A STONER'S TRIBUTE TO CARL SAGAN (Milvia Son Records Sampler)

I've passed the 1000 posts mark. And boy are my fingers tired.

On to 1001! Milvia Son Records from up in the Bay Area sent me a batch of their vinyl-only goodies, and the first thing you should know about 'em is that they've released an album by Can's first singer Malcolm Mooney. If that doesn't automatically score cool points, what will? They didn't send me that one (it sells itself, presumably), but there's other fun to be had in their catalogue of "head music" that bears little resemblance to most psychedelia or stoner rock currently being made.

Milvia Son sampler

1. Bad Drumlin Grass "All Night Long" - Bad grass? Actually, this New Wave-y tune from a 7" is made from good stuff, like synth farts and nonsense vocals. And nekkid ladies on the cover!
2. Bad Drumlin Grass  "Can Do" (excerpt) - Speaking of Mooney-era Can, I was digging this lengthy jam, the opening track to their album "The Invigorating Scent of …" and it reminded me of Can's "Yoo Doo Right." Then I checked the song title. So probably no coincidence. The song "Out on the Tracks" is an ill synth jam; the album gets increasingly jazzy/trippy, less groove-y as it goes on and the chemicals kick in.

3. Bob Frankford "O Carl" - Totally ridiculous ode to Carl Sagan sung (?) over a mangled recording of the theme to Sagan's tv show "Cosmos." I shouldn't love this, but I really do.  From the four-track 7" sampler "Just a Little Bit of Milvia Sun," which includes a pic of Dr. Carl, and a lengthy quote allegedly from the famous astronomer himself describing how great smoking pot is, e.g.: "Experiencing orgasms while high and listening to music, particulary electronic or 'psychedelic' music, is one of the greatest pleasures of my life.'  Wow, did he really say that?
4. Jaki Jakizawa " Period Fart" - All of side one of Jaki's album is super cool disco electro improv - like Giorgio Moroder goes free jazz.  I spent part of the '90s looking for anyone who was doing to synths what Coltrane did for the sax, what Jimi did for the guitar, and not coming up with much besides Sun Ra. A much-welcome approach to the synth. The flip is drum-less cosmic electronica recommended to Tangerine Dream fans. And there might still be a few of them left.
5. Old Yeller & The Pigbites - "The Wreck of the Jerome Garcia"/"Handsome Stranger" - This no-fi mess of acoustic guitars and vocals piled on top of each other makes Daniel Johnston sound as polished as Celine Dion, but some gems do rise thru the muck. ("Handsome Stranger" = Not Safe For Work.)

By the way: If you are a Can fan, the new "Lost Tapes" box set really is a treasure-trove, not just a hodge-podge of leftovers, crappy-sounding live tracks, demos, etc, as these types of collections usually are.

ALBUM DU JOUR #9: Eno: The Lost '70s Pop Album

No, this isn't an actual album, but a collection of b-sides, bootlegs, and appearances on other artist's albums from Bri-Bri's glam-rockin' heydey.  It would have made a great album, tho, for fans of the man's "Warm Jets"-to-"Before And After Science" song-oriented work, which would include, I would imagine, most of you-all at some point in your lives. I'm surprised that Eno or his labels have never put together a collection like this, seems like a natural. As he is one of the most famous/popular avant-rockers in history, you think they'd be trying to milk it they way they're doing with the Velvet Underground.

No ambient stuff here.  The Cluster tracks are certainly atmospheric, tho still actual tunes with vocals/lyrics.  The three tracks from "Peter and the Wolf" are instrumentals, but they rock - Eno going nuts on the synth, like his solos on Roxy Music songs like "Editions of You."

"Qu'ran," which sampled Muslims chanting from their holy book, was included on the original pressings of "My Life..." (I still have my old vinyl copy!) but not only was it not included as one of the many bonus tracks on the 25th anniversary re-issue, it's not even mentioned in David Byrne's otherwise thorough liner notes. Them Muslims must be scary...

Eno: The Lost '70s Pop Album

1. Seven Deadly Finns [single, 1974]
2. The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) [single, 1975]
3. Big Day [from Phil Manzanera's "Diamond Head" 1975]
4. Miss Shapiro                   "
5. The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch [live, with The Winkies 1974]
6. Totalled [live, with The Winkies 1974 - a radically different version of this song would appear on 1975's "Another Green World" album as "I'll Come Running"]
7. Fever [Peggy Lee cover; live, with The Winkies 1974]
8. Baby's On Fire [live, with Kevin Ayers, John Cale "June 1, 1974"]
9. Third Uncle [w/Phil Manzanera's band "801 Live" 1976]
10. The Fat Lady Of Limbourg  "
11. Wolf [from "Peter And The Wolf" various artists inc Phil Collins, narrator: Viv Stanshell, 1975]
12. Wolf and Duck                   "
13. Wolf Stalks                        "
14. Luneburg Heath [w/German group Harmonia featuring Michael Rother from Neu!, and Cluster, from "Harmonia 76," unreleased until 1997]
15. Broken Head [from "After The Heat" w/Cluster, 1978, initially a somewhat hard-to-find import-only album in the US]
16. The Belldog                       "
17. Tzima N'arki                      "
18. R.A.F. [w/Snatch, "King's Lead Hat" b-side, 1978]
19. Qu'ran [w/David Byrne, from first pressings of their album "My Life In The Bush of Ghosts," recorded 1979, released 1981]

Thanks to pj for the artwork!

ALBUM DU JOUR #8: ...To The Ridiculous

There's just no way you can dismiss today's music scene as not being as good as that of some mythical golden-age. I have so many new releases to cover, I split them up into last months' "From The Sublime..." and today's "...To The Ridiculous." The first batch was largly instrumental avant-gardsey-ness, but this batch, tho just as experimental, is more in the whacked-out weirdo spazzy song-form end of things. Most of these albums are not downloads, but are for sale - makes great gifts! 

M4M...To The Ridiculous

1. F.K. Dreyer & Mark Recording Co. "Intro/Aries":  from the album - and, yes, there's a whole album of this - "Your Dogs Horoscope"
2. Michael McDaeth "Happy Just To Be Happy": a few tracks here from Seattle's McDaeth, and his 7-count 'em-SEVEN disk album, "The Socket Set." It's ramshackle one-man-band rock, sometimes a little too loose, sometimes dead-on in a Half-Japanese-for-the-Nirvana-generation kinda way.
3. Looping Jaw Harp Orchestra "Tuba for Klaus (Tribute to Klaus Nomi)": Vienna, Austria unleashed this mad crew of jews harps as the lead instruments, joined by the likes of steel drum, marimba, kalimba, accordion, etc.  No normal Instruments! The entirety of their latest album "Universal Language" is great. Just the fact that they dedicate a song to Klaus Nomi proves their awesomeness.
4. The Chewers "Burn It Down": Another fantastic album- I reviewed their first one, and the new one "Chuckle Change And Also" is even better; low-key Beefheart/Residents influences filtered thru a Southern low-life sensibility, with lyrics examining a side-show's worth of human grotesqueries. Get it.
5. The Toilet Bowl Cleaners "I Forgot to Wipe My Bum": one of 2 tracks off their album "Songs About Poop, Puke & Pee." The fact that such an album even exists is amazing; the fact that the Toilet Bowl Cleaners have many albums, all focused on the subject of human waste, and that some of the songs are actually good, is nothing short of mind-boggling. The main toilet-bowl cleaner sez that he's released 8000 songs in the last 4 years.  That's kinda prolific. Wanna hear 86 songs about dead animals?
6. Kitschstortion "Cutie Honey" - Another returning guest. The Kitschstortion release featured on these pages last year used the bizarre vocal synth gizmo the Vocaloid to dazzling effect. This is from the new EP "How To Have Boring Dreams"
7. Michael McDaeth "She's Just A Torso"
8. Flossie and the Unicorns "Jr. Troopers Are Go": 37-seconds of the album "LMNOP."
9. People Like Us "Seven Degrees": Another super bit of sound-collage pop from this British master (mistress?) of the form; the new one is "This Is Light Music." Sawing sound-effects (not musical saw) adds percussive zeal to samples of cheeseball '60s EZ instros, Morricone themes, and girl groups. I could leave this one on repeat for very long times.
10. 'Church On The Move' - Dad Life: I once knew a guy whose parents lived down the street from Snoop Dog in a thoroughly suburban neighborhood, far, far away from South Central LA. They'd see the infamous 'gangsta' shopping, taking his kids to the park, etc. This funny rap song about everyday domesticity really is 'keeping it real.'
11. Michael McDaeth "From the Midwest" 
12. The Electric Grandmother "Mr Clyde": Not sure if a 'sitcom-core' band is really something the world needs, but this alleged ode to Bill Cosby's character is an agreeable bit of bizarre pop.
13. The Chewers "The Fat Man"
14. Looping Jaw Harp Orchestra "Wabba Dubu"
15. Toilet Bowl Cleaners "Gotta Poop, Puke & Pee (Simultaneously)"
16. Bobby & Paul "DMT9": these guys are from the late great electronic noise band Margaret Raven.  They sent me this a year or two ago and I forgot about it.  Sorry, guys, it's good stuff!

ALBUM DU JOUR #4: POLLUTING THE MAINSTREAM

The Eagles!  Fleetwood Mac!  Styx! Marie Osmond! That's the kind of stuff I listen to now.  All that weird, experimental stuff - what was I thinking?  Writing a blog about music that so few people care about...what a sad lonely life I've been livin'...  Well, forget that, I'm gonna be NORMAL! And what a relief it is, lemme tell you - I'm gonna hang out in sports bars, watch "American Idol," stop listening to college/public radio and keep my dial set on AM talk from now on.  Hall & Oates!  Chicago!  Muthafuckin' ABBA!  Hell yeah, where's my pink Izod shirt and penny loafers?!

This playlist is no joke.  All the artist represented here making crazed noise, goofball novelties, flipped-out weirdness, and self-indulgent nonsense are the very same acts who made all those familiar mainstream hits (granted, including Joey Ramone here stretches the definition of 'mainstream' a bit).  See? The Beatles weren't the only superstars to have a "Revolution No.9" in them.


UPDATE 12/2/12: Now on Zippyshare, for those of you who had trouble with Mediafire  
POLLUTING THE MAINSTREAM

I was going to go into explanations about how these oddities came to be, like how that's Robert Fripp (!) playing on the Hall & Oates, how "Mother" was the only song by the Police that I loved, etc., but I think it's best for you to just listen to this and be amazed - play it for your friends and see if they can guess who's who.

1. Chicago "Free Form Guitar"
2. Donovan "The Intergalactic Laxative"
3. The Eagles "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks"
4. Fleetwood Mac "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In"
5. Frank Sinatra "Reflections On The Future In 3 Tenses" excerpt (by Gordon Jenkins)

6. Hall & Oates "Alley Katz"
7. Heart "Hit Single"
8. Debbie Harry "In Just Spring"
9. James Brown "The Future Shock Of The World"
10. Marie Osmond "Karawane"
11. The Police "Mother"
12. Nirvana "Montage of Heck Part 1"
13. Nirvana "Montage of Heck Part 2"
14. Prince "Bob George"
15. Buddy Holly "Slippin' And Slidin' (sped-up version #1)"
16. Styx "Plexiglass Toilet"
17. Joey Ramone "The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs"
18. Toto "Robot Fight"
19. Van Halen "Strung Out"
20. Willie Nelson "Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other"
21. Abba "Intermezzo no.1"
22. Alice In Chains "Love Song"
23. Cat Stevens "Was Dog a Doughnut?"

DOWN BY LAW: NYC PunkFunk '78-'84

Let's boogie to a collection of the greatest dance "hits" of what has been called the "No Wave" era of NYC music.  Late '70s/early '80s downtown Manhattan was bursting with alt-classical composers, free jazz, New Wave, performance art and, most notoriously, noise bands. Apart from downtown, hip-hop was getting started in the South Bronx and Queens and house music was growing. All of which would coalesce into the punk-funk (aka mutant disco) of the bands presented here. Never has "dance" music been so dark, noisy, and experimental. Unlike the earlier sexy funk of James Brown et al, this stuff is uptight, tense, full of punk's nervous energy. And if the disco they were playing uptown at Studio 54 was slick and glamorous, this music was low-budget, as dirty as a SoHo street corner.

Has there ever been a more inclusive music scene? Black, white, Puerto Rican; gay & straight; male, female, and undetermined; jazz, rock, avant-garde - everyone grooving together.  All you needed was a throbbing bass line and some cowbells and congas.

Most of what I know about the earlier New York Dolls/CBGB era I got from history. But this stuff, like the Suicide song featured here, I remember. Whilst visting my family back east, my cousins would take me to clubs like Area, Danceateria and yes, CBGBs (in the days when they didn't check IDs too carefully), I bought some of these records back in the day, I'd hear 'em on the radio. Bi-coastal rivalry meant that this music wasn't as acceptably cool as the hardcore punk scene raging around me in LA (remember Fear's "New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones"?  A song I loved, by the way) - but I dug it. I hadn't heard some of these songs in ages, but they hold up really well - it helps that not much music has been made like this since (no one plays percussion anymore?), so it still sounds fresh and fun.

DOWN BY LAW: NYC PunkFunk '78-'84

1. Fab Five Freddy "Down By Law"
2. Liquid Liquid "Cavern" (Perhaps the biggest "hit" song of this genre, and, yep, where Melle Mel got the music for "White Lines")
3. ESG "Moody" (oft, and I'm talking oft sampled band of three sisters/sistahs)
4. The Del-Byzanteens "My Hands Are Yellow (From The Job That I Do)" (History remembers this band for featuring future filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, but they actually were pretty cool.)
5. The Bush Tetras "You Can't Be Funky"
6. Lizzy Mercier Descloux "Wawa"
7. Dog Eat Dog "Rollover"
8. Cristina "What's A Girl To Do"
9. Kid Creole & The Coconuts "There But For The Grace of God Go I"
10. Konk "Elephant" (Speaking of Jim Jarmusch, Richard Edson from this band would act in Jarmusch's film "Stranger Than Paradise," co-starring another downtown scenester, John Lurie of jazzers The Lounge Lizards)
11. The Work "Nearly Empty"
12. Pulsallama "The Devil Lives In My Husband's Body" (This very large all-girl band featured future actress and Bongwater member Ann Magnuson)
13. Material "Square Dance" (featuring future producer-to-the-stars Bill Laswell)
14. The Dance "Do Dada"
15. James White & The Blacks "Almost Black 1" (Some of James White/Black/Chance's band quit to form Defunkt)
16. Defunkt "Blues"
17. Ike Yard "Cherish 8" 
18. 8 Eyed Spy "Motor Oil Shanty" (singer, in the loosest sense of the word, Lydia Lunch was previously in notorious noise band Teenage Jesus and The Jerks)
19. Loose Joints "Pop Your Funk"   (featuring '80s NY avant-disco mastermind Athur Russell)
20. Suicide "I Remember"

This scene is not totally forgotten - there are some good books that cover it: "The Downtown Book," "New York Noise," "No Wave", all of which make the point that music was just one element of the downtown scene - painters, photographers, filmmakers, dancers, and performance artists all got thrown into the mix.  No one seemed to do just one thing. And they also point out the scene's downfall: rising real estate prices that made Manhattan living impossible for starving artists, AIDS, and the inevitable mainstream absorption.

Oh, and the expression 'down by law' meant that you were hip, street-wise.  As Grandmaster Flash's Furious Five once rapped: "New York New York, big city of dreams/but everything in New York ain't always what it seems/you might get fooled if you come from out of town/but I'm down by law and I know my way around."

Captain Beefheart Karaoke Party: "Clear Spot"

As with the "Lick My Decals Off" post from a couple years ago, here are the instrumental tracks from a Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band album. In this case, it's the 1972 release "Clear Spot." An oddity in the good captain's catalogue, this one alternates the usual mad genius of songs like "Big Eyed Beans From Venus," (one of my favorite songs ever, not just by Beefheart) with attempts to be normal and commercial, tho there's nothing as egregious here as his mid-70's "Tragic Band" period. My eyes popped out when I was scanning the booklet to a recent Buckwheat Zydeco album, and saw a Captain Beefheart writing credit.  Yep, Buckwheat covered the perfectly presentable soul 'n' horns workout "Too Much Time" (tho the instro version is not featured here.)

In any case, it's another opportunity to revel in the complexity of the musical arrangements. Sing along with the Cap'n!

Captain Beefheart: "Clear Spot" Instrumental Tracks

1. My Head Is My Only House Unless It Rains
2. Clear Spot
3. Crazy Little Thing
4. Dirty Blue Gene
5. Big Eyed Beans From Venus
6. Frying Pan
7. Sun Zoom Spark
8. Nowadays A Woman's Gotta Hit A Man
9. Low Yo Stuff
10. Booglarize

Rodney On The ROQ vol. 5

When I created and posted "Rodney on the ROQ Vol 4", a reader commented: "This is one of the greatest compilations ever created by man, woman, or beast." So there! I probably shouldn't try to top that, but a super awesome reader named L9 sent me the Ventures/GoGos collab song "Surfin' and Spyin", thereby making a follow-up necessary. So, once again, here's a sampling of (for the most part) rare, obscure punk, power-pop, synth, novelties, oldies, reggae, and experimental oddities that legendary freeform radio DJ Rodney Bingenheimer used to play in his 'late '70s/'80s heyday on KROQ Los Angeles. Lot's of non-lp 7" singles/EPs here.

Took quite a bit of doing trying to track down some of these tunes that I remembered fondly from my youth but had seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. (The Untouchables tune, in particular was a real bee-yatch to find.) But, no matter, here 'tis - Radio as it should be! 


Rodney On The ROQ vol. 5 (Zippyshare)

01 Longarm - Wall of Voodoo
02 Want You - The Bangles [They used to be good, really!]
03 Little G.T.O. - Rodney and the Brunettes [Rodney himself sings (sort of) this surf oldie]
04 Surfin' & Spyin' - The Ventures covering, and joined by, The Go-Gos
05 Shes Fallen in Love With a Monster Man - The Revillos
06 Beyond and Back (Live) - X [From "The Decline of Western Civilization" soundtrack, I believe]
07 Helium Bar - The Weirdos
08 Beer - Unit 3 And Venus [feat. 8 year old lead singer!]
09 Too Young To Date - D-Day [There was a lame censored version of this song, as well]
10 California Paradise - The Runaways [in a Runaways doc film from a few years ago, Kim Fowley revealed that Rodney would cruise the Starwood club where he dj-ed to recruit future members of The Runaways by approaching young girls and asking them if they played an instrument]
11 Kookie's Mad Pad - Edd ''Kookie'' Byrnes
12 Sit on my face Stevie Nix - The Rotters [Rodney said that he had to get special permission from station management to play this naughty tune]
13 Janitor - Suburban Lawns [Where in the world is Su Tissue?]
14 Shoulder Pads - The Fall [Rodney would play this song, then offer his assesment of '80s fashion by opining: "I like this song, but I don't like shoulder pads!"]
15 Vox Wah Wah ad - feat. The Electric Prunes
16 Blues' Theme - Davie Allan & the Arrows [theme to the classic '60s biker-sploitation flick "The Wild Angels"]
17 The General - The Untouchables
18 Punky Reggae Party  - Bob Marley & The Wailers [co-written by Lee "Scratch" Perry]
19 Anything, Anything (I'll Give You) - Dramarama
20 Disneyland - The Eyes [feat. future Go-Go Charlotte Caffey]
21 Springtime for Hitler - Mel Brooks [Rodney would say that every time he played this, some girl would call up to complain; he never stopped playing it, tho]
22 Pay To Cum - Bad Brains
23 I Hate The 90's - Rodney & The Tube Tops [another single featuring Rodney's vocal , er, "skills," this one featuring Thurston from Sonic Youth]
24 Porpoise Song (theme from "Head") - The Monkees [Rodney's traditional closing theme]

The "fucking intense evil violent scary witch music" of Phantascist

The Butthole Surfers, early PiL, The Birthday Party, Pere Ubu, Flipper - heck yeah, I used to love those loonies puking up free-form psychedelic chaos. Some of the best '80s college rock, tho doomed to commercial oblivion, and unlikely to be inducted into any Rock 'n Roll Halls of Fame. A style revived, and expanded upon, by North Carolina's late Phantascist, described by former member Boogie Reverie thusly: "...we terrorized the white-bread squeeky-clean 'indie rock' scene in Chapel Hill for a good couple of years, all the while taking loads of acid, setting stuff on fire, throwing raw meat, performing nude and getting kicked out of clubs. Miss those days! ... Our albums are a bit more on the arty/exploratory side, while our live recordings are fucking intense evil violent scary witch music (no joke, we actually scared people; it became an issue)."

Lucky you, he gave us all their recordings to post. The Diamanda Galas influence listed below is for real - the female vocalist really does sing opera style!  There've been no shortage of noisy guitar and free jazz bands over the years, but throwing opera vox into the mix has got to be a first (and if there are more, I'd love to hear 'em). Anyway, Boogie Reverie lists the contents as follows:

"Phantascist was -
Sara Bloo - vocals, alto sax, percussion
Julion S. - bass, cello, percussion
Boogie Reverie - guitar/drums [at the same time!], keyboards

----

'Wouldn't You Like To Know' - Our first record. It's kinda rough, playful, ugly, noisy. We were obsessed with Sun Ra, Diamanda Galas, Throbbing Gristle, Sun City Girls, The Birthday Party, and The Cows. Tracks 3 and 8 are accompanied by our friend Tom on keyboards. ["Great Freight" is my pick hit off this album - great bass line grooves along, as an opera singer loses her marbles.]
'Phantascist Live 2-19-2010' - This is a twisted raw performance we did at a house show in Chapel Hill when we started to break into the local noise/industrial scene. It was right after we recorded Wouldn't You Like To Know. The sound quality is poor, but it's a fairly accurate representation of what we were like live. [It does indeed get a bit spooky.]

'Gratitude' was our second record and really is just one 45 minute live jam divided up into three epic tracks  with freaky sound-collages weaving in and out of the music. It's meandering and noodly; not everyone's cup of tea, but it's my favorite of our two albums. It just gets weirder and weirder as it goes. At this point we were moving away from the noise-rock/punk influences and were going for a more epic post industrial jazz sound." [Fave part is 2: starts off groovy with bass melody + jazz sax skronk til the 7 minute mark when it goes into overdrive; love the bass that comes in around 10 minutes]

---

To both files I've added a song from Boogie Reverie's new solo album, "Hip New Wavicle of The Unscene Star." It's "pop," not improv/noise, with song styles ranging from wonderfully retarded spazz rock to almost Beach Boys-ish vocal harmonies.


Phantascist1 - "Wouldn't You Like To Know," + 1 Boogie Reverie song

Phantascist2 - "Gratitude" "Live 2-19-10" + 1 Boogie Reverie song

Tribute To Neil Armstrong

The greatest song ever about the recently departed Neil Armstrong was this '80s college rock hit by Angst, which you can listen to/download

HERE

Unless y'all know of any others? I just re-upped my collection of fantastic, irresistibly groovin'  '60s/'70s ska/rocksteady/reggae/calypso space songs that I compiled in '09 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of man 'pon moon:

Life on Reggae Planet

Wish I had known about this one at the time, I would have included it:

(I used to be able to embed divshare, but no more.  We can put a man on the moon but we can't...)

Rodney On The ROQ vol. 4

It's the weekend!  It's summer!  It's almost July 4th!  Man, I just want some fun music right now. So let's set our wayback machine to the early '80s: we're gonna cruise around, turn on KROQ-FM, eat Oki Dogs, go to that liquor store where they never card the under-aged, drink, puke, and crank up Rodney. 

You don't need me to tell you about the legendary freeform radio dj Rodney Bingenheimer. He's often been called John Peel of America, but after seeing his bio-doc film "The Mayor of The Sunset Strip", he reminded me more of Andy Warhol - quiet, shy, surrounded by superstars but kind of in his own world.  A genuinely strange person, but, as much as anyone, helped drag American culture out of it's "malaise" (as Jimmy Carter called it). He not only played the Ramones before New York radio, he played (and interviewed over the phone) the Sex Pistols when UK radio couldn't (they were banned), and countless other alterna-stars and obscurities when the rest of commerical radio was still mired in The Eagles, Led Zep, Debby Boone and disco.  He now has a star on Hollywood Blvd.

Which is all well and good, but why this all matters to me is the fact that discovering Rodney's show (and, to a lesser extant, KROQ in general) made me a music fan.  Yep, it was (almost) as simple as that.  I liked my hippie big sister's Beatles records, the novelty music Dr Demento played, and my mom's Johnny Cash records.  But, generally, I thought modern music was mostly stupid Van Halen and Kiss nonsense. Post-Rodney, I became an avid radio listener, started buying records, talked music with my friends, reading reviews, etc... It was a thrilling time that you can't really understand unless you have ever lived in a time or place where there was little alternative culture, and suddenly, there was.  So, thanks Rodney!

Is this a nostalgia trip, where I sigh and say wistfully about how "innocent" it all was?  Hell, no. Listening to these songs again, sometimes for the first time in years, I'm struck by how decadent and depraved so much of it was. And to think that I would listen to stuff like Kim Fowley's evil-sounding "Invasion of The Polaroid People," or songs with titles like "I Want To Be A Prostitute," and it didn't faze me at all. This was my youth? When was I ever innocent? L.A. (America?  The world?) was a dirtier, smoggier, more crime-ridden,  immoral, and politically corrupt place then it is now. We thought Ronnie was gonna start World War III. And it's all in these grooves. 

In the early '80s, Rodney compiled three albums for Posh Boy records that have been featured all over the internets (Look! This nice person posted all of 'em).  They spread the gospel of the enormous SoCal scene far beyond KROQ's signal, and, thus became vastly influential to zillions of kids who maybe knew about, say, Patti Smith or the B52s but had no idea how widespread, diverse, and hardcore the rock underground had become. Here then is a theoretical hypothetical fourth volume.

What you won't find here: the famous groups, songs from the previous Rodney comps, or much hardcore punk, since that's been amply covered elsewhere (I'm pretty sure you all know what Black Flag sounds like.)  This is more like a typical Rodney show, where he'd throw in unfashionable oldies (e.g.: early '60s surf), novelties and avant-weirdness amidst the power-pop and punk. From local private-pressings to foreign imports. So much stuff that, in those pre-internet days, you simply couldn't hear anywhere else. It was difficult to find some of these records in the shops. Keep in mind, KROQ wasn't some little college station, but a commercial outlet with a strong signal and high ratings, reaching millions of people. One of those interesting moments in culture when the radical was actually kinda cool and trendy for a while.
[UPDATE 8/27/14: new download link:]
Rodney On The ROQ vol. 4

01 Let's Go to the Beach - The Gears
02 The Cramps - Do The Clam [Rodney played the entirety of a Cramps live album when he heard that Lux Interior had died.  He hadn't. Oops. But I taped the album off the radio, and discovered this great Elvis cover.]
03 The Monkey's Uncle - Annette & The Beach Boys [Rodney played '60s beach party movie queen Annette Funicello so much on his show that Red Cross/Redd Kross were inspired to write their classic "Annette's Got The Hits"]
04 Summer Fun - The Barracudas
05 Are There Any Girls Here? - Rodney Bingenheimer
06 Riboflavin-flavored, Non-carbinated, Polyunsaturated Blood - 45 Grave [This number, featuring The Germs' Don Bolles (see track 14) would get played every Halloween. Boy, was I surprised when I walked into a thrift store one day in the '90s and saw this album - I had assumed that this song was a 45 Grave original]
07 Romeo's Distress - Christian Death ["death-rock" we used to call this kinda thing, before "goth" became a popular term]
08 Velvet Goldmine - David Bowie [a "Ziggy"-era UK-only b-side; were it not for Rodney I would have had no idea that this record existed]
09 Invasion of The Polaroid People - Kim Fowley [cool music backing by Rich La Bonté]
10 The Human Chicken - The Dancing Did [I always heard Rodney calling these guys "The Dancing Dead," and thought that that was such a good band name; only when doing research for this post did I discover this band's true name!]
11 I'm in Love With a German Filmstar - The Passions [when Rodney would play this, he would say: "I AM in love with a German filmstar - Nastassja Kinski!";  a bandmate of a pre-Clash Joe Strummer in The 101ers was in this group.]
12 Robot (7" Mix) - The Plastics [This catchy bit of Japanese techno-pop is the first song I remember hearing on Rodney's show, a true wtf? moment]
13 I Want To Be A Prostitute- Alisa
14 My Tunnel - The Germs [an unreleased demo that I remember taping off the radio back in the day; this killer song didn't get an official release until the '90s.]
15 Mohawk Man - Mr. Epp And The Calculations [funny how the hardcore scene had already become fodder for parody by the time this came out in '82; features future Mudhoney members]
16 Oki Dogs - Youth Gone Mad [Ah, Oki Dogs...two weiners, pastrami, wrapped in a chili-filled tortilla; I had one for the first time in 20 years at Cine-Family's Post-Punk Junk film fest last year. SO good.]
17 Kinky Boots - Patrick Macnee & Honor Blackman [Celebrities singing badly! From the great '60s tv show "The Avengers]"
18 Are There Any Girls Here? - Rodney Bingenheimer
19 Foolish Girl - The Mo-dettes [Rodney sure loved the ladies - no shortage of female performers featured on his show]
20 Richard Hung Himself - D.I. [a few more death-rockers]
21 Death On The Elevator - Super Heroines
22 Skeletons - Inflatable Boy Clams
23 Randy Scouse Git - The Monkees [I seem to recall one night Rodney played every song the Monkees recorded...in alphabetical order]
24 American Society - Eddie and the Subtitles
25 Satan's Stomp - The Flesh Eaters
26 Lets Make the Scene -  Rodney Bingenheimer [I think a pre-hair metal Lita Ford, still a Runaway, did the music, but can't find confirmation]

I saw Rodney mc a Blondie show 5 years ago or so.  He pretty much looked the same. I might do a vol. 5, but does anyone have The Ventures version of "Surfin and Spying"?

ZOOGZ-APALOOZA

Last year I posted 10 albums, one a week, by the late, great Los Angeles loony Zoogz Rift and his Amazing Shitheads.  Our best-est new pal in the world myxsoma has sent us eight, count 'em, EIGHT more albums from the mad genius, including some tracks from his hopelessly rare (and awesome) first album.

Tho he's usually considered to be a disciple of Zappa and Beefheart, Rift himself has said that it's more complicated then that: throw in The Bonzo Dog Band, punk, free jazz, retarded novelty records, avant-classical, etc., etc. The hilarious, crazed, uninhibited nature of His Zoogzness can't readily be compared to anyone else.

WARNING: some tracks are missing from the earlier albums. These are not all complete, at least not the first two or three albums.  And it's all 128kbps. But I'm not complaining at all - it's still a whopping 6 hours of music, and it all rules. Some of these were cassette-only releases that Zoogz didn't want to re-issue when he went big time (by indie standards) signing to SST Records.  I have no idea why.  It's all really, really good, with every album flying off into myriad, highly original directions - from blues played on xylophones, to crazed rants, to atmospheric instrumentals. Some individual songs, however, were rescued from these tapes for his more high-profile album releases, so there are a few (but not a lot of) duplicates if you downloaded all those other albums.


Zoogz1: INTERIM RESURGENCE (1985),
VILLAGERS (1992)
Zoogz2: from WITH NO APPARENT REASON (1976),
 MUSIC SUCKS (1982)
 Zoogz3: FIVE BILLION PINHEADS CAN'T BE WRONG (1996), SCHOOL OF THE CRIMINALLY INSANE (1999)

Zoogz4: BOHEMIAN BUDDHA (2000)

Zoogz5: BORN IN THE WRONG UNIVERSE (2003) + a 45 minute long track from "school of the criminally insane" that I couldn't fit onto 'Zoogz3.'

Much thanks to myxsoma - go check out his lovely music, videos for his music, his nutty YouTube channel, and dig the video (right) he posted of Zoogz' song "Bowl of Gregmar" featuring a photo autographed by the man himself.

COVER THE EARTH 3: More Bizarro Versions of Your Favorite Oldies From Across the World Wide Weird

The first "Cover The Earth" collection we posted here a couple of weeks ago has been quite the success - twice as many downloads as usual for these parts. And since some of you nice maniacs out there have been emailing me mp3s and suggestions for other foreign/ethnic cover tunes, I was inspired to dig thru my cd archives and come up another volume. And this batch is really nuts, more out-there then Vol. 1, I'd say, sometimes veering pretty far from the originals. The versions of "Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart" and "Imagine," in particular, are especially retarded.

Ingredients: a version of The Champs' "Tequila" by an out-of-control Indian wedding brass band; "Rock Around The Clock" played on a Spike Jones-like honk-horn novelty instrument (pictured right); two salsa artists (Celia Cruz, Manny Manuel) who start off fairly faithful to the originals, apart from singing in Spanish, before pushing the songs into Afro-Latin territory that has nothing to do with the original songs; a Frenchy version of "Witchy Woman" on musical saw (just about the only way I can take The Eagles); lots of Beatles, inc. a small taste of the zillions of Beatles covers recorded by Jamaican reggae artists in the Sixties; more Tuvan throat-singing; an early-'80s Dutch track (RTC) that would have fit on one of my "New Wave Covers" collections; and  "Purple Haze" on bagpipes. What more could you ask for?!

COVER THE EARTH 3

1. Tokyo Panorama Mambo Boys (Japan/Afro-Cuban) - James Bond theme
2. Tobi Rix (Netherlands) - Toeteriks-boogie [Bill Haley & Comets "Rock Around The Clock"]
3. Tanh Nam Teu (Vietnam) - Bat Ghen [Theme From 'Bonanza']
4. Babu Band (India) - Tequila
5. pedro de la hoya (Spanish, tho he's French) - kiss kong five [Prince "Kiss"]
6. Celia Cruz (Cuban) - Yo Viviré [Gloria Gaynor "I Will Survive"]
7. The Presidents (Germany) - Love Bug [Supremes "Love Is Like An Itching"]
8. Bugotak (Tuva) - Kon Togethy [The Beatles - Come Together]
9. Alton Ellis (Jamaica) - And I Love Her
10. Charlotte Dada (Ghana) - Don't Let Me Down
11. RTC (Holland) - Drive My Car
12. cachicamoconcaspa y leyko el perro de la IIII dimensión (Venezuela) - Imagine
13. Keith Lynn, The S.P.M's & Byron Lee & The Dragonaires (Jamaica) - My Sweet Lord
14. Svetlyo Zhilev (Bulgaria) - Purple Haze
15. Yat-Kha (Tuva) - Love Will Tear Us Apart
16. Dan Bau Vietnam - Rider in the Sky ["Ghost Riders In The Sky"]
17. Manny Manuel (Cuba) - I Want To Hold Your Hand (Tu Mano Cogere)
18. Beau Jocque & The Zydeco Hi-Rollers (Cajun Louisiana, USA) - Hi-Rollers Theme/Low Rider [War "Low Rider")
19. Barat Dangdut-Terpopuler 95 (Indonesia) - Hotel California
20. Randall Throckmorton w/ Larmes de Colère (French, tho Mr.Throckmorton is from Minneapolis) - Femme de Sorcière [Eagles "Witchy Woman"]
21. Yat-Kha (Tuva) - Black Magic Woman 

Gracias, danke, thanks to DJ Dragan and Outtaspaceman!

COVER THE EARTH: Ukrainian Punk

As an addendum to the "Cover The Earth" post of bizarre international versions of your favorite oldies, here are various rock remakes recorded over the years by The Ukrainians. Peter Solowka, one of the members of the popular '80s/'90s British combo The Wedding Present, is of Ukrainian descent, and picked up on the music from his father. He hooked up with musicians from the old country to play Ukrainian folk music, but then threw in some covers relevant to his present condition as a rocker living in the UK. And it is some crazy stuff.  No wimpy hippie folk music here, thanks to the occasional addition of some of Solowka's old Wedding Present buddies injecting some rock'n'roll energy into the mandolin-and-fiddle based tunes.  By the early '90s, Solowka had quit the Wedding Present to make the Ukrainians his full-time gig.

Included here: the entirety of the "Pisni Iz The Smiths (Songs Of The Smiths)" ep from 1992, Sex Pistols and Velvet Underground covers from a 1993 live album, a 1996 Kraftwerk cover commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, and two Pistols covers from a 2002 single. (They also have a 3 song single of Prince covers that I haven't found a copy of yet.  Anyone?)

*smacks head* Ah, durn!  I forget to include Googoosh's berserk Iranian assault on Otis Redding/Aretha Franklins' "Respect" on the first "Cover The Earth."  So here 'tis, as a most thoroughly non-Ukrainian bonus.

COVER THE EARTH: The Ukrainians

1. Batyar (The Smiths - 'Bigmouth Strikes Again')
2. Koroleva Ne Polerma (The Smiths - 'The Queen Is Dead')
3. M'yaso Ubivstvo (The Smiths - 'Meat Is Murder')
4. Spivaye Solovey (The Smiths - 'What Difference Does It Make?')
5. Anarkhiya (Sex Pistols - 'Anarchy In The UK')
6. God Save The Queen (Sex Pistols)
7. Pretty Vacant (Sex Pistols)
8. Chekannya (Velvet Underground - 'Venus in Furs')
9. Radioactivity [Orthodox mix] (Kraftwerk)

BONUS:
10. Googoosh: Respect

THE GLENDAS

"My friend and I decided to try to make a band where all the songs were about specific horror movies. We named ourselves after an Ed Wood movie and decided to record everything in one take, almost always making everything up after the record button was hit. In the spirit of Ed Wood, "Second take? Why?" By the third record we were incorporating our own movie ideas into the lyrics."

The Glendas: 3 Free Albums!

Punk Mariachi!

Just in time for Cinco de Mayo, here's a few tracks from L.A. bands playing...punk mariachi? How is such a thing possible?  One style is electric, fast 2/4 or 4/4 beats, hard drumming, modern, angry and cynical, and originally sung in English; the other is seemingly the complete opposite: acoustic, slow, in 3/4 time, no drums, traditional, and sentimental. Well, you may be a rock'n'roller, but if you've grown up in Los Angeles, you're part Mexican, even if you're not. (Like how Lenny Bruce said that everyone in New York is Jewish, even if you're not.)

L.A. rock has pretty much always been influenced by Mexican folk music. Apart from actual Latino acts (Richie Valens, El Chicano, Los Lobos, etc), non-Latino rockers have sported south-of-the-border influences since at least the days of The Champs' "Tequila" and beach-party bands like The Surfaris, whose "Latin Beat" is one of my faves; Dick Dale plays a mean mariachi trumpet when he isn't guitar shredding.  And it's gone from the '60s (Love's "Alone Again Or"), the '70s (War), the '80s (The Minutemen's "Corona") right up to this loco bunch:

Punk Mariachi! - A MusicForManiacs Mix (6 songs)

- Carne Asada "Cielito Lindo": White punks on jokes; this is their (piss-)take on the most famous mariachi standard, "Ay Ay Ay;" from their album "Full Contact Mariachi." Muy silly!

- Mariachi El Bronx: "Litigation," & "Clown Powder;" two from actual hardcore band The Bronx (Angelenos despite their name) who made a sincere transformation into mariachi, replacing electric guitars with horns; even tho they've retained drums and English lyrics, it's still hard to believe that these moving songs are by the same guys I saw convincingly play Black Flag in the Darby Crash/Germs bio-pic "What We Do Is Secret."

- Los Super Elegantes "Por Que te Vas": this co-ed crew was the first band I heard use the term "punk mariachi," but in a tongue-in-cheek way, I'd say - it's more like bilingual indie pop.  Mi mucho gusto this tune.

- Metalachi "Breaking The Law": I wrote about these heavy metal pranksters back in 2010.

- Mariachi Rock-o "Ben": This isn't rock, this isn't even really mariachi; it is pure kitsch; from their ridiculous album "Sonidos de Jalisco," featuring remakes of classics by Bowie, John Lennon, the Eagles, Marvin Gaye, and this cover of Michael Jackson's touching ode to a killer rat.

Big Eyed Beans From Venus

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Captain Beefheart tribute band. Even more improbably, they're really good. And you thought tribute acts were all cheeseball 'classic rock' bar bands.

As the Southern Shelter guy says: "Big Eyed Beans From Venus have obviously put in tons of work (there’s really no way to half-ass Beefheart’s music)."

This Athens, GA crew even got actual Magic Band members to sit in, like Rockette Morton, who played on early classics like "Trout Mask Replica." Dig this 20 song show, recorded live, with excellent sound quality:

Big Eyed Beans From Venus 11/16/06 @ Five Spot

New Wave Covers For Oldies Lovers - Part 3

Like I said: "During the upheaval of the late '70s/early '80s punk days, there was a real changing-of-the-guard feeling that led many groups of the time to cover classic oldies from the sacred rock 'n' roll canon in an irreverent (if not downright disrespectful) fashion." Part 1 and Part 2 of this series have been two of my most-downloaded collections, so here's a third batch - with suggestions from some of you - of wild 'n' wooly '70s/'80s devolved covers ranging from hardcore slammers to New Wave synth nerdiness to art-damaged tune destructions. You'll probably recognize a few famous things here, but there's plenty of obscure-but-great ripped-from-vinyl rarities as well. Weirdly enough, there are not one, but two electric violin-based tracks here: Walter Steding, and Nash The Slash. And, seriously, when was the last time you listened to the Plasmatics?

Put your hands in your pockets and commence pogo dancing...NOW!

New Wave Covers For Oldies Lovers - Part 3

Elvis section:

1. Dead Kennedys "Viva Las Vegas"
2. Walter Steding "Hound Dog" [Robert Fripp on guitar]
3. John Cale "Heartbreak Hotel" [live, with possibly Brian Eno, Kevin Ayers, Mike Oldfield)
4. Judy Nylon "Jailhouse Rock"

5. Frank Sumatra And The Mob "Telstar"
6. The Plasmatics w/Lemmy "Stand By Your Man"
7. Nurse With Wound "Antacid Cocamotive 93 ["The Locomotion"]"
8. Brian Sands "Baby You're A Rich Man"
9. Dictators "I Got You Babe"
10. Hüsker Dü "Love Is All Around ["Mary Tyler Moore Show" theme]"
11. Talking Heads "Love Is All Around" (live) [The Troggs]
12. Pure Hell "These Boots Are Made For Walking"
13. Ronny "If You Want Me To Stay"
14. The Plugz "La Bamba"
15. Brian Eno "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
16. Nash the Slash "Dopes on the Water" ["Smoke On The Water"]
17. Implog "On B'way"
18. Hüsker Dü "Eight Miles High"
19. Plasmatics "Dream Lover"
20. The Stranglers "Walk On By"
Thanks to those of you who suggested some of these.

"I HOPE YOUR BIRTHDAY IS AS SPECIAL AS YOU AAAARE!"

Gnarboots are a completely ridiculous band from Central California that play a variety of styles with a surprising amount of skill, considering the fact that they're a buncha immature smart-asses who take nothing, including themselves, seriously. A stance I support in theory - the problem is that sometimes amusing oneself doesn't always translate into amusing others. This album, however, is a loveable mutt that I liked even better on second spin. The Dead Milkmen of a new generation? Sayeth they:

"...it is a weird album and we are a weird band. We have a bunch of birthday songs on there (including a hardcore punk song) as well as a cover of the Kelly Family's "Aint gonna pee pee", a cover of the Christian band Lust Control's anti-masturbation song, "The Big M." There's a ska song about Joey Lawrence, punk songs, electronic songs, hip hop songs, and other weird things." I like the old chacha record samples. And it's all free!

Gnarboots Happy Birthday

1. Birthday 2
2. Doggy Door
3. The Big "M"
4. Interlude
5. Fantasy
6. WE.R.ALL.GNARBOOTS
7. Special Day I
8. Ain't Gonna Pee-Pee My Bed Tonight
9. Today Is My Birthday
10. Nerds
11. Interlude
12. I Want To Be Joey Lawrence
13. You're So Rude
14. Birthday 3
15. Monica Birth
16. Police of Fashion
17. Special Day II
18. Welcome to my Birthday Party

The Warhol Tapes

The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh put out a book that included a CD of excerpts from Warhol's private audio tape collection. The album is narrated by John Giorno, the poet who starred in some of Warhol's early films.*

Warhol used to carry tape recorders with him everywhere, and the Warhol museum has thousands of hours of 'em. This is but a wee sample, but a fascinating one, featuring goodies like a raw Velvet Underground jamming on "I'll be Your Mirror" with Nico, and some songs I don't recognize; Andy discussing a commissioned portrait of a guy with a hard-on that has never been exhibited in public; a campy Pope Ondine; a no-nonsense Edie Sedgewick; a Man Ray photo session; Holly Woodlawn on why it's a pain to be a drag queen; and a discussion of art featuring famous people's private parts. Yes, Mick Jagger and Studio 54 are here, but we also go shopping with Warhol at a grocery store. As Andy would say, "Oh, gee!"

The Andy Warhol Museum

The book/CD is way out of print and going for crazy sums on Amazon: $160 is a bit out of my price range. There is one (1) copy in the entire L.A. County Library system, and it's in the "closed stacks," meaning a librarian has to retrieve it for you and you can't take it out of the library. So I had to bring my wife's laptop to the library at a later date, they sat me in a special section, and I loaded in and copied the CD. Dang, the things I do for you people. Send me booze and chocolates! Remember me in your will!


*But I know Giorno for the boss albums he put out in the late '70s/'80s on his own label that featured everyone from Laurie Anderson and William Burroughs to The Butthole Surfers. Good stuff.

My Writing-Fu Skills Are No Match For This Album...

...because I'm at a loss as to how to describe it. It's great to encounter music that fits no known genre until you're the fumbling fool trying to review this 1993 release by German composer Helmut Neugebauer and his band Die Vogel Europas. But (*cracks knuckles*) here goes:

Mainly guitar and drums making a kind of fractured funk, like two Gang of Four records playing at the same time at 78 rpm...but with jazz sax that suggests a European Capt. Beefheart...er, more like a Raymond Scott/Carl Stalling cartoonish craziness...only with sampling and industrial-like sounds, but it's not industrial music, really....well, maybe in the Foetus sense, but it's kinda proggy, what with all the unusual time signatures and complex songwriting, only done more in the spirit of an exuberant Eastern European dance than some show-offy prog band...
I think I've embarrassed myself enough. But, hey, the Allmusic guy describes it as 'unclassifiable,' so there, it's not just me. He also says that "It's a classic and deserves to be heard by everybody."

Helmut Neugebauer & DIE VÖGEL EUROPAS - Short Stories


p.s.: Elliot Sharp plays on this album, I bet some of you have heard of him.