Your Imaginary Band of the Day

stevetemkin:

DON’T ASK —NOYFB

This patch is from the 22nd Military Airlift Squadron, who flew C-5 cargo aircraft out of Travis Air Force Base in Northern California. Part of the 22nd MAS’ mission was to conduct late night operations picking up classified aircraft from aerospace plants in Southern California and delivering them to classified locations for testing and evaluation.

When the 22nd MAS undertook these missions, its crews would take off their everyday heraldry and Velcro this patch to their uniforms.

The black background and crescent moon on the patch probably represent the unit’s night operations. The silver lining represents star light. The question mark signifies classified operations. The letters “NOYFB” stand for “None of Your Fucking Business.”

This comes from a pretty amazing book called I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon’s Black World by Trevor Paglen

I see gazpacho in my future.

thegirlcantdance:

records in-fidelity

There’s hot, then there’s hot… then there’s really hot. “Himself In His Own Power” was all of these — and then again…

When the first copy of this debut album came off the presses in the waning days of vinyl, it was destined for the remainder bin. Redape Records only recorded the obscure Korean Christian ska-punk band in exchange for a chance to sign another band under the same management.

Completely unlistenable from first track to last, “Himself” first became “hot” when an entire truckload of records leaving the plant was hijacked. Within days, every other title in that shipment was successfully fenced for a tidy profit, while the cases of ill-fated albums remained unmovable. Eventually the stolen truck wound up abandoned outside of Chicago, where it sat in the sweltering July heat. Even the thieves who stole the stolen truck knew that warped vinyl was worthless no matter what music was on it, but jumped to make a profit when a unique opportunity presented itself.

On July 12, 1979, The Chicago White Sox babseball team joined with a local radio station for an “Anti Disco” promotion night, allowing anyone bringing unwanted records to be admitted for 98 cents; the records would be collected, placed in a large crate in center field, and blown up in between games of a Thursday twi-lite double header. It was hoped that the Disco Demolition promotion would draw 5,000 people to the midweek game, but over 75,000 showed up instead, 10,000 of them carrying copies of “Cheongoksan,” offered to them by enterprising young men at 15 locations all around the stadium, for only $1 each, helping the entire run sell out in just over half an hour — making it one of the “hottest” selling records ever.

Comiskey Park soon became a scene of chaos and devastation, as fans scaled the walls to swarm the field; the crate on the field filled quickly and staff stopped collecting records from spectators, who immediately realized that LPs worked exactly like Frisbee flying disks, but with much greater chance of injury.

The demolition itself, which consumed every known copy of “Himself” in a fiery explosion — making it “hotter” yet — not only damaged the playing field, but encouraged fans to start their own onfield bonfires, tear up the bases, and wreak general havoc, and resulted in the White Sox having to forfeit the second game, a circumstance not repeated in the American League since.

.

.

.

Random Wikipedia Articcle Band Name: Cheongoksan
Cheongoksan is a mountain in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea. Its area extends across the counties of Jeongseon and Pyeongchang. Cheongoksan has an elevation of 1,255.7 m (4,120 ft).

Random Quotation Album Title:
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)

Random flickr photo Cover Art: Archidave by Chris Bertram

A backup vocalist for years with the group “Aphanochaete,” Linda Antonson broke off to explore a solo career, mostly at the urging of her boyfriend, Phillip “Flip” Gunderson, a sound mixer at a small label who was certain she was his ticket to work at a big studio. The drug-fueled indulgence and experimentation of the day made their collaboration possible. For many groups of the time, “backup singer” could refer to personnel of a wide range of talent levels, from impressive to non-existent. And as new developments in electronic recording came onto the scene just as many engineers were pursuing the same recreational pastimes as the artists they recorded, bright young techies moved quiclky up the ladder, particularly if they had perfected their training under the auspicies of the U.S. Army as well as had tempered their drug habits as an aid to survival in Viet Nam as had Flip. Soon after he used whatever connection he could muster to forge a record deal, he realized that Linda’s style was nothing near as special as he’d hoped it would be. Flip then attempted to create a concept album using his specialty in audio surveillance to blend random clandestine recordings into the background of Antonson’s dreary tunes. As an artistic effort, the album was a failure, but Flip gained the attention of those at the highest levels of the recording business when it was discovered that on one track, a careful listen would reveal the business’ most powerful A&R man seducing and performing sex acts in his office with a mail room worker.

.

:.

.

.

.

Random Wikipedia Entry Band/Artist Name: Linda Antonsen
Linda Antonsen is a Norwegian orienteering competitor.

Random Quotation Album Name: I cannot call to mind a single instance where I have ever been irreverent, except toward the things which were sacred to other people. — Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Random flickr cover art: Queen Anna Beth’s Grove by the 10 cent designer

Dark, some called it. Edgy. Deep. Haunting. From seemingly out of nowhere came a new voice, a new poet, with a finely honed point of view and a simplistic yet profound way of cutting to the truth of the universal human condition. The sound was raw: basement quality rickety piano, a poorly tuned acoustic guitar and a drum machine for a rhythm section. For many though, it was the voice that reached like an unseen hand into their gut — muddy, raspy, rough but, at the same time sonorous and complex. No one had heard of Derek Talbot before, or of Fromo Mandad, the label that released his only record.

The mystery was unraveled by freelance writer Pat McWhelan for Rolling Stone. After a year of searching, the only Derek Talbot she was able to track down was a developmentally disabled, but relatively high functioning 33 year old man with impressive but not prodigious musical abilities. He was also a self-taught poet, whose only topic was animals — the smaller, furrier and more domesticated the better. McWhelan found Talbot living in near squalorous conditions in a group home — with no access to instruments or recording equipment… but able to sing along from memory in that distinctive voice every word of every tune.

Born significantly prematurely, Derek barely survived his first 6 months, and the damage that respirator tubes did to his undeveloped vocal chords never healed. Medical bills put his family into near poverty, but his parents doted on the boy, indulging his only two obsessions, pets and music, but only songs about pets. While he was in his mid-twenties, Talbot’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. Years before, his father bought an old reel-to reel tape recorder and taped over a dozen of Derek’s compositions; he brought them out again to play back in a loop for his wife when she was too ill to spend time with the boy in person; the songs seemed to ease the pain.

Inside one of the cartons the tape reel came in was a coupon for a special deal to turn your home tapes into a vinyl record album. When it appeared his wife was recovering, he sent a check with the coupon and the only copy of Derek’s tapes to the record production company, unaware that it hadn’t offered that service for over 15 years. Instead of being returned to the Talbot’s, the order was sent along with other submissions approved for mastering and distribution to record company decision makers. By then, the only original information accompanying the reels were the artists name and the inscription: “FromMomandDad.”

His parents waited for their album to come, but in less than six months, cancer finally claimed Derek’s mother; his father succumbed to a stroke shortly after that and while Derek settled uneasily into a group facility, on up the food chain his record went until it was eventually distributed nationally, making a dent in the charts in a very competetive year for pop music.

McWhelan’s article unleashed a flurry of interest in Derek Talbot’s story, and within days of its release, the record companies who had profited sent Talbot checks for every penny they had made off him and then some. McWhelan became the trustee of Derek’s interests, hiring caretakers who helped him move into and live independently in his own small house. Unaware of his noriety, Derek made it clear to the world that he was only a one hit wonder: Offered a fully equipped music studio, and any music deal he wanted, he opted instead for a different kind of business, opening up a petting zoo on a parcel of land near his house.

His only recording went on to not only affect music lover’s lives but also many others: When a children’s animated television series bought the rights to Talbot’s songs, McWhelan also negotiated merchandising rights — and the characters that sprang from the endeavor quickly became as famous and beloved as any Disney creature; the tunes and show were translated into 17 languages and the series of moveis they spawned grossed nearly a billion dollars, helping to build 7 neonatal intensive care wings named for Derek Talbot in hospitals across the globe.

.

.

Random Wiipedia reference - Band/Artist Name: Derek Talbot
Derek Taylor (7 May 1932 - 8 September 1997) was a British journalist, best known as the long-serving press agent for the hugely popular rock band, The Beatles.

Random Quotation (Album name): nothing more than pets: “This is part of the essence of motherhood, watching your kid grow into her own person and not being able to do anything about it. Otherwise children would be nothing more than pets.” Heather Armstrong, Dooce, 11-15-05

Random flickr photo cover art:

The Chestnut Gaze by farfarm

If there was an award for dumbest band, the members of Schadenfreude would have a display case full of them. Take the band’s name. They did. Literally. Because coming up with one on their own was too difficult, they just lifted the name from the Melbourne post-punk indie band that had been using it on the other side of the globe, explaining that they thought it would be ok to use it as the North American franchise. Lyrics? Plagiarized almost entirely from little-known bands. And the licks were taken from everything from commercial jingles (several versions of McDonald’s ads were used) to Beatles tunes in reverse. They also couldn’t be bothered to understand the contract they signed, which may help bolster the idea that God favors fools: Label owner Isidore “Izzy Whizzy” Mepp owned everything, from the band’s name and merchandising rights to the copyright, author’s credits, and publishing licenses, which made him that much more of an attractive target for litgation launched against him and Meppco Records by 37 entities from music publishers, other bands and labels, retail businesses and individuals, resulting in total ruin for the label and its owner. The boys relaunched their career - in venues limited to hotel lounges in the midwest - as the band “You Two.”

.

.

Band Name :Schadenfreude
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude
Schadenfreude (German) is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. The word referring to this emotion has been borrowed from German.

Cover art: Lord of the Relic by FatboyC
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chimedee/3335328160/

Quote/Album title: The meat it feeds on.

“O! beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on”
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), “Othello”, Act 3 scene 3

Do promotion people actually listen to the albums they promote? Not in the case of “They Don’t Bite Everybody,” the debut effort of “snuff-rock” quartet “Milhouse of Sand and Fog,” named after an episode of the animated TV series, “The Simpsons.” The record was pushed hard into the kid’s market: a heavy Saturday morning pre-release ad lineup was set, even a breakfast cereal tie-in was arranged, and the band was to premiere a tune on Nickelodeon’s annual “Kids Choice Awards” show. And then someone noticed the playlist: “Stranglers In the Night,” Murder Most Fun,” Rotten to the Corpse,” “Slay Date,” “You Make Me Feel So Stabby,” “The Last Cut Is the Deepest,” “I Love You to Bits and Pieces,” “Your Heart Is Always With Me (and a Finger, Too),” and the bonus cut, “Arterial Spray.” It could have been worse: trucks on their way to retail outlets were turned around before many deliveries were made and the album was oficially recalled and every copy locked in a warehouse in Reseda, CA, which inexplicably burned down along with the adjacent Taco Bell later that year.

.

.

Random Wikipedia Band Name: Milhouse of Sand and Fog

Random Album Title Quote: “Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don’t bite everybody“  — Stanislaw J. Lec (1909 - 1966)

Random flickr Cover Photo: Cartoon by cowboy montgomery

By the time the scheme was uncovered, the name had stuck and the band had recorded their second album. Originally formed by four Peterhouse College classmates at Cambridge, the band simply called The Club enjoyed mild success at small social events on and around various campuses. While inquiring through the University Student Union about booking a hall, they were informed that sanctioned clubs had priority and lower rates. Drummer Roger Rhys-Rice took advantage of his membership in the Kelvin Club — which could just have easily been the band’s name — over several months, until some bureaucrat caught on. No problem — they picked another society name at random, and for a full year and a half after after they had left university, they continued using it to book venues and stuck with the name. The real Rowing Club members, rather than objecting, found some benefit to the situation: “We’re a small club, and rather new,” said Captain Oliver Sidley, “but we do seem to be getting laid so much more.”

Random Band Name: Cambridge University Lightweight Rowing Club
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_University_Lightweight_Rowing_Club

Random Album Title: DESTROYING SUPERSTITION
Full Quote: “We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition.” — Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC)

Random flickr Cover Photo: Atomic clock by hoton pictures

Before earning acclaim as cutting edge folk rockers , Solar Eclipses In Fiction worked as the Gary Ginsburg Trio, and was one of the more popular Bar Mitzvah and wedding bands in the greater metropolitan Spokane, WA area. This, their third album, was recorded immediately before all the members checked into rehab simultaneously, and is perhaps their best work, as this group, like only a few others, actually became more popular and artisitcally sound the further they slipped into chronic drug abuse and alcoholism. They are, once again, available for private bookings.

Band Name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipses_in_fiction

Photo: Sunset at Pancake Rocks

Quote: “There’s so much pollution in the air now that if it weren’t for our lungs there’d be no place to put it all“   —   Robert Orben

“The problem with Bremmer,” wrote London Times rock critic Archibald Fennel, “is that the tunes are all TOO catchy. It’s not uncommon for a hook to stick in your head for a day or two, but with a Bremmer album, you’ve got a dozen trapped there all at the same time, banging into each other, making it impossible to concentrate, sleep or intereact with others. No wonder the youngsters like them so much.” Another reason perhaps for the band’s popularity among teens, especially young girls, were the bouncy upbeat lyrics that made it seem okay to laugh at school, disdain intelligence and even mock the physically less-than-perfect, whether “pizza-faced” or “polio-gimped.” The “Bubble-Gum Punk” style was a fad that faded quickly.

Photo: Random flickr — not recorded

Complete quote: A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read. — Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Wikipedia reference:
Bremmer may refer to:
Ian Bremmer, political scientist and president of Eurasia Group.
Richard Bremmer, a British actor.

Grover Krantz redefined the concept of a “cult band.” In this case the band’s followers were not just music fans, but fellow worshippers of Yeti, also known as Sasquatch or Bigfoot. This particular disc was compiled from bootleg recordings made at various backwoods campsites by devoted fans of the group — which never entered a recording studio or toured in traditional concert venues. A tightly editied and highly reprcocessed version of one cut, “Gigantopithecus” became a crossover hit, especially popular with heavy metal fans after it was covered by thrashers Hispaniolan Yellow Treefrog on their debut album “Expenditure of Intelligence.” At first eschewing the celebrity the album brought them, they hoped to use it to call attention to their service to Sasquatch and recruit acolytes; unfortunately an appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson launched them into national ridicule, both for their unpolished performance and bizarre appearance as well as for their incomprehensible ranting. Soon after, the cult following fell away, allowing band members to be left alone in the woods of the Pacific Northwest where they presumably remain today, still on the trail of Bigfoot.

Claiming to be the first symphonic thrash metal band, HYFrog, as fans dubbed it, performed with a full orchestra, not only in the studio, but also on tour as well. While most extreme metal groups railed against authority and conformity and social issues of the day, HYFrog aimed its wrath instead at the heavy metal scene itself. Here is the playlist from this, their fourth album:

Anthrax Sucks
Megadeth Sucks
Slayer Sucks
Metallica Sucks
Tank Sucks
Raven Sucks
Anvil Sucks
Razor Sucks
Razor Sucks (Instrumental Version)
Death Angel Sucks
Gigantopithecus (Bonus Track)

Generally considered one of the worst concept albums ever, “Evidence of the Fact” attempted to share with listeners the songwriting process from beginning to end. Many believed that what seemd like an interesting idea was diluted by being applied to only one song for an entire 2-sided LP record. Most of the first side consisted of various humming sessions recorded in cabs, bedrooms, showerstalls, and even the biography stacks of the Auckland public library. Towards the end of Side 1, an acoustic guitar and a piano come in to help the process, aided by the most rudimentary of lyrics. The remainder of the album is indeed educational. Band members greet every lyric suggestion with severe criticism until a tender love ballad becomes a nosensical recitation  of psychedelic verse. Meanwhile, it becomes increasingly apparent that the musical complexities the band hopes to hear in the finished product are beyond their skill levels, and, one by one, each is replaced by a top studio session player; when the backup singers step forward to take the lead parts and YHAOS stopped showing up at the studio, producers wrapped the project up and released it with little fanfare. Continuing , humbled, with the same personnel, the band toured and released other recordings under a completely different name.

While musically mediocre, Wayne Hale is considered a poetical genius, bringing lyrical beauty to the most mundane — and morbid — of subjects. Because of these talents, producers and studios accepted his bizarre requests and stringent demands with little question; whether replacing every square inch of exposed surface space with sterile gauze, forcing anyone entering the studio to do so wearing a hazmat decontamination suit or singing while standing in a Rubbermaid bin filled with Lysol, nothing was considered too extreme for someone who earned the title of America’s preeminent hypochondriac. His agonized suffering found itself expressed in songs that elevated hangnails to the tragic status of heartbreak and hemorrhoids to a life of bitter loss. “Useless” is generally considered his best recording, but many believe it deserved that status mostly because it was thought to be his last, as Hale retired definitively when he first heard one of his most poignant efforts used in a psoriasis commercial on TV. Years later, shortly after his death from an accidental Echinacea overdose, a final album of material (“I Told You So”) he had been working on and recording in his home studio in retirement was released to mixed reviews.