WFMU's Beware of the Blog

We All Want Something

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Listener Scott for sending this to me!

UPDATE: Just found out that this image is by Dan Gneidng, who will be selling prints on his site very soon! Great job on this one, Dan!

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bedbugs

News items about bedbugs have become almost as tired and hackneyed as profiles about so-called "social networking sites." Well, we all deserve to let our hackneyed sides shine every now and then. I recently wrote a little audio monologue for CBC Radio 3 and was interviewed about what happens when an overwhelming onslaught of several thousand bedbugs decide to manifest within a large, heavy record collection. Listen to the monologue and subsequent interview here.

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 100

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

Crikey! Mining the Audio Motherlode has gone and hit the century mark. This week's installment marks this 100th since I began this great sound-scouring adventure two years ago. This series of posts began as a means for sharing all the amazing music I was tripping over while searching online for tracks to play on my radio show, Give the Drummer Some.

Since these Motherlode posts started, I've gotten laid off from a long-term job in publishing, gone back to school to finish the degree I started more than 30 years ago, pulled up stakes and moved from Brooklyn to Pittsburgh (two blocks away from Jerry's Records!), and launched a 24-hour freeform web stream for WFMU called Give the Drummer Radio (listen now: here). Through thick and thick, a new Mining the Audio Motherlode has been published virtually every Wednesday at noon, serving up my own highly personal survey of the best offerings throughout the album-sharing blogosphere.

Last June, I re-posted my favorite records offered in the Motherlode records through the first half of the year. So, for this post I'd like to resurrect my top selections of the past six months or so. Please take a moment and share with me in the comments your favorites of 2010.

 Here's to the next 100...

 

Ola Belle Reed  ~  "Ola Belle Reed"
(Blog: Bill's Blog: Great Bluegrass Music)

Voice of the Ages
"Ola Belle Reed possesses the rare ability to see the natural unity of an ideal and of its necessary translation into life-action. All her idealistic verbal expressions have their counterparts in the practices of everyday life.... Since any true radical's battlefield is provincialism and bigotry, Ola Belle has come to deplore many of the recent tendencies of country musicians to become ardently chauvinistic about their tastes in old-timey, bluegrass, etc. to the exclusion of all other music. This development runs directly counter to Ola Belle's affirmations of music as a unifying and comradely tie among people."   (From the liner notes)

 

Various  ~  "Rockin'  Hillbilly Series
Volumes 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
(Blog: Western & Bop)

Southern Fried
This massively appealing set has been dosey doeing on and off the Bloggernet for a few years now. Huzzahs to W&B for giving it a go. Ten discs. Thirty-two tracks apiece. Every one a killer. Well, what are you waiting for? Stop reading this and go git 'em. No really, I'm not going say anything particularly pithy here, so just go. Go already! (Unbelievable... you're still here.)

 

Tenore de Orosei  ~  "Amore Profundhu"
(Blog: We Love Music)
{Annoying pop-up ad, but worth it}

Sardinian Splendor
This ancient style of polyphonic singing originated on the island of Sardinia.  Otherworldly and breathtaking. (This is the second appearance by this group in the Motherlode. The previous entry appeared in the first-ever post.)

Tak Shindo  ~  Mganga!"
(Blog: Le Blog de Granulet)

Exotic, Ah!
A perceptive, meticulous ethnomusicologist, Tak Shindo paid the bills by writing  scores and assisting music production in Hollywood (he apprenticed with Miklós Rózsa). Born in Sacramento, Shindo had been interred in the concentration camp for Japanese Americas at Manzanar for two years before joining the service in 1944. Record collectors revere him for his string of evocative ethnographic releases, including this gorgeous treasure, from the late 1950s.

 

Lincoln Chase  ~  "Chase 'n You"
(Blog: El Reza)

Wooshp, Oom, Sff - Ahhhh!
Lincoln Chase, manager for and songwriting partner with Shirley Ellis, was the "Lincoln" name-checked in Ellis's playful, rhyming evergreen The Name Game (remember the lyric: "Lincoln, Lincoln, bo-Bincoln, Banana-fana fo-Fincoln, Fee-fi-mo-Incoln, Lincoln!") Chase also scribed hits for such headliners as Ruth Brown ("Mend Your Ways"), LaVern Baker ("Jim Dandy") and Big Maybelle ("Rain Down Rain"), but familiarity with any of these R&B tracks won't prepare you for this 1973 album—Chase's lone release—of twisted soul/funk oddities that sound inspired equally by Melvin Van Peebles and Eugene McDaniels.

Kent Gomez & His Orchestra  ~  "My Ghetto"
(Blog: Mo-File) Montuno Monster

"Kent Gomez's "My Ghetto" is a seriously whacked-out descarga-type thing where Kent's piano moves all over the place as he charges from classical to jazz then back to Richie Ray style over a pounding rhythm, very acid jazz."
(Dave Hucker, from The Beat ]

 

 

 

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.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

 

Dog Dick + Sewn Leather = Dog Leather

You know how really hot girls usually only hang out with other hot girls?  Didn't that always seem disingenuous or something when you were in highschool?  Like they weren't friends for the right reasons?  That's because you were a weird nerd.  If you were cool you would have been hanging out with them too and not caring about what's right.  Just being real here.

This is a lead into the concept of SUPER GROUPS.  Just heard about this band called High Society.  It's Etienne from Real Estate, Justin Frye from PC Worship, Jonathan Coward from Shams and Darren Ho from Driphouse.  Fuck, those are some hot girls. I don't think they practice much, but hey, good for them.

Here's a brand new music video from two crazy people that have toured together a lot and for some reason never thought to combine forces into one super group before recently.  DJ Dog Dick, Baltimore sometimes-member of Nautical Almanac, and Sewn Leather, who used to be "from" Iowa City's noise scene but has been "touring" (ie, quasi-homeless) for too long to be from there anymore, have this new thing called Dog Leather.  Pretty awesome.

A Chat with Dominique Leone

The pop song knows no boundaries or limitations, and few people more aware of this than Dominique Leone. Starting his career out as a music journalist for publications like Pitchfork and the All Music Guide, Leone was an early champion for people like Animal Collective and Devendra Banhart, and a strong supporter of artists like the Boredoms, Magma, and Bob Drake. Leone switched from writing about music to performing it in the middle of the last decade, creating two great albums, Dominique Leone and Abstract Expression, as well as a slew of EP's which you can get on his Bandcamp.

Leone's music is expansive, and much like the work of musicians like XTC or Max Tundra, full of songs that keep you guessing what will happen next. Predictable is certainly not a word I would use to describe Dominique Leone. To start his discography, I'd look at his most recent full length album, Abstract Expression, eleven songs which run the gamut from pop ditties to prog work-outs, always changing, always staying interesting.

I was extremely pleased to interview Mr. Leone over the weekend. You can check that out after the jump.

NYC Benefit for Letha Rodman Melchior's Medical Fund

WFMU pal Dan Melchior (whose Das Menace and Broke Revue records have occupied continuous space in our new bin for years, not to mention having frequent visits to our live studios) has come across some hard times as his wife Letha (whose Tretetam project has also been a staple on our airwaves lately) faces cancer treatment.

We send out love and good vibes to them both but in the meantime you can support Letha by checking out this upcoming bill at the Cake Shop on January 22nd. A site for donations has also been set up for Letha.

CAKE SHOP
152 Ludlow Street, Manhattan
9PM, 21+
Tickets $10-15 sliding scale, all proceeds to Letha Rodman Melchior.

PURLING HISS: Mike Polizze (Birds of Maya)'s Philly psych-punk splendor

HOME BLITZ: NYC-NJ crash-n-burn powerpop (w/ WFMU's Jason Sigal on bass)

MAD SCENE: Loose groovin psych-pop w/Hamish from the Clean (and WFMU's Brian Turner on guitar)

CAPSUL: Hamish Kilgour + Bailter Space's Alister Parker

The Week in WFMU: 1/17 - 1/23

Irish singer/songwriter Lucy Foley -- her debut album Copenhagen is being hailed as eclectic, refreshing, and "pure" -- stops by Irene Trudel's show on Monday to play live with her band. Foley's in town for a show at Pianos on Friday the 21st; see her there then, and/or listen to her on 1/17 from noon to 3 PM.

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On Tuesday morning, Marty McSorley welcomes Brooklyn's Starring to his program for a live set. The post-prog-punk band, whose full-length Wife of God came out on Death By Audio Records last year, have a huge sound that combines Farfisa, flute, and viola with hard-rock guitar and driving bass lines. Whoa. Listen on 1/18, from 6 to 9 AM (web-only).

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Exciting news from Give The Drummer Radio: WFMU DJ emeritus Tony Coulter begins his new show this Tuesday 1/18 on that alternate stream. Tony has joined other excellent FMU personalities Charlie Lewis and Doug Schulkind (who manages the stream from his new home in Pittsburgh) to add to its cornucopia of old/fun/unknown/beautiful recordings. Hear him live in his first regular time slot since moving to Portland, OR in 2009, each Tuesday from noon to 3 PM. Busy Doing Nothing with Charlie Lewis is on on Thursdays from 9 to 11 AM; Give The Drummer Some with Doug can be heard on Fridays from 9 to noon. Check out the whole Drummer Radio kit and caboodle here 24/7.

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And this week on Transpacific Sound Paradise, Rob brings TWO (2) bands from Siberia to the studio to perform live. Traditional band Huun Huur Tu, from Tuva in southern Siberia, are also playing Joe's Pub on Saturday the 29th. They and central Siberia's Sibirskaya Vechora (r.), who are dedicated to researching and preserving traditional regions, can be listened to on Saturday 1/22 from 6 to 9 PM.

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Thanks to you, me, and all the others who voted for it, WFMU's Rock & Soul Ichiban web stream has won 1st place in the "Greatest Hits station in new platforms" in the Ross On Radio Readers' Poll over at Radio-Info. Congrats to tireless curator Debbie D.! If you've never listened to this 24-hour stream, which offers an embarrassment of obscure noisy, sock-hoppy rock-n-roll riches, why not start immediately? This is the Ichiban blog and it has a player embedded in it, etc. etc.

Josh Kolbo

Detail / Untitled / 12 C-prints / Unique / 2010 / 300 x 600 cm / 118 x 236 inches

 

Untitled / 2 C-prints / Unique / 2010 / 384 x 265 cm / 151 x 104 inches

 

Untitled / 4 C-prints / Unique / 2010 / 360 x 265 cm / 141 x 104 inches

 

Untitled / 2 C-prints / Unique / 2010 / 160 x 76 cm / 63 x 30 inches

-     -    -

Josh Kolbo
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Gallery

Personal site (so rad) 

Thunk Tank's Top 10 List for 2010

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Ichiban!

 

Tune In to WFMU's Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban 24 hour webstream.

Indeep - Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (mp3)

Dark and Salacious Visions; Lussuria LIVE on My Castle of Quiet

Standing in the rain, hands deep in raincoat pockets. This ruin of crumbled stone and ivy was once a bath, the public kind, so rarely seen now in our age of modesty. We're in provincial Europe somewhere. The ghosts, of beautiful, naked women, still frolic amongst the apparent decrepitude. A sense of loss, unbearable loss, and almost inevitable melancholy, accompany the rumblings of lust in one's blood, conjured up by mind's-eye pictures of what once happened here. When the wind blows a certain way, you can even smell the soft essence of virgin skin, and other subtle perfumes, almost detected. Such is the salacious, heady ambience, the visions conjured by the music of Lussuria.

Perhaps it's Jim Mroz' dual experience as a black metal musician that enables him to bring the heaviness in such an unexpected way, where what might strike the inattentive listener as stasis comes across ultimately as some very visceral sonic statements, both on his tapes, and unquestionably in this live session, aired on WFMU January 7, the first My Castle of Quiet live guest of our new year 2011.

I first heard Lussuria on a split cassette with Obscure, released by amourtout productions in France (the label run by Shantidas, of Aluk Todolo and Diamatregon.) It was my more-favored side of the tape—a patient, rumbling soundtrack to a nightmare, with an immersed narrative...something about angels. Having named his project after an ultra-obscure Joe D'Amato sexploitation film, Lussuria's Jim Mroz shares this writer's passion for the unusual, much-maligned and misunderstood subset of haunted, twisted, visually stunning cinema of the 1970s and 80s of which D'Amato was a major player. Even were this not the case, I would still have been taken in immediately by Lussuria's resonant, opaque sonic creations, coming out of Jim's mixer like coded maps of the subconscious.

The Lussuria releases (cassettes by Hospital Productions, amourtout, Destructive Industries, and Razors and Medicine) are chilling stuff, even troubling—like listening to a feeling always just out of reach. These sets, rendered live and expertly engineered by Bob Bellerue, certainly align with that description. Thanks also to Tracy Widdess, for rendering my photo of Jim (see above), appropriate to the translucent and mournful qualities of the music. This was a bit of a coup for me personally, as I've been an admirer of Lussuria's recordings since first hearing. I hope you enjoy these pieces, and receive them in the spirit in which they were rendered.

Remembering Ari Up; FMA Tracks Posted; Punky Reggae Birthday Party (Sunday)

As a large percentage of you probably know, Ari Up (Slits, True Warriors, and a/k/a Medussa) passed away this past October, but not without leaving this planet with an abundance of music, memories and occasions to remind us of her soul. Ari struck me as someone who couldn't be "turned off"; sadly with her passing, we know that is not true, and it still seems unreal, in reflecting on the vibrancy she had. Those of us who witnessed her perform, witnessed her living life - exclamation after exclamation, present to every second she had. She would have turned 49 on Monday, and at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday 1/16, will be the "Ari Up Punky Reggae Birthday Party", featuring members of the Slits original and current; the True Warriors, a later group that Ari fronted, and many many more guests.

The show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday is a benefit and proceeds will go to The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Tickets are available here. Leading up to that, there were 2 special programs aired on WFMU this week;

On Miniature Minotaurs with Kurt this past Wednesday, we heard a set from the Ari Up & the True Warriors' performance from Santo's Party House from October 2008, courtesy of Punkcast.com- the playlist from that program here. 

On the Fun Machine on Tuesday of this week, I aired a True Warrior's set that I had the pleasure of engineering when they played on Pat Duncan's program May 8, 2003.

Archive Picks Of The Week: The Free Form Kaleidoscope Songbird

The texture of sound. Rock radio in 2011 is painfully lacking, dominated by compressed guitars, cardboard drums, and bass thumping with no signature. But sound color lives at WFMU--we have more aural variation than you can shake at a focus group

Stan opened Friday 3am with a piece using chimes by Pauline Oliveros. He also told an enviable story: finding a box of records in the street.  He played some.    

On The Long Rally, Scott McDowell played a piece by Steve Reich called "Drumming"

The pumping bass and searing guitars of Turkish Rock were provided by Bryce.

The sound of music, the music of sound. For pure texture, check  the opening to Martha's show.

This project has me digging much deeper into the archives. I checked out Rob Weisberg''s Transpacific Sound Paradise and found, among other delights, a track called 'Rumor" by Zikrayat.. Amazing drumming and what I thinkis a hurdy gurdy--i'll have to listen more to Rob to learn  what instruments make these international sounds.

2011 Golden Festival Starts Tonight in Brooklyn / WFMU Broadcasts Sat (mp3 preview)

The Golden Festival is New York City's massive annual Balkan and East European music and dance bacchanal. For its 26th year, the Golden Festival moves from Inwood to Brooklyn's Grand Prospect Hall (263 Prospect Ave), for a two-night event this Friday and Saturday. On the schedule are 60+ groups from the Balkans and beyond, plus a dance workshop starting things off tonight, and several stations' worth of craft beer, wine, spirits (slivovica, raki and ouzo), and complimentary "meze" (snacks). All proceeds go to charitable causes. The Golden Festival is truly unlike any other event this side of the Dragačevo Trumpet Festival and not to be missed!

WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise will be on-site again this year to broadcast a portion of the festivities from the GPH Ballroom Stage (Saturday Jan 15th, 6-9pm). Previous broadcasts can be heard streaming at WFMU [2009 | 2010] and with mp3 collections available on the Free Music Archive [2009 | 2010]. Host Rob Weisberg previewed the Golden Festival during last Saturday's program with a live in-studio performance by Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band. North America's first and finest Balkan band are also the founders and ringleaders of the Golden Festival. The live session was followed by selections from Slavic Soul Party, Black Sea Hotel, and Raya Brass Band -- just a few of the many local and not-so-local artists who'll be performing this Friday and Saturday at Grand Prospect Hall. Here's the playlist from last week's Zlate Uste preview session, with mp3's below, plus a mix of highlights from last year's Golden Festival. Irene Trudel -- whose engineering virtuosity helps make the Golden Festival broadcasts possible each year -- also previewed the 2011 lineup during her show on Monday, with selections by Zlatne Uste, Veveritse Brass Band, Black Sea Hotel, Zikrayat and the What Cheer Brigade (playlist).

Fabio's Favorites of 2010

MUSIC:
•       Akira Kurosawa's Movie Soundtracks 1950-1958  - 4xLP FUMIO HAYASAKA &
MASARU SATO,  (DOXY records)
•       Pärson Sound -  Pärson Sound - 3xLP box (SUBLIMINAL SOUNDS)
•       Masahiko Satoh & Sound Breakers  - Amalgamation CD re-issue (DRONE
SYNDICATE)
•       Barn Owl & the Infinite Strings Ensemble -   The Headlands LP (IMPORTANT
RECORDS)
•       Circle X  - Circle X  EP/12" (1979, 2010 re-issue)
•       Bjørn Fongaard: Elektrofoni 3CD/1DVD Box-Set. (Prisma Records)
•       Gnod/White Hills - Gnod Drop Out With White Hills II. 2xLP (Rocket
Recordings)
•       Catherine Christer Hennix - The Electric Harpsichord CD (DIE SCHACHTEL)
•       Sun City Girls - Funeral Mariachi LP (Abduction)
•       Love Cry Want - s/t  - 2xlp re-issue (Weird Forest)
•       Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky LP (Young God)
•       Luc Ferrari - Éphémère I & II CD (Alga Marghen)

FILMS:
•       Valhalla Rising - Nicolas Winding Refn
•       Exit Through the Gift Shop: A Banksy Film
•       Stone screening at Lincoln Center
•       Enter the Void - Gaspar Noe
•       On the Bowery - LIONEL ROGOSIN
•       Bubble - Steven Soderbergh (released in 2006)
•       The Outfit - John Flynn  - 1973 (screening at Anthology)
•       Kurosawa Retrospective at Film Forum
•       The Ghost Writer by Roman Polanski
•       I am Love  - Luca Guadagnino


OTHER STUFF:
•       Getting married
•       Oaxaca, Mexico - Abastos Market, Tlacolula Market, Monte Alba Ruins &
local Mescal in Oaxaca.
•       Paul McDonough: New York Photographs 1968-1978 by Paul McDonough
(Umbrage Editions)
•       Leon Levinstein's photographs "Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players" at the Met
•       Miroslav Tichy exhibit at I.C.P.
•       Mark E. Smith - Renegade (Penguin books)
•       Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential  (Ecco Books)
•       J.G. Thirlwell Plays & Conducts Steroid Maximus with  20 piece orchestra
in Prospect Park
•       Swans play at Brooklyn Masonic Temple
•       Gundecha Brothers concert at Asia Society
•       Brion Gysin exhibit at New Museum
•       John Baldessari  retrospective at the Met

Dinowalrus on Beastin' The Airwaves! with Keili

This week I had the pleasure of recording a live session with Dinowalrus.  At the beginning of sound check, there was a lot of negotiation and back and forth about sound details; effects, vocal levels, etc.  I've seen this before, and seen it get ugly, so I got worried that these guys, part of Brooklyn's hipster rock royalty, were going to be prickly and difficult.  But that was just my own shit getting in the way because they couldn't have been nicer, more fun and more professional.  These guys weren’t just being particular for its own sake or, worse, because they’re audio snobs. They got involved in every part of the recording process because they love what they do and they wanted the sounds on the radio to get as close to the sounds in their heads as they could. This is real DIY – artists who do it themselves because they want to, not because they have to. 

Despite monitor issues that were causing feedback, Dinowalrus and WFMU engineer Mark Koch recorded an epic session of mostly brand new, never-before-recorded songs which are definitely some of the best work Dinowalrus has ever put out.

Their sound has evolved as a result of introspection and exploration, all made possible by a new band lineup in which original lead member, Peter Feigenbaum (former Titus Andronicus guitarist) and synth/bass genius,  Liam Andrew,  are joined by new drummer, Anton Hochheim (formerly of Depreciation Guild.)  Their personalities mesh as well as their individual contributions to the group’s sound.  And while they’re serious about their music, they don't take themselves too seriously. Anton is an amazing, steady drummer, who could riff without flaw, but also had a great sense of humor.  Liam is a multi-instrumentalist; wearing a bass while playing keyboards and effects pedals.  I'd say he is the Jonny Greenwood of the group, but so is Pete!  One of my favorite moments during the session was watching Pete do the classic rock star kick and then laughing with a hint of irony as if to say "Look at me! I'm doing the rock star kick!"

But what stands out for me is their complete open-mindedness and their holistic approach to music. While some critics have been frustrated by their own inability to define Dinowalrus in simple terms and put them into a convenient genre box, that is exactly what I love about them.  They switch it up every time I get comfortable - exciting my senses in ways I didn't know any band could. In each song you can hear the multi-layered richness of a full life of musical influences, from disco, electronica and reggae, to acid rock, shoegaze, proto-punk, classical and 90s alternative.  I'm not looking for a definition with these guys – their sound truly reflects all the things that they hear and enjoy, not a predefined market-friendly category. I believe that music fans are way smarter than the credit afforded them by the critics, and we can all just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Dinowalrus's immediate future will be spent in the studio, recording their yet-to-be-titled new album. For a preview of what to expect from that album, listen Sunday, from 6-9AM EST on Beastin' The Airwaves! with Keili. For a sneak preview of that show, watch the video below.

Last year, Dinowalrus appeared on Marty McSorley's show.  Here is the entire live set for free download!

 

The Dust Blows Back

Art: ??

Tony Coulter here, bringing you not just sights and sounds, but an announcement as well: Next Tuesday, January 18th, at noon EST, I shall return to WFMU's almost-airwaves, beaming myself to you from my home here in Portland, OR.  Be there, won't you, for the launching of my new weekly Web-only show on Give the Drummer Radio, one of the station's nifty new alternate streams. (All hail Doug Schulkind for creating the stream, and for the invitation.) The shows will be three hours long, brewed fresh every other Tuesday, then rebroadcast the following week. You'll be able to tune in live by clicking on the Give the Drummer Stream link on the station's homepage -- or you can just listen to archives of the shows at your languorous leisure. I'll be doing a live playlist as always -- hope to see you there.

With that bit of news out of the way, let's turn to the real meat of the post: music released and unreleased from two should-be-famous gents: Val Rogolino (of Kath and Badge) and Jim Curnutte (of Assassin of Silence). Plus, of course, the pictures. 

Company, forward!

It's World's Fair Use Day! Jan 13th 2011

Today is World's Fair Use Day, a free annual event organized by Public Knowledge in Washington DC.

WFUD's "day-long celebration of fair use, creativity and remix culture" digs deep into the audio universe for this, their second year with a a panel titled "This Is the Remix: Fair Use in Hip-Hop Culture" (featuring all three members of Das Racist), Dan Lynch of Negativland joining in on a "Visual Art and Fair Use" discussion, and a keynote by Jace Clayton aka multidisciplinary hero DJ /rupture.

Speaking of, did you catch Das Racist's guest appearance on DJ /rupture's WFMU radio show, Mudd Up??

World's Fair Use Day, Jan 13th 2011:
>> Full Schedule
>> Live Stream starts at 9:45 a.m. EST

WFMU Auction Winners score big!

Just a few months ago, WFMU held an online auction to raise a little extra cash, and some items we offered were a tad unconventional. Congrats to all auction winners, and thanks to everyone who placed a bid! Extra thanks to Stephin Merritt, DJ Monica, Todd at Maxwell's, and Yo La Tengo for making dreams come true!

If you're in northern NJ, be sure to stop by Maxwell's in Hoboken this Sunday (Jan 16th), for Auction Winner Angel's curated show, featuring Mattress and 4 other bands. The event serves as a launch party for Angel's new website Joydropper, dedicated to fun happenings in NJ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And speaking of Maxwell's, we've got video footage of Auction Winner Jason expertly performing "Astral Plane" with Yo La Tengo during one of the band's coveted Hanukkah shows.

 

 

Check out Auction Winner Aimi, sipping tea with none other than Stephin Merritt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 99

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

Greetings from Snowpocalypse II. The white fluff here in Pittsburgh is more picturesque than paralyzing, but it still provides a great excuse to stay indoors and trawl online for free music. Given that all but one of the 50 U.S. states currently has snow on the ground, that means there's a lot of Stateside shut-ins looking for something to do. For your diversionary pleasure...

Bruce Jackson—former president of the American Folklore Society and author of Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues—recorded "smooth" country bluesman Eugene Rhodes at the Indiana State Penitentiary in '62.  • • •  Valve trombonist Bob Brookmeyer teamed up with guitarists Jim Hall and Jimmy Raney to form an oddball front line on The Street Swingers, a unexpectedly off-beat session from '57.  • • •  A national treasure in the U.K., the late folksinger Fred Jordan didn't make his first LP until the age of 44. The 1972 long-player referenced here was recorded eight years after that.  • • •  The combo flipping the most lids during Chicano jive craze in 1940s L.A. were Don Tosti's Pachuco Boogie Boys. (This Arhoolie collection will put your lid in the next county.) Tosti's classically trained ivories-pounder, Eddie Cano, later changed coasts and became an in-demand  player in the Afro-Cuban jazz craze in 1950s NYC.  • • •  Twelve separate volumes of fuzz, prog and rock from East Germany (and nearby Poland, Hungary, etc.) were released under the Hallo title by the GDR's state record label Amiga. This collection of Stasi stompers comprises Volume 5.

 Let it snow, let it snow...

 

Eugene Rhodes  ~  "Talkin' About My Time"
(Blog: Hard Luck Child's Juke Joint)

Some Like It Smooth
"If there is a more obscure country blues artist than this fellow, then he is probably locked up somewhere, as well, one hastens to add, because that was the situation when blues scholar Bruce Jackson first discovered Eugene Rhodes. He was doing a ten- to 25-year stretch at the Indiana State Prison, which was where a remarkable album was recorded of 15 songs and a little talking that was eventually released on a label even more obscure than the bluesman, if such a thing is possible."   (Eugene Chadbourne, in AllMusic.com)

 

Bob Brookmeyer/Jim Hall/Jimmy Raney  ~  "The Street Swingers"
(Blog: Jazz Is My Life)

Not the Usual Arrangements
"The interplay between the two guitars is endlessly intriguing, and it speaks volumes that when Brookmeyer plays piano nobody ever gets in anybody's way-generally it's hard enough for one guitarist and a pianist not to step on each other's toes. Hall's "Arrowhead" is a minor masterpiece that foreshadowed the classic work he and Brookmeyer would soon do with Jimmy Giuffre."   (Duck Baker, JazzTimes)

 

Fred Jordan  ~  "The Frost is on the Pumpkin"
(Blog: Gonzo-Archive)
[Password = gonzoFJFO]

Workman Life Effort
"In the autumn of 1959, Fred attracted the attention of participants in the folk song revival when he appeared at the English Folk Dance and Song society’s festival wearing his everyday clothes – heavy boots, leggings and weather-defying hat. His singing drew immediate acclaim. Since then he has appeared with increasing regularity at concerts and clubs, with other country singers and also with revival performances. He enjoys concert and club work, where he sings with the straightforward ‘professionalism’ and unselfconsciousness common to most country singers. As a folk singer he may be classed with the best – and that best includes Harry Cox, George Maynard and Phil Tanner. Though he is still a young man he has the essential style of this older generation. His musical sense is very highly developed; his ability to make small rhythmical changes to suit the words of songs is marked and his use of melodic ornament is subtle and skillful. the quality of his voice may seem strange at first hearing, but it is not unique, and there is nothing here of an old man’s quaver, for Fred Jordan is in his prime."  (Liners for Songs of a Shropshire Farm Worker)  

Eddie Cano  ~  "A Taste of Cano"
(Blog: Listen to Your Ears)

Reish of Mucho Piano! from '62
"Los Angeles pianist Eddie Cano was one of the most exciting Latin jazz musicians of the 1940s and 1950s. A Mexican American born in 1927, he began as a bassist, taking lessons from his grandfather who had worked with the Mexico City Symphony. Cano was alto trained in classical piano, and he expanded his talents further when he discovered jazz. After his discharge from the army, he made his professional debut with the Pachuco Boogie Boys in 1947. It was then that his rhythmic style came to the attention of singer and bandleader Miguelito Valdés, who had brought Chano Pozo from Havana to New York in 1946. Valdés brought Cano to New York in 1947. For two years Cano played for Valdés and sat in with Tito Puente, Machito, and Noro Morales."   (Raúl A. Fernández, from Latin Jazz: The Perfect Combination)

 

Various  ~  "Hallo, Nr. 5"
(Blog: Blue Beat in My Soul)

The Other Side of the Wall
"Crazy album from former East Germany! Psychedelic prog groove with fuzz, organ and heavy breaks."   (Electric Looser at Blue Beat in My Soul) 

 

 

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