Reposts...

By request, the Caribbean awesomess of Raw Spouge.

The New Wave Covers For Oldies Lovers collections are back up now too, thanks to a wonderful maniac.

RETARDED UMPIRE

Baseball season has officially begun, so let's pay tribute to America's Pastime the MusicForManiacs way:

Deranged Umpire - "Umpire's Call"

Deranged is right: a free download of some guy in a Cookie Monster growl exclaiming nonsensically about how happy he is to be at a baseball game, even enthusing about the food ("Clap for the food court /clap, clap...The foods and the beverages/clap, clap") over a low-rent synth that does sounds like a ballpark organ, if the organist was all goofed up on cough syrup.  It just goes on and on for 7 minutes, with no rhyme or reason. Will profoundly annoy most people.  Made me laff!

Lynn Rockwell - One Man Band

Over the cheapest possible drum machine, Mr. Lynn Rockwell, from parts unknown, plays and sings everything on this private press wonder from 1970.  An instro version of the James Brown classic "Night Train" kicks things off with plenty of swingin' horns, followed by the sweet clarinet blowing of "Blue Prelude," which also introduces Lynn's somewhat homely but lovable vocals. Wilbert Harrison's proto-rocker "Kansas City" is remade as a finger-snappin' jazzy lounge tune. Roller-rink organ joins the fun on such songs as "String of Pearls," originally by Glen Miller's big band, now rendered here by a very, very little band. And dig that hipster jive on "Satin Doll"!

Side two's first four songs are originals by Rockwell, highlighted by the bizarre "Spiders": "I got spiders in my bathrobe, baby/there's no escape for you." Suddenly we're in a dark, remote cocktail lounge somewhere in David Lynch territory. I'm really liking the moody clarinet work on this album. Closing out the album are remakes of the country standard "Oh Lonesome Me" and Engelbert Humperdinck's "Release Me," tho I don't recall Engelbert's version having horns that wander from channel to channel for no apparent reason.

This album comes to us courtesy of Jaouad, our only known Moroccan reader.  Where my North African peeps at?!

Lynn Rockwell - One Man Band


Much thanks to Jaouad.
 

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.)

SUNDAY MORNING SOUND COLLAGE

For a maniac's Easter morning...

The history of sampling the sounds of preachers is pretty much the history of sampling in general, as many of the most prominent names in sound collage, from the avant/electronic world to mashup/dance djs, have used 'em.  And considering the classic status of so many of these tunes, how can you blame them?  Passionate, loony, exciting, hilarious religious orators make for great (inadvertent) guest vocalists. The '80s industrial crowd, in particular, seemed particularly fond of this strategy. I remember reading (the L.A. Weekly, probably) around '87 or '88 that the sampling of preachers had officially become a cliche.  No way - we weren't even half-way there yet! Part 2 takes us up thru the Internet/mashup era. [Preacher's name, if known, included in brackets.]

SUNDAY MORNING SOUND COLLAGE 1

1 Steve Reich [Brother Walter] - It's Gonna Rain (Part II) [1965]
2 John Oswald [unknown preacher - R.W. Schambach maybe?] - Power [1975]
3 Brian Eno and David Byrne [Kathryn Kuhlman] - Into The Spirit Womb [1979]
4 Chris & Cosey [Dr Gene Scott] - Put Yourself In Los Angeles [1981]
5 Cabaret Voltaire [Dr Gene Scott] - Sluggin Fer Jesus (Part One) [1981]
6 Zoviet France [R.W. Schambach] - Ram [1984]
7 Adam Cornford and Daniel Crafts - Fundamentals [1985]
8 Tackhead - Mind At The End Of The Tether [1985]
9 Front 242 [R.W. Schambach] - Angst [1987]
10 Negativland [Rev. Estus Pirkle] - Christianity Is Stupid [1987]
11 John Adams/Edo De Waart: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra - Christian Zeal & Activity [composed in 1973/recorded 1987]

SUNDAY MORNING SOUND COLLAGE 2

1 Praga Khan [R.W. Schambach] - Injected with a Poison [1991]
2 KMFDM - We Must Awaken [1992]
3 The Tape-Beatles - Home Problems [1993]
4 Lecture on Nothing - Truckload Of Bibles [1997]
5 Reality Engine - Blame The Kingdom Of God [1999]
6 Escape Mechanism - Worship [c. 1999-2001]
7 Fatboy Slim [Reverend W. Leo Daniels] - Drop The Hate [2000]
8 The Evolution Control Committee [Elder Marshall Taylor] - Don't Miss the Great Snatch [2003]
9 Celebrity Murder Party [12 year old preacher Rev William Hudson, III] - God vs the Gays [2007]
10 dj lobsterdust [Pastor Gary Greenwald] - It's Fun To Smoke Dust (Queen vs. Satan)  [2009]
11 CutUpSound - God In a Linoleum Roll [recorded ?; released 2013]

I was amused to find out that two British acts, Chris & Cosey, and Cabaret Voltaire, both sampled L.A.'s infamous, frizzy-haired, cigar-chomping, foul-mouthed televangelist Dr Gene Scott. I wondered: how in the heck did they know about him?  Turns out that Werner Herzog, no less, made a documentary about Scott called "God's Angry Man" in 1981 that provided much yucks (and sample fodder) for those wacky industrialists:

HI-FI ZITHER!

"Zombie Jamboree" has been re-upped, by request. And speaking of requests: I hate to keep asking, but does anyone have the Ruth Welcome "Zither Magic" album I posted here a few years ago? Frequent contributor windy sent me another of her albums, and my review for "Zither Magic" can pretty much be repeated here: 

"Did you know that it was once possible to be a pop star without having to play the guitar? Or with electronic production? You could get a major label deal by playing, say, a zither. Exhibit A: Ruth Welcome, whose 1950s zither albums for Capital Records display remarkable virtuosity...there are no other instruments. She's a one-(wo)man band.

On this album, the bended notes suggest Hawaiian guitars or exotica without actually being exotica or Hawaiian music. But there is a foreign, if not other-worldly feel to these instros."

This was her first album, and it reflects her then-current status as a hotel lounge performer, essentially making background music.  Not as dynamic as "Zither Magic," but it's still quite lovely, boasting some ace tunes (always liked "Moulin Rouge"), and, in any case, it's an entire album of zither music. A hi-fi zither album, at that. And when was the last time you listened to one of those, eh, eh?! 

Ruth Welcome "HI-FI ZITHER!"


(Thanks to the zither-iffic windy!)

The Everyday Film: "New Skin Wine"

I believe it was Winston Churchill who once described The Everyday Film as "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." After taking last year off (incarcerated? institutionalized?) he/they/it have released a new album and an ep, both available thru iTunes and Amazon. There's a whole lot of music out there in this great, big universe, but there is still nothing like The Everyday Film.

"New Skin Wine" is 11 tracks in a mere 22 minutes, but those are some pretty dramatically charged 22 minutes. The wide dynamic range of the album ranges from subliminal ambient drones and whispered vocals, to nightmare-ish noise that will have you jumping out of your skin if you're not riding the volume levels (look out, headphone wearers!) The album ends with over 2 minutes of static drone that might have you checking your stereo to see if it's grounded. 

After receiving the new album, I was wondering if TEF had anything new to say after all their releases, or if they still had the power to shock. Hoo boy. The track "Want Cycles" features electronics so terrifying that they make Throbbing Gristle sound like Air Supply.  Bravo!

TEF's trademark demonically harmonized vocals are not as present here, in favor of dark electronic soundscapes. But when they do appear, the old body-horror themes are still present in dimly-heard surreal snippets like "My cancer's gone, but you can't seem to put me back together," or "It should be enough to be my own dessert."

"Goool" is a three-track EP that features a nearly 13 minute long track.  Pretty amazing, considering most TEF tracks last less then one minute. TEF has given us the short version of "Goool" that's found on "New Skin Wine" to post here:

The Everyday Film: "Goool"