Some wonderful pictures of Tuesday's ABBALATORS show from Elke Harper, all the way from putting on the capes before the show through the end of the set. I really, really wish my wig hadn't fallen off. Oh well. Thanks Elke!
Songs played:
Take A Chance On Me Does Your Mother Know The Winner Takes It All Tiger Fernando Dancing Queen
18+. $5, FREE with costume (how are they gonna determine what does or does not constitute a costume? Dunno). We go on at 10pm, NOT MIDNIGHT. Lineup:
9pm--Karabal Nightlife as T-Rex 10pm--The Abbalators 11pm--The Voyeurs as Creedence Clearwater Revival 12pm--Flying Tourbillon Orchestra as Fleetwood Mac
Come on out! We are so happy to play this show, it's EXCITING! Eeeeeeee!!!!
...
And now some more goodies:
Ah yeah, here's what I was looking for: The Pre-ABBA years:
Youtube claims that this is them in 1970, prior to the formation of ABBA. I suppose it does look like them...hmmm...
Here is the performance of "Waterloo" (in Swedish) that sent them on to the Eurovision finals:
There seems to be a preponderance of absurd sets in their TV performances:
Same song but with an awkward introduction about the relative sizes of Sweden and Australia. "So it's really, uh...a very large continent."
More sets--I am jealous:
Viewer comment: "I think this video just gave me a seizure":
So here's the deal: ABBALATORS is going on this Tuesday at the Echo. The show starts at 9, WE PLAY AT 10. Not midnight. I wish to repeat: not midnight. If you come to see us at midnight you will be crushed and disappointed. The show is FREE if you wear a costume! Don't be a mopey cool hipster whiny baby--dress up for god's sake.
I have to say that it was very difficult to narrow our set down to 6 songs--just too many good ones to choose from. I will not say now what we're playing, you'll just have to come and see for yourself. WARNING TO PURISTS: this will not sound EXACTLY LIKE ABBA. It will sound like the Monolators playing ABBA songs. Make of that what you will, but if you come up to us (like that dude at the Television/NY Dolls show) and say "it doesn't sound like the record" you will be laughed at and your pants will be mocked.
Now that we have that out of the way, did you know...
That there was an extra verse to "Dancing Queen" that got cut out of the final release? You can hear it in a recording session captured here (higher quality version here--embedding disabled on request):
Similarly embedding disabled but also required viewing--IE, "Waterloo" with glorious tearaway kitty cat skirts: LINK
DISCO
And, finally, the classic band-in-front-of-giant-hamster-tube-filled-with-balloons look:
In advance of Tuesday's show I thought I'd share some nice little fun facts with you all.
Did you know that, prior to ABBA:
Keyboardist Benny Andersson played in a band called The Hep Stars, known in their homeland as "The Swedish Beatles"? Here they are in 1966--that's Benny, without beard, on the far left:
Guitarist Björn Ulvaeus played in a folk-skiffle (!) band called The Hootenanny Singers and had a European hit in 1964 with "Gabrielle." Here he is second to the right, next to the bassist:
Anni-Frid Princess Reuss of Plauen (née Lyngstad)--the brunette one--started at age 13 singing jazz standards in a big band. According to Wikipedia:
On 3 September 1967, Frida won the Swedish national talent competition, "New Faces", arranged by record company EMI and held at Skansen, Stockholm. The song she chose to sing was "En Ledig Dag" ("A Day Off"). The first prize in this contest was a recording contract with EMI Sweden. Unbeknownst to Lyngstad, the winner of the contest was also expected to appear the same evening in the country's most popular TV show at that time, Hylands Hörna. This happened on the same day Sweden switched from driving on the left side of the road to the right side. Driving on that day was discouraged, so most of the nation was watching TV that night. Frida performed her winning song live.
Which is here:
Agnetha Fältskog--the blonde one--started as a solo singer and had a 1968 Swedish hit with "Jag Var Så Kär," which google tells me translates to "I Was So Funny." Okay. She also starred as Mary Magdalene in the 1972 Swedish production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. I can't find any footage of any of this, except for creepy slideshow youtube videos, so I decided to post the most ridiculous one--which, I believe, is this:
We are going over to the KROQ studios this afternoon for an interview with Kat Corbett of Locals Only fame. I will let you know when the results are to be broadcast.
Also, Cobra Lilies has a nice early show at the Echo this evening at 9pm--please see the details here.
And finally, I (Eli) am sitting in on bass again with Shirley Rolls on Wednesday night, also at the Echo, and also at 9pm. Please come by and be deafened by awesomeness.
Look at this show--what a lineup! I am excited to play this--
Eagle and Talon, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Dekker's "Israelites," the first Jamaican reggae/rocksteady song to top the UK charts, will present a night of Dekker covers at the Social Science Loft this Saturday at 8pm. We are very fortunate to be one of the bands involved--no, we're not doing "Israelites," but we're doing the equally awesome "Fu Manchu," albeit in Monolators style. It is not all that easy to de-reggae a reggae song and not completely de-awesome it as well, but we will try. Many many of our friends are playing and we are very happy to join them!
I believe this will take much the same form as the Eagle and Talon cover night from a while back, although in this case we're playing one Dekker song and one of our own songs...which happens to be brand-new! Never performed before! So this is equally exciting for us. Please join us as this will be an exceptional show to begin with and, again, the only time this month we'll perform any of our own material.
The show costs $8 but is only $5 with rsvp to either us (mail at themonolators.com) or info@socialsciencerecs.com--or myspace us or Eagle & Talon!
Thanks Alice and Kim! We're honored you asked us!
PS: Wow--that man can surely rock a sweater.
PPS: The poster is kinda small so I will note that the Social Science Loft is at 530 Molino St, 217, Los Angeles, California, 90013.
The Recording LA blog just posted audio of our When Captain Geech Met Teardrop set from the Eagle Rock Music Festival. I had no idea it was even recorded, but--why yes, it was! Amazing.
With regular bassist Jonathan Price on tour with the Henry Clays, I (Eli Monolator) will be sitting in on bass with the mighty Shirley Rolls this evening at Bordello. I believe Mr. Rufo will be sitting in on percussion as well. I have been practicing my bass. Ploink ploink. Please come and watch me attempt to keep up!
Shirley Rolls goes on at 10 pm.
From last month's show at Echo Curio, via LA Underground:
Also, this comes up if you search flickr for "Shirley Rolls." Not sure why.
Let me give some context to these remixes--I belong to a home recording messageboard (no, it's not tapeop) and, following the release of We All Fell Dead, I got a request from one of the other board members to upload the individual multitrack files (OK, copies of them--they were origianlly recorded on dodgy old 8-track tape decks) from the "We Fell Dead" session so he could try remixing it himself. In fact two people ended up remixing the tracks, and so I'd like to re-post the results here, because they're both raddddd:
1. Something Died by George of lovely Portland, Oregon. George is an alumnus of the great, now-deceased (as far as I know) Lil' Pocketknife. I wanted to put up a picture of George but he didn't really have one handy so this will have to suffice:
(hint: he's the boy)
Mary's comment on George's remix: "wow, it sounds like when we play it!"
2. Krautrock Blues is Dead by Matthew Rigsby Smith. Matt is from London and fronts the lovely, dreamy folk-pop Mouth 4 Rusty. I especially like what he did with the bassline and the handclaps on this one. Please take a look at his website here.
Here he is:
important PS: should anyone else--anyone at all--want to try their hand at a remix, the master tracks are here. If you have a WFD remix you want to share, we'd love to hear it--send it to mail [at] themonolators.com and we will repost it here on the blog.
Normally I try to remain neutral in these Deli Magazine Band of the Month things because invariably there's more than one of our friends' bands in the running at the same time--as is the case this month, with both Shiloe and Pizza! on the list. Both are wonderful and both deserve your love--but I will note that Ken Shiloe is a Cobra Lily and so, understandably, I am leaning that way.
I do not presume to tell you which way to go on this, but please do vote as you see fit. I believe you can vote once a day...
So it turned out not to be the Los Angeles Disco-Skiffle Ensemble but rather When Captain Geech Met Teardrop. The "Teardrop" part is obvious (IE Matthew Teardrop of Manhattan Murder Mystery) but apparently I was Captain Geech. Who came up with that name? Was it Johnny Seasons? I can't remember now.
Anway--after the Natural Disasters/Jack Wilson Jr./Meredith Meyer collaboration and the Transmissions/Magick Orchids collabo (which was a half-hour psychedelic improvised soundtrack to an abstract video--hard to follow and something that neither Mary or I could pull off), we shoehorned ourselves into the kids' play area of Swork and banged out our goofy Lonnie Donegan/Baccarra hybrid, with Don of Don's Music joining in on bongos. I don't know why but I was incredibly nervous for this show--partially because we threw the band together kind of last-minute, so there wasn't a ton of practicing, and partially because I didn't really know what I was doing and there seemed like there was a sea of people inside Swork. All good things but I felt kind of sick. Mary declined the use of a microphone for her sax, which I wish I could have done myself, so she was kind of quiet, except that let her march out into the audience during "Jack Of Diamonds." Oh and Johnny's synth drumkit collapsed during "Cumberland Gap" and he ended up having to play the snare trigger on his lap. But he kept going, the trooper. I think "Yes Sir I Can Boogie" went okay.
I have never sweat so much during an acoustic show before. I wonder if there are going to be more WCGMT shows? Not sure, I hope so. It was fun! Many thanks to Swork, Pauline & Pehrspace, Johnny, Adam, Matt and Don.
No pictures yet. Are there any? I can share this, though.
(hint: he's the boy)
