Soft Machine

This is the happiest looking band EVER. Am I right. folks?

Maureen Johnson IS John Green

Apparently, author John Green has taken an extended leave of absence from his Nerdfighting activities to have a baby. So rather than having Hank vlog himself, the two brothers decided to have YA author Maureen Johnson fill in for John until his return. They couldn't have made a better choice. Maureen also graciously asked me to come up with some music for her "Actual John Green" song.

Download the "Actual John Green" song here.

Enjoy.

About A Trapeze

This is a YouTube video featuring my friend, Maureen Johnson. She is forced to take a trapeze lesson after losing a bet with the internet. It's entertaining, thought-provoking and horrifying all at the same time.

Anyway, she asked me to write a song to accompany the video of her trapeze lesson. This song (which I cleverly titled "Trapeze") took me 20 whole minutes to write and record, so you all had better love it. Maureen was kind enough to show the words on the screen, as I'm not always so hot when it comes to musical enunciation.

Hope you enjoy it.

Stevie Wonder Visits Sesame Street, 1973

To honor the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, I am posting a fairly rare clip of Stevie Wonder from 1973. Stevie opens the show, performing an alternate Sesame Street theme song that should have immediately toppled the already existing one, in my opinion. But, no! They kept that "Sunny Day" monstrosity instead. Whatever.

Let's go back together to a time when performers apparently sang into microphones strongly resembling night-lights and owned genuine Orange amplifiers. A glorious time, indeed.

Click on the image to watch the video. The file is about 20MB, so be patient; it's worth it.

Eric Charden - Pas Question?

My DVR is slowly dying, so I am going to have to erase all the media that I've been hoarding for the past three years. The shows I hate to lose the most are all the episodes of New York's greatest public access show ever, Media Funhouse, starring Ed Grant. However, I am going to try to post a few pop-culture tidbits from the show that I simply cannot part with.

This clip is Eric Charden singing a song titled "Pas Question?". Chances are, you've never heard of him. I know I hadn't when I watched this Media Funhouse episode featuring Charden on a French television variety show hosted by Tom Jones in 1966. The fuzz bass line is absolutely killer, and I guarantee you'll be singing along to this one in due time. That it is sung in French matters not, my friend. Trust me.

Click on the image to watch the video. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, you can catch Media Funhouse on MNN's Channel 57, Saturday nights at 1am (though technically, it's Sunday morning).

Stamp Out The Beatles

I want to voice my misgivings about the soon-to-be-released boxsets of The Beatles: one in mono, one in stereo.

The Beatles In Mono is "limited," though EMI will not say definitely to what extent, and lists for $299. The Beatles In Stereo lists for $259.

Now, I don't know what economy EMI are living in right now, but I would not even consider buying either one of those for anything near that price. I would consider, say, $75 for each.

For those of you asking "why mono?", The Beatles' monophonic mixes differ greatly from their stereo counterparts, and have been unavailable since late 1968.

Let me give you an idea of how outrageously priced these sets are. Recently, there was a boxed set of the 13th Floor Elevators titled Sign Of The 3 Eyed Men released on the tiny International Artists label. Here's a video of all its contents:



Lovingly compiled by long-time fan and biographer Paul Drummond, the sound is as good as it's ever gonna get for these guys. Previous CD releases have sounded comparatively horrible. It is absolutely limited to 4,000 copies. The cost? US$158 including shipping (it ships from the UK). Knowing a thing or two about manufacturing and shipping, I would assume that a corporation as monolithic as EMI would be able to finagle a more reasonable price than, say, International Artists. The cost to EMI for manufacturing and shipping each boxed set ain't anywhere near three hundred bucks, limited or not.

So, I'm calling "bullshit" on EMI's extortionary prices and so should you. No way would John Lennon or George Harrison endorse these practices. They'd be listening to the 13th Floor Elevators boxed set. They really would.

Ellie Greenwich, Dead at 68

Even if her name doesn't ring a bell, you've almost certainly heard her music.

With her husband, lyricist Jeff Barry (as well as with producers Phil Spector and George "Shadow" Morton), Greenwich co-wrote an amazing number of hits. Here are but a few:

"Chapel Of Love" - The Dixie Cups
"Be My Baby" - The Ronettes
"Then He Kissed Me" - The Crystals
"Da Doo Ron Ron" - The Crystals
"River Deep - Mountain High" - Ike & Tina Turner
"Leader Of The Pack" - The Shangri-Las
"I Can Hear Music" - The Beach Boys
"Hanky Panky" - Tommy James and The Shondells
"Do Wah Diddy Diddy" - Manfred Mann

Ellie Greenwich died on August 27th of a heart attack at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in midtown Manhattan.

Although not very well known, this is my favorite version of "I Can Hear Music" by Larry Lurex, which is actually Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor recording under a pseudonym. The three, after recruiting bassist John Deacon, were soon to release their first album, Queen.

Click here to listen to the song.

- Ellie Greenwich, `Chapel of Love' co-writer, dies [AP]