WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Hear 10 Secs from Every Hit Song of the '90s

1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999

I watched part of The Crow last night (yeah, just part...we had to turn it off it was so bad) and was struck by how much of a solidified, historical aesthetic the '90s already has, just as much as the '80s or the '70s are a static time capsule of cultural silliness.  Yes, it was when I saw the faux-wet goth haircut of that "Craven" guy (real subtle name there, excellent foreshadowing) that I experienced the Proustian recollection and realized that I'm no longer "becoming a man", I'm just "a man".  The time of Jnco jeans and Darias is over.  And it was a simpler time, was it not?  No 9/11, no three simultaneous wars, no economic disaster and no Snooki.  Listen to these mp3s and pine for these more pastoral days of yore.  Read along with the clips here.

Find the rest of my "Ten Secs of _0s" column here, and listen to my radio show here.  Next up is the exciting conclusion...Every Top 100 song ever!  Plus I'll release the software I used to produce these chartsweeps along with a contest to showcase your supercut on my upcoming FMU marathon premium!

Entr’acte: The Rodeo Clown

 

So: Bullriding. You get on the bull in a chute, and the gate opens, and the bull comes out and bucks, and you stay on as long as you can, and then you fall off. Or, if you manage to stay on for eight (8!) seconds, then they blow a horn and you can jump off. And then what happens? You’re on the ground, in an enclosed area, with a pissed-off 2200-pound animal with big testicles, big horns, and also possibly ’roid rage. (There was a bull-doping steroids scandal in 2007.)  For your protection, they bring in the clowns.

TV Is the Government: The Underground Vaudeville of TV Party

By Gabriella Arrigoni - Collection: TV Party

Watch more on Network Awesome

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.

Seasons in the Sun

Permit me to share both sides of a record from 1991, showcasing a couple of the era's "novelty" rock bands. The single is Blobs Vol. 2, on the Way Out label. I bought it at Academy in Brooklyn. Enjoy!

The Squirrels, founded in Seattle in 1984, were active with varying lineups including until 2009 -- they were backed by the Young Fresh Fellows for a brief time. Their songs were always radically-reimagined covers, which often combined elements of a few different well-known tunes. My favorite part of this three-tiered one comes in the middle, with their weird and joyful version of "Seasons in the Sun" featuring a little kid guest vocalist. The rest of it is pretty good too.

Beautiful Sunday/Seasons in the Sun/The Hustle (MP3)

The other band are the Show Business Giants from British Columbia. The S.B.G.s have what I deem a great website, and also had a couple of good tracks on this record: "All Night Man" and "You're a Leper." The former is especially noteworthy for rhyming "agenda" with "pudenda." On their side of the insert sheet, there is writing by the band members about a fictional condiment supplier named Uncle Wes who changed their lives for the better.

All Night Man (MP3)

You are a Leper (MP3)

Nazario Scenario streams every Wednesday from noon to 3 PM on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio. Here are some archives! Love, Amanda

DJ Handi's Archive Picks: Happy 2012, Dancing Zola Jesus

On Imaginary Radio, Chris M. played some of his favorite 2011 dance music, including Joker, Skream, and Nero, before a guest spot from Norwegian DJ VLR, who continued with a set of  his dance music picks for '11. He recommended "forget about '92 and discover '11."

Many WFMU DJ's have been revisiting their picks of last year's music, including reissued music. Joe McGasko played  "Judith" by Lucho Perez, from  The Original Sound Of Cumbia, on the Soundaway label. Another recent reissue is of the 1966 Beach Boy Smile Sessions, music composed by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. Bob Brainen played the orchestral psychedelia of "My Only Sunshine."

Kelli, on Beastin' The Airwaves, played music from, among others, Caged Animals and Zola Jesus. She then interviewed music writer John Swenson, who talked about his new book, New Atlantis:Musicans Battle For Survival In New Orleans. Kelli then hosted a live set from Idgy Dean.

Here is some WFMU Blog news: starting now, the archive picks post will also announce upcoming live events, and you'll hear more live performances in the archive selections, Today, different versions of Thelonious Monk's "Friday The 13th" will be featured on Miniature Minotaurs with Kurt Gottschalk, 3-6pm. Transpacific Sound Paradise will be live from The Golden Festival, Saturday, 6-9pm. On Daniel Blumin's show,  Reinhold Fried of The Zeitkratzer (Time Scraper) Ensemble will appear Saturday, 9pm-Midnight. Barry Adamson will be on Imaginary Radio with Chris M,.3am-6am. Twin Guns will be on Three Chord Monte with Joe Belock, Tuesday, Januray 17 from Noon-3pm, and Scones Radio with Brad and Momo will podcast Sammo Soundboy and DJ Sliink from Noon-2pm.

Zoviet France Television Profile

Found this tonight, an excellent television profile from Toronto on elusive and legendary British experimentalists Zoviet France. Another band, along with The Shadow Ring, criminally overdue for some kind-of re-issue campaign:

Basil Wolverton rendering of Mel Blanc

Trolling through the archives of showbiz periodical Variety, I came across this unique Basil Wolverton rendering of legendary voice actor Mel Blanc. Wolverton, as you can plainly see, was one of Robert Crumb's main inspirations. Mel Blanc was known for his prolific work on radio, notably The Jack Benny Program, and, of course, as the voice of most Looney Tunes characters.

File Under: Boo, Hooray, Boo-Hooray, Art, Not Art, Books

Next Wednesday, Jan. 18, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., the Boo-Hooray Gallery will open its latest/greatest exhibition, Artists' Book Not Artists' Book, an oddball showcase of books artistic, non- and all manner in-between.

For the unfamiliar, Boo-Hooray is the brainchild of kingpin rec collector and art aficionado Johan Kugelberg; he and cohort Jeremy Sanders (of 6 Decades Books) have co-curated the exhibit.  Artists' Book Not Artists' Book promises an array of curious tomes by the likes of Richard Meltzer, William Gibson, Richard Hell and Ed Ruscha, to name but a sampling, and judging from the gallery's previous shows -- displays of Ed Wood's paperback smut, photos and art relative to the Velvet Underground, Crass-related fanzines, etc. -- this one will be another doozy, even (or especially!) if you can't read.

All and sundry are welcome to stop by the gallery's space in Manhattan, 265 Canal Street (6th floor), where the show will run from Jan. 18 to Feb. 12, much to the delight and confusion of artists and philistines alike.  Those wishing to RSVP for the opening should do so here. 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 149

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

In addition to producing this weekly travelogue through Freemusicstan, I also wrassle a couple of other sonic obsessions: I run a 24-hour webstream/radio channel for WFMU called Give the Drummer Radio, and I host two weekly radio programs live on the stream, called Give the Drummer Some. (The show airs Tuesdays, 6 to 7pm and Fridays, 9am to noon, ET.)

In its default mode, the stream delivers a continuous flow of the sorts of sounds presented here in the Motherlode—unusual, wide-ranging, adventuresome, groovy. In addition to the queue of tracks, the stream also serves as a broadcast channel for radio programs produced by a regular crew of DJs. For a schedule of these shows and links to their playlists and archives, go here. To listen to the stream anytime, go here.

In the next two weeks two programs will be added the the GTDR schedule. Starting tomorrow and airing every Thursday, noon to 2pm, Charlie Lewis will revive his excellent show Busy Doing Nothing. Beginning  on January 20, and airing every Friday, noon to 1pm will be rebroadcasts of mix maestro Steinski's legendary show A Rough Mix, which first ran on WFMU back in the mid''90s!

For program alerts and other info, friend Give the Drummer Radio on Facebook and follow on Twitter at @GTDRadio.

    
Yoshiaki Fujikawa & EastAsia Orchestra  ~  "Shoyoh Jurin"
(Blog: Big in Japan)

Blowing in from the East
"Very rare original Japanese progressive, improvised free Jazz Avant record from 1984."  (Random description on a Popsike page)

"This is great, Doug! It sounds like a demented version of Masada or something."  (Comment left by "Ricardo Montalban" on the playlist for my January 6 radio show.)

Ray Price

 

Don't let that seemingly happy and carefree countenance in the photo above fool you, friends.  Ray Price isn't a happy man, at least not if you judge him by the long string of essential honky-tonk records he made in the 1950s and 60s.

Sure, a ton of great country music comes from a place of emotional despondency, but I don't think anyone ever devoted more time, energy and talent to gloriously mournful tales of grief-stricken losers in the game of love.  So regularly and convincingly has he visited this territory, in fact, that I feel confident in assuming that Ray would understand if I described him as looking at the world through morose-colored glasses.  But it's not just the fact that he comes across as a guy who's not happy unless he's miserable that makes his best records so great, it's also the fact that they were unbelievably well-written songs, expertly played and produced, and simply catchy as all get out.

Elvis To KLF: The Train I Ride Is Sixteen Coaches Long

Life with a three-year-old can find you focusing on on forms and representations of transportation you wouldn't otherwise. Trains, for example, hold a particular resonance with the developing mind that challenge their relative rarity compared to cars and airplanes. We've found ourselves meeting constant demands for all things trains by discovering the online world of obsessive documentarians of all things locomotive. Watching this narration-and-music-free modern footage of old-fashioned steam engines has caused us to consider the sensual impact the advent of train travel would have on the rural blues men who would incorporate the sound of trains into their music and use the eeire whistle of the coming train as a metaphor for all great changes in life, love and death.

WFMU DJs Pick Their Favorites of 2011 (Part V)

For prior DJ favorites lists, click here.  This time around, we've got posts from Paul Haney, William Berger, Jesse Jarnow and Chris T...  First up are Paul Haney's favorites...

As with all musical fanatics, I listen to a breadth of music that spans numerous decades, and since in recent years I've been especially moved by albums that were released well before my birth, or even albums I may have missed from a few years prior, I've tended to lose a certain perception of time, which can make for difficulty when compiling such year-end lists. And as all these disclaimers tend to go, I apologize in advance for the absence of any albums from 2011 that I have yet to hear that I'm sure I would've made this list (i.e. Graham Lambkin's Amateur Doubles, the Eleven Twenty-Nine album on Northern Spy, etc.). Anyway, as it goes this list has no particular running order, nor is it even a definitive ranking of the albums bestowed upon us this past year that truly moved me. Simply, these are records that made a great impression on me and stood out with an unsullied immediacy. Onward we go...

SSPS: Video Threat

Thinking about bests of 2011, call me old fashioned but I still enjoy this piece from 2010.

Pickle backs and saddle sores

Applejack was drunk. Not hammered, but enough to be getting surly. We were sitting in some forgettable Irish pub near Penn Station and she was going on about how hard life in Equestria could be. In town for BroNYCon, the tough girl of the My Little Pony world had grown tired of signing autographs and had snuck away from her adoring fans to enjoy a drink. I had been sitting at the bar when she walked in, sat down next to me, and started chewing my ear off.

Empty shot glasses littered the bar in front of us, and Applejack’s breath reeked of brine from the dozen pickle backs she’d put away. “You ever seen Applebuck Season?” she asked me, her mane making a faint swishing noise as her head bobbed back and forth. “You think Stutterfly helped with that harvest? Always playing with her forest friends. You think that bitch Rarity is doing anything but combing her tail all day?”

She gulped down another shot of house whiskey and pointed her hoof at me for emphasis. “You think climbers are tough?” She gestured over to Madison Square Garden where the Professional Bull Riders event was going on. “You think those stupid cowboys over there are tough? Horseshit. Ponies are tough. Ponies are tougher than anyone,” and then she burped, vomiting a little bit in her mouth, and swallowing it back down.

Steve and Eydie! The Andrews Sisters! Rudy Vallee! The Mills Brothers! Nat King Cole! And Frankie Avalon?? It's "The Golden Circle"!!! (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 24) (MP3's)

Mixed in with a dozen other as yet unlistened-to tapes I grabbed from the basement a month or so ago, I found one five inch reel which certainly stood out. It contained a recording of a TV show, which I've since learned aired in November of 1959, hosted by Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, titled "The Golden Circle". This show does not appear to be readily available, as far as I can tell, online or in video collecting circles. It should be interesting to those who enjoy this era of music, but it's truly "Gold" due to one moment which occurs about halfway through.

The idea was to include performers whose work put them into the pantheon of greats - Music and musicians whose records have "Gone Gold", and have sold a million or more copies. And the line-up, for the most part, lives up to the billing:

The tape recordist missed the opening of the show, so the tape starts after the opening comments, and most of the way through a performance by The Andrews Sisters, who then (after a few comments from the host) do a medley of more of their hits. Steve Lawrence then does his Bing Crosby imitation, and he and the Andrews Sisters sing "South America, Take It Away", which also includes a lengthy band interlude. Then follows the first ad (all the ads are for Oster products, and all are unfortunately cut, to one degree or another).

The Golden Circle – Segment One (MP3)

The show returns, and Rudy Vallee shows up! He does a song and banters with the hosts (It's "Kookie, Dad!"), before performing his hit "Kitty From Kansas City" with Eydie and the backup singers. I love Vallee's early records, and it's sort of sad to hear him here, either unable to sing or choosing not to, and instead, talk-singing the lyrics. After the song, Steve indicates that the grandchildren of Rudy's fans are crazy over that Frankie Avalon, who steps onstage to sing his latest hit, "Venus".

THEN the fun begins! There is some goofy bantering about how Frankie needs to learn how to handle his money, which somehow leads into the unlikely event of the night: Rudy Vallee and Steve Lawrence dueting on Lloyd Price's then-recent hit song "Personality", with the lyrics indicated as advice, directed at Frankie Avalon!

The Golden Circle – Segment Two (MP3)