Pulsing Aura

Two wormholes opening on consecutive days seems a little excessive. Then again, I watched enough wormhole science fiction to believe they probably happen more often than we notice. I even named one of my boxers Ka D'Argo and a foster Aeryn Sun, so I guess I committed to that idea years ago. This pick turns the dial up from yesterday. Fire, rescue, battles, martyrs, robbers, rats, and a Mississippi Queen all come charging through, somehow staying in step despite coming from completely different musical worlds. At 140 BPM, I probably didn't have much choice.

Pulsing Aura

01 Crazy World of Arthur Brown - Fire

02 Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers - Chitterlings Con Carne

03 5000 Volts featuring Tina Charles - I'm on Fire (Disco Purrfection Version)

04 Brainstorm - Lovin' Is Really My Game (12inch Extended)

05 Plimsouls - Zero Hour

06 Box Tops - The Letter

07 Earth, Wind & Fire - You

08 Echo & the Bunnymen - Rescue

09 Pretenders - Kid

10 Berlin - Sex (I'm A ...)

11 Bauhaus - Stigmata Martyr

12 The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap

13 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Battleship

14 Mongo Santamaria - We Got Latin Soul

15 Ohio Players - Jive Turkey

16 The Jam - Start!

17 The Clash - Bankrobber

18 Richard Hell and the Voidoids - Blank Generation

19 Mountain - Mississippi Queen

Fantastical Parade

Another wormhole opened and this group wandered through together. They probably should not fit nearly as well as they do, but that is half the fun. I still build these around the music first, then sit back and see what else shows up. This pick turned into a Fantastical Parade of unusual voices, quirky personalities, and songs that seem happier traveling in odd company than on their own. The title is another clue to the game behind these mixes. I have a feeling plenty of people already have it in their pocket, even if they have not connected the dots yet. Has anyone figured it out? If you do, please let everyone else keep guessing. My friend ID is always available if you want to compare collections.

Fantastical Parade

01 Cake - Short Skirt, Long Jacket

02 Ric Ocasek - Bottom Dollar

03 Wall Of Voodoo - Tomorrow

04 Tom Tom Club - Don't Say No

05 The B-52's - Bad Influence

06 Talking Heads - Blind

07 ABC - The Look Of Love

08 After The Fire - Der Kommissar

09 Buggles - I Am A Camera (12 Mix)

10 Shriekback - Nerve

11 Heaven 17 - Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry

12 The Neon Judgement - Babys On Fire

13 The Psychedelic Furs - Angels Don't Cry (7` Remix)

14 Devo - Head Like a Hole

15 Spandau Ballet - Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)

16 Blow Monkeys - Superfly

17 Pet Shop Boys - West End-Sunglasses

What's The Connection? Message 2

Sometimes getting the message across takes longer than the message itself. I can spell something out repeatedly, provide examples, even hand over the instructions, and AI will still decide I probably meant something else. At least the spelling and grammar will be goodly. That felt oddly appropriate for this Connection. Messages are everywhere. Some are clear. Some get mangled beyond recognition before they arrive. This is the message to you: I love and hate AI. I just had to get that off my chest.

What's The Connection? Message 2

21 Cymande - The Message

22 Adam Faith - A Message To Martha

23 Temptations - Message From A Black Man

24 Love - A Message to Pretty

25 Demon Fuzz - Message To Mankind

26 Dandy Livingstone - Rudy, A Message To You

27 Kool & the Gang - Music Is the Message

28 Skyy - Sendin' A Message

29 Everly Brothers - Take a Message to Mary

30 Tony Allen - African Message

31 King Sunny Ade & His African Beats - 365 Is My Number-The Message

32 World Party - Put The Message In The Box

33 Ray Barretto - Ancestral Messages

34 Prince Far I and the Arabs - A Message

35 Esbjorn Svensson Trio - The Message

What's The Connection? Cheyenne

Cheyenne always sounded more like a place than a people to me. Maybe that's because I grew up with the television show before I knew much about the history behind the name. That turns out to be fitting, because this Connection wanders back and forth between the people, the places named after them, and whatever else borrowed the name along the way. If you want to Jump On It instead, the Apache are only a click away. This one is plainly different.

What's The Connection? Cheyenne

01 Hanoi Rocks - Cheyenne

02 The Ken Darby Singers with Orchestra - Cheyenne

03 Ennio Morricone - Farewell To Cheyenne

04 Bo Diddley - Cheyenne

05 John Stewart - Cheyenne

06 Jason Derulo - Cheyenne

07 Joe Nichols - Old Cheyenne

08 George Strait - I Can Still Make Cheyenne

09 The Hold Steady - Cheyenne Sunrise (2018 - Remaster)

10 Kansas - Cheyenne Anthem

11 John Denver - Shipmates And Cheyenne

12 Garth Brooks - The Beaches Of Cheyenne

13 Fishbone - Cheyenne Star Forever Moore

14 Guided By Voices - Cheyenne

15 Bill Monroe - Cheyenne

16 Micky & The Motorcars - Rock Springs To Cheyenne

17 Bobby Darin - Shipmates In Cheyenne

18 Roy Orbison - Cheyenne

19 The Ataris - The Cheyenne Line

20 The Fuzztones - Cheyenne Rider

21 Pistol Annies - Cheyenne

What's The Connection? Apache

Apache always makes me think of Taza. He was my first dog as a kid. His dad was a show dog named Cochise (look him up), so somebody decided to keep the theme going. Taza was extremely well trained, although he never had much of a show business career. My brother and I spent plenty of nights sleeping in his spot with him anyway. I got the dog because my doctor said I was allergic to dogs and my pop called nonsense on that. His solution was simple. Put me around dogs all the time and I'd get over it. Back then we also thought seat belts weren't really needed. We lived. Decades later I still have boxers, and I am still allergic. Pop wasn't completely right, but he wasn't completely wrong either. Somewhere in there is the Connection. We weren't brave, just thought differently.

What's The Connection? Apache

01 Mike Oldfield - Cochise

02 Red Hot Chili Peppers - Apache Rose Peacock

03 Ted Nugent - Geronimo And Me

04 Modern Talking - Geronimo's Cadillac

05 Gianni Oddi - Geronimo

06 Sugarhill Gang - Apache (Jump On It)

07 Incredible Bongo Band - Apache (Grand Master Flash Remix)

08 Johnny Cash - Apache Tears

09 Nancy Sinatra - Geronimo

10 Michael Martin Murphey - Geronimo's Cadillac

11 Elton John - Indian Sunset

12 Los Straitjackets - Lonely Apache

13 The Shadows - Geronimo (Stereo)

14 Sheppard - Geronimo

15 Les Elgart & His Orchestra - Geronimo

16 Bow Wow Wow - Uomo Sex al Apache

17 Bobby Valentin - Geronimo

18 Audioslave - Cochise

Friday Connection Repost

Repost of a What's The Connection? for a Friday. Not as many great Friday songs, although I'm sure I am missing something (let me know in the comments). And I was totally lazy for the cover, appropriating a creative commons image and barely touching it. Click on it anyway. A few of these tracks are just so great and any compilation with both the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone can't be bad. And those aren't the best tracks by those guys...

WTC? Friday

01 Funkadelic - Friday Night, August 14th

02 Nancy Sinatra - Friday's Child

03 The Easybeats - Friday On My Mind

04 Rascal Flatts - Friday

05 Red Hot Chili Peppers - If You Have To Ask (Friday Night)

06 Doves - Friday's Dust

07 Rebecca Black - Friday

08 Bell & James - Livin' It Up (Friday Night)

09 Eric Paslay - Friday Night

10 Fishbone - DUI Friday

11 The Professionals - Friday Night Square

12 Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)

13 Love And Kisses - Thank God It's Friday

14 Genesis - Get 'Em Out By Friday

15 Steely Dan - Black Friday

16 kd Lang - Friday Dance Promenade

17 The Cure - Friday I'm In Love

18 Yello - Friday Smile

19 The Specials - Friday Night, Saturday Morning

20 The Replacements - Love You Till Friday

21 Atomic Rooster - Friday The 13th

What's The Connection? Fade 1

I knew what the cover was going to look like before I found most of the songs. If the word is "fade," you're almost obligated to start blending colors together until everything looks like an old paint commercial. There was a period when ombré was everywhere. Walls, clothing, hair (porbably mine at one time), probably a few dogs if you looked hard enough. The trend eventually faded away, but apparently it was still lurking somewhere in the back of my mind when I put this Connection together. Or maybe I only noticed that afterward and invented the story to explain it.

What's The Connection? Fade 1

01 Queens Of The Stone Age - In The Fade

02 The Del Fuegos - Fade To Blue

03 Ryuichi Sakamoto - Fade

04 Mark Stewart - As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade

05 Treble Charger - Fade

06 Ultravox! - Cross Fade

07 Tom Petty - Don't Fade on Me

08 Visage - Fade To Grey (12'' Version)

09 Cabaret Voltaire - Fade Crisis

10 Metallica - Fade To Black

11 Solu Music feat. Kimblee - Fade

12 Sleater Kinney - Fade

13 Tears For Fears - Memories Fade

14 Floraline - Fade

15 Lee Perry and The Upsetters - Beware Fade

16 Mazzy Star - Fade Into You

17 The Warning - Red Hands Never Fade

18 Bill Laswell - Fade