The Beatles Unauthorized Remasters...

So I've been really fucked up about The Beatles lately.
There's just been too many wierd coincidences that have shaped their music.
Wierdly enough, there has been too many coincidences between what's going on in my life right now and the Beatles albums I've been discovering - with every new Beatles album I hear, the songs have been describing or bearing close relation to what I've been going through at that moment. It's like when you play Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz, only its every Beatles song and my life.
I know this sounds creepy like I'm some stalker fan, but I promise I'm sane.

I heard about a year ago that some fans who apparently have access to professional recording equipment took pristine copies of all the Beatles albums on vinyl and remastered them all to ridiculous clarity. The story goes that, in 1987, EMI (who publishes all the Beatles' albums) released the Beatles catalogue on the modern CD format. However, if you have ever listened to CD's released in the 80's (i.e. when the format was still incredibly new and uncharted), what you usually hear is the straight up master tapes of the original album, which before the 80's were mastered specifically for vinyl - a BIG difference from what would be known as "redbook" CD standards. The result was a quiet, muddy, inferior version to the original analog vinyl releases. The Beatles' albums were no exception to this practice. Gradually, all these shitty albums pressed to CD in the 80's have been undergoing modern facelifts, as technology progressed and people learned more about mastering to CD. All the record companies began to reissue all these classic albums in remastered form to fit the fidelity of the CD format.

Unfortunately, one of the few bands that have not recieved this repolishing is The Beatles. Why wouldn't EMI put everything aside in order to cash in once again on quite possibly the biggest band in the history of music recording? Well if you know anything about The Beatles, you know that the four members would eventually grow apart at the end of their career together, citing artistic and financial differences as the culprite. This inability to come to a common concensus has continued to exist to this day between the remaing two (Paul and Ringo) and the proprietors of the estates of George and John (aka their widows). So it has proven to be very difficult to release anything Beatle related today due to this seemingly childish bickering of rights and whatever, not to mention the fact that Michael Jackson bought almost the entire Beatles catalogue, giving him full control at his crazy-ass discresion.

Back to the fan remasters, in becoming interested in The Beatles again (as I still own somewhere a copy of Revolver on tape from back in the day), I have been downloading them one album at a time. The completely free internet-based releases are courtesy of the ominous producer "Purple Chick" with new hi-res artwork and everything. And if the incredible audio quality of these recordings aren't enough, this "Purple Chick" group or person has somehow got his/her/their hands on hours and hours of outtakes, different versions, and even just general studio recording minutiae that The Beatles have recorded spanning their entire career together. These "releases" are simply the best versions of any Beatles recordings available right now, period. (aside, of course, from the original vinyl versions...however it's almost not even close I'm sure)

So I'm gonna stop rambling and give you some links so you can discover/re-discover/or blow your mind out to this wierd cosmic force also known as The Beatles.

Reference Information For Purple Chick Series
Hi Res Artwork for Purple Chick Series

Please, Please Me - Stereo & Mono
Please, Please Me - Alternate Takes

With The Beatles - Stereo
With The Beatles - Mono
With The Beatles - Alternate Takes

Hard Days Night - Stereo
Hard Days Night - Mono
Fix for errors with track 12 & 30 of HDN (stereo)
Hard Days Night - Alternate Takes

Beatles For Sale - Stereo
Beatles For Sale - Mono
Beatles For Sale - Alternate Takes

HELP! - Stereo
HELP! - Mono
HELP! - Alternate Takes

Live At The Hollywood Bowl

Rubber Soul - Stereo
Rubber Soul - Mono
Rubber Soul - Alternate Takes

Revolver - Stereo
Revolver - Mono
Revolver - Alternate Takes

Sgt. Pepper - Stereo
Sgt. Pepper - Mono
Sgt. Pepper - Multitracks

Magical Mystery Tour - Stereo
Magical Mystery Tour - Mono
Magical Mystery Tour - Alternate Takes

The Beatles - Disc 1 - Stereo
The Beatles - Disc 2 - Stereo
The Beatles - Disc 1 - Mono
The Beatles - Disc 2 - Mono
Fix for errors with Revolution Number 9 (Mono)

Let It Be - Stereo & Mono
Get Back Book

Abbey Road - Stereo
Abbey Road - Alternate Takes

Extra special thanks to Ben Walters and his blog for unintentionally providing me these links.

Adoration of the Ham

So here's this project I did for collage... the assignment was "to corrupt an old master painting"


This was originally Van Eyck's Adoration of the Lamb
you can see it here

So I'm gonna break it all down...
(from top left to bottom right)


The first panel was originally Adam (of Adam & Eve fame); he represents MAN.
In this incarnation, "Adam" the "man" is represented as none other than George W.... I felt that the best representation of "man" in western civilization would be (1) the President (who has always been male and probably will be for decades to come) and (2) specifically Mr. Bu(ll)sh(it), the man of the year. The original inscription is left untouched, as it adds to the ironic placement of our (not) soon (enough) to be ex-president of the USA, and it reads: Adam thrusts us into death. Ah how ironic! So did ol' George W. Bush! In fact, he thrusted 4,146 Americans into death so far (according to this), as well as thousands more in the middle east. In order to keep his private parts private, he uses an American flag to hide his indignity.


The next panel is originally titled Singing Angels, which depicted just that - a chorus of angels. I decided to replace the angels with images of some of my favorite singers who have lost their lives (too soon). They are Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, James Brown, Dead (the lead singer of Mayhem), Wesley Willis, John Lennon, Bon Scott, and Marc Bolan. They are all angels singing; and one of them is placing a copy of Dax Riggs' We Sing Of Only Blood And Love on what looks like a record player.

The next panel was originally the Virgin Mary. The inscription underneath reads: She is more beautiful than the sun + all the order of stars; being compared w/ the light she is found greater. She is in truth the reflection of everlasting light, + a spotless mirror of God. To me, she represents a pure product of nature. So, I replaced her with an image of Chernobyl, which was the imfamous Russian nuclear power plant that was the site of a major meltdown - an example of the human hand destroying nature.

The middle panel originally depicted a god-like figure, who is obviously supposed to be Christ, in whatever incantation that Van Eyck intended (whether it was God or simply Jesus). Well, our Christ Savior is obviously our television sets (which, hey, don't forget to switch over to digital!), so that is what I transformed him into. His inscription reads: This is God, All powerful in his divine majesty; of all the best, by the gentleness of his goodness; the most liberal giver, because of his infinite generosity. It seems that in the modern western world, the only constant "giver" is our cable programming. There is another inscription at the foot of his throne that reads: On his head, life w/out death, on his brow, youth w/out age On his right, joy w/out sadness. On his left, security w/out fear. Television programming will never go away - it will most likely change to fit new standards of technology, but it will forever be something humanity cannot live without. So on his head is "life without death," on his brow, "youth without age" - infinity. "On his right," I placed a bubble pack of Xanax pills, which is our modern "joy without sadness." "On his left," I placed a dollar bill - "security without fear." This panel is dear to me because it represents a basic epitomy of western culture.

Next to Christ, originally, was seated St. John the Baptist - his second hand man. His inscription reads: This is John the Baptist, greater than man, like unto angels,the summation of the law, the propagator of the Gospels, the voice of the Apostles, the silence of the prophets, the Lamb of the world, the Witness of the Lord. Well if the Lord is TV, and this guy is basically god's representative, through which the Law of the Lord is "propagated," then who better to represent him then the one and only Billy (A-Mays-ing) Mays. For those of you who happen to not watch cable, Billy Mays is the master of selling you things. But they aren't just any old things, they are amazing products that I'm not completely sure how we have all survived without. Whether you need to clean industrial sewage from your carpet or be able to hang a bowling ball on your wall, you have to go through Billy Mays for the good stuff. All you need to do is send a check or money order for 19.99 and you're one step closer to nirvana. In his lap, I've placed a pile of money on fire, because that's what you and I are doing.

The next panel is titled Angels Playing Music. I decided to place some random images of musicians playing electric guitar with no particular importance on the actual people. However, I changed the main "pipe-organ playing angel" with the ultimate composer, my man Frank Zappa - another angel.

The final panel on the top of the altarpiece is the opposite of Adam, Eve. Eve, as is the case with Adam, represents woman. I replaced Van Eyck's beautiful depiction of Eve with a girl from an Abercrombie & Fitch ad - the ultimate modern model of woman. She now holds in one hand a box of menthol slim cigarettes, and in the other a book entitled "Women's Rights", which she holds over her loins in order to protect her private parts. Her inscription reads: Eve has afflicted us w/ death.

On the bottom half of the altarpiece, we are presented with a representation of the tangible world - Earth and its inhabitants, who are all Lambs of the Lord. The first panel is originally titled The Last Judges, and the people within represent Justice. I have replaced their images with famous serial killers (which sounds redundant). They include

...

No-Notorious

Damn shit son!

Like the Beasties post I made earlier, I'm about to let you in on another JUICY tidbit of history.

Ready to Die - The O.G. Edition

Holy god...Quite possibly one of the best hip-hop albums, let alone debut albums ever produced, Ready to Die is my personal favorite Biggie record. So why am I so exuberant about this "O.G. Edition?" Well here's the tracklist:

1. Intro (Original Version With Uncleared Samples)
2. Things Done Changed (Original Version)
3. Gimme The Loot (Never Before Heard Uncensored Version)
4. Machine Gun Funk (DJ Premier's Version)
5. Warning (Original Version)
6. Ready To Die (Original Version With Different Beat)
7. One More Chance (Original Version With Uncleared Sample)
8. Fuck Me (Interlude)
9. The What (Feat. Method Man) (Original Version With Unheard Lyrics)
10. Juicy (Pete Rock's Version)
11. Everyday Struggle (Original Demo Mix)
12. Me & My Bitch (Original Version With Different Beat)
13. Respect (Original Extended Edition)
14. Friend Of Mine (Original Demo Version)
15. Whatchu Want (Unreleased Original Version)
16. Suicidal Thoughts (Pete Rock's Version)
17. Come On (Feat. Sadat X) (Unreleased Original Version)
18. Who Shot Ya? (Original Demo Mix)
19. For The Macs & Dons (Unreleased Track)
20. Pepsi Freestyle (Unreleased Track)
21. Biggie Got The Hype Shit (Unreleased 1991 Demo Track)


I've heard that Ready to Die was initially supposed to sound slightly different from what we now have come to know (and fucking worship religiously) - a version that Biggie himself preferred over the commercial release. It's been said that this is that version, and it probably is - I'm just not making any guarantees because the internet is full of bullshit.

But needless to say, this is definitely a great incite into Biggie's early career and also the development of what was to become Ready.

by the way, Take home Ready To Die, listen, study shit

Thank god for Fox News!

I'm glad that, during such a suddenly tumultuous state of unrest, Fox News manages to report the IMPORTANT ISSUES...

Great Googely Moogely

Well so much has changed since I last posted... I'm a woman now

but besides that, I'm at my job right now (like right now) and so I'm technically getting paid to do this (this right here)...

huh?

Right now I'm waiting for a meeting to break for lunch so I can covertly make a cell phone call to my boss so he can tell HIS boss...whoa I just did it.... and now I wait.... yes....

Well soon I may have a new laptop that actually charges and can actually get on the internet, which means soon I will post something I'm actually excited about and not so much something to pass my brutally slow time at work.

So the one person (me) that reads this blog doesn't lose interest, here's a picture, I don't care what it is just something:

Beasties - Then & Now(ish)

So I don't know if you know this, but the Beastie Boys are definitely on my top-whatever list of favorite music groups.

As far as my love for GOOD hip-hop goes, I give a substantial amount of credit to the Beasties for leading me down the path of how I should judge so-called hip-hop heads. Their debut (debut mind you) album License To Ill remains this historic production that completely turned hip-hop at the time on its head - I mean listen to it, it's like Nostradamus made a rap album about how rap music (and hell, countless other genres and fusions, etc.) would become during our present time. This is also the album that made me believe that Rick Rubin was less of a producer and more of a genius.

So anyway, I've been scrounging the Internette for Beastie material I haven't yet heard (with the exception of 2007's The Mix-Up, as I vowed not to listen to it until I eventually buy it on vinyl), because I got no life like that, and have recently happened upon a couple REALLY TASTY MORSELS of Beastie Boys history that I have to say was thoroughly enjoyable.

The first of which is a bootleg released under the title Original Ill. Original Ill is the demo tape of what would later become their groundbreaking first album. Yeah I know it doesn't sound that great (especially because it was literally ripped straight from an actual TAPE circa 1984), but the reason that it is something worth checking out is the fact that some of the tracks on here have new verses (like whole fucking bars of new shit!), new mixes, and even jams that didn't make it to the album (!!!!!), which includes a Beatles cover (!!!!!!!). Yeah dude....

Ch-Check It Out

So the next great find was this bootleg from '87 when the Beasties went on tour to pimp Ill. Now the quality of this recording is shasty as hell due to shasty 1980's bootleg technology, which I'm convinced means that someone came in the place with Talkboy. However, the reason you should cop this boot is the fact that (A) they bring out suprise guests RUN DMC, and (B) they sound drunk as hell...like shit-faced drunk...and apparently it's because it was Ad Rock's birthday, but who knows. Definitely worth checking out...

RIGHT HERE

And to conclude this post, as I've mentioned previously in my cool ass blog, I had the chance to witness the greatness that is THE Beastie Boys live, in person, posse in effect, in 2004 at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans - easily one of the best concerts of my entire life. I tend to look around the 'Nette after I go to a show that I know was most likely bootlegged, and luckily for me, I happened to find this very show! Thank god I downloaded it then, because ever since then (and I've searched) I can't find it anywhere. Apparently there was also a soundboard version SOME-fucking-WHERE that the guy who I got this from wouldn't give me (and I tried, that cunt). So for those -3 people who read my blog, here is the Beastie Boys, Live at Voodoo Fest 04 (and my first megaupload upload):

FUCKING AWESOME SHIT

now be sure and compare the two bootlegs - kinda eye-opening aint it? special thanks to It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold This Sac for the links.

Hey! Another Video Post!

So my life is really boring right now...it sucks waiting around to hear about two jobs, when there's a good chance I may get both and then I'd have to make a decision. Well anyway, this video is for Melissa, who is going to be (maybe) moving into her first apartment by herself in Hattiesburg
(more like Shattysburg)....here you go, some tips for you!

Batman

So the new batman is about to come out and when it does,
everyone's gonna die............with excitement!

...and now i have to post this.

Ok this guy wins...i obviously lose





Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.





I get all tingley every time I watch this...