VINYL-PALOOZA #4: Hollywood Stomp - Los Angeles in Song 1920s - 1940s

While still sticking to my plan of only posting records this whole month (nothing taken from digital sources) I admit I got things a little wrong - today's post comes from 78s, and they're made out of shellac, not vinyl. Oh, whatever, this is all utterly wonderful music no matter what it's made out of, all from the first half of the history of audio recordings. And all the songs are about Los Angeles, in some way. Interesting that the name "Los Angeles" is almost never used - "Hollywood" and "California" were the magic words, apparently.

There's a real warm, uplifting, and, dare I say, glamorous feel to these tunes, some of which are also very funny and/or a bit odd. Click on the artist name for info on them, if any.

Hollywood Stomp - Los Angeles in Song 1920s - 1940s

Al Jolson - California, Here I Come

Freddie Quintette Simmons - Hollywood Bound (this and Spivey's tune are some low-down bluesy jazz)

Victoria Spivey - Hollywood Stomp

Spike Jones - It Never Rains In Sunny California (Spike's novelties were so imaginative, they were practically avant-garde.)

Felix Figueroa & His Orchestra - Pico and Sepulveda (Yep, the classic that Dr Demento played on his show for years is still the most perfectly strange and fun

ny record one could hope to hear.)

Joe Raymond and His Orchestra - Hollywood

Robert Clarey - Hollywood Bowl (This Frenchman survived the Nazis, and went on to star in "Hogan's Heroes"!)

Russ Morgan - California Orange Blossom

Cleo Brown - When Hollywood Goes Black and Tan

Slim Gaillard - Santa Monica Jump

Kay Kyser - When Veronica Plays the Harmonica ("...on the pier at Santa Monica..." Some of the most ludicrously silly hep-cat lyrics EVER h

ere; oh, and Kyser was the male band leader - the female singer is Gloria Wood)

Earl Burtnett & His Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel Orchestra - If I Had A Talking Picture Of You (The Biltmore Hotel still stands in the heart of Downtown LA, and is quite the ornate, opulant pleasure palace.)

Collins and Harlan - Those Charlie Chaplin Feet

Roy Rogers - San Fernando Valley (this singing cowboy really d

id live in the Valley, not far from where I grew up)

Hoosier Hot Shots - Avalon (These guys were almost as screwy as Spike Jones)

Modernaires - Santa Catalina (Island of Romance) (This vocal group is backed by Glen Miller's big band.)

Deanna Durbin & Robert Paige - Californ-I-Ay (lyrics as nutty as it gets)

(artist unknown) - HollyWood Polka

Dorothy Shay (The "Park Avenue Hillbilly") - I've Been To Hollywood

Benny Goodman Orch. - Hooray For Hollywood (You know the tune, but check out the rather sardonic lyrics HERE.)

VINYL-PALOOZA #3: The Complete Cockatiel Training Album

As we continue our all-month thrift-store record binge......Today's album was supposed to be played for your pet bird. It would listen to the repetitious tracks and start to imitate them, whistling and talking just like the record. Side one is nothing but unaccompanied whistling of short song fragments, repeated for three minutes apiece. Side two is great if you want your bird to talk like a bored, unimaginative phone-sex operator. The most annoying album ever made??!?!?!?

Actually, the whistling is well done - it is, after all, by Muzzy Marcellino, one of the biggest whistling stars of his day, back when there was such a thing as a "whistling star." The guy even did the bird calls at Disneyland's "Enchanted Tiki Room."

Did anyone ever buy one of these records for the purpose for which it was created, and not just as a source of goofy samples? Do they actually work?

The Complete Cockatiel Training Album

Whistled Tunes
• Pop Goes the Weasel
  
• Charge - Wolf Whistle
• Dixie
• Star Spangled Banner
• Oh Susanna
• Race Track Call
• Beautiful Dreamer

Spoken Word
• Hello Baby
• I Love You
• Hello Baby, I Love You
• Hey, Good Lookin’
• Want to Play With Me?
  
• Hey, Good Lookin’, Want to Play With Me?
• Hey, Good Lookin’, I Love You, Want to Play With Me?

Thanks to windbag!

VINYL-PALOOZA #2: '60s Guatemalan Garage/Psych

Mid-to-late '60s garage/psychedelic rock seems to be some of the most expensive collectors items out there in record-land, and the more obscure, the better. Well, see how many boxes this one checks: it's so obscure, there's no mention of it anywhere on-line that I can find, it's so obscure it's from, of all places, Guatemala. You got yer heavy fuzzed-out guitar, you got yer wah-wah action, you got yer sleazy organ, and you got yer original songs (no Stones retreads here), and most importantly, you got good songs. Some great songs, actually, with a heavy surf influence - a bit late for surfing in 1969 (or thereabouts) but, hey, they're not as trendy as los norte Americanos down there in Central America. If this can't make collectors cream their jeans, I don't know what can.

Side one kicks things off with a massive fuzz-fest that is virtually a one-chord

song, allowing Armando de Leon

Flores a chance to go to town on his guitarra. The cheesy organ on the second song practically takes things into Herb Albert territory (which is fine by me), and only by the third track do we finally get some vocals, and what fine harmonies they are. The 4th song is fast and frantic, but with a definite Latin feel to the melody, distinguishing it from the usual "Louie Louie" clones. "Luna de Xelaju" is an atmospheric waltz-to-rocker with evocative tremoloed guitar, and "Genesis" is another upbeat instro.

Plenty of awesomeness right there, but the medley that takes up all of side two completely shreds - from the standards "Telstar" and "Penetration" to scads of unknown (to my gringo ears) Latin American gems, The Electronic Fountains deliver as perfect an 18 minute set of garage/psych/Latin/surf as one could hope for. Whatever the tune is that starts at around 10:30 (EDIT: actually, I meant the tune that goes from 13:30-15:00), it's now one of my favorite songs. What more could one ask for? Better sound quality, I suppose - the vinyl's worn. But you're never gonna find a copy of it. Bidding starts at..?

ELECTRONICOS LA FUENTE (Google Drive)

ELECTRONICOS LA FUENTE (The Box)


 

VINYL-PALOOZA #1: Space Age Lounge Pop A-go-go!!

It's Vinyl Month here at M4M. Yep, in an attempt to pick up the slack after technical difficulties have kept me from posting much here lately, I'm gonna go thru my 12 inch black round thingies and spend the month featuring some weird old records of drool-worthy obscurity, lovingly hand-ripped from crusty old vinyl on to my new computer (Umm...tell me if the new recording software sounds ok, ok?) Record Store Day is coming up, after all.

We post all kinds of music here, but one thing we can all agree on is the grooviness of '60s Space Age/lounge/ pop. Albums of this sort have been some of the most downloaded 'round these parts, and this one has it all: futuristic Perrey/Kingsley-like keyboards, discotheque dance energy, Roger Roger-esque wackiness, lounge jazz, Latin rhythms, and sample-able funk grooves. It was released by the British library label Studio 1, who had ties to a German company, and I do notice some rather Teutonic-looking names in the writing credits. Otherwise, there's nothing else I've been able to find out about these most talented chaps.

The George King/Joe Corney Organ Sounds

Belated Japanese Tribute Post

I don't want to tell you about this wonderful work of genius, I want y'all to be surprised. Dig:

Read All About It. 

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...