HAPPY ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY !!!

Has it been a year already? Well today it is and a good year for Constantinople it was. When I first came up with the idea of starting this blog I never thought that a year would go by with a continued interest in keeping things going on here but I made it and I gotta say that it was fun posting the music that for the most part means so much to me. True, there are so many great music blogs to browse on the internet and I wanna thank all the people who discovered this blog and kept coming back to it day after day.....it really means alot to me and makes me feel like I am not wasting my time. Special thanks go out to all the other blogs who liked what I was doing enough to add Constantinople to their lists of "blogs to check out", it very much helped in getting recognized. Also, I noticed that during the year 33 different people became followers to the blog...not that bad !! Let's keep that going strong. All the posting comments have been special as well. It would be nice to have more but I can't complain as it is the thought matters the most. A shout out also must go to my boy Fence Wilson who has been the most consistant in posting comments.....most of which have been entertaining. Again, thank you to all !!! And now....Constantinople continues.

The ten album covers to the left do not particularly represent some kind of mega-posting of sorts. Those ten albums represent the fact that as of tomorrow (8/31/10) Constantinople will be one year old and to celebrate I decided to re-post the top 10 most downloaded albums from since this blog started. Several different genres are present here and I must say that I was surprised at the results. All you Constantinople-ites have an eclectic taste in music and....well what do ya know? there are two Residents albums in the top ten. So many other great albums came close to making this list but there can only be ten! And now I bring you the highlights (if you will) from the first year of Constantinople. Enjoy !!!

1. THE RESIDENTS - Meet The Residents
http://www.mediafire.com/?aizmlwjxaym

2. THE ORB - The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
http://www.mediafire.com/?5j5m2mbjnny

3. CAPTAIN BEEFHEART - Trout Mask Replica
http://www.mediafire.com/?zzkynmuyotn

4. RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR - 2
http://www.mediafire.com/?wyzz25zltom

5. MASSIVE ATTACK - Heligoland
http://www.mediafire.com/?5mzzq2dzndz

6. SCREAMING FEMALES - What If Someone Is Watching Their T.V. ?
http://www.mediafire.com/?njmnhxmnlmo

7. THE BIG PINK - A Brief History of Love
http://www.mediafire.com/?wi1iqzzqtxt

8. THE RESIDENTS - The Third Reich 'N Roll
http://www.mediafire.com/?5c4woonmmmd

9. PSYCHIC TV - Allegory And Self
http://www.mediafire.com/?lyiwdolly3j

10. TEDDYBEARS - Soft Machine
http://www.mediafire.com/?mynzjtm4cyt

JIM BREUER
Smoke 'n' Breu - (2002)

Comedian Jim Breuer is best-known for his more memorable characters and impressions on Saturday Night Live as well as his portrayal of the perpetually stoned Brian in the cult comedy hit Half Baked. Before both of these incarnations he was a successful standup comedian with an open love of partying and 1980s heavy metal music. These loves are fully represented on his CD Smoke and Breu, with bits about AC/DC, hallucinogenic drugs, and drinking. The CD also offers insights into his three years on SNL with stories about meeting Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro, experiences with fellow SNL actor Norm MacDonald, and the origins of his most famous character, Goat Boy. The entire performance is accompanied by a rock band made up of some of Breuer's childhood friends, which augments many of the jokes and allows the comic to display his uncanny ability to imitate the best heavy metal singers, including AC/DC's Brian Johnson. If there is anything lacking in the recording, it is that there are some gaps where Breuer is obviously performing more physical and visual comedy. It is obvious that the recording was culled from a performance originally staged for television and was simply adapted for this recording, but overall the CD satisfies both the casual fan and the most dedicated Jim Breuer follower. (allmusic.com)

http://www.mediafire.com/?ii81c9kfozf11wv

PJ HARVEY
Dry - (1992)

Polly Jean Harvey arrives fully formed as a songwriter on PJ Harvey's debut album, Dry. Borrowing its primitive attack from post-punk guitar rock and its form from the blues, Dry is a forceful collection of brutally emotional songs, highlighted by Harvey's deft lyricism and startling voice, as well as her trio's muscular sound. Her voice makes each song sound like it was an exposed nerve, but her lyrics aren't quite that simple. Shaded with metaphors and the occasional biblical allusion, Dry is essentially an assault on feminine conventions and expectations, and while there are layers of dark humor, they aren't particularly evident, since Harvey's singing is shockingly raw. Her vocals are perfectly complemented by the trio's ferocious pounding, which makes even the slow ballads sound like exercises in controlled fury. And that's the key to Dry: the songs, which are often surprisingly catchy — "Dress" and "Sheela-Na-Gig" both have strong hooks — are as muscular and forceful as the band's delivery, making the album a vibrant and fully realized debut.

http://www.mediafire.com/?bbmfa2r9ii799q5

MACHA
Macha - (1998)

The first album on which Athens, GA band Macha meld some of the dynamics of rock music with not just traditional Indonesian instruments but traditional gamelan music as well, is an unequivocably successful genetic mutation unlike any previously attempted in the American rock lexicon. It is not customary for a first attempt at such an exotic hybrid to manifest itself in such an accomplished way, but Macha have not simply cross-hatched styles on their eponymous debut album, they have infiltrated and melded their melodies with a tight grasp on the spirit of gamelan and a first-hand proficiency on the Javanese, Sumatran, and Nepalese instruments that they utilize. That is because, rather than simply being inspired by gamelan from a safe distance, multi-instrumentalists Josh McKay and Kai Riedl traveled to Indonesia on a couple of occasions to absorb the actual music as played by Indonesian musicians on the streets and in the dives from Western Java to Northern Bali. (A bonus disc's worth of the recordings they made there was included with a limited number of the CDs.) In addition to bringing back a load of instruments, the two brought back a legitimate love and appreciation for the music and a unique vision on how to make use of it. At this early stage in the band's development, the hybridization of the two musics was not yet absolute. On some songs, the gamelan instruments do not quite sink fully into the texture of the musical soundscape and on others are only cursorily present. Occasionally the rock elements on Macha seem to win out in the head-to-head-battle of the musical ingredients — "Cat Wants to Be Dog" has a slinky Love & Rockets feel to the verses, and Macha goes vaguely Stereolab-ish on parts of "Capital City" — but that is not at all a point of criticism. No matter how smoothly gamelan is or is not absorbed into the music — and on songs such as "When They First Saw the Floating World," "The Buddha Nature," "Double Life," and "Sama Sama," the band have already hit upon the perfect confluence of styles — the songs themselves are fabulous, and instruments such as Sumatran gongs and Nepalese Shawm chime and weave around the seductive, alien-sounding melodies. Macha is not quite consistent but it is consistently driving, expressive, and spiritually stimulating, even if it is not explicitely spiritually directed. In other words, there is a real sense of reaching toward transcendence even if the band did not exactly have that purpose in mind for the music when they created it. (allmusic.com)

http://www.mediafire.com/?t2fs2ydxrddpj9e

HARLAND WILLIAMS
Har-Larious - (2005)

Artist, actor, musician, and — believe it or not — children's author Harland Williams can definitely be Har-Larious, but it takes awhile for him to get there on his Comedy Central debut. He's simply telling jokes at the beginning of this St. Louis-sourced show and they're hit or miss, mostly hit but sometimes uncomfortably miss. He seems tripped-up by the non-reaction some of his jokes receive, but after a couple hit the target, he relaxes and lets loose his inner Harland. This means stringing together nonsensical words to explain improbable situations or interacting with the audience in an acerbic way that suggests Don Rickles on acid. The fact that the whole front row seems to work at the same Arbys sets Williams off on a funny bit that displays his underexposed skills at improv. His bit on the "Al Quedas" attacking buildings with blimps is very funny, but like a whole lot of Har-Larious, seeing the chin-less wonder deliver it would be even better. Mitch Hedberg and Dane Cook got the deluxe treatment from Comedy Central with loaded CD/DVD combos being released before Williams' mere CD. It's a shame, since the audience's enthusiastic laughter at what are just pauses on-disc must mean the rubbery one is doing the facial contortions and awkward movements that play no small part in his rise to cult fame. As it is, Har-Larious is beneficial to the fan since his earlier, self-released albums are hard to come by. (allmusic.com)

http://www.mediafire.com/?wfxxq8vuwa1aww0

ATARI TEENAGE RIOT
Burn, Berlin, Burn - (1997)

This American compilation of the group's first two import-only albums — including five tracks from 1995's Delete Yourself and nine from 1997's The Future of War — offers a fair selection of songs, including the extreme noise terror of "Deutschland (Has Gotta Die)" and "Into the Riot." If there is one drawback, it's that Burn, Berlin, Burn lacks the coherence and flow of Atari Teenage Riot's proper albums. Still, in lieu of forking over 50 dollars for the imports, it's a much wiser purchase.

http://www.mediafire.com/?cm5woatbyyhydum