Miles Davis’ birthday was yesterday but I still love him today, so I’m posting this absolutely staggeringly great series of clips comprising his 1970 performance at the Isle of Wight festival. After viewing this for the first time when it was released a few years ago it got under my skin to such an extent that I had dreams about it for the next few nights. There’s some sort of holy communion with the spirit of pure music going on here that I can’t begin to profess to understand, but the musicians here are obviously touched by the proceedings in a way that transcends mere “rocking out”. See if you don’t agree.

 
The insane $2000 Miles Davis Box Set

 
(via Retro Thing)

 
It’s hard to overstate the effect upon our psyches of things we’re exposed to when we are young and impressionable. For better or worse, these things stay with us forever and if we’re lucky these things are also of enduring quality and mystery. Such is the case with myself and the little known band Monitor, whose sole 7” single I chanced upon at Slipped Disc record store in Sepulveda, CA around 1980. I was already at this time quite the ardent Devo fan and I could tell they too had vaguely similar aesthetics, especially in Steve Thompsen’s virtuoso synth manglings. So enchanted was I with this lil’ slab o’ vinyl that I tracked them down and started hanging around with them and sneaking into all of their shows. That I soon found out they attended the same high school as I, 10 years earlier, only deepened my affection for them. As it happened they were just preparing to release their one and only self-titled LP which while retaining its electronic foundations revealed a darker, more psychedelic sound. And then, rather suddenly it was over. Drummer Keith Mitchell went on to fame with Mazzy Star, guitarist Michael Uhlenkott formed The Romans, Steve Thompsen eventually joined LAFMS improv trio Solid Eye and bassist (and major early crush object for yours truly) Laurie O’Connell disappeared into Northern Californian suburban family life. There are periodic rumors of re-issues and even a book documenting their fleeting existence, but for now all that remains are the handful of recordings and this one live clip from New Wave Theatre, which as far as I can tell was their very last performance together.
 

 
Bonus ! Everyone’s favorite difficult electronic music duo Autechre is dropping their second LP of the year. Their dirty, unkempt and unfussy sound is always a welcome presence on my various music reproduction devices. Not to mention the sport of observing the hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth by their legions of fanboys who can never be pleased but can nonetheless be counted on to purchase every last object issued by their heroes. Long may they bit-crush.

 
Autechre- Move of Ten

 
If you heard about Patti Smith getting an honorary degree at Pratt last week, her sweet/funny speech at Radio City Music Hall to the graduating students is now on YouTube.
 
Bonus clip of The Patti Smith Group performing Horses and Hey Joe and on the Old Grey Whistle Test program.
 

Via The Awl

 
This afternoon I heard Up in a Puff of Smoke by British singer Polly Brown (in a Rite Aid store, natch) and made a mental note that it might make a good post for the blog. This song was an AM radio staple back in 1974, when I first heard it as a nine-year old and I still have it on a 45RPM record. What an amazing introduction! What a great drum beat (Ami Stewart’s disco-fied cover of Knock on Wood owes it a debt of gratitude, don’t cha think?)! The production is wowsers, mixing proto-disco with a glam rock edge. What a catchy tune and man, what a VOICE.

Other than this song, I knew little—next to nothing—of Polly Brown. From the sound of her voice—which is mid-way between Dionne Warwick and Diana Ross—I just assumed that Polly Brown was a black woman. As you can see from the above album cover, she is in fact quite white. But when I was reading the Wikipedia entry on Brown (who was the lead singer of Pickettywitch, which was also news to me and a duo called Sweet Dreams) I came across this rather odd fact about the woman with the soulful pipes:

“As a member of Sweet Dreams, Brown was billed as Sara Leone - a reference to the African nation of Sierra Leone - and performed in black face.”

It was the 70s, I guess…?
 

 
Last week’s Anthology Film Archives 40th Anniversary Blowout, Return to the Pleasure Dome, honored, naturally, the works of filmmaker Kenneth Anger.  Technicolor Skull—Anger on theremin (!), Dangerous Minds pal, Brian Butler, on guitar—performed that night (see below), as did Sonic Youth and Lou Reed.  Vice is carrying a stream of Reed’s 13-minute noodling performance.  Fans of Metal Machine Music Lou can check it out here.

 
I love His Bobness as much as the next guy or gal but instead of picking one of his revered classics to share today I couldn’t resist putting up this hilarious and spot-on parody by National Lampoon from back in the early 70’s which without a doubt has pissed off many an earnest fan the world over ever since. Enjoy !

 
Bonus: One of the finest Dylan covers ever, The 13th Floor Elevators doing It’s All Over Now Baby Blue

 
Relatively new to Youtube is this 2008 documentary in its three hour (!) entirety. I’ll admit I haven’t watched the whole thing yet so can’t vouch for quality, though it evidently touches on the whole beloved Krautrock spectrum. Hell, I’d watch a documentary about plumbing if it had something about Can in it, so I’ll be diving right into this one shortly.

 
This is hilarious. Dig the audience! What is this? Who are Why are they there? It’s incidental that the Bay City Rollers happen to be onstage with a tartan-wearing Ann Margaret, but the audience! I love the range of reaction, from uninhibited dancing to the one lady knitting.

This wonderfulness via Lady Bunny blog/Marc Campbell.