Team Sleep - Lovers

Trying to explain Team Sleep is quite the task as there has been all kinds of misinformation available for ages, but I'll try to give you an idea of what really happened and who is involved.

Around the time of the Deftones' "White Pony" album, there were mentions in interviews of a new side-project between Chino Moreno, the Deftones' lead singer, and his friend, DJ Crook. The group, Team Sleep, was initially believed to be Chino's baby with he and Crook sharing production and songwriting duties with most of the Deftones helping out with live instrumentation, even though they weren't official members of the group. Now it appears that the group actually started as a casual team-up with Todd Wilkinson, a friend of Chino's and they had been recording together for quite a while, but nothing became overly serious until Crook joined in.

Around 2001/2002, the group, with no album to present, went on tour. The line-up consisted of Chino Moreno, Todd Wilkinson, Dan Elkan of Pocket For Corduroy, Sonny Mayugba of Phallucy, Zach Hill of way too many things to list but best known for Hella, Rick Verrett of Tinfed, Joel Tidwell, and DJ Crook. Their sets featured songs that were later recorded for the album but also included a cover of the Smashing Pumpkins' "The Aeroplane Flies High". Some bootlegs from this era show the band playing pretty loosely but nonetheless quite heavily and clearly motivated. A lot of speculation began to surface and an official Team Sleep site eventually went live.

Shortly after the tour and the site, an album's worth of Team Sleep material leaked via the Deftones' official forums. Chino was quite upset and stated that he would not release those recordings because of the leak. He was especially upset that the primary source of the leak were fans of his bands and that they made the album easy to find online. That said, the love for the recordings could not be denied as fans from the Deftones camp and non-fans were quickly stating their appreciation for the album and hoping for it's release, either as-is or in a further completed form.

Sadly, most of those recordings, at least as they were, remain unreleased and look like they will continue to be. The album that leaked is generally considered untitled but around the time of it's leak it was stated on several occasions that it would be titled "Lovers". I've decided to stick with that name for this post, especially since I think it's appropriate. There is a sexy, romantic vibe all throughout the album, one that can be scary but always engaging.

Some explanation about the album's creation would be nice to have but not much is known. First off, it's been said that the leaked album was not really an "album", but this doesn't seem accurate as the tracks had been sequenced and segues had been created for several of the tracks. The version that was leaked is definitely a finished version, as you can hear the tracks with segues begin to flow into the next song, only to have them stop completely and the following song start clean without any of the previous track. Secondly, Terry Date is assumed the producer, especially since two tracks from the unreleased album, "King Diamond" and "Liegia", were released in slightly altered form on the band's self-titled album. The versions that were released are definitely the same recordings featured on the "Lovers" album, although with additional vocals and effects in places. As for the rest of the album, "Cambodia" was re-recorded as "Ever (Foreign Flag)", a beautiful song which fleshed it out quite a bit further and "Natalie Portman" was updated into "Live From The Stage". "Mercedes" actually received a premiere on radio in 2002 and was featured in a pseudo-official mixtape by, if I'm remembering correctly, DJ Crook, but has not been released otherwise. "Apollonia", sans-vocals, was released on the soundtrack to "The Matrix Reloaded" as "The Passportal". "Death By Plane" was featured in a promotional video from the band's website leading many to believe it would be on the album, but that's as far as it got.

Participation from additional Deftones-members in Team Sleep in unclear, but it has been confirmed that the drums in "Interlude" are provided courtesy of Abe Cunningham. The track has been previously labeled "Abe vs. Crook", although that was never confirmed as an official part of the track's name. The track was created from an improv session between Abe and Crook and, while it may be one of the simplest parts of the album, it's easily one of the most hypnotic. It begs to be a bed for a radio announcement or something to be played between songs.

Other vocalists involved in the "Lovers" sessions were Mary Timony, whose contributions did make the final album, Melissa Auf Der Maur, for whom none of her work has been heard by anyone outside the band, and Mike Patton. Patton's contribution, the extremely haunting "Kool Aid Party", was set to be released as a b-side for a European single but it never happened, which is a shame because it is easily one of the best tracks Team Sleep have ever recorded. It features the sounds of waves crashing over a dark, foreboding groove as Patton steps up for vocal duties. Originally, Chino wanted Patton to write lyrics about the events at Jonestown and the aforementioned "kool-aid" party, but instead he wrote about pirates and murder, which as spooky as that is, makes it almost sexy the way he sings. In a deep croak, Patton speaks of the ship's crew and their actions upon reaching land. This should have been released, and the band knows it too, so maybe, MAYBE, someday this may see some kind of official release.

Team Sleep continues to record and have speculated that a new album will appear in 2010. Crook posts demos as their MySpace page and there will supposedly be a set of free EPs released in the near future, leading up to the actual follow-up album's completion, but as all things go with Team Sleep and the Deftones, not much is actually spoken until it finally happens, so it could be a while until the Team returns.


Team Sleep - Lovers

01 Death By Plane
02 Apollonia
03 Iceache
04 Ligeia (feat. Mary Timony)
05 Cambodia
06 King Diamond
07 Solid Gold
08 Boulevard Nights
09 Mercedes
10 Acoustic One
11 Interlude
12 Kool Aid Party (feat. Mike Patton)
13 Natalie Portman

Elton John & Billy Joel - Live In Cleveland 5/23/09

First things first, man is that an old photo! They look NOTHING like that anymore! Now back to the regularly scheduled program already in progess.

Oh boy, do I feel lazy. I know I don't post everyday like some blogs to but if I don't post every other day I feel like I'm a real schmuck. That said, I don't post every other day either so I already feel a little schmuckish to begin with, but until this becomes my job, which I'm sadly certain it won't, there will be long breaks and short breaks between posts, although the long breaks are probably not all that long be regular internet standards. Anyway, there will be another post this coming weekend about an album very dear to me and my woman which has never seen release. Pretty damn convenient since that's what this blog is all about, eh?

Since I'm beating myself up for not posting regularly, I'm giving a little gift tonight that I posted for some friends at another site. This is Elton John and Billy Joel's show from this past Saturday. I was at this show in what would normally be called the nosebleed seats, although they were more like the aneurysm seats due to the position of the stage in regards to my location. That said, we had a very good screen and the sound was great so I didn't miss too much.

I've seen Billy Joel several times over my life, dating all the way back to 1984 at the Richfield Coliseum. I've always loved his music and I don't give a damn what elitists have to say about his pop-music career, he's a great songwriter and doesn't get the credit he deserves. He's also a great entertainer and makes it a habit to talk to the audience and keep them involved. I can't say the same for Elton John though, as he barely spoke to the audience, didn't introduce his band, played a number of songs that only die-hard Eltonites would know and took many of his songs to an attention breaking point by making them last forever. I like Rocket Man as much as the next person but it doesn't need to last nearly fifteen minutes. I'm sure you can tell which part of the show I enjoyed more, although I must note that when Billy and Elton shared the stage and vocal duties on each others hits, they were amazing. The finale of Candle In The Wind and Piano Man was simply beautiful.

I know this isn't much of a review but I'm tired and I've been working all day. That said, I am pleased to present to you the complete show and hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Also, unlike my Wilco post, while this show is split into multiple files, these ones are independent of each other, which is to say you can unzip each on it's own. So, please feel free to indulge yourself in this wonderful show.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

R.I.P. Jay Bennett

I can't tell you I'm the most informed person when it come to Jay Bennett. What I know about him mostly centers around his work with Wilco, the big point being he and Jeff making Summerteeth and his involvement and eventual leave of the band during the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot era. I didn't follow his post-Wilco work but, having read Greg Kot's "Learning How To Die", it sounded like the break was amicable and he'd left on a good note. That positivity came into question a few weeks ago when Bennett announced he was suing Tweedy for unpaid royalties in relation to Wilco recordings and for his appearance in Sam Jones' "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart", the film which documented Wilco's struggles during the "Yankee..." era and Bennett's leave. Shortly before this, Bennett had stated he required hip-replacement surgery and was concerned how he would pay for it as he either didn't have insurance or didn't have enough. A lot of chatter followed online about the true intentions behind his lawsuit, especially since Tweedy would have had nothing to do with money related to the film and most likely nothing related to a lack of royalty payments, but whatever the intent, it all came to a screeching halt this morning as it was announced that Jay Bennett has passed away in his sleep, most likely due to complications surrounding that hip surgery that he needed. It hasn't been clarified whether his death was related to any of the meds he was using post-op or if it was something else in relation to the surgery, regardless though it is a shame. Jay was an incredibly talented musician and should be remembered for more than being "that guy who used to be in Wilco". I'll openly admit, that's where I'm most familiar with him, but that's the most disrespectful way he could be remembered.

I'm a little ashamed to say that I'm probably contributing to that awful way of him being remembered with this post today, but I can say with certainty that it is not my intention. I've always considered his contributions to "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and "Summerteeth" very important, it just seems that, at least around the time of "Yankee...", he might have began to believe that his role in Wilco could be bigger than that of the person who actually started the band. It's been said that the band wasn't comfortable being in the same room with him during his endless mixing sessions and that he may have been overworking himself to avoid dealing with problems in his personal life. Whatever the reasons, he was still there and his importance to that album is unquestionable. Even more so, "Summerteeth" was basically the Jeff and Jay show, as they wrote and recorded much of the album without much outside influence from the other band members. So, it is with sadness in my heart that I post demos and alternate takes from the "Yankee..." and "Summerteeth" eras.

I want to note, while these may be available for free elsewhere, most notably on Owl and Bear's fantastic Wilco archive, they are available there in lossless format and not as mp3s. Despite my preference for lossless, I still have high quality lossy files I play on my iPod of these recordings and I understand why other people would want them in that format too, so this post consists of V0 mp3s created from the original lossless files as hosted at Owl and Bear. If you'd like to check out their endless array of Wilco and Wilco-related bands (as well as a fabulous archive of non-Wilco related bands) you would do yourself well to visit their site.

Two more things before the links... the "Yankee..." sessions featured here are most likely from before Jim O'Rourke became involved in the album. This means that Ken Coomer is most likely on percussion and Jay made the mixes. Sadly, this has not been confirmed to this date, but it is widely believed/assumed to be correct. Secondly, please keep in mind as I said earlier, it would be a shame for Bennett to remembered merely as an ex-member of Wilco. He is someone who will be dearly missed by his friends and family. He was also a fine musician who made music both before and after his time with Wilco.


Wilco - Summerteeth Demos
UPDATE: It seems my file-sharing provider has an issue with the Summerteeth Demos as everytime I repost them, they disappear shortly thereafter. If you really want the Summerteeth Demos, please visit Owl and Bear's Wilco Archive via the link in the above text. Oddly enough, the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot links below are untouched and still very active, so please feel to grab them if the spirit moves you to do so.

01 A Shot In The Arm
02 We're Just Friends
03 I'm Always In Love
04 Candyfloss
05 How To Fight Loneliness
06 Tried and True
07 She's A Jar
08 Pieholden Suite
09 Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway(again)
10 Via Chicago
11 ELT
12 My Darling
13 In A Future Age


Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Demos/Outtakes
NOTE: Make sure you download both parts. You can't decompress one on it's own.
Part 1
Part 2

01 I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
02 Ashes Of American Flags
03 I'm The Man Who Loves You
04 A Magazine Called Sunset
05 Reservations
06 Kamera
07 Not For The Season
08 Shakin' Sugar
09 Nothing Up My Sleeve
10 Venus Stop The Train
11 Rhythm
12 Poor Places
13 Won't Let You Down
14 Heavy Metal Drummer
15 Let Me Come Home (Instrumental)
16 Corduroy Cutoff Girl (Instrumental)
17 Corduroy Cutoff Girl (Alternate Instrumental)
18 Kamera
19 A Magazine Called Sunset
20 Shakin' Sugar
21 Not For The Season

Soul Coughing - RARITIES MEGA POST!!!

Soul Coughing, like Mr. Bungle, had a very strong impact on me in my teenage years. I was first introduced to them via a CMJ sampler cd in their monthly retail magazine. It had the song "Down To This" and, after a few listens, I found myself intrigued. There was also a full page ad featuring the girl from the "Ruby Vroom" cover with the large text reading "This shit will fuck your head up!". Needless to say, I now had to find this album. At the time I was living in a very small country town with a run-down, independent record store that had a crappy selection and charged too much. The owner wasn't the nicest person but the people who ran the store on a day-to-day basis were cool and they special ordered the disc for me. After a long week or two, it arrived and I made a mad dash to grab it. Upon receiving this much-desired item, I preceded to play the shit out of it at loud volume and all hours of the night at home, at my job washing dishes in the back of a local pizza joint, at school when I could hang out in the library and to anyone that would listen. I was really enthralled by "Ruby Vroom" and proceded to collect every piece of information about Soul Coughing that I possibly could. Now remember, this is about 1994 and file sharing was practically non-existant. You could download small clips of songs from select artists' web sites, but they were always low quality and, because you probably went online via dial-up, it took forever no matter how small the file was. Downloadable video was even worse and everyone thought that putting crappy, overly compressed videos on cd-roms was the way of the future. Oh, how far we have come.

Apart from finding a few interviews and oddball promos, I didn't hear much about Soul Coughing until 1996 when I heard "Super Bon Bon" on a late night alternative radio show in Cleveland and it happened all over again. I was blown away and knew I needed to get whatever came next. There was quite a delay between then and the release of their second album, "Irresistible Bliss", but I got by with the X-Files soundtrack cd which featured a new song by the Cough, and eventually grabbed the album on the same day as Prince's "Chaos and Disorder", a cd which I loved at the time but now have matured enough to say, without mincing words, sucked. I didn't care for "Irresistible Bliss" too much though compared to "Ruby Vroom". It sounded far too polished and lacked a lot of the weirdness that so appealed to me about "Ruby Vroom". It's grown on me a lot over time and has some tracks I've always really enjoyed, but a lot of my friends started catching onto the Cough about then and it pissed me off. I'd been down from day one! Or two, or whatever it really was. The point was, in my immature teenage ways, I felt I'd been there first and they didn't know how cool Soul Coughing really was. I wanted redemption!!!

Redemption came a few years later with the release of "El Oso". Most everyone talked about how great "Irresistible Bliss" was but everyone complained "El Oso" was too weird. I thought it was perfect! The Cough had nailed the craziness all over again and I blasted "El Oso" and the first two albums all summer long. It also seemed like Soul Coughing was finally starting to blow up and get appreciated for their individuality and creativity, with lead singer Mike Doughty publishing some of his poetry, drummer Yuval Gabay getting involved with the then-burgeoning jungle/drum'n'bass scene out of England, keyboard sampler Mark Dr Gli Antoni working on his solo album for John Zorn's label and bassist Sebastian Steinberg playing with people like Neil Finn and working on a band with Yuval Gabay called UV Ray. That's when the bottom dropped out though, as the band broke up and little was heard for quite a while. Doughty was especially quiet, for a while, until around 2000 he went on tour all by his lonesome playing acoustic sets in rented cars all over the country. It turns out he'd been suffering through a very bad case of drug addiction and the band's break-up had been anything but amicable, but he turned around and got his life back together. The topic of a potential reunion has been mentioned a few times but Doughty says it's unlikely, despite the rest of the band reuniting as an instrumental group named Tempo Team at one point. Doughty continues to tour and record on his own, still performing many Soul Coughing classics either acoustic or with his new band.

When the band broke up, there was a sizeable collection of unreleased material left over as well as a completely different version of the "Irresistible Bliss" album, then tentatively named "Lust In Phaze", a name later applied to a best-of compilation. The band let a few tracks find release as free downloads via their official website, but Warner Brothers eventually asked them not to give anything away as there may have been a future release of these tracks. That never happened though, so fans have been trading the goodies that they could get their hands on since. I've seen a few of these comps online and was disappointed to find a lot of the tracks either mislabled or attributing a track performed by someone else with Doughty on vocals to Soul Coughing. Don't get me wrong, I love to have tracks like those, I just like to know the correct details, so I figured, hey, I run a site dedicated to rare and unreleased music, why not post a collection that would clarify some things once and for all?

Soul Coughing - These Are The Reasons: Rarities

DISC ONE:
01 Bus To Beelzebub (Original Intro)
This is the unused introduction to "Bus To Beelzebub". Where this short intro ends the track as featured on "Ruby Vroom" would begin.

02 I Shot Lily Brick Down
03 Michael Jackson
04 Jersey Devil
There tracks are from a demo tape prior to Soul Coughing being signed with Slash. At this point they were playing live regularly and these songs were all featured in their sets along with several recorded for "Ruby Vroom". Their sound was clearly less than fully developed at the time. Some of the lyrics from "Jersey Devil" were reused in "The Brooklynites".

05 I Got To Get Right With This
06 Brooklyn Girls By Train
Both of these are live tracks from around the same time as the aforementioned demos. They still sound kind of rough and Mark De Gli Antoni's samples are fairly absent from the performances.

07 I'm Living On Baby Food
08 Theme From Rachel's Sitcom
These are both outtakes from "Ruby Vroom" that were featured on a Warner Brothers promotional single in their "Soil X Samples" series.

09 Buddha Rhubarb Butter
This appeared on several promotional compilations before finally gaining an official release on the "Lust In Phaze" compilation. This was a "Ruby Vroom" outtake which was a strong contender for the album. It would have been included if the band hadn't felt the album was already pretty long at just over an hour.

10 A Murder Of Lawyers
Another "Ruby Vroom" outtake. This was released on a compilation named "Offbeat" which was part of the Red Hot series of releases.

11 Sugar Free Jazz (Cane Field Mix)
Unreleased remix of Sugar Free Jazz.

12 The Brooklynites
This was released on the "Blue In The Face" soundtrack. It may have been recorded during the "Ruby Vroom" sessions but that is unconfirmed.

13 My Ass Is In The Bronx
14 El Burro In The Underworld
15 Come On and Dig Me, Cause I'm The Fly Pygmy
16 Pounded Cub Scout
17 Sack Full Of Puppies
These tracks, in this order, were released as an EP available only to members of Hello Recording Club which was run by John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants. They have not been released anywhere else. They are mostly instrumental except for some quiet vocals by Doughty on "Come On and Dig Me...".

18 Laugh On Fatboy
Another live track, most likely recorded in the period between "Ruby Vroom" and "Irresistible Bliss".


DISC TWO:
01 Unmarked Helicopters
This was recorded especially for the "Songs In The Key Of X" compilation which was a soundtrack of sorts for the X-Files television show. Doughty has said the recording of this song is where the band started to break up, as by this point the first version of "Irresistible Bliss" was finished but, pleased with the results of this song's recording, everyone but Doughty decided to try to re-record the album over a few days with Steve Fisk.

02 Blow My Only
03 Lemon Lime
These "Irresistible Bliss" outtakes were released on the Japanese edition of the cd.

04 Wooly Imbibe
This great track never gained an official release although it was featured in the background during part of the movie "Can't Hardly Wait". This studio version was available for a time as a free download from the band's website after the release of "El Oso". This version was listed as an alternate mix, but since the original hasn't been released how can it be an "alternate" version?

05 There's Only One Everything
This is a live recording of a song which eventually became part of the track "The Incumbent" from "El Oso". This was recorded at a show prior to the release of "Irresistible Bliss" where the band debuted a lot of material from the then-forthcoming album. A version of "Wooly Imbibe" which is almost identical to the studio version was played at the same show.

06 Super Bon Bon (Propellerheads Mezzanine Mix)
Great remix by the Propellerheads which got lots of play in the US. The edit of the track seems to show up quite often but this is the full-length version.

07 A Plane Scraped It's Belly On A Sooty Yellow Moon
This was a collaboration with jungle/drum'n'bass artist Roni Size. It was recorded for the "Spawn" soundtrack. Apparently the band wanted to record more with Roni Size and potentially release the results as an EP, but shortly thereafter, Mr. Size became quite the commodity overseas and said EP was not to be. This track is kind of a remix of a demo that Soul Coughing recorded in England and gave to Roni Size to complete.

08 16 Horses
09 The Bug
These tracks are from the "El Oso" era and both appeared on soundtracks, although "The Bug" may have been intentionally recorded for the soundtrack it appeared on. "16 Horses" appeared on the "X-Files: Fight The Future" soundtrack and "The Bug" appeared on the "Batman and Robin" soundtrack. Towards the end of "The Bug", Doughty can be heard proclaiming "hail satan" and "George Clooney is satan".

10 212
11 Rare Star Ball
These "El Oso" outtakes were featured on the Japanese release of the cd. "212" is part of what evolved into "The Incumbent", also from "El Oso". This version may actually be a remix as the original version of the song was played live regularly and featured complete lyrics.

12 Freelancer
13 Needle To The Bar
14 He's Got The Whole World In His Hands
These "El Oso" outtakes were briefly available via the band's official website. Part of the lyrics from "Freelancer" were used for the track "Never Gonna Come Back Down" by bt upon which Doughty performed the lead vocals. "Needle To The Bar" featured a guest rap by Casual of Heiroglyphics. "...Hands" is indeed a Soul Coughing-esque cover of the childrens song. It's rather rough and unformed showing exactly why it was left off the album.

15 Adolpha Zantziger
16 These Are The Reasons
These "El Oso" outtakes were released on a promotional 7" prior to the album's release. If I remember correctly, it was given away as a prize to fans via the band's official website. The backing track of "Adolpha Zantziger" was released on Mark's solo album "Horse Tricks".

17 Cirles (Ashley Beedle Remix)
18 Rolling (Grooverider Remix)
These remixes were never given a proper release, although they did appear on several compilations. The "Rolling" remix may have been released on Grooverider's own label as a remix at one point, but it was featured on a drum'n'bass compilation assembled by DJ DB.

19 Suzi Snowflake
This was released on the "Made Especially For You" cd, a promotional release which featured this and four live tracks. That's Yuval reading part of the track in Hebrew, if I remember correctly.

20 Coffee Song
This was recorded for a Frank Sinatra tribute cd which never came to fruition. Yuval handles lead vocals here. Warner Brothers were Sinatra's label for many years and this track would most likely have been seen as sacrelage had it been release, as it's far more parody than tribute, but it's great for fans of the Cough. If you're gonna make fun of "Old Blue Eyes", this is a good way to do it!

21 Rachel Benbow Murdy - The Lemon Tree
This is the infamous phone machine recording used in the background on "Janine". It's apparently a complete improvisation by Doughty's then-girlfriend that she performed at his request when he was writing "Janine".



PS - To the band... You think I could interview you guys for a book I'm going to propose to the 33 1/3 book series? I want to write a book on "Ruby Vroom". No, seriously. You can always drop me an e-mail. PLEASE???

Girls On Top

The history of the mash-up is far too long to go into accurate detail here, so I'll talk for a minute about the aura surrounding one Richard Philips, better known as Richard X, previously known as Girls On Top. Since releasing a few very popular mash-ups, Mr. Philips has gone on to remix and produce a number of big name artists including Annie and Nine Inch Nails (can't get much more polar than those two, eh?) but his breakthrough was a re-recording of his mash-up "We Don't Give A Damn About Our Friends", which was a meeting of the music from Gary Numan's "Are Friends Electric?" and the vocals from Adina Howard's "Freak Like Me". Yes, unlikely bedfellows indeed, but what a payoff! The track gained enough popularity for a commercial release at which point a slightly edited version was recorded by the Sugababes. It became a number one single on the British charts and, as such, Richard X's career became a legitimate one.

As Girls On Top, Philips only released two vinyl-only singles. These were "Warm Bitch", which was a mash-up of The Normal's "Warm Leatherette" and Missy Elliot's "She's A Bitch" with "We Don't Give A Damn About Our Friends" on the b-side and "Being Scrubbed" which featured the title cut, a mash-up of Tangerine Dream's "Being Boiled" and TLC's "No Scrubs" and on the b-side, "I Wanna Dance With Numbers", a mash-up of Kraftwerk's "Numbers" and Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". Both singles have since become collectors items but have also been bootlegged relentlessly. At one point, a bootleg "Greatest Hits" collection of Girls On Top tracks appeared featuring both singles in their entirety, a Beatles and Fat Truckers mash-up, a remix of the Sugababes version of "...Friends" and an unreleased track featuring Aaliyah and OMD.

Today, I present to you, a collection of these 6 tracks. It is worth noting that the tracks posted here are not from a single, unified source. I have good quality vinyl rips of the two singles but the version of "Being Scrubbed" has a skip in it, so I used a version from a bootleg compilation in it's place. Also, the Beatles/Fat Truckers track is from a ridiculously lo-fi source so please don't accept this as representative of the final product. I've actually looked high and low for that one and, apart from a youtube stream, had no luck in finding the complete track. The Aaliyah/OMD track is actually from a mix someone gave to me but is indeed the complete track. I'm sure if you ran it through a spectral reader you would find it's quality to be dubious, but it sounds perfectly find to my ears. Finally, if you would like to learn more about Mr. Philips and his various productions, please visit
his site. It's very detailed and features samples of many of his works.



Girls On Top

01 Being Scrubbed (TLC vs. Tangerine Dream)
02 I Wanna Dance With Numbers (Whitney Houston vs. Kraftwerk)
03 Warm Bitch (Missy Elliot vs. The Normal)
04 We Don't Give A Damn About Our Friends (Adina Howard vs. Gary Numan)
05 The White Single (The Beatles vs. Fat Truckers)
06 Romance V.3 (Aaliyah vs. OMD)

REQUEST FOR HELP: Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom Rough Mixes

Would any of the fine visitors to this blog be able to point me in the direction of a copy or download of the rough mixes of Soul Coughing's "Ruby Vroom" album? I've seen it in trade lists over the years but I've never been able to procure a copy for myself.

For those wondering, the rough mixes of the Cough's RV feature several differences between the finished mixes including samples and performances that have been deleted. I've heard samples of the original intro to "Bus To Beelzebub" and the rather spare mix of "Down To This" which also features Doughty imitating a sample from the musical "Guys and Dolls". There are other differences but the biggest draw is two different versions of "Disseminated" which was re-recorded for their second album, "Irresistible Bliss".

If any of you could help me I would be ETERNALLY greatful and I would be more than happy to share any rarities in my collection you might be looking for. Either drop me a line via my e-mail (it's in my profile) or leave me a message in the comments. Thank you in advance for any help you can send my way! :)

Deadsy - Commencement: Sire Records Version

Deadsy is primarily known as Elijah Blue Allman's band, who is best known as the son of Cher and Gregg Allman. Sadly, apart from appearing in Cher's video for "If I Could Turn Back Time" which had to be terribly embarassing (that's the one where Cher is wearing that strange thong jumpsuit thing dancing for soldiers. think about it, your mom is dancing rather scantily clad for a bunch of men and she's pulling a spread eagle? yeah, it's gotta be bad.), his birthright is what he will be best known for, although if there is justice in the world he should be known for his band.

Deadsy was initially signed to Sire Records which was distributed by Warner Brothers. They actually recorded two albums for the label, the first self-titled and the second named "Commencement", but neither saw release. Both are circulating, but actual promotional copies of "Commencement" were produced and distributed to promote it's then impending release. Sire, unfortunately, lost their distribution deal with Warners which led to Deadsy gaining release from their contract. Because of close affiliations with Orgy and Korn the band was able to secure a deal with Korn's Elementree Records and distribution with Dreamworks and in 2002, a revised version of "Commencement" with several new tracks was released.

Despite push from a rather popular band, Deadsy didn't achieve much success. They continued to tour and self-released another album in 2006, but they have all but officially called it quits since. Elijah Blue has started a new project as Elijah Blue and The Trapezoids while Carlton Bost, the Z-Tar player, has joined The Dreaming. You can still visit the band's site but there hasn't been an update since January of 2008.

This version of "Commencement" is comprised of different takes from the Elementree version but it isn't too terribly different. The biggest differences are the inclusion of the instrumental "Fox On The Run" and the unlisted "Itty Bitty Titty Girl". If you're a Deadsy fan this is definitely worth checking out!


Deady - Commencement: Sire Records Version

01 Commencement
02 Lake Waramaug
03 She Likes Big Words
04 The Elements
05 Flowing Glower
06 Future Years
07 From Beyond
08 Fox On The Run
09 The Mansion World
10 Cruella
11 Seagulls (The Macroposopus)
12 Le Cirque En Rose (Obsolescence)
13 Itty Bitty Titty Girl