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. 

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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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