WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Some Short Stories By A Senile Old Lady

"Serena Friedman's main interest is writing, but she makes time for an extensive walk every day. she is a registered medical record librarian, and has also worked as a legal secretary. She lives in West Orange, and has two children and six grandchildren."

At the creative writing class occasionally mentioned in her stories, Serena must have been taught to "write what you know". The typo-heavy short stories of this vanity pressing reveal that Serena's main concerns in life include getting confused and lost in the airport, that time she fell and broke her hip, attempting to find a convenient and inexpensive place to buy a pastrami sandwich, and most importantly, taking long walks. It's true, Serena's slowed down since her youthful "age of daring do", but she still might be a few steps ahead of senility, depending on whether the above blurb printed on the back cover is clever or naive.

Serena isn't like the grandmother who's always trying to hip you to a cool new musician she saw on PBS the other day. I hate old people like that who cling at contemporary culture as if their wrinkles could go away. Serena's grandson wears mud covered overalls and eats fresh baked chocolate chip cookies while Serena sits on a vinyl covered sofa and offers him a nickel if he'll swipe some cheddar from next door neighbor's fridge. Serena's good friends with that neighbor, isn't spry enough to get away with the prank herself, but knows it's a good prank just the same. The neighbor won't mind, Serena'll buy her more later. Plus Serena does love the cheese. That's my kind of grandma.

Here's a week's worth of A Story A Day in good old fashioned PDF format...

Lady Liberty Makes A Few Requests | Dealing With Aging | Poorer But Wiser | A Kitten And Newspaper As Catalysts For Romance | A Shopping Experience | Marriage - A Magical Word | A Record Of My Early Years

365 Days #257 - A Collection of 3 Hollywood Artists 45's (mp3s)

Now, my next collection of song-poem 45's. This time, it's 3 EP's by Hollywood Artists Records from about the late-80's. 2 songs on each side, and a few of them actually go over 3 minutes long!

- Contributed by: Sammy Reed

MP3:

HAR-Y-48
Side 1
  Stephanie Allen - Share Cropper's Daughter (2:34)
  William LeBlanc - Who-So-Ever Believes (2:40)
Side 2
  William LeBlanc - Hold Me Tight (2:59)
    (Yes, folks - Hollywood Artists' resident rapper taking his turn at an
    "easy southern-rock" style tune, and not doing too bad in my opinion!)
  Charles Clark - Looking Out the Window (2:52)

HAR-Y-49
Side 1
  Charles Clark - Can't Chase the Shadows (3:09)
  Hollywood Quintet - Opus 3, No. 8 (2:12)
    (Obviously one person on a synthesized piano. Phil Milstein's excellent
    ASPMA website's discography for Hollywood Artists lists that their
    album HAR-28, "Music of America", includes "Opus 3, No. 2",
    performed by the Hollywood Quintet and written by James Harold Hughes.)
Side 2
  Stephanie Allen - Love You All My Days (3:20)
  Erica Laine - Sweet Caress (2:59)

HAR-Y-52
Side 1
  Stephanie Allen - The Dream of Fire (3:01)
  Stephanie Allen - Gone are the Yesterdays (2:45)
Side 2
  Stephanie Allen - Love (2:45)
    (The tune borrows a lot from "Day By Day".)
  Stephanie Allen - True Love Never Dies (2:39)
    (There are a few times when the notes going under Stephanie's usual
    vocal register, combined with the subject matter, give this song an accidental -
    and I understand, arguable - "goth" feel.)

Images: Hollywood Artists 45 label

Media: 45rpm 7" EP's
Credits: "Share Cropper's Daughter" written by Jennie F. Whittaker; "Who-So-Ever Believes", Loria Griffin; "Hold Me Tight", Rudolph Pryor Jr.; "Looking Out the Window", Jeffrey Lee Coleman; "Can't Chase the Shadows", MJ Cotton; "Opus 3, No. 8", James Harold Hughes; "Love You All My Days", Cynthia Betsy Sarpong; "Sweet Caress", Melva J. Lunceford; "The Dream of Fire", Michael L. Bain; "Gone are the Yesterdays", Mary Ellen Lamie; "Love", Rodney Dennis; "True Love Never Dies", Orlando Tick Dew

Even That Awful "Disappointed" Song Shouldn't Warrant Being Eaten Alive

Here's one, in case you ever wanted to see how John Lydon would behave only inches away from massive, horrible teeth that weren't his own. Excerpted from Rotten TV some years ago, it's quite interesting to see the Godfather of Punk truly humbled in the presence of nature in the subaquatic wilds of South Africa. I can't say I blame him, I've also been close to some pretty nasty looking animals underwater myself, including a cage-less experience around a couple non-Great White but nonethless bastardly looking sharks in the Turks and Caicos, and once had a barracuda almost bite my watch off. When these creatures come swimming by at 60' down and they can change their course in like two seconds and come flying at you, well, you just gotta trust all the assurances that they really don't want to eat people are for real. But then again, sometimes you might want to root otherwise in the case of certain filmmakers.

365 Days #256 - Message From James Brown (mp3s)

MP3:
Message From James Brown (6:10)

This is a rarity: an unreleased promotional single that was probably distributed to radio stations only. There is no discographical info whatsoever (there isn't even a label on the record), but it must date from around 1967, which would be the time of national race riots that it is obviously intended to try and quell. JB had done a famous concert at Boston Garden during a severe time of unrest in '67 to 'keep people off the streets', and this little record will give you some idea of what was going through the Godfather's mind at that time, expressed in his own totally unique way! Not much more you can say about it; it speaks volumes for itself.

- Contributed by: Hoppy Stone

Here Are The Sonics!

The Sonics are one of the greatest garage bands ever--one of the greatest bands period. The Sonics reign was brutal, yet brief. From 1960 to 1966 they blasted their way out of the Pacific Northwest with a distorted punk rock fury the rock & roll world never saw coming and hasn't seen since. The noisiest and most rockinest band ever, mere words hold no meaning trying to comprehend this over-the-top 4/4 ruckus. Just slap on the Sonics right now--tell your stupid coworkers to buzz off cause you're gonna need to be hearing these rockers kinda loud RIGHT AWAY! Strychnine,  Busy Body, Psycho, Skinny Minnie, Boss Hoss,  He's Waiting, The Witch, Have Love Will Travel, Louie Louie, Maintaining My Cool. (Streaming Real Audio links)

The Sonics are playing their first show in decades at Cavestomp. For me, this is the highlight of what already has been a swingin' year of musical events.

And I know there's a chance this reunion gig might suck. I know the oldies circuit only too well. As with Life itself, you always gotta go into these things with lowered expectations. Statistics show that this event should be horrible. However, I subscribe to the Question Mark and the Mysterians Caveman In a Spaceship Exception Theory. In 1997, Q and his Merry Men time-warped like a Vox-fueled meteor from Planet 1966 and sounded better than ever. The Alarm Clocks (also playing Cavestomp) are another freeze-dried rock & roll anomaly that make you wonder what the Stones would've sounded like if they quit the biz in 1966 only to make a comeback 40 years later. And The Trashmen? Jeez--only one of the best shows I've ever seen (Las Vegas 1999). There's a unifying reason why all these bands kicked ass and continue to. Cause they're fucking great--that's why. Case closed.

Lead Sonics vocalist Gerry Rosalie can peel the paint off a 747 on a windy day. I'd catch his act if he were backed up by some terrible schlub oldies band up at BB King's. Only this ain't no oldies band. For the first time in 40 years: Here Are The Sonics!

...and here's an interview with Sonics guitarist Larry Parypa from my show back in 1998. Larry spills on his old man's Les Paul connections, the aborted Do the Witch Dance Craze, getting that Epiphone Riviera distortion sound just right and more. Larry comes off as articulate and forthcoming--I'm in complete Joe Franklin mode. Enjoy!

WFMU Free Music Series returns to Brooklyn!

In our perhaps ill-advised effort to continuously one-up ourselves until our heads explode, all of us here at the Magic Factory are floored to announce the next concert in WFMU's Free Music Series. On October 13th, please join us at Brooklyn's fashionable Southpaw nightclub for an evening of live music with Oneida, Simply Saucer, Alan Vega, and Old Time Relijun! Admission will be FREE!

We'll be spotlighting each of these performers right here in the coming weeks, but as our first free live music show ably demonstrated, this event is sure to pack out the house from floorboard to rafter. It'll be a veritable who's that of the WFMU community, and we hope all of you within baseball chucking distance from Southpaw will make an appearance.

In addition to the utterly heart-stopping lineup of performers, this event will be doubling as a book release party for Dave the Spazz's similarly blazin' new FMU-centric book entitled The Best of LCD: the Art and Writing of WFMU. For newcomers to the party, LCD was WFMU's fabled program guide which for years gave the station a much-lauded representation in the print realm and featured content from not just DJs and listeners, but also noted cultural icons like Nick Tosches, Daniel Clowes, Luc Sante, Chris Ware, Daniel Johnston, and more. The Best of LCD... collects the best of these contributions and offers a fluid portrait of WFMU's relevance in the age before everything went packing for the promised land of the internet. The book will be available for sale at the show, and Dave the Spazz might even step out of his monkey suit long enough to sign a few copies, so saddle up and get ready!

The Free Music Series was made possible through a grant from the New York State Music Fund. The fund's goal is to help creatively-minded artists who are not afforded the same opportunities for exposure that bands with the backing of commercial radio and major record labels are. In fact, it's some of those same major labels who were found to be engaging in payola to drum up airplay for their various flavor-of-the-moment acts. The subsequent fines paid by said labels were collected by the NYSMF, and have been deployed to non-profit arts organizations like WFMU to promote the kind of independent musicians that we feel a special artistic kinship with. If you're a fan of what this radio station does, you'll want to make attendance your weekend's top priority.

Although admission to this event will be free, there are no advanced tickets available. Admission will be first come, first served on the evening of the show. Southpaw is located at 125 5th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. 18+ to enter, 8 PM doors.

Create Your Own Caption

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks to Mike Adler (via NY Times).

Kurt Russell vs Patrick Swayze

When I was a kid I thought that Kurt Russell was the coolest guy in the world. He was tough, mean, trashy, funny, and even kicked demon ass in Big Trouble in Little China. And yeah, he was Snake Plissken. But outside of the John Carpenter films, he didn't do much for me.

At the same time I hated Patrick Swayze. Of course, this is the time that Dirty Dancing had taken over the world: from an omnipresent soundtrack, to the fact that every girl in my high school was obsessed with it. Heck, I had a girlfriend that used to come home and watch it on VHS every day during lunch break. And through it all I couldn't help but watch the movie and think that Swayze was such a pussy, if you'll pardon my 17-year-old vernacular.

Over the years, my positions have changed, and it seems like I am constantly see-sawing back and forth between these two cheesy American actors. But why them in particular? Well, despite each starring in some of my favorite all time bad movies (Big Trouble in Little China and Road House, to be specific), I have also come to realize that Russell and Swayze are like the dark and light versions of the same male macho fantasy. And so, I decided, in good manly fashion, to pit them against each other in a no-holds-barred career grudge match. You may be a sensitive Swayze type or smart-ass Russell wanna-be, but either way, the parallels will astound you.

Competition rounds after the jump!

365 Days #255 - Rolf Harris Stylophone play-along 45 - Latin American style (mp3s)

MP3:
1 Tuning-A + Blue Moon (2:21)
2 Brazil (1:19)
3 It Had to be You (2:09)
4 Over The Rainbow (1:48)
5 Laura (2:04)
6 Chinatown (1:49)
7 Wha! (1:23)
8 How About You (2:06)

For all Stylophone owners out there, (I have two, nah nee nah!) here is the third in a series of records for you to play your stylophone along to. Eight Latin American grooves all the way from Cricklewood in West London. Ay Caramba! Etc. Crackly old vinyl, but that just adds to the charm. Check out the wild jazz guitar on Chinatown.

Stylophones are great for playing Telstar on by the way, the sound and the vibrato are spot on.

Wonder if Rolf treated the Queen to a stylophone number or two to put her at her ease while sitting for her portrait... The Corgis would have been upset so perhaps not.

- Contributed by: Jon Allen

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover, Stylophone!

Jack Emblow - Transicord (??)
Bernie Woods - Bass
Sid Jacobsen - Guitar
Terry Seymour - Drums
Bert Meredith - L/A Percussion

Joe Zawinul

When I heard about Joe Zawinul passing away today I was reminded of Miles Davis' brief and entertaining liner notes from Zawinul's 1970 eponymous release on Atlantic:

"Zawinul is extending the thoughts that we´ve both had for years. And probably the thoughts that most so-called now musicians have not yet been able to express. - MILES DAVIS

P.S. Dig the two drummers and Herbie with the echoplex - and the clear funky black soprano sound - and the set that Woody has to play in. All these musicians are set up. Joe sets up the musicians so that they have to play like they do, in order to fit the music like they do. In order to fit this music you have to be 'Cliche-free'. In order to write this type of music you have to be free inside of yourself and be Josef Zawinul with two beige kids, a black wife, two pianos, from Vienna, a Cancer and 'Cliche-free'."

Few people had as profound an effect on the sonic landscape of jazz in the late sixties and early seventies as Zawinul. While he was hardly the first person to incorporate electric keyboards into jazz his use of Wurlitzers, Fender-Rhodes and other electric pianos to create large tapestries of sound was completely unique and eventually helped lay the groundwork for fusion (for better and for worse).

Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way", for which Zawinul composed the title cut, is one of my all time favorite albums. Zawinul was picked to participate on it the night before the recording session and was asked to "bring music". The composition he brought was pared down by Miles (who thought there were "too many chords") and then was ultimately re-arranged by producer Teo Marceo who artfully cut and pasted various sections of the recording into its final state. Zawinul's drone organs were the glue that held it all together... The out takes that appear on the complete Silent Way box set are well worth tracking down (random unrelated side note: Davis' On the Corner -on which Zawinul did not appear- gets a similar box set treatment later this month).

Above illustration is by Brad Howe for Wax Poetics

Nipplegate Court Appeal Begins

Just a few months after an appeals court in New York deemed the FCC's indecency standards "arbitrary and capricious,"  broadcast indecency issues are receiving even more judicial attention. CBS has appealed the $550,000 fine dealt by the FCC in response to Janet Jackson's infamous wardrobe malfunction, and court proceedings begin today. While it is difficult to predict how the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia will interpret 19/32 of a second of nipple exposure, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that their examination will expose the FCC's indecency guidelines for what they are: irrational and unintelligible.

365 Days #254 - The Best of MP3.COM Part III (mp3s)

In the days after the heinous events of September 11, 2001, a number of amateur songwriters (on the old mp3.com) were moved to write something, ANYTHING, about that infamous day. The results typically ranged from trite and maudlin to unspeakably trite and maudlin.

Lest we forget...

MP3:
1 Aren Steinbrecher - Taliban on the Run (3:02)
2 Billl McMillan - Side by Side (4:00)
3 Brother Jim Schultz - September 11th (4:50)
4 David Laurence - Unborn Baby of Tower One (8:41)
5 Dr BLT - Try To Remember (September 11) (2:28)
6 Jennifer Renee - Light a Candle in September (5:49)
7 Wayne and Liz - 9-11 Warning (12:06)

- Contributed by: Stark Effect

On the Death of the Music Industry

Some recent links of interest:

• Rick Rubin is hired to "save" Columbia Records from itself (NY Times article, requires login)
• Bob Lefsetz ain't buying the Rubin mythos (Lefsetz Letter: Part 1, Part 2)
• Hope for the industry? "Home-made, word-of-mouth" youtube mega hit orchestrated entirely by record label (WSJ article)
• KRS-One on the death of rap and the record industry (audio interview on the Megatron Don)
• Performance royalties vs. payola: radio stations and record labels scraping for survival (Washington Post article)
• It's now possible to wirelessly purchase music at Starbuck's using an iPod, yet impossible to stream internet radio on the device (Apple's announcement).
• Come to think of it, Starbuck's is now running a record label. Surely a sign of the apocalypse.

Thanks to Brian, Monica, Trent, and DJ/Rupture!

Algebra Suicide

Sad news this morning by way of WFMU's Bart Plantenga, who reports the passing of Algebra Suicide vocalist Lydia Tomkiw. Her band's very unusual music occupied a unique space somewhere between atmospheric new wave and dark/heady surrealism. Here's a a video for what I've always considered their signature song, "Little Dead Bodies" (from 1986).

Unfortunately, the band's website and MySpace pages don't seem to have been updated in quite some time, and not much google-able information on Lydia appears to be available at this time. An Algebra Suicide discography is available here, and you can listen to the song "Tuesday Tastes Good" with this link (Real Audio). Thanks to Lydia and her bandmate Don Hedeker for all the great sounds. Their music will be fondly remembered by most of us fortunate enough to have heard it.

Update: A very kind listener emailed me privately to pass on the following information -- "I reached the funeral home in Arizona that handled Lydia, and was told the cause of death is not yet known. The person I spoke to there also said letters could be sent there, and the funeral home would forward the letters to the family. The address of the funeral home is: Menke Funeral Home, 12420 North 103rd Ave., Sun City, AZ 85351-3598"

365 Days #253 - The Sabras - Jerusalem of Gold (mp3s)

MP3:
01 Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (4:04)
02 Estemen (2:50)
03 Haez Haboded (2:42)
04 Ho Yaldonet (2:59)
05 Cuando Caliente (3:33)
06 Amer-Israeli Boogie Woogie (4:26)
07 Israeli Medley (2:59)
08 Erev Shel Shoshanim (3:09)
09 Sallah (2:13)
10 Zamar Noded (2:11)
11 Falafel (3:11)
12 La Bamba (2:51)

I found this record in Peterborough, Ontario Canada, around 100 miles from Toronto. The cover caught my eye, and this has become one of my favorite finds over the years.

3 Israeli, 1 American, rock'n'roll band. All the tunes have a Israeli, middle eastern feel to them, kind of like if the Ventures were from Tel-Aviv. The Sabras were formed in N.Y, some time in the late 60's, and performed in the Catskills, and various Israeli night clubs in and around New York city.

The songs that really stand out are "Falafel" a theme song for vegetarians everywhere (sung in Hebrew and English) and Eastemen which is a turkish folk song. Every song here is good, enjoy!

- Contributed by: Evil Pain Clown

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover

Media: LP
Album: Jerusalem of Gold
Label: Tikva
Catalog: T-122

Johnny Cash and the Grand Canyon (MP3)

We are only three days from the fourth anniversary of Johnny Cash's death, so here is a rare early spoken word recording by the Man in Black. The album The Lure of the Grand Canyon, recorded in 1961, features Ferde Grofé's Grand Canyon Suite, conducted by Andre Kostelanetz, mixed with ambient sounds supposedly recorded in the Grand Canyon itself. But the real gem is the last track, where Johnny Cash explains everything about these recordings, the Grand Canyon, and, most importantly, mules. Who could resist Johnny Cash's voice and singing mules? Listen for yourself: Johnny Cash - A Day In The Grand Canyon (MP3)

The original album has never been released on CD, but this particular track appears on the compilation The Man In Black: 1959-1962 on Bear Family Records.

Archie Club News #11, #12 and #13

Throughout the nineteen sixties, seventies and eighties, most issues of Archie Comics featured a two-page spread titled Archie Club News. The banner at the top of the page announced, "ARCHIE CLUB MEMBERS send in your reports and be eligible to win cash prizes in the Archie Series Magazines." The results of this venture were generally irrelevant notes sent in like, "Dear Archie, the lion is known as King of the Jungle..." Often what was sent in appeared to be part of a class project. Elementary school children were in the process of learning how to write letters and encouraged by a teacher to send something Riverdale way. Sometimes the letters were weird or even profound and other times prophetic or just silly.

The following letter originally appeared in Life with Archie #105, January 1971:

Dear Archie,

These days more and more people seem to be finding themselves. They seem to have found their "bags" as a hip person might put it. But I suppose that I have known what my bag has been for the longest time. My bag is reading. It might sound weird and dull to you, but that is what it is. And although it may be weird it is far from dull ... Young persons today tend to experiment with drugs and other things, so why don't they try reading? You can certainly become addicted to it, but it's not a harmful addiction. You have nothing to lose and as a matter of fact you actually gain a lot ...

365 Days #252 - Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney - Chips Of Wisdom (mp3s)

MP3:
1. Eyes (3:12)
2. Wisdom (3:04)
3. Home (3:00)
4. Distinguished (2:50)
5. Happiness (2:46)

This is off an album my dad made in the 1960's called, "Chips of Wisdom" (my dad was a pretty famous ventriloquist back in the day). Ostensibly, this was an album for kids, but it was so disturbing we couldn't listen to it when we were little.

I don't know if it was the horrible subject matter, my dad's acting or the album cover, but this thing gave us the willies. We had nightmares about it.

The premise is that my dad takes his little puppet out into the woods to have some father/son chats with him. So already, the creep factor is at a 10. He proceeds to teach him all about character and wisdom, which is admirable I suppose, but he does it by telling some of the most terrible stories you've ever heard.

There's a teacher at school with hooks for hands. A man at the newsstand who lost his eyes in the war...

File this away under terrible things we used to do to our children, before we knew better. And then take just a brief moment to reflect on what my childhood must have been like.

Want more madness?  Download "Mary Smith" (who lost both her parents to the flu and was adopted by a loving family, which was very lucky for her, since "she wasn't pretty") from the 2003 365 Days Project (#88) and jump on over to my MP3 Library to download a collection of recordings made by my father along with many more hours of audio to amuse and delight.

- Contributed by: April Winchell

Image: Front Cover

Media: LP
Album: Chips Of Wisdom
Label: AAMCO
Catalog: ALP 320

365 Days #251 - SAT Stoicizmo - Mah 2 (mp3s)

MP3:
01 9:36:57 Po Srednjeevropskom Vremenu (15:08)
02 Avionom (12:17)
03 Nehaj (14:04)
04 Futur Egzaktni (18:40)

"There's nothing more satisfying than reeling in a big one after waiting all afternoon," said a friend of mine about fishing.  Some dudes shoot huge animals out in the wilderness to satisfy themselves.  Maybe I'm effeminate or something, but I'd rather hunt for weird records than living things.  I won't lie and say there's no greater satisfaction, but it feels pretty awesome to discover an incredible band that nobody's heard of.

That's why the internet is kinda annoying for music fans like me.  It makes everything too easy.  If you have a keyword to google, you can find more than you ever wanted to know about any genre, band or label.  It's like the fish jumped out of the water onto your boat, it just feels like cheating.

So my favorite way to discover new music has become to scour through used sections and chancing on what catches my eye.  Maybe you'll say that I'm only judging a book (or record) by its cover.  I prefer to imagine myself in the highlands of Ontario, shotgun in hand while my faithful Llewellin Setter follows the scent of the elusive Ruffled Grouse.  The Llewelin Setter are the liner notes and the scent is the "what the fuck?!" factor.

The Ruffled Grouse is SAT Stoicizmo's Mah 2, one of my favorite catches.  I found it a few years ago in the experimental section at Generation records in NYC.  I won't give you the full dig on the band here, but you can look at the text from the liner notes or a good article recently posted on Last Sigh.  For now, I'll just pique your interest by observing that they are the best Croatian futurist experimentalists to emerge in the early 80s – to my knowledge at least, but I guess I don't know that much about the Croatian futurist scene.  Originally released in '85, the excellent Artware label repressed 480 (or 500, depending on where you check) double lps and 500 cds in '97; both of these are pretty tough to find today.  I'll give my money back guarantee that you haven't heard anything like it before.

Also check out their Jacati Tijelo Sportom EP, which was recently posted on the Mutant Sounds blog.

- Contributed by: Nash Rose

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover, 9:36:57 Po Srednjeevropskom Vremenu, Avionom, Nehaj, Futur Egzaktni

Live Catch: September 7th-13th, 2007

Here's this week's installment of Live Catch, Beware Of The Blog's weekly live music guide.

Tonight, Religious Knives (featuring members of Mouthus and Double Leopards) will play at Williamsburg restaurant/performance space Monkey Town. Over at the Issue Project Room, you can hear Canadian electronic musician Mitchell Akiyama.

WFMU favorites Clockcleaner are back in town supporting their great new album on Load Records. The Philadelphia band plays a free show Saturday afternoon for the final installment of the summer concert series at the East River Park Amphitheater.

The So Percussion ensemble will be at The Stone on Sunday night playing a selection of John Cage compositions.

Circle, the pioneers of the New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal, are making a rare New York appearance on Monday night. And it's free! Catch them at 8pm at Other Music.

Finally, the current incarnation of Silver Apples will play in the area a bunch of times next week. Drummer Danny Taylor died two years ago, but Simeon Coxe III--who survived a near-fatal tour bus crash in 1999--is now on the road with a new line-up. The band plays a free early show on Wednesday at Cake Shop, followed by a show later that evening at the Knitting Factory, and another show at Silent Barn on Thursday night.

For comprehensive listings, check out our regularly updated Arbitrary Guide To Popular Culture.