Kembrew Presents “The Duchamp Found Pop Culture Object Theater”

Here are some clips from TV shows, films, bootleg videotapes, and other ephemera from my collection — which is drawn from the tape trading world. Each clip has a “Duchamp Found Pop Culture Object Theater” opening theme and title sequence that I made, which features a brief clip of Marie Osmond reciting a Hugo Ball Dada poem. This is combined with the moving image and background music from an old film (“The and Stripper – Yvonne Marthay”) taken from the excellent Prelinger Archives, which can be found at Archive.org. Osmond’s performance is preserved on a mix CD soundtrack for Greil Marcus’s book Lipstick Traces.

David Lee Roth Rocks – Unbelievable. I have never seen anyone act like as much of an idiot as David Lee Roth does during this weekend music festival from the early 1980s. Worth watching in its entirety. I saw this a dozen years ago but I lost or gave away my dub of the tape. It’s now available on Volume 4 of the Lost and Found series from the good folks at fiveminutestolive.

The $1.98 Beauty Pageant – This has to be one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen on television. Just watch it.

Public Image Limited on the Tom Snyder Show – P.I.L.’s John Lydon and Keith Levine thoroughly piss off the chain smoking talk show host during this ten minute segment from the early-1980s. My friend Bryan had this on a tape years ago, and I finally found it on a P.I.L. bootleg DVD.

What’s My Line? – This ten minute clip is drawn from the famous 1950s game show, and it’s quite surreal. I don’t use the word surreal loosely: the special guest is Salvador Dali.

Lidsville Theme Song – An insane intro for an even more mental early 1970s kids show named Lidsville, about a land where hats live inside houses that are (yes) hats.

The Del Rubio Triplets – During a guest appearance on Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, the Del Rubio Triples sing a spritely version of “These Boots Are Made for Walking.”

Super Broker Shuffle – A mid-1980s industrial film that parodies the “Super Bowl Shuffle.” Sports some of the worst middle aged white rapping EVER. My friend Josh Burkett sent this to me. I still owe him a mix.

Spiritual Warfare – A random crazy TV evengelist who seems to be channeling the spirit of the late Sam Kinison. My friend Josh Burkett also sent this to me.

Gamble Rogers – This is from the excellent film Heartworn Highways, about the “outlaw” country movement of the 1970s. In addition to some excellent music, there’s the storytelling genius of Gamble Rogers.

High Fidelity v. the Uber Hipsters – On their public access movie review show, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, their pal and Forced Exposure partner Byron Coley, and other friends tear into the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s book of the same name. Reality TV for indie rock geeks and hipster doophi like myself.

MTV’s Total Request Live Freakout – Just watch this. It’s only 20 seconds long. My TIVO recorded this for me.

Ian MacKaye Working at Häagen-Dazs in 1982 – Unintentionally funny (sort of) stuff from the documentary Another State of Mind, starring Youth Brigade and Social Distortion. This is the the Youth Brigade commentary track, mixed in with the feature film soundtrack.

Greg Antone’s Rock n’ Roll Show – A genius Cape Cod public access show, circa 1994.