Blog: Music For Maniacs

In 1966, opera singer Cathy Berberian recorded an album of Beatles covers, backed by classical arrangements. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to hell. Cathy Berberian " Beatles Arias " Regular readers of this blog will find this album frequently hilarious (love how she trills her Rs); otherwise, it can clear rooms. Berberian has extensive legit classical and avant-garde credentials - she was composer Luciano Berio's wife ; John Cage wrote pieces for her. So it's not easy to [...]

"Hello: Guinness World Record holder (for woman with the longest fingernails), The Dutchess, is breaking into the music industry. The multi-talented phenomenon has recently announced the debut of her rock single, "Phoenix" The song was released on YouTube earlier this summer and created a buzz..." So sayeth her publicist. Which is why I couldn't go into publicity. The Python-esque results would have been something like: The Dutchess: I want to be a singer. P ublicist: Okay. [...]

One of the most enigmatic figures in music today, The Everyday Film , sent us their new "album" (11 songs in under 10 minutes) entitled "Festival of Emotions," and, on some tracks, this usually horrifying figure actually sounds like he/they might be in a somewhat better mood than usual. Maybe even in love, or some bizarre variation thereof. Elsewhere, it's the usual claustrophobic terror-tronics. A festival of emotions, indeed. We have permission to post two tracks from it: "I dont know when the album will be available physically or digitally." This one's only [...]

...because I'm at a loss as to how to describe it. It's g reat to encounter music that fits no known genre until you're the fumbling fool trying to review this 1993 release by German composer Helmut Neugebauer and his band Die Vogel Europas. But (*cracks knuckles*) here goes: Mainly guitar and drums making a kind of fracture d funk, like two Gang of Four records playing at the same time at 78 rpm... but with jazz sax that suggests a European Capt. Beefheart...er [...]

" The pencilina is an electric board zither played primarily by striking the strings with sticks; also by plucking and bowing." And musical instrument inventor/singer-songwriter Bradford Reed is, so far as I know, the world's only performer on this nifty instrument. It's a credit to his songwriting that I didn't know anything about this instrument when I first heard his music - I just liked the song. Of this 1996 album, the Brooklynite writes, "A strictly live pencilina album. For better or worse I used to have a very purist [...]

One month ago I posted a collection of artist s who are making the world a more beautiful place by freely distributing songs or albums, and I asked you to vote for your favorite. Like "The X-Factor," only with good music. I might do this again, only for commercial releases, not freebies. Was one month not enough time? Anyway, the final tally is..(drumroll)... Buttress O'Kneel - 12 Bloody Death Skull [...]

D ebuting in the early 1930s, The Hoosier Hot Shots where one of the first, and best, novelty groups of the 78 rpm era, and if you can't figure out what they were like from the song title "From The Indies To The Andes In His Undies," well, pardner, there ain't much I can tell ya. Listen to me, talking like a hayseed - that's what listening to these guys will do to you. But despite their "rural" schtick, they were actually plenty sophisticated, essentially playing hot jazz with as much virtuosic [...]

A Klingon death-metal band. Just think about the sheer awesomeness of that concept. "Trekkies 2" is a 2004 documentary about the most extreme 'Star Trek' fans, produced and hosted by, of all people, Bing's granddaughter Denise Crosby. The soundtrack album features some funny bits of dialogue from the film, a few soundtrack cues, and lots of entertaining fan songs. Somehow Fred Schneider of the B52s ended up on here as well. Maybe he's a Trekkie? Wouldn't be too surprising. As for the musical acts, who pretty much only perform at 'Trek'/sci-fi [...]

This nearly hour-long sermon starts off nicely enough, before we get to juicy quotes concerning: dirty stinkin' hippie beatniks! The Communist conspiracy! 15 minutes in we get to hatin' on The Beatles and rock music. "DIRTY FILTHY VILE ROCK FESTIVALS...are bent on destroying America." Hey, botanists! We learn about how rock music kills plants - it's been scientifically proven! He recites almost all the lyrics to "Back in the USSR" and "White Rabbit" ("Feed your head! Feed your head!"). He pronounces Bob Dylan's name "Bobby DIE-lin" and Phil Ochs "Phil Oh-cha," and screams about LSD. First time I've [...]

• Dr. Jack Hyles (Late 1960's) - Rock Music

(Vote for "M4M Idol" ! You've got 'til Oct. 6.) A welcome recent trend in Mexican and Mexican/American music is playing instruments made out of recycled garbage. Apart from looking real cool and producing new sounds, it's another example of the resourcefulness of low income people (see also The Congo's Konono No.1 , and Staff Benda Bilili .) So far as I know, there haven't been any recordings of this stuff yet, but there are a few YouTube vids featuring the Sparkletts bottle/garden hose (or PVC pipe) "tuba" and [...]

(Vote for "M4M Idol" ! You've got 'til Oct. 6.) It's a "Two-For-Tuesday"! On Wednesday! Here are two absolutely spellbinding albums by French composer Pierre Bastien , who, since childhood, has been fascinated with the idea of incorporating machines into music. His first experiment was with a spoon attached to a metronome striking a pan. Since then he has come far indeed, e.g.: brilliantly incorporating (non-hip hop) turntables on his "Mecanoid" album. Over the repetitious rhythms of his machines he often blows cool Miles-like jazz horn. The results, on his [...]

Don't forget to vote in the M4M Idol contest !) The Queer Music Heritage site sez: "Almost nothing is known about the mysterious 60's record label Camp Records. They released an album and ten 45 rpm records of gay parody songs, most done with effeminate voices. I believe they were issued in the [...]

(Don't forget to vote in the M4M Idol contest !) It's not about the salary, it's all about hilarity. First up, a video sent to us from reader Pseudonym Smith: "It's economics as rapped by Keynes and Hayek , and I now know everything I ever will about their ideas." Ha, yeah, me too. Listening to debating economists is like an atheist listening to a debate between a Christian and a Muslim. I'll admit that these guys do have mad flow. But are they as good as Red Shadow, The Economics Rock 'n 'Roll [...]

(Don't forget to do your patriotic duty and Vote for M4M Idol ! ) You maybe getting 9/11 fatigue right around now, and those bad tr ibute s o n gs I wrote about last year won't help, but [...]

Don't you wish all of those "[name of country] Idol"/"X Factor"-type shows had good music? Well, now here's your chance to be Simon Bowel (pictured left, on toast) - vote for any of the artists featured on this sampler of home-brew recordings. Most of these acts wrote to me asking for a review of their work, but, goshdurn it, I just don't have the time. Forgive me, bedroom maestros of the world. But these are all FREE releases, so if you like the sampler tunes, there's often whole albums for you to download. It's really good [...]

A few years ago, I was picking up one of our dogs from the groomers, and spied a display of CDs credited to K9 Fusion. The back cover said, " 10 1/2 year old mixbreed, Sven the Love Dog, plays each and every instrument on his debut album. The only exception is the drums, which are played by Sven's owner Steve Brooks. Every intense vocalization is produced by Sven, or one of his canine friends...face it, this Dog's the SHIH TZU! Enhanced CD contains a video of the making of K9 Fusion. See [...]

"It's a postc ard!" "No, it's not. It's a record! Lemme play it" "No, it's a postcard! I wanna mail it!" (removing pipe:) "Hold on kids, you're both right - these 6 postcards we bought at the World's Fair can also be enjoyed on any record-player." "Gee, dad, that's swell!" (Dad goes back to his pipe, nodding and smiling) Despite the ridiculous amount of music I have, I'm not really a "collector." I'm more like a bottom-feeder, buying the stuff [...]

I love Manic Hispanic , and their Chicano parodies of punk rock classics, a la El Vez and his Mexican-ized take on Elvis. But then again, I grew up in Los Angeles surrounded by Mexican American culture. And I grew up on punk rock (some of these guys played in crucial SoCal hardcore bands like Agent Orange and the Adolescents.) So I get the jokes. You may not. But, if nothing else, this rocks, and musical pleasures are good enough. Manic Hispanic " The Recline of Mexican [...]

"I nvented Thing Quartet ...play a variety of junk, cast off and hand-me-down derived , homely, home-made instruments, noise makers, toys, tools and appliances, (with an occasional standard instrument thrown in now and then)... The band explores, interprets and performs original and cover melodies, tunes, songs, poems, stories, course thesis's, drawings, compositions, [...]

Here's a second volume of Before They Were Stars , this time putting the spotlight on the first-ever (and sometimes highly-unlikely) recordings from future hip-hop stars: A pre-annoying Black-Eyed Peas! A pre-rap Beastie Boys sounding like The Germs! Ice Cube sounding like The Beastie Boys! Chuck D sounding like Kurtis Blow! RZA and GZA from Wu Tang sounding like Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince! Before They Were Rap Stars 1 Beastie Boys - Beas [...]