Nothing runs like a Deere...

..but apparently nothing keeps time like an Farmall:

I been framed!

And brake'd, and lit up, and axled and wheeled... sounds like a good start to a blues song, right? *makes mental note*

But what really happened is a fresh infusion of parts to give the ol' T project a little jumpstart. I started off trading some artwork to Roddychops, head honcho of Vintage Rods--the site logo, the official site flyer here, and a "Roddychop's Customs" logo for his personal builds in exchange for a nice F100 brake setup and some dropped steering arms. Then I found out he's an even bigger fan of the art department at the Royal Canadian Mint, and traded a few of their handy wallet-sized portraits of Robert Borden and the Queen for a frame, a dropped tube axle and some headlights... the result is this:

Just another mockup pick, but the wheelbase and front ride height should be right on...  Rear end is gonna come up maybe 4-6" since the frame kickup is actually resting on the rear axles right now, but it looks good for a classic highboy stance imho.  I'm not 100% sure I wanna run a tube axle with split wishbones though, but the alternatives are either chopping off those beautiful frame horns for a suicide front so I can run my '40 axle, Z-ing the frame in front or sweeping it at the firewall for same, or maybe adapting my rear hairpins to run 'em in front instead. 

In any case, here now for your musical entertainment is Mr. Ry Cooder, doing "Crazy 'Bout an Automobile":

Drinking age: 55

I can't decide offhand whether Fred J. Eaglesmith is the best country singer in Canada, or just somewhere in the top three[*], but he's definitely the best stage banter artist. Here he is, demonstrating why on an unreleased tune called "Tryin' to Buy Alcohol in Abilene."



[*] The other two: Stompin' Tom Connors and Corb Lund.

VAY-KAY-SHUN, or, Je commence un voyage

Well, I'm off to the land of poutine and Leonard Cohen for a week. This isn't the standard "I apologize in advance for neglecting my blog" post because I pretty much do that anyway, so expect me to actually have something interesting to say and/or share when I get back, if not sooner.

Unless the Language Cops drag moi away for le murdeur vicieux de langue francais, in which case send baguettes, Camus and a t-shirt that says "I didn't mean that about Levesque".

To celebrate, here's Flight of the Conchords explaining in musical fashion what to do with un anana you find in la supermarche.

What's on John Lennon's iPod?

Did I say "iPod"? I meant "portable 40-record jukebox". Excellent documentary on what were apparently the late Beatle's 40 fave 45s.


[via Smashing Telly]

When an egg loves a calculator

Petra Haden, "Don't Stop Believin'"



[via Whatever]

Three Sheets to the Wind In Bloggenhagen (with Chuck E. Weiss)

Tonight's feature presentation: a twofer of Tom Waits, 70's style.

"The Piano Has Been Drinking" on "Fernwood 2night"


"Eggs and Sausage" on "The Mike Douglas Show"


[both via Bedazzled!]

Carlos & Buddy

Carlos Santana joins Buddy Guy onstage at the Montreaux Jazz Festival.

More blues in 6/4 at MeFi.

You know those guitars that are, like, double guitars? (AKA the ICFBTHDG's 138th200th episode spectacular)

Zack Kim plays the Simpsons theme.

Two guitars not enough for you? Okay, then, double it with the Aranjuez Guitar Quartet:


Also, in lieu of intelligent commentary on last night's Rush gig, I direct you to the estimable Sir Mark de Zaugg, with only the additional comment that the sound managed to suck in an entirely different way where Melvin and I were seated. Yay for the acoustical properties of western novelty-shaped hockey arenas! The show itself, though? Frickin' sweet, man. I wish they'd have gone as deep into the '70s stuff as they did on the Vapour Trails tour, but the swing era tribute Neil ended his drum solo with and the South Park and Bob & Doug Mackenzie cameos went a long way towards making up for it.

The Wizard of Waukesha

An hour-and-a-bit long documentary on one of the true giants of the twentieth century, jazz guitar virtuoso and inventor Les Paul.

Attention, hepcats

"Art Ford's Jazz Party", circa sometime in the '50s.

Found on Chime.tv, which is most definitely the new hotness of Internet video sites.

Satchmo and the Man in Black

Johnny Cash & Louis Armstrong doing "Blue Yodel No. 9" on the Johnny Cash show, 1970. Louis played trumpet on the original Jimmie Rodgers version of this tune in the '30s.

[via making light]

Dial 1-800-HOT-ROCK and order six cassettes

One hour and twenty-five (ish) minutes of circa-1983 MTV. All mullets guaranteed 100% non-ironic.

Elvis has definitely left the building

"Heartbreak Hotel", featuring John Cale, Shawn Colvin, Richard Thompson and David Sanborn. Eerie, transcendent.

Get your kicks...

...on Route 66.
[via Route 66 News]

Steve Jobs meets Woodie Guthrie uptown

Living in an era of tech-driven excess like the twenty-aughts, it's kind of hard sometimes to imagine the hardscrabble life of poverty and resourcefulness-or-else that must have characterised the 1930's for many people. One thing that has always resonated from that era, however, is the music. Not merely the commercial hits--the Broadway and movie showtunes that are now considered historic standards, or the sophisticated jazz style of innovators like Ellington and Basie that formed the basis of the first true American art music, but the sounds that came from the gritty, hard-fought existence of the working class and the poor. Blues, folk, gospel and hillbilly, the three-chords-and-the-truth heartbeat of the Old Weird America. Without them, we'd have no R&B, no soul, no country and no rock n' roll.

With commmercial support for this music somewhat lacking--it was often the music of those who couldn't afford record players and thus bought no records--it was up to a government unusually rich in foresight to document it. Enter Smithsonian Folkways. Over the years, they've recorded everything from field hollers to Beat Generation poetry recitals--and now, for your 21st century postmodern listening pleasure, there's a 24-part podcast series produced by Folkways and CKUA to put a little Dust Bowl in your iPod.

(Also found in the process of *ahem* researching this post: another podcast, the very promising (but rather infrequently updated) Down in the Flood.)

Nighthawk blog post (from Easy Street)

Tom Waits performing "The One That Got Away", animation directed by John Lamb. I'll let the original YouTube page describe it:

An animated film starring Tom Waits.
Performed for us live (at the La Brea stage in Hollywood, 1978), and rotoscoped - a process that traces back the live action frame by frame and turns it into animation. The original live
action was shot with 5 cameras - 2 high, 2 low and one hand held. The music from "The One That Got Away" blared in the background as Tom sang karaoke style different lyrics on each
take. Two strippers, 6 takes and 13 hours of video footage were edited to make a 5 1/2 minute live action short which we turned into animation.

A total of 5500 live action frames were hand traced, caricatured, re-drawn, hand inked and painted onto celluloid acitate cels. Produced by Lyon Lamb, directed by John Lamb, the film bore some cool new technology, talent and was created specifically for a video music market that didn't yet exist . But the buzz was out and we went on to create what arguably may be the first music video created for the new and upcoming MTV market.

[via mefi] [warning: animated nudity]

No such thing as too much reverb

Grab yer board, hop in yer woodie, and hit the beach, because the fine folks at Surf Guitar 101 have released an mp3 compilation of the fine, fine noises made by a passel o' vintage Fenders and Mosrites with the reverb and presence knobs set to "kill" and the whammy bars set to "twangulate." I'm pretty impressed with Chris Fesker's "Deadwood Beach", dp's trippy "The Red Sea" and the Close Outs' "Hella" with its "Wipe Out"-style drum roll insanity. Get it on archive.org.

All Rise for the National Anthem

You know, I never really planned for this place to become all-YouTube, all the time. Smashing Telly, on the other hand, did. Full-length TV programs of excellent quality (content wise) and good-enough quality (bitrate-wise). It's from them that I shamelessly nicked this:

Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock

Radiohead (live) the MTV ten spot

Metafilter's gift to me, regifted to you.