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Strictly classics this week.

DOWNLOAD: BLOC PARTY "SIGNS"

RCRD LBL with the Armand Van Helden remix to "Signs" available for download. Intimacy Remixed will be available on May 11.

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The hard living Chet Baker - still cool even after getting some of his grill knocked out.

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SOUNDS OF BRASIL

MRETV52_SAVE THE CHILDREN

MRE PSA / IRAQ WAR AND CHILDREN

Fallujah, Iraq: Sky News reports that children are being born with severe birth defects in extremely high numbers in the years following the attack on the city. Use by Army of white phosphorous a possible source. (Recently used in Gaza by Israeli forces.) Infant mortality is very high.

Sky News Links:
Did US Army Cause Iraq Birth Defect? May/29/2008
Iraq's Fetal Medicine Hope March/26/2009

Related:
BBC News reports in 2004 on effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam - 150,000 birth defects related June/14/2004

MRE13 / OUT HERE ON THIS HIGHWAY

(Steve Earle, 1986, photographer unknown)

Session No.13 for BrooklynRadio.Net
Download: "Out Here On This Highway"
Songs for late nights and open roads. Produced by LEE SANFORD and TOM GEHRING. This is our take on the country music and classic rock radio we heard growing up and like all Midnight Rockers shows this is also a vision for how we wish New York's FM dial would sound today. A station you could tune in to late-night somewhere down the Jersey turnpike at the start of a long road trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains. A tank full of biodiesel, a 50 of the sour kind and the MRE playing loud on the box.

Recorded high above Grand Central at Tom's studio on a Friday night. Brought to you by Jameson and Buffalo Trace. This is a rockers ladies and gentlemen.

01. Led Zeppelin - "Tangerine" - Atlantic
From the essential Led Zeppelin III.

02. Carlon - "Cantaloupe" - Ropeadope
One of the best songs I've heard so far in 2009. My Morning Jacket and Fleet Foxes have opened the spaces for them to come in to with this exciting sound. Tommy Rockers with this discovery - the bass player works at his studio. But not for long I hope as this should be their year.
- LEE

03. Steve Earle - "Transcendental Blues" - Artemis
He sang the opening theme to The Wire and fans of the series may recognize him as the drug counselor in the last season but he's a legendary figure in American roots music. He has a career going back twenty years giving us songs that address war and politics and songs that deal with our more personal struggles. But it's not always records to make you think as he's made plenty of country rockers for when it's just time to drink.

Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris "Goodbye" live
Steve Earle and The Pogues recording session
"Copperhead Road" on Late Night With David Letterman

04. The Raconteurs - "It Ain't Easy" (BBC Sessions) - Third Man / XL
A David Bowie cover as a B-side to the 7" single of "Hands". Vinyl, digital, videos, touring, non-stop new bands, exciting ideas, music for the kids and the older heads, balancing creativity and smart business - Jack White kicks the music biz in the ass every year showing how it should be done.

The Raconteurs live

05. The White Stripes - "In The Cold, Cold Night - Third Man / XL
B-side to the "Elephant" 7" single.

06. The War On Drugs - "Taking The Farm" - Secretly Canadian

07. Kings Of Leon - "Knocked Up" (Lykke Li Vs Rodeo) - RCA
Kings Of Leon live at Glastonbury

08. My Morning Jacket - "Golden" - ATO

09. Fleet Foxes - "Blue Ridge Mountain" (La Blogotheque Version) - SupPop
The sound of their voices ricocheting around that empty room produces a beautiful chaos that has the kind of life a part of their album was missing. Blogotheque is proving vital to the new music scene and we're thankful for the stellar work they produce.
.

10. Bruce Springsteen - "Reason To Believe" (Live) - Columbia

11. Led Zeppelin - "How Many More Times" (BBC Sessions) - Atlantic
12. Carlon - "Have A Window" - Ropeadope

13. The Highwaymen - "Highwayman" - Columbia
I was eight years old when Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferon became The Highwaymen. My father was always into country music, particularly The Outlaws, so he was loving it when an album came out with four of his favorites in one group. At that age I didn't have much interest in music and didn't care about what was on when we were driving somewhere. But there was something about "Highwayman" that really struck me as a kid when I heard those iconic voices. Whenever we would be on a long car trip I'd make him play this song on repeat, over and over until I passed out asleep in the back seat of the Ram Charger. God bless him, he did it every time.

As I hit my teens in the early 90's I got deep into hip-hop and heard some of the best music the genre had to offer. Of course at that point I couldn't stand country music and the two of us weren't going to be vibing to Mobb Deep or KRS on road trips at anytime. But now I enjoy recordings by Merle Haggard or Townes Van Zandt as much as Illmatic. I'm looking forward to my next visit to south Georgia, take my dad for a ride in the pickup, put on Midnight Rockers and play him "Highwayman". Full circle, Pop.
- TOM GEHRING



The Outlaws (Waylon and Willie) "Good Hearted Woman"
The Highwaymen "They Killed Him"
Neil Young and Waylon Jennings
Townes Van Zandt documentary trailer
Merle Haggard

14. Tom Petty - "Crawling Back To You" - Warner Bros

15. Steve Miller Band - "Wild Mountain Honey" - Capitol

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Related:
Willie Nelson and Jesse Ventura talk about the banks, the farmers, 9/11 and the state of the nation on Willie's tour bus.

MRE13 PROMO VIDEO

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A very bad sinking feeling is setting in as it appears the only real change has been big oil to big banks and Wall Street. Was it all too good to be true?

"The change it had to come, We knew it all along, We were liberated from the fold - that's all, And the world looks just the same...
There's nothing in the streets, Looks any different to me, And the slogans are replaced, by the bye...
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss"
- The Who / "Won't Get Fooled Again"

ROOTS MUSIC

"We play want we to play, when we want to play it, how we want to play it. And we have a reason why we play it"

IMAGES: BRUCE DAVIDSON

Photographs from the books Subway and East 100th St (below), by Magnum photographer Bruce Davidson. Buy his books when you find them. The latest edition of Subway features 42 additional photographs and a forward by Fab 5 Freddy.


- LEE SANFORD / MRE

DOWNLOAD: MRE12 / CAN'T COME DOWN

(Larry Mullen Jr of U2 photographed by Anton Corbijn, 1988)

Session No.12 for BrooklynRadio.Net
Download: "Can't Come Down"
DJ CARLOS RAMOS mixes up the big beats from the big bands.
It's non-stop classic rock, 80's college rock, post-punk kraut rock, Brasil rock, stadium rock...strictly rockers! Produced by LEE SANFORD and CARLOS RAMOS for the MRE.

01. U2 - "Hallelujah Here She Comes" - Island

Rattle&Hum era U2, before they started their final descent into Euro-trashiness they were the coolest band on the planet. This B-side to the "Desire" 12" is better than most of their A-sides lately.
- LEE

"Desire", The Stone Roses, INXS, all the big rock 12" singles would get mixed up with hip-hop and dance tracks for my nights at Iguana's on Park Ave. This was for a celebrity crowd that came out to the parties thrown by Downtown Julie Brown. Supermodels, Sylvester Stallone, Darryl Strawberry and Vanna White (!?) partied there.
- CARLOS

02. Rheingold - "Dreiklangs-Dimensionen" - EMI Electrola
Like every poor kid looking for a way out I enlisted when I turned 18. I was stationed in northern Germany when I was in the Army. We would go to a club called Kraftwerk where they played this record and Grauzone. They'd have rows of motorcycles out front and the German kids were all in leather jackets. The ceiling eventually caved in. Did I know it was the Cold War? No, we were kids, it was more of "when in Rome do as the Romans"...so we partied and I bought the records I was hearing in the clubs.
- CARLOS

03. Pink Floyd - "Another Brick In The Wall" - Columbia
Another big band from when I was in Germany. There was a club called The Mayflower. It was a replica of the ship complete with sails and each deck was a different room. On the main deck the DJ was this Turkish guy who wore Indian war paint when he was spinning. He'd play Floyd's "Money" or Led Zeppelin. Big records played loud. They didn't mix over there so I came to appreciate the art of playing one record, letting it end and then the impact of the next one starting clean.
- CARLOS

04. The Stone Roses - "One Love" - Silvertone

05. Sinead O'Connor - "The Emperor's New Clothes" - Ensign

06. Dessau - "Isolation" - Carlyle
From the sets I would play in Miami and around Florida in the late '80's. This and The Cult, The Cure and industrial like Front 242 was for a hard partying afterwork crowd and for the goth kids that would float into the club after midnight.
- CARLOS

07. Grauzone - "Eisbaer" - Off Course

08. Echo & The Bunnymen - "Lips Like Sugar" - Sire
I can't front, I got introduced to this group through the Pretty In Pink soundtrack. They're a great band whose discography runs far deeper than most people think. I saw them play at Radio City on their tour last year. Powerful music.
- LEE

09. The Cult - "She Sells Sanctuary" - Beggars Banquet

10. The Clash - "Armagideon Time" (MRE Edit) - Epic
One of my favorite tracks. The lyrics relate to what we're still dealing with today.
- CARLOS

11. The Police - "Spirits In The Material World" - A&M
12. The Police- "So Lonely" - A&M

13. Os Paralamas Do Sucesso- "Melo Do Marinheiro" - EMI Brasil
These guys would play at SOB's. A cool young band from Brazil. They loved The Police and Run-DMC. I'd take them record shopping to Vinyl Mania around the corner and we'd hang out when they came to town.
- CARLOS

14. UB40- "Reefer Madness" - Graduate

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Mumford And Sons will be playing at SXSW.

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The Invisible with a Chic bassline, some UK soul and a Chicago steppers groove. MRE's jam of the jams right now.

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From the upcoming MRE12. Selected and mixed by CARLOS RAMOS.

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DJ CARLOS RAMOS mixing a big beat special for MRE12. Strictly big time rockers from The Clash, The Stone Roses, U2, The Cult, Echo & The Bunnymen, Pink Floyd and more. Coming soon to Brooklyn Radio.

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