WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Sensei Rebel's Archive Picks of the Week (April 23, 2007 - April 29, 2007)

All RealAudio links are streaming links from the WFMU archives.

Rock And Roll
31 Knots - "Man Become Me" RealAudio from Pseu's show, April 27, 2007

International
Kalyanji Anandji - "Pretty Pretty Priya" RealAudio from This Is the Modern World with Trouble, April 26, 2007

Experimental
Bjork - "Joga" RealAudio from Irene Trudel's show, April 23, 2007

Dance
N.O.H.A - "Balkan Hot Step"  RealAudio from This Is the Modern World with Trouble, April 26, 2007

Instrumental
Major Stars - "Rock Revival Theme" RealAudio from Choking on Cufflinks with Michael Goodstein (filling in for John Allen), April 23, 2007

Ambient
Vomit Orchestra - "Stigmatized in Reverie" RealAudio from Scott Williams' show, April 27, 2007

Fave Song of the Week
Le Orme - "Aliante" RealAudio from Choking on Cufflinks with Michael Goodstein (filling in for John Allen), April 23, 2007

Actors who have fallen off of the face of the Earth: Andrea Naschak (aka: April Rayne) + interview!

At some point in 1993, I went to the Angelika Film Centre in Manhattan to see a new comedy directed by Joel Hershman, called Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me. The film, which concerned the kook-a-zoid goings-on of several desperate characters in a trailer park, had gotten good reviews in the papers. Everyone seemed to agree that the film was somewhat of a John Waters/Pedro Almadovar-esque knock-off, but was nevertheless quite a good one, with it's own unique qualities. The screening was on a weekend night, and was sold out. As the film played, my friends and I, and the whole audience, laughed and enjoy it all. It was a good movie! However, of the ensemble cast, there was one character in particular; a megalo/nymphomaniac/homidic-al, garbage-mouthed stripper named "Sabra" - who seemed to get the biggest guffaws from the audience. The film featured a lot of known actors, like Diane Ladd, Sean Young, Adrianne Shelly and even Timothy Leary. But the actress who played the irrepressible Sabra, billed as one Andrea Naschak, was hard to ignore. She was like the soul of Carole Lombard, Ruth Buzzi, Sandra Bernhard, Shirley Stoler and Pat Ast - whizzed in a blender and poured into the body of Gina Lollobrigida, then topped with Cookie Mueller's head and crowned with one of Jessica Hahn's worst wigs...

Free Music Series Photos - Southpaw 4/28

Thanks to the hundreds of free music lovers who came out to Brooklyn's Southpaw for the first concert of WFMU's Free Music Series this past weekend. If you missed out on kick-ass performances by DJ/Rupture, Flaming Fire, Jonathan Kane's February, and the Major Stars, live vicariously through these photos (thanks to Andy). Then brag to your friends about how awesome it was.

 

   

365 Days #120 - Kay Martin - At Las Vegas (mp3s)

MP3:
01 Another Man Down The Line (2:23)
02 Seven Bells Instead Of Seven Veils (3:14)
03 Baby, I've Got No More Tears To Cry (2:21)
04 The Book Mama Gave Me About Sex (2:50)
05 Greenback Dollar Bills (2:52)
06 The Night Before Christmas (1:56)
07 Ad-Lib Blues (2:06)
08 Up Your Chimney (2:30)
09 1 To 4 At The Door (3:22)
10 I'm The Hunter, You're The Tiger (2:25)
11 My Santa Daddy (2:42)
12 I Feel Like A New Man (2:27)

If it were not for the Internet, the works of Kay Martin, a one-time centerfold / nightclub entertainer / "party album" recording artist, would have been forever lost to the vinyl bins of America.  Her six albums (that I know of) consistently sell on eBay for remarkable prices - including her most popular album: the 1962 Christmas album "I Know What He Wants For Christmas (but I don't know how to wrap it!)".

It was this album that led me to explore the works and career of Kay Martin.  Born in Bakersfield, California and part Cherokee Indian, she began modeling which led her into exotic photo shoots and spreads in both Adam and Playboy magazines (if one were to believe her album liner notes).

She then met Jess Hotchkiss and Bill Elliott, worked out a nightclub act, and began billing themselves as "Kay Martin And Her Bodyguards".  From 1953 to 1963, they headlined in Las Vegas and Reno casinos and travelled inbetween Hawaii and Fort Lauderdale where much of their "adult entertainment" material was recorded onto "live" albums - most of which were sold after the show in the lounge.

This album compiles several of the studio recordings made inbetween nightclub dates and features a little bit of everything: Kay the straight singer (she reworks both "Folsom Prison Blues" and "Halleujah I Love Her So"), Kay the naughty singer (her sly numbers must be heard to be believed), as well as The Bodyguards singing and cutting up.

I was excited to see three Christmas songs here but each one is a different take on "The Night Before Christmas" and Kay only sings on one of the songs.

In the early 1960s, Kay became the propietor of the Kay Martin Lodge, three miles south of downtown Reno, Nevada and settled into a normal non-show business life. She still owns the lodge and enjoys her privacy very much.

- Contributed by: CaptainOT

Images: Cover, Side A, Side B

Media: LP
Album: At Las Vegas
Label: Laff Records
Catalog: LAFF A-107
Credits: Jess Hotchkiss & Bill Elliott (singers/songwriters)
Date: 1970s

You Are What You Eat

You Are What You Eat (1968) is a strange, psychedelic and convoluted film as incoherent as its hippy brethren 200 Motels (1971) and Rainbow Bridge (1972). It belongs with that small collection of movies in which more people own the soundtrack than have actually seen the film. The soundtrack is phenomenal. The bright yellow cover is as eccentric as the vinyl itself that features audio cut-ups, squealing Moog synthesizers, relentless psychedelic improvisations, lounge music, Tiny Tim oddities, and the final appearance of The Hawks before they changed their name to The Band.

The list of those involved with the film is an incredible roster of counter culture heroes and weirdos. Tiny Tim, The Electric Flag, Frank Zappa, Peter Yarrow, Paul Butterfield, Super Spade, David Crosby, Hamsa El Din, Barry McGuire, the radio personality Rosko and several others. And despite the talent involved the film is incredibly difficult to track down in any format other than a blurry, seventh-generation, chopped up version that most likely will get trapped in your VCR. I have posted the sounds of the the soundtrack LP for your listening leisure over here.

365 Days #119 - Avon - Campaign 13: Your Special Sales Meeting Record (mp3s)

MP3:
Side One
1. Coffee With Pat And Sunny (7:12)
2. Sweet Honesty (Radio Commercial) (1:08)
3. Natural Sheen "Telephone" (Radio Commercial) (0:37)
4. Natural Sheen "Man Talk" (Radio Commercial) (0:38)
Side Two
5. Welcome To The Club (8:26)
6. Reprise: Welcome To The Club (1:12)

"Youuuuu... you rate a brass band!"

Imagine yourself as a successful Avon manager. A couple of hundred reps in your territory are working hard every day, and it's your job keep sales figures and morale going up, up, up! You hold your monthly sales meetings at a local hotel conference room, and you cover all the latest, hottest sales techniques and products, and also make sure everyone has a great time. The room is full, there are flowers and pitchers of water on every table, and lots of catalogs for the newly-announced Campaign 13 sales event.

Then you walk over to the record player.

Yes, the record player.

The year in 1975, and Avon has sent you a 10-inch record for you play for the entire room. You start off with "Welcome To The Club" a peppy little ditty designed to motivate everyone present to attain membership in the vaunted, perk-filled President's Club. The lyrics end, and give you several minutes of background music for your pep talk, followed by a reprise of the peppy little ditty.

Then you can flip it over, and play "Coffee with Pat and Sunny," a long, pre-recorded, totally scripted "conversation" between Pat Neighbors (Avon Vice President) and Sunny Griffin (former actress/model and Avon Beauty Editor) complete with coffee-serving sound effects. They chitty-chat about new products, summer grooming tips, the mid-70's brand of safe suntanning advice, and the importance of having a new "wardrobe of frangrances" for every season.

And finally, we're on to some radio commercials for Sweet Honesty perfume and Natural Sheen hair care products. Message: Avon is for black people, too! The perfume commercial is going for a Delfonics or Chi-Lites vibe. The second Natural Sheen commercial is my favorite, featuring two guys joking with each other about their hair, and using the wife's Avon products.

"If you don't know Avon, you should..."

- Contributed by: Chuck Tomlinson

Images: Cover, Cover Closeup, Label Side A, Label Side B

Media: 10-inch LP
Album: Campaign 13: Your Special Sales Meeting Record
Label: Avon Products, Inc.
Catalog: SM-9477
Credits: Created & Produced by Contempo Communications, New York, New York
Date: 1975

John Cage on a TV Game Show in 1960 (video)

Here's John Cage performing Water Walk in January, 1960 on the popular TV show I've Got A Secret.

At the time, Cage was teaching Experimental Composition at New York City's New School. Eight years beyond 4:33, he was (as our smoking MC informs us) the most controversial figure in the musical world at that time. His first performance on national television was originally scored to include five radios, but a union dispute on the CBS set prevented any of the radios from being plugged in to the wall. Cage gleefully smacks and tosses the radios instead of turning them on and off.

While treating Cage as something of a freak, the show also treats him fairly reverentially, cancelling the regular game show format to allow Cage the chance to perform his entire piece.

File this one away with Frank Zappa playing his bicycle on The Steve Allen Show (which happened three years after this): part one   |   part two

Download the mpeg video of this clip here (57 megs)

Thanks to Charlie for chucking this VHS tape into my "to rip" pile.

365 Days #118 - The Montego Beach Hotel Calypsonians (mp3s)

MP3:
1. Maintenance (2:45)
2. Bloodshot Eyes (2:44)
3. Jamaica Fashion (2:31)

I found this album at a flea market in Grand Bend, Ontario a few years back. I didn't have particularly high hopes for it (a hotel band?), but as it turns out, one of the Montego Beach Hotel Calypsonians (the singer) was a fellow by the stage name of Lord Lebby. Lebby was one of the pioneers of Mento, a rural Jamaican folk music that both preceded and helped to inspire reggae and ska. Performed on guitar, banjo, bamboo flute, maracas, bongos and a crude portable piano called a rumba box (the second guy from the left on the back cover photo is holding one), the music on this album is charmingly ramshackle, the Jamaican country music of its day.

A lot of the material on this album, aside from being pretty good, is also quite risqué for stuff that was, presumably, performed for the benefit of well-to-do tourists. "Maintenance" is the heartwarming tale of a guy who would rather be locked up in jail than help pay to support any children he might father.

Fortunately for him, the girl ("related closely to ink") who claimed he was the father of her baby gave birth to a child "whiter than snow". Her mother said this was because she was drinking Milk of Magnesia every day, but the singer, unconvinced, concludes "For me to mind a child, well you got to know/That scamp had to be born singing Calypso". And "Bloodshot Eyes" is downright ghastly, a kiss-off song addressed to an ex-girlfriend who got beaten up by the guy she left the singer for. It's kind of disturbing to imagine tourists happily sipping their daiquiris and tapping their feet to lyrics like "For your eyes look like two cherries/In a glass of buttermilk" and "Now you better shut your peepers/Before you bleed to death". On the other hand, "Jamaica Fashion" - a lighthearted tune singing the praises of a few pretty girls scattered throughout the Caribbean - has a great flute solo and absolutely no objectional content.

- Contributed by: Beau Levitt

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover, Label

Media: LP
Album: Souvenir Album
Label: Montego Beach Hotel Gift Shop
Catalog: LOML.502
Credits: Maintenance (Composed: Joseph Clemendor; Copyright owned by Stanley Motta Ltd.), Bloodshot Eyes (Composer: Mann-Glover; Copyright owned by Vogue Record Co.), Jamaica Fashion (Composer: Member of Montego Beach Hotel Band)
Date: 1950's

Yokoo's 3 Animation Films (1964-65)

Tadanori Yokoo 3 Animation Films (1964-65)
Download .avi

Groovy vintage animations from the Japanese Andy Warhol.

via UbuWeb

Hope on the Hill for Internet Radio

Last month, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB, left) sent webcasters into panic mode, after deciding that webcasting royalties must be higher: astronomically higher. Ever since a group of technophobes composed the DMCA back in the late '90s, song royalties for webcasts have been treated differently than parallel royalties for over-the-air broadcasts.

Commercial webcasters pay a fee based on how many listeners hear a given song. Commercial broadcasters, in contrast, pay blanket royalty fees for over-the-air performance of songs based on the station's annual revenue. Why the double-standard? Because the internet is scary. And music licensing companies saw an opportunity.

Fortunately, the webcasting fees per song per listener were set at a somewhat reasonable rate until this year, so you didn't hear many complaints from commercial webcasters. Non-commercial webcasters, who by nature have a very different business model than for-profit companies, were allowed to pay a flat webcasting royalty fee (non-commercial broadcasters also pay lower over-the-air royalties).

The 2007 CRB scheme for webcasting royalties is different in a few ways:

1. The per-song per-listener fee for commercial webcasters is much higher, so much higher that for many companies, these royalties are actually higher than annual revenue.
2. Non-commercial webcasters are subject to commercial rates if they have a large audience.
3. These new fees are retroactive to January 2006.

These fee changes will essentially wipe out medium- and small-sized commercial webcasters, as well as larger non-commercial webcasters. Popular public station KCRW has already determined that they would owe more than $350,000 under these new rates.

With this new scheme, internet radio risks becoming a bunch of Emmis and Clear Channel giants, with only a few non-commercial little guys, forced to limit their audience or close shop. Just think of our brave new future where internet radio is even less diverse than what you can find on your FM dial. Blech.

Previously, I was confident that NPR's powerful lawyers would surely convince the CRB that applying commercial webcasting rates to non-commercial webcasters was absurd. Well, the bad news is they tried, and the CRB is standing firm on their new rate scheme.

The only hope left (aside from individual stations negotiating their own terms with record labels) is for an act of Congress to interfere. Thankfully, two congressmen introduced the "Internet Radio Equality Act" (H.R. 2060) to the House yesterday. The SaveNetRadio Coalition is recommending that citizens call up their congressperson, urging them to support this bill. They even provide an easy look-up page to find your rep's contact info, along with a few talking points so you can really get your point across to the intern who takes your call.

 

Bike Meetings

Ah spring. Time to move some of those office meetings to the great outdoors.

Too far to walk? Take the company conference bike.

365 Days #117 - Wonderful Childhood, Vol. 1 (mp3s)

MP3:
01 Milk Sandwich (0:49)
02 Wild Rose (1:26)
03 Toy Symphony (3:43)
04 Jasmine Blossom (2:00)
05 The Sun is Up (0:52)
06 Reverie (1:33)
07 Mama, Tell a Story! (0:51)
08 Little Snail (1:57)
09 Little Sister Leaves Her Doll Behind (1:12)
10 Tiny Stars (to the tune of "Ah! Vous Dirais-je, Maman") (1:16)
11 Butterfly (1:00)
12 I'm a Tiny Bird (1:05)
13 Lullaby (Wen Longxin) (2:03)
14 Clench Your Fists (1:03)
15 Back Massage Song (1:05)
16 Ten Soldiers  (to the tune of "Ten Little Indians") (0:58)
17 Catching Fish (1:19)
18 Head Shoulders Knees and Toes  (to the tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down") (0:45)
19 Cool Summer Night (lit. "Enjoying the Cool") (1:20)
20 Tricycle (1:11)

A few years ago a friend of mine, who likes some moderately unusual music and knows I like some exceedingly unusual music, gave me a box set of cassettes he found in a thrift store for Christmas. Most of the packaging is in an Asian language that we couldn't identify, so all we had to go on were the illustrations and the music itself.

As can be seen from the image of the first cassette, they are fairly old—the labels are discolored and they have no clear leader tapes. The set's case has spaces for six cassettes, and the booklet lists the contents of six, but only five cassettes were there. The first two are entirely instrumental. And almost every other track throughout is traditional Western classical music, possibly copied from Western recordings. I haven't included any of those. The rest of the tracks are... decidedly not traditional Western classical music. The sound quality has deteriorated in some places, and in others an occasional tapping can be heard, almost like vinyl skips—something I've never heard on any other tape.

Because I had no titles and little information, I provided scans of almost the entire booklet—with the exception of page four, which is identical to page two except for the cassette designations—in the hope that one of the Project's listeners could read it. Listener Brian came to the rescue. Not only did he translate the titles, but he did some independent research. "I wasn't having much luck figuring out when/where the recording was made, since the booklet doesn't say and the internet wasn't turning up anything, but then I thought to search through some library catalogs," he wrote me. "Sure enough, I found it! It's from 1982, and it was indeed published in Taiwan. I also found out a bit about the editors: Wen Longxin is an award winning composer who has scored a few films, and Su Shuying is an educator."

So there you have it. Be warned, there may be some earworms here. And thanks again Brian!

- Contributed by: Andrew Lander

Images: Booklet Cover, Booklet Page 1, Booklet Page 2, Booklet Page 3 (cassette #1 contents), Booklet Page 5 (cassette #2 contents), Booklet Page 6 (cassette #3 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 7 (cassette #3 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 8 (cassette #3 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 9 (cassette #3 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 10 (cassette #4 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 11 (cassette #4 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 12 (cassette #4 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 13 (cassette #4 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 14 (cassette #5 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 15 (cassette #5 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 16 (cassette #5 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 17 (cassette #5 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 18 (cassette #5 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 19 (cassette #6 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 20 (cassette #6 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 21 (cassette #6 contents and lyrics), Booklet Page 22 (cassette #6 contents and lyrics), Cassette #1

Media: Cassette Box Set
Album: Wonderful Childhood, Vol. 1
Label: Crystal Sound
Catalog: CS-9006
Credits: compiled by Wen Longxin and Su Shuying
Date: 1982

Going to Hell (and Heaven) with Estus Pirkle (video)

Estus Pirkle wants to get you into Heaven, and to sell you on the idea, he's got mansions. He's got immortality. And he's got a singing midget. Personally, he had me at those incredible mathematical comparisons between New York City and The New Jerusalem. (The New Jerusalem is much bigger and seems to get bigger all the time.) And then there are the cheap plastic crowns and the even cheaper time lapse visual effects. Here's an excerpt from Minister Pirkle's 1977 short, The Believer's Heaven:

Guess The WFMU DJ Personal Article, Part 17

Good Morning!  My name's Scott, and I consider it my duty to present you with a piece of WFMU DJ Personal Finery and ask you to guess who it belongs to.  From there I demand that you march right back up to WFMU's mp3 and realaudio archives and get a load of what all these fine people are actually up to on the radio.  As if that weren't reward enough, I'm also giving you a free mp3, right here - here you go:

[mp3 for download, 5 megs]

More reward for the person who actually correctly guesses:
Who on the WFMU air staff does this smart and sexy cellphone case belong to??

This smart and sexy cellphone case could belong to any person currently on or off the WFMU air schedule, as long as that person has, at some point in recent memory, had a regular show.  Look here for a list of everyone who's already been the subject of the game (just add Mike Lupica), and so nevermore shall be.  Oh, and if you've won the game before, or you have direct personal knowledge of this cellphone case or its owner, please don't play.

OK GO!

Major Stars Live in Brooklyn

As this planet's quotient of wussy, dirty poncho-donning, mottled $100 CD-R-hawking, so-called "psych" bands soars through the troposphere, rest assured that honest, genuine, overmodulated rock and roll still populates Earth's gutters. And Brooklyn's nightclubs.

Enter the Major Stars, a triple-guitar-driven psychedelic minefield hailing from Boston: the band is a longtime 'FMU fave, and we couldn't be more excited to host them for the first concert of WFMU's Free Music Series. Take a listen (real audio) to their killer live set on Brian Turner's show last year, and you'll immediately understand that Major Stars aren't some fluttery, fey '60s throwback. Just mentioning the word "fey" to singer Sandra Barrett may result in the loss of a limb. Closely examine the photo to the left and feel the Major Stars most righteously rocking the flexi straws straight out of that soda fountain. Absolution by guitar, people.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more powerful live act these days, so don't miss out on the Major Stars' performance this Saturday, April 28. Join WFMU for a night out on the town, free of charge. That's right, I said rock for free. U-S-A! U-S-A!

The lineup:
Major Stars
Jonathan Kane's February
Flaming Fire
DJ/Rupture
Sat. 4/28 @ Southpaw (125 5th Ave, Brooklyn)
Doors: 8pm, ages 18+

Laughing Hyenas Tour Diary, 1988

I just stumbled across this menacing slice of history while perusing the seldom-updated Your Flesh website, where the famed zine of the same name now lives on in digital bliss: A 1988 tour diary for the Laughing Hyenas, who can easily be counted among the scariest bands of their era, and whose sludgey blues howl hit hard and with daunting precision. The tin-can production values favored by their contemporaries in Pussy Galore was nowhere evident in the Hyenas' catalog -- If Jon Spencer and company evoked the sensations of being roughed up in an alley by a crazed junkie, the Laughing Hyenas summoned the sensations usually associated with being run over by a fleet of trucks. Soundtracking for ugliness has scarcely reached higher plains.

Streaming Real Audio: Gabriel | What Tomorrow Brings | Hard Time Blues

365 Days #116 - Nubbin (mp3)

MP3:
Nubbin (15:04)

In 1997 I created a CD called "Lucas & Friends Discover A World Of Sounds," which consisted of found audio collaged in funny, interesting, and poignant ways. Shortly after the CD came out, I received a cassette in the mail from someone named Jim Doherty from Chicago. It was a copy of a tape he had, which his typewritten letter described to me thusly:

"You mentioned in your interview people using tapes as recorded letters. Well here's one that was passed on to me by someone who found it on the floor of a commuter train. It was one of those little 3 inch reels that came in a box with the "to" and "from" spaces printed on the back so you could mail it. Although the opening is quite mundane, please persevere for a satisfying conclusion. Recording date unknown."

Now, my best guess as to the date would be 1964, not only because of the 3" reel format, but also because at the end of the tape the speaker refers to a trip she wants to take to "Expo," which I think was most likely Expo '64 in New York. I'm also guessing from her reference to a drive she took to Whistler Mountain that she's from somewhere in British Columbia.

I've never gotten in touch with Jim about this, to see if the tape actually had the "to" and "from" filled out on the box. I ended up just calling it "Nubbin." It's been posted on the Lucas & Friends MySpace page for awhile, but I figured it might get a few more appreciative ears here.

- Contributed by: Pea Hix

Media: 3-inch reel tape
Date: circa 1964?

Organisation - Ruckzuck WDR Video (1970)

While stumbling recently through the backlog of posts on the Krautrockteam blog, I found this ultra-rare clip [mpg file, 31MB] of the percussion-heavy, proto-Kraftwerk band Organisation, playing an early rendition of "Ruckzuck," a song that would become the frontispiece for the first, self-titled Kraftwerk album.

After making the great Tone Float album with Organisation, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider-Esleben of course formed Kraftwerk, while the remaining members regrouped as Ibliss, releasing the wonderful Supernova album before disbanding.  Download the Ibliss album (in 2 parts) from the Krautrockteam archive here (you'll need to scroll down to about mid-page.)

Florian Schneider-Esleben can be seen here playing flute (and sporting a t-shirt with his own face on it, curiously enough.)  I believe Ralf Hütter is also present on electric piano, though only his hands are seen.  The psychedelic color-organ backdrop and images of the hippie crowd help to make this video the charming Euro-rock timepiece that it is.

(Viewing suggestion:  watch the clip in a player where the screen size can be reduced slightly, as the clip is quite pixelated when viewed at full size.)

As an added Deutsche bonus, I also found the Knusperkeks e.p. from 1983 available for download on the Brotbeutel blog.  This is an über-rarity from the ZickZack catalog, a homemade-sounding, solo-female minimal-pop effort very much in the NDW/early Rough Trade spirit.

Enjoy!

Jonathan Kane's February teams up with WFMU

By now, I imagine that you've figured out where in Brooklyn you're meeting your friends for dinner on Saturday. I'm also assuming that you've already had the argument with someone in your potential dinner party about the early hour at which you'll be dining so as to not be late for WFMU's Free Music Series Kickoff. Let me reassure you: Your reasoning is both valid and noble.

Earlier this week, Brian Turner and Scott Williams sounded the alarms for the first two artists to take the Southpaw stage this coming Saturday (DJ/Rupture and Flaming Fire respectively), and today I am here to tell you about the third: Jonathan Kane's February. And on this solitary occassion I say: why just read when you can read while you're watching. And listening. Here's a video of the band (recorded last year performing on Brian's show) smashing out one of thee most formidable WFMU hits of recent memory:

 

I wrote about this special programming event a while back and mentioned how Kane's been supplying his seemingly endless varieties of percussive propulsion to hard-hitters like The Swans, Rhys Chatham, and La Monte Young. In the time that's elapsed since then, it's been my distinct honor and pleasure to sink myself headfirst into his most recent work with February. With an eponymously-titled LP (including the track "Sis", which the band performs in the above video) and the I Looked at the Sun EP (which features the affectingly plaintive track "BQE"), Jonathan Kane has summoned key elements from across the avant spectrum and piloted them towards the unlikely destination of American roots music. Try to imagine what Rhys Chatham's epic "Die Donnergotter" [Real Audio] would've sounded like if he'd come up playing it in a backwoods bar in the southern hinterlands, and you're getting close to the shattering symphonics that Kane and his band will be dishing out this Saturday. I look forward to seeing all of you there!

Jonathan Kane's February performs this Saturday, April 28th, at the Southpaw nightclub in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Admission is FREE. 8 PM doors, first come, first served. 18+ to enter. Also performing are DJ/Rupture, Flaming Fire, and the Major Stars. Southpaw is located at 125 5th Ave. Directions are available on their website.

MP3 Truffles: Totally Hot!

Here's a selection of mp3s circling the music blogs this week that you should snatch up while you can.

• Music to any ears: Slits rarities.
• Morricone's score for Orca, the Killer Whale. How come this wasn't in the Oscar medley?
• Jackie DeShannon + The Murmaids x Kim Fowley = The Lady-Bugs.
• Take your pick: Tom Waits live in 1976, or Hunter S. Thompson lecture from 1977. Probably best to grab them both and play them over each other.
• Yes indeed, a rap version of The Canterbury Tales. And don't miss Canada's Wordsworth-rapping varmint, MC Nuts.
• Pungent Stench, Been Caught Buttering. I have to agree - this is one of the greatest grindcore albums ever.
• Imus has pretty much always been a dickweed - as evidenced by the comedic slurs from his 70s "comedy" album. I have no urge to have some Imus debate, I'm just saying that I never liked the guy.
• But I liked this guy... Rest In Peace, Don Ho. More Ho.
• The soundtrack to Rick Springfield's cartoon Mission Magic.
• Tons o' yodelin' with the Dezurik Sisters. 
• The Manischewitz company features Mr. Harold Stern, the Jewish Cowboy.

This week's Music Video finds are the All Olivia Edition. Why? Because I typed Olivia Newton John's name into the good old YouTube and - zap - a day disappeared. Join me down the O-hole (don't worry, this is a Grease-free zone). Start with the video below, then jump inside the post for oh so much more.