WFMU's Beware of the Blog

All the Presidents' Words

Since my edit of Dubya's "Night Before Christmas" got included in this month's Download Dinner Bell, I thought I'd point out a site where listeners can download plenty more political edit pieces: the "Truthful Translations" section of DIYmedia.net, which has collected more than 400 audio collages of not just the current occupant of the White House, but of plenty of other politicians. You'll find corrections of the speeches of Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Nixon, Tony Blair, and of course Ronald Reagan, who is the subject of two of the best cut-up pieces you can find on the site: Doug Kahn's "Reagan Speaks For Himself" and Cliff Roth's "The Reagans Speak Out on Drugs" (an excerpt of the video is available for downloading). Kenny G linked to the Reagan MP3s back in February, but there's so many more politicians to explore.

Don't neglect the other areas of the DIYmedia site, though. They've been keeping tabs on the FCC's crackdowns on unlicensed radio broadcasters and the struggles of low-powered FM stations. Check out the site's homepage for their news archives, as well as links to the other collage-laden sections of the site.

My personal favorite political cut-up of the moment, not currently on the DIYmedia site, would be Jonathan Coulton's "W's Duty", which I first heard on Irwin's program. An MP3 of the song is downloadable from Jonathan's site. Also of note for Reaganologists: Ken's Reagan memorial broadcast from last year, which featured more Reagan-themed songs than you can shake a can of poisoned meat at.

How Does It Stinkin' Feel? (MP3s)

MP3s: Ten of them below the jump.

"Give me a throw pillow and a crowbar; I'll show you how to hit it with a nine iron." — Anonymous

A couple contributors to this blog have mentioned before how great the wild early days of Napster were, mostly because you could search for home recordings made by (and inadvertently offered by) the users sharing their Britney Spears and Eminem MP3s. However, the example Napster/Mic In Track recordings that have been presented have been few and far between. I would like to correct this oversight by presenting for the first time a comprehensive review of the recordings made by one specific person that produced some surprisingly entertaining songs.

This kid wrote his own material and performed the songs with accompanying percussion. It sounds like his drum kit consists of one (1) cardboard box and one (1) unknown metal object (pan lid? lamp shade? metal colander?). And as if that wasn't enough, this kid hit on the bright idea of overdubbing his recordings so that he could lay down backing vocals on his songs, a technique that's pretty obvious, yet I don't think I've ever encountered it elsewhere in the Mic In Track field. Les Paul would be proud.

Some of the songs he wrote are love songs or about relationships, but the more interesting ones are the ones about food. He sings about trying to get some ice cream from a fat ice cream man, about buying soft pretzels and hot dogs, and about chicken wings. Lots of chicken wings. Stinking chicken wings, even.

I found these songs to be extremely funny and charming, so I ended up downloading all the Mic In Tracks that I could by this artist. What follows is my complete collection of this anonymous kid's original songs. These files were untitled, so I have taken the liberty of providing them with names. A couple cover songs, alternate takes, and false starts are not included here, but will be included as bonus tracks in the inevitable CD release of this material in 2018.

Got to investigate Silophones

That picture on Bryce's recent post reminded me of the Silophone, an audio art experiment that answers the question, "Just what does audio sound like if you pump it through an abandoned 10-story-tall grain storage building in Montreal?"

The building, originally known as Silo #5, was turned into the Silophone by the Montreal artists collectively known as [The User], and has been accessible to interested parties in Montreal's Old Town neighborhood through a cool-looking installation nearby the building. You can also upload audio through the Silophone Website, or phone it in live by calling (514) 844-5555. The Website provides a live audio stream so you can hear other people's contributions or, more often than not, the quiet white noise of a completely silent abandoned building.

More Silophone info available in this NPR story from 2001 about the installation. [The User] played the Silophone on their 2003 CD Abandon (RealAudio sample from the WFMU archives). As far as I know, no WFMU DJ has used the Silophone to augment their on-air talking, but really, it's only a matter of time.