UPDATE 2/2/12: I removed the "Turkey In The Straw" video and replaced it with "Colonel Corn" because it's not only better, it's really just totally great.*
Freddie Fisher & The Schnickelfritz Band were a fun, nutty novelty band from the 1930s, pre-dating Spike Jone's debut in 1942, and if their music has a familiar sound to readers of this blog, they should - most of the members left band leader Fisher and formed the Korn Kobblers. A nice person has posted an album of Fisher & Co. songs of wildly-varying sound quality, but hey, it's free, so who can complain? Gonna have to find an album by these guys. For further study...
Bubo, Tuco & Tumbo are one and the same, making inexplicable instrumental (with vocal gibberish) thoroughly obscure music that is by turns, annoying, fascinating, grating, compelling, always highly original, and frequently rewarding. They exist in that rarefied world of abstract esotericists like Zoviet France, or Nurse With Wound.
I literally have no idea how most of this music was made. It's not jazz, tho it sounds improvised at times, and doesn't sound especially electronic - there's an organic hands-on feel to these steadly-thumping rhythms that just go shambling on along like some Rube Goldberg device (perhaps machines were used?) as all manner of hard-to-identify mystery sounds create dense, odd textures; it's self-described as "Totally Free - SoundAndFormDeconstructor -CrumblingAntiMusic."
It's a hugely prolific project - when I was first contacted, 12 releases were up and I see some more have been added, but much of it is of a visual nature. And like our old pal The Everyday Film, I've been given not a shred of explanation or biographical information. When I asked, they replied:
-You should create your own opinion about these lines. It's better if you first listen to all the albums.
-I have no web space other than mail. Bubo/Tuco/Tumbo is my temporary project. I am a painter; took a long break away from other projects earlier this year and devoted some time to creative areas in which I have no natural talents, skills or knowledge.
Material that arrived to you, was created between March and August 2011.
-Bubo/Tuco/Tumbo is only the soundscape for an art catalog which is now nearing completion and will be totally free, just like Bubo/Tuco/Tumbo vibrations – this material is in no way intended for marketing but is meant as collective property.
-BuboTucoTumbo of Humal/Animan Collective All free downloads, all available here:
The first batch: I started with album #1 and wasn't sure if I'd continue - it's mostly in the Hafler Trio/Derek Bailey school of plunk-and-scrape improv that doesn't do much for me. But the final 3 tracks really got me, and I continued to find some really good stuff scattered throughout, e.g.: "Reverberatordog" on album #5; the first couple tracks on #6, an album that features lots of amusing jibbering/chattering; and what are those sounds on #7: porn on one track? Monkeys on another? It all makes the Residents sound like Air Supply. "APOPHENIANIMALS" on #8 is really good, tho it doesn't need to be 19 minutes long.
#9 is called "THE BEST OF TUCO," and they ain't kidding. The whole thing's pretty solid - start with this one.
The second batch (all album titles named after lines from "The Good The Bad & The Ugly" for some reason): "TUCO -1- A" is a pretty interesting album, tho I can't tell if it's on-line anymore. It, like, "TUCO -1-B" feature some atonal Jandek-like guitar thrumming (I like tracks # 134 and 139). Much of "TUCO - 2 - A" sounds like hitting guitar strings with drumsticks, except for the last track, the ghostly disembodied voices of track # 152. And since that album also seems to be off right now, check it out in all it's 15-minute glory:
TUCO -2- B starts with industrial drones and silences, ends with string instrument scraping. I like #156. "TUCO -3- B" is nothing but noise tracks, all exactly 1:15 long. Didn't like.
That's as far as I've got. Along with some lovely artwork, they've added some new albums since - anyone want to check 'em out and leave a comment? Color me intrigued...
As I wrote back in '06: In 1995, The Phoeniz (AZ) New Times received a demo tape from one John North Wright. The tape began with the growly voice of a middle-to-senior aged man announcing, ""Hi, I'm John Wright. Uh . . . all these songs are copyrighted 1985, words and music by myself. Uh, conceptually, they form the songs for a, uh, rock video opera I have written in my mind. It's set mostly in Hawaii and the Orient. It's called Teenage Volleyballers." What follows is an interminable tuneless guitar & voice meditation on, yup, teenage volleyballers, with little to say about them except that they're "out of sight."...Obsolete slang, hilariously inept music, and a generally creepy pedophile-ish aura all come to together to create the stuff of outside-music legend.
John North Wright Soundcloud page Wright was an anti-Semetic paranoid conspiracy-theorist and Dylan-influenced singer songwriter (tho he blamed Dylan for telepathically stealing his woman) from Port Huron, MI (he pronounced it "Port Urine") and left this world back in '04, but thanks to the good people at Hott Lava, 15 songs (and possibly more to come) are now up for free listen/download. All the old 'hits' are featured, like "Teenage Volleyballers" and "Down In The Land Of Evil" which, as I wrote in a Wright update, has something to do with Satan's, er, "schlong." Some great new tracks have been added - "I'm On Medication" really is as good as its title. Outsider essentials.
Hyperscore is software originally intended by its creators at MIT's Media Lab as a toy for children - they would draw and paint on the monitor and music would result. But then Media Lab's Tod Machover introduced it to disabled folks like one Mr. Dan Ellsey of Boston. Quoth this LA Times article: "Born with cerebral palsy and unable to speak, he (Ellsey) was forced to communicate with a clumsy headset that pointed to letters to spell out words. He had little control of his body movements. He was in his early 30s, had never been more than five miles from where he was born and seemed doomed to spend a cocooned life in the hospital.
The Media Lab scientists designed a more refined headset for Ellsey that not only inspired him to compose (he turned out to have interesting musical ideas) but even allowed him to perform by controlling tempo, loudness and articulation. He blossomed, and Ellsey, while still a severely affected cerebral palsy patient, has become an active participant in the Hyperscore program, performing, making CDs and teaching other patients."
You can listen/buy his album "Masterpiece," featuring such interesting song titles as "My Musicalness" and "Our Musically":
So what's it sound like? Like instrumentals using synthetic versions of familiar sounds (strings, piano, drums) in unfamiliar ways - it all sounds a little off-kilter, like a drunken jazz band playing songs that unexpectedly lurch from part to part, then stopping in their tracks to repeat a passage over and over - not in a Minimalism sense, more in the needle-stuck-in-groove sense. The un-relaxing song "Relaxation" has an insistent snare drum relentlessly pounding away irregular rhythms. My fave on the brief (17 minute) collection is the accurately-named "Thrilling Trills." Music of no known genre.
Had a request from a reader in Morocco (!) for a few albums originally hosted by the late, great site Bellybongo. Tho I don't have albums by Lynn Rockwell or The Trilogy (anyone?), I am glad I had this little wonder. Deb Hyer played ramshackle one-man-band versions of late '60s/'70s easy-listening hits on garage-y guitar, sleazy electric organ, and one-note duck-quack sax. And then there's his singing - he may have been from Kentucky, but his sense of pitch was all over the map. Actually, the crude arrangements really improve the sappy nature of these songs, bringing them somewhere in between the punk raunch of The Modern Lovers or ? & The Mysterians, and the outsider chaos of The Shaggs. On "Bridge Over Trouble Water," however, it all just completely collapses. "Pain is all around"? He ain't kidding!
Comments to the Unusual Kentucky blog tell us that Hyer was a prolific lounge entertainer in his day, and he recorded another album called (gulp) "Nashville Streaker." Tho we still don't know why he was named 'Deb.' Deb Hyer "One Man Band "
1. One Man Band 2. If I Had a Million 3. Too Late To Turn Back Now 4. Baby Dont Get Hooked on Me 5. Proud Mary 6. till I Meet You 7. I Believe In Music 8. Bridge Over Troubled Water 9. Joy To the World 10. Rock and Roll Lullaby 11. Someday 12. Help Me Make It Through the Night
TAKE NOTE! Update your address books, because in a month or so, my only email address will be:
mrfab3@hotmail.com
Yep, hotmail - the first email address I ever got, back in the 1900s. Remember the days? Horse-drawn wagons...gals in bonnets...barn dances...how we got those barns to dance I'll never understand (boom-tish!). Anyway, I'm getting rid of hosting my own bandwidth - everything's blogspot, mediafire and divshare from now on. Will save me plenty of $, so if there's anything you want to download from the old days, do it now. Otherwise, write me/leave a comment, and I'll re-up on divshare or sumthin. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Last week was my 6th appearance (I counted!) guest dj-ing on legendary weird-ologist Greg Bishop's show Radio Misterioso, and Greg thinks it might be the strangest one yet. He has posted it for your listening/downloading pleasure: Music For Maniacs on Radio Misterioso
"Plan Nine From Outer Space" intro talk EJH (Electronic Jew’s Harp) "Skyer" [thanks to Rich from Kill Ugly Radio] David Leibe Hart "Ring Out The New Year" [from new Best Of cassette] Stock Hausen & Walkman "Index" Jean-Jacques Perrey "Crazy Crow & Daffyduck" Mel Blanc "Daffy Duck's Rhapsody" Mel Blanc "Daffy Duck drug PSA" Bernie Sizzey (Solitaire) "Smokin' and Trippin' Song" "The Hippie Revolt" film ad Ben Colder "The Love-In" Lothar & The Hand People "L-O-V-E (Ask For it By Name)" Rascal Reporters "Freaks Obscure" Lalo Schifren "Be Happy Again (Jingle of the Future)" Longmont Potion Castle "Rec Center" The Korn Kobblers "The Light Turned Red" Duangdao Mondara & Chailai "Muhammad Ali (Black Superman)"
talk
"Space is So Startling" (original London cast recording): "Sleep on! /Millions of years ago /Why worry? /It would help a lot to squat" Twink The Toy Piano Band "Tough Cookie" Messer Chups "Voodoo Man" The Spotniks "Rocket Man" [see the video we were talking about HERE] William Shatner "Rocket Man" [not the well-known video version, but a new studio remake] "Space is So Startling": "The world can be one family/Space is So Startling" Bill Cosby "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" Ted Mazio Percussion Group "I Didn't Know What Time It Was" D.A.F. "Die Fesche Lola" Shoji Tabuchi "Orange Blossom Special" King Kennytone & His Top Toppers "Sussy Twist" Bogard Brothers "I'm In Love" The Hathaway Family Plot "Means of Production" Ace of Clubs "Rehab Dem Bones" [Amy Winehouse vs Herman Munster mashup] David Leibe Hart "That Girl" [previously unreleased tune from new Best Of cassette] Department of Crooks "Plan Nine From Las Vegas" Hoosier Hot Shots "Etiquette Blues"
"Compost" is the aptly-titled 16 minute free download mini-album courtesy of of Nova Scotia, Canada's J fm. He grabs samples of pop music detritus, throws 'em in a grinder and makes hazy lo-fi audio mulch. Fans (like me) of the L.A. Free Music Society's woozy tape-loop shenanigans from the likes of Tom Recchion and Dinosaurs With Horns will dig this. Mr. J fm sez: "i just record onto a tape from my sp404, i carry a solid lil dictophone around and grab samples anywhere i can, everything's game. those sounds get treated, trashed and put into a shape on the sampler." Download it from the Divorce label website
Oh, my overflowing in-box! Now that I'm back from vacation, I simply MUST tell you about:
- Yrs truly, Mr Fab, will once again be spinning all the platters that matter for that internet host with the most, Spacebrother Greg, on his Radio Misterioso program this Sun. Jan 8th, 8:00 PST on killradio.org: two solid hours of as many strange sounds as we can cram in, including lotsa stuff I haven't posted here.
- RIAA's last (?) ever album "The Wonderful World of Sound" is now available for free download. 21 big hunks of mashup/sound collage goodness.
- The Amazing Australian Sound-Effects Bird can do more then say "Polly Wanna Cracker" - he can imitate stuff like power tools, water dripping, and a truck backing up. Made me laff!
- Bastiaan Maris' Large Hot Pipe Organ plays music by shooting fire thru tubes of different lengths; a 2 track ep is available that I'll have to track down, but 'til then, here's the monster at work:
- "Sin-atra" is a heavy-metal tribute to Frank Sinatra. Uh-huh. And it works about as well as you would expect, with results ranging from "actually, this is kinda cool" (Dee Snider's "Kashmir"-inspired version of "It Was A Very Good Year") to "train-wreck" and/or "hilarious" (pretty much the rest of the album). Members of Anthrax and Cheap Trick, among other metal stars, appear. Listen HERE for, if no other reason, proof that the world may have lost it's collective mind.
Thanks to windy & Whizzdumb (sounds like some old show-biz team!) for the tips.
Here we are, back from vacation, ready to...go back on vacation. So let's warm up these darkest depths of winter with one of the most expensive exotica albums ever. Yep, this one goes for hundreds of dollars on ebay, and I have no idea why. For one thing, it's not a music album so much as a tourist souvenir record, complete with nerdy narration. As such, it's a fascinating time-travel back to '60s kitsch America, but the one-man organ band ain't exactly on the order of Les Baxter's complex arrangements (tho Princess Carloa's "Hawaiian Wedding Song" is beautifully sung). Tropical birds, waterfalls, ocean waves, and a volcano also make guest appearances.
Florida's Tiki Gardens was built in 1963. Alas, it was sold in 1990 and demolished - just before the tiki revival.
Exotic Sounds of Tiki Gardens includes: "Torch Lighting Ceremony," "Selected Sounds of Tiki Gardens," "Polynesian Fantasy Theme Song ."
UPDATE 2/2/12: I removed the "Turkey In The Straw" video and replaced it with "Colonel Corn" because it's not only better, it's really just totally great.*
