Bad Detectives on the radio tonight

Hopefully the Frome hit factory will be spinning their festive hit 'Cadillac under the Christmas tree' - text em email them and tell them hi from your corner of the world.

12-14-2008 22:30 at Frome FM

An internet only edition of The Bad Detectives Radio Show. Listen live at www.fromefm.co.uk from 10.30pm - midnight.

Cadillac Records

Geoff spotted this one and its my now must-see movie that's in theatres. It's simply the Chess story. Is that enough for you? It's got Beyonce in it (as Etta James) and characters like Little Walter, Muddy and the Wolf are represented in the movie. If that ain't enough for you then god save your miserable soul...wiki on the movie

Ike's Instrumentals

Maybe you're having a get-together this season and you don't know what to play... know what my suggestion is? Ike's Instrumentals by Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm on Ace - it's just the bees knees to get people moving and a grooving. I would kill to play like Ike with his spangly twanging and tremolo arm bending. The backing is top-notch too...sort of your ideal fantasy backing band. Few people can be considered geniuses in my book - it's a term too often used for plagiarists but Ike was one and we should thank Ace for delivering this perfect package for us to start popularising the cult of Ike.

animals and men in the garden

Found this old photo from about 80 - that's Geoff holding our kittens - what was going on with his hair? Navy barbers I suppose. Sue tries to duck out the photo...me looking stick thin - those were the days.

Radiators from Space 'Television Screen'

One of the great punk 45s this version from 2004 is slow enough so you can hear the lyrics, the original is much faster, I know cos I still play it on my stereo. Still excellent though.

The Residents 'I'm Not Crazy'

Our son is off to London this sunday to see the Residents - here's a sample of their live show from earlier this year - hope he has a good time.

magic hat

Our favourite Seattle radio show The World is a Drag "Tune in weekly Saturday mornings from 9-11 at rainydawg.org" sent this out image with a bulletin the other day - it's hilarious and I felt I had to share it with you lot...

Death of Odetta at 77

Someone who was synonimous with the beat generation and one who did the definitive version of the House of the Rising Sun has died. Watch her in 2005 performing it.

Rip Rig and Panic 'Go Go Go'

A sort of Bristol band - a spin off from the Pop Group they were sort of annoying and brilliant in equal parts. This features Neneh Cherry who became a big star in the late 80s. See what you think.

Ike and Tina 'Bold Soul Sister'

Lovely performance from 1970 - funny as the styles of the women are similar to what you sometimes see these days - or am I wrong? Watch them do Land of a Thousand Dances in 1969 here

'Cadillac under my Christmas tree'

Frome's own music factory The Bad Detectives have a Christmas track on the free album 'Black Christmas' available to download for free from Bizarre Mag. Also features Billy Childish and the Flaming Lips and many other people who are pretty famous and Jonathan King. Should get you in the festive spirit.

Recent Bid interview on the Monochrome Set

Interesting stuff indeed covering the history of this influential band from the B-Sides to Scarlet's Well. If this doesn't fill you up there is another interview with Bid and Lester Square on the eve of their 30th anniversary gig here

Warning to punk over medals

Every now and then I type in 'punk' to google news - you get some interesting stories like an interview with Poly Styrene, but this story is worth blogging. Apparently this student was on University Challenge wearing medals he wasn't entitled to and was warned by the police. Wow. Good to see they have so much time on their hands.

Toxic Sonic 'I Can't Stand Christmas'

Toxic Sonic are I think a Pravda side project - which means they're French and great songwriters - this ditty is great and pretty much says it all...

TOXIC SONIC -CAN'T STAND XMAS

Great Northern War reenactors

Am I good to you lot or what? Here's a recent film of Russian GNW reenactors at Keksgolm (Karela) - looks great - wish I could be there but it's probably too cold for my constitution. Look out for a familiar face (if your name is Red)! See them in the snow at Narva on my other blog
More here

Booker White Aberdeen Mississippi Blues

I may have blogged this before but what the hell - it's worth watching again. When the musical history of the 20th century is written with a few centuries' hindsight I think one of the most important things will be how sounds made by the poorest and most oppressed of the western world's people changed the character of music forever. There's something incredibly wrong about how people like the Rolling Stones have lived lives of luxury from careers based on outright plagiarism whereas the people who originated that music spent time in prison and lived lives of crushing poverty. Lyrics to Aberdeen Mississippi here

Call of Duty World at War review

This new WW2 FPS looks great - the pacific and the eastern front - plus a Nazi Zombie level...we're there dude..

Jolson Sings Again 'Back in Your Own Backyard'

The two Jolson biopics were huge hits and should have made its star Larry Parks a household name but he was blacklisted for once being a communist - read the wiki on him here. Tribute site here

Al Jolson 'Toot toot tootsie Goodbye'

My Dad's got this on a wax 78 rpm (the flip is 'Back in Your Old Backyard' if I remember correctly) and as a kid I used to play it to death and tried to copy the whistling solo and I can still sing it by heart - it's a brilliant song if you don't know Jolson give it a whirl. I suppose (adopting an old-timer's voice) there must be hundreds of teenagers around today who haven't seen 'The Jolson Story' biopic or its sequel 'Jolson Sings Again' and so I must do what I can to redress that balance. I suppose a lot of the mastery is in the songs themselves - 'Watch for the mail, I'll never fail - If you don't get a letter then you know I'm in jail' . They don't write them like that anymore...

The Devil's Whore

Last night was the first episode in Channel 4's flagship English Civil War series the Devil's Whore...so was it any good... did it work for me? Well the costumes were good, the wigs ok though Charles I's stick on beard was laughable, in general the look was good but as to the rest of it I thought it was a joke, a pathetic waste of resources and talent. The battle scenes - shot in South Africa were like 17 a side - and the digital work abysmal. Ok I sympathise with their obvious desire to not to use the Sealed Knot as extras but the end result was, sorry to say...crap. It looked like they watched the film 'Cromwell' for research, and from the clip of next week's episode it is only going to get worse. Only watch it if you have a warped sense of humour or hate history.