WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Niall McClelland

In case you didn't feel like showing up - Volume 25

A Place To Bury Strangers live in Bushwick, Brooklyn at Secret Project Robot on December 10, 2011

Chicago Zeuhl: Ga'an

Led by drummer Seth Sher, Ga'an has gone through a few line-up changes since its inception, but each change has propelled the evolution of their proggish/Zeuhl/Italian horror soundtrack sound. On their latest LP Black Equus, their vision is put into new focus with a fantastic production job not present on past releases- revealing the depth and epic nature of the minimal, intricate and slowly evolving compositions. Lindsey Powel's powerful yet etheral vocals float in and out of Tyson Torstensen's slippery bass and monumental synth work as Sher pushes everything into a ritualistic dance of death/life.

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 148

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

If I produced this weekly column for the glory, I might have quit a hundred motherlodes ago. Much like producing a radio show, music blogging largely involves serving up solitary epiphanies for mass consumption. Sure, it's sweet to get some appreciation reflected back, but if you're not doing it for the pure pleasure of sharing, you'll probably end up disappointed.

Every few weeks, it seems, another blogger threatens to quit over not getting enough comments on their posts. It's kind of a silly dance, really: Blogger gripes. Blogger gets a ton of rah-rah messages. Blogger relents. (This melodrama played out recently at the prolific Garage Punk 66—see here then here.) Occasionally, the host really does fold up the tent, but I'm guessing the reasons have more to do with the daily grind of maintaining a well-stocked site. Speaking of which, the wonderful Oufar Khan has recently stopped posting new material, but will graciously maintain the abundantly endowed archives. For a blast from the past check our lead-off item posted at Oufar Khan back in August 2010:

    
Norman Feels  ~  "Norman Feels" & "Where or When"
(Blog: Oufar Khan)

He Who Feels It, Knows It
"Mellow soul, sweeping strings, and sweet electric keys – a stone '70s classic from Norman Feels! The album's Norman's first (of two), and is a vastly under-recognized sweet gem–the kind of record that easily stands next to some of the best male sweet soul of the time .... More sweet soul with Norman Feels' second album, still for the Just Sunshine label, and still with this heavenly Marvin-like sound—sweeping timely strings, bubbling groove, delicate horns here and there, and touches of background vocals to enrich the whole thing."  (Descriptions by Greg, at Oufar Khan)

A Conver-view with Alexandra Gorczynski

It's another month of life.

Last week I had a conversation online with Philadelphia based artist Alexandra Gorczynski about her work.

I discovered her through Hologram City, an incredibly engaging curatorial project she does.
The images she posts range from the hopeless, to the grotesque, to the violent, to the explicit, to the materialistic, to the humorous.

To really get the 'full experience', check out her work before you read the interview.  Thank you.  Oh and here's to hoping you enjoy her work as much as I do.  Thank you

WFMU DJs Pick Their Favorites of 2011 (part IV)

In this fourth installation, we've got picks from Tony Coulter, Lou Z., Noah, and Chris M...first up is...

Tony Coulter's Favorites

Bene Gesserit: Half-Unreleased Madness (OnderStroom LP)

George-Edwards: The George Edwards Group Archives (Drag City LP)

Human Flesh: Second Hand Emotions and Half Forgotten Feelings (OnderStroom LP)

Human Flesh: Pretending to Be Pseudo Code (Plinkity Plonk CD)

Michel Potage Collective: Occupé (Alga Marghen LP)

Nostalgie Eternelle: EP (EE Tapes 7” EP)

Pierre Berthet & Frédéric Le Junter: L'enclume des jours (InPolySons CD)

Various Artists: Objets noirs et choses carrées: Nino Ferrer Covered (Optical Sound CD)

Various Artists: The Insanely Happy EP (EE Tapes 7” EP)

Various Artists: The (Almost) Insanely Happy EP (EE Tapes 7” EP)

E.S.P. TV Episode #10

E.S.P. TV #10 is now online....

The latest episode features Brooklyn synth-duo Further Reductions (Shawn O' Sullivan also of Led Er Est and Katie Rose) with background video by House Plants, filmmakers Martha Colburn and Kenneth Curwood and a video by Scott Kiernan. Curwood's video is tracked to a song by Child Abuse while Martha Colburn's second video features Felix Kubin playing a Stylophone.

This show aired 12/13/11 on Manhattan Neighborhood Network cable access TV in Manhattan (10PM on Ch 67 Time Warner) and, as always, was taped and mixed live to VHS by Louis V E.S.P. in front of an audience at The Schoolhouse in Brooklyn NY. 

More episodes at: http://vimeo.com/channels/esptv

  

FUN Go! America! Celebrates New Jersey, on My Castle of Quiet, 12.18.2011

FUN—as I've come to know the Philadelphia-based combo, its sounds and membership, I realize how truly appropriate the name is for what they do. FUN are able to apply clever, inventive, fresh ideas to their improvised music-making, minus all the beard-stroking and pretentious, high-minded, music-conservatory-based conceptualization and back-patting that often accompanies similar activities.

For their FUN Go! America! tour, a 50-year project that involves one performance a year, each in a different state, on the very date that that state was inducted into the Union, FUN came to New Jersey on December 18th, to WFMU's Studio B, to render two unique, smartly conceived and individually distinct long-form improvisations. The concept of the tour alone is staggering, and relies upon FUN's members having access to interstate transportation, and living long enough, to execute the mass concept in its entirety.