The Larry Rivers Memorial HourAs of June 1, 2007, this page will no longer be updated. Please visit our new site to access newly added programs. Born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg, the rebellious Larry Rivers (1923-2002) was a jazz saxophonist until he encountered Georges Braque's use of musical symbolism in a painting and decided to make a career change. John Gruen once described River's paintings as "semi-abstract, semi-realistic, pop-artish, post-romantic, or neo-classic." |
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Bangbara: Music of West Java - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast June 5, 2006 A program of contemporary works featuring traditional Indonesian instruments, kecapi (plucked zither) and suling (bamboo flute). This music comes from the Sundanese people, an ethnic Indonesian group from the western part of Java, and incorporates cultural elements from both the western and central parts of Java. In these selections, the Indonesian artist Endang Sukandar is heard in selections from his album Kecapi Suling: Bangbara. WPS1 would like to dedicate this program to the thousands of Indonesians who died, and to those who have lost everything during the earthquake disaster in May 2006. (30 minutes) Playlist 01 Landangan Naek Ngahelas (Affected) 02 Bangbara (Insect) 03 Santika (A Wise Man) 04 Adu Manis (Harmony) |
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Shift Soora: Music of Iran - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast May 22, 2006 Music rescued by artist Michael Fabian from old vinyl recordings, probably from the 1940s and 1950s. A soora (or sura) is any of the 114 chapters or sections of the Koran (Quran). In researching this music we ran across these astonishing mystic graphic images generated by indexing verses and sections of the Koran. (29 minutes) Playlist 01 Del Beykna 02 Shahar Sookoot 03 Hashim Hargis 04 Azadah 05 Hayada |
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"Black Star at the Point of Darkness" - listen | listen with RealPlayer Compilation of music Paul Bowles composed or recorded live in Tangier in the 1960s and 1970s, with thoroughly absorbing 1990 readings of short stories that include "The Successor" and "An Inopportune Visit," as well as poems such as "Here I Am." Produced by Randall Barnwell. |
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Christian Marclay's "djTrio" - listen | listen with RealPlayer "Not a band but an idea," Marclay says of this compilation of live performances by the best avant-deejays - around: Toshio, Olive, Marina Rosenfeld and Erik M., as well as Marclay himself. Artist and musician Christian Marclay founded this rotating trio in 1996 to promote the notion of the deejay as an ensemble player rather than a soloist. "I believe a good deejay should be able to play music with others, like any legitimate musician.," he has said. This recording documents several Marclay improvisations with four of the best experimental turntablists of the last decade: Toshio Kajiwara, dj Olive, Marina Rosenfeld and Erik M. Tracks were recorded live in Pittsburgh, New York, Detroit, Washington DC, Paris, and the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, NY. Marclay is represented by the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. |
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Dr. Beyond's Lonely Hearts Saloon - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast February 14, 2005 On Valentine's Day, treat your heartbreak to this compilation of aching country-western tunes from Doc Beyond, the deejay persona of James Elaine (produced by WPS1's William Basinski). Elaine, curator of Hammer Projects at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, is a prolific record collector who has created such classic country-music compilations as, "Excuse Me, I Think I've Got a Heartache." "Pretty World, Weeping Willow," and our special favorite, "Halo in HI-Fi." Elaine isn't above lounge muzak either. "Stardust in Electro-Lux", "LinoleumHeights," and "Moon-Glo on Hamilton Beach" are a few of these titles available by special order. With co-curators Christopher Miles and Aimee Chang, Elaine recently organized "Thing: New Sculpture from Los Angeles" -- quite possibly the hottest art show in the country at this moment -- for the Hammer Museum, where it remains on view through June 5, 2005. On February 26,2005 "The Films of James Elaine & William Basinski" will be screened at the Red Cat Theater in the Disney Concert Hall. Visual Music: SEE HEAR NOW! Playlist 01 I Just Destroyed the World, Conway Twitty 02 Weary Blues from Waitin', Wanda Jackson 03 The Grand Tour, George Jones 04 I've Learned, tammy Wynette 05 Touch My Heart, Ray Price 06 Just Out of Reach, Sammi Smith 07 I almost Forgot Her Today, Carl Smith 08 A tear Dropped By, Jean Shepard 09 The Mood I'm In, Melba Montgomery 10 Unfaithful Arms, Wynn Stewart 11 Crazy Arms, Dottie West 12 If Crying Would Make You Care, Webb Pierce 13 If Lonliness Can Kill Me, Loretta Lynn 14 A Picture of Me (Without You), George Jones 15 Lonely Street, Tammy Wynette 16 Empty Hours, Carl Smith 17 Here's to Forever, Sammi Smith 18 There Stands the Glass, Wanda Jackson 19 Just Call Me Lonesome, Ray Price 20 Constantly, Melba Montgomery 21 Crazy Out of My Mind, Loretta Lynn 22 Someone I Used to Know, Tammy Wynette & George Jones |
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Ed Ruscha presents Mason Williams' Them Poems - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast November 14, 2005 Mason Williams emerged in the late 1960's in both television and music circles. He is most widely known as composer and recording artist of the hit song Classical Gas, which won three Grammy Awards. During his years in the Navy and in college he wrote a series of poems he called Them Poems. As he entered the folk music scene in the early 60's he wound up rooming with Ed Ruscha in Los Angeles who was a long time friend. Some of the language from Them Poems is a consequence of creative word play that Ed and Paul Ruscha riffed on with Williams over the years. Ed Ruscha provided WPS1 with this recording from 1964. And for a generational shock, Ruscha also sent us a bonus track called Atom Smasher Dub from Future Pigeon which is his son Eddie Ruscha and Jason Mason. An exhibit of the Ruscha paintings shown at the 2005 Venice Biennale entitled Course of Empire: Paintings by Ed Ruscha is on view at the Whitney Museum in New York from Nov. 17, 2005-Jan. 29, 2006. (30 minutes) |
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Fred Tomaselli: In the Realm of the Unreal - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast October 10, 2005 A mix by artist Fred Tomaselli known for paintings that incorporate acrylic, photo-collage, pills, hallucinogenic plants and medicinal herbs in abstract compositions or fictive landscapes. Psychedelic drugs are one means of encountering the shocking Otherness that lurks within the interior of the earth and the self, and Tomaselli acknowledges their influence on his work. They are, as writer Ralph Metzner put it, "Gnostic catalysts." What follows the personal apocalypse of the psychedelic trip is the necessary restructuring of the Ego and, possibly, the uneasy awareness that the world is woven together by invisible forces and supersensible beings with different agendas from our own. No longer dismissible as superstitious residue, myth reveals itself as living reality. --from Dan Cameron's essay on Tomaselli Playlist 01 Divine Rectors Call (edit) / Elizabeth Claire Prophet 02 Woman Made the Devil / Bongos Ikwue 03 The Minotaurs Song / Incredible String Band 04 Space Girl / Shirley Collins 05 The ArizonaYodeler / The DeZurik Sisters 06 The 'Pon a Hill / Tyrannosaurus Rex 07 Love with Women / George W. Bush 08 Bigger Ocean / Wingdale Community Singers 09 Deathknell / Josephine Foster & The Supposed 10 Grandpa / American Family Association 11 Ray of Gob / Go Home Productions 12 LSD (edit) / Goldie Looking Chain 13 Ezhupaalam Kadamnu / S. Janaki & Brahmanandan 14 Alien in Out a Space / Lee 'Scratch' Perry 15 Big Eyed Beans from Venus / Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band 16 Sovereignty of Tribal Nations / George W. Bush 17 Flintstones / Black Lodge Sisters 18 I'll Never Say Never to Always / Manson Family 19 Straight Out of Compton / Nina Gordon 20 02_Fuck_Tha_Police_EDIT / Unknown (NWA) 21 rebelwithoutabanjo / DonAmotKofC 22 99 Cops / Brian Dewan 23 Janet Reno / Anquette 24 Track 7 / Funk Neurotico 25 Herter's Crow Calling Record / Part Two / Herter! 26 The Kid with the Replaceable Head / Richard Hell and TheVoidoids 27 Rock and Roll Evacuation / Electric Six 28 Barry / Barry White 29 John Wayne Gac Jr. / Sufjan Stevens 30Death is Only a Dream / Ralph Stanley (w/ Ricky Skaggs) |
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Simon Ho: If - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast November 21, 2005 This music is kind of cross between Badalamenti and Bjork... Simon Ho (aka Hostettler), the internationally renowned Swiss composer and pianist, has forged a reputation for his "song-and band-projects," collaborative efforts that bring together artists from across multiple fields. Projects like "Another Commission" where poems by Meret Oppenheim are set to big band music (musicians include Corin Curschellas, Co Streiff, Hans Koch, Andi Hug), are typical for Ho. He is featured in the 2005 Crossing Border interdisciplinary literature, music, film and the visual arts festival at The Hague. |
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Jim McBride: "Jesus and Tequila" - listen | listen with RealPlayer What do artists hear when they're alone? Filmmaker McBride ("The Big Easy," "Great Balls of Fire," "David Holzman's Diary") answers with this unusual mix of music, which he has named, "Jesus and Tequila." Jim McBride wrote and directed the seminal independent "verite" film, "David Holtzman's Diary" in 1967 and later added such films as "Breathless," with Richard Gere, The Big Easy with Dennis Quaid, the music biographies "Great Ball of Fire" (on Jerry Lee Lewis) and "Meat Loaf: To Hell and Back" to his resume, as well as a number of TV shows and films including HBO's "Six Feet Under." JESUS AND TEQUILA 01 Toots & The Maytals + Willie Nelson: Still Is Still Moving To Me 02 Gotan Project: Chunga's Revenge 03 Bebo Valdez & Dieguito "El Cigala": La Bien Paga (Well-Paid) 04 Boozoo Chavis: Johnny Billy Goat 05 The Iguanas: The Liquor Dance 06 The Gourds: Jesus and Tequila 07 Kings of Leon: Red Morning Light 08 Juan Bautista y Los Melodicos: Pegao de Que? 09 Henry Kaiser: Autumn Waltz 10 The Black Keys: The Breaks 11 Maria Alice: d'Zemcontre 12 Los Lobos: Rita 13 Souad Massi: Bladi 14 Last Roundup: Mama's Last Stand 15 David Byrne: Un Di Felice, Eterea 16 Ron Sexsmith: Comrades, Fill No Glass For Me 17 Johnny Cash & Joe Strummer: Redemption Song |
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Joseph Suchy: Canoeing Instructional - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast August 22, 2005 Harfe is an artwork in the form of a wooden canoe that has been transformed into a string instrument by Kirsten Pieroth. Josef Suchy improvised on that instrument during several days of recording in winter 2001. These recordings were transformed and rebuild by Joseph at his studio. Cologne-based experimental guitarist Suchy also works with experimental electronic artists such as Ekkehard Ehlers, F.X. Randomiz, Hrvatski, and Burnt Friedman & The Nu Dub Players. Selections from the release on the Whatness label. |
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Mark Dagley - listen | listen with RealPlayer Eclectic and unclassifiable mix of music new and old, from here and there, from Moon dog to Derek Bailey to John and Yoko. Mark Dagley is a painter and musician and producer with projects including legendary Boston punk-band The Girls, The Hi-Sheriffs of Blue, and Marianne Nowottny. Playlist Isa Genzken - "Tri-Star" Dusseltoo Records 7" 1979 Rudolph Gray & Rashid Ali - "Implosion 73" New Alliance 7" 1991 MoonDog - "Utsu" Mars Records 7" 1960's Robert Petway - "Catfish Blues" RCA -Victor 7" 1965 Alastair Galbraith - Rivulets/Wheeler" Camera Obscura Records 7" 1997 Derek Bailey & Ben Watson - "No title" Rectangle 7" 1999 Conlon Nancarrow - "Study #5" Arch Records LP U. Srinivas - "Marugelara" Oriental Records 1986 2 Foot Flame - "Peacock Coal" WFMU Records 1998 The Okmoniks - "Sorority Club Song" In-Fi Records 7" 2003 The Public Servants - "A Mistake" Edible Records 7" 1981 Third Border - "Jugband Blues" Living Records CD-R 2004 Florence Foster Jenkins - "Like a Bird" BMG CD 1992 Florence Foster Jenkins - "Bell Song" BMG CD 1992 David Garland - "Seem the Same" (Secular Prayer #5) Review Records 2004 Yoko Ono/ John Lennon - "Excerpt from Two Virgins" Apple Records 1968 |
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Matthew Brannon's Music - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast August 29, 2005 Music and sound produced by the artist Matthew Brannon known for his mock horror movie posters (the movies don't exist) and tapestries (for movie backgrounds). This segment includes music by Autonervous (Jesse Eva and Billy from San Francisco's The Vanishing) plus David Griffen and Noah Sheldon's music for The Unending Horrible (2004) Brannon's film about film credits. (30 minutes) |
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Mike Skinner: 8-Track Attack listen to part 1 | listen to part 1 with RealPlayer listen to part 2 | listen with to part 2 RealPlayer From Mike Skinner's notes: Many of the tones in the pieces originate from analog synths, radio static, and various buzzing, humming or bubbling sources. I am recording directly to 8 track cassettes that I am scavenging from sources all over the country (especially through ebay and estate sales). My interest in using 8 tracks began as I was thinking about a way to play multiple soundscapes simultaneously. The experiments started by using laptops and multiple cd players all playing the same tracks at the same time and gradually falling out of synch. The pieces became more interesting to me as time passed, or as I was able to relax further into the sounds to really begin to experience time passing. I then moved to creating multiple CDs which would also play simultaneously again opening up a sort of entropy which would slowly "evolve". I imagine these multi-track soundscapes as pushing off a note in a bottle in space. They will continue on that path until something interrupts it's path. I start the process and from there it is out of my hands (my 8 track performance pieces, however, involve direct manipulation of multiple tapes and transmitters routed through effects). The beauty of portable 8 tracks is that they continue to play indefinitely (or, if I choose, as long as the batteries last). Mike Skinner began his NYC music career drumming/recording/touring for a wide array of artists, including Kevin Devine, The Lily's, Miracle of 86 and, of course, Black Moustache. Several years ago Skinner began branching out into soundtracks (Final Fantasy), composing scores for German choreographer Isabel Gotzkowski and most recently, sound projects for artists James Drake, Danny Hobart and Ugo Rondinone, as well as his own fine art sound projects. Skinner has composed or compiled original runway scores for Yoko Devereaux, H Fredriksson and Jasmin Shokrian, written songs for Amanda LePore and produced Libertine's 2004 show. |
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The Music of Roy Lichtenstein - listen | listen with RealPlayer This compilation of Roy Lichtenstein's favorite music tracks was made for a 2003 exhibition at the Kunstforum Vienna, on view from December 11, 2003 - March 7, 2004. Cassandra Lozano of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation aided Hayes Greenfield, the artist's saxophone teacher, in collecting the sources. Greenfield selected the versions his student liked best. On the last three tracks, the artist himself is playing and singing, live, at the Internet Cafe in New York. Playlist 01 Homage to Pharoah-Hayes Greenfield 7:47 02 Body & Soul - Coleman Hawkins 3:29 03 Cannonball - Cannonball Adderley 4:20 04 Bloomdido - Charlie Parker 3:29 05 That Old Black Magic - Johnny Hartman 3:26 06 Chez le Photograph du Motel - Miles Davis 3:56 07 Back Beat - Johnny Hodges 7:30 08 God Bless The Child - Billie Holiday 4:02 09 It Don't Mean A Thing - Stan Getz 6:40 10 Every Time We Say Goodbye - John Coltrane 5:45 Lichtenstein 11 Oh Lady Be Good - Lester Young 3:37 12 Live At The Internet Cafe - Roy Lichtenstein 3:49 13 Roy Singing The Blues - Live - Roy Lichtenstein 1:30 14 Dots & Lines - Roy Lichtenstein/Hayes Greenfield 1:56 |
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P.S. 1 Exhibitions: The Patsys - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast October 24, 2005 A studio recording of The Patsys - a musical group featuring the artists Jon Kessler and Robert Longo and the actress Barbara Sukowa. Kessler's site-specific installation, The Palace at 4 a.m., will be on view at P.S.1 from Oct. 30, 2005 through Feb 6 2006. (17 minutes) |
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R Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders - listen | listen with RealPlayer The Larry Rivers Memorial Hour: Presenting the music of cartoonist R Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders! Bluegrass for smart people, from Singing in the Bathtub and Chasin'Rainbows courtesy the Paul Morris Gallery. Musical personnel includes: Robert Armstrong, Bob Brozman, Allan Dodge, Tom Marion and Terry Zwigoff. |
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Rodney Graham: Getting It Together in the Country - listen | listen with RealPlayer Subititled Some Works with Sound Waves, Some Works with Light Waves and Some Other Experimental Works, artist Rodney Graham created these tracks for the the sex scene in the film Zabriskie Point (1970) about which he writes: (the film) intended to deconstruct the American consumer society and the student movement, was, by all accounts, the bomb that almost sunk Michelangelo Antonioni's film career, but the pop music soundtrack became famous and the film contained, in the climactic scene with the exploding desert house, the blueprint for subsequent MTV-style music videos - which may or may not be a good thing. Rodney Graham was born in Matsqui, British Columbia, in 1949. He studied art history and his art has been included in numerous important international exhibitions. His piece Vexation Island represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1997. (22 minutes) |
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Rodney Graham: Rock is Hard - listen | listen with RealPlayer Rodney Graham's Rock is Hard. Preview the conceptual superstar's new CD, courtesy the artist and 303 Gallery, where Graham's new film installation, "Rheinmetall/Victoria 8," is on view through June 19. (The title refers to a German-made typewriter from the 1930s, which the artist found in a Canadian junk shop and transformed with a gentle snow of white powder. Hmm?.) Graham has also made several CDs. Stay tuned for the rare and classic The Bed-Bug, Love Buzz and Other Short Songs in the Popular Idiom. He does the art. He writes the music. He plays the music. As he sings, "First you hear the foghorn moan/next you hit the rocks/what can you say when bad things happen?" |
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Sonic Youth: Sonic Nurse - listen | listen with RealPlayer An exclusive preview of Sonic Youth's best-ever CD, Sonic Nurse. (By permission of the artists.) After 23 years together, this band is just plain fabulous. With cover art by Richard Prince. |
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Surface Tension/Rencontres Internationales - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast January 9, 2006 Surface Tension is a published anthology compiled by Ken Ehrlich, Brandon LaBelle, and Stephen Vitiello that explores the use of space in art and audio including what the editors call "site-specific practice and its legacy" through critical and creative essays by leading theorists, architects, and artists. The book also contains a CD compiled by Vitiello. The contents of the CD were broadcast in selected Paris subway stations during the 2005 Rencontres Internationales, a festival of experimental cinema and contemporary audio-visual art. WPS1 wishes to thank the festival for providing us with this material. Playlist 01 Cough Piece (1961/1963), Yoko Ono 02 Concurrence of Electrical Transformers in Several Locations (2001), Erik Nauman 03 Lunar Rambles (1976), Terry Fox 04 Prom?th?e Num?rique/Frankenstein's Netz: Excerpt Phase II: Awakending (2002), Atau Tanaka 05 Conch Calling (1995), Stuart Dempster 06 Silk Thread Song (1971/2001), Alison Knowles 07 Dagmar's Room (1971), Anthony Moore 08 Shifting (2001), Frances Marie-Uitti 09 Disclosure (2001/2002), Undo (Christof Migone & Alexandre St-Onge) 10 Rhythmic Stamping/Four Rhythms in Preparation for Video Tape Problems (1969), Bruce Nauman 11 Gates of Pythagoras (2002), Paul Panhuysen 12 The Hidden Autonomy of Water (2002), Seth Cluett |
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Workshop: Es liebt Dich und Deine Korperlichkeit ein Ausgeflippter - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast August 22, 2005 Workshop is Kai Althoff and Stephan Abry, a German duo with an eclectic output centered in groove based kraut rock explorations and pop songs. This hour features selections from their fifth album, released in 2002 on Blue Chopsticks. As it stands, even though many claim the band's earlier debts to bands like Can and Faust, this newer incarnation owes as much to classic pop songs as it does to their fellow countrymen, albeit songs obviously filtered through those Krautrock sensibilities. Imagine, if you will, a Belle & Sebastian or an Elephant Sixer indebted more so to Kraftwerkian motorik rhythms than to Brian Wilson style harmonies and you just might have it. Any way you choose to look at it, Workshop is a strange and intriguing listen that is definitely worth checking out. - from Michael Crumsho at dustedmagazine.com. |
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Y Pants - listen | listen with RealPlayer First broadcast August 29, 2005 Between 1979 and 1981, Y Pants, a band of three New York artists, Barbara Ess, Virginia Piersol and Gail Vachon, performed in art spaces and clubs in the U.S., Canada and Europe, and also released two records. The instrumentation was amplified toy piano and ukelele played through distortion devices, and a pared-down drum set. Later an electronic keyboard and an electric bass were also used. Their entire oeuvre was compiled and re-released on CD by Chris Freeman's Periodic Document label distributed by Fusetron. |
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