Balham, Gateway to the South

Balham, Gateway to the South: Peter Sellers, best known for The Goons, Inspector Clouseau and Doctor Strangelove, also recorded sketches in the 1950s in which he supplied all of the voices.

Probably best known is his spoof of the 1950s travelogue, the ode to South London's finest neighbourhood - Balham, Gateway to the South, but the rest is also worth a listen.

• The Trumpet Volunteer
• Auntie Rotter
• Party Political Speech
• A Drop of the Hard Stuff
• I'm So Ashamed
• We Need The Money
• All The Things You Are

All Your Dreams and Diamond Rings

All Your Dreams and Diamond Rings: The Capital Children's Choir cover Spiritualized's So Long you Pretty Thing, and Florence and the Machine, Lady Gaga, Bjork, Guns N' Roses, among others.

From the group's about page:



The Capital Children's Choir began in 2001 when a small group of 10 year old girls asked Rachel to start a singing club in St. John's Wood, London. Over the years, the little group continued to grow and currently involves well over one hundred children from around the capital.



They of course have facebook and twitter pages. No matter how you cut it, they've racked up an impressive list of performances.

Fleetwood Mac's strangely savage "Tusk" was the band's weirdest hit

Fleetwood Mac's strangely savage "Tusk" was the band's weirdest hit: AV Club discusses "Fleetwood Mac's weirdest hit" in a feature called Hear This.

"Tusk," which is featured prominently and often in the première of FX's The Americans... is a work of strange savagery, overlaid with jungle sounds and a thudding, endlessly repetitive drum riff that drives everything that happens in the song.

"Tusk" is a song by Fleetwood Mac from the 1979 double LP of the same name. The song reached #8 on the U.S. charts, #6 in the U.K. and #3 in Australia and Canada. It was one of the first songs to be released using a digital mixdown from an original analog source.

The song went platinum in 1979 and again in 1997 on a live album, making USC the only university to have two platinum albums. The marching band also performed the song on Solid Gold in 1980, interspersed with footage from the official music video.



In the late 2000s, Fleetwood Mac reunited with the USC band to play Tusk live.



Tusk is still in rotation by USC's Marching Band and Concert Band and has been performed by many other collegiate bands.

"Oh man, come on..."

"Oh man, come on...": Howlin' Wolf schools Eric Clapton and friends on "Little Red Rooster" (slyt)

"On a moonless night, we watched the stars..."

"On a moonless night, we watched the stars...": This week's Essential Mix features the 23 year old musical prodigy Mat Zo who takes you on a 70-track tour through almost every genre of uptempo dance music over the course of two hours, beautifully tied together with poetic quotes from Carl Sagan's Cosmos.

You'll find that life is still worthwhile, if you just smile.

You'll find that life is still worthwhile, if you just smile.: The Okeh Laughing Record, a novelty recording, was first released in 1923 and rose to #8 on the Billboard charts, becoming the highest ranking anonymous* recording ever. It's history and provenance is completely unknown**. It has since appeared as the soundtrack to cartoons, on Dr. Demento and on Jean Shepard's radio show.

*At least one YouTube poster claims that one of the voices is German comedian Karl Valentin who, strangely enough, generally played the straight man in his routines.



**It may have been inspired by a Rudy Vallee outtake of (Drunkard's Song) There is a Taven in the Town where the singer cracks up in the middle of the song.

Mood Music for Work

Mood Music for Work: Music may be able to improve productivity at work, especially music without words. There are some services that stream music intended for work: Focus@Will (US Only) offers a wide range of choices, Groovesalad is more ambient, while Get Work Done is decidedly more fast tempo. If music is too distracting, you can use a white/pink/brown noise generator or Buddha Wall, which loops relaxing sounds. Other people prefer particular songs or albums, since researchers suggest you should listen to what you like.

Today Indian Country Is Strong. I could not always ... tell you that"

Today Indian Country Is Strong. I could not always ... tell you that": Only about 36 hours after the State Of the Union Address, National Congress Of American Indians president Jefferson Keel gave today the 2013 State Of The Indian Nations address before the NCAI. The address was followed by a response from Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who was recently appointed the new Chairwoman for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. The entire program runs for 1h13m. Text of the speech. NCAI's Securing Our Futures report [pdf].

Native America Calling provides an audio only version [mp3 link].

''Les Paul Echo Guitar'' by Carl Perkins and George Harrison

''Les Paul Echo Guitar'' by Carl Perkins and George Harrison: ''Les Paul Echo Guitar'' -- Carl Perkins and George Harrison, a clip from A Rockabilly Session with Carl Perkins and Friends

See also



George Harrison Rehearsing For Carl Perkins Special

"That's Alright Mama" -- George Harrison, Carl Perkins and Joe Brown



And back in the day...



Blue Suede Shoes -- Carl Perkins (1956)

Matchbox - Carl Perkins (1956)

Dixie Fried - Carl Perkins (1956)

Matchbox - Carl Perkins (1959)

Boppin' The Blues - Carl Perkins (1959)

The Flute was Blowing Smoke Rings

The Flute was Blowing Smoke Rings: Claude Bolling and Jean-Pierre Rampal: Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio slyt

Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant

Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant: Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant recorded together during the first half of the 1950s. Listen to Speedy on the pedal steel and Jimmy on the Fender telecaster on the Hometown Jamboree playing Flying High.

They recorded together during the first half of the 1950s, having a great deal of fun at high speed and making some damn enjoyable music. A compilation of their work entitled Stratosphere Boogie was released in the mid 90s and includes great tracks including:

Old Joe Clark



Stratosphere Boogie



Arkansas Traveler



Bryant's Bounce



and Blue Bonnet Rag among others.



A compilation (courtesy of a youtube user), Swinging on the Strings.



Jimmy Bryant was also known as one of the early adopters of the electric guitar after Leo Fender showed up at a nightclub in 1950 and handed him a Broadcaster.

She took us there.

She took us there.: When Staple Singers hits like I'll Take You There and If You're Ready (Come Go With Me) came on the radio, it was easy to get lost in Mavis Staples' raspy, soulful lead vocals. But if you listened closer, a key element in the Chicago gospel-soul group's warmly distinctive sound was the deft soprano harmony of Mavis' sister Cleotha Staples, who died on Feb. 21 at age 78 in Chicago. RIP Cleotha Staples.

Chilled beats

Chilled beats: Ice Music - ethereal, Nordic ambient created with percussion instruments made out of ice