Various - Original Seeds Vol.2: Songs That Inspired Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (@256)

I'm not used in satisfying requests, but this time there were many that asked for this one, so here it is. The older post with Vol.1 can be found here

Tracklisting:
01-Harry Belafonte - Did You Hear About Jerry
02-Tom Waits - Way Down In The Hole
03-Fred Neil - A Little Bit Of Rain
04-Gang Of Four - Love Like Anthrax
05-Bob Dylan - Sara
06-Tim Rose - Hey Joe
07-The First Edition - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In)
08-Elvis Presley - In The Ghetto
09-Nina Simone - Plain Gold Ring
10-The Stooges - Loose
11-Leadbelly - Looky Looky Yonder..Black Betty..Yellow Women's Door Bells
12-Hoyt Axton - Double Dare
13-Lou Reed - Perfect Day
14-Alice Cooper - Street Fight

download link: here (includes scans where the link between each track and works by Cave is explained)

Tuatara - Trading With The Enemy (1998) (@256)

Henry the Brave

Kudos to Henry, the grumpy old tuatara, aged... 111, that became a father recently (I've named him Henry the Brave for obvious reasons), while in captivity, in New Zealand. We read from National Geographic: "The centenarian tuatara, was thought well past the mating game until he was caught canoodling with a female named Mildred last March—a consummation that resulted in 11 tuatara babies. Henry was at least 70 years old when he arrived at the museum, "a grumpy old man" who attacked other tuataras—including females—until a cancerous tumor was removed from his genitals in 2002, said Lindsay Hazley, tuatara curator for the Southland Museum and Art Gallery. Tuatara are indigenous New Zealand reptiles that resemble lizards but descend from a distinct lineage of reptile that walked the earth with the dinosaurs 225 million years ago, zoologists say."













The story of "Henry the Brave" reminded me of the supergroup (well, sort of) that took its name from Brave Henry's species. With members comprising, among others, Peter Buck from R.E.M., Barrett Martin from the Screaming Trees and Justin Harwood from Luna, one wouldn't imagine that the outcome would be a cerebral blend of worldbeat with free jazz. The uploaded album is their second one, and my personal favourite from their discography.

album review link: here

download link: here

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland (1968) (@256)

There are two (bad) reasons for uploading an Experience album. The first one is the news I read about the demolition of the house where Jimi Hendrix spent some of the years of his youth (from the age of 10 to13) and where he first discovered music. The house is across the street from the site where Hendrix is buried. I strongly believe that such places of high cultural importance should be preserved, regardless the contractual implications or their condition. It seems that the city body didn't bother enough to save this landmark site.
The second reason is the death of the drummer of Jimi Hendrix Experience, Mitch Mitchell on November 2008. No further comments could be done for one of the most important drummers of the 60's other than the following (by Richie Unterberger in allmusic). "Mitchell was not a mere sideman to Hendrix, but an important collaborator. Always changing rhythms, never predictable, he was also flexible enough to bounce off and respond to Hendrix's own original solo lines. (...) Ultimately, Mitchell was the musician with whom Hendrix had the most important and sustained creative relationship out of the many people he led or supported, both onstage and on record."

album review link: here

download link: here (link removed)

Anvil - Metal On Metal (1982) (@256)

Anvil was an early 80's speed metal band who paved the way for groups such as Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica. While all the latter (more or less) burst into stardom, Anvil sunk to obscurity. So, it was quite a surprise to read about a documentary for Anvil. Its title is (obviously) "Anvil!: The Story of Anvil", and its first screening took place at Sundance Film Festival in 2008. Many viewers, even if not heavy metal fans, talked about one of the best music documentaries for years. The film will eventually get a distribution in the US this spring.
So, get ready for a film about the good ole 80's heavy metal. You know that with the long curly hair (that became sparse over the years, but they are still long and curly...), the s&m black leather stripes on bare chests, the arrow-shaped guitars, the beer-belly headbanging audiences, the classic metal sound. Most of all, get ready for the story of two guys that remained devoted to what they'd loved, no matter the difficulties of any kind. Aaah, I tend to get sentimental sometimes.

Read here about the whole story, as explained by the film's director Sacha Gervasi, a former Anvil roadie-turned screenwriter (for The Big Tease and The Terminal).
Read here for a (rhapsodic) review by James Rocchi.

The trailer...


album review link: here
Update: When I was writing this post I didn't find a review of this album in allmusic, from where I usually take the review links. Some weeks later though (on May, 14), I noticed that Metal on Metal was hailed as album of the day there, hence a relevant review had been written. Not bad... not bad at all for Anvil.

download link: here (mirrorcreator) or here (rapidshare)