A Modern Motorik Kinda Day Again

Last year we had A Modern Motorik Kinda Day (and A Modern Motorik Kinda Night), and this time, more the same. Again, all dozen tracks are fairly rare. They're all good to great including The Shadow Sea's "The Remnant (Extended Electronic mix)," Sappy's "You Can Turn a Phrase," Mayor Dadi's "In Laos" and Vert-X's "Clus." Speaking of Vert-X, they along with a few other bands, piqued my interest to explore the recherché side of modern motorik, albeit by happenstance. A bit of a long story I'll save for perhaps another time. Anyway, enjoy!

On Track! Rare Covers

The original plan was to do another desert rock mix, but noticed Ape Machine's "Ape'n'Stein." Ha, so clever! It's Edgar Winter's Frankenstein, and so off with yet again another covers mix, and a good one at that. How good I say? Well, one track in particular and hands down, the best version (so far) of a Pink Floyd track - Syrek's "Have a Cigar." Terry (Syrek) is a massive shredder. And good vocals to boot. Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders' "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" is, you guessed it, hands down the best version (so far) of Dylan's poignant ballad. But, I wouldn't say their version isn't as poignant... need to be heard!

Of all the tracks, I'd say a dozen are quite rare. The exceptions, and I'm guessing here, are Earthless' take on Hendrix's "Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)," Juliana Hatfield's not-as-subtle version of Olivia Newton-John's "I Honestly Love You," and pianist David Sides run-through of Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends." On the rarer side of note - TheClavhens' take on The Beatles but aptly titled, "Why Don't We Do It in the Snow?," Solace's covering Pink Floyd's "In the Flesh" (the second version), and Brian Bromberg's double-bassing Kansas' "Carry on Wayward Son."

16 tracks, a variety of genres, and they're all good, and some more than good. Enjoy!

Popcorn Mania 17: Shakin' the World!

Volume 16, back at the first of the year, was going to be the last in the series. After listening to Chuck Willis' "Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Baby Leaves You" and Peggy King's "Up, Up, Up (Flying High)" (both on this mix), I changed my mind. Once again, all good to great tracks, with a few deep album cuts as well. With the two aforementioned big fav tracks, there's also Bill Haley & His Comets' "Hawk," Roy Gaines' "Black Gal," Frances Faye's "Frenesí" and Eddie Cooley & The Dimples' "Driftwood" as well. They're all good. Of the 17 volumes so far, I'd say it's in the top 5. Enjoy!

Smokin' Oldies Jukebox 3! Doo-Wop Whoppers

And whoppers they are. Big, BIG fav in The Versatiles' "Passing By." 18 tracks including The Tremaines, The Premiers,  Jay Jay & The Selectones, The 5 Embers, The Comic Books, and many more. Enjoy!

Smokin' Oldies Jukebox 2! The Deep Cut Seventies

18 tracks of deep album tracks, well most of 'em. A couple of Canadian tracks (Fludd's "Turned 21" and Steel River's "Southbound Train") are still heard on occasion on the classic radio stations up in Canuckland. The first couple of tracks (Iron Butterfly's "Get It Out" and Stretch's "Miss Dizzy") are my top favs, with Steve Miller Band's "Love Is Strange" and Chase's "Swanee River" right up there. They're all good. Enjoy!

btw, I normally don't label '70s music as oldies. I just wanted to carry the series with less emphasis on the actual genres and/or time period, etc, while keeping the name intact.

Smokin' Oldies Jukebox! The Early Kickapoo '60s

Note: I normally borrow part of a song title (or two) from the mix to make part of the complete title. I select words for either phonetic reasons, or definition/relative, etc, etc, and in this case, I thought "Kickapoo" (from the track "Kickapoo Joy Juice" by The Rivingtons) was either colloquial or gobbledygook (remember, and in my defense, The Rivingtons also released Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow, The Bird's the Word, etc) and it simply rolled off the tongue. It didn't dawn on me until this morning that maybe there's a meaning behind the word, and sure enough, Kickapoo are North American people formerly living in Wisconsin, and now in Kansas, Oklahoma, and north central Mexico. Therefore, the subtitle has nothing to do with the actual Kickapoo, nor any of the tracks are centered on the areas aforementioned. With that out of the way...

20 smokin' oldies for the jukebox, all from '60 to '63. Several unsung gems including Wynonie Harris' "Sweet Lucy Brown," Little Jerry Williams' "You Call It Love," Little Richard's "I'm in Love Again" and Eddie Bo's "Baby I'm Wise." Also some doo-wop including The Flamingos' "Mio Amore" (sounds a bit similar to their awesome "I Only Have Eyes for You") and Shep & The Limelites' "Who Told the Sandman." And a popcorn track or two. They're all good. Enjoy!

Kosmische Modern Musik 2

aka Cosmic Music aka Krautrock. A dozen tracks - all modern and as the norm, it grooves! Big fav would be Casi todos los males' "Ser lúdico no es ser ridículo." Zacht Automaat's "Upstairs Downstairs" and Daniel Vincent's "Winter Fades" are a couple of more favs. They're all good. Enjoy!

Awesome Downtime 23: Vibes

A cure for this lingering winter blues? Downtime! 18 tracks of chill and bliss. Big favs in Forest Man's "Rivers and Mountains (ft. Lemon Jelly)" and U'nique Music's "Forget." Flovry's "Bloom" and Hoogway's "Silhouette" are a couple of more favs. They're all good. Enjoy!

16 Groovin' & Rockin' Instro Library/Lounge Music from the '70s, Volume 3

And a beauty it is. Sammy Burdson's "Centurion A," Gert Wilden's "Follow Me," Klaus Weiss' "The Camp" and Remigio Ducros' "Una partita agitata" are a few favs. btw, the first volume happens to be the most popular (views) post in the blog. Enjoy!

The Steamy Library 4: It Might Make You Horny

And it might. 18 salacious, erogenous, amatory, lascivious, concupiscent, prurient, unchaste (I see a trend of titled mixes in the works... possibly) tracks that may or may not be amorous. A couple by Andy Novello including "Waltz of Roses," one of my favs in the mix. Also John Cameron's "Liquid Sunshine," Hiro Yanagida's "When She Didn't Agree," Alessandro Alessandroni's "Aspetti musicali," Stefano Torossi's "Being Friendly" and Franco Micalizzi's "Sospetto (Il lato romantico)" just to name a few more. They're all good. Enjoy!

Rockin' Rollin' Doo-Wop 5: Os-Ca-Lu-Ski-O!

As usual, only the good stuff. 16 tracks, from '51 to '61 including big fav "Rockin' in the Rocket Room" by The Larks. Also, The Moonlighters' "Going Out," The Lyrics' "Come on Home," The Five Keys' "Hucklebuck with Jimmy," The Lamplighters' "Goody Good Things" and The Four Buddies' "Ooh-Ow" to name a few. Enjoy!

Doo-Wop Ballads 4: Lucky Star

Oh yeah, more goodies, 20 of 'em. Lots of rare tracks for the casual listener. The Sonics' "This Broken Heart" is my big fav here. It's a goodie for sure. Many other goodies including The Four Fellows' "You Don't Know Me," The Edsels' "Count the Tears," The Romeos' "Love Me," The Casanovas' "Please Be Mine," Ace Kennedy & The Candies' "Arms Around You," etc. They're all good. Enjoy!

No "Butts" About It! 20 Golden Oldies 1953-64

Now something for all you lovers of the oldies, 20 several somewhat rare (aka rarely heard) tracks, and all so good. Big favs in Rochell & The Candles' "Hey, Pretty Baby," The Nite Riders' "Women and Cadillacs," The Vocaltones' "I'm Gonna Get That Girl," The Gentlemen's "Something to Remember You By" and The Coronets' "I'm All Alone." Most are rockin' good fun. Enjoy!

The Steamy Library 3: Music to Make You Horny

Music that makes you horny? If that's the case, then you'll need to see a psychiatrist, lol. 20 tracks, all library/lounge grooves sans, Georgia Gibbs' 1952's "Kiss of Fire" (pop & tango), and Curt Boettcher's late 60s sunshine-y "Christina, In My Dreams."

My favorite (a big favorite) is Armando Trovaioli's "Angola adeus." Also a few covers including The 18th Century Corporation's "This Guy's in Love with You" and Baker Street Philharmonic's great (yes, I love it) take on "Here, There and Everywhere." Syd Dale, Luciano Simoncini, Franco Micalizzi, Helmuth Brandenburg, etc. Lots of good stuff. Enjoy!

NOTE: I used a wrong text font for back cover (incorrect display of symbols, ampersands, diacritics, accents, etc) that's included in the file. The correct cover is in this post. If desired, just delete the back cover and right-click>save the back cover in post.

If It's Not Hot, It's Hot!

18 tracks, mostly 60s & 70s with a couple of 50s (Oscar McLollie & His Honey Jumpers' "Hot Banana (instrumental)" and Bill Haley & His Comets' "Hot Dog Buddy Buddy"), three 80s (Robbie Dupree's "Hot Rod Hearts," Triumph's "Hot Time (In This City Tonight)" and Loverboy's "Hot Girls in Love"), and one 00s (Glam Sam and His Combo's "Hot!"). Nothing cold here, all hot including The Rimshots' "A Hot Day in Harlem," Little Richard's "Hot Nuts," etc. Enjoy!

Popcorn Mania 16: Kinda Wonderful

A new year, and new popcorn. Little Hank's "Mister Bang Bang Man" would be my top fav. Andrea Carroll's "It Hurts to Be Sixteen," Jimmy Breedlove's "You're Following Me" and Nick Charles' "The Right Girl" my other top favs. 20 tracks in all, from 1960 to 66. Enjoy, and have a glorious new year and a prosperous 2025 and beyond!

Weird Oowee Weird

Full title: Weird Oowee Weird aka A Strabismus Cow Licks Grapes & Gravy

Original title: What a Weird Way to Go

18 tracks by artists/bands labelled as weird rock among other genres. Now don't worry - there isn't any abstract, harsh, noise, or any non-music tracks. It's all listenable and frankly, most of the tracks are not all that entirely weird. You could say the band names are more weird in a no-connection-to the-music relation. Let's go with examples...

Kevin's "Ficking E" - a short instrumental ditty with an occasional scream in the background, and a saxophone playing a repeated motif. Not that weird, yet still cool...

Fuscia's "Headphones" - sounds like you'd hear on top 40 radio. There's a bit of scat and not the usual sounding instrumental break mid-way, but really not all that weird if at all...

The Great Journey's "The Meltdown" - okay, it's weird. A short little ditty but cool nonetheless...

Phoaming Edison's "Utilization Management" - love it! A great instrumental with the only thing weird would be the group and song title...

Creat's "I No U Do Not I" - wait for the Die Hard sample. Hilarious, then again I enjoy juvenile humor...

Chins' "Turtles" - more juvenile humor...

Captain's "Gary Larson" - to describe the tune, if Dinosaur Jr. went unplugged...

Soon Li's "Matt C." - another awesome instrumental. Nothing weird here, unless a trombone in a rocking tune...

Schwartz's "Pruen" - I had to recheck and make sure I got the band name and song title correct, lol...

Ben Lewis' "Blue Bubbles with Generators" - another awesome short instrumental, the title being the only thing weird...

Welington Irish Black Warrior's "Don't Blame Me" - just give the track a couple of minutes, and then sit back for a fast, motorik-styled ride...

Louis Jucker's "Attics" - as far as I know, the static near the beginning and the end is intentional.

Anyway, I really do like the tunes in this mix. I hope you do too. Enjoy!

Groovy Retro Family Christmas 2024 [1950-69]

For all you with family, young and old, a retro mix of a lot of unheard/underplayed Christmas tunes. Several tunes not only aimed at the kiddies, but the kid inside us. I still listen to every track, all twenty of 'em. Ooops, I meant nineteen of the twenty. I've never heard Barry Richards' "Baby Sittin' Santa" until just the other day, lol. Let's see what we got here...

Ricky Zahnd and The Blue Jeaners' "Something Barked on Christmas Morning" should have been a Christmas classic. The Royal Guardsmen's "The Return of the Red Baron" - the one they don't play, at least when I'm listening to the radio, or shopping at the mall. Billy May's "Do You Believe in Santa Claus? (feat. Thurl Ravenscroft)" - yeah, the singer dude is also Tony the Tiger, and the voice behind "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."

Peter Wood Singers and Orchestra's "Winter Wonderland" goes back before blogs really took off (2003). I no longer recall who, where, and when (I'm guessing one of those groups like y*h** or maybe a peer 2 peer thingy, I really don't recall), but someone shared this track (probably no more than 128 kbps and full of snap, crackle & pop) and it's been in my Christmas playlist almost every year since.

Little Rita Faye's "I Fell Out of a Christmas Tree" is cute, and so is Lawrence Welk's Little Band's "Outer Space Santa." Art Carney's "Santa and the Doodle-Li-Boop" is simply awesome. There's also a bit of family humor, including Allan Sherman's "The Twelve Gifts of Christmas." Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

Groovy Christmas 2024

Hey folks! Long time, no see! I've been busy, really busy. Anyway, got a cool Christmas mix with lots of groove, soul, funky-jazz and the like. Well, except one track - a rockabilly, early rocker. I just couldn't find the time (aka too lazy) to replace it, but it's all good.

16 unsung and/or rare tracks. The highlight would be Skafish's 10-minute plus "We Three Kings Fusion." Other favs in The Poets' "Merry Christmas Baby," Binky Griptite's "Stone Soul Christmas," Sparkplug's "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and The Ramsey Lewis Trio's "The Sound of Christmas." They're all good. Merry Christmas!

Kosmische Modern Musik

aka Cosmic Music aka Krautrock. A dozen tracks in all. Several tracks have mixed genres (a bit of progressive electronic, math, motorik, space rock, etc) and not necessarily pure cosmic. Favorites include 3rd Ear Experience's "I Am Not Robot," Instrument's "Joke on Me" and Anatolian Weapons' "Heritage" to name a few. Isobel's "Nerve" and the rocking "You and or You or Me" by M185 are a couple more favs. They're all good. Enjoy!

Halloween Horrors of Modern Surf Rock XII: The Ghosts!

This may or may not be the last Halloween mix of the season. In the meantime, another round of awesome surf rock. The Von Drats, Sonic Screwdriver, Marshall & The Martins, The Phantom Dragsters, a couple by I Fantomatici, Los Apollos, Insect Surfers, a couple by Speedball Jr., and more. Enjoy!

I Got a Rock! Old & New Spooky Tunes from the Pumpkin Patch 2

From Buster Doss and His Arkansas Playboys' 1949's "Graveyard Boogie" to Simon Stokes & Hammerlock's 2018's "Trapped in a Nightmare," 20 tracks in all. V8 Walkers' "Bad Moon Rising" is the BIG highlight and an awesome cover (CCR). Agent Twang!'s "Ghost Train," Ray Daytona and Googoobombos' "Even the Zombie Cry," Bo Diddley's "Bo Meets the Monster" and Marshall & The Martins' "The Purple Thing" to name a few more. Enjoy!

Halloween Horrors of Modern Surf Rock XI

Great stuff, 18 in all. The Illumignarly's "Gnarmy of Darkness," the Phantom Dragsters' "Tiki Horror Island," Terminal Sunburn's "Planet of the Spiders," Baja Bug's "Surf and Destroy," The Prodigals' "Sharkskin Buffalo" and X Ray Cat Trio's "Surfin' Sasquatch" to name a few. Enjoy!

I Got a Rock! Old & New Spooky Tunes from the Pumpkin Patch

From the Deep River Boys' 1940's "Swinging at the Séance" to the Gig Experiment's 2019's "Shark Attack." Both tracks are favs in this mix. Roky Erickson and The Aliens' "Bumble Bee Zombie" is probably my top favorite in the mix. The Three Suns' "The Creep," Bob and Jerry's "Ghost Satellite," René Hall Orchestra's "Night Fright" and St. Paul & The Broken Bones' "Champagne Halloween" are a few more. 20 in all. Enjoy!

Halloween Horrors of Modern Surf Rock X: Freakout!

It's a freakout all right. Atomicos' "Zombie vs. Ninja" is a big fav, especially how it goes a bit funky half way through. Ladrones de Guitarras' "Granja de zombies" is another goodie. And so is The Supersónicos' "Aloha Alien," Mr. Eliminator & The Deadly Vipers' "Nuclear Tsunami," Martin Cilia's "Freakout," Sheverb's "Nowhere Wolf" and the lengthy "Terror I" by Os Aquamans. They're all good. Enjoy!