Request: The Politics of Dancing

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!

Do The Funky Didgeridoo

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.

LEAGUE OF ROBOT MUSICIANS

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.

VAMPIRA

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!

JEWFACE

"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!)

MORT GARSON R.I.P.

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.

O Nightingale!

Stop whatever you're doing, and listen to this song now:

O Nightingale

The 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 Demos

that 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.

THE STALACPIPE ORGAN OF LURAY CAVERNS

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.

We Wish You A Scary Solstice

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.

PHONE RECORDING ARCHIVE

"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 Archive

Including 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!

365 Days - Borborygmi

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

FROM THE MIGHT-NOT-BE-MUSIC FILE...

...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.

Wake Me Up When September 11 Ends

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

"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

"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.

EVIL, EVIL, EVEL KNIEVEL

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!

HUNG UP ON MADONNA

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 ups

I 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.

RUSSIAN DOLL THEREMIN ORCHESTRA

It's hard enough to get one person playing the theremin in tune, but nine? This group even harmonizes with each other. As Bill and Ted would say, "MOST unprecedented." This achievement is made even more unusual by the fact that the theremins everyone's playing are inside what appear to be Russian nesting dolls. Which might make sense if they were playing the works of a Russian composer, but this video shows Japan's Masami Takeuchi and company performing music from Czech composer Dvořák, so I don't know what's going on. It's pretty great, tho. From Dvořák's The Symphony No. 9, in E Minor "From the New World" (Op. 95):

Masami Takeuchi: video
Masami Takeuchi: mp3

He calls the instrument the "matryomin" - a matrioshka-shaped theremin. Here's a lovely duet for matryomin and ukulele, covering The King:

Masami Takeuchi & Akiyo Hmaguchi: "Love Me Tender" video
Masami Takeuchi & Akiyo Hmaguchi: "Love Me Tender" mp3




Thanks to DJ Earlybird!

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!