s a quick way to jump-start this blog. -JL)

Checkout my review of Helicopter Helicopter’s last album Wild Dogs with X-Ray Eyes for the Boston Phoenix.