WFMU's Beware of the Blog

WFMU in Cleveland Museum's Chalkfest again

For the second year in a row, the talented listener Joe Tait gave WFMU some love in the form of chalk during the Cleveland Museum of Art's Chalkfest last Fall:

 

   
Joe says:

The Chalkfest is a promotion the Museum holds every September in which people "rent" the paving stones around the museum's lagoon and create images free from guideline or censonship. I went again this year and made another chalk drawing with an FMU theme. I was also able to talk to a few more people about the station and spread the word a bit-- also had the presence of mind to include the web address this time. I send them along here for any use or enjoyment they may provide the station.

 

Be sure to check out Joe's amazing WFMU-centric chalk masterpiece from the previous year.

Live Blogging From the TCM Classic Film Festival - Part Three

Confidant of Lucille Ball, uncle to The Melvins, a featured player in The Beverly Hillbillies pilot episode. That's Robert Osborne, the seventy-seven year old face of Turner Classic Movies.

Robert Osborne comes from the small town of Colfax, Washington, also the birthplace of legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt. He moved south to become an actor and was initially courted by the predatory Hollywood agent Henry Willson. Willson represented Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter and Touch Connors. He also, as you might have guessed, gave those stars their ridiculous handles. Osborne, fortunately, was befriended by Lucille Ball and suddenly had no use for Willson. Had this not happened, the host of TCM might be known today as Robert Slab or perhaps, Brick Osborne. Willson seemed to believe that the names on The Flintstones were akin to screen machismo.

Osborne was soon booked on a sitcom pilot. "That seemed like the dumbest job in the world to me," explained Osborne when asked about his one-off part on The Beverly Hillbillies. "We had no idea, because we're all used to that title now, but The Beverly Hillbillies sounded so stupid at that time, and I wanted to be a serious actor ... I had no idea that it would be a success, because everybody connected with the pilot were second-rate people at that point. Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, they weren't big names ... Nobody had any idea that it would be a success. In those days when you did something like that you'd think 'Well, I've done it but now it's going away and you'll never have to worry about it again.' Now of course with reruns, YouTube and everything like that it comes back to haunt you forever..."

Live Blogging From the TCM Classic Film Festival - Part Two

"Classless!" said one staffer.

"He said 'I'll be there and you can take that to the bank," explains another.

"He's a borscht-belt jerk!" proclaimed one more TCM employee.

I too am disappointed, but I can't say I am surprised in the least. Few out there are as immersed in exploring the fascinating, overwrought showbiz neurosis of Jerry Lewis as much as I, so when he bailed at the last minute on his heavily advertised appearance at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood this week, it seemed to follow the continuity of the life of Jerry Lewis. Jer is Jer and he does whatever he wants. He hasn't left his house without infuriating somebody in almost sixty years.

As upset as organizers are at Lewis (he apparently announced his cancellation while nonchalantly snapping his gum, gave no reason for being unable to attend, and did not apologize) they probably would have had to endure a far worse fate had he actually attended. Lewis, love him or hate him, is known for being very controlling. Several productions he was a part of became victims of his sabotage. Stanley Donen, another attendee of this festival, had once been asked by one of the major studios to direct Lewis in a film. Knowing Jerry's reputation for clashing with everyone around him, Donen responded to the request with a simple "Never."

Live Blogging From The TCM Classic Film Festival - Part One

Today I am in Los Angeles for the first time in a long time. I am excitedly readying myself for the pinnacle of film nerdiness, The TCM Classic Film Festival - a four day opus of highly flammable 35mm gems from Hollywood's golden age. It is nearing a decade since I last came to Hollywood. I needed a long break after abandoning the potentially lucrative fields of sitcom writing and television-audience-warming-upping, so disgusted was I with those respective fields at the time. After the disgust had waned and the realization of the amount of money I had relinquished hit home, I discovered I needed to extend my break from this region even longer, so as not to be reminded of my self-inflicted failure. 

But now I am back. In preparation I paid close attention to the morals espoused in Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971), that incredible rags-to-riches picture written by Jim Backus, narrated by Zsa Zsa Gabor and starring a dog.

Dionne Warwick sang that "L.A. is a great big freeway," but Hollywood itself is a run-down ghetto, and has been that way for a couple of decades. It is filled with the familiar smut merchants, t-shirt shops, meandering homeless and unemployed. On the bright side, at least one of those homeless gents is regularly employed by Monty Hall to polish his star (true) and at least some of those unemployed now have jobs at TBS. Musso and Frank's is still down the street, and it's hard not to be struck with a sense of magic knowing how often and incredibly blotto Orson Welles was within its confines. Sitting at the bar, I raise my glass high to the dead bastard. Old Los Angeles still exists in many ways.

Despite the effervescent condo push that is the norm in urban centers across the continent, an art deco mecca like the former Desilu lot still stands,¹ the aesthetic of the Broadway Theater and Commercial District remains very much the same, and there still exists a matchbook cover from Dino's long defunct Lodge nesting in my jacket pocket - close to my heart. Hollywood is a dive for the shocked tourists that need to be told exactly what to do and see, but for people that desperately like to pretend they live in a previous decade, there is a great deal of esoteric nostalgia to be had.

Such nostalgia helped cement my nerdiness today. Not that it was ever really in doubt (the fact I get laid every now and then does throw the concept out of whack). As I walked into the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, ground zero for the TCM Classic Film Festival, with my Ipod on random, my ears were quite suddenly treated to a nineteen twenties gem from Ben Bernie's Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra.² Jim Backus' scriptwriting ability itself could not have conceived such a hackneyed moment of depravity... not even for a dog.

Roy Orbison Night

Tomorrow is non-Million Dollar Quartet member Roy Orbison's seventy-fourth birthday. Roy was a hell of a singer (among many other accomplishments) and he put on killer live shows until the end. A huge talent, but you knew that.

Tonight you can celebrate The Big O by attending Herschel Greer Stadium where the Nashville Sounds are set to square off against the Oklahoma City Redhawks. Roy's widow will toss out the first pitch and the first 1.000 fans through the turnstiles will receive free Roy sunglasses and a case of unrequited heartache. It's also Taco Bell Throwback Thursday--discounts on concessions and the team will be suited up in retro 1980s drag.

We're really weird about honoring our departed rock & roll legends. Elvis gets the Cirque du Soleil dancers and ol' Roy winds up second fiddle to a bowl of $2 nachos. And Pete Puma in shades.

Happy Birthday Roy!

Hey Miss Fannie

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 64 (MP3s)

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Samuel Langhorne Clemens
(November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

"I have learned that there lies dormant in the souls of all men a penchant for some particular musical instrument, and an unsuspected yearning to learn to play on it, that are bound to wake up and demand attention some day. Therefore, you who rail at such as disturb your slumbers with unsuccessful and demoralizing attempts to subjugate a fiddle, beware! for sooner or later your own time will come." — Mark Twain

Twilight Nuages  ~  "Twilight Nuages"
(Blog: Ezhevika Fields)
From the album: Life Goes On, Love Goes On (mp3)

Minor Basement Pop Miracle
Surely the coolest high school music teacher ever, William M. Lastomirsky gathered some of his students together in 1977 to record some songs he'd written. With zero pretension and a million miles of heart, this utterly beguiling collection of home-taped mini-masterpieces was the result.

Various  ~  "Beat Jazz: Pictures from the Gone World"
(Blog: Twilight Zone!)
From the album: Tick Tock Sick (mp3) by Jim Henson

Beatniksploitation
No grotto-lurking, bongo-spanking, non-sequitur-spewing hipster should be caught unmedicated without a copy of this madly suave tribute to swankness. While Corso, Rexroth and Kerouac flip their lips, Slim Gaillard, Moondog and Coleman Hawkins will make you shake your hips.

Carioca & Sua Orquestra  ~  Samba...Oba!"
(Blog: Toque Musical)

Put Fruit on Your Head and Shimmy
For this release in Imperial's Percussônica series, a studioful of top-flight blowers and bangers—under the direction of the vaunted conductor/arranger Maestro Carioca— produce a dozen brief but bodacious nuggets of big-band instrumental samba. Carioca was considered square by some during the Tropicália era. We link, you decide.

Tito Rodriguez  ~  "Back Home in Puerto Rico"
(Blog: Basement Rug)
From the album: Se Te Acabo el Jamón (mp3)

El Orgullo de Santurce
The clean, precise enunciation of vocalist Tito Rodriguez has always sent chills, whether fronting bands led by Noro Morales, Xavier Cugat or with his own all-star-infused orchestras. While on this 1962 album the instrumental star is a young Eddie Palmieri, Tito's singing is front and center, delivering the chart-toppers “Cuando, Cuando,” and “Cara De Payaso.”

Various  ~  "All Day Thumbsucker Revisited:
The History of Blue Thumb Records"
(Blog: Never Get Out of the Boat)

Can't Suck Enough
It didn't last much more than six years, but the renegade L.A. record label Blue Thumb lumbered far and wide across the musical landscape leaving a trail of highly satisfying if unprofitable records in its wake. All Day Thumbsucker Revisited is a two-disc retrospective of the label's idiosyncratic assortment of non-hits from the likes of Sun Ra, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Sylvester, and Captain Beefheart, whose Strictly Personal was the label's first release in 1968.

Dorothy Ashby  ~  "Dorothy Ashby"
(Blog: Arkadin's Ark)
From the album: Booze (mp3)

Toumani Diabate – Joanna Newsome = Dorothy Ashby
Long before settling into a comfortable life doing West Coast session work for artists like Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, and Earth Wind & Fire, jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby was an enormously inventive, deeply swinging improviser. At the time she made this record (released by Argo in 1962) Ashby was the host of a jazz radio show in Detroit.

Listen for music from these and other incredible finds on
Give the Drummer Some, Fridays on WFMU, 9 to Noon (ET).

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

Skunk Ape (MP3)

    

Donny Lee  -  Skunk Ape  (3:24)    

According to true believers, the Skunk Ape is a regional variation of Bigfoot that makes its home in Florida, mostly in and around the Everglades.  Like Bigfoot, the mysterious Skunk Ape has rarely been spotted and one has never been captured.  The good folks at the National Park Service contend that the evasive creature exists only as a local myth.

But it's a myth embraced by a large swath of people and one that has worked its way into a wide variety of cultural artifacts like a Facebook group, annual festivals, coins, t-shirts and web sites too numerous to list individually.  And, of course, I should probably mention the Donny Lee 45rpm recording of Skunk Ape, which is posted above.

As you might imagine, confirmed Skunk Ape sightings are few and far between. 

If you really want to see a Skunk Ape, by far your best bet is to check out Stomp! Shout! Scream!, a contagiously fun beach party rock and roll monster movie set in 1966.  Written and directed by Jay Wade Edwards, the 2005 film depicts the adventures of The Violas, an all girl band of garage rockers whose van breaks down in a small Florida town where the Skunk Ape has been wreaking havoc.  Everyone involved seems to have a deep and genuine affection for the classic beach party flicks of the 1960s and the movie boasts more heart and soul than a decade's worth of big budget blockbusters.  And it surely doesn't hurt that it's accompanied by a stellar soundtrack  with songs by the Fleshtones, Catfight!, the Woggles, the Penetrators, the Hate Bombs, Johnny Knox & Hi Test, Tiger! Tiger!, the Vendettas, the Clutters, and the Evidents.

It's probably not a bad idea to mention that a distributor has retitled the film Monster Beach Party, which is how it's listed on Amazon and Netflix. Below are a few images I harvested from the movie's Flickr site.  On the right is director Edwards.  Don't let that photo fool you, though.  He doesn't play the Skunk Ape in the movie.  That role went to Ned Hastings.

       

My Imaginary Friends

I live in New York, and so I have no friends. Friends are people you actually speak to, people you see once in a while. This is not possible in New York, where everyone is busy, busy, busy and lives a 1-hour train ride away. I made a New Year's resolution once to spend more time with my friends, but since they hadn't resolved to spend more time with their friends, we still never saw each other. 

 The telephone stopped working when the answering machine was invented. I had a dear friend, John Fox, a writer, and when he died I wrote my newspaper column (Newspapers! Remember those?) about how all we ever really did was leave each other answering machine messages, and so, even though he was now dead, I could just go on leaving him messages and it wasn’t going to be much different than when he was alive.

Now there is email, there is Facebook. I have 8 email accounts: one for WFMU, one for freelance work, one for spam, two for pseudonymous comment postings on blogs, one in case I ever set up my website, one for local political activism, and one for “friends.” As of today, I have a total of 2,624   unread emails. I haven’t been on Facebook since March 16, so I have 19 friend requests, 16 messages, and 6 event reminders. Apparently I once signed up for Linked In—although I have no memory of doing that—and I have about a dozen folks clamoring to link up with me there. It’s overwhelming. There are so many people I should write back to that I can’t bring myself to write back to anyone.

I think this is why I like the radio, and the Twitter, and the blogpost: They are one-way communications. I sit here typing, “Here I am! Here I am! Over here!” with no expectation of response and no intention to reply.

Here I am, here I am: Not waving, but drowning.

Diablo performs "Hollow Body"

At the risk of making a massive, sweeping assumption, Bob Bellerue seems the least likely of everyone I know to do something diabolical (pointy beard and sometimes stoic expression notwithstanding.) More assumptions - hardworking, focused, in good physical health, and from all appearances almost egoless. I don't usually get quite so personal in music reviews, but in this case it seems appropriate, as Bob's quality of character has enhanced my appreciation of his sonic creations. (We've all known the inverse, going gaga over the music of artists who are legendary douchebags, so it is sort of a "bonus" when the opposite actually happens.) 

If you like Bob Bellerue, whether he's calling himself Diablo, Redglaer or Bob Bellerue/halfnormal, you'll apprehend the way he just sits there, listening, hearing, reacting in kind, shaping the sound, never once looking at the crowd. He's doing his thing, and you just happen to be there.

This set, Bob as Diablo performing "Hollow Body," is a piece that needs to be listened to either on headphones, or at high volume on a really good stereo, to be fully and deeply appreciated. In-browser ain't doin' it for this baby, not quite—not if you want to hear all the scuttling in the primordial ooze, and experience the rising power of the drone and the eventual chaos and crackle. Download and enjoy.

With these sessions and the eventual reposting thereof quickly becoming a regular three-person team, thanks must go again to Glenn L. for noise-friendly session engineering/live mix, and to Tracy Widdess for stepping on my photographs. Thanks again to Bob, and to Witchbeam for some impromptu co-hosting.

More Dragnet Haikus

Wednesday June Fifteenth
The boss is Cap'n Hugh Brown
Partner's Bill Gannon

Twelve dollars a month
Goes to widows and orphans
That's what the job's worth

Hand me my timer
Yes Joe, that's an egg timer
Now hand it to me

A kid with a knife
Or two pill-heads on a spree
With nothing to lose

Indian wrestle
Your conscience on your own time
We need that name now

Two bourbons for us
And then there's the young lady
Make her happy too

10 Live on WFMU

When Japanese laptop noisician Marqido came through Rob Lim's Janitor From Mars program five years ago, Marqido probably never would have foreseen the musical direction he would take when returning to my program last week with his duo 10.  South Korean crooner Itta began collaborating with Marqido several years ago after Marqido toured through Seoul's experimental venue Yogiga.

As 10, the duo is just finishing up their first American tour, promoting their recent album, Kitsch.  Fans of 10 will be surprised by this live session (or by any of their live concerts for that matter), since 10's electro-pop is highly improvisatory.  Each of the three performances I've seen personally in the past weeks have been completely different.  Wave No Wave is taken at half tempo on this recording, for instance, and all the songs are significantly lengthened.  Marqido makes great use of an optical theremin (which is already at the top of my Christmas wish list) and feeds Itta's vocals and both members' keytars through Logic on his laptop.  10 has been one of my favorite mutant-pop bands for a few years now (especially their album Nomad), so it's been particularly illuminating to see the free improv that underlies the pristine, taut pop on their recordings.

10 is also featured in an article by me just published in May's issue of Wire about experimental music past in present from Seoul, South Korea.  Read that shit, there's magic all up in that bitch.

Recent Grottage from the WFMU New Bin (MP3's)

Sorting through submitted new music here at FMU has evolved into a much more daunting gig than it was years ago for a whole lot of reasons, first and foremost is confronting the multitude of sources available and having to filter it all, physical and the very growing well of digital material (which is now an increasing avenue for labels and artists to submit their sounds). In the immediate neighborhood, for example, we've got the plethora of free MP3's here on the blog (especially excited about seeing the recent avalanche of Tony Coulter's deep archives manifesting itself here), the constant flow into the Free Music Archive and just everywhere else in general. The day to day here at WFMU also of course gets overrun by mail that we get to open and check out. Remember that? Physical packages. With records and CD's in them. And tapes too. One even came in a big furry box this week. It kind of smelled like a wet dog, so we're keeping the empty in the stairwell for the time being because it's too nice to trash. New music doesn't completely make up the WFMU universe of course, there are plenty of shows that focus on and mix in the classic, the old and obscure, the intangible, but we usually add about 70-100 actual newish releases into the station's new bin weekly for the staff to check out at their leisure and people play and comment on 'em freely. Lately the vinyl bins especially have been overflowing which is an interesting turn of events. In the older days (when labels were seemingly pumping out mailed releases endlessly) there was one single bin for LPs and 7"s together. Now there's two teeming LP bins, a full 7" bin, and a cassette bin. If anything it seems the invisible and visible means of disseminating music remain equally healthy despite the fact labels struggle these days (I'm sure many will argue the latter), though the chore remains to try to find the goods wherever they are hiding that don't wind up in our lap automatically. I guess the purpose of these posts (which I hope to do regularly if possible) is to get some MP3 permissions of some recent goods and get 'em up. Anyway, read on, and if you dig what you find, by all means contact those who put these releases out. And you can always contact the music department here at WFMU via PO Box 5101, Hoboken NJ 07030, or email me at bt (at) wfmu (dot) org. Thanks.

The Laureates play live at WFMU

Last Tuesday I posted a Facebook status update about the live set by The Laureates that I was airing on  my show that night. In an effort to convey the catchy musical smarts that would be on display, I wrote "A must for fans of Sloan, GBV, Big Dipper, the Kinks, etc. etc." Then, realizing a (slightly) more succinct way to put it, I added "or: 'A must for fans of songs that are good.'"

The Laureates began germinating at the end of 2005, when singer/guitarist Chad Preston wrote a collection of songs that he subsequently recorded on his own as a lo-fi album of sorts. Inspired by that initial effort, Preston set about putting together the right band to really do justice to the music. By early 2007, the band was complete: Pete Gray and Crawfie Ward had joined as the rhythm section, and guitarist Adam Penly finally rounded out the combo. The band's first EP (available for free download) was released later in 2007, and it subsequently became a staple of my show. "I Want To Miss You" was the standout track to my ears, but the rest of the EP was certainly no slouch -- as evidenced by another track on the EP, "Witching Boots," attaining the highly coveted "Song I heard on the Evan "Funk" Davies show on WFMU and immediately thought 'I must have this'" slot on the Unblinking Ear blog's 2007 roundup.

 As it turned out, The Laureates were just getting started. A full-length CD, There Are No More Gentlemen, was released in November 2008, and it proved that the songwriting chops displayed on the EP were no fluke -- as did the No Kontrol EP (available for free download), released earlier this year. The band will be returning to the studio soon to start working on a new album, and the new songs they played in this session are a strong indication that it'll be another gem. Give a listen and I think you'll agree.

Special Blog Bonus! Throughout 2010, The Laureates are posting a cover song each month to their website. So far, they've released covers of songs by the Breeders, Troggs, Soft Boys and Velvet Underground. They performed the VU song live during their WFMU session, and you can grab that MP3 right here:

The Laureates - "I Can't Stand It"

Thanks to Diane Kamikaze for engineering the session.

Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume II (MP3's)

After the nice response to my first trip delving into the hundreds of tapes in my basement, I'm going to try and make this a monthly excursion. Today's visit, like the first one more of a random sampling than a "best of", features a nice demo reel for an advertising agency, featuring their male talent, including some big names, then an audio letter from family members vacationing in Los Angeles to family members abroad.

First up, the Demo Reel from Cunningham and Associates, Los Angeles. In most cases, the performer is presented for about a minute, usually with one or two ads. There are several men here whose names are unknown to me, but here and there a truly big name pops up (Ted Cassidy?! Carroll O'Connor!? Jack Narz?!?).

Here are the files, with the names of the performers you will hear (apologies to those whose names I may have misspelled), separated into six segments of about four minutes each:

Part One: Sheldon Allman, Ernie Anderson, John Anderson, Lloyd Bachner (MP3)
Part Two: Larry Burrell, Howard Caine, John Carradine, Ted Cassidy (MP3)
Part Three: Reege Cordick, James Daley, Danny Dark, Roy Druschal (MP3)
Part Four: John Erwin, Peter Gerrold, James Gregory, Ralph James (MP3)
Part Five: Tim McEntire, Jack Narz, Carroll O’Connor, Steve Pendleton (MP3)
Part Six: Bill Shallart, Rod Serling, Chill Wills (MP3)

The second tape I've selected for today is one of those "Audio Letters" which used to be so common, from the late 50's through the '70's on reel tape, and on cassettes for years after that. In today's tape, several relatives, led my "mama and papa" send a tape to someone living in England (as I recall, anyway - it's only mentioned once, and it's been weeks since I digitized this tape), with complete reports on several sightseeing trips and activities in southern California. 

There are some interesting and fun moments here, for people who like this sort of thing. And if you do like this sort of thing, let me know, as I have a lot more of these audio letters. I also have several more ad tapes and demo reels. 

Part one of this family letter is just over 30 minutes long. The conclusion is around six minutes long. 

From Mama and Papa 1962 - Part One (MP3)

From Mama and Papa 1962 - Conclusion (MP3)

Mama and Papa Tape Box (JPG) 

The Early Chris Rock

As we all know by now, I am fascinated by the early, pre-fame lives of well-known comedians. It's interesting to learn about the very human failures of the young Woody Allen, George Carlin, David Letterman, Betty White et al. Here's an NYU student film done over the course of 1988-89, profiling an aspiring 23 year old comedian named Chris Rock. Like the others, Rock's early material was very rough and his persona somewhat sheepish and unsure. Some of it might make you wince, but it's always interesting to watch evolution. Check the credits to see which well known 30 Rock cast member worked on the film.

Burgess Meredith / Songs and Stories of the Gold Rush, pt 1

"Ladder of success contain splinters, but not realized until sliding down!"
-Confucius
The breakup of this long, hard winter brings thoughts of Robert Service, and that naturally leads me to one of my favorite lefty intellectual actors Burgess Meredith and this lovely lp from which today we'll drop a song and a story to warm your bones. 
The mp3s:
Miner's Ball
The Cremation of Sam McGee

Trance-ing In His Head (Pt. 1)

 Anthony Braxton’s music has always shown an interest in transcendence, carried forward from the Coltrane/Ayler ecstatic jazz model, with bits of Sun Ra, Ives, Cage and Stockhausen as well. The Ghost Trance Music (GTM) is a result of trance or trance-like processes under which the music is composed, and which the scores and instructions seek to bring out in the players. Braxton has said he tries to write the GTM scores in a trance state, letting the dots flow freely from his pen, allowing his personal melodic language to emerge in a “stream of consciousness.” His models include African, Native American, and Indonesian rituals. Braxton hears in these long-form musics a way out of temporally limiting European structures: “Identity is maintained not from a baroque motivic use of formal ingredients but rather from extended time-space logic strategies.”

Skirting the Traffic Jam on the FM Band

Can you pinpoint the precise moment you first proclaimed "radio sucks"?

For many people in the U.S., that eureka moment happened in the years following the 1996 Telecommunications Act, when it suddenly became legal for giants like Clear Channel to gobble up many more radio and TV stations than previous restrictions allowed. The result was a homogenized sound heard round the nation (among other consequences, including a decline in minority ownership), sometimes multiple conglomerate-owned media existed in one market. Years later, the bubble of this business model burst, and the giants began liquidating stations they had acquired in smaller markets. Sure, there was probably a small trickle-down effect and some areas might have slightly better sounding radio now than they did in the late '90s, but overall, not much sounds different.

Sure, we've got the left end of the dial, aka the non-commercial FM spectrum, where community radio provides solace and salvation in many metropolitan areas and college towns across the U.S. But let's face it, religious broadcasters are in control of much of the non-commercial spectrum in most parts of the country, so even this allotted span of relief on the FM band doesn't provide much alternative programming. There is a group called Common Frequency out there, and they are trying to help community groups grab open FM slots on the non-commercial band before the religious megacasters can get to it.

The LPFM movement has also allowed more independent voices access to the airwaves in recent years, and that effort will likely continue to grow in the years to come. One may argue that tossing teeny 100-watt-or-less scraps of spectrum to the people while large conglomerates and religious broadcasters can stretch out over the wide expanse of the FM prairie isn't a great way to manage the public's airwaves, but that's where things stand.

Why does NYC radio suck so much?

WFMU Returns to Primavera Sound in Barcelona May 27-29

(Ariel Pink photo via Liz Berg) WFMU ushers in summer with a return to the fabulous Primavera Sound festival at Parc Del Forum in Barcelona, Spain from May 27th-29th! We're stoked beyond belief to have been invited once again to set up our remote gear splat in the middle of multiple stages for what's surely one of Europe's best large scale music fests. If you recall, our stint last year brought full broadcast sets from Sonic Youth, the Vaselines, Fucked Up, th' Faith Healers, Sunn o))), Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, the Bats, St. Etienne, Spectrum, Yo La Tengo, and tons more, many archived for streaming on WFMU's site, and some even for download on the Free Music Archive (check out some pix from WFMU's Flickr group from 2009 as well). This year's lineup once again resembles a who's who of WFMU Heavy Airplay past and present (Wire, Sic Alps, Seefeel, the Clean, New Pornographers, Diplo, the Fall, Pavement, Condo Fucks, Orbital, King Khan, Thee OhSees, Lee Perry, Liquid Liquid, Mission of Burma, Endless Boogie, Psychic Paramount to name just a sliver!) and while permissions haven't been finalized, we'll be keeping you informed of what will be going out over the air/netwaves in due time. From the point of view of an attendee, Primavera squarely lands the perfect wedding of visionary, multi-genre booking in a large forum, artists who don't always get the chance to play non-club environs getting a huge audience, and few instances of on-site claustrophobia since this place is literally spread out over a huge waterfront area. We're looking forward to working with the festival once again and bringing you full sets of as much of the lineup as we can. Stay tuned for more details, and we'll keep you updated on WFMU's site, Twitter, and Facebook when we get down to specific broadcast times and artists. Hope you can tune in!

How To Draw Time

As a kid I was obsessed with the movie Time Bandits, especially the time map. Textbook timelines always looked paltry and pathetic in comparison. A new book from Princeton Architectural Press shows that the timeline doesn't have to be so straightforward. Cartographies of Time, by Daniel Rosenberg and Anthony Grafton features a variety of historic timelines that use temples, branches, ladders, curves and even the human form to graphically represent the passing of time. Many of these timelines, like the historical charts published by Italian scholar and poet Girolamo Martignoni in 1721, look like maps. My favorite is the 1912 Marconi North Atlantic Communication chart which tracked ships like the Titanic at points in time rather than by their geographic location - perhaps this is the one that opens up the time holes...

(Tonight: stop by Cabinet Magazine's offices in Brooklyn for a book party on April 15th 7pm)