It's great that we're searching for life on other planets, but there's so many places right here on planet Earth that we know nothing about. Ever heard of fungi music ? Named after a native dish, not fungus, this British Virgin Island style (pronounced "FOON-jee") is somewhat of a throwback to classic '50s style calypso - it's got more of a laid-back feel, with more em phasis on lyrical cleverness and storytelling. It's performed on banjos and ukulele, with low-key percussion (e.g. triangle, bongos, calabash or squash) adding [...]
By request, here's a re-up of a 1961 album recorded by Lew Davies & his Orchestra for Enoch Light 's Command Records label called " Strange Interlude. " Unlike your usual Command stereo hi- fi upbeat gimmickry, it was low-key, creepy, with songs like "The Witching Hour," "Old Devil Moon" and "In A Mist". Unusual instruments like the there min, Ondioline (an early electronic keyboard) and hammered dulcimers were feature d. I ha d never heard an album quite [...]
Toy instruments, theremins , vuvuzelas, mandolins, kitchen utensils, instruments I never heard of (Otamatones? Psalteries?) join keyboards and percussion to create a fantastic home-brew internet giveaway that is finally out today - today! - courtesy of WMRecordings. I received an advance copy of this album by Buffalo, New York's The Hathaway Family Plot a month or so ago and have been steadily diggin' it ever since. Every track is a new adventure: the Residential guitars of the opener [...]
Continuing our trip around the Caribbean to the other islands (that is, not Jamaica, Cuba, or Trinidad) we sail to The Bahamas. Now I thought that this series would be a way to bring some sunshine to the depths of winter, but actually, our first album today, "Carnival in Paradise" from 1962, begins with "Chippy's Junkanoo Street Carnival," a spellbinding ly dark, heavily-echoed track that's all weird noises and panning drums, creating [...]
I Cut People , the diabolical sound-smashers we first reviewed last year , have a NEW! FREE! download album constructed entirely out of Hollywood movie audio. In true film industry fashion, it's a sequel - last year's "The Inside Story" was a similar attack on Tinseltown, but, unlike most sequels, this one's a little better. It's more funny. Highlights include the title track's Mel Gibson-gone-insane collage, and "Be My Wingman" pulling all your favorite stars out of the closet. Trenchant commentary + laffs = my fave I Cut People release yet. [...]
Ahoy, maniacs, and welcome to a new year...of blogging ! Which will began the same way last year's ended : with Caribbean music. Even here in L.A. we're suffering from a bad case of weather. Who needs weather, eh? Weather sucks. But this series of posts that we're embarking on today is the feel-good, sunny, party antidote. Ska? Pshaw ! Calypso? Salsa? That stuff's for amateurs. We'll be cruising far beyond Jamaica, Trinidad and Cuba to explore such other exciting rhythms as goombay, punta, boom and chime, and fungi music, among others. [...]
Ah, durn, Christmas really got away from me this year. For one thing, Captain Beefheart's death threw me for a loop. I could spend a LOT of time talking about his genius, I could break his albums down one by one, etc., but I don't have to, do I? His legacy has been pretty well examined. Because, believe me, I could yammer on like an Asperger's kid talking about "Star Wars." It would have to wait until the new year, in any case. And so I have lots of sick, [...]
Our busy elf helper windbag sent a us batch of singles, including a Christmas disco one, which inspired me to root thru my own disco/old school archives to pull out my fave 12" and vinyl yuletide artifacts. Totally kitschy, funky and, tho sometimes awful, always awfully fun. 01 Wayne Newton - Jingle Bell Hustle 02 Santa's Disco Band - Xmas Medley Disco 03 Charo - Mamacita (Donde Esta Santa Claus) 04 Walter Murphy Orch - Disco Bells 05 Irwin The Disco Duck - Disco Duck II 06 The Sisterhood - [...]
I'll be posting Christmas music for the next week or so, and it doesn't get much better than this 11 minute, 7 song 7" (no artwork on the cover, unfortunately) recorded by the participants in the arts program of the San Francisco Recreation Center for the Handicapped. The musical backing seems pretty professionally played, in contrast to the vocals of the handicapped folks. It kicks off with a version of "Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer" scored for xylophone and [...]
Yes, this recent video of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin plunking out the piano line and singing "Blueberry Hill" at a star-studded charity dinner has been getting mainstream press coverage, but if you all ignore as much of the mainstream media as I do, you still might not have caught it. It would have gone great on my " Politics of Dancing" collection of politicians' atrocious musical moments. I was amazed to see that James Brown's main man Maceo Parker was leading the band. Did they do any JB [...]
I have zero info on the demon(s) responsible for this free download release, but I can tell you that this album (or side one, at least) is a highly entertaining witch's brew of sleazy rock in the Cramps/Roky Erickson/Velvets (jugular) vein and lyrics that are , well, just look at those song titles. Tho they're sung in an unlikely high, nerdy voice, I still wouldn't mess with this dude. When he starts screeching about "rats with wings," it sounds like he means it. Side two reverts [...]
Alexandra Pajak is a medical student with classical music training from Athens, GA who has recently released an album entitled " Sounds of HIV: Music Transcribed From DNA. " It is, needless to say, one of the most unusual albums I've received lately. " Sounds of HIV" is a musical translation of the genetic code of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus. Every segment of the virus is assigned musical pitches, thus taking the listener on an aural tour of the entire HIV genome...A portion of proceeds from the sale of this CD will be donated [...]
Anthony De Mare 's background in musicals and dance almost sent him down the typical New York theater route, until he detoured into experimental music. Now, while there have been no shortage of gay men in the avant scene (Partch, Cage, etc.) they usually leave all lifestyle references aside when they compose. De Mare's new album "Speak!," however, fuses the two worlds of cabaret and alt-classical. It's as successful as it is unlikely. One could make the case that gay composers couldn't talk about their lives even if [...]
Like the "obsolete" instruments I've written about, yodeling is another "uncool" old folk style that, nonetheless, requires a fair amount of technical skill, has a long, rich history, and can be quite ridiculously entertaining. So, once again, let's get uncool. Arthur Brogli was (is?) a Californian of Alpine origin who's '70s D.I.Y. release "Happy Yodeling" ( sorry Goths , no gloomy yodeling here) features, apart from vocals, pretty much only accordion. Which, strangely enough, makes it resemble the " Philip Glass For Accordion " album we [...]
"Flowmotion: an album of contemporary and electronic music," a various-artists comp released by a British 'zine of the same name in 1982, was one of my favorite boyhood albums. It certainly was the most obscure - I was quite proud of the fact that the booklet that came with the album stated that I had copy #137 of 500. Oh yeah, chicks dug me! I don't have anything to post by the recently deceased Peter Christopherson , whose Gristle Throbs no longer, but this album does kick off with a selection by [...]
Those of you jonesing for more Zoogz Rift might want to check out the numerous free album downloads of Big Poo Generator (and the various other names they record under) for a similar low-brow-humor-vs-high-brow-mu sic approach. There's none of Zoogz' anger or paranoia here, tho - this is pure silliness. The music is complex, almost slick, but vocals are usually sped-up Chipmunk style. Most of the lyrics concern "poo" and/or "retards." These guys were a big deal on the original mp3.com a decade ago, topping their popularity charts with songs like "I Be An Retarded." I was [...]
Here's my latest guest dj appearance on Radio Misterioso . Listen to music by Bigfoot researchers! Chortle to me & Greg's witty repartee! Thrill to my lack of radio professionalism! This is a big 2 hour file. RADIO MISTERIOSO 11-7-10 intro: "Plan 9 From Outer Space" talk break Bruce Haack "Rita" Richard Marino "Full Moon & Empty Arms" Big Maybelle "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" Symphony of Science "Our Place In The Cosmos" Wah Kazoo [...]
"Based in Turners Falls, MA, Flaming Dragons Of Middle Earth are the brainchild of visionary wheelchair-bound 'band shaman' Danny Cruz, who leads an ensemble of rotating non-musicians, artists, oddballs, kids with Down Syndrome etc in weekly jams at a community resource centre..." The vinyl-only release "Seed of Contempt," another one from Feeding Tube Records , is a true outsider-music artifact, an astonishing blizzard of unrestrained audio mayhem played by kids who aren't trying in the slightest to be cool, professional, or show-biz. 'Twas all mastered off of live cassettes. [...]
Coincidentally, two albums popped up in my PO box recently, both late '70s/early '80s UK oddities . And, right on time, Bret from Egg City Radio has got another incredible punk film festival lined up at the (increasingly inaccurately named) Silent Movie Theater in Hollywood here in L.A. I'm a lways happy to help promote such spectaculars - I me an, come on, who wouldn't want to see this: [...]
Not really. But an East Coast accordionist has released a collection of Philip Glass covers. Some solo, some of it sounds overdubbed, no other instruments. This shouldn't work in a million years, yet it does, and quite brilliantly at that. It's no gimmick - the guy's got some serious squeezebox skillz, and the surrealism of making 20th classical music sound like a Balkan village dance is an unexpected bonus. What Capitalism Was - Plays Philip Glass on Accordi on 1. Japura River 2. Facades 3. Cloudscape 4. Aria from Act [...]
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