Music News

It’s Valentine’s Day 2022, a 20th anniversary for The Kills and a sweet memory for MusicFilter

Congratulations to Alison and Jamie “The Kills”. This news reminds of a poignant moment in MusicFilter history since The Kills first album “Keep On Your Mean Side” would become BMF’s very first album review on April 21, 2003 for his newly launched site. The Kills got their own “page” and their album was the first to make the new sidebar and we were so excited about it. This album will always remain a favorite and I imagine it contains those five songs.

Web technology has come a long way since 2003. We used to install a MP3 song sample and that was quite the process but we loved it so much. Now it’s just posting a link to get the whole deal. If you haven’t played this album a hundred times already … get ready:

True love is everlasting and never forgotten and this will serve as a sweet Valentine for me today. I’ll listen to these songs again and remember those days with you. Miss you madly.

#57bmf4ever

Tribute to The Kills on MusicFilter

The Kills @ The Earl in Atlanta 2005

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The Musica – #57bmf4ever

I’ve discovered there are unexplained things that happen after a loved one dies to remind you their spirit surrounds you. It usually comes at a time when you are really missing your person (which can happen everyday) or it can come just randomly for no reason at all. Now almost five years later I still crave and hope for those moments. Tears still hit and my love for BMF is just as strong as ever. I call these the signs of 57 and I write it about it a lot and I think about it all the time. It thrills me and makes me smile. I had one of those signs happen today.

Naturally Jeff had lots of music equipment and in 2006 I gave him a Olive Musica server with a 160GB hard drive for his birthday. The Musica is a wireless media hub that connects to the digital music library on your computer and has capability to rip and burn CD’s directly to the machine. It was considered a break thru technology in 2006. Jeff wrote lots about it over time and he loved it’s capabilities even though now it’s pretty obsolete considering today’s technology. The company who produced it is now defunct and I laughed when I saw their original website is for sale for $9995. Olive was a small company selling expensive equipment that could only be purchased directly from them. Jeff was very grateful for his birthday gift that year. He spent many hours sorting and moving downloaded MP3’s and burning his collection of CDs to it and I think it holds over 10,000 songs. It’s one of those items I’ll always keep because it holds his vast digital music collection and he loved it so much. (Article about the Olive Musica)

Unfortunately the Olive Musica had problems from the get go. In fact Jeff had to send the Musica back to Olive to fix technical glitches more than once. But he remained a loyal fan and was still using it when he died in 2016. He had recently upgraded his sound system during a remodel at the punk rock house and the Musica was a favorite component. He liked being the expert on the sound system and he controlled the music around our home. I liked most everything he liked except maybe Unknown Hinson. I knew little about how to use the system even though he tried to show me many times and he put together detailed instructions in the months before his death. Still it has been pretty much over my head.

After Jeff died the time came that I moved and everything was carefully packed and put into storage. When I had a system installed at the new place, I told Ben the sound guy that it was very important the Musica be carefully integrated. Ben understood and installed the Musica but warned it might turn tricky since it was an outdated piece of equipment. He was right. It has rarely worked properly. Disappointing for sure but with so many resources to play music I finally just stopped thinking about it. Until this morning when the Musica came on without assistance and played four BMF hard core songs to remind me to never forget. I wished it would have played all day but I’ll take what I get. Thank you 57. I love you. ~mc  #57bmf4ever

Olive Music Shiznet

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In Memoriam: Jeff Jackson 8/5/1968 to 4/24/2016

Today I opened a box of your cassette tapes. I found one with SONGS written in your chicken scratch. On the spine you wrote “My Life’s Songs” and inside a list of songs. Most of your tapes are dated but not this one. The Guns N Roses songs are the newest ones on the list and that was 1993, long before I knew you. You would have been 25. You must have been suffering some kind of heartbreak, and you were struggling with the demons young guys like you have in life. It’s clear that even two decades later most of these songs would still burn for you and for me. But it turned out 1993 was not to be the end of your time and your life’s songs would expand. In 1993 you could not know that you would only live just a couple more decades. You would have a lot more music to come, and you would learn to be happy. You lived a lot of life in a short time, and we were lucky to have some of that time together. I just wish it could have been always with you. You died on this day three years ago. Every day I miss your smell, your voice, your kindness, your love and your lips on mine. But I am surrounded every day with these memories and that will keep me content for a long time to come. We’ll never say goodbye.

Jeff Jackson 8/5/1968 to 4/24/16 #57bmf4ever
Together we were fucking special.

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