Author: Retroguy

Easter Kiss – It’s Not What You Think

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Any kid growing up in the 70s and 80s either loved or hated KISS. Most of the “haters” assumed their weird friends were just going through a phase and eventually would grow out of their strange fascination with the four painted people with the foot high heels and freaky costumes.

Obviously the haters were completely wrong. KISS is bigger than ever and, by utilizing some very smart business sense, were able to remain relevant after all these years and continue to tour. Their influence on our culture continues. 

Their latest plan is to take over Easter.

They’ve made so much money, that they now plan to issue their on currency. Below is a prototype for the American KISS twenty dollar bill. 

 An alternate design – still tweaking the details obviously.

 
Once the U.S. is conquered they will set their sights on the U.S.’s closes neighbor – Canada.  

Old Is New Sample Of The Day – Ducksauce

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Sampling in music has been going on for decades and even before the digital age, mashups existed though they were called edits or Mega-Mixes. One of the most famous series was the Bits & Pieces mixes where the master tapes were created by literally cutting and splicing tape recorded pieces of music samples together until a new mix was created. It was tedious work and took forever. 

Enter the digital age. In this iPod world, all you need is smartphone to get basic tools to create a decent mix of a popular song. Invest in better and proper equipment you can create something even more special. If the guys tweaking the knobs happen to be legendary DJ Armand Van Helden and Kanye West’s DJ A-Trak, then you’ve got something kinda special.

Armand and A-Track hooked up and created Ducksauce and have put up some pretty choice club cuts in recent years. One of my favorites is Barbera Streisand that features Boney M’s classic “Gotta Go Home”. 

Check it out and see if you can listen to it only once.  


R.I.P. Tony Curtis (1925-2010)

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Sadly, one of the few remaining classic leading men in cinema passed today. Tony Curtis died of cardiac arrest in Nevada at the age of 85. He left behind a huge body of work of over 100 films, TV credits and his collection of art work.

Tony was born Bernard Schwartz and did time in the navy before embarking on an acting career. He did his time in many forgettable films including some light comedy before landing some serious roles that got the attention of the critics and led to academy award nominations for best actor in The Defiant Ones.
He married his first wife, Vivian Leigh in 1951 and had two children one of them being actress Jamie Lee Curtis. They were a true Hollywood power couple and lasted 11 years before divorcing. He remarried but had some pretty lousy luck going through six wives in total and five divorces.

Tony battled through some hardships including addictions to drugs and alcohol but in the end found peace with his last wife and a new found love in art. He gained respect in the art circles with some of his paintings going for as much as $25,000. His cool factor was never at risk and he always managed to remain relevant.

I first became aware of him growing up in the 70s watching Saturday morning cartoons as guest star Stoney Curtis on the Flintstones. When I went through my Marilyn phase I watched him in drag on Some Like It Hot and later grew to respect him more with his role in classics like Spartacus and The Defiant Ones but he’ll always be Stoney to me.


Flintstones – How much more retro can you get ?

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The stone age family from Bedrock celebrated their 50th anniversary today and what’s really amazing about that is how well the cartoons created in the 60s hold up today. Unlike real life sit-coms from that era, the Flintstones seem to transcend time and generate new generations of fans with every passing year.

It first aired in 1960 and ran for six seasons. Many thought it was a rip off or homage to The Honeymooners which was the biggest television show at the time but the creators dismissed any similarities as merely coincidental……..uh huh. When it was eventually cancelled, a movie was made to parody or style the big film character of the day, James Bond. The movie “The Man Called Flintstone” is a classic and is far better than the real life movie version of the Flintstones that came out in 1994 starring John Goodman and Rosie O’Donnell.


Having said that, the real life movie versions did have two redeeming qualities – Haley Berry and loin clothes…………. nuff said.

The Flintstones was never meant to be a kids show, it was the first adult themed animated show that inspired many of today’s adult animated series, most notably the Simpsons and Family Guy. One of their first sponsors back in 1960 was Winston cigarettes so it’s pretty safe to say we’ve evolved a bit in terms of political correctness since the 60s when it comes to advertising. Having said that, our evolution hasn’t prevented us from coming up with stupid ideas like the Flintstones Nike High Tops. Yabba Dabba Do indeed.

Retro Video of the Day – Snap!

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Oh Snap! Back before ruling the 90s dance floor with Rhythm is a Dancer, German Eurodance group, Snap! had a bunch of club hits in many countries with some solid efforts combining early House and Hip Hop music to come up with very dance floor friendly music that still had a bit of an edge for the times.
Although nothing they ever did could match the chart dominating Rhythm is a Dancer, their hit Mary Had A Little Boy reached number 4 in Germany and only number 8 in the UK and broke the top 5 in both the U.S. and Canada. Their other big hit also from 1990 was The Power that hit number one or two on the charts in the U.S., the UK, Canada, Germany and Sweden.
Here’s a double shot for you which is just the thing to make it through the rest of the week.

Remixes Make the World Go Round

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If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, lots of today’s music may sound kind of familiar. Big reason for that is the abundant use of samples in contemporary music. Whether it’s lifting a few beats and choice riffs or a complete ripoff of the tune with new lyrics rapped over the music, much of the music you listen to today probably wouldn’t exist or be popular if it wasn’t for the art of the remix.

Remixing is the art of combining or editing existing music to create something new. Not to be confused with the term rip off which requires far less talent and vision. I never really gave much thought about the whole thing other than to wax on about how some of today’s “artists” lack the same kind of talent that earlier artists had and with the use of technology, many people are getting pretty famous that don’t really deserve to be.

What will become of music twenty years from now ? Where will new samples come from if much of today’s music is already sample rich with stuff someone else already did ? What will be the source for new samples?

Kirby Ferguson, a New York based filmmaker has given it much thought and is working on a four part project all about the history and art of the remix. The project is called, Everything is a Remix and you can check out Part 1 in the series on Kirby’s blog by clicking the link above or the picture of the bitchin’ turntable below to go to his blog to view the video. If you like what you see, help the guy out.

R.I.P Ronnie James Dio (1942-2010)

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The world of rock lost one of the great ones the yesterday with the sad passing of vocalist Ronnie James Dio. Ronnie succumbed to his battle with stomach cancer on May 16, 2010. Ronnie James Dio was hailed as one of the most powerful voices in heavy metal. Dio was the voice behind some legendary metal bands like Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Elf, Heaven & Hell and his own namesake band, Dio.

Born Ronald James Padavona, in New Hampshire in 1942, he was the only child in an Italian family. The traditions and superstitions of his heritage influenced his later stage persona with the gratuitous use of his trademark devil horns which was actually an Italian superstitious remedy to prevent the unwanted “evil eye”.


Dio’s spent his childhood learning to play various instruments including the French horn which he said helped him become a better vocalist since it taught him how to breath properly. He enjoyed success with Rainbow but it was his selection to replace Ozzy Osbourne as lead singer for Black Sabbath in 1979 that really helped put Dio in the metal spotlight for so many.

Growing up in the 80s you had to make a very important decision if you were a metal head – Dio or Ozzy? Who was the true frontman for heavy metal founders Black Sabbath? At the time I have to admit I didn’t like Ronnie and always felt Ozzy was the one true voice for Sabbath but over time you learn to appreciate the operatic ability of Dio and the strength his vocals provided to the thundering guitars. He had a style all his own and was often imitated but truly never duplicated.

His legacy is his body of work that spanned six decades. Here are a few examples of what made him a legend of metal.

Spock Vs. Kirk – Cosmic Idol Edition

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Whether you’re a Trekkie or not, you’ve no doubt at some point in your life made an obscure Star Trek reference, quoted some line from the show or at the very least did a very bad William Shatner impression. The weird ones among you may have even done it with a green chick – but I digress.

Captain Kirk hit this……….

Star Trek has come a long way from the original brain child of Gene Roddenberry that debuted on television in 1966 and originally only ran for three seasons. In the forty three years that followed, it spawned four spin-offs, an animated series, several comic books and eleven movies with another one in production as I write this.

Instead of this……..

The series has spawned many memorable and endearing characters but without a doubt the biggest reason for it’s success was the dynamic relationship between Captain James T. Kirk and Mr Spock played impeccably by William Shatner and Leonard Nemoy. There have always been rumors and stories about feuding on set and scene stealing accusations, but it was very clear these two had a rivalry going. Even when it came to music.

But he could have done worse.

Both Will and Lenny dabbled in the performing arts. Here are two examples of them expressing themselves artistically. Remember as you watch these that these were both serious performances and not meant to be a gag, comedy bit or any attempt to try and be funny. These are two serious performers doing their best to entertain. We can look at it one of two ways – which of these two is the ultimate galactic crooner or which of these two laid the largest Klingon turd…….your call.

R.I.P. Malcolm McClaren (1946-2010)

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Retroland lost a great one today. Malcolm McClaren passed away today after a battle with cancer at the age of 64. Whether you liked him or not, you couldn’t dispute the fact that the man was an innovator had vision and a knack at spotting trends and capitalizing on them.

Malcolm was a fashion designer originally and opened up a London boutique called “Let It Rock” in 1971 before eventually renaming it “Sex”. It was around this time he started to get involved with music. He worked with the New York Dolls for a bit but his true claim to fame came when he started managing a punk band called “The Strand” who later renamed themselves – The Sex Pistols.


After one studio album and a brutal North American tour, the group was done and Malcolm moved on. Among the groups of the day that Malcolm had a hand in include Adam Ant and Bow Wow Wow. He then embarked on his own musical career.


His first venture happened after being exposed to Afrika Bambaata and his Zulu Nation which were a break dance crew that would perform to a new style of music from Bambaata that came to be known as Hip Hop. Malcolm was fascinated and with writing and production help by Trevor Horn put out his first album Duck Rock which featured a couple of early Hip Hop classics “Buffalo Girls” and “Double Dutch” which really helped crossover Hip Hop to the masses.


Malcolm constantly kept reinventing himself and in 1984 mixed electro-pop and opera to create Madame Butterfly which exposed him to a new audience and led to working with Yanni to create the music for a British Airways advertising campaign.


Malcolm continued to work in the entertainment industry and had some songs featured in major motion pictures, appeared on reality TV in the UK, created a few documentaries and just kept it up right till the end. He was anything but boring and a true original.