The Beach Boys in Japan, 1966. More versions of English/American hits done in other languages by the original artists. Now, there are TONS of hit songs that were remade for European and Japanese music fans - the Beatles' remakes alone could fill a large warehouse - but we thought we'd focus here on the versions cut by the people who made the hits. I would give anything to see how long it took Johnny Cash to lay down German versions of his songs. Full disclosure: "Santo Domingo" by Wanda Jackson, was actually recorded in [...]
The problem that arises when writing about a rock star known as '?' is that the use of the question mark symbol in cyberspace can sometimes cause unexpected results. In some ways it's even trickier than Prince's strange former name (which I won't even try to reproduce) because it is a legitimate punctuation mark, even if it's sometimes used in other ways. That might explain why most of what's written about the guys behind the organ-driven sound of the 1966 mega-hit "96 Tears" refers to them as 'Question Mark and the Mysterians'. The Michigan-based group's lead [...]
Few people remember Detroit all-Latino garage band ? and The Mysterians , though they had a #1 smash hit with 96 Tears on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold more than a million (!) copies in 1966. The 7" generally is regarded as proto-punk and was also featured on the famous first Nuggets compilation. 12 years later the song was covered by Belgian unknowns Gladys Pink who replaced the delirious vox organ of the original with a vicious accordion and recorded one of the most sensational and completely unnoticed singles ever to come from the Lowlands. No need for [...]
"Selling all my records. $40. Call 555-5555 for more information". He could've saved himself the $3 he spent for the newspaper ad and simply emailed me directly. Two hours later, I was in Dick's living room looking at "all" his records: three boxes of albums and a couple of boxes of singles. Turns out Dick sold cars from his front yard for "20-some" years and had some experience stretching the truth. Turns out that "all my records" were the 150 or so leftovers he hadn't moved to his girlfriend's 96-year old father's house. "The state bought [...]
For an outfit whose very name professed a preference for anonymity, there's a surprising amount of information available nowadays about this bunch of rockin' Chicano chavales; check out their Wikipedia page for the full Monty. Question Mark himself has gone to considerable lengths to conceal his identity over the years, and why not? It's one [...]
The charismatic rockabilly hero (sometimes complete with a creepy pencil moustache) Dan Sartain returns with his dark take on life. Produced by Liam Watson, this is Dan's fourth album. A cross between the more sombre aspects of The Cure and The Stray Cats, Lives continues where Join Dan Sartain left off with short snappy two minute humourous rockabilly songs with added grit. It is reminiscent of 60's garage bands like ? & the Mysterians . There is the recurring theme of questioning and challenging religion, most clearly on 'Prayin' For A Miracle' or the [...]
96 tears - ? and the Mysterians A great song. A perfect song even, and the definition of a nugget. But why 96 tears? It's boring, it's semantics, i know, but i've always wondered why it is that number and what it's referring to. An anniversary, a highway number, something astrological, something numerological, something to do with Curium, an inversion (not mathematically, of course) of 69, an area code, a house number, the letters "IF" written the simplest of alphabets codes, April 6th or [...]
(via prismkiller) Just a quick FF today. We needed a short vacation this week in order to let the new Gorillaz' album Plastic Beach sink in. Inititally, we were going to wait for the review to post a track, but since everyone and their mother has posted it on Hype Machine, I figured I'd at least [...]
![Various artists – "Michigan Brand Nuggets" – Belvedere Records [Curiosities #35]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2304370_lg.jpg)
[[[ SINCE IT'S A BOOTLEG IN THE FIRST PLACE, DOWNLOAD MICHIGAN BRAND NUGGETS FREE HERE, PART 1 and HERE, PART 2 (then pay way too much for it on eBay!) ... ]]] If you're looking for a prime example of MC5 overcoming the legend and delivering the DYNAMITE rock we've always credited them with ... If you're looking for a 30-pack of [...]
Είδα ένα όνειρο χθες. Ο μπαμπάς με είχε πάει σινεμά να δω τους Gerry and the Pacemakers, θα πέρναγε να με πάρει στο τέλος της προβολής. Τέτοιες βλακείες δεν τις άντεχε. Με ξεφόρτωνε στο σινεμά και με ξαναμάζευε στη λήξη της προβολής.Στο μεταξύ, εμείς οι μικροί Κάφροι , ξεσαλώναμε με τα γκρουπ της εποχής. Κι άσε το Ηρώδειο να καίγεται...Τί ακούγαμε τότε; ? and the Mysterians : 96 Tears ...τέτοια... Μια ανάλογη αντίδραση έπρεπε να υποστώ σήμερα, γιατί [...]
Taking their name from a Japanese science fiction film titled The Mysterians, ? & the Mysterians formed in 1962 in Saginaw/Bay City, Michigan. The band consisted of Larry Borjas (bass), Bobby Balderrama (guitar), and Robert Martinez (drums). When the band originally started out in 62, they played mostly instrumental songs that were inspired by Link Wray and Surf music. The bands lead singer and main song writer goes by the name ? (Pronounced question mark). His name was said to actually be Rudy Martinez, until he legally changed his name to ?. He also claims that he was born on [...]
Viking Fuck There's a wide-ranging, crazy emotional palette in the circus-punk of Iowa's Viking Fuck, but primarily a considered and well-executed theatricality that makes it's microphone-defiling antics worthwhile, as exemplified here in this re-endition of the chilling, alien garage classic 96 tears by ? And the Mysterians . Viking Fuck - 96 Tears ( mp3 )
Originally posted May 15, 2008 "Selling all my records. $40. Call 555-5555 for more information". He could've saved himself the $3 he spent for the newspaper ad and simply emailed me directly. Two hours later, I was in Dick's living room looking at "all" his records: three boxes of albums and a couple of boxes of singles. Turns out Dick sold cars from his front yard for "20-some" years and had some experience stretching the truth. Turns out that "all my records" were the [...]
Schadenfreude is a feeling you've probably had, even if you don't know what it means. German-born sociologist Theodor Adorno defined Schadenfreude as "largely unanticipated delight in the suffering of another which is cognized as trivial and/or appropriate." Anticipated or not, there is something slightly uncomfortable about taking pleasure in another's pain. But the singers in today's mix sound pretty damn smug about their adversaries' demise. People say, "hate to say I told you so," but really they love it. William Bell - I Told You So I bet you regret it already, [...]
? and the Mysterians - Smokes They don't make em like they used to . It kills me every time I read somebody describing these combos as "cheezy." Give me a break, stroke the keys and let it roar ya nerds.
Crystal Antlers' first full-length album, Tentacles is garnering a great deal of hype in the indie blogosphere, and much of it is warranted.
C'est chiant de vieillir, alors je vous rajeunis le cerveau, en vous servant n'importe quoi. the mysterians -96 tears- my robot friend -23 minutes in brussels (with philiip)- joakim -rocket pearl- cypress hill -busted in the hood- françois virot -say fiesta-
So it goes something like this: sometime back in the mid-1970s, the benevolent aliens who had been watching over humanity undetected for ages finally felt compelled to intervene. Genghis Khan they could tolerate. The Black Death, though distasteful, was mildly interesting. Stalin had no dress sense and was a boor, but they let him slide past. However, when they saw the cultural havoc being wreaked by the likes of Barry Manilow, Captain & Tennille, and naugahyde, they decided it was time to act. Using centuries of knowledge gained through the judicious application of [...]
Après le succès de leur précédent opus et de son single ravageur For Real , c'est peu dire que les américains d' Okkervil River étaient attendus au tournant avec ce nouvel album, The Stage Names . On est tout de suite rassuré sur sa qualité avec le single Our Live Is Not A Movie Or Maybe qui ouvre la marche: ça commence vraiment très fort, et on peut dire que cette chanson est géniale rien que pour l'écho de guitare acoustique sur la batterie à 2:50. Arrive le deuxième titre pour [...]
Every once in awhile you run across a brilliant blog post, kind of like when Drinking Buddy wrote about tape recording his farts . Over at Blogs are for Dogs , the author tagged all the lyrics for Okkervil River's "Plus Ones" with the original songs that inspired them. Well done. You can read the original here for more details. I'm a regular reader now. I secretly just wanted to post this to find a good reason to work The Commodores into the blog. Okkervil River - "Plus Ones" [...]
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