The Yodeling Astrologer

The Yodeling Astrologer: When Jim Holmberg fractured his skull after a motorcycle accident in the 1960s, it left him several things - deafness in the left ear, a belief in cosmic forces that had cured the resulting spinal meningitis, and an astonishing sopranino range in his voice.

This voice subsequently caused his discovery while busking in New York by Bernard Stollman, head of the eclectic ESP-Disk label. A short studio session later and 1969's Color By the Number would be his solitary recording artifact, solo psych-folk coated in reel-to-reel delay and reverb courtesy of experimentation with ESP-Disk engineer Onno Scholtze.



Like so many other psychers of the day he subsequently fell off the musical map, the limited pressing of the LP soon becoming a collector's item. But without trace wasn't quite true; a good 40 years later this cult status reached his awareness.



"I gave my brother one of the albums and asked him if I can borrow it back. He sent it to me and I opened it up and the record was broken. I had no other copies. then I just thought I would google it to be shocked to see I'm all over the internet. "



Subsequently he sent several missives of a spiritual nature to ESP-Disk,, and was interviewed by Vice Magazine on his whereabouts for that whole time, and his reflections on music.

Holiday Tiki Ukulele and Surf Shindig at Cafe Racer and Official Bad Art Museum of Art

Holiday Tiki Ukulele and Surf Shindig at Cafe Racer and Official Bad Art Museum of Art:

Please join your friends at Cafe Racer and the Official Bad Art Museum of Art for the 3rd annual Cafe Racer Holiday Tiki Ukulele and Surf Shindig with the Ukadelics and Christmas surf band Dancer and Prancer, Friday November 30th.
Dinner starts at 6pm with Moco Loco and Pulled Pork Sandwiches, plus special tiki and Polynesian drink specials.
Enjoy the dulcet tones, haunting melodies and toe-tapping South Pacific holiday songs of The Ukadelics, Seattle’s own 9-piece ukulele band starting at 7:30pm.
Then be prepared to crank it up for the phenomenal force for everything good, Dancer and Prancer, the band which crosses musical genres to meld Christmas music with traditional California surf sounds, starting around 9:00.
Come as you are or don your favorite Aloha shirt, tiki togs or your most atrocious holiday/Christmas sweater. Prizes for the most horrific outfits of the evening.

Dumb Ways to Die

LCD Soundsystem and Miles Davis improv YouTube duet

LCD Soundsystem and Miles Davis improv YouTube duet: from 2011, but new to me; way better than Pink Floyd and the Wizard of Oz

Make your favorite songs infinite

Make your favorite songs infinite:
The Infinite Jukebox analyzes the self-similarity of music to create neverending and everchanging versions of songs.

The app works by sending your uploaded track over to The Echo Nest, where it is decomposed into individual beats. Each beat is then analyzed and matched to other similar sounding beats in the song. This information is used to create a detailed song graph of paths though similar sounding beats. As the song is played, when the next beat has similar sounding beats there's a chance that we will branch to a completely different part of the song. Since the branching is to a very similar sounding beat in the song, you (in theory) won't notice the jump. This process of branching to similar sounding beats can continue forever, giving you an infinitely long version of the song.

Love this idea. How could I not with disclaimers like this?

you can get stuck in a strange attractor at the end of Karma Police for instance

Try it out with Call Me Maybe, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, or Little Fluffy Clouds. (via waxy)
Tags: music   remix

LCD Soundsystem and Miles Davis improv YouTube duet

LCD Soundsystem and Miles Davis improv YouTube duet: from 2011, but new to me; way better than Pink Floyd and the Wizard of Oz

Tiny Piano? Funny Zither?

Tiny Piano? Funny Zither?: In the early years of the 20th century, a pair of ex-piano retailers invented an instrument that looked something like a miniature piano. Manufactured by the Toledo Symphony Company it was called a Dolceola. But why read about a musical instrument, when you can hear one?


A Dolceola demonstration by Andy Cohen.


Ray Skjelbred playing "Dolceola Blues".

More information

Gregg Miner's Dolceola Pages.
Photos from a restoration.
A 2nd restoration.
A review from 1908.