Saturday Matinee – Rodent Gravitron, Tedeschi & Vaughan, and Ray Charles

2 Gerbils 1 Wheel is the rodent equivalent of The Gravitron. [via]

“Let The Good Times Roll” – Susan Tedeschi with Jimmie Vaughan & Double Trouble, from Austin City Limits, 12 January 1998.

Crispness is clumping and the geezer’s getting fat. Here’s Ray Charles singing Mel Tormé‘s 1944 classic “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire).”

“Tiny tots with a nose full of snots” is my favorite line in that song. Although it’s been said that Barney loves Fred, Merry Christmas To You.

Take It Easy

DOGHAT Slow Ride

Recently we realized we missed some serious punnage and we Bangor heads in shame. Thanks a wad to midnightvisitor for reminding us to be more attentive to all snarks & puns, and to plunder them mercilessly whenever the opportunity presents itself.

[Original images here and here.]

Saturday Matinee – Didgeridoo, Drums, Piano & Music Theory

How to play the didgeridoo.

How to play the drums.

How to play piano.

How to sing a Christmas Song.

Now all that’s left is to figure out how to get you back here tomorrow. Have a great weekend.

Saturday Matinee – Stag Party, Bottle Ninja & The Neville Bros.

Don’t disturb deer, and don’t mess with a stag during rutting season. [via]

“He really, really, really hates plastic bottles.” [via]

The Neville Brothers with “Brother John / Iko Iko” 1995, Stuttgart.

According to Wikipedia:
The song “Iko Iko” was written in 1953 in New Orleans by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford about two competing Mardi Gras Tribes/Krewes. “Jock-a-mo” was the original version of the song “Iko Iko” recorded by The Dixie Cups in 1965. Their version came about by accident. They were in a New York City studio for a recording session when they began an impromptu version of “Iko Iko,” accompanied only by drumsticks on studio ashtrays.
[Listen to it on the Utoobage here. Lyrics are in the notes.]

Other trivia: Crawford formed a band which local DJ Doctor Daddy-O named “The Chapaka Shawee” – Creole for “We Aren’t Raccoons.”

Fun Facts to Know and Tell. Have a great weekend, folks.

Joey

[Found in here. Oh, and if you click on the image, there’s a cool song.]

Hot Tunes

Uh, man, you’re not sharing. [Found here.]

Hot Time in Oklahoma – 1940

Nice collection here, via here. No AC. Shoulda posted this one a few days ago.

Saturday Matinee redux – Manual Silo Demolition, Kenny Wayne Shepherd & Joe Cocker

I was distracted yesterday by stuff in meatworld, so this Edition of The Saturday Matinee is a tad late. I promise that it’ll happen again.

This is a jawdropper. They wanted to demolish a masonry silo, yet save the roof  “for the kids.” Rather than using explosives, they used sledgehammers. Watch the whole thing for the commentary, or jump to about 09:00 for the awesome.
[Short cutesy version found here.]

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, with some interesting sidemen. Soylent Green has the scoop. [Caution – some of his posts are NSFK & NSFW, which is unfortunate IMO. He’s got good stuff otherwise.]

Joe Cocker‘s cover of the Lovin’ Spoonful‘s 1966 hit “Summer In The City” is a good ‘un, and fitting, too. It’s so hot here the dog melted.

To our fans (especially the one that runs all night in the bedroom): Please don’t burn up your motor and quit on us until the temperatures cool off a bit. As for the rest of you, see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Socialism 101, Cheetahbot, Dweezil plays Frank & Frank plays Duane

Communism 101. I laughed, but I cried, because I laughed, because it sums up what’s been going down for a long time. Note that the girl goes Galt.  [via]

CheetahBot is awesome. Now get it to make a U turn, and the time-space continuum will dismantle itself in shame.

Dweezil plays his dad’s classic “Peaches En Regalia.”

Zappa’s cover of the Allman Brother’s classic “Whipping Post” was classic. And with that we’re done for this  classic episode. Have a great weekend, folks.

Saturday Matinee – Good, Bad & the Ugly Showdown, Wildebeest, Iron Butterfly, Stan Kenton, Bunny Berigan & Jimmy Dorsey

Aside from the more serious rhetorical oratory of the GOP Convention (previously discussed on The Blogmocracy and elsewhere) Clint Eastwood’s performance was the perfect break. It would have been the perfect warm up act for any candidate running against Obama, and he nailed it. Addressing the Empty Chair:

“What do you want me to tell Romney?
[…]
I can’t tell him to do that.
I can’t tell him to do that to himself.”

He nailed it with wit, timing, and sarcastic humor. He’s an actor who knows how to ad lib when the situation requires it. How much of his presentation was scripted and how much was off-the-cuff doesn’t matter. It worked.

Now on to more lighthearted fun.

via Chiqui.

Papa Strutts had an unfortunate adventure recently that required us to donate most of his belongings. Among those was a vinyl record collection that included this:

I didn’t have that classic album. While I was collecting Zappa, Papa Strutts was collecting Aerosmith, and he was way ahead of me on jazz.

There’s some classic Stan Kenton, composing with bizarre rhythms and intentional dissonance. Yet he owed a great deal to his predecessors, like Jimmy Dorsey & Bunny Berigan.

Who was also  influenced by Red Nichols:

The interesting part of music, and jazz in particular, is that there is no single musician who can take claim for any particular classic. Everything is derivative until someone like Miles Davis comes along and rearranges the blocks.

Have a great weekend folks, and maybe we’ll rearrange some blocks tomorrow.