Give the Drummer Some's Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere One of the great bloggers is calling it quits. Five years into a dazzling run of thoughtful earfuls, the chap behind Continuo's Weblog , the music-sharing site that originally described itself as "Reassessed aural delicacies," has decided to focus on other projects. Some blogs were more prolific. Others dropped rarer records, but no other site I've come across traveled as adventurous a path through the wonder of sound. Do yourself a favor and visit the site before the links [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
Ames Brothers - Night Train (2:24) If the liner notes of this 1960 Ames Brothers LP are accurate, their version of Night Train represents the first vocal version of the song ever recorded. To be honest, until I found this record at the local Goodwill store a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know anyone had ever done a vocal version of the tune. Well, there's James Brown's spectacular 1962 King records version which has vocals but those consist mostly of the name of the song interspersed with city names and [...]
This week, I went digging around in the corner of the catacombs where I keep stacks of radio ads and PSA's, and dug up a batch of 20-30 year old spots, on four different tapes, which are from a variety of very different times and places. First up, four 1981 PSA's from the US Customs service, two featuring the dulcet tones of Lorne Greene, and two featuring (a less-than-involved) sounding country singer Terri Gibbs: Four US Customs Service PSA's (MP3) | Front of Tape Box (JPG) | Back [...]
"Lakes, carillons, / Pools and bells, / Fifes and freshets, / Harps and wells; / Flutes and rivers, / Streams, bassoons, / Geysers, trumpets, / Chimes, lagoons. / Hear the music, / Drink the water, / As we poor lambs / All go to slaughter. / I love you Eliot. / Good-bye. I cry. / Tears and violins. / Hearts and flowers, / Flowers and tears. / Rosewater, good-bye." Kurt Vonnetgut / God Bless You Mr. Rosewater As a follow-up to one of my other puppet-monster-related posts , this week I had a hankering for [...]
The Beehive Recording Company is an incredible resource for quality, hand-crafted music from Detroit. They call it pop cuz it's damn good music, but Beehive is out to preserve a contemporary snapshot of everything from R&B to Russian folk, instrumental jazz to abstract hip-hop, electro-punk rock to the best kinds of avant weirdness. Detroit really sounds like a city where artists can pursue their vision, and Beehive is the singular vision of Stephen Nawara, a lifelong musician who's played in bands like the Detroit Cobras and Electric Six. He founded Beehive after going through the major [...]
Thx to Richard Kamerman for the tip.
Earcandy for your eyes Death Grips played Villain in Brooklyn on October 19, 2012. After the break: On The Might of Princes at Saint Vitus, Chain of Strength at The Acheron, Savages at Public Assembly, Virginia Plain at Union Pool, Prong on a boat, Yakuza at Saint Vitus and Theologian at 285 Kent. On The Might Of princes played Saint Vitus in Brooklyn on October 12, 2012. [...]
October is getting really scary for us here at WFMU... The month is nearly over and we have yet to hit the 50% mark for our silent fundraising goal! Help save the station from insolvency with your pledge . Snag our new turntable t-shirt (designed by Nick Dewar) for a pledge of $50 or more. Better yet, grab the shirt AND our incredible holiday music compilation, "WFMU's War on Christmas" for a pledge of $100. The holiday comp has an exclusive, unreleased version of "Jesus Christ" [...]
Give the Drummer Some's Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere Free ride. Free love. Free Bird. Free Mumia! Free to be you and me. Radio Free Europe. Freestyle. Free Soil Party. Free speech. Free your mind and your ass will follow. The Free Design. Free jazz. Free credit report. The truth shall set you free. Free love. Free range chicken. Free verse. Free radicals. Free trade agreement. Free throw. Free association. Free spirit. Born Free. World B. Free. Butterflies Are Free. Duty Free. Scott free. Freddie the Freeloader. Detroit Free Press. Footloose [...]
Last week I did a review of an LP from 1959 celebrating Hawaii as the 50th United State. Well, this week I've got an LP celebrating the (fabulous) 49th state, Alaska ("the last frontier" as some refer to it and as it's referred to on the record). This is a very, very obscure title. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's completely lost to history. Apparently, it's the original score for a quasi-Broadway musical production by the same name, though very little about it (or this album, for that matter) comes up doing [...]
Sheldon Allman has been mentioned before on this blog in 2006 , wherein we were informed about his history as an actor and singer in the 60s, notably appearing on The Fugitive , and The Twilight Zone . It was also made known that Allman did a record called Folk Songs for the 21st Century and he did music for an episode of Mr. Ed , writing and singing two songs as the voice of the talking horse, among many other things. What wasn't mentioned was that he [...]
(Image from Nomadic Politics ) WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio stream recently aired 30 classic Rough Mix radio productions by master mixologist Steinski , which originally aired on the station back in 1995. (You can hear archives of all those programs and more via this page .) Now Steinski has brought to life an all-new creation, just in time for the election. He calls it: Mitt vs. The Truth [...]
Over the past decade and a half, Phil Elverum has proved himself not only as a figure of great, transformative, and original music, but as a person who has set their own clear path within an increasingly commodified, corporatized independent music world. Handing almost every aspect of his music, from writing and recording songs to arranging art and printing the vinyl, Elverum has established an individualistic musical identity that continues to inspire. 2012 has proved to be a great year for Elverum, with two brilliant full-length albums, ( [...]
Vicki Bennett has been making audio and visual collage since 1991, when the internet was a fetus and you probably didn't own a computer. She creates her work with the nom de plume People Like Us . It's a moniker that speaks to the role of the collective and popular culture in her work, and a need to belong. Using collage as her medium, she creates audio recordings, films and radio shows that mix and manipulate original sources from both experimental and popular media. Her work [...]
Give the Drummer Some's Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere Got Indonesian psych? Radical French balladry? Iconic 20th-century experimentalism? Free-jazz power trios? Aussie folk warbling? Well you've come to the right place. Mining the Audio Motherlode prowls the free-music blogosphere in order to share the mindblowingest sounds around. To enjoy the fruits of this labor, take a gander at the quintet of gems on display below. Freeform radio station WFMU, which keeps the Sterno ablaze under this sonic buffet, is holding a fundraiser and needs your help. If you've [...]
Thanks to WFMU’s Internets dominance, we have now reached the furthest niche of nicheyness in Listeners, which is fans of the South Carolina Gamecocks. (Hi, Deep South!) The Gamecocks, the # 3 7 college football team in the country, are the subject of an extremely fine and hitherto unheard-of conspiracy theory, launched by fans of Georgia (another state somewhere outside the WFMU broadcast area) after the Bulldogs were humiliated by South Carolina in a game a couple of weeks ago. Georgia fans speculate that their distressing loss was due not to the Gamecock defense holding Georgia to just 115 yards [...]
Radio Spot #1 (:26) Radio Spot #2 (:59) The web site Rural Route Films decribes this low-budget backwoods hillbilly flick this way : "Originally released under the unfortunate title Miss Jessica Is Pregnant (it was filmed under the title Spring Night Summer Night), this 1968 portrait of poverty-stricken Appalachia represents a unique moment in the history of the American independent film. Shot entirely on location in Southern Ohio, the story of a young couple, who may or [...]
The Spooky Kids had a couple of side projects: " Satan on Fire " and " Mrs. Scabtree ". Satan on Fire was a fake Christian death metal band, consecrated with the intention to infiltrate the Christian "club scene". They had radio play for a song (that I have never been able to find) called "Mosh For Jesus". Mrs. Scabtree was referred to as "not even performance art, just art". Apparently they had a song where all they would do is name the women around town whom they knew had herpes. They would paint their faces black and wear [...]
WFMU's Beware of the Blog
‘The Terminator,’ starring Woody Allen
New Album: Freddie Gibbs – ESGN [Stream]
“Is Burial actually Four Tet?” hoax resurfaces online
Frau – Tarian Sari (stream)
