THIS ONE REALLY MATTERS

How do you rid your life of a major asshole that's been whining for years? It's simple. Vote. No candidate is perfect. Vote for the one that will do the most good for the most people. It's not all about you. 

FUCK DONALD TRUMP

The last time I posted "Fuck Donald Trump" was right before the asshole was inaugurated. Though some of the rhymes could use a tune-up, hearing this again is somewhat cathartic. Before tonight I didn't know that there was a part two. That'll do for now. I might be back, but I'm kinda stuck watching the minute to minute post election developments. It's like the longest ninth inning ever. Two outs, two strikes and foul ball after foul ball. For four fucking years. Fuck Donald Trump.

 

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Video:
YG feat G Eazy & Macklemore - Fuck Donald Trump at YouTube
Listen:
YG feat G Eazy & Macklemore - Fuck Donald Trump Part 2 (streaming) at YouTube

THEY WILL NOT GO QUIETLY

It's that time. Here's all of Rev Tom Frost's Bloody Halloween mixes. Every year, a grand Halloween lazy night repost cop out. I'd imagine there are a few of you who haven't heard any of them. If you're unfamiliar with Reverend, there's bits and pieces in these past posts.

The mixes (25 of them!) are only available streaming, but by now most of you have the gizmo arsenal required to blast them at a party.

And don't forget, the Frosty one is a kick ass musician himself. Ask your local Mr. Record Store Man to put the Reverend's goods in their racks. While you wait, buy his shit at Bandcamp.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY SPREAD THE GOOD WORD ~ 

The mixes:
NOTE: Song lists are available for mixes 1-16 and the links to the mixes are below the song listings. The links to the other mixes go directly to the posts at MixCloud.
Bloody Halloween Mix 25
Bloody Halloween Mix 24
Bloody Halloween Mix 23
Bloody Halloween Mix 22
Bloody Halloween Mix 21
Bloody Halloween Mix 20
Bloody Halloween Mix 19
Bloody Halloween Mix 18
Bloody Halloween mix 17
Bloody Halloween mix 16
Bloody Halloween mix 15
Bloody Halloween mix 14
Bloody Halloween mix 13
Bloody Halloween mix 12
Bloody Halloween mix 11
Bloody Halloween mix 10
Bloody Halloween mix 9
Bloody Halloween mix 8
Bloody Halloween mix 7
Bloody Halloween mix 6
Bloody Halloween mix 5
Bloody Halloween mix 4
Bloody Halloween mix 3
Bloody Halloween mix 2
Bloody Halloween mix 1
From the Reverend
Reverend Tom Frost - Malaguena mp3 at Spread the Good Word
Reverend Tom Frost - A Bloody Life (streaming) at YouTube
Reverend Tom Frost - Much more at YouTube
Visit:
Reverend Tom Frost at BandCamp

DAMN.

 

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Kris Kristofferson - Sunday Morning Comin' Down mp3 at Internet Archive
Kris Kristofferson - Me and Bobby McGee mp3 at Internet Archive
Kris Kristofferson - For the Good Times mp3 at Internet Archive
Kris Kristofferson - Help Me Make It Through the Night mp3 at Internet Archive

DEFINE POSEUR

Holy shit! It's the last day of summer. That went by fast. Granted I've been summer lazy and posts here have been sporadic, there's just less urgency. That said, it being the last day of summer, I figured it high time to post some surf music. I picked an unlikely band because, well, they're a borderline surf-ploitation outfit, the Lively Ones. Some of you may know the name from their cover of the Ventures' "Surf Rider" on the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction.  Why Quentin Tarantino chose their version over the Ventures' is anyone's guess. Maybe it was too expensive to license the original. Who knows.

The reason why I consider the Lively Ones a surf-ploitation band is because they did so many covers of other surf tunes and, as far as I can recollect, didn't have any bona fide hits that were self-penned. I was listening to a few cuts of there fourth LP titled The Lively Ones And Surf Mariachis – Surfin' South Of The Border and it occurred to me that they were like a surf version of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, by no means authentic but entirely listenable.

The few below are from Surfing Drums, their second LP and one of three LPs released in 1963. The thing is dripping in covers,  Duane Eddy, the Rockin' Rebels, the Tornadoes, the Bel-Airs and Link Wray and others. (Their first LP begins with three Dick Dale covers.) You gotta check out their cover of Link Wray's "Rumble". Dig the guitar/floor tom freakout at 1:18 and 3:26. (I know what you Wray eggheads are thinking: 3:26?  That's right. At 4:10 this cover is almost twice as long as Wray's OG). Returning to the floor tom thing, just listen to the spare primal pounding. Something about it slays me.

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Listen:
The Lively Ones - Rumble mp3 at Internet Archive
The Lively Ones - Mr. Moto mp3 at Internet Archive
The Lively Ones - Bustin' Surfboards mp3 at Internet Archive
The Lively Ones - Surfing Drums (entire LP) at Internet Archive Streaming and downloads

UNIONS WORK

I work and I believe in unions and I believe in workers' rights. I also believe that I will keep it short because today is Labor Day, a holiday for American workers. Though Billy Bragg is British, his "There Is Power In a Union" is right on the money.

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Listen:
Billy Bragg - There Is Power In A Union mp3 at Zed Equals Zee
Visit:
Labor Day Purpose and History at ThoughtCo

WHY NOTHING EVER GETS DONE

You know rabbit holes. I'm sure you do. Once you hear one thing, it reminds you of something else so you go hunting for that. That leads to another song or artist, and so on. When I fall into a rabbit hole, it can last for days. This time it was Ten Years After that started the wandering. It was their version of "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl", a live thing from 1975. Originally released in 1969 (I think) I'd heard them do it, but it's been years. But first, take a moment to behold the epic guitar face of Alvin Lee.

After listening/watching it, I was reminded that their arrangement was pretty thin and that guitar heroics don't age well.. I tracked down Johnny Winter's version from his 1969 Columbia debut for a comparison. I really wanted to hear his live version, but not until after I heard the earlier version because it was on a blues album and "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" is essentially a blues song. Cue it up and sit between your speakers, The guitar is in one channel and the horns are in the other. The riffs are like a call and response. It's a great version and I really dig both the guitar tone and the Stax-like horns. But, ho-ly shit, the live version, from 1971 is a masterpiece in the live blues-rock canon. After his first LP on Columbia, Winter started delving more into rock 'n' roll. Three LPs into the change he recorded a live album, billed as Johnny Winter And, with backing from former McCoys ("Hang On Sloopy") which included Rick Derringer. On the live version, the guitars, his and Rick Derringer's, are the dueling channels.(Winter is in the right channel, unless my speakers are hooked up wrong.) This is some awesome raunchy guitar interplay. Serious, sit your ass down between the speakers. The way the guitars weave in and out with each other, so fucking good. This is the essence of that short lived line up. The live LP is a near perfect live template: insanely loud, blues and rock, heavy on distorted licks. Consider it mandatory..I added Muddy Waters to contrast with Winter's versions. Waters was a huge influence on Winter (they would later record the song together) and it's interesting to hear the two versions back to back. Only eight years separated them. Last down there is the OG, Sonny Boy Williamson from 1937. Respect.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:

Johnny Winter - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (streaming) at YouTube 1969
Johnny Winter And - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (live) (streaming) at YouTube 1971
Muddy Waters - Good Morning Little School Girl (streaming) at YouTube 1963
Sonny Boy Williamson - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (streaming) at YouTube 1937

THE UNEXPECTED HELL YEAH

I don't know how it happened but..just wow! The Cuban born Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz, is slated to be on a U.S. minted quarter. (That's a 25¢ piece). Soul sister Lady Spinsta hepped me to it. She knows. I totally dig Celia Cruz. Seriously, with that giant smile she had, and that voice, how could you not? And, jeez, talk about the jams?! With stellar backing and collaborators (Tito Puente, Johnny Pacheco and that whole Fania mob) her stature in Latin music was like Aretha's in soul. Massive.

I checked the old posts and none of them had any working links so, yeah, I dutifully trackew down a few. Like it or not, my super long break seems to have ended.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Celia Cruz Y La Sonora Ponceña - Sonaremos El Tambo mp3 at Internet Archive
Fania All-Stars Feat. Celia Cruz -Cuando Despiertes mp3 at Internet Archive
Celia Cruz - Four early cuts (mix) mp3 at Internet Archive

THE SECOND TIER ESSENTIAL

I just heard that John Mayall passed away on the 22nd at the age of 90. There are all sorts of profiles, tributes and obituaries already online so that's covered, Here's a post I did several years ago, now with updated links...

Back when I was in high school I had an art class with Mrs. Land, a cool lady who let students bring in records to listen to when we were painting. For whatever reason, maybe because in that class there were several of them, the surf chicks dominated record player, a standard heavy duty AV Department special, built to survive the clumsiest of AV monitors. Not that these gals were clumsy, if they were I wouldn't have noticed anyway. (What part of surf chicks didn't you get?) There were four records that they played more than others. The soundtrack to the surf movie "Five Summer Stories", which everybody had. Within the surf crowd, and the peripheral beachy non-surfers, that soundtrack would have been what Nirvana's Nevermind was in the nineties, not in sound but in ubiquitousness, at least with that small demographic. I had it (surprisingly some of it still holds up). Other LPs that got repeated plays were Van Morrison's Moondance, and the most annoying of the bunch, the self titled It's A Beautiful Day. That one snuck in there because the most annoying song on that most annoying LP, "White Bird", was in the soundtrack of a surf movie. Fuck, I don't care, I hated that song and that band and still do. Surf chicks can do no wrong? Bullshit: "White Bird".

The one LP that was was on the surf chicks playlist that was kind of surprising was John Mayall's The Turning Point, an interesting choice, one that they probably rallied around because of the flute in it, precisely what bugged me about it. All of this manic breathy flute playing where the huffing and puffing is supposed be a replacement for guitar heroics. The single benefit to hearing that was that I was exposed to John Mayall, whom I didn't hate because he wasn't the flute player.

Just a year or two later, my brother brought home the first studio LP by Mayall, Blues Breakers, released in 1966 three years prior to The Turning Point. What a mind fuck that was. Not blues as I was used to, not black blues and not even American blues. Despite having covers of songs Otis Rush, Freddy King, Ray Charles, Little Walter, Mose Allison and Robert Johnson, it was 100% British blues. You've no doubt looked at the cover above, so you already know that Eric Clapton was in the band, in this case not a bad thing. It was post Yardbirds, so he knew how to turn it up, but he wasn't quite the deity he would become with "Clapton Is God" knuckleheads. Everything on this LP is period perfect, the production, guitar tone, the solos, even with some bordering on annoyingly long (a two minute drum solo in a four minute rendition of "What I'd Say"). This LP is a milestone in British blues and I've no doubt that some of you may know it backwards and forwards. For those of you who don't, I suggest you listen to the whole thing in it's entirety. One song just isn't enough. And all twelve songs on the original LP feature something different, sometimes guitar, sometimes Mayall's Hammond chops, but most importantly, no flute.

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Listen:
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - All Your Love mp3 at Internet Archive
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - Double Crossing Time mp3 at Internet Archive
The whole LP:
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers -Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton at Internet Archive NOTE: Under "Download options" on the right side of the page, select "VBR MP3" for individual songs, or you can just stream it. Download a torrent, if you're one of those rascals.

EARLY SURF ALERT!

This is just a heads up to surf geeks: On Tuesday July 23 TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is airing all five pre-Endless Summer surf movies by Bruce Brown. Filmed from '58'-''62 these were made before the wide scale commodification of surf culture. Starting at 8:00 on Tuesday, going into the early morning, all followed by John Milius's Big Wednesday (1978).

Slippery When Wet (1958), Surf Crazy (1959), Barefoot Adventure (1960), Surfin Shorts (1960), Surfing Hollow Days (1962). The quality is crude and the narration corny as hell, but they capture the era well.

Bud Shank did the soundtracks to Slippery When Wet and Barefoot Adventure. It's total West Coat jazz. Used vinyl copies of both are pretty cheap and they're both really good. 

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Listen:
Bud Shank - The Surf and I (streaming) at YouTube
Full LPs:
Bud Shank - Barefoot Adventure (streaming) at YouTube
Bud Shank - Slippery When Wet (streaming) at YouTube

OUTSTANDING IN THEIR FIELD

Years ago I used to go to a bar near the beach for happy hour. Pitchers were half off, at the time a pitcher of Bud was something like $2.50. I only went to that bar for happy hour. I was a bargain hunter. After going there for a while they got a CD jukebox. The first one I'd ever seen. It was a crazy advancement. The thing would have the full album CDs so for the first time you could hear a deep track on a jukebox. In a bar. Loud. Granted most of it was classic rock. The price you pay for cheap beer. 

One time I was in there and the bar was more crowded than usual. Everybody was shout-talking in a battle with the jukebox. That being the case, you could here snippets of conversations a few people away. The loudest, most dominant conversations were of the bickering, agitated chest beating, tough guy routine type. Everybody yapping their early buzz ass off. It was a total cacophony,I decided to add to it.

I had earlier taken a look-see at the jukebox. There it was. The white album. You know it. The double LP by that hairy bunch above. I filed that away, that it was there in case I wanted to hear something from it later. It wasn't much later when, annoyed at the congress of loud talkers, I put on the song that was the way-the-fuck-out-there deep cut of the album. Eight minutes of weird shit. Talk about adding to the cacophony. A couple minutes into it two fights broke out. I left and went home for dinner before going back out to my non-happy hour bar which was way happier.

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Listen:
Sunshine Company Happy Hour Fight Song [sic] mp3 at Internet Archive

NEVER SAID THEY SUCKED.

I was listening to early punk rock earlier, primarily stuff that I never got around to buying. Back then it was usually a lack of funds and having to prioritize. Some bands though put me off from the start. The Damned are a very good example of the latter. I never took the leap and bought anything of theirs. The first few LPs were everywhere and not disliked by me. I just couldn't, and still can't, take a singer dressed like Dracula seriously, particularly in a punk band. Never mind fucking Captain Sensible's goofy ass shades They were "Nope!" then and they're "Nope!" now. But, holy shit, they sure sound good.

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Listen:
The Damned - Neat Neat Neat mp3 at Internet Archive
The Damned - New Rose mp3 at Internet Archive
The Damned - Love Song  mp3 at Internet Archive Ed Hollis 1979 single version (?)

LAUGH DAMNIT

I wouldn't ordinarily feature someone who does all parodies Weird Al Yankovic ruined it for everybody. His were just stupid, mildly amusing yes, but not gutbusters. Obscurest Vinyl's though are a riot. Part of it is the music, spot on productions of all types of music from the past. The fake sleeves are good too. And the lyrics are like regular people speak,witrh some good ol' fashioned cussin'. This is one that made me give in,. A girl group type ditty with lots of f-bombs. There are tons of others at YouTube.

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Listen:
Jenny Stardust - I Dunno...My Arms Are Just Fucking Stuck Like This (streaming) at YouTube
Obscurest Vinyl at YouTube NOTE: Click "View All" on the far right to see all the songs without having to scroll sideways.

THE OLD SCHOOL INFLUENCER

If you've an eagle eyed local here you may have noticed mentions of (and links to) The Hound, aka Jim Marshall, a record collector and a radio DJ with killer taste, and also has a blog. Though no longer being updated it is a mandatory bookmark. Mandatory. There's so much information there, bios, little known facts, recording info, and it's all about the good shit (I'll get to that). His profiles of artists make bios elsewhere seem scant. Though he used to have song titles in the text linked to mp3s, the links are no longer functioning. That's a bummer but regardless, the blog is still very valuable.

So what's the Hound into? Here's what esteemed musician/composer/bandleader John Zorn had to say "It's sick, twisted, horrible noise. Those are four of my highest compliments." The late guitarist Robert Quine (Richard Hell and the Void-Oids, Lou Reed) said "The key factors are brutal and stupid. It must have redeeming value." The Hound himself said "It's music of wild abandon and snarling attitude. These are just the records I like, and we present the stuff in the spirit in which it was made."

There's three radio shows he did in 1986 linked below. To give you an idea of his taste, in the first twenty minutes of the first show he plays Dale Hawkins, Esquerita, Roy Hall, Memphis Slim, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf. That's just the first twenty minutes. Later in the show, Hasil Adkins, Joe Maphis, Kip Tyler and others. In other words, right up my alley.

The Hound was off the air for years but came back for a while in 2017 doing his shows online at Little Walter Radio. The easiest way to find his shows are at Mix Cloud, per the Hound, "Their search engine is pretty funky, search for 'The Hound Show' [as opposed to 'Little Walter Radio']." Here's a bunch of links. Pardon the fidelity, it's the music that counts.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Hound as heard on WFMU March 15, 1986 mp3 at Internet Archive 2:51, 39.2M
The Set list for above at TheHound.net
The Hound as heard on WFMU March 22, 1986 mp3 at Internet Archive 2:55, 40.1M
The Set list for above at TheHound.net
The Hound as heard on WFMU April 5, 1986 mp3 at Internet Archive 2:51, 39.3M
The Set list for above at TheHound.net
The Hound Show #7 March 30, 2017 at Mixcloud (streaming) 2.00
The set list for above and subsequent Little Walter shows at Mediafire (downolads)
Visit:
The Hound Blog
Loud and Nasty: The Hound on Radio at NY Times 1991 This is where the quotes came from.
Jim “The Hound” Marshall at New York Social Diary I haven't delved into the site, seems possibly a little snooty for my tastes. All the photos are of his home, all the fancy shit he's got. That said, it's a good interview.

HER FAULT.

On the ride home tonight, it was Gal Costa. She hit the spot. Driving into the beach area where I live, it was sunny and warm, breezy. With Gal Costa on the deck I felt like I was traveling in a different country. I've no explanation. Despite her singing in Portuguese (she was Brazilian) it wasn't that. It may have been the hard to peg nature of her music. It's definitely Brazilian (what with Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso collaborating and a cover of Os Mutantes' "Baby") but not traditional, it's Tropicalia, kind of a mixed bag at that. If you are not familiar with Tropicalia, here's a good primer, Brazil - The Tropicalist Revolution, a documentary on the movement that changed Brazilian music. Part one is below and links to the other parts are at the bottom of the post. If you really want to go down a  rabbit hole, do a random web search for "Tropicalia" and cancel all your plans for the night.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Gal Costa w/Gilberto Gil- Sebastiana mp3 at Internet Archive
Gal Costa w/Caetano Veloso - Baby mp3 at Internet Archive
Gal Costa - Saudosismo mp3 at Internet Archive
Gal Costa - More at Internet Archive
Watch:
Brazil - The Tropicalist Revolution:
Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

"MAKE UP! WE'RE GONNA NEED SOME MORE SNOT."

It's been decades since the original Nuggets garage punk compilation came out and I still haven't really gone out of my way to look into the backgrounds of many of the bands on it. That's because that first two LP compilation was joined by others. There were multiple Nuggets compilations, another series, the imaginatively titled Pebbles, the Back From the Grave series, more from Sundazed,...there were just too many to check out the bios of every band. So, once I return to a song I like, that's when I do a cursory background check. Today, a band lost me.The Leaves coulda passed the test based on the two songs I know. "Too Many People" was the one I had to hear. "Hey Joe" was the other. (Their version of the latter was the first released, before versions by Hendrix and others.)

Before the bio check, the photo. Yikes! I ran across the photo above. Things ain't looking too good. Those perfectly coiffed bowl cuts seem a little disingenuous, even keeping in mind that almost all bands back then had their eyes on the charts. So, the Leaves are on probation. Now on to background shit, I dunno, let's try Wikipedia. Once there, there, I was almost blinded. In a sea of words, it might as well have been a neon sign, "They were discovered by popular singer and actor Pat Boone". Game over. Anyone who had anything to do with Pat Boone has a space reserved on the shit list. As you know, Boone is the archenemy of any true Little Richard fan. The conversation ends here.

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Listen:
The Leaves - Too Many People mp3 at Internet Archive
The Leaves - Hey Joe mp3 at Internet Archive

TRUE: HE LATER HAD A BIG OL' AFRO

I was just going to a random mix at Internet Archive, a radio show. Four one hour shows. Right out of the gate, Frankie Ford's "Sea Cruise". It had been so long since I've heard that song it was like going home. So, before listening to the mix, I was off on a Frankie Ford tack. Then, after hearing Ford's cover of Joe Jones's "You Talk Too Much", I went to the Jones original (Jones wins). Then I remembered. The ballgame is on.

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Listen:
Frankie Ford - Sea Cruise mp3 at Rocky 52
Frankie Ford - Roberta mp3 at Rocky 52
Frankie Ford - Watch Dog mp3 at Rocky 52
Frankie Ford - You Talk Too Much mp3 at Rocky 52
Joe Jones - You Talk Too Much mp3 at Time Goes By

THE UNDER THE RADAR LIFER

Here's another guy that doesn't really get the recognition that he deserves, Big Al Downing. He's the piano player in the photo above, in his early band the Poe Cats. This guy did it all, rhythm and blues, rockabilly, country, gospel, and disco. Not to slight his other musical identities, it's his stuff from the rock 'n' roll era that I dig, his early stuff sounding something along the lines of Fats Domino meets Little Richard.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Big Al Downing and the Poe Cats - Down On the Farm mp3 at Rocky 52 1958
Big Al Downing and the Poe Cats - Oh Babe mp3 at Rocky 52 1958
Big Al Downing and the Poe Cats - When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again mp3 at Rocky 52 1959

SCARED STRAIGHTS

If I don't post it now, I'll forget. For all of you into beat poetry, here's Allen Ginsberg reading Howl and Jack Kerouac reading his October in the Railroad Earth (with Steve Allen on the 88s). It's mind blowing to think that Howl was such a controversial piece when Ginsberg first read it in public in 1955. (The reading below is from 1959). It had a way of getting under the skin of straights, that I understand, but banning it? Come on, that's like banning people for thinking.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Allen Ginsberg - Howl mp3 at Internet Archive
Jack Kerouac - October in the Railroad Earth mp3 at Internet Archive

WE SUCKED PRETTY BAD ON THAT ONE

The other night I had the ball game on with the sound off. The Padres got hammered by the Yankees. The post game coverage came on and there were two Padres commentators talking to each other. The sound was still off. In my head I was imagining that one said to the other "Ahh, we sucked pretty bad on that one." What the hell? Where did that I get that from? Then I remembered. It was uttered by a young teenager in 1967 during the Croton-on-Hudson Band Festival. I last heard it in 2012 when I posted a video of the festival. Yeah, selective memory. Here's the original post:

No mp3 today. Instead, I'd like to direct your attention to the video below. It is most awesome. It's a few different groups playing in some sort of battle of the bands in Croton-On-Hudson, NY in 1967. This sucker's a hoot, so many things to dig. The teen dancers, the distinctly different bands, the venue. You've got your choice here. It opens with a standard (for the time) group, the Active Ingredients, followed by three other groups that didn't have the wherewithal to put their band name on the drum head, so I can't ID them. The Active Ingredients do "Midnight Hour," passably for school age kids I suppose. I love the ad-lib grunts and such towards the end. When the second band comes on (at 2:06)...well, the first thing that hit me was that they had a Monks-like beat. All repetitive, all banging thuds. I really like them. The drummer plays funny to boot. They're followed by a guy who probably thought of himself as some sort of sensitive John Mayer-type lady killer, at least of Croton-On-Hudson in 1967. I was kind of annoyed with this guy. I wouldn't go so far as to say his band have this thing completely nailed down, but they're far better than the rest of the bands, and that of course makes them completely uninteresting to me. The fourth band, whoa, they're my favorite. It's kids, really, trying their hardest, bless their jumping-the-gun hearts. Their tune (at 3:25) is quite a racket. In a way that I love, meaning that the only redeeming thing about it is that they are trying so hard to hold it together. And, they're at least doing it. (Proto-William Hung.) The kid singer assesses the performance at the end. Clearly audible as the song ends (at 3:51), he says "ahhh, we sucked pretty bad on that one..." It is a defining moment in rock 'n' roll, because every rock 'n' roll band has had one of those moments.

 

 

What I like about this video, and what made it worth watching several times, and posting it without accompanying tunes of any sort, is that it really has the timeless elements of shitty bands everywhere, from every era. To a certain degree, even the winner of this band contest, even the second runner up, let's just cut to the chase here, even the Beatles, at one time or another, sucked pretty bad on that one.