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In a round about way, Boyd Rice has led a charmed life. But in a lot of ways, maybe not always a charming one. He's been called a Nazi, a Fascist, a Social Darwinist, a Satanist, a misogynist, a misanthropist, an abusive alcoholic, and in no uncertain terms, an asshole. He's been appointed to high ranks while also harboring a strong friendship with Church of Satan founder Anton La Vey, and he's visited Charles Manson on a daily basis at one point in the 80s, also rallying, if only symbolically, for the lifer's release from time to time. Christian Radio Televangelist Bob Larson interviewed Rice in the early 90s, where he faced the mother of Sharon Tate in favor of Manson and Satanism.
He's got an ex, Lisa Carver, the mother of his child, that wrote a book where nearly half of it portrays him in a, let's just say, a highly unfavorable manner. Earlier in his career, he encountered a fair amount of protest, especially regarding his collaborations with the neofolk band, Death In June, whose lyrics and art allude to Nazi imagery. Rice has appeared in a teen magazine with a member of the American Front and on a racist television program called Race and Reason. Some of his recorded material employs ideas akin to Social Darwinism, and even in some cases, he describes people in general as a “stupid, lifeless, shuffling horde”. An album called Hatesville details a fun loving kind of sadistic mind state, a single by his one-off side project The Tards mocks the less fortunate, and a song called Alone With The Calm describes a peaceful place away from disruptive noise and “unruly niggers”. Some of his writing, even if, perhaps in jest, portrays women as a species of people who are only in power because a man allowed them to be. And in the face of a world oozing with political correctness, disillusioned by American culture's omnipresent lip service to equality and diversity, as well as a pervasive onslought of “professional victims”, as Adam Parfrey put it, Boyd Rice refrained, more or less, from apologizing or explaining himself in any kind of empathetic manner. To be fair, he has casually mentioned that he would prefer to hang out with a dominant black person than a dull one of any race, and when he describes fascism, he speaks of it as if it is something that happens in nature, not something that needs to be enforced by a group of idealists. Rice, at one point,said that women are often too emotional (to say the least), but he also said that, like people in general, he gets along well with plenty of women who stand apart from the rest. And further, all of the aforementioned has happened over 15 years ago, some of these views have clearly morphed over time. Still, it might seem like this is an introduction to a brooding sociopath on the surface; surely a person who is brutally honest, for good or ill. But speaking to him on the phone, both on and off the record, he's a soft spoken gentleman with a strong sense of humor. Almost every account of meeting him comes with a resounding: "He's the nicest guyyou couldever meet.". Where most people see two sides to every coin, Boyd seems to see 3, 4, or 5, and overall, it is because of making this observation that I decided to write a letter to Boyd Rice, asking him to grant me an interviewon my radio show close to 5 years after his last one, and more than a few years after his proclamation that he would no longer grant interviews outside of personal inquiries.
Even for veteran music-blog spelunkers like your amiable Miner (left), extracting all the riches out of the sonic substrata can be a daunting challenge. Just keeping up with the hundreds of long-sought rarities and brand-new revelations posted each week is virtually impossible. Add to that the steady wave of new sites entering the subterranean soiree on a daily basis and this scavenging for free music obsession can become overwhelming overnight.
But that's really not the half of it. Many dozens of essential blogs have been sharing music for years now, and their copious archived pages are packed with old posts featuring must-have albums—that are still downloadable! So not only do you have to ride each wave of new posts, you've got to plunge down into the murky deep. (Not to mention dodge the mixed metaphors.)
The lead-off item in this week's Motherlode represents an entirely different category of buried pleasure: An ancient post (in this case over three years old) at a dormant blog—Pharaoh's Dance—with still active download links. Crikey! It's like you have to be some time-traveling virtual Jules Verne trawling 20,000 leagues under the Internet. Maybe it really is time to give up.
No worries, though. Part-Ahab, part-Nemo, your faithful Miner will never abandon the pursuit.
Lofty Jazz "From the harmonic invention of Big Father to the meditative melodic/textural duet journey of the title track, I cannot stop listening to this one. I am continuously amazed by the stylistic versatility of Richard Davis who is absolutely baffling on this record." (Comment by Downlowsoul, at Pharaoh's Dance)
Igbonanza "The vocal stylings of Rose Nzuruike (above) were what made Nwanyi Ma Obi Diya stand out amid a torrent of similar releases during the '80s, and what sends Igbos, and especially Owerri indigenes, into a swoon. Which is not to short-change the talents of the group itself (below) and especially its leader, Madam Maria Anokwuru. Released on an obscure Onitsha record label, it became one of the biggest-selling Igbo records of all time." (This is just the opening paragraph of a longer description by John B. at the magnificent Likembe)
Old Is the New Black "A great collection of field recordings made by Tom Carter and Blanton Owen in 1976, who went to the Blue Ridge Mountains in search of old-time musicians. The selections are mostly fiddle or banjo (and sometimes the two together) but there's also some fife and drum music, harmonica, autoharp, and some really nice old-time piano (the best I heard since Hobart Smith). Lovers of real and authentic old-time music should enjoy this two records very much." (Gadaya, at Times Ain't Like They Used to Be)
[FYI: Times Ain't Like They Used to Be is no longer active, but its proprietor has started another fantastic blog called Cornbread, Molasses & Sassafras Tea.]
Bangkollywood "Chatri is crazy! He was a luk thung singer from Chon Buri who, at some point in his career, became enamored with Indian film music, and created this fantastic album, based largely on that sound. Since him there have been several other singers who have developed a penchant for filmi, but at the time Chatri was in a league of his own and his songs have been the backbone of the ลูกทุ่งทำนองอินเดีย (luk thung tham nong india) style. As far as I can tell all these melodies are original (rather than just Indian tunes with Thai lyrics. Please tell me if you know otherwise!)." (Peter, at Monrakplengthai)
Family Réunion "The maloya style originated in the cane fields of Réunion during the slave days. At that time the island was called Île Bourbon. The word “maloya” from the Malagasy maloy aho, which roughly means “say what you gotta say.” It follows then the singing maloya songs was a way for cane harvest slaves to express themselves and speak their story. Maloya music is characterized by its prominent percussion and passionate, repetitive lyrics." (Matt Yanchyshyn, at Benn Loxo du Taccu)
On May 2, 1972 a fire of undetermined origin swept through the nation's richest silver mine, the Sunshine Mine, located a few miles southeast of Kellogg, Idaho, resulting in the worst mining tragedy in the history of the state. The disaster claimed 91 lives, all of whom died from smoke inhalation or carbon monoxide poisoning.
If there's anything that brings this divserse nation together, it's sitting bored in a room paying half-attention to the first 30 seconds of pixellated video clips. I actually found out about these amazing videos while meandering around Bushwick, Brooklyn with a friend on a sunny day. Across the street from the music venue Goodbye Blue Monday we found this amazing West African restaurant. Dunno, the okra had that mucously texture that okra can have. Pretty alright.
BUT they were playing all these amazing new Coupé-Décalé (a style of dance music originating from the Ivory Coast) videos playing from a computer on a big screen TV...shoot, what's that open source video player that MIT released called again? I wrote down all the names I could and got myself into one hell of an E-K-hole! Surprisingly enough, it seems like most of these musicians haven't been played at all on WFMU yet. Here are a couple of my favorites...I'd advise clicking on the related videos and drinking coffee until you get the jitters.
On Too Much Information, Benjamen Walker welcomes Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, author of the new graphic novel Paying For It. In the book, Brown chronicles his "use" of prostitutes in Toronto after going three years without sex. Listen to the conversation on 5/16 from 6 to 7 PM.
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Late Monday night, Julie interviews New Wave legend Toyah Willcox on the eve of her birthday -- for her first solo U.S. interview in 20 years. They will talk about Toyah's acting career, working with Katharine Hepburn; her husband of 25 years, Robert Fripp; and the upcoming tour "Sheep Farming to Anthem," which celebrates the 30th anniversary of her breakout album "Anthem." It happens 5/17 on Dark Night of the Soul, from 3 to 6 AM.
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On his show, Marty McSorley features a live set from Gamelatron -- the project started by artist Taylor Kuffner, aka Zemi17, who created a 117-piece gamelan and an army of robot slaves to play it. "Tune in and get friendly with the robots," says Marty, "before they take over the world." Tuesday morning 5/17, from 6 to 9 AM (web-only).
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Author and political activist Stephen Duncombe, who teaches history and politics of media at NYU's Gallatin School, will be the special guest on Thunk Tank Tuesday night. He'll chat with Bronwyn and Jay about protest, propaganda, Putin, and the Apostle Paul... and probably also about his new book Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy. Hear them 5/17, from 7 to 8 PM.
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Ken and Andy return to the UCB Theater in Manhattan for another live Seven Second Delay broadcast! Guests this week include legendary comedy writer Buck Henry (l.), Village Voice editor and scientology expert Tony Ortega, and live music from the Wingdale Community Singers (including Rick Moody, Hannah Marcus and David Grubbs). Plus, there will be a mystery bonus guest who will be visible only to people in the Theater! Come watch, or listen on the radio, 5/18 from 6 to 7 PM. Admission $5.
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Dallas's True Widow join Meghan Thursday morning on Underwater Theme Park. The self-described "stonegaze" trio are in town with their new album, As High as the Highest Heavens and from the Center to the Circumference of the Earth (cover at right) -- their live set will feature sleepy vocals over loud, chunking rock. Listen on 5/19 from 6 to 9 AM (web-only).
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Joe Belock brings Birds Of Avalon back to Three Chord Monte this week for their third appearance. Tune in for another incredible live set from this transcendent rock band -- "psychedelic meets progressive" only begins to describe them. Thursday, 5/19, from noon to 3 PM.
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On Saturday, the Cherry Blossom Clinic explodes with a live set from White Mystery, who are touring through NYC with their new release "Blood and Venom." Miss Alex White, formerly of Miss Alex White & the Red Orchestra, rocks out on vocals and guitar while her brother plays drums -- catch them this week at Generation Records (5/18), Public Assembly (5/19), and Brooklyn Fireproof (5/21). And, of course, as Terre T's guests on 5/21 from 3 to 6 PM!
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There are so many special programs on WFMU this week that I barely have room for in this wee post, and that should excite you! Transpacific Sound Paradise will feature live sessions from Hadar Noiberg and Ndiaz; Jeff M brings both Rapoon and Promute onto Noise and Syrup for improvised sets; Keili beasts the airwaves with Brooklyn's Mammal of Paradise; Michael Shelley presents the World's Greatest Music Experts; Billy Jam continues his unflagging support of KUSF with another remote broadcast out of San Francisco. As ever, WFMU's Upcoming page has the whole story.
The great Sacramento CA label S.S. Recordscelebrates their 10th Anniversary this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with three shows in San Francisco (details).
"Over the last ten years, the label has built a reputation for discovering great unknown bands, finding hidden underground music scenes throughout the world, and digging up obscure and forgotten recordings." (-ssten.com)
It's true! In welcoming SS Records to the FMA, WFMU's Music Director hailed Mr. SS himself Scott Soriano's "full understanding of what made esoteric independent weirdo/garage/artpunk labels of the 80s and 90s so beloved." Soriano's been carrying on the torch not just through the label itself, but through a well-curated mailorder/distro and the essential Z-Gun print zine, which Brian calls "the greatest print-media gift to the scene since the halcion days of Forced Exposure" (-Brian Turner).
The SS 10th Anniversary shows include label staples like Nothing People, Charles Albright, Lamps, Wounded Lion, and Liquorball (memb Monoshock!), plus special guests like Hank IV and the Mantles, a Sunday afternoon record swap, and renion performances by Nar, feedtime (first & only North American appearance), and the A Frames' original lineup (feat Lars Finberg of The Intelligence, A Frames were the first band to be released on SS, and this is their last show ever!).
Last week NOizefest came around, a bit of an annual local weirdo fuck you to the commercial behemoth which is the New Orleans Jazzfest. Unlike Yankee counterparts such as Neon Marshmallow Fest or the Ende Tymes Festival, this is more of a free for all everyone make a racket whenever they feel like it. There is a very loose sign up sheet with suggested times, but I really didn't see anyone stick to it, or for that matter stop playing so someone else could.
Founded by the deceased Keith "Deacon Johnson" Moore, Michael Patrick Welch continues the tradition in his backyard. Not really sure what to expect, people had been telling me about it since the week we moved here. Borbetomagus' Donald Miller was going to perform, but the flu got the best of him. Famous inventor Mr. Quintron djed for a bit but packed up early.
My favorite was this nine year old kid that was really going for it... noise trumpets and noise percussion. I had a fun time talking to his mom, she was beaming. Check the video and some random pics. Oh, and my new friend Henry with his 6 panel Serge Modular hanging out in a dusty backyard. Yes.
JA: Yes, many. I’ll tell you about one, which is interesting. Orwell’s dictum, “He who controls the present controls the past, and he who controls the past controls the future,” was never truer than it is now. With digital archives, with these digital repositories of our intellectual record, control over the present allows one to perform an absolutely untraceable removal of the past. More than ever before, the past can be made to completely, utterly, and irrevocably disappear in an undetectable way.Orwell’s dictum came about as result of what happened in 1953 to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. That year, Stalin died and Beria fell out of favor. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia had a page and a half on Beria from before he fell out of favor, and it was decided that the positive description of Beria had to go. So, an addendum page was made and sent to all registered holders of this encyclopedia with instructions specifying that the previous page should be pasted over with the new page, which was an expanded section on the Bering Straight. However, users of the encyclopedia would later see that the page had been pasted over or ripped out—everyone became aware of the replacement or omission, and so we know about it today. That’s what Orwell was getting at. In 2008, one of the richest men in the UK, Nadhmi Auchi—an Iraqi who grew rich under one of Saddam Husain’s oil ministries and left to settle in the UK in the early 1980s—engaged in a series of libel threats against newspapers and blogs. He had been convicted of corruption in France in 2003 by the then magistrate Eva Joly in relation to the Elf Aquitaine scandal.
In the clip below, their devotion to the show inspires Howard to play a bit of The Beets' music, which reminds him of recordings he made in the 6th grade.
So then Howard Stern plays some of his own lofi recordings...and they're really awesome! One of the songs, "Psychedelic Bee," is an anti-drug song about addiction. The other is "Silver Nickles and Golden Dimes."
"My singing style is very much like The Beets," Howard acknowledges. He encourages The Beets to cover his music, too: "I don't approve of cover versions, but in this case I will."
I'm guessing that's only become Stern's covers policy after "Psychedelic Bee" was covered by Sugar Ray. I wonder if that was done with his approval though, because you don't need approval to cover a song as long as you pay the compulsory license... Anyway, some other clips of these two great songs, plus the ridiculously awful Sugar Ray version, after the jump!
Exactly a year ago, near the beginning of my "reel to reel catacombs" series, I shared a recording of a radio interview with the owners of The Ponderosa Sun Club Family Nudist Resort, Harvey and Irene Schmitt.
Today, a follow-up. This is a recording of the Ponderosa's sales-pitch-via-play, a somewhat legendary play from the 1930's, titled "Barely Proper". The Ponderosa had been putting on performances of this play, for potential resort members as well as for the curious, at least once a month, since early 1973, and this recording is from July of that year.
Obviously, it loses more than a bit of the impact in being heard and not seen, but it's still worth hearing for the humor of the piece, the audience reaction, as well as the performance style, which is either deliberate stodginess, or amateur incompetence.
The recording starts with a bit of housekeeping and program notes - I believe the speaker to be Harvey Schmitt - and the 45 minute play follows.
Here's a nifty early seven-inch single from Dan Gibson, of Solitudes fame. I think that a little surface noise is merely spice on a nature recording, after all. So here comes one spicy record of birds, wolves, frogs, birds and things.
For some reason, I've always found this little gem especially charming, right down to the nicely hand-lettered logo and artwork. These recordings may well have turned up on a Solitudes record, but I'd like to think that they were only presented on this single. So settle back and bask in the deep, echoing wilderness that is the sound of the great North Canadian woods.
“I thought jazz was much too tame.” -Dave Brubeck, 1961
Brubeck challenged jazz to take rhythmic risks and harmonic adventures. He reinvented the genre based on his signature style featuring polyrhythms, odd time signatures, and polytonality. It’s difficult to say whether Brubeck was predicting an inevitable evolution or whether the future of jazz evolved because of his innovations, but one thing Dave Brubeck could not possibly have predicted is the extent he would be long intertwined with jazz’s future.
Brubeck originally wanted to follow in his father’s career and become a cattle rancher. So in 1938, Brubeck enrolled in the College of the Pacific to study veterinary medicine. But providence, the teachings of his mother (a piano teacher), and geography stepped in when his zoology professor saw his mind was elsewhere and told him to “go across the lawn” to the conservatory the next year. Brubeck changed his major to music and immediately excelled, reaching the top of his class. He mastered composition, improvisation, performance of brass and reed instruments and until his senior year, successfully hid a secret from the entire music department - he couldn’t read a page of music. When the Dean found out, he threatened to prevent Brubeck from graduating. But after his teachers’ praise and defense of Brubeck’s musical abilities, the Dean allowed Brubeck to graduate with the stipulation that Brubeck promise never to teach music so not to “embarrass the school.”
It was this man, to whom sheet music was meaningless, and who was nearly barred from graduating music school, that introduced previously unheard time signatures, rhythms, and chords to jazz music. What Brubeck and the Dave Brubeck Quartet (featuring artists such as the famous Joe Morello on drums, Paul Desmond on alto sax, and Eugene Wright on bass) did was so innovative that many critics didn’t understand it. When using polyrhythmic techniques at a 1963 performance in Carnegie Hall, the quartet played a song where each member kept a different, individual tempo going for the whole song. The next day, a reviewer wrote, “The Brubeck Quartet can’t even keep time together.” What the critic couldn’t understand at the time was that the music was found in not trying to. Their polyrhythmic techniques involved playing multiple rhythms in a single piece of music. Joe Morello alone could play four different rhythms at once between his right and left feet and hands.
At the time he sat down with Ralph Gleason of Down Beat, Dave Brubeck explained that the Brubeck Quartet was the only jazz band he knew of that could play an entire concert without playing in 3/4/ or 4/4 time, the standard jazz signatures at the time. Drawing from their travels and cultural experiences abroad (including a 3-month State Department-funded tour of countries in the Middle East and behind the Iron Curtain in 1958), Brubeck borrowed from Turkish and African traditions and introduced songs in 9/8 (such as “Blue Rondo a la Turk”), 5/4 (such as the hit “Take Five”), and even 7/4 (as heard in “Unsquare Dance”). Always encouraging the band to invent their own time signatures, Brubeck wrote a piece in 10/4 and Desmond wrote another in 11/4 time for their album Countdown: Time in Outer Space (1962). Countdown, like the quartet’s earlier albums Time Out (1959) and Time Further Out (1961) reflect the band’s constant push to expand their understanding of musical time as the possibilities seem to get all-the-way-out-to-space larger. Brubeck told Gleason, “Now, the idea was that jazz used to challenge the public and make them think in terms more advanced rhythmically than they were used to thinking in.” Beyond rhythm, Dave Brubeck challenged the public’s ear with polytonality, or playing in multiple keys in a single piece of music. Brubeck himself can play in two key signatures between his right and left hands, and pushed for interplay between multiple key signatures across instruments. And unlike the critic at Carnegie Hall, the public appeared ready for all Brubeck’s musical challenges when Time Out became the first jazz record to go gold with over a million copies sold.
Brubeck was, in many ways, a visionary. He saw that jazz needed to take on adventure and that people too needed to take risks. In his time during WWII, Brubeck attempted to racially integrate the Third Army jazz orchestra amidst a segregated military. Brubeck anticipated change and protected what needed to stay. And lucky for us, Brubeck maintains that he is here to stay. At 91 years old, Dave Brubeck’s future of jazz is the world’s present. He continues to tour throughout the United States and create new musical compositions. Today, Brubeck has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, honorary doctorates from six U.S. universities, and two others from Nottingham University in England and the University of Duisburg in Germany. Brubeck’s alma matter, the University of the Pacific, has established The Brubeck Institute where contemporary music can continue to grow through experimentation and improvisation - a huge leap from the time Brubeck studied when he wasn’t allowed to play jazz in the University practice rooms. Brubeck has garnered a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for 50 years worth of contributions as a composer and pianist, along with a National Medal of the Arts presented at the White House from the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) and induction into the International Jazz Hall of Fame. As a celebration of Dave Brubeck’s 90th birthday, Turner Classic Movies released a documentary telling the story of Brubeck’s life and music. Created by Bruce Ricker and executive-produced by Clint Eastwood, the documentary, Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way, shows the pervasive impact Brubeck had on the entertainment industry with interviews with Sting, Yo-Yo Ma, George Lucas, and Bill Cosby. And as of 2001, the Brubeck Festival takes place annually in Stockton, California to celebrate Brubeck’s music and philosophical ideas through concerts, performances, and lectures. Dave Brubeck and the Dave Brubeck Quartet touch at the heart of good music, music that challenges itself, its listeners, entire genres, and even time itself.
Just when I begin to miss Small Change, back Nickel & Dime Radio comes with a late night dance party for the musically astute. He filled in for Bennett4Senate this week. Two sets stood out. One included "Break In The Road" by Betty Harris. The second surprised listeners with New Wave featuring "Money B" by the Flying Lizards, The Jam, and Pere Ubu. All DJs have their slant, but rarely slant too far to re-contextualize music that is not their primary show source.
"Tracy Hide." by the Wondermints was played by Bob Brianen next to Fairport Convention. "If I had the Wondermints in 1967," said Brian Wilson, "I would have taken Smile on the road." Wilson had a nervous breakdown before he could finish his answer to the Beatles Sgt. Pepper in 1967, but used the Wondermints to revive the project in 2004, finally issuing the most famous rock album that never was. I couldn't find these cuts in a recent archive, but here is a 1972 live performance by the Beach Boys of Smile's "Wonderful" also played by Bob.
Jeff M. ended Noise and Syrup with some white noise by Francisco López, followed by two concert pieces by Richard Lerman. You can play with the question sound or music, but anyone who has had their head in a pile of records since they could crawl knows: drop a wine glass or play "Stairway To Heaven," and you get the sound of music, the music of sound.
I'll bet two John Cage albums Nat Roe understands that these distinctions don't matter better than most musicheads. He spent the first half of his show mixing and mashing smooth jazz. I had the privilege of watching Nat work once, making new creations of his source material in real time.
But let's finish by blitzing listeners who like traditionally formatted songs: John Allen played an Annette Peacock cover of "Love Me Tender." Scott Williams played "Please Stay" by the Cryin' Shames. "Where Did My Duck Go" by Gary Wilson was played by Liz Berg. Miniature Minotaurs with Kurt Gottschalk featured "He's The One I Forgot." by the Royal Counts. Gaylord Fields played "This Is The Thanks I Get" by his "beloved Barbara Lynn." Less commentary means more archives, and occasionally it's best to shut up and let the music do the work.
This week, WFMU badboy Kenny G participated in the White House's Evening of Poetry and a daytime poetry workshop for students hosted by Michelle Obama. He wowed the crowd with talk of uncreative writing, bootlegging, the Brooklyn Bridge, and traffic reports!
Jon Stewart even took notice of Kenny's choice of eveningwear -- check out this hilarious dis on the Daily Show (it's about 1:09 into the show).
Video of Kenny at the daytime workshop is archived here (White House HD video, Kenny goes on around 44:06), or here (for a shorter edit, focusing on Kenny's portion, thanks Thelma Blitz).
Video of Kenny onstage at President Obama's Evening of Poetry is here (White House HD video, Kenny goes on around 8:50), or here (for an edit of Kenny's reading).
The first time I experienced Captain Ahab was also the first time I experienced Friends Forever, Animal Collective, ZS, Rose4Bodhan, Mr. Pacman and Rubber-O-Cement at this totally epic festival dubbed Neon Hates You. It was back in what I think was 2002 and ended up being was one of life changing epic events.
I honestly had only heard of like 2 bands on the bill and was just kinda along for the ride, but after being assaulted by a home made bass wielding alien fly in an animated cardboard world of sonic madness, then dodging flaming tennis balls thrown from guys paying synths in costumes stolen from the set of Power Rangers, trying to navigate the twists and turns of a militaristic flying V double jazz trio form hell, watching a dude with a dolphin on his head turn the venue into a ball pit and finally seeing 2 dudes in masks from Brooklyn in hold a room just by banging on some old pvc buckets and messing around with a broken guitar, this show without a doubt set my standard for what I want from musicians and performance artists, complete sensory overload, no matter your budget.
Suck in the middle of this was Captain Ahab. A dude with hair down to his ass that kinda looked more like he was headed to Ozfest than this DIY one. After apologizing for being sick he told us that he was going to have someone else dace for him that night. He proceeded to dive into hyper intelligent, angry as fuck, slightly homoerotic, electronic grooves that included covers of Avril Lavigne's Sk8r Boi and J-Lo's Jenny on the Block. We had no choice but to dance, and if you had the balls to front and pretend that you didn't want to be a part of this party, his dancing sidekick, looking like he was straight out of a Tom of Finland sketch, wrangled the jaded stranglers to the center of the floor to be harpooned by Ahab's mighty beats. I was in love.
Almost ten years later, a few world tours, a concept record written as a 14 year old girl, song placements in The Office and Snakes On A Plane, Captain Ahab is still going strong and is not afraid to attack his audience's senses from all sides, but he is no longer content with making genre bending dance music that has the power to unite all walks of life in sweaty shirtless harmony. Ahab wants to end all of our preconceived notions of what is good or bad, wipe the slate clean, and start taste all over again. He bought some friends along to help, and they have created a shadow puppet/video extravaganza to help usher everyone in to The End of Irony.
So with that. I'll get out of the way and let you aboard that ship that will I am pleased to present. Captain Ahab live on WFMU complete with integrated video and puppet show.
Kenny G, discussing the art of imitation, bootlegging, and copying and pasting during Michelle Obama's poetry workshop for students today. He'll take the stage tonight around 7:10pm for the White House's Evening of Poetry. Tune in at http://whitehouse.gov/live
The world's premier international chipmusic event event, the Blip Festival returns to NY May 19-21. WFMU will be there live streaming direct from Eyebeam to your home computer!
Produced by 8bitpeoples & The Tank, the Blip Festival celebrates the best and brightest from the realm of chipmusic and its related discilplines. This year, artists from all over the world will converge at Eyebeam, the leading not-for-profit art and technology center in the USA, for three days of arresting music and visual art utilizing former heavyweights of computing like the Commodore 64 and Amiga, the Atari ST and 2600, the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game Boy.
WFMU will once again be webcasting live from the Blip Festival! So if you’re not able to make it to Eyebeam in the flesh, you can surf on over to wfmu.org each night for the live stream, Accu-Playlist, photos and a realtime comments board. WFMU DJs Bennett4Senate, Marty McSorely, and Jason Sigal will be joined by special guest DJ XC3N from Montreal CISM | 89.3FM to host and DJ between sets both on the stream and in-person at Eyebeam.
I've always had a great personal affection for jazz records with really off-the-wall "WTF?" liner notes. Especially those graced with incomprehensible literary dribble written by the artists themselves. It's as if the soul-bearing act of making the music just wasn't quite soul-bearing enough. Take for instance this excerpt from a rant Charles Mingus delivers on the back of The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady:
"Musicians partly come into the circle of various blamewhich encompasses much more than leaky faucets, rotten washers,or critics. Wow! Critics! How did they get here? I know. It's Freudian. Faucets and old rotten washers."
Or, how about this poetical passage from "Sound Structure of Subculture Becoming Major Breath/Naked Fire Gesture," Cecil Taylor's essay accompanying Unit Structures:
"Facing down, the ground springs tired chains.Voices spring from the eye there, at corners-sleep.Hoarsness becomes rhetoric seasoned / as first distinct wordslacerate grim oppression reality behind vision tomb widowed enfeoffment jettisoned."
Enfeoffment? Really? Wow indeed. Of course, few examples of dust-jacket word-freak has ever unfurled with quite the audacious pomposity than King Pleasure's twisted muttering on Golden Days. Here is just a portion of what the good King has to say about the philosophy he calls "Planetism":
"My real name is Clarence Beeks. My professional name of"King Pleasure" is by selection as strange to meas the sudden "revelation" that occured to me in my sleepand woke me upright at the age of six in Oakdale, Tenn., my birthplace.The revelation was that I was the real saviour of humanity.And that I was a baby planet nucleus!" [For the complete text, read Liner Notes of the Gods from an early issue of WFMU's program guide LCD.]
The reason I'm musing about all this is that after already having selected Free as You Wanna Be by the Lightmen to be the lead-off item for this week's Motherlode, I took a closer look at the art for the back of the record and was knocked loopy by the liners. Click on the thumbnail (right) to read the whole thing, or read the excerpted blurb, below.
The Unbearable Lightness of Lightmen "All selections on this album swing but not in the traditional sense of the word "swing." Attention has been directed toward removal from the time barrier that ushered the creations of our jazz pioneers into existence as part of the revolutionary process of music. "Swing" portrayed by this ablum signifies the creative and emotional feelings of musicians who believe in their music. The "Apport" of Music—Or this operation of a seance are exhilarations of energy and moods which span the spectrum of imaginatiobs. Apports are objectives through which these are transformed. The dead will speak through the living. "Apports" best describe these selections on the album by The Lightmen." (From the dust jacket)
First imitated Bill Haley, then James Brown "Wow... this is pretty cool. Singer Eduardo Araujo strikes me as an artist who was kind of constantly in search of a "new sound" to latch onto. He was one of the early jovem guarda '60s teenie-bopper rockers, and got a little wiggier in the '70s... This 1969 pop-soul album is a transitional record, but one that shows he could have done quite well pursuing a career in Brazilian soul music... He had a much stronger sense of American-style phrasing and a stronger band than many of the self-styled "Black Rio" artists such as Cassiano and Hylton who took up the mantle in the 1970s. His secret weapon was Brazilian funk pioneer Tim Maia, who was about to bust out on his own as a solo artist on the Philips label. Maia wrote punchy new arrangements for the numerous cover tunes on here, which range from Smokey Robinson's "Same Old Song" to Arthur Conley's "Funky Street," and for whatever reason this album avoids most of the clumsiness or self-consciousness that many similar imitations of American pop frequently suffer from." (Joe Sixpack, at Slipcue.com)
Sounds Like a Children's Story "Marvin Holmes, one of the founding fathers of Oakland Funk, is among the world's leading guitarists. Fans have been enjoying Marvin Holmes and The Uptights since the early sixties until today. Marvin’s masterful, musical maturity and dynamic, driving guitar sounds, blending blues, soul and jazz have been captivating audiences all over the world. Marvin Holmes and the Uptights emerged as the Oakland Bay Area’s hottest soul band in the early 60’s and 70’s. Marvin’s knack for writing catchy tunes gave them two hits in the 60’s “The Funky Mule” and Ooh Ooh The Dragon. The “Funky Mule” instantly became a national hit and Marvin Holmes and The Uptights were signed to MCA UNI records. From that signing came the Album Ooh Ooh The Dragon and Other Monsters, which also became an instant hit." (Marvin Holmes's bio at BDR Records)
Lovers Love Paris "André Bourvil (real name Andre Raimbourg) was a great comic and tragic french actor and Jacqueline Maillan is a real impertinent french actress (mostly theater), they recorded this hilarous parody of Gainsbourg "Je t'aime moi non plus" in 1970..." (From a comment by Dr. Faustroll, who has a blog here)
Today I'd like to encourage you to check out some true undergound freak-squad music. Mutwawa, from Richmond, VA.
This 2-man unit combines mutated African rhythms and sounds, perhaps akin to the vibe of Konono No 1, with the gritty, experimental synth-stomp of Forcefield. Both members have long and impressive resumes: Jason Hodges is credited with samples and has played in the power-violence bass-n-drums band Suppression, freakout post-punk band The Amoeba Men, Bermuda Triangles... the list goes on. All of them highly recommended. Gary Stevens is credited with effects, and he is also the founding member of noise band Head Molt and for several years ran the infamous DIY house/venue The Rat-Ward. Again, I could go on...
Embedded below is their first album "Necro Zulu" which can also be dowloaded. I have to point out that I love how this album is composed of songs. Mutwawa can do the noise band M.O. of cranking out one solid 15-minute set too, which works live (just check out how well they work that format in the video above), but I do appreciate the extra bit of self-editing that goes into boiling your material down to a batch of 2-3 minute highlights. It also makes an album that much more repeat-listenable for me, and this is a good one. Play this on something with some good bass.