Design Cutting Boards

I don't like recommending things that I haven't tried myself but this is so cute!
These design cutting boards come in 6 different designs, you can get three of them on elsewares.
I just wanted to share...

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Covers, Part 3

1. Back In Time - "The Sound Of Silence" [P. Simon]: this 1978 Cotillion release has some seriously bizarre French disco coverage. Although Simon and Garfunkel is an odd choice to inspire the dance out of people, this rendition has got some interesting emo-soul-dancefloor hybrid action. Despite the fact that the dude sings like Eric Cartman, the song gets pretty synth-tastic towards the end.

2. Merry Clayton - "Southern Man" [N. Young]: aside from this self-titled 1971 release on Ode/A&M, you may recognize Ms. Clayton's voice from The Stones' "Gimme Shelter," or Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama." Her rendition of "Southern Man," at times, transcends Neil Young's version - she delivers an honest force of drama, soul, and social relevance.

3. Orpheus - "She's Not There" [R. Argent]: this cover was released in 1968, four years after the Zombies' debut single launched them into the charts. At times, this song takes a Doors-y approach to its sound, but the energy feels angry and less self-pitying than the original.

4. Blue Swede - "Always Something There To Remind Me" [B. Bacharach and H. David]: covered by many, made into an 80's synthpop hit by Naked Eyes, and made awkward by this Swedish outfit - this jam never fails to deliver. These guys seem to have packed all the sounds they could find into this one, and still managed to sound like Tom Jones.

5. Edmundo Ros and his Orchestra - "Light My Fire" [R. Manzarek, J. Morrison, J. Densmore, and R. Krieger]: Ros has been called the "King of Latin American Music," and this African-Venezuelan-Scotsman struts his chops all over the Doors of perception. This sounds exactly like you'd imagine...

Get them HERE.

Playing Diablo II Again

For real! This is not a metaphor. I saw it on the store the other day and got butterflies in my stomach. I loved this game so much when I played it back in the days.
I couldn't take it out of my mind since I saw it, I kept remembering the music, the sounds, the monsters, how much fun it was... until I finally couldn't resist any longer and I bought it again!
Yes I did and I'm so happy, this is probably my favorite computer game ever!!! And I'm loving it, again.

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Cold Crushing Pescados on a Rainbow

I found this record, housed in a worn-out disco sleeve, with a label that simply read: "Express." To my surprise, it wasn't a shitty disco cover of some song about trains... it turned out to be an all instrumental dub/reggae record. Nice!

With very little to go on, the world wide web led me to this information:

RANKING BARNABAS - THE COLD CRUSHER
Produced By: PHIL PRATT
Mixed By: BARNABAS
Recorded At: CHANNEL ONE STUDIO
Engineer: BUNNY TOM TOM
Personnel: ROBBIE SHAKESPEARE, SLY DUNBAR, RAD BRYAN, JAH BUNNY, ANSEL COLLINS, BOBBY KALPHAT, STICKY, SCULLY, TOMMY McCOOK, HERMAN MARQUIS
Year: 197X


The record, unfortunately, is warped... so, I've provided you with what should be A4 and B4 of the album. Of course, both sides have five songs. So, the tracklisting that I found just makes what little I know about this record even more frustrating. But, hey... at least I know it was released in 197X !

I was very thankful that the Roots Archive and The King Of Dub were able to provide useful information and images. Both are excellent resources.

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Our good friend, Enoch, just returned from a month-long trip to South America. And, what did he bring back as mementos of his journey? Colombian coffee? Ecuadorian shrimp? Aregentinian beef?

Guess again...

When I picked the dude up from the airport, he had an armload of bootleg DVDs and some records...

So, after watching "Los Simpsons" last night, I decided to clean up a few songs I transferred from the new Buenos Aires wing of Enoch's record library...


The first song is "Corto," by an influential Argentine psych-rock outfit called Pescado Rabioso. The song is taken from their greatest hits record, released in 1976, on the Microfon label. They were a short-lived band, but the records are highly sought-after. This jam is an organ drone sing-a-long [please excuse the surface noise].


The next song is called "Abre Tu Mente (Open Your Mind)" by another one of Argentina's successful "musica beat"-era bands, Arco Iris. The song is taken from their 1969 debut on RCA. The opening line is: "Open your mind to the cosmos, and look..."

...so, keep your eyes peeled for transfers of Enoch's 1980 "boot legs" record with Argentine versions of Kraftwerk and Moroder songs.

Get them HERE.

Shopping at fredflare.com

Oh yeah, guilty pleasure!!!

I finally couldn't resist anymore and got some very cute (maybe not so necessary) items from Fred Flare. I loved the online store since day one, but never made the decision to try it until this past memorial weekend when I made my first purchase.
I will post about the items another day but I just wanted to say that I am very pleased with the transaction. It was nice and easy, the items arrived incredibly fast, very well packed, they look even better than in the pictures and I even got a flyer with a code for a free shipping. How sweet!!!

Highly recommended!

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Ratatouille

I loved it!
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Busy Busy

Hello Everybody,
This is a short post just to let you know that we're still alive, just super super busy. We moved to a new apartment, I got a new job and we received two wonderful visits in the last few weeks.
Our friend John from Maracaibo, my hometown, and Michael Johnson made us very happy with their presence in our home.
Thank you so much for sharing this awesome time with us.
I'll try to post pictures soon.
Hope you had a good labor day weekend.