One band I’ve been collaborating with (floating member of) for the past 10 or 15 years (I lost count years ago, it’s a haze) is Big City Orchestra.

Hundreds of members of the BCO collective are scattered around the world, but the core, brain trust if you will, is located in the greater San Francisco bay area. In 2005 I was living in San Francisco and was able to collaborate on two live shows and a couple of radio shows. This is one of the live shows…

Welcome to an afternoon performance with Big City Orchestra, April 17, 2005, in the middle of San Francisco’s Union Square. Cast included: dAS, Ninah Pixie, Jesse Burson, and myself.

I remember the blistering heat, my needle skipping on the turntable when blasts of wind hit, and I remember a suburban yuppie looking couple staring at us and shaking their heads. Sure, we suck, but we suck well! And yes, towards the end, that’s a cover of The Beatles’ Fixing a Hole.

A surreal Saturday afternoon, and a fun one with friends new and old…

To visit the Moon you’ll need your passport along with a Moonlanding Deed if you own property on the Moon.

Here are my credentials. Feel free to use them on your next trip, just don’t say anything to Moon officials as I could get in big trouble!

Here are some of the records we played at the show…

Friendly Persuasion: March 5, 2010 #247
Andre Brasseur – The Duck [Andre Brasseur & his Multi-Sound Organ]
Paul Mille et son Orchestre – Organaboe [Special Club] compilation
The Jeff Wayne Space Shuttle – Apes’ Shuffle from “Planet of the Apes” [Themes from Star Trek & Planet of the Apes]
Orchester Werner Muller – Bodybuilding [The Strip Goes On]
Chakachas – Jungle Fever [Jungle Fever]
Zoo – Tupamaros [7"]
Claude Dubois – Evolution (excerpt) [Dubois]
Jean Pierre Ferland – Pas Maintenant [7"]
Pop Concerto – Pop Concerto [Pop Concerto]
Francois de Roubaix – Judo [L'homme orchestre] soundtrack
Gary Cole and his G.T. Hobo’s – Baa Laughter [Anagram Jam] compilation
Les Charlots – Quand je pense a toi [7"]
Jean Dinardo et son Groupe les W – New Times Rock [7"]
Normand Gelinas – Cecilia [Butterfly]
The Corporation – ya ta TA-ya ta TA (ya ta TA-TA-TA) [A "Sound Contemporary Musical Investment"]
The Orient Express – For A Moment [The Orient Express]
Masking Sound – Une fille comme ca (Instrumental) [7"]
Jacques Alexandre – Ma Venus de Milan [Jacques Alexandre]
Patcho – Patcho [7"]
Annie Cordy – Je vends des robes [7"]
Jenny Rock – J’aime tous les garcons [7"]
Ananda Shankar – Dancing Drums [Sitar Beat Volume 2] compilation
Keith Papworth – Hard Hitter [Music DeWolfe Volume 1] compilation
The MPB Mix – Light My Fire [Ultimate British Breaks and Beats] compilation
Les Charlots – Sois erotique [7"]
Orchester Werner Muller – Femme Femme [The Strip Goes On]
Robert Charlebois – Phebus et boree [Un gars ben ordinaire]
The Free Pop Electronic Concept – Chewing Gum Delirium [A New Exciting Experience]
Daniel Gerard – Sexologie (enchainement) [Atmosphere]
The Piranha Sounds – La turbie Pirhanienne [Midnight Massiera] compilation
Georges Tremblay et ses Brass – Gin Tonic [Epices, coeur et cuivres]
Michel Legrand – O-No-Ma-To-Pe [La dame dans l'auto aves des lunettes et un fusil] soundtrack
Zanini – Wana Nene Wana Nene (Y’en a plus) [7"]
Enzo Bontempi – Italian Spiderman Theme [7"]
Les Lutins – La Junglomanie [Les Lutins Vol. 2 - en Orbite]
Maria Sandra – Patropi [7"]
Bazooka – Dada Dodo (version instrumentale) [7"]
Marc Aryan – Liberte [7"]
Ultimate Breaks & Beats – It’s Just Begun [Instrumentals Volume 1]
The Delta Rhythm Section – Nassau Strut [7"]
The Peppers – Doctor Music [7"]
Pop Concerto – Blue Square [Pop Concerto]
Dimension 70 – Dimenson 70 [Sounds of Dimension 70]
Hubert – Lola [7"]
Henry Mancini and his Concert Orchestra – Peter Gunn (new version) [Symphonic Soul]
Ook-Piks – Rat Race [Rabotage avec les Ook-Piks]
Les & Larry Elgart – Thunder Shake [Elgart au Go-Go]
Manny Corchado – Pow-Wow [7"]
The Mind Expanders – Love Syndrome [What's Happening]
Le 25e Regiment – V E N U S [7"]
Maryka – Hold Up [7"]
Joanna – Hold-Up Inusite [7"]
Giselle et Julien – Je T’adore [7"]
Jean-Yves Desjardins et Christiane Galipeau – Le Sexe Feminin [Ton sexe et l'autre]
Jodie Foster – La vie c’est chouet [7"]
Les P’tites Souris du Pere Noel (Tony Roman) – Le Spa [7"]
Richard de Bordeaux et Daniel Beretta – La drogue [7"]
King Set – Jezebel [7"]

these two songs were not played at the show, but they make a nice ending…

Plastic Ono Band – Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking For A Hand In The Snow) [7"]
Aphrodite’s Child – Break [666]

with ids from Poupée, Bulldog Brannigan, Dimas, Flipped Out, Hornytoad McSlade, Loco Luiz, The Lounge King, Naomi Hall, and Pepe LeMoko.

Live shows are every Friday from 3pm to 6pm (Eastern).
Shows are archived online for the current week only.
The show is replaced each week by the newest episode.
More info here.

In 1988 when I first heard of The 45 King I was trying to make beats in my bedroom with an old 4-track (remember the porta models), a realistic mixer (yea the cheapo radio shack kind), a belt-drive turntable (where you had to push extra hard to get the record moving while trying to scratch), and a Roland D-50 keyboard (which had a top sample rate of 22.5). I sucked terribly, but I wish I would have saved tapes of my experiments, I could have shared them for a laugh. The earliest thing I have is from 1990 and maybe I’ll share that one day soon.

The 45 King. In the school of beat producers, The 45 King was a major influence for my own music. He always seemed to find the perfect breaks. Dropping his name in the same sentence as, Ultimate Beats and Breaks is something I’ve done on quite a few occasions.

Caught this video today on Crate Kings.

You really need to see this one too…

The Bran Flakes appear for the 3rd time on the Secret Mix Tape project with the song Wonder.

Visit Secret Mix Tape and download the song here,
http://www.secretmixtape.com

“Secret Mix Tape is an ongoing compilation curated by Mental Monkey Records. Every week on the Secret Mix Tape website, we will be offering listeners a new Single of The Week for free download.”

The original song Wonderland was an outtake from our 2009 album I Have Hands on Illegal Art and Wonder is it’s remix.

Download this song for free through March 8, 2010. After March 8, it will be available from itunes.com.

Past Bran Flakes songs that have appeared on Secret Mix Tape have been: Ham Bone, The Goose, and Wonderland.

Secret Mix Tape is in search of your songs to feature. Contact them here, http://www.secretmixtape.com/about.html

This is the first post in an ongoing series of packages that arrive at my doorstep.

Today’s arrival hurts a little bit…

Di Marie in Athens, Georgia sent me the album, “Strawberry Shortcake – Live”.

On the carboard mailer she writes:

Did not have it, but… I will sample it for Bran Flakes songs and then take it down the street and leave it by my bus stop and see who picks it up and takes it home.

I played it, but couldn’t get through the entire LP. I was planning on encoding a few songs to MP3 to share, but trust me dear readers, you don’t want to hear this.

If you must listen, in 2003, Suzanne Baumann shared two songs, including the overly sweetened Strawberry Rap on 365 Days. Thankfully, because two songs are online I don’t have to spend time encoding songs like Celebration for you! Unless of course, some demented soul requests it in the comments.

One interesting note is that the amazing Flo & Eddie (c’mon you know, The Turtles, Mothers of Invention, and so on) produced 4 Strawberry Shortcake albums in the 1970s. This however is not one of them.

It is nice when the postman comes to your door, rings the bell, and laughs as he reads the “DO NOT return” on the package. If only he knew what horror lurked beneath the cardboard.

Thanks Di Marie! And thanks for the candies too!