The Rapture, in Several Shades of Orange

I've been taking longer breaks from special guests and live music, since My Castle of Quiet came back to WFMU's weekly air in December. And what can I say? Painful for The Fonz, but not for me—I WAS WRONG!

The concentrated joy of last night's set by Future Death Toll was its own reward. Fresh off of tour, the band sounded a-frickin'-mazing, and I was immediately confronted with a familiar feeling, of "O, Lucky Man!" I dig deep into the underground, bobbing for those most-artistic of apples, and come up with the OUTSTANDING sounds of FUTURE DEATH TOLL!!! Indeed, I am fortunate, to have this incredible OUTLET wherein I can extend invitations to artits such as these, and they just show up and play! Sit in that Studio B chair sometime, and you'll begin to understand how good the years of MCoQ weekly broadcasts have been to me, and to the program's devoted listeners. The kiss of WFMU is GOLDEN, and I need to remember to utilize this opportunity, in order to bestow upon all who care the rareified talents of artists like these.

An off-and-on tenure of some 30-very-odd years with the station has afforded me the true gift to host some of my favorite artists / bands, and to introduce to a wider audience some lesser-known greats as well.

The playlist comments bubbled over with appreciation for our guests, and tracks by She Wants Revenge, and Svartpest (a favorite from 2003.)

...Time then, to line up some more live sets for the ensuing months, and remind myself of which side The Castle's black bread is buttered on.

Click on our gauzy trio, from the Shaw Brothers film The Boxer's Omen, a psychedelic-horror-gross/out-Tao-revenge wizzbang of a weirdass film, to reach the playlist and audio archive of last night's horrorcast™.

For more from Future Death Toll, also check out their pages on soundcloud and bandcamp.

FUTURE DEATH TOLL ... LIVE TONIGHT, ON MY CASTLE OF QUIET

Future Death Toll are an exciting performance and sound-art troupe, with a mighty presence on YouTube, and luckily for us, a library of terrific songs as well. Three orange jumpsuits seem to indicate that they are prisoners as well, though by appearances, prisoners of their art, or the world, rather than a Maximum Security incarceration facility.

Personally, I've been preparing for this most of my life, as I know I will kill someone eventually, but we're not here to talk about me, well sort of not. I did have one of those PURE musical experiences with this band, you know the kind—where you are only peripherally aware of what you have playing, until it rises to engage and energize you fully, as in, "what the hell is THIS I have playing? THIS is GREAT!: "Ill get a flashlight." You read the tape case and BOOM!—A star is born, in your own little encapsulated world at least, a kind of highly personalized American Idol in your brain.

Musically, F-DT are a more friendly, but still weird-as-fuck Genocide Organ; home brewed and delicious without all the rape and general nastiness; I don't actually know what they're singing about, could be rape, but the general tone of whimsy in Future Death Toll suggests otherwise, not forgetting that their name is Future Death Toll after all, but sonically therein, lies the suggestion of everything from The Residents to DEVO, to the colorful roster of Rainbow Bridge Recordings; and it's on the strength of this self-released cassette alone that I proposed a LIVE visit to My Castle of Quiet and WFMU, track after track engaging in a way similar to the homespun multi-track charms of the original lo-fi cassette era of the 1980s, and labels like Subterranean and Posh Boy; and what makes it apropos to the horror-shaped goings on of this show are the droll, apocalyptic references, the tone of the vocals, and the suggestion that one "just crawl into a body bag instead of going to work" -and yea, my simple-enough needs are MET!

There's also enough crackle, thump and jarring sounds to call this noise, though the relatively short, catchy (my definition) tunes make it pop—pop-calypse, that is. Contemporary noise-heads won't know the difference, they'll jump-along, and those with an older, broader sense of underground musical history will enjoy the accidental or intentional references to a wacked-out attitude that sits comfortably alongside Nash The Slash or The Poetics.

This is a band after WFMU's sonic heart, and I'm thoroughly energized to see what they'll do with the opportunity to render a live radio set. RSVP Facebook.

I gently finger the threads of rope at the end of my tether, @ midnight.
F-DT @ 12:30, 12:40 a.m. approx.
WFMU 91.1FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1FM (Hudson Valley)
in Rockland County @ 91.9FM
wfmu.org LIVE on the Web.

Fucking black muck, so satisfying.

Indeed, SiHV, so much so that I often don't have much more to add. These little, self-imposed, look-back at the week's show posts; sometimes I honestly forget to do them, esp. with the fact that WFMU diligently archives everything in the already.

But here it is; sometimes I think it need not be more than a linked picture. Going, way, way, back, to paraphrasing an obscure DJ-Irwin quote, I often have not much more to add than the fact that I gave "good ball club." On the other hand, if I've a LOT to say, at any time, on any given thing, here is where you'll see it.

Great special programming coming up on My Castle of Quiet, with Seed Stock guest-DJ appearance #3 on 1st/2nd April, and Future Death Toll LIVE on 4/8-9.

Thanks for listening! ...For info on our screen capture this week, see the internal playlist-comments discussion.