Gott Milk?

Yes & Brahms

2008-08-13T20:28:00.004+02:00

Now I'm not a huge fan of Brahms, nor am I any longer much of a fan of Yes, but as a kid, Fragile was in heavy rotation for a couple of years. I honestly didn't care how little sense the lyrics made (other favourite bands were The Tubes and Adam and the Ants, bands not known for their lyrical depth, generally). Anyway, the coolest tracks by Yes, for me, were Excerpts from The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth (on the 4-LP monster Yessongs) and Cans and Brahms. The latter is Rick Wakeman's handy distillation of the 3rd movement of Brahms' 4th Symphony.

Brahms' 4th at that time also went into heavy rotation. And for the better part of 30 years, I've never been without a copy of it. When I moved to Europe in 2002 (with 2 suitcases, a cheap walkman and 10 tapes), I sold almost my entire CD collection, but I'd only been over a couple of months when I bought a new CD player and a couple dozen cheap classical CDs. The version linked below is a 1987 Supraphon recording of the Chech Philharmonic Orchestra under the conduction of Jiří Bĕlohlávek (George Whitehead, the Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since July 2006).

Brahms' Glorious 4th + Cans and Brahms (rs/320 - Yes@192)

Coffee!

2008-08-07T16:25:00.002+02:00

If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment, I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat

So, many years back I worked at a bookstore on Haight street, the long departed Austen Books. Across the street from Austen was a lovely cafe called Cantata Coffee. Interested in the name, I asked the owner, a sweet older gentleman of some European extraction. He explained it was named for JS Bach's Coffee Cantata. He also gave me a philosophy of coffee that included something to the effect of "It should be hotter than hell and blacker than a woman's heart". Or something like that.

It was several years before I picked up a copy of said cantata, but I share it with you today. Wikipedia has a nice summary of the cantata here.

Kantaten BWV 211 u. 212 (rs/320/24 minutes)

A break from the soundtracks

2008-07-22T20:40:00.002+02:00

Happy Pi Approximation Day!

Prior to his solo career, Richard Barone fronted Hoboken, NJ new wavers The Bongos who had a minor hit with Numbers With Wings. His first solo album, a low-key live recording called Cool Blue Halo (1987) featured nice performances of the Beatles' Cry Baby Cry and Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World.

In 1990 he released Primal Dream, the second of his 4 solo albums. The third, Clouds Over Eden came out in '93 and Between Heaven and Cello (a live recording with cellist Jane Scarpantoni who appeared on CBH and PD) was released in '97.

Seems I totally missed hearing about a spate of Bongos reunion shows a couple of years ago. Reports are that were very cool. There's also much love for Bongos back catalogue reissues.

When Primal Dream was released, it went into heavy rotation on my walkman (though it did not enamour me of the Bongos, though I went back and listened to them at the time and still was not grabbed, despite their fine critical appraisal), and didn't come off for about 2 years.

I recall that Clouds Over Eden was quite beautiful, but it didn't have the punch of songs like Opposites Attracting and River to River. Barone handles slow and beautiful as well, exemplified by a sweet cover of VU's I'll Be Your Mirror.

Enjoy Primal Dream (RS/320)!

Scaramouche!

2008-07-15T10:02:00.002+02:00

Victor Young's fine score to George Sidney's 1952 film of Raphael Sabatini's 1921 novel Scaramouche.

The tale takes place during the French Revolution and the soundtrack buckles swash appropriately.

Enjoy!

Part I
Part II (rs/320)

The Constant Nymph

2008-07-08T21:08:00.003+02:00

Now, I know these soundtracks I've been posting are kind of random. That's how I got them, I listen to them for the first time in the days or week before posting the link. It was the oddness of how they were all part of the same (apparently failed, as the label no longer lists them in the catalogue) reissue series.

I'm not posting in any order either, as there's not really one to be had.

That said, this week's post is Erich (Elizabeth and Essex) Korngold's soundtrack to the 1943 CharlesBoyer vehicle The Constant Nymph.

It's a convoluted love story in which Boyer plays a poor composer the fourteen year-old daughter of whose mentor falls in love with him. The director, Edmund Goulding, later took on Maughm's The Razor's Edge (so-so, IIRC, as the movie sidesteps some of the book's trickier religious themes) and Of Human Bondage (both in 1946).

This string-heavy music is, not surprisingly, pretty melodramatic. I imagine Douglas Sirk's movies to be similarly soundtracked.

This is one that's probably more interesting if you know the movie, but the music is quite moving in its way.

This CD also includes an unused alternate take of the vocal Tomorrow.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold's The Constant Nymph (320/rs)

Alfred Newman

2008-06-30T20:21:00.003+02:00

This is a pair of short ones.

Alfred Newman's scores for All About Eve (1950, directed by Joseph Mankiewicz) and Leave Her To Heaven (1945, directed by John M. Stahl).

Alfred Newman was nominated for 45 oscars (2 more were nominated before the academy attached the composer's name to the award.)

link: http://rapidshare.com/files/126130959/ANewman-AAE-LHTH.rar

Madame Bovary

2008-06-24T20:41:00.003+02:00

As promised, here is Milos Rozsa's beautiful soundtrack to Vincent Minnelli's 1949 film of Madame Bovary.

I've been listening the past couple days and am fondest, I think, of tracks 7 and 8 Passepied and Waltz (which I think are both labeled Passepied - my apologies). Passepied is all beautiful and flowing and the Waltz, midway through, trips into a minor key catching the listener off guard.

Rozsa had previously scored (among others) Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945), and would go on to score Ivanhoe (1942, for which he earned an Oscar nomination), Ben-Hur (1959, for which he won the Oscar for Best Original Score), and the Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974, which starred the recently departed John Philip Law as Sinbad).

Next up, I believe, will be a double-shot of All About Eve and Leave Her To Heaven, both composed by Alfred Newman.

320/94MB Rozsa-Emma.rar

Sorry for the delay

2008-06-24T09:00:00.002+02:00

I've got Miklós Rózsa's beautiful soundtrack to Vincent Minelli's 1949 Madame Bovary ready to upload as soon as I get home.

Apparently the movie is an abject victim of the Hays Code, but that didn't stop Rózsa.

More tonight.

Elizabeth & Essex

2008-06-15T12:48:00.002+02:00

I received a comment that part II of Erich Korngold's soundtrack to The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex might have had an issue.

I've re-compressed and posted this archive here.

She!

2008-06-14T21:34:00.002+02:00

She, the 1935 film of H. Rider Haggard's novel of the same name starred Helen (later Congresswoman) Gahagan and Randolph Scott.

The soundtrack by Max Steiner is beautifully melodramatic - the title track with its female voices calls to mind the early Star Trek theme music (was it season 1 that featured the vocal aaah--aaaah?). Actually, I think the folks who did Star Trek's incidental music owe a lot to Steiner, who also composed the music for King Kong (1933), Gone With the Wind (1939) and A Summer Place (1959).

She: Part I Part II

Elizabeth and Essex

2008-05-31T20:15:00.004+02:00

So I recently found a nice stack of classic movie soundtracks reissued on the Membran International label.

No, I'd not heard of it either, but the booklets for these CDs list 60 in the series. The shop where I found mine (Levny Knihy in Prague) boasted 10 of the titles which I snapped up for 19Kc ($1.20) each.

First up, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (Warner, 1939. Music by Erich Korngold).

The movie starred Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland and Vincent Price.

320 kbps Part I Part II

laugh and shout and scream and moan

2008-01-26T17:23:00.000+01:00

One of my all time very favourite LPs is Adam and the Ants' Dirk Wears White Sox. Recorded in 1979 when the Ants were the three guys who later formed Bow Wow Wow. Much artier and punkier than the next album, Kings of the Wild Frontier. As a kid, I was mad for the Ants and drooled over the $10 import copies in stores that carried such things, but never actually saved to buy a new one. No matter, I eventually found it at Rhino. Yeah, the used record store with a vanity label side project that later became just the label and a subsidiary of Warner at that. Back when I attended Emerson Junior High in West LA, Rhino was just around the corner on Westwood Blvd and I spent many free afternoons there. And yeah, one day I found it for $1.99. The cover was thrashed, but the vinyl was in good enough shape at the time. Mind you, I played it until the grooves wore thin.

The subject matter on this album ranged far wider than it did on any of Adam's subsequent albums and includes automotive issues, cleopatra's taste for fellatio, JFK, and what happens when one meets God.

And the Futurists. Now, I never actually got down and read anything much about the Futurists at the time, being pretty sure that the line "Marinetti Boccioni Carra Balla Palasecci" that opens "Animals and Men" didn't refer to actual people, but was just a mish mash of Italian syllables. Much later, I did read dribs and drabs and learned that all of the above were members of the Futurist movement which did in fact advocate the uses of noise in music. Perhaps some day very soon I will post this song, but for the moment I'll point you to Luigi Russolo's essay The Art of Noises which refers to his fellow Futurists and to Marinetti's Zang Tuum Tum, later the name of Trevor Horn's record label the first artist on which was, The Art of Noise (and later Frankie Goes to Hollywood, apropos of nothing in particular).

Animals and Men (from the Peel Sessions) (RS)

Hommage to the vultures

2007-03-30T15:17:00.000+02:00

So one of my favourite groups is the experimental/industrial crew Coil. In the years before frontman Jhonn Balance died in 2004, they'd been performing live regularly for only a couple of years, despite having formed in 1982 or so.

One song that received a variety of different treatments in the studio and live was Amethyst Deceivers.

I share with you versions from:

Live One (Barcelona 2000)
Live Two (Moscow 2001)
(Alas, I do not have Live Three, Bologna 2002.)
Live Four Vienna (2002) (Though two tracks on this album were recorded in Prague, AD is not one of them.) (Also seems to be currently out of print. Some Amazon.com seller wants USD 125. Blerq!)
Moon's Milk in Four Phases: Autumnal Equinox (According to Wikipedia, this is the same as the Moscow recording, but I don't think so.)
Selvaggina, Go Back Into The Woods (Jesi, Italy, 2004 - originally limited to 230 copies, it's made it to the web and is quite a good show.)
The Ape of Naples (2005)

The original version, from the 7" release of Autumnal Equinox is not the same as the Moon's Milk CD version. I'm sure at one time I had the compilation The Golden Hare With A Voice Of Silver, which collects that version, but not at this time. Again according to Wikipedia, this version will be on an upcoming reissue of Moon's Milk entitled Moon's Milk in Six Phases.

Download these versions here. (rs)

I highly highly highly recommend purchasing Coil material direct from the band here.

ETA - The previously linked zip had only 5 versions - this one includes the version from Ape of Naples.

New music radio

2007-03-09T08:09:00.000+01:00

Okay, if you're by your computer right now (i.e. 6-10AM Central European Time Fridays), check out my friend Craig's show Friday Ripple on Radio Wave 100.7 (or http://wave.cz).

The music is, it seems, modern indie and strange hip hop stuff - Audio Bullies, Arcade Fire, Lady Sovereign in the last 20 minutes.

Craig's always been a source of the very cool in music.

A new post from me should be in the works after I get my old computer back on the scene.

nueva psychedelica

2007-01-20T17:47:00.000+01:00

So for a few years there, I was reading Uncut, a very fine UK music magazine, whenever I could get someone to pick up a copy in England or I went over for a visit.

The main thing about Uncut, though, wasnt' the mag, but the ace compilations - David Bowie covers in one issue, songs that inspired Dylan in another.

The last few issues I picked up though simply had tracks featured in the current issue. Often quite good stuff, but not compiled with such thematic care. And often kinda dull. Well, last month's came with a doozy, Comets Ghosts and Sunburned Hands: Uncut's guide to the New Psychedelic Outlaws.

A colleague introduced me a few months back to Comets on Fire, but I didn't realise there was a whole crew of folks making stuff that sounded like early Black Sabbath, but slower, faster, and much weirder.

I'm definitely going to be delving into these folks:

1. Entrance - Grim Reaper Blues (4:32)
2. Oakley Hall - Hiway (7:15)
3. Comets On Fire - Sour Smoke (8:47)
4. Six Organs Of Admittance - The Desert Is A Circle (2:57)
5. Citay - Seasons Don't Fear The Year (6:44)
6. Black Mountain - Druganaut (3:48)
7. Howlin' Rain - The Hanging Heart (9:09)
8. P.G. Six - The Dance (6:05)
9. Ghost - Water Door Yellow Gate (5:58)
10. Dead Meadow - Indian Bones (6:41)
11. Wooden Wand - Portrait In The Clouds (3:38)
12. Sunburned Hand Of The Man - Adult Costume (6:50)
13. Jackie-O-Motherfucker - Hey Mr Sky (6:45)


ripped at 196; alas, I had to split this one. My apologies.
Part 1
Part 2

And the usual h/t to the fine folks at Totally Fuzzy.

There was no need to call one

2006-12-20T14:47:00.000+01:00

Well, Uncle Bill Burroughs doesn't just treat us with Thanksgiving wishes, but Christmas wishes as well.

I share with you "The 'Priest' They Called Him", a recording of a story from the collection Exterminator!, made in 1992 and backed up with Kurt Cobain's feedback-drenched guitar.

The tale, recorded elsewhere as 'The Junky's Christmas (notably with Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy on the album Spare-Ass Annie), tells of an addict's efforts to get a fix and how he finally gives it to one needier than himself.

Heartwarming as only Burroughs can be. And quite out of print

Download "The 'Priest' They Called Him" (rs)

A Random Swing/Jazz Selection

2006-11-18T12:53:00.000+01:00

So I was digging through a notebook of CDs I'd had in storage and cranked up some Lee Press-On and the Nails yesterday and thought, I probably have enough swing in my collection for a post here.

Well, actually I don't - some of the stuff on this little mix isn't really swing - The Three Deuces' "You've Got to See Mamma Ev'ry Night (or You Can't See Mamma at All)" (from the soundtrack to Bullets over Broadway) is more Dixieland, I think. But it's cute.

The same might be true of Louie Armstrong's "When The Saints Go Marching In" (recorded in '38 and found on the album Louie Armstrong of New Orleans) is definitely Dixie. I quite dig the intro.

Next up we have Bix Beiderbecke's "I'll Be a Friend With Pleasure". Recorded in 1930, it doesn't exactly swing, per se, but the lineup included Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa - folks without whom the whole Swing idea wouldn't have flown. One of Bix's last recordings before alcohol and pneumonia did him in at the age of 28.

Artie Shaw's interpretation of Gershwin's "Oh Lady Be Good" most definitely swings, noting that it's found in the film 1938 film Symphony in Swing. Shaw's orchestra was cooking in this session, I tell ya.

I've shared two tracks by the afforementioned Lee Press-On whose Nails were exponents of the 90s Swing revival. Both are from the album Jump Swing From Hell. First up is I'm Beginning to See the Light, with vocals by the sweetly voiced Lesley Presley. This crew has been on hiatus, but (according to Lee's blog), played SF's DNA lounge a couple months back. Back in the day they shook the room; glad to hear they still do.

Next up is some early Ella Fitzgerald with "The Organ-Grinder's Swing" which brings the tempo and volume down a bit. It's a bit silly and the recording (or CD transfer) is kind of muddy, but the trombone break is ace.

Les Paul and Mary Ford's "How High the Moon" has the bounce - Ford's voice is astounding - I'm pretty sure this wasn't a multi-track recording, though it might be - she sounds as if she's harmonising with herself. My copy is on an Uncut Magazine compilation called Mob Life which features tunes from the films of Martin Scorcese. This features in the movie Casino.

And another Lee Press-On - a nearly punk version of Louis Jordan's "Caldonia" - off the hook. Lee and company are far more dedicated to the swing aesthetic, however, than say Joe Jackson when he took on a couple Jordan tracks on Jumpin' Jive. But in '81, there was no revival, just Joe letting us know there was more than new wave.

Going back a bit, we next have Lionel Hampton's take on "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" Alas I have no info on who was in the band, the year, but it does swing. Sweetly.

And last up is Mission to Moscow from Benny Goodman's astoundingly clean Live In Moscow, recorded on a 1962 tour of the Soviet Union. So soon after the Stalin era, these shows must have been an incredible treat for his audiences.

download the whole set here: A Swinging Time.

Random Czech Goodness

2006-10-31T08:55:00.000+01:00

So, I've been bopping around the Czech countryside recently, including a road-trip to Karlovy Vary (North Bohemia) and Mikulov (South Moravia) and last weekend, my girlfriend and I visited Moravsky Krumlov and Perlstejn Castle.

Puts me in the mood to share some Czech-ish tunes with my expanding fan-base.

Warning - this is a pretty random selection, but groovy.

We've got Cechomor, formerly the CeskoMoravska Hudebni Spolecnost (Czech-Moravian Musical Society), a folk-rock act, doing "Vcelin" (The Beehive), from their album Mezi Horami (In the Mountains). 1998.

Updated to add: Cechomor perform in Atlanta tonight (Friday 3 Nov), NYC tomorrow (4 Nov) and Boston on Sunday (5 Nov). http://www.czechomorustour.com/

Then we've got Karel Gott with "Lady Carneval" from the LP of the same name. At an office Christmas party last year, a colleague who I never would have guessed could sing, tore the roof off this at Karaoke. Cheesy late 60s pop, but roof-tearable nonetheless. 1968.

Updated to add - Gott will be playing Sazka Arena in Prague on Monday 13 Nov.

And Plastic People of the Universe, famous dissident jazz-rock outfit, were joined by a chap named Paul Wilson for a nearly unlistenable album of mostly Velvet Underground covers called Trouble Everyday. From this I share "Some Kinda Love". You may not thank me for it. 1971/1977.

Fatty Lumpkin are an interesting crew. Guitarist Ladi Kolsky is Czech, the singer is British, the bassist Canadian, and the drummer from somewhere else. Mostly funky, I share with you "Black Tie and Caviar" from their 2005 release, Fatty Lumpkin.

Alas FL's website is not up and if one performs a google search on Fatty Lumpkin Prague, this blog entry is in the first page of returns.

Jan Werich (1905-1980) was an actor/singer/writer of extensive talents. His tunes primarily fall into the pop/musical theater category. This is certainly true of those on the 1997 collection, Tmavomodry Svet (Dark Blue World). I share with you "Nerymovana" (Rhymeless), recorded in 1952.

Lucien Zell is a poet from California who has lived in Prague for several years. He often performs with an interesting bellows-like instrument. I share "God Is In Orbit" from the CD included in his volume Eden's Midnight Playground. He's also a really neat guy.

And finally, Ondrej Havelka and his Melody Makers performing "Beat Me Daddy Eight to the Bar". These guys are an unrepentent swing crew who thoroughly have their act together. This comes from their compilation Nejlepsi Kusy z Repertoiru (The Best Pieces from Our Repertoire). If you're in Prague, their shows tomorrow and Thursday are sold out, but the 3rd December show is not.

Get it all at http://rapidshare.com/files/1390051/__CzechTunes.zip

Spitting - Part 3

2006-10-06T09:28:00.000+02:00

Sorry for the delay folks -

I was on holiday digging bits of the Czech Republic I'd not seen in over 4 years of living in this country. Karlovy Vary is beautiful - I will be going to the film festival next year, and no mistake.

Upon return, I saw a killer Nick Cave/Dirty Three show at Prague's Congress Center. Lousy late-commie architecture (It was completed around '87 and since the revolution there has been seen no reason to demolish the joint. Alas.), but the acoustics are decent and the sound mix was balanced after the first couple songs (a good thing too!).

But this isn't a Nick Cave post. Nor is it a Legendary Pink Dots post, though I am listening to Chemical Playschool Volume 3 and saw their amazing show this week at the Roxy. A week with two killer shows has not been had in Prague in quite a while. Dang. Actually it'll be 3 all told, but Suzanne Vega at Svandovo Divadlo sold out before I knew about it. Maybe the next post will be Cave/LPD/Vega, but no promises.

This is however a post featuring (finally!) I Spit On Your Gravy Part Three. An odd disc, this - it features 3 (count 'em!) Patti Smith Covers - Beki Bondage's Because the Night (technically a Springsteen track, but whatever), Penetration's Free Money, and Brix Smith's kicking version of Rock 'n' Roll Nigger (not as kicking as Manson's, but again I say, whatever).

And it goes like this:
1. Belsen - Sid Vicious (you might recognise this bloke - looks like Gary Oldman)
2. Free Money - Penetration
3. Because the Night - Beki Bondage
4. For What It's Worth - Hugh Cornwell (from The Stranglers)
5. Murder in the Subway - Attack
6. Burn in Your Own Flame - Anti-Pasti
7. Razors in the Night - Blitz
8. Sick on You - The Boys
9. 17 Years of Hell - The Partisans
10. I've Got a Gun - Channel 3
11. Rape and Pillage - Chaotic Dischord
12. Riot in the City - Riot Squad
13. Just Thirteen - Lurkers
14. Rock & Roll Nigger - Brix Smith (Ex-Fall)

Download Part 3 here
Download Part 2 here
Download Part 1 here

Thanks again, Totally Fuzzy!

Up Yer Bum!

2006-09-19T23:05:00.000+02:00

So, following on from yesterday's post, we have volume two of I Spit On Your Gravy.

DKs, Test Tube Babies, ASF, GBH, 999 and a bunch more.

Follow the links to learn more...

I Kill Children - Dead Kennedys
Get Raped - Eater
Dead and Buried - Alien Sex Fiend
Pass the Axe - G.B.H.
Boys in the Gang - 999
Stab the Judge - One Way System
Angel of Death - Screaming Dead
Up Yer Bum - Peter & the Test Tube Babies
Massacred Millions - Varukers
New Blood - Vice Squad
Locked in a Room With Betty - P.Paul Fenech
Baby's Got a Gun - The Only Ones
Psycho Woman - Kirk Brandon

Download I Spit On Your Gravy volume 2 ... whoosh! Right here. (rs)
And thanks, Totally Fuzzy, for the link!

Some more punky goodness...

2006-09-19T00:29:00.000+02:00

Sometime back I picked up an 3-CD punk set called I Spit On Your Gravy. Mighta paid $8 for the lot. MusicMatch identifies it, but the label (Dressed To Kill) seems to be history.

That said, it's got some goodies. Volume 1 contains:

1. Land of Hope and Glory - Ex-Pistols (featuring Glen Matlock among others)
2. Splitting in Two - Alternative TV
3. Woman in Disguise - Angelic Upstarts
4. Finger up Bum - Chaos UK
5. Fuck Your Nationality - Disorder
6. G.L.O.R.I.A. - Eddie & the Hot Rods
7. Born to Lose - Johnny Thunders
8. Self Destruct - U.K. Subs
9. Judy Says (Knock You in the Head) - The Vibrators
10. Fuck It Up - The Adicts (I think these guys were in Prague a week or so ago, but I'm not sure.)
11. Expensive Being Poor - T.V. Smith
12. Smash It Up - Captain Sensible
13. Goat Fuckin' Virgin Killerz from Hell - Chaotic Dischord

Follow the links to buy the goodies.
Download I Spit On Your Gravy, Volume 1 here. (rs)

And while I'm thinking on it, big love to Totally Fuzzy. Those guys rock.

sit right back

2006-09-18T07:10:00.000+02:00

So my girlfriend is quite fond of a BBC radio show called I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue which is sort of like Wait Wait Don't Tell Me crossed with What's My Line, but of course far more British. (Wait a sec. What's My Line was originally British. Strike that.) One of the tasks on ISIHAC is "One Song to the Tune of Another" in which the panelist is given the two songs and has to sing the combination on the fly. It's hilarious.

Now, I've tried to do this very thing on several occasions, but my brain really can't wrap itself around the thing. Might have to do with a lack of ear training and general musicality. However, I've loved the concept ever since hearing Little Roger and the Goosebumps' "Stairway to Gilligan's Island" back in the golden age of the Doctor Demento show.

Of course my amusement with the song didn't even extend to being able to hum it for my friends. They just had to trust that it was funny. Five or six years ago, I found a disc in the dollar bin at Amoeba Music called Laguna Tunes. No art, just a whacky collection of stuff including the afforementioned, Joan Jett and Greg Graffan's version of "Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love)", and Bow Wow Wow's "Louis Quatorze". The buck was well spent just for the Goosebumps.

Okay, WikiPedia comes through again. "Stairway" was produced by a chap named Kenny Laguna who later formed Blackheart Records with Joan Jett. Bingo. And here we have the liner notes for the Laguna Tunes album.

Weird. Anyway. Enjoy Stairway to Gilligan's Island. (rs)

this incredible looking Swedish girl

2006-09-16T11:42:00.000+02:00

Back in the day (tm), there was a really annoying/compelling piece that MTV seemed to have in terribly heavy rotation called "AEIOU Sometimes Y" by a pair called Ebn Ozn. Some of you might recall it.

The thing about it was some of the bits got stuck in your head. I still use the line "It's a wonder we communicate at all" with disturbing regularity. (Note the lyrics link in the above paragraph indicates that the line is "It's amazing we communicate at all" - I've been screwing it up for 20+ years which is kinda sad.)

I recently managed to retrieve an 80s compilation I'd purchased several years back for several of its tracks (Bow Wow Wow's "Do Ya Wanna Hold Me" and PiL's "This Is Not A Love Song", but not for Toni Basil's "Mickey". Shudder.) and just had to share.

I'm not sure how to embed YouTube videos in this medium, but you can dig a scratchy version of that by gone relic here. That braid is something else. (Some soul has also posted the Beavis and Butthead version, but it's not so cool.)

You can have your own sample copy of "AEIOU Sometimes Y" here (RS)

Ebn Ozn at Wikipedia.
Their full album, Feeling Cavalier, will be reissued next month. Preorder from Amazon here.

Every now and then...

2006-09-13T14:18:00.000+02:00

Okay. It's no secret amongst my friends that there are some songs that just make my skin crawl. They get stuck in the head at breakfast time and don't leave until long after last call. One of these songs is Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart.

So it was with no little amusement that I read this article:

Passengers complain after Tyler sings
PARIS, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Passengers on a flight from France to Mauritius have filed suit against Air France after musician Bonnie Tyler performed a song at the request of the co-pilot.

The passengers, believed to be Belgian, complained to the airline after the Welsh singer performed part of her 1983 hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" at the request of the co-pilot, who retired after the flight, The Mail on Sunday reported.

"I was asleep in First Class. The stewardess came and said the co-pilot was retiring. And they asked me would I sing to him. They were having a bit of a party," Tyler said.

The complaining passengers reportedly claimed they were traumatized by the experience and had feared for their safety during the celebration. The complaint eventually escalated into a legal dispute.

An Air France official said: "The claim against Air France, which it completely rejects, is that the celebrations got more and more unruly and came to a climax when Bonnie sang.
"Air France is saying that any suggestion there was anything more than a few slaps on the back for the co-pilot is nonsense, and it completely rejects the claims that the passengers were at any sort of risk."

(h/t to PCL Linkdump)

Gott wine?

2006-09-13T09:56:00.000+02:00

Popular pop star Gott faces court dispute over his wine Charlotta

Brno, Sept 12 (CTK) - Popular Czech pop star Karel Gott might face a court dispute over the wine he has named Charlotta, after his third daughter born this spring, which has been challenged by a south Moravian wine grower who patented his own wine brand´s name Charlotta long ago, the local daily Rovnost says today.

The wine of Gott, who is also quite popular in Germany and elsewhere abroad, has been sold in Gottland, a museum his fans opened in his former villa in Jevany near Prague.

The wine grower, Jiri Hort, claims that Gott wine´s brand has caused losses worth tens of thousands of crowns to him.

Representatives of the Gott museum know about the problem. "We are seeking the necessary information," the paper quotes one of them as saying.

Hort´s lawyers, however, are preparing documents for a court dispute. Hort has a great chance to win it, according to experts from the patent and brand office.

"I´d like the affair to be settled without court disputes. I don´t meddle in Gott´s singing either. I´d like him to do the same in relation to me," Hort told the paper.

Gott, 67, an admirer of women and an idol of many of them, has never got married. He has two adult daughters, each by a different girl-friend. His third daughter, Charlotte-Ella, was born to his current girl-friend Ivana Machackova, 30, on April 30.