You better believe it, baby!

Finally!

Finally, I have some time to write.

Not a lot, though. My mom is here to visit the baby and someone changed my intellectual Parisian mother into an overbearing, close to smothering grandmother!

But most important: FINALLY I succeed in uploading some files.

I don’t know why but gigasize keeps on failing me. And I tried file2upload (since I saw Michelcharles was using it, I thought I’d give it a try… with no success.

So I went back to good old megaupload… which actually worked better than ever.

So enjoy everyone, The Mike is back. And, I hope, for a while.

 

In the meantime, I want to extend a huge THANK YOU to Michelcharles and Dan-the-man who provided great “temp” contributions.

Sorry both of you that I didn’t transform the whole thing into a post. I’ll try to do that as soon as possible – might be in another week though! (For all of you who didn’t go into the comments, you should because you will find great, quite unusual material… if the links aren’t dead!   ;p    )

 

I come back with a few random posts, things that were asked, things I wanted to post a while ago. Since then, I got great new acquisitions. So look out the next few weeks, I’ll try to post up to my reputation ;)

 

Last, in case you were wondering: I really enjoy having a kid and the past few weeks have been a total blast. I’ve always thought newborns to be a bore. You know: they don’t do much. But when it’s yours, you keep staring at him, lurking for a new expression you haven’t seen before and before you know it, a whole hour has past.

 

The Mike

Martha & the Vandellas – Heatwave

Second album of the series, things are getting “hotter” with this Heatwave! Less ballads, more rhythm&blues. Martha, her girls and the whole Motown crew are starting to find the recipe for perfect hits and Heatwave is definitely one of them!

 

The rest of the album is better than their first even if it’s still very tame: their version of My Boyfriend’s back or Then He Kissed Me are very shy. But Danke Shoen or Just One Look allow a preview of the greatness to come!

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CCQRH4B0

 

Enjoy!

 

The Mike

 

Martha & The Vandellas – Dance Party

Where things get gooooood!

Dancing in the Street, Wild One, Motoring, Hitch Hike and the greatest single ever: Nowhere to Run!

Why should I continue to ramble on?

You know what to do: get the good!

 

http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=J1CTMP47

 

 

Enjoy!

 

The Mike

Jocelyne

Requested by Lush (aka Sofie from http://www.dansmoncafe.blogspot.com/ ), Jocelyn is a little French prodigy. Prodigy because she started to sing very young and with such an impressive voice that people thought she would some day take over for Edith Piaf. Little because the songs she sang weren’t so good and despite her impressive voice, Edith Piaf never trembled because of Jocelyn who disappeared after a few years… I want to add thank god for that, given the “quality” (hum, hum) of the last songs she sang.

Why do I have it, you’re going to ask? Well, I was obsessed by anything remotely “yeye girls” and it was cheap. And I didn’t sell it because there are a few fun songs at the beginning of the collection. And, believe it or not, I am quite happy I didn’t do so, so now I can make one very fun bloggerress happy!

Enjoy, Lush!

And anybody curious enough to dig into this dark age of French pop!

 

 

Jocelyn CD 1

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6L8MFSK9

 

Jocelyn CD 2

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CKM48EEC

 

The Mike

 

Animals – Animalism

Having looking for this album some time myself, I am really happy to present it today and make it available on the blogsphere.

It’s a really great album. And although, it isn’t the remastered version released a couple of years ago by Hip-o Select, it’s a cool version with no less than 12 bonus tracks, which are mostly hits or covers of other people’s hits. So: plenty of good stuff.

Eric Burdon had an amazing voice and deserves the incredible reputation he still lives up to today, given the quality of the last album he released last year, which wasn’t incredible but definitely had its moments.

And as www.allmusic.com wrote it: had the Animals only recorded that Animalism album, their musical reputation would have been assured: none of the participants ever participated on, or would ever work on a better long player. Slight exaggeration, given I am a big fan of their earlier stuff. But you have to concede it is quite an impressive collection.

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TCRC0J9U

 

 

Enjoy!

 

The Mike

George Carlin – You Are All Diseased

A little dose of angry humor never hurts anyone! Especially if you are related to someone who died in the tragedy of 9/11! Security in airports is made fun of like never before, fear of germs, English language, it’s all there, the classic recipe of a good George Carlin album. It’s not as good as Back In Town (available here and strongly recommended) but it’s a good one. Especially with its ending, killing religion and existence of god.

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QX7AL6W9

 

Enjoy!

 

The Mike

Martha & the Vandellas – Watchout

I am really bad at Motown history but given the amazing sound of the even more amazing track I’m Ready for Love”, this album must have been recorded around the time Motown aquired a 3 tracks recording table. And I know I’m not a purist but I really love my Motown with a clear sound. Especially Martha’s voice sounds so much better.

 

This album doesn’t have as many hits as the previous one but there are enough good songs to get it, trust me: Jimmy Mack, Keep It Up, I’ll Follow You, No More Tearstained Make Up, it’s all good. Good classic vintage Motown: 3 Holland, Dozier & Holland, 2 Smokey Robinson, 1 Bristol & Fuqua, the whole team is here. Let the sunshine in: no sad face is allowed when Martha & the Vandellas are around!

 

http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=U582FX8J

 

Enjoy!

 

The Mike. 

Johan Asherton – God’s Clown

Another request: this one goes out to my pal Erick-T-Lubrick, from http://eternally-yours.blogspot.com/ (and with a name like that, given I am totally obsessed with that album right now, I had to give him a little surprise).

Sometimes ago, he posted another Johan Asherton. So I suggest posting that one, Johan Asherton’s first album, an interesting album, even though it isn’t exactly unforgettable.

I bought it when it was released, some 18 years ago, it was one of my first CDs and I bought it on the sole read of a really good review that quoted “Hunky Dory”, my favorite album of all time (at the time).

“God’s Clown” is nowhere near “Hunky Dory” but the title track is really good. Even 18 years later, it’s still worth listening to it. And the other 9 tracks are more than decent. I’m sorry if I don’t “sell” it better but it’s not exactly one album that I am passionate about. I will finish by telling you this, though: you’ll definitely listen to worse music this year! And that’s the best I can do – it’s late and I want to put all that on line! ;p

 

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NV642SQF

 

Enjoy!

 

The Mike