How is it that I, a fan of cool and strange music since age 5, could possibly have lived so long without ever having heard of Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, a cat so cool, an ivory tickler so righteous, he makes Jerry Lee Lewis look like a square with 10 thumbs? The best part is that Harry was doing Jerry a good 15 years before the Killer ever thought of standing up on his piano bench and marrying his 13-year old cousin.

And if f you dug him in Handsome Harry, you'll really flip for his checkered threads and solid boogie-woogie groove in Opus 12 EEE.

I await the clip of Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine with bated breath.

Posted by MrBaliHai at 8:04 PM | Permalink

Attention, electronica enthusiasts: my former editor, and all-around Cool and Strange guy, Dana Countryman, has been on tour with electronic-music legend, Jean Jacques Perrey! Their new CD, Happy Electropop Music Machine, goes on sale September 25th. Here's a link to some performance clips on YouTube [Link].

And check out Dana's vintage Moog synthesizer!

Posted by MrBaliHai at 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

...because the first thing that popped into my head when I saw this Little Richard Miller album, Jesus Use Me, was "...as what, a doorstop?"

But seriously, I can't imagine how he managed to play a musical instrument. The human spirit is indomitable.

Posted by MrBaliHai at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

La Bise Aux Hippies: Brigitte Bardot with Serge Gainsbourg on Gee-tar!

Posted by MrBaliHai at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Fudgeland just posted this handy compilation of video clips [Link] by one of my favorite bands, XTC. I enjoy tunes from all of the group's various incarnations, but I have to admit that I'm most partial to the angular, post-punk pop they recorded back in the late 70s (watch Making Plans For Nigel and Are You Receiving Me).

When keyboardist Barry Andrews left to form Shriekback, and the band stopped touring, their music gradually became a lot more bucolic and lost that punky edge. Worse, Andy Partridge got preachy about his personal beliefs, a musical conceit that I've never (with the exception of The Clash) found particularly interesting. Oh, they still produced gorgeous melodies like Garden of Earthly Delights, which I sang to my newborn son almost 18 years ago (it's a wonder he didn't try to crawl back into the womb after hearing his pop croon), and they produced some delightful neo-psychedelia as the Dukes of Stratosphear, but it was never quite the same for me.

In other news, tomorrow is my 47th birthday, so I'll be busy celebrating with my peeps, having hip-replacement surgery, and shopping for a nursing home to move into. On Sunday, I leave for Washington D.C. where I'll be working for a week. The blogging forecast calls for mostly dry conditions with occasional flurries of posting.

Alohaderci!

Posted by MrBaliHai at 6:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)