WFMU: Observations of Deviance with David Mittleman: Playlist from May 16, 2023

Listener comments!
	6:55pm Observations: Get ready for a FRED FRITH FIESTA 🚀❤️🔥💫🌟✨🪅🎉
	7:02pm Rich in Washington: I'm here for the Frith-Fest.
	7:03pm Observations: We are live!!
	7:04pm Rich in Washington: I need to see this film again.
	7:04pm northguineahills: so, we shouldn't fret, the fred frith fiesta features a fretless?
	🥁 7:05pm WR: ↳ Rich in Washington @7:04 Film?
	7:06pm Rich in Washington: ↳ WR @7:05 The Fred Frith documentary called Step Across The Border. It's fantastic.
	7:08pm Rich in Washington: ↳ Song: "Jazz Snob Eat Shit" by "Naked City" OH YEAH
	7:09pm Observations: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
	7:11pm Rich in Washington: ↳ Song: "The Same Wide Wall" by "Fred Frith - René Lussier" Love this album so much
	7:12pm northguineahills: ↳ Song: "Jazz Snob Eat Shit" by "Naked City" I was once in line at Other Music and Jim O'Rourke was in front of me w/ a vinyl copy of Torture Garden. He asked me if he should by it. I responded, "hell yeah!" (I already had a copy for about four years at the time).
	7:13pm Observations: ↳ Song: "Something About This Landscape for Ensemble" by "... "Commissioned by and recorded during the 2018 Ars Musical Festival, Fred Frith composed this work while under the inspiration of his residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, CA, then performed with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, along with two very unique improvisations, one recorded during the dress rehearsal and then again in concert."
	7:15pm StringOFperils: Wow, great! I've seen René Lussier several times, but not in recent years; it's nice when his name crops up in a broadcast of some sort. Him, Jean Derome, Les Quatre Guitarites d'Apocalypso Bar, etcetera...many reasons why I wish I'd moved to Montreal instead of Toronto, way back when.
	7:20pm doctorjazz: Hey Observers! Just got my Swag yesterday, love the Gilmore CD!
	7:23pm Dean: Damn, damn, damn. I have missed the first 20 minutes or so. So when are you going to play "The Frith of Fifth" from Selling England By the Pound?
	7:24pm Dean: That Cora tribute is terrific.
	7:27pm Doug Schulkind: Hello, Mr. Mittleman and Frith fans!
	7:28pm northguineahills: I agree w/ Frith's music assessment..
	7:29pm Observations: ↳ doctorjazz @7:20 Wonderful! ❤️🔥
	7:30pm Observations: 👋👋👋
	7:30pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @7:23 only if he plays it on the firth of forth.. /actually, that was the first fred frith album i picked up, randomly. (thrift store find)
	7:31pm Dean: Frith's remarks about mediation of jazz via records reminds me of, of all people, Philip Larkin, the librarian/poet who also published reviews of jazz recordings. His tastes were fairly conservative.
	7:32pm Dean: If I had a nickel for every time I heard a band claim, "We opened for Pink Floyd several times"...
	7:34pm Observations: www.dukeupress.edu...
	7:36pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @7:32 you'd have 5 cents?
	7:37pm Observations: Henry Cow = Henry Cowell pun
	7:37pm StringOFperils: '....I'd be the dean of nickels' popped into MY mind.
	7:38pm Dean: ...I'd be opening for Pink Floyd. Frith is dead wrong. Celine Dion adores Henry Cow and usually makes a point to do a medley of their tunes in her Vegas acts.
	7:38pm Revolution Rabbit Nov63: GoodLord is there no end to the treats FMU presents.
	7:41pm StringOFperils: She's love da Rock in Opposition, bien sur!
	7:42pm Observations: ↳ Observations @7:34 The World Is a Problem / Benjamin Piekut
	7:42pm Dean: I met Frith at the Freight & Salvage a few years ago. I was there with a buddy who spent time filming and interviewing him. I also helped my buddy film him at Jazz House.
	7:44pm Dean: Henry Mac? Fleetwood Cow?
	7:47pm northguineahills: ↳ Observations @7:37 I actually had two Henry Cowell LPs before I picked up a Henry Cow record.
	7:48pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @7:44 I'd paid to see either just based on the names...
	7:49pm Dean: Same here, @ngh. Had Cowell way before Cow. But that's also because, as Frith intimated, back then I was one of those listeners who was at best Cow-curious.
	7:50pm Dean: Pretty sure my introduction to Henry Cow as Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls.
	7:51pm Dean: ^as = was Konk Pack, with Hodgkinson, was phenomenal at Victo.
	7:54pm Observations: ↳ Song: "The Lions Of Desire [With Phil Minton] (France, U... Phil plays 🎺 and sings 🎤
	8:00pm Dean: I have Box Redux. Need to add this Glastonbury record.
	8:01pm Andrew Waterloo: This will be a good warm up for see Frith on Friday
	8:11pm Observations: ↳ Andrew Waterloo @8:01 where is he playing?
	8:24pm Dean: Dig these images my buddy took of FF at either Freight & Salvage or Jazz House: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Music/Fred-Frith/i-kq3NPMQ
	8:26pm Dean: (Includes historical photos, too.) Frith did a soundtrack for a movie about Andy Goldsworthy, too, yes? Pretty sure I have it.
	8:32pm Dean: "In America nobody ever talks about Kevin Ayers..." Huh?
	8:33pm Observations: ↳ Dean @8:32 perhaps a slight exaggeration
	8:34pm Observations: aquariumdrunkard.com...
	8:35pm Dean: Evan Parker has played more than once at a home about six blocks from my house, a place owned by Greg Goodman/Woody Woodman, who has also played with Bailey. I heard G(W)oodman once with Parker at the house a few years ago.
	8:37pm Dean: Good lord, Beresford, Frith, LaDonna (an acquaintance of a friend of mine who hails from AL)!
	8:41pm Dean: Frith is informing us that there is a legacy of mistaken credits even before ChatGPT.
	8:46pm Dean: Heh, funny, but I just read a review today of a record featuring some of Chopin's etudes. The reviewer made the point that most etudes at the time were gratuitous and needlessly demanding without musical virtue.
	8:52pm Dean: Yeah, @Observations @8:34, this is typical baloney journalism. He is "underappreciated" (?) and yet he wrote "some of the band's most memorable songs" (?). Utter nonsense. If one is interested in Ayers, one can find a shit-ton of information about him. He is not appreciated as much as Mozart, I guess, and so in that respect he is underappreciated.
	8:53pm Dean: I'll note, too, that I am underappreciated.
	8:54pm Observations: ↳ Dean @8:52 On the other hand - when was the last time a Kevin Ayers solo album was reissued in the US? A long time ago.
	🥁 8:59pm WR: ↳ Song: "The Ladder" by "John Zorn & Fred Frith" one web search I just did on Frith came back with this description of "Step Across the Border": "British blues musician Fred Frith and his band rehearse and jam between formal gigs in Europe, Japan and the United States." I was skeptical regarding Frith as a blues musician, but now I'm hearing it.
	9:00pm Dean: I'm glad you asked! 2014, it appears: https://www.discogs.com/release/5349374-Kevin-Ayers-Original-Album-Series (It's an EU issue, but Rhino markets it.) Anyway, I'm not sure the measure of appreciation is record label reissues, which seem these days to be willy-nilly. My measure of appreciation is more focused on radio stations, word of mouth, that sort of thing. Maybe The Wire hasn't promoted him of late, I dunno, but I find The Wire insufferable.
	9:01pm StringOFperils: I sensed that Ayers himself was skeptical of most things, and wisely opted for disappearing into the weeds with ample supplies of good claret.
	9:02pm Observations: ↳ Dean @9:00 Ayers is rarely in Mojo or Uncut
	9:04pm Dean: I've heard of Mojo, not Uncut. I consult neither.
	9:06pm Observations: ↳ Dean @9:04 then where do you see Kevin Ayers appreciation?
	9:08pm northguineahills: ↳ Song: "Fred Frith" by "Christian Marclay" thought this sounded familiar!
	9:10pm Dean: As I mentioned above, radio stations and word of mouth. I also recall the ubiquity of his records in certain circles at the time they appeared. You couldn't NOT see them. It was easy to discover favorable (or unfavorable) opinions of him. Is he as "appreciated" as, say, Leonard Cohen? Of course not. But that doesn't mean he is therefore underappreciated. Perhaps the contrary?
	9:11pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @9:00 tell us how you really feel about The Wire™? 🙃
	9:13pm Dean: My real feeling about The Wire: they could be a truly informative, useful organ for the community of musics they represent. But most of the writing is akin to, say, The Wine Spectator: the same old bland figures of speech about the same network of producers. Honestly, I wish they were better.
	9:13pm northguineahills: I picked up all of Kevin Ayers in a nine month span in 2000-2001. Should have gotten him together w/ Roy.
	9:16pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @9:13 I feel by 2007 the got rid of mist of the greybeard tiresomes that weighed it down, and by 2015, outside of a few exceptions, they had significant fresh turnover in the staff. That said, I haven't read an issue from them since 2019...
	9:17pm Dean: I gave up on them c.2001. Ben Watson, jesus.
	9:19pm Dean: Worth noting that Frith is on bass with Naked City. Stunning.
	9:20pm Erik/VermonT: @ David Mittleman : I will be obsessing over this fascinating interview and wonderful show via the archives (no doubt many times !). But I must sincerely thank you for sharing this rare interview with all of us ! Fred Frith literally & profoundly changed my life (not only musically … but in aesthetic ways, too complicated to relate here 😉). From approximately 1981 forward, I have been intently following Mr Frith’s career with awe and admiration ! With great appreciation, I return to listening.
	9:21pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @9:17 The way I saw it, I knew the writers well enough that for the reasons they would dislike something would be the reasons I would love it, and vice versa (that happened often).
	9:22pm Observations: ↳ Erik/VermonT @9:20 Glad you dig it! ❤️🔥❤️🙏🙏✨
	9:23pm northguineahills: ↳ Song: "Water / Struggle / The North" by "Fred Frith" This was the album that got me into Frith (around 95).
	9:23pm Dean: That's a fair response, @ngh. It's how I read Fanfare, which is a bimonthly magazine of reviews of new classical recordings, ~600 pages per issue, no illustrations, no margins. I read individual reviewers according to their biases, which they often make explicit.
	9:27pm Dean: My poetry workshop is about to commence. Goddammit. A marvelous series of interviews.
	9:33pm northguineahills: Leng Tch'e is my favorite Naked City...
	9:34pm northguineahills: Vaclac Havel of the Plastic People of the Universe!
	9:34pm Dean: Agreed: Leng Lch'e.
	9:34pm northguineahills: (and the Velvet Revolution)
	9:34pm northguineahills: err, vaclav..
	9:36pm northguineahills: i use, 'object-oriented, highly structured real-time processes of recursive composition' rather than improvisation..
	9:36pm northguineahills: (but, I also use improv)
	9:44pm Dean: ^Leng Tch'e obvs
	9:48pm northguineahills: Thanks David, that was magnificent!
	9:50pm Rich in Washington: This has been absolutely fascinating! Thanks so much for the wonderful show and interview! I am sure I will be revisiting this episode often.
	9:50pm Observations: ↳ northguineahills @9:48 🙏🙏🙏
	9:51pm Observations: ↳ Rich in Washington @9:50 Thanks! 🙏👋
	9:53pm northguineahills: since we're talking about Naked City, I used to sample the one track from torture garden that is four seconds long that is nothing but yamataka eye hocking a lugi followed by a cymbal crash w/ techno mixes...
	🥁 9:57pm WR: This has been truly festive!
	9:58pm Rich in Washington: yeah, I did not know that about him hosting a WFMU show. Would be cool to hear one but I believe it LONG predates the archive system.
	10:03pm Observations: I'll be back next week, goodnight!

Observations of Deviance with David Mittleman: Playlist from May 16, 2023

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Observations of Deviance is a vinyl focused, free form program that harkens back to early days of underground FM radio. Your host, David Mittleman, hunts down the most exotic, unusual and off-the-beaten-track music from around the world in a number of genres: Spiritual Jazz, Free Improvisation, Experimental Electronics, Ethnographic Oddities and World-Wide Psychedelic Funk. You are guaranteed to hear sounds you’ve never heard before.

Saturday 7 - 10pm (EST) | On WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio
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Upcoming events:

Sat. Jan 11th, 2025, 7pm - 10pm: Man'ish Boy: Darius Jones Interview (More info...)
Renowned Jazz musician Darius Jones has become a singular voice of his generation through constant determination and an uncompromising artistic vision. Simultaneously he has forged an enviable academic career, having recently been named Assistant Professor of Music at Wesleyan University. OoD host David Mittleman interviewed Darius Jones for a three-hour special feature that will explore his many albums, including his on-going "Man'ish Boy" multi-chaptered epic.

May 16, 2023: Fred Frith Fiesta: Exclusive Interview

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Artist	Track	Album	Label	Year	Comments	Approx. start time

Fred Frith	The Border "The Border" by "Fred Frith"	Step Across The Border	East Side Digital	1990		0:02:35 (Pop-up)
Fred Frith	Hello Music "Hello Music" by "Fred Frith"	Guitar Solos	Caroline	1974		0:05:57 (Pop-up)
Naked City	Jazz Snob Eat Shit "Jazz Snob Eat Shit" by "Naked City"	Torture Garden	Shimmy Disc	1990	feat. Fred Frith	0:07:27 (Pop-up)
Penn Jillette	Fred Frith 1 "Fred Frith 1" by "Penn Jillette"	Ralph Records 10th Anniversary Radio Special!	Ralph	1982		0:07:53 (Pop-up)
Fred Frith - René Lussier	The Same Wide Wall	Nous Autres	Les Disques Victo	1987		0:08:21 (Pop-up)
Fred Frith & Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles	Something About This Landscape for Ensemble	Something About This Landscape for Ensemble	Sub Rosa	2023	https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/frith-and-ensemble-musiques-nouvelles-fred-something-about-this-lands-lp/SR.536LP.html	0:11:40 (Pop-up)
Tom Cora / Chris Cutler / Fred Frith	One More Time	Hallelujah, Anyway - Remembering Tom Cora	Tzadik	1999	March 1998	0:18:53 (Pop-up)
Andy Haas Duet With Fred Frith	Cicatrix	Arnhem Land	Avant	1997		0:21:54 (Pop-up)

Fred Frith	Interview: Part 1 "Interview: Part 1" by "Fred Frith"	Interview April 17, 2023	N/A	2023		0:26:29 (Pop-up)

Henry Cow	The Lions Of Desire [With Phil Minton] (France, Unknown Venue, 1978)	Glastonbury And Elsewhere	ReR Megacorp	2023	feat. Fred Frith; https://henrycow2.bandcamp.com/album/glastonbury-and-elsewhere	0:49:49 (Pop-up)
Fred Frith	Norrgarden Nyvla "Norrgarden Nyvla" by "Fred Frith"	Gravity	Ralph	1980		1:05:45 (Pop-up)
Penn Jillette	Fred Frith 2 "Fred Frith 2" by "Penn Jillette"	Ralph Records 10th Anniversary Radio Special!	Ralph	1982		1:09:26 (Pop-up)
Naked City	Thrash Jazz Assassin "Thrash Jazz Assassin" by "Naked City"	Torture Garden	Shimmy Disc	1990	feat. Fred Frith	1:09:48 (Pop-up)
Chris Cutler & Fred Frith	Live In Prague (Part 1)	Live In Prague And Washington	Rē	1983	recorded at the 8th Prague "Jazz Days" Festival on 25th May 1979 at the Lucerna Hall, Prague	1:10:34 (Pop-up)
Fred Frith	Sparrow Song "Sparrow Song" by "Fred Frith"	Step Across The Border	East Side Digital	1990		1:15:50 (Pop-up)
Art Bears	Moeris, Dancing "Moeris, Dancing" by "Art Bears"	Hopes and Fears	Rē	1978	feat. Fred Frith	1:17:17 (Pop-up)
Fred Frith	Alienated Industrial Seagulls Etc.	Guitar Solos 3	Red	1979		1:20:17 (Pop-up)

Fred Frith	Interview: Part 2 "Interview: Part 2" by "Fred Frith"	Interview April 17, 2023	N/A	2023		1:26:54 (Pop-up)

Lol Coxhill / Fred Frith	Reims '82	French Gigs	AAA	1983		1:48:48 (Pop-up)
Naked City	Shangkuan Ling-Feng "Shangkuan Ling-Feng" by "Naked City"	Torture Garden	Shimmy Disc	1990	feat. Fred Frith	1:54:01 (Pop-up)
John Zorn & Fred Frith	The Ladder	The Art Of Memory	Incus	1994		1:55:12 (Pop-up)
Fred Frith	Osaka I "Osaka I" by "Fred Frith"	Live In Japan	Recommended	1982	The Guitars On The Table Approach	2:00:30 (Pop-up)
Christian Marclay	Fred Frith "Fred Frith" by "Christian Marclay"	More Encores	No Man's Land	1989		2:06:45 (Pop-up)
Penn Jillette	Fred Frith 3 "Fred Frith 3" by "Penn Jillette"	Ralph Records 10th Anniversary Radio Special!	Ralph	1982		2:10:09 (Pop-up)
Skeleton Crew	Learn to Talk "Learn to Talk" by "Skeleton Crew"	Learn to Talk	Rift	1984	feat. Fred Frith	2:10:19 (Pop-up)
Fred Frith, Henry Kaiser	Twisted Memories Give Way To The Angry Present	With Friends Like These	Metalanguage	1979		2:14:05 (Pop-up)
Naked City	Perfume Of A Critic's Burning Flesh	Torture Garden	Shimmy Disc	1990	feat. Fred Frith	2:17:54 (Pop-up)
Fred Frith	Saving Grace / Speechless	Speechless	Ralph	1981		2:18:20 (Pop-up)
Fred Frith	Water / Struggle / The North	Guitar Solos 2	Caroline	1976		2:21:18 (Pop-up)

Fred Frith	Interview: Part 3 "Interview: Part 3" by "Fred Frith"	Interview April 17, 2023	N/A	2023		2:26:52 (Pop-up)

Fred Frith - Susana Santos Silva	Laying Demons To Rest	Laying Demons To Rest	RogueArt	2023	https://rogueart1.bandcamp.com/album/laying-demons-to-rest	2:48:46 (Pop-up)

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Listener comments!
	6:55pm Observations: Get ready for a FRED FRITH FIESTA 🚀❤️🔥💫🌟✨🪅🎉
	7:02pm Rich in Washington: I'm here for the Frith-Fest.
	7:03pm Observations: We are live!!
	7:04pm Rich in Washington: I need to see this film again.
	7:04pm northguineahills: so, we shouldn't fret, the fred frith fiesta features a fretless?
	🥁 7:05pm WR: ↳ Rich in Washington @7:04 Film?
	7:06pm Rich in Washington: ↳ WR @7:05 The Fred Frith documentary called Step Across The Border. It's fantastic.
	7:08pm Rich in Washington: ↳ Song: "Jazz Snob Eat Shit" by "Naked City" OH YEAH
	7:09pm Observations: 🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸
	7:11pm Rich in Washington: ↳ Song: "The Same Wide Wall" by "Fred Frith - René Lussier" Love this album so much
	7:12pm northguineahills: ↳ Song: "Jazz Snob Eat Shit" by "Naked City" I was once in line at Other Music and Jim O'Rourke was in front of me w/ a vinyl copy of Torture Garden. He asked me if he should by it. I responded, "hell yeah!" (I already had a copy for about four years at the time).
	7:13pm Observations: ↳ Song: "Something About This Landscape for Ensemble" by "... "Commissioned by and recorded during the 2018 Ars Musical Festival, Fred Frith composed this work while under the inspiration of his residency at Lou Harrison's straw-bale house in the desert at Joshua Tree, CA, then performed with the Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, along with two very unique improvisations, one recorded during the dress rehearsal and then again in concert."
	7:15pm StringOFperils: Wow, great! I've seen René Lussier several times, but not in recent years; it's nice when his name crops up in a broadcast of some sort. Him, Jean Derome, Les Quatre Guitarites d'Apocalypso Bar, etcetera...many reasons why I wish I'd moved to Montreal instead of Toronto, way back when.
	7:20pm doctorjazz: Hey Observers! Just got my Swag yesterday, love the Gilmore CD!
	7:23pm Dean: Damn, damn, damn. I have missed the first 20 minutes or so. So when are you going to play "The Frith of Fifth" from Selling England By the Pound?
	7:24pm Dean: That Cora tribute is terrific.
	7:27pm Doug Schulkind: Hello, Mr. Mittleman and Frith fans!
	7:28pm northguineahills: I agree w/ Frith's music assessment..
	7:29pm Observations: ↳ doctorjazz @7:20 Wonderful! ❤️🔥
	7:30pm Observations: 👋👋👋
	7:30pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @7:23 only if he plays it on the firth of forth.. /actually, that was the first fred frith album i picked up, randomly. (thrift store find)
	7:31pm Dean: Frith's remarks about mediation of jazz via records reminds me of, of all people, Philip Larkin, the librarian/poet who also published reviews of jazz recordings. His tastes were fairly conservative.
	7:32pm Dean: If I had a nickel for every time I heard a band claim, "We opened for Pink Floyd several times"...
	7:34pm Observations: www.dukeupress.edu...
	7:36pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @7:32 you'd have 5 cents?
	7:37pm Observations: Henry Cow = Henry Cowell pun
	7:37pm StringOFperils: '....I'd be the dean of nickels' popped into MY mind.
	7:38pm Dean: ...I'd be opening for Pink Floyd. Frith is dead wrong. Celine Dion adores Henry Cow and usually makes a point to do a medley of their tunes in her Vegas acts.
	7:38pm Revolution Rabbit Nov63: GoodLord is there no end to the treats FMU presents.
	7:41pm StringOFperils: She's love da Rock in Opposition, bien sur!
	7:42pm Observations: ↳ Observations @7:34 The World Is a Problem / Benjamin Piekut
	7:42pm Dean: I met Frith at the Freight & Salvage a few years ago. I was there with a buddy who spent time filming and interviewing him. I also helped my buddy film him at Jazz House.
	7:44pm Dean: Henry Mac? Fleetwood Cow?
	7:47pm northguineahills: ↳ Observations @7:37 I actually had two Henry Cowell LPs before I picked up a Henry Cow record.
	7:48pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @7:44 I'd paid to see either just based on the names...
	7:49pm Dean: Same here, @ngh. Had Cowell way before Cow. But that's also because, as Frith intimated, back then I was one of those listeners who was at best Cow-curious.
	7:50pm Dean: Pretty sure my introduction to Henry Cow as Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls.
	7:51pm Dean: ^as = was Konk Pack, with Hodgkinson, was phenomenal at Victo.
	7:54pm Observations: ↳ Song: "The Lions Of Desire [With Phil Minton] (France, U... Phil plays 🎺 and sings 🎤
	8:00pm Dean: I have Box Redux. Need to add this Glastonbury record.
	8:01pm Andrew Waterloo: This will be a good warm up for see Frith on Friday
	8:11pm Observations: ↳ Andrew Waterloo @8:01 where is he playing?
	8:24pm Dean: Dig these images my buddy took of FF at either Freight & Salvage or Jazz House: https://www.steveelkins.net/Interviews/On-Music/Fred-Frith/i-kq3NPMQ
	8:26pm Dean: (Includes historical photos, too.) Frith did a soundtrack for a movie about Andy Goldsworthy, too, yes? Pretty sure I have it.
	8:32pm Dean: "In America nobody ever talks about Kevin Ayers..." Huh?
	8:33pm Observations: ↳ Dean @8:32 perhaps a slight exaggeration
	8:34pm Observations: aquariumdrunkard.com...
	8:35pm Dean: Evan Parker has played more than once at a home about six blocks from my house, a place owned by Greg Goodman/Woody Woodman, who has also played with Bailey. I heard G(W)oodman once with Parker at the house a few years ago.
	8:37pm Dean: Good lord, Beresford, Frith, LaDonna (an acquaintance of a friend of mine who hails from AL)!
	8:41pm Dean: Frith is informing us that there is a legacy of mistaken credits even before ChatGPT.
	8:46pm Dean: Heh, funny, but I just read a review today of a record featuring some of Chopin's etudes. The reviewer made the point that most etudes at the time were gratuitous and needlessly demanding without musical virtue.
	8:52pm Dean: Yeah, @Observations @8:34, this is typical baloney journalism. He is "underappreciated" (?) and yet he wrote "some of the band's most memorable songs" (?). Utter nonsense. If one is interested in Ayers, one can find a shit-ton of information about him. He is not appreciated as much as Mozart, I guess, and so in that respect he is underappreciated.
	8:53pm Dean: I'll note, too, that I am underappreciated.
	8:54pm Observations: ↳ Dean @8:52 On the other hand - when was the last time a Kevin Ayers solo album was reissued in the US? A long time ago.
	🥁 8:59pm WR: ↳ Song: "The Ladder" by "John Zorn & Fred Frith" one web search I just did on Frith came back with this description of "Step Across the Border": "British blues musician Fred Frith and his band rehearse and jam between formal gigs in Europe, Japan and the United States." I was skeptical regarding Frith as a blues musician, but now I'm hearing it.
	9:00pm Dean: I'm glad you asked! 2014, it appears: https://www.discogs.com/release/5349374-Kevin-Ayers-Original-Album-Series (It's an EU issue, but Rhino markets it.) Anyway, I'm not sure the measure of appreciation is record label reissues, which seem these days to be willy-nilly. My measure of appreciation is more focused on radio stations, word of mouth, that sort of thing. Maybe The Wire hasn't promoted him of late, I dunno, but I find The Wire insufferable.
	9:01pm StringOFperils: I sensed that Ayers himself was skeptical of most things, and wisely opted for disappearing into the weeds with ample supplies of good claret.
	9:02pm Observations: ↳ Dean @9:00 Ayers is rarely in Mojo or Uncut
	9:04pm Dean: I've heard of Mojo, not Uncut. I consult neither.
	9:06pm Observations: ↳ Dean @9:04 then where do you see Kevin Ayers appreciation?
	9:08pm northguineahills: ↳ Song: "Fred Frith" by "Christian Marclay" thought this sounded familiar!
	9:10pm Dean: As I mentioned above, radio stations and word of mouth. I also recall the ubiquity of his records in certain circles at the time they appeared. You couldn't NOT see them. It was easy to discover favorable (or unfavorable) opinions of him. Is he as "appreciated" as, say, Leonard Cohen? Of course not. But that doesn't mean he is therefore underappreciated. Perhaps the contrary?
	9:11pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @9:00 tell us how you really feel about The Wire™? 🙃
	9:13pm Dean: My real feeling about The Wire: they could be a truly informative, useful organ for the community of musics they represent. But most of the writing is akin to, say, The Wine Spectator: the same old bland figures of speech about the same network of producers. Honestly, I wish they were better.
	9:13pm northguineahills: I picked up all of Kevin Ayers in a nine month span in 2000-2001. Should have gotten him together w/ Roy.
	9:16pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @9:13 I feel by 2007 the got rid of mist of the greybeard tiresomes that weighed it down, and by 2015, outside of a few exceptions, they had significant fresh turnover in the staff. That said, I haven't read an issue from them since 2019...
	9:17pm Dean: I gave up on them c.2001. Ben Watson, jesus.
	9:19pm Dean: Worth noting that Frith is on bass with Naked City. Stunning.
	9:20pm Erik/VermonT: @ David Mittleman : I will be obsessing over this fascinating interview and wonderful show via the archives (no doubt many times !). But I must sincerely thank you for sharing this rare interview with all of us ! Fred Frith literally & profoundly changed my life (not only musically … but in aesthetic ways, too complicated to relate here 😉). From approximately 1981 forward, I have been intently following Mr Frith’s career with awe and admiration ! With great appreciation, I return to listening.
	9:21pm northguineahills: ↳ Dean @9:17 The way I saw it, I knew the writers well enough that for the reasons they would dislike something would be the reasons I would love it, and vice versa (that happened often).
	9:22pm Observations: ↳ Erik/VermonT @9:20 Glad you dig it! ❤️🔥❤️🙏🙏✨
	9:23pm northguineahills: ↳ Song: "Water / Struggle / The North" by "Fred Frith" This was the album that got me into Frith (around 95).
	9:23pm Dean: That's a fair response, @ngh. It's how I read Fanfare, which is a bimonthly magazine of reviews of new classical recordings, ~600 pages per issue, no illustrations, no margins. I read individual reviewers according to their biases, which they often make explicit.
	9:27pm Dean: My poetry workshop is about to commence. Goddammit. A marvelous series of interviews.
	9:33pm northguineahills: Leng Tch'e is my favorite Naked City...
	9:34pm northguineahills: Vaclac Havel of the Plastic People of the Universe!
	9:34pm Dean: Agreed: Leng Lch'e.
	9:34pm northguineahills: (and the Velvet Revolution)
	9:34pm northguineahills: err, vaclav..
	9:36pm northguineahills: i use, 'object-oriented, highly structured real-time processes of recursive composition' rather than improvisation..
	9:36pm northguineahills: (but, I also use improv)
	9:44pm Dean: ^Leng Tch'e obvs
	9:48pm northguineahills: Thanks David, that was magnificent!
	9:50pm Rich in Washington: This has been absolutely fascinating! Thanks so much for the wonderful show and interview! I am sure I will be revisiting this episode often.
	9:50pm Observations: ↳ northguineahills @9:48 🙏🙏🙏
	9:51pm Observations: ↳ Rich in Washington @9:50 Thanks! 🙏👋
	9:53pm northguineahills: since we're talking about Naked City, I used to sample the one track from torture garden that is four seconds long that is nothing but yamataka eye hocking a lugi followed by a cymbal crash w/ techno mixes...
	🥁 9:57pm WR: This has been truly festive!
	9:58pm Rich in Washington: yeah, I did not know that about him hosting a WFMU show. Would be cool to hear one but I believe it LONG predates the archive system.
	10:03pm Observations: I'll be back next week, goodnight!

Observations of Deviance with David Mittleman: Playlist from May 16, 2023

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