Argentinian Hernán Oliva was surely influenced by Stephane Grappelli's work with Django Reinhardt--but he puts a slightly updated spin on such Hot Club standards as El Scheik (Sheik of Araby), Exactamente como tu, Rio Swannee, and Chinaboy (Muchacho chino). Oliva played with Ahmed Ratip and Cotton Pickers of Buenos Aires in the 1940s, which is reason enough for me to love him. The music on this album just sealed the deal.
Scan it! Over at Crosseyed Cyclops, one of my favorite sites, he's been on a bender: Just one of the many treasures he's scanned for your viewing pleasure.
.....not that I'm into that sort of thing actually. Vitameatavegamin this ain't. Vita, yes. Meata, yes. But vegamin, no. Quite the seductive babe, one might say. This was long before she got that only occasionally appearing weird Charles Gibson brow, and way, way before getting all moved by the chickdudeish Wayne Newton and befuddled by Burton and Taylor on Here's Lucy or The Lucy Show.
I'm sure that if Mr. Dante Fontana were less busy with other aspects of the PCL Empire (the real estate branch in particular is SO time consuming!) he himself would have thought of posting this video here.
If you tend to get the giggles from hallucinogens, then you might enjoy the oh-so-French and oh-so-trippy-delic Chico Magnet Band. As for me, it just gave me some non-chemically induced giggles.
I really dislike sites that let you hear the music but don't actually allow you to download it...but I'll make an exception here. Maybe there's some way to download that I'm just to uneducated to know about and some nice person will educate me.
Finnpicks has SO many great cover versions of songs, including Rawhide (Lännen tie) by Matti Heinivaho from their Wild West Week:
The Mighty Morphin Downtown Rangers! Part 4. "...This week the boys are just showing off their idea of what a hero is, but maybe Skeleton will give them the honor of battling!" I like Nopan Shabu Shabu.
Jazz versions of Jubilation T. Cornpone, Matrimonial Stomp, If I Had My Druthers, and all your other favorite tunes from the Broadway show "L'il Abner", performed by Shelly Manne, Andre Previn, and Leroy Vinnegar-- thoughtfully provided by Jazzsi
Shoop-doo-bee-doo-bee versions of Mancini hits by the Anita Kerr Singers, including Baby Elephant Walk, Pink Panther Theme, Mr. Lucky, and a slow-shuffle Peter Gunn with hip lyrics (AKA Bye Bye), courtesy of Flageolette.
Apparently many brain cells are destroyed by the massive effort it takes to grow such dangerously pointy breasts such as the ones of the Esquire "Petty Girl", judging by this type of insipid music she "dotes" on.
Music for Maniacs presents - "When You're In Love, The Whole World is Jewish", featuring the wacky world of Jewish novelty records of the 50's and 60's. These LP's are featured exhibits at the Skirball Cultural Center in LA showcasing the history of contemporary Jewish American culture.
Jews On Vinyl was developed in association with the publication "And You Shall Know Us By the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Musical Past As Told By the Records We Have Loved and Lost" (Crown, 2008), a project of the non-profit Idlesohn Society for Musical Preservation, which reissues select classic recordings and has created a digital online home for Jewish musical memory in an attempt to restore missing legacies to our contemporary view of Jewish America."
Also be sure to check out theIdelsounds blog for scads of audio files and video's.
Lloyd "Fatman" Smith, onetime manager for Louis Jordan, laid down a few great R & B tracks himself. You can read his bio and pick up some of his music at Glad Rags.
A little explanation: these ran regionally, out of NY and in the Northeast. He was the first "famous by commercial" singer. I don't know what ever became of him, but these were on constantly! "The Mood Rock Experience."
I don't think it's Fidel and Raul, but the OTHER Hermanos Castro here, and that would be um....Moishe and Teyve, I believe. Anyway, it's some pretty great cha cha and mambo.
For the answer to the burning question "What ever happened to Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers?" go no further than Boot Sales Sounds for the answer--a one-off British children's musical.
I was at a record convention this past Sunday and found an album entitled Tragedy & Destruction in Country Music by Howard Vokes --14 tunes guaranteed to make your granmaw boo-hoo real salt tears into her hard cider. Songs full of the plaintive pleas of tow-headed moppets begging "Please mama don't go get likkered up at that party.....please old abandoned well, don't swaller me up....please cyclone, demolish another schoolhouse". HAH we know how those stories turn out, or where would be the country song if there's a happy ending? Knowing that PCL's own Donna Lethal LOVES these tragedy tunes, I decided I liked her $4 worth and bought that album on her behalf.
After posting highlights from the album on my blog, I got a message leading me to MORE tunes by Pennsylvania's own King of Heartbreak, Howard Vokes, on Allen`s archive of early and old country music. They're not all weepers (can't wait to hear Polka From Outer Space!), but I'm guessing "Ghost of a Honky Tonk Slave" might be a moderate downer. Mix you a cocktail of those pills you pinched from your surly auntie's medicine chest and have you a good weep!
Girls nowadays just don't know how to work a headband as did Ms. Mirla Castellanos here, circa 1962. Maybe she's getting great styling tips from that copy of Venezuelan Seventeen magazine that she's leafing through. (Hey Mirla, it's not a library here, buy the magazine or walk away!)
But guess what, Así Es Mirla is a swell pop record, you will surely enjoy.
Frankie Laine looks for the world like he's shouting out encouragement to his mule train here, but no, on this EP offered by Older Jewels he's dealing with Jezebels, and Gypsy girls dancing the flamenco. And I had no idea the phrase "High Noon" can't be translated into Italian, because on this EP it's called simply "A melodia".
Here is a swell video of Frankie singing "Jezebel"!
I suppose they're neighbors with Jamaica and all, but a Puerto Rican steel band just seems odd to me. Odder still when they're playing Volare and the Colonel Bogey march (or as it's listed on the liner notes "Colonel Boogey", a scary prospect indeed).
De Skymasters were an important part of the early days of Dutch radio--just how important I cannot say, thanks to the general wonkiness of Google Translator. Alls I know is that they do some danged peppy versions of the Woody Woodpecker song, "Zambesi", and songs about milkshakes, harmonicas, and chocolate. Their big hit was "Kijk eens in de poppetjes van mijn ogen" ("Look in the eyes of my dolls"?).
Never did I visit a beauty parlor where they gave away fur coats and the like. It was more like they gave away a sweepstakes worth of sass and dramatic behavior. Oh, some of you know where I am coming from.
The Carter family is an American treasure for sure. But the musical heritage coming out of the Mississippi Chatmon family is as poignent and important in my eyes. The fiddling ex-slave Henderson Chatmon and his guitar playing wife had eleven kids. They were brought up on music (and hard labour). Music that Henderson had picked up during his slavery time. The family had a string-based band playing at square and country dances, parties and on-the-door. Some of the boys later started The Mississippi Sheiks, a country/blues group, with fellow musician (and singer) Walter Vinson. Brothers Armenter, Lonnie and Sam Chatmon were part of the group. They recorded "Sitting on Top of the World" in 1930 and later many popular songs such as "I've Got Blood in My Eyes For You" and "The World Is Going Wrong" and their records appealed to both the black community listeners as well as a white audience. Armenter Chatmon (best known later on as Bo Carter) also had a solo career incl, recording the original version of "Corinna, Corinna" and is today also appreciated for his bawdy songs (risqué songs) with titles such as "Banana In Your Fruit Basket" and "Don't Mash My Digger So Deep". Young brother Sam Chatmon was as many blues and folk musicians re-discovered in the 1960s. With that beard, his pale complexion and his solid musicianship he became some sort of guru for the new folk and blues movement. It is rumored that the Chatmon brothers were half-brothers with Charlie Patton (which is something Sam Chatmon himself is confirming in this great interview by Alan Lomax). Wether or not this is true you can see the music running through the Chatmon blood. Music that has been as important as The Carter Family's to the american root music heritage. The roots of popular music as we know it.
But, I'm Swedish, so what do I know!?
Sam Chatmon playing 'The's My Gal' in a tv recording from 1976:
All hail "The Wild Thing". Lo fidelity monsters of the midway. After you get over the shock of the band photo, give the single, "Weird Hot Nights (Suffer Baby)" a ride and try NOT to continue to be amazed at the LP cover.
Just popping by wishing you all a great summer. If the sun strikes hard (as it has here in Sweden for the last week) use something on your head. It's for your own good - and you may end up lookin as cool as Monk!
Side one is for the gents, and includes lots of info like "Getting the Most from Your Secretary" and how to hide an affair from your wife. Side 2 is for the laaaaadies and gives tips on how to snag a dude when you're as ugly as the broad side of a barn, and how not to say anything embarrassing in bed to a man, such as "what's your name again?"
Why don't YOU try listening to it and report back to the rest of us, 'k?
From the KPM vaults comes most of the cues from Doris Wishman's 1974 42nd Street shoddy yet loveable 'Deadly Weapons'. Including tracks from David Lindup, Alan Hawkshaw, Keith Mansfield,Alan Parker, Syd Dale ... A must have for all library music lovers and Chesty Morgans fans! Available thanks to retro-teque
I had an original copy of Harpo in HiFi a long time ago....I'm sure I sold it for a pittance to fund some kind of meth-laced debauchery or another...or more likely, the purchase of other funky crap I'm trying to unload NOW.
For those of you who get annoyed when we appear to laugh at the odd Asian cover versions of US pop music, I just want to say that The Four Dummies are supposed to be a parody of the Beatles, so we're laughing WITH them, OK? Is the fat one supposed to be Ringo?
Maybe the average person doesn't want to own every existing version of Slim Gaillard performing "Chicken Rhythm", but I surely do. The owner of the blog offering Slim Gaillard Rides Again tried his best to talk me out of downloading it, but I just HAD to hear Sukiyaki Cha Cha and One Minute of Flamenco for Three Minutes. Don't you?
I've been posting "summer songs" over on my Tumblr and found this. I've always dug cross-cultural appropriation, whatever it may be, but this ... this ...
I happened upon a nice collection of rare and unjustly forgotten jazz albums at Sun Ship, including a tasty set from jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby. Just perfect for your laid-back weekend enjoyment.
I Put a Spell on Me is a documentary about....c'mon, you know the answer.....Screamin' Jay Hawkins! I don't have an hour and 40 minutes to watch it all now, but it looks pretty interesting--since there are live concert clips, it'll be worth it.
We received a lovely gift here at PCL from Steve Crichton, who offered to send along a collection of Scopitone music MP3s for more portable listening. Surely a song such as Jody Miller's The Race Is On loses a great deal without the go-go girls and their horsy-tails, but trust me, you'll thank yourself for downloading this one next time "High Boots" comes up on your iPod and you break out into uncontrollable giggles.
Here's what Steve has to say about the collection:
Scoping The Tones
Merely listening to the eclectic variety of Scopitone songs offers no substitute for experiencing the campy cinematic masterpieces. Please be sure to view the corresponding films and seek their historical insignificance during your online adventures. Of course, some stereo tracks are still available today, and you won't find them included.
However, if you would enjoy over an hour of out-of-print monophonic tunes that are slightly enhanced despite their vintage audio flaws, now is your chance to enjoy the glorious awfulness and genius. Sorry folks, these are just English Tones, and you may not recognize them without the typical Scopitone hiss! However, in light of the poor source recordings, these files may not be ideal for headphone scrutiny. Regardless, this collection is probably the best available and worth a listen if you're a fan.
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