I Have A New Daddy, His Name Is Mohandas
2002-01-21 20:32:17
Miss Conduct reviews Rube Waddell -- show and CD.
Rube Waddell was the closing act at Laughing Squid 6.0 last Friday night. Not R ube Waddell the National Hall of Famer (and sexy man). Rube Waddell the band. They rocked me so hard, I had to suppress the urge to go hunt road kill. So I bought their CD, Rube Waddell brand Stink Bait, 1998, Vaccination Records. I am in love with this band.
Rube Waddell's circussy brand of blues involves guitars, kazoos, harmonicas, penny whistles, wash boards, drums, duct tape, safety pins, a banjo and a sousaphone. I like to believe I hear an accordion too. I am in love with this CD. Maybe it's the tin can packaging. Or the sticker of a red cauldron filled with green tentacled slop atop a black t-shirt flanked by hungry-eyed Catfish. Could it be the message, "Rube's formula guaranteed to satisfy long lasting firm and smelly!"? Nope. It must be the 21 most ass whoopin', porch stompin', spoon tappin' tracks ever recorded on 8-track in someone's bedroom. The complimentary quadra-fold booklet reveals that our dear friends at Polymorph Studio in Oaktownbootyville mastered this fine mess. So there's that too.
The cover illustration reads - Rube Waddell brand Stink Bait net wt 73.38 min. I won't tell you about all 21 tracks. Git your own damn CD! But, a brilliant highlight is the gritty chain gang version of the dirge Oh Death. It's more like a jungle chant. A hearty serving of gospel blues is dished up with John The Revelator. The haunting and surreal Whistling Dead is haunting, yet surreal. Drunken Street Ho sounding Peggy Bernier Watson performs a Little Rascal-esque prelude entitled I'll Eat A Worm. Roy Smeck is a kooky Hawaiian tribute to the Ukelele Hall of Famer comprising the lyrics "maka miki moka miki ma." Johnny Cash's Mean Eyed Cat is down, dirty and seasoned with grit. Salt of the Earth and San Pablo Rap rock the house. Mohandas=sublime. My all time favorite track, Eunice Irene, has a sprinkle of Kurt Weill: "Eunice Irene O'Dougal McGill lived in self imposed squalor on top of the hill."
Remember, it's recorded on 8-track folks. No high-faluting laser technology here. It's dirty, gritty, nasty and raw. Raw, like after you run your palm across sand paper for a spell. Raw, like you been chopping wood all afternoon. Close your eyes and smell the Possum Stew, hear the frogs mating, taste Pappy's moonshine, see the lightnen' bugs glowing in the yard while listening for your Bottom Feeder bell. Once more with feeling - God Bless America.
T O P S T O R I E S
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
Ideas have taken horrifying shape and rooted into our modern reality. (More...)
The Once & Future King of Dust
Only The Onion could have acquired Infowarts. (More...)
Another Nobel Prize-Winning Author Describes Drunkenness
This book won a Pulitzer Prize. Here's its famous paragraph on getting drunk... (More...)
Why I'm pretty sure JD Vance had sex with a couch
True or false? The answers await us in that magical land where all truths are revealed -- the internet. (More...)
In 2010 Dr. Cheng-Huai Ruan discovered a way to cause a patient with an abnormal heartbeat to get back into a normal rhythm by sticking a finger up the patient's ass. (More...)
WKRP in Cincinnati aired from 1978 through 1982. Howard Hesseman played Dr. Johnny Fever, a DJ from Los Angeles who was fired from his previous job for saying the word "booger" on the air. In the show Hesseman would do some dialogue, introduce a song, and start the song. You'd hear a few notes, but never the whole song. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
Our team of crack journalists went insane, and made the drive from Concord, California to Concord, New Hasmpshire on Interstate 80. Read the insightful observations of our intrepid travelers made on their journey into the heartland. (More...)
Clowns Take on God in Mysterious Annual Ceremony
Last Sunday's (the 6th) Grimaldi Service at a small church in East London was a red-letter day for clowns worldwide. About a hundred old-school red-nosed clowns made the sombre trip to darkest Dalston to pay their respects to clowns who died in the last year and to thank God for the gift of laughter in a bizarre ceremony presided over by the eccentric Reverend Clown Roly, resplendent in a garish red lumberjack shirt with oversized gold lapels. (More...)
A Day in the Life of a Beverotologist
It was starting to look like a very boring Saturday, trapped as I was in the suburban wastelands of the outer Bay Area, so I called my Able Assistant (AA) and proposed that we perform some Spocktail field tests. For some time I've been working on creating the quintessential cinematic beverage and even tho' SMRL does most of its testing during nocturnal hours, this seemed an opportune time to roll up the sleeves of our labcoats and get some science done. While the beverotology creation tested this day (The Neurotoxin) must be deemed a success, this article focuses more the journey of the experimenters, rather then the science of beverotology. (More...)
It was early in May last year when I first heard about Spock Mountain Research Labs. I was working on a story about a Hungarian scientist's new approach to nucleopeptide synthesis when I got a call from my friend Albert. (More...)
Songs Of Love And Special Things
Well, dear reader, there's no denying it: Spring has sprung. The air is pungent with the fertile aroma of Romance. And you know what goes with Romance, don't you? That's right, Lover, porn. And not just any porn, but the kind you can sing along to. (More...)
For all you Sensitive New Age Guys (SNAG) out there who complain about not getting laid, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: Women only like to have sex with jerks. (More...)