KISSES FROM VENEZUELA

Everyone thought that the Internet would bring a wealth of variety to the culture. Yeah, well, there's a million music blogs out there now and they all write about the same things. People are still sheep - that hasn't changed. For instance, who else is writing about the Venezuelan electronica scene? WHO, I ax ya? Just Music For Maniacs. Damn straight.

HUGE Hefner is the hombre who hepped us to the kooky cumbia cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" a while back (for which there is now a video). Now he unleashes _HELIOS.EXE on us gringos with an on-line EP courtesy of the 'net-label FanZinatra. Supposedly, all the songs are remixes of the same song "Kissing Time" ("Besande el Tiempo") but since each track has such a radically different sound you'd never know it. The first "tune" obliterates the sweet female, almost Chipmunky, vocals with such a blizzard of insane electronics and video-game bleepiness I felt like I was riding in a washing machine. I love the contrast between the cute lyrics about kissing and the unpredictable weirdness of the music:

_HELIOS.EXE: Abriendo El Tiempo (Lets_Go_Kissing_Pepper-C64-EOW_Mix)

This one focuses more on the vox and less on the crazy:

_HELIOS.EXE: Pachekando El Tiempo (Pacheko_Mix).mp3

and Boleteando El Tiempo (Dont_Break_My_Core My_Love_Is All_You_Wanted_Mix) has
jagged bits of Manu Chao, Xtina Aguilera, and REM sticking out of it. Yummy like flan.

sshhaakkeeyyoouurrrruummpp

The internet IS the new CBGBs. And you are all as cool as Joey Ramone or Debbie Harry just by being here. Fave new toe-tappin' copyright-violatin' sound collages as follows:

The Bran Flakes have a new odds 'n' sods collection on-line called "Bubbles" that certainly has whet my appetite for their long-awaited new album. Has it really been 5 years since the last one? Well, Flake-in-Chief Otis Fodder has been a busy little beaver lately, what with the 365 Projects and Comfort Stand Records keeping him out of the studio. This tune is a great example of their thrift-store plundering trashy mashups:

The Bran Flakes: Countdown To The End (Choo Choo Mix)

David Schafer is a New York-based contemporary "sound-artist," which suggests someone perhaps using "concepts" as an excuse to not make listenable music. Well, this track is both a great concept and a sublime soundscape: "Kenny G's music is ubiquitous and represents an idea or state of mind of being on hold, in the waiting room, or in an elevator. It also might suggest a kind of anxiety of empty spaces and technology, a pathology that is manifested regarding the need of filling spaces, and the fabricated desire to sooth, and to be pacified at all times..."Forever and Forever in Reverse" is the superimposition of the forward version with the reversed version of the song played at the same time."

David Schafer: Forever In Love In Forever The blandness of Kenny G miraculously transformed into Eno/Fripp-ish droney loveliness.

And finally, RIAA presents two Afro-groovers for summer: The reggae standard "The Harder They Come" performed by Rocker's Revenge over some smokin' Afro-disco courtesy of Manu Dibango - "Aloko Party":

RIAA: "The Harder They Party"

and some fonk-ay jazz: The Beastie Boys' "Shake Your Rump" over a sorta-remake of it by Hammond organ cat Ruben Wilson and P-Funk legend Bernie Worrell.

RIAA: "sshhaakkeeyyoouurrrruummpp"

Both tunes take the acapella and chop it up like a dj scratch attack. Nothing conceptual with these - just bootie-shakers.

419 State of Mind

Section 419 in the Nigerian criminal code refers to internet scams, and a recent trend in that African nation's large hip-hop scene is songs about perpetrating such frauds. They are often told with the same bravado as American gangsta tales, although, of course, coming from a completely different cultural perspective.

Mode Nine is one such group, and their song "419 State of Mind pt2" offers a lot to chew on - it's funny (I like their British victim: "Cor blimey!"), informative, and serves as a warning to potential suckers even as it offers a morally questionable rationale for these crimes based on the old con man's excuse "You can't cheat an honest man." The effect is ultimately chilling. And I don't mean "chillin'."

Mode Nine: "419 State of Mind pt2"



Thanks to africa.visual_media.nyc

THE DEFINITIVE "SGT. PEPPERS"

In all the hoopla this week over the 40th anniversary of The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper," lets not forget the greatest version ever of the album's title song: by actor/comedian Bill Cosby.

I bought this album (which came out on CD last year) at a church rummage sale for a quarter 15 years ago or so, and honestly didn't think the Cos would actually try to sing. I figured he would do a kind of comedic talk/sing kinda thing. I put the needle on, he started singing, and my jaw hit the floor. I knew then and there that this was the one of the all-time great celebrity records. We're talking Shatner-riffic. At least he had the good sense to use Charles Wright's Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band, one of the great underrated funk outfits of the '70s.

Listen/download HERE.

Of the seven notes in the Western music scale, he hits all six wrong ones.

The liner notes of the album say that fans walked out of his music shows because he didn't tell any of his usual comedic stories. Uh, you sure that's why?

CZ-CZ-CZECH IT OUT

Thank God(zilla) for the internet. Otherwise, if I wanted to hear rare oddities and obscurities from the Czech Republic, I'd have to actually go there, spend hours in thrift stores and not now what the hell I was looking at. Fortunately, we've got a fascinating new blog called:

Petasonic

Scroll down to the bottom for an early-'80s Czech version of Pink Floyd's "Just Another Brick In The Wall," a song I normally associate with nothing more important then Valley stoners, but hearing it from the perspective of people living behind the wall of Communism certainly gives it more profundity. There's also a horrible bit of disco, some "official" Commie music and the funniest thing I've heard lately, a ridiculously upbeat Heino-like version of the reggae standard "By The Rivers of Babylon." If there are Oktoberfest celebrations in Jamaica, this is what they play.

THE PUNK GROUP

Was DEVO one of your favorite bands? Are they NOW? If so, all my fellow DEVO-tees are hereby directed to The Punk Group website's "Music" section and commence listening/downloading. They do an excellent job covering The Spud's "That's Good," but really shine on originals like the "Blue Velvet"-quoting "Heineken", the video-game worshipping "Atari 800" and "My Best Friend Is My Son." And "Toby Keith" simply MUST be heard.

G.I. JEW

It's Memorial Day weekend here in the U.S., time to remember all our fallen soldiers. Like:

G.I. Jew

I'm assuming Jon and Al Kaplan are Jewish. Who else could get away with lyrics like:

The Catholics blame him for murdering Jesus (G.I. Jew is there!)
He cuts the skin off the tip of your penis. (G.I. Jew is there!)

I actually like this tune, apart from it's comedy value. Perhaps it's not in the best taste, but what do you expect from the guys who wrote Why Can't Chinese Women Drive? And then there's their masterpiece "Silence!" - "Silence of the Lambs" - The Musical.

RIAA: "Sounds For The Space-Set"

A mashup tribute to the pioneers of electronic music...A glamorous excursion thru the solar system...RIAA (Robotic Intergalactic Astro-Artists) presents a 22-song free download album of Moogs, children's records, ill beats, Salvador Dali, lounge, disco, a robot narrator, surf, scientists, scratchy old novelty records, and at least one theremin. Robot servants mix cocktails for Sun Ra, Esquivel, and Bruce Haack in the observation deck of the space cruise ship heading towards the domed city of Las Vegas, Mars.

And in the most ludicrous example of pitch-shifting abuse in mashup history, Joe Meek stretches Celine Dion on the rack to get her to sing "Telstar." At least Devo and The Dazz Band come along to get everyone on the dance floor.

"Sounds For The Space-Set"

               "If you find Earth boring..."

1.Lift Off: Sun Ra "Outerspaceways, Inc," Four Tops "I Can't Help Myself," David Bowie "Space Oddity," Sun Ra Moog solo

"Our first stop will be the International Space Station..."

2. Follow The Planet Man: Mort Garson "Walking In Space," Eric B & Rakim "Follow The Leader," "Planet Man" (old-time radio)

"Be sure to visit the Meatier Steakhouse..."
3. Shining Sun Flash: Moog Machine "Jumpin' Jack Flash," Tom Glazer "Why Does The Sun Shine?," Earth Wind & Fire "Shining Star"

4.Telstar Will Go On-Let It Whip It: Joe Meek & The Tornadoes "Telsar," Celine Dion "The Heart Will Go On," Devo "Whip It," Dazz Band "Let It Whip"

5. Antenna Rock/StroboNews: Kraftwerk "Antenna," Queen "We Will Rock You," Dick Hyman "Strobo"

"There is a rave in the discotheque..."

6. Why Don't You Psych-Out?: Pierre Henry "Psych Rock" (Fatboy Slim remix)," The All-Night Workers "Why Don't You Smile Now," radio ad

7. ttiippssyy: Tipsy "Hey!" (Messur Chups remix) vs "Tipsy" by J-Kwon

8. Salvador Dali Teaches Rex Harrison How To Say 'Butterfly': Dick Hyman "The Moog and Me," Salvador Dali interview, Chicks on Speed "Wordy Rappinghood"

"We have planned a Lunar Party..."

9. Pon de Re-Entry to the Moon: Jean Jacques Perrey and Harry Breuer "Re-Entry To The Moon," Rihanna "'Pon De Replay," "Bobby & Betty go to the Moon"

10. Mechanical Robot Man: Bent Bolt & The Mechanics "Mechanical Man," Daft Punk "Robot Rock"

11. Robo-Spies Must Die!!: Forrest J. Ackerman "Music For Robots," Los Straightjackets "Squad Car"

12. Lunar Luau: Marty Gold/Walter Sear "Good Night," Frank Sinatra "Fly Me To The Moon," Portishead "Wandering Star," drums: John Bonham, fake Portishead bass synth: Mr Fab

13. Sexy Caravan: Three Suns "Caravan," Justin Timberlake "Sexy Back"

14. Bonnie & Clyde In Orbit: Jean Jacques Perrey "E.V.A." (Fatboy Slim remix), Brigitte Bardot & Serge Gainsbourg "Bonnie & Clyde," tbc!

15. Put Your Miniskirt On: Esquivel "Miniskirt," Schooly D "Put Your Filas On"

"...the domed city of Las Vegas, Mars..."

16. Intergalactic Centerfold: John Keating's Space Experience, Beastie Boys "Intergalactic,"
J. Geils Band "Centerfold," beats: Mrs. Crackburn!

17. Head Like a Moog: Mocha Beans "Hot Dog," Mr Fab & His
Bargain Slacks "sing" Nine Inch Nails!

18. OK Robot (remix)/Wendy and Delia: Bruce Haack "OK Robot,"
Wendy Carlos "Musique Concrete plus synthesizer," Delia Derbyshire
"Chromophone Band," "Moogies Bloogies"

19. Virginia's Tears: Roxy Music w/Brian Eno "Virginia Plain," Smokey Robinson "Tracks of My Tears,"
Eno synth: Nico "Innocent and Vain"

20. The Wonder Is All Around Us: Vangelis "Alpha," Dr. Michael Shermer and James Randi interview
("Skepticality" podcast interview), Ken Nordine "Satellite"

21. Rewind Lady Rewind: Claude Denjean "Lay Lady Lady," Cylob "Rewind"

"We now blast off into Deep Space..."

22. Star Trek To Nowhere: Universal Robot Band "Disco Trek (Star Trek theme)," Ella Fitzgerald "Out Of Nowhere," Cosmos "Summer In Space"

robo-narrator, additional beats and fx: RIAA

HOPE THEY DIE BEFORE THEY GET OLD

They are "the oldest and greatest rock band in the world - meet The Zimmers and their amazing cover of The Who's "My Generation". Lead singer Alf is 90...there are 99 and 100-year-olds in the band!...Documentary-maker Tim Samuels has been all over Britain recruiting isolated and lonely old people - those who can't leave their flats or who are stuck in rubbish care homes...The song is released on 28.05.07 and coincides with the TV show 'Power to the People' which started it all!"

The Zimmers MySpace Page - "My Generation" plays automatically

Yes, the "My Generation" video is funny - a 90-year-old croaking his way thru a rock classic - but it's also unexpectedly touching when members hold up signs describing their lives like "I haven't left my flat in 3 years." Well, now she has not only left home, she's touring the world.

We in Western society don't really know what to do with our old people, so when a Buena Vista Social Club-like phenomenon comes along, it relieves our guilt somewhat to see old folks getting some glory. We wish them the best, but haven't the foggiest how to give it to them. And the Zimmers do indeed appear to be an instant phenomenon: the bandwidth on their new site is already exceeded.

Aparently they perform a Beatles tune in concert, re-written as "When I'm One Hundred and Sixty-Four."

Wookie Wookie, Lend Me Your Comb

Just when I think I've heard it all...

While listening to today's mp3 I thought, "No..it can't be..it is...a song about having sex with someone in a Wookie costume." Happy birthday, "Star Wars"!

Yep, it's been 30 years since the first "Star Wars" film opened, and what better way to celebrate then with music by a fan. Sure, there are lots of "Star Wars" fans, and "filk music" (fan folk music) has been around for decades, but this guy obviously really likes one of the creatures from George Lucas' "Star Wars" universe, the Wookie, quite a bit. Maybe, some would say, a little too much.

"Furries," as you may know, are grown people who like to dress up as animals. No, they're not theme park employees - they do this on their own time. There are Furry conventions featuring artwork, costumes, porn, and socializing, which can, of course, lead to the kinds of things discussed in this most definitely not-safe-for-work song:

MouseTrap: WOOKIEE DRAWS CRACK - a parody of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back"

Yes, there is furry music, too - whole albums of this stuff for sale, ranging from New Age fantasy to Weird Al-inspired novelties, such as MouseTrap's Monkees parody "I'm A Retriever," and Sonic Blu's take-off on U2's "With Or Without You" entitled "Making a Fur Suit."

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' WomensHealth.gov website has a section promoting breastfeeding, and the Ad Council materials page features print, radio and TV ads. Which is all well and good, until one listens to the "Soul" ad:

National Breastfeeding Campaign "Soul" spot

Imagine Isaac Hayes rappin' about lactating, if you can. Actually, isn't that a white guy doing a psuedo-soul man voice? Probably Don Imus...

No credits listed, unfortunately, and I can't imagine what market this is intended for - the African American audience probably wouldn't appreciate the blackface routine. But, hey, at least it's a lot better then the FEMA rap.

ROCK MUSIC

Back in the post-Cage '60s, composers could get away with writing something like this and calling it "music":

"Make sounds with stones, draw sounds out of stones, using a number of sizes and kinds (and colours); for the most part discretely; sometimes in rapid sequences. For the most part striking stones with stones, but also stones on other surfaces (inside the open head of a drum, for instance) or other than struck (bowed, for instances, or amplified). Do not break anything."

Christian Wolff did just that for his piece "Stones", and more power to him. Los Angeles avant oddball Tom Recchion performs his take on it:

Tom Recchion: "Stones"

There's no information on how this was recorded, but the eerie stereo effects remind me of the binaural recordings that caused such a stir here last year.

Recchion co-founded the Los Angeles Free Music Society, who made the concurrent CBGB scene in New York look as mainstream as "American Bandstand' in comparison. But I first knew him from a radio show he co-hosted on L.A.'s KPFK in the Eighties that played, as they used to say, "avant-garde and rear-garde" music - experimental/improv weirdness mixed with kitschy thrift-store exotica (what People Like Us would call "avant-retard"). I also once saw him do a turntable performance with Christian Marclay where he smashed a record and used a large shard of the broken vinyl to "scratch" another record spinning on the turntable.

THE BEST MUSIC YOU EVER SAW

I originally posted this in March. It disappeared. I don't know why, but let's try this again:

It has been far too long since I've written about musical saw performers. What a wonderous invention is the saw! You can cut down trees with it, then relax afterwards by bowing it to produce nicely eerie theremin-ish music.

Minneapolis' Randall Throckmorton is a crooner in the tradition of '20s idols like Rudy Vallee. He often augments his melancholy, nostalgic ballads with Andy McCormick's musical saw, on such lovely tunes as:

Randall Throckmorton: Always Chasing Rainbows

Randall Throckmorton: The Lamp Is Low

McCormick has his own group, Dreamland Faces, which features Karen Majewicz on accordion. A musical saw/accordian duo. I just love that.

djBC just came back from New Orleans where he "saw" a very different kind of performer: "He plays his boot, a saw, his bass of PVC pipes...he is THAT 1 GUY - one man band. Recent album- SONGS IN THE KEY OF BEEYOTCH. He also has electronic bassdrum triggers and a snare drum and various looping mechanisms and stuff. I was blown away. He also has a sense of humor. Unfortunately I didnt get the part where he hooks a smoke machine up to his PVC bass and smoke is pouring out the top. Or when he removed his hat and a second hat was underneath the first one. Classic."

Some crazy videos here, and bc himself shot this video, and "heres another video of him playing the PVC bass/cello with a bow, and also playing "Somewhere over the rainbow" on a saw."

WAYNE BUTANE'S RECORD COLLECTION

As anyone who's heard Wayne Butane's recordings can tell you, the man has a lot of records. A LOT of records, many of which end up in his outrageous, obscene, hilarious sound-collages. We're still waiting patiently for his next album since we last wrote about him (June 29, 2005), but he's been gracious to share some of the more bizarre records from his closet on his MySpace page:

From the Brain of Wayne Butane - includes his "Wayne's Record Collection" entries.

Outsider recordings, novelties, crank calls...good stuff, but they're up for a limited time, so grab 'em while you can. Thanks, Wayne! Now finish up that album, ya hear?

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In other news...

Rummage Through The Crevices is back! I had just about given up on this wonderful strange-music blog since it hadn't posted anything new since Dec. '05, but it came back with a vengence in April, and Warren's obviously making up for lost time by posting tons o' quality crap since then. The Wee Willie Shantz post alone puts this into the M4M "Highly Recommended" catagory - Mr. Shantz was a crazed hillbilly was works should be of profound interest to any outsider-music enthusiast.

FRED PHELPS IS COMPLETELY HETEROSEXUAL

Rev. Fred Phelps has been busy since we last checked in with him. The "God Hates Fags" preacher's Westboro Baptist Church choir has lots of new tunes up on their site, including newly-recorded versions of their old hits like "America The Burning." That particular song, a parody of "America The Beautiful," has been renamed "Wicked Land of Sodomites" (subtle, eh?) and now features piano, better sound quality, and an outrageous new verse about an alleged homosexual practice that almost made me spit-take on my computer screen.

Westboro Baptist Church: "Wicked Land of Sodomites" - "That's nasty!"

Support the troops? Not this crowd - they have a song for each branch of the American armed forces: "U.S. Smarmy", "Toast Guard", "Air Farce", and, just for the Marines, "Semper Fi Semper Fags." It's easy for me to laugh at songs like:

Westboro Baptist Church: "This Land is Fag Land"

(sung to the tune of Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Our Land") but other tracks feature children singing. Yeesh, do we have to drag kids into this? Now that's distasteful.

Phelps and Co. must be happy to know that conservative preacher Ted Haggard, caught with a rent-a-boy, has undergone an intensive three week program to, er, "straighten him out." Which brings us to Roy Zimmerman. Satirical California singer/songwriter Zimmerman has also been busy since we last visited him, and recently posted a video of a wickedly funny new song, with all the bad puns, ludicrous rhymes, and Tom Lehrer-esque sharp wit we've come to expect from him:

Roy Zimmerman "Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual" (video)
Roy Zimmerman "Ted Haggard is Completely Heterosexual" (mp3) Recorded off the video, hope it's on his next album.

Now when's Fred Phelps gonna come out of the closet..?

THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE WHO BOYS

The Who Boys are an uncatagorizable trio of oddballs based in the UK (including one American ex-pat) whose 'net-albums include spoken-word, singing, electronics, and mashups in various combinations (sometimes all in one track!).

Their new 'net-only release, "The Good The Bad and the Who Boys," features, among it's many wonders, an inexplicable acapella chorus version of the BeeGee's "Staying Alive," a brutal drun'n'bass Elvis remix, a brilliant bit of lounge/classical fusion as Tony Bennett sings over Chopin, and three - count 'em - tracks using recordings of rapid-fire country auctioneers, like the kind we talked about here. This one might be my fave:

The Who Boys: "The Return of Dub Auctioneer" - "...doing his thing with Santana and The Doors, with them essential Who Boys rhythms"

Billie Holiday's chilling description of a lynching, "Strange Fruit," is one of those sacred songs that I wouldn't want to mess with, but this unlikely pairing with Radiohead is nothing short of stunning:

The Who Boys: "Strange Pyramid" - "One to reflect and weep to."

And anyone who remembers British "punk poet" John Cooper Clark is automatically aces in my book.

I Just Called To Say You Are A Rude Little Pig

American media was all in a tizzy over the message Alec Baldwin left to his daughter on ex-wife Kim Bassinger's answering machine that Ms. Bassinger, classy lady that she is, promptly posted on the inter-webs. DJs Adrian & The Mysterious D heard it and knew what had to be done:

A+D: I Just Called To Say You Are A Rude Little Pig

When I first read about the Baldwin call I thought it was appalling. So why is this so funny?

THEY PUT THE HO IN HOEDOWN

What is it with these bluegrass covers of old rock and pop hits? Back in 2001, Hayseed Dixie, who must now be considered pioneers of this genre, covered AC/DC classics in a traditional acoustic folk style for an album that was an out-of-left-field novelty smash. Since then we've had numerous albums by folks like Boss Hoss, Iron Horse, 2 Tons of Steel, Asylum Street Spankers, and The Twang. Even David Lee Roth does hoedown versions of his old Van Halen hits.

Now, an actual country music superstar gets in on the action. Ricky Skaggs, along with Bruce Hornsby (there's a name you haven't heard in a while, eh?) close out their new album with a cover of Rick James' "Superfreak." I guess there's still some mileage left in the genre-clashing exercise of playing a modern electric song in an acoustic traditional style, especially if it's done by top-flight performers like the ones featured here:

Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby: "Superfreak"

PET PROJECTS

A Maniac known as Dj Stairmaster E knows how we loves them animal musics, so he passed along his contribution to a tribute-song website for perennial cult faves NRBQ using - yes! - sampled animal sounds. Now I like NRBQ well enough, even owned one of their albums once, but if you're like me, you probably won't recognize the NRBQ melodies used in this medley. But so what? It's animals!

Dj Stairmaster E: NRBQ Pet Project - "It was inspired by the animal-voiced medley "Sunbaked Savanna" on the Katamari Damashii (Japanese video game) soundtrack."

Reminds me of Gorillas in the Mix, a classic novelty album from 1989 by electronic music pioneer Bernie Krause - original songs played only with animal sound effects samples. Every sound you heard, even the drum beats, were sampled animals. On this tune, the bass drum is a ruffled grouse thumping it's wings, walruses on bass and steel drums, snapping shrimp on percussion, crickets and katydids on ride cymbals, dolphins on piano, along with owls, elephants, horses, etc...

Bernie Krause "Trout From Ipanema" - Good tune, too.

MASHUPS A-GO-GO

It's Friday, or as I call it, "Fride-YAY!." Two upbeat LOL-out loud bits of silliness to kick off your weekend and make you feel ridiculously cheerful:

Bingo Starr: "Freakin' In St Tropez "- Brigitte Bardot's "St. Tropez" gives Missy Elliott's "Get Ur Freak On" a groovy '60s discotheque feel; added beatz help.

JonasMedz: "Herb Albert Made You Look" - It's been over a decade since the Evolution Control Committee's legendary "Whipped Cream Mixes" first hooked up Herb Albert with hip-hop, but this Swedish dude may have topped it - Nas is in perfect synch with Herb's tune "Peanuts," with milk-out-your-nose laffs results.

No, Not THAT Slick Rick

YouTube time: an absolutely horrific slice of '80s fake-rap performed by two hosts of the San Francisco teen show "Home Turf." It's got it all: Slick Rick's (don't worry, not Doug E. Fresh's partner) "Miami Vice" sportjacket-over-t-shirt look, public access-worthy special effects, arrhythmic rapping, corny lyrics. Fresh!

Lady Dominique and Slick Rick (1985)



Thanks again to Karl.

The Rap Canterbury Tales

Saturday's post about the giant squirrel rapping classic poetry reminded my friend Karl about seeing a live performance of a rap version of Chaucer's medieval masterpiece "Canterbury Tales." A quick inter-webular search revealed Baba Brinkman's site, a chap from Vancouver who has an M.A. in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature, and whose thesis "drew parallels between the worlds of rap music and literary poetry."

His album "The Rap Canterbury Tales" puts a modern hip-hop spin on the tales - if eminem had a graduate degree in classical literature it might sound a little something like this:

Baba Brinkman: The Miller's Tale - about a dirty Medieval gurrrl.
Baba Brinkman: The Pardoner's Tale - some drunks in a bar want to beat up Death; kinda reminds me of "Billy & Ted's Bogus Journey" (now there's a high-brow reference for ya).
Baba Brinkman: The Wife of Bath's Tale - another pretty interesting story about a knight who has to have sex with a scary old lady.

You must admit: not many hard-core MCs can claim to have a "Teaching Resources" page on their website.

M.C. NUTS

News item:

"A giant red squirrel named M.C. Nuts belts out a Hip Hop version of the Wordsworth poem, "Daffodils" in honour of its 200th anniversary.

The music video was created on behalf of the Cumbria Tourism board in Northern England and it was designed to appeal to the next generation of Lake District visitors.

William Wordsworth is considered by academics and writers alike as one of the greatest poets of all time; M.C. Nuts is hoping to ensure that the youth of today show their respect for the English poem in the future."

M.C. Nuts: "Daffodils"

But you have got to see the video to truly appreciate this - nothing says hip-hop like a guy in a giant squirrel costume, eh?

ALOHA, DON HO...

I was sad to hear of the passing of Hawaiian music legend Don Ho, and not just because we've lost another swingin' crooner from the Rat Pack era. He actually played a small but memorable part in my honeymoon (get your minds out of the gutter!) Like so many newlyweds in Honolulu we caught his show, and he asked if there were any honeymooners in the audience. His man with a mic came up to me and Don asked when we were married. I said a month-and-a-half ago (we didn't even plan our honeymoon til after the wedding). Of course Ho's from the era where couples were virgins 'til their wedding day then immediately proceed to do it like crazed monkeys on their honeymoon, so he said, "Wow, a month and a half later and still on the honeymoon - this guy's Superman!" And when we met him after the show to get our picture taken with him, he recognized me and signed it "To Superman."

On the flight home, an older Hawaiian man couldn't get his bag into the overhead compartment. I helped him and he said, "Wow, how'd you do that? You're Superman!" So there ya go - old Hawaiian guys think I'm Superman. Apparently they worship me - must be some kinda cargo cult.

I was given a cassette version of his 1990 album "All My Love" for participating in the show, and amidst the love ballads was this novelty about Hawaii's biggest cash crop:

Don Ho: "Who Was That Lolo Who Stole My Pacalolo?" - Consider this an early 4/20 post.

His out-of-print album "Live At The Polynesian Palace" featured a version of his hit "Pearly Shells" that featured him chatting with children in the audience. When he asks one girl about her father, she tells Don that her dad is dead! I can't believe they left it on the album:

Don Ho: "Pearly Shells (excerpt)"

Don Ho: "Hawaii 5-0/Quiet VIllage" - These songs had lyrics?

Don Ho: "Shock The Monkey" (video) - Yep, the Peter Gabriel song, from the kooky "When Pigs Fly" comp; he just can't quite hit those high notes, can he?

RIAA's latest mashup actually features a military marching cadence version of Ho's tiki lounge classic "Tiny Bubbles" + The Velvet Underground's "Guess I'm Falling in Love" -
"Guess I'm Falling Into Bubbles"

Aloha, Don...

KICK THE IRS

Happy Tax Day, America! To celebrate, here's an obscure self-released 45 from 1982 commemorating...something. Apparently there was some sort of tax revolt in the state of Montana that inspired one Ah - Ah Allen to record these two songs. Couldn't find much on the web re: Ah - Ah except that he recorded at least one other single that someone's selling on eBay, and his music was used in a documentary film about hobos. Maybe he was a hobo - he sings with the kind of folksy twang I like to imagine hobos sound like.

Ah - Ah Allen: Kick The IRS
Ah - Ah Allen: Montana I'm So Proud of You

Anyone know what the heck he's singing about? (Someone from Montana perhaps?)

KURT VONNEGUT IS IN HEAVEN NOW

By now I'm sure you've heard the sad news of the death of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. If he wrote it I read it, with "Cat's Cradle" being the fave book of my teen years. I devoured it several times, but I never heard The Man himself reading from it until today's post on CrudCrud:

Kurt Connegut, Jr: reads from "Cat's Cradle" , or sings calypso, in the case of the first track; for a very different reading of those same lyrics, see the Ambrosia post below.

Classic quotes:

"History - read it and weep!"

One of the holy calypsos of the Caribbean religous leader Bokonon in "Cat's Cradle":
"Fish got to swim, bird got to fly
Man got to sit and wonder why why why"

"If flying-saucer creatures or angels or whatever were to come here in a hundred years, say, and find us gone like the dinosaurs, what might be a good message for humanity to leave for them, maybe carved in big letters on a Grand Canyon wall? We probably could have saved ourselves, but were too damn lazy to try very hard... and too damn cheap."

"I've had a hell of a good time. I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you any different."

Vonnegut subscribed to the athiest/skeptic philosophy of Humanism. When addressing a Humanists convention he said about deceased science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov, "Isaac's in Heaven now." It got a big laugh.

From WFMU's blog:

Two songs from Dave Soldier's Ice-9 Ballads (another "Cat's Cradle" reference, doncha know) album, with voiceover by Mr. Vonnegut:

"Duo For Clarinet And Meade Lux"
"Annihilation Life"

And big thanks to Idolator for posting a couple of Vonnegut-related tunes,including one from Ambrosia. Yup, the schlock-meisters famed for such '70s atrocities as "How Much I Feel" actually started off as a kind of laid-back L.A. prog band (soft-prog?) - their 1975 self-titled debut features a song with lyrics taken from another one of Bokonon's calypsos, complete with goofy fake Caribbean accent, though the music owes more to Gabriel-era Genesis then, say, Mighty Sparrow.

Ambrosia: "Nice, Nice, Very Nice"

It ain't gonna happen of course, but it sure would be great if Vonnegut is buried, like Bokonon at the end of "Cat's Cradle," frozen on his back, eternally "...thumbing his nose at You Know Who."

IT'S LINK-A-RIFFIC!!

Interwebular happenings you should be aware of:

Egg City Radio: Rising from the ashes of the late great Post-Punk Junk site, Brett's new 'net-home will be focusing on podcasts and he's already posted a few, including one featuring only 30-second-long songs. Not so many album/mp3 sharities this time, but he has posted one album (a truly sick, strange disco relic), so hopefully there will be more to come.

Flying Saucer Music: Greg from Radio Mysterioso is putting up an mp3 a week of vintage space/UFO novelty and outsider records (folk songs by an alien "contactee"?!).

Western Electric is a groovy new eclectic music podcast that plays occasional Music For Maniacs stuff.

Counterstream Radio: Continuous streaming radio of contemporary and experimental composers e.g., Cage, Glass, Laurie Anderson, as well as the likes of Kid606. Hey, they just played Glen Branca - I saw him in concert last year with his symphony for 100 electric guitars. Mike Watt was one of the 15 bassists. It was kinda loud.

Been spending an awful lot of time at Mutant Sounds and Loronix, two ridiculously prolific album-share blogs, the former featuring lots of prog/psych/avant weirdness, the latter Brazilian music. Seriously, there's years worth of music on both sites, so I'm using "search" to focus on the minimal synth New Wave/punk early '80s and Los Angeles Free Music Society '70s/'80s oddities (like this gem) from Mutant Sounds, and Tropicalia records from Loronix.

I'm very familiar with bossa nova, but the late' 60s/early '70s psych-funk of the Tropicalia scene is much more obscure to us Yanks, though it has grown in reputation in recent years. I can only imagine how startling this Gal Costa album must have sounded in the '60s - it's mix of acid-rock guitars, occasional Yoko-like shrieks, and tape/loop/delay experimentation would have blown that girl from Ipanema all the way to Jupiter.

So! That oughta keep you busy for a few lifetimes...

HAPPY ZOMBIE DAY!

It's the merriest time of year - that annual celebration of rebirth, renewal, resurrection. Some call it Easter, but we call it...Zombie Day! Jesus might be the most famous fellow to rise from the grave and walk amongst the living, but he certainly wasn't the last. 'Tis the season for getting together with family & friends, gathering around the tv and watching "Night of the Living Dead" again. Or maybe "Dead Alive" or "Shaun of the Dead" for a more "modern" non-traditional celebration. I'm hoping for Zombie Day greeting cards, parties, TV specials, etc. There are plenty of Zombie Day Carols to sing as you stroll (or lurch) from door to door, bringing holiday cheer to your neighbors:

Noel Anthony: "Zombie Jamboree" - One of the great '50s calypsos recorded by everyone from Belafonte on down. From a groovy collection of music by Caribs living in England called "Kings of Calypso."

Roky Erickson & The Aliens "I Walked With A Zombie" - I can't believe I'm an outsider-music blogger who has never posted any Roky Erickson, the one guy who probably really believes in zombies and has the mental-ward history to prove it. This tune is taken from his 1981 album "The Evil One" that was produced by Creedence Clearwater's Stu Cook (what's he doing here?). Next time you're at a karaoke event, ask for Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" and sing these lyrics over it.

Mr Fab & His Bag O' Heads: "Cannibal Zombie Mom" - Original lyrics over '60s trash-rock riffs from The Standells and the Ventures. Plus! boomin' beats; from last year's various artists on-line comp "Bride of Monster Mashup."

Here's wishing a very merry Zombie Day to you and yours on this most joyous holiday season.

SOUNDCLICK SUPERSTARS IN ECSTASY

Continuing the exploration we started in February of Soundclick's amateur musician mp3 treasure-trove:

You gotta love Wushuman's "It's Time To Party," available here - it's utterly inept on all levels. The singer croaks "ecstasy!" but the music is hobbling around pathetically like it's got testicular cancer. Very entertaining.

Sheep Daggy-Dags is a hip-hop spoof from New Zealand with Chipmunk vocals. Hilarious and utterly absurd. Only one song? I think we need more.

DJ RUMSFELD AND MC ROVE

Ah damn. Donald Rumsfeld isn't Secretary of Defense anymore. I say this not because I'm a big fan of his Iraq strategy (is anyone?) but because this first mp3 of one of his press conference statements set to music is already a little out-of-date now that he's no longer in office. But I just got this CD! It's still really good honest!

Phil Kline is a New York based composer mostly known for his "Unsilent Night" events every Christmas were anyone can show up to a pre-determined public place and play a tape or CD of his music - a kind of concerto for boomboxes. His 2004 album Zippo Songs (lyrics must fit on the side of a lighter) features operatic vocals straight-facedly intoning lyrics based on Rumsfeld's speeches, including his infamous "known knowns and known unknowns" comment.

Phil Kline: "As We Know"

Fortunately, Orange County's VoiceDude is a little quicker on the draw then I am - he released a remix today of that jaw-dropping car-wreck of a rap song featuring Bush string-puller Karl Rove that's so damn funky it actually makes this cringe-worthy attempt at Republican humor very entertaining, especially when Three Dog Night drop in. And I never thought I'd say that about Three Dog Night.

"The Roving Liar" is available here.

BLACK MUSIC FOR WHITE PEOPLE pt2

No discussion of black veterans and the white kids who love them is complete without mentioning Andre Williams, the former r'n'b star left homeless by drug addiction who reinvented himself in the '90s as a punk-rockin' pimp daddy. More recent songs like "Pussy Stank" ("...but so do marijuana!") and today's selection are bursting with good-humored nastiness not possible in his early days.

Andre Williams and the Countdowns "Let Me Put It In" - found this on a peer-to-peer; it's labeled "live 1998" but I can't find a live album matching this description - was this ever officially released? If not, it should be - it's a scorcher.

And then there's Sun Ra, the jazz-man from outer space. I could write a book about him. Actually, someone already has - it's called "Space is the Place" and it's highly recommended, full of glimpses into Ra's bizarre world, e.g. he told a reporter in the '70s "Have you seen 'Star Wars'? It's very authentic," or when asked if he was disappointed that the Voyager spacecraft carrying recordings of Earth sounds didn't include any of his music, he replied, "No, the Space Brothers know what my music sounds like - they sent me here."

Starting in the '40s, Sun Ra played big-band music for black dances, using only black performers - he didn't think white folks could really feel the soul of jazz. But as his electronic future-jazz progressed, black dancers left behind the increasingly strange sounds of Ra's Arkestra for r'n'b and soul. Eventually the '60s brought a new audience to Ra - the largely-white psychedelic and avant-garde crowd. Ra's career was saved, but he felt betrayed - he was trying to save the black nation and they were leaving him. Eventually, he stopped calling himself black, claiming that he had no race, and ended up performing with white artists like John Cage and Paul Bley. Towards the end of his life and career in the '90s, he was opening for Sonic Youth.

Sun Ra & His Arkestra: "Nuclear War" - a hilarious/disturbing 12" single (eventually included on this album) released in 1982 that someone thought was gonna be a hit. It certainly should have been. Does it get any better then: "When they push that button, you can kiss your ass goodbye...Watcha gonna do...without your ass?" Play this for anyone, and watch them instantly become a Sun Ra fan. Or instantly disown you. (Either way, you're better off.)

BLACK MUSIC FOR WHITE PEOPLE

My March 5 Blowfly post got me thinking about the curious phenomena of veteran black performers who lose their black audience, only to have their careers jump-started after being discovered by a new audience of white hipsters.

This is nothing new: after the post-war bebop revolution, jazz lost much of it's black fan base, but gained a new chin-stroking white audience who were relieved that all that primitive African rhythm that made jazz the premier dance music of the early 20th century was being supplanted by harmonic complexities more in line with classical European tradition. And after blues was gradually rejected by black America for newer, hipper styles like r'n'b and soul, the folk-revivalists of the Fifties and Sixties went down South, dug up many old blues cats (some of whom had been retired for years), and brought them to folk festivals, which led to opening slots on Rolling Stones tours, etc.

In recent years, the punk-spawned indie/alternative crowd have revived interest in folks like Blowfly, whose good-naturedly nasty r'n'b is received as a delightful novelty in a gangsta-rap world, instead of an embarrassing anachronism. Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label, no less, is releasing Blowfly's latest, a collection of punk parodies. I don't know whose idea this was, but I'm mighty glad it happened.

Blowfly "I Wanna Be Felated" - And you thought The Ramones were already tasteless?

Screamin' Jay Hawkins was a forgotten r'n'b novelty act from the '50s until filmmaker Jim Jarmusch used his classic "I Put A Spell On You" in his mid-Eighties hit film "Stranger Then Paradise." The song, featuring Hawkin's insane opera-trained voice and delirious energy, proved so popular, Hawkins himself starred in another Jarmusch film, "Mystery Train." By the late '80s the Screamin' Jay revival was well underway, and he was his old voodoo witch-doctor shrunken-head-shaking performing self, emerging from a coffin on stage. He too found that his new audience looked a lot different then his old one, even naming one of his comeback albums "Black Music For White People," from whence comes this remake of a blues hit that's really just an excuse for Jay to go absolutely, utterly BONKERS:

Screamin' Jay Hawkins "Strokin'"

Jay died a few years ago, after siring perhaps as many as 65 children! A reunion of his offspring took place at the Hollywood House of Blues - about 35 of his kids showed up. A suitably bizarre post-script to a bizarre life.

SOUL BROTHER # 2

Remember when Pat Boone released his heavy-metal album "No More Mr. Nice Guy" in 1997? I figured it was a goof, having fun with his wholesome christian image by doing swingin' big-band versions of "'devil's music" classics. I still maintain that his version of "Paradise City" kicks butt over Guns'n'Roses' original.

But now I'm starting to think that that was really just the beginning of a bizarre career shift. What is one to make of this oddity I found on iTunes:

Pat Boone "Everybody Dies" - From '04, a hip-hop (!) single contemplating death's inevitability, whose artwork features Pat lying in a coffin! And I can't find a shred of info about it anywhere.

But his latest album really makes me wonder if he's gone off his rocker: "We Are Family" finds him singing - I swear, I'm not making this up - funk.

And soul. And disco. No, he doesn't have any hidden reserves of grooviness that he's letting out now. His voice has the same bland, white-bread sound it always had. At least his dreamy '50s and '60s hit ballads like "Love Letters in the Sand" had a nice Bing Crosby-like crooner appeal to them. But even that voice, as inappropriate as it would be, is now largely gone. He croaks through each number like your grandpa at karaoke night. Dueting with original soul-men who still sound great makes for a startling contrast:

Pat Boone: "Can't Help Myself" - Yup, the Four Tops classic. He also mugs along the way Kool and the Gang, Earth Wind and Fire, Sam & Dave, KC & The Sunshine Band ("Do a little dance, make a little love"...yeah, very little), and even the Godfather himself ("Papa's Got A Brand New Bag") on what must have been one of his last recordings. What a way to go out.
And did you ever think you would hear Pat Boone singing Junior Walker: "Shotgun! Shoot 'em if they run, now." Pat Boone's gone gangsta!

A MASH SUPREME

One of the great things about mashups is it's ability to make me like a song or artist I normally would think much about. Such as Diana Ross and/or The Supremes. Not that I hate her. I just never found her voice that compelling, and oldies radio has pounded her songs into the ground. But Boston's djBC has done a beautiful job of chopping up Ross' "Aint No Mountain High Enough," mixing it with Led Zeppelin (another band I imagine some of you are sick of), and serving up the sublime

"Aint No Misty Mountain High Enough"

It actually uses "Thank You," not "Misty Mountain Hop." Which reminds me: when Ross' husband Arne Naess Jr. died in a climbing accident, some internet wag wrote ''Guess there was a mountain high enough."

Germany's DJ Earlybird also used Ross, mixing her with yet another unavoidable oldie, John Lennon's "Imagine." And I just think it's gorgeous.

DJ Earlybird: "Baby, Imagine Love"

Dylan Hears A Who

Dr Seuss' children's classics performed in the style of Bob Dylan. And that just about says it all:

Dylan Hears A Who



Thanks to solcofn!

BLOWFLY'S PUNK ROCK PARTY

I apologize for this weblog's lack of activity lately, but I've been attending to my wife's (successful) surgery and post-surgical needs, so I think that's a pretty good excuse. Unfortunately, since I've been gone I see that Multiply.com has changed it's policy and you have to register with them to access the tuneage, negatively effecting that last post of mine about the Space-Age mashups. But I have some good news for you:

Blowfly's Punk-Rock Party.

Blowfly?! The sixty-something, foul-mouthed, living legend has gone punk? Yessir! Blowfly's been playing the "chitlin circuit" (the black American blues club scene) for ages, recording X-rated "party records" that were clearly spiritual antecedents to the likes of the 2Live Crew, but more fun and funny, all delivered with a good-natured wink that seems almost innocent compared to his gangsta-thug progeny.

His new album features parodies of punk and rock classics. Some, like the Dead Kennedys-inspired "R. Kelly in Cambodia" (featuring Jello himself guesting) are delivered in 'fly's traditional funk-ay funk-ay style. But uncharacteristic hard-rockin' styles dominate to great effect on tunes like the Ramones take-off "I Wanna Be Fellated." And if that title alone makes you laugh, you're on Blowfly's wicked wavelength.

Blowfly's MySpace page has some songs available.