Scrunged: Candlebox
Scrunge (second-rate rip-off grunge) is a largely forgotten genre, and every few weeks I’m going to examine a scrunge act or two and see if they deserve a second chance. Today’s band: Candelbox.
It’s really hard to write about Candlebox. Continue reading
Tower Records’ Mario Celebration!
It’s Mario’s 30th anniversary, and to celebrate Tower Records in Japan is pulling out all the stops with a massive summer sale campaign featuring a bevy of exclusive Mario goodies. Myself, being both a Mario and Tower Records fanatic, had to check it out.
It’s pretty rad. Continue reading
Game Music Revue: Pia-Com 1
- Credited Composer: Various
Released November 25, 2009
Label: Dog Ear Records/Sony Music Distribution
VGMdb Information Page
The Complete Guide to Madonna Remixes – Part 1
I’m a big fan of 12″ singles – the maxi-singles largely of a bygone era that include not only B-sides, but alternate mixes and edits of my favorite tracks. And when it comes to 12″ singles, there are a few artists I obsess over, but none more than Madonna.
Madonna is the greatest solo artist of my generation, and her amazing and substantial catalog of singles backs that up; “Vogue,” “Like A Virgin,” “Material Girl,” “Hung Up,” “Crazy For You,” the list of unforgettable classics is nearly endless. And nearly all of these legendary tunes have remixes and edits associated with them, mixes that sometimes radically alter a song or make it even better.
And they can be a real pain in the ass to find. While many artists who started in the 80s have embraced the retrospective box set and collection model, releasing all (or at least the best) versions of their singles in easy-to-buy formats, Madonna’s singles discography remains stubbornly scattered across countless records, CDs and cassette tapes. And since a lot of her songs have a shockingly large number of remixes (easily sometimes going into the double digits) this can be a real problem to those obsessive fans like myself, who want every version possible.
This list is an attempt to make it a little easier to track down these mixes, by cataloging every official mix and edit of every song Madonna has released as a single. It is a work in progress, and I am not immune to making mistakes, so if you feel I that I have made an error, please detail it in the comments and I will do my best to fix it. I’m also not going to detail exactly where you can find each mix, Discogs can be your guide for that, I’m just letting you know they exist.
I hope this list is helpful to my fellow obsessive Madonna collectors.
And I hope my friends don’t think I’m insane for putting this together.
“Everybody” (1982)
Album Version [4:57] – Available on any pressing of Madonna’s self-titled debut that was released before 2001. Since then it has been replaced by the 12″ remix.
Celebration Edit [4:12] – An edited version of the original 12″ remix. On Celebration.
Dub [9:23]– Available on many different 12″ singles.
Original 12″ Version [6:02] – Unlabeled as a remix. This is the version that is on all current editions of the self-titled album. It can also be found on US 12″ singles and the CD single.
Instrumental [6:17] – an edit of the nine-minute dub version, only available on the Italian 12″ single.
UK Remix [6:16] – Unlabeled remix only available on the UK 12″ single.
UK Remix Dub [5:59] – B-side to the UK 12″ single.
UK Remix Edit [3:20] – Unlabeled remix only available on the UK 7″ single.
UK Remix Dub Edit [4:40] – B-side to the UK 7″ single.
You Can Dance Remix [6:44] – For the remix album You Can Dance. Included on all versions of the album regardless of format, is mixed as part of a continuous mix.
You Can Dance Remix Edit [4:34] – Shortened edit created exclusively for the You Can Dance (Single Edits of Album Remixes) promotional 12″ . Continue reading
Something I Wrote On The Plane
This past month I went to America for the first time since leaving the country for Japan last January.
It was a strange thing, going back. Seeing people and places I haven’t seen in a while. Finding myself surrounded by things that were once familiar and common, now strange and out of place.
This was also my first time seeing most of my friends and family since I came out earlier in the year, and while I didn’t expect any outright hatred or bigotry from any of them, I still didn’t entirely know what I was in for. When you add that onto the usual feelings and emotions one gets from seeing loved ones for the first time in a long time…well, it certainly made for an emotional return home in a lot of ways. Continue reading