WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Now RIAA wants $1.5 million if you copy a CD

Nate Anderson @ ars technica writes:

Not content with the current (and already massive) statutory damages allowed under copyright law, the RIAA is pushing to expand the provision. The issue is compilations, which now are treated as a single work. In the RIAA's perfect world, each copied track would count as a separate act of infringement, meaning that a copying a ten-song CD even one time could end up costing a defendant $1.5 million if done willfully. Sound fair? Proportional? Necessary? Not really, but that doesn't mean it won't become law.

The change to statutory damages is contained in the PRO-IP Act that is currently up for consideration in Congress. We've reported on the bill before, noting that Google's top copyright lawyer (and the man who wrote a seven-volume treatise on the subject of copyright law), William Patry, called the bill the most "outrageously gluttonous IP bill ever introduced in the US."

The industries pushing it (music, especially) have an "unslakable lust for more and more rights, longer terms of protection, draconian criminal provisions, and civil damages that bear no resemblance to the damages suffered," he said.

Read full article @ ars technica

The Sculpture and Animation of Joseph Seigenthaler

Joseph Seigenthaler began his art career by building wax sculptures for the Country Music Wax Museums in Nashville and Tamworth, Australia. With this experience he went on to breathe life into the oddest cast of gangly imbeciles that walked straight out of a Brueghel painting. All of them seem to be in a constant state of ecstasy and pain as the withered skin of their ruddy faces fold into grotesque expressions. His work is meticulous and lovingly crafted, bringing a frail humanity to his absurd characters.

Seigenthaler's most recent works are hilarious computer animation loops of his creatures that focus solely on ridiculous gestures and facial contortions. Every limb, every joint, every muscle takes on such subtle but big movements that I can stay in constant hysteric amazement when watching a thirty second-loop for an hour. Fortunately, Seigenthaler has posted a selection of his video work on YouTube, which includes animations of Wesley Willis and George Bush.

DJ/Rupture now has a podcast!

WFMU is pleased to have added a new podcast to our ever-expanding roster: we're now podcasting DJ/Rupture's weekly show, Mudd Up!

Head over to our podcast page to sign yourself up for a weekly dose of Cumbia, Dubstep, Maghrebi, sound collage, expert turntablism, and a smattering of fun guest DJs.

For a quick fix, open up iTunes, go to the Advanced menu, and select Subscribe to Podcast. Paste in this URL and hit OK:
http://wfmu.org/podcast/DR.xml

Be sure to also check out DJ/Rupture's blog, record label Soot, and his latest collaborations with Andy Moor (of The Ex).

Weasel Walter Will Confuse The Hell Out Of People

His words, not mine.  And I say “will” because he’s not referring to the confusion you’ve already experienced from his extensive discography.  He’s referring to a new, yet unnamed band that just might top all that.

Since the position’s vacant, I hereby nominate Weasel for hardest working man in show business.  I mean, I don’t even know the guy and I’m indebted to him – I send him a quick email to ask what’s new and he gives me an article that writes itself.

Most surprisingly, he tells me Flying Luttenbachers is done.  I repeat.  Flying Luttenbachers is no more.  "I can pull the nails out of my hands and come down off the cross. It feels good.”  Until more surfaces about his promised new monster, we’ve got slightly less earth shaking sounds to hold us over.  Fans of WW Quartet’ll be excited to see these new clips from Cellular Chaos and Dislocation Unit, two yet unrecorded projects (more on Weasel’s youtube channel).

There’s some real tight communication between Weasel and his drummers, but Weasel’s not quite satisfied yet.  “Cellular Chaos is sort of on ice right now because I’m rethinking our approach. So far it has been free improvisation, but I feel like the format is more effective with some structure. We haven’t really recorded anything yet and probably wont until after the restructuring. I like these guys and I think our best work is still ahead of us.”  Despite all his connections, Walter’s still scouting for new outlets.  From his website: "If anybody who reads this wants to release any of my improvised music, contact me and make me an offer. . ."

And speaking of the quartet, Weasel’s just back from Europe with Austrian saxophonist Mario Rechturn, who played on the new Firestorm CD, not to mention some dates with XBXRX.  New York trumpeter Peter Evan’s also in the mix, they're actually together playing tonight in Frisco...after which Weasel's gonna take a little breather.  Expect releases from him and Peter Evans later this year.  And Weasel just joined Burmese.  He’ll be recording with them soon.  WOWBOBWOW

Let’s see…anything else…oh yeah, that Carmen video I featured a few months ago?  I wasn't in the habit of crediting youtube sources then, but I found it on Weasel’s Youtube channel...more debt owed to the champ.  Weasel 4 prez

Webisodes worth watching

"Webisode" is one of those 21st century future words that I still have a bit of trouble wrapping my head around. The phrase "video podcast" doesn't serve much better. But they are certainly their own creatures. These videos aren't long enough to be TV shows or even short films, and yet it isn't right to just call them clips, either. Heck, quite often they are professionally made and even have good editing and production values - but still with that backyard homemade feel.

Well, whatever the word, these streaming (and often downloadable) videos usually focus on one of three topics: comedy, music, and science. Well, that is a wild generalization, but I don't have time to explore the infinite amount of video out there. These categories just happen to help define the three web series that have grabbed my attention recently. And so I share them with you.

Comedy: YACHT ROCK   
Music: TAKE-AWAY SHOWS 
Science: THE MANPOLLO PROJECT

Follow the jump for details, links, and video samples.

Lick My Love Pump, eh?

(occasional DJ Laure graces us with this one)

Last week at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, the surprise hit was a music documentary called ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL, the story of which can be summed up as “Spinal Tap in Real Life” (Stonehenge even makes an appearance). Anvil, who die-hard late-80s metal fans (and possibly no one else) will recall as precursors to Megadeth and Slayer (and contemporaries of the Scorpions and Whitesnake), never “made it” like many of their peers and acolytes- yet they have soldiered on, playing the rawk for 35 years. What happened? Is it just, as several interviewees suggest, the obvious problem that they are Canadian? The band, having been passed over yet again by major labels, despite a record produced by Chris Tsangarides, is self-distributing their new album This Is Thirteen. Check out the film to find out how many hankies a real metal band needs to make a record- Metallica has nothing on these guys.

No Ifs, Ands, or Butts

Pardon me, by "Butts" I meant "Lady Butts."

The FCC recently fined ABC affiliates a total of $1.4 million for airing images of a lady's butt on broadcast TV. This particular 2003 episode of NYPD Blue wasn't the first time a naked butt was broadcast to the American public, but it may have been the first time that a pretty lady's naked butt was shown. You can watch the 42 sec lady butt scene in question, and mull over the inherent sexuality in Charlotte Ross' posterior. Then put your brain on rewind, and drum up some images of NYPD Blue's Dennis Franz, whose naked man butt was broadcast to America nearly 14 years ago without inspiring the FCC to fine anyone. Does his butt not possess a similar sexual potential?

We're dwelling on the sexuality of butts here because the FCC's rationale for last week's belated fine was that the NYPD Blue scene in question depicted "sexual organs," namely the buttocks. Sure, lady butts could be used sexually (we recommend buying us a drink before you breach that subject, cowboy), but in this particular scene, Charlotte Ross' butt was not engaged in any sexual activity. In fact, I would characterize it as a non-sexual butt, since the FCC once made a distinction between sexual and non-sexual uses of the word fuck. Contrary to this, the FCC mysteriously maintains that Charlotte Ross' butt is sexual, despite it not being involved in any sexing. Feds, pray tell: when is a butt merely a butt?

If a non-sexual lady butt is against the rules, but a non-sexual man butt aired nearly a decade earlier is ok, what does it all mean for the cartoon butts of today?

 

Follow this link for more FCC hijinks.

Photo via

Loony Tunes for Kooky Times (MP3s)

[There are 21 MP3s contained in this post]

Call me crazy, but in 2005, I compiled a bunch of whacked out tunes for my WFMU marathon premium. Back then, the disc, Loony Tunes, was given out exclusively to pledgers to my show Give the Drummer Some, but now, invoking the insanity clause, I'm making the whole shebang available here. Posted below are the original liner notes, MP3s of (most of) the tracks, and quotes uttered by each manic maestro. Go nuts!

LOONY TUNES:
Loony Tunes reveals that, right up there with love, sex and death, insanity is among the most enduring—€”and entertaining—€”themes in popular music. The idea for such a collection originated with Madness in Opera, a sampler of tormented arias released in '€™76 as part of a promotional blitz for Loxitane, a new schizophrenia treatment from Lederle Laboratories. No psychopharmaceuticals are included with this compilation, but repeated listening just may produce similar results!

1. WILLIE DIXON & KOKO TAYLOR ~ Insane Asylum
"I can'€™t eat and I can'€™t sleep. Lord, I can'€™t even live in peace.
Please take me baby for your slave. And save me from that early grave."

Insane Asylum (MP3)

2. SCREAMING JAY HAWKINS ~ I Hear Voices
"I long so much to be where I was before I was me.
My mind can'€™t stand the strain. Wow if my heart
could help the pain."

I Hear Voices (MP3)

3. PORTER WAGONER ~ The Rubber Room
"Illusions in a twisted mind to save from self destruction...where a man can
run into the wall till his strength makes him fall and lie still and wait for help."€

The Rubber Room (MP3)

 

 

A Wreck On The Highway (MP3s)

If you like songs about car crashes and their horrific aftermaths, then you probably already know that country music tends to be a bit more extreme than any other genre.  Hell, probably more than all the others combined for that matter. 

In many ways, the songs below can be considered a fine aural complement to the gruesome blood-soaked drivers' ed films to which so many high school students were subjected in the past.  As seen in the riveting documentary Hell's Highway, these films were full of horrifying and grotesque footage shot on site at grisly car crashes.  Like those films, the songs below do not flinch when it comes to depicting the devastating results of vehicular mayhem.

Listen up and learn the grim consequences of riding the bus, walking alongside the highway, parking on train tracks, hot rodding, drunk driving, and dope smoking.  Even speeding to the hospital to see your daughter in the emergency room can result in catastrophic tragedy!

You've been warned.

MP3s:

• Roy Acuff - A Wreck On The Highway (2:25).  Originally recorded in 1942, this is Roy's1962 remake.
• Howard Vokes - A Death On The Highway (2:02)   
• Howard Vokes - The Yellow Tomb (3:24) - LP cover  This one tells the true story of a school bus that plunged into the freezing waters of the Levisas Fork of the Big Sandy River, just outside of Prestonsburg, Kentucky. For some reason, this song reports the number of dead at 20, rather than the actual 27.
• Ralph Bowman - The Tragedy Of School Bus 27 (2:39)  Label shot  Another telling of the same horrific accident, which happened on February 28, 1958.  Both this and the song below were borrowed from over here.
• The Stanley Brothers - No School Bus In Heaven (2:43)  Another mournful ballad concerning the Prestonsburg tragedy.
• Jim McGinnis - 11 W. Bloody Highway (3:13)  Label shot  One more bus accident record, though this time it's a Greyhound in Tennessee, and not a school bus in Kentucky
  
• Porter Wagoner - The Carroll County Accident (2:51)
• Johnny & The J.C.L. Rangers - The Tragedy (We Were There) (2:49)  Label shot  Suicide by train.
  
• Cal Veale - Paralyzed (3:16)  Label shot   This one first came to my attention via the truly warped country compilation known as God Less America.  A total misery overdose.
  
• Ferlin Husky - The Drunken Driver (1:59)  "Get out of the road, you little fools!"
• Stonewall Jackson - Drinking and Driving (2:46)  Label shot
• Trooper Jim Foster - Four Chrome Wheels (2:30)  LP cover  Trooper Jim Foster (pictured above) was an actual highway patrolman for the state of Florida.   
• Trooper Jim Foster - Four On The Floor (And A Fifth Under The Seat) (2:33)   Worth noting: Foster was the co-author of Chesley Carroll's Hippie From Mississippi, which can be heard here.
• Trooper Jim Foster - Four On The Floor (And A Fifth Under The Seat) (2:38)  Label shot  Believe it or not, Foster actually cut this one twice.  This version, with spiffed up major label production, was recorded for United Artists.
• Red Sovine - I'm Only Seventeen (4:19)  Label shot   This graphically repulsive recitation was taken from the pages of Dear Abby's advice column.  It's a dead teen's sorrow-wracked recounting of the car accident that took his life and the terrible grief his family and friends suffered upon learning of the death of their loved one.  The words were originally penned in 1967 by John Berrio, a father of five from Rochester, New Hampshire, who wrote the piece after one of his son's friends died in an auto accident.

Weird World, Pt. 2

The Club makes you Tan.  Or does the Tan make you Club?

Via Barstool Sports.  More club shots available at a lot of places.  Thanks again, Mike.

Riverboat Jazz

An important component of early jazz in New Orleans was the plentiful work for musicians on riverboats, as seen in a remarkable online exhibit from Tulane University's Hogan Jazz Archive.  Great photos of and information about some of the best and most important early jazz bands, under direction of bandleaders like Fate Marable, whose career was almost entirely riverboat-related (he made just one fantastic record for Okeh in 1924), and Oscar ‘Papa’ Celestin, whose Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra ran in some form from 1910 to the early ‘30s.  Many of the important early jazz figures passed through the ranks of one or both of these bands: King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Tommy Ladnier, Baby Dodds, Johnny Dodds, Red Allen, Pops Foster, Johnny St. Cyr, Zutty Singleton, etc.  More info and Real Audio samples can be found at the Red Hot Jazz Archive.

The above photo of Papa Celestin’s band was taken not long before the Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra made the bulk of its recordings for Okeh in 1927, and many of the musicians pictured are the ones who appear in the recordings. (That's Papa third from left.)

Oscar Celestin's Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra - "Papa's Got the Jim-Jams"
Oscar Celestin's Original Tuxedo Jazz Orchestra - “As You Like It”

The Empire State Triangle

Hello, Everybody—Nice seeing you again.

All the NYTimes-readin’ folks probably missed the story yesterday about how cars are mysteriously dying within a 5-block radius of the Empire State Building. Richard Weir wrote in the Daily News that some10 to 15 cars get stuck every day between 7th and Lex, from about 27th to 40th. If you draw a circle around the area where this is happening, the Empire State Building is right in the middle of it. Some cars’ remote entry systems won’t open the doors, and some cars’ engines won’t start even though everything else is working. The cars get towed 4 or 5 blocks, to outside the affected area, and then the doors open and they start right up and everything works fine.

Weir quotes “automotive experts and engineers” who say it’s likely a problem with radio transmissions from all the broadcast towers on top of the Empire State Building jamming the keyless entry systems that operate on specific wavelengths assigned by the FCC. The FCC says they haven’t had any complaints about car problems around the Empire State Building. The Empire State Building people say they don’t believe there’s any problem, and refused to give Reporter Weir a list of all the broadcast antennas there.

It was January 2003 when Sluggo and I tried driving into Manhattan one night—which was already weird, we never do that--and a cop stopped us from going down 5th Ave. at 42nd Street. The street was closed, he said, because of “ice falling from the Empire State Building.” In fact, all the streets for blocks around were closed. They were blocked off for the next couple of nights, too. I’ve never heard of ice falling off the Empire State Building before or since, and certainly not for several nights in a row, and not so that streets 8 blocks away had to be shut down. We naturally figured it was some Homeland Security thing being installed on the Empire State Building, something that would shoot down planes over Brooklyn or Queens before they could hit Manhattan. And how great is it that it turns out to be not a gun at all, but a giant transmitter that’ll make it impossible to open the airplane doors until they’re towed to, like, New Jersey.

Thanks for reading my blog post this time, and may God bless.

Fake Beatles No. 2: Battle of the Bogus Beatle Bands

On February 9, 1964, Beatlemania officially took hold in the USA, marked by the Fab Four's triumphant appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. On February 10, record executives nationwide simultaneously sprang up from their beds itching for a piece of that action. The relatively scrupulous ones signed up any four blokes with an English accent and longish locks. The more ethically suspect execs taught some local kids how to talk like Limeys and instructed them to start combing their hair over their foreheads.

And then there were the budget-label moguls: Why bother signing a band at all when you can just cajole some cronies to record shoddily sung and hastily arranged versions of "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand," cook up a few unoriginal originals (or, easier still, just pad the disc with a few non-Beatles-sounding moldy rockers lying around somewhere), slap it in a sleeve brazenly sporting prominent moptop wigs and some permutation of the word Beat or Beetle in "Japanese Bomb Pearl Harbor"-size type, and watch the dumber kids or their myopic gift-giving grannies snatch 'em off the shelves! And thus began Mocktop Mania!

With that in mind, we introduce our first False Fabs Fight, in which we pit one of these Beatsploitation records against another. Today's Bogus Beatle Battle is a face-off between an imitator of the biggest group of the era (the Beatles, of course) and an imitator of the second-biggest group of that time. No, not the Rolling Stones, who wouldn't become huge stateside for another year or so. And not the Dave Clark Five, either, who never quite gave the Fab Four a run for their money. (There exist no Stones or DC5 lookalike album releases, after all.) Rather, it's the only other band worthy of this superstar level of record deception — Alvin and the Chipmunks!

That leads us to our combatants: The Liverpools vs. the Four Chipmunks (later known as the Wyncote Squirrels, thanks to David Seville's lawyer). With both albums being issued by the Wyncote budget division of Philadelphia's pop powerhouse Cameo-Parkway Records, we have a fair method by which to compare and contrast our two adversaries. (It also helps that both "groups" use the same backing tracks, of course.) All the non-Beatles songs on each album are not only the very same titles, they're also pretty good approximations of the Merseybeat sound, as these fly-by-night discs go — some just have sped-up trick vocals.

So, who comes out on top: fake Beatles, or fake Chipmunks doing fake Beatles? Without any further buildup, let the battle commence! (Liverpools tracks are in mono; Four Chipmunks are in stereo, which, it is hoped, gives no clear advantage to one side or another.)

Round 1: Here's how each side handles a bouncy, Moptops-worthy number:
Liverpools: Be My Girl (MP3)
Four Chipmunks aka Wyncote Squirrels: Be My Girl (MP3)

Round 2: Who has the advantage when it comes to a novelty tune? You decide:
Liverpools: Hey, Quiet Down There (MP3)
Four Chipmunks aka Wyncote Squirrels: Hey, Quiet Down There (MP3)

Round 3: Sensitive and heartfelt beat ballad? Here we go:
Liverpools: Did You Ever Get My Letter (MP3)
Four Chipmunks aka Wyncote Squirrels: Did You Ever Get My Letter (MP3)

Go Flemish! - Lugubrum, Funeral Folk, Hellvete and Silvester Anfang

[mp3s above & below the fold]

Pop rock, electronica and even so-called experimental music have swallowed their own tails to the point where endless repetition, imitation and a generally uninspiring postmodernism rule the day, i.e., every new artist is a clone of a clone of a clone, with easily cited and often unfortunately chosen "influences."  Black Metal, on the other hand, is perhaps young enough that exciting new mutations and enthralling new sub-subgenres continue to emerge weekly.  This is not to say that there aren't hundreds, perhaps thousands of Black Metal acts who willfully describe their sound as "hateful, old-school Black Metal," or "similar to early Darkthrone"—just take a browse sometime on blackmetal.com.  The point is there are still a great many bands expanding and challenging the boundaries of what has often been a sound with rigidly defined parameters.

More than any other band, Belgium's mighty Lugubrum exemplify this rabid creativity, while still keeping one foot in the shrieks and exaggerated vigor that earned Black Metal its global notoriety (incinerating houses of worship notwithstanding.)  To the uninitiated or curious (or those put off by fire-and-frost breathing, corpsepaint-sporting blast-beater legends like Norway's Immortal), Lugubrum may be a way in to this most fertile and creative contemporary music.  In many ways, the band break away from the tried-and-true BM aesthetic:  their sleeve paintings (rendered by the band's guitarist, lyricist and assorted string player Midgaars) blend the surreal with a European folk art quality, abandoning the standard b&w band shot accompanied by an unreadable logo (the latter also usually set in a dark forest, castle or graveyard.)  Their CD inserts are filled with bizarre and curious imagery, found photographs and the like, a thought-provoking aesthetic that's both arresting and haunting, and not necessarily promoting of an agenda of never-ending Blackness and anti-Christian fanaticism (in fact, they're definitely more about "Brown" than "Black".)

Lugubrum's Music is no less uncompromising to the BM standard, incorporating elements of rock, progressive rock, poetry, drones, free jazz, noise and European folk music.  Several of their discs, including their most-recent full-length CD De Ware Hond (2007), feature alto sax, banjo and accordion among other decidedly non-metal instruments, and somehow it all works to the point where the listener doesn't even muse, "Am I listening to Black Metal?  Do I care?"—one simply accepts the presentation in earnest.  Below are a few of my favorite Lugubrum tracks on mp3:

Holy Fools Embodied (from Heilige Dwazen, 2005)
De Vette Cuecken (from De Vette Cuecken, 2004)
Dust Binst Drinken (from De Vette Cuecken)
Gekloofd (from Bruyne Troon, 2001)

For more on Lugubrum, and lots of entertaining reading, see the band's Web site; the News updates alone should make it clear to anyone that these clever lads are thriving off Black Metal, while pushing its boundaries, and poking more than a little fun (gasp!) at it, too.  Their page on Encyclopedia Metallum refers to their lyrical themes as "Alcohol, Filth, Totems, Decay."  Also see: Lugubrum on YouTube!

Another more recent discovery for me in the Flemish arena is the Flanders-based Funeral Folk label, especially the artists Hellvete and Silvester Anfang.

NW Croon

Marriage Records in Portland, OR has a spiritual consonance with a lot of other record labels you know from the pacific northwest area. They've been around for a few years and have put out a lot of low-run handmade objects, tell-tale paper folded CD cases and some really Ghee-orgeous vinyl releases. They just put out new comp, their second (only $10!), and I want to play two tracks from it for you, both from dudes who possess a different kind of vocal swagger than I know of from dudes elsewhere. (I think it's weird regional soul music for the extremely pale complexioned.)

Adrian Orange (of Thanksgiving) comes along with the "young poet who's been cranking out two albums every change of the weather since he was fourteen" mythos but whether you've been a fan of his creakier early stuff you have to admit that lately, he's really on some soulful shit (and horn sections have helped). But this song's just him and that guitar and it's in the mode of an asshole Dylan breakup song. Adrian Orange -

It Ain't Me

Read on for another MP3.

Two Thumbs up for Fonzploitation

Earlier this week, the headlines blared forth the news of the Bronze The Fonz fundraising project. Milwaukee's most popular resident may be fictional, but he is more iconic than Steve Miller, Gene Wilder, and Dick Bacon combined. And so, local residents banded together erect a statue of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli. Minneapolis, you can stick your Mary Richards, because Brew City gets The Fonz! Ayyy!

This touched the cockles of my heart because Fonzie was one of my idols as a kid. My biggest goal in life was to wear a leather jacket, make things work by hitting them, and live over my friend's parent's garage until I was well into my thirties. Funny thing is, I wasn't a fan of Happy Days at all. Sure, I watched it from time to time, but I didn't really like the antics of those clean cut kids. The only time I really paid attention to what was happening was when the Fonz was on the screen.

And I don't think I'm alone, because of all the break out characters from that piece of sitcom nostalgia fluff (Mork, Laverne and Shirley, the completely boring Joanie and Chachi), the only one that really became an icon was Fonzie. In fact, the Bronze The Fonz campaign is just the latest in a long line of Fonz exploitation. Need proof? First, let's start with the celebrity endorsements. (note: Bowie only speaks of Fonzie a bit at the beginning of his interview)

Now check out everything the Fonz did for the kids.

The Fonz is still being exploited, be it either through Happy Days tributes from Weezer, commercials by car companies, crap pop-punk bands, or even Henry Winkler himself - who is still jumping the shark (in that classic moment on Arrested Development. Not on YouTube, but you should own those DVDs anyway).

Related links:
Fonzie biography
The sounds of The Fonz
Jumping the shark, the definitive crap-tastic TV moment
Henry Winkler reflects on jumping said shark
Who is The Fonz?
The Heyettes, "Fonzie Fonzie, He's Our Man" album.
Fonzie: A Cool Coloring Book Cover 1 2 3
Grudge Match: The Fonz vs. Captain Kirk
How did you produce this exquisite creature?

Rock Band (The Video Game) LIVE on WFMU! Rock with us!

Like to rock, but...can't?  It's time for you to ROCK BAND!

This Monday morning 2/4 I (Trent) am going to be hosting what I THINK will be the first-ever instance of playing Rock Band live on the radio, from 8-9am on WFMU.org.

Pseudo-live performances from The Rolling Stones!!  The Killers!!!  The Yeah Yeah Yeahs!!!!!!  F'n Radiohead!!!!!!   Boston!!!!    Hear their Biggest Hits played 23rd-century style from Your Very Favorite  Radio Station, WFMU.

Virtual auditions will be held Thursday 1/31 at 9pm and Saturday 2/2 at 6pm - more info after the jump.

If you're not familiar with Rock Band, it's a video game that comes with a fake Fender Stratocaster, a Roland-built drum kit, and microphone that you plug into your Xbox 360 (or PS3 or Mac or PC). You play the "instruments" along with popular songs - everything from Radiohead to Boston to the Stones - alone or with friends. Kind of like Guitar Hero but more.

In The Bleak Midwinter: Movies to Itch By

In the deepest darkest winter, viruses and disease are bound to find temporary accomodations at your house and mine.  We encourage these weary travelers as best we can by stumbling around sick and refusing to stay in bed, even when the tissue box attached to our sinus cavity obscures our vision.  But there are microbes that defy socialization and sniffling over the office water cooler:  Chicken Pox.  The common Poxis Uponus rears its ugly head even in the direction of adult males of the species who should have been there and done that when they were in short britches.  Alas, DVD rental to the rescue.
Once the intensive "remain in bed until at least one part of your body doesn't hurt" stage is over, patient is free to roam to the couch and find a way to make bearable the next 10 days of waiting for the euphoric scabbing-over.  In our house, this includes lots of hallucinogenic drugs in televised format.

It is always best to start with a walk down memory lane.  "H.R. Pufnstuf" is not a gateway drug, it is it's own final destination freak out.  Aside from the lovely Puppet land country roads of a back lot in Hollywood, one watches H.R. for the character depth.  A giant, southern accented, roly-poly, cloth covered mayor saves our scampy human friend Jimmy from the big bad witch, and all sorts of adventure follows as she pursues Jimmy and his magic flute.  If you were raised by leftist librarians, like my husband was, or are new to the world of TV, like my 7 year old is, H.R. will either make it plain to you why Hard Core Punk was inevitable for a generation of wild childs nursed on said Saturday morning TV, or offer you the golden key to incredible silliness and laughter.  Either way I say "go there, go".  Apparently, HR of the Bad Brains agrees with me.

Michel Waisvisz - Crackle (MP3s)

As a conclusion to my MP3 identification contest, I am posting the solution to round 4. It took a while, but it was finally identified as the track A Cheval from the Michel Waisvisz album Crackle, released 1978 on FMP. Just like Tolerance's album Anonym, it is one of the great and insanely rare albums on the famous Nurse With Wound list. Fortunately, Michel Waisvisz is still around and, after a long hiatus, is back to composing, performing, and bending circuits again. Anyway, here is his classic album Crackle in its entirety as MP3:

Side A: A Cheval | Dutchjazzcircus | Crackles | Steve's Pipe | First Dancesteps
Side B: De Brug Gaat Open; Berliner Neustadtlament; Stradivarius | 4 Narrow Escapes | One For The Road

Instruments used are a Crackle synthesizer, a modified "Putney" VCS 3 (on "One For The Road"), a mouth organ (on "Berliner Neustadtlament"), and a (modified) springboard built by the late great Hugh Davies (on "Stradivarius"). You can read more about the Crackle box here, and even order it at STEIM (currently on backorder due to shortage of parts).

Divorce Hearing (1958)

Maybe one of the worst TV shows ever made. Maybe one of the best.