Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Eight-X (25)

Hello, Eight-X time again, the weeks seem to fly by..Well last week i presented Modern English, General Public and Fingerprintz i announced then i'd get back to the latter two, so why not this week. From the ashes of the Fingerprintz a new band was born, The Silencers, after a good start their populairity back home waned to cult, whilst on mainland europe they remained popular. I present here their 2nd album Blues for Buddah..such a great title...General Public was formed from the ashes of The Beat, and amazingly, there arose another band from these ashes that would become the most successful of all, The Fine Young Cannibals, they scored a number of big hits, specially from the album i present here, just 35 min long but one of the most exciting albums of the decade , The Raw and The Cooked. I added some extensive remix exercises by masterchef Arthur Baker.... As it happens my third offering today was involved-productionwise with that album. Back in 81 he was a Talking Head with time on his hands when Byrne was busy with Eno recording Bush of Ghost and The Catherine Wheel-see last Sundaze. Jerry Harrison is the man im talking about here and his first soloalbum The Red And The Black, certainly has it moments sounding like Talking Heads without the manic singing of Byrne......

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Jerry Harrison - The Red And The Black ( 81 ^99 mb)

Born in 1949 in Milwaukee, Jerry Harrison began playing with bands while in high school, and continued his work after graduation, while studying architecture at Harvard during the late '60s. By the beginning of the decade, Harrison and bandmate Ernie Brooks were encouraged to form a band by local Boston friend Jonathan Richman. Named the Modern Lovers, the group moved quickly and recorded demos in 1972 with John Cale. Finally released in 1976, the songs proved to be a major influence on underground bands in New York; the Modern Lovers had broken up by that time, though, with Harrison going back to Harvard to teach. In April of 1976, however, he attended a Talking Heads show in Boston and convinced them to let him join. The band signed to Sire just one year later, and became one of the most intelligent alternative bands of the 1980s, recording an astounding variety of material and even earning several pop hits.

Harrison's second full solo album, appeared in 84, Casual Gods had a similar fell to his debut, with loose funk-rock grooves and an open-ended song structure (which suited Harrison's vocals well) but boasted more tuneful songs. Talking Heads was effectively disbanded by that time, and Harrison had already begun producing in 1986, with the Bodeans and Violent Femmes. During the 1990s, Harrison became an important and respected producer, working on popular albums by Live, Crash Test Dummies, and the Verve Pipe. In 1996, he played with Talking Heads alumni Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz as the Heads.

During an extended Talking Heads vacation during 1981, whilst Byrne and Eno were losing themselves in the bush of ghosts, Harrison recorded his first solo album, The Red and the Black. The album was recorded with Bernie Worrell, Nona Hendryx and Adrian Belew -- all of whom had appeared on Talking Heads' Remain in Light. While the myth has been widely propagated that David Byrne was the sole creative presence of any consequence among his Talking Heads cohorts, The Red and the Black makes perhaps the strongest case against such a claim. Jerry Harrison, proves his formidable talent as a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter for the first time in this close-up. There's little doubt that Harrison's debut is informed most directly by the last few Talking Heads albums, particularly the genre-defining Remain in Light. The polyrhythmic exercises, spoken word interludes, and Enoesque knob twiddling are standard parts of Harrison's palette. Besides the relentless attack of fired-up synthesizers and frenzied rhythms, Harrison incorporates a cast of soulful female background vocalists, many of whom would end up on the next Talking Heads record and following tour. The Red and the Black holds its own against the rest of Talking Heads' oeuvre, and shows where the band could have gone, had they not opted for a more minimalistic approach later in their career.The album's complex and funky musical style has aged impressively, as have Harrison's observations on the modern condition.



01 - Things Fall Apart (4:58)
02 - Slink (4:15)
03 - The New Adventure (4:59)
04 - Magic Hymie (4:44)

05 - Fast Karma - No Questions (3:54)
06 - Worlds In Collision (5:06)
07 - The Red Nights (3:57)
08 - No More Reruns (4:17)
09 - No Warning, No Alarm (3:28)

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Silencers - Blues For Buddah ( ^130 mb)

Before forming The Silencers, vocalist Jimme O'Neill and guitarist Cha Burns were active in London's new wave music scene.
In 1979 they met and formed a post-punk/new wave project called Fingerprintz, and released three albums under that moniker: The Very Dab, Distinguishing Marks, and Beat Noir. They earned some critical recognition and notable appearances on John Peel's radio show. The group split in 1985.

Soon O'Neill and Burns were playing music together again, this time joined by drummer Martin Hanlin and bass player Joseph Donnelly, a cousin of Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr. They demoed three new songs: "Painted Moon," "I See Red," and "I Can't Cry." The demos earned them a contract with RCA, and their song "Painted Moon," about O'Neill's personal reaction to the Falklands War, was included on the soundtrack to the film The Home Front, and then released as their first single in April 1987. Their first album A Letter from St. Paul included re-recorded versions of all three demos. The Pretenders invited the band to support them on their European tour, and then the success of Painted Moon across the pond induced a tour of America on their own, and later with Squeeze.

In 1988 The Silencers toured Europe with The Alarm , the band moved back to Scotland and recorded second album A Blues for Buddha at CaVa Studios in Glasgow, with Flood producing. The standout tracks were "Scottish Rain," about love and fallout from Chernobyl, and the fan favourite, the optimistic, horn-driven "The Real McCoy" (the "be do, do be do do, be do do" is infectious) and the surging, pop-savvy "Razorblades of Love". Even though they had a minor radio hit with "Scottish Rain.", A Blues for Buddha didnt do aswell as their debut. The band then toured Europe with Simple Minds for four months.

After the tour, the band began work on third album Dance to the Holy Man, but personal conflict derailed the process. Joseph Donnelly and Martin Hanlin left the band, and were replaced by Tony Soave on drums and Lewis Rankine on bass. The album, a departure from the band's "guitar-based atmosphere pop," was recorded during the summer of 1990. It included funk, blues, and Celtic strains. Single "Bulletproof Heart" became a big hit in Spain and France, where the band had a huge success at that time, but album sales lagged back in the United Kingdom. Coatbridge-born jj gilmour joined the band as a second male vocalist before another tour of Europe, and Stevie Kane joined the band, replacing Rankine during the tour .

Deeply in debt to RCA and not having the expected success in England, The Silencers were in danger of being dropped by their label despite their success throughout Europe. However, after label representatives saw an impressive live show they allowed the band to begin work on fourth album Seconds of Pleasure. Single "I Can Feel It" was, true to form, a hit in Europe and ignored in England. In 1994 The Silencers signed to new labels: Permanent for Britain and BMG for France. That summer they recorded the song "Wild Mountain Thyme," featuring O'Neill's daughter Aura on vocals. It became a hit in Scotland after featuring in a tourism board advertising campaign. Soon after, they completed fifth album So Be It.

After a mid-1996 tour of Europe, Gilmour and Soave left the band. Jim McDermott joined on drums and Aura McNeill became a permanent member of the band. The year 1996 brought the release of singles compilation Blood & Rain, and The Silencers took several years off from recording. In 1999 the band worked on seventh album Receiving, which was financed by money from festival appearances in Europe. Speaking of the new record, O'Neill said, "Some of the new tracks were recorded as if this was a different band. I wanted to forget about everything we'd done before and some of what came out reminded me of Fingerprintz - new wave for the nineties!"

In 2001 the band released their first live album, A Night of Electric Silence, recorded in Glasgow in 2000, with McDermott on drums, Kane on bass, Phil Kane on keyboards, O'Neill on guitar and vocals, Milla on violin and Aura O'Neill on vocals. In November 2004 Come was released, featuring standout tracks "Siddharta," "Let It Happen" and "Head." Today, most of the band's albums are out of print and available only at inflated prices. Charles Burns died on March 26th 2007, in Prestatyn, Wales [UK], following a battle with lung cancer. He was 50.



01 - Answer Me (4:56)
02 - Scottish Rain (5:19)
03 - The Real McCoy (6:03)
04 - A Blues For Buddha (3:00)
05 - Walk With The Night (5:00)
06 - Razor Blades Of Love (4:49)
07 - Skin Game (5:48)
08 - Wayfaring Stranger (3:10)
09 - Sacred Child (7:32)
10 - My Love Is Like A Wave / Razor Blade Reprise (6:09)
11 - Sand And Stars (1:30)

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Fine Young Cannibals - The Raw & The Cooked ( 88 * 145mb)

When the Beat split in 1983, it came as a surprise to guitarist Dave Cox and bassist David Steele. The first time they realized that the group's vocalists, Ranking Roger and Dave Wakelin, had gone off to form General Public without them, was when their accountant phoned to finalize the divorce. Cox and Steele set about creating something new of their own. Apart from a vague notion of adding both jazz and soul to the Beat's ska roots, they also decided to feature a strong vocalist. However finding one proved to be difficult, then they remembered a singer whose band had once supported the Beat. They found Roland Gift singing with a barroom R&B band named the Bones. He was everything they had remembered; he was their man. Gift had spent his teenage years in youth theatre, until the advent of punk made music his main passion. As punk gave way to the two-tone ska which gave rise to groups like Madness and, ultimately, the Beat, Gift took up saxophone and singing in a local band.

The Fine Young Cannibals signed to London Records in early 1985, their name came from an obscure 1960 film starring Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood. the Fine Young Cannibals released a demo version of "Johnny Come Home" as their first single. Its instant success allowed them to team up with a compatible producer, Robin Miller, for the first Fine Young Cannibals album, also containing the group's trademark overstated version of Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds." For the Johnathan Demme film Something Wild, they reached back into Gift's punk past with a version of the Buzzcocks' classic "Ever Fallen in Love." Five years later, a second album emerged, The Raw and the Cooked, the raw side made up mostly of songs the group had contributed to Barry Levinson's film Tin Men, in a mere ten songs and 35 minutes the Fine Young Cannibals created a masterpiece. Remaining true to the FYC's vision of tying past and present musical styles together into artful new pop packages, The Raw & the Cooked features a shopping list of genres. Mod, funk, Motown, British beat, R&B, punk, rock, and even disco are embedded within the songs, while the rhythms, many synthetically created, are equally diverse. In less delicate hands this would be nothing more than an everything including the kitchen sink motley mess, but FYC manage this mix with subtly and elan. Every one of Raw's tracks simmers with creativity, as the hooks, sharp melodies, and irrepressible beats are caressed by nuanced arrangements and sparkling production.

Since then, the Fine Young Cannibals have remained elusive. Cox and Steele continue to work together under various names, while Roland Gift's hoped-for film career never quite took off. Fine Young Cannibals briefly returned to the studio in 1996 to record a new single The Flame which would complement their greatest hits compilation The Finest released that year. Gift reactivated the band name and toured in the 2000s as Roland Gift and the Fine Young Cannibals, releasing his debut self-titled solo album in 2002.



01 - She Drives Me Crazy (3:35)
02 - Good Thing (3:22)
03 - I'm Not The Man I Used To Be (4:20)
04 - I'm Not Satisfied (3:46)
05 - Tell Me What (2:45)
06 - Don't Look Back (3:36)
07 - It's Ok (It's Alright) (3:29)
08 - Don't Let It Get You Down (3:20)
09 - As Hard As It Is (3:10)
10 - Ever Fallen In Love (3:52)
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11 - Ever Fallen In Love (Arthur Baker Senseless mix) (9:22)
12 - Fallen In Love (Rare Groove Bootleg mix) (11:13)
13 - Couldn' t Care More (3:26)

diet
Fine Young Cannibals - The Raw & The Cooked ( 88 * 99mb)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !

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