BROADCAST #04
Air Date: 01-23-07

Hello dear Fanatics. I do hope you enjoyed the show tonight. Not having Engineer X there threw me off a little but it was a pretty good show. The music was good but I was a little slow getting to the game. Nevertheless, I think we got it together. We have some really great songs lined up for the weeks upcoming. I am back from the show now, listening to the critics talk about the president’s speech a few hours ago. What a depressing bastard he is. No one can defend that guy to me anymore. Anyone who does, it’s comedy to me at this point. I can’t wait until 2008. At least we have the music to get us through so let’s get onto to it, shall we? Thanks for listening, I’ll be back with you next week and until then, STAY FANATIC!!! --Henry

The Stains - Gang Related Death: From The Stains LP. We’ve been listening to The Stains a lot these days. I like to play them on shows where I am not in town because I know the song is always going to go down well and it makes these sets easier to make. There’s not a bad song on the album and if you heard the song ten minutes before, it’s still fine, that’s how good the album is. As far as I know, this album has never had a proper CD release. Of all the out of print SST records, this is my number one pick for re-issue.

Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad - Torab-Taqsim Nay: Years ago, I was at Aaron’s Records on Highland and I was checking out the World Music section as I always do at any record store. Usually I just buy records from different countries to hear something different but I rarely know exactly what it is I am getting when I do, it makes it more interesting. I had just been to Egypt for the first time and had come back very curious about the music from there. I saw this CD called Songs Of The Nile and figured I had better check it out. There’s only a few tracks on the set and the other two tracks on this CD are nearly half an hour long. I know nothing about the people on the record. The singing on the other two tracks is so intense, I will have to find a good excerpt to play on the show at some point. If you go to Amazon.com, you can find this record really cheap.

James "Iron Head" Baker - Black Betty: From the Big Brazos CD which is part of Alan Lomax’s Deep River Of Song Series on Rounder. Of all the amazing Lomax recordings and releases, this is probably my favorite series of his recordings. This single CD is one of my favorites of the Lomax recordings. This CD is made of recordings Lomax made of inmates in Texas prisons in 1933 - ’34. One of the things that is interesting to me about American field recordings that people like Alan Lomax, his father, John Lomax and Harry Oster made is that you can hear African roots in some of the music. Very heavy when you think about it. You also hear a lot of what became Folk, Blues, Rock, Rap, Jazz and R&B. Basically you hear the roots of the American music experience in these recordings. The only Lomax recordings I have not checked out at this point is his European recordings. The Lomax catalog is the gift that keeps giving. I hope he and his father were thanked enough in their time for all they did to preserve music of the last century. Without the dedication of these man and others like them . . . I don’t want to think about it. Can you imagine music like this never being heard? I hate to think of all the things we could have heard but never will.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Black Betty: I remember when and Australian pal of mine and close friend of Mr. Cave’s told me Nick had just completed an album of covers, including a version of By The Time I Get To Phoenix. I didn’t exactly cringe but my young mind was fairly unable to get my head around the idea. Nevertheless, when Kicking Against The Pricks was released I got a hold of it as soon as possible. I played it a few times and it blew me away. I was lucky enough to the see the tour that came right after the album came out and saw a good amount of these songs performed live. All Tomorrow’s Parties was the song that really stomped it live for me. This is a great album and also has a small place in my history as being the first CD I ever purchased. 10-31-86.

Kim Salmon & the Surrealists – Radiation: Kim is no strange to this show. This track is from Ya Gotta Let Me Do My Thing album. Barry from All Tomorrow’s Parties just wrote me and asked me to write up a short thing on one of Kim’s earlier incarnations, The Scientists. I just sent it to him. I never know if it’s what is really requested but I hammer it out as best I can. I will put it in here as a way to Kimmunize you: Many years ago, someone sent me some tapes of Australian bands. This was before internet files slammed down the info hwy. and one went to their respective PO Boxes with the anticipation of that paper slip inside indicating there was a package too large to fit. The package was torn open with Christmas day excitement and the cassettes hit the floor. One of these tapes that came to me was a radio interview with The Scientists. Kim Salmon talked about Captain Beefheart and the band's cover version of Clear Spot. The interview cut in and out of the band's songs and I became very interested. Byron Coley very kindly gave me a copy of one of their records and I played it a lot. The Scientists music sounded like it came from a place so distant from what was happening musically in America, it made me think there must be a lot of great music there, more than just The Saints and The Birthday Party. Years later, I finally got to Sydney Australia and the first night I got there, I got dragged to a Beasts Of Bourbon show. There was Kim onstage rippin' it. I found out he had another band called The Surrealists. I was lucky enough to see them play a few times on that tour and they were amazing. Over the years I have seen different incarnations of Mr. Salmon and they're all good. All of those records brought me back to The Scientists records right about the time that best of CD came out. Those records stand the test of time as does Kim. I don't know the A to Z of The Scientists catalog but I hope I've heard it all. I saw them a televised reunion show a couple of years ago on one of my visits to Australia and they were great. I'm always up for checking out anything Kim Salmon is involved with, new, old, doesn't matter.

Pere Ubu - Chinese Radiation: The verdict has been read, we’re guilty of not playing enough Pere Ubu on this show. In 2007, we take care of that. I went to Amazon.com to read up on the new re-mixed version of this album and one of the reviews caught my eye. Cutting and pasting from Melkor’s review of Pere Ubu’s The Modern Dance: “I'm not going to tell you that this is a timeless classic. I don't know enough about the band to make such a bold statement. I have been a huge punk fan for a while. The name Pere Ubu would surface now and again, but not so much that I would hunt it down until very recently when I heard Henry Rollins talking about them on his radio show.” Well, damn! Thankfully he liked the record at the end of the day. TMD was Pere Ubu’s first album and to this day, it remains on its own. One of the things that I have always liked about Pere Ubu and its leader, David Thomas is that all of his releases with Pere Ubu and solo sound good to me but all make me work to get my ears around them. I have seen David solo and with Pere Ubu many times in my life and it’s always great but challenging as the man does only what he wants. Pere Ubu is good and good for you. There’s a great website of Ubu info: http://ubuprojex.net/. The Stork Dropped It Off Dept.: Upon arriving back to the office the other day, I saw that my dual disc version of this album had arrived. I have not had the chance to play the DVD audio version of the album yet but I have played the remastered stereo side and it’s a beautiful thing. What a monster album.

Public Image Ltd. - Low Life: Isn’t this a cool song? Public Image is a band I have always admired as those first two albums along with tracks from the semi-bootleg release, The Commercial Zone, are devastating. I have not explored later recordings of the band all that much but I will. When Johnny Rotten used to talk shit about Black Flag, it kind of made me go a little sour on being interested in checking him out besides seeing how much blood I could make come out of his mouth but good music is good music and one must sidestep all the other stuff.

Nikki Sudden And Rowland S. Howard - Sob Story: From the Kiss You Kidnapped Charabanc album. I never really checked out Nikki Sudden past his Swell Maps stuff but when he did stuff with Rowland, it made me pay attention because I am a Rowland Fanatic. They made a number of recordings together and they’re pretty cool. As you know, Nikki Sudden passed away in March of 2006. Nikki’s brother, Epic Soundtracks, also a member of the Swell Maps, had Rowland connection as they were both in the band Crime And The City Solution. Epic passed away from what was listed as unknown causes in November of 1997.

Andrej & Tschetschek - Tschasky-Chem Yry: More of that crazy Tuvinian throat singing. This is from the Throat Singing From Center Of Asia CD. You might remember we played another group from Tuva, Huun Huur Tu last year. This is fascinating music.

Gene Defcon – Toss That Fish Back: We have not checked in with Mr. Defcon in awhile. This is from his Throw Up & Die album. On his site, GD threatens to release a new worst-of album. I have not heard a bad song yet, so I don’t know what he’s going to do. You might remember Gene Defcon from his previous band, The Prima Donnas, they’re great as well. http://www.genedefcon.com/

Various Artists - Farhang-E A'vâm: Since I was recently in Iran, I reckon we should listen to some Iranian music. This is from The Music Of Islam Volume 12. This is another track from the massive box set on Celestial Harmonies that we have been listening to for years now. This CD is all music from Iran. I didn’t hear much music when I was there and didn’t see any record stores at all. I don’t know a damn thing about music from this country apart from music I have heard on this set and another CD I found in Norway years ago.

The Voice - The Train To Disaster: This is from the Nuggets II box set. Another band I don’t know anything about! I just got this box set because I liked the first one so much. Ian gave me Nuggets I as a birthday gift many years ago. It’s great too.

Ari-Up - Exterminator: It’s Ari-Up from The Slits. Her mom is Johnny Lydon’s wife! The guys he used to hit on told me Lydon was gay, whatever. This is from the Dread More Than Dead album that Engineer X turned me onto a long time ago. Ari-Up is intense! The Slits were a great band. I think they surprised a lot of people when they started out in the middle of the original UK Punk explosion. None of them had much musical experience but you would not notice that on their debut album Cut. The album is quite good and holds up to this day. I don’t know if Slits fans would necessarily be totally into this solo album but if you’re a fan of Ari’s very powerful voice, this is record is rockin’.

Desmond Dekker & The Aces – Warlock: Many years ago a housemate had a Desmond Dekker album called Black And Dekker that she played all the time and I liked it a lot. In the late 80’s I found a great hits CD of his and played that one a lot. Desmond Dekker found many fans in the UK Ska / Rude Boy scene and was an inspiration to bands like The Selector and The Specials. My favorite song of his is 007 (Shanty Town) which many of you Fanatics remember hearing on our show before. Dekker passed away in May of 2006. You can find this track on a CD called The Original Reggae Hits and I imagine countless other best of’s that are probably out there. A greatest hits CD of his is a perfect driving CD.

The Saints - This Perfect Day (single version): One of Australia’s great export items. The early Saints catalog has been released on a lot of labels over the years. The first two albums (I’m) Stranded and Eternally Yours seem to have been licensed by every other label everywhere. The All Through Paradise box set is a good one because you get previously unreleased live stuff as well as stuff like this single version of this track. Australian Saints Fanatics tell me that I am wrong for staying with these albums and singles released around them and should go further on to the Prehistoric Sounds album. I have tried but so far, find myself always coming back to the first two, which are just fantastic. I will give PS another try though.

The Fall - This Perfect Day: From The Fall’s Complete Peel Sessions 6CD box set. Thankfully, The Fall do a lot of covers. For me, when a band covers a song, it often tells a lot about the band, from the choice to the way they translate it to what they do. In this Peel Session, The Fall take on The Saints’ great track This Perfect Day. I think it would be pretty cool to be in a band and find out The Fall covered one of your songs. I read a recent interview with The Fall’s fearless leader Mark E Smith where he said he wished bands like The Strokes wouldn’t talk about The Fall in their interviews. Nice guy. There’s a new Fall album out next month. We I get it, you’ll hear it at our show, but you knew that. I heard a couple of songs from the new Strokes album and thought they were pretty cool, so there! The Fall have some hardworking and under thanked fans who have made a fantastic website for us all: http://www.visi.com/fall/

Epsilons - Fever To Kill: I bought some Prima Donnas singles from the good folks at Retard Disco recently and they sent me this self-titled CD by Epsilons. I like it a lot so I am playing my favorite track off it. Like it? Check them out at: http://www.retarddisco.com/?artist=ep

Brian Eno - Here He Comes: From the Before And After Science album. They’ve been remastering the Eno catalog which has been leading me to happy moments at the record store. The remasters sound better than the previous ones, which isn’t always the case with some remasters so be careful there. The Eno stuff sounds better than ever I think. Eno’s records always sound good to me every year. He’s one of the true living geniuses of music. We have listened to a lot of Eno on this show and we should keep that going this year.

The Aquarium - Can't Afford To Live Here: From the self-titled debut. Another great Dischord album. I have been playing this one a lot. Really liking it. The Aquarium is Laura Harris on drums and Jason Hutto on electric piano, keyboard and vocals. This is cool and smart music. More please. http://aquariummusic.com/

Black Dice – Twins: From Broken Ear Record. Engineer X recommended this band to me when I told him I really liked the Wolf Eyes stuff he turned me onto. I went out and got this album and the Beaches & Canyons album and like them both. Some of these bands I have been checking out in the last year like Black Dice, I don’t know much about them, have not seen them live, wouldn’t recognize them if they walked by me, etc. so I have some catching up to do. For some people, this music would be harsh and unlistenable but I think they are doing something different and using their heads. When people say there’s nothing new happening in music or that music sucks now, it’s bands like these I point to in disagreement.

Tinariwen - Chet Boghassa: From the Amassakoul album. We have played tracks off this album before. I think I told you about the time I saw this band on television on the great BBC show Later With Jools Holland. Tinariwen played and then the camera whipped across the studio to PJ Harvey and band and they ripped into some song and it was one of the best musical moments I have ever seen on television. I am sure you can find all this stuff on the You Tubes that all the kids are into these days. Tinariwen, are Tuareg, who I think were dispersed into wandering when the French came through Africa in the early part of the last century and colonized parts of Africa. Obviously, I have more reading up on all this. They have a new album coming out this year called Aman Iman, which the internets say, translates into “water is life.” The US copy is supposed to come out in March and the import version in February. I will do some looking around to see what I can do to get the new record as soon as I can.

Gil Evans - Where Flamingos Fly: From the Out Of The Cool album on Impulse. I am one of those people who are most familiar with Gil Evans from his considerable work with Miles Davis. It was my departed pal and teacher Mr. Mick Geyer who extolled the virtues of the Gil Evans solo work and it was because of what he said that I got this album. I don’t know anything about his solo stuff and only have this record.

Yellow Swans - The Bombs That Keep Dropping Make It Hard To Sleep: From the Bring The Neon War Home album. Again, it was the temporarily away from the Indie 103 Rok Mosk Engineer X who turned me onto this band. Had this Imam in the making not been so generous with his time, I would most likely be unaware of this band. The Yellow Swans offer up heaping portions of cool chaos to make people who don’t like it say they do so they can be seen as hip. I’m nearly 50 and won’t ever be hip so that I like them gets me nowhere with the kids but nonetheless, I like them.

The Spaniels – Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight: The great vocalist of The Spaniels, Pookie Hudson passed away on January 16 at 72 so I thought we should play the band’s most well known song. This song got a lot of air play and was used in the American Graffiti, which is probably where I heard it first. The CD I pulled the track from tonight was the Rhino Records CD The Best Of Doo Wop Ballads. This is just a best of but it’s a great one that I play with fair frequency.