WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Billy Jam presents: Back in Eighty Eight: Hip-Hop, Version 1988

Back in eighty eight, twenty long hip-hop years ago, hip-hop, or "rap" music as it was more generally referred to back then, was experiencing arguably (and it has been argued and debated, tirelessly by many a passionate hip-hop head) its finest moment. A part of hip-hop's much lamented, so-called "golden era" 1988 has been labeled many things by many people such as "The year hip-hop peaked" or "The last year for real hip-hop" or "The main year of the golden era." So revered is that year in the history of hip-hop music and culture that it has become the subject matter of many diehard hip-hoppers including the Rhymesayers emcee Blueprint who titled his 2005 album "1988" as a tribute to "the beats, the breaks, and themes" of what he (and many others) see as "hip-hop's heyday."

"Blueprint, who started his hip-hop career in the late 90's, was too young to have experienced 1988 hip-hop firsthand. But I wasn't. I was there and totally into hip-hop at the time: as a journalist writing about it, as a radio DJ playing all this great new music on the air at a time when there was little hip-hop to be found on the radio dial, and most importantly as a dedicated rap fan buying all these great new records and cassettes as they came out. Note at this stage in hip-hop it was still possible to buy near every new release without going bankrupt. I still am a big fan of '88 hip-hop: records like Public Enemy's "It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back," BDP's "By All Means Necessary," Eric B & Rakim's "Follow The Leader," EPMD's "Strictly Business," Too $hort's "Life is....Too $hort," and NWA's "Straight Outta Compton" etc. etc.  But while I love 1988 hip-hop today as much as I did all them years ago, I am not one of those aging b-boys who hates everything new in the genre. Sure I agree that there is a lot of shitty hip-hop coming out today but there is also lots more really great & innovative new hip-hop music being made today. But the classics will remain the classics. And 1988 was a classic year in hip-hop.

Australian New Wave, Italian Horror Metal, Madagascarian Doo Wop and French Hair Metal

Laugh if you want, but I’ve watched this Time Bandits video at least a hundred times and have taken copious notes.  Notice the lyric, "love is for the ones," as if only a group as exclusive as these models can really love.  Don't you want to love like these beautiful people do?  I'm not kidding, I find this video totally alluring.   You don't?  sorry... Other Aussie new wavers that have taken up too much of my time: Dugites, Eurogliders, James Freud...  On the right, Italy’s Death SS were not Nazis, but singer Steve Sylvester did lead a satanic sect at the time of this video's filming.  You know that feeling when you’ve watched TV for so long that your stomach hurts? Ugh…

I’ve also been spending too much time looking through archives of Mexican Doo Wop, although every one of those videos gets topped by Madagascar’s Les Surfs.  Mexican doo wop that has taken up too much of my time: Los Hooligans, Manolo Munoz, Los Hitters.  On the right is the fruit of too much time with French Heavy Metal.  A lot of music videos from this era are much more ridiculous, including many of Warning’s other music videos -  I chose this one because the song is a almost entirely unironic blast of Sabotage-era Sabbath meets Iron Maiden.  Runners up include: Dum Dum Bullet, Nightmare, Trust, Speed Queen.

Rambling Syd Rumpo (MP3)

Five bucolic yet lugubrious MP3s after the jump.....

On this week's episode of Le Show, Harry Shearer paid tribute to recently deceased radio personality Brian Clewer, who hosted the radio program "Cynic's Choice" on LA-area radio for more than 40 years. Clewer's program featured lots of British comedy, and Shearer played a few examples on his program from Peter Sellers, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and Flanders and Swann. This got me thinking about the British comedy I was listening to when I was in grad school ages ago, when the local public radio station used to air the amazing "Round The Horne", a BBC radio comedy program that made its name in the mid-to-late 1960s by pushing the limits of the British double entendre.

For the musical portion of the comedy, they relied on the amazing Kenneth Williams and his rustic folksinger character Rambling Syd Rumpo. The joke was that Syd was supposedly singing old English folk tunes with long-forgotten archaic words, but the lyrics (written by Barry Took and Marty Feldman) were an equal combination of sly innuendo and hilarious nonsense. It's better to demonstrate rather than try to explain, so in honor of Clewer's passing here are a small selection of Rambling Syd Rumpo songs that are sure to gladden your earholes and tug at your artefacts.

WFMU's Myspace Band Buddies - vote for your favorites, FINAL ROUND!

Good morning people! 

This is it!  The last round of voting for your favorite randomly selected bands from WFMU's hefty list o' buddies at a certain social networking site of which you may have heard.  Thanks to everyone who's listened and voted so far.

Here's the deal, in case you missed earlier installments:  the band or bands who get the most "Pump it" votes each week will be forever exalted on my FIRST EVER MARATHON PREMIUM called "In MySpace, No One Can Hear You Scream" (you can still pledge to this year's marathon here). Last round's favorites were Satanicpornocultshop, Porest, Paid in Puke, For Esme, and Bonbomb! Congratulations, band buddies!! 

Who will be next? It's up to you!!!

It's Incredibly Depressing Being Green

He made news about this same time last year with an incendiary video for "Hurt", and this week the mad genius behind Sad Kermit dropped a new video, a cover of Elliot Smith's "Needle In The Hay", with a recreation of the Richie Tenenbaum suicide scene from The Royal Tenenbaums.

Here are some mp3s of Sad Kermit singing some other sad songs. See and hear more at SadKermit.com.

Creep (Radiohead)   Hallelujah (Leornard Cohen/Jeff Buckley)   Hurt (Nine Inch Nails/Johnny Cash)

Also on Beware of the Blog: Derek and Clive meet the Muppets - Is the most influential musician of all time Animal or Cookie Monster? - the Yip Yip Martians - Martin Scorcese's Sesame Streets - Welcome to the Muppet Show Fan Club - meet the real life Kermit (in voice anyway) - Jim Henson gets freaky
 

Whimsical Baroque of Sam Branton

Utilizing a lovely soft pencil technique, Sam Branton's whimsical drawings feature startled and goofy blobby characters in scenes from classical painting. At left is only a detail of what madness transpires within these drawings.

Great Moments in WFMU History #25

Wesley Willis Head-Butt - by Ken Freedman & Liz Berg

Late musician Wesley Willis dropped by WFMU to play live on the air in 1996. A sweet guy, Willis was plagued by schizophrenia and the voices inside his head, and would frequently scream out of fear. He was on tour with a Chicago metal band called The Fiasco, who were incredibly disrespectful to the tortured man. During his time at WFMU, Wesley took a liking to a young, attractive female volunteer, who had just started helping out at the station that very day. Willis repeatedly hugged his new muse, and was finally so enamored that he dealt her a hearty head-butt (a token of affection that he was well-known for offering fans, as evident by the unicorn bump on his forehead), which may have scared her away from the station for good.

Willis was very unsatisfied with his on-air performance, and actually wrote a self-deprecating song about the experience, called “I Fucked Up At WFMU,” which he performed the following night at a show in Washington, DC. The song title was later changed to “I Done A Poor Job” and appears on Wesley’s New York New York album.

Illustration by Dimitri Simakis

Unbelievable Believers: Christian Song Demos

A few weeks ago, the always reliable Music For Maniacs posted a few tracks of demos from hopeful Christian artists. After the "Safe Sex Is Just a Fantasy Rap" quickly shot up to the top of my current favorites list, I decided to delve a little further and so headed over to the site where they were originally found, Those Unbelievable Believers: The Blessed Sounds of Incredible Christian Song Demos.

Within this site lay a treasure trove of religious amateur recordings (or B.S. - blessed sounds), from earnest country croonings, to Eagles songs reinterpreted, to professors proclaiming their faith, to kiddie Jesus raps, to some absolutely completely insane ramblings. All of these were lovingly compiled with hilariously sacrilegious commentary by one "Doc" (aka Deuce of Clubs). As an example of what to expect, here is Doc's handy chart of gospel demo song structure:

A) Beginning
    B) Middle
    B) Some more middle
        C) Conclusion
A) And . . . back to the beginning
    B) Middle, middle, middle
    B) More middle until you almost can't believe it, then:
        C) Conclusion . . . or:
    B) More middle—it gets hard to tell
    B) Definitely more middle stuff here, finally shading to either
A) A New Beginning . . . or:
        C) [Missing conclusion].

Follow the jump for 22 tracks of Christian demo madness!

Soggy

Between these guys and Angel Face, I wonder exactly how much of Detroit got into French musical consciousness in the 1970's/80's? "Waiting For the War". Posted to Black To Comm.

Recent Faves from the New Bin

This was a semi-regular post here on WFMU's BotB, but personal craziness leading up to the March fundraiser, working on assorted WFMU concerts, and being sidetracked by other things had me on the bench for a bit. So yes, you don't need me to tell you there are still a mess of very fine documents of recorded music worth seeking, hearing. Here's a few currently dripping some good grease into the station's new bin as we speak:

Warner Jepson's Totentanz was a gurgling slab of primal concrete in LP edition of 300 back in 1967; besides being the result of  hours of tooling around in the SF Tape Machine Center and Mills Collage labs, the record served its purpose well of alienating patrons at ballet performances it was featured at. I haven't seen a proper reissue (though a grey area CDR floated around last year or so), but thanks to Mitchell Brown (aka the excellent KXLU radio host Professor Canteloupe) and his Melon Expander label, Totentanz and more are back. Jepson's works represented here span the years 1958 through 1973 and range from skittery, echoplexed moon rumblings to flat out sinewave scorchings all finding their ways into various theater and ballet peformances, and later onto PBS itself when Jepson got interactive with experimental visual media. Real Audio: "Laughter After" (1958).

The Sic Alps (pictured above) came from another zone of California experimentalism. For the last half decade or so, the zonked atmosphere of pre-Virgin Royal Trux has gone face to face with Nuggets ideology to probably alienate your average bowl-cut Little Steven fan more than anything, yet ably carries the torch of the Elevators, Troggs and more into a cosmic cohesion of faithful rock fandom and flipped-out otherworldiness.  2007's Description of the Harbor is probably one of the most tuneful "out" records ever made in my opinion, and since that thing disappeared rather quickly out of sight (and up the Ebay mountain) it's nice to see it's reappeared courtesy Animal Disguise on CD with other assorted 7" and 12" EP, CDR and 7" tracks from 2006 and 2007 compiled neatly. We're bummed to hear the new tour has been sidelined though due to drummer Matt's broken arm. Get better, Matt! Real Audio: "Message From the Law". Live performance on WFMU 11/6/07.

And while the Alps' SF brethren the Hospitals (whose Adam Stonehouse spent time in the SA's) channel their single-output cavesound in a similar way, the Hospitals' flat out destructo-factor has continually clubbed its listeners in a less subtle (but still awesome) manner. I always still considered the Hospitals a garage punk band in its purest form even as leader Adam Stonehouse changed up personnel around him constantly, but the latest LP Hairdryer Peace shows loftier ambitions.

More Customusic! (MP3s)

1. Gigi (2:55)
2. One Night of Love (2:14)
3. Time Was (2:10)
4. Misty (2:42)
5. I'm In the Mood for Love (2:27)
6. It's Over, It's Over, It's Over (2:02)
7. Love Is Here to Stay (2:26)

By popular demand, another installment of Customusic for your background audio needs. These selections come from the "Atmospheres" portion of the sampler and are meant for use in better restaurants and boutiques. This is pure supper music, a bit slower and more relaxing than the entries from the Production side.

Lively song selection too. There's a song about a lost love, another song about a lost love, and a song about a one-night stand. Perfect accompaniment for an era when people met for dinner before checking in to the motel. At least it ends with the promise of true love.

Fine Records on Fine Records (MP3s)

As the moribund recording industry marginalizes itself into utter irrelevance, it warms the cockles to hark back to the heyday of the great independent labels across the country whose legendary bossmen cast their nets across all genres in search of hits. Syd Nathan in Cincinnati (King), Art Rupe in L.A. (Specialty), and Sam Phillips in Memphis (Sun), among others, were recording r&b, blues, country, gospel—whatever sounds they could reel into their studios that had a chance of making a buck or, better yet, catching a wave of national popularity. While these powerhouse labels were churning out legendary sides by the crateful, a number of smaller-time outfits in the boonies were following the same business plan, though with minimal chances of achieving more than just the occasional regional score.

One such enterprise that hummed along under the radar was Fine Records based in Rochester, New York, which produced spirited releases over the course of 30 years beginning in the late 1940s. The label was owned and operated by Vincent Giancursio, a dance-band saxophonist who began playing professionally in 1932 at the age of 12. After a frustrating 15-year run traveling the dead-end nightclub circuit in upstate New York, Vince Jan (his preferred music-biz moniker) decided that if he couldn't hit the big time making music, maybe he'd record someone else who could. After the War, Giancursio studied audio engineering for a year, then opened Fine Recording Studio. He started off cutting mostly custom recordings, but then began to release 45 rpm discs on his own label, which he did up until his death, at the age of 58, in 1977.

During his three decades in the record business, Giancursio supported the music passionately, producing over 3,500 sessions single-handedly, most resulting in limited pressings of rarely more than a thousand copies, though usually a lot less. The sessions he engineered were wide ranging and eclectic, mostly one-offs by an assortment of jazz bands, garage rock combos, Elvis wannabes and even a few country & western acts. In addition, for a fertile stretch in the '60s and '70s, Fine Records captured on tape a string of electrifying performances of soulful gospel as good as any from the era.

(25 righteous MP3s are posted after jump)

Country Tangos and Hillbilly Rhumbas (mp3s)

Not too long ago, we examined the bizarre but enjoyable world of the country mambo.  Today we shift gears only slightly and check out two other microscopically small sub-genres of the Nashville recording industry: the country tango and rhumba scenes. 

Well, mostly these were Nashville efforts.  The Lucky Stars represent an exception as their version of Tennesee Tango was recorded in California, if I'm not mistaken.  If you think the intersection of country music and Latin dance crazes represents an unlikely collision of cultures, you may wish to brace yourself for the knuckle-headed collection of country twist records we've got stashed away for a future post.

Pee Wee King  -  Tennessee Tango  (2:00)

York Brothers  -  Tennessee Tango  (2:41)

Sheb Wooley  -  Texas Tango  (2:11)

Pee Wee King  -  I Can't Tell A Waltz From A Tango  (2:11)

Sunshine Ruby  -  Too Young To Tango  (2:29)

Ernest Tubb & Red Foley  -  Too Old To Tango  (2:16)

Lucky Stars  -  Tennessee Tango  (3:00)

Hank Snow  -  The Rhumba Boogie  (2:48)

Mallie Ann & Slim  -  Hillbilly Rhumba  (1:50)

Rusty Draper  -  The Train With The Rhumba Beat  (2:19)

Jimmie Rodgers  -  The Rhumba Boogie  (2:20)

Trumpet Love, Part 2

A continuation of last week's post, here's Part 2 of a celebration of spit, brass and air: solo trumpet music.

One of my favorite new labels is Off, a spinoff of the Stilll label out of Belgium.  So far Off has given us several excellent genre-defying albums of top quality.  I liked the Don Shtone record, Beware of the Cat, a snappy groove-based jazz recontextualization, and am really digging the current WFMU New Bin denizen Colorlist.  Off also released a fabulous solo trumpet excursion from Toshinori Kondo, who may be best known for his work with the Die Like a Dog quartet featuring Peter Brotzmann, Hamid Drake and William Parker.  (Check out their scorching albums, Little Birds Have Fast Hearts 1 & 2)  Kondo is known for electrifying and treating his trumpet sounds with heavy delay, reverb and other effects reminiscent of Miles's electric experiments of the early '70s.  The songs on the album could almost be classic analog synth compositions from the Ohm box set, slowly building in ethereal atmosphere with a minimal and otherworldly vibe.   While some solo trumpet albums tend to seem like recorded practice sessions, Kondo's plays like an album in the classic sense.  And unlike some examples herein, you can actually tell he's playing a trumpet!  Toshinori Kondo - Clear Water (from Silent Melodies)

Speaking of WFMU's New Bin, we've seen two older Tom Djll albums appear there of late, both getting quite a bit of airplay.  Bellerophone sees Djll working with untreated trumpet and offering a clinic on what the instrument can do in the right hands, from staccato bursts, to moans and groans, to soft spatial passages.  Smudge is Djll's digital album, the trumpet being only the basis for an array of electronic/digital manipulations.  In both cases, however post-everything he may sound, I can't help but envision Djll as the latest in a line of trumpeters that starts with Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams and includes the Art Ensemble's Lester Bowie.  His version of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime", not totally indicative of what the rest of the album is like, reminds me of Lester's take on "Hello Dolly" and it's a fine example of Tom Djll the trumpet player.  Tom Djll - Brother, Can You Spare a Dime (from Bellerophone)

Fake Beatles No. 9: The Kaisers vs. Wilhelm Wimbledom

Of all the Fake Beatles to come down the pike in recent years, one of the most remarkable was the Kaisers. From 1993 to 2002, this Edinburgh quartet released five studio and one live LP of the purest beat-group sounds this side of Hamburg's Star-Club. Clad in skintight trousers and sporting mile-high quiffs, they were essentially the Fab Four before that group started combing their hair over their foreheads in emulation of German art students.

The band applied its verisimilitude to the 1962-63 aesthetic not just to appearance but to song selection -- a mixture of note-perfect originals and the prevailing R&B cover tunes (recorded in glorious mono) that were in the repertoire of every beat combo of the era, from the Big Three to the Swingin' Blue Jeans. The Kaisers' exactitude also extended to the painstakingly created artwork: from the type style to the period-evoking black-and-white photos -- and especially to the liner notes, the main focus of this post.

Those of you who are fans of rock 'n' roll of the British early-to-mid-'60s variety may be familiar with the condescending sleeve notes on the back of those LPs. Seemingly written under duress by some put-upon NME or Melody Maker scribe who makes no bones about the fact that he would much rather be listening to George Shearing than the caterwauling claptrap before him, the term "faint praise" would be too generous. There's something very stiff-upper-lip about carrying a negative review on your band's own album that is utterly charming in this hagiographic age.

As stated earlier, the Kaisers were sticklers, and that's where the esteemed critic Wilhelm Wimbledon enters the picture, for he is the personage trusted to explain the group to the record-buying public. Take the concluding passage from the boys' debut long-player, Squarehead Stomp: "What more can I say about this disc? If unintelligible shouting over a cretinous off-key back beat apparently recorded in five minutes with the minimum of rehearsal is your 'scene,' I dare say this record will be a treasured addition to your popular music collection."

Here are some choice lines from the back of the Kaisers' second album, In Step With the Kaisers: "[I]t was back to work for the tight trousered quartet as they threw themselves blindly into another melody free rhythm and blues workout." Wimbledon's notes reach a particularly frustrated tone on the third LP, Beat It Up!: "I suppose you'd like to read some teen rave type comment on the 'music' lurking within this typically garish sleeve, but it seems that space is at a premium due to the somewhat overlarge photographc study of your favorite foursome below."

The poor fellow clearly must have been driven beat-mad by the time of the Kaisers' fourth album, Wishing Street, as a new, more sympathetic liner-note writer, one Joseph Budge, offers up an almost positive statement: "[It] features a clutch of brand new numbers...recorded with an unprecedented clarity of sound that facilitates almost complete audibility of both words and music." Not standing for such mollycoddling of rich, pampered pop stars like the Kaisers, Wimbledon gives that softie Budge the sack and reclaims his position behind the Underwood for the band's fifth release, Shake Me! After expending a paragraph or four comparing them unfavorably to Elvis and Cliff, he terms the group lazy and spoiled by success, finally getting around to summing up the entire 14-song album with these words: "They call this the 'new sound.' I thought someone had stepped on the cat's tail for a moment." Reminder: All these words appear on the Kaisers various albums and singles.

You can keep your Lester Bangs and his so-called iconoclastic ilk. True gonzo rock journalism begins and ends with Wilhelm Wimbledon!

Mach Schau: A Kaisers Bouquet (all songs MP3)

Hipshake Shimmy Kitten (an uptempo shaker from Squarehead Stomp)

Like I Do (a tender ballad from Beat It Up!)

Time to Go (a harmonica-propelled rocker from Wishing Street)

No Other Guy (any title similarity between this Shake Me! song and the beat-group standard "Some Other Guy" is surely happenstance)

What You Gonna Say (the lower-fi 45 version)

Shake and Scream (this live version of the Kenny Lynch tune is Fake Beatles twice removed)

Cry for a Shadow (this B-side is technically not Fake Beatles, as this is originally a Real Beatles song, but it qualifies, being Real Beatles doing Fake Shadows)

Vinyl Finds: Merzbow - Dradomel LP 1992 (Hannover Interruption)

Masami Akita (aka Merzbow) is one of my heroes.  Not only is he one of the innovators of noise-as-music, with an incredible range of stylistic applications in his repertoire, he also shames most creative artists in terms of sheer productivity.  The amount of Merzbow/Masami Akita solo releases and collaborations on LP, 7" vinyl, cassette tape and CD is absolutely staggering, approximately 400 since 1980; that's an average of 14 releases per year, making him something like the Fassbinder of Noise.  The thing about his catalog, at least from this fan's perspective, is that so much of it is really very good, the constant experimentation and variation of his approach, and the collaborations with other artists bearing proof of an extremely bountiful creative spirit. 

This LP, apparently titled Hannover Interruption (at least according to Wikipedia and Discogs, though no such information appears anywhere on the package, not in English characters anyway) was a joint release of Dom Elchklang and the short-lived Dragnet Records label.  Almost everything both labels have touched is pure gold to me, and Dradomel in particular also released one of my all-time favorite LPs, Rowenta/Khan's Tiefpunkte Moderner Tonkompositionen (also 1992, now on CD.)

This album finds Merzbow in full-on, harsh-noise mode, at least at first listen.  The more one becomes acclimated to the sound, the more layers of activity emerge:  electric groans and roars, bird-call-like feedback, moog sirens, percussive analog static, thousands of pots and pans falling down a hill, even the occasional vocal.  It's this artful layering of sound (among other things) that separates Merzbow from some jag-off that just turns on a noise generator and walks away.  To my knowledge, these recordings are not included in the massive 50-CD Merzbox (Extreme, 2000) though the Merzbox does include a disc called Hannover Cloud dated 1990.

Merzbow continues his prolific tide, with some notable recent releases being Electric Dress (with Carlos Giffoni and Jim O'Rourke), Merzbuddha, and Merzbear (the latter two being part of his mostly animal-devoted Merz series on the Important label.)  In the past several years, Masami has also become an activist for animal rights, including the PETA url alongside his own merzbow.net on CD sleeves.  (Just imagining the Noise-God rubbing shoulders at a charity event with Pamela Anderson gives me a big fat grin for uncountable reasons.)

Side A Untitled
Side B Untitled

Next time:  My Merzbow singles!

Hot Poop "Does Their Own Stuff!" - an interview with Larry Praissman and Tom Burke

    There are memorable album covers, and then there are memorable album covers. If you've ever seen the cover of Hot Poop's one and only release Does Their Own Stuff!, I doubt you've erased it from your frontal lobe. Discovering it was released in 1971 makes it twice as not-forgettable (click image above for larger view). In a grainy black & white photograph (which has all the composition and exposure of a police murder scene crime photo) a man takes a dump onto a plate while another hands more plates to a group of hippies passed out on a pile of old junk. They appear to be using syringes to inject the man's shit into their veins (one is passed out, or dead). This is all happening in some abandoned-looking barn-type space (Spahn Ranch?) On the back cover, the top half features the same five people standing in a field with some donkeys. The lower half shows them opening their coats to reveal their nude bodies, with the male and female genitals switched on each person (this is pre-Photoshop era, but post-Christine Jorgensen). In both scenarios, there are proud smiles all around.
    Lots of mystery surrounds the band Hot Poop, and this LP (which is a sought after collector's item in some circles—only 500 were made). Hot Poop were indeed a real band from Isla Vista, California, formed in the early 70's, with five real people, real instruments, real songs, real songwriting and little tours and everything. It seems that might need clarification because, well... look at that cover! Hot Poop were, in ways that are obvious now, just slightly ahead of their time.
    What you're wondering: the music on Does Their Own Stuff! is similar to many of the crazier, avant-leaning rock acts popular at the time, but Hot Poop sound more lo-fi, scrappier and much sillier (at least on this LP). There's also an odd, 1950's-style rock n' roll vibe running through these songs, which have titles like "My Baby's Dead," "Wing Wang" and "Dance To The War."
    Founding Hot Poop members Larry Praissman (that's him on the front cover, relieving himself) and Tom Burke agreed to answer a few questions for me via email, and clarify much of the myths surrounding the band (and that LP cover). Larry Praissman played lead guitar and rhythm guitar, and backing vocals in the group, as well as co-wrote all of their songs along with the group's lead vocalist and guitarist Tom Burke—the man who also conceptualized that album cover. Read on to hear Larry and Tom tell you anything you could possibly want to know about Hot Poop. Needless to say, the band's story is a bit of a bumpy one...

Yogi Bear Abducted My Children!

Once nice thing about living in Brooklyn is that you're never quite sure what happen as you as you open the door in the morning. This is what greeted me earlier this week, and made me feel like I was living inside a certain terrifying kiddie film:

Is it really okay to bribe kids with cotton candy, fake superheros, hip hop, and a Sunday school that meets on Saturday? Should I have called the authorities? I also found it odd that they didn't mention the Christian religious aspect (the school is run by Bushwick-based Metro Ministries), and that they were trolling my mostly Hasidic neighborhood (Crown Heights).

Actually being at this school may be even more surreal, as it is the nation's biggest Bible Day Camp. Here's a sample of what goes on: jumpin' Jesus!

Sensei Rebel's Archive Picks of the Week (April 28 - May 4, 2008)

All MP3 and RealAudio links are streaming links from the WFMU archives.

Rock And Roll
The Heads - "Television" MP3 | RealAudio from Scott Williams' show

International
Sounds of Taraab - "Daka Kozi Manowe" MP3 | RealAudio from Woody's show

Experimental
Woods - "Family" MP3 | RealAudio from Stochastic Hit Parade with Bethany Ryker

Dance
LFO - "Tan Ta Ra (Moby Remix)" MP3 | RealAudio from Sound And Safe with Trent

Instrumental
Uakti - "Arrumacao" MP3 | RealAudio from All Over the Map with PGB (filling in for Evan Muse)

Fave Songs of the Week
Capricorn - "20hz" MP3 | RealAudio from Sound And Safe with Trent
Arling & Cameron - "Herrmann" MP3 | RealAudio from All Over the Map with PGB (filling in for Evan Muse)

The Phi Mu Washboard Band - "...Just Because"

When I originally supplied The Phi Mu Washboard Band's rendition of "Love Hurts" to the original 365 Days Project in 2003, there were several requests for the rest of the album. I didn't have the resources or ability to provide that sort of thing at the time, and eventually forgot about it.

But out of the blue last month came an e-mail request for the entire album, and this seems like the perfect venue for it. A few notes about the album, which I bought at the very last Mammoth Music Mart, which used to be an annual event in Skokie, Illinois, to raise money for ALS research, can be found at the original 365 days post.

Many of the songs are quite brief - some under one minute - and the entire album, which is a 12 incher, is over in barely 24 minutes. I have supplied the titles just as they appear on the jacket and the label, even though at least a few of them are incorrect (for example, track 14, listed as "I Can Smile" is actually a 1960 pop hit called "Happy Go Lucky Me", originally sung by Paul Evans).

And so, by special request, "...Just Because", by The Phi Mu Washboard Band:

Bob Purse

1.) Just Because (MP3)

2.) Love Hurts (MP3)

3.) Side By Side (MP3)

4.) Seven Daffodils (MP3)

5.) Whale of a Tale (MP3)

6.) Saints (MP3)

7.) Chilly Winds (MP3)

8.) Mamma Don't Allow (MP3)

9.) This Land (MP3)

10.) Take Me Back (MP3)

11.) You Are My Sunshine (MP3)

12.) Wanderer (MP3)

13.) Chinatown (MP3)

14.) I Can Smile (MP3)

15.) Today (MP3)

16.) Phi Mu Suwannee (MP3)

Front Cover (JPG)

Back Cover (JPG)

I Was a Viking Once

I was a Viking once.  I led a ship, and I was a woman. I know it sounds crazy, because we don't hold Vikings to be suffragettes in the common sense of the word, but this was just one of the many positions of authority I supposedly held in my previous lives.  The Viking ID made the most sense to me.  I am still a major fan of Scandi Design and who doesn't love a well tailored, padded leather tunic?  I never pick up my iron spearhead without one.  But the underlying proof of my Viking past is my attachment to the sea.  Sort of like a mythical Irish silkie,  made land locked by her lover stealing her magical seal skin, I am just not myself when I get too far away from water.  In my imaginary life I live in a lighthouse, surrounded by lapping currents and crying birds.  And of course a huge Newfoundland dog, to aid in sea rescue.  A few weekends ago I lived that imaginary life, alas without the Newfie, for a mere 24 hours and it was truly magical.
     The Saugerties Lighthouse, in Saugerties NY, is one of several lighthouses on the east coast that were once made redundant, and then got a second chance as a bed and breakfast.  Built on the Hudson River in 1869, it was inhabited by a lighthouse keeper and family until 1954. That changed when the Coast Guard installed an automated light, no longer requiring a keeper, and the house fell into disrepair.  It has since been taken over by a conservancy group and fitted with two guest bedrooms.  Restored as it might have looked in the early 20th century, with a working Victrola and coal burning stove for heat, the lighthouse is indeed a century away from New York City, located only one hundred miles up the Hudson.  To add to the thrill of disengaging from modern life, you hike out about 15 minutes along a densely covered peninsula, to reach the lighthouse, and this must be done avoiding high tide, as the path is then covered in a foot of water.  You thought your last tour at Glastonbury was muddy...

After we spent our restful night at the lighthouse, under the newly installed watchful solar beam, and showered in collected rainwater held in a cistern, we ate a wonderful breakfast prepared by the innkeeper Patrick, and headed out for the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. A little chance and the calling of a handsome graphic made us screech to a halt at Lucky Chocolates.  Some of the best chocolates this side of Paris, I do declare (and remember I was a Viking and have traveled the high seas, so I should know).  Gorgeously handmade and exotically flavored, I loved the Earl Grey best, but don't stop there, try every flavor if you can.  A few doors down from Lucky Chocolates on route 212, is a shop entirely devoted to English food, if you are in dire need of Yorkshire tea, which it so happens I was.  Order has been restored to my universe, once again I am drinking my favorite tea, and all it took was a trip to a lighthouse on the Hudson to make it all work.
      The Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary is located 8 miles west of Woodstock.  It is a nonprofit organization that provides a home for animals who have escaped from slaughterhouses, rescued from abusive situations, or in some cases just had no where else to go, once a farm closed shop.  Their mission is education about the horrors of industrialized farming methods, but their goodwill ambassadors are such charming farm yard friends that they will have you re-thinking your last hamburger and start you on a quest to find ways to incorporate more lentils into your diet, or at least that was the effect it had on me. 
     I can't honestly imagine living in the early 19th century, where a broken bone would have most likely led to amputation, but I can yearn for a lighthouse of my own, and still dream about my idol Ida Lewis, and wonder why, at the very least,  she doesn't have a rest stop named after her.  In the meantime, regular trips to Saugerties will tide me over.

Great Moments in WFMU History #24

Burnt Orange - by Ken Freedman & Liz Berg

In 1998, a few years after Upsala College went completely bankrupt, closed its doors, and abandoned the East Orange, NJ campus, WFMU was on the brink of a move to its new home in Jersey City. During the final program on the final night of the last-ever WFMU fundraising Marathon held in the station’s Springdale Ave house next to the campus, a gratifying farewell symbol presented itself. The empty Upsala Business Office, a site of countless financial battles between the station and college administration, burst into flames and burnt to the ground. DJ Frank Balesteri (aka The Vanilla Bean) grabbed volunteer Phil Catalano’s cell phone, galloped toward the blazing inferno, and called in to the on-air line to give a play-by-play of the mayhem, even managing to interview a firefighter.

Art by Aaron Zimmerman

Early Musical Robots

One blog reader asked what the the story behind the picture with the walking, talking, and yodeling "radio man" for last week's post was. The article is from a 1939 issue of Popular Mechanics, and "Radio Man" was designed by Swiss engineer August Huber in the 1930's. Like all early robots, he looks way cooler than the modern ones. That's all I know. And instead of wasting my time researching more about Radio Man, here are a few more early robots, all stolen from the "Robot" section of the excellent Modern Mechanix blog. (Click on the images to get a larger version.)

 

Two more robots after the jump.

Music to be a Rat Soup Eatin' Honky Ass Motherfucker by...

Not much to say here really, other than I've posted two typically funky, offensive, crazy and profane Rudy Ray Moore comedy albums from his Dolemite/Human Tornado heyday. Listen to all of The Cockpit here and the entire Sweet Peter Jeeter here.

Economus Stimulis

What are you guys doing with your extra check from Uncle Sam?  I will be spending a frivolous night in The Shagadellic (Room #1) <<<--- at the Roxbury Hotel "nestled amongst the picturesque Catskill Mountains in the historic village of Roxbury".  I'm a sucker for a good theme motel. 

Here's Ol' Dirty Bastard to tell you all about it.

Money (mp3)