PEOPLE LIKE US: "Welcome Abroad"

We've been singing the praises of UK's master sound collagist People Like Us for ages, but she just might have released her best work yet. Well, actually the album "Welcome Abroad" won't be released for a month (thru illegal-art), but you can listen to it streaming

HERE

The 17-song collection sustains a marvelously trippy feel throughout, with hallucinogenic fragments of old easy-listening records melting and morphing into each other, even as kitsch-fests like "Happy Lost Songs" had me laffin'. At the other end of the emotional spectrum, songs like "Lost In The Dark" are genuinely moving. And "The Sound Of The End Of Music" proves just what I've always suspected: that The Doors weren't doing much more than playing corny showtunes.

The following artists are listed, but there's plenty more: The Beatles, Ennio Morricone, Danny Kaye, Bob Dylan, Rod McKuen, Elton John, Gene Pitney, Elvis Presley, Dionne Warwick, John Denver, Julie London, and Queen. And the use of hissy old '78s is duly noted and appreciated.

Dr. Sarcofiguy

Dr. Sarcofiguy says he is "...part of a group of wonderfully bizarre people who perform as horror hosts. I have a show in Northern Virginia called Spooky Movie Television. I’ve been performing as the character Dr. Sarcofiguy (The first and only African-American Horror Host!) since 1995."

It's good to know that the regional tv horror host is one American institution that has not died out. Make that the singing regional tv horror host: like his predecessors John Zacherly, Tarantula Girl (aka Tarantula Ghoul) and Elvira, Dr. Sarcofiguy has a musical side. Check his debut album Demo(ns) The Many Moods of Dr. Sarcofiguy. It's pretty groovy r'n'b, recalling the likes of Stevie Wonder or Barry White. If Barry White sang about vampires, that is. Sarcofiguy isn't the unhinged singer that Screamin' Jay Hawkins was (he croons in a smooth baritone) but he's the closest thing to it today. The absolutely brilliant song "My Girlfriend is On Fire" is even in that lurching waltz tempo Hawkins favored for such songs as "I Put A Spell On You."

I'm in the process of switching over to a new computer, so I don't have a way to host mp3s right now (tho I should be able to resume putting albums up on Mediafire shortly). I wanted to post the song "My Girlfriend is On Fire," but since that ain't happenin', Dr. Sarcofiguy has personally posted - just for us! - a streaming version of it

HERE

along with another bizarre beauty, "Nosferatu." Oh, and Elvira's back! After 19 years. Don't know if "Movie Macabre" is available anywhere outside of Los Angeles right now, but it's worth a trip here to check it out - it's been spook-tacular so far.

R.I.P. ZOOGZ RIFT

Planet Earth just got a little more boring. Zoogz is dead at age 57 after a long illness. We posted 10 big albums by the man last year.

R.I.P. ZOOGZ RIFT

UPDATE 4/4/11: Ah, poop, the excellent performance from the 'Uncle Floyd' show was taken down. So here's another Zoogz vid, a great devolved cover of Olivia Newton-John's 'Physical':

MUSICAL FULFILLMENT FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

My home computer has died, hence, I'm writing this from work (looks nervously around). So, for the time being, I can't post any mp3s you nice folks have been sending me, or record any vinyl. That ever-growing pile of thrift-store records will have to wait. That's okay, there's plenty of stuff a-happenin' in the vast inter-webular 'net-lands out there that I can finally get around to reviewing, e.g.:


Full-Life is a Portland, OR-based center that provides "fulfillment for people with disabilities," and one of their activities is music. Thanks to the good folks at CLLCT, they have two internet releases, the electric guitars/drums raucous rave-up "Tennessee Madonna & the Full Life All Stars," and a kind of solo album by female singer Polka Dotty, accompanied by acoustic guitar. What Dot's singing lacks in pitch is more than made up for in heartfelt lyrics and emotional performances. And I think the "oh yeah" guy's best song is the third one, with it's cool tribal drumming and powerful chord changes. Sonic Youth, step off.

After listening to stuff this pure and beautiful, I don't want to listen to "normal" music (it seems so artificial) or angry music - these are the kind of people we look upon with discomfort and pity, but the sunny outlook here makes the rest of us all seem like a buncha goddamn whiners.

The Full Life All-Stars

01 Portland is the Sweetest Things
02 I wish I was in Tennessee
03 California Girls
04 Mexico Radio
05 Grunge Rock Out
06 Start Singin'
07 Just Singing a Song
08 Workin Blues
09 Oh Yeah
10 Oh Yeah O Yeah
11 Oh Yeah Oh Yeah Oh Yeah
12 Oh Yeah Oh Yeah Oh Yeah Oh Yeah
13 Holiday Song

DUDE, YOU'RE GETTING, LIKE, TOTALLY HYPER

Hyperpiano vs HyperBass Flute: It's a steel-cage death-match between two traditional instruments that have been modified to create very strange new sounds, recorded in improvised duets. Not for the faint of heart! In this corner,

Denman Maroney and his Hyperpiano; taking Cage's prepared piano to undreamed-of extremes, Maroney assaults his instrument "...by stopping, sliding, bowing, plucking, strumming and striking the strings directly with a variety of tools including bars, bowls, knives, bells and mashers of metal, boxes and bottles of plastic, mallets of various kinds, and blocks of rubber." Needless to say, the resulting buzzing and clanging sounds almost nothing like any piano music you've heard before.

The prolific Maroney is part of the New York oddball experimental scene that includes cats like the Gamelan Son of Lion big band, but his Duologues album with bassist Mark Dresser really gives his Hyperpiano a chance to grab the spotlight.

Maroney & Dresser: Bali Nigh
Maroney & Dresser: Bendango

And in the other corner...

Roberto Fabbriciani on his gigantic HyperBass Flute, an instrument you don't hear so much as feel - it's burbles and rumbles beneath Esther Lamneck's flights of fancy on her clarinet-like Hungarian tarogato. The title of their Innova Records release "Winds of The Heart" may sound like the name of a soap opera, but there's nothing corny about these untitled improvised duets. Lamneck's Eastern European influences give the music a bit of an exotic feel.

Fabbriciani& Lamneck: track 9
Fabbriciani& Lamneck: track 12

PHILIP'S STRANGER THAN FICTION

I can find no info on Philip Stranger, but I can tell you that he is a veritable one-man weird-music cottage industry, if so much music in so many styles can be made by just one man. He covers all the bases: Residents-like quirky pop, Phillip Glass-y piano minimalism, found objects percussion, sampling/concrete musics, exotica, noise, electronics ranging from Space Age to punk intensity, and unclassifiable oddities.

He has a tremendous amount of free music up, but here's some highlights I've discovered (recommended tracks in parentheses):

Lettuce: the psych side of 60s/70s Moog intros ("A Meal To Induce Sleep")

Trilogies of the Toilet: "...recorded in a movie theater restroom (great acoustics), utilizing the musicians bodies and voices as well as things found only within the building (bottles of water, film reels, Co2 canisters, toilets, etc.) . No "traditional" instruments were used." ("Africans Can Bang A Can Or Two")

Music 4 Sleeping Babies: aggressive electronics (the Suicide-al techno punk of "Brain March")

Mount Analogue: Electronic instros with Minimalism influences (a nutty cover of Mungo Jerry's "in The Summertime")

proj. #1, 1999: I have no idea what to make of this assortment of cartoonish sounds and vocals ("Pan Toodie Hed Thrice," "Simbionic")

Plays Piano: does what it says on the tin ("Ode To Satie")

Abstract Habitat: Quirky semi-noisy electro-pop; almost danceable ("Anything You Want to I'll Let Ya", "Himane Waltz" - not a waltz, but rather Afro/exotic)

Eyeball Music: A tribute to the Residents ("Tribal Teddy," an original, and a cover of "Constantinople")

Hypnagogia: ("Frenzied Joy Erupted & Ruptured From Within" - tinkly xylophone melodies + flatulent synths)

Zanhour: (the self-explanatory "Midimalism," the twisted robot voices of "Pepe Pull-o" sounds like HAL-9000 after someone dumped a bucket of water over him)

UPDATE 3/30/11: Got a note from the man hisself, who tells us that he's from California, hasn't played live much; is planning new projects thanks to the attention this post has given his music (yay for me!), and sent along a suitably strange list of Fun-to-Know Facts:

> I have a set of Egyptian mummy teeth in a jar.
> Elton John, Paul McCartney and I have all played music on the same Harpsichord.
> I cry every time I listen to Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
> My fingers are all slightly crooked.
> I love The Three Stooges as well as the Fleischer's Popeye cartoons.
> Tribal Teddy is not an original composition, but a cover of The Residents Teddy from Prelude to the Teds.
> I have an accidental collection of clown paintings.
> Harlan Ellison once accused me of stealing books from a library (a false accusation I might add).
> I have performed exactly one stage-magic show in my life.
> I was asked to and did briefly perform on the legendary upright piano on Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland.

So there ya go.  (I also had an interesting run-in with Harlan Ellison, by the way; but that's another story.)

RADIO MUSIC

You've heard music on the radio? How 'bout music from radio? Cage did it back in the '50s, and more recently, Chicago's Jeff Kolar has released a free on-line EP of music made from radio broadcasts. Kolar is an accomplished artist and conceptualist - I especially like the music for his Mahomet Aquifer Project - but for this project, he tells me: "...all material was generated and composed by/through the use of homemade radio receivers and transmitters. Within the pdf booklet there is a circuit diagram of the low-powered transmitter I designed. All analog material - no digital."

The first track is ambient static, eventually developing into more 'musical' tracks, including some amusingly kitschy old ads.

Other Voices

Coincidentally, I've been diggin' an album called "Radio" by Exile (no, not the guys who did that horrible '70s "Kiss You All Over" song) that is made entirely from Los Angeles radio. Excellent head-nodding avant-hip-hop that DJ Shadow wishes he made.

Exile "Frequency Modulation"

Exile "Love Line"

MARCH FORTH!

I propose that we officially make March 4th 'Alternative Marching Band Day.' March 4th = March Forth. Geddit? And if any traditional American musical style needed alternative-ising, it's the marching band. Long relegated to playing century-old standards at political events and school football games, the genre started to loosen up a bit in the '70s when university bands played the occasional irreverent pop/rock covers amidst the usual Sousa stuff.
In the '80's, a bunch of downtown New York arty-smarties called the Les Miserable Brass Band made a definitive break from both the mainstream and the far more fun (but still traditional) New Orleans styles, interjecting international, modern jazz and experimental influences, and songs like Jimi Hendrix' "Manic Depression." Meanwhile, on the opposite coast, and with the opposite intentions, a gang of drunken Northern Californians called the Ophir Prison Marching Kazoo Band and Temperance Society, LMTD came on like Spike Jones saying "fuck art, let's (polka) dance" with their colorful costumes, stage names, and between-song comedy routines.

In recent years a veritable alt-march explosion has taken place, with numerous bands popping up across the country comprised of former school "band geeks" who still wish to perform, rock and rollers, jazz musicians, non-musicians, and sometimes street performers dancing, walking on stilts, breathing fire, etc, accompanying the blaring brass and thundering drums. No longer relegated to marching across a field at sporting events half-time, they roam city streets, making unscheduled guerilla performances in parks or on subways. They play rock clubs, and show up at political rallies. Some wear a kind of uniform, e.g. red pants & white shirts of any style, and some wear traditional band uniforms, but mis-matched, of any color. Non-traditional instruments (accordions, anyone?) are sometimes thrown into the mix.

I first wrote about this phenomenon after encountering L.A.'s awsome Killsonic crew, and got a number of comments from you fine folks heppin' me to other amazingly talented bands out there (thanks, gang!). Here's a sampling of recent albums now for sale (so go buy 'em) by the new march underground displaying a wide range of styles and sounds.
Avant-March - A Music For Maniacs Compilation

01 Ophir Prison Marching Kazoo Band and Temperance Society, LMTD (Folsom, CA) - Neutron Dance [great cover of a Pointer Sisters song that I'd never really given much thought to before]
02 What Cheer? Brigade (Providence, RI) - Malaguena [Cuban song, with a surf beat - GNARLY]
03 Revolutionary Snake Ensemble (Boston) - Soul Power [hmm, how do they march with that funky poppin' electric bass? Led by a member of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic]
04 Rude Mechanical Orchestra (New York City) - Push It [Salt 'n Peppa never sounded betta]
05 MarchFourth Marching Band (Portland, OR) - Ah Ya Bibit [incredibly powerful ethnic-influenced track - but which country? - from the band that gave this post it's name/concept]
06 Killsonic (Los Angeles) - El Cu Cui [female vox en espanol]
07 Extra Action Marching Band (San Francisco) - Back That Ass Up
08 Infernal Noise Brigade (Seattle) - Gas-No Gas [we posted an entire album by this now defunct but influential outfit HERE]
09 Mucca Pazza (Chicago) - Romanian Dance No1 [Balkan influences are not uncommon with many of these bands]
10 David Byrne - In The Future [the former Talking Head made his 1985 album "The Knee Plays" with the Les Miserable Brass Band]
11 Asphalt Orchestra (New York City) - Zomby Woof [a Zappa cover, courtesy of a Bang On A Can spinoff group]

THE WEIRD WEIRD MUSIC OF MARLIN WALLACE

The vast output of Marlin Wallace and his Corillions projects is one of the great unexplored treasure troves of outsider music. According to this article Don Bolles wrote for WFMU, Marlin has had some serious problems in his life with harassment from communist space aliens, but seems to have put all that past him, judging by his prodigious output - I counted at least 22 albums for sale on his website, along with various singles.
His albums are usually themed. Wanna hear a whole collection of songs about bugs and insects? Interested in rivers? Outer space? Jungles? Well, Wallace has written entire albums dedicated to these concepts. Give that boxing fan in your life a copy of "Songs of Pugilism." They're all sung in his endearingly folksy voice (he sings about "skeeters," not "mosquitoes"), accompanied by unexpectedly well-recorded professional sounding music.

The 70-something Wallace was a hobo for many years, a homeless wanderer riding freight trains. This fascinating background informs his music, and gives it depth beyond the strange/novelty aspect. Sure, a lot of his stuff is funny (he has two volumes entitled "Delightful Novelty Songs") but the crusty Springfield, MO native is also one of the last of a dying breed - the bad-ass American who rode the rails, spent time in jail, and drank. Boxers, cowboys, soldiers. He sings of these characters in a matter-of-fact conversational tone, without any romanticizing, which makes them seem all the more real.

Music For Maniacs is proud to present along with The Corillions this

Marlin Wallace Anthology Page

a collection of selected mp3s (some of which are samples, not entire songs) for your downloading pleasure. The Corillions site has never hosted mp3s before - it's a special arrangement they did just for us. If you like what you hear, buy the albums, cuz there's plenty more where they came from. (Album titles in parentheses)

1. Whole Lot of Woman ("Delightful Novelty Songs vol2")
2. Crazy Eddy ("Songs Of Pugilism")
3. I'm A Survivor ("Jungle Songs")
4. Millipede ("Buggy Songs") - "always get you mixed up with the centipede..."
5. Weird, Weird Music ("Halloween Songs") - Complete track; this could be our theme song!
6. Captain Kid ("Historical Songs")
7. The Ghost of Old Railroad Bill ("Train Songs" - tales of hobo life)
8. Empire of the Vampires ("Halloween Songs")
9. Old Cockaroach ("Buggy Songs" - oh, how I love this album.)
10. Sing Sing ("Prison Songs")
11. Thing From Another World ("Outer Space Songs")
12. The Laughin' Ghost ("Halloween Songs") - maniacal laughing makes up much of Marlin's vocals here
13. 99 Years and Life ("Prison Songs")
14. I Got 700 Wives ("Delightful Novelty Songs vol 1")
15. There's A Weasel ("Animal Songs")
16. Polynesian Baby ("Tropical Paradises")
17. That Flying Saucer ("Outer Space Songs")
18. My Sweet Little Baby ("Delightful Novelty Songs vol 1")
19. Alexander The Great ("Historical Songs")

UPDATE 6/2014 - as the above page appears to now be gone, I've put up a few mp3s:
"Thing From Another World."
"Weird Weird Music"
"A Livin' Dead Man"












Thanks to Spacebrother Greg for playing me Marlin's "Abominable Snowcreature" when I was guest dj-ing on his Radio Misterioso show, thus sucking me into the world of Marlin Wallace.

FORBIDDEN 45s!! (windbag edition)

Last year, Otis Fodder asked me to put together a guest-dj mix for his late, lamented radio show Friendly Persuasion. I decided to go thru my boxes of (mostly) old 7 inch records and put together a thing called FORBIDDEN 45s!! And since Our Man in Salt Lake City, windbag (who has shared so much awesomeness with us before) sent us a mind-boggling assortment of 7" platters, I'm calling this:

FORBIDDEN 45s!! (windbag edition)

So much here to warm the heart of any Maniac: song-poems, disco atrocities, singing children, singing animals, exercise records, rap novelties, hillbillies, more song poems, angry Chipmunks, Jane Fonda talking dirty, and an enchanted one-man polka puppet-show orchestra.
1. Bobbi Blake - Rock Rock Beat (Ms. Blake was one of the most-recorded singers of the MSR song-poem factory; this "rocker" boasts such money-well-spent lines as "you're nobody's patsy/so hop in a taxi")
2. Luigi's World's Largest One Man Band - Anaconda Polka (major, major discovery here, folks - the only thing I can find about this guy is from this book about the bars of Montana; read that link and be amazed; anyone else got anything on this guy?)
3. Susan Carroll Presents - Waistline and Tummy Exercises (from an ep called "Milady, Your Figure!")
4. Dick Kent - Smiling Farmer-The President (this bewildering ode to Jimmy Carter is one of the best song-poems EVER; to quote Rudy Ray Moore, "I ain't lyin'!")
5. The Hartz Mountain Master Radio Canaries - Pizzicato Polka (real live birdies tweating along with peppy organ and xylophone)
6. Major Bill Smith with Zane and Hogan - Freddy The Disco Frog (minimal-synth disco novelty: Suicide meets Rick Dees?! Oh, and Major Bill Smith was a successful record producer in the early '60s who later claimed that Elvis was alive and he had a recent taped conversation to prove it)
7. Ira Cook - What Is A Girl? (this 1958 side spends more time complaining about little girls than speaking their praises)
8. Klute - Special Exploitation Lobby Record featuring Jane Fonda Dialogue
9. The Hartz Mountain Master Radio Canaries - Humoresque
10. Bill Nettles and His Dixie Blue Boys - God Bless My Darling He's Somewhere (In Viet Nam) (I'm assuming that this craggy-voiced country singer is calling his SON "darling"...uh, right?)
11. Susan Carroll Presents - Thigh and Can-Can Exercise
12. Dick Kent - Cozy Doe (another most-unrockin' rock-n-roll song-poem: "Come on jive, get alive/'cause the clock is at five")
13. Luigi's World's Largest One Man Band - Billings Polka
14. Fred Carson - This Is Not The Time To Cry (This song-poem's author worries about crime, and wants guys to act like real men. Or something like that.)
15. The Hartz Mountain Master Radio Canaries - Mexican Dance
16. The Curbstones - Scrumpdillyishus Land
17. Dick Kent - She Thumbed A Ride
18. The Chipmunks - I Ain't No Dang Cartoon (the b-side to their version of "Achy-Breaky Heart" that was the hidden "bonus" track on a previous windbag comp "Songs of the Sewer;" Alvin sounds rather cranky and defensive here)
19. Ira Cook - What Is A Boy
20. The Hartz Mountain Master Radio Canaries - Beautiful Blue Danube
21. Gene Marshall - Not Owned (Hey, it's Gene Marshall! The guys who sang all those Richard Nixon song-poems! This isn't one of 'em.)
22. Susan Carroll Presents - Duck Walk and Leg Exercise
23. Fat Boys w/Chubby Checker - The Twist (Yo Twist) (This hip-hop novelty actually made it to #16 on the US charts)
24. Zane and Hogan - Studio 54 (This disco instrumental, the b-side to "Freddy The Disco Frog," is a complete spazz-attack.)
25. Bobbi Blake - Who Played House With You? (weird sci-fi keyboard sounds on this song-poem)
26. Bill Nettles and His Dixie Blue Boys - Got A Lot Of Lovin' To Do (this almost-rockbilly toe-tappin' flip of "God Bless My Darling" is impressively energetic considering that he died shortly after recording it.)
27. The Hartz Mountain Master Radio Canaries - An Artists Life
28. Harry Brooks - False Words and False Kisses (another song-poem)

Needless to say, another great big thankyoooo to windy.

MUSIC FROM AN IMAGINARY ISLAND pt. 2: "The Stolen Stars"

Music For Maniacs proudly co-present with the North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island a second spellbinding, uniquely exotic album from microtonal composer Kraig Grady.

"The Stolen Stars: An Anaphorian Dance Drama" is an altogether different beast from the "Music From The Island of Anaphoria" album we presented here a couple of weeks back. "Music From The Island" was a variety show, every track a new direction. But "The Stolen Stars," tho it's divided into different tracks, is all of a piece. The music, designed to accompany a puppet shadow play dramatizing ancient Anaphorian myths, begins with "The Bees Awaken" - the thick string drones do indeed resemble buzzing insects. Gradually these give way to vibraphone-like metallophones until finally the strings fades out and gently chiming gamelan-like percussion melodies take over. The microtonal scales (no 'do-re-mi' here, folks) performed by a crew ten people strong create shimmering resonances that trick the ear into hearing notes not played. I took pics of the liner notes (included in the zip file) that describe the myth.

Kraig Grady "The Stolen Stars: An Anaphorian Dance Drama"

Grady's latest album "Beyond The Windows Perhaps Among The Podcorn" is an original piece not utilizing any of the musics of the mysterious island of Anaphoria, but it certainly is inspired by them. The 6-person group, now including sax, cello, trumpet, bassoon, and the wordless vocals of popular L.A. singer Mia Doi Todd is even more drone-laden, like Eno's "Music For Airports" minus any interruptions, stretched out to induce a remarkably hypnotic state - a veritable audio yoga class. I'm not posting it, tho - it's one of the few Grady releases still in print, so buy it HERE.

But - hey, cheapskates! - some new free Grady action is now available. Whirlpool, the duo of Grady and Chris Abrahams (of The Necks), recently performed an outstanding radio concert for micro-tuned harmonium and vibes that you can listen to if you scroll down HERE to Feb. 12, 2011. It's another lengthy piece, but I was never less than completely captivated by it.

GOINGS ON ABOUT THE WEB

Been a while since I've done one of these miscellaneous/random internet-stuff posts, but mucho cool stuff has hit my eyedrums and earballs lately, viz:

La Rainbow Toy Orchestra "Family Album" - this all-too-brief (12 minute) collection from Spain is performed entirely on toy instruments; unlike the pop/rock sounds of Pianosaurus (hey, anyone remember them?), these instros suggest a melancholy carnival - Nino Rota for the pre-school set. Utterly wonderful. Thanks to Katya Oddio for this, and if you're hankering for more (like I was), she also put together a free downloadable playlist of assorted toy piano goodness called "The Underappreciated Kinderklavier."

Frunt Room Series 2 - As I wrote last October, "...eccentric British humor and surreal storytelling mixed with sample-based experimental music...Members of long-time M4M faves Pilchard and The Who Boys are the humans behind these ongoing madcap misadventures of a robot-like couple...Musically, expect an entertaining mix of '60s e-z kitsch, modern beatz..." The second series has started, and this time they get into James Bond-like spy shenanigans, with appropriately John Barry(RIP)-like music. I really did LOL listening to these.

Captain Beefheart video jukebox - Well, isn't this handy: every Beefheart video available on the web playing one after the other; some great live stuff I hadn't seen before, e.g. killer versions of "Safe As Milk" stuff like "Electricity" (minus the theremin, but still rocks) recorded on Santa Monica Beach (what the hell were they doing there?); "I'm Gonna Booglarize You Baby" is hilarious - Beefheart looks like Meat Loaf (hmmm...Beef...Meat...wonder if anyone ever mixed those two up?); thanks to Sean T.

Sarah Palin Battle Hymn - This video ode to the conservative politician is, at first, hilarious - the emotionless performances, the nonsensical lyrics - but an incredibly strange, sad feeling slowly sinks in, and you might find yourself thinking "My god, this is pathetic." Buy the album! Or download the song from this rad blogger.

Crazy Christian Music - The always-lovely Radio Clash blog has posted a jaw-dropping assortment of Xian music videos - howzabout some kids trying to be cool rock 'n rollers while singing without irony a song called "Respect and Obey Authority"? '80s New Wave Xian ska? And oh so much more. In all senses of the word, unbelievable.

Science Songs - The polar opposite of all the above conservative Christian-ness is the science education songs of University of Washington research scientist Greg Crowther - it's edu-tainment! How can you not love songs with titles like "Hooray For NMR Spectroscopy!"? Answer: you can't. (And this will be on the test.)

Church of Scientology "The Road To Freedom" - From real science to Scientology: an entire 1986 album featuring the song stylings of, among others, John Travolta and Frank Stallone. Eleven tracks of slick, over-produced music backing bad celebrity vocals and Diaretic lyrics. Check out the song "The Worried Being," a gospel shouter with a kids chorus. Oh, won't someone think of the children?!? It's in streaming audio, so sorry, no download. But you don't really want to listen to this over and over...

SHAKE DAT GLASS

Here's a lovely album by two Russians performing on the glass harp and the verrophone. The glass harp, like Gloria Parker's wine glasses, are glasses filled with various amounts of water and played by running one's fingers along the rim. The verrophone uses the same principle but with vertically stacked tubes. No other instruments! 100% glass-kickin' goodness played with virtuosic skill. Will it drive you mad like the glass harmonica is said to do?! I don't know, but it sure is squeaky. Fascinating, but squeaky.

Apart from the familiar (perhaps too familiar) classical classics, I particularly like the dreamy, almost abstract "Fleetness," and the appropriately named "Cuckoo." Nice to hear another version of "Anitra's Dance" - I posted a spooky pipe-organ version on my "Strange Interludes" collection.

Timofey Vinkovsky & Igor Sklyarov "Crystal Harmony"

1. L.Boccherini - Menueto
2. J.S.Bach - Ave Maria
3. F. Schubert - Musical Moment in f-moll op.94
4. W.A.Mozart - Rondo alla Turca, Sonate A-dur KV331
5. W.A.Mozart - Adagio C-dur for Glass Armonika
6. Dvorak - Humoreske
7. Vivaldi - Konzert Nr4 f-moll Allegro non molto
8. Vivaldi - Konzert Nr4 f-moll Largo
9. Vivaldi - Konzert Nr4 f-moll Allegro
10. L.C.Daquin - Cuckoo
11. F.Chopin - Prelude e-moll op.28
12. F.Chopin - Walzer 2 op.69
13. S.Prokofjev - Fleetness
14. E.Grief - Anitras Dance
15. Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker, Herdsman Dance
16. Tchaikovsky - Nutcracker, Dance of the Sugar Plam Fairy
17. Skryabin - Prleude Fis-dur
18. L.v.Beethoven - Fuer Elise
19. W.A.Mozart - Theme from Sonata A-dur

ALL RIGHTS REVERSED

The new Evolution Control Committee album, "All Rights Reserved," is a masterwork of hilarious sound collage and mashups, utilizing strange thrift-store records, ranting preachers, outsider music recordings, pop hits and boomin' beatz. Buy it, if you can find it. But whatever you do, do NOT listen to it:

"The lawyers had concerns," ECC's TradeMark Gunderson explains. ..."We thought the best solution would be a legal agreement that forbids anyone -- everyone -- from listening. Period."

(Don't listen to it HERE.)

'What Would You Think If I Sang AutoTune' = hilarious misuse of technology. 'Don't Let The Devil Blow Your Mind' kicks butt like prime Fatboy Slim or Chemical Brothers. 'Stairway to Britney' reminds you that ECC practically invented the mashup. 'Listener License Agreement Reminder' = even more hilariouser. 'California Dreamings' stitches a new version of a certain Mamas and Papas hit out of what must be every version of that oldie ever recorded - a helluva lot of work. The sampled voice of Luie Luie pops up, as does J & H Productions (already sampled by RIAA a few years ago!) And so on. Fun, fun stuff.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

No pussycat was faster than Tura Satana, who just died at age 72.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence..."

If her biography is to be believed, the buxom bad-ass stripper/actress' life was at least as interesting as her films: "Walking home from school at the age of nine she was gang-raped by five men. According to Satana, her attackers were never prosecuted and it was rumored that the judge had been paid off. This prompted her to learn the martial arts of aikido and karate and, over the next 15 years, she claimed that she had tracked down each rapist and exacted revenge. "I made a vow to myself that I would someday, somehow get even with all of them," she said years later. "They never knew who I was until I told them."

"This rapacious new breed prowls both alone and in packs..."

She was sent to reform school as a teenager and, for self-protection, became the leader of a gang. In an interview she said, "We had leather motorcycle jackets, jeans and boots and we kicked butt."

Who are they? One might be your secretary, your doctor's receptionist, or the dancer at a go-go club..."

She eventually became a successful exotic dancer, traveling from city to city and working with the likes of Tempest Storm, The Skyscraper Girl (?!), Candy Barr, and (how's this for a Tom Waits character) Stunning Smith the Purple Lady.

"...the unmistakable smell of female..."

After her star-making turn in Russ Myers' 1965 classic, she went on to other cinematic gems like "Astro-Zombies" and "The Doll Squad."

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! soundtrack

Includes: music by Igo Kantor, Bert Shefter & Paul Sawtell (the Shefter/Sawtell team scored lotsa sci-fi, e.g.: "The Fly" and "Voyage to The Bottom Of The Sea"); the classic title song by the otherwise unknown "Bostweeds;" highly quotable dialogue from Satana and her co-stars; sound effects.

The music ranges from killer rock'n'roll (The Cramps memorably covered the theme), to lewd bumping and grinding, to your basic soundtrack orchestral stuff. Some theremin-ish sci-fi sounds pop up, as well.

MUSIC FROM AN IMAGINARY ISLAND pt. 1

Anaphoria is a mysterious, obscure island that Los Angeles microtonal composer Kraig Grady has been exploring for years. His addictive 1994 album "Music From The Island of Anaphoria" is richly exotic, but it's not exotica. No Martin Denny-type Polynesian pop here. Tho the music is sometimes reminiscent of Indonesian/gamelon music, the island's 73 different ethnic groups ensure that no one style predominates. It all sounds like nothing I've heard before. Why so much of this wonderful stuff is out-of-print and not as famous as Radiohead is something I'll never understand.
Pump organs, chants, hammered dulcimer, all manner of clanging, chiming, and thumping percussion are heard here, as well as the strange sounds of native Anaphorian instruments unknown to the uninitiated. Shadow plays are sometimes performed along with the music at Grady's concerts. Hypnotic drones and atmospheric sounds (acoustic? electronic? both?) suggest esoteric rituals and ancient ceremonies. If Harry Partch wrote the music for Disneyland's "Enchanted Tiki Room," it might sound like this.

Also on hand here is L.A. experimental music legend Brad Laner, a guy I first knew of from his notorious noise band Debt of Nature - I saw 'em get booed opening for Wall of Voodoo way back when. He has since gone on to play with Savage Republic, Medicine, Brian Eno, Yoko Ono, and many others.

Kraig Grady "Music From The Island of Anaphoria" [UPDATE 2-4-11: Back on line! Music For Maniacs and the North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island proudly co-present this album.]

01 Ecstasy of Exiles
02 Wedding Song (with Petra Haden)
03 Duet With Fogbound Oars
04 Ceremony At Airports Edge
05 Ritual Offering
06 A Sacred Feast
07 Banaphshu Remembers her Father the Clock Maker
08 Shadow Play - The Birds Rout The Demon Of Swords
09 A Farewell Ring

More Kraig Grady and the music of Anaphoria to come in future posts...

SICK HUMOR

New Jersey's Carla Ulbrich had embarked on a career as a satirical singer-songwriter (or, as she puts it, a "professional smart aleck"), when illness struck. And struck, and struck again. It took years to even get a correct diagnosis before she could start proper treatments. It all resulted in endless hours in hospitals. Not very funny? Actually, it resulted in so much material that she got a whole album out it.

Like a scatological Weird Al, many of these tunes are parodies of everyone from Gershwin to The Pretenders, and sometimes quite scathing ones at that, e.g.: Tommy Tutone's "867-5309" becomes "Patient 294606," a cutting look at how patients can feel like they're on an impersonal assembly line, treated like just another number. Very funny, but the cumulative effect of listening to the entire album is that's it's all really quite awful. What an ordeal. I am genuinely relieved that she recovered.

Two songs are just her and her guitar, recorded live, but most of the songs are full band productions. It's all well played and sung, upbeat and fun...but as great as it is to hear a detailed description of a malfunctioning colon cheerfully sung to that disco lounge classic, "The Love Boat" theme, you might not want to listen while eating lunch. I won't be making that mistake again.

Carla Ulbrich "Sick Humor"

1-Sittin In the Waiting Room
2-On The Commode Again (short clip)
3-Patient 294606
4-Prednisone
5-Little Brown Jug
6-I'm a Specialist
7-The Colon
9-What If Your Butt Was Gone?
9-Happy To Be Stuck By You
10-I Got Tremors

She generously has put the whole thing up for free download on her site. I took all the individual tracks and threw 'em into a zip file for y'all. They're in the m3u format, not mp3 (tho my iTunes converted 'em to mp3), and you only get a short clip of one of the songs, but hey, if you don't like it, get the album.

Ulbrich has a new book hitting the shelves in days entitled "How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?: Reclaim Your Health with Humor, Creativity, and Grit."

Caribbeana Esoterica #4: Punta

Buried under snow? A trip to the sunny Caribbean should sort you out just fine. But, this being a MusicForManiacs cruise, we'll be steering clear of the (sometimes overly) familiar sounds of Jamaica, Cuba or Trinidad.* So far we've been diggin' the sounds of spouge (Barbados), junkanoo, and goombay (both from The Bahamas,) and fungi (British Virgin Islands.) Now let's move ashore to Belize, and note the African descendants grooving to their own style, punta rock. Ah, but what's this?! Their Honduran neighbors to the north are tired of the usual Latino styles. They want to add a little salsa to that creole gumbo.

Los Roland's "Los Reyes de la Punta"

Album title means "The Kings of the Punta" and I ain't arguing. Punta rock is not rock, but it does rock. Only 8 songs, but wonderful, high energy stuff (the song "Punta Rock" was a staple of my mix tapes in the '90s) with a full electric band, complete with cheezy synths. If you don't speak Spanish, you're not missing much. Lyrics don't translate to anything more meaningful than "Let's go dance the punta rock." But, sometimes, that's all that needs to be said.


*Guess what I heard playing in Starbucks this morning? Bob Marley! What a shock!!!11!

The Everyday Film: "Permanent Patients"

The Everyday Film, the Jandek of electronica, have a new "album" out (it's 11 minutes long) of 7 brief tracks, and we've got it. He/they no longer have a website, but they've kindly let us host this typically disturbing, fascinating burst of noise-tronics and serial-killer vocals cryptically muttering non-sequiters about how he gets his tv friends mixed up with his real friends, and how he hopes he doesn't bleed on your rug. Will make your skin crawl. Have a nice day!

The Everyday Film: "Permanent Patients"

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART KARAOKE PARTY

One of the indisputable giants of weirdo music, Captain Beefheart, died this past December, as most of you doubtless know. Some have said that since he'd been retired from music for so long, his death shouldn't be much of a shock. But I've been listening to Beefheart so much in recent years that he did feel like an immediate presence - he's the rare artist from my boyhood that I listen to more now then I did then. Took me a while to fully absorb him. After I got increasingly into Delta blues and free jazz, then I could see where the good Captain was coming from.
As a belated tribute, here's a pretty good sounding (as bootlegs go) collection of instrumental mixes of his 1970 "Lick My Decals Off Baby" album. I love the opportunity to really hear The Magic Band's twisted, knotty instrumental skillz in all their glory. Don't be put off by the horn skronk on the first two tracks - they get a-rockin' and a-rollin' shortly thereafter.

Captain Beefheart &The Magic Band: "Lick My Decals Off Baby" (instrumental mixes)

1. Japan In A Dishpan
2. Japan In A Dishpan (take 2)
3. Woe Is A Me Bop
4. Space Age Couple
5. Petrified Forest
6. Flash Gordon's Ape #2 [some vox on here, actually]
7. Doctor Dark
8. I Love You, You Big Dummy
9. Japan In A Dishpan (bass and Drumbo version)
10. Flash Gordon's Ape
11. Lick My Decals Off Baby
12. Japan In A Dishpan (take 4)
13. Bellerin' Plain
14. Clouds Are Full Of Wine
15. Big Toe #25
16. The Buggy Boogie-Woogie
17. Flash Gordon's Ape #1

• Captain Beefheart - Vocals, clarinet, saxes, harmonica
• Zoot Horn Rollo - Guitar, glass finger guitar
• Rockette Morton - Bassius-o-pheilius
• Drumbo - Drums, broom
• Ed Marimba - marimba, percussion, broom