Saturday Matinee – The Sounds of Life, Back of the Mike 1938, RARG, Buzzchopper & The Ramones

The “music” is irritating as hell, but with the videos it becomes awesome. If I embedded it correctly, it should play 13 short clips in sequence, and you can jump to the next one if you wish.
[Found via here.]

Old radio shows used similar sound effect techniques.

“Radio is the theater of the mind; television is the theater of the mindless.” – Steve Allen

Also note that the vid was a GM-sponsored short, so the good guys catch the bad guys in the end because the good guys are in a Chevrolet and the bad guys are only on horses.

Rarg is a land so perfect that the sun never rises until it is absolutely sure that everyone is awake. It is a wonderful place where everyone loves learning and making new discoveries. Until one day, an astonishing discovery is made… a discovery that might just be a problem.”

So where do we go from here? Oh, hell. I know: a sappy cover of Santo & Johnny.

Buzzchopper‘s other stuff sounds like Surf Ramones to me, and they opened for Mink Stole in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 2010. Last time I passed through Harrisburg, you couldn’t buy beer or wine in a convenience store or in a supermarket, and that means that something’s seriously wrong with that place.

To all our frozen friends back east, awesome happens at about 1:00.

Have a great weekend, folks, and be back here for leftovers.

Saturday Matinee – Boop, Bongos, Bass & Bob, Gatemouth Brown and RIP Roy Clark

In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt ran against incumbent President Herbert Hoover for the presidency, hence the caricatures, and there are hints about the repeal of Prohibition in this cartoon. Hoover first shows up at 0:45. “Mr. Nobody” (1:12) probably refers to the other six candidates, including 3rd runner-up Socialist Party candidate Norman Thomas. Roosevelt’s nose and chin appear at 2:12.

The depiction of Congress at 2:28 is relevant today (as is Betty Boop twerking, promising everything for free). [Video found via here.]

Yep. That’s Penn Gillette (of Penn & Teller) on bass ca 1991. I first saw it in a movie theater as part of “Animation Celebration” or something, but I couldn’t find a link.

Clarence Gatemouth Brown (1924-2005) didn’t use a pick, and his calluses were tougher than woodpecker lips. Here’s his take on Bill Doggett‘s classic 1956 hit “Honky Tonk.” Brown was a speed blues artist as well. (If you doubt me, check out “Pressure Cooker.“)

RIP Roy Clark (1922-2018) What a great musical talent.

See you back here tomorrow for more extraneous arbitrary extrapolations.


Pray for those who lost loved ones, homes and businesses in the California fires, and don’t fall for the soulless scammers asking for donations. Donate directly to trusted charities only.

 


Saturday Matinee – Frank Zappa, Snooky Young & The Tom Stormy Trio

Awesome lineup, that. Recorded on August 27, 1974 at KCET in Hollywood, California.
Frank Zappa—guitar, percussion, vocals;
George Duke—keyboards, finger cymbals, tambourine, vocals;
Napoleon Murphy Brock—sax, vocals;
Ruth Underwood—percussion;
Tom Fowler—bass;
Chester Thompson—drums.

Awesome lineup, that. Recorded circa 1989
The Tonight Show Band
Snooky Young – Trumpet

[That excellent video was sent down the memory hole just days ago for some unknown reason. What black-hearted soul would do such a thing? Let’s do this instead.]

 

Awesome lineup, that. Recorded circa 2010.
The Tom Stormy Trio featuring Rhythm Sophie
Sophie – vocals
Tom Stormy – drums
Gábor Kiss – guitar
Buddy Benkey – double bass

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow and we’ll do stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Petting an Octopus, David Byrne, Cab Calloway & The Rutles

He might not realize it, but the octopus is tasting him. [Found here, via here.]

Everybody’s coming to David Byrne‘s house. Everybody. [via].

Nice lip synch & choreography to Cab Calloway‘s December1948 recording of “Everybody Eats When They Come To My House.” (Everybody eats, except for one guy).

Okay so now we’ve got a food theme going.

The Rutles were one great parody band (perhaps surpassed by but even that is arguable). The album “All You Need Is Cash” is so spot-on that those who don’t know it was a hoax think it’s the real Fab Four Try it. It really sounds like a Beatles Greatest Hits compilation.

Dylan Hears A Who is awesome, also. Lemme know if you want a .zip file that includes the CD liner notes.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow when we’ll discuss unprovable allegations from over 30 years ago attempting to destroy an honorable man’s career, family and life by people who have no ethics and want to eradicate the U.S. Constitution by fiat.

That octopus is awesome.

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.

 

Social Breakfast Media Club Hot Links

Billy Redden speaks.

Well. Will you look at that.

Warning: This site uses Gookies.

Top 100 Billboard Hits of 1971 includes some awesome classics.

Squirrel monkeys beat the crap out of a man attempting to kidnap one of them from a zoo [via].

“I yield back.” Rep. Billy Long auctions off a protestor at the Twitter hearings.

Seven People Whose Lives Were Ruined by Social Media (and some of them deserved it IMO).

Should the US taxpayer pay for free healthcare for foreigners living in this country illegally? I don’t think so. Should we pay for emergency medical services? Yes, without a doubt.

I bought this 1969 Rhinoceros album for one song only:
Apricot Brandy. Years later I learned that the band was a fabrication of Elektra Records session musicians.

Led Zeppelin’s 1971 hit “When The Levee Breaks” was first recorded in 1929 by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy after the 1927 Mississippi Flood.

[Top image found here.]

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 – The Archers of Loaf, The Axis of Awesome, Zappa & Santana

Archers of Loaf. Great 3-chord rock. According to Wiki, they disbanded, reformed, broke up and now reorganized before disappearing completely.

In 2009, The Axis of Awesome discovered the secret 4-chord progression required to make a hit record.

Zappa’s “Variations on the Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression” is a classic. Unfortunately the video is not an actual performance, but a compilation of images pasted over the music. So what. I still like it. We’ll let Carlos Santana have the last word.

Woodstock put Carlos Santana on the map in 1969. Great jam.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow and we’ll mess around with stuff.

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.

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