The
pressure to make new music is always hard for those who don't make
their living at it, and making quality CDs is even harder. Here are
three recent CDs; the 29th, 2nd and first CD by the various
groups.
Obama Mia!
Baron
Dave and three cast members of The Capitol Steps two CDs
ago Washington DC, April 14. 2007CE
Obama Mia! is the 29th
Album from the Capitol Steps.
Their album sales are incidental to their performances, which
constantly change as the political landscape changes. If you're ever
in DC -- or around their road show -- make time to go see them.
They'll have updated material, poking fun at the politics of the day.
You'll probably be about a half-album ahead of their next release.
Obama Mia! contains more of their routines and spoken intros
than others, partially because they work so well.
Singling
out Capitol Steps cuts is difficult, as the transitions to and from
songs add to each, but I'll mention a few favorites. Lirty
Dies: 2008 -- The Load To Erection (mp3, 8:07) is one of the
better entries in a very strong string of political commentary made
pungent by spoonerism. Ebony
and Ovaries (mp3, 3:56) is a duet between former rivals Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama, to the tune of... well, you can probably
figure it out.
Soon-to-be-former President Bush is rendered
harmless by his inability to speak English in the spoken routine
"George Bush: A Time for Refraction":
As you know, we've
had a historic election in our country, and despite my difference
with Barack Obama, I find him to be a inspiring man.
He's written
a book where he outlines several of his thoughts and ideas for the
future. I haven't seen these ideas... because they're in a
book....
As you may be aware, as my term is coming to its end, I
feel it's a time for refraction. I've always show the greatest
affliction for the American people. Even my retractors agree that I
have been successful in reversing many of the accomplishments of past
administrations.
They get a few last licks into W. with
"The Chap Who Threw His Two Shoes" and "George W. Creditreport.com".
Still, my favorite bit on the CD is he duet between Obama and Bush,
"Barackberry", where Obama demonstrates that he is a president for
the 21st Century whereas Bush isn't quite up to the 19th. Barack:
"I mean your PDA? How did you stay connected? How did you stay in
touch?" George W: "Well, if I proved anything during my presidency,
is that keeping out of touch was kinda my forte. heh heh
heh"
The Capitol Steps are an equal opportunity basher, and
targets include Oprah, Joe the Plumber, former Gov. Blagojevich,
Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton and Subprime Mortgage
Holders.
Like their other albums, Obama Mia! is political
filk done right. Get the CD now, before the political spotlight
moves on and the jokes are fresh. Highly recommended for anyone who
follows politics even alittle.
Giant Kitten
Carrie
Dahlby, Marscon, March 6, 2009CE
Carrie and Josh got married
a few days ago, so I should really review her latest CD, which
premiered at Marscon. As a Wedding present, I have entered all the
track info for the album and uploaded it to CDDB.
Giant
Kitten, the sophomore solo effort from Dementia Music artist
Carry Dahlby, has one of my favorite album covers: A giant kitten
head poking through the clouds to gaze mischievously at London. The
CD is a fine effort, tapping the talents of many Dementia Music
artists and promoting fired radio personality T.
D. Mischke (who performs the first cut).
In Carrie
Dahlby's first CD, Happy Ranch, she
threw in, almost as an afterthought, some of the short songs she sang
over her cell phone to Buffy Kitty. Those were so much fun that she
has 16 of them here, in better audio, which is why the CD has 35
tracks. Be careful playing on Shuffle (or Genius) as your cat will
get jealous.
My favorite of her new songs is "The World Is
Made Of". It's become almost an anthem which will rev up a crowd. A
version was on the Marscon
2009 Dementia Track Fundraiser which I talked
about earlier. Bartcop-E is a family site, so I won't give away
what the world is made of, but knowing this crowd, you'll like the
song too. You can get the solo track on iTunes from a FuMP
collection.
Carrie does a lot of overdubbing to harmonize
with herself. This works well most of the time, especially on the a
cappella "The Last Half Birthday", about turning 29 1/2. Once you
turn 30 your life is over. She relates the equivalent of her bucket
list, what she's going to do in the next six months. Besides
harmonizing with herself, Carrie shares the CD with the great Luke Ski and ShoEboX of Worm Quartet, among
others.
She backs up Devo
Spice in the Nerdcore Rap paean to the spread of STDs, "Give It
To Everyone", sort of an update of Tom Lehrer's I Got It From
Agnes, skipping over the innocence of Nate Bucklin's "The Chart
Song" and passing through the scary time of Boiled In Lead's Microorganism
to come full circle.
You don't so much listen to Giant
Kitten as enter the world of Carrie Dahlby. You will be amused
depending on how much you like zombie stories for kids, ripping on
Britney Spears, going to a Steely Dan concert, songs about the topic
of songs, Heroes, or any of the other subjects and musical
styles she zips through. Definitely iPod Worthy (iPw), and worth
more than the sum of the individual tracks. Recommended if you like
the other Dementia Music artists I've reviewed, or if you want to
sing to your cats.
Garbage Pizza
Feng
Shui Ninjas, Marscon, March 7, 2009CE
I wasn't entirely sure
about the Feng Shui
Ninjas. At first. The musicians had been kicking around as
Dementia Artist backups for a while, and they kept talking about
their new group. They gave a great concert at Marscon, and their CD
is better -- and different -- than I expected.
Garbage Pizza is,
well, let me quote my own review from the CDBaby site: Fun and
Strange. The Feng Shui Ninjas are serious musicians who don't always
take themselves seriously. Garbage Pizza is well produced and
well performed, with some good covers and emotional originals. Celtic
and country with a little bit of weird; to play their description
game: They sound like Poi Dog Pondering as produced by Syd Barrett.
Sort of.
I must admit I'm not that fond of their signature
song, an angry Celtic version of "Greensleeves". The rip on one of
my favorite airs doesn't have quite the right spin for me, though I
appreciate the effort and it's iPw. On the other hand, they do a
cover of another of my faves, "Burning Bridges". Slightly weepy
country-ish, which is just right for the song.
Songs about
songs are a mainstay of songwriting (might as well write about what
you know) and the CD starts off with "Writing A Book" about...
writing a book. Or not writing a book, but writing a song about
writing the book. Got it? That leads into the best song on the CD
is "Another Song", about a lonely woman who adds another chorus to
the song of her life. It helps that the bouncy honky-tonk
instrumentation is odd, and includes a typewriter carriage return
bell. "There's no reason to live life without
trying."
Their odd, almost psychedelic, take on Paddy's
Lamentation is a worthy cover. The journey described in "Peach
Cobbler" reminded me of Lou and
Peter Berryman, though I'm not sure I can explain why. "The
Rainbow Song" is about Edgar Allen Poe, I think, and is the group at
its most early Pink Floyd: emotional but distant, intellectual but
disconsolate.
Garbage Pizza falls
neatly into the category of "Uncategorizable". If you liked Songs In The Key of Z or Hawkwind or Renaldo and the
Loaf
, you're a very strange person and might like the Feng Shui
Ninjas. It's easier to say what they're not than what they are, but
I like the CD. Recommended for everyone who wants to try something a
little different, that takes you to a slightly odd place, a place
where you get to rewrite the ending.
Are there any TV programs that you secretly feel sheepish about watching regularly, but do so anyway because you REALLY like them? C'mon now, fess up! I will!
Which TV series had a house band that included Glen Campbell, Billy Preston, Delaney Bramlett, and Leon Russell on piano?
A American Bandstand
B Hullabaloo
C Shindig!
D Soul Train
E Where The Action Is
Source
Shindig! is an American music variety show which aired on ABC TV from September 16, 1964 to January 8, 1966.
Accompanying the music acts of the week, Shindig! also featured a dance troupe called the Shin-diggers. One of the regular dancers was Teri Garr, who would go on to find success as an actress. The Shin-diggers' assistant choreographer, Antonia Basilotta, later changed her named to Toni Basil, most widely known for the song "Mickey".
The series house band, the Shin-diggers (later renamed the Shindogs), featured a young Glen Campbell, Joey Cooper, Billy Preston, James Burton, Delaney Bramlett, Larry Knechtel (on bass) and pianist Leon Russell.
Source
Marian the Teacher was first, and correct, with:
Shindig!
mj said:
Another untamed speculation
B, Hullabaloo.
Charlie responded:
It was the all too short lived
C Shindig!
Hint:
My hair is currently longer than John's as seen
here,
but not here.
Alan J answered:
C Shindig!
GAry G replied:
TV House Band...
...was Shindig!
Jim, the recently retired teacher from CA, replied:
Shindig...
MAM said:
C Shindig! was the series that had a house band that included Glen
Campbell, Billy Preston, Delaney Bramlett, and Leon Russell on piano.
Pictures from the Shindog era , circa 1965 . . .
Still overcast, but got about an hour of sun late in the day.
Tonight, Monday:
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'Big Bang Theory', followed by a RERUN'How I Met Your Mother', then a RERUN'2½ Men', followed by a RERUN'Rules Of Engagement', then a RERUN'CSI: The 2nd One'.
Scheduled on a FRESHDave are Bill Cosby and Melody Gardot.
Scheduled on a FRESHCraig are Mary Louise Parker, Guillermo del Toro, and Tori Amos.
NBC begins the night with the SERIES PREMIERE'I'm A Celebrity - Get Me Out Of Here!', followed by a FRESH'Medium'.
Scheduled on a FRESHConan are Will Ferrell and Pearl Jam.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Fallon are Anne Hathaway, Will Forte, Jon Favreau, and Mario Batali.
Scheduled on a FRESHCarson 'The Scab' Daly are Troops at Fort Irwin.
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Bachelorette 5', followed by a FRESH'Here Come The Newlyweds'.
On a RERUNJimmy Kimmel (from 5/20/09) are Ben Stiller, Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas, and No Doubt.
The CW offers a RERUN'Gossip Girl', followed by a RERUN'One Tree Hill'.
Faux has a RERUN'House', followed by a RERUN'Bones'.
MY has a FRESH'Celebrity Expose', followed by a RERUN'Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed'.
A&E has 'Intervention', another 'Intervention', followed by a FRESH'Intervention', then a FRESH'Obsessed'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Man From Snowy River', followed by the movie 'Pale Rider', then the movie 'Joe Kidd'.
BBC -
[12:00 PM] The Hotel Inspector - Episode 6
[1:00 PM] How Clean Is Your House? US - Episode 12
[1:30 PM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 11
[2:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Revisited - Ep 2 Momma Cherri's
[3:00 PM] Gordon Ramsay's F Word - Episode 6
[4:00 PM] The Hotel Inspector - Episode 7
[5:00 PM] Gordon Ramsay's F Word - Episode 7
[6:00 PM] Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares - Ep 4 Morgan's
[7:00 PM] BBC World News America
[8:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 6
[9:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 5
[10:00 PM] BBC World News America
[11:00 PM] Top Gear - Episode 6
[12:00 AM] Top Gear - Episode 5
[1:00 AM] Top Gear - Episode 6
[2:00 AM] Top Gear - Episode 1
[3:00 AM] The Graham Norton Show - Ep 7 Liz Smith and Julia Sawalha
[4:00 AM] How Clean Is Your House? US - Episode 12
[4:30 AM] How Clean Is Your House? - Episode 11
[5:00 AM] BBC World News - BBC World News
[6:00 AM] BBC World News - BBC World News (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'Project Runway', another 'Project Runway', 'Kathy Griffin: Straight To Hell', followed by the SEASON PREMIERE'Kathy Griffin: My Life On the D-List'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Scary Movie 3', 'Futurama', 'South Park', another 'South Park', and another 'Futurama'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJon Stewart is Bob Woodruff.
Scheduled on a FRESHColbert Report is Sen. Byron Dorgan.
FX has the movie 'Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story', followed by the movie 'Transporter 3', then the movie 'Assault On Precinct 13'.
History has 'Modern Marvels', followed by a FRESH'Underwater Universe', and 'Expedition: Africa'.
IFC -
[7:50 AM] The IFC Media Project
[8:20 AM] Trans
[9:45 AM] Darkness
[11:15 AM] Private Fears in Public Places
[1:20 PM] Trans
[2:45 PM] Darkness
[4:15 PM] Private Fears in Public Places
[6:20 PM] East Is East
[8:00 PM] Clerks
[9:35 PM] Havoc
[11:00 PM] Spaghetti West
[12:00 AM] The Pope of Greenwich Village
[2:05 AM] Clerks
[3:45 AM] Havoc
[5:15 AM] Private Fears in Public Places (ALL TIMES EDT)
Actress Charlize Theron claps for speakers during a Meet in the Middle 4 Equality rally in Fresno, Calif. on Saturday, May 30, 2009 to protest the California Supreme Court decision to uphold Proposition 8 which bans gay marriage in the state Constitution.
Photo by Gary Kazanjian
As global powers debate how to punish North Korea for its nuclear defiance, two American journalists seized nearly three months ago face a trial this week in Pyongyang on charges that could land them in one of the country's notorious labor camps.
North Korean guards detained Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV media venture, at the northeastern border with China on March 17. Activists who helped organize their trip say they had been reporting on North Korean women and children who fled to China for an uncertain life as refugees.
Pyongyang accused the Americans of engaging in "hostile acts" and crossing into communist North Korea illegally, and announced two weeks ago the women will stand trial June 4 in the nation's top court. Legal experts say conviction for "hostility" or espionage could mean five to 10 years in a labor camp.
Gore himself may head to North Korea to lobby for the reporters' release, the TBS television network in Tokyo said Saturday, citing unnamed sources. Messages left with Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider went unanswered Sunday, and San Francisco-based Current TV has refused to comment about the case.
Fats Domino visits with Little Richard in a dressing room after Richards' performance at The Domino Effect, a tribute concert for Domino, at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Saturday, May 30, 2009. A portion of the proceeds from the concert will go to New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees' charitable foundation, the Brees Dream Foundation, which aims to improve local playgrounds and recreation sites in New Orleans.
Photo by Patrick Semansky
A 16-year-old Iraqi immigrant living in Sweden has cracked a maths puzzle that has stumped experts for more than 300 years, Swedish media reported on Thursday.
In just four months, Mohamed Altoumaimi has found a formula to explain and simplify the so-called Bernoulli numbers, a sequence of calculations named after the 17th century Swiss mathematician Jacob Bernoulli, the Dagens Nyheter daily said.
Altoumaimi, who came to Sweden six years ago, said teachers at his high school in Falun, central Sweden were not convinced about his work at first.
He then got in touch with professors at Uppsala University, one of Sweden's top institutions, to ask them to check his work.
After going through his notebooks, the professors found his work was indeed correct and offered him a place in Uppsala.
With youthful looks and the energy of a person half his 80 years, Stanley Drucker, the New York Philharmonic's principal clarinetist still makes a precision commute - by train, by subway, and by his own spry steps - from his home in Massapequa to Lincoln Center. He times it so that he "can make the trains with a minute to spare."
After 60 years sitting at center stage, the Philharmonic's oldest member - once its youngest member - is about to retire.
Drucker, who was hired in 1948 at 19, has played under nine Philharmonic music directors. He has performed in some 10,200 Philharmonic concerts - about 70 percent of the performances presented by the 167-year-old orchestra, the nation's oldest. He has played in front of more than 40 million people, according to orchestra estimates.
Drucker's musical moment began in Brooklyn. To get him off the stickball lot, his parents - a tailor and housewife who immigrated from Ukraine - made an $18 investment for a clarinet for a present for his 10th birthday. (Good ones now cost around $3,000.)
Arctic native peoples gather on the tundra in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge near Arctic Village, Alaska, calling for permanent protection of the refuge and urgent action on climate change, against the backdrop of the Brooks Mountain Range in this May 30, 2009 handout picture. The human banner reads "Save the Arctic" with an image of a caribou in the center.
Photo by Lou Dematteis
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had promised a four-day marathon edition of his widely watched weekly television talkshow, but unspecified technical problems threw the plans awry this weekend.
In a three-line statement, the information ministry said Sunday's "Alo Presidente" program had been canceled for technical reasons. Saturday's show was called off without explanation.
To mark its 10 years on air, Chavez last week announced an extended edition of the program he frequently uses to criticize the United States and announce major policies like nationalizations in South America's top oil exporter. He planned to do one or two hours-long broadcasts a day.
Chavez was expected to transmit Sunday's show in the company of Bolivian President Evo Morales, before he travels to El Salvador for the inauguration of its new left-wing president, Mauricio Funes.
Psychedelic rock booms through The Vapour Lounge. In the store, young and some not-so-young people smoke pot through a variety of devices. And owner Marc Emery stands in the middle of it all, proclaiming his goal of defeating the U.S. war on drugs.
Known as the Prince of Pot, Emery has sold millions of marijuana seeds around the world by mail over the past decade. In doing so, he has drawn the attention of U.S. drug officials, who want him extradited to Seattle. Emery has agreed to plead guilty in Seattle to one count of marijuana distribution in exchange for dismissal of all other counts, and the U.S. District Attorney is pressing for a sentence of five to eight years in a U.S. prison.
The case is the latest twist in Emery's two-decade-long fight against the prohibition of marijuana in North America. To his supporters, he is a brave crusader for the use and sale of a drug with both recreational and medicinal value. To drug officials, he is a criminal and the biggest purveyor of marijuana from Canada into the United States.
Emery sits "right smack in the middle" of the North American debate over marijuana prohibition, said Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C. St. Pierre predicted that Emery's trial would "kick-start it all again."
Clint Eastwood is seen on stage after accepting the brass balls award at the Spike TV 'Guys Choice' awards in Culver City, Calif., on Saturday May 30, 2009.
Photo by Chris Pizzello
Police in Los Angeles say "Point Break" actress Lori Petty has been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after she struck and injured a skateboarder.
Police spokesman Bruce Borihanh says the 45-year-old Petty was arrested Saturday night in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles. He says the unidentified skateboarder was treated for injuries at the scene.
Petty was booked into jail early Sunday and released after posting $100,000 bail.
Petty was the star of the 1995 movie "Tank Girl" and has also appeared in "Point Break" and "A League of Their Own."
The oldest daughter of Billy Bob Thornton faces charges in the death of a 1-year-old girl she was babysitting in October, a celebrity gossip Web site reported Sunday.
Ocoee police confirmed that 29-year-old Amanda Brumfield is charged with child neglect causing harm or disability and was in custody.
Web site tmz.com reported she is Thornton's daughter, but police spokesman Lee Stephens said the police records department was closed Sunday and he couldn't find out whether Brumfield is related to Thornton.
Brumfield told detectives that a girl she was babysitting hit her head in a fall in an Ocoee home on Oct. 3, Detective James Berish said in a news release. Brumfield called for help more than two hours later when she couldn't revive the girl, police in the city near Orlando said.
A local newspaper in northwest Pennsylvania apologized on Friday for running a classified advertisement that called implicitly for the assassination of U.S. President Barack Obama.
The Warren Times Observer, with a circulation of about 11,000, ran the ad in Thursday's paper and pulled it as soon as it was discovered by a manager, said publisher John Elchert.
The ad read: "May Obama follow in the footsteps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy," Elchert said.
Elchert said the representative who took the ad apparently didn't make the connection between the four assassinated presidents -- Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy -- and mistakenly allowed the ad to run.
The animated action comedy "Up" took flight with a $68.2 million opening weekend, maintaining a perfect box-office track record for Pixar Animation, whose 10 films all have been commercial and critical hits.
"Up" took over the No. 1 spot from 20th Century Fox's "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," which slipped to second-place with $25.5 million. The "Museum" sequel raised its 10-day total to $105.3 million.
The weekend's other new wide release, Universal Pictures' horror tale "Drag Me to Hell," opened at No. 3 with $16.6 million. It was a relatively modest return for director Sam Raimi, whose three "Spider-Man" movies had blockbuster opening weekends.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Up," $68.2 million.
2. "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian," $25.5 million.
3. "Drag Me to Hell," $16.6 million.
4. "Terminator Salvation," $16.1 million.
5. "Star Trek," $12.8 million.
6. "Angels & Demons," $11.2 million.
7. "Dance Flick," $4.9 million.
8. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," $3.9 million.
9. "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," $1.9 million.
10. "Obsessed," $665,000.
The Titanic International Society says Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the sinking of the Titanic, has died.
The society's president, Charles Haas, tells The Associated Press that Dean died Sunday at age 97. He said she was suffering from pneumonia and her companion, Bruno Nordmanis, had called the Swiss branch of the society to say she had passed away.
Dean was just over two months old when the Titanic hit an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, sinking less than three hours later.
She was cared for at a nursing home in southern England. A staff nurse said no one could comment until administrators came on duty Monday.
"Titanic" stars Leonardo diCaprio and Kate Winslet donated money this month to help pay Dean's nursing home fees.
Lin Hui, a 7-year old panda, and its two-days-old cub are seen at the Chiang Mai Zoo in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, Friday, May 29, 2009. The cub whose birth surprised Thai zoo officials is a healthy female that appears to be bonding well with its much larger mother, Chinese experts concluded Thursday.
Photo by Wichai Taprieu
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Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
Go ahead, scratch it if it itches.
The idea is to have fun.
Do you have something to say?
Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better,
amused or entertained?
Do you have a great album no one's heard?
How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
A popular artist that just plain pisses you off?
A box set the whole world should own?
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Just plain vile, filthy rumors?
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said:
