Incoming.

"You Dropped A Bomb On Me (Special Disco Mix)" - The Gap Band I'm back from Station Nopost. The brothers Charlie, Ronnie and Robert wilson formed the Gap Band in 1967 as The Greenwood, Archer and Pine Street Band. Now most of you out there - who aren't high and aren't circling some weird planet with 3 breasted women (editor's note: Hmmm)- realize that that name was abbreviated (G.A.P., do I really need to spell it out for you?) for the more famous version of the band circa 1979. They've had a lot of hits but this is their most well-known for sure and it's damn near a 15 minutes version. Disco was already dead by 1982 so I'm not sure why it's called a "Disco" mix, but who cares? Quit reading now and download it because now I'm going to start typing about something boring. Why are you still reading? The type is so damn small anyway, you'll hurt your eyes. I mean it stop. Seriously. Dude.Stop.
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Atari fever.

Atari Force #1-5
To tie in with the hugely popular Atari home video gaming console in 1982, DC Comics came up with Atari Force. The first series was released packed in with actual Atari games. Issue 1 came with Defender and subsequent books followed in the games Berzerk, Star Raiders, Phoenix and Galaxian. The comics had an all-star cast of creators. Roy Thomas (X-Men and Avengers veteran writer) and Gerry Conway (creator of the Punisher and the guy who killed Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man) were the scribes with art by Ross Andru, the legendary Gil Kane, Mike DeCarlo and the very recently late Dick Giordano. Are the books cheesy? You know it. The nostalgia of it all is fantastic though and I have many fond memories of these books just like I do with the majority of what I post here. There's more Atari/DC Comics ventures and you will see them all here in the (hopefully near) future. I hear you music lovers out there crying out, "Don't forget us!", and to that I say: "I fart in your general direction NEVER!". Indulge your ol' Uncle Mike.
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Two dollars.

"Best Adventures (Remix)" - Thinkman 
Long time between updates, I know. Rupert Hine tried to pull a Milli Vanilli back in 1986. Thinkman was a "virtual band" with hired actors as band members on live performances. Hine was mostly known as a successful music producer, having worked with the likes of Jon Pertwee (the 3rd Doctor Who, track that song down for a snicker), Tina Turner, Howard Jones and The Fixx. The critics were very negative to his solo recording efforts so he decided to have a laugh at them by forming this faux group. Best Adventures is probably the best Fixx song they never recorded and is from the Thinkman's debut album, The Formula. Miami Vice plug #999: Featured in the 3rd season episode Red Tape, guest-starring Lou-Diamond Philips and Viggo Mortensen.  Hine also happened to write and produce most of the soundtrack to the 80's movie classic Better Off Dead, starring John Cusack. 8:58 @ 320 kbs.
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Aboriginally.

"Beds Are Burning (Kintore East)" - Midnight Oil

Australian super group.1987. The song was taken from the tribute LP to the plight of the Aborigines and the environment, Diesel And Dust. This version has also been released as the Kintoris Mix and the  Tamarama Mix. It was covered by a female 80's group and called the BananaTamaRama Mix. Somebody's lyyyyying. The Yuendemu Percapella Mix I'm throwing in with this has been also been released as the Percapella Kangaroo Mix The transition is odd though. Yeah, no stereotypes here. Ga'day Wendy. That's not a skip at the 1:22 mark on the Kintore Mix either. The transition is odd though. 

Download Kintore East Mix

Yuendemu Percapella Mix

Burning white heat.

"Rain In The Summertime (Through The Haze Mix)" - The Alarm

Flashback to 1987 for The Alarm's 3rd studio album and dig today's meager offering to you and yours. Also available: The Lightning Mix. Both of these mixes were done by Steve Thompson for those keeping score, running 8:05 and 7:14 @ 320 kbs. The band is from North Wales and formed in the 70's. Less yapping = more downloading.

Through The Haze Mix Download

Lightning Mix Download

More beans, Mr. Taggart?

The Black Hole #1-4 & Annual #1
At the time it was the most expensive film Disney ever produced and it was blasted by critics. The Black Hole movie was released in Decmber of 1979 but the Whitman comics here came out in 1980 - so yes, they belong on an 80's blog. Now (at the risk of unleashing a major spoiler on a 30 year old flick) the crew of the Palomino were sucked into the film's namesake at the end. Our friends at Whitman decided to show you a little taste of what happened on the other side. Regrettably, there were only two issues that show the "Beyond" aftermath with the promise of more at the end of #4...that still has yet to be published. The Annual is mostly reprints of the series with better scans so I included it anyway for that reason and because there is a nifty little "Making Of" article. The film is a guilty pleasure for me and was chock full-a iconic stars: Mr. Taggart aka Slim Pickens, Norman Bates aka Anthony Perkins, Max Cherry aka Robert Forster and Cornelius aka Roddy McDowell. Disney has plans to remake the film and I don't think I'll care for it or the new Tron, but they didn't ask me so what do I care? Whattaya gon' do?
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Eyes of the world.

"Biko (Video Mix)" - Peter Gabriel
This version of Gabriel's tribute to South Africa's Steve Biko came out  in 1987 as part of the movie Cry Freedom - about Biko's struggle against Apartheid. Some new guy named Denzel Washington was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for that movie too. Biko, the song, was originally released in 1980 and featured (you guessed it) on the 1st season Miami Vice episode Evan. There are probably a million live versions of this song out there but I think this is probably the best. I've also included the original b-side's single edit and No More Apartheid by Gabriel in this download.

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By the power of...

DC Comics Presents #47 & Masters Of The Universe #1-3 (DC Comics-1982)

I must have read these comics 500 times when I was 10. First, in DC Comics Presents #47, Skeletor tries to enter Castle Grayskull with his half of the Power Sword and opens a rift between 2 worlds. Superman is pulled from Earth to Eternia and Kal-El teams up with He-Man and discussed who had the coolest hyphenated name. Written by Paul Kupperberg and penciled by legendary Silver-Age Supes artist Curt Swan. Then in Masters Of The Universe #1-3: Skeletor has kidnapped The Goddess of Eternia and forces He-Man and friends to seek out the 3 Talismans that will lead whoever holds them to the other half of the Power Sword. Single-minded Skeletor. This series is also written by Kupperberg with art by George Tuska. Again, if you don't have it you need Comical to open and read these files.

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Download Comical 

Bullets on a hot tin roof.

"Wild Horses (Extended Remix)" - Gino Vannelli
You probably know him for his bigger hits like Living Inside Myself and I Just Wanna Stop as opposed to this #55 track from 1987. It did crack the Top 40 on the Adult Contemporary chart though and won Gino and his brother Joe a Juno award for recording engineer of the year. Joe+Gino=Juno. Oh, that was bad. It's not a remake of a Stones track either. The way he talks about trucks, the wind whistlin' and spittin' you'd think it was a country song. Wild Horses was taken from the LP, Big Dreamers Never Sleep. Narcoleptics and readers of my blog don't have this problem though. 2 updates in as many days? I know. Don't get used to it. TT:6:11@320 kbs.
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A pig that don't fly straight.

"Hanging On A Heart Attack (Dance Mix)" - Device
From 1987. Device keyboardist, bassist & co-vocalist Holly Knight was formerly a member of the band Spider in the early 80's. Tina Turner covered one of their songs, Better Be Good To Me, and it was a bigger hit than this song. It's still catchy and you can bug out to it. What? You can. You kids today. I'm shaking my fist at you! Knight also wrote about a million other songs you've probably heard from the likes of Pat Benatar to Ozzy Osbourne. The other 2 members of Device were singer Paul Engemann and Gene Black. Engemann was better known for his song, Push It To The Limit, that was featured in what I and the cock-a-roaches affectionately refer to as "The Ballad Of Tony Montana", Scarface in 1983. Say hello to your leggings, friend. Remixed by Jellybean Benitez @320 kbs. TT-7:25

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Show Me The Way To Go Home.

Rom Spaceknight Annual #4 & #73-75
Rom Annual #4  -  Mantlo/Ditko. The Shi'Ar (an alien race brought to prominence during the Chris Claremont & John Byrne years of Uncanny X-Men) encounter one of Rom's fellow Spaceknights, Pulsar, which leads one of their doctors to transform himself into a cyborg. Look for Gladiator and the rest of the Imperial Guard in this double-sized issue. Rom and his pal's quest to return home ends here too.
Rom #73 - Mantlo/Ditko. The Beyonder makes good on his promise to send Brandy Clark to Galador to be reunited with Rom. Needless to say, it's not as easy as all that. There's a civil war going on and Rom's dream to return to his human form is in serious jeopardy.
Rom #74 - Mantlo/Ditko with inks/finishes by John Byrne! The war on Galdor continues! The humans are dead! Finally, robotic beings rule the world! Now it's Spaceknight vs. Spaceknight for the future of a planet! What's with all the exclamation points!? Why did I rip off Flight Of The Conchords!? Robo-boogie!
Rom #75 (final issue) - Mantlo/Ditko. Legendary Spaceknight Dominor against Rom in a death-duel. Winner takes all. Dominor also wants Brandy to be his "mate" should he win. Rom's all, "You can't see me!", and Dominor's all, "Time to play the game!". There's no steel cages or lumberjacks in this match though.  After all that there's the obligatory happy ending to wrap up this series and today's update.
Download Annual #4 & #73
 Download #74 & 75

Yo Yippy.

"I Wanna Be A Cowboy (12 inch Saddle Mix)" - Boys Don't Cry
Inspired by the Spaghetti Westerns that I love so much, here comes one-hit wonder Boys Don't Cry with this campy #12 hit from 1985. The band was discovered by talent scout (now remixer) Paul Oakenfold in London. Their name came from a line used in 10cc's "I'm Not In Love" (and later on the full-length version of "Cry" by 10cc's Godley & Creme). It's widely speculated by smart-asses like me that The Man With No Name's name is, in fact, Ted. Don't laugh at his mule either. TT: 6:02 @ 320 kbs.

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Rom's In Spaceee-suh!

Rom Spaceknight #67-72

All by Bill Mantlo and Steve Ditko.
Rom #67: What does a warrior do without a war? Go 56 light years into space to some other freaky ass planet and get in a fight with something that looks like Godzilla's little brother of course. The quest for Rom's fellow Spaceknights begins! It's time for them all to reclaim their humanity. Rom's war with the Wraiths ending was kinda like Moonlighting's David And Maddie kissing. The end was near.
Rom #68: Rom meets with a bunch of star trekkers trying to return home and fights something called Automata and it's robot army.
Rom #69: A living planet with a big "Ego"? The Wraiths and 2 fellow Spaceknights pop up again in a surprising way.
Rom #70: More wraiths out of their element, alien planet. Pattern?
Rom #71: Raak the breaker! Vola the trapper! Never saw a spaceknight named Tom or Jim did you? The Raak says know your role.

Rom #72: Secret Wars 2 crossover. The original Secret Wars was about a mega-powered being called The Beyonder who kidnapped the best of Earth's heroes and villains and made them fight each other for his jollies on some faraway planet. Rick Jones and Brandy Clark take the spotlight for this ish. Apparently godlike beings from other planets also enjoy Jheri Curl. And what's up with that Captain EO outfit?

Download #67-69
Download #70-72

Weird.

There are a lot of blogger sites disappearing thanks to big brother. Most likely it's the blogs hosting downloads of stuff that just hit your favorite music outlets in the last week or so and not 20+ year old stuff like you find here. I have set up a mirror blog on wordpress just in case. Here's the url:

http://eightiesrefugeecamp.wordpress.com/

Bookmark it, whatever you need to do. Hopefully we'll still be at this url for the long haul but you never know.

Arm Your Soul.

"Tumblin' Down (Remix)" & "Have You Ever Been to Hell (Remix)" - Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers
Bomb Squad guru Hank Shocklee remixed these tunes back in 1988 and I looked for quite a while to find them to share. Big thanks to Sandman74 for this. The Melody Makers were all Marleys too: Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky and Mike...if I like the girl, who cares who you like? In reality (and not some weird New Edition brainfart) the Melody Makers were Bob's other children - Sharon, Steven and Cedella. These songs are taken from their Best Reggae Grammy-winning album, Concious Party. Tumblin' Down was a #1 hit on the R&B and Hot Dance Music Billboard charts. Have You Ever Been To Hell wasn't released as a single but it's my favorite and this version was never released in the USA. In other news no one really cares about: I saw Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers open for INXS the same year.
Tracklisting:
1. Tumblin' Down (Hank Shocklee Remix) 6:03
2. Tumblin' Down (Edit) 3:00
3. Have You Ever Been To Hell (Hank Shocklee Remix) 5:34
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War Is Over.

Rom Spaceknight #61 - 66
Rumor control: These are the facts. The creative team remains Bill Mantlo and Steve Ditko. The war for Earth with the Dire Straits Wraiths ends in this batch. Rom, that Sultan Of Swing, has some help from Forge (who turned up in the last batch of Wraith/X-Men stories I shared with you all last time) and The Mighty Avengers to name a few to end the conflict - once and for all. What's a Spaceknight to do now? Take up bowling? How many more tired cliches can I use? Stay tuned.

Download #61-63
Download #64-66
Download Comical to open the comics after extraction.

In The Mist

"These Dreams (Extended Remix)" - Heart
Bernie Taupin (who worked with Elton John on many a hit song) and Martin Page (writer of Starship's "We Built This City" and Go West's "King Of Wishful Thinking") wrote the tune. The song was first offered to Stevie Nicks but, in a moment of great stupidity, she passed on it. Hindsight sucks, don't it? Heart grabbed the song and decided Nancy would sing it instead of sister and lead singer, Ann Wilson. It was dedicated on the album to Nancy's friend Sharon Hess, who had recently died of leukemia. These Dreams was the third single from the band's self-titled LP and went all the way to #1 in 1986. And now, a long distance dedication. Dear Casey....sometimes I feel like Mr. Kasem. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.

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Knew mootants.

Rom Annual #3 & Bonuses
Again with the bonus stuff. Included in this pack are two issues of The Uncanny X-Men, by Chris Claremont and John Romita, Jr.(2nd best team ever on Uncanny), #187 and 188. They feature the Wraiths as the main baddies right after Storm lost her mutant powers due to Forge's mutant-powersapping thingamadoo. Forge created that gun, because he's a mutant with the ability to make pretty much anything he can dream of, and it took Storm's weather altering powers away and she falls in love with the guy. That's a very condensed version of the events but ain't that typical love? Over in Rom Annual #3, by Bill Mantlo and William Johnson, the Wraiths are holding a bunch of kids at a preschool hostage and Rom and Starshine arrive on the scene. Look for the guest-appearances by Professor Charles Xavier and his New Mutants in this "ish" too.

Download Comical to open the comics after extraction.

Download Rom Annual #3 & Uncanny X-Men #187 & 188

Conforming trends.

"Hip To Be Square (Dance Remix)" - Huey Lewis & The News
Shep Pettibone remixed this top 5 hit for Huey Lewis & The News in 1986 from the LP, Fore!. Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott from the San Francisco 49ers of the time sing backup on this song. If you've ever seen American Psycho you might have other memories of this song. In that movie the song is played and danced to by Christian Bale as a character named Patrick Bateman as he hacks someone up with an axe. The murderer talks of the merits of Huey Lewis & The News before he does this deed, saying, "I think their undisputed masterpiece is "Hip to Be Square," a song so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics. But they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it's also a personal statement about the band itself.". The song was originally featured on the film's soundtrack for a short time before being pulled from stores and re-released without it. This was because the movie's production team didn't buy the rights to have it on the soundtrack - just in the film. So Huey Lewis did have it withdrawn from the soundtrack. Not because he objected to it's use in the film, but over the fact that him & The News didn't get paid for it. So if you're gonna use Huey's songs to murder people...you better pay him. TT: 6:12.

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Multiupload is having problems today so we're back to Sharebee temporarily.

Alpha Ant-Men.

Rom Spaceknight #56-60 & Bonuses
I'm throwing in issues 244 & 245 of The Mighty Avengers because they feature the Dire Wraiths with today's update. Meanwhile in Rom: #56 features Canada's claim to fame in the Marvel U, Alpha Flight, in the first of a two-parter. Mark Bright fills in for artist Sal Buscema on that same comic. Buscema is back for #57 & 58. Legendary Steve Ditko handles the art for #59 and 60. Ditko, for those of you who don't know, co-created Spider-Man with Stan Lee. Wee li'l Ant-Man also pops up to help Rom and Starshine in this batch. Bill Mantlo remains your writer extraordinaire and Jay Leno remains a douche in the world of late-night television. Long live Craig Ferguson.
Download Comical to read the .cbr files after .rar extraction
Download 56-57 & bonus issues
Download 58-60

Charlie Over There With 3rd Degree Burns

Eddie Murphy - Party All The Time (Extended Version)
Come back with me to the time when comedian Eddie Murphy was an aspiring singer and enlisted Rick James to help out with this tune from his debut musical LP, How Could It Be. I suspect this was all happening sometime around the "Eff your couch" days documented so eloquently by Eddie's brother, Charlie on Chappelle's Show. This song climbed all the way to #2 in 1985 and the album peaked at #26 on the Billboard Top 200. It was almost universally slammed by the critics. I find the rest of the album to be a crapfest of Gigli proportions but this song still has the funk- thanks I'm sure to Mr. James. This version runs a little less than a minute longer than the LP version @320 kbs for 5:14. Any of you kind readers happen to have the flipside of this 12" with the instrumental version that was 7:14?

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Rom's Total War!

Rom Spaceknight #49-55

Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema's classic Marvel comic book from the 80's continues with this latest batch for you kind readers. The Dire Wraiths have now stepped up their game in their evil plan to take over the Earth like all good evil aliens tend to do. Issue 50 is a double-sized affair pitting Wraiths against Skrulls and finds Rom fretting over the love of his life's lost humanity since her transformation into Starshine. All that leads to #51's press conference in which Rom challenges the people of Earth to join the fight against rust the Wraiths. Nick Fury brings SHIELD into the battle beginning with issue 52 (check out the Bill Sienkiewicz cover above) and Dr.Strange shows up again in #54 screaming about the Hoary Host Of Haggath or some hoary crap. All this plus you get to see Rick Jones become yet another sidekick to yet another hero in the Marvel Universe, although this time he has cancer. The issues from here to the finale in #75 are my favorites of the series.

Download #49-51

Download #52-55
Download Comical to read the comics after .rar extraction

Do ya think he's randy?

"Passion (12" Mix)" - Rod Stewart
November of 1980 saw the debut of Stewart's tenth solo album, Foolish Behaviour (you'll note the British spelling since Rod is, in fact, British). This song was the first release from that album, making it all the way to #5 here in the USA and I've always liked it the most-est. In the LP's liner notes Rod lovingly attached this note:
This album is dedicated to the following personages:
All those who engage in a little foolish behaviour of a Friday night, All those who enjoy a good laugh and a drink, Those who don’t take life seriously, Scottish Football Supporters wherever they are, Tom Dowd, My band & last but not least, my Offsprings!
GOD BLESS THEM AND THEIR BICYCLE CLIPS. P.S. - All you wankers out there who hate me for the fact that I will later in my life marry 2 (that's right TWO) supermodels as well as have a 7 year relationship with another can piss right off!
Er...okay. He might not have written the P.S. part. Yeah. That was me. But he would have said it. Had he known. Rod injects ya with some extended Passion for a running time of 8:09@320 kbs below. Heh-heh.
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