various artists - Revolver Reloaded: Mojo Presents Their 1966 Masterpiece In Full

I'm no one's idea of a Beatles fan. As I've stated before, I've always chosen the Stones over the Beatles, and I prefer other artist's performances of any Harrison, Lennon, McCartney, and/or Starkey penned songs. But "Revolver" is the only Beatles record I've ever held onto, so when I got a chance to pick this up 20-year-old freebie at a reasonable cost, I figured, "Eh, I've written about worse." The things one does to continue a theme...

This particular Mojo collection pulls together covers of all fourteen songs from the Beatles' 1966 transitional record, along with a version of "Rain", which appeared as the B-side of "Paperback Writer". The highlights for me are Jim Reid's cover of "And Your Bird Can Sing", Lampshade covering "Good Day Sunshine", and Seattle's own Green Pajamas' version of "Got To Get You Into My Life". The rest is just fine; I cannot beat the drum on behalf of a body of work that, even now, I can at best tolerate. If nothing else, it just makes me want to listen to Pol Inate's Kinks kompilation he posted up last month. Now THAT's a body of work you could set your clock to.

Discogs

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various artists - Radio Clash

I'm having a hard time mentally with it all right now, so I won't go on much about this, except to say that Mick Jones and Paul Simonson can program a mix for me any time they like. Special attention shall be paid to Janie Jones (she of the eponymous song) backed by The Clash on a Strummer-penned song, as well as Lee Hazlewood's "Run Boy Run". Not a bad cut in the lot, if you ask me.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Island Folk (An Acoustic-Led Celebration)

This one called to me from a darkened shelf in a Monterey record store last winter. It was the pink spine that caught my eye first. It's something I associate more with the Pagans' "Pink Album" reissue than anything associated with Chris Blackwell. Yet here it was, a comp of British folk, recorded by Joe Boyd and released initially on Island Records. I had to have it. My tastes have expanded greatly since the first time I heard Nick Drake (who, oddly, doesn't appear here), and I've grown to love the records Richard & Linda Thompson made together, the music of Sandy Denny, the songs of John Martyn. I quit giggling about how poncy the Incredible String Band looked, and started humming along when I listened to them in the car.

I ultimately paid $5 for this one, more than I typically would for a Mojo free CD. And I still won't fuck with Jethro Tull.

Discogs

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various artists - Monitor This! April / May 09

This comes to us courtesy of the Missus' record collection. She brought some truly exceptional recordings to our now-shared collection. And some pieces like this, a freebie that came with purchase of an associated title. I would hope that she purchased Doves' "Kingdom Of Rust"; I fear it was instead Rocco DeLuca & The Burden's "Mercy".

So why share something I mostly don't care about? Well, in the course of researching this series, I uncovered that this was the audio giveaway from the Record Exchange, a branch of which was the first record store I ever spent my hard earned dollars. I bought my first Fugazi record from the Record Exchange in Roanoke, along with demo tapes for a bunch of mostly-forgotten alternative and punk bands from south-western Virginia. "Music Monitor" was just as important a source of information as "Rolling Stone", "HeartattaCk", and "Maximum Rock & Roll". So this sampler, headlined (for me, at least) by Doves, Diana Krall, and Lady Sovereign, brought back a few fond memories of well-spent youth, digging in the crates and discovering a world I knew little about.

Discogs

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various artists - Bloodclot

I have no clue how I ended up with this compilation.

Was it the name? Did I misidentify this as a mid-70s roots reggae comp? Or a tribute to Cro Mags' vocalist John Joseph? The cover is giving me mid-90s SoCal punk graphic design. The cover photo reminds me of the kind I'd have taken outside a showspace I went to in Baltimore back around this time. Maybe that's it...maybe, whenever I nabbed this one, I took a wag because maybe I thought it had some deepish cut Orange County tracks, the kind that I've been enjoying digging because I couldn't bother listening to it when it was new.

This is not that. This has two of the most ubiquitous songs of 1998 on it, with "The Rockefeller Skank" and "One Week" both popping up on the front end of this HITS radio sampler. The selections from K's Choice and Spacehog are not the songs that played everywhere. I didn't own either of these records, so it was interesting hearing what their respective labels were positioning as singles. Truth be told: the most interesting songs come on the back half of the CD, with Rufus Wainwright, Emm Gryner, and Dimitri From Paris all making appearances. It's capped off with that one MxPx song that I remember the video from, a pretty solid pop punk track from a band that hailed a ferry ride away from my current home base.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Small Faces & Friends

The things I know about Small Faces could fit on an index card. I know that "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" is one of the first concept records (if not the first), that Kenny Jones replaced Keith Moon as the Who's drummer after Moon died, and that "Whatcha Gonna Do About It?" is a killer proto-punk banger. Oh, and Steve Marriott left to start Humble Pie, which led to Rod Stewart & Ronnie Lane joining the leftover members to start Faces, whose entire catalog I celebrate.

See, an index card.

But, in the estimation of Mojo Magazine, they also had some cool friends. I'll cosign Nico (performing a Gordon Lightfoot composition) and the Nice; one of my favorite Teutonic vocalists AND some proto-prog featuring Keith Emerson is worth checking out. I only knew Murray Head from teaching me about one night in Bangkok; I discovered via this freebie from 2014 that he was a label mate of Small Faces with his 1967 single "She Was Perfection". There's an early Rod Stewart solo cut from 1968, and compiler Rob Caiger even whipped up a pair of Small Faces rarities.

This one's even got a pretty cool cover. Not something I typically see in Mojo comps, but here, it's poppin'.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Buried Treasures (15 Key Tracks From The Greatest Albums You Never Heard)

It's a late evening drop for this week's Mojo Monday. So for those of you waking up Tuesday to see this fresh in your feed: my apologies. I've reached that stage in life where I can't read without my cheaters. Nor can I type with any sort of accuracy. And I couldn't find my reading glasses Sunday; hence, no midnight Monday AM post.

But enough of that. This one is about the ability of music to still surprise you. This one landed in my lap earlier this year. I'm sure I didn't pay more than a buck or two for it, and I snagged it on the basis of completion, more so than any other factor. I have the Third World War and Creation Rebel records from which their tracks here originate. And, at the time, other than Joe Meek, there was nothing here that piqued my interest. But it's a buck, and I like sharing and writing about Mojo comps, so why not splash out? It arrives, I rip it, it goes in a box, and I move on.

At some point between then and now, I decide I'm going to load a bunch of comps I've yet to write about onto my phone. It''s the way these things go for me; I'm at work, I want to hear something new, I put one on, I write about it later on. Onto the phone goes "Mojo Buried Treasures". I hit Shuffle. The phone plays me a ton of different stuff: Augustus Pablo, Masshysteri, Stiv Bators, LeeHi. Y'all should know by now that there's little I won't give a shot to. A song settles in on my headphones. It reminds me of Richard Thompson, Bert Jansch, the British folk music that I used to shelf at my first record store job a million years ago, back when I thought it was all dusty tea sippers with long beards. There's a percussive nature to the way the guitar's being played, like m'dude is beating the hell out of his acoustic while singing a tale about a drowned miner. I gotta say, I was enthralled. So I played it again. And again. And one more time on the way home, as I drove north into the gray Washington fall.

And that's how I discovered Nic Jones. Off a Mojo comp that I barely even paid attention to.

I ended up ordering the Shanachie reissue of "Penguin Eggs" a few weeks ago. I've not really dug into yet. But I'm taken aback that I've discovered this 30 years after I probably first grudgingly placed the same recording between Sandy Denny and Iain Matthews solo records. These things can still sneak up on your ears and grab hold of your brain and make you seek out more. What an amazing thing.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: Communion (A New Generation Of Songwriters)

When I listened to this for the first time, I thought, "Well, they can't all be winners, can they?"

But who I am to judge? 500,000 Mumford & Sons fans can't be wrong.

I'll be over here, listening to a similarly named Fall best-of.

Discogs

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various artists - Mojo Presents: The Songs Of Leonard Cohen Covered

Well, pals, we made it to September. And there are two things I hold to be true about September. One is that it is my month of birth. The other is that it's officially Leonard Cohen season in my house. It's the time where things get a little cooler oustide, a little slower, and the songs of this Buddhist and subject of a great boygenius cut make for a great soundtrack.

So here's a Mojo-curated tribute to the Canadian folk-rock legend, drawn from his 1967 debut (plus a quintet of later compositions). It's a good 'un. The luminaries include Father John Misty, Bill Callahan, Cass McCombs, Will Oldham, and Marc Ribot with My Brightest Diamond. While the Lumineers are not present, the Low Anthem are, if that's your sort of thing.

Discogs

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various artists - Uncut: Main Sounds (15 Tracks Of The Month's Best Music)

I don't typically fuck with Uncut Magazine. And the price I paid for this reflects what I gather is most folks' interest in the content here. One measly cent American, plus a nominal shipping fee, was all it cost. With all apologies to most of the performers herein, there are only a few cuts here worth that copper.

So, who did I like? Those kids in Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are pretty great, although that wasn't in question before I copped this. Same goes for Sharon Van Etten, whose music I realized I've been casually encountering for a decade and a half. I wasn't familiar with cellist Layla McCalla's background initially, but it's been nice seeking out the catalog of this former member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Finally, the Quebecois trio Cola were a nice surprise coming towards the end of the 15 tracks contained herein. They had a real "Tuesday night touring band" vibe coming off their track; with a new record that came out in June, they made my list of Bandcamp Friday pickups for December.

Discogs

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various artists - CMJ New Music Monthly Volume 25: September 1995

I have been debating when to write about this, what it means to me. Posting a few days before my 47th birthday seems as apropos as any.

As for what to say...well, I've written and deleted about 2,000 words so far. Awfully verbose for an otherwise terse typist, but there's a lot of feeling wrapped up in this freebie from the third year of CMJ New Music Monthly giveaways. It was, indeed, my introduction to Letters to Cleo and Ben Folds Five. That pair of 90s alternative mainstays were key bonding points between the missus and I during our early courting. Urge Overkill and Cracker were getting regular airplay on WHFS, along with Big Audio Dynamite. I'll admit: even at this late date, I still have fond memories of Hagfish's "Stamp", one of the best songs from 1995 about cunnilingus. Even cuts from Folk Implosion and S.C.O.T.S. are stuck in my head 29 years later.

This one's important for track 9. My upbringing exposed me to showtunes, soul music, and country, with a smattering of contemporary pop/rock. But jazz was something I just never encountered until that day in late summer 1995 that I picked up this issue of CMJ. Hearing the second part of "A Love Supreme" was like a lightning bolt from heaven. From those first notes plucked by Jimmy Garrison, I was hooked. I've written a few times about John Coltrane and what his music means to me, Well, this is the Rosetta Stone. This is the thing that unlocked so much; my obsession with Coltrane, my love of free jazz and the avant-garde, my introduction to the vast catalog of Impulse! Records.

Discogs tells me I currently own five copies of "A Love Supreme": cassette and vinyl copies from the mid-80s on MCA Impulse!, a vinyl pressing from 1995, the 2002 Deluxe Edition on 2xCD, and my most recent purchase: the 3xCD "Complete Masters" from 2015. Honestly, that number feels a bit low; I feel like I have to have at least another two CD versions kicking around, and there's a reel to reel that I've been sniffing around about for the past six months. I have a problem; whatever...it's my version of a mid-life crisis.

Anyway, there's Malfunkshun on this, too.

Discogs

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various artists - Steal This Disc 3

In fact, I did not steal this disc. I paid a dollar ninety-nine for it mere weeks ago.

A quick one, as I prepare for a full-day training session on my Sunday. It's fascinating how the music you're introduced to at an early age shapes your entire listening existence. While I didn't own an exact copy of this in the early 90s, my early CD collection was littered with Ryko releases. The Bowie and Zappa reissue series, Hendrix's Radio One sessions and "Live at Winterland" set, "Hardcore Devo" Vols. 1 & 2, and Mission of Burma's Ace of Hearts output all populated my shelves before I graduated high school. They were mostly appointed in the distinctive green Rykodisc jewel cases, making them stand out that much more amongst the other pieces of my slowly-growing collection.

This one broadens my decidedly-narrow view from junior year. There are a trio of Beatles-adjacent tracks from Ringo, Badfinger, and Paul McCartney's brother. Rykodisc really leaned into world music with the likes of 3 Mustaphas 3 and the Oyster Band. I had no clue Jerry Jeff Walker and Evan Johns had put out records on Ryko until I snagged this; Nils Lofgren was less surprising, as was a Henry Kaiser project.

I don't know if it says more about the priorities of the music industry or the tastes of listeners that you just don't get this sort of awesome shotgunning any more. I suspect it's the former; I know that amongst my own aging group of freaks that we're even more likely to acknowledge that we want to listen to Ornette Coleman, Lack Of Interest, Wendy Carlos, and Barbara Dane, often times one right after the other.

The fold-out cover, exhibited below, is just the cherry on top of a collection that still fucking slaps.

Discogs

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various artists - Zeppelin Classics

1/13/23: UPDATED WITH NEW DL LINK

Another P-Vine "Classics" comp. For my money, Thin Lizzy > Zep. But Brock Samson is a fan, so respect must be paid. And as much as I'd like to sit here, talking shit, Plant/Page/Jones/Bonham had fantastic taste and great influences. So this, like the previous one, makes for a pretty compelling comp. Imagine my joy when I found this one at Goodwill for a measly three-spot.

Discogs

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