lizb (FMA Admin)

I just found some awesome hip-hop by midwestern rapper Coolzey here on the FMA. WFMU's own Billy Jam has dropped quite a few Coolzey tracks on his excellent hip-hop show "Put the Needle on the Record," and even interviewed my new favorite Iowan rapper on the radio last week (archive here).

Check out Coolzey's 2007 EP "The He Did," a great listen through and through. Good humor, good beats. I'm a fan of "French Fries and Ice Cream," partially for the subject matter, and partially because it sounds like Coolzey rapped the whole song with a stuffed up nose.

The rapping Iowan heads to Texas and Wisconsin late Feb-late March, and I recommend checking out some of his music videos, from the low-fi "He Did" to the newer cut for "Look" (a song off of his new album, The Honey, released on Public School Records).

I've been enjoying a number of artists from the Swiss Creative Commons label Das Andere Selbst lately: mellow, chirpy, gurgly, experimental pop with an oddball edge. My faves include Exteenager (Elia, who runs the DAS label/site), GB (pka Gateau Blasters, coming to the U.S. this Spring), and Mela Zeta (from Italy).

Related to the DAS label is Wildrfid, who put out some great limited-edition 12" records last year by GB, Uiutna, and Cancelled. Also affiliated is Zonoff, a site with plenty of Creative Commons MP3s and vids for the taking.

Check out the great track "Golosinas" by Mela Zeta below. The intro almost sounds like the opening notes to "These Boots Are Made For Walking."

I must admit, for a brief moment, I considered populating my New Year's Eve party playlist with nothing but Italo Disco. With song titles like "Girl On Me," "Droid," "Spacer Woman," "Sex Tonight," and (my fave) "How Old Are You," plenty of fine examples from this genre surely started some parties back in the '70s and '80s.

In the years following Giorgio Moroder's reign, Italian electronic music has mainly evolved into house/club music or the occasional pop dance tune suited for Eurovision.

Naturally, I was excited to discover Italian rapper Zona MC on the FMA, whose style I can only hope is indicative of a new wave of Italo beats. Breakcore, slightly experimental-leaning hip-hop, with the fastest motormouth rapper that I've heard in a long time.

Take a listen to "Non puoi toccarti se sei omofobico" all the way through, and I think you'll be hard-pressed to come across a faster mouth.

Zona MC appears on the FMA courtesy of the Homezero label, featuring European copyleft artists.

"Marry me for money!" a man in the crowd yelled as Teenage Jesus and the Jerks approached the stage at the Music Hall of Williamsburg for the final night of WFMU Fest last October. Frontwoman Lydia Lunch invited the fan closer to the stage, calmly instructing him, "Open your mouth." The man did as he was told, and in return got a mouthful of Lydia's spit. The crowd reeled with delight and disgust; the performance had begun.

These no wave legends assaulted New York for 30 minutes, 30 years after their first run, with the same harsh, guttural vocals, piercing guitar murder, and thumping minimal drums. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks' lineup this time featured original members Lydia Lunch (vox, guitar) and Jim Sclavunos (now on drums), plus ex-Swans bassist Algis Kizys.

We're lucky to have a few songs from TJJ's incredible WFMU Fest set to offer you, check out "The Closet" below. And after the jump, a mix of ugly music dedicated to Lydia Lunch.

More WFMU Fest goodies: a rocking performance by Talk Normal, and be sure to check out Faust's set on Brian Turner's archive from this week. More on the way...

In late 2009, I broke with tradition and decided to finally hold myself to a New Year's resolution. My goal was to start a podcast in 2010. Click here to subscribe to it, and click here to check out WFMU's full podcast listing.

Thanks to the Free Music Archive, there is now a wealth of great music that is pre-cleared for podcasts (14,644 tracks and counting). Podcasting music is a complicated issue, legally speaking, as record labels and publishing companies have not yet created blanket licensing schemes that address podcasting (licenses do exist for over-the-air broadcasting and webcasting). Because licensing schemes do not exist, labels and publishers could potentially sue podcasters who do not pursue clearances for each and every song included in a podcast. As a result, podcasters are left in the lurch: they can either risk legal wrath from a rabidly lawsuit-happy recording industry, or take on the burden of clearing hundreds of songs on their own.

Because most artists and labels who participate in the FMA have pre-cleared their material for podcasting, the whole game just got easier, and I'm happy to take advantage of this wealth of great material. Two weeks into 2010, I've got a few podcasts under my belt (perhaps a better success rate than many who have vowed to quit smoking or join a gym), and in searching for instrumental tracks to use as talkover music for my podcast, I discovered a great tool in the FMA's search dept.

On the search page, I filtered results both by use (for podcasting) and by type (instrumental only); both filters can be found on the left sidebar, along with many other helpful options. Not only did I find some great talkover music (thanks, YACHT!), but I put a mix together of all the great instros I found. Enjoy!

WFMU's broadcast tent at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona last spring attracted a certain slice of humanity: happy drunks from all over the globe spewing late night love for the station, dudes in bands sheepishly handing over their CD-Rs for airplay consideration, high-fives, fist-pumps, where's-the-bathroom, where's-the-beer, and the occasional angry drunk blaming us for losing their keys.

And then this regular-looking, unassuming guy walks up excited to see WFMU, shakes our hands, and invites us all to a dance party at a squat that used to be a leper colony in the hills overlooking Barcelona, and it starts at 6am. This friendly gent just happened to be a longtime WFMU fave, Filastine.

Based in Barcelona, Filastine's sound involves otherworldly beats; it is mutant dance music of the future. This is the perfect sort of material for DJ Rupture's Soot label, which has uploaded some amazing tunes recently.

Check out the hypnotic Filastine song "Fitnah" below, and catch him with his shopping cart DJ rig all over the planet. I hope we can party on the leper colony with him next time!

New sounds from local heroes Matt Shadetek and DJ/Rupture (who happens to be an acclaimed beatmaster, writer, cumbia champion, and host of WFMU's Mudd Up! program)!

The duo has just released a fantastic record called "Solar Life Raft," which veers from dance-heavy beats to downtempo sample relaxation to international psychedelic experimentation, and they've offered up a sample tune for download here on the FMA. Thanks to theAgriculture records for providing a sample track!

Getting all misty-eyed about the end of 2009, which was a huge year for WFMU... SXSW, Primavera Sound, ATP-NY, Lincoln Center, the first-ever WFMU Fest, our annual Record Fair, etc.

It was also the year that our baby Free Music Archive finally hatched, following 2+ years of incubation under the warm glow of freeform radio here in Jersey City. We're so proud of how the site has grown! Huge thanks to all of our members, artists, curators, labels, and developers!

I put together a big ol' mix of some of my favorite songs I found on the FMA this year, listed in an order that sounded cohesive to my ears (not necessarily in order of preference). Enjoy, and here's to an even more amazing 2010!

If you're looking for a digestive aid this Thanksgiving, the FMA has a chirpy, gurgling solution: Portland, Oregon's Eet.

The duo are Alyssa Reed and Ryan Stuewe, who create mellow, loopy, and almost twee experimental music featuring toy instruments and childlike, humming female vocals. Eet has uploaded selections from their album "Spookfish," and I can't think of a better way to space out under a tryptophan (turkey) coma. Thanks to KBOO for bringing this to the FMA!

Alyssa and Ryan of Eet are also members of PDX noise/drone/improv band Dendrites. Check out the layered, twisted, bent, and beautiful song "Ceratothoa" below.

Being a big Messthetics geek, I was excited to see a new release by late-'70s/early '80s UK DIY heroes Animals & Men lurking in WFMU's venerable new bin, complete with new songs. And this EP, "Convulsive," is now available for all to enjoy on the FMA. Squeal!

I'm a big fan of their first single (and Peel fave) "Don't Misbehave in the New Age," where Susan Wells' vocals stirred up the best elements of Crass, X-Ray Spex, Kleenex, and the Rough Trade sound of that era, but more vulnerable and real. It's always the minor slip-ups and major freak-outs that are the soul of DIY music to me, bringing an undeniably human element into a paradigm that has sought to erase it using slick production techniques.

With new bands like the Vivian Girls, Grass Widow, Dum Dum Girls, T.I.T.S., Liechtenstein, etc drawing heavily from the influences of the late '70s/early '80s UK DIY scene, it's great to see a group like Animals & Men active again.

Check out one of Animals & Men's new songs, "Driving Stupid" below, and rage against the motor vehicle.