Flying Saucer Mash Up King exhumed from grave to claim throne

Most modern music fans have become familiar with the concept of the mash up. A DJ or in most cases these days, some computer geek extracts familiar audio elements of a popular song and layers them on top of another.



Originally seen as an unsanctioned "illegal" manipulation, guys like John Oswald of Plunderphonics and Negativland seemingly pioneered the audio collage concept that was eventually perfected for dance floor use by usurpers to the throne like Mark Vidler (aka Go Home Productions), 2 Many DJ's (aka Soulwax), Z-Trip and even veritable kids like the UK's Pojmasta and SF Bay Area's Party Ben.

Download some Z-Trip ( from the now classic 1999 Bomb Hip Hop comp Return of The DJ Vol. III)


Z-Trip - Rockstar II

"Rockstar II" (mp3)
from "Return of the DJ Volume III"
by Various Artists
Bomb Hip Hop

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at Napster Click To Read More On This Compilation
  
  
  The Mash Up remix concept has reached enough commercial traction that The Beatles & David Bowie have commissioned official versions through their respective legit labels, and the UK version of MTV ran a popular program of mashed video clips. Blondie & the Doors were legitimately mashed by Go Home Productions a couple years back, and the resulting blended & licensed tracks made the charts. Apparently even 50+ something comedian Billy Crystal was spotted wearing the "official" Rapture Riders T-Shirt not long ago at a UK charity event.
  
  GHP's latest travesty hits UK stores this month:
  
  
  

Well, even though today's scenesters may be more familiar with DJ John, DJ BC & even Freelance Hellraiser, a lot of you may be unaware that the original mash up king was likely a man named Dickie Goodman. In fact he mashed up the Beatles long before George Martin ever cashed a check from Cirque Du Soleil...Goodman's Frankenstein Meets the Beatles came out in '64. ( audio snippet of Frankenstein Meets Beatles)

His first actual "mash up" made the charts 8 years earlier in 1956, and far from an underground act, some of his recordings sold millions. His style was emulated by dozens of imitators, He knocked Elvis out of the #1 spot in 1956, and he stayed on the charts even after Elvis was dead. Dickie Goodman arguably influenced not only hip hop, but even late night TV comedians with his "fake news" style, still popular on today 50 years later (notably on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" & "Colbert Report"). His son claims that his pop basically invented sampling & remixing, which are currently the music industry's largest source of new revenue, and when you analyze it, it's tough to argue otherwise.

He was an occasional staple of radio DJ playlists for 30 years until the late 80's, with his heyday mainly in the early 60's through the late 70's. His first breakthrough hit was "The Flying Saucer" (aka "The Flying Saucers Are Real,") which made a mock War of The World's style newscast even more entertaining by splicing in clips from popular rock n pop performers like The Platters, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and Fats Domino. Goodman's voice would be heard playing a reporter known as "John Cameron Cameron" while his partner Bill Buchanan alternated in as a DJ.

The success of their mixing was a sort of fluke, with their 1st production getting mostly rejected, and it's only initial airplay in NYC came when Goodman & Buchannan personally walked it into Alan Freed's radio station WINS. Within a few spins though it was a sensation, and George Goldner of Roulette took it on and distributed it nationally to become a bigger hit through his influential ( and reputably mob affiliated ) distribution network. The record sold half a million copies within it's 1st three weeks, and hit as high as #3 on the charts, even knocking Elvis' "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" out of the #1 spot in some markets...

Here's the original version, a sensation of it's day released on both 78 & 45 in 1956 via their own LUNIVERSE Records ( The name Universe Records had been found as already taken so an L was quickly penciled in overnight on the original pressings...hence "Luniverse")

Buchanan & Goodman - The Flying Saucer (Part 1)

Like today's mash up mavens Goodman found he indeed had some legal issues to sort out, after being sued by labels & publishers who claimed he was profiting illegally off their copyrighted works. In fact their followup single was a jab at the legal system, called "Buchanan and Goodman on Trial", using the same formula but poking fun at the courts.

Writer Chuck Miller published an authorative piece for Goldmine on the controversy over their methods that ensued:

...The Music Publishers Protective Association, through the offices of its trustee, the Harry Fox Agency, claimed "The Flying Saucer" was guilty of at least 19 different instances of copyright infringement and unauthorized usages. "If we can't stop this," said one record insider to Billboard, "nothing is safe in our business."

"No industry exec believes [Buchanan and Goodman] have a leg to stand on in their use of copyrighted material and other disk artists without permission," said an unnamed source to Variety.

But although the record companies publicly moaned and wrung their hands over the issue, they initially let the publishing houses go after Buchanan and Goodman for copyright infringement, rather than litigate the matter themselves. Part of the reason may have been because "The Flying Saucer" actually increased sales of records included in its collage. For example, because a snippet of "Earth Angel" was part of "The Flying Saucer," requests for the Penguins song forced DooTone Records to reissue their hit. As an unidentified publishing representative told Time magazine, "It's the greatest sampler of all. If you're not on 'Saucer,' you're nowhere!"

Fortunately a judge eventually ruled in Goodman's favor saying that his works were original satires, and therefore protected speech.

While the novelty eventually wore off in the marketplace as imitator discs flooded the racks, Goodman kept his career going even after switching partnerships. At one point in the early 60's, he assumed presidency of 20th Century Fox Records, and his first major success, hitting #8 on the charts, was a quickly edited compilation of President Kennedy's speeches, issued only days after his assasination.

He still kept at the "cut in" genre for years despite the occasional legal battles, and setbacks. Other gigs emerged like supporting himself as a joke writer for The Ed Sullivan Show & he still made occasional novelty records on topical themes ranging from Batman to student unrest on college campuses. Goodman had to support a family and eventually created music for TV commercials and even put together a band to represent The Glass Container Manufactuers in their war against aluminum cans. This pre-fab creation of Goodman's known as The Glass Bottle, toured and even hit the charts a few times.

His novelty creations got lower profile responses throughout the later 60's & mid 70's, but airplay and hits came sporadically on political topics like Soul Power, Watergate, The Energy Crisis" (which made it into the Top 40) & the latest movie fads like Jaws & Star Wars. In fact his "Mr. Jaws" parody disc actually started a resurgence in his personal genre, hitting #1 and surprising many people that Goodman was still in the record game.

Download mp3 of this number 1 hit in the US & Canada:

Dickie Goodman - "Mr. Jaws"




Follow up attempts came and went with themes built around King Kong, Return of The Jedi, ET and more until his final 7" release "Safe Sex Report" issued in 1988.

Billboard magazine has recognized Goodman as the #1 Novelty Act of All-Time, and that means latecomers like Ray Stevens, Barnes & Barnes, Weird Al and William Hung all have to sit in his shadows. He was finally awarded a posthumous Grammy for his contributions to the Recording arts yet today remains but an obscure foootnote in the rogue's gallery of characters from the early days of rock n roll.

Said Weird Al of Goodman's influence:

Dickie Goodman built a career out of imagination and sheer chutzpah - he was a seminal figure in the history of comedy records. In my early teens, my friends and I would try to emulate him by making our own "cut-in" records using a transistor radio and a tiny reel-to-reel tape recorder. He was a definite early influence, and he continues to be a major inspiration.

-"Weird Al" Yankovic


I am not sure what caused Goodman to disappear from the audio landscape, but likely it may have to do with his death by self inflicted gunshot in 1989. He had just ended his 4th marriage, and had some serious financial problems, his heyday had passed, and likely felt the time was right to end his run.


While learning of Goodman's demise, I was at least delighted to find that his son has reissued some classic audio collages on CD and for legit download through the usual interweb outlets.

Upon the reissues coming out, longtime fan Dr. Demento, who fielded countless requests for Goodman's works on his syndicated radio program, said of the legacy:

Now, for the first time, with these digital time capsules, the Goodman Brothers share their father's records with us, as only they can. It's an essential part of the history of American comedy, and American rock & roll as well.

-Dr. Demento

Said his son Jon to author Chuck Miller about reissuing his father's works:

He wants anybody who ever sampled a track, anybody who ever transposed a lyric into an entirely new song, anybody who had to contact the Harry Fox Agency to determine proper mechanical rights - to remember Dickie Goodman.

"This is what I was meant to do. What I'm trying to do is stop something that can last forever from fading away. I'm trying to save my father's work."

- Jon Goodman

Goodman has published a book on his father's life available here http://www.xlibris.com/thekingofnovelty



Here are some more classic samples of Dickie Goodman's works and links to purchase more of these amusing audio constructs that shed laughter & light on pop music fads, times & trends and the curious current events of daze now long gone by...


Dickie Goodman - Star Warz


check out more on Goodman via these links:

from "Dickie Goodman Greatest Hits"
by Dickie Goodman
Goodman Brothers

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic



• Buy at Napster

Mr Jaws is taken from "Dickie Goodman All Time Novelty Hits"
by Dickie Goodman
Goodman Brothers

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at Napster

More Goodman On CD

Stream Dickie Goodman tracks via Rhapsody

download Dickie Goodman releases at one of these download services

• 
  
  
  eMusic
  
  
• 
  
  RealNetworks / Rhapsody
  
  
• 
  
  Napster
  
  

footnote:

I was all excited lasterday to post this news of Goodman's material reemerging when I discovered noted rock scribe Michael Azarrad had sorta similar inspiration and beat me to the punch with his Emusic.com column that arrived in my inbox as well on Wednesday afternoon...

I look forward to checking this article out as well...




Azerrad's Emusic.com Column This Week:



If It Wasn't For Dickie
by Michael Azerrad

Imagine a single that sampled U2, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Nirvana and a bunch of others — without permission — and then hit #3 on the Billboard charts, selling more than a million copies. That's right, you're imagining the mother of all lawsuits. You're also imagining something that pretty much already happened — in 1956...more

Sad Vacation

One band that still seems as fresh today as when they first rose up from the gutters of Manhattan's lower east side is the NY Dolls. That's not to say their junkie shtick wasn't a bit tiresome, and their odiferousness challenging even back in their heyday, but I just mean that the band seemed so far ahead of themselves, that their influence is still being felt all over the rock music world today.

The sheer youthful jerk off jubilation and utter societal disregard that is felt in their music makes it almost impossible to recreate, yet many have tried and failed. This includes David Johansen & Sylvain Sylvain's recent "reunion" line ups.

The New York Dolls are really a particular mid 70's moment, and replicating that same feeling would be like trying to recreate the miraculous 'mazing 1969 Mets, a childlike belief in Santa's Elves & Tooth Fairies, or even rebuilding the Hindenburg just to blow it up...

New York Dolls - Trash ( live 74)

New York Dolls - Looking For A Kiss

New York Dolls - Personality Crisis

I was really a bit to young to experience the New York Dolls the first time around. In fact the first time I even recall hearing any of their related material was by a Philly skate punk group doing a cover of Chinese Rocks in the 1980's. It's testimony to the unbridled & memorable hook laden rawness of the NYC junkie punk mystique that the one song I can remember from this Philly group's gig was really actually written by someone else, somewhere else, a few years earlier. The Philly band were almost pissed off when I asked 'em about that "great song" they played, and they begrudingly confessed it was a cover.

This "Chinese Rock" song wasn't actually a New York Dolls track, having been recorded by The Heartbreakers, a band formed in the late 70's by Johnny Thunders shortly after the Dolls imploded on a disastrous southern U.S tour arranged by Malcolm McLaren. Thunders sought out some fellow lower east side denizen's like Richard Hell, and the rest is some sort of quasi-history...

Too bad Tom Petty also was running a group out of Florida called The Heartbreakers, that also had a bigger label connection, and hence bigger lawyers. This fact, along with a million other bits of bad luck and self defeating behavior ended up dooming Thunders career.

I also understand that Dee Dee Ramone claims he actually wrote Chinese Rocks and the song was effectively borrowed by Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers unit and never returned. The Ramones themeselves tried doing it a few years later but their Phil Spector produced version never really captured the desperate drug addled sentiments the way Johnny's creepy cry did.



Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rock

The New York Dolls have gone on to become far more influential after their demise than they were when they were around, and my DVD collection alone boasts at least three recent documentaries using their saga as fodder for recent films.



All Dolled Up is comprised of Bob Gruen's rare home videos of the NY Dolls in their early 70's heyday, cavorting around NY and in LA as well. New York Doll recounts the late Arthur Kane's attempt to reconcile his conversion to Mormonism, and get his bass out of pawn and rejoin the band for a reunion gig at London's Royal Albert Hall.

The saddest, lowest budget one is a flick I have that is just a basic recount of stories about the late Johnny Thunders life, narrated by Long Island native Marc Bell ( aka Marky Ramone).

Johnny Thunders ( aka Johnny Ganzale'), was according to his own song, born to lose, and died in a seedy New Orleans hotel back in 1991. He, like all the Dolls, was a true rock n roll character. Long a fan fave, he started out a cute troublemaker, and with his ever gaunt physique Johnny left behind the most thoroughly documented solo career, and most pitifully pock marked path of needle strewn decadence...

Johnny Thunders - Born To Lose

I worked for awhile at a bar in San Francisco that had recently transistioned itself from being known as The Chatterbox. The old owner was a rocker chick and a big fan of the New York Dolls. In fact she had the bar christened by having Johnny smear his name in paint on a beam that hung over the stage. In big black letters, his name was frozen in mid drip over the proceedings each night in the late 80's as wannabee versions of the champ himself attempted to ascend the decadent booze & pills rock throne. The joint's motto was "Glam Slam Rock n Roll", and I was never sure if they meant slamming dope, or as in the dancing.

New York Dolls - Chatterbox

Some of the guys who played the stage in that joint are painting houses, a few nursing decade plus hangovers, and some are really dead. The flyer on the right has at least two or three bands with deceased singers & guitarists, including Kurt Cobain. He's likely the only one of 'em who ever got a decent heroin fueled legend out the classic junkie rock deal...

Sadly when the new owner took over the Chatterbox in 1990, she saw no reason to retain Johnny's black name hanging like an omen over the bar, and she quickly ordered it painted over with gaudy gold paint. I remember looking up and thinking maybe it shoulda been preserved, but it was too late and Johnny was dead within a year...

Johnny Thunders - Too Much Junkie Business ( live at The Lyceum in London)

Here's another live track, a somewhat lo-fiquality live recording, but one that captures the essence of Johnny's over the top & obnoxious stage banter. He's onstage circa 1980 with ex-MC5 legend Wayne Kramer in a drug addled side project they devised called Gang War shortly after Kramer was released from prison on cocaine charges. Both men could be in better shape, Kramer eventually did resurface as a clean & sober rocker who put out a few decent & solid records on Epitaph in the latter half of the 1990's. The song he's doing here with Thunders is a sloppy cover version of an old Detroit R&B hit for the Contours, also big later in the UK for The Dave Clark 5. It's the type of common ground jukebox fave that Kramer woulda cut his teeth on playing as a young gun in the MC5 at the Grande Ballroom and school dance gigs around Michigan, while at the same time I imagine Johnny would have loved listening to it while growing up in Queens.

Gang War ( Wayne Kramer & Johnny Thunders live) - Do You Love Me?


Johnny invariably became the poster boy of how not to manage a career, and of course his plan is emulated to this day by many young musicians who imagine his wasted nonchalance as a substitute for hard work, mutually cooperative creative behavior & dutiful practice.

He basically threw away whatever breaks or show business head starts he had, eroding the confidence of all around him. By the end of his life he had few he could trust, and even fewer that trusted him.

He himself tells his story best, like in this next track. It's actually supposed to be about Sid Vicious, a sweet kid who got caught up in some currents that were far bigger than he was capable of swimming through. Maybe it could apply to Johnny too.

Johnny Thunders - Sad Vacation

Banned in DC

In DC there's all sorts of stuff going on... and not just at the Congressional levels...


One thing I heard about is a new local law that may ban minors from attending shows in clubs. That would be a real bummer, as I grew up checking out all kinds of cool bands in venues like DC Space, 9:30 club etc before i was of legal drinking age. We'd get the X on our hand, and as long as we weren't drinking booze, we could watch groups like Jesus Lizard, Husker Du, Trouble Funk, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Government Issue, Marginal Man, etc doin' their thing.

Hope the kids keep their right to rock...

Apparently a revision of the law is being fomented due toa minor being killed by a stray gunshot after a bouncer & another patron got in an altercation. A tragic & pointless situation, that will be made all the more pointless if minors are now banned from attending concerts.

Here's some groups I was lucky enough to see live as a lad in DC... perhaps I woulda never discovered any of these bands if I hadn't been allowed to cavort around at night in DC area clubs...

D.O.A - Slumlord

SSDecontrol - Get It Away

JFA - I Don't Like You

Meatmen - War Of The Superbikes

The Vandals - Airstream

No Trend - Human Garbage

Trouble Funk - So Early In The Morning

Flipper - Life

Soul Asylum - James @ 16 (1987 live medley)

Toxic Reasons - Looking At The World

Husker Du - Divide & Conquer

Big Boys - We Got Soul

Government Issue - Plain To See

Crippled Pilgrims - So Clean

Meat Puppets - What To Do



Another dumb idea floating around DC is some sort of internet broadcasting regulation that would force streaming media websites to use sort of DRM schema.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein's latest appeasement for her buddies at the RIAA, is her proposed Bill S.256,(also known as the “Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act” (PERFORM)...

Looks like this one will screw up web streaming, make web broadcaster's spend money on expensive proprietary & dubious DRM systems, so that streams can't be ripped into individual tracks...

according to an editorial at medialoper.com

The Democrat's actions would, among other things, require that Internet broadcasters protect their audio streams with DRM technology. Apparently the RIAA has convinced Feinstein that unencrypted audio streams are contributing to the global piracy problem.

Follow the links below for more information:

• EFF Action Center
• Public Knowledge Disappointed With PERFORM ACT
• WFMU: Will The PERFORM Act Kill Online Radio?

-----------------------------------

Hey PC Network users, I just discovered a new free online test from Network Magic that scans your network connections and PC and alerts you about any discovered security issues. The test looks for some important things like making sure your router doesn't still have the default password, that you don't have unknown open connections on your PC and if yer antivirus software is up to date. It will also scan for other devices on your network, potentially identifying any wireless freeloaders

Of course if you don't have a network, you don't need to check this stuff...

now for a couple more tracks before i split...


Xiu Xiu - Chapel Of the Chimes
(2002 - Absolutely Kosher Records)




Original Release: 2002


Xiu Xiu - "Jennifer Lopez (the sweet science version)" (mp3)

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at Napster

Del The Funky Homosapien - "One Big Trip" (mp3)
from the 2003 release "One Big Trip"
by Various Artists
Hieroglyphics Imperium

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Buy at Napster

Jawbox - “Reel” (mp3)
from 1995's “For Your Own Special Sweetheart”

DeSoto Records

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at eMusic

Fox in Pursuit, Hippos & Gorillas Slaughtered For Meat, Folks Float On...

WWJB do?

no not Jesus or James Brown... but Jack Bauer...

What Would Jack Bauer Do?

America's fave TV hero...what would he do to help his broadcast network track down internet entertainment terrorists?

What am I talking about ?

Fox has filed a subpoena dated Jan 18th, seeking the indentity of net users who uploaded clips of 24 and The Simpsons, claiming that the episodes were pirated, some were uploaded before their on-air debuts and illegally distributed. Fox has reportedly sent YouTube/Google a letter dated Jan. 8, when it realized the episodes had been uploaded.

The Hollywood Reporter reports additional info about the subpoena, granted in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. LA based video upload site LiveDigital was also served. YouTube's parent Google has a history of refusing to comply with demands for user identities, just ask the Feds.

Of course protecting one's intellectual properties in an age of rampant digital poachers, seems like a duty of a corporation sitting on piles of overpaid legal help...

What though should the caretakers of world's remaining populations of wild animals do?

In the Congo , it seems doubtful legal threats will save the few remaining Gorillas and Hippos from roving bands of poachers, armed bandits and rebel groups. Only a decade ago the area was believed to have 30,000 Hippos, and asof this month the number is barely 300.

Where are the UN troops that could intervene to save the world's few surviving endangered African animals?

"Hippos hunted in Congo" The hippopotamus population in the Democratic Republic of Congo was once the largest in the world but it could be wiped out by the end of the year SOURCE: au.news.yahoo.com WINDOWS 300k 01:39

Also endangered are elephants, and even large Gorillas, who are being eaten for their meat, despite the well known dangers in consuming & preparing their flesh.

Conservationists urge United Nations to send troops end the Hippo slaughter on Lake Edward by rebel factions. Approximately 25 hippos and 3 elephants have been killed in the past few days at Vitshumbi, a small fishing village on the southern shores of Lake Edward, says Robert Muir of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, who is working in the region.

Hippo Skin and Bones © Copyright FZS
Hippos killed on Lake Edward

Slaughter on lake Edward
Water turns red with blood of slaughtered hippos...

We've cast the fact of these few remaining precious prehistoric creatures to the wind, and left them to die as food for brutal thugs...

I can't begin to express how tragic this in for our planet as a whole...

Allen Toussaint - Cast Your Fate To The Wind



& now,

In further proof the world is spinning madly out of control...



I bring theee the bluegrass tribute to Modest Mouse...

If you're like me, and find that despite being exposed to both Modest Mouse, and faux down homey music, you have need for neither...

So then yer left to ponder over yonder why the twain were deigned to meet...

here you decide...

Modest Mouse Bluegrass Tribute - Float On

I believe a lack of answers shall only baffle us further...

from "The Blugrass Tibute to Modest Mouse: Something You've Never Heard Before"

by Modest Mouse Bluegrass Tribute
CMH Records

• Buy at iTunes Music Store

_

Forever Free : Show Me The Badfish

I didn't watch Bush's 6th and what I understand to be final State of The Union address lasterday... I've been sick with a bit of flu, and i'm pretty sure watching even 60 seconds of his neo-con moral highground grabbing & patriotic pandering, with the scent of charred bodies ala Bagdhad cooking in his backstage pot woulda set me into a puking fit.

But I read some comments in the Democrat rebuttal by newly elected VA Sen. Jim Webb that I thought I'd share...

"

Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt.

Roosevelt spoke strongly against these divisions. He told his fellow Republicans that they must set themselves "as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other." And he did something about it.

As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. "When comes the end?" asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.

These Presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this President to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.

"

You know Webb, the guy who ran against incumbent bigot George Allen last year, and all he had to do to win was stand back and watch Allen implode.

Not only does Webb invoke the patron saint of Democrats: FDR, and the last decent & truthful Republican President in history, Gen. Eisenhower, but, I also like the pushy intonations of his last sentence. It strikes me like a bit of vintage Frampton when he had his lion mane going...

We'll Show You The Way...

Here's now baldy Peter in a semi-recent appearance jamming with Ringo & friends a few years back on one of his late 70's multiplatinum classix...


Peter Frampton w/ Ringo Starr's All Star Band - Show Me The Way




Speaking of classic rock, this next track is a cover of probably my favorite Sublime song, Bradley's vocal always employed the right amount of pathos with his punky reggae party 'tude and this track has long burned a hole in my heart.

I helped record some bonus live material that was released on the Badfish EP when the band was still together, and damn, I had a lot of fun hanging round their van bound vortex back in the day. It still hurts when I think of what a senseless loss Brad was, and how his substance abuse issues couldn't override "All The Love That He Found..."

Here is a semi-obscure cover version of Badfish by a band around before Sublime ever got really rolling No Use for A Name. Despite my never being much a fan of NUFAN and my fears of them ruining a fave, I found it ain't half bad...

I don't care which Shifflet is wringin' the neck of the guitar, it still hits the spot, especially when they drop the pop punk veneer for a few precious seconds during the break.

It comes from one of the many tribute discs floating about, tributes that generally do little to really satisfy the demand for Sublime's millions of converts in the almost 11 years since Brad's death in May 1996...

The bands fans grew to include everyone from Hulk Hogan to numerous 4th wave punk/ska acts like Slightly Stoopid, and Spunge.

No Use For A Name - Badfish

from the CD Forever Free, A Sublime Tribute Album

available via Baseline Records

• Buy at iTunes Music Store
• Buy at Napster
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody