WFMU's Beware of the Blog

That Funky Tramp!

Continuing in a loosely defined series that has included explorations in the "Adults Only" party record genre spanning from Fax Records to the Laff label and the incomparable Rudy Ray Moore, we present a man who was a close friend of Dolemite (and had a role as a James Brown-esque nightclub singer in The Human Tornado - watch that here) named Jimmy Lynch. Lynch had some of the best cover art of any on the eccentric Laff Records roster in the nineteen seventies. This LP was released prior to his being signed to Laff, recorded in the nineteen sixties, and Lynch claims it is the first piece of vinyl to feature the word fuck. That last point is definitely disputable, but the undeniable intrigue that is this comedy record is not. Listen now to Jimmy Lynch - That Funky Tramp!

Unbelievable Believers: Christian Song Demos

A few weeks ago, the always reliable Music For Maniacs posted a few tracks of demos from hopeful Christian artists. After the "Safe Sex Is Just a Fantasy Rap" quickly shot up to the top of my current favorites list, I decided to delve a little further and so headed over to the site where they were originally found, Those Unbelievable Believers: The Blessed Sounds of Incredible Christian Song Demos.

Within this site lay a treasure trove of religious amateur recordings (or B.S. - blessed sounds), from earnest country croonings, to Eagles songs reinterpreted, to professors proclaiming their faith, to kiddie Jesus raps, to some absolutely completely insane ramblings. All of these were lovingly compiled with hilariously sacrilegious commentary by one "Doc" (aka Deuce of Clubs). As an example of what to expect, here is Doc's handy chart of gospel demo song structure:

A) Beginning
    B) Middle
    B) Some more middle
        C) Conclusion
A) And . . . back to the beginning
    B) Middle, middle, middle
    B) More middle until you almost can't believe it, then:
        C) Conclusion . . . or:
    B) More middle—it gets hard to tell
    B) Definitely more middle stuff here, finally shading to either
A) A New Beginning . . . or:
        C) [Missing conclusion].

Follow the jump for 22 tracks of Christian demo madness!

Yodel! (MP3s)

[ There are 18 MP3s in this post. All but one feature gratuitous yodeling. Some even include bird impersonations. Don't say you weren't warned. ]

Applied chaos theory in the information age? Whatever you want to call it, it happens to me quite frequently. Stuff somehow makes its way onto my hard drive, and I have no clue where it came from. So I had this MP3 compilation called "Yodel!" lying around for a while, and the title and artist information all seemed very suspicious. (Like a song called "oooooooooo" by "That DUDE" or such.) It doesn't seem to be ripped from one of the countless commercially available yodeling compilations, which makes it a bit harder (at least for me) to figure out what these songs are actually called and who performed them. I was not 100% successful, but I am confident that you can help me fill in the blanks. In exchange you get lots of free yodeling. Here it is, with all the (hopefully correct) info I could gather:

01 Wilf Carter (Montana Slim) - Alpine Milkman
02 Cackle Sisters - Arizona Yodeler
03 Cackle Sisters - I Left Her Standing There
04 Cackle Sisters - Go To Sleep My Darling Baby
05 Unknown - Yoodling (?)
06 Wilf Carter (Montana Slim) - Swiss Moonlight Lullaby
07 Sons of the Pioneers - Devil's Great Grandson
08 The Louvin Brothers - Satan is Real
09 J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers - Yodeling Mountaineer
10 Tex Williams - Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)
11 Unknown - The Drunkard's Hell
12 Unknown - Springtime in the Rockies
13 Eddy Arnold - Cattle Call
14 Patsy Montana - I Want To Be A Cowboy's Sweetheart
15 Unknown - Unknown
16 Wilf Carter (Montana Slim) - When The Ice Worms Nest Again
17 Tex Williams - Never Trust A Woman
18 Erika Eigen - I Wanna Marry A Lighthouse Keeper (Honestly, I have no clue why this was included, but I didn't want to destroy the artistic integrity of the original compilation...)

Standouts are definitely the three songs by the Cackle (DeZurik) Sisters. You can get much more music by them at the 365 Days Project. And please, if you know any of the missing artists/titles, leave a comment.

The Married...With Children Theme Music is Wrong on Hulu

There I was just cruising Hulu to see how my dad's favorite television show holds up 15 years down the line.  Kelly is still hot, Bud is still a dick, Al is still stuck in the shoe store etc etc but THE FUCKING THEME MUSIC IS DIFFERENT!  It's supposed to be the VOCAL VERSION of "LOVE AND MARRIAGE" but now it's some goddamn terrible royalty-free bullshit MIDI instrumental impression of a song that might sound like "Love and Marriage" if you are Tiny James and had been stuck inside a Regular Size Vodka Peach for four days.

What the HELL??

When Mom Calls 911

Thanks to my simple gmail address I get a lot of mail sent to me on accident. My favorite unintentional correspondent is a juvenile correction officer from down south. He mistakenly sends me lots of pictures of juvenile young women posing in hotel rooms, with captions like "Buddy, isn't she hot!" Last night he fwded me an office thread containing an mp3 clip of a distraught mother calling 911. Of course the clip is totally amazing (mom is ready to kill her 15 year old son who is being disrespectful), but it is a bit surprising that the people in charge have no problem using their work email accounts to fwd this stuff around:

listen: (mp3)

update: turns out this mp3 is old, who knows who leaked it - sorry for insinuating that my email pal and his buddies were responsible

Diasporic Stradivarius

For my money, there's no better validation of life's futility, beauty, desperation, grief and surreality as the analogy of a lost violin.
We hear about these stories in seemingly increasing numbers over the years. Just how many rare 17th century violins can there be and exactly how are they managing to flee from their owners? Like sweaty defectors at the airport these sensuous instruments are obviously yearning for something better, hoping to rewrite their centuries-old history and escape the enslavement of their destiny. Perhaps there exists a Shangri-La, a Violin Isle-a-Land where piles of violins bake off their oppressive veneers in a tropical paradise.

As I ponder this possibly preposturous premise, let me direct you to a spooky Strad story  by J.Meade Falkner.

People Like Us Retrospective Exhibition

WFMU's own sound/image/video collage mistress People Like Us (aka Vicki Bennett) is being featured in a gallery exhibition next month. In case you weren't already aware, People Like Us is an amazing artist, DJ, and podcaster, sampling and reappropriating audio, music, film, television, found footage, and anything else she can get her hands on, resulting in surreal and sublime juxtapositions that bend one's perception of culture.

We Edit Life: a retrospective exhibition
alt.gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

Opening Night: 15 May 2008, 6 - 8pm
Exhibition: 16 May - 12 July 2008

The exhibition will focus on the concept of collage, showing an edited selection of Vicki's work, including twenty album releases, numerous singles and remixes, live sets, seven films and over a hundred and fifty radio shows. Dr. Drew Daniel of Matmos even composed an essay for the the exhibition! On top of that, We Edit Life also marks the launch of a new compilation CD, "Smiling Through My Teeth," curated by People Like Us for the Sonic Arts Network.

People Like Us has previously shown work at Tate Modern, Sydney Opera House, Pompidou Centre and Sonar, and performed radio sessions for John Peel and Mixing It, as well as WFMU. In 2006, she was the first artist to be given unrestricted access to the entire BBC Archive, no small feat.

Links:
Do or DIY radio archives on WFMU

Do or DIY Podcast

Codpaste (with Ergo Phizmiz) archives

People Like Us back catalogue

People Like Us homepage

April 1: We Get Listener Comments

(Yet more Joe Belock public defacement as of today hitting the left coast, photo Maria L.) Samples of WFMU playlist comments Tuesday:

"Is something wrong?"
"I thought Bryce was filling in (for Joe Belock) or something."
"When did the High School Sweethearts learn to sing in Finnish?"
"Is this a parody of the recent WNYE-KEXP arrangement?"
"Try something challenging for a change asshats!"
"If challenging means jazz, then, no,"
"Really, really lame joke. Jeez, what what was the point? To annoy the listeners? Why not just have pizzas delivered to everyone who pledged to the station?"
"The playlist is totally out of sequence today. Anyone else experiencing this?"
"Is it OK to leave notes here if I can only hear KVJC? I am confuzzed."
"The real KFJC show that's on right now sounds like a show for pill heads."
"Where is Eat Skull? KFJC would have played them by now."

Much love to our freeform brothers and sisters at KFJC in Los Altos Hills for our April 1st web/air switcheroo. Hope you enjoyed it, or on the other hand, forgive us both. Sometimes we just can't help ourselves.

Boredoms vs Cai Guo-Chiang Explosion

Japanese noise / punk / kraut / space / future rockers Boredoms played last night at Terminal 5, and it was absolutely amazing.  I wrote about their (also absolutely amazing)  77BOADRUM event in these pages this summer, but I think it's worthy to write about last night's concert because, well, every time they play is an...absolutely amazing and inspiring event.

Terminal 5 is a well-designed space, and the non-ground floors offer plenty of front-row rail access good for leaning over and catching the action below from.  But the spectacle last night pushed Terminal 5's (considerable) capacity to its limits.  Every floor was packed, and I stretched nudge muscles I didn't know I had trying to get a direct line of sight to see the band below. 

Every Boredoms concert is an explosive exploration of ideas in music, with lead Bore EYE literally turning everything we know about song structure inside out and puking it up in a perfectly-orchestrated space of time.  The sound itself is an exercise of controlled and beautiful explosions: at the beginning of each performance, Eye summons some sort of powerful otherworldy being into existence on the stage via two glowing orbs that he swings around in the midst of ecstatic shouts and song, creating miraculously glitchy lightning crashes.  Three drummers pound away cyclic and ever-changing rhythms that build and collapse on themselves, only to reveal more complex rhythms that you're surprised you didn't heard before.  The centerpiece of Boredoms' round stage is a disembowelment and re-construction of 7 purple guitars called the Sevena, built by Boredoms "sub-member" and DMBQ guy Masuko. Eye treats it as a percussion instrument, hitting it with a broomstick, using such force that it must be anchored in place by a steel crossbeam and two assistants to make sure the fucking thing doesn't topple over in the course of the performance.  Eye makes it his business to play the perfectly-tuned (and re-tuned, and re-tuned) strings off of the instrument, and when they finally walked off the stage, only a few strings remained - all but destroying the Sevena in the process.  A few minutes into the set as I watched Eye spazz out across the stage, I noticed - this guy is in a motherfucking CAST.  After seeing that, in a move I'll probably regret later, I took my earplugs OUT towards the end of the show to experience what was going on in a more direct manner.  I didn't need my eardrums anyway. 

I was reminded more and more as the night went on of the Cai Guo-Chiang exhibit currently on display at the Guggenheim. 
 

Photo: pocketmonsterd

Games That Make Me Nuts (Part 1)

I don't remember where I was when I had the premonition that one day I'd host Family Feud. (I'm scheduled to assume hosting duties in the summer of 2023--after Jack Black and Andy Richter but before Cuba Gooding, Jr.) I know that I have a little time to figure this out but I'm still mystified as to exactly how the game's played. I figure that it somehow involves looking at a big board and making small talk with hillbillies while everyone cheers. There's some type of scoring system, but how the heck is that supposed to work? So much of life is a tortuous mystery, a brow-beating funnel of mocking despair and this particular TV show is yet another chimera that taunts my waking hours. For years I've stealthily searched in the bleak darkness, adjusting my rabbit ears and awaiting that "Eureka!" moment of sobering Dawson-like clarity. Until the Network Gods divine the correct cue cards upon me, I'll trod onward, measuring my life in Metrocard swipes and Junior Jumbles, assured that one day I'll finally unlock The Secret of The Feud and it will be then, and only then, that I will rejoice amid the bright hoopla and comb my real hair forward.

There's another stupid puzzle that makes me nuts also. That freakin' Name Game song!

Co-written by Shirley "Nitty Gritty" Ellis and her manager/producer Lincoln Chase, The Name Game shot up the national charts to #3 in the waning days of 1964. Now I'm not a total square from nowhere--I can grasp the five main rules (see chart) of said game--however it's the three sub-sections of the "contrary rule" where I lose my footing and tumble headfirst into the inky land of Bonana, Fanna and Fo. Those directions make no sense to me and they never will. And in mid-song, when Shirley says "if the first two letters are ever the same, I drop them both and say the name like Bob, Bob drop the B's Bo ob," I pray to sweet Jesus for the simplicity of The Nitty Gritty. Wrapping my brain around this mess is like getting instructions from Tim Conway on how to land a plane. Of course, none of that takes away from the fact that The Name Game is one of the sickest, most awesome dance records ever recorded.

Play it now and play it loud.

Shirley Ellis: The Name Game (MP3)

Beggar, Clown, Loser

Here's a 45 I bought at least 25 years ago, and which has been bringing me a sort of disturbed pleasure ever since. A vanity special, in which Pinky Pinkston and the Dixie Drifters perform two unique songs, "Beggar or a Clown" and "I Am a Loser."

There was a time that a few friends of mine and I discussed (and disagreed) about whether Pinky was a man or a woman, but with the combination of the massive song-poem database, and some ads on eBay, we now know that he was Joseph Pinkston, who also made some vanity record for song-poem hybrid labels, none of which I've been fortunate to hear yet.

However, the lyrics to these songs, in places, remain a mystery to me.

A friend and I once went to the Chicago address found on this label, and found it to be an apartment building in the upscale Lincoln Park neighborhood. There was no listing for Pinkston at the building.

I Am A Loser (MP3)

Beggar or a Clown (MP3)

Michel Waisvisz - Crackle (MP3s)

As a conclusion to my MP3 identification contest, I am posting the solution to round 4. It took a while, but it was finally identified as the track A Cheval from the Michel Waisvisz album Crackle, released 1978 on FMP. Just like Tolerance's album Anonym, it is one of the great and insanely rare albums on the famous Nurse With Wound list. Fortunately, Michel Waisvisz is still around and, after a long hiatus, is back to composing, performing, and bending circuits again. Anyway, here is his classic album Crackle in its entirety as MP3:

Side A: A Cheval | Dutchjazzcircus | Crackles | Steve's Pipe | First Dancesteps
Side B: De Brug Gaat Open; Berliner Neustadtlament; Stradivarius | 4 Narrow Escapes | One For The Road

Instruments used are a Crackle synthesizer, a modified "Putney" VCS 3 (on "One For The Road"), a mouth organ (on "Berliner Neustadtlament"), and a (modified) springboard built by the late great Hugh Davies (on "Stradivarius"). You can read more about the Crackle box here, and even order it at STEIM (currently on backorder due to shortage of parts).

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.

Singing Postcards from Listener Marty (#3)

Here's yet another fun, schmaltzy singing postcard from Listener Marty. These strange little European Fonoscope flexis were made to be played on a turntable, so I've captured the audio from quite a few to share with you.

Sit back and take in the view of Milan (left) and relax to the smooth, manly crooning of Italian actor Corrado Lojacono: "Voca Rossa" (MP3).

Check out more musical postcards here and here.

Identify The MP3, Part 4

Since last week's puzzle has not been solved yet, I have decided to extend the MP3-identifying contest series with one more mystery MP3. This is again the first part of a longer track, and it has actually been played on WFMU, at least twice. The first one to name artist and/or album in the comments will get a prize in the mail.

As an added bonus, this album has something in common with last week's, so maybe you can still guess that one. Good luck!

Identify The MP3, Part 3

This is the third and probably last installment of the WFMU blog hippie noise identification contest, you can check out the previous ones here and here. Today you'll get only the first three minutes of a longer track: Mystery MP3.

The first one to ID the artist and/or album from which this is taken gets a prize in the mail. This album should have been played on WFMU, but surprisingly that hasn't happened according to the WFMU playlist search. However, I am sure that the blog readers will have little trouble identifying it in no time. Good luck!

Identify The MP3, Part 2

After last week's quiz turned out to be too easy (due to Gracenote MusicID), today's MP3 is slightly more obscure to foil the computers among our blog readers. Here is the song to ID for this week: Mystery MP3

The CD from which this track is taken might be too obscure for AMG and Gracenote, but it has been played on WFMU, according to the playlist search. Exactly once. And a different track. However, I am only asking that you find out who the artist is, and that you name it/him/her/them in the comments. The first one gets a prize in the mail. Good luck!

Identify The MP3, Part 1

Do you know obscure music? The stuff that is played on WFMU all the time, and is known among experts as hippie noise? Then you can surely identify the following song: Mystery MP3.

The first one to name the artist and title in the comments will get a prize in the mail (probably in mid-January, when I return from Europe). And if you don't win this time, look forward to next Sunday, when I will put up another MP3 to ID.

365 Days #348 - The Living and the Dead (mp3s)

Recordings from old records, bad tapes, home recordings and friends.

01 Carson Robison and his Pleasant Valley Boys - That Horse Named Pete (3:04)
c1950, MGM 10732, 78 rpm

02 Baby Gramps - Bahama Mama (4:31)
Live in the 1970's at a concert I produced, written and performed by Baby Gramps. www.babygramps.com

03 Eva Siders & Two Men - Telephone Conversation (3:00)
Home made disk

04 Lew Childre on ET - Jig Time (1:32)
1940's transcription disk

05 Jim Page & Artis the Spoonman - Very Scary (Gays in the Military) (3:26)
www.jimpage.net

06 Bluegrass Roy - Intro and Hamlin's Wizard Oil Pitch (0:36)
Radio pitch by Bluegrass Roy, 1940's radio singer. Very big on radio in the Midwest and Northeast. This gives the flavor of OT radio.

07 Florence Baker - Eliah the Camel (Hump on his Ass) (0:26)
08 Florence Baker - Chocolate Ice Cream Cone (2:07)
Home made disk, 1949

09 Bobby Marks (the pool shooting monkey) - Cool Pool Shooter (1:29)
Ledo 45 #D-1806

10 Mississippi Fred McDowell - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (2:32)
In concert at Court C Coffee House, Tacoma, 1971

Cambodian Rocks (MP3s)

In 1996, the Parallel World label released the LP "Cambodian Rocks", a collection of Cambodian psych and garage music from the 60s and early 70s (probably), compiled by an American tourist named Paul Wheeler from some cassettes he bought in Phnom Penh. No information on the songs was provided at all, no artist names, no song titles, and no recording dates. Four years later, Parallel World reissued this compilation on CD with a few extra tracks, but still without any identifying information. Unfortunately, it is more than likely that many of the featured musicians, showing a definite Western influence in their music, were murdered by the Khmer Rouge regime which took over power in 1975. Certainly none of them ever received any money from the sales of this compilation. However, the music is wonderful, and here it is for your enjoyment.

Cambodian Rocks MP3s: Track 1 (Yol Aularong - Jeas Cyclo "Ride Cyclo") | Track 2 (Ros Sereysothea - Chnam oun Dop-Pram Muy "I'm 16") | Track 3 (Ros Sereysothea - Tngai Neas Kyom Yam Sra "Today I Drink Wine") | Track 4 (Yol Aularong + Tuk - Sou Slarp Kroam Kombut Srey "Rather Die Under the Woman's Sword" | Track 5 (Sinn Sisamouth - Srolanh Srey Touch "I Love Petite Girl") | Track 6 (Pan Ron - Rom Jongvak Twist "Dance Twist") | Track 7 (Pan Ron - Knyom Mun Sok Jet Te "I'm Unsatisfied") | Track 8 (Liev Tuk - Rom Sue Sue "Dance Soul Soul") | Track 9 (Ros Sereysothea + Seang Vanthy - Jam 5 Kai Thiet "Wait 5 More Months") | Track 10 (Ros Sereysothea + Seang Vanthy - Jah Bong Ju Aim "Old Sour & Sweet") | Track 11 (Sinn Sisamouth + Ros Sereysothea + Pan Ron + Dara Jamchan, composer Voy Ho - Maok Pi Naok) | Track 12 (Sinn Sisamouth - Phneit Oun Mean Evey "What Your Eyes Has?") | Track 13 (Yol Aularong - Yuvajon Kouge Jet "Broken Heart Man") | Track 14 (Meas Samon, composer Mai Bun - Jol Dondeung Kone Key "Going to Get Engaged" | Track 15 (Ros Sereysothea - Kerh Snae Kyoum Thai) | Track 16 (Ros Sereysothea - Chnang Jas Bai Chgn-ainj "Old Pot, Tasty Rice") | Track 17 (Ros Sereysothea + Dara Jamchan, composer Voy Ho - Kone Oksok Nas Pa "We're Very Bored, Dad!") | Track 18 (Ros Sereysothea - Kom Kung Twer Evey "Don't Be Mad") | Track 19 (Ros Sereysothea - Penh Jet Thai Bong Mouy "I Like Only You") | Track 20 (Pan Ron & In Yeng - Sralanh Srey Chnas "I love mean girl") | Track 21 (Sinn Sisamouth + Meas Samon, composer Voy Ho - Komlos Teng Bey "Three Gentlemen") | Track 22 (Ros Sereysothea - Retrey Yung Joup Knea "The Night We Met")

Thanks to Giles, Robin Edgerton, and especially to Pyro Tech for identifying the artists and song titles. Pyro Tech's comment contains more info and links that you should definitely check out. You should also download Giles' compilation of music from the same time. Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea, and Pan Ron were big stars in Cambodia before 1975, and all three "disappeared" under the Khmer Rouge, most probably killed like millions of others.

If anyone has more information about these tracks and/or the musicians, please leave a comment.

A few more or less helpful links: Kevin Nutt reviewed the CD and gave a little more background information; the Californian band Dengue Fever did a great job covering some of these songs; confusingly, the record label Khmer Rocks released a series of compilations also called Cambodian Rocks which doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Parallel World release.

There is also a documentary film being made about the Cambodian rock music scene before the genocide: Don't Think I've Forgotten (Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll). According to the website, they are currently looking for funding to finish post-production.

Radio: Forgotten but not Missed

Every city seems to have at least one radio station that saves an hour each night as a sanctuary from the plethora of angry right wing talk radio that overwhelms the all-night frequencies. That one hour or so often contains what we radio nerds call OTR... or Old Time Radio. Syndicated (and heavily edited) programs like When Radio Was hosted by Stan Freberg (and previously Jeopardy's Art Flemming) share with us the standard classics like The Shadow, The Whistler, Suspense and The Jack Benny Show. However, there were literally thousands of shows that played the airwaves back "when radio was." Most of them are neglected or forgotten, and usually for good reason. Here are some OTR programs you may not have heard before. Click the show title to select from a long list of episodes.

The Aunt Jemima Show - The program, pretty much what you would expect from the title, is heavily steeped in references to the old South with many Showboat-esque tunes interspersed and Jemima philosophy about easily overcoming adversity with a smile. Not hard to guess what product was the show's sponsor. It is, essentially, a racist infomercial for the Quaker Oats company. Auntie was played by actress Harriette Widmer who, not surprisingly, was a regular on Amos n' Andy.

The Mel Blanc Show - Mel Blanc was one of those cartoon voice actors who could easily upstage the star on any radio show (Bill Thompson and Arnold Stang are two others who fit into that category). The powers that be figured that Blanc's overwhelming popularity on The Jack Benny Show and Burns & Allen would easily translate into a vehicle of his own (and I don't mean Benny's Maxwell - a vehicle that Blanc provided the sound effects for). The Mel Blanc Show was an awful radio sitcom (Blanc acknowledged as much in his autobiography) that had Mel working in a fix-it shop, constantly quarreling with his blustery boss. The show thrilled me as  a child, as Blanc showcased most of his Looney Tunes voices in one way or another in a program that had nothing else going for it. And while we're shooting Blancs, check out this ultra rare Mel Blanc novelty 78!

365 Days #333 - Lee (mp3s)

This recording is from a cassette recorded by a fellah named Lee. He was, or still is, a mental patient in the state of Nevada. He had a lot of money from an unknown source, and would buy expensive bass guitars from the guitar shop where I was working. I would talk to him and try to get info as to his life and such but he was too shy. Nice guy, mid 40s, 6'2, 170 or so pounds, Hungarian/Slavic features, fairly gray line short hair.

Lee spoke very slow with a midwestern accent. I'm guessing Kansas or Nebraska. He always rode a bike everywhere and carried an expensive bass guitar on his back. He said that he wanted to start recording songs that he had written. We all looked at each other like there was no way.

One day in 2001 when I was at work, a co-worker had run over from the large recording studio next door. Breathlessly he said that Lee was next door recording and that I had to go check it out.

Well, this is what I heard...

1 Lee One (7:04)
2 Lee Two (5:01)
3 Lee Three (7:22)
4 Lee Four (2:16)
5 Lee Five (8:51)
6 Lee Six (0:06)
7 Lee Seven (6:14)
8 Lee Eight (1:54)
9 Lee Nine (5:52)

I was so amazed and impressed I begged Lee for a tape for two weeks until he finally gave me one. He thought that his music wasn't really any good. I told him no, not only was it good, but I was going to share it with others who will love it as much as I do.

- Contributed by: Mister Dan

It's Britney, Bitch

Certainly without doubt Pseu and Bronwyn would have played the new Britney Spears CD unquestioningly had I put it in the station library's New Bin, though unfortunately WFMU was left off the promo list for that one. Kind of disappointing, as maybe some FMU attention could help get Brit back on the cultural map (in a good way). Though truth be told, just from my experience here, I couldn't see a lot of our staff pulling that one from the bin for their shows. But, had I burned a copy, placed it in an esoteric-looking CDR sleeve and retitled it Anna Elektronische, on an obscure looking label called Doomplatten, would others play it? Yes. In defense, Blackout has some of the production you'd expect on a modern-day Berlin electronic diva's work: phasing, minimalist beats, synth/vocordered up druggy vox.  The sleeve itself came from a band called Olakranon (which was pretty OK in its own right), whom I thank for allowing me to conduct my experiment, and thank you to the DJs who were participants. Liz Berg forwarded an email to me after she played it on air, amazingly sent in by a promotions company that does mass mailings to college radio, wondering how they could get in touch with Doomplatten to help get this artist out into public awareness. I responded, offering up 50 of Anna's CDRs in homemade sleeves that they could easily distribute to radio if they wanted. But then I 'fessed up, feeling guilty if the poor guy was gonna spend money on this project. But I do think some grassroots promo does need to be done on Spears' behalf. Besides, in two years, I don't think it would be completely unrealistic to expect Brit to put out a song called "Nazi Ha Ha Wha." Real Audio from Ken's show: "Ha".

Give the Drum Instructor Some

For those who missed out, Jens Hanneman (aka comedian Fred Armisen), star of the new Complicated Drumming DVD, dropped some serious drum dept knowledge on Tom Scharpling during his visit to the Best Show a few weeks ago (take a listen - real audio).

Coincidentally, I happened upon an unintentionally hilarious cable access show recently, starring Jens Hanneman's worst nightmare, 'Famous Drummer' Jeff Indyke (videos and more on Jeff's site). Take a listen to Jeff's drum instruction (MP3), compare and contrast.