WFMU's Beware of the Blog

"Hair" In Japanese (MP3s)

Having already damned this blog for all time with the Japanese Jesus Christ Superstar and the Norwegian Rocky Horror Picture Show, I hereby present to you MP3s of the 1971 Japanese cast of Hair, courtesy of the collection of the late great WFMU DJ and Hair aficionado Mister Boyd. I've put the Age of Aquarius at the end because they had the audacity to sing that one in English. There are some key songs missing from this production, but the inexplicable mis- charmingly accurate titling of some songs ("The Flesh Failures?!") compensates for any musical gaps.

Donna   |   Manchester England   |   Dead End

I'm Black - Ain't Got No   |   Sheila Franklin - Ain't Got No Grass   |   I Got Life

Hair   |   Frank Mills   |   Be In   |   Where Do I Go   |   Electric Blues

Going Down   |   Walking In Space   |   Three Five Zero Zero

Good Morning Starshine   |   The Flesh Failures (Let The Sunshine In)

Aquarius

New Crapola in WFMU's Online Store!

To ring in the annual consumption season, WFMU has just added more goodies to our online store. If you missed out on some of our swag offerings from prior Marathons and kicked yourself for being such a dummy, now is your chance to finally acquire those coveted items once and for all.

New additions include our fabulous wall clock, stunning CD wallet, ginormous car magnet, and "Monkey Brain Tonic" t-shirt. If that credit card hasn't leapt out of your wallet yet, check out our stickers, live music CDs, fashionable t-shirts, and other random junk. Remember that WFMU paraphernalia always makes a good gift!

Simply Saucer: No Glass Tiger References Please

As Superdope/Agony Shorthand scribe Jay Hinman so eloquently put it in a comprehensive piece on the Perfect Sound Forever site, Simply Saucer may have been "the single greatest 1970's band to influence absolutely no one." Toiling in sub-obscurity in the steel town of Hamilton, Ontario, the band's mastermind Edgar Breau put his Velvet Underground, Pink Fairies, Sun Ra, Krautrock, and Stockhausen obsessions into full swing way ahead of the coll-rock curve that started liberally referencing all that stuff in the next decade. The reason for their lack of presence on the underground scene most likely was due to the fact there wasn't much recorded material, or maybe there was just no impetus to move things forward in a time where anyone who didn't move to a large city basically languished. Unlike today. In 1988 or 89 I read Byron Coley talk up these guys in his SPIN Underground column, and eventually that year I found an LP called Cyborgs Revisited made up of half-studio, half live tracks (the studio recordings done in a Hamilton basement by pre-fame Daniel Lanois and his brother Bob) and it killed as much as I had imagined it would, even more. First off, Simply Saucer's name was somewhat of an ode to Pink Floyd, and you can tell which Floyd era these guys grooved on (or, more to the point what song: "Interstellar Overdrive.")

Blip Festival in NYC this week

If you dig video game music, glitchcore, and 8-bit graphics and happen to be in the NYC area this weekend, don't miss out on the annual Blip Festival.

Running tonight through Sunday, festival performers include YMCK, C-64 master Jeroen Tel, and Hally, whom our own Jason Forrest described as "the most advanced chip-hacker I've ever met or even heard of. Do you want screaming heavy-metal-finger-hammering guitar solos as done by a guy with a gameboy? He's your man..." The schedule also includes screenings of 8 Bit and Super Mario Movie.

Thanks to Steinski for the heads-up!

can you ever forgive me?

So much time, so very much time has passed since I was...oh...so supposed to write this.  I know I have let you down in a very presidential way, but I think I can give you one picture to restore your faith in me:

Does that do it?  If not then maybe actually going to the Tropicalia: a Revolution in Brazilian Culture show at the  newly expanded Bronx Museum of Art would be the only thing left that could shake you out of your wounded funk. (On view only until the end of January).  This show, fresh from the Barbican Gallery in London, has been already noted in various spaces and places, but nowhere does it mention that it is exactly what is needed right now.  I am so sick of death, war, eminent water shortages, plummeting test scores and a lack of modern heroism in political leadership that I was very willing to retreat for an afternoon to a strangely numbing time of life under a Brazilian dictatorship before the shit hit the fan, and everyone was still o' so stylish, crazy, and out of prison.

Tropicalia: a Revolution in Brazilian Culture has loads of great musical video clips, visual artists who have never shown in this country or who are grossly under-represented in their fabulousness (Lygia Clark), and the next wave of visual fantasticness (assume vivid astro focus) to counter the supposed 'mere' musical (Os Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Tom Ze) quotient of the show and expose the cultural cannibalism that was running amok in 60's Brazil, much to the dismay of the generals in charge.  Post-modern before its time,  Tropicalia Brazil was a fascinating mix of western, ancient and technological forces that created artistic tension in the most positive and fruitful ways.  The weird thing is, that this traveling show is not stopping in Brazil.

Rock N Roll Nightmare

Video and mp3 files after the jump

The most recent album from rock-God Thor got quite a bit of love here on WFMU. But I want to talk a bit about the real Thor. That's Jon-Mikl Thor, former bodybuilding champion, Las Vegas attraction, and most importantly...actor and screenwriter.

I first heard of Thor not through his 80s hair-metal albums, but via a dusty video cassette from the rental store called Rock and Roll Nightmare. A good friend giddily introduced me to this film one spooky night (his mother watched it with us) and I must say that my world has not been the same since. Synapse films finally released this lost gem in a deluxe DVD this year in all its widescreen(!) glory and with tons of extras. There has been no greater moment in my life then when I tore open the plastic of my freshly purchased copy only to find, much to my surprise, my own darn name listed in the thank you credits.

So how did a humble little fanboy like me make it to the inner circle of one of the old ones? Well, first let's start with the film...

Art Crimes

In 1985, police uncovered a .22-caliber rifle inside the Andrew Crispo Art Gallery in NYC, which had been used to kill male model and Fashion Institute of Technology student Eigil Dag Vesti, 26, in that same year. Bernard J. LeGeros, 22, an employee at the gallery and personal assistant to Mr. Crispo, was convicted on second-degree murder charges in the death of the model, whom he claims he killed on orders from Crispo. Vesti's burned body had been discovered on LeGeros' father's estate, wearing only a leather mask and shot twice in the back of the head. LeGeros is currently serving a life sentence. The dubious but well connected Crispo, then 42, was acquitted in this particular case. The flamboyant details of this infamous 80's art world crime are bizarre and sickly glamorous, and are the subject of a 1992 non-fiction book (Bag of Toys) written by David France, which is expanded from an article he wrote about the haut monde nightmare for Vanity Fair in 1988.

In 2004...

Cruel To Be Thirsty (video)

Here's a video clip of a US soldier winning hearts and minds by taunting a bunch of thirsty Iraqi kids with a bottle of water. Man, that one kid can run, too. And then comes the heartbreaking ending...

youtube link via njdube

UbuWeb: The YouTube of the Avant-Garde

http://ubu.com/film/

UbuWeb has converted all of its rare and out-of-print film & video holdings to on-demand streaming formats a la YouTube, which means that you can view everything right in your browser without platform-specific software or insanely huge downloads. We offer over 300 films & videos (listed below). Presented in conjunction with our partners at Greylodge.

Artists include: Vito Acconci, Marina Abramovic, Erik Anderson, Robert Ashley, Beth B, Bruce Baillie, John Baldessari, Piero Bargellini, Otmar Bauer, Samuel Beckett, David Behrman, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Jorge Luis Borges, Walerian Borowczy, Stan Brakhage, George Brecht, James Broughton, Luis Bunuel, Jorge Luis Borges, Robert Breer, Gunter Brus, William S. Burroughs, John Cage, Alexander Calder, John Cale, Peter Campus, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Segundo de Chomón, Henri Chopin, Cinema of Transgression, Rene Clair, Carlfriedrich Claus, Jean Cocteau, Merce Cunningham, Guy Debord, Wim Delvoye, Maya Deren, Jean-Marie Drot, Marcel Duchamp, Viking Eggeling, Tracy Emin, Ed Emshwiller, Jean Epstein, Harun Farocki, Flux Films, Richard Foreman, Terry Fox, Hollis Frampton, Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Ernie Gehr, Jean Genet, Alberto Giacometti, Gilbert & George, Philip Glass, Jack Goldstein, Peter Greenaway, Groupe Medvedkine, Laszlo Hege, Helmut Herbst, Piero Heliczer, Henry Hills, Abbie Hoffman, Isidore Isou, Joris Ivens, M Henry Jones, Mauricio Kagel, Anish Kapoor, Richard Kern, Raashan Roland Kirk, Dimitri Kirsanov, Paul and Marlene Kos, Kurt Kren, George Kuchar, Jerzy Kucia, Jacques Lacan, George Landow, Fernand Leger, John Lennon, Alfred Leslie, György Ligeti Alvin Lucier, Willard Maas, George Maciunas, Gregory Markopoulos, Toshio Matsumoto, Paul McCarthy, Marie Mencken, László Moholy-Nagy, Meredith Monk, Jon Moritsugu, Robert Morris, Frank & Caroline Mouris, Jon Moritsugu, Otto Muehl, Gordon Mumma, Music with Roots in the Aether, Bruce Nauman, Phil Niblock, Hermann Nitsch, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, Charlemagne Palestine, Artavazd Pelechian, Kembra Pfahler, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray, Hans Richter, Terry Riley, David Rimmer, Pipilotti Rist, Donald Ritchie, Jeri Cain Rossi, Walter Ruttmann, Aram Saroyan, Carolee Schneeman, Werner Schroeter, Richard Serra, Situationist International, Jack Smith, Kiki Smith Robert Smithson, Ladislaw Starewicz, Ralph Steiner, Jerry Tartaglia, Shuji Terayama, Stan Vanderbeek, Agnes Varda, Ben Vautier, Edgard Varese & Le Corbusier, Dziga Vertov, Rene Vienet, Robert Watts, William Wegman, Rachel Whiteread, David Wojnarowicz, and Zubi Zuva.

Fucking Minus One with Big Black (MP3s)

In the great tradition of Lou Reed Minus One, Phil Collins Minus One, and Monkeypiece Theater (MP3), here is Big Black's 1987 Talk About Fucking, their parody of the 70's and 80's promotional "Interview Album," and a great slice of (intentional) punk rock comedy, starring Steve Albini, Dave Riley and Santiago Durango:

download side one  |  download side two  |  view the "script"

Now if I could only find my Telly Savalas Minus One and David Bowie Minus One records...

thanks Dave!

Where Syd Lived, Auctioned Tomorrow

A public look (You Tube) at the now-for-sale home of the late Syd Barrett, at 6 St. Margaret's Square in Cambridge. This link probably won't be up much longer, but you can check out the array of his possessions up for bid this Wednesday; includes a variety of his bright colored, hand-painted furniture, a fake Christmas tree, notebooks and more. Minimal surroundings to say the least. Syd clearly shunned clutter and extravagant surroundings as much as he did being in the public eye.

Coliseum Books and the Stench of Death

Coliseum Books has been my workday refuge for almost as long as I’ve been working in New York. When I was toiling at the Evil Law Firm (the one that docked my pay for going home when my dad died), in the long-gone New York Coliseum building at Columbus Circle, I hid out down the street in Coliseum Books most every lunch hour, and sometimes after work as well. Eventually I moved on to a less-egregious dayjob, and I was delighted when Coliseum opened in their new location on 42nd Street because that’s very close to where I work now. I go in there almost every day. I also go to a lot of the special events and readings they sponsor, both in their store and across the street in Bryant Park. I’ve seen readings by authors like Jean Nathan, who wrote the “The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll,” and Debbie Stoller, who wrote the “Stitch ‘n’ Bitch” books, and some writers’ group guy who talked about travel writing. I’ve picked up some great books at Coliseum, too, weird things I’ve never seen anywhere else, not even at the Strand. A picture encyclopedia of Russian prison tattoos—I got that at Coliseum. And last Christmas, when I was really, really, really broke, I suddenly realized that I was missing $10 and the only way I could think that I might have lost it was either I’d been accidentally shortchanged when I bought a Christmas-present book at Coliseum, or I’d dropped the $10 bill just as I was leaving the store. So I fretted about it for days and then I finally went in and told the manager guys that I was short $10, and they checked their weekly tally and found they’d come up $9-and-something over for the week, and they told me that was really unusual so they thought the money must be mine, and they gave me the $9. That was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. And that is why I was so unhappy  when I heard that Coliseum Books had filed for bankruptcy. I don’t think my $9 was responsible, but I can’t figure what was. They seem pretty busy whenever I’m in there, which is just about every day, Monday through Friday. But lately I’ve noticed some changes: First, the shelves started to seem a little empty, and then the shelves started to disappear. Now there’s an empty area at the back of the store that gets larger and emptier every week. This year I’m going to try to buy as many Christmas presents as I can at Coliseum—not that I think that will save them, but maybe it will help a little bit with their debts. And I sure hope those guys get new jobs somewhere; they were very good to me.

Another Mutant Gallery

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

   
 

 

More mutants on Beware of the Blog

 

 

Captain Christy Now Wants You To Be Uranus And Show How You Can Spin (MP3)

Isn't it fun to be a planet in space? These are not my words, this is a quote by Captain Christy, my new champion of demented instructional recordings for children. I don't know anything about her or the "Step in Step Dance SIStem" for which this was recorded, but the art speaks for itself. Follow Captain Christy and Spaceship Dance into space, say hi to the Moon, march, spin, whirl, twirl, hop, and watch out for funny green men from Mars and big winds pushing the spacecraft around. Christy has impeccable rhythm, leadership qualities, and masters all the random changes in background music without blinking an eye. Listen and dance along: Captain Christy's Space Walk (mp3).

The Case of Bill Cosby vs. Tommy Smothers' Head

Tommy & Dick Smothers, last of the great comedy teams, as most of you are aware were enemies of both the Democratic Lyndon B. Johnson and the Republican Richard M. Nixon administrations. CBS executives, keen allies of the warmongers in Washington, did not look fondly upon their network's highest rated show being mainstream America's number one source of anti-war commentary (the same thing happened to Phil Donahue, cancelled by MSNBC during the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, despite being number one in the ratings). The notorious cancellation of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was justified by network execs as being a response to "offensive" sketches skewering religion as performed by young guest star David Steinberg. In reality, CBS had been looking for a reason, any reason, to get the comedy duo off the air, so as to stop their anti-Vietnam war views (as well as the views of their folksy guest stars like Pete Seeger and Joan Baez) from beaming into the homes of Middle America. If you're too young to recall The Smothers Brothers or their television crucifixion then may I refer you to the sensational 2002 documentary, Smothered, which will supply you with the story. Think of them as the sixties equivalent of The Dixie Chicks; mainstream martyrs in a reactionary political climate, just a lot funnier and a little bit easier to listen to.

Almost forty years later, and unlike many of his contemporaries (Jane Fonda, John Kerry, David Horowitz etc.), Tommy Smothers is still standing his ground against ludicrous imperialism and war. In an excellent interview conducted by Vancouver journalist Guy Macpherson back in July, Tommy Smothers had this to say about the parallels between the Vietnam and Iraq wars, "[We have] the same type of people running it, the same arrogance ... the same mistakes, going into someone else's country and trying to do something except saying there's a light at the end of the tunnel ... this country is just ... ugh."

Portrait of a Piano Man

© D. Arnold
Billy Joel in Concert at Acer Arena Stadium in Sydney - November 15, 2006. via

Long Songs

While idly flipping through the car radio not too long ago, I happened across a station playing the Chamber's Brother's "Time Has Come Today" (YouTube link), a great pop-psych hit from 1968. After listening for a few minutes, I realized that this wasn't the single edit, but the full 11 minute version. I checked the dial carefully and, yeah, this really was one of those classic rock pre-programmed Clear Channel stations. I quickly put aside my thought that the DJ may have played the long version by mistake - for their music computers never make mistakes. A little research when I got home lead me to realize that the actual hit version of the song was not the mid-faded single edit, but the full-length version. What a delightful rarity.

And that lead me down another path of wonder: what are the longest pop songs? Of course there are tons of songs that break the three minute rule if you listen to psych-rock, dinosaur rock, funk, disco mixes, free jazz, experimental, metal sludge, krautrock, electronica, and pretty much anything Zappa or Parliament or Sun Ra. Not to mention Klaus Schulze, who often hit the 60 minute mark without breaking a sweat. But what I'm really interested in are those pop songs (including those once-edgy numbers that have since taken on classic rock status) that actually made it big on the radio despite their length - and still pop up on the mainstream stations today.

I googled my brains out looking for a good list, but to no avail. There are plenty of pop music lists, but nothing I could find specifically focusing on length. And so I put the call out to you, WFMU listeners and readers, to help me put together a list of the longest pop songs. There are no rules, and certainly no Billboard lists to reference. I'm not interested in official Top 40s or anything, just songs that have entered the larger lexicon that exceed the seven minute mark.

After the jump are a few songs to get you started. For the sake of this list I went with the original length of the song, even if an edited version was available, assuming that along the way someone must have been playing the full-length version. Help me fill this internet void by listing others I missed in the comments.

Cocaine and Cola, Together Again At Last

One hundred years after it was eliminated from the secret recipe of Coca Cola, cocaine is back where it belongs, in soft drinks. From an article in Der Spiegel:

Coca products were taboo for a long time in Colombia. Now Colombians can purchase coca wine, coca tea and coca cookies. The newest product is called Coca-Sek, a cocaine-based energy drink that is fast developing an international reputation -- much to the irritation of the Coca Cola company. Link to full article

Thanks Rebecca!

Tina, The Swedish chef (video)

Tina Nordström, the ever energic tv-chef from Sweden shows us how to perk up with some special dessert... (YouTube) The essential word to know is kola [kohhlawh]. Alas, Tina speaks only Swedish. To compensate, here is Swedish tv-personalities Ander & Måns doing a rap in english (YouTube)

And from an industry often associated with this dessert; we give you this video (.mov/4mb) a golden web-oldie.

NDN Rok

Happy Thanksgiving, or Turkey day, or the day before the shopping starts day - whatever our corporate masters call it now. Personally, I can never think of it as anything other than 'we have so much to be ashamed of day.' Here is a Stone cold reminder, courtesy of Google earth [link], of the fine folks who were here rocking the North American Continent, long before the pod people showed up (story about Alberta Canada rock formation).