Presence Chamber - 1.

I recently released an album of instrumental tracks under the name 'Presence Chamber' on Bandcamp. It can be purchased in its entirety for £3 or £0.25 for individual tracks.

Presence Chamber - 1. on Bandcamp

Presence Chamber - 1. on YouTube

Ringo Stalin - Plain and Old

Plain and Old by Ringo Stalin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Dead Bodies On The Dancefloor (HFTD Remix) - Ringo Stalin; Home For The Def

Well, this was a pleasant surprise! I woke up this morning to an email from my old friend Home For The Def, who sent me his remix of my track 'Dead Bodies On The Dancefloor'. And it's absolutely brilliant. Enjoy!



Free mp3 download HERE.

You can find the album that 'Dead Bodies On The Dancefloor' originally appeared on HERE.


Dead Bodies On The Dancefloor (HFTD Remix) by Ringo Stalin & Home For The Def is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Ringo Stalin - Bone Town

It's finally complete. This album has been languishing on my hard drive in one form or other for the better part of ten years. Over that time, the songs have been written and rewritten, recorded and re-recorded, lost and found.

For your pleasure, please find below the download link for Ringo Stalin's 'Bone Town'.

All songs written and produced by Ringo Stalin unless noted otherwise.

Track 1
Dawn Of The Dead
co-produced by Steven Beckett

Track 2
Lifeguard In The Typing Pool
contains samples of: Seven Seas of Rhye - Queen, Blanche - Elf, The Incredible Hulk theme, Dancin' Homer Medley - Alf Clausen

Track 3
Necro-Feelin' It
additional vox - Home For The Def
co-produced by Steven Beckett

Track 4
Carapace Jazz

Track 5
Donde Esta Manana
co-produced by Steven Beckett

Track 6
All Hail Queen Persephone

Track 7
Bring Us Down (Army of Dreamers)
co-produced by Steven Beckett

Track 8
The Barrels of Bela Kiss
Live instruments arranged and produced by Horrahedd

Track 9
Shattered Bone

Track 10
Zkullz
written by Misfits
co-produced by Steven Beckett
contains sample of the Stoppit & Tidyup theme

Track 11
Dead Bodies On The Dancefloor

Track 12
Demented Forever
contains samples of Cecil B. Demented, dir. by John Waters, 2000

Track 13
They Moved The Moon
written by Warren Zevon

Track 14
Dead Bodies On The Dancefloor (Frankie Teardrop Remix)
remixed by Frankie Teardrop

Track 15
Dead Bodies On The Dancefloor (Rigor Mortis Remix)
remixed by The Pitchfork Council

Track 16
Dead Bodies On The Dancefloor (Sophie Ellis Bextor's Corpse Remix)
remixed by Stepharoo

Cover art by Seb Calabretto, no reproduction authorised without express permission.

DOWNLOAD .RAR FROM MEDIAFIRE


Bone Town by Ringo Stalin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Ringo Stalin - All Hail Queen Persephone

Ringo Stalin - All Hail Queen Persephone

Just a little tune I put together for my friends’ daughter’s 3rd birthday.

The Big Band - I Think Of Demons

The Big Band have released another song! This time, it's a cover of the legendary Roky Erickson's 'I Think Of Demons'. We're all very proud of it and we want you to hear it.

Download from Mediafire

(cover image by Irina Ionesco)

'Like' The Big Band on Facebook

It's Hallowe'en Time Again!

Ah, it's that time of year again, when bloggers across the globe go Hallowe'en crazy!

I'm a little disappointed, as this year may be the first year I won't be going to a Hallowe'en costume party. For the past 8 years or so, I've been going to an annual party, held at a notorious house just south of Adelaide in South Australia.

Here's my past 6 years' efforts, along with the originals for comparison:

But I've just moved to London, and have only really just found my feet here, as such, I don't have anything planned. I've got ideas in mind, but as we're only 7 days away from the Hallowe'en weekend, I'm not really sure if I'll be able to pull it off. If worse comes to worse, maybe I'll just spend the weekend wearing my costume around the flat.

Regardless, as per tradition, here is my annual Hallowe'en compilation!

This year, I've taken inspiration from the 1996 stinker 'Werewolf'... or if you're an MST3K fan like myself (see above), you may know it better as 'Wharwilf'.

1. In the House/In a Heartbeat (28 Days Later) - John Murphy
2. Howling At The Moon (Sha La La) - Ramones
3. Wolfsbane - Adam WarRock
4. King Knight - SALEM
5. Dead Billy - Big Black
6. Skinwalker - The Big Band
7. The Siege and Investiture of Baron Von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria - Blue Öyster Cult
8. Thunder & Lightning - Thin Lizzy
9. Darkness Be My Friend - Bruce Dickinson
10. Ghost Shark - Rocket From The Crypt
11. Bat's Mouth - Bat For Lashes
12. Tomorrow Wendy - Andy Prieboy
13. Your Ghost - Kristin Hersh & Michael Stipe
14. The First Five Minutes After Death - Coil
15. Take Me To Your Leader - The Lancers
16. I Ain't Nuthin' But A Gorehound (Live) - The Cramps
17. Weird Ones - The Graytones
18. Dead Man's Stroll - The Revels
19. Country Skin - Michael Stanton
20. Buried Me Alive - The Frogs
21. I Think Of Demons - Roky Erickson
22. Hotel Lament (The Beyond) - Fabio Frizzi
23. The Black Dog Runs At Night (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me) - Angelo Badalementi

(remember, support the artists and only buy from trusted vendors)

Download SKINDRIVING - A Hallowe'en Compilation From Ringo Stalin's Curios (rar - 130Mb - mediafire)

2010 Compilation - Something Bad Happened To A Clown
2009 Compilation - Meat For The Beast
2008 Compilation - One For The Freaks

The Big Band - I Understand And I Wish To Continue

The Big Band's album 'I Understand And I Wish To Continue' is now available to download for free via Bandcamp.

Note: only the first 10 tracks are available for download on the Bandcap site. The CD version has all 20 tracks and is available through asking any Big Band member... such as yours truly.

Download 'I Understand And I Wish To Continue' by The Big Band.

The Big Band - I Understand And I Wish To Continue - Grace Emily, 9 July 2011

Since September 1999, I've been a proud member of a band called The Big Band, with my friends Nigel, Spencer and Steev. This Saturday, we launch our newest album 'I Understand And I Wish To Continue' and we're playing a show to celebrate. This also marks our final live show in this line-up ever.

Here is a little taster of the album:

The Big Band - Team 3

The Big Band - Lean On Me I Won't Fall Over (Carter USM cover)

Home For The Def - Phat Phlex & Indisputable Proof That Life Sucks

I'm really excited about this.

Home For The Def has been a powerful force on the Adelaide music scene for over 15 years. The majority of his earlier output is on cassette; however, he tells me that he will eventually be making it available digitally.

In the interim, with help from Steev, I've ripped the albums 'Phat Phlex' and 'Indisputable Proof That Life Sucks' and, with HFTD's blessing, they are now available to you.

Lo-fi indie goth rock hip-hop beats for the discerning listener, ladies and gentlemen, Home For The Def:

Home For The Def - Indisputable Proof That Life Sucks.zip

1. Confusion Sets In
2. Mint Condition Target
3. Debbie's Thighs
4. I'm Blind
5. Johnny On The Beat (out looking for love)
6. Avril's A Waitress Now
7. Somewhere (Over The Rainbow)
8. Conversations About The Weather
9. Buff The Phone/Repercussionism
10. I'm A Do It Like This
11. Cease The Day
12. Jersey Lightning
13. Kick My Arse
14. Doubts
15. Rave On
16. The Girl With Elastica Hair
17. Obsessed With Ducks
18. I'm A Bird And You're A Cloud
19. Writing In Lightning
20. Oppenheimer
21. Last To Know
22. Feels Like I'm Winning (Feels Like I'm Raving Mix)
23. Everythings Not So Inside
24. You Sexy Thing (Sentridoh)
25. Alright
26. Baby, Baby
27. It's A Girl!

"Somewhere (over the rainbow)" originally by someone else, "You Sexy Thing" originally by Hot Chocolate, "Baby, Baby" originally by Ratcat.


Home For The Def - Phat Phlex.zip

1. New To This
2. The Hunter
3. Babs Has Icecream
4. The Bomb
5. I Have A Large Pianist
6. 64
7. White Chocolate
8. Mindful Of Cake
9. You're So Groovy
(99 Goth Millenium Mix)
10. Puttin' On The Ditz
11. I'm Coming Home
12. Loose Arse Plastic
13. 20 Something
14. Go Directly To Jail
15. Coppin' A Feel
16. Home For The Def Leopard
17. Activate!
18. 50 Different Ideas
19. Here We Go Yeah
20. I Want To Bereave

Heavy on the hip hop flavours, Phat Phlex will pound a hole from one ear drum to the other and then proceed to pace the path between, back and forth, back and forth.

It's Hallowe'en time!!!

(from left: 2005 - JD from Heathers, 2006 - Freddie Mercury, 2007 - Rorschach, 2008 - Jesse Custer, 2009 - Joel/Mike from MST3K. Also serves as a handy timeline for measuring my increasing face-girth)

Like a million other bloggers out there, I love Hallowe'en. But I don't have the wherewithal or motivation to do a daily countdown or anything like that. BUT, in the past, I have made compilations to celebrate Samhain: One For The Freaks (over at my old blog, Champignon for My Real Friends...) & Meat For The Beast.

And this year's no different!

Hallowe'en Entrée

Ah, Hallowe'en, one of my favourite times of the year in the blogosphere and IRL.

I'll be posting another of my annual Hallowe'en compilations, but until then, please enjoy this slice of delicious Eurotrash... if you can.




You may be pleased or disappointed to know that this track didn't make the final cut for this year's compilation... Maybe next year ;)

Love Letter to London - An Anglophilic Compilation

I've been writing this one in my head for a while now. After visiting London in February, I haven't been able to shake the feeling that it's where I belong, moreso than Adelaide in any case, where I've always felt slightly out of phase. And so my significant other and I made the decision a few months ago to pack up all our stuff and make the big move to Blighty.

While it won't be for some time before we move, in celebration of this, I decided to make a compilation dedicated to the city that we fell in love with.

It was difficult to whittle down the countless songs about London (and England in general), so I took a personal approach, collecting songs that I associate with our time there. I guess there's a certain level of naivety and romanticism in my choices, but that's something I'm willing to wear.

Definitely, one of my favourite places during our visit was Hampstead Heath, where we spent a beautiful overcast afternoon, and where I took these photos. I couldn't decide which photo to use for the cover, so I just did two covers.

The tracks, in no particular order, some with explanations for their inclusion, some not:

Matt Berry - Lay Your Love On Me. Matt Berry, the star of The IT Crowd, Snuff Box, Mighty Boosh, and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, has the honour of being the first genuine celebrity that we spotted in London (apart from a newsreader from Adelaide we spotted in Zara, which was weeeeeeiiiiiird). This track is from his album 'Opium', which I highly recommend.

Morrissey - Hairdresser on Fire. I could've chosen any number of Smiths/Morrissey songs, but: 'You are repressed, but you're remarkably dressed.' That seems to sum London up pretty well.

Roxy Music - Do The Strand.

Squeeze - Up The Junction.

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - From Willesden to Cricklewood. After we arrived back home in Australia, I found a version of this track on YouTube put to visuals of Joe and of London throughout the years, and I confess, the tears welled up and I think it was the moment that I knew that I needed to go back (although, I will admit, we didn't visit either Willesden or Cricklewood). I miss you, Joe.

Helena Bonham Carter - The Worst Pies In London. From the soundtrack to Tim Burton's 2007 'Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street'. I thought we had some good pies in Adelaide, but by god, they know how to make a pie in London!!! (and so do some certain French piemakers, but more about them in a future post). Note: I was going to use 'No Place Like London', but there was just far too much exposition of the plot

Janie Jones & The Lash - House of the Ju Ju Queen. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that The Lash are actually The Clash incognito on this paean to old school tie sexual repression and corruption. It also doesn't take a genius to work out that The Clash are one of my favourite bands.

Screaming Lord Sutch And The Savages - Jack The Ripper. We stayed in the East End, and I'm not a Ripperologist, by any means, but as we were walking through the streets, I was amazed at how many Jack The Ripper landmarks we'd suddenly stumble across: The Ten Bells, Christ Church (actually located right next to each other), etc. etc. There's definitely something humbling walking through streets with such a history, not just the Whitechapel Murders, but even further back in time, making the history of white settlement in Australia feel like yesterday.

The Social - Under Grey English Skies. This was a late inclusion, only having recently heard it. Thanks must go to my brother, for including it on one of his birthday compilations for me.

The Clash - This Is England. Oh, come on, you didn't see this coming from a mile away?

Luke Haines - Love Letter To London. The song that inspired this compilation. Again, like Morrissey, there were a lot of choices from Mr Haines, but this one gave me a title.

Ian Dury - My Old Man. My father was born in England, was fairly 'andsome, and smoked too many cigs. But he wasn't a bus driver.

Iron Maiden - Coming Home. From the album 'The Final Frontier', I could've chosen the 'Isle of Avalon', but I keep thinking about that moment of touching down in Heathrow.

The Pogues - A Rainy Night In Soho.

Bat For Lashes - A Forest. Bat For Lashes' cover of the Cure classic. It reminds me of the Heath.

Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights. I don't care if it's a touristy thing to do, I'm gonna go to the Moors and have a bit of a wuther.

Splodgenessabounds - Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps Please. I can't wait until I can say this with no trace of affectation.

Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - Lean On Me, I Won't Fall Over. This song was a constant earworm for me, every time I read or heard the words 'Hammersmith and City line'. I'm gonna have to get used to that.

Enjoy!

Download the zip here: Love Letter To London - An Anglophilic Compilation

The Big Band + Avant Gardeners + The Monies + Old Mate, 14 August, Metro Hotel

The band I'm in, The Big Band, are playing a rare live show, 14th August, at the Metro Hotel, with Avant Gardeners, The Monies and Old Mate.

It's shaping up to be a corker of a show, and if you're in Adelaide, it'll be great if you could pop on by!

You might've heard The Big Band's version of 'Ballad of Serenity', aka the theme from Firefly, but we've recently finished recording track, 'Little Girl Gone', a death waltz (my favourite kind of waltz).

We're quite proud of it, and we'd be mighty appreciative if you gave it a listen:

The Big Band - Little Girl Gone

While we're at it, have a listen to Avant Gardeners too:

Avant Gardeners - Really Good In Theory

Booya! Home For The Def Tribute Album

Coinciding with the release of 'The Complete Home For The Def and Other Stories', a collection of reviews, short fiction and essays by Stan Mahoney, available through Format Press HERE, I rediscovered this little gem, which had been sitting on my shelf since 2002.

I've been espousing the genius of HFTD for over a decade now, and I was honoured to be asked to supply a song to this tribute album. While the other artists on the album have covered HFTD songs, I mashed a bunch of them together, and to be honest, I'm a little embarrassed by my effort, as the final mixdown of the track is not as good as I would've liked it to be. Ah well, the quality of some of the other contributions more than makes up for it.

It's interesting that on a tribute album to a man with over 50 albums under his belt, there are double-ups on certain tracks...

DOWNLOAD THE FULL ALBUM (320Kbps) HERE


I hope that I'l be able to post some more HFTD albums here soon, I just need to figure out the best way to transfer cassettes onto my hard drive.

Ringo Stalin - 3 Instrumentals

I've been sitting on these 3 tracks for what feels like ages. Generally, I'll put together the music of a song, and try to write some lyrics around it, and if need be, re-edit the music so the song is somewhat cohesive.

I sat with these tracks on repeat, on the way to work, at home, for hours, for days, just trying to think of some lyrics for them. I never could.

But I never got tired of listening to the music itself, so I'm happy to finally share them, as instrumentals.

Ringo Stalin - Bayou Exclamation
Ringo Stalin - Carapace Jazz
Ringo Stalin - Shattered Bone

By the way, I sourced the accompanying cover image from the Scandy Factory Tumblr (NSFW), who had reblogged it from where it originally appeared at Monster Movie Music.

Shame Spiral - The Image

I've introduced you to Shame Spiral before.

I've remixed her fantastic track, The Image, taken from her debut EP.

Here are both tracks for your consideration.

Enjoy.

Shame Spiral - The Image

Shame Spiral - The Image (Voracious Appetite Remix)

Ringo Stalin - A Case of Passion Exceeding Skill

Please excuse my self-indulgence, once again. Here is an album I recorded over 1998 to 2001, and locally released in 2002.

It's mostly sound collages, but there's the occasional original composition, created with some pretty primitive software, and some improvised guitar and bass tracks, done with The Red Man.

The quality of the recordings is sub-par, due to my inexperience and ignorance, as well as the tracks being created through a range of different platforms.

Still, if it's some short-attention-span nonsense you're after, this should scratch your itch.

Ringo Stalin - A Case of Passion Exceeding Skill (album)

Bonus MP3s:

Ringo Stalin - hatesong

Ringo Stalin - Thomas & Martha (pt. 1)

Ringo Stalin - Shucks No/I Blame Society

Stan Ridgway

(photo from www.stanridgway.com)

Turnabout is fair play.

A couple of months ago, I posted an entry with a few tracks from Andy Prieboy, and I intended to follow it up promptly with a post featuring another former Wall of Voodoo frontman, Stan Ridgway.

So here it is, albeit somewhat later than intended.

There's something about Ridgway's voice that evokes the very essence of Americana, whether he's singing about burlesque houses ('Can't Stop The Show'), jaded couples ('Lost Weekend') or heavy machinery ('Pile Driver').

Ridgway is a king of narrative, and he joins the pantheon of great storytellers, alongside Tom Waits, Warren Zevon and Henry Wagons.

Official site

Stan Ridgway - Running With The Carnival
Stan Ridgway - The Big Heat
Stanard Ridgway & The Fowler Brothers - The Cannon Song (Kurt Weill)



The piano break in this song just kills me. So simple and so effective.

Italo Allsorts

(unfortunately, I can't recall where I originally sourced this image from, however, you could probably find it if you scoured thru the links on the left)

Last night, I was talking to a friend about giallo, italo, disco and arpeggios. I promised him I'd post some of my favourite tracks that loosely fit under the above categories.

Goblin - Jennifer's Friends (official site)

Claudio Simonetti - Demon [Live at Progwest Festival 2002] (official site - warning: annoying embedded sound fx on opening)

Stelvio Cipriani - Incubo (imdb)

Fabio Frizzi - The Last Zombie Remix (imdb)

Guido & Maurizio de Angelis - Yor's World (geocities page???)

Zombi - Challenger Deep (official site)

The Giallos Flame - House at the Edge of the Dark (last.fm)

Zed - Gom Jabbar (Mutant Sounds blog entry - get the whole album here)