An anomaly in today's hit-driven radio, WFMU-FM is an oasis in the New York marketplace. Founded in the late 1950s as a part of Upsala College and becoming independent in 1994, the beloved station is one of this country's last bastions of noncommercial, "free form" programming, with music selected by the eclectic taste and knowledge of the DJ, not some industry consultant. With madcap zeal and the battle cry of artistic freedom, the station has served as a musical education and inspirational soundtrack to the brightest and best minds within its reach, documented by its beautifully garish program guide, LCD (Lowest Common Denominator). The publication ceased in 1998, but for those of us who missed out the first time, senior disc jockey Dave the Spazz has assembled The Best of LCD: The Art & Writing of WFMU-FM 91.1FM, recently published by the Princeton Architectural Press. From missives on "monster punk garage music" to Dadaists Coyle & Sharpe to anti-rock-and-roll books from the born-again community to songwriter Doc Pomus, every page is an eyeball-twitching, gut-busting wonder.
Forever remembered for her three James Bond soundtrack theme songs, the big, bold voice of Dame Shirley Bassey is back with a powerhouse new album that defies her 70 years. Next week Decca Records releases Get the Party Started, a collection of her previous hits and graceful covers including the title track by Pink, Lionel Richie's "Hello," and Grace Jones' "Slave to the Rhythm." After knocking out the crowd at last year's Glastonbury festival and thrilling new listeners for the past few decades with cool collaborations with Yello and the Propellerheads, a handful of hip producers and remix agents have spun 10 of her classics for a new age. Revisiting "You Only Live Twice," "Big Spender," and "What Now My Love," smoking new beats, guitar lines, and orchestral thunderclaps make this a must-hear experience.
There's something to be said for those minds that tilt sideways and see mankind through the lens of Kant, Kierkegaard and Sartre. For eight years now the academics at Chicago's Open Court Publishing have wet their quills in the zeitgeist of modern icons in their Popular Culture & Philosophy series, dismantling everything from Quentin Tarantino and Monty Python to The Sopranos and the Atkins Diet. With previous volumes on Bob Dylan, U2, and the Grateful Dead, the book series has taken on the grandest of all rock bands, lifting Pink Floyd up for pontification in Aristotle's garden. Subtitled Careful With That Axiom, Eugene!, Pink Floyd & Philosophy is a heady 300-page rush of essays by 19 department chairs, professors, and freelancers.
With a guest appearance by De La Soul and a storyline that's just been optioned by Chris Rock, five MCs have joined forces for the preschool set as The Dino-5. Animated videos are soon to air on Noggin TV, and a nationwide tour is in the works for this summer, but just who are DJ Stegosaurus, Billy Brotosaurus, MC T-Rex, Tracy Triceratops, and TEO Pterodactal? Put away your pick and shovel: This prehistoric crew is none other than Prince Paul, Wordsworth, the Jurassic 5's Chali Tuna, Digable Planets' Lady Bug Mecca, and The Roots' Scratch, respectively, as the colorful young dinosaurs. The Baby Loves Music Records label is releasing the self-titled CD in early April, narrated by spoken-word artist Ursula Rucker.
With a rush like the first road trip of spring, the B-52s are back next week after a decade of silence with a rousting bop-'til-you-drop CD. Titled Funplex, the floor-shaking Astralwerks release is a time trip to the golden era of carefree college radio, with the beehive harmony sway of Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson and the unique vocal styling of Fred Schneider, cutting through today's gloomy emo haze with a love-shack karate chop to the sacroiliac. Helmed by Keith Strickland, the band's original drummer who picked up main guitar duties after the death of Ricky Wilson in 1985, highlights on the hook-heavy disc include the afternoon delight of "Ultraviolet," the martini-mile drive of "Deviant Ingredient," and the meet-me-at-the-mall hedonistic sass of the title track.
While critics are gushing over Cat Power's recent all-covers collection Jukebox, my pick for the cover-girl showdown is this coming Tuesday's release of Mockingbird by Allison Moorer. Opening up with the album's only original (and title track), 11 covers of songs by women fill out the lady-power salute, even slipping in to Cat Power's own "Where Is My Love." Plucking from the songbook of the greatest women songwriters, selections range from Patti Smith's "Dancing Barefoot" to Gillian Welch's "Revelator" to Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now." Recorded in a breezy week at producer Buddy Miller's Dogtown Studio, highlights also include Ma Rainey's "Daddy, Goodbye Blues" (featuring Moorer's husband, Steve Earle, on roots guitar) and the enraptured pine of Nina Simone's "I Want a Little Sugar In My Bowl."
The hip-hop sound of the 1980's and 1990's gets peeled back like an onion this Tuesday, with Blue Note Records' release of Droppin' Science. Surveying the history of the label's catalog of funky vintage jazz breakbeats, broken down for use as the foundation of a whole new genre, the iconic label presents the original tracks and a look at the hip-hop gold each song inspired. From the "sampleography" of the Beastie Boys pulling from Jeremy Steig's "Howling For Judy" from 1970 into their 1994 hit "Get It Together," to A Tribe Called Quest, Main Source, De La Soul, DJ Krush, and J Dilla each copping a piece of 1974's "Think Twice" by Donald Byrd, the connect-the-dots history of sticky finger beat-making is a fascinating ride. Thirteen original classics fill the CD release, also available on old-school slipmat-scratching LP vinyl and stylish individual ring-tones of the original sampled loops. Other highlights include Lou Donaldson "Who's Makin' Love (To Your Old Lady)" from 1969, lifted by Marley Marl, Mary J. Blige and Biggie Smalls, and Joe Williams' "Get Out Of My Life Woman" from 1966, nicked by Biz Markie, Kool G Rap and Jill Scott.
