Fuck politics, let’s rock. Since I got some good feedback on the Big Black “Pigpile” YouTube player I threw together a couple of months ago, let’s have at it again…
If someone held a gun to my head (please, don’t) and asked me to pick my favorite 80’s band, I’d probably blurt out the Replacements. Granted, I lost interest in them after Bob Stinson, god bless his inebriated soul, was excised from the band, but all of the stuff they released on Twin/Tone and their first long-player on a major (Tim) are fun-packed, balls-out ‘n’ boozy gems. Here for your viewing pleasure is a very early live show (two 25-minute sets) by the Replacements from September 5th, 1981 in Minneapolis, recorded shortly after they released their underrated (and my favorite) album Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. Read below the fold for the set lists and additional info. Enjoy.
Jeffrey Lewis—“Anxiety Attack” (unauthorized fan video)
The Hyena and Other Men: If you’re a New Yorker you’ve only got a few days left to immerse yourself in Pieter Hugo’s stunning exhibit at the Yossi Milo Gallery. It’s comprised of large-scale photographs of a band of Nigerian men who roam the country with a menagerie of animals and a six-year-old girl named Mummy. You can view most of the photos at the gallery (and many, many more) here (hint: view images separately—right-click), but the small JPGs are nowhere near as impactful as witnessing them blown up and surrounding you.
Butter 08: Egg City Radio is giving away Butter 08’s way-fun and punk-funky (and out-of-print) selt-titled ‘96 release featuring Miho from Cibo Matto and Russell from the Blues Explosion. From Miho saying, “Thank you, daddy” to the last throbbing yelps of “Butterfucker,” this delivers great gifts to your needy assbone.
Why I Believe Bush Must Go: George McGovern writes an editorial in The Washington Post calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Yes, that sound you hear off in the distance is the howler monkeys of the right going batshit.
“Frosty the Snowman”—Leon Redbone & Dr. John (from my favorite Christmas album of all-time, Christmas Island)
THE MOM AND POP CULTURE SHOP: My old pal Anna, who I haven’t seen in ages, is running a great lil’ blog that spotlights her thrift store finds (outsider art, weird vinyl, etc.). It’s a fun place to visit, her blurbs are a hoot, and it shoehorns nicely into the holidays.
MATT BURLINGAME: Burlingame’s oddball sculptures and dioramas don’t shoehorn quite as nicely into the holidays (unless Christmas makes you think about zombies and robots), but if any of you would like to buy me some of his artwork I’d consider it to be THE.BEST.XMAS.PRESENT.EVER.
BUZZWORDS OF 2007: The New York Times says, “You didn’t hear them here first. But chances are that in 2007 you caught these phrases somewhere.” Ummm, actually, no, I hadn’t heard about a lot of these. I would have thought “Nose bidet” was a really bad band name.
IT’S THE MANDATE, STUPID: The New Republic‘s Noam Scheiber posted a good analysis of why Barack’s been creeping up on Hillary
Here’s a David Lynch-ish holiday greeting from the great band Blizten Trapper for you to enjoy.
SIDE NOTE: Blitzen Trapper’s album Wild Mountain Nation is my favorite of ‘07 (think Pavement meets the Kinks) and this year Rumproast will be teaming up with Rob from FREEyourmindandyourasswillfollow to unveil our best music of ‘07 picks. Stay tuned. Should be rolling in Wednesday or Thursday. If you have any recommendations you’d like to sneak in, please do so in comments.
FANTASTIC DOCUMENTARY COMING TO NYC: The wonderful and unique documentary Billy the Kid is opening this Wednesday, December 5th at the IFC Center in Manhattan for a limited engagement. Carve out some room for it if you live in NYC because it’s highly recommended. Make sure to check out the excellent trailer at the documentary’s web site (or these outtakes at YouTube). You can read our review of it at some point tomorrow here at Rumproast.
UPDATE: A new entry for our horribly neglected Worst.Band.Name.Ever category. One of the bands opening for Mudhoney tonight is called Pissed Jeans. No matter how good they are a little part of me will always hate them for that.
This song by sitar master Ashwin Batish was a huge hit on my college radio station many moons ago. I still love the hell out of it. One of my greatest accomplishments in college was booking a show that featured Ashwin opening up for Half Japanese. Enjoy.
p.s. If anyone wants to know what I want for Christmas, pay close attention to what’s on Batish’s head in the video.
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players write and perform music based on slides they collect from tag sales, thrift stores and estate sales. In a live setting, Tina (the mother) works the slide projector while Jason (the father) and Rachel (the way-too-adorable daughter) rock out. I haven’t seen them perform for several years but they used to put on a grin-a-millisecond show. I hope you enjoy these two videos I just stumbled upon via YouTube as much as I did.
If I was held at gunpoint and asked to name one of my favorite music videos ever, Cibo Matto’s “Sugar Water” would be a probable selection. In addition, if I was held at gunpoint and asked that question, I’d probably think to myself, “Jesus fuck, that’s a weird question to be asked at gunpoint.”
FYI, the video was directed by Michael Gondry and if you want to see how it was made, well, we’ve got that for you, too:
“Pigpile” is a live recording of Big Black‘s final tour in 1987. The video was taken at the Hammersmith Apollo concert hall, London and is currently out-of-print. This is pretty damn near the entire thing. Playlist below the fold. Enjoy.
I’ve got some busy work to do, so enjoy one of my favorite videos ever: Tom Waits performing “It’s All Right With Me” from the the Cole Porter tribute album Red Hot + Blue. Directed by Jim Jarmusch. It’s just black and white and Tom and that’s all you need.
WORTH A PEEK: Worth 100 asked its photoshoppers to recreate classic paintings to show what happened moments after the artists completed them. Great stuff.
PICK TO CLICK: Arcade Fire’s new interactive flash video for “Neon Bible” is pretty effin’ cool...
MORE GREAT OUT-OF-PRINT AFRICAN: Matsuli delivers with an MP3 download of the 22 Band’s outstanding and extremely rare—even AllMusic.com doesn’t have a listing for it—Venez Voir!!..
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