Robert Williams: Buy His Records

Anyone who played in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band is of course an automatic A-lister in the avant/strange music world. So it's no wonder that late-period Magic Band member Robert Williams' debut solo release, a four-song EP from 1981, is chock-a-block with strange music superstars: a couple of DEVOs, a slew of Zappa/Beefheart sidemen, even Robbie Krieger of the Doors. And the music is quite nice, too, moving into (slightly) more commercial New Wave territory with its' integrity intact.

But unfortunately for Williams, his 1997 public humiliation on the hugely popular (and still running) "Judge Judy" show is what he will always be best known for, at least until reissues of "Doc At The Radar Station" knock Bruno Mars off the charts. Williams toured with PiL, and attempted to sue no less than Johnny "Lydon" Rotten himself. To put it in strictly legal terms, he did not win.The complete episode is no longer available on-line, and the short clips that are up don't do it justice, so you'll just have to trust me when I say that it was one of the most howlingly funny moments in TV history. 

Poor li'l fella. He does deserve to remembered for his music, not just with the Cap'n, but on his solo records, and with Eazy Teeth, who made one great experimental synth-punk single in 1980 that featuredTito Larriva from the Plugz on vocals, included here. Also: 2 tracks from his fine 1998 album that is in print, "Date With The Devils Daughter": "Hello Robert," which features some hysterical (in all senses of the word) answering machine messages from Wild Man Fischer, and "Frank and Don and Me", feat. guitarist Jeff Morris Tepper from his Magic Band days. Not bad for a "nudnik."

Robert Williams - Buy My Record + bonus tracks

HAPPY (BAND)CAMPERS: CHILL EDITION

I don't even know how to deal with the death of David Bowie, at least so far as this blog is concerned. He was such a monumental figure in my musical upbringing that I wouldn't know where to begin. Ah well...in lieu of anything relevant, here's the post I had planned for today. If, like me, you've just been listening to lots of Bowie and want to take a break for something a little new and different, I must say that the mood of these songs is strangely appropriate: 

What will you do with all that xmas scratch your relatives laid on ya? What, they didn't give you anything? Bastards! No matter - these zesty-flavored new(ish) releases can be listened to, and in some cases downloaded, for free.

We're long-time fans of Twink, The Toy Piano Band, and not only can you now check out his entire discography on the Bandcamps, but you cats must also dig his latest:

"Dust Bunny"

This album is inspired by winter, and so has a somewhat more somber tone to it. Somber, yet cartoon-ish, if you can imagine that. The master of toy-tronica is in fine form on such pick hits as "Pipper Snitch," and "Sparklemuffin."

Not sure how I discovered Corpus Callosum, probably by searching for unusual instruments, but this bunch of eccentric California folkies have come up with what is possibly the most gorgeous tune on Bandcamp. Musical saws and accordions beautifully creak along with sing-along vocals:


Corpus Callosum: "Hymnal"


Now that you're all properly relaxed, I shall send you off to dream-land with this stunning bit of Eno-Frippy drum-less drone courtesy of the Connecticut combo Landing.

Landing: "Yon"


As with the Corpus Callosum track, I haven't really listened to much else by this group. I just keep returning to this one. Music to hibernate by... 

MUSIC MADE FROM SOUND EFFECTS 2

A year we ago we wrote about artists such as The Fruiting Body who make music out of everyday sounds. I am happy to say that this trend is continuing. People of Earth!  Your musical instruments are...OBSOLETE! 

We salute you, France, for you are the country that gave us, among other things, musique concrète. And Furniker (aka Franz Schultz), who might literally be making concrete music - I would not be surprised if an actual concrete mixer was featured in the track "Construction Site." That's a song featured on Furniker's brand new, all-too-brief, 4-track 'net release that takes everyday stuff (song titles include "In The Kitchen" and "Work") and samples and loops them into a rhythmic, compelling din. You won't find too many hummable melodies here, but if you like industrial music, well..this really is industrial.

Furniker/"Furniker" (Bandcamp streaming) 
Furniker/"Furniker" (archive.org free downloading/streaming)

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I found this chap on Bandcamp:
Spannerman Dan ("instruments are made from found and recycled objects")
His short, low-key songs (sketches, more like) aren't too spectacular, but "Pailito" is nice, and "Calder Waltz" is very nice, with what sounds like alien animals vocalizing over pleasantly chiming bell-like sounds.
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Sneak previews of two forthcoming albums that I am very much looking forward to (bookmark this page!):

The great Matmos have released a track from their forthcoming (Feb 2016) album named after the only "instrument" they used to make it: a Whirlpool "Ultimate Care II" washing machine. Dig this swell percussion jam that will also make whites whiter, colors brighter:

Matmos: "Ultimate Care, excerpt 8"

And Miles Copeland (the IRS Records founder/manager of The Police, I assume?) will be releasing this Dec. 10th a collection of his field recordings of the "Sea Organ" built into the coastline of Croatia. Waves roll into tubes of various sizes, creating a theoretically endless, random piece of music. Quite lovely. Two tracks for, if you'll pardon the expression, streaming, are now up:
"Sea Organ"

Thanks to James Carroll!

BANDCAMP IS THE NEW CASSETTE CULTURE: Dark Ambient Edition

It's fall, Halloween is around the corner, so let's get moody with these FREE! listening/download contemporary internet releases of a decidedly strange and obscure nature. If Lovecraft's Miskatonic University had a college radio station, these albums would be on heavy rotation.

Ak'chamel: "Old Norse Mara" - Like the Residents attempting to summon occult entities (or The Elder Gods), this album is dark, distorted, evil ambience, culminating in the compelling "Death Was On You From The Moment of Birth." But it's then followed by an utterly incongruous surf-punk instrumental(?!). No matter, a demonically-possessed muppet then takes over the lead vox for the next track. (The more overtly shaman-istic "Fucking With Spirits" is plenty cool, too.) Price: Name your price.

Sasha Olynyk: "1955" (EP) - What is this, a '50s crooner & an EZ orchestra collaborating with Portishead? It's hard to tell thru the hallucinogenic fog. 25 minutes of mysterious melancholy,  sometimes quite beautiful, a la Boards of Canada, only Olynyk really is Canadian. The moment in "Surfers Dream" where the "Rebel Without A Cause" soundtrack morphs into the song is magical. Price: Name your price.

Hanetration - "Murmurist" ep - One of our fave ambient-ists. "Begin" is indeed a great place to begin; the gently clanking percussion + church organ drone of "Sundown" = one of his best ever. Price: Free

Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel: does what it says on the tin. Tho sometimes joined by guests, most of these free releases are by an Atlanta, GA duo who deliver deep drone instrumentals that sound nothing like the Space Age sounds you'd expect from theremins, or the usual country/Hawaiian-isms of steel guitar. All live, all improvised. Price: Name your price. See also: http://duetonline.net/sample

6 ALBUMS ABOUT...ER, YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO KNOW...

The music of Zoojay (Jonathan Niehaus) might be the most disturbing, disgusting stuff I've ever heard. Simply put, he sings about having sex with dogs. Siberian huskies, to be precise. There is some info on-line about Niehaus but I have no idea how true any of it is, e.g.: molesting animals is not just a fantasy for him as he has apparently been caught in the act, resulting in him being fired from a job at a pet store. And supposedly, he has made videos that feature him illustrating the songs. I'm not going to look for them to confirm this. Listening to this music is bad enough! And supposedly, he is on the autism spectrum  (not that that's any excuse.)

And he has six albums. 

Musically, it's crap rave/techno, and there are plenty of instrumentals for those with nervous dispositions. But the vocal numbers are what move Niehaus outside of most outsider musics. His voice, the high-pitched squeak of a pathetic sissy, would be funny in other circumstances, what with his rhythm-less/rhyme-less lyrics that make song-poem authors look like Shakespeare. He is utterly unconcerned about any possible harm he may be doing to his unwilling partners. And he is unrepentant, demanding that beastiality be legalized and that everyone should just "leave him alone." He names one song "This Human Sex Thing Is So Corny."

I haven't listened to all six, just bits and pieces here and there, but I did listen to the album "Anthems For Dogs Only" in its' entirety. Not all the songs are about animal abuse.  "What In The Hell" questions the economy. "Normal = Wrong Life" accuses his father of abuse. If that's true all I can say is: don't worry Dad, no jury will convict you. At least he's self-aware enough to name two songs "Shut The Fuck Up (With This God Damn Music)" and "This Song Sucks." And the "Shoktro" album has a song called "Boo, Get Off The Stage."
Unfortunately, "Shoktro" also features the song "The Instructional Guide To Having Sex With Huskies." Do not listen on a full stomach.

An anonymous reader provided us with this link:

Jonathan Niehaus Discography (6 albums)

Technical note: You'll need WinZip to download these. WinZip is free.
UPDATE: 7-Zip, also free, should work as well (thanks, DeReviùer)





Thanks (?) to anon. I promise my next posts will be culturally and spiritually uplifting!

"Female Trouble": The Soundtrack

By request from multiple requesters requesting requests...now back on-line:
RIAA: "Sounds For The Swing-Set," "Radical, Intense and Awesome", and "Schizophonia Suite." And just in time for summer: "Soul Surfin'."

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]

Thanks and praise to Jonny Zchivago!
  

R.I.P. ORNETTE COLEMAN

By request, the Guatemalan garage psych album "Electronicos La Fuente" is back.
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There's talented, there's influential, there's great...and then there are those at the top of Mt. Olympus whose cultural thunderbolts sent down from on high just change everything. And so it was with Ornette Coleman, who just died at age 85.

His 1960 album "Free Jazz" gave an entire genre of music it's name - how many other people can claim that? And that album (I'm listening to it now) is still thrilling, all these decades later.

Lou Reed said it was artists like Ornette that inspired "Sister Ray," which led to Sonic Youth and noise rock in general. Much of the '80s SST Records catalog - mainstays of college radio - owed a debt to Ornette.

Free jazz, especially in the hands of masters like Ornette, is not random noise. There is a method to the madness, as should be readily apparent here:

Orenette, et al. "Endangered Species" (Google Drive)
 
Ornette, et al. "Endangered Species" (The Box)


 
13 minutes from the "Song X" album that I first heard on the radio as an impressionable youth upon its release in 1986. It completely rewired my brain. And I thought I didn't like jazz. But I thought, "Well, this is kinda interesting," so I didn't turn it off. Then I turned the volume up a bit...and then some more. By the end of the track I was sitting up, blasting it, jaw dropped. 

Coleman recorded it with Pat Methany, then mainly known for his "smooth jazz." A friend of mine who worked at Tower Records says confused Methany fans would return the album back to the store, expressing their disgruntlement. Ha! Methany did amazing things on that album, making his guitar sound like an exploding synthesizer. 

The great bassist Charlie Haden, Ornette's right hand man for decades, died last year. I have plenty of his albums, too. Really dig his L.A. noir stuff with Quartet West.

The NOW SOUNDS Of Outsider Music

Had a request to re-up Tony "The Cool Casanova" Fabbri. Sometime after I wrote that post in 2013 I acquired a full-length CD by the man, which I just posted in its' entirety. HIGHLY recommended for outsider music enthusiasts.

France's super-swell toy-pop maestro Carton Sonore remixed acapella tracks from one of outsider music's founding texts, Daniel Johnson's "Hi, How Are You?" album, adding his trademark ukulele/musical saw/ocarina sound. Only complaint: too short! More, s'il vous plait.

Carton Sonore - Mini Orchestre Pour Daniel Johnston

(By the way, the latest Cartone Sonore release is 4 bits of spacey loveliness, like Joe Meek on Casios.) And in other outsider music news:

Ms Marilyn Miles sez: "I am a 64 year old grandmother with no music background that likes to write anointed poems."  She's put up a short album entitled "Welcome Marilyn To Area 19" on every conceivable platform, and you can listen to most of it HERE. It's a kind of concept album about the UFO/Marilyn Monroe connection, or something like that. She doesn't sing, but recites clunky verse over r'n'b loops that are only a small step above Wesley Willis' pre-set beats. A couple songs about her encounters with space aliens are certainly interesting, but the real gem here is "Nice Man," a tale of an encounter with a different kind: a weirdo pervert. Gets me laffin' out loud every time. Her prim, schoolteacher-esque vocal delivery is the icing on the cake.  And remember: "My spoken words are from a real experience direct and indirect."

For individual songs, I used to use DivShare, but as it is now apparently kaput, I'll try using Box.com. You can listen, or download by clicking on the downward-pointing arrow in the upper right. Let me know if it works or not, gang!

MsMarilyn Miles "Nice Man"

And who doesn't like experimental electronic psychedelia by 7 year old girls? Stinky Picnic, an old favorite of ours, returns with another name-your-price download album, and once again li'l Ponky Pie Pea (as she is now known) is joined by dad to discuss such crucial matters as hamsters, doggies, rainbows and "A Fungus And A Mungus And A Wungus."
 
"Hamster World"

PIck Hit: the doo-woppin' "No, It's A Smiley Love Heart." The family that plays together, stays together.
 

The Psample-delic Psounds of Carl Stone's "Four Pieces"

If you think sampling in music means MC Hammer looping "Super Freak," you gotta another think coming: Los Angeles legend Carl Stone has been using custom software to spin complex, beautiful webs out of found sounds since before most people even owned a computer. The closest comparison to another composer one might make would be to John Oswald and his Plunderphonics, but Oswald often hits with an ADD-addled aggressiveness. Stone takes a more trance-inducing path that sometimes approaches Minimalism, but the results are still too thorny to ever function as yoga music.

Track #1 "Wall Me Do" is not, as the title suggests, a Pink Floyd/Beatles mash-up. The title, like most of Stones' titles, comes from an LA area Asian restaurant. It's glitchy electronica, not unlike Aphex Twin, but years before the fact. #2 is pretty funny, slicing and dicing that classical classic "Pictures at an Exhibition" into an increasingly unrecognizable delirium.  #3 ("Shing Kee") from 1986 hypnotically loops unidentified sounds (inc female vocals) into dreamy gorgeousness; tho reminiscent of Frippertronics and Steve Reich's early tape-loop works, the gradually unfolding patterns bear the stamp of Stone's original style. Play this with the lights out, glass of red wine in hand. Aaahhh... And #4 is Stone sampling himself, in this case remixing #1. I actually prefer it to #1 - it's all Minimalistic grooviness, but with no predictable looping and phasing.

Carl Stone - Four Pieces (1986-1989)

I was happy to see that Stone is performing live this March 22 with LA Free Music Society vets Tom Recchion and Joseph Hammer. Those two have been using extreme turntablism and tape-loop tomfoolery to great effect for as long as Stones' been tweaking his Macs. Don't think Stone was ever actually a member of the LAFMS, but note that Recchion designed the insert to this album.  And the two used to rule the KPFK airwaves in the 1980s with back-to-back (Tuesday night?) shows, Stone with "Imaginary Landscapes" and Recchion's "Soundings II, aka the Tom and Tony Show." Between Stone's alt classical-to-Yma Sumac approach and Tom 'n' Tony's avant-tarde mix of free noise, kitschy thrift-store records, and live antics (e.g. playing the entirety of "Sgt Pepper" on fast-forward when the CD was first released), Young Master Fab's mind was suitably re-aligned. Tom Waits said he wept when he first heard Gavin Bryars' "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet" (which Waits would later sing) on LA radio in the '80s. 'Twas on "Imaginary Landscapes" - I was listening that night, too.

HELLavision

I could give some background on these videos...but why bother? They won't make any more sense if I did. So I'm just gonna hit you with three of the greatest, most incredibly WTF-iest things I've seen/heard lately. Prepare to question your sanity! 

#1: 



#2 (thanks to maniac Francis C for passing this one on to us): 

 

and, perhaps most disturbingly, #3: 

Bandcamp Is The New Cassette Culture 4

Continuing our survey of new music you can listen to, and in many cases, download for free on Bandcamp.com, we fly off to exotic lands. It is the depths of winter now, so I felt a tropical vacation was in order. 

And this first album is especially timely, as it features Evan Crankshaw from the great  "Flash Strap" blog, who just debuted his all-exotica radio show, "The Explorer's Room" last week. 

The Cumberland County Mean Gang "Crashing Waves"

Starts off a bit New Age-y, but track #3 "Slave Trade" is really great psychedelic exotica that sounds like it was played on your grandma's electric organ after someone spiked her Ensure with mescaline; it dovetails nicely right into the next track, which is almost 9 minutes of pure lysergic abandon. "Under The Jungle" does indeed sport jungle ambiance, tho the music is more Jean-Michel Jarre '70s-type electronica than Martin Denny. It's melody is re-used in the next track, a Giorgio Morodor-on-cheap-ass-Casios techno-dance stomper. The most excellent "Ritual of Flight" begins with theremin- ish electronics, followed by haunted-house organ...and exotic bird calls?  Just what kind of spook show is this, anyway? Was happy to hear grandma's psychedelic organ again on track 8. Price: Name Your Price. And enjoy your flight.

The Mad Drummer - from South Africa, but sounding more Zappa than Zulu. The inverse of Paul Simon and Vampire Weekend? A lot better than them, that's for sure. All 6 songs are good, but for someone who calls himself a mad drummer, the synthetic drums are the one (minor) fault I find with this. Price: $3.

Boolz "S.O.S.[Slovvd-n-Chopped]" - Also from South Africa comes this trippy dub electronica. I like the bugged-out VV3ΔK [SLOWD-N-CHXPPXD]  Price: Name Your Price

Some comps that will keep you busy and dancing for days: 

Peru Maravilloso: "Vintage Latin Tropical Cumbia"

Analog Africa - 21 albums!  Haven't listened to all of them, but I can def recommend "African Scream Contest" - just don't buy the line about it being "psychedelia." It's James Brown-ish funk and West African highlife, and what's wrong with that? Can we stop throwing the word 'psychedelic' around so much?  It's getting to be as meaningless a term as 'experimental.' And be sure to read this as you dig the crate diggin' sounds of Analog Africa: Dusty African Grooves.

Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO's Mutated Christmas Album

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.

Ultimate Ultimate Xanadu

Not just the ultimate Xanadu collection. No way, we leave that to other, poorer blogs. We've got the Ultimate Ultimate Xanadu collection. Two disks worth of covers of songs and documentary snippets relating to a film I've never seen. But since the wiki entry on it says that it was the inspiration for "the Golden Raspberry Awards to memorialize the worst films of the year", then maybe I should see it. Apparently there's a sizeable cult for this 1980 "romantic musical fantasy film" - these 2 disks are boiled down from a 20-disk fan collection.
 
Tho it's heavy on the electro-disco and ELO outtakes/rarities, there is still a variety of sounds here. Particular faves: Klaus Wunderlich's disco organ instrumental (in my world, '70s discos don't have DJs spinning the BeeGees, they have old guys playing the organ); what sounds like an inept school or amateur theater cast (disk 2, track 4); a Japanese pop-punk girl band called Tiger Shovel Nose; Hemes House Band (and I usually hate house music); and a "bossa-nova toy pop" version of the title song. Tho I suspect I'd like a bossa-nova toy pop version of anything. Brazilian band La Sound even covered the entire soundtrack (?!), tho we get just one song from it here (disk 1 track 16), a nifty lounge finger-snapper. 

This plethora of Xanadu-nocity comes to us courtesy of Don-O, the man behind the Hour of Crap podcast, the Twilight World 'zine, and many other useful pursuits. This was originally a project of his Xanadu fan site, in which he whittled down the collection of Robert Porter, who ran a Jeff Lynne fan site. Lynn is of course the man behind the Electric Light Orchestra, who provided much of the music for "Xanadu."

Didn't think I would like this much, but the unrelenting, irresistible perkiness of the damn thing wore down my resistance, and I was happily bopping around to all this nonsense. Drive yourself and everyone around you crazy with lots and lots of versions of an Olivia Newton-John disco showtune! "A place where nobody dared to go":

Ultimate Ultimate Xanadu disk 1

Ultimate Ultimate Xanadu disk 2

Thanks to Don and the Xanadu Preservation Society.

Bandcamp Is The New Cassette Culture pt.3

More indie album wonderfulness courtesy of sites like Bandcamp (and remember, you can always listen for free) from geniuses that would otherwise go unheard because no label in their right mind would ever give 'em a record deal. This time we're spotlighting colorful cartoonish craziness - after all, "novelty music" is not a bad word 'round these parts. To quote one of the album titles featured here, let's have fun:

Twink the Toy Piano Band "Miniatures Vol. 2": I can unhesitatingly recommend this brief, kooky album, performed on toy piano and other whimsical sound-making thingies. I actually think this is one of Twink's finest efforts of toy-tronic pop instrumentals. Price: FREE

1000 Needles: "Osiris": More toy tunes, this time from a band using modified Nintendo and Gameboys playing 8-bit melodies while guitars and drums rock along. Some great songs in this 7-track set that, as on the stand out tracks "Error 537" and "Monument 101," skillfully mix rinky-dink electronics with rawk power. Price: $4

The Invertebrates "Let's Have Fun": Not a new release this time, but a re-issue of some classic New Wave post-punk weirdness from a criminally underrated San Fran combo who we first featured here a few years back when we posted a vinyl rip of their "Eat 'Em While They're Young" EP. That one's long gone off-line, but maybe it will get the re-issue treatment like this gem, which sports concrète and backwards tape effects, dada lyrics that sometimes sound like they're being sung verbatim from magazine articles, B52s-ish femme vox and electric organ, and on one of the album's catchiest songs "Atilla The Hun," Jews harp, and a crazed percussion break. Price: $7

The Kominas "Wild Nights in Guantanamo Bay": I guarantee you've never heard any punk rock like this before: a Muslim American band hitting us with stuff like the Sex Pistols-quoting 'Sharia Law in the U.S.A,'  campy sound bites, a great surf-punk song ('Ayesha') that ends with a Muslim chant sound-collage, and a catchy funky rap song called (heh heh) 'Suicide Bomb the Gap.'  Apart from courting controversy (and they did indeed get media coverage that scarcely described their music), there's actual good sounds here that break out of the punk mold, e.g.: the unique, rhythmically complex, kinda Caribbean-sounding 'Layla' (no, not that one). Price: FREE, but you'll probably end up on all kinds of watch lists for downloading it.  

Carton Sonore "Modarn": And now for something completely different - a collection of musical fragments only seconds long that are meant to played on shuffle play, effectively creating a new song every time. Like Eno's "generative" works, it's never the same twice. Price: 1€

Thiaz Itch "Frivolurium": Like Carton Sonore, another funny Frenchman. The description tags tell the story: "carnivale, circus, comedy, electro, space-age-pop." Utterly delightful modern vaudeville cut from the same zany cloth as Twink...not to mention Perrey and Kingsley, Spike Jones, and Monty Python, who's "Bright Side of Life" gets brilliantly covered here. But this album is no child's play - it gets almost proggy in it's experimentation: the polka-esque "Splooshy il Chiocciolo" features everything from Chipmunk vocals to heavy rock guitar to fruity horns. My current Favorite-ist Album In The Whole Wide World. And remember, "don't step on my foreskin!" Price: 5 €

The Big Beat A-Go-Go Sound of DYMAXION

This intensely obscure band recorded these songs between 1995-1998 using methods I cannot quite figure. Clearly, there's a mixture here of sampled sounds, low-tech electro beats, and live instruments...but the samples are all instrumental, and of things I can't identify. And I'm not even totally sure that there are live instruments. I'm just assuming, as the same twangy-surfy guitars do seem to pop up quite a bit. One song covers The Fall's "U.S. 80's - 90's," and indeed there's a bit of off-kilter post-punk influence here, too. Bloops, bleeps, peppy beats, and the afore-mentioned guitars give the whole thing a retro '60s discotheque feel, but the somewhat lo-fi sound removes any Space Age optimism from these tracks.  Rather, there's a gritty, black-and-white feel that negates any Technicolor beach party atmosphere. Bummer in the summer. 

This, their only album, collects everything they did. They thank Stereolab in the liner notes, which isn't too surprising, but otherwise, there's no info, tho according to Internet sources, two New Yorkers named Jeremy Novak and Claudia Newell are the responsible parties, and Newell dropped out half-way thru, and has not returned to music.

Pick Hit: "I-Man Transport", the one song with (sampled) vox, apparently from a dance instructional record, mixed with a synth reminiscent of Pere Ubu's "Blow Daddy-O."

Dymaxion x 4 + 3 = 38:33

STOLEN SOUNDS pt 2

More music made out of other peoples' music:

Was very happy to see that Martinibomb's oldies from 1998-2004 are now collected onto one big name-your-price album. All kinds of lovely snippets of groovy '60s bossa/lounge/surf-a go-go sounds get sampled, with modern beatz tying it all together. Faves include the Bollywood-meets-bubblegum "Dizzy Ke Peeche" (a staple at my mashup DJ sets), and the self-explanatory "Munster Beat." And anyone who samples Don Knotts (as in "The Love God") automatically gets on my good side.  

Martinibomb "A Girls Bike"

But wait! There's more! A new-ish 3 song release shows them back at their game, e.g.: the zesty Latin title track:

Martinibomb "Mambossa Fever"
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Michael Intergalaxon's "The Art of Bird Mutation" crams 27 tracks in just over 30 minutes. It's a highly caffeinated rush of guitar metal, electro beatz, and corny pop crap, married at gunpoint and spinning at 100 rpm, until it flies apart and audio shrapnel goes whizzing past your ear. Some samples are only seconds long, if not shorter, reminiscent of John Oswald's "Plexure" - that is, if Oswald was a teen-age headbanger abusing his medications.

Michael Intergalaxon "The Art of Bird Mutation"
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Also from the Mutantswing posse is a split release featuring 20 minutes of entertaining insanity from Mythoklash (the second half of the album, by Unimates, is unremarkable techno disco). Mutantswing has many other releases that I haven't had a chance to check out yet. Maniacs!  Investigate and report.

"Classic Sounds Of The New Post-Avant-Garde" Pressed for time? Try out the 1:20 track "The Measurement Problem"
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And finally, this oddity from BOK Darkord (the BOK in question is Buttress O'Kneel) crafting an entire album out of Metallica and Lou Reed samples, but nothing from the actual Reed/Metallica collaboration "Lulu."

BOK Darkord "Lulu"

Don't know much about Metallica, but I recognized Lou's "Dirty Blvd" in "The View," "Heroin" in "Iced Honey", and "Sweet Jane" in "Frustration." "Little Dog" seems to feature not Reed music, but an interview with him, dropping bon mots like 'I hate journalists.' Have no idea what the sources are for "Dragon" but it's excellent lo-key creepiness.

Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra: "Experiments with Auto-Croon"

("Better Than the Beatles" is back on-line.)

Ira Robbin's Trouser Press review of The Bonzo Dog Band begins with an excellent examination of the nature of absurdity in music, an essay equally applicable to San Diego's mad genius(es) the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra, who finally have a new album, "Experiments with Auto-Croon," just released this past April Fools Day, appropriately enough. I can't think of anyone else currently operating who can successfully navigate such tricky Dada-humor waters as this band. Who else would make their debut album a 5-disk set?

As Robbins admits in his review, absurdity is not for everybody. Most people would probably listen to this album and think: why am I listening to an out-of-key robot singing nonsense over rinky-dink electronica? Well, apart from the catchy tunes, there's also the fact that a song about kid volleyball players who "all become mummies/ for no specific reason" (a song called, naturally, "Volleyball Mummies") is really funny. Okay, it makes me laugh. There's no obvious humor here, no set-up/punchline. This could all easily end up dumb, juvenile, trying too hard to be "wacky!" but it's not. It's droll, deadpan, and just plain weird.

For example: This song asks and answers the question, why are there no mime detectives?

Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra: "Mime Detective"  - and dig that toy piano.

The simple, if quirky, electronic pop formula hasn't changed, but it still veers into new territory like the danceable '60s soul organ of "Stunt Double Shuffle," (tho any DJ who spins it risks his job), and the Martin Denny-like exotica "God of Cocktail Umbrellas," in which we learn that the job of those little umbrellas in your cocktail is to keep the drink from getting wet.  Because who wants a soggy drink?

Also included: two tracks from the now off-line "Name That Tune" cover song quiz: Bon Jovi, and a spiritual ancestor of the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra: Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London." Visit:

http://www.satanicpuppeteer.com/

Listen to the whole album streaming HERE.


 

Let Us Explore The Pocket Calculators of Many Lands

Kraftwerk, the greatest, most visionary band that will never be voted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, are in the midst of an 8 show stand at Disney Concert Hall. And as it has been sold out for months (anyone in L.A. got an extra ticket? I'll do anything!  I'll even pay for it!), I must lamely content myself with this listening party of all the different language versions of their 1981 classic "Pocket Calculator." And I still am not tired of this song. 

5 Pocket Calculators

Kraftwerk- "Taschenrechner" (German)
Kraftwerk - "Dentaku" (Japanese)
Kraftwerk - "Mini Calculateur" (French)
Kraftwerk - "Pocket Calculator" (English)
bonus: Pizzicato Five - "Contact" (from 1995, a kind of live mashup of "Pocket Calculator" with Brigitte Bardot's "Contact")

No-one uses calculators anymore, but otherwise the album from whence this song comes, "Computer World," pretty much nails it.  We do all have computers, which seems obvious now, but sci-fi writers or futurists never spoke much about home computing or the internet. The future was supposed to be all about space travel.  I have a book from 1979 with predictions for the year 2000, and it's a lot of: moon colonies, Mars landings, etc. At least Isaac Asimov said that we'd be able to read newspapers headlines on TV, which was close. But the song "Computer Love" even predicted internet dating. Kraftwerk for the win.  And these retrospective shows they've been doing lately are their victory lap.

Those men-machines from Dusseldorf also did an unreleased Italian "Pocket Calculator" for TV:

 

 UPDATE: The Polish version!