Veruca Salt - The 10 Best B-Sides

I didn't know much about Veruca Salt until the band had already been through some major changes. The first Veruca Salt album I heard was Resolver, which was the first album after co-front woman Nina Gordon left to pursue a solo career. I loved that album. In fact, I still do. And shortly after I got Resolver I worked my way back through Veruca Salt's other releases. I liked them all. Eight Arms To Hold You was a particularly good album. American Thighs had some good songs, but I wasn't as fond of that album. But I really enjoyed the Blow It Out Your Ass EP. I remember reading some fan reactions to Nina Gordon leaving, saying that the band was not as good without her. But honestly, I'm glad she left. When I listen to the first two albums and the EP, the songs I like the most are Louise Post's songs. I also think Louise has the better voice of the two. And Resolver remains my favorite Veruca Salt album. But this post is not about the 10 best Veruca Salt album tracks. This is about the 10 best Veruca Salt b-sides. A while back, on a visit to Veruca Salt's website to look for information on one of their upcoming albums, I discovered a wonderful thing that made my fucking day; almost every b-side, some demos, and other non-album tracks were available for download, completely free. That was such a nice little surprise. And in fact, they are still available on their site, so after you done reading this you should head on over there and download all kinds of great shit. But if you're only looking for the 10 best, look no further. Of course, if you are more of a Nina Gordon fan, you may not agree with my list, as there are only two of her songs here, "One More Page Of Insincerity" and "Sleeper Car." The rest are all Louise Post songs, with the exception of an interesting and excellent cover of "My Sharona" and another great cover of Depeche Mode's "Somebody" which is sung by Louise. My personal favorites in this collection are "Fragile," which was a demo recorded for Resolver and "Good Disaster." But honestly, all of these songs are excellent.

All Mine
Break Up Song
Fragile
Good Disaster
My Sharona
Never Met Her
One More Page Of Insincerity
Pale Green
Sleeper Car
Somebody

Download

If you like these songs, be sure to purchase Veruca Salt's albums. I recommend starting with Resolver and/or Eight Arms To Hold You.

The 15 Best Songs from The Simpsons!

I've decided to take a quick break from "serious" music and focus on the music from my favorite television series, The Simpsons. I love The Simpsons. The Simpsons have been a part of my life for nearly my entire life. I can remember watching the Tracy Ulman Show as a kid, waiting for the Simpsons shorts. I was just 5 years old then. Now I'm 26 and I've been watching The Simpsons ever since. I've watched seasons 1 - 10 (the seasons currently available on dvd) over and over again. I've watched them with and without commentary, watched the deleted scenes, and any other special feature available. So it hit me, while watching the show, that I should devote one entry on my music blog to the show's best musical numbers. These are the songs that I love to sing along to when I'm watching The Simpsons. I took my soundtracks and narrowed them down to 15 songs. Normally I choose ten, but the songs are, for the most part, fairly short. My personal favorites include "Bagged Me A Homer" sung by Beverly D'Angelo as Lurleen Lumpkin, "We Put The Spring In Springfield" sung by Simpson's regular voice actor, Tress MacNeille as Belle, a burlesque house manager. Also, "Who Needs The Kwik-E-Mart" sung by Hank Azaria as Apu, made my list. There are just so many memorable songs from the show, I couldn't include them all. But, here are the 15 best Simpsons songs. Enjoy!

"Who Needs The Kwik-E-Mart?"
"We Put The Spring In Springfield"
"Cut Every Corner"
"Oh, Streetcar!"
"The City Of New York Vs. Homer Simpson (Medley)"
"Trash of the Titans (Medley)" aka "The Garbage Man Can"
"Two Dozen and One Greyhounds (Medley)" aka "See My Vest"
"America (I Love This Country)"
"Flaming Moe's"
"A Star Is Torn (Medley)"
"The Monorail Song"
"Bagged Me A Homer"
"It Was A Very Good Beer"
"Union Strike Folk Song (parts 1 and 2)"
"Talkin' Softball"

Download

If you enjoy the music of The Simpsons, you should check out their albums and soundtracks:

Tori Amos - B-Sides, Vol. 5

The final collection of Tori Amos b-sides (so far) that I made was the most challenging. It covers the Strange Little Girls, Scarlet's Walk, Tales of a Librarian, and The Beekeeper eras. This was when singles really started to become a thing of the past, and thusly, b-sides are becoming a thing of the past as well. Though I thought Tori did a wonderful thing with packaging a a disc of unreleased Scarlet's Walk songs to go along with her live DVD, Welcome To Sunny Florida. Hopefully she'll continue to find ways to release her b-sides, even if that's through digital downloads only. And since I brought up the b-sides that were packaged with her live DVD, I just wanted to say that for the purpose of this blog, those songs are not included in this post. Why? Because that DVD, and it's included EP, is readily availably for purchase. However, I have replaced the studio versions of those songs with live recordings, with the exception of "Indian Summer." Since I couldn't find a good live recording I did include the studio version. The live recordings mostly come from Tori's recent official bootlegs, the Legs and Boots series, which are no longer available for purchase. Because the songs span 4 different album releases, This collection does suffer from a lack of a cohesive feel. The Strange Little Girls era b-sides stick out like a sore thumb. Despite the lack of cohesion among the songs on this collection, there's some good stuff here. Such as the internet-only download of "Mountain" from Scarlet's Web, which has yet to see a release on a CD. Also, the beautiful "Garlands" which was the DVD-only bonus track on the special edition of The Beekeeper.

Turning Ruby
1. Angels
2. Bug A Martini
3. Not David Bowie
4. After All
5. Ruby Through The Looking Glass
6. Dolphin Song
7. Mountain
8. Seaside
9. Indian Summer
10. Snow Cherries From France
11. Tombigbee
12. Operation Peter Pan
13. Apollo's Frock
14. Only Women Bleed
15. Ode To My Clothes
16. Garlands

Download

While this is the last of the Tori b-side collections I have made, there are still a few remaining Tori rarities (b-sides, live, alternate mixex, and soundtrack songs) that I failed to include for various reasons. I'll be posting those in an upcoming entry soon.

Remember to buy Tori's official releases if you enjoy this collection of b-sides.

Tori Amos - B-Sides, Vol. 4

1998 was the year that I really started to get into Tori's music. I had heard some of her stuff before, most of Little Earthquakes and parts of Under The Pink. But when I heard that her 4th album, From The Choirgirl Hotel, was coming out I decided to buy it. It was the most amazing music I had ever heard. And that was where my Tori obsession began. So I was pretty excited to make this collection of b-sides. However, when I started assembling the songs I started to realize that this era had the fewest b-sides thus far. In terms of actual b-sides from singles, there were only 7 songs. Of course there were a few other songs from soundtracks and compilations, such as the amazing "Siren" from the Great Expectations soundtrack and the equally wonderful "Merman" which was released on the No Boundaries: A Benefit For The Kosovar Refugees compilation. I even decided to include the "Finn" intro and the "Paradiso Perduto" from the Great Expectations Score, which are basically instrumental songs with Tori vocalizing over them in a few places. So I had 10 songs and an intro. Knowing I would have the same problem from there on, I merged the Choirgirl and Venus eras, since there were even fewer b-sides from that era, into one album. That brought in the epic "Zero Point" which had only recently been released on A Piano, "Carnival" from the Mission: Impossible 2 soundtrack and the as of yet, unofficially released song "Me And You" which was used in a documentary film in 1999 called Hand Of Fate. So 13 songs, plus an intro, for a total of 14 tracks. And the songs from both eras blend together fairly well.

Songs For Sirens
1. Finn (intro)
2. Siren
3. Carnival
4. Zero Point
5. Do It Again
6. Bachelorette
7. Never Seen Blue
8. Cooling
9. Purple People
10. Me And You
11. Paradiso Perduto
12. Merman
13. Beulah Land
14. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Download

If you like these Tori Amos b-sides, be sure to buy her official releases:





S

What the hell ever happened to... Jennifer Knapp?

About a week ago it occured to me that I had no idea what Jennifer Knapp was up to musically these days. A lot of people give me a strange look when I tell them that I like Jennifer Knapp, who happens to be/have been a contemporary christian musician. Even I think it's kinda weird. I don't like CCM music. It's so horrible and generic sounding. Praise this, praise that, throw my hands up, blah, blah, heaven/jesus, blah. Honestly, I didn't know Jennifer was a christian musician when I bought her album, Kansas. It was just sitting there all innocently among the used rock/pop cds. I thought, "it's a chick with a guitar... I like a lot of other chicks with guitars." It wasn't until listening to it later that I began to notice this theme among the songs. References to jesus and praying and such... then it hit me; I was tricked into buying a christian music album. I felt so dirty. But I found out that I really enjoyed her music, despite the religious theme. In fact, in a weird way, that's probably what really hooked me on Jennifer's music. The most important thing to me when listening to a musician is the passion that comes through in their songwriting. And it seemed very clear to me that Jennifer exhibited a lot of passion through her songs. Emotionally, they're very effective. I get chills at certain points in her songs because I can feel what she's saying. So yes, I really enjoyed Kansas. So much so that I did something I never had done before... I intentionally bought a christian music album. I bought her second and third albums, Lay It Down and The Way I Am. Both of which are also very good albums with the same emotional intensity. Her last proper album, The Way I Am, was released in 2001. In 2003 her label put together a fan selection "Best of" album that also included a disc of demos and various songs for compilations. In 2005 there was a live album recorded from concerts that were about five years old. And fairly recently they rereleased Kansas with more live tracks and such. But as for an actual album of new material, it's been about seven years. So where the hell has she been? No one seems to know. What is known is that she left her label, contract unfulfilled. Which explains the Best of, live, and repackaged albums. She has apparently left the music business behind only saying that she has left the future of her recording career up to God. And cue the rumor mill. From what I have gathered, the most prevalent rumor is that Jennifer is a lesbian and living in a foreign country with her lover, which is why she left her music career. I so hope that's true. Is that bad of me? For the longest time I hoped that Jennifer would stop making christian themed music and just make music. Hopefully she'll return to music one day and do just that. It's kinda sad to think that we'll only ever have three albums from this talented musician.

Usually when I write one of these "What the hell" entries, I have something more recent that the artist has been working on to share. Unfortunately, that's not the case here. So I decided to just choose my ten favorite songs from Jennifer's albums. So enjoy!

"Martyrs and Thieves" from Kansas
"Romans" from Kansas
"Refine Me" from Kansas
"Hold Me Now" from Kansas
"A Little More" (strings up version) from Lay It Down
"Into You" from Lay It Down
"You Answer Me" from Lay It Down
"Breathe On Me" from The Way I Am
"The Way I Am" from The Way I Am
"Say Won't You Say" from The Way I Am

Download

And if you like what you hear, purchase Jennifer's albums:

Tori Amos - B-Sides Vol. 3

When I set out to make the third collection of Tori Amos b-sides (which I titled Golden Hordes and the Lord) from the Boys For Pele era I didn't feel like I had a lot of great songs to work with. That era of b-sides had always been my least favorite. With such an amazing and heavy album we were given b-sides like "This Old Man" and "That's What I Like Mick (The Sandwich Song)." Even the non "silly songs" b-sides didn't seem to shine among the amazing b-sides from the other albums. But over the course of listening repeatedly to the songs to try and figure out a good track ordering, this particular collection of b-sides became my favorite. Not so much the individual songs themselves, but the entire set. And luckily, with the inclusion of two new songs from that era, released for the first time on A Piano, and the inclusion of a few unreleased songs recorded live from radio broadcasts, this era of b-sides really shaped up. A Piano gave us "The Fire-Eaters Wife," which was an alternate intro song to "Horses." It also gave us the wonderful "Walk To Dublin (Sucker Reprise)" which is the most Pele sounding song for it's use of the harpsichord. From radio broadcasts I've included two unreleased original songs, "Abbey Road" and "Om La Boombleigh," as well as a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide." All in all, it turned out pretty good. While a few of the songs still give me that "WTF, Tori?" feeling, most of them really grew on me. "Walk To Dublin" is fantastic. "Sister Named Desire" and "Toodles Mr. Jim" became some of my favorite songs on the collection as well. And it's hard to fathom why "Abbey Road" has not been officially recorded and released, even as a b-side yet.

1. The Fire-Eater's Wife
2. Abbey Road
3. Walk To Dublin (Sucker Reprise)
4. Om La Boombleigh
5. Blue Skies (with BT)
6. Hungarian Wedding Song
7. Sister Named Desire
8. Landslide
9. Samurai
10. I'm On Fire
11. This Old Man
12. Alamo
13. London Girls
14. Toodles Mr. Jim
15. Graveyard
16. That's What I Like Mick (The Sandwich Song)
17. Frog On My Toe
18. Amazing Grace/Til The Chicken

Download

If you like Tori's music, buy her albums.

Natalie Imbruglia - FAR Left of the Middle

A few weeks ago I changed the CDs in my car's CD changer. Yesterday it played Natalie Imbruglia's album, White Lilies Island. I hadn't listened to the album in quite some time. I forgot how much I liked it. So I thought I'd post some Natalie Imbruglia b-sides. To be more specific, I'm posting b-sides from around the time of her first record, Left of the Middle. And I've cleverly dubbed this collection Far Left of the Middle. See how clever I am?

I've been enjoying Natalie's music since her super duper hit "Torn" was played to death on the radio, MTV and such. I remember watching a special on some music channel about one hit wonders and she was on it. I was a bit miffed about that. First of all, she had only released one album at the time, so it was a bit early to label her as a one hit wonder. Also, her single "Wishing I Was There" was #14 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. And her other singles, "Big Mistake" and "Smoke," were bigger hits in the UK. And while she hasn't had nearly as much success in the US, she did have a #1 album in the UK with her third album, Counting Down The Days, which was not released in the US. It also spawned her first UK #1 single, "Shiver," on the UK Airplay chart. One hit wonder, my ass.

Sometimes
Frightened Child
Contradictions
Divind In The Deep End
Something Better
Tomorrow Morning
I've Been Watching You
Why
Identify
Troubled By The Way We Came Together
Never Tear Us Apart (w/ Tom Jones)

Download

If you enjoy Natalie's music, please purchase her albums. I personally recommend White Lilies Island.

Tori Amos - B-Sides: Vol. 2

Tori Amos released her second album, Under The Pink, in January 1994. As with the previous album, Tori recorded several songs that were not included on the album which would later become b-sides. She also contributed two songs to the Higher Learning soundtrack, "Butterfly" and a cover of REM's "Losing My Religion." In 2006 when Tori released her career retrospective boxset, A Piano, two more Under The Pink era songs were released for the first time, "Peeping Tommi" and "Take Me With You." According to the liner notes, "Take Me With You" was an unfinished song that Tori recorded the music for in 1990. She originally intended to finish it for Under The Pink, but couldn't. It wasn't until 2006 that Tori was able to finish the song. The finished version uses the music recorded in 1990 with Tori singing, 16 years later, recorded over it. Once again, this era of b-sides has a lot of great songs. "Honey," a fan favorite, was dropped from Under The Pink at the last minute, a decision which Tori regrets to this day. My personal favorites in this set are "Sister Janet" and "Butterfly." In fact, I prefer several of the b-sides to many of the songs that appear on Under The Pink. On the other hand, there are a few duds, particularly her cover of the Jimi Hendrix song "If 6 Was 9" and her dreary take on REM's "Losing My Religion."

1. Sister Janet
2. Famous Blue Raincoat
3. All The Girls Hate Her
4. Black Swan
5. Honey
6. Losing My Religion
7. Over It
8. Take Me With You
9. Butterfly
10. Strange Fruit
11. If 6 Was 9
12. Daisy Dead Petals
13. Home On The Range - Cherokee Edition
14. Peeping Tommi
15. A Case Of You

Download

Buy Tori's albums!

Garrison Starr - Stupid Girl EP

Before Garrison Starr was signed to Geffen Records she recorded and released 1 album, Pinwheels, on cassette only, and 1 EP, Stupid Girl. Both are long out of print. While Pinwheels is rather impossible to find, Stupid Girl is a little easier to get a hold of. I got my copy fairly cheap, but I'm still keeping an eye out for a copy of Pinwheels. I asked Garrison after a performance once about whether or not she plans on rereleasing either works. She said she was working on it, but who knows? Stupid Girl is a 7-song EP, released in 1995. While I definitely prefer Garrison's more recent work, this a good collection of songs. You can really see how she's matured as a songwriter and as a singer over the years. Her voice, while recognizable, has changed. It's almost as though she is singing with a more natural voice now as compared to on Stupid Girl. I didn't realize until I got this EP that her collaboration with Neilson Hubbard dated this far back, as he co-wrote one song, "Molly," and performed on the EP. "Molly" is the only song to appear on any of Garrison's later releases and is one of my favorites from Stupid Girl. Overall, the EP is a bit of a downer emotionally. Supposedly, the songs on the EP are about her college experiences at the University of Mississippi. All in all, Stupid Girl serves as a nice precursor to the gifted musician that Garrison grew into. It's a good release as it is, but it's nowhere near the level that Garrison is at now.

1. Rebel
2. Stupid Girl
3. Molly
4. Wooden Instrument
5. Pattycake
6. Pauper
7. Voices

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If you enjoy Stupid Girl then you should check out Garrison's other releases.

The Vault: Naked Barbies (Vagabond Lovers) - When I Was You

As a poor college student, I would often go to the the local Dollar Tree to pick up random items for cheap. From time to time you find something really good, a bonafide "Dollar Store Find." On one such excursion, I found a copy of an album from a group I had never heard of called Vagabond Lovers. I was mystified by the fact that there were even CDs for sale at the Dollar Tree. Curious, I bought it. Hell, it was just a dollar. Sure, the name of the band was stupid. But I decided to give it a shot. Wow. Talk about a dollar well spent. I was very impressed with the songwriting and Patty Spiglanin's voice. So much so that I used the handy dandy internet to find out more about the band. As it turned out, Vagabond Lovers had been around for a while, but not under that name. They were originally known as Naked Barbie Dolls. Under that name, they released one album on cassette only, called Bird Bath in 1993. Their name was changed to Naked Barbies in 1994 with the release of their second album, Dancing With Vacuums. They released two more albums in 1996 (Tarnished) and 1998 (Living Independently). Then in 2000, after they signed with a different independent label, they were urged to change their name to avoid potential lawsuits from Mattel. That was when they became Vagabond Lovers. They soon returned to the name Naked Barbies, thankfully, and released their latest album in 2007, Stay Naked. So there's the brief history of the band. I enjoyed When I Was You so much that I sought out other releases by the Naked Barbies. I've found them to be equally impressive. But I often forget about my Vagabond Lovers album. Partly because it's way at the end of the alphabet in my alphabetized CD collection. I've considered grouping it with my other Naked Barbies CDs, but it's hard to break my anal retentiveness when it comes to my CDs.

Here are a few songs from When I Was You.

For Sale Sign
Kitchen
Division Street

If you like what you hear, buy more albums from the Naked Barbies.