5 ANIMALS AT THE ZOO
EATING GRASS

Self-released

Play Full Album (realaudio)
Download MP3 zip file [55.4 MB]

28 UNTITLED TRACKS
David Heath
Del City, Okla.


THE KELLY BEAR
CARTOON SHOW

Un-released

Play Entire Show (3 Albums) (realaudio)
Download MP3 zip file [144.1 MB]

DISC ONE: 12 untitled tracks
DISC TWO:  6 untitled tracks
DISC THREE: 4 tracks titled  
"Blues for January"

kellybear42@yahoo.com
MYSTERY DISCS

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."
- Albert Einstein


Everyone is trying to work it, in one form or another, to advance, move up, get that promotion, that girl, that car, that career, fame, blah blah blah. Artists have to work it most of all, trying to convince you that their shit is somehow worthy of your attention, admiration, and, best of all, your money. Even Jandek, that old hermit, was working it all these years, pressing all those records and mailing them out to all those college radio stations and reviewers. The paradox that he presented was his total anonymity behind the persona, which at first glance seems like anti-fame and purity of intention, but he always had Corwood Industries out there placing those enigmatic ads and working it. Now that he's stepped out of the house and ready for the stage, he has lost a major part of the allure but is bringing the attention back to where it should have been all along - the music.

The immense pleasure of operating Weirdsville!, beyond the supreme satisfaction of creating the most unique and best radio station(s) on the planet, is receiving submissions sent in by the unknown musical mutants from around the world. For a lifelong underground and weird music fiend, it's like 365 days of Xmas made Xtra special because 90% of what comes through is impossible to find, never released, or unavailable to even the most osbcure record stores and catalogs. But even these complete no-names are working it to some degree. The packages run the gamut from the professional press kit - complete with folder, reviews, adjective explosion cover letter and one sheets, maybe even an 8x10 glossy - to the loose CDR (band name written in Sharpie) and notebook paper letter asking us to maybe play a track or two. With technology finally placing the means of production in the hands of the proletariat, every freak with a CD burner now runs their own indie micro-label, unleashing a tidal wave of unwanted and unheard recordings to no one who wants to listen. The reclusive, lonely guy down the street emerges as the Charlie Parker of the glockenspiel with a back catalog deeper than the Rolling Stones. And all have the obligatory page on myspace.com. Hell, these days its almost impossible NOT to work it.

It takes a peculiar kind of nut to refuse to play the game and occasionally, they show up in our mailbox. Some strange CDR with an inexplicable cover - or maybe naked - no note, no website, no 1-sheet. Just the tiniest hint of contact info, and the prospect of something wonderful hidden within. These are the sweetest of the forbidden fruit, some of the weirdest weird - the Mystery Discs.

One of the first Mysteries was actually a cassette, La Casa Di Maria - The Weirdsville Tape by The Natural History Museum of Sound. This one came with a little bit of information: the tape was one of four different tapes all recorded at this specific location in Morocco and sent to four people around the world, so the tape we recieved was unique and specific to us. The sounds contained were rather disturbing and eerie - loud metallic clanging and banging, something heavy being scraped across a floor, glass breaking, with a man's voice chanting in a melodic sing-song. After the initial enchantment, I penetrated the veil, got in touch with the artist, Rinus van Alebeek, and thus began a rich correspondence that brought forth several more amazing tapes over the coming years. (The full story of La Casa Di Maria can be found if you scroll down this page).

Over the almost 7 years of Weirdsvile! we have delighted in the occasional mystery disc emerging from the aether, but in the recent glut and backlog of submissions we discovered two new enigmas that caused us to ponder the whole phenomenon and inspired this long-overdue Feature.

5 Animals at the Zoo Eating Grass appears to be the work of David Heath in Del City, Oklahoma. I don't know if 5 Animals the name of his band or the title of the disc, or if the band is 5 Animals at the Zoo and the album is Eating Grass. The CDR comes in an actual jewel case with a full-cover home computer printed cover depicting some tourists gawking at a Hindu Sadhu upside-down with his head buried in the ground (impressive siddhi!). The back cover has some abstract circular pattern (which is repeated on the CDR sticker), 2004 and Made in U.S.A. The music - a strange, constantly shifting schizo mosiac of electronics, noise, metal guitar, loungey exotica, casio circus punk, and phantom organ that on first listen seems like random bits of music strung together but through repeated viewing coalesces into actual non-songs. All-instrumental, the only voice is heard on track 14, where after a creepy horror movie riff the Zookeeper greets the listener: "Hey, sir...Hi...Hello...who's there?". 5 Animals also works some mastering magic, as it is always somehow WAY TOO LOUD no matter where you set your speaker volume. The better to hear you with, my dear...Brilliant.

The Kelly Bear Cartoon Show arrived as a single barely labeled CDR with the note "All tracks untitled"..uh, thanks! After beginning with the End of World, Kelly Bear wishes herself Happy Birthday with a few minutes of voodoo disco beats then takes us back to the 30s with a Rudy-Vallee-at-the-Plaza croon. The rest of the show is stoopid in a Zappian way, a bewildering melange of strange samples from old records, movies, and TV, processed sound and noise, caveman percussion, utter weirdness, a left turn in Albuquerque, and the guest appearances of fake Phillip Glass, the Jesus, and many more. It's all overseen by our falsetto-voiced host Kelly Bear, who I imagine taping the show from the black-light basement rumpus room while chain-huffing whippets in a bongwater-stained Furry costume. As one of the voices notes, "It's just random and incomprehensible..." Two more episodes appeared in the mail, with the third volume containing the four "Blues for January" and a letter letting us know it was all made just for us (and you, our intrepid listeners). We eagerly await the next season.


- Erik Amlee
Head Honcho, Weirdsville! WebRadio
January 2006



FEATURED ALBUM ARCHIVE:
Inner Dialogue
Freddy K. and the Breeze - Random Enforcement
White Zombie - Soul Crusher
E Pak Sa - Encyclopedia of Pon-Chak
Keith Hemmerling - Fairies and Figurines
Bobb Trimble - Jupiter Transmission
William Hung - Inspiration
Dufus - 1:3:1
Jandek - Live at Instal.04
The Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra - Chariots of the Gods?
Ralph Records 10th Anniversary Radio Special
Mystery Discs

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