Muppetpastor 3.0

This week marks the fourth and final installment of the Amerikkka 2 Mix CD project. Private feedback has been encouraging, so leave a note if you want another mix CD in future updates. This week will round out the mix to it`s CD-length of 18 songs, and then two additional tracks for those who wish to have it like I do…an iPod playlist.

First and 16th track today is by Canadian alt-rock legend Matthew Good. Done before the official formation of the Matthew Good Band, this has a different style compared to later or modern work. Personally, I rather like the folk-ish acoustic approach just as much as later work, but Mr. Good disagrees. Found originally on the “Left of Normal” demo EP, it was later released illegally as part of the “History Teacher” set. Sadly, Mr. Good thinks that the songs of this period in his career are utter crap, and will not re-release them to the ever-growing number of his fans. According to the Wikipedia, this song was done solo, not as an early Matthew Good band song. According to fansites, the latter is true.

Matthew Good Band - Waiting For The Great Destruction

Track 2 this week hails from the woefully underrated “Zooropa”album by U2. Originally slated to be an EP, it was recorded between legs on the ZooTV Tour and released in May 1993 (see 1993 in music) by Island Records as a full LP.

It was very much an “alternative rock” album in the climate of 1993. In America, grunge was at its peak. While contemporaries R.E.M. latched onto this with their distortion-filled Monster, U2 released an album without angst or even a single guitar solo. In Europe, BritPop was beginning to conquer the charts, yet Zooropa owed more to the experimentation of David Bowie and Brian Eno than to the melodic pop of The Beatles and The Kinks.

Nonetheless, it was a successful release–perhaps riding the wave of popularity started by Achtung Baby and the ZooTV Tour–winning a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album the year of its release and spending two weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums Chart despite lacking a strong single. It has subsequently sold more than 7 million copies worldwide.

I love the Wikipedia. It makes me smile. My copy of the original CD was lost to an Ex, but this track has lived on through my iPod, and now it comes to you.

U2 - Numb

Track 3, and the final track on the mix CD hails from yet another personal favorite and slightly unknown band, Marcy Playground. Visitors of SonicTerrorism.net might recognize this as a past upload there, and that was not entirely intentional. The track has a tendency to stick in my head at times, and so I deliver it to you in the hopes it does the same.

Marcy Playground - America

Fourth track, and the first of the iPod-only set hails from eclectic “Acid House Country Gospel” artists A3/Alabama 3. Alabama 3 is a band from Brixton, England, a suburb of London. In the United States, they are known as A3 (the alias was thrust upon them after a lawsuit by the well-established country music band Alabama). Most widely recognized as behind the theme from HBO’s “The Sopranos” and their selections from the soundtrack to “Gone in 60 Seconds”, this track is found on 2000’s “The Power In The Blood” LP. Sadly, Alabama 3 is not well known in the US, and have more recognition overseas.

Alabama 3 - Lord Have Mercy

Final track for both the project and this week comes from Mike Skinner, and his alter-ego, the British Garage Rap band The Streets. Featured on the debut album “Original Pirate Material”, it closed the album, and seemed a very fitting song to close this project. Skinner acquired his first keyboard by the age of five. As a teenager, he built a miniature recording studio in his bedroom. He began writing hip hop and garage music in his home in West Heath in Birmingham, with a crew of other rappers. He describes his background as “Barratt class: suburban estates, not poor but not much money about, really boring.”

In the late 1990s, Skinner was working in fast food jobs while trying to start his own independent record label and sending off demos. At the end of 2000, the Locked On label, who had had success with The Artful Dodger featuring Craig David, agreed to release “Has It Come To This” under the name The Streets. Skinner moved from Birmingham to Brixton to pursue his recording career.

In closing, I`d like people to listen to this track with their eyes closed, and think about what you would say if you had the chance to have a conversation with the President… Then sit down and write a letter to your local Congressman. It couldn`t hurt…and maybe with enough voices, someone in Washington might actually listen.

The Streets - Stay Positive

Thanks to everyone who commented both publicly and privately about this deviation from the norm as far as mp3 blogs are concerned. In a few days, I will post a few links for those who missed the original uploads via either Megaupload or Rapidshare. If there is interest, perhaps in August I`ll do another mix CD project. Comments are welcome…