Yeah, I know, but this one's really great. Julia Wolfe, of New York's Bang On A Can posse, released this a few years ago, and is performing it for the first time in Los Angeles this week - on a bluff overlooking the ocean. For FREE. It's a teaser to get you to see the BOAC concert. The whole piece runs about 13 minutes. No other instruments, just bagpipes.
The first part is total mind-melting psych drone, like Glen Branca in a kilt. Not only does it sound nothing like what I thought bagpipe music was supposed to sound like, it pretty much caved in my skull. And I do not take drugs. Part 2 sounds more bagpipe-y, and gets into subtle minimalism territory.
Don-O is the very busy culture-vulture who slipped us "Ultimate Ultimate Xanadu" last year, a sampling of the numerous cover versions of songs from the 1980 musical film "Xanadu". A film I still have not seen (the likes of Olivia Newton-John and ELO barely budge my interest-meter), but Don-O makes an interesting point in the debut ish of his new 'zine "Space-Age Ashtray" that "Xanadu" fits snuggly into the world of classic Las Vegas and mid-century Space-Age/tiki culture, the sort of stuff that sends my interest-meter skyrocketing. So, hmm...
He's back with 20 more "Xanadu" soundtrack covers ranging from solo acoustic to full-blown disco orchestrations. Along they way we encounter: an a capella choir, Marie Osmond and Andy Gibb, an Asian language cover, lo-fi live recordings, no-fi grungy rock, lots of Broadway-style warbling, and a vocal choir singing a medley of ELO hits, not all from "Xanadu." Take a hit of ultimate Xanax! Er, I mean:
I'm just gonna stick with the facts on this one. No comment necessary. Calvin B. Rhone is a still-active Los Angeles gospel singer who recorded this private-press sanctified soul album in 1983. Some tracks have a lot more to do with Earth Wind and Fire or Stevie Wonder than with robe-clad, hand-clapping choirs. Enjoy!
P.S.: One of the songs is called "He Came On Me." The title phrase is indeed sung by Rhone. Repeatedly. Calvin B. Rhone has an "Intimate Friend" A1 We've Come To Praise Him A2 Intimate Friend A3 Lord! B1 Believe B2 He Came On Me B3 I LoveTheLord B4Bless The Name Of Jesus I just discovered this album last week and - Why look! Someone else posted a YouTube of said song just a month ago. Coincidence? Or perhaps the universe just wasn't ready for this record until now..?
A1 We've Come To Praise Him A2 Intimate Friend A3 Lord! B1 I Believe B2 He Came On Me B3 I Love The Lord B4 Bless The Name Of Jesus Copy the BEST Traders and Make Money : http://bit.ly/fxzulu
A1 We've Come To Praise Him A2 Intimate Friend A3 Lord! B1 I Believe B2 He Came On Me B3 I Love The Lord B4 Bless The Name Of Jesus Copy the BEST Traders and Make Money : http://bit.ly/fxzulu
A1 We've Come To Praise Him A2 Intimate Friend A3 Lord! B1 I Believe B2 He Came On Me B3 I Love The Lord B4 Bless The Name Of Jesus Copy the BEST Traders and Make Money : http://bit.ly/fxzulu
It's fall, Halloween is around the corner, so let's get moody with these FREE! listening/download contemporary internet releases of a decidedly strange and obscure nature. If Lovecraft's Miskatonic University had a college radio station, these albums would be on heavy rotation.
Ak'chamel: "Old Norse Mara" - Like the Residents attempting to summon occult entities (or The Elder Gods), this album is dark, distorted, evil ambience, culminating in the compelling "Death Was On You From The Moment of Birth." But it's then followed by an utterly incongruous surf-punk instrumental(?!). No matter, a demonically-possessed muppet then takes over the lead vox for the next track. (The more overtly shaman-istic "Fucking With Spirits" is plenty cool, too.) Price: Name your price.
Sasha Olynyk: "1955" (EP) - What is this, a '50s crooner & an EZ orchestra collaborating with Portishead? It's hard to tell thru the hallucinogenic fog. 25 minutes of mysterious melancholy, sometimes quite beautiful, a la Boards of Canada, only Olynyk really is Canadian. The moment in "Surfers Dream" where the "Rebel Without A Cause" soundtrack morphs into the song is magical. Price: Name your price.
Hanetration - "Murmurist" ep - One of our faveambient-ists. "Begin" is indeed a great place to begin; the gently clanking percussion + church organ drone of "Sundown" = one of his best ever. Price: Free
Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel: does what it says on the tin. Tho sometimes joined by guests, most of these free releases are by an Atlanta, GA duo who deliver deep drone instrumentals that sound nothing like the Space Age sounds you'd expect from theremins, or the usual country/Hawaiian-isms of steel guitar. All live, all improvised. Price: Name your price. See also: http://duetonline.net/sample
By a very wide margin, one of our "Lowbrow" collections of mid-century sleazy-listening sounds is the most popular post of the year, and several other lowbrow posts aren't far behind. Which is great, glad to tap into something so many of you wacky cats 'n' wigged-out chicks are craving, but I'm running out of suitably vile vinyl. So I've gone record-hunting and sound-digging lately, and this time, apart from 45s (and I have found a few goodies already) and recording otherwise-unavailable songs off of old b-movies, I'm also hitting up the comedy bins for "party albums" - naughty humor sold under record counters to, er, "sophisticated" adults. A lot of them just feature lame stand-up comedy that you don't need to hear more than once, even if that, but sometimes even these records have a good musical track or two. And then there's this nutty thing, just purchased a week or so ago. Based on books of the same name, "Over Sexteen Vol. 2" stars an uncredited stentorian announcer hosting dirty jokes, acted out with enthusiasm by some uncredited actors who favor silly ethnic voices, and actresses who use a squeaky New Yoiker goil voice. All in the service of sometimes funny, but very dated humor. The audio equivalent of novelty cocktail napkins. What really makes this album, however, is the organ interludes that pop up between the jokes and skits. Sometimes the songs reference the preceding joke. The combination of all these elements add up to an inexplicable whole that is greater than the parts. I couldn't believe I was actually laughing at this corny humor as much as I was. Over Sexteen vol2 Absolutely no information listed on the album cover, except the name 'Kermit Schafer,' the huckster who would later become very successful for his 'blooper' albums of broadcasting goof-ups. Some of those alleged mis-speaks and outtakes were bogus, recreated using actors. Perhaps the very actors featured here.
When legendary outsider oddball Tiny Tim was experiencing his late '60s fluke mainstream popularity, some low-level record company weasels dug up on old tape of Tiny singing classic old childrens and novelty songs and Tin Pan Alley standards, and for some reason decided to add some silly crowd sound effects. Tiny's voice certainly improved in the years following this recording. So Tiny never considered this part of his official discography, but there's still some good stuff here. Look at that song list - come on, don't you wanna hear a ukulele-strumming Tiny singing "On The Good Ship Lollipop" in his otherworldly falsetto? 'Course you do!
Like the band featured in this blog's previous post, The Hoosier Hot Shots, this group also performs on homemade instruments. However, one group is considered "novelty" and the other "avant-garde." It's all rather arbitrary, and class-ist. This band isn't quite as funny as the Hoosiers of course, but they are plenty tuneful, with nice toe-tapping compositions sometimes derived from Indonesian gamelan music, something ex-members of this group would explore further with the (I believe) still-running band of fellow New York arty-smarties, Gamelan Son of Lion.
I just wish I could see these instruments. I could only find one photo (right), and no videos. Despite their academic background, this is fun stuff, not just self-indulgent banging around - hence, not a completely unlikely companion to the Hot Shots. The track "Inside the Compound" is even a kind of mutant blues. An excellent album that should have had greater distribution. This was a cassette-only release. So, yeah, this file is taken from a tape, but still sounds pretty good.
