New to Zoogz? start HERE.We're in the home stretch - I only have one more album of his after this.
Torment is right. This 1989 release kicks off with a track by a clearly frustrated Rift bemoaning his increasingly diminished place in the music industry, and other songs boast primo pissed-off rants. "Dead Planet Earth" features a plethora of ethnic percussion and even a rain stick - Zoogz goes "world-beat"! "The Secret Marines Sex Kitten Beach Party," one of the most uproariously surreal spoken-word + music tracks Rift has ever done, recounts a boy's hilariously gruesome trip to the doctor.
The Tom Waits-ish "Meet Me at Stinky's" is a new direction for Rift, as is "Low Life," for overdubbed pianos (and no other instruments)."Let A Man Come In And Eat The Popcorn, Pt. 47 & 93" is a James Brown parody/tribute. And "Defecation Rainbow" is a helluva title, isn't it?
Apart from the usual furious punk/jazz instros with their blistering guitar work and Jonathan "Mako" Sharkey's synth mayhem, there are some songs that could almost be normal rock ballads. The instro "Candy Girl" is as happy and catchy as it's title would suggest - bubblegum fusion?
Jimmy McMillan, representative (and possibly only member) of The Rent Is Too Damn High Party, is running for governor of New York. He'd get my vote. He's got a lot going for him:
- his super-fly facial hair. - the fact that he once walked all the way from Brooklyn to Buffalo. - his prodigious use of clip art. - his funky synth-and-drum-machine tunes. Every song is about how the rent is too damn high. ("You Never Cared" has a particularly illin' groove.)
Fortunately, this is a nice possessed piano: it's reading from the "Declaration of the International Environmental Criminal Court," not telling you to "Get out!"
Thanks to computer trickery by Berlin-based composer Peter Ablinger and technical assistance from Winfried Ritsch, the piano only appears to be talking. If you can't quite make out what it's saying, check this page with a video where you can read the text along with the music. Ablinger used to write original music for sampled recordings of speech (fascinating audio tracks on the bottom of this page) until he hit upon the idea of piano and speech intermingled. Just in time for Halloween.
(New to Zoogz? Start HERE) If you thought Zoogz was getting soft with last week's offering, this 1988 release should reassure you that Mr. Rift has not mellowed. The first half of this smokin' album is live in Europe, reprising favorites like "Heart Attack," "Mongoloid Middle America," and "When My Ship Rolls In."
Then the studio half: the lovely instro "Puke Island Paradise;" then the title track, one of Rift's trademark rants, this time directed at the likes of pretty-but-empty-headed bimbos; "Tender Romance Sequence," more of a skit than a song, is nutty x-rated surrealism; the film "Freaks" gets sampled; "A = a" is one of Rift's most furious rockers; trombones, vibes, and shrieking guitars prance merrily about and a good time is had by all. Zoogz himself has said that it's "containing some of my best studio work." It certainly makes this cretin happy. Zoogz Rift "Murdering Hell's Happy Cretins"
While it's still October (or, as I like to call it, 'ROCKtober'), here's a whole beer garden's worth of German "schlager" music for a maniac's Oktoberfest. Most of these songs are remakes of Anglo-America hits. They're sometimes sung in German (or inaccurate English), and performed in a gleefully tasteless, absurdly upbeat party-ready delirium. The closest analogy in American music would be Vegas-type lounge music, but even the cheesiest of those swingin' cats had a bit of jazz in them. This stuff is more like oom-pah tarted up for the '60s and '70s, trading in lederhosen for eye-poppingly colorful wide collar shirts and bell-bottom flared pants. It's quite ridiculously entertaining, and it all comes from my collection of used vinyl. Vee hef ways of making you LAFF! [original artist's name in brackets] OKTOBERFEST A-GO-GO
1. Bernd Spier (not to be confused with reggae band Burning Spear!) "Memphis" [Chuck Berry] 2. Chris Roberts "Rock and Roll Music" [Chuck Berry] 3. Rolf Kühn "Paranoid" [Black Sabbath] - clarinet instrumental! 4. Rex Gildo "Speedy Gonzales" [Pat Boone] 5. Chris Robert "La Bamba" [Richie Valens] - absolutely absurd English lyrics 6. Rolf Kühn "I Hear you Knockin" [Dave Edmunds] 7. Ruth Brandin "Warum (nennt man dich Sunnyboy)" 8. Rex Gildo "You Call Everybody Darling" 9. Bernd Spier "Danke Shoen" [Wayne Newton...or was this a German original?] 10. Tanzorchester Schwarz-Weib "Kleines Haus am Wald" 11. Jo Ment "Get It On-Sweet Hitchhiker" [T.Rex/Creedance Clearwater Revival] 12. Rolf Kühn "Apeman" [The Kinks] 13. Pumuckl's Kinder-Party "Pumuckl Rock n Roll" 14. Chris Roberts "Blowin In The Wind" [Bob Dylan] - play this for any Dylan fan, and watch smoke come out of their ears 15. Lolita "El Paso" [Marty Robbins] 16. James Last "HeyTonight-She's A Lady-What Is Life" - [Creedance Clearwater Revival/Tom Jones/George Harrison] 17. Gunter Hapke "Fur Gaby tu ich alles" - from 1963; early electronic keyboard? 18. Rolf Kühn "Black Magic Woman" [Santana] 19. Ruth Brandin "Papagei-Twist" 20. James Last "Be My Baby-Immigrant Song-Have You Seen The Rain-My Sweet Lord" [Ronnettes/Led Zeppelin/Creedance Clearwater Revival/George Harrison] 21. Lolita "Wenn der Sommer Kommt (Theme From A Summer Place)" [Percy Faith] 22. Rex Gildo "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" [Shirelles]
If 15 hours ofErgo Phizmiz's "Faust Cycle" still wasn't enough, and you've been seeking out even more eccentric British humor and surreal storytelling mixed with sample-based experimental music, look no further! Series One of
show is now up in it's 6-episode (roughly 2 hours) entirety. Members of long-time M4M faves Pilchard and The Who Boys are the humans behind these ongoing madcap misadventures of a robot-like couple. Episodes 3 & 4 are particularly hilarious. Musically, expect an entertaining mix of '60s e-z kitsch, modern beatz, and oddballs of the Zappa/Residents variety.
Brent Wilcox was an early radio hero of mine. His KCRW show "F.R.G.K." ("Funny Rock God Knows") was as fearlessly weird as any I've heard. And he's finally put his own music on-line. The standout stuff for me is the two-part (roughly 38 minutes) "Pops Science Story," which was originally released on cassette in 1987.
It tells a mind-meltingly strange and funny story that could make for an especially freaky episode of "Fringe." Wilcox's musical backing is a low-techno stew of tape-loops and Casios and drum machines pushed to their limits. Brian Eno, no less, praised it.
Don't know Zoogz? Start HERE! But even if you do think you know him, you'll be surprised by this 1988 album - there's no spoken word surrealism, no screaming fits, no rude language. There is alot of nice singing, some Tim Buckley covers (!?), and plenty of instrumental action that is no longer zigging and zagging at break-neck tempos. No, The Amazing Shitheads come off almost like a loose jam band here.
The eminently hummable "When My Ship Sails In," written by band member John Trubee, is as gorgeous a melody as Zoogz ever recorded. The closeset thing here to the old surrealism is the title of the 20+ minute jam "The Enigmatic Embrocation Of Mrs. Compost Heap," and the fact that accordionist Rocky Howard keeps derailing the proceedings to quote from songs like "The Godfather Theme" and "Beer Barrel Polka." Accordion polka on a Zoogz Rift album? That might be the most shocking thing he's ever done. But I guess even misanthropic paranoid cynics have their good days.
Don't know who this Radio Crack fella is, but he's got lots of media cut-ups/sound collages. And they don't get much funnier then this one, featuring the world's most powerful person. And Barack Obama.
The Everyday Film is the Jandek of electronica: secretive, musically unique and disturbing, and completely in his own universe. I don't even know where he (they?) are from anymore - every package I get from 'em seems to have a different return-address. And the most recent CD is 26 second long. Yep, he went to the bother of making a cd, packaging it, mailing it...all that work for 26 seconds. Top that, Jandek!
The track makes up for it's short length in sheer shock value. As usual, vocals are so distorted it's hard to tell what's happening, but apparently he's in surgery: "That's me on the table."
The Everyday Film: "Multiple Women" - It's a sneak-preview of a forthcoming album. .
Don't know Zoogz? Start HERE! Otherwise, let's dive into a 1987 release that, although it's pretty quirky by the usual standards, is as close to a straight-ahead punk/rock album as anything Zoogz & His Amazing Shitheads ever did.
A few songs are pretty out there, however. And the nearly-7 minute epic "Ah Peek In Duh Devil's Secret Hell Files" is waaaay out there, one of the nuttiest things I've ever heard from Zoogz. At one point, he even parodies Beefheart and Zappa's style to most amusing effect. And the impressive title song, for (at least) three electric guitars and no other instruments is some kind of demented string quartet/chamber music.
Zoogz Rift: Water II (At A Safe Distance) We're only skimming the surface with all these Zoogz posts - he released far more music then I have in my collection. Although this stuff is out of print, Rift himself, thru his son Aaron, is selling for ridiculously low pricesa data cd and dvds containing most everything he ever recorded. Faithful reader Steve took the plunge (all right, no more water puns) and sent away for them: "I've received everything from Aaron as advertised! ...I've found that the dynamic range is a bit better than the generally available album rips." He also reports that there are numerous bonus tracks for each album, although, strangely, one track that was originally on an album might be missing (or was it's title changed?). It's bare-bones (no art work), but considering how much you get for so little money, I'd still say it's a great deal. And since Zoogz has so many health issues, I'm sure he could use the money.
How do you follow a debut 4-disk (plus bonus disk) boxed-set album? By not even putting out an album, but an on-line musical game.
The Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra first graced our pages years ago when I wrote: "I don't detect anything particularly satanic about this good-natured band, nor are there any puppets in evidence. For that matter, it's not much of an orchestra - one man largely handles the music, a "mad scientist" whose robot creation sings lead. Therefore, it's the perfect name for this bizarre, funny bit of musical dada."
Their latest project is a multiple choice Name That Tune game, featuring hilariously devolved covers of pop hits, performed as only a mad scientist and his random-sense-of-pitch singing robot can perform them. Thanks to the SPO themselves, we offer here EXCLUSIVE!!! mp3s of some of the songs featured in the game. Otherwise, there are no downloads (yet).
Are there prizes if you guess correctly? Why, of course - you win the greatest gift of all. No, not love: free mp3s of weird music! What more could you want?!
There's plenty more good listening on the three (soon to be four games) that are up now. Thanx to Professor J. and SPO-20!
As Los Angeles has just experienced the hottest day in our recorded history, an album called "Water" sounds mighty soothing, doesn't it? Aaaaah, water... And this one kicks off with a song called "I'll Rip Your Brains Out." Hi, Zoogz!
The afore-mentioned song is another example of Rift's trademark outrageous surrealism, in this case sending the TV show "The Beverly Hillbillies" into a Caligula-like orgy. The music ends up as a kind of punk version of the old American folk song "Shortin' Bread."
Much of this swell, well-produced 1987 release is instrumental, which is great as it gives his prog/punk/jazz/weirdness musicians a chance to shine (Richie Haas' marimbas always make me happy), tho I would love to hear lyrics for songs with titles like "World of Depravity." One instro segment, based on the "Oh Pretty Woman" riff, is named "Roy Orbit's Son" (get it?). But the few songs with lyrics are good ones, e.g.: the vituperative "Burn in Hell," and "Mongoloid Middle America," which posits a theme park ride far more terrifying then the Haunted Mansion.
Two excellent instros are only a minute long: "Diver Dan vs. the Worm Gobblers" has a funky poppin' bass trying to keep up with a drum machine that keeps playing faster and faster, and the all-electronic title tune sounds like easy-listening music for robots. A spoken word track featuring a woman recounting a (hopefully fictitious) encounter with a pedophile isn't anything you'll want to hear much, but it does break up the instrumentals.
'Twas exactly 50 years ago that Richard Nixon debated John F. Kennedy. He lost the debate and the election, but an unknown citizen who sent his home-scribbled lyrics and a check to a song-poem company was not discouraged:
This fascinating article describes how Nixon recovered from his loss by recruiting help from the TV comedy show "Laugh-In," thus ushering in the era of image over substance. Would Nixon have been a fan of this blog? After all, he hated all that "decadent" modern art (as did so many others before him.) But we've posted so many songs about him! And they're usually sung by this groovy cat, Gene Marshall:
Hoo boy, we've got a live one here - this 1986 release is one of Zoogz Rift's most confrontational releases, and not necessarily one I'd recommend to those of you new to Rift's weird world. It features more non-musical tracks (almost like skits) then usual, and some of Rift's most pained, ranting vocals.
The opening track sports The Amazing Shithead's new toy - a sampler. But rather then looping James Brown break-beats, we've got various voices screaming obscenities, in particular, a woman shouting out: "It's the island of living puke, you ASSHOLE!," over noise/ free music. It's almost as if Rift is daring the audience to continue listening. But don't wuss out!
The title track follows, and it's a swell bit of haunted-house keyboard-driven punkishness. "A Very Pretty Song For A Very Special Young Lady" almost lives up to it's title until the douche-bag from the "Ipecac" song "Sit Down and Shut Up" returns...and returns again on "Nightclub Sequence," where this time band member John Trubee gets a rare vocal - not singing, but acting in a skit (and, yes, he did include prank phone calls on his solo releases). "The Mo-Fo's Are After Me" would almost be laid-back jazz-rock were it not for the anguished paranoidvocals.
"Torture Sequence" is simply a litany of voices complaining about Rift, and it's followed by "You're Killing Me," a great bit of New Wave From Hell, featuring some zany synths and drums machines (another new toy). "The Secret Marines" is dada spoken word + Zappa-esque horn rock.
In "Shiver Me Timbers," an album highlight, and "Escape From The Island Of Living Puke," the band gets down to utterly wacked-out (mostly) instrumental business - spazz-rock at it's finest.
"The Breather" is - hey, whatdoyaknow! - a downright catchy hummable melody, with philosophical lyrics, and a synth solo that sounds like doorbells ringing. And who's "I'm Happy" came first, Zoogz' or Ivor Cutler's?
It can all be a bit startling at first, but repeat listens reveal the humor and musical brilliance.
Originalljudet are indeed original. From Sweden, the land that gave us Tor Johnson, comes this five-piece who make dreamy/nightmarish modern antiquities out of sad accordians, spooky musical saws, acoustic bass, and horns that whisper rather then honk. Tispy violins and pianos occasionally show up to crash on the couch. One song starts off just like Screaming Jay Hawkin's "I Put A Spell On You" before it goes off and joins a broken-down traveling carnival.
A reader named Antov (thanks, dude!) who tipped me to their new debut album described it as "weird but beautiful." Yup. My favorite new late night/early morning cool-out record.
Start HERE! (If you haven't already) This is the 1984 album (named after a medicine used to induce vomiting) that got me into Zoogz, so it's a sentimental favorite. And I owe it all to the track "Sit Down And Shut Up," which was a bit of a hit on L.A. radio at the time, and a good place for neophytes to start.
We begin with the title track instrumental: a synth & vibes duet followed by some free-jazz guitar skronk that, amazingly, was sampled by rapper The Game. The synth & vibes dueting continues on "Sunday Brunch With Fuad Ramses," a song named for a character in the exploitation film classic "Blood Feast.""Sit Down And Shut Up" is 8 minutes of syn-drums, catchy tunes, some of Zoogz' finest singing, and a devastating parody of a frat-boy knucklehead encountering Zoogz & co. It's also a bit of an '80s time-capsule, with references to KROQ, the Club Lingerie, Pac-Man and numerous trendy bands of the time.
Followed by: dada spoken-word; a relaxing instro that becomes increasingly psychedelic; and then another fave, the 11-minute "I Was The Only Boy At The Teen Girls' Slumber Party." It's as juvenile as it's title, but the music, based on Eric Burdon & War's "Spill The Wine," is a stone-cold groove. Slide guitarist Scott Colby's dobro, and Indian tabla percussion add some unexpected colors to the mix. Then: "No Use," an almost straight-ahead rocker, with typically pained whining vox; a Christmas carol that Johnny Mathis will not be recording; and finally a vein-popping Rift screaming "you fucked up!" over furious punk-jazz. Phew!
There are LOTS and LOTS of sincere, well-meaning, awful songs by amateur tunesmiths commemorating the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. They're usually sappy, melodramatic ballads. Sometimes, as in songs that feature child narrators pining for their dead parents, they're almost downright tasteless, reducing an epic disaster to the level of a tv movie tearjerker. These kinds of songs often invoke patriotic or religious themes. Hey Christians! Did you know that Islam is based on the Judeo/Christian tradition? Yep, they believe (and the Koran reiterates) Bible stories. Therefore, Christianity is not the opposite of Islam, atheism is. No-one sings about that, tho. Anyway. Some of these songs are so inept that they're quite entertaining:
Jay2d "Freedom Fell" - Just when you think it can't get any worse, a guitar solo wanders in, seemingly from another song.
Kevin Fortin "I Still See" [UPDATE 9/11/10 9:00am-dude asked me to remove his song; damn, how'd he find out about it so fast? But it's available elsewhere on the web] - Unintentionally funny song-poem-esque lyrics on this one.
At perhaps the other end of the political spectrum, there's the more recent phenomenon of songs by 9/11 conspiracy kooks claiming...oh, who the hell knows? Their grasp of engineering is about as flabby as Creationists' understanding of biology and they're just as illogical. Actually, I would think that only a Republican would buy these ideas - who else would think that the thoroughly inept Bush administration could pull off such a massive conspiracy? They could barely tie their own shoes. At least this guy's funny:
The Free Bees "9/11's A Lie" - To the tune of "Stayin' Alive." He's the Weird Al of kooks!
Zan Overall "I Want To Believe You Mr President" - This guys was 83 years old when he recorded this Sinatra-ish finger-snapper. And he doesn't believe Jews died in the Holocaust either. I admit, I'd love it if he did a whole album.
Proceeding chronologically, here's a collection from 1982 that kicks off with Zoogz screaming "I'm having a heart attack!" over a '60s Vox organ rocker that sounds like a psychotic version of ? & The Mysterions' "96 Tears." Then: an atonal dismantling of Iron Butterfly's "Inna Gadda Davida;" a sax-led instro in 5/4 time featuring some truly warped guitar mayhem; "Evil Eye" is reggae (!) w/frightened lyrics; "Buffy & Jody" obscenely defiles sitcom characters; "My Daddy Works For The Secret Marines" is one of my faves, due to it's distorted funk groove. "Searchin' For Clams Under The Glass Bottom Boat" is an instro duet for vibes and sax. He loses me with some free-improv/noise messes towards the end, but brings it all back home with an attack on an "Art Band"...but isn't Zoogz an art-rocker? If not, then what is an 'art band?' Another of the more accessible (tho still with grotesque moments), and successful, outings from Mr Rift And His Amazing Shitheads.
Yep, metal classics (Ozzy, Iron Maiden, etc) played in a Mexican folk style, from this L.A. combo who not only came up with this ridiculous concept, but followed thru with songs, costumes, websites, videos, live gigs around town. Got to give 'em credit, especially since Judas Priest actually sounds pretty damn good like this:
New to Zoogz? start HERE. We're in the home stretch - I only have one more album of his after this.
