Saturday, January 31, 2009

Hell Hath No Fury Like an Insecure Englishman


Ladies and gentlemen, that naked man you see above this text is Momus, né Nick Currie. There's already some info about this guy in the most recent podcast post, but I felt he deserved his own post, especially since last week he decided to make six out-of-print albums available for free download on UbuWeb!

Momus has been around since the mid-80s, crafting impeccable avant-pop that sounds like Leonard Cohen collaborating with Serge Gainsbourg with Morrissey helping out here and there. These six albums (less than a third of his recorded output) represent his years on the now-defunct Creation Records. Since no other label has stepped up to reissue these gems, Mr. Currie has decided to go ahead and put them up on his UbuWeb page, complete with detail commentary on every song! Here's you chance to get in on the music of a true original! Get it while it's hot!

PS: You might want to check out the rest of UbuWeb, too. The place is packed with weird and wonderful stuff.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

I Know Where to Dump It

Here's the newest podcast, sixteen hours later than the time I try to have these up by. I'd have gotten it done on time, but I was too busy laughing at this picture:


Anyway, hope you enjoy this one. For some reason there are a lot of songs with swears this time around. Go figure.









I'll try to have the playlist and links up in the comments sometime tomorrow morning.

Love,
Tay

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

This Post Contains the Name "Blagjojevich"

Thanks everybody for making last night's show a tremendous success! Easily one of the best 255 shows ever! And guess what? I have a pair of awesome, nay, essential links for you today, one for each of last nights touring bands!

First up is Bird Names, who are stopping through the studios of the venerable WFMU to record a live set which will air in mid-February. In anticipation, the kind folks at WFMU have posted an EP David from Bird Names recorded about recently-disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagjojevich back in 2005. The EP, entitled For the Love of Rod, can be had here, and do yourself a favor and check out WFMU for yourself. Best radio station ever.


Regarding Quiet Hooves, who can be seen above performing in a swimming pool, I'd like to point you towards Party Party Partners, a label-website-thing already known to anyone who bought the Quiet Hooves/Dream Scene split cd-r last night. Turns out they have a free 18-track comp featuring tracks by the Hooves and ten other bands! How can you pass that up? You can't! So get it right here.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

2 Great Bands Tuesday at 255!


Only two more days until the much-anticipated Bird Names/Quiet Hooves show at 255! Have you marked your calendar yet? I'd recommend bringing a few extra bucks for merch this go 'round, because both of these bands are totally rad and have excellent albums for sale. I know I'm planning on picking up a few things! Charleston's own Dead Hippies will be opening. See you there!

I'm a Funky Robot


Bottin - When Italians Did It Better

It's been a quiet Saturday night here at SCnP headquarters, but I've been keeping the party vibes at a steady simmer with this rad new mix by Jersey disco label Italians Do It Better's latest signee, William Bottin, who, as it turns out, is actually a real Italian, unlike most of his new labelmates. Anyway, Bottin's new 12" can be had though the IDIB store...once they get it in stock. Until then Bottin has offered up a half-hour mystery mix, with a free copy of the new 12" going to the first person who can name every track. It's all too obscure for me to even think of trying, but I'm enjoying the music all the same. More info can be found on the IDIB site.

Friday, January 23, 2009

C30, C60, C90, GO! - American Gladiators


I'm proud to introduce C30, C60, C90, Go!, a new feature here on the blog where I, your friendly neighborhood thrift store vulture, pledge to bring you only the finest in bargain-bin cassette finds, along with a few explanatory notes, some commentary, maybe even an addendum or two. We'll just have to see. In the meantime, here's my first offering, American Gladiators: The Music!

I found this gem still in the shrinkwrap and didn't open it for almost a year, choosing instead to display it alongside other curiosities on the mantle in my living room. However, something in me this morning just had to hear it, and, as I peeled off the now-brittle plastic film off of the tape's pristine packaging, I thought, "Someone else might want to hear this...", and I knew what I had to do. So, Mr. Whoever-You-Are, you wanted it, here it is:

American Gladiators: The Music (1993)
Side A

American Gladiators Introduction (featuring Mike Adamle)
American Gladiators Opening
Queen - "We Will Rock You"
Joust
Gary Glitter - "Rock and Roll (Part II)"
Gauntlet
The Movement - "Jump"
Eliminator
The Fabulous Thunderbirds - "Tuff Enuff"
Tug-O-War

Side B
Pat Benatar - "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
Whiplash
Breakthrough and Conquer
Yello - "Oh Yeah"
Assault
Scandal - "The Warrior"
Hang Tough
Atlasphere
Swing Shot
Powerball (with Mike Adamle)
American Gladiators Theme

In a lot of ways, this is pretty predictable stuff: a handful of jock rock standards that probably were never even played on the show, padded out by some intrumental pieces that no one watching the show would ever notice because they're too busy watching Gemini shoot tennis balls at a personal trainer from Boca Raton.

Ah, but things get interesting once you take a closer look! Each side is a continuous mix, which is kinda cool, and the name of the band performing the originals (Dan Milner and the Steele Penny Band) is worth a chuckle, but my favorite thing about this tape is that most tracks feature the Gladiators themselves taunting the listener over the top of the music! Sadly, only Laser, Tower and Turbo are featured here, but so is Yello's classic "Oh Yeah", which I guess is supposed to represent how sexy the female Gladiators are supposed to be? Whatever, hearing that song in its entirety is a rare treat these days, anyhow. All in all, this tape was entertaining enough to hold my attention for the entire length of time it took to make this post, but I'll probably be putting it back on the mantle before too long.

Well, that does for this first installment of C30, C60, C90, Go! The next one will actually have good music on it, I promise!

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Mailer vs. Torn!


A friend pointed me towards this amazing video of real live fisticuffs exchanged between Rip Torn and Norman Mailer back in 1969! From the description:
Mailer concluded principal photography without resolving the final scene, and Rip Torn (playing his brother-in-law and assassin) allegedly decided to take it upon himself to "improvise" an attack by hitting Mailer on the head with a small hammer, drawing blood. Mailer retaliated by tackling and then nearly chewing Torn's ear off as they grappled viciously, and it rapidly escalated into an unhinged on-camera brawl as Mailer's horrified kids screamed in terror.
Harrowing! While I'm at it, here's a related clip from another of Mailer's films, featuring a terrible performance by Ryan O'Neal:

Burial Samples Revealed!

I was poking around on No Pain in Pop, an UK-based mp3 blog/record label, when I came across this nugget someone excavated from a thread on dubstepforum.com. Behold!
BURIAL SAMPLES

archangel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3VXT15Kf4s
@00:27, @01:55
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Gj0c2TO5U
@01:58

untrue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAI8R3l8YE8
@00:33, @00:46

endorphin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7zoBaHqeQ8
@00:40

etched headplate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWRIHYQwKvQ
For those out of the loop, Burial is an anonymous (until recently) dubstep producer whose Untrue is the best late-night album I've heard in years. It's fascinating to hear the samples in their original context.

Ya Gotta Choogle Tonight


WFMU's Beware of the Blog just posted a great essay on one of my favorite music-related terms, the fabled "choogle", that's as insightful as it is bizarre! Nothing but great lines like this one:
Surely it's safe to say that the Cramps choogled often enough to have counted out the number of times Mr. Fogerty commanded them to do so and at least met (but likely exceeded) his demands to "keep on"
Read it here.

That Kid Never Leaves His Room


Alright, we made it to episode number two! I hope you guys like this one. It's a little more rockin' than last time. Dig in!










Check the comments on this post for a playlist complete with links to buy the music featured here. And as promised in the show, I've compiled a list of upcoming shows in the Charleston underground.

January 27 @ 255 Ashley Ave. | 8pm
Bird Names
Quiet Hooves
Dead Hippies

February 4 @ 255 Ashley Ave. | 8pm (I forgot to mention this one on the show)
Lazy Magnet
My Left Uterus
TBA

February 5 @ Chestnut Tree Infoshop | 7pm
Wingnut Dishwasher's Union
Oicho Kabu
TBA

February 14 @ 89 Columbus St. | 8pm
The Floorboards
Aux Arc
TBA

Keep tuning in! We've got lots of fun stuff planned for future episodes!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Oh-no-no, shooters?



Rampant Mike Patton name-dropping on All My Children! This has been around for a few years, but it's one of my favorites, so I had to post it. Mr. Patton Fan is slow to let his guard down, but once he does, it's straight for the jello shots!

A.G. (Get it?!?!!)

I'd be remiss in my duties as a quasi-journalist if I didn't make sure you know about Abbreviation Generation, a new music blog featuring posts by Ryan Moran, Ben Ellenburg and Jansen Cumbie, all friends of SCnP and first rate music geeks to boot! Who better to tell you what music is cool? I expect big things from these guys. BIG! Check it out here.

And be sure to give a listen to Ryan's first mixtape post, "I Wish It Was Summer".

Hey, Lookit!

I know I'll be submitting a few things. How about you?

Saturday, January 17, 2009

A Word About the FUTURE!

Hey everybody. Just a quick post to call your attention to our little "Subscribe" sidebar over there to your right. As you may know, I've set up a feed for Somebody Come and Play so that listeners may, if they wish, have each and every new episode delivered to their computer as they are posted.

Why do I go to all this trouble, you may ask? Because it's the Future, that's why! So if you prefer to listen to the show right here on the site via the little gray flash player in the show notes, that's fine and dandy, but to those seeking a more convenient alternative, I highly recommend subscribing to the feed, especially if you have an iPod/Zune/something like that.

If you want to learn more about feeds and how they work, there's a great crash course right here.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Music Comes Quite Naturally to Satan



This morning, why not have a little chuckle at misguided zealotry, eh? I discovered this and many other wonderful, horrifying videos at a goldmine of a site called Everything Is Terrible. Go there now! Hours of fun!

bonus!!:
I just found this poking around on the 'Tube and couldn't help sharing it, too. It's a PSA that was originally attached to some porno back in the 80s. As hilarious as it is responsible!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Um...Um...

Welcome, early subscribers and archive spelunkers, to the very first awkward steps of Somebody Come and Play! Our inaugural episode includes:
  • HOTT tracks by bands heading to the Charleston area!
  • YOUR HOST saying the word "um" more than a college radio DJ!
  • PRIME CUTS from the very best releases of today, and yesterday!
Hope you like it. Tell me what you think in the comments.