WFMU's Beware of the Blog

John Hodgman, Kurt Vile and MORE live on the Best Show tonight!

Don't miss out on the Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling tonight (9pm-midnight EST): special guests include comedian John Hodgman, and musicians Kurt Vile, Carl Newman (of the New Pornographers), and Ted Leo! Amazing giveaways and more surprises are in store for Tom's second and final 2011 WFMU Marathon show!

We'll be hosting a live video stream at wfmu.org so you won't miss out on any of tonight's mirth or mayhem.

Here are just a few of the fabulous prizes that Tom will be giving away tonight:

A single and LP signed by CONAN O'BRIEN

A signed test pressing of the new KURT VILE LP

Signed CHRIS ELLIOTT BOOKS, including a VERY RARE COPY of Daddy's Boy also SIGNED BY BOB ELLIOTT!!

A super rare DEAD WEATHER TEST PRESSING worth hundreds of dollars!

A copy of I AM AMERICA that is SIGNED BY STEPHEN COLBERT

A rare GEORGE HARRISON POSTER

An LCD SOUNDSYSTEM SINGLES PACK

A signed copy of OUR BODIES, OUR JUNK

DVDs signed by director ADAM McKAY

And for the person who pledges the most over the two weeks DURING The Best Show, there's an amazing work of art created by STEVE LAMBERT. You can check it out here.

Right now the highest pledge is 1000 bucks, and this thing is worth a few thousand easy!

Tune in tonight and don't forget to pledge!

Chewbaccus Parade/Prosperity/Got arrested at the Mardi Gras for jumping on a float

Chewbacchus claims to be a "Carnival Krewe for the most revelrous of Star Wars Freaks, Trekkies, Whovianns, Mega-Geeks, Circuit Benders, Cryptozooligists, UFO Conspiracy Theorists, and all the rest of Super Nerdom."- About.com

Video provided by our friend Ali -

Turkmenian Shredding from 1960's

A bit more of an acoustic/acrobatic take on the Rhys Chatham/Glenn Branca guitar orchestras? Amazing footage, thanks to John Nielson for sharing!

Mariah Robertson

 

International Remakes of English Language Songs (MP3's)

Today, thanks to my wonderful friend Stu, and to my wonderful mother, I have a collection of records of (primarily) American songs done by performers from around the world.

Nearly a year ago, Stu gave me the great gift of a stack of 7 inch records from around the world, picked up at some record store or thrift shop in Chicago. What they have in common is that they each contain at least one song which would be familiar to music fans in the USA (well, during the '50's and '60's, anyway).

First up is Freddy, apparently a well known German singer, with versions of two American hits from 1955-56, Sixteen Tons & Memories Are Made of This. Perhaps someone who speaks German can confirm my suspicion that these are not translations, but instead are complete rewrites, to the original tunes, but with new subject matter.

1.)  Freddy - Sie Hiess Mary-Ann  (Sixteen Tons) (MP3)
2.)  Freddy - Heimweh (Memories Are Made of This) (MP3)
Freddy A Side (JPG) - Freddy B Side (JPG)

The next record, recorded in Belgium by Dutch singer Hans Boekhout, doesn't actually feature an American song, but it clearly would not have been made if not for the fact that Elvis had a worldwide hit (well, outside of the US, anyway) in 1961 with a rewritten version of the German song Muss I Den. Although this is not the version Elvis' recorded (with the lyrics "Wooden Heart"), the arrangement is nearly identical to that of the Presley record. The flip side is actually my favorite of the two by far, although I've no idea what he's singing about.

3.) Hans Boekhout - Muss I Denn (MP3)
4.)  Hans Boekhout - Boem Laddi Boem Boem (MP3)
Hans A Side (JPG) - Hans B Side (JPG)

The third record that was part of this gift is a 33 1/3 EP. Nearly everything written on this record label is in Japanese, aside from the record company information and the names of two songs, one in English (Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport - I know, not an American record, but still, a major hit here) and one in French (Non, Monsieur). But with a bit of digging, I've determined that this record is by a Japanese duo called The Peanuts, who were actually written about on this site several years ago. I was not, however, able to determine the names of the two songs on side one of this EP.

5.) The Peanuts - Unknown Track 1 (MP3)
6.) The Peanuts - Unknown Track 2 (MP3)
7.) The Peanuts - Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport (MP3)
8.) The Peanuts – Non, Monsieur (MP3)
The Peanuts EP A Side (JPG) - The Peanuts EP B Side (JPG)

And finally, a surprise offering from my mom. These tracks may be very familiar to some, or may be as complete a mystery to everyone else as they are to me. I am slowly plowing through a project of listening to my mother's hundreds and hundreds of cassette tapes, which contain everything from her voice lessons, to opera recordings to broadcasts of British Radio Quiz Shows, to performances I took part in while in school, as well as her own live performances and so much more.

At the end of one tape were these five songs, labeled "Chinese Songs". In reality, four of the five are pop songs from the first half of the 1950's, including the fairly obscure "Where Will the Dimple Be?", the original of which featured a hero of mine, Thurl Ravenscroft.  The one track which is not an American pop song (the second track below) is a melody which is very familiar to me - presumably a Chinese song - but I don't know its title. I know nothing more about these recordings. Sorry about the poor sound quality - I've cleaned them up some, but they were recorded very poorly on the tape.

9.) Unknown Chinese Group - Jambalaya (MP3)
10.) Unknown Chinese Group - Unknown (MP3)
11.) Unknown Chinese Group - Where Will the Dimple Be? (MP3)
12.) Unknown Chinese Group - Sixteen Tons (MP3)
13.) Unknown Chinese Group - Mambo Rock (MP3)

Bob

Scatman Crothers (and the missing three songs)

  Today a few words about a rare 'celebrity' album that is actually good. No surprise really, because it comes from musician-actor Benjamin Sherman 'Scatman' Crothers.  Crothers started entertaining by playing drums, guitar and piano (as well as ukulele) in the 1930's and '40's, moved on to acting in films and even leant his voice to everything from Saturday-morning kid's cartoons to Ralph Bakshi's Coonskin.

  I had wanted to put this whole lp online a year ago or so, but then it came out on CD combined with other tracks of his and I put it aside as a post idea. The re-release unfortunately left off some cuts from the original record Rock and Roll with Scatman, on Tops records (home of the infamous DJ favorite If the Bomb Falls), and now, even though my copy isn't in the greatest shape (I prefer to call ones like this 'well-loved') I want to play you the three cuts that I believe are missing from the re-release, and that, due to the overall good quality of the record, should be heard a little more. I've enjoyed this one for years and years, particularly the lead-off cut of 'Ghost Riders in the Sky', which invites frequent DJing with its unusual take on the song.

  A friend of Jack Nicholson for years, Crothers appeared in four movies with him, culminating in The Shining, one of the best thrillers ever.  Imagine the amusing jams they must have had at Jack's pad (at least in my mind). Anyhoo, this record doesn't so much rock with Scatman as it instead Swings Really Hard, which is just as good or better in my book. His backing is first-rate, and in particular note the lovely soft-beater tom work by either Milt Holland or Jack Sperling on the moving version of St. James Infirmary. These three songs are some of the slower/softer cuts on the lp and I can see how they got left off of the reissue in favor of the more uptempo numbers. I hope you enjoy 'em, and if so definitely look into getting the rest of the album, really a very fun jazz record from the 1950's.

Baby Won't You Please Come Home

September Song

St. James Infirmary

 

 

Yo La Tengo All Request Marathon: Setlist From Last Night

A big thanks to everyone who pledged during Yo La Tengo's live covers-for-pledges 'thon tradition last nite, and to NJ's finest for kickin' out the jams, and to our hosts, engineers, phone room volunteers, videographers, and everyone who helped make this annual WFMU Marathon tradition possible! Listeners were playing Name That Tune on twitter using the #wfmuthon hashtag, and below here's a full setlist compiled by listener Ken Katkin (Trash Flow Radio) -- thanks for sharing Ken!

 The 2011 Fundraising Marathon runs through March 13th and we still have a week's worth of prizes, premiums, and special events, so stay tuned!

Yo La Tengo - WFMU All Request Marathon
March 4, 2011

Beatles - Here Comes The Sun (George Harrison) (dedicated to people in Wisconsin)
Al Green - Love & Happiness (inaudible vocals by Georgia)
Friend and Lover - Reach Out In The Darkness
Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers - A Plea For Tenderness (my request)
Ten Years After - I'm Going Home

The Band - The Weight
Alex Chilton - Hey, Little Child
Yo La Tengo - Decora
Patti Smith/Bruce Springsteen - Because The Night
MC5 - Kick Out The Jams

Bob Dylan - Love Minus Zero/Like A Rolling Stone (medley)
Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers - Astral Plane
The Twinkeyz - Aliens In Our Midst
The Clean - Drawing to a Whole
Hot Chocolate - Brother Louie
Velvet Underground - I'm Sticking With You

Bee Gees - To Love Somebody
Unholy Modal Rounders (Michael Hurley) - The Slurf Song
Rolling Stones - The Spider and the Fly
Rolling Stones - Monkey Man
The Fall - Totally Wired

The Crew Cuts - Sh-Boom (Life Could Be A Dream)
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You (Gaylord Fields on vocals)
Lou Reed - Vicious
Steve Miller Band - Rock'n Me
Beatles - We Can Work It Out
Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl
MSFB (William DeVaughn) / Arthur Lee & Love - Be Thankful For What You Got

Cheap Trick - He's A Whore
Jim Croce - Bad Bad Leroy Brown
Dictators - Stay With Me
The Who - Happy Jack

The Association - Never My Love
Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talking At Me (Midnight Cowboy)
Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers - Government Center

Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows (medley)
Vibrolux?
Lou Christie - Lightning Strikes
Neil Young - Cowgirl In The Sand
Roberta Flack (Charles Fox & Norman Gimbel) - Killing Me Softly With His Song
Neil Young - Powderfinger
Rolling Stones - She's A Rainbow
????
Foreigner - Feels Like the First Time
Hall & Oates - Rich Girl
Yo La Tengo - Magnet
Heart - Magic Man
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Bee Gees - How Deep Is Your Love
Television - Venus de Milo
Fugs (Tuli Kupferberg) - Nothing (WFMU Version)
Velvet Underground - The Gift
Kinks - When I Turn Off The Living Room Light

Highlights IMHO: Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You (Gaylord Fields on vocals), Cheap Trick - He's A Whore, The Twinkeyz - Aliens In Our Midst, Patti Smith/Bruce Springsteen - Because The Night, The Fall - Totally Wired, Patti Smith/Bruce Springsteen - Because The Night.

Posted by: Ken Katkin | March 05, 2011 at 12:57 AM

Bhob Rainey, curator of online musics

The following comes to us from our friend Bhob Rainey:

As much as I enjoy records and even CDs, SACDs, and the like, I’m pretty damn happy that so much music can be streamed and downloaded in high- or very-close-to-high-quality digital formats. Sites like Bandcamp and SoundCloud have allowed a great deal of interesting music to live and propagate on the internet at no cost to artists of all stripes. And it bears mentioning that these sites and their embeddable players are far more pleasant to use and look at than some of their predecessors.

The problem with the Bandcamp and SoundCloud models (and a great deal of the expiring Web 2.0 revolution), however, is that empowering individual artists comes at the expense of the power of curation – the kind of curation traditionally done by record labels, independent record stores, and local radio stations.  We see a natural response to this gap from individuals who post music on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc., because, after all, given media to share, we humans share media. But we are still left with a growing set of endpoints – you reach an artist’s Bandcamp, blog, SoundCloud page, etc., and your path to the next artist starts back at Google or whatever online tastemaker got you clicking – leaving many artists’ pages dangling in rarely-traveled airspace.

In a short time, this will change. I have no doubt that platforms and incentives for curation will better map the experience of online media exploration. In the meantime, I wanted to start gathering URLs for streamable, downloadable, experimental (to use a broad, if inaccurate term) music and put those in one place. I put out requests on Twitter and Facebook and received quite a few URLs from people that I previously knew nothing about. For now, I’m listing them here, basically in the order they appeared. I’m sure there are many more out there, and I’m hoping that people will add them to the comments section of this post.  And I’m sure the artists would appreciate positive comments from people discovering their music for the first time.

Let the list begin.

 

DJ Handi's Archive Picks Of The Week: Handi's Gotta Have It

Early this month, I wrote about discovering my unplayed music through WFMU. This week the shows were exceptional, and my budget busted.

Brian Turner played Mama Bea Tekielski, comparing it to Patti Smith and Catherine Ribeiro. Tekielski's throat driven thorny mania, for me, invokes Diamanda Galas--whose catalogue I was searching until Brian announced "Priau" was Mama Bea. I don't even know what language Tekielski sings in,  and that's adventitious--experience her singing like a free jazz saxophone: pure sound.

You figure this out!  Terre T, on Cherry Blossom Clinic, played "Privelige" by Smith, Scott Williams played Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes , and Hot Rod "The Desert" by Galas. I can't decide, thinking of the exorbitant coin I dropped on the Tekielski album. 

ooioo sound like none of the above, but their new album is  Armonico Heva. Scott played "Uda Huh," then making the familiar fresh, segued into The Chrystal's "And 'Then He Kissed Me"

Nice start to the week,  which ended as well when Billy Jam  played "Salloque"  from My Main Shitstain by Paris Suit Yourself on Put The Needle On The Record. I put the mouse on the pricetag and clicked. I wonder if Serge Gainsbourg, if alive, would do material like "Siloque." Listen to Hatch in 2009 playing "Melody," from Gainsbourg's 1971  Historire De Melody Nelson. The connection is undeniable.

Am I over-imagining in French, or does Paris Suit Yourself reference a second source. Listen to the growl of the narrator in Jean Luc-Godard's 1965 film, Alphaville. 

  .

Enough film. More about the expensive but heavenly bottomless music pit:. Singer Andy Pratt put out  Records Are Like Life.in 1969. Get a Real Player to hear how John Allen played Pratt's title track in 2008 next to Duncan Browne. Pratt sings "Goin' out, and I buy more records."  DJ Shadow sampled this line in 2006 on Funky Skunk, and Shadow has 60,000 records.

John says Records Are Like Life  is Pratt's best. I agree: while most singer-songwriters--if you like genre label trash--were inspired by Tin Pan Alley, Pratt had lightening cadences akin to John Coltrane's Giant Steps, played by Charley Lewis, also in Real Audio .

Collectors covet, glancing over each others shoulders. Comment: What did you pick up this week?

WFMU and Terre T profiled on KDAR TV!

A new web TV show called KDAR TV just posted a profile of WFMU, featuring interviews with Station Manager Ken and DJ Terre T of the Cherry Blossom Clinic. Check it out!

KDAR - Episode 1 from KDAR on Vimeo.

In case you didn't feel like showing up - Volume 3

Recapping February

Reverend Billy Hawks WFMU Miracle Soap

You thought you couldn't get any cleaner, BUT THINK AGAIN! Reverend Billy, of The Church of Life After Shopping, works himself into a FREEFORM FAITH LATHER. And for a minimum pledge of $15, YOU CAN TOO! Call 1-800-989-9368, or pledge online and contribute to WFMU's 2011 Marathon. Scrub yourself on us!

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 106

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

WFMU, the non-commercial community radio station that hosts Beware of the blog, is smack dab in the middle of its annual two-week fund-raising marathon. Despite the economy remaining in the crapper, WFMU continues to thrive and evolve—purely on the strength of listener/reader contributions.

If you haven't yet made a donation to WFMU, tear yourself away from the magnificent offerings in this week's Motherlode to send WFMU ten measly bucks. Or fifty.

Despite being personally unemployed for two years now (I got laid off during WFMU's 2009 marathon) I've dutifully pumped out these Mining the Audio Motherlodes virtually every week simply because sharing music is an honorable and deeply pleasurable thing to do. So now I ask you to do me the honor and pleasure of making a contribution of any amount to keep WFMU, Beware of the Blog, and Mining the Audio Motherlode hale and hearty for the rest of 2011. 

Regular Motherlode visitors please note that a $75 pledge to WFMU will automatically get you a copy of Love Your Motherlode, Again, a full-length CD presenting the most wonderful tracks from my favorite album presented in the past 12 months of Mining the Audio Motherlode. (Just go to WFMU's marathon page, and be sure to check off "Doug Schulkind's Love Your Motherlode, Volume 2" when you make your pledge."

Plus: You can be the first person on your block to "adopt" the iconic Miner.

Give a little something...

 

Asiko Rock Group  ~  "Asiko Rock Group"
(Blog: ID Reverberations)

Lagos Inferno
"Loud, demented, afro-funk from Nigeria."
(Cassandra, from ID Reverberations)

"Loud, demented, afro-funk from Nigeria"? Are you trying to kill me with excitement? Are you trying to make me explode? Yes!! You are.
(Peskypesky, commenting at ID Reverberations)

 

Charlie Nothing  ~  "The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing"
(Blog: Magic of Juju)

Being and Nothing
"Do NOT download this if you are musically timid, on medication (the prescribed kind, that is), or have a severe case of tinitis, or your ears may begin to leak copious amounts of fluid. Apparently Mr. Nothing dropped some blotters just before this recording was made for the Takoma label (C-1015) back in 1967. There, you have been warned. Enjoy!"
(Rugrat at Basement Rug)

Various  ~  "Cumbias et Tamboritos du Panama"
(Blog: Listen to Your Ears)

Idiom Savants
"Panamanian music is among the most exciting in the whole Afro-Latin area. On the Afro end are the voices-and-drums tamboritos, sung and played superbly here by groups of young women. The fiddle-and-percussion cumbia and guitar-backed mejorana are both real Creole idioms, whose Spanish and African elements are both crucial. Then there's the carnival music of the diablitos, and oddest of all, the howling gritos of the midnight hours. This is the real thing, taped before the tradition began to fade. It is also the only album devoted to this wonderful idiom, and capped by a charming piece of Choco Indian flute playing.."
(John Storm Roberts, in the liner notes to Street Music of Panama, reissued by Original Music)

The Politicians  ~  "Psycha-Soula-Funkadelic"
(Blog: Hard…Raw…Deep…Funk)

Barack HUSSEIN Obama, Tea Party motherfuckers
"This is pure, unadulterated hard heavy funk in the style of early Funkadelic, early Ohio Players and those sadly underrated soul bands out of the Invictus stable (100 Proof Aged in Soul, Flaming Ember). The Politicians were in fact the Invictus house band and trombonist McKinley Jackson was in practice its head. This album, originally released under the title "The Politicians featuring McKinley Jackson" in 1972, came into being after Jackson's contact with Funkadelic—he can be heard on Funkadelic's 1971 tune "Back in Our Minds." Impressed with George Clinton's entire Thang, he wrote and recorded "Psycha-Soula-Funkadelic," a heavy funk track washed in psychedelic gimmicks."
(Wino, at Electric Mud)

 

Eugene McDaniels  ~  "Outlaw"
(Blog: You Can Get With DISS...)

La Luh Luh La La, La Luh Luh Luh Luh Luh La La, La La La La La La La La, La La La La La La La La, Smoke a Joint
"'Like many other Americans of the era, something happened to Eugene McDaniels between 1965 and 1970 that transformed him from Gene McDaniels to "Eugene McDaniels the Left Rev. Mc D". The former Mr. McDaniels was a clean-cut soul singer in the mold of Jackie Wilson that enjoyed minor commercial success in the early '60s with songs like "A Hundred Pounds of Clay" and "Tower of Strength"; the reinvented Reverend posited himself as a fervent voice of protest, recording a pair of now-classic records for Atlantic in 1970 and 1971. But where many other artists dabbled in the counterculture to explore different ways of presenting their image or to take advantage of looser codes of moral conduct, McDaniels fully embraced the movement's radical politics -- so much so that then-Vice President Spiro Agnew allegedly called Atlantic to issue a verbal cease-and-desist order upon the release of his second record (Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse) for the label.
(Scott Hreha, at PopMatters)

 

 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

 

WFMU On Network Awesome!

Thanks to Network Awesome for spotlighting WFMU and our Marathon!!  Be sure to check them out every day for all your TV viewing needs!  It's were all your favorite TV shows are available anytime.

Link

Cozy Powell plays 400 drums in one minute

Via Andee Connors:

Tonight on The Best Show: Carl Newman and Ted Leo

Don't miss The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling tonight (9pm-mid) -- special guests include Carl Newman of the New Pornographers and Ted Leo!

The show is a WFMU Marathon special, and we'll be taking pledges online or over the phone at 800-989-9368.

Plus, we'll host a live video stream at wfmu.org so you can watch the phone room bedlam and on-air throwdown from home. Don't miss out!

Split: A Conversation with Tony McPhee

The world is not a fair place. If it were, Tony McPhee and the Groundhogs would be championed across the board as the purveyors of some of the greatest classic-boogie rock of all time. There is no song that rocks harder than "Strange Town." Seriously, listen to this! Packed with stellar riffs, great lyrics, and awesome grooves, Split, Thank Christ For The Bomb, and Who Will Save The World? amongst many of their others stand as titans of rock'n'roll. This music will kick your ass and leave you crawling back for more.

I was delighted to interview Tony McPhee via e-mail about a week or so ago. Check it out after the jump!