Frank Sidebottom Salutes The Magic Of Freddie Mercury And Queen

The late great surreal nutter in the giant paper mache head (and a puppet sidekick) sings here in his swimmer's clamp nasal tone and unfailingly good humor just what is says on the tin. He recorded a fair amount of stuff, and this EP is as good an intro as any. For those of you who saw the recent film "Frank" and wondered what the real man was all about...

Frank Sidebottom Salutes The Magic Of Freddie Mercury And Queen (1987)

1. Frank Gordon
2. Everybody Sings Queen
3. I Am The Champion
4. Radio Gaga
5. Save Me
6. We Will Rock You
7. The Bit I Missed Off The Queen Song On My Z39 EP
8. Queen Hip Hop Disco Mix

Over Two Hours of Radio Shenanigans

Spacebrother Greg asked me to guest-dj on his "Radio Misteriso" show for the umpteenth time last July, and it is now up for your listening, er, "pleasure"? Along with all the bizarre thrift-store vinyl, antique novelties, and outsider strangeness, we play some songs from the latest Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra album, a band Greg and I had the pleasure of meeting and seeing in all their multi-media glory a couple of weeks ago.

Pilot your flying saucer here (playlist/listen/download):

Mr Fab on Radio Misterioso July 27, 2014
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:25:56 — 66.8MB)

Back up by request: Lynn Rockwell - One Man Band 
Thanks to super-swell maniac Mike for the Rockwell - you rock well, Mike!

Be Stoned! Dig: Zipps

There's 'beat' as in the Beat literary movement that produced beatniks, and poetry read over (usually) jazz music.  And there's 'beat' as in the European '60s rock'n'roll-inspired pop. The kooky, sometimes hilarious Dutch band The Zipps combine both: yes, a Beat Beat group.

Their music's fine in a basic mid-'60s garage kinda way (some tunes are quite catchy), but the real distinguishing characteristic of The Zipps is singer/guitarist Philip Elzerman's English-as-a-second-language vocals, which are either nonsensical, or obscured by his thick accent. Or both. In the Ramones-y titled, Byrds-y sounding "Kicks and Chicks" Elzerman claims that he "read all the books of Jack Kerouac," but he pronounces that Beat icon's name as "Ker-acky." Two lengthy tracks called "Beat and Poetry" are live all-Dutch language spoken word over peppy rock music, not jazz. An odd combination. Tho in the hysterical "Hipsterism," one of the greatest, funniest '60s nuggets I've heard lately, Elzerman says "I always like to listen to good jazz/You're a square! And you don't like it, I guess!" Followed by a solo on that most rock'n'roll of instruments, the flute. Having said that, the groovy a-go-go instrumental version of "Lotus Love" is one of my faves off this career-spanning collection. Wish I could hear all of "LSD 25" minus the interview on top of it, it's a great Seeds-y proto-punk stomper.

The Zipps - Be Stoned Dig Zipps.zip

Thanks again to our psychedelic nugget farmer, Count Otto Black!

1	–	Highway Gambler
2	–	Roll The Cotton Down
3	–	Kicks And Chicks
4	–	Hipsterism
5	–	Beat & Poetry Part 1
6	–	Beat & Poetry Part 2
7	–	Marie Juana
8	–	The Struggle For Ice-Cold Milk Of Benzi The Bassplayer Or How To Promote Original Dutch Milk
9	–	When You Tell It, Tell It Well..!
10	–	Lotus Love (demo - vocal version)
11	–	Walking On This Road To Mine Town (previously unreleased live track)
12	–	The Beer Hall Song (previously unreleased live track)
13	–	Kicks And Chicks (previously unreleased live track)
14	–Philippe Salerne* & Zipps, The*	Avec De L'Italie
15	–Philippe Salerne* & Zipps, The*	Venez Voire Comme On S'Aime
16	–	Lotus Love (instrumental - previously unreleased demo version)
17	–	The Struggle For Ice-Cold Milk Of Benzi The Bassplayer Or How To Promote Original Dutch Milk (previously unreleased stereo version)
18	–	Kicks And Chicks (previously unreleased stereo version)
19	–	LSD 25 Interview

Bandcamp Is The New Cassette Culture 4

Continuing our survey of new music you can listen to, and in many cases, download for free on Bandcamp.com, we fly off to exotic lands. It is the depths of winter now, so I felt a tropical vacation was in order. 

And this first album is especially timely, as it features Evan Crankshaw from the great  "Flash Strap" blog, who just debuted his all-exotica radio show, "The Explorer's Room" last week. 

The Cumberland County Mean Gang "Crashing Waves"

Starts off a bit New Age-y, but track #3 "Slave Trade" is really great psychedelic exotica that sounds like it was played on your grandma's electric organ after someone spiked her Ensure with mescaline; it dovetails nicely right into the next track, which is almost 9 minutes of pure lysergic abandon. "Under The Jungle" does indeed sport jungle ambiance, tho the music is more Jean-Michel Jarre '70s-type electronica than Martin Denny. It's melody is re-used in the next track, a Giorgio Morodor-on-cheap-ass-Casios techno-dance stomper. The most excellent "Ritual of Flight" begins with theremin- ish electronics, followed by haunted-house organ...and exotic bird calls?  Just what kind of spook show is this, anyway? Was happy to hear grandma's psychedelic organ again on track 8. Price: Name Your Price. And enjoy your flight.

The Mad Drummer - from South Africa, but sounding more Zappa than Zulu. The inverse of Paul Simon and Vampire Weekend? A lot better than them, that's for sure. All 6 songs are good, but for someone who calls himself a mad drummer, the synthetic drums are the one (minor) fault I find with this. Price: $3.

Boolz "S.O.S.[Slovvd-n-Chopped]" - Also from South Africa comes this trippy dub electronica. I like the bugged-out VV3ΔK [SLOWD-N-CHXPPXD]  Price: Name Your Price

Some comps that will keep you busy and dancing for days: 

Peru Maravilloso: "Vintage Latin Tropical Cumbia"

Analog Africa - 21 albums!  Haven't listened to all of them, but I can def recommend "African Scream Contest" - just don't buy the line about it being "psychedelia." It's James Brown-ish funk and West African highlife, and what's wrong with that? Can we stop throwing the word 'psychedelic' around so much?  It's getting to be as meaningless a term as 'experimental.' And be sure to read this as you dig the crate diggin' sounds of Analog Africa: Dusty African Grooves.

VOODOO DANCE DOLL: 1950s/60s Rock'n'Roll Exotica

Bongos in the Congo!  Apes in the jungle! Tikis, cannibals, and witch doctors! Grown men making tropical bird calls! Sound familiar? But this ain't no jazzy Martin Denny-style exotica for grown-ups' cocktail parties. No, my teen-age hoodlum friends, this sampler of exotic rock (rock-xotica?) + relevant soundbites marks this blogs' return to weekend-starting sleazy-listening sounds from the Golden Age of Cool. As with the first collection that kicked off this on-again/off-again project, many of these tracks were recorded off my vinyl, songs that hopefully have not been featured on similar comps like the "Jungle Exotica" series. My records are in various states of preservation, so I did track down some digital replacements when available. But most of this is out-of-print wax whose occasional pops and cracks can be thought of as the crunching of jungle undergrowth beneath the furious feet of Watusi exotic dancers (in all senses of the phrase).

Ingredients: surf rock, doo-wop, rhythm 'n' blues, novelties, some actual ethnic peoples, movie clips, radio ads, excerpts from a record meant to accompany a slideshow or filmstrip about the Congo, Africa (unfortunately, it did not contain the visuals), and some loungey things, but with a backbeat. There are a few well-known hit-makers here like Eartha Kitt, the Dave Clark Five, and Santo & Johnny, but as these records are from the gloriously unself-conscious pre-rock critic era*, many of these artists have been lost to the mists of history. 

Voodoo Dance Doll - an M4M Collection.zip

01 congo slideshow- weekend dance
02 Mel Taylor & The Magics - Bongo Rock
03 The Vistas - Tiki Twist
04 Leni Okehu and his Surfboarders - Hawaiian People Eater
05 Eartha Kitt - Honolulu Rock And Roll
06 congo slideshow - superstition dance
07 Muvva Hubbard & the Stompers Congo Mombo
08 "Alligator Man"
09 The Dave Clark Five - Chaquita
10 The Pyramids - 
Koko Joe
11 "100 Percent Gorilla"
12 The Rocking Vickers - I Go Ape
13 Billy Mure - Tabu
14 congo slideshow - witch doctor
15 Werner Hass - Oh-ee-oh-ah-ah
16 Dick Dale & The Del-Tones - Jungle Fever
17 Jerry & Mel - Cannibal stew
18 "Zombie Island Massacre" - Zombie Attacks Honeymooners
19 congo slideshow - drumming
20 Mel Taylor & The Magics - Drums A Go-Go
21 Thurl Ravenscroft - Dr Geek From Tanganyika
22 Buddy Morrow And His Orchestra - One-Two-Three-Kick (The Original Conga) pt1.
23 Roger Craig - Song of India
24 The Fugitives - Human Jungle
25 Bela's "Jungle Hell"
26 Roy Estrada and The Rocketeers-Jungle Dreams Part 2 
27 Busby Lewis - Jerk
28 Susan King-Drum Rhythm
29 Yngve stoor - Hula Rock
30 Perez Prado - Cuban Rock
31 Leni Okehu and his Surfboarders - Hawaiian Rock
32 Freddy Cannon - Everybody Monkey
33 Johnny and Santo - Caravan
34 congo slideshow - watusi
35 Big Walter and the Thunderbirds _ Watusie Freeze part 1
36 "shrunken heads" ad
37 Buddy Morrow And His Orchestra - One-Two-Three-Kick (The Original Conga) pt2
38 Marti Barris - Ahbe Casabe
39 Sandy Nelson - Casbah 

Thanks to Count Otto for the Rockin' Vicars!

*Cartoonist/record collector Robert Crumb has described the early rock he really liked as "proletariat," and indeed, there may be some class-ism behind the critical dismissal of so much rock prior to the mid-'60s: once rock scrubbed off all of that honky-tonk/ghetto stank and adopted such middle-class, college-educated features as "poetic" lyrics and classical European influences, then it finally merited the status of High Art. But of course, the music wasn't really improved so much as it simply changed - from fun, funny, energetic, sexy, and atmospheric to...not as much. Rock didn't get better, it just moved to the suburbs.

THE COMMIES ARE COMING! THE COMMIES ARE COMING!

The Berlin Wall may have fallen 20 years ago, and you can buy McDonald's in Red Square, but the United Nations, that festering hot bed of godless Communism, is still around. Side 1 of this ludicrous fear-mongering document from 1962 pounds home the notion that anti-Americanism is built into the UN. Side 2 repeats the malarkey that is still heard today about America being 'founded on Christian values,' citing The Mayflower Compact, and something Woodrow Wilson said. For more shoddy research, unconvincing arguments and implausible conspiracies, dig this spoken-word, very sample-able LP:

Billy James Hargis - The UN Hoax (1962) 

You will be shocked - shocked! - to know that Hargis' career was knocked askew by a sex scandal. Wiki sez: "In 1974, when Hargis was nearly 50, he was forced to resign as president of American Christian College due to allegations that he had seduced college members. Two of his students claimed that they had had sex with Hargis—one was female, one was male. Other students corroborated the story. The account was reported by Time magazine in 1976, along with other alleged incidents at Hargis' farm in the Ozarks, and while on tour with his All American Kids musical group."  The UN, laughing diabolically, had their revenge!

(Thanks once again to windy)

Nugglets: Strange/Novelty DIY Compilation

By request, the "Soft, Safe and Sanitized" collection is back on line.

DJ Useo, when not creating mashups, or blogging and podcasting, scours the internet for strange and silly song stuff, as featured in his previous collections, "Music For Maniacs Tribute," and "Fun Music." And here's his latest 'n' greatest, exclusively for us, and hence, you:

Nugglets vol. 1 

This is the sound of new millennium DIY bedroom-producer kooks operating blissfully free of any illusions of "makin' it in the music biz," with many tracks downloaded from the old MP3.com. Apart from boasting one of the greatest album covers ever, this disreputable collection also features Dr Demento-ready novelty songs, odd experiments, youngsters screwing around, a "Death Metal Alphabet" lesson, a 36-second Dylan parody about a dead squirrel, a musical saw, some actual catchy tunes, and inexplicable sounds from folks in various states of mental health. Plus! Not just one, but two techno-polkas. Worth it for the DJ My Ass track alone, the kind of spazzy nonsense that the internet was created for. 

Spike Jones: 1941-1948

To make up for my lack of posts during my winter break, here is every single record Spike Jones and His City Slickers released in their first 7 years, 106 songs in all (split up into three sections). More radical than most academic avant-gardists, but a damn sight funnier,  bandleader/ drummer/ occasional vocalist / sound fx maker Jones and his numerous cronies weren't the first novelty orchestra (bands like the Korn Kobblers preceded them by a few years), but they did set the standard that musical anarchists have been striving for ever since.
  
As familiar as Jones is, it's still enlightening to listen to all these songs in chronological order, as one can hear the development of the band from a compact unit specializing in a kind of crazed Dixieland jazz, to an increasingly open-ended project, incorporating more and more musical styles, guest vocalists, and tracks that are more like sketches than songs. And tho I knew about their biggest hit single "Der Fuehrer's Face" (and the infamous "You're A Sap, Mister Jap"), I didn't realize how many WWII songs they did record. In "Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma", a song celebrating a sons' return home, the sense of relief that the war is finally ending is palpable.

As Spike used to deadpan after every song in concert: "Thank you, music lovers."

Spike Jones 1941-1948  pt1

1. Barstool Cowboy From Old Barstow

2. Behind Those Swinging Doors

3. Red Wing

4. The Covered Wagon Rolled Right Along

5. don`t talk to me about women  (1941)

6. Yankee doodler  (1942)

7. Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag

8. Three Little Words

9. When Buddah Smiles

10. You're A Sap Mister Jap

11. Never Hit Your Grandma With A Shovel

12. Horsey, Keep Your Tail Up

13. Camptown Races

14. John Scotter Trot

15. Love For Sale

16. Moanin' Low

17. Cheatin' On The Sandman

18. Come Josephine In My Flying Machine

19. The Sailor With The Navy Blue Eyes

20. Der Fuehrer's Face

21. Hotcha Cornia (Hotcha Chornya-Russian Folk Songs)

22. I Wanna Go Back To West Virginia

23. Water Lou (Drip, Drip, Drip) 24. Clink, Clink, Another Drink 25. Little Bo-Peep Has Lost Her Jeep 026 - Dinah  (1942) 027 - 48 reasons why  (1942)

28. The Sheik Of Araby

29. Oh! By Jingo

30. I'm Going To Write Home

31. Hi Ho My Lady

32. I Know A Story

33. St-St-St-Stella

34. Hotcha Cornia (Hotcha Chornya-Russian Folk Songs)

35. Down In Jungle Town

Spike Jones 1941-1948  pt2

36. As Time Goes By

37. People Will Say We're In Love

38. G.I. Haircut 039 - hitch old dobbin to the shay again  (1943)

40. It Never Rains In Sunny California

41. Wang Wang Blues

42. My Little Girl

43. The Sound Effects Man

44. Ragtime Cowboy Joe

45. The Vamp

46. He Broke My Heart In Three Places

47. Besame Mucho

48. I'm Goin' Back To Where I Came From

49. There's A Fly On My Music

50. Row, Row, Row

51. I Wanna A Gal Just Like The Gal That Married Dear Old Dad

52. Jingle Bells

53. Cocktails For Two 054 - they go wild, simply wild about me  (1944)

55. And The Great Big Saw Came Nearer And Nearer 056 - paddlin` madeline home  (1944) 057 - oh! how she lied  (1944)

58. Red Grow The Roses

59. Jamboree Jones

60. Whittle Out A Whistle

61. Casey Jones

62. At Last I'm In First With You

63. Down By The O-Hi-O

64. Holiday For Strings

65. Cocktails For Two

66. Leave The Dishes In The Sink, Ma

67. Serenade To A Jerk

68. Drip, Drip, Drip (Sloppy Lagoon)

69. Chloe

70. The Blue Danube

71. Black Bottom

72. Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye

Spike Jones 1941-1948  pt3

73. MacNamara's Band

74. Siam

75. Liebestraume

76. You'll Always Hurt The One You Love

77. That Old Black Magic

78. Mother Goose Medley

79. Hawaiian War Chant 080 - i gotta girl i love (in north and south dakota)  (1945) 081 - hedda hopper`s hats  (1945) 082 - george m. cohan medley  (1945)

83. Old McDonald Had A Farm

84. I Dream Of Brownie In The Light Blue Jeans

85. The Glow Worm

86. Laura

87. Jones Polka

88. The Jones Laughing Record 89. My Pretty Girl 90. Rhapsody From Hunger (Y) 91. I'm In The Mood For Love 92. When Yuba Plays The Rhumba On The Tuba 93. (I'm Forever) Blowing Bubble Gum

94. William Tell Overture

95.  Love In Bloom

96. The Man On The Flying Trapeze

97. Popcorn Sack

98. Our Hour (The Puppy Love Song)

99. My Old Flame

100. People Are Funnier Than Anybody

101. By The Beautiful Sea

102. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You

103. I Kiss Your Hand Madame

104. All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)

105. Ill Barkio (Il Bacio)

106. None But The Lonely Heart (A Soaperetta)