Audio files: Ethel the Frog; penis gossip; and sonic weapons
Welcome to this week’s edition of “Audio Files.” Last week we discussed the rugged virility of Sammy Hagar and the deep throat of Soriah. This week is shaping up to be a real humdinger too, so let’s rock.
NEWS
- Devendra Banhart and Beck have contributed the title track to Todd Solondz’ Life During Wartime, the special effects-laden, blockbuster sequel to Happiness.
- Dr. Dre will release an instrumental album with planetary themes.
- Russian rapper Noize MC arrested for “hooliganism.”
- Wikipedia explains hip-hop music.
GENRE OF THE WEEK
This week’s wheel of sound lands on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. What a diverse list of names — Def Leppard; Motorhead; Raven; Diamond Head; Grim Reaper…Ethel the Frog?
OBSCURE 80s FLASHBACK
Did you know Crosby, Stills, and Nash were just as skilled at vacuous synth-pop as they were at peace-mongering folk music? WarGames gave us proof.
ALBUM COVER OF THE WEEK
There’s no choice but to award this week’s trophy to Southwest F.O.B. and their 1968 album, Smell of Incense.
DRUM RUDIMENT OF THE WEEK
Enjoy the immortality of the flamadiddle.
HEATING UP MY PLAYLIST
- Buddy Rich, “Senator Sam.” This should be the theme song for Ricky Sprague’s masterstroke, Senator Surprise.
- Gillian Welch, “I Dream a Highway.” Every few weeks I fall under the spell of a different Gillian Welch tune. “Highway” clocks in at an epic 14 minutes, 39 seconds, which never feels too long. The lyrics are some of her best. A sample: ”Now give me some of what you’re having/I’ll take you as a viper into my head/A knife into my bed, arsenic when I’m fed/I dream a highway back to you.”
- Red House Painters, “Mistress (Piano Version).” This morose ditty floated my way via Tom Waits and the Pandora “Lonely” channel.
RANDOM SHARDS OF SONIC INFORMATION
- Fame can be a real bitch. You play a gig, you righteously shag a groupie, and then she goes online to gossip about the size of your diddle-stick. In a similar vein, Cynthia Plaster Caster (that can’t possibly be her real name) creates casts of famous diddle-sticks.
- Free white noise for all.
- Get high now, legally, with audio soundscapes and illusions.
- Here’s a handy list of Arabic musical instruments.
- If you’re not sitting down right now, you’d better do so ASAP, because I’m about to give you the Gift of Bolton — i.e. Michael Bolton: The Passion, Secrets, Soul and Truths. In your goddamn face, Pitchfork. This column pushes the musical envelope. It ventures into adult contemporary crevices occupied by Bolton, Mick Hucknall, and Swing Out Sister. I’m on a madman’s terrifying caprice; I go where Eagles dare; I spit on your colored vinyl.
- “Queer duck, the theremin. Most guys who build one can’t play it. And most who can play it don’t know beans about electronics…or, in fact, how the darn thing works.”
- Senator Sam, alluded to above, once recorded an album, Senator Sam at Home.
- For your enjoyment: 10 eerie recordings. Included among them are Brion Gysin’s “Pistol Poem,” which creeped out the engineer at the time of its recording, and — hott ass-whistles of vivacity, Daniel Kalder — lost cosmonauts! (More on the Russians here. With regard to Gysin, you may recall that he was the jogging buddy of transgressive thespian Bill S. Burroughs.)
- Vladimir Gavreau’s sonic weaponry.
TIME SIGNATURE OF THE WEEK
This world would be a dreary, sad place without 3/4 time. 3/4 animates the waltz, for Chrissakes, and If you’re in need of a good country waltz, let me steer you toward Bobby Bare’s “Dropkick Me Jesus (Through the Goalposts of Life).”
SAILING THE SEAS OF YOUTUBE (AND BEYOND!)
- Behold the Chipophone Organ, a homemade synthesizer.
- Experience Ken Nordine’s “Monkey Business” alone, late at night…in the dark…
- Watch as Dick Nixon tickles the ivories.
WEEKLY DISPLAY OF VIRTUOSITY
Here’s some red meat for your snarling hunger pangs: Tony Levin in Argentina, mercilessly shredding the Chapman Stick.
Audio Files is published every Thursday.
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That lost cosmo recording sounded eerie, tho’ I don’t believe it’s what it’s claimed to be for 1 second. I actually know a tale about ‘lost’ female cosmonauts, all of whom are still alive, but that’s for another day.
Nice to see a bit of T Lev. Unlike many virtuosos he also knows when to keep it simple and bust out some funk.
As for Devendra B. Please God, no.
@Daniel
I made a half-hearted attempt to find a nice skeptical analysis of the cosmonaut hijinks, but I couldn’t find much of anything at the usual stops (Skeptic Dictionary, etc). Strangely, I had never heard of Devendra B until discovering the Solondz track. Don’t think I’ll be returning to his magic soundz any time soon…
Devednra B was really trendy about 5 years ago, he released an album on Michael Gira’s label that was full of wistful bollocks about gnomes. At the time quirky indie shite by people with exotic names (eg Sufjan Stevens) was at the peak of its acclaim. I picked up his second CD for 150 roubles in Moscow and it annoyed the fuck out of me.
… I had a feeling it was going to do that, mind, but at the time it was a breath of fresh air to see something that wasn’t 70s prog/glam or Pol Makkartni in the record stores. I also bought an American music Club album for the same reason and it wasn’t very good either.
@Daniel
Devendra…Sufjan…my god, did they run their real names through the anagram generator?
DEVENDRA = “Ed Revand,” Ashwaubenon High School, Class of 1995.
I thought that Glenn Frey’s solo career peaked with “Sexy Girl,” which really seemed to tap into the mysteries of the male psyche:
“Stop any man walking down the street
Ask him what kind of girl he’d like to meet
There’s not one thing in the whole wide world
He’d rather see than a sexy girl”
But that “Party Town” video was…
totally awesome!