Saturday Matinee – HM Royal Marine Band, Kapua+Tatofi+Maoli, Redbone & Billy Preston

Post Horn GalopThe Bands of HM Royal Marines. Amazing post horn fanfare duel.

Hawaiians Kaipo Kapua, Josh Tatofi and Nu’u Maoli. This medley should be named “See A Minor, Effin’ G.” Those vocals are tight.

Redbone had a nice run in the 70s, Witch Queen of New Orleans being one of my favorites for the swamp-rock sound. Very underrated band IMO, even if they did wander into the pop playpen occasionally. “Come and Get Your Love” (1974) was an earful of soul.

Billy Preston sported one of the greatest ‘fros in the business, and wrote one of the best instrumental jams ever – Outta Space. This version is from 1987.

Have a great holiday weekend, have some fun despite what the scolds say, and we’ll do more stuff tomorrow.

75 Years Ago Today

Video begins at about 01:50. Top image found here.

Saturday Matinee – Skywatch, Fundo de Quintal OFC, Grupo Fundo de Quintal & Planet Drum

When two outcast teens hack into a ubiquitous drone delivery system to pull a prank on their neighbor, they accidentally crash-land a dangerous prototype – and find themselves entangled in a life-and-death conspiracy.

Apparently it’s scheduled to be made into a TV series produced by Seth Macfarlane [via]

“Life in the countryside is not an easy life,” says Simão, explaining how the band shaped their unique sound. “Here there is nothing, no access to singing lessons, theater, or a place to buy instruments. So we are going to beat our improvised little things.”

Fundo de Quinal OFC is a lot of head-scratching fun. [Found here. More info here.] They took their name from these guys:

Grupo Fundo de Quintal or simply Fundo de Quintal (Backyard Group, roughly) is a Samba band which appeared in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1970s. Smooth rhythms.

Mickey Hart & Planet Drum revamped the Grateful Dead classic Fire On The Mountain. If you don’t have it in your collection, get this.

Have a great weekend, folks, watch out for The Stupids, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow just for the hell of it.

 

Saturday Matinee – George Duke & Dweezil Zappa, MonoNeon & skArmy

George Duke showed up to play Zappa’s classic Uncle Remus with Dweezil Zappa‘s band in 2010. (If you like George Duke, this behind the scenes rehearsal from1978 is kinda fun. Jump to 02:50.)

Ignore the clickbait title – it’s a killer groove by MonoNeon. He’s right-handed, but plays left-handed on an upside-down right-handed bass. Dude can cover Zappa, too.

skArmy covers Save Ferris‘s cover of Dexy’s Mightnight Runners‘s Come On Eileen is a good one to wrap it up.

Have a great weekend folks, gonna do something tomorrow.

 

Saturday Matinee – Bendito Machine IV, Görkem Şen, Luna Lee & Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Soundcheck

Very cool oddness. Bendito Machine is a series, and this is No. 6. You are allowed to start from the beginning with Bendito Machine I.

“Yaybahar is an electric-free, totally acoustic instrument designed by Görkem Şen. The vibrations from the strings are transmitted via the coiled springs to the frame drums. These vibrations are turned into sound by the membranes which echo back and forth on the coiled springs. This results in an unique listening experience with an hypnotic surround sound.”

Luna Lee plays ZZ Top’s La Grange on a Gayageum and it works. Her story and more here.

“You know when a long haired dude shows up in a cowboy hat, leopard spotted duster and rattle snake boots some shit is about to go down.”

Name another bluesman whose video of a soundcheck garners 19.4 million views. Having just woken up, he yawns, flicks a booger and then busts it out. Stevie Ray Vaughan was one of a kind.

Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Elise Trouw, Lake Street Dive, Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs

Elise Trouw is kind of amazing – she’s capable on drums, vocals, guitar, piano, bass guitar and synth stuff. Pretty hyno, kind of a Wendy Carlos meets Laurie Anderson meet John Bonham thing.

Lake Street Dive (featuring Rachael Price) on a yellow couch in 2016. Price was born in Australia and grew up in Tennessee. The band formed in Boston, but it’s not clear to me where (or if) they’re anchored.

Billy Bacon & the Forbidden Pigs were a hoot in their heyday. Saw the Pigs in So. Cal in the late ’80s, and they blew me away. Bacon would climb up ON his bass and jam, or take it to the floor for a roll around, and never miss a beat.

There’s something for (almost) everyone in that mix. Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow whether you like it or not.

 

 

Saturday Matinee – Erecting Trajan’s Column, The Real McKenzies & Room Full Of Blues

Trajan’s Column: ancient technology animated. Trajan was a good guy, at least as far as Roman emperors go, and was popular for his public works projects. (His cousin Hadrian succeeded him and built a famous wall to keep out Celts, Scots, Picts & other badass tribes.)

Scottish-Canadian band The Real McKenzies. Nice scenery, unfortunate animations, and echoes of the Ramones.

Beyond the best bar band in the world, Roomful of Blues has been performing since 1967 (with an impressive roster).

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll post some stuff tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Asphalt Orchestra, Euphoria Brass Band & Mudcat

Asphalt Orchestra (the ambulatory arm of Bang on a Can) is pretty good, but they’re downright amazing when they pull off Zappa’s Zombie Woof.

Euphoria Brass Band cranks out Sublime’s What I Got at the Tijuana Jazz and Blues Festival 2015. Lotta not-so-subtle influences heard in that jam, and I like it.

“i found a cd of this band in a abandoned ship on the coast of uruguay – montevideo, never heard nothing about this band. really a surprise. grettings. good shit.” [2016 YouTube comment]

The Mudcat Blues Band featuring Danny ‘Mudcat’ Dudeck hails from everywhere, but apparently is anchored in Atlanta. This vid is from 2013, Matildas, Music Under the Pines in Alpharetta, Georgia – jump to 1:34 for Whiskey.

Well that seems to sum up my attitude for today. Have a great weekend folks, don’t worry ’bout the ‘Rona, and do what you wanna do. See you tomorrow for something or other.

Capybara

Saturday Matinee – Bimpson, Rory Gallagher, Dave Alvin & The Battle Hymn Of The Republic

Bimpson (via). “Some guy taught himself 3D animation during quarantine and the result is this hilariously bizarre blog cartoon called Bimpson.” The comments on the UToobage are pretty good, too.

I just watched this at 2x speed and it’s like a whole new world of Bimpson. Bimpson goes Hyper-Bimpson. Highly recommend.

Well I played it back at 0.25x speed and it’s like a demonic Bimpson. Bimpson goes sacrificial. Whatever you do, don’t watch it repeatedly unless you want Bimpson to put a curse on your crops. It happened to me.

I went .75 and it’s was satanic enough. Every time you lower the speed, it’s like a new circle of hell.

Rory Gallagher “Shin Kicker” live at Montreux 1979.

Nice lineup: Dave Alvin sings 4th of July, with David Hidalgo, Flaco Jimenez, Pete Sears, Max Baca and Los Cenzontles, San Francisco, CA. February 16, 2017.

Happy Independence Day to all, and may this Glorious Country remain free from tyranny forever.