WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Baltimore: "The Greatest City in America" (mp3s)

It's a city with 1000 slogans, but no defining song. Baltimore's bred and acted as a magnet for untraditional instrument builders, Wham City's Fort-Thunder-inspired transplants, and the Baltimore Club stylings of DJ Technics, Rod Lee and many more, as heard on television's The Wire.

What follows is an audio sampling of some of the many Baltimore artists who will be making their music available for free non-commercial use on WFMU's Free Music Archive. Afternoon Penis, The Agrarians, Arc and Sender, Dan Deacon, Double Dagger, Food for Animals, Fuzz Unlimited, Human Host, Lexie Mountain Boys, LO MOdA / Low Moda, Nautical Almanac, Newagehillbilly, Ponytail, Sejayno, Teeth Mountain, Jason Willett, and WZT Hearts. There are many more who we're hoping to get in touch with, and we welcome your ideas by email or comment.

Ben Franklin Airbath: Philadelphia FMA sampler (mp3s)

Philadelphia's got a lot to be proud of. According to Philly Boy Roy, well there's hoagies, Rocky, Frank's Soda, them Eagles, Dead Milkmen, them Hooters, and laser GG Allin. With Mr. Ziegler's endorsements duly noted, what follows is a sampling - by no means comprehensive - of some of the other Philadelphia artists you'll be able to hear on WFMU's Free Music Archive.

Mp3s from Bad News Bats, Boogie Witch, Clockcleaner, Fursaxa, King Kong Ding Dong, Mincemeat or Tenspeed, Mountain High, The Original Sins, Phil Moore Browne, Sonic Liberation Front, The Strapping Fieldhands and Kurt Vile after the jump. Feel free to suggest more by email or in the comments.

Hello from Columbus, Ohio (mp3s)

The great state of Ohio has raised legends. Cleveland's known for hall-of-famers Pere Ubu and the Electric Eels. Dayton nurtured Kim Deal and Bob Pollard. And from its well-situated spot in between those two cities, the state capital of Columbus is starting to have some sort of cohesive musical identity thrust upon it. What with NME and MTV creaming on Times New Viking and Psychedelic Horseshit. Not to say it's undeserved - I think their excellent live sets in the WFMU studios (TNV) (PHS) are testament enough.

What follows is a sampling - by no means comprehensive - of some of the other Columbus musicians you'll be able to hear on WFMU's Free Music Archive. MP3's from The Guinea Worms, Necropolis, Tommy Jay's Tall Tales of Trauma, Mike Rep & the Quotas, Mors Ontologica, The Lindsay*, El Jesus de Magico, Ryan Jewell, and Sword Heaven after the jump. Feel free to suggest more in the comments.

Pierced Arrows, back from the dead Dead Moon (mp3s)

Dead Moon called it quits a little over a year ago, after two decades spent churning out raw garage punk from the wooded plains of Clackamas, Oregon. Not that anybody expected Fred and Toody Cole to stay quiet for long. They've returned, louder than ever, under the name Pierced Arrows. Rounding out the new group is drummer Kelly Halliburton, whose father played in Albatross, one of Fred's pre-Dead Moon projects.

Pierced Arrows' fierce, battle-scarred anthems more than live up to the Dead Moon legacy. Fred gave us permission to post a few previews, which you are hereby encouraged to test drive:

Pierced Arrows - Guns of Thunder (mp3)
Pierced Arrows - Caroline (mp3)
Pierced Arrows - In My Brain (mp3)
Pierced Arrows - Shades (mp3)
Pierced Arrows - The Wait (mp3)

We've been spinning the excellent In My Brain b/w Caroline 7'' for a few months. Now there's a full-length CD, titled Straight From the Heart, which will also be out on LP with unique artwork (pictured above). Everything's available from the group's label Tombstone Records, and Pierced Arrows will be touring Europe through May.

For some classic Dead Moon, check out this classic live performance from the 9/27/01 episode of Three Chord Monte with Joe Belock:

Dead Moon - live on WFMU, engineered by Diane Kamikaze 09/23/2001:
Down the Road (mp3)
40 Miles of Bad Road (mp3)
Johnny's Got a Gun (mp3)
Spectacle (mp3)
Sabotage (mp3)
These Times With You (mp3)
Dead Moon Night (mp3)

The recordings in this post are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License