Stereo

I don’t know how I could miss this, but it’s all happening!

But… would it really be a Pumpkins record without James Iha on board? I’m okay without D’arcy, Melissa Auf der Maur was just fine the last time around. And of course the loyal Jimmy Chamberlin has already agreed to be part of it since day one. Would someone get hold of James, please?

It’s all happening! Heh, I need to go home, like now.

Collective Soul have been around for years, a dozen years if my Maths is right. The last I heard anything from them was way back in 2000/2001 with Perfect Day, which featured the flamboyant Elton John from the album Blender. I honestly thought they disbanded after such a long hiatus. I was wrong, I just didn’t pay enough attention.

If you’ve been listening to the scene since the mid-90s, you would know Collective Soul used to rule the American rock charts. With hits like Shine, December, Gel, Precious Declaration and my favourite, The World I Know, it was hard to dismiss Collective Soul back then. I remember I used to sing along to The World I Know repeatedly. I just love the song.

Their latest offer, Home (released early February 2006), is a double CD live concert recorded with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, April last year. Yes, another band with a symphony-backed concert (blame it all on Besi-licca). But this one is good, really good. I guess it has to do with the way Collective Soul have always sound. They always seem to have an orchestra behind them in their previous works. It’s only befitting to see Collective Soul teamed up with a real orchestra for a proper concert.

If you’re new to Collective Soul, Home is a great way to listen to all their hits in 2 CDs. If you’re a fan, enjoy the memories, on a different angle. For this post, I’m putting up the song Crown. It blends really well with the orchestra on the background, and it’s emotional as hell.

Download: Collective Soul - Crown, Live with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra (MP3 format)

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I heard radio.wazee spin this track a few times now. Something about the flow of the song appeals to me.

I never heard of the band before, but apparently they already have 5 albums out, including this year’s Foiled, where this track came from. 5 albums for a relatively unknown band (at least over this side of the world), now that’s something noteworthy.

Download: Blue October - Hate Me (MP3 format)

P/S: The MP3 is slightly different from the version played in radio.wazee. It doesn’t have the intro part and it’s censored. Oh well, it’s hard to get hold of this MP3 as it is. Enjoy.

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As promised, the new version for my WP [radio.wazee] plugin for WordPress. You can see it in action at the sidebar in this site.

U2 nominated for:

• Album of the Year (How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb)
• Song of the Year (Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own)
• Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal (Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own)
• Best Rock Song (City Of Blinding Lights)
• Best Rock Album (How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb)
• Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical (for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb producer, Steve Lillywhite)

Won: All of them.

Green Day nominated for:

• Record Of The Year (Boulevard Of Broken Dreams)

Won: Record Of The Year.

Last year, Green Day were nominated in 6 categories and only won the Best Rock Album Grammy for American Idiot. This year, they did a better one and won the Record Of The Year, the only category they were nominated in.

Meanwhile, U2 continued their clean sweep as they did last year by winning 6 Grammys this time, or 5 if you don’t count the Producer of the Year award. Last year, they won 3 Grammys in 3 categories.

Bono must be a real charming arse to be on this streak. But hey, rock lives. That’s all the matter for me.

If you like mashups (or bootlegs or bastard pop!!), then you would probably love this: Best of Bootie 2005 CD.

The download link seems to be dead at the moment of this post, but do check out the bootlegger links at the bottom of the page. Lots of mashups to go with your KFC.

Linked from Boing Boing.

Almost every band/artist will cover another band/artist at some point of their career. Some would cover exactly to the tune. Some would give it an entirely new beat. Some collaborate with the original band/artist. And some would just sample a part and make a living out of it (Vanilla Ice, for example). The fact is, remaking a song that was done by another band/artist is really a non-issue. It is how they cover it that counts. But I’m sure you already know that.

I stand neither side of the fense when it comes to covers. There are a few covers that are actually better than the original, and some are just simply awful.

For this new category, I am going to start with the song Walking with a Ghost because it is currently on my playlist and it’s quite catchy, even with its simple and quite repetitive lyrics. Originally by Tegan & Sara, covered by The White Stripes. I’ll dig for older tracks in future posts. Enjoy.

Download Walking with a Ghost (MP3 format):

• Originally by: Tegan & Sara
• Covered by: The White Stripes

P/S: For more regular posts on covers, head over to Copy, Right?

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To Kate:

When I first heard this song, I can almost imagine you singing it. Just thought maybe you would pick up the guitar and give it a go.

Download: Juliana Hatfield - Tomorrow Never Comes (MP3 format). Source from Copy, Right?

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Did a little catching up on the music weblogs I linked, which I have been neglecting of late. Other than the tons of great MP3s, news (someone buy me a tix to California please!!!), reviews and whatnots, a few interesting videos were put up as well. Note: This probably gonna be a pimping post for Stereogum since all the vid clips are from there.

Video #1 - Lisa Loeb in a Thong

Everyone knows the song Stay (I Missed You). Now see her in a thong. At 37 years old, she still looks adorably girl-next-door cute. And she is looking for a partner in her new reality tv show (which where the thong came in). Oh, do check out the new mix of the song Stay, from Reality Bites: 10th Anniversary Edition. Get the MP3 on the same page.

Video #2 - Cat Power rapping The Real Slim Shady

Not really into the rap song, but Cat Power has been gaining buzz for her Greatest album. I was kinda bewildered to see Cat Power (or Chan Marshall) so engrossed into the karaoke session, it’s almost as if she’s auditioning for a contest.

Video #3 - Billy Corgan in ECW. Linked from here.

At 6′3″ (1.9 meters) tall, weighing around 200lbs (90kg), bald and a guitar at hand, Billy Corgan could (almost) make a career in sports entertainment. But his ‘meanie’ look kinda put me off. And that victory pose… I would rather see Corgan resume his music career, and get his goddamn band back.

Now, what am I suppose to do for the rest of the holidays?