Quick UpDate on Sale + ARC News

ARC Sale is doing swell.  We are pleased that the economic downturn has not affected the turntable, and there’s still plenty of hot vinyl for a cold  winter’s day…   So come on down!

We’re still at 54 White St and here from now until Sunday, Dec 20, everyday, 11am – 6pm.

Some classy doings recently, somewhat out of character, somewhat wonderful.  Last Sunday our pal Greg Mosher (Columbia Arts Initiative)  hosted talk with Liv Ullmann @ MOMA, and it was swell.  The event was a premier of a documentary (The Sealed Orders of Liv Ullmann by Simon & Goodman) about here master class with aspiring actors in a program sponsored by Young Arts.  It was very moving and will be on Public TV soon.  Ms. Ullmann is directing Streetcar Named Desire with Cate Blanchett as, obviously, Blanch, to rave reviews.  I must have said something she liked, cuz I got a hug and a kiss.   Starsearch: saw Edward Albee (thought he was dead) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (bigger than life).

Tuesday went to see/hear Michael Feinstein and David Hyde Pierce, at, wherelse, Feinsteins.  We have started working with Michael on a few things and we hope to have him on our Board (MANY new Board members to be announced in Jan).  Well cabaret @ Feinstein’s is a long way from Avenue A, but just as other worldly.  Songs were great, his piano playing greater, his knowledge of the American Songbook the greatest, and Pierce specialized is a few story songs that required a keen memory, including Jerry Herman’s delightful, twisty, “Penny in My Pocket.”  Michael’s best line: “Frank Loesser once described his first wife as, ‘the evil of two Loessers.’”  Lamenting the lack of Jews at Camelot, taken from his stint in Spamalot, David sang, “There’s a very small percentile/who enjoy a dancing Gentile.”  The Times said…

Speaking of dynamic duos, ARC supporter Dean Taucher sent down two signed recordings for the collection, one by Jerry Lewis and one by Ice-T.  Dean has an interesting range of interests if you ask me.

Other near family news of a  musical Mother nature :  son of a friend is doing A-OK as lead singer in the Antlers, with a nice review in the Times.  The other animal skin in the game is second cousin Aaron’s band the  Giraffes, who sources a common roots heritage with the group, Roumanian Buck.   All three bands are worth a look.

300 LPs make a great stocking stuffer!

The ARChive Holiday Record + CD Sale is a success so far with plenty of folks shoppin’ n’ boppin.’

Still plenty of tasty vinyl and CDs left.  300 LPs make a great stocking stuffer!  So come on down and tell your friends.  Join the fun.  Support the ARC.  Everyday, 11-6, from now until Sunday Dec 20.  Thanks to all who have already visited or donated materials for the sale.    B.

ARChive of Contemporary Music
54 White Street  New York City, 10013
3 blocks South of Canal between Church + Broadway
Take the #1 train to Franklin St, or any train to Canal
tel : 212-226-6967          e : arcmusic@inch.com
http://www.arcmusic.org              blog: http://arcmusic.wordpress.com

Sale Almost Here!

Another Great Donation -wanna help catalog?

Today, me and the boys picked up a generous donation of over 6000 LPs from Jerry Rappaport.  Now Jerry has the life, a former record exec. he runs a swell hotel with his wife in Grenada, La Sagesse, and they just planted some mangostein trees -  he’ll let you know how they’re doing in about ten years.  But for now he’s back in NYC, and cleared out a rental space of about half his collection to donate to the ARC.

Here’s Keith Streng, just before rushing off to a rehearsal and gig as a member of the Fleshtones, helping to unload the truck.   Nice boxes.

The collection is swell too!  Tons of world music and reggae from Jerry’s days at Mango, and a pretty good batch of R&B, and blues recordings from the 60s – right up our alley.  We took the am to pick them up, and jumped right in to cataloging that afternoon.  Always nice when you have six Misty In Roots LPs, and someone donates six you didn’t have.  And you gotta love a guy with 16 Elis Regina albums!

Fred is down for the count.                               Juan surveys the field.

AND – We are looking for folks to volunteer @ ARC and help catalog all this great stuff.  If you have a 4 hr block, at least once a week, give us a call!  212 -226-6967

We Built This City On…

It is a little known fact that the ancient Nabataeans were early adaptors of new sound recording technologies.  They began with cylinder discs (called columns) but found them awkward.  Later, around 70 BC, they sliced the cylinders into wafer thin segments, well thin for the time, and began recording on the flat side.  Thwarted by a region-only spindle size and fierce competition from the Hittites (every tune a Hitt!) and the Phoenicians (the original Purple Reign), they were soon forced out of the market.  Not to mention the freight, as these babies were 33 1/3 tons.  Alas, here at Petra, unshipped goods, in a format that defies migration, linger still.

But, I may be mistaken about all this.  What I do know is that the walk through Al-Siq, and the first glimpse of the Treasury through the slice of rock, luminous pink curtained black, is a remarkable thing and well worth a trip through time.

All I can think of is our last administration, and the inability to tackle any problem successfully, and how everything was ‘hard work”   Please.  Have a look at Ajunta, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, Petra.  Imagine signing off on 40 years to carve a rock facade and we can’t rebuild twenty rows of wooden shotgun houses in New Orleans!   Disgrace, I mean I digress.

I’ve spent the last 10 days here in Amman Jordan setting up the first stages of Muslim World Music Day (formerly the Muslim Music Crash Course) at Columbia Universities Middle Eastern Research Center.  It has been a whirlwind of meetings, show-and tells, planning, report writing and visits to archives, schools, libraries, embassies, musicians and government offices.  The project director handling things from Jordan – the man with ALL the contacts – is Kareem Talhouni.

If you don’t know, Muslim World Music Day is an attempt to catalog all the relevant recording in the world, in one day, and surround this core database with informational and entertaining content, online.  Read all about it at our pre-website blog  www.arcmmcc.wordpress.com

One nice find was a thesis, written in English, but only published in Arabic, on Jordanian music, written by Prof Abdel Hamid Hamam the Dean of the College of Art and Design, University of Jordan.  Written in Wales no less.  We will excerpt it in both languages on the Muslim World Music Day website.

Equally amazing is the work of Dr. Mohammed Taha Ghawanmeh , Music professor and Dean of fine art @ Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.  Dr Ghawanmeh has spent his life collecting the traditional music of Jordan, and the result is a 500 cassette edition, each cassette one hour long and accompanied by a booklet of lyrics, notation and explanatory notes.  This is hard work at its very best.  Only two sets of the series now exist and I can only hope that some scholars or universities that read this could find this work useful for their institution of scholarly pursuits.   Here’s the contact for the fine arts dept :  fac_finart@yu.edu.jo and Arabic speakers can call +962 79 574 3535

By the way on the road to Petra I has coffee, and after a 800 step climb rested in a rock solid tea room overlooking the rose red monestary.  Life used to be so hard…

My favorite reaction to the project was from a woman at the Center who wanted to know if every whore and slut who parades nearly naked on the TV, shaking her stuff, and singing in Arabic would be a part of the website.  She then showed me a few of Nancy Ajram’s videos (mild by my standards) and then exclaimed with a smile, “This is my favorite!”  And shaking her shoulders, “I love to dance to this one.”   Hey, Nancy was on Ophra last month!

With downloading so prevalent and pirating commonplace, music shops have all but disappeared in Jordan – one small chain, The Music Box, holding its own.  Plus the visual versions are very seductive as DVDs and music on TV predominates.  Live music is scarce in formal performance.  This photo is from a concert at Al Hussein Cultural Center taken by Robert Reeder, an ex pro photographer visiting Amman.   Musically, it was the kanoon playing of Tewfik Mirkham (sp?) that was luminous.

My endless search for actual music collections was finally rewarded on the last day of my visit to Amman with a trip to The Jordan Radio and Television Corp.   Our animated host, Ms. Hala Zureiqat, Director of Jordan Television, listened to our pitch, conferred with her Director, then nearly shouted, “We’re in!”   What has made this trip rewarding is that so many people in the region are willing to support the Muslim World Music Day -  a new idea, on first hearing – so enthusiastically.

In one of the rehearsal rooms we were treated to a short concert by 73 year old singer Mohammed Wahib – sweet, toothless and energetic.  The song is, “Slaima.”

The station has saved nearly its entire history since the 60s on reel to reel tape, and it is mostly catalogued.  The recent past is digitized and can be called up inhouse, electronically.   But for me the real fun was to finally see some real vinyl – 45s, LPs and a full shelf unit of approx 4,300 seventy-eights.

We will work to make sure this material is cataloged for the project and who knows what trash or treasures we will unearth.  Maybe an early Nabataean disc?

Some RIPs

Ghostly Visit to 54 White St

Well, the Summer Sale is over and was a great success.  Thanks to all who braved the rain and helped us out by carting off our wretched excess.  We’ve neglected the blog for a while, so here’s some recent things that caught our eye/ear.  And it’s more than the weather that has made me a bit cranky.

Midsummer Night Swing (a fine roster of entertainment from an organization that I boycott because of the segregation of a paying and not paying sections, non payers getting lousy sound) will feature our very own archivist – DJ: Phast Phreddie the Boogaloo Omnibus.  Fred will play the pony, twist and way funkier stuff, pre –mid + post The Chubby Checker set.   It’s this Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 6:30.  Dance Lesson at 6:30, Live Music at 8:30, Damrosch Park, 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam.  They don’t say it upfront (because they are ashamed) and they hide the single event price (pushing an $80 batch of tickets), but you can actually get on the dance floor for ONLY $15.

Other shocking news is that one of the best Rai singers is in the clink.   Reuters reports that Cheb Mami (Mohamed Khelifati ) got 5 years from a French court for trying to force his girlfriend to have an abortion.  It wasn’t just that he offered a strong polemic; it seems he had her kidnapped, drugged, and he and his henchmen attempted an amateur operation at the star’s villa in Algeria.   A light sentence if you ask me.

I‘ve often abandoned artists with reprehensible acts in their resumes.  Not that my vote counts, but if you shoot your wife in the head (Wm Burrohs) or seem ‘fascinated’ by fascism (any old Futurist), or that joining the Hitler Youth is good training for being the Pope, well, you lost me.

A speaking of the wrong person in a nice place, Prince is once again slated to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival – the closing act no less.  What, they couldn’t book Hanna Montana?   That there is so little imagination left in this world is baffling.  Prince is but one of too many non-jazz acts, making the festival indistinguishable from all the other Euro summerfare.  Call me naïve, but I believe a jazz festival should book jazz artists.

On the bright side, one donation during the sale brought in a signed copy of, Have Guitar Will Travel, by that world renowned jazz artist, Bo Diddley.  For youguns out there, the calling card and travelin’ theme on this LP comes from a late 50s-early 60s TV western “Have Gun Will Travel” starring Richard Boone.  His character, Paladin, was a mustachioed knight-errant, schizo-ing between tails and all-black westernwear.

Finally, I’m torn between my hatred of the lowest common denominator and corporate media rule, in an AP story of Disney having its lawsuit dismissed against the masterminds (?) behind the animated comedy (?) Family Guy, for their off-color parody of “When You Wish Upon A  Star” from Pinocchio, sung by Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike).  The only thing worse than a lame parody, it the protection of an imagined sacred source.

So in memorial, after you hit Forest Lawn for a MJ deathpeek, grab a uke and mosey over to visit Cliff Edwards at Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park in Burbank.  We have no idea where Vibe is buried, but it’s gone too…

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.

Freddy’s Ready – Summer Sale Dates Announced

Join your pals @ ARC for our annual Summer Record + CD Sale.

Yes its true, mainstream rags are ga-ga for vinyl, those johnny-come-latelies trying to explain what we all know – you can’t love a CD!  So Fred put on his fez and got to work rooting through the 350,000 singles to pull third copies , just for you, for our next sale.

Cuz you can never have enough vinyl!

He’s working on the “R”s, trying to find some funky Johhny Ray, low-key Ramones and leathery Bobby Rydell.  Yes, he’s eyeing up a cartload of “R”s.  If we have THIRD copies,
well to the salebins they go

Sale begins Sat June 13 and goes everyday from 11am – 6pm, ending Sun June 21 , when mysterious traders, in fezes, clean us out.

If you have stuff to donate, do it soon.  If you need more, do frop by this June.

Dave Clark – Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay

We know the world has lost its moral compass when Gandhi chotskis hit the auction block.  Further proof is when former rockstars ask for a favor, on a quick turnaround, and than stiff you.  No we won’t go into ALL the folks who don’t pay their bills, knowing that ARC is too small to ever sue anyone, but here’s the latest.   We were asked to send a scan the cover of “Coast to Coast” (Epic, USA, LN 24128, Mono, [1965]) by Dave’s office.  We did it in a few hours, sent the scan, sent the bill.  A month later, nada.  We recontact and they say they sent by wire transfer.  We send them a copy of our banks transactions, proving it was never received.  They say well, it’s OUR problem.

So Dave.  I know times are tough.  You may not have the $100.  Sad.  Buy hey, when you wanted the scan we did it quickly, expertly, on faith.  That was our responsibility.  Your responsibility is to pay.  So despite the brazen stance in front of the US map, Dave Clark is no friend of America!  From the Stamp Act to the Dave Clark unpaid bill, it’s the same old story…

Strategien Gegen Architekturen

Recently the ARSC list posted info on the problems with the increasing number of unstable modern concrete structures, and how safety concerns were rumored (not true) to have led to the relocation, and unavailability, of the great pop music collection at Bowling Green State University.  But an archive in Cologne did collapse.  The heading for this info was, cleverly, Einstürzende Neubauten.

So just for fun, here is our hard-to-catalog list of Einstürzende Neubauten recordings @ ARC, alpha by title, not including compilations, white label promos or the uncatalogued 30plus twelve-inch singles and 11 seven-inch singles in the collection.   As point of reference ARC has catalogued 32 more EN recordings than the Library of Congress and 27 more than Bowling Green.

Einsturzende Neubauten
• 80-83 Strategien Gegen Architekturen  (Homestead, USA, HMS 063, 12″, vinyl disc-Lp, 1986)
• 80-83 Strategien Gegen Architekturen  (Mute, UK, STUMM 14, 12″, vinyl disc-LP, 1983)
• 1991 – 2001  (Mute Corporation, 9165-2, 5″, compact disc-2CD, 2002)
• 1/2 Mensch  (Rough Trade, USA, BIZZ/ART 1, 12″, vinyl disc-Lp, 1985)
• 2 x 4  (Roir, 133, 5″, compact disc, -)
• 2 x 4  (Roir, 8235, 5″, compact disc, 1997)
• Die Hamletmaschine  (Ego, Germany, 111, 5″, compact disc, -)
• Drawings of O.T.  (PVC, USA, PVC 9902, 12″, vinyl disc-LP, 1984)
• Ein Dokument 1985 In Tokio (Inclues a Booklet)  ( cassette –)
• Faustmusik  (Mute, 9021-2, 5″, Compact Disc, 1996)
• Faustmusik  (Ego, Germany, EGO 501, 5″, Compact Disc, 1996)
• Feurio!  (Rough Trade, Germany, RTD 065 T, 12″, vinyl disc-Single or Ep, 1990)
• Five On The Open-Ended Richter-Scale  (Thirsty Ear, THI 57016, 5″, compact disc, 1995)
• Fuenf Auf der Nach Oben Offenen Richterskala  (Relativity, USA, 88561-8188-1, 12″, vinyl disc-LP, 1987)
• Haus Der Luege  (Thirsty Ear, 57017, 5″, compact disc, 1995)
• Haus der Luege  (Rough Trade, USA, ROUGH 71 US, 12″, vinyl disc-LP, 1989)
• Haus Der Lüge  (Rough Trade, USA, RoughUS 71CD, 5″, compact disc, n.d.)
• Interim  (Mute, 61509-2, 5″, Compact Disc, 1997)
• Kalte Sterne – Early Recordings  (Mute, UK, CDStumm137, 5″, compact disc, 2004)
• Kalte Sterne – Early Recordings  (Mute, 9249-2, 5″, Compact Disc, 2004)
• Kollaps  (Zickzack, Germany, ZZ 65, 12″, vinyl disc-Lp, n.d.)
• Live At Club Chicago (Advance CASS)  (, , 12″, cassette , –)
• Perpetuum Mobile  (Mute, 9237-2, 5″, Compact Disc, 2004)
• Perpetuum Mobile  (Mute, UK, CDStumm221, 5″, compact disc, 2004)
• Schwarz (12″, vinyl disc-Single or Ep, –)
• Silence Is Sexy  (Mute, 9132, 5″, compact disc-2CD, 2000)
• Strategies Against Architecture II  (Mute, 61100-2, 5″, compact disc-2CD, 1991)
• Strategies Aganist Architecture  (Mute/Elektra, 61677-2, 5″, compact disc, 1994)
• Tabula Rasa  (Beton, 106, 5″, compact disc, 1993)
• Tabula Rasa  (Mute, 61458-2, 5″, Compact Disc, 1993)
• Tabula Rasa  (Mute, UK, CDStumm156 , 5″, compact disc-2CD, 2004)
• “Thirsty Animal” / “Durstiges Tier”  (Ripoff [?], Germany, n.n., 12″, , 1982) w/ Lydia Lunch.
• “Yu-Gung” // “Seele brennt” / “Sand”  (Some Bizzare, UK, BART 12, 12″, vinyl disc-Single or Ep, 1985)
• Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T.  (Some Bizzare, UK, SBVART 2, 12″, vinyl disc-LP, 1983)