Church drummers just can’t get a break.
The Wilhelm Scream
It’s positively ubiquitous! According to Gizmodo …
The sound effect that’s been heard in countless movies and TV shows over the decades technically has two birthdays. As a sound itself, it originally debuted in the 1951 film Distant Drums from singer-songwriter Sheb Wooley. But it was officially given its name with the minor character of Private Wilhelm in The Charge at Feather River, a western that came out July 11, 1953. In that movie, Wilhelm (played by actor Ralph Brooks) screams after being shot in the thigh with an arrow, which would come to define its use: in all of its appearances in future media, it would be used when someone got shot, blasted back by an explosion, or fell from a high distance.
Recently, CBS News did a story on the Wilhelm Scream, and the outlet revealed that it managed to find a tape with the first recording session Wooley did for the scream. CalArts researcher Craig Smith explained to CBS that he found the tape among many from the archives of the University of Southern California’s film school that were close to being trashed.
Interesting RickenBACKer History
Really interesting documentary but I would really like to have AI edit out the guy’s soul patch. Also, I didn’t know it was pronounced that way. I’ve never had the pleasure of playing a Rick guitar or bass, but I believe at least one bastard owned a bass for awhile.
Preach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quK5D0s6Rh4
Since HBO cruelly ended Barry and Succession at the same time, this bastard is angry. I know the rest of you are doing your highbrow summer reading clubs, but I’m left waiting for:
- True Detective: Night Country (“sometime in 2023”)
- Fargo Season 5 (sometime late 2023)
- Dune Part Deux (November 3, 2023)
- The Witcher Season 5 (June 29, 2023 hey that’s sooner than I thought!)
Anyway, Gemstones drops June 18th.
I Am Everything
Hell yeah, I’m in! Anything more cringe than Pat motherfucking Boone singing “Tutti Frutti?”
Produced by Bungalow Media + Entertainment for CNN Films and HBO Max, in association with Rolling Stone Films, director Lisa Cortés’ Sundance opening night documentary LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING tells the story of the Black queer origins of rock n’ roll, exploding the whitewashed canon of American pop music to reveal the innovator – the originator – Richard Penniman. Through a wealth of archive and performance that brings us into Richard’s complicated inner world, the film unspools the icon’s life story with all its switchbacks and contradictions. In interviews with family, musicians, and cutting-edge Black and queer scholars, the film reveals how Richard created an art form for ultimate self-expression, yet what he gave to the world he was never able to give to himself. Throughout his life, Richard careened like a shiny cracked pinball between God, sex and rock n’ roll. The world tried to put him in a box, but Richard was an omni being who contained multitudes – he was unabashedly everything. Directed by Lisa Cortés, LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING is produced by Robert Friedman, Cortés, Liz Yale Marsh and Caryn Capotosto and Executive Produced by Dee Rees.
Hello? Metaverse?
This Is Genius
What can a Black artist do when wronged by the law? Make art, of course! In addition to his using home surveillance video (and video shot by his wife during the raid) in this song, Afroman also posted some images to the socials.
One example was Afroman wearing a shirt with an image of [officer] Shawn Cooley beside a picture of Peter Griffin from Family Guy. Another shows [officer] Shawn Grooms next to a picture of the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Another is of Afroman fans holding up merchandise that has images of Cooley. More include images of other officers.
So of course the cops are suing.
The complaint claims that the police officers have been “subjected to ridicule” by members of the public who have seen some of Afroman’s posts. The episode has allegedly “made it more difficult and even more dangerous” for them to carry out their official duties, the complaint adds. Some of that activity has included anonymous death threats, it says.
“As a result of Defendants’ actions, Plaintiffs have suffered damages, including all profits derived from and attributable to Defendants’ unauthorized use of Plaintiffs’ personas, and have suffered humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment, and loss of reputation,” it reads.
Explains Afroman …
“I’m a civilian. Then, to make matters worse, I’m a Black civilian in America,” he said. “The police department was not designed to serve and protect me. I felt powerless yet angry. These guys can destroy my property and I literally couldn’t do nothing about it. The only thing I could do was take to my pen and sing about the injustice. And to my surprise, it’s going over well!”
Source here.
I’m Working Too Hard
Both proof that one needn’t be especially proficient as a musician to write killer songs AND an explanation for my recent blargh absence.
The Nerves weren’t around too long but are regarded by some as ground zero for the LA punk and power pop scene. Drummer Paul Collins went on to form The Beat (“Rock N Roll Girl,” “I Don’t Fit In”), bassist Peter Case formed The Plimsouls (“A Million Miles Away”), and guitarist Jack Lee’s song “Hanging on the Telephone” became a massive hit for Blondie when they covered it on Parallel Lines in 1978.
And here’s Collins a few years later with The Beat …
Jesus Is Coming
Better get a perm.