IN/AUDIBLE LETTER FROM THE EDITOR a publication of N/AUDIBLE is the irregular newsletter of WXYC – your favorite Chapel Hill radio WXYC 89.3 FM station that broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week out of the Student Union on the UNC campus. The last time this publication came out in 2002, WXYC was CB 5210 Carolina Union Icelebrating its 25th year of existence as the student-run radio station at the University of Chapel Hill, NC 27599 North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This year we celebrate another big event – our tenth anni- USA versary as the first radio station in the world to simulcast our signal over the Internet. As we celebrate this exciting event and reflect on the ingenuity of a few gifted people who took (919) 962-7768 local radio to the next level and beyond Chapel Hill, we can wonder request line: (919) 962-8989 if the future of radio is no longer in the stereo of our living rooms but on the World Wide Web. http://www.wxyc.org As always, new technology brings change that is both exciting [email protected] and scary. Local radio stations and the dedicated DJs and staffs who operate them are an integral part of vibrant local music communities, like the one we are lucky to have here in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Staff NICOLE BOGAS area. With the proliferation of music services like XM satellite radio Editor-in-Chief and Live-365 Internet radio servers, it sometimes seems like the future EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Nicole Bogas of local radio is doomed. We are fortunate to have numerous public and college radio sta- ASSISTANT EDITOR: Ellie Blake tions in the Triangle area, and if they ceased to exist as viable media outlets, the local music LAYOUT & DESIGN: Ellie Blake, Nicole Bogas community would suffer. COVER DESIGN: But technology also greatly benefits local music in more ways than I could imagine. Take as an example The Foreign Exchange, a new collaboration between Durham’s Little Brother ISAAC BIGSBY TROGDON, a DJ since star Phonte and Dutch producer Nicolay, which involved the two musicians creating a hip- 1997 and station manager fall 2000-spring hop album over the Internet (see “Reviews” on page 32). Without ever having met, the two 2002, is currently repairing and preparing a exchanged ideas and music via the Web. new disko modus in Berlin. Look and listen at The Internet also exposes us to artistic expression that has been stifled in some way, like http://dyss.net. DJ Danger Mouse’s Grey Album from earlier this year which remixed the vocals of Jay-Z’s ART CONTRIBUTORS: Black Album and the Beatles’s White Album. Danger Mouse was served a cease-and-desist order from the EMI Group who owns the masters, and the struggle to keep SARAH DOUGHERTY, a friend of DJs White Album the album available persisted. Fortunately, numerous sites were able to provide free down- since 2001, is curator of the Our Holly Home loads over the Internet, and the album reached a top ten position on our charts in March. Art Gallery and director of Los Artistas, an art To celebrate the accomplishments of the Internet and the special place that WXYC education program for Latino youth. occupies within it, we have compiled a free, downloadable compilation of exclusive tracks RYAN MARTIN, a DJ since spring 2003, is from local musicians called co-president of Nightlight and purveyor of fine Bandwidth: Celebrating 10 Years of Internet Radio on WXYC- that will be available on our website on the date of our anniversary, November films at VisArt Video in Carrboro. Chapel Hill 7. STEWART SINEATH holds a fine arts For more on this special occasion, be sure to read the story behind WXYC’s ground- degree in drawing and painting from East breaking simulcast (“www.wxyc.org” on page 20), but also take note of the other ways in Carolina University. He is a member of Team which our dedicated DJs share their unique interests and love of music with our listeners. Lump at Lump Gallery in Raleigh and coordi- Whether they’re scouring North Carolina for rare funk and soul 45s, delving into the for- nator of art shows at Peppers Pizza in Chapel gotten music of years past, traveling the country searching out off-the-mark radio stations Hill. or compiling a rock ‘n’ roll cookbook with recipes from national bands, WXYC DJs are doing their part to enhance the cultural landscape of the Triangle area, as well as any locale Station Management with a computer and an Internet connection. If you are a UNC student, and you’ve got a desire to share your knowledge and to learn STATION MANAGER: Jason Perlmutter more and take part in this exciting community, come to one of our new DJ hiring meet- BUSINESS MANAGER: Stefan Mlot ings at the beginning of every semester (including the first summer session). Or come to PROMOTIONS DIRECTOR: Nicole Bogas one of our famous ‘80s Dances. (This semester it will take place on October 30 at the Cat’s SOCIAL COORDINATOR: Steph Shoemaker Cradle.) Or help us celebrate our webcasting anniversary at the Local 506 on November 6 MUSIC DIRECTOR: David Strader with four of the local acts featured on our Bandwidth compilation. Keep up to date with all of our events by checking our website frequently at www.wxyc.org. This publication was funded at least in part by Tune in often or you might miss an exclusive on-air interview with your favorite band or student fees, which were appropriated and dis- some important campus news from Student Body President Matt Calabria (Chew the Fat pensed by the Student Government at the Uni- with Charlie and Matt airs every other Sunday at 5 p.m.). And don’t forget to let your DJs versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. know you love them by making requests. From anywhere in the world, you can call the on- air DJ at (919) 962-8989 or send an instant message to the AIM screenname “wxycrequests.” 2 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS

4 15 SLEPT ON HIP-HOP ALBUMS by Todd Ito 20 WWW.WXYC.ORG by Tim Ross 6 WEST COAST WAVES by Mike Nutt 24 SOUL STORIES FROM N.C. by Jason Perlmutter 8 D.I.Y. FINDINGS by David Strader 28 BLUES HISTORY LESSONS by Jessica Kem 10 SISTER POSSE FORWARD by Sarah Carrier 30 REVIEWS 12 KEEP YOUR CASSETTES! by Andrew Penland 33 LOCAL REVIEWS 14 GET PSYCHED by Ellie Blake 35 CHAPEL HILL BEATS DON’T BREAK 16 HIP-HOP: SO FRESH AND SO MAIN- STREAM 36 COME HELL OR HIGH WATER by Fred Stutzman by Aaron Smithers 17 ROCK RECIPE 37 A WXYC LISTENERS’ GUIDE by Brian Bedsworth 18 THE MOANERS PLAY ROCK 38 TRIBUTE TO GO! ROOM FOUR by Aaron Smithers by Stefan Mlot

IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 3 15 SLEPT ON HIP-HOP ALBUMS (That were not included in Ego Trip’s list of slept on albums)

BY TODD ITO

lthough it was published only five years ago, Ego Trip’s Book of Rap Lists, compiled by the Aeditors of the sadly defunct Ego Trip magazine, is already considered a classic work by hip-hop nerds and music obsessives around the world. The lists cov- er an incredible array of topics from “10 Songs Marley Marl Wishes He Had Produced” to “Rap Personalities Who’ve Appeared in Sprite Commercials.” Another such list is “Slept-On Albums For Dat Ass,” which provides the names of twenty underrated and overlooked hip-hop classics. Yet, even with the prodigious knowledge of the Ego Trip editors, a number of albums still fell through the cracks. WXYC DJ Todd Ito stops to pick some of them up.

4 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 Blac Monks – Secrets of the Hidden Another track (“Dead Love”) features the Masta Ace – Disposable Arts (JCOR, 1 Temple (Rap-A-Lot, 1995) bass-playing of Jamaaladeen Tacuma from 92001) Although the Blac Monks were on the same Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time Band! Rap veteran Masta Ace returns with label as the Geto Boys, they didn’t deal with another concept album (check out 1993’s the same violent, gangsta subject matter Slaughtahouse and 1995’s Sittin’ on Chrome as many of their labelmates. Instead, this Grand Daddy I.U. – Smooth Assassin for earlier examples), this time about a talented trio of emcees – Lord 3-2, Da and 5(Cold Chillin’, 1990) rapper who gets released from prison and Awol – rapped about everyday topics, with Although Grand Daddy I.U. got lost in the enrolls in the Institute of Disposable Arts, a some metaphysical “Buddha nature” stuff shuffle at Cold Chillin’, this album fits in well hip-hop college in upstate New York. There thrown in for good measure. Basically, this with the rest of the Juice Crew-heavy roster he meets his goofy white roommate (played is one of the best pre-crunk southern hip- they had at the time. I.U. raps like a more by onetime Chapel Hill resident MC Paul hop albums ever recorded. Their sophomore chilled out Big Daddy Kane, and the album Barman), and hijinks ensue. Um... it’s really effort No Mercy is also well worth a listen. was entirely produced by Biz Markie. While much better than it sounds. this is a very dope album, stay away from I.U.’s next effort, the aptly named Lead Pipe. Divine Styler – Spiral Walls Contain- Mic Geronimo – The Natural 2ing Autumns of Light (Giant, 1992) 10 (Blunt, 1995) I don’t know if this album should be on this Witchdoctor – ...A S.W.A.T. Healin’ It’s gotta be tough being Mic Geronimo. This list, because I don’t even know if it’s good. 6Ritual (Interscope, 1998) album features a song (“Time to Build”) But, it sure is weird! In fact, I would argue Witchdoctor is a criminally overlooked with DMX, Ja Rule and Jay-Z, all of whom that this is the weirdest hip-hop album ever member of Atlanta’s Dungeon Family, became huge stars within the next four made, and for that alone, it deserves a spot. whose members pitch in with production years, while Mic’s career stayed in neutral. Divine Styler used to be down with Ice-T’s from Organized Noise and guest appear- But, it wasn’t for a lack of effort on his part. Rhyme Syndicate, releasing a De La-esque ances from both Outkast and Goodie Mob. After The Natural went wood in the hood, debut in 1989. While that album had its This album may not reach the heights of he spent the next few years trying really hard eccentric moments, nothing could have pre- Soul Food or Aquemini, but it’s a genuinely to sell out, appearing on an embarrassing pared the listening public for what was to soulful slab of southern hip-hop. MTV special with his wife and getting Puff come next. Featuring mostly live instrumen- Daddy to produce the lead single off his next tation (much of it played by Styler himself ) album (which flopped). So, do him a favor and spoken word-ish delivery, this is what Lakim Shabazz – Lost Tribe of and rescue this from the dollar bin next time The Love Below would have sounded like if 7Shabazz (Tuff City, 1990) you see it. Andre were really insane. Lakim’s 1988 debut Pure Righteousness is often mentioned as an overlooked classic from that most classic of years, but it’s his Smoothe Da Hustla – Once Upon a Yomo & Maulkie – Are U Xperienced? sophomore effort that is really overlooked. 11Time in America (Profile, 1996) 3(Ruthless, 1991) It’s more of the same with Nation of Islam- Even though Once Upon a Time was released Released the same year as Efil4zaggin and inspired lyrics over dope beats, seven of at the beginning of the shiny suit era, produced by NWA’s DJ Yella, Yomo and which come courtesy of the legendary DJ Smoothe poses on the album cover rocking Maulkie were revolutionary but gangsta Mark the 45 King. baggy jeans and a hoodie. The cover art is years before Dead Prez. The highlight of the a good indication of the music contained album is the flag-burning anthem “Glory” within. Smoothe spits rugged raps over the with its politically-charged rhymes and Maestro Fresh Wes – Naaah, Dis Kid hard hitting drums and horn stabs of pro- funky, cricket-sampling beat (timely lyric: 8Can’t Be From Canada?!! (LMR,1994) ducer D/R Period. In a more just world, this “Pimpin’ brothers like hos in Iraq/You sold As the corny album title indicates, Maestro would be considered an east coast classic. them weapons, now you want your money Fresh Wes is indeed from Canada. Even with back”). Maulkie went on to become a mem- considerable skills and two albums already ber of Ice Cube protégés Da Lench Mob, under his belt, he was never able to make Kam – Neva Again (Street and DJ Yella now directs porn. much of an impact in the States. This time 12 Knowledge, 1993) out, he gets four beats from DITC producer Executive-produced by Ice Cube and Showbiz and a rare guest appearance from released on his Street Knowledge label, YZ – The Ghetto’s Been Good To Me the legendary rhyme inspector Percee P. It’s Neva Again was proof that it wasn’t all hos 4(Livin’ Large, 1993) a very solid album overall and probably the and drive-bys out in L.A. Without ever sac- This is the second album of righteous lyr- peak of Wes’s career. rificing his flow, Kam touches on a variety ics from this X-Clan affiliate. Although it’s of sociopolitical issues over some seriously solid from beginning to end, the highlight is funky beats. Nobody makes music like this definitely the single “The Return of the Holy anymore, and that’s a damn shame. One” with its noisy, almost avant-garde beat. SLEPT-ON continued on page 13 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 5 WEST COAST WAVES: WXYC loves KBOO

BY MIKE NUTT

south, I’d always wanted to airs This American Life on Wednesdays). visit Portland. In my imagi- Granted, there are plenty of the bland, nation, it was the capital of a cookie-cutter stations that one would expect strange and magical part of in 21st century America, but the Portland the country where everybody spectrum as a whole still manages to offer a “got it.” KBOO’s reputation was one of the few surprises. KBOO cuts through all this spent the sum- cornerstones on which my fantasy Pacific like a razor. mer in a base- Northwest was built. After all, KBOO is the I’d never heard anything like KBOO Iment in Port- station named after what was apparently one before I moved to Portland. Partly this is land, Oregon, where no light could get in of the 1960s’ finest varieties of marijuana. It’s because no other station I’ve heard is as and where I slept late, until it was time to one of the stations started by the infamous committed to programming for which there get up and hand out resumes to coffee shops broadcasting personality Lorenzo Milam, is virtually no market (and by this I do not and restaurants from two until four. My girl- author of Sex and Broadcasting. This is the mean their weekly Grateful Dead show). friend and I rented the basement apartment station that stood up to FCC indecency One might expect a progressive community from our roommate Tracy for the summer. charges and won (pre-Janet Jackson, but station to have Spanish-language program- Tracy had banished all of that furniture still). Once I finally unpacked my suitcases ming (KBOO has about eleven and a half which had outlived its brief heyday in 1991 in Portland, I was eager to hear for myself hours per week), but KBOO takes this to our downstairs lair. Included among these idea to the next level with artifacts were three identical Vietnamese and Dutch pro- floor lamps made of cheap KBOO and WXYC are cut from the gramming. Howard Stern turquoise plastic, three vari- trash-talks the Bush admin- eties of papasan and a Koss same stock, West and East Coast keep- istration, but on KBOO the jam box with a dual tape deck ers of a rare, extremely precious and hosts urge Republicans not and no CD player. The Koss to go outside because it’s a was unquestionably the best severely endangered type of radio. good day to pummel con- part of the room. servatives. And one gets the The little black jam box, what this volunteer-run, independently pro- distinct impression that a large percentage with its proud, detachable speakers, was grammed, not-for-profit station sounded of the KBOO DJs have little life outside of most spectacular in its reception; a clearer like. The Koss was happy to oblige. their shows. signal was never heard. Almost every day, In order to adequately describe KBOO, Which is not necessarily to say that the before I got ready to head out into the one must first briefly describe the rest of station sounds good. KBOO, in fact, often decidedly not-hiring world of the Portland the Portland dial. Generally, things in the sounds pretty bad – especially when talk- service industry, I scanned the channels Portland ether are just a tad – only a tad, ing is involved. The morning and evening slowly, listening for one of the Northwest’s mind you – different than what you would news shows can often be painful to listen to. infamous pirate radio stations. Although I expect. The commercial alternative stations Interviewers on the shows read their ques- never heard anything that wasn’t supposed play Joy Division and the Smiths in addition tions straight off their legal pads in cheery to be there, I was lucky to have the next best to the usual Nirvana and Green Day. The tones of voice that make international labor thing: KBOO, a community station, at 90.7 Christian stations are vehemently political issues sound like discussions of brownie FM. Throughout the summer, KBOO was instead of only smugly moral. The college recipes. The hosts stumble through their alternately disappointing and electrifying, station is on the AM dial. And there are no headlines in an unsuccessful imitation of with the net effect feeling something like a less than four public radio stations. In addi- NPR style. The slant is so unabashedly lib- vague but ravenous hunger being both sat- tion to KBOO, KMHD plays jazz, KBPS eral that plenty of card-carrying Democrats isfied and magnified at the same time. One plays classical and KOPB is the obligatory would find it unlistenable. I found this all can get quite addicted to this feeling. National Public Radio affiliate (which also terribly endearing. With every butchered As a life-long native of the deep and dirty somehow seems more extreme because it sentence, every stuttered syllable and every 6 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 blatantly amateur voice, I felt like KBOO of a rare, extremely precious and severely In a very real way, we define and redefine, was reclaiming radio from the grips of an endangered type of radio. Stations like ours reinvent and reinforce our communities. We unbearable homogeneity. are often challenging to listen to, especially bring our communities face-to-face with The non-talk shows offer an amazingly compared to other stations. However, this the other, the outside, the margins, and our broad spectrum of sound (even by WXYC is only because the majority of our bigger communities are stronger and more edu- standards). Depending on the show, one and brawnier cousins have left us in favor cated because of it. But we also need com- might hear a chunk of the entire Lord of the of entertainment, product and advertising. munity support to accomplish our missions. Rings audio book being played in serial form, It has become increasingly important for us Now is the time when noncommercial radio week after week. Or some well-meaning but to relay those messages and musics which stations and their communities need each ultimately off-the-mark forty-something lie at the margins of our society. We exist, other most. Next time you’re in Portland, trying his best to prove that there really is a in other words, to facilitate communication tune into 90.7 to hear some intense commu- genre named “World Music.” Or a transcen- – the first and original goal of radio. nity radio. It sounds best on a Koss. dent piece of obscure, scratchy vinyl salvaged Detractors of WXYC and KBOO have from Portland’s psychedelic past. little idea what they would lose if our sta- MIKE NUTT, back in Chapel Hill, is fool- One of my most sublime KBOO moments tions were to cease transmission or dramati- ishly pursuing a career in radio. He has been an happened one July night when I was invited cally alter our programming philosophies. ultimately off-the-mark DJ since the summer of to the station to watch a live broadcast. Our The margins we represent are the same mar- 2002. He can be reached at [email protected]. friends in Hustler White were going to play gins from which every single progression in edu. an hour-long set of their spastic performance the struggle for a more equitable and humane rock on Night of the Living Tongue, a show society has come. The margins are there to Illustrations by RYAN MARTIN. described by the KBOO Listener’s Guide as show us that what was once inconceivable “bizarre music and text.” 15 minutes into the is indeed possible. Without these expand- show, I was wondering why any DJs would ing frontiers of possibility (and the means to have invited this chaos upon themselves communicate their existence, i.e. radio), we and their station. Once during the show, for not only come face-to-face with totalitarian- example, Megan, the drummer, called the DJ ism and fascism, but we begin the painless, with a cell phone to request songs the band almost imperceptible decent into, quite sim- didn’t know how to play. ply, a life without soul – a life without that It is during these individually crafted music undefinable spark that nevertheless defines shows where KBOO is at its fin- humanity. That spark is the same thing that est. Almost every show is drives the signals of KBOO and painstakingly designed WXYC. to serve a small niche audience. KBOO does not attempt to play to all people at all times. They instead focus on the under-served por- tions of North- west Oregon’s population. The Holland Hour, for instance, As The Base- plays to Ore- ment Summer came gon’s Dutch to a close, I couldn’t population of help but feel that KBOO’s about 1,500. existence was threatened How, then, can – that there might not be The Holland Hour be an example anything at 90.7 the next of KBOO’s finest work? time I was in Portland. In a This is where KBOO’s relationship to political climate where there WXYC is revealed. The two stations have is only right and wrong, KBOO very different formats, and there were is clearly not right – at least according to many times during The Basement Summer the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, when I tuned in, homesick, to the WXYC who in 1997 put KBOO on “probation” and Internet simulcast. But on closer examina- cut its funding almost in half. tion, KBOO and WXYC are cut from the Stations like KBOO and WXYC provide same stock, West and East Coast keepers an invaluable service to their communities. IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 7 D. I. Y. F I N D I N G S: UNEARTHED GEMS OF AN ENDANGERED MUSIC

BY DAVID STRADER

bsorbing oneself in music, as many is giddily going wherever his muse takes him under false names, even threatening to erase a WXYC DJ would likely attest, –through unhinged Jamaican rocksteady master tapes! Listening to their music, it’s Aoften entails an archaeological pro- sung in Spanish, scat vocals over an in-the- not hard to be reminded of an extremely cess; once discov- pocket jazz rhythm gifted classmate who steadfastly refuses to ering a canonical section, Jaws-esque apply him- or herself. Some of the most band/artist, it’s programmatic music pristine and infectious pop hooks you’ll ever not long before that morphs into hear from a post-punk band (rivaling those one realizes that swinging pop and of, say, Wire or Soft Boys) appear on songs there’s more where cheeky tape experi- like “Hearts in Exile,” “Vociferous Slam” and they came from. ments. He is not so “Prestel” (the latter being about as close and Learning that much rejecting punk perfect a marriage of the Incredible String those old familiar convention as exer- Band and new wave you’ll ever hear, too). tunes were origi- cising his thoroughly The only thing is, they’re much more eager nally cut by the developed (if rather to let those hooks dissolve into a morass of Carter Family can skewed) pop sensibil- dub effects or stop them on a dime and start tip you off to the ity without stopping freewheeling in another direction. Theirs is wealth of pre-war for air. an art of deconstruction and sabotage, but old time music Well, as it unlike that of their more conceptual peers and country blues turns out, L. Voag is like This Heat, it’s deployed with a practical being reissued on none other than Jim joker’s glee. labels like County and Yazoo. Catching wind Welton, the bassist of The Homosexuals, If The Homosexuals were like distracted of the productions of Lee Perry can reveal heretofore another mysterious player in the prodigies of DIY, it wouldn’t be a stretch to the seemingly endless stream of singles that DIY/post-punk era, occasionally heard-of consider their London contemporaries The were pumped out of Kingston recording (usually in words alluding to their “legend- Door and the Window idiot savants. Not studios weekly throughout the 1970s and so ary” status) but rarely heard. Luckily, the only did their two founding members, Nag on. Of course, not every discovery is going Hyped 2 Death label (whose Messthetics and Bendle (members of British DIY bands to amount to a buried treasure, but a little and Homework were always poking around – the efforts of reissue labels archival compi- good for snappy offering some guidance – will surely uncover lation series are nicknames) lack bands and records that embodied, pushed about the defini- any conven- and mutated their chosen forms in ways one tive document tional musical might have thought unimaginable. of the late ‘70s/ training, they Several WXYC DJs have independently early-‘80s post- were commit- related to me that among their most prized punk under- ted to remain- discoveries in the station’s library has been ground) has ing blissfully a CD by a mysterious artist called L. Voag, cleared the air ignorant of all a collection of homemade recordings self- somewhat with its formal trap- released in 1979 and ’80 and reissued on the a new three-disc pings. To be in Alcohol label in 1998. L. Voag was operat- set of the band’s a band and “do ing during the thick of the DIY era in the complete dis- what bands do” UK, whence punk’s do-it-yourself call to cography, Astral (make records, action was being heeded by young people Glamour. The get gigs), Nag who – while enthusiastic about picking up extensive liner reminisces in instruments anew and putting out records notes certainly the liner notes, on their own – were increasingly disinter- help create a mystique for a band hell-bent on knowing how to play your instrument was ested in doing so within punk’s three-chord, self-imposed obscurity: using a deliberately immaterial. However, the recorded evi- loud-and-fast rock strictures. One gets the feather-ruffling moniker, hardly playing any dence on their lone album Detailed Twang sense throughout The Way Out that L. Voag gigs, refusing interviews, releasing records (originally released in 1980; reissued on 8 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 D. I. Y. F I N D I N G S:

UNEARTHED GEMS OF AN ENDANGERED MUSIC Overground Records last year and new to and James Blood Ulmer (minus the harmo- WXYC) suggests that their music wasn’t lodic theory) – damaged, autonomic no exactly a free-for-all. They conjure a merry wave, lurching along as honking saxophones percussive racket usually consisting of syn- and slicing guitars stumble over each other. thesizer, xylophone, drums and guitar. Couple all that with David Fair’s anguished While not particularly tuneful, it maintains musings on the various traumas of adoles- an intuitive control as it galumphs through cence (especially compelling are the pair of declamations against phonies (their cover of songs about high school rebellion, “Dumb Television Personalities’ “Part-Time Punks”), Animals” and “High School Tonight”), “Subculture Fashion Slaves” or other more and this amounts to as gloriously abstruse personal reflections on not liking butter, hay a DIY recipe as those of the more deliber- fever and the Pop Group (“I Like Sound”). ately clever blokes active in London a few Reminiscent of ear- years prior. It’s an lier “musical out- exhilarating glimpse siders” like Godz of the earlier, wool- or the Shaggs, lier and reckless The Door and the Half Japanese that Window’s juvenile would soon yield to cadences amount to a more discernible eminently endear- songcraft behind ing songwriting. Jad Fair’s singular This sort of vision. naïveté-as-virtue A readily defin- has often been used able and accessible to describe the canon has eluded appeal of one of the the pocket of post- lasting American punk known as DIY exponents of the (even CD reissues of The steady stream of reissues that trickles out can contribute to a clearer composite image of the creative wealth being tapped by underground bands operating in punk’s wake.

DIY ethos, Half Japanese. Drag City has the two Swell Maps albums have slipped out offered a kind reminder of that appeal on of print), and the “poison-pill approach” of their new reissue of the scarce Loud LP from bands like The Homosexuals (certainly not 1981, coupled with the Horrible EP from a uncommon, if perhaps exaggerated in their year later as Loud and Horrible. When con- case) doesn’t help matters for curious listen- sidered alongside the doings of their UK ers in the present. Still, the steady stream of contemporaries, the steam blown off by Jad reissues that trickles out – the albums dis- and David Fair and their cohorts definitely cussed here constituting a mere drop within sounds more the product of your basic sub- in it – can contribute to a clearer composite urban boredom than one fueled by the charge image of the creative wealth being tapped of sociopolitical opposition, but born of the by underground bands operating in punk’s same urge to keep it as loose and spontane- wake. Tune into WXYC, and you might ous as possible. Loud and Horrible fortu- very well hear some skewed, galumphing itously date from a time when friends from DIY train wreck the likes of which you D.C. were visiting the Fairs every weekend never thought you’d hear! in Uniontown, Maryland, with saxophones, drums and guitars in tow. What we’re left DAVID STRADER became a DJ at WXYC with sounds like a train wreck of James in 1999. He has been music director since Chance & the Contortions (minus the funk) 2002.

IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 9 SISTER POSSE FORWARD DJ Sarah Carrier considers the mainstream representation of fe- male music makers and the possibility of action through artistic innovation. he most humorous phenomenon of the raging retro culture has to be the newest fad for the mall set: Treproduction vintage T-shirts. Is this intentionally ironic or just accidentally so? Surely the Gap is playing a joke on us. Should one lament, “Is nothing sacred?” No, espe- cially not ringer T-shirts since they were the first to go. Do we not have any living, breathing icons to behold? Or must we look to the past to imitate the innovations of bygone days? Current retro movements in rock, with some acclaim, are also criticized as self-conscious and forced. If it’s not retro then it is self-deprecatingly ironic, and which is worse? Some wonder if it’s a cultural crisis, but maybe it’s not so bad (I have always felt like I was born way too late). American popular culture has never been serious, but it does deserve serious consideration since it shapes who we are, good or bad. We can try and despise it, but we love it, really! Pervasive, self-conscious irony reminds me of that “embattled rock and roller” Courtney Love, who once was (ironically) a feminist icon. I can’t help but be interested in her antics and contemplate how incredible it would be if she were actually inten- tionally hitting people with whiskey bottles and baring her fake breasts as some sort of an experiment, or better yet, a large-scale perfor- mance art piece exposing the ridiculousness of this “Age of Hollywood,” as Camille Paglia terms it and its hypocrisy. Alas, this would be overestimating poor Courtney. Her tactics are way

10 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 too haphazard and drug-fueled to be inten- little personality goes, and you really believe is an established, male-dominated canon, tional, betraying nothing more than a mas- that rock equals rebellion – that it isn’t some establishing a rival, female-dominated sive, bloodthirsty ego. myth. This rebellion is testosterone-driven canon fails to further the cause of women. It In all seriousness I am concerned about but we all desired it. Unfortunately, I came assumes that there is something inherent to Courtney and the very low standard that too late to witness the female rock musician’s being a woman that they are appealing to. It she represents. Remember her before the emergence during the punk and post-punk wasn’t just me feeling conflicted; most of the makeover and the subsequent downfall? years, but had watched Cyndi Lauper and girls I knew preferred Glenn Danzig, in his Even if her longevity has something to do other new wave women on MTV and, of satanic Elvis swagger, singing about chop- with selling out (which is kind of a pointless course, thought that they were cool. When ping our heads off and raping our mothers. complaint), wasn’t she, way back in the early grunge hit, new icons emerged; I saw Court- I felt guilty that I preferred the boy bands 1990s, a critically acclaimed musician, who ney Love and was immediately interested to the Bikini Kills, but you can’t argue with wrote confessional songs challenging com- just based on her deviant look. the concept of girls rocking. That rules! But mon notions about gender and stereotypi- The very first musical experience I ever like the voracious monster the American cally female roles? Whose “kinder-whore” had was inspired by a woman: Kate Bush’s media is, Riot Grrrl was sucked into the image defied what was conceived as “sexy” The Dreaming. It genuinely scared me and it mainstream and because of the cutesy ama- and “feminine”? Even if it was all bullshit, brought lasting, dark images into my head. teurism of it all, the movement was picked Courtney was also called an inspiration of More importantly, it affected me on a deep apart and made out to be a fad, like “Isn’t it the Riot Grrrl movement. Today I can only emotional level that was highly addictive. sweet how girls nowadays rock and get all think of Missy Elliot as a viable icon – she From that day forward, music has served political?” Women are looked at; they are has agency and legitimacy in the mainstream to remove me temporarily from this real- seen. They do not create or innovate. Court- music industry. But to ask, ney Love’s activity as a musi- “Why aren’t there more legiti- Most of the girls I knew preferred cian (and as a “feminist”), due mate female artists in popular in part to her own sorry behav- music?” is kind of boring. It’s Glenn Danzig, in his satanic Elvis ior, has been forgotten. Now been answered already, hasn’t swagger, singing about chopping she is some caricature to be it? It reeks of feminism at best, gawked at in designer clothes. a movement that is not neces- our heads off and raping our Subconsciously women know sary any more since women that that’s the only way that and men are equal now. mothers. they are really going to get any A few years ago I partici- attention, so why not just be a pated in a radio interview with a woman ity – an active listening experience. This is model or an actress? Or, á la Courtney, use who had written a DIY how-to book for a phenomenon that affects women more “rock ‘n’ roll rebellion” as an excuse to over- girls making their own movies. Of course we than men; it’s been proven by scientists (see dose in front of your daughter! also wondered where not only the girl direc- below)! I listened to Kate’s voice and looked I read an interview with Adverts bassist tors were, but also the girl mechanics and the at the pictures of her in that flying bat cos- Gayle Advert where another woman asked girl composers and most importantly the girl tume and thought that she was a howling, her, “Why do girls only play bass?” I felt Presidents of the United States (vote Hillary beautiful, evil witch-goddess. Very inspira- sorry for Gayle even having to entertain that 2008!!). We received a rather angry phone tional, indeed. question, which was actually asking, “Why, call from another woman who demanded to When the Riot Grrrl movement hit and since the guitar is synonymous with the know what the hell the point was to won- trickled down to me, its energy was infec- phallus, did you not single handedly destroy der about these things and that we should tious. It was my first experience with “girl patriarchy by choosing to play guitar?” Even be thankful that women of her generation power,” but to tell you the truth, I ultimately though, at the time, she was defying the made so much progress during the 1970s didn’t identify with it. I was not inspired to norm by simply playing music. This also for the benefit of us whippersnappers. And pick up a guitar and smash patriarchy, espe- reflects the perception that the bass is some- what about the Spice Girls, eh? That’s Girl cially since I didn’t know what that meant. how a lesser instrument than the guitar. But Power if she ever saw it! Cute and packaged Even though I sought female inspiration, the if women decide to play rock music, do they for consumption. Has feminism become a cutesy girly aesthetic was not my thing. As avoid the guitar? I recently went to a music relic that has retreated back to academia to far as the music goes... well, I couldn’t help school recital for preteens and adolescents, be forgotten, or are we not living and breath- but compare it to at least three other bands and sure enough, out of ten guitar players ing the feminist third wave? from the same general era and geographical none were little girls. The girls played piano. What does it matter if female artists are region. Soundgarden, Mudhoney and the Oh my God, they were right! visible in popular culture if they exist in the Melvins? Hot damn, son, them boys can play, I can’t imagine a young girl not being underground or avant-garde? When we by God! To me, if you were intentionally intimidated by playing guitar or any other were blossoming and desperately seeking touting girl guitar power, then that would instrument with some of the leading music people to emulate, popular musicians were mean playing some damn rawk and hope- magazines resembling the Sports Illustrated the prime examples, and most of them were fully playing it well. The concept of “women Swimsuit Edition, with Carmen Electra men. When you are that age, it’s pretty much making music for women” only appeals to a a live-or-die situation as far as your fragile small section of the female audience. If there POSSE continued on page 34 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 11 KEEP YOUR CASSETTES! ESSAY & ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW PENLAND

he other day I was invited to a ‘90s noticeable). (Normally, recordings made lating and/or controlling the gateways of party; everyone came costumed in with Hemi-Sync and other neurosonic Internet (and believe me, they’re trying), it Tflannel, overalls with one strap left technologies often lose their effect when would only be possible to rebuild the organic, hanging and JNCOs. The playlist was what run through MP3 compression.) Soon, autonomous networks of the early ‘90s if you heard on radio stations with names nearly everyone was creating and trading dial-up modems haven’t gone the way of the like The Edge (which would eventually, of MP3 sound files, thanks to what might be dinosaur. We have relinquished so much of course, change its name to Kiss) and The called the third major evolutionary event in our individual control and involvement over End (which wouldn’t change its name but 1990s music: the emergence of a govern- digital networks to corporations, most of us would gradually evolve from playing Sound- ment-sanctioned and corporate-financed would have no clue how to go about Doing garden to playing Limp Bizkit). Internet, which included the construction of It Ourselves again. Also, the DSL-in-every- It doesn’t really matter where you were the World Wide Web and the proliferation home initiative which President Bush has during that era, of course; if you were an of e-mail. proposed would completely cripple large adolescent in the early-to-mid-’90s, you still A brief aside about the development of portions of shortwave and ham radio bands, probably know what I’m talking about. Infin- the Internet: some of you may remember as has been discovered in Japan, which has ity Broadcasting lived up to its name, post- Bulletin Board Systems (BBSes). They were totally scrapped the idea. If you want to help ing clone stations in nearly every conceivable run by someone in your local area, and were yourself find more independent media, you regional area. On an eighth grade class trip essentially a digital, interactive counterpart owe yourself a shortwave radio. to the Outer Banks, I was shocked to realize to what zines were in the early ‘90s print But I digress. Back to your average col- that the radio stations in that area sounded world. You got online, talked to a small lege dorm room, circa 1999, where incom- exactly like the radio stations where I was (but ever-growing) cadre of intelligent and ing freshmen were drowning their anxieties from, near Charlotte, right down to the sta- computer-literate people, traded over Y2K by circulating “Hi! My Name Is tion names, DJ chatter and voice-overs. A files and got phone numbers to (Slim Shady)” acapellas backed with AC/ year later, reading a music magazine, I fig- other BBSes. Corporations sold DC riffs. The emergence of MP3s led the ured out the meaning of the term “heavy the computers and modems major record labels to rotation.” (although a diehard experience connip- Besides the proliferation of sound-alike contingent built tion fits bordering on radio stations, the 1990s saw two other their own), but Tourette’s Syndrome, major evolutionary events in music. The after that it was up but all the file-ripping and first was that the compact disc (aided by to you. Individuals trading which was going on an “independent entity”– created by major wrote the programs, did have one record label- record labels in 1983 – called the Compact set up the systems and friendly consequence; it Disc Group which spent millions on mar- created the games. It erased the one remain- keting) triumphed in its nearly decade-long was possible to have ing advantage most war of attrition with both the vinyl album privacy and auton- people saw in and audiocassette and became the domi- omy. The golden audiocassettes, nant medium for sound recordings. This days of infor- namely, that you made Sony and other companies extremely m a t i o n could dupli- happy; cool people now had to buy CD anarchy, cate and mix players by the millions to listen to the songs if you the songs in they discovered on MTV. And when they will. any order you re-released the old Beatles and Three Dog I must wanted, and Night albums in the new supposedly inde- tell you it was possible for structible format, the Baby Boomers jumped that as people to easily cre- on board, too, repurchasing albums they m u c h ate their own. already had on vinyl. as I enjoy The digital takeover The second event was the Moving Picture being able to access has been so complete that when I Expert Group’s third version of an audio the information and attempted to circulate a tape I had made layer compression format called MPEG-1. files I want with greater about a year ago, I found that many of the MP3, as it came to be known, made it pos- speed, the emergence of DSL s c a r e s independent people I was most interested in sible to encode sound recordings with mini- the hell out of me. If the Cheney-Ashcroft sending it to simply didn’t have access to a mal data loss (at least, data loss which is not administration were to pass some law regu- tape player. Not only did they not own one,

12 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 they didn’t know anyone who owned one or an event. I simply believe that we have much SLEPT-ON continued from page 5. have any idea how to get one short of going more control and autonomy in our ability to the store and buying one. to record if we do not completely abandon Y’all So Stupid – Van Full of I am not a Luddite. I am not a conspiracy the analog sound technologies which have 13Pakistans (Rowdy, 1993) theorist. I simply do not believe it is a smart worked so well for so long. The prevalence In one of the album’s many interludes, some- strategy, for musical diversity or political of computer keyboards and e-mail has not one says that Y’all So Stupid reminds him of freedom, to become completely dependent made us forget the technologies of hand- Black Sheep. That’s not a bad comparison, on digital technology. I do not know of a way writing and print; it is equally important but I think of them more as Atlanta’s ver- to reproduce CDs without the use, at some that we keep physical alternatives to the dig- sion of the Pharcyde, due to the dope beats, stage in the process, of a computer. I love ital emergence in the area of sound. It would nimble rapping and a healthy dose of humor. computers. I do know, however, that comput- be much harder for any totalitarian force Some members of the group later surfaced ers are more intrinsically fragile than most to curtail the hand-to-hand distribution of in the late ‘90s as Mass Influence. of us like audio- to admit. It is not a smart strategy, for c a s - Comput- s e t t e s Godfather Don – Hazardous ers are musical diversity or political than to 14(Select, 1991) required by simply The picture in the insert shows Godfather FCC regu- freedom, to become completely pull the Don carrying a guitar case, but it’s not some lations to p l u g kind of Mafioso posturing; he is actually a accept all dependent on digital on the guitarist and an avid metal fan. But, aside incoming i n f r a - from some noodling on the introductory i n t e r f e r- technology. struc- track, this is straight up hip-hop, no gim- ence, even t u r e micks. In true 1991 style, Godfather Don i n t e r f e r- w h i c h spits rapid-fire lyrics over his self-produced ence which renders their components inop- makes MP3-sharing possible. It is much up-tempo beats. After this album, he went erable. The use of electromagnetic weaponry easier for a group of creative chemists to cre- on to hook up with Kool Keith for the in the Gulf War, Part 2: Revenge of the Son ate chrome oxide tapes and plastic casings Ultramagnetic MCs’ 1993 Four Horsemen proved the ability of modern armies to com- from recycled or found materials than it is album and the Cenobites project on Fondle pletely decimate modern communication for a group of people without computers or ‘Em in 1996. He also released a string of systems. The U.S. Army knows how to use lasers to create or reproduce CDs. insanely dope 12” singles on the Hydra label e-bombs and hackers. If certain forces in Don’t be paranoid, but be aware and in the late ‘90s. government had the desire, I believe they prepared. Keep your cassette players. Keep could render impossible 95% of the non- some blank cassettes around. Circulate mix- approved use of computers within a matter tapes among your friends and keep batteries Bushwackass – How Real Israel? of weeks. in your handheld recorder. If the digital vil- 15(Pallas, 1994) Yet people like Saddam Hussein and lage continues to hum along beautifully, you I’m not even really that big of a fan of the Osama bin Laden, despite nearly constant will only be out a few dollars, and you’ll have gruff style of rapping (think Onyx or DMX), attacks from the most powerful fighting force something to show your grandkids one day. but these Brooklyn hard knocks get me so in the history of the world, have been able But if worse comes to worst, and the future amped up I want to start breaking shit! They to create and disseminate messages globally, implodes and you don’t have any way of bring crazy energy like early Wu-Tang or the same way they would have in 1986: on recording independent music or storing the M.O.P., and the beats slam. audiotape. This is not praise for the resil- sound of your voice, you might really wish iency of Muslim extremists or CIA-agents- that you had. turned-power-hungry-fascists; it is an indi- TODD ITO is a masters student in library cation of the versatility, portability, usability, ANDREW PENLAND is a writer, painter science at UNC and has now been a DJ at reproducibility and longevity of the audio- and DJ who lives in a small town near Ashe- WXYC for a full decade! cassette. I am not necessarily eschewing com- ville. He was hired at WXYC in 2000 and pact discs, nor prophesying an Orwellianly now DJs a show on Free Radio Asheville. He inevitable digital takeover in the years to recently released an album entitled Time Travel come. I can’t, however, nor can anyone else, is Possible. His work can be experienced at completely rule out the possibility of such www.creativegoals.com/andrewoctopus.

IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 13 GET PSYCHED: emerging fl oral consciousness

BY ELLIE BLAKE dissected fl ower under magnifi cation reveals a disturbing view of the complexity and parts of a single petal. It is perhaps safer to study with an unrestrained and A expanded view – a vision that allows fantasy to describe mystery. It is through music, along with other art forms, that such a fancy-free, more open explo- ration of life is encouraged. Th ere are sounds in psychedelic music, folk music and music throughout all genres that either verbally praise nature and all things from it or provide a “hymn” by which the idea that an energy exists in and over all things is a reality one can simply feel. Th is promotion of something pervasive, something unknown or even the more literal advocacy of thinking beyond conformed ideals is present not only within particular songs, but is perhaps the most intriguing element of music itself. Heavenly, droning, even chaotic music seems to proclaim there is a true spirit of music behind itself, and the experience of listening to music is one that can inspire fantasy. What is possible in this world when you hear Richard Youngs or local Bibis Ellison? Th rough an exploration of method, sounds and lyrics, rockers Ghost channel vibes, Comets on Fire con- trol chaos, Tyrannosaurus Rex talks with the wind. It is an easy reality to perceive every note emerging from a blade of grass. Really, it’s easy. “Psychedelic” music is that which encourages an altered perception. Trippy pop or mind- bending sonic experiments create a physical space and span of time where new understand- ings are conceived – and true. With the voice of Devendra Banhart and the sing-a-longs of Vashti Bunyan, one is encouraged to give it a go, maybe understand all things as possessing a similar energy and as in-and-of one another. Music can do this. It can allow and encourage an exploration of fantasy and absurdity. All possible worlds. Consciousness can continually change = grow.

14 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 Neo-psych and folk and the revival of their forefolks is currently exploding, and the peaceful space provided by the mesmerism and hyp- notism of this music may well be replacing the jerk of electro, machine grind and disco punk among the mainstream. New popularity of psych and folk music is reviving the fantastical possibilities of the music’s prior heyday and rescuing it from the taint of conformed, watered- As we become more plant-like beings (and we down hippy-sters. The difference in the influence of The Incredible may very well possess the necessary physiologi- String Band today vs. its influence 30 years ago may be the size and cal precursors), utilizing smell and light in a more global span of its popularity. Among a populace that seeks knowledge advanced way, information gathering and processing and progress from more sources than ever before, the combination could improve. Telepathic communication between between this music and its masses – gens and gens into the future – people via aromatic chemicals could allow for more may support a more enlightened and psychically evolved human being. relaxed and contemplative, less physically aggressive A “vibe” is again being sought. San Fran is the place to be. We can talk persons to survive – living longer, more regenerative to trees. lives. These emerging floral properties could permit Folk resurgence, in particular, re-introduces tales of a possible past empathetic telepathy to replace civilized debate that may have existed but was perhaps never known. Even the mytho- and a new consciousness to replace the mammalian logical creatures often starring in this music are a reality in that myth version necessary for humans when they explored is fo’ real. It is not mere fiction or history. It is ongoing in the human unknown lands and built civilizations. Yes! psyche. The idea is that the human brain, human consciousness and New understanding and recognition of possibil- the evolving “story” that provide the context for understanding all ity in all things enables a stepping up of the voltage evolve. This is not a promotion of ritualistic practice like that so enjoy- of the mind. A new logic, first obtained through metaphor (parable) of the relationships between able in Peter Schaffer’s The Wicker Man. This is about thinking.This is not about traditionalism. This is about progress of perception. This is plant, animal and object, creates this modern men- a choice to change the story used to explain life. If it is spirituality, then tality. Should perception expanding become the at least it is gimmick-free. activity, rather than the result (learning how to So fluid perception is not only a plus for the listener, but a big one- make porn rather than studying its effects on soci- up for plants. When the powerful voice of music expresses reverence ety), perhaps we could rise above our own concepts for the pods and petals in nature, these breathing beings are allowed and ideas and wade in thoughts of our own (lack a presence not afforded them by their more frequent revelers – sci- of ) true perspective. Perhaps there be no need for entists. Plant science, despite its progress, has maintained a largely ideological movements/struggles. Just maybe we complex method of viewing plants by their comparative morphology. will reach such a pervasive exhaustion in approach- An effective approach, it has limited plants to a fairly inactive role in ing meaning that we will collapse into a new way of world ecology. Even as predominantly sedentary beings, plants can be thinking – or not thinking – and being. No longer understood to have activity, “mental” processes and the ability to make will the concepts of “peace,” “love” and “equality” pre- decisions. Plants’ ability to converse with the sun, for instance, is not vent their own reality. Emerging will be a new level fully respected as a form of active communication. Plants’ chemical of existence that will find the human race in a more communication with one another is not a major focus of plant studies. peaceful state of co-existence – loving each other And an even more absent consideration is that plants have knowledge like we’re all the same and shit. And plants, too. and control of their evolutionarily beneficial traits, such as color and taste, that make them more directly manipulative in their relationships with animals. The trippy idea is that plants are our brothersand sisters ELLIE BLAKE works in research administration at and companions – but like seriously – on an evolutionary scale. the Carolina Population Center and has been a DJ Not only does such proclamation of plant/human mutual benefi- since spring 2001. She would like to thank Dazed and cence guide the expansion and alteration of humans into natural spaces Confused magazine, Arthur magazine, Tom Robbins in a more sustainable, peaceful and aesthetic manner, but allowing and the N.C. Botanical Gardens. plants a more cognizant independence and simultaneously a co-evo- lutionary companionship with people permits a logical understanding Main illustration by STEWART SINEATH. Face of humans as capable of developing aspects of plant consciousness. illustrations by RYAN MARTIN. People change through time just as any plant and animal must, and the psyche is not removed from this movement.

IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 15 H I P – H O P : SO FRESH AND SO MAINSTREAM BY FRED STUTZMAN

n a contrast to other musical forms, hip- (Notably Ogg and mers got hip to the hop elementally rests on the artist’s abil- Upshal’s The Hip-Hop Years, idea that hip-hop sold Iity to convey a message. Illustrative and Light’s Vibe History of Hip-Hop, well and that it was coded in terminology, this message often and the thoroughly enjoyable Yes Yes a commercially viable depicts the state of the world around the art- Y’all by Fricke) existed for a decent, but not alternative to the produced hair metal, soft ist. From its beginning, hip-hop has used its remarkably long period of time in the under- rock and diabetic pop that reigned supreme status and song form to convey this exactly, ground. Mainstream cultural awareness of during those times. And just as the produc- using a medium so convincing that it had the hip-hop began, almost appropriately, with ers, executives and A&R folks turned their unlikely and notable ability to cleanly cross crossover pop-hip-hop songs. The Beastie exploitative eye upon other genres, they did almost all cultural boundaries. Boys’ “Fight For Your Right To Party” and so on hip-hop. The 1980s, colored with the palette of Run-DMC and Aerosmith’s “Walk This Thus, we found ourselves with the first conservative Reagan administration policies, Way” ushered this new style into the main- era of commercial hip-hop acts. Culled economic inequality, urban plight, the AIDS stream. Thematically, the songs were nonof- largely from the underground, these acts and drug epidemics and an ever-increasing fensive, placing hip-hop in a broader context tended to be fun, counter-culturally appeal- sense of alienation from the government, of party or dance songs (not entirely mis- ing and remarkably fresh. Audiences soaked inspired generations of hip-hop artists and appropriating the genre, whose gestational up the material, and we were even privy to producers. Whether it was the biting anti- roots were in the dancehall). the “first” white rappers, whose designation authoritarian commentary of Chuck D’s Beyond the mainstream, emerging hip- as first was much less an indication of their Public Enemy, the proactive, influential style hop artists were forming a slightly less originality than their perceived marketabil- of Boogie Down Productions or the female- commercially viable sound that proved ity. The traditional model of artist develop- centric, positive message of Queen Latifah, inspiring to its legions of followers. Under ment, perfected during rock and pop’s long listeners in the mainstream found them- the guidance of Def Jam founder Russell evolution, was tossed on its ear. Audiences selves subject to this revolutionary fare. Simmons, New York’s boroughs and Long so hungered for artists that executives were The fact that these artists thrived in Island were incubating a sound that was forced to put out the artists that already had the mainstream is well worth mentioning counter-cultural, yet remarkably fresh and established themselves, rather than artists because we sometimes fail to notice how anti-establishment. To the legions of locals, molded and developed by the corporation. sanitized the mainstream has become. Cer- this alternative quickly became the de facto This introduction into the mainstream of tainly, musical styles evolve, and hip-hop’s mainstream. This proved to be the model remarkably raw talent was notable for a few astounding ascendancy to the most com- that hip-hop’s evolution would follow. reasons. First, the content of the material mercially viable genre is both a testament Looking at urban mainstream playlists was unlike anything mainstream audiences to its cross-cultural appreciation and a call from the mid- to late-‘80s, hip-hop’s the- had ever heard before. Second, the newness back to its roots. Once a genre limited in matics become evident. There is the key ele- of the genre coupled with the demand cre- its mass-audience appeal, it pervades nearly ment of the story told by the song, whether ated a situation where the artists breaking every slice of life; the question is, though, it be the tale of one day or the chronicling through to the mainstream were actually how much of hip-hop’s roots remain? of how the artist and those she represents “breakthrough” artists. Whereas commer- This is an extremely complex ques- interact, often antagonistically, with society. cial radio is generally pre-screened by the tion, and clearly there is no right or wrong This message, the common elemental theme, major-label artist development model, the answer. My estimation is simply what it is was the struggle. While we can look to the majors would associate instead with an art- – an estimation. However, when we limit roots of black American musics and find this ist and distribute their work. As a result of our analysis to the mainstream, amongst the theme quite commonly (especially in the this dynamic shift, this non-screened mate- high-powered stations and television chan- spiritual, the blues and, to a great extent, the rial proved to be some of the most influen- nels, we can begin to picture the remarkable, expression in post-bop/avant jazz), it never tial and remarkable, creating a very strong mainstreamed view of the genre. stood out as sharply and observably as in the impression with a mainstream crowd. First, a short history. Roots hip-hop, hip-hop of the late 1980s. Thus, more by accident and quality than chronicled exhaustively in many books It was around this time that program- by corporate marketing skill, hip-hop took 16 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 the mainstream by storm. I posit that this ROCK RECIPE: unique circumstance, where high quality, highly original artists found themselves leading the charge into the mainstream, Cooking helped cement hip-hop’s status among pop- ular genres. To expand this idea, consider this circumstance. We all know that major with The labels put out music that is, non-judgmen- tally, unpopular. It is the model of the busi- ness – some bands are hits, some are misses. Imagine if hip-hop broke through with Rosebuds more misses and less original artists. Would BY BRIAN BEDSWORTH hip-hop be what it is today? And would the mainstream hip-hop artists of today, such What did you and your significant other do today? Husband and wife team Ivan Howard and as Andre 3000, Pharell Williams, Jay-Z or Kelly Crisp probably have you beat. The two make beautiful music together, releasing records and Missy Elliot, be as inspirationally creative as touring the land as two-thirds of Raleigh’s hyper-caffeinated pop trio The Rosebuds. They also they are? This then brings us back to a question I make some pretty great vegetable dishes from a bountiful garden at their home. “We keep a garden, asked previously – looking at mainstream and zucchini and squash are always easy to grow and one plant produces so much,” says Kelly. “My hip-hop, how much of hip-hop’s roots favorite way to eat zucchini is sliced into circles, sauteed with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. remain? I conclude this is an unfair ques- But, since we have so much of it, we came up with this casserole-like dish for something different.” tion, because just as any other genre that If only domesticity were always this cool. successfully integrates into the mainstream, the genre has diversified in many directions. As mainstream artists bend and shape the Zucchini Slippers music into new iterations of an old sound, A recipe from The Rosebuds’ Kelly Crisp fused with new elements, other sections of Serving size: 4 the genre hold on to the roots and explore even lesser-known elements of the genre. Surely, we can’t expect to see the roots of Zucchini and squash rock explicitly when looking at its current 1/2 cup bread crumbs Filling: mainstream identity; if so, we’d just be nod- Fresh basil leaves (3 leaves per squash) •Chop or food-process excess Z&S along ding our heads to a bunch of folk and blues 1/3 cup parmesan cheese with the basil. artists. Just as rock has evolved from its 1/3 cup mozzarella cheese (Or your •In a mixing bowl, combine the Z&S/ roots, hip-hop has as well. And just as rock favorite cheese. Experiment with this). basil mixture, bread crumbs, olive oil, par- stormed the mainstream and experienced a 1 tbsp. olive oil mesan, mozzarella and salt. renaissance approximately 15 years after its Salt •Spoon mixture into the slippers, sprinkle introduction (think Elvis to the Beatles), breadcrumbs on top, cover with foil and we’re seeing that with hip-hop. I’m not going Slippers: bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. to explicitly endorse any one artist as the •Lay the zucchini and squash (Z&S) •Take out and let stand for a few minutes harbinger of the creative renaissance; I fully longways and slice the top third off (also to set. believe that the innovation we’ll see in the longways) and set strips aside. •Sprinkle with more parmesan and salt, genre over the next few years will astound •With a small spoon, hollow out the Z&S garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve. even the most astute music critic. What we so that it makes a boat, or slipper, shape. must realize, as hard as it may be to grasp, is •Set the scooped stuff aside with the This is great as a side dish, but, because that hip-hop is still in infancy, and the next strips. of the cheese, it can serve as a vegetarian few years hold the promise of extraordinary •Place slippers in baking dish meal all on its own. developments and fusions in the genre. Just as anything in the mainstream, we’ll have to keep our critical eye out – there will be good and there will be bad – but I have a ✂BRIAN BEDSWORTH is a WXYC alum, writer, photographer and non-profiteer feeling the good will be quite extraordinarily working in Raleigh. Since last fall he has been soliciting recipes from culinarily-inclined good. rock bands in order to compile a rock ’n’ roll cookbook. The project, to be published under the title I Like Food, Food Tastes Good, will raise money for the national anti-hunger charity Share FRED STUTZMAN is a digital librarian Our Strength. Other bands who have contributed recipes thus far include Belle & Sebastian, The at Ibiblio. He has been a DJ at WXYC since Cherry Valence, Death Cab for Cutie, Enon, The Mountain Goats, My Morning Jacket, Rye 1998. Coalition, Superchunk,The Walkmen and many more. IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 17 THE MOANERS PLAY ROCK Chapel Hill rock group The Moaners play at Local 506 on July 13. Photo by Aaron Smithers. BY AARON SMITHERS

he Moaners play rock. Not cal worlds together in The Moaners. alt.country (whatever that Melissa Swingle has maintained the Tis), not punk, not screamo, clever and depressing lyrical imag- not hardcore, slowcore, sadcore, ery and deceptively simple songwrit- noisecore, twee pop, not art-rock or ing she honed with Trailer Bride and neo-prog; just rock. This is appropri- added it to the distorted, sludgy slide ate because the two women that make guitar from that band’s most rocking up The Moaners, guitarist and vocal- moments, while also, as the new band ist Melissa Swingle and drummer/ name implies, retaining the lone- guitar/vocalist Laura King, also rock. some wail of her voice. She has also, Well, okay, it is kind of southern rock, it seems, acquired a loop pedal she but it is bad ass southern rock. uses to good effect to occasionally fill Both veterans of the Chapel Hill out the duo’s sound. Along with King, music scene, Melissa Swingle, with who is one hell of a drummer, super- her guitar, saw and fantastically dead- tight and not afraid to hit things hard, pan Mississippi drawl, has fronted especially her cool red, white and blue Trailer Bride through five albums and kit, The Moaners are a welcome addi- a handful of singles, all drenched in tion of talented rock and roll women moody, southern macabre and coun- to the testosterone fueled southern try twang. Meanwhile Laura King rock sound. The Moaners were has pounded the drums for Grand kind enough to offer a brief moment National. It is one of many examples of their time for questions and pleas- of the good fortune that we have liv- ant conversation. Plus they didn’t ing in the Triangle that they are now even make fun of me for asking stupid bringing the best of both their musi- questions.

18 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 WXYC: How did y’all choose the name The MS: No, but I love Mexican music. Tennessee barbecue and it’s too sweet. We Moaners? LK: We have a song called “Quien es la chica like North Carolina barbecue. LK: The first night we played, which was at de la Guitarra” the moment unplanned. WXYC: Is your website going to be up soon MS: We made up a song that first night, and WXYC: It’s hard to make a living as a musi- (www.themoaners.com)? it didn’t have any lyrics so all I did was just cian anywhere, but is there anything about LK: I’m working on it. I do it and people moan. the Triangle that makes it better? Can you told me it sucked so I am changing it. LK: And we listened to it, a tape because make a living as a musician? we recorded it, and Melissa was like “How MS: You got to hit the road and get out of AARON SMITHERS is a graduate student about The Moaners?” town to make a living. If we only played Cha- in the folklore curriculum and has been a DJ at pel Hill, we’d be begging on the street; we’d college radio stations for eight years. Born and WXYC: Being a music dork I wondered if it be on food stamps. But out on the road, it’s raised in Austin, Texas and a little too proud of was a reference to Clara Smith, the “Queen possible to make a living if you eat at Taco it, he plays in the alt.country/sadcore/indie rock of the Moaners,” the blues singer from Spar- Bell and sleep in the van. band Mount Moriah and wishes his noisecore/ tanburg, South Carolina, but she didn’t LK: We just got back from a tour, our first death metal/old time band Frog Against Toad really moan. “national” tour. We slept in the van one night existed somewhere other than his head and MS: Well we don’t really moan that much in Kansas City and a huge storm came by; it conversations with his cat Dr. Thunder. now that I got some lyrics. was almost a tornado MS: The van was shaking. EDITOR’S NOTE: The Moaners will be WXYC: Are y’all gonna record anything? LK: It was like sleeping in a carwash. featured on Bandwidth: Celebrating 10 Years LK: We just last night set up time starting of Internet Radio on WXYC-Chapel Hill. August 1 with Rick Miller, from Southern WXYC: Favorite BBQ? You can see them live at our Webcasting Anni- Culture on the Skids; he’s got a studio in LK: Allen and Sons, yeah, close to the versary Celebration concert at the Local 506 Mebane called the Kudzu Ranch. house. on Saturday, November 6 (see “Webcasting MS: That’s where we recorded the last MS: Yeah, Allen and Sons. We were in Ten- Anniversary Events” on page 22). Trailer Bride album (Hope Is A Thing With nessee a few weeks ago and we had some Feathers, Bloodshot 2003), and it was so much fun recording with Rick, I thought that would be a good place for us.

WXYC: WXYC or WXDU? MS: Huh... I guess I like WXYC because I get it clearer; I can’t pick up XDU where I live. LK: Yeah it depends where I’m at. MS: They are both good. It depends on the DJ on either station; some DJ’s are, you’re like “Holy shit, this DJ knows what’s good.” LK: I like Gayle from ‘XYC, she’s good.

WXYC: What music are y’all listening to these days? MS: I’m still listening to Mississippi John Hurt LK: We listen to rock and roll. I love that band, Kings of Leon. We listen to lots of stuff, Tom Waits, Nick Drake... I love the new Strokes album. MS: We listen to all kinds of shit in the van.

WXYC: Los Tigres del Norte or Los Tucanes de Tijuana? MS & LK: What?

WXYC: Do you ever listen to La Ley, 96.9, Illustration by the Spanish language radio station? Ryan Martin. IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 19 WWW.WXYC.ORG DJ Tim Ross explores the first days of WXYC’s 10 years of online streaming and leaves the current navigation up to us.

n November 7, 1994 WXYC 89.3 FM became the first radio Ostation in the world to continu- ously simulcast its signal over the Internet 24 hours a day. While this in itself is an impressive milestone, what really makes the accomplishment worth revisiting in detail is the fact that it happened solely as a result of the creative thinking and persistent work of a group of people who simply wanted to do something for the sake of doing it – and doing it first. In the wake of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the late ‘90s dot-com- fueled stock bubble, it’s easy to forget that there was once a time when the Internet was not dominated by corporations, ven- ture capitalists, copyright holders, advertis- ers, spammers and other moneyed interests. The 1994 Internet was still an exhilarating and promising world where the prime time players were technologists, academics, hack- ers and students. And it was during that WXYC was featured in the answer to a question on the Jeopardy! gameshow on April 20, 2004. time, almost a year before RealAudio even Image courtesy of Tim Ross. existed, that a group of technology geeks in the basement of UNC’s Phillips Hall man- as Ibiblio (http://www.ibiblio.org), the digi- in Audio Engineering the year before, and I aged to harness their ingenuity and technical tal archive is one of the Internet’s oldest and had used the Internet enough to think I knew know-how on behalf of a free-form college largest collections of free information and something (I’d actually had an account on radio station that approached its main focus software. LaUNChpad – the pre-SunSITE bulletin (music) with a similar passion for pushing SunSITE director Paul Jones started with board system). I had researched a lot of the 3- the boundaries and experimenting with pos- a small staff consisting mainly of part-time D audio processing techniques as an undergrad sibilities. students who were passionate about the in classes with Bob Moog, and I’d done some In the beginning, there was the Sun. Sun- promises and possibilities of technology and video editing, which made me familiar enough SITE, that is. In early 1992, Sun Micro- the Internet. One of SunSITE’s early hires with digital media tools that Paul made me the systems put out a formal request for grant was Doug Matthews, an avid local music fan “multimedia researcher.” I was really interested proposals from institutions interested in who would later start the alt.music.chapel- in online audio/video/3-D distribution, and creating and maintaining an anonymous hill newsgroup and help create some of the he let me do basically whatever I wanted to as FTP archive on the Internet. UNC’s Office earliest local music-related websites. Sev- long as I kept up some of the funded tasks. of Information Technology submitted a pro- eral months later in the summer of 1994, McConville and Matthews quickly became posal to not only establish an FTP archive SunSITE hired David McConville, a new co-conspirators on a wide variety of projects but to enhance the archive/collection with graduate student in the School of Journal- dealing with music and the Internet. early search technologies like WAIS and ism and Mass Communication (JOMC). David McConville: I worked with Doug Mat- Gopher. UNC’s proposal was accepted, and McConville would soon become a key player thews quite a bit early on, scheming up all kinds SunSITE was born in 1992. Sun Micro- on a lot of SunSITE projects, including the of experiments. We contacted Negativland and systems provided computer hardware and WXYC webcast. made a site for them, putting the “U2” single funding, and UNC ran SunSITE out of David McConville: I met Paul Jones and we online in MP2 compressed audio format as an offices in the basement of Phillips Hall. immediately hit it off talking about the Clip- experiment to see what kind of response Island Later known as MetaLab and now known per Chip proposals. I’d finished getting a B.S. Records might have. I called up the Church of 20 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 the Subgenius and worked with Ivan Stang to to those with extremely expensive hardware load?” I’m pretty sure that the idea for simul- create the almost indefensible “SubSITE.” I cre- was now available to a lot more people. casting the radio station was similar to that. I ated an audio archive of some N.C. sermons Doug Matthews recalled his initial excite- remember one of the two of us casually saying, from tapes and transcripts at UNC’s North ment upon the release of CU-SeeMe version “I wonder if we could drag a speaker up to this WWW.WXYC.ORG Carolina Collection. 0.7: I remember getting the e-mail when CU- microphone?” But in terms of actually turning Simply putting digital audio files online SeeMe was released and thinking, “Alright, this the idea into a production affair, it was 100% was pretty cutting edge for the early 1990s, is gonna be really cool.” We installed it right David. I was just involved in the brainstorm- but Internet technology was ing phase. beginning to change very This is the INTERNET, folks, and no McConville was extremely quickly. Prior to 1992, there was interested in media and intel- no acceptable way to “broadcast” matter how many times Floyd says “the lectual property, and he was sound on the Internet so that it Internet sucks” on the air, excited by the opportunity to reached multiple recipients at meld theory with practice. once. Sending a digital sound IT IS THE BIG SHIT. David McConville: I was file to ten different computers thinking of writing a paper required ten distinct unicast transmissions away. CU-SeeMe was basically a multime- about the legalities of re-transmitting radio of the file, and such an inefficient use of dia chat tool. It was essentially a half-duplex online. I had to take media law classes in JOMC, bandwidth was completely impractical for walkie-talkie model. You would say something, which was not exactly my thing, so I figured I’d sending out real-time audio. All of this began and then when you stopped talking, you could focus on all of the online innovation going on at to change with the early 1992 advent of the start hearing again. The original CU-SeeMe the time. Folks had been experimenting with MBONE, a virtual overlay network built on chats I remember having were almost turn- broadcasts on the MBONE, and we’d been top of the existing Internet. MBONE stood based in the same way that chat rooms are working with CU-SeeMe to better understand for “multicast backbone,” and the multicast- turn-based, where you can’t type over some- the social and copyright implications of online ing protocol used on the MBONE allowed one else’s chat. It was basically a “push-to-talk” audio/video distribution. There was a lack of high-powered UNIX workstations to send interface. You pushed to talk, and no one else understanding about the difference between information to multiple destinations in the could talk while you were pushed down. streaming and downloading at the time, and most efficient way possible. The entire SunSITE crew took part in I wanted to explore the distinction from an The MBONE was used to audiocast a CU-SeeMe chats with people from around analysis of legal history. I was interested in 1992 meeting of the Internet Engineering the world. media history, and I wondered if early radio Task Force, and much of the audio content David McConville: All of us were experi- history might repeat itself (i.e. the takeover of being transmitted over the network tended menting quite a bit with the MBONE and the ether by commercial interests via very anti- to be technical jargon and/or meta-discus- audio/video conferencing using CU-SeeMe. free-market regulations created by cronies of sions about the MBONE itself. One of the We ran a CU-SeeMe “reflector” at SunSITE the corporate interests). I knew that we were more notable uses of the MBONE was Carl thanks to Jon Magid’s technical wizardry, in a position to do more than theorize and that Malamud’s “Internet Talk Radio”, an Inter- meaning that people would log in from all over Paul and the SunSITE crew would be into the net-only “radio station” that multicasted the world to videochat. I even got to see an challenge. Since the “Geek of the Week” show at a specific IRA ceasefire that was blacked out by the Brit- I was as much time every week. Clearly this new technol- ish media through a Web cam sticking out of a hands-on as I ogy held great promise for the future, but in guy’s window in Northern Ireland. It was all so was theoretical, 1993, things like “Internet Talk Radio” were new and strange and seemed to hold so much I figured we only available to a select virtual few. promise. Paul just let the entire crew experi- might as well In early 1994, researchers at Cornell Uni- ment, which of course forced me to learn much rebroadcast a versity released version 0.7 of CU-SeeMe, more than I was learning in classes. Paul’s station 24/7 a piece of video-conferencing software that amazing like that. to find out for would drastically expand both the reach and Suddenly able to exchange audio and video ourselves! the potential use of real-time multimedia on feeds with people from around the world, McConville the Internet. The free downloadable soft- McConville and Matthews started thinking started inves- ware was named CU-SeeMe as a reference about other ways in which the CU-SeeMe tigating what to both Cornell’s initials and its video-con- software could be used. Matthews couldn’t type of audio ferencing capabilities. CU-SeeMe allowed recall exactly who came up with the idea to f r e q u e n c y users to both send and receive small gray- use CU-SeeMe to rebroadcast a radio signal, range could scale video feeds (including optional audio) but he credits McConville for being the one be transmit- to any other computer that was running the to develop the idea and run with it. ted using CU- software. What made CU-SeeMe such a Doug Matthews: A lot of stuff that we did SeeMe. The milestone was that it could run on most any came up in “Wouldn’t it be cool?” conversations software wasn’t System 7 Macintosh computer that had a that we had. Like putting the Negativland designed to full (non-dialup) Internet connection. All of thing online. We’re sitting there wondering, stream any- CU-SeeMe image courtesy of Michael Sattler. a sudden, functionality that was once limited “If it’s illegal to distribute, is it illegal to down- thing, much IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 21 less audio that was richer and fuller than stop the project, however. He realized that WEBCASTING a simple human voice. But that didn’t stop a remarkable opportunity was knocking on the SunSITE crew from making plans to WXYC’s door, and in a series of September ANNIVERSARY attempt to use CU-SeeMe to continuously 1994 e-mails to the WXYC powers-that- rebroadcast a radio station. be, he passionately pleaded with his fellow EVENTS Doug Matthews: The way we used CU- DJs to do whatever they could to answer the SeeMe was a total hack; it was not what that knock. This excerpt from a September 15 software was supposed to be used for. Basically message is indicative of the colorful nature WXYC will be celebrating its ten what we did was we said, “Well, we’ve got this of Shoffner’s fervor-filled e-mails: year webcasting anniversary like it’s thing that can make sound go from Point A What is being jeopardized is our chance the first day the two ever met. to Point B, and because it’s a chat-room-type to DO THIS FIRST, IF ONLY FOR environment, lots of people can listen to it and A SHORT TIME. FIRST. FIRST. US! NOVEMBER 5: all we have to do is be the only one talking all Not NPR (affiliates), with all their god- Celebration in The Pit on the UNC the time.” We totally bastardized the software, damn money/pretentiousness. Not MTV, campus, complete with laptops because there was no streaming software at that with all of their corporate “alternative.” streaming WXYC, free snacks, new point. None of the stuff that actually did live UUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSS! This is the merchandise and more. Everyone is streams came out until probably 1995. INTERNET, folks, and no matter how many As the nearby college radio station, times Floyd says “the Internet sucks” on the air, invited! WXYC was the obvious choice for the web- IT IS THE BIG SHIT. And we are ONE casting project. Matthews had started work- SOUNDCARD ($100 - i’ll buy it myself if NOVEMBER 6, 10 P.M.: ing there as a DJ in early 1994, and McCo- needed) away from eternal salvation and the Concert at the Local 506 in Chapel nville himself had become an avid WXYC bountiful reward of our righteousness and long Hill featuring Jett Rink, The Moan- listener. suffering. ers, Spectac and eNtet with Billy David McConville: WXYC was by far the In hopes of addressing and appeasing Sugarfix as emcee for the evening. best radio station I’d ever heard at the time. some of the concerns, Shoffner urged the All of these artists are included on Aphex Twin, Faust and Yma Sumac – it made station to find out the exact whats and whys my time in Chapel Hill most bearable. surrounding possible legal issues with the the Bandwidth compilation (see McConville chose WXYC to be the webcast. Luckily, the WXYC staff at that below for details). subject of his Internet rebroadcasting time contained several current and former project, but it was the WXYC disc jockey UNC Law students, two of whom – Jeff NOVEMBER 7: who worked in the office next door who Robins and Jay Huber – started immedi- On the true date of our anniversary, did the most to coordinate efforts between ately applying their legal knowledge to the we will unveil our newly revamped SunSITE and the radio station. Hired at situation. In a September 16, 1994 e-mail website with live playlists, higher WXYC in 1993, Mike Shoffner worked for to various people privy to the simulcast quality streams and access to Band- OIT as a part-time systems administrator. idea, Robins attempted to clarify the general width: Celebrating 10 Years of Internet David McConville: I knew Shoffner through framework of the legal questions that would Radio on WXYC-Chapel Hill, a free Doug, and we started throwing the idea around, need to be addressed in more detail: downloadable compilation of local working with Jon Magid and Paul Jones to fig- As far as some of the legal issues that are con- musicians (including Shark Quest, ure out the logistics. cerning some of us, there seem to be two types: Spectac & Median, $tinkworx, Jett While McConville and the SunSITE 1. Communications Law issues (i.e. those issues crew started working out some of the tech- Rink, Etta Baker and more with related to our FCC license and anything else nical issues, Shoffner began selling WXYC related to the FCC Regulations) cover art by Chapel Hill artist Casey on the project. WXYC managers were 2. Copyright Law issues (i.e. the ASCAP/BMI Burns)! intrigued by the idea of the webcast, but on stuff, which deals with the dissemination of the the whole they expressed a much more cau- “intellectual property” of others, particularly NOVEMBER 7, 3 P.M.: tious and hesitant attitude than that which musical artists, composers and publishers) Panel discussion in Carolina Union was exhibited by the gung-ho experimenters For the most part, these are two separate areas. Room 3203 with David McConville at SunSITE. Several WXYC higher-ups As we continue this dialogue and as some of and Mike Shoffner, part of the team expressed valid concerns about whether the us continue to do further thinking and/or that succeeded in making WXYC simulcast would be violating any laws or research, it might be helpful not to confuse the the first radio station in the world to FCC regulations. Since WXYC was in the two types. broadcast its streams over the Inter- middle of plans to petition the FCC for per- Robins and the other ‘XYCers all agreed net. Also present will be Paul Jones mission to move its transmission tower, there that as far as Communications Law issues from Ibiblio and the individuals were worries that even the slightest violation were concerned, WXYC was legally in the might lead the FCC to either fine WXYC clear. The FCC had no legal jurisdiction over who made WXYC among the first or consider the station’s tower-modification the Internet, and the only worry was that the to broadcast over Internet2. application in a negative light. FCC might potentially look at the webcast Shoffner refused to let WXYC’s caution as “behavior unbecoming a licensed radio 22 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 station” when considering WXYC’s eventual With all of the station’s legal concerns ing directly to McConville’s Macintosh. But request for permission to move its transmis- adequately addressed, WXYC station man- SunSITE had a Solaris server named Presi- sion tower. WXYC did not have a history of ager Jame Lathren gave his official approval dent that had been used to put presidential run-ins with the FCC, however, and Robins for the webcasting project. And Shoffner library material online. And if a new CU- pointed out that FCC’s approval of tower resumed his quest for the holy soundcard, SeeMe reflector could be installed on this modifications was largely based on engi- which was needed for the Macintosh com- server, the WXYC signal could be multicast neering specifications (tower location, watt- puter that would convert an analog radio from President in a more robust and scalable age, signal direction, other radio stations, signal into a digital bitstream capable of fashion. Unfortunately, this caused a signifi- etc.) and not on a “radio station’s behavior being transmitted via CU-SeeMe. In addi- cant delay of the project. as citizen-of-the-airwaves.” Only if another tion, the simulcast crew needed to figure out Michael Shoffner: The major problem was radio station decided to fight WXYC’s a way to actually get that analog radio sig- that the “reflector” wouldn’t compile under application-for-modification would there be nal from WXYC. For the current WXYC Solaris, which is where it needed to go in order any real trouble during the FCC approval webcast, this analog/digital conversion to scale to the public. The “reflector” was the process. takes place in the radio station itself; an ana- thing that broadcast one input signal out into The more difficult legal issue surround- log signal comes straight out of the control multiple output signals. David had it running ing the Internet simulcast had to do with room board and gets encoded into bytes by on his Mac.The fact that we had to get it run- copyright and intellectual property. Like all a nearby Linux machine. But in 1994, the ning under Solaris just about killed the sched- radio stations that play music, WXYC has radio station didn’t have computers capable ule. licensing agreements with music publishing of performing such operations; the analog/ SunSITE employees Chris Colomb and giants ASCAP and BMI. These agreements digital conversion would have to take place Jon Magid helped McConville out with the allow the station to broadcast copyright- at SunSITE. So once again, the crew got Solaris/reflector issues, and by early Novem- protected music over the radio airwaves, but creative: ber, the problems were solved. The webcast did WXYC have the right to transmit that Michael Shoffner: We had no A/D converter was finally ready to go. After some addi- same music out into cyberspace? In order and we had no tuner to pick up the signal to tional testing on November 6, the WXYC to try and answer this key question, Huber feed into the converter. So David specified and simulcast went live on November 7, 1994. sought advice from Susan Olive, a noted Tri- I bought an external card for the Mac to do the Traditional media did not pick up on angle attorney who specialized in copyright conversion. Then I begged a “yard sale” radio the simulcast story immediately, but news law. After consulting with Olive, Huber and off of my kid sister, and we put it in right beside spread pretty quickly via the Internet. Over Robins began searching the Federal Copy- David’s workspace, tuned in the station and the next several weeks, responses came in right Act for information that might apply to plugged it in. from other parts of America (Nebraska, the unprecedented webcast scenario. Huber This cheap radio tuned into 89.3 FM Arizona, Idaho) and from countries all soon struck gold with Section 111(a)(5), a would soon become the input source for around the world (Norway, Poland, Mexico, statute about secondary transmissions that a webcast that could be heard around the Northern Ireland). The sound quality was indicated that the proposed Internet simul- world. But first, the SunSITE staff had to not at all ideal (some listeners reported that cast would be exempt from copyright law overcome several technical hurdles. Paul the already lo-fi signal was cutting out every as long as it was not done for commercial Jones wanted to make sure that the band- so often), but the mere idea of making a advantage. Huber summed up the statute in width used by the experiment would not radio station’s signal available to the rest of this e-mail from September 21, 1994: impact the UNC network in a negative way. the world was nothing short of revolution- 1) Copyright: we are (jeff and i) quite confident So a trial run was scheduled for late Sep- ary. And both McConville and SunSITE that sec. 111(a)(5) of the copyright code allows tember 1994. Network load was monitored director Paul Jones were well aware that the a nonprofit entity (SUNSITE) who wants to over a 24-hour period and no major issues concept itself was way ahead of the technol- retransmit the broadcast of a primary trans- were discovered. Plus, since SunSITE had ogy. mitter (WXYC) for a noncommercial purpose its own T1 connection to the rest of the Paul Jones: We knew what we had sucked but to be EXEMPT from the copyright laws. no Internet, connections between SunSITE we were willing to try anyway… we’re talking infringement will follow from such a transmis- and off-campus hosts throughout the rest low low bandwidth in those days. sion. even if some infringement could be argued, of the world would not need to be routed David McConville: We were actually using a that infringement would fall on SUNSITE, not through the same pipes as other UNC traf- little $10 radio plugged into the back of a Mac us. however, SUNSITE is still on pretty solid fic. for the off-air signal. It was pretty pathetic, but ground. and, as has been previously mentioned, A separate technical issue arose because it worked. It was reassuring to think that we if ASCAP/BMI got pissed, they’d send at least Jones thought that the rebroadcasting should were somehow carrying on the gonzo traditions three letters before doing anything serious. be done from an underutilized machine that of Tesla and Marconi with a station as incred- again though, the copyright code seems to would be more capable of handling mul- ible as ‘XYC. allow us to do this with no risk of infringing on tiple connections at once. The CU-SeeMe Shoffner, who described his role as “cheer- ANYTHING. software actually allowed clients to directly leader and catalyst”, was just relieved that further research this evening, relatively com- connect to each other (a model now referred SunSITE and WXYC had pulled off the prehensive research, found NOTHING to to as “peer to peer”), and some of the early feat before anyone else. contradict the above statement. proceed with tests of audio quality and bandwidth usage all haste. had been performed with clients connect- WEBCASTING continued on page 34 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 23 SOUL STORIES FROM N.C. An introduction to local R&B musicians from the 1960s and ‘70s BY JASON PERLMUTTER

lim? Naw, I heard he’s dead,” national soul crazes into one – songs about northern outskirts, with several churches responded the middle aged Afri- doing the boogaloo and songs about mini- and a bunch of run-down one-story 1940s “Scan-American woman to my skirts. houses. My approach was to casually drive question about the whereabouts of a myste- This fantastic soul invention was partly around, concealing my self-consciousness as rious old-school musician rumored to have responsible for my curiosity and obses- the only white guy in this African-American come from Burlington. Here I was at the sion. “Who were these guys, how could I part of town. Multiple times, I pulled my end of Spring Break ’03, entering a tiny con- find them, and what other records did they car up to houses where people were in the venience mart in this central N.C. town and make?” I asked myself constantly. By spring yards or on the porches, and I rolled down asking the woman behind the grill about a break, after a bit of sleuthing, I had met two my window or got out, asking about “the “Guitar Slim.” I was desperately seeking a of the three major players behind the “Boo- musician from here they called ‘Guitar Slim.’ lead on the last guy I wanted to interview galoo.” Producer and co-writer Curt Moore, I think his real name is Edgar Moore.” The for a small oral history project on local soul in his 60s, was living in a small, smoky Win- answers were discouraging; no one seemed musicians of the ‘60s and ‘70s; this was a ston-Salem apartment, peddling household to remember my man. quest fueled by curiosity, obsession and the goods out of the back of his cars, writing Finally I came to a guy in his 50s, who desire to get a really good grade in one of my poetry about the romantic union of an older responded positively with the nickname final classes at UNC-CH. Time for trawl- man and a young woman and hatching plans “Puddin’ Moore” and directions to a newer ing was coming to an end. School would for an autobiography about his days selling house outside of the neighborhood; I’d know resume in a couple days, and I would be back records to national companies like Atlantic the place by the black Cadillac in the drive- in the grind, going to class and working at and Nina Simone’s label Ninandy, founding way. Directions were sketchy, and I found no the campus radio station, WXYC. While in the first African-American beauty pageant such car; I wasn’t sure I was in the right place. Burlington, I vowed to talk to everyone until in North Carolina and chasing women. I continued to drive until I came to the tiny I found my man. Meanwhile, co-writer and organ player convenience mart, located in a small shop- I didn’t know much about “Slim.” I owned a Roy Roberts was in Greensboro, produc- ping center that oddly was in the middle of 45 rpm single of his, which I loved. Released ing and releasing blues CDs from his home a residential area. After the “dead” response, on the Boro label, a tiny, long-defunct soul studio and opening his own juke joint off of the day’s most discouraging, I checked the operation from Greensboro, the 36-year-old Liberty Street in Winston-Salem. Here was next-door barber shop and received direc- A-side is “Mini Boogaloo,” which features a versatile, still successful professional musi- tions to the same street that should’ve had a cute, funky, middle-paced tune played cian who had found the blues in the last the Caddy. No dice still, and it got dark, so I by a 4-piece band of scrappy guitar, happy decade or two, having started with R&B in headed back to Chapel Hill. organ, competent bass and bucket drums. the ‘50s, shifting to soulful ballads in the late The next day, I returned to the old neigh- The music isn’t killer on its own, but several ‘60s, playing funk with his group the Roy borhood for another shot at finding “Slim.” charms are provided by vocalist “Slim,” who Roberts Experience in the ‘70s and switch- I was encouraged by a man who, perched first opens his mouth for a playful exchange ing to country as disco deejays replaced on a ladder and painting a house, paused to with an unidentified woman not too far into many live soul acts. say he remembered my man and thought his the song: Though Moore and Roberts were name was “Edgar Moore.” Directions were “Slim:” Hey Baby where’d you get that mini- accounted for, “Slim” remained unknown, given, which led me to the same street that skirt from? and no amount of Googling helped, even should’ve had the Cadillac. I was also advised Unknown woman: I made it baby. after learning from Roberts that “Slim” may to look for the mailbox with “Moore” on it. “Slim:” You must’ve run out of threads as have been an “Edgar Moore” from Burling- Why hadn’t I thought to check the mailbox short as it is! ton. Robert’s tip offered potential, as Curt yesterday? No matter, I found it today, even The band cuts back in, and “Slim” proceeds agreed on the town, but he thought he though there was still no Cadillac in the with instructions for a new dance that would’ve remembered “Slim’s” first name if nearby driveway. I pulled up and got out of commands miniskirt wearers to “raise it in fact their surnames were the same. Curt my car, only to find two locked storm doors up,” “move it side-to-side,” etc. Inspiration advised that I go ahead on to Burlington, and no doorbells. Peering through a window, had come from the college-aged women to a section called Morgantown, and ask I spotted a vintage black & white photo of a who often strutted down Market Street in around. young man with his guitar. This had to be Greensboro circa 1968. Notably, “Slim’s” I took this advice during spring break and the place. I could hear a TV, so I alternated local product delightfully rolled up two located said neighborhood, a tiny one on the knocking on both storm doors for five min- 24 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 utes or so. I had to have my answer today. 2003 and 2002 with rarity after rarity, re- to “Duracha” for easier pronunciation), the Eventually, a woman talking on the phone mastered by Jazzman UK; and The Funky Communicators & Black Experience Band opened the door; I mentioned the “Booga- Sixteen Corners, on Stone’s Throw, released from Durham (notably, at least two UNC- loo,” and she was off the phone like that! Yes, in late 2001, was something of a primer CH students were in the band, and one of Edgar Moore aka “Guitar Slim” lived here. to great funk cut by long forgotten groups the two spent his first Christmas away from He was at work on the third shift – this was from across the nation. The Stone’s Throw home on the band’s 1973 tour of Florida, an why I had missed him the day before too disc notably features three bands from the ill-fated trip that inspired their best record – and I should call back later. Carolinas: Carleen & The Groovers from “The Road”), NCCU from Durham (they I would meet my man the next night. Charleston, S.C.; James Reese & The Pro- named themselves after the local African- Edgar Moore, clad in slippers, pants and gressions from Spartanburg, S.C.; and the American college but had the initials stand wife-beater, lounged after an evening at work, Soul Vibrations, a short-lived aggregate of for “New Central Connection Unlimited”), recounting his musical upbringing between young men from Salisbury, Lexington and Four Wheel Drive from Burlington (Edgar puffs of a cigarette. Our two-hour conversa- Statesville. Moore’s), Ronn Feaster from Greensboro, tion touched on his recordings, “Mini Boo- The Soul Vibrations track comes off the the Blenders from Winston-Salem, the galoo” and a later one “Fussin’ and Cussin’” B-side of their lone record and is a slinky Superiors Band from Winston-Salem and with a new group Four Wheel Drive, for funk instrumental called “The Dump.” This the Dream Makers from Charlotte. another Greensboro label, Linco; the groups mighty one-off may represent the only Learning from “Guitar Slim” about the he used to small but fertile swath of soul run across, Slim’s local product delightfully rolled up two ground between Greensboro like Peter national soul crazes into one – songs about doing and Durham opened my eyes G r e e n to unlikely funk spots and & The the boogaloo and songs about miniskirts. drove a pursuit that has lasted Gro ove rs long after my oral history class from Durham, Doug Clark & The Hot deluxe compila- ended in May Nuts from Chapel Hill and Burlington’s tion appearance 2003. More than Five Miles Out; the stars that used to play for an N.C. a year later, I have Greensboro; and there was even another group who now poked my mystery nickname offered – “Moss” – a recorded funk head around most Greensboro bass player who could drop (although some of the state. Char- even more knowledge, if I could ever track later ‘70s cross- lotte, Fayetteville him down. over sounds and Durham have In the 1960s and ‘70s, local soul groups recorded at proven to be deep like “Slim’s” dotted the state and nation, play- R e f l e c t i o n cities with com- ing weekly at hometown nightspots, touring Sound in Char- plex but undocu- regionally and nationally when possible and lotte are com- mented soul histo- cutting records if songs and money came piled on a great ries, which should together. Many didn’t reach large audiences CD called Car- unravel as more or amass riches, and as new trends came olina Soul Sur- is learned; for the and went, groups disbanded, or were over- vey); however, time being, one looked and forgotten despite their talents. the Vibrations’ band from each The “Mini Boogaloo,” for instance, sounds story remains of the three cities like a hit but failed to break through to an to be fully told. will be spotlighted audience beyond central North Carolina. Interviews have in this article. Records like this – never selling many cop- only been con- In Charlotte, ies – are now tricky to locate. Even tougher ducted with around the time to find are the stories of the musicians, rich the band’s pro- of the “Mini Boo- and deep but generally undocumented. ducer, and no Skull & Bones, an unrecorded Durham group led by Larry galoo,” the Soul Scurlock, who is pictured here, second from the right on Luckily, by 2004, hundreds of ‘60s and photographs or the top row. Image courtesy of Jason Perlmutter. Tramps had their ‘70s soul recordings have been reissued on other ephemera own dancefloor compilation CDs, the most deluxe of which have surfaced yet. party number that should’ve been a hit. provide extensive liner notes with band inter- Other rare ‘60s and early ‘70s N.C. funk This lone release was “Soul Trampin’,” which views and photographs. Some are familiar to records have been compiled, but only on features a drum break intro, crowd noises WXYC listeners: Ol’ Virginia Soul, Part 1, sketchy discs that don’t come with liner notes. from the producer’s bevy of nieces and an on Charlottesville’s excellent Arcania Inter- The groups include Duralcha from Durham infectious party groove not unlike Stax-Volt national label, topped our charts this Sep- (their manager created their name by com- material of the day. While the band plays, tember, delivering a wide range of 1960s bining the “Dur” from Durham, the “Ral” raspy vocalist Lee Webber instructs partici- soul from this neighbor state; Midwest Funk from Raleigh and the “Cha” from Chapel pants on how to “tramp” across the nation. and Texas Funk delivered the funk goods in Hill, and by ’75, this handle was shortened Over buffalo wings, ruffled potato chips IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 25 and cola in June 2004, I met with three to the Caribbean instead, behind soul star to school at N.C. A&T State University in former Tramps – bass guitarist Ronnie Arthur Conley, for whom Grier had written the late ‘60s. Poison would cut at least one Grier, guitarist Amos Williams and saxman a song or two. Their consolation was that in single themselves, the well-recorded funky Luther Maxwell – to discuss the group’s January, Grier, Maxwell, Williams and com- effort called “Do What You Do.” Despite history. It was the first time all three men pany would travel to England with Redding efforts to ink a deal with national label had been together since the ‘70s, and it was and play for an international audience. Excello, this record would only be issued on a marathon history lesson that offered up The Tramps’ families were not totally the band’s own Poison label and would be numerous details on the local music scene, aware of this re-routing, and upon the destined for obscurity. Vocalist Lee Webber, including a run-down on the career of the group’s return from the Caribbean they backed up by Poison, did have an Excello 45 Delacardos, a popular Charlotte-area singing were met with some baffling greetings, like under his own name, but it didn’t fare much group which all three had played behind in “I thought you were dead;” this wasn’t the better. the 1960s; groups The story of from small towns Charlotte, Fayetteville and Durham have proven to Fayetteville group to the west, such The Fabulous as Gastonia, Bel- be deep cities with complex but undocumented soul Tempo’s would mont and Shelby; emerge despite the formation histories, which should unravel as more is learned. a slightly rocky of post-Tramps introductory tele- groups such as 100% Pure Poison, Medusa welcome home that Williams expected from phone conversation. In September 2003, and Satisfaction; and the tragedy that inter- his wife. Unbeknownst to Williams, et al, an I contacted Shirlean Williams, the vocalist fered with the Tramps’ imminent success in airplane carrying Redding and the Bar-kays on an obscure but great 45 rpm record by 1968. crashed on December 10, 1967, killing Red- “Shirlean Williams & The Tempo’s Band”. In 1967, looking ahead to the next year, ding and most everyone else. This was the She said she didn’t sing “rock” anymore – she the Soul Tramps had great momentum and fate that could’ve met the Tramps. Instead, was now involved in the church and making were poised to establish a national audience. they were alive, but their big connection was gospel music – and I should be really talking But, as the new lost. “Soul to the band’s owner. This would be Fayette- year came, they Tr a m p i n’ ”, ville’s Nolla Mainor, whom I immediately realized they recorded in telephoned. were lucky to either ’67 At the beginning of our conversation, even be alive. or ’68, was I expressed my love for and my desire to Since the early doomed, as learn more about “the Shirlean Williams ‘60s, Delacar- the group record”. This was a mistake. Nolla was upset dos and Tramps was demor- and declared, “That’s my record! That’s manager/pro- alized and not Shirlean’s record. She messed it up! I ducer “Big” Will didn’t have brought her up, but she was overconfident Rhynes had been the national and didn’t rehearse and then sang herself in contact with audience they hoarse trying to make the record.” I admitted Macon, Georigia were count- my error, and we proceeded, more cordially. promoter Phil ing on. I learned about Nolla’s history in the local Walden, who W i l l i a m s music scene, which dated back to the mid- worked with had hoped to ‘60s, with her first bands, the Soul Rockers Otis Redding make his liv- and the Be-Boppers. and who, by ing entirely Hearing Nolla Mainor reminisce in 2003 ’67, was help- off of music, meant hearing from a fiercely proud woman. ing seal a deal but by ’68, he And justifiably so: Nolla is a self-educated for the Tramps had retired to musician who may well have been the only to replace the a non-musical female band leader in ‘60s and ‘70s North famous Bar- career, and in Carolina. After disco, her commitment to Kays on a Mid- the early ‘70s, music didn’t wane; she successfully adapted western US tour The Fabulous Tempo’s, a group from Fayetteville, featured Nolla Grier and by becoming a club deejay known to fans as Mainor, second from the left, and Shirlean Williams, third from with the Big O. the left. Image courtesy of Jason Perlmutter. Maxwell had “Queenie” and/or “Queen Bee”. Now, vintage The Tramps had founded a equipment, consisting of large PA speak- traveled to Macon and were ready to embark, new group called 100% Pure Poison, which ers and amps, two turntables, a mixer and but for one of two reasons – either saxman for several years balanced a busy travel microphones, occupies a good chunk of her Maxwell held out for a higher weekly salary schedule with extended residencies at local living room. The blue- and black-colored than would be paid, or the Bar-Kays were clubs. Notably, one of the group’s two female release of “This Is A Song” and “Ease It To already being advertised in some Midwest vocalists was Gin Massey, who had cut one Me”, by Shirlean Williams & The Tempo’s spots, or both – the Tramps were routed single with Greensboro’s Gents while going Band, hangs on the wall, overlooking the 26 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 equipment. “Let’s Do It Today”, which has been heard Truth and US Welfare Band, to colleges The Fabulous Tempo’s quietly handed on WXYC via the excellent Midwest Funk across the region until the early ‘80s. out free copies of this, their only release, to compilation. Local musicians like Guitar Slim, the dance contest winners at local gigs. There Post-The Us, and back in Durham, Scur- Soul Tramps, the Tempo’s and The Positive were no lucky breaks, and the record – only lock discovered that the Shamrocks had Approach are examples of North Carolina’s pressed in a quantity of 250 copies – would been re-tooled to feature cross-dressing per- uncharted soul territory circa the late ‘60s be forgotten. This wasn’t an issue of quality, forming sensation John Snell, who sang and and early ‘70s. These groups’ stories scratch even though the origin of the killer B-side danced along with the Rocksteady Danc- the surface of a deep, rich local history is a little sketchy. Set this track into motion ers. Continuing with psychedelics, Scur- which remains to be documented, whether and within seconds you’ll instinctively be lock formed a new group, Skull & Bones through deluxe CD reissue or elsewhere. singing, “Without love, where would you which combined the guitar chops of Eugene be now / Without love-ove-ove-oo/Where Turner. He recently related to Scurlock that JASON PERLMUTTER became a WXYC would you be now.” But you’ll quickly realize back in the day, thanks to substances, he had DJ in January 2000 and has served as sta- your error as the Doobie Brothers’ indelible no idea what he was playing. This group tion manager since May 2002. Since Decem- “Long Train Running” riff morphs into Nol- wasn’t recorded, and by 1974, Scurlock ber 2002, he has been researching N.C. soul la’s own rhythmic, sexual Fayetteville funk, had invented The Positive Approach and groups and plans to one day write a book on with pulsing drums and congas, twangy gui- brought them to Mega Sound Studios in the subject. tar and punchy Hammond. This isn’t really eastern N.C. to cut two different songs over a song so much as a funky vamp on top of the same backing track. which Nolla and her drummer make their The first was a topical number inspired way through an innuendo-shaded dialogue: by the gas crisis of the day; “Squeeze That Nolla: Hey man, whatcha doing over there? Dollar” righteously blended gospel-tinged Drummer: Trying to get this girl to ease it to vocals from Oren Marsh, psychedelic-lean- me. ing guitar from Wallace Taylor and R&B- Nolla: You know all you need to do man? styled backing vocals from Vernelle Mack. Drummer: Tell me about it. This was a self-produced number released Nolla: All you need to do is blow your horn. on Scurlock’s own Ju Ju label, and he recalls Drummer: Blow my horn? giving away most copies for free, not unlike Nolla: Yeah, blow your horn. the Tempo’s in Fayetteville, or countless Midway through this exchange, the words bands across the state and country. In 2004, and music break for a thumping drum and Vernelle remembers that it was going to be conga solo that ensures that this is much hard to sell a song that insisted that pen- more special than a rock ‘n’ roll rip. Coin- nies be pinched: “Gas prices were high. This cidentally, earlier in her career in ’67 or so, record is not gonna sell,” she recalls thinking, Nolla seems to have lifted a few bars from noting the irony. “Open The Door To Your Heart”, by Detroit The second version was a fun-loving soul legend Darrell Banks, for her funky departure from gospel, psychedelics and instrumental “Reach Down And Get It,” exhortations. Called “Gator Time”, the lyr- recorded by the Soul Rockers. ics for this hilarious track, with detailed Active in mid-‘70s Durham was The requests for frat brothers and sisters to get on Positive Approach who, like Nolla’s Tem- down, were penned by Vernelle, excited by po’s, favored the stripped down funk/soul the suggestion, or as she remembers “gist of instrumentation of guitar, bass, drums and an offer,” that The Positive Approach might organ. This line-up contrasted with those of be booked to play parties in Florida, follow- larger locals Duralcha and The Black Expe- ing the annual Gator Bowl. The thrust of rience Band, who carried full horn sections. her lyric was that you would have to do the The Positive Approach was the brainchild gator – which meant stretching your body of Bull City native Larry Scurlock, who out lengthwise on the beer-covered floor of had left North Carolina and his group the the fraternity house – in order to gain social Shamrocks behind in the ‘60s to play bass acceptance: with the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based “All All new pledges wanting to be big brothers, first Stars” of Junior Walker and Motown fame. must learn to gator with each other, maybe the While in the Midwest, Scurlock and several girls will join in, and maybe not, but you should All Star cohorts – such as guitarist Phillip do this now, because this gator is hot. Wright, brother of Miami soul legend Betty Alas, The Positive Approach never made Wright – formed The Us, an extracurricu- it to the Gator Bowl, but Scurlock and com- Images courtesy of Jason Perlmutter. lar group of sorts that adopted a psychedelic pany did become well-known frat travelers, funk sound and cut one 45-rpm masterpiece bringing several groups, such as Essence of IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 27 BLUES HISTORY LESSONS: BOOKS AND OTHER STUFF REVIEWED BY JESSICA KEM

hen WXYC DJs play blues, Lomax’s recordings of Muddy Waters in who “rediscovered” the blues in the 1960s we tend toward the early, 1941-42, which most blues fans would be had specific tastes as well. But that doesn’t Wgritty, country blues, such as familiar with as the earliest recordings of a mean that the musicians themselves were so the music of Charlie Patton, Blind Willie Delta bluesman, before he achieved fortune, limited. McTell and Robert Johnson. The scratchy fame and an electric amplifier. The recordings Wald argues that the popular myth of recordings, rough vocals and raw, acoustic only feature blues and only feature simple the bluesman not only gives these musicians guitar sound evokes a powerful sense of guitar-based Delta blues. But what was short shrift by assuming their talents lay authenticity and pathos. A new book by not included? Waters described himself to in only one style, but more significantly, it musician and blues scholar Elijah Wald Lomax as “Stovall’s famous guitar picker,” is undergirded by a racist stereotype. By examines this tendency to privilege the not as a blues player. The repertoire he lists assuming that “real blues” is that played by country/Delta blues tradition over others for Lomax includes some blues songs (many rustic, heavy drinking, womanizing men of and the prevailing historical narrative of of which he learned from popular records), limited sophistication, and by romanticizing the blues that comes from such a stance. In but also includes seven Gene Autry songs rural Mississippi of the 1920s and ‘30s, white Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the and twelve “mainstream pop songs, including audiences have (however unintentionally) Invention of the Blues (HarperCollins, 2004), “Chattanooga Choo-Choo.” Wald is not reinforced the stereotype that fueled he argues that this version of blues history citing this information to discredit Waters’ blackface minstrelsy. was essentially created by white blues fans blues reputation (as if that were possible), He offers an alternative view of blues of the 1960s Folk Revival and isn’t reflective but rather to show that even Muddy Waters history, a view based on what black audiences of the history of the blues as a popular music played pop music. were listening to at the time (according to form. So what? So Muddy played Tin Pan Alley. record sales and living musicians’ memories Wald questions the storyline that Robert Wald argues that this fact, coupled with the of live performances). This view shows Johnson – that mythic figure who sold his other evidence he cites from interviews, record blues to be essentially a popular music form soul to the devil, lived fast and died young charts and music recordings, indicates that rooted in the African-American tradition, and lived the prototypical bluesman’s life – the popular conception of the bluesman is an not simply a rootsy, folk style divorced from was as influential as he’s given credit for. Of invention of white-owned record companies passing trends. Popular, city-based, slick- course, Johnson was an incredible musician, and white blues fans (and he admits many looking crooners such as Leroy Carr (who and Wald doesn’t quibble with that, but was times that this latter category includes Wald claims was far more influential than he an innovator? Was he influential? And himself ). Black musicians of the early 20th Robert Johnson or Charlie Patton) emerge, was he even a straight “bluesman?” Wald cites century (his focus is on the 1910s through as does a better sense of blues as it was played evidence that conflicts with our romantic, the Second World War) did not think of and as it was perceived by its contemporaries. nostalgic image of the blues guitarist sitting themselves as folk musicians, playing strictly Wald’s thesis is eye-opening, and his writing on his front porch or in a juke joint, playing traditional sounds from their heritage and style consistently addresses the fact that his blues songs straight from his heart. Most hearts. They were pop musicians who could readers might not go along with him. In musicians, in fact, played a variety of music play countless styles, the latest hit song and addition to providing numerous examples types: blues, ragtime, minstrel, Tin Pan whatever the audiences at the juke joint, to support his argument, he uses a tone Alley and whatever else was popular at the picnic, rent party or square dance wanted that seems to say, “Hey, I never would have time. We’ve come to know them as bluesmen to hear. Record companies, out to make believed it myself!” WXYC listeners and DJs because those who recorded them limited a profit, were only interested in recording who think they understand blues history what they recorded, not because they only certain types of black music. Folklorists such will be surprised, but will enjoy the read. played one type of music. as John and Alan Lomax were interested in As an example, Wald discusses Alan other types. And the white folk musicians ***

28 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 After reading Wald’s book, it becomes a well as field notes, photographs and other Books, 2004) little more difficult to buy into the romantic manuscripts available electronically to the •Waterman, Dick and Peter Guralnick. version of the blues presented in Alan public. Chronicling traditional Southern Between Midnight and Day: The Last Lomax’s The Land Where the Blues Began music with incredible breadth, this archive Unpublished Blues Archive. (Thunder’s (New Press, 2002), but a few pages in, the spans prison work songs, nursery rhymes, Mouth Press, 2003) world that he evokes sucks you in. Lomax, hollers, waltzes and corridos. Search for Waterman emerged in the mid-1960s along with his father, recorded much of what recordings by keyword or browse by genre as an agent, manager and advocate for the has become the foundation of our current (“Audio Subject”), song text (yes, they have blues musicians the Folk Revivalists were understanding of American folk, work and transcriptions of the lyrics of all the songs in “discovering” – Son House, Skip James, blues music. Traveling around the South this archive!), song/audio title or performer. Mississippi John Hurt. He was also a friend (and later, the rest of the world), Lomax met Or browse their photo archive (with many and a photographer, and this book collects and recorded musicians in prisons, work photos of the musicians themselves) by his photos and anecdotes about these camps, railroads and blues joints, and in this subject or title. The Library of Congress amazing musicians. book he tells the stories he learned during recently acquired the Alan Lomax collection And I just have to mention: those sessions. He fleshes out the lyrics to as well, and a small sampling of these •Lester, Julius. The Blues Singers: Ten Who worksongs by providing the backstory as recordings is available online. Hopefully Rocked the World. Illustrated by Lisa Cohen. the singer told it to him, and many of the they have plans to digitize more and to make (Jump at the Sun/Hyperion Books for songs, hollers and chants will be familiar to it freely accessible to the public. (See it at Children, 2001) those who have spent some time with his http://www.loc.gov/folklife/lomax/lomax. It’s a kids’ book (ages 5 and up) framed as field recordings. Interviews, photographs, html.) a grandfather tells his granddaughter about transcribed lyrics and more help to bring *** ten great blues artists. these songs alive, while providing context for Some other recent, noteworthy books the content, style and rhythm of the music. about blues history: JESSICA KEM is a graduate student He does not shy away from the difficult •Santoro, Gene. Highway 61 Revisited: The and aspiring librarian at UNC’s School of situations that, in many cases, spawned the Tangled Roots of American Jazz, Blues, Rock Information and Library Science. She also music he recorded, but the end result (which and Country Music. (Oxford University coordinates Hell or High Water where she gets again, is discolored by having just read Press, 2004) to play lots of scratchy, rustic country blues Wald’s book) is a sepia-tone photograph •Gordon, Robert. Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life music. She has been a DJ since 1998. depicting a distant, romantic past. While and Times of Muddy Waters. (Little, Brown the music described is some of the best ever & Company, 2002) Illustrations by Lisa Cohen from the recorded, the strange sense of nostalgia the •Segrest, James. Moanin’ at Midnight: The aforementioned book, The Blues Singers: Ten book evokes can be unsettling when one Life and Times of Howlin’ Wolf. (Pantheon Who Rocked the World. considers why few African-Americans look back fondly on tales of the rural South in the 1930s. *** While you’re likely to hear Lomax field recordings on WXYC, a new online archive makes a large collection available anytime. The Library of Congress’s American Memory project has made available almost 700 recordings in Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip (http://memory. loc.gov/ammem/lohtml/lohome.html). John and Ruby were Alan’s parents, and this collection documents “a three-month, 6,502-mile trip through the southern United States, beginning in Port Aransas, Texas, on March 31, 1939, and ending at the Library of Congress on June 14, 1939.” The Library of Congress’s Archive of American Folk Song (now the Archive of Folk Culture in the American Folklife Center), sponsored many Lomax recording trips and later released them commercially through a joint venture with Rounder Records. The Library now makes these recordings, as IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 29 R E V I E W S Recent releases reviewed by music director David Strader and DJs Todd Pontius, Sarah Carrier and PJ Disclafani.

THE CARRIERE REMARC LUTHER & TOBY BROTHERS Unreleased Dubs ‘94- Karny Sutra (Hit Musique Creole ’96 (Planet Mu) Thing) (Arhoolie) Remarc, the “Don of the Here’s some graceful and Bebe and Dolan Carri- Amen Break,” is one of cinematic instrumen- ere were Creole broth- the influential British tal scenery created by ers who spent their days jungle producers who organist/pianist Luther sharecropping in the isolated, rural town of emerged around 1993, at a time when the Hawkins and percussionist Toby Dammit, Lawtell, Louisiana. Until 20 years ago, they hardcore style of jungle was in decline, ush- alter ego of New York drummer-for-hire spent nights performing their “musique cre- ering in the birth of D ’n’ B and the “jump-up” Larry Mullins, who over the past decade has ole” for audiences, both black and white, at style. Ragga junglists and mash-up Sound- worked with the Residents, M. Gira, Ber- raucous house dance parties (a pastime now clash types would be nonexistent had it not trand Burgalat, Iggy Pop and others, in addi- apparently extinct). Here is a collection of been for Remarc’s influence. While the mid- tion to curating his increasingly interesting dance tunes, both standards and originals, ’90s “cut-up breaks” sound is making a resur- Hit Thing label (under whose auspices he’s that reflect upon their French and Cajun tra- gence, it has been influential for years on the put out reissues by Die Haut & Nick Cave, ditions as well as African-American culture. drill ’n’ bass scene (Squarepusher, etc.). Also Liaisons Dangereuses and enigmatic ‘50s Check out their waltzes, two-steps, mazur- note his influence on Soundmurderer (who concert organist Georges Montalba). The kas (central European dances) and their takes his name from Remarc) and breakcore twosome effortlessly lay out stately waltzes cover of “Baby Please Don’t Go.” Recorded types like DJ Scud. Eleven previously unre- and ballad settings demonstrating their in 1974, Bebe says, “I didn’t think American leased tracks accompany Planet-Mu’s 2003 fluency in all sorts of by-gone Americana people was interested in this French music.” “best of ” release Sound Murderer. Ragga (vaudeville, exotica and whimsical produc- Dolan died in 1983, Bebe in 2001. – S.C. vibes, hip-hop flavor and funk provided by tion techniques of the ‘60s among them), the classic Amen break. All dark, furious also evocatively represented scrapbook-style PRINCE PO underground dance tunes save for the mel- in the multi-panel booklet. A panoply of The Slickness (Lex) low “Andre’s Dream.” – S.C. sights and sounds on which to feast. – D.S. The Slickness marks an auspicious return for RAUSHAN BATTLES NYC MC/producer ORAZBAEVA EP C (Monitor) Prince Po, who was for- Akku (Dunya/Felmay) Battles is Ian Williams merly one-half of the Raushan Orazbaeva is (ex-Don Caballero, pivotal early ‘90s duo Organized Konfusion a young woman from Storm and Stress), John (as Prince Poetry) with Pharoahe Monch. southern Kazakhstan, a Stainer (ex-Helmet, This is his debut solo record, out on Warp- large semi-arid Central Tomahawk), Tyondai subsidiary Lex, which similarly convinced Asian country located at the crossroads of Braxton and David Konopka (ex-Lynx). another forgotten NYC rapper Jemini Russia, China and the Caspian Sea. Oraz- Pretty interesting pedigree, huh? They’ve (who appears on three tracks) to return to baeva is the greatest living interpreter of the been playing together since late 2002, and the game for his joint record with Danger kyl-kobyz, basically a two-stringed bowed this is their second EP. All the pictures I’ve Mouse from last year, Ghetto Pop Life. DM upright cello from the eighth or ninth cen- seen of Battles show guitarists playing key- oversaw this whole project (producing a tury, traditionally considered the instrument boards while minimal guitar lines loop and couple of tracks in the process), which also of shamans and magicians. The range of the build. Intricate keyboard parts are added features beats from Madlib, Anticon associ- kyl-kobyz is in roughly the same range as the and taken away. Everything is underpinned ate Jel, Richard X (the electro/mash-up pro- human voice, which makes these pieces full by interlocking rhythms. Imagine a post- ducer known for his work as Girls on Top), of emotion. These songs would go well with rock Phillip Glass or a funky and less con- J-Zone and Po himself, plus guest rhymes fiddles, overtone drones, the Dirty Three or frontational Black Dice. – T.P. from MF Doom, the Wu-Tang’s Raekwon Armenian duduk music. This is startling and others. What we get is a lethal mix and powerful stuff and perhaps the most of mainstream-flirting club bumpers and beatiful world music release I’ve heard in streetwise confessions. – D.S. 2004. – T.P. 30 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 CLARK-HUTCHIN- that they sing. It includes very detailed liner French. I gotta say, the majority of stuff is SON notes with pictures and lots of information rather thrilling if a bit ugly. In fact, some of A=MHsquared on the singers. This CD reminds me of raw this sounds sort of like the Urinals, Wolf (Akarma) Appalachian or Eastern European fiddles, Eyes or even electro-clash! –T.P. A reissue of Clark- African drums, southern soul singers and Hutchinson’s first LP Astor Piazolla. –T.P. DAUD KHAN released on Decca in Tribute to Afghanistan 1969, this album features multi-instru- GLENN BRANCA (Dunya) mentalist Andy Clark (piano, percus- Lesson No. 1 (Acute) Daud Khan is a master sion) and Mick Hutchinson, a guitarist Reissue of Branca’s first of the Afghan robab, a greatly respected in underground circles. solo album, originally plucked lute with three While immersed in the British psych scene released in 1980, which main strings and 17 (which included Soft Machine, who loaned was also the very first 99 sympathetic strings. The robab is related to Hutchinson and company equipment), Records title. With this the Indian sarod, but the ragas, folk songs Mick constantly sought inspiration from a first “lesson,” Branca moves away from the and ghazals (love songs) on here are very diversity of genres, particularly blues, jazz no wave rock outfits in an even more ambi- different from the musical traditions of that and Indian music. His long career started tious direction composing symphonies for country. The sarod on this record is very with tabla expert Sam Gopal, whose band guitar. While “Dissonance” is exactly as the solid, resonant and rather stately, with tablas played alongside Gong and Pink Floyd at title suggests, “Lesson” is accessible in com- providing an interesting counterpoint to the the legendary Technicolor Dream Festival parison. “Lesson No.1” is a gorgeous, shim- plucked rhythms. I enjoyed the emphasis on in London in 1967. Before A=MHsquared, mery pop song. “Dissonance” is on an indus- folk songs rather than the “classical” mate- Hutchinson and Clark were briefly in Vamp, trial egde, intense and repetitive, including rial on this release, and it’s all well-executed whose “Floating” appears on many a psych a sledgehammer. Added as a bonus track and very interesting. Khan’s playing and the compilation. Here you’ll find lengthy, hyp- is “Music for Bad Smells,” composed as a low voice of the robab remind me of banjo notic jams in the vein of blues/raga/neo- dance piece in 1982 for Twyla Tharpe. Until players Roscoe Holcomb and Uncle Dave classical. Technically astounding guitar work now the track was out-of-print. Features five Macon, but this would sound fine next to as well, with no studio effects used. Interest- guitars and the deadly duo of Lee Ranaldo some Dick Dale-style guitarbilly. –T.P. ing that upon its release, this album charted and Thurston Moore. “Music” opens with as high as No. 8 between Led Zeppelin and galloping rhythms and chiming harmonics, PEOPLE LIKE US Simon and Garfunkel. Those were different giving way to a brief ambience, then turn- Abridged Too Far times, eh? –S.C. ing lose a little post-punk funk. Liner notes (Ubuweb) by experimental guitarist Alan Licht and People Like Us (record- ETHIOPIQUES 18 remastering by the Flying Luttenbachers’ s ing moniker of Brit- Asguèbba! (Buda Weasel Walter. –S.C. ish sound collage artist Musique) Vicki Bennett) recently The latest in the Ethi- METAL URBAIN made her entire back catalog available for opiques series of music Anarchy in Paris free download on her website (http://www. from Ethiopia features (Acute) peoplelikeus.org/), and now here is Abridged contemporary music Metal Urbain were Too Far, a free, download-only CD. Consist- made by urban azmari, or Ethiopian bards. a legendary French ing mainly of tracks created for WFMU This is not the soul or funk featured on group from the late ‘70s, show “Do or DIY,” Bennett brings new life the earlier CDs in the series; this is more among the first to use to the hits of the Carpenters, Astrud Gil- similar to folk or coffeehouse music. Most primitive drum machines and entirely syn- berto, Lionel Ritchie, Frank Sinatra, Shirley of the tracks focus on vocal performances, thetic sounds within the punk idiom. As Bassey, Petula Clark and many others by accompanied by drums and the mèssenqo the detailed liner notes reveal, Metal Urbain imbuing them with timely social commen- (a single-stringed bowed fiddle), while a never really caught on in France, but they tary spotlighting in particular the transience few tracks feature a strange and wonderful had the first release ever on the influential of memory and the malleability of history in accordion accompaniment. And let me tell Rough Trade record label. Over the years the digital age. With this release PLU con- you: the vocals on this CD are exhilirating. the group has gained something of a cult tinues to demonstrate her uncanny knack The women’s voices are high pitched with- following, getting shout-outs from Steve for recontextualizing and revitalizing looped out a lot of resonance, with a strained sound Albini and others. The music sounds like sound bites, spoken word pieces and the conveying lots of emotion, while the men a weird combination of 1977 punk, 1982 chart-toppers of yesteryear. – P.D. sound darker, perfectly suited to the ballads new wave, and 1989 industrial, all sung in

IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 31 VARIOUS ARTISTS JOSEPHINE FOS- ous releases on Alien8 and Mille Plateaux, Dancehall Roots (Metro TER & THE SUP- is a seamless sequence, episodically weaving Doubles) POSED in and out of aggressive and majestic modes. Th e fi rst hit of the All the Leaves Are Select tracks were manipulated from perfor- computer-driven era of Gone (Locust Music) mances by Fly Pan Am, Christoph Migone dancehall was 1985’s Josephine Foster is a and Oren Ambarchi. – D.S. “Under Me Sleng Teng” psych-folk singer from by Wayne Smith and produced by Prince Chicago who fronts the duo Born Heller, THE FOREIGN (soon to be dubbed “King”) Jammy who Children’s Hour and this folk-rock-inclined EXCHANGE was already respected. Th e digital revolu- trio Th e Supposed, featuring Brian Good- Connected (Barely tion of the mid-’80s set the stage for ragga man on electric guitar and Rusty Peterson Breaking Even) as we know it today. Th is excellent compila- on drums. She used to study opera, and that Th e Foreign Exchange is tion pays homage to Jammy’s crew (includ- might inform the range and vulnerable qual- a long-distance hip-hop ing Bobby Digital and Steely & Clevie) and ity of her vocals – expressive and moving, collaboration between the slew of top DJs who made their names somewhere between Sandy Denny and Patti Phonte of Durham’s Little Brother and riding these tough digi-riddims. Before Smith. Th e calmer, more collected parts Dutch producer Nicolay. Th ey made this Jammy, Prince Jazzbo produced some early recall Denny-era Fairport Convention, but album entirely by swapping fi les on the digi-riddims, but no one looked back after they’re just as prone to erupt into controlled Internet, without having met in person. the “Sleng Teng” hit the fl oor. Jammy coaxed freak-outs marked by Goodman’s wild Nicolay’s beats are strong and well devel- some of the big names of the roots days into runaway-train fl ailing on his axe (almost oped throughout, often edited from his own the studio (such as Johnny Osbourne and sounding like an earthier Sonny Sharrock at live playing; they’re infused with neo-R&B/ Horace Andy), and he also shared some of times). Real nice. – D.S. electronic soul that’s an interesting variation the biggest DJs of the ‘80s, including Court- on, say, Ninth Wonder’s usual vintage soul- ney Melody, Tenor Saw, Ninjaman with his PANDA BEAR looped beats. Many guest emcees appear, unusual freestyle, Shabba Ranks in his early Young Prayer (Paw including Big Pooh of Little Brother. It’s cer- career and Nitty Gritty who was murdered Tracks) tainly a worthy “coming out party” for one- in 1991. Damn, that Casio SK1 is funky! Th is solo album from third of Little Brother who hasn’t received – S.C. Panda Bear of Brook- as much individual attention as Ninth Won- lyn experimentalists der. – D.S. JUKEBOXER Animal Collective is a In the Food Chain meditation on the death of his father. All THE EX (Absolutely Kosher) tracks are untitled, recalling the more serene Turn (Touch and Go) Th e brainchild of and restrained aspects of acoustic Animal Legendary Dutch anar- Brooklynite Noah Collective heard on Campfi re Songs and cho-punk polymaths Wall, Jukeboxer creates Sung Tongs: fl ighty, almost operatic vocals Th e Ex usher in their sophisticated, multi-fac- and graceful Segovia-esque guitar tapestries 25th year of activity eted indie pop for the discerning ear. In the (coupled with occasional piano and hand with this double album Food Chain, their second album, is a meticu- claps) add up to a lonesome, moving testa- of new material – their fi rst since the depar- lously-crafted extended work of sorts, mov- ment of loss. – D.S. ture of long-time bass player Luc Ex and the ing through jaunty synth-pop with female arrival of classically-trained double bassist vocals falling off a Magnetic Fields tree, TIM HECKER Roze Marie Heggen. Her arco lines slicing electronically-manipulated “folksy” bits Mirages (Alien8) jaggedly through the tightly-wound guitar (helped out in part by Tower Recordings/ Th is is the fourth album duels of Andy and Terrie Ex fondly recalls Wilco associate percussionist Tim Barnes) by Montreal ambient their albums with Tom Cora. Otherwise, this and melodic ambience that doesn’t sound sound sculptor Tim might be their most varied release in some too far from Th e Books or Four Tet minus Hecker under his own time, inspired both by their obvious disaff ec- the beats. Some tracks come across as casual name. Hecker’s touch at tion for recent U.S. big-stick global politics sub-genre dabbling, but moments of bril- constructing textural expanses of granular and their lengthy tours throughout Africa liance are frequent. – D.S. noise with a salient melodic/tender streak over the past two years (“Getatchew” is dedi- is readily comparable to that of Fennesz, cated to Ethiopian saxophonist Getatchew but Hecker might have the upper hand at Mekurya and “Th eme from Konono” is a cover delicately marrying the two (at least over an of a tune by Congolese brass band Konono.) album-length canvas). Th is, like his previ- Th e Ex still has muchto teach us. – D.S.

32 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 L O C A L R E V I E W S Music inspired, created and produced by Chapel Hill, reviewed by music director David Strader.

RAZZLE set out a variety of gentle and very pleas- COLD SIDES* All Those Wasted ant arrangements (harpsichord, melodica, Perpetual Hypeness (Y)ears (Pox World Fender Rhodes, maybe a hammer dulci- Machine (FrequeNC) Empire) mer?) to go along with Roehrig’s gripping The debut release on new Local metaloid four- tales. Hopefully this can act as a teaser for local label FrequeNC piece Razzle may have more Erie Choir to come. – run by DJ duo Moth- broken up, but they’ve ersbrothers – is also the left a mighty testament of their power and AUDUBON PARK* first foray onto the 12” EP format for ever- facility on this, what is to be their only Crookshanks on the evolving quartet Cold Sides. The group’s full-length. Featuring The Torch Marauder Island of Missed Did- final recordings with now-departed drum- Dave Bjorkback on drums, Dave Cantwell dles EP (self-released) mer Dave Cantwell, the A-side offers a snap- (of Cantwell, Gomez and Jordan) on bass, Audubon Park har- shot of their limber, Can-informed rhythms Bob Wall (Hotel Motel, Spacelab) on gui- nesses the diverse tal- heard in a more rock-like context, marked by tar and Mike Robb (ex-Goatthrower) on ents of local regulars frenzied declaimed vocals, manipulated gui- another guitar, they’ve got nimble dual-gui- David Nahm (ex-V. Sirin), Robert Biggers tar and ample effects. The B-side does away tar harmonies steeped in vintage Thin Lizzy (Cold Sides, The Nein, ex-White Octave), with the live drums, instead using drum and Iron Maiden, mammoth drumming and Finn Cohen (The Nein, ex-White Octave), machines on alternate versions of two tracks soaring falsetto vocals in spades, with just Matt Kalb (Hotel Motel) and Ben Spiker, from the A-side. As is per usual with Cold enough mathy stop-start dynamics to keep and channels them into some pretty irresist- Sides, neither side is a completely accurate your ears on their toes, but never letting the ible old school slacker indie-rock. Loose reflection of their current activity (which structure impede the rock. and off-the-cuff – yet packed with complex features Crowmeat Bob on saxophone and instrumental shifts – it maintains a decep- effects), though an anticipated early 2005 NORTH tive sophistication, perhaps best heard on release with the current line-up might help ELEMENARY the stand-out “Tree Full of Snakes.” They catch us up to date. Lose Your Favorite also run through a low-key, almost free- Things (Sit-N-Spin) associative sounding rendition of The Ghost PYKRETE This is the second album of Rock’s “Old Haunts” which could hardly Over Hylaster (Cirrus from the local outfit be more unlike the original. Oxide) fronted by ex-Comas Pykrete is the latest solo drummer John Harrison, further honing THE GHOST OF project of local music their relaxed, cozy and slightly psychedelic ROCK fixture Chuck Johnson, pop into something more distinctly their The Ghost of Rock known to wield his guitar (amongst other own. Ranging from sparse piano-led brood- (Demonbeach) stringed instruments) in Shark Quest, Idyll ers to more outward-looking big-hook gui- High energy, beer- Swords, Micro-East Collective and formerly tar anthems (such as on the monstrous title flinging, Dead Boys- in Spatula. Named after an ill-fated World track), this is an ideal soundtrack to lazy style punk doesn’t come War II project to build ships out of ice and summer night porch-sitting. finer in these parts than The Ghost of Rock, sawdust, Pykrete is Johnson’s first overtly which annexes half of Pipe – Ron Liberti beat-oriented endeavor. Over Hylaster finds ERIE CHOIR and Clif Mann – with Jeff Clarke and Rock him sequencing and processing an array Bad Tsars is a Drag EP Forbes in tow to keep time and add muscle. of electronics into dense, jagged industrial (self-released) This is their first full-length, reprising the soundscapes occasionally flecked with dis- Erie Choir is Sorry tracks from their Sit-N-Spin 7” from two torted, Pan Sonic-y beats and often yielding About Dresden front- years ago and adding a clutch of new ones captivating results. man Eric Roehrig’s side for a quick, red hot burst of punk rock with project and occasion for no frills and all the edges, no fewer than half *Artists featured on WXYC’s downloadable more introspective singer-songwriting than of which could be considered “instant clas- compilation, Bandwidth: Celebrating 10 Years of is usually allotted within SAD’s stricter sics” in my estimation. Internet Radio on WXYC-Chapel Hill (see “Web- rocking confines. It’s not “solo” proper, as casting Anniversary Events” on page 22). he’s helped out by various friends, who help

IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 33 WEBCASTING continued from page 23 POSSE continued from page 11 between revolutionary pro-life art and reaction- ary pro-death art (3). Michael Shoffner: The biggest fear I had the straddling a Flying V. How are you sup- whole time was that we would get scooped. You posed to play it while it’s inserted in some Therefore, to sum up these musings, a had to assume that somebody else had thought woman’s vagina? There are many reasons message not just for Courtney but also for of it because it’s almost never do you think of why we make the decisions we do, but we are everyone (and in the spirit of Destroy All something and execute before anybody else in enlightened to possibilities by the example of Monsters): “Peace, Love and Doom.” the entire world does. So David and I were others. Female creators are not as visible as pretty much sweating the whole time – trying male ones (women are incredibly visible, but 1. Dean Abt, “Music Video: Impact of the to get around the problems, light a fire under just as passive objects like Carmen Electra), Visual Dimension.” From Popular Music and everybody else, etc. and young women are forced to actively seek Communication. Newbury Park: Sage Publi- As it turned out, other stations had possibilities outside of conventional roles cations, 1987. thought of it. Bellingham, Washington’s and forge into male territory. That takes a 2. Hakim Bey, “Critique of the Listener.” KUGS (another 89.3 FM!) started webcast- lot of balls! But should they create their own From Radiotext(e). New York: Semiotext(e), ing their signal via CU-SeeMe a couple of uniquely female space or should they try and 1993. weeks after WXYC’s official announce date. break into the male space? By doing so are 3. Hakim Bey, T.A.Z.. New York: Autono- And Kansas University’s KJHK followed they required to imitate men? Or can they media, 1991. in early December, also using CU-SeeMe. just be themselves? Georgia Tech’s college radio station WREK Surely these issues and questions have SARAH CARRIER was hired at WXYC deserves extra credit for actually webcasting been addressed over and over again by those in the lovely spring of 1998. She works at the via their own self-written audio-encoding more adept than I, and yet we continue to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. and webcasting software. WREK success- wonder about them. Ideally we listen to On her website, you may be interested in find- fully beta-tested their Internet simulcast in music and play music, engaging in all kinds ing out about her handmade stuffed animals early November 1994, but they did not go of art and creative endeavors, to try and and a CD of music, all of which are for sale or into official release until early 1995. maybe “change things.” What else is going possibly for trade if it’s good stuff, but not until Doug Matthews: This was definitely one of to save us from boredom, disillusionment much much later in the year (http://www.unc. those independent discovery things where a lot and mediocrity? But artists also have a more edu/~scarrier). of people all at once said, “Hey, wait a minute selfish reason (other than making money) – – I can make noise all the time!” seeking to escape reality. More importantly It’s true. In cyberspace, everyone can hear they seek independence and power through you stream. creation. According to surveys, of the major- ity of people who say that music is “very TIM ROSS, a volunteer computer program- important” in their lives, most of them are mer for WXYC, is getting his master’s degree women and in comparison with men, they in information science from UNC’s School of are also more likely to have music-inspired Information and Library Science. He has been fantasies (1). That means that women are a DJ since 1991. not only the backbone of the music industry but they are also visual, active listeners, and much more so than men. Poised and ready for action! But something is preventing them from action. Hakim Bey, in his “Critique of the Lis- tener,” wonders if listeners simply see or do they see and act (2)? This passivity affects the general audience, not just women. Inevitably one must wonder, too, about the kind of art being produced. To borrow from Bey yet again:

We support artists who use terrifying material in some ‘higher cause’ – who use loving/sexual material of any kind, however shocking or ille- gal – who use their anger and disgust and their true desires to lurch towards self-realization and beauty and adventure. ‘Social Nihiism,’ yes – but not the dead nihilism of Gnostic self-dis- Illustrations by Ryan Martin. gust. Even if it’s violent and abrasive, anyone with a vestigial third eye can see the differences 34 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 CHAPEL HILL BEATS DON’T BREAK For the local addicts getting by in the Triangle, get your dose day to day with recurrent parties taunting as often as every week. Those who know say that Cuntry Kings are the coolest queer, funny performance-art, activist, dance-splosive drag troop in hundreds if not thousands of miles. They perform second Satur- days hosting their monthly drag open-mic “Drag It In, Drag It Out,” and seasonal super-shows (i.e. Valentine’s, Halloween) at Bully’s Basement on Broad Street in Durham. Performers from the community are encouraged to show up with music and props at second Saturday shows and the main show starts around 10:45. Durham’s The troop began performing in October 2002 and has toured Ashe- drag troupe The Cuntry ville, Chicago, NYC, London and Amsterdam. With pro, in-house Kings posing choreography and exciting music, most acts involve multiple per- at Bully’s Basement. formers, costumes, props and projected video. Stay after the show Photo by Ellie for the DJs Mothersbrothers (DJ Nasty Boots and DJ Juan Vel- Blake. cro) freak party. Check out the website www.thecuntrykings.com, Lament the hiatus of the time-trialed Dyssembler, but do not fear and follow the call of the Cuntry King’s manifesto: “We believe its demise. This monthly party is currently in reassembly and will performance is radical theory in action. . . Come play with us.” return again to save the day with the same tight fitting costume it’s had for the past five years. Morphing out of the Lingual parties once Sporadic and exceptional event RECESS was born from the desire held at Go! Studios, Dyssembler began at Henry’s Bar and Bistro fea- to see and hear locals in unconventional performance and to take turing local DJs, live video and the occasional dance party squeezed advantage of the right-on atmosphere of local venue Nightlight. into one tight space. Busting out of Henry’s, it then took it to the big Shows usually consist of five short stacked or overlapping sets. Past top at Ringside in Durham where four floors of live jungle, hardcore, favorites have included Dave Bjorkback’s (the Torch Marauder) solo dancehall and techno action were almost enough to display the full multi-phonetic screeching vocal performance, and Chuck Johnson talents of the Dyssembler crew. Built from the area’s finest electronic and Randy Ward surrounding the RECESS audience with quad- musicians, the party has also featured special guests, including Kiko, raphonic whirling sounds. The experience is massive. The next Oliver Long and $tinkworx. With Dyssembler core members fight- RECESS will be a workshop and audience participation performance ing for parties elsewhere in the world, the event is currently regroup- event based around dissecting familiar electronics and playing the ing. When it again emerges with a new moniker, you will know it. freakish results (“circuit bending”). Contact robertbiggers@hotmail. com for booking/etc. and check nightlight.dyss.net for the schedule. Triple T’s rocks steady every Thursday 9:30 p.m.-2:00 a.m. at Nightlight. This party pumps a musical appreciation of the “golden Pick a Wednesday, any Wednesday, for the hip-hop showcase era” of ‘70s and ‘80s electronic music, new wave, no wave, nerd Study Hall or Fridays’ funk, dancehall and classic hip-hop hap- wave, italo disco, industrial, synth rock and synth pop, punk and pening Brooklyn Nights with Kid AG at The Library (library post-punk, kraut, art funk, EBM, goth and electropunk with some rocks.com). Or soul shaking ‘60s and ‘70s funk, soul, latin, afro- newer artists blended in for extra flavor. Conceived and organized beat and Jamaican groove spins at SOLID! every third Friday at by Clarqoline Productions (Clarque and Caroline from Shallow Be Jackpot in Raleigh with the go-go girls-studded version at Ring- Thy Name) and the Mothersbrothers, the party lures area bedroom side in Durham on first Saturdays (www.solidsoundsystem.com). DJs under the disco ball with guest performers nearly every week Complete a week with Federal Soul’s classic ‘60s and ‘70s R&B, that have included Mole-1 from the Dyssembler crew, Uzi, Viva funk, soul, jazz and reggae at the Federal in Durham (www.the- from Jett Rink and Misty Touch. http://www.frequenc.net/triplet. federal.net), and rest assured after sexy ‘60s and ‘70s sitar beat, yé-yé, latin soul, Bollywood breaks, Asian pop and sleazy lounge WXYC breaks loose from the station every semester to get some one Saturday a month at Ringside with The Honey Machine. fresh air and incite the freshest moves. We’ve had three crankin’ early Annie Blak- ‘90s dances, and we are legendary for our ‘80s dances, held every eney-Glazer and DJs semester since 1992. New to you is also the Best of the Year par- Ellie Blake ties, a dance party in January mixing WXYC DJs’ favorite flavors of and Dana Moseley at the year. Keep up to date at our website, www.wxyc.org. –Ellie Blake WXYC’s 2002 Early ‘90s Dance. Photo by Reynolds Richter.

IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 35 PROGRAMMING: COME HELL OR HIGH WATER WXYC brings you gems from the treasure of UNC’s Southern Folklife Collection. BY AARON SMITHERS hile best known for our free North Carolina at Chapel Hill Manuscripts legendary Ashley, but also as the first time a format programming, every Department. young Doc Watson appeared on record. WSunday from 1-2 p.m., WXYC The SFC is centered around the John Hell or High Water was developed in presents a block of programming that joins Edwards Memorial Collection, a massive the late 1990s by long time WXYC music forces with the Southern Folklife Collection assembly of early commercial recordings of director Franz Kunst who also worked at the to bring Hell or High Water to the airwaves. American folk and traditional music com- SFC and then station manager Claire Jarvis. Much like the power of pimentos and cheese piled by Australian collector John Edwards The opportunity to make the largely unob- combined together as one, the scratches and prior to his untimely death in 1960. The tainable music recordings, lovingly collected pops of 78 rpm records and high lonesome archives are an invaluable resource of old- and donated by people like Earle and many hoots and wails broadcast during the show time, country-western, hillbilly, bluegrass, others, available on the radio was impos- reinforce the preeminence of Southern cul- blues, gospel, Cajun and zydeco musics, sible to ignore. Perpetuated by students, tural expression. but are also rich in materials from the folk library employees and volunteers who share Hosted by a rotating crew of dedicated revival of the 1950s as well as early and a respect and adoration for the music, Hell DJs, Hell or High Water is a unique oppor- contemporary rock and roll and Southern or High Water is a truly distinctive explo- tunity for listeners to hear a variety of music music throughout the 20th century. The ration of multiple facets and dimensions of held in the SFC archives. One of the nation’s SFC recently acquired a donation of one of Southern vernacular culture. primary archival collections of American the largest and most significant private col- Shows are constructed according to the folk music and popular culture, the SFC lections of country music from the extraor- interests of the weekly DJ and can focus contains over 160,000 sound recordings dinary collector and human being Eugene on a particular artist, such as a recent show including cylinders, acetate discs, wire Earle of Nipomo, California. Earle was on Waylon Jennings; a theme, like “chicken recordings, 78 rpm and 45 rpm discs, LPs, not only a collector of ephemera, however, songs;” a regional style, like Memphis Jug cassettes, CDs and open reel tapes. Located for in 1961 he and Ralph Rinzler traveled Bands; an era, like the roots of rock’ n’ roll; on the fourth floor of Wilson Library and to North Carolina where they recorded the or even a particular record, like a recent open to the public for research, the SFC music for Old Time Music at Clarence Ash- show which compared The Byrds’ cover is but one component of the University of ley’s, a document significant not only for the songs on their seminal country-rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo with the original recordings. These examples are but a hint of the individuality expressed on each Hell or High Water program. So do yourself a favor on Sunday: after you are done listening to The Orange County Special, stay tuned for Hell or High Water and experience a piece of the precious cultural resources available here in Chapel Hill. But don’t miss Broken Music at 2 p.m., or the DJ at 3, or The Backyard BBQ, or the Thursday Night Feature or the New Music Show on Monday nights. Aw, hell, just listen to WXYC all the time.

AARON SMITHERS is a graduate student in the folklore curriculum and has been a DJ at college radio stations for eight years. Born and raised in Austin, Texas and a little too proud of it, he plays in the alt.country/sadcore/indie rock These Edison wax cylinders date from the early 20th century and are just a taste of the treasure band Mount Moriah and wishes his noisecore/ trove of Southern culture offered by the Southern Folklife Collection on the UNC campus. Photo by death metal/old time band Frog Against Toad Sarah Dougherty. existed somewhere other than his head and conversations with his cat Dr. Thunder. 36 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 A WXYC LISTENERS’ GUIDE XYC offers mostly free-format cally harder to feature during regular pro- programming composed of new gramming. Electro-acoustic and musique IndyMedia News releases and DJs’ individual se- concrete compositions, avant-garde jazz, Every other Sunday 5-6 p.m. W The collaboration between WXYC lections that allows a single hour of radio to creative improvised music and other stylistic represent diverse styles of music from across approaches inclined to the experimental or and the N.C. Independent Media Cen- the world. Outside this programming, a few conceptual are likely to be heard. ter began when WXYC expressed inter- hours each week are dedicated to specialty est in developing a locally produced news programming that can better represent par- Chew the Fat with Charlie and Matt show. IndyMedia News began in January ticular styles and concepts. Every other Sunday 5-6 p.m. with the immediate goal of reporting on Added to our schedule in the fall of 2003, the extreme police violence suffered by The New Music Show this talk show is an opportunity for the local activists in Miami, Florida during Mondays 9-10 p.m. UNC student body president to communi- the free trade area of the Americas pro- The WXYC music department spins recent cate issues pertinent to UNC and campus test in November of 2003. For this first arrivals and offers you a first glimpse into life with the listening community. Guests broadcast, IndyMedia News weaved new music, complete with commentary and join the student body president to discuss together the stories of four locals from review. educational matters specific to UNC, as very different walks of life with informa- well as those affecting higher education in tion about free trade economics to give The Inside Track general. listeners the Miami story that main- Wednesdays, 9-10 p.m. stream news media refused to cover. The Inside Track features a new release Backyard Barbeque The program emerged from the same played in its entirety. Listeners can hear the Sundays 8-9 p.m. sense of urgency that built the now best in new releases set apart from WXYC’s The Backyard Barbeque features North global Indymedia network. Just as inde- regular music mix. Carolina musicians, with a focus on Tri- pendent journalists and media activists angle artists. Hosted by Independent music banded together for the first time under Thursday Night Feature columnist Chris Toenes, the BBQ serves up the Indymedia name in Seattle in 1999 Thursdays, 9 p.m.-midnight N.C. classics as well as new additions to the to cover the World Trade Organization WXYC DJs show and tell their knowl- local music scene and hosts local artists in protest, Indymedia came together in edge of a particular artist, genre, movement the studio such as Cold Sides, Corey Parker, Chapel Hill in 2004 to provide cover- or theme. Like audio documentaries, past International Orange and others. age of the stories skewed or ignored by programs have included Japanese psyche- the mainstream media giants. The goal delic music, a survey of calypso, a tribute to Sports Rap of the program is to get at what is really French avant-garde jazz label Actuel, Finn- Sundays 9-10 p.m. important, life changing and often in our ish underground rock and showcases of DJs’ Sports Rap is a call-in talk show devoted backyard, while still presenting an issue personal collections of recorded rarities. entirely to sports. Tune in for the latest on in its entirety. the Tarheels and teams from across the state Topics covered include the 2004 State Orange County Special and nation. of the Union address, sexual and domes- Sunday 10 a.m.-1 p.m. tic violence in N.C., war profiteering, na- WXYC’s longest-running specialty show, New Science Experience tional immigration policy, copyright and this program features a wide variety of tra- Sundays 10 p.m.-midnight many more issues all with an emphasis ditional and neo-traditional music from The New Science Experience (NSE) focus- on local action. around the world, including bluegrass, blues, es on all forms of electronic/dance music, Each one-hour show contains two zydeco, Celtic, Latino, Eastern Sufi music, with no restrictions on type or genre. Typi- prerecorded news pieces on both local etc. along with information about tradition- cally, NSE highlights the art of live mixing and national issues, as well as a live call- al music in the Triangle and more. with turntables, though live sample-based in segment in which guests discuss the constructions/performances occasionally complexities of the day’s topic with host Hell or High Water take place. Each week the show is hosted Robin Sinhababu. This fall’s shows will Sunday 1-2 p.m. by one WXYC DJ and one guest DJ. Local feature a live discussion between repub- See “Come Hell or High Water,” on page club and closet DJs alike bring a wide array lican, democrat, third party and no-party 36. of musical styles to the show, including but representatives discussing November’s not limited to ambient, house, techno, drum presidential election. IndyMedia News Broken Music and bass, trance, IDM, electro, experimental needs help! Contact producer Danyele Sunday 2-3 p.m. and hip-hop. McPherson at [email protected] to Broken Music is an hour devoted to longer, volunteer, and visit www.nc.indymedia. more “difficult” pieces of music that are typi- org for more info. IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 37 TRIBUTE TO GO! ROOM FOUR: Gone. In a spring in the early aughts, in the late prom there that happened to be one of the morning of my love life, in the mid-evening more poignantly lonely nights of my life. of the day, whatever day it was, I trailed a But Go! Studios closed after A.C. New- girl with whom I would eventually share man’s August 15 hurrah, and it’s not even two months of kisses to Go! Room 4, about that Canadian asshole’s fault, but rather which I had only heard things like, “You mine. I couldn’t even manage to show up at can sit on the stairs while bands play, and the place once in the past six months, not there are couches upstairs. You’d like it.” even to any of the benefit shows nor even to Which was true, as I’ve always liked having see any bands that I genuinely like and knew a place to sit, the exception being the Smash- in advance were coming. This whole thing is ing Pumpkins show at the Dean Dome I my fault, and I’m sorry. attended in eighth grade at which the chairs I’ve drawn several things from Go!’s were all tied together and bunched very downfall, though: 1) Rock clubs should closely, and I couldn’t move keep enough money for them- my legs without touching my selves rather than giving so dad’s feet. So I was quite will- much to the Torch Marauder. ing to give Go! a chance, even 2) Nobody cares about going if it was to see Atom and His to rock shows to hang out any- Package, whose sense of humor more. Maybe this is because I can never imagine coming to George Bush has made us appreciate. That night yielded poorer (or richer?) financially unforgettable memories like and/or in some other way getting Atom to do a rousing (don’t forget to vote!). Or, as rendition of the birthday song in my case, maybe it’s because for the aforementioned girl, you don’t really want to bother whose birthday it indeed was, cemented seeing a rock show unless fucking Robert in my mind an impression of Go! Studios Fripp and maybe Christian Vander are there as definitely the best fucking rock venue in shoving mega-nasty guitar notes and drum Chapel Hill or Carrboro. poundings down into your face, and maybe As I’m sure was the same conclusion Bruce Springsteen’s standing in the audience reached by most everyone else in this town. next to you, just pounding his fist in the Consider: At what other venue would you air with his head hanging down, the sweat be able to see Damo Suzuki make a mockery that’s dripping from his nose collecting in a of himself and know that you are definitely pool on the floor that you just know some not the only person in the room who under- girl is going to slip on, so you’re just stand- stands the historical context that makes the ing there totally prepared to catch her and affair so depressing? At what other venue give her that smile you’ve been saving for the would you, for some weird reason, end up moment you fall in love. going to a Mike Kinsella and Rainer Maria But there’s not even a chance of that hap- show only to find out that the club obviously pening anymore, I guess. failed to promote it properly because you Rest in peace, Go! Studios. were one of only eight people in attendance? – Stefan Mlot At what other venue would your friend be able to have sex with a sound guy on top of EDITOR’S NOTE: The Go! performance the bar? space will soon open its doors as your new I loved that place. Sure, everybody walk- favorite local bar. New space owners Lyle Col- ing to and from the bar or the stage or wher- lins, Wes Lowder, Mike Ellis and Bill Fischer ever made it impossible to plant yourself in plan to open by Halloween. Recording studios one spot for the duration of even one song. and band space will also reside in the rest of the Sure, I had to spend a WXYC/WXDU Go! space.

38 IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 www.WXYC.org

IN/AUDIBLE fall 2004 39