When not terrorizing
Mr Bond, from the late 1970s until 1994, Mike Mangino and Chris Shepard were in a basement full of musical toys, novelty space microphones, a
TR-606, and a
SH-09 in
Piscataway, NJ recording cassettes as the band
Smersh. In 1981
Smersh released their first cassette under their own label of
Atlas King. They never rehearsed, they couldn't read music, and they never played live, and they
contributed to far too many compilations throughout the known world. In the early eighties they
established a unique sound that is known and loved, combining cheap electronics and wild guitar sounds with distorted vocals. By trading cassettes they garnered international acclaim
leading to releases on dozens of other labels.
[more inside]
posted by wcfields
on Dec 22, 2011 -
5 comments
"Call me nuts, but I find extraordinarily endearing the improbable blend of country music traditionalism and tastefully restrained space-age guitar pyrotechnics that can be heard in these tunes." Yes, friends, the fine folks at WFMU are back with the long-awaited 2nd installment of the tasty and wonderful
Country Fuzz Spectacular!
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Aug 24, 2011 -
8 comments
Codpaste is a 14-part podcast about the history and practice of sound collage and mashups. A collaboration between
Vicki Bennett (People Like Us,
previously) and
Ergo Phizmiz (
previously), Codpaste is an entertaining and instructive wander through such topics as cartoon music, Negativland, easy listening, and William S. Burroughs. There's even a curriculum
[30mb pdf] to go with it! Most episodes are about 30 minutes long, feature the same editing techniques and sound sources that they discuss, and are enhanced by Ergo and Vicki's wonderfully quaint accents.
posted by moonmilk
on Dec 15, 2008 -
11 comments
Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics... again! For the 12th straight year, this legendary
group of music nerds from
Hoboken, NJ encamps to the studios of local free form radio station
WFMU to play, on the spot, three full hours of listener-requested covers. The request show, part of the station's annual pledge drive, happens tonight
(Sunday, March 2) from 5-8 pm EST, and thanks to the wonder that is the internet you can
listen (128k MP3 stream) and
pledge live from anywhere in the world
(or catch the real broadcast in FM at 91.1 in NYC / New Jersey and 90.1 in the Hudson Valley, Catskills, Western NJ and Eastern Penn).
[more inside]
posted by kowalski
on Mar 2, 2008 -
46 comments
Head Back to Mono in 32k at the
rineke.net records archive, where a rather consistent curator has digitized a goody chunk of his record collection. It's posted in more-or-less every iteration imaginable. Observe the
linked scans (1 mb page, careful!) of the covers (also in multiple resolutions up to full-size). Note the
records themselves, in sleeve or
out, depending. Most especially, savor the clean, low-res mono mp3s that
cry out to be played through the dashboard speakers of a 1967 Dodge Dart.
Bonus Big Beat Bonanza: The site's author is also behind the
similarly detailed archive of shows by ex-WFMU dj
The Hound, from 1987 through 1995, heavy on the
rare regional sides beloved of certain of my pals down New Orleans way.
Last, but not least, rineke.net hosts the adventures of
a platoon of Tux clones, sealing my geek admiration for the overseer of the site. There's
more, of course. My propeller beanie's off to you, sir, and long may you wave, or particle, as is your choice and preference.
(Permission was sought and granted to post this, as I feard for the site's bandwidth. Have at it, Mefites!
posted by mwhybark
on Aug 12, 2004 -
7 comments
