BENBENEK BLOG HAS MOVED - FINAL WARNING!

BENBENEK BLOG HAS MOVED...YES IT HAS.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR NEW, BETTER LOCATION

This is the last time you'll be told that BENBENEK BLOG has now officially and permanently moved to a different location...please BOOKMARK the new location (which is HERE) and go about your business...gee, thanks!

BENBENEK BLOG - CLICK HERE

HEY! - ATTENTION PEOPLE OF EARTH!

Same basic material and same philosophical attitude...
except just at a different web location and with a different font.

HAVE NO FEAR - WE HAVE MOVED HERE

NO SHIT! - BENBENEK BLOG HAS MOVED!

Sorry about the incessant "this blog has moved" schtick, but (as we all know) human beings are creatures of habit and if you don't bang them over the head(s) with information, they will stray into the woods and die of snake bites and then explode.

So, the new BENBENEK BLOG location is peachy keen - it looks as if we now have MODERATED COMMENTS which means you can comment and all of us will have so much fun...sound like a plan? Yes, of course it sounds like a plan. And isn't sarcasm attractive? Yes, of course it is...

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEW BENBENEK BLOG

BENBENEK BLOG HAS MOVED!

CLICK HERE FOR BENBENEK BLOG

BENBENEK BLOG HAS MOVED!

CLICK HERE FOR BENBENEK BLOG

BENBENEK BLOG HAS MOVED!

CLICK HERE FOR BENBENEK BLOG

BENBENEK BLOG HAS MOVED!

CLICK HERE FOR BENBENEK BLOG

RUTLES SITTING ON CHAIRS BEING QUESTIONED

This is just about the worst online embedded video you'll ever see, but these are the actual RUTLES answering questions (mostly Eric Idle) at the Egyptian Theater (March 17, 2008) - video taken from approximately 2000 feet away from deep inside a murky cave while trapped inside solidifying tar.

Papoose - Law Library (mp3)

GET THE WHOLE ENCHILADA AT THE NEW BENBENEK BLOG!

RUTLES REUNION AT THE EGYPTIAN!

RUTLES REUNION AT THE EGYPTIAN!

READ ABOUT IT AT THE NEW BENBENEK BLOG - CLICK HERE!

Monkees - Greatest Hits (zipped mp3s)

Finally, an album post with some factual substance - thank goodness The Monkees stature and industry respect only grows more and more as their fan base bulges and echos out unto the misty plains - limited time only! 20 tracks! Does life or music get any better than this? Nope! Oh, yes!

DON'T FORGET - BENBENEK BLOG IS MOVING - CLICK HERE!

Monkees - Greatest Hits (zipped mp3s)

Public Nuisance - America (mp3)

We never do things in halves and therefore we're officially transitioning templates (immediately) over to WORDPRESS which seems just as hokey as BLOGGER but at least WORDPRESS appears to be speedier.

You'll find the following mp3 over there...over there...

Public Nuisance - America (mp3)

PLEASE BOOKMARK THE NEW HOME OF BENBENEK BLOG

THIS BLOG IT WILL PROBABLY MOVE

Due to incessant and often mega-annoying glitches and snafus with BLOGGER, we will probably be moving this site over to WORDPRESS this week (same name, same stuff) - it'll be a smooth transition (if it does indeed happen) and there's no better time than the present to give out the warning...consider yourself warned.

THE FUTURE HOME OF BENBENEK BLOG

Clinic - Coda (mp3)

Well, a good pal of mine and myself are seeing the Rutles movie along with the big Rutles reunion tomorrow night up at Hollywood's Egyptian Theater - should be fun...and especially even more fun to see if there are any freaky Monty Python or Bonzo Dog Band fans in the audience. The Egyptian Theater is quite impressive indeed, I've only been there once because we won free tickets to see a Clint Eastwood double bill (Fistful of Dollars and Good, Bad and Mishapen) and it was especially fun because the sound system was (like) at SETTING 12 and Ennio Morricone music sounds better at SETTING 12.

Right now we have a decade's old Liverpudlian band called Clinic and as usual I know nothing about them, I think they're a new-ish band and this song is moody indeed with some muffled talking towards the end. From their album called DO IT! which was the title also of a Jerry Rubin hippie book.

Will post a complete review of Rutles night as time permits.

Clinic - Coda (mp3)

Clinic @ MySpace

Jimi Hendrix/ Curtis Knight - How Would You Feel?

Continuing on in a 1960s semi-psychedelic exploitation mode, here's some guy named Curtis Knight backed-up by some other guy named Jimi Hendrix on a song that probably really actually and entirely sounds like a Bob Dylan song...yeah, no fuckin' kidding...

The verses (lyric-wise) kind of suck but the chorus areas kick serious semi-psychedelic exploitation butt and Hendrix's guitar is so fuzzed-out it's ridiculous (yes, ridiculous!) - all-in-all a 9 on a 10 scale and maybe even 2 points for effort.

Jimi Hendrix/ Curtis Knight - How Would You Feel? (mp3)

The Grateful Dead - Dark Star (single - mp3)

I seem to remember really liking The Grateful Dead a whole lot for about an entire year way back in the mid-1990s - I really liked the early Dead especially (1965-1973) and even more especially really liked the Anthem of the Sun and AOXOMOXOA albums a lot (still do) - and like I said, this "really liking" took place for about an entire year in the mid-1990s...

And then all the "really liking" stopped and then I became just
a casual, lazy fan of The Grateful Dead and their music...

I never saw them, never cared too much for the whole obsessive fan-base taping and trading system. When I got on the internet I was grossed-out and sickened by the almost perverse and sad number of Grateful Dead-oriented websites devoted to microscopic degrees of detail regarding the band and their music...

See the misguided Archive.Org for some real grotesque Grateful Dead fan obsessing...it's enough to make even a jaded and opinionated baby cry.

Anyway, this is the single version of The Dead's classic "Dark Star" -
it's very short, but it isn't long...and it's even brief (see above) and (as they say) brevity is next to bronchitis...

The Grateful Dead - Dark Star (single - mp3)

PF SLOAN - What's Exactly the Matter with Me?

So, it's my real, legal birthday today and thus begins-eth the festivities which start over (in Seal Beach) at the former shell of The Parasol which is now called Mel's Diner - haven't been there since they opened months ago when the service was bad and my toast was dry and almost inedible, but ultimately horrid...

After that, it's anybody's guess - I'm hoping that the drunken, remaining cast of FOX-TV's 24 will make a special appearance, but sometimes birthdays turn out differently than planned.



Or it might also be great if my old high school principal (who's now dead or a science fiction author) would retroactively give me STRAIGHT A's across the board, thus catapulting me into a better university and thus a better way of life and thus a higher and more devilish income bracket...and if you've ever tried to use an income bracket to prop up a bookshelf you know how difficult that can be...

Here's the superlative PF Sloan who will put all this birthday business into proper and positively perkier perspective...

PF SLOAN - What's Exactly the Matter with Me? (mp3)

PF Sloane Website

True Stories (DVD)

Not counting Betamax and Quicktime, I think I've seen True Stories in nearly every standard, morally accepted format. I seem to remember watching it on the big screen when it first came out (1986 - liked it a lot!) and then much later watched it on rented VHS (didn't think too much of it...)

And now tonight, I just finished watching it on DVD (not in widescreen) and it holds up very well - overall design and feel of the film is POP ART, but there also seem to be three or four other underlying conceptual currents which surely propel it into cult movie historic-ness.

Forgot that the late, lamented Spaulding Gray is in the movie - and also forgot how many great songs feature in and out of the multiple storylines.

I give True Stories 8 stars ********

True Stories @ Amazon.Com

True Stories @ DavidByrne.Com

True Stories @ Talking-Heads.Net

Lee Perry/Upsetters - French Connection (mp3s)

It's standard knowledge that Lee "Scratch" Perry has never produced a bad song - even up until last year's "End of the American Dream" he's been cranking them out (good songs) - which brings us to these two versions of the same song - a song called French Connection - one version straight forward and the other in dub mode.

Lee Perry and the Upsetters - French Connection (mp3)

Lee Perry and the Upsetters - French Connection (dub - mp3)

KURT'S EXCITING BIRTHDAY FUN ALBUM PICKS!

It's my actual, real birthday this Saturday...a birthday which I proudly share with FABIO and God's gift to the legal system MIKE LOVE and since it's our (I mean my...) birthday I guess I can pick pretty much what I want to post for the next couple of days...not that I don't do that already.

So, as far as birthdays go, we've got two sort of DIVERSE (what?!) album releases, both of which never got real OFFICIAL and/or WIDESPREAD release, let's say like by real MAJOR RECORD COMPANIES - but they (these albums) however were released nevertheless on two separate sides of the Earth - and...here they is...



JOE MEEK - I HEAR A NEW WORLD

Producer and audio scientist deluxe JOE MEEK records the inside of his brain whilst living in a small flat in Arundel Gardens (London) early 1960s - tone deaf and basically a musical primitive (not really), Meek basically foreshadows the next 40 years of anti-music created in the name of protest and art. Sticky, yummy and bubble-y music for the whole family!



NEAL CASSADY - DRIVE

The atypical and non-stop-talking literary star of Jack Kerouac's blistering multiple-cross country saga "On the Road" also later on drove (hence, DRIVE) Ken Kesey's big, painted bus all over the USA and also handed out diplomas during Acid Test Graduations (etc) - DRIVE is a hard-left and hard-right stereo concoction featuring Cassady mild-manneredly (and one-sided-ly apparently) omni-conversing - once again, ya gotta figure early 1960s.

Happy Birthday to me and...here's where you download the audio

Do me a birthday favor and help assuage my guilt and visit Ken Babb's ever-stunning (or is that stunned?) SKYPILOT CLUB pages and buy his goods if you like...and INTREPID TRIPS is good for browsing also, with lots of Cassady and Bus and Kesey and Prankster items...can't beat 'em!

BENBENEK - On My Cross Country Trip (demo)

So, like...this demo song is hot off the presses and it should maybe possibly be on the upcoming music album LISTENING TO PAINT DRY (which still needs a cover photo) which needs to be mixed, but mixing is the least fun part of modern digital music making (at least for me) -

So I was thinking about hiring Roy Thomas Baker or that guy who works with U2 and David Bowie - or maybe I'll just save several hundred grand and mix it myself.

Here are the rough lyrics and if you're offended by such words as fuckin' or goddamn, then please stop reading now...because the following lyrics contain those words.

On my Cross Country Trip
(Kurt Benbenek - BMI - 2008)

On my Cross Country Trip
In a big cargo ship

Nothin' I'm-a-gonna skip
On my cross country trip

Everything up to Lackawanna
Right back through the goddamn Vegas strip

Nothin' else gonna stop me
On my cross country trip

Gonna take all my time on
On my cross country trip

People pass by and they're gone
On my cross country trip

From the dusk until the dawn
On my cross country trip

All the way from Disney fuckin' Florida
Way up to the North Dakota tip

I'm a simple boy from California
Sometimes I maintain I've lost my grip

People stare as I pass by
On my Cross Country Trip

Cows and sheep stare at the sky
On my Cross Country Trip

BENBENEK - On My Cross Country Trip (mp3)

Manfred Mann - 5-4-3-2-1 (mp3)

There's ever been an ongoing and infinitely-long debate concerning exactly which (or what) the very first punk rock song was (or potentially could have been...) and this sonic candidate by marginal Swedish band Manfred Mann certainly takes the proverbial cake when it comes to being possibly the first punk rock song ever in the history of universal punk rock music...

Except that it doesn't appear to have any electric guitars on it, which a whole lot of later punk rock songs had (upon them) - in fact, all I personally hear is an organ-thing, a harmonica, some drums, vocals and maybe a bass guitar - not exactly classic (in-yo-face) punk rock music instrumentation!

So much for the Manfred Mann punk rock theory - jeez!

Manfred Mann - 5-4-3-2-1 (mp3)

MESSAGE BOARD - NOW OPEN!!

NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO TYPE THINGS ON THE INTERNET!

We've finally got a simple and easy-to-use nice MESSAGE BOARD up and running - signing up takes about 3 seconds - we'll try it out for a week or two and see if it's worth keeping up...so check it out now all you people!



HEY! - NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO TYPE THINGS ON THE INTERNET!

1) Say HI to your mom or pet!
2) Make irrational poorly-written comments!
3) Request music or other things you'd like to see!!
4) Post the URLs of websites you think are neat!
5) Promote your Presidential candidate of choice!
6) Say HI to your mom or pet!

The HPS/BENBENEK MESSAGE BOARD is right for YOU -
grasp the possibilities and run with them right now!

HPS / BENBENEK MESSAGE BOARD - CLICK HERE

Rose City Singers - La Bamba (mp3)

As usual, I've been picking up all sorts of un-usual late 1960s (and early 1970s) mega-Christian old time real actual LP vinyl albums (I have one of the largest collections of mega-Christian old time real actual LP vinyl albums in the world...no shit!)

And this particular version (of "La Bamba") happened to be on an album by The Rose City Singers called "On the Move" and most of the album is rather dull, but this particular song really gets down and announces itself! And also I swear that the lead singer is cussing and cursing all the way through the song! Holy moly...wow!

So, enjoy it now or forever hold your peace...thanks!

Rose City Singers - La Bamba (mp3)

Mitch Ryder - Devil with the Blue Dress (mp3)

So, this is like the second Mitch Ryder song this outfit's posted in about a month and if there were a reason not to post it, we would gladly take that road...but like Oprah Winfrey says: "you've got to pay it forward" (what ever that means...) and also you've got to "give, give, give...until yer head pops!" So, let's do all of the above and see where that leads us.

Mitch Ryder - Devil with the Blue Dress (mp3)

Goldie - Kaiser Salsek (mp3)

Like most music, I have a love/hate relationship with DRUM N BASS which I seem to remember hearing early on (on my FM radio mini-boombox) in Southeast London - perhaps 1996 (oh yes...) but more probably 1997 with the pirate/daytime DRUM N BASS channels and incessant Cockney rapping by any number of DJs and rappers and local slang comedians who would secretly set up their systems anywhere between Bexleyheath and Lewisham and Woolwich.



DRUM N BASS has always been the potential GREAT SALVATION for modern music, but has never really lived up to it's early reputation - hijacked by Talvin Singh and this guy (Goldie) to great effect, but what's happened since? Lots of Honda commercials and between inning music at baseball games....and endless ugly permissions for mash-ups...Jesus Christ!

Goldie - Kaiser Salsek (mp3)

Madonna - Burning Up (mp3)

WARNING! - NO PARAGRAPH BREAKS!

This track of hi-energy interest is from a really expensive import album called (wait for it...) PRE-MADONNA and it's kind of interesting - but this (to me) is the only truly listenable and perhaps danceable track on the album which also seems to contain early Madonna tracks (including this song) and other tracks and songs from the early career of pop singer and worldwide phenomenon Madonna...including this song and other hi-energy tracks of interest, which (if I continue typing) might reveal themselves to be "hi-energy in nature" due to a slight degree of repetitiveness in my typing which can often become repetitive if left unchecked and therefore very repetitive...petitive...petitive...titive...titive...ive...ive...ve...e...

Madonna - Burning Up (mp3)

Black Sabbath - Symptom of the Universe (mp3)

Hey, did Black Sabbath ever record one of those invitation-only acoustic shows on MTV? You know the kind of show I'm talking about...where established wealthy and morally corrupt pop music acts would perform their entire back catalogues acoustically so they could make more obscene profits off their back catalogues...know what I mean??

Anyway...did Black Sabbath ever record one of those special all-acoustic shows where all songs are played acoustically?



Because all you have to do is listen to the last section of this song (see mp3 below) and you can easily hear for yourself that Black Sabbath really could rock the house when they rocked it acoustically.

Not to mention that the rest of "Symptom of the Universe" is pretty good also - not bad for 1975! Wow! Hey! Zowie! No shit! Crazy! Wow! Hey!

Black Sabbath - Symptom of the Universe (mp3)

VA - THE RAGING TEENS (VOLUME 2)

Just in time for the weekend, here's something mostly fast and mostly loud, which in plain and simple language means it's an actual compilation album featuring actual singers and players singing and playing songs in a Rock 'n' Roll modality. If you can't enjoy it, then please tolerate it in a polite way.

18 SONGS - CAN'T BEAT IT!

VA - THE RAGING TEENS (VOLUME 2)
FULL ZIPPED ALBUM - CLICK HERE!!!!

George Jones - King of the Road (mp3)

Gotta fuckin' admit that I don't know much about Country Music - especially I don't no nothing about what passes as Country Music these days - all I know is Carrie Underwood don't hold no candle to Minnie Pearl (or even Dolly Parton) and the quivering contemporary ghost of the be-hatted Garth Brooks holds no candle to the sublime Buddha nature of George Jones (whatever Wal-Mart says...)

This delightful and meticulous version of Roger Miller's delightful and meticulous song "King of the Road" is from the George Jones 1966 album called Love Bug, which probably has nothing to do with that movie starring Dean Jones and Michelle Lee and Buddy Hackett and a Volkswagon.

George Jones - King of the Road (mp3)

Roni Size - Scrambled Eggs (mp3)

Roni Size (Ryan Williams)...one of the biggest hot shit Drum N Bass dudes ever, hit the big time in England (at least) but basically tanked in the States. Now his brand of D N B is even used in TV commercials cuz Drum N Bass is not only cool now but it's baseball 7th inning stretch cool.

This song was named after the original title of The Beatles
big hot shit worldwide smash hit song "Yesterday" - no it wasn't.

Roni Size - Scrambled Eggs (mp3)

George Carlin - It's Bad for Ya (HBO-TV)

About every two years comedian George Carlin does a big HBO television special and he's just done another one called "It's Bad for Ya" - it'll be repeating and rotating over the next few weeks I suppose and it's (naturally) worth catching. Carlin really looks old, probably because he is old...70 years old, but looks are always deceiving and he definitely does the job. Hard to believe he was a contemporary of Lenny Bruce and started doing his hippie-beatnik stand-up back in the ancient days of the over-rated 1960s.

I won't quote any of his punchlines, mainly because I don't remember any of them and he's not really a punchline comedian anyway. Also, it's nice to hear someone actually cuss and curse for real on cable TV and it's a pretty good comedy show blah blah blah...

George Carlin also has a big-ass bilion DVD box set out, with all the HBO specials and other stuff.

George Carlin Official Website

Cibo Matto - Know Your Chicken (mp3)

You might wanna UP THE HIGH EQ on this particular version of this particular song...sounds like the vocals were recorded inside an underwater Fotomat. Lots of trumpet on this too which is always nice to hear!



By the way, have you noticed how everybody nowadays is accusing BIG RECORD COMPANIES of not having enough foresight to foresee the current spate of free music downloads (what is a "spate" by the way?) and that they didn't have enough foresight (or business acumen) to build better music business models?

And everybody also seems to think that BIG RECORD COMPANIES are simply large, ignorant mindless entities - when in reality, it would be a fair guess to assume that BIG RECORD COMPANIES probably know what they're doing...and so much for filling-up space by typing mindlessly.

Cibo Matto - Know Your Chicken (mp3)

DEVO - E-Z LISTENING DISC (63 MB zipped mp3s)

I've had this album for (like) years and never bothered to listen to it because (like) I figured it sucked - but I (like) listened to some of it this morning and (like) it doesn't suck (at all) in fact, it's actually pretty good.

The album appears to be out-of-print or at least somewhat hard-to-find
and expensive...so, do your thing and maybe you (like me) will find that it doesn't suck (at all) in fact, you may find that it's actually pretty good.

DEVO - E-Z LISTENING DISC CLICK HERE

Houseplant Picture Studio - just a click away!

A lot of people have no clue that there's another website connected to BENBENEK BLOG and it's called Houseplant Picture Studio and it's been around a long time and it has all sorts of photos and art (and music) all over it and it stretches into various corners of known cyberspace. So, if there's nothing going on here (and there usually isn't) then go here and you might feel better.

HOUSEPLANT PICTURE STUDIO

The Temptations - The Way You Do the Things You Do (mp3)

Yes, for crying out loud...this is the Motown classic as sung supremely by the manly and studly The Temptations...but who the heck knows what fucking language it's being sung in?

My guess is that the song is either being sung in Spanish or possibly in some strange variation of Italian or maybe even a variation of the rare Southern Esperanto tongue or possibly Neptunian...who knows?

The Temptations - The Way You Do the Things You Do (mp3)

The Rutles Reunion - tickets and info!

Martin Lewis from the Mods and Rockers Film Festival kindly contacted me and told me that tickets and info regarding the upcoming and big Rutles 30th Anniversary Reunion Event at LA's Egyptian Theater can be found directly through their website.

This may be the biggest music happening of the year (or at least the most calorie-free) so get your tickets now, or forever hold your peace.

Mods and Rockers Film Festival Website - tickets and info!

The Shirelles - Boys (mp3)

You know how it is...sometimes you run across something (like an mp3) on your hard drive and the only thing to do is to upload it using Fetch Mac OS X FTP software...yeah, sometimes that's the only thing to do.

The Shirelles - Boys (mp3)

The Rutles - Reunion at the Egyptian Theater!

If I'm not mistaken (and I always am), I don't think I've ever seen The Rutles movie "All You Need Is Cash" all the way through - I've seen clips and bits and bobs, but frankly I don't believe I've seen it all the way through - did I mention I've never seen it all the way through?

Which makes March 17th at LA's Egyptian Theater even better (for me) because that's the evening there's going to be a full reunion of the original Rutles (Ron, Dirk, Stig and Barry ) plus a full screening of "All You Need Is Cash" plus out-takes and all sorts of other stuff.

You can find more details HERE - I already bought a couple of tickets - it would probably behoove you to do likewise and purchase yours before they sell out (even if you live in Kansas)



Here are three tracks from Archaeology -

The Rutles - Easy Listening (mp3)

The Rutles - Eine Kleine Middle Klasse Music (mp3)

The Rutles - We've Arrived (And to Prove It We're Here) (mp3)

The Rutles - Tragical History Tour