FISHERMAN'S BLUES

The Waterboys released their 4th album, Fisherman's Blues, on October of 1998. The Fisherman's Blues recording sessions were an epic undertaking that spanned cities, countries and even continents. The recordings took place from 1996 to 1998 and produced an insane amount of music. The sessions began at Windmill Lane Studio in Dublin and lasted from January through March 1986. From there they moved to San Francisco and recorded for a few more months before moving back to Windmill Lane and finally ending the recording sessions at the Spiddal house in Galway. Mike Scott describes the process; "We started recording our fourth album in early '86 and completed it 100 songs and 2 years later. There was a lot of indecision. I got too involved in the album and I lost perspective. We had blues songs, gospel songs, country songs, rock songs and ballads. I didn't know where to take it. It could've been a gospel or country album. It could've sounded more like This Is The Sea or it could've been a traditional album. It could've been anything."

14 years after the release of Fisherman's Blues came Too Close To Heaven or Fisherman's Blues Part 2 (with an extended tracklisting) as it was known as in North America. "Quite how 'Too Close to Heaven' – a song that is easily worthy of either John Lennon or Van Morrison - languished in the vaults for 12 years is a matter for Scott's conscience (and his accountants)" said the Guardian.

25 years after the release of Fisherman's Blues the Waterboys released a 7-CD box set which contained 121 tracks from the album sessions (including all those on the original record and subsequent editions) plus a further 85 unreleased tracks!

After years of taking stabs at creating an all inclusive best of the Fisherman's Blues boxset for my own listening pleasure I finally did it. I pared down the epic 121 track boxset to a 64 song four part listening experience.

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Part 1 (of 4) is the album as it was released except I swapped out the shorter version of songs that were on there for the longer extended versions from the boxset. For some reason there was a "Sweet Thing" conclusion on the boxset that was 2 minutes long but separated from the original version "Sweet Thing" on the album - so I connected them.

Tracklisting:
Fisherman's Blues
We Will Not Be Lovers
Strange Boat [Extended]
World Party [Extended]
Sweet Thing [MF Edit]
Jimmy Hickey's Waltz
And A Bang On The Ear [Extended]
Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?
When Will We Be Married
When Ye Go Away
Dunford's Fancy
The Stolen Child
This Land Is Your Land

Somebody left us whisky
And the night is very young
I've got some to say and more to tell
And the words will soon be spilling from my tongue

DR OCTAGON 2

In 1996, an extraterrestrial surgeon from Jupiter named Dr Octagon seemingly dropped down from outer space, put out a bizarrely fun record, and disappeared. A few years later he was murdered by his contemporary, Dr Dooom. But not to worry because both Octogon and Dooom were just different personas created by Keith Matthew Thornton (better known as Kool Keith).

The earliest instance of the Dr. Octagon character appeared on the unreleased Ultramagnetic MC's demo "Smoking Dust" (which was recorded in 1993). In 1994, Kool Keith teamed up with KutMasta Kurt and recorded a few songs including "Dr. Octagon" and "Technical Difficulties" under the alias Dr. Octagon. They sent out a few copies and one made it's way to Dan The Automator who wanted to produce more music with Kool Keith. In 1995 the two of them, along with DJ Qbert and some guest vocals by Sir Menelik, got together in Automator's parents basement and created the album Dr. Octagon.

It was released in 1996 by Mo' Wax in the UK and Bulk Recordings in the US (bizarrely it was rereleased by Dreamworks in 1997 with a slightly different tracklisting and was renamed Dr. Octagonecologyst).

And then.... there was nothing. Live shows at Lolapalooza were abandoned, there were rumblings from various members of the Octagon crew in the press, and along came Dr Dooom who killed Dr Octagon on the very first song on his album.

Years passed by and suddenly, in 2006, there was this weird record called The Return Of Dr Octagon which had a couple of great songs on it but most of it seemed like other people making music and adding Kool Keith snippets. No Automator, no Qbert or no Menelik. The songs seemed more like remixes or something. And afterwards more rumblings in the press about scam contracts. Kool Keith immediately disowned the album. And of course, a second Dr Dooom album where Dr Octagon is killed off again (in many different elaborate ways this time). There is a pretty great article about Third Watt Sun and the big scam they pulled on Kool Keith in regards to The Return Of Dr Octagon here.

Anyway, 12 years after the unofficial release came an actual official release! It took 22 years but here it was! The follow up to Dr Octagon! It had Kool Keith, Dan The Automator and DJ Q-Bert. It was called Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation and it was, in my humble opinion, pretty... ok. Yeah, afterall those years it was just, kind of... meh. So much of the scrappiness, the spark and, crucially, the innovation that saturated the original release was... missing. Kool Keiths rhymes seemed, at times, bored. The beats and sounds were all kind of the same. No Sir Menelik and his insanity. Minimal scratching. Yeah, just kind of boring. Then came another version of the album! The SP-1200 Remixes. It, too, was also just ok. It made a few of the songs better. A few of the songs worse. And then an instrumental version of the album. And then a single from the album. And that was that.

So I took it upon myself to make Dr Octagon 2. I used the three versions of the new album that were released in 2018: Moosebumps: An Exploration Into Modern Day Horripilation along with Moosebumps: The SP 1200 Remixes and an instrumental from Moosebumpectomy: An Excision Of Modern Day Instrumentalization. I also added a b-side that was exclusive to the single for "Area 54" from the new album. From there I added three previoulsy unreleased songs from the 2017 deluxe version of Dr Octagon. In 2014 KutMasta Kurt released a "lost track" he and Kool Keith did from the original Dr Octagon days (recorded in 1994). Such a GEM! I used two songs and a skit from 2006's The Return Of Dr Octagon. To round it all out I used a piece of a skit from 1999's First Come First Served album by Dr Dooom; Dan The Automator's "Bear Witness III (Once Again)" single; a Dan the Automator remix of "So Intelligent" by Sir Menelik; and I ended the album with the first ever appearance by Dr Octagon via Kool Keith and his Ultramagnetic MC's.

Tracklisting:
Octagon Octagon [SP-1200 Remix]
Black Hole Sun [SP-1200 Remix]
Droppin' Bagels
Perfect World
Operation Zero
Polka Dots [MF Edit]
Astro Embalming Fluid
Space Ranger
Bear Witness III (Once Again)
3030 Meets The Doctor
Karma Sutra
Area 54
Flying Waterbed
Miss Pop Music
I'll Be There For You
Aliens
So Intelligent [Auotomator Remix]
Redeye
Bear Witness IV
Hollywood Tailswinging
Power Of The World (S Curl) [SP-1200 Remix]
Smokin' Dust

Truckstop - not a myth - remember that light?
The orange beam - not a myth - remember that light?
Observation - not a myth - remember that light?
You've been abducted by... YES!

'94/95 GOLD

This is the second part of my series of Beck compilations. It is made up of the singles and b-sides he released before and during the Mellow Gold era. They are mixed with some songs from the ridiculous amount of compilations his one-off songs appeared on.

I am copying and pasting this blurb from '93 Feelings to give some hindsight:
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Beck has so much goddamn music out there. He was insanely prolific from 1993 to 1998 which always made me crazy when people referred to him as a slacker. He released close to 100 songs as singles, b-sides, outtakes, compilation tracks, remixes, and live on air sessions. That is on top of releasing the following albums: Golden Feelings, A Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, Stereopathetic Soulmanure, Mellow Gold, One Foot In The Grave, Odelay and Mutations. Seven albums, fifteen singles, eight collaborations, twenty seven compilation tracks, remixes of and from various musicians and a bunch of videos. There's also a missing album he recorded with Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion and an album he made that would have been "a more rock-based follow-up to Mellow Gold…an album that sounds like a Pavement, Sebadoh kind of thing”. All of this in a span of 5 years. That's fucking insane.
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I used the b-sides from the following singles: Steve Threw Up, Loser, Pay No Mind (Snoozer), and Beercan. The rest of the songs came from compilations except for "The Way It Seems" which came from Beck himself - if you ordered the deluxe version of One Foot In The Grave. Apparently in the summer of 1994, Beck recorded a follow-up to One Foot In The Grave for K Records. "The Way It Seems" is an acoustic folk song from those sessions. The rest of the album never saw the light of day.

Tracklisting:
Steve Threw Up
In A Cold Ass Fashion
MTV Makes Me Wanna Smoke Crack [Lounge Version]
Alcohol
Super Golden Black Sunchild
Spanking Room
Corvette Bummer
Glut (Convalescent)
The World May Loose Its Motion
Special People
Soul Suckin' Jerk [Reject]
Fume
Asskizz Powergrudge (Payback '94)
Boguslfow
Got No Mind
Girl Of My Dreams
Cupcake
¿Untitled?
Loser [Pseudo-Muzzak Version]
Untitled
The Way It Seems

Steve had a big commotion
the street fair was an ocean
when he took three tabs of bad acid

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Heres a brand new 2024 DJ mix from Lady Daydrunk and Haggard Bastard! (After 7 years the Valentine Trilogy is finally complete.)

Tracklisting:
Kasey Musgrave - Oh, What A World
Spaceman 3 - I Love You
The Beatles - I Feel Fine
Chris Isaak - Livin’ For Your Lover
Hunx & His Punx - Lover’s Lane
Claudine Longet - God Only Knows
Bibio - Lovers Carvings [WXAXRXP Session]
Fruit Bats - Feather Bed [Demo]
The Rolling Stones - She’s A Rainbow
Tommy Roe - Sheila
The Murmaids - Popsicles & Icicles
The Association - Never My Love
The Dantes - Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love
Beck - Think I’m In Love
The Pogues - Haunted
Lush - Sweetness & Light
Three Dog Night - Shambala

- - -

This is the second mix we released back in 2019:


Tracklisting:
Cat Power - Sea Of Love
Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman
David T. Walker - Lay Lady Lay
The Mamas & The Papas - My Heart Stood Still
Paul McCartney - Eat At Home
The Archies - Feelin’ So Good (Skooby Doo)
Dolly Mixture - He’s So Frisky
Tommy James & The Shondells - I Think We’re Alone Now
Los Belmonts - La Carta
Fleetwood Mac - Honey Hi [Alternate Take]
Tommy Roe - Dizzy
AC/DC - Can I Sit Next To You Girl?
Lucinda Williams - Real Love
Emiliana Torrini - Jungle Drum
The Troggs - Our Love Will Still Be There
Marianne Faithful - Something Good
The Sargasso Trio - Low

- - -

This is the first mix we made waaaay back in 2017:

Tracklisting:
Tom Rush - Something In The Way She Moves
Karl Blau - To Love Somebody
The Monkees - Me & Magdalena [Version 2]
The Stone Roses - Waterfall
Lee Hazelwood - Your Sweet Love
Teenage Fanclub - I'm In Love
Dean & Britta - I Deserve It
The Kinks - Animal Farm
The Lovetones - Wintertime In Hollywood
Tasmanians - Love, Love, Love
The Boyfriends - I'm In Love Today
Mungo Jerry - Wild Love
Eldridge Holmes - If I Were A Carpenter
Bob Dylan - To Be Alone With You
Otis Redding - You Made A Man Out Of Me
The Fruit Bats - Feather Bed
The Voluntary Butler Scheme - Trading Things In