WFMU's Beware of the Blog

A Song-Poem Easter, From Halmark Records (MP3's)

The varied and numerous song-poem companies which have existed for decades have always attracted writers of religious lyrics in large numbers, but no label seemed to draw them in as high percentage as did the Halmark label, one of the most peculiar purveyors of the song-poem scam.

You can read all about the Halmark story here, but the short version is that they stood alone, among the many providers of this service, for their cheapness, taking existing backing tracks from wherever they could find them, and recycling the same fifteen or twenty-some tracks - nearly all of them sounding like leftovers from 20 or more years earlier - over and over again, using, primarily, a core group of four vocalists to sing the customers' lyrics over this limited set of canned backings. Keep in mind that these records were mostly released in the 1970's, and not, as their sound would indicate, the 1940's or early 1950's. That the folks at Halmark had the nerve to adopt the slogan "Sound of Excellence" just ads to the ridiculousness of their endeavor.  

For the most part, Halmark did not label the vocalists on their 45's, choosing instead to list the name, and often the address, of the lyricists. Those that do list the vocalist have assisted those of us who collect song-poems in identifying the mainstays of the label, but even this can be confusing; on the relatively few records where the vocalist is listed, I've found at least three where the wrong person is credited. 

Today, for Easter, six tracks from various Halmark 45's, all with Christianity as the subject matter, a few specifically related to the observances and celebrations of this week, and others with a more general Christian focus. Unfortunately, the most astonishing, ridiculous and unctuous vocalist from the Halmark stable, Bob Storm, doesn't seem to have appeared on very many of their religious releases, and he is not represented here, but you can hear plenty of his work, and other Halmark sides, on my own song-poem site, as well as on Darryl Bullock's masterful "World's Worst Records" blog.   

I'll start with a song that was heard on the very first song-poem I ever owned, one I picked up in 1975 or so, at the age of 15 - it was 20 years before I knew what a song-poem was, or that this record was a song-poem, but even at 15, I knew that there was something bizarre, otherworldly and somehow just wrong about this record. I particularly enjoy the end of this record, as the lyrics appear to run out of words long before the pre-recorded track runs out of music, and the singer ends up singing "He brings me Joy" over and over and over again. As mentioned above, there is no artist named, but I believe the vocalist here is Halmark mainstay Jack Kim (real name, Jack Kimmel), singing "The Man Called Jesus". 

No Artist Named - The Man Called Jesus (MP3)  |  Record Label (JPG)

Focusing more on the Easter theme than the previous track, here's Jack Kim, again, joined by wife Mary, in the song of a man who thanks Jesus for his life, especially after having been "in a coma, twice!". It's called "He is the Resurrection and the Life": 

No Artist Named - He is the Resurrection and Life (MP3)  |  Record Label (JPG)

Over on the flip side of the same EP, we hear one of my favorite of Halmark's ridiculous backing tracks, this time fitted with the lyrics of the most excellently named Larn Headley, with "From the Manger to the Cross", a song which introduced me to The Legend of the Dogwood Tree, which I'd never heard of before. Mary and Jack sing us this one, yet again: 

No Artist Named - From the Manger to the Cross (MP3)  | Record Label (JPG)

"Jesus Was Standing Right There" is the odd man out in this batch - it comes from what appears to be a later (or different) period of releases from Halmark, it contains a traditional country styled backing that I've never personally heard on another Halmark release, and a vocalist who I do not recognize - I don't believe it's the ubiquitous Mary Kimmel, although I could be wrong. Note that this record likely belonged to either lyricist C. M. Covey of Wallace, ID, as my copy of the record has a whited-out correction to that writer's name, right on the label. 

No Artist Named - Jesus Was Standing Right There (MP3)  |  Record Label (JPG)

The opening bombast of "A Walk on a Lonely Road" seems to promise great things ahead, or at least weird things, but instead, the track bogs down into nearly four minutes of trite lyrics and over-the-top vocalizing from Mary Kimmel. 

No Artist Named - A Walk On a Lonely Road (MP3)  |  Record Label (JPG)

And finally, back to Jack Kim, for the song "My Savior". It's hard to miss that this track features the same singer and the same backing track as the song we started with, "The Man Called Jesus", and this last track offers a nice window into how the same singer and track were used with two different sets of lyrics. By the way, the tape glitch about halfway through this track is right on the record - "sound of excellence", indeed. 

No Artist Named - My Savior (MP3)  |  Record Label (JPG)

Clyde Crashcup Invents Hi-Fi

"When all's said and done Leonardo, there is such a thing as too much realism in hi-fi!"

Although spoken in 1964,  the modern quest for high definition imagery leads down some thorny paths as well. Today we find our protagonist 'Clyde Crashcup', a Ross Bagdasarian creation, in the fifth book of his short five-issue run, seeking to improve his hi-fi set with mixed results.

From the John Stanley / Irving Tripp creative team that wrote and drew so many terrific 'Little Lulu' stories for Dell Comics comes this quirky series about a 'real gone' scientist and would-be inventor, adapted from his segments on the televised cartoon program The Alvin Show between October 1961 and September 1962 as voiced by Shepard Menken (in his impression of actor Richard Haydn).

Discover who really put the 'woof' in your woofers right after the jump!

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 204

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Keeping the Motherlode stocked with links to great free sounds requires keeping tabs on many hundreds of music-sharing blogs on a daily basis. To do this while maintaining some semblance of sanity/personal hygiene, I have relied mightily on Google Reader, an RSS-feed aggregator that pulls new posts from blogs of one's choosing to into a single location.

But...gack! Google has just announced that it is discontinuing Reader on July 1. This is an outrage. It's a nightmare. It's an outmare! Since there are many dozens of records I want to download that pop up daily in my Reader, I've used it to "save" old posts until I can get to them. I currently have more than 10,000 items going back well over a year. (Another nifty and essential feature of Reader is that it saves old blog posts in perpetuity—even after the original blog itself has been deleted!)

If you're like me and have leaned on Google Reader for organizing and preserving posts from key music blogs, don't despair. Numerous outfits with their own RSS aggregators are seizing on the coming Google Reader vacuum. So far, the best I've found is Feedly, which can be tailored to fairly reasonably re-create the look and functionality of Reader. Better yet, you can use your Google log-in and have all your old saved blog posts imported. I will continue to report on Feedly as I get to know it better. In the meantime use the comments below to share your experience and with this or other RSS-feed apps.

    
Baden Powell Quartet  ~  Volumes 1 & 2
(Blog: Porco's Hideaway)
[pw = hideaway]

He Once Lived in Baden-Baden!
"A versatile artist, Baden Powell made no distinction between samba and classical music, the influence of African music and candomblé, of jazz and the bossa nova, thereby tearing apart the border between the popular and the erudite. After studying classical guitar for many years, Baden developed a unique style of playing, combining virtuous elements with the swing and harmony of Brazilian popular music (MPB), exploring the limits of the instrument to the full. Recognized throughout the world, Baden cut more than 40 records abroad."  (Description from a cultural page at www.brazil.gov.br)

Say It Ain't True: The Elvis Files

by Thomas Michalski

 

What's on Network Awesome today?

Occam’s Razor teaches us that the simplest answer is usually the correct one, but try telling that to a dedicated conspiracy theorist. It’s not that life isn’t complicated, or that crazy things don’t happen, but a simple explanation (Oswald Shot Kennedy, a weather balloon crashed at Roswell) is mathematically far more likely than one involving vast sinister cabals and little green men. The persistent tabloid-fueled belief that Elvis Presley did not in fact die on August 16, 1977 is no different. The simple explanation for what happened that day is that years of stress, health problems and raging pill addiction finally caught up with the iconic rock star in the form of a massive heart attack in his Memphis bathroom. The complicated explanation could, honestly, be just about anything (time-travelling ninjas), but the most commonly circulated is the one put forth in the amazing 1990 home video The Elvis Files, that Presley’s “death” was actually an elaborate hoax perpetrated, kind of half-assedly, by the United States government.

The hour-long special is hosted by none other than Bill Bixby, best remembered for playing Bruce Banner to Lou Ferrigno’s Incredible Hulk on the late 70s/early 80s TV series (technically, he played “David Banner”, they changed it because CBS thought “Bruce” was too gay). Bixby was a natural choice for the job since he had actually starred alongside Presley in two of his movies, 1967’s Clambake and1968’s Speedway, and

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 203

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Today's Mining the Audio Motherlode is dedicated to reader Holly from NC, who donated generously to WFMU during its annual fundraiser and "adopted" your Motherlode's Miner—again! Holly has the biggest heart and the wide-openest ears of anyone in Blogville, and we here at the Motherlode are grateful.

To the Miner's great delight, Holly's old friend Lunchbox (pictured, at left) will continue to accompany all subterranean vinyl expeditions for another year. (Man and beast have grown quite fond of one another after all.)

Three cheers to Holly and all wonderful fans of Beware of the Blog and WFMU who've contributed!

    
Ray Stephen Oche  ~  Interpretation of the Original Rhythm
(Blog: Brian)

Origin Rhythm Method
"Born on June 28, 1936m in Edikwu Village, Oturkpo, Idoma Division, Benue Plateau State, Nigeria, Ray Stephen Oche comes from a family of musicians, singers and flute players. His ancestors and folks were undisputed celebrities in the intervillage festivals of music, especially in the 1930s, and Ray just followed with amazing ease and talent, the path they had so gloriously thread."  (Description from the liner notes.)

A Trip to Hell, With Wayne Pyzer (MP3's)

As the Christian calendar approaches its holiest days, the time is right for some holier-than-thou listening. And here's a perfect example, a two sided trip to hell from our friends at Creative Sound Recordings of Los Angeles, an awkwardly titled EP-length release "Decision for Destiny: The Region Beyond", narrated by Wayne Pyzer. 

This really has to be heard to be believed. Over a variety of B-Movie sound effects, Wayne Pyzer portrays death, I guess, leading a poor soul from her wretched life right into hell, where even when she holds her head in her hands, those hands themselves are in flames. The first voice we hear is actually the dear departed soul herself, then death invites the listener along, and although he asks questions, the woman from the beginning of the record is never heard from again. 

Pyzer's performance is perfect, in terms of appealing to those who already agree with him about where the wicked of the world will go (and surely, they get to decide what makes someone wicked). I can't, however, imagine that this record managed to convince anyone who wasn't already on the same page of anything at all. He performs with a smug, obnoxious, know-it-all tone, sounding very much like a fun-house mirror version of Peter Lind Hayes as "Genie, The Magic Record". But instead of enthusiastically and warmly introducing the listener to the wonders of sound and imagination (as did Hayes), Pyzer sounds like he's looking down his nose at something icky on his shoe, while introducing the listener to the concept of being too late to repent.

In a way, this record reminded me of right wing radio and television - an echo chamber for the converted. I have a hard time believing that anyone who wasn't with him before the record started was converted into any new way of thinking once it was over. It is, however, a quite entertaining little play, especially if one listens to it as if it were meant as satire, and will be the source of many a sound clip for those who like to play with sounds. 

Wayne Pyzer - Decision for Destiny: The Region Beyond (Part One) (MP3)

Wayne Pyzer - Decision for Destiny: The Region Beyond (Part Two) (MP3)

Record Label (JPG)

 

A Singing Barber in the Battle of the Juke Boxes

"It started in a barber shop in Warren, Ohio..."  Today we meet the methodical man
who spurned cooked-up publicity feuds and gimmicks and made a sensation with only his pipes and his handsome five-foot nine-inch, 160-pound cleft-chinned self. 

You'll guess soon enough who beat Crosby, Sinatra, and even Dick Haymes in the Billboard polls during the month of this issue of Picture News, issue #2, from February 1946 (artist and writer unknown).

We'll also learn about the wacky DJ from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey who insults his radio sponsors on the air every morning - and they love it!

All this excitement awaits in our sixth Comic Supplement Section here at BOTB, come and join us right after the jump!

In case you didn't feel like showing up - Volume 56

Earcandy for your eyes

The Thermals playing live in Brooklyn at 285 Kent on March 7, 2013.

After the break: Krallice at The Acheron

Interview with Paranormal Researcher and Sound Artist Michael Esposito

In October of 2011, I did an extensive email interview for an article in a weekly paper on Michael Esposito, paranormal researcher and experimental artist.  Esposito specializes in Electronic Voice Phenomena, the occasional tendency for voices to mysteriously end up on more or less quiet recordings, when there is no logical reason for them  to be there.  Not simply a ghost hunter, he also incorporates these sounds into compositions either alone or with other well regarded collaborators.  His biography makes one wonder how he ever slept, as he was a psy ops officer in the gulf war, a student at four different universities (including American University in Cairo, Egypt), and he has performed all over the world in support of numerous releases, many of which were published by the venerable Touch Music UK.  He's been interviewed or featured in films more than a handful of times, and he has worked the “lecture circuit” for paranormal conferences, as well as festivals and exhibits in Graz, UK, and Sweden.  As is to be expected, my article, with a small maximum word count, couldn't possibly do justice to the depth of background necessary for such an undertaking, and after it was done, I had a longing to be able to communicate just that.  In the process of my research, not only did I do an interview but I also followed up after the initial article, read an extensive bio, numerous published and unpublished essays, and plenty of information online.  In the process of this final interview, Michael probably flew to 5 different countries to perform or record. 

WFMU Marathon Happenings

 

This is the second and final week of WFMU's fundraising Marathon and we are still less than halfway to our goal, which must be met by Sunday, March 17th! Make a pledge now!

 

Special highlights this week:

TONIGHT - Tuesday, March 12 (9pm-mid)

A.C. Newman and John Hodgman join Tom Scharpling on the Best Show on WFMU for 3 hours of mirth, music, and mayhem! Tune in to win killer prizes, and watch it all go down on our live video feed at wfmu.org. Pledge to the Best Show using this link.

 

 

 

 

Thursday, March 14 (9am-noon)

Yo La Tengo play your cover song requests in exchange for pledges of $100 or more on Hello Children with Faye and co-host Gaylord Fields! Pledge to the Yo La Tengo request-a-thon NOW from this page, or tune in to pledge live.

 

Out Demos Out! Tony Coulter's 2013 Marathon Premium!

Hello, dear eyeballs — Tony Coulter here. For this year's marathon, I've compiled a collection of great unreleased tracks, dubbed Out Demos Out!

One of the contributors, Doyle Dean of Utility Project, whipped up a video to go with his track and I thought I'd share it with you today. Out Demos Out! will automatically be yours for a donation of $75 to my show, which airs on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio stream, Tuesdays, 12 – 3pm (ET).

Artists on the comp include the following musical greats: Anode, Bene Gesserit, Sebastian Bradt, Charlene Darling, Dymaxion, Fantastic Palace (Alexander Ross), Larry Mondello Band, K. Leimer, Look de Bouk, People Like Us, Rascal Reporters, Tom Recchion, Toupidek Limonade, Utility Project, Walls of Genius, and Yximalloo.

Have a look:

An Interview With George Chen

For more than fifteen years, George Chen has served as a incredibly important figure in the Bay Area experimental experimental music scene, not only as someone playing in groups such as Chen Santa Maria, KIT, 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, Common Elder King Elder amongst others, but as a show promoter, stand-up comedian, zine editor, and founder of the brilliantly eclectic label Zum. Chen is an individual who is able to transfer a love of music, comedy, and art into an interactive setting, ultizing Twitter, podcasts, and other forms of "new media" to provide fans with hours upon hours of engaging and entertaining content.

Approaching the work of George Chen can be overwhelming, considering the immense diversity of his output in both form and style, but ultimately it is extremely rewarding as this plethora of different projects adds up to an experience that is funny, engaging, strange, meditative, and transcendental. Check out an interview with George after the jump.

 

Awesome Tapes From Africa Weekend on Network Awesome

Live Music Show - Classic Sudanese Music on TV

We're thrilled to collaborate with Awesome Tapes From Africa this weekend to present the most interesting and inventive collection of African videos this side of Khartoum.  Guest curator Brian Shimkovitz culls from his deep knowledge of African music to deliver collections of African TV commercials, Pop Music of Pre-War Somalia, even the outrageous 2002 film, "Sharon Stone" - a classic Nollywood drama about an overly ambitious woman willing to do anything to make it to the top. 

Of course the mainstay of Awesome Tapes From Africa is incredible music and here's an ocean of amazing music captured on over-saturated film and video. He elaborates about the Live Music Show above:

"It doesn't get any better than this! The music of Sudan is as varied as the country is large (as Africa's largest country, it's about the size of America's Midwest). Over the years the traditional sounds have seeped into popular music, as shown by Sudan's many TV stations. Watch some classic gems from a small selection of Sudan's most revered artists. Explore the web using Google Translate to help with the Arabic names and discover tons more where this came from"

Playlist:

Zaidan Ibrahim

Al Balabil

Mustafa Sid Ahmed

Hanan Elnil

Eman & Amany (The Sudanese Twins)

Hanan

Zaidan Ibrahim

Hanan Elnil

WARNING - Giant, Pre-historic Shark Attack! IDES Live on My Castle of Quiet, 12.21.2012

NJ's IDES did what I'm always a sucker for—treated their live WFMU appearance as something unique and special, considered the medium / opportunity of a live radio appearance, and planned accordingly. In addition to their mini-masterpieces—tight, well-composed songs of 40 secs. to one minute in length, they bridged those songs with a series of improvised, powerful "interludes," cleverly paced and sequenced passages of enthused energy.

I knew immediately upon hearing IDES for the first time that they were a cut above simply another hardcore band, with an intensity and dedication to their sound that transcended genrefication. They pretty much played straight through their 22-min. onslaught, wound tight as a battlefield tourniquet, though there were two ever-so-momentary "breaks," which is where I cut up the otherwise-continuum presented here, for your mp3 enjoyment, stream or download. 

Like the predatory sea mammals we have today, the Megalodon cannot stop, or it dies, and the sonic charisma of IDES remains intact. The band have an incredible "swing" to everything they do, such that even an old fart like myself can daydream about careening off the stage head-first into the pit; all you'd see of me would be the flat heels of my Converse hi-tops, back when such footwear actually sort-of supported my meager arches.

The noise bridges are welcome, carefully placed throughout the set, and sound casually great, miles away from anything even remotely half-arsed. So, the verdict is and remains that New Jersey is a reliable, consistent font for all things hardcore and punk, and beyond; look just across the Hudson, 'cause great things are happening.

Can't thank the band enough for playing, adding yet another outstanding, highly memorable live performance to the ever-growing WFMU / My Castle of Quiet pantheon. Thanks also to engineer Juan A. for the reliable, versatile and casual application of his considerable talent, translating the often-chaotic happenings across the double-glass into something radio-ready and highly listenable.

Numismaticism Update: 2013 Marathon Fundraising Edition

Congressional Republican economy terrorists have been holding the country hostage for a while now—Sequester! Fiscal Cliff! Debt Ceiling! Meet All Our Crazypants Demands or We’ll Blame Obama!—and people who don’t enjoy negotiating with terrorists have been looking for a way around dealing with them. How can we keep paying our bills if there’s no money in the bank? Well, one obvious way would be to print some more money.

Technically, the Government can’t print more money, but the Federal Reserve can. (They are not the same thing and if you don’t know this, that is because you are not a nutbucket conspiracy theorist like me. Most normal people do not know how the Fed works.) BUT: Back in 2011, a Constitutional law professor at Yale started talking about an idea to take advantage of the one way in which the Government can mint more money: commemorative coins! The Secretary of the Treasury is allowed (31 USC § 5112!) to strike platinum coins in any denomination. So all the Secretary of the Treasury has to do is to mint two one-trillion-dollar platinum coins, deposit them with the Federal Reserve, and hey presto! It’s all good. (And go to hell, Repubican economy terrorists.)

The trillion-dollar-coin idea started being talked up again a couple months ago, as the Sequester approached, and it was even endorsed by some Celebrity Economists, but in the end Jacob Lew was confirmed as the new Secretary of the Treasury and even if he tried to issue The Coin, no one can read his handwriting and the Treasury would probably just issue a couple of platinum Slinkys instead.

Still, I do believe we could apply the trillion-dollar-coin principle to raising money to support WFMU.  When Former Cohost Jay and I decided to produce our own Thunk Tank currency (the Bieb, the official currency of Iceland!) we discovered that it is illegal for anyone but the Government to issue specie (coins), but anyone can issue paper money. (So we did.) Why should we continue with the annual Marathon and the Record Fair and the Secret Off-Air October fundraiser and the Superstorm Sandy Wrecked the Station Special Appeal and Station Manager Ken in a Lawn Chair Attached to Weather Balloons, going back to the Listeners for their support again and again, just because we’re a Listener-Supported station? (And God bless the Listeners, they have been fantastic!)

All Station Manager Ken has to do is issue a 1-milion Bieb note (which trades at a rate of 1 Bieb to 1 US dollar), deposit the note in the WFMU bank account, and then pay all our bills! (Or just deposit 10,000 100-Bieb notes, because I think there are plenty of them lying around the station from Thunk Tank’s overproduced Marathon premiums.) Assuming the bank that has the WFMU bank account will accept it for deposit, which maybe they will not.

Alas, the one- trillion-dollar coin is not to be. The main problem seems to have been that it would have called attention to the fact that our entire economy is based on the fiction of fiat currency and debt. So I will never be able to add the Biden Commemorative $1 trillion dubloon to my collection, and I also still have never got a Guam quarter, either, so what’s up with that? You can still use your Federal Reserve-issued currency to support WFMU, though, so go to wfmu.org and make your pledge now.

Thanks for reading my blogpost this time, and thanks for supporting WFMU.

 

 

An Unusual Calypso Record from Norridge Mayhams' Label (MP3's)

The story of Norridge Mayhams (aka Norris the Troubadour) is one of the great under-explored stories of 20th Century music making. It has been explored in great detail by Phil Milstein at the American Song-Poem Music Archives, here, but nowhere else in much detail, that I'm aware of.

While Mayhams did work within the song-poem world in terms of employing many of the fields stalwarts to record his material, he exists largely outside of that world, in my view, because he seems to have been quite capable of writing the words AND the music to his songs, rather than farming out the latter. In addition, he often sang on his own records, especially in the early days, released records on legitimate labels at one point, and he even wrote a hit song.

I've explored the Mayhams story a bit more, mostly through the sharing of various records he performed, wrote and/or commissioned.  I've even performed my favorite Mayhams song myself. A handful of Mayhams songs can also be found in the AS/PMA song-poem series that was posted here at WFMU a few years ago. 

As those links will indicate, Mayhams was all over the map, musically, and managed to move with the times, from Gospel to R & B, from Latin rhythms to Rock and Roll. One thing, though, that every record I've seen documented on his own two labels (Mayhams Collegiate and Co-Ed (The Sorority Fraternity Record Company)), is that they all feature at least one song credited to Mayhams, under one of his many names (or at least under a version of his wife's name). Usually, this is true of both sides. 

So what to make of this early Co-Ed 78 RPM release which does not feature any reference to Norridge Mayhams whatsoever?  Yes, I've spent four paragraphs explaining who Mayhams was, only to feature a record that doesn't appear to have involved him. And yet, it must have - this was clearly his label, from the fascination with college life captured in so many of his lyrics (as well as both of his label names), to the DIY sound of the recording, to the fact that it captures a style that was in vogue at that moment - in this case, the early version of Calypso (a passionate favorite of mine) which had a fervent audience in the 1930's and 1940's. 

But no, nothing on this record says Norridge Mayhams, and that's unique for a record on his labels. Side one is credited to The Black Prince, while side two is performed by Babtiste & Co., with the backing on both sides by Padmore, De-Vere, Nat Guy & Grant (however, there is no way four people are performing on the A-Side). Compositions on both sides are by Padmore and De-Vere. None of these names turn up anywhere else on any Mayhams record I've seen). 

The A-Side is the more basic of the two, and holds more appeal to me. Over piano backing (with a soft clarinet and a guitar), The Black Prince sings a classic minor-key calypso, "Misunderstanding", building up a nice head of steam and intensity. Your guess is as good as mine as to whether this is the same Black Prince who recorded calypsos for Decca. "Last Train" by Babtiste & Co. is a more upbeat, major-key calypso, with a considerably busier backing track and choral vocals on the chorus. It's also enjoyable, and I really enjoy the way it ends, mid phrase, but I'll take the A-side any day. 

A disclaimer as to the quality of these MP3's: I was thrilled to buy this record, but when it arrived in the mail, it was in two pieces, with a moon-shaped scoop broken out of it. I repaired the record as best as possible, but as you can imagine, it plays with two significant clicks every time the record spins (the broken part went through the entire length of the sides, almost to the label. But it's a fascinating enough record that I still wanted to share it. 

The Black Prince - Misunderstanding (MP3)

Babtiste & Co. - Last Train (MP3) 

A-Side Label (JPG)  |  B-Side Label (JPG)

 

"The Record of Doom"

You've heard the one about the songwriter who was also a disc jockey, have you, bunky?  Today's sordid little tale shows the problems inherent in splitting your talents this way.  We've examined songs that kill and maim before here at BOTB, and it seems that along with soothing savage breasts, some records just have nothing but ill will to convey. 

The forthcoming tasty yarn is called "The Record of Doom", by an unknown writer and drawn by Bill Ely. Originally published in 1956 in the April-May issue (#2) of Tales of the Unexpected.

The featured song of doom "Blue Monday" actually has a real-life pedigree as a genuine crowd-thinner for your radio audience, with some information regarding that to be found here. I guess some folks need a little music to get them into the proper mood to do themselves in. I suppose you should be careful if you plan to put this into the random-play selections in your music player or online radio - it may have grave consequences...

Join me here after the jump to find out the whole story about this charming number!

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 202

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Hey, somehow in hustle and bustle of pumping out this weekly music missive, I forgot to celebrate my 200th Motherlode. A lot has gone on in the four years since I started this column. I got laid off, moved to Pittsburgh, cranked up the webstream Give the Drummer Radio for WFMU (read all about its "heroics" after Hurricane Sandy here) and all the while, scoured and devoured the free-music omniverse for links to downloads of many hundreds of devastatingly good records.

To mark this auspicious (cough, cough) occasion, I would like to use this space to recall some of my favorite Motherlodes over the years:

 

    
Motherlode #41
A tribute to my war hero father on Veteran's Day.

Motherlode #188
A poetic music on the nature of "free."

Motherlode #91
Speculation on the truth behind CIA control of the blogosphere.

 

Motherlode #36
A story about me and my all-time musical hero, guru and rabbi Yusef Lateef.

Motherlode #138.2 (Bonus)
Wherein I proposed a 43-year-old tune to be the anthem for the Occupy movement.

 

Motherlode #51
A remembrance of a dear soul diva and deviled egg maestro, Sandra Wright.

 

Motherlode #34
A special commentary on race in America, starring Kanye West, Taylor Swift, our African-American-in-Chief, and starring Beyoncé in the role of Hattie McDaniel

 

Motherlode #20
A celebration of one of the great moments in recorded American History.

 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays, 6-7pm, and Fridays, 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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