Fantastic Voyage with Superman in a Buggy - 10 minute music mix and video

This is a short little music mix and video I made. Enjoy!

Fantastic Voyage with Superman in a Buggy from Noble Long on Vimeo.

OIL DIGGER:: Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mine

Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mine

Maybe not the first, but a powerhouse in the ecological music movement was Midnight Oil. The 80's / 90's was a different time for artists. It wasn't easy to make it as a successful artist to the mainstream expounding political agenda, in the 90's that would change and thanks in part to bands like Midnight Oil. The Australian quintet did not give a fuck.. Their mission was to try to preserve the Australian the wildlife through threats of the big guys - oil companies, mining companies, and neo-governmental aboriginal settlement agencies.

Midnight Oil started playing with that in mind and more. Their biggest hit - "Beds are Burning" literally played out the plight of Aboriginal Australians. With justice against them, they have literally overtaken with fire from the aggressors, the backward thinking policies. Blue Sky Mine is off their second album, also titled Blue Sky Mine. It is one of my favorites.

EFFING FANTASTIC :: Ef - Sons of Ghosts

Ef - Sons of Ghosts

Ef is an amazing band from Sweden. Sons of Ghost pretty much proves my point. While mostly instrumental, this song has the perfect lyrics at the perfect time ... then the driving horns. Oh the horns, how they blow. Music is life my friends, stay thirsty.

EFFIN HELL :: EF - Tomorrow My Friend....

EF - Tomorrow My Friend....

I was grateful enough to catch this one on Atlanta GA Tech college radio tonight. This is definitely one of the most epic songs I've heard in a while. Smoke a J or whatever you need to do, put on your headphones, turn down the lights and press play. Tomorrow My Friend is the opposite of a pop song, it's music made for emotion. Enjoy!



Noble

BALKAN POWER :: Smallman - Two Rivers

Smallman - Two Rivers

I was hanging out at the local watering hole last night and ended up meeting this Bulgarian, Ivan, who was in town on business. The topic quickly turned to music and he shared this band - Smallman, with me. Later on, once I got home and was able to properly hear the music - it really resonated with me. The core of their music is mixing the Bulgarian bagpipe into aggressive, slow and deep-sounding guitar and bass lines. Check out more on their Bandcamp page.



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ROCK WITH YOUR BLOC OUT :: Bloc Party- Better Than Heaven

Bloc Party- Better Than Heaven

Definitely my favorite tune off Bloc Party's third album Intimacy .... Better Than Heaven is the perfect platform to show off singer Kele Okereke's vocal talents. The song begins immediately with verse over bass notes and continues until halfway through, the bass notes give way to a guitar driven climax. With lyrics like "You get sadder, the smarter you get - and it's a bore", Kele is telling us that as we lose our innocence - we can become more jaded. But that's ok because "If this world does not turn you on ... well I've got enough for the both of us". Stop thinking, start feeling ... it's only sin, original sin.



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SACRAMENT :: The Church - Starfish (Full Album)

The Church - Starfish

I recently posted about the sounds of my high school years. That list would not be complete without mentioning this album, The Church - Starfish. Voted by me as one of the sexiest albums of all time. If you can't get laid to this, then you might as well give up all your possessions and become a eunuch.

The Church moved to L.A. to record this album and they hated L.A. Why? Because it wasn't Sydney.  They went to get the polished production sounds that came about from working with Robert "Waddy" Wachtel and Greg Ladanyi. Lead singer Steve Kilbey said:

"The Church came to L.A. and really reacted against the place because none of us liked it. I hated where I was living. I hated driving this horrible little red car around on the wrong side of the road. I hate that there's no one walking on the streets and I missed my home. All the billboards, conversations I'd overhear, TV shows, everything that was happening to us was going into the music".

That unease translated well into their album and Starfish became a breakthrough album. 20+ years later, it still sounds golden.



Tracks:
"Destination" (00:00)
"Under the Milky Way" (5:53)
"Blood Money" (10:51)
"Lost" (15:16)
"North, South, East And West" (20:06)
"Spark" (24:56)
"Antenna"(28:41)
"Reptile" (32:31)
"A New Season"(37:39)
"Hotel Womb" (40:26)
"Texas Moon" (46:09)
"Perfect Child" (51:54)
"We both know why you are here"(54:48)
"Frozen And Distant"(57:09)
"Anna Miranda" (1:01:08)
"Nose Dive"(1:04:12)
"Afterlife"(1:07:39)
"Under the Milky Way" (acoustic)(1:11:50)
"Antenna" (acoustic)(1:15:59)
"Spark" (acoustic)(1:19:46)
"Warm Spell"(1:23:14)
"Musk"(1:27:50)

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SUMMER OF '90

Summer of '90 - 3 Falls

Recently on an unusually warm day, I took a drive to some of my old hangout spot from my "salad years" while listening to retro music and waxing nostalgiac. The pic taken above was a particularly memorable spot called "Three Falls", now closed off as you can see. The spot consisted of three waterfalls, the uppermost draining into a very small pool which you could jump into if you did it just right. I t could not have been more than 10' by 10' and 15' deep ... so it was pretty tricky. We would camp and drink and hang out by the fire, usually listening to something like this:



The Charlatans U.K. have such a unique sound, even to this day. It is definitely the organ. We would crank the entire 'Some Friendly' album. If it wasn't that, it was:



Yes, the original punk hipsters.

Often, I long for those nostalgic days ... mainly, I miss my friends. While they are still around, we don't share the same connection. Maybe I should plan a nostalgic day where we get together, cruise around, listen to old music and drink some beers. Of course, the difference being a sober driver this time because life is different now. Who's down?

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NEW BEGINNINGS :: The Sundays - Goodbye

Goodbye is one of my favorite songs from my favorite female lead alt rock band from the 90's - The Sundays. Singer Harriet Wheeler's voice is pure magic on this track, especially starting at 2:36 when she introduces beautifully layered vocals. It's one reason, she has been in my fantasies long since before I saw her picture. Unfortunately for me, Harriet is married to longtime band mate and guitarist David Gavurin.

Goodbye is from their second of only three albums they produced - Blind.

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Coldplay - Parachutes FULL ALBUM HQ

Long before they were a household name, a little band named Coldplay released their first album - Parachutes in 2000. Two tracks, "Yellow" and "Shiver" got major airplay on college radio stations in the U.S. and U.K. What made the band a success was the simplicity of the songs and the quality of the voice by lead singer Chris Martin.

Track Listing:

1. "Don't Panic" - 0:00
2. "Shiver" - 2:17
3. "Spies" - 7:17
4. "Sparks" - 12:35
5. "Yellow" - 16:22
6. "Trouble" - 20:51
7. "Parachutes" - 25:22
8. "High Speed" - 26:09
9. "We Never Change" - 30:23
10. "Everything's Not Lost" - 34:32

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Ride - Nowhere + Today Forever EP (Full Album)

1. Seagull 0:00
2. Kaleidoscope 6:10
3. In a Different Place 9:12
4. Polar Bear 14:42
5. Dreams Burn Down 19:28
6. Decay 25:33
7. Paralysed 29:09
8. Vapour Trail 34:44
9. Taste 39:03
10. Here and Now 42:21
11. Nowhere 46:49
12. Unfamiliar 52:13
13. Sennen 57:16
14. Beneath 1:01:41
15. Today 1:05:48

Back in the early 90's, after I had graduated high school ... I came across this album in a used music store. The sound that would eventually be termed shoegaze was nowhere more polished than on this album. I would play this on repeat and listen to it in the morning, during the day and at night while going to sleep. These sounds got me through some very tough times being in another country at the time ... away from everyone that I cared about. Just listen to "Polar Bear" and tell me that you don't get shivers.

This was Ride's debult album released in 1990, then reissued in 2001, 2010 and 2011. Nowhere was named one of the best albums of the shoegaze genre and was listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die

Ride ceased to be a band in 1996.

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INTOXICATION :: Lush - Undertow

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Coldplay - Lost!

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Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues (Full Album)

"Burning Down the House" -- 00:00
"Making Flippy Floppy" -- 04:03
"Girlfriend Is Better" -- 08:39
"Slippery People" -- 13:03
"I Get Wild/Wild Gravity" -- 16:37
"Swamp" -- 20:50
"Moon Rocks" -- 26:03
"Pull Up the Roots" -- 31:08
"This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" -- 36:19

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Joy Division - She's Lost Control 1979

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The Cure - Underneath the Stars

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Dinosaur Jr. - Green Mind (Full Album)

"How'd You Pin That One on Me" - 0:00
"Water" - 4:25
"Muck" - 10:03
"Thumb" - 14:18
"Green Mind" - 19:57
"Hot Burrito #2" - 25:02
"Turnip Farm" - 28:24
"Forget It" - 34:15
"The Wagon" - 38:22
"Puke + Cry" - 43:17
"Blowing It" - 47:45
"I Live for That Look" - 50:29
"Flying Cloud" - 52:26

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JUST HEARD ON WMTS RADIO :: The Stone Roses - Waterfall

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Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over the Sea (Full Album)

1. The King of Carrot Flowers Part 1: 0:00
2. The King of Carrot Flowers Part 2-3: 2:00
3. In The Aeroplane Over the Sea: 5:06
4. Two Headed Boy: 8:28
5. The Fool: 12:55
6. Holland, 1945: 14:48
7. Communist Daughter: 18:00
8. Oh Comely: 19:58
9. Ghost: 28:16
10. Untitled: 32:25
11. Two Headed Boy Part 2: 34:41

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Anchorage by The Church (V.1)

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