Alvaro "Drinkin My Own Sperm" (MP3)
I first heard this LP on Johan's WFMU show back in 1997 and he casually back-announced it as "there aren't many records you can say are the Best Record in the World." Despite the fact hearing the Best Record In the World came pretty frequently during a week's worth of listening to FMU, this one was a doozy. Staccato minimal piano, a menacing yet embracing rhythmic undertow, warm, alien vocals and very primitive arrangements made this sound like some kind of darker sister album to Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets. In Spanish. With a chorus about drinking one's own sperm. Research revealed Alvaro Peña-Rojas to be somewhat of a beloved father figure in the DIY scene of the 70's', having been in garage bands in his native homeland of Chile in the '60's, he moved in on the punk scene in the UK 70's in Joe Strummer's pre-Clash 101ers, finally relocating to Germany where he resides today near his beloved Konstanz Lake. "Drinkin My Own Sperm" apparently was somewhat of a hit in German gay disco clubs at the time, though the huge discography that ensued in years to follow remained sadly below the radar of most underground afficionados. Thankfully Fusetron has picked up the ball over here and is now offering some of Alvaro's LPs, singles and CDs in its distribution list; he even did a U.S. tour and played live at WFMU's record fair and on air a few years ago (the sets were great, though we unfortunately did not get to see his tagline "the Chilean with the Singing Nose" make itself evident). His site is offering up a few other great MP3s as well.
Xexyz "The Trojans" (MP3)
A 1988 video game, a 2007 Black Metal band. Utilizing 8-bit game music. In their own words: "Drums, guitars, the voice of Satan, and Machine. There are reports that
Xexyz is a one-man band. THIS IS FALSE!!!!!! Death to all who think
only one person could be Xexyz. The force of unending flame that is
Satan's War Xexyz could not be realized through only one human soul -
Realize this or Machine kills all of you." Laugh if you will, but this is totally cool, buzzing, and screwed up, and Dipsomanic, the label issuing their Primeval Mountain CD has been scoring with a whole catalogue of the best Out basement metal this side of Striborg (especially the great Tjolgtjar double CD), with the fearlessness of Detsorgsekalf (issuing a band called Enbululugugal with a CD called Filthy Satanic Pork will certainly raise the air of the hardcore Black Metal heads). All sounds pretty great to me.
Witch "Motherless Child" (MP3)
No relation to the recent J. Mascis-employing stoner rock group, this is killer Zambian fuzzrock brought to my attention courtesy Friday morning DJ Doug Schulkind. From 1976, this 5-piece gets a lot of comparison to Nigeria's BLO, but there's a real trash aesthetic here in both the recording and playing that I dig a whole lot more. These guys did not make it to the Shadoks Love Peace and Poetry African comp which is odd, because I think that there was an reissue of this whole LP on that label, though it now seems to be gone. Shadoks often puts those runs out in mega-expensive vinyl form before the more-affordable CD issue hits, so perhaps that will be the case with this one. Either way, a real treasure.
Lexie Mountain "Dogs Hot" (MP3)
From the wonderful, wonderful CD Boys on Nautical Almanac's Heresee imprint. All I can say is: you might want to keep actual dogs away during the playback of this MP3, it could be stress-inducing.
ESG "Earn It" (live on WFMU) (MP3)
The Bronx sisters performing live in the East Orange studios in 1992, right around the time of their "Sample Credits Don't Pay Our Bills" 12" release. Soul Jazz Records has taken up the torch of making ESG past and present available for public consumption again, but the world still does not truly get the magnitude of what these sisters (now with guitarist/daughter Chiselle) have given the world of music. They play out rarely (WFMU was blessed with a benefit show at Southpaw back in 2002), so do not hesitate if you see 'em listed anywhere.
Here's a wrap-up of all MP3-heavy posts from Beware of the Blog over the past month (waxed and oiled up by Liz Berg):
- Catch up on Otis Fodder's 365 Days Project: MP3s of dog heartbeats, Jesus freak hamsters, pop song covers by Dutch kids, the Odd Couple sings, Laci Peterson tribute songs and more!
- Take a listen to some songs on the album Lullabies From The Axis of Evil, tunes sung in duet by artists from the Middle East, North Korea, and the West. Thanks to John from Oslo!
- Underground Berlin, early '80s. Did Lukas hit a soft spot? Hit this post right away to download some rare German tracks from the Berlin Super 80 box set.
- Clinton presents the audio from Brad Neely's Wizard People, Dear Reader, a comic interpretation of the first Harry Potter book.
- Snag some mystery MP3s from WFMU's collection, embedded in these "Guess the DJ Item" posts by Scott Williams.
- Mike brings us a Charles Bukowski remix. Dirty dirty.
- Minimal synth by the band Blah Blah Blah, from a '79 UK 7" single. You can thank Lukas for the hook-up.
- Clinton waxes obsessive on Evel Knievel, video links and MP3s ahoy!
- More MP3 goo from Clinton right here, featuring a Dylan impersonator, James Brown flipping out on a morning TV show, spoken word records from Scott Soriano, and more!
- Check out Ted Leo's version of "That's Entertainment," with lyrics catered to WFMU, of course! Posted by Megan.
- Chris T. offers up all the ingredients necessary to create your own Dark Side of the Moon. Use with caution.
- WFMU's own Dave the Spazz co-wrote a song for ex-Shangri-La Mary Weiss, and it appears on her new album. Listen to it here, courtesy of Debbie.
- An entire Japanoise comp from Lukas (Hard Marchen in Osaka), my fave is Oorutaichi.
- Another MP3 roundup from Clinton, this time featuring tracks from Keely Smith, Lotti Golden (score!), Vanilla Ice's contribution to the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle soundtrack, along with more awful and wonderful finds.
- Like "Popcorn"? Kenny G sure does. 79 times over.
- Benjamin Walker brings us an MP3 from the Imaginary Soul Superstar, Mingering Mike, whose homemade records are both naive and endearing.
- Bjork's first album ever (she was 12). Need I say more? Props to Lukas.
- Fake band Teezar brings the rokk. And Clinton is the giver of Teezar.
- Lukas posted an amazing found sound record in its entirety, Daniel Craft's Soap Opera Suite and Snake Oil Symphony, it's a melodramatic rollercoaster of TV audio and smooth orchestral collage.
- Want to get kicked off a commercial radio station in NYC? Just drop the call letters W-F-M-U. Listen to how it all went down right here. Thanks, Hatch!
He now lives en Valparaiso, Chile. This is his website www.don-alvaro.net.
greetings from Chile
Posted by: Tomás Salvatierra | April 04, 2007 at 09:07 PM