T.V.O.D.

Turn on the t.v., watch a movie, what do you get? Inane sitcoms, "Transformers," cops chasing serial killers for the umpteenth time...but what's this?!  Video being put to good use for a change, producing such feasts for the eyes and ears as

Nintendo audio played by player piano and robotic percussion:

"This system allows for Nintendo gameplay audio to be played through an acoustic player piano and robotically controlled percussive instruments. The piano and percussion play live during actual gameplay."  It's true, watch the game in the upper left to see how it triggers the robot instruments.

I wrote about Gnarboot's nutty album in 2011, but this video from earlier this year isn't so much kooky as it is pretty sick 'n' twisted.  Imagine David Lynch making children's programming. Over an eerie electronic score, the title phrase "Cats In Pajamas" is chanted mantra-like by a childlike vocalist, as people in cat masks mysteriously appear and disappear.  My three-year-old came over to my computer when I was playing this, intrigued. After all, it's kitties, right?  But when the scary knife-wielding clown showed up, she ran from the room.  Thanks a lot for scaring my kid, Gnarboots!

Speaking of sick and twisted...the gold standard of such, The Everyday Film, who released an album we reviewed earlier this year, have now added video to their arsenal of weapons of mass hysteria.  It's for the short version of their song "Goool" and, like a slideshow of early Jandek album covers, features a series of blurred, discombobulated photos in as compelling a video realization of alienation and disconnection as you're ever going to see.

Need a laugh now? Another M4M fave, the absurdist mad scientist and his "singing" robot duo the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra, have also released their debut video, "Frankenstein's Laundromat," another welcome bit of their trademark electro-poppin' surreal humor. This is a preview of the forthcoming album, "Experiments With Auto-Croon."

Swedish female duo The Haggish Moue have a bunch of videos up on the youtubes, and I watched 'em all.  Not sure if I really need to listen to their wistful brand of electro-psych on it's own, but the largely-instrumental (+ somewhat ethereal vox) music works great as a soundtrack to spacey video art acid trips that you can get lost in. Let's fall into space...

"Bangs Glitter"

AJNA: A Giant, Strange Mechanical-Music Contraption

From Sweden comes some fantastic new videos of AJNA, a large musical robot that looks like Dr. Who's police box tricked out with drums, sound-making thingies, and visual artworks. The first video is a minute-and-a-half intro to the beasts' wonders, but the second video sports a full band - a contemporary chamber group, really - getting down to business with AJNA to produce some truly striking, lovely sounds and sights that are rich in dark, esoteric atmosphere.

The song "Karlak" was written by Jens Peterson-Berger of the great band Originalljudet, and features the harmonium, one of my favorite obscure musical instruments. Known mainly for its use in Sufi music (e.g. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan) and Nico's post-Velvets solo albums, it sounds somewhat like a goth, droney cousin to the accordion.

I Will NOT Be Appearing On Radio Misterioso...

...this Sunday nite. Two hours of radio hijinks will be postponed to a later date. But the good news is, thanks to super-swell maniac Phil C., "The Lavender Jungle" comp is back up. 

And there's some great stuff up on the youtubes. Another valued tipster, Niels, hepped me to this clip of "Flying robot quadrotors perform the James Bond Theme by playing various instruments including the keyboard, drums and maracas," a spectacular example of the ever-evolving genre of mechanical music.

HERE is a 16-minute explanation for you techies.

And I didn't have a March Fourth post this past March 4th re: alternative marching bands, because I didn't have any material.  Well, I got one now: this swell vid about a band I wrote about HERE, a 5 minute documentary on the mysterious, highly experimental Itchy-O Marching Band, revealing their home/custom-made instruments.

The OTHER Singing Ricin Terrorist

The recent news about the wack-job Elvis (and others) impersonator sending politicians envelopes laced with deadly ricin reminded me of the pioneer of this genre, Robert Alberg.  When we wrote about him some years ago, he was being sentenced to five years' probation, mental-health treatment and placement in a group home, and his album was no longer available, so I posted it.  Incredibly, he's back, selling both his original collection, and a new one.  And he sounds even worse than he did on his miserable first album (as you can see, he isn't looking too hot either). Still, let's hope he sticks to singing/song-writing, and doesn't go back to ricin-cooking.

"Purple Amethyst," available thru Amazon and iTunes, is ten "songs" of lethargic, monotone vocals; obsessive/compulsive lyrics (about sand, beaches, rocks); and atonal guitar "playing" that makes Jandek's sound like Eric Clapton.  Need I tell you that this is outsider-music gold?

Robert Alberg: "Quartz Creek"

As he is back to selling copies of his first album, I'll just post of couple of tracks from it:

Robert Alberg: "I Want To Fly"
Robert Alberg: "Walking Alone On The Sand"

The videos of Alberg's young protege, Kevin Curtis, are striking in their banality - he's just some guy singing over karaoke tapes, occasionally adopting ludicrous fake mustaches. He gets paid to do this stuff?  Jeez, I could do that. Curtis needs to get together with Alberg, so he can learn a thing or two about originality.  They could cover "House of the Ricin Sun."  Or Johnny Cash's "Five Feet High and Ricin." I got a million of 'em , folks!

StSanders Shreds All Fool's Day

You probably know StSanders' 'Shred' videos - they received millions of views before YouTube yanked most of 'em off.  Well, they're all in one place now on the mad Norseman's (or is he Finnish?) own site, and I can't think of a better way to do April Fools' Day then to spend the afternoon watching "classic" rock acts videos get re-dubbed. As Buttress O'Kneel (whose own shenanigans we'll be covering soon here) said to me:

the band ones are so so so good. not only is it GENIUS to compose music and lyrics BASED ON THE ACTIONS AND MOUTH-SHAPES OF OTHER MUSICIANS (like, this is something even john cage never imagined!), but then to layer the pieces in heaps of cultural references as well (notice the 'simpsons' section in the eagles one, and the 'luke's theme' in the springsteen one - there are SO MANY!)... good golly, this is high fucking art. and all that stuff comes AFTER the fact that i'm sitting here with tears in my eyes, unable to breathe with laughter.

st sanders may actually be making the highest - and most powerful (and most original) - art of the 21st century. i bow down to his greatness.

StSanders Videos

Yes, a genius of the avant-'tard. He has his imitators now of course (someone even did a Captain Beefheart one), but it doesn't get any better then this Eagles one.  The music's so good I'm gonna buy the mp3 (you can do that now, too.)

WELCOME TO THE TERROR-DRONE

New releases currently sending me off to dream-land:

Ambient-Hypno-Drone mix, containing bits of:

Nac/Hut Report's new album "Angel​-​like Contraction Reverse" is a swell follow-up to their debut we reviewed here a few years ago, and these Europeans continue to do the impossible: make noise sexy.  Brigitte Roussel's husky vocals add both melody and sensuality to the drum-less industrial sound-layering (and I use the phrase "industrial music" in it's original sense, not meaning funkless-disco-for-goths). Pick hit: "Greetings Blue, Summer 98," a fantastic mélange of electronic pulsing percussion noises, sharp shards of guitar, and languid vocals. They've made available two free songs, one off the album, and a b-side: 

Nac/Hut Report  “Junkstarrr/Bright Future” (streaming)
Nac/Hut Report “Junkstarrr/Bright Future” (download)

Avant composer Michael Gordon of New York's popular Bang On A Can ensemble has a spectacular album that consists of nothing but drumming on wooden planks. Yep, no other instruments, just the six-man Dutch percussion group SlagwerK Den Haag going to town on 2x4s cut to different lengths. Minimalism so spellbinding that nothing else is needed. AND the CD comes in a snazzy wooden box. Buy/listen: "Timber" 

Andrew McPherson's new album "Secrets of Antikythera" is a (mostly) solo piano album for people who don't like solo piano - the piano is "prepared," not in the Cage sense, but by using magnets.  "Sound is produced without loudspeakers using electromagnetic actuators to directly manipulate the piano strings". I don't know exactly what that means, but damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not an experimental instrument technology explainer guy! (Check the video below for all that.) I can tell you that, following a couple violin pieces that didn't do much for me, it is some blissed-out  instrumental loveliness, commencing with the ghostly drone tones of "Prologue: Mystery", giving way to tracks like "Creation3" that sound increasingly piano-y.

Hanetration, a London artist I've written about before (I really liked his previous EP 'Tenth Oar') has a free 22 minute slice of sublime ambient drone now available. "Nae Troth" consists of nothing but looong sounds that start off chilled, but gradually intertwine, growing more complex and ominous. Electronic sounds build until, finally, they start to relax and drift off into the mist. I can imagine Brian Eno listening to this, nodding his head, saying: "Niiiice..." 

Hanetration "Nae Troth"

Gel Nails is an intriguing Canadian project whose Bandcamp tags pretty much tell the story: "experimental ambient electronic noise weird Edmonton." Yes, but subtle vocals also enter the picture at times. Their tumblr page has a number of free download releases that I quite liked once I asked how to download them: "if you put your cursor on the image, say the h.n.w. album cover, you will see 4 little icons appear in the top right corner. Click on the icon that looks like 2 links of a chain. Scroll to the bottom of the new page and there you will see a mediafire link." (But you knew that.) Or dig this name-your-price EP:

Gel Nails "H.N.W."

GUNS TURNED INTO MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Here's an idea who's time has truly come: a project called "Imagine" in which Mexican artist Pedro Reyes leads a team that takes guns donated from citizens of a county particularly wracked by violence and transforms them into musical instruments. Pistols form a guitar's body, gun barrels have holes drilled into them and made into flutes, or are arranged according to size into a xylophone, etc. The remarkable lyre pictured above is as much a triumph of visual design as musical. Go

HERE

to read/see the pics/watch the making-of vids. The video below is a 6-minute "Imagine Concierto" featuring the instruments. Yes, the music is based on the Lennon song, but even if you're sick of that tune, you must admit to how good these instruments sound, how well they're played, and just the general awesomness of the project. The percussion in particular gets increasingly sorta funky as the song progresses.

And I'm outta here til sometime in January. Much thanks to the many of you who have contributed to this-here web-log this year. Peace on Earth, goodwill towards men, and all that jazz.

Don Wardlow: The King of Casio Country

 

Here's something unique: a serious, heartfelt tribute to funnyman "Weird Al" Yankovic, performed by one guy on an electronic keyboard + drum machine (a Yamaha, actually, not a Casio), recorded onto hissy tape.

 

Don Wardlow is a blind, middle-aged Southerner who has uploaded over 150 songs onto his YouTube channel, mostly covers of country-western oldies. It's all pretty charming, but his originals are special - as technically crude as any outsider music, but genuine and sincere, and surprisingly catchy at times. "American Idle," a commentary on jobs being sent overseas and his own resulting unemployment, sports an excellent earworm of a chorus: 



 

Dig the Latin drum machine groove on another sad-but-true tale from Wardlow's life, about his "Miami Girl," "A song about a girl I dated from 1991-95, with an emphasis on her habit of spending everything I had."

 

There's lots more that I haven't had a chance to check out yet. Come on, Don, lay some mp3s on us, daddy-o!

 

Country Music For Fat, Unpopular People

Meade Skelton is an outsider musician from Richmond, Virginia whose album  "They Can't Keep Me Down" mostly deals with his struggles with weight, and how no-one likes him, e.g.: "I Love To Eat (And It Shows)" and "It's Hard To Love Yourself (When Everybody Hates You)". He feels left out of the music world, loves mom and God, and doesn't like sleazy, degenerate rock 'n' rollers or too-cool hipsters (e.g.: the song "Proud To Be A Square").  His lightweight electric piano-driven songs lean towards the slick, commercial side of country music, and when he stays within his vocal range, he actually has an okay voice, tho hardly worthy of his own Elvis and Sinatra comparisons. Trouble is, he doesn't always stick to his range.

This album, so I'm told, is strongly influenced by Laura Branigan, of all people. Remember her, she did that "Gloria, I think they got your number" song?  Supposedly "Beautiful Lady" is a reworking of Branigan's "Solitaire," adding new lyrics about (of course) being fat and unwanted. 

There is some weak singing here and the songwriting occasionally gets terrible indeed, so it's easy to laugh at this guy, but there is also pathos in "They Called Me Porker," about the taunting he endured as a child. And some pretty smooth session musicians keep it all sounding almost respectable.

On "Songs of Love" he goes lounge - it's an album of mostly amateurish covers of standards, e.g.: "My Funny Valentine," but includes some originals, like the stalker-ish ode to actress Nicole Kidman, "Nicole, Will You Marry Me?" Wow, is this one a head-scratcher. Kidman may want to consider a restraining order. An unnerving yodel/voice-cracking vocal style pervades this album, and the stripped-down production reveals his uncertain piano playing. Oh, my ears! If "They Can't Keep Me Down" has you feeling sorry for the poor sap, "Songs of Love" will make you want to join the haters.

Skelton has gained somewhat of a reputation on the internets thru his relentless self-promotion, often going by other names, claiming on message boards to be a "fan" of Skelton with a "need for Meade!" when it's pretty obvious that it's Skelton himself. Some are annoyed by this behaviour, others amused. But that's what's great about him - he has unwavering faith in his talent, and maintains an upbeat attitude towards life. No whiney goth or sensitive singer-songwriter stuff for Meade - despite the unfortunate circumstances of his life, he keeps a grin on his face.

He has some albums that he's selling independently, and since they're in print, I'm only gonna take a couple/few songs apiece from these two abums (the only two of his that I have).

Mead Skelton Sampler

1. Beautiful Lady
2. What's So Great About Rock N' Roll?
3. Your Old Hay
4. Nicole, Will You Marry Me?
5. My Funny Valentine

Want to hear more? 'Course you do!  Preview his albums on iTunes. And join the Mead Skelton Fan Club while you're at it! 2215 Floyd Ave., Richmond, VA 23220; (804) 359-0219.

UPDATE 9/24/12: We heard from the man himself: Meade would like you to know that he has a new album, likes and is influenced by Laura Branigan but not on this particular album, and does not go around spamming boards under assumed names. So there. I stand corrected.

From one of his other albums, here's the "hit" single, "Hipsters Ruin Everything":

The Greatest Things I've Ever Seen

The greatest thing I've ever seen (lately) is this excerpt from "Multiple SIDosis," a famous short from 1970 by outsider filmmaker Sid Laverents that was just posted on-line two weeks ago. Laverents uses ingenious home-brew technology to create a cinematic one-man band performance of the bouncy tune "Nola" on such instruments/noise-makers as the metronome, ukulele, banjo, ocarina, jews harp, beer bottles, pipes, and cymbal, while sometimes inexplicably dressed like Mickey Mouse. Restores my faith in humanity. 

There are full-length versions of "Multiple SIDosis" on the YouTubes of poopy quality.  This is just a minute-and-a-half, but it looks really good:

 

The other greatest thing I've ever seen lately is a large Japanese avant-jazz band who, for reasons known only to them, dress up like shrimp, with glow-in-the-dark eyes. I'll just let you think about that for a moment...

 

They're called Autopsy Report of Drowned Shrimp (sure, why not?) and there is, lucky you, a number of live vids up of their skillfully performed music, which ranges from percussive-heavy tribal grooves, to trippy noise drones, to something that resembles funk/jazz, all mixed with inscrutable ritualistic theater: 

 

 

 

The other other greatest thing I've ever seen happened a couple of weeks ago, when I was emerging from a subway station on my way home from work: A black man dressed like a lady in a hot-pink skirt and a short-haired silver wig was standing around, which, in itself, is not so unusual around here.  But then, then, when a Mexican mama and her two kids walked by, the kids ran up to the ladyman shouting: "Gaga! Lady Gaga! Gaga!"

 

To a man. 

 

A black man. 

 

S/he smiled and waved at them, as I quickly walked to the parking lot trying to stifle my explosive laughter.  And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why living in L.A. rules. Think they see stuff like this coming from work in Missouri? They probably just see, like, Walmarts 'n' shit. I should keep a camera on my person at all times...

GEORGE FORMBY JR, BRITAIN'S NOVELTY KING

He was a goofy-looking bucktoothed little guy who sang funny songs with titles like "Swimmin' With The Wimmin" in a high, thin voice, while playing something called a 'banjolele' (a cross between a banjo and a ukulele.) He was also Britain's single most popular entertainer in the late '30s.

Many dozens of George Formby Jr's cheerful, clever, sometimes naughty double-entendre (i.e.: "With My Little Ukulele in My Hand") songs have been put up for free download to archive.org by some kind soul, and apart from being essential listening to fans of vintage novelty music, it's also a peek into the style of music hall entertainment that the typical Brit enjoyed back in the day. Whether performing live, acting in films, or recording, Formby was massively successful and influential to generations of British funnymen, from Benny Hill right up to Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer, even if the suggestive nature of his songs led him to sometimes be banned by the BBC.

George Formby Jr on archive.org

One of his most famous tunes, "When I'm Cleaning Windows":

 

 

Funny, just as I was thinking about writing about Formby a few days ago, I came across this:

HELLSONGS

Hellsongs are a Swedish band who have gotten amazing mileage out of the strategy of covering classic heavy metal songs in an EZ style reminiscent of late '60s/early '70s sunshine pop bands like The Mamas and The Papas, or baroque poppers like the Left Banke. They're up to five releases and counting of arranging the works of the likes of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Guns 'n' Roses, and Van Halen for horns, strings, piano, acoustic guitar, and low-key Claudine Longet-like female vox. Alice Cooper's "School's Out" gets downright bubblegum, and Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" drifts along nicely as a stately waltz. This could be played as a quick joke, but it's so artfully rendered that the unexpected results are often quite lovely. I came for the novelty, and stayed for the music. (But then again, I love all that Free Design kinda stuff.)

Listen to the Hellsongs soundcloud page.

Thanks to B'O'K!

Modern Purveyors Of Filth And Degradation: A New Music Roundup

So, so many albums out there! And some of them are even good!  Wish I had time to dedicate one post to each one, but due to the usual time constraints, here's another mix of recent (or recent to me) albums for Maniacs, available for purchase or free download, or both. Not much avant-heaviness this time out, but lots of summer-fun silly/strange excuses for pop music here. 

Modern Purveyors Of Filth And Degradation


1. Neon Lushell "Leave Me Alone" - these Midwesterners have recently dropped one of the albums of the year, I sez, in "Modern Purveyors Of Filth And Degradation (In A Time Of Peace And Understanding)". It moves from the Ministry-like bangin' album opener featured here, to dark ambient, surreal soundscapes, and twisted folk. "Dark music" without a hint of the usual cliches, e.g.: death-metal, Joy Division soundalikes, etc. A lot of self-described "strange" or "experimental" artists submit music to me, but most of it lacks the originality and imagination of these sick kitties.

2. Jan Turkenburg "droodle20110809[F***TheMeaningOfLife]" - Wonderful sound-collage from the nutty Dutchman who's been posting a series of similiar cut-and-paste "droodles" on the the ever-crucial PCL Linkdump.

3. Bob Purse "It's Not A Regular Day" - Shamelessly silly-but-swell novelty tune from The Many Moods of Bob, the recent debut album compiling many years worth of home recordings from the great music blogger Bob Purse. The man even does covers of song-poems, forpetessake.

4. Lydia Kavina "Free Music #1 (1936)" - From the album "Music from the Ether: Original Works for Theremin" by the grand-niece of Leon Theremin himself, and sometimes member of bizarro surf band Messer Chups. Excellent stuff - if you buy one theremin album in your life, buy this one. 

5. Ace of Clubs "Rehab Dem Bones " - a Herman Munster vs Amy Winehouse mashup collected off the internet.  You'll laff!

6. DmR of AtoZ "Get Up" - Another mashup, this takes numerous Beatles vocals and expertly drops them over the bassline to Tom Waits "Step Right Up." From the on-line collection "You Can't Mash That vol 28" (which I haven't actually heard, just this song.)

7. the archaeologist "pouvons-nous avoir un cendrier" - This album "parlez vous francais?" is based on a French language instruction tape (+ beats, music), which gets to be a bit much after a while.  Works great in short doses tho, like this yummy truffle that also throws in bits of Gil-Scott Herons' "Whitey's On The Moon."

8. Covox "Computer Love" - from 8-Bit OPERATORS-An 8-Bit Tribute To Kraftwerk

9. The Fire Organ "Little Fishes" - Quirky pop tune that's quite good despite the off-key singing; from an album ("Dumbed Out") that doesn't seem to be on-line any more. Hmm, maybe he's re-cutting the vocals...

10. Ban This Sick Filth "Powerhouse" - Raymond Scott's 1937 cartoon classic gets a boomin' remix courtesy of this offshoot of London mash-masters Celebrity Murder Party.

11. Greg Reinfeld "Pink Ballerina" - This highly prolific free-internet-album guy's latest is "Poorest Almanac That Ever Lived".

12. Hanetration "Rex" - Taking a breather from all this silliness, this is from the all-too-brief 4 track FREE! download release "Tenth Oar" of evocative, compelling ambiance.

13. Snaps 'n' Claps "Soldier Boyfriend" - Charming Casio girl-pop that may be more knowing than it lets on beneath its naive presentation. From their Feeding Tube cd-r "Greatest Hits."

14. Maladroit "Musicbox Jungle (Negrobeat Remix)" - Hysterical break-core collision of the '70s E-Z instro "Music Box Dancer" with that '90s 'Mr. Boombastic' song, as all heck breaks loose. Australians seem to be good at this sorta thing.

15. 1001 "Nieszczesliwa milosc, hej!" - This Polish gent hipped me to some outsider music from his land, and when I checked out his own stuff, I found this song, which makes awesome use of loops of people laughing.

16. Moose A. Moose & Zee D. Bird "Everywhere I Go" - If you have kids, you probably know this insanely catchy tune from the video that used to be shown often on the Nick Jr network. It's not available for sale, or as an mp3 anywhere, so I recorded it off a YouTube video and it came out surprisingly well. Do you know how many people want this?! Esp. since apparently Nick Jr has stopped showing the Moose & Zee bits. I am doing a public service! 

17. Janek Schaefer "Recorded Delivery [7" edit]" - From London comes this jaw-dropping artifact: a tape-recorder sealed in a box and mailed, which then recorded everything. "Recorded Delivery is a sound activated tape recording of parcel travelling through the Post Office system...The sound reactive dictaphone automatically edited the 15 hour journey to a 72 minute recording, capturing only the most sonically interesting elements of the journey."

18. Mari L. McCarthy "Weekend In New England" - This amateur tribute to '70s schlock crooner Barry Manilow entitled (hoo boy) "The Barry Thought Of You," sent to us by our frequent contributor windy, would be awful enough, but then on this song she goes and splices in the voice of Barry himself to create a Natalie/Nat Cole-like exercise in outsider horror.  Why, windy, why??

19. Willful Devices "Lattice XVIIb" - This 2-man-band (electronics & clarinet/woodwinds) go absolutely nuts on this track. Free-improv can be fun!

"Mitt Romney, A Hero In My Mind": OUTSIDER MUSIC VIDEO AWESOMENESS

Thanks to Mrs Fab for sending me a link to this hilarious/awful home-made music video of an old guy named William Tapely singing about...I'm not really sure, even tho its title would lead us to assume it's an endorsement of the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Tho it's all-too-short at 1:59, it has still left us with much to contemplate:

- The Casio-riffic keyboard stylings and cartoon-character vocals

- Dig them backgrounds!

- Someone's really going to town on the rinky-dink drum machine...hey, what the hell time signature is this song in anyhow?  I tried counting it out and gave up.

- Gibberish lyrics with no rhymes or sense of rhythm.

- Abrupt ending

Now this guy's a hero in my mind.

That's Athientertainment!

If Christian and religious music is a niche market, the pro-science/atheist music scene is practically microscopic. I bought a few CDs recently that are for sale from outlets like the Center For Inquiry and The Freedom From Religion Foundation.  Yep, they have gift shops, too.  Good timing: now that the Higgs Boson particle has been found, our ideas of physics (The Standard Model) have been confirmed, which means we pretty much know what the universe is made out of.  Pat yourself on the back, human race!

Dr. Stephen Baird of Stanford University is an actual scientist, as well as being the frontman for The Opposums Of Truth and The Galapagos Mountain Boys.  I generally find his style of music - hillbilly/bluegrass - kinda irritating, what with all them high screechy voices and plinckety-plunkety banjos and fiddles and whatnot.  But, somewhat to my surprise, I started diggin' these albums ("Darwin, Darn It!" and "Ain't Gonna Be No Judgement Day: Scientific Gospel") after a couple spins. Really well played, and it's always funny hearing technical jargon sung with enthusiasm.

The Voices Of Reason are a Los Angeles a capella vocal group, here covering/rewriting "The Hallelujah Chorus" and the old "Negro" spiritual "Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho." I saw 'em open for Julia Sweeney's show "Letting Go of God" a few years ago.

And here's some songs from previous posts that have since gone off-line:

Anthropologist Richard Milner: "Charles Darwin: Live and In Concert" is channeling the great naturalist thu witty, upbeat original songs with rapid-fire rhymes that would give eminem a run for his money. I hear the likes of Noel Coward, Cole Porter and his admitted heroes GIlbert & Sullivan.

Dan Barker is an atheist satirical songwriter, like a one-topic Randy Newman or Warren Zevon. He's released several albums, including "Beware of Dogma."  It features "My God is in My Soul," a brilliant track by Michael Newdow, the guy who tried to remove the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance (who has a pretty interesting CD himself). It includes samples of profane voice mail messages left by furious Christians. They're not just dropped onto music, but are ingeniously integrated into the lyrics of the mock-reverent "hymn." The result walks that hilarious/disturbing line. "Fleas" is a parody of Joyce Kilmer's poem about how I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree, blah blah blah.

Baba Brinkman (a Canadian, eh!) first appeared in these pages with his rap version of The Canterbury Tales. His album "The Rap Guide To Evolution," (available from his site) is, well, just that. It's scientifically accurate, musically solid, even funny sometimes. But dealing with biological complexities can make the songs amazingly wordy, e.g.: the finely funky song posted, set at a dinner table as our hero tries to reason with a stubbornly unscientific family. I'm certainly aware of the large number of religious creationists out there, but the feminist who says gender has no basis in science threw me for a loop. Are there still people who think like that? I thought that was a relic of '70s hippie-dom.

"A Brief History of Rhyme: MC Hawking's Greatest Hits": Stephen Hawking: brilliant physicist, considered the heir to Newton and Einstein; crippled by Lou Gehrig's disease, he speaks thru a voice synthesizer. MC Hawking: his hard-core hip-hip alter ego. So someone gets ahold of the type of voice synthesizer Dr. Hawking uses and records a buncha profanity-laden rap songs. About science. Sounds like it might be funny for maybe 30 seconds, right? Guess again Einstein, this is genius - whoever is behind this knows both his science AND his hip-hop. The debut album "A Brief History Of Rhyme" is dripping with tunes both hilarious and (I hate to say it) even sorta educational..Funny, righteous, boomin' beats. "Entropy" is a parody of Naughty By Nature's "OPP" (with another dig at Creationism thrown in), "What We Need More of is Science" peels New Age kooks' caps back, and "UFT For The MC" is The Sex Pistols' "Anarchy In The UK" with new lyrics reflecting the Hawkman's quest for a Unified Field Theory. The real Stephen Hawking is aware of this project and has given it his blessing.

Athientertainment: a MusicForManiacs mix

(After clicking the above link, scroll down for a choice of downloading options. You may have to wait a few secs.)

1. The Galapagos Mountain Boys - Walk Down In The Water
2. The Voices Of Reason - The Evolution Chorus
3. Richard Milner - Darwins Nightmare
4. Dan Barker - Fleas
5. Dr. Stephen Baird And The Opposums Of Truth - Randomness Is Good Enough For Me
6. MC Hawking - Fuck the Creationists
7. Baba Brinkman - Creationist Cousins 2.0
8. Dan Barker - My God is in My Soul
9. The Voices Of Reason - Battle 'Tween Church And State
10. Richard Milner - Why Didn't I?
11. Dr. Stephen Baird And The Opposums Of Truth - I Have Seen Evolution With My Own Two Eyes

ZOOGZ-APALOOZA

Last year I posted 10 albums, one a week, by the late, great Los Angeles loony Zoogz Rift and his Amazing Shitheads.  Our best-est new pal in the world myxsoma has sent us eight, count 'em, EIGHT more albums from the mad genius, including some tracks from his hopelessly rare (and awesome) first album.

Tho he's usually considered to be a disciple of Zappa and Beefheart, Rift himself has said that it's more complicated then that: throw in The Bonzo Dog Band, punk, free jazz, retarded novelty records, avant-classical, etc., etc. The hilarious, crazed, uninhibited nature of His Zoogzness can't readily be compared to anyone else.

WARNING: some tracks are missing from the earlier albums. These are not all complete, at least not the first two or three albums.  And it's all 128kbps. But I'm not complaining at all - it's still a whopping 6 hours of music, and it all rules. Some of these were cassette-only releases that Zoogz didn't want to re-issue when he went big time (by indie standards) signing to SST Records.  I have no idea why.  It's all really, really good, with every album flying off into myriad, highly original directions - from blues played on xylophones, to crazed rants, to atmospheric instrumentals. Some individual songs, however, were rescued from these tapes for his more high-profile album releases, so there are a few (but not a lot of) duplicates if you downloaded all those other albums.


Zoogz1: INTERIM RESURGENCE (1985),
VILLAGERS (1992)
Zoogz2: from WITH NO APPARENT REASON (1976),
 MUSIC SUCKS (1982)
 Zoogz3: FIVE BILLION PINHEADS CAN'T BE WRONG (1996), SCHOOL OF THE CRIMINALLY INSANE (1999)

Zoogz4: BOHEMIAN BUDDHA (2000)

Zoogz5: BORN IN THE WRONG UNIVERSE (2003) + a 45 minute long track from "school of the criminally insane" that I couldn't fit onto 'Zoogz3.'

Much thanks to myxsoma - go check out his lovely music, videos for his music, his nutty YouTube channel, and dig the video (right) he posted of Zoogz' song "Bowl of Gregmar" featuring a photo autographed by the man himself.

The Wild and Dirty World Of Mel Henke

"The Mad Musical World Of Mel Henke" reads the cover of this classic bit of Space Age Bachelor Pad Music. 'Mad' is putting it politely - the blaring jazz, leering lyrics, rude sound effects, and general 'Playboy' Party Jokes feel to the whole thing makes it as far out as you could get for 1962 without crossing over into Lenny Bruce territory.

Needless to say, it's a wildly entertaining album, with futuristic hi-fi sounds bouncing all over your stereo system. Henke knew how to get your attention - he made his name in advertising, composing snappy jingles like "See The USA In Your Chevrolet." You may now be saying, "Yo Fab, if this album's so great, why haven't other blogs posted it?"  They have, my cyber-chums, they have!  But not with the bonus tracks from the Scamp Records 1997 re-issue. See, that's why I rule and they drool I felt that it was okay to post my copy here.

Weirdly enough, that's not Henke pictured on the album cover -  it's actually San Francisco radio dj Tom Donahue. According to the liner notes by Brother Cleve of Combustible Edison (hey, remember them?), it was a "bizarre marketing move...undoubtedly hoping for airplay in return."

Mel Henke - " La Dolce Henke"
After clicking the above link, scroll down for a choice of downloading options. You may have to wait a few secs.]
1. The Lively Ones
2. Walkin' My Baby Back Home
3. The Twisters
4. Let's Put Out The Lights
5. Open The Door, Richard
6. Farmer John
7. Last Night On The Back Porch
8. It's So Nice To Have A Man Around The House
9. All That Meat
10. You're Driving Me Crazy (What Did I Do?)
11. Baby, It's Cold Outside
12. Woman In Space [dig the "ethereal sound of Elliot Fischer's electric violin"]
BONUS TRACKS:
13. William Tell On The Hoof
14. Old McDonald Had A Girl
15. Exotic Adventure
16. See The USA In Your Chevrolet [instrumental version; check Dinah Shore singing in the vid below]

OUTSIDER MUSIC VIDEO SHOW

British comic Mike Belgrave has an entertaining series of short videos about outsider and strange musics. Even if you know all about this stuff, they're worth watching for the presentation - he's quite enthusiastic, and throws in funny visuals. Stop what you're doing and feast your eyeballs on these, you'll love 'em. Episode one is the basic background, and mentions Wesley Willis, Irwin Chusid, and misguided sitar covers:

Episode Two: The Cramps play at a mental hospital

Episode Three: Xmas special

Episode Four: "the mainstream side of life"

Episode Five: buskers, and performers he's met

Thanks to RadioClash for the tip, and thanks (?) to VideoPate for sending this atrocity our way: an elderly Xian hippie/Santa Claus type in Ventura County, CA, in an amazingly slickly-produced video (where'd he get the money?) repeatedly asking "What's happening in the world today?" and, not getting an answer, keeps asking for five agonizing minutes. Catchy tune, and hey, dig those kazoo solos! John David Orvis is his name and apparently there's a whole album of his out there. 

But it doesn't get much better/worse then this bit of jaw-dropping horror, dumped on the world only last week.  I think the title of this song says it all: "Thank You, Facebook."

"I'm tagging you, you're tagging me, we're making history."

OUTSIDE POLAND Pt 2: Mr Witek from Atlantis

Following up on last week's post (or whenever it was - I'm in buying-a-house/packing/moving hell right now) on outsider music from Poland, our man in Poland Piotrek tells us about Pan Witek z Atlantydy aka "Mr Witek from Atlantis": "... he is most famous outsider in Poland, he was invited many times to polish TV, he was a "star" of underground and punk festival in 80's Jarocin, and he wanted to be president of Poland, seriously:) His songs are f.ex. about Speedy Gonzales, masturbation, cosmos and many more."

Mr Witek is an older guy who vigrously strums an acoustic guitar and really hams it up as he runs thru Polish language versions of songs like Pat Boone's "Speedy Gonzalez," "Let's Twist Again," "Guantanamera," and that "Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end" song, and plenty of other tunes that I'm not familiar with. Even not understanding a word of Polish cannot hide the man's good humor and uninhibited personality.

Here's his cassette release from 2000, Side A and Side B split into two files, courtesy of the panmietic blog:

Pan Witek - Gość z Atlantydy

Strona A:1. Spidi Gonzales - tłist egien 2. Kuantadamera 3. Koń na biegunach4. To były piękne dni 5. Nie pijcie przed weselem 6. Noc poślubna 7. Mój koń nie mieści mi się w dłoń 8. Ela (a niech cię jasna cholera).Strona B:1. Ruiny Edenu2. Ty odeszłaś tamtej nocy z tamtym panem 3. Mówili ludzie: nie wierz dziewczynie4. Kiedyś zrozumiesz 5. Chcę ci dać 6. Idąc przez życie 7. Jestem kosmitą



Thanks again to Piotrek!

OUTSIDE POLAND Pt 1: THE SYNTETIC

Polish outsider music? Heck, yeah, bring it on!

Piotrek, a fine musican himself, sent us some incredible artifacts from the land of sausage and Solidarity. Today it's The Syntetic: a delightful nut who takes exisiting songs, like "Axel F," and sings his own lyrics over them: " Człowiek Widmo aka The Syntetic (in english - "Hollow Man"). This is the guy from Śląsk, who some years ago recorded funny tapes on his tape recorder for fun and for friends, and this tapes someone put into internet. And Człowiek Widmo one day become very popular. This guy was really startled but later he even had a few concerts :) I don't know if he is freak or no, but this what he's doing we can called incorrect music for sure."

The Syntetic.

"There is his opus magnum (from 2:05 he started to sing:)

He has great lyrics. I translated you fragment on this song: "Hollow Man"

He swimm on albatross

by the Egyptian sea

and he eat a sharks

and he burns like old pig

and he is invisible

Hollow Man, This is Hollow Man, this is Hollow Man, This is.

This is ungrateful man, and very bad

he is from the abyss of the darkness, of the hell

he evaporates like a water

he is invisible like a big stone

he is from the abyss of the light

Hollow Man, this is Hollow Man, this is Hollow man, this is(...)"

Someone has thoughtfully illustrated the Syntetic song "Hollywood" so us non-Polish speakers can get an idea what of he's on about:

Thanks, Piotrek!