WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Start with the Umbrella....

 Tony Coulter here, with another batch of recent vinyl finds, topped off, as always, with something for the eyes -- in this case, a few of my favorite record jackets.

Over to you....

The Visible Likeness

 Tony Coulter here, back to present you with another batch of vinyl recordings, all -- in keeping with my self-imposed rules -- found since moving to Portland, OR six months ago. Following seven select tracks from these audio finds, I'll show you a few of my favorite empty record jackets. The image above, by the way, is a detail from one of those jackets -- the complete cover lurks beneath the fold.

Press onward and enjoy!

Dustbin Delights

 Tony Coulter here, with a new batch of vinyl finds -- all acquired since moving to Portland, OR almost six months ago. While previous posts were focused on records from the Northwest, this time 'round I've thrown aside geographical constraints -- i.e., I found 'em here, mostly in thrift stores and dollar bins, but they're from all over. After presenting my favorite tracks from seven of these LPs, I'll finish up with two imaginary record covers.

Enjoy....

_________________________________________________________________________________________

From Mt. Angel Abbey to Olympia, with a Visit to My Closet

 Tony Coulter here, with a fourth post from Portland -- this time bringing you sights and sounds from Oregon and from that other solidly Northwestern state, Washington. All LPs, by the way, were found by me since moving here, and all tracks are things I would have played on FMU. As a special bonus, I'll also show you two strange artifacts I brought with me from my longtime Brooklyn home....

Before I get started, I should tell you that the image of Seattle's Space Needle seen above was created by Jim Cherry for the inside cover of a KYYX-FM compilation LP called Seattle Grown....

Anyway, enjoy!

There'll Always Be Smegma: An Interview with Smegma's Ju Suk Reet Meate

Tony Coulter here, with a third post from Portland, OR -- my new home as of a little more than four months. When I was getting ready to move from Brooklyn, the thing I said to myself whenever fears of being deprived of "kultcha" beset me was, "At least Portland's got Smegma!" So it only seems appropriate that I should post something here on this great, long-lived band, who are most definitely a Portland institution -- whether Portland realizes it or not. What follows is an interview with key Smegma member Ju Suk Reet Meate, at the conclusion of which I've added seven rare Smegma tracks -- the last two unreleased and provided by Mr. Reet Meate himself.

The interview begins right afterr the fold:

From Portland to Sandpoint, Idaho, with a Visit to the Dentist

Tony Coulter here, with a second post from my new digs in Portland, Oregon. I should say right off the bat that if I write about Portland, my intent is not to promote the place as the perfect spot for a hipster jamboree. I happen to have just moved here, so, naturally, Portland's on my mind; if I had moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, I'd be writing about Sandpoint, Idaho. In fact, to prove it, I'll just go ahead and throw in two things Idahoan. After all, Idaho and Oregon are neighbors, aren't they?

Anyhow, I was originally planning to do a post on some of Oregon's musical highlights (from my perspective, of course). I abandoned that as too broad a topic, but if I had done it, I'd have urged you to listen to the Lollipop Shoppe, Beauregarde, the New Tweedy Bros., the New Dawn, Hunger, Smegma, Jungle Nausea, the Parasites of the Western World, and Jackie-O Motherfucker, among others. Digging deeper, I would have recommended Delvin Ford, Bob Desper, and Nun-Plus. 

All of the above have actually already been played on FMU -- so you can check them out by trolling archives of yore.  What I decided to do instead was to highlight some LPs from Oregon and Idaho that I've discovered since moving here four months ago. These are things I would have played on my FMU show if I were still on the air. I will also show you pictures from a high school yearbook I found in a junk shop, and from a book put out by a Berkeley dentist.

Sounds and sights await you past the fold:

First Dispatch from Portland: An Interview with Eurock's Archie Patterson

Wayward son Tony Coulter here, reporting for duty. In August of this year, after 19 years of DJing on FMU, I teleported myself, and all my crap, from Brooklyn, NY, to Portland, OR.  I currently have no plans to do a podcast, but starting today I will be contributing my mumblings to Beware of the Blog on a bi-weekly basis. After little more than three months in Portland I’m still very much a newbie – but, perhaps because Portland is so small compared to NYC, I have already zeroed in on some of its cultural treasures. For my first post, I thought I’d interview one of those treasures, someone who in fact had a big impact on my own musical upbringing: Archie Patterson. 

 

Largely because Archie is one of those people who over the years has been so far ahead of various trends (and non-trends), he’s never really gotten much credit for spotting things before most other people did. (So I forgive you if you’ve never heard of him.) Between 1973 and 1993, he published 45 issues of a music ’zine called Eurock, which during the 70’s was among the very first publications anywhere to consistently champion krautrock groups like Faust, Can, Guru Guru, Amon Düül II, and Tangerine Dream, and to cover the most interesting non-German “progressive” acts -- such as Magma, Heldon, Lard Free/Urban Sax, and Franco Battiato. During the early 80’s Eurock was among the first to cover the DIY/post-punk/cassette underground scene, shining a spotlight in the dark on everything from Pascal Comelade to the Decayes. The ’90s saw a shift to varieties of electronic and new age music that held less interest for me—but, hey, that’s just me.  

Patterson also ran (and still runs!) a distribution service/mail order catalog (likewise dubbed Eurock), which during the 80’s was -- along with Recommended Records, Wayside Music, and a few others -- my main source of great obscuro music. Back then, mail order catalogs were the only way to go, and without them my record collection and my future FMU shows wouldn’t have been what they were. Finally, Archie also ran a label, which put out much-treasured cassettes by the likes of Ilitch, Pascal Comelade, and the Plastic People of the Universe.

It’s easy to forget, now that we can all suck up music and information like so many vacuum cleaners, that getting word and sound out into the world took a lot of hard work in the pre-Internet era. All those small independent labels, distributors, and ’zines (and, of course, radio stations!) shouldn’t be forgotten. During the 70’s and early 80’s, few people in the U.S. were covering the ground Archie was, and for that he deserves eternal credit. With that in mind, what follows is an interview with fellow Portlander, Archie Patterson: