Rock Star Journalist

Hey, for once a decent press release found its way into my inbox! Usually, I look at the subject line, and most stuff ends up in the trash. But when the subject read “Submission: Atom and His Package tribute album,” I am down like a sonofabitch.

Atom & His Package were one of those artists that popped up on a bunch of comps (when comps were still worth a damn), and I went absolutely batshit for him. Crazy Jewish dude with a synthesizer playing songs about the metric system? Helllllllllll, yes. Then I bought a bunch of his stuff, and wondered why one-man synth covers of Fugazi and Geto Boys songs didn’t make other people flip out. Maybe it was songs about Enya? Maybe the voice? Who knows? All I know is that Atom & His Package is one of those artists that I loved and never got to see play live.

Anyhow, Atom & His Package ended, he did Armalite, and I haven’t really heard anything about him since. I guess he had to retire because of Type 1 diabetes. Hartless Hind Records has put together a tribute record called Up End Atom (nice Simpsons reference), and four bucks from each disc goes to the American Diabetes Association.

The tribute features acts like Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer, MC Lars, hockey-core outfit the Zambonis, and - in what has to be the most perfect cover song / artist pairing ever, mcchris doing “Punk Rock Academy.”

I’m going to be watching the mail until this sucker shows. Seriously, that song alone is worth the purchase.

Steinbeck “Possessions (Not the One By Danzig)”
the Emotron - “Me and My Black Metal Friends“

Every year, I make a comp CD to hand out to friends and family. It started back in the winter of ‘97, because I was a poor college student living in the dorms of KU. I designed a cover on my computer and recorded off a couple dozen comp tapes for my friends. From there, it moved to CDs. The first couple were just random compilations of songs I thought would appeal to everyone, and from there, it mutated into cover song comps, songs with “whoa-oh,” an actual Christmas song compilation, a ska comp, an instrumental comp, and lord knows what else.

Well, this past year, I decided to put way more effort into the comp, and made a rule: nothing that I didn’t a physical copy of on vinyl. The whole thign was ripped from records down here in the laboratory that is RSJ headquarters (aka my basement). Here, for the first time, it’s getting shared outside my little circle of friends. This is going to be a regular thing here. The first Monday of every month, there will be a fresh comp to download. All-vinyl, nothing pulled from my mp3 collection or CDs. If I don’t own it on record, you won’t find it here. It’ll mean I actually have to work at this, and put some thought into it. You’ll get quality over quantity, essentially.

So, here’s your first treat. Originally given to friends and family as The Holiday Tiki Lounge, I have renamed it as the Rock Star Journalist All-Vinyl Lounge Party. Some tracks can be tracked down on Sin Alley comps and stuff like that, but I’d like to think this is a pretty unique offering. Equally suitable for a night in sipping cocktails or getting bombed on cheap beer on a porch, I hope you enjoy.

Tracklisting:
1. Lenny Dee - Rock Me Back to Little Rock
2. Cozy Cole - Topsy Part II
3. the Periscopes - Beaver Shot
4. Billy Vaughn - C’est Ci Bon
5. Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Oh Lonesome Me
6. Charlie Feathers - Cockroach
7. Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Blow Ye the Trumpet In Zion
8. Sean Mencher - Jumpin’ Track
9. the Frantics - Werewolf
10. Fred Blassie - Blassie, King of Men
11. the Marketts - Out of Limits
12. Xterminators - Wild Hare
13. the Motivations - The Birds
14. Freddie & Hitch Hikers - Sinners
15. Mr. Marcos’ V7 - Shanty
16. Johnny Clark & the Four Playboys - Jungle Stomp
17. Ferrante & Teicher - Brazil
18. Possum - The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati
19. Ganim’s Asia Minors - Daddy Lolo
20. Joe Bravo - Please Call Me Baby
21. Rix Ortolani - The Festival of the Bull-La Forcata
22. the Yards - Munchimoo Boogaloo (Tiki Torcher Mix)
23. Lani Laurens - Silver Sand
24. Tegu Ni Lagere Group - Kini Varita Yara Mai
25. the Bill Lucidarme Group - Kauai Surf (Torch Lighting Ceremony)

Download the Rock Star Journalist All-Vinyl Lounge Party (RS link)

When we last heard of Yacht Rock, they’d quietly decided to get themselves can canceled over at Channel 101 after telling us one last story about Steely Dan, then hoisting their sails and drifting away while a satisfied crowd waved goodbye from the docks, exactly one incredible year after their historical debut. Well, surprise (although not really much of a surprise to anyone who’s one of their MySpace friends)! They’re back, this time with the story of how Kenny Loggins wrote the theme to Footloose. Enjoy…

Kenny Loggins - “Footloose“

Various Artists - “Walk Hard soundtrack”
(Columbia Records)

Damn. Despite what you would have guessed from Boogie Nights, John C. Reilly can sing – and well, too. As Walk Hard’s Dewey Cox, he sounds an awful lot like Chris Isaak, actually. This soundtrack covers every style of music from the mid-50s to late 70s, and you can tell what artists are getting skewered on every track.

Johnny Cash takes the brunt of it during the first half (even his duets with June Carter gets hit with “Let’s Duet,” which is one of the few outright “funny” songs on the album), with everyone from Little Richard (“(Mama) You Got To Love Your Negro Man”), Jim Croce (“Dear Mr. President”), and Bob Dylan (“Royal Jelly”, which is the absolute most spot-on, hilariously ridiculous Dylan take ever) getting it as the record goes on. The disco cover of Bowie’s “Starman” is painfully funny, as well. They managed to get folks like Marshall Crenshaw, Mike Viola, and Van Dyke Parks involved in this, and it’s on Columbia, Johnny Cash’s old label. Thus, this is another Judd Apatow vehicle that’s gonna make a pantload of money.

Halloween parties are par for the course this weekend. Looking to liven yours up? First, you should tune into this tonight at midnight, Central Standard Time at 90.7FM (for those of you in the Kansas City / Lawrence area) or listen online at KJHK’s web site….

Failing that, there are scads of mp3 blogs willing to help you with your spooky partytime fun. Scar Stuff has Sounds to Make You Shiver for download. Coincidently, this is the same music I’ll be using for background on Sunglasses After Dark tonight.

Oddio Overplay has two compilations for download, both of which are guaranteed to get your party rocking from dusk ’til dawn. There’s Calling All Fiends, whichis “frightening, damaging, and disturbing” Halloween music or Ghouls With Attitude, a slightly more traditional, “fun” mix.

Dave’s Free Halloween Sounds is loaded with .wavs for your mix cd pleasure. Plenty of creepy, oddball, and fun shit.

Failing that… you can always download a shitload of Misfits bootlegs and spend your evening getting your scare on like that.

the Misfits - “Monster Mash” (live)

Thanks to Nuthousepunks you have the soundtrack for your Halloween party, now all you need are wicked costumes to wear. Get creative and go as the Misfits with a kill devillock, some black leather and plenty of white make-up. There are so many adult costumes that you can wear that run the gamut from strange to sexy, or horrifying to goofy. If you happen to be throwing a party, turn your place into a haunted
house with some killer Halloween decorations that will surely be remembered by everyone who attends.

Courtesy of Gorilla Mask, this is one of the collest animations I’ve ever seen. Thanks to shit like this, my television viewing has been dropping ever-so-steadily over the past year or so.

Take a look at the battle of the album covers…

Not to lay my problems on you people, but my grandmother’s in the hospital for the third time in about a year, and this go ’round, it’s the intensive care unit. I had this really great post about meating people based on band merch, and it was all tied into High Fidelity and shit like that, but I haven’t really had the energy or will to do much of anything other than sit around and worry all day.

So, um, here’s some music that’s happy and cheery and completely the opposite of the way I’m feeling right now. An entire collection of Muppet-related music. Soundtracks to damn near every show and movie Jim Henson’s little creations have ever done. And as I could use something screamy and upset, there’s Leftover Crack’s “Muppet Namblin’.” “Rainbow Connection” torn to shreds.

Albums upon albums of Muppety goodness here. Thanks to Copy, Right? for the link.

Leftover Crack - “Muppet Namblin’“