I’ve decided i’m keeping with the Halloween theme until it arrives so for the rest of the week there’ll be posts assosciated with Halloween type stuff.
It was the Phantoms turn yesterday so today it’s time to open up the old “do you believe in them or not?” debate….
I had fun searching through my hard drive for “ghostly” songs. I had a lot more than i thought i would’ve. I picked a select few and tried to keep the musical styles as varied as possible. Just right click and save as to download.
In the last week or so i’ve been having something of a musical reshuffle. I’ve been clearing space and putting some cds into boxes etc in preparation for next years big move. During this time i’ve came across some albums, singles, demos, remixes and vinyl that i realised i hadn’t listened to in a while. One of these albums was Depeche Modes “Black Celebration”.
I remember the day i got it like it was yesterday. It was my 17th birthday back in 2002. Me and my sister have a habit of getting each other random albums for each others birthdays and Christmas. We know each others preferred tastes very well so they always turn out to be good choices.
I’m not ashamed to say that in 2002 i never really knew much about Depeche Mode, i was Queens of the Stone Age and Deftones through and through back then. If it wasn’t “alternative” rock i pretty much wasn’t interested (with the exception of course of the majestical Boards of Canada, who accompanied me through many a stoned evening). My, how times have changed though, whilst QOTSA are still my favourite band and always will be now i’ll also listen to anything and everything else. And that particular birthday on the 16th of July all those years ago is probably one of the reasons i opened up to new music. Like i said, i never knew much about Depeche Mode back then. I knew a few songs, the obvious ones “Personal Jesus”, “Just Can’t Get Enough” and “Enjoy The Silence”. But none of them sparked a particular interest in me. I mean, i liked the songs but i never had any real desire to search further into the band. Then one night i was bored and asked Lisa if i could just sit with her in her room and chill with her for a bit. “Only if you don’t mind watching this dvd with me?” she joked. Of course, i didn’t even bother to ask what the dvd was as i just wanted to chill with my sister for a while so i just sat down and expected nothing special. How wrong was i? It was a Depeche Mode live dvd, i still can’t even remember the name of it but i remember loving pretty much every song they played and thinking “Why haven’t i checked this out before?”. One song in particular struck me from the moment the intro kicked in till Dave Gahan took his last breath. The song in question was “Stripped”. I remember telling Lisa how much i loved the dvd and then scrambling back downstairs into my joint-smoke filled room and sticking on White Pony at full volume. I think i almost felt ashamed at liking Depeche Mode! A few weeks later my birthday arrived and wrapped up as a gift from Lisa was my very own copy of the album “Black Celebration”. The album was released in March 1986 when i was 8 months old! And here i was at 17 getting my first taste of it. The tracklist includes the likes of “Question Of Lust”, “Sometimes” and “World Full Of Nothing” but my favourite song on the album and in fact favourite Depeche Mode of all time is still “Stripped”. Have a look and listen to a live performance then download the MP3 of the album version below if you like it.
There’s also been more than a few cover versions of the song. Some i hate, some i like and two i absolutely fucking love. “Stripped” has been covered by the likes and dislikes of Rammstein, Longview, Statemachine, In Strict Confidence, Brainclaw, Scooter (yes, Scooter) and my favourite two cover versions of the song are done by Shiny Toy Guns and She Wants Revenge.
The Rammstein one i actually found quite disturbing at first but i’ve grown to like the guitars in it. The live version is better than the actual recorded version they did right enough. Much better. Even if Till Lindemanns voice can be a bit annoying.
The Scooter one i can just about stand. Let me make one thing clear, i DETEST Scooter but a certain Mr Keane has managed to convince me that this song is…..OK. It’s not as bad as some versions put it that way.
The Shiny Toy Guns one i love. I like the whole boy/girl vocals going on. The band included the song as a bonus track on a special edition of their debut album “Pilots”. I couldn’t find an official video for the song, only live versions but i did find a pretty cool fan made video with some guy and girl (not from the group) in it.
This is the newest cover of this song i’ve heard. She Wants Revenge covered “Stripped” more than a few times on their live tour in 2006. It is quite literally amazing. They captured the atmosphere of the song perfectly but in a totally different way that the original does. Unfortunately i don’t have an MP3 of this one so it’s video only i’m afraid.
After just being informed that it has rained at least once in a day for the last 5 weeks (i do live in Scotland in all fairness) it occured to me that a list of rain songs would be a good idea for the next Monday list. Without further ado…
ViciousCounterPopErosion is the first mixtape i made. It contains remixes and edits of songs that i’ve done and also some of my favourite songs that i’ve maybe just tweaked a little by adding a beat , dub, sample, loop or a break and so on.
The mix also contains some out-takes from some of my favourite films (i’ll let you see if you can spot them yourself) and part of a Barack Obama speech (i thought it fitted nicely between two certain songs/themes).
ViciousCounterPopErosion is pretty heavy/loud/fast paced the whole way through so at the end i thought i’d stop the noise dead in its tracks and bring the level down a notch or two with one of my favourite new bands The Temper Trap. Very different from the rest of the mix, some might say too different but i thought it was the ideal way to finish the last 4 minutes.
I recorded and mixed the collection all in one go, it lasts about 1 hour 18 mins (short enough to fit on to a standard CD), all the songs meld into each other. Unfortunately i don’t have the software or know how to make the file into a ZIPfile/folder. Sorry. Just means you’ll have to listen to the mix the whole way through!….or skip it to a certain song, i suppose. Up to yourself.
To download: right click and save target as
To just listen: click once and file will open on its own page, then hover over and play using the flash player, allow the file a few seconds to load. Don’t be impatient!
ViciousCounterPopErosion Tracklisting
1. Death From Above 1979 – Romantic Rights (Someoone’s In The Wolf Remix)
2. The Faint – The Geeks Were Right (Someone’s In The Wolf Edit)
3. The Gorecki/O.Vision – Wrists (Someone’s In The Wolf Extended Remix Version)
4. Shy Child – Drop The Phone
5. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit/Alavi Version (Someone’s In The Wolf Remix)
6. Primal Scream – Miss Lucifer (Someone’s In The Wolf Short Edit)
7. The Presets (Someone’s In The Wolf Remix)
8. Justice – Waters Of Nazareth (Someone’s In The Wolf Short Edit)
9. PNAU – Wild Strawberries
10. Does It Offend You, Yeah – We Are Rockstars (Someone’s In The Wolf Edit)
11. The Illuminoids – Le Disko vs Get It On
12. We Are Wolves – Fight And Kiss
13. The Faint – Dropkick The Punks (Someone’s In The Wolf Remix)
14. Heads We Dance – The Human Touch (Someone’s In The Wolf Edit)
15. Shiny Toy Guns – Ricochet (Someone’s In The Wolf Edit)
16. Tears For Fear vs DMX – Shout Who We Be
17. Barack Obama Speech
18. Frontline Assembly – Beneath The Rubble (Someone’s In The Wolf Remix)
19. The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition
Mp3’s usually only stay on WordPress blogs for around 4 months or so. So if you find that if at any time you can’t download the mixtape directly from this page then go to http://www.mediafire.com/?1fyyanxepyh and you’ll be able to download for free at anytime.
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Someones In The Wolf 