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

Caribbeana Esoterica #3: Fungi

It's great that we're searching for life on other planets, but there's so many places right here on planet Earth that we know nothing about. Ever heard of fungi music?

Named after a native dish, not fungus, this British Virgin Island style (pronounced "FOON-jee") is somewhat of a throwback to classic '50s style calypso - it's got more of a laid-back feel, with more emphasis on lyrical cleverness and storytelling. It's performed on banjos and ukulele, with low-key percussion (e.g. triangle, bongos, calabash or squash) adding toe-tapping African dance rhythms. Today's two albums show two different approaches to fungi.

Elmore Stoutt's album features some spoken-word introductions giving you the historical/cultural context behind the folks songs (he is an educator, after all, with a school named after him). But amidst all the funny, sunny fun there's a odd song that seems to suggest that Princess Di was murdered. Huh? An amusingly risque song about Bill Clinton, however, restores the topical subjects to a more down-to-earth level.
If Stoutt seems like grandpa casually spinning tales, The Lashing Dogs sound like his younger rowdy grandkids. Tho still playing trad fungi - no electronics, no rapping - the furiously-strummed banjo and vigorous percussion (rock that triangle!) boost up the energy level. Oddities still pop in tho, like "Only The Gotter," a cranky political tirade with such poor rhymes that it almost sounds like a song-poem, and "Where The Men Dem Gone," which questions modern males' masculinity, even claiming that this situation has led to St. Thomas Island's dramatic increase in lesbianism! Otherwise, it's all rum-drenched groovers designed to "nice up de party." "No Excuse" is a particular favorite - apart from the irresistible music, we get a lesson on the B.V.I. legal system. "Ignorance is no excuse for de law!"
Elmore Stoutt - The Fungi Master "Welcome To The B.V.I."
The Lashing Dogs "What A Difference"

Strange Interlude

By request, here's a re-up of a 1961 album recorded by Lew Davies & his Orchestra for Enoch Light's Command Records label called "Strange Interlude." Unlike your usual Command stereophonic hi-fi upbeat gimmickry, this one's low-key, creepy.  Songs like "The Witching Hour," "Old Devil Moon" and "In A Mist" live up to the odd mood suggested by their titles. Unusual instruments like the theremin, Ondioline (an early electronic keyboard) and hammered dulcimers were featured. After finding it in the dollar bin of a used record store, I played the heck out of it. I had never heard an album quite like it before.

Lew Davies & his Orchestra "Strange Interlude"

Side 1
Riders in the Sky
Strange Interlude
In a Mist
Gone with the Wind  
Wild Goose
Intermezzo
Side 2
Old Devil Moon  
Ebb Tide
The Riddle Song
The Witching Hour
Laura
Spellbound

The Hathaway Family Plot

Toy instruments, theremins, vuvuzelas, mandolins, kitchen utensils, instruments I never heard of (Otamatones? Psalteries?) join keyboards and percussion to create a fantastic home-brew internet giveaway that is finally out today - today! - courtesy of WMRecordings.

I received an advance copy of this album by Buffalo, New York's The Hathaway Family Plot a month or so ago and have been steadily diggin' it ever since. Every track is a new adventure: the Residential guitars of the opener back a distraught, distorted vocal, the suitably noisy "Noise Complaint" followed by lovely vibraphone lounge, Fripp-esque guitar drones, vocals that sound like The Chipmunks being put thru a meat grinder, R2D2-ish electronics, and general assorted buzzes, whistles, and throbbing drums. The song "Home" is a moving, evocative electronic meditation. The last track is the only non-original, a Sparklehorse cover featuring a forlorn toy piano plunking away at lost childhood memories.

There's a welcome righteous fury at the bill of goods we've been sold that fuels The Hathaway Family Plot, a bitter cynicism at the idea that we are what we buy. There are no "financial crises." There are a handful of people who have set plans in motion to make themselves very, very rich. And they have succeeded. So what if thousands lose their homes and their retirement in the process? Collateral damage. Can't be helped, sorry. Before the recent "housing crisis," there was Enron, junk-bonds, etc., etc. And nothing will change because, as we all know, regulation is socialism. And that leads to eating children in Satanic sacrifices. So shop 'til you drop!

The Hathaway Family Plot "Debt"

Also available courtesy of the Free Music Archive.

Caribbeana Esoterica #2: Junkanoo & Goombay

Continuing our trip around the Caribbean to the other islands (that is, not Jamaica, Cuba, or Trinidad) we sail to The Bahamas. Now I thought that this series would be a way to bring some sunshine to the depths of winter, but actually, our first album today, "Carnival in Paradise" from 1962, begins with "Chippy's Junkanoo Street Carnival," a spellbindingly dark, heavily-echoed track that's all weird noises and panning drums, creating an evil voodoo atmosphere. Pure junkanoo music, like a 1964 Nonesuch album I have called "Junkanoo Drums," is as African as Caribbean music gets, favoring just percussion and singing, with few other instruments. It's the usual party-time calypso-ish stuff, nothing as psychedelic as this track. And yet, it's supposedly a Christmas song!

Didn't think anything could top it, 'til an absolutely deranged woman started singing, and I realized that the second song was almost as mental as the first. Along the way we get some goombay music (more on that later), steel drums, straight-ahead Trinidad-style calypsos, and a tiki bar-ready version of that exotica standard "Yellow Bird." Some familiar songs like "Shame and Scandal" sound fresh here in their new goombay setting. An excellent collection,and one that really sounds like that album cover. 
john chipman's junkanoo drums - carnival in paradise (vinyl, carib records lp 2036, 1962).zip

1. Chippy's Junkanoo Champions "Chippy's Junkanoo Street Carnival"
2. The Eloise Trio "Come To The Caribbean"
3. Richie Delamore "Goombay"
4. Lord Cody & Kasavubu "Gin And Coconut Water"
5. Richie Delamore "The Limbo" [killer version of a song also recorded as "Limbo Like Me"]
6. Lionel Latmore "Shame & Scandal"
7. Little Sparrow "The Garrett Bounce"
8. Lionel Latmore "Wings Of A Dove"
9. Ray Shurland "Yellow Bird"
10. Tony Alleyne & The Big Bamboo Orchestra "Junkanoo In Nassau"
11. Ray Shurland "Bahama Lullaby"
George Symonette plays a more typical brand of goombay, the name of both a style native to the Bahamas and the drum used to create it, a big booming thing held between one's legs while seated. Symonette was a popular band leader in the hotels of Nassau, so he had to play some hits - famous Jamaican/Trinidadian calypsos like "Brown Skin Gal" are included on this 1956 album, but there's plenty of local color, too - one track on this album, "Peanuts Plays The Drum," is a fiery demonstration of pure goombay drumming.

George Symonette "Goombay Rhythms"

1. Hold Him Joe
2. Gin and Cocoanut Water
3. The Crow
4. Push Push
5. Peanuts Plays The Drum
6. Doctor
7. Freckles
8. Brown Skin Girl
9. Come Here Liza
10. Wanna Do Nothing All Day
11. Fishing
12. Can't Get No Sweetness Out Of Me

I noticed that my copy of this record is more worn on side two. Side one's plenty fun, what with Symonette's crow impressions and whatnot, but there's some double-entendre tunes on side two that must have been pretty saucy stuff for the '50s. And I'm guessing that's why side two got so much more play. Shame and scandal, indeed.

THIS GUY'S A REAL CUT-UP

I Cut People, the diabolical sound-smashers we first reviewed last year, have a NEW! FREE! download album constructed entirely out of Hollywood movie audio. In true film industry fashion, it's a sequel - last year's "The Inside Story" was a similar attack on Tinseltown, but, unlike most sequels, this one's a little better. It's more funny. Highlights include the title track's Mel Gibson-gone-insane collage, and "Be My Wingman" pulling all your favorite stars out of the closet. Trenchant commentary + laffs = my fave I Cut People release yet.

I Cut People "This Is Hollywood"

Vocal critics of the sound collage aesthetic like Steve Albini and Henry Rollins decry the artist's lack of traditional musical methods ("It's not real music!"). But they're missing a crucial point: the media has usually been a one-way avenue - they produce, we consume. This type of sound-collage (200 films were used, in this case) reverses that, chewing up and spitting all the endless hype back out. It's democracy in action, blowing past the gatekeepers, letting anyone with sound editing software in on the information highway. And besides, recycling all that media waste often results in something far more entertaining and profound than the original sources.

Caribbeana Esoterica #1: Spouge

Ahoy, maniacs, and welcome to a new year...of blogging! Which will began the same way last year's ended: with Caribbean music. Even here in L.A. we're suffering from a bad case of weather. Who needs weather, eh? Weather sucks. But this series of posts that we're embarking on today is the feel-good, sunny, party antidote.

Ska? Pshaw! Calypso? Salsa? That stuff's for amateurs. We'll be cruising far beyond Jamaica, Trinidad and Cuba to explore such other exciting rhythms as goombay, punta, boom and chime, and fungi music, among others. No, I'm not making this stuff up. Listening to this awesomely life-affirming music makes me wonder why it's all so unknown. There's a million reggae shows out there - why is the music of other islands ignored? It takes a blog like this one dedicated to the hopelessly obscure to cover 'em.

The all too short-lived spouge music of Barbados is a great example of how to put a unique spin on Afro-Carib rhythms. Listening to this all-killer-no-filler 1973 album makes me realize how cliched and predictable ska and calypso can be, much as I like those styles. The Sam and Dave-like powerful/sweet soul vocal harmonies of The Draytons Two, the intense energy and drive of The Lunar 7 Orchestra (what a great name), the cowbell-driven ka-THUMP-ah, ka-THUMP-ah rhythm, all add up to a ka-ray-zee Caribbean classic.

Aaah, the smell of Raw Spouge

A1		Drink Milk
A2		Tighten Up
A3		Row Boat
A4		Six & Seven Books Of Moses (covering Toots & The Maytalls)
A5		Soul & Inspiration (a Righteous Brothers cover)
B1		Hush Baby
B2		Can't Keep A Good Man Down
B3		I Don't Want To Have To Wait
B4		Too Late
B5		Spouge All The Way

I have another collection of Draytons Two odds-and-ends that I'll be putting up in the near future. So who were these geniuses? No idea. Anyone planning on taking a trip to Barbados, feel free to do some research, won't ya?

A CALYPSO CHRISTMAS IS LIKE SO

Ah, durn, Christmas really got away from me this year. For one thing, Captain Beefheart's death threw me for a loop. I could spend a LOT of time talking about his genius, I could break his albums down one by one, etc., but I don't have to, do I? His legacy has been pretty well examined. Because, believe me, I could yammer on like an Asperger's kid talking about "Star Wars." It would have to wait until the new year, in any case.

And so I have lots of sick, outsider, novelty and whatnot Christmas records sitting by my turntable unrecorded. Wait 'til next year. At least Our Man In Salt Lake, windbag, came thru with:

Esso Trinidad Steelband "Calypso Christmas"

It ranges from mellow tracks for an irie Christmas, to absolutely pulverizing, loud, clangorous rockers. All instrumental, all percussion played on re-purposed oil drums (now this is real metal music, har har!) And with that, I'll see y'all next year after the holiday. The dust blows forward and the dust blows back...

1. SILVER BELLS
2. WINTER WONDERLAND 3. JOY TO THE WORLD
4. COME ALL YE FAITHFUL
5. GLORIA IN EXCELSIS (Angels We Have Heard On High)
6. O HOLY NIGHT 7. MARY'S BOY CHILD
8. HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING
9. CHRISTIANS AWAKE

Thanks again, windy!

ROCKIN' DISCO SANTA CLAUS

Our busy elf helper windbag sent a us batch of singles, including a Christmas disco one, which inspired me to root thru my own disco/old school archives to pull out my fave 12" and vinyl yuletide artifacts. Totally kitschy, funky and, tho sometimes awful, always awfully fun.

01 Wayne Newton - Jingle Bell Hustle
02 Santa's Disco Band - Xmas Medley Disco
03 Charo - Mamacita (Donde Esta Santa Claus)
04 Walter Murphy Orch - Disco Bells
05 Irwin The Disco Duck - Disco Duck II
06 The Sisterhood - The Rocking Disco Santa Claus [the one track I did get off a cd, the crucial Song-Poem Christmas album]
07 Walter Murphy Orch - Deck The Halls
08 Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin' [from 1979! pre-"Rapper's Delight"?]
09 Santa's Disco Band - Santa Claus is Coming To Town Disco
10 The Treacherous Three - Xmas Rap (Un-Censored)

ROCKIN' DISCO SANTA CLAUS

A CRAFTY LADIES CHRISTMAS

I'll be posting Christmas music for the next week or so, and it doesn't get much better than this 11 minute, 7 song 7" recorded by the participants in the arts program of the San Francisco Recreation Center for the Handicapped. The musical backing seems pretty professionally played, in contrast to the vocals of the handicapped folks.

It kicks off with a version of "Rudolph The
Red Nose Reindeer" scored for xylophone and
sad horn - very evocative combination. Much
of the remaining tracks feature only piano 

 accompaniment, which gives it a kind of
church pageant feel; there's a real sweetness
to "O Christmas Tree,"  like if 'A Charlie
Brown Christmas' was now starring old people.
"I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas" (hey, a Spike Jones cover!)
features a full band, with the unusual lineup of
xylophone, percussion, and...organ? guitar?  I'm not sure.

A CRAFTY LADIES CHRISTMAS

VLADIMIR POOTIN'

Yes, this recent video of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin plunking out the piano line and singing "Blueberry Hill" at a star-studded charity dinner has been getting mainstream press coverage, but if you all ignore as much of the mainstream media as I do, you might not have caught it. It would have gone great on my "Politics of Dancing" collection of politicians' atrocious musical moments.

I was amazed to see that James Brown's main man Maceo Parker was leading the band. Did they do any JB remakes? "Living in America" could have been "Living in St. Petersburg;" "Please, Please, Please" could be "Borscht, Borscht, Borscht." "I Got Vodka (I Feel Good)." "Papa's Got A Brand New Invasion of Chechnya." Oh yeah. I got a million of 'em, folks.



Another weird thing about this: backup singers I understand, but during the spoken-word part, he has backup talkers.

DEMONOLOGY

I have zero info on the demon(s) responsible for this free download release, but I can tell you that this album (or side one, at least) is a highly entertaining witch's brew of sleazy rock in the Cramps/Roky Erickson/Velvets (jugular) vein and lyrics that are, well, just look at those song titles. Tho they're sung in an unlikely high, nerdy voice, I still wouldn't mess with this dude. When he starts screeching about "rats with wings," it sounds like he means it.

Side two reverts to a more normal rock and acoustic approach, but bits of psychedelia and even violin keep things interesting. And don't miss the title song - it's the albums catchiest tune, and sounds like it's sung by children, which makes it all the more wrong. Just how we like it.

Swilson "Demonology"

1. Polyester Shirt Polyester Pants
2. Stealing Chickens
3. Electric Aborigonie
4. Planet Of Sex
5. White Witch Black Witch Which Is Which
6. Rats With Wings
7. La Diosa Verde
8. Dealing In Death
9. Demonology
10. When It's Dark
11. Plastic Flower Melting Sun
12. Swilson's 666th Nightmare

DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS

Alexandra Pajak is a medical student with classical music training from Athens, GA who has recently released an album entitled "Sounds of HIV: Music Transcribed From DNA." It is, needless to say, one of the most unusual albums I've received lately.

"Sounds of HIV" is a musical translation of the genetic code of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Every segment of the virus is assigned musical pitches, thus taking the listener on an aural tour of the entire HIV genome...A portion of proceeds from the sale of this CD will be donated to the Emory Vaccine Center, which conducts HIV research." The booklet that comes with the cd breaks it all down into more detail, for you rock 'n' roll geneticists out there.

It makes for an interesting companion piece to the "Speak!" album I reviewed the other day - experimental musical takes on the gay experience. (Yes, I know anyone can catch AIDS, but there's no denying the impact that the disease has had on the gay world.) So what does this journey thru the entire HIV genome sound like? Rather pleasant, actually. It's scored for a 6-person chamber ensemble (flute, cello, winds), but these tracks feature just piano:

Alexandra Pajak & The Sequence Ensemble: Protein 2
Alexandra Pajak & The Sequence Ensemble: Proteins 5 & 6

"Protein 2" is busy, hop-scotching around the keyboard, while "5 & 6" has a gently hypnotizing Minimalist feel to it.

I really don't know how to feel about this album. Should it be "enjoyed" like any other piece of music, or should it be approached scientifically, the audio equivalent of a textbook illustration? I guess I felt that something that has caused so much death and misery should sound heavy, goth, atonal, and noisy, and not this nice (if a bit somber). But, on the other hand, a disease is simply the work of nature, and nature isn't evil. It's just going about it's business. Pretty thought-provoking stuff for such innocuous music...

The Speaking/Singing Pianist

Anthony De Mare's background in musicals and dance almost sent him down the typical New York theater route, until he detoured into experimental music. Now, while there have been no shortage of gay men in the avant scene (Partch, Cage, etc.) they usually leave all lifestyle references aside when they compose. De Mare's new Innova release "Speak!," however, fuses the two worlds of cabaret and alt-classical. It's as successful as it is unlikely.

One could make the case that gay composers couldn't talk about their lives even if they wanted to due to societal inhibitions, tho the "fine art" world has usually been more open-minded than the mainstream. Or maybe they simply didn't want to get labeled as a "gay act." De Mare seems to have no such qualms - we get 21 minutes of Allen Ginsberg (punctuated with all manner of wacky vocal sounds), lesbian composer Meredith Monk (an excellent moody short piece), and Rodney Sharman's "The Garden," celebrating the excitement of visiting a gay bar for the first time. The one non-gay composer De Mare covers here, Laurie Anderson, also turns in the albums' least interesting track (and I usually like Anderson quite a bit.)

His solo piano, chatty "speak/sing" method has roots in cabaret, but the complex compositions go way beyond the usual Noel Coward revivals. And that's most evident on the album's centerpiece: "De Profundis," based on letters Oscar Wilde sent from prison. De Mare is completely spellbinding as he whispers, howls, sings, and dishes out more weird vocal noises this side of Yma Sumac, his piano following him every step of the way along Wilde's profoundly moving odyssey. Even at 30 minutes it's not too long.

Anthony De Mare "De Profundis" (excerpt)

De Mare has an open, friendly musical manner (look at that smile on his face!) all too often missing from the "serious" music world. Cheerful, humorous music usually isn't considered as legit, for some arbitrary, illogical reason, but I don't think De Mare cares. Heck, this album even has a song about his dog.

THE FINEST YODELING YOU CAN HEAR

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.

Arthur Brogli - Happy Yodeling


This has been another fine windbag contribution.

PRIMITIVE VOODOO ELECTRONICA

"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:

Flowmotion

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

Thanks to the original poster.

I BE AN RETARDED

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.

RADIO MISTERIOSO 11-7-10

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"

talk break

Jean-Jacques Perrey & Dana Countryman

TEENAGE MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY METAL MESSIAH

"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:

Flaming Dragons of Middle Earth "Not Really Causing A Fire"

Like a lot of teenage boys, Danny loves heavy metal, and indeed, there is a Sabbath riff somewhere in this minute-long shard of broken sound:

Flaming Dragons of Middle Earth "Speed Kills"

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:

Flaming Dragons of Middle Earth "Anarchists of Punk Rock"

FURTHER OBSERVATIONS OF THE PUNK DAYS

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).

The Loved One "......Further Observations"

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!

Mel Croucher: "Leader of the Pac"

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..?

PHILIP GLASS GOES POLKA!

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...

KEEP THEM CARDS AND LETTERS COMING, FOLKS...

UPDATE 11-13-10: My email IS now working.


My email (mail@m-1.us) isn't working. If you've written to me in, I dunno, the past week or so, I probably didn't get it.

Nice not to get all that spam, tho...