An Onion Prelude to Rocktober

From The Onion:

Members Of Twisted Sister Now Willing To Take It

NEW YORK—In a stunning reversal of their long-stated reluctance to take it, members of heavy-metal band Twisted Sister announced Monday that, after 24 years of fervent refusal, they are now willing to take it. "I acknowledge that we promised not to take it anymore, but things change. The world is a different place today, and with that in mind, we would like to go on record as saying that, starting right now, we are going to take it," read a statement released by the band's lead singer, Dee Snyder. "To clarify, we would still prefer not to take it, but as of now, taking it is an option that we would be open to. That is all." Bassist Mark "the Animal" Mendoza also stated that, in regards to what he wants to do with his life, he no longer solely wants to rock, but would instead prefer doing other things, such as raising a family and working as a claims adjuster in Rye, NY.

That Subliminal Kid

DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid (AKA Paul Miller), is like the John Cage of hip hop, but that doesn't even begin to cover it. He takes his moniker from a William Burroughs novel. He's collaborated with everyone from Kool Keith to Slayer, has edited a book about sound art, and is an experimental sound professor in Switzerland. You can hear his new remix of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech on his website.

Recently, Sub Rosa, the Belgian music label that specializes in archiving avant guarde spoken word stuff, gave Spooky access to their catalog to make mix tapes. Sound Unbound came out in May, and I've been working it into the Beat Authority mix pretty heavy ever since. A lot of listeners commented when I played the spoken word bit about "paperwork".

Listening to Spooky blend and weave the most prescient and visionary voices of the 20th century is spell-binding. The individual tracks are short, so just when Spooky goes all experimental on you and my attention starts to drift, here comes another voice speaking to me through the beats and fabric of sound: Allen Ginsburg or James Joyce or Marcel Duchamp or Iggy Pop or Gertrude Stein.

Sound Unbound is a total treat to listen to. It's like 20th century genius whispering to you through the musical vocabulary of the 21st century. And you realize DJ Spooky is the new generation. I've never caught him live, but, boy you want to when you see stuff like this...

Beat Authority playlist: 9/26/08

There's no debate about this.

Directions Just Got Easier

I've been stumbling every time I try to give directions to this blog on the Beat Authority (which, remember, you can listen to every Friday from 3-4:45 pm ET at ncpr.org). It was kinda hard to describe where to find it on our website (except when Web Generalisimo Dale Hobson generously dropped a link on our home page every Friday).

ME: "Go to ncpr.org. Look for our local programs. Look for the Beat Authority. Look for the little link on the left for "To the Beat", the Beat Authority blog. Good luck. Yikes."

But, lo-unt-beholden! Finding this blog just got waaaayyyy simpler. Just type into your browser:

ncpr.org/beat

Really. Voila!

Try it. Call a friend. Take a walk to your next good neighbor. Send an e-mail to everyone in your rolodex.

YOU: "Check out this great new blog: ncpr-dot-org-slash-beat"

And to make it worth their while, here's another dance lesson from James:

For Voters Only

Yet more music available at sub-bargain-basement prices. Wilco is giving away (yes you read that correctly giving away, as in "totally free") an mp3 of them performing of Dylan's I Shall Be Released live with up-and-coming Seattle band Fleet Foxes. You can get the mp3 here – but there's a catch: you have to promise to vote this November in order to get the mp3. Those of you under 18 can make friends with a voting age Wilco fan and borrow their mp3 player.

Rock the Voto

Voto Latino is a non-partisan group trying to register latinos, especially young ones, to vote in the election in November. It's released a benefit digital album - for only $3.99, you get 15 tunes from the likes of Ozomatli, Aterciopelados, don Omar, Aventura, and Los Amigos Invisibles. Hard to say no - if you have iTunes, download the album here.

Beat Authority playlist: 9/19/08

It's yours.

Consider David Foster Wallace

First off, if you haven't read anything by David Foster Wallace, you owe it to yourself. Now. The literary world remembers him for his larger than life Infinite Jest, but DFW has always meant absolutely-electrically-profoundly-hysterically brilliant and empathetic journalistic essays to me.

DFW has become a cult hero in my household. I read "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" (a first-person narrative of the cruise ship experience) when it was first published as "Shipping Out" in Harpers in 1996, and it remains one of the funniest things I've ever read. DFW forever changed the way I see lobsters, porn conventions, Roger Federer, talk radio, John McCain, and the way I think about observation, detail, and footnotes.

I'm not good enough a writer to begin to describe how good DFW was. Others try here, here, and here. I'm very sad that I'll never have a new DFW article to look forward to.

UPDATE: Oops, I meant to link to his well-traveled Kenyon College commencement speech.

Beat Authority playlist: 9/12/08

Check it. And check the Zeptember links in Delaney Flush's post below. Rock on.

Some Zeptember Goodies

Here are a couple of goodies from Delany Flushboy to spread a whole lotta love around the whole wide world this Zeptember.

First up, a video of a Led Zeppelin concert on night when they were apparently less tight than usual. Check out Plant's tambourine skills...



Next up, a mash-up. A couple of months ago, DJ Doc Rok remixed Jay-Z's album American Gangster with Zeppelin classics. It's a great mash-up. No matter what you think about Jay-Z, you gotta admit that he plays well with arena rock. You can find it at Dj Doc Rok’s Scandalous Emporium Of (un)Wholesome Goodness.

Thanks to Nuno of Brooklyn for the DJ Dok Roc tip-off.

Cumbancha Records (and Chiwoniso contest)

I had the pleasure to drive over to Charlotte, Vermont last week to do a profile of Jacob Edgar's Cumbancha Records. He's been the A&R guy for Putumayo for 8 years. Jacob started his own label in Charlotte to work with individual artists, rather than the compilations of Putumayo (he still work for Putumayo, though.)

While I was there, Jacob's newest artist, Chiwoniso Maraire of Zimbabwe, was rehearsing for the first time with her new band. The story I produced aired this morning on NCPR. And be sure to listen to the web-exclusive interview with Jacob about the business of world music.

I have an extra copy of Chiwoniso's new CD, Rebel Woman. I'll give it away to the first person who e-mails me, david-at-ncpr-dot-org. Good luck!

Free MP3: Ani DiFranco

Ani DiFranco, Buffalo's favorite daughter, has a new album coming out, called "Red Letter Year". It's her 20th album, and follows up a live DVD that captured her first concert at the church she bought and renovated in Buffalo.

Be the first on your block to download the new single, Emancipated Minor. Best part, it's free on Amazon's site. Download the song for free here. Not sure how much longer they'll have it up there, so check it...

Big ups to John in VT for the heads up...

If You Make a Wrong Turn at Albuquerque...

If you're in New Mexico the weekend of the 19th & 20th, you wouldn't do wrong by checking out the Globalquerque music festival. Lila Downs, 17 Hippies, Vieux Farka Toure, Forro in the Dark...all featured on the Beat Authority and all playing there. Big ups to alert reader Clare!

Beat Authority playlist: 9/5/08

Check it. Nothing like playing PE's Louder Than a Bomb on public radio. Happy 20th, Chuck D, Flav, and Bomb Squad...

It was twenty years ago today...

Well, not today exactly, but I just had to pick up Señor David's Beatles reference from the last post. Greetings, it's Delany Flushboy from Malmö, Sweden with some nostalgia for you.

I got my first CD player in late 1986 and in 1987 they started chronologically rolling out CD re-releases of the Beatles albums. To this day Rubber Soul conjures up memories of the green glow of the LED display from that old CD player. The hype culminated on June 1 when Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band was released exactly twenty years after the album was released. The event was tailor-made for headlines that read "It was twenty years ago today..." I remember thinking, "Twenty years. That was a whole other time back then. Before I was even born. The sixties." But this post isn't about the Beatles.

The next summer, on June 28, 1988, Public Enemy released It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. The event went unnoticed by me – I was too busy chasing down soundboard quality Grateful Dead tapes blessed by Dan Healy. But you can't keep a good record down. Eventually PE's masterpiece made it's way into even my ear holes, hidden away in the Buffalo suburbs. My life, or at least my musical taste, has never been the same. Music itself has certainly never been the same.

Now it's been twenty years since PE released Takes a Nation of Millions on the world and I'm awestruck, but from the other end of time's flexibility. Can that really be what twenty years feels like? Seems more like Yesterday, but then I'm back to the Beatles so I'll stop and let Public Enemy tell the rest of the story.

Pitchfork, the online music magazine, recently hosted a forum with PE about the anniversary. They even made a little documentary about it. Let me hear you make some noise for Public Enemy...

PART ONE


PART TWO



PART THREE

Nada Es Real...

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs are one of the "abuelos" of rock en espanol. They're from Argentina, and hit their peak in the late '80s and into the '90s. Their "Matador" is a classic of the genre (and wicked fun to sing along to). Their pan-y-mantequilla is a latinized ska that remains a staple in rock en espanol.

Alert listener Terry of Potsdam hit the ska vein with Los Fabulosos Cadillacs great cover of "Strawberry Fields Forever". Saborrrr!