WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Tobie Lurie: Word Music

Here's yet another all-time winner of an album found at the late great Skokie, Illinois fundraiser known as the ALS Mammoth Music Mart, which I've written about here. Tobie Lurie, who is not only still in the poetry business, but has gone into other artistic endeavors, reads his poetry, with a variety of accompaniments, as well as multiple vocals, at times. He now goes by Toby Lurie, although judging from his signature on this album, he did back then, too, leading to the question of why the album is credited to Tobie Lurie.

I'll mostly let the back cover text and the material itself do most of the talking here, but will point out that this album was one of many of my prized odd spoken word albums which were on a bottom shelf in my basement, and therefore bore the brunt of a recent flood, as you'll notice when viewing the front and back covers (the lower part of the back cover, featuring other albums on this label, was basically destroyed, so I haven't copied it here). Also, I particularly enjoy the second track, "Unawareness", but I have no doubt others will find just as much (or more) to enjoy in several of the other tracks.

Bob

1.) Tobie Lurie - Conversation (MP3)
2.) Tobie Lurie - Unawareness (MP3)
3.) Tobie Lurie - Love (MP3)
4.) Tobie Lurie - Fugue and Variations (MP3)
5.) Tobie Lurie - I (MP3)
6.) Tobie Lurie - Waltz (MP3)
7.) Tobie Lurie - Oh Lord (MP3)
8.) Tobie Lurie - Uptight (MP3)
9.) Tobie Lurie - One Boy Has Died in the War (MP3)
10.) Tobie Lurie - Simple Logic (MP3)
11.) Tobie Lurie - Climb On (MP3)
12.) Tobie Lurie - Revolution (MP3)
13.) Tobie Lurie - Nonsense (MP3)
14.) Tobie Lurie - Dow Chemical Jones (MP3)
15.) Tobie Lurie - Mantra (MP3)
16.) Tobie Lurie - Goodbye (MP3)

Front Cover (JPG)
Back Cover (JPG)

A Proposition for Robert De Niro

From markmaynard.com.

The Mermaid Parade

The Mermaid Parade - a New York cultural tradition established in 1983 by Coney Island USA - takes place Saturday, June 20, 2 PM. A throwback to the old-time Coney Island Mardi Gras, the Mermaid Parade is three hours of chaos, diversity, independence, weirdness, high-concept-low-brow-cheap-fun for the masses. It celebrates everything that makes Coney Island great - and for twenty years I've been at the center of it.

If you've never been, here's footage of the 2004 Mermaid Parade, shot by Phil Catalano:

A Child's Garden of Noise

In June 1994, Drone Records released probably the least droney item in their catalog to date with the nutty single for children "A Child's Garden of Noise".
Always one of my favorites of the things I co-produced and engineered while with Big City Orchestra (now celebrating their 30th anniversary),
the first pressing, on clear vinyl, sold out in about a month and so a second edition on candy yellow with lovely red center was put out.
Since the originals ran at 33&1/3rd we knew the fidelity would suffer a bit, and so years later I finally got around to transferring the original tapes to CD. Thus the mix of Side One of the record presented here is not the exact same as on the record.
I had always wanted to hear the huge amount of bacon cooking/record surface noise that I'd wallowed in while making side one in a 'clearer' format.

Friend Brook Hinton had been meaning to use the title for years, and graciously let us release ours. What can ya do- it's a phrase I'm sure many have kicked around. I should mention the awesome vocal work of six-year-old Annie X on much of side two. Which I'm not gonna play, but check it out anyway.
Also included today is a bonus unreleased track from the same sessions using an American history record we all loved. Oh, yeah, and there's also the wonderful first edition covers- all different on both sides, all of the fronts drawn by children and the backs done in our studio using vinyl and rub on letters tediously applied in the dead of night by das.
Hoping your young'uns enjoy it---this is one of my few posts suitable for children- so run with it!

A contemporary review is here.
the MP3s:       A Child's Garden of Noise
                      The Santa Fe Trail

Amy Lockhart - Shrivelled Creatures and Cut Paper Animations

Amy Lockhart's is a Canadian artist and filmmaker. Her art-brut drawings and paintings are playful, reminiscent of Lee Godie, squishing figures into awkward tube shapes and detailing the fleshy fold-overs. Her most recent animation Walk for Walk continues this grotesquerie into a stream-of-conscious parade of licking, skipping, and merry-making.

"This 16mm film was created using over 1,000 hand painted cut-outs and paper puppets with paper backgrounds. I recorded the sounds in an isolation box I built in my living room, out of cardboard, insulation and drywall." The soundtrack is also an astonishing collage of unexpected Foley sound and warbly electronics. You can view more animations, including her collaborations with Marc Bell, on her blog.

We Can Work It Out

Dave has plants now!

In the preface to his wonderful book, An Ear to the Ground: Garden Science for Ordinary Mortals, Ken Thompson describes a garden as “a large, unplanned and slightly out-of-control scientific experiment”.

Part of the way through last week I had the sudden dreadful feeling that I’d bitten off more than I could chew; if I had any vegetables of any magnitude to chew that is.

The problem was that I’d started out with three packets of seeds and a balcony and there was no pressure. I didn’t even mind blogging about it; some junk finds here, a few seedlings there.

It was fun.

Oneida, live at Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona Spain (mp3s)

WFMU dropped anchor on the shores of the Mediterranean last month at the invitation of Barcelona's stunning Primavera Sound Festival, where we joined 80,000 of our new best friends in an ecstatic celebration of music, good livin', good eatin', and futball victory.  We're still a bit dazzled and sorting the spoils, but it looks like we had a fabulous radio weekend, broadcasting more than 20 excellent band sets and meeting many new friends from all over the world.  We've just added streaming archives of many of the sets, and a bunch of mp3s for download as well. It fills my breast with great honor to offer this fresh batch of Barcelona mp3s from our hometown faves and longtime bruhs Oneida!

ONEIDA live at Primavera Sound Festival, May 30th 2009 (mp3s)

Spanish Jam / Each One Teach One  ||  All Arounder  ||  Sheets of Easter

This was Oneida in a beautiful and psychotic dream: surrounded by gigantic weird paranoia-inducing ads for sunglasses, with the skyline of Barcelona behind the band and the Mediterranean Sea behind the audience, plus a killer light show.  This was a one-off edition of the band, as core member Fat Bobby couldn't make it.  In his temporary stead was founding member Papa Crazee, who some years back amicably departed Oneida to form the equally excellent Oakley Hall.  A truly glorious evening.  

• Pics from the festival at the WFMU flickr group here.
• Archives and playlists from WFMU's Primavera Sound festival broadcasts here.
• Some of Oneida's past visits to WFMU here, here, and here.

WFMU Streaming 19 Sets from Primavera Sound, Some Downloads

WFMU's three day stand at Barcelona's Primavera festival is now a memory, but we've just put up 19 streaming/archived sets here! So far, we're archiving Spectrum, the Vaselines, Magik Markers, Jesus Lizard, Dead Meadow, Wooden Shjips, Ponytail, the Bats, Throwing Muses, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Saint Etienne, Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, Dan Deacon Ensemble, Deerhunter, th' Faith Healers, Jeremy Jay, Oneida, Fucked Up, with more to come. A few of these sets are also available as downloads via the Free Music Archive. Check WFMU for future updates, and if you want to scope out some glamorous pictures from the station's European (working) Vacation, check out our Flickr page.We had an amazing time (and saw more sunrises over consecutive nights than many of us have since who knows when); severe thanks to Jaime Casas, and also to Florence Thiébaud and everyone at Primavera, the bands and production people for being so gracious and accomodating, the labels who helped a hand, and the 5AM ravers who passed out at our tent and didn't break any of our broadcast gear. Was great to meet many of our overseas friends and listeners too!

WFMU Archives: a Real Audio-free Future

Beginning July 12th, WFMU's new archives will no longer be available in 20k Real Audio, and this change will affect archive listeners on a dial-up connection. Going forward, all new archives will be available in the higher quality 64k AAC+ format, which sounds fantastic with our new Pop-Up Player. If you listen to our 128k MP3 archives, fear not, no changes are being made in that dept.

How will the change affect your archive listening? (Read more)

If you have DSL, cable, or a T1 internet connection:
For Pop-Up AAC+ archives to work, Javascript must be enabled (info here) and you need Flash Player plugin 9 or higher. Pop-Up archives can only be played inside your web browser (they load in a pop-up window, try one out here). You can still listen to our 128k MP3 archives using external programs like iTunes or Winamp (although these archives expire after 4 weeks, as they have done in the past).

If you have a dial-up connection:
Due to the higher quality and higher bit-rate of our new archive format, your internet connection speed will not be able to accomodate archive listening going forward. Rest assured that we will continue to offer our live streams in Real Audio and Windows Media, at bit-rates appropriate for dial-up connections. All of WFMU's Real Audio archives prior to July 12, 2009 will remain available on our website for your listening pleasure, but new archives going forward will no longer be offered in Real Audio.

Pulse Emitter Live at WFMU (MP3)

(photo Rodney Bender) Pulse Emitter is the project of Portland, Oregon programming master Daryl Groetsch, and over the years has produced a fantastic variety of modular mayhem both turbulent and soothing, utilizing a bank of home-made synths and electronics. Deep space explorations worthy of Hawkwind, precise, controlled soundbombing akin to the most broken Throbbing Gristle moments and more. Pulse Emitter performed a live set on my show on May 18th while in town for the big No Fun Festival at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. More info at Pulse Emitter's site, and also more music has been uploaded to the Free Music Archive, so go get some free stuff. Daryl tell us that a tidal wave of Pulse Emitter releases is forthcoming in the near future as well (and some dates at the Olympia Experimental Fest June 19-21 up in Washington state).

Pulse Emitter - Live on Brian Turner's show (MP3)

Please Stop

Stop comparing me to Angelina Jolie! It’s a lack of creativity on the media’s part. Just because I have dark hair and tattoos? That’s as far as the similarity extends. I’m sure she has no idea who I am. If I were her, I’d be, like, “Who’s this middle-aged Westchester housewife that’s going to be the next me?” I don’t want to meet her—I’d be embarrassed. I’m not the next anyone.

Next post: Please stop comparing Sluggo to Brad Pitt.

Song-poem Archived Music: Volume 5 - Life is a Flame

1.  Kay Weaver - Sleep On
2.  Ralph Lowe - Grow Up And Go Away
3.  Sammy Marshall - Jingle Mint Twist
4.  Bobbi Blake - Four and Twenty Big Black Crows
5.  Cathy Mills - Monster Hop
6.  unknown - Rocking Disco Santa Claus
7.  Rod Rogers - It's A Shindig
8.  Rod Rogers - Beatle Boys
9.  Bonnie Graham - I Just Knew In My Heart
10. The Sophamores - Mama Wears The Pants
11. Gene Marshall - Dig Dig Girl
12. Charles Vickers - Come On Baby
13. Norris and The Collegians - Mary Ann McCarthy
14. Norris The Troubadour - Yamtang Yamtang Rankytang
15. Cara Stewart - Any Dance Any Dance
16. Dick Kent - Christopher Columbus and The Compass
17. The Real Pros - Deep Freeze Mama
18. Jimmie James - Free Love For Sale
19. Tony Rogers - Her Name's On My Locket
20. unknown - I Am Going To Where Jesus Is
21. Gary Roberts - Keep Those Hopes Up
22. Jack Kim - Lady Off Pedestal At Notre Dame
23. Bob Storm - Let's Lay It On The Line
24. Gene Marshall - Life And Myself
25. unknown - Life Is A Flame
26. Jimmie James - Mini Girl Song
27. The Real Pros - I'm Having My First Heartbreak

(click here to download artwork)

Prince Rama of Ayodhya live at WFMU (MP3's)

The trio of Michael Collins, Taraka Larson, and Nimai Larson met in the summer of 2007 on a Florida Hare Krishna farm, relocating to Boston and immersing themselves deep into the creation of ritualistic, holistic, and cinematic psychedelic sound. Having played shows in the US and UK with the likes of Teeth Mountain, Magik Markers, Indian Jewelry and others, their live sets have garnered a reputation for incorporating its audiences into the instrumental fold, and drawing musically from a rich variety of multicultural sources. They brought their live set to Brian Turner's show on May 12th and kindly let us put up these MP3s. Prince Rama of Ayodhya have a pile of self-released (and lovely looking) CDRs that you can check out and order via their My Space page.

Om Mane Padme Hum (MP3)
Dawn of Astronomy (MP3)
Haunted Aquarius (MP3)
Panoptic Yes (MP3)
Gouinda Har-Gopala Hare (MP3)
Suns of Bees (MP3)
Mothlight (MP3)
Aeolian Divine (MP3)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Vol. 20 (MP3s)

Give the Drummer Some's
10 Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
(see Comments, below, for helpful info about downloading)

Every year, the Library of Congress taps culturally significant recordings for preservation in its National Recording Registry. Today the Library announced the selection of 25 more snippets of sound, including Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech, Dylan Thomas reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales," and Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner performing their 2,000-year-old-man shtick. One piece of audio that hasn't yet made the cut turned 55 yesterday:

"Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last?"

The power and beauty of these words—a simple utterance that changed the course of American history—remain undiminished since they were first intoned by elegant, soft-spoken lawyer Joseph Welch on June 9, 1954. Welch calmly delivered this courageous rebuke to Joe McCarthy during televised Senate hearings investigating Communist activities in the U.S. Army. Like a pin prick to the hot-air-engorged witch-hunts of the '40s and '50s, Welch's words initiated the great unraveling of the Red Scare and shook a cowed Cold War nation out of its torpor.

In the spirit of exploring every corner of the audio motherlode, the Miner offers this historic 12-minute confrontation between Welch, special counsel to the Army, and Senator Joe McCarthy (R-Wisconsin), who was attempting to assassinate the character of Welch's associate Fred Fisher: Listen (mp3)

About eight minutes into the exchange, Welch punches the bully McCarthy with another ringing blow, the sound of which, like the 10 musical selections offered below, fills the ear with a deeply satisfying sensation. Though not a succinct sound bite destined for posterity, Welch's words here were no less withering: "If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I would do so. I like to think I'm a gentle man. But your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me."

Valentine to the Genius Songwriter Andy Razaf
Maxine Sullivan  ~  "Memories of You"
(Blog: Soulful Divas)




Dude Was Short-Listed for the Poet's Chairs at Oxford and Cambridge
Benjamim Zephaniah  ~  "Rasta"
(Blog: Satta Massagana)
From the album: Dis Policeman Keep on Kicking Me to Death (mp3)



St. Louis Free Jazz Meets Ghanian Percussion
Mor Thiam  ~  "Dini Saffarrar"
(Blog: You Got a Problem?)



[7 more moments of decency, after the jump]

WWSSLT? (What Would Sonia Sotomayor Listen To?)

Herb Alpert and the Tiajuna Brass help me through adolescence.  Not their music.  Their album covers. Well, the Whipped Cream album cover, at least.  Oh, how I desperately tried to find reasons to pull out that album.  Those memories (like Proust's) came flooding back to me when the cover of the Baja Marimba Band's Heads Up caught my eye.  I found it mislabelled in the "Ethnic" section of the radio.  There's not one bit of ethinicty to be found here.  Had it been filed in Pop or Easy Listening, I mostly likely wouldn't be writing this.

Growing up, I'd watch the black and white re-runs of The Cisco Kid and run around the house yelling, "Oh, oh, Ceeeesico - Oh, oh, Pannnncho" in the worst pervsion of a Mexican accent I could manage.  Later, I perfected my Frito Bandito and Speedy Gonzales voice.  Mexican were HILARIOUS!  And those funny costume hats they wore!  Fortunately, I was in a pretty white suburb in Southern California at the time, so I didn't get my ass kicked and I somehow knew not to do it around my friend, Frank Gonzales and his brother.

I'm not telling you this simply to bang the political correctness (or whatevver it's called now) drum.  I wouldn't even bother except for the striking dichtomy of The Baja Marimba Band taking the time to dress up in Mexican blackface simply to play watered down, valium induced version of already watered down, valium inspired white music.

I'm just sayin'

The Baja Mirimba Band - Born Free (mp3s)

Eating Paste

 I have a dayjob as a magazine editor, which is quaint, I know. It's like being a beekeeper or a radio DJ or something, and I just hope I can get some kind of retraining (underwater welding?) before all the magazines close down.

Traditionally, magazines have made their money in two basic ways--sales (newsstand or subscription) or advertising. But now comes a letter (snail mail!) from Paste, a magazine of fairly mainstream music and pop culture, asking for donations. It's the "Campaign to Save Paste." In the last few months they've discontinued their monthly CD inserts (just as well), and they've dropped to 72 pages (with the dreaded saddle-stitch staples), and they've gone bimonthly (although they deny that they have), and they're still running at a loss. So they would just like someone to send them some money. Hey, it can't hurt to ask.

At a time when those kids in Williamsburg are making news because their parents won't bankroll their co-ops any more, it seems unlikely that anyone is going to be emptying the piggybank to support the vital cause of alt-music reviews. (Although the original W-burg story was in the New York Times, so  possibly does not qualify as "news" per se, or even as "true.") Besides, we need you to start saving now for the next WFMU fund-raising Marathon, just 9 months away. Someone's gotta play those CDs that no one's gonna review.

Thanks for reading my second blogpost this week, and may God bless.

The Don Martin Dictionary

In 1837 Paterson township seceded from Essex County, New Jersey. It became the silk production capital of the country when it was incorporated into burgeoning Passaic County. Paterson would eventually stake its claim to several pivotal figures of the 20th century and at one point or another they all called Paterson their home: Lou Costello, William Carlos Williams, Uncle Floyd, Allen Ginsberg, Bert Wheeler, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Prince Randian and today's blog topic hero--Mad's Maddest Artist, Don Martin.

At some point in the 21st century an obsessive genius/knucklehead spent too much time compiling the only database that matters. This link is especially for those who need to know right now what the Batmobile with a flat tire sounds like.

The Don Martin Dictionary

sweet emotion, the films of Claire Denis

I have this awful habit of gushing affection whenever I run into one of my heroes.  Worse, it's the sort of affection that strangers don't take kindly too.  It's not exactly a King of Comedy moment, but some of the looks it engenders suggest I need to rephrase my adoration.  I was at a Lincoln Center event for the films of Claire Denis when I bumped into the filmmaker in the hall outside of the bathroom.  I immediately blurted out " I love you,  errr... I mean I love your films."  She was gracious and warm in a rather un-French way.  Of course it made me love her more, errr... I mean her films.

     Last month the DVD for my favorite Denis film: "Nenette et Boni" was released.  From the opening shot, this film like all of her films, sucks you in to the hypnotic pace.  The soundtrack is an actor in this film as much as any of its cast and the cinematography compels you to participate, instead of allowing you to be a voyeur sitting in the dark.   Agnes Godard is her flawless cinematographer and the soundtrack is written by Tindersticks. 

     Claire Denis was born in Paris to parents who were living in Africa.  Her father was a French official in colonial Africa, constantly moving house every two years, more interested in being nomads than colonizers.  Her first film "Chocolat" in 1988 described that odd inbetween-ness that she felt growing up in a country that she knew was not her own, but never really knowing the birthplace that was on her passport.  All of her films float in a new France that is essentially a blend of ethnicities, most of which, in some way holding a tenuous tie to France's past.  Using some of the skills given to her by the accomplishments of the French New Wave, Clair Denis makes metaphors into stories that unfold in a language of gestures.  Her films defy the spoken word that was the stranglehold of the Nouvelle Vague.  Another fellow post new wave director, Andre Techine, also employs the loose narrative of inbetween-ness in many of his films.

By the way, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith was the most gracious of hosts to my unwarranted affections when I bumped into him on the streets of Soho in the early 90's.  He was palling around with Lenny Kravitz and a gaggle of babes with babies on their hips, but I just wanted to personally thank Aerosmith for standing up to the National Endowment for the Arts.  A show at the MIT List Visual Arts center had recently had $10,000 of NEA funding revoked due to a sexually graphic exhibit and Aerosmith stepped in to make up the difference.  Steven smiled one of those massive smiles and said "You're very welcome".  His lady friends weren't so agreeable.

Christian Marclay on NBC's Night Music

A performance by Christian Marclay, from the October 29, 1989 episode of the short-lived music television show Night Music. Other guests that night included Todd Rundgren, Taj Mahal, Pat Metheny, and Nanci Griffith. The NBC show series was hosted by David Sanborn, and in its run I recalled seeing Sun Ra, Nick Cave, Pere Ubu, Diamanda Galas among others appear, but quite often the highlight was the assortment of collaborations that were created for the sheer kick of seeing musicians together on TV you wouldn't normally see on a stage let alone on a network show. Sonic Youth doing the Stooges "I Wanna Be Your Dog" backed by the Indigo Girls, Sanborn and Hiram Bullock, and there was also once an appearance by Conway Twitty performing with the Residents behind him. Of course any show like this was too good to last, I don't know the certainty of the rumor that a scheduling of the Butthole Surfers finally made the beer sponsor draw the line. But would be nice to see this on DVD. (Thanks Kristin Anderson)

Mourning the Death of President Bongo

Lately I have been pretty upset about my gullibility problem, which is second only to my little hoarding problem in the list of My Upsetting Oddities. (Not being able to touch doorknobs is third and, rather surprisingly, being unable to recognize human faces has recently fallen to fourth.) But then I was looking at the news today, and saw that some camera crew found a middle-aged Korean man wandering around Macao  and decided he was Kim Jong Nam (“the Small General”), eldest son of Kim Jong Il. So maybe I’m not the only one.

The Local (“Sweden’s News in English,” which for some reason I cannot stop calling “The State”) had an entertaining story today, too. Supporters of those Pirate Bay file-sharing guys who were convicted of copyright violations in Sweden last month have won election to a seat in the European Parliament. Candidates of the Pirate Party campaigned on the issue of reforming copyright and patent law, and won 7.1% of the vote in Sweden, putting them into the EU government.
Huzzah! I mean, Arrrrrh!