Irwin Chusid (born April 22, 1951 in Newark, New Jersey) is a journalist, music historian, radio personality, record producer, and self-described "landmark preservationist".
[10] Since 1975 Chusid has been a DJ on free-form radio station WFMU, where he hosts an unpredictable and idiosyncratic weekly program whose content he calls "genre-surfing tokenism".
[11] Prior to his involvement at WFMU, he worked briefly at WPKN radio from 1969-1971 while an undergrad at the University of Bridgeport (which he left after two years); in 1977, while living in New Orleans, he hosted a weekly program on WTUL.
In the late 1970s, Chusid was one of the first DJs to regularly air recordings of Jandek, The Shaggs, Lucia Pamela, and R. Stevie Moore on the radio.
In the early 1980s he programmed a weekly segment entitled The Atrocious Music Hour, which featured recordings from such non-musical celebrities as William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
He has produced landmark reissues by The Shaggs, Sun Ra, Wendy and Bonnie, Judson Fountain, Lucia Pamela, and Alabama folk-art ensemble The Clouds,[17] while penning liner notes for dozens of CD and LP releases on a multitude of labels.
[19] In 2000, Chusid discovered two LPs of privately pressed western Canadian schoolchildren recordings made in 1976–77 by music teacher Hans Fenger.
In a dismissive review of the album, former Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau referred to Chusid as "a tedious ideologue with a hustle.
In 1997 Chusid co-produced (with Edie Adams and Josh Mills) the Ernie Kovacs Record Collection (Varese-Sarabande), a compilation of songs and themes used by the legendary TV comedian in his programs during the 1950s and early 1960s.
[29] In 2010 Chusid compiled for WFMU Don't Mess With the Power Child, the first collection of late 1980s recordings by an uninhibited, hyperactive 10-year-old Alabama girl named Amanda (Whitt).
Besides administering the Raymond Scott, Esquivel, Bob Thompson, Sun Ra, Curt Boettcher, and Shooby Taylor musical estates, he oversees the business affairs and publishing of R. Stevie Moore, Beth Sorrentino, the Mighty Sparrow,[31] and Wendy & Bonnie.
Reviewing this testament to twisted tunesmiths, Publishers Weekly commented: BJ Snowden, Shooby Taylor ("The Human Horn"), Wesley Willis, and other musicians profiled in the book can be heard on two CDs produced and annotated by Chusid.
A follow-up, The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora, co-authored with (former KFAI radio host) Barbara Economon, was published by Fantagraphics in February 2007.
[46] In May 2009, Chusid and Economon teamed up with artist Drew Friedman to produce an exclusive line of limited edition fine art prints of the noted illustrator's works.