WFMU's Beware of the Blog

What Would It Be Like To Be a WFMU DJ on Another Planet?

What would it be like to be a WFMU DJ on another planet? Let's explore the possibility, using the planets of our own solar system as examples! We'll begin with the farthest-away, newly demoted "dwarf planet." If the four floors (and don't forget the basement) of the WFMU in building in Jersey City was to be planted firmly on the ground somewhere in the middle of Pluto (a solid 70% rock, and 30% ice), and you were broadcasting from that building, you'd find little light, few friends, and would probably be complaining about the building's heating system not working right. It would no doubt be remarkably lonely doing a radio show, literally billions and billions of miles away from the "WFMU 91.1 FM East Orange, WXHD Mount Hope, and wfmu.org on the web" that existed for you on Earth as a station ID only...yet now is oh so very far away (overnight shift anyone?). But whatever you do, make sure you don't step your suicidal outer space self outside onto the deck of Studio A for a cigarette break, or step outside at all, because Pluto's atmosphere is extremely tenuous, consisting mostly of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and methane (plus wear a hat, it's 508 degrees below zero fahrenheit). But, feel free to throw on a long Stockhausen CD and go look out the studio windows pensively—Pluto seems designed for such daydream-y behavior. The glow of Pluto's frozen methane, ethane and carbon monoxide "lakes" will look stunning from the second story atrium window as well, as they reflect sunlight coming from 3,670,050,000 miles away (give an take a million, due to Pluto's notoriously erratic orbit path). As for Neptune...

Now It Can Be Told: I Failed Terry Bradshaw

Congratulations to the New York Giants: in a nail-biter, they beat the favored Green Bay Packers 23-20 in overtime to win the NFC Conference Championship. They now head to Glendale, Arizona to take on the undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXLII on Feb. 3.

The last time the GIants earned a trip to the Super Bowl it was Sunday, January 14, 2001 and I was on the sidelines for CBS Sports as a "utility" audio person. Years earlier I'd become a member of IBEW Local 1212, Radio and Television Broadcast Engineers Union, whose members work the Meadowlands for CBS. I had previously been called to join the crew for three or four late regular-season Giants games and - even though my employment was sporadic and the pay was good (around $40 an hour) - I dreaded the gigs. First, to state the utterly obvious, it's damn cold in Giants Stadium in late fall/early winter. That wind comes whipping through the Meadowlands and buddy, no amount of layering fends off the chill. Second, it's a long day, usually 14 or more hours on your feet, constantly moving, ducking and dodging players, team personnel, photographers, security people, etc. You probably don't get a sense of it, watching a game on TV, but there are more people standing on the sidelines of an NFL game than live in some of your more quaint midwestern towns. The job's also intensely physical, involving lots of lifting and toting of heavy objects and coiling up of long runs of cable (f you knew how much of the stuff is involved in putting a sporting event on the air you'd tell your kids to forget college and go into the wire and cable business). By the time I'd head for my car I'd be mentally and physically spent, barely able to navigate the few miles home and glad I didn't have a regular job to report to the next day.

Singing Postcards from Listener Marty (# 4)

Check out this goofy Italian tune, sung by the questionably cross-eyed actor Mario Riva. "Domenica e Sempre Domenica" (which means "Sunday is always Sunday") was a movie made in 1958 based on a popular TV variety show, Il Muscheire.

Mario Riva - "Domenica E Sempre Domenica" (MP3)

Thanks to Listener Marty, who keeps hooking us up with strange vintage flexidisc postcards! See more singing postcards here ( 1  | 2 | 3 ).

Tolerance - Anonym (MP3s)

Two weeks ago I posted part 3 of the hippie noise MP3 identification contest, and I am sorry to say that nobody won the big prize. It is now time to give away the solution. The band was a duo from Japan called Tolerance, and the track was Voyage au bout de la nuit from their first LP Anonym, recorded in 1979, released 1980 on Vanity Records. This album has been posted in an incomplete version on the (excellent) Direct Waves blog, so I thought it would be a good idea to repost it here in its entirety.

MP3s:
Side A: Two Owls | I wanna be a homicide | osteo-tomy | JUIN-Irénée | anonym
Side B: laughin in the shadows | through the glass | tecno-room | Voyage au bout de la nuit

While this LP is impossible to find, their second album Divin was reissued (again on vinyl) and might still be available. You can get a bit more info on Tolerance, listen to an excerpt of Divin, and probably still order the vinyl at Mimaroglu Music.

Part 4 of the MP3 identification contest is still open for another week. The solution has something in common with the Tolerance album, but that is all I can tell you.

LCD Live

Join Andy Breckman, Station Manager Ken, Bronwyn C. and Dave the Spazz along with extraordinary contributor Miriam Linna  (pictured left) at the next (and possibly last) live reading from The WFMU Book, in Brooklyn Tuesday night, January 22nd. The reading takes place at 7 PM at Book Court , located at 163 Court Street in Brooklyn.  Andy Breckman will debut his ventriloquism act, and in exchange, Station Manager Ken has agreed to provide a clog dancing demonstration. Copies of the book will be on sale at the event, or you can use this link to buy it online.(Read more)  LCD (Lowest Common Denominator), was the station's program guide from 1986-2001 and featured many superstar oddballs such as Nick Tosches, Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes, Kaz, Luc Sante, John Marr, Bill Griffith, Gary Panter, Jim Jarmusch, Wayno, and too many more to mention.  Catch up on past LCD readings here.  And watch an excerpt of Andy reading "Why I Don't Play American Pie On My Show" along with Ken reading Don McClean's rebuttal.
 

Promotional Film starring Don Knotts

The deep pockets of corporate America can seemingly convince anybody to shill their crap and in 1965 Dodge was able to convince Barney Fife to star in a twenty-minute promtional film for their new line of trucks. What better spokesperson to put forth the concept of a tough, strong, manly automobile than the ultra-macho Don Knotts? Check it out over here.

And on a related note, character actor Allan Melvin, a regular on The Andy Griffith Show (not to mention The Phil Silvers Show,The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Flintstones, Magilla Gorilla, The Brady Bunch, All in the Family and countless others) passed away the day before yesterday. When they announced his death this morning, I decided to post several episodes of various television shows that he made appearances in. If you don't know his name, I guarantee the face will look familiar. Tribute is here.

The Road That Leads Nowhere (video)

Apparently, both the wacky professor you'll meet at the beginning of this hour long film and the curmudgeonly older women see eye to eye on the straight path for Czechoslovakia's youth: they both warn their two young cousins about the evils of long hair, rock and roll and singing in English.  Not quite sure if that's exactly what's going on, but that sort of satire would explain why the film was blacklisted by the Czech government until the Velvet Revolution and saw it's first public screening in 1990.  Now that the film's politics are no longer threatening, it's all super cute!  In between charming music videos, each with a nice little premise, the cousins play pranks on their uncle, dress up like Indians and do other little silly things.  It's all very much Beatles both in terms of music and cinematography (plenty of Chaplin type slapstick too), and it's about as far out as you might expect from derivative culture circa 1968.  I just wish I had a translation for Jaroslav Hutkas' song at the end - I'd guess he's talking about politics, since everything but the hair appears Dylan enough.  All in all, you'll see performances from Atlantis, Synkopy 61, Nonsens, Olympic, Rebels, Prúdy, Jaroslav Hutka and Luda Svabensky Trio.  Directed by Jiri Vanysek.  Even though these were prominent Czech acts of the time, not too much is on the internet about any of them - still, some digging won't let you down.  If you'd like to download the full flv file, click here.

Hot Rails to Harrison -- A PATH Train Primer for 2008

I expect a heated discussion on this, seeing as how anyone who lives in New York City, urban North Jersey, or who is affiliated with WFMU will have an opinion on the topic at hand. For those of you who reside on faraway shores, "PATH" is short for Port Authority Trans-Hudson, and is a highly-trafficked means of rail transport between Manhattan and some of New Jersey's primary population centers. (Newark, Hoboken, and WFMU's home in Jersey City). Basically, it's like a cheaper, slower subway that smells like urine, coffee, and heat all at the same time. There's a lot of negative mythology associated with the PATH system, mostly promulgated by Brooklyn transplants who somehow think their accursed L and F trains are better than the PATH. (I have met others who actually think that the PATH is just that -- an underground dirt path that connects New York with suburban Jersey. Others claim that it is actually a long stagecoach, pulled by a mule who is chasing a carrot tied to a stick and dangled in front of its face. All lies, I tell you.)

The fact is that the PATH is pretty much a way of life for everyone at WFMU from DJs to office staffers to volunteers. I find myself defending it frequently to the misinformed haters who spread ridiculous falsehoods such as "the turnstiles only take dollar bills" (they take your Metrocard, dummy), "it stops running after 11 PM" (it runs all night -- on a schedule, I might add), or "that guy Teddy always hassles me" (he isn't hassling you, he just wants to collect money to supply the local homeless shelter with juice, milk, and bread.) When riding the PATH train, I always recommend that you sit in the frontmost car, as close to the window as possible, and looking straight ahead. Careening through the old tunnels and observing the architecture necessary to bore a passage underneath a river is pretty amazing, and it feels like a demented version of one of those Disneyworld rides where animatronic pirates or dead presidents light the way ahead.

For those of you not fortunate enough to regularly participate in this modern marvel of urban transportation, here is a rough breakdown of all thirteen PATH stations and what you might expect to find at each of them.

The Best Street Meat in Town

Photos taken today at John Soup Kitchen (sic), a popular lunchtime destination for WFMU's hungry office staff and daytime DJs. Located on the corner of Montgomery and Hudson Streets in Jersey City. Scott, Liz, Marcus, and I strongly recommend the chicken over rice with salad. Extra hot sauce, please.

WFMU Sleeveface

Inspired by Ken's post from last month, here's our cat modelling a copy of Blackhole Boogie.

The Seize-ing Sounds of Sean Paul

This story is making today's headlines about a woman who had brain surgery because "her favorite artist" almost made her swallow her tongue. I don't know where to start -- is this a condemnation of the monotone white boy from Kingston or is Sean Paul's publicist trying to make a nice salmon mousse mold out of grey matter?

Honestly, how can you even claim to enjoy music fully without the occasional symptoms like: grand or petit mal, incontinence, anxiety attack, priapism, low frequency nausea, chest pains, boogie fever, cold sweat, and the like? Tell us your symptoms!

WFMU's Myspace Band Friends - Dump 'em or Pump 'em?

Good morning, citizen!  You've heard of this myspace thing, yes?  WFMU has had a little profile page set up there for a couple of years now.

Things being the way they are in the music world, scores and scores of bands request to be our virtual buddies there every week in the hopes of getting some Radio Airplay.  Music & Program Director Brian used to handle these requests, but he turned the job over to me in order to free up some more time for his Lasagna Cat addiction. 

Using a complicated algorithm based on factors such as whether one's profile picture shows them holding a guitar (out), or playing a guitar (in), I slog through all the requests and decide who's in and who's out.  Generally, I am a lazy bouncer and accept everyone, unless they are the young lady pictured to the right or other spammer types.   

The result of this quasi-calculus is that WFMU has a hefty friend list, over 10,000 so far. While the quantity may be impressive, that is no vouch for quality.  Digital recording is easily accomplished these days, and anyone can make a myspace page to promote their music. 

So, in an election year spirit of Democracy I put the decision to you, dear readers.  After the jump you'll find a random assortment of WFMU's band buddies  presented for your approval.  Take a listen to these bands and then please cast your votes... pump 'em... or dump 'em???

Fake Beatles No. 1: A Blotto Bee Gee and His Pals "Fut" Around With the Fab Four

The Bee Gees have received a lot of guff, and rightfully so, for their early-career Beatles soundalike songs. In response, the Anglo-Australian threesome have invariably held up their early childhood in Manchester to explain away the suspicious similarity they share with their fab and gear neighbors from the North of England. That doesn't really answer why certain tunes by the Brothers Gibb sound like specific Beatles numbers, even in some instances like a stitch-up of several different Fab Four faves. Take, for example, "In My Own Time" [listen to it here on Three Chord Monte (RealAudio archive)], which could be the musical result of Dr. Robert meeting the Taxman in the Rain.

Yet the most remarkable Beatles impersonation related to the Bee Gees involved a pisstake (better described as a pissed-take, in the British alcoholic sense of the term) involving Maurice Gibb, his friends Steve Groves and Steve Kipner, and an in-law, Billie Lawrie, the brother of Gibb's then-wife, Lulu. (The two Steves, who comprised the Aussie musical duo Tin Tin  — not the '80s Stephen Duffy group, natch — had a Top 20 U.S. hit with "Toast and Marmalade for Tea" in 1971.) In 1969, the pair had convened in a London studio, with Gibb as producer, to record tracks for a proper Tin Tin session. However, thanks to some uncredited production assistance from John Barleycorn, the assembled musicians began futzing around with a song called "Have You Heard the Word," written by Groves and Kipner. With the stewed Steves playing all the instruments and, along with the liquored-up Lawrie, contributing the backup chorus, the gassed Gibb delivered his lead vocals in the most uncanny Lennon impersonation this side of Ron Nasty. The boozily Beatlesque result somehow found release, evidently without the permission of the principals, in 1970 as a single on the tiny U.K. label Beacon Records, with this one-off congregation identified as The Fut.

Did they do a good job? Just ask the bootleggers, who have placed the track on countless Beatles boots, hoodwinking many a rabid Fab Four obsessive.

Again, did they do a good job? Just ask Yoko Ono, who in 1985 attempted to register "Have You Heard the Word" as a John Lennon composition.

Have You Heard the Word (MP3)

Reuben Radding's "12 in 2007" Project

Let's face it, the double bass has suffered a bit in the mp3 era.  On tinny computer speakers amidst a midrangey wash of compression, the deep grass-fed tones of a bowed or plucked bass often go missing.

Not so for Reuben Radding, who might as well be playing the trunk of a redwood or a viking ship.  His burly tone cuts clean through in all formats, whether bowing, plucking, scraping, bending, tapping or any other onomatopoeic approach he chooses to render.  Which is one reason his Pine Ear label's just-wrapped "12 in 2007" project is worth perusing: a free mp3 album-length download for each month of 2007 featuring an impressive cast of premier improvisors like Jack Wright, Weasel Walter, and Nate Wooley.  (Act fast!  Reuben says the tracks will only be up for another month or two due to server space issues and the agreements he has with some of the players.) 

While all twelve collections have their moments (and, naturally, some missteps), perhaps the most welcome surprise is the trio with Jacob Wick on trumpet and Andrew Greenwald on drums, two fresh young improvisors who continually push Reuben and each other into the big empty spaces, using swaths of silence, extreme dynamics, and otherworldly-sounding techniques to build a series of compelling moments.  At points, Radding's bass makes haunting stretching sounds, as if the instrument's ancient wood may split and shatter into a pile on the floor.  This band seems to be a going concern rather than a one-off meeting, as they completed a short tour in December.

Most of the recordings for "12 in 2007" were done at Reuben's own studio STATS in Brooklyn, and are well recorded.  The atmosphere sounds loose and experimental.  Here's hoping Reuben continues to assemble and press 'record' on a rotating cast of improvisors in '08.

A couple MP3s from "12 in 2007":

Radding/Wick/Greenwald 4/13/07 Part Three
Heberer/Wooley/Radding/Eisenstadt 6/23/07 Part Four

Jim Gilette Worship: A Minimalist's American Idol

Nitro's legendary singer may have lungs beyond most mortals (although the glass-shattering claim in somewhat dubious) but he may just have to share his throne. With some 8,500 high-C-capable people with access to You Tube upload.

In the other corner:

Chicho
Jimmy O
Priest? Altar Boy?
Alvi
Some dude
Jon
Some other dude
Papa C
Ayres Penguin

Absolut Clitron

A lot of bloggers are writing about Target's Times Square vagina ad today (Buzzfeed has the scoop).

But in my book, nothing beats Absolut Vagina!

More dirty ads here.

The Debased Fairy Tales of Ludovic Debeurme

French artist/musician Ludovic Debeurme is a fantastic illustrator of debased fairy tales populated with sad and dejected characters. His work veers from cute to the sexually surreal with an awkward but animated figurative style similar to Dan Clowes and Max Beckmann.

His website has some great examples of his work although he has been posting his newer work to his MySpace blog. His excellent Django Reinhardt guitar stylings can be heard on his MySpace page as well.

The Mouse That Roared

A friend told me that she saw a short film a few years ago about a man in Austria who built his own unique house, and then declared it an independent nation. She couldn't remember who this man was, but a little of the old internet searching finally brought me around to the story of Edwin Lipburger.

In 1971, this Austrian artist built a most intriguing home, one that is completely spherical. After building his "Sphaera 2000" in the small village of Katzelsdorf, he then came into trouble with the local government for refusing to procure permits for his project.

Lipburger reached an agreement in 1984 to move the house to Vienna. But the city then reversed their offer to pay for the costs of the move (and hooking up water and power), prompting Lipburger to form his own tiny Republic of Kugelmugel ("Ball Hill"). To defray costs, he began to issue his own stamps and passports.

This created a bit of a local media sensation, but the government wasn't pleased. Lipburger was arrested for refusing to pay taxes. Fortunately, after only a few weeks in prison he was pardoned by the Austrian President.

The sphere still occupies the grounds of the Vienna Prater, where it is an oft-ignored side attraction. Even though Lipburger was usurped, they still sell it to the tourists as an independent republic.

Part nation, part home, and all work of art, this may be worth a pilgrimage on your next visit to Austria. Even if they won't even let you look at the inside. Boo to that!

Further reading:

• Details on the Republic (from Lonely Planet's Micro Nations tour guide)
• Croy Nielsen Gallery 2005 exhibit on Kugelmugel
• Cabinet Magazine's "Minor History of Giant Spheres"

TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo

While superstars in their home country of Benin (a small West African country sandwiched between Nigeria and Ghana), the TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo have for the most part been forgotten in the annals of African music history. A few weeks ago while browsing through the Turntable Lab blog I found this amazing video among the various Tiesto appreciations and surfer dude videos and it prompted me to dig out the wonderful "Kings of Benin" comp that came out on Soundways a few years ago.

It is estimated that the TP Orchestre recorded over 50 LPs and 100 45s during the span of their career and after hearing their music one can't help but wonder how they have gone relatively unnoticed compared to many of their somewhat blander counterparts in nearby Lagos. Some people have theorized that it was harder for Francophone music to find commercial success in such close proximity to the thriving anglo markets in Nigeria and to a lesser extent in Ghana. Here are a few MP3s as well as a link to a few more tracks on the excellent Analog Africa blog.

In case you are wondering the TP stands for 'tout puissant' or "all powerful".

TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Les Djos
TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo - Hwe Towe Hun

Garfield gets weird and Muppets get dirty

This is making the rounds of all the big bloggie-things today, so who am I to deny it's awesome power. Herewith, we have Garfield cartoon strips brought to life, and then remixed into trippy music videos. Ladies and Gentlemen, LasagnaCat, an idea so simply stupid that it is absolutely brilliant.

More details on the people behind this new viral craze here.

Here's another disturbing video update of a childhood character. This one is a lovely mash-up of two of my favorite comedy bits from when I was 13: Muppet cranks Statler and Waldrof with new dialogue from Derek and Clive.

NSFW - unless your workplace likes copious use of the word "cunt".

Related: Dead Garfield, Derek and Clive on MP3 (and more FMU Blue),  Derek meets Air Supply