
Ummm.... Why isn't the Walk the Dinosaur dance more popular than the Macarena? Seriously, "Walking the Dinosaur" involves putting your arms into a Brontosaurus-like shape. How awesome is that!?!? I love that Was (Not Was) included a super short saxophone solo, so that I can justify putting up this ridiculous song as this week's Smooth Sax. Honestly though, Walk the Dinosaur is super funky, and I'm happy that I somehow found an unopened, 1988, copy of this Was (Not Was) album on vinyl at one of my local record stores. Nice add to the collection. Just enjoy the video.

Two KEXP dads, John Richards and Kid Hops / photo by Brittney Bollay It’s time again for Friday on My Mind a weekly post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News. Father’s Day will be taking place this Sunday June 17th, so we’re looking at songs about Dads. The origin of Father’s Day is actually based in Spokane, Washington. That's right, the same city that is responsible for Bing Crosby, John Stockton, Ryan Sandberg, uh... a giant parkade, 40% of [...]

In the beginning of May, ZE Records released a nice little goodie bag of mutant disco re-edits. This was a great find for someone like me who holds both mutant disco and re-edits close to my heart. The compilation includes such greats as Was (Not Was), headed by legendary vocalist Sweet Pea Atkinson, Gichy Dan's Beachwood #9, Don Armando's 2nd Ave Rhumba Band, Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Aural Exciter, and lots more... Among the remixers we have one of my favs, NeLue , along with the likes of Yam Who? , The Legendary 1979 [...]

Kid A, una cantante y productora de Virginia, sacará su nuevo trabajo BLCKRSECHLL este año y nos regala el primer sencillo “BB Bleu”. Seguro recuerdan Kid A por “ wasnotwas ” rola que sonó mucho hace unos años. ♩ Kid A - BB Bleu

Now that I've wasted so much time here establishing a few traditions, I'd be remiss to honor not them... Almost every artist in the history of mankind has at least one title in their catalog that is a compilation, a stopgap collection meant to maintain interest between releases (often to boost holiday sales) or to fulfill a contractual obligation. This is the former, a chance to make use, one more time, of a lot of wasted time over the past twelve months. Three years ago, I reflected on the annual, childhood tradition of [...]

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Was Not Was has never been given the respect they deserve. Sure, Walk The Dinosaur was a minor hit, sure their songs are goofy, but they are delivered with such utter badassness that you forget the weirdness and just dig the skill. Here's one of my faves (and Thanks To Bill Yule for turning me on to them when we were but knee-hi to a grasshopper) :
Swift dissipation, whilst flickering memories caress the dirt-tainted concrete – rain sodden under an ashen brazen sky. It isn’t just cold; it actually feels cold… and desolate… and desperate. These smoky lives wither and lie in wait – colourless and featureless thanks to the persuasion of modern life. Identikit people and every single one of them billowing with nonsense – is it any wonder

Paloma recently mentioned a musician - a portly, mustacheod fellow and one quarter of an iconic band of the late '60s - and I reacted with the disdain akin to that Kramer and Newman had for baseball great Keith Hernandez. I had to remind her that several of us had unpleasant encounters with this legend at the record store where we worked and met in the '90s. (in one memorable incident, our jazz buyer - a burly cat in a beret - followed this character to the bookstore next door and verbally smacked [...]

Thanks to me watching WAY WAY WAY too many episodes of Yacht Rock today, I am kind of in the mood for some cheesy 80s shit. Thank god for Was Not Was. Not Yacht Rock at all, Was Not Was is a super weird/very experimental band from suburban Detroit. In the 80s, they mashed together a lot of genres, including funk, jazz, disco and pop, with poetic and political lyrics. They got back together in the mid-00s for a reunion of sorts. This song, inexplicably about life in prehistoric times (where the [...]

I couldn’t resist using the title of this post this week. I knew it had to be a three-song post at week’s end. Fortunately, there are plenty of great songs available. k d lang : Black Coffee [ purchase ] We’ve been hearing the name Peggy Lee a lot lately, and yes, Black Coffee was one of her signature tunes. It was also recorded by Ella Fitzgerald, so it certainly qualifies for our theme. K d lang did this wonderful version with the legendary Nashville [...]

Was (Not Was) - Dad I'm In Jail (mp3) from What Up, Dog?

Though I'd been uploading music to the Internet since the beginning of the decade, my first real mix was a collection of Christmas songs posted back in 2005. These last four years have been an interesting trip; through music blogging I've made the acquaintance and friendship of endless talented musicians, writers, artists and knowledgeable music lovers, many that taught me a thing or two. Usually, my yearly Christmas post looks back at the accomplishments of the past twelve months, there's no danger of that occurring this time 'round. It's been a somber and sobering year for most that read this, [...]

Un classique des classiques : was not was - wheel me out Sinon, Tensnake est un des producteurs house les plus excitants de la scène depuis un bon moment déja. Il est de Hambourg, comme Erobique et ses autres potes du label Mirau , mais aussi Lawrence et la clique de Smallville . Hambourg est l'alternative parfaite à Berlin : moins de [...]
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A bit of a mixed bag here. Tim Sweeney 's RVNG mix, Mx3. Every few months I go back to it and go overboard with repeat playing it until I have to put it away again for a while. Really just way too good. Aphex Twin, Radiohead, Grace Jones, Kraftwerk, Zongamin... Spectacular. Anyway, I've always had a bit of a thing for this quirky Was (Not Was) tune. It's got an interesting dissonant mentality, a kinda bent sound. So here it is for your judgement. More importantly, though, if you don't have that mix [...]

The Paper Scissors Genre: Rock / Indie / Alternative From: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia [...]

Some yummy records arrived on my doorstep the other day which I'm all excited about. Among them was a copy of this killer Was (Not Was) tune which I first encountered on James & Pat's Fabriclive . Don't need to say anything more, it's a fucking killer fun track! Was (Not Was) - Tell Me That I'm Dreaming (Traditional Remixed Version) I've been feverishly hunting the track Woman by John Forde to no avail and there is no fucking way that buying the record is a financial [...]
I'm glad that my little hate-filled essay on racial tolerance in America (that sounds so much more professional than "bitchy rant about racist dicks") generated so many responses. Whenever I hit a nerve with one of my rants I always feel like I'm on the spot to follow it up with something equally vitriolic and well-written. Well, um...I got nothing. Sorry, kind of content right now. About the only thing that's pissing me off at the moment is the unreliable control system in Skate 2 for the Xbox 360, but I really don't feel like ranting about poor game design [...]