Everything about the following video makes me happy.
I think YouTube commenter DutchMatrixBoy put it nicely:
“peewee’s playhouse meets acid jazz meets miami vice meets soultrain meets peter gabriel’s sledgehammer video meets max headroom meets roller skating meets a psychotic break meets a visionquest meets a kappa halloween party!!!!”
Gizmodo’s got a great feature (via Technabob) about a new Japan-only (sigh) HD Lite-Brite by Bandai called the Lumnidot.
The pixel artist in me is frothing at the mouth for this to come stateside; the kitten owner in me doesn’t want to deal with the nightmare of keeping track of the 3,500 pieces.
There’s also an online application that will convert your photos into a Lumnidot-ready PDF. Drooooool!
Here’s a video of it in action.
Here’s my latest feast-o-the-senses obsession.
It’s Zappa conducting an orchestral arrangement of his “Jazz From Hell” arrangement, G-Spot Tornado. And look at that crazy dancing!
Want to know what makes Zappa fans tick? Just take a look at this.
The bit around 3:30 still makes me giddy like a schoolgirl. What a fantastic piece of music!
Why all this fuss over tonight’s venue decor? I found this advance video of today’s testing and I think it looks great!
Here’s one of my favorite second-wave ska numbers: “Missing Words” by The Selecter.
There’s something wonderful about having this song come up during an iPod shufflefest. My favorite version of this song is a live one from the documentary “Dance Craze.” You should drop everything and watch it on YouTube right now. Do it. Now.
I’m about to make a statement that may seem completely ludicrous and absurd. I assure you that it is fact.
The following song may have shaped my musical tastes and influences more than anything else in my entire personal history of music appreciation. Really.
The song is called “American Soviets” and it is by a Russian synth-pop group called C.C.C.P. The 12″ was released in 1986 and was an ephemeral dancefloor mainstay. My little six-year-old ass was introduced to it through a remix by Cameron Paul which was played (very infrequently) by a DJ on 93.3, The Power Pig.
Here is a link to that version.
The story goes like this: one fateful day, I happened to be rolling tape (one of those gold Maxells, probably) on a day that C.C.C.P. made it into the top 40 rotation. I fell in love with the sound and it became my new favorite song. The only problem was that I didn’t know the title of the song or even the band that recorded it. This wasn’t a huge problem for me at the time — I already had the song on cassette, and I wasn’t yet aware that songs fell out of the standard rotation.
“American Soviets” never became a classic. It was never to be heard again on terrestrial radio airwaves. The golden Maxell was lost and only memories of the buzzy “Arabian” synth lead and thumping bass remained.
The song haunted my memory for the next twenty-two years.
Since the Cameron Paul remix didn’t retain any of the original lyrics, there weren’t any lines to Google. Any faint hopes of cracking the case were relegated to internet forums where I would ask questions about “an Egyptian sounding dance song with weird, unintelligible samples.”
Then, one day — one glorious day — the unthinkable happened. I came upon a random internet message board that contained my pot-o-gold. One of my life’s biggest mysteries (M-theory aside) had been resolved.
This song isn’t available for purchase from any online retailers and was never even released on CD. If you’re lucky, you can find the 12″ on eBay. I was fortunate enough to find a vinyl mp3 rip online.
If you listen to my music (take “Happy Friday,” for instance) you can still hear the influence of this song. A song that I thought I might never hear again.
My favorite song.
Thank you, the internet.
With the Mamma Mia! movie in theaters, and the traveling production opening at TBPAC, I thought I’d take an opportunity to introduce you to some Swede-pop you might have missed the first time around.
You know, I’ve always loved a good storm. Safety issues aside, there’s something comforting about it all — grey skies, snuggled up inside, listening to rolling thunder and pitter-patter raindrops.
Here’s a thunderbolt performance of Lena Horne performing “Stormy Weather.”
Vavavoom!
I first heard of Sonny J through a show on XMU that played “Can’t Stop Moving.” Now I’m obsessed with this disc and the videos that go along with it.
It’s really, really good stuff.