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(left: Endless Boogie implement your freedom of choice, pic: Brian Turner) WFMU returns a third time to Barcelona's amazing Primavera Sound Festival on Friday, May 27 and Saturday, May 28th! The festival's official USA radio partner has been carrying full on live sets live from sunny Spain that in the past have included Pavement, Sonic Youth, Liquid Liquid, Marc Almond, Mission of Burma, Yo La Tengo, Sunn o))), the Vaselines and many more, with some of the archives available online and the FMA! This year's broadcasts happen from 3pm to Midnight ET both days, with the schedule TBA, but take a look at this year's incredible lineup, and a listen to the Free Music Archive's Primavera 2011 Preview Mix (below).
If you are doing up a rockcation at Prima, please stop by the WFMU tent in the main fairway to the stages, say hello to Liz Berg, Scott Williams, Brian Turner, and Jason Sigal who will be manning the broadcast and recording the sets throughout the stages (the festival starts on Thursday the 26th, but we will be starting broadcast with some backlogged sets the following day). It will be hard to beat the 6am sunrise dance party that we involuntarily hosted last year, but many magical musical moments are certainly on the horizon for attendees and FMU listeners alike at Primavera 2011.
On Friday, March 18th we headed down to Austin to broadcast our 4th ever SXSW show live from Barbarella (formerly Encore and Spiros'). Our pals Aquarius Records as co-bookers stayed at home in San Francisco this time around, but WFMU and Free Music Archive teamed up this time to put on six excellent sets that went out live over the air/netwaves, now up in large part via the FMA for download! We heard from Beijing/Brooklyn's Amen Dunes joined by Greg Fox of Liturgy, GDFX, Guardian Alien, Dan Deacon Ensemble; the USA debut of France/Belgium's él-g who one listener described as "Throbbing Gristle after a kegstand of springwater from the fountain of youth"; Long Beach future-psych jammers Sun Araw; Louisville KY punks The Endtables' first show in 25 years; a ferociously doomish set from Melbourne Australia's Whitehorse; and our super-secret guest, the always incredible Kurt Vile & The Violators (who everybody thought was going to be Erykah Badu based on the Philadelphia hint). We couldn't archive the Kurt set unfortunately, but click away and enjoy the rest of our 2011 fest! And while you're at it, there's plenty of audio gold from our 2008 and 2009 and 2010 showcases on the FMA as well!
Brausepöter - Bundeswehr (Wild Isle) This 7" captures a wild German trio out of the small town of Rietberg who became a house band in one of that country's first new wave clubs. After gigging with such luminaries at the Abwarts and Einsturzende Neubauten, they fell in with the Zick Zack label for a proper studio session they felt may not have been so representative of their real sound. Hence this 7" single culled from a TV appearance (below), a wild slice of punk scabbery with a vibe of what a male Kleenex fresh out of the Beat Club might resemble. (Brian Turner)
AG Davis / Jamison Williams - May 6, 1937 (Skrot Up) Surprised to see so many people in online reviews getting their dander up over this one; Florida electronics and sax punctuated by total bladder-burst approach and Jaap Blonk-esque vocalizations to scare the wildlife off for the immediate radius; granted this is the kind of thing that is tough to swallow in longform, but on a 7" single it rules. Playing it on the air got some fists in the air but also a couple of 'WHY' emails. Sort of a flashback to the time a guy literally threatened to come down and punch my lights out for playing a Peeeseye 7" that boiled down a singular 3 minute crystalline nugget of ugliness.I guess part of the hellride is knowing it would be over soon (but then again, listeners can't see a 45 spinning on the turntable so...) Side B's high-pitch electronic squall I usually refrain from because I personally know some dogs that listen to the radio show, so for now we have the audio to side A here. (Brian Turner)
Various - New Weird Australia: We Are After All Here (NWA) I'm not a "morning person." When I have to be up at some ungodly hour, my usual laidback demeanor is thrown by the wayside and I'm fussy about anything and everything. What I'm in the mood to eat (or not eat), exactly how much coffee I need to imbibe to maintain a proper wakeful balance, and what music I want to listen to are all life and death questions. Choosing incorrectly will result in dire mental and emotional consequences that could last the entire day. My body (really, my entire being) is in absolute revolt for at least a few hours following an undesirable wake-up call, and NOTHING must piss it off. This is why I can preach the gospel of the New Weird Australia compilation series. Anytime I'm up at an ungodly hour and feeling angsty or finicky as hell, these comps hit the spot. Even when I've managed to upset the caffeine balance. The latest release from NWA is a collection of dreamy, droney, hazy, loping and lo-fi compositions, many with just a touch of haunted electronics. Take the edge off any morning: download the entire compilation here on the Free Music Archive, and thank your weird Australian brethren for helping you push past those early hours. More NWA goodies here. (Liz Berg)
Shingles - White Out (905 Tapes) + Mysteres du Serpent - Mondo Neptune (Baked Tapes) A new pair of ethereal noise cassettes from Grasshopper's Jesse DeRosa and Telecult Powers' Witchbeam offer different but complementary passageways into faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar out zones that are as deep as they are musically substantial, a rare quality in the cassette underground. As Shingles, DeRosa--one-half of the trumpet duo Grasshopper--layers up an EVI, the same kind of bending sci-fi woodwind Marshall Allen has been blowing never-often-enough with the Sun Ra Arkestra for many years. Though the landscape threatens to blossom into New Age neon throughout the side-long "NIght Beach," there are enough moving parts in the melodies to make momentum, not to mention gorgeous, shifting colors. Cult-knowledge researcher Witchbeam, who decamped from Brooklyn to Louisiana last year, has been jamming at his local voodoo temple. This is apparently not a metaphor. In which case, the resultant Mondo Neptune cassette (issued by DeRosa's Baked Tapes) is the melding of two equally right-on traditions: the bedroom synth-builder and authentic American folk music, in a way that is totally uncorny. In fact, it's outright heavy: wild undulations of resonant homemade noise, swamp ambience of frogs and cicadas, and sometimes distorted drummers, kicking out spare and hypnotic rhythms. And if it is a metaphor, it's still awesome Some Soundcloud here. Shingles: "Bloodfuel" (MP3): (Jesse Jarnow)
The Alps - Easy Action (Mexican Summer) If there's not a random French/German avant-prog/folk band-name generator on the intenet by now, there should be. Google indicates that there isn't, so there's no way to use it to come up with a bunch of reference points to describe The Alps' Easy Action And though the name sounds like it came from a Southern boogie rock .cgi script of its own, this epilogue to last year's Le Voyage sounds (for much of its second half) like a mellow star-field in between journey legs. Earlier, when the band mixes swirling atmosphere with precise fingerpicked structures ("For Isabel") the music is at its most implacable mix of earthy and cosmic and really kinda perfect. Audio: "For Isabel": (Jesse Jarnow)
3 Leafs - Eat the Earth (No Label) Contrary to what a certain McSweeney's list has to say about my taste in classic rock music, I don't actually have any failed stereo/barbecue hybrids in my garage. But I do love that Pink Floyd, and not just the Syd stuff! Ummagumma, Live at Pompeii - I can live in these places. I think 3 Leafs lives in these places. Based in San Francisco and sporting members of such FMU faves as Citay, Six Eye Columbia, DJ Female Convict Scorpion and The Fresh & Onlys, 3 Leafs get their psychedelic nod on in a way that would vibe very familiarly to your average millenia-dead volcano mummy. Their latest self-released CD "Eat The Earth", reportedly recorded while all members were shrooming, features 4 long pieces of structured improvisation on guitars, synths, percussion, fx (delay pedals in particular), and some wordless vocals. The evolution of each track is based more on texture than intensity, where ideas pointillistically leap into the mix and fall off. The centerpiece "We Eat the Earth" is a 13 minute swirl of birdcalls and synth arguments over a methodical bass loop and a minor key organ swell; "Puppies on Parade" starts with a marimba-like figure right out of Carl Orff's "Musica Poetica", before the exceedingly kraut drums push it all into another synth blissout; and opening and closing cuts "Fahren Bei Tag" ("Driving by Day") and "Fahren Bei Nacht" ("Driving by Night") make explicit their allegiance to their 70s German forbears, while still quite clearly sharpening an axe for Eugene. 3 Leafs have generously made this entire album, plus other tracks, available on their SoundCloud page.(Scott Williams)
Peter Evans Quintet - Ghosts (More Is More) Peter Evans is the quintessential modern polyglot musician, comfortable playing baroque music, traditional jazz, solo explorations of the trumpet's innards, or cracking skulls in a free for all with Weasel Walter and Mary Halvorson. The music Peter makes with his own quartet or, in this case, quintet, is rooted in traditional jazz but is seriously frayed at the edges, with pushed tempos, swaths of noise and crust, and compositional subterfuge. The ballads are haunted by, yes, ghosts. Sam Pluta?s live processed electronics add a surrealist, almost depraved, element. I recall in the back of my mind some book, I think it was Douglas Copeland's Girlfriend in a Coma maybe?, in which the characters, healthy people, just started to drop limbs, you know, just kind of unravel and disintegrate into piles of indistinguishable plasma. This music is exciting like that. Audio: "The Big Crunch" (Scott McDowell)
The Paparazzi - Rococo (Serious Business) I first heard the Paparazzi song "The Rococo Tape" last year on one of the great Ampeater Free Music Archive compilations, and it was one of my favorite pop songs of 2010, packing a ton of unconventionally hook-y ideas into less than two minutes. I didn't know much about the group at the time, but Doug Gillard knew I'd played this song on WFMU before, and he plays with Erik Paparazzi himself in Bambi Kino, so they brought some copies of this Serious Business Records release when they played live on Joe Belock's show earlier this month. Turns out Erik Paparazzi originally recorded this album way back in 2003/2004, but didn't finish it until last year. Maybe because he's devoted more time to his other projects (like backing up Cat Power) or maybe it's because -- even though the album has a real breezy organic lofi feel -- a lot of compositional craft seems to've gone into these nine tracks. Reminds me at various times of Big Star, Julian Lynch, some displaced Elephant 6...I hope we'll soon hear more from The Paparazzi! (Jason Sigal)
The Paperhead are a group of teenage psychedelics from Nashville TN. Formerly known as The Looking Glass, the three-piece previously released a now sold-out tape on the label local Infinity Cat, and a 7" on Nashville's Dead. This brand new LP is yet another killer release from Chicago's Trouble In Mind (Liminañas, Vermillion Sands, Fresh & Onlys, Ty Segall). The Paperhead hit the road this summer (stopping by Talk's Cheap / WFMU) with Jeffrey Novak (Rat Traps, Cheap Time) on keyboards, and he also produced the LP. Joining Ryan, Pete, and Walker is a fourth member, Matt, who is credited with "colors, spiritual advice." (Jason Sigal)
I first heard Anne-James Chaton via the Ex camp, guitarist Andy Moor recorded some collaborations with him in his continual conquest to seek out textural mayhem. Here's an avalanche of sound poetry in rapidfire French, heavy syllables being a bottom bassline (hear his mantra of "the King of Pop Is dead") delivered in machine-gun style in precise loop treatment on his recent événements 09 (Raster-Noton). It's got a Berlin heroin-house kind of blanketing already, but adding in the distinct Raster-Noton flurry of subsonic instrumental flourishes, gentle/fried electronic winds blowing about while Chaton recounts everyday events (Iranian unrest, Barack Obama's name repeated ad infinitum) slips you into a most alien world for however long you choose to reside. Audio: "événement No 26 Mardi Julliet 2009"(Brian Turner)
If you like your doom abstract and littered with razors, you could do a lot worse than get into a tight, airless closet with the Lords of Bukkake'sDesorden Y Rencor (Total Rust), a Barcelona combo who already win me over by naming a track after Mexican exploito-horror flick Alucarda. Featuring a vocalist who uses space and lungs in a scarifying mode not unlike Khanate/OLD/Gnaw's Alan Dubin (the third of which definitely share an electronic leaning with LoB), this stuff extended out into blissed out destructo realm most diseased in mind. Audio: "Magia Necia". (Brian Turner)
Looking for a Geomancer to activate your location on the Grid? Earth Grid (Thrill Jockey) is the latest release from Lungfish guitarist Asa Osborne's Zomes project, the follow-up to the self-titled debut on Holy Mountain, provides an excellent opportunity. Osborne wrote and recorded this instrumental cycle at home, this time limiting the proceedings to keyboards and tape-loop beats. At times reminding me of a lo-tech, gnarly Cluster, the often distorted, spectral keyboard lines and uncluttered rhythms achieve a unique immediacy thanks to the simple, unhurried melodies and tasty repetition. Great stuff! Gotta say, the graininess of the sounds and hiss of the tape provide a respite from the glossy new age synth revival lurking amongst us today. The limits Osborne places on himself work in his favor - the primitive recording technique, beautiful keyboard drones, and skeletal beats are kosmische but not in a Eurorides on the Autobahn way. What we have here isn't man-machine synergy but simple, human-scale electronic home recordings that slow us down enabling a focus on the bare essentials. Wouldn't drive to this stuff for fear of hitting a telephone pole, but no worries, each track on this album is transportational in and of itself. Pick a location and Zomes will activate a road there. A perfect soundtrack for an imaginary return trip from the international space station or for a night spent dreaming of sacred geometry. Definitely looking forward to the next album, supposedly already in the works. I'll keep my 3rd eye crossed! Audio: "Step Anew" (Daniel Blumin)
A lot of the music that resonates with me most seems like it's trying to hide. I want to hear melodies, I want expression, but I prefer a layer of haze, gauze, noise, sandpaper, whatever, between it and me - like I don't dig lyrics I can understand. Secret Boyfriend, as the name hints, is definitely hiding. The 7 tracks on Secret Boyfriend's split LP w/ Horaflora veer from haunted loops of tinkling piano ("Chocolat") to tape-saturated organ harmonies ("Northern America"), through drifts of atonal sadness ("Cool Air"), and out washes of pure white distorted muffler hum ("The Doors"); all impulses interrupt each other at will, as if to further cement the non-committal to any coherent expression. That's a good thing. Secret Boyfriend strikes the same chords in me as William Basinski and the Belgian artist Orphan Fairytale. Audio (5 songs from WFMU. (Scott Williams)
Following his debut album on John Fahey's Takoma label, musician, instrument builder, and outsider Charlie Nothing released a handful of copies of Inside/Outside, an intense private press document in 1969 (reissued recently by DeStijl). Inside/Outside contains two sidelong flute/percussion tracks of ritualistic aimlessness. Given that description, this is music that is surprisingly warm, human and accessible, stoned pauses and meandering notwithstanding. If you like No Neck Blues Band, Don Cherry's Mu, the free-er end of the free folk spectrum or UK outsiders like Part Wild Horses Mane on Both Sides than this LP will be a real a treat. Audio: "Holy Stick" (Scott McDowell)
Live on Brian Turner's program between 3-6pm ET, full performance and interview (will be archived at Brian's playlist page for streaming, no download). Two and a half years after headlining one of WFMU's free 50th Anniversary concert broadcasts in New York, Wire appear on Brian's show today for their first ever performance in the station's studios. Formed in 1976, the group immediately staked its place as one of Britain's most celebrated exports of art-punk whose first three records (Pink Flag, 154, and Chairs Missing) are universally regarded as picture-perfect documents of innovative experimentation in songcraft. Traversing the lines between raw minimalist punk and complex experimentations, they've influenced everyone from Minor Threat to Guided By Voices, the Minutemen to the Futureheads, and continue to create new soundways with their latest release Red Barked Tree. Wire's 30 plus years have been marked by constant flux, side projects, regrouping and reinvention, and the 2011 lineup of Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Robert Grey and Matt Simms play live on WFMU while in town for two shows: Music Hall of Williamsburg (April 5) and the Bowery Ballroom (April 6th). Don't miss this major event in our hallowed hallways!
The act we're previously tightlipped about (due to contractual music biz stuff) now outta the bag, we're extremely honored to have Philly's most excellent Kurt Vile and the Violators on the WFMU + Free Music Archive split SXSW show as the "special guest" on the 12AM (Central) slot. We need not (but will anyway) run down the list of our enjoyable moments with Mr. Vile and company, solo on Jason Sigal's show and recently on Tom Scharpling's 2011 Marathon show, and in full band mode on Brian Turner's show and at our ATP Kutsher's 2010 broadcast. They're on tour to support their new Matador disc Smoke Ring For My Halo, just out this month. Gonna be an excellent night, and you can see the full rundown here with some sound samples of the night's roster. Again, we will be broadcasting live from Austin with showtime at 9PM Eastern/8PM Central, at Barbarella (formely Spiro's, Encore) at 615 Red River downtown. $8 door, free with official SXSW-type badge/wristbands. Come on down!
8PM: Amen Dunes, 9PM: El-G, 10PM: Sun Araw, 11PM: the Endtables, 12M: Kurt Vile and the Violators, 1AM: Whitehorse.
A quick reminder that WFMU and the Free Music Archive join forces and present a great night of sounds at the SXSW Festival in Austin this Friday, March 18th, starting at 8PM Central! Live at Barbarella, 615 Red River downtown, $8 at door or free w/official SXSW entry badge or wristband. On tap:
8PM: Amen Dunes, 9PM: El-G, 10PM: Sun Araw, 11PM: the Endtables 12M: special guest to be announced (!), 1AM: Whitehorse
Swirling psychedelia, Aussie doom, Louisville punk legends renuite (first show in 30 years!), it's all happening Friday night. As for the unannounced act, we have to keep tightlipped until they finish an earlier show they're committed to, but rest assured they're WFMU faves. Lots of info and soundclips on this previous post. Stay tuned for more details, and join us if you can at the show, or on air/online 9PM-3AM Eastern at wfmu.org. Say hi to Liz, Brian, Ken, Diane, and Jason if you are there!
Feb.18th: WFMU's Billy Jam takes his show live to Amoeba Records on 1855 Haight Street in San Francisco from 3-6PM ET to host live DJ sets by KUSF 90.3 FM DJs! The sets are a chance to hear KUSF DJs play after the announced sale of the station's broadcast license on Jan. 18. KUSF's Irwin (Sleeves on Hearts), Carolyn, Stereo Steve, Jantine B., Harry D. (In The Soul Kitchen), and DJ Schmeejay (Radiodrome) are scheduled to spin records from 12 noon-3 p.m. Pacific Time. WFMU has set up a network to broadcast the sets on stations around the country. Announced stations include KZSU (Stanford, 90.1 FM), KFJC (Foothill College, 89.7 FM), KXLU (Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, 88.9 FM), WXYC (Chapel Hill, N.C., 89.3 FM) KDVS (Davis, CA., 90.3 FM) KVRX (91.7 FM in Austin, TX), KALX (90.7 in Berkeley CA), KRFP Moscow, Idaho (Free Radio Moscow, 92.5 FM), WITC (91.7 FM Cazenoivia, NY), WCBN (88.3 FM in Ann Arbor, MI), and WREK (Atlanta, 91.1 FM) in addition to WFMU (New Jersey, 91.1 FM). Former KUSF DJ Billy Jam, now at WFMU, organized the event and will MC it along with WFMU's Gaylord Fields. Jam told RadioSurvivor.com that the event is, “to celebrate the greatness that was (and hopefully soon again will be) KUSF on the FM dial where it deserves to be. There will be six KUSF DJs doing half hour sets each … and I have asked them all to include as many KUSF 90.3 FM celebrity IDs and 'drops' as possible so it sounds like the good ol' KUSF pre-Jan. 18, 2011. But mostly, the goal is to further raise awareness and help fight the good fight to save KUSF.”
The University of San Francisco announced it was selling the broadcast license for KUSF 90.3 FM on Jan. 18. That morning at 10 a.m., the university shut down KUSF without notice and turned the signal at 90.3 FM over to the University of Southern California's Classical Public Radio Network. The radio signal was cut, the broadcast went static, and DJs were escorted out of station headquarters. In the weeks since, a wide array of voices has spoken out against the proposed sale including the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, California state senator Leland Yee, the San Francisco Democratic Party, the USF Faculty Association, Yo La Tengo, and The Kronos Quartet. All have spoken against the proposed transfer of the 90.3 FM license to non-local entity, the University of Southern California, which already owns five other terrestrial broadcast licenses. The coalition of volunteers working to save KUSF 90.3 FM now has more than 7,300 members. The group’s Facebook page has already received over 1.3 million post views, which has helped fund the legal costs to file a Petition to Deny the pending license transfer with the FCC.
(pictured left: Half Japanese's Fair brothers sorting out a lift to Torchy's after the show) Friday, March 18th: we return again to the State To Which Not To Mess for another sauce-slathered evening of curated live music at the SXSW festival in Austin! For the 4th year in a row, WFMU will be broadcasting full sets live from Barbarella (formerly Encore, formerly Spiro's) at 615 Red River in the heart of downtown Austin. We couldn't be more stoked about the variety of sounds this year: Amen Dunes, él-g, Sun Araw, The Endtables, Whitehorse! We do have one act we're not allowed to announce until the day before the show (sorry), because of some contractual booking-type biz, but we will say that he/she/they are big WFMU faves and you won't be sorry if you turn up! Trust us! We're psyched for the show, though we are missing our pals from Aquarius Records this year (they co-curated our 2009 and 2010 shows), but this year WFMU teams up (naturally) with the Free Music Archive for 2011.
8PM: Amen Dunes "Amen Dunes has pretty well got all the acid folk & psychedelic rock angles covered," Scott Williams wrote on the occasion of this this 2009 live session, "and whether or not the name puns on 'Amon Duul', the Krautrock connection is clear." Amen Dunes first popped up on our radar via the Locust release Dia, recorded while main dune Damon McMahan was living near the Temple of Earth in North-Central Beijing. He has since returned to NY, the city whose Sacred Bones label issued 2010's Murder Dull Mind 12'' EP. Here's an mp3 off that EP -- Diane -- originally posted as part of Taraka Larson's Amen Dunes feature.
9PM: él-g Laurent Gerard is a Frenchman now redeposited on a rooftop studio sanctuary overlooking Brussels, and in the years since he sent his mysterious CDRs to WFMU has grown into a fave around these parts. A freeform hybrid of Franco-folk/experimentalism (akin to some of the Brigitte Fontaine/Areski outings), Residents zonked atmosphere, the woodsy vibeage of Matt Valentine and the Finnish freakfolk crew, dosed with Beefheart sidestep. His My Space page also drops references to Phew, Jessica Rylan, and Bobb Trimble. Releases on KRAAK, S-S, Le Vilain Chien and other fine labels put in the proof, él-g has also worked within units like Opéra Mort and Reines D´Angleterre (the latter including experimental great Ghédalia Tazartès).
10PM: Sun Araw Son of Austin Cameron Stallones has spent recent years soaking up the coastal vibes of Long Beach CA. While on guitar duty for Not Not Fun psych-jammers Magic Lantern (and as a late member of Pocahaunted), Sun Araw began as an outlet for Stallones' solo tapestries, dubbed-out loops and re-zoned 60s/70s psychedelia (he's been known to cover Neil Young). Now four LPs deep, Sun Araw is showing no signs of slowing down with a new studio space / imprint "Sun Ark." Last year, Woodsist released Off Duty / Boat Trip, while Not Not Fun released the 2xLP On Patrol. Check out "Deep Cover" from the latter below, and also check out the stellar music video. Sun Araw's Free Music Archive profile plays host to more promo mp3s, including live performances from L.A.'s dublab and Amsterdam's OCII club, offering a taste of what's in store for SXSW 2011.
11PM: The Endtables
Holy hell! First show in 25 years from these Louisville punk legends, and the Drag City compilation of their EP/singles/live stuff from '79 came out a couple years ago and was #1 on FMU's heavy airplay list (as was the Bold Beginning comp, which retraced the steps of the Kentucky punk/new wave scene the Endtables shared with the likes of Babylon Dance Band, No Fun, Blinders, and Malignant Growth. "Trick Or Treat" is as historically important as "Nervous Breakdown" without question, the Endtables neatly sewed together detached art-punk, DIY aesthetic and Radio Birdman/Stooges buzzsawing.
Maybe the greatest manufactured video duet since Nat and Natalie, or Paula and MC Skat Cat? Taken from Michael Molitchhau's You Tube, thx to Megan Metzger.
Purling Hiss' Mike Polizze has put in much time in the fried Philly blooze overdrive of the group Birds of Maya, but in his own vehicle he's expanded his grotty guitar wailing into the further cosmos, still shredding speakers aplenty. With new releases out on Richie and Woodsist Records, and a previous LP on Permanent, Purling Hiss became a full-fledged touring unit in 2010, and stopped by my show to reveal themselves to not only be purveyors of Rallizes Denudes/Vermonster-style guitar jams, but to have a serious 90's grunge/pop ethic not too far removed from bits of Bleach-era Nirvana. Lots of ooh-oohs to coincide with the growls, severe hooks to get lodged in your cranium. Thanks to Jason Sigal for engineering (and not minding my shoving the guitar faders into the red a bit! I'm normally hands off this sort of thing but when we get into the heroics mode I sometimes can't help myself...)
2010 Music I enjoyed (in no particular order) The Rebel - Race Against Time Hots Up (Junior Aspirin) No UFO's - Mind Control cassette (Dub Ditch Picnic) Sun City Girls - Funeral Mariachi (Abduction) Aias - A La Piscina (Captured Tracks) Spiritual Rags - s/t (Unread/Grotto) Factory Floor - 10" (Blast First Petite) 3puen "So Mean" (3puen) Hayvanlar Alemi - Guarana Superpower (Sublime Frequencies) The Mantles - Pink Information (Mexican Summer) Alastair Galbraith - Mass (Siltbreeze) The Black Jaspers - s/t (In the Red) Sightings - City of Straw (Jagjaguwar) Tony Tears - Voci dal Passato (Tricephale) Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Love Is a Stream (Type) Neil Hamburger - Hot February Night (Drag City) Form a Log - Digital Duck 7" (Spleen Coffin) Lemon Dots - Sunrise Surprise (Labor of Love) Dead Fader - Corrupt My Examiner (3By3)
Reissues: Sourdeline - Jeanne D'Ayme (Guerssen) Various - Grind Madness at the BBC (Earache) Fumio Hayasaka & Masaru Sato - Kurosawa soundtrack box (Doxy) Mike Rep & the Quotas - Stupor Hiatus (Siltbreeze) Walter Gibbons - Jungle Music (Strut) Chris and Cosey - Trance (Conspiracy International) Robert Turman - Way Down (Dais) Jacky Chalard/Horrific Child - Je Suis Vivant, Mais J.Ai Peur The Injections - Lies 7" (Last Laugh) Sun Ra - 3 volumes of spoken jams (Norton) Dwarr - Animals (Drag City) Deviation Social - Compilation Tracks 1982-85 (Dais) Jon Wayne - Texas Funeral (Third Man) White Boy and the Average Rat Band - s/t (Roach/Tradewind) She - Outta Reach (CWR) Manilla Road - After Midnight Live (Shadow Kingdom) Lee Hazlewood - Califia: The Songs of Lee Hazlewood (Ace) Spur - Spur of the Moments (Galactic Zoo) Les Rallizes Denudes - Blind Baby Has Its Mother's Eyes (Phoenix) Various - African Pearls: Mali 80 Electric (Syllart) Jackie Shark & the Beach Butchers - 2nd Generation Rising 7" (Artifix)
Live: The Clean, truckin' across Europe, May Hallogallo, Lincoln Center, Primavera, wherever Scientists, ATP Catskills, September Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, BAM, February Glenn Branca, Le Poisson Rouge NYC, April The Ex, Butlins @ Minehead, UK, December Wold, two guys wrestling, woman reading the bible, Matthew Barney's LIC space, August Magma, Highline Ballroom NYC, September Tinsel Teeth @ SXSW, Austin, March Country Teasers, Butlins ATP, Minehead UK, December WFMU/Aquarius show at Spiro's, Austin in March: Pierced Arrows / Dengue Fever / Iron Man / True Widow / Epileptinomicon / Todd / Drunkdriver / Home Blitz / Shit N Shine / Speedwolf /Sonny & the Sunsets / Headdress Sightings/Northampton Wools, the Rock Shop, Brooklyn, November Xenakis' Persephassa live on Central Park resevoir, attendees in rowboats, July Fabulous Diamonds/Hamburglars, WFMU Record Fair, October
The pleasure of hosting some fine live sets on the radio show through the year: The Dreams, Legendary Pink Dots, Pissed Jeans, Bill Orcutt, Vialka, Unrest, Spectre Folk, Mount Carmel, Wolf Eyes w/Richard Pinhas. Thank you for tuning in, and have a great 2011.
Psychic TV/PTV3's only American show of 2010 happens on Thursday, December 9th at Europa (98-104 Meserole Ave., Greenpoint/Brooklyn) and WFMU will be co-presenting the show along with Scenic and Edward O'Dowd. Tickets are on sale here (it is not, by the way, a benefit for WFMU). Psychic TV's direction in the last years has waded deeper into psychpunk realm, especially evidenced on their latest, Alien Brain Vs. Maggot Brain (Vanity Case label), and live shows have been a visual treat as well. In fact, WFMU has had a close-up peep at the band in action, check out MP3s from a performance on Fabio's show in September 2006 below (via the Free Music Archive). Genesis also performed recently at WFMU with O'Dowd and Tony Conrad (MP3s on the FMA here), and Fabio hosted a round-table discussion in our studios with the then-reunited Throbbing Gristle here.
Deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson, 55, in Thailand last night. His contributions to Throbbing Gristle, Coil, Psychic TV and Hipgnosis made him a major player in the realm of modern music; he visited WFMU's Fabio a couple years ago with TG, which is archived here.