W.C. Hardy’s “St. Louis Blues”
 
Between the years of 1946 - 1961 one of the only ways to listen to American blues, jazz and rock’n’roll in Russia was to obtain smuggled records, some made on old x-rays. There’s a long article and back story about these interesting x-ray records on Spiegle.de, but it’s all in German and a little bit difficult to make sense of using Google Translate. 

If you got caught with American popular music back then, you could find yourself in a world of hurt. Apparently it could get you thrown out of school or even arrested in extreme cases, but still the population wanted to hear the music. These x-ray records are physical artifacts from that era of Soviet censorship.
 

Percy Faith’s “Delicado”
 

Fred Astaire’s “Cheek to Cheek”
 

Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel”
 
(via Nerdcore)

 
Sometime in 1974, an unknown, all-girl rock group from Switzerland performed an extremely mild version of Slade’s “Gudbye T’Jane.”  This is very, very Swiss.

Celtic Frost aside, the Swiss are not a people well-known for rocking out, are they? The “Swiss rock” Wikipedia entry is rather short, which is hardly surprising.
 

 
Thank you Douglas Hovey!

 
Imagine the hours of fun you could have torturing your pets with this!

It looks like the Air Swimmers website is currently down due to heavy traffic.
 

 
(via High Definite)

 
From Massive Attack’s Facebook page:

In context with the complicit support of the government, the banks looted the nation’s wealth while destroying countless small businesses and brought the whole economy to its knees in a covert, clean manner, rather like organised crime.

Our reaction was to march and wave banners and then bail them out. These kids would have to riot and steal every night for a year to run up a bill equivalent to the value of non-paid tax big business has ‘avoided’ out of the economy this year alone.

They may not articulate their grievances like the politicians that condemn them but this is absolutely political. As for the ‘mindless violence’… is there anything more mindless than the British taxpayer quietly paying back the debts of others while contributing bullets to conflicts that we have absolutely no understanding of?

It’s mad, sad and scary when we have to take to the streets to defend our homes and businesses from angry thieving kids, but where are the police and what justice is ever done when the mob is dressed in pin stripe.

Thanks, Angela!

 
An amusing weed-themed chess set with 32 pieces in the shapes of bongs, bowls, joints and pot leaves. I’ve never played chess a day in my life, but “weed chess” seems like it could be more entertaining. Smoke a bowl every time a piece gets taken? A joint for checkmate?

The Stonerware Pot Leaf Chess Set is available on a lot of sites. I found it here for $26.71, but you may be able to find cheaper elsewhere.

 
Go for a walk in London and you’ll be filmed by over 300 CCTV cameras - all without your permission. The footage is then used by various groups and authorities, including the Metropolitan Police Service, Transport for London and a number of London boroughs, who share the CCTV images between them.

But if you turn the tables and film the Metropolitan Police, this is what can happen, as RafousE16 found out:

Was on the barking road recording the police searching a young black male and watch how they reacted and what they did to me and you wonder why the youth are rioting police need to protect us no man handle people like they are doing. Also to add I am not black I am quarter cast and this shows you don’t need dark skin to be man handled…

 
This was posted 11 days ago.

Via The Guardian.

 
Al Pacino sporting a giant hairpiece like the one worn by Phil Spector during his trial for the murder of club hostess Lana Clarkson, in 2005.

Filming continues on David Mamet’s biopic of the infamous record producer, though there has been much controversy over Mamet’s alleged belief Spector was wrongly jailed for the killing.

Pics and story here.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

First Look at Al Pacino as Phil Spector

 
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Linton Kwesi Johnson wrote “Fite Dem Back” in 1978.

“Writing is a political act and poetry is a cultural weapon.” Linton Kwesi Johnson.

fashist an di attack
noh baddah worry bout dat
fashist an di attack
wi wi fite dem back
fashist an di attack
den wi countah-attack
fashist an di attack
den wi drive dem back

Time magazine, of all places, has published a “Top 10 British Riot Songs of the Early ‘80s.” Check it out here. There’s a few smart choices, including “Fite Dem Back.”
 

 
Via The Daily Swarm.

 
Listen as Bill Maher says the truest shit you’ve ever heard about Obama…

“There is a good 40% of this country who wouldn’t vote for you if you personally saved them from drowning. So get rid of that baggage of caring about the people who will not vote for you anyway and be a strong liberal Democratic president. You owe it to us.”

The whole thing is worth watching, but he starts to really get cooking at about 3:20 in.
 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 
Imagine that...
 

 
(via reddit)

 
If only…
 
Via Looters vs Photoshop
 

 
Roseanne goes off on a bit of an epic, Alex Jones-esque rant decrying the New World Order. Hard to tell what this is for or from. It was recently posted on YouTube. (I don’t know who the guy is after her)

I love Roseanne. I met her once in New York when she presented me with an award at the Tribeca Film Festival. She told me about how she’d recently purchased a bunch of Lenny Bruce memorabilia from the estate of his attorney (I also collect Lenny Bruce memorabilia). At least one photograph of me, Roseanne and Gary Coleman exists from that event, although I have never seen it. I also hooked her up with a bike messenger pot delivery service.

Something tells me she might’ve toked up before she taped this…
 

 
Rising out of the ashes of Sixties folk band City Preachers, German-based band Frumpy formed in 1969 and over the course of their brief career released two albums of rock tinged with blues, jazz and psychedelic elements. They were for awhile Germany’s most popular rock band, selling out concerts and winning numerous awards. They eventually disbanded in 1972.

While Frumpy’s music is appealingly Uriah Heapish (yes I like Heep), it is their 22 year old lead singer, Inga Rumpf, that I find totally mesmerizing - a unique presence that evokes Nico, Janis Joplin and Robert Plant.

Having started singing in her teens with City Preachers, Inga went from Frumpy to greater success with prog-rockers Atlantis and ultimately to a solid solo career. She’s still gigging.

Here’s Frumpy performing in 1971, followed by a 1973 clip of Atlantis, in which Inga’s Janis Joplinesque bluesy side is in full blossom.
 

 
Atlantis video after the jump…

 
Before anyone gets carried away getting all biblical on the asses of the UK looters, it’s best to remember that the people in positions of power have been getting away with much worse crimes for years now. This brilliant open letter to the parents of the UK’s Prime Minister by the writer Nathaniel Tappley makes that abundantly clear with facts, figures and more than a pinch of humor. And yes, before anyone mentions, he does know that Mr Cameron’s father died last year, his point being that he is reflecting assumptions about parenting that Cameron regularly makes.

“Are they really surprised that this country’s culture is swamped in greed, in the acquisition of material things, in a lust for consumer goods of the most base kind? Really?

...

Our politicians are for sale and they do not care who knows it.

Oh yes, and then there’s the expenses thing. Widescale abuse of the very systems they designed, almost all of them grasping what they could while they remained MPs, to build their nest egg for the future at the public’s expense. They even now whine on Twitter about having their expenses claims for getting back to Parliament while much of the country is on fire subject to any examination. True public servants.

The last few days have revealed some truths, and some heartening truths. The fact that the #riotcleanup crews had organised themselves before David Cameron even made time for a public statement is heartening. The fact that local communities came together to keep their neighbourhoods safe when the police failed is heartening. The fact that there were peace vigils being organised (even as the police tried to dissuade people) is heartening.

There is hope for this country. But we must stop looking upwards for it. The politicians are the ones leading the charge into the gutter.”

Read the whole letter here - it’s worth it.