Though I'm loathe to shatter the commonly held fantasy that all WFMU staffers (pictured right) live together in a big
house, eat communal meals at a large wooden table, and are lead in song each night by Ken (front row, extreme left), who keeps time by beating a wooden spoon against an old rusty pot, the sad fact of the matter is that some of us have lives outside the immediate realm of broadcasting. This month, I am able to dish out the following details.
Music Director, Program Director, and self-described "hoagie kingpin" Brian Turner will be spreading the WFMU love like so much apple butter while DJing along with Plastic Crimewave Sound's Steve Krakow and Dublab Sound System at the giant ARTHUR Magazine festival on September 4th and 5th in Los Angeles. The show features three stages and musical performances over the two days from various luminaries of screen and stage like Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono, Merzbow, T-Model Ford, Circle, Comets On Fire, Sunn o))), Olivia Tremor Control, Earth, and many more. You can get more info on the hoo-haw by clicking here.
Closer to home, WFMU's Mr. Finewine, host of the Downtown Soulville program continues to spin
sixties and seventies soul 45s in all their infinite variety and magnificence on Wednesday nights at 
NYC's Botanica Bar, a glorious tradition that dates back to 1996. This is not "classic soul", but rather the obscure stuff that never made it out of Detroit, New Orleans, Norfolk, or Mobile. In other words, it's a death-defying (and drink-enabling) barrage of non-hits encompassing gritty drum-break-laden funk, sweet group soul with instantly stuck-in-your-head melodies, screaming southern deep-soul ballads, raw gospel, urban dance blues, mind-blowing overmodulated organ instrumentals, and more! You never know who may wander in, though recent sightings of Cut Chemist, Keb Darge, the Dirtbombs, and Eddie Vedder, would suggest it's worth finding out for your own bad self on any given Wednesday at Botanica, 47 East Houston St., NYC. 10 PM - closing, no cover.
Also continuing his well-respected duties behind the wheels of veal, is WFMU's Dave the Spazz, who drops the toe-stubbing rock & roll platters every Sunday night at Union Pool (484 Union, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.) Like Fine Wine's 
DJ gig, there's no cover, so your money can be better spent buying drinks for the heavily tattooed patrons, or you can wile away the evening in Union Pool's spacious backyard, batting away the gnats and sucking in the intoxicating aromas of nearby landmarks The Kellogg Diner, and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. While you're there, you should also marvel at Union Pool's handily effective sign, hoisted high atop its' roof but generally only visible while whizzing past on the neighboring highway. It reads: "Worst. President. Ever."
Station Manager Ken will be a panelist at the Future of Music Coalition's Fifth Annual Policy Summit, which takes place in Washington DC from September 11th to 13th at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium. Ken will be on the Indecency and Censorship panel, which takes place Tuesday, September 13th, from 2-3 PM, in GWU's Marvin Center.
Tom Scharpling and pal Jon Wurster have had their comedic talents once again committed to plastic, so you're naturally going to want to save some of your walkin' around money for your next trip down to the local casa de discos. Their latest 2xCD, entitled "Hippy Justice", is yet another collection of on-air clips first heard on Scharpling's Best Show on WFMU, including the now legendary "Kid eBay" segment, in addition to a whole lot more. There's a review of the disc in a recent issue of The Boston Globe, which can be read here, or you can head right over to the Stereolaffs website to order a copy.
Mike Lupica's on-air tribute to the late Randy "Biscuit" Turner, vocalist of Texan punk heavyweights The Big Boys, got picked up and mentioned by The Austin Chronicle. You can read the article here, and read more about Turner here.
Also in the news is the Greasy Kid Stuff crew, now fully settled in their left-coast digs and exploring the kid-friendly possibilities of their home studio every Saturday at 10 AM Eastern Time. You can get more details on what Hova, Belinda, and DJ Waah Waah are up to by clicking here.
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