Category: Retro & Vintage

Saturday Matinee – Rats & Star, Oh!Sharels & Shelly Trip Realize

Rats & Star (ラッツ&スター, Rattsu ando Sutā), formerly called Chanels, was a Japanese pop group that specialized in R&B & soul music… in blackface. Good stuff otherwise. {Had to update the vid. Original was sent to the YouTube gulag.]

Oh!Sharels is also Japanese and also do some nice retro covers, like this 1959 hit by the Flamingos (which was a cover of the song from 1934).

How ’bout some Japanese rockabilly? Not sure just what to make of  Shelly (aka Shelly Trip Realize, aka Tinc), but the band rocks.

Have a great weekend or something. See you back here tomorrow for stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Thomas and Brian Owens, Barbara Lynn Ozen & Clarence Gatemouth Brown (Plus Rare Damone Ramone Audio)

Such a pretty cover of Sam Cooke’s 1964 classic “A Change Is Gonna Come” by Brian Owens and his father. (Cooke was singing about the Civil Rights Act and the repeal of Democrat Jim Crow Laws. The white people in that audience are embarrassing to watch.)

Barbara Lynn Ozen cranked some cool Ray Charles, left-handed, on a 1966 TV show called The !!!! Beat.

Here’s a cool convergence. The house band for The !!!! Beat was led by Clarence Gatemouth Brown.

Brown was one of those rare musicians who could play the hell out of a 16d nail if you told him it was a musical instrument, and he had one tight band.

A TACKY RACCOONS EXCLUSIVE

This is a “found” recording ostensibly from Damone Ramone‘s only public performance (Burma, 1979) performed on sewing machines, and sent to us by the 5th Ramone himself.

Have a great weekend folks. Stick around for more stuff.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 619 – Sleight Of Hand, One Capful At A Time & In The Park

[Found here and here and here. 2nd one courtesy of Carl L.]

Rum Runners 1920s

In October 1919, Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, overriding a veto by President Woodrow Wilson. And so began the so-called noble experiment of Prohibition.

[Found here.]

Highlights For Hot Links


Post your answers in the comments section below.

Jurassic Park sweded [via].

99 years ago this happened.

THIS made me smile [sound up].

The best Christmas present of his life.

The Guide To Baby Sleep Positions [via].

Earliest Known Customer Complaint “Letter” (ca. 1750 BC ).

A Slime Mold Solves A Maze [vid].

Analysis Of How A Slime Mold Solves A Maze [.pdf].

The Analysis Of How A Slime Mold Solves A Maze uses the differential form of Grönwall’s lemma (proven in 1919 by a guy named Grönwall).

From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago.

[Top image found here.]

Mere months after Donald Trump was inaugurated, the author of that blog managed to politicize Highlights For Children. “I am a collage artist whose work has focused on examining social fictions whether politically, gender-based, or race by deconstructing the vast cultural clutter of mid-century America.” LOL.

Saturday Matinee – Ismael Sanz-Pena, Ricky Syers, Taj Mahal & ZZ Top


Persistence of Vision III is an awesome vid by Ismael Sanz-Pena  [h/t Mme. Jujujive].

Cool artistry, cool story, and Ricky Syers is interesting.

The legendary Taj Mahal & The Phantom Blues Band covered Bill Doggett‘s 1956 hit Honky Tonk “filmed at Yoshi’s SF grand opening.” (Yoshi’s had grand openings in 1972, 1979, 1985 & 1997, so take your pick.)

ZZ Top is one of the greatest 3-man blues-rock freight trains ever, and here they are in their prime.

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll be back here tomorrow, rain or shinola.

The 1968 Dustbuster Manta

“Built from Bizzarrini parts, the Manta was one of Giorgetto Giugiaro’s first independent designs as an independent consultant. He used it to promote and launch Ital Design in Turin. The Manta is remarkable as it was built up from an ex-Le Mans racer and it is one of the first cars the world to use a triple seat arrangement.

Inside the cockpit is an odd layout that seats the driver in the middle of the interior with a passenger on either side. The idea was copied from a Ferrari 365 prototype built in 1965 and it was later, more popularly revived with the mighty McLaren F1. With three people seated side-by-side it must be a particularly tight squeeze as much of the available passenger foot space is occupied by intrusive wheel wells.”

[Images found here. More about the 1968 Bizzarrini Manta here.]

Head (bread, kneaded)

[From Hans Prinzhorn’s Artistry of the Mentally Ill (1922).]

Saturday Matinee – Boogie Woogie Piano (featuring Ladyva, Stephan Ulbricht, Danilo Cristaldi, Luca Sestak & Johan Blohm), Terry Miles, Bradley and McKinley & Commander Cody

That’s some brutal stuff to play, and I like it. None of those players are reading sheet music and don’t need to stare at the keys. I never learned piano, but the ambidextriousity of it all amazes me.

That’s Terry Miles on the 88s, and apparently the girl in the checkers is his daughter. Security Goon tried to stop the fun. (Here’s another fun romp.)

Will Bradley, Ray McKinley & Freddie Slack had some fun back then. At 01:15 is the WB/RMc logo on the bass drum. Not sure, but that might be a cameo by Slim Gaillard at 02:36.

Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen covered Bradley & McKinley’s “Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar” in 1977. Here’s a more recent vid.

Some might dismiss it as geezer rock, but it’s actually pre-pre-geezer. The style dates to the 1890s.

Don’t touch that dial, stay tuned & have a great weekend, folks.

 

The Dorque of WTF

Arthur William Patrick Albert, aka Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, circa 1874.
That photo wasn’t good enough for him, so he upped the ante.

Yeah. That rocks. Much better.

[Found here.]