Some songs about the Yuletide (“No Presents for Christmas”; “Santa Doesn’t Cop Out on Dope”…) Some songs from 2020 (“Pandemic Abberation”; “self”…) and some songs that just feel like 2020 (“Psychic Mumbles”, “Spent”…)
PLAYLIST:
Pink Fairies “Uncle Harry’s Last Freakout” [Never Never Land]
Manna / Mirage “Alchemist in the Parlor” [Rest of the World]
King Diamond “No Presents for Christmas” [The Dark Sides]
Teth Sin “Pandemic Abberation” [6th Annual Report]
Space Afrika “self” [hybtwibt?]
Myako “Walnut” [Shape Platform 2019]
The Damned “There Ain’t No Sanity Clause” [The Chiswick Singles and Another Thing]
Sigur Ros “Untitled” [Wire Tapper 9]
John Fahey “Red Cross, Disciple of Christ Today” [The Hired Hands: a Tribute to Bruce Langhorne]
SHD “Black Winter Sun” [6th Annual Report]
Tame Impala “Alter Ego” [InnerSpeaker]
Jordan Reyes “Drifter” [Sand Like Stardust]
Einstürzende Neubauten “Vanadium-I-Ching” [Zeichnungen des Patienten O.T.]
The actual challenge for the Freeform Portland Pre-Winter Fundraiser was the theme: Future Fun. But we weren’t listening very well. So What’s This Called? presents: FUTURE/NOW!
PLAYLIST:
Hawkwind “Welcome to the Future – Complete Version” [Space Ritual]
Edward Ka-Spel “The Border Of Beyond” [The Victoria Dimension]
E.E. Cummings “Pity This Busy Monster, Manunkind, Not” [Pleasure Dome: Audible Modern Poetry Read by its Creators]
Informed as any radio show would be by the All Hallow’s for Democracy in Virusland season, we play some Experimental Music, Drone, Noise, Psych, Post-Punk, Ambient, Strange Music and More!
LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE:
PLAYLIST:
Echo City “Justice for Some” [The Sound of Music]
Smog “Teenage Spaceship” [Knock Knock]
Amy Denio “Pandemic” [Corona Sonora]
AMMAR 808 ” Ey paavi (feat. Kali Dass)” [Global Control / Invisible Invasion]
Vernon Emory Aldo Rumsey (Jan 24, 1973 – August 6, 2020) Live on What’s This Called? Jan 5, 2019.
My good friend Vern died about a week ago upon collapsing due to organ failure. While I’d known for some time that he was not well, Vern was such a rock ‘n roll survivor that I guess I really thought he’d shake it off. He had expanded his solo act Red Rumsey into a three piece noise rock band that was really starting to sound like a unit, he recorded an album that stands up to the legacy of Unwound with supergroup Household Gods in 2019, and he’d just gotten married. He was trying so damn hard to live that it was almost possible to shrug off the obvious physical pain he was in each time he dragged himself onto stage these last couple years. I saw him play quite a few times in recent history (on top of having worked alongside him at Thekla in the glory days of Unwound and Long Hind Legs, seeing those bands as much as Olympia graciously allowed), at the Lombard Pub, at the Doug Fir Lounge opening for Treepeople (I roadied for Vern), at McCoy’s Cavern on this past Christmas Night in Oly, at Speck’s Records (a show I put on) and on my radio show at Freeform Portland. My band had the pleasure of opening for him at the Speck’s show and was slated to open the NW dates on his tour this year. The tour was cancelled pre-Covid when Vern realized he was just in too much pain to pull it off. Given the pain that he would go on stage under (he fainted at his last Portland show at Turn Turn Turn according to his drummer Aaron) it must have been monumental this time. Even so he kept interacting with friends on Facebook. I was arguing with him, and loving it, about the best Lou Reed album just 2 1/2 weeks ago. It did not in any way feel like our last conversation.
At the show at the Doug Fir, I watched Doug Martsch of Treepeople (and Built to Spill fame) break a string and borrow Vern’s guitar. Vern was so elated to not only get to open for his rock idol but to get to loan him his guitar and have it blessed with Doug’s fingers. That’s how it felt for me getting to open for Vern. He went out of his way, for the Portland show we didn’t get to play, to make sure my 12 year old son Lennon would be allowed in to play drums. Our lineup fluctuates and we play without Lennon in bars all the time, so I hadn’t even asked. But Vern saw Lennon drum when we opened at Speck’s and made it his own priority that the kid get to play. This is how Vern was made. He went out of his way to encourage anybody that played music to keep at it and would often offer to record them for free at his home studio. In a town that had it’s share of posers more interested in irony and hanging onto the cool people, Vern was always 100% genuine and snark-free. He wore ugly sweaters and soft pants because they made him comfortable and he did whatever the fuck he wanted, not because he was making fun by embracing it ironically or any such crap.
I have tried with the songs collected to capture all of Vern’s musical directions and ensembles. Of course there is more Unwound than any other group as he was on every one of their brilliant albums, but he was also the principal songwriter in Long Hind Legs and Red Rumsey. Consider in 1997 he was active in Unwound, Long Hind Legs, AND Blonde Redhead (who he recorded and played bass for that year)! Household Gods Palace Intrigue was a very strong final note from Vern, and even more sadly, also from drummer LKN who passed away before the record was even released. The last track “Rest In Power” features Lauren (LKN) speaking because it was in tribute to her, and I chose to close out this show with it as well, expanding the message in it to Vern as well. Lauren was also a Freeform Portland DJ under the name Suzanne Bummers. There is are two pieces of Errata on the show: 1) Unwound did not play in front of John Peel in 2015, they knew a lot of people but not Doctor Who (neither the band nor the DJ still existed in 2015 that’s when the album was released) and 2) I announced “For Your Entertainment” as the studio version, when it was actually the live version from 6/30/1999: Reykjavik, Iceland. I wasn’t having the easiest time back announcing the songs as I’m pretty overwhelmed with grief. Plus they nailed it that night so well it sounds basically like the studio version, but louder and with applause at the end. If you want to make this error right, go listen to Repetition all the way through. Several times.
Many thanks to Ryan Ray for his eternal engineering patience in assisting me with all the takes it took to get this right. Bleeping out Lauren’s swearing sucked heartily and the FCC can fuck themselves, but we did it for Freeform Portland, who don’t deserve the heat it would bring their way. The version uploaded here thankfully reverts to how Lauren (and most people) speak. Thank you to Jeff Ross from Freeform for holding my hand through all the delays and making sure the show would air on time. No thanks to the pandemic for shutting down so many memorials, and keeping us from sharing a microphone in the DJ booth as live radio requires. Freeform Portland is here for its listeners no matter what, even if the pandemic wants to give us some new hoops to jump through.
PLAYLIST
Long Hind Legs “Open Wide” [Long Hind Legs]
Household Gods “Shine Theory” [Shine Theory]
Unwound “What Was Wound” [New Plastic Ideas]
Red Rumsey “Shine On/Flies” [7″`]
Unwound “Look a Ghost” [Leaves Turn Inside You]
Long Hind Legs “Arranged For Viewing” [Feb 4-14 1998]
Blonde Redhead “Kazuality” [Fake Can Be Just as Good]
RedRumsey “Prime Numbers” [Redrumsey / Teach Me Equals]
Unwound “Side Effects of Being Tired” [Peel Sessions]
Household Gods “Avalanche” [Palace Intrigue]
Long Hind Legs “Icarus Flew” [Long Hind Legs]
Unwound “Kid Is Gone” [Unwound]
Red Rumsey “Big House, Shine On, 1 is not a primal number” [Live at the Doug Fir Lounge 2019]
Blonde Redhead “Futurism vs. Passéism” [Fake Can Be Just as Good]
Red Rumsey “Live on What’s This Called? 1/5/2019” [Freeform Portland]
Unwound “Valentine Card” [Live Leaves]
Olympia WA Music Scene “Go With the Flow (excerpt)” [Go With the Flow (Film)]
Unwound “Vern’s Answer to the Masses” [The Future of What]
Your host Ricardo Wang interviewed Patrick and the #TechnologicalIssues which ensued made for an unintentional noise music performance. Ricardo opted to celebrate this and roll with it and what you have is a take on the noises with a noisy perspective unlike any interview you’ve ever heard before. Or maybe just, Huh?
Hear the Digital Gasps for Air below:
PLAYLIST:
Dylan Henner “The Beach Was Covered in Coral” [A Reason for Living]
Sonic Boom “On a Summer’s Day” [All Things Being Equal]
Ann McMillan “Gateway Summer Sound” [Gateway Summer Sound: Abstracted Animal and Other Sounds]
Fiium Shaarrk “The Great Swimming Pool of Liberation” [We Are Astonishingly Lifelike]
What’s This Called? Returns to regularly scheduled programming on the #4thofJuly! 2-4 PM PST your host Ricardo Wang celebrates the US holiday with a reprisal of the No Skinny Ties variation of the program. Tune in to hear all independent American artists from the 1980s. Two hours of #nowave, #noiserock, #postpunk, #underground#hiphop & #electro!
Special thanks to Ryan A. Ray for engineering of this #podcast!
Your host Ricardo Wang says: My radio show goes back to regularly scheduled bi-weekly shows this Saturday on Freeform, and it happens to be the Fourth of July. So I decided to reprise my infrequent but longstanding underground 1980s show No Skinny Ties for a day. I’ve done this on various 4th where it turns out I’m on the radio, and I always play all American independent noise rock, post-punk, and no wave. But this year we are opening our heads and hearts and looking at our shows like never before, and I have to admit this has always been way too white of a playlist. I almost always get The Beatnigs in there loud and early and frequently included Public Enemy and Bad Brains, but you get the idea. These were the black groups who penetrated the white noise rock scene, but there were so many black artists doing lots of other great rebellious and experimental music in the ’80s that this doesn’t encompass! Not just PE as the only hip hop representation, but no techno or electro was included in my old versions of the show. This year I sought to fix that and produce a really inclusive playlist. Still no freaking “new wave”! But I’ve embraced a new kind of nostalgia. Rather than just playing the music I was into when I was 18, I’m playing the music I should have been into.
HEAR AURAL FIREWORKS:
PLAYLIST:
Sonic Youth “Intro / Brave Men Run (In My Family) [Live]” [Smart Bar – Chicago (Live; 1995)]
Wipers “Youth of America (Live, Munich 1986)” [You Tube]
Beatnigs “Television Drug of the Nation (Live on Television 1989 Festival)” [You Tube]
Public Enemy “She Watch Channel Zero?!” [It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back]
Hüsker Dü “Turn on the News” [Zen Arcade]
Newcleus “Computer Age (Push The Button)” [Destination: Earth – The Definitive Newcleus Recordings]
Trouble Funk “Drop the Bomb” [D.C. Go-Go – Sonic Funk from the Chocolate City]
X “I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts (Live Acoustic 1983)” [You Tube]
Dead Kennedys “Viva Las Vegas” [Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables]
The Cramps “Bikini Girls with Machine Guns” [Stay Sick!]
Lou Reed “Busload of Faith” [New York]
Meat Puppets “Everybody’s Talking” [Meat Puppets]
8-Eyed Spy “Run Through the Jungle” [Luncheon]
Bad Brains “All Rise To Meet Jah” [Live at CBGB 1982]
Flipper “The Lights, The Sound, The Rhythm, The Noise” [Gone Fishin’]
james chance “Contort Yourself” [Buy Contortions 35th Anniversary (Deluxe)]
Girl Trouble “Gonna Find a Cave” [Sub Pop 200]
Quadrant Six “Body Mechanic – 12″ Version” [Body Mechanic]
DJ Molla “Megamix ElectroFunk Old School (1981-1984)” [Mixtape]
Pere Ubu “Chinese Radiation” [The Modern Dance]
Mission Of Burma “All World Cowboy Romance” [Signals, Calls and Marches]
The What’s This Called? contribution to Freeform Portland’s Friday challenge “It’s Not a Phase”. All favorite songs from your host Ricardo Wang’s teenage years of listening and djing.
#Streaming or #Download:
PLAYLIST:
Rush “Cygnus X-1” [A Farewell to Kings]
Sonic Youth “(She’s in A) Bad Mood” [Confusion Is Sex (Plus Kill Yr. Idols)]
Jefferson Airplane “She Has Funny Cars” [Surrealistic Pillow]
Malfunkshun “With Your Heart Not Your Hands” [With Your Heart Not Your Hands – Single]
The Soft Boys “Queen of Eyes” [Underwater Moonlight]
The Replacements “Unsatisfied” [Let It Be (Expanded)]
Your host Ricardo Wang took the “Movie Night” challenge for Freeform Portland and turned in a 30 minute mix of What’s This Called? related film music. Hear the movies below!
PLAYLIST:
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds “From Her to Eternity (Wings of Desire version)” [Wings of Desire]
Brian Eno “Patrolling Wire Borders – Remastered 2005” [Music For Films]
The Yardbirds “Stroll On – Live Version from ‘Blow-Up'” [Live and Rare]
Erika Eigen “I Want to Marry a Lighthouse Keeper” [A Clockwork Orange Soundtrack]
Amy Denio “Hacking a Plan ” [A Daughter of the Law]
Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Solar Arkestra “I Am the Alter-Destiny” [Space is the Place: Music for the Film]
György Ligeti “Lux aeterna” [1948–2001: a ligeti odyssey]
Sex Mob “Closing Credits: Nobody Does It Better” [Sex Mob Does Bond]
Somehow from the undisclosed location your host Ricardo Wang has brought you brand new music by Nick Cave (covering T-Rex!) and Einsturzende Neubauten plus a lot of other #cosmic flotsam. This will be on rotation at undisclosed times on #FreeformPortland that’s 90.3 FM and 98.3 FM at undisclosed locations throughout the city of Portland Oregon and #Streaming all over the world at http://freeformporltand.org/listen Lots of other great shows from DJs spinning remotely from their own undisclosed locations. #TuneIn! Together we can get through this!
HEAR WTC #InQuarantine III HERE:
PLAYLIST:
Nick Cave “Cosmic Dancer” [Cosmic Dancer]
Lor3l3i “Metanoia (Demo)” [Demo]
All Them Witches “When God Comes Back” [Lightning At The Door]
Tame Impala “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” [Lonerism]
Suzanne Ciani “Glass Houses” [Flowers Of Evil]
Silver Mt. Zion “13 Angels Standing Guard ‘Round The Side Of Your Bed” [He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms]
Einstürzende Neubauten “Ten Grand Goldie” [Ten Grand Goldie]
Lene Lovich “Bird Song” [Lucky Number (The Best Of)]
Melvins “Civilized Worm” [A Senile Animal]
In the Branches “We’ll Haunt Ghost Towns Together” [Wilderness Time]
Body/Head “Murdress” [Coming Apart]
Ison “Lost Satellites” [Cosmic Drone]
Bardo Pond/Kinski “Lord of Light” [Sonic Attack (Lords of Light) ]
Your host Ricardo Wang continues to leave these audio notes from an undisclosed location. You can hear him and other Freeform Portland DJs in semi-random rotation at http://freeformportland.org/listen
Toilet paper is now used as currency and zombies with guns roam the state capitols. The songs that follow contain coded instructions for pandemic survival. #MasksAreCool #StayHome #SocialDistancing #AvoidPanicBuying
Hear the Show #Streaming Here:
Playlist:
Throbbing Gristle “The Worm Waits It’s Turn” [Part Two: The Endless Not]
Nadja “Needle In The Hay – Elliott Smith” [When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV]
Due to the #Covid19 #CoronaVirus Freeform Portland is remote broadcasting and your host Ricardo Wang is at an undisclosed location. What follows is for authorized ears only.
HEAR ALL 2 HOURS HERE:
SLAYLIST:
Artist – “Song” – Album – Label
Gaung Jagat Ensemble – “Saturday No 3” – Anthology of Contemportary Music from Indonesia – Unexplained Sounds Group
Sonic youth – “Antenna” – The Eternal – Matador
Moloch Conspiracy – “Legions to legions” – Incantatios from Ugarit- Eighth Tower Records
Edward Ka-Spel – “The Writing on the Wall” – Pieces of 8 – Beta-lactam Ring Records
Amy Denio “Corona Sonora” – BandCamp – Spoot Music
Amy Denio – “Duplex Nursing Home” – Tutto Bene – Spoot Music
Helios Creed – “Prolactin A5” = Preaching Machine
L7 – “American Society” – The Big One – Flipside
Black Sabbath – “Into the Void” – Master of Reality – #Satan
Steel Pole Melvins Task Force – “Hardball” – The Big One – Flipside
Blue Faces – “No Such Thing As a Party” – single – Kill Pop Tarts
Sun City Girls – “Helicopters in a Vacuum” – Valentines from Matahari- Abduction
Nick Cave & Current 93 – “All the Pretty Little Horses” – All the Pretty Little Horses
ALTO! – “Pieces 1-3” – ALTO! – Self Released
Hawkwind – “Sonic Attack” – Space Ritual – Stonehenge
Will Oldham – “Every Mother’s Son” – Guarepero Lost Blues 2 – Drag City
Spacemen 3 – “Ecstacy Symphony/Transparent Radiation” – The Perfect Perscription – Glass Records
Replikants – “Organ Transplant (We Want Miles)” – This Is Our Message – 5RC
Acid Mothers Temple & the Pink Ladies Blues – “Twilight” – The Soul of a Mountain Wolf – Fractal Records
The Jesus and Mary Chain – “Sidewalking” – Barbed Wire Kisses – WB
#LEAPDAY2020 on What’s This Called? at Freeform Portland your host Ricardo Wang pays tribute to songwriter and guitarist of Rain Parade, Clay Allison, Opal, and Mazzy Star, David Roback who passed away this week.
#AvantRock featuring Roback’s own music side by side with contemporaries such as The Dream Syndicate and Green On Red to his influences such as Love and the thirteenth floor elevators as well as only tangentially related #Psychedelia and #SpaceMusic from Wooden Shjips to Hawkwind.
HEAR THE FIRST HOUR HERE:
HEAR THE SECOND HOUR HERE:
PLAYLIST:
The Rain Parade “No Easy Way Down” [Emergency Third Rail Power Trip]
Opal “Soul GIver” [Happy nightmare baby]
CAN “Oh Yeah – 2011 Remastered” [Tago Mago (2011 Remastered)]
Green On Red “(Gee Ain’t It Funny) How Time Slips Away” [No Free Lunch]
Shocked from the news this morning we first say goodbye musically to Andy Gill, guitarist of Gang of Four, followed by a program with everything from new experimental music from Africa, new Portland experimental music from Crystal Quartez, and classic NW noise from Noggin.
HEAR THE FIRST HOUR HERE:
HEAR THE SECOND HOUR HERE:
PLAYLIST:
Gang Of Four “Anthrax” [Damaged Goods: Post Punk Sounds]
Gang of Four “To Hell With Poverty” [Damaged Goods]
Gang Of Four “Damaged Goods” [Damaged Goods: Post Punk Sounds]
Kim Gordon “Air BnB” [No Home Record]
Fela Kuti & Roy Ayers “Africa Center of the World” [The Underground Spiritual Game]
A new year and mostly new music, including several tracks from the Unexplained Sounds Group compilation Anthology of Persian Music in honor of our sisters and brothers in Iran under threat of war because of stupid evil leadership conflict between their government and ours. A few older pieces by the likes of Sun Ra and the Chocolate Watchband to round things out.
HEAR HOUR 1 HERE:
HEAR HOUR 2 HERE:
PLAYLIST:
Guitar Is Dead “The City That Always Sleeps (feat. Tristan Gianola, Maxwell Boecker & Moses Eder)” [Guitar Is Dead (feat. Tristan Gianola, Maxwell Boecker & Moses Eder)]
Search Ensembles “AC DL CP SK” [Prescient/Legend]
Reza Solatipour “Darck City” [Anthology of Persian Experimental Music]
Noriko Kodama “Memories” [Abyss]
Num “Sound of Guardians” [Anthology of Persian Experimental Music]
A four hour special on Freeform Portland featuring all music from the What’s This Called? 100 great albums of 2019 list. A crow listened from outside the window.
Hear the First Hour Here:
Hear the Second Hour Here:
Hear the Third Hour Here:
Hear the Four Hour Here:
PLAYLIST:
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds “Bright Horses” [Ghosteen]
Sin: Ned & Uneasy Chairs “When They Say The Sky Is Black Our Hearts Will Bleed” [Human Disease II & Other Stories]
Sunn 0))) “Troubled Air” [Life Metal]
Jim Jarmusch “Andvari” [Jim Jarmusch / Lee Ranaldo / Marc Urselli / Balazs Pandi]
Bill Callahan “Young Icarus” [Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest]
Glenn Branca “Twisting In Space” [The Third Ascension]
Amy Denio “The Meeting of Foes” [Eureka]
Iggy Pop “Loves Missing” [Free]
The Legendary Pink Dots “Double Double” [Angel in the Detail]
Terry Riley “Terry Riley: Sun Rings: Earth Whistlers” [Terry Riley: Sun Rings]
John Zorn “Tractatus Musico-Philosophicus (edit)” [Tractatus Musico-Philosophicus]
Thurston Moore “8 Spring Street” [Spirit Counsel]
Sudan Archives “Down On Me” [Athena]
Disxiple_113 “HARMONIC SOMETIME” [SIDRAW]
Fennesz “Agora” [Agora]
Diploducus “Prowl of the Concavenator” [Slow and Heavy]
Taraban “Liberty • Fraternity • Eternity” [How the East Was Lost]
Galactic Protector “Artificial Gravity” [Evening]
Floating Points “Bias” [Crush]
Keiji Haino “6” [A loss permitted to open its eyes for but three hours And there glimpsed, finally in focus a mystery That begs earnestly, “ask me nothing” Now, once more the problem is yours alone]
The Caretaker “Stage 6: A Confusion So Thick You Forget Forgetting” [Everywhere at the End of Time Stage 6 ]
HORRIFIC CHILD “Frayeur” [Strain Crack & Break: Volume One (France)]
Ashtoreth “The Covenant of Branch & Stone” [Hermit by Ashtoreth & Grey Malkin]
Fischkopf Sinfoniker “Sanctification Through Evisceration” [To The Bone]
Clark “Flask / Abyss” [Kiri Variations]
Future Sound of London “Yage 2019” [Yage 2019]
Amon Tobin “Velvet Owl” [Fear in a Handful of Dust]
Somesurprises “Free” [Some Candy]
Eryck Abecassis “Mailes” [Anthology of contemporary music from Africa Continent]
While the program has featured end of year shows and lists off and on through the 25+ years What’s This Called? has been going, it has not been an annual tradition. Simply put, some years the show has been more focused on experimental musics in general than on the sounds of the current moment. Oftentimes that is because a given years didn’t feature enough new releases to fill a show or the interest of your host.
This was NOT the case with 2019. Your host Ricardo Wang set out to do a top ten for the year and found quickly that ten was not a reasonable number to list even the most played and enjoyed 2019 album releases from the show. Twenty quickly was not enough either and when it became clear that a list of 100 albums was imminent, research ensued into as many records that had been missed as possible. Perhaps it was because artists wanted to get a great album done for the end of the decade. Perhaps the insane global political climate has made artists want to do something in the only way they know how. Perhaps 2019 was the year artists started to realize that technology and crumbling economics had now made them able to produce and share “professional” quality albums without having to kow-tow to the dying music industry.
What follows is a list or albums that your host Ricardo Wang has listened to and ranked arbitrarily. The ranking is not based upon airplay or popularity or anything other than DJ preference. The order would probably change tomorrow and would certainly do so in another week. Any record on this list is a great listen, and believe it or not, keeping it at 100!
Top 2019 Albums
Negativland – True False (Seeland)
Kim Gordon – No Home Record (Matador)
Nick Cave – Ghosteen (Ghosteen Ltd.)
Thurston Moore – Spirit Counsel (Daydream Library)
Iggy Pop – Free (Loma Vista)
Keiji Haino & Charles Hayward – A loss permitted to open its eyes for but three hours And there glimpsed, finally in focus a mystery That begs earnestly, “ask me nothing” Now, once more the problem is yours alone (33 33)
Glenn Branca – The Third Ascension (Systems Neutralizers)
Fennesz – Agora (Touch)
Sin: Ned & Uneasy Chairs – 時代精神 Zeitgeist (self released)
The Caretaker – Everywhere At The End Of Time: Stage 6 (History Always Favours the Winners)
Kronos Quartet – Terry Riley: Sun Rings (Nonesuch)
Sunn O))) – Life Metal (Southern Lord)
Legendary Pink Dots – Angel in the Details (Metropolis)
John Zorn – Tractatus Musico-Philosophicus (Tzadik)
Future Sounds of London – Yage 2019 (FSOLdigital)
Various Artists – Stain, Crack, and Break: Music from the Nurse With Wound List Volume 1 (Finders Keepers)
Disxiple 113 – Sidraw (Obsolete Staircases)
Lee Ranaldo, Jim Jarmusch, Marc Urselli, Balazs Pandi – Self Titled (Trost Records)
Bill Callahan – Shephed in a Sheepskin Vest (Drag City)
Amy Denio – Eureka (Spoot Music)
Mini-Mutations – Society’s Standards (WTBC)
Ashtoreth & Grey Malkin – Hermit (Reverb Worship)
Sudan Archives – Athena (Stones Throw)
Mecca Normal – Brave New Waves Session (Brave New Waves)
Flying Lotus – Flamagra (Warp)
Amon Tobin – Fear in a Handful of Dust (NoMark)
Fischkopf Sinfoniker – To the Bone (self released)
Somsurprises – Some Candy (Crash Symbols)
Various Artists – Anthology of contemporary music from Africa continent
The Lord Weird Slough Feigh – New Organon (Cruz del Sur Music)
Neuroq – Spacephoria (Beatport)
Brunt – Ataraxy (self released)
A Winged Victory for the Sullen – The Undivided Five (Zen CD)
Under Nihilo – Tropical/Mall.Exe (self released)
Spaceslug – Reign of the Orion (BSFD Records)
Leth – Kalergi Aquarius (self released)
Bryce Miller – Monochrome Daydream (Spun Out of Control)
ADDENDUM:
Saturday, December 21st from Noon to 4 PM Pacific Standard Time we try to play as much from #TheList as possible on Freeform Portland!
In barely over a week, your host, Ricardo Wang has already learned of many other #2019Albums that arguably should have been high on the #Top100 including Pere Ubu, Bill Orcutt, Russian Circles and others! Maybe in January there can be a show of records that Should have been on the list!
Meanwhile we promise while in no way complete, this extra long What’s This Called? will #resonate!
There are two What’s This Called? programs left for 2019 on Freeform Portland, Saturday December 7th (fragments of which are listenable below), and Saturday December 21st which will be a special from Noon until 4 PM Pacific Standard Time.
In honor for what your host Ricardo Wang sincerely believes to be the best year in recorded music since he began DJing some 35 years ago, both programs will focus on music from the What’s This Called? soon to be released Favorite 100 Albums of 2019. The past few years, your host has had a hard time coming up with a top ten albums, but 2019 has seen many, many artists old and new at the top of their respective games.
Unfortunately, this episode featured technical difficulties with the Freeform server that led to interruptions in the live stream and gaps in the digital archive. Bleh. Everything below sounds great, it’s just not as much as people listening on terrestrial radio got to hear. Let this be a lesson to all who put total faith in little zeros and ones. Sometimes the ones go away and you are left with the zeros. Thankfully we saved the great samples below at least.
HEAR SOME OF THE FIRST HOUR HERE!:
HEAR THE END OF THE SHOW HERE!:
PLAYLIST:
Search Ensembles “AC DC CP SK” [Prescient/Legend]
Juniana “Opening Thread in Room” [Ordinary Devotions]
Neil Campbell “Cloud Drag 1979 (1-4)” [Cloud Drag 1979]
Tom Dyer “Everything in the World is Returning to a State of Nature” [1+1 = ?]
Column Shifter “Let Us Now Praise the Dust” [Congregation]
Mecca Normal “Man Thinks Woman / Strong White Male / I Walk Alone – Live” [Brave New Waves Session]
Taylorshit “DietLad” [Taylorshit.net]
Tearpalm “Wake Up and Smell the Coffin” [To the Happy Few]
Disxiple 113 “No Curtains” [Sidraw]
Noispoetnobody “Concrete Vitalist Part 3” [Concrete Vitalist]
Spirit Duplicator “Goat Boy Goes to Tacobell” [Duplex Cremes]
Erin Jane Laroue “The Future is Au Revoir” [Chalant]
What’s This Called? is proud to be moving into our second year at Freeform Portland, which we honestly believe to be the coolest station the program has ever lived at. It’s that time of year where we implore you that come to WTC for the most obscure and independently produced experimental audio work around to help keep the station where we make the shows afloat! https://www.freeformportland.org/donate/
Your host Ricardo Wang was joined by frequent cohost DJ Victrola of Guitar Shop to make the case for why Freeform Portland is doing revolutionary work fighting the culture wars on behalf of diversity and free creativity. Much great experimental music was shared in the process.
HEAR THE FIRST HOUR HERE:
HEAR THE SECOND HOUR HERE:
PLAYLIST:
Savage Republic “Next to Nothing” [Tragic Figures]
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 “The Piston and the Shaft” [Strangers from the Universe]
Yolo on a pilgrimage we’re at Freeform Portland an extra week. So between two What’s This Called? is this space that is also but not entirely the same. Go to your mirror and turn it upside down. Watch carefully.
HEAR THE FIRST HOUR HERE:
HEAR THE SECOND HOUR HERE:
PLAYLIST:
Ennio Morricone “The desert – Il deserto” [The good, the bad and the ugly]
헤이스트링 “A bottomless pit” [Salto]
Between “Devotion” [Soul Jazz Records Presents DEUTSCHE ELEKTRONISCHE MUSIK: Experimental German Rock and Electronic Music 1972-83]
Jen Morris “Auterepart” [Interactions A Guide to Swiss Underground Experimental Music]
Featuring acapella folk jams and classic noisecore/queercore recordings by Joshua Ploeg/Plague who is the author of 11 cookbooks, was the lead vocalist/lyricist in Mukilteo Fairies and Behead the Prophet No Lord Shall Live as well as playing in Kiss Me Kill Me, Lords of Lightspeed, and The Special Friend. In addition to both noise and acoustic folk solo sets he currently performs in Select Sex and Sanctuary of Sound.
Ricardo and Joshua have know each other since Ricardo procured a zine from Joshua outside the Capitol Theater in Olympia in 1993. Tune in to hear the story of what the zine was about.
LISTEN TO THE FIRST HOUR HERE:
LISTEN TO THE SECOND HOUR HERE:
PLAYLIST:
Negativland “This Is Not Normal” [True False]
Art Ensemble of Chicago “We Are on the Edge (radio edit)” [We Are On the Edge: a 50th Anniversary Celebration]
Thurston Moore “Galaxies (edit)” [Spirit Counsel]
Select Sex “Strategies Against Ameteurs” [Strategies Against Ameteurs]
Sanctuary of Sound “The Merry Witches” [Hymns & Conjurations]
Tarot Twilight “Tarot One” [Tarot One]
Joshua Ploeg “Tam Lin” [Live on What’s This Called?]
WaqWaq Kingdom “Doggy Bag” [Doggy Bag]
Kim Gordon “Don’t Play It” [No Home Record]
The Fall “Eat Y’Self Fitter” [Perverted By Language (Expanded Edition)]
Lords of Lightspeed “White Chocolate and Brimstone” [Lords of Lightspeed]
Behead the Prophet, No Lord Shall Live “Clenching the Veil” [Behead the Prophet, No Lord Shall Live]
Richard Skelton “Altar Valley” [Border Ballads]
Grey Frequency “Elegy for Vinegar Tom” [Witchcraft & Black Magic in the United Kingdom]
Joshua Ploeg “Ditties Live” [Live on What’s This Called?]
Pharoah Chromium “Gaza Requiem” [Anthology of contemporary music from Middle East]
In 1993 I began my 6th ever radio program, and first for KAOS Olympia. 26 years and two stations later I am still doing What’s This Called? This week marks our first year completed at the remarkable Freeform Portland station! We celebrated with a 4 hour show that began by saying a sad goodbye to Daniel Johnston , included a lengthy sampling of the Unexplained Sounds Group compilation Anthology of contemporary music from Middle East , new music form Aidan Baker, Kim Gordon, and Negativland, and so much more!
HEAR THE FIRST HOUR HERE:
HEAR THE SECOND HOUR HERE:
HEAR THE THIRD HOUR HERE:
HEAR THE FOURTH HOUR HERE:
PLAYLIST:
Daniel Johnston “Happy Time” [Fun]
TV On The Radio “Walking The Cow” [The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered]
Daniel Johnston “Loner” [Don’t Be Scared]
Daniel Johnston “I Killed The Monster” [Artistic Vice]
Spectrum “True Love Will Find You in the End” [Their Sympathetic Majesties Request]
Daniel Johnston “Death” [Why Me? (Live Volksbühne Berlin)]
Daniel Johnston “King Kong” [Yip Jump Music]
Built To Spill “Some Things Last A Long Time” [The Normal Years]
Calvin Johnson “Sorry Entertainer” [The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered]
Jad Fair “What The World Need Now” [It’s Spooky]
Rebecca Moore “Cartoon Lust” [Home Wreckording 1997-1999]
Sin Ned & Uneasy Chairs “Gwai” [Zeitgeist]
The Silverman “Nature of Illusion (edit)” [Nature of Illusion]
The Social Stomach “Live @ Lombard Pub” [Freeform Portland Benefit]
Alex Reagan “Central Square Mausoleum” [Horse Printer]
Nilufer Ormanli “Art of Dying” [Anthology of contemporary music from Middle East]
Pharoah Chromium “Gaza Requiem” [Anthology of contemporary music from Middle East]
Ahmed Selah “Khitam” [Anthology of contemporary music from Middle East]
Guy Galem “Parallels” [Anthology of contemporary music from Middle East]
Eric Hausmann “Callarobbie (feat. RLLRBLL)” [16 Degrees]
Kim Gordon “Air BnB” [Air BnB]
Adrian Belew “The Rail Song” [Desire Of The Rhino King]
This week on What’s This Called?, your host Ricardo Wang was joined in the Freeform Portland studio by local PDX dj, musician and zine editor B.c. Miller!
BC is the admin of the CIRCLE OF TYRANTS music discussion Facebook group which functions as his online zine. It was originally intended to be the name of his Portland noiserock band, Sewers of Paris, who broke up in 2013. He put out fanzines Fringe Weird and Ears For Breakfast back in the ’90s, and was a cohost of the classic KBOO program Night of the Living Tongue for some years as well. He has his ear to the #underground, especially #NoWave, obscure #GarageRock, #PostHardcoreand other #AvantRock that lives on the fringes.
HEAR THE FIRST HOUR HERE:
HEAR THE SECOND HOUR HERE:
PLAYLIST:
Henry Mancini “Main Title” [Touch of Evil (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)]
Walking Seeds “Caveman” [Peel Session]
Throbbing Gristle “Hit By a Rock – Remastered” [D.O.A. The Third and Final Report of Throbbing Gristle (Remastered)]
Buffalo Tom “Sunflower Suit” [Buffalo Tom]
Mini-Mutations “From Beach ’til Calm (edit)” [“You Are There”]
American Music Club “Western Sky” [California]
Naked Skinnies “All My Life” [(7″ single)]
Squirrel Bait “Sun God” [Squirrel Bait]
Cowboys “Teenage Lifestyle” [7″ single]
The Psychedelic Furs “Soap Commercial” [The Psychedelic Furs]
The Psychedelic Furs “India” [The Psychedelic Furs]
Portland was being invaded by overt fascists, seemingly under police protection. This undercurrent was slithering beneath the songs below. Sonic waves as a shelter and cocoon of resistance. A bit heavy in the krautrock (mind these guys are all leftist anarchists), a bit heavy in general, lots of Portland experimenters, Jamaica, NYC, Nashville, Italy, and France represent. Joy is the sound of intransigence.
HEAR THE FIRST HOUR HERE:
HEAR THE SECOND HOUR HERE:
PLAYLIST:
Negativland “Escape from Noise” [Escape from Noise]
Negativland “Discernment” [True False]
George Russell & His Orchestra “Chromatic Universe” [Jazz In The Space Age]
Teen Machine “Teen-Machine Rap” [Soul Jazz Records Presents BOOMBOX 3: Early Independent Hip Hop, Electro And Disco Rap 1979-83]
Harmonia “Veterano” [Musik von Harmonia]
The Heptones “I Shall Be Released” [Sea Of Love]
Magma “Zombies (Ghost Dance)” [Trilogy]
Motion Sickness of Time Travel “Disappear” [Love Songs]
E.M.A.K. “Filmmusik” [Soul Jazz Records Presents DEUTSCHE ELEKTRONISCHE MUSIK: Experimental German Rock and Electronic Music 1972-83]
Dolphin Midwives “Bird Circle I” [Orchid Milk]
Greg Segal w/ Jerry King “Prestidigitator” [Visible]
After a stretch away from the Freeform Portland dj booth, your host Ricardo Wang returned this week to wrap recorded esoteric sonics around the pulsating live throb of special guests The Social Stomach!
THE ISSUES W/ UPLOADING THE 2nd HOUR WERE RESOLVED!
After a one month absence in the wilderness your host Ricardo Wang returns to the Freeform Portland studio with a set ranging from blistering to meditative (often at the same time).
HEAR THE FIRST HOUR:
HEAR THE SECOND HOUR:
PLAYLIST: Artist – “Song/Piece/Track” – Album
City of Prague Philhamonic – “Vertigo” – A History of Hitchcock: Dial M for Murder;
Hear two hours of your host joined by longstanding WTC sub and Guitar Shop hostess DJ Victrola talking about the wonder that is Freeform Portland surrounded by the music that makes it so!
HEAR THE FIRST HOUR:
HEAR THE SECOND HOUR:
PLAYLIST:
Ryan A. Ray “I Want Some Too” [Single]
Hawkwind “Silver Machine (Live)” [Bring Me the Head of Yuri Gagarin]
Sepultura “Ratamahatta” [Roots]
Rebecca Moore “Fantasy” [Home Wreckording 1997-1999]
Chrome “Future Ghosts” [Third From The Sun]
Ashtoreth “Elemental I” [Drone Islands Land Raising]
Sonic Youth “I Love You Golden Blue” [Sonic Nurse]
Opal “Soul Giver” [Happy Nightmare Baby]
Lou Reed “How Do You Think It Feels” [Berlin]
Sonologyst “Indostan” [Drone Islands – Land Rising]
Shalloboi “Burning Star” [Blue-Eyed]
Nadja “Quiuhtonatiuh” [Under the Jaguar Sun]
Thurston Moore “European Son” [The End Of Music (As We Know It) ]
