Booda Ode (Stupid Brother) is a Nigerian musical comedy in which the characters are constantly in motion. I’ve never seen anything like this. Between the looped Yoruba rhythm track, non-stop dancing and chanting of dialogue, this is a completely new take on the concept of the film musical. It’s either hypnotic or maddening, or both, depending on where your head’s at.
Parts 2, 3, and 4 after the jump…
Some bands just slip through and are never caught by the audience they deserve. I was reminded of this tonight by dear Tommy Udo, who refreshed the aging memory cells with a superb clip of The Hook ‘n’ Pull Gang. In the words of Mr Udo:
Another of the greatest bands you’ve never heard of. One single, a few gigs that I was too out of it to fully appreciate. Actually, no, I appreciated them like fuck. Just cannae remember them. The guitarist/singer formed Die Cheerleader after this. They were great too.
The Hook ‘n’ Pull Gang were Eileen McMullan (drums/vocals), Rita Blazyca (guitar/vocals) and Alan McDade (bass), who were part of Edinburgh’s late 1980’s indie scene. Described as “a cross between the Sex Pistols and the Ronettes,” they sang about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, released only one single Gasoline, rarely gave interviews, were a great act live and appeared on FSd - BBC Scotland’s up-its-own-arse music show, which made some amends by premiering bands such as The Dog Faced Hermans, The Blood Uncles, and, of course, The Hook ‘n’ Pull Gang.
With thanks to Tommy Udo
Bonus clip ‘Gasoline’ after the jump…
Hard-charging San Francisco quintet Hank IV’s “Garbage Star” from their album III (Siltbreeze)
Directed by Staci DeGagne & Heather MacLean Produced by Clean White Lines
Thank you Syd Garon!
Fabled Silver Lake indie rock venue, Spaceland has announced on their website that they’ll be closing their doors soon. Then again, having said that, it looks like other than a change of name things won’t be all that noticeable to the joint’s hipster clientele when it reopens as The Satellite. As reported in the LA Weekly: The “new” management (i.e. one half of the old management, Jeff Wolfram, the guy who owns the real estate) at the 1717 Silver Lake Blvd. space are bringing back Jennifer Teftt, the longtime booker at Spaceland who left last year. There will be no changes in shows already scheduled at the venue, including the upcoming Melvins residency in January 2011.
Spaceland Productions’ Liz Garo confirmed to the LA Weekly that Spaceland Productions plan to open another live music venue within a “few months.” So, in the end, the place isn’t really closing, the promoters are just moving on and keep the name.
So the more things change, the more they… something something.
We just hope they keep booking Neil Hambuger. He’s the dour, non-singing “Marty and Elayne” of Spaceland, a venerable LA institution! Where else else would I take my parents when they’re in town?
The Hollywood Reporter’s James Hibbard writes:
Parents TV Council claims profanity is up a shocking percentage in primetime. (In fact, they say it’s up 69% ... snicker). While I don’t think the PTC would intentionally cook their numbers, they’re not exactly an unbiased organization about this stuff, so you have to be a tad skeptical when any activist group presents in-house research. Most interesting is the PTC’s list of words they’re objecting to (their chart, below), which expands mightily on George Carlin’s famous list of seven words you can never say on TV. Wondering: Does the Bible-based “hell” and “damn” really seem like profanity? What about “suck” and “screw”? Is bleeped profanity the same as profanity that you actually hear? (Perhaps ... you do sort of get the point). And is anybody else curious what the euphemisms were for “fuck”? And what does “other breasts” mean, exactly?
Read the article and see the full graph here.
Via Warming Glow
Pop artist Ron English has come up with some witty new products in anticipation of the eventual legalization of pot.
See more at Ron’s site Popaganda. “English coined the term Popaganda to describe his signature mash-up of high and low cultural touchstones.”
Via CB
Eddie Ruscha aka Secret Circuit is an old pal of mine who happens to be a bit of a Renaissance man about town. He’s been posting some fantastically synth-centric mixes as of late and I thought I’d share the latest offering here as well.
Digitized mix from ‘05.
Straight from the cassette….
Contains strong doses of: Schultz, Eddy Grant, Dury, Yello, Earth Wind and Fire, Soft Rocks, J.P. Massiera, Sly Dunbar, Joe Thomas, Roland Boquet, Emperor Machine, Clouds, Funkadelic, McCartney, Cloud One, Tom Tom Club, Can, Space, YMO, Bohannon, Vicious Pink, and a brain crushing cast of other artists that will make you sick with confusion!
Dutch ersatz Merseybeat gone psych band Zipps grapple with the irksome Marie Juana with the aid of gratuitous harpsichord and quaint European xenophobia. Marie Juana, architect of the gods of my mind…. Huh ?
Thanks again, Clint Simonson!
“What do you call brunch and lunch, when they’re combined?”
I’ll admit to having a bit of a love/hate relationship with Steve Coogan. Of course, he’s an brilliant comic talent, don’t get me wrong, but Coogan’s hit to miss ratio is so bad that many lesser talents never would have gotten the second, third, forth, fifth, etc, chances that he’s had, career-wise. When Steve Coogan is great, like, say, whenever he plays Alan Partridge, in 24 Hour Party People or in the first series of Saxondale, he’s truly great. But when he’s doing almost anything else, it’s probably more likely to be shit than not (For instance, his current Michael Winterbottom-directed series, The Trip: sans the always likable presence of Rob Bryden and the beauty of the English countryside, well, that show would totally and utterly unwatchable.)
But I do come here to praise Steve Coogan, really, I do, because he’s returned once again to the character that’s brought him his greatest comedy success, inept talkshow host Alan Partridge, for a new web series and the results, as expected, are solid. And very, very funny. Fans of Alan Partridge you will not be disappointed, I can assure you. If the first two episodes are anything to go by, the standards are up to the original series.
The thirteen 11-minute shorts were written by Coogan and his long-time collaborator Armando Iannucci, along with Rob and Neil Gibbons. Alan Partridge’s career is now even further in the dumper. He hosts a radio show called Mid-Morning Matters on North Norfolk Digital (“Music and chat for the North Norfolk generation”). Alan’s co-host, Sidekick Simon is played by Tim Key, winner of the Edinburgh Comedy award in 2009.
The unforced podcast-conceit (the viewers see what someone tuning into the fictional radio station’s webcam would find) lends a seemingly improvisational looseness to the material, which Mid-Morning Matters with Alan Partridge uses to its full advantage. Truly this production also doesn’t feel like “low budget” Alan Partridge, it just feels like we’ve got Coogan firing creatively with all pistons once again. Put this man in a cardigan sweater and he’s a comic genius. Driving around LA in a sports car in a romcom with Rebecca Romijn, not so good. The key to a great Coogan performance seems to lie in the fact that he’s very good at playing comically repellent characters—he’s got anti-charisma down pat—but when he’s actually trying to be charming, he falls desperately flat. Awkward and inept he does well, but a Hollywood leading man, he will never be, Coogan’s best when working with his prodigious talents, not against them. Aha!
The Mid-Morning Matters with Alan Partridge web series is produced by Foster’s and can be viewed at Foster’s Funny.com, but the material isn’t licensed for American audiences, so look for it posted on Daily Motion, YouTube and elsewhere.
Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters - Episode 1
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