Thunderbird is the crack cocaine of wines. It’s fortified with additional alcohol to get you drunk quicker. If you drink enough of the swill it will turn your tongue black, incinerate your gut and napalm your liver. The Gallo Wine Co. designed their firewater with the ghetto in mind. Their radio ads featured a song with a proto-rap vibe, “What’s the word? / Thunderbird / How’s it sold? / Good and cold / What’s the jive? / Bird’s alive / What’s the price? / Thirty twice.”  It is said that…

Ernest Gallo once drove through a tough, inner city neighborhood and pulled over when he saw a bum. When Gallo rolled down his window and called out, “What’s the word?” the immediate answer from the bum was, “Thunderbird.

In a move that seems almost surreal, actor James Mason was recruited by Gallo to pitch its poverty punch. He was given a Rolls Royce as payment. Years later, Mason went on to star as a vicious slave owner in the soft-core blaxploitation potboiler Mandingo. Thunderbird shill to sleazoid slave owner ain’t much of a stretch character wise and probably didn’t earn him any dividends in the karma department.

The first ad in the following video tries to glamorize Thunderbird as a sexy, hip and happening cocktail for young stylish Blacks. The second is Mason trying to keep a straight face as he describes Thunderbird as “not quite like anything I’ve ever tasted.’

Apparently James had never drunk gasoline.
 

 
Tattoo You? More like “fuck you” if your names happen to be Ronnie, Charlie and Bill!

Business Insider asked former Windows head, Brad Silverberg how he and his team got the Rolling Stones song “Start Me Up” for use in the company’s marketing campaign for Windows 95. What transpired makes for a rather amusing tale:

The Stones are a Corporation, with Mick as CEO, Keith as COO. Their business happens to be music. Those two make decisions. The other band members are essentially employees.

The Stones had not licensed their music for TV commercials. Mick was reluctant to license the song to us because of “artistic purity.” But Keith apparently has a higher burn rate than Mick, or not as good as an investor. He told Mick he could use the money and ultimately convinced Mick to do the deal. At the same time, the Stones were at a low point in their career and looking to become relevant again, and Win 95 looked like it could be a big hit and give them a helpful association and visibility.

The final version of the song was delivered for the commercial. We noticed though that it was not the studio version, but rather a more recently recorded live version. We pushed back and got the familiar studio version. The reason we got the other version was some of the band members in the newer version were more recent, and Mick/Keith got much higher royalties for themselves from that version than the studio one. Nice try. But it was tense till the very end.

Via the essential Bob Lefsetz

 
Nothing to see here, move along.

(via TDW)

 
Every once in a while, when you’re not trying to teach yourself heavy metal yodeling or trying to figure out what it is that is so captivating about Johnny Rotten in a poorly-made Italian police drama from the 1980s, you might find yourself eager to kick back with a quick bout of gaming. Something immersive, so you can dive in, shoot a few death rays and forget that you’ll never, ever be as cool as Mick Farren.

Alienware’s new laptop offerings are packed with enough power to handle the most intense gaming sessions, but work just as well for listening to Dangerous Minds Radio. The M11x won the Best in CES 2010 award for gaming, supercharging its diminutive frame with great graphics capabilities. The M15x, a step above, packs the same level of power into a comfortable 15’’ screen. Lastly, the M17x is maxed out with the most powerful processors around to ensure you can keep blasting away in the heat of the moment.

For more information, click here.

 
One hit wonders Zager and Evans’ 1969 chartbuster, “In the Year 2525,” seems as good a song as any to pull out on such a hot August day here in thee Summer of Hate.

An apocalyptic warning about the dangers of technology, the Second Coming and other foreboding stuff, the song as recorded in 1968, in a session the duo paid $500 for. After being released independently via a regional label, the record caught on with a Texas radio station that hipped RCA-Victor to tune, who then picked it up for nation distribution. It stayed at the #1 spot for six weeks in 1969 and was the top song the week of the moon landing.

Zager and Evans never had another hit record. The follow-up to “In the Year 2525” was called “Mr. Turnkey” and told the story of a rapist who nails his own wrist to the wall as punishment for his crimes. What a nutty idea for a pop song! “Mr. Turnkey” failed to chart.

After 9/11, “In the Year 2525” was famously banned from airplay by Clear Channel. As we get closer to the year, expect to hear this song with ever increasing frequency.
 

 
Brick Stone rules! This is hilarious!

 
Ebony Ads 1972

(via Everlasting Blort )

 
That brilliant Bob Odenkirk character reminded me of this twisted old coot who is unfortunately not joking. I do however love how the casio changes settings with each edit and it’s quite a jaunty little tune for such a grimly absurd message. See Richard’s post from last year for more info about this deeply silly man.
 

 
Warning: this ad is toxic.

Created by the German advertising agency Zeitsprung, this extremely nasty public service announcement depicts HIV in the form of a body modification artist. Yeah, guys with tattoos and earrings and bumps on their heads should be avoided at all costs when it comes to hugs. They might be HIV positive. But big white cuddly bears are okay. You already knew that, right?

Since when has HIV been transmitted through hugging?

The ad is worthless, or at best confusing, as information and propagates an ugly stereotype about people who look different than the average guy on the street.

The message to wear condoms gets lost in the ad’s horror movie shock effect.

 
I didn’t say he goes “deep” inside their minds, did I? This is brilliant! He totally nails it.

“C.S. Lewis Jr.” reminds me a lot of THIS GUY, don’t cha think?
 

 
As some of you reading this might recall, in the old Disinformation TV series, I devoted the next to last episode entirely to the topic of the potential for harm that easily available Internet porn, in particular the extreme variant called “gonzo porn,” might have in store for an entire generation of (mostly) young males. The piece left the question open ended, but it was clear that neither I, nor most of the people I interviewed (including porn actresses and producers) had any hope that much good would come of adolescent males spending their free time having images of violent sex seared onto their eyeballs at the point of orgasm. And besides that, what were they learning about human sexuality at the hands of twisted psychopaths like Max Hardcore and Rob Black? That their girlfriends would like them to invite 10 of their friends over for a session of tender love-making or perhaps that shoving a girl’s head in the toilet during sex was a suave move?

Well, the verdict is starting to come in that we’re—literally—raising a generation of… wankers. An entire generation has had their sexual fantasies hijacked by this stuff. This quite good 2007 BBC documentary Teens Hooked on Porn, is a disturbing look at what’s happening to Internet porn addicted kids. The pimple-faced young men portrayed in this documentary, sad to say, are going to have no idea what to do with a real girl when they have the chance. And frankly, what girl would want anything to do with them?

As you watch this, imagine their lives at 25, 40 and well beyond. It ain’t a pretty thought…
 

 
Thank you Paul Gallagher!

 
I’ve spent so much time with this record already, I nearly forgot that this is the day it officially makes its way into the world. Be kind, world ! Actually folks have been extremely kind so far. Prefix mag via KCRW posted up a lovely piece yesterday and there’s a podcast with songs from my shady past and present as well as a pretty good and casual phone interview at Most People Are DJs. And of course, as you doubtless already know due to that flashing ad down there, you can buy your own CD or colored vinyl LP (see above) directly from my superb label, Hometapes.
 

Brad Laner - Eyes Close from Josh Laner on Vimeo.

 
Dangerous Minds pal Jesse Merlin says, “Sit! Stay! Play undead!”

Thanks, Jesse!

 
My North San Fernando Valley compatriot Will Wiesenfeld, a.k.a. Baths is currently conquering the music world with his melodically strong and sonically
fascinating tunes. Here’s his first proper video, directed by Young Replicant , wherein a dying samurai is revived by I dunno, the members of Animal Collective ? It hardly matters when the music is this creative.
 

 
Video: Baths: “Lovely Bloodflow” (pitchfork)
 
Previously on DM:
 
BEAT STAR BATHS REMIXES L.A. UNDERGROUND LEGEND BRAD LANER
 
WHO IS BATHS?
 
DANGEROUS MINDS RADIO HOUR EPISODE 1

 
Hysterical GIF from Mark Frauenfelder over at Boing Boing. Brilliant!