Tssss! Es un Secreto

I suppose I shouldn't dwell upon these things the way I do, but why do we "shhhh" in English while in Spain apparently they say "tssss" when telling a secret, a sound I would associate more with the sound you make when touching a moistened finger to the backside to demonstrate your scorchiness. Maybe it's because some king or someone had a lisp so they all have to do it in some bizarre solidarity thing. Or perhaps only Luis Agile who does that.

more Dutch madness

Zingen op de Zaan is a yearly choir festival on the river Zaan. This was recorded yesterday.

Adjeef the Poet

Classic sixties psychedelica from Dutch DJ Adjeef the Poet (AKA Ad Visser) from música ácida.

Soviet Russian Album Covers

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Korla Pandit

I've been in a Korla Pandit mood lately. He hypnotizes me! I'm not lucky enough to have seen him, but a bunch of my friends have, because he lived to a ripe old age (Tim Burton put him in 'Ed Wood' playing himself.) Pandit had a daily show in Los Angeles in the 1950s where he batted his eyelashes at housewives and became a minor sensation. I can see why. But I think I love him even more because he was a big phony - he was born John Roland Redd in Missouri. He tried the name "Juan Rolando" before settling on the turban, a faux exotic background, and the name he'd stick with for the rest of his life. Check out his website for all kinds of info and goodies.

In Heaven There Is No Beer

Devil Dick has just shared the alarming news via the Transcendental Sisters of St. Francis who sing the cautionary tale "In Heaven There Is No Beer". Let me get this straight...they're trying to encourage us to misbehave to avoid this horrible fate?

Fortunately I already have friends who are saving me a bar stool in Hell, but some of you might be in trouble if you're thinking about having a Cold One in the Hereafter.

I Love a Marching Band, But In Your Case I'll Make an Exception

Can't get enough of high school marching band music, even after sitting through Independence Day parades and patriotic TV programs? I've got one that'll make you finally cry "Uncle", with its versions of the Hogan's Heroes Theme, Also Sprach Zarathrustra, Hey Jude, a medley from "Hair", and a mambo original, in all its seventies glory.

Morphine - Honey White (live)

Morphine - Honey White (live) (Flash Video 03:10). Mark Sandman died 10 years ago on July 3, 1999.

Yogi and the Stooges

Talk about your Super Groups, who knew that Yogi Bear and the Three Stooges ever joined forces to make an album.....The Mad Mad Mad Dr. No-No, available at Dartman's World of Wonder. I didn't have the patience to sit through the entire story, but the opening song really rocked.

Va Va Va Boom!!

I continue to have a fascination with firecracker wrappers. As a kid, I used to be reluctant to open the packages for fear of wrecking the exotic art that was affixed to the pack. I imagined this saved me a few fingers as well..... in any case, Exposur3's Flickr Page is chock full of these goodies.

Nyok Nyok

That Nat King Cole song sung in Japanese (see below) is all well and good, but my prize for best phonetic rendition of a Japanese song goes to legendary 1940s disc jockey Jim Hawthorne and his rousing version of The Badger's Chorus of Shojoji Temple. (compare his version to the original)


If I have piqued your curiosity about this offbeat character, you can join his Facebook page (maintained by rabid Hawthorne fan Andrea) for photos and other info.

Les Petits Boudins.

Dominique Walter frenches it up with this Serge Gainsbourg-penned tune:


[via World of Kane.]

Nat King Cole - Autumn Leaves (in Japanese)

Nat King Cole - Autumn Leaves (in Japanese) - 1961, Flash Video 02:41)

College humor

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Comme un Volcan

Rocky Volcano "Comme un Volcan" seen at ...y yo que sé de eso...

People Like Us + Ergo Phizmiz - "rhapsody in glue" (2008) available for free download

Following the success of the critically acclaimed "Perpetuum Mobile" CD of 2007, renowned UK collagists / composers People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz reunite for "Rhapsody in Glue", a cycle of bricolage-ballet-music, skewed-waltzes, and skewiff-pop.

There is a story behind every album, and with "Rhapsody in Glue" we find a unique approach to constructing a record. Both long-term contributors to New York radio station WFMU, People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz decided to publicly tear apart their respective practices and create an album "in the open", presenting on a seafood-filled-platter the process of collaborative collage composition - informally discussing and jabbering nonsense to one another, resulting in the "Codpaste" free podcast series. "Rhapsody in Glue" is the culmination of the ideas explored in the podcast series.

"Rhapsody in Glue" continues in the bizarre ballroom vein of their previous efforts together, however, increasing the sonic palette into textural depths previously uncharted in their work. If "Carmic Waltz" is an expressionist painting by aged ballroom dance teacher who's eaten the wrong kind of mushrooms in her soufflé, then "Gary's Anatomy" is a slice of pure absurdist pop shot through with slabs of exotica and Ethel Merman. Recurring through the record is an apparent obsession with Prokofiev's "Troika (Sleigh Ride)", which merges and mashes with Burt Bacharach and Queen on "Snow Day", and lapses into pure fantasy on the almost entirely acoustic "Withers in the Whist", jarring with Ergo's strange, Victoriana obsessed lyrics. Then on "Dancing in the Carmen" we discover what happens if Nana Mouskouri is thrown into a pot with Peggy Lee and let simmer for 10 minutes, whilst "In The Waking" shimmers along on multitracked guitars, meandering melodies, and music boxes. (via PLU mailing list)
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DOWNLOAD the album via peoplelikeus.org or via ubu.com

How Much Pine Tar is Too Much?

Johnnyuma's baseball post from a couple days ago brings to mind this classic bit from my childhood:

Voodoo Boogie

Kraldjursanstalten's 1981 album Voodoo Boogie is positively Beefheartian, or so they say, and .El Camaleon has it. Weird Swedes, isn't that the reason we all started coming here in the first place?

Palito en el Beverly Hilton

Suave Argentine pop from Palito Ortega, via Mis Discos Viejos. Palito is seen below performing with Marisol....I thought I had posted this one here already but I can't seem to find it. I'm getting old.

Oh By Jingo

Remember about a week or two ago I asked for help finding this album to download? Well, fortunately a dear friend came through for me....that would be MR EBAY......and I found this in my mailbox when I came home from work tonight! The fabulously swinging tune "Oh By Jingo" is tops on my playlist this week....if you dig flawless harmonies and unrelentingly swinging combos I think you will like that hip little number from the all-round swell album Beauty Shop Beat .