Category: Music

Living Breathing Hot Links

How The Whale Became

25 September has been designated “National One Hit Wonder Day,” a tribute to the artists and bands that made it into the Top 40 only once. Here’s a list.

Here’s one of my favorite One Hit Wonders. Too retro? Try this one.

Astounding: The real story behind The Sound of Music and The Von Trapp Family.

Interactive Street View map of 1850-2000 San Francisico has some cool photos of historic buildings and streetscapes [via].

The Dancing Straw Hats [via].

Armadillo messes with a dog.

A friend posted this elsewhere:

Found a cool website the other day. Shortwave radio stations from around the world. You can dial in the frequency you want on any of the radios. I found a station called UVB-76 otherwise known as “The Buzzer”. It sends out a buzz tone repeatedly 24/7. Once in a while numbers are spoken in Russian. It’s been broadcasting since 1982 and no one knows why. (frequency 4625 kHz)
http://www.websdr.org/

Ted Hughes’ “How the Whale Became” is a children’s book I never read, but it was made into an opera, and the opera had an official trailer. [Top image from here. More info here.]

BONUS STUFF BELOW THE BREAK Continue reading “Living Breathing Hot Links”

Saturday Matinee – The Leopards, Danny Rockabilly, Char & Tomoyasu Hotei with Brian Setzer

The Leopards are from Finland. They appreciate tight skirts, Rat Rods and Rockabilly, but not in that order.
Annastiina Virmavirta – voc, bass
Aleksi Manninen – guitar
Paulo Poverini – drums

Danny Rockabilly and His Clan are from Budapest and they’re entirely awesome. From his FaceBook page:

Üdvözlök mindenkit a zenekar oldalán!
A nevem Danny Rockabilly! Sok próbálkozás után egy fix zenekar egyben tarása helyett, úgy döntöttem, hogy csinálok egyet fix tagok nélkül. így lehetőségem nyílik zenélni olyan emberekkel, és barátaimmal, akik tényleg szeretik, és szenvedéllyel játszák a Rockabillyt! Ez az én Klánom! Remélem élvezni fogjátok a zenét amit nektek játszunk, és hamarosan találkozunk a koncertjeinken! Folyamatosan töltünk fel képeket és videókat a munkánkról! Kellemes időtöltést kívánunk az oldalunkon!

That says it all. So what’s left? THIS:

Char and Tomoyasu Hotei jammed with Brian Setzer on a cover of Eddie Cochran‘s 1958 hit “C’mon Everybody” in 2009. Shredding starts at about 00:02:20. Wait for it.

Have a great weekend, folks. We’re gonna have some fun.

Saturday Matinee – Dancing In The Street

Martha & The Vandellas‘ 1964 hit “Dancing In The Street” has staying power, and was covered by many, including The Mamas & The Papas (1966):

Gah! See how long you can stand it. (At least Mama Cass did the Mash Potato.) Sixteen years later, it was covered by Van Halen (1982):

Holy crap. That was actually worse than the Mamas & Papas’ version. It wasn’t until David Bowie and Mick Jagger got together to do a halfway decent video cover (1985):

You don’t need to watch that full video either – it’s only posted for those who have never seen it and to restore faded memories for the rest of us. All that preening and prancing takes away from the original, but finally there’s an excellent stripped-down studio cut version, vocals only (2016):

Martha Reeves is laughing her JaggerBowie off about now.

Tip ‘o the Tam to Octopus for the heads-up on the strip-down. Have a great weekend folks. See you back here tomorrow for more suffrage.

Saturday Matinee – Subconscious Herd Mentality, THE Rope Trick, Kim Wilson & The Fabulous Thunderbirds (plus Flight 93 Trailer)

Herd mentality experiment [via].
That explains a lot.

This is THE rope trick [via]. Now let’s rock and roll.

Kim Wilson has always amazed me. One of the best blues harp players around, Wilson doesn’t get the recognition he deserves, IMO. I’m no slouch on a Hohner chromatic with a Ham Radio bullet mic, but I sure as hell can’t pull off what he does.

Kim Wilson & The Fabulous Thunderbirds (featuring Jimmy Vaughan) jam with Stevie Ray Vaughan in a tribute to Ray Charles‘ classic “What’d I Say” circa 1984.

Have a great weekend, folks, and remember to put your Flag out on Sunday if only for the passengers and crew of Flight 93.

Saturday Matinee – Heavy Slabs in Tasmania, Puddles Painting Party, Manualist Extraordinaire & Fishbone

August 2016 – “Tasmania’s most famous wave comes to life to launch the Australian winter with a roar. When the southern hemisphere starts to rumble and shake under the weight of wild winter weather, The Stern, out there on the south-eastern tip of Tasmania, bears the full brunt of the conditions.”

[Found here.]

Found here. Yeah, it’s cool for the first minute or so, but hey. I’d rather watch this guy’s stuff.

Dude is awesome.

One of my all time ska favorites. Fishbone kicks it in 2013.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Flatulant Hot Links of The Hoity Toity

Star Trek Farts

Yeah, right.

Do the Madison. Now do the Tighten Up. Now do The Frank Sinatra – eight ball in the side pocket. C’mon people now. It’s Hully Gully Callin’ Time.

I’m guilty of it, and my dad did it to me, too.
This is what Dads are for.

“From Fu Hao to Joan of Arc to Rear Adm. Grace Hopper and beyond, women have played decisive roles in military affairs since the dawn of history.” Who was the greatest woman in military history? USNI wants to know.

I met Myldred Jones. She had been the highest ranking woman in the Navy ( Lt. Commander) but I didn’t know it at the time. All I knew was that she ran a shelter for teens in trouble, was planning to build a 2-story residence for runaways on the adjacent property, and seemed like a nice little old lady. I was just a year or so out of the midwest, so was polite and respectful. I don’t recall exactly what I said, but her response was, “Cut the crap. This is business.”

Check out who’s under cyber attack and from where. Live map.

The Runaways. Yeah, I got it, but I liked this song better.

Please return your seat to its upright position.

Sam Kinison‘s version of Wild Thing was better than the original.

[Top image from here.]

 

Saturday Matinee – “Olymic Sailing,” The Olympics & The Jive Five

Oh yes he does, you Manc poofter. He knows exactly what he’s talking about. “Olymic” indeed.

The Olympics sounded like every other group that performed a Leiber & Stoller song and then faded away to oblivion, but they didn’t.  Let’s do the HullyGully.

The Jive Five did a song called “Hully-Gully Callin’ Time” that was cool, but this was probably their biggest hit.

Her name was Suki, his name was Jack or Bob or something. Yeah, I love that stuff, even if it’s a crappy video with poor sound quality.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you tomorrow, same Bunk Time, same Bunk Channel.

Saturday Matinee – John Prine (and CSN&Y)

That was the first John Prine song I ever heard, and I heard it before I knew who John Prine was, er, I mean is. (The first time I heard his name was in an introduction to a song the late Steve Goodman performed (and co-wrote with Prine) that he described as an attempt to write the best country song ever.)

Prine’s song “Souvenirs” is one of my favorites, it’s been covered by more than a few, and I may have posted it here before.

And here’s another Prine classic performed with Iris DeMent.

“So, Bunk why all these sad sentimental songs?” you ask?

Iron Fist passed away last night, and although I never met him (we only “knew” each other on the internet), his struggle to live reminded me of my own father’s demise last year. These songs are for Mrs. Fist, aka Velvet Glove.

I suppose the meaning of life is to enjoy the company of those who are still around. Rock on, my friends.

“Life ain’t no-how permanent, son.” –Pogo

Saturday Matinee – Brazil, The Olympics, Jackie Phelps & Jimmy Riddle, and Tuba Skinny

I was looking for a live performance of “Brazil” (perhaps by Xavier Cugat) to commemorate the Competitions of the Grecian Gods, but instead we must settle for The Theme Song to Terry Gilliam’s Brazil as performed by Geoffrey Muldaur. He was famous for marrying Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D’Amato who recorded some popular songs in 1973 about putting camels to bed, and another one about feeling her leg.

There’s no live performance for that one, so I looked for some more Olympics-themed stuff.

The Olympics sound a lot like another Lieber & Stoller product to me, but so what.

Yep. There be the Olympians of Eefin’ and Hambone, Jimmy Riddle & Jackie Phelps.

Let’s go back to Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D’Amato (aka Maria Muldaur) and the leg feeling stuff. What a sultry voice.

This version by Tuba Skinny is a bit closer to Blue Lu Barker’s 1946 original.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff that’s too hot to handle and too cold to hold.

Subcutaneous Hot Links

Corcoran Student Artwork

More women have baby faces on their knees than we thought.

#WhenIWasYourAge is amusing as far as Twitter hashtags go.

Pit bulls in flowers.

Children of Darkness and the institutions they live in. [This program contains language and sequences some viewers may find disturbing.]

Classic clip from The Prisoner: No. 6 chased by “Rover.”

A Rainbomb explained: “When the faucet really flips on, air can blast out of the sky at more than 115 miles per hour.” So there you go.

Canelo, el Mono Aullador más grande de la Senda Verde. Dare you to turn your speakers up and listen to the entire song.

“…rich, expansive and uniquely integrated academic curricula grounded in real-world experiences.” –A Quote from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design Graduate Studies webpage. [Example of a Corcoran student’s work above, with quote, found here.]