We Saw a Chicken …

Tag: stampfel

  • woodwork squeaks and …

    Peter Stampfel on freak folk origins.

  • happy easter, with apologies to Irving Berlin

    In Your Easter Vomit
    by Peter Stampfel & Antonia, circa 1970s

    in your easter vomit with all the flies upon it
    you’ll be the drunkest wino in the easter parade
    you’ll be all hung over and when they roll you over
    you’ll be the rankest wino in the easter parade

    on the avenue tenth avenue the
    photographer will snap us and he’ll say that
    you’re like a pile of manure

    fifty pounds of comet
    could not remove the vomit
    and all the flies you’re wearing
    to the easter parade

    Happy Easter … and remember, don’t eat the little “eggs” the bunny leaves on the lawn.

  • in the running

    Almost ‘Best of The Year’ time. In the running are:

    A Hawk and a Hacksaw – The Way the Wind Blows
    A.C. Newman – Souvenir of Canada – EP
    Beck – The Information
    Calexico – Garden Ruin
    Casper & the Cookies – The Optimist’s Club
    Colin Meloy – Colin Meloy Sings Shirley Collins
    Eels with Strings – Live At Town Hall
    Elf Power – Back To The Web
    Erynn Marshall – Calico
    Faun Fables – The Transit Rider
    Grandaddy – Just Like The Fambly Cat
    Grant-Lee Phillips – nineteeneighties
    Hidden Cameras – Awoo
    Joanna Newsom – Ys
    Jolie Holland – Springtime Can Kill You
    King Biscuit Time – Black Gold
    Mayor McCa – Cue Are Es Tea You
    Peter Stampfel – The Jig Is Up
    Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 РOl̩! Tarantula
    Sufjan Stevens – Songs For Christmas – Volume V: Peace
    Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche – Outtakes And Extras From The Illinois Album
    The Be Good Tanyas – Hello Love
    The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
    The Essex Green – Cannibal Sea
    The Flaming Lips – At War With The Mystics
    The Handsome Family – Last Days of Wonder
    The Instruments – Cast A Half Shadow
    The Sadies – In Concert Vol. 1
    The Wailin’ Jennys – Firecracker
    Thom Yorke – The Eraser
    Thomas Dolby – The Sole Inhabitant
    Wendy Arrowsmith – Crying Out
    Yo La Tengo – I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass

    Miraculously, all of them fit on my iPod Nano, so they’ll be in heavy rotation over the next week or so while I decide.

  • tunes I must learn (eventually)

    Not all of these could be classed as banjo tunes, but I’d want to try, anyway:

    • The Coo-Coo Bird (it’s not optional)
    • The Old Plank Road (Uncle Dave’s delivery, which was more demented than the Rounders)
    • Hot Corn, Cold Corn (like HMR; just how does one spell moo’m moo’m moo’m de boo’m boo’m de boo’m?)
    • I’m Going In A Field (Nic Jones style)
    • Bridges & Balloons (Joanna’s song’s just crying out to be covered with a broad Glasgow accent)
    • Needle of Death (too many banjo tunes are too happy)
    • Ghost (the Neutral Milk Hotel one)
    • something by Sufjan (even if Peter Stampfel says he plays banjo kind of boringly)
    • I Love How You Love Me (like Mangum, not Spector)

  • a man of the island

    “I’m not worldly. I’m barely islandly.”
    — Peter Stampfel
    (in have_moicy, 31 Oct 2005)

  • Heeee’s the maaaaan with the goooolden guuuuun…

    Goldfinger, as you’ve never heard it before; on banjo: Gold Finger — Peter Stampfel (live, MP3).