Category: Saturday Matinee

Saturday Matinee – Miss Tess, J.D. McPherson & 2 DooWop Documentaries

Miss Tess & The Bon Ton Parade perform “That Oo Oo Oo” in October 2009. According to the Utoobage comments, she’s playing an electrified 1920 Weymann archtop. This is early morning roadtrip music for me. I love it.

J.D. McPherson at Sun Studios 2014. Jump to 02:30 for kickass rockabilly.

Doowop wasn’t called “Doowop” until the 60s or so, so here’s a Rhythm & Blues Documentary instead. Yeah it’s  kinda sucky, so try this:

Have a great weekend folks, and remember that this three-day weekend is not a holiday honoring BBQs and bloviating politicians.

Memorial Day honors those who gave their lives in the name of Freedom.

Saturday Matinee – Mock Lobster, Mountain Of Dinosaurs & Spirit Family Revival

Mock Lobster by the Bit52s is very cool [via].

Mountain of Dinosaurs [Rasa Strautmane, USSR 1967] was an anti-soviet propaganda film. Watch it for the nuances before you read the following.

The short warns about what happens if powerful stewards meant to care for individuals actually stifle those they are charged to protect. Dinosaurs didn’t die because of climate change, the short says, but because their eggs became so thick-shelled in response to colder temperatures that the baby dinosaurs couldn’t hatch. The shells (yes, the eggshells speak) mindlessly drone that they are doing their “duty,” but by growing thicker and thicker they kill the nascent sauropods. The scene is the saddest dinosaur cartoon I’ve ever seen, and it seems to be a metaphor for the Soviet government suppressing the rights of individual citizens. Indeed, the death of dinosaurs was not only used by Americans to issue dire warnings — they are an international symbol of extinction.

Brian Switek

Heavy stuff is neither to be ignored nor swept under the rug, IMO.

So let’s lighten it up a tad instead.

The Spirit Family Reunion plays “Come On/Anna” in a bus. Nice roadtrip music, even if they play it at 11.

Have a great weekend, folks, and be sure to hug your mother on Sunday.

Saturday Matinee – Teeth, Shocking Blue & Postmodern Jukebox’ Greatest Hits Mashup

Teeth [via].

Shocking Blue had an almost invisible drummer, and here they are *ahem* playing their hit “Venus” in 1969. I never knew they were from the Netherlands until this posting.

The song’s a ripoff of “The Banjo Song” recorded circa 1963 by The Big Three (featuring a young Ellen Naomi Cohen, aka Mama Cass). They co-opted and renamed Stephen Foster’s “Oh! Susannah,” one of the most popular minstrel songs of the late 1800s. Fun facts to know and tell.

Postmodern Jukebox did a one-take mashup of their greatest covers, and it’s pure awesome.

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ve got more inane stuff in the queue.

Saturday Matinee – Carol Kaye, Tal Wilkenfeld & Jeff Beck, Jaco Pastorius, and Some Guys Jamming “Mercy Mercy Mercy.”

You’ve probably never heard OF Carol Kaye, but you have certainly heard her music, especially on bass. Pure awesome.

Tal Wilkinfeld & Jeff Beck 2009(?).

Jaco Pastorius was brilliant on bass, but had serious mental problems.

Mercy Mercy Mercy. This jam cranks, but that can’t be  Stanley Jordan on bass (or guitar, or any other instrument) despite the Utoobage description, yet someone was playing a 6-string bass…

Have a great weekend, folks. Rock on.

Saturday Matinee – Chet Atkins & Les Paul, RT & The 44s, Orquesta de Instrumentos Reciclados, and Bob Lyons

Chet Atkins & Les Paul Limehouse Blues 1978. Wait for the end – Atkins shows that he was playing a fold-up guitar.

Using instruments crafted from tin, 2×4’s and salvaged parts, RT has stated that RT N’ THE 44s was born out of “an attempt to make listenable music from junk.” [Wiki]

[h/t to Anachronistic Decay.]

Here’s a related video from La armonía del vertedero – Orquesta de Instrumentos Reciclados de Cateura de Paraguay:

My late Uncle Bunk had what he called a “BoomBass” that consisted of a cookie tin nailed to a 2×3 with a single wire on a bridge that ran up to a fretboard, with tambourine thingys on the top and a spring peg on the bottom. You played it by banging it on the floor and hitting the wire with a notched dowel.  It was also painted very nicely, and someone I know still has it.

Besides the diddley bow, my favorite instrument that began as junk salvage:  the steel pan drum.

Bob Lyons plays Jason Mraz’s reggae-ish hit on steel drums in Wellington, Florida December 2009

Have a great weekend, folks, and remember, no man can eat 50 eggs, Easter or not.

 

Saturday Matinee Bonus Track – Ray Wylie Hubbard

Almost forgot about this one, sent in by Russ via the mojo wire.  Here’s an hour and a half of Ray Wylie Hubbard.

Saturday Matinee – Lecil Travis Martin, Steve Goodman & Little Isidore

Boxcar

Boxcar Willie’s “Winds Of Yesterday” is pretty cool ol’ country.

Don’t laugh. Steve Goodman was the author of the greatest train song ever, except for the one by Tiny Bradshaw.

Not sure where we’re going with this, so let’s go retro with Little Isidor and The Inquisitors.

Have a great weekend, folks, and be careful goin’ home.

Saturday Matinee – Postmodern Jukebox, Oh!Sharels & Molly Sue Gonzalez

Postmodern Jukebox (featuring The Tee-Tones) does Pitbull‘s & Keisha‘s “Timber” in doowop style, and we love it.

Couldn’t make it through the original version. Then we thought we’d look for some recent retro bands and found this.

Japanese girl group Oh!Sharels cover the Chords’ 1954 classic Sh-Boom.

Contrary to popular belief, doowop (aka R&B aka Rhythm & Blues) was not the only form of early rock and roll, so let’s kick it up with some Retrobilly.

Molly Sue Gonzalez (And The Mean Mean Men) “Bad Example” is just the thing to wrap up this edition of The Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend folks, be back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Willie Dixon and a Big Wad of Blues

Sister Rosetta Tharpe‘s  version of “Didn’t It Rain” (Manchester, England in 1964). She exemplified the musical connection between gospel, blues and rock and roll. The song first appeared as piano sheet music in 1927, but I’d guess it dates to the 1800s [h/t Bunkessa].

What a treasure trove this is [via]. In the early 1960s The Blues was largely ignored in the U.S., yet many classic artists found a receptive audience  in Britain. From the Utoobage description:

“Recorded live for TV broadcast throughout Britain, these historic performances have been unseen for nearly 40 years. Filmed with superb camera work and pristine sound, 14 complete performances and 4 bonus performances are included by Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Lonnie Johnson, Big Joe Williams, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Joe Turner, Junior Wells, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.”

Spotted Willie Dixon on bass in that vid, so let’s post this:

Yeah, he stuttered in real life, yet Dixon wrote and performed an incredible amount of classic blues tunes.

This compilation should hold you for a while. Have a great weekend, folks, and may you never be nervous.

Saturday Matinee – Cats In The Kitchen, The Cleverlys & The Fenians

Jurassic Park with cats [via].

Gangnam Style, Y’all. The Cleverlys crank it (complete with some eefin’ at about 03:20).  [via]

There’s no point in posting an Irish drinking song AFTER St. Patrick’s Day, so here’s The Fenians‘ “Token Whiskey Song” from 2008.

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