BROADCAST #05
AIR DATE: 01-30-07

Here you are Fanatics! It was so great being back on the air with Engineer X. Our Sonic Jihad is just not the same without him. Below are all the notes from tonight’s show. I have a great one almost finished for next week. I don’t know my shoot schedule for the rest of the week so I might have to wait until the weekend to get it done but I am going to try and wrap it by Thursday so I can play it a few times and make sure it’s good to go. In any case, I hope you liked the show tonight and thanks for listening. Stay Fanatic!!! --Henry

For you Europeans, Australians and New Zealand Fanatics, there is a re-broadcast time of Friday mornings, 0200 – 0400 hrs. West coast time so you all can check out the show and not have to set your alarms to too rude an hour.

The Medallions / Wolfman Jack - Peanut Butter: From the Howlin' On The Air CD. The Wolfman, otherwise known as Bob Smith was a true radio pioneer who helped integrate radio by broadcasting from Mexico back into America and was able to sidestep regulations and prevailing tastes. I remember hearing him now and then when he was syndicated in Washington DC and then I saw him in American Graffiti and that made me a total fan of the man and that amazing voice. Thinking of that film, the thing that stuck with me the most was the music, which admittedly, is a big part of the film. I came out of that theater wanting to see the film again immediately but really wanting to check out all that music again. It was that film that started my interest in 50’s music and Doo Wop. To this day, all those songs still sound great and the soundtrack is tops. When was the last time you heard someone say that? But back to the Jack, he was a great gift to radio. I have read about him here and there and apparently the on-air name was in part a tribute to Howlin’ Wolf, who he kinda sounds like when he does his thing. The Mighty Wolfman passed away in his wife’s arms in 1995 at age 57. Clap for the Wolfman!

Chrome - TV As Eyes: From the Half-Machine Lip Moves album. This is a CD that Corey Necros released on his label Touch And Go many years ago. He gave me a copy and I’ve held onto it ever since. I went backwards into Chrome from checking out Chrome member Helios Creed’s solo work. I don’t know much about Chrome but like what I have heard so far. We’ll get into more of their music as the year goes on when I get a better grip on the band.

Tèshomè Meteku - Gara Ser Nèw Bétesh: From the Ethiopiques 1 CD. Thanks to Engineer X, I got into this series. A Fanatic I met on the road years ago gave me a couple of CDRs of this series but before I could play them, they got all banged up and I couldn’t play them. If the Fanatic who gave me those CDRs reads this, I thank you for the turn on and sorry I didn’t get a chance to listen to them. X lent me a handful of these CDs and they have been blowing my mind. So far, so great. I have not heard the entire series yet, there’s over 20 CDs in the series so far but I have heard a good deal of them thanks to Mullah X and I will be putting them into the mix as the year goes on.

The Fall - Married Two Kids: This will be our first time playing a track from Manchester England’s The Fall. I just got my first album by the band the other day and I think they’re onto something, really, they’re pretty good. The CD we pulled tonight’s weekly installment of The Fall from is called Fiend With A Violin. Years ago, The Fall saw fit to release collections of their demos for Fall Fanatics. This was one of the releases. Sinister Waltz and Oswald Defense Lawyer were the two others in the series. All three of these albums were released in a box set called The Other Side Of The Fall. Some Fall Fanatics no doubt were bored by the release of alt. versions of songs in lieu of new material and I can understand that but I am one of those types who doesn’t mind the alternative version of a song. Actually, I really love that kind of thing and I wish all my favorite bands put out all their demos and alt. mixes and versions but that’s just me. Some real finds on these CDs I think. They should be easy enough to find. A whole lotta Fall info on the band can be found here: http://www.visi.com/fall/

Skip James – Cherry Ball Blues: There’s not a Skip James song I don’t like. There are some of his recordings I like better than others but they’re all pretty swell to me. The 1931 recordings, his first I guess, can be challenging to the listener because of the sheer level of surface noise and some of his later tracks where he plays piano instead of guitar I find myself listening to with less frequency than his other stuff is still really great. Skip James could be classified as a Country Blues or Rural Blues player, somewhat like Robert Pete Williams or Fred McDowell, two players who are no stranger to our show. Skip James penned a song called I’m So Glad, which was covered by Cream many years ago. Clapton definitely knows his Blues and his Blues musicians. If you ever get a chance, check out the great piece Peter Guralnick did on Skip James in his book Feel Like Goin’ Home. Tonight’s track is taken from the Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues album.

Ivo Papasov & His Orchestra - Byala Stala: Another track from the Orpheus Ascending CD. Isn’t this guy amazing? Bulgarian clarinet player. I was turned onto this record by a cool guy at Amoeba. He made me a copy and gave it to me when I was at the store once. He gave me an issue of the in store book, always worth getting, you can learn a thing or two from it. He circled something under his section of the book he wanted me to check out but I have now been through the book three times and can’t find the notation so I am giving up for now. I would like to list his name here so I could thank him for the turn on. Rarely do I find out about cool music on my own. I am lucky to have some people who turn me on to cool stuff. I am an old dog so it’s all hard at this point.

Witch - Soul Of Fire: This is a rock band that J Mascis plays drums in. I don’t have to include here that I am a J Mascis Fanatic, I think you all know that by now. That being said, I would have liked this album even if J wasn’t on it. It’s just good. It’s good to hear J play drums and the hard riffs are great. I hate to call this Stoner Rock, a genre I have a lot of time for, but it’s got some of that happening. Basically, it’s big, crushing slabs of guitars and a serious rhythm section. I am listening the album as I write these notes up and it’s workin’ for me. As far as I know, there’s just the one self-titled album and a single out on Tee Pee Records.

Excepter - Whirl Wind: From the Alternation CD that Engineer X turned me onto. I have to thank my mullah for this one, I really like this record. I don’t know how to say this but I really like records that don’t seem to want anyone to listen to them. Records, or bands I guess, that aren’t looking to be accepted, they’re just doing it because it’s what they do. Excepter’s music, at least on this album, is doing that for me. It’s a lot of beats and electronics with vocals that seem to hit and miss on the tracks. Again, another band that I would most likely have never heard had it not been for Engineer X. Excepter is one of the bands I point to when someone says that music sucks now. No it doesn’t. Music is doing just fine. This is a really cool record.

The Shangri-Las - Sophisticated Boom Boom: Another track from the Myrmidons Of Melodrama album. I was going to play this track last year but for some reason, I never got to playing it. There’s nothing I can add about this cool cool girl group that everyone knows. I have never seen this song on play lists and it’s a good one so I thought it would be a good one to play. This CD is about all the Shangs you’ll ever need. Good stuff.

Charles De Goal – Synchro: From the So Young But So Cold album that Engineer X turned me onto many months ago. This is turning into a regular Engineer X fest tonight, isn’t it?! I can’t get any real info on this guy but I found one of his records really cheap online so when it comes in, I’ll bring it on the show and we can get into it. This compilation of French underground music is a worthwhile purchase. I had never heard any of the tracks before and they’re all really interesting. This was the CD that got me interested in Kas Product. I just got a song from the band’s vocalist Mona Soyoc and I am waiting to hear back if I have the green light to play it on the show. If I get a yes on that, I will throw it into the mix and you can make of it what you will.

Scientist - Blood On His Lips: From the Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires CD. Scientist started many years ago with the great King Tubby as his mentor. Scientist struck out on his own with his own Dub style to make great records for others and some brilliant ones of his own. Several of them can be found on the Greensleeves label. Another title on Greensleeves that I like is Scientist Encounters Pac-Man. Scientist was born in Jamaica but now lives in of all places, Silver Springs MD!

Unrest – Christina: From the Malcolm X Park album. I have not played Unrest on our show for a long time. I think I have shown remarkable restraint. I am always trying to bring different stuff onto the show so if I think I am playing any band too much, I try to curb it. I have not played Unrest for a long time. One of the members of Unrest is Mark Robinson who owns the Teenbeat label which as you know, gets a lot of exposure on this show. Of all the Unrest records, this is one that I don’t play as often as other ones such as Perfect Teeth and Imperial f.f.r.r.. One of the things that is interesting about Unrest is how much musical ground they covered. I can never figure out whether they were musically ambitious or just didn’t care what they did next and just figured it out when they got there. You can find most of the Unrest catalog in print at the Teenbeat site: http://www.teenbeatrecords.com

The Urinals & The Minutemen - Ack Ack Ack Ack: This is a Urinals song that the Minutemen used to cover. I thought we would play both versions next to each other. I think we have played the Urinals’ version before on the show. The Urinals eventually morphed into 100 Flowers and got to see them under that name but never as the Urinals. The Urinals track was taken from the Negative Capability...Check It Out! CD which has liner notes by the knower of many things, Byron Coley. The Minutemen version was taken from the The Politics Of Time CD. Here’s the band’s site for more info: http://www.happysquid.com/HSR%20site/URI%20site/urihist.htm

The Weirdos – Fort USA: From the Weird World Vol. 1 CD. The Weirdos song Life Of Crime is one of the best bits of music I have ever heard. I have been listening to that once since at least 1979 when I bought the single mail order. I am sure I got the mail order check at a 7-Eleven. This track was originally on the Who? What? When? Where? Why? EP. Released in 1979. The Weirdos were part of that amazing LA Punk scene along with The Germs, Black Randy and the Metro Squad, X and The Screamers. There’s two volumes of the Weirdos stuff on Frontier and they’re both great. The Denney brothers, Dix on guitar and John on vocals are completely on their own, amazing stuff. Info:
http://www.theweirdos.net/index2.htm

Blonde Redhead - For The Damaged: From the Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons album. Perhaps you will think me lightweight but this is the Blonde Redhead album I play the most often. I think every aspect of it is interesting from the production to the arrangements to the performances. Also, I must admit that I do not have the band’s most recent album Misery Is A Butterfly and I have no good reason other than I spaced out. Another thing I must cop to is that one of the things that interested me in Blonde Redhead was that the brilliant Guy Picciotto has produced many of their records and it’s the Guy produced records I like the most. I think it’s a very good combination. I think Guy gets them. This album has a little bit of Abbey Road-ness to it now and then, don’t you think?

Bootsy Collins - Rubber Duckie: From the Ahh...The Name Is Bootsy, Baby! CD. Bootsy is Funk’s great messenger and bass god. As a teen he played with James Brown and went into the world of George Clinton and from there into the universe of Bootsy. That was one of the best damn shows I have ever seen. There’s nothing not to like about his records. He always has a ridiculous band and he is a great singer. All those 70’s Warner Brothers records are worth checking out. There’s an interesting one he did with Bill Laswell many years ago under the name Zillatron called Lord Of The Harvest. I don’t know if we have played anything from that yet. I’ll bring that one in soon. I went online and read some stuff about Bootsy that I had forgotten and also things I didn’t know. I had forgotten that he played bass on the James Brown song Sex Machine but never knew that he wrote the bass line. Also I never knew that he wrote the bass line for Cosmic Slop. If you have no Bootsy at your place, a good CD to check out is his best-of called Back In The Day. It sounds great and every song is a monster.

Jimi Hendrix - 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be): Interesting version of this song. I am sure the vocal is an alternate, perhaps the take is the same as the one on the album. I have this track on a few vinyl bootlegs and some CD ones but this corny radio show CD set has the best sounding of all the versions so we’ll go with this one. Sorry about the radio personality who comes in at the end. If I ever come across a better sounding version of this I will bring it to the studio. Pretty cool glimpse into the working mind of Mr. Jimi Hendrix. I will warn you now, this year, we will be listening to more Hendrix than we did last year. I have some interesting tracks for the show which I am pretty sure you will like.

Christaliers - Homeroom Rock: This is from a Angeltone Records best of. One of the many Doo Wop CDs I have dragged back from the road. I can’t seem to find anything on the label or the band but it is a cool song and keeps up our occasional dip into Doo Wop on our show.

György Ligeti - Études Pour Piano Part IX: Vertige: From the Mechanical Music CD. This is number 5 in the Sony series. I have been listening to Ligeti almost every night since I have been back. Last night I listened to Ligeti Project Vol. IV on Teldec and loved it. It’s the second time I have played that one. Matt, the guy who comes into the office now and then to fix our computers turned me onto Ligeti, Stephen Mosko, The Arditti Quartet and others. I don’t know much about Ligeti at all and what I’ve read about the music goes over my head. There is a lot of music like this that I relate to on an emotional level. I hear and it and I feel it. When someone starts breaking it down to the mechanics of it, I am somewhat interested but mostly I just tune out. The music itself I like very much. The choral stuff on some of his records is, I don’t know how to describe it, it’s so out there to me but only because I don’t have the reach to grab it and that’s one of the reasons I like his work, it makes me work for it and it’s always worth it. Ligeti’s music has been one of the major adds to my listening in the last several months. I don’t know where to send you for info on the man though.

El Guapo – Hawks: From my favorite album of theirs, Fake French,on Dischord. The band changed their name to Super/system and went to Touch & Go. They did two albums that I really liked and then from what I was just told, just broke up. The band are all very creative people and I have no doubt they will all be doing something interesting this year. I am sorry they broke up. They stayed at my place a few times when they toured through Los Angeles. Of the two records they did on T&G, I like the 2nd one A Million Microphones a lot. Also, live they were just incredible.

Duke Ellington - Suite Thursday: Schwiphti: From The Great Paris Concert CD. This is one of the first Ellington albums I ever had and it blew me away. One of the guys at my office asked me what Ellington records I was into and all I had was some bargain bin sets I had found in Germany. He lent me this one, Blues In Orbit, The Far East Suite and The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse albums and I played them on a Friday Night and went to the record store the next night and got them all. From there, it was a headlong dive into Ellingtonia. What a band! What players! His trumpet players Bubber Miley and Cootie Williams were amazing. All his work with Billy Strayhorn is as good as it gets. It’s easy for me to go on an Ellington bender. When I was living in NYC years ago, he was my soundtrack. This set captures the band in the early sixties and they are absolutely on fire. It’s interesting to see people turn onto Ellington. People who never knew or never thought they could get to the music find themselves SO into it. Miles Davis once said something about how every musician owed Ellington a thank you or something like that. He was right, of course.

John Cale – Chickenshit: From the Animal Justice EP released in 1977. I think it was Byron Coley who gave me this record. It finally came out CD included on the Cale live album Sabotage. From what I’ve read, the song’s origin is from when Cale decapitated a dead chicken onstage in England, which lead to his band basically quitting then and there. Of all the Velvet Underground members who are still alive, I think it’s Cale who is the most active and prolific. He’s one of those guys who you should never miss live. I have seen him a lot and it’s always intense.

Buzzkunst - Stupid Kunst: From the Buzzkunst CD. This is a one off project with Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley. I think most of you Fanatics know the history of these two but for the one or two of you who may have been incarcerated when we had that discussion, these two used to be in The Buzzcocks. Howard Devoto, before he left the band to form Magazine, he was the singer in the band and from his time as vocalist we get the Spiral Scratch EP and the Time’s Up bootleg LP now released on Mute. Both of these are great, especially Spiral, which is one of my favorite records of all time. Now, if you were to take the name Buzzcocks and think about it a little and look at the name Buzzkunst, do a little letter moving, and also refer to a commonly used phrase in the UK, the song title makes a little more sense. I would elaborate further but you are smart and I don’t like the word but I like this record.

Empire - All These Things: From the Expensive Sound album. Haven’t played anything off this record in awhile. In fact, it’s been awhile since I have listened to this one at all. This is an interesting record for a few reasons. By the third Generation X album, Kiss Me Deadly, the band had changed their name to Gen X and two of the members had left. Guitar player Bob Andrews and drummer Mark Laff. They formed a band called Empire. They did one album called Expensive Sound and played a few shows. Apparently the reviews were not glowing and perhaps the band didn’t see a reason for going on so they packed it in almost as soon as they began. Doesn’t mean they weren’t good. They were. The album is a big deal where I come from. It’s a record that a lot of us DC types count as one of the important records. I remember I had a copy and managed to find another in Florida on a tour there in 1984. I bought it and gave it to someone in DC when the tour went through there, knowing someone I knew from there didn’t have one and could use it. There is a CD of the Empire stuff around and although it’s not all that easy to find, it’s worth it when you do. Bob “Derwood” Andrews is one serious guitar player and as good as much as I like the Kiss Me Deadly album, I like this one more. Special record for sure. Let’s see if I can find copies online. Here you go: http://home.earthlink.net/~rubbercheese1/

Joe Meek - Love Dance Of The Saroos: From the I Hear A New World CD. This is my favorite Meek collection because it seems to be the strangest and perhaps captures him making music for himself rather than being in the producer seat. He was an extremely complex man, gay in a time when it was illegal. Things are so much better now. On 02-03-67, Joe took a shotgun and killed his landlord, Violet Shenton and then himself. There’s a book about Joe Meek by John Repsch called The Legendary Joe Meek: The Telstar Man that’s worth checking out. We have played tracks off this album before but I thought it was a good way to end the night.