“Crybaby” oil on steel wah-wah pedal, 4"x10"x3”

Amusing John Boehner wah-wah pedal entitled “Crybaby” by San Francisco-based artist Jesse Wiedel.

Thanks, Kenneth Thomas!

 
A special guest Dangerous Minds Radio Hour from the San Francisco band Lumerians.

Most of this set are vinyl rips we tracked the other night in Marc’s living room. The whisky was flowing free and so were we. This is real shit. We wanted to showcase our top favorites that we’ve been digging the past couple years as opposed to songs that are obscure for obscure’s sake. If folks get turned on to new music that’s definitely and added bonus. There is heavy San Francisco representation of bands old and new: Chrome, Magnetic Stripper and Bronze as well as a whirlwind trip through Latin America and Africa before returning to the English speaking world with a brief detour in lesser Korea. At the end you can hear Tyler actually breaking Marc’s record needle. Reentry burns every time.

01: Dick Hyman - “Topless Dancers of Corfu”
02: Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou - “Noude Ma Gnin Tche De Me”
03: Chrome - “Eyes in the Center”
04: Magnetic Stripper - “Extended Play”
05: Fabulous Diamonds -“Track 3”
06: Os Bongos - “Kazukata”
07: The Psychedelic Aliens - “Gbe Keke Wo Taoo”
08: Hydra - “Homem Com “H”
09: Sabu - “Choferito”
10: The Doves - “Mercury”
11: The Clean - “Point That Thing Somewhere Else”
12: Wire - “On Returning”
13: Bronze - “Parallels”
14: Teeth Mountain - “Soft Beast”
15: Jorge Ben - “Errare Humanum Est”
16: Shin Jung Hyun and the Men - “Twilight”
17: Dick Hyman - “The Minotaur”
 

 
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We’ve posted before about both South African artist Spoek Mathambo and amazing photographer Pieter Hugo (his book Nollywood is sitting on a coffeetable 10 feet away from me as I type this) and wow, their new collobaoration on this video for Spoek’s fucking brilliant cover of Joy Division’s “She’s Lost Control” is nothing short of simply astonishing.

You think there’s nothing new under the sun, jaded reader? That every good idea has already been used up by music video directors? Guess again because this will knock your socks off!

Via Dazed Digital:

‘Control’, the fourth single from Spoek Mathambo‘s debut album Mshini Wam, is a ‘darkwave township house’ cover of the Joy Division classic ‘She’s Lost Control’. In collaboration with one of South Africa’s most influential photographers Pieter Hugo, and cinematographer Michael Cleary, the new video explores township cults and teen gangs. Shot on location in a squatted train boarding house in Langa, Cape Town, the video features a cast mostly made up of local neighborhood kids who run their own dance troop, Happy Feet. Spoek Mathambo has been pioneering a progressive take on African music for the last few years via his DJing (as HIVIP), solo and live band projects, having featured on Boysnoize Records and Top Billin.

Directed and shot by Pieter Hugo & Michael Cleary. Edited by Richard Starkey

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Voodoo Dubstep: Cape Town, South Africa’s rising star, Spoek Mathambo

 
The Beatles “perform” “Smack My Bitch Up” at Shea Stadium, 1965.

Initially, I thought this video was going to be terrible, but the editing by YouTuber pleaseunhelpme is so damn clever I ended up enjoying the hell out it.

 
(via KFMW)

 
Volume One (1978 - 1983)

01 [00:00]  Laurie Anderson – “Example #22″ (‘Big Science,’ 1982)
02 [02:48]  Delta 5 – “Innocenti” (‘See the Whirl,’ 1981)
03 [04:54]  The Go-Go’s – “Automatic” (‘Beauty & The Beat,’ 1981)
04 [07:40]  Raincoats – “Red Shoes” (‘Odyshape,’ 1981)
05 [10:28]  X – “The Once Over Twice” (‘Wild Gift,’ 1981)
06 [13:01]  Flying Lizards – “Her Story” (‘Flying Lizards,’ 1979)
07 [17:17]  Jane Hudson – “Mystery Chant” (‘Flesh,’ 1983)
08 [21:00]  Crass – “Smother Love” (‘Penis Envy,’ 1981)
09 [22:46]  Blondie – “Heart of Glass” (‘Parallel Lines,’ 1978)
10 [27:17]  Sonic Youth – “I Dreamed I Dream” (‘Sonic Youth’ EP, 1982)
11 [31:55]  Selecter – “On My Radio” (‘Too Much Pressure,’ 1980)
12 [34:54]  Marine Girls – “A Place in the Sun” (‘Lazy Ways,’ 1983)
13 [37:26]  Lizzy Mercier-Descloux – “Funky Stuff” (‘Mambo Nassau,’ 1981)
14 [41:34]  Weekend – “Nostalgia” (‘La Varieté,’ 1982)

[Total Time: 45:18] Download here. 

 
Volume Two (1979 - 1983)

01 [00:00]  Family Fodder – “Savoir Faire” (Monkey Banana Kitchen, 1980)
02 [02:23]  Au Pairs – “It’s Obvious” (Playing With a Different Sex, 1981)
03 [08:43]  Chris & Cosey – “This Is Me” (Heartbeat, 1981)
04 [11:42]  Plastics – “Back to Wigtown” (Origato Plastico, 1980)
05 [14:20]  Pylon – “Cool” (Cool/Dub 7″, 1979)
06 [17:18]  The Slits – “Love und Romance” (Cut, 1979)
07 [19:46]  Siouxsie & The Banshees – “Lunar Camel” (Kaleidoscope, 1980)
08 [22:43]  The B-52′s – “52 Girls” (The B-52′s, 1979)
09 [26:19]  Swamp Children – “Boy” (Little Voices EP, 1981)
10 [29:36]  Y Pants – “That’s The Way Boys Are” (Beat It Down, 1982)
11 [32:30]  Antena – “Camino Del Sol” (Camino Del Sol, 1982)
12 [36:15]  Vivien Goldman – “Launderette” (Launderette 7″, 1981)
13 [39:14]  Cocteau Twins – “But I’m Not” (Garlands, 1982)
14 [41:55]  Thick Pigeon – “Jess + Bart (Mix)” (Unreleased [Miranda Dali bonus], 1983)

[Total Time: 45:10] Download here.

 
Volume 3 (1980 - 1983)

01 [00:00]  Creatures – “Miss The Girl” (Feast, 1983)
02 [02:27]  Eurythmics – “Sing-Sing” (In the Garden, 1981)
03 [06:30]  Phew – “Doze” (Phew, 1981)
04 [09:57]  E.S.G. – “Moody” (ESG EP, 1981)
05 [12:47]  Maximum Joy – “Searching for a Feeling” (Station M.X.J.Y., 1982)
06 [17:01]  Los Microwaves – “La Voix Humane” (Life After Breakfast, 1982)
07 [19:44]  Ludus – “My Cherry is in Sherry” (The Seduction, 1981)
08 [22:24]  Crash Course in Science – “Cardboard Lamb” (Signals from Pier Thirteen EP, 1981)
09 [24:57]  Grace Jones – “Nightclubbing” (Nightclubbing, 1981)
10 [29:57]  Lydia Lunch – “Gloomy Sunday” (Queen of Siam, 1980)
11 [32:46]  Marilyn & The Movie Stars – “So Disgraceful” (So Disgraceful EP, 1982)
12 [36:16]  Young Marble Giants – “Music for Evenings” (Colossal Youth, 1980)
13 [39:19]  The Pretenders – “Lovers of Today” (Pretenders, 1980)

[Total Time: 45:14] Download here.

A set of 3 female-centric, post-punk mixes from the Musicophilia blog. To quote:

In a way, it seems slightly odd to explore “the role of women in post-punk” because I don’t want to ghettoise or marginalise it–women were so central that there is none of the feeling of searching for exceptions to the rule here: many of the artists featured are Big Names, who’d make any top-40 list of Most Important Post-Punk Bands.  However, singling women out only illustrates their centrality: you could play these mixes for a post-punk neophyte, and they would come away with a good sense of the breadth and depth of the fertile era/ethos; but they might not even notice, if you didn’t point it out, that the mix focuses on women.

Full article here.

Thanks to Sian Williams.

 
The good people at See Of Sound continue to offer stellar rock documentaries over on their Youtube channel and I’m pleased to be able to showcase them here at Dangerous Minds for your viewing pleasure.

Wesley Willis: The Daddy Of Rock ‘n’ Roll directed by Daniel Bitton is a sweet, non-exploitive documentary about the weirdly wonderful, tormented, talented and irascible Wesley Willis who died at the age of 40 in 2003.

God gave me this rock career to keep me busy. Back in 1991 I used to hit old people with folding chairs. Suddenly, I moved to the north side of Chicago, Illinois in 1992. It made a rock star out of me at last. I’m the daddy of rock n roll! I’m Wesley Willis, I’m 36 years old. I play music and do art. I have schizophrenia. I have chronic schizophrenia. Roger Lee Carpenter asked me for $600. He told me that if I dont give him $600, he was going to blow my brains out. Thats when I started hearing demons. I have three demons: Nervewrecker, Heartbreaker, and Meansucker….I yell, I scream, I holler at people on buses.”

Willis recorded several hundred songs that were like mini-explosions in a pop culture fireworks factory. Obscene, hilarious, poignant, surreal and angry, Willis had a unique take on the modern world and there will never be another like him.
 

 
Via See Of Sound

 
Eunice Kathleen Waymon was born 77 years ago today in the tiny town of Tryon, North Carolina. As Nina Simone, she’d go on to become the most powerful singer/songwriter of the Civil Rights era, blending the rawest aspects of jazz, blues, soul, and gospel into a unique style that buoyed her message of liberation.

As a generation of despots falls in the Middle East and people confront the forces of greed in Wisconsin, it seems apropos to recall what Simone bestowed on the world…
 

 
After the jump: Simone repossesses the Beatles’ “Revolution” and Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” in the name of avant-garde freedom blues…

 
The wonderful Eliane Radigue now composes exclusively for acoustic instruments but here are a couple of her slowly unfolding and deceptively complex electronic works for your listening pleasure along with an utterly charming video portrait. These works, composed entirely on the ARP 2500, the same model that was used in Close Encounters to communicate with the E.T.s, and recorded to a consumer grade reel-to-reel are a mind-clearing delight and will reward the patient listener with layers of subliminal tones and rhythms. Listen carefully.
 
An excerpt from Adnos 1 (1975)

 
An excerpt from Σ = a = b = a + b (1969)

 
A brief visit to the home studio of Eliane Radigue and her beautiful (and keyboard-less!) ARP 2500:

 
With thanks to Justin Meldal-Johnsen !

 
With the Daft Punk soundtrack for Tron Legacy giving off some serious Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre vibes, it seems like it is finally acceptable to be influenced by 80s-style electronic ambience. The album Does It Look Like I’m Here? by the band Emeralds (no “the” - that’s a Japanese surf-rock band) is one of the best examples of a modern take on this sound, and how to do it well.

Released on the Austrian label Editions Mego last year, it’s been a bit of a sleeper hit with the electronica and techno community, ending 2010 in many best-of lists. Full of washy synths, cliff-edge guitar dynamics, slowly building arpeggios and practically no drums, it brings to mind the aforementioned artists in their darkest and most introspective moments. It’s psychedelic, it’s moody, and for the want of a better term it’s progressive. I would imagine it’s a good soundtrack for certain kinds of herbal refreshment.
 

 
Emeralds - Genetic (part 1)
 

 
Emeralds - Double Helix
 

 
Emeralds - Does It Look Like I’m Here?
 

Emeralds have been gigging and recording for the last 4 or 5 years - Does It Look Like I’m Here? is their fourth album, and their most accessible so far. But they’re not from Greece, Scandinavia or Germany - the band actually hail from Ohio. Along with similar ballpark acts from the States like Zombi (from Pittsburgh), it makes me wonder if this kind of epic progressive-synth music doesn’t have the same negative cultural references there that it has in the UK? I know Tangerine Dream were pretty big in the US in their day. However, the cultural legacy of punk in Britain meant that they were seen as being super uncool. Thankfully the times have changed and we can now accept this as being simply great music. You can buy Does It Look Like I’m Here?, um, here.

 
loudQUIETloud documents The Pixies first reunion tour which took place in 2004. I saw their recent re-reunion tour last year and while the band sounded solid the performance lacked passion. I felt they were going through the motions. I kept waiting for the group to look as if they were having fun. Kim Deal appeared to be enjoying herself. The audience loved them. So what do I know?

From A.V. Club: 

Coming more than 10 years after an acrimonious breakup, the Pixies’ reunion tour was called “Pixies Sell Out,” a cheeky reference to their instantly sold-out shows and the blunt reality that they’re doing it for the money. No one should begrudge them the latter: It’s one thing for bands to crash on couches and blow the door proceeds on beer and greasy spoons at the beginning of their careers, but once they get into their 30s and 40s, there are bills to pay. For fans of the seminal alt-rock quartet, the Pixies’ reunion was momentous, but in the solid behind-the-scenes documentary loudquietloud, the band comes across as considerably more muted in its enthusiasm. While there are no big meltdowns, the members don’t really function that well as a unit, and by all indications, they wouldn’t spend another minute together if the tour weren’t refilling the depleted accounts that royalties can no longer cover.

A nice balance of well-photographed live footage and backstage anti-drama, loudquietloud is probably the only all-access (or part-access, anyway) recording of the ‘04 tour, and it’s valuable for that alone. Following the Pixies from their first rehearsal through the last night of their tour-ending New York City stint, the film contrasts the fans’ passion and energy with the band members’ cool professionalism. They all have reasons for distraction: Frontman Charles Thompson (a.k.a. Frank Black) and guitarist Joey Santiago both have wives and children back home; bassist Kim Deal, accompanied by her twin sister/sole confidante Kelley, is only one year removed from drug and alcohol rehabilitation; and drummer David Lovering is dogged by a Valium addiction that nearly derails the tour. When they aren’t performing together, they retreat into solo projects: Thompson looks for a new label for his Frank Black records, Deal works on songs for her band The Breeders, Santiago labors over a independent-movie score, and Lovering practices his magic act.

Whatever serious issues they might have had with each other in the past seem to have been tabled for now—indeed, they aren’t ever hostile or even unkind in the whole film—but they don’t exactly come across as a family, either. Make no mistake: Theirs is a mercenary reunion, and one they’ve paid plenty of dues to deserve.” Scott Tobias

loudQUIETloud in its entirety:

 
Via See Of Sound