#0084 The Anthropological Series, 1978-1984: The Legend of Gray Ghost

[Kevin] The idea behind the Anthropological Series is to capture what the DJ and those around her/him were listening to at the time, perhaps in a particular location or phase in life. The focus is early 80s metal and hard rock.

gray-ghost

[Kevin] The idea behind the Anthropological Series is to capture what the DJ and those around her/him were listening to at the time, perhaps in a particular location or phase in life. I made a play list like this last year but lost it in a drive crash, so then when I saw by accident that Anvil had a movie coming out, I threw the mix back together, and here it is. The focus is early 80s metal and hard rock.

The Gray Ghost was the over-dramatic name given to my family’s 1978 Chevy Impala, a V8, flat-gray rocket with bench seats that my dad purchased after its life as a sales company car for Continental Can Company. This photo of it is from my high school photography class. The car’s standard FM/AM radio was limiting to my musical tastes so I would seat-belt my boom box in the back seat and blast mix tapes that I made at my buddy Todd’s house, because he had a nice stereo and I didn’t. These were songs I heard in my car and at high school parties, or that I would drum to in my basement or band.

Metal and hard rock “back then” were really limited to a few good bands, nothing like the huge spectrum of today. Most of these bands I listened to extensively and nearly exclusively. One of them was Anvil, a band that was good in the early 80s but never made it. Robb Reiner’s drumming was inconceivable to me and ahead of his time, and as a teenage drummer it blew me away. I’ve included two Anvil songs in this mix, because yesterday they released a movie about Anvil, the story of why they never made it big. You’d think with sex-obsessed lyrics and songs like “Motormount,” “Heatsink,” “Backwaxed,” and “Bushpig,” they would have shot threw the charts, but not so! I stopped listening to new releases from Anvil after 1984, so I have no idea what their later stuff is like.

So, if you like this kind of music, enjoy this ode to a 15-year old’s daily life metal soundtrack, back in nineteen hundred and eighty-ish. As Twisted Sister used to print on their releases…”PLAY IT LOUD MUTHA!”

  1. Saxon – Princess of the Night
  2. Rose Tattoo – Scarred for Life
  3. Accept – Fight it Back
  4. Anvil – Mothra
  5. Black Sabbath – Children of the Sea
  6. Scorpions – Another Piece of Meat
  7. Motorhead – (We Are) The Road Crew (Live)
  8. Judas Priest – Rock Forever
  9. Ozzy Osbourne – S.A.T.O
  10. Twisted Sister – The Kids are Back/Like a Knife in the Back
  11. AC/DC – Bad Boy Boogie
  12. Riot – Swords and Tequila
  13. Iron Maiden – The Prisoner
  14. Anvil – Motormount

No samples or audio. And I pomise to take a Motorhead break for a while.

#0063 – Don’t Dance Near The Chemicals!

Alright. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. I have a few in the works, an alt-country mix, a show about great drumming performances, some others. But they are still unformed. Today I had an epiphany. I just want to rock your faces off, that’s all.

So I put together this mix. There are no clever audio clips and there’s not a lot of bullshit from me either. Just 15 tracks of rock and roll, from classic rock to indie bombast to power pop to punk rock. This is the kind of stuff that makes mice explode.

  1. The Hold Steady – Stevie Nix
  2. Lucero – What Else Would You Have Me Be
  3. The Rolling Stones – Bitch
  4. Led Zeppelin – Good Times Bad Times
  5. Styx – Born For Adventure
  6. Queen – One Vision
  7. AC/DC – Highway To Hell
  8. The Pursuit Of Happiness – I’m An Adult Now
  9. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists – Timorous Me
  10. Superchunk – Seed Toss
  11. Andrew Vincent and the Pirates – Ladies, Ladies, Ladies (Houseboat)
  12. The Replacements – Gary’s Got A Boner
  13. New York Dolls – Personality Crisis
  14. Cloak, Dagger – Bended Knee
  15. Death – Politicians in My Eyes
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#0045 – File under: remash

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UPDATE: I neglected to give you a bunch of links where you can download the mashups here and others I found. Those links are now included so you can give the artists, DJs and the geeks who support them some love.

This is an hour-long mashup of mashups. What is a mashup? Direct from Wikipedia…

is a song or composition created from the combination of the music from one song with the a cappella from another (also mash up and mash-up). These songs may be considered part of the bastard pop musical genre. “A mash-up is a song created out of pieces of two or more songs, usually by overlaying the vocal track of one song seamlessly over the music track of another…Mash-ups are incredible fun and a fascinating way to reexperience some of your favorite tunes.” [2]

In full swing at the start of the 21st century, mash ups have been described positively are “ultimate post-modern pop song[s]” or “‘culture jamming in its purest form'”[3] and “display an analytical impulse…we actually hear how these songs resonate with one another, comment upon and affect one another…in a way, the music speaks for itself” [4]. They have also been described negatively as “the logical extension of the sampling fever of the ’80s taken to its dumbest extreme”. Due to the questionable legal status of mash ups and little chance of profits “there’s a real punk rock attitude attached to the movement” [3].

So there you have it 🙂

  1. Battle Funktastic – Hotei vs. Rip Slyme (you’ll have to search for it, because it took me forever to find it after hearing it in 2006 when I was in Tokyo, which is the only place I’ve ever heard it other than my iPod)
  2. Funky Kommissar
  3. In Da Black (AC/DC vs. 50 Cent vs. Scissor Sisters)
  4. Thunder Busters (AC/DC vs. Ray Parker Jr.)
  5. Say No Go – De La Soul (using a sample off of “I Can’t Go For That” by Hall & Oates)
  6. Missin Kittin (Rolling Stones vs. Miss Kittin)
  7. The Way It Is – Prodigy (using the riff from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”)
  8. Britney – Dead or Alive? (Britney Spears vs. Dead or Alive vs. Daft Punk)
  9. Every Car You Chase (The Snow Police (The Police vs. Snow Patrol)
  10. The Way to Dirty Fame (David Bowie vs. Queen vs. Don Henley vs. Sly Fox)
  11. Warning, Rush Where It’s At (Big Audio Dynamite II vs. Beck vs. Green Day)
  12. Break Through Love (The Doors vs. Led Zeppelin)
  13. Cry Little Sister (I Need You Now) – The Lost Brothers
  14. Daft Prayer (Bon Jovi vs. Daft Punk)

#0034 – File under: Barack You Like a Hurricane

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Rock Mix, but I’ve lured you into listening with the clever title. Yes, I’m a prick. Artists this episode include local fave and object of my man-crush Mt. St. Helens, Black Tide, G’n’R, Black Label Society, Down, Warrant, Finger Eleven, Incubus, AC/DC, Van Halen, Scorpions, Mastodon, Faith No More, Bullet for My Valentine and Tenacious D.

Barack out with your… well, you figure it out.

  • The Time of Low Volume – Mt. St. Helens
  • Shockwave – Black Tide
  • You Could Be Mine – Guns ‘n’ Roses
  • Destruction Overdrive – Black Label Society
  • Stone the Crow – Down
  • Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Warrant
  • Paralyzer – Finger Eleven
  • Privilege – Incubus
  • If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) – AC/DC
  • Unchained – Van Halen
  • Media Overkill – Scorpions
  • Crystal Skull – Mastodon
  • Falling to Pieces – Faith No More
  • Warriors of Time – Black Tide
  • Scream Aim Fire – Bullet For My Valentine
  • The Metal – Tenacious D.

#0027 – File under: Generation Xmas

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Happy Holiday Season to you, regardless of your affinity or affiliation.  This mix contains holiday-themed tunes by MXPX, The Ramones, Pearl Jam, AC/DC, Elvis Presley, Barenaked Ladies, Nerf Herder, The Eels, South Park, Clarence Carter, Otis Redding, MC Chris, Run-DMC, Bing Crosby, Fall Out Boy, No Doubt, The Walkmen, Dylan Thomas, David Bowie, The Pogues and Wham!

#0024 – Staff of Life

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Staff of Life: A multi-course, culinary delight in time for the holidays, with ingredients from They Might Be Giants, Squeeze, Burning Spear, Cameo, Spearhead, Wesley Willis, George Carlin, AC/DC, Covenant, Howlin’ Wolf, Bob Marley, Steve Martin, Shenandoah, The Newbeats, The Hudu Gurus, The Proclaimers, The Pet Shop Boys, ZZ Top, Murphy’s Law, The National Lampoon, Jimmy Buffett, and Frank Zappa. Keep your elbows off the table. ( kevindreed[at]gmail[dot]com)