I'm in the market for a new MP3 player -- my second-gen iPod Nano is finally dead, and I don't want to buy another iPod, or any other player with DRM built in. I figure that any company that wants to devote its engineers to figuring out how to frustrate my desires doesn't really want my business.

Who'd got a suggestion? I'm looking for something:

• * small (Nano-sized or smaller),

• * low-capacity (8GB is fine, all I use it for is podcasts),

• * chargeable and connectable with a standard USB cable,

• * reasonably rugged,

• * with an LCD,

• * capable of marking some files as podcasts or audiobooks and remembering where you stopped playing them, and,

• * most importantly, I'm looking for something that can be connected to a set of lanyard headphones like these

I don't care if it has WiFi or Bluetooth, or if it plays games, or if it has a "store" on the net that lets me get music for it directly. I just want a chunk of solid-state storage with a headphone jack and a decent menuing system and headphones I can wear around my neck so that they don't get tangled in things.

Suggestions? Feed the comments, below (don't send email, I'm taking a break from it for the weekend).

Next year, the UK's Royal Mail will sell 1st class stamps that feature images of 10 famous British album covers. The postal service collaborated with music mag editors and design writers to come up with the list — interestingly, no Beatles albums were chosen, but artists represented include Led Zeppelin, The Clash, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, David Bowie, and The Rolling Stones.

I wish the USPS would do something like this instead of boring us with stamps decorated with bells and reindeers.

Studio Dempsey via Creative Review

(Watch video: YouTube, Dotsub, or download MP4.)

A quick little goodie from Boing Boing Video. Last night, I sat in on a live recording session at Santa Monica's Village Studios with the Carolina Chocolate Drops, described as "African-American string band revivalists." They were amazing: I have never been so emotionally moved by someone playing a musical jug (and banjos, fiddles, cow bones, and kazoos). Their performance was witnessed by a handful of music biz folks and oldtime music enthusiasts, and made me feel deeply homesick for Appalachia (I'm also craving cornbread and butterbeans today - there's a song for that).

The Chocolate Drops have a new record coming out in 2010, and Boing Boing will be all over it like gravy on grits. If you dig R. Crumb, Smithsonian Folkways recordings of pre-blues and pre-bluegrass banjo music, and love folks who bring new life to authentic American music, you will flip out.

So, the video above: after the Drops' performance and recording session ended, Dom Flemons (of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, seated in center in the video), Blind Boy Paxton (seated at left in the video), and Frank Fairfield (seated far right) sat down together and jammed pure, sweet magic for a spell. I wasn't prepared with a proper camera or crew, but I grabbed my iPhonetraption out of my pocket and got to shootin'. I hope you enjoy it as much as everyone in the room did. Pure magic, these guys.

Michael Simmons of Fretboard Journal says: "Here's an interesting video from olden times [1964] featuring a song called 'Teenage Fallout Queen.' And there's this site devoted to Cold War pop music."

(I love the lettering in the title at the beginning!)

The Wu-Note Project, by Logan Walters. Photoshop rules everything around me. (thanks, PJ)

Boyhowdy sez, "The folk covers of Straight to Hell I compiled last year were so well-received by your readers, I thought you might also be interested in this week's entry, which compiles folk and acoustic covers of more songs from Punk's first and second waves. From banjo-tinged Stooges covers to countrified Blondie, singer-songwriter Bad Brains covers to smooth and ghostly Clash transformations, there's likely something here for everyone. Especially fun for uke-fans: a cover of Ramones classic I Wanna Be Sedated from Allo, Darlin'."

Don't miss the bluegrass "Lust for Life" and the king-hell sweet Japanese acoustic "Lost in the Supermarket."

All Folked Up: The Punk Rock Collection, Vol. 1 (folk covers of seminal first and second wave punk music)

I remember reading a book years ago that mentioned a CIA plan in the early 1960s to sprinkle thallium salts into Castro's boots, which "would cause his beard, eyebrows, and pubic hair to fall out... like a follicle deprived Samson."

Today, I listened to this catchy Tin Pan Alley song called "If Butch the Rough Barber Man Shaves Castro." Why did people in the 1960s think Castro's hair was so magical?

"If Butch the Rough Barber Man Shaves Castro" Thanks to WFMU's Bob Purse for finding this 45 and converting it to an MP3!

WATCH: MP4 Download, YouTube, or Dotsub.

Boing Boing Video proudly presents "Man in the Sand," from Gordon Gano and the Ryans' new record "Under the Sun." Video directed by famed illustrator, photographer, and filmmaker Matt Mahurin. Read Cory's review of the album: Gordon "Violent Femmes" Gano's solo album "Under the Sun" is out!

A new British independent poll conducted by Ipsos Mori concluded that the people who do the most illegal downloading also buy the most music. This is in line with many other studies elsewhere and is easy to understand: people who are music superfans do more of everything to do with music: they see more live shows, listen to more radio, buy more CDs, buy more botlegs of live shows, buy more t-shirts, talk about music more, do more downloading -- all of it.

And of course, these are the people the music industry's supergeniuses have set their sights upon for bizarre enforcement regimes like the one that British Business Secretary Peter Mandelson has promised: anyone who lives in a house that generates three or more copyright infringement notices will be barred from Internet access.

"The latest approach from the Government will not help prop up an ailing music industry. Politicians and music companies need to recognise that the nature of music consumption has changed, and consumers are demanding lower prices and easier access," said Peter Bradwell, from the think-tank Demos, which commissioned the new poll conducted by Ipsos Mori.

However, music industry figures insist the figures offer a skewed picture. The poll suggested the Government's plan to disconnect illegal downloaders if they ignore official warning letters could deter people from internet piracy, with 61 per cent of illegal downloaders surveyed admitting they would be put off downloading music illegally by the threat of having their internet service cut off for a month.

"The people who file-share are the ones who are interested in music," said Mark Mulligan of Forrester Research. "They use file-sharing as a discovery mechanism. We have a generation of young people who don't have any concept of music as a paid-for commodity," he continued. "You need to have it at a price point you won't notice."

Illegal downloaders 'spend the most on music', says poll (Thanks, Libbi!)

Zoran sez, "The night before Halloween is known as Mischief Night because it is a time for young people to act out and do things that may get them in trouble with neighbors, with the law, and with satan. One of those pranks is downloading music illegally, usually in search of a fitting soundtrack for All Hallows' eve, one that will frighten the trick or treaters. Well this year, we can all focus on bigger and better things, thanks to a set of demonic artists who believe that it is in their interest to give away some of their sonic concoctions for free, because it will help them to cast their spell on a wider audience."

Creative Commons Halloween Mix (Thanks, Zoran!)

Enjoy Вивальди "времена года" Лето-3часть, the Russian boy accordion genius. It's all in the head shake. Once you get that down, the rest is easy.

A number of news sites and blogs erroneously (or hoaxily?) reported the death of Chuck Biscuits (Wikipedia), who has performed over the years for bands including Black Flag, Circle Jerks, DOA, and Danzig. The reports were all wrong. He will live to bang on de drum again. Apparently the whole thing was a prank on a particular journalist. Or not. All I know is the photo in this post was taken by Glen E. Friedman, who broke the news about the fact that everyone who broke the other news was wrong. Oh, and: this blog post is an elaborate excuse to post the Danzig "home video" above, in which Mr. Biscuits confesses his love for sugary breakfast cereals. His addiction to the likes of Quisp and Boo Berry ("the caviar of breakfast cereals") is the stuff of punk legend. (thanks, Sean)

Toronto-based folk singer Taylor Mitchell died after coyotes pounced on her during a solo hike in Cape Breton national park on Monday. She was hospitalized with injuries from multiple bites, and died in critical care yesterday. Ms. Mitchell was 19 years old. More: LAT, BBC. Artist pages: Facebook, and MySpace.

Michael sez, "Library 101 is a song, a video (with pics of over 400 library staff who submitted them to be in the video), 23 essays from some of the most respected minds in 'Libraryland' and resource list of 101 hyperlinked things we think libraries need to know to succeed as technology changes so many things for us and society. The project even has over 1,900 fans on the Facebook page, almost all of them library staff (from over a dozen countries!)."

Library 101 (Thanks, Michael!)

Worst and weirdest Beatles cover ever. A choir of ventriloquistic monstrosity, from Hungary. Nabbed from Robert Popper's newfangled webble-site.

John from CC-friendly record label Vosotros sez, "Learning Music is a band from Los Angeles - they release an album of CC music every month through a subscription series called Learning Music Monthly. That's a lot of music to keep up with, so we decided to put together a free anthology of songs from the last six albums. Download it for free and see what you've been missing!"

CASH Music: Learning Music (Thanks, John!)

If only the video and audio quality in this clip were better! Iggy Pop at the first peak of his greatness (I think he's still pretty great), talking about how the technology and industrial ambience of his hometown Detroit influenced the "raw power" that became his trademark sound.

He reveals to Dinah Shore that his mom worked at a military technology company that made bombs and missiles, and his dad ("Mister Pop") taught media communications at a local high school. At the time, brothers Tony and Hunt Sales, sons of the recently departed comedian Soupy Sales, were playing in the Stooges in Iggy's band. Iggy Pop on the Dinah Shore show.

The clip stops right as Iggy gets ready to launch into a performance, but I believe this is the stupendous performance that followed, with some guy named David Bowie on the keyboards! Looks like this was another performance from the same show.

[YouTube, thanks @EuclidAlone, via @bbsuggest]

Previously: Alice Cooper on the Soupy Sales show, 1979.

Banjoleles are the coolest kind of ukulele, as evidenced in this magnificent video by Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer.

"Other rappers can't stand me, but give me respect. They do give respect really. I mean they do act tough, but generally speaking, they're awfully nice chaps."

(Thanks, Casey!)

Eclecticmethod turns YouTube baby videos into fun music.

There are times I envy those who have to get dressed and go work with other people. Like, for instance, when I watch this awesome karaoke video. I haven't worked in a real office since 2006, so I'm left to conclude that you all totally have this much fun every day. Right?

P.S., the best part of this video is the woman who refuses to join in. Clearly, a fun-hater who hates fun. At the same time, I feel really sorry for her and would love to hear how she described this event to friends and family at the end of the day.

The Underwater Land project recently supplied me with an MP3 download of their CD, "Underwater Land," created by the late, great and sorely missed Shel Silverstein. This was the pitch:

I'm writing you on behalf of the Shel Silverstein estate's Underwater Land project. Underwater Land is a kid's music project created by Shel Silverstein. This project was Shel's final major music project and also his final children's recording. Shel wrote Underwater Land, produced it, travelled to Nashville in 1997 to handpick the best musicians and studios there, and sings on several tracks with the primary singer and old friend Pat Dailey. Kim Llewellyn, Shel's longtime graphic designer, designed the lovely 32-page liner notes which features many previously unpublished Silverstein illustrations and all the song lyrics and verse.

And here's my take: this is some seriously awesome kids' music, full of Silverstein's flawless, legendary rhyme, his wicked humor, and some damned fine music and playing beneath it. It's fast, witty, and full of jokes that work on levels that can be appreciated by pre-verbal toddlers -- the broad, comic recitations of songs like "Fish Guts," a kind of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" for the fish-kingdom -- by kids, and by adults, who will appreciate the snatches of extremely grown-up jokes woven into the whimsy.

Some of my favorites: "Dale and Shale," a rapped advertisement for a notional store selling naught but tales (think of Tom Waits's "Pasties and a G-String" except about fish, not strippers); "Captain Octopus" (a rollicking sea chanty recounting the eight things a sailing octopus can do at once); and "Poor Anna," the sob-story of Anna, a flounder from Havana whose love affair is pull of superb and terrible fish puns (every now and again Silverstein and Dailey break each other up on this track, and I defy you not to do the same).

If you're a Silverstein fan, a fish fan, a kid, a grownup with a kid, or have an intact sense of humor, you will enjoy the heck out of "Underwater Land."

Underwater Land (Thanks, Kenyon!)

Gary says "Check out the new EP of Halloween themed uke-abilly music from Mad Tea Party! (And check out Ami's new uke-playing skeleton tattoo...)"

Zombie Boogie and other songs by Mad Tea Party

I Love xkcd from NoamR on Vimeo.

Noam sez, "There are so many things to love in this world, so just to point a few of them I've animated the xkcd comic xkcd Loves the Discovery Channel. Singing by the amazing Olga Nunes."

I Love xkcd (Thanks, Noam!)

In an interview with True/Slant, the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA admits to being a geek; in fact, he claims that geekyness played an integral part of hip-hop history. This video is part of an interview about his new autobiographical, philosophical book, The Tao of Wu.

RZA: 'Me Being a Geek Helped Hip-Hop Grow' (via Jason Tanz' Twitter)

Vic Mizzy, the composer best known for writing The Addams Family theme song, died of heart failure on Saturday at the age of 93. Mizzy was a prolific musician who worked for eight decades writing music for radio, TV, and Broadway.

To pay homage to the man whose music we have all enjoyed, here's the opening sequence of the original Addams Family TV show circa 1964. Note that he is also the one singing.

Vic Mizzy, who wrote the theme for "Addams Family", dies at 93

Above: A recently-discovered alternative version of the song "I Will" from The Beatles' White Album (1968), originally deemed too controversial to be included on the release. This rare track was remastered by audio engineer Peter Serafinowicz.

Paul McCartney 'I'll Kill'

A lovely new video for Modest Mouse, by Bent Image Lab's Nando Costa. The video incorporates stop motion, visual effects, and motion graphics techniques, and tells the tale of an artist who enters his personal sanctuary and is "presented with a hand-crafted drawing tool that assists him in materializing his mental impressions."

Through drawing circular patterns, the machine discharges an endless web of yarn that guides him through his visual representations of his memories. The story progresses to reveal that he is divided between two worlds, one of dull reality and the second of warped memories. In the process of finding a way out of his consciousness, he is trapped between the two competing spaces, which eventually inflict lethal damage, acting as metaphors to self-destruction.

Super neat. More about the making of the video here. Stills from production here and here. "The Whale Song" appears on Modest Mouse's new EP No One's First, And You're Next." (Amazon)

Swedish designers get commuters off the escalator by making the stairs more fun. It's awesome. And, yet, part of me wonders how creepy this would be if you were descending into the subway alone late at night. Plink...plink....plink...

David Wahl, a blogger for Archie McPhee's Monkey Goggles blog, wrote a funny story about the time he was working at a toy store in Seattle and assisted Mick Jagger when he came in to shop.

The female owner of the store approached him and I thought her head was going to split in half from the size of her smile. "Mr. Jagger," she said, "I just have to tell you how much your music means to me. I lost my virginity to one of your songs in the back of a 1965 Chevy convertible. 'Jumping Jack Flash!'"

"That's very sweet of you," he muttered, indicating with a slight flare of his right nostril that the conversation was over and that she should leave him alone. But, to her it was as if he had swooped her off her feet, carried her out side and made love to her. That simple sentence flushed her cheeks and made her eyes roll back in ecstasy.

Then he began to shop. At first, I didn't understand his method of shopping. As he entered each new room of the store, he would begin taking things off the shelf and stacking them in the middle of the room. As he left, I would start putting them back, cursing at him under my breath for making a mess. Then, it dawned on me I was supposed to be carrying these items to the register for him.

The photo above is from The Rolling Stone's underrated Their Satanic Majesties Request from 1967 (Read Richard Metzger's essay about the album at Dangerous Minds). Doesn't it look like the lads bought their costumes from a toy store?

Mick Jagger's Adventures in Toyland

Connie Choe is a health and culture writer by day and a professional kimchimonger by night.

The Fender Music Foundation is seeking a rockstar-worthy t-shirt design. The winning artist gets $300 cash money and a Squier by Fender Deluxe Hot Rails Strat Electric Guitar (whew!) with a decal of their winning design on it. Submissions are due by October 30^th. Last I checked they had fewer than 15 entries, so even if your art skills are a little rusty, you're still roughly eleventybillion times more likely to win this than the lottery.

Goodjoe Design for a Greater Good Presents The Fender Music Foundation

Image courtesy of tskdesign via Flickr / CC 2.0

When a rep for Yoko Ono pinged me last week about a new crowdsourced remix project the legendary artist was launching, my first question was, "Will the resulting fan-remixes be made available under a Creative Commons license? And if not, would you consider talking to the CC folks to learn more about why that's a good idea?"

Well, I am very excited to share that after some good conversations between Ms. Ono's camp and the Creative Commons folks (specifically Creative Director Eric Steuer), the answer is YES.

This is so awesome! Brava to Ms. Ono for introducing her work into the realm of "open culture," this is a brave and significant step. It makes me very happy to see this kind of dialogue and risk-taking happen with artists whose legacies and cultural influence are as broad as hers. I also think the remix project in question sounds like a lot of fun, and I encourage you to go check it out -- and participate! Here's the announcement from her team:

Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - The Sun Is Down (remix) competition.

We're very pleased to announce that thanks to the helpful advice of Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing and Eric Steuer at Creative Commons, the audio elements for Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - The Sun Is Down (remix) are now being released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License. We firmly believe that releasing the elements under a CC license embodies the true spirit of the competition.

In light of this, we have extended the competition deadline to 12 December 2009 to allow time for those who may now wish to contribute under the revised terms. In addition, artists interested in permissions beyond the scope of the CC license can email us at remix@yopob.com.

Long live the remix. Here's a post about this cool news on the Creative Commons blog.

Doobie sez, "After many years of boingboing.net introducing me to the most bizarre, space-age, and intriguing information I could ever hope to find, I have decided to reciprocate the favour and make a song in ode to you."

Boingboing
With you its like flippin a coin
Atari fidelity, ancient archaeology
That's what you teach to me

Boing boing
Brain food for girls and boys
Steampunk technology, Klingon Philosophy,
Nutrition-a-plenty

Nice face fur, Doobie!

BoingBoing Song (Thanks, Doobie!)

Access Copyright, the Canadian organisation that collects library royalties for writers, filed a jaw-droppingly dumb set of comments in the Canadian Copyright consultation. Access Copyright came out as opposing the right to record TV shows at home, and the right to "format shift" your media (e.g., load a CD on your MP3 player, or put an old ebook on a new reader or phone). They also say that almost all commercial use, no matter how trivial, should require a license and not fall under fair dealing. They come out against the interlibrary loan system, because it is digital.

Man, if these yahoos set out to destroy the public's faith in copyright, they could not do a better job than they're doing now. Yeesh.

The so-called format and time shifting exceptions, also known as personal use exceptions, were apparently included in Bill C-61 to address a practice that has become common among the public. Access Copyright submits that good public policy should not be dictated by legalizing common public practices.

It is worth mentioning here that Article 5(2)(b) of the EU Directive 2001/29/EC allows member states to introduce exceptions and limitations to the reproduction right for private use (which includes format and time shifting) "on the condition that rightsholders receive fair compensation". The requirement for fair compensation is to ensure that the private use exception complies with the three-step test.

Access Copyright believes that copyright owners should be given the opportunity to address these "common practices" through market-based solutions. We caution against the assumption that uses made by individuals for their personal use are inconsequential on the existing or potential market for a work. Format shifting for example is relatively new to printed works. Copyright owners should be given time to develop and test new services and business models for the delivery of content in the digital environment. The introduction of a format shifting exception for books could undermine the development of emerging business models. At the very least, the government should ensure that any restriction of the copyright owner's reproduction right be accompanied by fair compensation.

Access Copyright: Reduce Fair Dealing, No Taping TV Shows or Format Shifting

Doron sez, "Folk musician Steven Arntson wanted to write a song that riffed on a Woody Guthrie's 'I Ain't Got No Home'. Guthrie's song was based on the Carter Family's 'This World Is Not My Home' which was in turn based on an old spirtual... Unfortunately Arnston is finding out that current copyright law does not allow for the creative give and take that was once a vital and basic part of music composition."

Sixty-eight years later, in 2008, I heard "Can't Feel and Home" and "I Ain't Got No Home," and felt the latter lyric connected well with some lyrics I was writing for what would become The Emerald Arms suite. I decided to arrange "I Ain't Got No Home" as the second movement. After creating the recording and sheet music of the entire work, I set out to discover whose permission I should ask before giving the suite away online as free recordings and a score.

Because the melody dates back to 1909, it's in the public domain (the current cutoff for which is 1923). Guthrie's lyric, on the other hand, is not. Two companies own different rights to it. The Richmond Organization (TRO) owns the rights to reproducing the song's sheet music and the Harry Fox Agency (HFA) owns the rights to reproducing sound recordings of the piece.

I approached TRO first, sending them the score I'd written for concertina and voice, which contains many annotations specific to my purpose as well as modifications to the tune's melody and chords. A few weeks later I received a letter from TRO. "We are enclosing our music copy of I AIN'T GOT NO HOME," they wrote, "and request that you use the "words and music" from the enclosed copy in your book." The following page contained a photocopy of the melody line of Woody's lyric from what looked like a children's book, accompanied by a cartoon of a guy's butt protruding from the front door of a house.

The Absent Second: An Explanation

(Image: Woody Guthrie, half-length portrait, seated, facing front, playing a guitar that has a sticker attached reading: This Machine Kills Fascists, Wikimedia Commons/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

I was thumbing through the Summer 2006 issue of The FretBoard Journal (Number 2), a gorgeous magazine for stringed instrument players, collectors, and builders, and came across this short piece about "tone balls." These are the "nebulous balls formed from the bits of lint, dust, hair and insect husks that fall into the soundholes of guitars and mandolins."

Steve Olson, who repairs guitars at Elderly Instruments in Michigan has been collecting tone balls for years and has "catalogued dozens of examples by make, model and year of the host instrument." He says his favorite tone balls are the "densely compressed, perfect spheres formed by rolling around under the cone of old National guitars (top left)."

The Fretboard Journal Number 2 is sold out at the publisher's website, but is available at Elderly Instruments' website for $9.95 (the same issue contains an article I wrote about a ukuele strumming robot used to break in newly-made ukuleles).

Open source banjo maven Patrick Costello writes,

We have been hosting folk musician retreats for the last couple of years here in Crisfield, Maryland. The idea is to bring musicians together in a funky old house on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay to jam and share ideas. From our very first event we have been able to draw musicians from all over the world and the mix ranges from rank beginners to seasoned professionals. When we started the project we were charging a registration fee to cover food and lodging, but as the event started to grow we realized that we had to rethink how we running things.

For our last retreat on September 17-20 2009 we decided to take a risk and make the event free - food, lodging and access to the event all at no charge. We simply passed the hat and asked folks to contribute what they could to keep the event going. (Canada Goose Records has released a soundscape of our April 2009 Retreat under a CC-license.) This probably won't surprise you, but we wound up bringing in enough to cover a good deal of the expenses for our next retreat on May 6-9 2010.

So we are going to continue running the Crisfield Folk Musicians Retreat as a pass-the-hat funded event. Four days of amazing music, fellowship, good food and amazing scenery for whatever you can afford to throw into the hat.

The Crisfield Folk Musicians Retreat 2010

(Attentive readers will remember that Patrick had been legally and painfully deaf for some time, and recently had corrective surgery via a BAHA implant; he adds, "My Baha implant is amazing. I can hear! For the past month I have been wandering around like a little kid listening to birds and crickets. Most of all I can hear my instruments again. It has been so wonderful being able to just kick back with my guitar and play without struggling to make out the sounds or having to hunch over and rest my teeth on the upper bout. My father caught the activation of the device on video. I have a hard time watching the bit where I hear my guitar for the first time in years. Technology is just grand!)

Stephen Worth of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive says:

Down on his luck, Ross Bagdasarian Sr. (aka "David Seville") bought a tape recorder capable of speeding up voices with his last $200. He quickly knocked out a Christmas demo titled "The Chipmunk Song" and took it to record executives Simon "Sy" Waronker, Theodore "Ted" Keep and Alvin "Al" Bennett at Liberty Records. The label was close to bankruptcy, but Bagdasarian convinced them that they might as well press Chipmunk singles with the leftover vinyl pucks and labels in their warehouse rather than just turn the unused stock over to the bank when the business went under. Production commenced and in just a few months leading up to Christmas of 1958, the record shot to the top of the charts, becoming one of the best selling singles of all time. Bagdasarian won two Grammy Awards, Liberty Records was saved from bankruptcy, and the Chipmunks became a household name with children all over the world.

The History of the Chipmunks

Mike sez, "For three weeks only, Amazon and Mojo Nixon are offering his entire catalog in MP3 format completely free, including his latest album, Whiskey Rebellion."

Now there's some good news! There's nothing I don't like about Mojo Nixon. This is the guy who produced the kiddypunk band Old Skull after all (I always suspected he was responsible for the rousing chorus of "I hate you Ronald Reagan!" at the end of their smash-hit "Homeless").

If you're not familiar with Mr Nixon's oeuvre, give a listen to Elvis is Everywhere, Wash No Dishes No More and This Land is Your Land. Especially Wash No Dishes No More.

Update: This only works if your IP address is in the USA.

One of the most outsized personalities on college radio in the '80s, Mojo Nixon won a fervent cult following with his motor-mouthed redneck persona and a gonzo brand of satire with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Nixon had a particular knack for celebrity-themed novelty hits ("Elvis Is Everywhere," "Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child," "Don Henley Must Die"), but he was prone to gleefully crass rants on a variety of social ills ("I Hate Banks," "Destroy All Lawyers," "I Ain't Gonna Piss In No Jar"), while celebrating lowbrow, blue-collar America in all its trashy, beer-soaked glory. All of it was performed in maximum overdrive on a bed of rockabilly, blues, and R&B, which earned Nixon some friends in the roots rock community but had enough punk attitude -- in its own bizarre way -- to make him a college radio staple during his heyday.

Mojo Nixon (Thanks, Mike!)

Next week, Palm Pictures launches a 25th-anniversary Blu-ray release of Stop Making Sense, considered by many to be one of the greatest concert films eve made. Back in 1983, Director Jonathan Demme teamed up with cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth and the Talking Heads to document three nights of shows at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. And what performances they were.

The new set includes lots of bonus material, I'm told. I don't have a device that plays Blu-ray discs at home, but this is the sort of thing that makes me wish I did. As you may already be able to guess from the sheer volume of fannish posts we do on BB about David Byrne, and about solo work from other former members -- 'round here we do love the band whose name is Talking Heads.

Here's an item at the LA Times, and here's a post at bluraywire about the disc set.

Stop Making Sense (Amazon) Trailer video (YouTube).

Animator/illustrator Giles Timms, whose short films we've featured on Boing Boing Video before, has just released a new video with a song by Ceri Frost.

The short version? "Enchanted by a pixie, a child called Yorick enters a magical kingdom, but when Yorick returns he finds his world ravaged by time." The video is set in a hand-drawn pen-and-ink world inspired by Edward Gorey, animated in a "paper cut-out" style.

Dead All Along (YouTube).

Jim Bumgardner has created a lovely sound project that brings to life the music of the spheres: "Wheel of Stars."

I downloaded public data from Hipparcos, a satellite launched by the European Space Agency in 1989 that accurately measured over a hundred thousand stars.

The data I downloaded contains position, parallax, magnitude, and color information, among other things.

Sean Bonner, upon whose blog I discovered this, says, "I highly recommend fullscreen and the use of headphones. Listening to this is hypnotic. I want it to play constantly in the background of my life."

I sure like Booker White's slapping technique!

Teen Brit ukulele sensation Rocky and Balls have a new song, called "Love Cake."

We love cakes. We love eating cakes and making cakes, so we wrote this song to sing whilst making said cakes.

Dave sez, "On a trip to Shanghai to install an artwork, my cohorts and I stumbled on an area along Beijing street that was heaven for hardware geeks like me. I've loved hardware stores all my life, but I've never seen anything quite like this. I shot way too much video, and even felt compelled to sing about it later. It was that good."

China is full of places like this -- Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai... It's the world's factory, and there's plenty of making stuff all over the place.

Hardware Heaven (Thanks, Dave!)

Funnyman Rich Fulcher (Twitter), whose work you may know from The Mighty Boosh (he plays "Eleanor," "Bob Fossil," and other characters), has a new book out this week. "Tiny Acts of Rebellion" contains a wide assortment of little recipes for how one might stick it to the proverbial man.

To prepare for the book's launch, Mr. Fulcher is "sticking it" to a number of cities, quite literally, in a series of internet videos which feature the comedian giving the finger to all that we love and hold dear.

First: Hollywood.

(A special nod to Boing Boing Video editor Eric Mittleman, who shot and directed this fine piece of work, and to background dancer Ruth Waytz, whose moves are described as "Fosse-esque.").

Rich Fulcher flips off LA (YouTube)

Where could he possibly be headed next? fuckoffbigben.com.

The Tiny Acts of Rebellion book: official website / buy it on Amazon.

The song you're hearing in this video is "Jean City" by UK band Trash Money (web, MySpace).

Stephen Worth says: "Here is a song called 'The Tantrum' from a 1967 movie titled, The Cool Ones. Just try not to enjoy it, I dare you!"

The Marseille Figs are fast becoming my favorite new artists of the decade, if not the century. The eclectic trio play a startling variety of instruments in an indescribable blend of styles, reminding me of peak Violent Femmes at times, Tom Waits at others, with some Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Cash Family for country cred.

Their new EP, Jumbo, is a superb addition to their canon. Jumbo's title track, a cross between Sergio Leone cowboy soundtrack and Godzilla monster music, has overtones of sinister circus music as well, a menacing, uptempo song about an elemental force that threatens the Earth.

The remaining five tracks keep the heat on: My Latest Mistake is a sweet C&W-inflected song with a stompin' clappin' back-beat about a complete screw up who fails at everything; Bad Bad Baby is more explicitly country, opening with "You done me wrong again and you done me wrong again," and hews to the heart-broke formula except when it doesn't, breaking into a roller-disco bridge that works in a way that is totally unexpected and altogether delightful; The Human Tragedy is another countrified screw-up's lament with accordion and hilarity; the standout on the album is the ballad The Long Goodbye, a drinker's anthem with a slow tinkling piano intro, transitioning into a swaying, horn-heavy drinking song.

My friend Stef, who introduced me to the Figs, calls them a "small big band," a trio whose prodigious musical talents and strange arrangements make them a genre unto themselves.

Jumbo is for sale on CD, digital download and 12" vinyl.

There's a launch party tomorrow night, too, at the Iambic Bar in London!

Marseille Figs: Jumbo

Bassam Tariq is a Boing Boing guestblogger who is the co-author of 30 Mosques. A blog celebrating the NYC mosques during the Islamic month of Ramadan. He lives in Harlem, NY.

For those who aren't familiar with The Books, check out my post from Friday where I shared some clips from their music.

I was lucky enough to have a quick phone chat with Nick Zammuto, one-half of The Books. The other half, Paul de Jong, was at the doctor's office at the time. Paul, as Nick puts it, is the "consummate collector" of the samples the band uses. In fact, all the archaic audio and video footage The Books have been collecting are archived and cataloged. "There's a lot of research that goes into what we do," Nick remarks as I try to quickly scribble his words down. At this point, my voice recorder died and my handy notepad dictated the rest of the conversation, albeit selectively.

The trippy video above featuring the song "Worm Mountain" by the Flaming Lips (feat. MGMT) was created by a DIY electro-gadget maker named darcyklyne. BB pal Tom Osborn (who works at the Lips' label, Warner Bros. Records, when he's not reading our blog) pointed us to the video and adds,

Here's a forum thread talking about how this person built the Tesla Coil. They ended up being a new fan that found out about The Flaming Lips from The Colbert Report and were somehow inspired to make the following video with their newly created Tesla Coil.

Fiddler, composer, singer, music teacher and lovely human being Amy Farris has passed away. I first learned of her work in the context of performances in various lineups with former members of the great punk band X, and their country offshoot band The Knitters: namely Exene Cervenka, and with Dave Alvin, with whom Ms. Farris played in the video clip embedded above (Dave Alvin & Guilty Women / "Abilene"). The Texas native died in Los Angeles on Wednesday of an apparent suicide. More at the LA Times.