Songs of the Robocalypse Vol. 2 - Star Scat

It's Wednesday so that can only mean one thing! Robots singing scat! Right? Everyone? RIGHT.

Caravan Palace are a Paris based electroswing band who started out making music for silent pornography. Of course.

Their whole output is an ear melting blend of block rocking beats dancing with Django and Grappelli- the soundtrack to robotic fever dreams covered in the melting wax of a gypsy jazz record. This is particularly true of today's Song of the Robocalypse- Star Scat.

I picture a black suited robot holding court at a cabaret, it's head hanging off its neck like a bobble toy belching and bleeping scat songs. This is surrounded by heavy striding rhythm and fiddles. It's amazing how well double bass clambers atop processed beats, like rubberbands iceskating down a subway track.

It's reassuring to know that even after the machines rise up and take over we'll still have some damn fine dance floor grooves- just don't do the robot. I'm serious. They will destroy you.

Chiptune Chuesday: Bouncing - Multifaros

There's something about the music of Multifaros that makes me think of bubblegum. Not the genre mind you- actual bubblegum. It's in the sound I think, all plastic and glisten held together by twangs and wind.

The opening sub-bass tones of 'Bouncing' are round and rubbery bubbles that shift and burst to the sound of drums exhaling in reverse. Pingponging chip bleeps echo across the structure like a digital likembe while free wheeling guitars funk there way into the shape of squares and triangles.

Multifaros is the stage name of Swedish chip/bit/electronic/indie wizard Bård Ericson. Today's track 'Bouncing' is available on his 2010 EP Dreams. He has many more EPs and albums of his genre crossing musics available from his website.

Chiptune Chuesday: Small Regrets - Tugboat

Tugboat is a New York based drummer and electronica musician who, up until retiring from the genre two years ago, was one of the more prevalent and talented chiptune artists. For those who need a refresher, chiptune is a genre of music based upon using the soundboards of old video game consoles to create new pieces.

Our personal favourite track by Tugboat is Small Regrets, which can be found on his career spanning compilation album Man Of The Year available for free from CalmDownKidder Records.

The mood of Small Regrets undeniably wears its heart on its sleeve, but that's exactly what I find so awesome about it and more broadly what I find awesome about chiptune. It's music which has taken the sound of an entire generations collective childhood memories (specifically I suppose a generation of children who played video games in the eighties and early nineties) and creates new emotionally resonant compositions out of them. It melds and morphs the harsh electric squalls of archaic technology and gives them a new lease on life. It's a genre which is seeped through with nostalgia, both literally and figuratively, in every bleep.

Yet it also manages to be a fresh and attention grabbing sound. The viral popularity of free demake albums such as 8Bit Side of the Moon or Kind of Bloop have shown there is a wider public thirst for the style of music. Even radio friendly hits are getting in on the action! Most likely tied into the long running eighties aesthetic revival pop and rock music have been going through for the past ever, the use of chip sound boards has become more prevalent than ever before.

It's a rapidly growing genre with an enormous amount of diversity contained within it, and we want to help more people hear it. If you enjoyed today's song, check back each Tuesday for another dispatch from the land of chip.

Tunes of Terror Vol. 5 - Monster Mash

So we needed to have a Halloween novelty hit. It wouldn't be That Song Blog without one. However choosing just one is almost impossible. If you're at all interested in these and other novelty hits I highly recommend the compendium Wacky Tunes. Anyway, after much consideration it was deemed best to go with the original and most ubiquitous Halloween smash, Monster Mash.

Did you know that when singer/songwriter Bobby Picket was shopping Monster Mash around, nobody wanted it? It was only when award winning producer Gary S. Paxton was played the song that it was picked up and turned into the holiday devouring smash we know today.

Anyhow. I just thought you'd find it interesting that we might have never, ever heard this song. What a world.

Also! Legos! They make everything incredible! I approve of CaptainBulldog's video.

Tunes of Terror Vol. 4 - The Witch

'The Witch' makes me think of the Batman theme song on steroids. In fact the titular Witch would make the best super hero ever. A garage rock heroine roving the city late at night in a long black hearse fighting villains with sex, hair and a massive shotgun she calls her BroomStick. Goddamn yes. What was I talking about?

Right! The Sonics are old favorites here on That Song Blog. We've spoken about their brutally percussive brand of sixties rock before, so you know what to expect. It beats the shit out of you while forcing you to do a violent twist.

You know the drill- load it up and make it LOUD, because it's illegal to listen to The Sonics if your ears aren't beginning to bleed.

Tunes of Terror Vol. 3 - Naked In The Afternoon

Halloween simply isn't Halloween without a little Jandek:

The history of Jandek is convoluted and confusing. In an attempt to put simply: the performer known as Jandek has been self publishing his own brand of crypto-goth blues since the late 70s behind many layers of obfuscation and intentional misdirection. Since late 2004 he has finally begun performing (reasonably) consistently in public.

Yet even with the artist making public appearances nothing can take away from the sense of dread and rot ground into every note of 'Naked In The Afternoon,' the opening track from Jandek's 1978 debut Ready For The House.

Tunes of Terror Vol. 2 - A Cold Freezin' Night

This is the song where a six year old threatens to chop off your toes and work his way up to your brain.

The Books are a New York based duo known for slicing and mixing spoken word pieces into rhythmic dance collages.

The track 'A Cold Freezin' Night' from their fourth album The Way Out isn't an obvious choice for a Tune of Terror. However there's something undeniably unsettling (played upon endlessly in the head-spinning video above) about the increasingly violent confrontation between a young brother and sister. And really, what's more terrifying than children? I wouldn't mess with these kids. They'd chop my hair off!

Tunes of Terror Vol. 1 - She's My Witch

She's My Witch - Kip Tyler

Terrifyingly toe-tapping! Right!? Am I right? Guys?

Well anyway. Happy Halloween everyone. Throughout today we will be putting up some totally holiday appropriate songs for your freaky pleasure, starting with little known rockabilly roarer 'She's My Witch' by Kip Tyler. Kip was a fixture of the Los Angeles rockabilly scene, commanding a dedicated cult following for his manic live performances and wild man attitude often incorporating bongos ( I ask you- what wild man is complete without bongos?).

'She's My Witch' was the B side to his 1958 single 'Rumble Rock,' both tunes particularly notable for the contributions of veteran sax player Jim Horn (largely known for his work with Duane Eddy). His blowsy lines are almost melting atop the icy guitar strums and echoing drum claps.

It's a song of woozy sex, witchcraft and drag races. What more could you ask for on Halloween?

UPDATE: Crikey that was quick. Apparently we don't love music as much as Warner Brothers love copyright protection and we now can't show the Kip Tyler video to you. We've replaced it with a Spotify link, hope you can still enjoy it.

A Little Bit of That Sky - Ken/Mattel

This summer I had the pleasure of visiting Le Musée de la Poupée in Paris, a tucked away museum celebrating the history of dolls and puppets. There, alongside the unnerving glassy eyed stares and lavishly curated display dioramas, was a special exhibition dedicated entirely to the history of that penis-less wonder- Ken 'Barbie' Carson.

Hidden among the many evolutions, makeovers and career shifts Ken has gone through since his introduction in 1961 was his stint as a pop singer: Live Action Ken On Stage, including the packed in smash single 'A Little Bit of That Sky.'

So let's get this out of the way first: No, it's not very good. Surprised? Me neither. It's musical Wonderbread- assembly line fluff in the vein of Bobby Sherman or The Osmonds. From the pieced together rhythmic styles to the 'OOOH-WAAAAAHHH' backing vocals the song feels like a banal Frankenstein sewn together with 'choice' cuts of bland sixties pop. Dig those oh-so-fluttery flutes, the softshoe pianos, beebopping bass, the absolute facemelter of a solo at 1:30. Ken himself sounds about as stiff and Colgate smiled as a singer based on a doll would sound (though not as authentically castrati as it should be). What's really awesome is how much of a hippie Ken proves himself to be, cheesing his way through lines like 'Life is the learning way / and there is a beautiful wizard in man.'

The song hasn't really stood the test of time, but then not many sixties branded animated bands have- with the possible exception of The Archies. In any event, it's a fascinating listen to hear what the folks at Mattel felt was a good cross section of popular music for young girls. I can't find any listings of who the session musicians were for the recording (rather unhelpfully the song is usually credited to either Ken or Mattel), so if any of you out there have some info on it's origins please drop us a line.

Otherwise enjoy what feels like a slightly too long three and half minutes of inspiring your inner wizard to desperately grasp a little inch of the sky, safe in the knowledge that after this single Ken never really dusted off the mic ever again.

Angry Songs About Food Vol. 2 - Birthday Cake

Cibo Matto like writing songs about food. I could fill up many more volumes of ASAF focusing squarely on the howls and beats laid down by Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori. However 'Birthday Cake' is probably the angriest, and really that's what's important. Granted they're not angry at the birthday cake, but then it's hard to be mad at birthday cake.

The song is probably about a mother making a cake for her son on his thirtieth. It's also a violent recipe. But it's mainly about Shutting Up and Learning To Eat.

Songs of the Robocalypse Vol. 1 - Daisy Bell

Here's where the musical proof that robots will destroy ALL OF US begins. A historic recording of the first singing computer performing Harry Dacre's 'Daisy Bell,' (which would in turn give us the most famous singing computer- the HAL 9000).

The piece was created at Bell Labs in 1961 using an IBM 704 (or 7094 depending on who you ask). The vocals were programmed by John Kelly - a Texan scientist, gunslinger and pilot, while the backing was arranged by Max Matthews - a trailblazer in the creation of computer music and sampling.

There's something haunting about the recording- it's easy to see why Kubrick took inspiration from the piece for 2001: A Space Odyssey. As a listening experience it's aurally anachronistic, simultaneously archaic and futuristic. It's the sound of a Victorian brain being kept alive by a Speak and Spell.

Angry Songs About Food Vol.1 - Cranberry Blues

I present to you the first in what will be an ongoing series: Angry Songs About Food.

Today! A gentleman singing a song about cranberries and DAMMIT HE'S UPSET ABOUT THEM.

But let's be serious for a moment: In 1959 there was a deadly cranberry shortage. Cranberries from all over Oregon and Washington were covered in bad herbicide. Rats definitely died. People may have died. Thanksgiving exploded. Probably. Which of course lead to the creation of Cranberry Blues by Robert Williams and The Groovers!

Death Of An Angel - Donald Woods and the Vel-Aires

I've spoken before of my fascination with Splatter Platter records; a pop evolution of the murder ballad that grew in prominence during the 1950s. These 'death discs' focused upon dangerous adolescence: teenagers caught up in a frenzy of rock'n'roll, drugs, hair, and (very often) cars. These songs would lament the death of a young person taken before their time- usually involving some sort of grizzly vehicular death.

The Splatter Platter du jour, and today's Best Song Ever, is 'Death Of An Angel' by Donald Woods and the Vel-Aires. Woods got his start as a doowop singer in Vernon Greene's group the Medallions (chiefly famous for their sexed up automobile hit 'Buick 59'). Woods then absconded with a few of the members of The Medallions to form Donald Woods and the Vel-Aires (sometimes also known as the Bel-Aires). If 'Buick 59' was doowop with a cheeky sleaze, 'Death Of An Angel' is doowop gone goth.

It opens like a beaten and broken 'I Put a Spell on You' before settling into it's jazzy funeral march rhythm. You can hear dust and cobwebs coating the sax lines, spare heartbeat drums pushing along a chorus of gently crooning pall-bearers. Donald Woods voice is the essence of late night smoke and mourning distilled into a soulful performance that never crosses to far into either histrionics or understatement.

As was common with teenage tragedy numbers, the song also contains a fair amount of theatre and drama. The background tears and wailing are both unnerving and funny. However it was this same gallows humor that so frightened audiences at the time of it's release. The song, with it's implicit overtones of death, broken hearts an suicide, was immediately banned from wider airplay. This was compounded by a conspiracy theory blossoming out of the record's B-Side, 'The Man From Utopia,' involving an alien that killed the protagonists girlfriend in the A-Side. The truth of the matter is debatable, but the vinyl was already soaked with too much blood once the rumor started and the record was immediately destined for obscurity.

From the Corner to the Block - Galactic ft. Juvenile and The Soul Rebels Brass Band

New Orleans jazz/rock/funk (or, as I am now officially calling it, jonk) fusion meets hip-hop meets brass band. It will blow your mind while blowing it's horns.

From the Corner to the Block is the title track from New Orleans based fusion group Galalctic's (originally named Galactic Prophylactic) fifth album. The track features fellow New Orleans natives Juvenile and The Soul Rebels Brass Band- though it's the latter presence that really elevates it to such heights. It's a funked up car crash of time lines, genres, and a sousaphone.

More of this please.

Why Don't You Smile - The All Night Workers

'Why Don't You Smile' is an early piece of sixties garage drone from a pre-Velvets Lou Reed and John Cale (along with Terry Phillips and Jerry Vance). It was the heavy (and frankly far superior) B side to the bopping single 'Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket,' released under the band name The All Night Workers. While Reed and Cale's performing on the record is debated Cale did revisit the song solo later on in his career, but there's something undeniably special about the original article.

From it's Northern Soul vocals to it's droning psych-blues backing, the song slowly inhales before blowing viscous technicolor fumes down your ears. The record was cut towards the end of Reed's tenure as a staff writer for Pickwick Records. The session band consisted of a myriad of rising sixties musicians including Lloyd Baskin (of Seatrain), Mike Esposito (Blue Magoos) and the rumored involvement of Peter Stampfel (The Holy Modal Rounders).

It's a fascinating look at the experimental drone rock sound Reed and Cale were concurrently developing with The Velvet Underground and a powerful piece of classic garage in it's own right.

A tip of the hat to Popsike.com for filling in the gaps in my knowledge on this rare single. Also! A second version of the song that's less clean, but heavier for that real drone sound.

Ramblin Man - Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan

Today we wish a very Happy Birthday to Hank Williams (he of 'Hey Good Lookin' fame)!

We wish him a Happy Birthday with bullwhips! Birthday bullwhips! Rhythmic Birthday bullwhips! All to be found in today's Best Song Ever, a cover of Hank's famous hit 'Ramblin Man,' by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan.

Jailhouse Rock - Eilert Pilarm

One night, Eilert Pilarm was visited by the ghost of Elvis. The King told him someone had to carry on his legacy- and that person was Eilert. So on went spangly jumpsuits. On went a pair of thick glasses. And on went Eilert Pilarm.

Known as the Swedish Elvis, Pilarm travels the country playing cover shows attended by his devoted cult audience where he belts out avuncular Presley covers including today's Best Song Ever 'Jailhouse Rock.'

Elvis impersonators are a dime a dozen, there are veritable clone armies standing ready to take over Graceland in a flurry of lip curls, hair wax and fatal hip thrusts. However it's this ubiquity of the Elvis impersonator stereotype that marks Pilarm out- he doesn't try to be Elvis, nor does he really want to be Elvis. Eilert is simply Eilert, a former lumberjack turned janitor who moonlights as Swedish Elvis in late night rock clubs.

You'll love Eilert because he's not trying to be something he's not. He's simply feeling the transcendent joy of engaging with his favorite music, much like you or me when we belt our favorite songs in the shower or walking down the street.

Phonodrum - Christian Marclay

Phonodrum - Christian Marclay (Spotify)

Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual and sound artist known for intentionally damaging vinyl records in order to create multi-layered sound collages. He is an argued early pioneer of turntablism and is closely linked with noise music.

Marclay claims he doesn't look for specific records when creating his works- he simply buys random vinyls from pawn and charity shops and manipulates them. At times he has even taken pieces of different records and joined them together to get rapidly changing and endlessly distorted sounds.

Today's Best Song Ever, 'Phonodrum' can be found on his compilation Records 1981-1989. Marclay reportedly created the unique sound in the number "by dragging a guitar string attached to the stylus across wooded records and wooden discs studded with nails." The sound is about as nuts as you'd expect from that origin.

It's like a building falling at hyperspeed into your ears over and over again as your brain rips down a conveyor belt while being assaulted by robots. Out of the screeches, bumps a squeals comes a sudden urgent and insistent rhythm. It's damaged punk evolving into a dance routine made of twisted metal and broken wood.

Nellie, The Nudist Queen - Ross and Sargent

Now, some creditors came calling at a clearing in the hills,

And asked to see a statement that would justify her bills.

When they viewed her liabilities, the atmosphere was tense,

But when she showed her assets, her assets were immense!

It's time to enjoy a twee and titillating Tuesday with 'Nellie, The Nudist Queen' from 1933 by Stuart Ross and John Sargent.

It's hard to find much info about the record beyond the names of the songwriters. Described as a comedy duet with piano, in many ways the song is a prototype for the skewed pop that Spike Jones began producing a few years later.

If anyone out there has any info on Ross and Sargent drop us a line! Maybe they were nudists! I hope so! The world needs to know!

Dances With Woods - Global Drum Project

Dances With Woods - Spotify

Short one today. And I hope you like drums. Because what you're getting is drums. I like drums.

Global Drum Project was a briefly formed supergroup consisting of four percussionists: tabla player Zakir Hussain, talking drum expert Sikiru Adepoju, Latin Jazz drummer Giovanni Hidalgo and former drummer for The Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart.

They released a single self titled collaborative album in 2007, with many tracks consisting only of percussion. By taking advantage of the unique timbre of each percussive instrument they have created a melody out of nothing but scrapes, slams and bangs (the same principle can be seen in the wildly successful West End show Stomp or in the playing style of Bongo Joe whom we featured on this site a few months ago).

Today's Best Song Ever is 'Dances With Woods,' a dizzying tumble through drums that sound like tree branch cracks, leaves caught in an up draft, and the slamming of your heart as you race from a predatory percussive poltergeist.

Song of the 2nd Moon - Electrosoniks

Dutch composers Dick Raaymakers and Tom Dissevelt are and were pioneers of electronic music and taped effects under the name Electrosoniks. In 1957 they released Song of the Second Moon, a composition built upon unusual audio samples and early synth sounds. The song was one of the first it's kind and stands as an example of early forrays into the field of electronica.

It's also fairly bonkers, but in the most lovably unnerving way.

The intro sounds like the opening of Voodoo Child shoved forcefully through a rotary phone. It has everything from distorted ghostly whistles to the death burbles of clavi-keyboards and the crushed whispers of industrial machinery. The song jumps styles several times over the course of it's three minutes- but always remains consistent in it's tone and presentation. The overall effect is that of a classical record collection being pounded into rubber electricity.

Shooting Breaks - Garage A Trois

Shooting Breaks by Garage A Trois

Garage A Trois are an instrumental band featuring saxophone, vibraphone, synth organs and heavy, heavy drums. That sentence alone should immediately tell you how awesome they are, but if you need further convincing here's 'Shooting Breaks,' a track from their fourth studio album Always Be Happy, But Stay Evil released earlier this year- and today's Best Song Ever.

'Shooting Breaks' is the sound of an endlessly surreal panic attack. Great tongues of synth and organ curl down at you from the sky. Drums burst through the ground in the shape of hearts caught in voodoo cardiac arrest. Vibraphones (already the total melding of paranoia and joy into one sound) clink and crack through the roar in a constant game of aural peekaboo.

It's wild as hell, and just when you think you're getting to grips with it you reach the 2:20 mark and things get funky and terrifying in equal measure, like fifty foot elephants doing a can-can across your brain.

Bongo Rock - Preston Epps

Preston Epps is an American drummer and percussionist chiefly known for his use of the bongos. In 1959 he released the utterly unique (for the time) hybrid of surf-rockabilly and head-spinning bongo beats known as Bongo Rock- today's Best Song Ever.

Bongo Rock kicked off a resurgence of interest in bongo flavoured pop music, with Epps himself crafting many follow up singles (such as Bongo Rocket, Bootlace Bongo, and the aptly named Bongo Bongo Bongo). The original (later covered in 1973 by The Incredible Bongo Band) still remains the best example of the form- punk slashes of surf guitar duking it out with the spine shimmying bongo lines.

Clocking in at a little over two minutes, the song remains as danceable and toe tapping as it did fifty years ago. The bongos can't help but remind me of the old Hanna-Barbara cartoon sound effect of characters running away, but this only adds to the song's charm. I love imagining a rebel-without-a-cause version of Yogi Bear running from a squadron of motorcycle bound Ranger Smiths.

Better Go Home Now - Dirty Three

A few years ago I saw viking metal band Turisas open for DragonForce at what was once the Astoria. Midway through a set filled with nordic costumes, battle cries and uncomfortable amounts of sweatgrease, their electric violin player stepped up to the microphone. He assessed the audience carefully, eyes tight behind costumepaint and spot lights. Slowly he leaned forward into the mic and screamed, 'FUCK THE GUITAR.' He pulled a screeching note on his violin, allowing the tension to build. He leaned in again, a wolfish grin dancing on his face, 'FUCK. THE. GUITAR.' Another wild scream from the violin. Then raising his arms out to all of us in the pit, he cried with the strength of all of our voices: 'FUCK THE GUITAR!' Then he raised his violin high and ripped out a histrionic solo that sounded... just like a guitar.

It was an oddly deflating moment. Sure maybe the sound was a little more fluid, but there was no denying how little there was to differentiate the sound of a speed metal guitar solo and speed metal violin solo. It resolutely refused to take advantage of the sound of the instrument, pushing it as hard as it could to be what it wasn't. While the rest of the set has faded from memory, I still remember how completely gypped I felt- both for myself and for the instrument. That was the violin's moment to rock out, and instead it got to play karaoke to Power Metal's Greatest Hits.

So it was with enormous pleasure that I stumbled across Dirty Three some years later.

Dirty Three are (as the name suggests) a three piece band consisting of Mick Turner on guitar, Jim White on drums, and Warren Ellis on violin. The band create an instrumental wall of sound akin to folk music falling out of a 50th floor window. It's by turns howling and spitting to achingly gentle and sombre- and pushed right out front of the sound is the violin.

This. This is what the violin should have sounded like that night with Turisas. With Ellis hammering the strings the instrument sounds entirely unhinged, flitting between bluesy reels to industrial squalls. It manages to hit the same raging and muscular postures of an electric guitar whilst maintaining an identity and sound entirely it's own.

Today's Best Song Ever is 'Better Go Home Now,' taken from Dirty Three's self-titled second album. The song is a pounding summoning of the muse, White's leaden snares thudding and chugging with Turner's thick rhythm. Screeching through the dense underbelly like a hot wire through brick are Ellis' violin solos- a waltzing, roaring, disintegrating sound equally human and chillingly alien. Here, finally, is a song that can truly live up to Turisas' challenging refrain: Fuck the Guitar.

Heigh Ho (The Dwarf's Marching Song) - Hal Willner/Tom Waits

Hal Willner is an American music producer and arranger chiefly known for his elaborate tribute albums to different artists and genres. In 1988 he assembled a who's-who of pop and rock musicians to record a collection of Disney covers and songs inspired by Disney films. The result was Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films.

Choosing a single track to represent the album is difficult. There's an enormous variety of styles and approaches to the music. Los Lobos give a shaking samba treatment to 'I Wanna Be Like You.' Suzanne Vega turns the titular 'Stay Awake' into a haunting lullaby mantra. Even Sun Ra puts in an appearance taking Dumbo's 'Pink Elephants On Parade' to it's natural skronking conclusion.

One of the more unusual arrangements on the album is Tom Waits' take on 'Heigh Ho (The Dwarf's Marching Song).' The skeleton of the original has been removed and grafted into a shambling homunculus of gurning saxophones and grinding metal. Far from casting a new light on the original; Tom instead drowns it in shadows.

Mr. Richland's Favourite Song/One - Harry Nilsson

Harry Nilsson famously refused to ever perform live. Despite being gifted with an acrobatic golden voice and an ear for picking, plucking and perfecting pop songs of many genres, he simply would not do it.

There's a fair amount of speculation as to why such a talented artist would refuse to go on the road. Some simply chalk it up to nerves, others ego. Nilsson himself described it as not wanting to have to be 'on' for an audience. He said it was the job of other musicians to tour- not his.

Out of this blanket refusal came the 1971 BBC special The Music Of Nilsson. The BBC offered Harry full control over the studio space while recording live solo renditions of a number of his songs, alongside a few doctored with effects (such as a triple tracked harmony piece shown as three Nilsson's singing at a piano or fake audience sound effects).

The performance is a virtuoso showcase of Harry's talents, as can be seen in today's Best Song Ever- the medley of Mr. Richland's Favorite Song and Nilsson's famous hit One.

In just a little over three and a half minutes Harry allows his piano to twirl and tangle city streets and nightclubs around your ears as he sets down the fall of a pop singer to a blues rag. When he nimbly glides into the chorus of One, it becomes the song sung by the ill fated protagonist. Finally, as he draws the tale to a close he finishes with one of the Best Scat Solos Ever, a perfect balance of flair and elegance.

Sadly this record of Nilsson's live abilities has yet to be released in any official format. Forunately the good folks over at For The Love Of Harry have collated streaming and downloadable versions of the video alongside mp3's of the whole set for free.

Laughing Song - The Residents

The Residents are an avantgarde music and visual arts group from San Mateo, California. All members of the group prefer to remain anonymous, frequently appearing in public wearing eyeball helmets and tuxedos. Like so:

Duck Stab is their fourth album. It is also considered to be their most accessible. Let that sink in while you allow Laughing Song to claw and dig it's way into your brain while letting off streams of giggles. Then go and find more and more and more.

Witch Doctor - David Seville

How many Chipmunk vocal effect songs can you handle in a week? At LEAST one more? But of course!

Here are the helium infused origins of Alvin and the Chipmunks- only not yet the chipmunks. Ross Bagdasarian Sr. was a singer-songwriter-producer-actor-chipmunk enthusiast (probably) who, under the name David Seville, penned a novelty number titled Witch Doctor.

The song utilized a VM tape recorder which allowed Bagdasarian to shift the recording and playback speeds to create the distinctive high pitched vocal effect we all know so well. This wasn't the first time manipulation like this had been employed, however the use of the VM allowed a new clarity of voice to come through lacking in early muddier and distorted experiments.

Despite the Chipmunk voice, Bagdasarian wouldn't invent (and thus market songs via the characters) till later that year with 'The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late).' A re-recorded version of Witch Doctor featuring all-helium-all-the-time would come later.

And now you know how Alvin, Simon and Theodore got their bit part start in the high pitched and only mildly racist (in a cuddly don't know any better sorta way) chorus of Witch Doctor.

Saudade - Love and Rockets

Saudade is a Portuguese word which means (approximately) nostalgic longing. This definition does sort of kill the romance behind the term, but it's hard to describe in English. It's not just nostalgia. It can be longing for a loved one or place. It can be the melancholy accompanying the realization that you will never know everything the world has to offer. It looks back at what has been and forward at what may never be. And that pretty much sums up the mood (and is the title) of today's Best Song Ever: Saudade by Love and Rockets.

Love and Rockets (named after the Hernandez brothers comic series) are better known for their heavy and gothic music. Their first album Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven however (from which this song was taken) explored more psychedelic territories and soundscapes. Saudade, appropriately, closed the album.

There is something quietly final, even apocalyptic, about the song- like the empty ruins of a city. Drenched in echo, acoustic guitars gently jangle debris across the streets. Far off in the distance drum girders crack and tumble off the rusted skeleton of skyscrapers. Liquid bass pours down through the cracks and crevices into parched dirt. Heart strings push and pull against distorted electric squalls and murmurs before quietly dying into the ghostly call of a radio broadcast.

Bridget the Midget - Ray Stevens

Bridget the Midget is a song to listen to while feeling conflicted, giggling, and silently mouthing 'What The Fuck?' to the nearest person.

The song reached #2 in the UK and #50 in the States. I'll be honest, I don't know what that means.

Happy Sunday.

The Train Kept A Rollin' - The Johnny Burnette Trio

'Train Kept A Rollin'' is a seething and steaming powerhouse of a rockabilly number cut by The Johnny Burnette Trio in 1956 and is one of the earliest recorded examples of distortion in rock music.

Lead guitarist Paul Burlison stumbled across the sound when he accidentally damaged his amplifier during a particularly raucous gig. By some reports the band were unsure of the rough buzzing tone, but reviews of the gig were all unanimously crazy about the 'new sound.' Burlison then proceeded to intentionally damage the rest of his amplifiers and use them to brilliant effect on the Trio's further tracks, starting with today's explosive Best Song Ever.

The song smashes you down like a runaway freight. Each snare smack shoots a puff of steam into the air as upright bass plunks and slams down tracks in front of the wildly out of control machine, the guitars and Burnette's howling vocals squealing with the force of wheels bursting into sparks and smithereens.

Sadly it would also prove to be the brightest moment for the Burnette Trio's far too short history. While guitars have gotten heavier, there's no denying the influence the song has had on popular music. It's telling that the number was the first song an early Led Zeppelin would play together.

Smashing - Giant Drag

Giant Drag are a two (and sometimes three) piece band that make music of the grungy-shoegazery type, often with cat meows. Meows are an underrated tool in popular music.

The band consists of guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Annie Hardy and drummer/synth player (at the same time) Micah Calabrese. They have broken up and reunited and rebroken and rereunited on and off over the last several years. Clearly fate wants more of their scuzzily dreamy music. And they have to pay the bills. But probably mostly fate.

Today's Best Song Ever is 'Smashing,' from the duo's debut album Hearts and Unicorns.

'Smashing' sits more firmly in the shoegazer end of the band sound. If I had to think of one word to describe the song, it would be expansive. It feels enormous, yet achingly empty. The synth heartbeat echoes like an SOS signal through the empty shell of a derelict space station slowly crashing towards Earth, bursting into sparks of guitar haze and drum beat detritus. Over this distant chaos Hardie's ghostly vocals float and whisper before fading into the din.

And then it ends with towels! Perfect.

Walking on the Moon - Lucia Pamela

Lucia Pamela has a lot of incredible claims to her name. She won beauty pageants. She lead the world's first all female orchestra. She holds a world record for memorizing ten thousand songs. Oh and did we mention that she's been to space and hung out with moon chickens?

Whether or not (cough) that last claim is entirely true, there is most definitely a record of Pamela's lunar travels: the joyously eccentric Into Outer Space With Lucia Pamela, from which we have pulled the track 'Walking on the Moon' for today's Best Song Ever.

The record is somewhere between a children's song cycle and a travel diary. Reportedly Pamela played all of the instruments and of course belted out the tales of her lunar voyages. And what voyages they are! Pamela's moon is populated by alien dogs, cows and chickens. She was quoted in an interview with the New York Press stating 'All of the music is true...most of it is from experience.'

Alongside the album she produced a coloring book for child and adult alike titled Into Outer Space With Lucia Pamela in the Year 2000.

The final unfinished step in this lunar odyssey would have been a theme park with a roller coaster that went to the moon. Sadly for everyone, work was never completed on the project.