Now that it seems imminent that big corporations will finally get a stranglehold on the Internet (i.e. Google + Verizon) and begin censoring, blocking, or slowing sites they don't like, I wonder if there will always be such an amazing selection of out-of-print albums to download. Indeed, the Wild, Wild West is about to become a well manicured suburb, if the government doesn't step up and stifle.... and I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.
Anyway, let's gather rosebuds while we may. One of my favorite things to do is meander around the Internets and downloading albums that you can't readily find on Amazon, iTunes or Rapsody. Every once and a while you land on a gem. To keep my sanity at work, I keep these in constant rotation in my office.
I'm currently enjoying the psychedelic sounds of Kaleidoscope. I may be the only office in North America playing their songs, but, hopefully, you'll be joining me in that endeavour.
The best way to describe their music is by comparison: picture Syd Barrett fronting Small Faces, with a dash of Kasabian. An amazing album IMHO. This song is the title track: "Faintly Blowing" (1969)
Download Song
This next one is from a porno called Summer School (1979). Admittedly, I thought all 70s porno soundtracks went something like "boom shicka shicka mmbow bow", and couldn't imagine them actually ending up on vinyl. Not so.
In fact, I've downloaded quite a few and have to admit some of them are very listenable. You'd never know you were listening to porn music. This one is called "Heavy Lift" and it's pretty funky. Gilligan like.
Download Song
Last up is Jenson Interceptor - not the sports car, the Canadian pomp rock band. This album is about as generic as it gets, yet I can't help but like it....I think it's okay to be predictable sometimes. One thing that's not typical is that the two ladies on the cover are not just there for eye candy - they're actually in the band. Yes, Jenson Interceptor featured both female and male vocals.
The song "Crazy Monkey" is from their self titled 1980 release. After this LP, the label experienced financial difficulties and the band had to switch and change their name to The Cosmetics.... suffice it say, they just weren't the same, and they faded into obscurity.
