Burl Veneer’s Music Blog

Deferred listening returns: Animal Slaves

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:44:12 -0700

One song I played several times on my college radio show back in the 80s, but which I never got my own copy of the record of, was "Bones Brigade" by Animal Slaves. It appeared on the album Things Are Still Coming Ashore, a 1981 sampler LP from th...

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I Spy for the FBI

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:55:39 -0700

In the midst of my Bill Murray spy-movie high I dug out one of my old favorite spy songs, "I Spy for the FBI." I first heard it sung by John Hiatt on his album Two-Bit Monsters, but I can't find that version. The second one I heard was a radical...

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Filling in the gaps

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:50:54 -0700

Having had access to the college radio station record library during the 80s, not to mention the constant stream of new releases that came in, and then spending all my disposable income (plus future income, once I got a credit card) on imported Br...

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Erasing history

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 08:09:02 -0700

It always galls me when a new band takes the same name as an old band; for one thing it's an annoyance to have net searches mucked up with the pretender's name, and at worst they end up overwriting the history of the original band. How infuriatin...

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Quintessence of Dance-Punk

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:26:36 -0700

"Postpunk revival" or "dance-punk" is enjoying some staying power as a genre, but what is it, exactly? You could try to define it, or you could take my favored approach, i.e. "I know it when I hear it." It all boils down to trying to sound like ...

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Another score: 54.40

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 11:35:59 -0800

On a high from finding so much long-lost music, I scoured my brain for more to look for, and came up with 54.40. Everything about 54.40's first record, the six-song EP Selection, fascinated me from the moment I found it in the campus radio statio...

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Serendipity: 1919

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 19:21:34 -0800

Yesterday I wrote about my continuing search for music by 1919; today I found it! The Killing Joke followers' 1983 mini-LP Machine (which I used to own, but sold on ebay in the 90s) was just posted last week on the Sickness Abounds blog, or as bl...

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We are all prostitutes

nobody@vox.com(Burl Veneer) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:43:56 -0800

I've been meaning to start a "crooners" thread, but it just hasn't worked out yet; maybe soon. In the meantime I've been listening to The Pop Group's catalog, and wishing I hadn't missed it all by a few years. Through the 80s I was a fan of all ...

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