Tag: Music I Like

"Tis the Season: Again?

While I like gifts as much as anyone, I have no real love of Christmas. It is the holiday equivalent of Disney World when I am a Bugs Bunny/Warner Bros. kind of guy (it’s the Crip V. Bloods of animation.) Saccharine sweet, inescapable, and celebrated early each year. And the music…obnoxious ear worms that linger long into the New Year. But there are bright spots.

One such spot will be the Invincible Czars ar the Wortham Center on Wednesday. They will be doing their version of the Nutcracker Suite.

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I had heard about them last year, and now if I can get up in the morning, I can actually see them play.

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Last year’s first Christmas post, sounding much the same as this one – Neon Poisoning: Yes To This Nutcracker!

New Tunes for a New Kid

One of the things parents can buy for new kids are electronic devices meant to play lullaby songs or white noise. Some of the soundmakers we have found at various stores make me and the missus cringe. Obnoxious, tinny-sounding kiddy tunes coming from cheap speakers. The idea of living with that kind of annoying noise for baby’s sake, no thanks.

Playing parental DJ, I’ve been thinking about what kid-appropriate tunes I have. Last Christmas, I asked for electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott’s “Soothing Sounds for Baby.” Some of our parents took that as a sign that one was soon on the way. It was just proof that I had strange taste in music. A year later a baby did arrive and Mr. Scott’s music has been played for our sweet boy (who approves.)

The purchase of an cheap iPod dock means I need to make the kiddo a playlist from my music collection. Maybe the electronic noodlings of Casino Versus Japan (who created the song “Untitled” for the Bada Bing! compilation “Soothing Sounds For Raymond”), Goldfrapp’s Felt Mountain, the warm, analog covers by Mr. Hopskinson’s Computer, and 8-bit video game fans The Hunt for Yoshi. Oh, the strangeness she will be exposed to.

Before he was born, the missus would listen to Puffy Amiyumi. My wife said the music made baby dance inside her like Elaine danced on Seinfield.

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To get a sleepy kid out of bed, Black Rattle’s awesome heavy metal versions of Where is Thumpkin? and The Itsy Bisty Spider.

Audio links from comedian Greg Behrendt’s site.

Yes To This Nutcracker!


I have a particular dislike of the Christmas holiday. It wasn’t due to some childhood holiday gift request never received. It just mainly stems from the double barrel attack of stunning bad traffic around the nearby mall and the inevitable, craptacular Christmas music. The traffic situation will stop only when the shopping feeding frenzy stops. However, when I find good exceptions to the musical offerings, it almost redeems the holiday. The Vandals did a great punk version of “Dance of the Sugerplum Faries,” which is a favorite cover of mine.

This year, the Austin-based Invincible Czars released their take on Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite. It kind of sounds like the Secret Chiefs 3 doing Christmas music, which would be a good thing. I may be hunting for this when I go buy the missus some gifts. I really should buy her something.

Some live performances of this release can be heard on a lengthy interview with the band. A short and entertaining video of the band performing can be seen here.

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Free MP3s at Christmas music blog FaLaLaLaLa
Amazon.com: Christmas with the Vandals: Oi to the World!: Music: The Vandals

Gov't Vacation – My Robot Friend

“I went away on a government vacation,
it was the best time that I ever had.
Shipped me back home from a secret location,
my legs came back later in a plastic bag.”

I’m just loving the song Robot High School, a sweet synthsation by My Robot Friend. That, and Lily Allen’s cover of Mr. Blue Sky. It’s a perfect combination of her accent and my love of both ELO and covers in general.

Another Evening With Richard Cheese and Plus More Covers

Saw Mr. Cheese and his band at the Roxy last night. Good times. This show make 10 total that we’ve seen him and all but this one in Sin City. Definitely a different crowd than the ones in Vegas. As my wife pointed out, unlike the Atlanta show in Vegas you don’t have to do much to make the girls dance on stage. Dick seemed to be drinking more then usual. Bought a shirt, it looks like a piano before being opened.


I love his lounge-style covers. Which is why I bummed that I will be missing the Puppini Sisters at the Ferst Center at Georgia Tech. They do Andrew Sisters-style covers of modern toons like Gloria Gainer’s “I Will Survive,” Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass,” and “Panic” by The Smiths. I’ll be in Houston at the time of their show in Atlanta and then they will be heading back to England. So no chance to see them life anytime soon.

My favorite is their cover of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”. Their myspace page has a great sounding audio file, but I’ve posted an okay sounding Youtube video performance so you can see what’s going on at G-Tech.

Miscellaneous Things Done in the Last Two Weeks

Went and saw the movie Paprika. Beauty of a movie about the dream and real worlds merging. But for all its artistry, I don’t think of it as one of the great animated movies. Extremely good, but not great. For fans of animation and especially Ghost in the Shell.

Saw the self proclaimed “King of Country Western Troubadours” Unknown Hinson at the Earl. He definitely deserve the term “guitar virtuoso.”

Did 4th of July with wife and friend on top of a Downtown parking garage.

But by far the best thing I did was attend the AV Geeks collection of bizarre flicks at Eyedrum. Amber emailed me and told me about the fun to be had, and it was the best 5 bucks I’ve spent in a long time. Strange school and industrial movie gems are curated by Skip Elsheimer. He presented the movies and ran the movie projector. The show that he put together was titled “AV GEEKS Greatest Hits.

“Telezonia (1974) Kids are whisked away by a manchild in white tights, so they can sing about using the telephone. Creepy, but not in the way that you think.”

If you got the time this movie is a great example of the full-bore weirdness that is a 70’s industrial flick with a budget. Starts rather normally, but don’t let that fool you.


“Crash Bang Boom” (1970) 10 min We learn about percussion instruments featuring marching bands, dancing kids and a groovy rock band.

Malakapaladoo Skip Two (1977) 10 min A cute film for kids about using their imagination or a clay-laced, folkmusic opus to hallucinogens? You decide.

Drugs Are Like That (1979) 16 min An attempt to warn kids about the dangers of drugs using Legos and a catchy song to make its point. Anita Bryant narrates!

Shake Hands with Danger (1980) 23 min A truly inspired film that uses a country music song to illustrate the dangers of working on heavy equipment. Some fake gore too!

VD is for Everybody (circa 1970) 30 sec A public service announcement that uses an infectious song to talk about an infectious disease.”

All of these are on the AV Geeks’ Greatest Hits DVD, which would make a great gift for lovers of the bizarre, fans of 70’s fashion and me. It I hadn’t spent all the cash I had just to get through the door, I would have grabbed a DVD or two.

You can also check out some of their publicly available movies on archive.org.

Love That Dick: Seeing Richard on the 17th


Richard Cheese. In Atlanta. Going. Happy.

Lounge covers of modern rock, rap and pop songs.

Seen him at least 5 times in Vegas, from big casinos to a hole in the wall. The man puts on a great show. Expect the same this time around.

The New Sound: The Noise in My Head

One of my big regrets having lived in Atlanta all this time is never hitting the Decatur Social Club. The glitchy electro and French dance the kids have been playing always got me interested. But I am old and wasted my young energy decades ago and don’t have any to spare now a days.

But it doesn’t keep me from filling the iPod with all sorts of hellacious electronic noise. My newest purchase, Teenage Bad Girl’s Cocotte off of iTunes. I’m a big fan of the huge, jagged -wave synth sound that’s coming out of France. Justice are DJs/band that has that sort of sound. July 10th has them dropping their latest noise attack on the states.

Does It Offend You, Yeah is an unsigned DJ who put out a great DJ mix (downloadable MP3) on London’s XFM. Also on my radar is Kissy Sell Out.

But the ones who do it most for me and the ones who I think are going to be around the most are Soulwax. After putting out a perfectly good album (Any Minute Now) that was better than 80% of the stuff released, the boy who are both a band and DJ’s remixed the whole album and created a monster that always pleases (Nite Versions).

So I’m older than I ever was and now I’m getting older. But it don’t mean I have the “oldies, but moldies” playing on the stereo. I’m hoping the neighbor’s complaints will keep me young.

My Music

So, is it any good? Ehh… you tell me.

I had been working on songs for almost a year when the computer suffered a bit technical difficulties. All that music gone, except for a few remaining files. Some songs are more finished then others. Now hosted freely on archive.org (for downloadable MP3s) , I put a few surviving files up for public scrutiny. On the player, select a song to hear.

Rarely do I feel like I made something I set out to. I love bands/DJ’s like Justice, Soulwax, Whitey, Erol Aklan and other mostly dance-happy, electronic bands. But I haven’t made anything that reached their caliber. And probably won’t.

The main reason I put the music there is that some of the music I found online is really obscure and/or odd but I like it. But it was put out there to be found. If someone is happy to keep one of these songs as their own, I’ve done the same as someone did for me. Since I haven’t spent any real money, I can’t complain. Originally created on Apple’s free software, hosted freely at Archive.org and streaming with free code… I can afford that.

And more music will be added in the future as it gets finished.

Cover Tunes; My Love of Musical Blasphemy

A good cover of a song usually finds something new in an original song. Everyone and their mom seemed to cover Radiohead, and often with good results…

Paranoid Android – UMASS Drum Line: gorgeous instrumental
Just – Mark Ronson: Funked up beauty
Radiodread – Reggae covers, I especially like “Karma Police”
and Hard N Phirm’s ”Rodeohead” – Blue-grass medley, funny! Audio hosted by a fan, strange interface, worth the listen.

Long ago I grabbed the “Skeet Spirit: The Krunk Tribute to Radiohead” and now it’s nowhere to be found. Worth hunting.

A greatly bad cover is all the better in my book. Rod Stewart’s “Do You Think I’m Sexy” took a hit from the Revolting Cocks and Those Damn Accordions. Accordian make everything better from The Dead Kennedys (Duckmandu) to Pink Floyd (Polka Floyd).

Copy, Right? has been favorite of mine for introducing me to covers I never would have heard. Most recently found on that site the Monsieur Blumenberg cover of “Can’t Get you Out of My Head” by Kylie Minogue. The occasional pop trash makes me all the happier, and this strange loungey/electro cover works fine for me.

And that’s what I have to say about covers.