Monday Blues

Image From Here

Ah, yes the battle wages on. Am somewhat equipped (sort of) with the armor to fight it but just don't have the inner strength yet. And, the other thing is I don't like Mondays. I read somewhere that Monday is heart attack day. Apparently, the stress of starting a new week causes many to have a heart attack. Man, that is fucking depressing. My favorite day is either Friday or Saturday, it's a toss up which one is better.

And being depressed can trigger weird things to happen physically to your body. A lot of people don't understand that depression is an illness - a disease. It's physiololgical and can do a number to your physical, as well as, your mental health. With all the advances in the medical world, depression still seems to be a disease that is not fully understood by the medical community. Although, more people in the medical community are now starting to realize the devestating effects of this disease and are more tuned in to what it can do to a person's health. Unfortunately, we (they) still don't know enough about how the brain works and how it can be affected.

There are a lot of other things that I could talk about related to my illness. I have been through the wringer with Doctors and various tests. Still, haven't found the right 'cocktail' of medicine that will help my brain out. But, am seeing a new Dr. now and there seems to be hope of trying some new medicine out. More about that later.

Here is some Monday Blue music for the ears. Hope it isn't too depressing but it is my way of expressing how much I hate Mondays.


mp3 Blue Monday - (88)

New Order - (The Best Of) New Order


mp3 Bottle Of Blues

Beck - Mutations


mp3 Checkout Blues

Eels - Blinking Lights And Other Revelations


mp3 Honest Man's Blues

Broken Family Band - Welcome Home, Loser


mp3 Me And The Devil Blues

Dead Meadow - Shivering King And Others


mp3 Revelation Blues

Dora Flood - We Live Now


And Other Places:

Please checkout my friend's wonderful blog How Marvellous... Andy is a posting machine and always has excellent music featured. Check out this post about Depression. Awesome, one of my favorite daily blogs to visit!


And new to the blogroll:

Check out Miss Parker at Rave And Roll Blog. She has an excellent taste in music and wonderful coverage of 80's music!

Oh, and finally, I made a promise and I plan to keep it. That is to get some new music written about and posted on this here blog. So, new stuff is coming, please bear with me......

Sunday Linkage

Well, its been cloudy and raining today here. We need the rain since we have had a dry spell for quite awhile. I guess this is the dry season down here right now. Not much happening on this end. Been considering joining up with Twitter. Not quite sure how it works though. I know you can Twitter via a computer on the internet but what about via the mobile phone? I have a Blackberry phone but the only problem is I don't have the internet package. So, all I can do is make phone calls and SMS text messages. So, the question is, can I Twitter via SMS text messages? Or do I need internet access via the phone? Let me know please, I am somewhat Twittered and confused....

Here are links to some new friends on the blogroll:

Visit Andy over at How Marvellous..., he always has something good posted up! Right now he's got a stellar track from the band The Trees and he has also got a post with a Blondie track (French version) which was never released in the US. Good stuff!


Visit Will over at We All Want Someone To Shout For! He was picked by Break Thru Radio as the Blog Of The Week. Well deserved and congrats go out to Will!


Head over to love shack, baby and visit the tasty Tart who runs the joint. She has wonderful posts and a fantastic taste in music. Plus, she is a Shoegazer, like me! Maybe, if I get twittering I can twitter with the Tart :-)


And some of my favorites:

Make your way over to the awesome Song, By Toad! Matthew runs a tight ship over there with excellent writing and music. Right now he has up a post with his latest Toadcast and Toad Session. This is some incredible stuff, done extremely well and a pleasure to watch/listen to!


Visit Linda over at Speed Of Dark! Linda is a great blogging friend and is always introducing me to new music. Plus, she has some of the best written reviews I have read on the blogosphere. She's got a post up right now about the Swedish band Jeniferever, a new one for me and a good sound too!


Check out my friend David over at Metal Bastard Goes Soft! He's always got some great themed mixes posted up that you just can't miss. The man is a music machine and a nice guy to know!


Stop over at my friend Kevin's blog mp3hugger! Kevin has a wonderful taste in music and while you are over there be sure to check out his new record label - Indiecater Records!


Check out my Florida friend Chris over at Local Vertical! He's got some new tunes in his Weekend Inbox, plus an intro to the wonderful sounding Amanda Zelina!


Visit my friend Chris over at Culture Bully! He runs a wonderful site and it is well stocked with all kinds of good stuff. There are album reviews, concert reviews, interviews, profiles and a whole bunch more to dig into!


Hit up Stytzer over at Hits In The Car! He does a wonderful job over there and will introduce you to some new music coming out of Denmark!


Make sure you visit Marcy over at Lost In Your Inbox! She always posts up good music and wonderful writing. Looking forward to her review on the Gomez concert she went to last Friday!


And of course you got to stop over at FiL's place Pogo A Go-Go! FiL is a wonderful friend and has a fantastic taste in music. So, go over there and pogo along with FiL!


Visit the wonderful Rachel over at Untitled Records! She always has something good posted up and has a wonderful taste in music!


And my friend pplist over at Powerpopulist hasn't updated since last Friday. I hope everything is cool and that pplist will be back soon!


And lastly, this guy has been missing for awhile and I want him back. He is one of my first real blogging friends and I miss him. Please come back my Scottish Brother...


The only bad side to doing a Linkage post is I always end up missing someone... So, check out my blogroll for other good links. And I apologize if I missed you somehow.

Also, I want to dedicate this post to all the wonderful folks who stopped by and so warmly welcomed me back. It is such a good feeling to know that I have people out there who cared about me and were so wonderful in welcoming me back. Thanks all!

Of course, now to the music:


mp3 Fine Friend

Pale Saints - Slow Buildings


mp3 Forever My Friend

Ray LaMontagne - Trouble


mp3 Friend Of Mine

The National - Alligator


mp3 An Honest Friend

Summerbirds In The Cellar - With The Hands Of The Hunter It All Becomes Dead


mp3 My Beautiful Friend

The Charlatans UK - Us And Us Only


mp3 We Be Friends

For Stars - For Stars

Linkage Matters

image from here

Pogo A Go-Go brings us back in time and everything comes out clean with Bleach!


The latest episode of the great Contrast Podcast is Songs Mentioning Other Songs, Bands, Artists and it's a doozy!


Song, By Toad buzzes over some buzz bands and then delivers a broken new one to our listening ears!


Speed Of Dark delivers another wonderful Time Travel Tuesday, this time T-Rex's Unicorn!


Powerpopulist brings us a couple from Chicago powerpop/glammers The Krinkles - 3: The Mordorlorff Collection!


Spoilt Victorian Child introduces us to MJ Hibbett & The Validators who hail from Derby!


And Before The First Kiss brings us some music magic ripped from those cassette tapes of yore!


Covert Curiosity brings us more good sounds from the land of Austin, Texas!


Mainstream Isn't So Bad...Is It? takes us back to the days of Twisted Sister but with a modern to date story, and it proves that music is timeless!


Kwaya Na Kisser gives us his current favourite new music!


And visit the other quality blogs over there ==> in the blogroll!


mp3 Different Sound

Teddybears - Soft Machine


mp3 Sleepin Around

Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped


mp3 This Place

City-State - Monument


mp3 Roll The Credits

Peter Bjorn And John - Writer's Block


mp3 It's My Way Of Staying Connected

She Sir - Who Can't Say Yes


mp3 Connect The Dots

The Purrs - The Purrs


mp3 Roll Call

Peter Murphy - Wild Birds 1985-1995: The Best of the Beggars Banquet Years

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Saturday Linkage

I am not overly crazy about messageboards, sometimes they can be rough... But there is a new one on the block that is well worth getting involved in. Liz from The Roaring Machine and her beau Simon from Spoilt Victorian Child have started The David Gedge Fanciers Club. Whether you are a Weddoe lover or not, this is a cool place to be!


If you like all things Dreampop and Shoegaze then be sure to check out alternapop!


You need to get over to The Rawking Refuses To Stop!, Dave has the last day of his Elliott Smith Covers series and it is excellent!


Alt-gramma over at Speed Of Dark has a nice review up of Idlewild's new Make Another World!


Head over to The Vinyl Villain and check out the Plastic Fantastic Series of posts, excellent! #5 in the series is here.


Quick Before It Melts brings us 4 for the weekend!



mp3 Lost Together

Consonant - Love and Affliction


mp3 Keep Us Together

Starsailor - On the Outside


mp3 Holdin' On Together

Phoenix - Alphabetical


mp3 Fall Together

Weezer - Maladroit


mp3 Come Together

Spiritualized - Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space


mp3 We Are Thrown Together

INXS - Elegantly Wasted

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The Music Blogosphere

I discovered this blog by chance and think it is excellent. Check out Dead Flowers and especially check out the interviews featured: Pete from Adorable, Jez from Swervedriver and Matt from Foreign Born. Excellent blog!


Eric at Can You See The Sunset From The Southside? dug up a nice little gem from Japan. Also, really dig the new blog layout that Eric has going!


Bill at I Rock Cleveland has a nice write on The View And The Fratellis Battle For The Next Best Thing.


Darrin at Page 300 brings us the 20 year anniversary of U2's fantastic Joshua Tree album. My favorite band of all time and a timeless album indeed.


Ekko at Berkeley Place brings us Spoon A to Z, the majority of which are live tracks.


Matt at Ear Farm is currently shooting a US tour documentary for the band Goes Cube and he has daily posts about the tour.


From the guys who brought us elbo.ws, we now have MetaTu.be a TV blog aggregator.


And Pitchfork wins Best Music Blog at the 2007 Bloggies. WTF, I wasn't aware of Pitchfork being a Music Blog........


mp3 With Or Without You
U2 Live - Dublin - 1993


mp3 Everything Comes Around
Devlins - Waves


mp3 Come Around And Love Me
Arab Strap - Last Romance


mp3 Reel Around The Fountain
The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow

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Monday Link Connection

In The Blogs:

mp3hugger has an excellent post up on What Happened To Slowdive?


Music Is Art celebrates their one year anniversary!


Culture Bully brings us Twin Personas - An Interview Series Spotlighting Twin Cities Musical Personalities.


Spoilt Victorian Child posts about Moe Tucker drummer from The Velvet Underground.


Largehearted Boy brings us this week's new music releases. Arcade Fire (Neon Bible), Air (Pocket Symphony), Robyn Hitchcock (Sex, Food, Death and Tarantulas)and Kaiser Chiefs (Yours Truly Angry Mob) are a few of the notable ones.


Other Stuff:

FCC Payola Probe Boosts Indie Music


The End Of Internet Radio As We Know It


In Search Of The Perfect Pop Song


Uncut Magazine's New Music Blog


Tuneage:

mp3 Super-Connected
Belly - Sweet Ride: Best of


mp3 I Got Connected
For Stars - We Are All Beautiful People


mp3 Missing Link
Curve - Cuckoo

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Train Mix

pic courtesy of here


Trains are interesting things. I have this reoccurring dream about a train. I've packed my bags, bought my ticket and am waiting at the station. But the train never comes; I wait and wait but nothing. Finally, after waiting so long I decide to take a nap, only to wake up later to see the train leaving the station without me on it. I quickly get up, grab my bags and proceed to chase the train. I run hard but I am not fast enough and I watch the train move out into the distance. The train is gone and once again I am by myself wondering who I am, where I am and most of all where am I going. Lost.


mp3 I Often Dream Of Trains (Robyn Hitchcock cover)
Firewater - Songs We Should Have Written


mp3 This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers
Augie March - Strange Bird


mp3 Fear Of Trains
The Magnetic Fields - The Charm Of The Highway Strip


mp3 Misery Train
Suicide - American Supreme


mp3 Ghost Train
Justin Sullivan - Navigating By The Stars


mp3 Train In Vain
The Clash - Clash On Broadway


mp3 Last Train To Satansville
Swervedriver - Mezcal Head



mp3 The Getaway (Lonesome Train)
Ray Davies - Other People's Lives


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Other Places


For you Shoegaze lovers, check out this excellent post and mix from my Scottish Brother at And Before The First Kiss. Awesome!

Gdansk

Two of my favorite bloggers, one here and the other one here, introduced me to a new Scottish band by the name of Gdansk. Yeah, you got it right, a Scottish band with a Polish name. Go figure. They got a nice 80's sound (think Joy Division) with a little shoegaze influence thrown in for good measure. They are currently without a label right now but expect that to change pretty quickly.

mp3 The Auteur

mp3 Kicking A Television

Gdansk MySpace (more tracks available, if MySpace will cooperate and let you download them)

Gdansk Homepage (Doesn't seem to be up at the moment, though)


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Other Places

Sixeyes has the mp3's from last nights SNL Arcade Fire performance.


Chris over at Music Of The Moment has a nice Flashback Friday Dance Mix posted, check it.


Stytzer over at Hits In The Car introduces us to Bubblegum Lemonade (think noise pop, jangling guitars and 60's inspiration). Good stuff.


Covert Curiosity introduces us to the nice sounds of Baltimore quartet Thrushes.

Elika

Elika are a Brooklyn duo (Evagelia Mazavelias and Brian Wencheback) who are responsible for producing some wonderful sounds. Falling brilliantly into the Shoegaze category (or some will call it New-Gaze or Synth-Gaze); the music is subtle, shimmering perfection. Evagelia has a beautiful voice that rides on top of blissfull beats and fuzzy, droning guitars. This is shoegaze done the way I like it best.


mp3 You're Not Safe At All

mp3 Fire

Elika - S/T
thisquietarmy records (2006)


mp3 A Moment

Unreleased and B-Sides


Elika MySpace


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Other Places


The Bomb Shelter is running a contest where you name your favorite Simon & Garfunkel tune. Check it out here.


Circa 45 is a new blog featuring reviews of vinyl 45's brought to us from the same dude who runs the So Much Silence blog. Good stuff.

CALLA - Strength In Numbers

The new disc by CALLA "Strength In Numbers" will be released February 20th on the Beggars Banquet label. The lead off track "Sanctify" (stream it on MySpace) proves that the New York by the way of Texas band are in fine form delivering moody, dark, distorted tunes that this listener loves. I have been a fan of the band from the first self titled 1999 release and am glad to see that their brooding style of rock 'n roll has not been abandoned.


mp3 Bronson

CALLA - Strength In Numbers


mp3 Awake And Under

CALLA - S/T


mp3 The Swarm

mp3 Promendade (U2 Cover)

CALLA - Scavengers


mp3 Televised

CALLA - Televise


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Other Places


Good Weather For Airstrikes brings us Hotly Tipped For '07: The Bands To Watch (Part I). Excellent and looking forward to Part II.


Culture Bully, one of my favorite blogs these days, pens a nice review of The Good, The Bad & The Queen.

Hammock

It's not hard to imagine why Hammock's 2006 release "Raising Your Voice...Trying To Stop An Echo" did not make it to anyones best of 2006 list. The point is it should have but unfortunately didn't. It's a subtle mix of electronic ambience and neo-Shoegaze, something that easily falls under the radar in the indie rock/pop world.

2005's "Kenotic" firmly established the Nashville duo's take on the Shoegaze world with a keen crossover to Ambient, Post-Rock, Drone and Electronic sensibilities. "Raising Your Voice..." does little to detract from this path, continuning nicely in the vain of cascading layered guitar washes, strings, piano and ethereal vocals intact.

This is music for the head and one that requires a careful listen.


mp3 Raising Your Voice...Trying To Stop An Echo
Hammock - Raising Your Voice... Trying To Stop An Echo


mp3 Wish
Hammock - Kenotic


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Other Places:

Yeah, you miss the "Let's Kiss And Make Up" blog as much as I do. Well, no need to wallow in misery because Colin is back with his new blog "And Before The First Kiss".
One of my daily reads of course!


And you have got to go checkout and download Ear Farm's Easy Cheesier Valentines Day Mix. A good mix of Big Hair and guitar solos.


The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival 2007 Lineup is announced


How The iPod Changes Culture