Saturday, December 7, 2013

Delicious News - OOB site adds SIDES!


Website UPDATE: A keen eye would notice... gone is the old "contacts" tab, and in it's it's place "SIDES", which in a nutshell is going to be a page devoted to whatever things we may have worked on - individually or collaboratively - that WASN'T what we'd refer to as an Out Of Bodies project.

First up is a very silly bit of nonsense culled from our vast collection of recorded comedy bits, featuring my buddy Lloyd (as Bud Abbott, and other cast members of the old Abbott and Costello TV Show) and myself (Donald) as Lou Costello - or as it's eventually explained, not the REAL Lou Costello, but a cheesy Hanna-Barbera cartoon voice actor filling in for him. Listening to the ten tracks assembled from the many comedy cassettes where these impromptu bits would appear sporadically - you can clearly hear us remembering bits and pieces of the REAL Abbott and Costello story and working them into the premise.

Lloyd and I had always thought it a bit tragic (and yes, funny) that in the sixties the real Budd Abbott was nearly broke and suffered from poor health and several addictions - making it impossible to refuse the offer from the undisputed kings of limited animation - Hanna-Barbera - when they asked him to supply the voice for his own character in the Abbott and Costello cartoon series, which was produced from 1965 to 1966. By this time his comedy partner Costello had already been dead for 6 years, having passed away in 1959. The guy who filled in for Costello was horrible - and predictably so was the whole cartoon.

One day while Lloyd and I were playing around, recording our improvisational bits - we somehow found ourselves mimicking the old Abbott and Costello TV show, whistling the theme song - but for some unknown reason instead of placing ourselves in 1952-1954 when these shows took place - we catapulted the situation to the Hanna-Barbera years - hence the opening lines...

Bud Abbott: "By the way, I know you're not Lou - I just CALL you Lou..."
(Not the real) Lou Costello: "Well I'm JUST GONNA HAVE TO DOOOOOO!!!!!"

Out Of Bodies SIDES: Wow Ink-corporated's Abbott and Costello

Monday, November 18, 2013

The What Song?

Many Out Of Bodies recordings happened without planning, without lyrics and without any real sense of purpose! Hah hah!! Well, here's another Out Of Bodies 4-Track recording that Dan recently uploaded to YouTube, a song without planning, words, or purpose - other than to make you smile... called "The Bam Bam Song"!!

Don't question things!! Just enjoy it...



Saturday, November 16, 2013

Another Lost Track from the Vaults

Another rare find from Dan's extensive 4-Track library of Out Of Bodies jams, demos and impromptu takes...



I like when Dan asks, "Why do we always gotta stick a Beatles chord there at the end?" Hah hah!! ...Enjoy!!

Thursday, November 14, 2013

More Tracks from the Vaults

Dan digs up another track from the vaults, this time not a jam with the other fellas - but an unpolished Beatles cover he recorded on his own using his Fostex 4-Track recorder...

...and there's more where this came from, stay tuned!


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Jam Tracks from the Vaults

Dan unearths yet another couple of jam session tracks and turns them into a delightful video in which you can watch as you sip your morning java...



...more to come!!...

Monday, November 11, 2013

Look At It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Joe's hilarious phone message response - to a disturbing photo of Lady Elaine Fairchilde that I put up on his Facebook wall...


Click HERE to hear the message To Donald
Veteran's Day - November 12, 2013

Monday, October 28, 2013

Roadside America Features Joey's Haunted Barn!


Joey Vento's link to classic monster movies was forged before he was born -- much like an ancestral curse -- when his father briefly appeared in the 1953 film Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. "My father was a longshoreman," said Joey. Someone on the New York film crew handed him a broom and told him to sweep while the cameras rolled. "He was 'the sweeping guy'," said Joey of his father's uncredited role. "He was paid with a bottle of scotch."
Fast forward 60 years and Joey is mysteriously compelled to own and curate the Haunted Barn Movie Museum, his personal shrine to horror, science fiction, and fantasy films.

The large, weathered shed sits next to his family's home, much like any other house in the woods until you spot a Victorian hearse and fake cemetery. Duck your head under the shed's decorative cobwebs at the door and enter a space filled with monsters (along with twinkly Christmas lights and eerie music played over hidden speakers). Giant spiders hang from the ceiling; props from films and TV series fill the walls, pack the shelves, and crowd the floor......
Check out the rest of the article here!!!

Joey and Donald in Joe's haunted yard, posing in front of his giant inflatable screen!
August 2012

Congrats, Joey on your article in Roadside America - and the
best of luck wherever the barn ends up next!!!


Friday, October 11, 2013

Oh the HUMANITY!!!


Like those movies where someone wakes up from a nightmare only to find himself in ANOTHER nightmare - apparently I'm stuck in a similar vortex... just noticed one day recently that the YaHoo Media Player stopped working. No warning - no notices from YaHoo - just went to look at the Out Of Bodies music page and noticed all the little yellow play buttons were missing. That was just the beginning of a series of ongoing nightmares.

In the following days every message board on the internet which announced a "fix" turned out to be a temporary tease - as YaHoo seemingly yanked their player pages altogether, throwing millions of music pages, blogs and other media pages into a flaming heap of OH NOOOO!!!...

Now this has happened once briefly before only to resurrect itself without explanation - but I smell long term abandonment this time, don't ask me why. YaHoo, once the king of the internet could very well be headed straight for the shitter this time - so what do I do? Do I scramble around for an alternative music player script, or do I wait things out - like our own partial government shut-down - and hope somebody out there has a brain - a sense of decency - some compassion! Do I wait for the powers to be at YaHoo to walk into their offices one morning, hoping they decide to flick their switch back on? Or are they all too busy throwing nooses over their ceiling fans? I don't know.

I know I'm not the only one out there stuck in this very same conundrum... just as in every story about the beginnings of a zombie apocalypse, I'm the guy who creeps out of his basement with his transistor radio - desperately hoping to catch another news report about his chances of survival. Until then, until they find a cure - the Out Of Bodies music page will no longer play non-stop streaming Out Of Bodies radio - - but instead play one selected song at a time. No fancy player, just your default - and you'll have to hit "back" each time just to return to the music page.

Any techies out there with helpful alternative solutions, I'm all ears...

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Looking For Yul

The Companions
Joe Mendoni (left), Mike McLaughlin (center), Richie Green (right)
and my uncle Gilbert Cruz (crouching down with the bongo)

Many years ago my Uncle Gil had a Doo Wop group and they called themselves The Companions. Just the other day I decided to look for them on the internet - hoping to find some digitized versions of the two songs I remember he played for my family and I off a 45rpm record in his living room. I remember hearing that they may have enjoyed some modest airplay with their two novelty songs "Dorothy My Monster" and "I Want A Yul Brynner Haircut". They might have even recorded other songs, I'm not sure - but these two seemed to stick out in my head - and so I set upon trying to find them.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the Yul Brynner song (which is what I was really looking for - I recall being quite amused by that one!) but I did end up locating and purchasing a Doo Wop Halloween novelty-song compilation on CD called Halloween Is A Scream, which features "Dorothy, My Monster"! Someone had even uploaded the "Dorothy" song to YouTube - which my cousin Lisa pointed out to me - but oddly enough, no "Yul Brynner" - go figure!


Super rare... "Dorothy My Monster" b/w
"I Want A Yul Brynner Haircut" by The Companions
Dee Dee Records #1047.
I just noticed the record credits The "Campanions",
not The "Companions" with an "o"....
yet ANOTHER mystery...

UPDATE!! UPDATE!! UPDATE!!
 

Friday, September 6, 2013

A little something for Flashback Friday!

Joe Vento discovers a surprise guest (Donald Jefferes) clawing at his front door.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

I'm imagining Vento up there, swinging from a grappling hook...

Even my buddy Joe, who absolutely LOVES all things World's Fair related, would NEVER go quite as far as THIS guy did. I can't imagine risking breaking and entering charges as well as bodily harm (and perhaps death) just to get a peek at what things look like today from the decaying decks of the World's Fair Observation Towers ...




Friday, May 31, 2013

Dan's I Wonder Video Remix

After a visitor to our website mentioned that The Out Of Bodies "I Wonder" sounded much like a Donovan song, Dan created this... ENJOY!!

The Outofbodies - I Wonder REMIX from Dan Ban on Vimeo.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Mysterious Out Of Bodies photo sparks conspiracy theories


Conspiracy theories are circulating once again as to the legitimacy of the so called "band" who call themselves the Out Of Bodies, after a supposed "death" photo went viral on the internet last week. The photograph appears to show three of it's founding members, Donald Jefferes, Joe Vento and Dan Banic (circa 1986) sprawled out in the middle of College Point's busy 20th Avenue - a well known spot for frequent hit and run fatalities.

Music critics, who've previously grappled with the validity of the band's existence in the first place are now further perplexed as to how this group could possibly have continued to make music well into the 90s after their alleged demise in the late 80s. Conspiracy theories abound - some say while they believe the three may have indeed been dead, it could've been the marketing prowess of the two other Out Of Bodies members Lloyd Goldfine and Mark DeGross who carefully crafted the band's most prolific (albeit postmortem) musical period, through an extensive backlog of unfinished tracks, photo manipulation and hired "look-a-likes".

Forensic experts lean heavily on the side of the story that paints this photo as one of the most ingenious hoaxes of the 21st century. Tyrone Johnson, a graduating student from the John Jay College Of Criminal Justice, has studied the photographic evidence extensively - and without being able to determine any telltale signs of vehicle tire marks, the absence of trauma to the bodies or any signs of blood or entrails has forced Mr Johnson to come to the conclusion, "I don't see shhhheeeeeit!".

Another theory circulating is that out of the three, only Dan survived - and even though he's never discussed the event he did appear to include secret messages in his music video, "Death".


 

Opposing conspiracy theorists counter-theorize that Dan sings "Death is just a passing in the night", but the photo appears to have been taken in broad daylight. But the original theorists who claim this "Death" video does indeed show Dan's brief addressing of the event, and further claim that so distressed was he at the loss of his two buddies that he actually took the melody of this song and revamped it completely, changing subject matter and mood into the upbeat Out Of Bodies tune "Time Mind", never again referring to it's earlier composition.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Attack of the Royd's!

My nephew Andrew and his band, The Royd's, are playing THIS FRIDAY at the Attic Lounge in Douglaston, NY - part of a FREE Battle Of The Bands event! Fun begins 11pm - and yes, it's FREE!


Monday, March 11, 2013

zzzzzzzZAP!!!!


"Donald, I remember many times when I use to record on my 4-track and sometimes I would get the whammy feedback loud sound in my headphones because the switch was by accident on. I remember twice I got you by accident , 1) When we were recording at your house and the switch turned on and you and Lloyd freaked out and threw off the headphones , you & Lloyd then just fell to the bed like freaked out dead zombies , Ha Ha !!! 2) The other time was when we were recording at my house and we had the headphones on and boom , we got hit hard , the expression on your face was hilarious even though we were in pain , Ha Ha , do you remember that?"
- Dan, on the subject of headphone feedback, via Facebook March 11, 2013