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WFMU's On The Download collects MP3s from the fringes once a month: new sounds, obscure audio, found sound, and other sonic stimulants unique to WFMU.
These MP3 files are featured in BLAST OF HOT AIR, WFMU's free monthly e-mail newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
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"MIGHTY HANNIBAL"
MP3 |
The Truth Shall Make You Free! The Mighty KING Hannibal, backed by the legendary band the Black Lips plays Mighty Hannibal Day in Atlanta. Michael Julian Bond, son of civil rights leader Julian Bond was on hand for the Proclamation and warm up band the Reigning Sound killed it!! Get into the groove with this entire live set. | January 2007 | |
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""
MP3 |
September 2007 | ||
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"TAXI RIDE IN LIMA"
MP3 |
On her recent trip to Peru, WFMU's Liz Berg decided to hit the record button during a taxi ride through Lima. Here is what it sounded like with the windows rolled down, the radio on, and the 2-horsepower Daewoo Tico's modest suspension courageously battling the chewed-up city streets. | September 2008 | |
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"100 YEAR OLD WOMAN INTERVIEW"
by 100 Year Old Woman
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This isn't your quick fix. It's a 60 minute interview with a 100 year old woman. It takes some patience. We all have a history and this is HERstory (you like that?) The year is 1978. It sounds like the girl is in college, conducting this interview for a class report. The old woman's voice is reminiscent of Ma Kettle, without the spunk. From what we gather, this was recorded in Kansas. Hence, somehow over the past thirty years, this cassette has migrated from Kansas to Ohio. That's roughly many miles! | August 2007 | |
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"100 YEAR OLD WOMAN INTERVIEW SIDE 1"
by 100 Year Old Woman
(From "100 Year Old Woman Interview"
by 100 Year Old Woman)
MP3 |
August 2007 | ||
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"100 YEAR OLD WOMAN INTERVIEW SIDE 2"
by 100 Year Old Woman
(From "100 Year Old Woman Interview"
by 100 Year Old Woman)
MP3 |
August 2007 | ||
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"KARMA SITAR"
by 101 Strings
(From "Phonoanomalies: A Totally New Recording for Hi-Fi Bugs"
by Keith Lo Bue)
MP3 |
December 2006 | ||
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"DIREKT B"
by 16-17
MP3 |
This will clean your earholes real good. Severe hate jazz to contend right alongside Borbetomagus; a 2CD anthology Early Recordings just came out recently on the Savage Land label, compiled by the Flying Luttenbachers' Weasel Walter. It's full of blasted, chaotic sax assaults, scraping guitar excursions, metallic rhythms and atonal mayhem from 1984-1989 that suitably depicts what the Swans would have sounded like had they come from a European free-jazz background. | November 2006 | |
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"WATCH!"
by 16-17
MP3 |
This will clean your earholes real good. Severe hate jazz to contend right alongside Borbetomagus; a 2CD anthology Early Recordings just came out recently on the Savage Land label, compiled by the Flying Luttenbachers' Weasel Walter. It's full of blasted, chaotic sax assaults, scraping guitar excursions, metallic rhythms and atonal mayhem from 1984-1989 that suitably depicts what the Swans would have sounded like had they come from a European free-jazz background. | November 2006 | |
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"I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR"
by 180 G's
MP3 |
Negativland have documented well their legal and public battles with the fightin' Irish band U2. What began as a trademark infringement suit against Negativland for using the "U2" name on a single resulted in great publicity for the group, a book ("FAIR USE: The Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2") and a later CD ("These Guys Are From England And Who Gives a Shit"). Their newest take on the ordeal is an a cappella version of the song that started it all, from the brilliant CD "180 D'G's to the Future: The Music of Negativland as Performed by the 180 G's." | March 2008 | |
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"LIGHT MY FIRE"
by The 18th Century Concepts
(From "More Phonoanomalies for Hi-Fi Bugs"
by Keith Lo Bue)
MP3 |
December 2006 | ||
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"SCHWARZ UND WEISS"
by 1954 German World Cup Team
MP3 |
Nobody knows why, but the German team which won the World Cup in 1954 recorded a 7" single in 1973, singing about the traditional colors of their team jerseys, "Schwarz und Weiss" (Black and White). | July 2006 | |
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"BAND CHORUS CHORALE ENCORES"
by 1985 Lebenon Junior High
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New Hampshire school's choir, thrift store find -- hopefully this will put you in the mood for the upcoming school year! | August 2007 | |
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"THEME FROM CHEERS"
by 1985 Lebenon Junior High
(From "Band Chorus Chorale Encores"
by 1985 Lebenon Junior High)
MP3 |
August 2007 | ||
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"YOU ARE"
by 1985 Lebenon Junior High
(From "Band Chorus Chorale Encores"
by 1985 Lebenon Junior High)
MP3 |
August 2007 | ||
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"AT THE HOP"
by 1985 Lebenon Junior High
(From "Band Chorus Chorale Encores"
by 1985 Lebenon Junior High)
MP3 |
August 2007 | ||
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"LAYLA"
by 386 DX
MP3 |
Another artist who makes up recording pseudonyms faster than we can keep track of them is Lassigue Bendthaus, aka LB, aka Senor Coconut, aka 386 DX. As 386 DX, he records cover versions of western and russian pop songs. Fans of Ken's new automated co-host Julio may enjoy this version of Erik Clapton's Layla. | July 2005 | |
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"GOODBYE TO THE CITY"
by 400 A.S.
(From "Directions"
by Various Artists)
MP3 |
May 2007 | ||
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"STEIG DEN LUIS TRENKER"
by 4172
MP3 |
From an obscure bootleg of German minimal synth stuff from 1979-1983 entitled Kassettentäter (Cassette Offender). | September 2006 | |
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"DEAD WATERS"
by 48 Cameras
(From "An Der Shonen Blauen Donau"
by Various Artists)
MP3 |
March 2006 | ||
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"NEWTON'S LAWS"
by The 49 Americans
(From "Obey The New Wave"
by Various)
MP3 |
October 2006 | ||
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"DO YOU GOT SKILLS"
by The 524
MP3 |
Equal parts Tang Dynasty and Wu Tang Clan, this Hong Kong crew drops rhymes in Cantonese, Teochiu, and Mandarin. English is also part of its arsenal. MC Chairman Plow explains his moniker: "The gun is my mouth and when I open it to rap, it goes plow! plow! plow!" | July 2005 | |
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"DANCE THE SLURP"
by 7-11
MP3 |
"Industrial musical" promoting a corporate product. | August 2006 | |
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"FROM THE KPFK SHOW GENESIS OF A MUSIC"
by Lud Aarons
MP3 | MP3 |
KPFK is a good radio station, but prior to the management's purges in the early '90s it was an excellent radio station. Back then it had three unusual music programs, the Tom (Recchion) and Tony (Mostrom) Show, Jackie Apple's Soundings, and David Porter's Genesis of a Music. Once a month Porter would stop the music and invite one Bill Mitchell to expound and sometimes rant about politics for an hour. And one particular Sunday morning Mitchell invited one Lud Aarons. This is my recording of that portion of that broadcast—the transition between the two parts is awkward because I had to turn the cassette over. It gets good about 11 minutes in. | September 2007 | |
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"THE THEME"
by Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
WMV |
Airing Thursday nights in Canada on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network or APTN, Inuit Mittatin's official description reads "This program sets out to find the funniest, quirkiest Inuit in the communities of Nunavut. What is so distinct about Inuit humour? What role does humour play in Inuit life?" We think the following description is more apt: "This program is a lunatic Inuit woman running all over the barren north making up songs and inviting us along as she sinks deeper and deeper into dementia." | April 2005 | |
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"TRIP TO HOTEL"
by Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
WMV |
In this clip the Inuit woman travels to a hotel and visits the Queen Elizabeth Suite. The creep showing her around claims the queen stayed here, we're not so sure. The edit from an offer to see where the Queen drank tea to a shot of the toilet was how it actually aired. | April 2005 | |
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"STAND UP COMEDY"
by Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
WMV |
Here we see the ultimate joke, it is both a lawyer joke AND a Newfie joke. | April 2005 | |
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"OH CANADA"
by Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
WMV |
This lesser sung version of Oh Canada is followed by a brief God Bless America and then what might be a request for a new chair from the Canadian government. | April 2005 | |
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"CRACKING EGGS"
by Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
WMV |
Cracking eggs in front of some kind of studio audience, Inuit-style. | April 2005 | |
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"DREAM SEQUENCE"
by Aboriginal Peoples Television Network
WMV |
It's not all fun and games on Inuit Mittatin, they finish every episode with a short soap opera called "As Nunavut Turns For The Passionate and Devious." We see our host turn thespian in dream sequence featuring bingo and closing doors with feet. | April 2005 | |
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"ABRAHAM & ISAAC"
by Abraham & Isaac
MP3 |
A Christian kiddie record (featuring a ventriloquist and his dummy) is re-edited into something rather more disturbing. Obvious, I suppose, but it still makes me...well, rather uncomfortable, actually. | October 2006 | |
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"UNKNOWN"
by Abraxasaxaphonic
(From "Smooth Jazz Vagina"
by Abraxasaxaphonic)
MP3 |
January 2007 | ||
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"SMOOTH JAZZ VAGINA"
by Abraxasaxaphonic
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Arrington de Dionyso's (from the band Old Time Relijun) insane record under the name Abraxasaxaphonic, where he actually threw down in mighty rage against all things Lite. Smooth Jazz Vagina treats listeners to blaring, free skronk saxophone to do battle head to head over an actual Lite Jazz FM station underneath him. | January 2007 | |
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"ZIVILPOLIZIST"
by Absolut
MP3 |
Here's a punky little synth tune with a fist-pumping riff. | February 2007 | |
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"LOVE SCENES ADAPTED FROM D.H. LAWRENCE'S LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER"
by The Academy Dramatic Players
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Decades before Janet Jackson's halftime wardrobe malfunction sent parts of America into fits of moral outrage, people had to score their righteous indignation at the expense of the publishing industry. The arrival of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover on American shores was one of the more famous cases, complete with postal inspectors seizing copies of the pernicious filth and hauling those who would dare sully the fine moral standards of the community by keeping it in their homes off to jail. The publishers sued to stop this nonsense (and to stay out of jail themselves), leading to a landmark ruling by New York District Court Judge Frederick van Pelt Bryan that defended the book, and all future works with naughty words and adult situations, on the grounds that it had literary merit. America could now freely enjoy the works of Lawrence without fear of their neighbors turning them in to the local police. What better way to celebrate than with a record dramatizing the novel's steamiest scenes, complete with orchestral accompaniment? Unless you consider “phallus” and “sex” to be obscene words, you'll find yourself quaintly charmed by the idea that this once caused an uproar, even though the anonymous actors do their best to sell the sex with breathless, melodramatic readings. Both the jacket and the album feature the notation, “Vol. 1,” on all sides, suggesting that this was the first in a series... | March 2007 | |
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"SIDE 1"
by The Academy Dramatic Players
(From "Love Scenes Adapted from D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover"
by The Academy Dramatic Players)
MP3 |
March 2007 | ||
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"SIDE 2"
by The Academy Dramatic Players
(From "Love Scenes Adapted from D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover"
by The Academy Dramatic Players)
MP3 |
March 2007 | ||
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"KILL THE BEE GEES"
by The Accident
MP3 |
An angry song from The Accident (Bellingham, WA, also released in 1979 on No Three). | February 2005 | |
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"BOULE"
by Achwgha Ney Wodei
MP3 |
Futuristic/primitive schizoid tribal chant by darkwave pioneers Achwgha Ney Wodei from the obscure "Out of Nowhere" cassette compilation released in 1986. | July 2008 | |
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"EYE"
by Acid Eater
MP3 |
Most know Maso Yamazaki as the one-man noise unit Masonna. Over the years, Maso has channeled his extremo presence via a few 'cosmic' outfits like Christine 23 Onna and Space Machine, but it's his garage-rock band Acid Eater that is featured here. The album title "Virulent Fuzz Punk A.C.I.D." (Time Bomb) speaks for itself, a total blowtorch of garbled, burnt out garage covers (including the Twilighters' "Nothing Can Bring Me Down" once deconstructed by Pussy Galore). Imagine an even more screwed up Guitar Wolf with a cheesy organ being playing inside one of your ears and you'll have an idea. | November 2007 | |
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"THE PEPPER YOUNG TRANSLATIONS"
by Blaster Al Ackerman
MP3 |
Ehse Records is offering up complete MP3s of assorted releases on its site (we've sung the praises of the great Little Howlin' Wolf in the past, his most recent LP is there); one in particular features the spoken recordings of Baltimore's Blaster Al Ackerman, a spoken-word artist who has been referenced by Throbbing Gristle. Says Ehse: "This listener's prediction: the muffled voice of Blaster Al Ackerman reading his "Pepper Young" translations with a presumed bar of soap in his mouth followed by tree frog belches will replace the sound of a passing steam locomotive as the poetic sounds of indescribable mystery and high lonesomeness. This audio icon of the 21st Century can be found on Ehse Records' LP release of Blaster Al Ackerman's "I Am Drunk". And indeed at times he does sound drunk, but not just on booze, also on language and human absurdity. Featuring live as well as "studio" recordings, "I Am Drunk" also has two Blaster classics that raise the humdrum world of the workplace to the giddy heights of Philip K. Dick in Munchkinland - "The John Eaton Recommendations" and "The Crab". Another prediction: copies of this album with its linguistic hijinks and squat and thrusts will be played far more times and enjoyed much more than any mothball enshrined Caedmon LP of T.S. Eliot or Robert Frost intoning. | September 2005 | |
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"MOSCOW MAILBAG - THE VOICE OF RUSSIA"
by Joe Adamov
MP3 |
Anybody who listened to the Soviet Union's Radio Moscow (aka The Voice of Russia) via shortwave from the U.S. over the years has heard Joe answer all sorts of listener's questions about the goings on in the U.S.S.R. Recorded by WFMU's The Professor. | February 2006 | |
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"TODAY WE BOUGHT A HOME"
by Mason Adams
(From "Today We Bought A Home"
by Various Artists)
MP3 |
January 2007 | ||
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"HEAVEN"
by AD Conspiracy
MP3 |
An odd and nervous slab of minimal synth/sideways skronk that would easily fit in with something like Ned Sublette's "I Ain't Afraid of Girls" from the Downtown comp Antarctica. While AD Conspiracy weren't a religious band per se (one of the guys went on to form trip-hop/jazz outfit Spaceways), this track captures the jittery white-guy gospel vibe pretty accurately while teetering at the edge of a nervous breakdown. | March 2007 | |
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"BUCKLE UP PSAS"
by Ad Council
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PSA's for their Buckle Up America campaign that quickly got recalled after a lot of people got offended hearing them on radio stations and complained. | June 2007 | |
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"PSA1"
by Ad Council
(From "Buckle Up PSAS"
by Ad Council)
MP3 |
June 2007 | ||
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"PSA2"
by Ad Council
(From "Buckle Up PSAS"
by Ad Council)
MP3 |
June 2007 | ||
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"PSA3"
by Ad Council
(From "Buckle Up PSAS"
by Ad Council)
MP3 |
June 2007 | ||
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"PSA4"
by Ad Council
(From "Buckle Up PSAS"
by Ad Council)
MP3 |
June 2007 | ||
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"PSA5"
by Ad Council
(From "Buckle Up PSAS"
by Ad Council)
MP3 |
June 2007 | ||
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"BREASTFEEDING HEALTH AWARENESS SPOT"
by Ad Council
MP3 |
June 2007 | ||
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"CHINA CALLS"
by Aerial View
MP3 | MP3 |
Random Chinese people contacted by Chris T share how they felt when they heard John Lennon died. | December 2005 | |
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"THE TEMPLE"
by Afghan Whigs
(From "Alternative Jesus Christ Superstar"
by Andrew Lloyd Weber)
MP3 |
December 2006 | ||
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"BLOODSTAINS"
by Agent Orange
MP3 |
With introduction from Brooke Shields. From the first "Rodney on the ROQ" compliation released on Posh Boy in 1980. | November 2007 | |
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"WALLACE CANNONBALL"
by Chuck Aherns and the Cannonballs
(From "1968 US Presidential Campaign"
by Hermanitos Garcia and Chuck Aherns)
MP3 |
April 2007 | ||
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"AMERICAN PARTY SONG"
by Chuck Aherns and the Cannonballs
(From "1968 US Presidential Campaign"
by Hermanitos Garcia and Chuck Aherns)
MP3 |
April 2007 | ||
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"SONG 1 (BLUR)"
by Adam Ainsworth
(From "Ken's Sixty Second Remix Contest"
by Various Artists)
MP3 |
May 2007 | ||
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"HERE I AM"
by Air Supply
MP3 |
Experiments playing with the record and, you know, it's Air Supply. Ouch. | October 2006 | |
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"EVERY WOMAN IN THE WORLD"
by Air Supply with Dudley Moore
MP3 |
What if Dudley Moore actually did moonlight as the little sweater guy in Air Supply? Here's a completely filthy mp3 serving as the audio counterpart to that conjecture, mixed together by WFMU's Scott Williams.. | September 2006 | |
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"SUITE USA RECORD COMPANY"
by Akaten
MP3 |
Atsushi Tsuyama (Acid Mothers Temple) and Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins) provide a muscial recitation of the major record labels. | November 2005 | |