Tag: video

Saturday Matinee – TUOOGB, Steppenwolf & Link Wray

I’m embarrassed to say that I never heard of The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain (TUOOGB) until recently, even though they’ve been around for a while. From their website:

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is a group of all-singing, all-strumming Ukulele players, using instruments bought with loose change, which believes that all genres of music are available for reinterpretation, as long as they are played on the Ukulele.

Great stuff. The world is your lobster if you have a bass ukulele.

Nice groove.
It’s a cover of Willie Dixons’ “Hoochie Coochie Man” by Steppenwolf at the Riverfront Festival in Louisville, KY, 7 October, 2000.

How ’bout some 1974 retro?

Link Wray played so dirty and nasty. No flourishes.
It was all in-your-face-deal-with-it-badass-rock the way it was always meant to be.

You still want toast?

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here in a few hours.

 

Saturday Matinee – Grand Funk, Todd Rundgren, Sarah Collins & The Joanna Connor Band

Yeah. Found here. Grand Funk Railroad released “We’re an American Band” in 1973, It was produced by a 25 year old named Todd Rundgren and it went gold.

Many of his own recordings were catchy pop (and somewhat sappy) love songs and covers of the same IMO, but I liked them.  I liked them especially because the pretty coeds would stay around longer when Todd Rundgren was spinning at 33rpm. Then in 1983 he wrote and performed one of the best ska tunes ever – Bang The Drum All Day. (As a resident of Hawaii, he later recorded “Bang The Uke All Day.)

Sarah Collins‘ vocal overdub of The Specials‘ 1979 cover of Dandy Livingstone‘s 1967 rocksteady song Rudy, A Message to You makes me smile, but we can’t close out with that one. Sorry, Sarah.

DO NOT BYPASS THE INTRO.
Joanna Connor covers Son House‘ classic “Walkin’ Blues.” She pats your head, then smacks you twice before you realize what happened. Pure awesome.

Have a great weekend, folks, see you soon.

Saturday Matinee – Steve Gulley & New Pinnacle, Christopher Ameruoso, Tab Benoit & Tommy Castro with Samantha Fish

That’s Steve Gulley & New Pinnacle performing The Fiddle Player’s National Anthem in 2015(?). And yes, they got clogged by a buck dancer. “Orange Blossom Special” is probably the greatest train song ever, followed by the late Steve Goodman‘s “City of New Orleans.”

Nice 3-string electric cigar box slide git-fiddle from Christopher Ameruoso in 2015.

“Night Train” is a killer boogie jam by Tab Benoit, Tommy Castro & Samantha Fish recorded at The Birchmere, Alexandria, VA, 2014. Somewhere, John Lee Hooker is smiling.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you tomorrow.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day Saturday Matinee- PSA, Yola Singer, Dervish & The Pogues

St. Patrick’s Day

Try not to puke in front of children.

____________________________________________________

Map and Yola song found here. Northern Ireland hadn’t been invented yet.

Dervish is awesome.

What’s St. Patrick’s Day without a tribute to the Pogues? Contrary to popular belief, frontman  Shane MacGowan is not dead.

I jumped the 3rd vid to one of my favorites, Young Ned Of The Hill  [full concert starts here]. It’s a traditional Irish song about one Éamonn an Chnoic. Legend says he became an outlaw after shooting a tax collector dead during a quarrel over the confiscation of a poor woman’s cow.

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

[Related posts here.]

 

Saturday Matinee – Having a Picnic, New Grass Revival & Leftover Salmon

Having a picnic [via]. Ants are not the problem in this clever short.

New Grass Revival from an appearance on Austin City Limits ca. 1983. Their version of John Hartford’s  “Steam Powered Aeroplane” is one of my all time favorites.

Leftover Salmon from 2012. They’ve been around since 1989 and describe their mix of bluegrass, rock, country, and Cajun/Zydeco, “polyethnic cajun slamgrass.” Nice stuff.

Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here in a few hours.

Saturday Matinee – Human Fountains, The Band and The Black Crowes.

Might have been better with four NFL cheerleaders in skimpy wet chamois skins, but that’s just my non-judgemental politically correct sexist micoagressional opinion [via].

That’s one of the best songs by one of the best bands ever.

That’s one of the best covers of one of the best songs by one of the best bands ever.

Have a great weekend, folks, and remember that President’s Day is a construct designed to minimize the historical importance of both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, two of the greatest and most influential Presidents in the history of the United States of America.

Saturday Matinee – Going Fishing, Rock & Bluegrass, The Flying Burrito Brothers & 1929 Elders

This is kinda cool [found here].

1971 – When Rock & Roll Met Bluegrass. It’s part of an Earl Scruggs tribute video. Click on the link to the Utoobage to see the awesome lineuup of players. “Easy Chair” is sappy as hell, and it’s one of my all-time favorite songs.

1969’s Altamont Speedway Concert was to be California’s answer to 1967’s Woodstock, but turned to disaster once the concert promoters thought it was a good idea to hire the Hell’s Angels as security. (It was as stupid as if the promoters of Burning Man had hired M-13 and the Zetas to keep the peace out in the middle of the desert).

Now THAT is important. 90 year old voices from 90 years ago. Just think of what they witnessed in their lifetimes, and think of what your grandchildren will witness in theirs.

Have a great weekend, folks, and it’s not too late to plan for a crockpot full of Bunk’s Chili for your Sunday StuporBlow Party.

 

 

Saturday Matinee – Paul Simon and Chevy Chase, Tito Larriva & Tom Waits

By the end of the week I usually have a couple of videos already in the queue, but I found I had none ready to post, so I defaulted to retro vids.

A 2011 Paul Simon performance of “Kodachrome caught my ear. The missus walked in and asked why I was listening to that sappy song. I said I needed to post something for Saturday.

“If you’re going to post a Paul Simon video, it should be You Can Call Me Al with Chevy Chase,” and she’s right. It’s a classic, and it’s also the best Paul Simon video ever.

He ducked back down the alley
With some roly-poly little bat-faced girl

IIRC, that was recorded about the same time that David Byrne was doing his own version of international music, like featuring Tito Larriva:

Then there’s this.
Tom Waits took Psychobilly to a new dimension in 2006.

Have a great weekend, folks, and don’t worry. Everything is gonna be all right despite what the doom mongers tell you.

Saturday Matinee – Elmore James Jr., The Allman Brothers Band, ZZ Top, George Thorogood with Albert Collins & Elmore James

Not sure what to make of this. The son of one of the greatest blues guitarists ever appeared on a Chicago children’s TV show in 2010 and lip-synched his way through the embarrassment. In the YouTube comments, his grandaughter posted her kudos:

There are a lot of Utoobage entries for Elmore James, but I couldn’t find any live video performances, so let’s go with some covers, with links to the original recordings.

In 1972, The Allman Brothers Band covered “One Way Out” (1961).

In 1980, ZZ Top covered Elmore James’ Dust My Broom (1951) which was itself a cover of Robert Johnson’s recording (1936).

In 1984, George Thorogood & Albert Collins nailed Elmore James’ Madison Blues (1960).

Great stuff that. Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Bonus:

Saturday Matinee – Russian Standoff, Booker T. & The MGs, Merle Travis w/ Speedy West and Judy Hayden, & Paula Jo Taylor

“We need some untranslatable Russian Stuff.” Young Russian thugs messed with the wrong construction workers [via]. On the other hand, here’s the same crane, so the vid was probably staged for the lulz. They’re apparently in the auto reclamation business.

“Hang ‘Em High” is a musical theme composed by Dominic Frontiere for the soundtrack of the 1968 film of the same name. Though it was first covered by Hugo Montenegro, whose orchestra recorded a full album of music from the film, the tune became a hit in an R&B instrumental version by Booker T. & the M.G.’s that charted #9 Pop and #35 R&B [Quote & links via Wiki].

Merle Travis was a national treasure. Country pop is nothing compared to country swing, and check out that unusual picking style.

Heck, let’s go one more just for fun.

Have a great weekend, folks, and remember that the traffic goes back to default on Monday.