WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Song-poem Archived Music: Volume 6 - Peace and Love

As you can see, this volume is titled after the famous song-poem "Peace and Love" (aka Blind Man's Penis) written by the infamous John Trubee (which I'm happy to include here with John's permission) and performed by Ramsey Kearney.  If you haven't read the story behind the song, click here.

Also, the last track on this volume isn't technically a song-poem, but was originally included on the ASPMA site because you just have to hear it.

1.  Dick Kent - Never Seen A Thing

2.  Erica Campbell - Remember Me Darling
3.  Chuck Jones and The Links - Sputnik Hit The Moon
4.  Bonnie Haven - Total Woman
5.  Jim Wheeler - What I Like
6.  Liza Evans - Yea, That's Me!
7.  Dick Kent - Your Body's Makin' Eyes At Me
8.  Prof Marcell Collegians - The ACL and The SAL
9.  Prof Marcell Collegians - Be No Fool, Play It Cool, Stay In School
10. The Melodiers - Barbra
11. Lew Tobin's Orchestra - Darling Don't Put Your Hand On Me
12. Dick Kent - George's Song
13. Rod Keith - Get Down and Wiggle It A Little
14. Bobbi Blake - I Got A Record
15. Dick Rogers - I Understand Him
16. Bob Gerrard - Joedy Is A Wise Guy
17. John Fulker - An Unpredictable Girl Like Julia
18. Jerry Britton and the Downtowners - Lazy Old River
19. Dick Rogers - I Wouldn't Hide The Moulding Rock
20. Cara Stewart (with Lee Hudson Orchestra) - Mr Memory
21. Cara Stewart (with Lee Hudson Orchestra) - New Year Song
22. Gene Marshall - Nurse Nurse
23. Bobbi Blake - Sometime Somewhere
24. Dick Kent - Unlock My Chains
25. Jim Hall and the Radio Pals - Hydrogen Nitrogen Potassium
26. Norm Burns and the Five Stars - Whirl Whirl Whirl
27. Rodd Keith - Danny's Return
28. Ramsey Kearney - Peace and Love
29. W.L. Horning - Rockin' And Rollin'

(click here to download artwork zip)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Vol. 23 (MP3s)

Give the Drummer Some's
10 Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
(see Comments, below, for helpful info about downloading)

Thanks to the good souls at the terrific blog Uncle Gil's Rockin' Archives, word is spreading about the poor health of original Sun Records rocker Billy Lee Riley. Riley, who's endured an awful string of medical problems is now battling stage-four bone cancer and is in dire need of financial assistance. (Follow this link for info on how you can help.)

Cancer seems to be more everywhere than ever before. Some say it's all due to the general aging of the population, but that doesn't make it any easier to stomach. The Miner just lost a friend in Chicago to cancer and skipped last week's post to spend time with his mum, who underwent cancer surgery. Talk about your Motherlode. Just be sure to take good care of yourselves and loved ones and don't forget to smell the audio roses along the way.

 

He's Made it Through Three Hip Replacements and a Quintuple Bypass
Billy Lee Riley  ~  "Rock With Me Baby"
(Blog: Free Rockabilly Music

This Pistol-Brandishing ex-Soap Star Is Now a Senator
Irma Serrano  ~  "Exitos de Siempre"
(Blog: Música Popular Mexicana)
From the album: La Martina (mp3)




Bailamos con Tito Nieves and Crew
Conjunto Clasico  ~  "Si No Bailan con Ellos, no Bailan con Nadie"
(Blog: La Musica Latina)



[7 more roses, after the jump]

WFMU/Barbes Cumbia night TONIGHT at The Bell House w/ DJ Rob W

<--Los Destellos, featured on the Barbés Records compilation The Roots of Chicha: Psychedelic Cumbias from Peru

The worldwide cumbia resurgence is overflowing the WFMU bin, with records focusing on old and new. Check out Soundway's Panama! 2: Latin Sounds, Cumbia Tropical & Calypso Funk On The Isthmus 1967-77 (pop-up), Lucas Luisao's "Bounty Caderas" (pop-up) off Vibration Sound's Nuevacumbia - Le Nouveau Son De Buenos Aires, and Uproot Andy vs. ODB (pop-up) from DJ/Rupture's Mudd Up podcast. More Chicha from Beware of the Blog here.

So it seems fitting that WFMU is joining forces with Barbés Records tonight for an evening of Cumbia at the Bell House in Brooklyn. Rob Weisberg of Transpacific Sound Paradise will be DJ-ing in between sets by Very Be Careful (Los Angeles) and Chicha Libre (Brooklyn). The event won't be broadcast live, so make your way out to The Bell House!

More info about the music from WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Listen to Very Be Careful spinning records and chatting live with DJ/Rupture on Mudd Up last year.

Listen to Chicha Libre's "Six_Pieds Sous Terre" (mp3) from ¡Sonido Amazonico! (Barbés Records 2008)

Listen to DJ Rob W's spotlight on Zizek, an Argentinian collective who just released ZZK Vol: 2, a killer follow-up to last year's Cumbia Digital vol. 1. (This show also featured a great live set from Cordero!).

If you like what you hear, hope to see you tonight!

Cumbia! Cumbia! With VERY BE CAREFUL & CHICHA LIBRE
Sunday July 5th, 8:00pm
@ The Bell House [149 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY (map)]
Adv. Tickets:  www.thebellhouseny.com

Papa's Got a Brand New Patriotic Bag (MP3s)

Happy Independence Day.

James Brown & The Famous Flames  -  America Is My Home Pt. 1  (3:20)

James Brown & The Famous Flames  -  America Is My Home Pt. 2  (3:28)

A Bunch Of Bleeping Nonsense

"Bleeping" as in "I've got a bunch of new bands for you today that use lots of insane bleepy sounds", not "bleeping" as in "fucking".  This isn't the fucking radio, why would I censor the headline?

All the same, I oughtta warn ya that the video on the right is a bit NSFW.  Both are from Computer Jesus Refrigerator, a San Antonio based duo of grind/noise/gore/bleeping nonsense.  I've been enjoying their songs for months now, but recently noticed that the band has posted a whole slew of awesome music videos on their Myspace.

Kania Tieffer was brought to my attention by her new CD in the FMU new bin, alongside a few other releases from the very nutty French label Le Vilain Chien.  Hyper, ADDified, amateurish ditties reminiscent of Felix Kubin, OCDJ, and a cat walking across a keyboard.

Kania Tieffer - Parc à Thèmes

El G has released approximately 9999,999,999 tapes and CDRs over the years.  Often noisy but with definite pop sensibilities.  The below MP3 is from the "Armelle" 7", also out on Le Vilain Chien.  Really beautiful song, worthy of Radiohead.  Check the official website.

El G - Armelle

Rainbow Arabia sounds pretty exotic and possibly foreign, but it's just some hyper-musically-educated white folk from Cali.  Not that there's anything wrong with white folk.  Check the live set with Trent.  I think they're touring with Gang Gang Dance soon.  Apparently they're big or something.

Rainbow Arabia - Holiday In Congo

Bobb Trimble and the Flying Spiders live at WFMU (mp3's)

<-- Bobb Trimble (r) with Gary War on guitar and Nick Branigan on drums. Along with Kris Thompson on bass and Karina DaCosta on vox, you've got The Flying Spiders, photographed here in the WFMU live room (by Tiffany Camhi)

In his early 20s, Bobb Trimble self-released two surreal psychedelic folk albums: "Iron Curtain Innocence" (1980) and "Harvest of Dreams" (1982). He played a handful of shows around the local Worcester, MA area with teenage backing bands The Kidds and The Crippled Dog Band, then disappeared. Meanwhile, his recordings lived on as sought-after collector's items, and inspired countless contemporary artists like Ariel Pink and Gary War. In 2007, Secretly Canadian reissued both Bobb Trimble albums, inspiring Bobb Trimble's Flying Spiders to come together for a series of special shows, including the Homegrown psychedelic music festival taking place this July in Boston. Backed by the Flying Spiders, Bobb Trimble made his NYC-area debut last Thursday at the Rose Live Bar, and it was quite an event (you can read more about it at Vanity Fair). The next day, they stopped by WFMU to pre-tape a live set that aired on yesterday's episode of Talk's Cheap.

The set included a bunch of classic songs from Bobb's two official albums, but it also included four songs that had never been released stateside. We're psyched to be able to share live versions of "Live Wire, Live Wire", "The Camel Song", "Angel Eyes," and "Undercovers Man" (mp3's all of 'em) here on the Free Music Archive.

The Fairbanks, Morse Song (MP3)

 Here's a little red 45 which I've always gotten a kick out of, not only because, like so many other bits of advertising, it uses America as a way to sell the company name - in this case, Fairbanks Morse Engine, which is still in business today - but also because of the focus on the phrase "free enterprise" which is a particularly unmusical phrase to use in a song.

Bob

Jerry Coyle and the Nelsonics - America...Land of Free Enterprise - The Fairbanks, Morse Song (MP3)

45 Label (JPG)

Full Dedication Alvaro (video, mp3)

I first stumbled across Alvaro Peña-Rojas (probably better known as ALVARO - The Chilean with the singing nose, and former collaborator of Joe Strummer in The 101ers) on the Nurse With Wound list and finally managed to get ahold of a CD copy of his mind-blowing 1977 solo debut album Drinkin My Own Sperm. Now some German filmmakers (Hans Kotter, Jochen Hägle and Christian Zschammer) made a documentary about Alvaro, who is living in Konstanz, Germany, and still going strong. Here is the trailer for Full Dedication ALVARO, with English subtitles.

There is no DVD available yet, and all the screenings are taking place in Germany, but I am sure it will make its way around the world eventually. For now, here is one of the tracks from Drinkin My Own Sperm as MP3.

MP3: Alvaro - Palido Sol (MP3, featuring Cathy Williams)

Also, don't forget to check out the live set Alvaro did on Brian Turner's show in 2003: [ Playlist | Real Audio link ]

70's Celebrity Anti-Drug PSA's pt 1

With 'celebrities' of sorts on the mind, and perhaps muddled somewhat by extreme Heartland-style heat, I'll present the first seven of many Anti-Drug PSAs that I enjoy. There are 29 more of these mainly music-industry celebs that I'll get to later on, as well as the Mel Blanc ones, which I've been saving for some special occasion. Whatever that'll be. These files are from a cassette I made of the lp of radio-only PSAs, one of many interesting albums lying around KZSC in 1982. Upon basking in many of these at a time, one is always impressed at how carefully the 'bad/troublesome' drugs are segregated by the various personalities involved, as well as the ones recorded while apparently high, which kinda dulls the message a bit. I think actually many of these folks sounded loaded whether they were or not. The Peter Yarrow psa in particular is an old favorite. His seething anger and the final death threat are such a treat. Jon Anderson also steps up in this set with a nice little rambling and almost incoherent 'warning'.

Paul Williams     Jackie Wilson     Johhny Winter     Bill Withers     Peter Yarrow     Jon Anderson     Jesse Colin Young

Kurt Gottschalk's Brother Lucy Podshow

Kurt Gottschalk, the esteemed host of WFMU's The Brother Lucy Show, is taking a break from his Thursday morning web-only slot and will instead deliver the goods directly to your MP3 player.

The Brother Lucy Podshow premieres today with what might be seen as a desperate bid for popularity. But the Fiery Furnaces aren't just really, really hip. For the first of a summer of free concerts delivered to your computer or MP3 player, The Brother Lucy Podshow with Kurt Gottschalk presents The Fiery Furnaces, recorded live at Socrates Sculpture Park on August 26, 2007.

Click here to subscribe to the Brother Lucy Podshow in iTunes or hit WFMU's podcast page for more options.

Free Music Archive (in the) news (MP3s)

The Free Music Archive, a new collaborative project from WFMU and friends, has almost doubled in size since launching in beta this April. With nearly 10,000 curated mp3s, there's a lot to scope out, which is one reason I've been relatively absent from Beware of the Blog recently. Well, I'm back with this weekly feature that aims to highlight some "hot new added". Of course I'd rather just highlight everything, but you can keep tabs on that yourself by subscribing to the FMA's Recently Added RSS feed. Or follow us on twitter. Anyway, let's see...

Fellow curator KEXP is adding new tracks as I type, and I just had to re-post this, from Portugal's progressive kuduro group Buraka Som Sistema: Sound Of Kuduro/Luanda-Lisboa (Live at KEXP) (mp3)

Climax Golden Twins stopped by ISSUE Project Room last week, and brought some Sublime Frequencies videos with them to boot. If you're kicking yourself for missing out on the show, at least there's this archive of the CGT set (follow the link for the mp3).

The world's greatest insurgent country label, Bloodshot Records, shares promo tracks from the likes of Andre Williams, Dex Romweber Duo, and Jon Langford/Sadies/Waco Brothers. They've also curated a selection of archival recordings from their Bloodshot Revival series, like this 1960 song by The Sundowners - It's My Way (mp3)

Doncbruital did an excellent write-up of Montreal's Grand Trine, who originally released the warped anthem "Monochromatic Youth" (mp3), on cassette. Read more about them via the FMA here.

Podcaster Macedonia spotlights a world of hip-hop and electronic goodies from California to Budapest. Check out "With Or Without You" (mp3) from a free EP by Opio of Souls of MIschief, and "Funny" (mp3) by Hungarian artist Suhov via the BudaBeats label.

..and hey! The FMA was recently covered in The Wire, and in Billboard Magazine (where Vivian Girls were featured alongside Mudboy!?!?). Here are some other nice write ups that you can read on the internet:
The Portland Mercury called the FMA "incredibly awesome". Portland OR is also home to curator KBOO
CNET | Paid Content | Pitchfork | The Daily Swarm | and an in-depth g-chat interview by Rhizome Magazine

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Vol. 22 (MP3s)

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

The terrific music search engine Captain Crawl appears to have slipped into the mists again. The Miner has been relying on the Captain's powers of blogservation to discover outstanding recordings posted throughout the ever-expanding universe of full-album sites. This search engine has disappeared before, so there's reason to hope that it will come back. But till then, you should consider trying another efficient search tool called Chewbone. If you're not searching for anything in particular, take advantage of blog aggregators such as Totally Fuzzy and Prog Not Frog's Blogwatch that provide an excellent jumping off point. Or, of course, don't lift a finger and just let the Miner drop another 10 slugs in your tin cup.

UPDATE: It appears that the URL for Captain Crawl has been hijacked or something. Good news comes via the terrific blog Pathway to Unknown Words Captain Crawl can be accessed here: http://85.131.190.173/index.php

 

Bloke Was the Sole Survivor of a U-Boat Attack on His Ship in WWII
John Doughty  ~  "Round Rye Bay for More"
(Blog: Gonzo-Archive)

Venezuelan Pop Rocker's Solo Debut
Ivo  ~  "Ivo"
(Blog: Hippy Djkit)




Don't Drink and Jive
Various  ~  "Jake Leg Blues"
(Blog: El Diablo Tun Tun)
[password=eldiablotuntun.blogspot.com]



[7 more wild geese you no longer have to chase, after the jump]

WFMU & Barbés Records present: Cumbia night at The Bell House, July 5th (mp3)

WFMU and Barbés Records are joining forces to present two of North America's pre-eminent cumbia bands: Very Be Careful from LA and Chicha Libre from Brooklyn. They'll be joined by DJs representing both old school and digital cumbia.

Cumbia became popular in Colombia in the 50s, and its mix of indigenous and African rhythms quickly spread to the rest of the world. In the 70s, Peruvians introduced psychedelic electric guitar and renamed the music Chicha, while Mexican musicians added rock drums and synth to create Sonidero, and Argentineans introduced the Keytar to create Cumbia Villera.
    In the past 5 years, a worldwide cumbia resurgence has infiltrated rock, hip-hop and electronic music. From Monterey's rebajada to Buenos Aires digital cumbia, young musicians are recycling their grandparents' music and launching a global musical rebellion.
 
VERY BE CAREFUL (pic L, live in Japan, via myspace) is a homegrown Los Angeles band that plays Colombian Vallenato music. They keep the music rootsy with the use of a traditional instrumentation of accordion, guacharaca, bass, caja vallenata and cow bell. They have the drive, energy and overall attitude of the best punk bands, which has helped them gain and retain a faithful audience whose dancing owes more to pogo than it does to cumbia.
    Very Be Careful has performed at clubs and festivals all over the world. They come to NY only once a year, so dont miss them!
    Listen to Very Be Careful spinning records and chatting live with DJ/Rupture on Mudd Up last year.

CHICHA LIBRE (pic R) play Peruvian chicha music, a style that is loosely inspired by Colombian accordion- driven cumbia. It incorporates the distinctive sounds of Andean melodies, some Cuban influence, psychedelic rock, and the modern sounds of surf guitars, farfisa organs and wah pedals.
    Chicha Libre is a Brooklyn-based Franco-American group that has toured all over the US, and they're becoming popular in Peru, the birthplace of Chicha music, where the band has appeared on various magazines and tv shows. They have been invited to play a series of concerts in Lima this fall, with legendary Chicha band Los Shapis.
   Listen to "Six Pieds Sous Terre" (mp3) from ¡Sonido Amazonico! (Barbés Records 2008)

Cumbia! Cumbia! With Very Be Careful & Chicha Libre
Sunday July 5th, 8:00pm
@ The Bell House [149 7th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, Brooklyn, NY (map)]
Adv. Tickets:  www.thebellhouseny.com

Songs We Taught The School of Rock

Last month The Paul Green School of Rock hosted two WFMU benefits--one at Asbury Lanes and one at BB King's. Paul runs a network of rock music schools for the after-school junior high and high school crowd and he's been at it successfully for quite a while. Based out of Philly, he's constantly compelled to clue his kids in to the very best music he can dig up. That still doesn't explain why he offered to set up a couple of  benefits for the station based on the two ipod-less hours he spent on the Jersey Turnpike tuning in my dumb show. The caveat for bagging the dough was that I had to come up with the songs that the kids should play. I figured that junior high school already sucks so bad that I couldn't make it much worse. So one cautionary night, me and Bingo the Chimp got out the dart board and about 75 songs were selected amid much confusion.

Both shows were inspired successes. Lots of fun and high school hoopla was had. It was like the last scene in Carrie but without all the blood. Asbury Lanes was a total nut-job blast and the spirit of Bracey "Lover's Curse" Everett's spirit was summarily summoned rock and roll style. BB King's brought special guests a-plenty: Bowie/Lennon guitar slinger Earl Slick, Dirtbombs shouter Mick Collins and bad seed Miriam Linna on drums.

Thanks to Jenn and Layney at Asbury Lanes (and Jeff Mulan and Ken Freedman for working the merch). Huge thanks to Irene Trudel for lugging equipment and spearheading the crack recording team of Scott Konzelman, Rob Christiansen and Glenn Luttman for the BB King's show. Extra special thanks to Mark Biondi, Tina Kerekes and especially Paul Green for setting up this whole thing up and also everyone who came out for these events. The biggest accolades of all go to the kids from Chatham, Cherry Hill, Philly, Monmouth County, Princeton, Bergen County, Wilmington, Port Washington and the School of Rock All-Stars: you totally rock and you roll now get back to homeroom because Mr. Downs has a surprise quiz after the frog dissection.

After the jump are a mess of videos and mp3s.

Glows In the Dark Live on WFMU (mp3s)

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hosting Richmond, VA's Glows in the Dark on WFMU.  Representing a nice little active scene in Richmond, Glows exists on an axis where avant jazz and film soundtracks meet.  And while that may sound on paper like it could be a mess, in reality the seamlessness between the two styles is pretty astonishing.  So when I marveled to guitarist/chief songwriter Scott Burton at the audible effortlessness of moving between driving four-on-the-floor beats to free scree to lounge music to creeping horror film scores, he confessed that the band spends a lot of time working on transitions.  That work pays off. 

The comparison that Glows brings to mind is a less bludgeoning version of John Zorn's Naked City, yet I can't help but position Glows as part of a tradition of jazz's relationship to the movies, whether it's the appearence of countless big bands in talkies during the Ellington/Basie era, to Miles Davis's soundtrack Ascenseur pour L'Echafaud and Herbie Hancock's The Blow-Up, to the funk jazz of blaxploitation and crime films and beyond.  Check out their album, Music to Listen to Glows in the Dark By.  Someone should hire this band to score their next film!  Thanks to Sean Austin for engineering.

The Long Rally; Air date: June 10, 2009; Engineer: Sean Austin

Scott Burton, guitar, composition; Scott Clark, drums; John Lilley, sax; Reggie Pace, trombone; Cameron Ralston, bass

1. Through a Glass Darkly
2. The Fog > Across the Roof > Halloween 3 > Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter medley)
3. The Silence

Sunn o))) live at Primavera (MP3)

(photo from Oscar Garcia's Flickr) Live on the ATP stage at Primavera Sound, Barcelona, Spain May 29th, 2009, 10:30-11:15PM, during WFMU's three day broadcast of performances. Recorded by Brian Turner on Sony D-50 PCM wav recorder; Sunn o))) that night was the duo of Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, performing their Grimmrobe Demos (originally from 1999) in entirety. 21 sets from WFMU's stand at the fest are archived for streaming here (including Wooden Shjips, Vivian Girls, th' Faith Healers, Spectrum, St. Etienne and more), while some of those have been approved for MP3 download here (including the Vaselines, Bats, Dan Deacon and more).

Sunn o))) WFMU broadcast at Primavera 5/29/09 (MP3)

Greetings from Detroit

Ronnie Love - Detroit, Michigan (mp3)

Detroit, Michigan

Talking 'bout Girls, Girls, Girls
We got 'em.  Detroit, Michigan
Talking  'bout Fine, Fine Girls
We got 'em.  Detroit, Michigan
Wearing tight skirts above their knees
The kind of girls that know how to please
The kind of girls that look so good
The kind that ought to be in Hollywood
Talking bout Soul, Soul, Soul
We got it.  Detroit, Michigan
Talking about a Soul, Soul groove
We got it.  Detroit, Michigan
When you hear our smash hit song
The music starts you dancing and you can't sit down
We got a kind of bluesy groove
The kind that makes you want to move  

You've heard about Marvin Gay
We got him.  Detroit, Michigan
You've heard about Hitsville USA
We got it.  Detroit, Michigan
We got those Fine, Fine, Super Supremes
The kind of girls you see in your dreams
When you hear our thunderous  sound
You know it came from Detroit town
Talking 'bout Mary Wells, we sent her.  Detroit, Michigan
Talking 'bout Henry Ford, the inventor.  Detroit, Michigan
Talking 'bout Soupy Sales, the joker.  Detroit, Michigan
Talking 'bout Miracles--With Smokey!

The Bats : Live at Primavera (MP3's)

Christchurch, New Zealand's Bats were a perfect hour's accompaniment to a sunny afternoon Primavera Sound fest in Barcelona (where WFMU broadcast for three days from May 28-30). Since 1983, the steady lineup of Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean, Malcolm Grant and Robert Scott (who was also a founding member of the Clean) have specialized in a distinct brand of delicate and surging electric folk-pop which sometimes got them tagged as the Kiwi answer to early 80's R.E.M. However, the Bats drew from a much more varied well (influenced by everything from the Troggs to Stereolab and onward), and kept their recording and touring lives relatively simple yet steady (with breaks for having kids, solo projects, and the occassional Clean reunion). They've been long regarded a seminal core band of the Flying Nun label universe, with critics and fans alike continually heralding them throughout their long history. We've been longtime fans and friends here at the station, the band even put out a Live at WFMU 7" single on Merge back in 1994. Their latest, the Guilty Ones, is out now on Hidden Agenda, and we're happy they've agreed to let us archive their great Primavera set for download. 20 of the Primavera sets WFMU carried are archived for streaming here, by the way, and a few of those bands have OK'd downloads, which you can check out on the Free Music Archive site.

The Bats - live on WFMU at Primavera Sound, Barcelona, May 28, 2009

Boogie Man (MP3)

Supernova (MP3)

Later On That Night (MP3)

Up To the Sky (MP3)

Horizon (MP3)

Castle Lights (MP3)

Mir (MP3)

North By North (MP3)

Afternoon In Bed (MP3)

Crimson Enemy (MP3)

Countersign (MP3)

Flowers and Trees (MP3)

Aaron Siegel, Katherine Young, Alex Chechile, Woody Sullender, Matt Bauder, Jeremiah Cymerman Live Improv on WFMU (mp3s)

About a year ago, when I started in earnest to feature live improvisational music on The Long Rally, I had a grandiose vision of how it might ultimately go down.  I imagined a weekly rotating door with musicians of all genres and personalities coming by to improvise live at 11pm in casual self-appointed groups: locals with out-of-towners passing through, adventurous rockers and noize dudes with straight up jazz musicians, the drone with the lyrical, the acoustic with the electric and electronic, the classically-trained with the self-taught. Sometimes a gumbo's just a gumbo, and sometimes it's the best fucking food you've ever tasted in your life.

Last night is the closest I've gotten to my fanciful and somewhat naive dream when a cast of NYC's best and brightest made the trip out to our humble Jersey City home.  Jeremiah Cymerman, who played a solo clarinet/electronics set on the show last year, assembled the group of musicians, and together we came up with a loose concept of configuring them in little ensembles for short improvisational pieces.  Neither the musicians nor I knew what the formations would be or what would be played until a few minutes before kickoff. Between pieces whoever wasn't setting up would join me in the studio for some chat, and we'd end with the full group going at it.

The result was a relaxed and convivial atmosphere, some unexpectedly wacked out high points, and ultimately a wonderful set of live and spontaneous music!  Catch all of these folks at the Telluric Currents Series at Ibeam in Brooklyn this weekend.  I'm off the schedule for the summer, but who knows, maybe my live improv dreams will come true in the fall, after all.  Thanks to Sean Austin for engineering.

I. (Matt Bauder, electronics; Alex Chechile, modular synth; Aaron Siegel, percussion)
II. (Katherine Young, bassoon; Matt Bauder, sax; Jeremiah Cymerman, clarinet)
III. (Woody Sullender, banjo; Jeremiah Cymerman, clarinet; Alex Chechile, modular synth)
IV. (Aaron Siegel, percussion, Matt Bauder, baritone sax; Katherine Young, bassoon; Alex Chechile, electronics; Woody Sullender, banjo; Jeremiah Cymerman, clarinet.)

The Vaselines live at Primavera (MP3's)

Some more fruits of our late May visit to Barcelona's Primavera Sound fest, where WFMU set up camp (like, in a tent and all) for three sunkissed days and breezy Mediterranean nights. We've got archives of 20 of the sets we recorded and aired, and some of the artists were even generous enough to allow downloads via WFMU and the Free Music Archive sites. One of these groups, Scotland's legendary Vaselines, put in one of the most fun sets of the entire weekend, definitely with some of the best stage banter to boot. For the uninitiated, the group existed from 1986-1990 fronted by Francis McKee and Eugene Kelly (the latter going on to form Eugenius and Captain America) and had a big booster via the Northwestern USA underground axis of K/Sub Pop records (Sub Pop put out an anthology of the Vaselines on the tail of some major Kurt Cobain fandom, in fact Nirvana covered three Vaselines tunes). They reunited in 2006, toured the USA in 2009 and finished their recent tour at this Barcelona show. We unfortunately didn't get the first tune of the set, but dig in to the MP3's below, and if you like, check out some pics of the Fest from WFMU's Flickr group. (Photo left: BT)

The Vaselines - Live on WFMU at Primavera, 5/28/09

Monsterpussy (MP3)

The Day I Was a Horse (MP3)

Molly's Lips (MP3)

Oliver Twisted (MP3)

Jesus Don't Want Me For a Sunbeam (MP3)

Lovecraft (MP3)

Slushy (MP3)

No Hope (MP3)

Sex Sux (MP3)

Dying For It (MP3)

Rory Rides Me Raw (MP3)

You Think You're a Man (Divine cover) (MP3)

Dum-Dum (MP3)