GTR - GTR (1986, LP)

I was surprised to find this in my collection, because I have no recollection at all of buying it, even though I know I must have. I'm pretty sure I didn't buy it in 1986, when it was a new release. It must have been at least a couple of years later.

I doubt if I can say anything about them that you don't already know. They were a "supergroup," that is, a group mostly formed from members of other famous groups. One interesting thing is that the two founding guitarists (Steve Howe of Yes and Asia and Steve Hackett of Genesis) got top billing over the lead singer. They even got bigger photos on the back cover, where the singer only got a small picture on the bottom row along with the bass player and the drummer. By the way, Jonathan Mover, the drummer, also played for Marillion at one point. Wikipedia has some interesting trivia regarding the lead singer, Max Bacon.

Well, one of their big ideas was to use guitar synthesizers instead of just electric guitars, but their idea may have been greater than the technology of the time.

Track list:
Side One:
1. When the Heart Rules the Mind (their big hit single)
2. The Hunter
3. Here I Wait
4. Sketches in the Sun (instrumental)
5. Jekyll and Hyde

Side Two:
1. You Can Still Get Through
2. Reach Out (Never Say No)
3. Toe the Line
4. Hackett to Bits (instrumental)
5. Imagining

It's the kind of very tight, polished, technically brilliant stuff you would expect from the progressive rock crowd.

Ripping results: Perfect.

This was their only album, except for a live recording from the King Biscuit Flour Hour which I think was bootlegged. I discovered that there are a lot of collectible editions of this album floating around, although they all appear to be various CD versions. Also notice the unusually high "best price" at the obligatory Amazon link below.

An essential album? No. Enjoyable listening and a good example of 80s prog rock? Yes.

Slick

A few days ago I accidentally discovered a new trick for erasing pops that the filters can't handle. I've been pondering over how far I would want to go with it since then, because it's relatively painstaking. But today as soon as I got home I made a new rip of the last track from the Fiona album. That was one that was almost perfect except for one muted pop on the last track. Well, it took me a few minutes to isolate the split second where the pop occurs, but once I found it I made short work of it. I can now upgrade the ripping results from "almost perfect" to "perfect."

It's amazing what you can do with modern technology and just the right amount of obsession.

Good thing it wasn't a pineapple

Pub is closed by replica Monty Python grenade.

via Cowboy Blob

They're gonna think it's poop!

Last night I noticed Caddyshack was on, so I clicked on it and it was right at the beginning of the "caddy day" scene where all the caddies pile into the pool and make nuisances of themselves. I called the kids to watch.

As soon as that Baby Ruth hit the water, my son started yelling, "Oh no! They're gonna think it's poop!" By the time Bill Murray took a bite out of it and the old lady fainted, my daughter was laughing so hard she could hardly breathe.

The classics are timeless.

TOTUS

Barack's teleprompter is blogging:

What really blows is that there are some folks in this place who are pushing for Barack to go out there alone. Sans me. With no wing screens.

Are they insane? With this rabid press corps constantly looking to pin Him down for every friggin detail about obscure legislation like the TARP funding? Or the economic stimulus bill? All that kind of detail can't be fit on little note cards. Or even 5x7s. Sure, He rehearses, but nothing can compare him for those white, hot interrogation-room-style kleig lights, or those razor-sharp questions from the likes of Ed Schultz and that bag lady in the front row.

It's pretty funny, and it's a brand new blog. Check it out.

City of Glasgow Police Pipe Band - Scottish Pipe Band Music (1970, LP)

Jacket notes:

Here at last is a pipe band album featurning a wide selections of Scots tunes known to everyone the world over, interspersed with piping "evergreens" and played by one of the world' leading combinations, THE CITY OF GLASGOW POLICE PIPE BAND. This is a record designed not only to please the world's thousands of pipe band enthusiasts, but also to appeal to the legions of laymen who know little of the finer points of this music but who love to hear a good pipe band playing good tunes which are familiar to everybody–Scots or otherwise.

I have heard there are people who don't like bagpipe music. You may be one of them. If so, stop reading right now.

The City of Glasgow Police Pipe Band has a long and distinguished history, winning many pipe band world championships. Why yes, there is a world championship, didn't you know? They are now known as the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band and you can read all about it at their website.

This is another record that I bought second-hand and found one day at Yesterday's Warehouse. If you are wondering why I would pay for a used record of bagpipe music then you must be one of those people who should have stopped reading two paragraphs ago.

The album is comprised mostly of traditional pieces, but with some originals that were written by band members. Every track but one are medleys of two, three or four pieces, which will explain the complicated-looking track list.

Side One
1. Quicksteps
Scotland the Brave
Nut Brown Maiden
Jenny's Bawbee
2. 6/8 Marches
Midlothian Pipe Band
MacDonald's Awa' Tae the War
Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre
3. Strathspeys & Reels
Heilan' Whiskey
Hot Punch
Raven's Rock
Inverinate House
4. Slow Air & March
The Dark Island
Caberfeidh
5. Quicksteps
A Man's a Man for a' That
My Love She's But a Lassie Yet
Corn Riggs
6. Gaelic Airs, Hornpipe & Jig
The Waters of Kylesku
Mull of the Bens
Mary with the Witching Eyes
The Boys of Blue Hill
Paddy's Leather Breeches

Side Two
1. 2/4 Marches
Highland Laddie
Corriechoillie
Teribus
2. Scottish Airs
Bonnie Galloway
The Rowan Tree
3. 6/8 Marches
Kenmure's Up and Awa'
March of the Cameron Men
The Campbell's are Coming
4. Strathspeys & Reels
Because He was a Bonnie Lad
Louden's Bonnie Woods and Braes
Tail Toddle
Fairy Dance
5. Slow March, Retreat Air & Quickstep
The Road to the Isles
When the Battle is O'er
The Earl of Mansfield
6. Drum Fanfare (agh! a drum solo!)
7. Pibroch Variation 1
Hail to My Country
8. Scottish Air & Quickstep
We're No Awa' Tae Bide Awa'
Happy We've Been a' Thegither

Ripping results: This is one of those "not bad, considering" albums. Nothing too bad except for a skip on side one, track two. Other than that, turn up the volume, put on your kilt, stick a knife in your sock and dream about the old country.

I had assumed this one was out of print, but boy was I wrong. You can get it on CD from Amazon, although it now has a different cover. Isn't that amazing.



P.S. My own extraction is mostly German and Scottish. On the Scottish side I am a member of Clan Gilley, which is a cousin clan of Clan MacPherson.

News from my home county

From Wilson County News:

During the Wilson County Commissioners Court meeting March 9, commissioners voted unanimously to support a resolution in opposition to H.R. 45, introduced to Congress Jan. 6. The resolution was initiated by County Judge Marvin Quinney after a few concerned citizens had approached him on the subject of the bill.

[...]

Although the signing of the resolution in commissioners court March 9 can’t prevent the passage of H.R. 45, it should send a clear message to Texas representatives in Washington about where Wilson County stands on the issue. Quinney said his office sent a copy of the resolution to other counties, and he hopes they follow suit.

I guess it depends on your definition of "parallel"

I didn't think the sign would be legible when I took the picture, but I took it anyway. That little sign says "PARALLEL PARKING ONLY." Not only did no one parallel park, but they didn't even all park parallel to each other!

This was at something and N. New Braunfels, but I don't remember exactly which cross-street.

Beatles digital bootlegs

A very interesting piece at Collecting Vinyl Records: Where Are the Beatles Reissues? Enterprising Fans Take Matters Into Their Own Hands.

At least three different entities have now issued sonically upgraded versions of the Beatles catalog, usually using pristine vintage vinyl editions as source material for their digital upgrades. The most ambitious is a virtual “label” known as “Purple Chick” (the moniker is part wordplay on two notorious bootleg labels, Great Dane and Yellow Dog), which issues continually upgraded editions of each original Beatles album that include not only its officially released mono/stereo mixes and period singles, but every available alternate mix and studio outtake as well. Some PC editions are only two CDs in length, while their White Album sprawls over a dozen virtual discs.

And this is because...

...the culprits for the Beatle catalog’s perpetually sorry state of affairs seem to be the surviving band members and the heirs of John Lennon and George Harrison themselves.

For example...

Typical of the situation were last year’s rumors — purportedly floated by an EMI insider — that the band was preparing a deluxe 40th anniversary edition of their monumental White Album. Instead, eager fans were eventually directed to the band’s official website, where they were offered a commemorative White Album fountain pen — for $395.

But these digital versions are not for sale. They are freely released into cyberspace, and if you hunt for them you can find them.

Cirith Ungol - King of the Dead (1984, LP)

From The Official Cirith Ungol Website:

The being called Ungol is dead, its resurrection is doubtful. But heed its teachings oh faithful, for on these memoratic disks contain, the wisdom of the ages, and by your iron fists, the horror, of false metal be extinguished.

As you now join the swelling ranks of the Legions of Chaos, together we will drive before us, the cringing herd of false metal, crush their spineless lackeys, and purge the world of their mutant plague!!!

(Too many commas, but they said "lackeys!" Hee hee!)

It was sometime in the mid-80s that I bought this one, and there were three reasons why. Actually, there were probably four. The fourth, and lesser, reason was because this was released on the Enigma label. Enigma was a smaller record label in the 80s that carried a lot of artists I liked, and I got the habit of keeping an eye out for the label as I was browsing the racks. Anytime I saw their logo I would pull that record out for a closer look. So that may have been another thing that convinced me to buy it. But the three main reasons were these:

1. The group's name is Cirith Ungol.
2. Awesome cover art by Michael Whelan that is suitable for framing.
3. Bach's "Toccata in Dm" among the track list on the back cover.

This was not the kind of music I usually listened to back then, or even now, although I must say that for some reason I like it more now than I did when I was younger. According to the info on their website, all the members of the group consider this to be their best album. I never bought any of the others, but then, I never saw any of the others anywhere, either.

What is it? Well, it's "doom metal." And it must still be quite a popular album, because it has a sales rank of around 45,000 on Amazon. My only real complaint about this stuff is the screamed vocals. I have always thought that any singer worth his salt should be able to somehow still sing, even if the musical form demands screaming doom. Everything else about it I like: the speed, the guitars, the energy, the atmosphere.

The record itself has an unusual presentation; the center label of side one has all the information ("this side" being side one and "the other side" being side two), while side two's center label is just a big Enigma logo.

Track list:
Side One:
1. Atom Smasher
2. Black Machine
3. Master of the Pit
4. King of the Dead

Side Two:
1. Death of the Sun
2. Finger of Scorn (this is the "mellow" track)
3. Toccata in Dm
4. Cirith Ungol

Try to run, try to hide.
If you don't, you'll surely die.
Screaming in terror, there you'll lie.
In Cirith Ungol, Tower of Fire.

Gorgons are shrieking their bestial cries,
Their piercing cry, burns you inside.
Screaming in anguish, there you'll lie,
In Cirith Ungol, Tower of Fire.

Demons circle the smoky skies,
Your fate hangs before you on a wheel of fire.
As you stand revealed to Satan's eye,
in Cirith Ungol, Tower of Fire.*

Yes. Yes, I think I can empathize with that.

The lyrics are influenced by various works of fantasy literature: Tolkien (obviously), also the Eternal Champion works of Michael Moorcock. I like it. So if anyone were ever to ask me, "Say Alan, can you recommend a good doom metal album?" I would say without hesitation, "Yes: King of the Dead by Cirith Ungol."

Ripping results: No skips, no pops. As perfect as a vinyl rip can get.


By the way, if anyone were ever to put together a bootleg mix CD of nothing but metal bands doing their own versions of baroque and classical pieces, I would be willing to pay for it. Just so you know.

*Cirth Ungol was "the pass of the spider," not the "tower of fire." Someday we will drive before us, the slouching herd of the false Tolkien fans, crush their spineless lackeys, and purge the world of their ignorant posing.

"Everyone just walked away"

At Sweet Juniper!

A few months later and I find myself stealing again. I am in what must have been a records room for a K-6 elementary school built in the 1920s. The floor is covered in paperwork that dates back to the 1940s. My flashlight on the attendance records highlights a name "Kermit Nowicki" [last name changed] born in 1946. A baby boomer. I flip through the rest of the names and wonder where these people are today, old now and off in some suburban life so far from the 1950s city they once knew with backyards and alleys full of neighborly noise and activity and white kids in all the streets, milk bottles on the porches. Kermit missed a few weeks in January for the mumps. Would he find it strange to know I was sitting in the dark with the history of his body pressed against one of these chairs, the history of his warmth missing from these rooms?

"[D]ocumenting the waste at recently-vacated, unsecured Detroit Public Schools..."

I have never seen anything like that happen around here, and it all seems very alien, strange and sad to me.

via Billy Beck

The 3 M's (1970 or so, LP)

Another record that I bought second-hand, and I'm pretty sure I got it at Yesterday's Warehouse, which was my source for lots of obscure, oddball records back in the 80s.

The 3 M's were Marilyn Blume (vocals, guitar & piano), Marlin Weedler (vocals) and Mary Knudson (vocals). According to the jacket notes, they were all sophomores at a small college in Forest City, Iowa called Waldorf College. Some quick internet searching reveals that the college still exists, and is a small (about 600 students) undergrad-only college founded by and affiliated with the Lutheran Church.

They were not professionals. However, they were very talented and well-trained amateurs. Actually, it sounds to me like the two women were most likely trained singers, whereas Marlin was just a good singer who--possibly--didn't have formal training. I base this opinion only on how they sound to me. The women use very "operatic" pronunciation, while Marlin just sounds like a normal person singing. I'm sure the women's singing styles went over well in choir or in church, but they sound kind of odd singing folk music.

The 3 M's were heavily influenced by folk trios of the time, especially Peter, Paul & Mary. This record is a collection of popular folk songs interspersed with various Christian songs. Most of them are covers, but there are three originals written by Marilyn Blume.

Track list:
Side One
1. Moon Shadow (the Cat Stevens song)
2. Early in the Morning
3. Bamboo (this and #2 were Peter, Paul & Mary songs)
4. Wedding Prayer (possibly a cover, but I don't know where it originated)
5. Amazing Grace (the hymn)
6. Marvelous Joy (another Peter, Paul & Mary song, but I thought it was called "Marvelous Toy"--click to download a sample)
7. Lovely Jesu (another hymn)

Side Two
1. Follow Me (the John Denver song which was also covered by Peter, Paul & Mary)
2. Away in a Manger (the carol)
3. When I Am Down and Out (original written by Blume)
4. Benediction & Lord's Prayer (another original)
5. One Tin Soldier (the pop song and theme from Billy Jack originally recorded--I think--by the group Coven)
6. Joy in the Morning (another original by Blume)

It was recorded at a studio called Artronics, Inc., in St. Paul, Minnesota. I haven't been able to discover anything about this place--if it still exists, I don't know. The date of 1970 is my best guess. Jacket notes state that they were all sophomores who were going to graduate in spring of 1972, so I'm guessing it was recorded in '69 or '70. I think it's fairly safe to assume that this record saw a very limited release, probably being sold only locally.


Ripping results: Not too bad, considering. A few minor pops that aren't distracting, and few worse pops that happened during periods of relatively low music volume so I was able to manually zoom in and excise them with surgical precision. The only bad part is on "Follow Me." Apparently the outside track of side 2 got dinged at some point, because there's a bad skip and couple of loud pops in this song that I couldn't do anything with. But other than that one track, it turned out pretty well.

Technical quibbles: the sound is too dark, it could have done with a little more treble; the guitar tends to overwhelm the vocals; the room they recorded in had too much echo. Still, it's an interesting album, a trio of good and honest singers, and a decent snapshot of that era. If anyone reads this who is willing to supply any more information about it or the members of The 3 M's, please leave a comment or email me.

Walt Disney's Merriest Songs (1968, LP)

This is a record I've had since 1968, when it was released as some sort of promotional thing by Gulf--the petroleum company which no longer exists. When I was a kid, we bought all our gas, oil, etc., from Gulf. Here's a track list.

Side A
1. Chim Chim Cheree
2. Whistle While You Work
3. Work Song
4. Lavender Blue
5. Siamese Cat Song
6. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

Side B
1. Ten Feet Off the Ground
2. Give a Little Whistle
3. Work Shop Song
4. The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers
5. I Wanna Be Like You
6. I'm Late

Some of these are taken from original soundtracks, some of them are re-made versions. Also the record is monophonic. Unfortunately, this one hasn't weathered the years well. There is a lot of noise, pops, clicks, and skips. However, I am pleased to report that my two favorite songs did survive without any skips, and they are "Ten Feet Off the Ground" and "I Wanna Be Like You." "Ten Feet" is sung by Louis Armstrong (he also plays a trumpet solo), and was from a movie which I never saw called The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. "I Wanna" is of course from The Jungle Book, which was an utter travesty of a rip-off if you've ever read the real book, but this is still a cool song and credits as performers Louis Prima, Phil Harris and Sebastian Cabot (Mr. French!).

I played the snot out of this record when I was 4 years old, except for that "Siamese Cat Song" which I often skipped. It always creeped me out when I was a little kid, and I still don't really like to hear it. But of course since I used to skip over it so often, it's now the best-sounding track on the record.

Click here to download a sample of "Ten Feet Off the Ground." The link will take you to another website where you can download the sample. Sorry, but I can't use esnips anymore.

Music trivia

From Collecting Vinyl Records:

It was 60 years ago this month when a country crooner from the South released the first-ever single to spin at 45 rpm.

Issued in green vinyl on the RCA label, the 7-inch "Texarkana Baby" by Eddy "The Tennessee Plowboy" Arnold became a No. 1 hit and enjoyed the sort of sales that today's artists can only dream of.

The main body of the article is about how vinyl record collecting is becoming very popular--especially in Japan, and about how some artists and companies are going back to vinyl.

It's mostly about 7" singles, which I personally was never very interested in. I was always more album-oriented.

This part is just stupid, stated by "Seez Records President Chikara Yoshida":

Because vinyl is something that'll never die," he says. "I think the way people listen to analog and digital forms of music is different. On one side of a 45, you've only got room for one song. If you want to listen to the flip side, you've got to physically get up, turn the record over and put the needle on again. I think that's really important. There's no fun in listening to CDs or whatever, where you're just pushing a button.

When I want to listen to music, I want to listen to music. I don't want to have to get up and flip a record every 3 minutes. This is one reason why I always used to put my favorite albums on tape: so I wouldn't have to get up and flip a record every 20 minutes. I wanted to sit there undisturbed and listen to music. I even had a dual-cassette deck that would automatically play both sides of two tapes in a row before I had to get up and change anything.

Everyone I know who had some 45s also had one of those stacker things that would automatically drop a new record after each one finished. I still have one myself, and my 45 collection is tiny. And that's because getting up and flipping a record constantly is freakin' annoying.

People are getting back into collecting 45s because they are quaint and nostalgic, and some old 45s have proven to be valuable--some more than others--but if you take care of them they can be worth some money someday because they are naturally fragile and don't preserve well. That's all it is.

"A reckoning is unavoidable"

UPDATE 18 MARCH: The decision has been reversed. I am surprised.

Original post below.

*****

The Shooting Wire:

No Longer Just Paranoia

For months, anyone who's proffered the position that the Obama Administration was anti-gun has been dismissed as being a variety of things, from sore loser to rampant paranoid. Nonetheless, since assuming office, members of the Obama administration have steadily- and stealthily- moved against firearms and ammunition.

Their only public blunder was Attorney General Holder's saying the "assault weapons ban" needed to be reinstated. Quickly, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi - no friend of gun owners - went on record as opposing Holder's suggestion. She went as far as to parrot the words of pro-gun groups, saying the government should enforce the laws on the books today, rather than introducing new laws.

At the same time, the State Department notified Canadian authorities of plans to issue an export ban on "military caliber ammunition" to Canada. That proposed action would prevent the sales of .223, .308 and other military calibers.

When Canadian authorities protested - and notified several members of the American media, the U.S. State Department suddenly went silent. But they quietly reinstated other rules and charges firearms exports-retroactively.

While it seemed they had been headed off on one proposal, they had actually drawn attention away from other actions. If you're into incrementalism, that translates as a win.

Anything passed brings the ultimate goal that much closer.

Last Friday, the anglers and hunters were notified that the National Park Service planned to make all lands under their control totally lead-free by 2010. No lead in ammo or fishing tackle.

As we report in today's Outdoor Wire, that decision has kicked off howls of protests - and questions about the NPS trying to usurp states' rights by issuing their unilateral decision with no prior notification. It's definitely not going to be a decision without some serious discussions. That still doesn't mean the NPS will back off on their decision.

All these things are racing along on parallel tracks. Now, many observers - and not just those on the pro-gun side of the discussion - believe the country is hurtling toward a confrontation.

The catalyst might be any one of several flashpoint issues, but both groups seem to believe a reckoning is unavoidable.

For months, I've gotten reports of everything from re-tasking of military heavy assault units for domestic violence scenarios to calls for "committees of correspondence" designed to spread news the way word was spread by citizens of the then-British colonies.

In each instance, I've discounted the reports as internet hysteria that has produced breathless notices of "the real-deal on the new assault weapon ban"- or references to HR45 - a gun registration bill that is a prime example of "eyewash legislation". It's purpose has already been achieved.

Part of that discounting has been due to the fact that hot-blooded rhetoric seems to run along with firearms ownership.

To the chagrin of industry officials, there's never a shortage of people willing to go on camera, get red-faced and spout "from my cold dead hands" phrases.

Admittedly, those people concern me, but more for their reinforcement of a negative stereotype to people who have no opinion one way or the other on firearms.

Today, however, a report that has nothing to do with rhetoric, hyperbole or rumor.

A very disturbing report that points to a very real assault on ammunition supplies.

The Department of Defense has issued a directive that bans the sale of military brass to ammunition re-manufacturers.

Without that brass, a very large dent is put into civilian ammunition supplies.

New Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) requirements call for the "mutilation of shell casings". Mutilation, incidentally, is the destruction of the property "to the extent that prevents its reuse or reconstruction".

Government officials will determine what constitutes "sufficient mutilation" but it's safe to say that it will no longer be suitable for remanufacturing.

The first word of this latest decision came over the weekend when Georgia Arms' Larry Haynie released a letter notifying him of the new requirement.

For a company with an order in for 30,000 pounds of expended military brass in .223, .308 and .50 BMG, that was not a pleasant notification.

Georgia Arms was remanufacturing more than one million rounds of .223 ammunition monthly; selling that ammo on the civilian market to resellers and to government agencies all over the country.

Tomorrow, Georgia Arms will start sending cancellation notices for .223 ammunition to law enforcement agencies across the United States. Haynie says he may have to layoff half of his sixty-person workforce.

The message is simple. The implication is chilling.
A new welcome page posted on Georgia Arms' website (www.georgia-arms.com) says simply "Due to new government regulations concerning the purchase of surplus brass, we are removing sales of all 223 and all 308 until further notice."

>From there, it directs visitors to the government website for contacting elected representatives.

All of us need to start contacting our elected representatives -and telling them, quite directly, that we're not going to put up with a move that not only curtails access to ammunition (nearly all .223 and .308 manufacturing capacity is tied up to satisfy the needs of the military) for civilians - but wastes taxpayers' money turning usable surplus into scrap metal.

Reducing the ammo brass to scrap reduces the value of the metal/surplus by nearly eighty percent. It also means that recast brass - in shippable form - may be shipped to China, one of the largest markets for U.S. metals on the world market.

If this is allowed to go unchallenged, anyone who owns a modern or traditional rifle in .223 or .308 calibers will see the impact- probably sooner than later.

"Anyone" in this context means everyone from recreational shooters to law enforcement trainers.

Pulling military brass out of the consumer supply chain means that all the manufacturing capacity being dedicated to meeting the military need will effectively become unavailable to civilians - forever.

Export rulings, lead bans, and brass mutilation orders from separate areas of the federal government look coincidental - on the surface. I'm not big on conspiracy theories - partially because I doubted the new administration would have gotten its collective act together so rapidly.

Seems I've been wrong on that one - and mistakenly using the word "hoard" when talking about the nearly-insatiable demand for ammunition that continues across the country. Today, laying up of ammunition might be better described as prudent preparation for possible problems.

States are beginning to serve notice to the federal government they will not enforce laws that violate individual rights. The federal government seems intent on creating a society with increasingly higher numbers of people dependent on the government for either sustenance or employment. Average citizens are beginning to grow tired of being asked to "tote the note" for others' irresponsibility.

These are, indeed, uncertain times.

Today, it's important that every reader take time to notify Congress that we - taxpayers - oppose this latest DOD move- and all the other not-so-subtle moves against gun owners.

You can contact your elected officials in Washington by going to this webpage http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml and following the links to your respective Senator or Congressman.

One key member of the United States Senate is Montana's Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Baucus could make a call to the Pentagon and let them know their budgets might be reexamined if they don't reconsider this latest directive. At that point, the directive might labeled a "misunderstanding" and rescinded.

But it is important that we keep pressure on Congress.

If that means phone calls, e-mails, and letters, let's get that done. If that doesn't produce results, we need to look beyond symbolic gestures like sending tea bags or bringing hundreds of thousands of gun owners to Washington and state capitols to protest.

These are, indeed, uncertain times. But the time for uncertain actions may be passing.

We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, maintain situational awareness.

--Jim Shepherd

Mr. Shepherd has nailed it this time. They are going to do everything they can to ensure that the American people are disarmed. A outright ban on weapons was too obvious. So they try back door methods. A rule requiring the destruction of surplus brass--surplus brass which is essential in keeping any kind of supply going at all--has the effect of destroying what was already a meager supply.

Don't believe for a second that this was just bureaucratic stupidity. This was an intentional, calculated act of aggression by a government that is out of control, and is just going to get worse.

Kate Bush - Hammer Horror demo

I thought I'd just keep working my way through the Kate Bush canon for the Sunday afternoon video, and this time I've selected a double feature. The first one is not really a video. The "video" part is just a collection of pictures of her that cycle through during the music. However, when I first bought The Whole Story, which was the first album of hers I ever bought, I was struck by all the different "faces" she had as shown on the inside jacket. She has always been very theatrical and is able to portray an amazing range of moods--sometimes not even appearing to be the same person. I think this collection of slides does a pretty decent job of portraying her many faces.

As for the music itself, it is very interesting to me because this is the demo version of one of her singles, "Hammer Horror," from the Lionheart album (her second). The audio is rough, and it's just her singing and playing the piano (she is also a very accomplished pianist).



And here is the "official" video, with the finished song as it appeared on Lionheart.

Saturday night random 20

I thought about doing this kind of post regularly a while back. I'll see if I can keep it up this time. Not like it's a lot of effort.

Rules: load up the whole collection in Winamp, randomize the list, here's the first 20.

Elton John - Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting (coincidence!)
Captain Beefheart - Sugar 'n' Spikes
Suzanne Vega - Gypsy
Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky
Psychedelic Furs - Sometimes
Carl Maria von Weber - Clarinet Concerto No. 2, movement 1, Allegro
ZerO One - pOssibilities
Allman Brothers Band - Ramblin' Man
Denis Haines - Bloodguard (from that D&D album)
Linda Ronstadt - Love Has No Pride
The Residents - The Touch
Uriah Heep - Gypsy (two Gypsies!)
Dr. Lew Childre - Big Rock Candy Mountain
Toubab Krewe and DJ Equal feat. Umar Bin Hassan, Youssou N'Dour and Nenah Cherry - Wake Up and Let It Go… (open remix)
Melanie - Lay Down
The Jaye Consort - Rege Mentem
Indigo Girls - Scooter Boys
Ultravox - Passing Strangers
Choir of the Moine et Moniales - Kyrie Eleison (17th Mass) (Gregorian chant)
Dartz! - St. Petersburg

Not a bad selection. Vega's "Gypsy" is a favorite.

You come from far away
With pictures in your eyes
Of coffee shops and morning streets
In the blue and silent sunrise
But night is the cathedral
Where we recognized the sign
We strangers know each other now
As part of the whole design

(Chorus)
Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat

You are the jester of this courtyard
With a smile like a girl's
Distracted by the women
With the dimples and the curls
By the pretty and the mischievous
By the timid and the blessed
By the blowing skirts of ladies
Who promise to gather you to their breast

(Chorus)

You have hands of raining water
And that earring in your ear
The wisdom on your face
Denies the number of your years
With the fingers of the potter
And the laughing tale of the fool
The arranger of disorder
With your strange and simple rules
Yes now I've met me another spinner
Of strange and gauzy threads
With a long and slender body
And a bump upon the head

(Chorus)

With a long and slender body
And the sweetest softest hands
And we'll blow away forever soon
And go on to different lands
And please do not ever look for me
But with me you will stay
And you will hear yourself in song
Blowing by one day

(Chorus)

Fiona (1985, LP)

Not all the music coming out of 1985 was washed-out, bland pop. Some of it was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, the unwashed masses tended not to notice it very much.

Fiona Flanagan was one of those who turned out some good stuff but got missed. This was not your typical 80s pop music. Call it power pop--something on the heavy side of pop or the lighter side of hard rock. Fiona had a powerful voice, although I think it was slightly weaker in the higher ranges, but her voice was still very nice to listen to and had a way of skidding in the gravel now and then. Think how Kim Karnes' voice sounded, like she was always walking through the gravel. But Fiona just stepped off the pavement and had it crunch under her feet at all the right spots.

I think another thing that may have hurt her was that another very popular, famous and already-established singer named Stevie Nicks had a single at the same time by the same title, "Talk to Me." By the way, an odd coincidence had both songs with saxophone solos, which as you may remember is something that usually catches my ear. Other than that, the songs are nothing alike, and Fiona's voice is nothing like Stevie Nicks'.

I really enjoyed listening to this album back then. It was one that I taped and played until I wore the tape out. My current vinyl rip was almost perfect except for one muted and almost unnoticeable pop on the last track, "Na Na Song," which is actually my favorite song from this album.

She was another singer who it was hard to find anything about back in 1985. I saw her perform once on "American Bandstand" or some show like that, and other than that I knew nothing that wasn't on the album. Now, of course, she has an entry in Wikipedia, and Heavy Harmonies has an entry with a later and more mature photo of her (she aged well). She released three more albums after this one (her first), the last one coming out in 1992. But although I kept an eye open, I never saw anything else from her in any of the local record stores, so this is the only one I ever got. Fiona has since been released on CD.

It's a good one.

Ah ha

Some time ago I mentioned that I was puzzled as to why/how I had a GTR record. This morning it occurred to me that it's because GTR is part of the "extended Yes family" via lead singer/guitarist Steve Howe.

So that's at least four groups that I know of: Yes, Buggles, Asia and GTR. Are there any others? Not counting solo artists, just groups (or duos, two or more anyway).

I finally filed my tax return this morning.

Yep

The Dinah Washington record sounds way better with the pop/click filters backed off a little. There are still some audible pops, but they are much better than the distorted noise I was hearing from filtering them too aggressively.

Playing around with digital sound files is something I've just been doing on my own for...well, several years now, but learning everything from scratch has been a slow process.

On another topic, if anyone installs that new version of Foxit, I would recommend against also installing the Ask.com toolbar. If you don't install it, you lose a few extra features, but if you only use Foxit for a pdf reader you don't need it. I like Foxit because it's much less clunky and loads up a lot faster than Adobe. Also it's somewhat more secure than Adobe because it's less popular (sort of like Firefox may arguably be somewhat more secure than IE). But I tried it with the Ask.com toolbar installed, and it made Firefox go all sluggish and act weird. YMMV, of course. Just offering my opinion based on my own experience.

I know how he feels

This happened to me before. But not with P@r1s H1lt0n.  And I didn't get to discover it from the relative solitude of an iPhone.  I had to go ask someone to find out.

You want to know, don't you?

I'm not telling.

Oh okay, it was Yanni.

Figured something out

If I run the pop/click filters too aggressively, it removes too much. My ears are much more used to hearing and ignoring pop/clicks than they are at ignoring holes in the music. On some songs I'll have to run the "passive" setting and just let some of the pops go. Now that I've figured this out, I'll have to rip that Dinah Washington record again.

Just did a Kingston Trio record and it sounded bad. I re-filtered my original *.wavs and it sounds a lot better even though I can still hear some pops.

Important anime news

From Anime News Network: Evangelion Underpants for Sale in Japan.

The Japanese character goods maker MOVIC has announced on Thursday that it will offer the official Evangelion Underpants Collection: Otoko no Tatakai (A Man's Struggle). The underpants come in medium (76-84 cm/30-33 inches) or large (84-94 cm/33-37 inches) sizes and in six styles: Nerv, Seele, Angel Monogram, Ugoite yo, 6th Angel, and Nigecha Dame. Evangelion's official website suggests the Nigecha Dame ("I mustn't run away!") underpants for psyching yourself up for stressful work, tests, dates, and similar situations.

This struck me as so absurdly funny that I am barely able to breathe right now. Or see, for the tears in my eyes.

Addendum: Oh man, that's hilarious. Evangelion underpants! A Man's Struggle! No size small! UNDERPANTS FOR PSYCHING YOURSELF UP!!!

I think I'll have to go lie down for a while now.

A couple of pix

I saw this lonely bluebonnet growing from a crack between the pavement and the curb in the Old Field/Jones-Maltsberger area on Tuesday. I've seen some other bluebonnets this year, but they were all growing in flower beds. This is the first "wild" one I've seen. I don't expect to see too many wild ones this year, because of the drought.

And speaking of which, here is a picture of some raindrops hanging on some bare tree limbs that I took just as I got home from the doctor today. On my way out, I actually saw some puddles, but on the way back the rain had slacked off and most of the puddles were already gone.

The prognosis? Stay in out of the weather, drink plenty of fluids, and keep taking whatever over-the-counter cold medicine makes you feel better. I'm even excused for tomorrow, but I don't think I'll need to miss another day.

Tinkle, Clang, Ring and Chime (undated LP)

Although I think a more accurate title would be "Tinkle, Clang, Ring, Chime, Whistle and Pipe," this is another strangely obscure and fascinating record that is part of my collection. I picked this up long ago at a curious place called Yesterday's Warehouse in Seguin, Texas. (Or I should say: it once was in. One day the owner decided to do other things and closed it down. But I like to pretend that, like all the best strange little shops, it one day simply--mysteriously--disappeared.)

I'll let the cover notes do the introduction.

The astonishing and intriguing sounds heard here stem from one of the world’s greatest collections of music boxes and musical instruments, located in Utrecth, Holland. The instruments range from a tiny waistcoat-pocket music box to the mighty sounds of Dutch street organs, all of them mechanically reproducing music of remarkable charm through means of truly remarkable ingenuity.

The origin of music boxes and street organs, together with other mechanical musical instruments, is traced back to the tower clocks of the late Middle Ages, the carillons. The original carillons consisted of a combination of four bells, but later on, Flemish and Dutch towns were supplied with a more extensive sequence. The Flemish clock-maker Bartholomeus Koecke of Aals, completed the mechanization of the carillon in 1487, by inventing the so-called “musical barrel.” This consisted of a rotating cylinder, on which changeable studs or pins had been fixed. These pins brought into movement, by means of threads, little hammers, which reproduced the sound of the bells. This cylinder system became in turn the basis for music boxes; the rotating cylinder was reproduced in miniature with “goupilles,” minute iron needles, which as they turned, struck the teeth of a metal comb. Later inventors refined and expanded the basic idea, until such latter-day wonders as the Spanish piano organ or the street organ “The Arab” came into being, with their complex organization of musical sounds.

The record consists of 19 tracks; however, almost all the tracks are made up of two, three or four separate pieces, so there are actually 40 different pieces represented by many different instruments.

It's interesting to me that, long before electronic technology gave us the means to easily create pre-programmed music that could be played over and over again at will (as long as the batteries don't run out), people were creating mechanical music machines that essentially served the same purpose. This record covers a wide variety of antique and ancient musical machines, from tiny pocket-sized music boxes up to larger table-sized boxes and even mechanical street organs.

The origins of many of these melodies are now lost to us. For example, here is an ethereal piece mysteriously although appropriately titled "Unknown melody from an approximately 300-year-old English bracket-clock."

Unknown_melody_fro...

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...an unknown melody played on a miniature waistcoat-pocket playbox. Boxes of this type, originating in the eighteenth century for the use of dandies and their ladies, were carried in the pocket and the mechanisms were also built into watches, snuffboxes, powder boxes and the like.

There are also examples of the "cafe music box," which was the precursor of the modern jukebox, and were even made with coin slots.

The sonorous music...comes from large rotating metal plates, which were interchangeable in the boxes. Catalogs for such boxes could contain as many as a thousand different plates, and often the boxes themselves had slots to receive the coins of the customer.

Here is an example of a piece taken from such a music box, except that this one was built like a miniature organ rather than using the large metal plates.

The Serinette...is a small pipe-organ used to teach singing to canaries. Originating in the eighteenth century, the Serinette uses not only the rotating cylinder, but a series of thin metal pipes, through which air is expelled by means of a bellows. There are twelve tones.

Whistling_Bird.mp3

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The record concludes with some examples of the larger mechanized organs, such as this one that was referred to as "The Arab." (No explanation for why it was called that).

...the celebrated Dutch street organ “The Arab.” This organ is a descendant in style of the old fair organs, developed by the Belgian Leon Warnies. It is easily manipulated, despite its size. Here the cylinder system of reproducing music has been replaced by the pneumatic and keyboard method, capable of producing a wide and wonderful series of sounds. The music books for this machine are made of cardboard, folded in zig-zag fashion, into which the music is punched, or perforated.

A mechanical music machine built like an organ and programmed with punch cards!

K.L.M._March_sampl...

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It's an old record, and although undated I think I can safely estimate 1950s or 1960s. And when listening to it, one must keep in mind that this is not a recording of modern devices constructed to mimic antique devices. It is actually a recording of very old devices that still work. Included with the music are the clanks of wood against metal and the occasional creak of a spring. The price of $1.75 was penciled on to back of the cover, and for the brief glimpse that this record has given me into the ancient art of mechanically reproduced music, I consider it well worth the price.

UPDATE:  Now that I have high speed access, I will begin posting these tracks to YouTube.  Just visit my channel at youtube.com/blogonomicon and check the list.

Blagh

Home sick. Monday afternoon around 3:00 I went from feeling perfectly fine to feeling completely sick in about 30 minutes. I have never had anything hit that fast. I was hoping I could work through it, but...

I knew a norther was coming in and I was afraid of getting caught out in the cold and rain (50% chance) when I'm already this messed up. I slept about 10 hours last night so I'm not really sleepy right now. I guess I'll rip vinyl until the cold medicine kicks in again.

UPDATE: 11:20 AM, now up to 80% chance of rain.

The Rocklopedia Fakebandica

Is a website (and a book, btw), with everything you never needed to know about fake bands (and solo artists).

There's even an entry for Erich Zann.

Chet Atkins - Teen Scene, 1963 (LP)

Somebody'll have to clue me in: was Chet Atkins really all the rage in 1963? Did they say "all the rage" back then? Or was that when they were saying "the most ut?" Or was that just a Jetsons joke?

Anyway, I can't tell you anything about him that you can't read on Wikipedia. I got some pretty good sound out of this record except for a jump on track 4. This album sounds more like a collection of sound samples, with most tracks running only 2 minutes or so and the whole album topping out at 26 minutes for 12 tracks. On some of the pieces, it sounds like the musicians are just getting into it and about to get a really good groove on when...it's over. That's my biggest gripe about it. But if you enjoy some good finger-pickin' guitar, this is a good record. Another more minor complaint I have about it is that none of the other musicians are credited. There's some good harmonica and tenor sax stuff going on, and a bass line is laid down by an actual baritone sax on a couple of tracks. I would have liked to have had a record of the names of those people.

I'm pretty sure this one is out of print.

I also found this blurb on the back of the jacket somewhat amusing (click to enlarge).


...highly ingenious computers–"electronic brains..." Heh.

I won't be keeping all these old records I rip on my mp3 drive for future listening. For example, that Hullabaloo Show record I'll just copy to an archive CD just in case. But this one is well worth keeping.

Weird search hit

I got a strange Google hit today for the search string, "texas house resolution jack the ripper."

Anybody know what they're talking about?

Trying to recreate the sounds of ancient instruments

Sound of long-lost Ancient Greek instruments recreated by computer experts:

The long-lost sounds of the epigonion, the salpinx and the kithara could be about to form the strangest musical group yet, thanks to the world's largest physics project.

The epigonion, a harp-like musical instrument, was last played in Ancient Greece. But computer scientists have resurrected its sound as part of a project to conjure up an orchestra of long-lost instruments.

They don't know exactly what it looked like but they have used historical sources to re-create what it would have sounded like.

Uh, no.  The only way to accurately reproduce the sounds of these instruments is building them exactly the same way and with the same materials as they would have been built 2,000 years ago.  Anything else, no matter how many computers you throw at it, is mere speculation.

Another ancient "vampire" grave

This time near Venice:

Scientists found the skull, with its mouth agape and a large slab of rock forced into its mouth, while excavating a mass grave dating from the Middle Ages on an island near Venice.

[...]

The woman's skeleton was found in a mass grave which was established on the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo, in Venice's lagoon, when plague swept the city in 1576.

Sunday afternoon video: Kate Bush - Them Heavy People

Kate Bush - "Them Heavy People" (from The Kick Inside, 1978)

It looks like keepvid.com is able to access the low-res videos again, for some reason, so I'll resume occasional video postings.

Kate Bush is my favorite female artist. I'll get into more detail when I get around to posting stuff about her albums, but for now I'll just say that the first time I saw her she performed this song on Saturday Night Live back in the 70s. The version in this video is longer than the one on the CD.

A zebra in Ohio

Most likely escaped from a private "collection," but the photos are clear and unmistakeable.  Pix at Cryptomundo.

The Jaye Consort - Medieval Music

The Jaye Consort - Medieval Music (1978)

If anyone has been looking at the Twitter feed for the past day or so, you may have noticed a few oddballs popping up. This is one of my favorite oddballs from my collection, and I wish I had more like it. I love the sound of this ancient music.

I went to college for two years (from 1982-84, and then gave up) at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas. I've mentioned Abilene and ACU before but I don't think I ever stated clearly what ACU stood for. The ACU bookstore was an interesting place. It was mostly a typical college bookstore that carried all the books required by the various teachers, but it also had a few odds & ends like foods that are popular for college students (ramen noodles, canned soups and so forth), and a small record section. The record section, though small, was an oddly eclectic mix of the popular and the obscure. I don't know if perhaps this record was required for some music course that I wasn't aware of, or if it just turned up there by fortune, but I saw it one day and bought it.

The music on this record was played by The Jaye Consort on instruments constructed as they were hundreds of years ago. Liner notes:

The Jaye Consort have here abandoned their viols (made by Henry Jaye, c. 1620) to play medieval music on reconstructed medieval instruments–all of which are depicted on the cover. The result is a heterophony, not unlike an Arabian night-club band, but nothing has been added to the music apart from drones, divisions, and a variety of percussion.

A legend on the back of the cover shows what all the instruments pictured on front are. There are specific notes for each piece detailing its approximate date of composition, its origin if known, and which instruments are used in its performance. There are 25 tracks, most of the pieces being quite short to modern ears. The vocal parts are sung by Gerald English, as noted on the front cover.

I haven't been able to find much of anything on the internet about this album specifically, although there are a few hits for the Jaye Consort.

I've included one piece in full below as a sample track, and although there are many great pieces on this record, I chose this one because according to the notes, "it may be the earliest known example of keyboard music." It was written for and played on the small portable organ like the one shown at right center on the cover graphic above. And from the notes, "it was taken from the Robertsbridge manuscript of c. 1325." The estampie (click for Wikipedia link) is a form of medieval dance music, and there are several of them on this record. The Lamento di Tristano and the Maya Kalenda mentioned in the Wikipedia article are also both included on this record.

Give it a listen and see how it sounds for a 700-year-old piece of keyboard music.

Estampie_sample.mp...

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UPDATE: I have begun posting some pieces from this album on YouTube. You can listen to them by going to my YouTube channel and looking through the list.

They're going to make you play video games...

A while back a couple of co-workers and I were abusing our Nextels by discussing what old movies should be remade, seeing as how lots of old movies are being remade that probably should have been forgotten. All three of us agreed about one old movie that we thought definitely needed a remake.

Well, it's done.

Tron 2 is in the works.

Interesting mp3 trivia and other stuff

Just read this at Wikipedia:

Suzanne Vega's song “Tom's Diner” was used as the reference track in an early trial of the MP3 compression system, earning her the distinction of being the Mother of the MP3. It was chosen because her a cappella vocal with relatively little reverberation was used as the model for Karlheinz Brandenburg's compression algorithm.Brandenburg heard “Tom's Diner” on a radio playing the song. He was excited and at first convinced it would be “nearly impossible to compress this warm a capella voice.”  [referenced here -- ed.]

Been catching up on discographies of various artists in my collection to see what's been going on since I lost track of them.  When I got married, settled down, bought land and a house, had kids, and so forth, my expendable income for luxury items like music albums pretty much vanished.  These days I have a little extra cash that I can spend on such items now and then, so I'm starting to investigate how much catching up I'll have to do.  Vega has released only two studio albums since the last one I bought in 1996.  That should make it pretty easy to catch up with her.

On the other hand, Michelle Shocked has been very, very busy.  Two other female musicians I need to catch up with are Enya and Kate Bush, but I don't think they have been all that busy, either.

Yes, you have...

And some of us have already noticed the parallels.

A keeper quote

Here.

People are freaking out about this like it just started raining axes.

I'm going to use that the first chance I get.

Dinah Washington

Dinah Washington - untitled

Wow. I never would have thought that my mother-in-law had stuff like this on her shelves. This is an old record, but I don't know how old. According to the jacket notes, it was released after her death, but like many records from days long gone by, it wasn't dated, and it isn't part of her official discography. From Roulette Records, which rings a long-forgotten bell in the back of my mind. I think my mother must have a bunch of old 45s from Roulette.

The record wasn't in good shape. It not only popped and clicked, it crackled. Even after cleaning it and running the files through Goldwave's filters, it's still kind of rough, and it looks like there are at least two jumps in it. I don't know what the technical term is, but by "jump" I mean that there's a scratch bad enough to make the needle jump a groove. But for the most part, it's still listenable, and boy did she have a great voice.

Track list:
Side A
1. What's New
2. I Used to Love You
3. I'll Never Stop Loving You
4. He's My Guy
5. To Forget About You
6. Somebody Else is Taking My Place

Side B
1. That Old Feeling
2. He's Gone Again
3. These Foolish Things (a favorite oldy song of mine)
4. Me and My Gin
5. Just One More Chance
6. Don't Say Nothin' at All

Click below to hear a sample from "Me and My Gin."

Me_and_My_Gin_samp...

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On the other hand...

I don't care to reproduce it here, but check out this example of some very disturbing cover art.

More cool album art

During the 80s I briefly (very briefly) flirted with the harder stuff. Here's one I bought just because of the cover art, which I still think is cool.

front

back

No review for this one, at least not today. I remember it as being just mediocre 80s-era metal, nothing special, but I think they developed a sort of cult following.

The Hullabaloo Show (LP)

It's 1965. You meet up with your old friend Norville.

"You gotta try this stuff, man!" he says. "It'll, like, blow your mind!!!" Meanwhile his disturbingly coherent dog is cleaning out your cabinets. "Mmmm....reanut rutter!" you think he says.

"Well, I don't know," you tell him. "I gotta work tomorrow..."

"Work!" exclaimed Norville. "Come on, man, you gotta, like, turn on, man, you gotta, like, drop out!" Everything Norville says ends in an exclamation point, and takes far too many commas.

"Well, just one, I guess," you say.

"First one's always free, man!" says Norville.

So that night you take the little tablet, washing it down with a glass of orange juice, and sit down to watch the television until it hits. And then...

Wham!

You feel strangely...normal. But you are hearing the most unbelievably bizarre thing you have ever heard come out of that television set. In an hour it's all over, and you get up to get yourself a snack.

About that time you realize that the little pill hadn't really done anything. It was a dud, a flub, inert. With a small measure of relief, you realize that what you just saw and heard on the television was not a hallucination. It was a real television show.

But only a half second later the ultimate horror of it all hits you, and you sag helplessly against the wall, gibbering mindlessly at this mind-altering realization: what you just saw and heard on the television was not a hallucination. It was a real television show.

Liner notes:

Across the country, everyone who can bend a leg and shake a hip is doing the frug, the swim, the monkey or any of the dozen other varieties of exciting new-beat dances. And when the movers and shakers aren't dancing up a storm at the nation's discotheques, it's a cinch that they're listening to the bouncing sounds and rocking rhythms of television's weekly "Hullabaloo" show. In this dance-along, listen-along album, you'll hear the show's own Hullabaloo Singers and Orchestra perform a wild and wonderful collection of current hits that are featured on the sensational program.

One of the chief reasons for the "Hullabaloo" show's tremendous success is Peter Matz, who leads the Orchestra and Singers both on the television show and in this album. Conductor-arranger for many of Barbra Streisand's enormously popular Columbia albums and Emmy award-winner for similar duties on the "My Name is Barbra" television special, Matz has fast become one of the most sought-after musical talents in show business.

Keeping the rhythmic feel of the "Hullabaloo" show, Peter leads the Singers and Orchestra in some of today's biggest hits, in versions he created especially for this album. Hullabaloo Theme is included, of course, as well as top tunes like I Can't Get No Satisfaction, The In Crowd and Bob Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man, made popular by The Rolling Stones, The Ramsey Lewis Trio and The Byrds, respectively, in addition to Peter's theme for the show, Hullago.

So come on--frug, swim and monkey to your heart and soul's content. Or just listen and dig what the whole kicky scene's about!

Fortunately I was born just a little too late to be cognizant of this show when it was on, and it's a pretty sure bet that my parents wouldn't have watched it anyway. I think. They did watch Laugh-In, after all. I...I don't know what to say about this album. A pathetic attempt to make rock & roll palatable to the same people who thought Lawrence Welk was hip? An uncannily prescient demonstration of irony? Or was it all for fun? Or was it all for...something else?

I have included a lo-fi sound sample below so that you may hear for yourself. But be warned, this is only a taste of the full album. I have intentionally shielded you from the sanity-blasting horror of the complete work, and from the ultimate, mind-shattering insanity of...You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'.

I_Can't_Get_No_Sat...

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Now excuse me while I gibber mindlessly.

P.S. This is the first time I have ever typed the word "discotheques," and G-d help me, I hope I never have to do it again.

Alive Records 2009 sampler (free mp3 album)

This is a good one that Amazon recently made available. Crawl through the grimy underbelly (or under something) where blues, punk and southern rock collide. Hold onto your ears.

Some of these songs sound like they are lost in time, harking back to 60s-era punk. There are lots of jangly guitars and the raw-edged sound of rockabilly. One song (by Brimstone Howl) sounds almost like the Ramones. Some of the samplers from Amazon are not worth mentioning--I've downloaded several that I never bothered to write about. This is not one of them. Go get it.

The Big Sound Authority - A Bad Town (EP)

A not very good pastiche of the jacket, since I can't find a real picture of it anywhere.

This is an EP that I bought at Hastings back in 1985-6 or so. I kept seeing it sitting there on the rack every time I walked into the store, a single copy that no one was apparently interested in. Eventually, I felt sorry for it, and felt compelled to buy it.

This is one of those groups that I know nothing about, and haven't been able to find very much. Wikipedia has only a stub entry on them. Their lead singers were Tony Burke and Julie Hadwen. Burke's voice is nothing special, but Hadwen has some pretty good pipes. Going by the photos on the back of the jacket, they had eight members, some of them comprising a horn section. This made them kind of stand out back then, when most groups coming out of the U.K. relied heavily on synthesizers. There are definitely some keyboards used, and piano and organ as well, but the horns carry a lot of the music.

I'll see if I can make a brief lo-fi sample available for some of these more obscure albums, as long as I can get away with it. Here's one. Click to listen.

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The record is a 12-inch, 45 rpm EP, with an extended version of the title track on side 1, and four other songs on side 2. My favorite from this record is "In the Hands of Love," followed by "Personal Business." (I can't find any lyrics for their songs on the internet either). The music has a kind of unpolished sound, like it was done all at once with minimal overdubs, but of course this is just my guess and I have no idea how it was really recorded. Mostly bouncy, upbeat and bright. I put "In the Hands of Love" on a collection of personal mix tapes that I made for myself many years ago, and I'm not sorry I spent the money for this one.

If anyone reads this who knows more details about them, please leave a comment.

3-D pavement art

At Oddee.


This one is by American artist Kurt Wenner. Twenty pictures in all, all quite impressive, by various artists.

Dog bite

I worked some overtime this past Saturday, and got bitten. It wasn't a serious bite, in that it didn't break the skin, it only bruised me. I have been snapped at like this before, on my old job when I had to go into back yards, but all those times it was because I had opened the gate too fast and surprised a dog that was close to the gate. This time it was on a wide-open street, and the dog had seen me coming at least a whole minute beforehand. He stood there calmly and waited, showing no signs of aggression at all, until I got close enough, then he went for me.

I did nothing to provoke him. I had whistled at him to get his attention from a few houses away, and as I got closer I was talking to him. He just stood there looking at me and wagging his tail.

He snapped me on my right wrist, I jumped backwards to get some space and put the hook in his face. In the second or so that it took me to put my computer down, he jumped at me 5 or 6 more times and I banged him one-handed right in the nose with the hook on each lunge. Once I had my left hand free of the computer, I took the hook in my two-handed attack grip and went for him. Of course, this made him run away. He belonged to someone on that street, but I was not able to follow him fast enough to see which house he disappeared into. It was a little cul-de-sac called Cherry Park, just in case anyone reading this is ever walking in that neighborhood.

Of course I was letting forth a stream of rather colorful descriptives the whole time. A few houses farther down there were some people outside setting up a yard sale or something and they saw the whole thing.

A little while later a yard worker stopped me while he was driving out and showed me where the dog had just done the same thing to him. So I reported it and we gave the description and location to Animal Control. They usually do something if the dog has actually bitten someone.

And it wasn't a politically incorrect dog. It was a black Lab. So let this be a lesson, and a reminder to myself: all dogs will bite. It doesn't matter how cute and cuddly you think your dog is, all dogs will bite. And sometimes it's impossible to know what will set them off.

Brief update

Just for kicks I opened up a Twitter account and put the feed in the top right sidebar. I'll uh..."tweet" albums as I rip them so they'll show up there, and use the blog for more in-depth commentary.

But in the meantime...do any you folks have this one? It's one of the greatest overlooked albums of the 80s.