Happy 80th Birthday, Bob: MOOG BREAKBEATS 2014

Tomorrow, May 23rd, would have been Robert Moog's 80th birthday. When Mr. Synthesizer died in 2005, I quickly went thru my '60s/'70s Moog-sploitation vinyl and started slapping platters on the turntable, digitizing all the songs with the ill-est drum breaks and the most head-nodding beatz. For a while I'd been thinking about putting together such a mixtape, but Bob's death prompted me to finally do so as a tribute. It proved to be pretty popular, getting mentioned in some prominent music websites. I even heard 8 tracks from it in a row when I just happened to be listening to the radio one night. Of course, I had to call up the station and say: hey, I'm that guy! So here's a new edition, with some slight track changes, and higher bit rates.

Not included: the most famous/sampled Moog funk song, Jean-Jacques Perrey's 'E.V.A.', as it is in print, and I have decided to focus on OOP rarities taken from vinyl. Hard to believe that most of these classics have never been digitally re-issued. So let's blast off! And thanks again, Bob.

MOOG BREAKBEATS 2014

00 Gershon Kingsley's First Moog Quartet - Shank [pre-Kraftwerk live Moog band; song inspired by Isaac Hayes' "Shaft" theme]
01 Electronic Concept Orchestra - Grazin In The Grass
02 Walter Sear - Love Child
03 Enoch Light - Pass and I'll Call You
04 Herbie Mann - Pick Up The Pieces
05 The Moog Machine - Jumpin Jack Flash
06 Jerry Styner and Larry Brown - Orbit III
07 John Murtaugh - Slinky [w/Herbie Hancock on piano]
08 Les Baxter - Rachmaninoff: Prelude in c# Minor [the song The Beastie Boys sampled for "Intergalactic"]
09 Robert Byrne - Donna
10 Zeet Band - Gimme 5 Cents Worth Of Love
11 Dick Hyman - Give It Up Or Turn It Loose [James Brown cover]
12 Claude Denjean - Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye
13 Enoch Light - Sittin On The Dock of the Bay
14 Hugo Montenegro - Yo Yo
15 Sounds Galactic - Spinning Wheel
16 The John Keating Space Experience - Solitaire
(dubious bonus track: a perhaps not-so-funky, utterly ridiculous bit of 'tard-tronica)

PRAISE THE LORDS: 3 ALBUMS OF GERMAN BEAT/PSYCH

Recently we posted an album by "The Rattles," a curious early German take on rock-n-roll. The Lords were another band from the '60s pre-Krautrock era, very famous and successful in their homeland, but more likely to rise eyebrows and cause mutterings of "WTF..?" from elsewhere. Their English lyrics in particular are, er, interesting. And how 'bout those fashion-challenged album covers?

"Some Folks By The Lords" (1967) is largely a collection of covers, many of them strangely inappropriate for an alleged rock band to be performing. Perhaps they and/or their audience simply didn't know enough about American music to make genre distinctions. Or maybe they were geniuses who realized it didn't matter: "Miss Otis Regrets" may be a Cole Porter showtune, but it's still a great song.  Much of it, like "East Virginia" and "Sing Hallelujah," are inspired by 'down-home' folk and gospel. "San Miguel" is sung in a ludicrous Spanish accent on top of their usual sometimes-thick German accent. And I must admit: "Greensleeves" made me giggle.

"Ulleogamaxbe" (1969): No more fake-folk Americana covers - it's fake UK psych this time. Tho it's two years after the fact, they finally betray a 'Sgt Pepper' (or at least a BeeGees) influence, what with all the strings, horns, and "poetic" ambition. After six songs of this, we get an unexpected proto-metal garage fuzz blast in the excellently apocalyptic "The World Is Falling Down". The frantic "Fire" could be a Roger Corman exploitation film theme song. Musically, "Poor Chin-Lee" is a Pet Sound-alike; vocally and lyrically, however, not even Brian Wilson was this weird. On "Cut My Hair" they "get back" to basic rock n roll, tho I don't recall Little Richard ever penning lyrics that detail instructions to his barber. The bonus single "John Brown's Body" goes back to the American folk/gospel of the first album, but now with added flutes and intrusive sound-collage elements. And it's b-side is a cover of Eddie Cochran's "Somethin' Else" that out-punks the Sid Vicious version of a decade later. Apparently, these guys will do any style at least once, and do it strangely. Does anyone have any idea what that album title means?

"Shakin' All Over '70" is a bit of a hodge-podge, with a few tracks repeated from "Ulleogamaxbe." The title track recasts the rockbilly swinger into a "heavy" acid-rock-with horns biker stomper. "Feeling Chicago" is a response to modern bad-man ballads like "Rocky Racoon" or "Bad Bad Leroy Brown." "Four O'Clock In New York" is a swell bit of Bay City Rollers-ish bubblegum, while the chicken-squawking "Talk About Love" from 1970 might be the most ridiculous thing these guys did, and that's saying something. Needless to say, it's one of my favorites. 

Elsewhere, the flower-power sounds continue as if it were still the Summer of Love. The fact that they cover not one but two songs from the "Hair" soundtrack suggest that they either never really understood what rock'n'roll was all about, or they were just went straight for mainstream commercialism. I actually love "Hair," but it's purely musical theater, hippie culture depoliticized and sensationalized for tourists. In any case, it's pretty awesome to hear 'em try to wrap their accents around the wordy nugget, "Manchester England." 


A big danke to Count Otto Black!

THE GREAT CELEBRITY SING-OFF

Remember the wildly popular "Golden Throats" collections of singing celeb records? 'Twas one of the few areas where the strange-music world and the mainstream met. Those comps, the gods' gift to "morning zoo" radio shows, reveled in recordings by misguided (mostly) actors who probably shouldn't have had any business singing. Record collector extraordinaire MadJon, the man who bequeathed the "Disco Sellout" and "Come Suck With Me" collections unto us, has picked an amazing assortment of Hollywood fruits for us, continuing the "Golden Throats" tradition. There are some straight novelties here by actors who were not trying to be real singers, e.g.: Jim Backus' classic "Delicious," in which he and a lady friend get gradually rip-roaring drunk, and Frank Gorshin's utterly nutso appearance as his "Batman" character, The Riddler.  But most of these sincere attempts at musical art range from unintentionally hilarious to just appalling. The Bruce Willis track in particular will make you want to punch the guy should you ever meet him.

The Brady Bunch's version of the usually interminable "American Pie" is one of the best recorded - it's only 3 minutes long! Why does Pat Boone get so much crap for his Little Richard cover? After all, Gale Storm's take on Smiley Lewis' "I Hear You Knockin" is just as jaw-dropping. Both Rex and son Noel Harrison are repped here, and the Burl Ives song is actually called "The Tail Of The Comet Kohoutek." Was great to finally get a copy of Bert Parks singing the traditional "there she goes...Miss America" pageant theme. And what the hell is Richard Harris on about? Even if you're not familiar with all the names here, the tunes, in styles ranging from rockabilly to schmaltzy lounge, are a sick treat.

MAD JON'S GREAT CELEBRITY SING-OFF

Much thanks to Mad Jon!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo

¡Hola, amigos! Let's celebrate today by re-upping (is "re-upping" even a real word?) this collection of strange new takes on trad Mexican musics:

PunkmMariachi

and an album of Chicano parodies of punk rock classics:

Manic Hispanic "The Recline of Mexican Civilization"

and finally, 2 collections that have absolutely nothing to do with Mexico, but were requested to be re-posted, so here 'tis:

Seattle World's Fair 1962 Postcard Records

Ray Schmitt's music for tree-huggers
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The Big Beat A-Go-Go Sound of DYMAXION

This intensely obscure band recorded these songs between 1995-1998 using methods I cannot quite figure. Clearly, there's a mixture here of sampled sounds, low-tech electro beats, and live instruments...but the samples are all instrumental, and of things I can't identify. And I'm not even totally sure that there are live instruments. I'm just assuming, as the same twangy-surfy guitars do seem to pop up quite a bit. One song covers The Fall's "U.S. 80's - 90's," and indeed there's a bit of off-kilter post-punk influence here, too. Bloops, bleeps, peppy beats, and the afore-mentioned guitars give the whole thing a retro '60s discotheque feel, but the somewhat lo-fi sound removes any Space Age optimism from these tracks.  Rather, there's a gritty, black-and-white feel that negates any Technicolor beach party atmosphere. Bummer in the summer. 

This, their only album, collects everything they did. They thank Stereolab in the liner notes, which isn't too surprising, but otherwise, there's no info, tho according to Internet sources, two New Yorkers named Jeremy Novak and Claudia Newell are the responsible parties, and Newell dropped out half-way thru, and has not returned to music.

Pick Hit: "I-Man Transport", the one song with (sampled) vox, apparently from a dance instructional record, mixed with a synth reminiscent of Pere Ubu's "Blow Daddy-O."

Dymaxion x 4 + 3 = 38:33

STOLEN SOUNDS pt 2

More music made out of other peoples' music:

Was very happy to see that Martinibomb's oldies from 1998-2004 are now collected onto one big name-your-price album. All kinds of lovely snippets of groovy '60s bossa/lounge/surf-a go-go sounds get sampled, with modern beatz tying it all together. Faves include the Bollywood-meets-bubblegum "Dizzy Ke Peeche" (a staple at my mashup DJ sets), and the self-explanatory "Munster Beat." And anyone who samples Don Knotts (as in "The Love God") automatically gets on my good side.  

Martinibomb "A Girls Bike"

But wait! There's more! A new-ish 3 song release shows them back at their game, e.g.: the zesty Latin title track:

Martinibomb "Mambossa Fever"
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Michael Intergalaxon's "The Art of Bird Mutation" crams 27 tracks in just over 30 minutes. It's a highly caffeinated rush of guitar metal, electro beatz, and corny pop crap, married at gunpoint and spinning at 100 rpm, until it flies apart and audio shrapnel goes whizzing past your ear. Some samples are only seconds long, if not shorter, reminiscent of John Oswald's "Plexure" - that is, if Oswald was a teen-age headbanger abusing his medications.

Michael Intergalaxon "The Art of Bird Mutation"
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Also from the Mutantswing posse is a split release featuring 20 minutes of entertaining insanity from Mythoklash (the second half of the album, by Unimates, is unremarkable techno disco). Mutantswing has many other releases that I haven't had a chance to check out yet. Maniacs!  Investigate and report.

"Classic Sounds Of The New Post-Avant-Garde" Pressed for time? Try out the 1:20 track "The Measurement Problem"
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And finally, this oddity from BOK Darkord (the BOK in question is Buttress O'Kneel) crafting an entire album out of Metallica and Lou Reed samples, but nothing from the actual Reed/Metallica collaboration "Lulu."

BOK Darkord "Lulu"

Don't know much about Metallica, but I recognized Lou's "Dirty Blvd" in "The View," "Heroin" in "Iced Honey", and "Sweet Jane" in "Frustration." "Little Dog" seems to feature not Reed music, but an interview with him, dropping bon mots like 'I hate journalists.' Have no idea what the sources are for "Dragon" but it's excellent lo-key creepiness.

Stolen Sounds pt1

New on-line releases that make music out of other peoples' music:

- People Like Us' newest album "Don't Think Right, It's All Twice" continues the prolific audio-collage queen's string of super-swell sample-sourced sounds. This time out, she actually uses lots of "classic rock" and familiar soul oldies, instead of her usual obscure charity-shop polka records, ethnic obscurities, and radio chatter. It has a nice, low-key feel to it. Restraint - uh oh, this isn't a sign of maturity, is it!? I'm not complaining - this is state-of-the-art sonic thievery. Get it. Listen to:

 Music Sounds Better With Me [Velvet Underground-Otis-Doors/David Lee Roth vs "Disco Inferno" + a bit of Beatles]

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But if it is audio whoopee- cushions you want, check out:

- Roger Species "Never Tickle A Sleeping Strawberry"

for krude komedy kut-ups a la Wayne Butane or Cassetteboy. Only not nearly as good.  Still, there are so few people making these kinds of stupid-joke collages that I feel I should give the guy a mention. Even if taking a media figure saying the word "country" and cutting off the last syllable gets old after the 100th time, there's still some good stuff here. Try tracks #4, 7, and 11. And 23 for some nice gabber/yodeling.
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Back to the really good stuff:

- ZootBoot vol.2 is described as "16 new mashups and remixes with pre-1950 sources." Mashup-masters like Pilchard, pomDeter, G3rst, oki and DJ Useo do a great job of mixing old jazz, big-band, etc with more modern sounds. It's the bee's knees, kiddo.

 
 

CLIFFIE STONE "COOL COWBOY"

("Better Than The Beatles" is back on-line)

As a companion piece to the "How The West Was Swung" album by Vegas crooner Pete Brady that we posted here a few days ago, here's another unlikely cowboy/modern jazz combination collection. Some of the same Western standards that Brady interpreted are featured here, as well. But this one comes from the other side of the fence: Cliffie Stone wasn't a Rat Packer heading out west like Brady, but a major country music figure (Capital Records A&R man, radio and tv host, and some recording success as well) putting down his lariat, and picking up a martini glass. 

This album is fun one, but it's def not as hip as "How The West Was Swung" - the jazz on songs like "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" is more Dixieland than bebop, and the vocals are by a pretty white-bread co-ed vocal choir. Still, Stone's take on The Sons of The Pioneers classic "Cool Water" swings like a rusty saloon door, dad. And dig the nutty cha-cha version of "Don't Fence Me In."
Better yet are the originals, like the title song, a hysterical number about a cowboy so cool, he'll "build a dude ranch on the moon." The like-minded "Cool Cow Boogie," concerns a hep-cat who's "got a knocked-out western accent with a Harlem touch."

CLIFFIE STONE "COOL COWBOY"

1 Cool Cowboy
2 The Streets of Laredo
3 Don't Fence Me In Cha-Cha
4 Tumblin Tumbleweeds
5 Cool Cow Boogie
6 High Noon
7 Jingle Jangle Jingle
8 Blood On The Saddle
9 Along The Navajo Trail
10 Cool Water
11 Sierra Sue
12 Ragtime Cowboy Joe

Muppet Christ Superstar

Finally!  "Jesus Christ Superstar" the way it was meant to be done: with Muppets.  Not "real" Muppets. But mock-Muppets are better than none at all, no?

Muppet Christ Superstar

Happy Jesus Zombie Day, everybody!

PETE BRADY - "How The West Was Swung"

Does what it says on the tin: "The Best of the West Done With A Swingin' Beat." This 1962 album, one of the few recorded by lounge crooner Pete Brady before an errant tennis racket damaged his throat, is more fun than a brawl in a saloon. Big, brassy orchestrations (by an uncredited Bob Florence) featuring members of Woody Herman's Thundering Herd thunder their way thru classic cowboy songs.  Very rural songs given a hip urban twist makes for a pretty ridiculous combo, but one that, strangely enough, was not uncommon. Why? A couple guesses: anything western was very popular at the time. Shows set in the Old West were as ubiquitous on mid-century TV sets as detective programs are now.  And swinger-central Las Vegas was still, in the '50s/early '60s, not too far removed from it's Wild West past.  Many early hotels and casinos had a western theme.

In any case, you'll chortle with glee blasting such kooky finger-snappin' remakes of the likes of "Tumblin' Tumbleweeds" and "I'm An Old Cowhand." And any version of Roy Rogers' ode to my homeland, "The San Fernando Valley," is always welcome. A tip o' the hat to Windy for this one.

PETE BRADY - "How The West Was Swung"

Re-Post: "Hear The Animals Sing"

Following on the heals of yesterdays' "Barnyard Beat" album of animals "singing" via modern sampling, here's a re-up request for the '50s equivalent: Jim Fassett's tape concrete work for children:

"Hear The Animals Sing"

"Barnyard Beat" may have the modern technology, but it doesn't have the perverted innuendo of this album...

Barnyard Beat: Livestock Rock And Jungle Jams

Musique concrete for pre-schoolers: this 1995 release on the Kid Rhino label takes played-out wedding-dj oldies, and thru the Space-Age miracle of sampling, replaces the lead vocals with animal sounds. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what is meant by "avant-'tard." Despite using the same techniques as the likes of Pierre Henry and John Cage, it will never be listed in the history books along with them, no matter how well it's done. File under "Childrens/novelty" and dump in the bargain bin (where I picked it up for a couple bucks). Ah, but we know the score, don't we, dear maniacs?

It's all more clever than it needs to be. Sonic puns abound, as when owls sing The Who's "We're Not Gonna Take It" - get it: The Whoooo?; and sheep "sing" the Beach Boy's "Barbara Ann" as "Baaahrbara Ann." The sampled birds (not lions) on the version of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is a really impressive work of cut-n-paste. Great job, guys - both me and my 4-year-old appreciate it.

Barnyard Beat: Livestock Rock And Jungle Jams

1. Born To Be Wild - Chicken Wolf

2. Beat It - Mew Kids On The Block

3. Honky Tonk Women - The Old Geesers

4. The Lion Sleeps Tonight - Lion L. Richie

5. Barbara Ann - Ewe 2

6. I Got You (I Feel Good) - Sealy Dan

7. Conga - Simian Sound Machine

8. Wipe Out - Duck Dale And The Pig Tunes

9. Wild Thing - The Red Hot Chili Dogs

10. We're Not Gonna Take It - The Hoooes

11. The Lonely Bull - Cuds N Roses

12. Barnyard Medley - The Animals

"Hurray, The Rattles Are Here!"

At first (and second, and third) listen, Germany's The Rattles sound like a Beatles clone. And a particularly bizarre and hilarious one, at that. But as our man in Scotland, Count Otto Black, points out: "German beat groups like the Rattles weren't necessarily imitating the Beatles as such. Rather, the Merseybeat sound in general was extremely popular in Germany, and the Beatles were hired to play in Hamburg for that reason. So both the Beatles and the Rattles were trying to jump on the same bandwagon independently of one another. Though of course the Beatles always had a big advantage in that their accents never slipped. It appears that the Rattles already sounded as though they were a deliberate Beatles clone long before the Beatles were famous enough to be worth ripping off...the Beatles were but one of many similar groups, only they happened to have that extra something. Or maybe they just got lucky - most of their rivals made no recordings so we'll never know."

By the time of this 1965 recording, The Beatles were of course well established, and at least one song, "A Lonely Man," strongly suggests "She's A Woman," so maybe they had circled all the way around to intentionally imitating the Beatles. Still, there are some pretty deranged moments here that should clue anyone in that we are most def not dealing with those mop-tops from Liverpool: a version of Doris Day's wistful  ballad "Que Sera Sera" performed like a live mashup with "La Bamba," a highly energetic Bing Crosby (?!) cover, "Swinging On A Star", and a version of "Rockin' Pneumonia" that they pronounce "Rockin' Pumonia." But amidst all the unintentional laffs, there's still plenty of genuinely high-energy good rockin' tonight.

Die Rattles - "Hurra Die Rattles Kommen!"

A1	Come On And Sing
A2	It's My Fault [raunchy Bo Diddley-ish garage stomper]
A3	A Lonely Man
A4	No, No [what are they singing about?!]
A5	She Is The One
A6	I'm Coming Home
A7	Dance
B1	Que Sera
B2	Hold Me
B3	Swinging' On A Star
B4	Dr. Casey [an ode to fictional TV doctor Ben Casey]
B5	If You Don't Come Back
B6	Little Queeny
B7	Rockin Pneumonia

Thanks to His Countship!

Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra: "Experiments with Auto-Croon"

("Better Than the Beatles" is back on-line.)

Ira Robbin's Trouser Press review of The Bonzo Dog Band begins with an excellent examination of the nature of absurdity in music, an essay equally applicable to San Diego's mad genius(es) the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra, who finally have a new album, "Experiments with Auto-Croon," just released this past April Fools Day, appropriately enough. I can't think of anyone else currently operating who can successfully navigate such tricky Dada-humor waters as this band. Who else would make their debut album a 5-disk set?

As Robbins admits in his review, absurdity is not for everybody. Most people would probably listen to this album and think: why am I listening to an out-of-key robot singing nonsense over rinky-dink electronica? Well, apart from the catchy tunes, there's also the fact that a song about kid volleyball players who "all become mummies/ for no specific reason" (a song called, naturally, "Volleyball Mummies") is really funny. Okay, it makes me laugh. There's no obvious humor here, no set-up/punchline. This could all easily end up dumb, juvenile, trying too hard to be "wacky!" but it's not. It's droll, deadpan, and just plain weird.

For example: This song asks and answers the question, why are there no mime detectives?

Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra: "Mime Detective"  - and dig that toy piano.

The simple, if quirky, electronic pop formula hasn't changed, but it still veers into new territory like the danceable '60s soul organ of "Stunt Double Shuffle," (tho any DJ who spins it risks his job), and the Martin Denny-like exotica "God of Cocktail Umbrellas," in which we learn that the job of those little umbrellas in your cocktail is to keep the drink from getting wet.  Because who wants a soggy drink?

Also included: two tracks from the now off-line "Name That Tune" cover song quiz: Bon Jovi, and a spiritual ancestor of the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra: Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London." Visit:

http://www.satanicpuppeteer.com/

Listen to the whole album streaming HERE.


 

ODD-STRALIA pt 3: The Invented Instruments of Rod Cooper

Another strange-music-making Australian ("odd-stray-alien," as our expert in such matters Buttress O'Kneel says) is the chap in the above video, Rod Cooper, a metal-worker who makes fantastic plunky/boingy/screechy hand-built metal instruments. Seeing him live would be the optimal way to experience him, I would imagine, considering how, to quote B'O'K: "he used to play in subterranean stormwater drains and stuff, secret illegal gigs that utilised the tunnels' natural reverb to the fullest." And of course, you'd get to see these gizmos up close.

He has a few albums for sale, but here's one you can listen to via Bandcamp as Klunk, a duo with John Bell on vibraphone and percussion:

Klunk: "Metalic"

Many of these improvised instrumentals are nice indeed, with Cooper coaxing all kinds of atmospheric, almost ambient soundscapes out of his Highly Resonant Object. No harsh industrial pounding here. The interplay between vibes and HRO on "Aluminum" is quite lovely, and the dramatic "Columbium" is compelling.  I love jazz vibes, but on some tracks the aimless wandering vibraphone doesn't do much for me. Tracks like the sparse, haunting "Stainless" are more successful.

Here are two samplers, both almost 6 minutes long:

http://www.divshare.com/download/25367194-1bb

http://www.divshare.com/download/25367195-e86

And then there's:

Interview

Artist Statement - Like the man says: "Comfort Through Dissonance"

ODD-STRALIA pt 2: Stinky Picnic

"If you're dead, you're totally dead
If you're dead, you're totally dead, not alive"

Can't argue with that.  These words of wisdom come from the title track to shoegaze-y electro father/daughter duo Stinky Picnic's latest name-your-price album. We've been following their career for a bit now, so li'l girl singer/lyricist/conceptualist Indigo must be getting pretty old.  What is she, like, six now?

The fun and innocence of this is so opposed to our previous example of strange music from Australia, dark satanic rapper Ice Cold, that it could give you whiplash. Highlites include the catchy above-cited title tune, the awesome 2-part "I Am A Robot" (a totally cool bit of pre-school Kraftwerk-goes-psych) and the 54-second "Lullaby for Bunny," in which dad puts down his space guitars and lets a little girl sing a simple song for her bunny - so pure and sincere it could put a lump in the throat of the most heartless bastard. All music should be like this.

Stinky Picnic: "Totally Dead"

ODD-STRALIA pt 1: Ice Cold

By request, Scott Johnson's "Rock Paper Scissors" is back up. 


You may have seen that "viral" (as the kids say) sensation Babymetal, the cutesy Japanese girl metal band. But from down Melbourne way comes something even stranger: Satanic death-metal that isn't metal at all but hip-hop. Over boomin' (if dark) electro beatz, MC Ice Cold drops rhymes like "Your life I steal and your soul I’m takin /cookin MCs like a pound of bacon... dissers be dissin and the hataz be hatin /but it aint no thang when you’re in league with SATAN" (from the song "Awaken Ancient Spirits"). Vocals delivered, but of course, in that menacing Cookie-Monster growl. Very funny, but despite song titles like "Satan Iz Tha Gangsta" it's not intended to be a parody but rather, according to our Aussie spy Buttress O'Kneel, "he says it's more like a 'what if' - 'what if hiphop had been the outlet for necrosatanists rather than metal?' - like those books that imagine what it would be like if hitler won the war, or if the dinosaurs hadn't died out."

Get 8 free songs from the: 

Ice Cold Bandcamp page


I wonder if anyone has done anything like this before? After all, the inverse - ghetto gangstas playing heavy rock - has been around for decades, e.g.: Ice T's Body Count, Suicidal Tendencies, the "Judgement Night" soundtrack.

More strange sonic wonders from Down Under coming soon.  Thanks, B'O'K!

Let Us Explore The Pocket Calculators of Many Lands

Kraftwerk, the greatest, most visionary band that will never be voted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, are in the midst of an 8 show stand at Disney Concert Hall. And as it has been sold out for months (anyone in L.A. got an extra ticket? I'll do anything!  I'll even pay for it!), I must lamely content myself with this listening party of all the different language versions of their 1981 classic "Pocket Calculator." And I still am not tired of this song. 

5 Pocket Calculators

Kraftwerk- "Taschenrechner" (German)
Kraftwerk - "Dentaku" (Japanese)
Kraftwerk - "Mini Calculateur" (French)
Kraftwerk - "Pocket Calculator" (English)
bonus: Pizzicato Five - "Contact" (from 1995, a kind of live mashup of "Pocket Calculator" with Brigitte Bardot's "Contact")

No-one uses calculators anymore, but otherwise the album from whence this song comes, "Computer World," pretty much nails it.  We do all have computers, which seems obvious now, but sci-fi writers or futurists never spoke much about home computing or the internet. The future was supposed to be all about space travel.  I have a book from 1979 with predictions for the year 2000, and it's a lot of: moon colonies, Mars landings, etc. At least Isaac Asimov said that we'd be able to read newspapers headlines on TV, which was close. But the song "Computer Love" even predicted internet dating. Kraftwerk for the win.  And these retrospective shows they've been doing lately are their victory lap.

Those men-machines from Dusseldorf also did an unreleased Italian "Pocket Calculator" for TV:

 

 UPDATE: The Polish version!

 

 

R.I.P. SCOTT ASHETON: BRASS BAND PLAYS THE STOOGES

Had a request a few months ago for The Ridiculous Trio plays The Stooges album to be re-upped, but the files had gone missing. So big thanks to reader Traitor Vic for sending it our way yesterday - the same day we learned that Stooges drummer Scott Asheton had died.  Tho I'm sure he had nothing to do with that.  (Uh...right, Vic?)

The Stooges Go Polka

I never saw the reunited Stooges. When I saw Iggy live years ago he played lots o' Stooges material and I was satisfied with that, and anyway I'm always dubious about these long-dead bands getting back together. But now I'm kinda regretting it. Hmm...maybe I should see the Sex Pistols next time... 

THE EVERYDAY FILM Speaks!

Will wonders never cease? Jandek now tours, Dot Wiggin of the Shaggs has a new album, and our own fascinating outsider music discovery (actually, he discovered us) The Everyday Film has given his first interview. This coincides with a new video (see below). We now have a name, face, and a bit of background on transgressive audio artist The Everyday Film, courtesy of Italian writer Davide Carrozza:

Interview with the Everyday Film

Longtime readers of the blog may recall that the Everyday Film project has been so steeped in mystery that we've never known the slightest thing about who or what is responsible for these most striking, disturbing, and mordantly funny recordings. CDs would just show up unannounced and unexplained in my PO box. Well, we now know that the Everyday Film is one Drew Steinman, lives in New Jersey, likes Rick James and Meat Loaf, and is the sole brain behind the music, videos, and artwork.  He admits that he has no musical influences that he can detect, and that just might be the most impressive thing about TEF, that he isn't, unlike just about everyone else, the sum total of his record collection. Steinman's stepping into the light does not destroy the illusion of a bewildering enigma, not with such choice quotes as: "My ideal audience is the person completely alienated and losing touch with reality."

Carrozza also reviews and analyzes TEF's ouvre in a separate article. It is gratifying to see someone take the works of a so-called "marginal" figure of the music world like TEF and give it such a serious treatment.

This site is still the only place to get most of the Everyday Film releases, e.g.: the first four albums. And we have a new video, a preview of the forthcoming album "Bleed Over."  He sez: "Unlike my other stuff this tune is very danceable." 

The Gospel Accordion To Frank

And lo! the Lord appeared to Father Frank Perkovich, saying unto him: go amongst the Catholics of the American Midwest, and playeth polka music, so that they might gather in My name on the Sabbath. And Frank of Minnesota took up his accordion and in 2008 releasedeth the album "Songs And Hymns From The Polka Mass" with Joe Cvek and his band. And the blogger did LOL out loud upon listeningeth to it, for he is a damnable heathen. Clicketh on the song title below, so that you might do the Chicken Dance for Jesus:

Father Frank Perkovich: "Chapel in the Valley"

Yes, this is real. Polka masses have apparently been celebrated for years, primarily in the Midwest, tho not without some controversy. Some feel that a secular dance music is not appropriate for a Sunday service.  And some - the REAL heathens! - just don't like polka. 

This Is What You Want, This Is What You Get...

By request, the following golden oldies are now back:

Zithers!

Hollywood Stomp (Los Angeles in song from the 78 rpm era)

Zoogz Rift and his Amazing Shitheads: "Water," and "Water II."

BAD BOB: "The Tunes They Are A-Changin'"

As if that "Better Than The Beatles" comp we recently posted wasn't enough to blow a baby-boomer's brain, now we've got 23 mind-boggling Bob Dylan covers: celebrity actors who have no business making "music" (Eddie Albert, Sebastian Cabot, Telly Savalas, and yep, The Shat himself), absurdly wimped-out easy-listening crooners and orchestras, milquetoast pop-folkies, bubblegum heartthrobs (Bobby Sherman!  Dino Desi & Billy!), punk new-wavers (Bryan Ferry, and even Da Bruddahs), and a couple outright parodies. 

Off the top of my head, I can think of some others (a Moog version of "Lay Lady Lady," Johnny Cash, and didn't Hugo Montenegro do a Dylan album?) but believe me, this is more than enough to do your head in. Something's going on here, but I really don't know what it is, Mr. Jones.

This comes to us courtesy of MadJon, who gifted us with the "Disco Sellout" collection we posted here a few months ago.

The Tunes They Are A-Changin'

Correction: track 22 is actually "Knockin' On Heaven's Door". And if your version of "My Back Pages" was corrupted, go HERE for a replacement.

Maggie Estep "No More Mister Nice Girl"

A couple/few months ago, our frequent contributor Windy sent me a big ol' batch of vinyl (that I'm still going thru) along with something he rarely sends me: a CD. 'Twas by a half-remembered '90s figure that I vaguely recalled from MTV, Maggie Estep.  Hmm, I thought, why'd he send me this?  And then she died. So that must mean something. Actually, all it probably means is that, for the first time in decades, people are talking about Maggie Estep's brief recording career, so now would be a good time to post her first album:

Maggie Estep "No More Mister Nice Girl"

There really was a brief period in pop culture when poets were supposed to be the next rock stars. The media tried to tell us that about comedians as well. As it turned out, rock stars are the next rock stars, as it was and so it shall always be. But there was a spoken-word boom here in LA in the '80s, with punk-derived rockers like Chris D. of the Flesh eaters, Exene, D. Boon, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Henry Rollins etc. all giving readings, there were spoken-word nights at punk venues, college stations had spoken-word shows, there was a series of Harvey Kubernik-produced (mostly) spoken word albums, with "real" writers like Bukowski and the also recently departed Wanda Coleman getting up there with the rockers. This went national in the '90s, as the entertainment industry was flailing about trying to figure out what the next big "alternative" thing would be that the kids would eat up (e.g.: signing the likes of Foetus and The Butthole Surfers to major labels!).  Poet Maggie Estep got swept up in this, releasing two albums of her reading her poetry and sorta-singing backed, not by beatniks on bongos, but by alt-rockers, including guitarist Pat Place, who played on a lot of those no wave/punk-funk bands we featured here on the "Down By Law" collection. Another member was in the great toy-pop band Pianosaurus.

After mainstream culture wrestled alternativeness into submission, as it usually does, Estep was free to become a novelist, which is what she was 'til her recent death at the unfortunately early age of 50.

The whole "Gen X"/MTV vibe this album gives off is a weird time-travel back to the days of Tower Records, "Beavis and Butthead," deliberately not wearing flannel shirts, gangsta rap cassettes, being young, single and broke, and lashing out at the media hype about people of my generation being young, single and broke. R.I.P. Maggie.  R.I.P the '90s.

1. Hey Baby

2. I'm Not A Normal Girl

3. Paradise Lost

4. Even If

5. Car Guy

6. The Stupid Jerk I'm Obsessed With

7. My Life Of Gardening

8. F*#! Me

9. Scarification

10. Pee Lady

11. Sex Goddess Of The Western Hemisphere

12. I Swear

13. Vegetable Omelet

14. Rip Trip Strip

15. Ingeborg, Mistress Of The Dark

16. Bad Day At The Beauty Salon Thanks, windy!

THE BLACK SWEDEN: Heavy-Metal Versions of ABBA Hits

As one-joke album concepts go, "Gold" by the one-off Black Sweden works better than most.  Don't know how many ABBA songs one really needs to hear performed in full-on head-banging fashion, but the performances here are skilled as any "real" metal album, and everyone sounds like their having tons o' fun. Worth it alone for their version of "Take A Chance On Me" a la Metallica.

No one's taking credit, but apparently genuine Swedish metal all-stars are behind this.

Figured I'd better post this as copies of this CD are literally going for hundreds on Amazon. (On American Amazon, at least.  Maybe the streets of Sweden are littered with these?)

Black Sweden "Gold"