Back in the 80s Bongwater recorded a song called " David Bowie Wants Ideas ." In it, Ann Magnuson recounts a dream in which she receives a form letter from David Bowie who is soliciting ideas for the new album he is recording. The song was a joke, but it had an uncomfortable ring of truth to it. After the runaway pop success of Let's Dance in 1983, Bowie sounded very much like an artist adrift, unsure how to navigate the perilous waters of superstardom. After a couple failed attempts to replicate Let's Dance's [...]
I've been getting back into Bongwater's 1991 album The Power of Pussy . It really is one of the cleverest records I know, but I've never quite understood where they stood culturally. Who were their audience? I originally got into them via Ann Magnuson's performance art. She's perhaps the finest actress in alternative music - her characters spring out of their songs fully formed, flaws and all. Anyway, here's a quickie: the sublime Women Tied Up In Knots . It's transgressive fun for the entire family, but what makes [...]
Fuck you #Sandy the #frankenstorm . To hell with everybody who keeps ignoring global warming issues in politics and not trying to reduce your global footprint somehow. We're all guilty of this in many ways. I hope we survive this natural disaster and it does not become some apocalyptic scene. Anyway here's a playlist of a bunch of songs about inclement weather, rain, sleet, floods and snow to help you brave this situation. Playlist for badweather: 01. Smells Like Rain MP3 by Unsane from Occupational Hazard (1998) When [...]
Where the world saw madness, a select few saw genius. A look at the 1990 album honoring a man in trouble.
I have never negotiated a hostage release. I am not a surgeon awaiting word that an organ needed for me to perform a transplant is on ice. Those are two of a cornucopia of reasons that I didn't bother getting a cellphone until two years ago. The phone I have is basic, a mere conveyance for telecommunication that would have been an impressive device in a '70s sci-fi flick from my childhood. It would have still wowed us when I was in college and Gordon Gekko had a mobile phone the size [...]
" Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel ." - Hunter S. Thompson No, this photo is not from last week's show at 1-2-3-4 Go! Records. It was all ages after all and Nobunny kept his clothes on. The room was completely packed and no one was safe from the moshing, flying jackets and projectile vomit. The short set ripped through much of the Nobunny catalog including the signature "Boneyard" and "I [...]
Ann Magnuson is a cult hero that has been involved in nearly every artistic movement of the last 30 years. She has been a part of the punk world, the rave movement, starred in network sitcoms, and has done pretty much everything. She is debuting her latest show, The Drawing Room Apocalypse at Yoshi's in [...]
Although SF Sketchfest begins this week, there is still plenty of music in the city this weekend, too! It's time to get your ear plugs warmed up - mostly cause it's really cold out - and get moving! Thursday, January 19th Katy B, The Good Natured, Takashi Miyaki at Rickshaw Stop (Popscene) This UK sensation [...]
For 11 years, San Francisco has had the opportunity to witness the best in comedy. And, for the third straight year, we've helped you dig through the 500,000,000 amazing shows to find the best shows for only the nerdiest of San Franciscans. And, since I am a man of exquisite taste, you will trust my [...]
As we prepare to feast today I thought I'd post some songs about love and giving a big thanks to the Review Stalker readers, Twitter Followers, music fans and bands. All 3 of you know who you are so a sincere thank you! Finding good songs that are a true thank you was hard. Anyway, It was little over a year ago we went big time with the official RS blog domain. Everybody wants to own their own brand. Right? The unofficial one lived for many years on blogger. Not a huge leap really just more control on [...]
MUSIC REVIEW: Christine Leakey's tunes are part orchestrated noir, part dark forest and yet very much a real dream. These first free songs from her coming record Tapping Trees in a Trinket Box of Treasure are a smooth decoupage straight from the heart that have been a long time in the making since her earlier days in bands called Cadillac Bill & the Creeping Bent, The Double Feature Creatures and Tijuana Knievel. There has been a time lapse since her having to set music down and done some traveling. Perhaps she was [...]
ALBUM REVIEW: Florida has some general weirdness. Kramer from Bongwater moved there some time back, there's a decent agency and an art school in Miami. It's got modern scenic architecture and a psychedelic band called Lil Daggers . One of my favorite Butthole Surfers song's is even named after the flattened state. Can't say much about the voting habits of a song like "Dead Golden Girls" but there is something nice and sinister about this music. They take the garage tinkering seriously and use a 1967 Vox Continental keyboard [...]
Via Italy Dumbo Gets Dog's Elphant At The Door ALBUM REVIEW: If you like psychedelic rock too much then ignore this because you'll be addicted to Dumbo Gets Mad's sounds from tail to snout on Elephant At The Door from the first walk. Wedging itself on the wake of some big bass riff from the get go on "Plumy Tale" the undertow will drag you right in. What makes this record believable is that no computer chips were used in the raw recording of this music. It's not laptop rock [...]
Via Italy Dumbo Gets Dog's Elphant At The Door ALBUM REVIEW: If you like psychedelic rock too much then ignore this because you'll be addicted to Dumbo Gets Mad's sounds from tail to snout on Elephant At The Door from the first walk. Wedging itself on the wake of some big bass riff from the get go on "Plumy Tale" the undertow will drag you right in. What makes this record believable is that no computer chips were used in the raw recording of this music. It's not laptop rock [...]
7 Inch Friday: I remember hearing "You Don't Love Me Yet" on WFMU and then stumbling on the 73 in a west village record shop so many moons ago and recall thinking this music is so some crafty stuff even if they were both covers -what a way to do it. Bongwater was Kramer and Ann Magnuson (actress) and were always backed with some great musicians and song writers David Licht and Dave Rick plus a bunch of others. This record like all of the other Bongwater tunes were produced and engineered by [...]
As I entered the house, the first thing I noticed was just another insensitive shitting / dick-nipple acrylic painting in the foyer. And while it is true that at that point, I would have considered our friendship a boisterous imprudence at best , this really advanced his doubtful blessing beyond anything resembling pleasant feelings into the realm of sickened marrow. I could actually feel (and hear) my marrow recoiling at his every word from that moment on. But eventually we decided to set aside our pride for the sake of our friendship, and together ate an entire pub with [...]
So I'm feeling a little loopy today from lack of sleep. Seems like the perfect time to listen to some crazy-ass music. Yesterday I mentioned Ann Magnuson, a member of Pulsallama . Later on in her musical career, Magnuson and Mark Kramer, who owned and ran Shimmy Disc Records , founded Bongwater . I wanted to play you guys the title track off The Power of Pussy , but Richard Metzger over at Dangerous Minds has an amazing story about making the video , which is definitely worth reading. Instead, I'm [...]
So I opined on my tech/life blog the other day about SonyBMG screwing the Emusic pooch with the coming really lame catalog from the behemoth label that has such great chart topping artist like Jefferson Airplane, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Faithless, Kelly Clarkson, Dolly Parton, Judas Priest according to last.fm. Ok I of course like Cash and sorta like blasphemy to not like Elvis but C'mon. Really? Which if you take a close peak at the metrics on last.fm there it equals 420 Million unique listeners for [...]
Twenty earthy and nutritious MP3s after the jump. Inspired by Lukas' post of the Ralph Records Goobers album last week, here's a companion album: Potatoes, an out-of-print collection of folk songs that was released on vinyl in 1987 and on CD in 1989 with a slightly different lineup. Here's the complete collection of material from the CD version (including folk songs by Reverend Howard Finster, Mark Mothersbaugh, Half Japanese, Bongwater, The Tinklers, The Residents, Snakefinger, and Negativland), along with a couple bonus Potatoes tracks sliced from my vinyl version [...]
Flowering Toilet
Doklands
Review Stalker
Cover Me
Barely Awake In Frog Pajamas
The Bay Bridged
Spinning Platters
2 trombones and a crossbow
One Sweet Song
BadmintonStamps
WFMU's Beware of the Blog
‘The Terminator,’ starring Woody Allen
New Album: Freddie Gibbs – ESGN [Stream]
“Is Burial actually Four Tet?” hoax resurfaces online
Emily Reo - Happy Birthday
