The Dixie Hummingbirds—“Christian Automobile”—playing 6/26 at Celebrate Brooklyn
HARRY NILSSON DOES POPEYE— I don’t know what’s weirder, the fact that I really like the Popeye soundtrack (probably never making it to CD) or that there are actually demos available ( and they’re even better than the final versions). Drink your spinach.
FISA HOLD ‘EM—I’m pretty much in the same camp with John Cole. Steve M. has it right, too.
THE BEATLES’ GET BACK—I’ve always had a soft spot for the Beatles’ Let It Be, which I’ve enjoyed a lot more than, say, the bloated ‘n’ silly Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (there, I said it) and this Glyn Johns mix, appropriately titled Get Back and replete with studio chatter, makes it even sweeter.
MATT TIABBI’S “FULL METAL MCCAIN”—“McCain is perhaps the first candidate in history to stump against two bills bearing his own name.”
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds—“Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!” (hi-res version here)
Nigerian Gangster—Matsuli Music brings you Chicago DJ Mike Love mix-mashing Fela Kuti and Jay Z. If you haven’t already started clicking on the link, you’re dead to me.
A Significant Part Of Obama’s Message—Kyle E. Moore of PA’s Comments from Left Field spells out what should be the obvious. (John Cole from Balloon Juice has been quite literally on fire on this subject, too. Just scroll down to “Hillary Clinton, disgrace” and read up from there.)
US electoral system explained—A hilarious rapid-fire flowcharted look at how people with funny accents view our electoral process.
Spider John Koerner & Willie Murphy’s Running, Jumping, Standing Still—The Heat Warps implies this underrated ‘67 eclectic ragtime-rock-romp album is better than Dylan & the Band’s The Basement Tapes (it’s not ... very few things are), but it’s definitely worthy of your attention. I’ll be listening to this a lot.
LATTE-SIPPING CROWD: I’ve got your latte right here. God, I hate these people.
WORLD OF POOH—LAND OF THIRST: One of the last great indie albums of the 80s featured Barbara Manning and will probably never, ever be released on CD. You need this. Trust me. Grab it before it’s gone.
IT’S 3AM: Good selection of parodies of Hillary’s loathsome 3AM red phone ad over at YesButNoButYes. And while you’re there ... jeebus, this is fucking disturbing.
Mick Jagger—“Memo from Turner” (from the film Performance)
BOBBY CHARLES: I got turned on to Bobby Charles while listening to Devendra Banhart guest DJing on WNYC’s “Spinning on Air.” It was a warm spring night, I had the radio on out in the garden, and Charles’ song “I Must Be in a Good Place Now” wrapped snuggly around my head like the most comforting cloth ever created. An absolutely gorgeous moment. Charles’ phenomenal debut album, recorded with most of the members of The Band and Dr. John, inexplicably swings in and out of print and The Heat Warps was kind enough to upload it recently for your listening pleasure. Believe me, you need this.
BOOT CAMP—THE END OF THE LINE: Robin completed her initial six-weeks of hell in boot camp and the whole series has been an entertaining, ahem, “reed.” Click and scroll around her blog (pretty much the closest thing I get to exercise these days) to see what she went through.
“Falling Slowly” from Once—My Oscar pick to (deservedly) win best original song
Sorry, no other selections today (unless you want to see how much Frank Rich hates Hillary’s va-jay-jay). Have some weekend work to get through and still recovering from that head cold that clobbered me yesterday morning. The Sunday Selector will return in its normal form next weekend.
TO MY GREAT CHAGRIN: The eagerly-awaited (in my house, at least) world premiere of the documentary To My Great Chagrin: The Unbelievable Story of Brother Theodore comes to MOMA this Wednesday, February 13th (also playing on March 1st). He was a complex, brilliant and vastly underrated performance artist and you can view some of his pitch-perfect and hysterical ravings in a video compilation we posted here back in September.
FUERZABRUTA: Friday I took my lovely wife Chris to see Fuerzabruta, the new spectacle from the creators of De La Guarda, for her birthday at the Daryl Roth Theatre and was totally blown away by it. I enjoyed De La Guarda, but thought it was a little over-hyped and found myself wishing it would come to an end about 45-minutes into it. Fuerzabruta, on the other hand, I never wanted to end, noticing at several points during the performance that my face was smeared with a thoroughly ridiculous shit-eating grin that only a child can accommodate without feeling like a complete tool. As an added bonus, I was selected by one of the Fuerzabruta “dancers” to join her on a metal platform and dance in front of hundreds of people before having an oversized, exploding paper cinderblock dropped on our heads. According to Chris the crowd was cheering me on (I inserted several of my death-defying robot maneuvers into my routine) and afterwards the dancer came over and gave me a big thumbs up when she found me back in the crowd. If you’re a New Yorker, I highly recommend checking this show out. If the $72 price tag is too steep for you, they sell $25 rush tix at the box office two hours before each performance.
The severely abbreviated Super Bowl Sunday edition*…
“Yes We Can” song (hi res version here, info here)
According to some of the commenters over at Atrios’ place, this is just more all-flash, no-substance gruel for the starry-eyed hope junkies who blindly support Prince Obama. They’re right. Dems need to nominate a thoroughly uninspiring policy wonk if we’re going to beat St. Maverick in the general election. It’s worked so well for us in the past. Someone get Dukakis or Mondale on the phone and see if they’re available for the veep spot.
DON’T MAKE ME KILL THIS KITTEN: TS from Instaputz, who has been a good friend of Rumproast, is entering sponsoring a team entered in a local Scrabble tournament to benefit Dave Eggers’ wonderful 826NYC nonprofit org. I donated some scratch to the organization last year and now I’m doing it again to back up my pal TS. It’s a great cause, so if you have enjoyed Rumproast (and/or Instaputz), why don’t you do me a favor and throw some cash 826NYC’s way via TS.
JAMES BROWN—LIVE IN ZAIRE: I break out in a hot sweat just thinking about this boot. Recorded in ‘74 prior to the Ali vs. Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle,” Live in Zaire sounds amazing and captures the spirit of the moment like few other live recordings do. If you’ve got an ass, you need this.
THINGS DO LOOK AWFUL COLD: Digby takes a quick gander at the political leanings of the 18-25 year-old group in a resent Pew study and it’s good news for the Democrats.
FLY OCEANIC AIR: ABC’s new online viral campaign to promote the 4th season of Lost is, well, pretty damn impressive. If you’re a fan of the show (I’m a late-bloomer) and haven’t booked your flight yet, get on board.
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
THE RISE OF RUDY: Good article in the Washington Post examining the young life of Rudy Guiliani and how early events helped mold him into the massive dickhead he is today.
RUSSERT DOES GOOD: If you missed it this morning, Tim Russert was pretty aggressive with Rudy Guliani this morning. Best Russert quote: “Using that reasoning, would it be appropriate for a president to provide Secret Service protection for his mistress?” “Best” Guiliani quote: “I don’t make many mistakes, but when I make them, they’re big ones.” You can watch it here. Transcript here.
(Please note: My internet connection was down nearly all day, so this is all I have for you. It’s driving me absolutely crazy at the moment trying to get anywhere on the innertubes. Yeeeeeaaaaaarrrgh!)
