“Clamping down on its prey, the bird will start to swing its massive head back and forth, tipping out whatever stuff it doesn’t want to eat. When there’s nothing but lungfish or crocodile left, the shoebill will give it a quick decapitation with the sharp edges of the bill.”
[Audubon Society]
The shoebill lives in the wetlands of central Africa and grows up to 5 feet tall, has a wingspan of up to 9 feet, and is known to devour snakes, eels, monitor lizards, and baby crocodiles. It’s kinda big and scary, but it’s docile around humans, making it easy prey for poachers. It was the Audubonnies who called the shoebill stork “the most terrifying bird in the world” because it can stare you to death.
[Images and story from here. Bottom image found here, h/t Pam M.]
Update: Corrine L. notified me that when a spoonbill comes up to greet you there’s screaming and gunfire.
In 2016, Korean tourist Jun-Hyuk Choi asked to borrow the bass and sat in with some buskers in Florence, Italy. The trio is Romdraculas Firenze.
Influenced by a number of genres including nuevo flamenco, rock, and heavy metal, Rodrigo y Gabriela eventually got tired of the Mexican rock scene. In 1999, despite not speaking English, they moved to Dublin, Ireland and were a hit. They’ve done much more since. More about them here.]
Aw yeah! The Eels vid is an odd one, kinda fits my attitude. The song was released in Japan in 2001, U.S. in 2002, on the album of the same name. The video volume is a bit low, so if you turn it up, turn it back down so you don’t blow your spickers.
Messer Chups doesn’t appear in my “suggested for you” Utoobage, but I know where to find them: St. Petersburg, Russia. They’re listed under vampire space zombie surf rock. Oleg Gitaracula – Guitar; Zombierella – Bass; Rockin Eugene – Drums
“While Messer Chups’ mostly instrumental sound is hard to neatly categorize, it’s safe to say that it would be embraced by fans of rockabilly, horror punk, vintage surf records, Italian slasher films, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Pulp Fiction, lounge music, the theremin, The Cramps, and the theme song from The Munsters.”
Hey, Utoob. Just because I click on a random video out of curiosity doesn’t mean that I like garbage like this, so you can remove it from the “suggested for you” list. I’d really appreciate it, because I’m only interested in finding the really good stuff.
Three day weekend for some of you out there, but we’ll hold down the fart until you return. See you then.
“…and packs an impressive top speed of 100mph.” Good God.
[Found here.]
Billy Gibbons covers R. L. Burnside. From the YouTube comments: “Just hit play on this one and my 6 year old son immediately yelled from across the room ‘is that was ZZ TOP?!'”
R. L. Burnside was born in Lafayette County, Mississippi, learned from Mississippi Fred McDowell who lived in the next county over. Burnside and his family, tired of the life of sharecroppers, moved to Chicago in the early 50s. Subsequently his father, two uncles and two brother were murdered there. In 1959 he returned to Mississippi, was convicted for murder himself, and served time at the Parchman Penitentiary.
“I didn’t mean to kill nobody. I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head and two times in the chest. Him dying was between him and the Lord.”
The Obscuritones self describe as “Close harmony and rockin rhythm. Like the Andrews Sisters singin with the Stray Cats after a night out with the Cramps.” Okay, almost, but not bad for this sextet from the UK, and their album got a decent review.
Have a great weekend and we’ll do something tomorrow for sure.
Google translate gives us this description (from the video):
Introducing rare Japanese fish. A unique Matsukasauo. I saw it after a long time. In the old days, you could throw it into a bonfire, bake it and eat it. The scale is hard and the kitchen knife does not enter. Although small , he is very delicious. When processing, do you put a knife in the anus or cut it with scissors? For roasted and steamed fish. It is expensive as an ornamental fish because it has a rare value. It may be sold as a stuffed animal for ornamental purposes. It’s a fish like a skeleton, but it’s also called a pineapple fish.
More free downloadable papercraft fish plans here [via].
“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.
Cajun Country Revivalin 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.
Kelbe Schrank‘s Dancing Manhole Cover Song is not related to the .gif in here but it is. Besides vocals and guitar, Schrank has a good hand at watercolors, too.
Feng E‘s father threatened that he’d never play LEGOs with the 5 year old again unless he learned to play ukelele. Cruel dad IMO, but the kid is amazing.
I’d heard MGMT before, but I didn’t know their name. I kind of like the sound of this one (The Monkees meet The Amboy Dukes) and the vid is quirky. Their song Time To Pretend is one of my favorites, but I get a bit choked up when I hear it.
Have a great weekend or not; it’s your choice, and we’ll be back tomorrow with a pile of stuff for you to sort through.
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.
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]
Tacky Raccoons 