Hoax records

swears

preppy-kei
Has anybody ever released a record as a prank? Not a comedy record, but something actually released to mislead/wind people up?

Inventing a fictional scene or band, claiming to be made by another musician, claiming to be a classic "lost" recording...stuff like that.
 

martin

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The Pork Dukes did this - they were actually old hippie folk musicians who made up a joke advert for a punk 7" with a disgusting cover - but they actually got so much press interest and advance orders they decided to actually record it and 'become' the Pork Dukes.

I've always wanted to pull a heist on the Messthetics crowd by recording a pile of shit, lathe-cutting it as 25 7"s with a '1979' stamp on the label and creating the myth of a lost record.

This was funny - http://www.southern.com/southern/label/CRC/09410a.html
 

Woebot

Well-known member
Has anybody ever released a record as a prank? Not a comedy record, but something actually released to mislead/wind people up?

Inventing a fictional scene or band, claiming to be made by another musician, claiming to be a classic "lost" recording...stuff like that.

f'sure! for starters"

theres the two gay rasta records

http://www.woebot.com/movabletype/archives/000670.html
http://www.woebot.com/movabletype/archives/000671.html

and then of course john fahey's Blind Joe Death alter-ego was an attempt to kid people into thinking he was an undiscovered bluesman.

there must be loads of these kind of things......
 
Inventing a fictional scene or band, claiming to be made by another musician,

The Pole record in the Fatcat split series was made by VVM, they sent a bogus master to the label. It was pressed before anyone noticed but only a few copies ever got out. It's somewhat collectable now...
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
well, maybe not a hoax entirely, but the biggest bogus record was probably Roadblock by Stock Aitken and Waterman, which was originally leaked out to DJs purporting to be a US funk track so people would think it was cool and play it
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"well, maybe not a hoax entirely, but the biggest bogus record was probably Roadblock by Stock Aitken and Waterman, which was originally leaked out to DJs purporting to be a US funk track so people would think it was cool and play it"
Likewise the northern soul tune by Lenny Gamble that was actually by Tony Blackburn - think it got spins from respected djs.
 

henry s

Street Fighting Man
wasn't an LP recently released that purported to be lost recordings from some hallowed NYC recording studio of vintage late-80's rap?...with the likes of Big Daddy Kane, Marley Marl, EPMD, etc...and then was "outed" as something that was cobbled together in 2003?...help me out folks, I know I didn't dream this up...
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
This is a pisstake as well right? Though I don't think anyone really fell for it.

http://www.environrecords.com/artists/artists2.html

Jersey Devil Social Club was conceived in northern New Jersey in 1980 as a studio-based soundtrack project. Unreleased tapes were shelved in various states of completion until they were unearthed in 2001.
The core of the original J.D.S.C. group consisted of two Italian immigrant brothers, Lorenzo and Vincenzo Capo. Vincenzo's daughter Anabella contributed spoken vocal parts (apparently because she had almost no Italian accent) and two Latin percussionist friends of the brothers (credited simply as "Carlos 1" and "Carlos 2") rounded out the lineup. It was in this formation that the members composed the bulk of their catalog. This included 1982's 13-minute tribute to an obscure French disco LP, Black Devil, themed around Vincenzo's obsession the local "Jersey Devil" myth.
The group ceased working together in 1984 when the brothers founded Vinnie's Pizzarama. They continue to operate the pizza parlor today and recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of the business.
Think it's actually Morgan Geist.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
http://www.uncarved.org/blog/?p=942

Fake "Whitehouse" record recorded by Smell & Quim

Also in industrial culture lots of fake "limited editions".

If I remember rightly there was an impostor doing the rounds as Skullflower in Scotland in the mid-90s who did a few live shows.

There is a minor trade in reggae soundsystem circles of fake dubplates - i.e. a minor artist impersonating a famous one for a dubplate. Also "splices" someone edits together a dubplate cut for another sound with a proper release, usually removing the name of the other soundsystem etc - hey presto, your own dubplate.

Homocore, as a genre, was deliberately started as a hoax with a view to kicking off a proper scene I think.
 

TeN

Active member
in the same vein as Blind Joe Death, John Lurie of the Lounge Lizards created Marvin Pontiac


there used to be this guy on this message board I frequent who would constantly pull pranks and hoaxes, and one of his better ones, before he became known for being a prankster, was creating a fake "techlectro" (techno + electro? I don't know if it's a real genre or part of the hoax) group called Turbo & Vagabond, who he claimed had pioneered a technique called "squabble drums"
apparently he'd made a fake single and posted it on some dance music message board, making claims about it's infamy. swarms of n00bs proceeded to fall in line and sing praises for it.
he then posted it on this other board, linking to the first board as proof of it's popularity, and taking offense when people couldn't believe that something like this could be popular
the ensuing faux-debate was one of the funniest things I've ever read: http://www.yayhooray.com/thread/47476/OMFG---New-Turbo-Vagabond!
 
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The Oxes/Arab On Radar Split EP was a sort of unintended prank. It was just Oxes, on one side playing as themselves, on the other side playing songs in an AOR style. It was meant as a tribute to AOR, but they didn't make it clear when it was released. I think AOR were not amused at the time.
 

martin

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http://www.uncarved.org/blog/?p=942

Fake "Whitehouse" record recorded by Smell & Quim

Also in industrial culture lots of fake "limited editions".

The most stupid, ludicrous thing I've ever heard is a 'fake Gerogerigegege' single called "William Bennett Is My Dick", which features some American pretending to be an extremely unpopular Japanoise merchant, right down to pronouncing 'r's as 'l's, doing cover versions of 'Erector' and 'Rock and Roll' by Whitehouse. Apparently it goes for serious money on eBay, despite it now being known that somebody recorded it in their flat when they were bored - they can't even refrain from giggling half-way through one of the songs.
 

petergunn

plywood violin
"the masked marauders", an LP supposed containing Dylan, John Lennon, and Mick Jagger, etc etc all jamming...

it was originally an april fools record review in rolling stone, complete w/ goofball titles like "i can't get no nookie"...

blame stoned hippies not getting the joke (and the proliferation of "supergroups" at the time) and the underground grapevine made the rumor spread to the point that a Masked Marauders album was actually made...'

http://www.rhinohandmade.com/browse/ProductLink.lasso?Number=7746

it's not very good...
 

swears

preppy-kei
Some interesting posts here...

Talking about hoaxes and stuff with a friend last night, he said he new someone at uni who downloaded a Jeff Mills mix, burned it onto CD-R and passed it off as his own demo to get a regular DJ set at a clubnight.
 
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