"Weird Ass Chirstmas" is now up. Any Scrooge would have his head turned around by this: Esquivel, Mel Blanc, a guy singing like a frog, a track from the infamous "Star Wars" xmas album, Stewart Copeland of The Police in his oddball 'Klark Kent' persona, Fred from the B-52s singing about fruitcake and Sammy Davis Jr with an upset stomach, Wayne Newton going disco (one of my long-time faves), and, er...Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Christmas." Sorry to the requester who asked for "Bah Humbug: An Alternative Christmas" - can't find that one. But I did re-up this one, a whole album about trees. See y'all next year!
'Tis the season for yet another installment of that beloved yuletide tradition, Bomarr's 'wild xmas' compilations of "...the best of the best, and the worst of the worst holiday music out there." And a rocking stocking stuffer it is, too, with some famous weirdos like the Residents and Quintron & Miss Pussycat, a track from the Moog-sterpiece "Switched-On Santa" (hey, I had that one on vinyl!), and lots of stuff I (and probably you) have never heard of, e.g.: Uncle Anus' "Merry Fucking Christmas Ya Filthy Animals," anyone? A messed-up sound collage, that one is. Amidst all the outsider/novelty sickness is a wonderful '60s girl-group obscurity, "Christmas Time Is Here Again," by The Flirtations, not the Charlie Brown one.
"Wild Xmas With Bomarr" "a solid 79 minutes of madness, and definitely not safe for your sensitive parents." Seamlessly mixed, I might add.
But wait: he says that after 10 years, this will be the last one. Wha..? Don't let the Grinch take this from us! Ah well...have had a couple requests for the infamous Wayne Butane xmas sound collage and the entire
And I thought that my beloved pot-bellied pigs Christmas albumwas the nuttiest sampled- animal- sound-fx Christmas album, a cherished tradition going back to Don Carlos' Singing Dogs in the 1950s. But this one just might beat 'em all. Goats! The silly Swedes behind this album chose very traditional, usually religious songs, and perform them with straight-faced solemnity. The contrast between these o holy nights and the goats' unholy screams is the funniest, flat-out weirdest holiday novelty I've heard in a while.
I'm not posting the album cuz it's brand new and the proceeds go to charity (Yes! buying weird music is finally tax-deductible!), so do the right thing and get it here:
Maniacs! Do any of you have the "Trekkies 2" soundtrack? I've been getting lots of requests lately to re-up oldies, and that ones' file has gone missing. But lots more old posts are back up, cuz you axed for it:
Merry Kissmyass! In the holiday spirit of giving, two fine Maniacs have hit us with some great comps of x-citing, x-otic, (x-hausting?) xmas weirdness:
"Deck Your Face With Xmas Music" - Don-O, who compiled the two "Ultimate Ultimate Xanadu" comps for us, is a wearer of many hats, two of which conjoin here: his 'zine "Twilight World," and his mix-tapes. In the latest ish (#20) of his compulsively readable publication, Don dishes at length on his fave Christmas albums (here's a preview), and this is the audio companion. Great stuff, ranging from the sleazy 1960 Sun Records "Rockin Stockin" single (perfect for "rated x-mas" burlesque shows), to some kooky Space Age sounds from the Three Sons, to a wild Optigan track (man, I gotta find a copy of this album), culminating in a spectacular reading by filmmaker John Waters on why he loves Christmas. Cat Waller, who bequeathed unto us those lovely "Monstro Monster Mixes" is back with several volumes of yuletide yummies: https://xmasmixes.wordpress.com/ We posted a link to this page last year when he put up "Rude Ass Christmas Mix (NSFW!)" which claims he has tweaked a bit for this year. I deffo also recommend the "Lynchian" Ghostly Trio album, recorded off a tape as just side 1 and side 2. Concidentally, Don-O includes a track from it on his collection. And Cat claims that there's a "Weird Ass christmas Mix" a-comin', so keep watching the skies!
Following the recent post of the soundtrack to the John Waters film "Pink Flamingos," blogger extraordinaire Jonny Zchivago slipped us the OST to Waters' 1974 classic "Female Trouble." Ingredients: some splendidly sleazy early rock, inc "Underwater," one of my fave surf oddities; Nervous Norvus hippin' the squares to that jive lingo; the singing debut of Divine; some slices of corny suburban cheese; and choice bits of dialogue from the film. As the great Nervous Norvus would say, dig-a-roonee: "Female Trouble" Soundtrack + Bonus Filth!
01 Divine - Female Trouble Theme [original lyrics sung over an existing song...but what is the song?] 02 "Christmas at the Davenports" 03 Gene Autry - Jingle Bells 04 Ruby Wright with Cliff Lash and his Orchestra and the Dick Noel Singers - Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Xmas 05 "The World of Heterosexuality" 06 Chuck Río & The Originals - Blue Kat 07 "A Meatball Sandwich" 08 Nervous Norvus - Dig 09 Bill Black Combo - Yogi 10 101 Strings Orchestra - Bridal March 11 "Retarded Brat" 12 The Frogmen - Underwater Order now and we'll include these free gifts! Some songs not on the soundtrack, but inspired by the film that I've added to the file Jonny sent us: - D. Sticker Ensemble - Massey Resource [sound collage of film dialogue vs Philip Glass (?)] - Eartha Kitt w/Bronski Beat - Cha Cha Heels [a couple of disco/house stompers] - Rosabel w/Jeanie Tracy - Cha Cha Heels - The Cowslingers - Cha Cha Heels [trashy garage-rock]
This 1999 collection of eccentric electronic instrumental Christmas music by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh doesn't sound much like Devo, or, for that matter, Christmas music. It does sound really nice, tho. As the song titles indicate, the tunes suggest famous Xmas carols, and sometimes just barely at that, e.g.: the cartoonish "Midnight Windup Toy". And isn't "Soylent Night" the greatest title? Mark Mothersbaugh - Joyeux Mutato
01 Jingle$, Jingle$, Jingle$ 02 Blue Joy
03 Midnight Wind-Up Toy 04 Bell Boy 05 Happy Woodchopper 06 Only 12 Shopping Days Left 07 Peace And Goodwill 08 Enough Xmas For All 09 You Better Watch Out... 10 Let There Be Snow 11 I Don't Have A Christmas Tree (Soylent Night) BONUS: Devo - Merry Something To You [a barely minute long jingle from a 2010 Warner Bros xmas comp] I was reminded of this album after li'l bro Paul Fab told me about the big ol' Mark Mothersbaugh exhibit he saw recently at the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art. (That's Paul at the exhibit, above.) It's a career retrospective of Devo memorabilia and Mothersbaugh's prodigious visual art output. Check the short (exclusive! not on YouTube!) video below Paul shot of some crazy contraptions: "I believe he calls them Orchestrions. It's a gallery (his kooky rugs on one wall) with four Orchestrions which all play together. They're mostly old organ pipes, but also many bird calls, whistles, metal bells and other noisy things. They're cobbled together with visible electric (and barely electronic) controls all left out and taped into whatever position they're supposed to be in. Every 5 minutes they start playing. What a cool sound."
Damn! Can't wait to see it. Once it finishes its Denver run, the exhibit will be on tour for a couple years. (I did quite like Mark's "Beautiful Mutants" gallery show in 2009.) Thanks to Paul for the pic and vid.
Victorian-era robots! Plinkety-plonkety music not played by human hands! If the phrase "music box" conjures up images of that tchotchke in your grandma's living room with a ballerina twirling around on top as "Moon River" plays, you may be surprised to hear how lush and orchestrated these beauties sound. We don't know exactly what singers and musicians of the pre-recording era sounded like, but as these big boxes, sporting such impressive names as the 'Symphonium,' were actually found in household parlors of the late 1800s, listening to them is a bit of a time machine into them long gone days before radio, records, or the internet provided in-home musical entertainment, and song titles all started with "O." The tunes featured on this 1977 release are short, sometimes under a minute, so for the big hits like "Silent Night," they wind 'em up and play the song two or three times in a row. And if you hate Christmas music, there's plenty of unfamiliar songs here that don't feel especially seasonal and could feed your mechanical-music jones all year 'round. Christmas Memories Played on Antique Musical Boxes
1. O Tannenbaum 2. O Sanctissima 3. Silent Night 4. Among Shepherds-The Holy City-Every Year Anew 5. O Come Little Children 6. O Tannenbaum 7. O Come Little Children 8. See the Conquering Hero 9. Cloister Bells-Ave Maria 10. O Come All Ye Faithful 11. Monastery Bells Another vinyl gem unearthed by this blog's ol' pal Brer Windbag. And if you're looking for some appropriate Victorian-era literature to read whilst listening to this, how 'bout this 1882 book of children's short stories that usually feature the children dying. Features the feel-bad classic, "The New Mother": "Anyhow Stories" O come little children, indeed. "The Imitation Fish" is another cherished tale to make your kids miserable. And who wants to set "The Paper Ship" to music? Thanks to Count Otto, and Windy!
I don't usually post things I haven't listened to, but by the time I have the opportunity to check these recent presents that Santa dropped into my in-box, these seasonal sounds will be out of season.
This blog hasn't been very active lately, and one reason is technical - the official M4M computer hasn't been feeling well (I'm writing this on Mrs. Fab's borrowed laptop). So I'm entrusting you-all to listen and review in the comments these enticing krazy krampus kollections:
"Wild Xmas With Bomarr Vol. 9" - Bomarr's been making these superb collections for years, and, as he writes: "I swear these mixes get weirder and weirder every year." He compiled this "after hours and hours of digging deep" and I'd believe it - I haven't heard of any of these artists. Cat A Wallers' Xmas Mixes is a new site, a work in progress, but already has a couple of things up, inc. a not-safe-for-work "Rude-Ass Christmas Mix," so that's gotta be good. While I still had a functional office, I was able to re-up by request:
The "Space-Age Santa" collection from a couple Christmases ago featured a track "from a kiddie xian xmas album that I found in a thrift-shop called "Christmas 2001: A Space-Age Adventure"; I actually digitized the whole thing, but, believe me, you don't need to hear it." Well,apparently someone DID need to hear it cuz yesterday I got this comment: "Iwould do anything to hear "Christmas 2001: A Space-Age Adventure" again. My children's choir at church performed this in December of '79. You said you digitized it... Is it something I could hear?" You'd do ANYTHING, eh..? *Makes diabolical face, rubs hands together* Mwa-ha-ha-haaa! Oh, all right, here it is: Flo Price - Christmas 2001 A Space-Age Adventure
As promised by compiler Cat A. Waller, 
