Imagine writing one song that makes you an absolute music legend. That’s the story of Question Mark (legal name “?”) and his band The Mysterians. The smash hit “96 Tears” was number one on the Billboard hits chart for exactly one week, but has been covered by everybody from Suicide to Primal Scream to Iggy Pop and The Stranglers. One of the band’s future singles reached as high as number 22 on the chart, but that was the last flirtation with success they would experience. “?” was a modern frontman living in an era that provided him an aura of great mystery. He claimed he was born on Mars, was never seen without a pair of wraparound sunglasses (Bono, anyone?), and spoke of a previous where he lived amongst dinosaurs. He also proclaimed that he would be performing “96 Tears” in the year 10,000. Fucking awesome.
The garage rock icons took their name from a Japanese sci-fi film, and played the kind of organ-heavy, searing guitar rock that is clearly visible in bands like the Velvet Underground. The band sited their three major influences as being “girls,” “science fiction” and “black”. I’d say the music finds a happy medium between the three. See for yourself. Luckily for you, Amazon.com has bundled the first two albums together in one happy package. Order yours today!
Question Mark And The Mysterians
1st And 2nd Albums
MediaFire Download 1
MediaFire Download 2
96 Tears:
01) I Need Somebody
02) Stormy Monday
03) You’re Telling Me Lies
04) Ten O’Clock
05) Set Aside
06) Up Side
07) “8” Teen
08) Don’t Tease Me
09) Don’t Break This Heart Of Mine
10) Why Me
11) Midnight Hour
12) 96 Tears
Action:
01) Girl (You Captivate Me)
02) Can’t Get Enough Of You, Baby
03) Got To
04) I’ll Be Back
05) Shout (Pt. 1 & 2)
06) Hangin’ On A String
07) Smokes
08) It’s Not Easy
09) Don’t Hold It Against Me
10) Just Like A Rose
11) Do You Feel It
12) Do Something To Me
13) Love Me Baby (Cherry July)
14) Midnight Hour
15) 96 Tears
From Wikipedia:
“The movie’s innovative electronic music score (credited as “Electronic tonalities” partly to avoid having to pay movie industry music guild fees) was composed by Louis and Bebe Barron. Their score is widely credited with being the first completely electronic film score, and helped open the door for electronic music in film. The synthesized sounds of “bleeps, blurps, whirs, whines, throbs, hums and screeches” that make up the sound track contained carefully developed themes and motifs, while supporting the general atmosphere of the various scenes. Using the equations presented in the 1948 book, “Cybernetics: Or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine” by mathematician Norbert Wiener, Louis Barron constructed the electronic circuits which he used to generate sounds. Most of the tonalities were generated using a circuit called a ring modulator. After recording the base sounds, Louis and Bebe Barron further manipulated the material by adding effects, such as reverb and delay, and reversing or changing the speed of certain sounds. The soundtrack for Forbidden Planet preceded the Moog synthesizer of 1964 by almost a decade.
The innovative soundtrack was released on a vinyl LP album by Louis & Bebe Barron for the film’s 20th Anniversary in 1976, on their own PLANET Records label (later changed to SMALL PLANET Records and distributed by GNP Crescendo Records) and, later, on a music CD in 1986 for its 30th Anniversary: with a six-page colour booklet containing images from Forbidden Planet plus liner notes from the composers, Louis & Bebe Barron, and Bill Malone. You can order the original soundtrack from Amazon.com.
Louis Barron & Bebe Barron
Forbidden Planet Soundtrack
MediaFire Download Link
Track Listing:
01) Main Titles (Overture)
02) Deceleration
03) Once Around Altair
04) The Landing
05) Flurry Of Dust – A Robot Approaches
06) A Shangri-La In The Desert / Garden With Cuddly Tiger
07) Graveyard – A Night With Two Moons
08) “Robby, Make Me A Gowns”
09) An Invisible Monster Approaches
10) Robby Arranges Flowers, Zaps Monkey
11) Love At The Swimming Hole
12) Morbius’ Study
13) Ancient Krell Music
14) The Mind Booster – Creation Of Matter
15) Krell Shuttle Ride And Power Station
16) Giant Footprints In The Sand
17) “Nothing Like This Claw Found In Nature!”
18) Robby, The Cook, And 60 Gallons Of Booze
19) Battle With The Invisible Monster
20) “Come Back To Earth With Me”
21) The Monster Purses – Morbius Is Overcome
22) The Homecoming
23) Overture (Reprise)
On Sunday, I shared with you the Swans first major label album, The Burning World. In describing the album, it was important to note that musically, it was a huge departure for the band. That’s because Swans were early pioneers of the post-industrial movement, and they are most well-known for their identifiable (and oh-my-lord-so-fucking-depressing) slow, brutal, ungodly sounds. The band (original lineup of bassist/vocalist Michael Gira, drummer Jonathan Kane, drummer Roli Mosimann, guitarist Norman Westberg) started as a guy who screamed and groaned like the victim of some horrible torture juxtaposed to overly-slow buzzing instruments and heavy drums, softened up a bit towards the end there, and concluded their existence with some boring Industrial albums. The one constant was, everything they recorded kind of makes you want to die!
Filth is the band’s first full-length (the eponymous release was an EP, right? I’m too lazy to look it up) isn’t as suicide-inducing as the live album Body To Body, Job To Job (where each song makes you want to kill yourself more than the last), but it’s still morbid as hell and horrifying. If you love guitar/bass feedback, painkiller-slow rhythms, and the sounds of a guy who may or may not be having his skin peeled off to that very same “music”, you’ll love Swans. If anything, seek out Young God so you can hear the epic “Raping A Slave.” Filth is long out-of-print, but used copies are available from Amazon.com.
Swans
Filth
MediaFire Download Link
Track Listing:
01) Stay Here
02) Big Strong Boss
03) Blackout
04) Power For Power
05) Freak
06) Right Wrong
07) Thank You
08) Weakling
09) Gang
