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The night before Superstorm Sandy was supposed to hit, I
called my friend A to see what she was doing to prepare. She lives in a
fifth-floor walk-up in the East Village, and had spent a few minutes talking
with a neighbor about which local restaurants would be most likely to deliver
in a hurricane—that was it; that was the extent of her preparation. Since then,
I’ve heard her stories of going for days without electricity, heat, and water.
Our friend V told us about walking down 17 stories with a couple of empty water
bottles, filling them at an open fire hydrant, and walking back up, over and
over, again and again. K ran out of money when the ATMs ran out of power. And
so on.
As far as I know, none of my friends’ homes were destroyed,
nobody truly suffered, but I was surprised at the things they didn’t think to
think about, the simple steps they didn’t take to make it easier on themselves.
The following list is for people who live in the city and need just the most
basic reminders of what to do when a natural disaster is looming. I know there are plenty of serious urban
preppers who take things a lot further—if you are one, this list is not for
you. These are clues for the clueless: It’s for A and V and K and anyone else
who has never, ever sat down to think about what happens when the lights go
out.
1. Fill your
prescriptions. You do not want to be going cold-turkey from antidepressants
when the world really is dark and
cold.
It feels like we are livin' a dream. Unfortunately, it's not a very good one here in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Our thoughts go out to everyone who was affected by the disaster, and we are seeking your input as we compile a list of ways to help (map for NYC | Nonsense List Resources | OccupySandy).
The super storm hit WFMU at full force, knocking out both of our transmitters (91.1 is still down), taking out our phones lines and kocking out electricity at our studios, including our live stream.
The water levels and lack of public transportation made it impossible to get to WFMU's blacked-out building for much of the week. Even with the stream down and Clay Pigeon & Therese trapped stranded at the station, WFMU's commenters continued to chat on our playlist. By mid-day Tuesday, a network of DJs revived our live stream from undisclosed locations like Doug Schulkind's Studio P, Dan Bodah's living room and Irwin's bunker (pictured L with Station Manager Ken, photo by John Dalton).
Fortunately, everybody from the WFMU staff is safe, and miraculously WFMU's basement did not flood, despite the Hudson River coming within 50 feet of our front door. But we are just beginning to unravel significant water & electrical damage to our facilities and equipment, forcing us into Disaster Marathon Mode.
Meanwhile, you may have seen what happened at the ConEd plant that powers lower Manhattan...
Record Fair is Cancelled and it's All Sandy's Fault
Due to the havoc, chaos, lack of electricity in NYC and general sludge based misery (who knew there was so much sludge in the world?) following Hurricane Sandy, we've had no choice but to call off the Record Fair. We're very sorry about this, but the Metropolitan Pavilion has no power, mass transit in NYC is still not working and there are no estimates as to when electric or transit will return to normal and we don't want a whole Mad Max thing on our hands. All dealers will be refunded their payments, and the Fair will return in the Fall of 2013. And this new 'Future Fair' will be even better, with flowing white robes, a teleportation booth and floating symetrical rings adorning everything. And a bonus performance from the recently cloned John Denver! All kidding aside, the cancellation of the record fair is a financial disaster for us: it turns an event that would've raised $70,000 into an event that loses almost that much.
Silent Fundraiser Extended
Thank you to everyone who has already given to our silent fundraiser which comes up during this time of year that our coffers run low. It is your support that helps us overcome ridiculous obstacles like the ones we are now facing.
Unfortunately, with all the damaged gear we're now discovering, and with the cancellation of the Record Fair, WFMU needs your supportnow more than ever to keep us afloat. Our silent fundraiser will be extended a few extra weeks, giving us more time to raise the funds we need to get through the next few months and to hopefully make up for lost income due to the Record Fair going kaput. Pledge now and please help spread the word because we need your help to get through this very difficult time. Money can't buy you love, but it can buy transmitter codecs, computer servers, and all the other stuff a radio station needs to regain (ab)normalcy.
These days, contemporary R&B seems to be a genre of music with specific attributes and qualities that are easily identifiable—things like slow grooves, smooth production values, and lush vocal arrangements. And, depending on the singer’s gender, the listener is treated to either a Diva or Lothario begging their beloved, earnestly trying to convince the apple of their eye that they need to consummate their love immediately.
While some of these elements can be found throughout the history of the genre, the scope of R&B used to be much larger, encompassing many different, and often disparate, musical styles.
Rhythm and Blues was initially a catchall term; coined after World War II, it was used to describe music made predominately for, and by, urban African-Americans. Under the Rhythm and Blues heading, different
Not always, actually quite seldom, is the distinction between art and absurdity a relevant one. And it certainly doesn’t matter when in a TV show you combine live music, in-studio party, fancy dress, videotapes, punk, disco, anarchism, new wave, visual arts, rap, interviews, phone-in sessions, shaky camera angles, crude advertising and live drug taking. All this featuring guests such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Lurie, David Byrne, George Clinton, Fab Five Freddy, Tuxedo Moon, Debbie Harry, Maripol, Iggy Pop, Chris Burden, John Feckner just to name a few. The uniqueness of TV Party, however, was not as a celebration of the apotheosis of the underground, but that this played out on the mass media it rebelled against.
On air for one hour every Tuesday night from 1978 to 1982, TV Party was a piece of DIY experimental broadcasting hosted and conceived by Glenn O’Brien. It pioneered an alternative use of the medium, breaking its rules by looking deliberately amateur and shattering the traditional distinction between the
I can convince almost anyone to come see almost any shitty band, but in years of attending drag events I have only ever been able to convince one straight male to attend with me—and I think it was the free vodka that convinced him. I catch some flack for being a straight dude that is a fan of drag culture, reluctantly and loosely identifying as a post-hetero-retro-sexual (if you need a label).
But it’s easy to explain my enthusiasm for the performance stylings of men in dresses. These artists are not just manipulating paints and brushes. They are manipulating their bodies to create illusions and performances that will stay with their audiences long after they wash off their make-up and take off their heels. More than that, drag is one form of performance art that still has the ability to freak out the most conservative of squares, but also make many members of supposedly “progressive” art communities think twice before attending. And for those that question drag as an artform: they give Oscars for make-up and costume design, and as a whole these queens have a much quicker wit than any of the masses in improv classes. Plus, these gals put it all together and then dance in heels with their dicks tucked up between their legs. Now that shit, I’m guessing, takes some practice.
Taking it a step further is Sharon Needles of Pittsburgh’s Haus of Haunt, who lives by the mantra “when in doubt, freak ‘em out.” Sharon is challenging long-held standards of beauty not only in the drag community but in the world at large. I got to sit down with Ms. Needles at Barefoot’s Pride Week launch party last week, where she affirmed her role as America’s Next Drag Superstar. This night, while other queens imitated Aretha and Cher, Ms. Needles gave us a Peggy Bundy that channeled the Cramps’ Poison Ivy. This isn’t just a lip-sync or a dance performance; this is commentary.
We could talk at length about Needles choosing to impersonate the lazy, channel-surfing, bonbon-stuffing icon, but it’s the little things that make me love Sharon. Instead of flipping though a TV Guide on stage, she is flipping though the latest issue of Time Out New York as she clicks the remote at the audience. Sharon isn’t bored with what is on TV. She is bored with pop culture as a whole and is looking for something more. “There is no reason not to know what is going on in the underground. You don’t have to listen to fucking Madonna or Lady Gaga… I grew up in my record store. I grew up in my video store. Today, with the Internet, people have no excuse not to be informed of other options.”
The Gate, at first glance, are an improvisational / jazz trio, but with information freely flowing in from punk and metal (Brian Osborne drummed with Wretched Worst for their very memorable Castle session last March; bassist Tom Blancarte, also a black metal fan) and horror films (tuba player Dan Peck, in addition to being a fan of black metal et al., is also a horror and cult-film buff), their sound offers doomy vistas, and cinematic, creeped-out passages, as well as hearty improv energy.
This live set runs the gamut of rhythmic / tonal delights, and the listener likewise easily escapes any preconceptions about what a tuba, bass and drum trio might be able to pull off. "Plague Face" will bring to mind Alan Silva and BYG Actuel, as often as it does European B-film music. At just over 47 minutes, this set is a real treat for fans of the "out." Mp3 hotspot > 18 mins.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Jayne County on my program on Thursday; she hit the stage at Bowery Electric on Thursday for the Max's Kansas City Alumni Reunion shows (which goes on through Sunday). Check the archive for the interview. I heard that Jayne might be at La Mama before her much anticipated Max's reunion performance, so it was off to the Ellen Stewart Theatre first! The La Mama show was- Jukebox Jackie: Snatches of Jackie Curtis -an exhilarating collage performance containing elements of the Warhol star's life; poetry, film snippets, songs and great vignettes. The final performance is on June 10th. With a killer cast: Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, Cole Escola and Steel Burkhardt, the production was a huge pleasure to take in. Jayne County did indeed grace the theatre-goers with her rendition of Max's Kansas City, as seen here as an encore to the show. She was gone in the blink of an eye (aye aye!) as soon as the show was done, and was soon to get onstage with her alma mater, so to speak, the Max's Kansas City Alumni Reunion show. The shows run all weekend at Bowery Electric, check their site for scheduled shows!
Positive feedback continues to filter in for this live set, presented on the air a few weeks ago. The Spiritual Switchboard, a collaboration between two of Brooklyn's synth heavyweights, is without question a summit to be reckoned with. Jesse DeRosa (of Baked Tapes, Grasshopper, The Hex Breaker Quintet / Quartet, Shingles, etc.) and Joshua Slusher (OPPONENTS, Creeplings, The Grand Selector, et al.) are busy young men, overflowing with talent and a vibrant urgency to express themselves, and put it all out there, as much and as often as possible. Perhaps surprisingly for that M.O., their works are of the highest quality.
It's no secret that I admire them both professionally and personally, so I was only too pleased to provide the My Castle of Quiet program as a forum for them, a vehicle, with which to continue sharing their prowess, on a journey that began for me personally, back when Grasshopper were the second live band ever to be presented on the program, in August of 2009. The Spiritual Switchboard were joined for this absolutely live session by Joshua Greco (also of OPPONENTS), another super-nice guy with a big talent for swinging it analog.
The Black and Blue Bowl at Webster Hall annually features a variety of hardcore bands. Considering my hardcore roots, I thought I would know more people at the show, but the bill was mostly mid-period bands. I did see some great metal shirts throughout, which made me immediatley comfy- Behemoth, Sodom, Gorguts..and at some point I did hear some Celtic Frost over the PA. The sold out crowd surfed, dove, piled-on and stared in awe at the slew of bands presented in this 9 hour day. There were no barriers in front of the stage, what a welcome touch. When the dancing actions of the hardcore genre were misconstrued as 100% aggression years ago, the barriers were born in almost all mid- to large-size clubs. It was nice to see more interaction with the bands. One of the bands on the bill early was Holland's Born From Pain, their new release:The New Future is available as a free download on their Facebook page; recommended. The Dave Smalley led DYS were a band I was really looking forward to seeing; full of fury, the Dag Nasty, Down By Law, and former ALL singer was all heart as usual, punchy as hell; most of my photos of him were blurry -running around on the stage like it means everything to his survival, he always brings all he's got to a live performance. Here is a shot of Dave with guest vocalist Drew Stone of NYC's Antidote. Drew will be a guest on the Peer Pressure segment of my program June 21st; he's the director of ALL AGES, The Boston Hardcore Film. The NY debut of this film will be June 29th-July 1st at Brooklyn's Nitehawk Cinema. From the west coast, the crowd was treated to a swift kick in the butt by Rotting Out from LA, who mixed their hardcore with thrash, in a super-infectious manner. The Mob, who debuted their soon to be released 45, Back To Queens to the sold out crowd, probably goes back furthest in NYHC history than anyone else featured at the BnB Bowl. With a few demos recorded previously, their first release: Upset the System came out in 1982, and they helped push initial recordings from Urban Waste and Agnostic Front in the early 80s as well. Vocalist Ralphie G was a featured guest on the Peer Pressure of DKFM in December; listen here. They were laser tight, heavy, and frenzied revealing their seasoned confidence. Paul Bearer's guillotine edged wit was center stage when Sheer Terror took over, taking out the audience with his barbs and his vocal braun.
What is metal, or rock for that matter? While others scramble for last-minute sub-subgenrefication, I am happy just to watch those umbrellas widen, and the envelope swell and burst. Occultation are such a band, one that tastefully mines not-immediately-recognizable influences, and much like that pre-job interview adage, "just be themselves, they'll be fine." Fine they did do, having grown leaps and bounds since the impressive Somber Dawn demo, to a sound that defines itself throughout their debut full-length, Three and Seven, on Profound Lore.
That first demo, and an early, related live video clip, led to their My Castle of Quiet invitation, and it was an easy call for yours truly that the band was indeed a perfect fit to the horror-gloom purveyed weekly on the radio program. These complex, richly haunting songs marry almost to an absurd ideal with the essence of MCoQ, such that it was an easy decision to host a live performance, positioned to promote their groundbreaking first release.
Here's their set, short, sweet and brimming with power >
So yes, I certainly miss CBGB and can't even begin to talk about my general disappointment in the state of music venues that exist in Manhattan currently. That is a rant for another space, another time. It has been pointed out recently via more than one source, most notably by This Ain't The Summer Of Love that CBGB's - the brand, is hosting a music festival. A quick tweet of disdain by good friend Zenametal and I take a look...yes it looks dubious to me. The background, as from what I remember -is that the rights to the CBGB name/brand were sold off a couple of years ago, some four years after the closing of the club itself. There's been nary a peep from the punk icon's website, and I've heard background conversations about CBGB's coming back. In Manhattan. What? Was I drunk? So at the moment, there is not actual CBGB's any longer, and the entity known as CBGB is hosting a music conference, it's sponsored by Sonicbids and it's a $25 entry fee to be considered to get on the bill. I've got a pretty good dose of resignation in relation to pay to play things like this with absentee party-throwers' names. Apparently it's going to take over the city. Who's got a good guess as to what's going on here? Say it isn't so, or say it's gonna be killer! I suppose leaving the billing to the public and those interested is interesting, but there is such a thing as curating and caring. You can't put your arm around a memory...
On January 1, 1984, PBS aired Nam June Paik's "Good Morning Mr. Orwell." The entire concept, of PBS airing a series of bizarre happenings with artists ranging from Salvador Dali to Oingo Boingo, is pretty hard to imagine nowadays. Actually watching clips from the program is even stranger. A collection of clips from the program can be seen here, and gives a slight taste of what it must have been like to watch the program back in the day. John Cage plays amplified cactus with Takehisa Kosugi, Oingo Boingo is...Oingo Boingo, and Allen Ginsberg chants a sing songy tune with Arthur Russell on cello. The most striking piece, though, is Laurie Anderson's solo piece, "The Language of the Future." The piece also appears on Anderson's wonderful release, "United States Live." Her 1984 T.V. performance is transfixing:
"Man, oh man, you know, like, oh man! It's so...digital!" And she just meant that the relationship was on again, off again, always two things, switching, current runs through bodies, and then...it doesn't. It was a language of sounds, of noise, of switching, of signals. It was the language of the rabbit, the caribou, the penguin, the beaver, a language of the past. Current runs through bodies and then it doesn't. On again. Off again. Always two things switching. One thing instantly replaces another. It was the Language of the Future."
I work about three blocks from Henry Miller's childhood home: 662 Driggs Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.
I walk by it on lunchbreaks. Sometimes I stroll by after I clock out. Outwardly, the building itself has no real significance. It's an unassuming redbrick three-flat with an unused ground-floor store front. There's little to distinguish it from any other building on the block, but I keep going back. I'm in awe of its cultural importance. I'm in awe of Henry Miller.
The old goat's account of "the neighborhood" is one of many repetitive, hypnotic constants in his writing. His Fourteenth Ward appears promimently in several of his best works -- in essays, memoirs, novels, etc. -- so whenever I pass the rising redbrick, I immediately succumb to a dizzying carousel of comparisons: Miller's Williamsburg vs. its modern counterpart, his Brooklyn vs. others', his struggle to break through a square existence vs. my looming 5 p.m. beer urge.
Here's a sneak peek of Xeno and Oaklander's performance. The full episode airs next Tues. Mar 27 at 10pm on Ch. 67 Time Warner/MNN4 in Manhattan. More info at www.esptvnyc.com
E.S.P. TV episodes #12 and #13, taped on February 18th for Roulette's Xperimental Love Fest air this week. The shows feature trumpet and electronics drone duo Grasshopper, a kaleidoscopic set with MV Carbon and C Spencer Yeh and a 50 min piece by Little Women.
#13 aired this past Sunday, but you can see them both at the free screening party Tues. Mar 6th at Forlini's on Baxter St in Manhattan. #13 will be replayed at 9pm and ESP TV #12 will debut at 10pm sharp on Ch 67 Time Warner in Manhattan/MNN4 online at www.mnn.org. More info at: www.esptvnyc.com
In the meantime here's a taste of MV Carbon and C Spencer Yeh's set on E.S.P. TV #12:
Going back a bit, as we prepare the new E.S.P. TV episode #12 taped last week at Roulette in Brooklyn for their Xperimental Love Fest, to bring you this...
"That's probably the hardest I've worked on any project," says Avi Spivak, the illustrator behind Norton Records' recent issue of Kicksville Confidential. And if you've seen Kicksville, released this past October, you'll understand what he means by "hard work" -- the Brooklyn-based artist's painstaking renderings of Norton stars are as detailed as they are funny, and they're clearly the toil of someone with a deep interest in u-ground comics and gutsy r'n'r alike. In Spivak's enthusiastic scrawl -- part Kaz, part MAD, part G. Panter, part urban daydrunk stupor -- some of the Norton stable's more colorful tales come to life, and we see, for example, Hannibal's fabled ride through Midtown Manhattan on an elephant, a Screamin' Jay Hawkins/Esquerita street-level fistfight and Hasil Adkins's rural shootout.
Spivak's resume prior to Kicksville is no less impressive. In addition to commercial art and various other projects, like the mural he painted outside of the now-defunct Mars Bar, he's contributed to Maximum RocknRoll, The Scientist, Vice -- and Al Goldstein's SCREW, for which he illustrated a cover in 2006.
FOOD is a short film directed by aritst/photographer Robert Frank about Gordon Matta-Clark and Carol Goodden's conceptual restaurant. Founded in 1972 in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, FOOD brought together many factors of the local community, artists and otherwise, becoming a space for dialogue and conversation as well as a living piece in it of itself.
