Pinball Wizardry Dept. - Brian Protheroe

Sleeve job by Dave at the Pork Bend Kinko's - ask to see the range of wedding invites and corporate logos!

 

If Mr. Protheroe had focused his huge talents a little back in '74, if he'd ditched the whimsy and insisted on a better sleeve, he might have broken in the Untied Snakes of Amerigo instead of remaining a bit of a cult in the UK. A cult with a boney-fido hit in the terrific title track, which ensured his continued semi-fame as a one hit wonder.

For this FoamEdit©, I've cut the whimsy, tweaked the running order and graciously donated a swell new cover, all of which costs him, and you, absolutely nothing. Zip. Nada. What do I get out of the deal? A tingling sensation in my hams, from bad posture.

Earworm melodies, chord changes to make the Dan Fan's mouth water, high quality vocals (including note-perfect harmonies), inneresding woids and soopoib production. You might call it jazz-inflected art-pop, if you knew what that meant, ya bum. Just make sure you download this sucker, because it's friggin' awesome.

 

https://thestrangebrew.co.uk/interviews/brian-protheroe/

 

This post funded in part by the Dorothy Kilgallen Memorial Cocaine Enthusiast's Society, Fifth Ave., NY, NY

Yuletide Special Dept. - Guess What Album [-Ed.] Is Listening To And WIN A Bag Of Gas Station Boner Pills, A VHS Copy Of Bumfights 3, A Yard Of Rebar With A Lump Of Bloody Concrete On The End, A Fortnight In A Yemen Ass Factory Wearing Women's Lingerie, A Fire-Damaged '72 Pinto Soup Kitchen, And A Pre-Chewed Target© Own Brand Tuna-n'-Cheese Melt Senior Meal!

Legacy Foam-O-Graph© - Somewhere Between Truth And Reality!

Yes, dear friends, it's th' Xmas Season again, again! To commemorate the birthday of historical zealot Jesus X, th' IoF© is offering you, th' Four Or Five Guy™, a chance to win A Bag Of Gas Station Boner Pills, A VHS Copy Of Bumfights 3, A Yard Of Rebar With A Lump Of Bloody Concrete On The End, A Fortnight In A Yemen Ass Factory Wearing Women's Lingerie, A Fire-Damaged '72 Pinto Soup Kitchen, And A Pre-Chewed Target© Own Brand Tuna-n'-Cheese Melt Senior Meal!

How to get yer griftin' mitts on this Yuletide Cornycopia of Christmassyness®? Simply study the above Foam-O-Graph© - yours to keep whatever you decide! - and descry what swell album [-Ed.] [above - Ed.] is lissenin' to thru his hairy ol' lugholes! Ain't he a cutie?!

Kreemé wishes you a warm one!

 

As a kind of participation trophy for those simply too obtuse to devine the solution, you'll find Secret Santa StealthLinks© to collectable collectibles embedded right here in this here text! They'll be added to from time to time so be sure to check back over the "holidays" to collect the set! Oboy! Somefunhuhfellows!

If you ever, over the days of hysterical excess to come, find yourself wondering what th' literal fuck is going on with this whole "Christmas" deal, drift on over to th' Isle O' Foam© for some precious moments of blessed relief! Be seeing you!

 

 

This post sponsored by the International Institute For Instituting Institutional Institutes, Indian Village, IN (IIIIIII).

Beatles Dept. - Beatles

Beatles Beatles Beatles? Beatles, Beatles.

Beatles? Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles! Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles, Beatles, Beatles! [Beatles - Beatles.] Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles; Beatles, Beatles, Beatles - Beatles! Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles? Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles. Beatles. 

Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles!

Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles, Beatles, Beatles! [Beatles - Beatles.] Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles; Beatles, Beatles, Beatles - Beatles! Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles? Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles. Beatles.  Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles! Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles.

Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles, Beatles, Beatles! [Beatles - Beatles.] Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles; Beatles, Beatles, Beatles - Beatles! Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles? Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles. Beatles. 

 

 

 

 

BEATLES! Beatles Beatles Beatles!

Beatles, Beatles Beatles, Beatles.

 

Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles. Beatles Beatles Beatles; Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles.

 

 

Beatles Beatles Beatles, Beatles Beatles Beatles©

It's Th' Rewster! Dept.

New cover by Dave @ Th' Copy Shop©!

Here's a super-swell bumper xmas package of toe-tapping tuneage to see you thru th' "holidays"! Oboy! Why not download multiple copies to give to your loved ones on the mostest special day o' th' year? Because they'd see you as th' cheap, griftin' tightwad which you is, that's why not. Get your fat ass over to Target and treat them to some dump-bin pool shoes instead.

Kimberley Rew might have been a Posh Boy, but he's also a damned Good Egg. A gent, a decent cove, and a genuine below-the-radar talent. He can write songs, dammit. Play geetar. Can't sing much, though, but that matters aught when you have a hurricane of a singer in the line-up, with an unpronounceable name that begins with Katrina - hurricane? Katrina? Too soon?

Kimbers started out, more or less, as a Soft Boy, hiding his light under Robyn's bushel, and their story is here (really, take a hinge if you haven't - it's a typically insightful piece shot through with my trademark wacky humor).

His first as-a-solo-artist release was the undernourished Bible Of Bop [left - Ed.] comp, crippled by a wretchedly lousy cover design and a dumb title. In case you're wondering, which you ain't, the bishop figure on the cover refers to the owner of the record label, whose name was Bishop. Hence bible. You're right, it makes no sense, and the artwork is shit on a skewer. So I retitled it How Do You Do?, shuffled the tracks for a smoother listening experience, gave it a spiffy new cover, and upgraded the whole thing to @193. You don't care and you damn well should, you ingrate, because it's preternaturally swell and clocks in at an IoF©-approved thirty minutes.

Th' Rewster's big break came after years of paying dues on the prestigious UK army base circuit. Read their story in the enclosed notes - you'll get a picture of a bunch of great people having a great grimy time and finally nailing the Big Hit.

The Waves' first waxing [left - Ed.], featured eight raw Rew originals, including original Walkin' On Sunshine and Goin' Down To Liverpool - Bangles heard it here first. Power-punk-jangle-pop overdose!

First album proper [left - Ed.] picked up by savvy Canuck label Attic, included HIT title song and nine other rockin' Rew originals.

Confused yet? That's okay. Second album [left, ffs - Ed.] on Attic released after Walkin' bcame a hit. from '84. 

First major label release, all their hits re-recorded with beefed-up, chart-friendly sound. One of the best pop albums of the year, and a contender for ever. After this, other band members started grabbing song royalties, weren't up to Rew's standard, band faded from charts but kept gigging.

Th' Rewd Boy hisself, yestiddy, still walking on sunshine. He should form a power trio with Lee Sklar and Silver Fox, you ax me!

 

Movies See Into Future! Shock Dept. - 'Her'

Him and her, chilling at the beach

I didn't much rate Spike Jonze's movie 'Her' back in 2013 (IMDB link). I can't remember why and don't have the time to watch it again to see if I was w-w-wrong. It's about (it says here) a lonely writer who develops an unlikely relationship with an operating system designed to meet his every need. Ring a bell? He carries his device around with him in his shirt pocket, having increasingly emotional conversations with his, er, operating system.

I am once again asking you to commit to the major step of clicking a link to an article I can't be bothered to paraphrase just because you can't be bothered to read it. Here's the link.

TLDR? Never mind. Basically, it's happening in what is known as "real life", only it's even worserer. Lonely individuals are "inseminating" their AI "girlfriends" and having AI "babies". It makes you wonder if the collapse of civilisation is a fair price for unlimited kitten pictures.

What's that buzzin' sound? It's the Hive Mind!

"You Just Don't Get It, Do You?" Dept. - The Monkees

@320

 

Lick My Vocals Off, Baby Dept.

 

Cover Art by A Dave @ Kinko

Decals hasn't, for me, gained as much over the decades as other Beefheart albums. It sounds a little - thin? It doesn't have the soaked-in atmosphere of the Trout House recordings, and I've always been uncertain about exactly how necessary Ed Marimba/Art Tripp III was. Aaaand, there's maybe four or five songs on the album I love, but a lot of fiddly noodling and honking that never quite gets authentically weird. A lot of clear-thinking folks think it's Beefheart's masterpiece, but what do they know?

But I do enjoy this version, which you might think is exactly the same material where the vocals have been wiped by an astringent household cleanser, but it ain't. It sounds altogether punchier, and there's detail - like the grunted count-ins - not on the original album. So somebody got the raw master takes before Don did his thing. It sounds better, dammit.

In the unlikely event that you have a grail version of the album, do the right thing for once in your wretched so-called life and upload it. 

 

This post funded in part by the Pork Bend Pumice Co.

The Band XTC Could Have Been Dept.

...

 

 

 

The Dukes Of Stratosphear had everything the adenoidal herberts from Swindon's Sausage City lacked - color, fun, and imagination. Also, great album sleeves. They delivered where XTC checked boxes [bullshit - Ed.]. But after two perfect albums, they decided to pack it all in and leave XTC to do the heavy lifting.

Sir John Johns (real name Wayne Phlegm) lead guitarist [left - Ed.], puts it this way: "we were enjoying being the Dukes too much. The first album sold better than any XTC album, and people loved it. It transcended pastiche to become the real thing, real psych-pop that stood alongside anything out of the sixties. So in a way it kind of negated all the pseudo-punk art-pop XTC were doggedly churning out for their miserablist fans. XTC had a stab at the genre with Oranges And Lemons, but it wasn't in the same league. So we burned our kaftans."

It was the world's loss.

Yeah, yeah ... XTC ... ZZZ, you ax me.

Artie Fishell's AI Fun! Dept.

 

Answer in comments - no fair peeking!

The Internet's Artie Fishell [below - Ed.] sez:

Yo! Wassup, bro?! Got a little quiz goin' for ya! Simply study above image of bucolic brotherhood [or sisterhood, or theirhood - Ed.] and in yer own words state in a comment if it's AI [write: YES - Ed.] or not [write: NO - Ed.].

Lucky winner will get their own exclusive dedicated downloadable deliverable!