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.

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.

If the headline above fills you with questions, questions such as ‘why would I write to the FCC?’ or ‘what’s KUSF?’ or ‘isn’t the Belle And Sebastian plug kind of gratuitous?’, well, allow me to answer the first two.

The condensed version: KUSF is the University of San Francisco’s community radio station, and has been since 1977. That means they’ve been around almost as long as The Fall (though I don’t think they’ve had as much staff turnover). Last month, USF secretly sold KUSF’s transmitter, abruptly took them off the air, and kicked everyone out of the station, with plans to transition the place to an Internet-only concern. Not surprisingly, KUSF’s DJs and staff, almost none of whom had any notice of the sale until they were escorted from the premises, think that’s a pretty fucked up thing to do, and we agree with them (as does Ty Segall).

By now you may be wondering what you can do to help KUSF get back on the air and back to being the incredibly valuable community resource it’s been for over three decades. Well, as the title of this post states, today is the LAST DAY that you can write to the FCC urging them to stop the sale. There are succinct directions on how exactly to do so posted HERE.

Additionally, the exiled KUSF volunteers have set up a Paypal account for people to donate toward their legal fees. Generous souls can open up their pocketbooks HERE.

Finally, if you love Twitter as much as I do, you can get breaking news by following KUSF’s Twitter account, which is HERE.

Regular Matablog readers will be both familiar with and appreciative of the restraint with which we discuss the various going-on that are inevitably a part of life here in the music industry’s fast lane. It’s at the risk of ruining our reputation for understatement, then, that I describe the anticipation for Kurt Vile’s forthcoming album, Smoke Ring For My Halo, as approaching a fever pitch. Kurt & The Violators are happy to contribute to that build-up with today’s live broadcast of their WXPN Free at Noon show, which starts exactly when you would think it would: 12:00 noon EST. Philadelphia, tune in at 88.5FM. Rest of the world, do yourself a favor and listen online.

They may not be spinning the Wheel of Whatever but Yo La Tengo will indeed be performing live on KEXP today at 4PM PST/7PM EST ahead of their show this evening at The Showbox at the Market. Tonight’s gig will mark the first date on the West Coast leg of their Spinning Wheel tour, with other shows to follow Seattle in Portland, Eugene, Oaktown, LA, and ending in Costa Mesa on 2/24. There is a Vancouver date thrown in between Seattle and Portland, but I don’t speak Canadian, so I didn’t include that initially.

Tune in to the pending awesomeness on 90.3FM in the greater 206 or listen online on KEXP’s site.

Provided that were a real thing, perhaps. But Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan will, indeed, be the first Matador artist to take part in any radio promo in 2011. A mere five days into the new year, Ira will take to the airwaves at WNYC to chat with host John Schaefer in a segment entitled “The Art of the Set List”. Sure to be discussed will be Yo La’s upcoming tour dates and the fascinating Wheel of Wonder/Mystery/Confusion/Something that will be present during all the gigs on this run. Tune in to gain a behind-the-curtain glance at the YLT set list decision process at 2:30PM on 93.9FM or click on over to WNYC’s website for your inside look.

Fans of modern American troubadour Kurt Vile (and we hope that’s a category that includes each and every one of you) aren’t getting a chance to catch their breath this week. Hot on the heels of yesterday’s announcement of Mr. Vile’s forthcoming opus, Smoke Ring For My Halo, comes the news that Kurt will be appearing tonight on Tom Scharpling’s The Best Show On WFMU. Given the Best Show’s well-known connection to Kurt’s hometown of Philadelphia, we can only imagine what will transpire on this broadcast.

On top of that, Andrew Earles of Earles & Jensen fame will also be in the studio with Tom to discuss his recently published book on the legendary Husker Du.

This explosion of star power starts tonight at 9:00PM EST and goes all the way til midnight, so there’s plenty of time for you to tune in at 91.1FM or wfmu.org.

Indeed, tonight, there will be a super-concert at Terminal 5 in New York City as The New Pornographers will join forces with Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, in what can only be described as the Justice League of Awesome, and take the city by storm. To warm up their golden throats and shreddy fingers, the New Pornos will also perform live in a scant few hours on WNYC’s Soundcheck. Listen live on the web at 2PM EST or tune your car radio dial to 93.9FM and 820AM to hear the session in all its stereophonic glory.

As you probably already know, Shearwater is on tour. If you’re in Chicago, not only should you check out their show tonight at Lincoln Hall, you should get a taste of what to expect by tuning in to WLUW at 4:00PM CST for a live session with Jonathan Meiburg and company. Listen in at 88.7FM.

In addition to tonight’s show in Chicago, there are a few more dates remaining on Shearwater’s November jaunt across these United States, so catch them if you can.

Tue Nov 16, 2010 – Chicago IL – Lincoln Hall
Wed Nov 17, 2010 – South Bend IN -  Subkirke
Thu Nov 18, 2010 – St. Louis MO – Duck Room
Fri Nov 19, 2010 – Lawrence KS – Jackpot Saloon
Sat Nov 20, 2010 – Norman OK – The Opolis

Damian Jurado supports on all dates.

Indeed. Philly’s own Kurt Vile and his band of merry minstrels, known as The Violators, will be taking over the airwaves at Seattle’s KEXP today at 12 Noon PDT/3PM EDT. Listen to Kurt showcase his wares, possibly including tracks from his new 7″, “In My Time”, available starting November 9. Tune in on 90.3FM or click on over to KEXP’s website to listen in real time.

And if you’re in Seattle, go check out Kurt and his band live this evening at Neumos. You’ll be glad you did.

Certainly no stranger to WFMU-appearances, Ted Leo will perform a solo set on the live broadcast of The Cherry Blossom Clinic direct from the WFMU Record Fair, this Saturday at 4:30 PM EST.

Tune in at wfmu.org or better yet, see Ted LIVE at the Metropolitan Pavilion while you scope out the wares of some of the finest record vendors in the world.

WFMU Record Fair
Metropolitan Pavilion (125 W. 18th St)
Sat, Oct 23
4:30pm

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists will also be playing a handful of dates in December including the aforementioned show with the New Pornographers in NYC.

Thu, Dec 2 – Northampton MA – Pearl St
Fri, Dec 3 – Pawtucket RI – The Met Cafe
Sat, Dec 4 – Lemoyne PA – Champion Ship
Mon, Dec 6 – New York NY – Terminal 5 (with the New Pornographers)
Tue, Dec 7 – Baltimore MD – GSpot (with Heks Orkest)
Wed, Dec 8 – Richmond VA – Strange Matter (with Heks Orkest)

photo from the ACL Festival flickr

God knows there’s a bunch of fun stuff going on during the annual College Music Journal Music Marathon, but we want to make sure everyone’s aware that we, along with the other Beggars Group labels — True Panther, 4AD, Rough Trade, XL and Young Turks — AND our buddies at Sub Pop, are going to be throwing a bit of a rager this Thursday, October 21, from 10pm to 4am. All the info is above on the flyer, and below for those of you on dial-up connections.

4AD/Matador/Rough Trade/Sub Pop/True Panther/XL/Young Turks CMJ Party

Thursday, October 21

10pm to 4am

Stanton Public (17 Stanton Street, btw. Bowery and Chrystie)

FREE, no RSVP needed

Ages 21 and up

DJ sets by Lemonade, True Panther Soundsystem, Dave Martin (Matador Records) and Gerard Cosloy (Matador Records), plus special guests (you never know who’ll show up to these things)

Drinks courtesy of PBR

Giveaways from Converse

Free t-shirts from the lovely folks at I Buy Music

Don’t miss it!

The wheels on the Magic Kids tour bus keep on turning during their super busy European tour and just to keep them a little more on their toes we can announce they’ll be playing an extra London show. They now headline the NME Radar show at Upstairs at The Garage on the 27th of October, with support coming from the much-hyped new band Islet. A full list of all their upcoming European shows are below, they’ll also be recording a BBC radio session at Madia Vale while we have them here too!

(photo taken from coldengrey‘s Flickr)

Last month, an audience of lucky Austinites was witness to a live performance of favorites both new and old by Shearwater in the Austin City Limits studio, part of the “KUT Live” series sponsored by, you guessed it, Austin’s own KUT. Those both in and out of Austin who missed out at the time can hear the performance when KUT broadcasts it tonight at 9:00PM EDT/8:00PM CDT. KUT is located at 90.5 on your Austin radio dial, and if this whole Internet thing has caught your fancy then you can also listen online in a variety of ways. Sadly, you will have to just imagine the snazzy Texas Capitol Building backdrop, as seen above.