lothar and the hand people!
found at dreamchimney…
Lothar and the Hand People was a late 1960s psychedelic rock band known for their spacey music and pioneering use of the theremin and Moog modular synthesizer.
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the band formed in denver in 1965 when NY-born john emelin and his university of colorado roommate richard willis were inspired to form a jug band after seeing the rolling stones play…
Willis, in classic hippie fashion, came up with the band’s appellation while he was sleeping; he had a dream in which an enslaved race called the Hand People was saved by a hero named Lothar, and when he related the scenario to his fellows, who’d been stumped in their search for a trippy handle, the moniker stuck. Only later did they decide that a theremin owned by Emelin was actually the group’s namesake. “People would always ask, ‘Who’s Lothar?’, and we wouldn’t know what to tell them,” Conly says. “But finally we realized that Lothar had been there all along.”
“Our timing was good,” Emelin says. “We were long-haired at a time when there were only one or two other long-haired bands in town; the rest were old-fashioned greaser bands. So we hit the scene with a more modern look, and that propelled us to local fame right away.”
the band moved to new york. they started gigging at a greenwich village club, befriending a local guitarist called jimmy james (who would later move to london and get a few gigs under the name jimi hendrix). the hand people on the other hand (ha!) recorded a debut album, enlisting a novice composer whose only credits at the time involved production music for star trek but whose future credits would involve the lion’s share of stevie wonder’s 70s catalogue, robert margouleff…
It is electronic country, a kind of good-time music played by mad dwarfs, and it is really good to listen to. There is no tension here, no jarring forces at war with each other. It may be strange that New York, the city which deifies speed and insanity, could produce this music, but it is as if Lothar and the Hand People have gone through this madness and come out on the other side, smiling.
Lothar and the Hand People have a spirit about them which pervades all they do. And after awhile, you’ll see, it doesn’t matter what they do, because the spirit is sort of happy and a lot of fun to be with. It captures a New York time when something happened that denied the concept of a city. And something which can do that, which can overcome the smoke and noise and confusion, is to me something very valuable to have.
less than five years later, the band would wrap things up. a couple of years ago, “presenting… lothar and the hand people” was re-issued by razor & tie records.
the full story of lothar and the hand people can be read here.
here’s a clip of a dude listening to “machines” on LP in his lounge room. the internet is an increasingly absurd place to hang out:
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recorded in one take, in the doom-chair, in despair, about one hour ago
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before we get stuck into this 18-post mother of all faux pas blog events, just a quick round-up of some things on the internets. i know some of you are dagging around here waiting for new posts, praying to the gods mccartney and cornelius for some kind of sign – blog absence can be shocking, yes, please pull yourselves together. enjoy these recommended products.
a random mp3 i came across i’ve been getting a lot of kicks out of: eDIT – Artsy Remix (feat The Grouch) from over at audiversity. this song makes me want to kick people in the nuts. anyone wearing cardigans, floppy fringes, will oldham beards, more than 3 hoodies on at once, aviators, etc. that guy i always see on the corner, with the cigarette, in the skinny jeans and the stripey t-shirt. ironic moustaches, homemade t-shirts, scarves, modular mix cds. oh hang on i own some or all of those things. ah anyway, songs that denounce ‘being cool’ are themselves usually cool, even if in doing so they posit their own coolness in the place of said ‘uncool coolness’… “may all men posit their own coolness.” i do believe martin luther king said that, or maybe it was morrissey.
palms out covered rjd2 and m.i.a in recent installments of their “sample wednesday” series. that is always entertaining. jimmmy….
stylus magazine with a good primer on “when indie labels go digital“. well worth a read. on the same tip, something i only recently got pointed towards by a friend – tunecore.com. they offer digital distribution into iTunes and other stores for indie artists and artist-run labels, and instead of taking a percentage of your earnings (like traditional distributors do), they just charge a flat fee per recording. holy new business model, batman! as my friend pointed out “it looks legit”, and it does have some big names attached… at least you know that if they somehow screw you out of your royalties, or go down the tubes without paying your money, some of the guys from the cure, the pixies and tapes n tapes will get screwed too. perhaps thats some consolation – although it is true that the pixies are from the seventh dimension and are therefore not effected by either conventional weapons, or dot com crashes (well known fact). but yes, this is not really an endorsement as such, but its interesting to look at. at the very least the tunecore faq has some facts about itunes payment schedules and price points that makes for interesting if somewhat nerdy reading.
my fave playlist-based mp3 blog motel de moka consistently has the goods. check out this playlist to catch some roam the hello clouds, esg and a completely ball-tearing amazing breakestra-style recording of afrika bambataa’s “planet rock” by german funk band breakout. the roam the hello clouds album is, by the way, finally out and its amazing, especially since it was recorded in only one day. australian laptop/trumpet/drums combo who have, if you are into that kind of thing, the best ‘dry indie humor band faq‘ ever.
lastly, the radio show that my friend and i started a few weeks ago, we are now making our show available from our website for mp3 download. when we figure out the technology – technology! – we’ll get our heads around this podcasting caper too. so, if you are in melbourne tuesday night, tune in on 102.7 (this week with guest anonymeye) – or else stream it live at rrr.org.au or download it after the fact at toandfro.com.au. i promise i won’t be blabbing about this show every week, only occasionally, well actually whenever i bloody feel like it. support public radio, bitches!
so. all this should keep you occupied for a bit. go check it all out then come back here and wait til later in the week, when my mega multipost super blog event will hopefully begin. there will be mp3s a-plenty.
and for the hell of it – its almost time to break out my ping pong table again. so before you come onna my house and challenge me to a game, here now learn about the fine art of table tennis:
holidays are things that you earn after long periods of working really hard doing unfulfilling tasks, which is why the idea of me going on holiday right now seems somewhat farcical. but thats exactly what i’m doing.
when i return in a couple of weeks, i’ll be starting an 18-part series of posts (for real!) where i’m gonna go track-by-track through a sixty minute set i’ve recently assembled for the good folks at funky web periodical research and development – my mix is going to be featured as part of their next issue, and for numerous reasons i’ve decided to get jiggy with a full-on track-by-track rundown. there’s gonna be a bucketload of mp3s and a lot of me talking shit, because if you ask me, there hasn’t been enough of that around here in the last couple of months. a lot of youtube greatness, but not enough of me talking shit.
in the meantime head over to r&d and check out their last issue before they update it with the new one – and while you are there have a dig around the mixes section to find hidden gems from mountains in the sky, hey convict! and will holland aka quantic among many many others. these guys is good guys.
while i’m gone, you have homework. get your hands on mccartney ii:
apply liberally to effected areas twice daily. if problem persists, please see a doctor in the seventh dimension.
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oh, one more thing. does anyone want a faux pas t-shirt? cos i might be getting on to that soon.
the pixies are in australia at the moment. they are a very important band, who invented music, and also invented time and space. many may previously have believed that the pixies emerged as a by-product of the conjunction of time and space, but it turns out that they actually predate material existence, as evidenced by the phenomenal potency of their musical importance. i remember the first time i heard a pixies song, it was soon after that that i began to perceive the seventh dimension.
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/// New 6-track Vanderbilt EP features two Faux Pas tracks plus remixes by Crumbs, Aoi, Pasobionic and Lewis CanCut. Its a free download, get it here.
/// My album Noiseworks – featuring “Vanderbilt”, “Chasing Waterfalls” and “Silver Line” – is available here.
/// I’ve been working on remixes for local bands Rat vs Possum, Flying Scribble and Akimbo. These are good people.
/// I’ve started making some new songs – if you want to have a sneak peek at what they sound like, here is the place to start.
Tim Shiel lives in Melbourne. He makes music under the name FAUX PAS, and is also a broadcaster on public radio station 3RRR FM. This blog began in 2005.
1981: Born in Melbourne Australia, life feels empty and without meaning
2005: FAUX PAS created – life still meaningless
2010: Tim writes brand new three-line biography
Press photos:
“Cool Quotes”
“Psychedelic. Balearic. Straight up pop. Call it what you want, this is memorable music.” keytarsandviolins
“Lush, dreamy future pop that just begs you to dive in headfirst, your heart in close second. Just be careful how many times you dip in – you might find yourself blissfully lost in here.” mess+noise
“Impressive elastic strands of plaited sense associations; extract of flashy disco, pastoral swoon and computer exploration.” threethousand
“A total cottage industry – one guy recording, pressing and releasing his own music – and it’s an example of how to do it right from the bottom up.” Stylus
“A manic journey of sounds, bound by neither genre nor era.” Beat
“Cuts-and-pastes big samples with delicately rendered instrumentation. A party jam. Four stars.” Pitchfork
