Black Ringo

Sometimes, The Meat Beetles' stream-of-semi-consciousness approach yields unexpected, unpredictable results. This one started out with a sample of Billy Graham blathering about "why The Beatles stay on top" and evolved into a treatise on bigotry and ignorance. Actually it is kind of fitting given that Billy's son, Franklin, (who was sent to Iraq by the Bush administration to promote the christianist lifestyle as "normal") has, like a true bigot, referred to Islam as an "evil and wicked religion". The filthy little puke must have gone over big in the Islamic world!
For the record, while The Meat Beetles find the very idea of worshiping an invisible guy in the sky rather peculiar, they are absolutely opposed to bigotry and intolerance against people simply because they may subscribe to a different superstition than someone else.

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Blood, Brother

Although recent Meat Beetles material belies a fairly high degree of planning and structure, there was a time when the Slop-Tops took a more serendipitous approach. For this 1987 recording they simply patched the earphone output of a portable television into a tape recorder and turned on the set. It turned out that there was a Burt Reynolds movie on at the time (they never found out the title). They then added some rather dense, noisy tracks of their own and, voila, the result was this bit of audio swamp gas. By the way, The Meat Beetles found a MySpace page claiming to be that of Reynolds. Maybe, maybe not. Click here to see for yourself.

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Ann, The Queen of Men

"Guest vocals" by Ann Coulter. 


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The Mating Call of the Male Uglo-American

S-E-X! Everyone likes it, even those who claim not to. Even The Meat Beetles like it. In fact, one of them has actually had sex and hopes to do "it" again someday.
Once again, the samples in this one were acquired at the "365 Days Project" (see the May 16 post of "Ree Baba 1999" for a link to the archive of this wonderful endeavor at UBU Web). The main vocals are by Eric Weber, the "How-To-Pick-Up-Girls Guru" of the '70s. There are also bits from Joe Aufricht and a public service hotline recording.
This is one of a series of explorations by The Meat Beetles of the traditional music of Uglo-America. See the May 3 post of "The King Of Uglo-America" for more Uglo-American music.

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Ree Baba 1999

Here's a bit of good ol' fun! No politics, not even any intelligible words (at least not for English-speakers). Just sonic weirdness to put a smile on your face. The vocals here are by India's Sonik Omi, with additional contributions from John Wells & Jill House, and Merv & Merla. The Meat Beetles took all of this audio mayhem and added their own beats and squiggles.
All of the samples in this one were acquired through the legendary "365 Days Project" (archived at Ubu Web--click here to visit).
By the way, there is a "365 Days 2" going on all this year at the WFMU site. Click here to visit.

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Global War (Now In Progress)

Jerry Falwell died today. While the Meat Beetles would not wish death on anyone, and while we feel for his friends and family, let's face one fact: The world is a slightly less hateful place this evening. Falwell was a leading exponent of bigotry and intolerance in this society. He was an ardent supporter of the apartheid government in South Africa. His contempt for the liberal/secular principles on which America was founded ran so deep that he even went so far as to say that the we Americans got what was coming to us on September 11, 2001. Despicable!
About this song: This was The Meat Beetles' first sample-based piece, recorded in 1986. They thought it would be fun to record a Falwell sermon off TV and play it backwards to see if there were back-masked Satanic messages. Are there? Decide for yourself. In 1986 The Meat Beetles did not have access to the computer technology that they use today--just a 4-track cassette recorder and a portable (Radio Shack) cassette recorder. You can hear the tape stopping and starting in places. And what the heck is a "tomosexual"? As with other early Meat Beetles recordings, this one has a lot of rough edges, but we thought it would make a fitting farewell to Falwell. Bye, Jerry, and lots of luck trying to push that camel through a needle's eye!

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Mr. Airstream

The sound quality on this one is not very good--lots of unintentional distortion and tape noises--but it was included here because it is one of the earliest Meat Beetles compositions in existence. In 1987, one of the Meat Beetles was on "vacation" in Florida (The Meat Beetles do not find any enjoyment in visiting Florida, and they live in Georgia, which should tell you a lot!). He (she?) was listening to talk radio (a favorite pastime of all the Meat Beetles) and heard this call on the Bob Lasssiter show, in Tampa. She (he?) was fortunate enough to already be taping the show (at least one Meat Beetle has a recording device going at almost any minute of any day). He (she?) took the tape back to the other Meat Beetles and they immediately set about editing and adding other sounds.

This is pre-digital Meat Beetles--no computers, no sophisticated processing facilities, just two tape recorders with "pause " buttons.

In case you can't make it out, what you are listening to is a guy calling a talk show host and threatening to call the police on him because he spoke disrespectfully of Ronald Reagan and Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker. Perhaps the gentleman had a propane leak in his Airstream?

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Backwards Devil Music, Part 666

More music about music. The Meat Beetles were so pleased with the contribution Mike Mills made to "F-Word # 9" (see May 2 post) that they invited him back to do the vocal track for another piece. This is pure Mills, doing what he does best--making stuff up and hearing things in rock music that only he can hear. As the guy in the above picture (© 1989 Chick Tracts) says, "Rock, rock, rock, rock with the rock!"

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A Different Kind Of Fun With Sound

Except this isn't fun at all. It's deadly fucking serious! Courageous vocals: Several British and American World War 2 veterans (from BBC series "The World At War"). Cowardly vocals: George W. Bush (couldn't even fulfill his commitment to a champagne National Guard unit that was created to keep rich kids out of the draft!).

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Stink Beat

Here's one The Meat Beetles did just for fun. No message here...or is there? Vocals are by former NFL referee, Art Holst, and by Del Close and John Brent from their legendary album Learn Basic Hip, which The Meat Beetles acquired from the web site, Basic Hip Digital Audio. There's also a quick cameo by Ed "Kookie" Burns.

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The King Of Uglo-America

One day, a year or two ago, one of the Meat Beetles was "surfing" the "net" when he (she?) stumbled upon a site featuring audio clips of hate-radio personality, Rush Limbaugh (or, as The Meat Beetles call him, Rush Limp Cock). Among these clips was a whole section of Limbaugh stammering and stuttering on the air. The Meat Beetle was immediately struck by the rhythmic quality of these utterances. She (he?) downloaded some clips and played them for the other Meat Beetles. They all agreed that these clips were just too good to NOT use in a sound collage. This is the result.

As you listen you should keep in mind that these sounds are exactly as Rush made them on the air. Other than slight treatments to make them match the rhythm of the piece, no editing was performed on these clips.

The Meat Beetles are left with two questions about Limp Cock: (1) How can someone so wrong, so full of hate and bigotry continue to maintain an audience of more than six or eight sociopathic malcontents? (2) How did someone so utterly incapable of speaking coherently land a radio show in the first place?

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F-Word Number 9

The Meat Beetles are fascinated by the strange belief that listening to rock music will turn kids into devil worshipers. This is one of several songs we have recorded as a result of this fascination. The vocals on this one are by James Dobson, Susan Baker (wife of James "The Election-Stealing Scumbag" Baker), Mike Mills, and Bob Larson. For the record, it is the unanimous opinion of The Meat Beetles that, when a child commits horrible acts after listening to a song, then that child has already been damaged by one or more of the adults in his/her life. You can't blame your failure as a parent on Judas Priest.

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Backwards Devil Music, Part 13

This recording, from about 1992, represents one of the first attempts by the Meat Beetles to create music without actually using any musical instruments. All sounds used here were either from cassette recordings of radio and TV broadcasts, or from vinyl records spun by hand on a turntable, all augmented by judicious use of electronic processing devices. This is a big hunk of noise, clocking in at just under 23 minutes. Don't listen to this in the dark! And be warned: There is some language (f-words and such) in this one that some may find offensive. Also, the sound quality on this one is a bit sketchy--lots of hiss--but that's the nature of the cassette beast.


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Holy You-Know-What!

Did you know that Bill O'Reilly saved Sponge Bob? That he threatens to "whack" women "around"? That after al Qaeda operatives hit you with poison darts they will make their escape (into the Amazon!) in ethanol vehicles? Well all of that and more is true, according to O'Reilly, who did the lead vocals for this song. Enjoy, but listen at low volume, lest you wish to be paid a visit by Fox Security!
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