Any Major Dude With Half A Heart

Oh, my week was made by the lovely responses I received to my lament about not getting enough comments. I really wasn”t angling for compliments, but those that came really built me up, buttercup. People reading my semi-coherent ramblings to their computer-illiterate aunts in Canada… Wow! So I”m deeply touched and very grateful for all the nice comments. Don”t be shy, shower me with comments. Comments are fuel for the blogger. But, as I admitted, I”m guilty of not always commenting myself, so this series is probably as much about assuaging my own feelings of Catholic guilt by giving props to bloggers whose work I appreciate as it is about promoting them. As always, if your blog has not been featured yet, it might do so in the future.

dustysevens
The name gives it away: another blog dedicated to the glories of crackling vinyl. A few weeks ago, when choosing songs for my contribution to the Vinyl Record Day blogswarm, I was torn between uploading the clinical CD rip of Je t”aime”¦moi non plus, or a vinyl rip I got from who knows where. I went for the CD rip, but the crackling of the latter recreated the memory of growing up with the song in ways the digital version couldn”t. ally of dustysevens has some pretty rare stuff, and some that”s fairly easy to find . Take Sad Sweet Dreamer by the Sweet Sensation. If you need to have the digital version, it”s HERE. But if you grew up with it, you might want to capture what I might call the Birkin Effect, where the crackle is part of the instrumentation and, indeed, atmosphere of the song. For that, visit dustysevens (and other vinyl blogs). And if you don”t really dig vinyl rips, you can still visit to sample ally”s lovely, slightly off-beat humour and some of the surprising illustrations she finds (hand shadow tips, anyone?). The song dedication to ally’s blog is a vinyl rip I made last night, from the apparently rare-on-the-Internet Save The Children soundtrack of a docu on the 1972 PUSH Expo concert in Chicago featuring the cream of African-American musicians, including Sammy Davis Jr singing one of my all-time favourites.
Sammy Davis Jr – I Gotta Be Free (live) (vinyl rip).mp3

All Eyes And Ears
This is a blog I discovered after its owner commented to my No-Comments lament. What made me check out All Eyes And Ears was Dane”s remark that she was thinking of chucking the blog biz because of low hit and feedback rates. So I wanted to see if she should do so. Oh, but she shouldn”t. There are, of course, a lot of photography blogs about, and quite a few that combine photos and music, as Dane”s does. The excellent Art For Art”s Sake springs to mind. What I really like about All Eyes And Ears is the subject matter of photos: apparently unremarkable landmarks in humdrum Ohio brought to life with a keen eye for atmosphere, structure and symmetry. Who knew that a washed-out sign on a filthy wall next to a horribly dull building could be so beautiful? Dane’s art has style. And the songs she selects to illustrate her illustrations are so well-judged: Monkees, Brigitte Bardot, Glen Campbell, Carly Simon, Chuck Berry and so on. But hurry, it”s all on YouSendIt. I am still looking for a good pic of a financial institution located at a riverside in Dane”s homestate”¦ (thangyooverymuchfolks, I’ll be here all week)
Olivia Newton-John – The Banks Of The Ohio.mp3

Bob Evans Recording Album #3 in Nashville
I”m a great fan of Bob Evans” second album, Suburban Songbook, which I picked up at a gig he played in Cape Town (supporting the excellent Farryl Purkiss) last year. So I am very much looking forward to the Australian singer-songwriter”s third album, which he is currently recording in Nashville, where he also made Suburban Songbook. My anticipation is tickled further by his blogiary (is that a word for a blog-diary? Hey, in the cyberworld you can make up your own words), his account of how the recordings are going, where he gets drunk and who paid for supper. Even if that sounds a bit mundane, it”s not boring, because our man Kevin ““ for his Mom does not call him Bob ““ is quite an amusing chap, in a self-deprecating manner. I think it”s great to read about the process of recording an album from the first-person perspective of a normal musician, rather than the tales of excess involving groupies, drugs and debauchery. Not that Mr Mitchell ““ for his parents are not Mr and Mrs Evans either ““ would necessarily object to those elements of stardom. Bob/Kevin doesn’t read my blog, I don’t think, so I shall dedicate one of his own songs to him.
Bob Evans – The Great Unknown.mp3

Retro Kino
Do you remember the “80s film The Legend Of Billie Jean? Oh yeah, now that I mention it, you do. Helen wotserface was in it, right? We all thought she’d be a big star. Yeah. OK, Summer School? No? Mark Harmon teaches a bunch of proto-slackers in a summer camp? Ring a bell? Did you fancy Kirsty McNichol or Tatum O”Neal (or, indeed, Matt Dillon) in Little Darlings? Nah, I preferred Kirsty ““ though she probably wouldn”t prefer me (alleged and rumoured lesbians are funny that way. Anyway, probably for the better we didn”t get married). Andrew McCarthy. Whatever happened to him? I quite liked him, y”know, but I reckon Weekend At Bernies II killed his career flat. He was in Weekend At Bernies II, wasn”t he? Ah yes, if you were young in the “80s, then Retro Kino is going to bring back memories, some good and some perhaps unwelcome. A fairly new blog ““ just two months old ““ it provides well-written and informed comments on the almost forgotten piece of “80s cinema, plus posters and some video clips. A splendid trip to some kind of wond

erful nostalgia destinations. The dedication is from a film which surely will feature on Retro Kino at some point.
David Foster – Love Theme From St. Elmo’s Fire.mp3

Retro Music Snob
Retro Music Snob surfs the blogs so you don”t have to. The blog”s deal is to highlight posts of interest from other blogs, with a summary of said post. For the reader it is, of course, a great way of discovering new blogs, and for the blogger it”s a useful exercise seeing at a glance what other bloggers are up to. Earlier I said that comments are fuel for bloggers. Spare a thought then for RMS whose gig is quite unlikely to involve a fusillade of reaction. As a regular visitor and one who really appreciates this wonderful and well presented service, I hope to say “thank you” with this tenuously-linked song dedication:
Wings – Listen To What The Man Said.mp3

Previously featured:
Music For Bloggers Vol. 1: Totally Fuzzy, Not Rock On, Serenity Now (RIP), Stay At Home Indie Pop, The Late Greats, Tsururadio, 200percent, Jefitoblog (RIP), Television Without Pity, Michael’s World
Music For Bloggers Vol. 2: Fullundie, Mr Agreeable, Greatest Films, Peanut’s Playground, Just Good Tunes, Csíkszereda Musings, Mulberry Panda, The Black Hole, Secret Love, Hot Chicks With Douchebags
Music For Bloggers Vol. 3: Girl On A Train, Maybe We Ain’t That Young Anymore, Earbleedingcountry, Spangly Princess, Ill Folks, Deacon Blues, One-Man Publisher, CD Rated
Music For Bloggers Vol. 4: Pop Dose, Todger Talk, Holy Goof (RIP), Echoes In The Wind, Sunset Over Slawit, The Hits Just Keep Coming, The Ghost of Electricity, Guitariotabs
Music For Bloggers Vol. 5: The Quietus, Barely Awake In Frog Pyamas, The Great Vinyl Meltdown, Fusion 45, Inveresk Street Ingrate, The Songs That People Sing
Music For Bloggers Vol. 6: my hmphs, Visions of Wrong Terrence, Don’t Burn The Day Away, Mine For Life, 3 Minutes 49 Seconds
Music For Bloggers Vol. 7: Uncle E’s Musical Nightmare, Jens Lekman, Ain’t Superstitious, AM Then FM, Psd Photoshop Disasters, SIBlingshot on the Bleachers, Dr Forrest’s Cheese Factory, NME & Melody Maker