The Strange and Wacky Music of The Electric Grandfather

The Electric Grandfather is an experimental electronic/electropop project founded by musician Ralph Pidibi. I first discovered them on SoundCloud, and to me, their music is a mixture of The Residents, digital sound collage music, noise rock, and electropop. I would describe their sound as experimental pop with nostalgic wackiness and camp styles.

I’m going to describe the project’s tracks I liked for my SoundCloud page, since the band didn’t release any actual albums.

“Clouds in My Eyes”-This is a noise rock piece featuring out-of-tune electric guitar backed by Chipmunk-style and baritone vocals. This is also augmented by some electronic effects.

“Yesterday is Scheduled Again for Tomorrow”-This features distorted voices, a marching band-style drumbeat, and electronic effects. The distorted voices for much of the track reminds me of the voice heard in the infamous Max Headroom broadcast signal hijack of 1987 (it happened only in Chicago).

“That Kid is Back on the Escalator!”-An array of pulsing electronic effects start the track, developing an EDM-style rhythm as white noise washes and random noises appear. Chipmunk voices begin to sing and talk, along with other random voices, eventually ending with reverb effects.

“The Future Sounds Like a Static Filled Balloon”-Electronic guitar sounds appear along with drums and a series of distorted voices. One part actually loops a bit. It ends with some reversed sounds.

“Ode to the Money Lenders”-This has a strange psychedelic fuzz jam with a distorted African-American-style voice. The guitar used has a Led Zeppelin tone to it.

“Slow Motion Freak-Out”-This has distorted slow-motion voices backed by what I think is a manipulated sample of the Residents’ track “The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany”, from their 1971 demo tape The Warner Bros. Album.

“This is the Pit”-This has a looped rock music sample along with distorted Chipmunk voices, a slowed-down voice, and a distorted guitar solo.

“Everywhere You Look”-An experimental hip-hop piece with a looped drum machine rhythm and electronically-altered voice samples, along with some lead vocals.

“White. Hot. Burning.”-Driven by atmospheric guitar melodies and distorted voices.

“The Time has Come”-This has a folky acoustic guitar melody with warbly string effects and distressed lead vocals that almost sounds like that of Roger Waters. It also has other electronic noises in the mix.

“Don’t Forget Bob’s Pipe”-A hip-hop drum machine rhythm plays, along with electronic sounds and distorted singing. A buzzy synth also plays some distorted chords. It gets trippy in the outro.

“Walka Walka Walka”-This has a simple electropop melody backed by piano, distorted vocals and white noise. Normal-sounding group vocals also appear, but in a bit of a falsetto voice.

“Spacely Sprockets is Now Selling Cogswell’s Cogs”-Named after characters from The Jetsons cartoon from the ’60s, this has a desolate dance melody with distorted, rather gruff singing, and odd noises. Try to imagine Jandek experimenting with synthesizers and computers instead of his occasional bleak acoustic guitar and mysterious backing group.

“Huey, Lewey, Dewy and the News”-Named after Duck Tales characters (the characters’ names are misspelled for the title, maybe to avoid copyright infringement claims from Disney) and the pop giants Huey Lewis and the News, this piece has a funky dance beat with distorted, rather atmospheric vocals, distorted guitar, and electronic sounds. Compared to the other pieces mentioned, this is rather catchy and danceable.

“Gracefully Unties Knots”-This has a folky acoustic guitar melody backed by electronic effects and distorted Huckleberry Hound-style vocals.

“Baby! What’d You Do to Your Hair? You Like It? It’s Orange Sunshine.”-A hip-hop drumbeat with distorted synth noises dominates the track, along with spoken voice samples, mainly one of that of a man talking about drug use. You can also hear distorted group vocals.

“The Polaroid Picture”-An ambient pop-sounding number with acoustic guitar, synthesizer, distorted voices, and weird sound effects. It ends with strange clacking noises.

“Nature’s Inna Rage”-An electro rock piece dominated by drum machine, distorted guitar, and synth. The distorted lead vocals have a Zack dela Rocha-like tone, but more deeper. You also hear a chipmunk-like voice at one point.

“Dripping, Oozing, Replicating.”-The song starts in a mutated Beatles-like form, with acoustic guitar, distorted vocals, and synthesizer. It leads into a freak-out with voices and random synth effects, with the acoustic guitar becoming a little bit faint. The song increases in tempo and develops a pop-style drumbeat with electric guitar. This sounds like Todd Tamanend Clark completely losing his mind. It gets all tropical, but in a mutated way, at the end.

“Magnetic Resonance”-This is a progressive rock electric guitar melody backed by distorted voices to accompany it.

“It’s in the Static”-A jazzy hip-hop drumbeat appears with saxophone, slow-motion voice, and a series of spacey electronic effects.

“Exchange Your Mind for a Bomb”-A mildly psychedelic piece with backwards string samples, an EDM drumbeat and a deep spoken word recital that sounds like it is spoken in a Matrix-like tone. It also has distorted digital noises to accompany it. The vocals have some reverb by the end. What makes this piece even more psychedelic is that the voice talks about a nuclear bomb that is the size of a grapefruit!

You can check out stuff from the Electric Grandfather at: https://soundcloud.com/theelectricgrandfather

Rare Pink Floyd Reviews: The Soundtrack for the 1993 Documentary “Fractals: The Colors of Infinity”

In 1993, a documentary was released about the Mandelbrot Set and fractal geometry, called Fractals: The Colors of Infinity. I watched the first 22 minutes of the documentary, and it is rather fun to watch. However, I was also focused on hearing the unreleased background music that was done by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, but I’m going to say that the music was done by Pink Floyd because some of the tracks were recorded during the sessions of 1994’s The Division Bell album. One of them was later released on 2014’s The Endless River, which was the last official Pink Floyd album.

I’m going to go through the documentary to try and find the background music, listen to it (even though bits of dialogue and narration can be heard in the music, but it doesn’t matter), and then give a summary as I review it.

“#1”-The same music from the track “Things Left Unsaid” off of The Endless River, but this time featuring ambient bird sound effects.

“#2”-This is a heavy prog piece featuring Gilmour’s blazing guitar solo work, along with bass and 90’s crime drama-style percussion.

“#3”-An ambient piece featuring brassy synthesizer, similar to the opening of the Dire Straights song “Money for Nothing”.

“#4”-A jazzy piece driven by electric guitar and synthesizer. This reminds me of the song “Empty Night” by the South Korean group Sanullim (Mountain Echo), from their 1978 album Vol. 3.

“#5”-This has Hammond organ, atmospheric keyboards and soaring guitar work.

“#6”-Similar to the previous piece, with Hammond organ and guitar, but is more atmospheric and also featuring strange electronic sound effects.

“#7”-A track recorded during the Division Bell sessions, featuring ambient synths, tribal percussion, acoustic guitar, bass, and spacey guitar soloing. In fact, this was recorded as an exercise to the track “High Hopes”, before the final version of that particular track was recorded.

“#8”-This has a rapid synthesizer melody similar to the track “On the Run” from 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon, along with a rapid cymbal rhythm. I bet the synth used was an EMS VCS3.

“#9”-This has ambient synths, one of them is a string synth, another sounding like a flute.

“#10”-This is similar to the 7th track, but this time, it has different guitar melodies, and a more ambient string synth.

“#11”-The same music from the first track, minus the bird sound effects.

“#12”-The same as track 2, played during the documentary’s closing credits.

NOTE: Although there are 20 pieces of music that were used, I didn’t add or describe the other 8 tracks to the list because they are just very short snippets.

The complete documentary, with Pink Floyd’s soundtrack, can be found on DVD, but the soundtrack can also be found on the bootleg rarities CD box set A Tree Full of Secrets. I still don’t understand why the full soundtrack was never officially released in any form. However, it’s still a great soundtrack.

☥__SLØUGH__☥-Jennifer’s Nightmare (2015)

Here’s my third digital album review, coming from a friend of mine who lives in the East Coast (Jacksonville, Florida). His name is Sam Shadow, but his artist name is SLOUGH (stylized as ☥__SLØUGH__☥). Sam first started making industrial and dark ambient music, later moving on to Vaporwave and Plunderphonics music. His most recent release, 2015’s Jennifer’s Nightmare, continues the artist’s typical Plunderphonics style, but it is slightly less Vaporwave, being focused more on industrial-sounding Cyberpunk-style music. The album consists almost entirely of samples, with the only original instrumentation coming from Sam’s keyboard playing. The album is ridiculously short, containing only 6 tracks and clocking in at around 11 minutes. This album is fun to listen to, and is great for those who like Plunderphonics music.

Here are the tracks, in order:

“Computer Duster Punk”-This consists of a sampled heavy metal-sounding punk jam backed by electronic sound effects, such as that of telephone beeps. This reminds me of Motörhead, but with a more experimental sound.

“Interzone Junk Addict”-This track consists of chopped-up and looped voice samples, backed by bubbly synthesizer effects. This ends with mechanical electric noises followed by a Southern-style voice sample.

“Immigrant Dog”-Starting with an early Negativland-style collage with warping electronic noises and a French guy speaking, it all leads to Led Zeppelin recordings getting cut into tiny little pieces and glued together, a lot like John Oswald’s works. I also hear what appears to be choir-like vocals in the background.

“Unrest in Peking 1997”-This piece consists of samples of the theme song from the dystopian novelty video game Hong Kong 97 that gets chopped-up and sped-up. This is the only piece on the album that would be considered Vaporwave, simply because of the samples used. It ends with the samples exploding and increasing heavily in atmospherics and delay, like John Oswald’s Michael Jackson-based sound collage “Dab”.

“Straw Boss”-This has a chopped-up punk rock jam that lasts for only 50 seconds, making it the shortest track on the album.

“Jennifer’s Nightmare”-The closing title track begins with a sample of a girl’s voice, followed by various ambient sound effects and ominous, horror movie-style grand piano. Later, you hear bubbly synthesizer, and in a few parts, you hear the piano warping a little bit. The track ends with samples of what sounds like an investigation on dead bodies.

You can find this album on SoundCloud and Bandcamp really easily. This album is filled with a ton of strange and rather interesting influences, all chopped-up and re-arranged into a jagged collage that is campy, edgy, and futuristic all at the same time. it is a great album, and I suggest you go to ☥__SLØUGH__☥’s SoundCloud or Bandcamp, listen to it, and have fun. Hopefully, Sam can do similar stuff like this in the future.

The Don Music Sound-I Stole This! (2012)

Here it is: my second digital album review!

For starters, Negativland is one of the best-known sound collage/Plunderphonics groups in the world. But, if Survivor was a clone of Journey, and if Hampton Grease Band was a clone of Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, then The Don Music Sound is definitely a clone of Negativland!

The Don Music Sound is a solo project of Madison, Wisconsin-based musician Don Music, whose music is constructed entirely of samples from movies, music, TV shows, and radio broadcasts that are spliced together, according to the man himself, “with the passion and whimsy of a mad scientist”.

This album, entitled I Stole This!, was released in March 2012 on SoundCloud, Bandcamp, and Reverb Nation, making it a digital-only album in the process. I listened to the full album on Bandcamp earlier today, and I thought that it was one of the best sample-based albums of all time.

I’m going to give you a description of each of the album’s tracks (remember: this was all done with samples):

“Creatures of the Future”-The opening track begins with samples of a guy starting up a film projector, with a countdown coming after. A sampled electro house jam appears with a scientist giving a speech about biological mutations. A pop tune also shows up, filled with acoustic guitars, later developing a dance music beat. You can also hear samples of an evil laugh in the background, too.

“One Trek Beyond”-This track is filled with Star Trek samples (the one from the classic 1960’s TV show), and the Madness song “One Step Beyond…” playing simultaneously with the original Star Trek theme.

“Moby Beatnik”-A documentary-style ambient collage featuring jazzy drums and bongos, nature and space sound effects, and a sampled spoken narration, appearing to come from a British guy if the accent is any indication. It also has a chopped-up hard rock jam at the end, sounding like it came from a Led Zeppelin song.

“Up From the Ashes”-Beginning with seagull sounds and a spoken voice about a phoenix, this track is full of a jazzy melody with bongos and electric bass, accompanied by voice samples about the phoenix mentioned at the beginning of the track. It also has some barnyard samples.

“Raspberry Jam”-This is the most catchiest piece on the whole album. It is a Plundereggae tune (as I call it) featuring samples from the Bob Marley classic “Jammin'”, scientists talking about computer jamming, Spaceballs (still a great Star Wars parody) and samples of various electronic noises.

“Strange Game”-This has creepy robot samples backed by a hip-hop drum machine rhythm. Various telephone recordings also appear.

“I Stole This!”-Constructed almost entirely of looped hip-hop samples, featuring what sounds like a nuclear air raid siren.

“Some Kind of Mobius”-This consists of samples of a 1940’s couple talking, accompanied only by faint electronic drones.

“I’m Deconstructive”-This has chopped-up hip-hop samples with a guy’s voice talking about destruction and creation. Later on, it has a distorted voice that gets butchered to the rhythm.

“A New Arrangement”-Kitschy old-school (but also looped and chopped-up) radio broadcasts of rhythm & blues music goes throughout this track, accompanied later on by monkey sound effects.

“Music of the Spheres”-An ambient-sounding number featuring spacey synthesizer effects. A tribal-sounding percussion beat develops along with electronic noises and samples of people talking about music from outer space.

“Does That Star-Spangled Banner Yet Rave?”-The highly-dramatic closing track has a rave/club music jam played simultaneously with Jimi Hendrix’s experimental-guitar-solo-performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock in 1968. It also ends with some distorted voice samples (with a droning synth bass), sounding like they came from outer space. For me, this is the only track I like from music that is considered “rave”, mostly because of the Jimi Hendrix accompaniment, and the voice samples at the end.

I Stole This! is the work of a man who uses samples in various ways to construct strange and most-often humorous messages. My personal favorites on the album are “One Trek Beyond”, “Moby Beatnik”, “Up From the Ashes”, “Raspberry Jam”, and “Music of the Spheres”. I can easily recommend this for regular listening (if you like sample-based music), but this would also be great for nerdy science conventions, fans of cheesiness in pop culture, and especially those who like Plunderphonics, but can’t stand Vaporwave most of the time.

Residents Recordings Before Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor: A Study

The first documented Residents demo tape was 1969’s Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor. However, several reel-to-reel tapes, whose names are not documented, did exist, with only a very few of them being officially released.

According to the official Residents website, in the “Delta Nudes” section, the Residents began recording music “as early as 1956”. I’m not joking. That’s what I’ve actually read on the website! If the Residents made recordings at that point in time, I have two theories of what they might’ve sounded like:

1. Like Elvis Presley, but incredibly weird!
2. Old-school American folk

The first documented Residents recording was a track called “I Hear Ya Got Religion”. This was when the band was a no-budget folk combo, prior to developing an experimental sound that began in 1969. This track existed in three versions. I believe that the first two versions were recorded in around 1966. I can tell because of the audio quality and the way the acoustic guitar sounded. These two versions also had bleating, Captain Beefheart-style saxophones. NOTE: The same tape also had a short snippet of music and vocals. All three of these recordings were found on a Residents bootleg called 19 Mysterious Tracks. The third version was recorded in around early 1969. This time, it has the same formula as the earlier versions, but this time, it ends with a chaotic, Warner Bros. Album-style freak-out. The third version was first officially released, in an edited form, as an mp3 download from the band’s Buy or Die! website in 1999, before being released on the CD compilation Dot.Com in 2000, which comprised of all the mp3 recordings released on that website. Remember, this was before iTunes. The complete version also sought an official release, first in 2012 on the limited-edition mp3 ERA B474, and again in 2013 on the limited edition CD compilation Delta Nude’s Greatest Hiss.

Next, comes “Moonman”, which was recorded on the day of the first moon landing in July 1969. It is an abstract-sounding space rock piece featuring acoustic guitar, low-watt electric guitar, fiddle, acoustic bass, handclaps, and harmonica. The lyrics were actually a poem written by one of the Residents, sung in a high-pitched redneck voice. The piece is also filled with some ambient sounds coming from the room that the band recorded this in. When Charles Bobuck, one of the members of the band, told on his Codgers blog on the official Residents website that an early version of this tape was an instrumental, but had to be re-recorded. The first instrumental version was never bootlegged. “Moonman” was released on ERA B474 and Delta Nudes’ Greatest Hiss.

And finally, there is a very strange piece called “Blow Bluesy Balloon”. This track was also recorded before the existence of Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor. “Blow Bluesy Balloon” was an odd number that predates The Warner Bros. Album, featuring deep electric bass, ceramic-sounding percussion, springy, out-of-tune electric guitar effects, the sound of a latex balloon being filled up, jazzy drums, violin, kazoo (at the end of the track), and nonsensical, out-of-tune vocals. This was also released on the two aforementioned compilations.

That’s pretty much all I know about pre-pre-Residents recordings.

An Analysis of The Warner Bros. Album by the Residents (1971)

Here’s another review of a Residents demo tape. This time, it is not an actual review. It is an analysis of the band’s most anarchic-sounding psychedelic work, The Warner Bros. Album. The picture above was the cover of the actual tape box. Allow me to explain its partial history.

From late 1970-mid 1971, the band that became the Residents recorded an album of 40 songs, all of them on a reel-to-reel tape, made with a very low budget and with crude instruments, and sent it to Warner Bros. Records in hopes of getting a recording contract with the label. The band sent it to that label because the label’s A&R manager, Hal Haverstadt, helped signed Captain Beefheart, who was a major influence for the project, to the label. When listening to the tape, Mr. Haverstadt was horrified, and probably psychologically-scarred, when he heard the music, and wondered what was the reason behind it. So, Hal rejected it, and since there was no name given on the return address, he sent it simply to “The Residents”. The photo below is the actual back cover of the original tape.

Let me try to give a theoretical history of this mighty weird album.

In 1969, Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band released what was their most critically-acclaimed work, Trout Mask Replica. The album was considered to be one of the weirdest albums in rock music history. A year later, the Residents just finished recording a demo tape of desolate experimental psychedelic rock called Ballad of Stuffed Trigger. When the Residents bought a copy of Trout Mask Replica and listened to it for the first time, the band really liked the music, and thought that they could do the same. The band were recently discovered by Philip Lithman, a British musician who later became known as Snakefinger, as well as the Bavarian avant-garde composer N. Senada, whose existence is widely disputed. In fact, N. Senada was rumored at one point to be Captain Beefheart (real name Don Van Vliet) because the same house that Trout Mask Replica was recorded in was located on “Ensenada Drive” in Woodland Hills, California. When 1969 ended, Flower Power and the hippie generation were still becoming popular even as the 1960’s ended. Charles Bobuck, a member of the Residents, did gave out on the Residents website the history of “Moonman”, a pre-Residents track recorded on the day of the moon landing in July 1969. He said that at that time, the band liked to go to Psilocybin Beach and take psychedelic mushrooms, run around naked and then completely losing their minds. So, I think that this could mean that drug use played a role in the making of The Warner Bros. Album. When Snakefinger joined forces with the Residents, he took a violin with him, and the band began to make music. N. Senada also helped the Residents in their music at this point, too.

When the band tried to record something for Warner Bros. Records, I think stuff such as William S. Burroughs, Looney Tunes cartoons, Richard Nixon, The Beatles, guerilla art and grindhouse films all played a key role in the making of this tape. The Residents were a bunch of hyper-hippies at this point, and maybe the recording studio that the tape was made in was a living room that was covered in a bunch of psychedelic posters and strange junk. I also read on Discogs that the artwork, perhaps the back cover art, was done by N. Senada himself. The instruments used for the album included detuned acoustic guitar, violin (played by Snakefinger), drums, various percussion instruments, harmonica, low-watt electric guitar, distorted electric bass, kazoo, saxophone, barroom piano, upright bass, and tape effects (I’ll explain them later). According to The Cryptic Guide to the Residents, “strange liner notes” were designed for the inside of the tape box, and I guess the liner notes were a stream-of-conscious rant that was literally typed.

If Warner Bros. Records considered releasing The Warner Bros. Album, they would probably market it to stores under the label’s own categories, such as “Free-Form Comedy Noise”, “Sub-Surface Infiltration”, “Hillbilly Dada”, “Velvet Waste”, or “Discombobulated Country”.

I also have two theories about the album’s artwork:

1. The back cover of the tape shows guerilla-style artwork with figures that are (1) a schoolgirl who was one of the Residents’ friends when they were very young, and (2) Richard Nixon’s head on Mr. Peanut’s body, who is holding a plate with what appears to be a skyscraper. I’m thinking that this was a political statement, talking about Richard Nixon’s policies during the Vietnam War.
2. The inside artwork, which could be for the gatefold, consists of what I think could’ve been either: (1) Looney Tunes cartoon characters looking completely stoned, (2) various doodles of weird things, or (3) a group photo of the Residents during the recording of the album.

Let me give an analysis of some of the tracks heard on The Warner Bros. Album. However, I’m not going to describe all of them, since that would be a big waste of time.

“The Mad Sawmill of Copenhagen, Germany” is a piece full of droning electric guitar, ukulele, jazzy drums, electric bass, harmonica and piano. The way the electric guitar was played sounds like it was fed through a broken fuzzbox, making it sound like an out-of-tune Indian instrument.

“Baby Skeletons & Dogs” features rather cartoonish lyrics, which describes things such as “an American dream” and a “washing machine”. I think the song was referencing America in the 1950’s.

“Stuffed Genital” is a short instrumental that consists of a recording of metal percussion and a cheap horn, and then the recording was gradually sped-up.

The track “A Merican Fag” has a little kid singing along with the Residents to this song. It sounds a bit creepy if the lyrics are any indication! Maybe the little kid is Lana Flynn, the daughter of Homer Flynn, one of the founders of the Cryptic Corporation, the Residents’ business management.

“Going to Arcata Blues” references Arcata, a city in Northern California that is located in Humboldt County. This track has a sound collage consisting of random hippies in the studio shouting random slogans typical of the Counterculture. You can also hear a couple of women’s voices, which could perhaps be girlfriends of a couple members of the band. At the same time of the recording of this track, Snakefinger and N. Senada appeared on a college radio station in Arcata, where they were performing a composition composed by N. Senada himself for saxophone and violin. This live broadcast was officially released on the Residents’ 1991 rarities compilation Daydream B-Liver, which was released on CD by Residents fan club label UWEB (Uncle Willie’s Eyeball Buddies).

“Black Velvet Original” can be best described as a hillbilly tape speed experiment, featuring violin, acoustic guitar, and percussion. Note that when the violin is sped-up, it sounds like a fiddle.

“Christmas Morning Foto” was an instrumental that was a free jazz piece featuring out-of-tune saxophone, acoustic and electric guitar, and percussion. This also experimented with tape speed effects because a majority of this piece, particularly the guitars and percussion, sound a bit warped.

“Snot & Feces Live at the Grunt Festival” is an instrumental consisting of a recording of acoustic guitar and drums. This time, the tape was gradually slowed down to achieve a desolate effect.

“Oh Yeah Upp Bop Shu Bop” is a free-form mix of country noise and doo-wop that sounds like an extreme attempt at impersonating both Dion & the Belmonts and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy all at the same time. The way the instruments were played sounds like the tape was warped and distorted a little, and had new vocals overdubbed on top. The lead vocals sound like a teenage hippie, and the background vocals sound like characters from The Simpsons.

The lead vocal on “Ohm is Where the Art Is” sounds strangely like Paul McCartney. A rumor was told thousands of times, particularly in Australia, that the Residents were in fact the Beatles!

“Concerto in R Flat Minor II” has a faint spoken word segment that is partially unintelligible. Some of the stuff I hear in the monologue include “Minnesota”, “special impact”, and “defective”. I posted the song to a Facebook group I made called “The Pre-Sidents: The Residents Before 1974”, and a person named Gary Childs commented:

“It sounds like he’s reading a product warranty. He’s saying the product will be replaced if it is defective.

This sounds like an example of “found object art”. He is reading the warranty label from some product. It’s like a boiler plate legal statement written by a lawyer from some corporation.”

Similarly, the album Music to Eat by the Hampton Grease Band, also from 1971, had lyrics read from encyclopedia pages and a can of spray paint.

Good ears, Gary! I’m very proud of you!

“Love Theme from a Major Motion Picture” is perhaps the only piece on the album to be more “commercial”, because it is a majestic piano tune. Since the album was rejected by Warner Bros., it counts as a failed attempt at a film score.

“Prelude for Accordion, Sousaphone, and French Horn”, a piece made for those three instruments, sounds like a mix of Louisiana carnival music, Captain Beefheart, and cheap parade music.

“Short Circuit Comes to Town I” is a 7-second snippet of noise that always intrigued me as if what was used to make the strange noises heard in it. I posted the whole snippet to a Facebook group I joined called “WIERD INSTRUMENT TRIBE”, and I was told in the comments:

“Off the top of my head, sounds like metallic friction (like a brake disc) taped at 7.5 ips and played back at 15–or something like that.”

“It sounds like an overdriven electric guitar picked way up near the pickups”

“Cymbal, tom and a guitar played between saddle and bridge plus the recording is played back faster and its distorted like hell.”

“Short Circuit Comes to Town II” is a 6-second snippet of noise that sounds similar to the first, but this time it sounds like the Residents played a duel between a slide guitar played Hawaiian style and an electric guitar that sounds like it was played on the 5th and 6th strings, muted and distorted. This recording was gradually sped-up with a violin and jazz drums overdubbed on top of it.

There’s also a short untitled track near the end of the album which consists of distorted electric guitar, percussion, violin, and tribal chanting. I think this was the Residents trying to channel Frank Zappa’s 1966 track “The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet”, but only by under 30 seconds.

And finally, the intro to the noise track “Psychedelic and Orgasmic Finale I” has a strange grating noise. I posted the song to the same “WEIRD INSTRUMENT TRIBE” Facebook group and asked what was used to create that sound, and a person commented:

“Sounds like they’re bowing a violin’s strings with a rusty warped hand cranked wheel.”

The rest of the track consists of grating violin, drums, sloppy electric bass, out-of-tune penny whistle, and a bunch of free-form guitar noise that sounds like the guitar player turned up the volume of the amplifier all the way up, complete with the drive setting, and just made out-of-tune noise and mechanical feedback. An extreme attempt at trying to overcome the Velvet Underground!

In the “The Pre-Sidents: The Residents Before 1974”, Facebook group, my Facebook friend William Reinhardt commented on my Warner Bros. Album-related post:

“BTW, my ‘falling out’ with the Residents was over selling ‘WBA’ & ‘Baby Sex’ Reel-to-Reel dubs from the masters in the original silk screened tape box boxes (as shown above) a special gift to me for radio play on my KBOO show.\ I was in a desperate period for cash and is something I have regretted ever since! (Whoever is in possession of these one of a kind tapes has the rarest of collectibles). Their early Sycamore St. studio was simply a mixer and a 2 track and 4 track 1/4 inch recorders, as i recall.”

Mr. Reinhardt was a radio DJ who worked at KBOO FM in Portland, Oregon. He was one of the guys who helped the Residents become popular. He even broadcasted the entire Warner Bros. Album on radio in 1977!

That’s pretty much my analysis of The Warner Bros. Album.

Hampton Grease Band-Music to Eat (1971)

Today, I’m going to review an album that I seriously want to get on CD or vinyl (it sucks that this album isn’t even on iTunes yet!). The album in question is Music to Eat, the only album released in 1971 by the Hampton Grease Band. The Hampton Grease Band was formed in Atlanta, Georgia, and before they recorded this album, the band became known for their wacky and quirky stage antics ranging from covering the whole stage with junk to inviting a lot of friends over to do random things. Here’s a review, from the album’s gatefold, that describes the latter performance:

“On stage with the Grease Band were friends who danced, watched TV, listened to the music and marched around stage as if at home in their living room. One girl even read a book and another sewed on an American flag during the Grease Band’s performance. 

As to their `music’–and I use the term loosely–the band performed much the same way. Very little of what they did had any context within itself. The casual actions on stage relayed directly to the audience and caused wandering, talking and virtual unrest.”

The band even performed at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1970, and the band was brought to the attention of Columbia Records, who wanted to give the band a record deal. Music to Eat was the second worst-selling album in the history of Columbia Records at the time, as the honor for the worst-selling album stayed with a Maharishi Mahesh yoga record. Because of a lack of potential radio hits, Columbia marketed it to stores as a comedy record, which makes perfect sense because a famous comedy troupe that were on Columbia Records at this point was the Firesign Theater. However, Music to Eat was far from being a comedy album, but the lyrics are full of lead vocalist Bruce Hampton’s strange sense of humor, and some tracks have sound effects that give the album a rather whimsical feel. The music is a perfect mixture of Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band, The Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead, and Frank Zappa. Even Bruce Hampton’s vocals sound a LOT like Captain Beefheart himself. but with a more tenor voice.

I listened to all the tracks on the album before, thanks to YouTube. Here are each of the track descriptions, by order:

“Halifax”-The 19-minute opening track starts off in a soft rock manner, similar to the Journey classic “Lights”. The lyrics for this track was literally taken from an encyclopedia page about the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The music develops a drumbeat and the guitars begins to have a more progressive tone. Try to imagine Captain Beefheart making a lengthy progressive rock song! Glockenspiel appears for a bit with soft guitar jamming. The music changes in tempo, and one of the guitarists begins to sing a duel (not duet) with Bruce. Vibraphone appears in a jazzy, lounge-style jam. The guitars begin to dart in like a satellite signal beaming into outer space, with the drums having a more jazz-fusion approach. Later on, a guitar begins to make an experimental sound that sounds like a telephone ring being echoed into space, and a similar sound comes in after some more guitar jamming. More vocals come in, with the guitars futzing around a little and making weird sound effects. A reprise of the vocal duel appears, but with a different key. A Minutemen-style punk jam appears, reminding me of the band’s 1984 classic Double Nickels on the Dime, which I have in my ITunes collection (great album, by the way). The guitar soloing in this part sounds like Led Zeppelin. Another jazz jam appears. After all of this endless jamming, a voice sample of one of the album’s recording engineers appears, talking about how he doesn’t trust the tape recorder that was used for the track (it was an 8-track recorder that had only 5 tracks working). A reprise of the very opening part of the track appears to close it out.

“Maria”-This piece is about Mexican teenagers stalking a woman taking a bath. A quirky, Frank Zappa-style folk rock number with acoustic guitar. The glockenspiel from “Halifax” makes a return. This time, it’s not just Bruce Hampton singing the lead. Silly voices appear throughout the track. The track gets a bit ethereal later on, with a rather calm acoustic solo. Afterwards, it gets upbeat with group vocals, with one of the vocalists sounding a bit like “Weird Al” Yankovic. A noodley solo appears, reminding me of the solo from the Residents’ 1971 cover of Frank Zappa’s “King Kong”. The track gets dramatic at the end.

“Six”-This is another 19-minute track about a series of weird events involving aliens from the planet Pajodis, as how Bruce Hampton describes it. Like “Halifax”, this has a lot of bizarre jamming. Near the end of the track, an old-school country hoedown appears, before reprising to the original opening jam.

“Evans”-A 12-minute piece that is about a guy named Jim Evans. A majority of this track consists of uninspired guitar soloing. Before the track finishes, you can hear a bunch of people running around the studio and freaking out, in a manner similar to that of the unreleased Residents rarity “Going to Arcata Blues” off of The Warner Bros. Album, which was also recorded in 1971.

“Lawton”-This is a jam between guitarist Harold Kelling and drummer Jerry Fields. A majority of the opening consists of strange electronic sound effects and percussion, sounding like something Pink Floyd would do in the late 60’s and early 70’s. When actual guitar sounds do show up, it’s just strange jamming. Tribal chants also appear, and the track ends with a Hammond organ-like distorted guitar chord along with semi-choral vocals.

“Hey Old Lady/Bert’s Song”-This track reminds me a LOT of Minutemen during their Double Nickels period. The track is divided into two themes, one about a crazy old lady, and the other about a garbage truck driver.

“Hendon”-This closing track is over 20 minutes long. It features stuff ranging from Bruce Hampton singing lyrics from a can of spray paint, an anatomy lesson, horse hooves clopping about, and a lot of jazzy, abstract jamming that all leads to an Allman Brothers-style improv. Practically the best track on the whole album.

I told my Mom practically the whole story behind the Hampton Grease Band and this album, and I even shared a couple of the album’s tracks on Facebook, and to her, they all sounded incredibly weird. This album is so awesome that I may buy it on either CD or vinyl, so that way I can listen to it at home. If I want to form my own band, it would be like the Hampton Grease Band, but also fusing with the arena rock styles of Journey. It would be awesome combining two of my all-time favorite bands!

Homer Flynn, Hardy Fox, & Roland Sheehan-Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor (Unreleased, 1970)

UPDATE: This cover was shown to me by one of my Facebook friends.

For my first Residents review, I reviewed their second demo tape, 1970’s Ballad of Stuffed Trigger. This time, I’m going to review their very first demo tape, also recorded in 1970, entitled Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor. This is basically the holy grail of Residents history, and I wished that the band would release this! However, in a Residents-themed Facebook group, I was told by one of my friends from the group, who was from Germany, that the reason why the Residents refused to release all or part of Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor is because it has “no artistic value” and that it just consists of “uninspired fuzting around with musical instruments”. Also, this was not made by the actual Residents, but by some guys who later formed the band. Their names were Homer Flynn, Hardy Fox, and guitarist/organist Roland Sheehan. Upon hearing some of the results, however, I would have to disagree, because out of all the demo recordings I’ve been listening to that have levels and levels of uninspired fiddling around, Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor is what I would say to have the most least amount of uninspired fiddling out of all of them. I’m going to give you a description of the first track out of the two tracks on the whole tape, since that was the only one uploaded by someone on YouTube so far.

“Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor”-A 12-minute suite in several parts, all of which I’m going to give a name, since the movements in the suite doesn’t have any actual titles.

1. “Majestic Introduction”-The whole tape starts off with guitar and keyboards that gradually becomes more and more majestic, perhaps in a classic movie-style manner. Drums also appear. The guitar in this part reminds me of Pink Floyd during their Atom Heart Mother period. No fiddling around in this part. The track ends by being altered with effects to make it sound like a broken radio transmission.
2. “Dialogue & Records”-This has some studio dialogue (that has some microphone feedback at the start) between a couple of the Residents and some girls. In several parts, you hear snippets of old records being played (one of them belonging to the soundtrack for the film Bye Bye, Birdie!), making this movement Plunderphonics-sounding in the process.
3. “Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor”-A really folky piece with lead and background vocals and acoustic guitar, kinda like Bob Dylan but with a more hick voice. More dialogue starts, then comes a reprise, this time in its full form with lyrics. The spoken opening describes how the singer’s “42-year-old baby sister” had a family member killed by soldiers during a battle. It soon becomes psychedelic with distorted bass guitar and Hammond organ.
4. “Freak Out!”-This is a free-form noise improv with distorted bass guitar and Hammond organ. The bass sounds like something from a 70’s or 80’s punk rock song, while the organ has a lot of strange mechanical wonkiness. It ends with a psychedelic chord that leads into a clock ticking with distorted electric guitar and high-pitched organ chords. Some percussive bass chords are played, followed by more organ sounds. A kitschy, NBC Chimes-style guitar melody appears leading to some strange experimental jamming, ending with a vibrating organ cord.

I also listened to a section of the second track of this demo tape (the whole track wasn’t on YouTube, unfortunately), and it is a Hammond organ-filled cover of the classic hymnal “Bringing in the Sheaves”. I absolutely loved the way the Hammond organ sounded, how it is all campy and cheesy.

I didn’t think that the Residents were fiddling around talentlessly with their instruments when they recorded this. Maybe they didn’t want to release anything from this tape because it just consisted of guys who later formed the Residents, meaning that this tape is not really from the Residents.

And, since I’m a musician who releases music online, hopefully I can buy a Hammond organ and a couple other instruments and try to make a clone of this tape, but with different tracks.

The Breeders-Last Splash (1993)

I first heard about Last Splash when I was a kid, looking at various album covers in CD catalogues that I like to read out of. However, I knew nothing about the Breeders at that time. The Breeders are an alternative/indie rock group formed by two twin sisters, Kim Deal and Kelley Deal. Kim Deal was the former bassist of a group called Pixies. That’s pretty much all I know about them now. However, their magnum opus, 1993’s Last Splash, looks to be a rather interesting album by indie rock standards! I mean, the psychedelic cover art sure looks promising enough. Right now, I’m going to listen to the full album on YouTube first as I’m going to type a review of each of this album’s songs, and then maybe if it is good, I might buy it, perhaps on iTunes, where I like to get most of my music quicker. That’s a rule for me when I buy new albums, to listen to it online before thinking about it to see if the album or any of its songs are any good.

Here are the reviews of the album’s songs, in order:

“New Year”-Distorted guitar and some feedback open the song. A slow drumbeat envelops with atmospheric guitar. The drumbeat gets faster and the song starts to go a more punk approach. More feedback appears throughout parts of the song. The vocals reminds me of Blondie’s lead singer, but with a more cool attitude.

“Cannonball”-Begins with an electronically distorted voice and wordless vocal loop with some electric noises. Clicking percussion appears along with bass and rather jazzy drums. A bluesy guitar shows up, sounding like the style of guitar playing you hear in the Hampton Grease Band’s music, but then it develops into a distorted punk guitar that is followed by some distorted telephone signal sound effects (that’s what it sounds like). The vocals in the chorus sounds like they were recorded through a telephone, similar to the vocal styles of Rhode Island noise freaks Lightning Bolt. The same HGB-style guitar appears in several more parts. The song ends by cutting off abruptly and into the next track.

“Invisible Man”-Starts off with distorted, almost grungy guitar with vocals, drums and bass. Maybe Kim Deal was trying to channel Kurt Cobain with that style of guitar playing? The lyrics reminds me of what Nico sang in the song “I’ll Be Your Mirror” from the Velvet Underground’s 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. A distorted, but much more clean guitar solo comes. The track ends with some wind chimes, treated with effects, making the ending seem more like ambient music in the process.

“No Aloha”-Begins with vocals and ethereal, Hawaiian-sounding slide guitar, dueling with distorted guitar. A drumbeat develops as the track develops a more punk edge, with the Hawaiian guitar still being played. In fact, Kim Deal was inspired to write the song after she went into the women’s restroom of the recording studio and saw graffiti written on the wall that says “Motherhood means mental freeze”.

“Roi”-An experimental piece that starts off with distorted guitar and bass. A drumbeat develops with distorted noises. The guitars begin to experiment a little. Next comes an avant-garde section where you hear what sounds like a scraping violin or cello and strange electronic noises coming from a Minimoog (the credits for the album states that this track also uses a Casiotone keyboard). That particular moment in this song reminds me of the first of the two closing pieces off of the Residents’ 1971 demo tape The Warner Bros. Album. The guitars and bass get a little atmospheric, kinda like the Hampton Grease Band song “Lawton”. The guitars start to get that punk edge again. I also hear a little squawk of feedback, and later you hear speed chords and amp noises. Vocals appear again. The track ends with a rather fuzzy chord.

“Do You Love Me Now?”-Starts off with processed vocals with bass and drone effects. A slow drumbeat develops with more conventional guitar work. This goes on for most of the song, before leading to a fuzzy, experimental guitar jam with feedback, which reminds me of some of the fuzzy psychedelic guitar stuff you can find in the 70’s and 80’s work of the South Korean group Sanullim (Mountain Echo). The conventional structure starts again, ending with a quasi-choir vocal with a fuzzy chord.

“Flipside”-A light, plucky guitar melody eventually becomes a rather hardcore-sounding jam that reminds me of stuff from Minutemen. Shockingly enough, this track is an instrumental.

“I Just Wanna Get Along”-A punk melody appears with vocals. Guitars get a little fuzzy with feedback. The drums also get a bit loud by the end.

“Mad Lucas”-Another experimental piece that begins with a fuzzy, wiry guitar solo with pulsing bass and scratchy, rather jazzy drums. The vocals sounds like they are processed through an old Leslie speaker. Electronic bass pulse tones appear before continuing the song’s original structure. A wiry guitar solo starts up. More electronic bass tones come after. Strange, faint high-pitched noises also show up. Strange noises are heard, created by scraping heavily on a violin, with the same electronic bass pulse tones. The same structure continues. The track ends with some faint voices followed by the same violin noises as earlier, getting eventually cut off. In terms of style, this reminds me of a mix of the pre-1974 version of the Residents mixed with the previously unreleased Captain Beefheart song “Korn Ring Finger”, which was recorded during the Mirror Man sessions back in late 1967.

“Divine Hammer”-This starts off with bass and a wiry guitar chord that leads to a rather Smiths-style indie jam with vocals. A guitar solo appears, and its distortion is so clean that it reminds me of the guitar solo from Sanullim’s 1982 track “In The Past”. This ends with weird noises.

“S.O.S”-Not a cover of the Avtograf song of the same name, but this piece is rather interesting. It’s an instrumental that begins with a strange mechanical and distorted noise that was created (literally) by plugging in a Kenmore 12-stitch sewing machine into a Marshall guitar amp. This reminds me of when Captain Beefheart used a custom-built “atomic flour sifter” for use on the track “Son of Mirror Man-Mere Man” from his 1968 album Strictly Personal. A punk jam develops as you hear high-pitched guitar noises. Feedback appears in parts of the song. More amplified sewing machine noises appear as the track ends with a final punk melody that ends with an experimental fuzz noise.

“Hag”-The guitar chords in the opening of this track sounds rather Christmas-y. It leads into a rather soft jam with bass, drums, and guitar and vocals. The guitars start to get fuzzy, turning the song into more conventional punk. More Christmas-sounding guitar chords appear as the song gradually fades out.

“Saints”-This track begins with a fuzzy guitar solo followed by a hardcore-sounding jam, this time with a much slower drumbeat. Another fuzzy guitar solo appears. This track almost has a typical radio rock feel for its time.

“Drivin’ on 9”-This begins with vocals and an acoustic guitar melody. The chords sound like they came from an acoustic-electric guitar because of how they have a little reverb (the non-echo reverb) onto them. It leads into a rollicking country rock piece with guitar, bass, and drums. A violin tune also appears with acoustic guitar and a banjo. The acoustic guitar in this song sounds like it had a little phaser attached to it. The drums start to get a little punky at one point. This is the most unusual track on the whole album, because it is a rather friendly-sounding country rock tune! Maybe this would be a good way to introduce your country/Americana-loving grandparents to the Breeders, by the way.

“Roi (Reprise)”-This is the shortest track on the whole album, and also the closing track, clocking in at only 42 seconds. It starts out with a fuzzy, reverb-filled guitar with a pulsing bass tone and feedback. A punk jam appears, with some more feedback. It ends with a speed chord. This pretty much has the same formula from the original version of “Roi”.

After listening to this album, I would like to say that this is the best 90’s indie/alternative rock album I had ever heard. I like it because it is augmented by several different and strange forms of sonic experimentation that are not typical in most indie and alternative groups from this time, especially for that unusual country rock tune at the near end of the album. Even the album’s psychedelic artwork made the album sound even better. If you see a copy of it on CD or vinyl, or if you spot it on iTunes or Google Play, go ahead and buy it, and then have fun with it.

The Wilford Brimleys-Stock Optics (2008)

If you see a concert advertising a band called “The Wilford Brimleys”, you would expect them to be a pop music parody band centering around the famed actor, Quaker Oats spokesperson and Liberty Medical diabetes testing supply spokesperson, right? Wrong. The Wilford Brimleys, despite the name, are not a pop music parody band, and their not even a “band”, per se. The Wilford Brimleys is a solo project of Chicago, Illinois-based musician Zachary Mark, the founder of the noise music label Car Wash Tapes. The album I’m reviewing from this project is the album Stock Optics, which was originally released in an edition of 50 CDr’s in November 2008, before being officially published on the Car Wash Tapes Bandcamp page, which is where I listened to the album.

Stock Optics consists of experimental electronic music that is simply harsh noise and power electronics. I’m not familiar with most harsh noise artists (but I am familar with Hanatarash, who are from Japan), and I’m not at all a fan of power electronics (a genre pioneered by the English group Whitehouse back in the late 1970’s), because despite being a subgenre of experimental music, most power electronics songs, like those from Whitehouse, can be too loud, lyrically offensive, and they also have too much harsh, loud, and rather uninteresting sounds for my autistic ears. However, I’m going to make an exception with The Wilford Brimleys and this album. Well, the name of the band is rather hilarious, and the music on Stock Optics is much more diverse than most power electronics artists because it has no offensive lyrics, has abstract/weird titles and themes, has more interesting sounds, and like the album’s cover art, has a tendency to be psychedelic at times. However, because of the loudness of the album, I have to listen to it with the volume at near-quiet level. I’m going to describe each of the album’s six tracks.

“Toast Weapons”-The opening number consists of a loop of a distorted female voice saying “toast weapons” that increases heavily in feedback and reverb, along with an electronic tone that sounds like it came from a Farfisa organ. This is what I would call the freak-out equivalent of Alvin Lucier’s musique concrete composition I am Sitting in a Room.

“Valid Boohiss”-This piece features what appears to be a chopped-up-and-slowed-down distorted voice, sounding like a Decepticon after he drank too much caffeine. A bunch of random electronic noises also appear in the midst of the strange junk, such as what sounds like a motorcycle revving and high-pitched frequencies. It later becomes a total noise chaos.

“Threed.vbx”-What sounds like distorted electric organ tones appear throughout this track, along with crackly synth noises. Distorted malfunctioning-robot like noises also appear, with some revving effects. The distorted fake organ continues, but this time with a more white noise tone. It ends with another malfunctioning-robot freak-out.

“Do You Like Me Yes No”-Watery electronic loops appear, eventually becoming a barking synth jam that evolves into pure anarchist electro-noise.

“Chaleco Salvavidas”-Despite its name, this isn’t Latin American-style music. This track has watery, futuristic, and sometimes ethereal (but loud) noise effects that, like what you hear in “Threed.vbx”, sounds like a pile of malfunctioning robots.

“Stock Optics”-The closing title track has ring-modulated electronic tones along with some synth sounds. It later features distorted synth noises, but this time, it is not a white noise freak-out. There’s also some clanging noises, too. The piece ends with a distorted synth outro that ends with a droning tone.

As I stated, be careful when listening to this album on Bandcamp, because it sure is loud! Try listening to it with the volume at the near-quiet mode.

Here’s the link: http://carwashtapes.bandcamp.com/album/stock-optics