Damn Fine Music

THE SHANGRI-LAS: ARTIST FEATURE

Our own StrangeIdols will be co-hosting a radio show on WVFS Tallahassee tonight at 10pm-12pm EST (in other words, right now!). The radio station regularly does Artist Features, 2 hours featuring the history of a particular band and playing a large portion of their back catalog, this week’s feature is on legendary girl group The Shangri-Las. A band adored by everyone from The New York Dolls and Sonic Youth to Rowland S Howard, The Special and The Horrors, loved for their songs about wild boys in leather jackets…I know I’ll certainly be listening in and I thought it might appeal to some of you as well.

Click through and click the “Listen” link to download WVFS streaming to your iTunes!

Posted by AlyssaPandaEyes

All download links have been removed from the tumblr, and the name has been changed.

We are still debating if we will move to another blogging platform, or change the style of this to still inform you of bands that interest us with video and song uploads without download links.

We’ll be in touch soon, thanks again to everyone who’s written in.

Asked by noel-gallaghers-cat noel-gallaghers-cat

I've never commented or anything before, but I just wanna say that this was one my favourite Tumblrs. There's just not many people I know who would bother to upload so much of this amazing music~ So sad that it's being shut down, and I'll miss it. D:

Aww wow thanks so much. I’m really glad to hear it meant so much to you in such a short time, I hope you enjoy some of those albums as much as I have! - Alyssa

Asked by prunelle prunelle

C'est dommage! I am really heartbroken. I was wondering why so many albums were being posted so often. Now, I see the race was on. I am sincerely grateful for this opportunity. All good things should not come to such a short demise. Please come back.

You are a smart one prunelle! I’ll get back to you at some point if I find that Marc Almond recording you were looking for (as you’d expect I’m a big fan as well). Thanks very much for all your support, we’ll be sure to let you know if we continue on elsewhere. - Alyssa

Asked by stupidbich stupidbich

Thank you for doing God's work. Thank you.

BEST COMMENT. - Alyssa

Asked by bruisesandbeautymarks-deactivat bruisesandbeautymarks-deactivat

I will miss you. <3

Same. <3 - Alyssa

Asked by buzzards-deactivated20110706 buzzards-deactivated20110706

I'm so glad I got this blog before it was closed. You gave Tumblr such great music. And we really appreciate it more than you know. So thank you guys. <3 We'll miss this blog. Well, I will.

Thanks so much, it means a lot to us to know that. We really appreciate and love all the people who listened! We’ll miss you too. - Alyssa

We have been informed by Tumblr that we have to shut down this blog. This comes as no surprise to us running it. It was an experiment to see A. If sharing albums we love desperately would be something people would be interested in and B. How long we could do this for. It turns out we were surprised on both fronts. The amount of interest was just enormous and unprecedented. Thank you for everyone who wrote in, downloaded, re-blogged, liked, etc. It was really inspiring.

We were never trying to make any sort of point about copyrighted information or music downloading. We were just sharing albums as we do between friends. Getting excited about music and wanting to expose like-minded people to new bands. I suppose that comes from us being a product of our generation. Additionally, we talked about starting a separate blog outside of the realm of tumblr serving a similar purpose with the same stylistic choices and you can feel free to follow us on our personal tumblrs (StrangeIdols & AlyssaPandaEyes) to see if/when that project will start. We have also put up a mailing list if you would like to subscribe to be notified of what we do next.

This blog will be shut down by the end of the night.

With Love

The Human League - Travelogue (1980)

“The Black Hit of Space” (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 4:11
“Only After Dark” (Richardson, Mick Ronson) – 3:51
“Life Kills” (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 3:08
“Dreams of Leaving” (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 5:52
“Toyota City” (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 3:21
“Crow and a Baby” (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 3:43
“The Touchables” (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 3:21
“Gordon’s Gin” (Wayne) – 2:59
“Being Boiled” (Marsh, Oakey, Ware) – 4:22
“WXJL Tonight” (Ware, Marsh, Oakey, Wright) – 4:46
“Marianne” (Marsh, Oakey, Ware) – 3:17
“Dancevision” (Marsh, Ware) – 2:22
“Rock ‘n’ Roll/Night Clubbing” (Gary Glitter, Mike Leander/David Bowie, James Osterberg) – 6:23
“Tom Baker” (Oakey, Wright) – 4:01
“Boys and Girls” (Oakey, Wright) – 3:14
“I Don’t Depend on You” (Marsh, Oakey, Ware) – 4:36
“Cruel” (Marsh, Oakey, Ware) – 4:45

Notes: I will never forget the first time I heard this album. I was visiting my bandmate Rob at his house in Somerset, and he wanted to show me his massive speaker system which was set up to his turntable. He said “oh my god, I’ve got to play The Black Hit Of Space for you on here!”, I nodded like I knew what he was talking about but I had no idea to what song he was referring. I was already well into The Human League by this point but I hadn’t gotten around to Travelogue yet, so I didn’t know what or who it was, I was in the next room when I heard that perfect kick drum, and then BOOM that massive synthesizer sounding like it came from another planet filling up the whole place with sound and Phil’s incredible monotone, eerie and personal at once. I think I’ll probably spend much of my career trying to replicate what that sound made me feel like. I don’t think I can really put into the words how I feel about The Human League, they changed my life, I aspire to be like them, I listen to ‘Dreams Of Leaving’ when I’m having a rough day and ‘Being Boiled’ when I want to dance to the most incredible synthesizer sounds I’ve ever heard…I hope you listen to them.

For fans of: Early synthesizers, Cabaret Voltaire, synth pop, OMD, Fad Gadget, The Normal, Gary Numan

Uploaded by: AlyssaPandaEyes

Grauzone - Die-Sunrise Tapes (1981)

1. Film 2
2. Eisbar
3. Hinter Den Bergen
4. Maikafer Flieg
5. Marmelade Und Himbeereis
6. Wutendes Glas
7. Kalte Kriecht
8. Kunstgewerbe
9. Der Weg Zu Zweit
10. In Der Nacht
11. Traume Mit Mir
12. Ich Und Du
13. Moskau
14. Ich Lieb Sie
15. Schlachtet
16. Raum
17. Eisbaer (bonus track added by me, this was their biggest hit and is not on this album)

Notes: This album was a lot of the reason I started this tumblr, I got a message on Facebook from a friend of mine who I had shared this album with telling me how much it had meant to him and how many times when he’d been having a rough day it was there for him - which it had been many times for me as well. There is something incredibly emotive about this Swiss new wave/coldwave band who sing in German but nonetheless write catch pop songs, I have no idea what they’re saying but I can tell you by all the times I’ve cried listening to Ich Liebe Sie, you really don’t need to. It took me a really long time to locate it which is why I am so keen to share it with others, it’s one of my favorite albums ever and is quite hard to find.

For fans of: synthesizers, new wave, avant garde pop music, singing in German, New Order, Videosex, cold wave

Uploaded by: AlyssaPandaEyes