Duke CIT Presentation

The Antique Phonograph Music Program presents a “party like it’s 1929” gathering with Vince Giordano and The Nighthawks. Monday June 8, 2009 from 8-11pm in the below-ground Club Cache, beneath Sofia’s, in the Hotel Edison 221 W. 46th Street, NYC.

Join MAC and fans of 1920’s & 1930’s big band music for a night of revelry as we dance, dine and drink to the sounds of Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks’ authentic recreations of snappy period tunes. This event will be recorded for broadcast on WFMU’s Antique Phonograph Music Program.

Admission is $15 but mention The Antique Phonograph Music Program and get $5 off. Plus the restaurant has a $15 minimum for food and / or drinks.

It’s the first Antique Phonograph Music Program outing and MAC looks forward to meeting up with friends, fans of his show, antique music and other WFMU enthusiasts.

Link to FACEBOOK event...

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=81762248578&ref=mf

From an April post:

Festival time for WFMU once again and this time a little further than a jaunt into the autumnal Catskills. Thanks to kind invitation and plane tickets courtesy of Primavera Sound, WFMU is hopping the pond over to Barcelona, Spain for live broadcasts from the prestigious festival at the Parc del Fòrum on May 28th, 29th, and 30th! We'll be packing our remote gear (and 3D glasses for Gaudi building viewing) and parking it alongside the Mediterranean for three days of multiple-stage broadcasts of some sure-to-be stellar FMU-friendly live sets. The schedule exact set-time broadcasts for us have not been finalized, but take a gander at some of the fest's heavy participants here. We're unbelievably stoked to be invited as American radio ambassadors for these shows; the lineup is dizzying, and again, totally perfect for WFMU and its freeform-lovin' listenership. Super thanks to our pal Jaime Casas for helping to get the ball rolling, and all the cool peops at the fest we're looking forward to working with!

Updates!

WFMU is here, the weather is ridiculously incredible. We survived the post-Barcelona victory over Manchester United street carnage last night, and we're starting our broadcast from Spain today around 4:30 PM Eastern time, going until 7:00, then reconvening 8:00 PM through 11:00PM. During that time we''ll be shuttling between the ATP, Rayban, Estrella, Pitchfork, and Rockdelux stages (yeah, it's a big ass festival) and you're likely to hear the Magik Markers, Bats, Spectrum, Vaselines, the Jesus Lizard, Jay Reatard, and Wooden Shjips! Maybe more as permissions are still being finalized. Some of these may spill into our Day 2 broadcast if time doesn't allow. WFMU will be on its Facebook and Twitter pages too to try to give you a rundown of exact start times and what you can expect during the evenings.

Friday, the 29th: the festivities commence on air at 3:00 PM Eastern, going until 7 and then again from 8-11PM, where we'll try to squeeze in some full sets and excerpts from Crystal Stilts, Vivian Girls, Spiritualized, Sunn o))), Throwing Muses, Fucked Up, and possibly more.

Saturday, the 30th: Day three from 3:00 PM Eastern until midnight. Perhaps airing some of the sets we were unable to get to from Thursday or Friday? But playing on assorted stages that day are Jeremy Jay, Th' Faith Healers, Oneida, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Deerhunter. Once again, this is all subject to change, but to the best of our knowledge you'll be hearing these sets on these particular days, and we'll do our gosh darndest to keep you up to date online. As usual, we'll also be looking into archiving as much of this as we can ala our ATP and SXSW shows, and get some up on the Free Music Archive too (artist-approval-pending)! Tune in, send us good vibes to keep us fueled for our all-nighters in Barcelona!

Motor/Mouth is an ongoing series about WFMU staffers and their vehicles. Say "Hello!" to Scott Williams (Thursdays, Noon - 3 PM Eastern time), WFMU's Volunteer Director. PSA Director and leader of the Hoof & Mouth Sinfonia.

1st car: Dad's old '84 Buick Skyhawk, 2-tone (brown & tan). Uber dadcar. This is the car with which I hit an off-duty cop on his way home from the caterer's to his daughter's first birthday party. Sausage-and-pepper grease all over his Malibu interior. My 17 years of inexperience left not a finger on his sympathies and he threw every book at his disposal at me. Fortunately the judge recognized the cop was on a vengeance kick and came up with a plan to keep me outta the pokey. Years later, I left this car parked, disabled, in a place I shouldn't have. Some authority mercifully removed it and didn't trouble me with the details.

Next: '81 Dodge Colt, gained for a buck at an estate sale. This fucker looked like the "B.O.B." robot from that "Black Hole" movie. I left it running while I ran into a donut shop in Lodi, NJ. Valuable lesson imparted by teenaged menace who took the opportunity I presented him (along with a small CD collection). The car was found in Newark, NJ several days later, completely totalled. The towing company and tow-yard each tried to extort a good chunk of change from me. I didn't fall for that shit.

And then: '78 Buick Skylark. This is the car I drove to my sweet new WFMU volunteering gig in the mid-90s; the one whose insurance policy I let lapse; the one that thus robbed me of my driver's license for awhile, offering far greater rewards than I realized at the time.

Then I bought a car with my girlfriend. 1989 VW Golf, beat to hell, purchased with cash at a White Castle parking lot in Journal Square. Man, I miss that car - what were we thinking, driving it non-stop to Tennessee in a rain-&-sleetstorm?? Well, my girlfriend became my wife, and I've still got her, and baby makes three; and now we've added another VW Golf to the family. This one's green, of 1995 vintage. We've had it for almost 4 years and hope it'll stick around awhile.

If you missed out on Joe Belock and Todd-o-phonic Todd's hilarious and artery-clogging remote broadcast from Fatburger in Jersey City, you can regorge on the magic by checking out the archive, a short video of the event from NJ.com, and a greasy slideshow of visual highlights (thanks Cynthia).

Special guest appearances by Mark Moran of Weird NJ, Georgia and Ira of Yo La Tengo, the Longo brothers, Robert Piersanti, and Jersey City youth rockers!

Belly bombs away!

Expert illustrator and longtime WFMU art contributor Drew Friedman recently launched a new website featuring his fine art prints (with the help of Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon).

For those of you who may not be familiar with Drew's work, he was the creator of WFMU's semi-grotesque mascot, the Old Codger, contributed illustrations for our Crackpots & Visionaries cards, and designed a WFMU t-shirt and bumper sticker. Drew and his brother Josh Alan once guest-hosted for Kaz on WFMU in the 1980s, as well.

Dave the Spazz calls Drew "one of the funniest stipple cartoonists of the '80's and '90's is now one of the funniest illustrators of the 21st century. His work is as hypnotizing as Basil Wolverton's at his best. Drew Friedman is the Albrecht Dürer of liver spots."

Not only can you catch Dave the Spazz rubbing shoulders with Mick Collins and the Paul Green School of Rock kids tonight at BB King Blues Club in Manhattan... a few other DJs have some upcoming off-mic events this week that are worth checking out.

HotRod DJs tonight @ the Lamp Post in Jersey City (352 2nd St), 9pm-2am... Free!

 

Maria Levitsky celebrates the opening of her photography show, "Building Photographs," at Deborah Berke & Partners Architecture Gallery (220 5th Ave, 7th Floor) in Manhattan tomorrow evening (Thurs 5/21), 6:30 - 8:30pm.

Small Change DJs at the Down & Derby roller disco party at Studio B in Brooklyn (259 Banker St) this Saturday with DJ Ayres and Rok One, 10pm onward (RSVP here for discounted admission).

Rock hero Mick Collins (from the Dirtbombs!!!!) will be joining Dave the Spazz and the Paul Green School of Rock kids for the WFMU Benefit tonight at the BB King Blues Club in Manhattan!

Tonight marks the second and final night of performances hosted by Dave the Spazz, who has handpicked music to be performed by local branches of the Paul Green School of Rock and the SCHOOL OF ROCK ALLSTARS.

The kids will compete for rock glory, as Dave selects the winning school. Expect a chimpified, sonic soiree of overmodulated, toe-stubbing rock and roll music as performed by junior high and high school kids! Plus a special guest appearance by Mick Collins! Don't miss it!

Wednesday May 20th - 8pm

BB King Blues Club

New York, NY

$15 advance and door

Have you ever wanted to ask a WFMU radio personality about cunnilingus technique, clitoral stimulation, anal doucheing or "the helicopter"? Yeah, maybe not. But this Friday you'll have your chance anyway, when Sexlab hits the Web waves.

Conceived in a hailstorm of double entendres by our illustrious Queen of Friday Nights, Pseu "Honey Pot" Braun, and gestated in a dong-shaped space station by Pseu and her colleagues / co-researchers Mark "ASS9000" Allen and myself, Wm. "Money Shot" Berger, Sexlab is designed to hold your, um, "hand" and glide you into this new century of suckin' and fuckin'.

While Dave Mandl fills in for Pseu at our FM frequencies and on the regular Web stream, Sexlab will be streaming (with volume AND distance!) at an alternate Web feed accessible at wfmu.org. As Mark says, "online only, because in the Internet the FCC can't hear you curse."

And me? I started rubbing it to Morticia Addams when I was eight years old, and I haven't looked back since. I've been told more than once that I have an "enthusiasm," a certain bonus zeal for the sex act, so hopefully my life of gradual transition from hyper-libidinous man-slut to happily monogged married man will be of service to someone. And my colleagues, well they're unrepentantly horny bastards, too. Either way, Pseu, Mark and I can pretty much guarantee it will be funny (and hopefully genuinely informative as well.)

Sexlab will be live on the Web, this Friday, May 22, from 8-11 p.m. ET. We'll be taking your calls at (201) 209–9368 (for those prone to jump the gun, store that load in your third eye and call us then, not before.) If you'd like to submit a question or suggest a discussion topic in advance (or during the broadcast), we've set up a special email address: asksexlab@wfmu.org

Sexlab Facebook Page (for throbbing members only)

Thanks, and sorry,

Trent

Station Manager Ken arrived at WFMU HQ in Jersey City this morning to find a giant, (and sadly) empty art crate in our parking lot:

Cleverly, whoever illegally offloaded this garbage in the WFMU parking lot neglected to remove any incriminating identification:

And, we know our new toy used to house a Jeff Koons piece from 1986:

I can't help but wonder which Koons piece our empty coffin used to house... Doron is hedging his bets on this or this.

In any case, WFMU would like to request that the next time Gagosian (or Dietl or Crozier) decides to unload their trash on WFMU, they include a little something for our troubles (we are a charity, after all).

Motor/Mouth is an ongoing series about WFMU staffers and their vehicles. This installment is about my current car.

Chris T. (NIghtmare Lounge / Aerial View / Communication Breakdown Archives)

Main form of transportation: 1983 Mercedes 300D

Mileage: Approx. 224,000

Where did you get it? On eBay. It was in a town near Cherry Hill, NJ. It took three buses to get there from Hoboken.

What made you pick it? I first read about the Mercedes 240 Diesel in either the Village Voice or the New York Press (I don't remember which). The article described the 240D as being a bullet-roof city car. I also borrowed a friend's 300D and liked it. I picked my particular car because it was in great shape, had never been in an accident and was $3,000.

How long have you owned it? 6 years.

How much longer will you keep it? It's all about the corrosion. Rust never sleeps.

Favorite thing about it: The sunroof.

Least favorite thing about it: Since the accident, water gets in the passenger footwell. The A/C doesn't work (though I think the new auxiliary fan, yet to be installed, should fix that) and the driver's seat should be rebuilt. The foam is shot..

Rate your satisfaction level from 1 (least) – 10: 8.

What is your dream form of transportation? Friggin' flying car. An auto-gyro. Failing that, I want: diesel engine; 4-wheel drive; convertible top; automatic transmission (I like a car that shifts itself).

Anything else you’d like to mention: About six months after I bought this car I was in accident while on the way to WFMU to do "Aerial View". An 18 year-old girl, with her father in the passenger seat, turned left in front of me by the Target store in Jersey City. She miscalculated how far away I was and I hit her rear bumper with my right fender. I eventually got her insurance company to pay for everything but it was a RPITA (real pain in the ass). More pictures after the jump.

Click on thumbnails

No, the headline above is not a typo. It's deliberately intended to be rendered as W-M-F-U. You WFMU listeners may notice something different in the way the on-air DJ gives the required legal ID every hour on the hour from this moment on. What at first listen may appear to be an outbreak of mass DJ dyslexia will reveal itself to be something a smidge more prosaic (and potentially either more maddening or more enjoyable, depending on whether you're on the business side or the pleasure side of the WFMU listening experience). 

In 1994, a radio station located in New York's Hudson Valley was donated to WFMU, which we employed to repeat our broadcast signal to a wider terrestrial audience. Its assigned call letters were WXHD, broadcasting at 90.1 FM. Being that this particular (and particularly unattractive) call sign was to be heard only once an hour, as part of our mantra-like legal station identification — let's all recite it: "WFMU East Orange, WXHD Mount Hope, wfmu.org" — there was little reason to do anything about changing it. After all, for all purposes, no matter where or how you heard our freeform radio magic, our identity (our "brand," if you will) is that of WFMU.

Except to those people who would invariably get it wrong. 

So how magnaminous are we to rename our 90.1 station identity to render all those typos obsolete? So much so that we DJs are guaranteed to carry on flubbing our new WFMU/WMFU tongue twister ID for weeks to come — that is, when we're not going, "WXHD, er, i mean, WMFU Mount Hope."

A bit of history: WFMU's call sign actually stands for something concrete. The W is assigned as the first letter to broadcast stations east of the Mississippi, what the FM stands for should be obvious, and the U is for our former Viking overlords, Upsala College. With that in mind, we can all play a little game to determine what four-word phrase those litle letters WMFU should represent. (And yes, Polly Pottymouth and Dickie Dirtymind, we know what "MFU" conjures thoughts of — and we have a special gift for you.)

Which reminds me: Happy Mother's Day!

In case you missed the crazy-fun Bang on a Jam noisefest on Billy Jam's show last week, you can download the whole segment here:

Bang on a Jam - 2009 (MP3) | Playlist

Who made all that racket? Billy Jam, Station Manager Ken, Jason Sigal, Doron, Scott Williams, Jeff Mullan, Mike, Nick The Bard, and Bill Bowen, that's who.

Bang on a Jam began in 2008 after Billy was underwhelmed by the annual Bang on a Can festival in NYC. Clearly the Can has been upstaged by the Jam!

Back on March 20th, WFMU did its second SXSW show down in Austin, this time joined in the hand-picking and presentation of the bill by our friends at Aquarius Records in San Francisco. It was a pretty massive event, 14 bands in all, and the outdoor stage kicked off that evening with one of AQ's picks from their hometown, Prizehog. Like the band Harvey Milk (who coincidentally opened WFMU's SXSW show the previous year), this trio specializes in downtuned, sludged-out epic psychedelic metal, though for my money these guys take it into a more spaced-out realm. Their great studio CDR had a somewhat primitive vibe of lo-fi basement doom done on bareboned recording equipment, but live in the outdoor concrete pit of Spiro's I thought they sounded no less destructive, and even more expansive. Worked totally great on the radio as well, check out these MP3s below. And also check out an assortment of 2008/2009 live MP3s from our SXSW shows up on the Free Music Archive (with more to come). Thanks again to Prizehog, AQ, and all the bands and Austin attendees!

Prizehog live at Spiro's, March 20, 2009:

Part 1 (MP3)

Part 2 (MP3)

Part 3 (MP3)

Donate your broke-down jalopy to WFMU!

We are now accepting donations of used vehicles from any state in the U.S. and in any state of disrepair.

It’s a great way to help your favorite freeform radio station, get a tax write-off, and most importantly, get that junker off your front lawn.

Call 1-877-411-DONATE to arrange for vehicle pick-up through the Center for Car Donations (it’s free and benefits WFMU).

See WFMU's obsession with old junky cars here, here, and here.

While being a usual event on the subcontinent, all-night Indian classical concert events are not so common here in NYC. Rob Weisberg's Transpacific Sound Paradise previews one this Saturday, May 2nd between 6 and 9 PM live on WFMU : NY-based tabla player and scene advocate Samir Chatterjee has organized a 10th annual all-nighter taking place Saturday to Sunday May 9 to 10 at the Society of Ethical Culture (2 West 64th Street, Manhattan). Included on the show: three musicians who will be among the many participants in the concert: highly regarded veteran virtuosos Pandit Soumitra Lahiri (sitar) and Sri Shailendra Misra (tabla); and representing the next generation, Samir Chatterjee's son, up-and-coming tabla player Dibyarka Chatterjee. Tune in and prep for Saturday's all night-flight.