Nutmeg – A Beginners Guide to Elvish
Beatallica – Sgt. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band
Devo Spice – My Atari
Jonathan Coulton – Re:Your Brains
Simon Mathewson – Numbers Rap
Cirque du So What – Staying Fat
the great Luke Ski – WalkingSilly
MC Frontalot – It Is Pitch Dark
The RiffTones – Sparkly Vampires
Mega Ran – Infinite Lives (feat. D&D Sluggers)
TV’s Kyle – Barney The Purple Ranger
Robert Lund & Spaff.com – Superpowers Go Ballistic Execute Bin Laden (again)
Insane Ian – Super-Powers
Cirque du Sp What – How To Speak ShoEboX
Moneyshot Cosmonauts – Thank You Gilligan
Kobi LaCroix – I Have A Tuba
Background and closing music was Furious Freak by Kevin Macleod of Incompetech.com.
Kevin Mcleod’s music is released under the Creative Commons 3.0: By Attribution license.
Most of Jonathan Coulton’s music is Licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0: Attribution-NonCommercial Unported license.
Some songs on today’s show were courtesy of The Funny Music Project.
All other songs on today’s show, played with permission of the artist or band.
Category: anonradio
Who’s TheGiant
Hello there, I’m TheGiant, but you can call me Giant if you prefer, or anything else really, just don’t call me late for dinner.
On my show, you will hear, nerdy, funny, and weird tunes, but also sometimes indie tunes from bands and artists I like. Sometimes I might throw in something from my Old Time Radio collection.
Tune in Fridays at 23:00 UTC
Also, if you like what you hear, be sure to support the artists and bands I play, or the sites where I discovered them. Here’s a list (which I will update as I find them)
In most cases I either have written (by email) permission from the artist or band, or they give blanket permission on their website.
Artists/Bands
Beatallica
Devo Spice
Dual Core
Drozerix
Jonathan Coulton
MC Frontalot
MC Lars
Mega Ran (formerly known as Random)
Nutmeg
The RiffTones (the guys from RiffTrax)
Shaeffer the Darklord
Simon Mathewson
zero-project
zircon
Where I find some of the music
Free Music Archive
The Funny Music Project
Overclocked ReMix
The Mod Archive
TalentCast
I may sometimes have instrumentals playing behind me when I talk these are courtesy of Kevin McLeod of Incompech.com or zero-project
Most of Jonathan Coulton’s music is Licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0: Attribution-NonCommercial Unported license
Kevin McLeod’s music is Licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0: By Attribution license.
zero-project is Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0/4.0 Unported license
Tales From SYL Ranch – 2017-03-05
On Sunday’s Tales From SYL Ranch, we bring you a generous collection of filk songs.
Wikipedia defines filk music as a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has been active since the early 1950s, and played primarily since the mid-1970s.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy says that filk music is the greatest achievement in the history of lifekind. It is creative, often amusing, and a balm for the soul.
I’ve filled the entire two hours, such that there isn’t any room for even introductions.
The tracklist is:
- “Banned From Argo” by Leslie Fish and the Dehorn Crew. This is from my private collection, from a 1977 LP. The sound quality leaves everything to be desired.
- “The Saga Begins Live” by “Weird Al” Yankovic
- “PanGalactic Gargle Blaster Blues” by Diana Gallagher
- “The Hero Of Canton” by Bandit Jack Potty
- “The Chef They Call Jayne” by Tom Smith
- “I’m On Firefly” by Tom Smith
- “The Engineer’s Hymn” by Bill Boyd
- “Where, Oh Where, Has C’Thulhu Gone” by Leslie Fish
- “Bones’ Song” by Bill Mills
- “Luke, Don’t Kiss Your Sister” by Captain Bran
- “He’s Dead, Jim” by Julia Ecklar
- “Waking Up Jedi” by Tom Smith
- X-Minus One: “The Green Hills Of Earth”
- “Highly Illogical” by Leonard Nimoy
- “The Tribble Is a Fuzzy Beast” by Leslie Fish
- “The U.S.S. Make Shit Up” by Voltaire
- “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” by William Shatner
- “Dragoncon” by Leslie Fish
- “Mister Anderson” – Tony Fabris
- “The Ballad of Apollo 13” by Julia Ecklar
- “What’s Up Spock?” by Luke Ski
- “The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins” by Leonard Nimoy
- “Theme From Star Trek” by Nichelle Nichols
- “Black Powder & Alcohol” by Leslie Fish
- “Yoda Live” by “Weird Al” Yankovic
Be aware that due to the massive volume of filk songs, I’m only presenting a tiny fraction. I’ve come so close to filling two hours that I don’t even have time for introductions.
Cosmos
Various Authors
In 1933—34, a “round robin” novel, with each successive chapter by a different author, was published in the fanzines Science Fiction Digest & Fantasy Magazine. I first encountered the chapters by A. Merritt and Doc Smith in anthologies of their respective works. It so happens that Doc’s chapter is a direct sequel to Merritt’s, which made it obvious to see what was going on, & led me to suspect the existence of more stories. Continue reading “Cosmos”
Tales From SYL Ranch – 2017-02-26
It’s a serious trip to the groove-yard of forgotten favorites.
In the 1970s, Power Records produced a series of Star Trek audio dramas for children. The stories were released in several different combinations and sometimes included a comic book of the story.
In all, there were eleven episodes. They’re not great, but not horrible. Most were written by Alan Dean Foster. He has numerous novels to his credit. In the 1970s, he novelized the Star Trek animated series in greatly-expanded form. Most recently Foster wrote the Abrams film novelizations.
You have to overlook a few things. The first is the fact that none of the original cast were involved. Most of the actors at least try to sound like the original cast.
You also have to overlook that none of the sound effects nor music are from the original series. Sometimes it’s rather jarring.
These aren’t all the audio drama that Power Records produced. I’ve had to cut a couple for time and will play them in the future.
Sunday’s tracks, in order, are:
- Passage to Moauve
- In Vino Veritas
- The Crier in Emptiness
- The Time Stealer
- To Starve a Fleaver
- The Logistics Of Stampede
- A Mirror For Futility
- A Milo Yiannopoulos ZAP rant (I’m going to lose libertarian friends over this one)
I have also nicknamed the primary TTS voices on the show “Mike” and “Michelle.” Heinlein fans know why.
Tales From SYL Ranch – 2017-02-19
This Sunday’s “Tales From SYL Ranch” (which is live 20:00-22:00 UTC on aNONradio.net) is a “reaction show” — but not the kind you think.
One of my favorite indie film companies, Red Letter Media, does a show called “Best Of the Worst“. The premise is that four of them watch three terrible movies. They then have a round-table discussion where they dissect the awfulness in detail.
(Red Letter Media is responsible for the Plinkett Reviews. If you haven’t watched them, set aside about three hours for the Star Wars reviews. It’s a ride-and-a-half. Your brain will love you for the rest of your life.)
“Best Of the Worst” is not RiffTrax. They train a camera on themselves and talk during the film, but they don’t include it in the show unless it’s particularly amusing. Instead, they just dissect terrible movies.
They’re really terrible. They’re not so bad they’re good … they’re just bad.
Usually, they’re just stultifyingly boring. I should know: I saw most of them when they came out.
Because I’m an old man. And not a fake old man like Mr. Plinkett, but a real old man like Abe Vigoda.
I generally agree with their reviews, however in the last episode they went wildly off the mark. They reviewed a “film” called Space Raiders. This was a Roger Corman production.
If you’re not familiar with him, Corman is a well-known Hollywood producer/director who has about a thousand schlock films to his credit.
In 1980, he released a film called Battle Beyond the Stars. It had a real budget with real effects and real models. They weren’t up to Star Wars standards, but for a Corman film it was an Opus Magnum.
Corman being Corman, he then went on to use the music and visual effects in multiple films during the 1980s.
He shamelessly ripped-off the effects shots. He put them in over and over.
Space Rangers was a film written around a bunch of special effects.
Not having seen Battle Beyond the Stars, the RLM crew were impressed. This much money was astonishing for Corman.
What they didn’t know was that the only new shots in Space Rangers were a few matte paintings.
Battle Beyond the Stars has an interesting score. It was composed by Maestro James Horner.
It sounds like a strange cross between Star Trek – The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I think Corman told Horner he wanted something that sounded like Jerry Goldsmith.
You can easily see why Star Trek II director Nicholas Meyer was attracted to Horner.
The score is one of the most track-complete in my collection. There are different takes, alternate music never used, and some that’s in crappy mono.
In fact, the score is so complete that it runs longer than the length of the show. I’ve had to pull a few tracks — but nothing that really takes away from your enjoyment.
So Sunday, with limited interruption, is the entire score for Battle Beyond the Stars.
(There’s one political rant, though this time a reading of Scott Adams’ blog, “Imaginary News.”)
Join us on “Tales From SYL Ranch” 20:00-22:00 UTC on aNONradio.net to find out what happens when Roger Corman has James Horner money!
Note to Red Letter Media:
When are you going to screen the copies of 1974’s The Wrestler and Alongside Night that I sent you? As always, my expertise in terrible movies remains at your disposal.
Tales From SYL Ranch – 2017-02-12
After a couple of weeks of symphonic scores (and increasingly shrill rants), we dive into warmer waters — only to discover a transvestite in the soup.
It’s Rocky Horror week on Tales From SYL Ranch.
It’s rather pointless to go through the tracklist. The first hour is entirely Rocky Horror, with the songs in the order of the stage play/movie.
The versions of the songs are culled from a number of different sources. “I Can Make You A Man,” for example, comes from the Original Roxy Cast. If you’ve never heard this version, it makes far more sense than that which was filmed.
The mix also goes international in a couple of places.
Beyond the first hour is the few tracks of Shock Treatment that seem to stand to the test of time better than others.
If you’re unfamiliar with it, Shock Treatment is a nominal sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It uses a few of the same characters (played by different actors) and ignores Rocky Horror entirely.
Today they’d call it a “soft reboot.” It’s more aptly an ill-advised attempt to re-capture a cult film’s weirdness that went through so many production problems as to become a mess.
In any case, some of its better tracks are here.
After that, it’s another cult classic: 1980’s Flash Gordon.
For die-hard Flash Gordon fans, there is an easter egg track at the very end. It has nothing to do with Gordon being alive (that would be too easy).
There are a couple of rants. The longest is under two minutes.
As always, the last few minutes are Wookie noises. Last week’s epic fifteen minutes was an accident that will not recur.
Join us for two hours of absolute pleasure with the savior of the universe!
Sunday from 20:00-22:00 UTC on //aNONradio.net//.
The Moon Pool
Abraham Merritt
I have now recorded The Moon Pool, by Abraham Merritt. It was a gruelling effort, requiring more than 10 hours. But that means plenty of shows!
Recordings
- 2017-02-17, HNtW 008, Foreword, Chapters 1—4 (no show on the 14th owing to my error)
- 2017-02-21, HNtW 009, Chapters 5—8
- 2017-02-24, HNtW 010, Chapters 9—11
- 2017-02-28, HNtW 011, Chapters 12—15
- 2017-03-03, HNtW 012, Chapters 16—18, plus introduction by Silverberg to U. of Nebraska Press edition
- 2017-03-07, HNtW 013, Chapters 19 & 20, plus New York Times book review
- 2017-03-10, HNtW 014, Chapters 21—23, plus beginning of Part 3 of Citadel of Lost Ships by Leigh Brackett
- 2017-03-14, HNtW 015, Chapters 24—26, and remainder of Citadel of Lost Ships Part 3.
- 2017-03-17, HNtW 016, Chapters 27—29, and a brief discussion of Auf Zwei Planeten by Kurd Lasswitz, courtesy of Willy Ley.
- 2017-03-21, HNtW 017, Chapters 30—33, and a brief discussion of the powers of two.
- 2017-03-24, HNtW 018, Chapters 34 & 35, concluding The Moon Pool, and Parts 4 & 5 of Citadel of Lost Ships, which thus also concludes.
- 2019-04-02, HNtW 058, Chapters 1—3 of the novelette The Moon Pool, as published in All–Story Weekly, 22 June 1918 (rebroadcast 2020-04-21 to correct order of segments)
- 2019-04-05, HNtW 059, Chapters 4—7, completing the novelette
Tales From SYL Ranch – 2017-01-29
I have what I think is a decent line-up for a premiere show. I have to admit that it took more time than I thought to come up with two hours’ worth of material that hopefully flows.
Unless something changes, here’s what you’ll be hearing:
- The ten minutes before the show is filler of the Star Wars Holiday Special. You probably won’t hear it unless my stream gets cut-to early.
- Original aNONradio Station ID
- “The Following Is Transcribed” announcment
- Original program ID
- “When Twilight Falls On NGC 891” from the film Dark Star.
- Weekly show-opener.
- “Star Wars Main Title – Complete”
- “Princess Leia’s Theme” intruction
- “Princess Leia’s Theme” from the film Star Wars
- “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)” from The Empire Strikes Back
- Figrin D’an And The Modal Nodes perform at the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars
- Original aNONradio station ID
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy entry on the 2016 Presidential Election
- “Journey Of the Sorcerer” by the Eagles
- Original aNONradio station ID
- “The New Empire – Howell Theme”, a Doctor Who theme by Hardwire
- Animal Stories: “Truckin Rhino – The Full Story”, a rare version from the 1980s LP. The current CD version edits the end of the story.
- “Incoming Fighters” from Star Wars
- “Han Solo And The Princess” from The Empire Strikes Back
- “Sail Barge Assault (Alternate)” from Return Of the Jedi
- “Destroying the Death Star” from Star Wars
- “Throne Room and End Credits (Revenge Of The Sith Version)”
- A brief statement on the universe as a computer simulation
- “Main Titles” from the TV series Lost In Space as performed by the Cincinnati Pops
- “Prelude And End Title March” from Superman (1978)
- “Kent Family Theme” from Superman and Superman Returns
- “The Flying Sequence” from Superman.
- “The Big Rescue – Climax and Denouement” from Superman
- Suite From Close Encounters Of the Third Kind
- “The Raider’s March” from Raiders of the Lost Ark, performed by the Boston Pops and conducted by John Williams.
- “John Williams Is the Man” performed by the Valhalla High School Concert Choir
- Original aNONradio station ID
- A word from Rob Hansen on feeding hatred
- “Jerry Springer” by “Weird Al” Yankovic
- “Main Titles” from Doctor Who as performed at the 2010 Proms
- A word from Bill Stone on feeding hatred.
- “Benson, Arizona” from Dark Star, performed by Dominik Hauser
- A statement of the Zero Aggression Principle
- Original aNONradio station ID
- The first few minutes of The Star Wars Holiday Special.
As regards the Holiday Special, I decided that five minutes of Wookie noises would be marginally better than “Doolittle’s Solo” from Dark Star. If there’s any interest, I’ll play the entire 90 minutes of the Holiday Special.
I’m not proud.
Tales From SYL Ranch is live on Sundays from 20:00 – 22:00 GMT at aNONradio (http://anonradio.net).
A Princess of Mars
Edgar Rice Burroughs
(as Norman or Normal Bean)
It’s hard to say anything about Burroughs’ classic yarn, the foundation of the “planetary adventure” genre, that hasn’t been said before, elsewhere, and better. But think! It was the first story he ever sold, and if he had never written any more, would probably still be remembered as a landmark.
This was the first book I read & recorded for this project, and the original recording is quite rough. When I decided to read the two immediate sequels, The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars (all three novels were bound together by the University of Nebraska Press in an attractive omnibus edition entitled Under the Moons of Mars, the title under which “Princess” was serialized in All-Story Magazine), I chose to read all three books in order, and make my re-recording of A Princess of Mars a Patreon exclusive.
Recordings
- HNtW 001, 2017-01-20, Foreword, Chapters 1—4
- HNtW 002, 2017-01-24, Chapters 5—9, plus the beginning of Part 1 of Citadel of Lost Ships by Leigh Brackett
- HNtW 003, 2017-01-27, Chapters 10—13
- HNtW 004, 2017-01-31, Chapters 14—16 and the remainder of Part 1 of Citadel of Lost Ships
- HNtW 005, 2017-02-03, Chapters 17—20 and the beginning of Part 2 of Citadel of Lost Ships
- HNtW 006, 2017-02-07 (repeated 2017-07-07), Chapters 21—23 and the conclusion of Part 2 of Citadel of Lost Ships
- HNtW 007, 2017-02-10, Chapters 24—28 (complete) and the conclusion of Part 2 of Citadel of Lost Ships (repeated)