Ryan McFarland

If you liked Primal Scream’s album Screamadelica from the early 90s then check out this collection of remixes. If you don’t know the original album you should check it out. It is mellow stuff. Full of electronica sounds and instrumentals. Just trying to fulfill my pledge of providing sources for free mp3s.

While perusing another Value Village yesterday i found a Fisher Price Creative Music Maker. It is apparently unused and still in the box. I can’t wait to plug a nine volt battery in and hear myself on the radio!

I can’t check out this link yet because Cena is sleeping but i told you that i’d provide some links to free mp3s. Too goofy? how about Beastie Boys A Cappellas?

I usually hate getting songs stuck in my head. I just had a very odd one that popped in though. It is from one of my grandmother’s player piano reels. Thanks to Google and the whole internet thing i was able to find out the artist, title, year, and even a free mp3 to download. It was “The Farmer Took Another Load Away” by Billy Jones and Ernest Hare performed in 1925. The mp3 that i have linked here isn’t quite the one we played on the piano but it was close enough to dredge up the memories of my brother, sister, and i sitting on the bench, pumping the pedals, and singing with grandma. This is a good place for me to start with my plan to provide a new free mp3 every week so that my posts are not all about the stuff i’m making.

Saturday we were in Seattle and were fortunate enough to attend a free show that included Mix Master Mike. If you don’t know, MMM teamed up with the Beastie Boys on their album Hello Nasty. It really is pretty tough to find people who don’t like the Beastie Boys in one way or another. I have had friends that disliked them until they realized that their music isn’t electronica. They saw pictures of drums and guitars and shed their bb=rap equation for a little more respect. I hear their instrumentals on NPR outros quite often. From their early anthems to their catchy beats and silly videos they seem to get some respect from most people. One thing is for sure - they never have sold out. But MMM did a little. Camel was paying the bills for this tour. But i didn’t really care. He did a fantastic job on the turntables and the crossfader. He’s famous for having super fast hands and the ability to transform the turntable into an instrument of its own. He’d crossfade from one album to the next so quickly that he’d create his own beats. He mixed old school hip hop with Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine. He never seemed to play more than 30 seconds of a song (largely heavily altered with additional beats, record scratching, or crossfade techniques) before moving on. The familiar songs you couldn’t sing along but a few words before he took you from a familiar song to something vaguely like the original and yet a bit fresh and raw. He let out an “oops” early on but for the most part concentrated on the tunes and uged the crowd to get into the tracks. Nice show. There was the addition of people doing curtain acrobatics and the opening acts included Electric Six which i will always remember for their song Gay Bar as performed by viking kittens.

The latest tool in my dj arsenal is the proliferation of “mash-ups”. These are remixes but they blend two or more songs together. They tend to be incredibly popular especially if you take a classic and mash it with something new. I’m listening to one right now that is Snoop Dog’s “Drop it like it’s hot” vocals on top of a Hendrix tune. There is a lot more to it than that but that’s the simplist description i can give. If you want to find some just do a google search for “mash up eminem” or “mash up queen” These songs generally do not have the permission of the artist or the owner of the rights to the music (hardly ever the artist anymore) so they are free to grab if you can find them. Some artists have embraced this form of music realizing it can make their music popular once again. David Bowie recently had a contest and released much of his material for the public to mash up. Anyway - it’s a great way for me to play tracks that i’m getting tired of playing week after week.

Here are some fresh samples from my new record player and some new (old) records i picked up. These samples (unlike the other ones i uploaded a few months ago) have audio in both speakers. Yes! Available in stereo! These files are mp3s.

“A series of musical programs.”
“Alaska”
“Alaska, the land of the aurora borealis.”
“Each week at this time”
“For the next half hour”
“Magnetic sound”
“Music”
“Musical programs”
“Through the magic of magnetic sound”
“Travel with us now for the next half hour”

Next Friday i go to Anchorage for an Alaska Recreation and Parks Association meeting. I leave Petersburg on Friday, have the meeting on Saturday and return on Sunday. I’m a little bummed because i lose a weekend that way (having to “work” during it) and because i lose out on DJ income. A solution to both has appeared. I have asked Heather to fill in for me when i am out of town - unfortunately she also will not be in Petersburg next weekend. So Cena will fill in for me. And Cena also helped make my weekend of “work” better by discovering that DJ Rap will be playing at Club @ in Anchorage on the 22nd. And best yet… the club is over 21 and non-smoking. I’ve not been to many concerts or shows. I went to Pearl Jam in ‘93 (intentionally) and Jackyl (somewhat under coercion).

This is a picture of an actual record i saw at the Juneau Salvation Army.