HARMONY IN MY HEAD

BROADCAST #07
AIR DATE: 02-13-07

It’s my birthday tonight. I picked out what I thought were great songs and brought them in. I bet most of you Fanatics have heard most of all of them so we might not have broken any new ground tonight but if the songs are good, then the show is good. I made a CDR of tonight’s selections and drove around with them for a couple of days and it sounded good to me and there you have it. I hope you all enjoyed Janeane Garofalo being o the show. Engineer X and I were weak from laughing by the time we limped out of there.

Here’s the notes from tonight’s show. I have some really good stuff planned for next week so please tune in if you can. I got some more good music from Ian and I will bring those tracks in for us to check out. Until next week, STAY FANATIC!!! --Henry

ATTENTION AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND!!! THE EVENS ARE ON THE WING! The Evens will play Australia & New Zealand. All shows are all-ages!

February
16. Perth Australia: The Bakery
17. Adelaide Australia: Urtext
18. Hobart Australia: University Studio Theatre
19. Melbourne Australia: Cloud City
20. Melbourne Australia: Wooden Shadows
21. Off
22. Canberra Australia: Front Gallery And Cafe
23. Newcastle Australia: Performing Arts Newcastle
24. Port Macquarie Australia: Maritime Museum
25. Brisbane Australia: Ahimsa House
26. Bangalow Australia: A&I Hall
27. I HAVE NO INFO FOR THIS DATE
28. Sydney Australia: Glebe Town Hall
March
01. Sydney Australia: Glebe Town Hall
02. Off
03. Off
04. Auckland New Zealand: Freemans Bay Community Center
05. Hamilton New Zealand: Upsett Records
06. Palmerston New Zealand: Stomach
07. Wellington New Zealand: Tba
08. Nz Off
09. Christchurch New Zealand: Cloud 9 Bar
10. Dunedin New Zealand: Circadian Rhythm

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.

Bad Brains - Pay to Cum: The perfect way to start off the show. This is the version from the band’s first single. I don’t think it has been released on CD anywhere. I got a letter from Megaforce records recently that said there’s a new Bad Brains record planned for the spring. I think this would be the sessions that Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys was working on some time ago. I remember him telling me about them but this was back in 2001 or something. The label wanted me to write a thing about how much I like the Bad Brains. I told them I needed to hear the album before I wrote anything. I have not heard back from them. I know they would use whatever I wrote and assign it to the new record like it was a review. As great as the Bad Brains are, I think some of the records miss due to the bad production. The Rock For Light album, that contains some of their best early material was fairly ruined in the recording process. I always wondered what the hell the band was thinking with that record. Same thing with the God Of Love album. It’s that Ric Ocasek production, it doesn’t work with the Bad Brains. For me, it will always be the recording session in August of 1979 eventually released as the Black Dots album that stands as the band’s best studio document. I am very interested to hear this new album. If the label gets back to me, I will let you know.

Egghunt - Me And You: A great single on the Dischord label. Egg Hunt was a one off recording session Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson did in England in 1986. It’s one of my favorite riffs of all time and when the guitar slams in at the beginning, that is a great moment. I don’t know anyone who has produced more records than Ian. Here’s the Dischord site address that has a nice little write up on Egghunt: http://www.dischord.com/band/egghunt. Interesting thing in the write-up is it states there were two more songs recorded in this session. I have never heard them nor have I ever heard them mentioned. If there were any kind of final mixes done, I would like to hear them. I think a lot of us would.

Black Flag - Clocked In: Easily available on the Black Flag CD The First Four Years. This was always one of my favorite Ginn guitar solos, it’s The Ginn on maximum kill. Dez’s voice is so great on this song. We played this song on the Rise Above tour in 2003 and it was one of my favorite parts of the set. The staying power of the early Black Flag material cannot be under mentioned. The Ginn is one of the great guitar players of our time, I think. I wish The Ginn put this one on the Damaged album.

The Ramones - Sheena is a Punk Rocker: From the Rocket To Russia album. In my humble opinion, this song is perfect. Should have been a huge single. It’s one of many Ramones singles that should have made them one of the biggest bands of all time and not just one of the greatest. There’s nothing more I can say about The Ramones that I have not already said. One of the greatest songs of all time.

MC5 - Looking At You (single version): This is the single version of the song, released in 1968 I think. The more frequently heard version can be found on the band’s 2nd album Back In The USA. I like that one fine but I really like this single version more, with all the guitar insanity. The MC5 used Jon Landau to produce the Back In The USA, he’s the guy who’s been managing Springsteen forever, the same guy that ruined Springsteen’s sound on the Born In The USA album. My favorite MC5 album is their 3rd album, High Time but I reckon you need all three. Tonight, we utilized the handy best-of CD of the MC5 The Big Bang to source this track.

Iggy And The Stooges - Tight Pants: This song is on a few different records. We are pulling tonight’s version from the Kill City CD. Although my favorite Stooges period is the one that rendered the first two albums, The Stooges and Fun House, the later “Raw Power” era will do just fine. The James Williamson era of The Stooges is very interesting to me. There’s the Raw Power album and then there’s all these tracks on Bomp! and other labels that are great as you Fanatics well know. Open Up And Bleed, She Creatures Of The Hollywood Hills, Head On, I Got A Right, Gimmie Some Skin, etc. All of these seem to be on indie labels or semi-legitimate labels which makes me wonder if the lives of The Stooges in the early 70’s wasn’t in some kind of dangerous free fall. It’s the era of the band I have the most questions about. I wonder how burned out the guys are on questions concerning that period. That’s an interview I want to do with Iggy and the Ashton brothers. I interviewed the band recently for the IFC show but it was about the “classic” line-up. Have you ever heard the rehearsal version of Johanna? That one will burn your house down.

Teen Idles - Teen Idles: From Dischord 001 the Minor Disturbance EP. The cover of the EP is a photograph of Alec MacKaye taken by Susie J. that can be found in her new and very wonderful book of photographs called Punk Love. You can find it on Amazon.com and I think it’s also available from the good folks at Dischord. The other night when I was in DC for the opening of Susie J’s photos at the Govinda Gallery, all four members of the Teen Idles were there. I don’t remember the last time I saw all four of them in one place. The last time may have been at a wedding in the last century but I don’t think the singer, Nathan was there, I would have remembered that I think. In any case, they were all there the other night and I’m glad I had my camera there. Seeing them all together tripped me out and put me in the way back machine. I had some great times at those shows. The Teen Idles were around at a time when the DC scene was fairly small. After The Teen Idles broke up and Minor Threat started playing shows, the scene fairly exploded within a few months. It was still cool, but different. The Teen Idles is one of the Dischord bands that don’t get enough mention.

UK Subs - Same Thing: From the four track She’s Not There EP. You can also find the tracks on the Brand New Age CD. This is one of the best moments of the UK Subs. Nicky Garratt is one of my favorite guitar players of all time. The first four albums of the UK Subs are still some of my favorites of the whole Punk Rock thing, especially the 1st, 2nd and 4th ones. The 3rd one, Crash Course, a live one, is great but I prefer the band in the studio. I have been listening to the 2nd album, Brand New Age a lot over the last several months. We have listened to this song a few times on our show but tonight, in the spirit of just putting a bunch of good songs together, Same Thing got another play.

Trouble Funk - Pump Me Up: From the thoughtfully priced 2CD collection of the band’s essential live album and early singles on my label District Line. Please buy two. This was the first Trouble song I ever heard and it’s still one of the best songs DC ever produced. I have asked so many people in the know why Trouble Funk and Go-Go music didn’t take over the world. Of all the Trouble Funk recordings, it’s the early ones that I listen to the most. Anything past Say What? I don’t listen to as much.

Negative Trend – Mercenaries: From the Negative Trend EP on 21361 Records. Please buy ten. I licensed this EP from Steve Tupper at Subterranean and released it a couple of years ago. All four songs on this EP are perfection. I got this record in 1979 I think and it really stuck with me. Will Shatter and Steve DePace were in this band. After Negative Trend broke up the two of them found themselves in some band called Flipper. I am happy I was able to get it back out again.

Cramps - Human Fly: To this day, I think this is one of the best songs I have ever heard. I have written about this band too much and don’t want to repeat any of my worn thin Cramps stories again. I noticed a copy of a Cramps bootleg called All Tore Up at Ian’s the other night and got a copy to see what it’s all about. If there’s anything interesting on it, I’ll bring it in. You can get tonight’s selection on a few different releases of The Cramps. Tonight, I used the Psychedelic Jungle / Gravest Hits CD.

Crisis – Frustration: Another track from the Holocaust Hymns CD. Remember, we played their song White Youth last week? This is my favorite song of theirs. There seems to be two mixes of this song on the CD. They sound like the same take but the two mixes are very different, the one we listened to tonight is the one I prefer, it’s much more intense and violent than the other, cleaner one.

The Adverts - Safety in Numbers: The Adverts were a band I connected very heavily with upon hearing them. Besides the great songs, it was the lyrics that really grabbed me. The band’s vocalist and songwriter, TV Smith is a brilliant writer. This song is at least 30 years old and still hold up. TV is still making great music. When I listen to The Adverts, I am reminded of being in highschool and listening to the singles alone in my room when I used to engage in large amounts of antisocial behavior. We’ll be listening to The Adverts and TV Smith solo work this year as we have in the past. This track was taken from the band’s Singles Collection CD.

The Fall – Birthday Song: Somehow appropriate. From The Marshall Suite album released in April 1999. Interesting thing here, to me at least is that this is one of the two albums made with Nev Wilding, the album after this one, The Unutterable are two of the better efforts of the band. Young Nev left the fold, apparently from disagreements on pay and royalties. Should have gone better for the guy as he was a great asset to the band. I guess being in The Fall is a rough patch of road for even the sturdiest of musicians. Here is a website if for any reason, you require more information on The Fall: http://www.visi.com/fall/

DEVO – Be Stiff: This might be my single favorite DEVO release. Before the band was on Warner Brothers, they did some recordings for the Stiff label. They did an EP’s worth material which was released on singles and also grouped together on a 12” called Be Stiff. Most of it was re-recorded for the first Warners album. Most of these tracks have been released on CD on compilation albums like Pioneers Who Got Scalped. In late 1979, I had a job at a small laboratory in Rockville MD. My job was basically maintaining a bunch of rodents and driving blood and liver samples from the little beasts to the National Institute of Health once or twice a day. It was a boring and low paying job that I hated almost immediately. I realized my life was going to be a lot of jobs like this one. I asked the woman who ran the facility if I could listen to tunes while I changed out cages. She said I could. I brought in my small tape deck, the kind with the single speaker and plugged it into the wall and got to work. The tapes I had were basically mix tapes of the singles and albums I had. This EP was in heavy rotation while I worked, the Buzzcocks Spiral Scratch EP was as well. The work was repetitious and depressing. It was the music that kept me going. At one point, my boss came in to one of the rooms I was working in and heard the music that was playing and made me turn it off as she was sure that the music was going to upset the animals and potentially corrupt the data. If you don’t have the first two DEVO albums, Are We Not Men? We Are DEVO! and Duty Now For The Future, you’re missing out on some great music.

The Sods - Pathetic: From the one and only album by Denmark’s The Sods, Minutes To Go. I am sitting in Los Angeles at the moment, writing up these notes but I wouldn’t mind it if I was in very dark and very cold Denmark at this moment. I love Scandinavia in the winter. It’s hard on the psyche, all the darkness but it’s beautiful and strange up there. The Sods did this one record and then changed their name and musical direction. I guess you could call the music they did under the moniker Sort Sol more pop oriented. I like all the Sort Sol albums for the most part. They are strange and really cool and none of them are available in America, which is a drag. You can get the albums on import and finally, the Minutes To Go album is on CD, that is a great find. The first time I heard this was when Ian got a copy. I forget how he knew about them. It took me a long time to find a copy.

The Buzzcocks – Breakdown: From the Spiral Scratch EP. This was first release for Manchester UK’s Buzzcocks. Howard Devoto pre Magazine on vocals. We have played all four songs from this record, some of them more than once. The music I like, I think I like it too much. It’s not that I like some music to the exclusion of other musics, but I have this insane idea that music is more than what it is. I reckon that it can save lives. I also think I am just an obsessive maniac and shouldn’t be paid that much attention to. That being said, I still get as excited about this record as I did after the first time I heard it. Many of us associate songs with a certain time and place and listening to a certain song or album triggers thoughts and emotions. It works with me a lot. This mood—must hear that song, lighting in hotel room a certain way—must hear this album, etc. The songs provide me a portal back to these times of my life and sometimes the reactions are intense but most of the time it’s a good thing. I like a lot of different music but it’s the songs I heard in the late 70’s and early 80’s that I connect with the most. I get new records all the time that I like a lot but they don’t hit me like the ones I heard when I was in my late teens and early twenties. I don’t think it’s the music as much as it’s the age and what role music is playing in your life at the time. Someone born ten years later would potentially have a completely different list of songs that resonate with them. There could be people out there that would tell you that the Go-Go’s changed their lives. So be it. What song were we talking about?!

The Mob - Shuffling Souls: I bought this single only because I liked the names of the band and the songs on it. I got it back to my hovel and played it. It blew me away. It was one of my favorite records immediately. The other side of the single, Witch Hunt, is great also. The band was part of the anarcho-punk scene in the early 80’s. You can get all their singles on the Let The Tribe Increase CD. It’s their early singles that I like the most. The album tracks are cool but every time I listen to them, the song’s lyrics and vocal delivery always sound forced, like they had to write about these topics and the band soldiered through it nonetheless. Every year or so, I go back to the album and check it out but always feel the same way. I’ll go back again and see if anything has changed.

Stains - Sick And Crazy: I don’t know what the deal with SST Records is. I wonder if they no longer have the rights to the classic album by The Stains because they will not put it out on CD and of all the albums that are out of print on that label, it’s The Stains album back in print that would make people happy. Tonight’s track is from the album but also found on the Chunks compilation CD. The Stains were from LA and a very heavy and scary outfit. I got to see them a few times and they were great. If you liked this song, you would like the rest of the record. It’s one of the best records SST ever released and that’s saying something.

Chiefs - Knocked Out: From the Chiefs one and only 7” on Playgems released in 1979. Luckily for us, there’s an album’s worth of material available as Holly-West Crisis CD on Dr. Strange, the same label that released all the Black Market Baby stuff. Great label. The Chiefs were part of the So. Cal. scene that existed outside of Hollywood along with bands like Black Flag, Red Cross and The Adolescents. These were hectic shows to say the least. I met the vocalist Jerry Koskie in ’81 or ’82 although I don’t remember where or what was said. I think I got my Chiefs record at Bleeker Bob’s in NYC. That place was 7” heaven. Bob had a few copies of everything it seemed. Misfits singles for three bucks.

The Untouchables - I Hate You: From the Flex Your Head comp. album on Dischord Records. A few nights ago, I was in Washington DC. Ian and I were driving down Calvert St. and Ian pointed to the house where first Minor Threat show happened and we talked about how great The Untouchables were that night. That was a night to remember for sure. The Untouchables were Eddie Janney (Faith, Rites Of Spring, Happy Go Licky, One Last Wish) on guitar, Bert Q (Rain, Manifesto) on bass, Alec MacKaye (Faith, Ignition, The Warmers) on vocals and Rich Moore on drums. I Hate You was the song you went apeshit crazy to. One of DC’s great bands. If you check the first vol. of Fanatic! you will see a major write-up I did on the band.

Red Cross - Annette's Got The Hits: From the Annette's Got The Hits EP on Posh Boy. How cool is this record?! We have played all the tracks from this EP before but it’s my damn birthday so we’re playing again, all 68 seconds of it. The Red Cross line-up at this time was the McDonald brothers of course, Greg Hetson pre-Circle Jerks on guitar and Ron Reyes, also known as Chavo Pederast on drums. Some of the tracks have ended up on Posh Boy comp. CDs but as far as I know, the EP has not been re-issued on CD in its entirety.

Dead Boys - Sonic Reducer: From the Young Loud And Snotty album. Ohio is such a rough room. Interesting that so much great music came from there. Perhaps it was all the industrial backdrops and urban angst that pushed artists to a higher level. If you think about it, Ohio is one of the most fertile places in America for bands that mattered. The Pagans, Pere Ubu, The Mirrors, Rockets From The Tombs, DEVO just to name a few and of course, the Dead Boys. One of the coolest band names ever. For me, Sonic Reducer was their greatest song. I have seen a few bands cover it, I stood with Joey Ramone and watched The Dictators play this song.

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks: From the classic L.A.M.F. album. Like A Motherfucker, how great a name for an album is that?! Great that Johnny thunders And The Heartbreakers got the title and it didn’t end up being on a Bang Tango album or something. As you know, Mr. Thunders was in The New York Dolls. Mr. Thunders also had a love affair with heroin that made his performances uneven some of his alliances less than on the level. It could very well be what killed him. After he died in New Orleans in 1991. Apparently his death was drug related but since he was a drug addict, the police didn’t investigate the death and no autopsy was ever done so the particulars of Johnny’s demise might always remain a mystery. If you have not, you should check out the first Dolls album and L.A.M.F.

The Ruts - In A Rut: The A side of the band’s very first single. We have played this single before but it’s so good, we could probably get away with playing every once in awhile and not get too many people upset about it. It’s one hell of a way to start a recording career. The band must have known the single was going to go down a storm when they put it out in 1979. The band’s vocalist, Malcom Owen passed away from a heroin overdose in the summer of 1980 at age 26. Don’t have any Ruts records? Get going. You need their album The Crack and you wouldn’t do so badly by getting their Peel Sessions collection as well as the Grin And Bear It album and while you’re at it, you should check out the CD we pulled tonight’s track from, The Punk Singles Collection. All but the Peel Sessions are in print.

Generation X - No No No: I have been good. I have not played any Generation X in at least a couple of weeks. This song is one of my favorite songs by the band. The fact that it was a non-LP b-side makes it even cooler to me. The only place I’ve seen it on CD is on the not easy to find The Idol Generation CD out of Australia. The song shares a single with Ready Steady Go and enjoyed release in the UK, Germany, New Zealand, Ireland, Australia and Japan as far as I know. Somehow it was left off the re-issue of the Generation X CD that came out a couple of years ago. I don’t think we’ll be seeing this track on CD domestically any
time soon. Too bad, it’s one of the band’s better songs.

The Germs – Manimal: From The Germs (MIA): The Complete Anthology CD on Slash. There’s no bad Germs song as far as I am concerned. This was one of the heaviest albums I had when I got into the Punk Rock. The band’s singer, the long gone Darby Crash was some kind of modern day Arthur Rimbaud. It is still hard for me to believe he was writing what he was at his age. He was 22 when he died of an overdose. You Fanatics know all this stuff, I know but there may be someone out there reading this stuff having heard this song and we can’t leave them out of things. The Germs were right at the front of the amazing LA Punk Rock scene along with bands like The Weirdos, The Screamers and X. I was in DC when they were doing their thing. We would read about their shows in magazines. Of all the LA bands, The Germs along with the Screamers were the ones I wish I could have seen the most. I have looked over the lists of songs we have played over the last few years and I see that we have not listened to the single version of Lexicon Devil or Circle One. We’ll do have to do that.

The Penetrators - The Break: Did ya like this song? You oughta! You can find this track and many other killer rare tracks from the old DC area music scene on the very cool :30 Over DC CD on District Line. I suggest you buy a dozen. The Penetrators were one the DC area bands I could have seen but I was sharp enough to make the scene when they were play and the few times I could have seen them, I was probably either working or moping around with a girl I was going out with and having no large amounts of fun with. As soon as I broke up with her and started seeing more shows, then my life got so much better. One of the great regrets of my life is that I missed some great local shows in my town. Ian had his priorities straight and saw these shows. I don’t know anything about them. I know Ian found one of them and got some unreleased studio stuff of theirs years ago. I have heard it and it’s really good. Like I said, you will probably need to get this record immediately. I put it out so I should know.

The Misfits - Where Eagles Dare: From the Night Of The Living Dead EP. I bought this from Skip Groff the year it came out, 1979. The Misfits, what can you say besides thank you? What great music.

Discharge - It's No TV. Sketch: From the Clay Punk Singles CD. All the early Discharge singles are mini masterpieces to me. This is one of my more favorite songs of theirs. I remember in the summer of 1980, they were one of my favorite bands. For many years I didn’t listen to Discharge, I had nothing against the band, I saw them play once and dug them but I stopped listening to the records and then a few years ago, it hit me that I really had to listen to them again and I got the singles collection and put it on and it destroyed me. So now I’m back in the fold. These songs are like molotovs thrown inside your cranium. Their later stuff wasn’t as insane and they kinda went metal but the early singles and the Why 12” are awesome explosive Punk Rock.

The Clash - Janie Jones: Perhaps my mostest favoritest song by The Clash, along with 1977. This is from the first album. As many of you Fanatics know, the entire Clash catalog was re-mastered a few years ago. I got them all but kept my old masterings and compared them. There’s a big difference on some of the albums. The first album remaster is very bass heavy and boomy compared to the “smaller” sounding original. I prefer the older mastering as it is more the way the LP sounds. In many ways, the new masterings are better I suppose but many times, the remastering is done without the band present by people who were not there when the album was being made and all too often miss the reason an album sounds the way it does and they try to “help” things by doing this or that in the remastering process, often to the detriment of the sound. We have been over this many times, I know. Tonight, we heard the original CD version.