WFMU : Freedom is Freeform!

This Copenhagen quartet averaged age 17 when composing their debut LP "New Brigade." Dais Records did the 1st pressing stateside, and it's newly reissued on What's Your Rupture who describe the release as "uncontrived, pure – this record is a youthful assault of downer no-wave hardcore, wise beyond it’s years."

Indeed, there's a fresh breath of air in this mix of Pink Flag/Wire-style compact energy and '81 downtown NYC guitar nods (not to mention the frosty flurry of Darkthrone at times) but Ice Age's average 2-minute jams overflow with a very original approach to youthful aggro-rock that has already won them a legion of stateside fans.

Ice Age's live set on my radio show was a no-nonsense 25 minute blast during a slew of big NYC gigs that week with the likes of Fucked Up, Prurient, Cult of Youth and others. They return to the states for more shows July 15-August 21 (listed here). More info at their blog.

In his 40-year career, lo-fi legend R. Stevie Moore has self-released 400+ home recordings (a few of which appear here on the FMA). And as a longtime NJ resident, Stevie has performed live on WFMU more than any other artist -- he even hosted his own show in the early 80s! -- and we're in the process of bringing many RSM highlights from over the years to you via the FMA.

But despite his prolificness and influence, R. Stevie Moore has never toured! Until now...

Powered by fan support from his recent Kickstarter projects, a benevolent documentarian in need of a plot, the encouragement of disciples like Ariel Pink, and a backing-band of young fans called Tropical Ooze, R. Stevie Moore is embarking on his first-ever tour all across the USA and Europe! [tour dates after the jump]

Along the way, the band stopped by WFMU for a career-spanning set of should-be hits like "I Like To Stay Home," "Play Myself Some Music," and "Conflict of Interest" along with songs featured on the brand new album Advanced, which was recorded down in RSM's homestate of Tennessee.

RSM's backing band features Tropical Ooze members Sam Levin (drums), Wilson Novitzki (keyboard, guitar), & JR Thomason (guitar)

A little over a year ago, WFMU featured Smersh -- "NJ's Prolific Legends of the Cassette Underground" -- to coincide with the release of the Smersh Library Sampler -- 15 tracks recorded between 1983 and 1994.

Working out of a Piscataway basement full of seemingly endless musical toys and creative inspiration, beat studio guru Mike Mangino and vocalist Chris Shepard wrote & recorded one song every week dating back to 1979. So this sampler was just scratching the surface of Smersh's tremendous and influential output, which ranged from industrial to pop to electronic to noise and earned them a cult following all over the world.

Mike has recently made some of the Smersh catalog available again through his Mirandette Popular label, along with newer electronic works by artists including The Dirty Outlet and Andrew Mascardi. From the label website: "M-Pop Recordings is a really, really small music label. We're so small we're almost microscopic. Contact us for our latest catalog."

This week, M-Pop announced the newest Smersh compilation is here: We Like To Be Listened includes five tracks that were also part of the Smersh Library Sampler (below) along with 15 more gems culled from Smersh's vast output. A personal favorite is the outtake of "Sweet Little Bishop," a bizarro-world Michael Jackson sorta sick jam which was the first Smersh recording I ever heard (via 7" on Börft), but really every track is a hit and if you like these sounds, you will like listening to We Like To Be Listened.

Lysergic boogie 3-piece Apache Dropout are the pride of Bloomington Indiana.

To give you an idea: they've got direct lineage to the Zero Boys, and their new album was released by top-notch local label Family Vineyard on the same day as the reissue of a legendary 7" by Indiana's Dow Jones and the Industrials.

To give you an even better idea, you can hear half of that LP right here on the FMA. The full release is also available on cassette from Apache Dropout's own Magnetic South imprint, as well as on a limited art edition 8-track from Auris Apothecary.

When Sonny Alexandre (left), Nathan Warrick (top R), and Seth "Lord Fyre" Mahern (R) swung by WFMU for a live set on my show Talk's Cheap, I asked them why they decided to post half of their LP online for free before its official release in all of these formats. "Because we thought it was good, and we wanted people to hear it, and come to our shows." That strategy seems to have paid off for all who had the opportunity to witness Apache Dropout as they tore up America's insides. They told me they found a sort of "second home" in Tennessee, where they had the chance to hang out with Kid Congo Powers, and the raw energy of these performances certainly bring to mind TN legends like the Oblivians. 

Apache Dropout made the most of their first-ever trip through these large swaths of the country, recording new songs during an extended stay in Austin TX. Then just a few days later, they found a top-notch label to release 'em in Chicago after blowing the roof off a Permanent Records in-store. The "Shot Down" b/w "Sister Burnout" 7" will be out June 28th on Trouble In Mind, the label from Bill and Lisa Roe of CoCoComa, and you can hear live versions of these new tunes in the WFMU live session (after the jump).

Fresh off appearances at Montreal's Mutek and the 2011 WFMU+FMA SXSW Showcase, Sun Araw took a first-ever trip to the WFMU studios for a live session!

Originally envisioned as a solo project from Magic Lanterns' Cameron Stallones (also ex-Pocahaunted), Sun Araw has evolved into a full band live performance experience alongside a flood of releases from labels like Not Not Fun, Woodsist, Leaving Records, and Araw's own Sun Ark.

The Sun Araw band features Cameron Stallones on guitar/synth/vocals, backed by two equally awesome players: Barrett Avner (also of Sadistic Candle) on the Shahi Baaja (pictured at left) & Monotron, and Alex Gray (Deep Magic / Deep Tapes) on extra guitar + MPC.

The session commenced with a 30+ minute improv to get in the zone for one new song, and one old song. The studio version of "Crown Shell" will be available on Ancient Romans, the forthcoming Sun Araw 2xLP due out on Sun Ark via Drag City August 23rd 2011. Ancient Romans will be Sun Araw's fifth full-length in three years, and "Crown Shell" provides a staggered, spacious, aquatic, and deeply hypnotic glimpse at what's to come. The band closed out with "Hive Burner," a psych-rock comet that originally appeared on Sun Araw's 2008 debut, The Phynx. 

Sun Araw's WFMU session was rec'd on June 7th and aired on June 9th [playlist for Talk's Cheap/WFMU, June 9th 2011]. If you like what you hear, dig deeper into the Sun Araw universe here and at sunaraw.com.

The first time I experienced Captain Ahab was also the first time I experienced Friends Forever, Animal Collective, ZS, Rose4Bodhan, Mr. Pacman and Rubber-O-Cement at this totally epic festival dubbed Neon Hates You back in 2002 -- a truly life changing, epic event.

I honestly had only heard of like 2 bands on the bill and was just kinda along for the ride, but after being assaulted by a home made bass wielding alien fly in an animated cardboard world of sonic madness, then dodging flaming tennis balls thrown from guys paying synths in costumes stolen from the set of Power Rangers, trying to navigate the twists and turns of a militaristic flying V double jazz trio form hell, watching a dude with a dolphin on his head turn the venue into a ball pit and finally seeing 2 dudes in masks from Brooklyn in hold a room just by banging on some old pvc buckets and messing around with a broken guitar, this show without a doubt set my standard for what I want from musicians and performance artists, complete sensory overload, no matter your budget.

Smack in the middle of this was Captain Ahab. A dude with hair down to his ass that kinda looked more like he was headed to Ozfest than this DIY one. After apologizing for being sick he told us that he was going to have someone else dace for him that night. He proceeded to dive into hyper-intelligent, angry as fuck, slightly homoerotic, electronic grooves that included covers of Avril Lavigne's Sk8r Boi and J-Lo's Jenny on the Block. We had no choice but to dance, and if you had the balls to front and pretend that you didn't want to be a part of this party, his dancing sidekick, looking like he was straight out of a Tom of Finland sketch, wrangled the jaded stranglers to the center of the floor to be harpooned by Ahab's mighty beats. I was in love.

Almost ten years later, a few world tours, a concept record written as a 14 year old girl, song placements in The Office and Snakes On A Plane, Captain Ahab is still going strong and is not afraid to attack his audience's senses from all sides, but he is no longer content with making genre bending dance music that has the power to unite all walks of life in sweaty shirtless harmony. Ahab wants to end all of our preconceived notions of what is good or bad, wipe the slate clean, and start taste all over again. He bought some friends along to help, and they have created a shadow puppet/video extravaganza to help usher everyone in to The End of Irony.

So with that. I'll get out of the way and let you aboard that ship that will I am pleased to present. Captain Ahab live on WFMU complete with integrated video and puppet show:

Get the full story from their mouth with the post set interview here and check out more tunes from Captain Ahab here on the Free Music Archive

Today I'd like to encourage you to check out some true undergound freak-squad music. Mutwawa, from Richmond, VA.

This 2-man unit combines mutated African rhythms and sounds, perhaps akin to the vibe of Konono No 1, with the gritty, experimental synth-stomp of Forcefield. Both members have long and impressive resumes: Jason Hodges is credited with samples and has played in the power-violence bass-n-drums band Suppression, freakout post-punk band The Amoeba Men, Bermuda Triangles... the list goes on. All of them highly recommended. Gary Stevens is credited with effects, and he is also the founding member of noise band Head Molt and for several years ran the infamous DIY house/venue The Rat-Ward. Again, I could go on...

Mutwawa - Live at Strange Matter - March 8, 2011 - Richmond, Virginia from Silver Persinger on Vimeo.

Embedded below is their first album "Necro Zulu" which can also be dowloaded. I have to point out that I love how this album is composed of songs. Mutwawa can do the noise band M.O. of cranking out one solid 15-minute set too, which works live (just check out how well they work that format in the video above), but I do appreciate the extra bit of self-editing that goes into boiling your material down to a batch of 2-3 minute highlights. It also makes an album that much more repeat-listenable for me, and this is a good one. Play this on something with some good bass.

CNP Records blog, Jason's record label  |  Rat-Ward blog, for all of Gary's projects 

[originally posted at WFMU's Beware of the Blog]

The Whines are a garage band from Portland Oregon with ties to Michigan and maybe also Alaska. The trio of Karianne (Vox/Bass) Jesse (guitar) and Bobby (drums) has released music on three great Portland-based labels:

* Gnar Tapes (YACHT, White Rainbow, Meth Teeth, Lucky Dragons, Woolen Men) released the Go, Demos, Go cassette

* Just For The Hell Of It (Talk Normal, Explode Into Colors) released the "Insane OK" 7" EP

* Meds Records (imprint of excellent PDX record shop Exiled) released the Hell To Play LP in 2010.

Hell To Play was recorded in collaboration Rob & Rod from Eat Skull, and Kyle from Meth Teeth / Meercaz. This was one of my favorite albums of last year, and I'm not the only one -- it was one of Ty Segall's favorite albums of 2010 too! But despite getting great reviews in spots like Still Single I get the feeling that we'd all be better off if more people heard The Whines. So lucky for us, they've kindly offered up three tracks from Hell To Play: the basement anthem "Vacation," the Young Marble Giants-y "It's Raining," and the kick ass "Cut Meat."

More good news: The Whines have a 7" up for pre-order from Mt St Mtn, and are touring this way for the first time ever (tourdates here and here). There was talk of them playing my basement, but instead they're playing at the Tip Top Bar that day (May 22nd), so I can tell you about their shows without it being a conflict of interest! While they're in town, The Whines are gonna record a WFMU session to air on my radio show, Talk's Cheap, on June 2nd -- stay tuned!

I first heard the Paparazzi song "The Rococo Tape" last year on one of the great Ampeater Free Music Archive compilations, and it was at the top of the pops (my pops), packing a ton of unconventionally hook-y ideas into less than two minutes.

I didn't know much about the group at the time, but Cleveland guitar hero and frequent WFMU guest Doug Gillard heard me play this song on WFMU before and he plays with Erik Paparazzi himself in Bambi Kino, so they brought some copies of this Serious Business Records release when they played live on Joe Belock's show earlier this month.

Turns out Erik Paparazzi originally recorded this album Rococo way back in 2003/2004, but didn't finish it until last year. Maybe because he's devoted more time to his other projects (like backing up Cat Power) or maybe it's because, even though the album has a real breezy organic almost lofi feel, it's clear that a lot of compositional craft went into each these nine tracks. Reminds me at various times of Big Star, Julian Lynch, some displaced Elephant 6...

The LP/CD is out on Serious Business Records, and while they're selling digital copies on iTunes, they also put the whole album up for free download here on the Free Music Archive and Soundcloud. Please listen, and if you enjoy, you are encouraged to help spread the word! Let's hope we'll soon hear more from The Paparazzi.

Here's a collection of WFMU Live Sessions from January through March of this year. Everything from pioneering Tuvan throatsinging ensemble Huun Huur Tu, to the Jacuzzi Boys, New Orleans blues hero Guitar Lightnin' to New York doom heroes Batillus...

Stephen Vitiello :: Long Distance Poison :: Matthews / Radding / Drury :: Silk Flowers :: The Shrubs :: Soft Circle :: Occult Detective Club :: D. Charles Speer :: Toy Sugar :: Instinct Control :: Fergus & Geronimo :: Guitar Lightnin' :: Acid Birds ::  Fuck Ton :: Jam Messengers :: Kyle Clyde :: Huun Huur Tu :: Sibirskaya Vechora :: Julian Lynch :: Starring :: Lucy Foley :: Dinowalrus :: Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band :: Lussuria

... it's all here  http://freemusicarchive.org/curator/WFMU/Live_at_WFMU_Jan-Mar_2011

 Jacuzzi Boys

 Fergus & Geronimo

 D. Charles Speer

 Stephen Vitiello

 Chris Forsyth + The Paranoid Cat Band

 Guitar Lightnin Lee and His Thunder Band

 Acid Birds

             Huun Huur Tu

...and more! it's all here: http://freemusicarchive.org/curator/WFMU/Live_at_WFMU_Jan-Mar_2011