Like the "obsolete" instruments I've written about, yodeling is another "uncool" old folk style that, nonetheless, requires a fair amount of technical skill, has a long, rich history, and can be quite ridiculously entertaining. So, once again, let's get uncool.
Arthur Brogli was (is?) a Californian of Alpine origin whose '70s D.I.Y. release "Happy Yodeling" (sorry Goths, no gloomy yodeling here) features, apart from vocals, pretty much only accordion. Which, strangely enough, makes it resemble the "Philip Glass For Accordion" album we recently featured here. A playlist that goes back and forth between these two albums might make for an interesting experience. Arthur doesn't shoot his wad all at once - you have to wait 3 minutes into the album before you get any yodeling. But that's okay, "Happy Wanderer" is one of my favorite polkas. Then he plays an instrumental. But after that he does get down to some serious yodel action, including a swell version of that much-hated Disney tune, "It's A Small World," thus proving that yodeling makes everything fun.
"Flowmotion: an album of contemporary and electronic music," a various-artists comp released by a British 'zine of the same name in 1982, was one of my favorite boyhood albums. It certainly was the most obscure - I was quite proud of the fact that the booklet that came with the album stated that I had copy #137 of 500. Oh yeah, chicks dug me!
I don't have anything to post by the recently deceased Peter Christopherson, whose Gristle Throbs no longer, but this album does kick off with a selection by two of his band mates, Chris & Cosey - a song that, according to the booklet, was meant to conjure up a primitive voodoo session, perhaps a reflection of their interest in exotica music. Kinda silly song, really - I preferred the next tune, by Those Little Aliens, who were, in fact, the album's compilers. Their song is in the "Another Green World" vein of ambient pop, with evocative backwards wind-chimes adding to the gentle celeste melody.
It's hard for me to now objectively evaluate an artifact of my youth, but I can tell you that I used to be endlessly fascinated by songs like the mutant disco of David Jackman's orgy of overdubbed Casios, and the one vocal number on the album, The Legendary Pink Dots' "The Hanging Gardens," which was seemingly the greatest tune that Syd Barret never recorded. Colin Potter's "Rooftops" was sheer Moogy bliss.
Much of "Flowmotion" is cosmic electronics in the Tangerine Dream/early Vangelis mold, but a punk influence was felt in the D.I.Y. production and the general air of no-holds-barred experimentation. Eno, again, seems to have been a big influence. Plenty of ambient stuff here, from moody to wistful.
When the Mutant Sounds blog originally posted this, I downloaded it and sold my album, only to later realize that the download was encoded at only 128 kbs. Oops, that'll learn me. It's fine tho, really - this stuff was recorded under fairly lo-fi conditions to begin with, and in any case, it still sounds better then when I used to play it on my crappy old record player. Since the Mutant Sounds copy is now off-line, and commenters have been requesting it, here's 'tis:
A1 Chris & Cosey - Devil God A2 Those Little Aliens - Ismalia A3 Eyeless In Gaza - Dusky Ruth A4 Eyeless In Gaza - Through Eastfields A5 David Jackman - Do The Dog A6 Ian Boddy - Follow A7 Legendary Pink Dots- The Hanging Gardens B1 Ian Boddy - Skylights B2 Paul Nagle - A Journey In The Dark B3 Carl Matthews - As Above, So Below B4 Colin Potter - Rooftops
Those of you jonesing for more Zoogz Rift might want to check out the numerous free album downloads of Big Poo Generator (and the various other names they record under) for a similar low-brow-humor-vs-high-brow-music approach. There's none of Zoogz' anger or paranoia here, tho - this is pure silliness. The music is complex, almost slick, but vocals are usually sped-up Chipmunk style. Most of the lyrics concern "poo" and/or "retards."
These guys were a big deal on the original mp3.com a decade ago, topping their popularity charts with songs like "I Be An Retarded." I was pretty obsessed with that tune - so dumb (the lyrics are nothing more then the phrase "I am retarded" repeated over and over), but so musically solid, boasting a great melody and chord structure. Turns out the group had its roots in a Chicago-based Led Zep tribute band, which explained their impressive chops.
Big Poo Generator "Please Kill Us" - Synths, guitars, and Chipmunks are joined by occasional bagpipes (!) and, on "Foodballs," an opera singer. Equal parts self-indulgence and brilliance (it's a fine line, isn't it?), tho the latter can be found in: "Mr. Poo" ("you are eating poo, my friends..."), "Rear Entry Pants," "Toilet 4 2," the epics "Gorgon 5" and "Mr. Hamburger"...the (s)hits just keep coming.
The Wacky Ball Kickers - Theatrical songs almost as musically rich as, say, Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," but I doubt even the most outrageous '70s glamsters would touch classics like "Sing It, Mrs Ass" or "I'm Gonna Kick Myself In The Balls".
Hemorrhoy Rogers "Cream of What" - This 100-song, 2 hour mind-melter features their "hit," here named "I'm Retarded (Remix)." Mostly stripped down to just guitars and vox, this might seem like an endurance test at first, but keep listening - plenty of yummy nuggets like "I Can't Go To The Bathroom (Fart Contradictionary)" pop up, like corn in poop.
In an age of novelty music made family-friendly by folks like Weird Al and They Might Be Giants (both of whom I like, by the way), this relentlessly tasteless crew are a welcome breath of foul air.
Here's my latest guest dj appearance on Radio Misterioso. Listen to music by Bigfoot researchers! Chortle to me & Greg's witty repartee! Thrill to my lack of radio professionalism! This is a big 2 hour file.
RADIO MISTERIOSO 11-7-10 intro: "Plan 9 From Outer Space" talk break Bruce Haack "Rita" Richard Marino "Full Moon & Empty Arms" Big Maybelle "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" Symphony of Science "Our Place In The Cosmos" Wah Kazoo "Doctor Wah" Captain Beefheart "Big Eyed Beans From Venus"
talk break
Tom Yamarone "Bigfoot - The Living Legend" Jim Kocher "Living In A Bigfoot World" Jack's Smirking Revenge "Rocks" Derek Young "Cryptid Love" Danny Freyer "I Still Believe In Bigfoot"
talk break
Marlin Wallace "Abominable Snowcreature" Philip Stranger "African Can Bang On A Can" Luchese Leibhaber "Gesundheit" RIAA "Stand Up & Feel" (excerpt from 'USA') Duo Immortales "My First Nazi Girl" Charles "Chick" Gaminian & His Orientals "Daddy Lolo" Jimmy McMillan "The Rent Is Too Damn High" Dick Kent "Peanut Farmer - Smiling President" David Liebe Hart & Adam Papagan "The Omegans" David Liebe Hart & Adam Papagan "All My Friends Like Asian Girls" Flaming Dragons of Middle Earth"I Am The Creator Sun Ra" Flaming Dragons of Middle Earth "No Bush On CNN" Jean-Jacques Perrey & Dana Countryman "Kittens On The Moon"
talk break
Jandek "You Painted Your Teeth" Ranking Joe "Tribute To John Lennon" Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra "Watching The Wheels" Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra "Lydia The Tattooed Lady" Jerry Gray "Ooh and Ah Mambo" Jimmy "We're Desperate"
"Based in Turners Falls, MA, Flaming Dragons Of Middle Earth are the brainchild of visionary wheelchair-bound ‘band shaman’ Danny Cruz, who leads an ensemble of rotating non-musicians, artists, oddballs, kids with Down Syndrome etc in weekly jams at a community resource centre..."
The vinyl-only release "Seed of Contempt," another one from Feeding Tube Records, is a true outsider-music artifact, an astonishing blizzard of unrestrained audio mayhem played by kids who aren't trying in the slightest to be cool, professional, or show-biz. 'Twas all mastered off of live cassettes. I'll let Danny himself explain:
but apart from all the metal references in both the music and the album's artwork, Cruz' mentions of avant-jazz legend Sun Ra implies that not all of the free-form lunacy in these grooves is simply the result of jam-session sloppiness. And certainly Cruz' description of his "apocalyptic improvisational lyrics" could apply to the music too.
This almost-lovely piano tune makes Daniel Johnston sound Top-40 normal:
Coincidentally, two albums popped up in my PO box recently, both late '70s/early '80s UK oddities. And, right on time, Bret from Egg City Radio has got another incredible punk film festival lined up at the (increasingly inaccurately named) Silent Movie Theater in Hollywood here in L.A. I'm always happy to help promote such spectaculars - I mean, come on, who wouldn't want to see this:The 2 day Destroy All Movies! fest will be happening this weekend Nov. 20-21 (dig the trailer), featuring films like the legendary concert epic "Urgh! A Musical War" (a boyhood favorite) and "D.O.A.," starring the real Sid and Nancy. But I'm most looking forward to the "Punks on the Small Screen" line-up of hilariously clueless TV reactions to punk. Both the albums I received are products of the DIY spirit sweeping the land at the time, sound nothing like the Sex Pistols, favor electronics, and are full of cheeky humor and utterly original imagination. How punk is that? The Loved One were criminally overlooked proto-industrial arty-smarties who shared albums and stages with the likes of Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The The, and B Movie. So why aren't they more well known? After listening to the reissue of the "......Further Observations" collection of '79-'82 tracks it's obvious that they were moving into far stranger and more experimental realms then their increasingly commercial colleagues. No two songs sound much alike: some tracks verge on ambient, some almost pop, some instro, some with hysterical vocals. "The Depressionists" (listen to it here) is a very funny stab at the doom-and-gloom attitude then prevalent in post-punk England. The title song reminds me of what I loved so much about the original industrial style (think: Suicide, The Normal, etc).
Check this hauntingly strange video, featuring some sort of odd invented instruments. Another of their reissues is music based on shortwave radio recordings. The Loved One are in the process of not only reissuing their old albums, but writing new ones, which will hopefully bring a higher profile to this surprisingly underrated combo. "PIMANIA: The Music of Mel Croucher and Automata U.K. Ltd," an utterly amazing vinyl-only release, is quite accurately described as "The crown jewel in the Feeding Tube catalog. The music on this record was recorded from 1981-1985 as the conceptual soundtrack for computer games released on cassette by the British software house Automata U.K. Ltd. Combining primitive synthesizer tones and meandering psychedelic blues guitar with cryptic, off-color lyrics about the multi-colored Piman and his pals, this is unlike any other "computer music" you know or have imagined. Ultra thick gatefold, comes with cut-out mask, extensive liner notes and poster."
It's quite a peek into the early-'80s computer world, a relatively tiny enterprise compared to today's corporate gaming behemoths. The comics that come with the album seem descended from underground '60s "comix," and the whole thing has a kind of leftover hippie idealism (no violent games) mixed with a punk approach, e.g. the music is often synths, drum machines, and garage guitars recorded at home. This parody of the Shangri-Las's '60s classic "Leader of the Pack" brutally (but amusingly) attacks Piman's perceived rival Pacman!
Funny how 30 years ago, punk in movies or tv was a punchline, or a threat. Now (call it the "Juno" syndrome) it's what the "cool" kids reference. So, what, am I finally cool? Are the jocks who hassled me all listening to Joy Division now instead of Journey? Because their kids probably are. What must they make of that..?
Not really. But an East Coast accordionist has released a collection of Philip Glass covers. Some solo, some of it sounds overdubbed, no other instruments. This shouldn't work in a million years, yet it does, and quite brilliantly at that. It's no gimmick - the guy's got some serious squeezebox skillz, and the surrealism of making 20th classical music sound like a Balkan village dance is an unexpected bonus.
What Capitalism Was - Plays Philip Glass on Accordion 1. Japura River 2. Facades 3. Cloudscape 4. Aria from Act III of Satyagraha 5. Floe 6. Etoile Polaire 7. Subterraneans 8. Resource 9. Knee 1
And you thought that the Dead Kennedys were a strange choice for an accordion tribute...
Skrewdriver are one of those bands more heard of than heard. As members of the Class of '77 British punk scene, one of the most celebrated movements in rock history, you'd think they'd be in the history books (they even did a Peel session), but a hard-right turn into Nazi/KKK territory had them written out as if they never existed. Their status as the premier neo-Nazi skinhead band has gained them a certain amount of notoriety, but I don't know of any record guides or rock history books that mention them, nor did I ever hear them on alt/college radio.
Sure, they're not that great, but plenty of other lesser UK punkers got ink. Hmm. Since when has rock 'n' roll been about upstanding citizenship? I wanted to know what they actually sound like. (Disclaimer: Nazis are bad.)
Their debut "All Skrewed Up" is decent raw, basic punk with a few unexpected, unpleasant forays into mainstream rock. There's not a hint of racism in this original line-up, tho their propensity for dumb lyrics was already coming to the fore on songs like "Gotta Be Young." As if anyone has a choice about their age? Duh. But it is a catchy tune:
Bandleader Ian Stuart Donaldson dissolved this lineup, and re-emerged a few years later with a new-and-unimproved Skrewdriver that now openly embraced Nazi, anti-semitic, racist ideologies, with lyrics as un-poetic as slogans shouted out at a political rally. The irony of declaring themselves strongly patriotic Brits while supporting that which tried to destroy Britain in WWII is, of course, lost on them. And then there's the puzzling hatred of Communism. Why support one bloodthirsty dictatorship while condemning another - professional jealousy? (Har har!) The music didn't advance, even if the punk scene had. Still, they could come up with the occasional memorable melody: Skrewdriver "White Power"
After this period, there wasn't much gas left in their musical tank. 1984's "Hail The New Dawn" album starts off with some exciting rockers:
before tedium sets in: dull production, plodding tempos, and weak songwriting won't whip up a race war any more then the tiresome repetition of lyrical themes that blunt the shock value after a while. Meanwhile, the oi! scene in British punk was moving in the opposite direction - faster, louder, and more engaged with the public, as Skrewdriver retreated into the neo-Nazi subculture.
I can see how a group like this might have caused some alarm in the '80s, but it all seems fairly toothless, even a bit pathetic now. Donaldson's death by car crash in 1993 ended the band, and the Nazi skinhead scene, tiny to begin with, became increasingly marginalized to the point that it's now practically invisible to the general public. Good night, Adolph...
I return to Radio Misterioso for 2 solid hours of wild 'n' wacky musics this Sunday, 8pm, Pacific Standard Time.
I'll be joining host Greg "Spacebrother" Bishop playing lots of goodies I haven't had the time to feature yet here on M4M. So even for regular readers of this here web-log it'll be mostly unheard stuff.
Spinning all the platters that matter (or should that be "madder"?)
It's been far too long since I've posted any '50-'60s surf/garage/tiki trash 'round these parts, so dig this thirty-three -count 'em- THRTY-THREE track comp of sleazy-listening gems. You've got Latin spitfire La Lupe utterly demolishing "Fever," a theremin-driven rocker called "Shock Treatment," that ultimate bachelor's anthem "The Devil's Pad," and "The Devil's Blues," in which we learn that "Satan's not square." And lots of songs with "voodoo," "bongo," and/or "rock" in the title. Makes me glad to be alive. I actually own a couple of these records, such as the afore-mentioned "Fever" and Ralph Marterie's pseudo-Arabic "Shish Kabob," but for the most part these are mighty rare, otherwise un-comped (so far as I know) oddities by no-one you've heard of.
So, a topical 30-year-old punk rock song is relevant again. Who'd have thunk it? Of course, Jerry Brown isn't quite the same hippie-fied "Gov. Moonbeam" that he was in the '70s. For one thing, he has a lot less hair now, and he isn't dating Linda Rondstadt (so far as I know). And yes, this portrait of Brown is the official one that hangs in the California state capital. I've seen it! Quite a contrast to the formal, staid governor's portraits that come before and after it.
As we wrote back in '06: "Oakland, CA's Aaron Seeman plays accordian, for your weddings, parties, bar mitvahs, etc. He's in a Romanian folk music group, can play waltzes and polkas. And as Duckmandu he's recorded a note-for-note remake of the entire first Dead Kennedy's album, the punk rock milestone "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables." Completely solo. Yep, just squeeze-box, and singing that's a darn good impression of DK's vocalist Jello Biafra. From the album "Fresh Duck For Rotting Accordionists":
We've come to end of our brief survey of the wildly prolific and imaginative Zoogz Rift. Remember, you can now send away for an inexpensive set of his (almost) entire output if this has whet your appetite. I certainly would be interested to hear what albums like "FUCK GOD, FUCK YOUR MOTHER, FUCK ALL YOUR BULLSHIT AND FUCK YOU" are like.
This 1990 collection starts with "Kasaba Kabeza," a groovy funk instrumental that gets increasingly twisted. The sax/trombone interplay towards the end of this song suggests a particularly woozy brand of Minimalism. Even at 19 minutes this track isn't too long. One of Zoogz' best.
"Bowl of Gregmar" could be white-boy bar-band blues, were it not for the misanthropic lyrics and industrial-grade guitar solos. "You Can Count On Us" is a savage, funny Traveling Wilburys parody, tho I doubt that today's kids know who they are/were. No matter, proceed to the boss title track, a pogo-riffic instrumental that could almost be early Devo with a jazzy horn section. Top stuff.
This album is subtitled: "Music For Obnoxious Yuppie Scum." Does that mean that he thinks that obnoxious yuppie scum would actually like this music? Give this album to your BMW-driving Wall Street friends today!
Windbag, a frequent contributor to this here web-log, hails from Salt Lake City in Utah, the seat of the Mormons aka The Church of Later-Day Saints (The LDS). Thanks to him, we have a plethora of Mormon-culture artifacts, such as:
"Sons of Provo," a hilarious mock-umentry film about Everclean, a Mormon boy band. The soundtrack is not only a spot-on parody of those psuedo-r'n'b teeny-bopper groups, but a gentle tweaking of the impossibly wholesome squeaky-clean image of the LDS. Jokes from the film like the band recruiting a new member from his job in the scrapbooking department of a crafts store might not seem too crazy, but this is a religion that traditionally has not allowed even a hint of rebellion or free expression. Anyone who leaves the church is sometimes shunned by family and friends, so any satire is a bit radical.
Everclean "Everclean" - "...like Listerine" Everclean "Dang, Fetch, Oh My Heck" - How to swear in Mormon; quite a lot of musical diversity in this track The Saliva Sisters, a female song-parody trio, would seem to have slightly more pointed spoofs of Mormonism, and the state of Utah in general, on their album "Delusions of Granger." But their "Spit Happens" album doesn't get specific - songs like this Led Zep parody could apply to department store-obsessed housewives anywhere:
This brilliant acappella rendering of the theme to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" has nothing to do with Mormon life (near as I can tell), but it is Halloween-appropriate:
The Saliva Sisters "Hitchcock" - These gals can sing, no? So what is it that they're all satirizing? Brace yourself for a full album of...(dramatic sting) singing children!! Songs For A Mormon Child - Delightful moppets shriek out hits like "I'm A Mormon," "I Want To Be A Mother" in which a little girl claims to want "...4, 5, 6 babies", and (gotta love this title) "Hey Everybody! It's Family Night!" You've been warned...
No, not Bela Lugosi. But how great would that have been? "Bela Does Broadway"..."Doin' The Twist With Bela Lugosi"...Alas! It never happened. But Christopher Lee has a new-ish album out, and at 87 years of age, he's practically as old as Dracula himself. Charlemagne: By the Sword & The Cross is billed as a heavy metal/symphonic album but, really, it sounds more Broadway than anything else. And, as if you couldn't tell by the album/song titles, it's a concept album, set it medieval times. Christopher Lee goes campy epic metal? Totally rad, of course. How could it not be? A monumental kitsch epic. No, he doesn't wail like Ozzy, but he really does sing. Well, sorta. He tries.
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.
Like the "obsolete" instruments I've written about, yodeling is another "uncool" old folk style that, nonetheless, requires a fair amount of technical skill, has a long, rich history, and can be quite ridiculously entertaining. So, once again, let's get uncool.
