I don’t know about you, but unfortunately I have like, responsibilities, so I’m in on this Sunday eve, hoping to heal the last remnants of hangover, so I made this down-tempo mix. It still rules, though.

01 Bitch Prefect – Marilyn Monroe
02 Weed Hounds – Beach Bummed
03 Sonny & The Sunsets – I Wanna Do It
04 The Meanest Boys – Strangest Things
05 Heavy Hawaii – Beacons
06 The Beets – Time Brought Age
07 Dead Ghosts – How The West Was Fun
08 Pete Drake – I’m Just A Guitar (Everybody Picks On Me)
09 The Bell Peppers – Cry Baby
10 Shimmering Stars – Love Is Strange (feat. Sue McClure)
11 The UV Race – Lost My Way
12 Icky Boyfriends – Nervous Guy
13 Bob Dylan – Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (Live at the Hollywood Bowl, 1965)

mp3: Nu Rave Brain Wave x Halloweenie, A Mixtape [65.1mb]

When I fell backwards over the railings at the Green Door Store last night, screaming Derek Holland, I had this mix in my mind. Dance to this shit, motherfuckers!

01 Bob Dylan – Sittin’ On A Barbed Wire Fence
02 Almighty Defenders – The Ghost With The Most
03 Lafayette Thomas – The Thing
04 The Growlers - Camino Muerto
05 Bazooka – I Wanna Fuck All The Girls In My School
06 Flight – Witch Hunt Town
07 UV Race – Burn The Cat
08 Nobunny – Hocus Pocus
09 Catholic Spray – Beast In The Bushes
10 Woven Bones – Your Sorcery
11 Thee Ludds – Where To Begin
12 The Spooks – Now I’m A Ghost

mp3: Nu Rave Brain Wave x Halloween: A Mixtape [53.5mb]

That’s right, guys, Nu Rave Brain Wave is four years old today. To celebrate, I used really poor grammar and absolutely zero effort on a beautiful photograph of me from this year — exactly how I like to be seen, in cashmere and David Yurman about to grab a pug. So thank you all for reading, commenting (if you ever have, and if you haven’t a few “fuck yeahs” every now and then isn’t so hard, now is it?), tweeting, facebooking or interacting in any way with me, or enjoying anything I’ve posted. Shout out to all the bands and people whose music I enjoy and who email me good stuff all the time, without you, I’d just be sitting around watching TV (okay, I do that too, whatever).

Find below, a mix of some of my favorite songs that just sprung to mind when I remembered that today was our birthday! Yeah!

01 Harlem – Goodbye Horses
02 Hypocrite In A Hippy Crypt – Town Crazies
03 Danger Beach – Lakes (feat TV Colours)
04 Amanaz – Khala My Friend
05 The Growlers – Hawaiian Mama
06 Sonny & The Sandwitches – Throw My Ashes From This Pier When I Die
07 Shannon & The Clams – You Will Always Bring Me Flowers
08 Chuck Berry – Time Was (Slow Version)
09 Personal & The Pizzas – Toss That Pie
10 Dune Rats – Colour Television
11 Bob Dylan – From A Buick 6
12 Mojo Watson – You Know You Don’t Want Me
13 The Shirelles – Mama Said

zip file: Nu Rave Brain Wave’s 4th Birthday Extravaganza Mix [40.2 mb]

As you all may know from my big mouth or my Twitter, I am doing my dissertation on Bob Dylan and if you’ve ever followed any of the two years worth of Bob Dylan Fridays, you’ll probably be glad to see that I am doing this again once more. This is actually a new discovery, but the 1963 Banjo Tapes and the 1963 NYC Town Hall Show reflect a beautiful side of young Bob Dylan that I’m happy to share with you. The Banjo tape itself, filled with traditional songs and a Leadbelly cover, has never sounded better and is a beautiful must-have for any fan of fingerpicking Dylan. The NYC Town hall show, also filled with traditional songs and a few off his early albums, is also beautifully recorded and probably necessary for all young Dylan fans. Particularly engaging is the version of Who Killed Davey Moore in which Bob emotes beautifully via his voice. Download below:

Banjo Tape:
Lonesome River Edge
Back Door Blues
Bob Dylan’s Dream
You Can Get Her
Farewell
All Over You
Masters Of War
Keep Your Hands Off Her
Honey Babe
Goin’ Back To Rome
Stealin’

Town Hall:
Ramblin’ Through The World
Bob Dylan’s Dream
Tomorrow Is A Long Time
Bob Dylan’s New Orleans Rag
Masters Of War
Walls Of Red Wing
Hero Blues
Who Killed Davey Moore?
With God On Our Side

For our two year anniversary of Bob Dylan Friday’s we’ve got the continuation of last week’s Standing on The Waters from the 1984 tour stop in Brussels. Unlike the first disc, Disc 2 contains a much more hit oriented setlist from the 60s triad. Although it’s the same pretty good audience recording, the gem-studded setlist puts this ahead of the first disc. Standouts include a pretty faithful and beautiful third-person version of ‘Tangled Up In Blue, a stunningly nasally heartbreaking version of ‘Girl From The North Country‘ and a rollicking version of the rarely played ‘Tombstone Blues‘. This, as opposed to the first disc, is for everyone, not just collectors. Enjoy.

01 Masters of War
02 Ballad of a Thin Man
03 Simple Twist of Fate
04 Every Grain of Sand
05 Like a Rolling Stone
06 Tangled Up in Blue
07 Girl from the North Country
08 Love Minus Zero/No Limit
09 Tombstone Blues
10 Why Do I Have to Choose?

This bootleg, Standing on The Waters, is one I downloaded quite some time ago and can’t seem to find much info on now. What I do know, is that this was a product of the 1984 European tour, recorded beautifully in Brussels. Although it is not a soundboard recording, it is a fairly reputable audience recording. The organ heavy version of ‘Just Like A Woman‘ is particularly noteworthy, as well as the endearingly nasally version of ‘It Aint Me Babe‘. Another one, as we draw to a close on this experiment, for the collectors, but still worth a listen.

1. Highway 61 Revisited
2. Jokerman
3. All Along the Watchtower
4. Just Like a Woman
5. Maggie’s Farm
6. I and I
7. License to Kill
8. Imagination
9. Mr. Tambourine Man
10. It Ain’t Me, Babe
11. It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

As we near the inevitable end of my two year long experiment that is Bob Dylan Fridays, most of the bootlegs end up being things that insane collectors like myself would like, rather than a person whose casually into Bob Dylan, and the 102nd edition is no different. Hard to Find is a collection of essentially random tracks from the 70s to the 90s. Key tracks are a stripped down (compared to versions played during this time) version of ‘Girl of the North Country‘ and a jazzy and muddled but beautiful version of ‘When I Paint My Masterpiece‘. This is definitely left to completists, but can be rewarding for all.

01 It Ain’t Me Babe
02 People Get Ready (Curtis Mayfield)
03 One Of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)
04 Masters Of War
05 Precious Angel
06 Don’t Start Me Talkin’ (Sonny Boy Williamson)
07 License To Kill
08 Why Do I Have To Choose (Willie Nelson)
09 Every Grain Of Sand
10 Girl Of The North Country
11 I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine
12 Mr Tambourine Man
13 Love Minus Zero/No Limit
14 Pancho and Lefty (Townes Van Zandt)
15 Man Gave Names To All The Animals
16 When I Paint My Masterpiece
17 Restless Farewell
18 Silvio

Happy July 4th all my fellow Americans! I’m currently holed up in the dried up cornhusk that America came from, and I gotta say it’s kind of weird spending my first ever July 4th away from America. This year I will not be having any hot dogs (a tragedy of the highest order) nor will I watch any Cholo’s shooting fireworks out of like, cannons in the street in Culver City. But I decided to throw together this eclectic mixture of songs that remind me of the 4th of July, Summer and ridiculousness. Enjoy, over eat and set shit on fire. It’s what the forefathers wanted us to do.

01 Animal Collective – Fireworks
02 These New Puritans – Fire
03 Heavy Hawaii – Suicide Summer (Early Version)
04 King Tuff – She’s On Fire
05 Bo Diddley – Fireball
06 Johnny Cash & Bob Dylan – Ring of Fire
07 Mazes – Summer Hits Or J Plus J Don’t Like
08 Sauna Youth – Teenage Summer
09 Pavement – Summer Baby (7″ Version)
10 The Sundays – Summertime
11 Beach Boys – Kokomo
12 LFO – Summer Girls

mp3: NRBW x July 4th Mixtape

This collaboration between Bob Dylan and Neil Young and The Band for the S.N.A.C.K Benefit held at San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium in 1975 is a hit and miss type live recording. The inherent fucking up of Bob’s vocals is evident on some songs, but when it comes together — it’s really a thing of beauty and with the artists on stage, it should be mind blowing. The spirited and powerful version of ‘I Want You’ is pretty breathtaking, as is the heartbreaking harmonica solos and country twang on ‘Knockin’ on Dragon’s Door. This is probably another one for the exclusive collector, but it is a great addition for any Bob Dylan/Neil Young/The Band fan.

01Are You Ready for the Country
02 Ain’t That a Lot of Love
03 Lookin’ for a Love
04 Loving You (is Sweeter than Ever)
05 I Want You
06 The Weight
07 Helpless/Knockin’ on the Dragon’s Door
08 Will the Circle be Unbroken

Welcome to the 100th edition of my most favourite column that I’ve ever written in my life, Bob Dylan Fridays. This Friday I bring to you, the rarest of the rare, the Hardest to find: Hard To Find, Volume 4: Lost Diamonds. There are some duds here, but the excellent parts are completely worthwhile downloads. The David Letterman Show version of ‘Forever Young‘ has a certain nasal melancholy about it, rather than the upbeat and vibrant album version; the 1996 version of good buddy Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire is about as good as it gets. But the real gem, and the applicable one to my current life is the version of ‘One Irish Rover from Fleadh Festival in Finsbury Park 1993. Just this past weekend, I saw Bob Dylan in Finsbury Park for another Irish festival, Feis Festival, but he was the most dynamic performer that I have ever seen. Nobody in the world has ever almost brought me to tears by playing harmonica. That is all. Get this.

01 Forever Young (David Letterman Show)
02 Hard Times (Live) [28 Apr 93, Willie Nelson Tri]
03 I Shall Be Released [22 May 94, The Great Mus]
04 Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Live) [5 Jul 96, Italy]
05 Real Real Gone [Dublin 12 Apr1995]
06 Ring Of Fire [1996]
07 Ring Them Bells [22 May 94, The Great Music Hall]
08 Foreign Window (Live) [27 Jun 89, Athens]
09 Got Love If You Want It
10 Important Words
11 Most Of The Time (Single Edit)
12 Mr. Tambourine Man (Live) [24 Feb 90, Roy Or]
13 Old Rock’N'Roller (Live) [3 Jul 90, Hamburg]
14 One Irish Rover (Live) [12 Jun 93, Fleadh Festi…]
15 One Irish Rover (Live) [27 Jun 89, Athens]
16 People Putting People Down (Live) [6 Jun 91, R…2]
17 Tupelo Honey (Live) [6 Feb 91, Belfast]
18 It Ain’t Me Babe (Live) [31 Jul 86, Tacoma, WA]