WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Country Fuzz Spectacular (MP3s)

The racket made by a fuzztone guitar has been described as the sound of two bees fighting inside of a tin can. 

Ask your friends to give you an example of this crazy menacing sound and they're likely to name Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones.  Or maybe they'll refer you to Jimi Hendrix, The Yardbirds, or even Davie Allan & The Arrows, who recorded tons of fuzzy guitar instrumentals for biker movie soundtracks.  Given the rock and roll reputation of the fuzztone sound, those are all pretty understandable responses. 

I'm here today, though, to share with you some fine examples of country music fuzz.  While that might sound counter-intuitive it actually makes perfect sense given the fact that the fuzztone sound was created by the legendary Nashville session picker Grady Martin.  Martin's immense talent was used to great effect on thousands of recordings, probably none of which were more influential than the rock and roll sides he cut with Johnny Burnette Trio in Nashville in 1956.  On songs like Honey Hush and Train Kept A Rollin' (MP3), record buyers heard Martin cut loose with astonishing levels of distortion that hinted at the fuzztone sound he accidentally created a few short years later.

It happened in the summer of 1960, when Grady was hired to work on a Marty Robbins recording session in Nashville.  While recording the tune Don't Worry, a malfunctioning channel on the mixing board caused Martin's six string bass to be recorded with an insane amount of distortion, a sound that would come to be called fuzztone.  Despite the jarring sound, the record was released as it was originally recorded, fuzztone and all, which turned out to be a successful gamble.  The record bolted to the #1 position on the Billboard country charts and #3 on the pop charts. With results like that, it's really no surprise that other country artists soon started experimenting with fuzztone sounds on their own records.

Brian Wilson's Lost Rap Recording

In 1989 Brian Wilson began recording "Sweet Insanity", an album that was due for release in 1991 but was rejected by Sire. The album was made during one of Wilson's supposedly troubled periods when he was under the influence of psychologist Eugene Landy (who was listed as a co-producer) and included guest performances by both Bob Dylan and Weird Al Yankovic. The album has long been available as a bootleg and four of the songs were subsequently released on later albums.

"Smart Girls" was produced by Matt Dike, the co-founder of Delicious Vinyl who was also part of the production team behind hits by Tone Loc and Young MC. By varying accounts Dike was at one time a member of the Dust Brothers and responsible for a some of the production on The Beastie Boy's "Paul's Boutique" which was recorded in 1989 (roughly the same time as Wilson's album). You can actually hear some vague links as "Smart Girls" employs a similar cut-and-paste sample aesthetic (to far worse effect) as bits of past Beach Boy hits are chopped up and sprinkled throughout the song. "Smart Girls" was supposedly released as a promo to radio stations and Wilson played the song on the air during an interview on Dr. Demento's show in 1992. The LA Weekly dug up this "Brains and Genius" J-Card at a used record shop which may be the radio promo or something else entirely.

Brian Wilson - Smart Girls

Previously posted: The Murry Wilson Tapes
Audio originally found in the depths of RSHB

The Audio Kitchen Returns (sort of)

It has recently come to my attention that the Audio Kitchen, the late, great  found sound program hosted by the Professor on WFMU, has found a new home. You can find it over at theaudiokitchen.net along with the radio kitchen, a sister blog about shortwave radio.

During his four years at the station, the Professor sifted through countless hours of cassettes and tape reels found at garage sales, discarded demos, answering machine  messages and a wide assortment of random sonic detritus submitted to him by many, many people to weave a collection of extremely personal and engaging audio resplendent with many wtf moments.

The professor dubbed his curated stream of audio diaries, taped phone conversations and recordings of people at parties as "amateur radio". When I go to the Audio Kitchen archive page, pick any random show and then select a clip I am often struck by the feeling that if I ever heard any of the dialog recorded here in a film or written in a book I would have a hard time believing it was true. You couldn't make lots of this stuff up.

I became involved with the station in 1999 around the time the Professor started his show and a few memories stick out. I remember when Napster hit and the professor discovered that by searching for some variation of "mic in line" that you could find recordings of people singing into their computers. I also remember that during September 11, he had the presence of mind to turn on several of his radios to AM stations and record what the lay men were saying on all of the local call-in talk radio shows. While I've never heard these recordings I would imagine that they are quite likely to be a compelling anthropological relic of the time and far more interesting to listen to than say, what CNN or NPR were broadcasting at the time.

Here are a few additional links for you to peruse:

- The Professor's "Sing Along with the Music" Marathon Premium as posted to the blog by Ken
- The Professor's posts to this blog on DX scanning.
- Audio Kitchen archive

Compare And Contrast

Here are two powerviolence videos of equal quality from bands of unequal quality.

The first clip's from Siege, performing on public access TV in 1984.  I'll go ahead and call them the first and best powerviolence band (anybody know of a band that played faster earlier?).  The song is starvation, from their demo tape.  Their energy is pretty incredible, but it just doesn't feel right to see them flipping out in a big, empty room in front of reasonably high quality equipment.  Wrong outlet I guess.

On the other hand, damned if I don't prefer this disgustingly low-fi footage of Man Is The Bastard, performing at So-Cal's legendary Gilman Street at 1993's legendary Fiesta Grande festival (selections from which you can find on record on the legendary Fiesta Comes Alive! compilation, released by Chris Dodge's legendary Slap-A-Ham records).  Man Is The Bastard doesn't add anything musically to Siege and their stage performance isn't as impressive...strange they should find more success than Siege.  A few more of these trashcan quality clips can be found on Gloom666's youtube channel, which also features tons of classic and current hardcore.

A little more evidence for my case that hardcore second wavers can't rely on music alone, Man Is The Bastard is most notable for their radical leftist politics.  When George Bush wasn't sodomizing Saddam Hussein on their album covers, they were were releasing a split with Mumia Abu-Jamal.  Supposedly a documentary is in the works, but I think they got too high to remember to finish it.

In conclusion, I'd like to remark that society is fucking disgusting and that I hate marketing.

it's a fucking toy, morons

We need to "dialogue" with these people.

You go first.

Update (12/10): Desperately seeking asylum.

Update (12/18): Blogger action!

365 Days #334 - Roger Price - Roger and Over (mp3s)

MP3:
The Amazing Theory of Names Demonstrated at the Village Vanguard (18:17)
The True and Authentic History of Vermont Jazz (13:57)
An Expose of Hi-Fidelity (4:50)
Sound Droodles (3:02)

Roger Price is my favorite forgotten comic, though this album may only give you the slightest idea why. Mr. Price is the self-same Price who co-created Mad Libs with Leonard Stern, and is therefore the Price in Price/Stern/Sloan (or pss!) – but that's not why, either. He also wrote for Bob Hope, Harvey Kurtzman's Mad and Steve Allen's Tonight Show, but that's also not why.

In the early 1950s, Roger Price invented the Droodle. That's why.

More specifically, Roger Price is aces with me because of the two collections of Droodles published by pss! – a little red book called "Droodles" and a little green book called "Oodles of Droodles" (formerly "Droodles #2"). I've had them since I was very young, and they were a major force in shaping my sense of humor. It's not the Droodles themselves so much, though they were certainly amusing and clever, as the commentary beneath them, which would often be ambling monologues only tangentially related to the picture above. Check out the "Crookshank" essay on the back of the "Roger and Over" record jacket for a sample of what I'm talking about.

Droodles were so popular for a brief period in the mid-1950s that Price hosted a game show for a while based on the concept. One Droodle, "Boat Arriving Too Late To Save a Drowning Witch," was used by Frank Zappa as an album cover in 1982. Tallfellow Press (founded by Stern and Sloan after selling pss! to Penguin in the early 1990s, shortly after Mr. Price passed away) keeps Droodles in print, though I don't know if the book they publish is a complete collection of the two books I grew up with, or just a "greatest of." Regardless, you should go right out and purchase whatever Droodle stuff you can get a hold of (the covers of my battered 1970s copies are scanned below to help you locate 'em in used bookstores and such, if you wanna go for the originals rather than the "new" collection).

The first side of the album starts out with an annoying series of pops and a skip right over the first punchline, but don't worry, it clears up right after that.

Incidentally, upon discovering this album, I was surprised to find that Mr. Price sounds somewhat like Hanna-Barbera's Mr. Jinks, right down to the constant use of 1950s "hipster" lingo... albeit with a not-as-exaggerated accent. Compare the stuff on the album with the recording on this page of Daws Butler doing the Jinks voice to tell a hilarious version of "Mary Had a Li'l Lamb." Could Price have been Butler's inspiration when creating the voice... ?

- Contributed by: Corey K.

Images: Jacket Cover, Jacket Back, Label (front), Label (back), Droodles book covers

Media: 33rpm vinyl album
Album: Roger and Over
Label: A.A. Records
Catalog: AR-1
Credits: Roger Price (featuring Sascha Burland, Don Elliott and the Vermont Jazz All-Stars with Meatloaf Pope, Pig-Meat Oaks, Fats Mush, One-Eye Muffin, Nutsy Gasaway, Bombo (at the piano) and Ma Kennedy!
Date: 1960

Will the majors drop the RIAA?

When Private equity firm Terra Firma bought EMI earlier in the year for $4.7 billion the general consensus was this this was a phenomenally stupid purchase. If you had billions of dollars to invest would you pick the music business as a promising growth industry?

As it turns out Guy Hands, Terra Firma's chief, is not entirely stupid if a recent Financial Times story is to be believed: while going over the balance sheet Hands has supposedly pegged the $25 million dollars of annual fees EMI pays to the RIAA and it's British counterpart the IFPI as potentially wasteful spending.

Who could argue? The economics of the RIAA's anti-Piracy campaign have long been understood to be terrible (as the RIAA itself has conceded) and basically amount to a scare campaign to drum up press for rare victories in the courtroom such as the recent $220,000 reward against a single mom for file sharing. Business people care about numbers and it doesn't take an astute financial acumen to come to the conclusion that perhaps the $132 million that the major labels send to the RIAA annually might get a better return if spent elsewhere.

Perhaps EMI has finally learned a few things from Radiohead, one of its former bands, in regards to the record industry's obsolescence. But don't think that EMI is going all soft... It was only a few weeks ago the the label chose to punish the band for it's pay-whatever-you-want release for "In Rainbows" by releasing the entire radiohead back catalog drm-free. As noted on boing boing:

"When the band put out the digital version of the album themselves, EMI threatened them with re-releasing their entire catalog on the same day the discbox of IN RAINBOWS was being sent out, Dec 10, unless the band gave EMI the standard physical release of the album. Of course the band/managers told EMI to piss off and were appalled that at such an important point in the band's career that their former partners would do this to them."

It's as good time as any to trot out the old Hunter S. Thompson chesnut: "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
__

Update: SAI just posted a summary of a call Warner Music Group had with investors this morning. When asked if they would follow EMI's lead in dropping cash to the RIAA they answered with: no comment. This probably means nothing but it doesnt exactly sound like a vote of confidence either.

A WFMU Exclusive Jonathan Kane MP3

Last April, WFMU kicked off its Free Music Concert series with an absolutely dynamite show at Brooklyn's Southpaw starring DJ /rupture, Flaming Fire, Jonathan Kane's February, and the Major Stars.

Last month, we were delighted to offer up the first fruits of that show in downloadable form, as Flaming Fire gave us some of their tracks from the night. 

Last week, I enjoyed the exquisite thrill of spending a few hours in musical bliss with Jonathan Kane, mixing a song from his band's performance at that savage hoedown back in April, which we offer you now.

Jonathan Kane's February, "Pops" (mp3, 15 holy megs) - live at Southpaw in Park Slope Brooklyn, April 28 2007 as part of WFMU's Free Music Concert Series.  "Pops" being Pops Staples, of course.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Briefly, Jonathan Kane busted out in '82 as the original/founding drummer for Michael Gira's groundbreaking downtown NYC noiseniks Swans.  From there it was off to Rhys Chatham's guitarmies and support for LaMonte Young's more rockist tendencies.  Lately Jonathan's dusted off the field snare for pounding sets with Dave Soldier's Kropotkins, and become a bandleader himself, as the drumming leader of his very own micro-guitarmies.  A nicer guy in rock and roll you're unlikely to meet - here's more accolades on this very blog: 1  |  2  |  3  | 4

Elsewhere, here's Jonathan on myspace

Here's Jonathan describing the beginning, and end, of his time with Swans in Mojo mag, over at Gira's Young God label site.

The Field Guide to Staying Inside: Modified Guitars

Guitars are cool. They just are. It's relatively easy to learn enough to play a Ramones song, and it's easier to look cool holding one in the bathroom mirror than it is holding an oboe. Not only that, but it's like cake to get your avant garde on with them. Get yourself a distortion pedal and some alligator clips and you're in business. Not a well-paying business, but you'll be doing door gigs for three or four other musicians in no time.

We're not talking about prepared guitars this week. No, sir. This installment of TFGTSI focuses on folks who've put their money where their plectrums are and fundamentally altering their instruments. More strings. More things. Axes that would dissolve in the rain. All here. For you. Now.

Killick Erick Hinds is best known for covering Slayer's Reign in Blood in its entirety on his H'Arpeggione, a cello-like fretted beast of his own design with 18 strings. Another of his creations (constructed by Fred Carlson of Santa Cruz, CA) is Big Red, a 38-string guitar made of recycled redwood and paper mache. It has a hybrid fretless/fretted neck, sub-bass and super-treble strings and sympathetic strings running through a channel in the neck.

Killick Erik Hinds - Snort Butt Leap (MP3)

Killick lives in Athens, GA, but he's touring the Northeast right now. He's playing at The Stone in Manhattan tonight (Nov. 29), in the Bronx this weekend, and then heading to Syracuse and Portland, Maine.

365 Days #333 - Lee (mp3s)

This recording is from a cassette recorded by a fellah named Lee. He was, or still is, a mental patient in the state of Nevada. He had a lot of money from an unknown source, and would buy expensive bass guitars from the guitar shop where I was working. I would talk to him and try to get info as to his life and such but he was too shy. Nice guy, mid 40s, 6'2, 170 or so pounds, Hungarian/Slavic features, fairly gray line short hair.

Lee spoke very slow with a midwestern accent. I'm guessing Kansas or Nebraska. He always rode a bike everywhere and carried an expensive bass guitar on his back. He said that he wanted to start recording songs that he had written. We all looked at each other like there was no way.

One day in 2001 when I was at work, a co-worker had run over from the large recording studio next door. Breathlessly he said that Lee was next door recording and that I had to go check it out.

Well, this is what I heard...

1 Lee One (7:04)
2 Lee Two (5:01)
3 Lee Three (7:22)
4 Lee Four (2:16)
5 Lee Five (8:51)
6 Lee Six (0:06)
7 Lee Seven (6:14)
8 Lee Eight (1:54)
9 Lee Nine (5:52)

I was so amazed and impressed I begged Lee for a tape for two weeks until he finally gave me one. He thought that his music wasn't really any good. I told him no, not only was it good, but I was going to share it with others who will love it as much as I do.

- Contributed by: Mister Dan

It's Britney, Bitch

Certainly without doubt Pseu and Bronwyn would have played the new Britney Spears CD unquestioningly had I put it in the station library's New Bin, though unfortunately WFMU was left off the promo list for that one. Kind of disappointing, as maybe some FMU attention could help get Brit back on the cultural map (in a good way). Though truth be told, just from my experience here, I couldn't see a lot of our staff pulling that one from the bin for their shows. But, had I burned a copy, placed it in an esoteric-looking CDR sleeve and retitled it Anna Elektronische, on an obscure looking label called Doomplatten, would others play it? Yes. In defense, Blackout has some of the production you'd expect on a modern-day Berlin electronic diva's work: phasing, minimalist beats, synth/vocordered up druggy vox.  The sleeve itself came from a band called Olakranon (which was pretty OK in its own right), whom I thank for allowing me to conduct my experiment, and thank you to the DJs who were participants. Liz Berg forwarded an email to me after she played it on air, amazingly sent in by a promotions company that does mass mailings to college radio, wondering how they could get in touch with Doomplatten to help get this artist out into public awareness. I responded, offering up 50 of Anna's CDRs in homemade sleeves that they could easily distribute to radio if they wanted. But then I 'fessed up, feeling guilty if the poor guy was gonna spend money on this project. But I do think some grassroots promo does need to be done on Spears' behalf. Besides, in two years, I don't think it would be completely unrealistic to expect Brit to put out a song called "Nazi Ha Ha Wha." Real Audio from Ken's show: "Ha".

My Systm!!!1!

Internet, check out my "MY HIFI SURROUND SYSTEM" / "marantz collection" / "CM1 Drive" / "Dimed Marshall JCM800 2203!"

(Via Cory.)

Brand New Podcast from Ergo Phizmiz & People Like Us

WFMU is pleased to announce Codpaste - a new weekly podcast series brought to you by our own People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz, who will be teaming up and trying to compose collage music for you... with emphasis on the word "trying." It's reasonably rare that music is broadcast to you when it's not all finished, polished and dusted, but we're going to spew out the guts and gore to you, dear listener, so do bring a spoon.

From Monday 3rd December 2007, WFMU will be hosting the podcasts of:

(i) audio sources, the tracks used as the basis for the collage in the episode
(ii) sketches, mixes, and collages combining track elements with added instrumentation, electronics, vocals, etc.
(iii) fragments, layers, and multitracks of the collage compositions

These elements will be tied together by snippets of light-hearted, tangential conversations and introductions and occasional mental overload and verbal meltdown.

Subscribe to this free weekly podcast (and receive an introductory welcome into your iTunes) by visiting WFMU's Podcast page.

Further program information can be found here.

Lydon & Cassavetes VS the Couch

A lot has been made of the classic clip of John Lydon's 1980 interview with Tom Snyder, which has to be one of the most bitchy interviews to ever hit the television. But one thing that most people don't mention is the all important context. It's not just that Lydon acted like a jerk, or that Snyder provided a rather contentious introduction, or that PiL bandmate Keith Levene seems a little lost by the whole thing. It's that it all happened just after an interview with Can't Stop the Music producer Allan Carr.

Snyder works so hard to take Carr seriously and lob softball questions while his guest is basically just rambling. We're talking about twenty minutes of chatting about the inherent value of thoughtless entertainment, lame Broadway musical comedies, buying multiple fancy houses, and not wearing socks. Then, ouch, they both spend a good deal of time babbling about their worship of Queen Elizabeth and the British royalty, and then laugh at PiL, referring to them at "The Rocky Horror Show". Moments later, Snyder refuses to even try and talk on the same friendly level with Lydon, so it's hard to blame Johnny for acting a bit, erm, rotten.

Carr's career imploded in 1989 when he produced perhaps the most misguided Academy Awards show in history. Lydon caused more trouble that year with his combative appearance on American Bandstand, but in 1997 Lydon and Snyder met up again, and it was much more genial.

On a similar note, one of my favorite celebrity talk show clips of all time is the 1970 visit to the Dick Cavett show by John Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, and Peter Falk. Again, some context helps. The drunken boys club was promoting their new film Husbands (one of Cassavetes' best that is still not on DVD for some reason), and Cavett was nervously presenting his first prime time specialty show.

A lot was riding on this show, so it was not a good time for Cassavetes et al to play with the host and the audience - and that of of course makes it just too much of a temptation not to do so. They push Cavett, a host who has managed to deal with a man dying on his interview couch without breaking calm, to run off of his own set. He then makes a very snarky comment about producer Stanley Kramer , referencing a still sore moment that left Cassavetes blacklisted in Hollywood for several years in the early 60s.

Ultimately, the joke really is on Cavett, as this supposed train wreck is now remembered as one of his most legendary and entertaining shows. Keep watching and the boys finally settle down and get serious, with Falk being the most surprisingly sincere and profound.
Part 3     Part 4

365 Days #332 - J Marks And Shipen Lebzelter - Rock And Other Four Letter Words (mp3s)

MP3:
01 Other Four Letter Words (6:24)
02 Essence Of It's Own (5:44)
03 It's True (3:17)
04 Greatest Hits - Love Your Navel (2:24)
05 In The Middle Of Nothing (4:12)
06 Baked Beans (3:38)
07 They're Through (5:54)
08 Today (1:26)
09 Eine Kleine Hayakawa (1:25)
10 Do You Understand What I Am Trying To Say? (3:19)
11 Trouble (2:18)
12 Poop for Sopranos And Orchestra (7:57)
13 This Is The Word (1:43)

Rock and other four letter words: Created By J Marks and Shipen Lebzelter; Featuring a cast of thousands, Including the voices, Comments, yawns and blurbs of bunches of international rock stars and various other good people: Music to live and die by, and other zook zounds and voices of the first national nothing.

This album is dedicated to Karlheinz Stockhausen, who destroyed our ears so we could hear.

- Contributed by: The ToD

Images: Front Cover

Media: 12" LP
Artist: Many
Album: Rock And Other Four Letter Words
Label: Columbia
Catalog: MS 7193
Date: !968

Cleaning Out My Gifbox

Another twelve CPU-starving, bandwidth-sucking, mind-altering animations beyond the jump...

Make a Year-End Donation to WFMU

Isn't it great that WFMU doesn't interrupt our programming (or our blog) for fundraising more than once per year like some of those other public radio stations? The main reason we don't need to is because many generous listeners and readers like you choose to help us out with a year-end donation.

To entice you, we're offering up some great new swag in exchange for your pledge: WFMU's first-ever winter scarf (right), as well as a limited-edition set of screen printed art posters, featuring classic cover designs from WFMU's old 'zine, LCD (with illustrations by Gary Panter, Joost Swarte, and Drew Friedman).

 

 

   

To re-up on karma points for the year, head on over to our pledge page, and drop a few (tax-deductible) coins on your favorite freeform station!

Dedication MP3s

Here's some top shelf industrial dronage fer yer perusal.  Grating and noisy, one of the few minimalist CDs I actually tolerate.  Sorry if you're a huge fan of minimalism, but I just don't get most of it!  Actually, can you explain the appeal to me?  I can understand minimalism in the context of meditation and Eastern religion, but I don't think you'll meet any Macronympha fans at your yoga studio, and I'm pretty sure these dudes would sooner drink scorched engine oil than kombucha.  I can also understand minimalism in the context of drugs...probably some of these dudes do drugs and I'd encourage you to do the same.  Other than that, I can't see any reason why I'd listen to the same note for twenty minutes.

Unlike a lot of minimalism out there though, most of these tracks offer interesting development of ideas to the attentive listener - without this, I would've gotten my fill after about thirty seconds.  Another tip too: I met Chop Shop briefly earlier this year and he told me that he's a 'sound artist', not a musician.  Not sure what to do with that distinction exactly, but I'd agree if you told me that listening to this comp feels more similar to looking at an abstract painting than to listening to rock and/or roll.  Heady, heavy stuff: the same color as your sudden death.

Limited to 1000 and released in '93, this isn't the first Artware release I've featured.  Also check out Sat Stoicizmo's masterpiece Mah 2 and Oral Constitution's Bibel Priek EP.  A Dislocation mp3 is on the Pure Will, Without The Confusions Of Intellect compilation, and you'll also find Real Audio archive troves for Chop Shop, Nord, Hijokaidan, Macronympha, Aube and Andrew Chalk

Freudwerk - Widerfuhr     |     D.D.Dobson - Furnace In A Cloud

Andrew Chalk - Lyga      |       Nord - Paramasukha      |       Macronympha - Caustic Benediction

Hijokaidan - Cancer Of Music      |       Alan Lee - Annie Sprinkle Loves Latex

Chop Shop - "........"      |       Miguel Ruiz - El Hombre Que Devoro Manhattan

Small Cruel Party - Without Arms But With Some Sort Of Peculiar Attachement

Aube - Gush      |       Putrefier - Saffocation

Dislocation - On The Move      |       Cement Women - V

365 Days #331 - 45 Detritus (mp3s)

Some detritus found among 45s left over mostly from college radio in the 70s:

Dingetje - Ik Ga Weg Leen (3:00)

Rob de Nijs - Bier is Bitter (3:36)

Humpback Whale - Also Sprach Zarathustra [kazoo] (1:05)

Before mashups really got rolling, here was a doozy from some tunes typically much older than the genre:
Knack and Beatles - My Sharona/Love Me Do (2:33)

An unusual pair of songs for a medley:
New Christy Minstrels - Hey Jude - Atlantis (3:30)

When novelty songs about hippies were funny:
Rocki Lane and the Gross Group - Happy Hairy Hippy Harry Claus (2:31)

A bouncy lighthearted number about terrorism:
Village Sound - Hey Jack (Don't Hijack My Plane) (2:39)

To finish, some lovely Finnish covers:
Virve "Vicky" Rosti - I Will Survive (3:43)
Pentti Oskari Kankaan and Seinahullua Veljesta - Do Ya Think I'm Sexy (4:16)

- Contributed by: Kevin Killion

Andy Kaufman and Carol Channing and Robert Goulet

Robert Goulet died recently and that seems reason enough to link to this footage of The Mike Douglas Show with Andy Kaufman confusing Carol Channing on a panel that includes a silent Goulet. Clips of Kaufman on Douglas have been utilized in the many Kaufman biography specials that have aired over the years but, sadly, nobody has thought of just re-running the whole episode(s). But thanks to YouTube we can watch more of it than has been seen in almost thirty years. Watch the Kaufman and Channing episode here, and watch a Foreign Man on Douglas episode here.

The YouTuber, SillyCrazyInsane, has an enormous collection of these cool Andy Kaufman rarities:

Andy Kaufman developing the Tony Clifton character at home.

An unaired, pre-Taxi, television pilot starring Andy Kaufman: Parts One, Two, Three and Four.

Andy Kaufman gushes over Slim Whitman.

Kaufman and pencil neck geek hating Freddie Blassie promoting My Breakfast with Blassie.

Lots more if you visit SillyCrazyInsane's channel.

Give the Drum Instructor Some

For those who missed out, Jens Hanneman (aka comedian Fred Armisen), star of the new Complicated Drumming DVD, dropped some serious drum dept knowledge on Tom Scharpling during his visit to the Best Show a few weeks ago (take a listen - real audio).

Coincidentally, I happened upon an unintentionally hilarious cable access show recently, starring Jens Hanneman's worst nightmare, 'Famous Drummer' Jeff Indyke (videos and more on Jeff's site). Take a listen to Jeff's drum instruction (MP3), compare and contrast.

365 Days #330 - The Gaylords - Sing American Hits In Italian (mp3s)

Ronnie Gaylord and Burt Bonaldie made up the singing duo of The Gaylords, a popular lounge pop act back in the 50's. Here is their American Hits, sung in Italian. In Yakety Yak, instead of "don't talk back" it's "shut upa you face" (long before the novelty number in the 70's).

MP3:
01 Yakety Yak (1:52)
02 Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (2:20)
03 Witch Doctor (2:16)
04 All Shook Up (1:51)
05 Oh Lonesome Me (2:32)
06 Blueberry Hill (2:19)
07 Charlie Brown (2:31)
08 Personality (2:33)
09 I'm Walking (2:16)
10 Only You (And You Alone) (2:37)
11 Sh-Boom (Life Could Be A Dream) (2:50)
12 Tom Dooley (2:51)

Also, I added a great little rock'n'roll number by The Gaylords from my 45 collection called "Ma Ma Ma Marie".

13 Ma Ma Ma Marie (2:03)

- Contributed by: Evil Pain Clown

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover

Media: LP
Album: Sing American Hits In Italian
Label: Mercury
Catalog: MG 20620

Media: 45 Single
Song: Ma Ma Ma Marie
Label: Mercury
Catalog: 71337x45
Year: 1958

Shopping (MP3s)

Shopping season has officially started now, and here are a few songs for the occasion from around the world. Enjoy them while you max out your credit cards.

MP3s:
Jonathan Richman & Modern Lovers - Rockin' Shopping Center (USA)
Snatch - Shopping For Clothes (UK)
Birth Control - Buy! (Krauts)
Otomo Yoshihide & Jon Rose - Japanese Doom Shoppers (Nihon)

This post is brought to you by the Tuttle Cottage Cheese Company (MP3).

Murray Roman: Reflections of his Contemporaries - Pt 4: Mason Williams

Continuing with the life of the neglected counterculture comedian as explored in the article The Forgrotten Murray Roman, we present a transcript of the interview done with Mason Williams for that piece. Williams was a folk musician during the genre's height in the early nineteen sixties. He became friendly with The Smothers Brothers through those circles and was the first writer brought on board by Tom Smothers when the Comedy Hour hit the air. Williams is best remembered today for his colossal instrumental hit, Classical Gas.

Mason Williams: Well, let's see. I heard about Murray back in 1961. I was playing a club in Denver called The Exodus. People were talking about the new comedians that were coming out of the folk scene. Murray may have been more like a stand-up comedian out on the East Coast that was starting to play these clubs. And that's when I first heard about him, but I didn't really hook up with him until The Smothers Brothers [Comedy Hour]. He was probably hired in the summer of '68, for the summer show. Tommy was impressed with the comedy album that he had made... I can't remember what it was called.
Kliph Nesteroff: You Can't Beat People Up and Have Them Say I Love You.
MW: Right. So, anyway, Tommy's whole thing was to hire ten new writers, and sort of break them into sort of becoming writers on that summer show. Steve Martin was part of that. I talked Tommy into hiring Steve. And Bob Einstein and... I don't know if you have that whole list.

365 Days #329 - Flexi Red, Flexi Blue (mp3s)

Here are two flexi records that I have had since i was a wee lad.

Starting off we have The Muppet Show Fan Club from 1977). A blue flexi that came with being in the official super stupendous fan club! And at that time being in the Muppet Show Fan Club was as cool as being in the KISS Army. Be in one of those and you'd have clout mister in the schoolyard.

Welcome to The Muppet Show Fan Club (3:20)

And then, a record that still to this day I know every single word, it's the official soundtrack for... the Mr. Bill Show. This red flexi was included 1979 book. You can still order the book (click here and select the "misc" section) and I'm pretty sure the audio flexi is available with it (almost 30 years later!). If you like what you hear on this flexi consider buying the book for a mere 7 bucks USD and think back (if you were alive) to the time when Mr Bill's skits were featured on Saturday Night Live! And don't touch that dial quite yet... Mr Bill (aka Walter Williams) has a wonderful blog online!

The official soundtrack for the Mr. Bill Show (Book) (4:08)

Hope you delight in these two fun flexi recordings taking you back to the late 1970s.

- Contributed by: Senor Fiesta

Images: Muppet Show, Mr. Bill Show