Here’s a great collection of live performance clips, programmed by one of today’s foremost experts in the field of electronic music, Keith Fullerton Whitman via the appropriately named Network Awesome:
 
1. Laurie Spiegel “Improvisations on a Concerto Generator” live at Bell Labs, 1977. Here Laurie is manipulating the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer, aka the “Alles Machine” (or just “Alice”) in real time. I love how baroque this is ; the pulverizing 16th-note motorik starts to blur together until all you hear are the lovely arpeggiated chord-shapes.
 
2. Speaking of motorik ; Can “Paperhouse” live in 1972, at the peak of their powers ... You often think of Can as this freak-out group, but here they sound as restrained & musical as ever ... of course Jaki is on fire throughout, but I’m more impressed by Holger’s    timekeeping in this clip !!! One of Damo’s best performances to boot, perfect Karoli guitar tone ; I could watch this on repeat, all day, every day ...
 
3. Seeselberg “Synthetik-1” , ca. 1975 c/o WDR. Seeselberg were two brothers (“Eckhardt” & “Wolf-J”) who issued a lone LP in 1973 of some of the most bewitching, non-denominational electronic music ever committed to tape. This feature-ette shows them jamming in front of a small gallery crowd, then at home in the studio ; cut with some rather Brakhage-esque direct-film experiments ... Sounds like a million bucks !!!
 
4. Bembeya Jazz National “Petit Sekou” live at the RTG studios in 1979. Slays me every time. Top-notch interplay, jagged but never showy guitar ... Love the VHS / helical scan wobble in the intro as well ...
 
5. Short film of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s commission for The Curve at the Barbican Center in London, 2010 ; Incredible idea, gorgeously executed ...
 
6. Great clip of Moroder actually performing “The Chase” from “Midnight Express” on a MiniMoog in 1979 ; proper synth freakout in there as well ...
 
7. Harry Bertoia Sound Sculptures, performed by his son, Val in 2001. About 5 years before this was filmed, I made the pilgrimage out to rural Bally, PA to witness these for myself ... since Harry’s passing in 1978, the sculptures have been standing in a barn, largely untouched, for the last 30 years; this is a rare document of their majestic forms / sounds ...
 
8. Pink Floyd “Echoes Part II” ; never was a big Gilmour fan, but I’ll rate this as the best bit from the later “Stadium” Floyd’s reign ...
 
9. Erkki Kurreniemi “Computer Music” ... mid-60’s film showing Erkki’s process for composing with computers. Typewriter? Check. Scads of jumbled up paper tape? Check. Composer falls asleep, dreams of psychedelic spinning landscape, rife with paranoid overtones? All there. As close as you’ll get to a valid “performance film” of early Computer Music ...
 
10. The Voice Crack trio of Norbert Möslang, Andy Guhl, and Knut Remond performing a set of their trademark “Cracked Everyday Electronics” in a gallery in their hometown of St. Gallen, Switzerland, 1989 ... I hear this not only as the blueprint for every “pedal noise”  performance of the 90s / 00s, but as the invention of a few different languages that make up a large part of our current experimental music vocabulary. These guys are VISIONARIES ...
 

 
If I had to sit down and compile a list of my top favorite books—which would be difficult for me to do—there would most assuredly be a spot in the top fifty for Greil Marcus’s sprawling, idiosyncratic and essential, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century.

This book is about a single serpentine fact: late in 1976 a record called Anarchy in the U.K. was issued in London, and this event launched a transformation of pop music all over the world. Made by a four-man rock ‘n’ roll band called the Sex Pistols, and written by singer Johnny Rotten, the song distilled, in crudely poetic form, a critique of modern society once set out by a small group of Paris-based intellectuals.

Lipstick Traces, well, traces the critique of capitalism from the Dada art movement through the Situationist International and the May 1968 uprisings in Paris, through to the Sex Pistols and the punk rock explosion. In other words, it is the hidden history of the artistic opposition to capitalist society. It was heavily influenced by the revolutionary avant-garde punk zine “Vague” (a parody of Vogue, if that’s not obvious). I was reading “Vague” from my late teens—I still have most issues—and it had a great deal to do with shaping how I see the world. Marcus cribbed a lot from Tom Vague for Lipstick Traces, which is not to take anything away from Greil Marcus at all, but to simply give credit where its due.

Although I can recall a lot of criticism that was leveled at Lipstick Traces by reviewers when it first came out, the book’s thesis was, in my opinion, on pretty firm ground. It has certainly stood the test of time and has remained in print to this day. I’m told that it’s often used in college courses, which is unsurprising. A twentieth anniversary edition of Lipstick Traces was published by Harvard Press in 2009

But what many ardent admirers of the book don’t know, it that Rough Trade released a companion “soundtrack” CD to Lipstick Traces that came out in 1993. Like the book, it’s always had pride of place in my vast collection of “stuff.” The CD was rarely encountered in a world prior to Amazon.com (there’s not even a listing for it on Amazon today, either) but now, thanks to the fine folks at Ubuweb, these rare audio documents, lovingly assembled by Marcus, can be heard again. The selection runs the gamut of weird old hillbilly folk, doo-wop, to punk rock from the Slits, Buzzcocks. Gang of Four, The Adverts, Kleenex/Liliput, The Raincoats, The Mekons, a recording of the audience at a Clash gig, and best of all, the blistering mutant be-bop of Essential Logic’s “Wake Up.” Interspersed between the music is spoken word material from French philosopher Guy Debord, Triatan Tzara, Richard Huelsenbeck and even Marie Osmond reciting a brain-damaged version of Hugo Ball’s nonsense poem “Karawane” that must be heard to be believed.

Below, Benny Spellman: “Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)”
 

 
In the late 1980s, Wendy James was the goddess of choice for many a teenager’s bedroom. She was sexy, beautiful and her band Transvision Vamp dominated the UK charts with their post-punk pop. Wendy was everywhere, a teenage wet dream, which kinda overlooked the singer’s real talent and incredible energy.  

It was her unacknowledged talent (and a fan letter from Wendy) that led Elvis Costello to write the pop princess her first solo album, Now Ain’t the Time for Your Tears in 1993. It was a bloody impressive recording, which kicked even her harshest critics into touch. But let’s not forget, the pop world is fickle, and riddled with jealousies, which means, sadly, there are always those who will not think about Wendy beyond the pull-out posters that once decorated their bedroom walls.

Now, this should be about to change, as Wendy James has released the best album of her career so far, I Came Here To Blow Minds, which she has written and produced herself. I spoke to Wendy over the ‘phone last week and asked her about the process of writing the album. 

Wendy James: ‘I wrote it in summertime in New York. I went up onto the roof of my apartment, with my guitar and worked on my songs up there. I write all the time, and have notebooks full of writing and songs all around. Then one day it just starts, and I have an outpouring of these songs and ideas, for about two months. And when I write I have to lock myself away. I just can’t enjoy other things. It’s kind of like a pressure cooker, and you put a lid on to stop it boiling over, but then you can’t stop it boiling over.

‘For me, it’s a very solo outpouring. It takes everything you’ve got for that moment in time. But it’s the ultimate thing for being an artist.’

It’s a cathartic process, and writing the last song, is like ‘waiting to exhale.’ On I Came Here To Blow Minds, Wendy’s songs range form the punky “New Wave Flowered Up Main Street Acid Baby”, through “Municipal Blues” and the jangly indie pop of “One Evening in a Small Cafe” and “You Tell Me” to the sixties’ Marianne Faithfull-like “Where Have You Been, So Long?”. The musical references are all there, and have developed over Wendy’s twenty-plus year career, from teenage pop star to older, wiser solo artist.

It started in her teens, when Wendy saw Joe Strummer of The Clash in concert and thought “I want his job.” Her wish soon came true, when she formed Transvision Vamp with Nick Christian Sayer in 1986. Sayer wrote the songs and James supplied the image. Three albums and a slew of hit singles were released, including “I Want Your Love” and “Baby, I Don’t Care”.

Wendy James: ‘Without really knowing, I was in Transvision Vamp. I didn’t really know what I was doing. But you learn really quickly, it was a fast track, you learn how to rehearse, how to deliver. It all came together so quickly. On the first album, I was just singing. By the second I wanted more.’

Their second album, Velveteen was a massive hit, but Wendy was growing up.

Wendy James: ‘Something in my soul was telling me I had to live in my own world. I had to do my own thing. Something was going on inside, and by the third album, it wasn’t enough.’

Then Elvis Costello wrote an album for her. 

Wendy James: ‘But still there was this inner voice, you know, these were Elvis Costello’s songs, and not mine.’

It took time. In 2004, James returned as Racine - ‘...the name I called myself for two albums…’ - and then began writing the songs for I Came Here To Blow Minds, which she recorded in Paris. Now, Wendy has plans to tour the UK, Europe and the US later this year. She is also working on songs for her next album.

An initial pink vinyl pressing of ‘I Came Here To Blow Minds’ is now available
 

Wendy James: “New Wave Flowered Up Main Street Acid Baby”
 

 

 
Here’s an amazing 70s TV commercial of Edd Kalehoff performing his rendition of the Schaefer Beer jingle on a Moog synthesizer. It doesn’t get more spectacular than this. Edd Kalehoff was also the man responsible for the catchy theme song and cues used on The Price is Right in the 70s. From Edd’s son, Max Kalehoff:

Put aside the fact that Edd’s ability to jam on the Moog was sought by many (including Quincy Jones for his theme from “The Anderson Tapes” ). And DO consider the 1973 Schaefer beer commercial featuring Edd playing the Moog, which follows in the clip I linked to above. He really jams out! I’m proud to say that’s my dad in the most obnoxious polyester shirt ever made; it’s better than the spandex bicycle shorts he fell in love with in the 1980s! If Schaefer had any sense, they’d put this commercial back on the air in its original form. It defines cool. It could help them become the number-one selling beer again.

So what’s happened to that old Moog synthesizer in the Schaefer beer commercial? My father’s 5,000 square-foot recording studio in Manhattan (where the Moog lived) closed last year, to be replaced by a home studio in my old childhood bedroom in New Rochelle, New York. (Jeff Jarvis really is on to something with his Small Is the New Big. But alongside the new miniature digital sound-mixing board and synthesizers lies that relic, the Moog, still in working condition. And the live musicians who travel out to Westchester County to play for Edd’s recording sessions are awed by it more than ever before.

Read more about Edd’s life on Max Kalehoff’s website: Edd Kalehoff Makes Love To The Moog Synthesizer.

 
Regardless of what you think of his music, it can’t be denied that Andrew WK gives great interviews. In fact, I would go so far as to say that he is the most articulate, erudite Wayne Campbell look-a-like in modern music. Any guest spot he’s on is worth a watch, there’s generally at least one nugget of pure wisdom in there.

I remember growing up reading interviews with bands I though were seriously cool, and how the proclamations and sound bites they would deliver regarding culture and (sometimes) politics would make them seem even cooler. Only later did I learn how much editing and re-writing goes into the process of music journalism. Oh. So they probably made it up? Not Andrew WK. No, this is how he actually talks.

There’s a bit of controversy surrounding this guy (is he who he says he is? is he just a corporate puppet?) and I have to admit that at first I was suckered into thinking he was another airhead with nothing to offer but nosebleeds and puke buckets. But alas, I was wrong. This episode of Rehersal Space is a good introduction to the Andrew WK dichotomy (onstage animal/offstage intellectual). It really gets going around 4:30, when Andrew starts talking about the physical, emotional and mental (even psychic?!) response to pop music:
 

 
This interview is how I discovered the magic of Andrew WK’s mouth and mind. I’m a big fan of Ian Svenonius (frontman of Weird War/The Make Up/Nation of Ulysses, equally as articulate as W.K. if a bit more oblique) and his Soft Focus interview series. I had already watched the episodes with Genesis P Orridge, Henry Rollins and Ian Mackaye, and thought I would give this one a whirl. Needless to say I was entranced by the wit and wisdom of WK (as was Svenonius who, not quite speechless, was genuinely impressed). WK’s seemingly off the cuff answer to “what is a party to you?” at around 19 minutes will have you picking your jaw up off the floor.
 

 
After the jump: Andrew WK gets a make-over at Bloomingdales! Andrew WK talks to Lee Scratch Perry! Andrew WK interviewed by a four year old! AND Andrew WK gives the best one word response in an interview EVER…

Richard, if you ever get the chance to interview this guy, then please do!

 
Courtesy of the brand new Splendour label out of Oslo, Norway comes this new split 12” available now for free streaming or purchasing via iTunes. The limited vinyl edition arrives next month at your favorite emporium.

 
This is really very wonderful. Based on the (false) premise that Lennon and Stockhausen once planned an evening of music together, 1969 took place in NYC two nights ago and the below performance was somehow woven into a narrative including other pieces of the period. But aside from that conceit, this orchestral interpretation of what is easily the most widely heard and successful piece of experimental music ever made is a bit of real musical magic. They really pull it off !
 

 
bonus: The original Revolution 9 for comparison’s sake.

 
via Culture Monster with thanks to Rick Potts!

 
For those who may be interested, a long and absurdly kind article and fairly in-depth interview with yours truly along with a ton of videos has just gone up at When The Sun Hits.
 

 
“Episode 1. Paul gives me advice about the ladies and makes an offer.”

True story: Sometime in 2004, I was returning to my car in the parking lot of a CVS drugstore in Sherman Oaks, California (the one with “The Party Store,” the Marie Callendar’s restaurant and the really good dry cleaners on Ventura Blvd. & Willis Ave., for all you locals).

Just as Paul Stanley and his son, who was maybe 6-years-old at the time, were leaving “The Party Store,” two transgendered women were walking in.

The kid looked them and when the door automatic doors had closed behind them, he asked his father the rock star, “Dad were those GUYS???”

Stanley, with a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face that I will never forget said softly: “I don’t know, son” and then quickly changed the topic to “Hey, this is going to be a really great party, tomorrow, huh?”
 

 
Via Kembra Pfahler/Howie Pyro

 
In a genius move that combines martial arts spoof with his country’s long tradition of satirical theatre, Jamaican video man Simon “Sno” Thompson (a.k.a. Yosef Imagination) has dropped a third episode of the hilarious Konfu Dread series of short videos.

This one goes after the sad and dangerous skin-lightening trend that’s affected developing cities worldwide, from Mumbai to Lagos to Havana. Rooted in a nefarious twining of racial politics, latent colonial mentality and economic disadvantage, skin-lightening’s gone especially harsh in Kingston JA, which has seen wide use of a range of pills and creams with ingredients like mercurous chloride and hydroquinone (see the second video after the jump). Some also use Blue Power brand laundry soap—known as “cake soap”—in the folkloric belief that it lightens the skin, as well as keeping it cool in the sun.

Last fall, dancehall reggae superstar Vybz Kartel, ironically nicknamed “Di Teacha,” propogated the myth by releasing his tune “Cake Soap.” Its chorus—in which Kartel claims his skin “cool like mi wash mi face wit di cake soap”—caused enough controversy to motivate Kartel to admit that he does indeed lighten his skin:
 

 
In classic dancehall fashion, fellow star Kiprich took the tune’s rhythm and recorded an anti-lightening answer tune, which features a Jamaican mum ridiculing the craze and a chorus that notes: “Ya can’t get brown, ya coulda buy every cake soap inna town…”
 

 
Enter Konfu Dread. As previously featured on Dangerous Minds, Thompson’s production polished the natty martial artist’s street-level vibes in episode two. But for this edition, he takes it back to Kingston’s roads, as the Cake Soap crew goes after the Dread for using their treasured product for its original purpose—washing clothes.
 

 
After the jump: a Current TV segment about the serious health problems of skin-bleaching on top of the cultural concerns…