Category: Bizarre

Talking Heads @ CBGB’s at Wolfgang’s Vault

This appearance at New York’s seminal punk club, CBGBs, on May 31st, 1977 captures the Talking Heads before their debut record had even been released. The band’s characteristic sound is already fully evident as they dig into some classic material including their artsy interpretation of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River” and the career-defining “Psycho Killer.”

Concert Set List:

* 1. Don’t Worry About The Government 3:08
* 2. Take Me To The River 5:37
* 3. Uh Oh, Love Comes To Town 3:02
* 4. Psycho Killer 5:18

The Talking Heads are:

David Byrne – vocals, guitar
Chris Frantz – drums
Jerry Harrison – guitar, keyboards
Tina Weymouth – bass

Click here to listen to the concert.

Grande Mothers Re-Invented Rock Canada Day

The Grande Mothers Re-Invented performed to an appreciative audience of about 300 at Festival Place in Sherwood Park, Alberta, on Canada Day, July 1st at 7:30 pm. They performed flawlessly for over two and a half hours with one fifteen minute intermission. For the most part, the material performed came from the period between 1965 and 1975. Highlights, at least for me, included exceptional performances of Pound For A Brown, Eat That Question, Chunga’s Revenge, Invocation And Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin, Holiday In Berlin, Abye Sea, Dupree’s Paradise, Little House I Used To Live In, Enchinda’s Arf (Of You), Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing? and, of course, Sofa. There were enough songs performed from the catalogue of Mothers of Invention albums to satisfy any level of fan, newbie or hardcore, as the following setlist suggests:

1. Pound For A Brown
2. Call Any Vegetable
3. Eat That Question
4. Lonely Little Girl
5. Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance
6. Harry, You’re a Beast
7. What’s the Ugliest Part of Your Body?
8. Chunga’s Revenge
9. Holiday In Berlin
10. Abye Sea
11. Invocation And Ritual Dance of the Young Pumpkin
12. Idiot Bastard Son
13. Florentine Pogen
14. Evelyn, A Modified Dog
15. Enchinda’s Arf (Of You)
16. Don’t You Ever Wash That Thing?
17. The Air
18. Debra Kadabra (sung by Chris Garcia/amazing Beefheart-esque voice)
19. Carolina Hard Core Ecstasy
20. Sofa #1
21. Orange County Lumber Truck Medley
22. Trouble Every Day (sung by Don Preston)
23. Dupree’s Paradise
24. Little House I Used To Live In
25. Pygmy Twylyte

Encore 1: Peaches En Regalia
Encore 2: Montana

The Grande Mothers Re-Invented are:

Don Preston — keyboards, vocals
Roy Estrada — bass, vocals (pachuco falsetto)
Napoleon Murphy Brock — tenor sax, flute, lead vocals
Miroslav Tadic — guitarist (lead, stunt & otherwise/awesome)
Chris Garcia — drums

The Tubes — Space Baby, 1975

Latest offering from The Tubes Project, an ongoing archiving process in preparation for the eventual release of a documentary outlining the musical history of The Tubes.

Recorded at the Record Plant, w/Bill Spooner on lead vocals. This video opens with rare instrumental featured in the Tubes live set at the time. Originally part of The Beans space opera, “Acension of the Motherload.” Appeared on the Tubes first album produced by Al Kooper.

“Tube” Mural/Shirts and “Space Baby” costume by Michael Cotten and Prairie Prince.

Up, Up & Away En Sus Beautiful Balloons

File under Stranger Than Fiction:

A Brazilian priest is missing after he drifted out to sea while trying to set a record for a flight using helium-filled party balloons, authorities said on Tuesday.

Balloon Priest

De Carli, who flew around 55 miles (90 kilometers) before losing contact, had wanted to draw attention to the work of his parish in Paranagua, which targets mostly truck drivers who transport goods to and from the port.

Umm… bananas!

More here… Via Dr Sharl — who else?

Hot ‘n Nasty

It’s Wednesday, hump-day, and you are no doubt in need of something special to get you through those mid-week doldrums (perhaps brought on by a certain vaultmeister’s recent non answer). So, here’s Jim Dandy to the rescue, so to speak, with Black Oak Arkansas‘ “Hot ‘n Nasty” followed by “Lord Have Mercy On My Soul (Halls of Karma)”. I don’t think anyone can possibly view these two videos, the first especially, without realizing where Van Halen got much of its stage act.

King Of The Rickroll

I’m going to have to mention the name of Rick Astley now, but fear not: it’s for purely sociological reasons. You see, Mr Astley has been rickrolled:

Over the last year or so, Astley has watched with puzzled amazement as “Never Gonna Give You Up” has been mocked, celebrated, remixed and reprised, its original music video viewed millions of times on YouTube, all by a generation that could barely swallow its Gerber carrots when the song first topped the pop charts.

Here’s just one particularly puzzling example.