LINK-O-RAMA

A collection of miscellany, including albums I've been meaning to pick up for a while, but who knows when that'll be:

Maxence Cyren: French classical pianist does instrumental versions of electronic faves from the likes of Depeche Mode, Aphex Twin, Massive Attack, etc. Quite lovely.

Teddy and the Frat Girls: From Post-Punk Junk, a site that usually offers more artsy rock like The Fall, Magazine, etc., comes this 1980 collection that makes quite a case for hillbilly punk, and not just the tongue-in-cheek stuff like Mojo Nixon or Southern Culture on the Skids. The homemade sound of the recording, primitive one-chord guitar and obscenity-laden howl of a female "singer" screaming about laxatives is actually one of the more disturbing things I've heard lately. In other words, I love it.

Musics In The Margin: Outsider-music collection features our old pals Wesley Willis and Daniel Johnston, as well as a number of unknown (to me) European artists. Interesting review here.

Your Dogs Horoscope

J.M. Nasim – The Psychedelic Jew's Harp - "As an ancient shamanic instrument, the Jew's Harp continues to be used for healing by the peoples of Mongolia and Siberia...The Jew's Harp's power as a courtship instrument from Bavaria to the Philippines alludes to a potent psychosexual association." A New Age guy plays a jew's harp thru electonic effects processors - hey, maybe some hippie music is cool!

Music From The Voids Of Outer Space

Space Brother, host of KillRadio.org's Radio Mysterioso, hepped me to some amazing stuff recently, such as the music of legendary UK eccentric Desmond Leslie. Leslie's bio includes such as highlights as being a RAF fighter pilot, punching out a film critic in front of millions on TV for dissing his wife, co-authoring one the first books about UFOs, living in Castle Leslie, and creating electronic/tape music in the 1950s. This music was never widely released, but a recent CD entitled "Music Of The Future" compiles his bizarre, fascinating Space Age sounds. Some were allegedly recorded for a film called "The Day The Sky Fell In," some from a collection called "Music From The Voids Of Outer Space."

Desmond Leslie: "Play In/Mercury, Fleet Messenger of The Gods" - Quothe Leslie, "My MUSIQUE CONCRETE is meant to be enjoyed."

I could not find any info whatsover on this Space Age rock/Latin oddity, but it's a, er, blast:

Sam Space and the Cadettes: "Take Me To Your Leader Cha Cha"



Big astro-thanks to Space Brother!

BOB VIDO: THE GREATEST FRIDGENOMETER OF ALL

Quothe Ren & Stimpy: "Happy happy, joy joy" - The Bob Vido album is now available. And you can get the whole thing for $10 on iTunes (it doesn't appear to be available anywhere else). If you're new to Vido's wonderful weirdness, here's my original post about him.

It's a Two-For-Tuesday! Two short songs I stuck together, both had me chortling out loud:

"Las Vegas Jubilee/Girls Delight" - From side one, the "song" side, as opposed to the beserk instrumental side of the album...

Now THIS is what those VH1 "Diva" Specials Should Be Like...

Wing has been busy since we last visited the Chinese/Kiwi songbird - she has two new albums, including a (be still my heart) Elvis tribute. It's everything you want and more - her trademark thick accent, high warbly vocals, and Casio-phonic production.

Wing "Suspicious Minds"

Hello, Autumn is, for now, a young lady named Bethanne from Lansing MI. But she hopes to start a band to play her songs. She claims as influences The Beatles, rappers G-Unit, and '70s punk, but I'll be darned if I can hear their influences, except perhaps the spirit, if not sound, of punk - her no-fi confessionals possess nothing in the way of traditional melody or song structure, but plenty of Shaggs-ian sincerity. Unlike, say, Rhonda or Sondra Prill, she isn't full of herself. Quite the opposite - self-deprecating songs like "You Broke Me" and "Never Getting Married" highlight some serious esteem issues.

Hello, Autumn "Superbubble" - who needs three chords when you've got one note.

And, hey, speaking of Rhonda, bet you'd like to hear another one of her songs. You don't? Too bad.

Rhonda "My Dress Code" - Don't worry, it's over in less then a minute-and-a-half.

THE RAT PACK'S BACK

Two new bits of "tech-xotica" music from RIAA:

"I Only Hustle For You" - Sinatra does The Hustle (Van McCoy); beats and Brazilian percussion courtesy of BossaCucaNova.

"Kick Bob Marley In The Head" - Dean Martin sings with little alien munchkins over Marley's "One Love." Kinda trippy.

Sammy Davis Jr. gets on a bus. Bus driver says, " Go to the back of the bus"! Sammy says, "But I'm Jewish!" Bus driver says, "Get off the bus!"

An old piano-bar lounge singer named Buddy Worth told that joke during one of his shows. That was in the early '90s; don't know if he's still around.

UPDATE: These songs are now available on the album "Tech-xotica!!"

CRAPPERS DELIGHT mp3s

I recorded the audio from the Wendy's training video, and Denny Blazin:

Wendy's training video rap

Denny Blazin Hazen - "Average Homeboy"

Enjoy!



Er, perhaps that's not the right word...how about

Withstand!

CRAPPERS DELIGHT pt2

In all the hubbub over YouTube, I have yet to hear about how it has become one of the greatest sources of strange and outside music. I mean, that's the important thing, right?

Wendys Training Video - learn how to make burgers via a hysterical, vintage-'80s rap song. Classic.

Another one I might rip the audio from to make an mp3.

FUNKY MUPPETS pt 3

Now that Phil'n'Dog's website is back up, we can take you back to the UK, year: 2003, and revel in the splendor that IS "Gay Muppet Bar." After Electric 6 released the acapella to "Gay Bar" there were jillions of mashups and remixes of it, but crossing it with the Muppet Show theme was the most, daddy. (And for some reason I'm not able to link to the mp3 - check their site under "Music.")

PROG-LOUNGE: BLUES FOR PLUTO

So Pluto can't sit in the dining room with all the grown-up planets - it has to sit at the rickety card-table with the kids. And I can't find any songs about Pluto. Are there any? On this page of mp3s, not even any of these wonderful late-'50s "Space Songs" for kids mentions the former ninth planet. Hell, even Uranus gets its own, albeit crappy, song: "Journey To The Seventh Planet," the theme song to a delightfuly bad '50s sci-fi flick*.

At least Frank Sinatra mentions Pluto (in the most disparaging of terms) in this excerpt from his most bizarre recording, "Reflections on the Future," from his 1977 3-record set "Trilogy." All of the third disk was a conceptual song-cycle by Gordon Jenkins, who practically invented the concept album - my 1949 copy of his New York-themed "Manhattan Tower" is the oldest LP in my collection.

Frank Sinatra - "Reflections on the Future (excerpt)" - a groovy trip thru the solar system; and when he sings "Uranus is heaven" he doesn't pronounce it the way you would have.




*Big thanks to the awesome Essential Ghouls Record Shelf

HALLOWEEN DAMAGE

Last year I pointed your way towards the "Ghouls With Attitude" collection of vintage Halloween tuneage. Katya from Oddio Overplay (hosts of the collection) sez:

"Everyone can still download that 2-CD set and the Martinibomb cut at OddioOverplay.com. Also, we have a scary project in the works for this year. All are invited to join us!

Boogity!"

"Ghouls With Attitude" was goofy fun, but they want genuine hair-raising chiller-thrillers this year. And to get you in the mood, they've compiled:

"Halloween Damage" - Spectacular hour's worth of horror soundtrack action.