IN A TIPSY MOOG

Two retro-techno acts have new albums out. Well, the Thelonious Moog album is new, Tipsy's latest came out last year, but I just got it, so, hey, it's new to me.

Thelonious Moog's debut was, as you might expect, jazz cats playing Mr. Monk on vintage synths. Their follow-up, "American Standard," ditches the music of their namesake for an unpredictable, irreverent romp ranging from heavy cats like Gershwin, Brubeck, & Zappa, to the EZ kitsch of those thrift-store inevitables "Alley Cat" and Al Hirt's "Java," all getting the same zany Space-Age treatment. Duke Ellington's exotica standard "Caravan" goes surf-rock (+ odd noises) and one of my fave kooky '70s glam classics, "Hocus Pocus" by Focus, gets tackled here twice. All quite silly, but played by pros, and plenty fun.

Raymond Scotts' "Powerhouse" gets the full-on wacky cartoon sound-effects treatment:

Thelonious Moog: "Powerhouse"

Tipsy made two albums in the '90s that were very well received by the Cocktail Nation for their "liquor-delic" sound: sampling snippets of '50s records and drenching them in echo and disorienting production. After spending much of this decade in commercial music production, they have finally dropped their third album "Buzzz." It still has their trademark dreamy late-night weird feel to it, but I don't think that they're using much sampling this time out. Rather, they are making original music that sounds like it's been sampled, if that makes any sense. Except for some wispy female Japanese vox, it is, like the T.Moog album, all instrumental.

This tune sounds like reggae dub from a Sid & Marty Krofft show:

Tipsy: Chop Socky

And San Francisco's theremin-driven lounge combo Project: Pimento released their thoroughly non-new second album "Space Age Love Songs" well over two years ago. I actually do not have a copy of it yet - all I can do is lamely link to a track off of it. But I mean well.

Project: Pimento: You Only Live Twice - killer version of a James Bond theme originally done by Nancy Sinatra.

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THE SOUND OF EVIL

"Phillip Garrido who is accused with his wife Nancy of kidnapping and raping Jaycee Lee Dugard and holding her captive for 18 years in their backyard, gave two disturbing CDs to Marc Lister in 2006, according to his local newspaper.

Mr Lister, who was a client of Garrido's printing business, initially put the music away unplayed...But he has now listened to the collection of suggestive rock songs and trippy synthetic ballads apparently written by Garrido - and has discovered repeated clues to his warped sexual tastes. " So says this report, which analyzes some of the lyrics.

I found a 20 minute audio clip of Garrido's music lurking on the website of Northern California station CBS5 which I then recorded, and chopped into 4 smaller sound clips. Whoever posted this didn't include the entirety of each song, just a minute or two of each. Which is plenty, believe me.

So what does the music of a crazed religious-fanatic pedophile kidnapper who fathered two children from his victim sound like? Lightweight rock that occasionally suggests the likes of Chicago or Foreigner - and those are the best songs. A crappy demo, like countless others from not-too-talented would-be rock stars. Actually, the bouncy bubblegum that begins the second segment threatens to be a fun tune until the unappealing vocals kick in.

And that's what evil sounds like. Nothing like death-metal or gangsta rap. Just a bunch of routine Dad-rock. The songs aren't even religious, as I was expecting. Sure, the lyrics declaring his love of some "little girl" are now creepy in context, but I didn't hear anything explicitly depraved in them. If it was anyone else singing, no-one would raise an eyebrow, any more then when the Beatles (or Stooges) sang about their "little girl." Apart from some lyrics referring to his time in jail for a previous offense, there's nothing remotely dark or menacing here. They're love songs. The truly evil don't think that they're evil. He thinks he's full of love and the Holy Spirit. And Charles Manson wrote mellow folk songs, and John Wayne Gacy painted pictures of clowns.

Phillip Garrido1
Phillip Garrido2
Phillip Garrido3
Phillip Garrido4
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WESTERN SOUNDSCAPE ARCHIVE

westernsoundscape.org/

The University of Utah has this insane idea to record all non-human areas of the American West. There are hundreds of wildlife/ambient recordings up so far. Read all about it.

Right now I'm in the Alaskan Arctic tundra (Brrrr!). At least, for 11 minutes. Some of the ambient soundscapes last for over an hour. It makes for addictive listening, and from both a scientific and aesthetic viewpoint, it's absolutely crucial.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge-Beaufort Lagoon-Tundra (060605-81)

The recordings can be detailed, but you gotta pump up the volume - the levels are pretty low.

All this Arctic stuff reminds me of Tanya Tagaq. She's an Inuit (Are they Eskimos? Or are they not called Eskimos anymore?) from far northern Canada who makes singing/grunting/beat-boxing a capella music that ranges from scary death-metal growls to orgasmic moans, sometimes coming off like Bjork choking on a whale sandwich, electronically looped into rhythmic dementia. It's supposedly based on traditional folkloric styles, but with artsy folks like Mike Patton and the Kronos Quartet guesting on her albums, I'd say she's sled-dogging off into fairly uncharted territory. In any case, it is some deeply weird stuff, even for this blog.

Tanya Tagaq - Qimiruluapik

Her most recent album has the string quartet backing, but I prefer the stark (mostly) voice-only sound of her debut. And it goes well mixed with the Arctic ambience I posted above.
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STRANGE INTERLUDES

Strange music for strange weather: As you may have heard, out-of-control fires have made it positively Satanic here in L.A. (well, more Satanic then usual): hot, a brown haze in the air, an acrid smell, and a blood-red sun, at least where I live in the Valley where I can see the flames from my house. It reminded me of a mix tape I made in the '90s that I've set about for the last few nights re-compiling called "Strange Interludes." Not exactly noir or Halloween musics, these were mostly '40s-'60s early jazz, EZ, and Space-Age pop songs with a weird, moody feel. The tracks were mostly plucked from otherwise-normal albums, like there might be a collection of soundtracks hits with one theremin tune on it, or an organ collection of pop standards with a dark exotica track thrown in between the Beatles and the Bacharach covers.

My tape was inspired by an early '60s album recorded by Lew Davies & his Orchestra for Command Records called "Strange Interlude," which you can get HERE. I loved it. Unlike your usual Command stereo hi-fi upbeat gimmickry, it was low-key, creepy, with songs like "The Witching Hour," "Old Devil Moon" and "In A Mist".

Using my old cassette as a guide, I re-recorded the songs from my thrift-store vinyl. But a number of these tracks have since been re-issued on CD so I've tried to include as many good digital copies of these songs as I could. I've also added some songs that I've discovered since I made the tape, as well.

Apart from the afore-mentioned theremins, there's also harmonicas, Phantom-Of-The-Opera pipe organs, sound effects, ondiolines (an early electronic keyboard), a capella vocal groups, and plenty of percussion (e.g.: tuned bongo drums) mixed with the usual '50s EZ lush orchestrations.

Strange Interludes

1) Johnny Kemm "Taboo" - Man, I loved this track so much, I've scoured the net looking for any info; all I've found was that he was a popular organist from Joplin, Missouri who, according to this newspaper archive (scroll down) died a bizarre death, and had "been employed as an organist by the Missouri State Hospital for the Criminally Insane"! Huh? Any Maniacs live in the area who can do some research on this guy?
2) Marty Gold And His Orchestra "High On A Windy Hill"
3) Duke Ellington "The Mooch" (Buy it!)
4) Dick Hyman "Stompin' At The Savoy"
5) John Buzon Trio "Mister Ghost Goes to Town"
6) The Four Freshmen - "Crazy Bones" (Buy it! tho this is taken from my vinyl)
7) Phil Kraus "Buffoon" (Hey, entire album posted here! I agree with Mr Purse - this is one of the best songs on it)
8) Georges Montalba "Anitra's Dance" (never expected this obscure pipe organ record to be not only in print but a collector's item for being mistaken as an Anton "Church of Satan" Levey album)
9) David Carroll - "Hell's Bells"
10) Billy May & Samuel Hoffman "I Dream Of a Past Love" (Buy it!)
11) David Rose - "City of Sleeping Dreams"
12) Dick Schory & The Percussive Art Enemble "Cloud 9" (at 1:50 or so, doesn't this sound like Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express"?)
13) Enoch Light and the Light Brigade, arranged by Lew Davies "Bidin' My Time"
14) George Gould - "Dark Eyes"
15) The 3 Suns "Autumn Leaves"
16) Eartha Kitt - "I'd Rather Be Burned As A Witch" (Buy it!)
17) George Shearing - "Bewitched"
18) Lionel Hampton - "Blue Moon" (Buy it!)
19) Creed Taylor Orchestra "Monster Meet"
20) The Mulcays - "Kiss Me Again"
21) Carl Stalling "Skeleton Dance" (audio recorded from a cartoon)
22) Leroy Holmes & His Orch - "Spellbound"

I'M JUST CHILLIN'/LIKE BOB DYLAN

Was there ever a more bizarre musical moment then Bob Dylan's appearance - rapping - on hip-hop pioneer Kurtis Blow's 1986 album "Kingdom Blow"? I can't think of a more unlikely cameo off the top of my head, especially since Dylan rarely collaborates. True, hard-core punks The Circle Jerks did a tune with Debbie Gibson, but that was a bit of a joke, obviously.

Kurtis Blow: "Street Rock"
All weirdness aside, "Street Rock" is good bit of Run-DMC-esque crunchy guitar/beatbox rap.

Wouldn't it have been amazing if Dylan had appeared on these goofy, '80s pre-gangsta jams:

Kurtis Blow: Super Sperm
Kurtis Blow: Magilla The Gorilla

Look at that picture. No, it's not a war zone. It's part of New York City, one of the richest areas in the world, in the 1970s. The fact that such unwanted, ignored human beings were not only able to live in such wretched conditions, but were able to create a culture that took over the world - hip-hop - was one of the great inspirational moments of the '80s. Watching new forms of dance, music, and visual art arise from this rubble certainly thrilled me.

So I'm pretty psyched about the upcoming Old School Jams Live show at the Greek Theatre in here in LA this Sept. 13. I mean, peep this lineup: Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five, Egyptian Lover, Afrika Bambatta's SoulSonic Force. Vocoders! Tracksuits! Jehri Curls! (Lisa Lisa, Ready For The World, and Klymaxx's r'n'b, and Peanut Butter Wolf showing back-in-the-day videos are also on the bill.)

There's been a lot of remixes and mashups of Grandmaster Flash's "The Message," but I love this mixture with a Medeski, Martin and Wood instrumental that sloooows down, then speedsuprealfast, the vocals always on time. Amazing.

Gordyboy: "Bubblehouse Message"

I recently wrote about Uncle Jamm's Army, LA's first hip-hop crew on record, and since I see that Egyptian Lover will be in the house, that gives me an excuse to post one of my all-time fave old-school joints since he was associated with the Army. This 12" single has one of the most greatest window-rattling, knock-plaster-from-the-ceiling beatz ever, coupled with funny kitschy vocoder vocals. Recorded off my vinyl; can't believe these guys have never appeared on CD.

Uncle Jamm's Army "What's Your Sign (Of The Zodiac Baby Doll)?"

Yes yes, y'all, it's like that, y'all...

The Boston Typewriter Orchestra

Does what it says on the tin: polyrhythmic percussion music with no other instruments, almost no singing, music tracks interspersed with intentionally banal office chatter ("How was your weekend?") for "Office Space"-like satirical effect. They even redact the Surfari's "Wipe Out" into "Whiteout." Funny, but with compelling rhythms.

Non-musical objects turned into musical instruments is a fascinating phenomenon. This got me thinking: when was the last time I used a typewriter? Does anyone (besides 80-year-olds?) Which makes this another fine example of artists recycling industrial society's waste.

Boston Typewriter Orchestra - "Pyramid Scheme"

MILES DAVIS AND WEEZER PLAYING VIDEO GAMES

Amidst all the hubbub over the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis' jazz classic "Kind of Blue" comes "Kind of Bloop," a brand new (just dropped last week) utterly unlikely song-for-song tribute performed only on primitive video game technology - Gameboys, Nintendos and the like. I've always enjoyed 8-bit music's rinky-dink charms, but as funny as this album can be (if you're familiar with the original), it's also amazing. These cats are blowin' mad jazz. The shimmering "Blue in Green," in particular, is a kind of dreamy '50s Space Age ballad, like what the wedding chapel on Forbidden Planet would be playing. 8-bit is, finally, real music, folks. Maybe it always was.

Ast0r - So What

This comes on the heels of an 8-bit tribute to Weezer, a band I know little about. The only song I recognized was "Buddy Holly," and I think that's probably because of the Moog Cookbooks' cover of it. Regardless, it's great stuff. Warning: 8-bit purists may be put off by vocals on some songs, and at least one track has a hard rock band arrangement that isn't cheesy at all.

Pterodactyl Squad: You Won't Get With Me Tonight
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thanks to solcofn!

THE NEW OLD

I didn't invent the term "antique-garde," but I sure use it a lot lately to describe some of the best new experimental sounds out there. And by "new" I mean "old": inspired by obsolete, forgotten styles and instruments. Case in point: a combo led by veteran Detroit oddball Frank Pahl called the Scavenger Quartet. Pahl plays on such junkshop refugees as the Farfisa organ, banjo, ukulele, euphonium, zither, toys (piano, popcorn maker), and occasionally resorts to digital technology so that he can sample that old circus music maker, the calliope. And doorbells. Yes, doorbells. They're honestly quite mellifluous in Pahl's hands. His fellow band members add horns, reeds, guitar, and all manner of percussion. A high school marching band appears on one song. Not only that, but some of Pahl's mechanical musical automatons are featured here as well.

Which is all well and good, but this would be mere gimmickry without quality songwriting. Fortunately, the Quartet's got such grand tunesmithery that their addictive second album, "We Who Live On Land," has not left my CD player in weeks. The unusual sounds suggest Harry Partch or Tom Waits, but with an identity all their own, sometimes sweetly nostalgic, sometimes cartoonishly crazy.

Scavenger Quartet: "We Who Live On Land"

The album's artwork and song titles were inspired by another antiquity: a century-old book about sea life.

1. Marvelous Argonaut

2. Crimson Jellyfish

3. Wonderful Nautilus

4. Elegant Mermaiden

5. Fine-Haired Medusae

6. Excitable Sea Porcupine

7. Shy Polyps

8. Savage Sawfish

9. Sea Mirage

10. Gummy Stickleback

11. 6,000 Mureys of Julius Caesar

12. Dreaded Cuttlefish

13. Curious Barnacles

14. Brittle Starfish

EVERYBODY STUMBLE DRUNKINGLY NOW

British mad hatter Ergo Phizmiz has a FREE! new on-line 7-song EP of hilarious demolitions of '90s techno club hits. "Now That's What We Pump At The Party" sounds more like wheezing, shambolic circus music then house. His new band The Midnight Florists cover C & C Music Factory, Dee-Lite, and other half-forgotten (if not totally forgotten) one-shit blunders "...arranged for acoustic, electronic, homemade, and toy instruments." Everyone sounds like they're having a blast.

Never even heard of Eiffel 65 before, but the haunting waltz version of their song "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" led me to check out the original. BIG mistake. Needless to say, Sir Phizmiz & Co. have improved upon these songs by several orders of magnitude.

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1984: LOS ANGELES' BEST YEAR?

Exactly 25 years ago, Los Angeles was playing host to the Olympics, and both parties never had it better. Terrorism, boycotts and financial disasters had the International Games on the ropes, ready to throw in the towel. L.A. practically saved 'em with what is still the most successful Olympics ever. And the city never ran better. Tom Bradley was then in the middle of his almost 20-year run as mayor, overseeing the transformation of second-rate cowtown into a world-class city. So what's the big deal about a black president? We had a black mayor who kicked butt decades ago.

It was summer vacation. Back East relatives were staying with us cuz they wanted to see the Games. As a basketball-loving kid, I was in heaven. My friends & I got to see Team USA, featuring future pro legends Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, stomp all over the hapless French team. And I was glued to the radio, buying more records then ever...and taping records from friends. (Hey, I was young - that allowance only went so far.)

It was a great year, maybe the greatest year, for the punk-spawned independent rock scene, and L.A. was in the thick of it. SST Records was ruling college radio with landmark releases by Husker Du (from Minneapolis, not L.A.) and The Minutemen - their 2-record set masterpieces "Zen Arcade" and "Double Nickels On The Dime" came out the same month. And Arizonans The Meat Puppets, who spent so much time here early in their career that they could practically be called locals, released "II," yet another classic that I never seem to tire of, immortalized years later when Nirvana performed not one, not two, but three songs off it on their "MTV Unplugged" appearance. Though, of course, the Pups versions were superior. Here's an exclusive mashup from RIAA, pairing a "II" tune with a British hit from around the same time, Yaz's "Don't Go":

RIAA "Split Yourself And Go"

The Bangles and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, years away from their enormous commercial successes were, at the time, scrappy local club bands. The Bangles were never better then their '84 release "All Over The Place." Early on, they honestly really didn't suck. Suspend your disbelief! I mean, check this tune. It's a great bit of pop-punk that the Buzzcocks would have been proud to do, and should hopefully rinse "Eternal Flame" from your mind:

The Bangles: Silent Treatment (Even after all these years, I can never remember that title; I always called it the "she said nothing" song)

The Chili Peppers had such an insane live show (did I really see them toss vats of yogurt at each other?) that their slickly-produced album debut was a disappointment (apart from the album cover by the great cartoonist Gary Panter). But this demo of one of those early songs is a totally killer one-minute blast of punk/funk that actually sounds like The Minutemen, and hints at what a great album it could have been:

The Red Hot Chili Peppers "Police Helicopter" - a very LA kinda tune; do other big cities have cop 'copters ("ghetto birds" as Ice Cube calls 'em) buzzing overhead so frequently?

America's first goth scene was forming here. This might seem unlikely, but I think the relentless heat and sunshine makes a little cool darkness refreshing. Some of the "death rock" (wasn't called 'goth' yet) bands like 45 Grave owed more to the 'Monster Mash' then anything else, but before Jane's Addiction, Perry Ferrell's group Psi-Com had a pronounced British post-punk* influence. No-one remembers these guys, but I dug this one:

Psi-Com "Hopeful"

Philip Glass, a New Yorker, recorded a stirring piece for the Games that sounds a bit overly-familiar now, but his brand of Minimalism was quite a welcome shock at the time. Don't think this is in print.

Philip Glass "Olympiad - Lighting of the Torch"

Back to the locals: Redd Kross provided a lot of the music for a crazed Super-8 film called "Desperate Teenage Lovedolls," along with Black Flag (moving into their post-hardcore avant-jazz phase) and Bad Religion. Swell power-pop; they should have been as big as The Bangles.

Redd Kross: "Ballad of a Lovedoll"

1984: Compton's KDAY ("AM stereo!"), America's first hip-hop station, goes on the air. I read somewhere that this was when Uncle Jamm's Army released LA's first hiphop record. This enormous crew was a virtual who's-who of early West Coast rap, including future legends like Egyptian Lover and Ice-T. This tune's off my 12". Don't think their stuff ever appeared on CD. Though not the classic that '85's "What's Your Sign" is, it's still a pretty fun bit of fast-paced electro nonsense, and certainly nothing like the kind of thing that LA rap would be famous for a few years later.

Uncle Jamm's Army - Dial-A-Freak

Ah, what the heck - it's Saturday, don't have much to do today. Let's mp3-isize a cassette of a 40-minute radio concert I taped off the air way back when. Background hiss! In mono! But who cares. A godhead band. Don't know the exact date, but it's at least '84 judging by the tunes. As critic Robert Lloyd wrote at the time regarding "Double Nickels," The Minutement go "from funk to punk, from folk to polka."

The Minutemen live on KPFK - Corona/Fake Contest/The Only Minority/Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want The Truth?/King of the Hill/Hey Lawdy Mama/Cheerleaders/Maybe Partying WIll Help/Time/AckAckAck/Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love/This AIn't No Picnic/History Lesson pt2/Little Man With A Gun In His Hand/Green River/Red & The Black/Themselves/Tony Gets Wasted In Pedro/Anxious Mofo/Toadies/The Big Foist

The early '90s saw dark days for LA (earthquake, riots) but things have been great lately - Lakers won the title, lowest murder rate since the '60s, subway, etc. Culturally, we're still the 800 pound gorilla. So I'm not being overly sentimentally nostalgic here. (Am I?)

*a phrase NO-ONE besides music journalists used at the time

I'M JUST WILD ABOUT IRVING AARONSON

I was listening to an album of 1920s music that I found in a thrift store recently, and a song called "I'm Just Wild About Animal Crackers" jumped out at me. It was like something the Bonzo Dog Band would have recorded - a hilarious, high energy, completely wacked-out jazz novelty of absurd lyrics and ludicrous sound effects. Who was this guy?

His name was Irving Aaronson. A New Yorker, he was quite popular for a while in the '20s and 30s, nailing the zeitgeist on the head with a song called "Crazy Words, Crazy Tunes" that introduced the once-ubiquitous phrase "vo-do-de-o." I never knew that phrase actually came from somewhere. I thought it was just something people said at the time, like "yo, whassup?"

Even though heavyweights like Artie Shaw and Gene Krupa played in his band, jazz snobs tend to dismiss him for the same reasons that I like him. Early jazz is full of, to quote Aaronson, crazy words and crazy tunes. When (and why) did jazz lose it's sense of humor?

Unfortunately, Aaronson's music has apparently never been compiled. One or two songs here and there are in print, including, perhaps inevitably, on Woody Allen soundtracks. It's tragic that he's dropped off the planet, not as well-remembered/re-discovered as Spike Jones or Raymond Scott are. Fortunately, nice people in internet land have collected many of his 78s.

Irving Aaronson & His Commanders: "I'm Just Wild About Animal Crackers"

Plenty of his other songs are almost as cracked. I just love that he has a song called "Waffles." "Waffles" is a funny-sounding word, isn't it? The tune lives up to the title.

Irving Aaronson & His Commanders: "Waffles"

As much as I appreciate collectors posting these records on-line, I do think they sometimes go a little overboard with the noise-reduction. A little surface noise is fine by me, especially when the alternative is an un-natural warped sound. These Irving Aaronson collections are generally (though not totally) well-recorded, but I'm still hoping for a proper collection with an info booklet, etc.

AVANT HOUSEWIVES & THE HISTORY OF WHITE TURNTABLISM

Two reissues in Amoeba's "Unusual/ Experimental" section recently caught my eye, tho the original recordings were so obscure that these are virtually new releases.

Ursula Bogner was "a pharmacist, wife and mother, and she was obsessed with electronic music -- an obsession that drove her to build her own studio for extensive recording and experimentation." This started in the '60s, making her yet another female electronic music explorer (see also: Delia Derbyshire, Bebe Barron, Pauline Oliveros, etc.) Her music is not as pop as the Moog stuff going on at the time, but neither is it as abstract as the atonalities then dominating academia.

I got the album out of curiosity (a German female Bruce Haack?!) but ended up really liking it on it's own terms. Some is proto-industrial (I await the inevitable remixes), some BBC Radiophonic Workshop-esque sci-fi soundscapes, and some almost pop, like this delightful opener:

Ursula Bogner: Begleitung für Tuba

Her eccentricities went beyond music, e.g.: "...a strong fascination for mysticism, esotericism, and Wilhelm Reich's "orgonomy," the psychoanalyst's bizarre late work on his discovery of "orgonenergy" or life-force."

Dennis Duck is best known for his alt-rock drumming duties. In fact, he played on the Dream Syndicate's classic "Days of Wine and Roses" album, one of my favorite '80s rockers. But history may remember him as the first recorded turntablist. A short-run cassette called "Dennis Duck Goes Disco" featuring Duck playing nothing more then records was first released courtesy of the legendary Los Angeles Free Music Society , and is finally available on cd.

A whole album of nothing but skipping records! From 1977, no less. How great is that? Though few heard it at the time, he did beat Grandmaster Flash, Christian Marclay, etc. to the punch, as those New Yorkers didn't make recordings 'til almost the '80s (tho supposedly DJ Kool Herc was cuttin' wax as far back as '73.)

There's no fancy wicka-wicka scratching that we're now used to hearing, so it's fascinating to encounter turntablism from the perspective of almost no history. True, avant-gardists like Cage had used turntables before, but usually using their own prepared recordings. Duck, however, went to the thrift-stores and used record shops and bought kiddie records, religious sermons, musical kitch, etc., prefiguring everything from hip-hop, to Negativland-like sound collages, to mashups. Again, this isn't just of historical interest - it's a lot of loopy fun.

A jazz records skips to a crazy swingin' beat:

Dennis Duck: One O'Clock Jump

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RADIO MISTERIOSO 3/01/09

Here's my most recent guest-dj appearance on "Radio Misterioso," that crucial exploration into the world of weird, hosted by writer Greg "Spacebrother" Bishop, of Flying Saucer Music and Music/Not Music fame. Actually, I just contributed a song to "Flying Saucer Music," a lovely little outsider ditty written by a priest in the '50s called "Those Funny Little Saucers in The Sky."

Featured: early electronica, true sounds of UUOs (Unidentified Underwater Objects), American Indians singing kid's show themes, robots, outsiders, lounge crooners, thrift-store atrocities, mashups, '70s glam for children, and most of a UFO-cult record.

For your listening or downloading pleasure:

Radio Misterioso, March 01, 2009 - WARNING, the audio starts playing when you click the link.

"Plan Nine From Outer Space" intro
talk break
"Psychedelic Circus" ad
Thelonious Moog "Misterioso"
Sun Ra "Message To The Earth Man"
DJ Lobsterdust "It's Fun To Smoke Dust"
Forrest J. Ackerman "Music For Robots" (music)

talk break

"Head" ad
Synthesizers Unlimited "Forgotten World"
Forrest J. Ackerman "Music For Robots" (narration)
Yma Sumac "Kuyaway (Inca Love Song)"
James Last "Mr Giant Man"
Shirley & Squirrely: "Hey Shirley"
[some Moog thing; Jean-Jacques Perrey, maybe?]
Unidentified undersea sounds
Black Lodge Singers "SpongeBob SquarePants"
Black Lodge Singers "Kid's Pow-Wow Songs Medley"
Phyllis & Art (The Hollywood Sweethearts) and their horrible singing child "Something's Happened To Daddy"
DJ NoNo "Stripper Jackson"
MadMixMustang "Sweet Sledgehammer"
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz "Social Dance"
Roger Roger "Gags A-Go-Go"

talk break, with Rodd Keith "That Martian Jubilee"

Troy Cory "Rinki Rura"
Uge "Mad Charles"
Pornophonic "Sad Robot"
The Scientific Peace Builders Foundation "The Celestial Visitor From Planet Wisdom," mixed with:
Oskar Sala "Five Improvisations On Magnetic Tape"
Annette Funicello "The Maid & The Martian"
Sir Anthony Lanza Cocozza "How Could I Forget You"
Rodd Keith "The Astronauts"
Space Alphabet "A - Astronomy and Astronomer"
Contessa Elaine Lanza "I Love You I Love You"

talk break

Arthur 'One Man Band' Nakane "Band On The Run"
The Jose Maria Band "Light My Fire"
Wing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"
In Touch "Nights On Broadway"
Wing "Yesterday"
In Touch "Love To Love You Baby"
Arthur 'One Man Band' Nakane "Secret Asian Man"

talk break

Lothar & The Hand People "Machines"

Thanks again, 'brother!

NONO YOYO

It's been a good week for circa-1970 bubblegum remix revivals. No sooner does Go Home Productions hit us with his take on the "Banana Splits" theme, then that rascally red robot DJ NoNo goes and serves The Osmonds over party-rockin' boom-bap beatz, seamlessly integrating '60s swingers Hugo Montenegro and The Swingle Singers into the mix.

DJ NoNo - YoYo Roll

Good robot! Hope your buddy Tim from Radio Clash gives you a coupla extra squirts of oil tonight.

GHP GOES BANANAS

"Paying homage to the greatest ever kids tv show and the first 7"single that I bought way back in 1979. Created under the influence of The Jamms / KLF / Coldcut / Steinski. Contains too many illegal samples to mention."

So sayeth Go Home Productions, a guy who may be remixer to the stars (Bowie, Gang of Four) now, but who started out in the inter-webular mashup underground. He has returned to his roots with a new free download featuring Cali-punk legends The Dickies' classic remake of the "Banana Splits" theme that is the funniest, most riotous, exhilarating, superbly produced...er, maybe I should just describe my reaction when I play it: "Ha ha ha, YES!" /turns the volume up louder and louder/grins maniacally/spazmodically lurches around the room...

Go Home Productions "GHP GOES BANANAS"

He also has an entire album of original (no samples) music called "The Future, The Past & The Present Tension" now up.

GOOD REVIEWS FOR BAD REVIEWS

It's getting harder to tell outsider music from lo-fi indie stuff. Well, whatever Bad Reviews is, it's acoustic guitars, sometimes distorted (more due to recording quality then a fuzz box), down 'n' depressed, but with occasional high-pitched vocals - Jandek & the Chipmunks?

No info whatsoever, just a 5 song on-line EP featuring a sad, gorgeous, dirty waltz. The title, near as I can tell, has nothing to do with the song itself.

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Bad Reviews: news.bbc.co.uk

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Want to irritate your roommate? Have house guests who won't leave? The song "(re-do vocal)" is as creepy as anything I've heard lately.

ROBOT ROCK

Well, since we seem to be the only blog reporting on the Robot Invasion:

bd594: Bohemian Rhapsody (video)
bd594: Bohemian Rhapsody (mp3)

'Tis Queen covered with the help of singing office equipment (an Atari 800XL - "piano," Texas Instruments TI-99/4a - "electric guitar," 8 Inch Floppy Disk - "bass," 3.5 inch Harddrive - "gong," HP ScanJet 3C - all "vocals").

Absolutely spectacular.

From the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, a soon-to-be-obsolete human plays jazz piano, as a robot marimba player responds with astonishing quickness:

Guy Hoffman & Shimon The Robot (video)
Guy Hoffman & Shimon The Robot (mp3)

Thanks to Emily Pseudonym, and solcofn!
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Authentic Music From Another Planet

Our celebration of Moon Day continues with one of the oddest outsider-music artifacts I've ever come across - an entire album of music and narration from 1956 by someone claiming to be a UFO contactee. And I stumbled across it while perusing my local library.

In the 1950's, at the height of the flying saucer scare, a New Jersey sign-painter named Howard Menger not only had an abduction experience, but he claims that he later came across a remote building housing a piano with more keys then found on Earth pianos, and that he began to play music guided by alien hands.

Our resident expert in such matters, Greg "Spacebrother" Bishop, notes that "an attractive young woman named Connie Weber appeared at one of Menger’s gatherings. He thought that she was the reincarnation of a blond spacewoman that he had known (in the biblical sense) in a previous life on Venus. He soon left his first wife and family to begin a new life of lectures and touring on the Contactee circuit....Connie wrote a book entitled My Saturnian Lover about her previous interplanetary relationship with Menger." Gotta find that book!

Apparently the aliens were from The Planet Of Crappy Music, judging by the snoozy piano/accordion instrumentals found on this big 28-minute file. There's nothing spacey or futuristic about it, except for all the echo that drenches everything - music and narration. And despite his description of the alien piano, there's no microtonal sounds here. Maybe that's why the aliens came - to get better tuneage for those long interstellar road trips. The narration is priceless, however. Now I know what The Bran Flakes sampled on the first song on their "Hey Won't Somebody Come And Play?" album.

Howard Menger - "Authentic Music From Another Planet"

Sorry for the sound quality, and for the size of the file - I got this from a cd I found in the Los Angeles Central Library while looking for something else entirely. Much to my surprise, there's a whole shelf of UFO/conspiracy-related audio documentation. This track is from a collection called "Saucerology: Tales of Giant Rock (Contactees Vol. 2)," compiled by Wendy Connors as part of her Audio History of Ufology Series. She apparently used to have her own label, but the website's gone. I checked out a number of these Conners compilation disks from the Library Shelf O' Mystery, but there's little music to be found on them. Mostly just inaudible interviews and news reports.
Menger just died earlier this year.

LIFE ON REGGAE PLANET

Classic ska/early reggae about space flight - that's how we celebrate the 40th anniversary of man's first walk on the Moon around here. None of that slow Rasta stuff - this collection of obscure oldies (many recorded off vinyl) is pure summery dance fun fun fun, from a culture that, in the 1960s, was developing along with America's space program. There's also one (very surreal) calypso thrown in. I wish I knew of more.

Some of the tracks are instrumentals , including - yes! - a version of the Joe Meek/Tornadoes classic "Telstar." Have no idea who Colonel Elliott And The Lunatics are, but the cartoonishly Moogy "Plutonian Pogo Stick" is as nutty as its title. Some of the names here are unknown, and some, like pioneering dj U-Roy, ska legend Prince Buster, and the Upsetters, a project of madman/studio genius Lee "Scratch" Perry, are well known, at least in Carib music circles. (most American's knowledge of Jamaican music seems to begin and end with Bob Whatsisface.)

This might seem heretical, but was the Moon landing really humanity's greatest engineering accomplishment? The Apollo missions were essentially blasting a rocket out of the atmosphere using a controlled explosion. As the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki could tell you (the ones still alive, at least), we got good at making really big booms. And getting there could be (theoretically) worked out with paper and pencil using Newton's Laws. I know I'm oversimplifying, but it all seems a bit...crude. Of course, it's still way up there on the list, but above the Egyptian Pyramids, or the Great Wall of China? Maybe some of you techies can set me straight.

Life On Reggae Planet

01 U Roy - space flight
02 Derrick Morgan - Man 'Pon Moon
03 Moon Boys - Apollo 11
04 Owen Gray - Apollo 12
05 Colonel Elliott And The Lunatics - Telstar
06 Derrick Morgan - Moon Hop
07 The Vulcans - Star Trek
08 Don Drummond - Rocket Ship
09 Joe Mansano - Life On Reggae Planet
10 S. S. Binns - Moon Beat
11 The Fabion - V Rocket
12 Lord Christo - Trip To Mars
13 Prince Buster - Trip to Mars
14 Colonel Elliott And The Lunatics - Plutonian Pogo Stick
15 Symarip - Skinhead Moonstomp
16 The Upsetters - Outer Space

I've made some great discoveries at You and Me on a Jamboree. Check 'em out - it should keep you fans of obscure Carribean music busy for weeks.
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CHRISTMAS IN JULY

No stress! No shopping! No snow! Just an accordian-driven Tex-Mex polka zydeco kinda thing played at punk intensity level from a veteran group who put on a mega-fun live show. Not only will you Chicken dance, you'll Hokey-Pokey.

Brave Combo - Christmas in July
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EXPERIMENTAL KID'S MUSIC

8 year old kids playing microtonal music on their invented instruments? This - THIS - is what this blog's all about. Composer/musician Paul "Ubertar" Rubenstein teaches New York kids how to build one-string guitars, and play in African and Indonesian-inspired scales. Then they jam. Not just a novelty, this is some seriously good, unique unclassifiable music, whose contents are only hinted at by their song titles:

Ubertar + kids: Psychedelic Free Jazz
Ubertar + kids: Heavy Drone Rock - Sonic Youth, step off.
Ubertar + kids: This Is So Great - singing!

And how would you, yes you! like to get in on the action? Why should kids have all the fun? Paul sez: "I'm about to start microtonal music workshops at my music studio in Ridgewood, Queens (Dekalb stop on the L train). The first session will be Wednesday, 7/15 at 6:30 pm, and the cost is $12. People can reserve a spot by emailing me at paul@ubertar.com. It's for all levels-- total beginners through advanced."

DISCO SUICIDE

The Disco Demolition event was 30 years ago tomorrow, so here's a sequel to "Disco Sickness," one of my 365 Project contributions and, actually, one of the most popular internet projects I've done. This fascinating 8 minute video of various Chicago news clips details the anarchic event that put the stake in disco's heart (in America at least).

These tunes are funny, awful, sometimes both. Mad Magazine's "It's A Gas" is downright disgusting. Whether they're humorous parodies, kitschy thrift-store atrocities, foreign interpretations, or downright strange outsider oddities, these tunes are never less then highly entertaining. Some I got off the web, such as a couple of other 365 Project contributions, but they make sense in the context of a big sick disco party. And if you liked Myron Floren's disco polka or the Brazilian disco samba from the first collection (or even if you didn't), there's more here - leftovers I recorded off my vinyl but didn't have room for. Lots of covers, even a Kate Bush tune sung by a Japanese group - a true "wtf" moment. I got the sound off the video (that I can no longer find on YouTube) so audio's a little poopy. But it must be witnessed.

Disco Suicide

Disco Suicide - MAD Magazine (Norm Blagman, Dick DeBartolo)
Get Up And Boogie - Marimba Orquesta Virreynal De Hugo Reyes
Star Wars Theme - The Wonderball Disco Orchestra
R2D2_C3PO_Disco - Music for Children's Disco
Popeye Disco - Pam Todd & Love Exchange
Disco Hotline - National Lampoon
Disco Charlie Brown - Springbok Hits
Disco Communist - Semi-Not
Rolling The Ball (Them Heavy People cover) - Yukari Itô and Hatsumi Shibata
Pinball Playboy (Playboy Theme) - Cook County
Things We Said Today - Joah Valley
Yiddishco - National Lampoon
Barbeque - Joe Cutajar
Love Is Blue-Lovers Concerto - Myron Floren
Height Report Disco - National Lampoon
I Was Born To Disco - Strawberry Shortcake
It's a Gas (disco version) - MAD Disco
Disco samba2 - Freddy Ventura
Disco's in the Garbage - the Incinerators

I'll Keep Writing About Him Until He's Famous...

Introducing the forgotten madcap brilliance of Paul Lowry to the world is one of the things I'm most proud of here at M4M. Thanks to a kind soul named Dok, all four tracks are back up, with additional info about one of songs:

HERE (my original post: Paul Lowry-Unknown Genius)
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THE EVIL HOODOO OF SKY SAXON

Not since Darby Crash died around the same time as John Lennon has a great musician's death been so overshadowed - this time Sky Saxon's death happening on the day as Michael Jackson's. Fitting I guess, since his crucial '60s garage/psych/punk band The Seeds is always overlooked every time Los Angeles' Sunset Strip scene is discussed. Everyone always talks about The Doors, The Buffalo Springfield, The Mamas & The Papas, Love, etc. Some of those bands certainly did some great stuff, but for some of us, it's all about bands like The Leaves, The Standells, and The Seeds. Wild 'n' crazy garage punk at it's finest, all fuzzed-out three chord raunch, hyper tempos, sleazy electric organ, some guy yellin' about puttin' his baby down.

Even in this wiggy world, Saxon stood out. After The Seed's demise, he realized that his initials (S.S.) were the same as Hitler's secret police so he added the middle name "Sunlight." He joined forces with the The Source Family cult, who were headed by a guy named Father Yod who led a band called Ya Ho Wa 13. Their numerous private-press recordings of free-form psychedelia were released by Saxon. I remember listening to an interview with Saxon on the Rodney On The ROQ show in the '80s were he announced he was a "fruitarian." Not a vegetarian, a fruitarian.

In the '60s when fellow Cali garage-punks the Chocolate Watch Band opened for The Seeds one night, they played The Seeds latest album in it's entirety. It was such simple, basic 3-chord stuff, they learned it all in one day. They just thought this stunt would be funny, but The Seeds, fuming, had no choice but to go out after them, play all the songs everyone had just heard, and get booed. Totally fucked-up, wrong, indefensible...but so damn funny.

Nothing funny about their music. Songs like "Pushin' Too Hard" were big hits, but my fave tune of theirs is "Evil Hoodoo," an awesome 3-note fuzz-bass (no doubt played by Sky himself) trippy rocker. It builds momentum so well it's not too long even at a five-plus minute length. Psychedelic in the best possible sense - no meandering mellowness here. This tune is available on this comp, but I have the vinyl:

The Seeds: "Evil Hoodoo"

Turn out the lights, put on a strobe light, crank this up, and dance like a spazz.
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MID-YEAR MASHUP MARATHON

2009 has been a good year for illegally re-arranged music. On the top of my list so far: Muppet Mashup, a various artists collection by Boston's djBC and friends saluting "The Muppets" and "Sesame Street." It's start-to-finish solid. Fun for the whole family! Martinn (from The Netherlands) kicks things off with a brilliant combo of the Stray Cats and the "Muppet Show" theme, but I think this one from da man himself might be my fave:

dj BC: "I'm Happy On Sesame Street" featuring Edwin Starr, Lou Rawls, numerous Muppets and (sez bc) "The lead vocal is an acapella done by a little girl and her friends in a playground or schoolyard. Freaking genius stuff to work with!"

And DJ NoNo would like to remind you that HE is the king of Muppet mashes.

Three strange, surreal, super-fun surf-music mashups for the summer:

g3rst: "Surfbusters" (Ray Parker Jr vs The Tornadoes)
Zo0m: "What'd The Bulldog Say" (Ray Charles vs the Ventures, remembering the recently deceased guitar genius Bob Bogle)
MadMixMustang: "Dizz and The Boyz Getz To The Beach" ('50s bebop jazz vs The Beach Boys - how the hell does this work so well?!)

Foolklegs II comes to us from France, mixing mostly European folk music with some rather unlikely pop sounds. This various-artists collection is, like much great avant-pop, simultaneously both utterly alien and accessible. It's not all computer-made mashups either. Dig this bagpiped take on the Gorillaz:

DJ Zebra: "Dirty Harry"

Zebra's tunes on this collection are performed live. Album organizer Funky Belek sez: "The children's chorus is played on turntables, but it's a real bagad (a traditional band from Brittany / France) and Zebra plays guitar."

Also from France, Totom's excellent Bob Dylan mashup album just dropped. The Pixies vs "Blowin In The Wind" track in particular confirms that Totom is one of the best sound hackers we've got.

DIG THOSE CRAZY BERMUDAS

Rodd Keith was one of the giants of the weird world of song-poems, but his son Ellery Eskelin is no slouch either, carving out a career for himself as one of the primo sax masters to have emerged on the Downtown NY avant scene.

On his 1996 album "Green Bermudas" it's a father and son reunion, with recordings of his late dad popping up via Andrea Parkins' sampler, while Junior blows mad jazz over it. The title song is summer vacation music for maniacs:

Ellery Eskelin & Andrea Parkins: "Green Bermudas"

One of the most hilariously sexist song poems ever, "Yummy Dum Dum" also gets the treatment. But even the non-song poem tracks make for fine listening. Eskelin is at home with both high-energy blowouts, and emotional ballads. The sax/sampler lineup creates all kinds of unpredictable and unique combos (Parkins even samples one of Eskelin's old records on one track), making this one of the best jazz-for-people-who-don't-like jazz albums I've heard lately. (Actually, this album's so crazy, jazzbos might not like it.)

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