Dave's Demo Hell

In the 90's, NME used to have a column called "Holly's Demo Hell" in which the aforementioned music scribe would review demos submitted using all the venom and wit that was typical of a weekly UK music rag back then. Having gotten a few hundred demos over the years, ranging from blindingly brilliant to gut-wrenchingly awful, I can relate.

Here's a link to great blog featuring some 1987 La's and a 1990 Verve demos. Rough around the edges, sure. But they must have perked up a few ears, no doubt.

The La's demo features the usual staple of songs that most die-hards have heard a dozen variations of by now, Still, the songs are magic. I especially like the "There She Goes" with the heavy drums on the intro. The Verve one is really interesting, since you can notice them evolving a bit toward the final tracks, from "baggy" to psychedelic. The shocking thing is there's no hint of how powerful Richard Ashcroft's voice is. He sounds like he's doing his best Ian Brown imitation, just like 90% of the UK frontmen at that time. The rest of the band is in top form though. All the pieces were there right from the start.

http://week-ender.blogspot.com/

Fuzzy Christmas

Here is a compilation of Christmas tunes, most being released or discovered by me just this year. Someday I'll have to create a multivolume set that mixes genres, but for now, these are just the songs I feel like listening to this Christmas, so I thought I'd share. The real gems here are the X-ray Pop "Fuzzy Christmas" and Spectrum "Santa Claus." I first heard these, back to back, years ago on WXCI's "Large with Everything" radio show hosted by Greg Vegas. He was my John Peel, playing obscure classics of every genre, and the latest avant garde. Enjoy!

http://rapidshare.com/files/175779830/X-mas_2008.rar.html

Christmas 2008

Each year I try to pick up a few gems of Christmas music to add to my collection. This year the best of the crop is from the Raveonettes.  They manage to fuzz things up while still invoking the sound of Christmas.

http://ritmono.blogspot.com/2008/12/raveonettes-wissing-you-rave-christmas.html

Fourhead - DJ Foosball

One of the earliest releases on Clarecords, the label run by Dan and Heather at www.tonevendor.com was the DJ Foosball EP by Fourhead. Originally released as a cassette, it contained 5 songs of shoegaze meets jungle/drum-n-base. For those wondering what that lost My Bloody Valentine record from the early 90's would have sound like, this may be as close as we'll even get. Here is the entire EP along with 3 extra songs sent to me by the artist (thanks Mike).

http://rapidshare.com/files/175170754/Fourhead_-_DJ_Foosball.rar.html