Not More of that Crap...

Shut up, It's more Spike Jones...

Bottoms Up (1952)

Two seven inch elongated players of songs about drinking done in the Spike Jones style.

Skol!

Carmen Murdered! (1953)

Spike and his gang take on the Bizet operetta and it goes a little something like this.

Brava!

You May Have Realized Something...

I really like the Fall.

Perverted by Mark E. (2004)

Fifteen years ago somebody put together a double disc compilation of people playing songs by and about Mark E. Smith. This is the result. Not everything works, but top honors go to Chris Knox for taking on "Hip Priest".

Pour yourself a pint or two and raise a glass in memory and tribute to the man, the myth, the legend of MES.

Because this file card in a Seattle record store sums everything up simply.

(On a side note as of the day before this post appears I will have managed to keep this farce going for half a fucking decade and I'm still not even close to having all my records digitized. I actually have more to do than when I started. sigh.)

And his City Slickers

Because I'm feeling like I haven't alienated anybody in a while I'm going to load up a three record set of Spike Jones and his City Slickers live on the radio for you fine people.

3Lp set (1977)




I can probably trace a straight line for my love and tolerance of strange musical ventures to my earliest memory of a particular record. It was a copy of a cheap 1971 compilation of Spike Jones performing his musical mayhem to the stuff of Best Loved Melody compilations everywhere entitled "Spike Jones is Murdering the Classics"

I won't waste too much time and typing with his story. You can just google that shit.

The main thing is to remember that this is something that arose out of vaudeville and was finely honed in front of a live audience before making the transition to records and eventually television.

So here we have a cheap and dirty three record set taken from Spike's popular 1940's radio program performed in front of a live audience which just adds to the experience. It has that charge of performance that none of the studio recordings could match without an audience laughing along.

It's also really fucking funny and very very silly.

If you're so inclined, I'd also recommend looking up some of the originals that they're parodying so you can fully appreciate how far they took some of this material.

For an example: Here's the original version of "Holiday for Strings" by David Rose and Orchestra from 1942. Compare and contrast.

Definitely needs some clucking to really sell that tune...

Catching Up with the Late Arrivals and Hyphens

I'm going to make some carrot cake in a few hours. I'm letting the cream cheese and butter soften.
Carrots are already grated, so it should take about the time required to preheat the oven to throw the cake together and another five for the frosting.
Easy stuff.

Here's some recent additions to the discographies of musical entities previously posted here to fill out your dance card. Both bands have hyphens in their names and very little else in common, so it's not like we can crown this a new genre called "Hyphen Rock" or anything.

But it is tempting.

Perhaps it's up to you to create it.

Travelogue (1995)

The third and final seven inch gentle jangling appearance of Glo-Worm.
Complete your collection today.

Sudden Death (1991)

Chapel Hill rock. It's loud, raucous and your grandparents would probably hate it. That's a recommendation.

I Want to Finish Up on an Even Number

I've queued up a bunch of crap tonight.

This will by post number 640 which has no significance in itself, but seems like a better number to end on than 639. There's really nothing particularly wrong with 639, but 640 seems like a more solid number to close out on and a good place to start August.

And start it we will.

with this:

High (1988)

Choo Choo Train is the band that the musical partnership of  Rick Menck and Paul Chastain concocted before forming Velvet Crush. It's a lot lighter fare than would be provided by the Velvet Crush debut a couple of years later, but is still some fine late 80's pop. I'm getting to be somewhat of a completist for this duo's work...

Four lovely nuggets including "My Best Friend" written by Matthew Sweet who they've recorded and toured with for eons.

Just stop reading my blather and enjoy it while there's still a summer to enjoy here in the Northern Hemisphere...

This is just about as good as this stuff gets.