WEB WONDERLAND

Hey, just cuz I'm not around around here much lately (sing it, Ricky) doesn't mean that the internets are no fun any more. Au contraire! I have some amazing amazing stuff lined up for you-alls, but 'til I return, dig:

Badmovies.org not only dishes on zillions of low-budget monster/kung-fu/exploitation/horror/etc cinematic masterpieces, but almost every film review also has - yes! - audio clips. Throw laughable sound bites into your dj mixes, radio shows, podcasts, or ipod random-ness.

Friendly Persuasion has returned to the air and 'net; Otis Fodder has been playing strange music on the internet for a decade now (when he wasn't curating the 365 Project or running a 'net label), and his three hour weekly show is truly an embarrasement of riches, with a special emphasis on French-Canadian oddities, representing his new Toronto home.

Godly Grooves is a near hour-long mix of German Christian '70s funk (just when you think you've heard it all, eh?) A big danke to Oskar for sending this jewel our way: "German DJs called Arok and Scientist did a (digital) mixtape of rare German Christian-themed funk music...this is stuff that was recorded before the commercialization and professionalization of the Christian music scene that's not nearly as big a market in Germany as it is in the US but does exist here as well. The music sampled in the mix is remarkable in its complete lack of the cool/hip that would otherwise be probably considered essential to this genre and yet it's of strange creative appeal - I'm certainly no expert on funk music, but the use of a recorder/children's flute on a funk track strikes me as rather odd...I don't know if this is any fun if you don't speak German. The thing I like most about the mixtape are the lyrics that are often very naive and contain a lot of quasi-liberation-theology capitalist-bashing in the name of equality."

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Crudcrud is in Morocco: a fascinating travelogue + Moroccan vinyl he's picked up along the way. I haven't been this jealous of a fellow music blogger since Radio Clash went to Africa.

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Cinema Terrorisme is a new-ish podcast for these End Times we're living in - a densely packed audio collage of music, sounds, speech, horror and insanity. Weee!

7 Layer Dip, on the other hand, is a North Carolina college radio show that is far more light-hearted, a romp thru bad/weird music (much of it taken from this here blog), and recipes. and here's a New Link.

The Residents are on tour in the US and Europe, which doesn't have anything to do with the internet, really, but since the Beatles of the Bizarre only tour once in a blue moon, and, having been around for over 35 years aren't getting any younger, this might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to catch perhaps the most famous group in weird-music history.

MUSEUM OF OBSOLETE INSTRUMENTS: THE GLASS HARMONICA

No, not that kind of harmonica. The glass harmonica aka armonica, invented by Ben Franklin in the 1700s (yes, that Ben Franklin), and played by dipping ones fingers into a water trough and touching rotating glass cylinders, was said to drive men mad, has an eerie, squeaky sound, and is championed by Linda Ronstadt. The weirdest instrument ever made?!?

In the late 1700 and early 1800s it was part of the classical instrument lineup with heavyweight cats like Mozart and Beethoven composing for it. And this 2002 album by Dennis James features Rondstadt briefly, but don't worry, there's no '70s hippie rock on here. Actually the album has that powdered-wig classy classical feel to it, even on the modern compositions. A weird, outer-spacey classical feel, that is.

Here's one song off it for solo glass harmonica that sports quite a haunting melody:

Dennis James: Adagio for glass harmonica in C major, K. 356 (K. 617a), written by that Wolfgang Amadeus fellow

James is a pretty interesting guy. He accompanies silent films on theater organs (which he also restores), Clara Rockmore herself taught him theremin (which he used for a '20s Russian sci-fi film), and plays a variety of obscure glass instruments that I'd never heard of before.

Got the whole album for you here. But beware! A German musicologist wrote: "The armonica excessively stimulates the nerves, plunges the player into a nagging depression and hence into a dark and melancholy mood that is apt method for slow self-annihilation. If you are suffering from any nervous disorder, you should not play it; if you are not yet ill you should not play it; if you are feeling melancholy you should not play it."

Dennis James: "Cristal: Glass Music Through The Ages"

1. Irish Lullaby, arranged for seraphim & chamber ensemble
   Composed by Dennis James, Amy Crocker
   with John Ellis, Marcia Dickstein, Simon Oswell, Sebastian Toettcher, Julie Gigante, David Shostac
   
   
2. Quintet for Glass & Strings
   Composed by Garry Eister
   with Dennis James
   
   
3. Non temere alma immortale, for armonica, soprano, alto, tenor & harp
   Composed by David August von Apell
   with Marcia Dickstein, Michael Horton, Dennis James, Linda Ronstadt
   
   
4. Allegro for armonica (glass harmonica)
   Composed by Joseph Aloys Schmittbauer
   with Dennis James
   
   
5. Caprice for Glass harp
   Composed by Fred Schnaubelt
   with John Ellis, Simon Oswell, Sebastian Toettcher, David Shostac, Dennis James
   
   
6. Pavane, for orchestra & chorus ad lib in F sharp minor, Op. 50
   Composed by Gabriel Faure
   with Simon Oswell, Sebastian Toettcher, Geri Rotella, Virenia Lind, Gary Bovyer, Dennis James, Linda Ronstadt, Roland Kato, Julie Gigante, Sarah Parkins, Leslie Reed, Terri Koide, Ruth Ann Swenson
   
   
7. Largo in G minor for armonica (glass harmonica)
   Composed by Johann Schultz
   with Dennis James
   
   
8. Il Pompeo, opera O cessate di piagarmi
   Composed by Alessandro Scarlatti
   with Dennis James, Linda Ronstadt
   
   
9. Adagio for glass harmonica in C major, K. 356 (K. 617a)
   Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
   with Dennis James
   
   
10. Adagio and Rondo for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola & cello in C minor, K. 617
    Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
    with Dennis James
    
    
11. L'Armonica, cantata for soprano, glass harmonic & orchestra Récit Accompagné - Adagio
    Composed by Johann Adolf Hasse
    with Stradivaria Ensemble, Dennis James, Veronique Dietschy
    Conducted by Daniel Cuiller
    
    
12. L'Armonica, cantata for soprano, glass harmonic & orchestra Air - Andantino
    Composed by Johann Adolf Hasse
    with Stradivaria Ensemble, Dennis James, Veronique Dietschy
    Conducted by Daniel Cuiller
    
    
13. Petite Impression for Glass harp
    Composed by Fred Schnaubelt
    with Dennis James

MID-WINTER MASH-TERPIECES

Some excellent music industry-baiting audio collages have come sledding down the hill lately:

When you've got a French/polka/female-rap mashup from someone whose name means "DJ Disgusting" featuring accordions mixed with a song that translates to "dance of the shit," you know it's got to be good. And it is:

DJ Dégueulasse: "Danse Sur La La La Polka" (Prototypes "Danse sur la merde" avec Guy Broucher "La la la Polka")

I Cut People's latest album "The Inside Story" is 30 minutes of hysterical media cut-ups, somewhere between the outrageous humor of Wayne Butane and the morally righteous satire of Negativland. He claims that over 100 movies were sampled and I'd believe it. Great collage artwork and funny stories makes for an all-around handsome package.

I Cut People "The Latest Distractions"

I've raved before about Ireland's Phil Retrospector, and the release of "Introversion," a full length, er, retrospective of his mashups should convince any holdouts. There's a powerful emotional pull to these nearly beat-less meditations on melancholy, often injecting highbrow sources like Philip Glass and soundtrack musics into pop cheese, giving it unexpected depth.

Phil Retrospector "Bluebird Blackout" - Harry Dean Stanton reading Charles Bukowski, mixed with Muse and a bit of Bob Dylan.

The Kleptones have come straight outta the UK with another master- class on mash mixing, with "Uptime / Downtime," a flawless two-disc collection of free awesomeness - the first 76 minutes is a pumped-up party, the second set gets downtempo. It's all enough to make you wonder why people make such a big deal about Girl Talk...

The Ceramic Songs Of The Antenna Repairmen

The Antenna Repairmen are a Los Angeles trio who perform music solely on invented ceramic instruments. Some are pans filled with water that are struck with sticks, some are xylophone-like keyboards, and some look like jugs, as pictured on their cover of their album "Ghatam": (Lots more pics of the instruments HERE on sculptor Stephen Freedman's site.)

The music moves from meditative calm to chugging Mimimalism rhythms, with plenty of ethnic influences giving the whole thing the feel of an ancient ritual. Plenty listenable, and sometimes, as with this mp3, downright catchy:

The Antenna Repairmen: Marvin's Udu Voodoo (excerpt)

HAITI BLUES

Believe it or not, there was a time when Haiti wasn't ruled by a dictator, had a prosperous middle-class, a vibrant night life. Let's go back to those days...well, actually, to a nutty '50s chacha novelty that surely rocked many a tiki bar, sung by a saucy American. This tune used to be a staple of my exotica mixes. Bailey doesn't really sing the inane lyrics so much as do a Mae West-like drawl:

Pearl Bailey "Haiti Blues"

How 'bout we get a bit more authentic? From Haiti's most famous exports (apart from the Fugees), a more recent classic from these compas (pronounced "kome-PAH") legends:

Tabou Combo "Pase Sou Ou" - like they say: "too, too funky"

Compas is more like African styles such as soukous then most Carribean musics, but if I were to compare compas to, say, calypso/soca, dancehall, or salsa, I'd say it's like comparing Al Green to James Brown - it's more smooth and subtle. Must be that French influence. It still rocks the party like a mutha, tho.

The father of compas was Nemours Jean Baptiste, and in the early '80s the Mini All Stars (musicians of the New York-based Mini Records label) covered some of his hits, taking advantage of the modern recording technology of their new American home. This album is a non-stop party, with tracks like the berserk Mardi Gras anthem "Carnaval Compas Direct" comitting total dance-floor mayhem:
Mini All Stars "Fanatiques Compas"
Nemours was sick and blind by the early '80s and died in '85, so I'm glad that he lived long enough to experience these recordings' huge success in the Haitian music world.

Here's an album recorded off of worn vinyl - I cleaned up the audio as much as possible, but this 1970 release features such devastating compas (like the title track and "Le Vrai Bonheur") that cd-quality sound really doesn't matter. Still, I hope the band reunion of last year will spur these guys on to reissue this classic:

Les Gypsies de Petion-Ville "Haiti"
The now Florida-based madman guitarist of the band, Robert Martino, has a seemingly endless bag of catchy riffs at his disposal. Good luck, Haitian peoples!
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HAPPY 75TH B-DAY, ELVIS

I'm only a few days late. And, hey, isn't anytime the right time for a cheesy Elvis impersonator album? Especially one with narration between songs telling us, well, the Elvis Presley story. And how 'bout that snowman background? (Thanks to the person selling this album on ebay whose pictures I swiped.)

ALAN: The Elvis Presley Story

His singing occasionally veers into unintentional parody territory - it gets especially hilarious halfway thru "Heartbreak Hotel." It sounds like he's having a seizure.

This was apparently recorded while The King was still alive. When I went on a tour of Graceland, the guide explained E's death by saying it was due to: "...a dependence on medications, and the pressures of trying to please all his fans." Well put!

MUSEUM OF OBSOLETE INTRUMENTS: ACCORDIONS AND SAWS

There are two bands in America who base their sound on accordion and musical saw. I wonder if they know about each other?

Don't get me wrong - I love rock 'n 'roll like my name was Joan Jett. But having only a couple of sounds deemed "cool" results in a skimpy musical diet. Information is lost, like when a language or culture dies off, and we're all the poorer for it.

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Baltimore's Madagascar and Dreamland Faces from Minneapolis don't use guitars or electro beatz, but have an alluring, haunting, and, well, dreamy sound based on the folk oddity, the musical saw, and that perpetual punchline, the accordion. After sending away for their cds (and a 45 from Dreamland Faces!), there are times when all I want to do is listen to this stuff:

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Dreamland Faces: Ball Buster - kooky kartoonishness (from their "bunnies fighting" album)

Madagascar: Son of a Hunchback Lithographer

Madagascar: Bear Goes Shopping - bear can shop in a brisk 7/8 tempo? Clever bear! (from their album "Forced March")

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Madagascar's sound leans more towards the "garde" side of the antique-garde equation, sometimes getting quite hazy and sloooow, while Dreamland Faces have been know to play up their antique-ness, with guest crooner Randall Throckmorton providing occasional vocals, and even accompanying silent films.

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What's so funny about the squeezebox, anyway? It has a fantastic diversity of sounds and styles, from raunchy Louisiana zydeco, to the moving, melancholy tangos of Astor Piazzolla. And polka is fast and wildly energetic, and uses a two-step rhythm. Like punk rock. But at least one South American country thinks accordions are cool. News website GlobalPost sez: "In many countries, the general public gives little recognition to talented accordion players...Rather than aspiring to be guitar gods, many Colombian children dream of striking it rich with the accordion, a bulky instrument that seems to be the result of a keyboard mating with a cash register.” Watch the video, and see the full article here.

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Let's Polka is a great accordion blog that actually covers sounds far beyond polka. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

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ANIMALS ARE AWESOME!!

"LOL" gets tossed around a lot on teh inter-webs, but I really, really did with this one:

Cast of "Real Chance At Love": Animals Are Awesome

The intensely dumb, supposedly "hot" young ladies sing, er, rap, er, vocalize an original song about our endangered fuzzy friends. No, I never heard of "Real Chance At Love" either. It's on VH1, another horrible "reality" show. But if they keep coming up with musical gems like this one, I may have to start watching. And if you thought the mp3 was funny, check the video (which is proceeded by a commercial, sorry about that):

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

10th ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF THE WORLD

It's amazing how many books, videos, and audio tapes were rushed into print before the year 2000 to cash in on the Y2K fears. And I was also surprised to see how many were from a Christian perspective. I'm not sure how the fact that some computer programs only had space for two digits instead of four meant that the End Times were nigh, and I even listened to all of the two-cassette audio book I've posted here. But some of the most prominent Christian leaders in America such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson released Y2K merchandise.

These audio tapes feature dramatic! action! scenes! straight out of a disaster movie, as well as discussions on surviving the mayhem, and how YOU as a Christian can help in the coming crises.

Y2k: The Millennium Bug part 1
Y2k: The Millennium Bug part 2

Sadly, I do not have an audio version of this book - I just love the title:

MUSEUM OF OBSOLETE INTRUMENTS: THE ZITHER

Because: 1) it's the holidays 2) I'll be getting a new computer/internet provider soon; which provider I don't know yet, so I've got that to sort out. 3) Baby Fab will be born in month or so; my life will be a little topsy-turvy for a bit, I imagine.

Did you know that it was once possible to be a pop star without having to play the guitar? Or with electronic production? You could get a major label deal by playing, say, a zither. Exhibit A: Ruth Welcome, whose 1950s zither albums for Capital Records display remarkable virtuosity. Listening to her "Zither Magic" album, one might be surprised to realize that there are no other instruments. She's a one-(wo)man band.

On this album, the bended notes suggest Hawaiian guitars or exotica without actually being exotica or Hawaiian music. But there is a foreign, if not other-worldly feel to these instros. The zither is played with plenty of energy, but there's still a mellow feel to this album, perfect for holiday cooling-out with a glass of warmed spiked eggnog. And none of it sounds like "The Third Man" theme.

Ruth Welcome: "Zither Magic"

Featuring "It Might As Well Be Spring," "Hawaiian Wedding Song," "Vaya Con Dios," "I Talk To The Trees," and the Dean Martin classic "Memories Are Made of This."

You may not get many groupies playing arena rock with a zither, but at least one contemporary pop combo uses one: Taxi Taxi!, two 19-year-old Scandanavian sisters on zither and accordian. They have a new version of the American folk standard "My Darling Clementine" featuring their dad on pedal steel guitar that is being used to promote a Swedish clementine fruit drink. Quite lovely, reminds me of The Cowboy Junkies, if anyone remembers them.

Taxi Taxi! "My Darling Clementine" d

WAX AUDIO: 9 COUNTRIES

"9 Countries was recorded on location in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Tibet, India, Egypt and Greece between October 2005 and March 2007 by Tom Compagnoni. What you hear has been entirely assembled from these field recordings, no additional samples used."

Australia's Wax Audio made a splash with his politically-themed sound collages that even graced commercial talk-radio airwaves, as well as his party-ready mashups. But this production, literally years in the making, blows all that stuff out of the water. For one thing, the sound quality is amazing. No more hissy tape recordings in the field. And it rocks - it isn't just the New Age ambient wallpaper so often found in the well-meaning-but-dull "world music" crowd, but assembled with a pop musician's ear for looping compelling rhythms. The mixing of various sounds, voices, and beats is smoothly blended - all the laws of mashups still apply so far as getting everything on time and in a compatible key.

It's a trip - literally. You'll hear things like airport announcements, tv audio snippets, and street dialogue, which can get pretty funny. By leaving in the goofy stuff that one actually encounters while traveling, he gives it a personal touch, so that it doesn't feel like a generic National Geographic special.

He took plenty of good pictures, too.

This tune features, among other elements: a procession, and street hawkers in Myanmar; streets at dawn (with goat bell) in Tibet; temple drums and music in India; a monk chanting in Laos...

Wax Audio - Belur
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AVANT-MARCH

If "Unsilent Night" got you in the mood to walk around the city playing music, let's take it one step further and join a marching band. Tho the concept of an alternative marching band goes back at least to the '70s, when the Los Angeles Free Music Society invaded a street parade, there are only two experimental marching bands that I'm aware of right now - Chicago's Mucca Pazza (pictured above) who have even been known to go on boats, making them not only a marching but a floating band:

Mucca Paza - Romanian Dance No.1

and LA's Killsonic (continuing the LAFMS tradition?), pictured here playing the subway I take everyday - but I've never seen 'em. Har-rumph! Like Mucca Pazza, they have a crazed free-jazz side, but also, as demonstrated here, a Latin influence. This tune starts off in a funky cumbia groove before becoming a kind of hyper Balkan dance:

Killsonic - El Cu Cui

They both have excellent albums, but obviously seeing them live makes more sense. Check the videos on their sites.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader jaybee for heppin' me to San Fran's extra-fine Extra Action Marching Band. Are alternative marching bands the "in thing"? Does every city have one now? (Not counting New Orleans, who've always had their own brass band tradition...)

Extra Action Marching Band - Back That Ass Up
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UNSILENT NIGHT

A few nights ago, I wandered the streets of downtown Los Angeles along with a host of angels and wise (wom)men who came bearing boomboxes playing a copy of composer Phil Kline's "Unsilent Night." Anyone could send him an email and he'd send you a free copy of his electronic work. Everyone met at the pre-determined spot, and off we went. It lasts roughly 45 minutes. Here's the first ten, recorded on my new digital recorder:

Unsilent Night (12-10-09)

Of course, when the order is given to hit play, not everyone's in perfect synch. And that would be boring if they were. Like Terry Riley's 1966 Minimalist landmark "In C," the whole piece seems to be in the same key, and alternates from smooth ambient passages to more upbeat rhythmic ones, so having multiple versions going at once starting at different times doesn't create cacophony - it adds richness. It's a unique performance every time, depending not only on how many copies of the piece are playing and when they started, but where the audience is - everyone involved is in a different geographic space so the sounds will hit everyone's ears differently.

Since its 1992 debut, "Unsilent Night" has become something of a holiday standard. It's happening in 25 cities this year, some still yet to come as of this writing, so check da site for a location near you. Apart from it being lovely music, I think it's a way to add to the warm fuzzy feelings the holidays can bring about in us. A communal event in the cold cold night, but not the same ol' caroling-in-Victorian-costumes routine. The end part of my recording even suggests church bells ringing, or chimes, while avoiding all Christmas music cliches.

You and your friends can buy your own copies, and host your own event, I suppose.

Did anyone else out there go and take pictures? The above photo was just one I found on the web from a different staging of "Unsilent Night."
The night we went was during LA's monthly Art Walk. Never done it before, but man, that's a happenin' scene. In fact, all the live music and djs we encountered along the way sometimes drowned out the boomboxes. Unsilent night, indeed...
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Chappy Chanakuh! (And Merry Mashmas)

Oy! Today is the first day of Chanakuh, and look at you. For this your father and I sent you to dental school? So you could listen to Chanakuh music mixed with these goyim songs? You're meshuga! "Dubstep" What is this, dubstep? You call this music? It's a bunch of foolishness! No, don't worry about me, you go off and play what ever music you like...like when you dj at your nephew Harvey's bar mitzvah...I'll just sit here by myself and die of shame...

Menorah Mashups

Klezmer and polka mixed with bangin' electro beatz as compiled by Boston's legendary dj BC, and, despite what your mother says, it really is a shtick naches (a great joy). My new fave holiday collection and I'm not even Jewish.

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Look, I made one too! From this new collection of all my old Christmas mashups/cut-ups/remixes featuring such future holiday standards as "The Six Million Dollar Man & Santa Claus Fight Global Warming," "Little Saint Grinch," "Santa's Acid Hawaiian Space-Disco" and the previously-unreleased "Slay Ride" that features Cheech and Chong, NWA, and Wild Man Fischer, with Nine Inch Nails joining the Chipmunks.

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And People Like Us' "Sound of Christmas," recently added to the Free Music Archive, is a real trip, starting with what could be someone throwing on some very entertaining kitchy thrift-store Xmas records before the drugs slowly start to kick in and everything gets all weird and psychedelic.

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Happy ChrisKwanzaKha!

HAPPY 60TH B-DAY, TOM WAITS

Yep, the Father of the Antique-Garde hits the big Six-Oh, and to celebrate, here's some rarities that actually rate among my fave recordings of his, and they've never even been released.

"On The Nickel" is a gorgeous, touching piano ballad about homeless kids on LA's Skid Row. I actually work on 5th Street ("The Nickel") not far from Skid Row. I think of this song often. This live-on-tv version completely blows away the overblown album version from 1980's "Heartattack and Vine". Recorded off my old video.

"On The Nickel" - live on "Late Night With David Letterman" 12-21-83

"Table Top Joe" - This weird ode to a sideshow freak who becomes a Vegas star is in a totally different form here then the basic jazz band arrangement of the album version (2002's "Alice"), a solo demo of Waits singing along with an experimental plucked thingie, kinda like an African mbira.

This solo acoustic guitar version of "Strange Weather" was a demo for Marianne Faithful, who did indeed cut it; Waits did a very different version on his 1988 live "Big Time" album; again, I prefer the stripped-down feel of the demo:

"Strange Weather" - taped off Wait's appearance on KCRW (late '80s)

"The White Knight" - beautful instrumental version of "Fish And Bird", from "Alice"

Waits has a brand-new album out now, "Glitter and Doom - Live."
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THE THING WITH THE THREE LEG TORSO

I like the band name 3 Leg Torso - it reminds me of bad sci-fi movies like "The Thing With Two Heads," and of circus sideshow freaks. And a band featuring accordions, violins, and hand percussion (no guitars, no electronics) probably would fit right in with an old-fashioned traveling circus. As the tunes here, and on their MySpazz page make abundantly clear, this Portland quintet's instrumentals are quite lovely, haunting, and sometimes maniacally danceable excursions into avant-tango/Balkan/cabaret all on their own.
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But throw the monologues of David Greenberger into the mix and you have something else - a curious kind of radio theatre. Greenberger is the man behind the 30-year-old "Duplex Planet" empire of 'zines, books, comix, and music all based on real interviews with nursing home residents. The Torso's music necessarily takes somewhat of a back seat to Greenberger, but shades and enhances the stories - some sad, many funny - like a film score.

Greenberger has worked with other musicians (his recent "Growing Old In East LA" radio project features music by members of Los Lobos), but he's done two full albums with 3 Leg Torso, "Whispers, Grins, Bloodloss and Handshakes," (2005) and 2004s' "Legibly Speaking."

As with any "Duplex Planet"-related project, however, the old folks are really the stars of the show. Many tracks on these albums are brief (around one minute), filled with pathos but still really funny:

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David Greenberger & 3 Leg Torso: "Miss Dog Miss Me"

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The elderly, as I've said before, are "uncool" in our eternal-youth oriented culture and, hence, almost invisible in the media. So Greenberger & co. really hit the jackpot with Alfred, a 100 -year-old man who's sharp as a tack and truly filled with the wisdom of the ages. This dude's cooler then everything on MTV combined:

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David Greenberger & 3 Leg Torso: "Perpetual Motion"

HA! BOING! SPLAT! PSSHHH!

From France, the land that gave us Roger Roger and Jean-Jacques Perrey, comes an equally nutty band of 'tard-tronic pranksters, Thiaz Itch, whose album "Binjoum" is available as a free download courtesy of the whimsical Proot 'net label, who also sport releases from Ergo Phizmiz and satanicpornocultshop.

If the Carl Stalling song I posted a few days ago whetted your appettite for more cartoonish foolishness, then you will want to proceed immediately to Proot-land and grab this short 'n' sweet collection, which also boasts a Syd Barrett cover, a Mozart re-working, and a couple of calypsos that sound more like the Residents in a Carribean mood then anything you'd actually hear in Trinidad.

Thiaz Itch: "Binjoum"
Thiaz Itch: "Froggy Swamp"

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MINNIE'S YOO-HOO

Here's something quite wonderful that I found on the CartoonBrew blog: a song that is not only one of the first Disney-related records (from 1930), but also perhaps cartoon music god Carl Stalling's first record. It's not the manic Looney Tune type of thing he's famous for, but it's still a fun bit of 78 rpm wonderfulness that Bonzo Dog Band fans should eat up: the second verse is sung in a particularly strange voice, accompanied by appropriately cartoonish sound effects. And dig that jammin' xylophone solo!

Leo Zollo & His Orchestra "Minnie's Yoo-Hoo"

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Jazz Mash Swing Bash

- What-ho, Maniacs! The tuxedoes and evening gowns are back from the cleaners, the martinis are mixed, and our soirée is ready to begin. Why simply everyone will be here. I'm sure it will be the gayest event of the year!

- Excuse me, sir...

- What is it, Jeeves?

- I'm afraid the orchestra won't be able to make it. Their motor-car ran into a tree.

- Dash it all! Whatever will we do without music?!

- If I may suggest, sir...this Fairtilizer playlist of 17 vintage swing/jazz mashups of a most diverting nature:

Jazz Mash Swing Bash

- What the devil are 'mashups'?

- They are combinations of old classics from the likes of Peggy Lee, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Marlene Deitrich mixed with more modern sounds of Bob Marley, Beyonce, Muse, and various musics of an electronic nature. Many were produced in just these most recent months by a newcomer from the Netherlands named Okiokinl. Most ingenious, if I may say so, sir.

- And who is this 'Fairtilizer' fellow you speak of?

- Simply click on the link, click the 'Play' button in the box to the left (it should be "up in the cotton club") and all the songs will stream auto-matically. You can download them as well.

- By jove, you've done it again, Jeeves!

- Always happy to serve, sir...

MUTANT INSTRUMENTS DAY

Today on YouTube they're featuring:

Mutant Instruments

"This collection of mutant instruments turns conventions upside down. Hear unique melodies from the eigenharp (woodwind + drum + piano), the matryomin (theremin + Russian doll), a multi-stringed Experibass, and electronic monome. Huh? Just watch."

We actually covered the matryomin before, and the new vid makes a further case for it's loveliness, tho that John Tesh-ish song is pretty corny. The quadruple-necked Experibass is struck with sticks, and "prepared" a la Cage with spoons stuck between it's strings, producing a fearsome industrial drone. Nice. Not sure about that eigenharp tho - it'll be cool if you can bring in your own sounds and not get stuck with their pre-sets. And the monome has a non-keyboard interface that kinda reminds me of the old kid's game Simon.