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When John Cage met Sun Ra
05.25.2011
02:27 pm
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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.

Tyler Fisher writes on Sputnik Music:

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.

You can download John Cage meets Sun Ra at Adventure-Equation.

Read the back of the album cover, here.
 

 
Via WFMU’s Beware of the Blog

Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.25.2011
02:27 pm
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Outa-Space: The ‘Fifth Beatle,’ musical legend Billy Preston
05.25.2011
01:18 pm
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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.

More Billy Preston after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.25.2011
01:18 pm
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Bollywood mud-flaps for your car or truck
05.25.2011
12:48 pm
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Bollywood mud-flaps spotted on the streets of Ahmedabad, India by Flickr user Backview Bollywood. India gets to have cool Bollywood mud-flaps, America has Truck Nutz


 

 
More after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Tara McGinley
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05.25.2011
12:48 pm
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Music For Robots LP (1961)
05.25.2011
11:26 am
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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.

 
Tin Age Story: This time with Ackerman narrating…



 
With thanks to Eddie Ruscha and Gary Panter !

Posted by Brad Laner
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05.25.2011
11:26 am
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Freaky foot tattoo
05.25.2011
11:06 am
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No comment. “Skeleton Foot” by KidNamedEmCee.

(via KMFW)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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05.25.2011
11:06 am
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‘I shall die, and my friend will die soon’: Sid Vicious interview with Judy Vermorel from 1977
05.25.2011
10:19 am
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A revealing interview with Sid Vicious conducted by Judy Vermorel in August, 1977. In it Vicious rails against “grown-ups” and “grown-up attitudes”, TV host Hughie Green, insincerity, and why “the general public are scum” (his opinion about “99% of the shit” out on the street).

Vicious sounds incredibly young, perhaps because he was, and claims he “doesn’t like anything particularly” and that, “Nobody has to do anything”. There is some interesting thoughts on Russ Meyer’s plans for a Sex Pistols’  movie, which Sid dismisses as a “cheap attempt to get money.”

At the end, he rails against Malcolm McLaren, slightly incredulous to the information that Johnny Rotten and Paul Cook thought McLaren was the fifth member of the Pistols:

The band has never been dependent on Malcolm, that fucking toss-bag. I hate him..I’d smash his face in…I depend on him for exactly nothing. Do you know, all I ever got out of him was, I think, £15 in all the time I’ve known the fucking bastard. And a T-shirt, he gave me a free T-shirt, once, years ago. Once he gave me a fiver, and I stole a tenner off him, a little while ago, and that’s all. I hate him.

..But he’s all right. I couldn’t think of anyone else I could tolerate.

This is the interview where Vicious famously made an eerie prediction:

“I shall die when I am round-about twenty-four, I expect, if not sooner. And why my friend will die soon.”

His friend was “that girl” Nancy Spungen, who can be heard in the background of this interview.
 

 
Elsewhere on DM

Sid Vicious’ handwritten list of why Nancy Spungen is so great


 
Sid Vicious does it his way, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.25.2011
10:19 am
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Handy tips on using the toilet
05.25.2011
10:18 am
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What the hell did I just watch? This WTF video brings up so many burning questions: Like WHY did toilet etiquette grandmaster Robert Jackson make this video in the first place? WHO is he? Why does the video mysteriously go black for 34 seconds? The whole “wipe your penis with a folded sheet of toilet paper” business… how many guys really do that? Did he talk to a lot of guys to ask them about this or what? Is there really such a thing as “cleaning the urine channel”? Everybody flushes twice? HOW does he know this? Why do split-second edits of toilets appear randomly in the video like it’s some kind of Fight Club tribute? 

I think this video raises many more questions than it answers.    

 
(via Cynical-C)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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05.25.2011
10:18 am
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Björk to premiere ‘Biophilia’ at Manchester International Festival
05.24.2011
06:31 pm
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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.

Below, listen to “Solar System” from Biophilia:
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.24.2011
06:31 pm
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Bob Dylan talks about life and art on the set of ‘Hearts of Fire’, 1987
05.24.2011
05:47 pm
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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.
 

 
More from Dylan, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.24.2011
05:47 pm
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Porno Graphics: From the Archives of the Residents
05.24.2011
02:21 pm
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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.

 

 
Below, the Residents cover James Brown:
 

 
Thank you Chris Musgrave!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.24.2011
02:21 pm
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