The xylophone is yet another ancient instrument that has sadly fallen into obscurity. Because, y'know, you're only "cool" if you play the electric guitar. Which is a great instrument! But, as I've written before, our musical vocabulary - and, hence, a variety of moods and styles - is stunted if only a few sounds are permitted. So let's get uncool:
Apart from it's early use in classical music, "the xylophone was frequently used by early jazz bands in the 1920s and 1930s. It was also a very popular instrument in vaudeville." I admit I only bought this album because it contains a version of Gershon Kingsly's "Popcorn," and the title "Shake - American" looked intriguing (it's a version of Ray Charles' "What'd I Say") but I ended up liking the whole thing. The "classical" stuff is sometimes backed by a sleazy electric organ-led lounge combo, not a chamber music group. Everything's played at a frantic energy level as Eingorn pounds away with machine gun-like precision.
We've been writing about British nutter Ergo Phizmiz for a while now, but he's outdone himself this time. Actually, he's outdone everyone. Presenting a 15-hour long project, which you can listen to or download for free here:
The Faust Cycle or, The House of Dr Faustus He mixes radio-drama surrealism with antique-garde mashups and experimental music, and except for a prolonged noise/tuneless whistling stretch in the middle of part one, I was pretty much entertained throughout. Yes, I've listened to the whole thing, and then some. As the man says:
"One afternoon Ergo Phizmiz finds himself lumbered into delivering a parcel to the house of legendary alchemist and necromancer Dr Johann Faustus who, since the events of some time ago for which he is renowned, has entered into a rather quieter life in a vast, labyrinthine house, with hundreds of lodgers running the gamut from artists, birds, bird-people, walking fictions, ventriloquists, a Cassowary, running chairs, walking gramophones, and myriad automata.
This enormous dream fable, told through speech, songs, collage and sound-design, is the result of over three years delving down various rabbit-holes, and features collaborations in a range of contexts with artists of many disciplines... In glorious radiophonic technicolour, it is a musical-comedy of disorientation and magick, somewhere between nightmare and the half-remembered childhood whimsy of an insomniac music-hall artiste."
Spectacular projects like this and Wax Audio's "Nine Countries" are further evidence that, despite mass media/entertainment industry indifference, the internet is on the cutting edge of culture. It's not just a bunch of kids posting LOL-cat pictures. Maybe historians will figure that out one day...
Wow, I'm way late for Cincode Mayo, but what the heck. Matorral Man are merry Mexican masters of mirth and music (I'd just like to break in here to apologize for the excessive use of alliteration in this sentence) that sample '60s kitsch for a upbeat blend of electronica, lounge, surf and go-go beat. Recommended to fans of MesserChups,The SG Sound, Ursula 1000, and wrestling movies.
Nothing too radical here, just a big blast o' fun. Song titles that translate to "Kamikaze Girls" and "The Taxi of Tomorrow" should give you the idea. Next time you're at a party and the Black Eyed Peas come on for the umpteenth time, slip this one in. Everyone will give you a big ol' muchasgracias.
1. Tema De Monamu 2. Chicas Kamikaze 3. No Lo C 4. VaqueraEstelar 5. OperaciónDinamo 6. El Taxi Del Mañana 7. Tripi 8. GoGo Girl 9. YuYu Beat 10. El Acapulco Rock 11. Lunática 12. Untitled
I'm not really posting this album because of it's musical virtues (namely, upbeat Xian county-pop that sounds like a '70s variety show soundtrack), but because it's from Nashville, whose music district, including the venerable Grand Ol' Opry, is underwater as I write this. And for the album cover artwork. I mean, really: what...the...hell?! That's Alvis (not Elvis!) pictured, with his wife and daughter. Gary S. Paxton's liner notes describe how Alvis would tell him: "What you need is JESUS. And I would reply, later man, pass the dope. At the time I could not figure out his bag. Where's this guy comin' from?"
There's some nice "Moogs and Special Effects" by one Shane Keister, giving this an unexpected Space-Age feel, and more then a few ludicrous lyrics. But it really all comes together on the song "Knee Power." Seriously, folks, download this album for that track alone. It's got some funk-ay FUNK-ay Moog action. Yup, you never know where you're gonna find that next killer hip-hop sample. And dig the theology of these lyrics:
"God answers prayer night and day/and sometimes it's not what we want to hear/but if we spent more time on knees bent low/the answer might be yes instead of no." Ah, so God DOES answer all our prayers - it's just that sometimes the answer is 'No'!
Don't want the whole album? By request, here's just the song:
The Invertebrates were one of the stranger ducks to emerge during the San Francisco punk/New Wave days, and that's sayin' something, considering how off-the-charts eccentric that scene was (Tuxedomoon, Monte Cazazza,The Units, Flipper, Inflatable Boy Clams/Ki-Di-Me, etc.) The 6 songs on this EP are largely centered around compelling bass lines, sometimes dub throb, sometimes rock power, with all matter of sonic ephemera thrown on top: thrift-store record bits, horn skronk, electronic bleeps. The lyrics often seem to be sung verbatim from newspaper articles.
"The initial shows of fall 1980 depended on numerous film, slide, and overhead projectors. Much of the music was improvised as background to the visuals, though a few loose songs were also a part of the act. But then the songs began to tighten and grow in number. Pretty soon the musical side came to dominate.
An EP, "Eat 'em While They're Young", was released in 1981, followed in 1984 by an LP, "Let's Have Fun" (we still have a few hundred in the garage, so let us know if you'd like one) [I do!].
For a few years in the early 80's we also managed Club Foot, an art/punk hole-in-the-wall out at Third and 22nd Streets. From the beginning we've undergone innumerable personnel changes while generally consisting of a core of from three to ten men and women at any given time, along with an ever-varying group of occasional players dropping by. As of 2006, almost three dozen people have been involved." Surprisingly, they're still around, still releasing new albums. The Invertebrates "Eat 'em While They're Young"
1. Phone Dub 1 2. Get It Right 3. Circus Doctor 4. Political Films 5. Please Gimme Another Chance 6. Phone Dub 2 This video of one of my fave songs off the EP demonstrates their visual/performance side:
Los Angeles funky jazz band Mojo Triage did a few shows as Moog Mania in 2006, performing solely on vintage Moog synths and Moog Ethervox theremins (plus drums). I caught their first show, then bought a CD-R of a live recording of that very show the next time I saw them. They also performed at a Bob Moog tribute that featured a screening of the documentary film "Moog." And, so far as I know, never performed again.
This ain't no "Switched On"-type cheese fest (much as I love that kinda stuff). It's all original, all improvised. But it's not the amphetamine mayhem of Margaret Raven either - it's so funky/groovy it's hard to believe that it's all improv, like a '70s action soundtrack gone sci-fi. "Starsky and Hutch on Mars."
That lovely Mr. Otis Fodder invited me to guest dj on his internationally-distributed show Friendly Persuasion, and since Otis has switched to all vinyl, I took the opportunity to break out my shoeboxes of singles and spin some of my all-time fave-rave obscure-o, funny 'n' freaky 45s. And it's (give or take a minute or two) 45 minutes long.
Talking harmonicas, noir mambo, inane novelties, orchestral twist, Space-Age doo-wop, Mel Blanc's least-loved voice character, Moogs being eaten by The Blob, Scatman Crothers covering Nervous Norvus, a truly amazing version of The Archies "Sugar Sugar"...it's all here:
From the liner notes: "Jim Noste has been at the helm of one of New Jersey's most successful-reliable Home Improvement Center since 1948."
This album looks to be from the '80s, and features some top session aces (complete with arranger) playing the swingin' standards as Mr. "Home" Center adds his heavily-vibratoed vocals. The results can be funny, embarrassing, and, on ballads like "Could I Have This Dance," oddly moving. He sings with plenty of enthusiasm and emotional commitment. I would definitely buy vinyl siding from this man.
Bonus tune! A version of "I Get a Kick Out of You" from his first album (recorded at Sun Studios!) that, alas, I do not have, courtesy of WFMU's "Incorrect Music Companion."
I thought I posted the David Koresh song "Mad Man In Waco" that everyone wanted but alas, I was wrong - apparently there's another version, in a more acoustic demo style, that is the one coveted by fans of singing doomed cult leaders. I can't find any info on MSNBC's website about the show that featured the song, hence, I can't even write the show's producers for info.
I keep getting emails and comments from folks desperate to hear the song, so again, if anyone's got it, give it up! (And, no, not the cd with the songs "Book of Daniel," and "Shesonahim" - we posted those HERE.)
Composer Stefan Poetzsch has a new album out now called "Light On" that features not just music for dancing, but music with dancing. Which is not a new concept - tap dancing's been around for years - but not quite like this. Here's a lovely bit of Minimalism for strings and piano that also features Afro-German dancer Bettina Essaka on amplified "...very quiet noises made when she moved her arms and legs":
The rest of the album is wildly eclectic, ranging from thorny atonal modern classical, to Coltrane-inspired jazziness, to heavy Gothic organ, but this is the track that I keep returning to. My one complaint about this album: so much of the music has a visual aspect (the title track is performed with thousands of light sticks), but there's no DVD/video feature to this CD. h
Of all the sped-up-voices novelty acts rushed into print after the success of the Chipmunks, the craziest had to be The Nutty Squirrels, who, improbably, were a scat-singing bop-jazz variant on the concept. Heavy cats like Cannonball Adderly even played on it. Even more improbably, they could be really good - "Uh Oh, Pt.2" was an actual Top 40 hit in 1959 (the only bebop hit single?) and a ridiculously catchy tune to boot. The Nutty Squirrels.
01 Uh Oh! (part one) 02 Uh Oh! (part two) 03 Ding Dong 04 Something Like That 05 Jumping Bean 06 Nutty 07 Uh-Huh 08 Salt Peanuts 09 Eager Beaver 10 Bang 11 Nutcracker 12 Zowee
They even had a tv show. Again I ask: when did jazz lose it's sense of humor?
I scarcely could have imagined that when I picked up an innocent-looking package from my post office box that it would propel me into a world of unimaginable horrors, and that music, of all things, would be a bridge to unspeakable entities from beyond our realm!
But let me start at the beginning - I am a humble scribe for a music blog, and part of my regular duties is visiting the local post office to retrieve all manner of recordings sent to us by aspiring composers for possible review. Ah, music! Surely it is proof of the goodness of God himself. Or so I once thought...
The package, postmarked Plymouth, England, bore no indication of its' contents, and, indeed, a glance at the 18 page monograph contained therein prepared by sober academics and laden with charts and illustrations would lead one to believe that this was yet another humdrum musicological study. It concerned one Neil Rose, whose interests were queer to be sure: a respected professor's attempts to communicate with the dead are hardly standard university fare. But Rose's own efforts eventually "went beyond science," through Carlos Castaneda-like ingestion of sacred drugs that act as a gateway to paranormal experiences beyond the imaginings of Lovecraft himself. The booklet's authors note that his writings come to an abrubt halt, leaving his ghastly fate a mystery. I put on the cd containing recordings of "residuum," that is to say: "supranatural energy and imprinting of this energy to magnet media," and no sooner had I done so when the window to my study flew open and a gust of frigid air blew out my candle. But it was the disk's eerie sounds of Rose's damnable experiments that truly sent a shiver down my spine. May the Lord have mercy on our doomed souls!
The book/cd package "Residuum" is available by writing neil@gotanyrice.com. The music is dark, compelling abstract ambient electronica, occasionally with a beat, tho dancing is hardly appropriate, and the realistically detailed booklet will convince many. ,
My attempts to post an album a day were foiled by yet another computer virus. A $250 repair bill, and we're back in business. In the last couple of days I've had requests to re-up a number of tracks under the "Mechanical Music" category - music played by robots and machines - such as the "Creepy Circus Tesla Coil" song, "Printer Jam," and the fairground organ version of "Puppet On A String." So, to save valuable time, I just decided to put together an album's worth of mechanical music that's been featured here on M4M into one zip file.
Music untouched by human hands! Office equipment, player pianos, music boxes, Tesla coils, and robot instrumentalists. ATTENTION HUMANS: YOU. ARE. OBSOLETE.
Let's see what's in the Music For Maniacs mailbox, shall we?
"My name is Mark and I'm representing an artist that has a difficult time communicating in a way that makes sense. During the late 70s to late 80s this artist went as Potato, now he goes by Jerome Ron Dinkle. I am submitting his album "Potato - 777" (1988) with full permission from the artist. The album is comprised of Psychedelic Satire (very comparable to the Residents) which curves on the early side of noise. It's mainly comprised of vocals which is amazing due to the fact that Dinkle suffers from a "severe case of cleft pallet" which in turn gives the recording even an odder sound. This is the weirdest thing I've heard in a while..."
"...Feel free to post the entire album. By the time I ran into Jerome, he was residing in an assisted living community and had already given up on his pursuit in the arts. So I'm sure he will be delighted at the thought someone besides his friends are interested in his music." Like the Everyday Film albums I wrote about recently, J.R.Dinkle is also from Texas, and his songs are also very brief (most a minute or less) featuring non-singing jibberish vocals and crude electronics. Unlike the scary Everyday Film, however, it's all quite silly and child-like. Residents comparisons are, indeed, apt - the Eyeballed Ones themselves would be proud of the better tracks here, like "Potato Party."
Tracklist:
1 - Sir Trumphet Stands Attention 2 - dirtfromlongbreakingoflandunderneathyouwatchingasallslipsthroughyourgraps 3 - Creeping Sunrise 4 - Potato Party 5 - Class of 777 6 - heysuesrideformine350fordor 7 - Clam Parade in Flesh of Sing 8 - RNR - Featuring Apprentice T Waine Edishun 9 - Thumn Mountian 10 - I Am The Rhinosorceress 11 - Twinkle Gums 12 - Randol Mill 13 - Today is The Joke, Tommorow is The Punchline 14 - Once Light Tickeled Shadow and Then it Consoled 15 - Twilight of the Year 16 - Notato 17 - Inch Allot Ah 18 - I am a Mountian When it Falls (Fly Away on the Wings of Love) 19 - Layase Fountian 20 - P.O.T.A.T.O 21 - I Am The Rhinosorceress (Club Remix) 22 - Cadillac Spring (Live at The Plop 1987)
Country music legend Hank Williams just won the Pulitzer Prize. That's pretty interesting, because 1) he's been dead for well over a half-century, and 2) they give Pulitzer Prizes for music? I thought that it was a journalism award. Well, in any case, I'm sure that it must have been this album that swayed the committee.
The experience of listening to "Songs of Hank Williams - A Return Trip - Modern Sounds," a '60s album released by L.A.'s Alshire label (101 Strings), can best be summed up by the the liner notes: "Presented here is a program of ten of the most famous songs made famous [a redundant redundancy?] by the immortal Hank Williams. A group of exceptionally talented modern musicians were assembled with two top vocalists. These great songs were arranged in a modern Rock-Acid style, without losing the melodic line of the lyrics, and are presented here for the modern music lover. The whole idea of this album is to bring Hank's great music to the modern young generation, for truly they are great 'heart and soul' songs as evidenced by the millions upon millions of records they have sold. ENJOY THIS PROGRAM OF MODERN ACID-ROCK HANK WILLIAMS SONGS PERFORMED AND SUNG BY A FINE YOUNG GENERATION GROUP."
Sacrilege? It's pretty groovy, actually, with some funky rhythms, and fuzzed-out guitar. No musician credits. It isn't very psychedelic, tho the album cover shows a hippie girl giving a horse some multi-colored sugar cubes. Hank Williams - A Return Trip - Modern Sounds
Just released today is a wonderfully insane collection of mashups from an international assortment of dj/producers that have one thing in common - none of the tracks are in 4/4 time. Now this old-skool punk-rocker can have highly allergic reactions to prog, especially the Rush/Yes variety, but I found this collection to be more fun then a barrel of metronomes. It's quite a break from the usual stuff, and makes me realize how formulaic so much music is (even "strange" music). Off The Beaten Meter
Classical musics from Ravel to Philip Glass, jazz ("Take Five," natch), William Burroughs and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and, yes, prog, get expertly mixed with disposable pop crap and electronica to sometimes head-spinning effect, all thanks to compiler DJ Not-I, an American now living in Austria. Many of my fave mashup-ers are on here, inc. G3rst, Virtual DJ (both Dutchmen, I believe), France's Totom, and Orange County, CA's Voicedude. (Oh, and I may have had something to do with one of the songs, but don't hold that against this album!)
To describe veteran street-performer Arthur Nakane simply as a one-man-band hardly does him justice. But it will have to do, until someone can a come up with a better name for a performer who sits behind a wagon constructed of PVC pipes holding keyboards, percussion, amplifier, foot-operated drum machine and bass pedals (also made of PVC pipes), while wearing a harmonica holder around his neck and playing a guitar with sticks bolted and clamped to the guitar's neck. While playing guitar in the conventional style, he jabs at the keyboard with these sticks, playing simple keyboard melodies, and hits cymbals. With his right hand, he'll grab, say, a tambourine and shake it as he strums the guitar. All while singing in a thick Japanese accent. Using electronics skills I can't begin to comprehend (he teaches electronics by day), Nakane records his own voice while singing and, again using foot controls, plays it back, harmonizing with himself - a live overdubbing method.
I first discovered Nakane years ago in Santa Monica's outdoor mall, the Third Street Promenade, and, quite unexpectedly, I ran into him last week performing on the Santa Monica Pier, still playing for tips. A hand-made cardboard sign announced he had performed on Jimmie Kimmels's NBC-TV show in February. He's also opened for punk bands, appeared on radio and TV, and was the subject of a short documentary that played the Sundance Film Festival called "Secret Asian Man."
That film got it's name from Nakane's remake of the oldie "Secret Agent Man." When he sings it, not only does he change it to "Secret Asian Man," complete with verses sung in Japanese, but he pulls back his eyes, like when kids make those slanty-eyed Asian stereotype faces!
...his CD, featuring treatments of "Band On The Run," "La Bamba" (in severely shaky Spanish), and the definitive "Achy Breaky Heart" [is] a feast of grungy guitar and English/Japanese lyrics (Hmm, I don't remember Billy Ray Mullett rhyming "sake" with "Nagasaki"...) Order it from arthurnakane.com, the most minimalistic website ever. Or, as I did, buy a copy from the man himself, should you run into him on Santa Monica Beach. Recorded live, no overdubs, no edits. As Arthur told me, pointing to his equipment, "I am master of this..."
01. Band on the Run 02. Dont be Cruel 03. Secret Agent Man 04. Runaway 05. Achy Breaky Heart 06. La Bamba 07. Love Me Tender 08. China Night 09. Country Road 10. Here's Happiness 11. Teddy Bear 12. With You Forever 13. It's Now or Never 14. Sukiyaki Lots of videos HERE!
SpaceAgePopsez: "Jim Fassett will be remembered by space age pop fans for one amazing piece of work: his 1960 Columbia album, Symphony of the Birds. Working with CBS radio technician Mortimer Goldberg, Fassett painstakingly pieced together fragments from recordings of bird calls originally made in the field...By rerecording some of them faster or slower and then superimposing multiple playbacks onto one tape, Fassett and Goldberg wove together the results like an arrangement for symphony orchestra." (An excerpt from can be heard HERE). This one is clearly made using the same technique as Symphony of the Birds, with actual recordings of animals being made to "sing" popular songs. But this album has a child narrator, and undeniable sexual innuendos, which will have you laughing, cringing, or both. Jim Fassett "Hear the Animals Sing"
It's one 15 minute long file - side two was just "other animal songs" that is, routine kiddie stuff.
UPDATE 4/15/14: Fassett used his long-running CBS radio show as a springboard for his sonic experiments, some of which were collected on his album "Strange To Your Ears," which you can now get on Amazon or itunes.
Back in July '05, I wrote: "MC Potbelly is, in his words...a 42-year-old, white, male insurance agent from Marin County, California, an upper-middle to upper-class enclave about as far from "the 'hood" as you can get. His main influences? "The Sugar Hill Gang, Merle Haggard, and Bob Seger." His music production is as crude as his pimped-out lyrics, which he delivers in a thin, nasal, utterly-white sing-song, following no rhyme scheme known to man. Evidently, there was a full-length (well, 27 minutes) album released..."
After he sent me the disk (which was free to anyone who asked for one), I wrote: "Da Man himself sent me his home-recorded CD, chock full of brief-but-to-the-point songs boasting charmingly amateurish production, a rhyme flow like no-one else (except maybe The Shagg's drummer), and hysterical lyrics often detailing pimp life as he imagines it. Sometimes his lyrical concerns move beyond typical hip-hop subject matter and into metaphysical realms I don't quite grasp (genetic afterlife?)"
I described "Sisters," the sample song I posted, as: "...another of his pimpin' fantasies, so far beyond outrageous it's practically surreal."
1. Horizontal 2. Schoolboy 3. Want ad 4. Begging 5. Hijacked Ho 6. Sisters 7. Satellite 8. Hoin' 9. Potbelly Rap 10. Station of the Mind 11. Slave 12. Juice 13. Prisoner of a Drug War 14. Suburb 15. Player's Poem 16. Genetic Afterlife 17. Santa is Dead 18. Beatdown 19. Future 20. Oedipussy 21. Lando
The xylophone is yet another ancient instrument that has sadly fallen into obscurity. Because, y'know, you're only "cool" if you play the electric guitar. Which is a great instrument! But, as I've written before, our musical vocabulary - and, hence, a variety of moods and styles - is stunted if only a few sounds are permitted. So let's get uncool:
