Hey kids, it’s a special Xmas edition of the Dangerous Minds Radio Hour with guest host Rick Potts ! One of the founding members of the Los Angeles Free Music Society, Rick and his cohorts have been making and collecting weird records since the early 70’s and mining a specifically suburban vein of audio surrealism delightfully apparent in this radio special. Mele Kalikimaka !
 
Rick sez: “The Winter Holidays can be stressful and downright annoying. It can get you down but an alternative to Grinch-ness & Scrooge-osity is to revel in the oddness, absurdity and surrealism of Christmas-time. Ka-Bella-Binsky-Bungo!”
 
01. Christmas Night In Harlem - Raymond Scott - Microphone Music
02. The Chipmonk Song - The Three Suns - A Ding Dong Dandy Christmas
03. Who Says There Ain’t No Santa Claus - Barbara Cook & Jerome Courtland - Flahooley , Original Cast Recording
04. Christmas - Joseph Byrd - Christmas Yet To Come
05. White Christmas - The Wailers - Destiny: Rare Ska Sides from Studio One
06. Close Your Mouth (It’s Christmas) - The Free Design - Stars / Time / Bubbles / Love
07. Mele Kalikimaka - Arthur Lyman - Mele Kalikimaka
08. Ding Dong Christmastime - Rick Potts/Christmas Sound Effects - LAFMS Lightbulb Vol. 3 Christmas Cassette
09. Frosty the Red-nosed Ghost - Conniff Singers/Voices of Walter Schumann/Rick Potts - Follow the Raindeer
10. Santa Claus Goes Modern - Rod Rodgers & The Librettos - The Breakdown of Human Absurdity
11. The Parade Of The Tin Soldiers - Sound In Brass Handbells - Ringing Clear, The Art Of Handbell Ringing
12. Bells Are Ringing - Moondog - Moondog 2
13. The Toy Trumpet (2 Versions) - George Wright/Eddie Dunstedter -Merry Christmas/Mr. Pipe Organ
14. The Stupendous Holiday Finksten - The Human Lard Dog And The Band Of Shy - The Fat Assed Freak is Coming To Town
15. Sleigh Ride - Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Sym. Orc. - The Typewriter, Leroy Anderson Favorites
16. Santa Claus On A Helicopter - Wing - Santa Claus On A Helicopter
17. You, Too, Can Be A Puppet - Puppet Singers - Flahooley, Original Cast Recording
 

 
Download this week’s episode
 
Subscribe to the Dangerous Minds Radio Hour podcast at Alterati
 

 
Attention UK Dangerous Minds readers! A possibly once in a lifetime occurrence; a festival dedicated to and featuring nearly all original and main participants in the legendary LAFMS will happen the weekend after next in London. There’ll be tape loops and homemade instruments and creaky old synths by the barrel-full, even a couple of workshops ! So nice to see these DIY warriors get their due, international style.
 

 
More LAFMS after the jump…

 
Excellent videos for LAFMS stalwarts The Doo-Dooettes, Tom Recchion and David Toop by NYC artist Jonathon Rosen.

These videos evolved out of the copious material that was generated for live performances with the great musician/composer Tom Recchion. Working as a live mix video-instrumentalist with music as evocatively visual as this, was (and is) for me, a matter of letting the video elements self-assemble themselves. In other words, rather than force a narrative, as much as possible I strive to be a conduit - using the sound as my guide, and let the visuals tell me what they want to be.

 
Doo-Dooettes, Loop Rendered (excerpt).
Music by the Doo-Dooettes from the CD Think Space on Organ of Corti.
Remixed and reconfigured by Tom Recchion.
Video animation & editing: Jonathon Rosen.
 

Apartment Thunder.
Music from David Toop’s CD Black Chamber (Sub Rosa).
Musicians: David Toop, Tom Recchion.
Animation / Editing / Direction: Jonathon Rosen

 
I bought my copy of Darker Skratcher at the Wherehouse records franchise in the Panorama City mall in 1980. It was in the “punk” section and sure enough it had a cut on it by 45 Grave that I had heard on Rodney on the Roq a few times and which I’m sure was the reason I bought it. The remainder of the tracks were a glimpse into a mysterious suburban/subterranean music scene that became a huge influence on myself and all of my friends. It was a musical approach that could incorporate free improvisation, musique concrete, obscure pop culture references and pure noise into its “punk”. Sounded like home to me. Each of the groups on Darker Skratcher warrant their own posts, so I’ll refrain from the details for now and defer to the sage Mr. Lumbleau over at Mutant Sounds :

A seminal artifact of the L.A. Free Music Society’s salad days and one that, unlike most extant L.A.F.M.S. compilations, spends most of it’s time highlighting the less well recognized quirk pop perfection dimension of the L.A.F.M.S.’ collective praxis; to wit, it’s a compendium essential enough for me to be willing to bear the karmic burden of sharing a recording containing work by a certain Boyd Rice*. All that aside though, what self respecting freaky fringe music acolyte could be without this watershed document? From The Rick Potts Band’s suavely ludicrous bontempi pop to BPeople’s angular art fracture and from 45 Grave’s delightfully dejected sounding novelty song kitsch to Human Hands’ ferocious post punk juggernaut (one of their finest moments ever), it’s a testament to the sundry modes of ass-backward brilliance collectively deployed by this genre disrupting (and genre defining) art geek mafia.

*fwiw I share his misgivings about Mr Rice, but this track (the opening cut from DS) is just too great not to post.

 
Once again, time for another guest post from Dangerous Minds pal, main Medicine man, and one of my dear childhood friends, Mr. Brad Laner:

Airway, the “noise orchestra” led by Joe Potts are one of the original mainstay bands of the fabled Los Angeles Free Music Society.  Issuing a string of self-released and very homemade-feeling LPs which had a broad effect upon the world of experimental music, the LAFMS emerged out of the suburban haze of California’s San Gabriel Valley in the mid-‘70’s.

Being huge influences on the likes of Nurse With Wound, Keiji Haino (who evidently traveled to L.A. in the early ‘80’s with the sole purpose of finding and playing with Airway) and, most certainly, yours truly (plus, really, anybody who’s made improvisational noise music since the mid-‘70’s), it’s a bit amazing to report that Airway will be making their first ever appearance outside of L.A. this month as part of a nice-sounding hoedown called A FANTASTIC WORLD SUPERIMPOSED ON REALITY: A SELECT HISTORY OF EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC, a “Mini-Festival to Present an Exciting Line-Up of Key Musicians and Artists Who Developed the Dynamic Trajectory of Experimental Noise Music.”

The whole thing is curated by artist Mike Kelly, who will also be performing with LAFMS/Airway alumni Tom Recchion, Fredrik Nilsen, Joe Potts and visionary genius Paul McCarthy as Extended Organ (see them below playing at L.A.‘s Schindler House).

 
Bonus amusement: Attention, Joe Potts!  Some punk kids have stolen your rad, emo-ready band name.  Time to lawyer up!