Frankie Smith is best know for his song ‘Double Dutch Bus’ recorded in 1981. In the song, Smith created a new style of hip-hop slang that has become a big part of the music’s culture. By putting “iz” in the middle of a word or replacing trailing syllables with “-izzle,” Smith arrived at a funky form of nonsense that was quickly absorbed into rap’s vernacular. Snoop Dogg took it to the next level.

In addition to recording his own songs, Smith wrote tunes for The Spinners, Archie Bell and the Drells, The O’Jays and Billy Paul. But, ‘Double Dutch Bus’ was his most significant achievement. Without Smith, there’d be no “fo shizzle ma nizzle.”

One of Smith’s lesser known talents was as a yo yo master. After the success of ‘Double Dutch Bus’, Frankie went looking for the next big thing and he thought the idea of combining yo yos with disco music was the ticket. In 1982, he recorded ‘Yo Yo Champ.’ It did not set the world on fire, but he managed to get some TV appearances out of the deal. One of which is included here.

The ‘Double Dutch Bus’ video is the only official video made for the song. Ironically, it was made for Dutch television.

 
Must see video of the Yo Yo Champ after the jump…

 
Attention good people of California, the mighty Bad Brains are coming our way for a whirlwind six day tour.

Bad Brains in California tour dates:
Aug 19 @ Ventura Theater, Ventura, CA
Aug 20 @ House of Blues, Anaheim, CA
Aug 21 @ Sunset Junction, Los Angeles, CA
Aug 22 @ Belly Up Tavern, Solano Beach, CA
Aug 23 @ The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA
Aug 24 @ Slim’s, San Francisco, CA

The band is giving away tickets at their website for each of the shows. Register to win here. If you win the free tickets, I guess you won’t have to, ahem, pay to cum! (Ha ha ha ha. I’m so darned funny, I just slay myself).
 

 
Note that the above video of the Bad Brains playing Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, shot at CBGBs, also comes from the InnerTube cable access series, circa 1982, that Marc wrote about here.

 
It’s not Neu! but it’s the closest we’re going to get and it sounds pretty fucking glorious. Its Hallogallo 2010 , consisting of living legend Michael Rother with helpers Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth and Aaron Mullan of Tall Firs. WNYC has posted the trio’s recent show at Lincoln Center for our perusal. enjoy !

 
No Cover: Michael Rother and Friends Play the Music Of Neu! (WNYC)
 
Thanks Ian Raikow!

Legendary rock journalist, performer, novelist and countercultural gadfly since the 60s, Mick Farren discusses his newest book, Speed-Speed-Speedfreak (Feral House). Elvis Presley, The Hell’s Angels, Hunter S. Thompson, Truman Capote, the Beatles, Hank Williams, the Manson Family, Jack Keroauc, Johnny Cash, JFK, Adolph Hitler: all of the above were, at one time or another, to put it bluntly, speedfreaks.
 

 
Among musicians, dreams die hard. This video from Eric Sandvik (Dwayne838) is a true life miniature melodrama. It has all the ingredients of a movie or a classic cry-in-your-beer country song: pathos, shattered hopes, hustlers, the shady side of the music business, Nashville, Memphis, an out of control Greyhound bus, the will to keep on keepin’ on and a bittersweet ending.

You gotta love Eric for sticking to the thing he loves best, his music, even when it bites him in the ass.

My advice to Eric is to steer clear of the Nashville jive, stay in Jersey where what you see is what you get.  And don’t spend what you don’t got. The rock and roll gravy train has left the station. And The Eagles suck.

Good luck, man

Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
Don’t let ‘em pick guitars or drive them old trucks.
Let ‘em be doctors and lawyers and such.
Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
‘Cos they’ll never stay home and they’re always alone.

 
This languid and dreamy, heavily phase-shifted late period mid-tempo disco masterpiece was released on the storied Casablanca Records label in 1979 by one Dennis Parker, better known as ill-fated porn and soap opera actor Wade Nichols. I guess the below clip is a fairly recent discovery which offers not only an oddly affecting melodramatic performance from Parker, er Nichols but also a gorgeous look at late 70’s mid-town Manhattan.

 
More after the jump…

 
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.
 

 
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.

 
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.

 
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!!