various artists - Mojo Presents: Glam Nuggets (15 Wham Bam Rarities From The Boogie Children!)

If you know glam, you probably have heard a good number, if not all, of these. If you're more the "Bowie is glam, right?" type, that's totally fine; this is a good place to start.

There are, of course, Bowie-adjacent songs present, with contributions from Mick Ronson and Dana Gillespie's performance of "Andy Warhol". There's also a trio of clear proto-punk cuts: the umpteenth appearance of "Personality Crisis" is most welcome, while reminding folks of or introducing them to the (Hammersmith) Gorillas and Hollywood Brats is a must. Any talk of the era must include Sparks and Suzi Quatro, both of whom chime in with classic cuts.

The most fun part, as is the case with any good Mojo comp, is the trainspottery, the archeology. This is filled out with the one-and-dones, the mostly overlooked, the barely remembered. Despite coming out on big indies or major labels in the UK on initial release, it's fallen to labels like 7Ts, RPM, What's Your Rupture?, and Just Add Water to recover these classics that have gone missing in action. Brett Smiley's "Space Ace", a B-side from a single 45 release in 1974, would have NEVER hit my radar without first appearing on Grapefruit's "Oh! You Pretty Things" collection. JAW is the reason I heard Shakane for the first time; their "Gang Man" shows up here. And while the RAH Band continue to release music, more than 50 years after their first drop, there's zero chance I would have dove far enough into their catalog to dig out "The Crunch".

Oh, and there's a song from the Damned here, but not the one you are expecting.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - Mojo Presents: Heavy Mod

What the hell do I know about the Mods? Not much; something about Vespas and amphetamine and soul music. Youth culture, loving the blues and jazz, preceding the skins. They made a few movies about 'em. I know a lot more about the mod revival (White Trash Soul recently posted some Purple Hearts demos that are just out of sight) due to its proximity to punk and 2 Tone. So I take this 17-year-old compilation's title with a grain of salt. Is this indeed "Heavy Mod"?

Well, look; I have no clue if the 13th Floor Elevators and David Axelrod were getting played on the same turntables as the Small Faces, the Who, and the Yardbirds. But as with all the Mojo freebies I've gotten, this one works for me. I really dig the sequencing here; there's a real flow present that stood out to me as I listened for the first time in a long time. I'd say this one hews closer to the sort of mix CD you aspire to make for a friend than the typical "free with magazine purchase" giveaway.

It's clearly a Phil Alexander joint. You get a good mix AND a really nice explanation why these were grouped together in the liner notes. It's something I've been missing on the few Mojo releases from 2023 & 2024 that I've turned up recently.

Discogs

Click here to download.

various artists - MLB: Music - Games - Baseball

Let me make this clear: this is probably one of the worst things I'll ever post here. But I stopped by one of my local favorite on Friday after work, ostensibly to pick up some massively discounted CDs during their moving sale. Mission accomplished: I grabbed this, a copy of Górecki's Symphony No. 3, and a few other things I didn't feel at all shy about paying 10 cents or so for. Total bill: $0.83 for four CDs, a cassette copy of Tori Amos's "Under The Pink", and something by Portland's the U-Krew. It's possible I thought I was buying a U-Men tape; who can say?

But this is a fucking tragedy. A sampling of songs that appeared in 2005's baseball video games, this is the worst of the worst walk-up music I've ever heard. Camden Yards was good for using old school hip-hop and contemporary garage rock for the likes of Larry Bigbie and Luke Scott. Why couldn't that taste translate to MLB Baseball 2005, or 2K5, or even Slugfest? Instead, there's a Nickleback signing, a couple of Christian rockers, and a Finnish symphonic metal band. None of this screams, "coming to the plate: Melvin Mora" to me.

I washed the taste of this one by ordering Scat's last in-stock copy of "Bee Thousand", and watching the Orioles take 2 of 3 from the Phils. Onward and upward.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Motörhead ‎– No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith

The old joke goes, "Who'd win in a fight: Lemmy, or God?" "Trick question: Lemmy IS God!" I heard it for the first time when I saw "Airheads", where Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler cover a Reagan Youth song while Michaels McKean and Richards chew the scenery. A fine film, if you're asking.

One of the greatest (and loudest) shows I ever attended was Iron Maiden, Dio, and Motörhead: the sixth date of the American leg of the "Give Me Ed… 'Til I'm Dead World Tour". LIVE at Merriweather Post Pavilion in scenic Columbia, Maryland. I was finishing up college, working at a bar and trying to figure out what I was going to do with the next year of my life, when it was decided that the bar's ownership would treat us to tickets to this show. Now, I never grew up a metalhead, but everyone loves (or should love) Lemmy, and Philthy Animal Taylor all but invented D-beat, so I rented a van for the lot of us, put the only straight edger in our crew in charge of driving, and off we went. Just about everyone had tied one on before the show started; we staggered in as a wobbly group of a dozen punks, skins, and metal heads. It was still daylight when Motörhead hit the stage and absolutely PUMMELED us while we stood in the eighth row. I've never seen a room fill up so quickly once they started playing. By the end of their set, we were all agape, whether it was the first time or 20th time we'd seen them. We were just brutalized, regardless of our individual level of experience with the band. It was as good as feeling as the highest high, a state of euphoria I've not often reached.

Everything after that was just gravy. Dio was amazing (totally changed my opinion on him) and Maiden...well, Maiden was MAIDEN. They were great. But it was Motörhead that left the lasting impression. I went from being familiar to being a true fan, the kind that waxed poetic as each member of the classic trio passed along over the past ten years.

I'm not even sure if "No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith" is a fair representation of what I saw. After all, it was recorded over five nights between the release of "Ace Of Spades" and "Iron Fist", in the midst of their truly heroic run of releases on Bronze. Over 20 years would pass until I'd see them in the summer of 2003. But I'll be damned if it didn't earn its #1 chart position, via one of the greatest live albums of all time. The copy shared here is the Roadracer 1991 US reissue. It includes five live tracks that didn't appear on the initial Bronze release, four of which were released on 1980's "The Golden Years" EP. Two of those would be omitted from future pressings, so it's a nice version to pick up.

If Lemmy is God, and I'm told Lemmy is dead, than the corollary should be that God is dead. I prefer to believe that Mssrs. Kilmister, Clarke, and Taylor have all ascended to a higher plane, where they are now laying waste and teaching the true meaning of white line fever.

Discogs

Click here to download.

Danzig - Death Had No Name

Here's another one I got from all-time great blog [shiny grey monotone], a site I visit daily because I know when they do post, it'll be quality. If you enjoy what I post here, then they are a must follow.

It took me a very long time to appreciate the Misfits and, by extension, Glenn Danzig. Chalk it up to getting into punk during that short period where all the Misfits records were out of print. Or blame it on only having one friend who was into Danzig's eponymous band, and us only listening to Fugazi and Nirvana and the Breeders when we drove around getting baked. Or maybe it just had to do with the fact that owning a Misfits t-shirt was punk 101, and I was always trying too hard not to look like a poseur. It wasn't until my late 20s that I was willing to listen to Jersey's finest, and even then, it took a mixtape that led off with "Where Eagles Dare" for me to get it.

Which is a damned shame, because I let myself miss out on the joys of one of the best crooners of the past 40 years. As I was chasing old Dischord releases and devouring Pushead's recommendations from Thrasher back issues, I was also discovering vocal jazz and pop from the 40s thru the 60s: Sinatra, Dean-o, Nina, Chet. I found I loved hearing someone sing their ass off as much as I loved circle pitting and singing along. I had the chance to hear one of the modern equivalents, singing about demons and succubi and the Devil. I couldn't get past the corniness to experience the soul.

So, about "Death Had No Name": this 7", resembling a Sub Pop Singles Club release, came out in 1991, in a pressing of 1,000 pieces...or so the back cover says. There were 500 on yellow, 500 on blue. The title track was a "Danzig"-era recording that wouldn't get a legitimate release for another 16 years until 2007's "The Lost Tracks of Danzig". It shows up in a ton of the Danzig bootlegs out there, but always as a live version. The B-sides are a ton of fun. As far as I can tell, both date from the 1987 rehearsal tapes that would come out as "Demos '88" in 1990. "Possession", as noted in the SGM post, rips the version that appeared on the Danzig debut. And "Trouble"? Sure, it's on the nose to have Danzig do a song popularized by Elvis. But I like it. If nothing else, it's an excellent mixtape curiosity.

Where does this leave us? It's possible I've downloaded a few Danzig records I don't own in the past month or so. And I've been contemplating picking up a copy of "Danzig Sings Elvis" a lot. Tell me I'm wrong.

Discogs

Click here to download.