Last week, I attended a concert on the campus of USC that featured new music written for that century-old oddity, the player piano. Before recordings were popular, folks bought a player piano, which was as real and playable as any piano, put it in the living room, inserted a pre-punched roll of paper and, voila! The latest rag, boogie-woogie, or Tin Pan Alley hit was automatically performed, keys pounding away like an invisible man was playing.
So what's a player piano concert like? Someone puts in a piano roll, and you watc
h the piano play itself. The organizer, Veronika Krausas, apparently thought that this would be too uninteresting, so she asked her acrobat friends from Circe de Soleil to change the rolls, throwing in some acrobatics along the way. And a (seemingly under-rehearsed) bluegrass band played occasionally as well. A couple artsy black-and-white silent short films played during some of the music. I don't think Ms. Krausas was trying to be weird, but the surreal combination of these elements certainly added up to a real head-scratcher of an evening.
She had nothing to worry about. It was actually quite fascinating to watch the piano play itself - some songs created geometric patterns on the keyboard, and compositions that simply could not be played by humans could be dazzling both visually and musically. Don't have any video unfortunately, but I bought the CD "The Player Piano Project" that featured all the works performed that night, such as this dizzying demolition of John William's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" theme:
Ceiri Torjussen "Raiders March"
The big name featured was James Tenney, who died in 2006, but not before creating this incredible piece. It starts slowly and deliberately, then builds to an increasingly astonishing chaotic crescendo. Whew!
James Tenney: "Spectral CANON For CONLON Nancarrow"
Yes, electronics can also be used to make impossible-to-perform music, but hearing (and seeing) it coming from an acoustic, and usually predictable, instrument like the piano is different, like seeing a doll possessed by demons come to life and start talking to you.
So who was this Conlon Nancarrow? Why, only the granddaddy of creative player piano abuse. Throughout his long 20th century career he, more then anyone else, revealed the artistic possibilities of an instrument most others had long since relegated to the antique store.
Conlon Nancarrow - "Study For Player Piano # 21" - Absolute insanity; makes my head swim in the best possible way.
From the album "Player Piano 3: Conlon Nancarrow Vol. 2 - Studies 13-32"
"Risque, Illicit and Adult" is RIAA's 2007 collection - single tracks, compilation cuts, and miscellany, including such nuttiness as The Violent Femmes "Blister In The Sun" mixed with "Smoke on the Water." Not the Deep Purple original, but Senor Coconut's kooky electro-Latin version.
RIAA: "Risque, Illicit and Adult"
1. I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend
2. Smoke on the Sun
3. Smells like your Muddah
4. Sexy Pipeline
5. sshhaakkee yyoouurruummpp
6. Everytime You Touch Titties
7. Pacifica Fish Dance
8. Revelation Fever
9. Down at Mississippi
10. The Harder They Party
11. Candy Enema Shok
12. (Models Gotta) Fight For Their Right (To Mambo)
13. Coming To Get Bloodstains
14. Wake Me Up When Sept 11 Ends
15. Mind Control CIA
16. Guess I'm Falling Into Bubbles
17. Walking on the Moog
18. Gristle Calypso
19. Lord Only Knows (with People Like Us)
TRACK SOURCES: 1. Avril Lavigne vs The Rubinoos 2. Senor Coconut vs Violent Femmes 3. Alan Sherman vs Nirvana 4. Lords of Acid vs The Chantays 5. Beastie Boys vs Reuben Wilson 6. Gravy Train!!! vs Moby vs Rusty Warren 7. Chemical Brothers vs Los Straitjackets 8. Peggy Lee vs Son House 9. Howlin Wolf vs. Violator & Doughbelly Stray 10. Manu Dibango vs Rocker's Revenge 11. Village People vs Wayne Newton (title is an anagram of "Danke Shoen" and "YMCA." )
12. Beastie Boys vs Tito Puente vs Kraftwerk 13. Agent Orange vs The Who Boys 14. Rudolph Giuliani vs Green Day vs Nader (winner of the Remix Rudy contest!) 15. Stone Roses, Curtis Mayfield, The Last Poets vs tv documentary "Mind Control: America's Secret War" 16. Velvet Underground vs U.S. Army Airborne 17. The Police vs Fred Weinberg 18. Throbbing Gristle vs Kon Tiki steel drum band 19. George Harrison vs Beach Boys vs My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult (with People Like Us)
Additional beats and sounds: RIAA
Artwork by Shag
Who's in the Music For Maniacs parking lot?
The Car Music Project: Believe it or not, sounds produced are made using automotive parts. Guitars, bass, even what sounds like a sax is done by blowing thru tubes: "Noodles Test Mix 1"
Wendy Chambers: Back in the early '80s, this New Yorker invented the Car Horn organ, which is exactly what you think it is. She plays popular favorites like Christmas standards, "New York, New York" and "The Star Spangled Banner."
The La Drivers Union Por Por Group - From Ghana, Afri
ca comes this album of music made by taxi drivers using parts from their vehicles - not the modern electric horns Ms. Chambers uses, tho. They still use honk-horns. Car Horns Unplugged? "Por Por Horn to Horn Fireworks." Throw in some singing, chanting, and auto-part percussion along with the horns, and you got
"Otsokobila."
I'm sure most of you know who Negativland is, but a survey of car music isn't complete without a mention of their 2002 album "Deathsentences of the Polished & Structurally Weak," which not only made electronically-processed music from wrecked cars found in junk yards, but also included a booklet of objects found in the actual cars. Unnerving.
"Only You Can Rock Me."
Happy motoring!
Okay, you masochists, you asked for it, you got it: By request, I'm re-upping the painful patriotic polyphony of
John Ashcroft, and
Orrin Hatch
It is election season here in the USA after all. But the greatest release by an American politico would have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger's workout album, where he shouts out commands and encouragement over such songs as
"It's Raining Men" - Uh, who's the girly-man, Ahnold? Thanks, WFMU!
I've always been fascinated by non-Western approaches to Western pop. I could write entire books on Nigerian funk, Cambodian rock, Eastern European rap, Antarctic death-metal, etc. I thought I'd heard it all, but this bizarre, wonderful recording of a native Australian performing a funky James Brown tribute is a new one to me.
The didgeridoo is a traditional Australian Aborigine wind instrument that's considered to be one of the oldest instruments in the world. It's groany sound is pretty weird to begin with, but it's usually only used in traditional musics, or by hippies. Tjupurru, however, is clearly no traditionalist - hippie/folkies might be distressed by his use of a "Didjeribone," which slides "through different notes and tones - a cross between a didj and a trombone."
Furthermore, he plays through a "sensor implanted inside his mouth. With the addition of sampling and electronic effects, Tjupurru has enabled himself to perform as a one man band creating live samples and looping them."
Well, Tjupurru is an Aborigine himself, so he has as much of a right to mess with a sacred traditional instrument as anyone, I suppose.
Tjupurru: "Unkol James Brown" - Play this for funky hip-hoppers, and watch big question marks appear over their heads.
The League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots.
Sounds like something out of a comic book, eh? But it's a real, Brooklyn-based organization that create ..."exotic, sculptural musical instruments which integrate robotic technology. LEMUR's philosophy is to build robots that are new types of musical instruments, as opposed to animatronic robots that play existing instruments. LEMUR's growing ensemble includes over 50 robotic instruments."
That odd object you see pictured is the GuitarBot. The four strings can be controlled separately, picking and sliding to create a sound that, indeed, would never be confused with a "real" guitar. Unfortunately, there's only one recording available on their site (and no CDs for sale), and it gets cut off:
Joshua Fried: "EmergencyBot"
To really get an idea of the wonder of these instruments, check out the videos. The vid on the bottom left is a "performance" of George Antheil's 1924 composition "Ballet Mecanique" using a veritable robot orchestra. I counted at least 14 player pianos alone. "Ballet Mecanique" was originally scored to include airplane propeller, not used here, but player pianos are certainly appropriate for this kind of group - they're among the oldest surviving forms of self-played musical instruments, dating back to the late 1800s, and have been used by avant-pranksters practically ever since.
Heath Ledger? Who!? The real tragedy that rocked my Hollywood was the recent death of Vampira. TV's original horror host, Ed Wood starlet, inspiration for this groovy slab of 1958 rockabilly:
Vampira
by Bobby Bare, whose late '50 rock recordings weren't very commercially successful, but was a fixture on the country charts in the '60s and '70s. I'd say this is his best song, were it not for the fact that he also recorded that Klassic Kountry Kristian football goof "
Dropkick Me Jesus (Through The Goalposts Of Life)," a 1976 Grammy nominee!
"The most offensive album ever made!"
Well, don't know about that, but "Jewface", a various-artists collection of vintage recordings, certainly is one Jewish stereotype after another, many seemingly perpetrated by Jewish performers themselves. These antiques, some dating back to 1905, were part of the ethnic stereotype humor that was wildly popular in the early days of recording. Apart from blackface minstrel shows (hence the album title) there was German, Irish, Italian, you-name-it, all performed with exaggerated accents and broad humor.
Some of these songs, like "When Mose With His Nose Leads The Band," are funny, but not in the way it's creator's intended - it's because they're just so awful! It's hard to believe this was mainstream American entertainment and that times have changed so much. But I don't think too many people will really be offended - it's all so good-natured and innocent, and we can't really judge the past by today's standards. And besides, this is such a fun tune:
Edward Meeker: "I'm A Yiddish Cowboy"
Speaking of offensive, here's an upbeat Ku Klux Klan march that makes the Klan seem like a wholesome patriotic organization mainly concerned with fighting Communism. Race isn't even mentioned! What a fine upstanding group of young men...
Johnny Rebel: "Stand Up and Be Counted"
Thanks to Spacebrother Greg for the Rebel yell (I don't even want to know where you got it!)
Very sad to read today that Mort Garson has died. As this LA Times article points out, Garson had plenty of mainstream success in the music biz, even co-writing a number one hit in 1963 (Ruby and the Romantics' "Our Day Will Come"), but is primarily remembered today for his bizarre '60s/'70s Moog synth records. There were lots of Moog-sploitation records being cranked out in those days, but what made Mort a strange-music superstar was his refusal to do too many cheezy remake records. Rather, like Dick Hyman and Perrey & Kingsley, he wrote most of his own material. Unlike most Moog-masters who preferred to let their instruments do all the talking, however, he also prominently featured vocalists.
"Electronic Hair Pieces" is the first album of his that I found, for 48 cents in the late '80s (it probably goes for at least 48 dollars now.) Selections from the "Hair" soundtrack done electro-stylee, it's the only Moog remake album of his that I know of. Liner notes by Tommy Smothers!
Mort Garson: Walking In Space
I think some of his best songwriting is on the "Wozard of Iz" Wizard of Oz-inspired concept album, with vocals by no less then Nancy Sinatra (recording under another name). The lyrics for this tune are a kind of beatnik anti-conformist spiel, but still relevant to today. This shouldn't work - someone who sounds like they're from the older generation trying to lay a hip rap on the kids could have been squares-ville, daddy. But it rocks.
Mort Garson: "Never Follow The Yellow Green Road"I have a 45 of 
his from the soundtrack to Son of Blob (aka Beware! The Blob) that's also all-synths and rinky-dink early drum machines, but punctuated by breakdowns with screaming people, presumably being eaten by that pesky Blob.
The Blobs: Son of Blob
Garson also recorded albums with black-magic themes. I featured Mort's tune "The Unexplained" on the "Disco Sickness" collection I put together for the 365 Project. Electro-disco...in 1973? If that's not the definition of visionary, I don't know what is.
Mort Garson: "The Unexplained"
One of his albums, "Music For Sensuous Lovers," consisted of two side-long instrumentals featuring a woman's ostensibly erotic moans and groans. In a fittingly strange finale to a career steeped in strangeness, Garson's last album was music intended to be played for your plants. The record, "Plantasia," was given away by a mattress company. Okay...well, it was the '70s...
Mort Garson: Baby's Tears Blues
More Mort: Egg City Radio has six albums available here and here. Office Naps has singles he did with "The Time Zone" and "The Big Game Hunters."
He was writing music 'til the day he died: a suite about San Francisco. Let's hope it gets released.
Stop whatever you're doing, and listen to this song now:O NightingaleThe uncredited female singer, accompanied only by piano, starts off like Mrs. Miller's evil stepmother. And that would have been good enough right there, but the explosive finale, which suggests Nina Hagen being tortured, is the greatest thing I've heard in ages. It comes to us courtesy of an amazing website called:Those Unbelievable Believers: The Blessed Sounds of Incredible Christian Song Demosthat is nothing but, as you might have guessed, demos by aspiring songwriters/performers. Crudely produced songs by barely-talented would-be superstars have been clogging record company a&r mailboxes for decades, and this is truly the cream of the crap, er, crop. They're not all Christian songs, tho, like "O Nightingale" and this candidate for Worst Rap Song Of All Time:"The Safe Sex Is Just a Fantasy Rap"But all the tunes posted are worth a listen, like the heavily-accented Casio mess "Holy Jerusalem," the ludicrous, almost cartoonishly country-twangin' "Hot Summer Nights," the vocoder in "Come Back, America!" making the singer sound like a bad Barry White impersonator...Just wish I knew the names of these performers so they could get the credit they deserve.
Hail, Maniacs! Hope y'all had a weird holiday. I sure did - I visited the Museum of Jurassic Technology and bought an album of music made out of cave rock formations. But I'll get to all that later. First some announcements:I won't be posting as much anymore, once a week probably. When I started this here web-log, there really weren't any other strange-music blogs. There was Basic Hip, which posted vintage vinyl (not necessarily strange), Comfort Stand, a net-label that featured some outsider-music and...that was about it. And now? Well, just check my links. I still think there's a place for M4M, though.
But to make up for the fewer amount of posts, I'll start adding pictures like everyone else. Deal?
I also won't be able to host songs indefinitely. Dodgy mp3 sites have been linking directly to me, generating thousands of hits in a brief period, which lead to my host shutting me down Christmas Eve (er, Merry Christmas to you, too, guys...), which lead to me removing all my mp3s. I'll still re-up tracks by your request, they just won't be up forever.
ANYWAY. The Great StalacPipe Organ, "The World's Largest Musical Instrument," is why we're all here today so let's get to it. Put on your lantern helmet and repel with me down into Luray Caverns, Virginia, where an engineer named Leland Sprinkle noticed that striking the cave's rock formations produced musical tones. So, in 1954, he conceived of an organ with little hammers that strike a hollow rock when the organ's keys are depressed. It's quite musical, though with a limited sonic palette. Rather then the usual pipe organ bombast, the Stalacpipe Organ is quiet, ghostly. The reverberating splashes of dripping water in the background sounds like sporadic electronic percussion, adding to the ambient feel.
Organist Monte Maxwell recorded a cd in 2001 called "Midnight in the Caverns" full of popular, classical, gospel, and patriotic standards played on the Organ, which you can only get at the Cavern's gift shop. Or at the gift shop of Los Angeles' legendary Museum of Jurassic Technology. The Museum is a must-visit if you're in LA, a moodily-lit series of winding hallways and strange displays that more resembles a Victorian cabinet of curiosities, or even one of P.T Barnum's exhibits, then any modern history or science museum.
Monte Maxwell: "Amazing Grace"
Older recordings can be heard here (the original 365 Project), and Week 15 of Tape Findings.
I'm taking some time off and will be returning in the new year. Thanks to all you great Maniacs out there - so much of what gets covered here comes from you, so keep them tips coming. And give yourselves a round of applause.
I'll leave you for the year with this really weird holiday number by some enthusiasts of early 20th century horror writer H.P. Lovecraft performed, for some reason, in the style of Tom Waits. If you wanted to hear a version of "The First Noel" with new lyrics regarding foul-smelling fish-people, well hey, merry Christmas!
H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society: "The Worst Hotel"
From their album "An Even Scarier Solstice," the sequel to the first album. Yes, two whole albums of Lovecraft-inspired Christmas music. As Louis sang, what a wonderful world.
"Here are a bunch of phone company recordings that I have recorded off of my phone." What kind of, well, maniac would go to this much trouble? There's at least 200 here:Phone Recording ArchiveIncluding such standards as "Your call cannot be completed," "The number you dialed is not a working number," and that old sentimental favorite "Please deposit 25 cents." Fans of The Replacements will enjoy:"Please hang up and try again"Any creative re-mixers in da house?Thanks again to sol!
My latest (and last) contribution to the quickly-winding-down 365 Project is a collection of songs by amateur singing doctors singing about hemorrhoids 'n' stuff. Hey, it was all for charity.Borborygmi
...but is fascinating listening nonetheless, comes the Purrcast, a podcast consisting of nothing more then actual sounds of cats purring. Apart from functioning as soothing ambient music (of a decidedly bent nature), and scientifically revealing (there's actually a lot of complexity to these sounds when amplified - pump up the bass speakers and look out), it also drives cats crazy. Within seconds of playing 'em, two of our cats ran into the room, jumped on my lap, and looked around for the kitties. It was amazing.
Purrcast #3: featuring a cat named Other.
Station Manager Ken of WFMU hosted a "Remix Rudy Giuliani" contest in which contestants made music from sampled quotes of the former New York mayor and current presidential candidate. Out of over 50 entries, here's the winner: it features Green Day's "Wake Me Up When September Ends," an instrumental version by Nader (appropriate band name!), and some NPR.RIAA: "Wake Me Up When Sept 11 Ends"But there were plenty of other class entries, like Gary Lambert's Beatles-inspired Revolution No 9/11. And my own missus made one! Her first one, she's so proud. It uses Ok-Go (you know, those treadmill-video guys).Mrs Fab: "Here He Goes Again"
"It Is To Laff" is an outrageous, gleefully tasteless various-artists free download album not for the easily offended. The guilty parties are all using pseudonyms, and for good reason. There's actually some well-produced stuff here, and some serious songs thrown in (as anti-comedic relief?) I wonder if people writing "LOL" really are laughing out loud, but I actually did with some of this stuff, like:
DJ M.Aynot Feed "Get Ur Typewriter On" -
Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter," one of the great '50s sound-effects novelty records, goes ghetto. The opening seconds really did give me involuntary guffaws.
DJ LOL "Voicemail This Way" features a hysterical phone message; Is this for real? If so, where's it from?
SoulWacker "Smells Like Your Muddah" - Allan Sherman goes grunge.
"Turd Night!" deserves special notice as the most over-the-top insanely filthy piece of musical excrement to be flushed down the internet in recent memory, as Gwen Stefani and the formerly wholesome Bay City Rollers find their lyrics chopped up and re-arranged for scatological effect, amidst a flurry of rude sounds, song parodies, and deranged conversation. A messy masterpiece.
DJ Breakfast Burrito: "Turd Night!"
"It Is To Laff" (also available here.)
Download it, print out the artwork, and makes copies for your loved ones - your holiday shopping problems solved!
"Yuletide Zeppelin" is a medley of Led Zeppelin songs played Christmas stylee by a guy I'd never heard of before but am now a big fan. This track is ingenious. Mojochronic is a dude from Berkeley, CA who sez: "I happened to be playing a family heirloom glockenspiel when Zep's "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" came on the TV...God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen was a something I had learned as a boy. It fit like hand in glove with Jimmy Page's guitar playing. That got the ball rolling..." And I believe this marks the first appearance of glockenspiels on these pages.mojochronic: "Yuletide Zeppelin" From the excellent new various-artists download album "Santastic III," compiled by djBC.
Another boyhood idol rides off into the sunset: daredevil stuntman Evel Knievel, a name uttered in hushed awe on the playgrounds of my youth. Well, among the boys at least: when I was gushing over Evel to my too-cool big sister, she said she didn't really care for him. "Wha...what?," I gulpled. "Why don't you like Evel Knievel...?" "Too flashy." Pshh. Girls.
Years later, when I was interning at a company that sold videos of Evel documentary footage, I, as well as my boss and other interns, forged his autograph for the 8 x 10 glossy pictures of Evel we gave away if you joined the "Evel Knievel Fan Club" set up to promote the videos. Wonder how much those are going for on eBay..?
As this site proves, there's been a lot of Evel-inspired music. Here's some cheezy '70s vinyl I ripped last night by an utterly unknown singer:
Eddie Carr: "Evil, Evil, Evel Knievel" "He's not a bird, he's not a plane/Is he a fool who's gone insane?"
The Bran Flakes: "Evil Knievel" Expertly samples words of wisdom from the man himself. Next year we should be hearing the first new album from the Bran Flakes in 5 years. Woo-hoo!
I just love it when an over-exposed pop star gets put through the meat grinder. Not literally, of course (though I've had my fantasies). And that's what happens to Madonna in today's tune. The executioner of this lovely bit of electronic chaos is solcofn, a Washington DC radio show host, composer of soundtrack-y instrumentals, dj, and masher-upper. Sez he: "I tripled up her vocal and had one pitched way high, the other a little low and then the third has all kinds of effects on it."
Good news: when I asked sol if we can expect more of this kind of madness from him in the future, he replied, "indeed my friend...indeed!"
Solcofn: Halos and Hang upsI knew a guy who used to work at a media company who used to have to answer the phone when Princess Ciccone herself would call. Demanding to speak to someone, she would hiss "Do you know who I am?!" Ha, classy! I'd put her on hold and play this as the on-hold music. Over and over.
h the piano play itself. The organizer, Veronika Krausas, apparently thought that this would be too uninteresting, so she asked her acrobat friends from Circe de Soleil to change the rolls, throwing in some acrobatics along the way. And a (seemingly under-rehearsed) bluegrass band played occasionally as well. A couple artsy black-and-white silent short films played during some of the music. I don't think Ms. Krausas was trying to be weird, but the surreal combination of these elements certainly added up to a real head-scratcher of an evening.
