Jello Biafra’s vast knowledge of rock and roll came into play last month at this New Orleans gig where he and members of Dash Rip Rock, Supagroup, Egg Yolk Jubilee and Cowboy Mouth dusted off some classic New Orleans r&b and garage rock tunes in what looks like an absolutely smoking party. Jello’s fire and brimstone attack is perfect for these slabs of funkified soul and Crescent City blues. Dr. Jello, The Night Tripper.
Jello, you oughta do this more often. It’s good for your soul and it’s okay to take some time off from from trying to bring down empires. Sometimes the most revolutionary act is the one that feels good. Your buddy, Marc.
Moby Grape perform the title song in the 1968 hippie/surf/biker/drug flick The Sweet Ride starring Tony Franciosa, Michael Sarrazin, Jaqueline Bisset and Bob “Gilligan” Denver.
Cool shots of a very animated Skip Spence on stage. And, yes, that’s Lee Hazlewood on the dance floor and hanging out at the bar in a suit and acting surly.
As a long time reggae fan and an early acolyte of punk rock, I was thrilled when 2 Tone Records appeared on the scene in the late 1970s with its roster of British interracial ska bands that included The Specials, The English Beat, The Selector and Madness (who were all white but alright). Adding a bit of Brit punk into a ska mix, the 2 Tone bands brought the party to the revolution that revivified rock and roll.
Enjoy this document of The Specials in great form at the height of their popularity. Japan, 1980.
By popular demand Stuart Gordon’s campy, macabre Re-Animator™ - The Musical—which I’ve given a rave review to here before—will be extending its run through Sunday, June 26 at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. It’s a super fun night of musical comedy.
Re-Animator™ - The Musical, the horror-comedy based on the 1985 cult movie hit and earlier H.P. Lovecraft story, has extended its run due to popular demand through Sunday, June 26, 2011 at the Steve Allen Theater. Half price student tickets available for all June shows. The production has been setting records and sending grinning patrons out of the theater humming the tunes and washing off the blood. Stuart Gordon, who directed both the new musical and the movie on which it is based, notes “There’s a lot of liquid spurting through the air. The special effects are even better in 4D than they are in 3D.”
The new performance schedule for this funny, bloody and tuneful production includes three shows per weekend: Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 8:00pm. Costumes are encouraged and seating is open – come early and sit up front in the “splash zone.” Ticket prices are $30 for general admission, $15 for students (with ID).
We’ve got two pairs of free tickets to give away to readers who write in to the comments and tell us why they should get the tickets and not someone else. We choose the winners. It’s up to you to get yourself to the play in Los Angeles, where tickets will be waiting for you at the door (Translation: Unless you live in Los Angeles or intend to be here before the play’s run ends, please don’t waste your time).
Below, Jesse Merlin as the villainous “Dr. Carl Hill” loses his head in a scene with Graham Skipper as “Herbert West,” re-animator.
Rarely heard live recording of a John Cage and Sun Ra performance from 1986. It was recorded at Sideshows by the Sea, the last surviving freak show along the Coney Island boardwalk. A carnival barker and a snake lady hawked the show outside and there was free pizza served, too. Can you imagine?!?! This concert took place on June 8th and pressed as a limited edition LP the following year.
Due to variety and musicality, Sun Ra heavily defeats John Cage on the performance. He opens the concert with a huge, furious, dissonant keyboard performance. The crowd cheers wildly and the spacey synthesizer sounds jump all around the range of the instrument and jump around in styles just as quickly. Elements of jazz flow in and suddenly a huge, orchestral sounding chord will overpower the recording instrument. The synth voices change frequently from a typical square lead voice to a bell sound to a synthesized voice. Sun Ra uses his range of voices perfectly, creating a heavy, metallic sound at some points which makes an even more frenzied sound to the already insane harmonic structure. He manages to jump from the most beautiful chords to the most dissonance in a matter of seconds. His first appearance goes on for 7 and a half minutes, garnering tumultuous applause from the audience. He later closes out the first half of the performance with a much more eastern tinged movement. Just when his playing couldn’t get any darker, he spends most of the second half making ambient, creepy noises. Much in the manner of the Mars Volta, he goes off without any sense of time or rhythm, creating whatever comes to mind. However, he lets the ambience slowly build into huge, crashing chords of either beauty or dissonance. Everything is going somewhere.
John Cage is just the opposite. His performance is much simpler. He merely steps up to a microphone and makes strange vocal noises. Cage’s voice sounds akin to an aging Johnny Cash. However, Cage never steps over saying more than 3 or 4 syllables at a time. He takes minute breaks before starting another few indistinguishable syllables. Of course, he relies on his “chance music” theory to get away with the minutes of silence. Sure, it’s a profound and intriguing idea, but it just gets old after a few minutes, especially when the recording buzzes in the background due to the quality. In truth, Cage is reciting excerpts from one of his poems in some strange language, known as Empty Words IV. However, who knows what he is saying? Luckily, Sun Ra saves the performance on the second half by filling in where Cage leaves silence. He fills with light, dainty keyboard lines way up high on the keys. He lets Cage have the show, not doing much of anything, but neither Cage still does less than Sun Ra. Cage proves a better composer and philosopher than a performer. Regardless, the crowd eats everything up, probably being mostly young, profound college kids themselves.
The story is told of a furious George Harrison storming out of a Beatles recording session in 1969 and then going to see a Ray Charles concert in London. Billy Preston (who Harrison had met in 1962 when Preston was playing in Little Richard’s group) was performing with Charles. Harrison invited Preston to come into the studio with The Beatles where his friendly personality and musical talents calmed the rising tensions within the band.
Billy Preston was the only musician the Beatles ever credited alongside them, for his contribution to “Get Back.” The song was also performed in the rooftop concert of the Let It Be film with Preston in tow (see below). John Lennon allegedly proposed the idea of inviting Preston to be the “Fifth Beatle” but Paul supposedly replied that it was bad enough already with four. (Preston also played on Abbey Road’s “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and “Something.”)
Musical prodigy Preston played with gospel legends Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, and Andrae Crouch. In 1963, at the age of sixteen, he played organ on Sam Cooke’s Night Beat. Preston was also a frequently featured performer on ABC’s musical variety series Shindig! and a member of the house band (lots if clips on YouTube). Below, Billy Preston performs “Agent Double O-Soul” with Ray Charles. Check out his moves!
He recorded a great song in 1965 with a young Sly Stone called ““Can’t She Tell?” that was produced by David Axelrod. Do yourself a favor and hit play:
His 70s solo career saw his friendship and professional association with George Harrison continue. Preston appeared onstage at the Concert for Bangladesh and his records came out on the Apple label. His first really big solo hit was “Outa Space” which sold a million copies and won the Grammy for “Best Pop Instrumental Performance of 1972”:
Preston also played on several 70s Rolling Stones albums Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup, It’s Only Rock’n Roll and Black and Blue. He toured as a support act on their 1973 European Tour and played with the band as well. Mick Taylor played guitar on Preston’s live album. In 1974 he co-wrote “You Are So Beautiful” with his songwriting partner Bruce Fisher (and an uncredited Dennis Wilson) for Joe Cocker.
Doubtless an entire generation of future sound manglers were forever altered by this fun slab o’ vinyl from much beloved champion of all things Sci-Fi, Forrest J Ackerman and composer/sound effects master Frank Allison Coe which was sold from the pages of comic books in the early 60’s (see below). It’s always nice to find early examples of truly experimental music from outside the usual academic sources, though I love that stuff too.
Tone Tales From Tomorrow : 15 minutes of pure primitive electronic glee. Perfect for annoying grown-ups, neighbors and siblings. God-like.
The Manchester International Festival has commissioned Björk for the world premiere of her Biophilia show in an intimate concert setting. Biophilia, her seventh studio album was partially recorded on an iPad and will be released as apps (directed by Michel Gondry) in conjunction with Apple. Somehow these apps will be utilized in the upcoming live shows, which will be her first in the UK for three years:
Björk will be at MIF for a three-week residency; six intimate shows in the striking space of Campfield Market Hall for audiences of 1800, her first Uk dates in over three years.
Where do music, nature and technology meet? Björk introduces Biophilia, her most ambitious and exciting work to date. A multimedia project encompassing music, apps, Internet, installations and live shows, Biophilia celebrates how sound works in nature, exploring the infinite expanse of the universe,from planetary systems to atomic structure.
Björk will be performing Biophilia tracks and music from her genre-defying back catalogue with a small group of unique musical collaborators, including an award-winning Icelandic female choir. The show will feature a range of specially conceived and crafted instruments, among them a bespoke pipe organ that accepts digital information and a pendulum that harnesses the earth’s gravitational pull to create musical patterns.
In a special collaboration with MIF, the Biophilia show will travel to major cities around the world following the Manchester premiere. MIF will be working with young people in Manchester to explore the ideas behind Björk’s Biophilia.
An interview with Bob Dylan dating back to when he was working on the Hollywood movie Hearts of Fire, in which Dylan played a retired rocker called Billy Parker. Hearts of Fire co-starred Rupert Everett, Ian Dury and Fiona, and was written by overblown Hollywood scriptwriter, Joe Eszterhas. The film bombed, and was sadly the last feature from director Richard Marquand (best known for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Jagged Edge and Eye of the Needle), who died not long after completing the film.
This interview with Dylan formed the basis for a rarely seen BBC Omnibus documentary called Getting to Dylan (1987), directed by Christopher Sykes.
I might be a little bit late on this item, but if you live in the Bay Area, you still have plenty of time to check out this amazing looking exhibit of Residents ephemera that is running through June 17 at Johansson Projects in Oakland. Featuring album cover production art, promotional photos, drawings, scratch-board illustrations, and digital imagery from the archives of Homer Flynn, principal architect of the band’s visual imagery, the show also has some of Flynn’s private, non-Residents work on display:
Through his work, Homer Flynn has created a unique folklore composed of morosely ironic tales intertwined with the poignancy of thinly veiled emotion, revealing Flynn’s obsession with both the vulnerable and perverse aspects of the human psyche. Using a wide vary of materials, he draws on imagery from Walt Disney comics, outsider art of the Deep South, M.C. Escher and fetish pulp. Committed as much to the discovery as to the revelation of ideas, Flynn pursues his vision through a diversity of media, allowing his rich artistic output to be driven by ideas manifesting themselves through drawing, painting, print making, sculpture, digital media, photography, film and performance. Flynn’s figurative prints and drawings are notable for their intense mark making, often rendered with stark, contrasting colors. Similarly bold, his photography reveals forceful characters through stark black and white compositions as well as a vivid, often garish, use of color. While the mood of these images is often confrontational, Flynn also reveals a vulnerability that deepens the reading of his work.
Homer Flynn is best known for his involvement with The Residents, the Bay Area based art collective internationally renowned for their avant-garde music, theatrical performances and filmmaking. In the main gallery Flynn will exhibit work he created for the Residents, including production art for original Residents album covers, promotional photos, art used in print advertising and set designs.
Since his work for The Residents has taken the primary focus of his output for nearly 40 years, Flynn has thus far chosen to keep his personal work private. At Johansson Projects he will show a survey of his entire career curated by his daughter, Jana Flynn, including much work that has never been shown publicly. This work, featuring pastel depictions of natural disasters collaged from the pages National Geographic magazine, scratch board illustrations, silkscreened prints and graphite sketches from his journals, will he featured in the project room of the gallery. Finally, a slideshow will be projected in the viewing room showing recent digital work produced for The Residents.
