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Vicki

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Cassette Culture Revisited, Part I

{cassette albums on mp3}

Partially inspired by the dearth of music blogs that celebrate underground cassette releases (amongst other 80s musical ephemera), and driven also by the need to digitally preserve some great music, I've been slowly backing up select items from my collection of several hundred unique music cassettes, most of them acquired during my tenure as a weekly programmer on WFMU (1984-1999.)

In the 80s, before digital recording software and home-burned CD-Rs became the norm, single to multi-track cassette recording, mixing and mastering was a way for the inspired bedroom or basement musician(s) to preserve their genius for later distribution to their perceived public (or even just to a few friends.)  Cassettes were also the final distribution format for most of these artists, many having no illusions about (or interest in) ever getting a record deal.  Independent cassette "labels" started to pop up around the country (K, Sound of Pig) and in Europe (Staaltape, ADN).  Cassettes, for a short time, became a viable media for distributing independent music.  It soon became clear that music didn't have to be on vinyl to be valuable.

I created the Lo-Fi show in 1986, designed to be a weekly 30-minute segment of my WFMU program where such "home-recording" artists would be exclusively featured and celebrated.  For a brief overview of lo-fi music (which also gives me a nod) see this Wiki entry.

All tapes have been ripped to high-bitrate mp3 and archived with scans of the original inserts.

Het Zweet - self-titled cassette, 198? [.rar archive, 84MB]

At about the same time the home-recording boom was happening, Al Margolis started his Sound of Pig cassette label, globally distributing exclusive albums and compilations on cassette, mostly by artists in the realm of experimental/avant-garde/industrial music (not necessarily "home-recorded").  I treasure my library of Sound of Pig cassettes, most of them given to me by Al himself.  Today, Mr. Margolis (aka If, Bwana) runs Pogus Productions, still championing the outer fringes of sound (and still offering for sale much of the original SOP catalog on cassette for $5 a title.)

Het Zweet were a faceless Dutch outfit (likely one individual rather than a "band," and part of the original Staalplaat family of artists) that made hypnotic, minimalist percussive trance music, like a very low-gloss Test Dept.  I've always preferred this self-titled cassette (released as SOP 49) to the subsequent Dossier LP and earlier Forced Run material.

Odd-Ba - Lucid Dream (1988) and Verbal Atrocities! (198?) [.rar archive, 57MB]

Odd-Ba were a group of precocious stoners from Pearl River, NY, led by Jim Ehrlich and Dan Dwyer.  They sent me several great cassettes over the years for play on Lo-Fi, these 2 being my favorites.  Lucid Dream is a collection of deliciously bent pop tunes and avant-rock interludes, while Verbal Atrocities!, with its inspired vocalese, free-nonsense jams and half-assed renderings of popular songs, is a lo-fi heir to the Mothers of Invention and Firesign Theatre, while at the same time epitomizing the intimate, welcome-to-my-worldness of home-recorded cassettes.  Both tapes are probably best enjoyed in the same circumstances under which they were created (wink wink.)  (Note:  Only Side 1 of Verbal Atrocities! is presented here, as the original tape was so damaged from wear as to render Side 2 undubbable.)

More to come....

365 Days #131 - Don Reed / eden ahbez (mp3s)

MP3:
A Don Reed & His Orchestra featuring The Voice Of Love - Nature Boy (2:23)
B Don Reed & His Orchestra - The Lonely King Of Rock N' Roll (2:20)

I'm not sure exactly what role eden ahbez had in the creation of this 45, but he's credited as the co-writer of the B-side with Don Reed, so I'm guessing that he was actively involved. In any event, this is definitely my favorite rendition of "Nature Boy," featuring The Voice Of Love, a sort of Bas Sheva / Yma Sumac style vocal. My copy of this is in pretty close to mint condition, which means that the distortion is inherent in the pressing. It'd be great to find the original master tape of this one. "The Lonely King Of Rock N' Roll" is a more pedestrian effort from ahbez, who probably scratched it out in 2 minutes in order to get the publishing credit on the throw-away B-side.

- Contributed by: Pea Hix

Image: Record

Media: 45
Label: A & R Records
Catalog: SR-1001
Credits: Don Reed & His Orchestra
Date: Late 1950s

A Riddle...

What do James Brown, Pat Sajak, Little Richard, and Weird Al Yankovic all have in common? If you answered they all appeared on the same episode of Wheel of Fortune - you win! Here it is, babies.

Another Slab of the 'Tube (Music)

I've been periodically posting some recent YouTube music clippage (some old posts here, here, here, here) and have grown to like my role as the invisible VJ. I have even grown a Mark Goodman 'fro, but you can't see it. Thanks to the fact that you can see everything on the planet either literally via Google Earth, or YouTube for what you can't see via Google Earth, I humbly scrape together a pile of shavings and hereby offer:

James Brown and 'Special Guest' (and it's not Marva Whitney or Lynn Collins or Vicki Anderson, trust me).

Sultry Hungarian Playboy model Zalatnay Sarolta (whose take on Swingin' 60's ye-ye pop morphed into some seriously heavy acid zones and has recently been compiled on this new CD courtesy of Andy Votel) taking on the Stones here.

Also, check out this great TV performance from the 1980's on some UK pop show from our local hero Jim Thirwell  AKA Foetus.

Mega-psyched to see two clips from Australian legends Venom P. Stinger (a band that featured Jim White and Mick Turner of Dirty Three).

The genius of Black Oak Arkansas.

If the Marduk/Alf meeting wasn't enough to unhinge a few doors, check out Cannibal Corpse (sort of).

A while ago Tony Rettman posted on Code of Honor and the thread turned into a fight over the validity of Maximum Rock N Roll magazine these days (aren't Clockcleaner on the cover now? If that's the case, thumbs up from this end); but cool to see some stuff up from their Target vid in '83 I agree that the damage of say, Void, is missing, but they were still AOK, especially when they got a bit weirder towards the end.

More rarely-seen punk from the UK's Alberto Y Los Trio Paranoias (who are nicely featured on the new Babylon's Burning punk box set).

And lest we forget, in honor of Her Majesty's visit to the colonies last week, the greatest punk band in history.

Thanks for sharing: Elisabeth Vincentelli, Bill Schwarz, Henry Owings, Bryce.

Grotesque Yet Luscious! Martin Eder

Some may say that German artist Martin Eder's work is a ham-fisted reworking of kitch and porn ala Jeff Koons. But I find there to be a luscious sensualness and a slightly human awkwardness to the way he approaches the figure that transcends any simple-minded comment on society. Eder's work may be vulgar and sometimes crass (such as the fantastic Masturbating Woman Surrounded by Bad Towels) but he somehow hits at a perfect balance of classical form and grotesque pornographic pose that accentuates the erotic qualities of an ideal figure's imperfections.

Gallery 1 - This gallery features mostly Eder's paintings which prominently feature doe-eyed puff-ball cats staring vacantly as young women hold ridiculous poses...my favorite being The Ass Sniffers.

Gallery 2 - A few of Eder's corporal but vulgar watercolors.

Gallery 3 - An extensive gallery of Eder's work including a couple graphic and spastic show catalogs in PDF format along with his fleshy and subdued nude photography studies. The thumbnails unfortunately don't expand, but if you click around, larger PDF catalogs pop up.

Earn It

I was listening to the radio yesterday--to a station other than WFMU--and I heard one of those vague "news reports" that don't actually tell you anything. Sometimes they're only a sentence long and leave you with a LOT of questions, which I find very frustrating. This one said something along the lines of the MTA was cracking down on workers' comp fraud, including one woman bus driver who played drums with a rock band while she was out on disability. "Uh-oh," I thought, because I know of only one woman in the world who meets that description, but of course that's all the so-called report said before they were off to another account of traffic on roads that I don't even know where they are.

It wasn't until I saw the Daily News this morning that my worst fears were confirmed: Valerie Scroggins has been indicted by a Brooklyn grand jury for taking more than $13,000 in workers' comp payments for a shoulder injury that left her unable to drive a city bus, while she toured Europe playing drums with ESG. "Drummer snared in $13G MTA scandal" said the headline, complete with a mugshot and a photo of VS on drums that featured a banner reading "Caught in the act!"

ESG has been one of my favorite bands since the '80s, and one of the highpoints of my life was when I got to introduce them at a WFMU benefit show some years back, even though I kind of mangled what ESG stands for (Emerald, Sapphire, and Gold) and was wearing the infamous "Eat Pie" t-shirt. But still. And I really admire Ms. Scroggins and kind of paid tribute to her in another blog post here. So I'm not unbiased. But it seems to me that it's a lot more important to have a healthy shoulder when driving a bus full of passengers than when playing drums. Couldn't an injury be severe enough to prevent safe driving, and not be so bad that you couldn't bang out a beat? Couldn't it?

Guess The WFMU DJ Personal Article, Part 18

A full week's worth of guesses has not yielded the correct answer, so I present to you, for an almost unprecedented second time, this Canadian Moose Snow Storm, with the expectation that someone will be able to figure out which WFMU DJ it belongs to...

WFMU's live performance room goes by many names, but my particular favorites are The Love Room, The Stork Club, and The Moose Lounge. Apparently, our neighbors to the great white north also got a thing for moose (mooses?  meese?  nope, just moose), as evinced by this stellar example of the art of encasing gewgaws in glass.

And further apparent is the fact that one of our DJs has got a thing for moose, especially when glass-encased.  In a snow storm.  Your challenge is to guess which one.  Well?

Winner gets WFMU swag!

Everybody gets this free MP3 for download, 3.3 megs

And here's a hearty moose's welcome to all you BOHA subscribers!

Tip: This Canadian Moose Snow Storm may belong to any current on- or off-air DJ, as long as he or she has, at some point, had a regular show.  Here's a complete list of every DJ who has already been, and so nevermore shall be, a subject of this game: Trouble \ Joe Belock \ Hatch \ Diane Kamikaze \ Irwin \ Fabio \ Bryce \ Maria \ Bill Zurat \ Liz Berg \ Stork \ Scott \ Billy Jam \ Charlie \ Rich Hazelton \ Mike Lupica \ Bronwyn

Summer Reading

This summer I really hope to take a crack at the steadily rising pile of unread books in my apartment. It doesn’t help that you can now take your laptop to the park (free wireless in Tompkins – who woulda thunk) – but for those of us determined to hold on to old fashioned technology I offer up a start to a great summer reading list, please make your adds in the comments section.

Alias the Cat - Kim Deitch 
This graphic novel adds another twist to Deitch's Waldo the Cat world, but Kim and his wife Pam personally guide old and new readers alike through this investigation into the forgotten comics and film figure Alias. His research leads him to believe that the movies and comics detail real events, and as he hunts down the mystery behind Alias' alter ego Malek Janochek, fantasy and reality merge. And the whole thing comes together in the town of Midgetville, New Jersey.

Ode To Kirihito my second recommendation is also a graphic novel, a gripping tale from the godfather of manga - Osamu Tezuka. At the core of this book is a mysterious disease that transforms humans into beasts – the monmow disease. Dr. Kirihito works for an eminent Japanese scientist who is convinced that the condition is viral and to ensure that his view is taken as fact he sets up our hero to contract the disease. The book has a rich cast of characters – Kirihito’s schizophrenic fellow doctor, his determined fiancé, and a sex addict contortionist who ‘deep fries’ herself. All of these characters go through transformations over the course of this gripping 300+ page thriller. You will too.

My third recommendation is The Engagement, the 7th novel by Georges Simenon released by the New York Review of Books, and according to their website - the 200th book in their incredible classics series. Nobody in this book may be likable – but not every one is guilty. The odious Mr. Hire is a scam artist, a peeping Tom, and a bowler but is he the killer of the prostitute found murdered in a vacant lot? I am seeing Simenon’s name pop up more and more – often with well deserved comparisons to greats like Jim Thompson and Raymond Chandler.

365 Days #130 - Barbara Cartland's Album of Love Songs (mp3s)

MP3:
01. I'll Follow My Heart (3:32)
02. Desert Song (2:56)
03. A Nightingale Sang In Berkely Square (3:48)
04. How Deep Is The Ocean (3:43)
05. If You Were The Only Girl (3:21)
06. I'll See You Again (2:54)
07. Mr Wonderful (2:46)
08. Dream Lover (3:04)
09. Love Is My Reason (2:57)
10. Always (3:06)
11. If You Are But A Dream (3:21)
12. Goodnight Sweetheart (2:38)

Dame Barbara Cartland is best remembered for her endless stream of trashy love tomes which, even after her death were still being released, earning her the title The Queen of Romance. She was also famous for her connection with the British Royal Family as step-grandmother to Princess Diana (her daughter Raine McCorquodale married Earl Spencer, Diana's father). But what is not so widely known is that in 1978 she swapped pen for microphone when she record her own album of love songs making her the only (albeit distant) member of the Royal Family to have made a record.

The album was issued the State label that was better associated with bubble gum pop and soul acts like The Rubettes and Mac and Katie Kissoon. Sadly Babs didn't go in that direction but chose a set of romantic-themed standards backed by a lush wash of strings and angelic vocals. The Mike Sammes Singes were a respected close harmony vocal group who had backed everyone from The Beatles to Streisand and Sinatra. The Royal Philharmonic was one of the country's top orchestra's conducted by Brian Fahey known for his long association as arranger/orchestrator for Shirley Bassey. So we have the makings of a classic easy-listening album. But with Babs on board it's tuned into something quite different and how the musicians and singers all kept a straight face during the recording is a miracle!

Each pean to passion is graced by a special spoken word pre-amble (or Poem as Babs likes to call them) which are unintentionally comical. 'A Sheikh is a dream mirage for women who are soft, sweet and feminine, and want to be conquered by a strong masculine man' she chirrups like an exited banshee on her take of The Dessert Song. While Love Is My Reason sees her boasting 'My ideal lover has always been tall, dark and handsome and disillusioned with life until he meets me'.

However, while hard to swallow, these words of wisdom are preferable to what follows where across the mesh of silken strings the Ronald McDonald look-alike attempts to sing. She might just have got away with it were they disco tracks (or even a rap) but with such a lushly orchestrated backing her limited vocal abilities stick out like a bookmark in a well-thumbed novel.

Her feeble efforts to stay in a key entirely unsuitable for her result a curious strained whimper, not unlike the howl of her trademark lapdog when it's past dinner time. Every time she opens her pan stick covered mouth to sing she's straining to reach the note like she's suffering from acute constipation. I think she was the inspiration for Howard Goodall's comic falsetto songs which close each episode of the Rowan Atkinson period-sitcom 'Blackadder II'.

In this case we should judge this book by its cover. The vanity sleeve portrait on the front matches those found on the covers of her novels. But flip it over and you'll see the real Barbara Cartland - like Dorian Gray but the other way round. Listen at your peril...

- Contributed by: David Noades

Images: Front Cover, Photo

Media: Album
Label: State
Catalog: ETAT 22
Date: 1978
Credits: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and The Mike Sammes Singers. Orchestrations and Musical Direction by Brian Fahey, Original poems by Barbara Cartland. Produced by Norman Newell, Associate Producer Gil King.

Swan Song on Sixth Street

A temporary pause in the customary blog action to mourn the closing of Sonali, a personal favorite pitstop on the Indian restaurant block of 6th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues in NYC. I'm not sure exactly when it closed, but I snapped this sad picture last night while on my way to meet a friend on the Lower East Side.

I suspect that most New Yorkers would echo the typical hate/tolerance of Curry Alley as a local cuisine phenomenon. The associated myths and opinions (that they all share the same kitchen, that what they serve isn't true Indian food, that the uptown cluster of Indian restaurants is much better, etc.) are as exhausted as any other bit of local folklore, but I wanted to take this opportunity to namecheck Sonali if only because it was, for years, my 6th Street destination of choice.

Before they emerged under new management about three years back, a good friend and I were weekly patrons for enough of the 90s to keep my innards burpin' and chirpin' for the rest of my life. The advantage of dining on this internationally feared block is that it's cheap, it's near a lot of other things that you might want to visit, and anybody in the city you might end up there with will have an opinion on which place is the best. Very few 6th Street regulars are willing to randomly choose a restaurant, in spite of the barkers who stand poised outside of every last doorway, tempting passers by with the promise of tantalizing delights within. One could think that the exotic flavors of the Far East had never been more within reach.

Everything You Wanted To Know About Drugs N' Soap

If you hadn't heard by now, Germs drummer/sometime WFMU guest-programmer Don Bolles was busted by Orange County police in April for soap possession. After being pulled over for a broken tail light, his van was searched (as any good cop would do to a guy wearing a freaky fur hat) and a bottle of Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap was produced, testing positive for illicit drug GHB according to police. Don spent Easter in the clink until Bronners themselves bailed him out and took on the task of providing legal counsel. While Bronner's products are indeed hemp-based (a controvery within itself in California these days) GHB is an odd thing to have been tested positive for inside liquid soap, let alone the concept of utilizing it via that avenue (it's a common drug used for date rape). Lab tests on Don's soap proved the field test faulty, but he still has to go back to court later this month. In the meantime, this video (You Tube) of the whole episode recap as well as some pretty informative stuff on testing soap for drugs, and testing soap for...soap.

MP3 Truffles: Saturday Night Fiedler

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, this lead photo tempered my whole mood putting together this week's post - which means rather than share the best finds this week, I will be sharing the worst (after the jump you can find some quality stuff). But it's all subjective...even the worst things can lead to sublime moments. So that's my goal.

Now, I went through a period where I collected Boston Pops records, not because of the music (God, no), but because it was remarkable to see what in-his-80s Arthur Fiedler was willing to do for an album cover. The highlight of my collection was certainly Saturday Night Fiedler, and I was just so happy to find it on the internet - and a sample of the music, if you dare.
Arthur Feilder & the Boston Pops - "Night on Disco Mountain"
(via Unpleasant.org)

I'm not one to jump on the pick on Alec Baldwin bandwagon, because I love his work and whatever silly family problems they are all having, heck, it's none of my business. On the other hand, this is one brilliant mash up, so wrong that it is just hillarious.   
MP3 - Baldwin vs Stevie Wonder, "I Just Called to Say You Are A Rude Little Pig"
(via Music For Maniacs)

Swedish Christian garage rockers the New Creation offer up a unique remake of the Beatles' "Yesterday": Victory/Jesus rose again triumphantly/Now he lives with God eternally/He's calling you/From Calvary.
MP3 - New Creation, "Calvary"
(via Bellybongo)

Guantanamo wasn't always a dirty word. Listen to Eddie Gross' peppy tribute to a troubled bay.
Eddie Gross, "Guantanamo Bay"
(via Magic of Juju)

And then we have Van Halen, just on the cusp of superstardom in these live sets from 76/77. So green that they are still "a group from Pasadena", the tracks have the type of sound quality you would expect from a tape of that time period - but both of those qualities just add to the charm.
MP3 - Van Halen, "The Jean Genie" (incorrectly listed as "New York City") 
(via Jefito Blog)

Follow the jump the good stuff.

365 Days #129 - Tortura: The Sounds Of Pain And Pleasure (mp3s)

MP3:
01. Tortura - Track 1 (0:53)
02. Tortura - Track 2 (1:28)
03. Tortura - Track 3 (1:37)
04. Tortura - Track 4 (1:31)
05. Tortura - Track 5 (0:59)
06. Tortura - Track 6 (0:28)
07. Tortura - Track 7 (0:44)
08. Tortura - Track 8 (1:19)
09. Tortura - Track 9 (0:53)
10. Tortura - Track 10 (0:42)
11. Tortura - Track 11 (1:28)
12. Tortura - Track 12 (1:09)
13. Tortura - Track 13 (1:06)
14. Tortura - Track 14 (1:10)
15. Tortura - Track 15 (0:50)
16. Tortura - Track 16 (2:04)
17. Tortura - Track 17 (0:44)
18. Tortura - Track 18 (1:27)
19. Tortura - Track 19 (1:13)
20. Tortura - Track 20 (1:34)
21. Tortura - Track 21 (1:29)

WhatCha waitin' for... a whippin'?  Dirty boys and naughty girls here is YOUR call.  Relax in the twilight of your upcoming evenings listening to the sounds of whipping, beating, screaming, moaning, crying, groaning and laughing.  To be listened to by the whip-wielding dominatrix to the lonely soul awaiting the next afrodisiac.  My recommendation is that next time you leave your home you should play this recording at a very loud volume for your neighbors to start a local rumour mill.

Thanks to that wacky-whipping-wfmu staff you can listen to excerpts from TORTURA VOLUME 2 on the MP3 Download Dinner Bell for April 2006!

I hope to hear someone put this record to music.  Slice and dice sample mavens, you have hundreds of whip loops to be used at your discretion.  If you do please post a link to your work in the comments. Some of these sounds are just screaming to be used.

- Contributed by: Sid Safari

Images: Front Cover

Media: LP
Album: Tortura: The Sounds Of Pain And Pleasure
Label: Bondage Records
Catalog: BR-LPM 1069
Date: 1965

Sunday Soundtracking with Your Grandparents

Clay Pigeon, head chef of WFMU's currently-off-air-but-hopefully-back-someday Dusty Show, sent me a great MP3 of "In the Mood" last week. There's no artist info contained in the file name or the tags, but it sounds kind of like the traditional Glenn Miller big band version with someone doing all the solos by leaking air out of a pinched balloon nozzle. [Download MP3]

Also, here's a MIDI version, for those of you who like to sing along with your computers. [Download MIDI]

This Week in Sex: Size Matters

Banana fana fo uck. The Sex Name Fabricator creates the name for a sex act by randomly combining a nationality with a kitchen utensil. Bosnian meat cleaver, Malaysian meat grinder...I'm partial to the ones with meat in them. Designed by Aesthetic Apparatus and Listener Dan.  See, Listeners can get off their asses and do something useless.

Big questions. Why would Nature make the world's smallest dog so damned small? Scientists say it's something about dog DNA. Next question: Why would someone name the world's smallest dog Dancer? Like that dog isn't already going to get its ass kicked on the playground. Brandy, another little dog with big dreams, is a fine girl, but she's no Dancer.

Before Dancer we had Tiny Pinocchio. "However she is not alive anymore where her owner found her dead after overeating herself to death." Or something like that. All I know is this dog looks like it ate its own nose. Read the sad but totally true tale of Tiny Pinocchio.

I would tell you about the World's Smallest Police Dog but it's boring. "She watches everybody comes in the room," Sheriff Dept. Deputy Carrie Jericho said. "Her ears perk up and she watches who's coming in." Like I said, booooring.

After the jump: the deal with the freaky little horse (yes, that's a horse), beer-drinking cats, quick change artists, and it's all safe for work.

365 Days #128 - Katie Lee - Songs of Couch and Consultation (mp3s)

MP3:
Will To Fail (2:34)
Repressed Hostility Blues (2:22)
It Must Be Something Psychological (2:30)

I first discovered Katie Lee on the recently out-of-print RE/Search Records Incredibly Strange Music Vol. 1. A compilation of forgotten mid-century sounds, it includes plenty of garage sale gems: madcap xylophone covers of the "William Tell Overture", Bob Peck's "Sweet 16", (a tough, tongue-in-cheek ballad of juvenile delinquency), and Rajput & The Sepoy's singing sitars version of The Fifth Dimension's "Up, Up, & Away".

Katie Lee's "Will to Fail" stood out among these thrift-store singles as a pleasantly mental tune about a functioning ne'er-do-well. ("I have talents that I never use. I try to win but I love to lose because I've got the will to fail" and "I secretly am enjoying myself but slowly I'm destroying myself.") The original ode to apathy is on the also out-of-print album Songs of Couch and Consultation (Reprise Records, 1961). As this song was virtually my personal anthem throughout my college career, you can imagine my shrieking delight when I found the record ten years later, stamped FOR PROMOTION ONLY, with original cover art in near-mint condition among my grandfather's extensive collection.

Already known for Freudian folksongs on her earlier LP, Life is Just a Bed of Neuroses (RCA Victor, 1960) Katie recorded this a year later with composer Leon Pober and arranger Bob Thompson. Having studied with Burl Ives and Josh White, she elucidates the beatnik zeitgeist with this kooky chronicle of the couch.

Katie finally became a self-actualized woman sometime later, it seems, when she returned to her Arizona home and became an activist for preserving Glen Canyon and the Colorado River. She is equally known for this album and her efforts as impassioned environmentalist.

- Contributed by: Sara Johnson

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover, Side A, Side B

Media: 33 1/3 RPM LP
Album: Songs of Couch and Consultation
Label: Reprise Records
Catalog: R-6025
Credits: Arranged and conducted by Bob Thompson; Lyrics by Bud Freeman; Music by Leon Pober.
Date: 1961

Barfcore

Otto Von Schirach: "Gagged Gizzard Goo" (MP3) from new double 7" on Imputor.
Butthole Surfers: "Beat the Press" (MP3) from their 1993 10" that preceded/promo'd their Capitol debut Independent Worm Saloon.

NSFPL (Not Safe For Post Lunch, or Pre-Lunch)
Still a more enjoyable listen than these guys.

Markus Kienzl + Oddateee

I've been obsessed with Oddateee -- one of the area's most mysterious rappers -- since first hearing the song "Ricans" back when the Dälek guys did some guest DJing on my show in late 2004. During that session, they played an MP3 of the unreleased track which I have re-aired numerous times since then, and it always gets the phone ringing and emails rolling in. Last summer, some kids called me from a cellphone literally pleading with me to play it again because they'd all been taking turns freestyling to it as they drove around Brooklyn. Endorsements come scarcely any more authentic than that, and for all the complaining I do about orchestral sampling in hip-hop, even I have to admit that the violin sounds in this track are strictly top-shelf. [Click for streaming Real Audio]

Anyway, some googling and a few trowlings of the accursed Myspace Music pages lead me to a bit more useful information pertaining to the elusive Oddateee. He's from WFMU's own backyard of Union City, NJ, was formerly a member of the Labteks, and has collaborated with the Sofa Surfers (who played NYC pretty recently.) He had one solo record a while back on the Gern Blandsten label, and has a new one forthcoming in September called "Halfway Homeless". To tide all of us over 'til that album's release, here's a great video featuring Oddateee from Markus Kienzl's"Product" LP called "Peace Demonstration".

 

Sportsy Talk

Yesterday the NY Yankees announced they’ve resigned Roger Clemens. Roger Clemens! Why don’t they just sign Nolan Ryan while they’re at it? Or Fernando Valenzuela—I think he’s available. Shoot, why don’t they just pay ME $28,000,000 a year, and I’LL throw at the batter’s head.