Apr 24
This week, we are setting the Wayback Machine to the 1990’s. There was plenty of great music during that decade. Unfortunately, there was a ton of rubbish, much of it packaged under “alternative”.
Hopefully I’ve been able to weed out most of the rubbish “alternative” and keep the good “alternative”. The playlist is pretty much all singles and hits from various compilations I’ve collected over the years.
To listen, go to http://www.imsmarterthanyou.com and click the link in the upper right.
Apr 19
Now you can listen to the latest I’m Smarter Than You podcast without having to download anything. Just click the Play button below and enjoy the tunes. (Sometimes you have to click the play button a second or third time.)
[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/11190743/view]
The full playlist can be seen here: imsmarterthanyou.com/podcast
You can click this link below to subscribe to the podcast feed:
Apr 02
This week we will be featuring the music of That Petrol Emotion. I’m not sure why they never broke through like other mid-80’s British alternative acts like New Order, The Jesus and Mary Chain, or The Cure. They had a unique sound that was generally accessible and had enough pop sensibilities to turn out the occasional radio-friendly single.
That Petrol Emotion rose from the ashes of The Undertones, a perfectly decent band that became much better once they booted Feargal Sharkey and renamed themselves. Albums such as Babble, Manic Pop Thrill, and End of the Millenium Psychosis Blues are generally awesome rock records full of energy and passion. Like so many other bands, the longer they were together the poorer the product became ending with the limp Fireproof.
However limp their last album or two were, the majority of their recorded work hit incredibly great heights and you ought to listen to them as often as possible. For starters, listen to the imsmarterthanyou.com radio stream this week.
To listen, go to http://www.imsmarterthanyou.com and click the link in the upper right.
Mar 27
Sunday night I was at an Open Turntable Night and one of my friends played a song by Clan of Xymox. The music geeks surrouding the table started a discussion of the history of Xymox. As so often happens, one person says Thing A and another person says Thing A is wrong and Thing B is actually correct. Debate ensues.
The debates revolved around not only the name of the first Xymox album but what was actually the first name of Xymox. Was the first record they put out released under the name Xymox or Clan of Xymox. After some heated debate, someone broke out a Palm Treo and referenced the Wikipedia article on Xymox. For the record, the first release was put out as Xymox (“Subsequent Pleasures”) yet the first album they released was named “Clan of Xymox” and the band had officially prepended “Clan of” by this time as well.
From 1985-1987, they were known as Clan of Xymox, only to return to Xymox from 1988-1993. After 1993, they were once again known as Clan of Xymox. Whatever. I shall always refer to them as Xymox since it essentially covers both name derivations and then I don’t need to try and remember which album was released under which name.
Anyway, there is plenty ‘o (Clan of) Xymox to be heard this week on the I’m Smarter Than You Radio stream.
To listen, go to http://www.imsmarterthanyou.com and click the link in the upper right.
Mar 23
YES! Some fine person copied his pristeen vinyl to MP3’s and shared them on the Internet. I found them on eMule, but other locations may have it.
I only ever had these albums on tape and they are great afro-influenced jams, definitely the best of the Thompson Twins when they were more interested in exploring music than serving bland dance pop (see their last two albums). These are the only albums to feature songs not sung only by Tom Bailey. The Thompson Twins had about 10 members in the band before dropping to the core trio for “Into the Gap”.
I converted my tapes to MP3, but the transfer was bad, hissy, and had serious EQ problems. These are solid recordings of long out of print albums where someone spent the extra 5 minutes making them as good as possible. Heck, the person even filled in the MP3 tags correctly.
I’m happy.
Mar 20
I would have so fallen flat on my face and whiffed on the ball trying to take this shot. Meanwhile, Lukas Podolski makes it look like the easiest shot ever. I mean really, the ball came over the top of his head, he pokes his foot out and is able to power the ball past the goalie. There’s no way 99.999% of the people on the planet could do this. Too bad the video isn’t any higher quality.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JftYjoI6Ilc]
Mar 19
This week we’re going with the Thompson Twins. Discard your thoughts of lighthearted 80’s new wave pop. These guys were really damn good, though they kind of lost it during their later sell out period (the albums “Big Trash” and “Queer” sort of sucked). The highly overlooked “Close to the Bone” may have been their best. Unfortunately, no one really cared about the Thompson Twins by then . Too bad. But now you can hear the album “Close to the Bone” and numerous other Thompson Twins classics (and some less than classics).
I’ve also thrown in the Thompson Twins follow up project entitled Babble. By the end of Thompson Twins, the band was down to Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie. The two got married, moved to New Zealand, and put out two generally excellent albums of moody, ethnic synth songs in the style that was popular in the early to mid-90’s (think Deep Forest, but with better songs and less cheese).
After the two Babble albums, not much has been heard from them. It appears that Tom and Alannah have divorced each other and each one moved back to England. Tom Bailey released two albums under the name International Observer. The album “Seen” has been added to this weeks playlist as weel.
Mar 19
This week we’re going with the Thompson Twins. Discard your thoughts of lighthearted 80’s new wave pop. These guys were really damn good, though they kind of lost it during their later sell out period (the albums “Big Trash” and “Queer” sort of sucked). The highly overlooked “Close to the Bone” may have been their best. Unfortunately, no one really cared about the Thompson Twins by then . Too bad. But now you can hear the album “Close to the Bone” and numerous other Thompson Twins classics (and some less than classics).
I’ve also thrown in the Thompson Twins follow up project entitled Babble. By the end of Thompson Twins, the band was down to Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie. The two got married, moved to New Zealand, and put out two generally excellent albums of moody, ethnic synth songs in the style that was popular in the early to mid-90’s (think Deep Forest, but with better songs and less cheese).
After the two Babble albums, not much has been heard from them. It appears that Tom and Alannah have divorced each other and each one moved back to England. Tom Bailey released two albums under the name International Observer. The album “Seen” has been added to this weeks playlist as weel.
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