Wednesday, February 23, 2005

CONELRAD'S ATOMIC BOP

I've been sick. And not just in the head like usual. But being home alot lately has finally given me the time to explore the wonders of CONELRAD.com, a bomb-shelter's worth of Cold War audio and visual artifacts. From Bert the Turtle telling kids what to do in the event The Bomb falls (why, just duck under your desk!), to "The Complacent American"'s horrifying vision of the nuclear death that awaits those who don't attend Civil Defense Dept neighborhood meetings, from the '50s teen-death ballad "Fallout Shelter" to the toe-tappin' sounds of The Goldwaters (singing "Folk Songs To Bug The Liberals"), there's hours of paranoid music and unintentionally hilarious dialogue in Real Audio. Quoth the site: "CONELRAD is presently hard at work on a deluxe 5 CD ATOMIC PLATTERS boxset produced in association with Bear Family Records and scheduled for a Spring 2005 release." 'Til then, you can listen for free. And remember, when stocking your bomb-shelter, "By all means provide some tranquilizers to ease the strain and monotony of life in a shelter. A bottle of 100 should be adequate for a family of four. Tranquilizers are not a narcotic and are not habit forming. Ask a doctor for his recommendation."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was a great band from the 1970's called ATOMIC BOP. Is that where you got the title of this post from? You can see a pic of them at: http://www.geocities.com/pkrupocin/Krupocin_Music.html

Mr Fab said...

No, never heard of the band. Wrote this a long time ago, but I think there was a song on the conelrad site called "Atomic Bop."

The boxed set is out, by the way. Kinda expensive, but I'm sure I'll get it.