WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Put the Needle, the Baseball Bat and the Canoe, in the River...

Last month, Billy Jam had asked me to help him with a remote broadcast on September 10th, to which I obliged happily, not entirely taking note where it was going to be. I put the date/time in my schedule and was going to get the details closer to the broadcast. I got directions emailed to me a day before the remote and the descriptions "treacherous", "fire trap", "sketchy", "caution", "down the cliff",  and "deadly", were all within the body of this email. As was "X Ray Burns"... I thought to myself "this is either going to be a blast, or it'll be the last day of my life!" I packed my bathing suit and went headfirst into the broadcast that Billy titled "Dirty Jersey: Throw the Needle in the River": featuring Bill Rapp, Wheeler Antabanez, The Two Maks (Weird NJ), X-Ray Burns, Diane Kamikaze, DEMER, & Gentrified. All NJ aficionados, homeboys, homebodies, historians, hooligans or devotees, in their own way. If you haven't checked out the archive of the show, check this minute long YouTube blast for a taste of how the entire 3 hours went down - and literally almost washed down the river if it weren't for some quick troubleshooting by Liz Berg back at the compound.

Make reference to New Jersey's Passaic River in casual conversation and odds are the talk will quickly turn to tales of dead bodies. And it's true: many dead bodies have been found in the dirty New Jersey river which has a more than a justified reputation for dumped corpses surfacing on its polluted surfaces or along it's grungy river banks. In fact just this past weekend the body of a fatally shot Jersey City man was discovered in bordering Newark Bay.  And that body was just the latest in a long line of corpses  found on the Passaic or in the nearby vicinity.

Besides dead bodies, plastic bottles, shredded styrofoam, used condoms, syringes, and just about any other floatable disposable discarded objects you can think of can be seen pass by on the polluted Passaic. Although as X-Ray Burns points out in the interview above, the notoriously dirty Jersey river is not as chronically polluted as it once was. On Friday, September 9th's 3pm to 6pm live remote broadcast from the banks of the Passaic in the town of Kearny hometown native X-Ray Burns, as well as the Two Marks from Weird NJ magazine, and Passaic River adventurerWheeler Antabanez will be among those sharing gritty tales of Dirty Jersey in a show aptly titled "Dirty Jersey: Throw the needle in the River."

The Best Show on WFMU host Tom Scharpling has been up to some pretty major off-mic action. If you've been hiding under a rock for the past week or so, you may have missed Ted Leo's new video for the song "Bottled in Cork" (below), which has just reached Immortal status on the Funny or Die website (with over 100,000 hits!). Spoofing the Green Day broadway musical, American Idiot, the video stars Paul F. Tomkins and John Hodgman, was written and directed by Tom Scharpling, and was produced by WFMU's Hatch. Pitchfork even gave the video some major props, and posted this interview with Scharpling.

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists - "Bottled In Cork" (Official Video) from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

In October of '09 I received a "Castle mail" from one C. Lavender, a sound-collagist/noisemaker and horror fan based in Northern NJ. The emails were gender-neutral (honestly, I assume most noise people are dudes, but that standard is gradually and gratefully changing) and almost business-like. It's significant to note that in the thread that followed, Lavender wrote, "It's a huge dream of any NJ resident who performs weird music to play on WFMU and I felt that your show was a perfect match-up with my interests/music."

Well I finally listened, as can you. C. Lavender delivered nothing less than a true and thoroughly envisioned horrorscape to My Castle of Quiet listeners, live last Friday morning at 12:30 a.m.-ish. The build in Lavender's performance is patient but steady, and all manner of haunted sounds, and far-flung melodies, whizz by, wave and disappear. The dead rumble in their holes, dishonored, and think about digging out to give everybody what for. Maybe later, as we're too comfortable underground. The thread of a crusty electronic loop acts like an unhurried gravedigger's shovel.

This is some seriously great shit, and I can't thank C. Lavender enough, not only for being a true Castle fan, as well as a talented performer, but also for bringing to the show a thoughtful and unique performance, suited ideally to the show's own peculiar sonic bent. She brought the scary, the contemplative, and the running for your life bit, too (in which direction, you're not quite sure.)

The young artist was rattled after such a rendering, as she typically is following a set, and that combined with my usual, charming fumble-bumble caused some to suggest that we did not give good banter. Me and Lavender? Surely you jest. We are the Regis and Kelly of noise, for fuck's sake!

"Whispers in the Woods"? Most certainly. This piece is up there with some of my most-favored eerie, anguished, live sound collage, like the works of Burial Hex and Physical Demon.

Huge thanks to big Bob Bellerue for engineering, and getting a right spoooky mix, even though he was really exhausted and I gave him not one morsel of crack. Thanks as always to Tracy Widdess for messing with my artist photos just right.

(Condo Fucks pic by flickr user alessandra luvisotto)

Who are these upstarts, and how'd they get such gnarly guitar tones?  Until very recently, The Condo Fucks were the New London CT trio behind the regional hit "Fuckin' Gary Sandy"; now they're being flown to sexy Mediterranean locales to play for thousands of screaming European ravers.  What gives?!

Their story is told elsewhere, and often with entertaining attempts at figuring out the true identities of these masked pottymouths.  The trio of Georgia Condo (drums), Kid Condo (guitar), and James McNew (bass) are, of course, Yo La Tengo, the internet smugly declares.  I ain't buying it.

Well, they sure ripped the joint at this year's Primavera Sound Festival.  With the sun slowly going down behind them, they commenced with a bash, burn and holler that didn't let up for 47 minutes.  Kid Condo scorched the air with tones so overheated they could've cooked the meat-drums pummeled to tenderness by Georgia.  On songs like The Electric Eels' "Accident" and Roxy Music's "Remake/Remodel", James McNew (also of the group Dump) shredded his throat to a fine garnish.  By the time it was all over, I felt like I'd been living for a month behind the couch in their rehearsal cave; and when I feel that way, I like to share it.  As broadcast live at the start of our Barcelona broadcast day on Sunday May 29th, here's their entire searing set.

Read on for the set list, some treats, and a contest!

I was at my brother's for his birthday celebration and BBQ earlier today. His house was where the bat "situation" occurred that I wrote about in this forum some time ago.  We discussed the recent losses of Gary Coleman, Dennis Hopper, Art Linkletter, Frank Frazetta and Ronnie James Dio, whose public memorial service was held yesterday in Los Angeles. My cousin hipped me to the fact that Hopper had photographed the Ike & Tina Turner lp cover "River Deep Mountain High", right, and of course, we are all aware of Frazetta's contribution to (record cover) art -here's a pic of the Dust lp from '72. Speaking of album art, I remember being told about DIO's logo being flipped upside down to read DEVIL, that I thought was cool at the time, which explained to me why it was a little clumsily put together--an observation I had from a graphic artist's point of view. See here! The Ronnie James Dio "Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund" is where his wife requests donations be sent if anyone wishes; the goal of the fund is to reduce the risk of developing life threatening cancers by offering access to preventative medical services. His death was almost 25 years to the day after the Hear'n Aid project he launched recorded it's song "Starz", as a heavy metal answer to Live Aid, and raised over $1million to donate to relieve famine in Africa. See Dave the Spazz's post on Dio's early recordings with old pix to boot! Check out Sue P's Solid Gold Hell playlist that has a Dio Tribute also. I personally have not been able to deliver a Dio tribute on the WFMU airwaves, due to being away, and the scheduling of the merged Kamikaze Fun Machine and Solid Gold Hell "Bleeding Ears Fest" last week, so this post will suffice until Dio's birthday, which will be when I honor him through his music. A big thanks to The Bloody Muffs, Napkin, Wizardry, Gorod and Mortals for playing the on-air fest, the proved to be a huge onAir fest weekend for WFMU!

As warmer weather approaches the NYC area, folks come out of hiding. Streets and stoops fill with bodies that for the past 6 months have been cooped up inside 300-sq-ft quarters with windows facing brick walls to finally catch some fresh air and sunlight, and to socialize. In many neighborhoods, the stoop is the fair-weather extension of the living room. It's a plein-air perch to people-watch, to play dominoes, or put back a few beverages (technically drinking alcohol on your own stoop is illegal, but even Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz thinks that rule is whack). A few years ago, I had some neighbors who would even haul their 30" (non-flat-screen) TV out onto the stoop to play video games outdoors or to catch a Yankees game.

The last apartment I lived in was located pretty close to one of Brooklyn's main drags, and it seemed like with each day of nice weather, I would arrive home to discover a new gift left by a passerby, neighbor, or stoop-crasher. Sure, I'd find the occasional half-imbibed tall can of Coors Light, a shoe, and once there was even a middle-aged non-homeless dude passed out on my steps, but here are a few of the more interesting "gifts" left for me to discover on my stoop (that's a crack vial and a ring pop). I'm almost bummed that the stoop of my new place is set back from direct sidewalk access, no treats or surprises this summer. Share your own stoop stories or findings in the comments!

 
 

The Antique Phonograph Music Program's host Michael Cumella (Mac) happens to be a talented videographer, and he captured the glory of WFMU's amazing record library in a short video he produced for Goldmine Magazine. Check out "WFMU, Where Records Go To LIVE!" below, and all hail the black crack!

Staying close to home is a good thing, I thought. I'll hang in NJ tonight, see David Johansen at the  Tabernacle (pictured left) at Mt. Tabor with friends, and call it a night. Well that's exactly what happened, but there's so much more to that ordinary statement. I'd never been to Mt. Tabor, NJ, and after experiencing an evening in the picturesque hamlet, I felt I had to look up it's history. In the Victorian era of the late 1800's, Mt. Tabor (along with Ocean Grove) was founded as a Methodist Camp Meeting community. The town is crammed with beautiful Victorian era cottages, and they are all on plots measuring the original 25' X 16' lot dimensions given  to campers back in the day. I personally had never seen small Victorian style structures before- most of what you see on those cable renovation shows are massive and mansion-like. These were almost gingerbread in their diminutive appearance (the fact that they were small is probably what gave them that quality) and were jammed together like books at  The Strand. The Tabernacle was built in the 1880's originally as a meeting house, and has become appreciated as a venue with crisp, clear sound from every vantage point. It's built in a sort of half circle construction with two center columns and a vaulted ceiling, and has a more than adequate PA for the space installed. Past performers here include, Hot Tuna, Roger McGuinn, Graham Parker, NRBQ and Richard Barone to name a few. Now, add David Johansen, with NY Dolls keyboardist and Harry Smiths member Brian Koonin on accompanying guitar and rhythm combo to the list. The town was quiet and quaint, and the event had the feel of a garage sale more than the average rock gig I frequent. I noticed the box office doors bore signatures of past performers written in sharpie, and volunteers sold coffee, chips and water outside the venue. In plain english- it was a charming setting.

 We had some snow yesterday and today, so I stayed home and drank cocoa and gaslighted the dog. But other people had places to go and tried to get to them on Metro North, which turned out to be a big mistake.

Here's the story: The 8:49 train from Port Jervis to Hoboken departed at 11:48, so right away you know there was a problem. Nevertheless, there were 8 passengers and 3 crew on board. The train was trundling along through the snow and sleet, and then a tree fell across the tracks. So the crew decided to back the train all the way back to Port Jervis, but then another tree had fallen on the tracks behind them, so they couldn't go backwards, either. Instead, they just sat there—FOR 11 HOURS—until some firemen from a nearby town came along and dug them all out the next afternoon. 

I mean, wtf, okay? All the reports I've been able to find on this say that everybody was stuck on the train "with no communications." Does that mean not one passenger had a cell phone? What about the crew? Don't they have radios or walkie-talkies or something? Plus, excuse me, but doesn't anyone at Metro North notice when one of their trains just doesn't show up? How come none of the reporters on this story think this is odd? What about the passengers' families? Didn't anyone try to find any of these missing people?

A train can just disappear, and there's no way for the crew to contact anyone—Is this common knowledge? Am I the only one who wasn't aware of this? Or does this sort of thing only happen on the New Jersey lines? At least that's an explanation I could accept.

Thanks for reading my blogpost this time, and thanks to B. Sansverie for the nice photo of Metro North tracks.

 UPDATE: I think some Listener-Readers may be missing the point just a little bit. So how 'bout this: A Greyhound Bus was stolen from Manhattan last Sunday and sat at a bus stop in Queens for three days before it was "found." Queens=the New Jersey of the Boroughs? 

Oh god...all the TV channels are carrying some boring fucking meeting...apparently it's important since Obama is there and he's super famous and everything, but he's just talking about buying apples and oranges and telling some anecdote about his old junker car.  Obviously I'm buying apples because citrus tastes nasty to me and I don't care about cars since I take the subway.  So I'm changing the channel.  I feel like it's a lot more productive to watch this video about New Brunswick's music scene in the early '80s instead.  Know what I mean?

Rockin' Brunswick - 1983 from Joe Machos on Vimeo.

When Mike Mangino and Chris Shepard started writing music together in the late 1970s, their goal was not to develop a repertoire and play gigs, or even to perform live in front of any audience. Everything they needed was right there in Piscataway NJ: a basement full of musical toys and instruments, novelty space microphones, a TR-606 (the same "Roland" who was listed as a member of Big Black), a SH-09 (Cabaret Voltaire's favorite synth), and -- perhaps most importantly -- a tape recorder. Every Monday night, they'd write a new song from scratch. A couple hours later, the song was recorded, never to be performed again.

By 1981, this dedication to spontaneous creativity had already produced countless recordings, and the duo began releasing cassettes as Smersh via their own Atlas King label. A definitive Smersh discography may not even be possible, but this one lists more than 30 Atlas King cassettes. As these tapes traded their way across continents, Smersh developed a devoted following in places far beyond Piscataway, leading to releases on dozens of other labels from across the globe. A 15 song sampler featuring some of the many highlights from Smersh's vast discography, spanning 1983-1993, is now available from the Free Music Archive (and at right). My obsession with Smersh began relatively recently, when I first heard the song "Sweet Little Bishop" in the WFMU library, off a 7'' released by Sweden's Börft label in 1991 (listen). Then it got stuck in my head for several days straight. My subconscious couldn't remember what it was at first, mixed it up with some bizarre Prince song. But then i remembered that mysterious Smersh 7'' -- the one that stood out amongst the other Börft stuff in the library (Swedish artists like Frak and Enhänta Bödlar, who are also uncategorizable and each worthy of their own post!). I set about tracking down as much info as possible find about Smersh...

What sets Anthony Saunders' sonic creations apart from the hundreds of other performers using a table of pedals and mic'd-up metal accoutrements? For one, an intense performer's energy (which almost burst when I tried to make a few gig announcements—sorry, man, I still feel terrible about that!) Add to this a lifelong obsession with brutal sounds (including being one-half of Dataclast), combined with a true musician's meticulousness and finesse. The tentative, delicate passages in Explosive Improvised Device make the crashes and clusters that much more arresting. Power electronics to be sure, but informed by Bayle, Parmegiani and Varèse.

EID's My Castle of Quiet session will likely be released on tape or vinyl in the near future, but with Anthony's obsessive cutting, layering and EQing, there's almost no chance of the final release sounding quite like it does here ---

Terrify the Holy Hearts

The Woman Took Me To Her World and Blessed Me With Her Tongue

Thanks to Glenn L for making it all sound extra-purty for the airwaves.

Thanks to Tracy for making my crap photo of Anthony look like a still from Begotten.

EID's performance on WFMU-FM's My Castle of Quiet is shared by way of a creative commons attribution-non commercial-no derivatives license.

Billy Jam says:

New Jersey explorer, writer, photographer, filmmaker, welder, artist, skateboarder, avid Passaic River canoe traveler, graffiti lover, urban anthropologist, prankster, high school dropout, WFMU listener, Weird NJ contributor, and as he calls himself "run of the mill trespasser" are all titles befitting Wheeler Antabanez who will be a guest on WFMU today (Nov 20th 3-6pm) on Put The Needle On The Record when he will talk about his passion - New Jersey, especially the rundown abandoned funky parts - and take phone calls from listeners on exploring the abandoned buildings of the Garden State. But in the meantime, as a primer for his WFMU appearance, here are a sampling of video clips of some of Wheeler's adventures plus his interview with Beware Of The Blog (BOTB).



BOTB: Are you NJ born and bred, and when & where did you first start your explorations?

WHEELER: I grew up in Caldwell, which put me in easy bicycle range of the abandoned Essex Mountain Sanatorium. My friends and I happened upon the hospital while we were exploring the woods in North Caldwell behind Matarazzo’s Farm. The first thing we saw was the entrance column with a huge swastika spray painted across the front. It was in the peak of summer, the buildings were completely overgrown, and Overbrook, which is what we used to call it back then, was the scariest thing I had ever seen. It didn’t take us long to grow the balls to enter the building. By the time I was 15 or 16 I knew the layout so well it was almost like I owned the place. In those days I had an M17 BB gun hidden in the rafters above the auditorium. When I walked the halls with that weapon in my hand, I felt like nothing could hurt me, even on the darkest midnights. Looking back, I was lucky to have never been shot by the sheriffs’ officers on patrol, because the gun looked real. The best part was the innocence of our destruction. We found the place long after it had already been trashed by generations of teenagers, so it didn’t seem like a crime to break the windows, or smash the toilets. Over the years I’ve worked many construction jobs and smashed up plenty of plumbing. Somehow demolition has never seemed like much fun compared to when I used to run wild through the sanatorium.

BOTB: Is NJ truly a haven for all things weird and funky and abandoned?

Billy Jam sez:

In the first part of this series (posted a week ago) I included an MP3 of people on the streets of Jersey City speaking on their knowledge (or lack thereof) of the origins of the name of New Jersey. This time I am including an sample of what the folks I stopped on the streets of St. Hélier in "old" Jersey had to say when quizzed on their knowledge of New Jersey (MP3). I am also including my new favorite old Jersey song which sums up so perfectly the unique and special place that is the small island of Jersey, Hedley Le Maistre's "Jersey, Mon Vie!" (MP3).

Friday, October 2nd's WFMU live remote broadcast (during Doug Schulkind's timeslot) from Jersey's capital of St. Hélier during the Channel Island's 2nd annual Branchage Film Festival was an amazingly wonderful event to be a part of, and a rewarding one on many levels. First off it was a really great idea of the festival's director Xanthe Hamilton to link "old" Jersey with New Jersey via WFMU - something she presented to a receptive FMU station manager Ken Freedman about five months ago, and whose concept grew in scope since. And secondly for the dialog it began between the two Jerseys - one which we hope to keep going on the air here at WFMU. Expect to regularly hear "Jersey Bites" on Friday afternoons during the new WFMU Fall/Winter season which kicked into effect Monday, October 12th.

If you missed last week's broadcast it is archived - in playlist and audio forms - here, and includes a wide variety of guests getting on the FMU airwaves to share insights on the island of Jersey; a place that may only be 45 square miles in size but is incredibly rich in culture and history. A British Crown dependency the Bailiwick of Jersey, as it is officially known, is 100 miles south of England and lies only 14 miles west of the coast of Normandy, under whose rule it was once governed.

The WFMU remote show guests included Philip Malet de Carteret whose ancestors - several centuries ago - owned the land now known as the Garden State and were the ones responsible for giving New Jersey its name. The interview I conducted with him at his historic manor in the parish of St.Ouen (Jersey is divided into parishes, not counties) ran a lot longer than the segment included in the remote broadcast. Hence snippets of it will be played over the coming months on the air. Same for the organic Jersey dairy farmer Ian Mitchell, who was a live guest during the October 2nd remote but whose farm I visited the following day (see video below) and recorded more footage about the Jersey cow (a highly intelligent & unusally friendly animal) and its rich dairy product.

Billy Jam sez:

If you stop people on the streets of Jersey City and quiz them about the origins of the name of the Garden State, the majority will be unaware of the island of Jersey - the British Crown Dependency located in the Channel Islands off the coast of Normandy. I know because recently I did exactly this: I interviewed a sampling of Jersey City folks on the street near the WFMU studios (MP3). 

I will be playing back this vox pop on Friday (Oct 2nd) between 9am and 12 noon (NJ time) during the WFMU live remote broadcast from Weighbridge Square on the harbour-front in St Helier (Old Jersey's capitol), during day two of the four-day Branchage Film Festival in Old Jersey.

In addition to talking on the air with the film festival's director Xanthe Hamilton and many others about the festival that also involves music, I will be talking with several authorities on the relationship between Old Jersey and New Jersey. These will include Philip Malet de Carteret whose ancestors are literally responsible for New Jersey. Back in 1663 King Charles II rewarded the de Carterets for their loyalty during the Civil War by gifting them with a large tract of land in North America. That tract of land would become New Jersey.

Also to be interviewed will be Rod McLaughlin - an acclaimed Jersey historian who will speak on Jersey's status as a Crown Dependency, how it was once under French rule, its occupation by the Nazis, and its relationship to New Jersey. Jersey cow farmer Ian Mitchell, who will bring along samples of some dairy products derived from the rich creamy Jersey milk, will discuss Jersey's popular export.

And in conjunction with BBC Jersey, who are producing the festival's Shear Music showcase of local talent, I have invited numerous Old Jersey artists including Jjjiiim, Jersey Bob, and Wizard & Frog to come on the air live to perform. There are many more guests expected on this WFMU remote broadcast but who knows just what might happen on freeform FMU. Tune in to find out on Friday 9am to 12 noon (Doug's normal slot) on WFMU. For exact details on the Branchage Film Festival click here. And check back here on the WFMU blog for updates from Jersey on the Branchage Film Festival. 

- Billy Jam

The Arbitrary Guide to Popular Culture is back!

WFMU's local events guide underwent a minor facelift and is now ready to show you a good time. It may even help you predict where Marty Markowitz (right) will turn up next...

Hit the Arb Guide to check out what's going on in NYC & NJ, and find something to do this weekend! Special thanks to Ari and Jeff for helping out.

WFMU has just added yet another podcast to our growing roster...

The Rampler with Frank Edward Nora

From the streets of NYC and also in-studio, a unique, pleasantly insane talk show about pop culture, food, technology, the mysteries of the universe, and a whole lot more. Subscribe to The Rampler podcast via iTunes by clicking here (or visit WFMU's podcast page for more options).

 This was scrawled on the wall of a post office I frequent. I can't say that MAIL is my biggest complaint in the world, but maybe I'm alone in that thought.

Looking for dead bodies in the Passaic with X-Ray & Wheeler

Make reference to New Jersey's Passaic River in casual conversation and odds are the talk will quickly turn to tales of dead bodies. And it's true: many dead bodies have been found in the dirty New Jersey river which has a more than a justified reputation for dumped corpses surfacing on its polluted surfaces or along it's grungy river banks. In fact just this past weekend the body of a fatally shot Jersey City man was discovered in bordering Newark Bay.  And that body was just the latest in a long line of corpses  found on the Passaic or in the nearby vicinity.

Besides dead bodies, plastic bottles, shredded styrofoam, used condoms, syringes, and just about any other floatable disposable discarded objects you can think of can be seen pass by on the polluted Passaic. Although as X-Ray Burns points out in the interview above, the notoriously dirty Jersey river is not as chronically polluted as it once was. On Friday, September 9th's 3pm to 6pm live remote broadcast from the banks of the Passaic in the town of Kearny hometown native X-Ray Burns, as well as the Two Marks from Weird NJ magazine, and Passaic River adventurerWheeler Antabanez will be among those sharing gritty tales of Dirty Jersey in a show aptly titled "Dirty Jersey: Throw the needle in the River."

Tom Scharpling-directed Ted Leo vid reaches immortal status!

The Best Show on WFMU host Tom Scharpling has been up to some pretty major off-mic action. If you've been hiding under a rock for the past week or so, you may have missed Ted Leo's new video for the song "Bottled in Cork" (below), which has just reached Immortal status on the Funny or Die website (with over 100,000 hits!). Spoofing the Green Day broadway musical, American Idiot, the video stars Paul F. Tomkins and John Hodgman, was written and directed by Tom Scharpling, and was produced by WFMU's Hatch. Pitchfork even gave the video some major props, and posted this interview with Scharpling.

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists - "Bottled In Cork" (Official Video) from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

Stay the Fuck Out of the Woods! C. Lavender live on My Castle of Quiet, 7.16.2010

In October of '09 I received a "Castle mail" from one C. Lavender, a sound-collagist/noisemaker and horror fan based in Northern NJ. The emails were gender-neutral (honestly, I assume most noise people are dudes, but that standard is gradually and gratefully changing) and almost business-like. It's significant to note that in the thread that followed, Lavender wrote, "It's a huge dream of any NJ resident who performs weird music to play on WFMU and I felt that your show was a perfect match-up with my interests/music."

Well I finally listened, as can you. C. Lavender delivered nothing less than a true and thoroughly envisioned horrorscape to My Castle of Quiet listeners, live last Friday morning at 12:30 a.m.-ish. The build in Lavender's performance is patient but steady, and all manner of haunted sounds, and far-flung melodies, whizz by, wave and disappear. The dead rumble in their holes, dishonored, and think about digging out to give everybody what for. Maybe later, as we're too comfortable underground. The thread of a crusty electronic loop acts like an unhurried gravedigger's shovel.

This is some seriously great shit, and I can't thank C. Lavender enough, not only for being a true Castle fan, as well as a talented performer, but also for bringing to the show a thoughtful and unique performance, suited ideally to the show's own peculiar sonic bent. She brought the scary, the contemplative, and the running for your life bit, too (in which direction, you're not quite sure.)

The young artist was rattled after such a rendering, as she typically is following a set, and that combined with my usual, charming fumble-bumble caused some to suggest that we did not give good banter. Me and Lavender? Surely you jest. We are the Regis and Kelly of noise, for fuck's sake!

"Whispers in the Woods"? Most certainly. This piece is up there with some of my most-favored eerie, anguished, live sound collage, like the works of Burial Hex and Physical Demon.

Huge thanks to big Bob Bellerue for engineering, and getting a right spoooky mix, even though he was really exhausted and I gave him not one morsel of crack. Thanks as always to Tracy Widdess for messing with my artist photos just right.

Primavera Sound Recap: Condo Fucks

(Condo Fucks pic by flickr user alessandra luvisotto)

Who are these upstarts, and how'd they get such gnarly guitar tones?  Until very recently, The Condo Fucks were the New London CT trio behind the regional hit "Fuckin' Gary Sandy"; now they're being flown to sexy Mediterranean locales to play for thousands of screaming European ravers.  What gives?!

Their story is told elsewhere, and often with entertaining attempts at figuring out the true identities of these masked pottymouths.  The trio of Georgia Condo (drums), Kid Condo (guitar), and James McNew (bass) are, of course, Yo La Tengo, the internet smugly declares.  I ain't buying it.

Well, they sure ripped the joint at this year's Primavera Sound Festival.  With the sun slowly going down behind them, they commenced with a bash, burn and holler that didn't let up for 47 minutes.  Kid Condo scorched the air with tones so overheated they could've cooked the meat-drums pummeled to tenderness by Georgia.  On songs like The Electric Eels' "Accident" and Roxy Music's "Remake/Remodel", James McNew (also of the group Dump) shredded his throat to a fine garnish.  By the time it was all over, I felt like I'd been living for a month behind the couch in their rehearsal cave; and when I feel that way, I like to share it.  As broadcast live at the start of our Barcelona broadcast day on Sunday May 29th, here's their entire searing set.

Read on for the set list, some treats, and a contest!

LP Cover Art, and Ronnie James Dio

I was at my brother's for his birthday celebration and BBQ earlier today. His house was where the bat "situation" occurred that I wrote about in this forum some time ago.  We discussed the recent losses of Gary Coleman, Dennis Hopper, Art Linkletter, Frank Frazetta and Ronnie James Dio, whose public memorial service was held yesterday in Los Angeles. My cousin hipped me to the fact that Hopper had photographed the Ike & Tina Turner lp cover "River Deep Mountain High", right, and of course, we are all aware of Frazetta's contribution to (record cover) art -here's a pic of the Dust lp from '72. Speaking of album art, I remember being told about DIO's logo being flipped upside down to read DEVIL, that I thought was cool at the time, which explained to me why it was a little clumsily put together--an observation I had from a graphic artist's point of view. See here! The Ronnie James Dio "Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund" is where his wife requests donations be sent if anyone wishes; the goal of the fund is to reduce the risk of developing life threatening cancers by offering access to preventative medical services. His death was almost 25 years to the day after the Hear'n Aid project he launched recorded it's song "Starz", as a heavy metal answer to Live Aid, and raised over $1million to donate to relieve famine in Africa. See Dave the Spazz's post on Dio's early recordings with old pix to boot! Check out Sue P's Solid Gold Hell playlist that has a Dio Tribute also. I personally have not been able to deliver a Dio tribute on the WFMU airwaves, due to being away, and the scheduling of the merged Kamikaze Fun Machine and Solid Gold Hell "Bleeding Ears Fest" last week, so this post will suffice until Dio's birthday, which will be when I honor him through his music. A big thanks to The Bloody Muffs, Napkin, Wizardry, Gorod and Mortals for playing the on-air fest, the proved to be a huge onAir fest weekend for WFMU!

What's on your stoop?

As warmer weather approaches the NYC area, folks come out of hiding. Streets and stoops fill with bodies that for the past 6 months have been cooped up inside 300-sq-ft quarters with windows facing brick walls to finally catch some fresh air and sunlight, and to socialize. In many neighborhoods, the stoop is the fair-weather extension of the living room. It's a plein-air perch to people-watch, to play dominoes, or put back a few beverages (technically drinking alcohol on your own stoop is illegal, but even Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz thinks that rule is whack). A few years ago, I had some neighbors who would even haul their 30" (non-flat-screen) TV out onto the stoop to play video games outdoors or to catch a Yankees game.

The last apartment I lived in was located pretty close to one of Brooklyn's main drags, and it seemed like with each day of nice weather, I would arrive home to discover a new gift left by a passerby, neighbor, or stoop-crasher. Sure, I'd find the occasional half-imbibed tall can of Coors Light, a shoe, and once there was even a middle-aged non-homeless dude passed out on my steps, but here are a few of the more interesting "gifts" left for me to discover on my stoop (that's a crack vial and a ring pop). I'm almost bummed that the stoop of my new place is set back from direct sidewalk access, no treats or surprises this summer. Share your own stoop stories or findings in the comments!

 
 

WFMU's Record Library stars in new video

The Antique Phonograph Music Program's host Michael Cumella (Mac) happens to be a talented videographer, and he captured the glory of WFMU's amazing record library in a short video he produced for Goldmine Magazine. Check out "WFMU, Where Records Go To LIVE!" below, and all hail the black crack!

David Johansen, Methodist Camps and WFMU- 1 Degree of Separation or Less

Staying close to home is a good thing, I thought. I'll hang in NJ tonight, see David Johansen at the  Tabernacle (pictured left) at Mt. Tabor with friends, and call it a night. Well that's exactly what happened, but there's so much more to that ordinary statement. I'd never been to Mt. Tabor, NJ, and after experiencing an evening in the picturesque hamlet, I felt I had to look up it's history. In the Victorian era of the late 1800's, Mt. Tabor (along with Ocean Grove) was founded as a Methodist Camp Meeting community. The town is crammed with beautiful Victorian era cottages, and they are all on plots measuring the original 25' X 16' lot dimensions given  to campers back in the day. I personally had never seen small Victorian style structures before- most of what you see on those cable renovation shows are massive and mansion-like. These were almost gingerbread in their diminutive appearance (the fact that they were small is probably what gave them that quality) and were jammed together like books at  The Strand. The Tabernacle was built in the 1880's originally as a meeting house, and has become appreciated as a venue with crisp, clear sound from every vantage point. It's built in a sort of half circle construction with two center columns and a vaulted ceiling, and has a more than adequate PA for the space installed. Past performers here include, Hot Tuna, Roger McGuinn, Graham Parker, NRBQ and Richard Barone to name a few. Now, add David Johansen, with NY Dolls keyboardist and Harry Smiths member Brian Koonin on accompanying guitar and rhythm combo to the list. The town was quiet and quaint, and the event had the feel of a garage sale more than the average rock gig I frequent. I noticed the box office doors bore signatures of past performers written in sharpie, and volunteers sold coffee, chips and water outside the venue. In plain english- it was a charming setting.

Icenarok '10 on Metro North

 We had some snow yesterday and today, so I stayed home and drank cocoa and gaslighted the dog. But other people had places to go and tried to get to them on Metro North, which turned out to be a big mistake.

Here's the story: The 8:49 train from Port Jervis to Hoboken departed at 11:48, so right away you know there was a problem. Nevertheless, there were 8 passengers and 3 crew on board. The train was trundling along through the snow and sleet, and then a tree fell across the tracks. So the crew decided to back the train all the way back to Port Jervis, but then another tree had fallen on the tracks behind them, so they couldn't go backwards, either. Instead, they just sat there—FOR 11 HOURS—until some firemen from a nearby town came along and dug them all out the next afternoon. 

I mean, wtf, okay? All the reports I've been able to find on this say that everybody was stuck on the train "with no communications." Does that mean not one passenger had a cell phone? What about the crew? Don't they have radios or walkie-talkies or something? Plus, excuse me, but doesn't anyone at Metro North notice when one of their trains just doesn't show up? How come none of the reporters on this story think this is odd? What about the passengers' families? Didn't anyone try to find any of these missing people?

A train can just disappear, and there's no way for the crew to contact anyone—Is this common knowledge? Am I the only one who wasn't aware of this? Or does this sort of thing only happen on the New Jersey lines? At least that's an explanation I could accept.

Thanks for reading my blogpost this time, and thanks to B. Sansverie for the nice photo of Metro North tracks.

 UPDATE: I think some Listener-Readers may be missing the point just a little bit. So how 'bout this: A Greyhound Bus was stolen from Manhattan last Sunday and sat at a bus stop in Queens for three days before it was "found." Queens=the New Jersey of the Boroughs? 

Rockin' New Brunswick '83 (video)

Oh god...all the TV channels are carrying some boring fucking meeting...apparently it's important since Obama is there and he's super famous and everything, but he's just talking about buying apples and oranges and telling some anecdote about his old junker car.  Obviously I'm buying apples because citrus tastes nasty to me and I don't care about cars since I take the subway.  So I'm changing the channel.  I feel like it's a lot more productive to watch this video about New Brunswick's music scene in the early '80s instead.  Know what I mean?

Rockin' Brunswick - 1983 from Joe Machos on Vimeo.

Smersh: NJ's Prolific Legends of the Cassette Underground (mp3s)

When Mike Mangino and Chris Shepard started writing music together in the late 1970s, their goal was not to develop a repertoire and play gigs, or even to perform live in front of any audience. Everything they needed was right there in Piscataway NJ: a basement full of musical toys and instruments, novelty space microphones, a TR-606 (the same "Roland" who was listed as a member of Big Black), a SH-09 (Cabaret Voltaire's favorite synth), and -- perhaps most importantly -- a tape recorder. Every Monday night, they'd write a new song from scratch. A couple hours later, the song was recorded, never to be performed again.

By 1981, this dedication to spontaneous creativity had already produced countless recordings, and the duo began releasing cassettes as Smersh via their own Atlas King label. A definitive Smersh discography may not even be possible, but this one lists more than 30 Atlas King cassettes. As these tapes traded their way across continents, Smersh developed a devoted following in places far beyond Piscataway, leading to releases on dozens of other labels from across the globe. A 15 song sampler featuring some of the many highlights from Smersh's vast discography, spanning 1983-1993, is now available from the Free Music Archive (and at right). My obsession with Smersh began relatively recently, when I first heard the song "Sweet Little Bishop" in the WFMU library, off a 7'' released by Sweden's Börft label in 1991 (listen). Then it got stuck in my head for several days straight. My subconscious couldn't remember what it was at first, mixed it up with some bizarre Prince song. But then i remembered that mysterious Smersh 7'' -- the one that stood out amongst the other Börft stuff in the library (Swedish artists like Frak and Enhänta Bödlar, who are also uncategorizable and each worthy of their own post!). I set about tracking down as much info as possible find about Smersh...

Explosive Improvised Device, My Castle of Quiet session 20thJan2010

What sets Anthony Saunders' sonic creations apart from the hundreds of other performers using a table of pedals and mic'd-up metal accoutrements? For one, an intense performer's energy (which almost burst when I tried to make a few gig announcements—sorry, man, I still feel terrible about that!) Add to this a lifelong obsession with brutal sounds (including being one-half of Dataclast), combined with a true musician's meticulousness and finesse. The tentative, delicate passages in Explosive Improvised Device make the crashes and clusters that much more arresting. Power electronics to be sure, but informed by Bayle, Parmegiani and Varèse.

EID's My Castle of Quiet session will likely be released on tape or vinyl in the near future, but with Anthony's obsessive cutting, layering and EQing, there's almost no chance of the final release sounding quite like it does here ---

Terrify the Holy Hearts

The Woman Took Me To Her World and Blessed Me With Her Tongue

Thanks to Glenn L for making it all sound extra-purty for the airwaves.

Thanks to Tracy for making my crap photo of Anthony look like a still from Begotten.

EID's performance on WFMU-FM's My Castle of Quiet is shared by way of a creative commons attribution-non commercial-no derivatives license.

Weird NJ contributor Wheeler Antabanez

Billy Jam says:

New Jersey explorer, writer, photographer, filmmaker, welder, artist, skateboarder, avid Passaic River canoe traveler, graffiti lover, urban anthropologist, prankster, high school dropout, WFMU listener, Weird NJ contributor, and as he calls himself "run of the mill trespasser" are all titles befitting Wheeler Antabanez who will be a guest on WFMU today (Nov 20th 3-6pm) on Put The Needle On The Record when he will talk about his passion - New Jersey, especially the rundown abandoned funky parts - and take phone calls from listeners on exploring the abandoned buildings of the Garden State. But in the meantime, as a primer for his WFMU appearance, here are a sampling of video clips of some of Wheeler's adventures plus his interview with Beware Of The Blog (BOTB).



BOTB: Are you NJ born and bred, and when & where did you first start your explorations?

WHEELER: I grew up in Caldwell, which put me in easy bicycle range of the abandoned Essex Mountain Sanatorium. My friends and I happened upon the hospital while we were exploring the woods in North Caldwell behind Matarazzo’s Farm. The first thing we saw was the entrance column with a huge swastika spray painted across the front. It was in the peak of summer, the buildings were completely overgrown, and Overbrook, which is what we used to call it back then, was the scariest thing I had ever seen. It didn’t take us long to grow the balls to enter the building. By the time I was 15 or 16 I knew the layout so well it was almost like I owned the place. In those days I had an M17 BB gun hidden in the rafters above the auditorium. When I walked the halls with that weapon in my hand, I felt like nothing could hurt me, even on the darkest midnights. Looking back, I was lucky to have never been shot by the sheriffs’ officers on patrol, because the gun looked real. The best part was the innocence of our destruction. We found the place long after it had already been trashed by generations of teenagers, so it didn’t seem like a crime to break the windows, or smash the toilets. Over the years I’ve worked many construction jobs and smashed up plenty of plumbing. Somehow demolition has never seemed like much fun compared to when I used to run wild through the sanatorium.

BOTB: Is NJ truly a haven for all things weird and funky and abandoned?

Old Jersey vs. New Jersey, Part 2

Billy Jam sez:

In the first part of this series (posted a week ago) I included an MP3 of people on the streets of Jersey City speaking on their knowledge (or lack thereof) of the origins of the name of New Jersey. This time I am including an sample of what the folks I stopped on the streets of St. Hélier in "old" Jersey had to say when quizzed on their knowledge of New Jersey (MP3). I am also including my new favorite old Jersey song which sums up so perfectly the unique and special place that is the small island of Jersey, Hedley Le Maistre's "Jersey, Mon Vie!" (MP3).

Friday, October 2nd's WFMU live remote broadcast (during Doug Schulkind's timeslot) from Jersey's capital of St. Hélier during the Channel Island's 2nd annual Branchage Film Festival was an amazingly wonderful event to be a part of, and a rewarding one on many levels. First off it was a really great idea of the festival's director Xanthe Hamilton to link "old" Jersey with New Jersey via WFMU - something she presented to a receptive FMU station manager Ken Freedman about five months ago, and whose concept grew in scope since. And secondly for the dialog it began between the two Jerseys - one which we hope to keep going on the air here at WFMU. Expect to regularly hear "Jersey Bites" on Friday afternoons during the new WFMU Fall/Winter season which kicked into effect Monday, October 12th.

If you missed last week's broadcast it is archived - in playlist and audio forms - here, and includes a wide variety of guests getting on the FMU airwaves to share insights on the island of Jersey; a place that may only be 45 square miles in size but is incredibly rich in culture and history. A British Crown dependency the Bailiwick of Jersey, as it is officially known, is 100 miles south of England and lies only 14 miles west of the coast of Normandy, under whose rule it was once governed.

The WFMU remote show guests included Philip Malet de Carteret whose ancestors - several centuries ago - owned the land now known as the Garden State and were the ones responsible for giving New Jersey its name. The interview I conducted with him at his historic manor in the parish of St.Ouen (Jersey is divided into parishes, not counties) ran a lot longer than the segment included in the remote broadcast. Hence snippets of it will be played over the coming months on the air. Same for the organic Jersey dairy farmer Ian Mitchell, who was a live guest during the October 2nd remote but whose farm I visited the following day (see video below) and recorded more footage about the Jersey cow (a highly intelligent & unusally friendly animal) and its rich dairy product.

Old Jersey vs. New Jersey: WFMU On Location

Billy Jam sez:

If you stop people on the streets of Jersey City and quiz them about the origins of the name of the Garden State, the majority will be unaware of the island of Jersey - the British Crown Dependency located in the Channel Islands off the coast of Normandy. I know because recently I did exactly this: I interviewed a sampling of Jersey City folks on the street near the WFMU studios (MP3). 

I will be playing back this vox pop on Friday (Oct 2nd) between 9am and 12 noon (NJ time) during the WFMU live remote broadcast from Weighbridge Square on the harbour-front in St Helier (Old Jersey's capitol), during day two of the four-day Branchage Film Festival in Old Jersey.

In addition to talking on the air with the film festival's director Xanthe Hamilton and many others about the festival that also involves music, I will be talking with several authorities on the relationship between Old Jersey and New Jersey. These will include Philip Malet de Carteret whose ancestors are literally responsible for New Jersey. Back in 1663 King Charles II rewarded the de Carterets for their loyalty during the Civil War by gifting them with a large tract of land in North America. That tract of land would become New Jersey.

Also to be interviewed will be Rod McLaughlin - an acclaimed Jersey historian who will speak on Jersey's status as a Crown Dependency, how it was once under French rule, its occupation by the Nazis, and its relationship to New Jersey. Jersey cow farmer Ian Mitchell, who will bring along samples of some dairy products derived from the rich creamy Jersey milk, will discuss Jersey's popular export.

And in conjunction with BBC Jersey, who are producing the festival's Shear Music showcase of local talent, I have invited numerous Old Jersey artists including Jjjiiim, Jersey Bob, and Wizard & Frog to come on the air live to perform. There are many more guests expected on this WFMU remote broadcast but who knows just what might happen on freeform FMU. Tune in to find out on Friday 9am to 12 noon (Doug's normal slot) on WFMU. For exact details on the Branchage Film Festival click here. And check back here on the WFMU blog for updates from Jersey on the Branchage Film Festival. 

- Billy Jam

Reintroducing WFMU's Local Events Guide

The Arbitrary Guide to Popular Culture is back!

WFMU's local events guide underwent a minor facelift and is now ready to show you a good time. It may even help you predict where Marty Markowitz (right) will turn up next...

Hit the Arb Guide to check out what's going on in NYC & NJ, and find something to do this weekend! Special thanks to Ari and Jeff for helping out.

New Podcast: The Rampler with Frank Edward Nora

WFMU has just added yet another podcast to our growing roster...

The Rampler with Frank Edward Nora

From the streets of NYC and also in-studio, a unique, pleasantly insane talk show about pop culture, food, technology, the mysteries of the universe, and a whole lot more. Subscribe to The Rampler podcast via iTunes by clicking here (or visit WFMU's podcast page for more options).

Highlights from Wildwood, N.J. - 1994

Seen, but not really believed...

 This was scrawled on the wall of a post office I frequent. I can't say that MAIL is my biggest complaint in the world, but maybe I'm alone in that thought.