The Sound of the Night Howard Finster Got Saved

I first write about Howard Finster HERE, where I described it thusly:
Although Rev. Howard Finster, a preacher from rural Georgia with little formal education whose paintings went so far as to become REM and Talking Heads album covers, may be America's best known folk artist, he also had a little-discussed musical side. The album "The Night Howard Finster Got Saved" is largely dedicated to spoken-word tracks, but there's some ace tunes on it as well. Singing in a high'n' lonesome twang, playing guitar, harmonica, and...piano, Finster's music should sound familiar to anyone who's heard the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack."

After receiving a comment asking for more last August, I looked into it and it turns out that the album is now out-of-print and pricey, so I could indeed put the whole thing up. Only I couldn't find my copy. Recently whilst looking for something else entirely, I did found my copy and here 'tis:

The Night Howard Finster Got Saved

There's much to enjoy here: Finster's old-fashioned Southern speech, his charmingly out-of-tune piano, the passionate singing. One of the spoken-work tracks, "Last Call I Had," is particular stirring, as Finster describes how he talked a suicidal New Yorker out of jumping, over the phone. But the climactic title track truly must be heard to be believed - over two different tape recordings playing two different fiery Finster sermons, the good rev. sings, shouts, whistles, whoops and hollers over the din. For 25 minutes. Absolutely mental.
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"HERE'S A PICTURE FROM CORONER AND KNIVES..."

Al Duvall is a contemporary New Yorker with the soul of an old time American snake-oil salesmen, a P.T. Barnum of bad puns, black humor and banjo pickin'. He's the Tom Lehrer of bluegrass, cheerfully singing surreal lyrics unpredictably capable of eliciting gasps of astonished laughter.

His thoroughly entertaining album "Coroner and Knives" came out a few years back and it's contents range from almost-punk energy levels (tho all instrumentation is acoustic) to bluesy dirges:

Al Duvall "William Knave"
Al Duvall "Croaching in the Thicket"

This comes to us courtesy of dualPlover records from Australia (famed for M4M fave Singing Sadie), a label run by a guy who crushes his face into a bloody mess with glass outfitted with contact mics. Good news! The Free Music Archive has some of Duvall's tuneage available. I especially like "Where The Comet Falls" from his "Recluses Unite" album.
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WESTERN SOUNDSCAPE ARCHIVE

westernsoundscape.org/

The University of Utah has this insane idea to record all non-human areas of the American West. There are hundreds of wildlife/ambient recordings up so far. Read all about it.

Right now I'm in the Alaskan Arctic tundra (Brrrr!). At least, for 11 minutes. Some of the ambient soundscapes last for over an hour. It makes for addictive listening, and from both a scientific and aesthetic viewpoint, it's absolutely crucial.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge-Beaufort Lagoon-Tundra (060605-81)

The recordings can be detailed, but you gotta pump up the volume - the levels are pretty low.

All this Arctic stuff reminds me of Tanya Tagaq. She's an Inuit (Are they Eskimos? Or are they not called Eskimos anymore?) from far northern Canada who makes singing/grunting/beat-boxing a capella music that ranges from scary death-metal growls to orgasmic moans, sometimes coming off like Bjork choking on a whale sandwich, electronically looped into rhythmic dementia. It's supposedly based on traditional folkloric styles, but with artsy folks like Mike Patton and the Kronos Quartet guesting on her albums, I'd say she's sled-dogging off into fairly uncharted territory. In any case, it is some deeply weird stuff, even for this blog.

Tanya Tagaq - Qimiruluapik

Her most recent album has the string quartet backing, but I prefer the stark (mostly) voice-only sound of her debut. And it goes well mixed with the Arctic ambience I posted above.
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GOOD REVIEWS FOR BAD REVIEWS

It's getting harder to tell outsider music from lo-fi indie stuff. Well, whatever Bad Reviews is, it's acoustic guitars, sometimes distorted (more due to recording quality then a fuzz box), down 'n' depressed, but with occasional high-pitched vocals - Jandek & the Chipmunks?

No info whatsoever, just a 5 song on-line EP featuring a sad, gorgeous, dirty waltz. The title, near as I can tell, has nothing to do with the song itself.

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Bad Reviews: news.bbc.co.uk

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Want to irritate your roommate? Have house guests who won't leave? The song "(re-do vocal)" is as creepy as anything I've heard lately.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

No stress! No shopping! No snow! Just an accordian-driven Tex-Mex polka zydeco kinda thing played at punk intensity level from a veteran group who put on a mega-fun live show. Not only will you Chicken dance, you'll Hokey-Pokey.

Brave Combo - Christmas in July
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MID-YEAR MASHUP MARATHON

2009 has been a good year for illegally re-arranged music. On the top of my list so far: Muppet Mashup, a various artists collection by Boston's djBC and friends saluting "The Muppets" and "Sesame Street." It's start-to-finish solid. Fun for the whole family! Martinn (from The Netherlands) kicks things off with a brilliant combo of the Stray Cats and the "Muppet Show" theme, but I think this one from da man himself might be my fave:

dj BC: "I'm Happy On Sesame Street" featuring Edwin Starr, Lou Rawls, numerous Muppets and (sez bc) "The lead vocal is an acapella done by a little girl and her friends in a playground or schoolyard. Freaking genius stuff to work with!"

And DJ NoNo would like to remind you that HE is the king of Muppet mashes.

Three strange, surreal, super-fun surf-music mashups for the summer:

g3rst: "Surfbusters" (Ray Parker Jr vs The Tornadoes)
Zo0m: "What'd The Bulldog Say" (Ray Charles vs the Ventures, remembering the recently deceased guitar genius Bob Bogle)
MadMixMustang: "Dizz and The Boyz Getz To The Beach" ('50s bebop jazz vs The Beach Boys - how the hell does this work so well?!)

Foolklegs II comes to us from France, mixing mostly European folk music with some rather unlikely pop sounds. This various-artists collection is, like much great avant-pop, simultaneously both utterly alien and accessible. It's not all computer-made mashups either. Dig this bagpiped take on the Gorillaz:

DJ Zebra: "Dirty Harry"

Zebra's tunes on this collection are performed live. Album organizer Funky Belek sez: "The children's chorus is played on turntables, but it's a real bagad (a traditional band from Brittany / France) and Zebra plays guitar."

Also from France, Totom's excellent Bob Dylan mashup album just dropped. The Pixies vs "Blowin In The Wind" track in particular confirms that Totom is one of the best sound hackers we've got.

Straight Outta Ireland!!

Crazy leprechaun named Mr. Fab, from the gang called Paddies with Attitude. I'm of Irish descent, so I'm allowed to say that. Wasn't crazy about all the Catholic school, but I love corned beef & cabbage. Green beer is silly, but Irish-American comedians like Carlin and Denis Leary kick butt (especially when they make fun of Catholicism.) Irish folk music rocks, and I like hearing it mixed with bizarre, funny, illogical other musics. Henceforth I present an album's worth of Celtic mashups I've collected over the past 4 or 5 years, recorded by an international line-up. No U2! Or Riverdance!

Straight Outta Ireland

1. dj BC "Da Sound Of Da Irish Police Band"
2. RIAA "London Derriere"
3. N.W.Kilts "100 Miles N Jiggin"
4. Overdub "Give it to Ireland"
5. RIAA "It's Whiskey"
6. DJ Prince "Pick Up the Harmonium"
7. dj BC "The Reel Hip-Hop"
8. The Who Boys "Devil Is Dead Metal"
9. RIAA "Compton's In The Dingle"
10. JADMIX "Rising Shadow of the Moon"
11. DJ Topcat "Boondock Pain"
12. Dj erb "I'm Sprung (dj erb's St. Patty's Remix)"
13. Cheekyboy "Qtip vs Leprechaun"
14. DJ Shyboy "Shaved Head"
15. DJ Topcat "More Than On Point"
16. JADMIX "James Street"
17. RIAA "Bagpipes 'n' Breakdancing"

The rich history of Irish America is something most Americans know nothing about. Hell, Ireland is something most Americans know nothing about. (Lesson one: we're not British. Not even from the same island. Completely different history and language.) African Americans get "Black History Month." What do we get? Shamrock Shakes. Hence, St. Patrick's Day doesn't mean much. But it could, if done right. Can't the Kennedys do something about this?!

Bah! Humbug: The Alternative Christmas Album

"Bah! Humbug" is a now-deleted collection of acoustic satirical songs by a bunch of British folkies, with a couple classic American ringers from Tom Lehrer and Loudon Wainwright III. The low-key folk setting is an amusing contrast to such potentially dark material such as "The Man That Slits The Turkey's Throats At Christmas," a lovely acapella vocal number.
 
Funny stuff, and maybe just the thing if you're starting to get sick of Christmas music. Grab the whole thing here:

Bah! Humbug: An Alternative Christmas Album


Thanks to Santa Chris!

BAGPIPES FOR HEADBANGERS

Duuuude! Have you heard Eluveitie's latest album "Spirit"?

Whoooah! Those Swiss metal monsters have a new album of Celtic thrash? Awesome! I'm majorly into bagpipes, accordians and fiddles - they rock!

Totally. The whole album's solid - when the rock crunch gets a bit too heavy, they folk things up a bit.

It's like The Pogues meet Sabbath!

Yeah! Those death-metal vocals are still hella funny, though. Sorry, but it's true, especially when he's, er, "duetting" with a folkie chick. She's like "Tweedle deedle dee!" and he's all "Rowr rowr rowwrrrr." Weird. And lyrics are in Gaelic sometimes.

Huh huh, you said "Gay lick!"

No, "Gaelic," dumbass, like the ancient Celtic culture and whatnot. You know, like Druids 'n' shit.

So crank some, dude!

For sure man. Check out this tune. Starts out all scary and ambient, then gets down to business. All over in two and a half minutes.

YES!!!

Eluveitie: Spirit

All jocularity aside, these guys (pronounced el-VEY-ti) have turned in one of my fave albums of the year. Who'd have thought that Celtic-folk-metal would ever be a viable genre?

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Folkloric Bootlegs & Mashups A-Go-Go

FOOLKLEGS: From France comes this various-artists collection of international folk songs mixed and mashed with modern pop stylings guaranteed to piss off hippie folk music purists (yow, if they were upset when Dylan went electric, wait 'til they hear this.) It's not so unusual, though - it's basically the Moby "Play" concept, only stretched to include everything from Tuvan throat singing to the once-trendy (but still glorious) Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares gals, now merged skillfully with the likes of Beck, Timbaland, Cream and Peggy Lee.

Fred Doest "Hacid freak for my peops" Missy Elliot raps over a frantic Hasidic dance from Romania that reminds me of the "Benny Hill" theme; just so mental, it makes me laugh.

Funky Belek "J'entends le loup, le renard et Beyonce - The album's organizer contributes this gem: a traditional Brittany French tune vs. Beyonce's "Crazy" instrumental.

RIAA: "Revelation Fever" - Representing the U.S. of A: bluesman Son House sings an old spiritual over Peggy Lee.

And, in case you didn't see it on BoingBoing, also check out:

"Forgotten Hits," compiled by Simon Iddol, is another various-artists mashup collection exploring forgotten regions of the music world, this time old surf/soul/sleaze/jazz '50s/'60s instrumentals - out of print thrift-store vinyl obscurities mixed with the pop crap you thought you didn't like. But, see, even those maroons in Maroon Five sound as cool as Tom Jones with a groovy '60s go-go beat behind 'em:

DJ Earlybird - This Love Gets Lost

AUCTION ROCK

What's the fastest, most energetic music you've ever heard? Ivo Papasov's Bulgarian wedding music? Napalm Death's speed-metal? Yeah, well then you've never heard that pride of American folklore, the auctioneer. Technically, he's not a musician or singer - he has a job to do, and that's sell things at an auction. A real auction, not this eBay jazz. And we're not talking snooty silent city auctions either. Country auctioneers that sell produce, farm equipment, family estates, or, in today's case, livestock. I attended one auction in rural Colorado that sold anything that wasn't bolted down. The guy I saw there was good, but today we're celebrating the champs - the winners of the Livestock Marketing Association's annual World Livestock Auctioneer Championship. You can buy CDs and DVDs of entire shows, or just listen to mp3s of champs like 1964's

Cecil Ward - If you think this guy's insane, brace yourself for 2000's

Max Olvera - All acapella performances. Who's up for doing a remix?

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO HOWARD FINSTER

Although Rev. Howard Finster, a preacher from rural Georgia with little formal education whose paintings went so far as to become REM and Talking Heads album covers, may be America's best known folk artist, he also had a little-discussed musical side. The album "The Night Howard Finster Got Saved" is largely dedicated to spoken-word tracks, but there's some ace tunes on it as well. Singing in a high'n' lonesome twang, playing guitar, harmonica, and, in this case, piano, Finster's music should sound familiar to anyone who's heard the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack. Or perhaps, considering the berserk piano stylings of today's mp3, Bob Vido.

Howard Finster, Man of Visions, Now On This Earth - "Some of These Days"

Makes me wish I'd bought that Finster painting I used to see for sale at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Hollywood. I wasn't in the position to spend hundreds on art but it was great - a portait of a young Elvis with the painted caption "Elvis At Three Is A Angel To Me." The fact that it's "A Angel" and not "An Angel" is the clincher.