You Say France and I Whistle

I just came across this old WFMU blog post about Van Morrison's Bang Records Contractual Obligation Session.

In order to fulfill his obligation to his early solo label Bang Records,Van Morrison sat down in 1967 or so and cranked out 31 songs on the spot, on topics ranging from ringworm to wanting a danish, to hating his record label and a guy named George. Make sure you get past the first few tunes - it takes him a few to get cooking.

"You Say France and I Whistle" is one of the best song names I've come across and the song itself if cracking me up.

Listen to all the songs here.

Garfield without Garfield

These are surprisingly sad and hilarious. Garfield comics with the lovable cat removed.

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?

Many more here.

Don't they know what "real" means?

Yeti Endorses Barack Obama.

I've been fairly undecided up until now about which candidate I would rather see in office. I think a woman president would be a great thing for America and two weeks ago was leaning towards Clinton. Things have changed since then. I've seen the type of traditional dirty politics she plays and I don't agree with that. My looming concern over her vote for calling Iran's military forces a "terrorist organization" bugged the heck out of me. But on the other hand, she seemed she would have more experience in running the nuts and bolts of the White House. Clinton may be the better president in terms of achieving certain goals, but I want even more from a President (and no, not a beer). We've seen what "experience" has gotten us with Cheney and Rumsfeld and it takes more than experience. I want to be inspired. I want to feel good about out image in the world.

Lawrence Lessig -the brilliant "Free Culture" expert- compiled his thoughts in a twenty minutes PowerPoint style video, and it reinforced my concerns over Hilary. A little of it is hokey, but it is very inspiring at the end.

Legion of Rock Stars

Legion of Rock Stars is the cover band that I would probably be like if my Rock Band buddies and I started a real band.

Danzig's "Mother"


Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"


Speaking of cover bands. Thermals are playing their karaoke set this week.

Not sure if this is final post of this blog for 2007. I might try tumblr for a while. Maybe cross post in both places. Who knows.

X-mas mix

Instead of posting a Indie Rock Christmas mix which tend to generally suck, I'll once again link to DJ Riko's Christmas mix from 2005. The only songs I skip are Bright Eyes (blehck!) and the "Snowflakes" song (yawn). But other than that it's really spectacular and much more solid than the one he made last year (although that too has some gems). I haven't yet sampled the other ones he made from 2002-2004, but I'll get right on that and report back here.

Rapidshare link to DJ Riko's Merry Mixmas 2005.


Here's the track list:

Intro
Singers Unlimited - Caroling Caroling
DJ Riko featuring Marcie - My Chimney
Luscious Jackson - Let it Show
The Free Design - Now Sound of Christmas
Lou Monte - Dominick the Donkey
Louis Armstrong - Cool Yule
Mr Hanky - Santa Claus is on His Way
The Ventures - Silver Bells
George W. Bush - Twas the Night Before Christmas (Jima edit)
Kids of Widney High - Christmas is the Time
Ringo Starr - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Madness - Insanity Over Christmas
Augie Rios - Donde Esta Santa Claus
Disney - Santa's Rap
Pizzicato Five - Snowflakes
Chet Baker - Winter Wonderland
Neil Diamond - Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Big Ben Banjo Band - Christmas Medley 2
Alvin and the Chipmunks - Chimpunk Song (Slow Version)
Bright Eyes - Little Drummer Boy
Tenchi Muyo vs. The Singing Dogs - Jingle Bells
Wayne Newton - Jingle Bell Hustle
Buchanan & Goodman - Santa and the Satellite
Esquivel! - Frosty the Snowman
Huey Piano Smith and the Clowns - All I Want for Christmas
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Santa Claus - A Visit From Santa Claus
Little Bobby Rey - Corrido de Auld Lang Syne
Santa Outro

It Only Encourages Them

I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm posting a band that someone actually sent me. I'm sick of reading emails from bands. Not that I read them. But they still take up space in my inbox. I have to read who sent them before I delete them.

So a guy asked me to give Slow Runner a listen, and since he pinned me against the wall and since I wasn't busy at the moment, I did. They are from South Carolina or thereabouts. I like them well enough. Reminds me of Pedro the Lion.

If I had an ftp that worked, I'd post some copywritted material for you guys to gobble up, but for now you'll have to go use friendster myspace facebook myspace.

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Checked out Cadence Weapon and Final Fantasy last night. CW was OK. The crowd wasn't as responsive but given the Sunday night and unique pairing with FF I can understand why. Once again Owen P. was incredible. I wish he'd play here more frequently. The crowd gave rapturous applause almost ever song. That's really the perfect word: rapturous. The rapacious raptors rapturousily raped the Buffalo buffalo.

That's about it for now. Slow week coming up, but Mario Galaxy comes out today and I can devote some of my free time to that.