Back in May Richard, myself and Elvin Estela (aka DJ Nobody) had the notion to make a pilot episode for a possible Dangerous Minds radio show. The format is a round robin wherein we three music nerds each take turns presenting tunes we think the others (and hopefully the listening audience) would enjoy hearing along with some bits of information and personal anecdotes. In short, a radio/podcast version of what we do every day on the blog. So after some hemming and hawing, as you do, here’s what we came up with. We’re thinking of making this a regular feature for the site. Let us know what you think !
Alan Hawkshaw - Blarney’s Stoned
Armando Trovaioli -Sesso Matto
Keith West- On A Saturday
Alex Oriental Experience - Derule
? - My Name Is John (seriously, we don’t know who this is, help !)
Alison Gross - Naturally
The Oimels - A Day in the Life
Desmond Dekker - Come Together
Leon Russell - I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
Marcos Valle - Mi Hermosa
P.J. Proby - The Day Lorraine Came Down
Baths - ♥
Monitor - Beak
Scotty - Clean Race
Focus - House of the King
To download this episode or subscribe to the podcast please go to our internet radio partner Alterati.com
‘One Potato, Two Potato’ was filmed in 1981 by an anonymous Austrian artist and punk rock musician who reputedly went mad during the shoot and killed the actors and hung himself while film was rolling.
Rumors of ‘One Potato, Two Potato’s’ existence flourished within the snuff underground, but no one had actually seen it. The film suddenly surfaced in December of 2008 on eBay and was quickly snapped up by a mysterious Austrian collector of the bizarre and occult.
Dangerous Minds obtained a copy of the video from black market sources in Turkey and after consulting our legal team have decided to share this controversial film with our audience. Viewer discretion is advised.
God bless Tara for putting up with me because when I get obsessed about a certain artist, I can play the shit out of their albums. As I have previously written about, my darling, smart, funny gorgeous wife has put up with an ultra intense reggae jag (the soundtrack to the first two years of our marriage was Big Youth, Alton Ellis, Joe Higgs and King Tubby), as well as additional “phases” (that’s what she calls them) where In the past six months, I’ve practically worn out CDs of the second Faust album, Dylan and the Band’s Basement Tapes set, various Zappa, Kinks, Joni Mitchell records and scores of things from lesser-known bands that I won’t bother to list. I’m one of those idiots who can play the same album ten times in a row for ten days in a row. I wrestle it to the ground and pin it. Suffice to say, my girl has the patience of a saint and a very open mind about music!
For the past week, I’ve been playing a lot of ‘70s Paul Simon and Simon & Garfunkel albums. I don’t feel like that’s so much of a hardship on Tara because, hey, practically everyone likes Simon & Garfunkel and 70s Paul Simon, don’t they? (And if they don’t they’re idiots and they can go fuck themselves! And if you want to know how I really feel…).
The two things I’ve been listening to the most are the Quadraphonic versions of Bridge Over Troubled Water and Simon’s Still Crazy After All These Years. Both albums are justifiably considered classics and to hear them in a surround sound mix is simply stunning. Mind you, you can’t exactly pick these up in stores.
As I posted about last year when I was guest blogger at Boing Boing, there is a coterie of professional and amateur audiophiles who have been, um, liberating the quadraphonic mixes heard on 8-track and reel to reel releases in the mid ‘70s. They get pristine copies on Ebay (reel to reel tapes are obviously more desirable than 8-tracks for these purposes), play them on refurbished decks capable of handling split tracks, then take the tracks into ProTools and clean them up. Then they take those files into a DVD authoring software and create (often professional looking) menus. Then ISO files are made and uploaded to torrent trackers. All you have to do is download them, burn the files in Toast and now you have a multi-channel DVD-A discs you can play in your DVD player.
This is music that in many cases is literally being lost to time and technological change. Some classic rock albums that came out in the quad format have been put out as legit DVD-A releases (Tubular Bells and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid come to mind) but not most of them. These underground music enthusiasts who are recreating these buried treasures are doing a tremendous favor for deep fanboys and audiophiles, allowing them us to hear some truly incredible things that would have otherwise been trapped in obsolete formats.
Hearing Bridge Over Troubled Water in quad is something akin to a peak religious experience. I stand in the middle of the room—the “sweet spot”—and I CRANK IT UP. Soaking up the intense beauty of that song—and Art Garfunkel’s angelic voice—coming at you from all directions is almost overpowering. So gorgeous. So amazing.
Art Garfunkel must have the most comforting voice I’ve ever heard. Every time I get sick—I mean really sick, puking, feeling like you are going to die and feeling really, really sorry for yourself sick—I usually reach for Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits (and for whatever Freudian reason a bowl of “Life” cereal). Only Neil Young’s Harvest or Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks have the same calming effect on me. I can’t think of a single singer whose talents rival the purity of Garfunkel’s tenor voice. You can’t top him. He’s the very best of the very best. Paul Simon’s songs are great—some of the greatest American musical treasures—but they are much, much greater because of what Garfunkel brings to the table. Paul Simon is wonderful on his own, don’t get me wrong, but with Artie in the mix his music becomes transcendent.
Take My Little Town. If you’re reading this far(!) then chances are you’re probably planning to track this stuff down on the Internet. DO look out for the quad version of Still Crazy After All These Years. Obviously, this is a classic album, every track is a gem, with no filler at all. But… the BEST track is My LIttle Town. When Garfunkel is around Simon is just better and even in the stellar setting of this classic album, My Little Town proves the point. And it’s mind-blowing heard in surround sound.
When I was a kid, wanting desperately to be someplace where things were happening and where I’d meet interesting people, My Little Town spoke to me. No one wanted to get out of their town the way that I did. I have loved this song since I was 10-years-old, but man, lemme tell you, the multichannel mix of this song a powerful revelation.
Having “new” versions of these classic albums helped me get into them again and appreciate them anew. Why hasn’t Columbia or Warners ever reissued BOTW or SCAATY as a surround sound DVD-A releases? Because no one would buy them?!? BOTW was only a number one album in every country in the free world, selling over 25 million copies! SCAATY won a Grammy for best album. These multichannel versions obviously exist in their vaults. It seems crazy to me that the labels wouldn’t jump on the fact that—based on the evidence found on torrent trackers—fans would love to hear these. It’s just leaving money on the table, but even more importantly, most music fans won’t get to experience these Simon & Garfunkel classics as they can best be appreciated on modern sound systems.
From Simon & Garfunkel’s 1968 TV special sponsored by Kraft, here’s a great version of Patterns:
And I had to include this, too. Witness Simon and an extremely cute—and highly exuberant—little girl on Sesame Street duetting on Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard. Like I say, Simon’s at his best with Artie, but he’s aces with little Linda here, too! “It’s against the law!”
Today is the first day of the rest of your summer. We’re giving you a free song to celebrate. A soundtrack to start your car to, to wring out your towel to, to take a walk to tonight. Brad Laner’s new album Natural Selections comes out August 24. The packaging is at the Hometapes house. The green vinyl is on the truck. I thought I couldn’t be hypnotized by this record any further, any deeper, but my heart just jumped, primally, with the first drum hit of “Eyes Close.” Damn, this is good. You can pre-order the record now and we’ll ship it out to you by, or likely before, that magical August day when Natural Selections belongs to everybody.
Aww, flattery will get you everywhere ! Please do make sure to download the mp3, especially if you grabbed the one from last week which was the wrong mix. oops !
Baby, you’re a rich man, and goo goo ga joob, but all you need is Lunch: If you happen to be a fan of The Rutles, the “Prefab Four” created by Monty Python’s Eric Idle and Neil Innes of The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band there will be much smileage with this clever fan-made megamix parody of the Beatles/Cirque du Soleil mash-ups created by George and Giles Martin. Dangerous Minds pal Paul Gallagher has the scoop on his Planet Paul blog:
After ‘Monty Pyhon’s Flying Circus‘, Eric Idle went on to write and star in one of TV’s lost comedy classics, ‘Rutland Weekend Television‘. The series co-starred Neil Innes, Henry Woolf, Gwen Taylor and David Battley, and ran for two series over 1975 and 1976. ’RWT’ was required viewing for a generation of impressionable youngsters, myself included, who had arrived late to ‘Python’ and were just at the right age to enjoy the brilliance of Idle, Innes et al.
For me, ‘Rutland Weekend Television‘ was better than ‘Python‘, as it was edgier, closer to Spike Milligan‘s ‘Q‘ series and all the better for being mainly one man’s vision. Now ‘RWT‘ is best known for unleashing The Rutles: Ron, Dirk, Stig and Barry, the original Prefab Four, who first appeared in a comic musical homage to The Beatles’ ‘Hard Day’s Night’ and then later in 1977, through Idle’s and Innes’ genius collaboration with ‘Saturday Night Live’ producer, Lorne Michaels, in the brilliant mockumentary ‘All You Need Is Cash‘.
Now, over 30 years later, The Rutles return with ‘Lunch‘, one fan’s brilliant musical celebration of Idle’s and Innes’ original concept. ’Lunch‘ owes much to the Cirque du Soleil’s show ‘Love‘, which was based on a cycle of Beatle songs, and even claims to be a collaboration bewteen Rutle Stig O’Hara and Circle of Hay’s founder, Captain Liberty.
Have a listen and hear how Rutlemania brought joy and laughter to the world, and made The Prefab Four wider than Elvis and taller than The Beatles. Enjoy.
Tying together a couple of DM memes, here is notorious chanteuse Claudine Longet doing an interesting thing by combining two John Lennon tunes to a predictably charming outcome. Rather chilling lyrically considering her conviction a few years later for misdemeanor negligent homicide. She didn’t mean to hurt you!
Dr. John Clarke stars in a public service video he produced called “The Gap Rap.”
Apparently there’s a problem at Long Island Railroad stations with people falling into the gap between the train and the platform. So, Dr. Clarke decided to create his ‘health hop’ video.
Dr. Clarke, who captured wide media attention for his H1N1 Flu Rap,was enthusiastic about his new video, “I recognize that gap accidents are quite preventable. I knew that Health-Hop would be a perfect way to spread the message and make an impact.”
Upcoming ‘health hop’ projects for Dr. Clarke : Aids, Global Warming and Lindsay Lohan.
Marcocoeloma trispinosum decorator crab with Zoanthus sp. polyps
Here’s some absolutely stunning and hypnotic HD videos from a marine art collective called MORPHOLOGIC. It’s true color-pallet-bliss.
MORPHOLOGIC is a scientific art endeavor led by marine biologist Colin Foord and musician Jared McKay. With the aquarium as our primary medium, we explore the artistic possibilities of living coral reef organisms via HD vi and site-specific artworks.
Our laboratory/studio is a state certified aquaculture facility perpetuating marine life within the confines of downtown Miami. Working in conjunction with biologists from the Université de Provence in Marseille, France, we are developing a living genetic database, aquaculture techniques, and biological assays of coral species.
The new LP, Transit Transit by the highly creative Los Angeles band Autolux is released today, a mere 6 years after their superb debut LP Future Perfect. Like most bands these days, Autolux wear their influences clearly on their sleeves but they do so in such tasteful and pleasant ways, you won’t mind a bit. Here’s a clip of the band playing a tune from the new album :
And a couple more atmospheric tracks from the album after the jump…
WinterBand are an Apostolic Pentecostal rock group led by a ZZ Top-looking religious zealot and badass named Steve Winter. A fire and brimstone nutjob with a beard more flammable than a Rhode Island nightclub, Winter makes Jimmy Swaggart seem like the voice of reason. His hatefilled diatribes against other religious sects, his extreme and bizarre views on Christian doctrine, his appalling attitude toward women, his dozens of wacky Internet sites, and numerous lawsuits against anyone who questions his legitimacy as a religious prophet, portray a man who is operating in the void left by Jim Jones, David Koresh and Marshall Applewhite (Heaven’s Gate cult). Within the Pentecostal community, Winter has accrued an enemies list so long it makes Nixon’s look like a haiku.
Visit his website and you’ll get a glimpse into the brain of one angry and ugly Bible thumper, seething with self-righteous disdain for virtually every sentient being on the planet.
Winter’s a third-rate hustler, a pious Three-card Monte player on the backstreets of holy salvation. The Steve Winter FAQ provides an interesting insight to the nature of his internet spamming and scamming. Google the dude. He’s everywhere, even appearing on religious-themed dating websites.
Clearly, this guy gives me the creeps and that’s why I find him so compelling. His particular strain of holier-than-thou sermonizing coupled with shitty apocalyptic hard rock is far more doom-laden than most Christian rock. His 70s style riffage and uber right wing politics make him the perfect opening act for teabaggin’ asswipe Ted Nugent.
As familiar as we are with the Jamaican sound system tradition, it shouldn’t surprise us wherever we find the grass-roots praxis of bumping bass through massive speakers in a non-club setting. Witness for example the pico sound systems of the Colombian port city of Barranquilla off the Caribbean Sea, which like their Jamaican counterparts have been in effect since at least the ‘50s.
People debate the origin of the term pico—is it derived from pick-up trucks that transport the speakers, or from the common practice of picking up the needle on a popular record to start again? But there’s no debate that these systems are a crucial way for underground DJs to break tunes from tons of genres, including cumbia, salsa, calypso, dancehall reggae, soukous, champeta (a Carribean-tinged northern Colombian boogie style), Afrobeat and more.
Plus, any pico worth its salt seems to be obsessive enough about its name and theme that it gets its speakers hand-painted accordingly, with imagery ranging from Camacho Indian hunters to burly combat tanks.
The seven-piece Systema Solar seems to be the savviest group to have emerged from the pico scene—they’ve leveraged their versatility into a touring outfit, and have played throughout Europe and parts of the US. As you’ll see here, they know how to harken back to their roots…
After the jump: El Gran Fidel, plus the New York-based Dutty Artz crew documents how bananas it gets at a pico dance, complete with speaker-diving and hose-downs from the local fire brigade…
OK, America, here’s how it seems to be going down in Tuscon, AZ as of earlier today, despite the standing federal injunction against SB1070, the state of Arizona’s attempt to enforce national border laws.
Run a stop sign, get detained potentially by Border Patrol.
I first heard the baroque folk group Pentangle’s song Light Flight on the British equivalent to TV Toons, a sprawling 2 CD set of 60s and early 70s television themes with Diana Rigg as Emma Peel on the cover. Because the songs were all so short, there were about 50 per CD, but one song stood out among them and it was the Pentangle track. The other day I stumbled across a clip of the group playing the song in front of a studio audience and I also found a clip of the show Light Flight was the theme for, a series called Take Three Girls, a 1969 BBC drama that followed the lives of three young women living together in a flat in London. It was the first series to be broadcast in color on the BBC. From the looks of things here, this appears to be a swinging 60s antecedent to Sex and the City. I’d really love to see this! It says on Wikipedia that of the 26 episodes all but ten of them are thought lost.
Does anyone out there have a copy? It doesn’t hurt to ask…
