WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Bizarre, Smutty Video from LTK Commune

If the People's Republic of China still has military designs on Taiwan, they might want to first check out the latest video from the Taiwanese political novelty band Loh Tsui Kweh Commune (Download .mov movie file). After a visual checklist of internationally-accepted rock cliche's (devil horns, stage diving, guitar smashing, keyboard histrionics, etc), the band (also known as LTK and LTK Commune) gets down to business with the old chainsaw-up-the-butt gag. (Did I mention the video's complete absence of work-safeness?) But LTK doesn't stop there.

Before finally getting down with Buddhah, the band engages in male lactation fantasies and inexplicable product-positioned prostate exams. All in all, a bizarre and wondrous Asian smutfest, full of highly entertaining imagery, much of which would be scandalous here, but which is apparently A-OK for that haven of free-speech, Taiwan. via del.icio.us/video

This Week in Sex: Tricks and Treats

Ah, Halloween, time to mix the sacred and the profane, or if you're lazy like me, just go with the usual profanity. But if you want to get sacred, you can make your own church sign. Trust me, it's extremely satisfying--without the danger, guilt, and eternal damnation of church vandalism. Plus you can get your sign in fridge-magnet form, suitable for doling out to cranky kids who would actually rather have a fistful of fun-sized Kit-Kats or edible anatomical treats. [via]

Fun and (mind) games. Is she really going out with him? Love Cubes, the 1972 board game by the great Martin "Boring Postcards" Parr, is now online. Click on each member of a boy-girl couple to find out if they, uh, click. Take a Sex ID test courtesy of the BBC (only if you are at work and have nothing else to do). Make a sacred hula hoop. (Honestly, I can't think of any reason why you would do this. If you really need a hula hoop, buy one--it just won't connect you to the universe as well as the sacred kind.)

What not to wear. Let's start with boob scarves. Please don't wear boob scarves. No, vagina underwear. Please, please don't wear vagina underwear. No, wait, definitely don't wear a penis costume to a homecoming dance. Giant-inflatable-penis-boy got suspended and slapped with a sexual harassment citation. His parents, while agreeing he made a "poor decision," think he should have been cut some slack as this was his first offense for wearing a giant inflatable penis costume to a homecoming dance.

iPorn. Porn producers way into video iPod. Porn producers not that into video iPod. Oh, you silly porn producers, stop teasing us.

The biggest turn-off ever. Naked people sheets.

Lost in translation. I don't know what the captions say, but the pictures here are good enough that you can make up your own. Where can you register for a matching salt and pepper/dildo set?

MekSex. A site about sex and machines. By Sandy Beach, the inventor of the Tickling Machine, Fancy Panties, the Portable Tickling Machine, and the Invisible Tickling Machine, and Author of Sweet Agony, a novel featuring (you guessed it) tickling, and the nylon jersey fabrics used for women's evening wear in the 70's, particularly Qiana, and slinky bell bottom pants made by designers like Manning Silver, Rina, Funky and Estievo (didn't see that part coming, did you?). I heart Sandy Beach.

Hump day(s). A driver in the United Arab Emirates was sentenced to three months in jail for repeatedly having sex with a camel, who the driver said he had fallen in love with. The camel's sentence was a one-way ticket to the slaughterhouse, since its meat is now tainted by driver spunk.

It's a crime. No, not camel-humping in the United Arab Emirates. Teen sex in Kansas. And now homo-teen sex in Kansas is just as criminal as hetero-teen sex. That's progress, my friends. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Matthew Limon, now 23, will not have to spend 17 years behind bars for consensual sex a week after his 18th birthday with another male teenager. And for that we're grateful. We're also grateful that I didn't make a "not in Kansas anymore" joke. Because a lot of people are still in Kansas.

The Intimate Audio Gadget

Really portable music is a wonderful thing. It's both empowering and comforting to have a shiny music machine in your pocket that plays a variety of your favorite tunes at the whim of your finger on a little wheel. It's futuristic technology that has made listening an intimate experience... for over FIFTY years.

Back in the early 50's a company called Texas Instruments was making good money churning out piles of newfangled little transistors for military applications, but they envisioned a wider public marketplace for the little buggers. And in 1954 the TI engineers created a prototype transistor radio. It was small, it worked, and it seemed like a great idea. However, Texas Instruments wasn't in the business of manufacturing consumer products back then, so they shopped their concept around to several big radio makers of the day. Surprisingly, RCA, Sylvania, and Philco all said "no thanks" before a small outfit in Indiana (the Regency Division of Industrial Development Engineering Associates) took the bait.

Within a matter of months the first commercial transistor radio was a reality. Besides being cute and colorful, the TR-1 was the very first mass-marketed transistorized gadget. It was made here in the U.S.A., and in that spirit the it was prominently on display in stores across America just in time for Christmas 1954. The price? A whopping $49.95. Adjust the cost for inflation and you're lookin at almost $350 in today's dollars, not far from the $399 price tag on that first iPod.

Before the TR-1, any portable radio you might buy had a "luggage" quality, with big top handles and a bit of heft. They just weren't all that portable thanks to the warm glowing vacuum tubes they contained. These days, audiophiles and technical stick-in-the-muds properly laud the aural beauty of the "tube" sound, but the glass casings and inner workings of vacuum tubes are rather fragile and they need a protective case, as well as some large batteries to power up. And of course, the tubes themselves aren't all that tiny either.

Rent is too Damn High

Damian at Stay Free! alerts us to the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, throwing a hat into the ring for the upcoming NYC mayoral race. Their campaign song (MP3) explains everything.

The party's mayoral candidate and mastermind is ex-postal worker/Vietnam vet/martial arts instructor Jimmy McMillan, who once climbed up a cable on the Brooklyn Bridge armed with a machete to demand press attention. McMillan is actually on the official NYC ballot, running against a few other goons who are far too deficient in entertainment value to be mentioned.

Unfortunately, McMillan blames his rent woes on Jews (he also accuses them of creating a state of apartheid in Brooklyn), which is sure to derail his campaign. However, his site is full of nuggets like this:

All Poor People Are Being Force Out OF New York
*** HELL NO ***
This Is Jimmy McMillan, Ain't Nobody Running Nobody Anywhere.

Although McMillan's campaign may appear ridiculous, at least he's earnest. Remember when Jello Biafra ran for mayor of SF in '79? His platform included forcing businessmen wear clown costumes and banning cars within the city limits.

Sing Along With JFK MP3s

The assassination of John F. Kennedy may have marked the end of American innocence, but it crowned Vaughn Meader's First Family LP as the king of the cut-out bins for decades, a position it still holds to this day. What a shame that this fate was not bestowed upon George Atkins and Hank Levine's Sing Along With JFK LP instead. In 1961, Atkins and Levine took snippets of JFK's early presidential speeches, added an accordian player and a chorus, and set Camelot to music. JFK's pal Frank Sinatra was good enough to put out a small pressing of the LP on his Reprise label.

Although the same technique has been applied by others (including the George W Bush Singers), the inspiration of the Sing Along With JFK record has never been equaled, even (and especially) by Atkins and Levine's RFK/LBJ-based followup, Washington Is For The Birds.

Here are all six musical tracks from the LP Sing Along With JFK:

Begin Anew For Two  |  Let Us Begin Beguine  |  Alliance For Progress Bossa Nova
Ask Not Waltz  |  The Trumpet  |  Let The Word Go Forth

Parade of the Damned (MP3s)

Spooky Movies-Roy Clark
Lookout Mountain-Chuck Miller
Screemin' Meemies-Merv Griffin
Soul Dracula-Hot Blood
Count Yorga
Dark Shadows
Midnight Monsters Hop-Jack and Jim
Beware-Bill Buchanan
Monster Man-Screaming Lord Sutch
Dinner With Drac-John Zacherle
Rockin' Zombie-Crewnecks   
Bo Meets The Monster-Bo Diddley
Igor's Party-Tony's Monstrosities
Intro Monstro Crescendo-Messer Chups
   
 

Video on History of Electronic Music

I never thought I'd be posting a filmstrip on the blog, but here you go: Pathways To Music, Part One: The Birth of Electronic Music (mov file for download). This is part one of the series - if you know where part two is, let me know. This installment covers "electronic" music from 400 BC to 1950, including analog techniques such as the "soundhouses" of the 17th century (pictured at right) to the glass harmonica, before finally moving along to early electronic instruments such as the Dynamophone and the Ondes Martenot. And the case is made that DJ Paul Hindemith was the first turntablist of all time, yo!
UPDATE: Here is part two (MP4 file), via GetLoFi. Thanks, Tony!

"The Worst Talk Show Host Ever..."

Andy Bowers, writing for Slate, crowns Seven Second Delay "Pod Pick Of The Week". Quoting Mr. Bowers:

Imagine a New Jersey call-in radio show where the host doesn't want to talk to you. As he moans about having to deal with the public, he also berates listeners for not calling in more. When he answers the phone, he mockingly mutters the talk-radio clichés before they can: "Love the show," he says in his best bored curmudgeon voice. "First-time caller, longtime listener, blah, blah." He routinely derides the audience and his co-host as hippies. And he spends a good portion of his weekly, hourlong time slot asking his co-host when they can go home.

Read the entire article here: Pod Pick Of The Week

From the WFMU News Vault: New York Times Magazine, 1999

This week features a sort-of lengthy article (html link) entitled "No Hits, All the Time",  written about WFMU for the New York Times Magazine's April 11, 1999 issue.   Fast forwarding 30 years from WFMU's groovy past, we get a picture of the station as it is, more or less, in these modern times.  Quotes from Citizen Kafka, Kenny G, Monica, and other DJs attempted to elucidate for the coffee-sipping Sunday morning Times readers exactly what it is that makes FMU so different from your average pitstop on the radio dial.   

 

Religious Broadcasters Oust High School Station

When WAVM, a high school radio station in Maynard, MA, applied to up its power, teachers and students never expected to be crushed by the iron fist of a higher power 5 years down the road. WAVM's frequency will soon be pulled out from under the school and transferred to a religious conglomerate from California, thanks to an FCC rule which allows other organizations to bid on frequencies when they apply for power increases (read the full story here or here). The feds somehow calculated that backhanded christians would better serve the community than the school that's run the noncommercial-educational station since 1973.

But this story is nothing new. Christian broadcasters have systematically preyed upon high school stations during the license renewal and power increase processes. More common than a complete high school station overthrow is a time-share allotment, especially in the days before ipod shuffle and robo-DJ technology (when some high school stations had difficulty broadcasting the FCC-required minimum of 12 hours per day).

If you would like to join WAVM's fight to save their frequency, write to the FCC:

Peter H. Doyle
Chief, Audio Division
Media Bureau
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554

What's Behind The Mask?

In the spirit of the Halloween season, let us not forget that peculiar entity that seems to cross all cultures: The Masked Musician!

Most of the popular references include The Residents, Kiss, Buckethead, Slipknot, Mudvayne, Insane Clown Posse and the recently signed Mushroomhead. But there have been a string of artists working in disguise that are just off the radar, including -

Nash The Slash, he of prog group FM and many solo projects, Cast In Bronze, the mysterious Carillon player, Orion, the cabalistic Elvis impersonator, Nigeria's outrageous Lagbaja, and Afrobeat Ensemble's Kaleta, to name a few. Click Here to be serenaded! (wmv)

                                                                             

"Do They Know It's Halloween?"

"They don't know the fear/we endure once a year... do they know it's Halloween at all?" Parody/cheeky-homage of classic/infamous 80s Band-Aid charity record, by a group calling themselves the North American Halloween Prevention Initiative, includes Elvira Mistress of the Dark, Russel Mael, Beck, Thurston Moore, Malcolm McLaren, Karen O, Devendra Banhart, Joey Waronker, Peaches, David Cross and lots of others. Lots of fun... on Vice records, all profits benefit UNICEF. Read about it at Vice here and here, also recently in the NYTimes. Watch the kooky video here (no group sing-along shots - unfortunately?).

10, officer.

We all love music, and we all love to watch hand skills. So watch Greg Irwin and his incredible finger dexterity as he bust out moves to the beat of De'vo's music.

(The other Devo.)

The Stradivarius of the Washtub Bass

Hello, everybody—nice seeing you again.

One reason Sluggo and I are still together, after ALL THESE YEARS, is that he is never boring. He’s always finding some new thing, like Punjabi Radio   or the Tejano Conjunto Festival in San Antonio.  And he likes all the weird, interesting things I dig up, too.

Sometimes people I don’t know very well, like someone I work with at my dayjob, will express doubt about our eclectic tastes; one guy I thought was a good friend of mine said he was surprised that I really like this stuff, and that I wasn’t just pretending to like it to seem “cool.” I still don’t understand that. Why would you pretend to like something? When I lived in the Midwest, I never assumed that people pretended to like Paul McCartney and Wings just to seem pathetic.

Anyway, the latest thing that Sluggo’s really into is washtub bass. Here’s THE web site.  And here’s a link you can start with if you want to hear what a washtub bass sounds like.  But before Sluggo could start playing washtub bass, he had to build one. First he built one out of an beat-up little galvanized garbage can we had lying around, along with an old broom handle and some sash cord, but already he’s improving on that. He went out on a local hiking trail and found a big tree branch that blew down in the last storm, brought it home, debarked it, whittled on it, and made a staff that’s the pole for his new washtub bass. Of course he’s carving a block of wood into a figurehead kind of thing for it, and now we have to buy some taxidermy eyes of various sizes. He’s already invented a double bridge, and is making me drive him around to garden supply stores to look for just the right kind of weedwhacker cord to make the perfect string. I’m sure it won’t be long until he’s the Stradivarius of the Washtub Bass. He’s also very excited about getting his photo up on this one web site that has a picture gallery of people with their washtub instruments.

When I was growing up in Iowa, the washtub bass was still around. It wasn’t exactly common, but it was common enough that I got the message that it was kind of outré and not a proper thing to like, even though I DID like it. I liked the sound of it, and the fact that it was made out of, you know, a washtub. I liked the cigar box banjo, too. (Now here is a digression—how is it that the people of Southwest Iowa are taking over WFMU? There’s me, sometime DJ Bronwyn C., from Pottawattamie County, and there’s DJ Clay Pigeon, from Audubon, and there’s DJ Bethany from just across the Missouri River in Omaha. What’s that about?) Anyway, I don’t care what’s  supposed to be cool, and what isn’t, I like what I like, and I’ve always been that way. I guess that’s why I like WFMU.

Thanks for reading my blog entry this week, and may God Bless.

PiL on American Bandstand, 1980 (video)

In our ongoing series of subversive American Bandstand performances, here's a video clip of Public Image, Ltd. performing Poptones and Careering on American Bandstand in May, 1980 (97 mb of mpg goodness). It's the best lip-synching I've ever seen, if you like your lip-synching honest - which is to say that John Lydon's microphone rarely comes within 18 inches of his mouth.

I'm surprise he even bothered to pick up the mic at the start of the clip. Also of note: Dick Clark confusing Jah Wobble and "Johnny" (with Lydon's able assitance), not to mention Lydon's lethargic enthusiasm in the midst of the confused disco chaos. The clip is really poor quality, as is befitting such a sarcastic performance. Now if we only had a video clip of their famous show/riot at The Ritz in 1981.

Download American Bandstand Video Clip. Thanks Listener Chad!

Step Right Up! The Art of the Sideshow Pitchman (MP3s)

MP3s: 18 spoken word tracks of sideshow pitchmen and pitchwomen below the jump.

Last August, I headed over to the New Jersey State Fair, minidisk in hand, ready to record the sideshow pitchmen and barkers I'd heard there the year before. The sideshow had a great fire-eating midget, but the pitchman mumbled a spiritless 30 second spiel, and then actually turned on a tape loop of another carnival barker. I had clearly waited a little too long to get recordings of a bonafide American pitchman.

Fortunately, the WFMU cassette library has a tape called American Talkers: The Art of the Pitchman, and I've posted all 18 tracks from it. This tape came out in the early Nineties, and even that was too late - half of these tracks are of career sideshow "talkers" who recreated their classic pitches (aka "ballys") as part of a festival at The Smithsonian Institution's American Talker's Project in 1980. But a few date from earlier than that, and all of the pitches from the early 80's are authentic, from the some of the greatest living pitchmen of the pre-war era like, Ward Hall and Fred Bloodgood.