Presenting a 16-song collection for a Caribean Hallowean. A (mostly) '50s-'70s Afro-Latin-Reggae-lypso Halloween, to be precise, including, as usual, some out-of-print obscurities recorded off vinyl. Apart from the monster songs (I guarantee King Horror WILL be your new favorite artist) there's some weird psychedelic tracks that have a dark, evil voodoo vibe to them.Zombie Jamboree
Carl McKnight "The Devil's Out Tonight"
King Horror "Dracula prince of darkness"
The Sandpebbles "Zombie Jamborie"
Desmond Dekker "Dracula"
Africa "Paint it Black"
Xavier Cugat "Zombie"King Horror "Frankenstein"
Vulcans "Dracula"Lord Melody "The Creature From The Black Lagoon"
King Horror "Loch Ness Monster"
The Mighty Sparrow "Madame Dracula"Vulcans "Dark Shadows"
Daktaris "Voodoo Soul Stew"King Horror "Cutting Blade"
Johnny Zamot and His Orchestra "Spaced Out"
The Upsetters "The Vampire"2012 EDITION BONUS TRACKS:Augie Colón - "Witch Doctor"Peter Tosh - "Vampire"Peter Tosh - "Dracula (Vampire version)" The Voodoo Trombone Quartet - "Monster Island"
Lucky Dube - "Dracula"
King Flash & Calypso Carnival - "Zombie Jamborie"UPDATE 10/13: A real cool ghoul, Paul Dobry, has put this collection up streaming on grooveshark. Fangs a lot, Paul!http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Music+For+Maniacs/91712064"The Devil's Out Tonight" is one of my favorite songs. The rest of the album is an unremarkable steel-drum outing, but that title song is brutal. I mean, check out this album art:
From the liner notes: "Thumbs down (as in the days of the gladiators) to those we have dealt with in the past, may we write your epigraphs [sic], while you dig your own graves, for such dwellings are appropriate to your cause." And to think that tourists and Ja-fakin' hippies have this idea that Carribean music is so peaceful and mellow...
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Since this blog comes up near the top when people search for "David Koresh music," I've been getting comments like: "Does anyone have that "There's a madman living in Waco" song that keeps playing on MSNBC? I swear that's one of the catchiest little hooks I've heard in a long while. I can't get it out of my head! I'm searching all over the web for it."
Anyone?UPDATE 10/23/09 - Got it! Thanks to Nile for the info. My readers rock.
David Koresh "Mad Man in Waco"
I re-upped the Koresh songs on the original post. Apparently there have been a lot of songs about Koresh: dozens, heck, maybe hundreds, according to an amazing site called Waco Songs. It's an old site with not many working links, but it certainly makes for an interesting shopping list.
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Yoga's a pretty wimpy name for a band, but fear not - this ain't no New Age, it's all dark, evil scuzzy guitars and spookhouse organ instrumentals, loudly recorded in grainy black-and-white lo-fi sound. The promotional materials for this album describe it as Throbbing Gristle meets death metal. Heh heh, I don't know about that, but it does remind me of Killing Joke, Chrome, The Chameleons, Kommunity FK, and other '80s goth/metal/punk bands whose names started with "kh" sounds. Tho these guys are more about ambient atmosphere then in-your-face rock.
The new album "Megafauna" is start-to-finish solid, perfect for non-cliched Halloween listening/dancing/brain-eating.
Yoga "Fourth Eye"
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I first write about Howard Finster HERE, where I described it thusly:Although Rev. Howard Finster, a preacher from rural Georgia with little formal education whose paintings went so far as to become REM and Talking Heads album covers, may be America's best known folk artist, he also had a little-discussed musical side. The album "The Night Howard Finster Got Saved" is largely dedicated to spoken-word tracks, but t
here's some ace tunes on it as well. Singing in a high'n' lonesome twang, playing guitar, harmonica, and...piano, Finster's music should sound familiar to anyone who's heard the "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack."
After receiving a comment asking for more last August, I looked into it and it turns out that the album is now out-of-print and pricey, so I could indeed put the whole thing up. Only I couldn't find my copy. Recently whilst looking for something else entirely, I did found my copy and here 'tis: The Night Howard Finster Got Saved There's much to enjoy here: Finster's old-fashioned Southern speech, his charmingly out-of-tune piano, the passionate singing. One of the spoken-work tracks, "Last Call I Had," is particular stirring, as Finster describes how he talked a suicidal New Yorker out of jumping, over the phone. But the climactic title track truly must be heard to be believed - over two different tape recordings playing two different fiery Finster sermons, the good rev. sings, shouts, whistles, whoops and hollers over the din. For 25 minutes. Absolutely mental.
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"Glorious" Gloria Parker is a veteran of the Big Band era who is not only still alive and well, but plays, among other instruments, musical glasses - wetting one's finger and running it around the rims of a set of wine glasses to play melodies. She's quite amazing, a real virtuoso on her obscure instrument. I esp. dig the cool funk of "God Bless You Merry Gentlemen" from her album "A Toast To Christmas".
And that'd be cool enough. But it gets better. Much, much better.
A series of legal mishaps has led the still-feisty New Yorker to write a book entitled "Corruption Reigns in the Courtroom." Not only that, she has released, and is selling thru her website, a musical album of the same name. In a theatrical voice, accompanying herself on piano playing showtune-y music, Parker sings her chirpy, upbeat original songs. All her lyrics deal with how much she hates the American court system. Every song.
Don't have the album yet, but the four mp3s on her site (scroll to bottom of page) range from absolutely wonderful to absolutely wonderful. Haven't read her book, but I know of at least one of the legal setbacks that has caused this obsession - her co-authorship of this song:
Alan Holmes & His New Tones "Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus"Incredibly, she lost her suit against Disney for it's use of the Sherman Brothers tune featured in "Mary Poppins." I'd be pissed, too. (Actually, Dick Van Dyke's gawd-awful Cockney accent is grounds enough for a legal action.)
She appeared performing on her glasses in the '80s Woody Allen film "Broadway Danny Rose," about a talent agent whose clients are all overlooked hard-luck novelty performers. Guess that makes me the Broadway Danny Rose of music bloggers.
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...I've heard on the internet lately: the latest (Week 119) ofA private recording made in the "...late 1970's of our local zoo's carousel, whose calliope had fallen into dreadful disrepair, making for some wonderfully warbled versions of Moon River, 76 Trombones, The Sound of Music and many others." If there is a circus in Hell, this is the soundtrack. (Of course, coming from me, that's a compliment.) For example, Henry Mancini, like you've never heard him before:
dying carousel: "Moon River"
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...sang Bowie. Not many music blogs been around this long, have they? 650 posts! At first, knowing very little about computers, I used to link directly to other site's mp3s. I was so naive! Sorry for any bandwidth I sucked. I suck. We went from the generic look to a more custom design. Then started adding pictures, YouTube came along, then file-storing sites so I could share entire albums for free. And so it goes...So, tell me: Likes, dislikes? Intense hates? Any life-changing events associated with this here web-log? Your band ever cover/you ever sample a tune you first heard here? Just how are you celebrating?.
From the liner notes: "Thumbs down (as in the days of the gladiators) to those we have dealt with in the past, may we write your epigraphs [sic], while you dig your own graves, for such dwellings are appropriate to your cause." And to think that tourists and Ja-fakin' hippies have this idea that Carribean music is so peaceful and mellow...
