WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Revisionism Revisited (MP3s)

With the task of assembling a weekly radio show no longer a regular part of my life, my relationship with music has definitely shifted in some unexpected ways. I've been (happily) languishing in temporary-retirement mode from the WFMU airwaves since last summer, so instead of the constant off-air worries regarding which of a record's tracks could be used in a particular set of songs for the radio, I'm back to listening to albums in their entirety and digesting them as more singular works. Since signing off from my weekly airslot, I've enjoyed being able to listen more carefully through the zillions of sub- and counter- cultural artifacts I've acquired over the last twenty five years of adult life. I suspected there would be a lot of tracks I'd missed the first time around, and my suspicions seem to have been validated by the many great sounds I've blundered into lately. Most of them have been splendid reminders of why I ever sought reward in the realms of music and art in the first place, so for the purposes of supporting this rather ambitious claim, I'm including several MP3s at the end of this post.

First of all, I should warn everyone reading that I might have the crappiest record collection of any WFMU DJ in recent memory. And by "crappy", what I really mean is "most devoid of things that are very rare or cost me a lot of money." Perhaps shockingly, this is due more to my constant discarding of things I haven't listened to in a while than it is my arguably pedestrian musical tastes. As anyone who lives in a city will tell you, finding affordable apartments with enough room for an ample music collection isn't easy, and won't earn you any sympathy down at the Realtor's office or in the hinterlands of Craigslist. In my case, this ongoing dilemma resulted in the first of several materialist freakouts of my 30s in which I skimmed through thousands of records and applied the following criteria:

If-I-haven't-listened-to-it-or-played-it-on-the-radio-in-two-years-I'm-getting-rid-of-it.

Granted, this practice had been primed much earlier in my life. As a kid, I would routinely save money for new records, bring them home and tape them, and then return to the record store the next day to trade them in for still more new records. This was fairly common practice for people of my generation, and plenty of us still have boxes of rapidly decomposing cassettes in our closets right now to prove it. So before you get all bent out of shape and critical, let me assure you that I've regretted ever falling into this practice since my highly-coveted 7 Seconds / Prong cassette got eaten by the tape deck in my '81 VW Rabbit many years ago. Suffice it to say, malfunctioning equipment isn't the sole culprit in my long road towards a music collection that's almost completely devoid of nuance. Plenty of other good records that I did keep original copies of were lost along the way simply out of lapses in judgment, passing indifference, or during periods of financial duress. (The one and only time I resorted to selling records on eBay was to finance the purchase of a Hugo Boss suit for my wedding, and I would like to publicly thank Johnny Thunders, the 13th Floor Elevators, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and the many other diamonds in the rough that I hawked on that particular occasion. I haven't looked back once, and the suit has repeatedly come in handy in ways that I'm pretty sure the first Pop Group LP never would have.)

Black Flag Hair: A Timeline

Link via Her Jazz and Photobucket. Listen to Black Flag's "Annihilate This Week" [Real Audio]

 

The Very Short Post Which Concerns Barack Obama, Motörhead, Battlestar Galactica, and to a Lesser Extent, the City of Philadelphia

Riding on SEPTA yesterday, an idea for a new Barack Obama campaign song came soaring through my iPod: Motörhead's "Bomber", the chorus of which sounds crazily like "Obama!" (Thanks to Lemmy's unique British snarl.) I was just outside of Philadelphia, and the lyrical absurdity of this notion inspired me to listen to the song three more times before getting off at the Market East station.

[Listen]

Short of singing Saxon's "Denim & Leather" to a bunch of unemployed steel workers, I don't see any way that Hillary could possibly counter that. In fact, she'd be eating dust for eons.

Granted, it also kind of sounds like he's yelling "Adama!", which is another word that I fully endorse the random shouting of. Where are my Edward James Olmos MP3s?

Boat.

Kelley Stoltz got me Yelled at in the Supermarket

Because I got caught doing what might (very) generously be described as "dancing" in the frozen food aisle when this song came on my iPod last night.

All the more reason for you SXSW attendees to check out the big WFMU showcase this Friday, at which Mr. Stoltz will perform along with a list of luminaries that reads like an exemplary playlist all its own.

More info here.

UPDATE: Through some bizarre (or not) coincidence, the video for this song is a "Featured Pick" on YouTube today. Click here to watch it, and be sure to check out all the hilariously retarded remarks from the YT comment/lurker chowderheads.

Enablers | the Whitney Biennial | Neighborhood Public Radio

Last night I fulfilled one of my top seven life goals... which was to see a crazy rock band play in an abandoned storefront on Madison Avenue. OK, that's not really in the top seven, but seeing San Francisco's mighty Enablers perform an impromptu set sponsored by Neighborhood Public Radio and in conjunction with the Whitney Biennial was definitely one of the best and most unusual live events of recent memory.

Neighborhood Public Radio, or "NPR" as they rather hilariously refer to themselves, is an ongoing broadcast art project with roots in everybody's favorite left coast looney town of San Francisco. According to their website, NPR is "an independent, artist-run radio project committed to providing an alternative media platform for artists, activists, musicians, and community members". Since 2005, the folks turning the wheels behind the project have hosted thematic Web and Low Power FM broadcasts in numerous San Francisco art galleries, as well as at Chicago's Version 5 Festival, San Jose's Zero1 Fest, and at numerous points across Europe. NPR also boasts the curious honor of probably being the only entity to ever be featured in the Chicago Reader, Artforum, and Punk Planet. Talk about a trifecta of distinction.

Through some glorious twist of fate, NPR was invited to participate in the Whitney Biennial, which everyone ought to know is among the most widely anticipated and discussed exhibitions of new American art. The Biennial just opened a few days ago, and according to NPR's press release (which you can download here), their plan is to "install a broadcast point inside the Whitney museum, as well as transmit programming from another publicly accessible location in New York." (In this case, at the above referenced storefront at 941 Madison Avenue.) "It will also install remote studios in cities across the U.S., each sending live community radio programs to the New York hub". (Upon first tuning in yesterday afternoon, I was treated to a hypnotic solo recitation of the lyrics to "Goodbye to Love" which I later learned was originating live from one such "remote studio" in Chicago. I was able to capture part of the stream on my computer, and you can download the MP3 of it here).

Arriving shortly before 8 PM, I quickly said my hellos to my pals the Enablers, and after the most perfunctory soundcheck in history, (Soundman: "Play one loud note". Band: "BLHAAMMKKKTT!" Soundman: "OK, we're ready") the band proceeded to blow the doors off the small space crowded mostly by friends and onlookers who'd spilled over from the museum just a few doors down. If you've not heard the Enablers' music via their two brilliant albums on Neurot Records, I can say that their swarming musical tension definitely invokes a luridly appealing noir sensibility. The cinematic desperation of 4 AM phone calls and anxiously huffed cigarettes is vividly summoned through vocalist Pete Simonelli's disquieting poetry, as this MP3 of Enablers performing the song "And Last Night?" live on my show in 2005 demonstrates. [Download]

If you're looking to see a band at the top of their game this rainy weekend in NYC, do yourself the service of seeing Enablers tonight (Saturday) at the Luna Lounge in Brooklyn, or tomorrow (Sunday) at the Knitting Factory tap room. Be sure to pick up one of the tour-only 12"s they'll be hawking at the shows, which feature beautiful hand-silkscreened sleeves, and wish them well on their upcoming European tour.

The Awakening

The Awakening is a huge, multi-part sculpture that was installed in Washington DC's East Potomac Park by artist J. Seward Johnson in 1980. No doubt, it was one of the most ambitious works featured in that years' International Sculpture Conference Exhibition. Observed from a modest distance, it creates the visual impression of a partially buried giant, struggling to free itself from the Earth. I took this photo (left) of the giant's face during a 1993 roadtrip to our nation's capital and have had it stuck to my refrigerator with a magnet for many of the ensuing years.

You need to see the piece's other components in order to get the proper perspective, but since all of my other pictures taken on that day include me with the dreaded "90s hair", other people's shots on Flickr will have to suffice. And there are a lot to choose from. The Awakening's entry on Wikipedia has more info, including the amusing fact that the sculpture "proved so popular... that 27 years after the event, it still remains, even though the National Park Service admits that the "temporary permit" has long since expired".

Sadly, it seems that the work's long and glorious run at Hains Point is coming to a close: The Park Service recently announced that the immense statue is being relocated to Prince George's County (Maryland), beginning tomorrow, February 20th. No word on whether or not there will be a candlelight vigil this evening, but if you happen to be in DC today, be sure to seize upon your last chance to see this truly arresting work as the artist intended.

Record Store Day, April 19th 2008

From the organizer's website:

On Saturday, April 19, 2008, hundreds of independently owned music stores across the country will celebrate Record Store Day. On this day, all of these stores will simultaneously link and act as one with the purpose of celebrating the culture and unique place that they occupy both in their local communities and nationally.

No real word on what stores are involved yet, and I can't even begin to imagine what said involvement would entail, but I'm glad there's finally something that Henry Rollins, Sam Phillips, that dude from Dream Theater, Patton Oswalt, Del the Funky Homosapien, Charlie Louvin, and G-Love (no word from Special Sauce yet) can agree upon. [Via]

Hot Rails to Harrison -- A PATH Train Primer for 2008

I expect a heated discussion on this, seeing as how anyone who lives in New York City, urban North Jersey, or who is affiliated with WFMU will have an opinion on the topic at hand. For those of you who reside on faraway shores, "PATH" is short for Port Authority Trans-Hudson, and is a highly-trafficked means of rail transport between Manhattan and some of New Jersey's primary population centers. (Newark, Hoboken, and WFMU's home in Jersey City). Basically, it's like a cheaper, slower subway that smells like urine, coffee, and heat all at the same time. There's a lot of negative mythology associated with the PATH system, mostly promulgated by Brooklyn transplants who somehow think their accursed L and F trains are better than the PATH. (I have met others who actually think that the PATH is just that -- an underground dirt path that connects New York with suburban Jersey. Others claim that it is actually a long stagecoach, pulled by a mule who is chasing a carrot tied to a stick and dangled in front of its face. All lies, I tell you.)

The fact is that the PATH is pretty much a way of life for everyone at WFMU from DJs to office staffers to volunteers. I find myself defending it frequently to the misinformed haters who spread ridiculous falsehoods such as "the turnstiles only take dollar bills" (they take your Metrocard, dummy), "it stops running after 11 PM" (it runs all night -- on a schedule, I might add), or "that guy Teddy always hassles me" (he isn't hassling you, he just wants to collect money to supply the local homeless shelter with juice, milk, and bread.) When riding the PATH train, I always recommend that you sit in the frontmost car, as close to the window as possible, and looking straight ahead. Careening through the old tunnels and observing the architecture necessary to bore a passage underneath a river is pretty amazing, and it feels like a demented version of one of those Disneyworld rides where animatronic pirates or dead presidents light the way ahead.

For those of you not fortunate enough to regularly participate in this modern marvel of urban transportation, here is a rough breakdown of all thirteen PATH stations and what you might expect to find at each of them.

Mike Lupica's Randomly Ranked Favorites of 2007

Top Ten 90s Singles of 2007:
("Listen" links will open streaming MP3s from the Anti-Static archives.)

1. Beak - Airplane [Listen]
Blowing up in the face of the San Francisco pop punk expulsion came Beak, who served up a throbbing cocktail of Flipper-like noise on this Insignificant Records single. (And then again later, on their impossible to find "Autoselfreplicationalism" full-length.) Blarin' sax, wailin' vox, and a would-be Muppet behind the drumkit -- you tell me what's not to love.

2. A Bullet for Fidel - The Last Day of Fall [Listen]
The curiously named A Bullet for Fidel is actually one guy -- Brian DiPlacido -- who recorded a handful of records for the Scat label throughout the 90s. Although I never saw him perform and have no solid memory of buying them, I somehow managed to acquire all of his releases and they only really connected with me quite recently. Some truly threadbare sounds here, but they carry an autumnal starkness that's brilliantly affecting.

3. Sun City Girls - Eye Mohini [Listen]
A nice prelude to the interstellar pop of their "Torch of the Mystics" LP, the "Three Fake Female Orgasms" double single from which this track comes was one my most oft turned-to audio irritants at the dawn of my radio career. (To say nothing of the eyebrow-raising enjoyment afforded by saying the words "Three Fake Female Orgasms" on the radio.)

4. Leslie - Via Dolorosa [Listen]
The absolute pinnacle of Washington DC post-hardcore. These ex-members of Jawbox, Swiz, and Edsel came out of nowhere with this mysterious 45 on Jade Tree Records, and were promptly never heard from again. The modern noir sensibility of "Via Dolorosa" really makes me hope that George Pelecanos has heard this record.

5. Big Nurse - Hey Hey [Listen]
My days of drunkenly arguing over the best-ever NJ punk single are gone forever, but that probably says more about the sissy company I keep these days than it does the quality of local noise being made. These shore-core darlings forever endeared themselves to me with this pick-axe-through-your-spinal-column number, as brought to you by the appropriately named Heat Blast label.

This One Goes Out to Edwin Armstrong and The Regenerative Circuits

Happy Birthday to our hero. Edwin Howard Armstrong, father of FM radio, was born 117 years ago today.

In a perfect world, he would have been wealthy, happily married, and more immediately recognized by the average human, but sadly, history didn't shake out that way.

Edwin Howard Armstrong's story is one that I first learned as a media studies undergrad who was captivated by Ken Burns' brilliant "Empire of the Air" radio documentary. "Empire..." tells the story of three radio innovators (Armstrong, Lee De Forest, and David Sarnoff) who saw tremendous potential in the wireless medium, and who nearly forced each other into ruin (and in one case, an early grave) through an endless series of backstabbings and legal squabbles.

I've since watched "Empire..." countless times and can recite lines from it the same way other people summon up zingers from Monty Python or Airplane, but I will always remember that first viewing during my freshman year of school. I was already a serious radio junkie by then and had been doing a weekly show on WPRB for several years. Armstrong's tale seemed to come frontloaded with the same feelings you get when discovering someone else who shares all of your identical passions and interests. How could I have thought I cared about radio before knowing Armstrong? And how the hell could my classmates sleep through the same story that had me sitting bolt upright in my chair, my pulse hammering audibly inside my skull? Sitting in that auditorium was one of the few times in my life that I knew I was in the right place, and I've spent the ensuing years trying to validate that sensation.

Armstrong's story is told elegantly by Burns' documentary, and I wouldn't dream of trying to paraphrase a career of such honor, nuance, and ultimate tragedy here. But it's worth stating that there are only two things in this world that are guaranteed to make me weep like a little schoolgirl, and one of them is the story of Edwin Howard Armstrong. (The other one, as I've recently discovered, is anything having to do with elephants, but never mind about that right now.)

Sadly, I don't have any Armstrong-related audio or video handy, but you can (and should) get "Empire of the Air" on Netflix. There's also more information about him here, here, and here. And one of these days, I'm going to make good on my promise to go visit Armstrong Tower in Alpine, New Jersey. Perhaps it's undue flattery, but I like to think that if Edwin were alive today, he'd still be living in Jersey and would perhaps be an FMU fan.

Bronwyn C and Kenny G crash Brooklyn book store

Here's a shot from Bronwyn C's remote broadcast of Killing Time, as heard and witnessed last Friday at the Community Bookstore in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

The evening consisted of various contributors to "The Best of LCD: The Art and Writing of WFMU" (edited by Dave the Spazz) reading their published works in the singularly intimate setting that's unique to indie bookstores. Bonus points are distributed to the Community Bookstore for the addition of a live-in cat, turtle, and iguana -- all of which were curiously described as "strays".

Pictured here are Bronwyn and WFMU's own Kenny G
(who as Spazz astutely pointed out midway through the broadcast, looked as if he'd just "mugged a couch".)

You can listen to the show right now [Streaming Real Audio] | [Streaming MP3] and hear readings from "The Kenny G letters" -- heartfelt notes that Kenny receives from smooth-jazz lovers who think they've tracked down his curly-haired namesake -- as well as spoken wordage from Spazz, Sluggo, Ellery Eskelin, and more.

Immediately following the reading, great quantities of beer were produced, and strangely enough, no one remembers how we all got back to New Jersey. The Community Bookstore is located at 143 7th Ave. in Park Slope, Brooklyn. That happens to be within spitting distance of this place and also this place, both of which come highly recommended from myself, Scott Williams, and most other people who love any combination of drinking alcohol and witnessing live music.

Tunes on Toxic Terrain

I was just up on WFMU's roof. Don't ask what I was doing up there, just check out this cellphone-snapped picture of the toxic Jersey City sunset.

OK, so I messed with the contrast. A little.

Related listening:
Sigh - A Sunset Song [MP3]
though if you're from around here, you'd probably thinking more along the lines of
Lynyrd Skynyrd - That Smell [Real Audio]

Motor City vs. White Dudes in Sweaters

If there was any doubt or confusion in your head that the end of the year is approaching, the oft-maligned "best of..." lists are starting to sprout like daisies all over the internet. God knows that much of the WFMU staff will be hitting you with their own versions soon enough. Consider yourselves warned.

Two rather ambitious lists were recently brought to my attention: Detroit's Metro Times alt-weekly offered up the "100 Greatest Detroit Songs Ever" and Blender.com compiled the more worrisome "100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever".

I'm always suspicious of these kinds of lists because I can't help imagining that numbers 5 through 100 are assigned completely at random, and then the top picks get argued over just before presstime. In the interest of fairness, it should be stated that I'm not from Detroit and I'm only peripherally interested in most of what gets called "indie rock". But I'm compelled to add that I was more inspired by the Metro Times' irreverence, shameless genre-hopping, and up-front admission that there was no science to their methodology. That's the kind of "best of..." list that I can get behind! The indie rock list mostly reinforced my fervent wish that people my age would knock it off with the ceaseless Pixies worship. Although they didn't take Blender's top position, the general vibe of their countdown is one I associate with people who regard the Pixies as my generation's Led Zeppelin. ("Pixies revisionists", a friend recently called them.) Lots of great bands, but when all grouped together as a "canon", not as much fun to think about. And really, if I thought it would make the slightest bit of difference, I would climb up to the roof right now with a megaphone and yell the following: [MP3]

Some Thanksgiving Thoughts from Joe Frank

Thanksgiving is by far my least favorite holiday. The weather is always crappy, the subways and trains necessary for me to get to my family are packed to the gills with horrible people, and the food is wildly overrated. (Liz Berg and I agree: We'd take authentic Mexican with homemade mole sauce over turkey and stuffing in a heartbeat). Yep, there's nothing quite like honoring the first "settlers" of our great nation like waking up at the crack of dawn to put yourself through all of the above horrors, and then have to do it again on the way home that night, only now you're semi-drunk, full of food you didn't want to eat in the first place, and still mulling over the stupid argument you had with your father about the Iraq war. Oh yeah, and if you're like me, you have to get up for work the next morning. This New Yorker cover by Chris Ware (left) sums up the malaise pretty efficiently, I think.

Call me a crank (everyone else does), but I know I'm not alone when I say that Thanksgiving celebrations need a radical re-thinking. The holiday's problems can be approached from many directions -- the boring food, the travel headaches, the dubious history of the pilgrims, the fact that zillions of Americans use it as an excuse to pay lip-service to "the less fortunate" (but don't actually do anything to assist them), and dare we all forget that it gives the green light for every crappy radio station to start dropping Christmas music into rotation. Sorry Thanksgiving lovers, but there's really no argument to be had here; I've already carried out an extended internal dialog with myself and figured this all out while you were daydreaming about giblet gravy. What we need now is for someone more adept than I to put it all into real perspective. Someone with a knack for a gripping narrative. Someone with vocal timbre so arresting so as to freeze you in your tracks. And most important of all, someone for whom atmospheric trip-hop background music isn't so much a hobby as it is a lifestyle. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Joe Frank and an excerpt from his incredible Thanksgiving treatise entitled "Pilgrim".

Streaming MP3 [Listen]
Streaming Real Audio [Listen]

More on Joe Frank here.

Happy Birthday Idris Muhammad

Jazz drumming legend Idris Muhammad turns 68 years old today. Give the drummer some, indeed.

Listen (Real Audio): Say What? | Tastycakes

AllMusic | Wiki | Idris Muhammad on WFMU

I accept no responsibility for any ridiculous dance moves attempted while listening to the above tracks. Consider yourselves warned.

Record Fair Wrap Up

All of us at woof-moo would like to share some public thanks to the 4000+ attendees of this past weekend's Record Fair. We've been tracking a mountain of positive feedback from writers and photographers who've been sharing their related tales on blogs, on Flickr, or wherever else their logins may lead them. In particular, Idolator is featuring some video/interviews with happy shoppers and dealers which you can view here, and WFMU's own Maria Levitsky has assembled a fantastic gallery of mercilessly tweaked album covers from our LP modification station.You can see all of the Flickr images tagged with "WFMU Record Fair" by clicking here.

Volunteer Therese has also just alerted me to this. Thank the god of your choice for the internet.

And dare we leave out this blast from the Fair's past: New York Noise's "Antique Rockshow".

We'll be back at ya next Fall for another weekend of vinyl scouring and victory dancing. Once the date is secured, we'll update this page with all the relevant details.

Cutty Ranks Bring da Riddim!

Cutty Ranks in 1986. Thanks to YouTube user Fgeiges. More on Cutty here.

WFMU 2007 Record Fair--November 2nd, 3rd, 4th!

New York City is just about the worst town in the world for buying used records. I know that my own music-acquisition jones took a steep nosedive when I moved here, not because there was a shortage of record stores, but because the rents in this town don't really free up much in the way of disposable income. My desire for Jah Wobble EPs, the Sun City Girls' "Three Fake Female Orgasms" single, and the first Pink Holes LP remain locally unanswered because as with used record hunting in most cities, too many people here are also looking for stuff like that. In order to have a successful day of record shopping here, you either have to have really pedestrian musical taste ("Nitzer Ebb CD for a dollar!!? Score!!") or limit yourself to only buying new releases.

I figured out that I was a musical cheapskate a long time ago. And no, I don't lurk on Soulseek or any other P2P networks, wasting precious bandwidth by pulling down thousands of MP3s. Like a lot of other people, I find no reward in an overstuffed hard drive with no memories of the hunt to match it. But on the other hand, if you present me with rows upon rows of used LPs or cheap CDs to plow into, you'll be sorry you ever asked me to marry you. As such, I now save the lion's share of my used record hunting for weekend retreats to remote college towns which almost universally have one good record store and one good bar at which to drink away whatever cash is left after unloading your wallet on the first three Nikki Sudden solo records. While putting away the booze, it's good to pour some on the curb for the knowledge that there's no way you'd ever have such good musical fortune in NYC. The amount it costs to fatten the record collection in Princeton or New Paltz won't pay for much more than crappy East Village sushi and a sleeveless promo copy of the new Aesop Rock album back home. Yep, where matters of record collecting are concerned, I say to hell with New York City and the whore she rode in on.

But next weekend, November 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, all of that will change...

Video Four-Pack V.7 (Die Kreuzen, Flirtations, Steven Jesse Bernstein, Dälek)

Clockwise, from top left:

1. Die Kreuzen performs the song "Stomp" from their 1988 album "Century Days". As a high school kid of the same era, I was definitely drawn to this band for their complex sound and their cool sounding name (not pronounced, as I quickly learned, "Die Cruisin'", but "Dee Kroytzin" which I believe means "The Cross", or "The Crossing", or something like that). Along with bands like Husker Du and Articles of Faith, Die Kreuzen played a big hand in kickstarting the early 80s midwest hardcore explosion. Their first album, still available on CD from the great Touch n' Go label, is definitely one of the most psychotic period pieces for fans of the fast n' loud theory. Subsequent releases flirted with slower and more metallic styles, but this track still blows minds even with the curious inclusion of a horn section. I only ever got to see them live sometime in '92, but ask Pseu Braun or Diane Kamikaze to dish on earlier eras, and I can promise you they'll have hair-shaking stories of only the highest order. Die Kreuzen singer Dan Kubinski now fronts the wholly menacing Decapitado, who make no less of a statement.

2. The Flirtations' "Nothing but a Heartache" is a Northern Soul staple that a lot of DJs at WFMU have a not-so-secret obsession with, as you can see here. I first tripped over it years ago on the great Rhino Records' "Soul Shots" compilation series, and even though I've never once heard any of their other songs,  it could only be some kind of a joker or serious lightweight who'd argue the greatness of "Nothing but a Heartache". In recent years, I've heard at least two modern garage bands cover this song and completely suck the life out it to the point of non-recognition... Which says far more about the Esteban Pequeño followers than anything else. (Cough). Anyway, the (rather strange) video for the Flirtations original just crossed my desk recently, and that seemed like a good cue to share it with y'all.

3. Dälek is nothing less than the sound and sensation of where forward-thinking hip-hop ought to be heading, rather than tragically (more like "comically") mimicking the mainstream. I've stated many times over the last ten years that few other modern artists summate everything I love about music more than these guys do. (The Ex are up there, too.) As such, they've played on my show three different times, and have never ceased to blow me away with each and every visit. Caught here by YouTube user SkilU, they perform "Subversive Script", the best song off their most recent album ("Abandoned Language") on Ipecac Records. Sadly, American audiences don't go off the way these (European) kids do... If Dalek shows in NYC turned 'em out like this, maybe I'd go out more. Ptthhh.

4. Steven Jesse Bernstein was an American poet and artist who buddied around with William S. Burroughs and released an incredible album of poetry on Sub Pop Records in 1992 with an assist from scenester/recording guru Steve Fisk. Bernstein spent much of his life living in Seattle (perhaps where he developed his iconic drawl), became a cultural fixture within the area's underground music scene, and then tragically took his own life shortly before his 41st birthday. I happen to regard the track "More Noise Please" (from the Sub Pop album, "Prison") as one of the most beautiful and moving pieces of audio art ever made, and I've played it on the radio often. [Stream Real Audio]. This video is a montage of stills set to the song "No No Man II", which is slightly more in your face.

Alan Vega Meets Oneida Rockers Downtown

WFMU's Free Music Series took a turn for the legendary during the climax of Alan Vega's solo set this past Saturday night. After stunning the packed house with the kind of wild rants heard on his new album "Station", Vega was joined on stage by headliners Oneida, and together they destroyed the whole room with a rendition of the Suicide classic "Rocket USA". After the set, the musicians retired to Southpaw's backstage area where this photo (right) of all involved parties was snapped by Leah Moskowitz.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the show, especially the performers, volunteers, and the Southpaw staff. We'll be back at ya soon with yet more in the way of free shows, so don't dance too far from your radios.

In the meantime, here's Suicide performing the original version of "Rocket USA". [Real Audio]

More Vintage Freestyling

Doron's post featuring the Notorious B.I.G. reminded me that I recently came across yet another vintage freestyle hip-hop clip: the uber-legendary Patterson Projects battle between Percee P and Lord Finesse. The video quality is pretty shoddy in places, but the staccato rhymes and funky drummer beats are unforgettable. Definitely one of my favorite "field recordings" of the 20th century. Thanks to the always-amazin' Noz and the Cocaine Blunts blog for bringing it to my attention.

Video Four-Pack V.6 (A Gun Called Tension, Panther Burns, Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, Pain Teens)

Been a while since I've shown my face around here. Be assured, it's because I've been hard at work plotting out the details of WFMU's next concert in the Free Music Series, and establishing the equally sinister details of my last regularly scheduled radio show this Monday night at 8 PM. Yep, I'm sitting out for the new schedule to re-charge my batteries, but the Anti Static podcast will soldier on, and I expect to hear you all grumbling "Not this asshole again..." as soon as you hear me filling in for your favorite WFMU DJ.

Anyway, I didn't come here to talk about myself, I came here to show off some music that I like, since I won't be doing that quite so regularly for the next 9 months. To wit, here's four videos by artists that have nothing to do with one another aside from me liking them a whole lot.

Starting at the top left:

1. A Gun Called Tension performing the song "Gold Fronts". Perfect mix of ringing guitars and most other things I often find myself liking about music. They have another track called "There is a War" [Real Audio] that I also like a whole lot, and their overall presence suggests an equal dedication to the big rock and mix unt scratch realms. Don't let me even hear you think the term "rap metal".

2. Tav Falco & the Amazing Panther Burns as featured in some French documentary. The sad fact that this legendary roots & twang ensemble are not more revered by the modern garage crowd is one of the six greatest crimes in music of the last 250,000 years. Between the live footage and the French subtitles, the uber-cool Tav Falco cruises around town with the lovely Lorette Velvette and explains his vision. Here's a listen link to hear the band perform "Red Headed Woman" [Real Audio] from their very first live show in 1979.

3. The Pain Teens quickly scare away the light-hearted and manage to deeply disturb everyone else with their college radio "hit" from the "Born in Blood" album. I've never been to Texas, but I've long contended that any place that could produce both George W. Bush and bands like the Pain Teens must have had something terrible happen to it when it was young. Years later, the band put out another record called "Destroy Me, Lover" which nobody else seemed to like besides me. Take a listen to the song "RU 486?" to compare and contrast. [Real Audio]

4. Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys. Just because that Pain Teens video was sooo creepy, I feel like I need to lighten the mood, and who better to do it than the king of Country/Swing?

WFMU at the Atlantic Antic this Sunday!

Hey locals, make sure you come out to this Sunday's Atlantic Antic -- Brooklyn's mightiest of street fairs -- and find the massive WFMU tent, to be situated between Hicks and Henry Streets in Brooklyn Heights. An exaltation of WFMU DJs and volunteers will be offering a bounty of swag, information on our next Free Music Series concert, eyeballing the tubesocks, and enjoying the sweet sounds of Jones & X. Ray as delivered by the crappiest-looking ghetto blaster you've ever laid eyes on. There will be live music at the nearby Magnetic Field stage from Mary Weiss, the Black Hollies, Swingin' Neckbreakers, and DJ Todd-o-Phonic Todd. Stop by to say hi any time between 10 AM and 6 PM!

Related listening: Beastie Boys - Shadrach [Streaming Real Audio]

(Features the immortal lyric: So I'm out pickin' pockets at the Atlantic Antic / And nobody wants to hear you cause your rhymes are so frantic...)

WFMU Free Music Series returns to Brooklyn!

In our perhaps ill-advised effort to continuously one-up ourselves until our heads explode, all of us here at the Magic Factory are floored to announce the next concert in WFMU's Free Music Series. On October 13th, please join us at Brooklyn's fashionable Southpaw nightclub for an evening of live music with Oneida, Simply Saucer, Alan Vega, and Old Time Relijun! Admission will be FREE!

We'll be spotlighting each of these performers right here in the coming weeks, but as our first free live music show ably demonstrated, this event is sure to pack out the house from floorboard to rafter. It'll be a veritable who's that of the WFMU community, and we hope all of you within baseball chucking distance from Southpaw will make an appearance.

In addition to the utterly heart-stopping lineup of performers, this event will be doubling as a book release party for Dave the Spazz's similarly blazin' new FMU-centric book entitled The Best of LCD: the Art and Writing of WFMU. For newcomers to the party, LCD was WFMU's fabled program guide which for years gave the station a much-lauded representation in the print realm and featured content from not just DJs and listeners, but also noted cultural icons like Nick Tosches, Daniel Clowes, Luc Sante, Chris Ware, Daniel Johnston, and more. The Best of LCD... collects the best of these contributions and offers a fluid portrait of WFMU's relevance in the age before everything went packing for the promised land of the internet. The book will be available for sale at the show, and Dave the Spazz might even step out of his monkey suit long enough to sign a few copies, so saddle up and get ready!

The Free Music Series was made possible through a grant from the New York State Music Fund. The fund's goal is to help creatively-minded artists who are not afforded the same opportunities for exposure that bands with the backing of commercial radio and major record labels are. In fact, it's some of those same major labels who were found to be engaging in payola to drum up airplay for their various flavor-of-the-moment acts. The subsequent fines paid by said labels were collected by the NYSMF, and have been deployed to non-profit arts organizations like WFMU to promote the kind of independent musicians that we feel a special artistic kinship with. If you're a fan of what this radio station does, you'll want to make attendance your weekend's top priority.

Although admission to this event will be free, there are no advanced tickets available. Admission will be first come, first served on the evening of the show. Southpaw is located at 125 5th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. 18+ to enter, 8 PM doors.