Pedro Pistolas - Los Locos Del Ritmo

Today enjoy the long cool stride of Los Locos Del Ritmo.

They were one of the first major Mexican rock and roll bands to form in the late fifties, going on to become the first Mexican rock group imported back into the states (as seen in an appearance on the Ted Mack hosted Original Amateur Hour).

Pedro Pistolas is a deadly cool piece of surfabilly, the sound is pure convertibles cruising down the boulevard with a hot leather interior and the dead eyed killer intent of a shark. All in a tidy two minute package!

Dia - Jumbo

FEEDBACK BABY COMO QUIERA SE VA!

Jumbo are not a retro sixties underground band, though they are from Mexico. Their sound however is undeniably retro. Kind of like poppier Doors mixed with surf punk. This can be seen at it's most bombastic and holy-cow-gotta-dance-now best in today's Best Song Ever, Dia.

Jumbo were part of the avanzada regia music scene which poured out of Monterrey in the mid nineties. They started out as a humble classic rock covers band called Blueswagen, however cooler heads persevered and the band renamed themselves after an overweight baby named Jumbo. Of course.

Enjoy the pounding beats of Dia with it's wonderful Mariscal-meets-anime video by Mexican animator Vinnie Veritas.

Satisfaction - Los Apsons

Los Apsons have been cited by Carlos Santana as one of the best bands of the sixties. The group were founded by Arturo and Francisco Durazo, brothers who grew up in Agua Prieta a town in far northern Sonora which stands on the border between Mexico and the United States. As a result the brothers were constantly bombarded by a mixture of American and Mexican media cultures, with a particular emphasis on the new Rock and Roll music drifting down from the States. Their embracing of the sound, alongside several contemporary bands, started what became known as the Northern Invasion.

The band travelled and picked up members, and had particular early success (as many sixties bands did) with covers of currently popular songs. This can be seen in today's Best Song Ever: Los Apsons rendition of the Stones classic Satisfaction.

The song is a fairly straight cover, though the recording has a wonderfully woozy quality to it. The drums have low slung machine echoes rippling off of each snare smack while the guitars spindle and twang through the murk. However I feel particular love should be paid to the vocals: simultaneously aping Jagger while feeling far more run down. I believe Los Apsons can't get no satifaction more than I believe Mick Jagger can't get no satisfaction.

Chiptune Chuesday: So What - Ast0r

We're getting classy this Chiptune Chuesday. We have So What by Ast0r from the 8-bit demake of the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue: Kind of Bloop.

The whole album is available here for the super cheap quantity of five dollars.

Mary Mary - Los Ovnis

Sixties garage punks from Mexico play The Monkees. That sentence makes me way happier than it should. MARY MARY!

This will be the first of a few entries looking at underground sixties Mexican musicians, but to set the stage and get you shimmying in your seat with anticipation enjoy Mary Mary by Los Ovnis!

How Sweet To Be An Idiot - Neil Innes

Neil Innes is a prolific songwriter who you've heard before, though you may not have known it. He penned an enormous amount of songs for Monty Python (including all of the songs in Holy Grail) alongside performing in/writing a few of the sketches (ever wondered who the lead head bashing monk was? Now you know). He is one of only two non core Python members to be credited as a writer on Flying Circus (the other being Douglas Adams for the same episode).

Prior to the Pythons he was a member of That Song Blog favourites the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. He co-penned the majority of their material with glorious eccentric Vivian Stanshall, including their biggest hit The Urban Spaceman. He has continued to work with the remaining members of the Bonzos in various guises over the years.

How Sweet to Be an Idiot is a Nilsson-esque piano ballad laced with black humor, gentle satire and a surprisingly warm delivery. You may have heard a bit of its famously pilfered melody in the Oasis single Whatever, which resulted in Innes gaining co-writing and royalty credits on the song.

In recent days Innes has been working in a new group called The Idiot Bastard Band, made up of a number of musicians and comedians including Adrian Edmondson and Phil Jupitus. They have a gig coming up this Monday at the Half Moon in Putney for a tenner, which is one hell of a bargain and worth snatching up if it hasn't sold out.

May The Fourth Be With You - Star Wars Triple Bill

So today is STAR WARS DAY! How do I know it's STAR WARS DAY? Well everyone is saying it's STAR WARS DAY because you can make a pun with May the Fourth and THAT'S all the reason I need for it to be STAR WARS DAY (which really should be everyday).

So for all you fresh faced young rebels and imperials of tomorrow, here are three cool cuts of Star Wars music mayhem. And no John Williams in sight!

RUM TUM DUM DUM DAHDAHDAAAAHHHHHH it's the Cantina Song! A capella! By Sixteen Feet, the Swathmore College based vocal group that do tons of amazing covers of your favorite songs. Want barbershop re-workings of Blink-182 (your FAVORITE!) or The Muppets? They have you covered.

This remix of the Imperial March by Fader Gladiator was used to brilliant effect in the British sitcom Spaced, though their rendition didn't feature Yoda busting moves like nobody's business.

CHEWBACCA! WHAT A WOOKIE! Need I say more?

Have an awesome Star Wars Day everyone. And of course: May The Fourth Be With You.

Kitchen Sink Music Vol. 1 - Balloon Bass and Box

Kitchen Sink Music will showcase the very best in making music out of things have no business making music. To kick off these marvellous musical feats of ingenuity we have: THE BOX AND THE BALLOON.

The balloon boxers have put out an album for FREE for all of your rubbery wood slappin' needs. And I think we all have those needs.

TRIPLE BILL: Bastion - Darren Korb

Bastion is extraordinary for being the only video game soundtrack I put on in the background and consistently get non-gamers coming up to me head a-bobbin' saying 'What IS this?' 

Bastion's soundtrack was composed by Darren Korb, audio lead for Supergiant Games and multi-band independent musician since he was a teenager. The music is a dazzling mixture of soundscapes, genres and styles. Banjos twang and grind over digital crashes and smashes while ghostly harmonicas trade blows with distorted slide sitar. And that's ONE song out of twenty two.

The result is a fantastic soundtrack which instantly crafts a narrative on top of whatever you're doing. For example, I listen to Bastion a lot when cooking. Suddenly those draining plum tomatoes are no longer a lumpen mass of vegetables- they're prairie critters I'm having to slaughter to survive in the brutal wastes of the west.

I don't know what prairie critters are. I don't know what the brutal wastes of the west would be. But I know EXACTLY what they are when I'm in the moment with Bastion's soundtrack.

The East meets West meets Folk meets Industrial meets Classical meets Baroque mixture of the album ensures you never hit a dull moment. Cellos march you to war before delivering you into the hands of water logged harps. Chiming twelve strings tango with funked up dobros. Six shooter pistols clink and clank against rumbling electro bass. Korb is one hell of a musical magpie, and he knows how to construct an absolutely towering nest out of his bits and bobs.

The whole album is available to stream from Supergiant Games Bandcamp page and can be yours for ten bucks. It's also up on Spotify and YouTube. You have no excuses. Allow Bastion's transcendent soundtrack to craft some new adventures in your life.

First of May-Jonathan Coulton

Happy May Day everyone! Have some Jonathan Coulton and GET OUTSIDE.

Whole Lotta Love - Pickin' On Zeppelin

Martin Haerle became obsessed with American country music during his childhood in Germany during World War II, eventually moving out to Nashville by the time he was twenty and climbing the ranks of the legendary Starday Records. His passion for traditional American music led him to founding CMH Records in 1975 with 'Dueling Banjos' composer Arthur Smith. Over the years they signed a superstar list of bluegrass artists, accumulating numerous Grammy nods and roots music critical acclaim.

Sadly Haerle passed away in 1990, passing the company into the capable hands of his son David. One of David's first actions as President was the creation of the 'Pickin' On' series of albums which take popular recordings and rework them in a bluegrass style performed by the excellent roster of session artists and musicians CMH has accrued over the years. The series has covered a wide range of bands over the years from Aerothsmith to Coldplay to the Beatles, and in the case of today's Best Song Ever- Led Zeppelin.

The roots style grips naturally with the blues based thunder of Zep. Yowling fiddles and squealing slide step in for the howls of Robert Plant, washboards and muted mandolins chop out the ballistic Bonham beats, and a whole slew of acoustic guitars, banjos and dobros build up the propulsive leads and rhythms crafted by Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

Under the control of CMH's pickers and pluckers riff-ready roarers like 'Black Dog' become woozy-bloozy slow burners, 'Whole Lotta Love' beats down with the dry heat of the Alabama sun, and 'Rock and Roll' turns into an excellent Dukes of Hazzard chase song. The songs simultaneously gain new life in the style transition, while having their traditional bones emphasized and strengthened.

Pie IX - Suuns

Picking one song from Montreal based Suuns debut album Zeroes QC is an incredibly difficult task. The album is coated with black rubber liquid sounds which bubble and burst against the grain of MASSIVE guitar riffs while spare clockwork drums klick and clack the time. 

At times it feels like they've taken a well known song or style and turned it inside out. From the Zep ready riffs of opener Armed for Peace to the burbling synths of Arena, there's an endless supply of potential Best Song Evers.

But it wouldn't be That Song Blog if we didn't go with the mildly unnerving difficult song. So! Pie IX.

The bass of Pie IX feels like it's oozing through the walls of a club as you stand in a back alley, listening to wet drum footsteps clack ever closer till they're right on top of you. Guitar wires twist and twine your tension higher and higher while alien baby talk coos from the shadows. There's something disarmingly cool and overwhelmingly rotten about the entire experience.

The aural equivalent of being molested by aliens.

Big River - The Secret Sisters ft. Jack White

The Secret Sisters are about to slug Johnny Cash in the mouth while blowing kisses.

Real life sisters Laura and Lydia Rogers cut this cover of Cash's Big River at Jack White's Third Man Studios, with White pulling double duty as producer and guitarist. 

The track is absolutely torrential. You can feel a dam slowly cracking with each whack of a snare before the water roars forth in the form of dueling guitar solos that gently give way to the Rogers winking harmonies.

Your left with the distinct impression the Sisters would love you up before drowning you deep down on the banks below. And you'll love every minute of it.

Banks of the Sacramento - Salty Dick

Jerry Bryant is a folk music performer/archivist with a particular interest in maritime songs. He's released a number of traditional folk albums, and is particularly well known for his song 'The Ballad of Harbo Samuelsen' which has been covered by numerous performers.

In 2004 he released an album under the pseudonym Salty Dick titled 'Salty Dick's Uncensored Sailor Songs.' For the album Bryant pulled together the bawdiest, rudest and sex havin-est sailor songs he could find and laid them down with aplomb and gravitas.

So enjoy the rolling sea worthy harmonies of the 'Banks of the Sacramento,' a song that espouses valuable life lessons about STDs, whores and wiping your ass with grass. Ah those noble seafaring men.

Can You Feel It - Ken Ishii presents Metropolitan Harmonic Formulas

Music For Daydreams takes the pulse of an urban landscape and blends it with house beats and jazz licks. It's music which exists in multiple decades at once. You'll be gliding along to smooth jazz piano as it begins to modulate quicker and quicker before bursting through the ceiling of the club to the sound of digital angels who begin a shuffling snare line through the skyscrapers. 

Ken Ishii is a Japanese techno DJ who's been crafting house gems since the early nineties. This release comes under the umbrella of his latest musical endeavour: Metropolitan Harmonic Formulas, a crossover of electronica with a wider array of genres and styles. The beats have gotten softer, but they're carried along by a subway like urgency.

The album is fantastic, comprised of original compositions and reworked house classics, such as the track we've pulled out for today: 'Can You Feel It.'

With its gently blended sounds of a city waking up rolling across pingponging choirs partying with smooth saxophones, 'Can You Feel It' is in many ways the ultimate expression of the albums intent: Daytime techno that exudes sunrises while pushing you out the door into the bustle of your own metropolis, even when you're just listening at home.

Palimpsest - Yasunao Tone & Florian Hecker

Today we are going to stretch the term song to its breaking point. I would highly recommend headphones for this one- both for the experience and also to protect the sanity of those around you.

Yasunao Tone is a Japanese artist chiefly known for creating digital sound collages by damaging CDs and capturing the fractured sound as it's desperately attempted to be read by older CD players. Much like noise artist Christian Marclay, he physically engages with (read destroys) the machines we use to experience music and crafts new soundscapes in the process.

Today's Best Song Ever, Palimpsest, is a collaboration between Tone and electronic music composer Florian Hecker. In order to create the piece, Tone converted the symbols of the Man'yoshu (the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry) into data encoded onto CDs and recorded the sound of that data being interpreted by a CD player. Basically. The important thing is it sounds pretty nuts. These are the schizophrenic ramblings of electricity recorded for your listening pleasure.

As with much sound art/noise music, the piece isn't a song so much as an experience. By the end of its twenty eight and a half minutes my head had turned completely horizontal. My brain was bombarded with images of metal floss being yanked between my ears, an electric beehive, fleas dying at hyper speed, and the distinct impression my teeth were falling out. It's like walking through an arcade with highly selective tinnitus.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it's pleasant listening, but it's endlessly fascinating. You'll hear a violin for a moment before it turns into a digital toilet flush which rapidly disintegrates into the shattering of an invisible wine glass. How many other songs can lay claim to something like THAT?

Songs of the Robocalypse Vol. 3 - Phantom of the Floppera

So this is a bit ancient in Internet terms, but that doesn't mean we can just ignore all the signs of the coming Robacalypse. Today we present Phantom of the Floppera: Tocatta and Fugue performed entirely on Floppy Disk Drives.

Using what creator George Whiteside has dubbed a 'Diskette Organ,' the machinery takes advantage of the groans and whines of the mechanisms used to spin the innards of a floppy disk in order to create beautifully terrifying music.

George has created a whole webpage devoted to explaining the mechanics behind the machine, presumably so we know how to defeat it when it rebels.

Chiptune Chuesday: What Child Is This - Rush Coil

It's Chiptune Chuesday! And it's April! Know what that means? THAT'S RIGHT! CHRISTMAS MUSIC!

Look I know it's out of season, but this song has been stuck in my head since last December so maybe this'll finally exorcise it. Chip artist Rush Coil put out the album 8-Bit Christmas a few years back, and it's awesome- a bleep and burble burst through your favourite Christmas carols.

What Child Is This is a carol written in the mid 1800s by William Chatterton Dix, a hymn born of out of a near death experience later set to the traditional tune Greensleeves.

The song feels like a slow motion pistol duel on a misty morn in the English countryside crackling from the confines of a NES cart. And it can be yours! Right now! Along side eleven others! For three bucks! That's like £1.50 in real money! Go geddit here: http://rushcoil.bandcamp.com/album/8-bit-christmas

Cramming For College - Pornosonic

You're about to let Dick Dagger into your ears. I hope you're sitting comfortably.

The origin of Pornosonic: A band of non-discloure agreement shackled musicians write music for some of THE BEST porn films of the last thirty years. A cache of lost recordings is recently discovered by Ron Jeremy, who immediately releases them onto an unsuspecting public. Some even say Pornosonic was created by Ron Jeremy in 1971 after a chance meeting with an LA session musician named Don Argott.

This is where the story begins to get a little fuzzy. Y'see, Don Argott was born in 1972. He's a documentary filmmaker first and foremost who plays in a number of bands on the side- including a project called Pornosonic whose music was featured in the film Old School.

Dig a little further and you find the second Pornosonic album- Cream Streets: Music From the Unreleased Motion Picture starring Dick Dagger. Except... The film never existed as far as anyone can tell- and neither did Dick Dagger!

So. Fake porn music for fake porn. Why should you care? Because- against a whole slew of odds- it's excellent. Eargasms my friend.

The music struts and spins on twelve inch platforms across pavements that bounce and boogie to each pounding beat of a fuzz bass sexing WOCKACHOCKA guitars barely contained by massive (Clavinet) organs. Just hit play on today's Best Song Ever- Cramming For College and you'll see what I'm talking about.

The musical references and sign posts are all over the map- from Stevie Wonder-fried blaxploitation to wah-wah tinged diva ballads (see the incredible Spider Pussy Slight Return). It's a wonder the band pulled off the music without it becoming a pure novelty act. The intercut skits from Ron Jeremy push it further into the land of tongue-in-cheek, but not dangerously so.

If the music had been a little less catchy- more like the equivalent of porn elevator music- this could have been one of the most groan inducing records on the planet. Thank christ that Don Argott and his friends are skilled musicians with an obvious love and understanding of the music they've decided to craft.

So let's go out and enjoy the sweet melodies and romance to be found in new classics like Sex Starved Secretaries, Laying Pipe and (of course) Her Magic Carpet.

I'm Han Solo - Kinect Star Wars

As you may know if you're a long suffering That Song Blog devotee, I have a love of parody and novelty songs. An old school form of flattery- you knew your song had made it when someone took the piss out of it. I also love Star Wars and have a giant man crush on Han Solo (I mean who doesn't?).

So then we have this:

And my head explodes.

I think my favourite move has to be the shoulder brush, but it's all amazing. It's a parody of Ridin' Solo by Jason Derulo (only one million times better) as featured in the video game Kinect: Star Wars.

Also, does Lando seem like the more natural dancer to anyone else? Han's incredible but I sincerely doubt the dude has rhythm. But Lando! Lando could dance you straight into his boudoir for some late night gas mining. *geek swoon*