WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Live At The Stork Club: Quintron, The Frogs and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

For a brief but delirious spell way back in the 1990s, The Stork haunted our halls.  That's him on the left.  Stork hosted a must-listen program called Live At The Stork Club, mostly on Sunday nights, if memory serves.  As the name might imply, mostly Stork hosted live musical guests, in his own impeccably gracious manner. 

I bet somewhere on The Internet there exists a full list of all the bands who served time in Stork's "Moose Room".  Unfortunately, most of this stuff happened during the last Stone Age, just before we began archiving all our programming.  Happily, many of these shows do exist, someplace, in some form or another; and where time, technology and endurance permit, we'll make the archives available to you.  Here's three vintage shows to get you started:

• Christmas With Quintron - Mr. Quintron, Miss Pussycat and Flossie & The Unicorns joined Stork on Xmas Eve, 1995 for a uniquely warped evening of organs, drum buddies & puppet shows.  Listen here (mp3 stream).
• The Frogs - Wisconsin's legendary Flemion brothers celebrate their newfound 90s celebrity among the era's alt-rock elite; spin records by Wesley Willis, Beck and Jewel; and perform an acoustic set of music positively guaranteed to get us some major FCC finery were this show to be aired today.  From July 20, 1997.  Listen here (mp3 stream)
• Gorky's Zygotic Mynci - On July 16, 1998, WFMU consummated its love affair with these Welsh psych-folk imps.   And Stork was there.  Gorky's would visit us three more times over the years, visiting Irene's show and my own show (twice, in fact).  Listen here for their first appearance, with Stork.

I was fortunate enough to attend these last 2 sessions - jump the flip if you're interested in my fuzzy recollections.

Einstürzende Dead Mosquitos

I hear the Germans have a good chuckle at the American tendency to view Blixa Bargeld as some mysterious, dark and dangerous creature.  The man we know best as the firestarting sledgehammer-wielding Einstürzende Neubauten shriek'n howling Bad Seed with S&M themed performance & fashion aesthetic is better known to his country volks as a national institution: Movie Star, Urbane Gentleman, Celebrity Chef, and now, the face of the German equivalent of Home Depot.

Fabio Roberti, aka Our Fobsie, host of Strength Through Failure, shows us the following award-winning German television commercials, starring our hero:

• Blixa recommends a strong mosquito killer.
• Blixa can't get enough of these new paving stones.
• Blixa not love a power drill?  Pshaw!
• Blixa on paint.

You're invited to further nosh on Neubauten.  Herewith, my interview with Blixa (RM link) on April 28, 2000.  I was scared shitless.  It was my first radio interview ever, I was intimidated, and it was my birthday.  I desperately needed to smoke cigarettes and drink beer. We did, and it went fine, though I'm sure I'd be humiliated to hear it now.

And here once again is Our Fobsie, hosting (RM link) another Neubauten, Alexander Haacke.

And finally, here's an mp3 download of the song you hear playing in all those commercials --
12305 Te Nacht (5.7m), from the album Tabula Rasa.  Yippee ya-ya yippee yippee yay.

Oh My God, You Don't Know What You TOOK?

I was watching the Brian Turner / WFMU-curated episode of NY Noise the other night, and up comes this Public Service Announcement from the Bad Council (who've actually done some cool things - remember The Crying Indian (RM video link)? One of theirs).  Two little kids are having diner dinner with Dad, who's clearly got a scar on his ear where once hung an earring.  The announcer says something to the effect of "your dad had an earring back in the day when only bikers and hippies had earrings" (the dude's only like 30, but whatever).  "And you know what bikers and hippies had in common?  The Drugs."  The remainder of the hour was filled with similarly snarky anti-drug messages from the same source, like the dad who rolls himself up in the rug and tells his daughter he's a joint.  Relating, you know.  A bunch of grownups desperately trying to convince their kids they're hip to the now scene, while maintaining a just-say-no message. 

One of my duties here at the so-called Magic Factory is serving as Public Service Announcement Director, so if some organization's got an anti-drug campaign, they're sending their material to me.  Mostly it's dreadful.  Mostly it's the former mayor of Hillsborough or some such place politely suggesting the kids find something else to do: "Hey kids, my anti-drug is politics!" - in astoundingly low fidelity.  But not the Bad Council!  They're F-U-N!  Sometimes.  No, mostly not.  Here's all the fun ones, enjoy.

(mp3s) A-B-C-D-PCP...  |  Baa Baa Black Sheep  |  Humpty Dumpty

These here all cleverly update some of your favorite nursery rhymes, while the ones that follow get a little more "very special episode" on you:

(mp3s) You Wanna... y'know?  |  You Don't Know What You Took?!

Now let's go back to 1973, when Bill Cosby actually did this kind of thing pretty well (RM link to Kenny G's show). "The Dopepusher" (alright, the chorus blows -- but those shouted verses are great!)

And finally, don't forget: Daddy drinks because you cry.  (mp3)

Mother(s) Rage

Jesus, what's up Internet?  I know you go through your phases, but what's with this white-ladies-of-the-American-south-flipping-their-lids kick you've been on lately?  What?  You've always been obsessed by them?!  Hmmm... so you have.  And it's not just you?  I guess you're right.  Well, TV may have started it, but you've gotta admit you're sort of harvesting them.

Exhibits:

Margaret Perrin She's the one that seems to have started all this. Click to view a gag-reel of her show-saving turn on Fox's "Trading Spouses".  (Oh please, no booing, you're better than that!) Margaret is what you might call a "Good Christian Woman from Louisiana".  You are what Margaret would call a "Gargoyle from the dark side". 

Parking Lot Pariah (NSFW): And over here we've got the potty-mouthed secular (also southern) version of Mrs. Perrin.  (both of these vids via break.com)

"You should've asked me nicely, Mom" (link to clean Realaudio version, or download the totally choad-licking obscene mp3).  This is some unhinged Mom (from the south) and her dickwad 16-yr old kid, which I found on The Internet someplace.  She started screaming at him to let her use his car, so he turned on his webcam.  You only need to hear the audio.  I hear some of our DJs have tried this tactic, only to fail when the parental ass-whupping commenced.

Speaking of parental ass-whuppings, here's a thing someone wrote back in 1998, and it's all about being a mom and raging at your kid - way back in 1998!  What's more, she says all mothers got rage -- so this kinda thing's been going on since 1998, and The Internet is just now catching on? Shame on you Internet!  Tho I grant, it's not really your territory until it becomes porn -- hey, what's that?! A site that fetishizes that movie "Locked Up: A Mothers Rage" starring Cheryl Ladd as a raging mom who smokes cigarettes!!  (For what it's worth, here's Realaudio of my kid Lila flipping the tables and raging at her mother, accompanied by Nurse With Wound.)

Of course, one need not be an actual mother to be in possession of Mother Rage; no, mother rage makes plenty of allowance for human complexity.  We celebrate (flip) now with two versions of the "Dyketactic" classic from Kathy Fire, "Mother Rage".

Secos e Molhados, Next Big Thing for '73

By anybody's standard, 700,000 records sold is a huge success.  By Brazilian standards, that's just incalculably enormous.  32 years ago, the Sao Paolo band Secos e Molhados ("Dry & Wet Goods") sold 700,000 copies of their eponymous debut record (shown, left), and still nobody outside Brazil knows who they were - not even WFMU.  Let's start knowing.

Secos e Molhados "Sangue Latino" and "O Vira" (wmv movie, 18M)

The most important thing you can do for yourself today is watch this video, which ends on the frame you see to your right  Go do that, then come back and I'll tell you more about them.

When I first heard the debut Secos & Molhados album, I endured several months of confusion trying to figure out who's the woman singing, and why isn't she on the album cover?  Well sir, "she" is Ney Matogrosso, and he is indeed on the cover.  No, he doesn't sound like a feminine guy, and he's not singing falsetto - he sings like a girl!!  And it's totally beautiful, and these songs are mostly achingly sweet.  The confusion lingered as I got hung up on the disconnect between the sound of the songs and the look of the total freaks who, it seems, are performing them.  And then along came Wolmar.  He's my fave dealer of Brazilian esoterica at the annual WFMU Record Fair, and he actually had some video footage - lots of it.  And now the pieces are coming together.  Go listen to some songs:

O Patrão nosso de cada dia (realaudio link)
O Vira (realaudio link)
Rosa de Hiroshima (realaudio link)

Jump the flip if you're interested in a little bit of history on the band (which is remarkably scarce in English).

Have You Heard About The Lonesome Losers?

This post concerns the most utterly mediocre music ever made, and the earth-shatteringly banal (and interchangeable) "bands" that made it - and yet I'm doing you a favor.  Because I know you can't tell them apart, and it's been bugging you, as it's been bugging me, to match the SMOOTH HIGH-HARMONIED 1974-80 AM RADIO HIT to the ANONYMOUS WHITE, LIKELY MUSTACHIOED GUYS WITH THE LONG-FORGOTTEN NAME who made it.

Can you honestly tell the difference between Ambrosia and Pablo Cruise?  Ace and Pilot?  Have the words "whutchoo gonna do when she says goodbye? whutchoo gonna do when she is gone?" been permanently etched onto your ear, yet without the courtesy of an author to claim resposibility?  I'm here for YOU.  This is a PUBLIC SERVICE.  Honestly, I'm sure this'll do you some good.  (And I actually really like 2 of these songs!  .... OK, one and a half.)

Clickable mp3 song snippets on the left, bands on the right -- some bands have multiple entries, just so you can be shocked by how many fucking hits they had.  (And one giant yellow clue.)

Baby Come Back  ||  Biggest Partof Me  ||  Dance With Me  ||  Diamond Girl  ||  Get Closer  ||  How Long  ||  How Much I Feel || I Just Wanna Stop ||  Just Remember I Love You  ||  Kiss You All Over  || Lady  ||  Lonesome Loser  ||  Let Me Love You Tonight  ||  Love Will Find A Way ||  Magic  ||  Reminiscing  ||  Sad Eyes  ||  Sharing the Night Together  ||  Sky High  ||  Still The One  ||  Whatcha Gonna Do  ||  When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman  ||  You Are The Woman  ||  I'd Really Love To See You Tonight.  (ALL mp3 SAMPLES)

Ace  ||  Ambrosia  ||  Dr. Hook  ||  England Dan & John Ford Coley  ||  Exile  ||  Firefall  ||  Gino Vanelli  ||  Jigsaw  ||  Little River Band  ||  Orleans  ||  Pablo Cruise  ||  Pilot  ||  Player  ||  Pure Prairie League  ||  Robert John  ||  Seals & Crofts

Jump the flip, solve the crime.

Tres Femmes Fâchées

My current musical obsession focuses on 3 artists: Colette Magny, Catherine Ribeiro, and Theatre du Chene Noir.  Many's the unifying string running thru all three: French women doing their defining work in the late 1960's & early 70's; operating well outside any cultural drift; all three appearing on the famed Nurse With Wound list (which Wm Berger has been so heroically documenting on these pages - rise Wm, rise!!).  There's a fierce political character to all 3 as well, often subtle or implied, tho in the case of Mme Magny, sublimely overt. 

But the thing that most strikes me about all 3 is a delivery that seems informed primarily by fatal despair and a supremely confident anger.  I think it's this quality that has me so gaga over these artists, and it's this quality that I'll present to you in audio linkery.  On this page, there's some brief biographical info on each, and over the fold I'll offer the audio links, selected discogs, and more links.

Colette Magny came first, (and has sadly died first) and was a massive influence on much French music to come.  Beginning her career as a blues and folk singer, she became radicalized by the U.S. Civil Rights movement, the Nueva Canción  musicians in South America, as well as the worldwide student revolt of that bygone era - you know the one.  Her most astounding material is unapologetically violent, shocking, yet quite effective agit-prop accompanied by a heavy, romping jazzy rumpus.

Catherine Ribeiro (link is to her official website) began her career as a Ye Ye Girl and actress (appearing in 1963 in Godart's "Les Carabiniers") before meeting the composer Patrice Moullet, whom she married, and with whom she formed the bands 2-Bis and Alpes.  Heavily influenced by Magny's vocal style, musically Ribeiro's most exciting incantations leap off from some of the most intense, repetitive and thrilling rural space-rock you'll find this side of Amon Düül, or even early Gong - several of whose members found their way to Alpes. Catherine's still busy performing in France, and she's apparently quite popular in Belgium.

I don't know who this woman to the right is, but she may possibly be the mysterious and haunting voice of Theatre du Chene Noir, a performance troupe from Avignon led by a guy named Gerard Gelas. There's sadly little I can find out about them, but it does seem that their recordings are actually documents of live stage plays.  Check out this pic from one of them, "Miss Madonna". Musically presenting a diversity of styles, the anonymous vocal delivery is at once sexy and defiant, cooing and unapproachable.  Her voice seems to be the one that appears on albums from 1971 and 1975. In any case, Gerard is still active.

Jump the fold and listen...

For our Tuvan friends, a little thing called Perspective.

Yes, sure, there's something like 2,000 years' worth of history informing the art of the throat singers of the Mongolian, Siberian, and, since 1921, Tuvan regions of Central Asia - fine, you're right. Now get back in the basement and stop harshing our groovy.  You see, thanks to Albert Kuvezin and the band Yat-Kha, this deep cultural tradition has been solidly plopped into post-modernity, and FUN!

OK, a teensy bit of background: Tuvan throat-singers, such as the longstanding WFMU faves Huun-Huur-Tu and Sainkho Namtchylak, have long fascinated Western ears with their ability to sing multiple (and audible) harmonic overtones at once.  Oftentimes, their khoomei resemble the drone produced by that cornerstone of your more advanced hippie jam-circle, the didgeridoo.  And very often, their tones feature a distinct bird-like whistle.  You want to know more?  The web's full of it, go see - we've got some recontextualizing to do.

Here at WFMU, it takes a more refined novelty song to get us horny.  Song parodies and funny voices tickle us not.  But did you say "what would Perez Prado sound like playing Nirvana songs?"??  Talk to me, brother!  And really, who can resist this utterly choice nugget:

"I'd really love to hear a Tuvan throat singer do Joy Division" ("Love Will Tear Us Apart", realaudio from Stefan's "The Belly of The Beast")

And there we are.  Say, while we're at it, maybe throw in some Zeppelin?  Hey, make it topical - "When the Levee Breaks".(Realaudio from Ken's show)  Now We Are Talking!  And here comes the aforementioned Albert and his Yat-Khas, and they've got us covered with their new album "Re-Covers" - a collection of... yessssss, fave rock hits done in the Tuvan style!!

You know the Inuits?  Those eskimo people up north that Ken likes so much?  They've got a tradition of throat-singing too.  Though mostly they're about gamesmanship, and you're not going to hear them riffing a mean "The Man Machine" (Realaudio from my show) anytime soon.  But they're throat-singing, so they're in the continuum.  And thanks to Albert Kuvezin and Yat-Kha, we can see that road more clearly, and may readily note some formerly unlikely precedents to this Throat Singing jive:

Clarence "Frogman" Henry "I Ain't Got No Home" (Realaudio from Dave the Spazz)

Bent Bolt & The Nuts "The Mechanical Man" (Realaudio from Greasy Kid Stuff)

Billy "Froggy" Laughlin, of the Little Rascals / Our Gang comedies

Popeye (wav link)

Or maybe you respect tradition and history - fine, look below the fold and receive rich musical rewards. 

Cymraeg Ceraint Deilyngu Yn Deall

In a previous post, I solicited WFMU anagrams.  Now I'll propose another: 

Welsh Friends Merit Understanding.

Believe it or not, we've got a pretty strong Welsh contingent here:  Wales may claim myself (myfi), Brian Turner (Durniwr), Evan "Fwnc" Davies, Gaylord Fields (Barciau), and Bronwyn Carlton (no change). There may even be others, and I wish they'd stop hiding.

Ha ha ha, sheep at a fence - oh yeah, never heard THAT one before!  Ah, but frankly I'm not here to foster understanding and warm relations between Us Welsh and everybody else - not in that way, anyway.  We revel in your misunderstanding.  No, I just like the language, and since You People are always with the "what the, whaaa- it's all consonants?!", I thought maybe I'd address it... a little bit.

Back in the day when just about every DJ we've got took to mangling the band name Gorky's Zygotic Mynci on the air, I gained a reputation as the guy who knew how to pronounce it.  I had, after all, just returned from a trip to Llangollen, (mp3) host of the annual Eisteddfod, (mp3) where I learned how to pronounce both of those words.  Click on 'em to hear me say them, then look below the fold where I'll teach you how to do it too.

(By the way, "Gorky's Zygotic Mynci" actually contains no Welsh words, it's just all nonsense -- I think.)

So anyway, there I was, just back from Conwy Castle on the North Sea, and nearly every day I'd hear someone on the in-house intercom going "Scott, will you please come to the main studio and tell me how to say 'Merched yn neud Gwallt eu Gilydd', or 'Iechyd Da'".  It was a hoot - I even got a Welsh phrasebook.  I haven't picked it up since 1998, but I still have it.  Now along comes Gruff Rhys from Super Furry Animals with his "Chwarae'n Troi'n Chwerw" and his "Yr Atal Genhedlaeth", and I don't feel like such a smartypants anymore.

Ha ha ha, sheep at a water fountain...
 

This Jandek Must Die, and WFMU Revealed.

Despite the nicey-niceys you always hear on the radio, behind the scenes we can be a catty bunch.  As a listener, I used to imagine WFMU was some idyllic collective in common pursuit of a pure appreciation of art and culture.  Fuckin' hippy.  Ultimately, my perverse nature got the better of me, and I peeked behind the curtain - and summarily got my big notions pricked, toute de suite.  These People can't even get it together to enjoy a nice game of softball!

I have learned and gained much from the barbs, goofs, put-downs, cheap-shots, derision and humiliation WFMU DJs regularly inflict upon each other, but one recent near rumble illuminated something that's being lost to all of this: The Mystery. 

The subject of the scuffle was Jandek.

Oh boy... Should he or Shouldn't he have gone public?  Many think shouldn't.  Others think should, for a variety of reasons. Most think it's a pointless argument that is utterly irrelevant to the man himself and offered only for the distraction of critics, fans and DJs.  I'm with the Should Nots, but I should note that my opinion is based on a position of indifference.  The last time I played Jandek on the air was August 20th 2001, and it was as part of a collage, fer cryin out loud!

Nope, never really been a fan - but the one thing I could always feel excited about concerning the elusive representative from Corwood Industries was the absolute mystery that surrounded him.  One time, Irwin said this:

"...imagine a subterranean microphone wired down to a month-old tomb, capturing the sound of maggots nibbling on a decaying corpse and the agonized howls of a departed soul desperate to escape tortuous decomposition and eternal boredom." 

There you go!  Now imagine that while looking at this picture (hidden!)

No no no no no, that's not what Jandek music looks like!  Jandek music looks like Jandek album covers, some of which illustrate this here blog post (and all of which live here.)  And one time, Jandek said this: 

"It's probable that your crafted story would be more interesting than any other. Intrigue goes a long way sometimes." 

In fact, I think he was talking to Irwin.  So yeah, I agree with that Jandek.  Oh, maybe you've never heard Jandek.  If that's the case, click any one of these words to hear a different Jandek song played on WFMU.

I shall now reveal some WFMU Mysteries for you, and you won't like it!  Look below the fold, then remember the halcyon days when you had to rely on your own crafted story...

WFM-Blue

It's a sad but simple irony: radio DJs are uncannily drawn to the Filthy Talk.  We love nothing more than coming out of a fucking uptempo record (MP3) every time we do a goddam death dedication.

WFMU DJs, some have argued, have an even greater tendency than most toward the potty-mouthery.  Yet consider: is WFMU an acronym?  Of course it's a fucking acronym!!  With "F" and "U" built right in!  So it's in our DNA. But of course, we more than you have to curb the urge, and Good God In Heaven, don't you know that it's hard!

And really, that's what we like about The Internet, whose sewage runs so deep those regulatory tentacles up on the hill just can't reach (mmm, yet).  So we've gotcher Blue programs, right here! Innuendo! Bush-bashing!  And your meat & potatoes dirty talk - it's all below, and it's Not Safe For Work, so quit your pussyfooting, look under the fold, and roll around in some of the muck we like to hurl...