Heat Wave

Interesting stuff going down in Motown. Kwame Kilpatrick, dubbed "The Hip-Hop Mayor", was caught cheating on his wife with an aide (complete with hilarious intercepted text messages, and doing it on the city's dime, no less. A few days ago, the Detroit City Council voted to request the Governor of Michigan to remove him from the post.

Interesting stuff, but why am I posting about it on the KWUR blog? Because one of the members of the Detroit City Council is Martha Reeves. Yes, that Martha Reeves.
I know Ms. Reeves voted for the council to take serious action regarding the affair a few months ago, but I can't seem to find out how she voted on this latest measure, does anybody know? In any case, I think it's fascinating to see where soul artists (the ones who didn't burn out but faded away, in any case) ended up after their careers peaked. Some are still touring, and many do other, equally fascinating things. Anyhow, Ms. Reeves, in her past life:

Subversive Cinema: John Whitney's Permutations

John Whitney was an experimental animator and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the fathers of computer animation.

After studying music composition in Paris, he returned to the U.S. and began collaborating with his brother, James, to produce abstract animations. Their work, Five Film Exercises (1940-45) was awarded first prize at the First International Experimental Film Competition in 1949. By 1950, he was creating animation sequences for television.

In 1958, he collaborated with title-sequence pioneer, Saul Bass, on the spirographic opening of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. In 1966, he was awarded IBM's first artist-in-residency. Until the 1970s, most of Whitney's animations made use of a complex analog computer. By the mid-1970s his animations were made completely with digital technologies. His work often uses self-composed music that explored mystical or Native-American themes. He continued making films until his death in 1995.

Permutations (1966)



"In PERMUTATIONS, each point moves at a different speed and moves in a direction independent according to natural laws' quite as valid as those of Pythagoras, while moving in their circular field. Their action produces a phenomenon more or less equivalent to the musical harmonies. When the points reach certain relationships (harmonic) numerical to other parameters of the equation, they form elementary figures."- John Whitney

-Klax

Album Review: Eli 'Paperboy' Reed and The True Loves, "Roll With You"

Blue-eyed soul revival out of Massachusetts, sounds like James Brown, Muscle Shoals. Hard to know how to judge soul revival records, since even the best records mostly aim at imitation. But Reed's at least cribbing from the right people, and doing a good job of it, too. He goes for the James Brown shrieks and can't quite make it, which almost makes it better. Good record, sincere, soulful record, do play.

Play: 1+++(Yeah!). 3+ (see: Wilson Pickett), 4++, 6+++(lovely ballad, sweet bass), 8, 10++(he does these ballads really well)

Tom Waits in St. Louis

If you missed seeing Tom Waits on July 5, 1974 in St. Louis and assured yourself that he would come back to town soon, I'm very sorry because you were quite mistaken. After an absence from St. Louis of over 30 years, Tom Waits will play the Fox Theater on June 26th. The wait is over, at long last! No details about tickets yet, but these are sure to go fast.

Album Review: Peter Moren, "The Last Tycoon

Yeah, this is Peter from Peter, Bjorn and John, with a singer-songwriter gentle balladeer type album a la Destroyer or Joni Mitchell, also, especially Leonard Cohen. If you like that kind of thing, you'll probably like this - sweet, slow, interesting songs with intelligent lyrics. Me personally, I like music with a little more hook and urgency - like Peter, Bjorn and John, for example...

Play: 2, 3, 4+(like that song in Darjeeling Limited), 7, 8, 10+++(really love this)

(Relatively) New Albums Worth Checking Out

Sonic Youth - SYR7
Finally, the 7th installment in this ongoing, must-have, Sonic Youth experimental series. This is not for you Daydream Nation-only fans. Long-winded instrumental noise-weirdness. The best part is this series is it is actually a series. Each installment has consistent-looking album art. In addition to showcasing Sonic Youth at their most avant-garde, each album looks good together on your shelf. Sadly, this is the first vinyl only release of the series, which may destroy the uniformity of your SYR CD collection. Collect them all! Lee Ranaldo interview I did back in 2006 where we discussed this release coming shortly...


Thee Oh Sees - The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In
Formerly OCS and The OhSees -- now Thee Oh Sees. Is this spelling change a Billy Childish reference/homage? Either way, John Dwyer (The Coachwhips, Yikes, Pink and Brown) and his band deliver yet another solid album. Keep them coming! This band has everything good: Punk, Folk, Experimental, Psychedelic, Soft, Loud, Male Vocals, Female Vocals. And John Dwyer will be happy to know that I think this sounds nothing like the B-52s...

The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent
It wouldn't be proper if a year went by without The Fall releasing an album. Mark E. Smith is back with a brand new band (that shouldn't be surprising). This is their 27 (or 28th?) studio album. I'm not sure if it is available in the U.S. yet but I know all you Fall freaks will find a way to get your greasy hands on it. Must. Have. Complete. 28. Album. Discography...


Rhys Chatham & His Guitar Trio All-Stars - Guitar Trio is My Life!
Table of the Elements has released another nicely packaged Chatham box. This 3 disc set features recordings from Chatham's recent North American guitar trio tour. Over three hours worth of repetitive dissonant guitar strumming! Included in the recordings: Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht, Thurston Moore, David Daniell and Tony Conrad. Each performance of the piece at first sounds identical, but those who are patient will be rewarded after each uniquely slow-building climax...

-Klax

R.I.P. Albert Hofmann 1906-2008

Albert Hofmann, who died on Tuesday aged 102, synthesised lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in 1938 and became the first person in the world to experience a full-blown acid trip.



Obituary

No Age-- Nouns

An effing AWESOME mix of everything that's good. Dino Jr-style vocals, jangly intros, punky sections (think Husker Du or Dinosaur Jr, not Ramones), shimmery fuzzed-out bliss...

Shimmer: 1, 6, 8, 10
Jangle: 2, 5 (alternates rock and jangle), 9 (surfy)
Rock: 3 (this song rules my brain right now), 7, 5 (alternates), 11, 12

Check out all, especially 2, 3, 5, and 9.

All Clean!

SU General Budget Joint Session NOW!!! Listen at www.kwur.com!

Right now we are doing a live remote broadcast from the SU Budget joint session! Tune in now at www.kwur.com to hear another live edition of SU-SPAN as treasury and senate explain what they plan to do with your student activities fund (besides give a good chunk of it back to Washington University).

UPDATE: SAVE KWUR, SU General Budget Joint Session TOMORROW

Well, we all fought hard to get the SU Treasury to fix our budget for next year, and although we were moderately successful (not really), the Senate (god bless 'em) voted the proposed budget down. Now it's time for ROUND 2!

There will be an SU General Budget Joint Session tomorrow at high noon (12 PM) in Simon Hall. Please, if you have the time, come support KWUR and the exec committees in general, and voice your (educated) opinion about the shortcomings of next year's budget. The Facebook event is linked here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=11751729348. We need your help!