WFMU's Free Music Archive sampler
Sampler pack of FMA tunes issued July 2008. Artwork by Greg Harrison, in higher-res here.
WFMU's Free Music Archive Sampler Vol. 2
WFMU presents Selected Sounds from the Free Music Archive Vol. 2. Coated in a cool wintry blue, this second volume features an all-new set of sounds from Silver Jews, Vivian Girls, The Ex+Getatchew Mekuria, Old Time Relijun, Indian Jewelry and more. The compilation includes tracks off some of our favorite commercial releases, as well as previously unreleased exclusives from the WFMU live room and Free Music Series.
These are just a few of the thousands of tracks that will be freely available under Creative Commons licenses when the fully interactive Free Music Archive website launches this December. All tracks appear courtesy of artists and labels who have benefited from a progressive approach to distribution and intellectual property in the digital era, and we're designing the Free Music Archive to support this approach.
Jason Sigal via WFMU's Beware of the Blog
step into my coma
lotsa piano
your eyes are getting heavy
not recommended for chipmunky, productive people
(photo by Flickr user Frosted Peppercorn Some Rights Reserved)
Look Honey, The Moon is Full
Sometimes when you're without ideas or feeling just plain stupid, all you need is a good search term. Go to any music database and search words like "summer", or "fire", or "space", and you'll get nothing back but every motherfucking thing, and that's no good. Conversely, type "canoe" or "mousepad" and see what happens.
So I'm not saying "moon", "rocket", "fly", "1969", and "france" are good search terms. But they did yield this mix, hope you find something you like.
Guitarrrs
I missed Rhys Chatham's 200-guitar "Crimson Grail" tour de force at Damrosch Park last weekend, so it was some comfort to find so much great guitariness stinking up the FMA. From the stinging lofi Strat-twang of Phil Reavis, thru Ignatz' shortwave spaceblues; Sun City Girls' "Torch of the Mystics" made flesh in Hayvanlar Alemi; Loren MazzaCane Connors' ultra-minimal moodiness, to the Chrome-atic blues metal of Gunslingers. Along the way, we've got glorious broken things from Gitarrenarmee and guitarrorisms, and so much more. Stay to the end for some bonus non-guitar fun from banjos, violins, organs, and some more seriously broken things.
WFMU / aQ SXSW 2010 preview (mp3s)
(img = Stevie Ray, waiting for his lift to last year's Mayyors set) Oi, hey, Texas, ready for thirds? After our debut show at SXSW in Austin in 2008 and our joint show with our pals at Aquarius Records from San Francisco last year, we're happy to announce that we'll both be back and once again broadasting from Encore (formerly Spiro's) on 611 Red River Street on Friday, March 19th! Two stages (one of which is the outdoor amphitheater), 14 acts, and no Metallica playing next door this time (so we dont have to worry about Lars' dressing trailer blocking anyone's way in). Liz Berg, Jason Sigal, Scott Williams, Brian Turner and Diane Kamikaze will be holding the FMU broadcast fort down starting at 7PM (Central Time), Andee from Aquarius will be there, and hopefully you as well. Once again, we've got a heady mix of the heavy, damaged, darkly, punk, weird, noisy, poppy, trippy sounds, some hometown NY/SF heroes representing in Austin, and even a full on Cambodian psych-pop dance party at night's end. Check out the lineup!
OUTDOOR STAGE (covered, rain or shine)
7:00pm Liturgy (memb. GDFX, Thick Business, Dan Deacon)
8:00pm Speedwolf
9:00pm Iron Man
10:00pm Moon Duo (Ripley from Wooden Shjips)
11:00pm Shit and Shine
12:00m Pierced Arrows (aka the new Dead Moon)
1:00am Dengue Fever
INDOOR STAGE
7:00pm Epileptinomicon
8:00pm Drunkdriver
9:00pm Home Blitz
10:00pm Headdress
11:00pm Sonny & the Sunsets (feat. Kelley Stoltz and members of The Fresh & Onlys)
12:00m True Widow
1:00am Todd
We will hopefully be carrying most of the sets in some part via WFMU during the evening, and like last year hope to feature posts for later download via the Free Music Archive. Check out more info on the artists HERE, and hope to see you THERE!
2010 Golden Festival Kafana stage sampler
Every January for 25 years, NY Balkan music scene pioneers the Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band organize the Golden Festival - a massive two-night grassroots Balkan and East European music and dance festival at the Good Shepherd School, 620 Isham Street (near Broadway and 207 St.) in upper Manhattan. The festival is the biggest event of its kind in New York City: The second night (Saturday) is a marathon featuring 40-50 bands and artists performing on three stages from 6pm until 4 in the morning. See: http://www.goldenfest.zlatneuste.org/
With the help of co-host / tech guru Irene Trudel and our peerless crew, WFMU's Transpacific Sound Paradise broadcast all the music from the Golden Festival's Kafana stage from 6pm until midnight on Saturday January 16th. Kafana is Serbo-Croatian for "cafe"; the stage is located conveniently near the food!
Massive thanks to Zlatne Uste and the festival organizing committee, the on-site festival staff and volunteers including Kafana Stage house engineer Charlie Pilzer, and our illustrious on-site crew: Irene Trudel, Rob Christiansen, Glenn Luttman, Bil Bowen, Jason Sigal, Katie Gentile and Doron, With help from Kris Percival, Bryce Kretschmann and Benjamen Walker; and board-ops Lamin Fonfana and Jeff Mullan.
full collection HERE
WFMU live jams, August 2010
Live from 43 Monty
There are many great things about the Free Music Archive, but one of the greatest is the number of live sets it offers that were recorded right in the WFMU studios at 43 Montgomery Street in Jersey City, New Jersey. More and more bands are jumping aboard the FMA, allowing us to share their live sessions with those who may have missed the original broadcasts. 2010 brought a bumper crop of great new live sessions of all kinds, from punk to electronic to experimental to whatever you call that thing Arrington de Dionyso was up to this year. The FMA was able to share a whole bunch of them.
New live music isn't the whole story, though. In 2010, the FMA continued to plumb the WFMU archives for worthy older sessions, too. WFMU has featured (and preserved) live music in one form or another for well over 20 years, and as the old DATs get dusted off and resurrected, hopefully there will be more "lost" radio sessions that will reappear on the FMA by bands still with us as well as some that are no more.
The mix I've made below is a collection of live music highlights from sessions added to the FMA in 2010. Some were performed as recently as a month ago, and others are almost ten years old, but all of them are from sessions worth checking out in their entirety. My choices aren't really representative of the great breadth of live music offered by the FMA; I just picked some personal favorites in a highly subjective way. I encourage you to dig in and make your own mix from the best of WFMU live music. You probably won't be able to stop at just one.