WFMU
I’ve listened to plenty of Ketjak, but had never seen the Ramayana Monkey Chant performed (this is a must-watch). Heard plenty of slide guitar, but never seen a dude using a spoon clenched between his teeth as a slide. Watched plenty of Bob Denver, but had never seen him buried in sand with an inverted face painted on his chin, being worshipped by surfers.
All of this and mountains more at the amazing WFMU, a truly incredible archive of strange music and music-related info/media.
Thanks baald
Filed under: Music @ 9:51 pm
May 8th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Wow, those are unbelievable! I am hurting myself laughing. Also found this gem on WFMU: “Stairway to Gilligan’s Island,” an amazing version of Stairway to Heaven using the lyrics to the Gilligan theme song:
May 8th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
I love WFMU, although I hardly dare peek inside their archive because I know I’d be there for weeks.
Also, WFMU is the only radio station I have ever called up to appear on air. Details here:
http://www.sumption.org/lifeless/002457.html
May 8th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Dylan,
That cover is by “Little Roger and the Goosebumps.”
Easily found on P2P networks, if you want it.
May 8th, 2006 at 6:50 pm
The freeform radio station of the nation! I too love WFMU, Beware of the Blog is my #1 source for music-related kookiness.
I work at WNYU 89.1FM and we’ve got a healthy little competition going on with them, but we’re block-programmed and generally more “serious” than the general insanity that is WFMU so I think we complement each other well.
May 9th, 2006 at 5:44 am
My wife just found your blog and passed it on to me. I’m having the time of my life poking and prodding (archives to 2001! How cool is that?)
My one year old is demanding spoon guitar and the monkey chant over and over, and I cannot say that I’m disappointed to oblige.
I suspect we’re going to end up with a copy of the spoon guitar documentary if I can lay hands on it.
Thanks for the link, and thanks for the excellent blog.
Miles is a riot.
James Atkinson
Asheville, NC
May 9th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
Just read your Chickenfat song entry because my friend linked to it. I remember it from kindergarten in 1976. Thanks for the memory - I hadn’t heard it in 30 years!!
May 9th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Scot,
The Ketjak footage is from Ron Fricke’s movie Baraka, which, IIRC, you watched in our living room in Portland. :)
May 9th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
You know, after posting I went back and looked at the Ketjak page and realized that it was from that movie, and remembered seeing that movie with you, but for some reason didn’t remember that scene. You’d think it would stick. Who knows, maybe we got distracted, or you feed me too much psycho spinach, or something.
May 12th, 2006 at 11:16 am
[...] I’m spending way too much time listening to MP3s from New York radio station WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. Where else could you find enough versions of Stairway to Heaven and Tico Tico to fill up a Shuffle? Where else could you hear Stephin Merritt playing version after version of Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, in response to the recent dustup about how his not liking hip-hop makes him a cracker? Or a hallucinatory Bob Denver surf video and a short about what happens when the Commies take over a small town in Wisconsin? Sheer genius. My hats are off to the DJs who find all this wonderful and weird stuff. And thanks to Scot for linking to it. [...]