I think it's pretty bad. Pandora has been sending me e-mails about it.

This Marnie Stern album (In Advance of the Broken Arm) is so weird. She's the anti-Joanna Newsom. I mean, I assume a few of y'all are familiar with it, but for those who aren't, she's an indie-rock chick who plays virtuoso wheedla-wheedla guitar (with Steve Vai-style precision and speed), but puts all those notes into service for skronky noise-pop, Deerhoof-like songs, while she declaims like a female Mark E. Smith over the top. She's so far out of leftfield that I get disoriented.

Of interest probably only to me, but I just figured out that Tom Waits recorded Swordfishtrombones at Sunset Studios in Hollywood. Which is where a couple Beefheart songs were recorded, ("Moonlight on Vermont" and "Veteran's Day Poppy") Exile on Main Street, various early Disney projects and Prince's Purple Rain.

All of which relate to Tom Waits as influences in various ways. The falsetto that he uses on "Shore Leave" and "Temptation", for instance, grew out of his love for the Stone's "I Just Wanna See His Face" and his Prince fanboyishness. (Tom is also a huge fan of Missy Elliot.)

Beefheart is, of course, a big influence on all Tom's 80s work (I can say this authoritatively now that I've listened to Lick My Decals Off, Baby and The Spotlight Kid which feature lots of Waitsian marimba), and Tom's cover of "Heigh Ho" is still one of the coolest and most eerie covers ever.

Hey, you know what's a great song on Exile that everybody should listen to today? "Let It Loose"

Other Sunset Sound recordings: Led Zeppelin IV and Odeley.

OK. Maybe Trout Mask Replica afterwards.

x-posted with Bitches because of our earlier discussion of Crystals and Angels from other planets....

I'm digging this trippy 1977 video of The Carpenters, with a full orchestra, covering Klaatu's amazing "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft." From the Official Klaatu Homepage:

The idea for this track was suggested by an actual event that is described in The Flying Saucer Reader, a book by Jay David published in 1967. In March 1953 an organization known as the "International Flying Saucer Bureau" sent a bulletin to all its members urging them to participate in an experiment termed "World Contact Day" whereby, at a predetermined date and time, they would attempt to collectively send out a telepathic message to visitors from outer space. The message began with the words..."Calling occupants of interplanetary craft!"

blog thingie: [link]

video: [link]

The video starts out with this cheesy, corny bit of comedy (I think) of aliens calling a radio station's request line.

Is this the most awesome video ever, or what?

One of my brother's and my favorite songs when it came out. Probably still around on LP in one of our homes.

I loved it when it came out, but even then I thought it was a little too goofy for me to love any more than I did.

Please interstellar policeman....

eta: If anything, I love it more now. I have embraced the cheesiness....

In a less goofy, more sciency vein (but still just as weird), I bring you... audio illusions!

Shepard's ascending tones(MP3) - This is a recording of Shepard's paradox synthesized by Jean-Claude Risset. Pairs of chords sound as if they are advancing up the scale, but in fact the starting pair of chords is the same as the finishing pair. If you loop this sample seamlessly then it should be impossible to tell where the sample begins and ends.

Falling bells(MP3) - This is a recording of a paradox where bells sound as if they are falling through space. As they fall their pitch seems to be getting lower, but in fact the pitch gets higher. If you loop this sample you will clearly see the pitch jump back down when the sample repeats. This reveals that the start pitch is obviously much lower than the finishing pitch.

Quickening Beat(MP3) - This recording is subtle. A drum beat sounds as if it is quickening in tempo, but the starting tempo is the same as this finishing tempo.

Freaky. Like, I know how they're doing the first two, but I still hear the illusions....

[link]

I loved it when it came out, but even then I thought it was a little too goofy for me to love any more than I did.

My buddy Ed and I knew we were going to be pals forevah when we realized we both had not only the first album, and Hope, but also Sir Army Suit, and liked it (20 years after the fact). I never knew about the fifth album.

Awesome Carpenters video!

We are observing your earth... and we'd like to make... a contact... with you... baby.

Oddly, I can't think of this song without hearing the Langley Schools version in my head.