WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Chris T.'s Holiday Fill-ins

Mark you calendar. My wife Janet and I will be filling in for Shut Up, Weirdo (Fridays, 6 PM) on the following dates:

Friday, Nov. 27 (Black Friday): Crappy Crafts & Penny-Pinching Parties
Did you ever wish you could turn a lowly coffee can into a beautiful piggy bank via some artful crochet? Would you like to know how to throw a rockin' holiday party for a few thin dimes? On this Black Friday we'll keep you out of the stores and help you save a few bucks while we share Crappy Crafts and Penny-Pinching Party ideas.

Friday, Dec. 25 (Christmas Day): Trim-a-Tree with Janet & Chris T.
If you celebrate Christmas you've probably agonized over the multitude of approaches to the Christmas tree: Real or artificial? If you favor a real tree do you go and cut it down yourself? Or head off to the nearest corner lot? And is it a Noble Fir or nothing? If you prefer artificial do you want a realistic-looking one or something that screams FAKE, like those shiny aluminum trees back in fashion? What about lights? Clear? Colored? Flashing? Steady on? And then there's garland, tinsel and ornaments... Jesus Christ! We'll also ask what a WFMU Christmas tree would look like.

Friday, Jan. 1 (New Year's Day): Two Year Warning
The world is officially scheduled to end in 2012. What will YOU do with your last two years?

Christ T. hosted WFMU's first regularly-scheduled phone-in talkshow, Aerial View, for sixteen straight years beginning in 1989.

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 43 (MP3s)

Give the Drummer Some's
6 Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

It's your pre-Turkey Day edition of Mining the Audio Motherlode and this week's platters are piping hot. Please help yourself to each course, then pass them on to the next set of hungry ears. As the universe of free-album download blogs keeps expanding, you can spend an absurd number of hours hunting and gathering the rarest of musical morsels, or just pull up to this weekly smorgasboard here at Beware of the Blog. Gobble gobble hey!

Turkey
Various  ~  "Beyond Istanbul 2"
(Blog: World Music)

Gravy
Lou Donaldson  ~  "Gravy Train"
(Blog: RFCCBH)

Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry Kisses and Strawbery Hugs (mp3) by Rosalie Allen
Children (Save the World) (mp3) by Heroes of Cranberry Farm
Cranberry Blues by (mp3 ) Robert Williams

 

Mashed Potatoes (and Green Onions)
Booker T & the MGs  ~  Best Of..."
(Blog: What's in My iPod)


   
Stringbeans
Stringbean  ~  "Back Yard Banjo Pickin'"
Disc One  |  Disc Two  |  CD Art
(Blog: Johnny One-Note's Earcandies)
[Note: The blog is dead but the links are still active
Enter the password "one-note:]

 

Pumpkin Pie
Jay & the Techniques  ~  "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie"
(Blog: Dream Never Gets Old)

Listen for music from these and other incredible finds on
Give the Drummer Some, Fridays on WFMU, 9 to Noon (ET).

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

New Zealand's Axemen at WFMU (MP3's)

It's a chore enough these days for any kind of overseas band to land a U.S. tour on any scale, so its was nothing less than a pleasant surprise when we learned that New Zealand's Axemen had a pretty extensive one lined up with Columbus, Ohio's Times New Viking this fall. The Axemen started in Christchurch in 1981, a time when New Zealand and Flying Nun records in particular were stirring up a major musical waves (ones that were felt in countless 1990's US indie bands and are still being felt today especially disciples like TNV), yet the sweeping, strummy pop element that was evident in many of the Nun's stable was only a part of the fuzzy picture that was the Axemen. The band's central core of (Little) Stevie McCabe, Bob Brannigan, and Stu Kawowski recorded in both cheapo home mode and in traditional studios, but setting had little to do with the wide-swing of directions that are evident wherever you drop a needle (or cue up a tape). There's tons of basement weirdness nodding to the more antisocial Velvets and Swell Maps moments, scatterings of drunken White Album recreation attempts, even moments where they sound like Royal Trux way before their time. When they played at Union Pool in Brooklyn last week I could swear they were going for a Stackwaddy/Doors thing, but then they became Half Japanese with Stevie playing sax solos on guitar. In Axemen recordings, they have one song about Elmer Fudd that sounds like Psychic TV, and another that is totally inspired by Grandmaster Flash. They even did a full album of Elton John songs. I have a feeling that if Flying Nun gave them the giant studio budget like they did Straitjacket Fits they would have come up with an album just as great as their Big Cheap Motel and Scary! Part III cassettes that Siltbreeze thankfully reissued in 2009. Check out the clip below (and more after the jump) of the band on a 90's NZ kids' TV show (promoting their Peter Wang Pud album!), and dig in to their November 20th visit to my radio show, engineered by Jason Sigal and Alex Yockey.Thanks for Terre T for leaving us all the food the Reigning Sound didn't eat earlier that day, there were some fancy pastries!

Grass Widow Live at WFMU (mp3s)

Wow, is NYC lucky! A few weeks back, San Francisco's finest purveyors of angsty punk slash girl-group harmonies Grass Widow flew across the frickin' continent just to play a few New York shows.  Now wasn't that nice of them?

Sandwiched in between concerts with Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts and The Beets, Grass Widow took the time to visit my radio show for a live set and interview.  Between BSing with the band about the Yankees parade that nearly delayed the recording and a totally aggro recording session, November 6th is officially on the books as my favorite Friday of 2009.

Unfortunately, listeners won't get to hear the tune Grass Widow warmed up with in the studio, a cover of The Urinal's "Black Hole".  To hear that, you'll just have to check out their new 12" on Captured Tracks.

Great Men Repeat Themselves

 

Homer and Jethro  Great Men Repeat Themselves

Home Blitz is Back!

Even bros chilling in Ireland were stoked on jamming Home Blitz during their first go round, and for good reason. Daniel DiMaggio, totally hunky Jersey-guy from Princeton started Home Blitz in 2006 and went on to record an awesome album and play sick shows from then until August 2008. After that, the band got de-railed and DiMaggio focused on song writing, solo performing, and briefly, getting his high school band Great Excape back together for a few gigs, including Woodsist/Caputured Tracks fest on 4th of July in Brooklyn.

Well now, after an extensive search for a band he can rely on, DiMaggio has relaunched the epic Home Blitz and I am super excited! The new lineup features WFMU's own Jason Sigal on bass (Lame Drivers, Great Excape), super smoking chick Theresa Smith on guitar, and, for now, the punkest 15 year old drummer you've ever seen. You will love Home Blitz. Poppy punk with a noisy edge. Love this band, love you too. Check out "Two Steps" from the recently released "O.ut O.f P.hase", available now in CD, soon to be out on 12 inch vinyl!

Home Blitz - Two Steps

Jean-Jacques Perrey & Gershon Kingsley on American Game Shows!

Incapacitants

Making the nature scene, 1981.
Posted via Big Fat Satanist.

French Singer Gigi Gaston's Jean-Luc Godard-Filmed Music Video

What words would you use to describe 1960s French pop sensation Gigi Gaston? With a growing cult discovering her through the dozens of photos, periodicals, songs and videos assembled by Josh Gosfield, some adjectives describing the chanteuse nicknamed the "Black Flower" include "sultry," "elusive," "scandalous," "murderous" and "misunderstood."

To that you must add the word "fictitious" — Gigi Gaston is wholly and entirely a creation of Gosfield, an artist and designer whose exhibition at the Steven Kasher Gallery in Manhattan closes on Wednesday, November 25th after a monthlong run. Not only did he cast Gigi, shoot the period-perfect photos and created the meticulously rendered versions of the covers of actual magazine of the era along with a staggering variety of her record sleeves, he's also responsible for the putative Jean-Luc Godard film short for Gigi's haunting song "Je Suis Perdue," which is presented here for your viewing pleasure.

Listen to the archive of Josh Gosfield's appearance on this author's show, which aired on Sunday, November 22, here, during which he expounded upon his creation and dissemmination of the singer who put the "no-no" in yé-yé.

Weird NJ contributor Wheeler Antabanez

Billy Jam says:

New Jersey explorer, writer, photographer, filmmaker, welder, artist, skateboarder, avid Passaic River canoe traveler, graffiti lover, urban anthropologist, prankster, high school dropout, WFMU listener, Weird NJ contributor, and as he calls himself "run of the mill trespasser" are all titles befitting Wheeler Antabanez who will be a guest on WFMU today (Nov 20th 3-6pm) on Put The Needle On The Record when he will talk about his passion - New Jersey, especially the rundown abandoned funky parts - and take phone calls from listeners on exploring the abandoned buildings of the Garden State. But in the meantime, as a primer for his WFMU appearance, here are a sampling of video clips of some of Wheeler's adventures plus his interview with Beware Of The Blog (BOTB).



BOTB: Are you NJ born and bred, and when & where did you first start your explorations?

WHEELER: I grew up in Caldwell, which put me in easy bicycle range of the abandoned Essex Mountain Sanatorium. My friends and I happened upon the hospital while we were exploring the woods in North Caldwell behind Matarazzo’s Farm. The first thing we saw was the entrance column with a huge swastika spray painted across the front. It was in the peak of summer, the buildings were completely overgrown, and Overbrook, which is what we used to call it back then, was the scariest thing I had ever seen. It didn’t take us long to grow the balls to enter the building. By the time I was 15 or 16 I knew the layout so well it was almost like I owned the place. In those days I had an M17 BB gun hidden in the rafters above the auditorium. When I walked the halls with that weapon in my hand, I felt like nothing could hurt me, even on the darkest midnights. Looking back, I was lucky to have never been shot by the sheriffs’ officers on patrol, because the gun looked real. The best part was the innocence of our destruction. We found the place long after it had already been trashed by generations of teenagers, so it didn’t seem like a crime to break the windows, or smash the toilets. Over the years I’ve worked many construction jobs and smashed up plenty of plumbing. Somehow demolition has never seemed like much fun compared to when I used to run wild through the sanatorium.

BOTB: Is NJ truly a haven for all things weird and funky and abandoned?

Question Mark Question Mark Question Mark

  

It's been almost a week since I posted this CDr to the WFMU blog, and since then I have been ransacked by e-mails and comments crying "hoax" or "bubble boy," from everyone from random passers-by to the higher-ups at WFMU. Rather than address all the theories being espoused by readers from around the globe, I simply want to aver that this is indeed a true story, and is in no way meant to be a self-promotion tactic. Any alterations to the WFMU blog entry post-publication -- or my own personal blog -- were done in an attempt to quell the uprising of cynics. Had I known that my actions would only add fuel to the fire, I would have simply let things stand as they were. Clearly I've learned a valuable lesson in controversy control.

Free Music Archive highlights 11/19/2009

Here are the crib notes to what's been happenin on the Free Music Archive (if you haven't been keeping up on the Free Music Archive via twitter, facebook, RSS, or the regular ol' home page. Feel free to chime in with more FMA rec's in the comments!

:: The FMA's Anti-Pop Consortium Remix Contest kicked off on Monday, and we've already received some pretty cool entries that we can't wait to share. The contest ends Dec 20th, go here to grab multitracks and get started on your own

 :: ISSUE Project Room's recent adds include new studio recordings from Ashtray Navigations and the Mick Flower/Chris Corsano duo. The venue has also shared recent live performances by artist-in-residence Alex Waterman, including a recent improv set with Ikue Mori (of DNA) and Ned Rothenberg, and a interpretations of Robert Ashley. October also saw an amazing Orchestra Carbon performance of Elliott Sharp's SyndaKit. Most recently, IPR features a live out-jazz excerpt from saxophonist/composer Matana Roberts (pictured at Right)

:: Late-'70s/early '80s UK DIY heroes Animals & Men share a new batch of recordings from their new 12'' on the Convulsive label, plus an unreleased set of songs from a session in Lyon, including "Oh Death" below

:: Dubbed To Death: Pushbin Lou features Volatil, an electronic/dubstep trio out of Argentina and the UK (article)

:: Drummers At the Forefront -- a feature on Zac Nelson's Hexlove project with other percussionist-composers like Black Pus, Soft Circle, and GDFX in the mix as well.

:: Spotlight on New York's premier avant-garde classical netlabel SHSK'H (website), including the track below from Japanese koto player Etsuko Shida

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 42 (MP3s)

Give the Drummer Some's
6 Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

CASH FOR SPELUNKERS EDITION

We here at Mining the Audio Motherlode know a little something about economic hard times. Why, your very own Miner has gone eight long months without a paycheck ever since getting laid off back in March (smack dab in the middle of WFMU's fundraising marathon).

But did he curl up in a fetal position with one thumb in his mouth and the other jabbing the keyboard for those online unemployment benefits? Hell no! The Miner saw all that new-found free time as an opportunity to spend quality time in the murky deep of MP3Land, excavating free music for the masses. (Talk about turning gators into Gatorade!) And you, dear reader, have been the beneficiary. Over the past 42 weeks, this column has served up a massive free-form mix—over 350 amazing selections in all—of free full-album downloads.

As you take a moment to ponder all the cash Mining the Audio Motherlode has saved you this year, it's crucial that you take some of those beaucoup bucks and make a pledge RIGHT NOW to support WFMU, which finds itself in a major pickle. (For the first time in many years, the station's annual marathon missed reaching its fundraising goal—by over 10%—and that shortfall has left the station in an extremely precarious position.) Until 7:00pm this evening, WFMU is broadcasting an Emergency 24-Hour Marathon to pull in an infusion of desperately need dollars.

Before delving into the half-dozen audio doozies offered below, please take a moment to give a little something to WFMU by calling 800-989-WFMU or making a secure online pledge.Thanks a ton!

What Would MC 900 Ft Jesus Do?
MC 900 Ft Jesus w/DJ Zero  ~  "Too Bad" (and 2 other singles)
(Blog: Look What the Twat Dragged In)
From the single "Too Bad": Shut Up (mp3)

Out on the Urban Prarie
Souled American  ~  "Around the Horn"
(Blog: The More You Think About It...)

Incendiary Sonny
Huey Simmons  ~  "Burning Spirits"
(Blog: Ile Oxumare)
From the album: New Newk (mp3)


 

Hopa!
Petros Pandis  ~  "Songs of the Greek Resistance"
(Blog: A Blog About Post Punk, Anarcho/Peace Punk, Militant Entertainment
and Radical Politics)

   

Dog Gone It!
Riz Ortolani  ~  "Mondo Cane" (O.S.T.)
(Blog: Singers Saints)
From the soundtrack: Hong Kong Cha Cha Cha/Colazione al Colony (mp3)

Mariachi Schmaltz
Various  ~  "La Revolucion y Sus Cantares"
(Blog: Música Popular Mexicana)

Listen for music from these and other incredible finds on
Give the Drummer Some, Fridays on WFMU, 9 to Noon (ET).

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

WFMU's 24-Hour Marathon in progress!

WFMU's 24-Hour Marathon began last night at 7pm and runs until 7pm tonight!

We've set aside our pride to interrupt programming this Fall for our first, and hopefully last, 24-hour Marathon. Our coffers are empty thanks to the combined evil forces of the recession and WFMU falling short of our March Marathon goal. Help us raise enough money in 24 hours to stay on the air through the winter months!

Today's festivities will be action-packed, including co-host madness, on-air prize drawings, and all of the fun-loving insanity and surprises you've come to expect from WFMU Marathons. Check out our new Radio Bear t-shirt, as well as a fresh batch of DJ Premiums by Tom Scharpling, Terre T, Evan "Funk" Davies, Marty McSorley, Ken, Maria Levitsky, and Seven Second Delay that are up for the taking. Visit our pledge page for details.

We hope you can help us out with a year-end donation! Pledge online or by calling 800-989-9368. Thanks to everyone who has pledged their support thus far!

Other ways to help WFMU this Fall:

Spread the word about our 24-Hour Marathon!

• Facebook: add our "Support WFMU" app to your profile
• Blogs / Tumblr / Other Sites: add our banner to your blog or site (grab code: orange version | black version)
• Twitter: post a link to WFMU's pledge page (use this short URL http://bit.ly/DpOvl and our pledge line, 800-989-9368), add #wfmuthon to any posts about our Marathon
• Donate your used car: If you can't make a cash donation, you can always donate your car. Call 877-411-3662 to arrange for vehicle pick-up.
• Tell your friends about WFMU's iPhone app!

National Country Music Week 1962 (MP3s)

Here are several radio spots promoting the 1962 observance of National Country Music Week.  I must admit I was a bit surprised to see that they found room for Connie Francis and the Kingston Trio, performers not generally associated with country music, alongside old stalwarts like Faron Young and Roy Acuff.

       

Side A
Faron Young  (:30)    |    Connie Francis #1  (:23)   |     Connie Francis #2  (:32)   |     Connie Francis #3  (:37)   |     Flatt & Scruggs  (:26)   |     Patsy Cline #1  (:26)   |     Patsy Cline #2  (:37)   |     Patsy Cline #3  (:35)

Side B
Roy Acuff #1  (:36)   |     Roy Acuff #2  (:35)   |     Eddie Arnold #1  (:19)   |     Eddie Arnold #2  (:35)   |     Chet Atkins  (:35)   |     Kingston Trio  (:29)   |     Tommy Hunter  (:37)   |     Gordon LIghtfoot  (:24)   |     Jim Reeves  (:38)

The 1961 National Country Music Week promotional radio spots are over here.

Staff Picks: Victoria Vein and the Thunderpunks circa 1974

Tony Coulter recently brought this rowdy video to the attention of WFMU staffers, Victoria Vein and the Thunderpunks performing "Other Things".  VV would go on to greater fame under the Debris moniker.  Tony got word of the video from Karl Ikola, proprietor of Anopheles Records, who recently issued the previously unreleased Victoria Vein 7" (and reissued the Debris LP).

Ghost Moth Haunt the Castle; Live Session 11th November 2009

When you're already in a dance with noise and free improvisation, the Kosmische is less than one membranous step away. And so it was with Ghost Moth, the duo of suitcase electronicist Todd Pendu and multi brass/woodwind blower Daniel Carter.

This was Ghost Moth's third set as a duo (reduced from a trio), continuous play totaling over 50 minutes. So many of my favorite records come to mind upon listening: Bob Ostertag's Getting a Head; Merzbow & Christoph Heemann's Sleeper Awakes on the Edge of the Abyss; Miles Davis' In A Silent Way. But Ghost Moth are really their own thing, and must be heard to be believed:

11/11: The Duality and the Hidden Third

Live audio covered by a creative commons attribution-non commercial-no derivatives license.

Here's some video of the session, from Todd's YouTube channel:

Capitol Production Music Sampler (MP3's)

Here's a fun little seven inch 33 1/3 promo disk , on the Capitol Custom label, which I came across ages ago, probably in the same search that turned up the China Youth Corps EP.

Jack Wagner takes us through the magic that is volume three of Capitol's Production Music Series. I sure would love to have the whole collection.

1.) Capitol Production Music Series Volume Three - Side One (MP3)

2.) Capitol Production Music Series Volume Three - Side Two (MP3)

Record Label (JPG)  -  Record Cover (JPG)

Anti-Pop Consortium Remix Contest

WFMU and The Free Music Archive are incredibly excited to announce a remix contest featuring Anti-Pop Consortium! NYC's legendary hip-hop innovators are sharing hi-fi stems & a capellas from "Reflections", a cut off their brand new album Fluorescent Black (Big Dada). After five exploratory years apart, Beans, M. Sayyid, High Priest and Earl Blaize have re-joined forces to craft what may be their finest work yet. Now they're making multitracks from "Reflections" available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, and we can't wait to hear what you do with 'em!

You've got until December 20th to get in the running for prize pacakges courtesy of WFMU, the Free Music Archive, Anti-Pop Consortium and Big Dada. The members of Anti-Pop Consortium will pick the winners, and we'll post the remixes on the Free Music Archive for further remixing and deep listening. Materials + details after the jump...

Die Goldenen Zitronen - Die Entstehung der Nacht (MP3s, video)

Two years ago I wrote a short blog post praising the criminally underrated German avant-punk-pop mavericks Die Goldenen Zitronen (The Golden Lemons). Unfortunately, it didn't catapult them to superstardom in the US, so I'll try again... Three years after their last studio album "Lenin" they finally released a new one, "Die Entstehung der Nacht" (The Emergence of the Night), as good or better as their last ones. Here is the strange and spooky video for the instrumental title song, apparently a modern version of the story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin.

As a bonus, here are two of my favorite non-instrumentals from the album as MP3s: Des Landeshauptmann's letzter Weg (with lyrics in the style of a Hölderlin ode about Jörg Haider and the weird way in which a law-and-order politician who liked the Nazis and died in a car accident, speeding and drunk, could become a popular hero in the Austrian state of Carinthia after his death) | Drop the stylist (features Mark Stewart of The Pop Group, Melissa Logan of Chicks on Speed, and some swearing in English, so don't play it on the radio or in church...)

Now if only a US distributor would pick up this album...