Cake & Polka Parade

Visitation from an Enormous Flabby Head

2009-05-29T11:09:00.002-05:00

Visitation from an Enormous Flabby Head
May 7, 2009

Unknown - "Visitations" - from an acetate 78
Ursula Bogner - "Mementuafnahme" - Recordings 1969-1988
Anthony Pateras - "Mutat Theatre 7" - Mutant Theatre
Pilvarta Kopilmop - "Blu Blo Bli Ble Bla" - An Der Schonen Blauen
Clip from Comedy of Terrors [starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff]
Jack Dugonogi - "???" - Piwinica Pod Baranami
Jonas Nordwall - "The Hustle" - VA - Organ Grinders Volume 2
Unknown - "Silent George" - 78 Stag Record
Ross Bagdasarian - "Gotta Get to Your House" - Best of...
Expo! - "(title in Japanese)" - Do the Expo!
Goto 80 (featuring Acid Terrorist) - "Viking Conquistador" - 6
Amoebic Ensemble - "Who's That Glamourpuss?" - Amoebiasis
Cy Coleman - "Pussycat" - VA - Cat Songs
Ursula Bogner - "Inversion" - Recordings 1969-1988

Mae Questel - "Broken Record" - 78 rpm recording
Unknown - "Unknown" - from a 78 rpm acetate recording
Dick Raaijmakers - "Der Fall Leiermann" - Complete Tape Music of Dick Raaijmakers
Eduardo - "some song about Chicago" - from a cassette
Hajime Tachibana - "Sex Symbol Strikes Back" - Hm
Lucrate Milk - "Nepla Relou" - I Love You Fuck Off
Banda Plástica De Tepetlixpa Mex. - "Yesterday" - VA - Easy Melodies [http://mexicovers.blogspot.com/2005/11/easy-melodias.html]
Field Recordings - "from a noisy Chicago street"
Melvin Van Peebles - "Come on Feet" - Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

Cake & Polka Parade playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/FJ
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Stabbin' & Jabberin

2009-05-29T11:05:00.003-05:00

Stabbin' & Jabberin'
April 23, 2009

SF Brownrigg - "Don't Look in the Basement" - video clip
Synthesizers Unlimited - "Toytown Carousel" - Electric Bazaar
Helen & Dick Bouchard - "Nobody Wears A Frown In Tweekertown" - Introducing the Unique Keyboard Sounds of Helen & Dick Bouchard
Luciano Berio - "Fa-Si" - Works for Solo Instruments
Unknown Bollywood Movie
Ornette Coleman - "Rock the Clock" - Complete Science Fiction Sessions
François Dufrêne - "Paris-Stockholm" - Text-Sound Compositions
Juan Carlos Calderón - "Vengeance of the Zombies" - Soundtrack
Forty Pizza Roll Challenge
Douglas Quinn - "Weddel Seals" - Antarctica
Commode Minstrels In Bullface - "Side 1 Excerpt" - Fantastic Picnic
Singapore Sling - "Electrocuting Singapore Sling"
Tom Dissevelt - "Vibration" - Early Dutch Electronic Music

Kryzstof Penderecki - "Allegro Molerato" - Clarinet Quintet/Sextet
Broken Penis Orchestra - "Pulling it Out" - Oral Copulation
Arnold Schoenberg - "Die Kreuze" - Pierrot Lunaire [(Jan DeGaetani with the Contemporary Chamber Orchestra)]
Tony Schwartz - "Sound Snapshots" - The Sound of Children
Sparks - "Tryouts for the Human Race" - #1 in Heaven
John Cage - "First Interlude" - Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano [(piano: Boris Berman)]
Jackson Mac Low - "Piece for Sari Dienes" - Tellus #24: Fluxtellus
Wm. Berger - "rat this rat room is my rat castle of rat quiet" - Castle of Quiet
Ikhou Van Holland - "Da Arabier" - Famous Dutch Street Organs
0th - "Germany" - Tammy
Enzo Minarelli - "Oscibil" - V/A: Babble
Gluttony - "Marius Engages the Teutons" - Collapse of the Roman Empire
The Fibonaccis - "Somnambulist" - (fi-bo-na-chez)

Cake & Polka Parade playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/FJ
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Pluck Plink Ding Dong

2009-05-29T11:02:00.001-05:00

Pluck Plink Ding Dong
April 9, 2009

Mihari Koshi - "Snoopy" - Toy Box
Prent Rogers - "Dry Hole Canyon" - Microtonal Music
Toru Takemitsu - "One" - Early Japanese Tape Music
The Mighty Accordion Band - "Caravan" - They Said It Couldn't Be Done!
Mary Halvorson & Jessica Pavone - "Familiar Spirits" - Prairies
Dimossioypalliliko Retire - "I Will Dictate" - Romantische Strasse
Arne Nordheim - "Polypoly" - Elecric
??? - "I am a Circus!" - 78 rpm recording
Circle - "Composition 6" - Jazz Haus, Hamburg 1971
Old Lady - "Fighting on Bus" - Youtube video
Josephine Foster - "Lullaby to All" - This Coming Gladness
Uncle Floyd - "Symon Offkey" - The Uncle Floyd Show Album

Cake & Polka Parade playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/FJ
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A Stupefying Futile Conceit

2009-05-29T10:59:00.001-05:00

A Stupefying Futile Conceit
March 26, 2009

Joe Hisaishi - "Unit 1" - Robot Carnival OST
Huaca - "WW"
Blotted Science - "REM" - The Machinations of Dementia
Univers Zero - "Vous Le Saurez En Temps Voulu" - Heresy
Chris Morris & Peter Cook - "Bears" - Why Bother?
Peter Gordon - "I'm Dreaming in the Sun and Dreaming in the Moon" - Star Jaws
Sparks - "Get In the Swing" - Indiscreet
Chris Morris & Peter Cook - "Guns" - Why Bother?
Bobby Conn - "Whitebread" - Rise Up!
Demetrio Stratos - "Segmenti Tre" - Metrodora
Matching Mole - "Nan True's Hole" - Little Red Record

Cake & Polka Parade playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/FJ
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Beyond the Behind

2009-05-29T10:50:00.002-05:00

Beyond the Behind
March 19, 2009

Daniel Steven Crafts - "Brief Interlude: The Telephone Call" - Soap Opera
Moog Party Time - "Popcorn" - Moog Party Time
Chuck Jones - "Yes/No" - Isolation Studies
Pigmeat Markham - "Your Wire's Been Tapped!" - VA - Talkin' Trash: Lookey Dookey
Rockwell - "Somebody's Watching Me"
Brother Theodore - "Introduction" - Theodore in Stereo
Die Marinas - "Fred from Jupiter" - VA - Cabaret Obskur
Bruce Haack - "War" - Electric Lucifer
Henri Chopin - "Le Soleil est mecanique" - UbuWeb / PennSound Archive
Public Image Ltd. - "Track 8" - Flowers of Romance
Brother Theodore - "Bernice" - Theodore in Stereo
Piero Piccioni - "Cappricio" - Scacco alla Regina
Toy Killers - "24 Handkerchiefs for Roger Trilling" - The Unlistenable Years

Cake & Polka Parade playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/FJ
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#3 - Har Har Rar Rar Woo Woo

2008-12-12T13:19:00.002-06:00

November 6, 2008: Cake & Polka Podcast #003: Har Har Rar Rar Woo Woo
WFMU 91.1fm 90.1fm wfmu.org
Listen to this show at http://wfmu.org/listen.m3u?show=29118&archive=46178 (MP3 - 128K)
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Slava Tsukerman - "Margaret's Apartment" - Liquid Sky Soundtrack
Peter B - "Crazy Ass Delusions" - Luteus
Fred Frith - "The Boy Beats the Rams" - Gravity
Bing Crosby - "The Headless Horseman" - VA - The Haunted House
Non Credo - "Snake Oil" - Happy Wretched Family
Robert Lawrence & Mark Phillips - "Construct Z-45" - Dada Computer
Found Tape - "Phil's Desperate Parents" - Eavesdrop: A Wealth of Found Sound
Jon Rose - "Game 7 S and M" - Perks
György Ligeti - "Agitato Molto" - Nouvelles Aventures
Florence Foster Jenkins - "Delibes - Lakmé: Où va la jeune Hindoue?" - The Glory (????) of the Human Voice

Cake & Polka Parade with Fatty Jubbo playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/FJ
WFMU Podcast Central http://wfmu.org/podcast

Cake & Polka Parade: Blessed are the Sick

2008-12-10T10:21:00.002-06:00

October 30, 2008: Cake & Polka Podcast #002: Blessed are the Sick!
WFMU 91.1fm 90.1fm wfmu.org
Listen to this show at HERE! (MP3 - 128K)
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Bernard Herrmann - "Signals" - Outer Space
FLIES! - "FLIES!" - from video clip
Amoebic Ensemble - "Palindromes" - Amoebiasis
The Pussy Pirates - "Dorcas Good" - Eat My Brain, Call It Art
Toshiro Mayazumi - "Les oeuvres pour la musique concrete: Z" - Concert 20-21
0th - "Purple Dragon" - Tammy
Dick Raaijmakers - "Vier Fanfares" - Complete Tape Music
Morbid Angel - "Day of Suffering" - Blessed Are the Sick

Cake & Polka Parade with Fatty Jubbo playlists: http://wfmu.org/playlists/FJ
WFMU Podcast Central http://wfmu.org/podcast

Cake & Polka Parade Podcast

2008-12-04T14:27:00.001-06:00

CAKE & POLKA PARADE WEEKLY PODCAST ON WFMU!

Your simmering pimply-faced blob of a host, Fatty Jubbo (Gregory Jacobsen), presents a classy program of children's records, no-wave, noise, prog, 20th century classical avant-garde choral pieces, concrete sound poetry, weird foreign pop and audio debris. Crackpots, incompetents, geniuses... and they speak the gibberish too!

To subscribe, head over to the WFMU Podcast page or click here to subscribe via itunes.

Playlist for Cake & Polka Parade Podcast 001

Robert Normandeau - "Puzzle" - Puzzles
Zardoz! - "The Gun is Good! The Penis is Bad!" - film clip
Jon Rose - "The Gift" - Violin Music in the Age of Shopping
Picky Picnic - "Happiness" - Haha Tarchine
The Mora Arriaga Family - "Brasil" - Cool and Strange Music Magazine Thrift Shop Compilation
Dion McGregor - "Dumb Fart" - Dion McGregor Dreams Again
Lars Hollmer - "Ung Harald" - XII Sibiriska Cyklar

thanks!

2008-07-21T20:03:00.002-05:00

I'm sorry- I haven't updated this blog in about a year. Isn't that how it always goes? Most of my blogging activity is at WFMU's Beware of the Blog. I disabled most of the directories on here because I haven't been moderating it and my bandwidth is being eaten up by shitty hotlinking FREE MP3! sites. Well, thanks for checking back to see if I'm still alive, maybe I'll make Cake & Polka parade a podcast soon...in the meantime check out my occasional web show on WFMU.

Dave Phillips' Collection Of Curses

2007-06-05T14:02:00.000-05:00

Dave Phillips (Schimpfluch-Gruppe, Ohne, Fear of God) sculpts violent psycho-sexual vignettes through harsh frequencies, base gurgling body sounds and a minute attention to detail as the proceedings slowly clank and rattle towards a culvulsion in a urine puddle. Much like Ruzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Phillips' sounds are rooted in the body and the blurred line of pain and sex.

Dave Phillips - Hole/Holy (excerpt)

A Collection Of Curses is a compliation of rare and unreleased tracks that form into a whole and outlines an obscured demented narrative. Hole/Holy, is the fourteen minute centerpiece of the collection that slowly builds with a moaning woman and high-pitch drones into a bizarre orgy of door creeking/wet fart/shitting sounds underlined by a flurry of tiny clicks and slaps. Phillips' ability to visualize, animate and pull you into this scene through corporeal sounds is incredible as the woody creaks are so tactile that you forget that you are in the middle of this perverted ritual.

A Collection Of Curses is released through the Blossoming Noise label, where more samples of the CD are to be found.

photo: Bill T. Miller

Borts Minorts

2007-05-25T13:12:00.000-05:00

Borts Minorts! From San Francisco, California!

A deranged performance/dance ensemble led by a monobrowed spastic encased in a white hooded unitard. Ridiculous dance moves are enacted on stage with a duo of pretty ladies like a low-budget Xanadu as Mr. Borts Minorts whoops and hollers through a barrage of frenetic cut and paste disco songs. Think Leigh Bowery choreographed by Richard Simmons.

Unfortunately, on his Myspace page (where I found this gem), there is no indication of an available CD. Hopefully one will be available soon- as the music is just as good as the theatrics...which is quite a rarity! But here are a couple songs from his Myspace page:

Borts Minorts - Sassafras Seedling
Borts Minorts - Human Error

For the time being we all can marvel at the stupendous and ludicrous YouTube videos.

Bulgarian Chalga

2007-05-23T13:26:00.000-05:00

Balkanski Muje Orchestra - Darth Vader Cocek
(thanks to Noisepress for the song indentification!...go to his blog for a great dose of experimental, jazz and Bulgarian music!)

A friend dropped this amazing little dittie into my hands. Unfortunately- I have no idea who it is by...only that it's part of a compilation of Bulgarian Chalga music. I am assuming it is from at least the early eighties given the production and the fact that contemporary Chalga music is fucking unlistenable. Any Bulgarians out there to shed light on this?

Anyway...from wikipedia...a brief definition of Chalga:

Chalga is a form of Bulgarian popular music drawing from Balkan folk traditions and incorporating Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and Roma (Gypsy) influences, as well as motifs from Balkan traditional music, flamenco and klezmer music.

Often indistinguishable from Bulgarian pop music, it remains popular as music played in dance clubs and pubs. It is denigrated as a second-rate musical genre and originating from foreign sources, and its lyrics are gnerally considered to be banal and pointless by most educated Bulgarians. Critics of the genre have frequently complained that chalga fans are uneducated or unrefined; some of them refer to the genre as truck driver or taxi driver music. Chalga is known for repetitious themes and hook-laden dance rhythms. Its commercial exploitation has resulted in a vibrant night scene, especially in Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) and Varna, as well as many televised videos featuring extravagantly glamorized singers. Azis, a Roma cross-dresser, epitomizes the cheap and addictive quality of the genre.

That's the amazing Chalga superstar Azis in the photo above. He ran for political office in 2005 but unfortunately didn't recieve enough votes. If only our pop stars were glamorous yet androgynous drag-queens, America would be a better place. The only person who comes close is Christine Aguilera! (alright, I admit it- I am a Christine Aguilara fan! Just look at that fucking nose! That enough to fall in love!)

Here is a video of Azis with Bulgarian rapper Ustata. WOW! Machismo posturing gangsta dueting with a flamboyant preening queen! I have no idea what the hell they are yapping about...but just wait for the end of the video. I love it!

False Sacrament

2007-01-26T12:50:00.000-06:00

False Sacrament was an early 90s band- part of the Very Small Records roster which included other weirdos such as Schlong and Plaid Retina. They managed to sound completely different from any other band of the era by combining element of Black Sabbath, Thrash metal, jazz and early 90s punk without coming off as a pastiche...and they had a fucking fantastic female lead vocalist who could do an alien high trill while also exuding naive punk snottiness.

False Sacrament were mostly ignored in their day and disbanded after only releasing a couple singles, compilation tracks and a split 10" with Schlong. Another sad story, another lost treasure. Unfortunelately, their records were recorded a bit odd. This is most notable with the EQing and mixing of the drums- they are flat with a focus on the toms which were made to sound like popping bongos.

False Sacrament - Rings Of Saturn
False Sacrament - That One
False Sacrament - Second Hand Anxiety

Mother Country Death Rattle

2007-01-23T11:22:00.000-06:00

Mother Country Death Rattle was a group that existed around the early to mid-nineties in Chicago...an overlooked gem from the no-wave scene. Their only existing recording is from the CIA Via UFO To Mercury compilation. I don't know anything about them aside from seeing them once (perhaps their last show?) in 1998 at 6Odum in Chicago. Under blaring fluorescent lights, the group comprised of Shriner-uniformed horn players in cartoonish plush monster masks assembled like a geriatric VFW band. If I remember right, there was a player dressed entirely like a plush cob of corn...maybe a carrot. Their sound was a wheezing funeral march. One of the best shows I ever saw.

Mother Country Death Rattle - Tarantula Spasm Stomp

Giriama Wedding

2007-01-10T10:45:00.000-06:00

I originally found this track on a CD entitled Secret Society Music Of Cameroon. I had raced out to buy the CD after an instructor played me this track in class- I was in awe of the reed horn used...a completely strange and alien sound...just the timbre of it and the odd scale. But I was a bit broke at the time and I returned the CD next day after making a shitty cassette dub and forgetting to write down the track listing and information.

Perhaps my memory is foggy of the CD I purchased- but I only found this track again recently on Soulseek under the Nonesuch Explorer Series of Witchcraft And Ritual Music Of East Africa...a completely different region than Cameroon (on the other side of Africa). If the tracklisting is correct, this recording is from the Giriama region of Kenya and it is a song played for a wedding ceremony. The rhythm is provided by a kayamba, a rattle-type instrument made of reeds and filled with seeds and pebbles. The horn? Anyone know?

Kayamba Dance Giriama Wedding (mp3)

Pictured above are Giriama dancers in mid jump...found on ye' ol' interwebs.

Larry

2006-12-26T02:11:00.000-06:00

I thought working at a thrift store was going to be a dream come true with the first pickings of all the rare treats that were trucked in. Unfortunately, soon after I started, a policy was enacted where employees could only make purchases on their off hours...the ladies in the back who recieved and priced the daily shipments were hoarding all the fancy clothes and knick-knacks for their 10% discount.

A steady flow of records always came in- so many that they had to send a woman around to weed out what she deemed to be unsalable. Thus the record bin was full of The Carpenters and Phil Collins while treasures like Sun Ra's Magic City, Perry & Kingsley's The In Sounds From Way Out! and random gems like Larry were stuck in a shopping cart and hauled off to the trash compactor. This same woman was also in charge of weeding out the books- routinely trashing beautiful old turn-of-the-century books while about 50 copies of that fucking Lee Iococa book moldered on the shelves for months. With the new policy, it was a bit difficult for me to save the good stuff from the trash compactor

...but I managed to save Larry.

I have had this record sitting around since then, only listening to it once or twice in ten years. Simply titled Larry, this record lured me in with its amatuerish bright orange cover incompetently scrawled with a drawing of an organ. I will pick up any vanity pressing, especially if it's an organ record...but Larry, it turned out, was a fucking bore churning away dirges. Larry certainly paled in comparison to the stacks of George Wright and Lenny Dee records I was acquiring at the time.

...but the other day I decided to give Larry another try and, well, Larry impressed me. Not so much that his playing is anything special but that he sometimes goes apeshit crazy with the glockenspiel. As the liner notes disclose: "The selections we have chosen are ones that make particularly good demonstrations of the more novel features of the organ such as the glockenspiel, the chimes and the castanets." The organ referenced was the centerpiece of Martinetti's, a restaurant and hotel in Crystal Lake, Illinois, where this record was recorded. Larry, or rather Larry Fobair, was the resident organist at the time who had "appeared at a number of the better night spots in the Windy City."

As the liner notes also point out, Larry also liked horses. When the restaurant management asked him "what he likes better- organs or horses?" Larry paused, his eyes twinked and "Larry just shrugged!" That may be the perfect summary for this record.

Larry - Kinkajou
Larry - Frenesi
Larry - Dancing Shoes Polka

The above picture is not Larry Fobair nor is it the cover of the record. Trust me, the record cover isn't too interesting...so you are treated to my interpretation of Larry.

Jimmy Boyd Little Boy

2006-12-21T12:18:00.000-06:00

No Christmas songs for you, dear reader, as I'm sure you're deluged already. But here is a odd and kinda creepy song that has a roundabout connection to Christmas.

The Little Boy And The Old Man was a B Side to the 1950s children's music hit Tell Me A Story by Frankie Laine and Jimmy Boyd. Jimmy Boyd is mainly remembered for I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. Boyd possessed a cartoon-like kid voice that was both irritatingly cute and slightly ghoulish.

Frankie Laine & Jimmy Boyd - The Little Boy And The Old Man

Glamorous Piles

2006-12-15T05:07:00.000-06:00

I started a new blog called Glamorous Piles.

If you don't know already- I am a painter of pretty pictures (above). The new blog will be host to the posting of new work, process threads, various bits I find interesting and more personal, uh, reflections and how it relates to my work.

I have tried to keep this blog entirely devoid of any personal information and I find the formal box I put myself in quite restraining. Don't worry! I will still continue the audio trainwreck of Cake & Polka (uh, well...I haven't been that frequent lately...sorry). Glamorous Piles will also feature occasional MP3s as well- where it pertains to a piece, etc etc.

Don't forget to go to WFMU's Beware Of The Blog as well, where I am a contributor.

Sweethearts Forever

2006-12-07T14:39:00.000-06:00

Here is an old acetate recording of Sweethearts Forever, seemingly moaned by a group of sleep-deprived zombies at a funeral (that always makes a mediocre song so much better!) The end skip is unintentional but works in both mood and meaning. Grab your sweetheart and sit back to enjoy a long life of boring drudgery forever....and ever.

??? - Sweethearts Forever

thanks to Daniel Knox for the song identification

Noisy Commodore 64 Slop Heap!

2006-11-17T15:23:00.000-06:00

The High Voltage Sid Collection is a massive archive of almost every song composed on the Commodore 64- specifically the Sid 6581 chip...there are thousands! For years I have been periodically sifting through this mountain of chiptunes, plowing through a lot of mediocre crap and converting the gems to MP3s.

There is quite an array of C64 musical styles that have passed throughout the years. From the early primitive blink-blonk unfiltered tones playing loops of familiar classical phrases to the golden years of 85-90 where innovators like Rob Hubbard created memorable melodies and strange sounding complex rhythms. There is still a Commodore chiptune scene that writes new songs on the machine (no emulators!) to this day.

Although there is plenty of virtuosity in much of the writing- I have been searching out the obscure and incompetent songs where tones are grating, chords are sour and timing is off (of course I am). One of the best examples of this is the song for the game "Captive" by budget game company Mastertronic. This song was voted the #1 worst Sid tune ever!

(?) - The Captive

Here is another strange litttle dittie that might make you pull your hair out...

Daryll Reynolds - The Case Of The Mad Mummy

There are plenty of these strange little songs- but I have been desperately searching for Sid tunes that are completely abstract, devoid of obvious rhythm. New Sid composers do work in a more abstract framework but it usually is still grounded with some sort of beat- along the lines of IDM. What I want is a Commodore 64 noise composition! Sure, there are plenty of noise artists who utilize Commodore 64s in their work- but I always hope for a noise piece written exclusively for the Sid chip.

The other week I stumbled on these interesting abstract Sid compositions by Bug aka Patrick Becher from Germany (pictured). Done in 1989, these pieces are more of an experiment in digitizing sound on the Commodore 64. The noisy 8-bit samples, sparse composition and cut and paste collage aesthetic lend a bit of creepiness to the work.

Patrick Becher (Bug) - Error In Dur
Patrick Becher (Bug) - Save
Patrick Becher (Bug) - Computer Sound

...and here is another interesting 8-bit digi-experiment by Bug, albeit a bit more traditional but still quite weird:

Patrick Becher (Bug) - Katzenjammer

I have a special relationship with the Commodore 64 (you can read about it here). For those who think this was a dinky little machine that your older brother would play games on, think again. The Commodore 64 was an odd little machine, capable of far more than what it was intended for, that was pushed to its fullest capacity by game companies, demo makers and Sid composers.

Whereas I generally find the nostalgia trip of the 8-bit aesthetic in art a bit tedious- I am a sucker for the Sid-chip and the Commodore 64. Call me a snob, and partly going back on my own nostalgia trip- but the Commodore 64 was so much more than the passivity of playing your goddamn Ataris and Nintendos. (Again- I refer you HERE)

For more information on C64 Sid emulators go to the High Voltage Sid Collection FAQ page.

Cereal Box Spooky Stories!

2006-10-31T10:00:00.000-06:00

Reader CK stumbled upon the Haunted House cereal box cardboard flexi disc post from a year ago and was nice enough to share another ceral box Halloween flexi... SPOOKY STORIES!

Spooky Stories! - The Headless Horseman
Spooky Stories! - Untitles (Lonely, Lonely)

There are a fair amount of skips on the recording, but as CK notes: "if you were a 28 year old sheet of plastic glued to some cardboard, you'd skip too". And, well, don't skips and pops make things that much more spooky?

click on the image for a full scan of the record

Jim In Buffalo also sent me a cleaned up version of the previously mentioned Haunted House record (although at 64 Kbps).

Haunted House Cardboard Flexi (cleaned version)

Jim! If you want to send me a better bit-rate, feel free! Sorry I had not responded...well, you know the usual excuses.

Thanks to everyone for your nice comments as I go through, well...a dry spell.

Grease Vat Halloween Party At McDonald's

2006-10-04T14:58:00.001-05:00

This cassette from 1995 most likely came with a Happy Meal. It features Ronald McDonald and Grimace doing their Halloween "broadcast" and is steeped in that annoying Radio Disney ultra-compressed production style. Grimace's Halloween song is actually pretty damn good, though. Thankfully, Grimace thwarts Ronald's shit-stained attempt at a spooky song and we are treated with a few good seconds of noise music.

Side two features an organ drenched Halloween sound effects bonanza that would fit nicely on a Caroliner Rainbow record.

McDonald's Scary Sound Effects Cassette Side One
McDonald's Scary Sound Effects Cassette Side Two

Little Isaac - Dada Genius Dumb Kid?

2006-09-26T11:10:00.000-05:00

My friend Daniel Knox dug out this gem from the cassette pile at Unique Thrift Store in Chicago. Not your typical found recording of some kid yapping and singing, our little friend Isaac really can't get anything right. Take, for example, his brain damaged version of the ABCs...

Isaac - ABCs (mp3)

Is this kid fucking around? His rendition of the alphabet is a bit boggling...and really quite amazing and hilarious. I am assuming this is a cassette recorded for a speech therapy session as there is a patronizing teacher lady heard throughout the tape- she leads Isaac down his word garbled world, coaxing him to sing and read.

Isaac - Old MacDonald (mp3)

This kid might be a future genius. I love his disregard for any sort of melody or rhythm. Little Isaac really mangles this number into total abstraction.

Isaac - Mama & Papa (mp3)

This selection seems to explain a bit more about our little friend. Isaac is five and although he mangles the English language, he doesn't appear to be a stupid kid. He might just be a bit hyperactice- racing to the next word before he has time to finish the one barking out of his mouth and not really paying attention to any of the questions posed to him.

I was once thrown into a speech therapy class. Why- I'm not sure...for a five year-old, I only had a miniscule amount of language mangling such as hopital for hospital and paghetti for spaghetti. I was offended by the idea of this and resisted any sort of teaching. The school dropped their fruitless persuit and I quickly stopped being lazy with my pronunciation. Although my current mangling of the language in the form of pitcher for picture and assept for accept may not be a great testament to my ability to speak properly.

And yet another hit from Isaac-

Isaac - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (mp3)

The rest of the cassette is of the kid and the teacher reading a book on dinosaurs. It's not as entertaining as Isaac seems to drop the speech impedement act and reads decently aside from growling and laughing.

Fred van Hove's Church Organ

2006-08-13T11:45:00.000-05:00

Belgian avant-garde pianist Fred Van Hove is well known for his collaborations in the late sixties with Peter Brötzmann and Han Bennink. He often incorporates a church organ into group and solo improvisations. This recording is from the "Church Organ" LP of jarring and dissonant solo improvisations.

Fred Van Hove - Greetings From The Land Of Amateurs (shht - we're still in church)

I'm in love anytime anyone hammers away at a church organ.

Blitzoids

2006-07-18T02:17:00.000-05:00

Weirdo music you just don't hear these days...

Hailing from Chicago, Blitzoids were a studio only project of the De Chiara brothers with the occasional guest appearance by Jim Nickels. Drawing heavily from The Residents, Blitzoids also managed to fuse in the sounds of Beefheart, Rock In Opposition, free jazz and noise. They released two records in the late 80s- Stealing From Helpless Children and Look Up!. They were also featured on the Ralph Records folk music compilation "Potatoes".

According to the Blitzoids website these records are to be released in the Summer of 2006 (still waiting). Former members currently have a project called Kinkzoid.

Blitzoids - Lobotomy (from Stealing From Helpless Children)

also...

I have started doing web only shows on WFMU. My first show was July 5th.

You can access all playlists and archives HERE.

Kids On Dad's Birthday 10/3/77

2006-06-14T02:27:00.000-05:00

A cassette found in a thrift store of some kids having fun on Dad's birthday. Sometimes the adults get a little irate.

Kids On Dad's Birthday 10/3/77 (mp3)

If you like found recordings, The Audio Kitchen is now podcasting! The Audio Kitchen was a show on WFMU that served up an hour of homemade recordings freshly liberated from thrift stores and junk shops, as well as some amateur audio spirited away from the closets and computers of their creators. All podcasts are reruns of the show which aired from 2001-2003.

Ewa Demarczyk

2006-06-08T15:07:00.000-05:00

Born in Kraków in 1941, Ewa Demarczyk studied acting and pianio. In 1962 she started her co-operation with Piwnica Pod Baranami, a theatrical and experimental group of composers setting poetry to music. Ewa began performing solo in 1966, bringing her experimental theatre background to songs that ranged from demonic and triumphant to desperate and fragile.

Ewa Demarczyk - Karuzela z Madonnami (mp3)
Ewa Demarczyk - Groszki i Roze (mp3)

Faun Fables has covered Karuzela z Madonnami (Carousel With Madonnas)

Ewa Demarczyk page - most of it is in Polish

The Peculiar Din From Vincent Bergeron's Cranium

2006-06-03T15:51:00.000-05:00

A friend emailed me a link to Vincent Bergeron's music that he found through, of all places, MySpace. This friend has very particular and focused tastes- so I was excited to hear what he had to offer.

Canadian musician Vincent Bergeron's music is a perplexing sonic tapestry of strange sounds- as if a whole orchestra was equipped with record players and they randomly but precisely dropped the needle on various musical phrases. The music tumbles like a dust cloud as Bergeron croons- sounding a bit like Albert Marcoeur. The long compositions are rambling but focused- almost like a meditation on a single theme...a Trout Mask Replica sort of musical cubism.

Vincent Bergeron - Nostalgie-Euthanasie (mp3)

More songs and sound samples can be found on Bergeron's site. An earlier version of his L'Art du Désarroi release can be found on Archive.org in its entirety.

Fatty Jubbo Listener Hour On WFMU - 6/3/6

2006-06-01T15:51:00.000-05:00

This Saturday, June 3rd, I host WFMU's Listener Hour at 9 AM EST.
Stream the show through WFMU's website. If you're not up at that god-awful hour- you can access the archive of the show here: http://wfmu.org/playlists/LH

128k MP3 archive stays up for two weeks...RealAudio archive remains forever.

Fatty Jubbo Listener Hour Playlist:

artist / song / album

K. Gordon Murray - Santa's Magic Kingdom (excerpt)
Celtic Frost - Innocence & Wrath - To Mega Therion
Kay lande & Wade Denning - Guess What I Am
Ligeti - Vivace Capriccioso - Mechanical Music
Sparks - Without Using Hands - Indiscreet
Portsmouth Sinfonia - Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy - PS Plays The Classics

Harte 10 - Was Storts Den Mond - s/t
Locus Solus - Don't Switch - s/t
Ennio Morricone - Gil Intoccabili - Crime & Dissonance
Price Is Right - Theme Song
House On The Rock Mechanical Music
Harry Parch - O What Could He Do But Pick Her Up - Collection v3
Henry Cow/Slapp Happy - Bad Alchemy - Desperate Straights

Portable Pipe Organ - ?
Duotron - Where'd The Murderer Go? - Complete Book Of Duotron
K. Gordon Murray - Santa's Magic Kingdom (excerpt)
Conlon Nancarrow - Study For Player Piano ..36 - Studies For Player Piano v4
Duotron - Balls!- Complete Book Of Duotron
Arrigo Barnabe - Cancao Do Ferreiro - Gigante Negão

Non-Credo - Writer - Classic Guide To No-Mans Land (comp)
Americal Wind Symphony Orchestra - Polly Pickle Nose - Pickle Suite
Henry Brant - All Souls carnival - Works Of A Lifetime
Geoff Leigh - Chemical Bank - Chemical Bank

Kate Fagan

2006-05-30T23:11:00.000-05:00

I don't have any information on Kate Fagan other than that she was a member of Heavy Manners- an early 80s ska act from Chicago.

I found this in the .99 cent bin at Reckless years ago...overjoyed that I actually found it after repeated listens to "I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool" taped off the radio. "I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool" is definitely the stand-out track while "Waiting For The Crisis" is a quirky nod to Devo with clunky lyrics. Listen to that Mid-Western Accent!

Kate Fagan - I Don't Wanna Be Too Cool
Kate Fagan - Waiting For The Crisis

Elisabeth Chojnacka

2006-05-24T16:37:00.000-05:00

Polish harpsichordist Elisabeth Chojnacka first made her name when she emigrated to France and performed award winning interpretations of classical harpsichord music. She soon immersed herself in rigorous 20th-century classical music, performing compositions by Ligeti, Xenakis and Penderecki, among many others. Many compositions have been written specifically for her.

Chojnacka has been performing with percussionist Sylvio Gualda since 1981 and is often a featured soloist in the Xenakis Ensemble.

Iannis Xenakis - Naama
Performed and dedicated to Elisabeth Chojnacka in 1984

Mae Questel

2006-05-10T03:17:00.000-05:00

From Wikipedia:
Mae Questel (September 13, 1908 - January 4, 1998) was an American actress and voice artist.
Born Mae Kwestel in New York City, Questel won a talent contest at the age of 17, and began performing in vaudeville. She was seen by animator Max Fleischer, who was looking for an

actress to provide the voice for his Betty Boop character. From 1930 until 1939 Questel provided the voice of Betty Boop in more than 150 animated shorts. During the 1930s she released a recording of "On The Good Ship Lollypop" which sold more than 2 million copies.

From the mid 1930s Questel also provided the voice for Olive Oyl in the Popeye animated shorts. She based Olive's nasal vocal style on that of the legendary actress ZaSu Pitts, and ultimately played the role for more than twenty years.

Questel made her first on-screen appearance in the 1960s and was widely seen as one of Fanny Brice's mother's card-playing friends at the start of Funny Girl (1968). She appeared in Zelig (1983) and memorably (as a celestial apparition) in New York Stories (1989) (making her the only actress to ever play Woody Allen's mother on-screen).

Her final film appearance was in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). She also provided the voice for her old character Betty Boop in a cameo appearance in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). She achieved perhaps her greatest visibility in television commercials for various household products, most notably as "Aunt Bluebell", pitching Scott Towels.

Mae Questel died from complications related to Alzheimer's Disease at the age of 89 in New York City in 1998.

Mae Questel - The Skipping Record (mp3)

Don't Tell Me! Richard Simmons!

2006-05-08T01:32:00.000-05:00

From the queen of irritating comes this ridiculous little song that chastises the fatties. Mr. Simmons will not be accepting their pathetic excuses.

Richard Simmons - Don't Tell Me (mp3)

I was briefly a member of the "space-fag god rock"/high concept band Strawberry and we covered this song. I am very proud that I had to learn this goddamn song, sing the "YOU CAN DO IT! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!" parts and do a little hip-thrusting dance to accompany it. Oh, it was my favorite number.

For a period of time, when playing live, Strawberry would pristinely pre-record all of the tracks and pretend like they were playing them on stage. Everyone involved were master musicians and performers who knew how to play the songs inside and out and they convincingly pulled off the stunt. I was the only exception- I was a keyboard player whose miming could be extremely generalized and hidden by racks of cheap synthesizers. In order to confuse and confound even more, the guitar player would sometimes play his parts live. One of my favorite stunts was when a member would be seen in the background mouthing the words of the songs into a headset microphone in an attempt to throw off reality even more- who really was singing? who is actually playing? ...usually no one! It may all seem a bit gimmicky, but everything was pulled off with extreme seriousness.

As they put it: "...sounds like a collision between Missing Persons, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, and Mötley Crüe. Now throw in Iannis Xenakis, Cole Porter and the Andrews Sisters and you've got it!"

B.S. Pully

2006-04-26T03:19:00.000-05:00

B.S. Pully was a dirty nightclub comedian and character actor, best known for his portrayal of Big Jule in the stage and film versions of "Guys and Dolls"...but best known to me as J. Charles Twilight in the Don Knotts vehicle The Love God?

The B.S. stands for Bull Shit. And it's terlit humor.

B.S. PULLY - Fairy Tales (mp3)

I love this guy's thick gravelly voice and often clumsy delivery. The strangest thing about this record is the obviously fake laugh track which sounds as if the same three seconds of audience laughter is looped and fed through some sort of phasing delay...eventually the stand-out high pitch cackle will have you pulling your hair.

I wish I knew more about B.S. Pully...but I don't. Help me out if you can.

Speaking of Don Knotts and The Love God? (google video trailer)...here is a bit of audio from the film if the trailer doesn't wet your appetite enough.

Don Knotts as The Love God? - Biological Fact (mp3)

Don Knotts RIP 1924-2006

Is anyone interested in designing a new template for Cake & Polka Parade? This one depresses me and no matter how much I spruce it up with nice images and the occasional table- it's still very claustrophobic and clunky.

Commode Minstrels In Bullface

2006-04-21T01:06:00.000-05:00

Commode Minstrels In Bullface's Fantastic Picnic is a rusty conglomoration of squeeks, scrapings, organs, whistles and clarinet farts stuck together with cheap glue and buried in the dirt. The record is the soundtrack for an unrealized film- the liner notes minutely detail the convoluted nonsensical plot and offers a free copy of the next LP to anyone who completes the impossible film. Illustrations of the characters in the film are scrawled in the margins of the screenplay.

ACT ONE: Picnic begins with the Franklin basket picnic set unfolding with worm demon head appendages pulling the attached blanket into place. His friends begin to show up one by one, arraging themselves around the Franklin head. As each show up the Franklin head introduces popcorn and noodles that fly out of its mouth and eyes until it is empty and collapses on itself. The base of the Franklin bust is revealed to be hiding a collection of plates with painted on food that abstract piles of dog shit with ant legs and mandibles distribute to various party guests. The piles walk over the checkered blanket, leaving a trail of pudding. The cowboys show up as armoured chess pieces with snow droppings over their heads, riding paper motorcycle mounts, riding over most of the incoming guests. Blood and pudding is everywhere. The Waltz Copyright Crab slaps the cowboys off their mounts and starts repairing the injured guests with taken motorcycle parts. Gillian Crad, after being revitalized, drops fifty patties made of crushed entrails and manure. The Willwigs each have hot branding irons taken out of their power paint feet. Each patty is cooked with the hot irons and the Scrontium 90 Assasin and Barber grabs the patties and throws them around the blanket. Everyone eats. Snakes crawl into the food and are awkwardly chewed on.

Of course, this soundtrack needs no visual accompaniment as the sounds produced and composed provide plenty of demented imaginary scenes.

Commode Minstrels In Bullface - Ship Meal Develops A Tone Board (mp3)

Ol' Davis

2006-04-04T15:46:00.000-05:00

A phone call from Ol' Davis who brings down a lot of fire & brimstone.

Ol' Davis Phones In (mp3)

thanks Dan Gleason!

Chris Watson

2006-03-29T14:07:00.000-06:00

Chris Watson, ex-member of Cabaret Voltaire and The Hafler Trio, creates stunning field recordings of animals, habitats and atmospheres from around the world.

This is a track from "Outside The Circle Of Fire"- a collection of 22 minutely detailed close-up recordings of animals, birds and insects in their natural habitats. These recordings leave me speechless.

Chris Watson - AT DUSK - Hippopotami Emerging From River Mara At Dusk (mp3)

Chris Watson has also worked on many BBC radio and television productions and recently collaborated with KK NULL and Z'EV.

Here is an article where Chris Watson offers tips on recording birdsongs.

More info and links can be found on his website.

Spirocheta Pergoli

2006-03-17T08:46:00.000-06:00

The only information I can find on this early 80s Italian dada-synth-noise combo is that artist/designer Massimo Giacon was a founding member. If anyone has any info, please respond.

These MP3s are from the Fuzzi Bugsi Tumpa Il Bongo! 12" - Trax Record 1984

01 - merendine
02 - pistole giocattolo
03 - pianto di un coniglio a molla
04 - fuzzi bugsi

Maybe By Now Some Of You Are Saying, "What's With These Satanists?"

2006-03-09T00:15:00.000-06:00

The Satan hysteria of the 80s provides fodder for plenty of laughs.

Billy Hybells, a minister from Bumfuck, Nowhere got pretty worked up over Satan in a sort-of-casual way. Bill spouts off tons of laughable gory gruesome details about what Satanists do, but he lacks the fire & brimstone fury of other lunatics and sounds more like a little boy stumbling over his sermon, covering up his lack of oration power by making smug comments. His lack of belief in this hokum is quite obvious.

These recordings came from a cassette found in a thrift store.

Billy Hybells (mp3)
PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5

Late 20th Century Children's Music Shit-Pile

2006-03-05T16:03:00.000-06:00

No need to explain, really. Listen to these deplorable excuses for children's music and cram a wire-brush in your anus. Then try to get these ridiculous songs out of your head. Found in a thriftstore with no cover- the tape simply says The Great Body Shop. From 1990.

The Great Body Shop - Cool Dude's Tummy (mp3)
The Great Body Shop - No Drugs! No Way! (mp3)
The Great Body Shop - Let's Play (mp3)

Lionel Ritchie's Dick

2006-02-22T23:40:00.000-06:00

From the Cake & Polka archives, I deliver a brief moment of hilarious kookdom. This recording was taken from a documentary about mental illness circa late 70s. This bit focuses on a crazy woman ranting about Lionel Ritchie's dick and how the Black Kingdom is in trouble. She then spits on the doctor in order to ruin everything that's in his body.

Lionel Ritchie's Dick! (mp3)

Diatric Puds & The Blobbettes

2006-01-25T10:40:00.000-06:00

Haunted house swamp doo-wop extraordinaires Diatric Puds & The Blobbettes create lurching dance music...a perfect soundtrack for scratching your scabies. You can currently catch these cretins hobbling around Oakland, California.

This track came from a very limited edition split CD-R with Hans Grusel's Krankenkabinet. I have #4 of 24.

Diatric Puds & The Blobbettes - Mutant Dinner Music: Party Of Two (mp3)

Little Girl Sings The Hits

2006-01-24T06:33:00.000-06:00

From a found thrift store cassette, this recording features a little girl singing her ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Old Macdonald's Farm...with a little help from her mother.

Unknown Girl Found Cassette - ABC/Twinkle Twinkle/Old Macdonald (mp3)

Jimmy The Boy Wonder

2006-01-18T19:08:00.000-06:00

From the Cake & Polka archives, I present a repost of Hershell Gordon Lewis' demented and totally incompetent children's classic "Jimmy the Boy Wonder". I have included a couple extra MP3s.

Hershel Gordon Lewis, creator of Blood Feast, made a kiddie movie?

The premise of this turd is that Jimmy, a doltish little boy, wishes time to stop....and, well, it does. Father Time sends his homely daughter Aurora to lead Jimmy to The Great Clock (cheap cardboard) which only Jimmy can start again. Immediately they are accosted by Mr. Fig, a gangly weirdo in a plaid suit and thick greasepaint eyebrows. Mr. Fig kills time and intends on wasting Jimmy's time in order to prevent him from restarting TIME. If time has stopped, why does Jimmy have limited time?

Jimmy & Aurora get in many idiotic adventures, accompanied by severely retarded song and dance numbers. They soon get tired (as did the script writers) and Aurora tells Jimmy a story...a perfect excuse to jam in some old cartoon in order to kill some time. Jimmy eventually starts time again, but not without a run-in with Mr. Fig's tempting Hot Dog Tree. WOW.

I KILL TIME! (Mr. Fig Theme Song) (mp3)
Wonderful Beans (mp3)
One Step At A Time (mp3)
Think Big! (mp3)
Hot Dog Tree (mp3)

One thing that bores the hell out of me is writing plot synopsis...go here if you want it.

Cake & Polka Parade Pee Pee Party!

2006-01-16T09:01:00.000-06:00

Today Cake and Polka Parade is one year old. I started this blog after a few months of perusing the big MP3 blog blow-up that was happening at the time. I was a bit underwhelmed by the glut of shit that was out there, the bland self-indulgent writing and the unimaginative derivative artists that were being pushed forth as something ‘interesting’. But I was equally inspired by such sites and blogs as Rummage Through The Crevices, Basic Hip, The 365 Days Project, Pastor McPurvis' Vinyl Orphanage and EC Brown's massive collection of MP3 links among many others.

I took my cue from these obscure music blogs as well as from a longtime obsession with WFMU. I wanted to showcase some forgotten treasures and interesting bits of found sound that I have accumulated over the years as well as highlighting some brilliant work that is being made today.

Thanks for everyone’s support over the last year, especially Scott Soriano from Crud Crud, Oddio Katya from Oddio Overplay, Warren from Rummage Through the Crevices and Ken Freedman.

I’m going on a little vacation…I haven’t been out of the city in four fucking years. Don’t worry though- over the next month I will resurrect some earlier posts that suffered the fate of deletion from a server crash.

Here is a birthday party song from Robert Downey's film Chafed Elbows.

Robert Downey's Chafed Elbows - Intro Credit Sequence (mp3)

And be sure to check out my posts from WFMU’s Beware Of The Blog. And…uh….my ART.

Bulgarian Diva At Betty's Resale Shop

2006-01-09T07:16:00.000-06:00

I picked up this record because the woman on the cover looks exactly like Rita Tushingham, who I had a crush on after watching The Knack And How To Get It.

Don't ask me...I know nothing about this record. Everything is in Cyrillic except for "Made In Bulgaria" on the record label. Click on the image above if you can read it. (it's Lili Ivanova...thanks everybody)

The record is a sad and melancholy mix of traditional melodies blended with 70's arena rock ballads. I find this song quite haunting.

Unknown Bulgarian Diva - ??? (mp3)

I found this record at Betty's Resale Shop on Lincoln Avenue on Chicago's north side. Betty's was a strange junk shop operated by the feeble 75 year-old Betty and her white trash daughter. The whole place was a mound of garbage spanning two storefronts, a maze of water-damaged crap and piss-soaked furniture.

There were layers and layers of stuff piled- years and years worth, I'd imagine. I once dug through a pile for an hour, trying to excavate an old pump organ I saw way in the back. But honestly, most of Betty's wares were junk, absolute worthless crap. The big pile of moldy and filth encrusted records yielded only a handful of finds over the years I went there. If you looked hard enough through the mounds of crap, you could see various secret rooms such as a filthy kitchen and a little hovel for the dog to hang out. They had a few birds in cages ensconced in all that garbage as well.

Betty was always stationed at the front of the heap and her daughter would be wildly zinging around the store, a real nervous type, fiddling with this and that, flirting with the guys they hired for furniture moves. I still kick myself for never bringing in a recorder to Betty's, because every visit was priceless as Betty and her daughter would constantly fight. It wasn't petty squabling, they really went at it at top volume. If it was quiet in there, I would linger around just to hear one of their ridiculous arguments.

Gentrification eventually came to the neighborhood and Betty's was bulldozed down. (pictured above) R.I.P. Betty's

Petaluma Chicken Farm

2006-01-05T07:37:00.000-06:00

From archive.org comes an inexplicable promotional film for Sonoma County poultry industry featuring young women making an extremely large omelet. One of the most bizarre films I have ever seen. The dance sequence is a must-see.

Petuluma Chicken Farm @ archive.org

Merry Christmas Slayer!

2005-12-24T19:26:00.000-06:00

I have been a bit obsessed with Slayer lately. Rather than putting up something everyone has seen or heard, here are some inspired interpretations of classic Slayer songs. Merry Christmas!

A cappella Slayer! Yowza!
Dokaka - Angel Of Death (mp3)

Dictionaraoke Slayer!
Brain Explode - South Of Heaven (mp3)

String Quartet Slayer!
The String Quartet - Expendable Youth (mp3)

Commodore 64 Sid Chip Tune Slayer!
??? - War Ensemble (mp3)
Listen to the great approximated flailing guitar solo.
Lunatic - War Ensemble (mp3)
Lunatic - Seasons In The Abyss (mp3)

NES Chip Tune Slayer!
lonytynch - Angel Of Death (mp3)

If you know of any other odd Slayer covers, please leave a comment. Don't bother if you're going to mention Tori Amos or Modest Mouse.

A Smoking For Two Christmas

2005-12-15T00:27:00.000-06:00

An annual Christmas tape from Greg Beemster and Cheer-Accident's Thymme Jones. Each year features a reading from the purloined Christmas letters of an anonymous woman followed by a version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas".

A Smoking For Two Christmas - 1999 version (mp3)

I haven't received one of these tapes in years. Thymme tells me the letters just stopped coming. Listening to this letter, you can tell why.

Awkward Girl

2005-12-14T08:14:00.000-06:00

An awkward girl reads and is interviewed in front of a crowd. I'm not sure what the context was. This recording came from an unlabeled lathe-cut tin record.

Unknown Awkward Girl Interview (mp3)

Stockhausen's Momente

2005-12-08T06:19:00.001-06:00

Through 1962-1969, Karlhienz Stockhausen wrote Momente, a massive orchestration for solo soprano, 4 choir groups and 13 instrumentalists. The piece was composed in "moments" which are defined by K, M and D.

K stands for “Klang” (timbre, verticality, regularity, homophony, percussion, male voices, noises).

M represents “Melody” (horizontality, monophony, heterophony, randomness, pitches and noises equally mixed, trumpets and trombones, soprano solo).

D means “Durations” (diagonally [ vertical plus horizontal ] polyphony, irregularity [ “syncopated” ], pitches, electric organ, female voices).

The moments are then arranged by the conductor, rendering each performance of the piece unique but still highly structured.

This monstrocity leaves me speechless, actually. It is an odd musical theatre where random sounds such as hand clapping suddenly become musical structures interrupted by gibberish and horn farts, quickly and abruptly cutting into a very dramatic orchestra and choral moment.

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Momente (excerpt)

I'm desperately wanting to know what picture Stockhausen is holding...is it a picture of himself?

Fluvial

2005-12-02T16:17:00.000-06:00

Fluvial was the 1983 project of Belgian vocalist Catherine Jauniaux, formerly of Aksak Maboul, The Work and many other art-damged and improv groups. Here she is joined by Tim Hodgkinson (Henry Cow, The Work) and Tom Cora, among many others. The songs on Fluvial drift from organic percussion based compositions to Kurt Weill theatrics, all tied together Jauniaux's amazing voice.

Fluvial - Origine Des Femmes (mp3)

Fluvial has recently been reissued on Ad Hoc recods.

House On The Rock

2005-11-30T13:08:00.000-06:00

If you haven't noticed, all of the older archives are dead. I had them on a different server which mysteriously deleted the directory. Someone requested I rebuild this entry. So here you are if you missed it...with 4 extra mp3s!

If you're ever in Wisconsin, you must visit House on the Rock. Built by Alex Jordan, a budding architect who Frank Lloyd Wright dismissed with the declaration, “I wouldn’t hire you to design a cheese crate or a chicken coop”, House on the Rock is a sprawling monument of obsessive collections and shambolic claustrophobic architecture built upon a 60-foot chimney of rock.

One of the main attractions is ‘The Infinity Room’, which is a ridiculous tapered glass structure that juts out from the rock and dangles precariously 50 feet over the forest. The structure is very frightening, especially when every heavy footfall from fat tourists makes the ramshackle structure shake.

After crawling through the low ceilinged, carpeted corridors dimly lit by Tiffany lamps, you eventually come out to the real attraction- the automated music machines. There are about 20-30 of these marvels, some with such stunning craftsmanship featuring whole doll orchestras banging out the Bolero and the Hungarian Rhapsody.

Since these machines were built in the 1940’s, they are in various states of disrepair. A lot of sour notes are squeezed out, the music phases in and out of time, the dead drum heads sound like suitcases. Sometimes most of the music is pre-recorded and piped in with just one lonely out of tune automated instrument trying to keep up. It is truly a sonic feast, especially when more than one machine is struggling to fart out a song.

Here are eight field recording mp3s from these great machines. The House on the Rock giftshop sells CD's of the music, but it is very sterile, very in-tune, not very interesting.

House On The Rock Automated Music MP3s

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

Further into the labyrinth, you enter the carousel room, home of the largest carousel in the world which features 239 grotesque carousel beasts rotating at a ridiculously fast speed. There is a cacophony of piped in music accompanied by a rolling thunderous white noise produced by cherubs suspended from the ceiling banging away on dead tympani drums. Hundreds of topless winged mannequin angels rotate overhead on what seem to be medieval torture devices.

The grand finale is the Organ Room, which is overly saturated with red light and stuffed haphazardly with all manner of antique pipe organs, odd acoustic contaptions and strange random collections of dolls. Unfortunately, none of the organs actually operate and they pipe in some bland music. Eventually you navigate your way through the winding staircases, dizzy with the sensory overload and you are spit out into the gift shop where you collapse on the ground.

Read more about House on the Rock
See more pictures of House on the Rock
House on the Rock website

UPDATE 4/24/5
WFMU's Beware of the Blog posted a brief entry on The House on the Rock and Listener Todd D. wrote in with this great explaination and description:

Hi from Madison, Wisc. Alex Jordan is a fascinating character - even more so when you dig beneath the official local tourist lore. He built the House on the Rock as a personal Bali Hai/ Space Age bachelor pad/ Shangri-La. He brought underage girls from Spring Green to party and parlayed money made from patents on inventions into hanging out with movie stars and politicians, blackmailing them with compromising photographs, using that money to become a slumlord in Madison to make money to buy tons and tons of weird crap (a suit of armor for an elephant, a carousel horseman of the apocalypse with a bouquet of heads on the saddle, the world's largest collection of angel wings, etc.).

Don't miss the scenic overlook under the House on the Rock that sits across the valley from eternity needle thing. Coolest smoke spot in south central Wisconsin. THE best thing about the House though is seeing the tourists go from enthused in the first half hour, to confused midway through the seemingly endless maze of bizarre crap, to totally annoyed by the end of the four hours it takes to go through the menagerie. Everyone leaves pissed off.

Doodles Weaver

2005-11-26T04:49:00.000-06:00

In the 1940's, Doodles Weaver was a prominent member of Spike Jones' City Slickers. He often played a character named "Professor Feetlebaum" who would randomly shout out "FEETLEBAUM!". Due to a severe alchohol problem, Doodles was eventually fired when he went too far with a live television commercial.

Doodles carried on with the short-lived "Doodles Weaver Show" and made many cameo appearances on television shows such as Batman and The Andy Griffith Show.

Doodles shot himself in 1983. He was the uncle of Sigourney Weaver.

What strikes me most about these recordings is Doodles' bizzarre and unique delivery. Playing the bumbling idiot, Doodles mangles, slurs and trips over words while laughing all along. He bleats out corny jokes like a drunken uncle falling down the stairs during Christamas dinner.

These tracks are from the LP "Feetlebaum Returns!"

Doodles Weaver - The Great Horse Race
Doodles Weaver - Eleanor Rigby
Doodles Weaver - Home On The Range

Learn more about Doodles HERE!

Phyllis Diller VS Little Edie Bouvier Beale

2005-11-20T18:27:00.000-06:00

Phyllis Diller - And This Is My Beloved (mp3)
VS
Little Edie Bouvier Beale - excerpt from Grey Gardens (mp3)

more on Phyllis Diller / Little Edie Bouvier Beale

A Toasted Toad Is A Silly Sight

2005-11-10T07:46:00.000-06:00

Little toads weren't meant to be toasted. Jump little toad! That's how little toads keep warm.

Unknown - Jump Little Toad (mp3)
from an unknown children's 78 about safety.

Honey Bee

2005-11-09T03:26:00.000-06:00

Honey Bee is song by a group of young ladies calling themselves "The Vice Girls". This song was included on the New Orleans Engine Engine Number 9 cassette compilation released on Quintron's Rhinestone Records. Quintron provides greasy organ accompaniment.

The Vice Girls - Honey Bee (mp3)

This song has nothing to do with Joan Crawford. I just like this amazing photo of her in Queen Bee.

Schwump!

2005-11-05T16:07:00.000-06:00

In the mid-70s, Barry Schwam AKA Schwump was the host of a strange radio show out of Portland, Oregon when he caught the attention of The Residents with a broadcast of his All-Frog Opera. The Residents invited him to record a session, the result of which was the Aphids in the Hall 7" released on Ralph Records. The Residents provided the backing instrumentation to Schwump's off-kilter lyrics.

Supposedly Schwump was worried about the record being pirated, so he insisted on an initial release of 200 copies. When The Residents did as Schwump wished, he lambasted the group for not properly promoting him. Schwump eventually dropped off the face of the earth.

Schwump - Aphids In The Hall (mp3)
Schwump - You're a Martian / Home (mp3)

Schwump resurfaced in the early 1990's and has been steadily releasing home-recorded CD-Rs and casssettes of his goofy music. He also makes a living doing voice-over work. Read an interview HERE.

Shwump's Theremin CD from 2004 is fantastic. Here are a couple choice tracks.

Schwump - Drain The People (mp3)
Schwump - You're Half My Dream Come True (mp3)

GO BUY SOME SCHWUMP!

A Little Bit About Myself...

2005-11-02T01:27:00.000-06:00

CLICK HERE (mp4 video)

Halloween Spooks

2005-10-24T04:38:00.000-05:00

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross get a bit gagged up on jazzy Halloween grunts.

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross - Halloween Spooks (mp3)

Old Time Radio At The Monster Club & Ghouls With Attitude

2005-10-19T02:05:00.000-05:00

The Monster Club presents a plentiful MP3 party pack of old time horror and suspense radio at their Old Time Radio At The Monster Club page. via EmptyFree

Oddio Overplay has resurrected Otis Fodder's MP3 collection of Monster songs Ghouls With Attitude! Hooray!

And Be sure to lurk on over to Pastor McPurvis' Weekly MP3 Talent Show where this week's wonderful offering is "More Death & Horror", a great 1978 horror themed sound effect record from the BBC.

The Haunted House

2005-10-15T16:01:00.000-05:00

A CHILLING TALE!

Haunted House Cardboard Flexi (mp3)

Damage

2005-10-13T21:21:00.000-05:00

Damage was a band out of Winterpark, Florida circa '84. They played hardcore music with synthesizers. Whereas Screamers and Nervous Gender were very inventive and threatening with their use of synths, Damage was extremely clunky and ineffectual.

...Which is why I love this record. Their screaming of generic punk lyrics over dry sine-waves farted out at the most most remedial level sounds like pure futile and infantile rage from a 13 year old.

These songs came from a 1984 7" on Spacefish Records (Click the image for complete cover) According to this message board, Damage also has a full length. If anyone knows anything more on this band, please post.

Damage - Jay Walk (mp3)
Damage - Fight Or Die (mp3)
Damage - Jock Mentality (mp3)

More Moaning & Screaming

2005-10-06T19:55:00.000-05:00

These hilarious bouts of moaning and screaming come from a CD simply titled "Horror Sounds" that I picked up at Osco for $3. Most of the CD is filled with low bass rumbles and occasional thunderclaps...but the sporadic 5 minutes of choking, hollering, griping, groaning, grousing and grumbling is priceless. Plus there's a rooster thrown in for good measure!

Horror Sounds - Drowning! (mp3)
Horror Sounds - Screaming! (mp3)
Horror Sounds - Moaning! (mp3)

The Egyptian Lover

2005-10-05T02:08:00.000-05:00

When a friend let me borrow this LP I thought it was the most ridiculous cover and asinine name...and I knew a great treat was in store. With the low-budget crap 80's design and song titles like "Girls", I thought it would be a pathetic vanity project of some jackass who thought he was a player. Putting it on the turntable, all my preconceptions were proved somewhat wrong. What we have here is an interesting sonic stew of electro and early hip-hop heavily influenced by Kraftwerk.

DJ Rick from Art For Spastics radio show tells me:

Before making the bigtime with a couple mainstream hits, Sir Mix-a-Lot was mainly known for his "Square Dance Rap" which crossed over into many west coast dance clubs and received radio play on the obligatory live mix shows on urban/top 40 radio. It was a modest success anyway, as it shared airwaves and rocked dancefloors along with Egyptian Lover.

On his "I'm a Trip" (or "I'm Trippin'" (I'm working from memory and haven't heard this in about 17-18 years)) 12-inch EP, Sir Mix-a-Lot took a swipe at Egyptian Lover, blasting EL's technology and bragging on his. Basically he pit his Yamaha DMX versus EL's Roland 808. Pretty weak premise.

Egyptian Lover answered it with a b-side on a 12" EP. The song was called "E Rap (Holding It Down)," and it was Egyptian Lover at his most street-tough and lyrical, and it was too tough an act for him to sell convincingly, so it's laughably lame.

This battle went largely unnoticed as it happened at the same time as KRS-One versus MC Shan, LL versus Kool Moe Dee, and everyone ganging up on LL after "I Need Love." The whole west coast was a joke. But for fans of the electro branch of early hip hop records, there was some truly golden stuff out there which helped pioneer the genre of car audio demonstration music.

The Mix-a-Lot/E Lover beef was nullified completely when Mix-a-Lot's "Posse's on Broadway" touted his "808 kickdrum." I guess his DMX went kaput and he upgraded to something less ephemeral.

The Egyptian Lover - Girls (mp3)
With its pitch shifted "Girls" sample and hot make-out middle section, I could listen to this song all day.

more on The Egyptian Lover at Global Darkness

the back cover states: "Girls done by a close friend"

End Result

2005-10-01T02:07:00.000-05:00

Jake Austin on End Result in Roctober:
"Chicago's End Result was a multi racial experimental No Wave band born out of the early 80s hardcore scene. They managed to limp all the way to the end of the 80s with a rotating cast (at one point they advertised they were seeking a "singer with a hatred of music") built around guitarist Alan Jones.

Perhaps their greatest legacy is that they paved the way for No Wave/artfuck bands presenting themselves to an all-ages, hardcore/punk audience, something that defined the Chicago underground of the 90s (Milk of Burgundy, Skingraft, etc.). Their odd songs (a straightforward tune about amputation wasn't atypical) were released on Articles Of Faith's Wasteland label, and on several important Midwestern hardcore/punk comps, resulting in fans of boundary-pushing gravitating towards them, including Steve Albini and Sonic Youth. No child of privilege, Jones lived in a mission for a while, and turned lemons into an odd tasting lemonade by briefly making the mission's basement a site for punk shows."

Steve Albini on End Result:

"End Result was truly a band apart. Ahead of its time and unique in more ways than I can count. Alan tuned his guitar like a cello... End Result had no drummer to keep the beat, because (in Alan's immortal words) 'we think our audience can count.' ... During the brief time I ran Ruthless Records, I was able to release an album by End Result, and that might be my proudest achievement from that period."

End Result has been known to still occasionally play around Chicago...usually someone's backyard barbeque.

End Result - Children Die In Pain (mp3)
End Result - Slash (mp3)

this picture has nothing to do with End Result. soon: Silver Abuse

The Halloween Sound of Horror

2005-09-23T00:58:00.000-05:00

A budget Halloween CD by Scarewear. This one sounds like it was thrown together on a cheap cassette 4-track. It freely samples various music bits from jazz to moody soundtracks and overlays growling, grunts and even samples from the classic Halloween record 'Sounds to Make You Shiver' AKA 'Horror Sounds of the Night'

Halloween Sound of Horror - Thriller (mp3)
This is the standout section from the one-track CD. It starts out with an overwrought "HAPPY HALLOWEEN!" and blasts into a cheese version of Thriller. Grunts and howls swirl about with violins and some freak-out psychedelic music.

Halloween Sound of Horror - Organ Grinding (mp3)
Stomping, door creaks, broken glass, growls and howls collaged with a spooky organ.

BAD

2005-09-17T13:42:00.000-05:00

Directed by Jed Johnson and produced by Andy Warhol, BAD revolves around Hazel Aiken (Carroll Baker), who pays the bills by operating an electrolysis service out of her home in addition to running an all female murder-for-hire service for the petty spites of emotional cripples.

from Rotten Tomatoes:

When Hazel unwillingly takes in her first male charge, L.T. (Perry King), her well established balance is upturned. As the various ladies carry out their gruesome tasks (killing a dog, maiming a gas station attendant) Johnson trains the camera as much on the superbly bizarre mannerisms and gestures of the actors as on their actual crimes, creating a vastly amusing if slightly disturbing cast of characters. When L.T. finally gets his assignment, to kill an unwanted autistic child, he becomes paralyzed by memories of his own abused youth. Hazel, constantly annoyed by her untrustworthy girls, her electrolysis clients, her useless daughter-in-law and whiny grandson and the unruly cop who she pays protection to, finally comes unglued in a bizarre and outrageous climax befitting Warhol's legacy.

BAD - Old Bags Look Bad In Shorts (mp3)

A hilarious monologue from Factory staple, Brigid Berlin. She had walked into a bar wearing her shorts and overheard the guy across the street say "I can't wait until summer is over because old bags look so bad in shorts." For revenge she hires two of Hazel's hit-girls to kill the guy's dog "..and you gotta do it viciously...it can't be something painless or ouchless."

Track down "Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story" a movie which documents her strange personality, her wealthy upbringing as the daughter of the Hearst empire chairman and her obsession with key-lime pie.

BAD - You Fucking Irish Rat Cocksucker (mp3)
Another clip showcasing her talents, fighting with the guy across the street.

BAD - Arousal Problems (mp3)
BAD - Smoking (mp3)

Susan Tyrell plays Hazel's daughter-in-law, a frumpy whining woman who is always sitting at the kitchen table bouncing her mewling baby on her knee while smoking a cigarrette or drinking soda.

Starring in Fat City and Forbidden Zone, Susan Tyrell never got the recognition she deserved. She is a master of gesture and facial expression. She recently lost both her legs from a rare blood disease. (she wrote the song "Witch's Egg" for Forbidden Zone, the last line of which is "...like a queen with no legs.") I love Susan Tyrell.

BAD - Baby Thrown Out Window (mp3)

Bad features a couple memorable and ridiculous killing scenes, one of which involves a woman who hires one of Hazel's girls to kill her baby. While on the phone with her lover, who is complaining about the high price of the hit-girl, the woman becomes frustrated and does the job herself. The baby splatters on the sidewalk and spurts a copious amount of blood on a woman walking by. A dog sniffs the corpse. A mother tells her son, "That's what I'm going to do to you if you don't SHUT UP!"

Unfortunately this overlooked gem has not been released on DVD and all of these clips were ripped from a fuzzy buzzy VHS copy.

Ass Toast Nation

2005-09-14T23:50:00.000-05:00

This is an odd mystery record that I found in the free pile at Reckless Records in Chicago years ago...there was a huge stack of them. I could not pass up the ridiculous arbitrary cover art that featured a Frank Frazetta painting with pictures of Asian guys in headphones on the side and a random photo on the back cover of some dudes hanging out drinking 7UP and Budweiser with a chick. Click on the image for a full size version...I have stared at this cover for hours.

There is not much information on this record except for a small slip of paper inside, which provides only gibberish and a little drawing of a woman spreading her legs open on a slice of toast. I am assuming this is a split LP with A Calvacade Of Thugs and Orgasmo A.F.U. They both play a really no-fi hip hop interspersed with some bad rock songs.

A Calvacade of Thug's "Ass Toast Nation" has some great rhymes like "YO! I really know how to love a can, I can strip the base of my dick with a rubber band. Don't get me wrong, I like you chicks, now spread your tits to give me a place to shit". Another one of their songs, "Sevrock" features some pretty good rapping and a great squonking sax. The records they sample are extremely fucked up with a lot of surface noise. I am not sure if this record was a prank or not...but a copy has been moldering in the Experimental bin at Reckless for years now.

A Calvacade of Thugs - Ass Toast Nation (mp3)

A Calvacade of Thugs - Sevrock (mp3)

Enzypan! Spazmical!

2005-09-11T14:44:00.000-05:00

A couple of 78 rpm records released by Norgine Laboratories which features The Recorded Detail Man who extols the virtues of cryptic sounding gastro-intestinal and constipation medications.

These records were promotional and were meant to be listened by a doctor in the comfort of his home, with a flip side of soothing classical music. On Spazmical, The Recoded Detail Man rattles through a barrage of highly detailed seemingly scientific virtues punctuated by tongue-twisting alliteration.

"spazmical bids fare to remove laxation from deplorabe self treatment, back to ethical channels, right into the doctor's hands."

PURE POETRY!

Norgine Labs - Enzypan (mp3) via 365 Days Project

Norgine Labs - Spazmical (mp3)

____________________________________________________________

oh, if you care, I'm back...posts will be more frequent!

Galen

2005-08-21T14:27:00.000-05:00

Galen was a Ann Arbor teenage no-wave band circa early 90's featuring Aaron Dilloway of Wolf Eyes. Their racket was a spazzy but fragile form of, dare I say? Thrash Klezmer? They released a 7" on Bulb (which is included on the label's compilation of early singles) and a cassette. Their final LP, released on Dilloway's Hanson record label, was recorded by Quintron at the famous Milk Of Burgundy in Chicago. Quintron is a guest musician on a few tracks.

From the Bulb 7"
Galen - Drain The Serpent (mp3)
Galen - The Forkman (mp3)

From LP
Galen - 4th Of July (mp3)
Galen - Billion Dollar Babies (mp3)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

2005-07-31T23:07:00.000-05:00

More of a surreal art film than straight horror, Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a true work of genius.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most brutal films, not because it's a slasher blood-fest (there's actually very little blood in any scene), but because it brilliantly manipulates a viewer through a distant, almost documentary snuff film, point of view. With brilliant camerawork, editing and grainy film stock, you are made to feel the oppressive Texas heat and the claustrophobic confines of a van or a dining room cluttered with garbage. This is a miserable movie with a miserable outcome.

A lot of bad immitations and sequels have been made of this film, but none capture the subtle horror, humor and bizarre and genuine interaction of the characters. I have watched this movie over and over because of the little details- the way the hitchhiker flaps his arms as he watches a photograph burn, leatherface licking his lips, the dinner they set out for Sally, the Cook's disturbing face, the quaint yellowed wallpaper in the house.

But the soundtrack is what really pushes this film into another realm...

Foregoing a typical background orchestral score, TCM uses sound as a primary element in the storytelling. I have ripped the audio of various scenes from DVD. These pieces work on their own and effectively evoke mood and story. Sound as central character...

1. Intro (mp3) - some rustling, some grunting and a distinctive electronic pinging is underlined by a constant delayed drone of cymbals and gongs. Flash-bulb bursts of light illuminate a rotting corpse. Credits roll over high contrast footage of the sun. A radio report fades in and the cymbals hit their crecendo of noise.

2. Hitchhiker (mp3) - This is a remarkable scene. The hitchhiker is frighteningly spastic and his conversation hilariously odd. One of the best performances ever put to film. Listen for "Fool For A Blonde" by Roger Bartlett & Friends repeated over and over adding another layer of surreal dread. Ed Neal, the actor who plays the Hitchhiker, has also appeared in The Mighty Morphing Power Rangers and Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie.

3. Kurt Gets Killed (mp3) - The first kill scene is devoid of any prolonged tension and is enacted in only one minute. "hello? Is anyone home?" is followed by a mysterious pig squeeling. Kurt then trips and Leatherface appears and smashes a sledge hammer into Kurt's head, and Kurt flaps all about in a seizure. Leatherface drags him into the room and slams the door, which is punctuated by a droning dissonant chord.

4. Jerry Hit With Hammer, Leatherface Panics, Licks Lips (mp3) - A thumping in a freezer, Jerry opens freezer and the flashbulb ping of the intro is reintroduced to emphasize Pam flopping out of the freezer with the strains of rigor mortis. Leatherface barrels into the room with frenzied howls and smashes Jerry in the head with a hammer. The deaths in TCM are so effective because they are so unceremonial. Poor Jerry is looking for his friends and meets an untimetimely death via hammer in the head, which is the last we ever see of Jerry. Seeing death portrayed in such a way is more disturbing than a prolonged melodramatic scene with sweeping string sections. It really underlines how anti-climatic death is and how pointless life ultimately is. Manic chicken clucking adds more tension and Leatherface panics with frantic yelps. He calms down and starts to lick his lips.

5. Dinner (mp3) - An excerpt from the long final act. Sally wakes up from passing out, everything is calm, perhaps it was a dream, a fly buzzes, crockery is clanked..it takes a moment for her to realize where she is and she screams, only to be ridiculed by her captors. This scene is especially disturbing because the interaction between the family is actually funny- they hound and browbeat each other like a demented Honeymooners episode...all the while Sally is screaming for her life. Various sounds weave in and out of the dialogue, a barking pig hightens the chaos and the flash-bulb ping reappears as the family speaks of how to slaughter Sally.

"There's some things you just have to do": Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre - a great essay by Sean T. Collins

Another great essay: "If I Have Anymore Fun Today, I Don't Think I'll Be Able to Take It" - A Consideration of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre by Geof Smith

Godley & Creme

2005-07-28T13:47:00.000-05:00

Kevin Godley and Lol Creme left 10cc in 1976 to persue a solo career based on a guitar contaption they invented named The Gizmo which produced violin sounds on a guitar. The result of which was the debut triple LP Consequences which featured a play acted out by Peter Cook and sonic tomfooloery that can only be achieved by being holed up in a studio for 14 months. Obviously, Consequences was destroyed by the critics.

Their following records were a bit easier to digest but still featured bizzare sonic effects and baffling pop arrangements. They achieved a minor hit in the 80's with "Cry" accompanied by a groundbreaking video of morphing faces. Some of their material was reissued in the late 90's but you can usually find their records in budget bins, sad as it may be.

Godey & Creme - Sandwiches Of You (mp3) from L

Godley & Creme - An Englishman In New York (mp3) from Freeze Frame

Godley & Creme - I Pity Inanimate Objects (mp3) from Freeze Frame

Next!

2005-07-18T07:36:00.000-05:00

5 versions of Next by Jacques Brel

Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well and Living In Paris Soundtrack
Scott Walker
The Centimeters
Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Bernadette And The Beautiful Lady

2005-07-09T03:27:00.000-05:00

IMMACULATE MARY! OUR HEARTS ARE ON FIRE!

Sister Mary's Story Time presents "Bernadette And The Beautiful Lady". From a 7" cardboard picture disc. Click on picture for full image.

Sister Mary's Story Time - Bernadette And The Beautiful Lady (mp3)

note: there are some worn out rough spots on this recording.

What Makes The World Go 'Round?

2005-07-06T02:18:00.000-05:00

LOVE makes the world go 'round! As sung by Valerie Lynn on 12-15-64. From a cardboard lathe cut record. Click on image for full size.

Valerie Lynn - Love Makes The World Go 'Round (mp3)

from the collection of Daniel Knox

The Fall & Michael Clark

2005-06-28T05:24:00.000-05:00

The Fall and Micheal Clark collaborated on I Am Kurious, Oranj in 1988. I am still picking my jaw off the floor since I found this earlier production performed to "Lay of the Land".

The Fall & The Michael Clark Dance Company - Lay Of The Land (avi)

Billy Synth

2005-06-27T21:44:00.000-05:00

From a 1980 Sordide Sentimental 7", comes Billy Synth's beautifully inept "Hartzdale Drive Destruction" featuring a one note bass line, oscilating synth, and confused and meandering shouted vocals. Over the years Billy Synth has led other bands such as The Turn-ups and The Windowpaynes.

Billy Synth - Hartzdale Drive Destruction (mp3)

Charel Janssens

2005-06-25T07:03:00.000-05:00

These two odd songs come from the Belgian compilation "Een Zwanspartij Met", released by Polydor Special in, I'm guessing, the early 70's. I fell in love with the cover of this record when a roommate brought it home from his travels abroad. I eventually aquired it as trade in exchange for capturing swarms of flies in the alley with a net to feed to his praying mantis.

The Charel Janssens tracks starkly stand out on this mostly bland compilation. It's a wet fart polka, embelished with dissonant accents for comic effect and Charel's whiny milquetoast voice hemming and hawing in some overwrought vaudeville routine.

I can't find a goddamn thing about Charel Janssens except for one vague reference on a poorly translated webpage. I like to imagine that that's Charel Janssens on the cover, with the pretty ladies fawning all over him. Click on image for complete cover.

Charel Janssens - Choe Zedde Nie Goe (mp3)
Charel Janssens - Waar Is De Goeie Ouwen Tijd (mp3)

If anyone has any information on Mr. Janssens or if you know what the hell he is yammering about, please respond.

Soft Serve

2005-06-19T21:30:00.000-05:00

Soft Serve is the solo project of Chicago weirdo Eleanor Balson. Her first CD, "Good Mood, Bad Mood" is a stumbling work of genius somewhere between The Shaggs and Drumbo-era Beefheart percussion. Plenty of piano, marimba, glockenspiel and tympani (!) along with a guest accompaniment from Fred Lonberg-Holm, Thymme Jones and Johnathan Hischke among many others.

Soft Serve - Hey, Zombie! (mp3)
Soft Serve - Sea Glass (mp3)

Ms Balson is currently dabbling in retardo-electro, bringing her odd sensibilities to the genre. Here is a track from her CD-R "Seeds of Crimatia" :

Soft Serve - Dynamite Nasty (mp3)

MORE HERE!

Mostly Ghostly

2005-06-17T08:05:00.000-05:00

I love Halloween Haunted House sound effects records. They expose kids at a very young age to avant-garde sounds: musique concrete, noise and modern classical. Every Halloween I scour the toy and costume aisle at various stores, hoping to find some cheapo Halloween CD. Each one is great and interesting and approaches the standard Haunted House themes in different ways: WIND, MEWLING CATS, AGONIZED WOMAN GROANS, MANIACLE LAUGHTER, CHAINS, CREAKY DOORS, PREPARED PIANO OR ORGAN BASHING and sometimes, uh, some spaceships.

For my first installment of Halloween records, I present "Ghostly Mostly". Released by ubiquitous kiddie label "Kid Stuff", performed by the "Kid Stuff Repertory Company" and packaged in a crudely drawn innocuous cover, this 1977 release is the most interesting Halloween record I have come by.

1. Witch Chant (mp3) - A steady burbling analog synth remains in the foreground for the 3 minute duration while some gravel gurgling grunting and cackling flails around, buried in the mix.

2. Night Prowl (mp3) - Organ grind and drone, with mysterious sounds and ominous thumping. Sounds like early Quintron records.

3. Goblin Ball (mp3) - A severely enjoyable moronic song with hilarious rambling organ playing and seemingly arbitrary mixing techniques,

4. Halloween Night (mp3) - An odd poem, howling dogs and droning organ.

5. Women Scream (mp3)

Nightmare City Halloween record list

Rambling Old Man Pontificates

2005-06-11T05:03:00.000-05:00

I encountered this old man in downtown Chicago years ago. He rambled on for a half hour about the good old days- "Those people were all right...They're all dead now."

This recording came from the same video as the Conspiracy Lady With Fractured Neck. The master is lost and I'm still kicking myself...but here at least is an edit.

Rambling Old Man Pontificates (mp3)

and for any of you that are curious- here is a picture of the conspiracy lady.

3 Finger Spread

2005-06-09T16:31:00.000-05:00

3 Finger Spread was the bluegrass side project of East Bay pastiche-jazz-punk combo Schlong. Hilarious lyrics sung in ridiculous falsetto, great fiddle playing and a Mel Blanc impersonation.

These tracks came off of a Very Small Records farewell comp. 7" (although, these tracks have also appeared elsewhere). Very Small was run by David Hayes, who was co-founder of - (groan)- Lookout Records...he was responsible for their somewhat interesting back catalog (Plaid Retina). Very Small released themed compilations and strange bands like Schlong, Horny Mormons, Pounded Clown and False Sacrament.

3 Finger Spread - Phone Me Bone Me (mp3)
3 Finger Spread - Pisstoy (mp3)
3 Finger Spread - Shit (mp3)

Ben Hall Sends His Best To You

2005-06-04T16:31:00.000-05:00

It was February, 1971, and I had just finished doing my radio show, "Woody's World" on station WHWH, Princeton, New Jersey. The office had informed me that someone was waiting to see me. As I arrived at my office, here was this lady, standing there with something in her hand. Her face was all aglow and full of sunshine. She was holding a record album by Ben Hall, her husband. She wanted me to listen to Ben's first album and then, if possible, just to mention the fact that Ben was beginning his 7th year as the featured artist as The Old Yorke Inn, Hightstown, New Jersey.

"This must be some sort of record in itself! Someone playing for six years in the same location!" The response from the people was great. Ben Hall has made many friends through the years with his music. He is warm, friendly and above al dedicated to hiis family and musical career.

This album will make new friends for Ben. It's what he wants to do. His daughter, Geri, only nine, sings on "Dream Baby". Ben Jr. says he wants to play drums, and Betty, Ben's wife, sing "Irish"

C.D. "WOODY" Powell
WHWH Radio
Princeton, NJ

Ben Hall - Dream Baby (Mp3)
Ben Hall - Smile (Mp3)

This Ben Hall, theatre organ archivist, was brutally murdered in December, 1970. He sure looks like the same Ben Hall but this record was recorded in 1971. How many Ben Halls are theatre organists?
Ben Hall claimed, alongside Anton LaVey, to be myserious organist George Montalba

Harte 10

2005-05-31T01:52:00.000-05:00

I tried doing my research on Harte 10, but came up with nothing but geeky record collector lists. The only information I gathered was that they were from Hamburg, Germany and were together until the late 80's. I dubbed this album from a radio station I worked at- all I remember is that an early-period David Hockney-esque drawing of two men inspecting each others assholes graced the cover.

Harte 10 share many similarities with the German New Wave Ata Tak / ZickZack bands of the late 70's/early 80's such as Der Plan and Siluetes 61, but with a bit more of a Etron Fou Leloublan/Albert Marcoeur style of quirky prog.

Harte 10 - I Love You (Mp3)
Harte 10 - He I-O-Pe I (Mp3)

If anyone has any info, please comment..

Singapore Sling

2005-05-28T04:06:00.000-05:00

I NEED TO SEE THIS FILM

From Criminal Cinema:
Singapore Sling is a damaged man who has never recovered from the inexplicable disappearance of his girlfriend Laura. For years he searches for any sign of her -- until one rainy night, fate brings him to the home of two psychotic women who may be mother and daughter, or perhaps lovers, or maybe even the elusive Laura and her demented captor who has bound her in a web of violent sex games.
Director Nikolaidis thought he was making a comedy tinged with Greek Tragedy. Critics thought he was an unrepentant subversive who had cannibalized a Hollywood screen gem and then vomited it back in their faces.

Both were right in their own way; Singapore Sling is a riotous comedy, and it is informed by a certain sense of tragedy, but it's also one of the sickest, most disturbing films you will ever see.
Accenting its visceral transgressions -- which include lengthy torture sequences, gluttonous binge-fests and erotic regurgitation -- is the lush black and white cinematography of Aris Stavrou, which guarantees that youll never look at Gregg Tolands work in quite the same way again.

Watch clip HERE (streaming real media)

via Cinema-Permanent

Coughs

2005-05-27T00:31:00.000-05:00

Chicago's Coughs churn up a well crafted wall of shit no-wave hardcore assault. The nubile six piece includes a klanky garbage ornamented drumming duo, whining sax, feculent guitars and hysterical screaming. Not your typical brutality, Coughs integrate more interesting sounds, rhythms and dynamics into the mix.

Enough for total face decimation!

They have a new CD on Load, "Fright Makes Right"

Coughs - Animal Hospital (Mp3)
Coughs - Penal Colony (Mp3)
Coughs - Starchitect (Mp3) ...lyrical gem "Frank Lloyd Wright, you're alright"

Their demos are available for download on their very outdated and abandoned website.

PHROG CLOCK

2005-05-26T04:15:00.000-05:00

Phrog Clock (Mp3)

also...

"Wendell/Music Discussion" (windows media player/21 mb) from Cool Clown Ground

"I like spiders...I like spiders"

2005-05-20T23:37:00.000-05:00

Spiderbaby, AKA The Maddest Story Ever Told, AKA The Liver Eaters, AKA Cannibal Orgy is a grand guignol of dementia written and directed by Jack Hill.

The Merrye Syndrome is a rare disease that affects only members of the Merrye family. It causes its victims to regress mentally to a state of savagery. The only living members of the family are the young children of Titus Merrye: Virginia (Jill Banner), who fancies herself a spider and likes to eat insects; Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn); and Ralph (sid Haig), who, being the oldest, is the most regressed- a six foot toddler. The children are watched over by Bruno (Lon Chaney Jr.), the family chauffeur, who had made an oath to his patron Titus Merrye to take care of them forever.

Distant cousin Peter Howe (Quinn Redecker) and his sister Emily (Carol Ohmart) arrive with their lawyer Shlocker (Karl Schanzer) and his secretary Ann (Mary Mitchell), with the intention of taking over the property and institutionalizing the children. Hijinx follow...

Ronald Stein & Lon Cheney Jr. - Rehearsing (Mp3)
Ronald Stein & Lon Cheney Jr. - Spiderbaby Theme (Mp3)

Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, this film is an underrated masterpiece of the surreal and absurd...from the opening theme song to the premise. With its high contrast black and white and the action taking place in a large mansion with unidentifiable crap strewn everywhere, Spiderbaby truly exists in another reality.

The most notable and enduring aspect of Spiderbaby is the stunning cast- Lon Chaney Jr., in one of his last roles, has a sad a defeated gait. Sid Haig as Ralph, the oldest cretin sibling, is innocent and frightening. But Jill Banner as Virginia steals the show with her subtle naive sexuality. Through the film she slowly seduces her Uncle Peter with the smallest gestures, only to come to a head...

"I like spiders...I like spiders"
Spiderbaby - Virginia and Uncle Peter (Mp3)

The score was composed by Ronald Stein, who also did work for Dementia 13 and Attack of the 50 ft woman, among many others. Varese Sarabande has a collection of his music called "Not of this Earth". Here is one of my favorites:

Ronald Stein - Dementia 13 theme (Mp3)

Ford Wright: Voodoo Monster

2005-05-17T05:32:00.000-05:00

I don't know much about Ford Wright.

Ford Wright - Voodoo Monster

This odd little recording came off Chicken Bomb, a 1996 Lumpen Magazine compilation which featured live recordings of Lake of Dracula, Monitor Radio, Flying Luttenbachers, and James Chance among many others. This song always puts a smile on my face.

Ford Wright was a part of Chicago based experimental theater group Doorika. I think they relocated to New York years ago.

Ford Wright - A Slave Boy Who Thinks He's A King

Slave Boy is a song from the Ford Wright & Nick Demopoulos production I, Medusa (redemption the hard way)...a musical exploration of vanity and delusion

"This production was absolutely phantasmagoric: a revisionist myth in the making. Anointed with alluringly literary folklore, tall tales, big laughs, haunting lyrics, melodic, melancholic hobo-jazz, and operatic spasms, a syndrome of wickedness, heroism, victory and defeat, a comedy of error after error after error, a sexually explicit epic dressed in found flowers, tattered tunics, and hand-me-down pleather."
.

DOT DOT DOT

2005-05-16T01:50:00.000-05:00

DOT DOT DOT briefly existed in Chicago circa 1994. The band was comprised of Zeek Sheck, Jody McKhan (Math, Duotron, Monotrona), and Kelly Kuvo (Scissor Girls). They released one record of live recordings, most of it unlistenable. This record stays in my collection because it is a nice slice of what was happening in Chicago 10 years ago and the weird spontenaiety that was fostered.

This is the best track off of the record, "Valentine" with guest vocals by Bobby Conn.

DOT DOT DOT - Valentine

EXORCISM!

2005-05-12T20:52:00.000-05:00

According to the Bob Larson Ministries website:

ITEMS THAT SHOULD BE PRESENT AT AN EXORCISM

1. BIBLE - "Take your own Bible so you can readily find passages of Scripture."

2. SNACKS & DRINKS - "If your ordeal is long and arduous, the victim often experiences extreme thirst. Sometimes light, healthy snacks are helpful if you are breaking your fast. "

3. PORTABLE CASSETTE PLAYER - "I have also found it is helpful to have a portable cassette player with tapes of praise and worship music. While taking a break from the ordeal to rest or rethink what is happening, the tapes are a means of torment to the demons and a further invitation for God's presence to be with you."

4. TOILET FACILITIES - "Make sure that toilet facilities are readily accessible, and never let the victim go into the rest room alone, once the demons have been aroused. If the exorcist is male and the victim is female, it's important to have another woman present who can assist in this regard. If the victim is offended by such seeming immodesty, at least make sure that someone stands next to the bathroom door and that the door is left slightly ajar. I've had demons manifest once the victim in a trance state, the demons kept the person in the bathroom for hours, and thus stopped the exorcise."

Bob Larson - exorcism 1
Bob Larson - exorcism 2
Bob Larson - exorcism 3
Bob Larson - exorcism 4

Watch Tom Brown exorcise some people on The History Channel (windows media)

Watch 45 minute special on exorcism from MSNBC (realplayer)

Jon

2005-05-11T01:34:00.000-05:00

Songs about dogs played on a creaky pump organ and sung in a high baby-like peep by a mysterious Japanese woman known simply as "Jon".

These tracks are from the CD entitled "Smoke" on Tzadik. Rumor has it she has a self-released CD as well.

Jon - II Kawa (Tough Skin)
Jon - Chikkuntte Naru ("Chikkun!")
Jon - Sasatteru (Stabbing)

The Hunchback Variations

2005-05-06T23:18:00.000-05:00

Playwright Mickle Maher brings together composer Ludwig van Beethoven and the Hunchback of Notre Dame for a panel discussion on the pitfalls of artistic collaboration. Their attempts to create an enigmatic sound called for by a stage direction in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" are thwarted by their deafness, unpleasant working conditions, and the fact that

Beethoven has not yet finished reading "The Cherry Orchard". The acclaimed Theater Oobleck originally premiered this piece in 2001 at Links Hall in Chicago.

This is an excerpt from the performance, which is 25 minutes long. You can purchase the CD through Hopes & Nothings.

Theater Oobleck - Hunchback Variations (excerpt) Mp3

The Hunchback Variations recently had another run a couple months ago as part of the PAC/EDGE performance festival in Chicago. Midnight Theatre Company in St. Louis has also been performing it.

Albert Marcoeur

2005-05-05T08:47:00.000-05:00

Percussionist & reedist Albert Marcoer has been called the French Frank Zappa. His self-titled 1974 debut album is an odd mix of quirky percussion, strange sounds, and bizzarre playful arrangements.

All of his out of print material has recently been reissued. He has released a couple albums in the last few years- the most recent is only available on-line. You can order all albums at the Albert Marcoeur Website

Albert Marcoeur - Tu Tapes Trop Fort

Dave Whitman

2005-05-03T07:51:00.001-05:00

From the Temporary Services Website:

Dave Whitman has been homeless for over seven years. Temporary Services first met Dave when he began to visit the exhibitions and projects that we presented in an office space we were renting in downtown Chicago. Each of us immediately felt that Dave was one of the most thoughtful, intelligent, entertaining, and insightful visitors we ever had. His astounding banks of obscure knowledge, completely carefree and crude sense of humor, and playful thinking made a powerful impression on us. We developed a friendship with Dave and found him to be unusually generous. He often kept us company while we maintained hours during exhibitions. He frequently engaged visitors in discussions about the work on view and helped us out during events. Dave would tell hilarious and compelling stories for hours on end. In the winter he often slept in our office.

In 2000, Dave and Salem collaborated cooking free bacon and eggs for people in the park. At this time Salem gave Dave a tape recorder and provided him with replacement cassettes and batteries. The recorder allowed Dave to document the incredible stories he’d been telling us. It gave him a space to recount his many astute observations. Over a period of several years, Dave recorded more than eight hours of stories for us to use and present. He had many stories about how the city’s public spaces are regulated and very hostile to his presence. His search for a remote place to sit where the police would not harass him often took hours. He recorded the unusual social behavior he witnessed. Dave taped his endlessly revealing and entertaining stories about other homeless people – including those whose panhandling scams he gleefully reveals, and the homeless who are “so disgusting that even other homeless people want nothing to do with them.” He made a series of recordings devoted solely to the homeless women that he knows or has encountered.

There was a period of ten months when we didn’t see Dave and were worried about his well being. After running into him by chance in downtown Chicago, we rekindled our friendship and began spending a lot of time together. Dave was interested in making recordings again so we provided him with a new tape recorder and tapes. This time he used the recorder more experimentally, often weaving background noises into his story telling. We talked about going to North Carolina together to work on the presentation of his stories at the museum. He had never been there.

At the end of Summer 2003, Dave disappeared again. This time it felt permanent. He had been planning to leave the country and was slowly raising enough money to make his escape. He left us with an undeveloped disposable camera that included the two self-portraits on these pages. He sent us one last email – an unsigned list of recommended books intended for a friend of ours - and then he vanished.

The CD of Dave's Recordings can be obtained for free from Temporay Services

Cecilitis
Chicken-Head Lady
The Most Disgusting Man On Wacker Drive
No Soap In The Washroom
Birthdays
Travis' Birthday

Smoke Is Like A Hair In A Half Cooked Slimy Egg In Your Mouth

2005-05-01T19:09:00.000-05:00

I'm guessing this is a homemade subliminal tape for quitting smoking. Could be mistaken for Dada poetry.

This bit was found on WFMU's The Audio Kitchen with The Professor, a show which culled the oddest homemade amateur recordings. All shows are archived HERE in RealAudio.

Smoke Is Like A Hair In A Half Cooked Slimy Egg In Your Mouth Mp3

SID LAVERENTS

2005-04-28T01:41:00.000-05:00

From the Sid Laverents issue of Roctober:

"I am not alone in calling Multiple SIDosis one of the greatest amateur/underground films ever made. Since its release in 1970 (originally screened for the San Diego Amateur Moviemakers Club, but eventually distributed to amateur film societies internationally) the nine minute “technical comedy” has won a wallfull of awards and honors, climaxing in 2000 when the Library of Congress selected it as the only amateur film to be entered into the National Film Registry.

Opening with an regular-looking older couple relaxing at home on Christmas, the action is initiated when wife Adelaide gives husband Sid (film director Sid Laverents, playing himself) a two-track reel-to-reel tape recorder as a gift. Sid is soon experimenting with overdubbing and begins to layer tracks on a quirky song (an old tune named “Nola”) he is recording. Sid’s version features a hypnotizing metronome, an amazing whistling performance and some freaky falsetto backup harmonies reminiscent of both Brian Wilson’s best experiments and Lou Christie’s Tammys recordings...Sid brings to life a singular vision that would be unachievable if multiple musicians were playing together. More importantly, Sid also brings that vision to life visually. In a technical feat that has astounded filmmakers for years, the inventive Laverents figured out a way to use multiple exposures so that when he is performing two, three or eleven parts of the song at once, two, three or eleven Sids are seen performing. This was all done in-camera using techniques he created (involving special black mats and a lot of patience)...Suffice to say that it is one of the most joyful, hilarious, inspiring, humorous things you will ever see. Multiple SIDosis is a profoundly important individual achievement about individual achievement."

Roctober put out an entire issue on Sid Laverents- including biography, filmography, discography and a bonus CD of Sid's one-man-band music. Issues are most likely still available. These Mp3s are from the Roctober Multiple SIDosis CD.

Sid Laverents - Nola Mp3
Sid Laverents - Nobody Loves a Fat Man Mp3
Read More about Sid here : 1 - 2

If You Really Wanna Love Somebody!

2005-04-24T04:38:00.000-05:00

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY TO THE WORLD!

oh..it's not Mothers' Day yet? Well, plan ahead and make sure to give your mother this stunning Mothers' Day song "If You Really Wanna Love Somebody" sung by a musically gifted family who have honed the fine art of singing out of tune over smooth jams.

If You Really Wanna Love Somebody Mp3

CONSPIRACY!

2005-04-24T03:54:00.000-05:00

I found this woman in Grant Park in downtown Chicago ten years ago. She was a brief fixture in the crazy ranting lunatic scene. I unfortunately don't have the master to this tape and had to dig this up from a shitty edit.

Conspiracy Lady with Fractured Neck Mp3

and while we are on the subject of lunatic conspiracy theories, we cannot leave out the esteemed Francis E. Dec, Esquire, of 29 Maple Ave, Hempstead, New York.