Although it is yet another gloomy, overcast day in Los Angeles—what’s with this summer anyways?—here’s Days, a hauntingly beautiful song by the Kinks to let a little sunshine in. The lyrics seem to be referring to a lover who has left him or who has died, but Ray Davies has said that the song is rather a farewell to the original members of the band. A rare color clip from the era, taken from the BBC’s Colour Me Pop program.
Pink Tentacle has a wonderful collection of vintage Tokyo subway manner posters from 1976 - 1982. The one pictured above, The Seat Monopolizer, was inspired by Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator.
Do yourself a favor and go check out more awesome subway manner posters over at Pink Tentacle.
A man with a van and a plan….According to Wonkette, this photo was taken in the airport at Austin, Texas. The van was abandoned. How creepy. Wouldn’t you like to know what the person inbred who painted this looks like, just out of curiosity? I would. I’ll bet the cops in Austin would, too..
Kobiety (Women) are from Poland. The song is Marcello. The film footage is Russ Meyer. I like it. I’m sharing it. I wish I knew more about the band, but everything I’m finding on the Internet is in Polish. Based on this song and video, I’m impressed.
Warning: this video contains large naked breasts and transistor radios.
This Egyptian commercial makes its point very clear: don’t fuck with the Panda, buy her cheese!
Manhattan cable television in the late 70s/early 80s was a viaduct for some of the wildest shit to ever invade the American airwaves. From porn to rock and roll to goofy infomercials and call-in shows, it was some of the most fun to be had at 2 a.m in the morning in NYC. If you weren’t actually in the clubs, bars and sex pits of Manhattan, you were watching it on cable.
Paul Tschinkel’s Inner Tube may have been low rent, but it was one of the grooviest TV rock shows in the history of the medium. On a zero budget, Paul managed to capture the raw energy of what is arguably the last great era in rock and roll. He filmed seminal performances from musicians like Klaus Nomi, Lydia Lunch, DNA, The Contortions, Johnny Thunders, The Blessed, The Cramps and many many more.
Here’s 12 minutes of great footage of The Cramps at the Mudd Club in 1981. If you were living in Manhattan at the time, you could’ve watched it on the tube.
Lux, Kid Congo, Nick Knox and Ivy.
Warning; this kicks in loud, so adjust your speakers or risk waking up the neighbors.
In 1956 hipster humorist Lord Buckley appeared on TV game show You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx. This was a meeting of two brilliant minds and it’s hard to believe that it actually occurred on network television. But, Buckley was so underground that the viewing audience was clueless as to who he was. While he’s rather low-key on the program, he still manages to slip some of his bebop prose into the mix. The ‘housewife’ Buckley’s teamed up with is a pretty cool broad herself. In contrast to the two contestants, Groucho comes off a bit square.
As an added attraction, I’ve included a rare clip of Buckley’s appearance on TV’s Club 7 circa 1949.
more Buckley after the jump…
Sad news from Cincy is that Bootsy’s older brother Phelps Collins has lost his battle with cancer. This comes shortly after the equally bumming news of fellow Funkadelic guitarist Gary Shider’s passing.
The always-smiling rhythm guitarist started a band called the Pacemakers in 1968 and were soon scouted and picked up by James Brown to back him up. The brothers would record such classics as “Super Bad,” “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine,” “Soul Power,” and “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” before it became too much to deal with the Godfather. Then it was on to a wonderful decade with Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band, lacing masterpieces like “Flashlight” with his brightly sparking chikka-chikka. Phelps spent most of the past 20 years away from music, surfacing occasionally to play with groups like Deeee-lite and on soundtracks like Superbad.
He got some here at the famous L’Olympia with the JB’s in 1971, just before he and Bootsy said bye-bye to the Hardest Working Man…
After the jump: the bad-ass sounds of Phelps and Bootsy in ‘71 in between their tenures with the JBs and Parliament-Funkadelic!!
I Will Survivor
Another brilliant mashup by the dynamite team of thriftshopxl and lobsterdust. Gloria Gaynor meets Survivor.
What makes this mashup particularly cool is the seamlessness of the music and the theme. This one works on all levels. And like all great mashups, it’s got a sense of humor.
Have you ever seen the shitty 1977 Italian horro flick Yeti: The Giant of the 21st Century? I hope not. It’s one of those bad, bad movies you can feel all superior to and laugh at, but it really laughs at you baby, because YOU are the asshole who sat through it! The King Kong-esque plot involves a Yeti that is preserved for a million years in an iceberg near Greenland who is taken into captivity and into civiliazation. The inept film’s best moment comes at the end, when this ridiculous song, Funny Disco Sound (credited to the Yetians!) comes on during the closing credits. Dig the “I barely speak English” lyrics. Score by Sante Maria Romitelli.
The Yeti’s big
The Yeti’s tough
But he’s so goodHe is so big
The Man of stone
But he won’t harm you
The Yeti
He is so tough
The man of stone
But he won’t kill you
The Yeti
I can’t embed it here, so click through to the Trash Palace blog and have a listen there. Be warned, this atrocious tune will be in your head for the rest of the day. Should you find yourself tonight, awake in bed, grinding your teeth to this song, don’t say I didn’t warn you.