WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Ricardo Gallo's Tierra de Nadie @ Joe's Pub

Tierra de Nadie ("No Man's Land") is a relatively new group led by the young Colombian pianist Ricardo Gallo, who has already recorded several times as a leader with his Cuarteto. The past few years, however, have seen Gallo moving more and more into the territory of out-jazz (I hesitate to call his work "free"); this year, for example, he appeared with firebrand Peter Evans for the trumpeter's Live in Lisbon disc on Clean Feed. Gallo has maintained his relationship with the Portuguese label, who will imminently release Tierra de Nadie's first album, The Great Fine Line. The CD release party is next Thursday (the 11th) at Joe's Pub.

I first saw Gallo perform as TAUOM, a still-unrecorded trio with Satoshi Takeishi (percussion) and Dan Blake (saxophones). I was immediately impressed by their intricate compositions and staunch refusal of jazz cliches. Tierra de Nadie is a significantly larger group, and the recording features all three musicians aided by an older vanguard of improvisers: former Henry Threadgill drummer and current Oliver Lake sideman Pheeroan akLaff, as well as the well-recorded bassist Mark Helias and trombone giant Ray Anderson. The quintet/sextet has made recent appearances at The Stone and Cornelia Street Cafe, sometimes with Tony Malaby filling in on reeds, sometimes with Tom Blancarte on bass. The group has a richly textured sound, rhythmically anchored even when several players are soloing at once, and tinged with the chordal palette of Gallo's native Colombia. I think he has a great talent for balancing cerebral abstraction with strong rhythmic comping, fluidly moving between classical flourishes and hard-edged grooves. I'm listening to the unedited master for only the second or third time, so here I go spouting cliches... Nevertheless, their adventurous freebop reminds me not only of recent releases on the Jazzwerkstatt label, but also, oddly enough, of pianist Misha Mengelberg's 1983 LP Regeneration (with Roswell Rudd, Steve Lacy, Han Bennink and Kent Carter). Obviously, this group isn't interpreting Monk and Nichols, but their admixture of traditional jazz values with avant-garde technique descends from the same genealogy. Which I mean as a compliment to all the musicians mentioned above.

[You can see some videos on Youtube, though the audio quality leaves something to be desired.]

Tierra de Nadie is playing on Nov. 11th, 7:30 PM, at Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette St, New York, NY.

Pack

Happy to see this awesome footage of the stellar German punk group Pack, whose "Terrorist" and "Robot" rank up there for me as punk anthems worthy of "Neat Neat Neat" or "Oh Bondage Up Yours" status. Killer! Thx Russ Waterhouse.

Rate Your Music: Another early band from an unlikely place, Bavarian Munich. The Pack was founded by Jörg Evers (ex-Amon Düül II), who yearned for more "direct and straightforward" music after after a trip to London. Still in 1977, they recorded the single, Com' On in a former WW2 bunker, released by Teldec in 1978. Of course, they claim this to be the first "true" punk record, while others say they're hippies... The following LP Pack doesn't seem to have been so successful -- it was the last. The opener "We Better Get Ready" is an absolute gem of trashy, noisy punk. Today, Jörg Evers is president of the GEMA, the German ASCAP. Punk has come a long way.

December 9th: WFMU co-presents Psychic TV at Europa

Psychic TV/PTV3's only American show of 2010 happens on Thursday, December 9th at Europa (98-104 Meserole Ave., Greenpoint/Brooklyn) and WFMU will be co-presenting the show along with Scenic and Edward O'Dowd. Tickets are on sale here (it is not, by the way, a benefit for WFMU). Psychic TV's direction in the last years has waded deeper into psychpunk realm, especially evidenced on their latest, Alien Brain Vs. Maggot Brain (Vanity Case label), and live shows have been a visual treat as well. In fact, WFMU has had a close-up peep at the band in action, check out MP3s from a performance on Fabio's show in September 2006 below (via the Free Music Archive). Genesis also performed recently at WFMU with O'Dowd and Tony Conrad (MP3s on the FMA here), and Fabio hosted a round-table discussion in our studios with the then-reunited Throbbing Gristle here.

Billy Beer Drinkin' Fan (MP3s)

       

Rick Pilgreen  -  Billy Beer Drinkin' Fan  (2:03)

Keith Reedy  -  Drinking Billy's Beer  (2:34)

Bill Gibbs  -  Beer Drinkin' Billy  (2:00)

Sure, Billy Carter was a bit of a raffish lout and a perpetual embarrassment to his brother, President Jimmy Carter, but he sure did liven up the joint. 

By the way, is there a chance in a billion we'll ever elect another president named "Jimmy"?

Who knows.  But here's a few tunes devoted to Billy and the wretchedly lame beer that he endorsed.

Legendary Pink Dots live on WFMU (MP3's)

Formed in London in 1980 by mainstays Edward Ka-Spel and Philip Knight and relocated to Amsterdam in 1984, the Legendary Pink Dots have created a massive discography of over 40 LPs, not counting the many Ka-Spel solo outings. On the latest, Seconds Late For the Brighton Line (ROIR) they continue their enduring, abstract, psychedelicized vision that has landed them as somewhat spiritual kin to the likes of Nurse With Wound and Current 93: dark, keyboard-inflected pop, Kraut-informed electronics, acidy industrial soundscapes all meld with Ka-Spel's unique lyrical and vocal stamp. They stopped by WFMU's studios to play on my show and also played live at Le Poisson Rouge in New York on October 29th and Irving Plaza on Halloween. The Dots continue south then west, check out the 30th Anniversary tour dates here. The lineup today: Edward Ka-Spel, the Silverman, Erik Drost, engineering Raymond Steeg. For more info on the LPD's see their site, also find their music at outlets like Soileilmoon, Beta-Lactam Ring, and ROIR. Thanks to Flloyd for the Dots-personalized baked goods and photo from the FMU visit!

 

 

Sub Pop's Andy Kotowicz

 
From Sub Pop Records:

Last Thursday evening, October 21st, driving his young daughter Anna home after picking her up from daycare, our co-worker Andy Kotowicz was involved in a terrible car accident that, so incredibly sadly, proved fatal. In what qualifies as nothing short of miraculous and definitively heroic, his daughter was pulled from the remains of the car, while it was on fire, by a local business owner who witnessed the accident. Though this same person tried and was unable to rescue Andy, I can think of no greater favor to our friend than saving his daughter’s life. And, in some small measure of thanks, we will all be eating as many Rizzo’s French Dip sandwiches as we can hold for a very long time. “Thank you” seems ridiculously inadequate, but thank you. Thank you.

Andy was under care at Harborview Medical Center in a coma until Saturday evening when he was taken off life support in the company of his immediate family. He was an organ donor and a recipient for his kidneys was found very soon after his passing. This is a small indication of the kind of guy he was.

Anna suffered some bruises and a broken arm, but is now home with her mother and family and is, we are told, recovering and adapting. There is a lesson here about the resilience and redemptive powers of children that we can all hope to learn from.

And so, those are the facts as we know them regarding the accident.

The facts as I know them regarding my friend, our friend, I am, I’m sorry to admit, unable to fully present right now. It’s too, too much. He was smart and funny and enthused; passionate in his love of music and his family; a patient and steadfast friend. He worked here at Sub Pop for the past ten and a half years and his contributions here, to the bands and artists we work with, and to us are innumerable and though I will be forced to do so, we all will, I cannot imagine any of it without him. I admired him, respected him, turned to him when I needed help and he never failed me. I know the rest of his family here feel the same. He was universally loved and it was all of our great good fortune to find ourselves in his company.

There will be more to say and write about this later, but right now, our friend has died and we are simply and utterly heartbroken.

This news hits us heavily here at WFMU as Sub Pop and Andy have always been extremely vocal in their dedication to listening to us at their Seattle offices, and while I personally never met him and only corresponded some on email over the years with him, I recognized his spirit as being one of a real music lover. It was crystal clear when he'd drop a line jazzed about whatever he heard on the station, and indeed artists like Pissed Jeans, Comets on Fire, Kelley Stoltz, and Jennifer Gentle who were beloved in our spheres here were also beloved staples of Sub Pop's which brought us closer together in many ways, radio/label relations/support aside. If anything over the last decade since our internet presence expanded, WFMU began to recognize new friends in every corner of the USA and world, and pretty much everyone from Sub Pop's roster and offices passing through our studios reported the extensive cheerleading on Andy's behalf to which we're super touched and grateful. An Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation site even kindly cites WFMU as a source for donations in his memory. We in turn hope you can offer support in his memory to his family's direction. We're sorry we never met him, and our hearts and thoughts go out to every one of his friends, co-workers and family members. Sub Pop will soon be getting together a silent auction as well, of which we will be a part. Stay tuned to their site for further details. UPDATE: On December 4, several Sub Pop bands will play a benefit for the Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation, which raises money for Kotowicz's family, at the Showbox at the Market in Seattle. The bill includes Mudhoney, Shabazz Palaces, Wolf Eyes, Vetiver, Pissed Jeans, Fruit Bats, A-Frames/AFCGT, and Michael Yonkers.

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 90

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

How the hell am I supposed to sit here and write heartfelt descriptions about music I find enormously meaningful in the aftermath of an election when it seems the whole goddamn country has gone to shit? OK, yeah, not the whole country, but a big, bleak scary-ass chunk of it. (Props to Oklafuckinghoma for banning Sharia Law.) I know. I should just calm down, blah blah, and focus on the beautiful things in this world, focus on how this sudden shift in political power is to be expected in mid-terms, especially with such a crap economy, but I just don't feel like it.

I do feel like running screaming out my front door. Like racing down the block to my neighbor's car sporting the John Birch bumper sticker. Like pounding its fender off with a baseball bat. But I am not a violent person. I am a contemplative person who easily sees beauty in simple things. Maybe if I just chill out a bit with my headphones on blasting some of this gorgeous music, I'll feel a little better. I don't want to feel better, I want to be really pissed off. But I'll give it a try.

 Blasting the ugly with beauty...

Evolution Ensemble Unity  ~  "Concrete Voices"
(Blog: 9 Grey Chairs)

It's Only Ketchup
"Anyone not having had the opportunity to discover Toshinori Kondo, or who has only heard the very disappointing pop jazz and fusion collaborations with Bill Laswell, can be assured that this is the real deal comparable to a great many wonderful independent releases from Europe, and the States in the 'Golden Era' of the late '70s. How to describe this varying record is another matter ... ecstatic yes ... thoughtful and replete with moments of sensitive interplay ... as well! This touches a number of bases ... from familiar tunes such as Monk's "Brilliant Corners," and Lacy's "Bone," both of which are accorded excitingly rag-tag rambunctious performances.... to all out Free improv."  [Description by Sotise at 9 Grey Chairs]

 

Ashiedu Keteke Cultural Group  ~  "Gbo Ofo Mino"
(Blog: Osibisaba)

Mal Content
"I think this album by The Ashiedu Keteke Cultural Group is amazing, one of my favorites in the Ga cultural style played by groups like Wulomei, Suku, Dzadzeloi, etc. (there are dozens more). Ashiedu Keteke is one of Accra's eleven sub-metro areas, containing the dynamic neighborhood of Ga Mashie in old Accra, the historical center of the capital city of Ghana. This Ga area is rich in history, encompassing places like Jamestown, Ussher Town, Bukom and others. It is where the Ga cultural style was born during the '70s (and continues to flourish) along with somewhat older "traditional" styles like Kpanlogo, Gome, and Kolomashie. Ga Mashie currently faces some economic hardships in terms of development and poverty alleviation, yet this area remains beautiful, vital and inspiring."  [Description at Osibisaba]

Archie Fisher, Barbara Dickson, John MacKinnon  ~  "The Fate O' Charlie"
(Blog: Time Will Tell You)

The Devil You Know
"Although Archie Fisher is a legendary figure in the Scottish folk music world—everybody's favorite singer and an enormously influential presence both musically and philosophically—he has remained largely unknown to the greater pop music mainstream. While the mainstream's a poorer place for that, one gets the idea it suits Archie Fisher just fine."   [From bio by Stewart Mason at All Music]

Cicala Mvta  ~  "Ching Dong: The Return of Japanese Street Music"
(Blog: Jazz Archives)

Spaghetti Occidentale
"Chindon is one of the stranger musical combinations in the world. It comes from both the street music and avant garde jazz scenes in Japan, defying the conformity of tradition and yet reveling in the connections to it. This brass/woodwinds based music merges jazz, klezmer, brass band, Japanese folk (and anything else it can get its hands on), into a wonderfully twisted and always surprising hybrid, unique unto itself. Cicala Mvta includes tuba, drum, percussion, cello, fiddle and electric guitar players, led by clarinetist/composer Wataru Ohkama. Ohkama was a member of the seminal Masami Shinoda bands, who took the chindon off the streets and into the edgy world of hard jazz and rock."  [Review by CF at Jazz Archives]

 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

 

Struggling Electric and Chemical: A Dustdevils Interview

Despite being an 80's New York noise rock band with sonic ties to Glenn Branca and no wave, the Dustdevils are a far different group than the Sonic Youth who they are frequently compared to. Michael Duane's group, which at points had consisted of Pavement's and future Sonic Youth-er Mark Ibold, Glenn Branca compadre and sometime Don Caballero member Dave Reid, New Yorker rock critic Sasha Frere-Jones, and countless others, is unfortunately an example of a great act that never really got its chance to shine in the ethos of American indie rock. 

"Struggling Electric and Chemical", the group's 1990 album, is sonic gold, opening with a cover of the Fall's "Hip Priest," in which frontwoman Jaqi Dulaney casts the track into a sultry stomp that Mark E. Smith was never capable of. The real masterpiece on the album is the second track, "The Revenge of Cruiser Gurner," complete with a coda that sounds like the child of King Crimson and Sonic Youth. 

I was able to interview Michael Duane via e-mail, who provided me with a fascinating history of the group, scars included. Check it out after the jump. 

Imagining Sound

(Yes, a photo of my mother).

 

My idea for this posting evaporated, and only the original title remains, the rest not being so lucky. For most of my life, I've come up with the title before anything else (yes, school papers too), so that I can by pretence, at least, have something. I can then look back at the title for further enthusiasm, were I to reach a state of depletion.

This time, though, no enthusiasm when I look above. Where has it gone? I will draw it from elsewhere.

How about, from a record I just got?  My new theme: (taken from the album title of Fred Gerlach's 1970 Takoma LP) "Songs My Mother Never Sang." It still relates to the original title above (or at least I will make you believe it (like I made my school teachers, who, reaching the end of my essays, would cry out, "Now, this isn't really about that at all, Mr. Hay...").

Does anyone still sing songs their mother sang? Does anyone's mother still sing? If she didn't, do you?

I hope I am flooded with audio recordings proving me wrong.

Here are the songs:

#1) The Jenkins Family - 'If I Could Hear My Mother Pray Again' 78 RPM (Okeh #40214) (1924)

 This recording and its A-Side (The Church in the Wildwood), though not the family's own compositions, are one of the first recordings of a family playing together on disk (this predates the Carter Family 's first recordings by several years). The title could almost be changed to 'If I could hear my mother [sing] again.' Aren't they often one and the same?

Listen

The Week in WFMU: 11/1 - 11/7

Most shows that have already passed can be heard anytime via the show archives page. Go!

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On Monday, Liz Berg hosted a live set from Dustin Wong, the guitarist of Ponytail and Ecstatic Sunshine, whose new solo album Infinite Love - A Square Defining a Circle is out now on Thrill Jockey. The album, presented as a double LP or double CD, begins with the same opening on each first side/disc but soon diverges into different paths: the listener chooses which path to take. Read more here and listen to the archive of Monday morning's show: 11/1, 9 AM to noon.

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Diane Kamikaze will be airing live music from Altar -- special material from their incredible set at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival last September. Altar, which consists of the members of Sunn O))) and Boris plus other contributors, put on a blistering show at ATP which you can hear on Diane's program Tuesday, or on the archives for a limited time only -- 3 weeks. Tune in to Diane's Kamikaze Fun Machine 11/2 from noon to 3 PM to hear the epic scope of their sound.

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The Legendary Pink Dots, in town on their 30th anniversary tour, join Brian Turner on Tuesday to play live. Seconds Late for the Brighton Line, their latest release in a discography of over 40 LPs since 1980, is another masterpiece of dark, industrial-flavored psychedelic pop with the unique vocal stamp of Edward Ka-Spel. If you missed them at Le Poisson Rouge last week (or if you didn't and want more), listen to Brian's program on 11/2 from 3 to 6 PM.

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Zombie expert Nick Robbins joins Bronwyn and Jay on the Thunk Tank for his second appearance, this time as part of their Dia de los Muertos special. Tune in on Tuesday, 11/2, from 7 to 8 PM, for a discussion of various cultures' views on death -- especially as it relates to zombies.

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On Nat Roe's show early Wednesday morning, hear a live session from Robedoor with previously unreleased material. The drone/psych/doom duo out of LA, Alex and Britt Brown, have recently added a third member, Ged Gengrass, on drums. They've released many records, CDs, and cassettes on Britt's label Not Not Fun and others, the latest of which is the 7" Pacific Drift. They'll be on the air 11/3, from 3 to 6 AM.

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Filmmaker Jon Rafman will talk to Bennett4Senate about his new project Codes of Honor, which mixes documentary footage of New York's arcade game scene with a fictional narrative "filmed" in the virtual world of Second Life. Jon will chat with Bennett and play a set of video game music that inspired the film. Hear it on Awesome New Place Thursday morning, 11/4, from 3 to 6 AM.

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Dave the Spazz hosts a set from Brooklyn rock-'n'-rollers the Piggies on Music to Spazz By, Thursday 11/4 from 9 to midnight.

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Lastly, Billy Jam is still in Ireland and presents a live broadcast from the Bell, Book and Candle in Galway, where hip-hop, experimental, and traditional Irish musicians will gather to perform together. Listen as "Irish traditional meets Irish hip-hop," Friday afternoon 11/5, from 3 to 6 PM (New Jersey time). Scheduled guests include The Old Soul Brigade, Pervish, MC Mimmic, Vince Mack Mahon crew, MyNameIsJohn, Chiwawa Studios, Bitwise and Madec, Rumble Digits, Lineage Crew, Mupeid, Sebi C, Longy, and Irish beatboxing champion Mr. L.