Saturday Matinee – June Foray & Bill Scott, Cliff Richard & The Shadows, Devil In A Woodpile & Green Day

“True fun, not fake fun.”
June Foray and Bill Scott were my heroes, two of the most recognizable and ubiquitous voices of my childhood. They also did the morning traffic reports as Rocky and Bullwinkle in Boston. At 02:01, Rocky and Bullwinkle introduced a Kiss song on WBCN.

Cliff Richard & The Shadows had some stiff competition – check out the Billboard Hits for 1960. Sir Richard holds the record as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its active decades (1950s–2000s). The Shadows were Richard’s backup band (1958-1968), and they reunited in 2020 to play their 1960 hit Apache.

Bron-Y-Aur Stomp is a Led Zeppelin cover, named after Bron-Yr-Aur, a house in Gwynedd, Wales, and based on Waggoner’s Lad, a song by Bert Jansch that appeared on his album Nobody’s Fault But Mine. Go figure. I almost forgot – Devil In A Woodpile is awesome.

Possibly the greatest Ramones cover that’s not a Ramones cover. Green Day had some great stage moves, too. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t fit in with the other vids, but it clicks with me somehow.

Good God. It’s 2:30am. I’m outta here, see you in a few.

Saturday Matinee – Textron ARV, Malford Milligan, The Brothers Osborne w/ Darius Rucker & A Thousand Horses, and Thee Sinseers

That’s some serious Black Mirror stuff.

The Malford Milligan Band with Jeff Plankenhorn (I think) circa 2011. Can’t verify the the others.

“We had so much fun backstage during our last jam video that Darius Rucker decided he didn’t want to be left out…so we made another!” Whole buncha peeps in that one: The Brothers Osborne, Darius Rucker and A Thousand Horses. BTW, that’s a Doc Watson song.

Joey Quinones & Thee Sinseers‘ chicano R&B gets me every time. Reminds me of so many things long ago and far away. Hard to find the band lineup, but that’s Adriana Flores (of The Altons) on vocals.

Guess that’s good enough for now. Have a great weekend, do something nice for your mom, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Cassini Periodical Hot Links

Chicken Stuff, Hop Wilson & His Chickens (1958)Harding Wilson (1921-1975) got his nickname from playing harmonica a lot as a kid – harp is pronounced hop in Texan. (Chicken stuff goes by another name there, too.) Pop Hop’s steel slide style influenced many other bluesmen.

The Marty Lisa.

Cicadas in Greece.

Fishing the cicada catch.

R.I.P El Risitas 1956-2021.

Not sure what to make of this.

The Pillow (a short horror movie).

Elements of Grammar Walk Into a Bar

3 hours of mostly peaceful protest sounds.

“It’s not clear how the turtle became airborne.”

Coming Soon: Axe throwing and miniature golf.

His parents really named him Dylan Shakespeare Robinson?!

One of the worst man-made catastrophes in history happened 35 years ago on 26 April 1986.

4 year old Zoe Roth became a meme in 2008. She’s 21 now and $458,000 richer because of it.

1988 Trabant quality control. The car’s been called “a spark plug with a roof.” More about the East German car here.

[Top image: Cicadaman, spotted recently by Amy D.]


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


Saturday Matinee – Russian Cyberfarm, KMAC2021, The Marcus King Band & Playing For Change

They say that Russia is a technically backward country, there are no roads, robotics do not develop, rockets do not fly, and mail goes too long. It’s bullshit.

[h/t Feral Irishman]

KMAC2021 has been around a while, does some great short videos and has close to a million fans on the Utoobage. He does some serious stuff, too.

Marcus King started learning guitar at age three or four, played professionally since he was 11. He’s a fourth-generation musician; his grandfather was a country guitarist, and his father, Marvin King, continues to perform live.

Musicians from around the globe, assembled by Playing For Change, covered the NOLA staple Iko Iko in style. It features Dr. John (in one of his last recordings), the Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, New Orleans’ favorites Ivan Neville, Donald Harrison and George Porter, Jr.

Yep. There’s some stuff alright. Have a great weekend and try not to annoy too many people on social media. See you tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Cajun Country Revival, The Black Keys & When Rivers Meet

Cajun Country Revival in the Bunny Glade at Pickathon 2012. No idea what “the Bunny Glade” is, but it appears to be somewhere near Portland, Oregon.

The Black Keys are still around, still doing what they’re best at. This is an unusual take on the blues standard Crawlin’ King Snake (first recorded by Big Joe Williams in 1941, but it goes back decades earlier).

When Rivers Meet is a blues/roots rock 4-member “duo” from London. Good tough stuff, they got the edge. Looks like a good band to keep an ear out for.

Gotta wrap it up early but we’ll see you tomorrow for no good reason at all.

Saturday Matinee – Unknown Hinson, Little Feat & Alan Mirikitani

Those piqued my interest, so I dug further. Because I had to.

you gave the dog my supper
you had sex with my brother
you’ve done some ugly things
for such
such a pretty girl

The Utoobage algorithm said I should check out Stuart Daniel Baker, aka Unknown Hinson, so I did. Don’t dismiss him. He’s got some serious guitar chops, and Ugly Things is the finest love ballad I’ve heard in hours. (Not only that, but the grandson of Hank Williams (Hank III) has an image of Unknown Hinson tattooed on his forearm.)


Little Feat was never easy to categorize, but this one’s kinda swampabilly with some big band thrown in.

Alan Mirikitani (1955-2015) was a classic bluesman from L.A., and fronted the band BB Chung King & The Screaming Buddaheads. Used to hear them on the radio, never got to see them live. He was in the recording studio when he died of a heart attack at the age of 60.

I think that’ll do for now. Have a great weekend, do where you wanna go, go where you wanna do. You know the drill, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Jody Pendarvis, David C. Roy, Toby Lee, Matt “Guitar” Murphy & James Cotton

Jody Pendarvis of Bowman, South Carolina, decided that the town needed an attraction to boost the local economy and created the UFO Welcome Center adjacent to his mobile home. Caricatured as a redneck crackpot (by Steve Colbert and others) Pendarvis is nothing of the sort, but he plays along anyway.
[h/t Susan M. who was there earlier this week.]

From YouTube description:
“A self-taught artist with a background in physics, David C. Roy has been creating mesmerizing wooden kinetic sculptures for nearly 40 years. Powered solely through mechanical wind-up mechanisms, pieces can run up to 48 hours on a single wind.”
[h/t Ma S. via FB.]

Born in Oxfordshire England in 2005, Toby Lee played Zack Mooneyham in the New London Theatre production of School of Rock the Musical in 2016 and was named UK Young Blues Artist of the Year in 2018. Joe Bonamassa called Toby Lee “a future superstar of the blues.” [h/t Pam M. via FB]

This vid from 1963 features Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Willie Dixon, Memphis Slim & Billy Stepney, and is not nearly as long as it should be.

James Cotton was one of the greatest harp blowers of all time. His 1968 classic The Creeper was coopted by Richard “Magic Dick” Salwitz of the J. Geils Band and released as Whammer Jammer in 1979.

That should hold you for a bit. Have a reverent Easter, we’ll be back later.

OrismologIcal Hot Links

A Little Change, Cam Cole 2019 Demo CDThat’s not a band. He’s one guy, a street performer, with videos.

One fried egg.

Tornado omelet.

Surprised octopussy.

100 YEARS OF SLIDERS!

Historic bus stop shelter.

THIS thread is a must read.

Gelmerbahn descent in real time.

Let’s go. You’re singing it wrong.”

Who was known as “the Boss of the Plains”?

Intestines of non-uniform stiffness mold the corners of wombat feces. Duh.

Renowned cold-case detective J. Warner Wallace discusses the credibility of New Testament eyewitnesses.

[Top image is from Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi & Ron Barrett, 1988.]


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


Saturday Matinee – A Banana, Бра́во, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones & Cam Cole

This banana comes with a cool Django Reinhardt vibe.
[Found here.]

Marty Robbins goes to Russia? Бра́во [Bravo] was founded in 1983 in Moscow, was one of the most popular underground acts.
Ветер знает [The Wind Knows] sounds just like the real deal. (There’s an English version here.)

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones‘ song intro has been stuck in my head for months and now that I’ve rediscovered it I can finally sleep at night. This live version is from 2011.

Cam Cole, busker, bluesman, rocker, recording artist, and “the most impressive one-man band you will ever see” nails the blues to your forehead and plugs it into your ears. This guy is definitely one to watch for.

Have a great weekend, something else will show up here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Richie Kavanaugh, Indiara Sfair and Guilherme Tosin, Justin Johnson & G.E. Smith

“Like Aon Focal Eile, I had no idea how big that would be. I was afraid I’d get a slagging from the Irish speaking people but the boss man in Glór na Gael wrote me a very nice letter thanking me for having a song with a full Irish title in the charts.” Richie Kavanaugh

Brazil native Indiara Sfair & Guilherme Tosin cover Robert Johnson’s Walking Blues. Sfair is/was a member of Brazilian blues band “Milk’n’Blues.”

Justin Johnson‘s axe is a shovel, and he sells ’em, too.
Utoob comment: “Just imagine what he could do with a backhoe.”

G.E. Smith gets all swampy and stuff with a tribute to late bassman Tom “T Bone” Wolk. Both backed Hall & Oates and were the core of the SNL Band (1985-1995).

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