The Basement Rug

Fans of the Toronto-produced Spiderman TV cartoon all agree that the background music - often dubbed “Spiderman Jazz” - was some of the coolest soundtrack cuts ever produced. Kliph Nesteroff has finally tracked down the original master tapes in the Keith Prouse Music (KPM) library and has produced an amazing podcast for WFMU that I have archived here. This is gonna take you back to those Saturday mornings from your childhood, only with incredible sound quality!

Notes from Kliph Nesteroff:

Just over a year ago I posted an article about the elusiveness of the background music from the late nineteen sixties Spiderman cartoon that was produced by Grantray-Lawrence and Krantz Films (and sometimes featured Ralph Bakshi as a director). It has gone through some serious revisions since then and you can read it here.

The program enjoys cultish adoration due primarily to its incredible music score. Anyway, the basis of that article was all about how awesome the music from the show is and how impossible it seems to be to track down the original masters. Well, that problem, I am happy to say, has been solved - at least in part. The second and third season music tracks come from the KPM music library in England, they still exist, and they sound great. I did a podcast today pitting the muddy sounds of the music as it sounded beneath the dialogue and sound effects of the original show against the crystal clear master copies of the background music. The podcast also features some reminiscence from the man who provided Spiderman’s voice in the series, Paul Soles.

Perhaps the most revelatory piece of information that the discovery of these KPM masters unearthed is the name of the tracks themselves. Since the music was recorded for generic purposes to be used by anybody for any project or production, the sounds do not possess Spiderman related titles. However, if you’ve ever had the frightening experience of watching the notorious episode Revolt in the Fifth Dimension, you likely felt that it was a psychedelic cartoon made by animators high on acid. Turns out that the title of the crazy music in that episode was, indeed, titled LSD!

“If you have selfish ignorant citizens, you’re gonna get selfish ignorant leaders.” –George Carlin (1937-2008)

Mark Twain said, “Those of you who are inclined to worry have the widest selection in history.” Why complain, try to do something about it. You know, it’s going on nine months now since I decided that I was going to declare that I am a candidate for the presidency of the United States. Oh yes, I’m going to run.

I shopped around for a party. Well, I looked at the Republicans. Decided that talking to a conservative is like talking to your refrigerator. You know, the light goes on, the light goes off; it’s not going to do anything that isn’t built into it. And I’m not going to talk to a conservative anymore than I talk to my damn refrigerator. Working for the Democratic Party… now that’s kind of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

So I created my own party. It’s called the Sloth and Indolence Party. And I’m running as an anarchist candidate in the best sense of that word. I’ve studied the presidency carefully. I have seen that our best presidents were the do-nothing presidents: Millard Fillmore, Warren G. Harding. When you have a president who does things, we are all in serious trouble. If he does anything at all, if he gets up at night to go the bathroom, somehow, mystically, trouble will ensue. I guarantee, that if I am elected, I will take over the White House, hang out, shoot pool, scratch my ass, and not do a damn thing. Which is to say, if you want something done, don’t come to me to do it for you; you got to get together and figure out how to do it yourselves. Is that a deal?

That was Utah Phillips announcing his candidacy for the president of the United States back in 1996. “Candidacy” was included in “The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere”, which was recorded with Ani DiFranco and released on her “Righteous Babe” record label.

This post is dedicated to both Carlin (12 May 1937 – 22 June 2008) and Phillips (15 May 1935 – 23 May 2008), probably two of the funniest and most inspiring rebels of the 20th century. You can listen to this podcast using the player below while you continue to read:

Phillips plunged into alocholism after returning from the Korean war, riding the railroads and writing folk songs. His social and political thinking began to change as he travelled. He joined Ammon Hennacy from the Catholic Worker Movement in establishing the Joe Hill House. He ran for the U.S. Senate as a candidate of Utah’s Peace and Freedom Party in 1968. He also ran for president of the United States in 1976 for the Do-Nothing Party.

When it comes to social and political commentary, few have been as sharp and direct as Carlin. From his rants on our consumer culture and rampant narcissism to the hypocrisy of our so-called leaders, and the “tyrannical owners” who run America, Carlin told it like it was - grim.

After decades of trying to spur a grassroots revolt from within the American public, Carlin’s final performances were no holds barred anger at the complacency of the masses. He deliberately provoked them to consider radical change:

“I look at it this way… For centuries now, man has done everything he can to destroy, defile, and interfere with nature: clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains, poisoning the atmosphere, over-fishing the oceans, polluting the rivers and lakes, destroying wetlands and aquifers… so when nature strikes back, and smacks him on the head and kicks him in the nuts, I enjoy that. I have absolutely no sympathy for human beings whatsoever. None. And no matter what kind of problem humans are facing, whether it’s natural or man-made, I always hope it gets worse.”

In other words, if you are going to refuse to act, you get what you deserve, and that includes the useless leaders you elect:

“Now, there’s one thing you might have noticed I don’t complain about: politicians. Everybody complains about politicians. Everybody says they suck. Well, where do people think these politicians come from? They don’t fall out of the sky. They don’t pass through a membrane from another reality. They come from American parents and American families, American homes, American schools, American churches, American businesses and American universities, and they are elected by American citizens. This is the best we can do folks. This is what we have to offer. It’s what our system produces: Garbage in, garbage out. If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re going to get selfish, ignorant leaders. Term limits ain’t going to do any good; you’re just going to end up with a brand new bunch of selfish, ignorant Americans. So, maybe, maybe, maybe, it’s not the politicians who suck. Maybe something else sucks around here… like, the public. Yeah, the public sucks. There’s a nice campaign slogan for somebody: ‘The Public Sucks. Fuck Hope.’”

Fuck hope indeed! The number of people who have gotten sucked into “Obamamania” has me more than a tad depressed. The most radical thing I have heard this guy say was merely a recognition of what is already common knowledge to anyone who gives a shit and bothers to make an attempt to be informed about what is happening in our world:

“The history in Colombia right now is that labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis and there have not been prosecutions.”

Thanks for bringing the TV nation up to speed Mr. Obama, but you’re gonna have to say a lot more than that to impress me. That being said, it’s hard not to root for a guy like Obama when you consider the alternatives:

“….in small towns we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they’re listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.” –Sarah Palin, referring to Obama, RNC, 2008

Obama, McCain, Palin, Bush, the Clinton’s - these people are not the problem. Both Phillips and Carlin were quick to point this out. WE are the problem. As Carlin pointed out:

If it is really just the fault of these politicians, then where are all the other bright people of conscience? Where are all the bright honest intelligent Americans ready to step in and save the nation and lead the way. We don’t have people like that in this country. Everybody is at the mall, scratching his ass, picking his nose, taking his credit card out of his fanny pack and buying a pair of sneakers with lights in them!

If we refuse to stand on our own two feet; to build autonomy; to build community; and to challenge these creeps, then some form of tyranny is nearly inevitable. Most people have at least enough cynicism to recognize that human failings leave precious few options.

You don’t have to be an anarchist like Phillips to recognize that deference to rulers leads to tyranny. Go back to the first book of Samuel. G-d warned us about asking for rulers. We get what we deserve.

Small government is no better, because it just means more power in fewer hands = less democracy. A militarized state is even worse, as it must justify its position through the aggressive projection of its power.

We live in a time where neo-fascism builds its base support from insulating the public from reality. We are kept ignorant, complacent, isolated and defenceless by a media symplex which feeds us endless distractions to keep us from challenging basic assumptions.

COMFORT = FREEDOM

So long as enough of the masses have creature comforts and a talking head to amuse them, they think they are free - happy even. They cannot fool themselves forever. The powers that be know this. Eventually the physical reality will supercede the virtual, and the masses will be forced to see that: the emperor wears no clothes; they are helpless; the comfort train will soon make its last stop.

And then the people will realize how unprepared they are for even just the next day. And g-d only knows where that will lead.

It’s time for America to grow up and recognize that it is living way beyond its means, and that its criminal “foreign policy” is an extension of this reality. The U.S. now spends more than 50% of its annual budget on the military, and yet people are still reluctant to admit that they are in a militarized state.

Author Naomi Wolf recently decided it was time to take the truth to the people, and so she hit the road to tour her books “The End of America” and “Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries”.

In The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot (2007), Wolf takes a historical look at the rise of Fascism, outlining the 10 steps necessary for a Fascistic group (or government) to destroy the democratic character of a nation-state and subvert the social/political liberty previously exercised by its citizens:

1) Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy (Muslims, via the 9/11 false flag operation)

10) Suspend the rule of law (Habeas Corpus suspended for non-citizens by military order on 13 November 2001)

Canada recently elected a minority government that intends to militarize its economy much like the U.S. It has plans to spend half a trillion dollars over the next 20 years in order to complete its “Canada First Defence Strategy” (CFDS).

How Orwellian is that?

The CFDS is a product of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a corporate response to 9/11 that aims for deep integration of the economies, cultures, and military apparatus of Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The SPP will create an energy pact between Canada and the U.S. (already defacto under NAFTA) and a “Fortress North America” via military “interoperability” and “joint excercises”.

Under the SPP, the United States coordinates the security (by directing the integrated military operations), while Canada and Mexico provide the prosperity via cheap resources, energy, and labour.

And you thought Canada was so cute and peaceful. Guess again. It is in on the game.

Canadians and Americans need to start working together to protect themselves and their autonomy from corporate globalization. They musn’t let constant propaganda and rhetoric sell them what common sense says isn’t true.

So I put this compilation together to remind people to be dilligent, to be strong, and most importantly, not to get “fooled again”.

The first 12 tracks are available in an mp3 podcast, or you can download the entire compilation and burn it to a CD. I hope you find it inspiring!

Track Listing:

1) Candidacy ~ Utah Phillips
2) He’s a Mighty Good Leader ~ Barack Obama & Beck
3) I’d Love to Change the World ~ George Carlin & Ten Years After
4) Gimme Shelter ~ Barack Obama & The Rolling Stones
5) A Well Respected Man ~ George Carlin & The Kinks
6) Fuck Hope! ~ George Carlin
7) Power to the People ~ John Lennon
8) Fortunate Son ~ Barack Obama & Credence Clearwater Revival
9) The War Drags On ~ John McCain & Donovan
10) The Democrats are Zombies ~ Bob Hope
11) Christ for President ~ Billy Bragg & Wilco
12) When Did Jesus Become a Republican ~ Sarah Palin & Cindy Lee Berryhill
13) For What It’s Worth ~ Buffalo Springfield
14) Politician ~ The Cream
15) Cult of Personality ~ Living Color
16) Guerrilla Radio ~ Rage Against the Machine
17) Won’t Get Fooled Again ~ George Carlin, Mario Savo & The Who
18) A Change is Gonna Come ~ Sam Cooke

This collection is a re-mix of the full Garlock double-LP I posted back in September 2007. The production was put together as a radio show pilot in December 2006. Since it looks like that radio show will never make it to air, I decided to offer up the program as a podcast and also as a download for burning to CD.

Frank Garlock is an evangelical minister who spent a good part of the early 1970s travelling to high schools preaching about the evils of rock and roll. He wasn’t speaking metaphorically either. Garlock believes that “what the musician believes affects the listener”. Talk about some heavy mystical powers!

“I played Black Sabbath at 78 speed” “and then what happened?” “I saw god.” –Cheech & Chong.

Garlock believes that the bible tells us what kind of music g-d wants for us, and of course rock and roll is not it. Yessiree, rock and roll is eeeeevil. So evil in fact that Garlock tells us we shouldn’t even dabble in it, lest we get “hooked”. Yet on his 1971 double-LP, Garlock claims to have listened to more than 2,000 rock and roll records in a single week. Do the math. Even at two minutes and thirty seconds per song, that’s more than 83 hours of music listening in 7 days, or twice as long as a full-time job. Poor Mr. Garlock was quite the rock and roll addict in those days, and yet the music never had any adverse effects on him - or so he claims. For all we know he is thoroughly deranged. You can listen to the original unedited 2-LP lecture in the player below:

Track Listing:

1) A Friend of Teenagers (Frank Garlock, 1971)
2) The Banquet (The Deadly Snakes, 2005)
3) Kick Out The Jams (MC5, 1969)
4) Rock and Roll (Frank Garlock, 1971)
5) Rocker (AC/DC, 1975)
6) Revolution (The Beatles, 1968)
7) Break Beat Indictment (Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, 2005)
8) Twist and Shout (The Beatles, 1964)
9) Tomorrow Never Knows (The Beatles, 1966)
10) Tombstone Blues (Bob Dylan, 1965)
11) Highway 61 Revisited (Bob Dylan, 1965)
12) Jethro’s Gyrations (Frank Garlock, 1971)
13) Dharma for One (Jethro Tull, 1968)
14) What the Musician Believes Affects the Listener (Frank Garlock, 1971)
15) My God (Jethro Tull, 1971)
16) Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones, 1968)
17) Rip This Joint (The Rolling Stones, 1972)
18) Jim Morrison Feels Spiritual Up There (Frank Garlock, 1971)
19) Petition the Lord with Prayer (The Doors, 1969)
20) Break on Through (The Doors, 1969)
21) She’s a Lady (Tom Jones, 1970)
22) Frank Zappa is the Devil’s Advocate (Frank Garlock, 1971)
23) Catholic Girls (Frank Zappa, 1979)
24) Rock and Roll Addiction (Frank Garlock, 1971)
25) I’m Waiting for My Man (The Velvet Underground, 1967)

A friend of mine just turned me on to some free live concert podcasts from National Public Radio (NPR) show called All Songs Considered. You can subscribe to their RSS feed and automatically download all future shows. The podcast suggested to me was Glitter And Doom: Tom Waits In Concert at Atlanta’s Fox Theater. The text below is by Robin Hilton.

NPR.org, 29 July 2008 - A trip through the world of Tom Waits can be disorienting. His ramshackle story-songs, with their creaky instrumentation and dusty poetry, usually leave listeners with more questions than answers, and his persona outside of his music revolves around a playful but guarded mix of fiction and reality.

To promote his latest tour, Waits offered the media an extended print interview — one he conducted with himself — and a taped press conference, featuring Waits seated at a table of microphones, answering questions amid bursts of flashbulbs and murmurs. Only at the end, as Waits donned a bowler hat and exited, did viewers see that the room was empty and the sound of the press corps was merely a record playing.

Both interviews were filled with more wildly imaginative stories and questionable trivia (was a sunken Japanese freighter really raised with 20 million ping-pong balls?) than actual details of the tour. But that’s the allure of Tom Waits: It’s hard to know what to believe, but the world he creates is enchanting enough to get lost in.

Here’s what we do know: Waits has dubbed his summer 2008 tour “Glitter and Doom.” It’s a trek through the lower half of the U.S. he describes as “PEHDTSCKJMBA” (pronounced “pess-kuh-JUM-buh), an acronym for each of the tour’s stops: Phoenix, El Paso, Houston, Dallas, Tulsa, St. Louis, Columbus, Knoxville, Jacksonville, Mobile, Birmingham and Atlanta.

For his Atlanta stop, recorded at the city’s historic Fox Theater on July 5, Waits delivered a stunning and epic two-and-a-half-hour performance, including songs he says he’s never attempted outside of the studio before. Backing Waits is a five-piece group featuring Seth Ford-Young (upright bass), Patrick Warren (keyboards), Omar Torrez (guitars), Vincent Henry (woodwinds) and Casey Waits (drums and percussion). “They play with racecar precision and they are all true conjurers,” Waits says. “They are all multi-instrumentalists and they polka like real men.”

Waits wraps his tour with seven stops in Europe, including his first-ever concerts in Spain and the Czech Republic, with a finale in Dublin on August 1st.

Winton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center radio show is now podcasting in mp3 format, so as well as listening online via an M3U stream, you can also download shows to listen to on your personal mp3 player. Unfortunately, the JALC.org archives do not feature direct mp3 links, but I managed to figure out the mp3 URLs and have posted the most recent shows below:

Richard Galliano | Jeff Tain Watts | Kenny Barron | Essentially Ellington | Jazz and Art | Guitars Galore | Brad Mehldau | Dianne Reeves | Monty Alexander | Trumpets and Trombones | Wynton and Willie: True Blues Celebration | Stand up for Jazz: Bill Cosby and Nancy Wilson | Bossa Nova: Half a Century and Still New | Brazilian Rhythms: Today and Tomorrow

If you haven’t already, you definitely need to check out Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz from Lincoln Centre radio show. If you can’t always catch the show on the radio, you can download MP3 podcasts of previous shows from their archives. Wynton has a perfect radio voice and is also a great storyteller.

Last night I tuned in while driving home from a friend’s house. The episode, Wynton and Willie: True Blues Celebration, featured Wynton Marsalis and his Septet behind Willie Nelson on vocals and some excellent guitar playing, along with harmonica whiz Mickey Rafael, in a set that won’t stop rockin’ till it reaches your heart. Nelson spins out breezy Carmichael and Ellington tunes, digs into early jazz, and sings his own “Nightlife.” On “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” and “My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It,” Wynton sings too.

Listen | Download 

Winton Marsalis / Willie Nelson - Two Men With The Blues

The new album is available as of 8 July 2008 and you can order online directly from Bluenote: LP | CD, or purchase the CD/LP in at your local independent record store, and also at Future Shop in Canada. You can read a nice review by 17-year old Josh Bennett over at his Judging Giraffes blog.

If you like old time music (it’s a great way to start a Sunday morning), be sure to check out the podcasts available at the Music from 100 years ago blog (just added to my blogroll). My first suggestion would be to listen to episode #33 - Banjos, Guitars and Ukuleles, featuring banjoist, Eddie Peabody, jazz guitarist, Eddie Lang and ukulele player Cliff Edwards: download | stream.