revive the friday five

I'm aware of the conspicuousness of my absence, I've actually had peeps in my real life start grabbing me by the shoulders asking why I'm not updating, it's hard not feeling I've let them and everyone else down. I prefer to save the details, but like many of you out there, the economy is still kicking me hard in the ass. It brings about a certain malaise that causes one to have the attention span of a gnat. I have tons of stuff in my head, getting it out is another story.

Though everyone has their own reasons, I've noticed a lot of my favorite blogs have either called it quits or mothballed operations, most notably Locust St. Chris made mention of not having it in himself anymore to continue, I certainly can relate. Getting this thing out regularly is a job in itself - hosting bills through the roof, the never-ending leeching services that suck gigs of bandwidth I pay for, lazy peeps cut and pasting my unaccredited words that I've spent hour upon hour researching and writing onto their own blogs. The only way for this to work is not thinking about that crap and remind myself why I do this - for fun. In my world, there's nothing better than listening, sharing and discussing good music.

I plan on continuing, but I can't make any promises how often I end up updating other than I wish it was a few times a week instead of once a month. Stick with me - rest assured I'll continue, if for no other reason than having the chance, within minutes, of registering my disgust throughout the world via the Internet. Besides porn, that's one thing it's good for, 'eh?


Front 242 were an early leader of Electronica and Industrial music, one of the first bands that used looped samples of soundbites. Welcome To Paradise is chock full of them, using a fiery sermon delivered by televangelist Reverend Ferrell Griswold, the centerpiece being, "NO SEX UNTIL MARRIAGE!" Back in the day, this was a huge hit in dance clubs, it always packed the floor.

Front 242: Welcome To Paradise (V 1.0)

About two months ago, I came across the Diplo and Switch project, Major Lazer, first through the totally insane video of Pon De Floor (nws) and then listening to the rest of their fine full-length album, Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do. They're on tour now and I've heard the live show kills, so make sure to check 'em out if they come to your town.

Major Lazer: Lazer Boom 1 (Album Mix by Diplo)

The Rolling Stones covered this on Exile On Main Street, but the original just can’t be beat - Slim Harpo drives it through like a freight train barreling down the track. ZZ Top later used the riff for La Grange, there's no denying Slim's a master of Boggie Woggie.

Slim Harpo: Shake Your Hips

One of the things I try to keep quiet about is my embarrassing love of mid-period Deep Purple. Jon Lord's swirling Hammond B3 mixed in with the nibble guitar work of Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice's pounding drums expanded the Heavy Metal genre out of the Stone Age. The vocals didn't matter much, just as long as this year's lead singer could screech on key. Hush is from early Purple, when they thought they were a Pop band and recorded commercial tunes aimed at the teenybopper market. This one came up because I recently caught an advertisement for some crummy movie using a remake, it served to remind what a good job Deep Purple did with this Joe South song.

Deep Purple: Hush

I was lucky enough to catch Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers during their first national tour, back when they were laughably marketed as a Punk band, then New Wave. During 2005, a friend carted me along to one of their shows and I was pleasantly surprised to hear how the group had nicely matured since those days. Outside of The Blasters, one of the few authentic American Rock bands still cranking it out. I picked this tune cause it pretty well sums up life of late.

Tom Petty: You Don't Know How It Feels

Okay, peeps - have a great weekend and I'll see you soon for this year's Halloween mix!