Goobers (MP3s)
[ This post contains 26 MP3s for the kids after the jump. ]
You know a compilation of children's songs has to be good if it features Foetus and Tiny Tim. And honestly, the compilation "Goobers - A Collection of Kid's Songs", released in 1993 on T.E.C. Tones (who were somehow associated with the Residents' Ralph Records label, as I understand it), is damn near perfect. But what the heck is a "goober"? Urban Dictionary offers several different definitions, among them "chocolate-covered dick" and "a crazy cool person whos funny as hell and rocks any shindig like no other; a totally cool person bascially (thats a little insane)". Now that leaves me with the questions what "whos", "rocks any shindig" and "bascially" mean. But I am just a stupid foreigner, so what do I know? Anyway, the album is long out of print and needs to be heard, so get ready for the music in MP3 form after the jump. Enjoy!
01 D. Matinal Chan - Hallelu Hallelu (MP3) - A kid singing in Portuguese (I think)
02 The Stinky Puffs - Monsters (MP3) - The Stinky Puffs were fronted by Simon Fair Timony, the stepson of Jad Fair, and featured his mother Sheenah Fair, Jad Fair, Don Fleming, and Lee Ranaldo's son Cody Linn Ranaldo. Later they collaborated with guys of Yo La Tengo and Nirvana. AMG describes them as "rock's most charismatic prepubescent perfomers". They disbanded about 10 years ago, but you can still check out their website.
03 Daniel Johnston - Pinny Pinny (MP3) - A song by David Fair about a couple with a dog, performed by the one and only Daniel Johnston.
04 Fiction Friends - Jump Jump (MP3) - This is a one-off by Brian Poole, better known as Renaldo of legendary band Renaldo and the Loaf. Here he is joined by Kwesi Marles.
05 Penn Jillette - Great Green Gobs (MP3) - An all-time favorite at dinner parties, performed by magician, skeptic, and record producer Penn Jillette, the talking half of Penn & Teller.
06 Space Negros - Vigor The Ice Man (MP3) - This is one of the scary and twisted songs on this compilation, reminiscent of the Residents. The guy behind the Space Negros was Erik Lindgren, who is still an active composer and musician, most notably in Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. He also runs the fantastic Arf! Arf! Records label.
07 Half Japanese - Inky and Winky (MP3) - A very short catchy pop tune featuring a skunk stealing a Twinkie. Written and performed by The Band That Would Be King.
08 Eric Feldman - Worms (MP3) - Another song to sing during meals, about eating worms. I suspect that this is Eric Drew Feldman who used to be in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band and Pere Ubu.
09 The Tinklers - Mom Kooks Inside (MP3) - A kooky song from the golden days of Shimmy Disc records. The Tinklers have a website and supposedly still exist.
10 Foetus Inc - See Dick Run
(MP3) - James Thirlwell represented by this rather innocuous version of
the ever-changing Foetus band name. Hey, why not Scraping Foetus Off
The Wheel? I am sure the kids would love it. However, with lyrics such
as "See Jane's brain splattered on the kitchen wall" and "Dick put Jane
in a trash compactor" this is sure to be fun for the whole family!
11 Tiny Tim - The Chicken Dance (MP3) - Words can't quite describe this, you gotta hear it yourself, right now! And God bless Tiny Tim!
12 Hank von Schpa - Mama Do (MP3) - Bizarre, retarded, fascinating. I have no info at all about the mysterious "Hank von Schpa".
13 Foo Foo Heads - Just Be You (MP3) - Kids doing old-school rap. Apparently the Foo Foo Heads were somehow connected to Penn Jillette, but I can't tell you much more about them.
14 Panther Burns - Auto Sapien (MP3) - Tav Falco and his band lay down some great dirty and raw Memphis Rock'n'Roll.
15 Genuine Diamelles - Underdog (MP3) - Described as "San Francisco's psychedelic glee club of the 90s", the Genuine Diamelles do a great (but too short) a cappella version of the theme song for Underdog.
16 Peter Stampfel - Werewolf (MP3) - Peter Stampfel was one half of the legendary Holy Modal Rounders, and here he covers Michael Hurley's
thoroughly disturbing song "Werewolf". Scary outsider folk at its very
best. (The genre also known as "Children's Bedtime Music".)
17 The Pastels - Speeding Motorcycle (MP3) - One of Daniel Johnson's best and most popular songs, and I have to admit that this version kind of sucks. At least when you compare it to the original, to Yo La Tengo's cover on their album Fakebook, and especially to the version Daniel Johnston (over the phone) and Yo La Tengo did together live on WFMU.
18 Buzzard Bait - Horsey Horsey (MP3) - Buzzard Bait were Tumbleweed, Old Tin Ear, and Weepin' Dick Dobbs. The song is damn great. And that is all I know about them.
20 Anonymous - Animal Party (MP3) - Kids love singing about animal parties.
21 Big Butter - People, Animals and Plants (MP3) - A truly bizarre story. Check out the unofficial website with a little more info on this project of brothers Tim and Mike Biskup.
22 Artists Unknown - 3-6-9 (MP3) - This is really The Clapping Song, originally recorded by Shirley Ellis, done a cappella by kids with sounds of trains running by.
23 Only A Mother - Lullaby (MP3) - Beautiful song by Michigan weirdos Only A Mother. Frank Pahl, the main creative force behind this band, has also released several solo albums and nowadays leads the Scavenger Quartet. He also has a radio show on WCBN in Ann Arbor, currently every Sunday 6-9am Eastern.
24 Raymond Scott - Beautiful Little Butterfly (MP3) - Raymond Scott's last known composition, created on MIDI in 1986.
25 Joshua Brody - A Medley (MP3) - Joshua Raoul Brody, composer for film and theater, comedian, and so much more, likes old people, but doesn't like bullies.
26 Three Kids - Goobers (MP3) - These three kids are singing about eating goober peas, which seems to have been really popular back in the days of the American Civil War.
So goober peas are peanuts? What does this have to do with rocking shindigs? I am mystified.
I always knew goober to be peanut. As in the Civil War era song, "Goober Peas" (look under Burl Ives).
Posted by: DD | July 29, 2007 at 02:24 PM
Weeeeee. Thanks!
Posted by: Rufus | July 29, 2007 at 03:49 PM
Hey Horsey Horsey! Hey Horsey Horsey!
I remember listening to that song again a few years ago and being startled to realize that it was an optigan they were using, which I hadn't known about at the time...Animal Party is really killer, too...
Posted by: Andy | July 29, 2007 at 04:30 PM
That Tiny Tim song is one of the most brilliantly insane things I have ever heard in my life.
Just...wow.
Posted by: Paul Simononymous | July 29, 2007 at 05:51 PM
first time caller. long time listener. wow...this is amazing. thanks so much for posting this. i've been looking for years to replace my cd. post "potatoes" and "beets" if you can. pizza break?
Posted by: KrOB | July 29, 2007 at 08:05 PM
Incidentally, this is longer than the version we had, which was maybe an EP or something...I get the impression the EP was expanded to make this a year or so later, but I could be wrong.
Posted by: Andy | July 29, 2007 at 10:06 PM
I've got "Potatoes", so expect that sometime soon. In fact, I've got the CD and the vinyl releases of that album, and I think there's at least one cut on the vinyl that wasn't on the CD release. That'll be a bonus track.
Posted by: Listener Jim | July 29, 2007 at 10:09 PM
T.E.C. Tones was a short-lived adjunct to Ralph during the period when the label was owned by Tom and Sheenah Timony (some details here: http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/timelline.aspx?csid1=22). Sheenah was at one time married to Jad Fair, which may help explain his presence here.
And yes, that Eric Feldman is exactly who you think it is. Among numerous other credits, he was also a member of Snakefinger's Vestal Virgins.
Posted by: Hell's Donut House | July 30, 2007 at 12:55 AM
Eric Drew also played with Snakefinger & Residents' label-mates, the "Club Foot Orchestra." They can be heard on the Potatoes comp.
Anyone notice that Snakefinger's "History of the Blues" record has never shown up on CD? I have vinyl and it's surprisingly good. The horn section of this live band later mutated into the Club Foot. So I'm told.
Posted by: Bridgewerk | July 30, 2007 at 05:40 PM
Eric Drew Feldman has been touring with the Residents for some time now. His name is even in the credits of the Demons Dance Alone DVD.
Posted by: Naz Nomad | July 30, 2007 at 08:40 PM
Hey! Wow! This moment is almost as cool as when we got played on Dr. Demento! I came here to download some tunes, and there's a record I'm on!
I'm Junglebook, one of the four Genuine Diamelles. We sang that hastily-truncated version of "Underdog" on Goobers. Right at the part they faded out, we went into an extended "rap" segment. Without consulting us, the people who put the record out cut off more than half of our version of the song. Even so, I'm glad to have shown up on Beware of the Blog - honored, in fact.
Someday, I'll get those files posted. (We did a retrospective 2-CD collection, 100 copies) Dr. Demento played a song of ours called "Who Keeps Feeding These Pigeons", but our big "hit" was an a capella version of "Kashmir". In recent years, I've been doing pirate radio, and after having stolen so many songs off of this blog, I'm really glad I could contribute something!
If I get the tracks to our CD, "Poisonous Muffin" posted, I'll let y'all know where.
Junglebook
San Francisco
Posted by: Junglebook | July 30, 2007 at 10:27 PM
A word of warning: The first commenter, DD, is recommending a dangerous and unlawful act. Do not, under any circumstances, look under Burl Ives.
It was a dicey operation at best when the old bastard was still alive. Now it's criminal and hazardous.
I did find a peanut, though, so it wasn't a total loss.
Posted by: HP | August 04, 2007 at 04:51 PM
Say, Bridgewerk -- if you felt like ripping that album to mp3, you'd make those of who've been trying to find a copy for twenty years very happy indeed....
Posted by: Hell's Donut House | August 07, 2007 at 02:05 AM
Sheenah Spece, Simon "Stinkypuff" Timony's mom, recounted the origin of the Foo Foo Heads, and also Simon's song "Animal Party" at http://nifty.tripod.com/~nifty/interview2.html Presumably the same kids who did "Just Be You" also did "We Don't Talk to Strangers". Anybody know when "Monsters" was recorded? Sounds like VERY early Stinky Puffs.
Posted by: dysphonium | October 01, 2007 at 11:20 PM