Big Shot Sebastian's Old Idea

Long, loooooooong ago he wanted to do an album of music by PCLers - then he lost the files or his IKEA computer fouled its herring-powered glow plugs or who knows what. (Everclear Mojitos, no doubt.)

Revive this concept, suicide prone, non-hugging, meat ball eater - I beseech you.

As the first track, despite her not being a PCLer is the below, which was a "response video" on YouTube to a posting of Millie Small's version of the classic - it should, without a doubt, be the first track:



With respect - bien sur!

Ergo Phizmiz: Music from "The House of Dr Faustus"

Instrumental music from the forthcoming 10 part Ergo Phizmiz radio-art cycle "The House of Dr Faustus". Composed, performed & produced by Ergo Phizmiz. Recorded 2007-2009, on the Isle of Wight, La Ferriere aux Etangs, La Noe de Fendrement, & Buckfastleigh.

(Instruments - Foot Harmonium, Indian Harmonium, Tenor Accordion, Toy Piano, Melodica, Balinese Xylophone, Violin, Viola, Banjo, Messiah Box, Ukulele, Euphonium, Harmonica, Voice, Acoustic & Classical Guitar, Bagpipes, Didjerydoo, Desk Bell, Mechanical Birds, Pixiphone, Horns, Recorder, Fife, Tibetan Flute, Kazoo, Autoharp, Cajon, Assorted Drums)

The image shows two angles on a 1920s "Joujouville" French puppet theatre piano, one of the reoccurring sounds on this collection.

The project is supported by Arts Council England, VentnorBlog.com, & Vaguely Marsupial Productions.

This collection is dedicated to James Nye / Jack Phoenix, without whose interaction and inspiration on the whole Faustus project this music would not have been made."

DOWNLOAD it for free via WFMU Free Music Archive

--

www.ergophizmiz.com

The Trilogy

I received a press release a few days ago from Joe & Darlene Lacey (of the awesome sites: Maiden Wine - The Ultimate Leonard Nimoy Music Site and The Candy Wrapper Museum):

"One of the great pleasures in life for music lovers is not so much to find a great recording, but to have a great recording find you. We first heard "Two Sides of the Trilogy" through a vinyl sharing site(*). The album was rare: it was a souvenir made to be sold at the Trilogy's South Florida shows in 1973, and only 500 copies were pressed.
Intrigued by its high level of musicianship and the charisma of its three members, Kurt, Lori, and Ike, we decided to create a tribute site to the album and the band. We contacted Kurt and Ike and they turned out to be two great guys: they collaborated with us to make an awesome website, and personally digitally re-mastered the album to CD with all new artwork and liner notes.
Sadly, Lori, Kurt's wife and lead singer, passed away a few years ago. The memory of her, however, lives on in her music, which is beautifully restored for this release.
Be sure to check out the Trilogy's site for samples of their cool lounge music, two free downloads, stories about the band, the 70s South Florida music scene and lots of groovy photos! And don't forget to order a copy of this collectable CD!"

Check it out!!

(*) Note from mrdnatefontana: Maybe Joe and Darlene, just like I did, found this precious gem through my fellow Swede Magnus' wonderful site Bellybongoback in 2004 (now since long closed)?

Album cover artistery: Lover's concerto

Album cover art: Yvonne mé Lallas - Lover's concerto, posted by Herr Dryck, the Swedish dude running the very visual and very fun blog for awful album cover art (Katastrofala Omslag).

About the above cover he says:
"Finns det ett speciellt uttryck för när man kräks så häftigt att det sprutar rakt fram genom näsan?"
(Transl~ "Is there a specific expression for when vomiting so forceful it's squirting right out of your nose?")

Johnny Prophet

Gatefold jacket
Click hairy chest for the informative entry about this guy. It is also possible to click the image over there for a scandalous "great" view. 5 more mp3s here.

(via People vs. Dr. Chilledair)

The Making of Blonde on Blonde

"A memory from the summer of 1966: Across the Top 40 airwaves, an insistent drum beat led off a strange, new hit song. Some listeners thought the song too explicit, its subject of wild lunacy too coarse, even cruel; several radio-station directors banned it. Despite the controversy over the lyrics about madness and persecution, or more likely because of it, the record shot to No. 3 on the Billboard pop-singles chart. The singer-songwriter likened the song, which really was a rap, to a sick joke. His name was Jerry Samuels, but he billed himself as Napoleon the XIV, performing “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!”

That spring, an equally controversial single, with an eerily similar opening, had quickly hit No. 2; and by summer, “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” had reappeared as the opening track on the mysterious double album, Blonde on Blonde, by Bob Dylan, who said the song was about “a minority of, you know, cripples and orientals and, uh, you know, and the world in which they live.” Over Coppertone-slicked bodies on Santa Monica Beach and out of secluded make-out spots and shopping-center parking lots and everywhere else American teenagers gathered that summer, it seemed that, the ba-de-de-bum-de-bum announcing Dylan’s hit about getting stoned was blaring from car radios and transistor radios, inevitably followed by the ba-de-de- bum-de-bum announcing Jerry Samuels’s hit about insanity. It would be Samuels’s last big recording; and after July, Dylan would be convalescing from a serious motorcycle crash. ..."

Mystic Nights - The Making of Blonde on Blonde in Nashville. Article in Oxford American by Sean Wilentz. (via del.icio.us/runky.funky)

The Something Special

"The Something Special is a Psychedelic Neo-folk/Dream Pop group. Not only do they bring exciting new sounds to they stage, they also bring an entire audio-visual experience. Some of the elements involved include, but are not limited to: Slide shows, balloons, bubbles, guitars, tambourines, theremins and the most powerful, blinding light you've ever seen! " (Quoted from their MySpace)

This is the band's songwriter Tony Vosik's own recordings between 2002 and 2007. Before there was a band. He plays it all. Good music!

The Something Special on The Fringe.

Great Album Cover Treasures

The Frost Brothers - sing Country Soul, The Shoremen - sing "More About Jesus"
Listen to The Frost Brothers:

Houseplant Picture Studio presents Great Album Cover Treasures.
Thanks for telling us Kurt, and... great work!

Note: Super-great embedded 60s midi.

Updated: Kurt says: "also...just posted a few mp3 cuts from a few of the albums plus a bonus track... The Pan Vibes doing Stars n Stripes Forever - best song I've heard all year
ALSO just posted some naughty mp3s from a naughty 1974 musical called Let My People Come...available at the HPS blog ..."

Updated: Link gone. This is how Kurt works. And we love it! We love the exclusiveness he operates his site with.

LP Cover Lover

Click album covers to view them at source.

LP Cover Lover - LP album covers, 45s too.

A blog dedicated to LP and EP cover art. Lovely!

And with nifty categories such as Big Heads, Heaven and Hell, Monsters, Planes Trains Automobiles, and Real People with Real Problems! Just to mention a few.

(thanks to KD over at Pop Culture Links)

Black Satin / White Satin

Stax o' Wax is offering 2 great albums by George Shearing Quintet and Orchestra:

Black Satin and White Satin.

Cultural Revolution-Era 10" Records

The Socialist Road Is The Broadest Of All:
Song titles include: "Celebrating The Founding Of The Emancipated Serfs Association" — "The People's Communes Are Really Good" — "Carrying Manure Up The Mountainside" — "Young Intellectuals Come To The Home Of The Yi People"

"Carrying Manure Up The Mountainside", isn't that a song written by Dolly Parton? And haven't I heard "Young Intellectuals Come To The Home Of The Yi People"? Hm. Was it Beck's latest album? Or was it Momus 3:rd? I'm not sure.

"7" and 10" EPs released by China Records between 1965 and 1978."
Cultural Revolution-Era 10" Records, a small but wonderful set at Flickr uploaded by Oldtasty. (via Urban Retro Lifestyle)

Electronic Cattle Calls, Moog for the countryside

Gil Trythall - Country Moog & Rick Powell - Switched-On-Country available thanks to Wiel's Time Capsule.

Tech-Xotica!!!

Mr Fab and his RIAA has a new (old RIAA stuff - recapping 2006) compilation up with "27 tracks (!) of party-rockin' mashups and kooky comedy"
Tech-Xotica!!! (tracklist and info here)

Upkar

Music From The Third Floor shares Kalyanji Anandji: Upkar, Soundtrack from 1974 [IMDb]. Good stuff!

Invisible Bridges

"... This album was a pivotal one in Gil's career, and the start of a new phase. His first few albums on Flying Dutchman were jazz and poetry, similar to the Last Poets stuff, but with a little more singing. Then, as Brian Jackson started playing a bigger role, he moved toward a proto-world beat sound. Here, he pinches Malcolm Cecil and his TONTO synth banks from Stevie Wonder, and moves into funk territory. ..."
Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson - Bridges available thanks to the Invisible Record Archive.

Univers 2000

Good, groovy and strange library sounds is shared at monone's library: Univers 2000 by Eric Framond

Week 64: Space Escapade

Once again: the man who needs no introduction, el maestro – Les Baxter! Here´s his wonderful 1958 album Space Escapade (Capitol), with liner notes:

Even today, in an era of science and satellites, the mystery of the universe has lost none of its magical appeal. We can close our eyes and dream of the future, wondering whether a starlit planet might soon replace a tropical island, the Riviera, or a distant mountain lodge as the ideal spot for a romantic holiday. Or, with the aid of the music in this album, we can drift into the future's lovemist with Les Baxter and make a spaceliner escapade by earthlight, tongue safely fastened in cheek.



01. Shooting Star The roar of the rockets recedes after takeoff, and we loosen our seatbelts to enjoy our first space cocktail. Perhaps on another spaceship a pair of lovers looked out of a porthole and saw the firestreak of our rockets...and made a wish.
02. Moonscape As the heavy door of the spaceship opens slowly, into our view comes a quiet, bleak surface with grey-blue craters. It is awesome, frightening, majestic in its stillness.
03. Mr. Robot On out first visit to a planet, we arrive in the midst of the festivities of the Martian Gras. An intercosmos incident is almost created when a crew member approaches a group of dancing spzdtrls with the demand, "Take me to your leader!" A few cries of "Earthling, go home!" soon die down as apologies are made, and the festival continues, with earth visitors included.
04. The City From a distance we see the crystal spires of another metropolis, glistening in the light of the faraway sun. A misty fog filters over the city...perhaps under it life is bustling...or perhaps there are only the ruins of long gone splendor.
05. A Distant Star From a romantic spot called Planetary Point, we find a tiny star to wish upon. We realize that we're looking beyond what's over the rainbow, into a land no lullaby ever mentioned.
06. The Commuter Jetmobiles roar through early Solar City traffic. Their frenzied speed gives rise to vertigo, until we realize that crashes are now extinct, with electric fields keeping travellers safely at arm's length.
07. Winds of Sirius We hear a gentle sound...or do we? Do they have sound, those chilly winds in outer space...or are they silent, and is the murmur we hear only an echo of the chill we feel?
08. The Others Side of the Moon Only experience makes us fully realize that this hemisphere, unlike the cold emptiness people often assign to it, is really a lovers' retreat, where not even the scientist's telescope can probe the darker-than-darkness of its nights.
09. Somewhere In Space The quaint traditions connected with the crossing of the equator are preserved even in this space-era. The party is as gay as ever, only the occasion is different...leaving the earth's atmosphere. Behind, we can see the familiar yet strange sphere, slowly falling away from us.
10. Earth Light As we sneak away from the rest of the group to a deserted observation room, the earth's warm blue glow somehow makes seconds out of hours. Long after the earthbeams fade, their magic dust lingers on.
11. The Lady Is Blue Bored but beautiful, the blue queen of the solar village makes a quick gesture with her hand, and a curious assortment of odd beings materializes, performing a strange and sensuous dance to amuse her. Another impatient whisk, and they're gone. As Mr. Baxter insists (from experience!), her color is of skin, not of mood.
12. Saturday Night on Saturn Our last night is as festive as the first, and the indescribable effects of the Saturnian pxqoil will harken us back again, for the herbs from which it is brewed cannot be grown on earth.

>Download ("Space Escapade" zipped) at Files Upload or,
>Download ("Space Escapade" zipped) at zShare or,
>Download ("Space Escapade" zipped) at files.ww (seems to be down at the moment...)

"The Full Monty" as posted by HTMPL Prod.: Week 62: 'Beat Girl' - Week 63: 'Turn On with the Hip Hypnotist'

Week 63: Turn On with the Hip Hypnotist

Publicity still

Pat Collins a.k.a. the Hip Hypnotist had a night club on Los Angeles Sunset Strip in the 1960s and -70s where she hypnotized people and taught self-hypnosis as a way to overcome psychological problems – even hypnotising Lucille Ball on 'the Lucy Show' once. Here’s her 1968 album 'Turn On with the Hip Hypnotist'.


Click image for far better view.
Thanks to Matt for the cover image!

1. Turn On (spoken)
2. Imagination
3. I Only Have Eyes For You
4. I´ll See You In My Dreams
5. Goin´ Out Of My Head
6. You Steeped Out Of My Dream

>Download ("Turn On with the Hip Hypnotist" zipped) at MediaFire or
>Download ("Turn On with the Hip Hypnotist" zipped) at files.ww

"The Full Monty" as posted by HTMPL Prod.: Week 62: 'Beat Girl'

Updated: We have received (in comments) what seems to be some quite accurate biography notes on Miss Pat Collins from Maelene Collins-Grenat (whom I believe actually could be Pat Collins daughter):

"Pat Collins did her performance in the early 60's at clubs until she opened her own club on the Sunset strip at the corner of Sunset and Doheny next to gil Turners Liquer. Where she did her show and also held self hypnosis classes. Then in the early 80 she closed the club and moved to Reno Nv and performed at the MGM and in Tahoe. She only did a brief appearance in Las Vegas about 1981. She appeared on almost every talk show you can think of from late 60's through the 70's. ( I would love to have copies of them if any one has one) She played her self in Divorice American Style, The Lucy Show, & an episode of the Bill Dana Show. She played a caricature called BABS IVAR in an episode of the Honey West Show. She was also on an episode of Whats My Line and a show called No Time for Seargents. She made 2 record albums the one listed here and another called Sleep With Pat Collins. She never did a tv show although it would have been great. I am sure that she was concerned about people thinking it was rigged. She became ill and in her 60's decided to stop performing and moved back to southern california where she passed in 1997. If you would like her image on coffee mug or other items please let me know. Thanks for reading and keeping her memory alive."

Thank you Maelene!

Week 62 - The Full Monty: Beat Girl

We’re going for the full Monty for a month. No need to worry – there wont be any nudie pictures of the staff and we won’t run around the office naked either, at least not more than usual. Instead you get to look at and listen to a full album every week for a month.

Beat Girl is one of our favourite juvenile delinquent flicks. It also has one of the best scores, composed by John Barry for whom this was his first film score before he went on to fame with James Bond and the likes. Released in 1960 this was also the first long playing album of a film score released in Britain. A wonderful blend of hard hitting rock´n´roll, big brass section and a bit of jazz.

If someone got a decent cover scan (ar at least a better image) to share please leave a message.

01. Beat Girl (Main Title)
02. The Off Beat
03. I Did What You Told Me (vocal by Adam Faith)
04. London Home Rock
05. Time Out
06. The Sharks
07. The Beat Girl Song (vocal by Adam Faith)
08. City 2000 A.D.
09. The Stripper
10. The Cave/Beat Girl/Kids Stuff
11. Made You (vocal by Adam Faith)
12. Car Chase/Night Chase
13. Chicken
14. Blues for Beatniks
15. It's Legal (vocal by Shirley Anne Field])
16. The Immediate Pleasure
17. Blondie's Strip
18. End Shot/Slaughter in Soho/Beat Girl (Main Title)

>Download ("Beat Girl" zipped) at files.ww or
>Download ("Beat Girl" zipped) at Files Upload or
>Download ("Beat Girl" zipped) at zShare.

Updated: elsebasto also shares this OST (but taken from an out-of print french cd), where you can pick up a decent scan from the inside booklet. Thanks elsebasto!

Week 40 - Christmas Countdown, 4th Sunday of Advent

Fully On-Line as from 2010.

We light our fourth and last advent candle, before Santa comes around with his hefty package next week, by listening to a blond angel. In 1979, as she was elected the leading candidate for Lista del Sol (Italia’s first green party) Ilona Staller celebrated by releasing her first disco LP. A rather innocent and straightforward album considering that Ilona is more well known as Cicciolina. As far as disco goes its not that bad. Then, in 1985, she changed party to Partito Radicale, starting her fight against nuclear energy, starvation and for human rights. Of course there had to be another disco album as well, 'Muscolo Rosso'. If the previous one had been innocent this one went all the way with its bizarre mix of political topics and kinky sex. The two weirdest tracks on this are "Black Sado" and "Perversion". We also thought we might let you have a listen to the goofy Italian disco take of "Satisfaction". In 1989 Ilona did her last porno film and, you guessed it, there was more disco. This time it was a three track picture disc maxi single. Her first outing was quite good, the second bizarre, but this, the third, is just off. In 2002 she tried to campaign in her native Hungary but failed to collect enough signatures for a non party campaign; we’re still waiting for the disco album.

Also see: Cicciolina as art. Ilona and Jeff. NSFW.


Ilona Staller
01. I was made for dancin´
02. Pane marmellata e me
03. Labbra
04. Benihana
05. Lascia l ultimo sallo per me
06. Cavallina cavallo
07. It´s all up to you
08. Professor of percussions
09. Piu' su sempre piu' su
10. Save the last dance for me
11. I Was made for dancin´ (discomix)

Cicciolina - from Muscolo Rosso
12. Black Sado
13. Perversion
14. Satisfaction

Cicciolina - Twelve inch picture disc
15. San Francisco Dance
16. Living in my paradise
17. My Sexy Shop

Download> Ilona Staller/Cicciolina (incl. the front cover of "Ilona Staller") as 1 big sexy zip file (71 MB) at files.ww
or,
Download> Ilona Staller/Cicciolina (incl. the front cover of "Ilona Staller") as 1 great, sensual zip file (71 MB) at MediaFire.

Here you can find the download for the First Sunday of Advent.
Here you can find the download for the Second Sunday of Advent.
Here you can find the download for the Third Sunday of Advent.