Jumbling Towers loses a drummer

It looks like Scott Ingram, drummer for Jumbling Towers, will be leaving the band. He will, however, be playing with the band on Thursday's KWUR Week show. Yet another reason to come to the show...

Updated: Ingram will be leaving the band to attend Columbia College in Chicago.

An Introduction to Music

From a BBC "mockumentary" series that pays homage to 70s educational films.




COME TO KWUR WEEK

KWUR WEEK 2008

Come out to the Gargoyle this week for some amazing shows!!!!!!!!



Wednesday 2/27: Nato Caliph, Serengeti, DJ Crucial, Earthworms, and Twilight Sentinels
Thursday 2/28: Elsinore, Berlin Whale, and Jumbling Towers
Friday 2/29: Water Bears and The Zydepunks
Saturday 3/1: Say Panther, The Octopus Project and Pattern Is Movement
Monday 3/3: Classical show at the 560 Building (Delmar and Trinity)

DJ Locutus Live Interview on KWUR Radio

First off, play the interview along side the video DB just posted with the audio turned off.... it matches perfectly, cut for cut. :-)

In all seriousness folks, it was great to have DJ Locutus interview live in station here at KWUR. He offered some really interesting insights into DJing from when he got into it versus now, the production side of it, as well as the international audience versus our American one. I did my best Babwa Wawa/Anderson Cooper/Charlie Rose impression including my lone raised eyebrow that reads pensive concern, though you can't see it in the podcast.

Being a DJ who almost exclusively gets gigs internationally, but resides here in St. Louis, it's quite a treat to have him spin here in St. Louis, Saturday March 8th at Mercury, 1025 Spruce St, in downtown St. Louis. I was quite ecstatic to get the chance to interview him on air, and he definitely didn't disappoint with his knowledge and thoughts on the electronic dance music scene.

Some Choice cuts:

When asked about the massive international EDM scene versus the American Scene, DJ Locutus replied:

"...I think a lot of it has to do with language barriers as well. It's a lot easier to listen to pop music in english where most of the pop music is produced. lf you're sitting in Germany, or if you're sitting in Japan, or if you're sitting in Brazil, you might as not be as interested in that."


When asked about the one track that really got him into techno, he responded with a really great anecdote about growing up, shuffling through record bins in Indiana:

"I talked a little bit about how we started going to these parties in 92, 93, and this guy named Nick ran this little record shop in our little hometown in Indiana, he would order all kinds of wierd punk rock and stuff, so we were like 'Man, you gotta get some of this techno, it's just so crazy,' and he said to us, 'Well, I got this fax. Just look through it and pick something out. But if you pick it, when it gets here, you have to buy it. I don't care what it sounds like, but if you pick it out, I'm ordering it for you,' and we're like 'uh, ok.' So, we pick five things, they came back, three of them we hated, one was ok, and one was called 'Belgian Resistance' by 'Underground Resistance.' That track blew my mind... I remember one time, I was sitting with my friends Dave and Andy, who are on Docile records right now, and I was like, "Look, I know we bought a lot of records, but every record we buy, from now on, has to sound just like this."

Here's the whole rest of the interview in an mp3 format...

Like I said, it's really great to have someone like DJ Locutus here in station, in St. Louis, supporting St. Louis Underground radio. I'd like to thank M^2 Productions for having him in station!

See ya on the dance floor!

Prisencolinensinainciusol

This Video is ruling my life right now. I find it mind-distorting, in that it's completely catchy, but I can't for the life of me remember any of the words for more than a second. The lyrics are in pseudo-english, and this enrages the relevant parts of my brain, which want desperately to understand what this man is saying. This, combined with a healthy beat and pleasing horn part, makes this song capable of anything it sets its mind to.

Gentleman Auction House - The Book of Matches

Fantastic indie pop from...here! Reminds me of a St. Louis version of Bishop Allen. A ridiculously catchy EP released in anticipation of the full length, Alphabet Graveyard, this includes 2 songs from the album (I'm guessing it's "ABCDEFGraveyard" and "The Book of Matches", but I really don't know), a b-side, and 2 unreleased tracks. It's pretty much impossible to get "The Book of Matches" out of your head, which overshadows the greatness of "ABCDEFGraveyard" right before it, and the appropriately titled closer, "A Parting Shot", is beautiful and leaves a lasting impression.
Check Gentleman Auction House out now. It wont be much longer until everyone else has.


MP3: The Book of Matches

Live on Air: Saturday 2/23 10pm - 11pm: Live interview with DJ Locutus

That's right everyone, I'll be hosting a special show on KWUR.com or KWUR 90.3 FM (if you're near U. City) with St. Louis's own DJ Locutus, live in Studio.

Residing in St. Louis, Locutus almost exclusively DJ's internationally in Europe and abroad. He'll be playing in the place we all call home for the first time in ages, at I'm So Techno on Saturday, March 8 at Mercury (1025 Spruce St., STL) all for the magical price of $5.

I'll be doing my best Charlie Rose/Anderson Cooper impression, and interviewing the man about DJ'ing here and abroad, his production work, DJ'ing as a postmodern art, and how he got to where he was.

If you can't get to it, I'll be recording it, and the podcast will be posted on the kwur.com blog.

peace all,
brian.
DJ Meatface
Director of Electronic Music - KWUR 90.3 FM

Oh yeah, here's a bio:

Locutus has been championing the sounds of American techno both in the reemerging American dance scene and while performing extensively in Asia and Europe. His renowned DJ skills have been witnessed at the finest clubs, festival, and events around the world. Rather than pigeonholing himself like many DJs today, his sets blend a range of funky styles form house, techouse, electro, minimal, and of course techno. He brings back meaning to the word "mix". He has recently put out prominent EPs for Ignition Technician's DJ Special Needs, and was on remix duties for Notorius North. In addition he has highly acclaimed and charted releases on his own labels Bipolar and Polarized, and other international labels such as Konsequent, Surface, Tensionworks, Serie, Illtown, Ber Knuckle, Remains, Dark Print, Anode, Elypsia, and Azure. Not only has Locutus been able to share the decks and studio with some of the giants of techno, but it is commonplace to see his vinyl releases in the boxes of top jocks like: Ben Sims, Adam Beyer, Henry Chow, Chris Finke, Ignition Technician, Adam Jay, Dave Clarke, Suburban Knight, Sven Vath, Marco Bailey, Angel Molina, Frankie Bones, DJ Surgeon and others.

Album Reviews: Black Mountain, "In The Future"; The Raveonettes, "Lust Lust Lust"; The Mae Shi, "Hillyh"

Black Mountain - "In The Future"
This freak-folk hard rock album sounds like what you thought rock should sound like when you were a 13 year old boy - balls-out, sweet riffs, killer drums, "And they called it Stonehenge..." As such, there's a bit here that smacks of Lynyrd Skynyrd reactionary rock, but usually it's just weird enough so you can rock out without shame.

Play: 1++, 2, 3++++(KICK ASS), 5, 6++(Sabbath!), 8+, 9++(Neat)

The Raveonettes - "Lust Lust Lust"
The Raveonettes are still basically just the best Jesus And Mary Chain cover band out there, and it's frustrating to see them succeed without progressing one iota stylistically. Still, I'll be damned if they can't write a beautiful song with little more than amp fuzz and Sharin Foo's bell-like voice. If you let it, this album will break your heart.

Play: 3, 4, 6+, 7+, 9++, 10+++(sweet bass line, percussion), 12 and 13+++ (will rip your heart out of your fucking chest)

The Mae Shi - "Hillyh"
Energetic, chanty, melodic LA indie pop that combines the sing-a-long playfulness of Architecture In Helsinki with the quirkiness and inventiveness of The Fiery Furnaces. Like your friends are having a beer and pizza party in your ear - great fun!

Play: 1++(vocal melody!), 2++++(lyrics awesome!), 3+++(Rawk), 4++, 5, 7, 8+, 9++ (sing along, kids), 11, 14++(sweet)

Subversive Cinema: Godard's Rolling Stones Film

Sympathy For The Devil a.k.a. One Plus One (England/France, 1968)

On the eve of the May 1968 student revolts in Paris, Jean-Luc Godard would leave for London to make his first English film. Godard, who was increasingly becoming politically radical, claimed the film was his last "bourgeois film".

Godard had originally agreed to make a fully-financed film about abortion in England; the plan fell through when abortion laws changed. Demandingly, Godard told the producers he would still make an English film if they could get either the Beatles or the Rolling Stones to participate. Eventually the producers provided Godard with 180,000 pounds and a Rolling Stones commitment.

The filming was plagued with problems: the Student revolts were going on in Paris, the Rolling Stones' studio caught fire, and Brian Jones (who would die a year later) was arrested.

The film was originally supposed to tell a parallel story about creation and destruction. While the Rolling Stones were creating "Sympathy for the Devil" (from the 1968 LP, Beggars Banquet) in the studio, a love-triangle between a girl named Democracy, a Nazi Texan, and a militant black man would develop. Democracy's eventual suicide would provide the destruction angle.

Not surprisingly, Godard threw the narrative out the window. The final product is an abstract mixture of the Rolling Stones recording sessions, Black Power, graffiti, and Marxist ideology.



To make the film more marketable, the producers added a completed version of "Sympathy for the Devil" to the soundtrack at the end of the film. Godard strongly disapproved. As Gary Elshaw explains, "throughout the film, the spectator is shown the process of the Rolling Stones recording the song, but part of Godard's scenario for the film is a lack of any kind of closure for the issues represented in One Plus One. Therefore, to include the full version of the song is in contradiction with the meaning of the film."

This new version was titled Sympathy for the Devil, while Godard's was titled One Plus One. To much confusion, both were released simultaneously. Personally, I can't help but compare this film to the Beatles 1969 recording studio film, Let It Be.


My favorite part of the story:
"When the film premiered at the London Film Festival on November 30 1968, Godard asked the audience in attendance to ask for its money back...Godard also asked the audience to contribute their refunded money to the international committee for the defense of Eldridge Cleaver, who had gone underground two days previously. After many in the audience rejected Godard's proposal he stormed from the cinema calling the audience "Fascists,""

Sympathy for the Devil is available on DVD from Abcko films.

Most of this blog entry was ripped off of Gary Elshaw's M.A. thesis "The Depiction of late 1960's Counter-Culture in the 1968 Films of Jean-Luc Godard". The full text is available here.

-Klax

Another one from the Jackson Vault: The Most Expensive Movie Ever Made

So it's not really the most expensive movie ever made. At the time that it came out, though, it was the most expensive film per minute, ever. The 17 minute 3D feature made for Disney Themeparks cost between 18 and 30 million dollars. What the hell am I talking about? Captain EO. It was produced by George Lucas, directed by Francis For Coppola and stars, that's right, Michael Jackson. The thing is a special effects circle jerk. Using lasers, laser impacts, smoke effects and starfields that filled the theater, it basically felt like being inside Star Wars. That is if Star Wars starred Michael Jackson and Alfie.

The basic story is that Michael Jackson (Captain EO) and his crew of aliens and robots are on a mission to deliver a gift to the wicked queen the Supreme Leader (Anjelica Huston). Her planet basically looks like the scene where Luke destroys the Death Star, right down to a recreation of the part where he flies through the canyon while being chased by tie fighters. The starships look different, but its really the same scene.

When the team meets the Supreme Leader they win her over with a funky song and dance number and end up converting her into a beautiful princess and her planet into a paradise. Its what you would get if Michael Jackson wrote a movie (although he didn't actually write this one, you know he loved it). The film played for about 12 years in various parks before being discontinued in 1997. It is currently unavailable on DVD or VHS, and certainly cannot be viewed in all of its 3D glory.

Here it is, sans 3D effects. It is certainly not as spectacular as it was, but it is frickin hilarious and should be viewed anyways.

Part 1


Part 2


Stay tuned for more gems from deep in the Jackson Vault

Leaks make me happy

On April 8, two highly anticipated albums are slated for release. The first, and heretofore most important, is Man Man's Rabbit Habits, coming out on Anti-. The second is Tapes 'n' Tapes Walk it Off, which will be released by XL. Recently, the first tracks from both of these albums have found their way to the internet, primarily through Pitchfork (Stereogum just posted their review of Rabbit Habits, so more of that may be available shortly). Both of the songs ("Top Drawer" and "Hang Them All," respectively) are ridiculously good. With Man Man, this isn't such a surprise. We all got to see how good they are last year at KWUR Week, and after two albums, the maturity that Stereogum raves about can be expected, and the result is an eminently accessible track that doesn't completely jettison the craziness we all know and love.

The Tapes 'n' Tapes track, however, is more of a surprise. After The Loon, they were known more for getting consistently fellated by Pitchfork, without really bringing the goods. They were the example of a Pitchfork hype band. The Loon wasn't a bad album, but not nearly as good as Pitchfork insisted. The best thing about them was their appearance in Clell Tickle. But wouldn't you know, "Hang Them All" justifies the buzz. It's catchy, it's got a good beat, and it's great.


Man Man - Top Drawer
Tapes 'n' Tapes - Hang Them All
Clell Tickle:

Dr. Drew on KWUR

So I'm excited to announce that Shanks and I got to interview Dr. Drew on my show this Friday. We discussed Celebrity Rehab, college radio, and bestiality (oh Loveline). Thankfully, someone nabbed a recording of it (which I'm not entirely sure is legal) and I've made it available right here. Enjoy!

Dr%20Drew%20on%20KWUR.mp3

It's a big'un, but it's worth it.

George Clinton to play WILD

Along with the Parliament Funkadelic.

Pattern is Movement featured on Gothamist

Head over to Gothamist to check out an interview with Chris Ward of Pattern is Movement, and get excited for KWUR Week. They say they took their name from a TS Eliot poem. Wash U represent, yo.

Yeasayer and Man Man to tour together

...but will not be coming to St. Louis. Anyone want to start a petition to get them to come here instead of Denver on April 20?

From the Jackson Vault

So once upon a time in 1971, The Jackson 5 were the biggest black group in America. Within Motown they essentially replaced the Supremes as the labels flagship group. Motown moved out to California as did the Jacksons and began to market the hell out of the boys. They were on lunchboxes, coloring books, dolls and stickers. At the height of this, ABC ran a Saturday morning cartoon series called the Jackson 5ive from 1971-1973. Other than appearing in the introduction, the Jacksons did not contribute to the show in any way except their songs. In fact, I think a lot of their voices were provided by older white men. Which is weird.



Here's a pretty interesting episode:

It's called Rasho Jackson and its based on the 1950 Akira Kurosawa mystery Rashomon. It tells the story of the breakup of the Jacksons from the different perspective of each member.

Youtube won't let me embed so here are the links

Part 1








Part 2








Part 3

Just give them the Oscar now

The Coen brothers are teaming up again with No Country for Old Men (one of the best movies of 2007) producer Scott Rudin to adapt Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union (one of the best books of 2007) for the big screen. The over/under on Oscar nominations for when this movie gets made is 4.5.

I wouldn't be surprised to see George Clooney end up in this also.

Menomena doesn't win Grammy

Menomena was without question the best band nominated for a Grammy - even if it was only for best recording package. Of course, they lost. To Bright Eyes Cassadaga. Compare for yourself:

And the Menomena cover is much cooler when you're actually holding it in your hands...I guess Conor Oberst must have some awesome liner notes.

Album Review: Mike Ladd, "Nostalgialator"

A rare dud from NY-based underground hip-hop label Def Jux. Bronx-born Mike Ladd does more spoken-word, more beat oriented stuff than you usually see. The problem with this album is not that it's bad - it's listenable - just that it isn't especially interesting or compelling. You could listen, but why would you want to?

Play (if you want): 1, 2, 4, 5

Steve Earle, Grammy Winner

Steve Earle won the Grammy tonight for best folk/Americana album with Washington Square Serenade. I love Steve Earle, but a not-pissed-off Steve Earle singing over Dust Brothers loops? I'll pass.

Confessions: Karl Marx

Dug this one up in a book called "Late Marx and the Russian Road," edited by Teodor Shanin.

Apparently Marx's daughters at some point made him fill this out as part of the game "Confessions" which was popular at the time.

Your favorite virtue - Simplicity
Your favorite virtue in a man - Strength
Your favorite virtue in a woman - Weakness
Your own chief characteristic - Singleness of Purpose
Your idea of happiness - To fight
Your idea of misery - Submission
The vice you excuse most - Gullibility
The vice you detest most - Servility
Your pet aversion - Martin Tupper*
Favorite occupation - Bookworming
Poet - Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Goethe
Prose Writer - Diderot
Hero - Spartacus, Kepler
Heroine - Gretchen
Flower - Daphne
Color - Red
Name - Laura, Jenny**
Dish - Fish
Favorite Maxim - Nihil humanum a me alienum puto***
Favorite motto - De omnibus dubitandum****

*Victorian poet of fame, since forgotten, who was best known to his generation for trivial dialectic moralizing in blank verse
**Marx's daughters were named Laura and Jenny
***Nothing human is alien to me
****Doubt everything

Subversive Cinema: The Most Amazing Movie That Was Never Made...

Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune

Jodorowsky has recently been getting a lot more (deserved) attention thanks to the release of a long-time-coming well produced DVD Boxset. For the first time his most well known movies (El Topo, The Holy Mountain) are available (legally) on home video (with included soundtracks!). I, along with a lot of other cinema lovers, can finally watch and re-watch the Jodorowsky weirdness. Additionally, new 35mm prints of these films were made and toured shortly last year.

So recently, I was completely floored when I heard out about his failed attempt to make Dune. [David Lynch would later make a Hollywood adaptation in 1984 to fund his next film, Blue Velvet]

The Wierd World of 70's Cinema sums up this lost project best:
"In development from 1974 to 1977, the film was to have featured Orson Welles, David Carradine (hot off the Kung Fu series), Gloria Swanson, Amanda Lear and Salvador Dali as a mad emperor who sits upon a toilet throne. With art design by H.R. Giger and special effects by Dark Star's Dan O'Bannon who both soon after worked together on Alien. Music was to be by Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream and French prog rockers Magma."

According to Jodorowsky:
"The project was sabotaged in Hollywood. It was French and not American. Their message was 'not Hollywood enough'. There was intrigue, plunder. The storyboard was circulated among all the big studios. Later, the visual aspect of Star Wars strangely resembled our style. To make Alien, they called Moebius [Giraud], Foss, Giger, O'Bannon, etc. The project signaled to Americans the possibility of making a big show of science-fiction films, outside of the scientific rigor of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The project of Dune changed our lives."

Hoooollllllyyyy Shiiiiittttt.

For more information and concept sketches on this sadly uncompleted project see the following:
"The Film You Will Never See" at Dune Info
"Jodorowsky On His Unmade Dune" at WFMU Blog

-Klax

New Man Man

KWUR Week veterans Man Man have a new album, Rabbit Habits, coming out in April. This is a new song from it. That sound you hear is Dylan having a Man Mangasm.

A Blast From The (Not So Distant) Past

A little food for thought on this post-Super-Tuesday Wednesday.

Impressive how far (and how not far) we've come in the last 8 years.

Also, I want to point out that this video was directed by Michael Moore. Back in 2000, he was an ardent support of Ralph Nader. He has since "flip-flopped" coming out passionately against Nader, spinning such staunch pre-2004 statements to the point of denial.

-Klax

Bonnaroo 2008 Lineup Released

www.bonnaroo.com
June 12-15, 2008
Manchester, TN

In light of this, let's take a look back into music festival history. Waaaay back in 1996, Clinton was starting his second term, the economy was looking up with the development of this new-fangled interweb, and Lollapalooza announced that Metallica was going to headline the '96 tour. The cries of pained and outraged indie fans (I'm not sure if the word "indie" had been coined yet, but you know what I mean) echoed far and wide, and it would be the last actual Lollapalooza tour. Keep in mind, these are the people who had sponsered Rage Against the Machine, Sonic Youth, The Beastie Boys and so many others in recent past. The tour tanked, attendence sucked, and Lollapalooza wouldn't appear again for another 7 years. In other words, Metallica effectively killed Lollapalooza in its original inception.

Flash forward 12 odd years; a Clinton might once again take office, the economy is in the shitter, and Bonnaroo announces that Metallica (not to mention Jack Johnson) is headlining in 2008. Again, keep in mind, Radiohead headlined in 2006. Don't get me wrong, I have no real issue with Metallica, but this isn't 1998. Or 1988, for that matter. Festivals with the potential to attract so many people should be showcasing new bands as well, and yet I don't see a single band that hasn't been around for at least a couple of years (yes, even Vampire Weekend has been together since last year). This probably won't spell an end to Bonnaroo, but really, they can do better. I'll be damned if I'll pay $250 bucks a ticket to see Metallica and Jack Johnson.

Here's to hoping for a better Lolla lineup.

SU05 Renovation July 4th Party

KWUR's first renovated birthday! I know the pictures are a little late, but here they are. Somewhere we have pictures of the renovation in progress, including all the crazy spraypaint grafatti that we unfortunately had to cover with the vinyl stacks. Please note the badass lamp that someone stole with badass lampshade. Also note awesome green light and psychedelic Topaz. Fix the topaz! This should be world viewable, enjoy!

http://wustl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080125&id=3106234

My trip to Louisville to see Sharon Jones

So Sharon Jones played at the Duck Room on Thursday. The problem with the Duck Room, though, is that it only holds about 200 people and tickets sold out in a flash, leaving me high and dry. I frantically searched ebay, craigslist, stubhub, to no avail. But I wasn't about to let Sharon Jones come to the midwest without seeing her. So last night I rounded up a crew and we drove out to Louisville (about 4.5 hours away) to see her.

After an uneventful drive we arrived in Louisville to find that we were in a different time zone and the concert was about to start. After a quick dinner and a minor fiasco (after dinner we couldn't find my wallet, which we needed to get our will call tickets - we found it though), we somehow showed up at the venue in time to see the opener, the Ivan Milev band. These guys were slightly unexpected, but proved to be pretty amazing. The band consisted of a violin and an accordion. The guy on the accordian (probably Ivan) was doing things I have never seen someone do on that instrument. His solos sounded like a whole band playing and also included some pretty funky tricks (like really quick squeezes). Check these guys out at their myspace.



After a pretty long wait, the Dap Kings came out and did their best. These guys are all incredible musicians and their playing was so tight I felt like I was watching the JBs or the MGs with the Memphis horns. And when Sharon came out there was no stopping them. I never thought a 51 year old woman could be so damn sexy, but when she opened her mouth it was all over. The highlight of the night was when I got a glimpse of stardom. For one of her songs she said she needed a young man, so I hopped up on stage and she and me a song. (I'll post pictures when I get them) The theme of the song was that guys need to slow down and be cool and the ladies will come to them. Pretty good message. It also allowed me to booty dance with the woman herself. And I stick by my assessment that she is a sexy lady. I was almost tempted to ask her to meet up after the show (I didn't of course - if only I had that kinda chutspa. I guess we had to drive home anyways).

After a little over an hour they ended the show, but then came out for a four song encore. The first song featured the bari sax player, Ian Hendrickson-Smith, who had some serious chops. He put more soul through that instrument during his solo than I have in my entire body. If you check out their album pay special attention for him. When Sharon came back out she did two James Brown songs, but the highlight was definitely "This is a Man's World."



If you haven't checked out these guys yet, don't wait any longer. I drove 8 hours for a 2 hour concert. The least you can to is visit their myspace or grab the CD (I bought the LP - another good option)


Edit: Some pics from the show

Sharon rocking out, KWUR GM getting a hug, the baritone solo

Photos courtesy of backseatsandbar.com