Saturday Matinee – Vargas Blues Band, The Smoke Wagon Blues Band & Los Mambo Jambo Arkestra

Vargas Blues Band: “Javier Vargas was born in Madrid Spain shortly after his parents had left Buenos Aires where they had migrated some years before. Nine years later, the family returned to Argentina, and it is there where Javier started playing the guitar. In the 70’s, he lived in Nashville and L.A. playing the clubs and working recording sessions. He played with and impressed the likes of Alvin Lee, Roy Buchanan and Canned Heat, who also influenced his style.”

Formed in 1996 in Hamilton, Ontario, The Smoke Wagon Blues Band plays original roots blues rock in a variety of styles. They have won several Maple Blues Awards (Canada) and Independent Blues Awards (US), with albums scoring high on the charts in Canada, the US and Australia.

Los Mambo Jambo Arkestra is a Spanish instrumental rock & roll and rhythm & blues quartet-plus based in Barcelona. They don’t have an active website, but their Bandcamp page says that they’re “a crazy mix between power energy R&B and insane 50’s rock to create the one and only Jambophonic sound.

News of the Week: Iran’s still dicking around and repercussions are imminent. Someone leaked info about US weapons stockpiles. There’s some Asian longhorned tick talk about a nairovirus, three bigass cyclones in the Pacific, and the UN voted to enlarge the size of Africa on maps because the country of Togo said to. (The US voted “gfys.”)
Another three day weekend is upon us, and one of the highlights is Porch Time. Bring. It. On.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 971 – Instant Service, Sniff the Cat & Yelling in Japanese

[2nd & 3rd found here and here. Lost the link to Dick’s sign.]

Apocalypse Food

This machine was found inside an abandoned underground cold food storage facility by urban explorers who documented the discoveries during an expedition into the derelict complex. From Grok:

The facility is the former Americold underground warehouse (a converted limestone mine) in Kansas City, Kansas. It was once described as the world’s largest underground cold-storage facility. A fire started there on December 28, 1991, and burned for months; at the time it held about 245 million pounds of food. Large sections were later abandoned and left to decay.

[Found here, more pics here.]

Graveyard of Molds

Littering the field behind the workshop of giant-building firm Fiberglass Animals, Shapes, and Trademarks (FAST) is an eerie collection of titanic molds, left over from almost every job they’ve ever done. FAST specializes in creating giant, eye-grabbing figures and items, the likes of which one might see outside of kitschy roadside restaurants and gas stations across the country. After a job, the company keeps the mold and stores it in the field out back. Now there are hundreds of giant, unpainted forms scattered all across the lot in every imaginable variety and shape.

[Found in here; more images & story here.  Click images to zoom.]

JIMOTHY

[Jimothy the Raccoon plushie found here, h/t Pam M.]

Retrobots

[From ROBOTS: Tin Toy Dreams, 1985, Teruhisa Kitahara Collection, found here.]

Indehiscent Hot Links

Un dimanche (Jubivillad), Kurt Seligmann, 1938.

Jamaica Ska, Byron Lee & The Dragonaires (1964) Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee formed the Dragonaires while attending St. George’s College in the early 1950s. Originally playing mento Jamaican music, they expanded into calypso, soca, rock steady, reggae and ska. Their recording of Jamaica Ska was covered by Fishbone (with Annette Funicello) in the 1987 schlock comedy Back to the Beach.

Dee’s.

Tater.

Buttons.

Flocking.

VW Trailer.

The Crusher.

Finding Ernie.

The carbon race.

Medical artwork.

Bulbs and tubes.

Pretty DemSocs.

Cyriak’s Sea Life.

The Whiz Monster.

RIP Yayoi Kusama.

Helen and Marilyn.

Eleven Implosions.

CNN’s Greatest Hits.

A bunch of bouncing balls.

Claymation sculpting timelapse.

Unexpected visitors [via Everlasting Blört].

Boys just want to have fun [via Thompson, blog].

Interactive Tibetan monastery bunkroom [via Memo Of The Air].

[Top image found here: Un dimanche (Jubivillad), Kurt Seligmann, 1938.]

Saturday Matinee – Philip Sayce, John Primer & Fleetwood Mac

Philip Sayce is a Welsh-born American / Canadian guitarist, singer, songwriter,  producer and performer. At 16, Sayce began playing in Toronto clubs, eventually joined Jeff Healey‘s band in 1997, and toured with him for over three years before joining Uncle Kracker. A year and a half later he was backing Melissa Etheredge… and on and on and on.

John Primer was born in 1945 to a family of dirt-poor Mississippi sharecroppers. His story is a true rags-to-riches saga, going from singing work songs and gospel, to playing diddley bow, then guitar. When he turned 18 in 1963 he moved to Chicago, busking at the legendary Maxwell Street market alongside blues superstars and others just breaking into the blues scene. The Blues Hall of Fame artist and three-time Grammy Nominee is still performing at 81 years.
[More in Wiki.]

Fleetwood Mac, the early years. “All our wealth and we can’t make a single that sounds as good as Green Manalishi“. ~John Lennon

Breaking News: Dolly Parton and Tim Curry have moved on. DJT announced a crude oil deal with Venezuela, and then pissed off the Canadians again. The US is sending aid to Nepal after the disastrous ice, mud & rock flood. Joro spiders are coming to gitcha, and our heatwave needs to move out and get a job somewhere else. There’s much more, but it can wait until quarter past porchtime. See you tomorrow.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 970 – Horizontal Control, Bimbo’s Initiation & All Frequencies

The second was culled from Bimbo’s Initiation (1931).
[Found here, here and here.]

Check Engine

That’s a first-generation Pontiac Vibe (2003–2008). In its basic version, the 2007 Vibe was the most fuel-efficient model of General Motors in North America. [Found here.]