Free Music Archive - WFMU Blog

International Punk Watch at WFMU

2013-05-06T11:43:08-04:00

It was as great week for international punk with three awesome bands coming through to play WFMU.

France's Youth Avoiders have put out some amazingly catchy Scandinavian-influenced punk anthems. Their fast-paced, frenetic and honest music leans towards a more thrashy and visceral punk sound than a melodic one.

Puerto Rico's Los Vigilantes bring a juvenile delinquent garage-punk that'll make you headbob. Their sound is heavy on the '60s side, with a healthy dose of droopy '50s doo-wop back-up vocals, rocked with additional organs, tape loops and swagger. (Slovenly Recordings) You also may wanna check out the playlist from their 2012 visit.

San Juan's Las Ardillas are a garage punk band sharing members with Davila 666. Their in-your-face style has been compared to late-'70s and early '80s punk. Their latest release also out on Slovenly Recordings.

Revitalize Music Contest: The Winning Song

2013-05-03T17:56:50-04:00

For this month's Revitalize Music Contest, artists from Lisbon to Austin dug through public domain songs, got inspired, and submitted their creations to our contest repository. Our talented judges from the music, radio, and public domain worlds loved hearing the wide range of incredible entries, but eventually had to select a winning song.

OUR WINNER IS CROWN THE INVISIBLE

Crown the Invisible created an incredible power pop rendition of the 1911 revenge anthem "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life" by Billy Merson. The song tells the story of a man whose girl is charmed away by a Spanish bullfighter.

'Twas at the bull fight where we met him
We'd been watching his daring display
And while I went out for some nuts and a programme
The dirty dog stole her away

The band's been around for about a year, and are a blend between a studio compositional project and a raucous psychedelic band. They are all grizzled rock dudes who live and work in East Williamsburg warehouses, where they've been cultivating their space/stoner rock sound. They describe their band as "if Rick Wakeman played with Ride, but the songs were written by The Pretty Things while they watched Planet of the Apes and listened to Hawkwind." That is to say, they all grew up on early '90s and '60s British stuff.

TAKING A SONG FROM 1911 AND MAKING IT SOUND 2013

When the band began working on their arrangement they describe the process as "vibe hunting." There was a lot of stomping and clapping involved, which is how they ended up deciding to keep the waltzy 3/4 time signature without over-emphasizing it. This also how they found the song's distinctive sound, a swirling whistle made by playing a hammond organ sample on a keyboard through a guitar amp.

During this process, singer CG Foisy says he kept waking up in the middle of the night with the lyrics stuck in his head. He says it's a terrible song to have in your head because, "it's cheeky, evil and weird. It's a portal into male territoriality. How men are these vindictive monkeys."

Overall, the challenge was good practice for the band. This summer CG is traveling to Beijing, where he'll play a few shows, and then spend a week traveling the silk road looking for music along the way. What he finds will eventually be adapted into song challenges for the band. Whenever he travels, CG loves to pick up a new instrument. You can even hear (kinda) one of these instruments in the winning song. It's an Indian instrument he bought in Singapore called the gopichand. It sounds part sitar, part mouth harp.

Participating in the contest speaks to the bands' interests in being part of a community through their music. Some bands get really into making an album, then going on tour, then making another album, then going on another tour, and hoping to be signed by a label. CG says, "That works well for some bands, but other bands like to take on weekly assignments, making videos and vignettes, and to have different kinds of conversations with their fans."

Crown the Invisible includes Jared Barron, CG Foisy, Steve Schwadron, with a guest appearance in this recording by Gabriel Berezin on bass. Check out their summer series Fantastic Planet, which installs different bands in different warehouses, merging live noise rock with visuals. You can also see them play live on May 9th at Don Pedro (90 Manhattan Avenue), where they might be performing their winning song.

The Revitalize Music Contest

2013-04-29T12:37:17-04:00

Bring the public domain into the future! This April, WFMU and the Free Music Archive are challenging artists everywhere to create new recordings and contemporary arrangements of historic compositions available in the public domain. We’re calling this our Revitalize Music Contest.

Every song (except for perhaps "Happy Birthday") will someday fall out of copyright. Archives such as the IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library, Musopen and the Public Domain Information Project chart the vast and ever-expanding troves of public domain music. Participants in our Revitalize Music Contest will help bring these works to life by creating new recordings, and feeding them back into the public domain.

To inspire entries, we’ve handpicked a selection of out-of-copyright songs with compelling lyrics, beautiful melodies, and unusual stories. Keep in mind that unless materials are listed in our contest repository, the recordings of performances we link to are still within the scope of copyright. After learning about the songs and contest rules here below, you can browse our pool of entries.

Olneyville Sound System: These Guys Don't Take Requests, They Don't Play Showtunes

2013-04-05T13:15:51-04:00

Here's a classic from Olneyville Sound System. Like their namesake System—the inspirational former workplace of David Byrne that churns out hot weiners covered in a legendary meat sauce—OSS also specialize in a flavor that is distinct to the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence RI.

OSS make bass and drum music. Not to be confused with "drum 'n' bass." This is real raw bass sludge from Dan St. Jacques (Landed, Six Finger Satellite) and Adam Autry (Boredoms' Boadrum, Plate Techtonics). Their sound is akin to Lightning Bolt doing ESG, concise noise-funk with the experimental humor of Men's Recovery Project. "These Guys Don't Take Requests, They Don't Play Showtunes" comes from their '97 Load Records debut Because We're All In This Together, which featured "anti-blues" harmonica by Roma and maniacal vocals by Jon Von Ryan.

"Olneyville Sound System was very influential on Usaisamonster," Colin Langenus wrote in a post describing a recent collaboration Adam Autry. The Colin L Orchestra joins in on a rare OSS Brooklyn performance this Saturday at the Silent Barn. Providence's Russian Tsarlag, recent WFMU guests Source of Yellow, DJ Greg Fox, and a ventriloquist who goes by the name of Bernard Herman are also on the bill.

Feel free to request "These Guys Don't Take Requests" at an upcoming OSS show, but they'll be playing new material. Word is they have a new album tracked at Machines With Magnets. I got to see some of it live about a year ago and it is going to rule. We'll hear some when they swing by Talk's Cheap / WFMU on April 18th. For a deeper voyage into the history of OSS, check out On Safari, recorded live at Providence's defunct Safari Lounge.

Balkan Brass & Beyond: 14 Live Performances from the 2013 Golden Festival

2013-03-30T19:18:18-04:00

For the fifth year, WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise brought us a live broadcast from the massive annual Balkan and Eastern European music and dance bacchanal, the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival. We present here 14 different artists who performed this year, who are performing everything from Bulgarian dance staples, to music from the Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema, to traditional polyphonic acappella folk from Georgia.

Black Sea Hotel is the Brooklyn-based vocal quartet of Corinna, Joy, Sarah and Willa. Their set from last year included traditional songs learned under a plum tree in Bulgaria, but with their own distinct twists and arrangements, since many of the songs were originally sung by larger choirs.

Brazda is a New York-based Balkan band that plays fresh arrangements of traditional repertoire from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, and beyond.

Supruli is a Georgian choir directed by Carl Linich (also of Tenores de Aterúe). Its members have studied in Georgia -- listen and hear why polyphonic singing is so captivating to music scholars.

Yale Women's Slavic Chorus performs songs from Macedonia, Russia, Georgia, and Bulgaria.

Zikrayat, who specialize in Egyptian film music's golden era, accompanied by live dancing on stage at the Golden Festival for this rendition of the song "Tahey" by an unknown composer whose song now lives on.

If this trove doesn't satisfy your Balkan and Eastern European jams fix until the festival returns in next January, be sure to explore our collections from 2012, 2011, 2010 & 2009.

Arabic/Egyptian Music
from the Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema
Zikrayat

Vocal Arrangements of Bulgarian and FYR Macedonian Folk Songs
Black Sea Hotel

Punk, Jazz, Folk,
Tango & Klezmer
Guignol Band

Traditional Bulgarian Music on Kaval, Gaida, Gadulka, Tambura & Tupanve
Lyuti Chushki

Traditional Village Songs from All Over the Balkans and Eastern Europe
Yale Women's Slavic Chorus

Romani Music Performed by NYU Students & Community Members
Raklorom

Balkans, Heavily FYR Macedonia. Clarinet, Accordion Drum & Vocals
Gogofski

Bulgarian Solo Improvisations on Gadulka (aka. Bowed Rebec)
Nikolay Kolev

Bulgarian Dance
Staples Live
at Golden Festival
Balkan Fields

Danceable Gypsy Tunes from Eastern Europe.
Plus Klezmer & Hungarian
Rozsa

8-Piece Balkan Band with Fresh Arrangements of Traditional Repertoire
Brazda

FYR Macedonian
Village-Style Dance Music (Lzvorno)
Niva

Traditional Polyphonic
Acappella Folk
from Caucasus Georgia
Supruli

Young People's Band Performing Traditional Music in a Modern Way
Zlatni Makedoncinja

None of this would have been possible without Rob Weisberg, host of Transpacific Sound Paradise. He'd also like to thank the Golden Festival founders and organizers, the Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band and the festival committee; co-host and tech guru Irene Trudel; and to the rest of our our illustrious crew: Mark Koch, Juan Aboites, Chuck Dean, Dan Barker, Jason Sigal, Matthew Cherchio, Bryan Koniarz, Ariana Hellerman, Katie Gentile & Nick the Bard.

New York's Alright: Contemporary Punk & Hardcore Festival

2013-04-03T11:44:46-04:00

If you love punk music, it's an incredible time to live in NYC. In celebration of the current surfeit, New York's Alright will be kicking off 4/20 weekend with a slection of comtemporary punk and hardcore bands from around the world. In anticipation, you can download this free mix of bands who will be playing the fest including the Altered Boys, Bad Noids, CREEM, Hounds of Hate, No Class & Nomad. These are all live performances expertly recorded on WFMU's Distort Jersey City with Deed Runlea.

Comebacks Celebrated Live at the Bell House with The Relatives & Dot Wiggin Band

2013-04-02T16:38:37-04:00

Even in the biggest pile of horse crap, there's gotta be pony somewhere. When Hurricane Sandy turned the freeform radio station WFMU into an island, damaging valuable equipment and sinking their annual record fair fundraiser, one of the bright post-storm rainbows was an incredible night of music at the The Bell House in Brooklyn.

The Hurricane Sandy Relief benefit featured outstanding performances from Arrington De Dionyso of Old Time Relijun, followed by the Dot Wiggin Band, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and Texas psych/gospel legends-rediscovered The Relatives. At the show, WFMU's comeback story paralleled the journeys of many of the evenings performers.

If you're not following the growing popularity of The Relatives, you should be. Their music and resurrection story were recently featured in the New York Times and on NPR, which means your mom might be calling to ask you about them soon. The long story short is that after 30 years, they are just now releasing their first full album of original work (available for streaming here), and it seems the world is finally ready to embrace a sound I've seen best described as "Jesus on LSD."

Also performing that night was another comeback kid, Dot Semprini aka. Dot Wiggin, the lead singer of '60s all-female group The Shaggs. Depending on whom you ask, they were either the best band of all time or the worst. One of their classically controversial songs "My Pal Foot Foot" closed off their set that night. It's an ode to Dot's lost cat that will either make your brain hurt or remind you why Dot holds the place she does in Rock and Roll history.

As you enjoy these live sets, take a moment to send dry thoughts and financial support in the direction of the station these bands came out to celebrate. The WFMU 2013 Marathon is underway, and it's a chance to say thank you to the station that helps you discover incredible music throughout the year and who parents this very archive.

Live at WFMU's Benefit Concert at the Bell House January, 2013
The Relatives

Live at WFMU's Benefit Concert at the Bell House January, 2013
Dot Wiggin Band

Live at WFMU's Benefit Concert at the Bell House January, 2013
Arrington de Dionyso

The Piggies: Live on WFMU

2013-01-25T14:41:08-05:00

These little piggies skipped the market, and headed straight to WFMU to deliver their own brand of straight-up catchy rock and roll! Punk in spirit, riffing through roots-dirty, Stones-esque style hooks, The Piggies exemplify the good-time, vinyl-hugging rock-n-roll and straight-to-tape aesthetic most bands can only hope for. This could be why their releathus far have been live rehearsal room recordings on a Zoom H2.

To hear the full performance and interview with host Joe Belock, visit the WFMU playlist. The Piggies will also be playing a Hurricane Sandy benefit for Norton Records on March 22nd at the Bell House.

Liz B's Top FMA Picks of 2012

2012-12-27T12:50:47-05:00

I've been a silent lurker on the FMA this year, but did want to pipe up to share my top picks of 2012 with you all. Like an addict, I hit the new release stack on the site with frightening regularity, the spoils of which I share on my weekly radio show on WFMU and its corresponding podcast.

I skimmed the tastiest bits from the top of my FMA pile, resulting in what is still kind of a huge pile. Therefore, yet again, this year I've got two year-end mixes to share: a short attention span mix (below), and a more complete mix (53 tracks) after the jump. Enjoy!

1971 Meets 2012: Balboa Live on WFMU

2012-12-21T12:30:25-05:00

Photos by Jeff Moore

For this live session, Wilco's Mikael Jorgensen and tech genius Travis Thatcher filled WFMU with an ungodly array of vintage, modern and homemade synths, sequencers, filters, triggers, drum machines, and patchbays, and they did it with style, sensitivity and major know-how. From EMS-synths to iPad apps, it's 1971 meets 2012 and a thrilling master class in electronic music history in between.

All songs performed on Scott Williams' show are from their forthcoming release "Songs For Sexting," due out on Asthmatic Kittys' Library Catalog Music Series. All titles are indeed ACTUAL SEXTS. See if you can decipher them yourself.

Frank Bango Live on WFMU

2012-10-26T09:06:36-04:00

Call him a D.I.Y. Man: Frank Bango is an independent artist. The New York singer-songwriter, whose music has been compared to Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and Ray Davis, set up his own imprint, Sincere Recordings, in 1994. Since then he’s been self-releasing his warm, guitar-driven pop songs.

Along the way he’s found novel ways to pay the bills, soundtracking an Omega watch commercial by lending his song "Bunny In A Bunnysuit" to the Nicole Kidman-fronted campaign. And last year he successfully kickstarted his most recent LP Touchy Feely. Fans who pledged $250 were rewarded with soup at the B&H Dairy on 2nd Avenue while Bango and Ricky Vesecky "recounted some of their most colorful adventures culled from years of being outsiders on the inside." That's what you call D.I.Y at its tastiest.

MI-GU Live On WFMU, Playing NYC

2012-10-09T17:12:54-04:00

As heard yesterday on WFMU's This Is The Modern World with DJ Trouble, MI-GU is in town from Tokyo with their new album Choose The Light. The band is is Yuko Araki (drum/vocals) with Hirotaka "Shimmy" Shimizu (guitar/producer). Araki and Shimizu are also members of Cornelius group, Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, If By Yes, and Brother's Sister's Daughter.

In this infomercial, Mike Watt says he just can't reccomend their new album enough, because MI-GU puts everything upfront. Upfront feelings. Upfront drums. Upfront guitars. Watt says, "It not Marlon Brando."

Folks in the NYC area can see their show on Thursday, October 4 at Union Pool with Nels Cline's Eye Bone. Tickets are $10 at the door only.

Jealousy live on WFMU

2012-08-03T19:32:35-04:00

Jealousy in the Love Room (pic by Yvonne Szymczak)

This picture captures the last moment before the lights went out, the strobes came on, and everything went weird. Great weird: disorienting, non-linear, exploratory, and those other catchy faves trippy, spacey, and whoah...

San Francisco-based Mark Treise's 4-year running project Jealousy takes a wildly disparate set of inspirations and distills them, coherently and brilliantly, through a bass guitar and his voice. The bass is relentless, repetetive and symphonic; his voice is high & textural and occasionally takes on the cadence of Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. Lyrics are abstract poetry that often seems to be on about some sex stuff or other. Jealousy has been described as having come to fruition with last year's excellent Moniker Records LP "Viles" (dl the whole thing here on the FMA). But while Mark has indeed sharpened his focus, this session on my radio show displays him very much still searching. 4 of the 5 songs played were largely improvised.

Mark was joined on this session by Alison Peery, who played theremin and the handheld Korg Monotron synth - Hawkwind-style swoops and sweeps abound. The songs were dark as pitch, but the vibe here was very laid-back and open to whatever might happen.

Here's some major trippy light show video, shot by Yvonne Szymczak & David Van Dokkum.

Jealousy Live on WFMU from WFMU on Vimeo.

And here are some handy links:

Jealousy on the FMA, comprising the entire "Viles" LP, plus a live session on my radio show, and on Keili's

Jealousy on Myspace, Moniker Records on the FMA

Dirty Beaches live on WFMU

2012-08-01T14:27:50-04:00

Obviously, you start with Suicide. Then you hit the dusty highway & head backwards, about 15 years. On the way, you stop at a Howard Johnson's where you pick up smokes and an underage girl. Leaving, you spot a shoebox on the ground - it's filled with a stranger's snapshots, postcards and love-letters. You take it, because this will contain your memories. Heading back to the future, you make a pitstop in downtown NYC ca. 1981, just to wash up.

Now that you've got the basic ingredients for Dirty Beaches, you just need the right chef. He is Alex Zhang Hungtai, a bi-coastal Canadian of Taiwanese birth and no place of his own. Though currently, Montreal seems to be doing quite nicely.

Alex and guitarist Shub Roy recently made their first visit to WFMU, and I'm the lucky sumbitch who got to host & record them, while trying not to get drool on their sweet gear. Korg MS-10 synth! Ace Tone analog delay! A homemade fuzz pedal! Real nice mic too, I forgot to ask what that was.

Dirty Beaches live at WFMU! from WFMU on Vimeo

Anyway, we're all real excited to share their live set with you, including an interview where we learn of other things happening in Montreal, and some upcoming releases, including 2 of Alex's film soundtrack projects. An Italian horror film!!

Check out the video of their performance, and here's more Dirty Beaches on the FMA.

Digital Stimulation: An Interview with the Units' Scott Ryser

2012-05-18T17:15:13-04:00

Suicide may have lit the torch in the mid-'70s, but one could argue that by decade's end, its carriers lived on the other side of the country -- in San Francisco. Sure, L.A. had the Screamers and some other odd ducks. But SF hosted an impressive number of bent bands who used synths, tape machines and other electrical apparatus to extend punk's mutated left end by leaps/bounds. Informed by avant garde composers and performance artists, fueled by apocalyptic abandon and paranoid pop twitch, groups like Tuxedomoon, Nervous Gender, the Residents, Factrix, Minimal Man, Chrome, and Pink Section would release timeless slabs of aggresively bizarre noise -- as would the Units, whose Digital Stimulation LP (415 Records, 1980) remains a personal favorite. The album's a lush and moody salvo if there ever was one, and I was thrilled to ask former lead synth player and vocalist Scott Ryser (right) a few questions about the band and its M.O. by e-mail last week.

WFMU live from Beerland: The Wedding Present, Death of Samantha, The Men, Supreme Dicks, Xray Eyeballs, Electric Jellyfish

2013-02-09T11:44:12-05:00

WFMU held a showcase independent of the SXSW Festival at the great Beerland in Austin TX on March 17th. It was a 6-band blowout featuring Electric Jellyfish, Death of Samantha, The Wedding Present, Supreme Dicks, Xray Eyeballs and The Men. We aired sets live over WFMU (91.1/90.1-FM NY/NJ) with a stream at wfmu.org (and many FMA jams blastin thru the soundsystem betweens sets!). We're pleased to share high-quality mp3s from this event!

WFMU live from Beerland, Austin TX Sat 3/17

2012-03-16T14:40:02-04:00

WFMU returns to Austin Saturday night for it's showcase, this time an event independent of the SXSW Festival at the great Beerland, 711 Red River. It's a 6-band blowout featuring The Wedding Present, The Men, Xray Eyeballs, Electric Jellyfish, Death of Samantha and Supreme Dicks! Liz Berg, Jason Sigal, Brian Turner will be broadcasting the sets live over WFMU-FM and wfmu.org starting 8pm central/9 PM Eastern. $10 door entry, no SXSW badges or wristbands accepted. All proceeds to the bands. Special commemorative posters designed by Nevada Hill will be available at the show.

Lineup (Times Central):

8PM: Electric Jellyfish: Straight outta Melbourne: "Electric Jellyfish carry the torch along with Eddy Current Suppression Ring lighting the way to a legendary story of distinctive rock 'n roll beginning with bands such as Radio Birdman, The Saints, X, the Birthday Party, feedtime, etc. Their sound is on par with The Wipers in their heyday...such daring emotional vulnerability, yet it's psych/punk that's sonically full-fledged, solid, walloping, and (to quote Monoshock) 'philosophically Stoogely'".(Rick Ele)

9PM: The Wedding Present: The first band to play a WFMU show to have had 18 top 40 singles in the UK!

10PM: Death of Samantha: Full on reunion show by Cleveland post-punk/indie godfather legends! DoS tore through the late 80's early 90s and gave birth to Cobra Verde (which included members John Petkovic and Doug Gillard, who also spent time in Guided By Voices); Petkovic also was a member of Sweet Apple with J Mascis, Gillard made records with the great Gem, solo, and nowadays plays in Bambi Kino and Nada Surf. Drummer Steve-O was an Elvis impersonator in Memphis for a while. This is gonna rule.

11PM: Supreme Dicks: Uber-rare out-of-New England show by these reclusive woodsy Massachussetts psychedelicists! Their official recordings ceased in the mid 1990's, but have popped up live around their locale through the years, now lured to Texas on WFMU's special invite to which we are extremely grateful. The Dicks are also subject of a well overdue recent anthology on Jagjaguwar, a 4CD complete history called Breathing and Not Breathing.

12M: Xray Eyeballs: NYC new wave dance party faves, started up by OJ from Golden Triangle. Equal parts Jay Reatard and the Urinals, described by our own Liz Berg (who had them live on her show): "fuzzy, over modulated garage pop at a languid trot.”

1AM: The Men: (photo left: Ryan Muir) Raucous four-piece post-punk combo out of Brooklyn who've cobbled together a pile of not-so-pounding influences (drone, Krautock, pop) and sets them into car-crash mode. Howling guitars, rocked-up Suicide references, this could be the great crossover Amphetamine Reptile spacerock band if they were around circa 1989. Seriously driving punk rock with intricate, layered structures amidst the raw power. Played live on Brian Turner's show in 2011 (issued as a tour CD), and have a new album out Open Your Heart on Sacred Bones. Perfect way to tear up the evening's finale!

Past WFMU Austin events [2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011] have included: Sun Araw, Kurt Vile, Half Japanese, Mayyors, Los Llamarada, Harvey Milk, Pierced Arrows, Dengue Fever, Cheveu, Kelley Stoltz, Whitehorse, Hank IV, Evangelista, Major Stars, Iron Man, Absu, Woven Hand, Gary War, XYX, Shit & Shine, Gunslingers, Home Blitz, Todd, Moon Duo, the Renderers, Sonny & the Sunsets, El-G, Amen Dunes, the Homosexuals, Lexie Mountain Boys, Psychedelic Horseshit, Gary Higgins, Paul Metzger, The Bad Trips, Citay, the Endtables, Obits, Slough Feg, Elm, Prizehog, Speedwolf, Prizehog, Epileptinomicon, Headdress, and True Widow. So you know it's gonna be a stellar night in 2012! Stop by, grab a poster, dance the night away with WFMU.

1-666-CALL-SAAD: 12 Hours of Avant Thrash Metal by Jamie Saft, Mike Pride, Weasel Walter, Mary Halvorson, Joe Morris & more. "Free Rules!" -Ed Saad

2012-10-13T20:26:46-04:00

1-666-CALL-SAAD is a 110-track thrash metal and avant brutality compilation presented by Kalashnikov. The spontaneous metal duo of Jamie Saft and Mike Pride contribute eight hours of new Kalashnikov recordings and gather a team of avant all stars like "Mad Skills" Mary Halvorson, Joe Morris, and Weasel Walter for an epic stream of positively brutal thrash interpretations.

By way of introduction to this massive endeavor, we are honored to host a selection here on the Free Music Archive. All twelve thrashing hours can be downloaded for free courtesy of Veal Records.

Ed Saad is the inspiration and backbone of this compilation, with his motto "FREE RULES." The full download includes Ed Saad's "History of Thrash Metal & Avant", plus many improvised spoken interludes recorded while on the go in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Many of the contributors are connected with Ed Saad via Facebook, even if they have not met in person.

WFMU DJ Kurt Gottschalk explains in the liner notes (below).

Liner Notes by Kurt Gottschalk:

Vialka Rock the Sun w/ SolarSoundSystem in India

2012-10-18T14:45:06-04:00

As Vialka, Eric Boros and Marylise Frecheville cover a breadth of sonic terrain inspired by physical space. Their music—a rich tapestry of European prog rock, funereal folk, Saharan blues, gypsy punk, traditional Chinese ballads, and mathy rock excursions—soaks up input from the myriad cultures they've traversed in over a decade of constant touring far off the beaten path.

This month, Vialka travel to India for Rock the Sun, an interactive collaboration with Cédric Carles' 3S Solar Sound System to promote sustainable energy:

"The team will build a mobile solar powered sound unit that can be operated without using the electric grid. After the onsite construction of the solar powered unit at Jaaga in Bangalore, the team will demonstrate its functioning at presentations, lectures, DJ-sets and concerts by Vialka in Bangalore and Pune."

Vialka's corner of the Free Music Archive has recently been updated to include several full albums, and is also linked up with the duo's solo projects, side projects, and collaborations.

Science & Superstition, their most recent LP, offers an acoustic barritone take on classic Vialka tunes like "100% Hello" and "Petit Mot" alongside a distinctly vialkan mix of traditional songs in Russian and Hebrew, tributes to Hungarian and Armenian groups, plus a guest saz solo:

The album is available for sharing throughout the world wide web under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license. You can send donations or purchase LP/cassette versions at vialka.com.

Related Articles:
>> Vialka: Plus de vie que la musique (Joe Mc)
>> Vialka Live at WFMU Plus Xiao He (2010)

Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) Curates a Month of 'Slow Radio,' Talks Broadband in The Wire

2012-10-13T21:50:36-04:00

Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) has a new article in the fantastic Wire Magazine series Collateral Damage, in which artists respond to the effects of the internet.

"In the early 2000s, increased bandwidth allowed recombinant artists to enter the gift economy. It’s a freedom we should defend at all costs, argues Vicki Bennett aka People Like Us" [Read the full article at The Wire Magazine]

In the article, Vicki observes that the abundance of music at our fingertips "shifts the way one listens, as the process becomes more like a ‘one-off’ experience of something that is ‘live’ or ‘unrepeatable’, almost like it was before the age of recording." But we should be wary of putting our faith in the cloud; "My main concern over the cloud is that this ‘automatic and effortless’ experience of access may be improved upon by eventually narrowing down results to only mainstream or sponsored content."

Vicki Bennett's 744-hour-long Radio Boredcast airs this month as part of AV Festival 12: As Slow As Possible. Among the 100 slow music contributors are Mark Gergis (Porest/Sublime Frequencies), Radio Web MACBA, Jason Willett, Zach Layton (Issue Project Room), Andy Bayo (waxy.org), Chris & Cozey, Matmos, Ergo Phizmiz, Dylan Nyoukis, Jared Blum, Felix Kubin, Gudrun Gut, Irene Moon, DJ/rupture and a bunch of other WFMU DJs.

We are proud to host a collection of People Like Us recordings here on the Free Music Archive. A few selections are below, including "DO or DIY" from her 2003 John Peel session, "I'm Backwards" from Christian Marclay's Sounds of Christmas at Tate Modern, a re-working of Daphne Oram commissioned by the UK's Sonic Arts Network (now known as Sound And Music), and "Happy" from last year's This Is Light Music.

Previously:
>> Bob Ostertag in The Wire: "The Web Changes Our Understanding of Music"
>> Liz B on People Like Us Reworks Daphne Oram: "Queens of Avant Garde Pop"