Why The World Needs WFMU

I'm fairly certain that nearly everyone who reads this blog is familiar with WFMU. Yesterday the station is began its annual fund-raising marathon, which will carry through the next two weeks. For those that know the station, I will remind you not to take it for granted and pony up some cash. Those who haven't... well, you've been missing out and I hope I can convince you to send them a couple of bucks.

WFMU is an outlet for creativity that exists entirely on its own terms. It's a cultural touchstone completely removed from the mechanisms of industry. In this day and age, this is nothing short of remarkable. I don't want to slip into punk rock/pinko cliché here but so much of mass entertainment media is controlled by small group of corporations less concerned with presenting the public with quality work than fiscal prudence. This is especially true of radio, where playlists are generally limited to a handful of already commercially proven artists lest listeners tune out upon hearing something unfamiliar. Even independent music blogs, ostensibly a forum for individual ideas, have become increasingly little more than outlets for publicists. The results aren't always pablum, but they are often enough to make one suspicious and cynical about the entire enterprise.

WFMU is a real alternative to the above, airing work by artists who are not, in the terms of the music industry, unit shifters. Each DJ is an unpaid volunteer who programs his or her own weekly block of the schedule. There's no "format," no program director dictating what goes over the airwaves. Thus, every DJ's show is a reflection of his or her personal tastes, varying wildly in content from person to person. The station accepts no advertising, which ensures that WFMU's DJs are unencumbered by any restrictions that could be imposed by commercial interests. For those who volunteer there, the only motive is passion to offer the world the type of programming they want to hear. It's a shame to know that culture presented by human beings rather than conglomerate groupthink is the exception rather than the norm. WFMU is not the only exception but it may well be the most prominent. Their continued existence is an inspiration to anyone who values art over commerce and the unique tastes of individuals over focus group reduction.

Of course, the ethics granted by the station's lack of underwriting comes with the price of having to ask their listeners for monitory support. So tune in (91.1 FM in the New York area), listen to their extensive archives, check out their innovative iPhone app and, above all, send them some money.

There's all kinds of prizes and thank you gifts for your donation. And if that's not enough, one of the finest rock bands of all time will be playing your requests in exchange for pledges on Friday night.

Lost Bands of the Early 21st Century: The Tokeleys

(Photo courtesy of What a Way to Die)

In the post-Strokes signing frenzy of the early aughts, it seemed like there were thousands of bands in the New York area trying to get noticed. A lot of them fit pretty squarely into one of two revivalist styles: garage rock and post-punk. It sometimes seemed like every band was either aping the stiff angularity of a few select examples from the early Rough Trade roster or coping riffs from the Nuggets box sets. It was all entertaining enough initially but the law of diminishing returns quickly took effect. Some of these bands rode flavor of the month status to minor fame and fortune. Most have disappeared and are justly forgotten.

The Tokeleys can be accurated cited one of the forgotten, though in their case this is rather unfortunate. During their time as an active band they didn't get a tenth of recognition of, say, the Liars. This is likely because A) they didn't fit in with garage or post-punk crowds and there's nothing like being part of a tend to get one press and B) they didn't release any records aside from a pair of demos. Though heard by relatively few, those demos, the 8-song Nercopolitan Opera House and 4-song Sons of Horus, were mighty impressive. The Tokeleys easily matched the best of the garage bands for stomping rock action though their songs had genuinely weird dynamics, various elements coming in at sharp and unexpected angles. There was also singer/guitarist John Hogan's startlingly original lyrical content, obsessing over subjects like dead civilizations and extinct animals with wit and flair. Bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs may have thought they were skewing traditional pop topics like love and romance but Hogan and co. just sidestepped them entirely.

The Tokeleys were also quite the forceful live act, usually climaxing their shows with the magnificent "Megafauna" and its singalong chat of "We won't go back into the cave!" This song was recorded for what would have been the band's debut album. Regrettably, said album seems be lost forever, it's digitized bits moved into the recycle bin by a now defunct studio. The good news is that WFMU's Free Music Archive now has an entire Tokeleys live set streaming online and available for download.The session, recorded for the Cherry Blossom Clinic with Terre T, was previously available the 'FMU playlist archives but only as streaming audio for Real Player. Now it's available in MP3s of each individual track, so you can finally load "Megafauna" and several other songs not included on either demo on to your iPod. Oh, and if you don't have those demos already, you can download them here.

The Tokeleys split when John Hogan moved to California to get his master's degree though he still makes music in Ponce De Leon and Future America, the latter of which also features Tokeleys' bassist Dave Reich. They're also collaborating on a "musical audio-play miniseries" called Heretics. Drummer Evan "Funk" Davies is now best known as David Letterman to Tom Scharpling's Johnny Carson. Guitarist (and brother to John) Michael Hogan is now a big time journalist, interviewing the likes of Shia LeBeouf for Vanity Fair, which may well make him the most successful person to whom I've ever spoken.

So head on over to those archives and give the Tokeleys a listen. You can you were hip to them before they get the posthumous recognition ala Simply Saucer or the Monks they so richly deserve.

Enjoy Good Music...

...Without Having to Elbow Your Way Through a Bunch of Music Biz Wastes of Space.


If you're like me and you couldn't make it to South by Southwest (or if you were in Austin and you're just a clueless putz), it would seem you missed a hell of a show. Fortunately, the world's greatest radio station broadcast the event as it happened. It's now available on their archives, so everyone who missed out can now listen to hot live rock action from Mexico's awesome XYX and the new project from former Drive Like Jehu/Hot Snakes frontman Rick Froberg, the Obits. This archived performance also seems to be the only place on the internet you can hear Mayyors, who will soon be the band everyone is going claim they were hyping first, so you should probably get on that. (Chunklet's Henry Owings on Mayyors: "No MySpace. No Facebook. No Twitter. No tour. No interviews. No nothing. In 2009, their marketing tactics are absolutely genius.")

Honestly, if you didn't contribute to WFMU's recent fund raising marathon, you don't deserve to listen to this. Even though it's late, why don't you do that now and ease your guilty conscience?

Your Daily Affirmation

Courtesy of Will Shatter and Flipper.

Now that you're in a great mood, why don't you head over WFMU and give them some money? Their fund raising marathon begins on Monday. If you need incentive to pledge other than the noble cause of sponsoring non-corporate radio and some better-than-PBS-level swag, a list of DJ premiums is now up. Besides, donating will be great karma for you. Don't pretend like you don't need it.

Sometimes I do stupid things

Or rather I fail to do awesome things. After seeing this clip of them recording a session for Brian Turner's show on WFMU, I must conclude that not going to see the reunited Negative Approach a few weeks ago at Southpaw is surely one of the top ten worst decisions of my life (falling between accepting a regular DJ gig in Bay Ridge and buying dinner for that stripper). Holy cow!



Taken from WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

America's next #1 single

"The World is in the Turlet" by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. (Or here if you don't have Real Player.)



Last night Tom Scharpling, host of The Best Show on WFMU, invited his listeners to co-write a song with Mr Leo by calling up and suggesting lyrics. He then e-mailed the lyrics to Ted and Co. who whipped up this song in their studio, recorded it and sent an MP3 to Tom who played it on the air. This being the digital age, it's not quite the impressive feat that Warsaw Pakt's Needle Time was but it's a rockin' song regardless.

You can listen to the entire show and thus the whole songwriting process here.

Win the top friend slot on my myspace and help WFMU!

Hello friends,

Here is your opportunity to earn a special place in my heart and put it on display for all of the world to see. Plus, you get to help out the great non-profit, listener sponsered radio station WFMU.

I am selling the top friend spot on my myspace on ebay. I know what you're thinking: "Paul, that's not really worth anything is it?" Wrong! If you've ever heard the amount of drama and personal anguish people put into the placement of friends or their placement on a friend's page, you know it's worth quite a bit and you'll get to be my friend for 1 entire year (until the next WFMU marathon).

My page gets plently of traffic. (Over 15,000 views! I think that's almost as many as Tila Tequila!) Perhaps you have some band or comedy troupe or some other commerical venture you'd like to promote. Or perhaps you think our relationship dictates that you should be my top friend regardless. Here's your chance to let the world know that we are BFF. You don't even have to currently be my myspace friend. If you win I'll accept your friendship and put you in the top spot.

Besides you'll be helping WFMU, perhaps the greatest radio station in the world. Even if you don't want to participate in this auction you should show them support by pledging at wfmu.org. The winning bid will be pledged to the Cherry Blossom Clinic with Terre T on Saturday, March 8th. And don't think this is my way of cheaping out either. I'll be pledging myself no matter what. This is just icing on the cake.

Happy bidding and good luck!!

(Sorry, paypal only)

Update: The winning bid? $51.77

Make this band your Myspace friend: Tyvek

Best record I've heard thus far this year? That would be Tyvek's "Summer Burns" double 7 inch. I've been hearing this band's name thrown around for months: sharing a 7" with the excellent Cheveu, going on tour with the also excellent Cause Co-Motion!, doing a session for the Cherry Blossom Clinic on WFMU, being name dropped by none other than Ted Leo. It's easy to see why. Many bands who drink from the post-punk fountain are stiff and rigid, recreating the formal elements of whatever aspects of the sound they choose to emulate but not the enthusiasm, and are generally too cool for school (but not cool enough for my turntable, motherfucker). Tyvek play their songs with the ragged fervor of a lo-fi garage punk band. (They're from Detroit so maybe that helps.) They're all about immediacy, not detachment and these four songs will penetrate your soul to evoke memories of your 16 year old self scouring 7 inch bins for Datapanik/Anyway singles or hearing Delta 5 or the Fall for the first time. (Okay, that's probably more my 16 year old self than yours.) The 2x45 has me clamouring to hear anything else the band has to offer as I suspect it will for you as well.

Mucho props to the folks at What's Your Rupture? for presenting this gift to the universe. They are quickly becoming of the best labels in the world. If only they would release the 3rd Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves album they would almost certainly get the top spot. That's called a suggestion, guys!!

Make Tyvek your myspace friend.