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26 November 2008
DO or DIY filling in for Ken on WFMU

Yes, DO or DIY with People Like Us will be doing a 3-hour fill in for Ken Freedman on WFMU - from 9am to noon, NY time. That is 2pm-5pm UK time.
Follow the listen links at WFMU.org. We'll be doing a live playlist and comments also throught the WFMU frontpage.


21 November 2008
Essay on People Like Us by Drew Daniel

Not much to report here right now - heavily in work mode - however, here's an essay by Drew Daniel commissioned by alt.gallery to coincide with our exhibition earlier this year.

2 October 2008
PLU & Ergo cut 7" single with Touch

Indeed, will be releasing a single with TOUCH later this month - more details here then. In the meantime, here are photos of the cutting of the record earlier today.

29 September 2008
FINAL DO or DIY of the WFMU Season

DOwnloadable DO or DIY on WFMU Part 2

Just like last week, but this is the LAST DO or DIY of the season and People Like Us will be taking the next season off. So here is VOLUME 2 at the WFMU Blog - grab yourself the Best of DO or DIY for the past year's broadcasts.

22 September 2008
DOwnloadable DO or DIY on WFMU

It's that time of the year again, when DO or DIY zip up their bags and... send it right over to you! Indeed, for the two final weeks of the WFMU Summer Season, DO or DIY with People Like Us are giving you an album sized chunk of all things avant retard - a lovely noisy collage, complete with artwork. So listen in live to DO or DIY at 7pm NY Time (that's midnight UK time) Monday evenings, then go over to the WFMU Blog and grab yourself Volume 1 of the Best of DO or DIY for the past year's broadcasts.

22 September 2008
People Like Us awarded Great North Run Moving Image Commission 2009

To celebrate the silver anniversary of the BUPA Great North Run in 2005, the Great North Run Cultural Programme was established, which featured the film broken time by Jane and Louise Wilson. As part of the legacy of this film and part of an ongoing commitment to exploring the relationship between sport and art through, an annual award - Great North Run Moving Image Commission - was born.

Supported by Arts Council England, this major commission awards an experienced artist or film-maker £30,000 to create a new work which responds to and captures the spirit of one of the world's top sporting events and we're delighted to be able to announce the winner of Moving Image Commission for 2009 is British Artist Vicki Bennett .
 
Vicki will be working with archive footage of the Bupa Great North Run to create a new vision of the landscape and the route of the world's largest half-marathon to be screened as part of the 2009 Bupa Great North Run Cultural Programme.

For further information about the Great North Run Cultural Programme visit www.greatnorthrunculture.org.uk

13 August 2008
People Like Us fill in for Ken on WFMU - 3 hours of DO or DIY

Yes indeed, while Ken is on vacation, People Like Us will be filling in for him for one week only, from 9am-noon (NY time), which rather conveniently is 2pm-5pm, UK time. The program will be archived and podcast as usual after the show at http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/PL and there will also be a live playlist and comments throughout the show. In the meantime, check Ken's archives out - it's a great show.

11 August 2008
People Like Us, WFMU & TouchRadio in today's Guardian (UK)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2008/aug/11/radio.digitaltvradio

TouchRadio
Touch, an independent arts organisation that turned 25 last year, is home to artists such as Christian Fennesz, Biosphere and Chris Watson. Touch Radio features challenging and entertaining material, including field recordings, interviews and live performances. There are audio diaries from Chris Watson, where he illuminates his work as a wildlife sound recordist in the Galapagos Islands, taking in the Alcedo volcano. If you are truly tired of words by this stage, you will find an antidote in Touch 10: The Bits In Between by Vicki Bennett, whose own show on WFMU, a glorious mashup (peoplelikeus.org), will leave you in a spin. touchradio.org.uk
Pascal Wyse

WFMU-FM 91.1 FM
Home to an acclaimed country and western show hosted by singer Laura Cantrell, WFMU describes its output thus: "Rock'n'roll, 78rpm records, jazz, psychedelia, hip-hop, hand-cranked wax cylinders, punk rock, gospel, exotica, R&B." And, if that's not enough, there's "Andrew Lloyd Webber soundtracks in languages other than English".
wfmu.org
Alexis Petridis

6 August 2008
FOUR new mp3 packages for you...

People Like Us - Daphne Oram
(commission to rework Daphne's archive) - 2008

In January 2005, Sonic Arts Network, the leading UK body for electronic music and sound art, was asked by Daphne’s descendants to care for her collected papers, recordings and other items. It was with the benefit of experimental electronic music practice in mind that Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studio (EMS) collaborated with the Sonic Arts Network (SAN) to bring this collection into the academic community where it could be properly studied and developed. To this end, a grant was awarded to Goldsmiths, University of London in 2007 by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, to catalogue the collection, digitise the audio tapes and initiate related research.

In June 2008 People Like Us were invited into the archives of electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram, to rework them into new compositions, to be presented as part of a day-long symposium at London's South Bank Centre. Here are the results.

01. Daphne Speaks
02. Daphne Inuit Song
03. Daphne Bird In A Teacup
04. Daphne Everybody's Calling
05. Daphne Reggae Lady
06. Daphne Waltz

Sonic Arts Network/Oramics at the Southbank Centre website
Daphne Oram Collection at Goldsmiths website
Daphne Oram website
Thanks to WFMU's Beware of the Blog

People Like Us - Breaking Waves
(mp3 > bluetooth project) - 2008

Forma commissioned People Like Us to make a series of new soundworks for the AV Festival "Now Hear This". Now Hear This is a series of site–specific audio works presented in various public spaces across Middlesbrough, UK. The project featured audio works by artists including Marcus Coates and Zoe Irvine, selected for their various interests in the complex relationships between sound, space and location. Adopting diverse modes of broadcast and public address, Now Hear This offers a range of listening experiences and unexpected sonic interventions into our everyday urban environment, creating surprising and engaging encounters with broadcast material. People Like Us produced this series of short audio works to be broadcast via Bluetooth in Middlesbrough Town Centre. These brief musical compositions explore the humorous side to communication breakdowns in all their varied and surprising forms. Pair up with People Like Us for a series of misfiring musical arrangements, exploring the entertaining aspects of miscommunication, disharmony, bad connections and missed calls.

01. Hello Hush
02. Hello I'm Talking
03. Hello, Sorry It's Alright
04. Let Them In
05. Please Hold
06. Silence
07. Something
08. The Telephone Call
09. Uncle Campbell
10. Webster Lineman

Forma website
Now Hear This website
Thanks to WFMU's Beware of the Blog

People Like Us - On The Rooftops Of London
(mailorder only) - 2007

Was a session for the final edition of BBC Radio 3's "Mixing It", broadcast on 9 February 2007. This is a one track CD single - just under 20 minutes long. Thanks to Felix Carey, Philip Tagney, Mark Russell, Robert Sandall and Ergo Phizmiz.

On The Rooftops Of London

Mixing It - website
Where' The Skill In That - webpage
Thanks to WFMU's Beware of the Blog

People Like Us - All Together Now
(mailorder only) - 2006

People Like Us proudly present 27 minutes of new songs following visits to several music libraries, and appropriating favourites from the western world into a musical pantomime.

01. Blue Bayou
02. Everyday
03. Crazy
04. Stand By Your
05. Green, Green Grass
06. I Walk The Line
07. Singin' In The Shower

Thanks to WFMU's Beware of the Blog

6 July 2008
People Like Us films now on Ubuweb

People Like Us - Film Works (2002-2007)
Five full-length films and one encarnation of the PLU live set, which employ recycled materials from a variety of sources.

We Edit Life (2002) explores the theme of technology, using documentary, industrial and educational film footage from the Prelinger Archive and The Internet Archive.;
The Remote Controller (2003) uses found footage sourced from educational films to explore the way human body and machine interface in the 20th century;
Resemblage (2004) was created using film from the LUX archive by artists Alan Berliner, Lawrence Jordan, People Like Us, Semiconductor and the Estate of Stan Vanderbeek;
Story Without End's (2005) narrative is from a public domain film of the same name made in 1950 about the development of microwave radio transmission and the transistor;
Work, Rest & Play (2007) is a video triptych exploring the themes of labour, leisure and industriousness; and
Live at the WFMU Record Fair (2003). The work has been carefully constructed using industrial and documentary film footage from 1940-1975.

You can also hear People Like Us' complete audio work featuring hundreds of MP3s in UbuWeb Sound.

27 June 2008
People Like Us rework Daphne Oram's archive - free concert at the QEH


Admission: Free
10pm - Queen Elisabeth Hall foyer, London South Bank Centre

As part of a whole day dedicated to the work of Daphne Oram, People Like Us will be sampling and reworking material from Daphne Oram's colletion, which is now hosted at Goldsmiths. Daphne Oram was the driving force behind the creation of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the 1950s, most famous in later years for the Dr Who theme, and she was the first woman to run an independent music studio. Despite it saying "vs" in the link below - we are in fact doing a solo set.
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/calendar/productions/ninki-v-vs-people-like-us-40901

19 June 2008
Rhapsody review in The Wire

Reviews are starting to come in now for our new album Rhapsody in Glue - read some here

16 June - 6 October 2008
People Like Us return to the WFMU airwaves

People Like Us have returned to terrestrial radio and a one hour weekly show for the Summer Season on WFMU. The show starts on Monday 16th June and will run weekly until 6 October. Tune in live every week and follow the playlist at 7pm Mondays NY time, that is midnight Mondays UK time by following links on the WFMU website . Alternatively you can tune in afterwards to archive shows, at http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/PL. You can also subscribe to the podcast here (if this link doesn't open your iTunes automatically, copy and paste the link into iTunes/Advanced/Subscribe to a podcast)

15 June 2008
Codpaste supplimentary material

Those scholarly types amongst you, or simply fans of our podcast "Codpaste" may be interested to download the accompanying Peaching Tack, now available on the Codpaste Page

PEOPLE LIKE US
A Retrospective Exhibition

Opening Night: 15 May 2008, 6 - 8pm
Exhibition: 16 May - 12 July 2008


alt.gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

alt.gallery (entry via alt.vinyl) 61/62 Thornton Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4AW.
Tel +44 (0) 191 222 1213 / mail at altgallery dot org

http://www.altgallery.org/

Opening hours: Monday - Saturday 10am - 6pm / Thursday 10am - 8pm
Admission Free

alt.gallery is pleased to announce the first retrospective exhibition of work by People Like Us (aka Vicki Bennett).  

For the past seventeen years British artist Vicki Bennett has been an influential figure in the field of audio visual collage, through her innovative sampling, appropriating and cutting up of found footage and archives. Using collage as her main form of expression, she creates audio recordings, films and radio shows that communicate a humorous, dark and often surreal view on life. The exhibition will focus on the concept of collage, showing an edited selection of her work, including twenty album releases, numerous singles and remixes, live sets, seven films and over a hundred and fifty radio shows. These collages mix, manipulate and rework original sources from both the experimental and popular worlds of music, film, television and radio.   People Like Us believe in open access to archives for creative use, and have made work using footage from the Prelinger Archives, The Internet Archive, and A/V Geeks. In 2006 she was the first artist to be given unrestricted access to the entire BBC Archive. People Like Us have previously shown work at Tate Modern, Sydney Opera House, Pompidou Centre and Sonar, and performed radio sessions for John Peel and Mixing It. The ongoing sound art radio show 'Do or DIY' on WFMU has had over three quarters of a million hits since 2003. The People Like Us back catalogue is available for free download hosted by UbuWeb.

Every week during the exhibition a different collection of special downloads from the People Like Us archive will be available from the gallery, bring your memory stick along for a free take away! A specially commissioned essay by Dr. Drew Daniel of Matmos accompanies the exhibition.

The exhibition will also launch a new CD curated by Vicki Bennett for Sonic Arts Network called 'Smiling Through My Teeth', a compilation of humorous music and sound art.

SPECIAL EVENTS

People Like Us Special on WFMU
Thursday 15 May, 11pm-midnight (UK time)

www.wfmu.org/playlists/ER
To celebrate the exhibition opening Ergo Phizmiz hosts a People Like Us Special on his show 'Phuj Phactory' on WFMU, both on terrestrial radio and live internet stream.
People Like Us Talk and Screening
Friday 16 May, 7:30pm

Star and Shadow Cinema, Stepney Bank, Newcastle

www.starandshadow.org.uk
Vicki Bennett presents a selection of films by People Like Us.
http://www.starandshadow.org.uk/shared/may2008/ss_film.2008-04-24.1110768667/

The Late Shows: Smiling Through My Teeth CD Launch
Saturday 17 May, 7pm-11pm

alt.gallery

www.altgallery.org
The exhibition will also launch the new CD "Smiling Through My Teeth" guest curated by Vicki Bennett for Sonic Arts Network, a compilation of humorous music and sound art. Buy it here.
The Late Shows form part of NewcastleGateshead's world-class festivals and events programme. www.thelateshows.org.uk

15 May 2008
Smiling Through My Teeth CD curated by Vicki Bennett

Sonic Arts Network is proud to announce the release of our latest CD publication. Vicki Bennett (People Like Us) curates “Smiling Through My Teeth”, a compilation exploring the use of humour in music and sound art and bringing together an assortment of humorous songs, amusing ditties and deranged sound works. Buy the CD or get it free by joining Sonic Arts Network today. Take a look in the accompanying booklet which contains an essay by American journalist, artist, activist, and professor of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa, Kembrew McLeod. Buy it here!

15 May 2008
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz release
Rhapsody In Glue online-only album at bleep.com

People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz are pleased to announce the release of a new online-only album, "Rhapsody in Glue".

Following the success of the critically acclaimed "Perpetuum Mobile" CD of 2007, renowned UK collagists / composers People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz reunite for "Rhapsody in Glue", a cycle of bricolage-ballet-music, skewed-waltzes, and skewiff-pop.

There is a story behind every album, and with "Rhapsody in Glue" we find a unique approach to constructing a record. Both long-term contributors to New York radio station WFMU, People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz decided to publicly tear apart their respective practices and create an album "in the open", presenting on a seafood-filled-platter the process of collaborative collage composition - informally discussing and jabbering nonsense to one another, resulting in the "Codpaste" free podcast series. "Rhapsody in Glue" is the culmination of the ideas explored in the podcast series. "Rhapsody in Glue" continues in the bizarre ballroom vein of their previous efforts together, however, increasing the sonic palette into textural depths previously uncharted in their work. If "Carmic Waltz" is an expressionist painting by aged ballroom dance teacher who's eaten the wrong kind of mushrooms in her soufflé, then "Gary's Anatomy" is a slice of pure absurdist pop shot through with slabs of exotica and Ethel Merman. Recurring through the record is an apparent obsession with Prokofiev's "Troika (Sleigh Ride)", which merges and mashes with Burt Bacharach and Queen on "Snow Day"' and lapses into pure fantasy on the almost entirely acoustic "Withers in the Whist", jarring with Ergo's strange, Victoriana obsessed lyrics. Then on "Dancing in the Carmen" we discover what happens if Nana Mouskouri is thrown into a pot with Peggy Lee and let simmer for 10 minutes, whilst "In The Waking" shimmers along on multitracked guitars, meandering melodies, and music boxes.

Rhapsody in Glue is available exclusively at budget price from www.bleep.com

3 June 2008
Exclusive Digital Single From People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz

We are pleased to announce two brand new downloadable tracks from People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz, available to the web exclusively from WFMU's Free Music Archive and Beware of the Blog. The Music to Run Fast By digital 7'' is based around the idea of "The Chase", where Vicki and Ergo sourced from and collaged as many fast moving sounds as they could possibly think of! This music was originally conceived for a live soundtrack to Christian Marclay's film "Screen Play", performed by WFMU's delightful duo in London last year (link). It was then developed into "The Chase" episode of their "Codpaste" podcast on WFMU. Check out more very fast music from People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz in the Codpaste archive at http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25405Download the mp3s at the WFMU Blog

If you own a horse then do take this on your ipod next time you go out for a trot.

20 May 2008
Listen to the archive of WFMU's PLU Special on The Phuj Phactory

If you missed it at the time, listen to the wonderful job that Ergo Phizmiz did interviewing Vicki here (will download a Realplayer link).

20 May 2008
alt.gallery opening - photos

18 May 2008
The Wire website video exclusive

To coincide with the People Like Us alt.gallery retrospective and Wire interview in the June edition of the magazine, The Wire are putting some material on their website - including the triptych "Work, Rest & Play" and some exclusive mp3s. Find it here.

30 April 2008
Two new albums - Rhapsody in Glue & Smiling Through My Teeth

We're been having a mad rush to get the new album finished, mastered and have it in place on the night of the opening of the People Like Us Retrospective in Newcastle. The album title is "Rhapsody in Glue" - an online-only release available at a budget price from 15th May at bleep.com with no digital rights management so you can share it with ease. Once this is available from there we will post the information here and to our mailing list. The starting point of this album was the podcast series Codpaste, which has now been more than expanded upon to make a full album's worth of leestening pleasure. In the meantime the People Like Us-curated Sonic Arts Network CD "Smiling Through My Teeth" is also currently being pressed, ready for the launch night, also in Newcastle. There will be a full mailout in mid-May, if you wish to receive this please subscribe to our mailing list.

14 April 2008
PLU and Ergo Live at York - mp3 excerpt

Download it here - thanks Tony Myatt for recording this.

10 April 2008
DO or DIY 3 Hour Special on WFMU

DO or DIY with People Like Us will be broadcasting a 3 hour long web-only special on WFMU on Thursday 10th April from 6-9am NY time.
That's 11am-2pm UK time! Tune in live here and check out the live playlisting from Vicki. The show will be archived at http://wfmu.org/playlists/PL afterwards and will arrive as a podcast if you are subscribed to DO or DIY at wfmu.org.

22 March 2008
US premiere of Work, Rest & Play at Other Cinema, SF

As part of their new spring schedule, Other Cinema will be presenting an evening of Expanded Cinema, including a US premiere of People Like Us's triptych Work, Rest & Play. If you are in the area go and enjoy the delights of Other Cinema, hosted by your host with the most, Craig Baldwin.

20 March 2008
What's next, you may well ask?

Whoooooshhh... well actually not at all! For the next 6 weeks People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz will be developing all the beginnings of songs forming in the Codpaste into something nice and solid, such as an album! Also Vicki is preparing various artworks, designs etc for a full People Like Us Retrospective in a gallery from May to July, details coming up on that in the next couple of weeks. Also DO and DIY continues as a WFMU podcast. Our gig went down very well at Sightsonic, so we are now officially available to book as a duo concert, if you happen to have the venue and the money. Or rather then money and the venue. Here are a couple of pictures from the Sightsonic concert in York's beautiful National Centre For Early Music.


People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz Live at Sightsonic

 

14-15 March 2008
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz play...
SightSonic 2008 - York International Festival of Digital Arts

We are pleased to People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz will be playing a double bill, both separately and also a rare duo performance as part of York International Festival of Digital Arts. This will take place at the National Centre for Early Music on Friday 14th March between 7.30pm and 9.30pm. More info and tickets available at the SightSonic website. On 15th March Vicki will also be doing an artist talk, also as part of the festival at York St John University (YSJU), in Fountains Lecture Theatre. The talk is scheduled for around 11.30am, and will last about an hour.

10 March 2008
The Return of Codpaste

After three weeks off for the WFMU marathon and to catch up in general, Codpaste podcast on WFMU returns! The episode on the 10th March is the penultimate edition, with a grand extended finale, busting it's way to your podcast inbox on the 17th March. After this, although the podcast ends, the project is FAR from over, in fact it's just the beginning of the next chapter, when Vicki and Ergo make an album from the material!

Codpaste page
WFMU playlists

3 December 2007 - March 2008

We are pleased to announce Codpaste - a new weekly podcast series brought to you by People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz, who will be teaming up and trying to compose collage music for you... with emphasis on the word "trying." It's reasonably rare that music is broadcast to you when it's not all finished, polished and dusted, but we're going to spew out the guts and gore to you, dear listener, so do bring a spoon.From Monday 3rd December 2007, WFMU will be hosting the podcasts of: (i) audio sources, the tracks used as the basis for the collage in the episode
(ii) sketches, mixes, and collages combining track elements with added instrumentation, electronics, vocals, etc.
(iii) fragments, layers, and multitracks of the collage compositionsThese elements will be tied together by snippets of light-hearted, tangential conversations and introductions and occasional mental overload and verbal meltdown.Subscribe to this free weekly podcast by visiting WFMU's Podcast page. Or you can go straight to iTunes, go to the menu bar, then Advanced, then Subscribe to Podcast and paste this in http://wfmu.org/podcast/CT.xml and iTunes will do the rest for you. The podcast proper starts on Monday 3rd December, but in the meantime you'll get a little welcome message. We're having great fun recording this and we think it will reflect in the program. Do try it out here -

Episode 1 - 3rd December 2007 - Cartoon Music - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25395
Episode 2 - 10th December 2007 - The Chase - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25405
Episode 3 - 17th December 2007 - Hooked On Classics - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25406
Episode 4 - 24th December 2007 - ThEdit - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25429
Episode 5 - 31st December 2007 - Fwms Bo Wo - http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25530
Episode 6 - 7th January 2008 - Snow Day - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25533
Episode 7 - 14th January 2008 - Banjos, Pots, Pans and Squeezeboxes - http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25819
Episode 8 - 21st January 2008 - Collage - http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25942
Episode 9 - 28th January 2008 - I Can't Tell A Waltz From A Tango - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25966
Episode 10 - 4th February 2008 - Nana Mouskouri - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25655
Episode 11 - 11th February 2008 - Song Song - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/25970
Episode 12 - 18th February 2008 - Comedy - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/26276
Episode 13 - 10th March 2008 - Easy Listening - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/26488
Episode 14 - 17th March 2008 - Finale - http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/26515 - and at the WFMU blog Further program information can be found here.

28 February 2008
DO or DIY returns to your podcast inbox

After a few weeks off, DO or DIY with People Like Us has returned, and will continue to return every two weeks for the next few weeks, and then after that will return weekly. Playlists and Archives remain at http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/PL

25 February - 9 March 2008
WFMU Fundraising Marathon 2008

Happy Birthday to WFMU! The oldest freeform radio station is now 50 Years Old!! But this is not an excuse to become complacent. WFMU needs you.We at WFMU rely on our listeners to show appreciation for the station during these two weeks of the year in order to pay for all the costs involved in running the station, getting the radio shows, internet streams and podcasts to you. We hope you appreciate how special and unique WFMU is, and even in it's 50th year, it should by no means be taken for granted. There are so many things that are no longer existing because of the lack of attention and care from so many people that often benefit the most from such creative endeavours. Please pledge now to WFMU, and help us to keep making this work. Put your money where your mouse is, we know we are. We, People Like Us don't know what we would do without our friends and listeners at WFMU.

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28 February - 8 March 2008
Now Hear This

We are pleased to announce that Forma have commissioned People Like Us to make a series of new soundworks for "Now Hear This", which forms part of the larger AV Festival. Now Hear This is a series of site–specific audio works presented in various public spaces across Middlesbrough. Encompassing several new commissions, the project features audio works by artists selected for their various interests in the complex relationships between sound, space and location. Adopting diverse modes of broadcast and public address, Now Hear This offers a range of listening experiences and unexpected sonic interventions into our everyday urban environment, creating surprising and engaging encounters with broadcast material. Commissions include new sound works by British artists Marcus Coates, Zoe Irvine and People Like Us.Pair up with People Like Us for a series of misfiring musical arrangements, exploring the entertaining aspects of miscommunication, disharmony, bad connections and missed calls.Vicki Bennett (aka People Like Us) will produce a series of short audio works to be broadcast via Bluetooth in Middlesbrough Town Centre. These brief musical compositions explore the humorous side to communication breakdowns in all their varied and surprising forms. These tracks, in mp3 form, are available now for download, day by day, as they are released on location into the ether. Get them at http://www.nowhearthis.org.uk/

To experience Breaking Waves, take a Bluetooth enabled device (such as a mobile phone) within close proximity of the Bluetooth broadcaster – look out for the poster site situated in front of Bhs on Linthorpe Road, in Middlesbrough's central shopping area. The broadcaster will emit a notification that gives the option to download and listen.

23 December 2007 (from)
Listen to DO or DIY in Australian national radio!

Starting 23rd December for several weeks of their summer season on ABC Radio National, the radio program The Night Air will be rebroadcasting People Like Us's show, DO or DIY on WFMU - this means you can tune in on your transistor radio or online, or listen afterwards to the archive. Go along to their website now and check it out - the program details for the first episode are here. People Like Us guested on The Night Air back in 2001, alongside friends Irene Moon and The Evolution Control Committee - you can hear that here.

3 December 2007 - March 2008
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz
Special podcast series:
Codpaste
advance news - starting 3rd December on WFMU

People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz will be making an album... but it will be different to usual processes - we are going to let you in on the whole thing and document the making as a series of weekly podcasts, the first starting on 3rd December. More info pages coming very soon now!

6 November 2007
DO or DIY resumes!

After a month off, we have now resumed weekly podcasting of DO or DIY on WFMU - the next podcast will hit your iTunes next time you open it up, if you are already subscribed. You can subscribe for free by opening up iTunes, going to the menu at the top of your screen, clicking on Advanced, then Subscribe to Podcast, then copy this from below and paste it in.

http://wfmu.org/podcast/PL.xml

Then it will arrive all by itself. Amazing.

4 October 2007
Final DO or DIY radio show of the season
with downloadable album on WFMU blog

In keeping with what is now becoming a tradition, the last on air edition of DO or DIY with People Like Us is being delivered alongside an album
sized chunk of a megamix with the bitesize title of "Wet Sounds - The Best Of All Things Particularly Avant Retard 2007". Not only that, but it has
fantastico artwork and a delectable bonus 15 minutes on top of what we are playing on the last show of the season. AND no mic breaks prattling on
while you're trying to relax and realign your soul to this calming and cooling sonic breeze. People Like Us will be taking the next season off, but will resume podcasting in November, after a short break, so stay detuned.Listen to an archive after the showGo to the WFMU blog after the show and download the album

22 September 2007
See "Work, Rest & Play" in Sheffield this Winter

Earlier this year Vicki completed a 3-screen A/V piece called "Work, Rest & Play" for Lovebytes, and we now can tell you that it will be presented by Lovebytes with Millennium Galleries from 7th November 2007 to 15th February 2008 in the foyer of Millennium Galleries in Sheffield. After this point we want to make it available for film festival distribution, like previous works. 


2 August 2007
Download "Honeysuckle Boulevard" at the WFMU Blog!

The online edition of People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz's album, "Honeysuckle Boulevard", which came out at the beginning of 2007 as a free ten inch vinyl release and is now deleted, can now be downloaded for free at the WFMU Blog here. It includes vinyl label artwork, an info text file and also two bonus tracks. The bonus tracks have never before been made available for release or download. Download the audio either as a zip file containing all the tracks, or grab each individual MP3. So off you go now to the WFMU Blog at http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/08/honesuckle-boul.html

28 June 2007
"Perpetuum Mobile" packaging mentioned in De:Bug

De:Bug have done a feature on the packaging of our album, in relation to our manufacturing it on a very local level in India.
http://www.de-bug.de/texte/4953.html

10 June 2007
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz podcasts

Vicki and Ergo are pleased to announce that they will be working on a podcast series through the next year - details coming up sometime next month. To keep up to date on this why not subscribe to the mailing list.

10 June 2007
"Perpetuum Mobile" reviews

Our album has been getting some great reviews, scroll to the bottom section here to have a look.

8 June 2007
"On The Rooftops Of London" for sale

Due to popular demand we've made a CD Single available of the radio session we did for Mixing It on BBC Radio 3, since otherwise it would never be heard again since Mixing It is no more on the station. You can get it here.

7 June - 4 October 2007
People Like Us return to the WFMU Summer Season

People Like Us will return to terrestrial radio and their one hour weekly show for the Summer Season on WFMU. The show starts on Thursday 7th June and will run weekly until 4 October, when People Like Us will revert back to making podcast only shows for the Winter Season. Tune in live every week and follow the accuplaylist at 6pm Thursdays NY time, that is 11pm Thursdays UK time. Alternatively you can tune in afterwards, and to archive shows, at http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/PL. You can also subscribe as ever to the ongoing podcast (copy and paste this link into iTunes/Advanced)
Here's the New WFMU Schedule

1 June 2007
People Like Us 20 minute megamix on Radio Eins

People Like Us have done an exclusive mix for Ocean Club Radio on Radio Eins in Berlin - it will be aired between 23:00 and 1:00 on Radio Eins 95.8fm, and repeated Sunday nights at 1am (both Berlin time). The show is also archived, follow the links below.
Radio Eins - Ocean Club Radio

Archive - once it's been aired

Playlist:

People Like Us - Intro
People Like Us - People Like You
People Like Us - Blue Bayou
People Like Us - Music Of Your Own
People Like Us - Blue Bayou
People Like Us - Gongexeva
People Like Us - The Doody Waltz
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz - A Bastards Waltz
People Like Us - Stand By Your
People Like Us - Bran Mash & Crushed Beans (excerpt)
People Like Us - Bier Bier Bier Downtown
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz - Bad Restaurant Boogie
People Like Us - Bran Mash & Crushed Beans (excerpt)
People Like Us - We're Going To Be Around

1 June 2007
Selling our last few copies of "Honeysuckle Boulevard" 10 inch

That's right - we have a few left, and are selling them through our websites at a reasonable price. Sorry, we can't afford to give anymore away for free, the offer was strictly until 31 March and we are now over budget... as usual!
Buy Honeysuckle Boulevard here

18 May 2007
People Like Us previewed new work at Lovebytes

Showroom Cinema 3, Sheffield
Vicki Bennett introduced a special preview of "Work, Rest & Play". This 14 minute long three screen video work, combining animation and re-contextualised found film footage, has been commissioned by Lovebytes and Sheffield's Millennium Galleries for exhibition in Autumn 2007. Website information here
Stills here:


11 May 2007
People Like Us featured in new sonic art book

Vicki Bennett/People Like Us will be featured significantly in a new book entitled "The Fundamentals of Sonic Art and Design" by Tony Gibbs. You can buy it from many retailers including Amazon. More info here: "Sonic Art and Sound Design is a technical and conceptually creative field with no one comprehensive definition; it encompasses music technology, computer programming, fine art and performance. It engages with the art of sound in ground breaking and exciting ways. The Fundamentals of Sonic Art and Sound Design by Tony Gibbs is the first academic book of its kind and defines and teaches this subject in a creative and stimulating way. It explores the worlds of sonic art and sound design through their history and development as distinct subjects. Looking at new and radical approaches to sound recording, performance, installation works and exhibition. AVA proudly present The Fundamentals of Sonic Art and Sound Design as the first academic text book that not only challenges what's currently available but as with all AVA titles is created to visually stimulate as well as educate through an informative, comprehensive introduction to this exciting new subject."

23 April 2007
People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz
"Perpetuum Mobile" CD

Buy it here.
Hear a sneak preview of "Soggy Style" by People Like Us & Ergo Phizmiz
and "Ghosts Before Breakfast" by People Like Us & Ergo PhizmizHuw Stephens has been playiing this on his radio show on BBC Radio 1.

Press Release:

PEOPLE LIKE US & ERGO PHIZMIZ "PERPETUUM MOBILE"

"Perpetuum Mobile" is the result of a uniquely schizophrenic "open source" compositional process: the UK's finest collage composers (collage-posers?) Ergo Phizmiz and People Like Us (aka Vicki Bennett) uploaded files to a shared server, downloaded and processed each other's work, and flung the resulting fragments back at each other. The result is an interpenetrating audio-collage so intricate that neither party can recall who did what to whom. So far, so avant-garde; but what makes this record different is that Ergo and Vicki then wrote and sang their own vocals on top of their Frankenstein creation. Here you will find slyly absurdist lyrics replete with monkeys, carousels, trousers, apple trees, tinkling bells, dogs, sausages, whiskey, and cannibalism. No matter how fraught with trauma, these ballads and ditties are sung with a straight face and mixed front and center, and the results feel like 1930s British music hall standards from an alternate universe: half Ivor Cutler, half George Formby. The astonishing thing is that for all this jiggery-pokery, "Perpetuum Mobile" makes for an exhilarating, remarkably fresh pop album. It works.On "Ghosts Before Breakfast" Ergo and Vicki proudly declare that they've got "quite a selection of pastry", and if the profusion of cuckoo clocks, gunshots, horn farts, string vamps, and digital malfeasance which go hurtling through this opening track is any indication, that's no idle boast. For sheer cornucopia of sonic raw materials, this track's avalanche of information sets the tone for the overflowing, manic record that follows. There's far too much to fully parse, but among the highlights: "Beyond Perpetuum" pushes off from the Comedian Harmonists' take on the 19th century compositional craze for "moto perpetuo" runs of continuous notes at a rapid tempo, and folds found piano, voice and strings into an interlocking array of M.C. Escher harmonic stairways. "Air Hostess" is detourned lounge pop that stitches together Nelson Riddle's "Ya Ya" theme to "Lolita", "Walk Right In", light operettas, organ, bachelor pad cha cha and mambo, and nervously twitching shards of Louis Armstrong. "Pierrot's Persecution Mania" bravely explores the possibilities of a Montparnasse-via-Dixieland hybrid of can-can and bluegrass, with ridiculous canned strings colliding with jew's harp boings, while "Soggy Style" rides banjo twangs, a digital bossa nova breakdown, and the "whooo-ooes" nicked from Terry Stafford's "Suspicion". Living up to the perpetual motion of its title and cock-a-hoop cover art, this is a frantically energetic music whose layered repetitions become cumulatively more disorienting and preposterous as they loop back. "Perpetuum Mobile" goes beyond the stealth-oldies nostalgia of the mashup scene and the "culture-jamming" rhetoric of plunderphonics, and shows Mr. Ergo and Ms. Vicki to be a potent, if Surrealist, songwriting team, and together they braid oddly affecting vocals and their trademark stolen audio into twenty-first century pop. Like the perpetual motion machines for which it is named, this collaboration will run and run and run and run and run and run and run . . .

21 March 2007
New weekly free People Like Us podcast begins

As a stopgap between Summer Season broadcasts and 3 hour occasional webcasts on WFMU we have decided to start a weekly podcast through wfmu.org. At the moment if you are subscribed to the PLU podcast at the fmu site you will be receiving archived shows from the last season of DO or DIY and the occasional three hour show. But shortly after the end of the WFMU marathon you will be able to receive around 15 to 20 mins of DO or DIY programming every Wednesday or every time you open up your iTunes after each Wednesday. You don't have to do a thing once you have subscribed. Subscribe to the DO or DIY with People Like Us podcast at the link below. There is also simple technical information for first time podcast subscribers.http://wfmu.org/podcastThere is a direct link here:
http://wfmu.org/podcast/PL.xml - copy and paste that link into iTunes/Advanced/Subscribe to Podcast...

25 March 2007
Honeysuckle Boulevard offer now expired.

If we sent you a voucher already then you can still collect your copy from your store by 31 March, and not after. All records left sitting in the stores are now SPOKEN FOR, by people who already requested and received their vouchers.

19 March 2007
WFMU lives another year!

Thanks to everybody who pledged and helped push us over our goal!! As of 12:15 AM Monday, we had surpassed our goal by seven thousand dollars and can now busy ourselves with the promise of another year of great freeform radio! You are the most wonderful audience in the world and we are proud to be here for you now and into tomorrow. Onward!!!

8-15 March 2007
WFMU Fundraising Marathon - keep WFMU on the air forever!

If you have been listening to People Like Us you will no doubt know what a great part WFMU plays in the upkeep of not only the creative output of People Like Us and colleagues such as Ergo Phizmiz, but you will also know about the demise of other important outlets of eclectic programming such as Mixing It on Radio 3, and Brave New Waves. WFMU is the mother ship of all things freeform and is completely listener sponsored. We do not answer to the whims of shallow controllers of radio stations because we have our OWN fantastic manager and program director! Please support WFMU with more than your ears, because we give an awwful lot. For nothing. Because nothing is everything to us. Click below to see the whole range of lovely DJ gifts that you will receive in exchange for your pledges of 10 dollars or more. You can also pay by in many different ways, including by Paypal.

http://www.wfmu.org/marathon/

2 March 2007
Artwork for Perpetuum Mobile now finished...

15 February 2007
DO or DIY 3 Hour Special on WFMU

The nex