Ghost blog

This blog was killed by google back in 2013. Since I had kept a back-up, I decided to let it wander as a ghost in the net.

All download links, although dead from long ago, have been removed.

7 Worlds Collide - The Sun Came Out (2009)

The tribute to Johnny Marr continues with his participation in the second album of Neil Finn's project, 7 Worlds Collide. Other participats are  Radiohead's Phil Selway and Ed O'Brien, Lisa Germano, KT Tunstall and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy among many others.
The offered upload is the two-cd edition.

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Dillard & Clark - The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark (1968)

There are some more posts for beloved artists that left this world during 2012, for whom I didn't find the opportunity to dedicate them a post (it was that bloody re-uploading project that kept me away for quite a long time). We'll continue with Doug Dillard, "one of the preeminent ambassadors of bluegrass banjo during the '60s and '70s, incorporating pop, folk, and country-rock material into his repertoire and supporting a wide variety of artists with those sensibilities" (quote from allmusic).

The related upload is his collaboration with Gene Clark of the Byrds (among others). Together they offered us one of the core releases of country-rock.

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Electronic - Electronic (1991)

Let's start a small tribute to Johnny Marr. It's not only that NME awarded him with the Godlike Genius award, hailing him as "not content with rewriting the history of music with one of the world's greatest ever bands, The Smiths, he's continued to push boundaries and evolve throughout his career, working with some of the best and most exciting artists on the planet." It's also that, after some decades as a band member in various projects or as a highly admired session musician, he's about to release his first solo album, "the Messenger". In the meanwhile Mojo's previous issue contained a brilliant cd with many of Marr's collaborations, which actually gave me the idea for this tribute; no Smiths albums should be expected though.

The first part of the tribute is about the group he formed with Bernard Sumner of the New Order. The offered upload is the group's first album release.

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Montrose - Montrose (1973)

Let's say goodbye to some of the artists that passed away withing 2012. Fist of all, we remember Ronnie Montrose an extremely talented guitarist, who, along with his band, gave us one of the best samples of 70's hard rock with the uploaded album; the band's line-up for this album consisted of a then-unknown Sammy Hagar on vocals.

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At The Drive In - Vaya (1999)

I need to expedite a little bit, since there are six more posts for 2012. This one is about the reunion of At The Drive In which is of course the reunion of the year (and for whoever will complain that this title belongs to the Stone Roses, read this older post). During their tour, they gave two shows for the Reading and Leeds festival. I wish I could be there for their return to the scene of the crime, but at least I still have some very vivid memories from their legendary show during the Carling weekend of 2000.

Now, I guess you all have the Relationship of Command lp, so I've chosen to upload Vaya instead, which I consider as their runner up best album.

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UB40 - Signing Off (1980)

This post is dedicated to the person of the year 2012. So, after the Time magazine here's the choice of the musictraveler. It's the person under the name Unemployed Anonymous. While I don't have a picture of his/ hers to show to you, we all know him/ her very well; he's/she's one of us, he's/she's us. It's him/ her that suddenly lost the ground beneath his/ her feat. It's him/ her that is now experiencing an extremely toxic work market where nobody is hiring people so he/she knows that the unemployment status will keep him/her company for a very long time. It's him/ her that faces many difficulties to find a daily meal for him/her and his/her family. It's him/ her that is depressed, shocked, ashamed, frustrated, low self-respected. It's him/ her that has lost his/ her hope that his/ her dreams have become a nightmare. It's him/ her that is only a number in the neo-liberal statistics (which number is growing rapidly and hits historic highs). 

The relevant upload is an album the covers of which are replicas of the UK's Unemployment Benefit (Form 40) attendance card. I chose this one, containing a heavy political agenda (and far away from the covers-of-famous-songs-using-polished-reggae style they followed some years later), although it competed very hard with the band's second album that contains the track One In Ten, a reference to the number of unemployed in the UK at that time; the song for my country should go something like "I am the 2.7 in ten..."

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