Miscellaneous Heathen

Isaac Hayes is dead.

Ed's Furry Fucking Guide To Metal should NOT under any circumstances be missed. NSFW.

Years ago, I met FOAF Pascal in a beautiful and terrible bar in the Heathen Homeland. Then, years later, I discovered a fairly rockin' tool for web development, and it turned out to be written by the same dude. Neato.

Just now, needing a fresh copy of said tool for some web tweaks -- I'd lost mine somewhere, and don't do much web layout work anymore -- I discovered Pascal's new pursuit is an inventive collective-band type thing called Balthrop, Alabama that includes, among others, his sister as well (sometimes) former members of Rainer Maria. From an April notice in the New Yorker, of all things:

April 18: Balthrop, Alabama is an expansive local folk-rock collective led by the singer, songwriter, and guitarist Pascal Balthrop and his sister Lauren, a vocalist and keyboardist. They grew up singing gospel and pop tunes with their family in Mobile, Alabama, and now the pair and their band play paeans to the lovelorn and the droll. The group, whose name is meant to conjure a fictional town in the heart of Dixie (the band members go by aliases), released an impressive début double album, “Your Big Plans & Our Little Town.” Tonight the “townspeople,” including Kyle Fischer, formerly of Rainer Maria, on lap-steel guitar, turn out for a full-blown hootenanny. The group will be accompanied by the artist Michael Arthur, who will be drawing spontaneous ink-based interpretations of the songs. The drawings will be projected onto a screen behind the stage, in the tradition of a “chalk talk,” a lightning-fast drawing act from the days of vaudeville—practiced by such comic-strip luminaries as Winsor McKay (“Little Nemo in Slumberland”)—that was a precursor to animation. The singer Caithlin De Marrais, also formerly of Rainer Maria, opens.

Amusingly, the video (on their web site) for "God Loves My Country" is that same artist drawing as the song is sung, though it's sped up a bit, so I imagine it captures a bit of the April show's bizarre fun. Recommended.

Onion: Molly Hatchet's Nightmare Descent Into Booze, Sex, and Drugs Not All That Nightmarish, Guitarist Admits.

Radiohead with lasers. I mean, duh.

Guitarist Hiram Bullock died yesterday, most likely of throat cancer. He was 52.

You probably have no idea who he was, but it's just as likely (if not moreso) that you've heard his work. Bullock played widely on some pretty serious records throughout his career, including Steely Dan's "Gaucho," Sting's "Nothing Like The Sun" (that's him soloing during "Little Wing"), and Paul Simon's "One Trick Pony." Additionally, Bullock was the original guitarist for Letterman's -- really Schaeffer's -- band on Late Night back in 1982. Over his career, he also played with his share of giants -- Miles Davis, Al Jarreau, Pete Townshend, Gil Evans, Clapton, Al Green, and Jaco Pastorious are all on his resume.

Via MeFi. The Letterman link at MeFi -- one of many on YouTube -- is to a performance on Letterman of a track from his first solo record.

Realize that the baby on the cover of Nevermind is now seventeen years old. The MeFi headline kills; it posits that his favorite pickup line should be "Want to see my penis again?"

This may well be the finest music video in the history of the universe. Yes, that's Natalie Portman. (Via MeFi.)

Do NOT miss the subtitles.

Our pal Axe inspired me to go looking for this with his post about classical music in commercials of the 80s, and now I will impose it on you. When I was a kid, this damn commercial was on the TV all the fucking time:

Order now! Operators are standing by!

(BTW, don't miss the McDonald's spot at Axe's site.)

Feist has gone on Sesame Street doing -- what else? -- "1, 2, 3, 4:"

(Via Unfogged.)

Ladies and gentlemen: Los Straitjackets perform My Heart Will Go On:

Fleshbot has a copy of the David Byrne video; the video is borderline, but Fleshbot itself is definitely NSFW.

So, it's for a David Byrne song, right? And it's comprised entirely, at the first level of analysis anyway, with naked dancers. However, the real meat of the video is what they do with the black bars covering the dancers' naughty bits. Just watch. Really.

UPDATE: Well, shit, the video's gone. I'll see if I can find another copy.

Fellow Mississippian (b. McComb, 1928) Ellas Otha Bates died today. You knew him as Bo Diddley.

Clayton Cubit found this video, which you should watch, and ideally dance to, as a memorial.

At least we still have BB.

Tom's coming.

1. An opera about the Donner Party.

Prince covers Creep at Coachella. Video is shakey, audio is okay. Whoa.

BoingBoing points out that one record lable, Magnatune, is doing quite well selling DRM-free music, and that in fact its classical division is growing by leaps and bounds in a market where conventional classical sales are in the toilet. We've got a couple of their releases, and they're amazing. Check 'em out.