Jimmy McMillan - The Rent is Too Damn High

Jimmy McMillan - The Rent is Too Damn High

This might be the weirdest thing I'll ever upload. In the past week or so, New York gubernatorial candidate Jimmy McMillan has garnered an increasing amount of attention in the wake of his decidedly spirited televised appearance in the New York governor debate, which went viral almost immediately. He's been in charge of the "Rent is Too Damn High Party" since roughly 2005 and has tried to get himself elected to mayoral, senatorial, and gubernatorial offices in New York since 1993. He's promised to bulldoze the Adirondack Mountains (Bill Drummond's proposal to bulldoze Stonehenge has nothing on McMillan's mountain top removal) and permit people to marry shoes if they'd like. Other notable things about him can be uncovered here. In the past week he's been parodied on Saturday Night Live and appeared on Hannity on Fox News. The link at the top of this post features songs of his that I downloaded from his party's website and a few more that I downloaded by way of looking up the page source to uncover embedded mp3s. Most of the files were recorded at a 128 kbps sample rate (save for the ones I converted from .wav files) but that just adds to the charm. It's totally the missing link between Wesley Willis, Dessarae Bradford, General Larry Platt and Da Twinky Man. My favorite moments include the Kraftwerk-ish R&B club banger "They Forgot About Us," "Crying Out Loud," the relatively chill "They Took 'Damn' Out Our Party Name" and its accompanying house-ified remix, his defeated rants on "The Only One," the reuse of the sample of him saying "THE RENT ... IS TOOOO- DAAAAMN- HIGH" in almost every song, and the frequent varispeeded vocals reminiscent of Prince's "Bob George" that appear in many of his songs.

P.S. If someone can find "West End" or the complete version of his ballad "My Guitar" I will be happy to re-upload this and include them both.

Cabaret Voltaire - Drinking Gasoline

Cabaret Voltaire - Drinking Gasoline

From 1985, a double 12" single, one song per side. Cabaret Voltaire at the height of their electronic/funk/dance/whatever phase. Sleepwalking is probably the highlight here, edge of the seat electrofunk with a really bloody nasty feel to it. This is probably my favourite era of the Cabs, really filthy sounding electro that infuses you with the uncontrollable urge to get the fuck down.

The Divine Comedy - Indulgence No. 2

Divine Comedy - Indulgence No. 2

I was going to post this just before my extended holiday, so here it finally is. The second Indulgence 7 inch, limited to 1000 copies apparently, from 1994. It's a selection of three live tracks from Promenade at a Hamburg show in '94, no covers this time but still a worthwhile download.

It's Bigger Than Both Of Us - NZ Singles 1979-82

It's Bigger Than Both Of Us - NZ Singles 1979-82 (Disc 1)

It's Bigger Than Both Of Us - NZ Singles 1979-82 (Disc 2)

Here's a pretty decent primer into the early punk, pop-punk and post-punk sound of New Zealand, featuring records from the more prominent independent labels in the aforementioned country like Flying Nun, Propeller and Ripper, along with some other songs that appeared on smaller, sometimes self-released imprints. Two of New Zealand's most internationally revered bands, The Clean and The Chills, make appearances here. Other notable groups include Toy Love (the group that Chris Knox of Tall Dwarfs had the most success with in the Southern Hemisphere), The Screaming Meemees ("Sunday Boys" was a huge hit in NZ and "See Me Go" topped the charts—both are included), Pop Mechanix, The Swingers and Blam Blam Blam. (The latter's "best of" appears elsewhere on this blog.) There's a few things I'd nitpick over the exclusion of, like Mi-Sex, Riot 111, The Gordons and The Pin Group, but that's a minor gripe. Otherwise, this kind of encapsulates the nascent independent sound of New Zealand during the reign of Robert Muldoon, in the days where English music magazines would arrive over a month late, where revered singles and albums from abroad would take a year to get released and would debut in the upper echelons of the national charts after months of anticipation, and where Kiwis rioted over the national rugby team (All Blacks) having to play against Apartheid-era South Africa's Springboks.

The Band of Holy Joy - Tactless

The Band of Holy Joy - Tactless

I've only recently got into The Band of Holy Joy, so I'm far from an expert but this is probably my favourite of what I've heard so far. 12" version of the single this, so you get Butterfly Beautiful Burns and Zombie as b-side and a different version from the album version of Tactless on the A-side.

Cabaret/end of the pier folk/indie or SOMETHING. I'm having trouble describing them but when you listen it all becomes clear. I was listening to this today in the pissing rain, walking around London getting up to whatever I get up to and listening to this made everything make sense. It did not stop me getting completely soaked though, which should have been the job of my umbrella if it hadn't fallen apart and been thrown into a bin with great force just as the heavens open. Bastard brolly.