Music – Page 98 – Tacky Raccoons

Saturday Matinee – Xylophone Ad, Joey Ramone, New York Dolls, The Milenberg Joys, Red Nichols

A wooden ball is set atop a long, wooden structure that might be a xylophone or a marimba, constructed in the middle of the woods. As the ball rolls downward, dropping onto each wooden “key,” it plays a note, and suddenly we are hearing Bach’s Cantata 147, “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” .. “We did not add any artificial music at all,” Harano wrote (though they did adjust some levels to “bring out the sound of river and nature”).

Yeah, ultimately it’s a commercial, but it’s still very very cool. [via]

R.I.P. Joey Ramone (d. 15 April 2001)

The New York Dolls were stuck between classic rock and proto-punk, but they had that pseudo-tranny stuff going on that turned off a lot of potential fans, at least in my opinion.

[Deleted the video. Screw ’em since they’ve blocked embedded links. If they don’t want free advertisement, then they shouldn’t post it on the Utoobage.]

The Katzenjammers. Nice trumpetingness. [h/t to Bunkessa]

So, in place of a cool video of the folks originally posted above, here are The Milenberg Joys. I think they had more talent than that Katzjamband anyway.

Red Nichols & His Five Pennies were awesome in their time.

Speaking of time, I’m out of it. Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more fun.

Saturday Matinee – MANT, King Sunny Adé, Steel Drum, ASWAD, The Sonics

MANT!

King Sunny Adé popularized Nigerian juju music during the “World Music” meme of the 1980s. Didn’t hurt that he was awarded the title of Minister of Music there, either.

Oh ya mon. Me got de steel drum reggae.

Adjust your volume up and groove it.

Great Googly Moogly! Here’s The Sonics “Anyway The Wind Blows” from 1967 – and all these years I thought it was a Frank Zappa composition. Woof.

[Update: Maybe I was right after all. On the Wiki list for “Cruising with Ruben & the Jets” the song is credited to Zappa.]

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

Saturday Matinee – The Cowans, Fats Waller, Art Tatum, George Clinton & Leon Redbone

Before you get all humpy like this is just a last minute hodge-podge throw-it-together post for the Saturday Matinee, chill. It’s all good, and it’s all connected in an odd sort of way…

September 2008: Fran & Marlow Cowan played an impromptu recital together in the atrium of the Mayo Clinic. The song is Arthur Clough’s “Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet” from 1910.

Fats Waller‘s “Aint Misbehavin'” (1929) was my introduction to early jazz before I knew who Fats Waller was. 1930s Jazz = Best Jazz in my book.

And then Art Tatum ripped it all apart and completely rebuilt the engine.

Gonna jump a few decades to Miles Davis‘ “Tutu.”

George Clinton‘s Mothership! [via Coldwarrior] One more? Heh. You got it.

Yep, Leon Redbone on Carson, playing “Diddy-Wah-Diddy,” which is somehow apropos for Mardi Gras gris gris gumbo yaya.

Have a great weekend folks, and be back here tomorrow for more fun.

Saturday Matinee – Frank Portolese, Joe Cocker & Leon Russell, The Chips, The Blues Brothers

“Hail Fredonia,” written and performed by Frank Portolese with Brian Sandstrom (Bass) and Rusty Jones (Drums).

Now for a completely unrelated vid, here’s Joe Cocker and Leon Russell from 1970 – “Cry Me A River.” Lotta noise, but a lotta fun.

Here’s CCR‘s “Ramble Tamble from 1970, pasted onto a time lapse cross-country roadtrip. The tune reminds me of The Chips‘ greatest hit (sorry, no video action except for a spinning 45):

And then there’s Dan Akroyd‘s awesome and accurate rendition (lyrics previously posted here.)

Hell ride ricky ticky hubba lubba great weekend, folks. See you back here in a Hi-low ‘n sum a-chickawa.

Saturday Matinee – The HorrorPops, The M3T30RS, Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs, The Stray Cats, and Eddie Cochran

I don’t know how The HorrorPops missed showing up on my radar screen. Too much awesome in this psychobilly band from Denmark.

Before The HorrorPops came these guys. The M3T30RS‘ version of “Rawhide” ain’t too bad, especially considering they’re from the U.K., and according to some are the originators of psychobilly.

Antedating The M3T30RS came San Diego’s own Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs, presented here in a gloriously crappy 35mm film. The missus and I were fortunate to see FP at their prime. Great show.

Just prior to The Forbidden Pigs, there were The Stray Cats, but y’all know about them.

Before The Stray Cats were even born, there was Eddie Cochran, arguably one of the most successful early Rockabilly recording artists. Sure it’s lipsynching but he faked the entire crowd out with the giant TV set, and his fans were given free chewing gum just to go along with it.

With that, have a great weekend, folks. See y’all back here tomorrow.

Automatic Human Jukebox

Wish I’d thought of that. Of course around here, you’d need a business license, a permit to perform in public, a Conditional Use Permit, construction permits, an occupancy permit, a permit for signage, proof of $1M in liability insurance and an ID number for tax purposes. Oh, and a toilet room. All that just to make a little pocket change and entertain some people.

[Image found somewhere in here.]

Saturday Matinee – The Best 9-1/2 Minutes of Awesome You’ve Ever Seen, The Schoolmaster, Aswad, & Satchmo

9:49 minutes of pure Bollywood Awesome. [via]

Rowan Atkinson is Teh Schoolmaster. Pay attention, Nipple.

Aswad. Good riddims, brah.

Satchmo. Can’t top him for the end of a Saturday Matinee. Have a great weekend, folks, and be back here tomorrow for more fun.

Budget Amplifier

No idea what he’s listening to in the park shelter, but that’s not the weird part. He’s got boxes of Cheez-It Scrabble.

[Found in here.]

Saturday Matinee – Art Laffer, Bladecam, Polar Bearings, Mancini Mangling, Hubert Sumlin

Economist Art Laffer in a video from June 2009. Amazing how few people have seen this private chat. It’s well worth viewing. (Although Jeff Berkowitz’ intro is good, it’s long. The fun starts at 05:20 with WSJ’s Steve Moore’s intro. Laffer begins at 07:40.)

Yep. Already viral, but so what. [Found here.]

Very cool polar bears destroy some very cool spy cams.

Doesn’t make any sense to me to have high-tech spy cams when the ecologists obviously have the capability of filming the bears destroying the custom expensive equipment in the first place. Cut the research budget in half or more by giving the bears boxes to tear up. Better yet, just quit pestering them. A polar bear’s job is to hunt, kill and eat fish, seals, sea lions, etc., and not to waste precious energy messing with electronics. [via]

Funny, creepy and disturbing.

Ever hear of Hubert Sumlin? No? Then check this out.

From the Utoobage comments:

Before there was Jimmy Page, before there was Angus Young, before there was Jimi Hendrix, before there was Stevie Ray Vaughn…

…there was Hubert Sumlin.

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

Saturday Matinee – Doodling With Some Zees

Doodling in Math Class is an awesome series with great commentary. (There are more here, here and here.) I did a lot of n-pointed star studies and other similar graphics, but teh Utoobage hadn’t been invented yet to record the brilliance.