Smiley Sings

Hello tender-hearts. Beltane, aka That Ol' Pagan Summer, arrived on May 1, and we missed an opportunity to wish you a happy one.

From our broom closet, we can peer through the slats of an air vent, where we can see the window at the end of the hall, and even though your average Western calendar says it's still spring, it sure looks like sweet, sweet summer out there.

Here's Sesame Street's frequent game show host, Guy Smiley, demonstrating his vocal prowess with "I'll Love You In Springtime." The Muppet crooner is of the Ed Ames/Robert Goulet school of delivery. It's pure Brylcreem and Pepsodent:


[courtesy of Sesame Street]

We'll be right back after these messages ...

It's 1984 and you're Paul Weller. You've disbanded The Jam and have begun the continental-pop/blue-eyed-soul phase of your career by forming The Style Council.

So you make a video to promote The Style Council single "My Ever Changing Moods" and well, this ought to do:

Open The Good Stuff, Drink and Remember

Norma Zimmer, aka The Champagne Lady from The Lawrence Welk Show, is dead.

If your first reaction is "who?" then you are either too young, or grew up in a household that didn't tune in regularly to the Welk Show. Zimmer was a singer and dancer who joined the show in 1960, thus spending more than 20 years with a show that ran nationally for nearly 28 years.

Her singing style recalled the Hit Parade era of Doris Day and similar pure, unaffected delivery of pop tunes that sound schmaltzy to the modern ear. Let go of irony and your rock & roll ways and Zimmer's buttery vibrato feels like a hug -- possibly a hug from grandma, but who couldn't use one of those from time to time?

[Image courtesy of WelkGirls.com]

Zimmer's death falls into place after a string of deaths we should have noted here. Yvette Vickers' passing was certainly the most tragic. Gone as well are Arthur Larents, John Walker, Body Snatcher rebel Dana Wynter and Dolores Fuller.

We probably should have given a nod to Wynter's passing, for if you need a smart woman by your side as alien invaders gradually infest your sleepy coastly burg, she was the lady for the job. And Vickers -- what could we say that hadn't been said already?

Norma Zimmer died on May 10, 2011. She was 88. There are other Welk Women still dancing, singing and playing, but only one got the title The Champagne Lady.

Getting Instrumental, Part III

THIS IS THE END MY FRIEND

These final two reviews in this series essentially ignore the rules laid out by the title of the feature, but just a little bit.

WOOLFY VS. PROJECTIONS
The Astral Projections of Starlight
(Permanent Vacation)
In the 1990s this would have been alternately derided and embraced as boutique music -- that broadly defined electronic music that included other vaporous genres such as downtempo, chillout (shudder) and lounge. A programmed bass foundation, muted beats and swells of synth chords make good on the vaguely new-age/prog look of the cover art and album title. But the Fender Rhodes, occasional Euro-soul vocals and one-chord vamp guitar (heavy on the wah-wah pedal) gives Astral Projections just enough urban soul to make the rotation at a swanky clothing store. Contextually, pills and thrills from the night before hurls many club kids into the arms of this sort of come-down music. For the rest of us, the impression fades as quickly as the ink-stamp on our wrists. However, "Neeve" feels distinctly like a minimalist variation on The Rolling Stones' "Miss You." Weird, huh?

Reference materials: Both Woolfy and Projections serve in the Los Angeles soul-funk collective Orgone. So if the cosmic sounds of Astral Projections feels too scrubbed, Orgone is messier and more immediate.



CIRCLE RESEARCH
Who?
(Melting Pot Music)
Two Canadians take the Beat Konducta/Donuts style of public audition/audio sketchbook to a logical hip-hop-will-eat-itself conclusion. The snake has eaten its tail, and said tail is delicous. But where Madlib, J Dilla (and Oh No, and so many others) have dipped deep into their record collections for source material, Astro and Nik T, the duo comprising Circle Research, mined the major hits of hip-hop's Golden Age. So instead of sending the heads scrambling to find out which obscure jazz break these men looped, they're letting nearly everybody play "name the sampled sample." Clipping Biz Markie's shocked declaration from "Just a Friend" to make the track "Oh Snap!" barely scratches the surface of how Who? works. Yes, these 36 mini-tracks are pieced together from some of the most recognizable rap hits of the late '80s and early '90s, but they didn't just grab the hooks or make a stunted mixtape. Call it micro-remixing.


Reference material: Circle Research might be too heady for dance-ready fans of Girl Talk's extended mash-ups. Anyone who gobbles up Madlib's Beat Konducta volumes, or MF DOOM's Special Herbs series will find much to ingest here.

glopitaglopitaglopita ...

The Typing Monkey interrupts the seasonal festivities to acknowledge the passing of American composer, arranger and trumpeter Neal Hefti on Oct 11, 2008.

His two best-known compositions -- the theme to the television series Batman, and the theme to both the film and TV versions of The Odd Couple -- deserve all the praise they get. (And any kid who doesn't feel like fighting crime or busting out some go-go dance moves upon hearing the opening bars of the Batman theme should be regarded with suspicion.)

But Hefti's exit reminds us that he also wrote the original score for two of the better just-outside-the-mainstream comedies of the 1960s: How to Murder Your Wife and Lord Love a Duck.

Murder stars Jack Lemmon as the ultimate urban bachelor undone and redone by the shackles of unplanned matrimony. His scenes with co-star Terry Thomas suggest a comedy duo in waiting, and Thomas, always delightful, is nearly bulletproof here. Hefti's playful jazz-pop matches the film's tone perfectly.

Check out the opening narrative:


[Courtesy stutrix]

Duck pairs up Tuesday Weld and Roddy McDowall in an oddly philosophical and bleak comic attack on teen culture that remains evergreen. The ace performances from Ruth Gordon and Harvey Korman are nearly pushed aside by Max Showalter's queasy performance as Weld's father. Showalter -- better known to modern audiences as Molly Ringwald's giggling, inappropriate grandfather in Sixteen Candles -- runs away with a short scene in which he cranks up the ick factor while somehow remaining funny.*

Oh right, Neal Hefti ... if there is any doubt that Hefti possessed that rare gift of mid-20th century composers who grasped the basics of rock, blues, jazz and pop in a way that those on either side of the generation gap couldn't or wouldn't, his title track for the film's opening credits will convince.

Dig it:


[Courtesy SolarCoasterX]


*Showalter's scene with Weld is available on YouTube, but just see the movie. It's essential.

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation (Part I)

Upon returning from his summer-long bender -- this year spent in the air conditioned luxury of a chain motel somewhere near Butte, Montana -- Typing Monkey publisher S.L. Kreighton threw a royal hissy fit about the stacks of CDs that had piled up in the office.

So we made the new intern, Francine, sort through the discs and pick a dozen or so that she thought looked interesting. These selections were based on cover art alone, so we can’t guarantee the quality of anything she chose.

The next few entries will be short reviews based on the frenzied listening party that ensued.

***

RUN CHICO RUN
Rocket Surgery
(Reluctant Recordings)
A new EP by the (mostly) vintage-keyboard and drums duo who make pop with a tissue of psychedelic spookiness draped over it. Fun while there, and probably a good live show, but not hugely memorable once the six songs are over.

Standouts: The jazzy "Huh What" is good and "Ghetto Treat.
Released: April 12
myspace.com/runchicorun


SHAWN LEE'S PING PONG ORCHESTRA
Miles of Smiles
(Ubiquity)
Twenty more imaginary soundtracks from the multi-instrumentalist. Lee’s biggest hurdle is the abundance of legitimate library music from the '60s and '70s currently reissued on CD (and probably easily downloaded if you hate America). The Moog-y spacecapade "Greekout" makes the well-executed, if pedestrian, genre exercises sound weak by comparison. Judicious editing could reduce this to a dozen winners. In the right mood (a party, iPod shuffle), this is just fine.

Standouts: "Prague Rock" and "Dinosaur Island." (Jazz flutes are go!)
Released: May 6
myspace.com/shawnleemusic