WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Mommie Dearest Fashion Spread

Avant-fashion blog Foto Decadent has high quality scans of a very creepy Mommy Dearest inspired fashion spread that was featured in an issue of Numéro magazine.

I just had to...

Someone's done the math, wikipedia listing...
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Cat-Toast_Device

The libertarian case for Obama

Tom Smith has me reconsidering my vote:

"With some gratitude I realize that all the talk of Hope and Change can be distilled into a two-fold message that is both direct and pure:  If Obama is elected President, the government will give me money.  And second, that would be fair. ...

"Indeed, the prospect of getting more money does inspire in me a feeling I recognize as hope, and it would certainly be a welcome change.  Like many Americans, I get paid every month, and every month I pay bills.  I am struck by the frequency and intensity of the feeling that I could use more money.  This would be a change I could believe in. ...

"Some longtime readers may object that this endorsement represents a rejection of every principle I have ever stood for.  This may be true. However, I would ask them to consider that standing up for principles against an enthusiastic mob is a good way to make yourself very unpopular. ...

"I do admit I am a little worried about Ahmedwhatshisname getting nukes and Putin rolling into Europe, with only Obama's charisma to stop them.  I had never really thought of let's all play nicely together as a foreign policy since it doesn't even work with kids.  But hey, is that really my problem? He has like a zillion brilliant foreign policy advisers and I'm sure they'll figure something clever out.  I can no longer afford a trip to Israel anyway and I assume pictures of it will be archived on the internet."

Bizarre Mexican Rock Album Cover #832 (MP3s)

A few years back, the fine blog of Mexican musical oddities, Mexicovers, posted this bizarrely covered long-player from 1971. Though the imagery suggests Luz y Fuerza to be a peyote besotted band of Guadalajarans, the group's music actually sounds more akin to the North-of-the-Border jazz-rock stylings of outfits like Ides of March and Blood, Sweat & Tears. A few other blogs have posted "We Can Fly" but the links all seem to be dead, so here you go. Enjoy:

We Can Fly (MP3)
Someday (MP3)
Everybody Needs a Brother (MP3)
You (MP3)
When I Ever Get Home (MP3)
Let Me Tell You (MP3)
Kiss Me Once (Like You Did Before) (MP3)
Rainbows and Apple Trees (MP3)
Just How I Feel (MP3)
Midnight (MP3)

Black Lips Vs. Bloggers

Vinyl Finds: Gumpert-Malfatti-Oxley – Ach Was!? (FMP 1981)

The proliferation of good music blogs continues to stagger the mind.  Vinyl hoarders the world over are ripping and posting their collections and it's simply impossible to keep up, unless you're spending 100% of your time at the computer—even then you're bound to miss out on a lot.

Records that previously lurked only in the dark corners of my memory, my personal collection and/or the WFMU library are turning up on music blogs all over the Web.  For example, when impLOG's Holland Tunnel Dive e.p. showed up about a year ago on Mutant Sounds, I had what has now become a familiar "haven't thought about that one in years" reaction.

It's also become harder, from a blogger's viewpoint, to excavate recordings that haven't already been celebrated and offered for download elsewhere online, though I believe I may have one here.

This rarely seen FMP release turned up in the used vinyl new arrivals at Amoeba Music's San Francisco store when I was working there in 1999.  For the sheer gloat potential, I probably should have left the price tag on, which I think was $1.99.  With my employee discount, this record cost me, well—less than that—an obscene bargain to be sure.

While this LP finds drummer/electronic musician Tony Oxley at the more experimental end of his tether (i.e., not playing in a straight or out jazz combo), both sides have a warmth and delicacy that may make this record appealing to those typically wary of free-improvised music (though things do get a little wilder during the latter half of side 2.)  Personally, I have a real affection for the primordial plink-plonk of sessions like this one.

Pianist Ulrich Gumpert is a well-known figure in European jazz and a respected interpreter of Erik Satie's music, with a career that also includes compositions for film and TV.  Austrian Trombonist Radu Malfatti is another giant of European jazz, having collaborated with a veritable who's who of improvisers, but since 1981 has focused more and more on composition (perhaps this record blew his wad!)  All three players on Ach Was!? have lengthy discographies, including other recordings for FMP.

Tony Oxley continues to dazzle the world with his brilliant, intuitive playing, adding to his impressive catalog most recently with The Advocate on Tzadik.  Oxley's first releases as a bandleader, The Baptised Traveller and Four Compositions for Sextet (from '69 and '70 respectively) are personal favorites.  As an added bonus, here's a link to a download of Oxley's ultra-rare Ichnos from 1971.

Ach Was!?:
A1 - Luft Gebacken
A2 - Ach Was!?
B - Kookin' at Charly's

Fumetti Terror Blu on Groovy Age of Horror

(NSFW) The Groovy Age of Horror is a blog devoted to bizarre horror paperbacks, comics and movies. For the past year the curators have been posting scans of Italian Fumetti (comics), starting with the wild and weird series Terror Blu. The stories are a sick and hilarious mix of gynecological and genital terror told within ludicrous sci-fi storylines The stuff is not for the faint of heart but I'm sure your ghoulish curiosity will get the better of you as you scratch your head wondering how anyone concocted such a carnival of carnage.

What's On My Portable mp3 Player, Part 4

Here's me phoning one in a bit, as I had the flu for a week and didn't feel much like writing about anything.  I no longer own a Zen Micro (which started malfunctioning within a week of the warranty expiration) but I won't say which player I do use now, as the last time I did the comments section turned into an iPod defense/bashing session (and people asking me questions like "what do you use as a jukebox program?"), which I guess I started.  To put it simply, if I still did a weekly show on WFMU, this is some of what I'd be playing:

Bayan Mongol Variety Group
Originally posted on the Waxidermy blog in August 2006, then re-posted on Prog Not Frog, where I found it.  So good that it warrants re-re-posting here.  Released in 1981.

Bayan Mongol Variety Group

Bleak - Austere I & II
Epic, atmospheric Black Ambient from California 2004.  Neo-classical nightmare music.  Forget the genre labels and just listen to it.

Of Darkness...

Born Heller
Folk duo featuring the haunting voice of Josephine Foster, CD from 2004.  Where Shirley Collins and the American plains meet; gloriously languid and more than a little bent.

Good Times  |  I Am a Guest in Here

Franz de Byl - Und
NWW list obscurity (Germany 1972) that was recently made available again on vinyl.  Most of the tracks are surprisingly standard post-psychedelic folksinging.  This song, however, is great.

Birthday (The World's Gates)

Kuusumun Profeetta
Mellifluous, hypnotic, jazzy space-rock from Finland.  Vocalist Mika Rättö, a formidable talent in the contemporary Finnish underground, is also a member of Circle and Rättö ja Lehtisalo.  CDs available on Ektro Records.  K.P. @ MySpace and Last.fm

Kysymysten Sali

Leaden
Italian Depressive Black Metal.  This track is from their first, self-titled full-length from 2004.  Oddly engaging and crammed with lo-fi weirdness.

My Life In Darkness

Marianne Faithfull - Rich Kid Blues
Recorded in 1971, while Marianne was living on a wall in Soho, a homeless junkie and anorexic.  Not released until the mid-80s, several years after the success of Broken English.  A lost masterpiece, with some chillingly frail renditions.    Beware of Darkness  |  Rich Kid Blues

How To Play The Blues

Today's post is for all you amateur musicians out there, reprinted from the Unofficial Terry Hanck Blog. Check out the other entries on that great blog, too. By the way, although Terry Hanck looks almost human, I am convinced that he is either a robot or a space alien. I'll let you be the judge.

How To Play The Blues

Ampere-hour, the blue. One of the far away most well-known forms of music the blue as mouth tradition can be pursued back to the middle 1800s and finds his roots of Europe and of Africa. However the blue, since we know, is it today only an American kind of music. It began first, into the early 1900s, with chaps such as WC handy letters Lieden like “Memphis blue” u. “pc. of Louis blue to be popularized.” In the twenties and in the thirties guitarists used slides of broken bottle beginnings, around the dia. clay/tone (to cause the something, which, each possible guitarist should learn with the desire, the Blueselectrified Guitarre is to play the blue is main those Guitarre and piano, which are focused, but it can be also played on other instruments. In order to play the blue, there are some points and cheat those you received can began fast.

Funeral for a Friend

Last summer more than a hundred people attended the funeral of a young man from Dokkum in the Dutch province of Friesland and now you can too. His parents have posted a highlight video online. That this most private of moments from a far-off stranger's life could be put on display in such a manner may seem perverse, but for hundreds, maybe thousands of people around the world, watching this footage is a sweet and tearful conclusion to an odd sort of friendship made possible by the Internet and a shared love of music.

Dirk Sietse Gjaltema died last August 1 before reaching his 20th birthday. On a Thursday in late March 2006, he started a blog called Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll on which he posted downloads of his favorite albums paired with charming and impassioned descriptions of them. Though the majority of his posts presented Japanese music—in June '06, he added a download of Anthology of Japanese New Folk, a terrific marathon premium from WFMU's Janitor From Mars—his adventuresome taste led readers through the acid folk, garage rock and psychedelia of Turkey, Korea, Brazil, his native Holland and many other wide-ranging outposts of progressive sounds. In early September, Dirk promised to put up a download of the rarity Zeer Oude Klanken En Heel Nieuwe Geluiden by the Dutch three-string guitar masher Eddy van der Meer, but the following post instead contained this stunner:

dear music friends i wont be posting new music for at least two weeks because i am in the hospital , i need a operation for my legg , becauce it is very bad with my legg a car hit me, and hurt my legg very badly, it would be very nice iff you send me a postcard.

Back home a few days later, Dirk dutifully posted the album while also happening to mention that an MRI on his damaged leg revealed a tumor and he was due back in hospital for tests since "they don't know yet if its a good one or a bad one." Well, the tumor turned out to be Ewing's sarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer.

MP3 Truffles: Essentials Vol 2

Welcome to part two of my list of favorite sites that share MP3 files. The key here isn't just that they increase my digital music whatchamawhosit, but that they also drop the musical knowledge in a way that is fun to read, with sites that are easy to use and completely worth expoloring. This isn't every music blog I visit, or even every one of my favorites, but they are always at the top of my list, and perhaps have the greatest percentage of tracks that I not only download - but keep.

Check out last week's post for my first six selections. And now join me as we delve into more, making this list an even dozen.

But wait... In order to also to expand my own knowledge of good music sites out there, I thought it would be fun to have these great bloggers share their favorites as well. And so, there also follows links to more great sites where you can spend some ear and eye time, all as recommended by great music bloggers themselves. Read on - and download away!

ESSENTIAL PLACES TO DIG FOR MP3 TRUFFLES, Part Two

7. Garage Hangover
8. Last Days of Man on Earth
9. Music For Maniacs
10. Record Robot
11. Said the Gramophone
12. Spread the Good Word

Follow the jump for descriptions and links. 

DJ Nightmare by Proxy

About a year ago, Evan Funk Davies posted a shocking expose of the WFMU DJs' terrifying shared nightmare. Since then, the nightmare's continued. One of my worst involved DJ Dave the Spazz trying to "help" me by giving me a Grateful Dead LP to play. But something strange has happened: The nightmare is growing, expanding, turning into something else--MUTATING. First, we heard about Listeners who are beginning to have the DJ Nightmare themselves. Here's Listener-Volunteer Rudy describing his DJ nightmare on my show--EVEN THOUGH HE'S NOT A DJ. Then this week I suddenly had a DJ nightmare by proxy. In MY dream, it was DJ Mr. Finewine of the Downtown Soulville show who was the one who was late getting to the station, didn't have any records, couldn't run the equipment, etc. Quelle terroir! I'm not saying this is Evan Davies fault, but he IS the one who first went public with this dreadful curse.

MP3 Truffles: Essentials Vol 1

I've been trolling the music blogs and doing a little post called MP3 Truffles - so named, because I feel often like a pig digging through huge mounds of earth - for a little over a year now. And I have to admit that I have slacked off a bit in the past few months. Part of it is because I haven't quite had the time to dedicate to the ever expanding amount of sites that share MP3s. But also, I must admit, was that I felt like my selections were getting a little stale.

So for the new year, I have decided to regroup. I'll only be posting the MP3 finds once a month or so, but I will try each time to focus on a new or innovative site, rather than keep re-listing the ones I love.

But I have not forgotten these favorite bloggers! And to show my love this Valentine's Day, I thought it would be nice to pass on my 12 personal favorite music blogs for you to add to your bookmarks or RSS feeds or what-have-you. Keep these close, treasure them, and visit them often, for these are the sites that are consistently worth visiting.

In order to also to expand my own knowledge of good music sites out there, I thought it would be fun to have these great bloggers share their favorites as well. And so, there also follows links to more great sites where you can spend some ear and eye time, all as recommended by great music bloggers themselves. Read on - and download away!

ESSENTIAL PLACES TO DIG FOR MP3 TRUFFLES, Part One
These are the first six - tune in later this week for the conclusion.

1. Big Rock Candy Mountain/Barstool Mountain
2. Bostworld
3. Copy, Right?
4. Crud Crud
5. Egg City Radio
6. Funky 16 Corners/Iron Leg

Follow the jump for descriptions and links. 

MP3 Truffles: Uuulllmmmm

From Bostworld: "According to the liner notes of this self-released album from 1975, Milwaukee keyboard prodigy and supper club circuit regular Archie Ulm 'devastated the traditional concept of organ playing by inciting his audiences to stunning highs of musical awareness.'" And by that they mean misplayed versions of television theme songs, of course.
Archie Ulm: The Rockford Files   NBC Mystery Movie Theme

You know what's wrong with all the new "retro" music, especially that kickballer stuff? It's that the irony ruins it. You need to be completely sincere in your paranoia about technology, your bad Casio beats, and your chants of "evacuate your seat", and your Mr.  T. impressions. Kind of like how Ohio Players member Junie Morrison rocked it in 1985. (via Robots In Heat)
Junie Morrison: Techno-Freqs

Finally, my Freaks and Geeks soundtrack is complete, thanks to this definitive version of the Doobie Brothers' hit. (via Copy, Right?)
Rev. Milton Brunson & The Thompson Community Choir: Jesus Is Just Alright With Me

Crud Crud turned me to both a mysterious little folk song about the devil, and a pop song about suicide. Both of which remind me that Christmas is coming.
Felix Saucedo: El Diablico
Buddy Knox: I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself

The Ames Brothers team up with Esquivel, and seem very confused by all the South of the Border culture. Still, it makes for an interesting pair-up. (via Xtabay)
The Ames Brothers with Esquivel: Quizas, Quizas, Quizas    Tu Solo Tu    Perfidia

Speaking of just below the border, every day there's a great new find at Garage Hangover, but for now I just can't stop listening to Los Matematicos.   
Los Matematicos: La Nina Bu    La Pelea

I was just not expecting a cover of early Bob Seger to rock this solidly. Well, that's what I get for underestimating the silver bullet, or at least the 60s bands who liked his early stuff. (via Iron Leg)
The Caretakers: East Side Story

While we are on the subject of cover versions that just shouldn't work: I've been a fan of "Rasputin" masters Boney M for a while now, but this is the first I've heard of their surprisingly loyal Neil Young cover. (via Domino Rally)
Boney M: Heart Of Gold

Can't stop hopping around the room like the dork that I am to this one, which John Peel called "the best Star Trek song ever". Not to argue with Peel, but Thee Shatners comes in pretty close. (via Armagideon Time )
Spizzenergi: Where's Captain Kirk
Thee Shatners: Stronger Than Kirk

Well, the daring stuntman has passed on, and while I thought the Viva Knievel theme was a good tribute, it ain't got nothing on this number. "He's not a bird, he's not a plane. Is he a fool who's gone insane?" (via Music For Maniacs)
Eddie Carr: Evil Evil Evel Knievel

On a more musically serious front, goodbye to Karlheinz Stockhausen. Read all about him, and find songs and sound samples, at stockhausen.org.

And finally, some blogger Christmas gifts for you:
A virtual box set of "cheap French exploitation beats".
A mix tape tribute to Mad Daddy.
Four out-of-print Bruce Haack albums.

MP3 Truffles: Gertie Goes Bonkers

One of my all time favorite Read-Along books as a kid was the story of E.T. No, not the creepy version read by Michael Jackson, but the cute one read by young Drew Barrymore. As a kid I just thought she was cute and cool, as an adult I realized that the part where she gets shoved in the closet...well, it sounds like a stint in rehab, doesn't it?
Drew Barrymore sees goblins in rehab

Get this album and many more at Read-Along Adventures (which also features groovy interactive flash files) or at The Secret Cavern of Read-Along Treasures. Both of these were found via Blogio Oddio, who also points you to even more resources for kiddie records on the net.

Speaking of kiddie nostalgia, if you haven't already checked out the new Sesame Street Old School DVDs, they are a great trip down childhood lane, and feature the classic episodes that are about 500 times cooler than this sucky Elmo-world we live in today. Where else could you hear this:
Lou Rawls: ABCs

Good Music for Bad Times shares the first Rodney on the ROQ compilation, which not only features the best version of "Bloodstains" (with Brooke Shields intro, of course), but introduced that blogger to the glory of 80s NYC no-wave princess Cristina (doing an awesome Peggy Lee cover, though considerably changing the Leiber & Stoller lyrics).
Agent Orange: Bloodstains    
Cristina: Is That All There Is?

Feel the heat of Attila, Billy Joel's 1970 prog rock band. Yeah, they're bad...but also kind of smokin' in the badness. Hey, if Joel disavows it today, that must mean it has something good going on. (via Record Robot)
Holy Moses   
Wonder Woman
And by recommendation, here is also their aptly titled instrumental Brain Invasion

Zongamin has now officially done my favorite Brian Eno cover. (via Copy, Right?)
Third Uncle

The flexidisc display at the WFMU Record Fair is always most impressive, so in honor of the hour or so I spent staring at them, here is a flexidisc ad from France. (via A La Piscine)
Le Parfum J'Adore

And finally, promo for that new Dylan film is freaking everywhere, but if one of those actors playing him in the biopic should have totally been Mr. French. At least, I think that is clearly evidenced by Sebastion Cabot, Actor, Bob Dylan, Poet.
Like a Rolling Stone    
It Ain't Me Babe   
All I Really Want To Do

Other MP3 fun for you to explore after the jump!

MP3 Truffles: World News Tonight

That title may make it sound like I'm going to go off on current events again, but if the best the world can throw at me this week is "Unfitney", then screw that. Instead, we'll start off this week's MP3 finds from the wonderful music blog world with some nostalgia for when we almost had real televised journalism:

Egg City Radio somehow managed to dig up 33 tracks of vintage 1978 bed music from ABC's "World News Tonight". While the tympanies and horns are probably still embedded in your head, check out some of the funky electronic variations. MP3: World News Tonight Theme; Theme with Underscore

PCL Linkdump offers a look at the Treniers, and the unlikelyhood that their single Poon-Tang ever hit the air. If you need further proof of their awesomeness, check out this video of the group in action. MP3: The Treniers, "Poon-Tang".

Start your day with songs about midnight, especially with this sultry MP3: Pete "Guitar" Lewis, "Ooh Midnight"

There used to be this great California girl band called The Bangs that captured the 60s pop sound really well. Then they became The Bangles. MP3: The Bangs, "Call On Me". Meanwhile, a group of post-punk housewives were wreaking mayhem with their downtown sound. Downtown Jersey Sound, that is. MP3: Suburban Wives Club, "Casual Cat at a Laundromat". Oh, you know what could make your no-wave song even better? How about a touch of mini-moog. MP3: Elektraflesh, "Broken Trust"

Once, the Bay Area Black Panthers demanded that Bobby Seale be set free - with music. MP3: The Lumpen, "Set Bobby Free". It was also a good time to let loose your natural hairstyle - with music. Sensual, completely funky music. MP3: Towanda & The Total Destruction, "Wear Your Natural Baby"

Summers Heat not only have a rather unfortunate name, but they also celebrate statutory rape - with music! MP3: Bill Summers & Summers Heat, "Seventeen".

Chakachas' "Jungle Fever" may be their only hit, but the whole darn album is worth a listen. Fun fact: these Latin masters are actually Belgian! MP3: Chakachas, "Latin Can Can". That is less insulting than the faux-hippie pop of of Boystown. Yeah, the lyrics are about as deep as their name, but that's sort of the charm. MP3: Boystown, "Hello Mr. Sun"

Every once in a while it happens. You think you've heard it all, and then out of the blue some random Tom Jones song just comes up and floors you. MP3: Tom Jones, "Keep On Runnin'"

Video Truffles: Baaastard!

I think this clip will start us off in the right frame of mind for this week's random video finds.

On a lighter note, how about an iconic phrase: "Hey, good looking, we'll be back to pick you up later."

But wait, there's more. How about a bevy of classic Ronco clips. I don't know about you, but I always wanted a Record Vacuum so I could destroy my record collection.

Finally, a band gayer than the Village People: Holland's Bearforce 1. Bald chubbies unite!

(found via Motwon blog Fullundie - really)

In the news this month: A Russian woman has adopted 130 cats - and they swarm like salmon heading upstream. Amazing.

Get the full story here.

More video finds after the jump!

MP3 Truffles: Hunchback Discotheque

First off, goodbye to Hilly Kristal. I know I tend to lead off my posts with death, and I know people venerate CBGB's too much, but it was the home of my first scuzzy New York rock and roll experience (Lubricated Goat, sometime in '92, I think) and it will therefore always hold a special spot for me. Here's hoping his ghost haunts CBGB's for a good long time, keeping that Space Available sign in action and dissuading any further bogus redevelopment. Mr Dante Fontana offers a fitting video tribute: The Dead Boys. (photo via Forklift's Flickr page)

And now for a whole slew of mp3s for you. I'm going to keep it short and quick this week, and let the music do most of the talking.

• From Brazil (via Argentina) comes a full LP with Caetano Veloso's rocking backing band, Beat Boys.    MP3: "Wake Me, Shake Me"   MP3: "Meu Tamborim (Green Tambourine)"
• Always magic words in my book: midwest lounge funk. Here is the Don Neal Collection, recorded live at Uncle Dirty's Sound Machine in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Note: they will still play your parties.  MP3: "After the Lovin'"
• Garage Hangover has the scoop on thirteen-year-old 60s garage rockers Billy and the Kids.   MP3: "When I See You"
• Alan Vega, Ric Ocasek and Al Jourgensen - together in '82. Bad idea? Maybe... MP3:"Saturn Drive"
• Pinball & trucking finally get an anthem.  MP3: Merle Kilgore's "Pinball Machine"
• MP3: "Ya Mama!" Simple as that.  
• Disney is kicking themselves for not coming up with it first. MP3: The disco version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• Some classic French psych with Les Fleurs de Pavot.  MP3: "Hippies Nous Voila" MP3: "A Degager" MP3: "Pourquoi L'Amour a Deux"
• More "Din Daa Daa"! This time crossed with "Axel F", crossed with the theme from Moon Patrol, crossed with a toy piano. Makes a strange kind of sense... MP3: "Din Daa Da'Axel"
• R.I.P. great master of the Hammond, Mr. Louis Chachere, whose anthem was MP3: "The Hen, Part One".
• The always reliable Record Robot posts what happens to be one of my favorite vinyl finds - Henson. How can you go wrong with such a heavenly slice of 70s soft rock as MP3: "Do Me Wrong, But Do Me"? I for one love his cover of MP3: "God Only Knows", but the question remains...how did this ultra-mellow non-Muppety Henson come out of the kick-ass Muscle Shoals Sound? The sad answer lies here.
• A bellydance song with "one thunderfuck of a funky beat"! MP3: Jean Kassapian's "The Snake".
• Anthony Newley's big career stumble: "Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?". MP3: Anthony Newley, "The Princess and the Donkey" MP3: Joan Collins, "Chalk & Cheese"
• You would think that after a million Joe Meek compilations that there would be nothing left to discover. But Fluxblog shares this gem found on the most recent compilation, Joe Meek Freak Beat. MP3: Birds of Prey, "Love Gone Again"
• While not on the best compilation, I defy you not to sing this on your next high school-style date. MP3: McDonalds, "Miniature Golf". Also from the same blog is a hardcore picture sleeve not to be missed, for ISM's Partridge Family cover.   

 

Follow the jump for links to even more net-wide mp3s out there this week!

Video Truffles: Din Daa Daa

While working on the MP3 posts lately, I've been gathering scads of music videos, movie clips, old commercials, and other random visual excitement. So, in addition to the MP3 Truffles posts I've been doing, I'm adding an all new chapter: Video Truffles. Note: all links in these posts will be to relevant video share sights or embedded video blog pages.

There are a ton of video links after the jump. But first, let's head back a week or so ago to when I stopped into a hipster dive bar in Denver to discover that every TV screen was playing the much maligned Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. Now, I'm not going to defend this film or anything (and let's not even mention the overused punchline of the subtitle). It's a piece of crap that sometimes decends into utter lunacy, which does make it fun to watch in a bar full of half-drunk patrons. But what really excited me was the song buried in the midst of this crappy film: George Kranz's "Din Daa Daa" (or, as it was originally called, "Trommeltanz"). Check out the non-movie-tie-in music video for the song. It's a mind blower. 

The song was a huge hit both in the clubs and with the B-Boys, rocketing up the dance music charts in 1984, coming out again in the 90s, and of course being sampled to death (most recently by the Ying Yang Twins). A pretty impressive feat for a German studio producer/drum player who is, let's face it, really dorky. I mean, the premise behind the entire song is that he is singing the drum beats. That is simultaneously the coolest and lamest idea for a dance song one could have. And that is why it works, no?

Fans of the song continue to use it for a variety of uses. My favorites:
Replacing the soundtrack to "Thriller"
As background music for animated gifs
Freestyling
Your mom dancing like an idiot

And here's another George Kranz composition, the title song to the film Magic Sticks. How come I have never before heard of this 1987 craptacular? There's not even much on IMDB. Anyone got the story or at least a fever dream memory of this film?

Again, many more video finds after yon jump.

MP3 Truffles: Death death and more death

See what happens? Take a few weeks off and people are dying all over the place: improv trombone player Paul Rutherford, Factory Records legend Tony Wilson, umbrella-loving New Orleans musician Oliver Morgan,  and of course those legendary talk show hosts Merv Griffin (a populist, true, but without him we would have no Mrs. Miller), and Tom Snyder (who took late night musical guests to a whole new level).

Then there is Tammy Faye, who succummed to cancer after battling it for several years (though even that didn't prepare me for how she looked on Larry King). Her tarnished PTL reputation was saved in her later years as she did a lot to champion gay rights (getting close to JM J Bullock can change a person), and became a mother-figure to Vanilla Ice. I met her one time when she came to my theatre for a screening of The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and she was very sweet. A bit crazy, sure, but her passing still made me a wee sad, as it does whenever we lose any eccentrics. Say goodbye to Tammy by watching this somewhat creepy and yet moving video tribute, then re-live those moments that really brought her into the pulic eye...
MP3: Tammy Faye Bakker, "The Ballad of Jim and Tammy"

But of course, the death that really touched our musical guitar strings was the loss of Lee Hazlewood. We've payed tribute to him here already, but let's celebrate his life one more time with, well, the story of his life, via this promotional 7" that's been popping up on the internet lately. The venerable Phil Milstein lead me to this, and his music site is a treasure trove of rarities.
MP3: The Lee Hazlewood Autobiography

Speaking of the departed, let us mourn the slow destruction of our classic amusement parks. Music For Maniacs recently pointed us to a selection of audio clips that were rescued from 8-track tapes used for the attractions at the now defunct Mountain Park in Holyoke, Massachusetts. It's been closed for years now, but only recently were the old buildings destroyed. Now nothing remains, but I had the chance to stroll through the ruins on a wintry day in the late 90s, and it was nice to imagine the park's heyday. As Six Flags takes over the world, it's nice to hear a bit of what fun used to be.
MP3: Out Of This World funhouse ride soundtrack    MP3: Zoltan the Fortune Teller

More MP3s and links (and less death, I promise) after the jump.