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365 Days #353 - The Children's Bible Hour - A Christmas Carousel (mp3s)

MP3:
01 Cousins Choir - Tell It Out (1:03)
02 Cousins Choir - Come on, Ring Those Bells (1:49)
03 Peter J. and Ann Delightful Duetters - Merry Christmas, Bells are Ringing (1:59)
04 Cousins Choir - Keep Christ in Christmas (1:26)
05 Cousins Choir - Carol of Christmas (2:01)
06 Suzie, Dougie, Cousins Choir - Luke 2/Beautiful Hills of Judea/Away in the Manger (3:36)
07 Cousins Choir - Go, Tell it on the Mountain (1:21)
08 Cousins Choir - Christmas Every Day (1:24)
09 Linda, Susan & Lynette - Ring the Bells (1:51)
10 Cousins Choir - Silent Night (1:55)
11 Cousins Choir - Why Isn't Everybody Singing Allelu? (1:43)
12 Uncle Charlie - Johnny's Stocking (10:59)
13 Uncle Charlie - Whose Birthday? (8:22)

From the liner notes:

Every Year we are asked if we have a Christmas record. Now we do…and here it is... a delightful combination of music AND story! This is a FAMILY album... not just for boys and girls! The CHILDREN'S BIBLE HOUR is heard on nearly 600 radio stations worldwide. For a list of our radio outlets... (blah blah blah, etc...)
- Signed, Uncle Charlie

STORY NUMBER ONE (Track 12): JOHNNY'S STOCKING
Have you ever felt like you're just not worth much? That's the way little Johnny felt, until Gramps showed him that in God's sight we are ALL worth loving and caring about! In this delightful story, the "lead part" is played by the fantasy character of "Johnny's Stocking." It's an imaginative, interesting story with an important lesson.

If only that lesson were to not let your kids go visit weird old guys called "Gramps." Shudder.

STORY NUMBER TWO (Track 13): WHOSE BIRTHDAY?
What kind of birthday is it when the person whose birthday it is doesn't get any presents? That's what often happens at Christmas time, when the Lord Jesus is often left out of our plans. This story emphasizes to young and old alike the importance of "keeping Christ in Christmas."

Apparently it's the birthday of a deity with the maturity of a nine-year-old! It struck me–and I can't keep my mouth shut–how odd it is to celebrate Christmas for a deity because he was sacrificed by his father. Who does this and isn't some kind of psychopath? Nobody. God Yule. (That's a deity to look up!)

- Contributed by: Hellbound Alleee

Image: Front Cover

Sleeveface

Sleeveface
Sleeveface Facebook Group (the original source - has the most pictures)
...and yet more

(via nascent ideas)

This One Goes Out to Edwin Armstrong and The Regenerative Circuits

Happy Birthday to our hero. Edwin Howard Armstrong, father of FM radio, was born 117 years ago today.

In a perfect world, he would have been wealthy, happily married, and more immediately recognized by the average human, but sadly, history didn't shake out that way.

Edwin Howard Armstrong's story is one that I first learned as a media studies undergrad who was captivated by Ken Burns' brilliant "Empire of the Air" radio documentary. "Empire..." tells the story of three radio innovators (Armstrong, Lee De Forest, and David Sarnoff) who saw tremendous potential in the wireless medium, and who nearly forced each other into ruin (and in one case, an early grave) through an endless series of backstabbings and legal squabbles.

I've since watched "Empire..." countless times and can recite lines from it the same way other people summon up zingers from Monty Python or Airplane, but I will always remember that first viewing during my freshman year of school. I was already a serious radio junkie by then and had been doing a weekly show on WPRB for several years. Armstrong's tale seemed to come frontloaded with the same feelings you get when discovering someone else who shares all of your identical passions and interests. How could I have thought I cared about radio before knowing Armstrong? And how the hell could my classmates sleep through the same story that had me sitting bolt upright in my chair, my pulse hammering audibly inside my skull? Sitting in that auditorium was one of the few times in my life that I knew I was in the right place, and I've spent the ensuing years trying to validate that sensation.

Armstrong's story is told elegantly by Burns' documentary, and I wouldn't dream of trying to paraphrase a career of such honor, nuance, and ultimate tragedy here. But it's worth stating that there are only two things in this world that are guaranteed to make me weep like a little schoolgirl, and one of them is the story of Edwin Howard Armstrong. (The other one, as I've recently discovered, is anything having to do with elephants, but never mind about that right now.)

Sadly, I don't have any Armstrong-related audio or video handy, but you can (and should) get "Empire of the Air" on Netflix. There's also more information about him here, here, and here. And one of these days, I'm going to make good on my promise to go visit Armstrong Tower in Alpine, New Jersey. Perhaps it's undue flattery, but I like to think that if Edwin were alive today, he'd still be living in Jersey and would perhaps be an FMU fan.

Crank Dat: The Varieties of YouTube Dance Experience

This is an image of a fictional hip-hop video posted on a fictional YouTube, as captured from my screen moments ago while I was viewing it on the real YouTube. It's from the opening scene of the video for Soulja Boy's "Crank Dat," a song that plays a central role in the most important hip-hop story of the decade.

I'm sure you've heard the song. It reached the point of near ubiquity over this summer; the simple steel drum beat could be heard coming out of every 5th speaker in the United States of America at any given time.

The video can be seen as a modern triptych that illustrates each of the components in our weird new media celebrity landscape.

Panel 1: The opening scene is set in the "Collipark Residence," the offices of a record label (named after a region in Atlanta called College Park)  famous for breaking many of the big "crunk" acts from the past several years. Mr. Collipark sees his kids dancing and singing Crank Dat and looks up this new phenomenon on his computer. After seeing that Soulja Boy has developed a web-based meme, he instant messages the artist. Soulja Boy responds: "meet me at my crib." The message here being, get out from behind that desk, industry man. We've got something cooking over here. This stands in huge contrast to the launch of an artist like 50 Cent, who was famously depicted being bionically enhanced, packaged, and delivered by his gatekeepers, Dr. Dre and Eminem.

Panel 2: Kids are seen watching the Soulja Boy video on a variety of devices, including laptops and cell phones, and Soulja Boy logs on to see a number of fan-submitted dance videos thriving in the wild, without distribution help from Mr. Collipark. Come see me at my crib, indeed.

The presence of cell phone videos is also very interesting. It's the most significant announcement of the arrival of "convergence culture" I've seen yet. The future is here and its distributing itself very quickly.

Panel 3: Soulja Boy dances under very good lighting and wearing expensive clothing. He signs a record deal and gains acceptance into mass culture.

But there's more.

Trent's Ten Favorite Albums From 2007 as of 12/1/2007

Man, Idunno about y'all guys, but this year has been a real tough one for me to get ahold of musically.  So many great songs come at you that it's hard to grab them all and remember which ones you liked the best.  But albums, well, albums are a different thing.  You really have to concentrate on an album these days since there are all these single MP3s around to distract you.  But what I did, and what I suggest you maybe do, is to get that CD player back in rotation.  And get some CDs for it.  CDs rule!

10) Michaela Melian - Los Angeles.  Like her last album, the entire disc can be considered a foil for the last song - the only one with vocals, a cover of Roxy Music's "Manifesto."  But the foil certainly is a joy to sit through and take in with all its shuffly details, and then at the end you are blown away - BAM - by the straightforward awesomeness of her voice.

9) Matthew Dear - Asa Breed.  I kind of knew this guy had it in him: a perfect electronic pop record that got the attention of rock journalists.  It's cute, rough, and sparkly at the same time, like a newly-washed Hello Kitty tank, and you can dance to it, and sing along to it.

8) Prins Thomas Presents Cosmo Galactic Prism.  Well I liked this guy in the first place for the music he makes, but this two-disc mix compilation just blew my mind away.  Space-psych jams slid seamlessly under with ethereal electronics and lots of other kinds of music I didn't even know existed.  They should name a whole new genre of music "Cosmo Galactic Prism" after this record, only you can't really describe it, just hear the shine and then know it.

7) Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55.  Charlotte, you are a beautiful and talented woman.  I don't like Air a whole ton but when they get their hands on you and slide Jarvis into the mix they know how to turn you into a really very magical star, like you even needed that in the first place.  I haven't been this happy about your career since "Lemon Incest," and I don't even think I was born then.

6) M.I.A. - Kala. When you first hear this record after having loved "Arular" so much, you're all, damn, this shit is getting H-E-A-V-Y, and then you start dancing.  What a real live woman she is.  She goes from deadpan slamming to talking about drugs to singing a Bollywood tune and has great fashion taste and loves to draw things that look like video games.  Even if she didn't have all of these "topics" people love her for I would still be all goo-goo over her.

5) Daft Punk - Alive 2007.  If my year was about anything, it was about Daft Punk.  Their mind-melting light and sound show made it pretty darn clear to me that they have as plain a grip on the future of everything as any science-fiction writer has ever had in history. It's a positive, positive expanse of time in front of us, and it's full of synchronized dancing and lights.  (If you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and click here and then try to book a flight to Japan to see them before the tour ends)

4) Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil.  You know, I wasn't really into them, but then I heard this album and it makes you almost want to cry. It's just dirty and then pretty and then sad and true about things, a little naive, and says a lot of things about living now and being young in a way that only people who have been touring since they were just out of diapers can say.  Skip the overrated live show and get drunk to this album at home with your friends.

3) LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver.  The thing about James Murphy is that he's kind of like, yeah, this is who I am, and this is what I do and I do it awesomely.  Not only is "Someone Great" a tearjerker, but this Long Player makes you want to move, makes ANYone want to move (if not, get a new friend) and is perhaps the most perfect album to DRIVE to that has ever been created.

2) Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat.  Confession time!  I never listened to Arab Strap at all or even any of MM's old stuff.  But then this one came across my "desk" and BANG - uplifting/uplifting girl singing with depressing/uplifting guitar hooks around his depressed/depressed voice and words - the only album of the year where I can sing most of it, and that is saying a lot, since I normally don't "do" lyrics.  You just sit and listen, and listen, and listen, and sing.

1) Panda Bear - Person Pitch.  You can picture him sitting there looping all of these gorgeous phrases together and thinking, this is going to be the most perfect thing ever...let's do it, and then he did it.  Better than anything Animal Collective ever put out or even Brian Wilson if you want to think about it that way and with much less fuss. Yeah, that's what it's about - no fuss - just make it happen.

365 Days #352 - I've Got Christmas On My Fingers! (mp3s)

Korla Pandit - Christmas With Korla Pandit
01 Adest Fideles (1:54)
02 Good King Wenceslas (1:03)
03 White Christmas (2:32)
04 Gesu Bambino (3:47)
05 Silver Bells (2:37)
06 The Drummer Boy (2:52)
07 Jingle Bells (1:53)
08 Silent Night (4:17)
09 Merry Christmas (2:28)
10 O Thou Joyful Day (1:58)
11 It Came Upon The Midnight Clear (2:08)
12 O Holy Night (2:21)
13 O Thou Descendant From A Star (2:35)
14 Hark The Herald Angels Sing (1:49)
15 The First Noel (2:26)
16 Joy To The World (1:42)
17 Beautiful Savior (2:17)
18 We Three Kings Of Orient Are (1:58)
Image: Front Cover

Fiesta Navidenas - Various
01 Tony De La Rosa - Melodias Navidenas (2:42)
02 Linda Escobar - Carta Santa Claus (2:45)
03 Los Hermanos Ayala - Jingle Bells Polka (2:00)
04 Los Gavilanes - Mi Negra Navidad (2:14)
05 Conjunto Bernal - Hoy (2:45)
06 Tony De La Rosa - Auld Lang Syne (2:16)
07 Beatrice Llamas - Un Ano Mas De Carino (3:15)
08 Los Hermanos Ayala - Navidad Polka (2:01)
09 Eligio Escobar - Gracias A Dios (2:10)
10 Linda Escobar - Pastorcillos (1:48)
Image: Front Cover

The Going Thing - Christmas 1968 With The Going Thing
01 A Few Holiday Thoughts With John Naughton Then......... Merry Christmas (6:57)
02 Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (2:44)
03 My Christmas Tree (3:31)
04 Silent Night (1:28)
05 The Christmas Waltz (2:48)
Image: Front Cover

The Reverend Glen Armstrong
Side A Even Squeaky Fromme Loves Christmas (3:15)
Side B Death Of An Elf (4:53)
Image: Glen Armstrong with his band Sounds Of The Czars

- Contributed by: TH3 T0D

Artist: Korla Pandit
Album: Christmas With Korla Pandit
Date: 1961
Label: Fantasy
Catalog: 3350

Artist: Various
Album: Fiesta Navidenas
Label: Bernal
Catalog: BELP 2008

Artist: The Going Thing
Album: Christmas 1968 With The Going Thing
Date: 1968
Label: Not For Sale
Catalog: Not For Commercial Use

Artist: The Reverend Glen Armstrong
Album: 45rpm Single
Date: 1994

Name That Photo

Not to rip off Liz B's awesome caption contests, but this was just too amazing not to share.

See the actual title of the photo after the jump.   

Bronwyn C and Kenny G crash Brooklyn book store

Here's a shot from Bronwyn C's remote broadcast of Killing Time, as heard and witnessed last Friday at the Community Bookstore in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

The evening consisted of various contributors to "The Best of LCD: The Art and Writing of WFMU" (edited by Dave the Spazz) reading their published works in the singularly intimate setting that's unique to indie bookstores. Bonus points are distributed to the Community Bookstore for the addition of a live-in cat, turtle, and iguana -- all of which were curiously described as "strays".

Pictured here are Bronwyn and WFMU's own Kenny G
(who as Spazz astutely pointed out midway through the broadcast, looked as if he'd just "mugged a couch".)

You can listen to the show right now [Streaming Real Audio] | [Streaming MP3] and hear readings from "The Kenny G letters" -- heartfelt notes that Kenny receives from smooth-jazz lovers who think they've tracked down his curly-haired namesake -- as well as spoken wordage from Spazz, Sluggo, Ellery Eskelin, and more.

Immediately following the reading, great quantities of beer were produced, and strangely enough, no one remembers how we all got back to New Jersey. The Community Bookstore is located at 143 7th Ave. in Park Slope, Brooklyn. That happens to be within spitting distance of this place and also this place, both of which come highly recommended from myself, Scott Williams, and most other people who love any combination of drinking alcohol and witnessing live music.

Woody's Best of 2007

New:

Morton Feldman - For Bunita Marcus (Stephane Ginsburgh, piano) (Sub Rosa)

Por Por: Honk Horn Music of Ghana (Smithsonian Folkways) - Listen to "Aayoo Samiah" from Evan Muse's show

Daniel Higgs - Metempsychotic Melodies (Holy Mountain) - Hear "Leontocephaline Rhapsody" from Scott McDowell's show

Dr. Delay - Rajaz Meter (Funk Weapons) - Mix cd of Middle Eastern funk. Listen to a few tracks from the cd from Liz Berg's show

PROIBIDÃO C.V: Forbidden Gang Funk From Rio de Janeiro (Sublime Frequencies)

Old things made new:

ABCs of Kid Soul (Numero) - Collection of soul/funk tracks by children.
Hear 3 Stars perform "Jersey Slide Pt. 1" from Brian Turner's show.
Thierry Muller - Rare & Unreleased 1974-1984 (Fractal)

Noah Howard - Black Ark (Bo'Weavil) - This free jazz collector's holy grail has finally been reissued in a large enough edition to be actually purchased. Hear "Domiabra" from Bill Mac's show

Roots of Rumba Rock: Congo Classics 1953-55 (Crammed Disc)

Boogie Down Productions - The Blast Master Tapes (Traffic)

People Take Warning: Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs 1913-1938 (Tompkins Square)

Shit Happens (Bear Family) - Great compilation of comically depressing country songs. Hear Eddy Arnold's "Mommy Please Stay Home With Me" from Mike Lupica's show
Mario de Andrade: Missao de Pesquisas Folcloricas (Centro Cultural Sao Paulo) - Amazing hard-to-find box set of recordings by the "Alan Lomax" of Brazil. Fortunately, there is a great accompanying website.
Teiji Ito - Music for Maya: The Film Music of Teiji Ito (Tzadik)

Bippp: French Synthwave 1979-1985 (Born Bad)

Authenticite: The Syliphone Years (Stern's Music)

Richard Lerman - Music of Richard Lerman 1964-1987 (Em) - Originally released on Folkways, this album contains concert pieces as well as field recordings of Lerman's "Travelon Gamelon", a bicycle orchestra. Hear a concert version from 1981 from Maria Levitsky's show

Meat-tastic

Video by Cyriak.

 

 

Art by Nicholas Lampert.

 

Thanks to Andy and Nate!

365 Days #351 - Borborygmi (mp3s)

MP3:
1. Medley (3:30)
2. Justified Appendectomy (3:01)
3. Old Blue Cross (1:52)
4. In Old Green County (2:21)
5. Terminology (3:17)
6. Specialty (4:35)
7. Hemorrhoids (2:32)
8. Remember The Days (5:39)
9. In Old Green County (reprise) (0:58)

There is absolutely no information printed on this 10" record except the word Borborygmi, which is the medical term for stomach-gurgling sounds.

A fitting name for this collection of jaunty piano-and-vocals medical parodies, apparently sung by real doctors. Only real doctors could have gotten away with singing such explicit material in the '50s/early '60s period these songs were probably recorded. Assuming this is the same bunch who did this, this record was produced to benefit the Greene County, MO Medical Society's Scholarship Foundation. It definitely wasn't for the general public - only other medical industry professionals would understand all the references.

Looking for graphics, I was just typing in mildly appropriate phrases like "singing doctors," not really expecting to find anything, and I came across this (the album cover to the right). I'd say it's a different album judging by the song titles, but they mention Greene County in their lyrics.  How many Green County singing doctors could their be?

The opening medley parodies popular songs of the day like "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "I Only Have Eyes For You" with medicine-inspired lyrics.

"Justified Appendectomy" shows off some mystery doctor's impressive operatic singing. "Old Blue Cross" is a finger-snapper with a tap-dancing (?) interlude.

"Hemorrhoids" is cornball country with nice harmony vocals singing lyrics that would make Gene Autry faint. The Tom Lehrer-esque "Terminology" is one of my favorites, confirming something many have suspected - that doctors use incomprehensible jargon to baffle patients and justify their high salaries!

"Remember The Days" is another winner, a funny but wistfully nostalgic look back at a doctors' career.

- Contributed by: Mr. Fab

Media: 10" vinyl EP
Date: 1950s/early '60s?

Christmas Songs, Boozing, and Cursing (MP3s)

Since I am too lazy didn't have much time this week, just a few random Christmas songs for you. Enjoy!

Butthole Surfers - Good King Wenceslas (MP3, the new hymn of AA)
The Legendary Tiger Man - Fuck Christmas, I Got The Blues (MP3, FCC-unfriendly, the Portuguese one-man band is supported by some foulmouthed children on this one)
Joseph Spence - Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (MP3, Spence is drunk with an out-of-tune guitar and he doesn't know the lyrics either, and still turns out the best version of this song ever recorded, by far)
Zoogz Rift - Santa's On A Diet (MP3, FCC-unfriendly)

Tis the Season for Awful Television

Whenever I'm posting a bunch of links to television footage or old radio shows, you can rest assured I've been too lazy or too busy or too busy being lazy to get my act together to write something that day. Such is the case once again as I direct you to a handful of Christmas themed sitcoms to help drown out the noise of your family arguing on Christmas day.

Dig these Christmas episodes of:

The Beverly Hillbillies
Howdy Doody
The Addams Family
All in the Family
The Honeymooners
The Brady Bunch
Three's Company
Davey and Goliath
Plus:
Dick Van Dyke and Rose Marie shill cigarettes for the holidays
The Munsters in the Macy's Christmas Parade

Acapulco Dance Party Winter Solstice Megamixx

Acapulco Rodriguez brings us his list for 2007:

So it's finally here: the end of 2007!? I mean, what happen!? So you say, Acapulco, what you got to say for youself? Well, I just got to laugh -- you gotta take the good with the bad, and the bad with the ugly: war in Iraq is wack, but Barrack Obama is the next prezident of the USA; Mrs. Acapulco got a bun in thee oven, meanwhile Britney losing all her kids to the man 'cos she ain't done recoverin'. My addiction is strictly musical, and I hope and pray, yours too. This holiday, whether you celebrate Feliz Navidad, Chanukha, or Kwanza, you gots to bring the jams -- and if you're at a loss for what to throw down, here's my personal mix of 37 cuts that made the cut, the muse-sick that made my dick hard this year, or made your pussy wet (as the case may be!? Ha ha ha!). Peace.

  Consumer Electronics: Nobody's Ugly, No Fun LP
  Broom Dusters: Sound From The Bottom Of The Tokyo Underground, Siwa LP
  M.B.: Symphony For A Genocide, Hospital / w.m.o CD
  Mattress: In the Pocket, Malt Duck 7"
  Peter Brotzmann & Sonny Sharrock: Fragments, Okka Disk LP
  Angelblood: Mambo Mange, Locust LP
  Billy Bao: Fuck Separation, S-S 10"
  Blank Dogs: The First Four Weeks, Freedom School 12"
  Eat Skull: Eat Skull, Meds 7"
  So Cow: Moon Geun Young, Myoclonic / Almost Ready 7"

365 Days #350 - South Bass Island Bound & Other Original Songs about Put-in-Bay (mp3s)

THIS SIDE
01 South Bass Island Bound (2:33)
02 Carry Me Back To The Island (2:45)
03 South Bass Island Love Song (4:07)
04 I Survived The South Bass Island Summer Of '82 (2:54)
05 Lord, I Need A Drink (3:19)
FLIP SIDE
06 Don't Drink The Wine (4:15)
07 Pride Of Put-In-Bay (3:29)
08 I Knew You/South Bass Island Love Song: Reprise (4:11)
09 Roll On, Lake Erie, Roll On (3:54)

South Bass Island. Put-in-Bay. Learn these names now: you will be hearing them many, many times before this album is over.

If South Bass Island is, as Wikipedia states, the "Key West of Southern Lake Erie", then Michael Kelly Brewer is Southern Lake Erie's answer to Jimmy Buffett. He's got a collection of cheery songs (well, okay, "I Knew You" is kind of a downer) all about island living, escaping the rat race, and getting wasted on that fine Ohio wine. I'm assuming this album was sold in souvenir shops all over the island.

I wasn't able to find any current info about Mr. Brewer, but there's a nice smartass Q&A session with him printed on the back of the jacket. His arranger/producer, Steve Scharren, appears to still be active in music, both as a sound engineer and as a performer.

- Contributed by: Suzanne Baumann

Images: Front Cover, Back Cover

Media: LP
Album: South Bass Island Bound & Other Original Songs about Put-in-Bay
Label: The Put-in-Bay Trading Company
Credits: Written and performed by Michael Kelly Brewer with Steve Scharren
Date: 1983

Liz Berg's Best of 2007

1. Best ways to work off a caffeine buzz
DAT Politics - Are Oui Phony? (listen)
OCDJ - Hooray (listen)
Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings (listen)
The Deathset - Rad Warehouses Bad Neighborhoods (listen)
Andrew WK - Close Calls with Brick Walls (listen)

 

2. Best sound collage wizardry
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz - Perpetuum Mobile (listen)
Blanketship & the Dollson Family Singers - Music with a Message (listen)
Listen with Sarah - The World of Listen with Sarah (listen)
The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon on WFMU

 

3. Best of Brooklyn
Aa - gAame (listen)
Shooting Spires - Shooting Spires (listen)
Parts & Labor - Mapmaker (listen)
WFMU's Free Music Series concerts at Southpaw

 

 

4. Best onstage mayhem
Lexie Mountain Boys - pretty down-home ballads, schizo freakouts, out-of-body experiences, and the best crowd heckling of 2007. (listen | watch)
Flaming Fire - one word: togas. (listen | watch)
Monotonix - antics regularly involve fire, garbage, wall-climbing, and a moving drum kit. (listen | watch)
Dark Meat - a sweaty mess, southern hippie horn cult involving 10-14 band members. (listen | watch)

365 Days #349 - How Do I Learn? (mp3s)

MP3:
1 All Kinds of Feelings (2:13)
2 What Next? (5:45)
3 Making Mistakes (5:31)
4 Who's Afraid? (5:37)
5 Figuring Things Out (5:54)
6 Do You Forget? (5:35)

The packaging of Film Strips come in many shapes and sizes, and can often be mistaken for board games, books, records, or anything else.

I almost passed this box by when picking up piles of film strips from a Thrift Store in Ogden, Utah. It has since turned out to be one of my most favorite finds ever! The sounds of the records themselves could almost be placed along side the works of Ken Nordine, plus one of them even includes an alternate version of a Jean Jacques Perrey & Gershon Kingsley track which I believe to be part of "Barnyard in Orbit" (correct me if I'm wrong).

The filmstrips are great! A couple have been featured in the traveling exhibits of the Lost Media Archive and Incredibly Strange Movie Night. I'll never forget the gasps from the audience during a screening of "Who's Afraid?", which is genuinely creepy even to adults!

- Contributed by: B.C. Sterrett (The Lost Media Archive)

Images: How Do I Learn? Box

One More Reason to Rack Up Airplay for Sal Masi's Untouchables

Surely all you carnivores out there who have stood on that infamous South Philly corner have had to make that crucial decision at one point in your lives: do I eat at Pat's or Geno's. Both establishments have brought forth so many vivid memories of my past: sitting on a neon-lit outdoor bench at 3AM in February after a Butthole Surfers concert gnawing a steak before the Cheez Whiz freezes, looking up at Cher-in-assless-pants autographed glossies while in line (I think it may have said "If I Could Turn Back Time, I'd Eat a Pat's Steak Daily") having one's guts give you an urgent "how do you do" while heading home on the turnpike at 4AM 30 miles from the next exit. Ah, yes. Well, thanks to Geno's proprietors, the choice of between where some will have their cheese steak has gotten a whole lot easier. Or perhaps if Hispanic, there's no choice to begin with? Notable quotes from owner Joey Vento at a Harrisburg rally: “[Illegal Hispanics] are killing, like, 25 of us a day … molesting about eight children a day … All we’re getting is drug dealers and murderers”...“These illegal invaders … are not the kind of immigrants our grandparents were … They knew to be successful in America, you have to speak English.”  His advice to immigrants with children:
“You come here pop a baby, pick it up and take it back to Mexico." In defense, Pat's has been known to be completely discriminatory even if you do speak English, as a customer uttering anything besides "one with" or "one without" can instantly get you publicly dunce-i-fied, humiliated, and sent back to the line. And I don't see any public hearings in those poor souls' defense. Perhaps Pat's should change their ordering lingo to include "pop a baby"? ”Real Audio: Sal Masi's Untouchables' "Pat's Steaks".

The Field Guide to Staying Inside: Jesus's Birthday

Poor Baby Jesus. Think what you will about Him, but the Dude's heart was in the right place - presuming He existed, at least. In any event, the Guy's birthday has been so clouded by consumerism, by disappointment, familial and societal obligation ... well, in that respect, why should He be any different than the rest of us? But on the other hand, who else do you know whose birthday is marked by giving other people presents? And why do we all have to share that one Birthday song, while He gets about a thousand of 'em?

Years of research at the TFGTSI labs has shown that the best way to deal with His birthday, if you're one of the millions that recognizes it, is to make it your own. Don't be a Stressy Bessy! Just tell your relatives you paid to have stars named stars them, they'll never know the difference. And then go about marking the holidays in your own stylee, yo.

One of the best ways to do that (not to tell you what your own stylee yo should be) is Phil Kline's annual Unsilent Night, marking its 15th anniversary this year. A bunch of boomboxes belching out celestial sounds, stopping shoppers in their weary tracks and giving the city a new soundtrack for the season. It's happening this Saturday (Dec. 15) in New York City and scheduled for two dozen cities around the world. The cloud of sound is joyous and indescribable; this track from the Cantaloupe CD release is just an approximation of the surround-sound streetmix.

Phil Kline - From Light (MP3)

And the lovely rendition above of the Lord Savior as a serving of buffalo wings is by Ed Mironiuk, from the "Merry Titmas" group show at the World of Wonder storefront gallery in LA.

Lou Ziegler's (The Push Bin) Top 10 Things I Heard in the Year 2007

All links open streaming Real Audio from Lou's archives.

1. Various Artists - Soundboy Punishments (Skull Disco) Not only my favorite record of the year but the Ricardo Villalobos remix of "Blood On My Hands" is also my favorite track of the year. Simply stunning.

2. Studio - West Coast (Information) 
Pulls me out of a bad mood every time.

3. Working For A Nuclear Free City - Businessmen & Ghosts (Deaf Dumb & Blind Recordings)
Great early 90s shoegaze/Madchester feel.

4. The Terminals - Last Days Of The Sun (Last Visible Dog)
Its been quite awhile since these guys put out a record and this one was well worth the wait.

5. Wiley - Playtime Is Over (Big Dada) 
This should also include all of the Tunnel Vision mix tapes that Wiley put out this year.

6. Wooden Shjips - s/t (Holy Mountain) 
The organ on "We Ask You to Ride" gets me grooving every time.

7. Deepchord Presents Echospace - The Coldest Season (Modern Love) 
Will take a few listens to hook you, but it will.

8. Numbers - Now You Are This (Kill Rock Stars) 
Dreamy, spacey, and fun.

9. Talibam! - Ordination Of The Globetrotting Conscripts (Azul Discographica) 
I've never been able to describe these guys properly, but someone else has termed their music "shitstorm skronk". Works for me.

10. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime (Kompakt) 
A record that I thought would be very hard to recreate in a live setting. I was proven wrong over the summer.

Click here for the Push Bin's playlists and audio archives.