^Whoa. There's somebody I've never heard before. You know what, at least there, he reminds me quite a bit of Roky Erickson. The impassioned vocal delivery coupled with a strong personal vision, I guess. Hafta look into that guy. So, I found out about these guys when I was trying to find out more about Art Zoyd, who'd done a pretty amazing score for Nosferatu which was probably the most psychotropic thing to ever air on Turner Classic Movies.
^ Reminded of this, for some reason: S'more music from friends of mine. Scavenger Quartet - Wonderful Nautilus
@toothaction I just "remembered" recently that I like Lightning Bolt. Apparently they've released a couple records since I'd forgotten about them. Neat video. I also learned that one of the guys works on, like, mainstream video games. Which is weird. There's a pretty neat YouTube feature called What's in My Bag? that's pretty good (Criterion does a neat version of this, too). The Lightning Bolt guys made some pretty good picks during their segment: Circle of Ouroborus is a band that came out of Black Metal, I guess, but has more to do with bands like Joy Division. They've put out quite a lot of good stuff.
^ Superb! Never heard that tune before, thanks! My brain played this familiar classic for me today in the shower: Shuggie Otis - Ice Cold Daydream
I know, right? I think his signature tune was You're Gonna Need Me (which is great, too), and I was about to post that one when this one came on. I think this one is clearly better. Also, I have to think he has significantly younger when he recorded that than he is in the pic in the video. I'll try to dig up some more Rocksteady gems. Not exactly a song, per se, but I listened to it way longer than I thought I would:
Eesh, I had no idea that Sister Ray was such a comedy staple... Variations on indulgence: Joy Division, Suicide and Arboretum do Velvet Underground
I got excited 'cause I thought all these vids were comedy takes. Did not know Joy Division had covered it. How awesome is that? Ian says something like their going to "do Louie Louie next" at the end Did not know the guy had a sense of humor. Never been a huge fan of Suicide, but that sounds a lot like I would guess Suicide doing Sister Ray would sound like. I've got about 7 minutes left on the Arbouretum workout. Did not think I'd get this far, but it's kept my interest. Pretty true to the spirit of the original. While we're talking Sister Ray I might as well mention that there's a massive cannon in Final Fantasy 7 called Sister Ray, but I've never heard anyone note anything about that. Actually, I just looked at the FF wiki and it says "The weapon's name is possibly a reference to the Velvet Underground song of the same name.". Which tells me absolutly nothing. Not even if it was a localization or was in the original Japanese...Just found an amusing (and marginally helpful) thread on GameFaqs. Guy has just heard VU's Sister Ray, which he recognizes from the game and wants to know if the song is a "crucial piece to understanding the story" Anyway, someone points out that there is clear reference to the band My Bloody Valentine in the game (in the form of the a poster), so the creators did make a pointed musical reference there and it's more likely they put Sister Ray in there, too. Still weird to me no one was never tried to find this out for sure though. Eh, probably just me fetishising some random and minor intersection of personal interests. Sigh... There's occasionally some crossover between Ska and Doo-Wop, which I really enjoy:
So much to explore in Jamaica's pre-reggae musical landscape. Beauty under every stone. Today's unexpected triad: Started with a search for Cosmic Rays, Sun Ra's doo-wop era vocal band. I had no idea that Jupiter was born in those earlier days until just now. Geeked.
I had no idea this was a thing! I listened to one song and it's pretty much straight up doo-wop. Crazy. I guess if Zappa can do it, Sun Ra can, too I'm having a sort of unique/enjoyable situation the past week or so. I had to buy a new computer quite a while back, and since then my music listening has gone way, way down. I lost all my music and it just takes a lot of time to locate and DL music when you have particular tastes, particularly when your connection isn't that great (which also restricts streaming and YouTube access). So, I just got used to doing without for the most part. Anyway, a while back my power went out for a few days, so I ended up going through some CDs that I'd had packed up for years. I used to record MP3 CDs, so you could fit like 12 records on one CD (which is why I never felt compelled to buy a MP3 player). So, I've found I have TONS and TONS of records I don't even really remember that well. I'd guess it's about 1,500 records? That's quite a lot when you've been doing without! There's some stuff I don't care about anymore, but most of it falls into the categories of ska/rocksteady/dub and doom/black/sludge metals. And all of that I am totally still enjoying (though, I had forgot I'd listened to so much metal at one time). My CD player broke and for some reason my computer (which is quite a good one) huffs and puffs and sometimes stalls trying to play them. Which is pretty weird, because a $40 portable CD player has no problem doing it. I guess I'm just going to buy a portable CD player, because listening to my comp hem and haw gets kind of annoying. The only MP3 CD players I could find are weird brands, though. I guess the big brands don't even make them anymore. At any rate, I've been having a blast rediscovering this stuff. No idea why I didn't do it sooner.
Local musics, part 313: Phil Ranelin - Vibes From The Tribe Zappa was looking back, Sonny was looking up! My favorite tune from the Cosmic Rays.
^nice. True. Do you know if Sun was mainly doing that doo-woo stuff to fund his interstellar exploration? It does look like he'd done a jazz record before he got involved with it. Just so odd.
As Christmas in July is one of my favorite movies, I suppose I can excuse myself for posting this track for you now: There's a wealth of info out there about Le Sony'r Ra's many years as a musician - he started gigging in '34! - but this little article that I remembered reading about the single above will give you a decent overview of how those '50s recordings that so bemuse you came to be.
I'd opened this in a new tab to get to when I was done what I was doing without realizing it was a video. I was listening to one of the dronier sections of Boris' Absolute ego and I didn't even really notice anything unusual until about a min 30 into the trailer and I'm like wtf. I used to listen to old time radio and I thought maybe I'd recorded an old radio show on one of my CDs (why there would be a drone score behind it didn't really occur to me). Confused the shit outta me. That was a good read, but it didn't really give a definitively answer to my question. I'm inferring that he was doing it for the love of it, because a) it didn't mention anything about those records being big sellers or anything, and b) it did say his studio allowed him to do anything he was interested in, so... I had no idea he was so prolific, nor that he started so long ago or that he spanned so many disparate genres (it mentions he had or had played in a swing band?). Fascinating. This definitely changes my appraisal of the guy. That Christmas song is great. It's one of those things that's just "off" enough (with the tongue clucks). Most of the Swans stuff I've heard is a mite bit aggressive for me to get obsessive over, but this hits a groove:
You were clear that he wasn't on a label, right? He and his friend started up the project to empower themselves and their community to do what they wished, without regard for commercial success. Art, not commerce. More bit for you: Spoiler In Chicago, where he went to find work after World War II, he met the ideal business partner in Alton Abraham, a teenager with spiritual interests similar to his own — both were members of an occult, utopian black separatist secret society — but with the organizational and promotional abilities he lacked. Partly because both men were proponents of black self-sufficiency, do-it-yourself was their business style. This meant they could entirely monitor their product. Gradually they shaped the image of the musician who would become Sun Ra, and of the band he would lead, first called 8 Rays of Jazz, then the Arkestra. (The respelling may be based on the way “orchestra” was pronounced in Alabama; it also incorporates the name Ra written forward and backward.) Photo CreditUniversity of Chicago Library It was at this point, in the early 1950s, that a Sun Ra “look” for the band started to come into focus: a mystical-historical-comical blend of science fiction, Egyptology, Southern mummery, Freemasonry, nightclub theatrics (costumed acts were big at the time) and African masquerade, with rakishly flipped-brim Robin Hood caps — later beanies with propellers — thrown in. To maintain complete control over the increasingly experimental music, Sun Ra and Mr. Abraham created their own label. They called it El Saturn Records and, using local black-owned businesses as a resource, they oversaw every aspect of album production, from recording, to pressing disks, to packaging and sales. EXTRACTED FROM THIS. The Swans all but dropped the brutality completely for the last 10 or so years of their career, kind of inventing dark ambiance along the way. I'll always love the abrasive thunder of their pre-Jarboe years best, though. o One of those bands that invented another hundred bands... ...without the new bands knowing that the old band existed. I FART A LOT Magnet - Dragoon.
I guess I hadn't really thought it through And they were on a label just not a capitol "L" label, right? Thanks for the info. Pretty neat little facet of history. I did have to push "Southern mummery" through my head a couple times prior to figuring out why I'd never heard of Southern mummies before Not sure if I've heard any of that. I'll have to look into it. That's not what I'd assumed B Magnet sounded like. I was thinking they were some kind of stoner bro band. Guess I was basing that on their name? I dunno. Just noticed on the preview there's a word filter for b i t c h . How peculiar.
Okay, I'll try once more: Sun Ra and a good friend, social entrepreneur Alton Abraham, founded a label, El Saturn Records, one of the first black-owned labels in history, and they took on every facet of production themselves - from recording to pressing to making or commissioning the artwork to packaging to distribution - and even ran a related publishing house for political, spiritual and mystical texts. Their efforts and agenda were all about community activism, connection and DIY independence. In a word, empowerment. Clear now? Now it's time for some more Jah Wobble, this time with a couple of fellows from Can: Enjoy. JAH WOBBLE, JAKI LIEBEZEIT, HOLGER CZUKAY - Twilight World
Yeah, I totally got that. A clarification was most definitely not needed. I was only pointing out that he was on a label (El Saturn), just, as I said, not a capitol "L" one. I felt compelled to do that because in the text of yours I'd quoted in my response, you'd said "he wasn't on a label" Not entirely sure if the "no label" statement was a misstatement you don't realize you'd made, or if there's still an aspect of this that's escaping me. At any rate, as I said, it is an interesting (especially the "occult, utopian black separatist secret society" aspect) detail of history I wasn't aware of until now, Something tells me it's not a story that's going to show up at public schools during Black History Month, though.
^ Sub Pop released this album on VHS, with the musics set to a beautiful and expertly edited montage of old BDSM films, approaching tanks and bombs hitting their targets. I've been trying to replace my copy ever since one of my roommates stole it from me back in '93. Fugger. A little more Wobble and friends: Public Image Ltd.- Socialist (Wobble Vocals) "Metal Box Demos" Spoiler: Probably only of interest to Odi @Odibex The italics were intentional. I guess I misread, "...it did say his studio allowed him to do anything he was interested in." as meaning that you thought his overseers gave him freedom, and, "And they were on a label just not a capitol "L" label, right?" as possibly missing the implication in my reply. I suppose it would have been more clear (to both of us) if I'd said something like, "He's not on a label he is the label!" Pardon my pedantic ways.
