We’ve got several different videos of the brief reunion posted below — one of them is actually a two parter, strung together — as well as clips of several other songs from the Royal Albert Hall show, plus the full setlist. (See video after the jump.)
“Dave (Gahan) contacted me a few weeks back and asked if I’d be willing to join them on-stage. He assured me that everyone in the band was into the idea. I was very happy to accept, especially as it was all in a good cause and we were long overdue some kind of reunion of this sort. It was great to see everyone again and catch up a bit, and it was also the first time I have actually ’seen’ Depeche Mode perform!”
So it’s time for me to confess. As you know I’m a huge fan of 50 Cent and president of his fan club. The other day I sent Fiddy (that’s what his best friends call him) a framed photo of myself which I honestly thought would end up in his trash 12 seconds after he opened it. Unbeknownst to me he actually liked it and decided to proudly display it in his crib (that’s what hipsters call their homes). Well you know that Fiddy has secretly been swingin with Alicia as it’s been all over Friendster and Orkut. What you may not know is that…well…Just watch the video my boy recorded while Fiddy was on the phone with Alicia.
Guess my galavanting is no secret anymore…
Ok, hopefully you got a chuckle from this but I thought this was really cool. There have been many promotions that have allowed us to place our mugs within videos but I don’t believe any have provided the realism that you get from this new one generated by the folks at MySpace with Fan Video. Just simply visit the site, login with either your MySpace or Facebook credentials and you can choose from 8 videos that all have different effects to get your avatar on either service directly into the video. You can even string up to 6 videos together. I chose 2 to bring you my little story. Once the video has been created they offer an easy way to share on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, as a link to a page (which is better quality than the embed. Here’s mine) or as an email to your friends.
I found out about the service last night from newly announced Director of Content Socialization Sean Percival (Congrats to you my friend) and I would have posted this sooner but demand went through the roof and the service went down until earlier tonight after they deployed more servers or clouds or lumberjacks I’m not too sure how they did it so fast. In any case go check it out. I tried all 8 videos as it’s very addictive. MySpace no doubt has a hugely successful viral video campaign about to launch but get there before your friends. You don’t want to be Fiddy’s 2nd best friend :)
I driving home from work the other day and tuned to KCRW which is the only station I listen to in LA for music when this song came on that I really liked. So when I got home I made my way to the KCRW Live Playlist to find out who the band was.
The name of the band was Stolen Identity and the track was “Hey”. As I often do when I really like a song I started to research the band to try and find more tracks. It was very hard to find any information online for them as the band name makes for a useless search on Google and it turns out they have a limited presence online.
Delicious downtempo, vocally stimulating chill out music for the beach or the poolside with chill house soundscapes, and relaxing, intelligent, groovy beats. Songs with soul and beautiful melodies that make you feel chilled out.
The description above is from CD Baby which provides lots of background on the band. Chris Paul is a highly proclaimed DJ and producer from London and vocalist Mia Victoria hooked up with him here in LA where they are now based out of.
I was finally able to find they had a page on MySpace as well as Last.fm and was able to listen to a few more tracks. I really liked them (including one titled Argentina…sweet!) and wanted more. So I made my way to Amazon where I was happy to find their first release Hearts & Stories available for download in the MP3 store (sample tracks and link below).
It became the first MP3 CD I have ever bought from Amazon and I’m really happy I did. If you like this style of music these guys are fantastic. I can’t wait to hear more from them.
I really enjoyed the 5 part (and 5 hour if you don’t have a DVR) special “100 Greatest Songs of the 90s” that VH1 ran. You can see the complete list on the VH1 site here. It did make me wonder though whether there were some songs that were neglected from the list. So I opened up Winamp and started looking through my music to see if I could spot any. It didn’t take long to see that there were some blaring omissions. So behold my list of songs. One thing to note is that I didn’t bother to include a song if the band had any that made the top 100.
So here’s my list:
1. Depeche Mode – Enjoy the Silence – from Violator – 1990
I’ve been a fan of this band since the mid 80s. I’ve seen them live many times and I buy they’re new releases sight unseen. Martin Gore has a knack for coming up with some great lyrics that make the gears in your brain spin. More 90s songs: Personal Jesus, Policy of Truth, I Feel You
2. Moby – South Side – from Play – 1999
You can throw a dart at the “Play” CD and probably have a worthy song but it was the track that paired him with Gwen Stefani that packed a 1-2 punch for me. More 90s songs: Go, Porcelain, Anthem
3. Tori Amos – Silent all these Years – from Little Earthquakes – 1992
Tori is considered a great artist by many. And this is regarded as her best CD ever by most reviewers. Here’s one of the most powerful lyrics: “Boy you best pray that I bleed real soon. How’s that thought for ya?”. More 90s songs: Crucify, Cornflake Girl, God
4. Nine Inch Nails – Hurt – from The Downward Spiral – 1994
Closer was the bigger hit, but man…Hurt is a very powerful song. More 90s songs: Closer, March of the Pigs, The Fragile
5. Seal – Prayer for the Dying – from Seal – 1994
Many would argue that the tracks Crazy or Killer from his 1991 debut should have made it, but I’m a bigger fan of Seal’s Chill Out tracks that would come several years later. More 90s songs: Crazy, Killer, Kiss from a Rose
6. Bjork – Hyper Ballad – from Post – 1995 I’ve always been a huge Bjork fan. It actually started when she was in The Sugarcubes. I was lucky enough to see them open up for U2 many moons ago. She’s also undeniably one of the best music video artists out there. More 90s songs: Human Behavior, All is full of Love, Hunter
7. A Tribe Called Quest – Check the Rhime – from The Low End Theory – 1991 I was a fan of some Rap back in the 90s and this was probably the CD I played the most. These guys had a knack for the verse and some sweet beats. Qtip is dope. More 90s songs: Buggin’ out, The Scenario, Award Tour
8. Dave Mathews Band – Ants Marching – from Under the Table and Dreaming – 1994 Dave came out of nowhere with a very unique sound and a bandmate who plays a mean ass fiddle. I first heard the song on KCRW here in LA. More 90s songs: Satellite, So Much to Say, Crash into Me
9. No Doubt – Sunday Morning – from Tragic Kingdom – 1995
Before Gwen became a pop star, and there’s nothing wrong with that, she was the rockin’ voice behind her ska inspired band. This song still makes me want to jump repeatedly every time I hear it. More 90s songs: Just a Girl, Spiderwebs, Simple Kind of Life
10. Hole – Celebrity Skin – from Celebrity Skin – 1998 I must admit to having both pre and mis-judged what Hole would sound like knowing that this was the wife of Kurt Cobain and was probably funded by him. Boy was I wrong. Celebrity skins has one of the most powerful openings of any song. Courtney proved she wasn’t a novelty. Well….musically speaking. More 90s songs: Doll Parts, Miss World, Awful
11. Creed – Higher – from Human Clay – 1999
This is definitely a band that didn’t get the critical acclaim they deserve. Reviewers claimed they were “derivative” and “formulaic”. Uh, had they listened to pop music? And it wasn’t even as bad as it is now back in the 90s. More 90s songs: With Arms Wide Open, My Own Prison, Are you Ready
Turns out that VH1 has a message board dedicated to their “Greatest” shows so you can join the fray if you want here
I first discovered Mark Ronson (as I do most of music) while listening to KCRW. He has a pretty interesting Bio.
Here’s a snip:
DJ Mark Ronson is a sought-after turntablist, born to rock royalty, who’s worked with such diverse artists as Macy Gray, Jay-Z, and comedian Jimmy Fallon. The son of legendary rock guitarist Mick Ronson and the stepson of guitarist Mick Jones of Foreigner
His recent work titled “Version“ features a diverse pairing of songs and vocalists. One song is a cover of The Smiths “Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before”. I’m a big fan of The Smiths (glad to see Johnny Marr join Modest Mouse) and have continued to follow Morrissey, and had heard the original song more times than I can count. I’m not easily impressed by cover songs, yet this one caught my ear by surprise. You can listen to the original and watch the video on Youtube here as a reference.
Morrissey-solo.com writes:
The segueing with The Supremes’ “You Just Keep Me Hangin’ On” is just one of many remarkable points on this excellently wistful version.
You can read the rest here and on that same page I read a criticism regarding the “yeahs” in the song which I hadn’t really paid attention too until listening to it again closely. One of them actually occurs in what has to be one of the strangest lyrics ever uttered in a song. “And the pain was enough to make a shy, bald, buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder”. Although I agree that the “yeahs” are un-necessary (especially after that lyric) it didnt’ take away from my enjoyment of the song.
The vocalist on the track is Daniel Merriweather. You can learn more about him and hear the track on his (gulp) MySpace page.
I wasn’t very impressed by the video, but you can view it on Youtube if you are interested.
The rest of the songs on the CD are good and another one that really stands out is a cover of Radiohead’s Just. This CD is definitely worth checking out.
I'm currently Director of Web Production for the PRIZE Foundation and author of Lifestream Blog. I'm a geek with a passion for web technology and electronic gadgets. You can also find my fingerprints scattered across the web at one of the destinations below.
available for download in the MP3 store (sample tracks and link below).
“ features a diverse pairing of songs and vocalists. One song is a cover of The Smiths “Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before”. I’m a big fan of The Smiths (glad to see Johnny Marr join Modest Mouse) and have continued to follow Morrissey, and had heard the original song more times than I can count. I’m not easily impressed by cover songs, yet this one caught my ear by surprise. You can listen to the original and 
I'm currently Director of Web Production for the
PRIZE Foundation
Lifestream Blog
