11 September 2013 Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Cult movie actress / burlesk artist / convicted felon / naive outsider painter / gangster's moll ... the fabulous Liz Renay (1926 - 2007) /

For this Dr Sketchy, Frankie Von Flirter and Violet Strangelove performed and modeled, and the cadaverously elegant Dusty Limits injected a bit of Weimar Republic decadence into proceedings as emcee.

As usual, when the Royal Vauxhall Tavern was dark, candle-lit and gradually filling-up I cast a pagan and taboo spell with some ethereal Mondo Tiki tropical lounge music (the operatic ululations of Peruvian high priestess Yma Sumac, Les Baxter, Martin Denny), gradually cranking up the tempo (and lowering the tone) with bump-and-grind titty shakers and greasy rhythm and blues.  

At Dr Sketchy I also aim for a touch of Continental sophistication, and love to drop in some foreign language exotica. On this night the musical globe-trotting encompassed Japanese (Eartha Kitt’s ultra-kitsch Japanese language version of Rosemary Clooney’s "Come-On-A My House" from her essential 1965 Eartha Kitt in Person at The Plaza live album; a Little Richard cover by the Japanese Elvis, Masaaki Hirao) and even more French chansons than usual, via Brigitte Bardot, Anouk Aimee, Juliette Greco and gravel-voiced German diva Hildegard Knef crooning en francais.

Elsewhere, I also amused myself by weaving in some conceptual / thematic musical connections. For example, I paid tribute to two of my favourite filmmakers: John Waters (by playing a track each by two of his wonderful character actress stalwarts Edith Massey and Mink Stole) and David Lynch (a song from his ghostly angel-voiced chanteuse Julee Cruise; Milt Bruckner’s sleazy instrumental “The Beast” featured in Lynch’s 2001 film Mulholland Drive).  Later on I offered a musical valentine to the divine Jayne Mansfield (my patron saint) by playing “I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield” by Japanese girl band The 5,6,7,8s followed by “That Makes It!” by Mansfield herself (she coos this song in the 1966 B-movie The Las Vegas Hillbillys).

/ "Oooh baby that makes it!" I've almost certainly posted this clip from The Las Vegas Hillbillys already but hell - it's a rancid classick! /

/ The regal Queen Mutha of Rock'n'Roll Little Richard in the 1960s /

I also worked in a topical honour to the perennially fierce Bronze Liberace Little Richard (the king and queen of rock’n’roll) by playing Masaaki Hirao’s Japanese language interpretation of “Lucille” (it rocks!) followed by perhaps the Georgia Peach’s own definitive statement, “The Girl Can’t Help It.” As you've probably already heard, Little Richard announced his retirement last week and reportedly intends to spend his remaining days praying and designing clothes. I revere Little Richard as one of rock’s true pioneering wild men (and someone who injected an unapologetic queer sensibility into rock’s DNA). But when I saw him headline at the 2013 Viva Las Vegas rockabilly weekender (you can read my account here) it was a mesmerising but messy and bittersweet car crash of a concert. 80-year old Little Richard (wheelchair-bound and visibly and audibly ailing) was clearly a performer in decline. For me, this announcement is therefore a relief. His legacy is certainly secure. Let’s hope Little Richard is able to enjoy a serene and well-deserved retirement. 

/ Masaaki Hirao: The face of Japanese Rockabilly /

Back to Masaaki Hirao: I recently acquired an Ace compilation CD of his material called Nippon Rock’n’Roll: The Birth of Japanese Rokabirii 1958 – 1960, containing what the liner notes accurately describe as “raw late 50s live and studio rockers from Japan’s answer to Elvis.” Backed by his crack band All Stars Wagon, Hirao certainly tears through desperate and genuinely tough cover versions of rock’n’roll standards like “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, “Jailhouse Rock”, “Little Darling” and “Jenny Jenny” with verve, style and conviction (usually with the verses in Japanese and the choruses in English), while on heartbreak ballads his teen idol voice soars and throbs sweetly. I live for shit like this! The liner notes give a concise and fascinating social history of the rise and rise of the rockabilly (or rokabirii as it's called in Japanese) subculture in late 1950s Japan.  (I've learned some useful phrases: for example, rokabirii buumu means “rockabilly boom”; rokabirii zoku means “rockabilly tribe”). The Japanese variation of rockabilly was inevitably distinctive due to both social and musical factors, shaped by its own unique challenges. How, for example, to rebel in a tradition-steeped, conformist culture with a great emphasis on respecting your elders? In terms of roots, Japan obviously had no black American Rhythm & Blues tradition to draw on – but it did have jazz, and a surprising amount of Country and Western bands clad in cowboy garb that had formed to entertain American GIs during the post-WWII occupation, ready to be pressed into action as rock’n’roll combos once popular tastes changed. Wanda Jackson’s “Fujiyama Mama” had been a surprise Japanese hit in 1957 (surely Japanese audiences would have found that song tasteless?); American juvenile delinquent films like Blackboard Jungle and Rebel without a Cause caused a sensation amongst the teen-aged Japanese rokabirii zoku – all paving the way for Masaaki Hirao’s emergence as the face of Japanese rokabirii (and a very pretty face at that). Anyway, I can’t recommend the CD highly enough. Read more about it and listen to some snatches of it on the Ace website. 

Further reading: An attendee of this Dr Sketchy posted this lovely blog about the night. Check it out - it incorporates some great photos of Frankie Von Flirter and a scantily-clad Violet Strangelove (Minnie Mouse has never looked kinkier!). For regular injections of NSFW kitsch, homoerotica and vintage sleaze, follow me on tumblr. 

Jungle Madness - Martin Denny
Tuma (Earthquake) - Yma Sumac
Misirlou - Martin Denny
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Lust - Les Baxter with Bas Sheva
Kizmiaz - The Cramps
Mamma's Place - Bing Day
Egg Man - Edith Massey
Sometimes I Wish I Had a Gun - Mink Stole
Drive-In - The Jaguars
One Monkey Don't Stop No Show - Big Maybelle
Little Queenie - The Bill Black Combo
Where's My Money? Willie Jones
Night Walk - The Swingers
Eight Ball - The Hustlers
I Can't Sleep - Tini Williams and The Skyliners
Wiped Out - The Escorts
I Love the Life I Live - Esquerita
Treat Me Right - Mae West
Night Scene - The Rumblers
Mambo Baby - Ruth Brown
She Wants to Mambo - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Bombora - The Original Surfaris
You're Driving Me Crazy - Dorothy Berry
Here Comes the Bug - The Rumblers
Little Miss Understood - Connie Stevens
Je Me Donne a Qui Me Plait - Brigitte Bardot
Accentuate the Positive - The Bill Black Combo
Come-On-A My House - Eartha Kitt (in Japanese)
La Java Partout - Juliette Greco
La fille de Hambourg - Hildegard Knef
Hand Clapping Time - The Fabulous Raiders
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Welfare Cheese - Emanuel Laskey
Tina's Dilemma - Ike and Tina Turner
Boss - The Rumblers
No Good Lover - Mickey and Sylvia
Lola - Anouk Aimee
Lazy - The Nuns
You're My Thrill (instrumental) - Chet Baker
Up in Flames - Julee Cruise
The Beast - Milt Buckner
Bachelor in Paradise - Ann-Margret
Angel Face - Billy Fury
Whistle Bait - Larry Collins
Lucille - Masaaki Hirao
The Girl Can't Help It - Little Richard
Dragon Walk - The Noble Men
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Cooler Weather (Is A-Comin') - Eddie Weldon
The Big Bounce - Shirley Caddell

Valentine's Day Dr Sketchy Set List 14 February 2013

/ Happy Valentine's Day, Freaks! /

The annual Anti-Valentine’s Day Dr Sketchies always rock – and this year’s was no exception. The Royal Vauxhall Tavern sold-out in advance and it felt really buzzing to play for such a rowdy and enthusiastic capacity crowd. (This was also the first Dr Sketchy since November 2012 – we didn’t do a Christmas one, sadly – so it also felt like a promising start to the New Year).

True to the anti-Valentine theme, the Scottish-accented emcee Ebenezer Valentine was in antagonistic and lairy mode throughout (think: aggressive character out of Trainspotting). The night boasted three models and performers:  the exquisite showgirl deluxe Annette Bette; Violet Strangelove performed two tableaux vivants that fit in with the anti-Valentine’s theme: angrily popping balloons in the first, then eating Häagen-Dazs ice cream straight from the tub and crying in the second; and finally male model Les (he goes by just one name, like Madonna, Prince or Cher, apparently). He posed as the anti-Cupid, armed with a toilet plunger (to pluck-out cupid’s arrows with).

Annette Bettè (a petite Ann-Margret-style redhead) has performed at a few Dr Sketchy’s before and is always good value. She certainly didn’t disappoint this time. In fact, she was wilder and more abandoned than ever! She emerged onstage wearing a sensational pink rubber dress with a heart print motif, moodily smoking a cigarette (the smoking ban be damned!). Her undulating dance climaxed with a big chunk of white cake somehow materialising. Annette crammed it hungrily into her mouth and then – in uncontrollable delight – began mashing the cake into her cleavage before flinging handfuls of cake and frosting into the startled audience, and then finally stripping down to just her g-string and heart-shaped red pasties. Brilliant! (Before the next act Dr Sketchy promoter Clare Marie had to sweep up the crumb-y debris off the stage floor).

At Home with Mamie Van Doren. Doesn't this photo have a Diane Arbus vibe? Every aspect is so pristine: her platinum blonde bouffant hair, her white dress and pumps, the all-white Atomic-era minimalist decor of her living room. But there's a subliminal bat squeak of alienation about the photo (maybe the way Mamie is isolated in the shot, emphasising her loneliness) that evokes Arbus. It reminds me a bit of this:

/ Blaze Starr at Home. Photographed by Diane Arbus in 1964 /

Anyway, anyone who follows this blog in even the most perfunctory way knows that the luscious Mamie Van Doren is essential to my aesthetic philosophy (my pantheon also includes the likes of Jayne Mansfield, Esquerita, Ann-Margret, Serge Gainsbourg, Eartha Kitt and Ike and Tina Turner). I play at least one track by her every time I DJ anywhere. I’ve already done a bit of a Valentine to La Mamie on this blog before, but while I was going through some ancient files on my PC I stumbled across this tribute I wrote in 2007. At the time a Gawker-style London website was due to launch and they were looking for potential writers. They were asking us to write a series of short blog entries on pretty much anything as sample pieces for their consideration. The website never got off the ground and the two guys behind it were prats (in other words, I didn't get shortlisted!). But I wrote this:

In the fifties Mamie Van Doren was the bullet bra’d, tight-sweatered reigning starlet of B movies. Her film titles alone tell their own story: Sex Kittens Go to College, The Las Vegas Hillbillies, Voyage to the Planet of Pre-Historic Women. Think women-in-prison flicks, lurid juvenile delinquent dramas (“desperate stabs from the jukebox jungle!”), low-budget sexploitation, the drive-in circuit.

Discovered by Howard Hughes, the platinum blonde starlet was groomed as a Marilyn Monroe successor. Don’t dismiss Van Doren as another Monroe manquée, though: she exuded her own sleazy, rock’n’roll appeal,  portraying tough pony- tailed teenaged bad girls well into her late 20s.

Now 77 (she's now actually 82) , Van Doren is more than the Jayne Mansfield who survived to old age. The woman who, in the 1960s, penned salacious kiss-and-tell memoirs like My Naughty, Naughty Life and I Swing now blogs about current events and politics. She’s a wise, witty and incisive writer, and maintains her own entertaining website herself.

Van Doren’s blogs are anti Iraq, anti Bush, impeccably left wing, but as a younger woman she considered herself a Republican. Her political awakening came when, her film career long snuffed out, she travelled to the frontlines of Vietnam in the early 70s to entertain American troops and witnessed horrors.

Today Van Doren seems blissfully unconcerned about acting her age. She continues to party at Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion. On her website she sells autographed "nipple prints" (she applies lipstick to her nipple and blots it into paper) and posts her own home-made soft porn short films. The "dumb blonde" is having the last laugh.

/ No one comes off well being compared to Marilyn Monroe. Ideally the likes of Van Doren and her contemporary Jayne Mansfield would be appreciated as talents in their own right /

I’ve probably posted this clip before, but it captures Mamie in her fleshy, blowsier 1960s element so here it is again. I played “Take It Off” by The Genteels (one of the archetypal tittyshaking tunes) towards the end of the night while Les the male model posed. Here’s Mamie shaking it like a Poloroid to it in the 1964 film 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt.

Another fun musical number (and another great acrylic wighat) from 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt. Boy, this movie looks rancid.

 

Jungle Madness - Martin Denny
Là-bas C'est Naturel - Serge Gainsbourg
Vírgenes del Sol - Yma Sumac
Black and Tan Fantasy - Duke Ellington
Safari - The El Capris
I Can't Sleep - Tini Williams and The Skyliners
The Slouch - Ray Gee and His Orchestra
Kansas City - Ann-Margret
Spring, Sprang, Sprung - Jack Fascinato
Begin the Beguine - Sammy Davis Jr
Commanche - The Revels
You'd Better Stop - LaVerne Baker
Wiped Out - The Escorts
Baby Come Back - Esquerita
He's the One - Ike and Tina Turner
Torture Rock - Rockin' Belmarx
Torture - Kris Jensen
There'll Be No Goodbyes - Susan Lynne
Night Scene - The Rumblers
Bewildered - Shirley and Lee
Endless Sleep - Jody Reynolds
Strollin' - The Shades
That's A Pretty Good Love - Big Maybelle
Khrushchev Twist - Melvin Gayle
Rompin' - Jerry Warren
Cherry Pink - The Bill Black Combo
Shangri-la - Spike Jones New Band
Make Love to Me - June Christy
The Beast - Milt Buckner
You're My Thrill - Dolores Gray
Misirlou - Martin Denny
Kiss - Marilyn Monroe
Unchain My Heart - Florence Joelle
Madness - The Rhythm Rockers
Jaguar - The Jaguars
Bang Bang - Janis Martin
Drums A Go-Go - The Hollywood Persuaders
Dragon Walk - The Noblemen
Boss - The Rumblers
I Walk Like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
Take It Off - The Genteels
Seperate the Men from the Boys - Mamie Van Doren
The Strip - The Upsetters
Ice Man - Filthy McNasty
A Guy Who Takes His Time - Mae West
Big Man - Carl Matthews
Pussycat Song - Connie Vannett
Sweet Little Pussycat - Andre Williams
My Pussy Belongs to Daddy - Faye Richmonde
Let's Go Sexin' - James Intveld
Little Girl - John and Jackie
Nosey Joe - Bull Moose Jackson
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
Crawfish - Johnny Thunders and Patti Palladin
Pass the Hatchet - Roger and The Gypsies

20 September 2012 Dr Sketchy Set List

/ Bettie Page demonstrating how to fill out a pair of fishnet tights /

This Dr Sketchy (held at the ever-dissolute and nicotine-stained Royal Vauxhall Tavern) represents my first time DJ’ing since 1) Bestival and 2) getting back from my long weekend in Paris. (I might well do a separate blog on my Parisian misadventures). I’d gone straight into work on the Monday morning after getting back from Paris late Sunday night, and had a really draining week. So I was pretty dead on my feet and mellow at this Dr Sketchy.

For this night, Dr Sketchy’s own glamorous promoter / stage manageress Clare Marie was on emcee duties. The burlesque performer was curvaceous redhead Violet Strangelove (who doesn't appear to have a website for me to point you towards, sadly). And as an added bonus, the bill included a special musical guest: Gracie and The G-Spots. With effervescent blonde Gracie on smoky vocals (she can really belt it out!) accompanied by keyboardist and saxophonist, they tore through some great jazz and cabaret standards (“Whatever Lola Wants”, “Stormy Weather”, “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps”) plus some more raunchy material I assume was original compositions (songs about lesbian sex, and how to not lose your page in Fifty Shades of Grey while masturbating!).

Early on when the RVT was still filling up and I was easing my way into things with exotica and lounge music, I played “Misirlou” by Martin Denny and “Les amours perdues” by Serge Gainsbourg. Just to be perverse, am posting videos for two different interpretations of these tracks!



/ Korla Pandit performing "Misirlou" on his TV Show Korla Pandit's Adventures in Music in the fifties /

I’ve got to thank Moses Longpiece for turning me onto Korla Pandit (I have no CDs by him, which I clearly need to rectify). Eerie, sensual and hypnotic, the enigmatic Pandit was one of the pioneering godfathers of exotica, to be mentioned in the same breath as Denny, Les Baxter and Yma Sumac. In the early 1950s he created a sensation on American TV with his own daily 15-minute programme Korla Pandit’s Adventures in Music. Every episode featured Pandit (sporting his signature jewelled-turban) seated at his Hammond organ (often playing piano simultaneously), inscrutably silent but wielding his dreamy liquid doe eyed-gaze at the viewer while he played. Apparently the sight and sound of this mysterious Indian musician cast a potent spell on his audience, especially love-struck housewives. It’s not hard to see why: in surviving clips, the dusky and androgynously pretty Pandit packs a genuine erotic charge. (Thankfully, an amazing amount of Adventures in Music seems to have survived; you can find a treasure trove of Pandit in performance on Youtube).

All of this is already fascinating enough. In 2001, though, Los Angeles Magazine published an article entitled “The Many Faces of Korla Pandit” which tore the lid off the facade Pandit had scrupulously maintained until his death in 1998. The piece revealed that Pandit was in fact a light-skinned African-American born John Roland in Missouri in 1921. To bypass the racism of the period, he re-christened himself as the Mexican “Juan Rolando” and played Latin music. Later on, he found fame by adopting the jasmine-scented persona of New Delhi-born Indian organist Korla Pandit – and kept his secret intact for decades, even from close intimates. How incredible! In this regard, Pandit has much in common with Anglo-Indian Hollywood actress Merle Oberon, who denied her mixed race origins and would pretend her dark-skinned sari-clad Indian mother was her maid, or notorious literary hoaxster JT LeRoy.

In 1994, not long before his death, Tim Burton cast Pandit as himself for a memorable cameo appearance in Ed Wood. (The only Tim Burton-Johnny Depp film I’ve ever liked). It makes for a nice epitaph for Korla Pandit. 

 

Read more about Pandit here, or on his own official website.

My reverence for quintessential French beatnik chanteuse  Juliette Greco is pretty well-documented. Here is the high priestess of French chanson in 1959, at the height of her witchy Morticia Addams beauty, singing the great Serge Gainsbourg song “Les amours perdues” while reclining on a giant slowly-revolving record, her drowned Ophelia hair spread out like long black seaweed beneath her. Exquisite!


Juliette Gréco - Les amours perdues (1959) by sylvainsyl


Finally: I posted this blog using the new blogger.com interface. What a nightmare! Like Facebook with Timeline, the change to the new interface had long been threatened and wasn’t optional. It was simple, elegant, functional and user-friendly before. Creating this post took about five times longer than normal – ugh! I’d be curious to hear how other bloggers on here are finding it.

Moon Mist - Les Baxter
Xtabay - Yma Sumac
Misirlou - Martin Denny
Monkey Bird - The Revels
Les amours perdues - Serge Gainsbourg
Run - Jeri Southern
Cocktails for Two - Claude Duphiney
I Remember You - Chet Baker
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes - The Mallet Men
Drive-In - The Jaguars
Fever - Nancy Sit
The Mexican - The Fentones
Little Ole Wine Drinker Me - Robert Mitchum
One More Beer - The Earls of Suave
When I Get Low I Get High - Florence Joelle's Kiss of Fire
Frenzy - The Hindus
Madness - The Rhythm Rockers
Jim Dandy - Sara Lee and The Spades
Wiped-Out - The Escorts
You Done Messed Around and Made a Mean Woman Mad - Julia Bates
Screwdriver - Luchi
Night Scene - The Rumblers 8 Ball - The Hustlers
La valse des si - Juliette Greco
The Immediate Pleasure - John Barry (Beat Girl soundtrack)
Willow Weep for Me - Nina Simone
Night Walk - The Swingers
Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby? Ann Richards
The Beast - Milt Buckner
Love for Sale - Eartha Kitt
Margaya - The Fender Four
Caterpillar Crawl - The Strangers
Oo Ba La Baby - Mamie Van Doren
Scorpion - The Carnations
Sick and Tired - Lula Reed
I Walk like Jayne Mansfield - The 5,6,7,8s
That Makes It - Jayne Mansfield
Baby Blues Rock - Carl Simpson
Are You Nervous? The Instrumentals
Dance with Me, Henry - Ann-Margret
The Flirt - Shirley and Lee
Yogi - The Bill Black Combo
He's The One - Ike and Tina Turner
Let's Twist Again - Johnny Hallyday
Sweetie Pie - Eddie Cochran
Strollin' After Dark - The Shades
Mack the Knife - Hildegard Knef
Begin the Beguine - Billy Fury
One Mint Julep - Sarah Vaughan
I Was Born to Cry - Johnny Thunders and Patti Paladdin
Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby - Elvis Presley
Dragon Walk - The Noble Men
Beat Party - Ritchie and The Squires
Get Back, Baby - Esquerita