LEONCIE: THE CHARO OF ICELAND

Bosoms! Lots of makeup! Wildly dramatic trilling! Casio-riffic no-budget music! It can only be that "icy spicy" babe Leoncie. Did I mention bosoms? As Miss Thing herself says, "A Little Bit Of My Cleavage Shows, And Then The Icelandic Volcano Explodes. Boooom!"

Forget yer Bjorks - Leoncie may be from Iceland (while claiming Indian heritage), but there all similiarities end. She writes and records her own music, even makes some of her own outfits, while performing everything with the breathless enthusiasm and relentlessly up-beat optimism of old-fashioned show-biz, even though her lyrics can turn baffling ("Radio Rapist"?) or, as in the case of "Satan City," which she claims is based on a real Icelandic nighborhood, nightmarishly surreal:

Leoncie "Satan City" - a place so offensive to her devoutly Christian sensibilities she claims they're "fucking on the street." Come on everybody, clap your hands! (But mind the abrupt ending.)

Many of her songs are about love. Or, more accurately, lust. Not for the easily embarrassed:

Leoncie "My Icelandic Man" - Wow, I wonder how she performs this one live. Hey, you two, get a room!

This page has more mp3s on the bottom, including her "headbanger" number:

Leoncie: "Wrestler" - And, yes, it's about wrestlers. Get this woman a tv appearance NOW!

SCANNER MUSIC

This website tells you how to rig your computer's scanner to play stuff like Beethoven's "Fur Elise" as this video demonstrates:

scanner: Fur Elise

Be a hit at your next office party! However: "use at your own risk. The author assumes no liability for any damages incurred by its use..."

TERRY KNIGHT: THE PHIL SPECTOR OF THE MID-WEST

Crass, outrageous, unpredictable, Terry Knight was all showbiz. Before being stabbed to death in 2004, he had worked with everyone from ? and the Mysterians to Ed McMahon. If he's remembered for anything, it's for his involvement with early-'70s arena rockers Grand Funk Railroad. But, as Barry Stoller reveals in his biography "I (Who Have Nothing): The Terry Knight Story," Knight had a surprisingly diverse portfolio in the '60s - dj, singer, songwriter, producer, record company exec, in styles from raungy garage punk ("Comin' on Back To Me" is a classic "Nuggets"-style rocker) to shmoove EZ-listening. And it's almost all out-of-print. Today's guest post tells the tale of Knight's brief production/A&R career at Cameo-Parkway. Take it away, Barry!

Knight never intended "I (Who Have Nothing)," his breakout national hit
with the Pack and his first foray into lounge music, as a 45. The
decision rested with Neil Bogart, president of Cameo-Parkway, the
company which distributed Terry Knight &The Pack's locally-produced garage records. When
the tune hit, Knight immediately seized his chance and submitted to the
influence of C-P (and Richard Rome, C-P staff arranger, who produced the
string-laden ballad).

"Comin' Back To Me" (by the Alabama garage band, Rites of Spring) was
Knight's first production duty with C-P (and his second ever with a
group other than his own). Essentially, he 'saved' the Rites of Spring's
failed 45 attempt, initially a demo, by supervising the re-recording of
the vocals which featured new lyrics. The tune, released while "I (Who
Have Nothing)" was still on the charts, bombed.

"If Love Is" was a vanity project for 'Dandy' Dan Daniel, a DJ at New
York's influential WMCA-AM. On this, Daniel's third C-P 45, 'Dandy' Dan
emotes Rod McKuenesque poetry over a backing track originally intended
as a Knight solo session. The music was written by Knight with
assistance from Rome; the lyrics are probably Knight's. The backing
track was recycled on a subsidiary C-P easy-listening album by the
International Pop Orchestra. Summer 1967, one of the last C-P releases.

Knight composed "The Incident Theme" on the set of the movie (which is a
malignant kicker) shortly after C-P folded in a flurry of lawsuits
between Allen Klein (who leveraged a buyout of the label) and Bogart
(who fled the label with several newly signed groups and producers plus
a stack of masters which surfaced in a variety of contexts). Knight was
managed by Ed McMahon at the time and McMahon had a part in the flick.
Promoted on the Tonight Show. Arrangement by Charles Fox (who did the
score for Barbarella shortly after). November 1967.

After The Incident bombed, Knight and McMahon went separate ways. Knight
was without a recording or production contract until early 1969. The
rest is heavy metal history.

- Barry Stoller
Utopia 2000

A-WHOOPIN', A-HOLLERIN' AND A-EEPHIN'

A reader asked if I had any "eefing" records after becoming intrigued by this wonderful NPR story that aired a couple of weeks ago. 'Deed I do, from an old vinyl album I got out of the library 10 years or so ago and taped called "I'm On My Journey Home." It's one of the strangest folk music collections I've ever encountered, and eephing, a vocal style that vaguely resembles a hillbilly form of human-beatboxing, is only part of it.

Has anyone made an eephing record in last 40 years? It may be, as the NPR story suggests, a lost art.

Jimmy Riddle: Eephing
Joe Perkins with Jimmy Riddle: Little Eephin' Annie - taken from the NPR story; this record actually charted in 1963

These other oddities from "I'm On My Journey Home" are vocal pieces that fall into the may-not-actually-be-music category, but are delightful nonethless:

Leonard Emanuel/"Red" Buck Estes - "Hollerin'" & "Whoopin'"
Lindy Clear/Ben Rice - "Ringing The Pig"/"Spelling From The Old Blue-Back Speller"

DAN TREACEY'S DARK PLACES

"I don't believe anyone's born bad, I don't believe anyone's born sad, but some people are born...mad."

So sings England's Dan Treacey on the brand-new album "My Dark Places" by his band the Television Personalities, their first since the early '90s. Why the long wait? Well, in the '80s, Treacy sang about Pink Floyd founder/mental case Syd Barrett, and in the '90s he practically became him. Trapped in a downward spiral of homelessness, drugs, crimes to pay for drugs, institutionalization, rinse, repeat, Treacy "lost the plot," as he sings in "I Get Sick Again," one of his new songs. He didn't play music for years, until prison nuns got him some instruments. He sent out an e-mail after being released in 2004 announcing his desire to return to music, and fans staged a benefit to buy him studio time. Which I find genuinely heart-warming.

The new four-piece lineup features fellow original member Edward Ball and is playing around England. I wonder if the album is sequenced in the order it was recorded - it starts off a shambling mess. Imagine Wild Man Fischer fronting the Shaggs...an exaggeration, but only a slight one. But the performances quickly grow more confident, and miserable songs like "All The Young Children On Crack" give way to some happy-sounding tunes like "They'll Have To Catch Us First," a groovy bit of '60s a-go-go Mod pop that could get easily get a be-miniskirted Twiggy frugging, although, like the rest of the album, the playing is little ragged, and vocals are hardly pitch-perfect.

Elsewhere he salutes another '60s fave, The Velvet Underground, over a Casio beat, Wesley Willis-style; paraphrases the reggae classic "Uptown Ranking" by singing "Uptown top wanking," announces "Don't be fooled by the rocks - I'm still Danny from the block!" and delcares "The king's got his crown back, back on the throne" to applause sound effects.

The sadness always returns, though. In "I Hope You're Happy Now," Treacy moans, "I hope he's everything you wanted me to be...". Treacy was apparantly so overwhelmed to be playing music again, he would break down crying in the studio, and he certainly sounds like he's on the verge of doing just that throughout "My Dark Places."

Television Personalities: "I'm Not Your Typical Boy" - a lovely Daniel Johnston-esque piano ballad cloaked in sincerity, humility, and humanity.

TOTALLY RAD

The film "Dangerous Men" has become something of a phenomenon here in Los Angeles since it first appeared on screens last September. To quote an imdb review, "What is to be said about the movie that would make Ed Wood vomit with rage?... Filming began in 1985 only to be shut down ...then in 1995 to be refinanced and reshot in a desperate attempt to resolve the "story" with different characters of no logical connection!" As another reviewer describes it: "mountains explode, people grow beards in 3 seconds, men read from scripts that are plainly visible in the shot, bad guys get knocked out by scalp massages, women transport knives in the cracks of their buttocks, plots are abandoned ten minutes after being formed, title sequences contain no other name than "John S. Rad," nude men dance with cedar leaves in the desert, the same "punch...ah!" sound effect is used 24 times in a 30 second period."

The auteur of "Dangerous Men," one John S. Rad (aka Yeghanehrad), who did the music for the film as well just about everything else, has taken the show on the road to a few other cities, and to whet your appetite, has written a new song...just for you! Life getting you down, friend? Yeah, well, I bet even the most miserable sad-sack couldn't listen to this "song" without erupting into uncontrollable giggle-fits.

John S. Rad: "Dangerous Men"

EXOTICA: NOW!

I was in a used/collectable record store a year or two ago when I overheard two store employees talking about the lounge/exotica revival of the '90s: "Boy, that came and went in no time, didn't it?" Er, not quite. Yes, record labels exhausted their archives of oldies they could repackage, and the media moved on to other things, but many of us carried on just as as we had before my local mall opened and closed an Ultra-Lounge store.

If tiki/lounge is dead, someone forgot to tell Shag - the man's not just an artist, he's a cottage industry. Tiki/lounge asthetics have infiltrated the mainstream. In fact, the above-mentioned mall recently opened a Hawaiian/tiki themed store. Am I going to be too hip and complain about this? Nu-uh. I remember '80s decor fads that make tiki, no matter how trendy, infinitely preferable. Nagel prints, anyone? Didn't think so.

It's probably wise to not try and recreate the '50s as much as update them, as a new mashup cat named The RevTed has done with this Henry Mancini vs Beach Boys mix:

The RevTed: "God Lujon Knows"

In the mashup world, "God Only Knows" is known as the Acapella of Death - many mixers have been drawn to its beauty, only to have their tune dashed upon the rocks of harmonic difficulty. The Rev does as good a job as anyone.

England's Voodoo Trombone Quartet actually started off as one-man mashup machine Braces Tower before hiring so many musicians to realize his exotic big-band a-go-go fantasies that they are now far more then a quartet. And trombones ain't the half of it.

Voodoo Trombone Quartet: "Monster Island" - from their album. Only available on a British label for now, unfortunately, crammed as it is with swank numbers like "Voodoo Juju" and "Your Pleasure Is Our Pleasure."

Art Paul Schlosser - Inside Outsider

"Hi,I'm ART PAUL and although I admit I am a Christian this CD is not designed to make everyone give up there fun and only talk about Jesus but rather it is a fun music CD that I hope will help you understand better about Christianity.That God Loves you not God wants to destroy you."

Art Paul Schlosser has become, according to one Wisconsin paper, "arguably Madison’s most recognizable local musician," due to his painfully sincere lyrics, off-key singing, clumsy performances, and simple melodies. Which, of course, adds up to entertainment in my book - what's not to like about songs like "My Mother Is Reading A Book," "The Food Is Cool," and "Santa is Elvis"?

As the article points out, "do his fans “get” Art Paul Schlosser (if indeed there is something to “get”), or does he merely represent a subtle freak show, providing point-and-laugh amusement for drunk college students?...Is Art Paul Schlosser putting it on? Is he constructing his own image as a genial idiot savant whose childlike persona and amusing songs allow him to garner more money and attention than would otherwise be afforded someone of his limited musical skills? Perhaps yes, and perhaps not."

If he is a put-on, it's a remarkably consistent one - he's recorded numerous albums over the years. And yet, he certainly appears to behave like a show-biz professional - tv appearances, CDs, sites on MySpace, SoundClick, and garageband.com. Still, it's hard to believe someone would spend years faking songs like:

"Eat Nutriciously"

Maybe he has someone doing all this for him - he is married. Or maybe even "outsider" musicians are show-biz savvy nowadays. And "I Love My Mother" really is a great song, but I'm saving it for Mother's Day. Unless you want to buy it now - it's available through iTunes.

PAUL LOWRY: UNKNOWN GENIUS

Years ago, a British radio man/mad genius named Paul Lowry took existing recordings of popular favorites and used all manner of studio trickery to turn them into insane, hilarious "remixes": tape looping, interjecting sound effects, Chipmunk-like vocals, tape speed manipulating...the man would stop at nothing. The recordings, apparently never released, are similar to the music-concrete the avant-gardists were doing at the time, but filtered through a Spike Jones sensibility.

Reading, England's DJ/mashup loonies Pilchard (aka The Fruntroom 5) received a tape of Lowry's work thinking it was, in fact, the work of Spike Jones. But Spike was a performer - he did everything with a live band. This is clearly tape/studio tomfoolery, though very much influenced by Jones's brand of wacky musical comedy. Lowry even uses some of the same music as Spike - classical war-horses like the "William Tell Overture."

Unfortunately, little is known about Lowry. When I asked Pilchard for more info, he wrote, "There aint no chance - the guys dead. He was called Paul Lowry. The woman that gave me the tape is senile...He played on the radio - that's all I can tell ya. Actually-come to think of it-musique concrete MAY have been written on the tape. There's another geezer mentioned in the notes which alas I no longer have, jog me memory.. I dunno, I'll try track the old girl down." We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Paul Lowry

1. "I Got Rhythm"
2. "William Tell Overture"
3. "Sabre Dance": sounds like live pots'n'pans percussion; brilliant tape looping at one point
4. "Rudio Nasrael" (??): some mighty impressive belching in this one.

Kudos to Pilchard for performing some serious audio restoration on the tape.

UPDATE June 10, 2007: We still don't have much info on Lowry, but Ted from Redding CA confirms hearing "William Tell Overture" on a tape of BBC radio broadcasts, so it appears that Lowry, indeed, did these for the BBC.
UPDATE June 13, 2007: I wrote to the BBC. Their reply: "I note your interest in a gentleman called Paul Lowry who may have been employed by the BBC. Having checked our database, we have no contact details for anyone of this name." I'm starting to wonder if his name was, in fact, Paul Lowry. Maybe that was just the guy who owned the tape that fell into Scott Pilchard's hands...UPDATE July 8, 2009: All tracks now available HERE, thanks to Doklands, who also informs us: "I managed to identify the "Rudio Nasrael" track - it's the theme to the BBC show "Radio Newsreel", also known as "Imperial Echoes" and written by Arnold Safroni.

WEIRDPUNK L.A.

"WeirdPunk L.A": an album's worth of "weird-punk" from the Los Angeles underground.

Though hardcore, the fast, furious, guitar-driven form of punk, and it's attendant spikey-haired stage-diving audience, has been extensivly chronicled, and commercial radio-friendly New Wave acts live on in '80s club nights and hit compilations, another side of the late '70s-early '80s scene has largely been overlooked: the intelligent, intellectual, experimentalists. They're sometimes called "art-punk" and, yes, many of these groups had art school backgrounds, or played galleries as often as clubs, but really, isn't all music art? "Synth-punk" is another common term, but not all these groups used synths. The common thread was that they were, whether naturally or by design, weird.

Herky-jerky rhythms! Synth squiggles! Sarcasm! Featuring out-of-print (or never-in-print) classics from The Screamers, Wall of Voodoo, Oingo Boingo, The Suburban Lawns, and lots of great bands you never heard of.

UPDATE 8-6-12: Back on line here!

1. The Screamers: "Veritgo"
2. Wall of Voodoo "Red Light"
3. Suburban Lawns "Flavor Crystals"
4. Slow Children "Spring In Fialta"
5. Oingo Boingo "I'm Afraid'
6. Food And Shelter "Changing My Mind"
7. Nervous Gender "Fat Cow"
8. Rick Potts Band "Platform Swimfins"
9. Fibonaccis "Slow Beautiful Sex"
10. Bob & Bob "We Know You're Alone"
11. Karen Lawrence & The Pinz "March Of The Pins"
12. Abecedarians "Benway's Carnival"
13. Red Wedding "Drums"
14. Man Child "Mad Dream"
15. Bakersfield Boogie Boys "I Get Around"
16. Monitor "Beak"
17. Susan Rhee & The Orientals " I Love You I Hate You"
18. Irritators "Whack The Dolphin"
19. Din "Respond To My Thoughts Only"
20. Chuck Wagon [of The Dickies]: "Rock and Roll Won't Go Away"
21. Humanoids on Parade "Humanoids on Parade"
22. Bad Religion "...You Give Up"

JAPANESE MARIMBA PONIES

The J Marimba Ponies are not small horses, but they are small people - children ages 4-12. And they do indeed play marimbas and other percussion instruments with astonishing speed and skill, considering that the instruments sometimes seem to tower over them. They don't read sheet music, but play from memory such wholesome fare as classical classics and Disney tunes. Check the video for:

"Sabre Dance"

Thanks to Roman for the tip!

THE NOVACHORD - THE LOST SYNTHESIZER

Although not as widely used as the theremin, the Novachord was another early electronic instrument often used to creepy effect in sci-fi/horror soundtracks. I first heard the Novachord on one of my favorite '50s exotica records, "Polynesian Percussion," by Lawrence Welk's bandleader George Cates. I figured it was just an electric organ, like the Voxx or Farfisa. It had a fascinatingly sleazy sound that I fell in love with, but rarely heard again. Now I know why. According to Synthmuseum.com, "The Hammond Novachord was first marketed in 1939, and was on the market until 1942. 1069 of them were created before World War II brought an end to production...they are quite rare. It is unknown how many still exist, and of those that do, few of them are operational due to the immense amount of tubes and capacitors, etc. they require. The device weighs five hundred pounds, and is as large as two spinet pianos..."

One brave soul who spent countless hours painstakingly restoring a Novachord was Phil Cirocco, whose "Novachord Restoration Project" page has extensive documentation of his labors as well as many fine mp3s, like this bit of soundtrack music from an episode of the old TV show "Outer Limits":

Harry Lubin: From "Demon With A Glass Hand"

Cirocco's conclusion after completing the project: the Novachord is, in fact, a synthesizer. Lacking the pitch-bending and abstract sound capabilities of Mr. Moog's creation 25 years (!) later, the Novachord thus was played like a conventional keyboard, albeit a somewhat odd-sounding one.

Cirocco's own solo Novachord music takes full advantage of the instrument's unique timbres - his short instrumentals have an Eno-esqe scope and feel that drop the listener into a pleasingly alien landscape.

Phil Cirocco: Improvisation #3

An album is in the works.

THAT SONG-POEM JUBILLEE pt. 2

February is Black History Month. And what better way to celebrate then with some more song-poems? Dick Kent sung many song-poem "classics" like the surreal masterpiece "Octopus Woman Please Let Me Go." But here he dons blackface (figuratively speaking) to give a little soul pride to his, ahem, "brothers":

Dick Kent "On Blackness" - Hey, if a song-poem company didn't have any black singers, what are ya gonna do?

Bonnie Graham "He's My Chocolate Baby" - Features the kind of surprising twist that no mainstream performer would have been able to get away with in the '60s.

Thanks to the tipster who pointed out this song-poem mp3-fest here.

THAT SONG-POEM JUBILLEE

Had a request for some Rodd Keith songs-poems. Song-poems, as extensivley documented on Phil Milstein's crucial American Song-Poem Music Archive, were lyrics sent in by anyone with the money to have them set to music by "today's top musicians and singers!" And Rodd Keith(aka Rod Rogers, Cleveland Becker, Lindon Bridges, etc) was perhaps the genre's greatest singer/songwriter of lyrics so awkward (or awful) that few mortals would even attempt getting a good song out them, much less actually succeedding. (Since the ASPMA has taken down their mp3s, I'll put up a few.)

Case in point, this well-meaning, if corny mid-'60s social statement that Rodd infuses with noir atmosphere:
Rodd Keith: Los Angeles City Lights
now available on a new Keith collection, "Saucers In The Sky."

From the sublime to the, well, you know...'60s electronics-a-go-go:
Rod Rogers and the Swinging Strings: That Martian Jubilee

Tragically, Keith died when he fell (was pushed? jumped?) from an LA freeway overpass on to traffic in 1974. Thanks to his son, saxophonist Ellery Eskelin for preserving his music. And, of course, thanks to the anonymous Middle Americans who forked over the 200 bucks or so to have their doggerel set to music, without which the song-poem phenomenon (or today's post) wouldn't have been possible.

WILLIE NELSON LOVES GAY COWBOYS

The phrase "jaw-dropping" was invented for things like country legend Willie Nelson's new song. No doubt inspired by the recent hubbub over "Brokeback Mountain," Nelson recorded an apparently sincere ode to gay cowboys, only available from iTunes. Although it had me gasping with startled laughter, Nelson's straightfaced delivery of the startlingly blunt lyrics doesn't sound like the work of a jokester, unless his tounge is so far in cheek it went over my head (now there's an interesting visual). And I thought his reggae album last year was unusual. Wow, keep smokin' Willie!

Willie Nelson: "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond Of Each Other"

I wasn't too surprised to learn that the song was written (back in 1981) by Ned Sublette, for he's a (jolly good) fellow with strange ideas about country music. In 1999, for instance, he released an album called "Cowboy Rhumba," a country/Cuban music fusion.

Ned Sublette: "Ghost Riders In The Sky"

And what's the big deal about "Brokeback Mountain" anyway? Andy Warhol did that scene 35 years ago in "Lonesome Cowboys."

GIVE 'EM VD

UPDATE 1/12/12 - Now back up online.

Mr Fab's "VD (Valentines Day) Mix":

A 30 min. narrative mix of '50s spoken word + music records. Featuring Nat King Cole, Ken Nordine, Rod McKuen, Jack Webb, Laurence Harvey, The Shangri-Las, Sal Mineo, Sinatra, and some surreal thrift-store records you haven't heard of.

Don't give 'em flowers and candy again, give 'em VD!

Mr Fab's "VD Mix", that is!

THIS MUSICIAN IS A REAL HAM!!!11!LOL!!

Barry Schrader, a music professor and composer at the California Institute of the Arts (I TOLD you, for short it's "CalArts" NOT "CIA" please) volunteers at a pot-bellied pig rescue center called, er, Little Orphan Hammies. As I noted in December in the sampled-pigs-christmas album post, there was a brief fad in the '90s where it was thought by some that baby pigs would make fun pets. Then those cute little guys turned into monsters weighing hundred of pounds, and were not wanted any more.

Until now!

Duke, an especially musical pig, can be briefly seen here playing a xylophone with a mallet held in his mouth:

"Duke's Tune"

This Los Angeles radio piece explains more, and features Duke's performing, as well as Schrader talking about his own recording made entirely from the melodic material of Duke's performance. Which you can hear here:

Barry Schrader: "Duke's Tune"

It's nice music, no offense Mr. Schrader, but I'd really like to hear/see more of Duke.

IF LIFE HANDS YOU A CRASHING COMPUTER...

...make lemonade. Or a song that samples the sounds of a computer crashing, as 99 folks did in a contest sponsored by Gizmodo, a "gadgets weblog." A fellow named LO2 crafted a funky break out of the sounds, adding his own funny nerd-core white rapping:

"Crizzash" - "...damn, that's where all my good porn was stizz-ashed!"

HOOKED ON HASSELHOFF

The word "cheesy" barely begins to describe this laff-out-loud video of Hoff (aka The New Shatner) doing the goofy '70s bubblegum tune

"Hooked On A Feeling"

...which answers the musical question, "What would a music video look like if it starred a kitschy TV actor, was made by an amateur public-access director, and everyone was on acid?"

OOGA-CHAKA-OOGA-CHAKA!

Alright, Just One More Punk-Rock Accordian Post...

Martin White from England sez, "In October 2003 I bought myself a 72-bass piano accordion. Since then I have used it to terrorise the internets with alarming renditions of popular melodies. I take requests." He's posted dozens of unaccompanied under-rehearsed accordian instrumentals, covering everyone from ABBA and Hall and Oates to Nick Cave and Nirvana. And he "covers" Cage's "4'33" " (yuk yuk). This take on the Human League's classic had me chuckling:

"Don't You Want Me" - Throw this over a 2-step drum beat and we've got a new polka standard.

But when he does rehearse he can create wonderful original tunes, like this Robyn Hitchcock-like gem:

"In The Evil Castle" - still just accordian, but with overdubbed vocals this time.

Thanks to the essential Radio Clash podcast for the tip. The latest episode of RadioClash is an all-outsider music marathon, by the way.