Lest you think Matador Records is quite done twisting arms on behalf of WFMU‘s annual Marathon, THINK AGAIN. Not only are Ted Leo and A.C. Newman returning to Tom Scharpling’s “The Best Show On WFMU” for a second consecutive appearance next Tuesday, March 8th at 9pm, but Yo La Tengo will make their annual visit to the free-form station’s Jersey City studios tonight on Psue Braun‘s program (9pm eastern).

In what should be the greatest fund raising effort to hit the region since…..well, since this, Yo La Tengo will take your requests for covers, but not without an appropriate donation on your part to America’s no. 1, 100% listener supported radio station. Unlike the rest of WFMU’s sprawling schedule, this program will not be archived for later use on your iPhone, iPad, etc. so if you don’t tune in…you must have a pretty exciting Friday night planned.

Thanks to America’s #1 GIGANTIC Record Store(s) for sending the above footage.

A striking clip of Eumenides premiered today via Fader. It was captured in early February from Esben and the Witch’s album release show in their hometown of Brighton, UK.  And for those who haven’t seen them live this is simply a taste of the dark, moody, and loud experience that is Esben and the Witch live.

Luckily for those of us in the US with a real appetite for Esben and the Witch, they start their first headline tour tonight in our nation’s capitol.  With a major stop in Austin for SXSW (3/16-3/19, more details on that to come shortly) they’ll be crossing our vast continent making the following major stops.

Don’t miss your chance to see them!

Thu, 3/3                      Washington, DC                        Red Palace

Fri, 3/4                        Brooklyn, NY                               The Bell House

Sat, 3/5                        New York, NY                              Mercury Lounge

Sun, 3/6                       Boston, MA                                  Brighton Music Hall

Mon, 3/7                     Philadelphia, PA                         Kung Fu Necktie

Wed, 3/9                      Akron, OH                                    Musica

Thu, 3/10                     Chicago, IL                                   Empty Bottle

Fri, 3/11                        Toronto, ON                                 Wrongbar

Sat, 3/12                        Denton, TX                                   35 Conferette

3/16-3/19                       Austin, TX                                    SXSW

Mon, 3/21                      San Diego, CA                             The Casbah

Tue, 3/22                        Los Angeles, CA                         Bootleg Theater

Wed, 3/23                       San Francisco, CA                     Bottom of the Hill

Thu, 3/24                        Portland, OR                                Mississippi Studios

Fri, 3/25                          Seattle, WA                                   Sunset Tavern

Sat, 3/26                          Vancouver, BC                             The Waldorf Hotel

As a former WFMU dj, I’ve long stressed to my colleagues the importance of the station’s unfocused, pretentious programming huge cultural contributions to the tri-state area and during Matador’s early years, it was actually mandatory for staffers (and recording artists) to contribute 10% of their annual income to the listener supported broadcaster.

Sadly, a state court ruled a few years ago that this arrangement was highly illegal — particularly as Matador refused to match the donations. However, just because we can no longer strong-arm our workforce into handing over money, that doesn’t preclude us strongly advising (HINT, HINT) that if certain self-styled “musical geniuses” don’t play ball with our friends in Jersey City, their recording careers might hang in the balance.

So with no prodding whatsoever from Matador ownership, Ted Leo and A.C. Newman will be appearing tonight on Tom Scharpling’s “The Best Show On WFMU” as part of WFMU’s premium-tastic annual cash-grab. We hope you can tune in. And if you can’t, we hope you won’t mind that we’ve already sent the station your credit card details.