Saturday Matinee – Stop-Motion Pumpkin Carving, Dangerous Dinner, The Growlers & Bite The Buffalo

Stop-motion pumpkin carving is awesome. Many gourds sacrificed their lives [via].

“If you steal the kill, and nobody is hurt, that’s when you can relax.”

Hunting without killing is ballsy as all get out. Psych out the predators and steal their stuff before they figure out what’s going on and they kill you [via].

The Growlers is an excellent name for an excellent semi-retro band. I love ’em.

Bite The Buffalo is an excellent name for an excellent semi-retro band. I love ’em.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll do something different tomorrow. Or not.

Saturday Matinee – Teensy Weensy Weaponry, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, John Lee Hooker w/ Carlos Santana, Paul Butterfield, Elvin Bishop, Etta James & others

Small firearm demonstration [via].

One of the greatest spaghetti western themes ever, composed Ennio Morricone, performed live by the The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and conducted by Sarah Hicks.

John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana, Paul Butterfield, Etta James and others, live at The Fillmore West, San Francisco on 18 July1986 [via]. I think that’s Elvin Bishop stepping in about 00:06:40.

Have a great weekend, folks, see you back here tomorrow for other inane stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Prancercise®1989, Cow Catcher, Lindsay Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood & Someone Who Sounds Exactly Like Howlin’ Wolf

“Check out the Prancercise Website Here: http://www.prancercise.com This video shows the 4 modes of Prancercise® .You can visit me at http://www.prancercise.com where you can learn more about Prancercise®: “A springy, rhythmic way of moving forward, similar to a horse’s gait and is ideally induced by elation.” copyright 1989, taken from my book Prancercise®:The Art of Physical and Spiritual Excellence, now available to the public for the first time!”

Good God. How embarrassing. And hilarious [via].

Awesome. I want to know the size of her pet door [via].

Lindsay Buckingham got fired from Fleetwood Mac and I don’t know why. I also don’t care.
[Somewhat related Beat Farmers recording here.]

I don’t care about Mick Fleetwood either, but he was/is one hella talent.

Cadillac in the Swamp is a torrid, steaming album, powered by the gutsy, powerful songwriting and singing of harpist Anthony Thompson. Smokehouse reworks the deep, swampy groove of New Orleans and Delta blues, adding the electric energy of Chicago blues. Thompson is a raw, greasy harmonica player, evoking the classic licks of Little Walter. He’s not as good a singer — his range is quite limited — but he is a forceful and emotional vocalist and he’s one hell of a songwriter; unlike many of his contemporaries, he is not afraid of tackling big social issues. Guitarist Robert Thomas is equally impressive, spitting out firey solos and muscular riffs throughout the record. That musical dexterity and sinewy energy shines throughout Cadillac in the Swamp, a first-rate modern blues album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AMG Enjoy !!!

I don’t know where that recording came from, but it sounds a lot like Howlin’ Wolf to me. Nasty blues with a very cool video.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll be back here 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 – 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.

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 – 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.

[Note: Facebook no longer supports WordPress Publicize connections to Facebook Profiles. Facebook Zucks.]

Saturday Matinee – Howlers, Howlers, Howlers, etc.

Very cool trio from Williams, Arizona, not to be confused with the Midnight Howlers of Madera, California.

Very cool trio from unknown regions, not to be confused with Ivory Joe & the Midnight Howlers of Nashville, Tennessee.

Very cool party band from Nashville, Tennessee, not to be confused with the inane and expensive Halloween costume called the Midnight Howler.

Inane and expensive Halloween costume called the Midnight Howler, not to be confused with Midnight Howler.

Okay, I’ll stop. Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here in a few short hours.