Category: Music

Saturday Matinee – Fishbone, Ry Cooder & Justin Johnson

Fishbone was, and is, one of the tightest high-speed ska bands I ever heard. [The above is dedicated to Professor Christine Ford, whose evil testimony under oath has been proven to be fabricated in order to impune the character of an innocent man.]

One of the best slide guitar players in the business. Ry Cooder‘s 1988 swamp rock take on Elvis‘ “All Shook Up” was awesome.

Killer stuff from Justin Johnson. Turn it up. It’s the musical equivalent to stress on the 405 through L.A. at rush hour and I love it.

Have a great weekend, folks, see you back here after I tear up my kitchen tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – The Castaways, The Knickerbockers, Three Dog Night and The Wrecks

AKA “The Song The Beatles Forgot To Write.” The Knickerbockers (from New Jersey) were a derivative band, had a 1965 hit with “Lies.”

The Castaways had their only hit single “Liar, Liar” in 1965 also, but, hey. They had a Go-Go-Girl. Just sayin’.

Classic 70’s song from Three Dog Night perfomed circa 2008.

Then there’s this, and I like it. The Wrecks jam it.

The worst sin in the world is to bear false witness against an innocent person. In my case, it made the local papers. I’ve been there, been accused of horrible crimes with no evidence.  I couldn’t leave my apartment, didn’t have money to defend myself, and all the allegations were EVENTUALLY determined to be false, made up by some school girls for kicks. Their story broke down under interrogation.

Have a great weekend, folks, and I hope you’re never accused of crimes you never comitted.

Saturday Matinee – Petting an Octopus, David Byrne, Cab Calloway & The Rutles

He might not realize it, but the octopus is tasting him. [Found here, via here.]

Everybody’s coming to David Byrne‘s house. Everybody. [via].

Nice lip synch & choreography to Cab Calloway‘s December1948 recording of “Everybody Eats When They Come To My House.” (Everybody eats, except for one guy).

Okay so now we’ve got a food theme going.

The Rutles were one great parody band (perhaps surpassed by but even that is arguable). The album “All You Need Is Cash” is so spot-on that those who don’t know it was a hoax think it’s the real Fab Four Try it. It really sounds like a Beatles Greatest Hits compilation.

Dylan Hears A Who is awesome, also. Lemme know if you want a .zip file that includes the CD liner notes.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow when we’ll discuss unprovable allegations from over 30 years ago attempting to destroy an honorable man’s career, family and life by people who have no ethics and want to eradicate the U.S. Constitution by fiat.

That octopus is awesome.

Saturday Matinee – Les Claypool & Buckethead, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Frank Zappa and the Ensemble Modern & Spike Jones

I could do without the silly mask gimmicks, but Les Claypool and Buckethead jam it down your throat. Sounds like it was partially derived from an old Zappa groove.

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones are nothing less than amazing. “Sinister Minister” was performed at Mountain Jam VII on 3 June 2011.

This is reported to have been Frank Zappa’s last public performance, directing the Ensemble Modern, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany, 17 September 1992. Zappa died less than two years later, days shy of his 53rd birthday. From the UToob link:

It was his last professional public appearance, as the cancer was spreading to such an extent that he was in too much pain to enjoy an event that he otherwise found “exhilarating”. Recordings from the concerts appeared on The Yellow Shark, Zappa’s last release during his lifetime.

And now for something completely different.

Have  a great weekend, folks, see you back here tomorrow.

 

Saturday Matinee – The Marshall Tucker Band, Sam The Sham & James “Super Chikan” Johnson

In the late 70s, there was a shift away from hard rock, pop, disco, and other over-produced gag-inducing genres, and I took a liking to Country Rock Jazz fusion. The Marshall Tucker Band caught my ear with “The Last of the Singing Cowboys,” one of the prettiest songs ever written, featuring one of the greatest country rock vocalists ever: Doug Gray (and yeah, that’s one silly-ass hat on the guitar player.)

Domingo “Sam” Samudio is still live and howlin’ in this vid from 2000. IIRC, Sam took his nic “The Sham” because he only knew 3 chords. “Little Red Riding Hood” is probably my favorite STSATP song – even in elementary school we got the innuendo. “Oh, That’s Good” was fun due to our juvenile misinterpretation of the lyrics: “He operated on my 3rd leg…”

Okay, um, let’s move on.

Never heard of James “Super Chikan” Johnson? Crank it up.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for more inanity.

One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple Hot Links

Dude’s tired. Literally.

The Oogum Boogum Song.

From The Don’t-Touch-It Department:
Man touches it and is fined $1,500.

Brilliant *ahem* political analyses from Thing 1 and Thing 2.

I went to WalMart to buy drugs. I stuck around because I heard this.

Joey DaPrince hears Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the first time.

Mongolian throat singing AND eefing is one scary combination [h/t Octopus].

Lemon Merangue on the Window Sill is 20 minutes of pure insanity with cicadas [h/t Octopus].

Brooklyn Judge LaShann Moutique DeArcy Hall instructed new citizens to disrespect the United States Flag and the National Anthem during a citizenship ceremony. Puke.

Mr. Smith from Bangalore India warns that your Barclays debit card may spontaneously combust “and create a pocket fire at any given moment, burning your legs and stomach terribly.”

Fun Facts To Know And Tell:
Shelby Fredrick “Sheb” Wooley (1921-2003)

Recorded the 1958 No. 1 hit “The Purple People Eater.”
Recorded many songs as Ben Colder.
Was a character actor with roles in High Noon, The Outlaw Josie Wales and many other movies.
Co-starred as scout Pete Nolan in the TV series Rawhide.
Credited as the voice behind the Wilhelm scream stock sound effect heard in hundreds of movies and countless TV shows, but received no royalties from it.

[Top image – Jacky Ke Jiang. I love the style.]

[Confidential to Randy L. – Thanks for your generous contribution.]

Saturday Matinee – Captain Beefheart, BeauSoleil & George Thorogood

Complete Captain Beefheart concert, possibly in Toronto 1974 [via]. I saw CB and his Magic Band live in the early 80s at The [famous but now defunct] Golden Bear in Huntington Beach California. Bizarre tribal rhythmical poetry during his “Bat Chain Puller” tour.

BeauSoleil undated and completely awesome.

George Thorogood‘s vid from 1982 included cameos by pool sharp Wiilie Mosconi and the late great Bo Diddley.

Have a great Labor Day weekend, folks.

Saturday Matinee – The Archers of Loaf, The Axis of Awesome, Zappa & Santana

Archers of Loaf. Great 3-chord rock. According to Wiki, they disbanded, reformed, broke up and now reorganized before disappearing completely.

In 2009, The Axis of Awesome discovered the secret 4-chord progression required to make a hit record.

Zappa’s “Variations on the Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression” is a classic. Unfortunately the video is not an actual performance, but a compilation of images pasted over the music. So what. I still like it. We’ll let Carlos Santana have the last word.

Woodstock put Carlos Santana on the map in 1969. Great jam.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow and we’ll mess around with stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Cyriak, Zappa, Traffic & Aretha Franklin

Cyriak outdoes himself creepy-wise, with “Indigestion.” [Found here.]

Frank Zappa‘s final live performance (with backup by Pražský výběr) 1991, Prague, Czechoslovakia, shortly after the collapse of the USSR. Long intro, but worth the listen.

Traffic, 1971. We played their albums in college so often that if you held the vinyl to a light you could see through the grooves.

A great cultural icon passed on this week. She possessed one of the greatest voices in the business, singing and performing gospel, blues, R&B, jazz, soul and pop. Multiple generations grew up listening to her recordings, myself included.

What a natural. Only 22 years old in 1964, and she was already amazing. Respect indeed.
R.I.P. Aretha Franklin (1942-2018).

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Byron Ferguson, Raúl Malo & The Mavericks, Merle Haggard, The Big Town Playboys with Jeff Beck

“The center of an aspirin tablet is the exact same size as the center of a beach ball.” – Master Archer Byron Ferguson.
[Found here. Not sure what the target distance is, but it’s still impressive.]

The Mavericks (Raúl Malo / vocals, guitar; Paul Deakin / drums; Jerry Dale McFadden / keyboards, vocals; Eddie Perez / guitar) crank out some big band boogie woogie in Austin, 2004. It’s a cover of Merle Haggard‘s classic 1966 country hit “The Bottle Let Me Down.”

 

Let’s go one more. In 1993, British retrobilly band The Big Town Playboys teamed up with Jeff Beck to record “Crazy Legs,” a collection of Gene Vincent songs. Here’s what happened:

Have a great weekend, folks.
See you back here tomorrow, same Bat Time, same Bat Channel.

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