Tag: Music

Preliographical Hot Links

Filipino Box Spring Hog, Tom Waits (1999) Album: Mule VariationsIf you don’t know who Tom Waits is, I truly feel sorry for you. Redeem yourself by clicking on this.

From the Dept. of Rare Honesty:
I received a letter from USAA this week.

“Attached is a check for $53.12. This amount represents a refund for all finance charges and fees that should have been reimbursed, as well as interest of $50.22.”

Apparently, the amount “disputed” was $2.90. Assuming 7.5% compounded interest, it dates to 1980. No idea what I “disputed.”

Peckerholes.

Remembering Snooty.

Jon Rahm’s got a Jesus ball.

HUGE solar flare and more cool astrostuff.

“This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

Spontaneous human combustion cases are rising.

Why over 100 Seattle police quit the force (in their own words).

Interview with David Kahn (author of The Code Breakers) on modern cryptography trends (2013).

In 1968, Bernd Boettger escaped from East Germany with a home-made submarine. [Related escape story here.]

Why I Hate Australians is a rant from 2006. It’s got over 1,200 comments; more are added daily.

[Top image: Ol’ Blue Boar weighs 500 pounds, is missing an eye, has razor sharp teeth, and is the meanest pig in the world.]

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

Saturday Matinee – The Darlings, The Dillards, New Grass Revival, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones, and Victor Wooten

The Darlings were a regular feature on the Andy Griffith Show, usually showing up whenever there was trouble brewing (like when Ernest T. Bass tried to woo Charlene Darling). The Darlings were The Dillards.

The Dillards, live at the Tonder Festival in Denmark in 1999. Entertaining intro to Ebo Walker, song starts about 03:45 in.

But there was also a real Ebo Walker, an upright bass player from Kentucky, and the song is not a tribute. From a  Reddit discussion:

Harry Shelor

“Crazy story time. Ebo Walker’s real name is Harry Lee Shelor Jr, (there’s a song called Ebo Walker, which Harry took the name from). Harry cultivated and grew marijuana. He ended up shooting a Kentucky State Police Detective by the name of Darrell Vendl Phelps. He began serving a 50 year sentence in 1981.”

Shelor was released from prison in 2013, age 70.

Prior to his arrest in 1981, Harry Shelor/Ebo Walker was a founding member of The New Grass Revival.

New Grass Revival covers Townes Van Zandt‘s White Freightliner Blues (ca.1981). This lineup consisted of

Sam Bush – mandolin, fiddle, guitar, vocals
Pat Flynn – guitar, vocals
John Cowan – bass guitar, vocals
Béla Fleck – banjo, guitar, vocals

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, featuring Victor Wooten on fretless bass , his brother Roy “Futureman” Wooten on Drumitar. That’s one tight trio.

Victor Wooten won the Bass Player of the Year award from Bass Player magazine three times and is the first person to win the award more than once. In 2011, he was ranked No. 10 in the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone.

That set of connections happened somewhat by accident, just like a lot of things these days. Find something fun to do this weekend accidentally, and when you’re done c’mon back here. Got some cool stuff for you to click on.

Hot Links on the Road of Ruin

I Love You For Seventy Mental Reasons, Red Ingle & the Natural Seven (1947). Video here.Ernest Jansen “Red” Ingle (1906 – 1965) was an American musician, singer and songwriter, arranger, cartoonist and caricaturist. He is best known for his comedy records with Spike Jones and later as Red Ingle and The Natural Seven.

Billy Bounce.

The Greatest Entrance EVER.

Upside-down basketball shot.

Tardigrades Found in Parking Lot.

Ozzy Man reviews Live TV Fails [language warning].

The last flight of the Blue Angels’ F/A-18 Hornets.

What everyone needs right now: a cover of Fish Heads.

Colorized 1902 Footage of a ‘Flying Train’ Ride Through a German Town [via].

Time-lapse video of the US/Mexico Border Wall construction is pretty cool.

Type in the name of a favorite band to see others you might like.

You’ve probably eaten castoreum. It may simply be listed as “natural flavoring.” [h/t Paul Y.]

[Top image via text message, h/t Alan U.]

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

Saturday Matinee – Alexandre Nicolas Theroude, Joe Rinaudo, Mayer Hawthorne & The Beat Farmers

“Au siècle de la révolution industrielle, la technologie des automates est maîtrisée principalement par les artisans français. Alexandre-Nicolas Théroude, le créateur de cette pièce pour laquelle il a déposé un brevet en 1866, est connu pour avoir le premier su enfermer le mécanisme dans le corps de l’automate.”

“Flautiste” – Life-size Flute Player Automaton by Alexandre Nicolas Theroude (1807-1883), Paris, France, c.1869-77.

Joe Rinaudo and the American Fotoplayer  on “California’s Gold” with (the late) Huell Howser, Season 17, Episode 7, February 18th, 2006.
From the YouTube comments:

  • “Ladies and Gentlemen: Please rise for our 2020 National Anthem.“
  • “If people could read my mind, this is what they’d see.”
  • “This is baby makin’ music for clowns.”

Mayer Hawthorne has the Motown sound down. I heard this and thought “Why don’t I remember that one?” He once stated that, when working as a hip hop DJ, he began recording his own Motown-style tracks to avoid paying fees for sampling other artists’ work. That video made me grin. An excerpt of “The Walk” was used in a Blue Moon beer TV commercial in 2017.

The Beat Farmers were a great band from So. California. I got to see them several times in the 80s, and Road of Ruin seems appropriate for our times. (Two of the original members are gone: Country Dick Montana and Buddy Blue.)

Yeah, we may be on the road of ruin depending on how you look at things, and I’m not talking about the current election fraud. It’s the bigger picture that concerns me. Not much I can do about it.

See you back here tomorrow, rain or shine, and we’ll do something stupid together.

Aw hell. I just gotta post this. GOTTA.

Saturday Matinee Halloween Edition – The Ramones, Sally Cruikshank & Oingo Boingo

First recorded in 1976, The Ramones‘ I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement is sort of appropriate.

Sally Cruikshank‘s animations are Betty Boop on acid.
Face like a Frog (1987) includes the Cab Calloway-esque song Don’t Go In The Basement (starts at 02:26 ). In 2017, Cruikshank herself added this to the YouTube comments:

“Danny Elfman composed the track for this film. Period. Copyright mine. Then a year or two later I gave his agents permission to include it on a compilation LP, I guess put out by [David] Geffen. Now they claim I got the music from the album or something. They’re wrong. My film came first. My husband’s going to get into it with Geffen.”

“I don’t always listen to Dead Man’s Party, but when I do so do the neighbors.” – YouTube comment

Oingo Boingo was a standout band of the 1980s, combining ska, punk, jazz & rock, and Dead Man’s Party became a Halloween party standard. According to Wikipedia:

The lyric, “I hear the chauffeur coming to my door / Says there’s room for maybe just one more,” is a reference to “The Bus-Conductor,” a short story by E. F. Benson about a hearse driver, first published in The Pall Mall Magazine in 1906.

Video is from the 1986 movie Back To School. Yeah, 34 years ago…

Happy Halloween, folks!
This year I’m gonna scare half the neighborhood by NOT wearing a mask. Hope you get all the tricks you deserve and all the treats that you don’t.

[Paranoia moons previously posted here. More Halloween-related posts in the archives.]

Fimicolous Hot Links

“Haunted House“, Leon Redbone (1975) Album: On The Track.That’s a cover of Lonnie Johnson‘s “Blue Ghost Blues” (1927). When Redbone passed on, his website announced:

“It is with heavy hearts we announce that early this morning, May 30th, 2019, Leon Redbone crossed the delta for that beautiful shore at the age of 127.”

Ghosts.

Tübingen.

Chicken cozies.

Fun with heels.

Shoring failure.

Capybara sunset.

NASA booped Bennu.

This guy REALLY likes Friday.

Throwing cats in zero G [h/t lobo91].

Fun Facts To Know And Tell: The Japanese once disparaged Europeans as bata-kusai, or “butter stinkers.” [Source via here.]

[Top image found here.]

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

The Saturday Matinee – Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express, Link Wray w/ Robert Gordon & Santana

Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express live at Winterland 29 November 1975, San Francisco, CA. Early jazz fusion at its best. Lineup:

Brian Auger – organ, vocals;
Jack Mills – lead guitar;
Alex Ligertwood – vocals, guitar, percussion;
Clive Chaman – bass;
Lennox Langton – congas;
Dave Dowle – drums.

Robert Gordon‘s 1977 cover of Billy Lee Riley‘s 1957 cover of Billy ‘The Kid’ Emerson‘s 1955 recording of Red Hot got a lot of radio play. Now about that legendary guitar ripper…

Link Wray‘s recording career spanned decades, 1958 to 2000, and it’s hard to pinpoint when he was really at his prime. Wray was ranked No. 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time bu Rolling Stone, and is considered the “Father of the Power Chord.” Other fun facts: his parents were Shawnee and Cherokee; he was a Korean War veteran; he lost a lung due to tuberculosis in 1956.

Carlos Santana‘s 1999 album Supernatural is one of my favorites. Can’t believe it came out over two decades ago.

That kinda wraps things up until tomorrow. See you then.

Humuhumunukunukuapua’a Hot Links

Hapa Haole Hula Girl (My Honolulu Hula Girl), Alfred Apaka with Danny Stewart’s Hawaiians (1951) Decca Records“Alfred Aloha Apaka (1919–1960) was one of the influential performers in the history of Hawaii’s popular music. Although he recorded for less than a decade, Apaka set the standards for modern Hawaiian music with his joyful, baritone vocals and highly entertaining performances.” (BTW, “hapa haole” doesn’t translate to “Honolulu,” and is also a style of music.)

Schooled.

Dan Getkin.

THIS is disgusting.

A Handful of Phasmids.

NIce woodworking project.

Let’s Talk Dirty In Hawaiian.

NASA/NOAA prevented Global Cooling.

Binaural beats are considered auditory illusions.

“This is the best game of hide-and-seek ever.” [via]

Kiddie board games imagined as horror flicks. [h/t Nate L.]

Escaping through a predator’s butt can be a lifesaver [via].

[Top image: artwork by Derek Yaniger.]

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

Saturday Matinee – Android 207, Talking Heads, Tito Larriva, Johnny Nash & Krosfyah

Android 207 is a fun stop-motion from Carrotkid (Paul Whittington). In 2007, the film received the Best Film, Best Technical and People’s Choice awards at the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival. I’ve posted it before, and it’s still one of my favorites.

Classic Talking Heads video won “Best Group Video” at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1987. I probably posted it before also – I couldn’t find a live version of …oh wait, just found one.

Tito Larriva plays Radio Head in the movie TRUE Stories (1986). Larriva was a founding member of The Plugz.

Lost another great talent this week. Johnny Nash (1940-2020) was born in Houston, Texas, but moved to Jamaica in 1965, where rocksteady was big and reggae was just beginning to gain in popularity. Video is from Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, 1968.

Krosfyah‘s single Pump Me Up (1995) was a hit in Barbados, went gold in Canada. Great Soca.

That’s a wrap, at least for now. See you tomorrow and we’ll mess with stuff.

Jaculiferous Hot Links

Riff City, Slim Gaillard (1946) Bel-Tone RecordsGaillard could play several instruments and managed to turn the performance from jazz to comedy. He would play the guitar with his left hand fretting with fingers pointing down over the fingerboard (instead of the usual way up from under it), or would play credible piano solos with his palms facing up.

Black hole stuff.

Supernova stuff.

Wait for the beep.

Creole vs. Cajun Jambalaya.

Lord of the Paddle [sound up].

Does this ever happen to you?

Naked chicks rocking out. No, really.

Be careful where you park in Brazil. [Story here, h/t Nancy H.]

60 years ago: The first episode of The Andy Griffith Show aired on October 3 1960. Titled “The New Housekeeper,” Opie meets Aunt Bee.

[Top image of Slim Gaillard in a spacesuit-a-roonie from here.]

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