WFMU's Beware of the Blog

WFMU iPhone app v2.1 is out!

Good news from Cupertino... Version 2.1 of WFMU's iPhone app has just hit the App store after a relatively short time in app-review-purgatory and it's jam packed with lots of great new features. You can get it for free here.

Our latest updates include:

• Live commenting: communicate with other iphone listeners or people tuned it at wfmu.org (Please note that not all DJs enable live commenting on their shows).
  
  
• Offline listening: podcasts and archives can now be downloaded for listening offline. Perfect for subway rides, road trips or air travel. Downloads are only enabled when connected via wifi.
  
  
• Last.fm scrobbling: either auto-scrobble all songs that play or scrobble individual tracks on a one off basis
  
  
• Twitter + Facebook integration for sharing songs and shows
  
  
• iOS4 background play for newer iphones. Older phones can still play in the background via Safari.
  
  
• DJ Trent's Tiesto-izer™ - through the magic of DSP adds perfectly beat matched rave-tastic euro grooves to any track playing*

Along with various bug fixes and tweaks we've also thrown in an easter-egg**: shake the main on-demand screen and you'll get a random archive or podcast. All of the above comes on top of all our existing features like dvr-like rewinding of our live streams, purchasing your favorite tracks from iTunes, Station News, Upcoming Specials, Beware of the Blog, WFMU's twitter stream and adjustable buffer settings.

If you don't already have the WFMU iphone app installed just head over to the app store and grab a copy. It's free.

 If you are on Android we also have an app available in the marketplace however it does not yet have all the same features mentioned above. More info on that here.

* this is not really true, but if you have any more feature suggestions let us know in the comments below.
 
** not >really< an easter egg since we are telling you about it...

     

Detroit Breakdown

Tune in tomorrow from 1-6 PM for a Live broadcast of the Ponderosa Stomp's Detroit Breakdown!  Join your favorite Ichiban DJ's for an extended Fool's Paradise with Rex - Live from Lincoln Center.  Line up includes:

Motor City Soul Revue featuring:

Eddie Kirkland, Spyder Turner, Dennis Coffey, Melvin Davis, The Velvelettes backed by the Party Stompers.

Afternoon acts to possibly be broadcast at a later date include The Gories, Death, ? & The Mysterians and Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels!

Do The Hawg!

New Yorker letter gives props to WFMU

Big thanks to listener Keith in Vermont, who gave huge props to WFMU in a letter that he contributed to the July 26th issue of the New Yorker magazine. Keith's letter was in response to a recent Sasha Frere-Jones article about online music auto-DJ services like Pandora. Here's a snippet of Keith's letter:

"All this new technology has yet to improve on the old radio model: putting yourself in the hands of independent, passionate, and deeply knowledgeable disk jockeys—the likes of which can be found at New Jersey’s incomparable WFMU, for example—and following them blissfully into the world of unknown and unexpected sound."

Read the full letter here.

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 76 (MP3s)

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

Now in its 76th smash week, Mining the Audio Motherlode rolls on. High-energy surf instrumentals, South African Broadway-style musical numbers, lush French medieval tunes and gorgeous California pop harmonies are all on the bill. But your humble Pittsburgh-based miner couldn't resist kicking things off with a stash of Steel City R&B faves (see below). When you're done downloading, be sure to check out WFMU's new web stream Give the Drummer Radio, spinning killer tracks around the clock. Listen every Friday, 9am to noon, for the live radio show Give the Drummer Some.

Various  ~  "Pittsburgh's Favorite Oldies at the Hop"
Volumes 1 & 2 | Volumes 3 & 4
(Blog: The Rockin'  Bandit)
From Volume 2: Snacky Poo (mp3) by the Ring-A-Dings

Steel These Records
Here are ninety-six stellar "R&B stompers, novelty instrumentals, doo-wop smoothies, and proto-soul ravers" to make Pittsburgh radio royalty Porky Chedwick proud. In fact, the opening track on Volume 3—"Bongo Blues," by the Dee Williams Sextette—is Porky's theme song.

Insect Surfers  ~  "Wavelength"
(Blog: Twilightzone!)

A Bug's Life
After graduating from high school in '79, I trudged off to boring college while my oldest chum, Dan Buccino, answered a classified ad for a band needing a drummer and became the first beatmeister for what quickly become one of D.C.'s favorite live acts. Self-billed as "planet Earth's longest running modern instrumental surf band," the Insect Surfers are now enjoying their fourth decade of rocking. Produced by beloved local punk/new wave promoter Bill Asp, this EP came out five years before band founder Dave Arnson pulled up stakes and relocated the whole phenomenon in Los Angeles.

Original Cast  ~  "King Kong"
(Blog: Barabara Sounds)
From the album: Mad (mp3)

South African Passion Play
With its debut in 1959 the "All African Jazz Opera" King Kong presented maybe the greatest array of South African musical talent ever—all on one stage. The Manhattan Brothers' Nathan Mdledle sang the male lead; a young Miriam Makeba the female. Top-flight saxophonists Kippie Moeketsi, Mackay Davashe and Gwigwi Mrwebi were all in the orchestra. When the show traveled to London, two years later, a number of key cast members stayed, forming the first wave of ex-pat black South African artists in Europe.

Les Ménestriers  ~  "Les Ménestriers"
(Blog: Folk Yourself)
[password = folkyourself.blogspot.com]
From the album: Gaillarde "La Dona" (mp3)

Im'a Get Medieval on Your Ass
There's not a lot of info online about this quintet of French early music devotees. According to one site, they "presented the repertory as a living art in contact with the Earth." This is their debut LP from 1971.

Blackburn & Snow  ~  "Something Good for Your Head"
(Blog: Record Fiend)

Harmonic Convergence
Just a pair of singles and an album's worth of unreleased material constitutes the entire catalog of this mid-'60s folk-rock duo. Jeff Blackburn and Sherry Snow's rich harmony singing within psyche-tinged sunshine pop arrangements ought to have at least sniffed major success, but poor distribution, lame management and the end of their romance snuffed their act by 1967.

Listen for music from these and other incredible finds on
Give the Drummer Some, Fridays, 9 to noon (ET)
streaming live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

Twinkie Insanity MP3s

Art Peterson  -  Twinkie Insanity  (2:50)

Lenny Anderson  -  The Ballad Of Dan White  (2:55)

On November 27, 1978 San Francisco mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk (the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California) were gunned down by Dan White, a severely depressed  ex-City Supervisor who had recently given up his normal health food regimen for a steady diet of "junk food" laden with sugar and salt.  At his trial, White's attorneys argued that his consumption of junk food was a contributing symptom of his diminished capacity for reason, not, as most people believe a cause of the problem. 

In 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle's Carol Pogash wrote a fine article (The Myth Of The Twinkie Defense) summarizing the public's chronic misunderstanding of the situation.  A defense attorney recalls testimony concerning Ho-Hos and Ding Dongs, but Twinkies themselves were never mentioned in the entire trial.  Despite this fact, the myth of the "Twinkie Defense" was born and as Pogash noted, "Folklore trumps history."

White was charged with first degree murder but ended up getting convicted of manslaughter and receiving a 7 year sentence, serving only 5 years before he was paroled in 1984.  In October 1985, a still depressed White committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage of a house owned by his wife in San Francisco's Excelsior district.

This split single features two songs about the murders and the events that followed.

    

Mr. Fine Wine celebrates release of Vampisoul comp

WFMU's own Mr. Fine Wine has put together a stellar compilation for the Vampisoul label called "Teach Me to Monkey, Vol. 1." It's the first in a series, and this volume is full of great R&B tracks from the King and Federal labels.

Tomorrow (Wed 7/28), Fine Wine celebrates the release of "Teach Me to Monkey" during a special edition of his weekly DJ night at Botanica Bar. He'll be spinning songs from the compilation throughout the evening, plus he'll be giving away a 45 box to one lucky winner.

 

Join Mr. Fine Wine for the "Teach Me to Monkey" record-release party tomorrow night (it's free):

Botanica
47 East Houston Street
between Mulberry and Mott
downstairs
10 till late

Dumbo is Down in the Lab, Talking to Dracula & His Krewe

The Rich Cultural History of AlternaBlasts seems to have struck at least a small nerve, a few comments either finding joy in the blasts or dismissing them outright. I was happy to hear from everyone, but there was one that really stood out. It was from a reader who posts around here fairly often and goes by the name of K. K explored my personal blog a bit and made a statement expressing the idea that Frank Luntz & Rush Limbaugh were kindred spirits to a popular occult organization. Mindzappers! That train of thought pushed me towards other famous occultists, at least ones that admit to it.

Sure, traditionally you have your Jimmy Pages, Kenneth Angers and Jack Parsons (founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory!) William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin both used the tech of their time to cast spells. Gustav Jung had esoteric interests and tendencies. In the present day we have NPR's Margot Adler, a witch; comic book superstars Alan Moore and Grant Morrison are both practicing wizards. Daryl Hall had interest in Aleister Crowley and recorded a song with Fripp based on his teachings. Oo-ee-oo. Fairuza Balk, famous for her starring role in the movie The Craft was once owner of Panpipes Magickal Marketplace, the United States' oldest occult store. Even hip hoppers are into it! Jay Z, Kanye West & Beyonce have all been linked to the satanic illuminati conspiracy! Or not!

So yeah, these people are all in plain view, but the very word occult means hidden so there must be others that aren't that open about their interests... Some think it is such a vast conspiracy you could just pull a name out of the air. What about, say, Walt Disney?

Years ago I was an active member of the online community Barbelith, a gathering place for geeks cut to a certain cloth to discuss weird stuff in general. Lots of members were Philip K. Dick freaks and in an discussion of the movie inside the book Valis an interesting post appeared:

The Week in WFMU: 7/26 - 8/1

WFMU will broadcast live from The Detroit Breakdown: Ponderosa Stomp at Lincoln Center Out Of Doors. Please tune in on Saturday, 7/31, for an x-tra-long installment of Fool's Paradise with Rex from 1 to 6 PM -- we plan to air sets from such soul, blues and R&B heavies as Dennis Coffey, Eddie "The Grunt" Kirkland, Melvin Davis and Spyder Turner, the Velvelettes, and more! Or you can come and stop by the WFMU table during the actual real-life festival. Music experts Rex, Dave the Spazz, Gaylord Fields, and Mr. Finewine will be on hand with interviews and genius commentary.

.

.

By the time you read this, Bob W. will have hosted SUUNS (formerly Zeroes) on Monday morning 7/26 from 9 AM to noon. Check his archive to hear the live session by this Montreal post-punk/art rock group, whose album is coming soon on the Secretly Canadian label although they are not especially shy about their Canadian-ness. SUUNS also have an EP available for free.

.

.

.

Late Monday night/Tuesday morning, Noah welcomes back Renaissance-man DJ, rapper, record label owner, and producer Thanksgiving Brown for audio treats and banter. His MySpace confirms he's a name of recollection, for those dedicated to the art of movin' butts -- join Noah and him on Coffee Break for Heroes & Villains Tuesday 7/27 from midnight to 3 AM.

.

.

.

Wm. Berger's guest this week is Anthony Mangicapra of the noise project Hoor-Paar-Kraat, which since 2001 has drawn upon the "well-developed dark side, Pagan nature, and penchant for making your skin crawl" (Wm.'s astute words) of this otherwise-amiable painter and draughtsman. Hear Anthony bring a uniquely eerie performance to the air on Wm. Berger presents My Castle of Quiet, Friday 7/30 (Thursday night) from midnight to 3 AM.

.

.

.

And on Transpacific Sound Paradise, there will be live music from Portland, OR's Vagabond Opera -- the Pacific Northwest's answer to Bohemian cabaret. Catch them at Brooklyn's Kingsborough Community College bandshell on Saturday the 31st, or at Joe's Pub on Sunday August 1st, to see the spectacle... listen to Rob's show Saturday 7/31, from 6 to 9 PM, to hear it.

.

.

.

.

***

If you're a playlist-comment-reader like me, you may have noticed that the overnight shows garner especially good comments. I was happy with this recent exchange by Bennett4Senate and friends on Awesome New Place, which is on on Thursday mornings from 3 to 6 AM. Bennett also had guest DJ Ghostdad on last week, who played a great set, and here is that show.

Rogue Taxidermy and the End of History

 Here’s what I’m excited about today: End of History Ale! Okay, it’s English ale, and I believe it’s 110 proof (!) and it comes in dead-animal bottles, and there’s only 12 bottles made (seven stoats, four squirrels, and a hare) and it costs $762/ bottle, so probably I shall never have one. But I am no Janey-come-lately to the world of rogue taxidermy—far from it! As a child I became enamored of the jackalope, beast of lore and legend and Wyoming roadside attraction rest stops, and I began collecting jackalope postcards at a very early age.

By the time I finished college and moved to New York, I’d amassed a nice little collection of several dozen jackalope cards from various states. Then some guy I was dating had a birthday and I didn’t have  enough money to buy him a present and I wanted to give him something really, really nice. So I gave him my entire jackalope postcard collection.  He totally hated them, and then we broke up, and he never even gave them back. BUT: Here is the happy ending! When I told Sluggo that story, he got me my very own jackalope— a REAL one! Look! Here’s the picture!

Now I have a small collection of actual rogue taxidermy: my baby-alligator-and-some-kind-of-shell candy dish; my handbag-made-from-an-actual-armidillo (with garnet   eyes!); the fish that I can’t even begin to explain ... In fact, the armidillo handbag won second place at the first annual Carnivorous Nights taxidermy contest, hosted by Union Hall’s Secret Science Club and curated by WFMU’s own Dorian Devins, plus authors Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson. (Buy their book!)

Back when I did a show called Truckstop Teaparty on WFMU, I once did a weekly special feature with all the instructions of how to stuff an owl to give to your mom for Mother’s Day. And in 2001, I interviewed a 14-year-old homeschooled taxidermist named Amy Ritchie on the first incarnation of the Thunk Tank program, and you can hear the archive from this page.  And don’t forget the Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists, ’cause, you know, I never do.

 I’m just trying to explain why I think drinking high-octane ale out of a stoat is an appealing idea. And what is a stoat, anyway? I believe it’s British for “ermine.”

But knowing our fine American tradition of rogue taxidermy, I couldn’t believe we don’t have dead-animal bottles of our own. So I went looking, but found something even more useful, which is, of course, the deer-anus bottle opener which you are gonna need when you want to pop the top on that stoat. 

Thanks, Taxidermy Tube and good ol’ American ingenuity!

George Liberace, Song-Poem Pioneer (MP3's)

"I Wish My Brother George Was Here."

For those of us past a certain age - and any who are younger, but have a fondness for Bugs Bunny - this phrase will at least conjure up a 1955 Looney Tunes cartoon, and very likely a memory of Liberace. The reference was to the pianist's older brother George Liberace, a legendarily bad violinist and band-leader for his younger brother.

But George Liberace was also a pioneer in the song-poem field, at least as far as allowing his name and image to be used to both pull people into the scam, and to appear on albums released under the George Liberace Songsmith's banner. You can read an excellent overview of the story here.

What I have to today is one of two George Liberace Songsmith's Song-Poem albums that I'm lucky enough to have in my collection. The cover to this one was gone by the time I found it, but the covers to all of the GLS albums were identical, and a scan of the back cover, which assures the customers that they are not "song-sharks" is here.

I don't know what the deal is with the test tones which occur throughout this album, at exactly 30 second intervals (this may not be the case for those who download the album, as I've shortened the spaces between the tracks). Perhaps it was to drive home the point that these tracks were not for broadcast or sale. I can't find my other GLS at this moment, but I'm fairly sure these beeps were not present on that album.

The highlights on this album, for me, all come on the first side. For one thing, there is the author of the  poorly-titled song "My Los Angeles, L. A." listed as "By George". Does this, perhaps, mean that the elder Liberace submitted a song to his own company? Then there is the surprisingly peppy "Rockin' and Rolling", the second track on the album. But the real keeper here is at the end of the side, the enderingly goofy "Some Folks Say He's Not All There"

For those of you who love song-poems, by the way, there are a whole lot more of them at my blog, as well as a bit of self-celebration I did recently, upon the occasion of my 50th birthday.

1.) Walking Because of You (MP3)
2.) Rockin' and Rolling (MP3)
3.) Summer Love (MP3)
4.) My Los Angeles, L.A. (MP3)
5.) Spider Web (MP3)
6.) Love's Game (MP3)
7.) I've Never Met a Girl Like You (MP3)
8.) Some Folks Say He's Not All There (MP3)
9.) You Must Be Very Good (MP3)
10.) Needed -- Love (MP3)
11.) I'm Only Dreaming (MP3)
12.) The Time Has Come (MP3)
13.) Lonely Night (MP3)
14.) Twilight Serenade (MP3)
15.) The Magic of Your Kiss (MP3)
16.) Pal of Desert Trail (MP3)

 

Album Label A-Side (JPG) - Album Label B-Side (JPG)

 

 

POSSESSED POP: AMEN DUNES // MURDER DULL MIND EP

Amen Dunes is not something you put on to just listen to. It is an invitation to possession. Somewhat in the vein of Exuma, Death in June, or Sam Ashley, Damon McMahon (the "mind" behind Amen Dunes) seems to have an intimate relationship with songwriting as a medium to conjure spirits and recording as a way to capture and exorcise them. His monumental last full length, DIA, was written and recorded during a period of intense seclusion in a cabin in upstate New York in 2006. When I asked Damon about how this isolation affected the recording process, he admitted to feeling presences and sometimes resorted to cranking up the volume as loud as he could to "drive the demons away".

But whereas DIA is a castle protected by these loud, electric of walls of distortion and reverb, Murder Dull Mind is more of a watchtower turned inward, barricaded by no amplifiers, fenced in by no haloes of effect pedals (save for some sparse interjections), a lone shivering structure of acoustic guitars and raw voices rendered tough by the sun and soft with rain, skeletal remains of a panopticon that sees all but suffers invisibly. It is rooted in unmistakeable darkness, but also retains a pensive and wistful detachment that allows it to breathe and reflect on itself, hovering in this state of half-embodiment almost like a ghost hovering above it's grave. The lyrics are also suspended in this half-formed, half-realized state of consciousness--- sometimes rising into the crystalized realm of comprehension and language, other times diving deep into swirling primordial streams of subconscious understanding. Here the voice is a primary access to the spirit world, and the concept of "hollow syllables" has been a historically viable means of sacrificing the voice to the control of other invisible systems beyond language-- much like the function of vocables in indigenous music or speaking in tongues endemic to Pentacostal and Shaker hymns. But as with any good possession music, Murder Dull Mind also exorcises those same demons it allows to take hold of it. In the anthemic title track, Damon sings a reflective affirmation of being: "Turn into yourself; you notice yourself", and therein lies the key to approaching this fragile and extremely moving inverted world.

Murder Dull Mind will be released as a 12" EP on Sacred Bones July 27th.

If you are scared, GO.

If you are curious, LISTEN:

Amen Dunes - Diane

Amen Dunes live at WFMU on Scott William's show

Stay the Fuck Out of the Woods! C. Lavender live on My Castle of Quiet, 7.16.2010

In October of '09 I received a "Castle mail" from one C. Lavender, a sound-collagist/noisemaker and horror fan based in Northern NJ. The emails were gender-neutral (honestly, I assume most noise people are dudes, but that standard is gradually and gratefully changing) and almost business-like. It's significant to note that in the thread that followed, Lavender wrote, "It's a huge dream of any NJ resident who performs weird music to play on WFMU and I felt that your show was a perfect match-up with my interests/music."

Well I finally listened, as can you. C. Lavender delivered nothing less than a true and thoroughly envisioned horrorscape to My Castle of Quiet listeners, live last Friday morning at 12:30 a.m.-ish. The build in Lavender's performance is patient but steady, and all manner of haunted sounds, and far-flung melodies, whizz by, wave and disappear. The dead rumble in their holes, dishonored, and think about digging out to give everybody what for. Maybe later, as we're too comfortable underground. The thread of a crusty electronic loop acts like an unhurried gravedigger's shovel.

This is some seriously great shit, and I can't thank C. Lavender enough, not only for being a true Castle fan, as well as a talented performer, but also for bringing to the show a thoughtful and unique performance, suited ideally to the show's own peculiar sonic bent. She brought the scary, the contemplative, and the running for your life bit, too (in which direction, you're not quite sure.)

The young artist was rattled after such a rendering, as she typically is following a set, and that combined with my usual, charming fumble-bumble caused some to suggest that we did not give good banter. Me and Lavender? Surely you jest. We are the Regis and Kelly of noise, for fuck's sake!

"Whispers in the Woods"? Most certainly. This piece is up there with some of my most-favored eerie, anguished, live sound collage, like the works of Burial Hex and Physical Demon.

Huge thanks to big Bob Bellerue for engineering, and getting a right spoooky mix, even though he was really exhausted and I gave him not one morsel of crack. Thanks as always to Tracy Widdess for messing with my artist photos just right.

Summer Meltdown @ Lincoln Center: WFMU Presents UbuWeb Mix w/ Live Music from Growing + Blues Control

WFMU has teamed up with our friends at The Film Society of Lincoln Center to present two events at Walter Reade Theater next month as part of their Summer Meltdown Series. The full line-up for the series is available here.

 Up first will be a screening of "Stone" on Friday August 13th at 8:45 which is being co-presented by Finders Keepers and Other Music. Shot in 1974 "Stone" has been described as "the second best Australian biker movie of all time" and is perhaps best known here in the states for its avant-pop / funk-rock soundtrack which was unearthed and re-released by the ever-dependable Finders Keepers label. Andy Votel will be dj'ing before the screening and afterward both Finders Keepers and our own Brian Turner will be on the decks for a party with free drinks. Tickets will run $12.

On Monday August 16th at 8:30 we are very excited to announce a collaboration with UbuWeb featuring live sets by Growing and Blues Control.  Founded in 1996 by WFMU DJ / Poet Kenny G (and originally hosted here at WFMU), Ubuweb is arguably the net's foremost library of the avant garde. Join Kenny as he screens some of his favorite selections from Ubu's vast film library into freeform sets that will serve as backdrops for two of WFMU's favorite bands. 

Growing, whose recent album "Pumps" on Vice Records has been in heavy rotation here for the past few months, have been coaxing a pretty impressive array of syncopated drones from (mostly) a single guitar and bass for some time. Last year Sadie Laska joined Joe Denardo + Kevin Doria adding vocals, samplers and keys to further broaden an already dense sonic pallet.

Philly based Blues Control, once described by the fine people at Holy Mountain as the missing link between  Van Halen and Henry Flint sound like neither. Lea Cho and Russ Waterhouse deconstruct psychedelia to its bare essentials weaving tape loops with processed keyboards (and sometimes quite heavy guitars) into a minimalism that can at times recall the likes of Ash Ra Temple.

Tickets for UbuWeb Mix are $15 and will include fmu dj action and free drinks after the show.

Tickets for both events go on sale later today on the Film Society at Lincoln Center website.


Peyote Queen by Storm De Hirsch - Found on Ubu

Seeing Through Walruses

Tony Coulter here, with another helping of digitally reconstituted audio/optical artifacts. As always, the analogue/physical originals, of the sounds at least, were acquired since abandoning the shores of Brooklyn eleven months ago. Material support this time 'round was provided by Cozmic Eddie, recurring guest host of KPSU's Psychedelic Renaissance. 

And now ... jump in!

Tom Scharpling featured in GQ!

That's right, the August 2010 issue of Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine listed the Best Show on WFMU host Tom Scharpling in their 2010 Comedy Countdown. Scharpling is one of 37 people who are "never not funny," according to GQ! Click here to subscribe to the Best Show p**cast, and click here to catch yourself up on Best Show highlights with the Best Show Gems p**cast.

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 75 (MP3s)

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

Still about a hundred boxes to unpack, but it's beginning to look a little like home here in the new digs in Pittsburgh. Once the old Interweb gizmo got connected, the Motherlode machinery started right up and is now cranking out high-sheen gems like always. (See below.)

A ton of the music featured here at the Motherlode is running 24/7 on the new web stream (hear it here). Be sure to tune in Fridays 9AM to noon (EST) to listen live to my radio show, Give the Drummer Some, though if you miss it, archives and playlists for each program are available here. Click here to get on the Motherlode mailing list.

Bashful Brother Oswald  ~  "Banjo & Dobro"
(Blog: Allen's Archive of Early and Old Country Music)
From the album: Cluck Old Hen (mp3)

Strung Up
Longtime cohort in Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys, dobro legend Beecher Ray "Bashful Brother Oswald" Kirby was actually born in the Smokies. Despite contributing a lifetime of classic performances and recordings, Kirby didn't become a member of the Grand Ole Opry until 1995 at the age of 83.

John Lindberg  ~  "A Tree Frog Tonality"
(Blog: Book of Prayer)

knee-DEEP
With Wadada Leo Smith, Larry Ochs and Andrew Cyrille alongside, under-appreciated bass master John Lindberg created this thoughtful quartet masterpiece that comes off as the soundtrack to a free-jazz daydream.

The Mighty Upsetter  ~  "Kung Fu Meets the Dragon"
(Blog: Bvrning Aqvarivm)
From the album: Black Belt Jones (mp3)

Chop Chop Shop
This Justice League release from 1995 updates the DIP disc from 20 years earlier with an additional 5 dub tracks along with lovely guitar from Chinna, lyrical melodica from Pablo, and loopy attitude from Scratch.

James Blood Ulmer  ~  "Are You Glad to Be in America?"
(Blog: Music - Hertz)

Happy Belated Independence Day
With this original Rough Trade version from 1980 (the US label Artists House put out a different version with a new mix a year later), Ulmer established himself as a key figure in a musical moment that would coalesce with the founding of the Black Coalition half a decade later.

Lupe y Raúl  ~  "Éxitos en las Voces de Lupe y Raúl"
(Blog: Música Popular Mexicana)
From the album: Oh Humanidad (mp3)

South of the Border-Blaster Boleros
Not exactly on the border, Mexico City's 250,000-watt XEW was nevertheless  one of the most powerful and influential radio stations when it was launched in the '30s. Lupe y Raúl, the exceedingly popular bolero duo of Guadalupe Muñóz Viguri and Raúl Piñera Salas, began their 30-year collaboration there in 1949. 

Listen for music from these and other incredible finds on
Give the Drummer Some, Fridays, 9 to noon (ET)
streaming live on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

Fat Possum Mississippi Juke Joint Caravan live on WFMU '04

David Suisman writes... 

Matthew Johnson has said that he started Fat Possum Records just to be able to put out a record by R. L. Burnside. He did that (Bad Luck City, 1992), but fortunately he didn’t stop there. From that time on, Fat Possum has released many of the most exciting blues discs to appear since the 1960s, revitalizing interest in music that many people (outside the South, especially) had long thought was creatively exhausted.

For a number of years, a handful of artists from the label’s roster toured the country, billed as the Fat Possum Juke Joint Caravan. Back in the mid-1990s the troupe featured R. L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. Later, its mainstays were T-Model Ford (pictured) and Paul "Wine" Jones. In 2004, the opportunity arose to bring the Caravan to WFMU for a set on my show "The Inner Ear Detour," and I was thrilled to have them. For reasons I don’t recall, everyone was packed into Studio A, rather than setting up the musicians in the regular, roomier performance space upstairs, connected to Studio B. It wasn’t intentional, I’m sure, but with everyone crammed in there, the effect when the music started was that Studio A felt an awful lot like a crowded hill-country juke joint. The sound had a lot to do with it, too, of course. Listening to these recordings today, this is not a sound—gritty and dark, loose and groovy—that I generally associate with 10 a.m. on a Thursday morning! It helped too that we had a throng of people squeezed into the room: all the musicians, their handler, engineer Jason Engel, sundry WFMU staffers and volunteers, and, somewhat incongruously, a small television crew doing a story on Fat Possum for the Canadian branch of Bravo.

The late Paul "Wine" Jones played first, with a searing guitar style reminiscent of the rawer recordings of Hound Dog Taylor. T-Model Ford played next, with echoes of Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters in his repertoire but with a sandpaper-and-gravel timbre and sparse accompaniment (by his longtime partner Spam on drums) that no one would mistake for Chess Records. "T” (as everyone seemed to call him) was then in his 80s and walked with a cane, but this didn’t stop him from getting up and dancing when the other musicians played. Last was Kenny Brown, best known as a protégé of R. L. Burnside but whose lighter finger-picking on this date was more reminiscent of another of his mentors, Joe Callicott. Cedric Burnside played drums with Paul Jones and with Kenny Brown.

Great musicians, and a great morning.

  -David Suisman / Inner Ear Detour

Grotesque and Strigoi Lead SF Indiefest's Another Hole in the Head

In Strigoi, a cocky young doctor, failed at his career, returns home from a slacker's holiday in Italy to find his name forged on a death certificate in his Romanian village. All of his neighbors, and especially the local priest, are acting cagey, and our hero is forever looking to bum a cigarette, and sleeping in late. Still, young Vlad somehow has balls of brass that propel him forward into the mystery, and a rustic cast of exaggerated characters leads this post-Communist horror/comedy, mixing old-fashioned Eastern-European folklore with a Delicatessen/Cemetary Man-style buoyancy, and its own peculiar, smartass humor. Highly recommended. One more festival screening at San Francisco's Roxie Cinema, next Tuesday 7/27 @ 9 p.m.

The 2009 Japanese film Grotesque raises the bar ridiculously high for captivity / torture tales, but to focus on that aspect solely would ignore the fact that it's also a finely crafted and well-acted film, and in amidst the absolutely unflinching dismemberment and psychological sadism, there is also allegorical purpose, and a story gets told. What if every moment of a budding romance, every test you would ever submit to, were suddenly and brutally dictated by a sexual sadist, with surgical exactitude, no anesthesia on hand, and more than a few pieces missing from his soul? Wanna know? See this film. San Francisco's Roxie Cinema and the 2010 Another Hole in the Head Festival give you one more chance, this Thursday, 7/22 @ 5 p.m. Then you can come home, stare blankly at the wall, and wait for my radio show to begin—don't even think about eating. My recommendation on Grotesque is to NOT WATCH THE TRAILER online (like at that link for instance) as it gives way too much away.

For non-Bay Area dwellers or visitors, both of these films are coming soon on Region 1 DVD.

Another "film to see" at this year's festival was Srđjan Spasojević's A Serbian Film (screened earlier this month on 7/8 & 7/10), acutely controversial for its content (I've yet to see it, but watch the trailer at that link for a jarring thrill—the lack of subtitles won't matter.) A Serbian Film is up a whopping 605% this week on the IMDb, if that's any timely indicator of its quality and/or appeal.

The Week in WFMU: 7/19 - 7/25

.Unrest, who have reunited for Teenbeat Records' 26th Anniversary tour, will be playing a live set on Brian Turner's program this Tuesday, 7/20, from 3 to 6 PM. The integral and beloved late-'80s-early-'90s indie rock band were, by all accounts, amazing earlier this month at Maxwells and the Bell House -- hear them on FMU if you missed those excellent shows, or again.

 

.

Seven Second Delay is back at the Upright Citizens Brigade theater for another live engagement. Ken and Andy's guests will include master drummer Sam Ulano, musical invention expert Bradford Reed of King Missile, and speed-eating champion Crazy Legs Conti. (Attendees are encouraged to bring a small, wrapped food item for Crazy Legs to eat.) Admission is $5. Wednesday, 7/21, from 6 to 7 PM.

.

Afterward on Wednesday, Do or DIY will host Osymyso, the UK-based DJ and innovator in bastard pop. Here is an interview with Osymyso about his work; here you can listen to and share many of his tracks. Learn much more on Do or DIY with People Like Us, Wednesday 7/21, from 7 to 8 PM.

.

Michael Shelley interviews Otis Williams of the Temptations, Saturday morning 7/24 from 11 AM to 1 PM. Listen as Williams talks with Michael about his life since co-founding the Temptations in 1960, being at the heart of Motown and one of the most successful acts in black music of all time.

.

Terre T. is welcoming TWO great bands to the Cherry Blossom Clinic later on Saturday. Tune in to hear the UK's Jim Jones Revue (pictured), whose Little Richard-y rock Aquarium Drunkard called "a raw, primordial romp through the annals of American soul, country, R&B, and gospel"... and the Ettes from Tennessee, a wonderful garage trio heavily influenced by '60s beat, early punk, Billy Childish, and fuzz pedals. 7/24, 3 to 6 PM.

.

And Saturday night, Rob Weisberg treats us to a bonanza of cumbia music, featuring Chancha via Circuito, El Remolon, and Tremor -- three of the finest Argentinian artists involved with the cumbia revival club/record label Zizek (ZZK Records). He'll also have a live set from Chico Trujillo (pictured), the raucous nine-piece cumbia band from Chile who are celebrating their U.S. debut Chico de Oro on Barbes records. On Transpacific Sound Paradise, July 24th from 6 to 9 PM.

.

Special events that already passed can be accessed via the WFMU archives.

***

Joe Belock did a fill-in last Friday and had Muck and the Mires on, who are always fun. Here you can listen to part of their set and then Muck's gossip session with Joe, which I enjoyed for its warmth and joviality. Good times.

DROPZ DROPS DROPZ11 & THA KING A POP JUNE 25TH

 ...was the subject line of the most poorly written PR email blast I've ever received.  If I may quote,

“Michael wrote some songs about other people, so I was thinkin‘why don’t someone write a song about Michael?’ He’s the king a pop. So that’s why I called it “Tha King A Pop” If you can write a biography in a 5 minute song…then do it. So I did it. Like ‘If I could be like Mike’ the other MJ…Michael Jordan & Nike.  Their motto is ‘Just Do It’. So if there’s a job to be done and nobody else is doin’ it…then just do it. So I did it,” says Dropz."

His Myspace page is more hilarious and very confusing.  Why does he have over five million listens but under five thousand page hits?  If I may quote from that...

Wherever DropZ iz that IZ tha scene Im tha face on tha full moon eclipzin sonz a bitchez Im whateva U thinkin & Im your innocent conscience What U get iz what U see until proven guilty Ima playa luvaz bezt friend & a hataz worzt nightmare Tha lazt club hatin DropZ kicked me out Nex month they rubble on tha ground & thatz tha factz I can shout Listen 2 tha wordz I say & U WILL have a HAPPY DAY! Luv iz all it iz---DropZ.

But the real winner is his music video "Tha King A Pop", which is the below tribute to Michael Jackson.  A friend made the remix to the right.  We're all obsessed with this song.  I can't stop singing it.  I replace the word "Michael" with "Oscar", my cat's name, and sing it to my cat while holding him and spinning around.  This song is infiltrating the minds of so many people I know and doing terrible things to all of us.  Dropz is a total outsider.  I also played this song for a really long time on my last radio show.  The full text of the promo email that started it all is below in this post...