The Last 10 CDs We've Listened To: The Cars to Cold War Kids

Before we get this entry underway, we want to express our condolences to the families of Alison Parker of Martinsville, Va., and Adam Ward of Salem, Va. The reporter-video photographer team was murdered while on assignment for WDBJ-7 (CBS, Roanoke, Va.) in the Smith Mountain Lake town of Moneta, Va. Parker was 24; Ward was 27.

Roanoke is our hometown, and the area is still in mourning five days after the shooting incident which occurred at 6:45 a.m. The assailant lead state police on a wild chase which ended with his suicide en route from Front Royal, Va., to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, on I-66, some four hours north of the scene of the homicides.

Kimberly McBroom, the morning anchor when the shooting occurred,  stayed on-air to report breaking news updates throughout the day. Nadia Singh anchored the weekend morning show which Parker had anchored. And, former "Roanoke Times" journalist and book author Beth Macy wrote a heratfelt piece in "The New York Times" about the community's devastation.

Now, here is our top ten Last Ten CDs We've Listened To list, which includes some hip bands from this decade, such as Cold War Kids (we are using the center image of Misha the Bear in their honor), who will perform in Houston, Tex., Sept. 12th, and Fitz and the Tantrums who will perform Sept. 4th and 5th in Aspen, Colo.

The list also includes some older bands including INXS (pict. top), Talking Heads, and The Cars (we use the Jaguar car, pict. bottom, for them) as well as New Order!

Here is the list:

1. Fitz and The Tantrums, Pickin' Up the Pieces, 2010

2. INXS, Kick, 1987

3. Cold War Kids, Loyalty to Loyalty, 2008

4. Talking Heads, Speaking in Tongues, 1983

5. The Cars, Candy O, 1979

6. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks, 1974

7. Josh Ritter, The Animal Years, 2006

8. Weezer, Make Believe, 2005

9. Peter, Bjorn and John, Gimme Some, 2011

10. New Order, Republic, 1993

http://www.wdbj7.com

http://www.fitzandthetantrums.com

http://www.coldwarkids.com 

The Last Ten CDs We've Listened To: Nothing Goes Together Like Rush and The Go-Gos

For those of you in France, the land of Lucky Luke (who is called Red Kit in Turkish) and Asterix, we want to take a moment to remember the 17 people who senselessly lost their lives this week in various terrorist attacks across Paris, including the ten who were killed at Charlie Hebdo headquarters. Je Suis Charlie. Je Suis Ahmed. Of course, we are now realizing that using an image of a Volkswagen Beetle, a German car, instead of an image for a Fiat is perhaps a bad idea.

The images are of 1) the Canadian rock band Rush, 2) a postcard from Ocean City, Maryland, for the Go-Gos' album "Vacation," and 3) the VW bug for the band The Cars.

Here are the last ten cds we've listened to:

1. Interpol. Antics. 2004.

2. Rush. Signals. 1982.

3. The Go-Gos. Vacation. 1982.

4. Talking Heads. Remain in Light. 1980.

5. The Pretenders. Learning to Crawl. 1982.

6. The Cars. Candy-O. 1979.

7. The Rolling Stones. Let It Bleed. 1969.

8. Peter Gabriel. Us. 1992.

9. Frank Zappa. Waka/Jawaka. 1972.

10. Blur. 13. 1999.

http://www.gogos.com/

http://www.talking-heads.nl/

http://petergabriel.com/latest/

Casualties of Modern Technology (12 of 12)_ Mixed Tapes

 

The hard part for this particular entry, as in quite often the case, was finding the right image to hotlink; this one does seem to illustrate what audio cassettes looked like for those who were born after Foo Fighters were formed (in 1994, for those of you lost track of music after The Ramones).

According to Wikipedia, a mix taped or mixed tape is a compilation of songs recorded on an audio cassette which reflect the often eclectic tapes of the person doing the recording of the tape. 

Mixed tapes were the subject of "Rolling Stone" writer Rob Sheffield's touching, excellently written memoir "Love in a Mixed Tape" where he talks about how mutual love in music help him meet the love of his life while he was residing in Charlottesville, Va. Sheffiled's memoir has this great line, which all of us of his generation (I am four years younger than Sheffiled myself) can relate to: "According to the great Western philosopher Pat Benatar, love is a battlefield."

 For me, personally, as of today, my 'perfect mixed tape side,' presuming I get one of those 90-minute tapes as opposed to the dreaded 60-minute tapes would include these songs: 1) "Kiss Me on the Bus" by The Replacements (1985)  2:48;  "Redneck Friend" by Jackson Browne (1973) 3:56; "Shake It Up" by The Cars (1981) 3:32; "Distant Early Warning"by Rush (1984) 4:56; "Simarik/Spolied" by Tarkan (1997) 3:10; "I Remember Asheville" by Bruce Piephoff (2007) 4:56; "The Harder They Come" bu Jimmy Cliff (1972) 3:45; "Station to Station" by David Bowie 10:56; "Hello Darlin" by Conway Twitty (1970) 2:56; "Take Me to the River" by Talking Heads (1978) 5:00.

Tarkan is a Turkish pop singer. Bruce Piephoff is an acclaimed singer/song-writer from Greensboro. For the rest of the bands and artists, go to bing.com; Wow! This was way too much work for one entry.

From the Record Collection (2 of 8)- "Heartbreak City" by The Cars

We continue our series with records from my own modest collection with a look at the vintage "Heartbreak City" from The Cars (1984). The album which contains the hit singles "You Might Think," "Magic" and "Drive" was produced by Mutt Lange, who has produced everything from heavy metal to country music.

The record was released at a time when videos were the only thing that pre-Beavis and Butthead MTV was dedicated to, and "You Might Think" with its nifty special effects for the time brought in a new younger audience to The Cars which had depended on Album Oriented Rock (AOR) stations with their first four records.

The other catchy videos for songs from "Heartbreak City," included one for the song "Magic" which feautres the lead singer Ric Ocasek walking on water over a swimming pool. This was followed by a video directed by actor Timothy Hutton for the ballad "Drive," which would become the biggest hit single for The Cars as it sky-rocketed to number three on the Billboard charts. The song's lead vocals actually came from the late Ben Orr (1947-2000) who was the band's bass player.

"Heartbreak City" was recorded at Battery Studios in London, and the front cover was a painting entitled "Art-o-Matic-Loop-di-Loop" by English artist Peter Phillips.

A fouth video for "Hello Again," another song on the record, was directed by another artist, Andy Warhol, who like Ocasek was of Czech heritage.

Orr died from pancreatic cancer at age 53 in 2000, but the remaining four members of the band, which also includes Elliot Easton (guitar), Greg Hawkes (keyboards) and David Robinson (drums) recorded the band's first record since 1987 and seventh overall "Move Like This" earlier this year.

The new album is dedicated to Orr's memory. For the record, The Cars put on a brief tour from Seattle to Boston, during the spring.

Last Ten Cds I've Listened To: Lots of '70s Stuff

This list of the last ten cds that I had listened to as of Tuesday night is indeed a journaey back in time as the latest album was recorded in 2004 and the earliest in 1963.

Most of the music I listened to tends to be from the years 1979-1991 though here there are some exceptions. And, yes, I do indeed listen to lots of New Wave and Turkish psychedelic music! Here is the list:

1. Sonic Youth. "Goo." 1990. Key Tracks: "Dirty Boots," "My Friend Goo" and "Mildred Pierce."

2. The Cars. "Candy-O." 1979. Key Tracks: "Let's Go," "It's All I Can Do" and "Dangerous Type."

3. Selda (Selda Bagcan). "Selda, Vol.2" 1976 (comp). Selda is a Turkish folk singer who was prosecuted for her highly political song lyrics during Turkey's somewhat turbulent 1980s.

4. David Bowie. "Hunky Dory." 1971. Key Tracks: "Changes," "Life on Mars?," "Kooks" and "Queen Bitch."

5. The Cure. "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me." 1987. Key Tracks: "Why Can't I Be You?," "Just Like Heaven" and "All I Want."

6. The Replacements "Pleased to Meet Me." 1987. Key Tracks: "Alex Chilton" and "Can't Hardly Wait."

7. 3 Hurel. "3 Hurel." 1963. The 'Anatolian rock band' 3 Hurel consisted of brothers Onus, Haldun and Feridun Hurel; hence the name of the band.

8. REM. "Out of Time." 1991. Key Tracks: "Losing My Religion," "Shinny Happy People" and "Half a World Away."

9. Tom Waits. "The Heart of Saturday Night." 1974.

10. Mercan Dede. "Su (Water)." 2004. Mercan Dede is a Turkish instrumentalist.


SIDEBAR: The answer to our Rabbit Ears Quiz from last week is b) 1975; that is the year when "Wonder Woman" made its network debut.