No matter who you are, you just have to appreciate old cartoons that either endorse smoking or at least present it in what today would be considered the most irresponsible light possible. The drawings get especially funny in this one around 2:12. Hey bub, you got an irresponsible light? A small handful of other smoking cartoons after the jump.
Here comes your kid.
"Bleeping" as in "I've got a bunch of new bands for you today that use lots of insane bleepy sounds", not "bleeping" as in "fucking". This isn't the fucking radio, why would I censor the headline?
All the same, I oughtta warn ya that the video on the right is a bit NSFW. Both are from Computer Jesus Refrigerator, a San Antonio based duo of grind/noise/gore/bleeping nonsense. I've been enjoying their songs for months now, but recently noticed that the band has posted a whole slew of awesome music videos on their Myspace.
Kania Tieffer was brought to my attention by her new CD in the FMU new bin, alongside a few other releases from the very nutty French label Le Vilain Chien. Hyper, ADDified, amateurish ditties reminiscent of Felix Kubin, OCDJ, and a cat walking across a keyboard.
El G has released approximately 9999,999,999 tapes and CDRs over the years. Often noisy but with definite pop sensibilities. The below MP3 is from the "Armelle" 7", also out on Le Vilain Chien. Really beautiful song, worthy of Radiohead. Check the official website.
Rainbow Arabia sounds pretty exotic and possibly foreign, but it's just some hyper-musically-educated white folk from Cali. Not that there's anything wrong with white folk. Check the live set with Trent. I think they're touring with Gang Gang Dance soon. Apparently they're big or something.
I first stumbled across Alvaro Peña-Rojas (probably better known as ALVARO - The Chilean with the singing nose, and former collaborator of Joe Strummer in The 101ers) on the Nurse With Wound list and finally managed to get ahold of a CD copy of his mind-blowing 1977 solo debut album Drinkin My Own Sperm. Now some German filmmakers (Hans Kotter, Jochen Hägle and Christian Zschammer) made a documentary about Alvaro, who is living in Konstanz, Germany, and still going strong. Here is the trailer for Full Dedication ALVARO, with English subtitles.
There is no DVD available yet, and all the screenings are taking place in Germany, but I am sure it will make its way around the world eventually. For now, here is one of the tracks from Drinkin My Own Sperm as MP3.
MP3: Alvaro - Palido Sol (MP3, featuring Cathy Williams)
Also, don't forget to check out the live set Alvaro did on Brian Turner's show in 2003: [ Playlist | Real Audio link ]
Posted the vid clip above for "Stick Stickley" by the musical group Attack Attack! a few days ago (which is now gone from You Tube and replaced by an alternate version), which led to some sleuthery as to what exactly is going on with this band. Whitey Sterling checks in, pointing to an explanation Glorious Noise discovered on (and now has been wiped from) Wikipedia. Even fleeting tremors in cultural development do not get by here, ladies and gentlemen:
Crabcore is a contemporary offshoot from the emocore/screamo sub-genre of hard rock music. Unlike almost all other genres and sub-genres of music, crabcore is defined not by aural motifs, tones, lyrical content, or specific instrument ensembles; but rather by physical gesticulations and contortions of the arms and legs of individual band members during live performances of their music.
Crabcore moves
Chiefly among the crabcore
musician's repertoire of stylistic gestures is the crabwalk itself,
from which the genre's title is derived. The crabwalk is identified by
the player's extremely low stance, wherein both feet are set apart from
one another as far as possible, while still allowing the player to
maintain at least a 90 degree bend in his knees. While in the crab
stance, the player then purposefully transfers the weight of his upper
body between each leg, achieving a swaying motion intended to have a
hypnotic effect among audience members.
Other moves available to crabcore players include;
The 'Richardson Richardson'.
'Krinking'
The 'Beaver Bounce'
The 'Dirty Hamper'
The 'Pestal Press'
Another, somewhat controversial move has gained a foothold in crabcore circles recently, which sees the player simply standing in one spot and running in place. No one understands this move. No one.
The most instantly recognizable signifier of a band within the crabcore oeuvre is the presence of an Arch Cancerped (literally translated; 'chief crabwalker'). The Arch Cancerped (or ACP) is an individual member of the band whose duty it is to set the speed, intensity, and depth of the crabwalk in a given piece of music. Much like the conductor of a symphony orchestra. Typically the ACP wears a black t-shirt and has a dyed-black sideways haircut.
Crabcore bands
For the moment, only the band Attack Attack! is currently playing crabcore, and is at its origin.
But, whereas this style of music has just appeared, we are discovering
that actually, a lot of famous bands had already used or use some
Crabcore moves. The most known must be Metallica, as you can see it in
some live representations. See the references for an example of
Metallica's Crabcore. This version of Crabcore is known as
"proto-Crabcore".
I have to admit to a certain weakness for circus music and musicians performing in costumes, like good old Mr. Bungle or Les Georges Leningrad. Now the Brits have their contenders, too, here is Chrome Hoof performing Circus 9000.
YouTube: [link]
A few years ago WFMU's Sinners Crossroads host Kevin Nutt sent me the gift of a DVD with footage shot by Steve Grauberger of late electric gospel guitar great Bishop Perry Tillis, performing live in 1995 at the Savior Lord Jesus Pentacostal Lord Jesus Church down in Samson, Alabama. Assuming Kevin sent it knowing my penchant for raucous noise, I found it safe to say viewing this thing possibly holds its own up against your basic Throbbing Gristle/Whitehouse/SPK clips out there in terms of documenting some heavy and somewhat disorienting electric testifying. Where to even begin: the distortion, the broken snare, Tillis' steadfast choogle blending in to the vocal sheets of noise. Maybe it's just a case of the audio gain being high on the camera itself, but I'd like to think that in the room itself, this was one hell of a holy racket. See for yourself below as I've edited together and uploaded a few chunks to share. Supposedly a Tillis documentary by Tyler Bell is in the works, and we should also mention that Mississippi Records has recently put out an LP collection called In Times Like These culled from 72 hours of very raw cassette tapes, which also, as they say, is not for the faint of heart.
A performance by Christian Marclay, from the October 29, 1989
episode of the short-lived music television show Night Music. Other
guests that night included Todd Rundgren, Taj Mahal, Pat Metheny, and
Nanci Griffith. The NBC show series was hosted by David Sanborn, and in its run I recalled seeing Sun Ra, Nick Cave, Pere Ubu, Diamanda Galas among others appear, but quite often the highlight was the assortment of collaborations that were created for the sheer kick of seeing musicians together on TV you wouldn't normally see on a stage let alone on a network show. Sonic Youth doing the Stooges "I Wanna Be Your Dog" backed by the Indigo Girls, Sanborn and Hiram Bullock, and there was also once an appearance by Conway Twitty performing with the Residents behind him. Of course any show like this was too good to last, I don't know the certainty of the rumor that a scheduling of the Butthole Surfers finally made the beer sponsor draw the line. But would be nice to see this on DVD. (Thanks Kristin Anderson)
Manfred Mann vocalist Paul Jones covers the hymn Onward, Christian Soldiers. This clip is taken from the 1967 film Privilege by Peter Watkins, a pseudo-documentary set in near-future (i.e., the 70s) Britain, about a pop star whose career is controlled and manipulated by Church and State.
About that third M*A*S*H spinoff CBS decided not to pick up because the Pacific and Mountain time zones were broadcasting the '84 Democratic National Convention and Radar wasn't a stooge anymore? Endure:
(Apologies for the distractions in the form of the Cyprus Corners DVD logo and explanation leading off part one, which starts at :27 in).
I had this idea the other day to make a million dollars. Have a website that has pictures of boobs, and put a poll under each picture that says "real or fake?" People get satisfaction from their keen discernment while I place a few ads on the page and get rich.
Somehow my moral compass (which I forget exists except for moments like this) tells me I can't really go through with that though. So then why is it that I don't mind sharing these videos with you even though they espouse misogyny and violence? Don't know. Just don't feel bad about it. Maybe because these songs are addictive as all hell?
On the left is Sleepy D and D-Lo's "No Hoe", a regional hit in the Bay Area that takes its cue from hyphee heroes like E-40. Just can't get over the vocal delivery, so ridiculous. On the right is Tempa T's video for "Next Hype". Music starts about two minutes in. Does this mean flat tops are considered tough again? I have watched each of these videos at least 25 times. And often I pump my fists while watching. Let me know in the comments section if you're bit too.
Great video for a great song by Russian art-rock band Auktyon.
This video is from 1991, but Auktyon is still around and going to play a bunch of shows in the US in June, July, and August. Check out their website for details.
Wow, you know, every once in a while, things really just turn out pretty awesome, like this performance from A Camp that will air tonight on Sound and Safe. Four perfectly-rendered pop songs - including a cover of Eddie Noack's weird and wonderful "Psycho" - done by my favorite singer in the world, Nina Persson, with husband Nathan Larson (of Shudder to Think) on bass, and Niclas Frisk (of Atomic Swing) on guitar.
We got some really nice HD video of the songs - check out a preview here, for the song "Love Has Left the Room."
Thanks very much to Tim Smith and Jacqueline Castel for shooting the video.
Tune in tonight to hear all four songs and to see all four videos. Also keep an eye on the Free Music Archive for MP3s of the set.
A Camp kicks off a North American tour at Bowery Ballroom tomorrow night. Their new album Colonia is out now.
These have been making the ol' internet rounds for a few days now. Funny or disturbing or dumb? I *think* I like them. Here's an Alf - Blue Velvet hybrid.
