The Dixie Cups

Last month I had much fun with The Dixie Cups. Classic bubblegum pop or in Dutch: bakvissenmuziek. They are most famous for their hit "Chapel of Love". Is it already getting spring or what? :)

I already knew that song and it was that song that lured me in to find a compilation of The Dixie Cups. I found some nice songs that are a bit quicker than Chapel of Love, but the lyrics stay sugar coated sweet most of the time. Check out:

• I'm Gonna Get You Yet (great original 60s tv performance)
• All Grown Up (Link to Amazon, press the button "Preview" to listen)
• Ain't That Nice (Link to Amazon, press the button "Preview" to listen)
• Gee Baby Gee

Some extra's:

• You should have seen the way he looked at me (not a great song, but it is a original 60s tv performance)
• A weird one: the ABC-song of The Dixie Cups
  

Compilation: collector items Vol. 3

Download Collector Items Volume 3 (from mediafire)

Another year, another compilation. Each year I try to make a compilation of the best songs that I came across in the previous year. This year I couldn't keep it that short that it could fit on a audio cd. It's now 2 hours of music.

So, what's on it?
In 2009 I found some great music in the following genres:

• Soul. The compilations of the label Numero Group proved to be a goldmine. Many songs are found through these compilations. They are full of good-but-not-so-famous vintage soul. Through the label I found great songs like these:
  - Helene Smith - Thrills and Chills
  - Shirley Ann Lee - There's a Light
  - Young Deciples - Bang Bang Bang
  - The Rolles - Knockin at the Wrong Door
  
• American music before 1950. Through the year I found some good blues & country. One of the compilations that proved to be a nice source of good old music was "Pop music: The early years 1890-1950". You can find a lot of old stuff on my compilation:
  - Little Richard
  - Hasil Adkins
  - Aunt Jemina
  - Gene Greene (+-1910!)
  - Bayless Rose
  - Danny Kaye and the, oh dear, Andrew Sisters.
  - Nugrape Twins
  - 22
  - Roy Brown
  
• Non-western music. This year I made a point in finding world music that did not let you feel like a tourist. Cream of the crops is the Ethiopian Seyoum Gebreyes & the Wallias Band with the song Muziqa Muziqa. Ok, you clearly hear the influences of western music in the form of funk and jazz, but it's also clearly not made by westerners. And it rocks! Other songs are from:
  - Lord Astor
  - Lucho Bermudez
  - King Fighter
  - Abdel Hadi Halo And The El Gusto Orchestra Of Algiers
  - Tefera Kassa & Imperial Bodyguard Band (also ethiopian)
  - Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble (real russian folk before the sovjets replaced it with balalaika).

2009 was a good year to diversify my music collection even more and I hope you can hear that.

Download Collector Items Volume 3 (from mediafire)

Blog redesign

It's not finished yet, but since it's in FireFox and Safari already better than before, I decided to put it online.

electricspace.blogspot.com

Pulling the plug and back to the music store?

A friend of mine told me he did something special last year: he deleted his complete mp3-collection. Say what? Yes, deleted all his music on his computer. He told me he was fed up with all the crappy encoded mp3's. The quality of music on cd/dvd is good and consistent.

Another thing that bugged him was the sheer amount of music that is available on the internet, both legal and illegal. I must agree on that point. Before the internet you bought each month just one or two albums at most. You had something to look forward to. And you listened the complete album. Even if it was mediocre. You paid for it!

But internet changed the scene. Even with zero budget there is more to listen to than you can handle. It certainly changed my way of listening to music. In the pre-internet age I only listened to complete albums. Now because of the sheer abundance of music, the value and appreciation of a song is so much lower that I cannot listen to a complete album. I just want to save those few songs that I really like and go on to the next album to pick out the good songs.

Although I like the abundance of music, I must admit that I think I'm acting like a spoiled brat. I just don't have the patience anymore to listen to songs that aren't good enough. So I can understand that you want to turn back the time. Although it sounds temping, I'm not going to pull the plug. I like to stay in abundance for as long is it will stay that way.

Sound quality by the way isn't such a problem for me. The spirit of a song is much more important than the sound quality.

What pictures does a 3-year old make

Isabel has her own camera now. So if you ever wanted to know what kind of pictures a 3-year old makes, you just have to see Isabel's Flickr page.