Our Times has come…

Today ARC was featured in the NY Times, in the NY/Regional section, with a nice story by David Gonzales.  There were two electronic versions, and these featured cover art and sound files – you can go to  here 2 hear.

I was asked to dig through the ARChive for some unusual things I liked, and ignored new things that the Times might have reviewed.  But they didn’t publish my comments or the discography to the story,  so here goes…

Anna Domino
“Land Of My Dreams” on East and West (Les Disques Du Crepuscule, Belgium, TWI 187, 12″, vinyl disc Ep, 1984)    This is an early effort.  Equally swell is Anna’s take on the American folksong via her latest band, Snakefarm.

Big Miller
“Did You Ever Hear the Blues?”  on Did You Ever Hear the Blues?”, (United Artists, USA, YAS 6047, 12″, 33.3, LP, 1959)  Big = Clarence Horatio, a Kansas City Blues shouter, doing a pile of songs penned by Langston Hughes.

Twilight Zoners
“Twister” on  Zerø Zerø Øne  (ZIP (Zoners In Plastic) Records, UK, 7” 45 rpm, Ep, 1979).
We have 12 different handmade Xerox covers of this DIY crackly UK single out of the 45 different ones crafted, the whole run was 1000 copies.  Vocals in the background by my pal, Tilly Tilson.  Gordon/Glen is still rockin’ here.

Admiral Dele Abiodun And His Top Hitters
(Olumo, Nigeria, Orps 79, 12″, vinyl disc Lp, 1978)
Out on a limb here, but this is the greatest side of Juju music ever recorded. And it is the only one I know of that about ¾ through shifts into a Fela-esque Afrobeat layered in psychedelic guitar ecstasy.  Here’s that bit of this 19 min. masterpiece.

Avengers
“The American in Me” on the Avengers EP (White Noise, USA, WNR 002, 12″, 45 rpm vinyl disc, Ep, 1979)  Raw SF punk + vocalist Penelope Houston.    Only a snippet here as we had no rights.

Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Rosemary Clooney and the Hi-Lo’s
“Music to Shave By”   (Auravision/Columbia, USA, 6” paper/flexidisk, 33rpm,  196?)
Back of the disc says “ This is the first Hi-Fi recording ever to be included in a national magazine,” probably Life.   This is cloying music at the service of industry, and Bing, by the way, once started a paper ad record business.   There’s a great webthing on paper + flexies, hosted by WFMU, @  http://www.wfmu.org/MACrec/

The Buddah Box
I found this in a religious store, between a Buddhist and Hindu temple in the Little India section of Singapore.  Chips deliver a lively series of religious chants and songs, in a variety of languages, in endless repetition -  change partners by slapping a top button.  Works on batteries too, as you never know when your chant challenged.

Los York’s
“No Puedo Amar” on El Viaje: 1966-1974  (Munster, Spain, MR 285, 12″, vinyl disc-2Lp, 2008)
Out of Lima Peru, this quintet personified the organ loving Latino rock, when you could actually hear the electronic click triggering the sound.  Wonderful stuff, called garage now, part of the lovingly resurrected South and Central American obscurities by Spain based Munster Records.

The Anti iPhone Contest.

Edit: ALL SYSTEMS GO NOW!  GO HERE TO HEAR!

Yes, the iPhone’s out and I can’t read anything without having to wade through all sorts of iPhone crap. I’m sure our readers have had enough about the iPhone as well, so in the spirit of antiquated-technology-as resistance, I offer you a contest. If you’re game, read on.

When my wife and I got married in 2004, a friend of ours got us a subscription to Make magazine. Sometime in early 2005, they ran a story about a toy Gramophone made by the Japanese toy company Gakken:

I had to have one, and sensing my existential longing my wife just up and bought one for me (which was cool). It was fun to play with for a day, but we both decided that although it was kind of a neat toy, wasn’t a great one. (One way it COULD be better would be if the groove tracked more consistently, dammit!) For a music nerd, though, it’s a neat if somewhat cheap looking conversation piece that promises more than it delivers. (Let’s just say it doesn’t compare with the totally working Victrola VV-IX a friend gave me.) I’d buy it again, though.
And now I think I have another opportunity in Gakken’s Edison-style cylinder recorder kits. I’m aware of two models. The first is, shall we say, both awesome and beautiful:

The other is similarly awesome, and beautiful in a different way:

They are probably not particularly functional either, but they look as cool as can be. I’m going to order one and when it arrives I’ll put it together and do a little demonstration-review here on the Blogoschmeer. What I love about these kits in particualr is their idea to use plastic cups as the cylinders. The first one uses the kind of cup I’m used to drinking wine out of at graduate school functions. The second one cuts onto the kind of cups I remember drinking out of (and I assume people still do drink out of) at high school “keggahhs” (or “keg parties”) which I think is pretty awesome. I really, REALLY like the way the first one looks (and will probably end up getting that one), but I think the idea of making keg cup into a kind of recording media is hilarious.

Can you imagine going to a party and having the entire thing documented onto the keg cups that were used? I can. I totally can. In fact, I’ll give a case of Moxie soda [that's 24 cans, kids!] to the first and second person who uses a Gakken cylinder recorder toy to document the sounds and conversations of an entire party on keg cups, and then sends the collection into the ARChive for preservation and documentation. [Update: the contest has been suspended until further notice!]  In order to qualify, we will need a minimum number of cups – let’s say 12 – but I think that a really dedicated entrant will want to exceed the minimum number for documentation’s sake. (I happen to think if this contest is going to work right, a four hour party will need unusually substantial documentation.) For archival purposes, the cups should be numbered chronologically and we will require information about whose voices are on the recordings and what they drank out of the cups. Don’t worry if as the party wears on documentation becomes somewhat “loose” – if it’s as good a party as I would hope, I would expect some laxity in its later stage documentation. (Contest only extends to those living in the lower 48 – shipping Moxie is costly business!)

Great contest? Or Greatest Contest Ever? You be the judge, but I think the latter. I really do.

Do you know what the irony of all this is? It’s that I bet keg cups are more archivally sound than compact discs. Yep, you heard it here first – I think that keg cups can be the wave of music’s archival future. And with your help, we’ll be on that leading edge.

dtn

The Buddha Box is Back!

Readers will doubtlessly remember B.George’s post a little while back about the Buddha Box. Well, when B.George finally returned from Singapore, a demonstration was in order. Turns out, his box has 18 loops of nirvana-seeking awesomeness. It runs either on three AA batteries or, on an AC adapter, which is made for American outlets, leading me to believe that it was made for the American market and that if I look around the neighborhood I’ll find a store that sells them.

Diana, our faithful volunteer (who has her own blog), remembered the Buddha Box too. She hipped us to FM3, a Beijing-based group that not only knows about the Buddha box, but has customized it and made it the basis for their hustle.

There’s quite a bit online about FM3, including an interview, a little piece on their Buddha Box in the New York Times, and, of course, a MySpace page with sound samples.

This stuff is great. If anyone out there comes other stuff like this, post it in comments. We’d love to know.

dtn

The MP1 is in the Lotus

No idea exactly what to call this playback device, but found it in a religious store, between a Buddhist and Hindu temple in the Little Indian section of Singapore.

Buttons on top switches tracks, and this battery operated chocolate colored plastic item has a power chord outlet, volume control, and an earphones pinport. Slap a top button and you hear a few popish songs in Chinese and Hindi, but the third is the charm. Then begins a series of religious chants, in a variety of languages, in endless repetition. Dance to “Da Mo hop tah ha,” “Baroom come,” and “OmPolaOmpok.”, Well you get the idea. A fabulous find. Below is the Buddha box it came in. When I get back (in Shangahi) we’ll try and add a sound file to he image.

b.arc