WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Performa 09 Fires Up in NYC This Month

From November 1st through 22nd Performa organization is clobbering this town with it's third series of events. Over 110 of them in fact, spread out over 80 venues, all blurring lines between art, dance, music, film, graphic design and even some culinary action, magic, and Polish Futurism. It's an impressive calendar. A few events are especially exciting amongst WFMU staffers, one of which is a two night stand at the Gramercy Theater November 20-21 curated by renowned artist Mike Kelley (whose grown-man-baby-at Burning Man odyssey I just caught at SculptureCenter in Long Island City was a brainmelt), titled A Fantastic World Superimposed on Reality: A Select History of Experimental Music. Here, some historic works will be presented from John Cage, Fluxus, Fred Frith, Max Neuhaus and Bruce Nauman, with other contemporary performances by in-house heavies z'ev, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Jad Fair & Lumberbob, Thurston Moore w/Ryan Sawyer, Christian Marclay w/Shelley Hirsch, John Zorn, Tony Conrad, Arto Lindsay, John Duncan, and more. It's also a rare opportunity for New York to witness Destroy All Monsters, and I'm especially stoked to see a healthy showing of assorted players from the legendary Los Angeles Free Music Society. Co-founding member Tom Recchion appears as Extended Organ and also locks horns with Rick Potts, Joe Potts, Dennis Duck, and Frederick Nilsen for a set with Airway, who were total seed-planters for Japan's 1980's noise scene development. In fact, I'll be recording the whole Airway contingent during a WFMU studio visit, which will air on my show in conjunction with a whole 3-hour LAFMS retrospective on December 1st from 3-6PM (and you can hear/grab MP3s of Airway's 1978 Live at Lace recordings on our Free Music Archive). Kurt Gottschalk also just hosted enduring composer/vocal artist Joan La Barbara, who will also be part of the Gramercy proceedings (you can grab that special now as a podcast).

As if that wasn't enough in the realm of sonic delights, Joan also helps celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Italian Futurism at what's sure to be a jawdropping event at Town Hall this Thursday, November 12: it's a full-on noisefest featuring performances on the accurate replicas of the intonarumori, noise instruments originally built in 1913 by Luigi Russolo and perhaps accurately described as very primitive predecessors to the analog synthesizer. Luciano Chessa will direct (and play) in an orchestra consisting of Blixa Bargeld, John Butcher, Joan La Barbara, Nick Hallett, Pauline Oliveros, Mike Patton, Anat Pick, Elliott Sharp, Ulrich Krieger, Jennifer Walshe with Tony Conrad, Ghostigital with Skuli Sverrison, Finboggi Petursson, and Casper Electronics. It'll be an opportunity to witness the first ever performance of a segment of Russolo’s “Risveglio di una città”, “La pioggia nel pineto antidannunziana,” (a newly-discovered 1916 Futurist piece for intonarumori), and “Words in Freedom” by Futurist playwright and poet Paolo Buzzi. Again, this all is just a sliver of what Performa has on tap for November in New York, so give the full schedule a gander.

Men With No IQ's: True Black Metal from Mississippi

Ever since Pete Larson at Bulb reissued an LP of the 1986 primitive recordings by Hattiesburg, Mississippi geniuses the Terrifying Sickos, I've been on a quest to find whatever I could from what must have been a bizzaro circle and scene around them. I got pretty excited when DJ Rick on KDVS aired a compilation tape on the Primordial Sid label that revealed more Mississippi basement confusion by the likes of the Wheezing Crapheads, Cellophane Squids, and a truly drunk, woozy, and inspired version of Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" by the Skoalkans (who are said to have opened for Corrosion of Conformity). I got even more excited when Primordial Sid himself found I had played the Sickos and then floated a pile of CDRs my way last year. Then, he recently wrote me to point out the existence of another hallowed combo of legend: the Men With No IQ's. They indeed exhuded the same awesomeness as the rest of the Sid scene, though from a more metal side of things. From their My Space page (which someone else has set up, and on which the bassist has promised more pix soon):

"When I was 15 I used to sneak in to a dive called W.C. Don's in Jackson, Miss to see the monthly hardcore shows that seemed to come around at that point. Inevitably, Men With No IQ's would be opening the show. They were three African American guys who looked about as out of place as anyone ever could. The bass player, Booger Man White and the drummer, Steve Harris (no relation to the bass player from Maiden) were so huge that they would literally dwarf their tiny pawn shop instruments. Sylvester was the hot shot of the band, and he had like 10 Peavey practice amps, all stacked up on one another. Sylvester would always play with his shirt off while the other two guys wore custom MNI shirts and baseball caps that were most likely made at one of those iron-on shops in the Jackson Mall. THEY WERE AWESOME. I regret to say that I didn't appreciate them nearly enough at the time but they would always SLAY."

The Men with No IQ's almost remind me of Teezar in terms of the DIY-metal 80's insanity factor (they were referred to by someone as the soundtrack of a Budweiser and meth binge), but the lines are divided on the reality of that band's existence. I know I for one am disappointed when people go through the trouble of making extensive discographies and biographies and recordings for fictional bands, and I refuse to believe any kind of naysaying on some of them, but needless to say I am salivating over the mention that more MwNIQ's tracks are hovering around out there.

The Men With No IQ's "Can't Resist It" (MP3)

The Men With No IQ's "Dreamin' " (MP3)

Helping Hand for Prince Rama of Ayodhya

We hosted a broadcast (and Free Music Archive MP3s) a while back here on WFMU, and found the Ramas to be three of the sweetest people who we've had the fortune to fill our hallways with music, so it was heartbreaking to hear from Taraka today that their tour had been cancelled due to all their gear and merch being swiped in Philadelphia this past week. I'm sure they'd appreciate all their fans and WFMU listeners to spread the word in getting some help their way so they can continue making their otherwordly sounds. Paypal link here, and more on this great trio here.

TV Ghost live on WFMU (MP3's)

Fresh from their appearance at WFMU Fest, Lafayette, Indiana's finest have a packed touring schedule and killer new release on In the Red Records, who might describe them best: "a band who ushers in a vile and squalid new disposition to ugly art punk and carves out a black hole of pestilence that will delight its sufferers to no end. If one can swim through the murky grime long enough to let one's frazzled senses adjust, it's clear how effectively TV Ghost incorporates the licentious nuances of the Cramps' earliest scuzz, no wave's cacophony, and Suicide's terrifying throb alongside cavernous bellows from the depths of the third layer of hell.": Dolan Hoeft, Jackson Vanhorn, Shawn Ghost, and Tim Gick dropped by Jersey City on October 9th and ripped a killer session on Brian Turner's show, engineered by Mark Triant (and thanks to Alex at the Free Music Archive for the edits).

ATP-NY 2009: Grouper (MP3)

(photo left: Abbey Braden) It was most rewarding to see that All Tomorrows Parties gave Portland OR's Grouper (AKA Liz Harris) the larger room for her September 12th set from Kutsher's resort in the Catskills; the glacial, elegant movements of her solo performances (armed only with guitar, voice, and FX) were befitting of a past-its-prime ballroom where the spectres of 1950's-1970's entertainment loomed large. That and the fact that a large room's acoustics were perfect for her; in front swirling projected images Harris projected murky, oceanic melodies, lumbering overtones and dreamlike drones, all a seemingly symphonic creation all at the hands of one person and a guitar. It sounded very controlled yet completely vague and very much non-digital sounding. Surrounded by this, you feel completely transported by these dense yet never-overpowering clouds of sound, always distant, but directly connected your cortex in a way I think even My Bloody Valentine could not quite accomplish with their live barrage last year. Comparisons to Arvo Part meets Throbbing Gristle are definitely accurate; there's an epicness about Grouper's music that never quite releases its sense of foreboding while at the same time aims to sooth the soul.

WFMU broadcast a good portion of the weekend from All Tomorrows Parties, and we're uploading new performances every day to this blog and the Free Music Archive's ATP collection. Grouper's set was recorded somewhat simply for broadcast by Jason Sigal, a basic mix and room mic is really all needed to capture this.

ATP-NY 2009: The Melvins (2 MP3's)

More sonic souvenirs from the Sept 11-13 All Tomorrows Parties from Kutshers resort in the Catskills, broadcast over WFMU. The Melvins. A lone blog post can't sum up all there is to say about these guys, except theirs is a world so universal that only these musicians could be the common thread between Lustmord and Gene Simmons (both of whom have made music with them). Simply calling the Melvins the godfathers of Northwest grunge shorts them on many accounts; their beauty, brutality, and enormous palette for experimentation and forward-thinking has never stalled out. It's no wonder they were a handful for Atlantic Records in the mid 90's, but thankfully their post-majors career sees the Melvins invigorated and making some of their awesomest sounds on stage and in studio. Their latest release "Chicken Switch" (Ipecac) finds them remixed by the likes of Merzbow, Eye, Sunroof, Christoph Heeman, Matmos and more. 

Their Saturday, October 12th set at stage 2 of ATP was the first chance I've had to check out the post-2006 lineup of the band, with 80's mainstays King Buzzo (guitar/vox) and Dale Crover (drums) actually merging their band with Big Business (Coady Willis on second drums, Jared Willis on bass). To say they slayed would be an understatement, and in all truth this is the only band that could have one of its members perform in a Snuggy and not lose one fraction of heaviness. We've got two approved MP3s from the set: "Zodiac" and "Kicking Machine" engineered during WFMU broadcast by Scott Konzelmann.

WFMU Fest in Brooklyn This Thursday, Friday, Saturday: Faust, Teenage Jesus, Pissed Jeans and More

WFMU curates and produces its own festival this week! Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, October 1-3, we take over the Music Hall of Williamsburg (66 N. 6th Street in Brooklyn) for an all-out live assault with a myriad of some of our favorite local and international acts. Krautrock godfathers, No Wave pioneers, post-Gristle industrial coldwave, French post-rock doom, and full-on ass-flattening punk rock explosions will abound!

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1st (doors 8PM, $20 advance or door)
Faust
Cold Cave
Aluk Todolo

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2nd (doors 8PM, $12 advance/$15 door)
Pissed Jeans
TV Ghost
VeeDee
Guinea Worms

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3rd (doors 8PM, $20 advance or door)
Teenage Jesus and the Jerks
Sightings
Drunkdriver
Talk Normal

More pics and info on the bands on an earlier post, and advance tickets are still available at the Music Hall of Williamsburg site, or Other Music (W. 4th and Lafayette Street in Manhattan). Words can't relate how happy WFMU is to be able to gather such a criminally great mass of live performers onboard for this. Our thanks to everyone who's bought advance tix so far, the bands, Henry Owings for the poster design and Chantelle Hylton-Simmons for helping us out as well. Great ready for a clobbering weekend of live music, and stop by the station's tables in the venue's lobby to say hello (and pick up some FMU wear or one of our limited-run WFMU Fest posters!) Once again, we are not broadcasting live, so get on out there to be part of this!

Melbourne Sharpies

Lobby Lloyde and the Coloured Balls play "G.O.D.", Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs on the bill (neither seen), 1974 in Melbourne. Killer.

Reminder: WFMU Broadcasting from ATP 2009 This Weekend

In case you missed the news, WFMU will broadcast and webstream from All Tomorrow's Parties at Kutshers this Saturday and Sunday evening (and possibly Monday afternoon, depending if we have some extra sets to air). Saturday's 5PM ET-Midnight lineup looks to include Panda Bear, Grouper, Black Dice, Antipop Consortium, Atlas Sound, and Akron/Family; Sunday's 6PM-Midnight airing will feature sets by Deerhunter, the Melvins, Animal Collective, Boss Hog, Deerhoof, and the Caribou Vibration Ensemble. Stay tuned to the station's home page, Facebook and Twitter for live updates and possible changes and additions during the weekend.

From previous post on BotB:
Once again, WFMU makes camp at Kutsher's resort in the heart of the Borscht Belt, as we hook up with the All Tomorrow's Parties festival and broadcast live! The three-day long event in Monticello NY runs from September 11-13th and if you caught last year's simulcast from the My Bloody Valentine-curated fest you know that having WFMU is the next best thing to being there (though while we carried a myriad of live sets, we may have fallen short in relaying the experience of having one's nails done in the Kutsher's spa). This year's lineup is co-curated by the Flaming Lips, and WFMU's simulcasts will happen Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 12 and 13. We're still working out assorted artist permissions (stay tuned to the blog and our home page, and once again we'll alert everyone as to which sets may be downloadable later on), but the performance roster this time out includes Suicide, the Feelies (each performing their first albums) Jesus Lizard, Animal Collective, Boris, Boss Hog, the Melvins, Deerhunter, No Age (w/Bob Mould performing Husker Du songs with them) Boredoms, Deerhoof, Grouper, Oneida, Caribou Variation Ensemble, Anti-Pop Consortium and more. We'll have interviews, full sets, probably some remotes from the lake's rowboats, and WFMU will be heading up a DJ night in the Kutshers lounge on Sunday (UPDATE: FRIDAY) night at midnight! More info on how to attend ATP here (rooms at the resort we are told are now sold out however). Hope to see some WFMU listeners there!

WFMU Fest at Music Hall of Williamsburg October 1-3: Faust, Pissed Jeans, Teenage Jesus and more

(poster design via Henry Owings) Breaking news: for three nights October 1st, 2nd, and 3rd WFMU Fest takes over the Music Hall of Williamsburg for our very first ever big-scale multi-day curated concert event. Hot damn. Check out this lineup: Thursday October 1st: Krautrock pioneers Faust, with Cold Cave and Aluk Todolo opening! Friday, October 2nd: a home run punk fest featuring Pissed Jeans, TV Ghost, Vee Dee, and Guinea Worms! Saturday the 3rd features the return of No Wave legends Teenage Jesus and the Jerks plus a triple attack setup of NYC noisemongers Sightings, Drunkdriver, and Talk Normal. Tickets will be available in advance via the Music Hall of Williamsburg's site starting September 3rd. We will not be broadcasting, so you better get on out and not miss this, it's gonna melt brains! More info on the bands after the jump:

Crash Course In Science

One of apparently four appearances on the legendary Uncle Floyd show. Via Tumblebugmechanism's You Tube page.

WFMU Broadcasting from All Tomorrow's Parties 2009

Once again, WFMU makes camp at Kutsher's resort in the heart of the Borscht Belt, as we hook up with the All Tomorrow's Parties festival and broadcast live! The three-day long event in Monticello NY runs from September 11-13th and if you caught last year's simulcast from the My Bloody Valentine-curated fest you know that having WFMU is the next best thing to being there (though while we carried a myriad of live sets, we may have fallen short in relaying the experience of having one's nails done in the Kutsher's spa). This year's lineup is co-curated by the Flaming Lips, and WFMU's simulcasts will happen Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 12 and 13. We're still working out assorted artist permissions (stay tuned to the blog and our home page, and once again we'll alert everyone as to which sets may be downloadable later on), but the performance roster this time out includes Suicide, the Feelies (each performing their first albums) Jesus Lizard, Animal Collective, Boris, Boss Hog, the Melvins, Deerhunter, No Age (w/Bob Mould performing Husker Du songs with them) Boredoms, Deerhoof, Grouper, Oneida, Caribou Variation Ensemble, Anti-Pop Consortium and more. We'll have interviews, full sets, probably some remotes from the lake's rowboats, and WFMU will be heading up a DJ night in the Kutschers lounge on Sunday night! More info on how to attend ATP here (rooms at the resort we are told are now sold out however). Hope to see some WFMU listeners there!

Photo recap from ATP 2008 on Beware of the Blog

Assorted live MP3 from ATP 2008 available for download at the Free Music Archive (including EPMD, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Low, Growing, Harmonia, Lightning Bolt)

101 Cassette Labels

Comprehensive overview by Ceci Moss (host of EVR's excellent Radio Heart show) of the modern-day DIY-cassette scene, via Rhizome.

Graveyards Live at WFMU (MP3's)

Grab a slab of the heavy sound of Free Michigan: Ben Hall, Chris Riggs, and Wolf Eyes' John Olson rassle like Anthony Braxton, Z'ev, AMM and the Taj Mahal Travellers in a tarpit, with dark billowing clouds of electric guitar, bowed metal, echo-drenched sax, electronics and more. On an east coast tour Graveyards stopped by my show on WFMU to perform three solo sets and one full-on meeting, and it was a fine example of improvised music in idiom tag-free, pure organic punk form, inherently psychedelic to the max. Each player emphasized workout of the room's unique acoustics (relying on organic/acoustic elements themselves even in Olson's and Riggs' case where actually electricity was implemented); with Hall's solo percussion set, you can hear the acoustic feedback being created by assorted rubbings being controlled and making its way from one mic to the other and around your brain as well. At times it even felt like what you could expect a Nurse With Wound "unplugged" gig to resemble. Some spontaneous, otherwordly, and excellent sounds for an afternoon (and the guys found some time to hit the Jersey shore beach on the way to that night's gig in Philly to boot). Thanks to engineer Jason Sigal, grab the downloads and plop some 'phones on.

Graveyards - Live on Brian Turner's show 8/11/09
John Olson: sax/electronics solo set (MP3)
Chris Riggs: prepared electric guitar/percussion solo set (MP3)
Ben Hall: percussion/tympany/metal solo set (MP3)
Graveyards: full trio set (MP3)

Charlie, Help

From StSandersMisc via Andee Connors.

CATcerto

Via Nondor Nevai.

Circle of Ouroborus

What is it about Finnish musicians utilizing the word Circle in the title, and making confusing, genre-challenged records? Formed in 2004, Circle of Ouroborus has been centered around Antti Klemi and has issued five full length albums, demos, a best-of comp and a split release with like-minded metal wallflowers Nuit Noire. The latest, Tree of Knowledge (Hospital Productions) might be my fave, a completely twisted, somewhat new-wave-soaked take on depressive black metal created by someone man enough to bring weepy angst/goth tendencies and more into an already bleak-vibed genre. That of course is nothing novel, but the approach to sound that CoO takes is full of almost everything that shouldn't work together, yet creating something completely new. By example of new, well, imagine someone who sounds like mid-80's Wire or Kitchens of Distinction being channelled via a lo-fi Fall-worshipping Ohio band studying their black metal chops, fronted by Peter Hammill desperately trying to get out of an airless closet. CoO has even covered Joy Division's "She's Lost Control" on a previous LP and both punked it up and hurled it a bit into a void further, believe it or not. And just when you think that you've figured out the architecture of all this weird sound and production, you get a bareboned solo acoustic guitar/vocal track that's just as fucked up. Sounds pretty good to me!

Circle of Ouroborus "A Root Casket" (MP3)
Circle of Ouroborus "Dead Eyes, Dead Soul" (MP3)

Textile Orchestra

The new disc For the Boss (Beta-Lactam Ring Records) from the Textile Orchestra is almost a musical equivalent of Katamari: the ball starts rolling, picking up chunks of random textures, sounds, stumbling around an arena of collected percussion, mangled musique concrète, turntables, squawks, David Attenborough blurts, who knows what else, and finally turns into a complete shitstorm monster of thinly-spliced chaos hitting the windshield like a million metallic bugs. This lengthy MP3 was recorded in Paris in 2004 and features Alexandre Bellenger (turntables), Arnaud Rivière (mixing board/electrophone), Dan Warburton (violin) and Aaron Moore (drums/percussion). Moore is also of legendary soundshapers Volcano the Bear, and appears as a guest on Daniel Blumin's WFMU program this Sunday night at midnight. Thanks to Aaron and Chris from BLR.

Textile Orchestra "The Beginning of the End" (MP3)

So, I Guess Attack Attack Are the New Sex Pistols

Forwarded via Nick Sakes.

3puen: "Secret Hot Dog Party"

3puen (pronounced "Pyoon"), a DIY-electronic pop combo, might be the closest thing NYC's had to Sparks for the last seven years or so, plumbing pipes no less Warholian, though excelling with focus on personal psychodramas, sometimes tied in to food or movies/television (things the band knows exceptionally well). However, unlike Sparks, there are no brothers, and 3puen only sold their CD's in a deli on 2nd Avenue in the East Village. They started out on an acid trip, played live and did some Fad Gadget covers, developed a repertoire of originals and performed once on Michael Goodstein's Choking on Cufflinks. "Secret Hot Dog Party" is part of a three-song "Self Hatred Suite" from a few years back, this video is brand new. One of the composers resides in Austin these days and is getting back on the wagon making music. While WFMU never really played this tune on air for FCC reasons, their tune "Sugar Cookie" continues to be somewhat of a hit staple among the staffers. Fun stuff.