I'LL TAKE LAS VEGAS: A LOUNGE COMPILATION

As I wrote last year, "Here's a repost of a lounge singer's original ode to Vegas (Mike Hudson - "I'll Take Las Vegas") and a slew of brilliant and/or hilarious lounge versions of rock hits performed by totally unknown (well, except for Louis Prima, of course) performers' private press releases that were probably only available at their shows (often autographed), which I have lovingly ripped from vinyl. I've been collecting these for years, searching used record store bargain bins, garage sales, and thrift shops."

These are tunes that I've posted here over the years, and since they got knocked off-line, I've thrown 'em into a zip folder, along with stuff like Paul Anka's version of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit," though it is most certainly not a lounge record in the strictest sense - it was released on a proper label, not a private press, and Anka is, of course, a main-room headliner, not an obscure lounge cat playing 3 shows a night, six nights a week.

New! Some very brief TV production tunes by Moog-master Mort Garson, a swingin' instrumental cover of the Kinks' "All Day & All The Night," finger-snappin' singers doing CCR's "Proud Mary" and The Who's "I Can See For Miles," a non-surf version of "Miserlou," and another jaw-droppingly hideous medley from Art Casara (by request!), a guy I first featured on the 365 Days Project.

It's always special when a lounge album features, amongst the predictable standards, original compositions, and we have a few here: the title track, and songs about tennis, and Los Angeles.

Let's be honest: there's often a reason why these cats never made it out of the lounge to the big time. These albums can be a bit bland sometimes, but they're worth picking up for those occasional amazing, transcendental tracks (as featured here) that reward the patient crate-digger, and because these albums have no collector's value and can be had for next to nuthin'.

I'll Take Las Vegas

01 Mike Hudson - I'll Take Las Vegas 02 Paul Anka - smells like teen spirit 03 Mort Garson - TV Production Music4 04 Frankie Randall - I Can See For Miles 05 Chet DeMilo - Sunshine Superman-The In Crowd 06 Carmen D'Oro - Something 07 Mort Garson - TV Production Music2 08 Louis Prima - Mrs Robinson 09 Keith Williams Big Band - Proud Mary 10 Black Diamond - I'm a Believer 11 Mort Garson - TV Production Music6 12 Kathy & Tony Rich - Miserlou 13 Camarata (feat.Tuttis Trombones) - All Day and All The Night 14 The Note-ables - Roll over Beethoven 15 Mort Garson - TV Production Music5 16 Dick Burns - Bad Bad Leroy Brown-All of Me 17 Everett Covin - Everybody's Playing Tennis 18 Mort Garson - TV Production Music1 19 Jose Maria Band - Light My Fire 20 Candi - Philadelphia Freedom 21 Don Ho - Hawaii5-0 QuietVillage 22 New York New York - Bill Lamphier 23 Murray Ross - You've Got It L.A. 24 Mort Garson - TV Production Music3 25 Wayne & Marin Foster - (Can't Get No) Satisfaction 26 Art Casara - Medley No.1 (If You Really Love Me/For Once In My Life/Who Can I Turn To)

AVANT MARCH: Infernal Noise Brigade

Last December, I wrote about a new crop of experimental marching bands. No Sousa cliches from these guys, but pop covers, free jazz, ethnic influences, and humor abound. And Seattle's Infernal Noise Brigade seems to have been way ahead of the curve, forming back in 1999. The now-defunct band released a few albums in their day.

This is their debut, and it certainly lives up to it's name - none of the usual brass band sounds here. No brass at all, in fact, just percussion and vocals. And odd vocals at that, sometimes seemingly sung in foreign tongues, real or imagined, but so distorted (as marching band p.a. vox often are) that it's hard to tell. Occasional stray sounds and abstract video-game-ish electronic effects pop up as well.

Pick hit: "Gas? No Gas," a mad riot of tribal drumming in an unusual tempo, large crowd chanting, and techno/dub-ish production, all smothered in weird sound effects. Awesome.

Infernal Noise Brigade - Insurgent Selections for Battery and Voice

The song "Goat Eyes" expands on the usual marching band drum corp by incorporating what sounds like traditional Moroccan percussion - I forget what they're called, but they're like giant metal castanets. Two "PSAs" are humorous mock radio commercials for the band. And "Fulminate" features what sounds like vuvuzelas. Very obscure.
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HUMAN MUSIC ANTHOLOGY

Our pals over at Pleonasm have done future anthropologists and historians (not to mention weird-ologists of all stripes) the great service of collecting hours worth of audio oddities that mainly seem to have been recorded off of that most democratic of mediums, YouTube. There are four volumes (so far) of free downloads, organized by theme.

Vol. 1 Tongues - Largely spoken-word babbling and acapella singing, from Christians filled with the Spirit, to space-alien prophets, to drunks caught on camera, to a very funny bit of acoustic heavy metal. Tho there's plenty of unaccompanied vocals just dying to be sampled (check track #6), there's also some smooth-jazz, and blues w/ Peruvian Pan Flute. The Talking Heads named one of their albums "Speaking in Tongues," but another of their titles could apply here: "Stop Making Sense."

Vol. 2 Left Fieldists - Outsider music bonanza! Featuring such hits as: "You Tube Guy Sings About Prostitute," "Developmentally Disabled Guy Sings In Stairwell," "Song About Drinking Robitussin," "Down Syndrome Poetry," and an Asperger's Syndrome guy singing about his "Asperger's Girl." It's not all laffs, tho: "Man Sings About Infidelity" is a cringe-worthy confessional, and the "Song For My Deceased Wife" is pretty heart-wrenching.

Vol. 3 Extra Credit Songs - You can get school credit for performing music?! Damn, kids got it too easy nowadays! I would have loved that. There's a wide range of skills here, from inept singing or rapping American history or science lessons over karaoke backing tracks, to pretty professional-sounding original songs. The hip-hop/r'n'b (complete with Autotune!) "Digestion Song" is hysterical. A+.

Vol. 4 Antediluvian Moderns - Apparently an assortment of old folks. Haven't heard this one yet.

RIAA: "USA" - A Four Hour Long Mashup

Mash-mavens RIAA present "USA": "a four-hour-long "mix-album," conveniently divided into 10 separate mixes. The history, geography, culture, and politics of the United States are all fair game for RIAA's musical collages, incisive observations, and cheap jokes."
Literally hundreds of sources were used. Any audio that has anything to do with the U.S. of A., from old educational records found in thrift stores, to today's tv hosts and talk-show ranters, were beat-matched, pitch-corrected and thrown into the mix.

Every section delves into a different area of the America experience - the concepts of freedom and revolution, the historical aspects of the black experience and Western expansion, war, leisure time, and as many examples of American music as you're going to hear in one mix - from Native American Indian chanting to a myriad of folk styles, right up to punk and hip-hop. And you'll hear plenty of offensive kooks like Klansmen and religious bigots. But, hey, it's a portrait: "...A surreal, fun-house mirror portrait perhaps, but nonetheless, I wanted to just let everyone speak for themselves."

You can listen it streaming, download each of the 10 sections individually, or, if you plan on burning it to cds, download four cd-length zip folders:

RIAA: "USA"

UPDATE 8-1-10: A separate collection of 18 radio-friendly "singles" in now available.

And it's all free! Gosh bless America.

HARDCORDIAN

Ed Cox's album "Hardcordian," a delightfully surreal mixture of boomin' electro beatz and live folk accordion, only came out 4 or 5 years ago, but it seems to have vanished from all retail outlets, so here 'tis:

Ed Cox "Hardcordian"

Yes, he performs his "clown-core" music (as he calls it) in clown dress. I wish there really was a genre called clown-core, but it'd probably end up like Insane Clown Posse or somethin, so just as well. There's only 8 tracks here in a brisk 23 minutes.

1. The Triumphant March of Piaf
2. The Tetris Theme Tune
3. Arabian Raves
4. Le Fanfare De Teuffeurs (the first of several songs that begin as a waltz, before all hell breaks loose)
5. The Dance of the Otter Droppings
6. The Lonely Clown
7. Cool Cats
8. Cloudy Tuesday Morning (no accordions on this one)

I'm pretty sure I first heard this album on the WoBcast, so thanks guys!.

THROW YOUR PAWS UP

Bucktown Tiger is a seemingly average guy who, for unfathomable psychological reasons, likes to dress up as a tiger, and then perform rap songs about dressing in animal costumes at "furry" conventions for other people who like to pretend to be animals. He has several albums available of hip-hop tunes detailing furry life, with song titles like "Get Fursuited Up," and "Get Your Yiff On," "yiff" meaning furry sex. Two people who resemble, say, a Disneyland employee dressed like Mickey Mouse and the San Diego Chicken having sex is, to me, fairly incomprehensible. But, apparently, it happens. The varieties of human experiences!

Tiger plays keyboards and raps simultaneously when performing live. This song is taken from "Orange + Black: The Furst Album."

Bucktown Tiger: "Throw Your Paws Up"

Hey, I'm not here to judge. They're not hurting anyone, right? Go get 'em, Tiger.

GAMELAN AND ON...

A gamelan (pictured left) is an Indonesian orchestra of tuned bells and gongs. And a music box is...well, you know what that is. On the latest (2 disk!) album by veteran New Yorkers Gamelan Son of Lion, John Morton's electronically-processed music box plays a tinkly version of the Beatles' "Yesterday" along with the gamelan. It is, like much of this album, absolutely enchanting. It's unlike anything you've ever heard before, but strangely easy on the ears. The trance-like quality of gamelan music is kinda soothing, even when played at high energy levels.

Gamelan Son of Lion: "She (Really) Had To Go" - This is an excerpt from a 9 minute piece.

The album "Sonogram," on the ever-awesome Innova label, does not feature any traditional music from Bali or Java - these are all new pieces written by the band members that often combine gamelan with Western instruments and styles, which is a bit tricky since gamelan instruments are not tuned to the Western scale. But that's not a problem when your Western "instruments" are found junk percussion objects:

Gamelan Son of Lion: "Bang On A Tin Can"

Other tracks feature Miguel Frasconi's invented glass instruments, clarinet-driven klezmer, an Afro-Cuban-inspired jam, and Llsa Karrer's "River Kotekan" - 2 pianos and 2 voices mixed with the usual shifting gamelan tempos make for some persuasive polyrhythms.

Some parts of their 9/11 tribute had me wincing, and the attempt to mix Scottish/Irish vocals was a bit too "Celtic Woman" for me, but with almost two hours-worth of music here, I'm not complaining. My favorite new album.

THE POLITICS OF DANCING

Some really, really bad songs featuring politicians singing, rapping, playing instruments, or song writing... some really, really funny songs about (or, better yet, sampling the voices of) politicians...and Bill Clinton's brother...

We go from America to the UK, Australia, Austria, Afghanistan...All posted here over the years, all knocked off-line in my Great Computer Meltdown of 2010, all thrown into one zip folder so I don't have to re-up 'em all one by one.

THE POLITICS OF DANCING

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger - It's Raining Men
2. Bill Clinton - Summertime
3. BudtheWeiser - Blair Drinks A Rockit
4. Burka Band - Burka Blue
5. FEMA - For Kidz Rap
6. George W Bush Singers - Embetterment Ingrinable
7. Winston Churchill and the Band from the Future - Lift Up Your Hearts
8. HC Strache - Oesterreich Zuerst
9. John Ashcroft - Let The Eagle Soar
10. Larry Shannon Hargrove - Leave Bill Clinton Alone
11. Orrin Hatch - The Country of the Free
12. Phil Kline - Rumsfeld Song
13. RIAA - Wake Me Up When Sept 11 Ends
14. Roger Clinton - Brother Brother
15. rx - dick is a killer
16. rx - imagine a walk on the wild side
17. Gene Marshall - God Bless Richard Nixon [song-poems]
18. Gene Marshall - Hail The Chief
19. Gene Marshall - President Richard Nixon
20. Gene Marshall - Richard Nixon In '76
21. Gene Marshall - The Great Richard Nixon
22. Wax Audio - You Better Run You Better Take Cover

MID-YEAR MASHUP MARATHON: 2010

We're stretching the definition of "mashups" here to include any kind of radical sound-collage craziness. Some brilliant free download-able stuff that's been blowing my mind lately:

Orange County, CA's Voicedude has been a music pro for over 20 years, doing everything from radio production to music theater. And it's all been leading up to this:

"Mashin' Jackson: The Untold Story" (alternate link) is not just a collection of MJ mashups, it's a "Spinal Tap"-like mock-umentary of Jacko's life, with hysterical narration between the songs. A "BBC 9" special (complete with radio jingle and announcer) describe MJ's shocking life and career dating back to the '50s. Yep, turns out he was well into his 70s when he died and had done secret collaborations with everyone from Elvis to Nirvana.

It's hilarious, and insanely clever, but it's so professional-sounding that it could convince the gullible.

"Motown Meltdown 2" also features Michael Jackson, but this mash-terpiece by San Fran's Gigante Sound posse slices 'n' dices its Motown (and only Motown) sources sometimes beyond recognition. The results include: groovy go-go beats, insane glitchy cut-ups a la John Oswald, ambient dronescapes...

The Symphony of Science is collection of six songs (with more on the way) and videos that sample the voices of scientists like Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking from documentaries, using the Melodyne software to literally make these voices sing. Science and art occupy two very different places in our brain, one all logic and literal, the other intuitive and metaphoric, thus making it difficult to combine the two. But TSOS wisely opts for the poetic view of science, emphasizing the grandeur of the universe and the inspirational nature of man's struggles and accomplishments over nuts-and-bolts facts and figures.

Tho some will no doubt find the idea of Carl Sagan "singing" along with New Age-y electro-beatz to be some kind of weird high-minded kitsch, I think we're seeing the beginnings of a new era in musique concrete, where, with the help of software programs like Autotune and Melodyne, we can use non-musical sounds and speeches to make actual songs and melodies, not just abstract "art" music. I predict!

People Like Us and Wobbly (from the UK and San Fran, respectively) have a new collaborative album called "Music For The Fire" that is "a plunderphonic concept album depicting the lifespan of a relationship, as told through samples of hundreds of different songs and voices who had no idea they were all telling the same story until they were all spliced together." With many mashups, I think half way thru the song, "Okay, I get the idea." With these dense (tho sometimes humorous) collages, I find myself thinking after a track ends, "What just happened here?" and play it again.

You can buy it off the People Like Us site, or download it from illegalart using their "pay what you like" model.

BIG MUSIC MUSIC FOR A SMALL ROOM

The Meridian Gallery in San Francisco is such a small space that most of the performers featured in their Composers in Performance concert series play solo. No, not one-man-bands (tho that'd be cool), but cats like German sax mad man Frank Gratkowski, who blows staccato rhythms with such force he doesn't need a band:

Frank Gratkowski: Improvisation

The various-artists collection "Meridian Music: Earth Music" features highlights of 10 years of Meridian Gallery performances, mostly solo improvs. There's a few fascinating tracks I keep returning to, and Gratkowski's is one of them, as is John Bischoff's R2D2-like electronics, and Viv Corringham's "Improvisation (With San Francisco Sounds)" which does indeed seem to take actual sounds from out on the street, loop them and process them to spellbinding effect. And - hey, whatdoyaknow! - Gratkowski returns to the Meridian tomorrow.

The legendary Pauline Oliveros also appears. To paraphrase Run-DMC, "We're San Francisco improvisors/Rockin' without a band!"

SWINGIN' WITH DR. DEATH

I'm pretty sure this is the first album I've posted by a musician who has killed 130 people. And I don't mean in the usual performer's "I killed last night" sense, either.

Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian, famous for his assisted-suicide activism, is back in the news again. He's promoting a new book about over-population (gee, I wonder what his solution is..?) and recently told a radio interviewer that he has no problem with teen or soldier suicides. So he's just all about killing in general now, it seems.

But he's always been a weird death-obsessed guy. I mean, have you seen his paintings? A talented artist you must admit, and it goes beyond painting - he's also an accomplished jazz flute and organ player as well. In 1997 he released an album with a band dubbed the Morpheus Quintet, named after the god of sleep. That's some sense of humor, eh?

Jack Kevorkian & the Morpheus Quintet "Very Still Life"

The album's pianist/arranger Jean Paul Monsché seems to be most well known for his wedding-band type music service (near as I can tell), but his backing band include members of hip L.A. combo Jump With Joey. So this is no "smooth jazz," but it is pretty chilled. The opening track is a waltz that recalls Angelo Badalamenti's David Lynch scores (Jump With Joey actually played on Lynch's "Inland Empire" soundtrack), and the next couple tunes are fairly funky. One song has scratchy vinyl record sound effects for some reason. The brief "interludes" are just Jack, overdubbed, jammin' with his bad flutey self. The final hidden track, however, is a churchly organ solo. A perfectly pleasant listen for an overcast morning.

1		Whispering, Came Violets	3:44
2		Summertooth	4:30
3		Brotherhood Of	3:56
4		A Very Still Life	3:05
5		August To Amber	4:08
6		Fuguetta Caffeine	2:39
7		Interlude: Unfinished Minuet	1:12
8		In Strange Loops	2:58
9		Back At Abby's	3:53
10		Interlude: Gavat	0:38
11		Geoff's Mood	3:02
12		Une Lettre De Jean/Hidden Track

The album was released in one run of 5000 copies, and original copies are going for big bucks now.

Your Fourth of July/Summer Holiday Musical Needs SORTED

Lately, we've been hittin' you all with black, kiddie Christian, and even Portuguese surf-y beach party action, as well as a strange experimental take on Hawaiiana. Well, refresh that umbrella-drink because the tiki gods have graced us with more sweet summer sounds:

The Waitiki 7 have just dropped "The News Sounds of Exotica," the second album for these Hawaiians, and while it tips it's hat to the original '50s/'60s masters, it throws in twists like a Tito Puente-esque Latin-jazz take on the old showtune/exotica standard "Bali Hai," complete with furious cowbell/timbale soloing. And their version of Martin Denny/Les Baxter's "Tiki" is so damn funky, don't be surprised if rapping Islanders sample it. But this track, another Denny remake, features the son of Denny sideman Augie Colon (exotica royalty!) indulging in that venerable tiki tradition of otherwise-sensible grown men making crazy tropical bird call sound effects:

The Waitiki 7: "Similau"

Bossa N' Ramones is an EZ/Latin/lounge album of Ramones remakes, which is a pretty retarded concept right there, but it's made even more surreal by the guest vocals of a clueless Angela Bowie (yup, David's ex), and a chilled Cherie Currie of the Runaways. Goes nicely with the Ramones for Caribbean steel drums album we wrote about here.

Bossa N' Ramones: "Blitzkrieg Bop" - Are these lyrics correct?

The Voodoo Trombone Quartet's second full-length "Again" serves up more big beat goodness in the style of '60s soundtrack/lounge/ska: "Do It Your Own Way"

And just when I thought it couldn't get any more silly then a jazz-pop concept album about hot dogs, comes this:

"Your recent post titled "Hot Dog Rock" inspired me to dig
out the as of yet (and likely never) to be released e.p. by
my old band, KOBAYASHI.  We named ourselves after the
(then reigning) Hot Dog Eating Champ, Takeru Kobayashi.
Our drummer had a giant cartoon hot dog painted on his
kick-drum.  We played a few shows in and around Boston and even went out
to Coney Island on July 4th to see the champ compete. I think that was 2002...
Eventually, the band dissolved and Kobayashi the man was ousted from his throne by an
American, of all people, Joey Chestnut...we were a 3-piece: guitar/bass/drums w/assorted
noise-making devices.  Circa 2001 - 2003."  Musically, they play an entertaining blend of
Sabbath sludge and screaming Iggy-like vocals.  With lyrics about wiener-eating champions.

Kobayashi: "Kobayashi"

LoungeClash "The Mysterious Island Dub" - Exotica! Theremin! Dub riddims! From a
British group featuring former members of TransGlobal Underground and Loop
Guru.  From their album "Dread Time Story."
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WHEN YOU'RE IN LOVE, THE WHOLE WORLD IS JEWISH

Another exhibit of weird old album covers? I like this trend. Last year here in Los Angeles we saw the bad religious album covers exhibit, this year, running thru Sept. 5, it's the wacky world of Jewish novelty records of the '50s and '60s. And not in some tiny hipster gallery either, but in the august halls of the Skirball Cultural Center.

Jews On Vinyl "...was developed in association with the publication And You Shall Know Us By the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Musical Past As Told By the Records We Have Loved and Lost (Crown, 2008), a project of the non-profit Idlesohn Society for Musical Preservation, which reissues select classic recordings and has created a digital online home for Jewish musical memory in an attempt to restore missing legacies to our contemporary view of Jewish America." These are the folks who put out the infamous "Jewface" collection we wrote about, and whose blog offers much music listening/video viewing satisfaction.

These kinds of records are ubiquitous in American thrift-stores and used record shop bargain bins, and I buy 'em occasionally. But this exhibit puts them in a sociological context I hadn't considered before - as silly as these records can be, they are nonetheless important for documenting the transition of American Jews from isolated tenement-dwelling immigrants to mainstream Americans, from Yiddish theater to (mostly) English-language satire engaging the popular culture. Such as:

Micky Katz "The Most Mishige"

Like a Jewish Spike Jones, Katz made kosher mincemeat of popular songs of the day thru his zany upbeat parodies, laced with lots of Yiddish words I don't know. His still-teenaged son, future Broadway star Joel Grey sings the track "Holidays."

THE BARBER OF SCHLEMIEL (Mickey Katz)	RECORDED: July 25/58
THE POIPLE KISHKE EATER (Sheb Wooley)	July 25/58
YIDDISHE MAMBO(Sid Kuller-Mel Diamond)	Nov.16/54
DOWNTOWN STRUTTERS' BALL (Shelton Brooks)	Jan.9/52
HOLIDAYS (Mickey Katz)	Aug.13/51
NUDNICK THE FLYING SCHISSEL (Mickey Katz-Irving Fields)	Nov.4/57
KNISH DOCTOR(Ross Bagdassarian)	July 25/58
k'NOCK AROUND THE CLOCK(Jimmy De Knight-Max C. Freedman)	Aug.23/55 (2:03)
WHERE IS MY PANTS? (Georges Auric-William Engvick)	Aug.6/53
CHINATOWN, MY CHINATOWN (Jean Schwartz-William Jerome)	May 12/50
CHEDER DAYS(Gus Edwards-Will D.Cobb)	July 2/51
IT'S A MICHAYE IN HAWAIYE(Mickey Katz)	July 25/58

HEY! IT'S A CHRISTIAN CHILDREN'S BEACH PARTY!

Ummmmm...

"Beach Party"
"Beach Be-Attitudes"
"Surfin' Through The Scriptures"
"In The Son"
"Shazaam!"

Words fail me this time.

But the fact that these songs are from an album called "Beach Party: Surfin' Through The Scriptures" should tell you all you need to know. It's fun in the Son!

TUNES-FOR-FREE JAMBOREE #5: GEOFF LEIGH

Here's a veritable King Tut's tomb of post-punk/avant/weirdo rock from the ever-fertile late-70s/early '80s punk days of England. Geoff Leigh was a founding member of prog legends Henry Cow, who offered a distinctly different take on art-rock then, say, Emerson Lake & Palmer, namely avant-jazz/20th century classical influences. And those influences splatter all over these tracks, some of which are otherwise not too far removed from contemporaneous fellow Brits like Gang of Four or Magazine. A Pere Ubu-ish free-form explosiveness further conspired to keep these records off "Top of the Pops."

Apart from solo releases, we also get tracks from his other bands Black Sheep (now X Black Sheep), Red Balune, Kontakt Mikrofoon Orkest - none of whom I'd heard of before, and I thought I knew my New Wave. Start with the irresistible synth-punking "Animal Sounds," then check both sides of the "Do The Residue"/"Living in Rotterdam" single. "Buy mccb", a commercial for their label, is catchy twisted funk. Advanced students may then want to move on to "Spider In Love," a delirious burst of spazz-jazz, with Geoff humorously singing "I'm Spiderman in love!"

A generous 22 tracks in all, yet the quality level rarely dips. And it's all free. Ahhh, life is good...

Geoff Leigh "Things From The Past"

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TUNES-FOR-FREE JAMBOREE #4: GRANT MOROS

"Originally recorded in 1973, this vinyl rarity is best described as an electronic ceremonial soundtrack. After being discovered in a hidden compartment beneath a closet floor, Fonetap Music has obtained the rights and reissued it in all its dusty glory."

That's their story and they're sticking to it. In any case, Grant Moros' all-instro all-electro "Mysteries" certainly sounds like it could have been recorded in the early '70s, and the whole occult ritual aspect of it recalls Moog-master Mort Garson's excursions into that realm.

Lots of nice stuff here: the song "Neophyte's Illumination" hints at a more low-key "Popcorn," and "Ritual of the Serpent" makes great use of primitive drum machines. "Death Be The Penalty" is as intense and scary as it's title, but it's immediately followed by the genuinly lovely "Rosslyn's Crypt." You can download the whole thing here:

Grant Moros "Mysteries"

but buy it here in various formats, including the fancy-shmancy FLAC. Rumor has it that there's a vinyl version availble, which would worth picking up for that cool artwork alone.

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TUNES-FOR-FREE JAMBOREE #3: YOU ARE NOT STEALING RECORDS

Some of my favorite albums of late have been internet give-aways, the perfect music-distribution route for weirdos who don't make the kind of trendy cookie-cutter sounds the labels are looking for. Such as:

YOU ARE NOT STEALING RECORDS

Were it not for the 'net, how else would I know about the strange/outsider music underground of Portugal? There is abundance of goodies here, and from what I've heard so far, none of it sucks, and everything's been at least worthwhile, and at best wonderful.

Stealing Orchestra is the band that started this 'net label. "We are using: sampling, guitars, accordeon, drums, flute, oboé, marimba vibraphone xylophone, cello percussion, piano, theremin and a lot of keyboards like church organ or hammond." Start with:

- "For Me 'Formidable," from their "É Português? Não Gosto!" album, in which traditional Portuguese polkas and waltzes are transformed into a spazz-tronic circus.

- From their "Bu!" album, "É Contra Mim Que Luto ," and "Catarse" especially when the exotica sample comes in @ 1:oo.

- G.G. Allin's Dick, also Portuguese, play a cartoonishly crazed polka-tempo electronica on their "King of the Road" album; might be my fave YANSR release so far; "Monocycle From Hell" is a tune that has wormed it's way into my head, popping out at odd times.

- Slipper are a British band featuring ex-Loop Guru members that draws inspiration from '50/'60s exotica, but filtered thru a modern sensibility. Check "Nuke Bug," in which a thick dub bass line is crawling with insect sounds; kinda like those tropical bird call-festooned Martin Denny records, but more creepy. "Lobsters" features a Peter Gunn-ish guitar riff, Miles-esque horns, and weird nightmarish noises.

- The Prostitutes play '60s-style garage rock and surf instros with maximum fuzz and energy; compared to the eccentric eclecticism of other YANSR acts, there's nothing too original here, but these Portuguese punks are plenty fun.

- Duo Inmortales play Residential one-minute-long songs with text-to-speech robots on vocals. Pick hit: "My First Nazi Girl."

- Vincent Bergeron's first two tracks annoyed me with it's modern-classical atonalities and Bergeron's nerdy voice singing in French. Then, either I got used to it, or the classical-chamber-group-chopped-up-in-a-sampler sounds sunk in, and I found songs like "L'Art du Déssaroi" to be pretty damn cool.

- Luis Antero's 17-minute long "Sinfonia Amphibia" consists of nothing but field recordings of some very loud uncredited Portuguese critters, presumably amphibians. I like to play this at the same time as other musics, such as the minor-key shoegazey sounds of worriedaboutsatan.

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AUTHENTIC MUSIC FROM ANOTHER PLANET...

...has been re-upped, by request. Fly your saucer over to HERE.

BOSTON SUCKS! BOSTON SUCKS!

No offense to my Boss-Town peeps, it's just a basketball thing. Us fans of the Los Angeles Lakers love it when our team wins the NBA Finals, but when they beat Boston to get there, oooh, it's just that much better. Bwahahahaaa!

So let's celebrate the Laker's latest championship title the way we celebrate everything around here at M4M: with some really weird, bad music.

Ron Artest: "Michael Michael" - Artest played a great Game 7; made a jaw-droppingly awful Michael Jackson tribute song; not at the same time. He actually thanked his psychiatrist after the game last night. Um hmm...

NBA "Where Clutch Happens" - I recorded the audio for this commercial off the video; features the sampled voice of the Finals MVP Kobe Bryant auto-tuned to nice effect; it's actually a pretty catchy little tune.

There's a million rap songs celebrating Bryant and the current Lakers team by everyone from Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg down to the most rank amatuer rapper. But the Laker tribute song tradition began in the '80s during the reign of Earvin "Magic" Johnson and the "Showtime" Laker team, producing records that ran from cheezy/goofy:

Onaje Murray "Hoop Troop (Lakers)" - from his otherwise serious funky jazz album, "I Hear A Samba"

to the spectacularly tasteless and hilarious:

Niki Rios: "Thank You Magic" - A 9-year-old girl attempts to tug at our heartstrings with this epic ballad; If Magic Johnson wasn't already HIV-positive, this would have really sickened him.

The "Curl Activate: '80s Novelty 12" Singles" collection I posted a couple years ago featured some other home-brew basketball/Lakers records, including a good one sampling the late great announcer Chick Hearn, the voice of the Lakers. After Chickie died, this solo acoustic folk atrocity was released in tribute:

Swamp Donkey "Golden Throat" - Reminiscent of Neil Innes' Bob Dylan parody, but of course, I don't think this one is supposed to be funny.


(Thanks to ma home-slice IVOR for heppin' me to the "Thank You Magic" magic.)
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TUNES-FOR-FREE JAMBOREE #2: HOT-DOG ROCK

Some nerdy guy releases an album featuring songs about hot dogs, and they send it to me. I swear, do other bloggers get this kinda stuff? But I figured I should give it a listen since I doubt anyone else is gonna review it.

And I'm glad I did listen. Actually, not all of New Yorker McSAPPR's songs are about hot dogs, but they all are pretty silly. And pretty enjoyable. He gets deep into his subject, with songs even saluting the winners of the Coney Island Nathan's wiener-eating championships.

Musically, it's a quite unexpected return to '70s jazz-inflected "soft rock" - think Gerry "Baker Street" Rafferty, Randy Newman, Michael Franks, etc. Even in these retro-crazed days, I haven't heard too may folks go back down those "mellow" roads too often. Probably cuz you really need some serious chops to play that kinda L.A. session cat style, which these guys most certainly do. Imagine Steely Dan, only with lyrics by a five-year-old.

"Hot Dog Rock"

UPDATE: The link seems to have disappeared. Yo McSAPPR, where's your album?

TUNES-FOR-FREE JAMBOREE #1: NAC/HUT REPORT

Some of my favorite albums I've heard lately have been internet give-aways. Perfect for weirdos who don't make the kind of trendy cookie-cutter sounds the labels are looking for. Such as:

Nac/Hut Report: Might as well start with this one, since I've been listening to it regularly since it dropped late April. This Polish/Italian boy/girl team reference the old musique-concrete scene and infamous noisemakers like Psychic TV and Einstürzende Neubauten, and there are certainly all manner of harsh industrial screeches here, but the songs are lovingly topped with cool vocals crooning evocative minor-key melodies. I play this one after a cocktail before going to bed. For some reason, it's kinda soothing (must be the feminine touch.)

Nac/Hut Report: 9th Overflowing...Milky Slaughterhouse...Dream Of Incubator

Here's an interview, with a link to a download of their first EP, which I haven't had a chance to check out yet.
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I LIKE RALPH CARNEY (A LOT)

Well, I am having too much fun with all these new Blogger design goo-gaws, aren't I? Red-blood cells in the background! A new look everyday?!

Ralph Carney's having even more fun on his album "I Like You (A Lot)," which came out back in 1999 (yeah, I'm a bit slow sometimes). Carney is the carny calling you into his freak show of kazoos, xylophones, Tibetan bowls, drum machines, cheesy organs, Beefheartian guitar, harmonica, musical saw, strings, bamboo flute, pots 'n' pans percussion, and all manner of spazz-jazz horns.

Yep, he plays 'em all, producing a new adventure in every song: some tracks could be by The Residents if they were influenced by early jazz instead of Zappa. There's a "Pet Sounds" pastiche called "Brian The Beach Man," kinda-klezmer Middle-Easternisms, beat-box funk, free jazz skronk, a song inspired by Miles Davis' psychedelic excursions, and the occasional vocal number sporting absurd dada-esque lyrics. Add a subtle sense of humor and fun, mix with technical virtuosity, serve hot.

Carney has been Tom Waits' right-hand man since the early '80s, contributing greatly to His Waitsness' transformation from '70s singer-songwriter to experimental oddball. But he also has played with Chris Butler in Tin Huey, has appeared on records by The B52s, David Thomas of Pere Ubu, Allen Ginsberg & William Burroughs, and even more sedate acts like country/folk singer Victoria WIlliams.

Ralph Carney "Fun House" - Not the Stooges' song, this is a delirious carnival ride
Ralph Carney "Hawaiian Eye" - Because I'm feeling summery: some exotica for kazoos, autoharp, cowbells and jews-harp.

SOUL SURFIN'

Here's a collection of '60s surf rock by black artists, more recent reggae songs about surfing, a tongue-in-cheek '80 New Wave song (the Bus Boys) and some mashups pitting black singers against surf instrumentals. And one rap song.

The Black Surfing Association has only a handful of members now - during the '60s surf music craze, there were no doubt even fewer black surfers, especially in the days of segregated beaches. So why would black musicians make surf music? For money of course. As with the "Surfin With Bo Diddley" album I posted a few days ago, record companies were looking to jump on any profitable trend. The reggae songs, tho, might be more of a sincere nod to their large surfer fan base. Ernest Ranglin's song "Reminiscing" is indeed reminiscent of the '60s classic "Theme From Endless Summer" by the Sandals.

All these tunes are high-energy summer fun, but some work better then others. The Isley Brothers' "Surf and Shout" and Chubby Checker's "Let's Surf Again" merely re-write old hits. And Diana Ross and The Supremes' "Surfer Boy" is really unbelievable - can you imagine Miss Thing on a dirty beach in those gowns? With that hair? Surfer, please!

Soul Surfin'

- Let's Go to the Beach 2:06 Sanford and the Sandies
- Surf Party 2:26 Chubby Checker
- Surf and shout 2:28 Isley Brothers
- Summertime Is Surfin Time 2:09 Surf Bunnies
- What'd The Bulldog Say 3:10 Zoom (Ray Charles vs The Ventures)
- Surfer Boy 2:26 The Supremes
- Soul Surfing 3:34 The Bus Boys
- Surfbusters 2:58 G3RSt (Ray Parker Jr vs The Tornadoes)
- Wipeout Taffy 3:29 Party Ben (The Surfaris vs D4L)
- (We're Gone) Surfin' 2:05 Chubby Checker
- I Like Nitro 2:39 JetSetAlex (Reel2Reel vs Dick Dale)
- Surfin' 4:57 Israel Vibration
- Mama Nature 4:30 Pato Baton
- California Girls (Crenshaw Blvd. Mix - Extended Remix) 6:11 The Cally Boys
- Surf Trick 2:10 RIAA (Kelis vs The Phantom Surfers)
- Dizz And The Boyz Getz To The Beach 2:42 MadMixMustang (Dizzy Gillespie vs Beach Boys)
- Reminiscing 4:38 Ernest Ranglin
- Let's Surf Again 2:08 Chubby Checker

There actually have been a couple hip-hop/surf cross-over hits (not included here cuz you can get 'em anywhere). The Black Eyed Peas "Pump It" takes a page from the MC Hammer hack songcraft playbook: 1) take the most obvious cliche song (Dick Dale's "Miserlou" in this case) 2) don't sample it so much as take pretty much the whole song 3) put a beat over it 4) shout a catch phrase over the music. Witless, but hey, it is "Miserlou," hard to ruin that one, so if I have to listen to Top 40, I'll take it. And in the '80s the Fat Boy's remade "Wipeout." The lovable lard-asses hooked up with the unloveable Mike Love's pseudo-Beach Boys to produce not only a jaw-droppingly kitschy video but a Top 40 hit.

HANGIN' TEN ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

UPDATE 6/10/10: Corrupted track 4 has been replaced; album re-upped.
Obviously, this is not surf music. It's barely even Bo Diddley - apparently he's only on four of the songs. So what is this? Southern-fried r'n'b deceptively packaged to cash in on the '60s surf craze. I guess the scam would work if you had no idea that Diddley was a black guy from the middle of the country, nowhere near any oceans (not that it's impossible for black folks to surf, but it was mighty rare in the early '60s.) But considering that Bo was one of the biggest rock'n'roll stars of his day, that's not too likely.

The other songs were by one Bill Riley, who may or may not be Sun Records rockabilly wildman Billie Lee Riley, tho these instrumentals don't sound anything like Billie Lee's stuff.

At least they are mostly guitar instrumentals, with the psuedo-Hawaiian nonsense vocals of "Surfer's Love Call" hinting at exotica. A real curiosity, and a sought-after collector's item.

Surfin' With Bo Diddley

1. What Did I Say
2. White Silver Sands
3. Surfboard Cha Cha
4. Surf Sink or Swim
5. Piggy Back Surfers
6. Surfers Love Call
7. Twisting Waves
8. Wishy Washy
9. Hucklebuck
10. Old Man River
11. Oops He Slipped

AIN'T WE GOT FUN?

Just for you lucky Maniacs! Here's an exclusive collection of rare, obscure novelty songs and kooky instrumentals, thanks to DJ Useo, podcast host, and the compiler of the "It Is To Laff!" comedy mashup collections.

For you Dr Demento fans, the more juvenile/tasteless (not that there's anything wrong with that) songs are early on, giving way to cartoonish instros, dada weirdness, and satire (e.g.: the spot-on easy-listening yuppie spoof "Are You Middle-Class Enough?") Full of surprises, and, yep, fun stuff indeed.

FUN MUSIC
Mega-thanks to DJ Useo!