We Call It Folk

I was elated when I heard the news that the complete field recordings of Alan Lomax are finally available online. His travels around the US and the world with a tape recorder preserving the musical traditions of thousands of people have had a huge global impact, of course. But they were also a little inspiration behind my humble street recordings in Mexico and Central America and the creation of tapewrecks.

Alan Lomax spent the last 20 years of his career experimenting with computers to create something he called the Global Jukebox. He had big plans for the project. In a 1991 interview with CBS, he said, "The modern computer with all its various gadgets and wonderful electronic facilities now makes it possible to preserve and reinvigorate all the cultural richness of mankind." Alan Lomax's Massive Archive Goes Online - Joel Rose on NPR

I knew the Lomax collection was being digitized, but I was surprised to find out that one of figures behind this monumental task, over 17,000 recordings, was Don Fleming of The Velvet Monkeys, whose flotsam has washed up on this blog multiple times. Lomax died before the Jukebox was created, but Fleming, Anna Lomax Wood, Alan's daughter, and a small army of volunteers worthy of the WPA have finished the job.

Insert your nickel here:
The Association for Cultural Equity - The Sound Recordings 1946-1990

Watch this:
Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, and Don Fleming on the Colbert Report Interview and performance.

It's also apropos that good ol' Rustle Noonetwisting, the fellow who records everything in my life, sent me the news and titled this post.

The Warm Jets ................... ..................(Philadelphia 1978)

I was only nine years old and oblivious in 1978 when The Warm Jets recorded I Love It about squooshing cockroaches and were playing in the legendary Hot Club in Philly.  But about an hour west of there, I was committing suburban bugocide with my friends collecting hundreds of Japanese beetles in a bucket and gleefully dumping them into the central air-conditioning fan on the side of the house, sending iridescent beetle-bits 15 feet into the air raining down all over us.  There was hours of hilarity and fun in this carnage.  So on one level at least, I was right there with them, but I was still a few years from dancing the pogo. Go Go With Me

Originally a punk rock duo in much the fashion of Philadelphia’s very own Flys, The Warm Jets consisted of two young musicians eager to play and be heard. (E.Gadz on electric guitar; Hugo Crust on acoustic guitar and vocals). In the summer of ’78, with the help of Lee and Roid, along with their now sounds program as WXPN radio station, the duo sent in a tape of a song called "I Love It". Although a crude recording, (allegedly manufactured in Mr. Crust’s bedroom), the song received much support and at one point reached 6 on "The Now Sounds Top Ten", proving that there was indeed an audience for this type of minimalistic music. -Russ Goetz, drummer, from The Warm Jets MySpace page

Here Come The Warm Jets
 
Russ plays in Kamakaze with ex-members of another Philly punk band, Pure Hell.
Their complete live and studio recordings are available from Italy's Rave Up Records.