WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Billy Jam's Top 10 of 2006

Billy Jam hosts Put The Needle on The Record every Friday afternoon at 3pm.  Here's his faves for 2006:

(all listen links are streaming realaudio from the WFMU archives)

1) "Best of the Bay" mixed by DJ Eleven (Wax Poetics)
2)  "My Sound Station" Teeko (4OneFunk) (hear it here | here | and here )
3) "Rip It Up And Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984"  Simon Reynolds
(Penguin Books)
4) "Donuts" J-Dilla (Stones Throw) (hear it here | here | and here )
5) "Infamy: A Graffiti Film" by Doug Pray (Image Entertainment/DVD)
6)  "Burning New York" James T. and Karla L. Murray (Gingko Press)
7) "Pick A Bigger Weapon" The Coup (Epitaph) (hear it here )
8)  Chief Rocker Busy Bee, Jazzy Jay, Mix Master Ice, & Lord Finese in concert: Crotona Park, Bronx, NY, July 13 2006
9) "City Of Men - the complete series" 3-DVD set (PALM)
10) "Skateboards 2 Scrapers" The Pack (Up All Nite/Jive)

Check all the other Top Lists right here.

Top of the Tops According to Charlie Lewis

From Charlie (with clickable links to Real Audio samples). The unfolding WFMU 2006 Top Ten Lists are here.

Top Ten "Top" Songs:

Althea & Donna - "Up Town Top Ranking" - from Party-Keller vol. 1

Eyeball Skeleton - "Flat Top Vampire" - from #1

Ethel Merman - "You're the Top" - from Respect: A Century of Women in Music  

Whole Lotta Whole Lotta Love

Sorry to get all "'member when?"  on you, but Ahmet Ertegun died, and it got me thinking of my formative years.  If you say Atlantic Records, the first thing I think of is the label, particularly the red one with the art deco font; when I think of that label, I think of the first record I noticed it stuck to: Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" (b/w "Heartbreaker"/"Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)").  And that makes me think of The Bay City Rollers. 

When I was 11 or 12 I used to go to Dave Marciano's house after school, and we'd watch dirty movies on his parents' WHT (Wometco Home Theater) system, then listen to records.  For some reason, the records I remember most clearly were by The Rollers, which was really the Bay City Rollers, but... well, The Rollers were to the Bay City Rollers as Rockline was to 16 Magazine: the same thing, but with a little less sugar.  Chewing gum vs. Bubblegum.  So our dissatisfaction had set in, and we were ready to graduate to Circus, Hit Parader and Creem, Boy Howdy notwithstanding.

I think I'd found the "Whole Lotta Love" 45 on the street somewhere, one of about a dozen 7"-ers stuck in a nasty gold record rack someone was trashing.  The name Led Zeppelin was not unfamiliar to me: I had 15-year-old bad influence buds, who smoked pot, rode mopeds and used words like crimson euphemistically (means fuckin).  These guys spoke only in awed whispers of "Led Zeppelin"; that, combined with scary posters on my Cool Uncle Jeff's attic wall, made me feel as though I wasn't allowed to actually listen to that music until I had sacrificed a squirrel or danced naked on rich people's lawns.  Or at least started smoking cigarettes.  I know, this sounds awfully "Dazed & Confused", but no, it's "Whole Lotta Love".

I presented the record to Dave.  The rusty red-orange label was so dirty, the word "Atlantic" printed there so primordial; the name of the band so... I dunno, some Big shit. Anyway, it was a whole lotta heavier than most things you psyche yourself out for.  Dave dropped the needle on the record, and the opening guitar/bass riff kicked us in the balls and poured motor oil on us and made us kiss the goat's anus; then we got to the stop-time guitar solo and our eyes turned black and fell out, and we jumped off the overpass, and the color became sound, and the font became fury, and we microwaved the baby, and we saw Thor's hammer forge Valhalla, and we are coming, we are coming, and it's all for you Damian, hack splat, oh oh oh oh oh oh,  - hey, I wonder whatever happened to Dave Marciano...

By request, here's "Whole Lotta Love" as performed, vertically, by Dennis Coffey, King Curtis, Ken Freedman, Led Zeppelin and Tina Turner.  "Whole Lotta Whole Lotta Love" (mp3, 17.8m)  Here's a version of the song by Godfrey Daniel (realaudio link to the WFMU archives)  A different sort of fellow might ask you to help him compile all the covers of "Whole Lotta Love", but not me!  I got 6, that's enough for me!  But somebody else might want to do that, I can understand that.  I'll take em and pass them along if you want, no problem.

The Oldest Song In The World

Here's the sheet music for the oldest song in the world:

The song was discovered in the ancient Syrian city if Ugarit in the early Fifties, and then deciphered by Professor Anne Draffkorn Kilmer. The tablets containing the notation were about 3400 years old, and contained cuneiform signs in the hurrian language that provided musical notation of a complete cult hymn. It's thought to be the oldest preserved song with notation in the world, and predates the next earliest example of harmony by 1,400 years.

n 1972, Kilmer, who is professor of Assyriology, University of California, and a curator at the Lowie Museum of Anthropology at Berkeley, developed an interpretation of the song based on her study of the notation. She wrote a book (Sounds From Silence) about her quest, which comes with a CD recording of the song: Link

You can listen to it yourself. Here is a midi version: download the oldest song in the world

Lou Ziegler ("The Push Bin") Top Ten Things I Heard in 2006

All listen links are streaming Real Audio from the WFMU Archives. Top Ten Lists here.

1. Milanese - Extend - (Planet Mu)
Taking bits of dubstep, grime, ragga, jungle and I don't know what and melding it into one great joyous mess. Killer tracks - Caramel Cognac, Mr. Ion. [Click here to listen]

2. Nathan Fake - Drowning in a Sea of Love - (Border Community)
I read that "Grandfathered" is being used in a Motorola ad, but don't hold that against Mr. Fake. Tons of great cuts that I still can't get over. Killer tracks - The Sky Was Pink, You Are Here. [Click here to listen]

3. Any of the Dubstep All-Stars Compilations that came out this year -
(Tempa)
I know this list is dubstep heavy but I just can't help it. Too many killer tracks to mention. [Click here to listen]

4. Growing - Color Wheel - (Megablade)
One of the few "heavy" records that came out this year that I was allowed to listen to in my house without someone yelling at me to turn it down. There's something about the quiet parts on this record that just make it all the more heavier. Killer tracks - Cumulusless, Friendly Confines. [Click here to listen]

5. Major Stars - Synoptikon - (Important)
New band lineup...same great stuff. Killer tracks - Black Road, The Ravager. [Click here to listen]

Doug Schulkind's Favorites of 2006

Here are Doug Schulkind's Favorites of 2006. Doug's original favorites page is here, and all the Best of 2006 lists we've published so far are here. More lists coming every day from now until December 31st. All "listen links" in Doug's list are Realaudio archives.

Tom Zé Dançe-Êh Sá (¡RARÁ) In the nearly forty years since Brazil's subversive Tropicalístas began issuing their satirical treatises, no member of that cultural insurgency has remained truer to the original dada spirit than Tom Zé. Ever the experimentalist, Zé is celebrating his 70th year with this dense rain forest of wordless chants, chirping whistles, manic drum beats and deviously deployed electronica. Subtitled "Dança Dos Herdeiros do Sacrifício" (Dance of the Heirs of Sacrifice), this record is Zé's response to MTV marketing research identifying a hedonism, consumerism and social irresponsibility in today's youth. He says, "In order to reach these youngsters, I changed everything I ever produced and followed Chico Buarque's suggestion that the song is over." Revolutions per minute indeed. Listen to: Cara-Cuá
Amadou Kiénou & Son Ensemble Foteban Taabali (Dunya) Even drummer lovers find most percussion enesembles a bore. Sure, hearing unison playing at breakneck speed through mind-melting time changes can be a thrill. But at a certain point you just want to to say fuck virtuosity, let's dance. And everyone knows you can't shake your booty to music that has no bottom! Amadou Kienou's Ensemble Foteban, like all the heaviest percussion groups—Olodum, Kodo, the drumline of Florida A&M's marching band—has that elusive element in spades. The lilting balafon titilates, the sweet vocals uplift, but the key sound everpresent on this recording from Burkina Faso is the surging, insistent pounding at its rock-solid base. Major kudos to the recording engineer who captured it so faithfully. Listen to: Ouagadougou Kalou
Fania Records reissues! Various (Emusica) This year's revival and rerelease of the Fania records catalog, after languishing in legal limbo—and a moldy warehouse—for years, is a landmark event in the history of Latin music. If, in the 1960s and '70s, New York City was the Vatican for the salsa orthodoxy, Fania was the Bible. Crucial recordings, masterpiece upon masterpiece, delivered the liturgies of the exalted: singers like Lavoe, Cruz and Rivera; band leaders like Pacheco, Roena and the brothers Palmieri; virtuosos like Colón, Harlow, and Barretto. And now, after years of suffering with insultingly poor-quality one-off CD releases, only sporadically available, we have access at last to the high holy vaults, completely remastered, with original cover art and newly added bilingual liner notes. Amen hermanos y hermanas. Listen to: Periódico de Ayer by Héctor Lavoe (from De Ti Depende) Listen to: Jala Jala by Ismael Rivera (from Controversia)

Invasion

 

 

Christmas for Hitler

When is Christmas not all hugs and puppies? When it's Christmas in Germany circa 1944.

Many of the season's grandest traditions hail from Germany: the Christmas Tree, Saint Nicholas (blended with the Dutch version to become our Westernized Santa Claus), Christmas craft markets, nutcrackers, the tasty Christmas Pickle (not really), and the always delightful story of the devlish Krampus (more Austrian, really, but too awesome not to mention). Heck, they start partying as early as December 5th, so you know the Germans love their holiday season.

But as we all know, Germany in the 1930s and 40s was not the place to be. Under the heavy hand of the Nazi Party, Christmas and its corresponding religious connotations - especially that incendiary "peace on Earth, goodwill towards men" muck - weren't altogether banned, but they were pushed to the side and re-adapted into a celebration of the state. The new "People's Christmas" (Volksweihnachten) was a time to celebrate national pride and the Winter Solstice, encouraging the traditions that harkened back to the early days of Germanic paganism, and all centered around a different sort of "savior" - der Führer.

The informative German Propoganda Archive features several examples of living through the holidays in the Third Reich. Start with this detailed mainfesto from the party journal on why and how to turn Christmas into a nationalist holiday. Here's a sample:

Christmas is an inherited holiday about a theoretical peace for all of humanity. There is no national or social necessity to believe in this. However, we can present it as a holiday of actual domestic national peace... If we make visible the blessings of this actual peace, along with its foundations and requirements, then "Christmas" doubtless can be a high point in the course of the political year. Both according to popular custom and popular view, the Christmas holiday can justifiably be seen as a festival of the nation.

 

Phonoanomalies For Hi-Fi Bugs (MP3s)

What would fit the holiday season better than a compilation featuring a blind whistler, zombie calypso, and elk calling instructions? You don't care about elk calling, you say? I am sure you will reconsider after listening to Glenn Mittelsteadt, World's Greatest Elk Caller! And apart from that you'll hear (and learn to play) bongos, theremin, a singing saw, and people brushing their teeth, or something like that. Now without further ado, here is Phonoanomalies for Hi-Fi Bugs, originally compiled by Keith Lo Bue. My personal favorites besides the World's Greatest Elk Caller are the incredible performances by the Eloise Trio (tracks 9 and 32, they have to be heard to be believed) and the always great Fred Lowery. Alright, the real fun (with 33 MP3 files and accompanying artwork) starts after the jump.

Fatty Jubbo's First-Rate Fare For 2006

Between now and the end of the month, we'll be posting Top Ten of 2006 lists from our DJs and bloggers every day. Here is Fatty Jubbo's list. You can see all lists published so far at this link.

1. OVO - Live at The Note, Chicago

I really didn't go to too many shows this year due to a growing apathy towards new music and a busy schedule, but I managed to make it out to see OVO- even though they were playing one of the shittiest bars in Chicago. I had heard their latest CD and liked it OK but the live show is really something to behold. It is really difficult for a band to transcend the bleak environment of  bad sound, surly bartenders who are just waiting for the 2 am rush and an audience of 10 people...but OVO- they played as if they were on the brink of death summoning up a bizarre energy.

A friend told me they played the exact same set two years ago and he was a little disappointed. Even if I saw this set a second time around, I would be mighty impressed. Working under the idea of "every performance is wholly unique" is always noble- but I always admire a band who approach a set as if it  is a scripted theatre piece.

2. Hans Grusel's KrankenKabinet - Live at The Lab, San Francisco

Hans Grusel's Tea Fur Two might be one of the best songs of 2006- which makes it imperative for anyone to trek out to see Hans and his gingerbread-clad cronies whenever they pass through town. This show was a spectacular living mechanical music box replete with wind-up fraus and living day-glow tree trunks manipulating burbling electronics. They also splurted out a cover of Crimson & Clover!

Watch this show here! Part 1 & Part 2 (youtube links)

Listen to Hans Grusel live on Bill Zurat's show HERE! (realaudio link)

3. Cheer-Accident / Lord Of The Yum-Yum - Live at Empty Bottle, Chicago

This was one show that made me happy that I live in Chicago. This was Cheer-Accident's record release show for their new record "What Sequel?". When Cheer-Accident gets free reign of the night's proceedings you know you are in for hours of mind-warping, frustrating yet brilliant expectation shattering. (youtube links)

The night started out with Cheer-Accident performing a short set of complex prog, ending with their crowd-clearer Fillet Of Nod which is a single chord strummed way pass anyone's tolerance level. In the past they have performed this masterpiece in a park- displacing the resident bums who hurled curses and beer cans at them as they continued for the next four hours completely stone-faced and expressionless. This night was no different. As a fan who understands and loves their penchant for frustrating audiences, even I was slowly losing grip wondering when the fuck it was going to end until I lost myself in the minutest of variations.

Freak! Baby! Munchkin! The Unique Physique: Harry Earles.

The always impressive Turner Classic Movies showed The Unholy Three (1925) the other night, a film that stands as one of Lon Chaney Sr.'s most famous. The memorable story of three circus performers who leave the stage for a life of crime when they conceive what they feel to be the "perfect" crime is both simple, ridiculous, and highly orignal. The three will get into the parrot selling business(!), unloading the birds on well-to-do members of high society. When their customers phone the pet shop the next day to complain that their parrots don't talk, the three pay their patrons a visit, and rob them. Y'know, that tired story again.

The Unholy Three is notable for several reasons. Along with the absurd plot, Lon Chaney, initially introduced to us as a ventriloquist, appears in drag for most of the film. The opening sequence featuring an assortment of odd looking sideshow performers was predecessor to another of director Tod Browning's demented celluloid contributions which was to come seven years later, Freaks (1932).  Also, the concept of a hulking male dressing as a woman in order to commit crime was, remarkably, re-used eleven years later by Browning in his film The Devil-Doll (1936) with Lionel Barrymore. As if this weren't enough, The Unholy Three is most notable of all for the performance of the most famous thirty nine inch tall actor in Hollywood history, Harry Earles.                                                                        

Earles had an unmistakable look, and in Hollywood's silent era, the aesthetics of one's face was far more important than acting ability. During the twenties when film could not rely on anything but visuals (a reliance that hypothetically should remain today but too often does not), that distinctive look could be pay dirt for an actor. Knowing that a man of his unique physique could easily be type-casted into mere comedic fodder as almost all dwarves, midgets, and general Hollywood little people tended to be in the 1920s, it is said that Earles was the one who brought the stories of both The Unholy Three  as well as the story for Freaks (in the form of a novel by author Clarence A. Robbins called Spurs) to director Browning's attention, Earles knowing full well either could mean a juicy role for himself. Earles eventually did appear in a pair of comedic roles as "a funny little man" in Good News (1930) and Be Big (1931). But don't be concerned if you think Harry's dignity was jeopardized by being laughed at in these films, you can rest assured that in Good News he was billed as "Midget in Trash Basket." The extremely rare piece of footage from this film featuring his sequence has been posted on Youtube which you can watch here.

Trouble Top Ten and then Some

1. Marie Antoinette, the journey by Antonia Fraser.  Whereas the movie got all the press,  I would suggest the book for a far more intense understanding of how truly crazy it was to be the Queen of France in 1777. The simultaneity of having unchecked wealth, nothing much to actually do, and no privacy of any kind in the bed chamber (getting dressed in the morning was a group affair with social hierarchy determining who was to hand the buck bare and freezing queen her under garments) was a fascinating reveal of the inner workings of France's rulers, and the actual lack of power that was afforded the head wig-wearers.  Plus, how can you resist the confectionery dresses?

2. Os Mutantes at Webster Hall in July.  I went to pay respect, not expecting much, as I am not a fan of the reunion vibe.  But from the opening note they were so fab!  The crowd was in love with them, and they were graciously dynamic, and happy to please with a run through of all the hits.  Rita Lee was not on board, which I knew going in, but her more than adequate stand in orchestrated the party vibe of the live show  that  Brazilians do so well. ( Seu Jorge live is also super great!)

3. The Curtom Story-We're a Winner  (1998) Curtom was Curtis Mayfield's label, and he extended his amazing groove to everyone he included in his stable.  Curating his acts in response to the racism and lack of opportunities for acts who were not seen as Motown-friendly, The Five Stairsteps, Major Lance, Gene Chandler and Love's Children are better known in Northern Soul circles than on on our shores.  Whether you know Curtis's music or not this compilation will blow your mind.

4. Steve Reid and Kieran Hebden live on This is the Modern World, April 13th.  Steve was so very cool and it was a thrill to watch him play and he just so happens to be a jazz great.

5. Love is All and Johnny Boy, carrying the flag of power-pop-remixed-via-electronica-by-Phil Spector into 2006, I'm eagerly waiting to see what is next for both of these great bands.

The Alternative Jesus Christ Superstar (MP3s)

(39 Jesus-based MP3s after the jump)

After several years of threats, I finally devoted most of a radio show to an alternative version of Jesus Christ Superstar, playing each track in order using various versions of Andrew Lloyd Weber's bombastic masterwork which I've collected over the years. Here's the entire MP3 of it, extracted from my December 13th show archive: download MP3 (78 megs).

If you're not up for 78 megs of download, follow the jump for the individual tracks contained in the mix, plus a whole lot more. If you have any other versions not listed here, please e-mail me about them at ken at wfmu dot org .

I had hoped that this show and blog post would finally get this out of my system for good. But it is not to be. As Peter said, "the more you try to get Jesus out of your system, the more Jesus you get into your system." Maybe it wasn't Peter who said that. No matter.

Jesus Christ Superstar was the first record I really fell in love with, back in the summer of 1971 when a bunk mate at summer camp played the JCS eight track non-stop. I then forgot all about it for the better part of 25 years. I rediscovered it 5 or 6 years ago, when I moved the turntable into my family's kitchen, pulled out the original 2 LP set starring Ian Gillan, and found that it was a great way to talk to my two young children about Judeo-Christian myth/theology and that funky western civilization.

My musical plan was smashed to bits when my daughter heard The Crucifixion, which promptly sent the normally joyful five year old into a two hour "I Don't Want To Die" crying and screaming jag. I filed the LP back in the wall for a few years. Until my ten year old son discovered it and started playing it even more relentlessly than my bunkmate had in 1971. Which led to my search for alternate versions, if only to preserve my sanity. Finally, I got the little bugger an iPod and locked him in a closet. But by then it was too late. The Jesus-based collection had begun and still shows no signs of abating.

Arbitrary Guide to Popular Culture for December

There's some terrific shows in December in the New York area. I'd like to take some time out from entering events in the Arbitrary Guide to Popular Culture to point out some of the best for this month.

At the top of my list is the three day reunion of Chris Cutler, Fred Frith and Hugh Hopper (of legendary bands Henry Cow and Soft Machine) who will be at The Stone December 15th through the 17th. The entire month of December has been curated by Downtown Music Gallery's Bruce Lee Gallanter and Manny "Lunch" Maris, the first non-musicians invited to do so by The Stone's director, John Zorn.

Zorn will be stepping away from The Stone to perform at Roulette on the 17th with Jim Staley and Ikue Mori and to celebrate New Year's Eve at Tonic with  Mike Patton and Bill Laswell. Tonic is presenting a show at Abrons Art Center on the 16th featuring WFMU's Laura Cantrell, Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips, Chocolate Genius, The Honorary Title, Elysian Fields and Heather Greene.

December 16th also has the amazing 14th Annual UnSilent Night, an outdoor ambient music piece for an infinite number of boombox tape players.  (More on this and other December highlights after jump)

Hatch's 2006 Favorites

Hatch's 10 favorite new releases of 2006:

James Blackshaw - O True Believers (Important)

Listen to:
"The Elk With Jade Eyes" (RealAudio)

Brightblack Morning Light - Brightblack Morning Light (Matador)

Listen to:
"A River Could Be Loved" (RealAudio)

Ghostface Killah - FishScale (Def Jam)

Listen to:
"The Champ" (RealAudio)

Rest In Peace, Peter Boyle

As you all have heard by now, Peter Boyle passed away Dec. 12. He was best known for his nine years on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond but best-loved because of his turn as the monster in one of the greatest comedies of all time, Young Frankenstein. I was eleven when it came out and my mother dragged me along to the Lindenhurst Theater to sit alongside her in the dark (I guess she couldn't find a babysitter) cringing and sinking down in my seat every time she laughed, which was often. My mother has a VERY loud laugh. When we got back home she phoned friends to tell them how funny the movie was, employing the classic, yet disturbing line, "I WET MY PANTS I LAUGHED SO HARD!"

I next encountered Boyle in 1976 when he guest-hosted Saturday Night Live, performing the infamous "Dueling Brandos" sketch with John Belushi. Then came Wizard in Taxi Driver, counseling Robert DeNiro's imploding Travis Bickle to "...go out and get laid."

I didn't get to Boyle's breakout movie role - the title character in Joe (mp4 movie excerpt) - until many years after its 1970 release. Written by Norman Wexler (Serpico, Saturday Night Fever), Joe is set at the tail-end of the "hippie movement" and follows the blue-collar Everyman as he bonds with businessman Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick) over their mutual hatred of the "kids" and in search of one of them, Compton's daughter (played by Susan Sarandon in her first movie role). She's disappeared in the wake of a murder and the unlikely duo search her out in the coffee-houses, bookstores and "crash pads" of the Lower East Side. Along the way they smoke pot, experience "free love" and otherwise "go native".

Directed by John G. Avildsen (Save the Tiger, Rocky, The Karate Kid) the film may seem quaint now but was quite the sensation in its day (the height of the Vietnam War) - and not just because of the nudity and drug use. Wexler even received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay. A soundtrack album was released that featured mostly dialogue (mp3 files):

"Forty-two percent of all liberals are queer..."

"Nobody has the right to booze unless he earns some money..."

"...with all that culture crap."

"Ya gotta be able to laugh..."

Peter Boyle - in reality 180 degrees opposite the bigoted hardhat Joe Curran - was apparently so troubled by the positive reaction to his character that he turned down "violent" roles for years, including - most famously - the part of Popeye Doyle (also turned down by James Caan) in The French Connection, which garnered a Best Actor Oscar for Gene Hackman. Perhaps becoming friends with John Lennon (who served as Best Man at Boyle's wedding) was a consolation prize...

Lucrate Milk

A name you don't hear thrown around that much in postpunk fan circles, Lucrate Milk became somewhat of an obsession for me when I first heard 'em back in 2003. I've long been a fan of such late 70's/early 80's spastics as Essential Logic, Kleenex, etc., and while this French band shared a lot in common with them (punk/pop structure combined with the liberal dose of avant-splatter amidst honking sax, enigmatic vocalist Nina Childress could easily have fit in with the Rough Trade chanteuses, etc.), there was a slightly darker, screwed up element to Lucrate Milk. Something definitely was polluting their punch bowl, and the indie rock cognoscienti of the 90's seems to have ignored 'em for one reason or another, who knows, perhaps due to the low visibility of their records. They existed from 1979-1983, had a few releases on the Bondage and V.I.S.A. labels, were on a compilation of pre-Sugarcubes K.U.K.L., and put out a live tape in 1986; but info to be had was extremely scarce to say the least. Type their name into that crazy Music Map site and it generates the connection that they are appealing to fans of Chumbawamba and the Walkabouts (!?), which of course doesn't help matters much. But these days, of course, there's a My Space page, which reveals the great news that a 2CD retrospective as well as DVD will be out in March, and offers up a pile of MP3s. I'm also psyched because (thanks to Bill Zurat) I finally got a quick visual glimpse of this amazing band on a French new wave video comp he loaned me, and said clip is one sick and demented little slice of artpunk. Enjoy it on You Tube in all it's rat-sporting, syringe-wielding, teeth-painting, armpit-spraying glory. There's also an 8 minute look back and interview with members today on French TV (though damned if I know what anyone's saying except "I love you, fuck off"), and a growling dog, apparently "translated" into French subtitles talking about Lucrate Milk (and listen for the first time the name appears, it actually SOUNDS like the pooch is saying the band's name!). Finally, Ceci over at East Village Radio did a whole special in 2005 on the band, played some unreleased material and interviewed Nina, if you can find that archived somewhere (I couldn't, feel free to paste below in comments, Ceci or someone). Real Audio: "Dritte Blind Meuse", "Bocops".

Guess The WFMU DJ Personal Article: Part 1

Think you know the WFMU air staff?  Well here's your chance to prove it, smartstuff!  Whose bag is this?

I'll keep doing this (regularly on Thursdays) for as long as I can strong-arm our staff into giving me stuff to publicly associate them with.  We start with an easy one.  Winner gets a bumper sticker!  But really everybody wins, because here's a free mystery mp3 from the Wild n'Wooly WFMU Mp3 Library!  [download, 6.25m]

(If you personally know this bag and its owner, please don't play - honor system!)

Ergo Phizmiz' Phuj Phactory Album Number One (MP3s)

UK Pop Prankster and WFMU DJ Ergo Phizmiz is offering up a free MP3 album of the highlights of his show Phuj Phactory every ten weeks or so. Here's the first one, complete with a CD cover for phans of physical phormats. Ergo also condenses each and every 60 minute show down to ten minutes for his weekly Phuj Phactory podcast.

Here's are the MP3s from installment number one, plus the CD cover, followed by what Ergo had to say about these  periodic Phuj Phactory collections:

Electronic Noises   |   Hit Wash Moiduh   |   Aut Doop Boopierre   |   Tea for Two

Snowy   |   The Entracte Generator   |   Summer Time   |   The Tadpole Expert   |   The Ra Ven

Laughing and Crying   |   Temptation at the Cock-Teque   |   Mad Hatter Research  |  CD Cover (jpg)

From Ergo:

"This is the first of a projected series of free mp3 albums containing choice dollops of Phuj from the Phactory. I'll make them freely available every ten weeks (or so) of the show, providing a haphazard overview of the aural sweeties generated over that period.

In some ways the 'aim' (if there can be such a thing) of Phuj Phactory is to twiddle and play around with the medium of radio, never becoming definitive or settling in a style, in either the tracks played or the way they're combined and collaged. A really exploratory, open, and ongoing process (without getting too serious about it).

Another interest has been where the dividing line lays between a "mix" and a "composition," and always these distinctions seem to become more and more blurred as the show progresses. The Phun Size Phuj podcasts, where the full length shows are reduced in various ways down to ten minutes or so, have further made questionable these distinctions.

But here at the Phuj Phactory we're far more interested in questions than answers ..................

These mp3 releases aim to document different slices of this process, a selection box of chocolates for your delight and delectation."

Street Teamers Get A Free Pass

Has anyone ever leaned next to you at a bar and said something like, "Man, these new barbecue flavored pringles are awesome! You should try them! (This spontaneous personal endorsement was paid for by Proctor and Gamble.)"

Well, if you've ever been street teamed like this, chances are you didn't hear a hypothetical disclaimer like the one in the example. And the Federal Trade Commission ruled yesterday that such disclaimers aren't necessary, although they did reserve the right to require word-of-mouth and buzz-marketing disclaimers in the future. They may or may not look into the question of buzz marketing disclosure on a case by case basis as this type of marketing increases.

Despite the FTC keeping it's options open, yesterday's decision was a victory for the extremely creepy "Word of Mouth Marketing Association," who want their street teamers to be able to shill without any type of federally required disclosure requirements. Meanwhile, the folks at Proctor and Gamble (who have hired hundreds of thousands of teenage "buzz marketers") were dancing in their cubicles.

Here's the letter (pdf) from the Federal Trade Commission on the matter, and the original request (pdf) that a group called Commercial Alert made to the FTC.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm not in favor of the government requiring disclosures on commercial small talk, but I also wouldn't want to government interfering with my right to kill the buzz marketer in question.