Happy New Year!

To get ready for your New Year bash, I thought I would share with you some of my most successful Party Mixes. Feel free to play all three to keep the energy going. I must admit that two of the three mixes are solidly female, the third crosses some self-established gender boundaries, but nonetheless is a great party vibe.


CTB's Awesome Party Mix 1: Delta 5, Free Kitten, Nina Simone, Bush Tetras, The Grownups, Salt n Pepa, Erma Franklin, Konk, Mary J Blige, Essential Logic, LiliPUT, Mr. Airplane Man, April March

CTB's Awesome Party Mix 2: The Neptunas, X, Lauryn Hill, Janis Joplin, Ike & Tina, Bjork, Holly Golightly, Missy Elliott, LeTigre, The Pretenders + more

CTB's Awesome Party Mix 3: Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs, The Rock A Teens, Perez Prado. Gal Costa, ESG, Flaming Lips, LCD Soundsystem, Michael Jackson, Busta Rhymes, Naughty by Nature + more

Germanic Sampler

It has been a long time since I have had my mind blown by an album. Needless to say, when I read the critic's reveiws of planningtorock's one woman act, I had to get my hands on the album as I refused to believe that anything new had the ability to do so. Alas, I concede to the critics, Vice Magazine said it best as quoted on the planningtorock website, "super fucking weird but also satisfyingly mind-blowing." Check out Janine Rostron's videos on YouTube as well, which are an integral part of her live performances. I look forward to her next album, and I truly hope that she remains an independent artist.
Have It All

Okay, so Liliput/Kleenex is actually from Switzerland, but with Germany bordering their nation to the north, and with nearly 63% of the population speaking German (including the band), I am classifying it as "Germanic." The group formed in 1978, calling themselves Kleenex, but had to rethink that when Kimberly-Clark threatened legal action. The group changed their name to LiLiPUT in 1979, but they are still widely known by both names. In this two disc set which covers the period of 1978-1983, you will notice the group went through quite a few changes, including a few different vocalists. The mainstays of the band were Marlene Marder on guitar, and Klaudia Schiff on bass. Take note of the many different sounds you hear throughout the album, some of which you may recognize in Have It All. Is it geography's influence? Or musical history?

LiLiPUT

The Deals

I am completely excited to find out that The Breeders are releasing a new album in April 2008, which will be titled, Mountain Battles. Due to my excitement, here is a mega-Deals post.

Kelley Deal
Is the lead guitarist of The Breeders, but also had a number of side projects along the way. One of them being The Kelley Deal 6000, a project which began in about 1995 when she was admitted to drug rehab for possession of heroin. Listen to one of the first of two albums put out by Kelley during this time.

Go to the Sugar Altar



Kelley is also responsible for the formation of Last Hard Men around 1997. The story goes that Kelley, wanting to explore the genre of "hair bands," called Sebastian Bach of Skid Row to do a project together, but he seemed to have no idea who she was. After hitting it off, the band became Kelley Deal, Sebastian Bach, Jimmy Chamberlain of The Smashing Pumpkins, and Jimmy Flemion of The Frogs. The project finished a self-titled album in 1997, which wasn't released until 2001 when a label finally decided to pick it up.

The Last Hard Men

Kim Deal
While Kelley was in rehab, it was around this time that Kim Deal formed The Amps, the name derived from the stage name of Tammy Ampersand, which she used during The Breeders 8-year hiatus.

Pacer





And, of course, we all know The Pixies. Here is a limited release Live in Winnipeg April of 2004. Who said they weren't still awesome years later?

Live in Winnipeg

1988

Hip Hop was just under a decade old when Brooklyn native, Lana Michele Moorer, better known as MC Lyte released her debut album Lyte as a Rock, which today remains a hip hop classic. When listening, be sure to note some of what would turn into samples for future hip hoppers, and the road she helped pave for the females of the genre.
Lyte As A Rock

On the other end of the spectrum, the layered guitar sounds of My Bloody Valentine were just getting started in London. While Isn't Anything is not cited as being indicative of their sound, this debut album importantly illustrates their link with the punk sound, and with what they would become by their next album, Loveless.

Isn't Anything

Instrumentals

Formed in 1998 in Seattle, Kinski consists of Lucy Atkinson on bass, Chris Martin on guitar, Matthew Reid-Schwartz as keyboardist/guitarist, and Barrett Wilke on drums. Released in 2003, Airs Above Your Station is the band's third CD release, and is the best of the aptly or horribly named genre of "space rock," undeniably influenced by 70s rock. Airs is rare in that it is good start to end. Check out key track "Rhode Island Freak Out," as well as their new album released this past summer, "Down Below It's Chaos." Also note that Kinski has an improvisational outfit cleverly known as Herzog, check out that album Don't Climb on and Take the Holy Water, or wait for a future post of that.

Airs Above Your Station

Amiina is the all-female four piece from Iceland, which you may not be surprised by when you listen to Kurr (the Icelandic word for birdsong), their debut album. You may actually already know them as the women who added strings to the last few of Sigur Rós' albums, however, the sound of Kurr is entirely independent of this sound, partially made possible by their utilization of nearly any and all objects of instrumentation, including, but not limited to; wine glasses, water glasses, Celtic harps, saws, glockenspiels, and kalimbas, as well as more traditional instruments. Check out the delicate sounds of Huld Markan (violin), Hildur Ársælsdóttir (violin), Edda Rún Ólafsdóttir (viola) and Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir (cello).

Kurr

Origins

Alberta Hunter was a successful jazz vocalist when jazz was just getting started back in the 1920s, and continued to be one of the jazz greats until the 1950s when she left music for a new career. With most artists, when they are out of the loop for that long, and attempt a come back, we expect that they sacrifice their dignity in an attempt to regain their lost youth. This album, recorded in 1978 when Hunter was 83 years old, is the testament of a true artist who is able to portray her medium just as effortlessly, if not more effortlessly, than when she was in her 20s. Check out the lyrics on the title track.

Amtrak Blues

Jessie Mae Hemphill was a Mississippi native, and therefore, plays some real country blues. Defying tradition, Hemphill sang original material, accompanying herself on the electric guitar, and playing tambourine with her foot. This collection gathers material from her two HighWater albums, plus four previously unreleased tracks. Check out my personal favorite track, "Streamline Train" and "Lord, Help the Poor and Needy" - then be sure to tell folks what country is all about.

Shake It Baby

Descendants

One of the anthems of women in music has been "Oh Bondage Up Yours!" written by a just-turned 20 Poly Styrene, frontwoman of X-Ray-Spex. Formed in London 1976, the group featured Lora Logic on sax, an instrument not typically heard in the punk scene. Aside from their atypical style, X-Ray-Spex embodied the punk ethic because of Poly Styrene's refusal to be yet another objectified sex symbol, shaving her head in defiance, something that would get Sinead universal attention about a decade and a half later. Check out key track mentioned above, along with yet another feminist anthem, "Identity."

Germfree Adolescents


So what happened when X-Ray-Spex split in 1979 when Poly Styrene went to join the Hare Krishna movement? Lora Logic, sax player, went on to form "Essential Logic," which lasted for about a year (when she herself joined the Krishnas), and reformed again for about a year in the early 80's. This double disc compiles most of Essential Logic's recorded moments, nearly all of Lora's solo stuff, plus many recent tunes. Enjoy the sax-heavy rhythms and operatic sensibility that can only be a female influence on the punk movement. Deciphering what tracks are new is pretty simple with track titles such as "On the Internet." Be sure to check out the earlier, and surely some of the better tracks, and key tracks such as "Hiss and Shake," and of course, "Music is a Better Noise."

Fanfare in the Garden