#0098 IRON DJ: 1984

An impenetrable, majestic fortress of some of the best songs, samples, and sounds from 1984.

As I started looking at songs, I realized that there was a ton of great music released in 1984, when I graduated high school. So much of it, though, falls into that category of “80s music.”  We hear it in elevators, barber shops, or shopping malls on any given day….all those songs that are compiled on hundreds of “Best of the 80s” CD compilations. So, I eliminated any of those right off the bat, with perhaps one or two exceptions, but exceptions that are so good, they justify their own existence on this mix. Many of the songs I listened to back then, but I heard a lot of them later in the 80s too. All songs were released in 1984. Besides too many big hits, I also kept away from some heavy favorites like Iron Maiden, Accept, and Priest and tried to include some different things (so that eliminated Aces High, Losing More Than You’ve Ever Had, and Jawbreaker).

At first I was trying to cram the songs I wanted into an hour long package. But then I thought about old cassette mix tapes. The ones that really sucked were the tapes that were 30 minutes on each side, or one hour mixes. 90 minute mix tapes were okay, but I really  liked 100 minute cassette mix tapes, which is the length that I ended up settling into over time. And so that’s what I made here. The longer format works for some mixes, and I think it works for this one too.

Hope you like it.

1. *Repo Man Theme (Instrumental) – Iggy Pop
2.  Death Ship – Hoodoo Gurus
3.   Wonderin’ – Neil Young**
4.  Wait – Wang Chung
5.  A Friend I Call Desire – Ultravox
6.  Got Me Under Pressure – ZZ Top ***
7.  Priestess – Wendy O. Williams
8.  Master and Servant – Depeche Mode
9.  Handsome Devil – The Smiths
10. Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell
11. Pink Turns to Blue – Husker Du
12. Jam On It – Newcleus
13. Ivo – Cocteau Twins ****
14. Mama’s Boy – Ramones
15. It’s My Life – Talk Talk
16. Realization – The Art of Noise
17. Nobody’s Home – Deep Purple
18. I Would Die 4 U – Prince
19.  Stay the Night – Chicago
20. Snaggletooth – Motorhead
21. 88 Lines About 44 Women – The Nails*****
22. Maybe Partying Will Help – Minutemen
23. 99 Red Balloons – Nena
24.  Show Me – The Pretenders
25. Slippery People – Talking Heads******
26. Fight Fire With Fire – Metallica

*          Repo Man
**        Ghostbusters
***      Spinal Tap
****    Making the Grade
*****  The Man with Two Brains
****** Red Dawn

#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.

Heavy Heeter

At first I thought I’d split this into two mixes, but after listening to it, 90 minutes is perfect for this set of songs; it just took on a life of it’s own. There’s a lot of newer stuff on here, with some classics tossed in for depth. I don’t talk on it, partly for length but also partly because I think the heavy mixes sound better with no voice on them. I might change my mind back, but that’s where I stand on this controversial issue for now.

This playlist goes out to my buddy D. Heeter and is thus named – thanks for all your help and your friendship over the last few years man.

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  1. Clutch – Mice and Gods
  2. Black Label Society – World of Trouble
  3. Austrian Death Machine – Hello California / Get to the Choppa!
  4. Icepick – Born to Crush You
  5. Ramallah – Ramallah
  6. Pro Pain – Where We Stand
  7. Where Fear and Weapons Meet – Under the Bridge
  8. Blood for Blood – Maldito
  9. Puya – Oasis
  10. Born of Osiris – Bow Down
  11. Hatebreed – Betrayed by Life
  12. Madball – Show No Fear
  13. Cavalera Conspiracy – Hearts of Darkness
  14. Nailbomb – Sh*t Pinata / For F*ck’s Sake
  15. If Hope Dies – Anthem for the Unemployable
  16. Where Fear and Weapons Meet – Not a Trend
  17. Since the Flood – I Am What I Am
  18. Deftones – 7 Words
  19. Motorhead – Buried Alive
  20. Clutch – The Mob Goes Wild
  21. Disfear – Get it Off
  22. Throwdown – S.C.U.M.
  23. Primer 55 – Bullsh*t
  24. Gojira – Vacuity
  25. Down – Bury Me in Smoke

#0046 – Apostasy

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kevin: Hardcore, metal, punk, sludge, grindcore, whatever you call it, here’s some more of it, starting with an (unapproved) message of searing wisdom from the late Carl Sagan:

  1. Cosmos sample – Carl Sagan
  2. The Storm – Judge
  3. Life Sentence – Death Threat
  4. Icepick – Crown of Thornz
  5. Inhuman Nature – Sepultura
  6. Salvation – Chimaira
  7. George Carlin
  8. It Takes No Guts – Superjoint Ritual
  9. Political Glory – Final Conflict
  10. Buried – Corrosion of Conformity
  11. Blinded – Buzzoven
  12. Turning Point & Loyal to da grave – 25 Ta Life
  13. Where Next to Conquor – Bolt Thrower
  14. Fisting – Brutal Truth
  15. Into the Flames of Progression – All Out War
  16. Future Breed Machine – Meshuggah
  17. This Fight – Full Blown Chaos
  18. Burner – Motorhead
  19. Cut Rate – Prong

#0042 – File under: Shamrock Whore

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This mix goes out to Julie in J-town, PA. That’s right. I said it.

My original plan was to defy FCC regulations and make a play-by-play St. Patrick’s Day debauchery-laden mix while drinking, but this cold/flu thing has waylaid my plans. At any rate, I hope you enjoy this inebrious collage of the Celts and sundry other friends.

  1. Dropkick Murphys – The Rocky Road to Dublin
  2. The The – Armageddon Days Are Here (Again)
  3. Flogging Molly – Seven Deadly Sins
  4. Pogues – Sally McLennane
  5. Frankie Yankovic – Too Fat Polka
  6. Motorhead – Down on Me
  7. The Tossers – No Loot, No Booze, No Fun
  8. Thin Lizzy – Running Back
  9. Rod Stewart – You’re In My Heart
  10. Herb Albert & the Tijuana Brass – Taste of Honey
  11. (unknown) – F*ck the British Army
  12. Frankie Yankovic – Beer Barrel Polka
  13. Pogues – Whiskey in the Jar
  14. Frankie Yankovic – In Heaven There is No Beer
  15. Flogging Molly – Drunken Lullabies
  16. Dropkick Murphys – Kiss Me I’m Sh*tfaced
  17. Frankie Yankovic – Who Stole the Keeshka

#0031 – File under: Misanthropes United

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Welcome back, friends and loyal listeners. Apologies for the delay. Today we bring you a solid hour of hits by bitter, drunken slobs — which would’ve made sense had it come out when you were all hungover on New Year’s Day. Music provided to you by the talents of Kaiser Chiefs, The Smiths, New Order, Lou Reed, Kid Rock, Hank Williams Jr., Meat Loaf, The Pixies, The New Pornographers, Van Halen, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Motorhead and Eminem. You guys enjoy this bouncy mix about miserable souls.

By the way, if you notice the audio quality is better, please give me a shout out. I’ve spent some time over this break experimenting with Audacity and Audio Hijack Pro to improve the voiceover and the music mastering for the mix down.

  1. Kaiser Chiefs – I Predict a Riot
  2. The Smiths – Bigmouth Strikes Again
  3. New Order – Love Vigilantes
  4. Lou Reed – Satellite of Love
  5. Kid Rock – Drunk in the Morning
  6. Hank Williams, Jr. – Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound
  7. Meat Loaf – Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad
  8. The Pixies – Here Comes Your Man
  9. The New Pornographers – All the Old Showstoppers
  10. Van Halen – Take Your Whiskey Home
  11. The Rolling Stones – Street Fighting Man
  12. Led Zeppelin – Your Time is Gonna Come
  13. Motörhead – Ace of Spades
  14. Supersuckers – Jailbreak (live)
  15. Eminem – Kill You

#0019 – File under: Imperialism

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I was watching our President the other day and he dropped a line about avoiding World War III by keeping Iran from having a nuclear weapon. Now, whatever you think about the state of politics in the US or the world today, there’s no doubt that there’s a lot of people that just don’t like the U.S. and think we’re being too imperialistic. So this is a mix I’ve been kicking around for a while and it seems like it’s gestated long enough. This mix includes music from the soundtrack of Team America, Black Label Society, Rage Against the Machine, Front 242, The Cure, Dropkick Murphys, Sex Pistols, David Bowie, Trent Reznor, Tears for Fears, Ween, Static-X, Motörhead, Gogol Bordello, Ladytron, Outkast, Rammstein and Nine Inch Nails. Strength and Honor, citizens!

#0015 – The Anointed Mix

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Guest DJ Kevin Reed hooks you up with an extra long mix for, about, or just mentioning Jesus Christ including music from Front 242, The Sisters of Mercy, Kilgore Smudge, Simon & Garfunkel, the Shiki Theatre company of Japan, Wesley Willis, Circus Lupus, Alice in Chains, Motorhead, Jimmy Buffet, Sting, the Psychedelic Furs, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Exit 57, and the Mighty Mahalia Jackson.If you like this mix, make sure to comment and encourage Kevin to drop in more often 🙂