Hey my Los Angeles peeps! This Thursday is your last chance to check out the PostPunk Junk film fest. Looks like it's gonna be a doozy:
"The first half is a Los Angeles and California-centric program featuring classic footage of local heroes (The Screamers, Black Flag, TSOL) alongside lesser-known-but-equally awesome acts (Nervous Gender, BPeople, The Plugz). The second half mines the Target library for its rarest nuggets, and features footage of bands that will make music nerds squeal with glee."And the Silent Movie Theater, where the shows take place, has free beer. (There, that'll get y'all coming.) Despite the name of the venue, it won't be silent. You will be able to hear the music, honest. (Caveat: have no idea if they'll be showing anything from the Cramps concert pictured.)
So, to get you in the mood, how's about another batch of rare, out-of-print '70s/'80s California coolness that I've ripped from my vinyl archives? So far as I know, most of this stuff, originating from The Bay Area to LA and all points in between, hasn't been shared on-line before. This isn't just nostalgia, these are great tunes. There's no typical hardcore. It's all across the map: you'll hear electro-pop, goth post-punk, woodwinds, femme vox + acoustic bass, devolved covers, power-pop, a proto-mashup, and whatever the hell The Fibonaccis were. "Punk" was a big umbrella term in those days.Weirdpunk CaliTrack Listing below: Click on artist's name for links to info (if any)
The Humans - I Live In The CityFibonaccis - Second ComingBaby Buddha - Robot PoliceWild Kingdom - Roma-DestinyLos Microwaves - Radio Heartki-di-me - Mother IsJed Gould (aka Jed the Fish) - LACA PervHesitations - Window LoveThe Units - The Right ManThe Ophelias - PalindromeThe Bakersfield Boogie Boys - Get Off of My CloudZasu Pitts Memorial Orchestra - Summertime/Peter GunnThe Humans - Don't Be Afraid Of The DarkFibonaccis - Sergio LeoneAlex Gibson - Grey Turns to BlackStrong Silent Types - Fred Cadaver's AccidentThe Ophelias - Mr. Rabbit
What, you want more music? Haven't I done enough for you people?! I give and give and give. And what do I get?
Well, actually, I get great music back from you folks. Like our old pal Chris Swank, back with another CD's worth of mostly '50s & '60s oddities that he likes to call:Music For Weirdos #6 (
alternate link)
Like the previous volumes, he'd rather not get into details about it's contents but would rather you just kick back and let it hit you, like a radio show where you don't know what's next and have no expectations. But I will say that there's a couple of familiar classics, some hilarious novelties, audio cut-ups of more recent vintage, and much rockin' and rollin' wild weirdness.
Thanks again, Chris!
The greatest album I've found in a thrift store recently:
- features not one, but two singers: an unintentionally funny operatic Mrs. Miller sort, and her husband, an astonishingly talentless songwriter with a nerdy nasally voice reminiscent of Eilert Pilarm, 'The Swedish Elvis."- claims to be a tribute to the great Italian-American pop/opera singer Mario Lanza, though nothing on the album is anything like what Lanza sang.
- has amateurish, vanity-release artwork.
- was released in 1984, but has all the attributes of a '50/'60s easy-pop album
- features remakes of standards like "Sway," "Granada," and the worst versions of the oft-covered calypsos "Yellow Bird" and "Jamaica Farwell" you'll ever hope to hear.- was recorded at Macola Records, famed for it's L.A. hip-hop, e.g.: pre-NWA Dr. Dre.
- sports lyrics like, "I have been thinking of you, and thinking of you."
- is entitled "Sir Anthony Lanza Cocozza and Contessa Elaine Lanza Cocozza Present This Album As A Tribute In Memory To The Great Mario Lanza" on the front cover and "A Tribute To My Brother 'Mario Lanza'" on the record label-
claims on the back cover that the missus was "Born in Oklahoma City, OK of German and English royalty on her father's side, she was given the title of "Countessa."
"A Tribute To My Brother 'Mario Lanza'"
1. Lolita
2. Sway
3. I Love You I Love You
4. Green Eyes
5. Granada
6. Jamaica Farewell (spelled "Jamaica Far Away" on the cover)
7. If You Really Love Me
8. How Could I Forget You
9. I Want To Love You My Love
10. Yellow Bird
You want this. You do.
Speaking of Otis Fodder, his wacky electro sound collage/mashup crew The Bran Flakes have a new album, their first in 6 years. It may be their best one yet. As usual, they've raided the thrift shops of ancient unwanted records - children's music, religious, easy-listening, even Dolly Parton - and made brief, up-beat tunes out of 'em.
This one might be the best tune on the album, sampling the kiddie classic "Free To Be You And Me" (and it's a happy sequel to one of their older tunes "I Don't Have A Friend"):
The Bran Flakes : "I Have A Friend"
but for some silly reason I really love this less-then-30-second long tune:
The Bran Flakes: "Don Knotts"maybe because, like the young artist in the film "Ghost World" who tried to explain to her baffled instructor why she painted a portrait of Don Knotts, I like Don Knotts.The new album, "I Have Hands," is available as a CD, or download from illegal-art. Name your price!
Otis Fodder's web-show "Friendly Persuasion" was my first experience with the wild frontier of internet music way back when (roughly a decade ago?!?), and a big hunk of that glorious smorgasbord of lounge/outsider/strange thrift-store recordings is now available. Otis sez: "30+ hours (so far) of old radio shows I put together...All MP3s encoded at 320k with full ID3 tags. All radio shows and mixes are without voice/talkover (except for the occasional robot)... so you just have the music and mix. I'll be uploading more in the future."FodderFiles30 hours? Should keep me busy for a bit...
Hurray, hurray! Step right up, folks, and witness the most annoying musical instrument ever invented!
The fairground organ is actually a wonderous, though now rarely-used machine that automatically played back music. It was used primarily for traveling carnivals, circuses, parades, etc. and has that fun/scary vibe that suggests wistful cotton-candy childhood while also being a bit creepy.
After putting in a punched piece of paper for a particular song (like a player-piano) or a rotating wheel (like a music-box) an organ would play, robotic arms holding drumsticks would bang drums, air forced through tubes would blow horns and toot whistles. It was quite a racket. After all, it was designed to cut through the crowd noises, so it wasn't too subtle.
It's a wonder of 1800s technology, and, though organ rolls seem to have ceased production by the 1960s, enthusiasts still collect and restore these often beautiful, highly decorated machines.
There's a great wealth of mp3s of the Wurlitzer style 165 band organ rolls courtesy of the hard-working folks at the Wurlitzer-rolls.com site. Fascinating listening, though you'll probably start to go mental after 3 or 4 songs. For some absolutely inexplicable reason, I'm hooked on this version of Sandie Shaw's '60s hit "Puppet On A String," even though I don't remember being a big fan of the song in the first place. Maybe some tunes just sound better played on a fairground organ.
Hammond Fairground Organ Roll: "Puppet On A String"
Here's a fantastic 90+ minutes of novelty and oddball recordings inspired by this here blog. Some we posted here originally, most we didn't. Includes: '50 kiddie records, Space Age/electro, New Wave weirdness, crazy covers, comedy/satire, private press eccentrics and mashups/sound collage.I'm flattered! Thanks muchly to DJ Useo for such a wildly entertaining tribute.
The DJ Useo Music For Maniacs Podcast Tribute
01-I Wanna Be Your Dog- The 7 Stooges
02-Rat Fink- Allan Sherman
03-More Than A Feeling - Dondero High School
04-I Hate Banks - Mojo Nixon
05-Be Nice - Fry & Laurie
06-Embetterment Ingrinable - The George Bush Singers
07-Polly Wolly Doodle - Burl Ives
08-Dr. Seuss - Fox in Socks - Walt Kelly
09-Jazz Deliciously Sampled (The Bonzos vs Norman Cook) - DJ Useo 10-Crescent Fresh - The Sifl & Olly Show
11-Antidance (Vocal) - Mr.Mee
12-Batman and His Grandmother - Dickie Goodman 13-I Wan'na Be Sedated - Two Tons Of Steel
14-Are You Middle Class Enough? - The Dog Police
15-No Feelings - Bananarama
16-Living In The 50's (Once More) - The Android Sisters
17-The Sickly Sweet Odour Of Old Rotting Teeth - Jonathan King
18-Voodoo Banter Rap - M.C. Python (aka The Geez)
19-Hey Rocky - Boris Badenough
20-Polka Power ('99) - Weird Al Yankovic
21-Badinerie (from the Suite in B minor) - Swingle Singers
22-Keep Your Knees Together Daughter - Madame Mame
23-Plexiglass Toilet - Styx 24-I Walk The Line - Rick Powell 25-We're Off To Go A'Whippeting - National Whippeter
26-Musical Evolution - Josie & The Pussycats 27-Wonderbread - Jobs For America
28-The Man With The Golden Winkie - Grumpy & Lumpy
29-Guess I'm Falling Into Bubbles - RIAA
This might be the strangest music I've ever heard. It might not even be music.
David Rothenberg plays music with whales. Actual, living-in-the-sea whales. No, this isn't one of those corny '70s New Age albums with whale song sound effects dropped in. He actually traveled around the world, went out on boats, dropped a speaker and a mic into the ocean so he could hear the whales and the whales could hear him, and played clarinet along with their songs.
He may be crazy. He's the first to admit that. Since no-one knows what whale songs are for, he could be interfering with some important function they may have, like navigation. Plus, it's illegal. This possibly irresponsible activity led to the occasional confrontation, even shouting matches, with whale lovers he encountered on this scientific/artistic voyage.
His fascinating book/CD from last year, Thousand Mile Song, recounts his travels from the Pacific Northwest, to the Caribbean, to sub-Arctic northern Russia, listening to whale songs, playing along with them, and seeing what happened. Along the way we learn many fun-to-know facts about whales and their songs, e.g.: they have structure. They are not random noises. And these songs change - a whale will "write" a new tune, which will sometimes catch on with other whales, and they ditch the old songs. And different kinds of whales have different styles. Killer whale and beluga songs are as different as, say, punk and r'n'b.
So there's a scientific component to all this as well - to see what happens when an interloper drops in with his music. Occasionally, as in the case with today's mp3, it seems like the whales might be responding. This track, named after the boat Rothenberg was riding on when he made this recording, could be abstract electronica, or maybe a free jazz improvisation by someone like Sun Ra or Albert Ayler. But it really doesn't sound like anything you've heard before.
David Rothenberg + whales: "Never Satisfied"
I read this book last summer whilst listening to the cd on a hotel balcony overlooking the ocean, as seals were barking on the beach. You should try it!
Electric Junkyard Gamelan are a veteran quartet that build their own fanciful instruments and play fun, accessible original compositions on them. It's largely the project of New York madwoman Terry Dame who was initially inspired by Indonesian gamelan music. While some of their songs do indeed resemble the hypnotic percussive melodies of a Balinese/Javanese gamelan orchestra:
Electric Junkyard Gamelan: The Nutbutter Challenge
...other tunes definitely strike out into new, distinctly urban American directions, like this funky jazzy groover:
Electric Junkyard Gamelan: Ode to Fred Beans (excerpt)
Instruments are "fashioned from coat hangers and rubber bands, bed frames, old farm equipment, turntable platters, clay pots, saw blades and truck springs." The "Big Barp" rubber-band harp makes a particularly unusual sound:
Electric Junkyard Gamelan: The Big Barp
They have some mp3s and videos on their site, as well as two albums for sale.
Too bad they don't seem to get out to the West Coast. You Easterners are lucky - they play a lot. But don't cry for me Argentina, there's plenty to do here in Los Angeles, including the return of the annual Microfest, a series of concerts featuring microtonal music. Can't tell if Electric Junkyard Gamelan uses microtones - that realm of infinite possibilities in between the standard Western do-re-mi 7-tone scale - but the "American Gamelan" concert coming up this May 11 does. (The May 29/30 show dedicated to Harry Partch is highly recommended, and I'll most def. be talking about that later.)
While visiting the exhibit of weird religious album covers I wrote about last week (highly-recommended, btw), I ran into Howie Pyro, of superstar mashup crew The Illuminoids (and that most Maniacal of podcasts Intoxica Radio) who informed me that, contrary to what I had written, he had contributed at least as many records to the show as Don Bolles. My apologies, Howie, I was just going by what the LA Times had suggested. Mislead by the mass media! Another first.
The exhibit reminded me of how many odd religious items I have. I was surprised - thrifting for tunes means coming across countless zillions of religious records, most of which get passed over. But I guess they can add up, even if you get just one in a hundred. So I thought I'd post some more from my archives. Yes, there's no shortage of scary Christian ventriloquist/ horrific child singers/ ranting preachers, etc. But here's a record I recognized from my collection (albeit with a different cover then the one shown) that's actually some nice listening.
"In the Land Beyond My Dreams: Organ renditions of Paramahansa Yogananda's Cosmic Chants, arranged and played by a Self-Realization Fellowship monk" is nothing but mystical organ instros a la '50s exotica star Korla Pandit, but this is from 1970. Ripped from a sealed vinyl copy I scored recently in Las Vegas on safari with my brother (thanks, dude!)
"In the Land Beyond My Dreams"
01 - In The Land Beyond My Dreams
02 - Blue Lotus Feet
03 - From This Sleep Lord/Do Not Dry The Ocean of My Love
04 - Light The Lamp of Thy Love
05 - In The Valley of Sorrow
06 - Recieve Me On Thy Lap
07 - Deliver Us From Delusion
08 - They Have Heard Thy Name
09 - When Thy Song Flows Thru Me
10 - When My Dream's Dream Is Done
Or dig this sample mp3:
Paramahansa Yogananda "Blue Lotus Feet"
There are verses printed on the album cover to accompany each song. Most of them aren't too interesting, but I like this surreal poem for "Blue Lotus Feet":
"Engrossed is the bee of my mind on the blue lotus feet of my Divine Mother."
Sing along!
Crazy leprechaun named Mr. Fab, from the gang called Paddies with Attitude. I'm of Irish descent, so I'm allowed to say that. Wasn't crazy about all the Catholic school, but I love corned beef & cabbage. Green beer is silly, but Irish-American comedians like Carlin and Denis Leary kick butt (especially when they make fun of Catholicism.) Irish folk music rocks, and I like hearing it mixed with bizarre, funny, illogical other musics. Henceforth I present an album's worth of Celtic mashups I've collected over the past 4 or 5 years, recorded by an international line-up. No U2! Or Riverdance!
Straight Outta Ireland
1. dj BC "Da Sound Of Da Irish Police Band"
2. RIAA "London Derriere"
3. N.W.Kilts "100 Miles N Jiggin"
4. Overdub "Give it to Ireland"
5. RIAA "It's Whiskey"
6. DJ Prince "Pick Up the Harmonium"
7. dj BC "The Reel Hip-Hop"
8. The Who Boys "Devil Is Dead Metal"
9. RIAA "Compton's In The Dingle"
10. JADMIX "Rising Shadow of the Moon"
11. DJ Topcat "Boondock Pain"
12. Dj erb "I'm Sprung (dj erb's St. Patty's Remix)"
13. Cheekyboy "Qtip vs Leprechaun"
14. DJ Shyboy "Shaved Head"
15. DJ Topcat "More Than On Point"
16. JADMIX "James Street"
17. RIAA "Bagpipes 'n' Breakdancing"
The rich history of Irish America is something most Americans know nothing about. Hell, Ireland is something most Americans know nothing about. (Lesson one: we're not British. Not even from the same island. Completely different history and language.) African Americans get "Black History Month." What do we get? Shamrock Shakes. Hence, St. Patrick's Day doesn't mean much. But it could, if done right. Can't the Kennedys do something about this?!
"Within Heaven's Earshot" is an exhibit of weird, kitschy, funny religious album covers opening tomorrow at Synchronicity Space gallery in Los Angeles. Most of the records are from the collection of Don Bolles.You probably think of Bolles as the drummer for bands like The Germs and 45 Grave. But Bolles was probably the first (after Dr. Demento) to expose me to the kind of non-mainstream, abnormal sounds that we celebrate here at M4M, through his long-standing (though off-and-on) L.A. radio presence. Checking out the album covers is more then enough reason to get me in the door, but hearing that Bolles will be co-DJing with his partner in sound collage Professor Canteloupe is the icing on the cake. And there will be "a filmed greeting by ventriloquist Gail Wenos"!
Speaking of Christian ventriloquists - From my own vinyl collection of thrift-store religious oddities, here's Little Marcy. She's mentioned in the LA Times story I linked to above.
Little Marcy: from The Jesus Story
Nothing like children singing about torture and pain, eh?
After posting Mistabishi's sampled computer printer tune last week, some kind Maniacs pointed me towards other musical uses of this noisy/tuneful obsolete office technology:
[The User] is a Canadian duo who created a half-hour long piece in 1999 using a dozen or so printers that was performed live. Judging by the pictures I've seen of it (such as the one to the left) it must have been quite a sight. It certainly sounds good. An album was released in 2002.
[The User] "Symphony For Dot Matrix Computers (excerpt)"
Japanese electro-pop producer Cornelius' 2006 album "Sensuous" also makes good use of a printer in this brief jazzy electric piano ditty:
Cornelius: "Toner"
Thanks to Anonymous & Eddie!
A sampled old office printer (remember how noisy those things were?) makes for an awesome tune. Love this kinda creative recycling.
Mistabishi: "Printer Jam" (mp3)
Mistabishi: "Printer Jam" (video)
I know nothing about Mistabishi except that this is from his new (UK only, for now) debut album.
Yesterday's post about the Post-Punk Junk film festival starting this week served as a bit of a kick in the pants for me to finally organize some of my own mp3s I've made off of my collection of '70s/'80s underground vinyl. Here's a CDs worth of mutated funk for New Wave dance floors:
Get The Funk Out, Punk (WeirdFunk USA)
Didn't have room for the Euro stuff; maybe a vol. 2 if anyone's interested?
1. Black Randy & The Metrosquad - Barefootin' On The Wicket Picket
2. Funktionairies - Kiss My Funky pt 1
3. The Wa
itresses - Wait Here, I'll Be Right Back (Son of Comb)
4. Lotus Lame and the Lame Flames - Bad Sex
5. Animal Things - Wanna Buy Some
6. Carmaig DeForest - Crack's No Worse Then The Fascist Threat
7. Baby Buddha - Then I Sleep
8. Funkapolitan - As The Time Goes By
9. The Soul Dads - Youre Fat (And I Like It)
10. Fela Johnson - They Call Me Fela
11. The Offs - Everyone's a Bigot
12. Cambridge Apostles - Cant Fight The Feeling
13. No Y Z - X Machine
14. Black Randy & The Metrosquad - Say It Loud -- I'm Black And I'm Proud
15. Rand Kennedy - Enorma Jones
16. John Sex - Bump And Grind It (Extended Mix)
17. Funktionairies - Kiss My Funky pt 2
Apart from legends like Black Randy and the commercially successful Waitresses, I don't know much about some of these obscurities - click on the artist name for whatever link I could find. But it's all rude, raucous funky fun, uninhibited, full of life...
Bret from over at Egg City Radio (formerly Post-Punk Junk) is curating an awesome-looking film festival dedicated to the original late '70s/early '80s punk scene. They're mostly on-the-spot documentaries that haven't been seen in ages. Some, like the legendary concert film "Urgh! A Music War," can't be released on DVD due to licensing hassles.
Every Thursday for the next couple of months! If you're in Los Angeles, or are planning on visiting, mark you calendars, kids.
Post-Punk Junk: Punk and Post-Punk On Film
Thursday, March 5th - "The Punk Rock Movie" [future Big Audio Dynamite member Don Letts made this Super 8mm document of the London scene] + "The Blank Generation" [about the New York/CBGBs scene; I never even heard of this one]
Thursday, March 12th - Two Films about The Fall ("The Wonderful World of Mark E. Smith" + "Hail The New Puritan")
Thursday, March 19th - "Made In Sheffield" [industrial] + "Shadowplayers" [Factory Records/Joy Division, etc.]
Thursday, March 26th- "Urgh! A Music War" [Hell, yeah! Haven't seen this one since I was a kid] + "Debt Begins At Twenty"
Thursday, April 2nd - Post-Punk Junk mix night [various shorts]
Thursday, April 9th - European Punk night ("La Brune Et Moi" + 2nd film TBA)
Thursday, April 16th - "Breaking Glass" + "Crash 'N' Burn"
Thursday April 30th - Target Video tribute night [Lots of great Cali stuff here...ah, nostalgia...]
Every Thursday night at 8PM, @ The Cinefamily
611 N. Fairfax Avenue, LA, CA, 90036
Two years ago, I guest dj-ed on Radio Misterioso, the program of "In-depth conversations on the paranormal alternating with weird music and audio." It's hosted by Greg "SpaceBrother" Bishop, one of our pre-eminant weird-ologists, and the man behind "Flying Saucer Music" and the new "Music/Not Music."
I shall return! this Sunday, March 1, 8:00pm PST. Here's the previous show, zipped up in one big ol' 2-hour mp3.
Radio Misterioso 1-7-07 Warning! When you click da link, the audio plays automatically.
intro
"Late Great Planet Earth
Jean-Jacques Perrey "Chicken On The Rocks"
The Lamb Sisters "O Come All Ye Faithful"
Dr. Danny Hart "Those Funny Little Saucers In The Sky"
Seksu Roba "Telstar"P-Model "Kalamari Pop"
The Plastics
Robert the Robot
Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra "Re-Max"
Bent Bolt "Mechanical Man"
talk break
MSR song poem "Oh, That Zipper On My Pants!"
Nancy Dupree & students "James Brown"
James Brown "Future Shock of the World"
"Sesame Street Disco" "Rubber Duckie"
Luie Luie "Touch of the Pharoahs"/"A Touch of Light"
Gerty Molsen "Walk On The Wild Side"
Les Dance & His Orchestra "Let's Dance/Louie Louie"
Bakersfield Boogie Boys "Okie From Muskogee"
Jed Gould (aka KROQ's Jed The Fish) "LA CA Perv"
talk break
Rael "Elohim"
Frank Strange "Flying Saucers Unlimited"
Russ Garcia "The Goofy Peepl of Phobos"
Buchanan & Goodman "The Flying Saucer Goes West"
The Byrds "CTA-102"
talk break
Richard Hayman "Goin Out Of My Head"
Doc Severinson & The Now Generation Brass "Power To The People"
Robert Byrne "Good Morning Starshine"
Fred Carson "There's A Hippy Girl In Town"
Circle of Tyrants - Acid, the Story of LSD
Klaus Weber - Public Fountain LSD Halltalk breakEdith H. Boxill "Guantanamera" (from the album "Music Therapy for the Developmentally Disabled")
Previously On Lost are a Brooklyn-based band that watch each episode of the "Lost" TV series and quickly write a song about it, posting it online before the next week's episode. It's a great, very entertaining way to remind you of all the confusing stuff in the show's increasingly labyrinthine plot.
Musically it's quite diverse and theatrical, of definite interest to fans of, say, Sparks, or They Might Be Giants. Check out this girl-group/doo-wop pastiche:
Previously On Lost: Ballad of Sayid Jarrah
Their debut album, "The Tale of Season 4 and The Oceanic Six" is now available from their MySpace site. Yep, they start at season 4, so if you want to get hep to the first three seasons, you're on your own, sport.
