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Previous PostsGonna Buy Me A Dog :: Beast Of Burden :: Dogs of War - Calliope No. 8Your Adorable Beast :: Beast Of BurdenThe Truth About Cats And Dogs (Is That They Die) :: Your Adorable Beast - Calliope No. 8Monkey and His Cat :: The Truth About Cats And Dogs (Is That They Die)Monkey Baby :: Monkey and His Cat - Calliope No. 8

Previous PostsDance Like A Monkey :: Dance Monkey - Calliope No. 8The Time Warp :: Dance Like A Monkey - Calliope No. 8Waiting for the great leap forward :: The Time WarpOne Great City! : : Waiting for the great leap forward - Calliope No. 8Atlantic City :: One Great City!My City Was Gone : : Atlantic City - Calliope No. 8

Being a huge Morrissey/The Smiths fan, people often ask me: "What's your favorite Morrissey song?" My absolute favorite song is "Jack the Ripper". Casual fans might not be hip to this song, as it's somewhat of a rare song. So, it's time the tale was told on "Jack the Ripper"! The song originally appeared as a B-Side on his single, Certain People I Know (Dec 1992). Like numerous fans at the time, I was collecting all the formats, CD Single, 12" and 7" (sorry, I never bothered trying to get the cassingle!). I bought the single at a record store in Berkeley, California, called Mod Lang, but I think at the time they only had the CD version.

House of Pain was an Irish-styled American hip-hop group who released three albums in the early to mid 1990s before lead rapper Everlast decided to pursue his solo career again. The group is best known for its 1992 hit single "Jump Around".

Hey, this is Vu on the road. I have the following pre-written offline on my trusty laptop and I'm hoping to get an internet connection to upload the content before I leave for home (I won't be back until Tuesday).

I was originally going to write about Portishead, and somehow I mentioned Massive Attack, and then I started thinking about them, and I guess I'd much rather write about Mezzanine than Dummy. Now if that sentence just confused you, those respectively are the landmark albums of Trip Hop, a style of music that emerged out of the UK in the early to mid nineties. Instead of being influenced by the contemporary style of britpop, trip hop essentially took hip hop beats and slowed them down. It's kind of like Houston style Chopped and Screwed rap, except the vocals aren't slowed down with the music, and the whole result isn't as murky. Both genres are influenced by dub music, with sampling being essential. Somehow trip hop later became a subgenre of techno, which makes sense, considering that the UK at the time had a less vibrant rap scene than it does now.