WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Billy Jam presents: Back in Eighty Eight: Hip-Hop, Version 1988

Back in eighty eight, twenty long hip-hop years ago, hip-hop, or "rap" music as it was more generally referred to back then, was experiencing arguably (and it has been argued and debated, tirelessly by many a passionate hip-hop head) its finest moment. A part of hip-hop's much lamented, so-called "golden era" 1988 has been labeled many things by many people such as "The year hip-hop peaked" or "The last year for real hip-hop" or "The main year of the golden era." So revered is that year in the history of hip-hop music and culture that it has become the subject matter of many diehard hip-hoppers including the Rhymesayers emcee Blueprint who titled his 2005 album "1988" as a tribute to "the beats, the breaks, and themes" of what he (and many others) see as "hip-hop's heyday."

"Blueprint, who started his hip-hop career in the late 90's, was too young to have experienced 1988 hip-hop firsthand. But I wasn't. I was there and totally into hip-hop at the time: as a journalist writing about it, as a radio DJ playing all this great new music on the air at a time when there was little hip-hop to be found on the radio dial, and most importantly as a dedicated rap fan buying all these great new records and cassettes as they came out. Note at this stage in hip-hop it was still possible to buy near every new release without going bankrupt. I still am a big fan of '88 hip-hop: records like Public Enemy's "It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back," BDP's "By All Means Necessary," Eric B & Rakim's "Follow The Leader," EPMD's "Strictly Business," Too $hort's "Life is....Too $hort," and NWA's "Straight Outta Compton" etc. etc.  But while I love 1988 hip-hop today as much as I did all them years ago, I am not one of those aging b-boys who hates everything new in the genre. Sure I agree that there is a lot of shitty hip-hop coming out today but there is also lots more really great & innovative new hip-hop music being made today. But the classics will remain the classics. And 1988 was a classic year in hip-hop.

WFMU's Myspace Band Buddies - vote for your favorites, FINAL ROUND!

Good morning people! 

This is it!  The last round of voting for your favorite randomly selected bands from WFMU's hefty list o' buddies at a certain social networking site of which you may have heard.  Thanks to everyone who's listened and voted so far.

Here's the deal, in case you missed earlier installments:  the band or bands who get the most "Pump it" votes each week will be forever exalted on my FIRST EVER MARATHON PREMIUM called "In MySpace, No One Can Hear You Scream" (you can still pledge to this year's marathon here). Last round's favorites were Satanicpornocultshop, Porest, Paid in Puke, For Esme, and Bonbomb! Congratulations, band buddies!! 

Who will be next? It's up to you!!!

It's Incredibly Depressing Being Green

He made news about this same time last year with an incendiary video for "Hurt", and this week the mad genius behind Sad Kermit dropped a new video, a cover of Elliot Smith's "Needle In The Hay", with a recreation of the Richie Tenenbaum suicide scene from The Royal Tenenbaums.

Here are some mp3s of Sad Kermit singing some other sad songs. See and hear more at SadKermit.com.

Creep (Radiohead)   Hallelujah (Leornard Cohen/Jeff Buckley)   Hurt (Nine Inch Nails/Johnny Cash)

Also on Beware of the Blog: Derek and Clive meet the Muppets - Is the most influential musician of all time Animal or Cookie Monster? - the Yip Yip Martians - Martin Scorcese's Sesame Streets - Welcome to the Muppet Show Fan Club - meet the real life Kermit (in voice anyway) - Jim Henson gets freaky
 

Unbelievable Believers: Christian Song Demos

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

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

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

Follow the jump for 22 tracks of Christian demo madness!

Soggy

Between these guys and Angel Face, I wonder exactly how much of Detroit got into French musical consciousness in the 1970's/80's? "Waiting For the War". Posted to Black To Comm.

Recent Faves from the New Bin

This was a semi-regular post here on WFMU's BotB, but personal craziness leading up to the March fundraiser, working on assorted WFMU concerts, and being sidetracked by other things had me on the bench for a bit. So yes, you don't need me to tell you there are still a mess of very fine documents of recorded music worth seeking, hearing. Here's a few currently dripping some good grease into the station's new bin as we speak:

Warner Jepson's Totentanz was a gurgling slab of primal concrete in LP edition of 300 back in 1967; besides being the result of  hours of tooling around in the SF Tape Machine Center and Mills Collage labs, the record served its purpose well of alienating patrons at ballet performances it was featured at. I haven't seen a proper reissue (though a grey area CDR floated around last year or so), but thanks to Mitchell Brown (aka the excellent KXLU radio host Professor Canteloupe) and his Melon Expander label, Totentanz and more are back. Jepson's works represented here span the years 1958 through 1973 and range from skittery, echoplexed moon rumblings to flat out sinewave scorchings all finding their ways into various theater and ballet peformances, and later onto PBS itself when Jepson got interactive with experimental visual media. Real Audio: "Laughter After" (1958).

The Sic Alps (pictured above) came from another zone of California experimentalism. For the last half decade or so, the zonked atmosphere of pre-Virgin Royal Trux has gone face to face with Nuggets ideology to probably alienate your average bowl-cut Little Steven fan more than anything, yet ably carries the torch of the Elevators, Troggs and more into a cosmic cohesion of faithful rock fandom and flipped-out otherworldiness.  2007's Description of the Harbor is probably one of the most tuneful "out" records ever made in my opinion, and since that thing disappeared rather quickly out of sight (and up the Ebay mountain) it's nice to see it's reappeared courtesy Animal Disguise on CD with other assorted 7" and 12" EP, CDR and 7" tracks from 2006 and 2007 compiled neatly. We're bummed to hear the new tour has been sidelined though due to drummer Matt's broken arm. Get better, Matt! Real Audio: "Message From the Law". Live performance on WFMU 11/6/07.

And while the Alps' SF brethren the Hospitals (whose Adam Stonehouse spent time in the SA's) channel their single-output cavesound in a similar way, the Hospitals' flat out destructo-factor has continually clubbed its listeners in a less subtle (but still awesome) manner. I always still considered the Hospitals a garage punk band in its purest form even as leader Adam Stonehouse changed up personnel around him constantly, but the latest LP Hairdryer Peace shows loftier ambitions.

Fine Records on Fine Records (MP3s)

As the moribund recording industry marginalizes itself into utter irrelevance, it warms the cockles to hark back to the heyday of the great independent labels across the country whose legendary bossmen cast their nets across all genres in search of hits. Syd Nathan in Cincinnati (King), Art Rupe in L.A. (Specialty), and Sam Phillips in Memphis (Sun), among others, were recording r&b, blues, country, gospel—whatever sounds they could reel into their studios that had a chance of making a buck or, better yet, catching a wave of national popularity. While these powerhouse labels were churning out legendary sides by the crateful, a number of smaller-time outfits in the boonies were following the same business plan, though with minimal chances of achieving more than just the occasional regional score.

One such enterprise that hummed along under the radar was Fine Records based in Rochester, New York, which produced spirited releases over the course of 30 years beginning in the late 1940s. The label was owned and operated by Vincent Giancursio, a dance-band saxophonist who began playing professionally in 1932 at the age of 12. After a frustrating 15-year run traveling the dead-end nightclub circuit in upstate New York, Vince Jan (his preferred music-biz moniker) decided that if he couldn't hit the big time making music, maybe he'd record someone else who could. After the War, Giancursio studied audio engineering for a year, then opened Fine Recording Studio. He started off cutting mostly custom recordings, but then began to release 45 rpm discs on his own label, which he did up until his death, at the age of 58, in 1977.

During his three decades in the record business, Giancursio supported the music passionately, producing over 3,500 sessions single-handedly, most resulting in limited pressings of rarely more than a thousand copies, though usually a lot less. The sessions he engineered were wide ranging and eclectic, mostly one-offs by an assortment of jazz bands, garage rock combos, Elvis wannabes and even a few country & western acts. In addition, for a fertile stretch in the '60s and '70s, Fine Records captured on tape a string of electrifying performances of soulful gospel as good as any from the era.

(25 righteous MP3s are posted after jump)

Trumpet Love, Part 2

A continuation of last week's post, here's Part 2 of a celebration of spit, brass and air: solo trumpet music.

One of my favorite new labels is Off, a spinoff of the Stilll label out of Belgium.  So far Off has given us several excellent genre-defying albums of top quality.  I liked the Don Shtone record, Beware of the Cat, a snappy groove-based jazz recontextualization, and am really digging the current WFMU New Bin denizen Colorlist.  Off also released a fabulous solo trumpet excursion from Toshinori Kondo, who may be best known for his work with the Die Like a Dog quartet featuring Peter Brotzmann, Hamid Drake and William Parker.  (Check out their scorching albums, Little Birds Have Fast Hearts 1 & 2)  Kondo is known for electrifying and treating his trumpet sounds with heavy delay, reverb and other effects reminiscent of Miles's electric experiments of the early '70s.  The songs on the album could almost be classic analog synth compositions from the Ohm box set, slowly building in ethereal atmosphere with a minimal and otherworldly vibe.   While some solo trumpet albums tend to seem like recorded practice sessions, Kondo's plays like an album in the classic sense.  And unlike some examples herein, you can actually tell he's playing a trumpet!  Toshinori Kondo - Clear Water (from Silent Melodies)

Speaking of WFMU's New Bin, we've seen two older Tom Djll albums appear there of late, both getting quite a bit of airplay.  Bellerophone sees Djll working with untreated trumpet and offering a clinic on what the instrument can do in the right hands, from staccato bursts, to moans and groans, to soft spatial passages.  Smudge is Djll's digital album, the trumpet being only the basis for an array of electronic/digital manipulations.  In both cases, however post-everything he may sound, I can't help but envision Djll as the latest in a line of trumpeters that starts with Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams and includes the Art Ensemble's Lester Bowie.  His version of "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime", not totally indicative of what the rest of the album is like, reminds me of Lester's take on "Hello Dolly" and it's a fine example of Tom Djll the trumpet player.  Tom Djll - Brother, Can You Spare a Dime (from Bellerophone)

Fake Beatles No. 9: The Kaisers vs. Wilhelm Wimbledom

Of all the Fake Beatles to come down the pike in recent years, one of the most remarkable was the Kaisers. From 1993 to 2002, this Edinburgh quartet released five studio and one live LP of the purest beat-group sounds this side of Hamburg's Star-Club. Clad in skintight trousers and sporting mile-high quiffs, they were essentially the Fab Four before that group started combing their hair over their foreheads in emulation of German art students.

The band applied its verisimilitude to the 1962-63 aesthetic not just to appearance but to song selection -- a mixture of note-perfect originals and the prevailing R&B cover tunes (recorded in glorious mono) that were in the repertoire of every beat combo of the era, from the Big Three to the Swingin' Blue Jeans. The Kaisers' exactitude also extended to the painstakingly created artwork: from the type style to the period-evoking black-and-white photos -- and especially to the liner notes, the main focus of this post.

Those of you who are fans of rock 'n' roll of the British early-to-mid-'60s variety may be familiar with the condescending sleeve notes on the back of those LPs. Seemingly written under duress by some put-upon NME or Melody Maker scribe who makes no bones about the fact that he would much rather be listening to George Shearing than the caterwauling claptrap before him, the term "faint praise" would be too generous. There's something very stiff-upper-lip about carrying a negative review on your band's own album that is utterly charming in this hagiographic age.

As stated earlier, the Kaisers were sticklers, and that's where the esteemed critic Wilhelm Wimbledon enters the picture, for he is the personage trusted to explain the group to the record-buying public. Take the concluding passage from the boys' debut long-player, Squarehead Stomp: "What more can I say about this disc? If unintelligible shouting over a cretinous off-key back beat apparently recorded in five minutes with the minimum of rehearsal is your 'scene,' I dare say this record will be a treasured addition to your popular music collection."

Here are some choice lines from the back of the Kaisers' second album, In Step With the Kaisers: "[I]t was back to work for the tight trousered quartet as they threw themselves blindly into another melody free rhythm and blues workout." Wimbledon's notes reach a particularly frustrated tone on the third LP, Beat It Up!: "I suppose you'd like to read some teen rave type comment on the 'music' lurking within this typically garish sleeve, but it seems that space is at a premium due to the somewhat overlarge photographc study of your favorite foursome below."

The poor fellow clearly must have been driven beat-mad by the time of the Kaisers' fourth album, Wishing Street, as a new, more sympathetic liner-note writer, one Joseph Budge, offers up an almost positive statement: "[It] features a clutch of brand new numbers...recorded with an unprecedented clarity of sound that facilitates almost complete audibility of both words and music." Not standing for such mollycoddling of rich, pampered pop stars like the Kaisers, Wimbledon gives that softie Budge the sack and reclaims his position behind the Underwood for the band's fifth release, Shake Me! After expending a paragraph or four comparing them unfavorably to Elvis and Cliff, he terms the group lazy and spoiled by success, finally getting around to summing up the entire 14-song album with these words: "They call this the 'new sound.' I thought someone had stepped on the cat's tail for a moment." Reminder: All these words appear on the Kaisers various albums and singles.

You can keep your Lester Bangs and his so-called iconoclastic ilk. True gonzo rock journalism begins and ends with Wilhelm Wimbledon!

Mach Schau: A Kaisers Bouquet (all songs MP3)

Hipshake Shimmy Kitten (an uptempo shaker from Squarehead Stomp)

Like I Do (a tender ballad from Beat It Up!)

Time to Go (a harmonica-propelled rocker from Wishing Street)

No Other Guy (any title similarity between this Shake Me! song and the beat-group standard "Some Other Guy" is surely happenstance)

What You Gonna Say (the lower-fi 45 version)

Shake and Scream (this live version of the Kenny Lynch tune is Fake Beatles twice removed)

Cry for a Shadow (this B-side is technically not Fake Beatles, as this is originally a Real Beatles song, but it qualifies, being Real Beatles doing Fake Shadows)

Vinyl Finds: Merzbow - Dradomel LP 1992 (Hannover Interruption)

Masami Akita (aka Merzbow) is one of my heroes.  Not only is he one of the innovators of noise-as-music, with an incredible range of stylistic applications in his repertoire, he also shames most creative artists in terms of sheer productivity.  The amount of Merzbow/Masami Akita solo releases and collaborations on LP, 7" vinyl, cassette tape and CD is absolutely staggering, approximately 400 since 1980; that's an average of 14 releases per year, making him something like the Fassbinder of Noise.  The thing about his catalog, at least from this fan's perspective, is that so much of it is really very good, the constant experimentation and variation of his approach, and the collaborations with other artists bearing proof of an extremely bountiful creative spirit. 

This LP, apparently titled Hannover Interruption (at least according to Wikipedia and Discogs, though no such information appears anywhere on the package, not in English characters anyway) was a joint release of Dom Elchklang and the short-lived Dragnet Records label.  Almost everything both labels have touched is pure gold to me, and Dradomel in particular also released one of my all-time favorite LPs, Rowenta/Khan's Tiefpunkte Moderner Tonkompositionen (also 1992, now on CD.)

This album finds Merzbow in full-on, harsh-noise mode, at least at first listen.  The more one becomes acclimated to the sound, the more layers of activity emerge:  electric groans and roars, bird-call-like feedback, moog sirens, percussive analog static, thousands of pots and pans falling down a hill, even the occasional vocal.  It's this artful layering of sound (among other things) that separates Merzbow from some jag-off that just turns on a noise generator and walks away.  To my knowledge, these recordings are not included in the massive 50-CD Merzbox (Extreme, 2000) though the Merzbox does include a disc called Hannover Cloud dated 1990.

Merzbow continues his prolific tide, with some notable recent releases being Electric Dress (with Carlos Giffoni and Jim O'Rourke), Merzbuddha, and Merzbear (the latter two being part of his mostly animal-devoted Merz series on the Important label.)  In the past several years, Masami has also become an activist for animal rights, including the PETA url alongside his own merzbow.net on CD sleeves.  (Just imagining the Noise-God rubbing shoulders at a charity event with Pamela Anderson gives me a big fat grin for uncountable reasons.)

Side A Untitled
Side B Untitled

Next time:  My Merzbow singles!

Sensei Rebel's Archive Picks of the Week (April 28 - May 4, 2008)

All MP3 and RealAudio links are streaming links from the WFMU archives.

Rock And Roll
The Heads - "Television" MP3 | RealAudio from Scott Williams' show

International
Sounds of Taraab - "Daka Kozi Manowe" MP3 | RealAudio from Woody's show

Experimental
Woods - "Family" MP3 | RealAudio from Stochastic Hit Parade with Bethany Ryker

Dance
LFO - "Tan Ta Ra (Moby Remix)" MP3 | RealAudio from Sound And Safe with Trent

Instrumental
Uakti - "Arrumacao" MP3 | RealAudio from All Over the Map with PGB (filling in for Evan Muse)

Fave Songs of the Week
Capricorn - "20hz" MP3 | RealAudio from Sound And Safe with Trent
Arling & Cameron - "Herrmann" MP3 | RealAudio from All Over the Map with PGB (filling in for Evan Muse)

The Phi Mu Washboard Band - "...Just Because"

When I originally supplied The Phi Mu Washboard Band's rendition of "Love Hurts" to the original 365 Days Project in 2003, there were several requests for the rest of the album. I didn't have the resources or ability to provide that sort of thing at the time, and eventually forgot about it.

But out of the blue last month came an e-mail request for the entire album, and this seems like the perfect venue for it. A few notes about the album, which I bought at the very last Mammoth Music Mart, which used to be an annual event in Skokie, Illinois, to raise money for ALS research, can be found at the original 365 days post.

Many of the songs are quite brief - some under one minute - and the entire album, which is a 12 incher, is over in barely 24 minutes. I have supplied the titles just as they appear on the jacket and the label, even though at least a few of them are incorrect (for example, track 14, listed as "I Can Smile" is actually a 1960 pop hit called "Happy Go Lucky Me", originally sung by Paul Evans).

And so, by special request, "...Just Because", by The Phi Mu Washboard Band:

Bob Purse

1.) Just Because (MP3)

2.) Love Hurts (MP3)

3.) Side By Side (MP3)

4.) Seven Daffodils (MP3)

5.) Whale of a Tale (MP3)

6.) Saints (MP3)

7.) Chilly Winds (MP3)

8.) Mamma Don't Allow (MP3)

9.) This Land (MP3)

10.) Take Me Back (MP3)

11.) You Are My Sunshine (MP3)

12.) Wanderer (MP3)

13.) Chinatown (MP3)

14.) I Can Smile (MP3)

15.) Today (MP3)

16.) Phi Mu Suwannee (MP3)

Front Cover (JPG)

Back Cover (JPG)

Early Musical Robots

One blog reader asked what the the story behind the picture with the walking, talking, and yodeling "radio man" for last week's post was. The article is from a 1939 issue of Popular Mechanics, and "Radio Man" was designed by Swiss engineer August Huber in the 1930's. Like all early robots, he looks way cooler than the modern ones. That's all I know. And instead of wasting my time researching more about Radio Man, here are a few more early robots, all stolen from the "Robot" section of the excellent Modern Mechanix blog. (Click on the images to get a larger version.)

 

Two more robots after the jump.

More Info on the Free Sonic Youth/Feelies July 4th Tickets

River To River, who in conjunction with Downtown Alliance are putting on the free July 4th Sonic Youth/Feelies concert at Battery Park (with special support from WFMU!) have now announced that you may sign up as of today for their email blasts on their R2R Wire page regarding all of their events. The bottom line, however, is that ticket reservations for this July 4th event are hitting on THURSDAY, JUNE 12th at 12:00 NOON at their site. Once your reservation is in, you'll be instructed on how to pick up your passes before July 4th. They are putting a limit of two tickets per person during this reservation process.

A Stretchhead Shout-Out

Seeing how God Is My Co-Pilot's returned to playing live, I got nostalgic for one of my other fave skronk units of that era: Scotland's demented, brilliant Stretchheads issued a handful of LPs and an EP in the late 80s/early 90s, and along with Terminal Cheesecake are definite contenders for overlooked UK gutter-dwellers in need of a good retrospective. The 'heads may not have spread out stylistically over time as cohorts like GodCo, Dog Faced Hermans, Big Flame etc. but they sure hammered the point home gleefully/violently.

Meat Beat Manifested

Everyone has seen a live visual presentation (i.e. Shakespeare in the Park), and everyone has heard a live audio presentation (i.e. WFMU).  And most people have seen a TV show or a movie (i.e. Beavis and Butt-Head, Baby Mama).  Some people have even been told they're being treated to an audiovisual presentation (i.e. Dark Side of the Moon Laser Light Shows). Until last week, I didn't think anyone had made an live audiovisual presentation that really truly was aural and visual at the same time, together.  Then I saw Meat Beat Manifesto on Saturday at the Highline Ballroom.

Zillion-dollar budgets can give electronic music performers like Daft Punk and Kraftwerk an edge in creating visceral visual thrills at their concerts - you can't really do much more for a techno fan than have real robots playing a concert.  But Meat Beat Manifesto has taken a well-worn and considerably less expensive approach - collaging video behind the performers onstage - and taken it to a new zenith of accomplishment in that medium.

Meat Beat mastermind Jack Dangers and Mark Pistel from the political hardcore band Consolidated stood onstage controlling the otherworldly jungle-dubstep-trance beats and squiggles, and at the far right live drummer Lynn Farmer kept incredible pace throughout the entire performance.  On the far left stood Ben Stokes, the visual programmer for the show, who's worked with everyone from Ministry to Public Enemy to Levi's.  He grabbed video samples of Captain Beefheart, old BBC Radiophonic Workshop-esque explanations of sonic technology, Dali's eye-cutting nightmare, The Invaders, Sammy Davis Jr., Harrison Ford as President James Marshall in Air Force One, Star Trek, Billie Holiday, and even Animal, playing in tandem with a live feed of the drummer.

Unlike so many other video shows, clips didn't just sit lay flat and stuttery in the background.  They were accompanied by audio, and were layered over existing beats, scratched, stretched, and re-sampled in a way that fit in with the theme of the song - video of nuclear bomb blasts dropped to the beat, sounds and videos of Rastas burning weed edged their way into a drugs song (well, at least the one that referenced them the most overtly).  Dangers and Stokes were always working together in the audiovisual realm, as well - you could almost imagine the behind-the-scenes dialogue:  "Jack, I've found about 15 clips of people falling from the tops of buildings, can we work the sound of them screaming into the set?" or "Ben, could you work on finding a video of James Brown playing this one sample I use in this song?" Magic like that doesn't just pop out of a video mixer, or an audio mixer for that matter.

The most impressive part about the whole thing was Meat Beat's mastery in weaving overt political commentary into the show. 

The Feelies and the Hoboken Sound

In addition to the WFMU supported 4th of July concert (link) the Feelies are playing two shows at Maxwell's on July 1st and 2nd. Thanks to the time sensitive email from Brian Turner I was able to buy a pair of tickets before they sold out, in I think an hour. In anticipation of all this fantasticness I post an edited excerpt of something I found on the internets a few months back: A 1985 documentary on 'The Hoboken Sound.' (link)

Chaka Khan Vs. the Bee Gees

Now that Simon Pegg has gotten somewhat of a foothold in American consciousness, thought it would be a good time again to bring up his great late 90's UK sketch series Big Train. We posted a clip a couple years ago where Chairman Mao rises from his death bed to inexplicably (and quite convincingly) front Roxy Music; here's another of a Wild West shoot out between Chaka Khan and the brothers Gibb.

Besides Simon's ascent to movie stardom, this show should also be lauded for the sheer genius of people like Kevin Eldon, Mark Heap, Julia Davis (whose lead in Nighty Night may have been the single most screwed up character in a show oddly imported by Oprah's channel), and Catherine Tate (currently enjoying her own sketch show on BBC now, here's a clip); this crew all filtered into other great shows like Brass Eye, I'm Alan Partridge, Look Around You and Smack the Pony. May they all continue to thrive, and not move to Los Angeles to be harrassed by Courtney Love.

The Hasil Adkins Rejection Letters

This week marks the arrival (April 29, 1937) and unfortunately the departure (April 25, 2005) of The Wildest One Man Band Hunch Machine that ever stalked the planet. Hasil "The Haze" Adkins wrote, performed and lived out his wild-ass rock & roll dreams with a sincere ferocity unmatched by fellow humans north or south. Rattling the walls of his Madison, West Virginia shack, Hasil would croon sweet odes to commodity meat and serenade the fickle moon above with his hot dog reverie. Early on, he'd mail out his home-recorded concoctions to the country music stars of the day, hoping to place a song or grab a plum spot on a traveling package show. Like the rest of the world, Nashville would have to wait a few decades to get hep to Hasil's chicken walk-inspired genius.

She Said (Streaming Real Audio link)

Here's three rejection letters from three equally talented performers. (Thanks, Norton Records!)

Another WFMU Free Music Series Concert! The Ex with Gétatchèw Mèkurya, Either/Orchestra with Mahmoud Ahmed and Alèmayèhu Eshèté, Extra Golden: August 20th

(photo left: Konstantin's Flickr page)

When WFMU was first presented with the ability to put on some free NYC concerts via the New York State Music Fund grant, the obvious first notion was "who would we like to see in NYC that has never played before?" So we wound up the ball and sent the pitch over to Lincoln Center's Bill Bragin: how about Holland's greatest punk exports the Ex coming over (which they have in the past on many occasions), but this time bringing over some of their great international musician friends? The ones only Europe usually gets to see (or Ethiopia, if you happen to be there when the Ex make their fabled stops). We passed contacts to Lincoln Center, Terrie Ex got in touch with his fellow travelers, and then the ball was knocked outta the park in a severe way. The result? Lincoln Center's Out of Doors series in collaboration with WFMU's grant giving you all the chance to see the US debut of a major international collaboration for free at Lincoln Center/Damrosch Park Bandshell on West 62nd Street at Amsterdam in Manhattan, Wednesday, August 20th from 6-10 PM. Yes, free. No advance ticketing. On the bill:

The Ex with Gétatchèw Mèkurya (renowned Ethiopian saxophone legend), and if that weren't enough, Lincoln Center added two amazing East African/American collaborations to the bill: Either/Orchestra with Mahmoud Ahmed and Alèmayèhu Eshèté, plus Extra Golden.

If you're a fan of these artists, or Ethiopian/African sounds in general, you know this show is the event you've been waiting for. We've already spoken at length on the joys of WFMU aligning with the Ex in the past; they are among the most freeform and inspiring musicians and people we've had the fortune to experience live and on record. To hear them in full steamroller twin-guitar attack joined by the 73-year old Lion of Ethiopian saxophone is going to be a musical experience we're all gonna remember. More below on the entire fantastic bill (and don't forget the July 4th free Sonic Youth/Feelies show at Battery Park  WFMU is lending support to Downtown Alliance/River to River for!):

Trumpet Love, Part 1

In the last ten years or so the trumpet has been enjoying a renaissance.  There are a number of gifted and innovative trumpet players the world over deconstructing, reinventing and rethinking the instrument in myriad ways.  In the '80s when John Zorn was doing mouthpiece-only duck calls and blowing his sax into a bucket of water, the trumpeters were still playing somewhat straight.  I suppose it was only a matter of time.  What follows is a sample of the breadth of solo trumpet sounds percolating away.  (And if you're interested in delving even further, the astonishingly knowledgeable community over at Bagatellen has accumulated a lot more info such as this.)

First up, Mazen Kerbaj, everyone's favorite Lebanese avant garde/improv trumpet-playing cartoonist.  Aside from doing his very cool blog, Mazen is active in improv in his native Lebanon where he runs the Al Maslakh label, as well as in Europe where he often plays with avant-jazz and improv luminaries.  You may remember his duet with the Israeli army a few summers ago, when he played along with the bombs dropping around his home (Brian Turner's Trumpet vs. Bomb Beware of the Blog post here).  His solo record, Brt Vrt Zrt Krt, is worth checking out as it has a more rhythmic sensibility than many others we'll hear.  And, yes, the title is onomatopoeic. Mazen Kerbaj - Tagadagadaga (from Brt Vrt Zrt Krt) 

Greg Kelley is active in the noise scene both alone and with Bhob Rainey as the inimitable duo Nmperign.  He is a veteran of several No Fun Fests and has done "jazz" records with Flaherty/Corsano as part of Cold Bleak Heat.  While many of the artists profiled herein tend to have a disdain for the traditional, Greg Kelley may be my favorite of the bunch due to his punk aesthetic and general fuck-you attitude when it comes to genre.  Ostensibly borne from jazz, Greg's playing is nothing if not singular.  I am especially enamored of a little record he put out called, If I Never Meet You in This Life, Let Me Feel the Lack on Rossbin, as well as his duo with Alex Nielsen from a few years back on the always messed up Ultra Eczema label, entitled Graveside Doles.  He's put out a ton of stuff worth exploring.  This track comes from a statement-of-purpose record simply called Trumpet.  Greg Kelley - (02.30) (from Trumpet)

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.

Has Andy Breckman Ever Faced a Crowd This Tough?

From Cracked.

Yodel! (MP3s)

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

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

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

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

WFMU's Myspace Band Friends, Vote for yer faves, Round 7!!!

Good morning people! Got some more music goodies this week for you to vote yay or nay to, courtesy of WFMU's hefty list o' buddies at a certain social networking site of which you may have heard. We've got Japanese collagists recycling Missy Eliot, The Ramones recycled by Christians, North American musicians named after recycled French Existentialism 101 exam terms, a track from the guy who put together the Sublime Frequencies "Choubi Choubi" compilation of folk and pop from Iraq, a song named after the capital of Iran, a New Jersey collagist named after a line from one of the greatest teen comedies ever, an atmospheric piece from Germany, and a straight out rocker, just for good measure. Consider it the Earth Day Special... or not....!!!

The band or bands who get the most "Pump it" votes each week will be forever exalted on my FIRST EVER MARATHON PREMIUM called "In MySpace, No One Can Hear You Scream" (you can still pledge to this year's marathon here). Last round's favorites were The Bran Flakes, Slasher Risk, and The Little League! Congratulations, band buddies!!

Who will be next? It's up to you!!!