Dianekamikaze (Curator)

Terre T hosted on her Cherry Blossom Clinic, 2 live bands: Wild Flag (all female quartet containing members of Sleater-Kinney, Minders and Helium) and UK DIY anarcho punk rockers Zounds! Yowza, now that's a show! I was asked to engineer both, and responded with a HELL YES, and so our work was cut out for us! Check out the archive of the program. Shock and Awetober, indeed!

Wild Flag is still out on tour; they played a scorching set on WFMU, here are some more of their dates that end near their home base of Portland:  

Nov 1st - San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Nov 2nd - Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour 
Nov 3rd - Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
Nov 4th - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music  Hall   
Nov 5th - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Nov 7th - Arcata, CA @ Humboldt State University
Nov 9th - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
Nov 10th - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
Nov 11th - Seattle, WA @ Neumo's
Nov 12th - Vancouver, BC @ The Bitmore Cabaret

Zounds just finished a stretch in the US and Steve Lake has gone back to the UK; they have a new record out -The Redemption of Zounds -and a box set of represses of their 7"s. Check their website to purchase. Here's a review of one of their west coast shows: recent Fun Machine/Peer Pressure Guest, Dave Edwardson of Neurosis/Kicker played bass with Steve in the Bay Area. 

As a large percentage of you probably know, Ari Up (Slits, True Warriors, and a/k/a Medussa) passed away this past October, but not without leaving this planet with an abundance of music, memories and occasions to remind us of her soul. Ari struck me as someone who couldn't be "turned off"; sadly with her passing, we know that is not true, and it still seems unreal, in reflecting on the vibrancy she had. Those of us who witnessed her perform, witnessed her living life - exclamation after exclamation, present to every second she had. She would have turned 49 on Monday, and at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday 1/16, will be the "Ari Up Punky Reggae Birthday Party", featuring members of the Slits original and current; the True Warriors, a later group that Ari fronted, and many many more guests.

The show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday is a benefit and proceeds will go to The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Tickets are available here. Leading up to that, there were 2 special programs aired on WFMU this week;

On Miniature Minotaurs with Kurt this past Wednesday, we heard a set from the Ari Up & the True Warriors' performance from Santo's Party House from October 2008, courtesy of Punkcast.com- the playlist from that program here. 

On the Fun Machine on Tuesday of this week, I aired a True Warrior's set that I had the pleasure of engineering when they played on Pat Duncan's program May 8, 2003.

Not long ago I picked up on a gig announcement that Easy Action would be playing The Acheron in Brooklyn on Monday, November 15th...yay! I contacted them immediately and inquired if they'd be interested in playing live on the Fun Machine on the next day; Tuesday the 16th. And so it was. The band, with John Brannon of Negative Approach and Laughing Hyenas on vocals, has a perverted blues-punk sound that is so mesmerizing you could set your own face on fire and never notice. I've had the pleasure of seeing them play over a dozen times (6 of those shows at SXSW 2 years in a row), and can honestly say there is no pretense or even intention of having, wanting, or needing a stage show with these guys. Brannon is as terrifying as he was in Negative Approach, and sounds even more caustic now, possibly because he's all grown up, and he still howls like an animal fighting for it's life, but this time you know it's premeditated and not simply a reaction to teen angst. EA features the rhythm section of Tony Romeo on bass and Matt Becker on the drums, and Harold Richardson's sick, greasy and intense guitar sound to round off the spectacle. Easy Action just get down and dirty and give their performances the Detroit treatment: 100%-period. They rule, and really-- they can't help it; it's so authentic that it shows. Here is the set fresh off the Free Music Archive; yours to download, yeah, Christmas is early this year. Easy Action also graced the WFMU airwaves in 2005 on the Pat Duncan program, hosted by Andrew Listfield that particular night, and John and Harold also were here for Negative Approach for their Negative Approach's 2008 appearance on Brian Turner's program.

On Tuesday, they arrived at WFMU early, "That's how we roll"; set up their gear, played and left the studio begging for mercy... and at the end of the afternoon after all was said and done, John Brannon, the fiercest voice in the universe, turns around and says to me "here's your pen, Diane." It may not seem like much of a gesture, but this is coming from a man who'd basically bitten off the head of your mother, or would have if she was here; paid homage to and fistfought every drunken gambler, pimp and derelict either side of the Mississippi; successfully and creatively edited his vocals for the live performance (I said Easy Action are great, but yeah, they're dirty... in the just the right way), and pulled off the most burnt out sounding cover of 10cc's "I'm Not In Love" - remembered that I lent him a pen to write out their set lists with about 4 hours before. Shucks, what do you say about that except, come back soon! It's a crime these guys aren't huge. Send your friends to this site, check out the playlist from the show itself -more photos there- and have them check out Easy Action. It can be your own dirty secret and hopefully one day it will be everybody's. Accompanying are a few shots from the WFMU studio as well as the Acheron show on November 15th.

Hugh Cornwell (yes, Hugh Cornwell formerly of the Stranglers) made a visit to the Fun Machine and WFMU studios this past week. In tow was drummer extraordinaire Clem Burke; known to some as Elvis Ramone, known to (probably many more) as the drummer in Blondie; and Steve Fishman on bass. They banged out 4 numbers, and Hugh spoke with your hostess long enough for me to carve out a 3-hour Hugh Cornwell/Stranglers special which can be found here. Hugh's album, "Hoover Dam" has been offered as a free download on his site since it had been released, as he is always doing something special for his fans! As of about 15 minutes ago, were are proudly hosting ALL of Hoover Dam on the Free Music Archive site- here is that specific link! Along with that, dear listener, give your ears a treat by checking out all 4 of the live tracks they performed here in the Love Room at the station. To the right is the band killing it at the Mercury Lounge on Oct. 26th; and here is the Hoover Dam album in it's entirety, woo hoo, thanks, Hugh!