Read:My:Back

Numbers Running [WFMU fill-in for Dan Bodah, 5.23.11]

Click here to listen with your preferred media player.

Dengue Fever - "Uku" - Cannibal Courtship (Concord) *
Risto - "Seuraavan Skupolven Paykopaatti" - 176-671 (Ensimmäiset Askeleet) (Fonal) *
Duffy - "Come Back, Come Back" - Beyond the Calico Wall (Voxx)
OMD - "Electricity" - 7" (Factory)
Magic Carpathians - "Enjoy Trees (Lynx Lynx)" - Enjoy Trees! (Free Music Archive) *
Lou Reed - "Dirty Boulevard" - New York (Sire)
Thee Oh Sees - "I Need Seed" - Castlemania (In the Red) *
Standard of Living - "N.F.A" - Bay Area Retrogade Vol. 1 (Dark Entries) *

Moving Targets - "The Other Side" - Moving Targets (Taang!)
Willie Loco Alexander - "Bass Rocks" - 7" (Pure & Easy)
Dynastie Crisis - "Le Corbeau et Renard" - Dynastie Crisis (Formule 1)
Spectre Folk - "The Blackest Medicine" - The Blackest Medicine, Vol. II (Woodsist) *
8-Bit Weapon - "Future Paths" - Mario in an Elevator (Free Music Archive)
X-Ray Spex - "Highly Inflammable" - Germfree Adolescents (EMI)
Belong - "Come See" - Common Era (Kranky) *
Tor/Aesop Rock - "Star of Wonder vs. None Shall Pass" - Best Of Breitband Vol.3 (Free Music Archive) *
Tommy Blake - "F-Oldin Money" - Before the Fall 2xCD (Ace) *

Roberta Flack - "Reverend Lee" - Chapter Two (Atlantic)
Sixtynine and The Continuous People - "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives" - On a Distant Shore: A Tribute to Syd Barrett (Windless Air)
Roots Control - "Roots Control" - Crooklyn Dub Consortium Certified Dope Vol. 1 (Wordsound)
Human Eye - "Impregnate the Martian Queen" - They Came from the Sky (Sacred Bones) *
The Criminal Minds - "Just Check It" - TCM (Rephlex) *
Off Band - "Wake Up Her Majesty" - German Punk & Wave 1978-1984, Vol. 1 (Vinyl  on Demand) *
Spartak - "Nightshift (Version)" - The Sound Of Young Canberra (Free Music Archive) *
Rites Wild - "Rites Wild Theme" - New Weird Australia, We Are After All Here (Free Music Archive) *
Prince Buster - "Earthquake" - Fabulous Greatest Hits (Sequel)

David Bowie - "TVC15" - Station to Station (RCA)
The Vandelles - "Losing Touch with my Mind" - Summer Fling (Eep!) *
Sven Kacirek - "Dear Anastasia" - The Kenya Sessions (Pingipung) *
Robert Wyatt - "Born Again Cretin" - C81 (NME)
Townes Van Zandt - "Come Tomorrow" - Delta Momma Blues (Tomato)
Okapi - "Mangoonia" - Bah! (Free Music Archive)
Six Organs of Admittance - "Dawn, Running Home" - Asleep on the Floodplain (Drag City) *
False Front - "Maniac I" - Dude (Shimmy Disc)

György Ligeti - "Atmosphere" - 2001: A Space Odessy (MGM)
Jackie DeShannon - "She Don't Understand Him Like I Do" - Come and Get Me (Ace)

Overplayed on the Radio 1.0—False Front

A loving tribute to songs that I've definitely overplayed in my nineteen years (yikes!) of doing radio.

This first installment honors the debut album of Jersey Weirdo band, Ween-pals, and Shimmy Disc confidantes, False Front. I distinctly recall grabbing their debut album (the terribly-titled Dude) out of WPRB's to-be-listened-to pile in 1992 and being immediately taken with the lush acidity of the opening track, "Maniac I." The twin guitar leads sounded like Thin Lizzy under the magical spell of Robitussin, and let's just say that lyrics like "when all the acid hits your brain, leave it to me to feel your pain" spoke with a particular kind of townie-DJ poignancy for me when I was 20 years old. Subsequently, the song became a staple of my program for years afterwards, even following me to WFMU (where I've apparently only aired it twice, according to the playlist search database. Both times in 2007. Huh.)

Having lost track of my own copy of the album years ago, I might've forgotten all about "Maniac I" had it not popped up randomly on the iTunes rotation yesterday. I went back and listened to it three times in a row. Yep, still a great song! Listen using the player below.

Announcing the Read:My:Back Mixtape!

The term "podcast" has seen some rough road over the last decade. I'm no tech-head, and the amateurish design stylings of this blog certainly don't give me any license to kvetch, but a proper podcast implies automatic delivery at regularly scheduled intervals. Sort of like a magazine subscription, in that you sign up for it, and get a new issue at around the same time every week or month. As such, MP3 blogs that haphazardly post 40MB Audacity mixdowns and call them 'podcasts' might be exposing people to a lot of interesting sounds, but they are doing so while severely agitating the RSS nerds in their collective midst.

While I appreciate the plight of said nerds, I don't actually know very much about syndicating content or RSS feeds myself. So in a feeble effort to distance myself from this conundrum of syntax, I'd now like to announce the Read:My:Back... Mixtape!

Same concept, slightly different method: The R:M:B Mixtape will occur on no set schedule and will hop genres with reckless abandon—pretty much like the last three years of my terrestrial radio shows on WFMU, but minus the James Gang deepcuts and rambling mic breaks. (Though I am considering rectifying that last detail... Can anyone recommend a reasonably-priced condenser mic to me?) Furthermore, downloading the entire show is more than likely to just scatter the songs into your iTunes library according to whichever filing protocols get you hot and bothered. So much for my meticulous and thoughtful segues, eh? But never mind about that -- As always, it's the music that matters.

The source material for this project is WFMU's Free Music Archive. With more than 30,000 free and legal MP3s now residing in their stable, the FMA has been my first and best connection to new sounds as my life transitioned from that of weekly radio host on WFMU (with regular access to the station's fabled new bin) to stay-at-home dad, where daily engagement with the art that I love is now limited to around 45 minutes during naptime. Not to say that the 180 degree lifestyle changeup hasn't delivered amazing rewards.... I just didn't come here to tell you about them.

So for whatever it's worth, here's the first of what will hopefully be many editions of these musical diversions. Observing the metamorphosis of my music sharing habits across the years from obsessive mixtape-maker to radio show host to harried blogger fills me with a kind of weird anxiety -- where or what will the next leap forward will be?

Steve Wynn of Dream Syndicate—Around Town and on the Radio

Praise be to Joltin' Joe Belock. He's had Steve Wynn as a musical guest on his radio program almost as many times as I've had Dalek, and from my perspective, nothing defines the Three Chord Monte aesthetic better than these fantastic sessions from the former Dream Syndicate frontman. Now based in New York after years of being closely affiliated with the left coast musical underground, I've had the pleasure of seeing Steve and band perform many times and under many different circumstances. Two that come immediately to mind include a spur-of-the-moment run through of the Dream Syndicate's Days of Wine and Roses (at Manitoba's sometime in mid-2001), and also the odd occasion of them providing ambient musical accompaniment to a reading by crime fiction writer George Pelecanos (at Magnetic Field.) The latter was especially great, as my wife lived mere steps from Magnetic Field at the time—that afforded us the rare opportunity to rock until the late hours sans the mood-killing reality of a 3 AM subway ride on a work night. (Feel free to ignore that last bit if you're younger than 30, though I've always been ornery about getting home so late. I have theorized that my fleeting interest in hardcore music was mainly rooted in the fact that most of the shows were weekend matinees.)

Anyhow, in the midst of what were at one time fairly frequent live dates around town, Steve and band also made periodic stops at WFMU for live sets on Joe Belock's program, all of which are now available in their entirety in the FMA. This mix is whittled down to reflect my favorites, so take the fact that I've titled it "The Best of..." with a grain of salt. Try as I might, I was powerless to shy away from his epic renditions of old Dream Syndicate classics, even though Steve's more recent sounds are just as impressive. Naturally, if you like what you hear, I'd certainly urge you to go grab everything else.

Wedding Present Radio Sessions from 1992

The Wedding Present: The Black Session by Peplau

I've been to exactly one Wedding Present concert. They played Maxwell's sometime in 1993, and although they performed masterfully and were louder than a freakin' atomic bomb going off, the fact that "Dalliance" (or anything else from the brilliant Sea Monsters LP) did not figure into the setlist sort of tarnished the experience in my memory. Sea Monsters and Bettie Serveert's Palomine totally defined a particular era at WPRB for me, and even as those months were unfolding in realtime, getting stiffed on "Dalliance" was a palpable annoyance. Getting on twenty years later, this live radio session from around the same time makes me feel like it's finally time to forgive.

Originally heard on the Black Sessions program which broadcasts on France Inter (French Public Radio—"FPR", if you will...) this great-sounding set showcases the band at their creative peak, and David Gedge's vocals in their exquisite and froggy-like prime. That's not to suggest that their later material is anything to scoff at—many years after this performance, a reincarnated version of the band effortlessly blew a lot of minds (mine included) with the track "Interstate 5", and rightly so.

But I didn't come here to tell you that. (Focus, man, focus!) These sounds have been blaring forth from the official r:m:b sound system all morning, and show no signs of relinquishing their control any time soon.

Go forth and amplify!

"We All Love Peanut Butter" and Other Back from the Grave-inspired Tales of Love and Devotion

It seems like every other new release these days is a re-issue of some kind. At WFMU, re-issues compete at a rate that seems almost neck-and-neck with new releases by current bands, making the prospects of actually staying on top of things an essentially impossible task—a game left only to the truly lionhearted. And Brian Turner. There is both an upside and a downside to this, and like a lot of my radio pals at WFMU and elsewhere, I try not to wade too deeply into the waters of musical archaeology, at least when trying to assemble an engaging three hour freeform program. There's no denying that the glut of re-ups from quality labels like Soul Jazz, Norton, and Munster have opened a lot of people's ears to sounds they might never have heard otherwise, but reveling strictly in the legacies of bygone art scenes is a fast ticket to musical burnout, if not straight up Wavy-Gravy land.

"Hey man, is that late 2002 minimal techno?"

"Yeah, man!"

"Well then turn it up!"

Regardless of which direction your musical compass points, there are probably enough genre-specific re-issues out there to fill your hard drive several times over. As with new releases, some of them are great, others utterly forgettable, and still others (the majority, one might argue) have fleeting moments of brilliance but are more or less disposable. Nowhere is this phenomenon more immediately apparent that in the case of of 60s garage and psychedelic comps, where exalting utterly pedestrian Rolling Stones or 13th Floor Elevators-wannabes has been transformed into something of an art form. This wasn't always the case, however.

When I first started doing radio at WPRB in 1992, the station's record library was carved up via a ridiculously genre-fied filing system that grouped almost all left-of-center music made after 1980 together, with exceptions for select kingpins from past eras like Faust, Iggy, Wire, Velvet Underground, etc. Compilations were filed similarly, and I quickly discovered an auxiliary section of them that interested me just as much as titles like They Pelted Us with Rocks and Garbage (80s Cleveland noise), Wanna Buy a Bridge? (UK Post-Punk), or Dry Lungs (proto headache music) did. These were the 60s psych and garage comps, spearheaded by the wholly brilliant Back from the Grave series on Crypt Records.

The original eight volumes of Grave looked uniformly amazing to me, and were scrawled with exaggerated praises from DJs who'd long since fled the station's regular programming rotation. Feeling like I was on the cusp of something important, I decided to start at the very beginning and cued up the first song on Volume 1—a track called "We All Love Peanut Butter" by some apparent hoodlums calling themselves The One Way Street.

It wasn't the savage filth hinted at by the Grave series' attention-grabbing album artwork, but it was amateurish, funny, and sounded like it had been recorded in a bunker on a malfunctioning reel-to-reel deck—just like everything else I liked in 1992. Not surprisingly, I was hooked immediately.

That song was more than enough to fuel my jones for all eight volumes of Back from the Grave, most of which I eventually tracked down in the cutout bin at the local Record Hut. Back on the radio, my interest further blossomed at the behest of two other re-issues of older sounds, not on Crypt, but which seemed equally menacing in some way. The What a Way to Die collection from 1983, and the more acid-drenched Beyond the Calico Wall from 1990. Just as "We All Love Peanut Butter" became the flagbearer of the entire Grave series in my mind, these comps also vaulted certain songs to a kind of iconic status, and no selections from the countless 60s comps which have come and gone in the 20 years since have ever threatened their security at the top of the trash heap.

From What a Way to Die, it's "Leave Me Alone" by The Knaves—a song that deploys a musical middle finger with impressive deliberacy and panache. And from Beyond the Calico Wall, it's "Up in My Mind" by Spontaneous Generation, which I like to think of as a musical version of pork cracklings. (That is, it tosses your brain into a deep-fryer for a few hours, and then re-fries whatever particulate matter remains.) One can never be too certain, after all.

Here are all three songs, for your critical consideration. God bless these electric freaks.

The One Way Street - "We All Love Peanut Butter"


The Knaves - "Leave me Alone"


Spontaneous Generation - "Up In My Mind"

The Divine Comedy of _________. [WFMU Fill-In for Dan Bodah]

Click here to listen with your preferred media player.

Rhys Chatham - "Die Donnergotter" - Die Donnergotter
Fresh Maggots - "Riding in my Motorcar" - Fresh Maggots
A Raincoat - "It Came in the Night" - 7"
Del tha Funky Homosapien - "Break the Bank" - Golden Era *
The Girls - "Jeffrey I Hear You" - Reunion

Moon Duo - "Mazes" - Mazes *
James Gang - "Stop" - Greatest Hits
Faust - "The Sad Skinhead" - IV
James Plotkin - "Broken 96" - Benefit for the Recovery in Japan [He of Khanate.]
A Number of Names - "Shari Vari" - 12"
Buncha Dingdongs - "MTV Soundsweep" - YouTube rip
Magic Carpathians - "Muzyka Bzu Czarnego" - Enjoy Trees! * [Grab it here.]

Titus Turner - "Coralee" - R&B Hipshakers Vol. 2: Scratch That Itch * [Curated by Mr. Fine Wine!]
Bill Fox - "I'm Not Over Loving You" - Shelter from the Smoke
Akufen - "Architextures 1" - Achitextures
Gal Costa - "Negro Amor" - Caras & Bocas
George Brigman - "My Cherie" - Train to Disaster [compilation]
The Twinkeyz - "That's the Way it Goes" - Aliens in Our Midst
The Men - "Immaculata" - Immaculata
Wire - "Adapt" - Red Barked Tree *
Beans - "Glass Coffins" - End it All *

Timex Social Club - "Rumors" - G.I. Disco * [compilation]
John Bender - "Dance" - Pop Surgery * [Re-issue]
Kurt Vile & the Violators - "Hunchback [Extended]" - The Hunchback EP
Eddie Hinton - "I Can't be Me" - Country Got Soul Vol. 2 * [compilation]
Townes van Zandt - "If I Needed You" - Crazy Heart
Pete Simonelli - "An Egg + Pole to Pole" - 12" *
Immersion - "Walkabout (Mick Harris remix)" - Is That Really Neccessary? [Push Bin premium]
J.D. Emmanuel - "7 Note Trance" - Solid Dawn - Electronic Works 1979-1982

Creative Commons Broadcast Tattoo

Via Flickr

[CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0]

I especially like how the CC elements appear to have been added later on (they seem dark and fresh, whereas the tower ink looks considerably more settled.) Either way: bravo!

In the spirit of radio and free culture, here are a pair of great radio-related songs from the Free Music Archive.

Min-Y-Llan - "Radio America"

Olneyville Sound System - "Immigrant Radio"

One is an instrumental and the other consists primarily of people screaming. Playing both at the same time yields pretty decent remix possibilities. Game on!

Radio Cosmology

WPRB lost a programming giant this weekend. George Mahlberg, more commonly known as "Doctor Cosmo" to listeners of his excellent and long-running Nocturnal Transmissions program, passed away after a long illness. As an old acquaintance and former WPRB programmer, I extend my sincerest condolences to those who were close to him.

Cosmo came on board at WPRB sometime in 1991—about a year prior to me, but his experience and radio wizardry far surpassed anything in my stable. He was older than most of PRB's other non-student DJs, and had a long résumé of radio credentials, reaching all the way back to the 70s when he'd been a programmer at L.A.'s then-adventurous K-Rock. He was also a brilliant storyteller, had a voracious appetite for unusual sounds, and most of all, he really enjoyed the company of young people who were passionate about radio. To call him an inspiration and a hero may sound trite, but after spending the last 18 hours reckoning with the cruel news of his sudden departure, I'm having trouble denying how appropriate those terms are. Recollections on his Facebook page, as well as the phone calls and emails I've fielded from former WPRB colleagues seem to validate the sentiment. There are probably dozens of mic break techniques I've nicked from him over the years, and I feel no shame in admitting it. WPRB was beyond fortunate to have a shepherd like him, even if only a small minority of the staff were aware of how incredible his talents were.

Though I didn't realize it at the time, Nocturnal Transmissions was freeform radio at its finest. When Cosmo joined the airstaff, much of WPRB was very much entrenched in the indie/underground scene of that particular era. While his programming did acknowledge those trends, he also dosed listeners with generous helpings of the avant garde, free jazz, Zappa, Krautrock, 20th Centrury Classical, 70s Marshall Boogie, fringe politics from across the spectrum, and schitzoid spoken word from all manner of radicals, revolutionaries, and acid casualties. More importantly, to the mix he added his own fierce intelligence, his incredibly sardonic humor, a tremendous appreciation for science, and an open door policy for any listeners who wanted to join the fray. As you might imagine, central Jersey doesn't offer too many rewarding avenues for seekers of adventurous art and culture, but to the avid listeners of WPRB's Friday night programming, the reality seemed very much otherwise.

I have many wonderful memories of Doctor Cosmo, but perhaps my favorite was the night he joined me on air when the DJ who followed my program failed to show up. Scrambling for a long track to eat up time, I put on "Die Donnergotter" by Rhys Chatham—a 20+ minute epic of ringing, hypnotic guitars. I'd surrendered control and had assumed a new position behind the guest mic while George slid easily into the captain's chair and engaged me in a lengthy on-air banter while "Die Donnergotter" churned away in the background. As the track approached its crashing apex, George calmly reached over and switched the turntable off so that the audio began spiraling down as we continued our on-air rap. In the kind of seamless transition that true radio geeks get their panties in a twist over, he then began manually rotating the record in reverse with his finger at what sounded like a perfect 33 RPM clip. Presto! Another 20 minutes of background music for us to push later into the evening with.

There are many songs that I'll never be able to distance from the immediate Cosmo-connection they hold for me, but "Die Donnergotter" is probably chief among them. I can only hope that wherever George is now, the guitars sound as great (whether in forward or reverse) as they did to my ears that night. To my friend, I say thank you and goodbye. I wish that we'd had more time together.

Updates: Radio! Cooking! My Questionable Decision to (Briefly) Front a Rock Band!

So... long time, no blog. Perhaps it seems like an easy out, but I blame the one year old. At some point over the last several weeks, she must have crossed some invisible threshold of development which ultimately manifests in me having no time for anything that's not dad-related. Even her daily naptime—previously branded as my chance to blog, further develop my cockeyed business proposal, or even bang out the occasional cover letter/résumé—has lately morphed into my sole opportunity to clean the house, plot out dinner, or make up for the increasing difficulty in getting a full night's sleep of my own.

Anyway, don't read that as a complaint. The Kid is awesome, and short of pulling in a paycheck for it, I really couldn't be happier with the current routine.

Having recently realized that I helmed only a paltry FOUR fill-in shows on WFMU in 2010, I'm happy that there has been so much radio in my life lately. Aside from some perfunctory engineering work during the WNYC and WQXR membership drives, I've also had the opportunity to spend some quality time with two old broadcasting confidantes from my old digs at Princeton's WPRB. And of course, there was the WFMU Marathon which had the best vibe of any since 2007, at least. Congrats to all my pals there for a great job. It remains an honor to occasionally walk in your company, especially as such newsfeed-grabbing calamities as the KUSF debacle unfold with painful reckoning for anyone who appreciates independent broadcasting.

Being part of the WFMU Marathon is an exhausting practice, and I'll freely admit that this was the first one in a decade that I felt somewhat disconnected from. Of course, this is more my own fault than anyone else's, what with my frustratingly uncooperative and financially restrictive schedule preventing me from being as involved as I'd like to be. But on the upside, the 'thon was a great opportunity to catch up with a few old friends, and feel once again like I'm surrounded by My People. Re-visiting an organization that routinely displays its passion for creativity and which (usually) puts its best foot forward can be a little jarring, especially having focused my attentions on more traditional non-profs over the last few years, where said passions are frequently muted by bureaucracy or simple indifference. In other words, it felt great to be reminded of the possibilities.

Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, activity has been stunted, but not abandoned. Once again I must cite the demands of caring for The Kid as the primary reason for backing away from the adventurous end of the home cooking scene. She just demands so much attention now, and dinnertime has taken a turn towards a correspondingly more traditional standard. Which isn't to say I'm not enormously proud of having recently whipped up homemade fish paste, Middle Eastern meatballs, or miso marinated flank steak with mirin roasted carrots. (All delicious!) My wife and I are also totally floored to have so effortlessly ditched The Kid's regimen of jarred baby food in favor of pint-sized portions of whatever we happen to be eating (including all of the above mentioned dishes.) Expanding The Kid's palate early on was an important goal for us right out of the gate, and I'm thrilled that she's taken so eagerly to everything from grilled fish and paella, to hummus, balsamic reductions, and pretty much everything else we've plopped down for her to snatch up hungrily. Defying the bland diets we were raised on feels like a healthy and responsible move on our part as parents, not to mention a refreshing break from past traditions that only served us poorly later in our own lives. (I didn't try sushi until I was in my mid-20s, avocado not until several years after that. She's already had both.)

And then of course, there's music—always lurking in the background, like a vengeful aristocrat in a Francisco de Goya painting. Having such limited access to FMU over the past year, my awareness of new stuff has taken an unfortunate nosedive, but it is just such instances which I believe validates ownership of a large and cumbersome record collection. When times are tight, you can always get lost in your own private stash and (re)discover something for jaded ears. After finally accepting that the Audio Technica ATPL-120 turntable I bought several years ago is a fucking LEMON that can not be coaxed away from its predilection for dropped channels and omnipresent hum, I've learned to tolerate the surface-to-noise reality and have lately been cranking older vinyl sides by Konono No. 1, Jesu, and the Fastbacks. Also getting lots of attention these days is the perhaps misleadingly titled Skinhead Revolt comp of early ska and rocksteady, which is just back-to-front brilliant. In stumbling around my own archives, I've also earmarked some releases to be hawked on eBay or Discogs whenever the economy eventually rights itself. Of all the possible futures I can envision for my family and I, none of them involve me owning 80s/90s hardcore records by Stars & Stripes, Moss Icon, or Crucial Youth. If some 22 year old with rich parents wants to elevate his social standing among his peers and simultaneously pay me handsomely for the records that will do it for him, I've got no problem with it. Which, in itself, is a relatively new phenomenon for me—When I was younger and more puritanical about art and commerce, I frequently balked at the idea of selling such releases for large sums of money, often opting to give records that are probably worth a mint now to friends, if not lazily discarding them by some similar means. Many years from now, I expect images of Rough Trade picture sleeves and obscenely rare garage rock 45s will come back to haunt me while trying to explain to The Teenager why mommy and daddy can only pay for the first three semesters of college.

Had enough of me yet? Well, in the interest of closing the circuit of recent activities (and perhaps tantalizing you with my long dormant talents as a karaoke singer), here's an MP3 of me singing with WFMU's Hoof & Mouth Sinfonia, live at Maxwell's on the last night of the Marathon. The song is "Helicopter Spies", originally by Swell Maps. Although my performance certainly pales in comparison to the original, it is no small accident that I'm posting it almost five years to the day since Nikki Sudden passed away unexpectedly in New York. Intro and vamping by MC Joe Belock. Matt Fiveash on bass, Evan "Funk" Davies behind the drum kit, and the low-slung, six-string talents of Scott Williams, Brian Turner, and Jason Sigal.

[Download]

"Play it like Slade, Evan!"