The Best of Ian Rubbish and The Bizarros EP (Free Download!)

We've talked about former Trenmouth'er and current SNL'er Fred Armisen's faux-77 punk band Ian Rubbish and The Bizarros HERE. Now it turns out that, like his piss-take on hardcore, Crisis of Conformity, Armisen's recorded some of the tracks that are used in the skit. Unlike the two CoC track which were released only on vinyl the four tracks by Rubbish & co. are being offered to your for free right HERE!

The Sarcastic Mannequins: Little Brother (1991)

Vancouver's nineties jazz-punks The Sarcastic Mannequins could be a lot of different things at any given moment. If I needed to name-drop to get you, the listener, to give this album a shot, I'd mention Camper Van Beethoven, NoMeansNo, Dick Dale, The Minutemen, Frank Zappa, The Pixies, 3 Mustaphas 3 and Sandinista-era Clash, who they pay homage to on their reloaded version of Sandanista’s “Charlie Don’t Surf”:

As the above list of musical references indicates, they weren’t three-chord bashers, which breaks one of the promises of MRML's mission statement. They’d like that. The band (Beez on bass/vocals, Bradford Lambert on drums Andrew Shyman on guitar/vocals) used to hand out lyric sheets before their shows just to make sure that even the inattentive could be offended by their words.  

 

Despite their deliberately nonlinear forays into ragas, ska, spy, and tricky, jazzy instrumental sections, the Mannequins manged to get some radio play on the CBC for their c-c-catchy swipe at classic rock radio, "The 6-6-60's are Over":

My encounter with the  Sarcastic Mannequins occurred when they played a tight, blistering set on a Tuesday in October of 1989 at the University of Manitoba’s bar. The assembled crowd wasn’t - so we all hung out backstage and they peppered us with quotes for my review for the University's paper. 

Yeah, I dropped the name of the Bad Brains and my band (see HERE, yeesh) into the review. Shameless. The band members kept in touch for a while and Beez was always friendly – even when I hinted that they should’ve tacked the demo onto the CD.  He went on to man the bass for the most-excellent Smugglers and then the lovely Beauticians.

This album will not be everyone’s cup of meat (what here is?) but  those who get it will return to it repeatedly for the many odd, quirky, cool moments like their hymn to our nation's most renowned literary export, "Margaret Atwood", which Narduar the Human Serviette brought to the attention of "The Queen of Canadian Culture" HERE.   

Like their demo, this 1991 album, Little Brother, was was a disconcerting yet fun jazz-punk fusion and though it may have came a bit too late in their career, it did still capture much of what was best about the band.

1) If You have any thoughts or reactions to this oddball trio, please advise us in the COMMENTS section, where you can go to hear Little Brother.

2) If you yourself, or anyone you know, has access to the SM's demo tape, Eye Swallow,  PLEASE ADVISE me! 

Jason & The Scorchers cover George Jones!

I was saddened to hear of the passing of country vocalist George Jones (obituary) yesterday. Jones is legendary for many reasons but was revered primarily for being one of the most skilled vocalists in the music's history. While my own country pantheon is dominated by song-writers like Williams, Cash, Miller, Haggard, Earle etc.,  it's hard not to be awed at The Possum's performance in songs as different as "White Lightning" and "He Stopped Loving Here Today".





Now Jones did do some song-writing in his time and, in fact, his breakout hit from 1956, "Why Baby Why", was co-written with long-time friend and frequent collaborator, Darrell Edwards. Nashville's cow-punks Jason & The Scorchers, who've always shown exquisite taste in covers, chose to do do a rip-snortin' version of JOnes and Edwards' "Why, Baby, Why" on their ridiculously under-rated "A Blazing Grace " album in 1995. Check it out!





Here's Jones' original.





Any thoughts on the passing George "No Show" Jones can be left in the COMMENTS section.

PUNK IN AFRICA (2012)

'Three chords, three countries, one revolution…Punk in Africa is the story of the multi-racial punk movement within... South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.'

Punk In Africa (Economist review HERE) is a new documentary whose subject matter is exactly what that title promises.The trailer implies a a mix-up of Searching for Sugarman and the Afro-Punk doc, which has me hooked!






(via nerdcore)

Shorty Jizzle and the Plumber Cracks: "Like a combination between Bob Dylan and a polka band'

Yes, it's juvenile cheap-shot at a soft target and, Hell, it may even be partly faked but this is a damn funny combination on the age-old 'band names are funny'  joke and the more cynical 'people trying to be cool are so gullible' gag. So, anyway, here's a member of Jimmy Kimmel's team interviewing aspiring hipsters at this years' Coachellea Festival and feeding them fake band names to see if they'll take the bait. Now, if only they'd named one of the bands, "The Emperor's New Clothes" this would've been perfect...







(If the embed doesn't work try this link)


I got this from the redoubtable Dangerous Minds who got it from the relentless Buzzfeed.