John Candy as Gil Fisher, the fishin’ musician, is paid a visit by The Plasmatics in this wonderful bit from SCTV circa 1981.

This predated John Lurie’s Fishing with John TV series by 10 years. Goes to show you just how ahead of their time the crew at SCTV were.

Watch as Wendy O. Williams blows up things real good.
 

 
Ufabulum the new album from Squarepusher is out next month on the 14th/15th May, and what is it going to be like is the question. Well, to give a hint, Warp Records have released a promo for the track “Dark Steering”, which Tom Jenkinson explains was inspired by his nightmares:

“For a while I had apocalyptic nightmares about trails of nuclear missiles in the night sky. So I aimed to recreate that strange combination of exhilaration, terror and sadness both visually and emotionally through this piece. It lead to the idea of a spacecraft leaving earth at vast speed to escape, but oddly the music also made me think of it flying through a library. So I generated the visual aspect such that, as the piece progresses, it seems as if the viewer is ever accelerating through massive corridors of books.”

Ufabulum is out on 14th/15th May and Squarepusher will be performing a series of live date to coincide with the release:

APRIL
21 Tokyo, JP - Sonar Sound Tokyo
28 Gdansk,PL - Electronic Beats Festival

MAY

03 Krems, AT - Donau Festival
06 Bristol, UK - Simple Things Festival
12 Sonar Sao Paolo, Brazil
15 Barcelona, ES - Sonar Festival

JUNE
29/30 - Le Rock Dans Tous Ses Etats, France

JULY
07 London, UK - Bloc
12 Dour, BE - Dour Festival
14 Ferropolis, DE - Melt Festival

Check full details here, and you can pre-order the album here.

 
“Ignorance of your culture is not considered cool.”—The Residents

I’ve been listening to The Residents a lot recently, so expect some Residents-related posts here in the coming days/weeks. You have been warned.

To kick things off right, here’s a fantastic, little-known record of their 1982-83 “Mole Show” tour, the live unveiling of The Residents on the world concert stage. “The Mole Show” was a progrock opera that began with their Mark of the Mole album in 1981, but was never really finished, unless the band was just pulling our legs.

Like The Gun Club material I posted earlier this week, this footage comes from the Spanish TV show La Edad de Oro and was taped in Madrid and broadcast originally on Jul 21, 1983.

Here’s the gist of what is going on here, via The Residents.com

The Story So Far: The Mohelmot people live underground in the desert in gigantic ant-like colonies. They are primitive and superstitious. Music has a ritualistic purpose that supports their love of darkness and their belief in work. A quirky storm causes water to fill their holes and forces them to cross the desert to seek another land. On the coast they meet the jolly Chubs who seem eager to welcome the exotic “Moles.” Soon it is apparent that the welcome has more to do with cheap labor than true acceptance. The Chub culture as reflected through their music is superficial and pleasure oriented. Tension eventually mounts [due to a scientist who invents a machine that makes the Mole’s work unnecessary—RM] and a form of war breaks out between the two groups. As usual, war solves nothing. Time passes. The Mohelmot are forbidden to use their language due to deeply paranoid Chub fears. Racial intermarriage has created a new lifeform referred to as a “Cross.” A pop group of Cross youth named “The Big Bubble” creates a sensation by singing in the forbidden Mohelmot tongue. The singer is jailed and begins to see himself as the new Messiah of traditional “Zinkenites.” The Zinkenite wished to form a new Mohelmot nation. Truth be known, the singer is merely a naïve puppet of an aggressive Cross named Kula Bocca. In fact, Bocca arranged the arrest just to stir up trouble. The story abruptly ends, but there is plenty of basis for a dynamic conclusion, if The Residents ever get around to it.

The audio/visual quality here is top notch, but the camerawork is pedestrian at best. All of the cameramen are holding wide shots. It cuts from one wide to another slightly more or less wide shot, throughout.
 

 

Photo: Todd Heisler
 
Jlee2081 has uploaded some high quality videos of Kraftwerk performing on the first night of their eight night residency at the Museum Of Modern Art.

Over eight consecutive nights, MoMA presents a chronological exploration of the sonic and visual experiments of Kraftwerk with a live presentation of their complete repertoire in the Museum’s Marron Atrium. Each evening consists of a live performance and 3-D visualization of one of Kraftwerk’s studio albums—Autobahn (1974), Radio-Activity (1975), Trans-Europe Express (1977), The Man-Machine (1978), Computer World (1981), Techno Pop (1986), The Mix (1991), and Tour de France (2003)—in the order of their release.

You can view more here. In the meantime, enjoy these:
 

 
I still don’t really know what to make of this - it’s a 10 minute music video-cum-short film for the British band Spiritualized, trailing their upcoming album Sweet Heart Sweet Light which is released on Fat Possum Records next week. Directed by AG Rojas, who has also worked with Jack White, Gil Scott-Heron and Earl Sweatshirt, the video follows a day in the life of a drag queen prostitute raising two young children. It doesn’t end very well.

The violent and sexual clip has already caused a bit of a stir since it was released last month. Stereogum seem all in favour of “Hey Jane”:

[It’s about] a transwoman who attempts to raise kids while turning tricks, stripping, and — in one unforgettable long tracking shot — getting into an absolutely brutal fight. There’s probably a term paper to be written about the video’s treatment of race, class, gender, sexuality, and violence. This is a good one, folks.

While on Collapse Board, Lucy Cage writes a scathing review of the Sweet Heart, Sweet Light album (definitely worth a read in its own right) and points out that:

‘Hey Jane’ wears its NSFW like a smug little badge … I don’t like what it appears to be saying about people. I don’t like that said whiney, white, self-pitying, copyist, imagination-free, privilege-flaunting cisman from England [Jason Pierce of Spiritualized] has used this story and these characters from waaaaaaaaaaay outside his experience, knowledge or culture as entertainment, however much Art has given him a hall pass to do so.

To be fair on Pierce, some of this heat needs to be taken by the director Rojas. The video is definitely slick and very well made but does it tell us anything we already didn’t know, or even desperately need to? Is it shock or titillation?

Hats off to the main actors though, who do a great job. The prostitute is played by Tyra Sanchez, winner of the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race—easily one of the best reality tv shows ever and I’m totally serious, if you have not seen this you are missing out—she does a great job.

Musically the song is pretty much what you’d expect from Spiritualized, who have been doing this kind of laidback-but-overwrought white-psych-soul thing for over 20 years now. I have to admit a bit of a soft spot for these guys though, who I used to love back in the mid-Ninteties before I delved further into their pool of influences while also gravitating towards more electronic music. The Spiritualized sound, which has barely changed in all these years, is like big, warm, fuzzy blanket. You know where it is coming from and you know where it’s going; it is inherently safe.

And that’s something this video tries very hard not to be:

Spiritualized “Hey Jane” (NSFW)
 

 
Richie Teeter of The Dictators has died at 61. Cause of death has not been reported but he was battling cancer.

The Dictators were punk pioneers and one of the seminal rock bands to come out of New York City in the 1970s. Teeter joined the group in 1976 and played on their albums Manifest Destiny and Bloodbrothers. He left the group in 1979. Later, he joined Twisted Sister for a brief stint in 1980.

Dictator front man Handsome Dick Manitoba and keyboardist/bassist and songwriter for the group Andy Shernoff reflect on their friend and bandmate Teeter:

SAD SAD news: Former Dictators drummer, Rich Teeter passed away today.
Besides being an excellent drumer and singer, Rich was one of the sweetest guys I ever met.
He had an amazing disposition, and was impossible to hate. He was “one of those guys” who was always even keeled. Even when he wasn’t …..he WAS!…

Listen..I got lots of shit to talk about people in my life, but I don’t now, nor have I ever had a bad word to say about Rich Teeter. A sweet, sweet, gentle man, who I am proud to have called bandmate, and pal. Rest in Peace, DEAR RICH….” Handsome Dick Manitoba

When Richie Teeter joined the Dictators he was a few years older and already married, which instantly made him more mature than the group of nihilistic, knuckleheads that recorded “The Dictators Go Girl Crazy.” Suddenly we had a responsible guy who could keep a beat, sing like a bird and provide a solid foundation that never wavered.

When the music business snubbed our first album I was determined to write songs that would allow me entrance into their exclusive club … naively assuming I actually belonged there. Richie’s voice and rock-hard drumming upped our game and provided the sheen that enabled The Dictators to finally garner some radio play.

I wouldn’t say he totally embraced The Dictators lifestyle but we bonded over our intense love for all things music. Richie was way more accepting than me, appreciated everything from anarchic British punk to wimpy pop to German prog-rock. His taste was so genuine and authentic that I wouldn’t even make fun of him when he listened to Genesis. He wasn’t concerned with trends; he just honestly loved an amazingly wide assortment of sounds.

My last communication with Richie was his request for a vinyl copy of the Dictators compilation “Everyday is Saturday.” Unsurprisingly, he told me he had given up on CD’s and was only listening to music on vinyl. I knew he was going through treatments for esophageal cancer but his ‘gonna beat it’ attitude disguised the difficult stage he was really at.

Richie was quite possibly the nicest guy I ever met which makes it even more depressing to acknowledge that he is the first member of the expanded Dictators family to pass away. We beat the odds for so long but time’s relentless march takes no prisoners… it was great to know and play with you my friend, we won’t forget.” Andy Shernoff

In this live clip from 1977, Richie sings “Hey Boys.”
 

 
Hippies meet electro-house in this re-mix of Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way.”

This song has been re-mixed to death since its release in 1993 but I dug this 2012 version by dj Mick M. from Bangkok, Thailand enough to put together a video of archival hippie footage from the Sixties using the mix as a soundtrack.

If there’s anything beyond sonic/visual pleasure to be had from this mash-up it’s the knowledge that no matter how much things change a good rock riff is immortal and raves existed way before ecstasy hit the scene.

In “Are You Gonna Go My Way,” Kravitz does a pretty good job of recycling Hendrix so coupling the song with a bunch of dancing hippies works for me. And Mick’s re-mix takes the whole thing into a pop culture meta-sphere where we are in a constant spin cycle. 
 

 
A powerful performance from The Jam, recorded in Paris in 1981, and originally shown as part of the French TV series Chorus (presented by Antoine de Caunes, no less). Here The Jam thunder through:

01. “David Watts”
02. “Private Hell”
03. “Butterfly Collector”
04. “But I’m Different Now”
05. “When You’re Young”
06. “Eton Rifles”

It’s a fine selection of songs, which highlights The Jam’s musical progression from the influence of sixties Mods, through Punk to New Wave and onto Paul Weller’s distinct political commentary with “Eton Rifles”.  Excellent stuff. Mind you, it’s still hard to believe Tory PM and professional nincompoop, David Cameron was naive enough to claim he had a great liking for “Eton Rifles”, during a radio interview in 2008. However, the Eton-educated Cameron’s admiration for the song did not impact on his politics, something Paul Weller picked up on:

“Which part of it didn’t he get? It wasn’t intended as a jolly drinking song for the cadet corps.”

The song reached number 3 in the U.K. in November 1979, and was the beginning of The Jam’s dominance over the charts until 1982, when guitar bands were replaced by Blitz Kids, and synthesizers.

During their 5 years of recordings, The Jam brought an edge to pop music by fusing musical ambition to strong Left-wing conviction, which wouldn’t happen on such a similar scale until Pulp in the 1990s, and the likes of which are very much required today.
 

 
Pulp performs “Common People” and “Like A Friend’ last night on the Jimmy Fallon Show.

Jarvis Cocker is a rock star at a time when there ain’t a lot of ‘em left.

Pulp is on tour and if you’d like to see Mr. Cocker and his band, here’s some upcoming tour dates:

10 April 2012 Radio City Music Hall New York, NY, USA
11 April 2012 Radio City Music Hall New York, NY, USA
13 April 2012 Coachella Indio, CA, USA
17 April 2012 Warfield San Francisco, CA, USA
19 April 2012 Fox Theater Pomona, CA, USA
20 April 2012 Coachella Indio, CA, USA
23 April 2012 Palacio de los Deportes Mexico City, Mexico
4 May 2012 SOS Festival Murcia, Spain
6 July 2012 Ruisrock Turku, Finland
8 July 2012 B’estfest Tunari, Romania
13 July 2012 Fiera della Musica

Dylan, Warhol and Elvis, photo by Nat Finkelstein

Famous visitors and “beautiful people” with “star potential” who visited Andy Wahol’s Factory studio in the 1960s were often shot for Warhol’s “screen tests,” his silent “parodies” of the Hollywood studio system. No one was really auditioning for anything, it was just an excuse to run a single reel of 16mm film through his Bolex camera and engage someone in a staring contest with it, one they normally lost (after a minute or so of trying to look “cool,” the mask was normally dropped and the simple portraits become quite revealing). The two and a half minute reels were then slowed down and printed.

Some of the more notable subjects included Italian model Benedetta Barzini, model/actrress Marisa Berenson, poet Ted Berrigan, Salvador Dalí, Donovan, Marcel Duchamp, Mama Cass, Allen Ginsberg, Beck’s mother, Bibbe Hansen, Baby Jane Holzer, Dennis Hopper, actress Sally Kirkland, Nico, Yoko Ono, Lou Reed, photographer Francesco Scavullo, Edie Sedgwick, Susan Sontag, artist Paul Thek, Viva and Mary Woronov

When Dylan stopped by the tin-foil covered Factory, he is alleged to have taken an immediate dislike to Warhol and the “phonies” of his entourage. It has long been suspected that the spitting lyrics of “Like a Rolling Stone,” in part, describe Dylan’s feelings about Warhol—was he “the diplomat on the chrome horse”?—and how he felt about the artist’s perceived exploitation of Edie Sedgwick, who Dylan was at one point romantically involved with (and who was his muse for some of Blonde on Blonde).

After the screen test was shot, Dylan grabbed a large silkscreen (as “payment”) that Warhol was going to give him anyway and headed for the door (before allegedly strapping the canvas to the roof of a station wagon). Such was his dislike of the artist that he later traded the piece to his manager, Albert Grossman, for a couch. That silkscreen, “Double Elvis,” is now part of the permanent collection at MOMA.

Here’s Factory photographer Nat Finkelstein’s account of what happened:

“Andy gave Bobby a great double image of Elvis. Bobby gave Andy short shrift. Shooting and plundering finished, the Dylan gang headed for the door, me and my Nikon on their heels. They left as they had entered…‘Bobby the Waif’ emerging as ‘Robert the Triumphant’. They departed having tied the Elvis image to the top of their station wagon, like a deer poached out of season. Much later, Bobby told me he’d traded the Elvis (now worth millions) to his manager Albert Grossman for a couch!”