like tigers on vaseline

Hüsker Dü: “New Day Rising” (1985) I was just...

Mon, 07 May 2012 10:47:00 -0700

Hüsker Dü: “New Day Rising” (1985)

I was just doing some Hüsker Dü fact-checking for work. I had known they took their name from the board game Husker Du? (without the umlauts), but I hadn’t known why:

They owed their new name to a rather sloppy rehearsal of the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”. Unable to recall the French portions sung in the original (“qu’est-ce que c’est”), they began shouting any foreign-language terms they could remember, when someone said “Husker Du?”, a board game that had been popular in the 1970s. The term, without the umlauts, means “Do you remember?” in Danish and Norwegian. The group added heavy metal umlauts to complete the name.

I’ve been on a Talking Heads kick lately, so it all comes around. (And I’m perhaps a bit too pleased that I’m cited as a source in Wikipedia’s entry for heavy metal umlauts thanks to a David St. Hubbins interview I did more than a decade ago, though back then I thought that Hüsker Dü’s diacritics were authentic.)

Stereolab: “Jenny Ondioline” (1993) Best song of...

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 13:41:58 -0700

Stereolab: “Jenny Ondioline” (1993)

Best song of the ’90s, and almost as long.

Reblogged partly because it’s great, and partly because I...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 21:39:00 -0700

Reblogged partly because it’s great, and partly because I misread this as being by Phyllis Diller and thought: “I had no idea she had a rocksteady phase!”

semperidem:

Phyllis Dillon - “Don’t Touch Me”

Please, Mister,
Don’t ya touch me tomato
Naw, don’t touch me tomato
Touch me on the pumpkin, potato
For goodness sake, don’t touch me tomato.

Raghubir Singh: Grand Trunk Road, Durgapur, West Bengal...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:42:00 -0700

Raghubir Singh: Grand Trunk Road, Durgapur, West Bengal (1988)

I wish Raghubir Singh’s official site had larger scans of his photography, but it’s a good place to start. His books are worth seeking out.

sixbucks: Here is the baby tapir you ordered. You’re...

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 08:04:00 -0700

sixbucks:

Here is the baby tapir you ordered.

You’re welcome.

(via Meet Marjorie, the Little Malayan Tapir - ZooBorns)

I would totally wear those pants.

newwavetimewarp: Robyn Hitchcock’s Groovy Decay album came out...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:07:27 -0700

newwavetimewarp:

Robyn Hitchcock’s Groovy Decay album came out March 26, 1982. Here’s “Fifty-Two Stations” from it.

seaofempties: Tillatoba strays

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:01:31 -0700

seaofempties:

Tillatoba strays

Swell Maps: “Blam!” (1979) (A Trip to Marineville)

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:31:47 -0700

Swell Maps: “Blam!” (1979)

(A Trip to Marineville)

Hugh Delap: Untitled (2011) Oil on paper, 30 x 38 cm (via)...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:40:00 -0700

Hugh Delap: Untitled (2011)
Oil on paper, 30 x 38 cm

(via)

William Eggleston: Untitled (1973) Speaking of Big Star: The...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:53:00 -0700

William Eggleston: Untitled (1973)

Speaking of Big Star: The girl in the red dress is Eggleston’s 18-year-old cousin Lesa Aldridge, who dated Andy Hummel while she was in high school and later was Alex Chilton’s girlfriend during the Sister Lovers era. This article details the story of the late-late-night photograph, which is more painterly and carefully lit than most of Eggleston’s work. Lesa is comforting her best friend, Karen, who was distraught about boy trouble and had just tipsily fallen in a bathtub — hence her wet hair and photogenic borrowed blue bathrobe. Eggleston, meanwhile, happened to have a large-format camera and some lights, which he’d hauled to a Memphis bar and this subsequent after-party. It was probably around 4 a.m. Lesa was leaving for college the next day.

Here is much more gossipy (and condescending toward Aldridge) blog post about Aldridge, Chilton, Hummel, Eggleston, and the whole early/mid-’70s Memphis scene, which had its share of drama but certainly spawned great art.

Big Star: “The India Song (Live)” (1973) This is...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:15:00 -0700

Big Star: “The India Song (Live)” (1973)

This is the bittersweet Andy Hummel song from #1 Record, but at this live show (available on Keep an Eye on the Sky), it sounds like Alex Chilton is singing. It has a bit more weight here than on the studio version.