Guest Mixtape 03: Daniel of Home Blitz

Glädjefnatt! I'm not sure what 'glädjefnatt' is in English. It's an ridiculously happy feeling that may or may not make you pee a little in your pants. That's how happy we are that the super friendly and talented Daniel DiMaggio of Home Blitz made us a mixtape. Home Blitz is noisy lo-fi weirdo power pop from Princeton, New Jersey that makes you dance in ecstasy with a big fat smile while shouting in your mates ear "what the hell is this fucked up shit, what the hell did he just do that, did that really happen?!". That's how good it is.

We first heard his Out Of Phase album last year and fell head over heels for it and quickly picked up his older stuff (still missing the debut 7" from 2005 though. Hook us up!). And then a few weeks back came Perpetual Night 7" that grabbed us by the hair and made out with us rather rough behind closed doors. Rough, but oh so good. Just like Lou Reed-goes-Ike Turner guitar solos.

His choice of covers were to these ears, well, a bit weird to be honest. Proto-Oi! band Cock Sparrow, Raspberries... okay we like them, and then Slade of all bands. But in Home Blitz hands all these songs became Pop anthems. We just had to know what else this kid, who goes and picks up gum in the middle of songs, likes. So we asked.

A So Tough So Cute Mix By Daniel of Home Blitz
Side A
Let's Active - Every Dog Has His Day
Van Duren - New Year's Eve
the Consumers - Average Girls
Carolanne Pegg - A Witch's Guide To The Underground
Fools Face - The Truth
Dwight Twilley Band - You Were So Warm
My Chemical Romance - I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
Eyeless In Gaza - Picture The Day
Generation X - Love Like Fire
Silverhead - Rock And Roll Band

Side B
Stone Harbour - Workin' For The Queen
Shoes - She'll Disappear
the Misfits - Angelfuck
Rik L. Rik - Mercenaries
Spider - Back To The Wall
Fairport Convention - Sickness And Disease
Patto - See You At The Dance Tonight
Matthews Southern Comfort - Road To Ronderlin
Brett Smiley - Queen Of Hearts
La Roux - As If By Magic
Game Theory - Waltz The Halls Always

Download
Alternative Download

A
Let’s Active – Every Dog Has His Day
I am pretty into this wildly limp and uneven band and this is their finest moment, IMHO.  On Youtube there’s a funny clip of a public access show playing the (bad) video for this song, and a kid pretends to get disgusted when announcing the band’s name.

Van Duren – New Year’s Eve
I think this is the only good song off of Van Duren’s LP Are You Serious?.  It is so awesome.

Consumers – Average Girls
One of the most insane vocal sounds ever, and I’m very proud that this band is from NJ.  Way better than the Arizona Consumers, who I still don’t remember what they sound like really.

Carolanne Pegg – A Witch’s Guide To The Underground
This is from the 1973 self-titled album by Carolanne Pegg, made after she was in the Brit-folk band Mr. Fox.  When I first heard this record I was disappointed that it has more of an American rural rock sound than the UK-trad style of Mr. Fox, but turns out I was way wrong.  This song is as incredible as its title and I cannot get over it.

Fools Face – The Truth
The album this song comes from, Tell America, is way hit or miss, but this song is super good, like a hopped-up new wave hybrid of the Left Banke and ‘Red Rubber Ball’. 

Dwight Twilley Band – You Were So Warm
A great song from the OK first Twilley record.  The ‘anyway’s on this are worldbeating, better than the ones in ‘The Inmost Night’ by Current 93.

My Chemical Romance – I’m Not Okay (I Promise)
One of the best songs I’ve ever heard, and also has the best music video ever, so much so that every time I hear it I wish I was watching the video too.

Eyeless In Gaza – Picture The Day
All of the early-ish Eyeless In Gaza records I know are some of the weirdest music I’ve ever heard.  This is a real bitter sounding song from Drumming The Beating Heart.  You can understand like half of the lyrics here but usually this band’s vocals are completely unintelligible, so sick.

Generation X – Love Like Fire
A great tune from the 2nd Generation X LP Valley Of The Dolls.  More often than not this record sounds more like a weird Mott/Pink Fairies hybrid than any sort of punk, and it’s all the better for it.  Poorly produced by Ian Hunter.

Silverhead – Rock N’ Roll Band
3rd-rate dirtbag street boogie from the first Silverhead LP.  I’m pretty sure the chorus to this song says “Will you finance my rock n’ roll band/All I wanna do is dance”, so dumb.  I’ve had this record for like 7 years and I just realized last week that there’s a fluffy white cat sitting at Michael Des Barres’ feet on the cover. Whatever.  If this was a real cassette the tape on side A would run out before the end of this song and I’d be fine with it.

B
Stone Harbour – Workin’ For The Queen
The most extreme extent of sh*t-fi boogie rock, with fucking obviously fake crowd noise to top it off.  I am forever grateful to Ken Hensley (URIAH HEEP).

Shoes – She’ll Disappear
I would describe Black Vinyl Shoes, the LP this song comes from, as nothing less than magical, and this song to me epitomizes its hazy nighttime atmosphere.  I’ve listened to this album tons of times and can still only understand maybe 5 percent of the lyrics.

The Misfits – Angelfuck
Whenever I try to think of any song, this is the first thing that pops into my head.  An astonishing recording.  I didn’t actually know the lyrics till pretty recently but they’re fuckin weird: “Little angelfuck, I see you going down on a fireplug”.

Rik L. Rik – Mercenaries
A super sick song from the great Beach Blvd. comp.  I think I like this better than the Negative Trend version.

Spider – Back To The Wall
A terrific fresh-faced pub rocker from 1977, made available again to the budget-conscious courtesy of the wonderful Sing Sing label.

Fairport Convention – Sickness And Disease
I am very interested in the intersection between UK folk-rock and 70s hard/melodic rock, and this song sort of begins to represent that territory to me.  I’d like to find more stuff that approaches that style; All Music Guide refers to mid-period Steeleye Span albums as sounding like the Who and having “power chords”, but I think the entries were written by a Steeleye Span superfan (a “Steeleye Stan” if you will).

Patto – See You At The Dance Tonight
One of my favorite songs maybe, Patto is one of the sickest bands ever.

Matthews Southern Comfort – Road To Ronderlin
A beautiful song from ex-Fairporter Ian Matthews, whose first solo album proper Valley Hi is also highly recommended.  This song has the same muted, down-tempo rock feel present on the songs from Bill Fay’s Time Of The Last Persecution or ‘CAPTAIN JACK’ by Billy Joel.

Brett Smiley – Queen Of Hearts
This song is super heavy morbid junkshop emoting. “A leap off Sunset Tower, what a way to go”.  Kind of sounds like, and is as good as, ‘Science Fiction Double Feature’.

La Roux – As If By Magic
I really like this song and the girl in this band’s voice.

Game Theory – Waltz The Halls Always
Probably my favorite song off my favorite album by my favorite band (thought not my favorite song by them).  “Hey now”.

Thank you so much to Daniel for doing the mix, drawing and comments
You can, scratch that, you will buy Home Blitz records, get a Home Blitz T-shirt and get the Perpetual Night 7" from the Home Blitz myspace and try and catch them on the upcoming midwest tour in July.