Part II of an Elvis tryptic featuring the King's worst (and therefore greatest)Lost Vegas performance. For extremely obscure trivia buffs: Daniel Abreu used a snippet of this thing in his short, botched crime film, Runaway Dream (2013).

Elvis: Hot Damn Tamale

Elvis trifecta completed. Rhinestone sound collage featuring watery sound fx, copious non-linear beats and plenty of between-song patter from a live performance in Las Vegas that Presley gave in the mid-70s. Skogås, Sweden 2013  

I did one more Elvis thing: a cock-eyed remix of the 1955 hit "Don't".  Unfortunatley the suits at RCA cried foul and Sound Cloud removed it -- even though the tune wasn't available for download and nobody is turning a buck off a dead man's royalties, especially me. The song's been in the public domain for over 30 years and RCA might've reached a new generation of listeners had they opened their hearts and minds and let the piece simply exist to be heard and possibly enjoyed. Oh well. Heavy is the head that wears the crown -- so too the sleepless, anal-retentive lawyer(s) who can't loosen up enough to distinguish an innocent remix from copyright infringement. Thank you. Thank you very much.  --John La Briola

Elvis: Buried at Sea

Another once-analog crossbreeding that started in North Denver in the early '90s as a rhythmn mix on cassette tape: lost, found and dolled-up twenty years later with digital flourishes galore. Sounds like something too drunk to stand on its own feet. Something that needs a shower and a strong cup of coffee. Drums: Mike Jourgensen, bass: John La Briola.   Skärmarbrink sessions, Stockholm, Sweden 2015

El Borracho

Culled from several hours of taped phone conversations and answering machine messages left by Brooklyn-bred artist/former mason Tony Perniciaro who used to call me at all hours in the late '80s to shoot the shit and philosophize about life. Amusing, eccentric, but self-absorbed and prone to interrupt a lot (and fiercely proud of his working class roots), Tony beamed with joy hearing an early version of this piece for the first time -- as if we were pioneers of some new art form. But I think he just liked to hear himself talk.
 It's a fairly simple 2-track made on a cassette dubbing deck that might've had a manufacturing defect: if you pushed play on both decks everything came out of the speakers at the same time and I'd record that random event on a seperate walkman device -- in other words, it's ultra lo-fi. I experimented many times with different starting points on both tapes and this seemed to be the best take.  Decades later I found this piece, transferred it to digital and cleaned it up best I could. It's multi-tracked galore at the 4:40 mark to create an unintelligable crowd-of-Tonys effect. I can only wonder what he would have thought of that.  Skärmarbrink sessions, Stockholm, Sweden. 2015

Tony the Bricklayer

A pair of answering machine messages from someone in a faraway land who dialed a wrong number mixed with minimal drumming/sparse guitar. My outgoing message must've been a rap of some kind to inspire the fun surprise I came home to find that day. The music at the 1:20 mark came from a black market tape that a friend came across during his travels in Syria during the early '90s.  Randall Frazier of Orbit Service cleaned up this lo-fi effort and added the cool effect at the very end where the disconnecting line sounds like the booming voice of Allah. Denver, CO 1993. Remix 2007.

ISIS Contacts Weird Al Qaida

Well-intentioned, loose-limbed goof-remix of Pueblo, Colorado-based composer Ralph Stevenson's epic ditty, "The Dagobert Suite" which I'm hoping he and others will find tolerable.  Skogås, Sweden 2013. 

Dagobert Dub

Learning Apple's Garage Band software on the outskirts of Stockhom, Sweden, 2012. 

Skogås

Conceptual piece that compares the Catholic church to a xerox machine -- complete with robotic beats, swirling pipe organs and a helium-huffing castratti. Madonna Mia! Recorded in Skogås, Sweden, 2013. 

Robots at the Vatican

Following its dubious intro, this piece takes a serious and arguably beautiful turn that surprised me -- until of course, it devolves into playful silliness. It hasn't much to do with Algeria's national treasure, by the way. Just a semi-serious song for a decidedly serious man. Skogås, Sweden 2013

Albert Camus

Analog meets digital in a frantic, hyperventilating glitch-fest. If Mr. Alanzo had a TV show, this would be the theme song.   Skogås, Sweden 2013

Iguana

Clunky boot-scoot meets psychedelia. Tongue-roots and shoe-soles. A long-winded cautionary tale of jelly donut abuse in B minor.  Skogås, Sweden 2013

Mr. Alanzo

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