LES IS MORE

Les Paul is truly a man who needs no introduction. But, although his electric guitar and multi-track recording innovations have made him a living legend, his music is rarely heard. And that's a shame - a casual listen to his late '40s and '50s hits reveal a true mad genius at work. There's a whacked-out, almost Spike Jones or Carl Stalling-like level of lunacy to some of his records, often done with no-one else but Les, his guitars, and gadgets performing. Years before the Chipmunks, he was playing guitar solos at half-speed, then speeding them up for novel effect. Building his own studio, creating his own guitar effects, playing proto-rockabilly years before Elvis - this was pretty avant-garde stuff, yet he played everything with a light touch that made it accessible to mainstream America.

He was never really pegged as a novelty or experimental artist because he always made sure his wife, singer Mary Ford, was on hand to lend a smooth, romantic sheen to many of his records. Indeed, they were one of the biggest selling artists of their day. Ask any older relative who remembers America in the '40s and '50s. Believe me, they've heard of Les Paul and Mary Ford, and could probably sing a bit of "High High The Moon" or "Vaya Con Dios" to you.

These two records are Les at his intrumental best. "Lover" starts off low-key, (if eccentric with those Chipmunk guitars) then after a minute, explodes into Esquivel-like lunacy. And "Brazil" almost sounds like glitchy electronica played over an exotica rhythm section. It's hard to believe that these were recorded by one man, and in 1948.

Les Paul: "Lover"
Les Paul: "Brazil"

Les and Mary had a radio show in 1949-50 that allowed them to stretch out beyond pop song formula and into surreal humor, as this short excerpt demonstrates:

The Les Paul Show "The Case Of The Missing Les Paulverizer"

The above tracks are taken from the excellent collection The Best of the Capitol Masters: 90th Birthday Edition. Mary Ford died in 1977. Les Paul is 92 years old, and still performs weekly in New York City.

TESLA COIL TUNES

Tesla Coils do more then just look cool shooting up electrical arcs in mad scientist's laboratories. The Austin, TX based science society known as The Geek Group can actually get them to play music. As this video demonstrates, output from two towering Teslas have been modulated from a control unit in order to generate the tones you hear. All that means is you get a light show and sounds from the same instrument. The buzzy music is kinda what you'd expect from a giant electrical gadget.

The Geek Group: Super Mario Theme

More Tesla music from another group of enthusiasts:

Steve Ward: video
Steve Ward: music

Now if only these guys would get together and jam with the 1-bit and tape-record folks...

MUSIC FOR (AND BY) ROBOTS

Calling DJ HickoryDickoryDoc and Strictly Kev's two hour-long robot-themed extravaganzas "dj mixes" doesn't really do justice to them. At times they're really densely-layered sound collages as much as anything. Kev (of DJ Food fame) and DJHDD mine the fertile field of '50s/'60s Space Age records, layering spoken-word/comedy, movie/tv clips, children's records, Dictionaraoke, old new wave, sound effects, '70s funk, and other recorded ephemera over the likes of Jean-Jacques Perrey, Bruce Haack, and Frank Comstock. On HDD's "Robots R Computers" some modern beats hold it all together, but Kev's is more strictly retro-licious.

Robot mixes - Downloads and tracklisting (which don't begin to list everything used) available here.

ONE-BIT MUSIC

You've heard the rinky-dink sounds of 8-bit video game music? Howzabout one-bit music?

Tristan Perich is an artist and composer from New York who takes the most primitive Radio Shack-type electronics imaginable and packages them in empty cd cases, which can then be listened to with heaphones. One would think it would be too primitive to be musical. One would be wrong. He's posted some mp3s on his site, like this thoroughly danceable cover of a Fischer-Spooner song:

Tristan Perich: "Just Let Go"

The One-Bit Groovebox crew from the Boston area can actually tell you how to make one-bit music of your own. Too bad there's not much music on their site because the one mp3 sample they did provide is wild:

One-Bit Groovebox: demo


Thanks to J-Unit 1!

JALTARANG: BOWLING FOR MUSIC

Jaltarang, one of the world's most obscure musical instruments, is a collection of 16 bowls filled with varying amounts of water that are struck with sticks. It's sound is delicate, but rhythmically propulsive. Really quite lovely.

Indian tabla percussion-driven ragas are commonly performed on jaltarang, but so are Indonesian influenced gamelon-style sounds. I can't really figure out where it comes from, actually - it's so ancient, we may never know.

India's Milind Tulankar is one of the few virtuosos still playing jaltarang and has a number of cds but, fittingly for such an esoteric tradition, I'll be darned if I can figure out how to order them. At least he provides a number of samples and video clips on his "Sounds" page. Listen to:

Puriya Kalyan: Exciting, fast, hypnotic; and that tabla player's going nuts...

365 PROJECT: DISCO SICKNESS

Only two months left in Otis Fodder's 365 Project! I contributed todays' post, an album's worth of "Disco Sickness." Lounge singers, ethnic acts, rock'n'rollers, easy-listening band leaders, children's music makers - everyone went disco in the late '70s, and this is my bottom-feeding collection of the best of the worst.

SATAN'S TOY PIANO

One more for Halloween: Twink, The Toy Piano Band, has posted a version of the "Theme To Rosemary's Baby" on his site, and it's a treat, not a trick. Krzysztof Komeda (as Christopher Komida) composed the score to the classic 1968 shocker and died a year later. Coincidence?!

A toy piano might seem an odd choice for a spooky soundtrack theme, but children's instruments have been used in horror scores before, e.g.: a wind-up children's music box set against slightly atonal music = creepy.

And while you're on his "MUSIC" page, be sure to check out the other bonus songs on the bottom of the page: covers of Devo's all-time classic "Beautiful World," and Harold Faltomeyer's "Axel F."

It's a limited-time offer, probably coming down sometime in early November, so grab it now.

Twink: "Theme To Rosemary's Baby"

IT'S MONSTER SURFING TIME

There are those little things that make life worth living, things that make you want to drop down onto your knees and thanks your lucky stars that you're alive. Things like knowing that there's an actual '60s rock record called "It's Monster Surfing Time."

Ah, yes, how I love early rock - think Coldplay could come up with a title that cool? Monsters, surfing, that's all you need to rock 'n' roll. It's been kinda awful lately here in southern California, so let's celebrate Halloween with one of Los Angeles' great gifts to the world, surf music, and listen to all the greatest songs ever recorded with both "monster" and "surf" in the title.

Deadly Ones - It's Monster Surfing Time
Gene Moss And The Monsters - Surf Monster
The Phantom Surfers - Monster From The Surf
Sex With Lurch - Monster Surf Party
Don Hinson & The Rigamorticians - Monster Surf Stomp
The Abominable Surfmen - Monster Surfer

DIGITAL DEBRIS

Tim from RadioClash has a new podcast that's right up our alley: "It's a new eclectic experimental music & art podcast...orphan audio and charity shop/thriftstore finds, outsider art and podsafe music. And intermixed is various finds from the Internet and elsewhere - YouTube, performance, spoken word records, radio and TV, stories and poetry."

The first show is up and it's quite properly mental. No playlist up yet, but I recognized some things from the 365Project like a school marimba version of "Popcorn," Ken Nordine, Al Tijuana & His Jewish Brass (Ha! I actually have that one on vinyl) and some home recordings. Also: an electronically processed version of that "leave Britney alone" rant, some hilariously awful Japanese pop, Ergo Phizmiz (I think), hissy old 78s - you get the idea. Weee! My head is swimming.

Digital Debris

VIDEO GAME SYMPHONY

Bob Ostertag has been an avant-garde composer and improviser for over a quarter-century, but he has just released what might be my fave piece of his yet - w00t, a 50-minute recording using only sampled sounds and music from some 20-odd video games. Non-geeks, take note - even if you don't recognize any of it, it's still an amazing bit of utterly mental madcap 'tard-tronica. Impatient? Then fast-forward to around 26 minutes in for a real fun glitchy noise-pop blowout.

Sez Bob: "The w00t music began as the sound for Special Forces, a live cinematic performance by Living Cinema (Pierre Hébert and Bob Ostertag), which addressed the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006." Huh?!

Bob Ostertag: w00t


Thanks again to solcofn!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPUTNIK pt2

"Space Songs" is an absolutely wonderful late '50s album that was part of a series of "Singing Science" records that a very nice chap named Jef Poskanzer has put on-line for your downloading pleasure. Thank God(zilla) for the internet - my big sis had this album when I was a kid and I was thrilled to find it again.

Tom Glazer (the guy who wrote "On Top of Spaghetti") and Dottie Evans sing such swell songs as "Why Does the Sun Shine," a song that should sound familiar to you They Might Be Giants fans. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of (as the Russians pronounced it) Shpootnik, I recommend listening to "Beep Beep."

The Vinyl Frontier: Mashups from Outer Space is an excellent various-artists collection of sci-fi themed toe-tappers that includes a tune that samples one of Glazer & Evans' "Space Songs."

Juxtaposeur: Space Dictation

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SPUTNIK pt1

Yep, it's been exactly a half-century since the first spacecraft was launched. The Soviet Sputnik satellite not only kicked off the space race, it also inspired a San Francisco newspaper columnist to dub members of the Beat Generation "beatniks." And where would we be without beatniks, dad?

The Duece Project, an awesome radio show that specializes in sounds of the Space-Age, wrote us requesting some hi-fi sci-fi (we love requests, by the way) so let's blast off, space cadets.

We'll turn first to the astounding 6-disk collection of '50/'60s Cold Era era artifacts "Atomic Platters." Among the songs about nuclear war and those dastardly Commies are a few tunes about our birthday boy:

Jerry Engler and the Four Ekkos: Sputnik (Satellite Girl) - Rockabilly! Squares beware.
Roosevelt Sykes: Sputnik Baby - Solid r'n'b, baby.
Al Barkle with the Tri-Tones: Sputnik II - Another rocker for space-age greasers.
Ray Anderson and the Homefolks: Sputniks And Mutniks - I don't know what a "Mutnik" is, but I do know this hillbilly country toe-tapper features the least correct use of the word "ironic" until Alanis Morrisette came along.

To be continued...

ELVIS LIVES! (UNLESS HE DOESN'T...)

Back on Elvis Death Day (August 16), I posted a dead-Elvis tribute album on WFMU's Beware of the Blog, which yesterday prompted a nice Maniac to point out an Elvis song-poem written by one N. Ruth Mills, who posts her poems on a site called Whispering Pines Poetry. From what I gather by reading her poems, she's a grandma, likes eagles, and is presumably Southern, since a Nashville cat named Buddy Sherriff sang it for her.

There were a million dead-Elvis songs, but this is one of the few that suggests he might still be alive: "Elvis oh Elvis/You have been seen here and there/In a crowd on a street/A glimpse of you most anywhere"

Buddy Sherriff/N. Ruth Mills: "Elvis Is The King"

HOW TO PLAY CASSETTES ON YOUR TURNTABLE

Michael Oster is mental. And good for him. We need more visionaries like him with perhaps more then a few screws loose.

Whilst looking for some sound effects, I came across Oster's website F7Sound which does, in fact, sell sound effects CDs, but what caught my eye was a page on his invention, the tape-record, and how to make one:

- Unspool some of your old cassettes (come on, you're never gonna play that Nu Shooz cassingle anymore, are you?)
- Glue this big random mess onto a piece of cardboard - this is your "tape-record."
- Replace your turntable needle with a cassette deck head.
- Put tape-record on turntable and play.

Don't you want to know what it sounds like? I thought you did.

Michael Oster: Tape-Record #2

So what are you waiting for, people? I expect a full tape-record compilation album in a year. Get going!

PEOPLE LIKE US & ERGO PHIZMIZ

Singing original lyrics over sampled music is routine in the rap/r'n'b world, but, strangely enough, not elsewhere. Well, imagine a band of circus dwarfs breaking into an antique store, playing 78s on all the Victrolas, and singing whimsical lyrics about monkeys ringing the dinner bell and one's granny being on fire.

Okay, that was a pretty silly description. But, hey you try to describe "Perpetuum Mobile," a full-length album collaboration by two singular British eccentrics - People Like Us (who we first wrote about here), and Ergo Phizmiz. Despite the state-of-the-art computer recording/editing techniques used to make this album, there's a timeless feel to the music, as banjos plink and plonk, accordions wheeze, and Hawaiian guitars sway in the breeze. The mashup world may favor modern dance beats, but polka and chacha rhythms are more likely to be heard here. The density of these collages rewards numerous and careful listens - there is a lot of stuff going on here.

A few of these tracks are available on a free download EP, "Honeysuckle Boulevard," where you can hear such peculiarly catchy ditties as:

"Fat Henry's Mambo"

But otherwise you have to get the CD, and well you should - the packaging (printed in India) is as handsome and unique as the music.

People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz: "Air Hostess" - snatches of "Suspicion" and Nelson Riddle's "Lolita" theme give this one somewhat of a '60s go-go feel. Irresistible.

THE STRANGE SOUNDS OF THE SONOVOX

When one thinks of electronically altering the human voice, one usually thinks of the Vocoder, which came to prominence in late '70s/early '80s disco, funk, and New Wave records, Zapp's "More Bounce To The Ounce" and Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" being two classic examples. Incredibly, a precurser to the Vocoder was invented back in the mid-Thirties. The Sonovox used small speakers attached to the singer's throat that were patched through music instruments - horns, guitars, etc. The singer mouthed the words of a song, and by changing the shape of the mouth and position of the tongue, changed the sound of the instrument. It created a pretty weird robot-voice-like effect.

Musicians in the '30s and '40s didn't really know what to do with it, so it was usually used on children's records or, as on The Who's "Sell Out" album, radio ads. But, amazingly, one Big Band leader used it to mind-boggling effect:

Kay Kyser & his Orchestra: from "You'll Find Out"

This performance is from a 1940 film called "You'll Find Out" featuring the dream cast of Boris, Bela, and Peter Lorre. But the Sonovox was practically the star of the film, providing music, wind and ghost sound effects.

KiddieRecords.com has posted several vintage children's records that used the sonovox - look for Chug Chug in Lollypop Town, Little People's Band in Forestland, and Whizzer the Talking Airplane. Although you may not want to play them for your kids. As Ford from KiddieRecords says, "The creepy sonovox vocal effects may be a bit much for small fry, so proceed with caution."

EL LOCO NINOS DE meterRruidos

One common complaint about "modern art" is: "My kids could do that!" And what's wrong with that? Children have the purest motives - they don't even think of themselves as artists, they just do.

All kids are naturally, compulsively artistic - drawing, acting out dramatic scenarios (with dolls, army men, etc), and playing music. If child's play is rehearsing the survival skills we'll need as adults (as it is with everyone else in the animal kingdom), then obviously imagination is one of the most important traits we can develop. Most of us lose this as we get older, then have to relearn the "proper" way to make art. Picasso said that it took him years to learn to draw like a child again.

From our amigos at the lirios blog and podcast, chroniclers of all things cool and groovy en espanol: "We have just finished a noise workshop for kids (between 4 and 11) entitled meterRruidos. As part of the workshop the kids made a record..." You might be saying, kids need help making noise?! But this isn't the usual running around, screaming, banging on pots and pans kid noise, but a strangely discipled, almost formal sounding undertaking, performed on unidentifiable "instruments." It's certainly unlike any other children's music I've heard - avant-garde abstractions that could be played by adults. Although the final track is a bit of a giveaway. They really cut loose on this one:

meterRruidos: Group 2-2

365 PROJECT: BACH FOR PERCUSSION

My latest contribution to the 365 Project (daily obscure out-of-print mp3 treats for the year) is up now:

Bach For Percussion

Listening to this fascinating '50s gem makes one realize how formulaic most music is...

MARIMBAS MARIMBAS MARIMBAS!

Marimbas marimbas I love marimbas! Which are like giant xylophones! Masanga are a 7-piece group, who except for a drummer, play all sorts of marimbas - enormous bass ones, baritone, and various smaller ones, creating a veritable marimba orchestra. Are there really people who think this is "weird" and only want to hear guitars and pianos? This stuff is rock'n'roll - three-chord tunes pounded out with mad energy, making me want to jump and dance like a silly person.

Masanga are lead by a music prof from my alma mater Cal State Northridge (go Matadors!) and the band is composed of his students. Don't worry, this isn't bland "World Music" - said band leader Ric Alviso studied in Zimbabwe and brings an authentic African energy and excitement to the music. "Skokiana" is a version of an old Zimbabwean tune that, as "Skokkian," was a big American hit in the '50s.

Masanga: "Skokiana"

Strangely enough, only days before I discovered this group in live performance and bought their album, I had heard a remix of Louis Armstrong's version of "Skokkian" by DJ Dale B. It's a great bit of Ursula 1000-ish lounge-tronica, which you can listen to or download here.

BANANA FREAK OUT

You never know where you might find interesting, unusual music. I certainly wasn't expecting to find anything other then dog food and trash bags when I was shopping at Target recently, but standing at the checkout line, whilst looking at the tabloid headlines, I spied a collection of wild, weird wonders of classic Afro-Cuban sounds from the '60s and '70s released through the "Fania Signature" series. Fania, of course, was the Latin music powerhouse that literally filled stadiums with it's all-star roster: Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, Mongo Santamaria, etc., and the new "Fania Signature" reissue CDs spotlight different styles like "Salsa," "Latin Jazz," and the oddity I found with the innocuous name "Latin Soul."

A more accurate title would be "The Rock/Soul/Funk-Influenced Psychedelic Oddball Novelty Tracks That Don't Fit On Our Other Collections," but I guess "Latin Soul" was more commercial (and shorter). There's plenty of boogaloo, and that's awesome, considering how little boogaloo has made it to CD. Latin music snobs look down their noses at this stuff - it was raw, wild, 3-chord party music, often sung in English to make it even more "un-authentic." Like '60 garage rock, punk, and Miami Bass, everyone hated it except for the people.

The utterly insane La Lupe demolishes Peggy Lee's "Fever," el maestro Tito Puente sings the praises of his "Fat Mama," the band Harlem River Drive drops by to add some funky flavor to the salsa, and there's a Moog-enhanced instrumental that could be (but wasn't) the theme to a Latino version of a blaxploitation film (but who would have been the star? Freddie Prinz? Ricardo Montalban would have been too old...Cheech Marin? Hmmm...)

The then-raging psychedelic pscene inspired two of the album's most head-scratching (if foot-tapping) highlights: The Lat-Teens "Now You Know," a shing-a-ling sing-along that promotes pot smoking, and drops in a story about a Vietnam soldier who lost his legs that may or may not be relevant; and "Banana Freak Out" by George Guzman. As for "Banana Freak Out"...it's called "Banana Freak Out." What more do you need to know? I'll just say that it lives up to it's title.

The Lat-Teens "Now You Know"
George Guzman "Banana Freak Out"

So there ya go - Target. Anything going on at Wal-Mart I should know about?

DAFFY'S NOT HALF THE DUCK HE USED TO BE

Been getting requests for more Bugs Bunny and friends singing Beatles classics since I first wrote about 'em, so here's a song featuring Daffy Duck. An introspective, chin-stroking Daffy, perhaps sitting at a bar trying to spill his guts to the bartender. However, wacky events and their attendant funny sound effects keep interrupting the Sinatra vibe. It's not easy being a cartoon character.

Daffy Duck: Yesterday

Still don't have the Bugs and Friends do Elvis album but it's on my list. In the Forties and Fifties, Spike Jones used to regularly demolish pop music. Listening to this wonderfulness makes me wish we had more of this kind of creative irreverance. Yes, there's the Weird Al song parodists, but Spike & Co. had a sonic assault - they didn't parody lyrics so much as they rearranged the music for maximum anarchic effect. What song can't be improved upon by dropping in silly sound effects? Bugs and Friends Sing Celine Dion? I'd listen.

HELP ME RHONDA

Now that I have the space, let's post the entire contents of Rhonda's "Fairy Tale Lost" EP. The song "Rage" was mighty popular around these parts, and in case you're wondering if the whole collection can compete with it, believe me, every song is truly mind-boggling.

She's still at it since we first wrote about her back in '05, and her website still makes me want to jab icepicks into my eyes. She's apparently added videos, but sorry, I didn't have the nerve to look.

UPDATE 4/6/10: Individual files no longer work, but here's a zip file of the entire ep:

Rhonda: "Little Girl Lost" ep

Rhonda: Rowdy Girl
Rhonda: Equally Manic
Rhonda: Rage
Rhonda: My Dress Code
Rhonda: Intercepted Kiss
Rhonda: Get Married
Rhonda: Fairy Tale Lost

Speaking of our favorite divas, does anyone have Sondra Prill's videos? Most of them were tragically taken down off of the YouTubes.


Thanks again to Alexis!

KEEPIN' IT SURREAL

Bizarre juxtapositions galore! Day-glo cartoon nightmares, sick humor, cult films, twisted tunes, today all from Los Angeles-based artists for some reason. It's this heatwave, I tells ya - our brains are melting. Now it's your turn:

DJ PaulV might be a top L.A. club and radio spin-meister, but no designer shades, fur coats, and posses for him - he's got a silly streak wide as Sunset Blvd., as evidenced by his latest mix "Din Daa Da Axel." Twink's toy-piano/toy sound-effects version of the '80s instro hit "Axel F" is absurd enough, but mixed with George Kranz's nonsensical "Din Daa Daa" vocals pushes it all into cartoon territory.

DJ PaulV: "Din Daa Da Axel"

The Illuminoids are not just a secret society of conspirators, they're also a crew with ties to both classic punk and lounge-revivalists LuxuriaMusic.com, and their latest tune shows just the kitsch-meets-punk aesthetic you'd expect: John Water's notorious underground film "Pink Flamingos" meets the Beatles over a stomping beat from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The Egg Lady meets the Egg Man, and Satan dropping by only adds to the whole wrong-ness of it all. 666, sick sick sick!

The Illuminoids: "Satan Said Walrus Eggs"

If any film can challenge "Pink Flamingos" in the controversy department it would be David Lynch's waking nightmare "Eraserhead." Lo! Peter Iver's song "In Heaven" from the film (and sound fx, dialogue) vs The Crystal Method's boomin' "Ready For Action" and one of the most twisted artifacts of the LA punk scene, Geza X's "Mean Mr. Mommy Man" = fun weirdness:

RIAA: "Eraserhead Seranade."

David Lynch is the king of cinema surrealism and I don't want to hear any of you smart-alecks say Luis Bunuel. Yeah, I'll give you his early Dali collaborations, but most of Bunuel's stuff wasn't really surreal - he was primarily a satirist. Lynch usually has no such agenda. MR. FAB HAS SPOKEN!

CURE COVERS CAVALCADE!!

The Cure are a kind of alternative Grateful Dead, inspiring worshipful devotion in their fans, and bewilderment in the rest of the population. Though I admit to being in the second camp, the ones largely unmoved by Robert Smith's tummy-ache vocals, I enjoy a kooky Kure kover, and coincidentaly there have been several coming my way lately:

Rockabye Baby: "Close To You" - From "Lullabye Renditions of The Cure"

The Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra: Robots Can't Cry - "Boys Don't Cry" for the cybernetic age

The Supersonicos: "Killing An Arab" - Surf guitar RAWK, even throws in some "Miserlou." This band is from Uruguay (!), and "The Supersonicos" is how "The Jetsons" is translated into Spanish.

I suppose The Fall could also be considered an alternative Grateful Dead, but I haven't heard any kooky Fall kovers.

MUSIC THERAPY FOR THE MENTALLY ILL

Adriano Primadei is a music therapist from Florence, Italy who has some interesting mp3s with his on-line article detailing his work with a teenage boy named Stefano. "His diagnosis is not clear...His language is very limited, bizarre and non-communicative. He is unhealthily attached to his mother and becomes distressed when she is absent. He tends to favour relationships with mainly soft objects...He shows different types of stereotypy, such as flapping his hands and rocking, and vocal stereotypy...in the form of babbling or small obsessively repeated melodic cells."

Primadei plays guitar lying flat on a table so Stefano can join in. Stefono's haunting, otherworldly vocals can be heard here:

Adriano Primadei & Stefano: Example2

365 PROJECT: ELVIS TRIBUTE SONGS

My latest contribution to Otis Fodder's 365 Project on WFMU's website is up today:

Elvis Tribute Song-Poems

UPDATE: Entire album now up!

TUNES 4 TOTZ Week, Day 5: Mountain Park

Mountain Park was an amusement park in Holyoke, Massachusetts that went out of business in 1987. In it's heyday, which began in the early '50s, it had a number of fun houses and "dark rides" where park-goers rode in open roller-coaster-like cars on tracks through dark rooms past weird pictures and figures and smashed through doors as pre-recorded soundtracks played. A former employee of Mountain Park saved the looping 8-track soundtrack tapes.

The low fidelity sound of the tapes, coupled with the pictures on the site of the park in various states of decay, create a wonderfully weird, melancholy atmosphere.

The Mystery Ride: This ride featured everything from bizarre monsters and dinosaurs to visions of Hell(!) but the sound was "always a mix of incessant drums and various jungle animals."

Out of This World: A sci-fi trip accompanied by '50s-sounding electronic bloops and bleeps.

Pirates Den: This poor-man's Pirates of the Caribbean "had the most elaborate soundtrack, but it never quite worked right."

Zoltan was a fortune-telling machine that played recordings of "fortunes" in a Bela Lugosi-like accent.

"Trip The Light Fantastic" Go dancing. But don't overdo it!




Much thanks to solcofn!

TUNES 4 TOTZ Week, Day 4: TWINK

We first wrote about Twink The Toy Piano Band back in Nov. '05 when Mr. Twink was taking toy pianos to new places by mixing in sampled old kiddie records. He really blasts off into the futuristic future with his new album "Ice Cream Truckin'," which features a different producer on each track, each giving the plinky-plonky sounds of toys an electronic makeover (except for the last song's unexpected blast of guitar rawk).

As the title suggests, ice-cream truck music is the album's inspiration - all titles refer to frozen treats, and the album's lead-off track is a version of the theme that plays from the Mr. Softee truck's loudspeakers, letting the kids of the neighborhood know that the ice cream man is here.

I'm not familiar with any of the mixers involved except for Ergo Phizmiz and Mochipet, but if you've heard those two loonies then you know we're not exactly dealing with some slick Paul Oakenfold-type affair. There's a wide, wild diversity of styles here, including the psychedelic psounds of "Sugar Cone," which feature not only trippy echoing toy piano, but a little munchkin alien voice crying out "Ice cream! Ice cream!"

Twink: "Sugar Cone" (produced by Don Limpio)

On the pop side, here's a top bit of techno-pop that Chuck E. Cheese should spin if they ever hold raves:

Twink: "Fizzy Peach" (produced by Rainbow Maze)

TUNES 4 TOTZ Week, Day 3: Adolescence

Here's some school marching band versions of popular favorites performed by the youth of Litchfield (MN) High School:

"She Shook Me (All Night Long)"
"Mr Roboto"
"Crazy Train"

AC/DC, Styx, and Ozzy have never sounded so, well, polite.

TUNES 4 TOTZ Week, Day 2: Ages 5-10

"Da Hip Hop Raskalz" is an album of slammin' jointz written and performed by Harlem schoolkids ages 5-10 years old. Dave Soldier, the guy who got actual elephants to play music, provided the instruments, showed them how to program the drum machines and synths, and let them do the rest. It's like grown-up hip-hop but better - instead of bitches and bling, they rhyme about dinosaurs and candy, two subjects I certainly find more interesting. They designed the cover art, too, on computers.

I especially like the trio of eight-year-old girls calling themselves Sweetness. They got the dance sensation that's sweeping the nation, a genuinely catchy bit of bubblegum. Just don't tell your dentist:

Sweetness: "Do The Lollipop"

I used to love rap, but have found it increasingly depressing since the early '90s. Ah, but Da Hip Hop Raskalz are wonderful. I hope they never grow up.

TUNES 4 TOTZ Week, Day 1: Infancy

Here's a phrase that made me snort a laugh and exclaim "Wha...?"

"Lullabye Renditions of Metallica"

And that's not all. Recently the market's been flooded with a series called "Rockabye Baby." Each album is dedicated to the music of a single artist (The Cure, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Green Day, among others), all played as low-key instrumentals. Chime-like glockenspiel and vibraphone, and toy piano are predominately featured, with very little percussion.

But I don't know how effective they would be as lullabies - the music of folks like Metallica and Nine Inch Nails sometimes feature jarring chord progressions and dissonant intervals that, when played "lullabye" style, sound more suitable for an "Omen"-like evil-kid horror movie soundtrack then anything you would actually want to use for lulling your beloved tots to sleep. These are quite nice, though:

"One" from Lullaby Renditions of Metallica
"Hurt" from Lullaby Renditions of Nine Inch Nails

I have no idea who's doing these, or who the intended audience is. The chill-out/ambient crowd? Novelty-loving weird music fans? Actual kids?

WE'VE HAD SOME "WORK DONE"...

...as the Beverly Hills housewives say. Do we look as young as Joan Rivers?

This October will be the 3rd birthday of this here web-log, and I was getting a little tired of the old look. The facelift is a little easier on the eyes, no? And then there's the cryptic "24" up on top with pictures of unknown objects (maps? diagrams?) to confound and amaze you as you listen to the music...

WHAT'S POLISH FOR "CREEPY'?

Here's a video clip from a 1965 black-and-white Polish film called "Salto" featuring a band playing a truly nerving-wracking instrumental piece. It starts off with a bass line as creepy as the theme from "Jaws" and, as the other instruments come in, it all becomes increasingly disturbing.

The dancers look groovy in their boss '60s suits and beehive hair-dos, but they move around like zombies performing some black magick ritual. Truly the reason why the letters "wtf" were invented.

Wojciech Kilar: Salto theme (video)

Wojciech Kilar: Salto theme (mp3) - You axed for it!

THE COACH-POTATO EXOTICA OF M'LUMBO

You gotta wonder how many bowls New York group M'Lumbo were smoking when they came up with this idea: "Dude, I got it! [do they say 'dude' in New York?] Let's play exotic/African versions of classic TV show themes!" Amidst much giggling and Keanu-esque "Whoah"s (or so I imagine) they did just that.

Their album "Sacrifices To The Neon Gods" is a kind of fake cargo-cult hymn collection, as if a primitive African/islander/someplace-dark-and-mysterious people picked up TV signals and began worshipping The Flinstones, The Addams Family, and Mickey Mouse. Hey it could happen! There actually is a South Seas island that still worships Prince Charles. I'd take James Bond any day.

There are horns-aplenty in this 6-man combo, and much improvising, but don't expect your local jazz station to spin it unless their djs do things like play a Tom Waits record at 78rpm on one turntable and a platter of Pygmy field recordings on the other at the same time. And if you think I'm exaggerating that level of hectic-ness, take a listen:

M'Lumbo: "Medley: The Addams Family Theme/Jingle Bells/I Dream Of Jeannie/Perdidia/Night On Bald Mountain"

"Hawaii Five-O," "Get Smart" and "I Love Lucy" are among the other themes that get creatively demolished. Headache-inducing if you're not in the mood, but otherwise, as much fun as a ride on a souped-up merry-go-round while goofin' on cough syrup.

Folkloric Bootlegs & Mashups A-Go-Go

FOOLKLEGS: From France comes this various-artists collection of international folk songs mixed and mashed with modern pop stylings guaranteed to piss off hippie folk music purists (yow, if they were upset when Dylan went electric, wait 'til they hear this.) It's not so unusual, though - it's basically the Moby "Play" concept, only stretched to include everything from Tuvan throat singing to the once-trendy (but still glorious) Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares gals, now merged skillfully with the likes of Beck, Timbaland, Cream and Peggy Lee.

Fred Doest "Hacid freak for my peops" Missy Elliot raps over a frantic Hasidic dance from Romania that reminds me of the "Benny Hill" theme; just so mental, it makes me laugh.

Funky Belek "J'entends le loup, le renard et Beyonce - The album's organizer contributes this gem: a traditional Brittany French tune vs. Beyonce's "Crazy" instrumental.

RIAA: "Revelation Fever" - Representing the U.S. of A: bluesman Son House sings an old spiritual over Peggy Lee.

And, in case you didn't see it on BoingBoing, also check out:

"Forgotten Hits," compiled by Simon Iddol, is another various-artists mashup collection exploring forgotten regions of the music world, this time old surf/soul/sleaze/jazz '50s/'60s instrumentals - out of print thrift-store vinyl obscurities mixed with the pop crap you thought you didn't like. But, see, even those maroons in Maroon Five sound as cool as Tom Jones with a groovy '60s go-go beat behind 'em:

DJ Earlybird - This Love Gets Lost

MoogSwings

There's a new album sharity blog specializing in old Moog synth records called:

MoogSwings

It's only been up for 5 days, yet it already has 5 albums posted. Good ones too, like Dick Hyman and Ruth White. Meanwhile, another blog has posted a real obscurity by Synthesizers Unlimited, a British project from 1974. Awesome space-age bachelor-pad sleaze, available

here.

And while we're at it, a couple of days ago Brett at EggCityRadio posted six count-'em SIX Mort Garson classics here and here, including "Electronic Hair Pieces," one of the first Moog records I ever bought: 48 cents at the now-departed Record Trader in Reseda in the late '80s. Aw, the 48 cent bin - that's where all the good stuff was...

Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra - 5 Disk Album

I first wrote about the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra back in '05: "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."

It all gets far more funny, bizarre, and dada-esque with the release of their debut four-disk (plus secret bonus disk) self-titled album. Apart from the music, the sheer amount of stuff that comes with it is insane, e.g.: a giant booklet with "An essay by Popular Science's music editor, Gene LaMont, our Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame Acceptance Speech, actual lyrics to all of our songs, and details about our Songwriting Contest for Artists and Musicians," as well as track-by-track audio commentary on enhanced CDs, like those DVD tracks where actors and filmmakers comment on the movie as it progresses:

The Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra "I Stole Your Daddy's Time Machine (Commentary)"
The Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra "I Stole Your Daddy's Time Machine"

The music is simple electronic pop, and almost every song made me laugh. There's no point in trying to explain the deadpan, absurdist humor. You either laugh hearing a robot speaking in tongues or you don't:

The Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra "Speaking in Tongues"

A list of influences that includes Andy Kaufman, Wesley Willis, They Might Be Giants, master Surrealist Rene Magritte, and Monty Python should tell you where these San Diegans are coming from.

A few commercials appear from apparently actual businesses sponsoring the album. The conceptual joke of the bonus fifth disk will not be revealed here, but I will say that the live disk consists of what appear to be the same studio recordings featured on the previous disks, only with crowd sounds dubbed over it! And what a crowd:

The Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra "Ornithophobia" "Penguins might be poisonous birds"

Overall, one of the most over-the-top feats of silliness I've encountered lately. What are they gonna do for the second album?

ANTON MAIDEN

Checking out the thoroughly excellent, if rather unlikely, Iron Maiden mashup album, "Number of the Boots," I was reminded of Anton Maiden. Some of you might remember this Swedish teenager when he gained a bit of internet "fame" in the late '90s/early '00s singing earnest, if inept, versions of Maiden's headbanging '80s metal over the most low-tech electronic backing tracks possible.

Anton Maiden: "Children of the Damned"

This stuff's a real crack-up, but Anton really did crack up - like so many outsider musicians, Anton had mental problems, and he killed himself in 2003.

Iron Maiden's music really is the kind of over-looked kitsch most in need of creative recycling, and "Number of the Boots" organizer Celebrity Murder Party have crafted a really impressive track: it first turns the goofball satanism of Maiden's "Number of the Beast" into cheezy house music (sure to infuriate metal-heads). That would be amusing enough, but it then develops into a mixture of the thematically-connected "Sympathy For The Devil" by the Stones with George Michael and, gulp, George Bush. I'm telling ya, it works a treat:

Celebrity Murder Party - Sympathy for the Soul of the Beast



Thanks again to Radio Clash!

HEAVEN IS A WONDERFUL PLACE

Just heard that Tammy Faye Bakker has died. Well, she's been "Messner" not "Bakker" for a while, but she'll always be Bakker to me.

Most people think of her as the free-spending wife of a crooked philandering televangelist, but in our little corner of the musical world, she is fondly remembered for her contributions to the rich field of Christian children's puppet records, where grown adults sing the praises of the Lord in weird voices. These '70s/'80s records have been amply chronicled here, here ("Praise The Lord" is a particular favorite of mine), here, and this tune from Cool and Strange Music Magazine's Thrift Store Compilation:

Tammy Faye Bakker: "Oops! There Comes a Smile"

No new music here - some of you are probably well aware of these tunes - but spin 'em one more time for Tammy Faye. And ask yourself the question, is "There Comes a Smile" good grammar?

EYE-DISEASE ARIA

I felt kind of bad laughing at this song, since it is courtesy of the Association of International Glaucoma Societies, who, I'm sure, are doing good things to help people with eye diseases. It's called the "Glaucoma Hymn" and is sung with great drama by soprano Melanie Grev, and sports the inspirational lyrics "Glaucoma, Glaucoma, Glaucoma/Constricting vision slowly/Halted by progress/Progress of science/Vision of a world united/Beyond all science knowing." The one-guy-with-a-Casio production doesn't help matters much, either.

Erik Grev: Glaucoma Hymn

"Beyond all science knowing"?

You Gotta HAND It To This Guy...

Another "manualist" squeezing his hands together to make fart-sound music:

Gunecologist

I may have to record audio off some of these videos - he does AC/DC, "Fart of the Bumblebee," James Brown, Iron Maiden, even yet another version of "Popcorn"!

POOR HAMSTER

What's a sure-fire way to get a novelty hit? Write a song about dead animals. Think of all the chart-toppers on Dr. Demento's long-running syndicated novelty music radio show: "Fish Heads," "Dead Puppies," "I'm Looking Over (My Dead Dog Rover)," "Dead Skunk In The Middle Of the Road," etc.

Louis Gentile's "Poor Hamster" will probably be a smash on Dr. D's show, if it isn't already. It's got everything you need in music: it's very funny, gross, throws in sound effects and witty musical quotes, and is done in an oom-pah style with kids singing with a German accent (which is fitting since they are German).

Louis Gentile: "Poor Hamster"

I first heard this song on Gentile's Garageband.com page, where I learned that he is an opera singer. Does he mind that this might be the music that he's most remembered for?

Gentile's site has a page with a German language version on the bottom of the page: Für unsere Deutsche Fans, könnt ihr die original version von "O Hamster" hier anhören!

365 PROJECT: ART CASARA

Otis Fodder asked me to contribute to the year-long festival of out-of-print audio weirdness known as the 365 Project, which caused me to pause: for every day I contribute, that's one day of something I already have. See what I mean? Selfish of me, I know, so here's today's post I contributed:

Art Casara - Hell's lounge singer

And I will endeavor to contribute more, so keep watching the skies!

REQUEST-O-RAMA: DAVID KORESH

Another request to re-up an old post, this one for failed singer/songwriter turned successful doomed cult leader David Koresh. Unlike God, I can answer your prayers:

David Koresh

TOY MUSIC

Strap The Button are a free-wheeling avant/psych/improv group from Wales, but even those not inclined towards such hippie-isms gotta love their piece "Toy Music," which, yes, uses toy instruments (this crew have been known to use curcuit-bent toys as well) in a lovely hypnotic bit of minimilism that suggests Philip Glass for the pre-school set.

Strap The Button: "Toy Music pt1"

Courtesy of the 'net-lable My Formica Table, which has loads of free mps3 of largely instrumental experimental pleasing oddness.

THE HISTORY OF POPCORN

No-one really knows how the song known to millions as "Popcorn" originated. Yes, ancient people, but which ones? Even native American Indians who have performed the song for ages admit that the Great Elders brought them the song. Who were these Great Elders? Indian ancestors? An ancient, forgotten race? Some have even interpreted this to mean that space aliens gave mankind the tune, claiming that no human artistry could produce a song so catchy. In any case, when Western settlers first arrived in America, they heard a version that sounded something like this:

Cab City Combo - Indiancorn

Explorers quickly took the song back to Europe, where it became a drawing-room favorite. The song was known by many names at first, but the phrase "Popcorn," a phonetic version of the Indian words, become the most commonly used.

Trios corpo di Bacco: "Popcorn" (European folk version)

Meanwhile, rural American musicians, upon hearing the Indian versions, started performing the song on folk instruments. It became a hillbilly standard.

Tom Adams "Popcorn" (banjo version)
GlasBlasSing Quintett: "Popcorn" (jug-band version, excerpt)

In Europe, it was spreading from the drawing rooms to the most elegant ballrooms and concert halls. The king of Luxembourg demanded it played at all royal festivals.

Boston Pops: "Popcorn" (orchestral version)

As the 20th Century dawned, New Orleans-based musicians playing a new style called "jazz" adopted it for trumpet. Supposedly, Louis Armstrong would play it, but only after smoking far too many reefers.

Vincent Malone: "Popcorn" (very retarded trumpet version)

Performances of the song were getting increasingly upbeat and danceable. In the Big Band era, it was an a oft-requested dance orchestra number, one of those "songs that got us through World War II."

Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra: "Popcorn"

By now, a snack (made from corn kernels) named after the song was becoming popular, and in the '50s and '60s, the youth were going mad for a new hard-driving style called "rock'n'roll." Once again, "Popcorn" was said to be the driving influence behind the movement. Even as greasy-haired rockers proclaimed "Popcorn is the MOST, daddy-o," politicians were investigating the song's powerful hold. Some even declared it to be a Communist plot. But that didn't stop it from being the soundtrack to countless beach parties, toga parties, hullabaloos, and shindigs.

Treble Spankers: "Popcorn" (surf version)

The invention of the synthesizer brought the song a new burst of popularity in the late '60s and early '70s. One electronic music pioneer, Gershon Kingsely, even gave himself writing credit when the song appeared on albums by his First Moog Quartet. Previously, it had been considered folkloric, "traditional."

First Moog Quartet: "Popcorn" (Moog version)

The '80s and '90s brought r'n'b, rap, techno, and reggae dancehall into the clubs. Not surprisingly, "Popcorn" was considered the inspiration: Afrika Bambatta insisted that "Popcorn" was the blueprint for hip-hop. In Chicago, clubs would play the song over and over for as long as six hours each night, waiting for house music to be invented.

RIAA: "Here Comes The Hot Butter" (Ini Kamoze's "Here Comes The Hot Stepper" vs Hot Butter's electro version of "Popcorn")

Even Britney Spears has the song to thank for one of her biggest hits:

Master Cylinder: "Oh Baby, More Popcorn"

"Popcorn" is, of course, still poppin' to this day. This was only a very rough sketch of the song's development. Hopefully, the recently announced Harvard University Department of Popcorn Studies will shed further light on the immortal tune.

(The preceding work of fiction was inspired by the amazingly thorough Popcorn-Song website, which details everything you need to know about the song. WFMU's Popcorn page doesn't have much info, but it does have alot of mp3s.)

BOOTWERK - A Bastard Pop Tribute To Kraftwerk

Here's a various-artists mashup collection inspired by one of my favorite boyhood bands (not to be confused with boy-bands!), techno-pop pioneers Kraftwerk. Germany's finest really are one of the most visionary groups in history. For decades they were cutting-edge, anticipating a remarkable number of genres and movements - starting with '70s prog, on to New Wave, hip-hop, and eventually rave, they were always relevant and seemed slightly ahead of their time.

Times have caught up with them - home computers aren't quite as futuristic a concept now as they were in 1979 - but those old records have aged very well, if ya ax me.

"Bootwerk" features a host of internet stars (and M4M faves) like Earlybird, DJ Zebra, Dunproofin', ATOM, and ToToM dragging Ralf, Florian and the gang into the new millennium.

RIAA: (Models Gotta) Fight For Their Right (To Mambo) - Kraftwerk - The Model vs. Beastie Boys - Fight For Your Right vs. Tito Puente - Oye Como Va. Probly sounds better after a few mojitos.

Beach Blanket Bootlegs

Here's A non-stop dance party mix of the best surf music mashups the web has to offer.

Beach Blanket Bootleg

(intro) RIAA - Holiday Inn: Cambodia
LCO - Rock Lobster Taffy
Party Ben - Wipeout Taffy
RIAA - Tricky Wipeout
The Who Boys - Fun & Bass
RIAA - Can't Touch This Surfin Safari
Pilchard - High5Music
BuG - Wiggle in Hawaii
The Who Boys - A Song Called Bob
King Cutters - Surf Route Dub Down 101
MarkJ - John B's Holiday
Instamatic - Godlife
DJ Entropy - Rockin Down The Girls
dublxero - Energency of Kokomo
SlackJawedLocal - You Know My Number
Eve Massacre - Red Alert Bird
Messur Chups - Trashmen Upgrade
JetSetAlex - I Like Nitro
DJ Clive$ter - Hawaiian Krupa
RIAA - Aloha Rock

REQUEST: MOOG BREAKBEATS

Had a request to put this back on line. I did...last week. And I forgot to mention it here. DUH.

Here is the original post. Or if you just want the music, here's a zip file of the whole album:

"Moog Breakbeats"
I didn't remember exactly how the original album went, but here's how it goes now:

01 Electronic Concept Orchestra - Grazin In The Grass
02 Walter Sear - Love Child
03 Enoch Light - Pass and I'll Call You
04 Herbie Mann - Pick Up The Pieces
05 The Moog Machine - Jumpin Jack Flash
06 Jerry Styner and Larry Brown - Orbit III
07 John Murtaugh - Slinky
08 les baxter - rachmaninoff prelude in c# minor
09 Robert Byrne - Donna
10 Zeet Band - Gimme 5 Cents Worth Of Love
11 Martin Denny - Yellow Bird
12 claude denjean - na na hey hey kiss him goodbye
13 Enoch Light - Sittin On The Dock of the Bay
14 Hugo Montenegro - Yo Yo
15 Sounds Galactic - Spinning Wheel
16 The John Keating Space Experience - Solitaire
17 Electronic Concept Orchestra - Mah Na Mah Na

For something I just threw together after hearing Robert Moog had died, this certainly has been popular. Perhaps that's not too surprising considering how criminally little of this music has been reissued on CD.

COWBOY SOUL

A black country band?

Cowboy Soul are just that. Some might call these guys the worst kind of Uncle Tom sell-outs. But I think they're keepin' it real, dawg: as we discussed back on the Cowboy Troy post (see the comments), an examination of early American folk music shows plenty of back-and-forth between black musicians and their hillbilly neighbors. The music industry's practice of segregation created the artificial distinction between blues, cowboy and hillbilly styles, or, as the music biz renamed them "race" and "country/western" musics.

From Leadbelly's "I Am A Western Cowboy," to Ray Charles, Charlie Pride, and Los Angeles' own Cowboy Soul, black folks keep butting into country music whether it likes it or not. It's still weird, though, seeing five bruthas, including one in dreads, sporting cowboy hats, string ties and vests, and singing country songs. I just saw these guys today as part of downtown LA's Pershing Square free summer concert series (how's this for rapid reporting, folks?) and I can assure you - they're no joke. No "crossover" rap or drum machine songs, no gimmicky novelties. Just straight-ahead gee-tar twang.

Cowboy Soul - "Worse 20 Minutes": Funny, and quite catchy actually.

PORN FOR THE BLIND

"Porn for the Blind is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to producing audio descriptions of sample movie clips from adult web sites."

Eighth Street Latinas

From Cambridge, MA - home of Harvard University...

BUGS AND FRIENDS SING THE BEATLES

For some utterly silly reason, Tim from Radio Clash asked if I had a copy of "Bugs and Friends Sing The Beatles," a collection of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and other Warner Bros. cartoon characters singing the Fab Four. Why would he think I could possibly own such a ridiculous album? I mean, I do, but that's besides the point! Honestly, I've been meaning to trade it in for something serious. Maybe some Leonard Cohen. That's how serious I am.

Well, since I went to the trouble of pulling out this album and ripping some of the tracks to mp3, I may as well post one. And so, with a scowl, I present this very serious Beatles song, disgracefully obliterated by an Acme truckload of cartoon sound effects.

The Roadrunner: "The Long and Winding Road"

I shall now return to reading Nietzsche. Good day.