Monthly Archives: March 2006

The Velvet Underground and Nico – Monophonic Rules

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I was first introduced to The Velvet Underground in high school by my pal, Dave Shea. In a now-completely-mystifying-but-incredibly-wonderful gesture, Dave actually gave me his copy of the the Velvet Underground and Nico LP. Dave…man…THANK YOU.

Mind you, now: we were living in freakin’ Indiana during the Goddess-foresaken 1980s. Stuff like The Velvet Underground was practically illegal there in those days. Hell, at that time even outside of Indiana The Velvet Underground were pretty obscure. To this day, I’ve no idea how in hell Dave managed to get a copy of such mana from heaven.

But there was something I did not fully grok until today, an extra-incredible facet to Dave’s insane beneficence — he gave me a monophonic copy of the LP.

See, today I bought the “deluxe edition” CD of that most influential of albums. It’s a 2-CD deal with the mono and stereo mixes. What I did not fully apprehend until now was that the stereo version was apparently the one most in the US have heard, and that the mono version is highly sought after.

The original mix was the mono one, done in the early summer of 1966 by the band themselves as assisted by the resident engineer atthe studio where they recorded the album (except for the later tack-on, “Sunday Morning”). As they and “producer” Andy Warhol jockied for a label, they and the album ultimately wound up in the hands of MGM and producer Tom Wilson, who had just made his career with Dylan’s electric debut and some actually-pretty-good work with Simon and Garfunkle. But yo: S&G sure as shit ain’t VU.

Wilson did the stereo mixes. And yes, Virginia, they really do suck ass. I can’t believe how awful they are. Toothless. Unbearable. Awful. Basically, they suffer the awful fate of so many early stereo records of the period — vocals hard-panned to one side, and most of the instruments and maybe some backing vox hard-panned to the other side. Basically, the drenching sonic wash of VU’s first album was mixed like the Beatles’ first two albums. A nightmare! Even The Beatles barely survived such a fate!

And mind you: I like stereo. I think the new 5.1 remix of Remain in Light kicks ass.
And so, America, you have my eternal pity that you poor bastards were all weaned on the godless horror that is the stereo mix of the first VU album. The fact that such an abomination has managed to have such influence is a tribute to the true underlying artistic power, and the fact you could all recognize that evidences some hope for our nation. Maybe.

But seriously: splurge the 30 bucks for the deluxe edition and hear the mono mix — and turn it up to 12 while you’re at it.

The Amazing Bruce Bickford and Monster Road – Run, Don’t Walk

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Great news! Bruce Bickford, one the most gifted and beautifully demented animators in the history of the universe, may finally get his due with the imminent DVD release of Monster Road (Bright Eye Pictures, 2004), the award winning documentary about him. You can watch a trailer for it here (embedded Quicktime, 3.3 mb), and apparently it will be playing on the Sundance Channel real soon now.

You can also listen to a September 2004 NPR interview with Bruce Bickford.

I confess, to my shame, that I missed the film when it did the festival circuit (I vaguely recall it played at SIFF…woe betide my hermitish nature!), which could explain my utter astonishment to learn that Bickford lives near Seattle. Had I known this, I would have tracked him down and camped out at a respectful distance and thrown any money I had at him, begging him to please, please please just pursue his wildest animation dreams. Hmmm…maybe it’s not too late?

Who is Bruce Bickford? Well…think Will Vinton on a heroic dose of peyote doing jigs with Schrödinger’s cat. (Who’s Will Vinton? sigh. Well, he’s best known for the California Raisons, but is far better represented by films like the justifiably Oscar-winning Closed Mondays [1974].)

Bruce Bickford is a self-taught clay animator (though he does line and paper cut-out animation as well). His first animation efforts were in 1964, but he first gained artistic focus in 1969 with what he describes as his “first attempt[s] at morphing and free form psychedelic movement.” This marked the beginning of a productive period that over the next five years resulted in 28 minutes (give or take) of animation that he’ll now own up to. During this period he worked mostly in clay, though he also dabbled in some animation with line drawings and hot wax on glass, the latter an experimental technique first used some 40 years earlier by Oskar Fischinger…but pretty much by no one else since.

Bickford is best known for work that appeared (extensively) in the Frank Zappa mostly-concert film, Baby Snakes (1979), and this is how I first came to know his brilliant work. Superlatives fail to describe the astonishing, jaw-droppingly visionary fever dream of metamorphic stream of consciousness of the animation. The feeling of raw awe only explodes upon witnessing footage of Bruce at work: the scale he was working in was absolutely miniscule, an utter paradox when compared to the scope and detail of the images unspooling before you. Zappa conducts his ensemble at the time in musical improvisations to accompany the animation, with the film periodically dissolving back and forth between the animation and the group performing in the studio.

The animation in Baby Snakes was the product of a then five-year-old relationship with Zappa, who had managed to convince Bickford to move to Los Angeles to work for him in 1974 (according to the official bio). At that time, he turned over to Zappa most of the films he produced in the early ’70s. The fate of those films is unclear to me — a question likely addressed in the Monster Road doc. No doubt they still reside somewhere in the vast Zappa archives. In any event, Zappa deserves enormous credit for fostering a brilliant but fringe talent (not unlike himself) — though I say that without knowing how Mr. Bickford himself might feel about that relationship (or the fate his early films).

In 1987, Bickford completed Prometheus Garden, a 27 minute film with a line animation intro. Circa April 2005, according to BruceBickford.com, there were “discussions with a couple people” toward releasing a DVD of Prometheus Garden and some additional newer work. The current status of that is not made clear.

In 1990, Zappa’s Honker Home Video imprint released the VHS tape, The Amazing Mr. Bickford — 60 glorious and almost overwhelming minutes devoted entirely to Bruce’s animation. Musical accompaniment included works by Zappa and company, as well as (appropriately) compositions by Pierre Boulez as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Oh hell yeah. It is AN UNFORGIVABLE CRIME that this has never been released on DVD. Seriously: sort it out, guys. Make it happen. Dweezil, Bruce — I’m beggin’ you. (As I write this, it occurs to me I may well be transposing some/most/all of my memories of the Bruce-working and Frank-conducting footage from The Amazing Mr. Bickford to Baby Snakes. Guess I better re-watch ‘em and figure it out — apologies if I’m in error.)

During the 1990s, Bickford managed to get some more material into circulation, primarily for MTV station IDs, a commercial or two, and a segment in a music video for a group called Carnival Arts. Hardly the sorts of things worthy for such a giant talent. Were he living and working in Europe, I suspect Bruce Bickford would be a revered household name, at least among film folk, instead of the mere “underground” (albeit still revered) figure he is here in the Da States.

In the meantime, keep an eagle eye out for the Monster Road DVD, which is currently slated to be back from the factory circa March 24. You may also want to subscribe to the official Bruce Bickford email list, which will only send announcements when Monster Road or other Bickford-related products are released.

All hail Bruce Bickford.

The Last Testament of Bill Hicks

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If you don’t know about comedian Bill Hicks, then get out of my face and skip to the download below…then run to your local record store and scoop up a big fat handful of CDs — any and all of them will do. Homey was a latter day Lenny Bruce, pure and simple. (Also very highly recommended — if you can find it (hint: Scarecrow) — is the Ninja Bachelor Party video. Warning: Do not drink milk while watching.)

As even the most poseur of Hicks cognoscenti know, on October 1, 1993, Hicks made his 12th appearance on Late Night with Dave Letterman. His set was so, well, Hicksian that for the first (and I believe last) time, a comic’s set was censored and never aired. Ultimately, the master tape was even destroyed (what did he do, fuck a pig??).

What no one knew was that Hicks had terminal cancer. He died four months later.

Following the censored Letterman appearance, Hicks did three gigs — his last and, by all accounts, his most Hicksian. Until now, it was believed none of these shows were recorded.

Well, turns out someone bootlegged the second show. It’s an audience room recording (albeit by an audio engineer), but it’s basically the Last Testament of Bill Hicks.

An MP3 of the entire set from October 5, 1993 can be downloaded here (updated link – MP3, 72mb). Get it right now before it vanishes.

Mad props to frequency23.org for making this available to the world.

Able Danger Operatives Sue DOD

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As reported by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on March 4, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and J.D. Smith, members of the top-secret Able Danger data mining operation, have filed suit against the Dept. of Defense, the Army, and the DIA for denying them access to their attorneys during testimony before Congress.

Shaffer is a Bronze Star recipient and was assigned to the DIA at the time. Following his public disclosure of Able Danger, which included efforts to inform the 9/11 Commission about the program, Shaffer’s security clearance was revoked, allegedlt for “personal and financial improprieties.” He maintains the revocation was in fact in retribution for his disclosures.

Smith is a former Indiana state trooper who was working for defense contractor Orion Scientific Systems when he joined Able Danger.

The suit also alleges that three years after Able Danger was shut down, “the DIA improperly destroyed Able Danger and other files that Shaffer had maintained in his DIA workspace.”
According to the Star-Tribune’s report, “The lawsuit also chronicles attempts by Shaffer and [Able Danger team leader Navy Capt. Scott] Phillpott to tell the Sept. 11 commission about their earlier findings, including an alleged meeting between Shaffer and the panel’s executive director, Philip Zelikow, in Bagram, Afghanistan, in October 2003. The commission’s final report in July 2004 didn’t mention Able Danger.”

The significance of Able Danger is that it had identified three of the 9/11 hijackers (including leader Mohammed Atta) as being part of an Al Qaida cell operating inside the US, contradicting the central finding of the Commission that US intelligence had zero foreknowledge about the plot or its members.
Following categorical denials from the Pentagon concerning Able Danger, Captain Phillpott confirmed its existence and Schaffer’s core claims about it. Phillpott is not a party to the law suit.

Battery One, Prepare to Fire Drunk Pig

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Courtesy of the WFMU Blog, I came across this baffling Python-esque page of stills depicting some Soviet soldiers getting a pig drunk and then shooting him out of a cannon. The pig was encased in some sort of special shell and evidently emerged more-or-less unharmed.

There is no information about the provenance of the stills (apparently from some Soviet documentary), why they were shooting it out of a cannon (I’m guessing as part of some early space program experiment), or why they got the poor creature drunk first (cheaper than pig sedatives?).

If anyone knows anything more about this sequence or the program that led to it, I’d love to hear about it.

Update:  Ha ha, joke’s on me! Turns out the stills are from Russian-made 2005 mockumentary film, Pervye na lune (First On the Moon). Tip of the hat to Danelope for the revelation. For more info, read the comments for this post.