Happy Hanukkah from ANVIL

Canada’s Hour Holiday Special of 2009 had a LOT going for it: Our Lady Peace, Metric (with the choir Carol of the Bells), Norah Jones, even Michael Bublé! *cough*

But best of all, it included this passionate rendition of “Hanukkah! Hanukkah!” by the Toronto-orignated heavy metal trio, ANVIL:

Previously on Coilhouse:

Smooth ’80s Whistling Redub

Last week, Ross posted this choice clip of Ralph “Whistler” Giese performing an unusual rendition of “Georgia on My Mind” on the Kelly & Company talk show, circa 1984.

Now there’s this:


(Via Ariana.)

HAPPY PEANUT BUTTER TUESDAY, Y’ALL.

Smooth ’80s Whistling

Sometimes I forget just how wonderful a thing this Internet is. Were it not for the internet, sales how many of us would have been able to experience the glory of this footage from some unnamed talk show, circa 1984? What a tragedy it would have been to not behold this man, with his perfectly groomed moustache, bouncing mullet, and Detroit Pistons sweatshirt. What fairness would there have been in the world if only those lucky members of the studio audience that day were able to gaze upon his hirsute visage, twisting and contorting with emotion or, perhaps, the effort of trying to keep from shitting himself, as he belted out the smoothest grooves ever heard?

None, I say. The people there that day, spellbound, their mouths agape, no doubt told stories about that day, but unable to properly convey the sublime magic of those few, short minutes, their words were most likely met with disbelief and skepticism. And really, who could blame them? Such accounts must have seemed ludicrous, the product of feeble minds. Now, though, we can see and hear for ourselves, and we too can be put under that same, powerful spell.

Yes, it truly is amazing, this internet. I will not take it for granted again.

Muppets Confront Their Origins

Oft mentioned artist and animator Graham Annable has Kermit, Miss Piggy, and Gonzo come face to face with their beginnings in his three pieces for “The Lovers, The Dreamers, and Me” show, opening December 10th, at Gallery Nucleus. If the Gonzo illustration isn’t a perfect image of existential crisis, then I don’t know what is.

Via

Tender, Elegant Muskrat Lurve

Just a little afternoon delight, courtesy of Captain & Tennille…


Via Siege. (Of course.) Original song by Willis Alan Ramsey. 

This aired on national television in the late 70s on The Captain & Tennille Show. Toni-T croons of the ardor between two semi-aquatic rodents named Suzie and Sam to the beige and incontinent bleep-bloops of the Captain’s keys. (Apparently, the 7″ single for this tune features an “endless loop” of synthesizer interpretations of muskrat fuck sounds, encoded into the end-groove of the vinyl. It’s the first known hit single to have a recorded locked groove.)

Good times!

Bonus weirdness: here’s a home karaoke video of a woman covering the same song while holding her rather shellshocked-looking guinea pig, Simon, aloft.

Elton John Puts An Oven Manual To Music

I must confess that, often, I associate Elton John with funny hats and glasses more than I do music and, as such, it’s good to watch clips like this one, if only to refresh my memory. Taken from 1997’s “An Audience With Elton John” (which was, apparently, a television special in which Elton John performed for an audience comprised of famous people) this particular segment features a challenge from actor Richard E. Grant who, having heard that John composes his music very quickly, asks if he could set the instructions for his conventional oven to music. The end result, while undeniably impressive, left me with a “chicken or the egg” question, namely: Can Elton John turn any group of words into a song or can any group of words be set to an Elton John song?

Better Than Candy Corn: KXVO’s “Happy Jack Pumpkin Dance”

Good morning, all you grim, grinning ghosts!

A few years ago, KXVO News (of Omaha, Nebraska) produced a video (sparing no expense!) called the “Happy Jack Pumpkin Dance”. Apparently, it aired without warning or explanation during one of their Oct. 31st broadcasts, and has since become a not only a local sensation (the playlist above includes not just Jack Pumpkin’s original appearance, but ensuing Christmas and Valentine’s day editions), but a viral hit as well, spawning several remixes and mashups.

Merry Goth Christmas, Halloweiners! May your day be full of boundless, wiggly, unitard-clad lurrrrve.

Fab Ciraolo’s Old School Heroes

Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore broke up this week, ending a 27-year partnership. This brought on a huge wave of 90s nostalgia, calmed only by the sight of my favorite Saturday morning-cartoon superheroes chillin’ in at home in their PJs, slippers, and smoking jackets. I don’t know why. But here they are.

The series “Old School Heroes” by Chile-based illustrator Fab Ciraolo is all about what happens when favorite childhood superheroes from the 90s and earlier relax at home (if home is an ambient retro starfield). See all the images here.

[via Empty Kingdoms]

“My hope still is to leave the world a bit better than when I got here.”


Photograph by Ted Neuhoff

Mission most fully and beautifully accomplished, good sir. And the world still misses you very much. But we’ll keep believing, keep pretending.

Happy 75th birthday, Jim Henson.

 

“God’s Away On Business” By Cookie Monster

I don’t know who is behind YouTube username cookiewaits but he/she realized at some point, something that had never occurred to me: Tom Waits really sounds like Cookie Monster sometimes. Almost to the point that, while watching this video, I though it was someone doing Waits’s song “God’s Away On Business” in a Cookie Monster voice. Turns out that, no, that’s Tom. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to listen to this song the same way again.

Via Cynical-C