BROADCAST #14
AIR DATE: 04-03-07

Dig it Fanatics! This is how it went down. It’s now 2235 hrs. and I will be up in a few hours to head to NYC. I don’t think I will bother to sleep, perhaps I’ll get some on the flight out. Anyway, the most important part of all this is the same as it always is, the music! Here’s all the notes from what we heard tonight. I hope you liked it. I have to say, the track that stood out to me tonight was the Betty Davis track, what a jam! Also, I hope you liked that we played that Damned Peel Session all the way through. The other day, I was listening to that session, trying to figure out what song to pick and I figured what the hell, let’s run them all and see what happens. Anyway, I thought it rocked and hope you felt the same.

For you New Yorkers, Janeane Garofalo, Marc Maron and I start our 6 night stay at The Gramercy Theater a week from tonight, April 10th to the 15th. It should be a good time and I am looking forward to being a New Yorker for a few days. I wish I had some time to get down to DC but perhaps later in the year. Thanks for listening Fanatics and please tune in next week if at all possible and whatever you do, STAY FANATIC!!! --Henry

For you Fanatics who can’t live without hearing this show again or if the original broadcast time is too hard on your sleep cycle here’s the re-broadcast schedule:

USA: Fridays: 0200 – 0400 hrs. PST
UK: Fridays: 1000 hrs. – 1200 hrs.
Continental Europe: Fridays 1100 hrs. – 1300 hrs.
Australia: Fridays 2100 hrs. – 2300 hrs.

UK Subs - Bomb Factory: I think we have played this track before but I didn’t think you would mind. It’s the only song that I thought to start the show with tonight. This is from the UK Subs super kill record Brand New Age, released in 1980. This album marked a definite change of direction for the band. The first album, Another Kind Of Blues, a fantastic record, was more rock where BNA was more Punk and more politically charged lyrically. I always wondered if at first the Subs were on the outside of the Punk scene somewhat at first and since Charlie Harper, the band’s singer was a little older than a lot of the people on the scene, perhaps he came from a different point of view lyrically at first. The first album has songs about girls and drugs and minor topics where BNA’s lyrics are much more intense and so is the music. Nicky Garratt, the band’s guitar player really lets it rip on this album. It’s in print with all the singles around the album on the CD as well. I think it’s been re-issued on vinyl as well although I have not checked out any of the LP re-issues of any of the Punk Rock stuff that’s been coming out lately. On The UK Subs site, uksubs.com the discography section says there was a US pressing of this album. I have never seen one of these. Below are all the versions of this album that I have ever seen.

Brand New Age - (New Zealand)
Brand New Age - UK (clear vinyl)
Brand New Age - (UK black vinyl)
Brand New Age - (Portugal)
Brand New Age - (Germany)
Brand New Age - (Japan)
Brand New Age - (White label test press)

I think if I write any more about this band, you will give up on me. I know. I know.

The Birthday Party - Pleasure Avalanche: It was the last batch of songs the Birthday Party that I thought was some of their finest work, especially live. Songs like Jennifer’s Veil, Deep In The Woods, Wild World—whoa. I saw them do Pleasure Avalanche at the Roxy 03-30-83 and it blew me away. I was so happy when on the CD release of the band’s last two EPs, they included a studio version of the song. This is the Peel version, which you might not be as familiar with, which is always a good thing. There’s no bad Birthday Party record in my opinion. From The Beak Of The Pittmo Dept.: When I was in Australia a couple of weeks ago, Tim Pittman told me that recently, the original master tapes of the Boys Next Door’s Door Door album were located. If you didn’t know, the BND were the Birthday Party before they changed their name and Door Door was their album. It’s very interesting and not bad at all. Tim said that the CD version of the album was mastered from vinyl as they could never find the tape. Apparently there they recorded a few of the songs twice in a different session and there’s a chance that they might release all of it. Who ever would have thought there would be Boys Next Door alternate takes?! That could come out this year. I will keep you posted.

Motorhead - The Hammer: From the Ace Of Spades album. This is perhaps the Motorhead album that most people are familiar with. It’s a great one but it’s not the only great one the band did. Lemmy is one of the more interesting rockstars I have met and I mean that with all due respect. He’s an interesting, well read, well traveled man with a healthy sense of humor and doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously. The music however, he has a great reverence for. I think at this point, the line-up featuring Philthy Phil Taylor on drums and Fast Eddie Clarke on guitar can be considered the “classic” period of the band but it’s not like they don’t completely reconfigure your DNA when they play these days. Motorhead records and tours all the time and are always worth it. Standing in front of that stage though, that will hurt.

Sort Sol - Hurricane Fighter Plane: Last week we listened to The Sods and I told you about Sort Sol. I figured we should listen to them, it’s been awhile. This is from the Fog Things album and it’s one of my favorite songs by Sort Sol. Aren’t Steen Jørgensen’s vocals great? Ever since I heard him on that Sods album, I was hooked. We did one show with them somewhere in Scandinavia in 1997 and at one point in the day, we took photos together but I never got one.

Generation X – Kleenex: From the band’s first album, Generation X. It’s great all around but for me, the big appeal of this album and my favorite part of the band is the guitar of Bob “Derwood” Andrews. This was the “classic” line-up and it lasted for two albums. After the band had released their 2nd album Valley Of The Dolls, they recorded demos in July of 1979 that were going to be the start of their 3rd album, Kiss Me Deadly. After that, Derwood and drummer Mark Laff left the band and formed Empire, a band we have played on our show a few times. The 3rd album demos were eventually released and you can find them in two places: the Sweet Revenge album and on a 3CD set retrospective of the band called Anthology. Different versions of many of the same tracks were issued on Kiss Me Deadly. It’s cool to hear Derwood on Dancing With Myself. Some people don’t give Generation X a chance because the Billy Idol solo stuff freaks them out so much. I can understand but it was a different thing and the first Generation X album is fantastic.

Parliament - Red Hot Mama: A few ways to get this version. You can find it on the Parliament albums Osmium, Rhenium and another called First Thangs. This version is a lot more raw than the version you have heard on Funkadelic’s Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On album. If noticed a little crackle and crunch going on at the beginning of the track, it’s because tonight we listed to a version I made from the actual 7” single vinyl, which is so much more kicking your ass than the CD version I have on Rhenium, which is compressed all to hell. I don’t have Osmium or First Thangs. I have ordered a copy of Osmium because it has more tracks than Rhenium and many of them I have never heard. Maybe it sounds better but I a-b’d the CD and the single versions the other night and the version off vinyl won by a mile. I guess these sessions were the first offerings of Parliament and were recorded for the Invictus label, started in 1967 and owned by Lamont Dozier, Eddie and Brian Holland of Motown fame. What’s interesting about this recording to me is that George Clinton had Funkadelic going at the same time. Eventually both bands would end up on Casablanca and Parliament wouldn’t sound like this again. This is a worthwhile record to check out, Eddie and Bernie are on so you have to check it out!

Barbecue Bob - Red Hot Mama Papa's Going To Cool You Off: From the Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1928-1929) CD on the mighty Document label. I figured since we were on the topic of red hot mamas, we might as well stay on it for one more song. If you remember last year, we played BB’s song Chocolate To The Bone as well as his brother Charley Lincoln’s songs Jealous Hearted Blues and Ugly Papa. Bob didn’t live very long, he died at 29 but he recorded a lot and actually did well on jukeboxes. I forget now how I got into his music but it was when I was in Black Flag. I think I was reading up on a lot of Blues music and asking a lot of questions and perhaps someone just pointed me in the right direction.

The Buzzcocks – Lipstick: From – The Buzzcocks BBC Sessions CD, part of The Archive Series on EMI. This killer live track was recorded in November of 1978 and broadcast 01-20-79 on the Mike Read Show on BBC Radio 1. Sounds great, right? There’s only a few songs that feature the band during their United Artists era. Past that, it’s later line ups. It’s been deleted apparently but I have been able to find some on GEMM.com. It might not be worth the cash outlay. I will play the other tracks from it over the year so we get some more time with this CD.

Lenny Bruce - Captain Whackencraker: From one of my favorite Lenny Bruce albums, Thank You Masked Man. This was one of my mother’s Lenny Bruce records that I dragged into my room. I this is a long time ago and at a young age, most of the humor and references went way over my head but I listened to it anyway, mainly because the sound of his voice made me laugh. As I got older and listened to the record more, I started getting more out of it. I am still listening to this record and digging it. When I was in my 20’s, I read Ladies And Gentlemen, Lenny Bruce by Albert Goldman and Lawrence Schiller and went back to all the Lenny records and checked them out again and they were inspiring in a whole new way. He’s someone you should check out if you have not before. The bit we heard tonight is basically Lenny Bruce blowing off steam and having fun. This album is of lighter fare compared to some of Bruce’s later material was when America was hunting him down for telling the truth and stuff. This one finally came out on CD only a few years ago.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze (mono): I am determined to get good use out of this singles box set thing I got of Mr. Hendrix. It’s next to The Clash singles box and now and then I am picking out a track here and there so you better get used to it. Here’s a song you know very well but in glorious mono. The UK single was released in March of 1967 backed with 51st Anniversary, that’s the repro pic. Sleeve that this CD came in so we’ll go with that one. The US version of Purple Haze had The Wind Cries Mary on the b-side and was released in August of 1967.

The Fall - The Classical: From one of my favoritest records, Hex Enduction Hour. This is The Fall song with the provocative lines at the beginning, “Where are the obligatory niggers? Hey there, fuckface! Hey there, fuckface! I don’t think Mark E. Smith is a racist so don’t lose faith. It’s a great song and a great lyric, you can go on the Unofficial Fall site and check them out. Hex was released in March of 1982 and out of the many great Fall albums, this is easily one of their best, a small masterpiece. For the last few weeks, I have been a little escapist on my Fall picks, trying to get away from the new album Reformation Post TLC for a little while. I will return to it soon and we’ll check out another track from it. But back to Hex Induction Hour, this album has many of the songs that made their early live sets really great like Jawbone And The Air Rifle and Hip Priest. If you have to go out and get a single Fall album, you would be in good shape with this one. Here’s that Fall info site address: http://www.visi.com/fall/

Betty Davis - Git In There: The one time wife of Miles Davis, who, it should be said, was no stranger to intensity, had NOTHING on this woman. I think she matched him level for level. She also cut some great records and some not as great records. Let’s stick to the one that we can all just get along with and that would be, They Say I'm Different. Engineer X and I have both showed our allegiance to Ms. Davis by shelling out way too much money for this import gem. Why it’s not out here for 12 bucks is one of the many crimes perpetrated on Americans. I will blame Bush for this since everything else that is bad seems to have been done by Bill Clinton or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The Damned - Stab Your Back / Neat, Neat, Neat / New Rose / So Messed Up / I Fall (Peel Session): O joy, O rapturous gift of gifts! The music of The Damned from 1976 to 1977 is a wonderful thing. While I will always be at the front of the line for world peace, pizza and upgrades into business class, I would rather be in economy with a small bag of nuts on an airplane stuck on the ground for 14 hours as a citizen of a country who invades sovereign nations as foreign policy if I can keep my Damned Damned Damned and Music For Pleasure albums. If you want to have a a great hour of music and a lesson in how powerful Punk Rock can be, check out those two records, which I am sure many of you have already. For these first two albums, the main songwriter was guitarist Brian James. While The Sex Pistols and The Clash were making their great music and creating large quantities of unrest in Britain and other parts of the world with their incendiary lyrics and angry performances, The Damned, were not overtly political and were not using music to make great statements on the state of things. They were, however making music that is completely timeless. Some people don’t like The Damned’s 2nd album Music For Pleasure, including The Damned but I think that album really needs to be given another chance. I liked it as soon as I heard it and have always liked it. So perfect for our show, we played The Damned’s first John Peel Session first broadcast on 11-30-76. At first, I was only going to play I Fall and then I thought it would be a shame not to play New Rose as well and then I figured it would be so classically FANATIC to play the entire session! If you noticed, there’s a bleep in the song So Messed Up in the middle of the line “I think that I would rather fuck her mum.” I can’t find a version that doesn’t have the bleep. I imagine the BBC put that one there and that’s that. I went through all my versions and it’s the same thing. In any case, five songs by one band in this day of ADD is quite a throwback. Back in my day . . . DJ’s used to play one side of an LP all the time. Sometimes they would play an album in its entirety and this was on a regular FM station! To paraphrase Henny Yongman, I love this show!

Fugazi - Downed City: From the Red Medicine album released in 1995. I saw this tour and they were amazing as always. Anyone who saw the band will tell you it was one of the better live experiences ever. Talk about a band who knew how to use two guitars and who understood that you don’t have to play all the time to have impact. Their songs were brilliant testaments to talent, economy and effort. What a band! http://www.dischord.com/

Iggy Pop – Success: From the great Lust For Life album. The Stooges will be playing later this month in LA and by gum, I will be dere. I remember when the film Trainspotting came out, the song Lust For Life was heard by a fresh audience and I only hope it inspired them to check this album out as it is sooooo good. What a band he’s got on this record. Bowie, the Sales brothers Tony and Hunt on bass and drums, Carlos Alomar and the great not oft mentioned Ricky Gardinier on guitar. What could possibly go wrong? It’s a great album from start to finish. The Sales brothers, the sons of the very funny Soupy Sales, have had an interesting journey through music. They were onstage and in the studio with Bowie and Iggy on and off for decades, check the band Tin Machine and some of Iggy’s live line-ups. There’s not a bad second on this record I think.

The Misfits - Die, Die My Darling: I pulled this off their coffin-shaped Box Set. I can’t remember the first time I heard this song, perhaps it was on a tape I got from the band but like with many Misfits songs, it clobbered me. I don’t think the appeal of The Misfits will ever wear out. I think they will always be one of those bands. This track was recorded in 1981 with the Walk Among Us line-up. Want to check out one well done site? http://www.misfitscentral.com/

Rites Of Spring - Persistent Vision: It’s been awhile since we listened to something from the ROS album End on End. One of my favorite Dischord releases and spotlights the very considerable lyrical intensity of a young Guy Picciotto. There is an interesting series of releases featuring members of this band. Rites Of Spring broke up in 1986, lost Mike Fellows and picked up Mike Hampton and called themselves One Last Wish. They wrote some great songs, played a few shows and broke up. I got to see one of those shows, which was pretty damn cool for me seeing as how I missed seeing Rites. This band broke up and then Fellows rejoined Eddie, Guy and Brendan and formed a band called Happy Go Licky. The Dischord site says they played 7 shows. Thankfully, they recorded them and there is a cool CD called Will Play that is taken from some of these shows. This was a very interesting band, much different than Rites and OLW. All three of these records are on CD and cheap and you can find them easily. Now that the snow is melting I will get these back into rotation wherever I am stationed. For me, these are warm-to-hot weather records. Great stuff. For info: http://www.dischord.com/

Don Cherry – The Thing: From the Where Is Brooklyn? album. One of the first of the Mosaic box sets I ever got was the Blue Note recordings of Don Cherry and I am so glad I did as for many years, it was the only way to get a lot of the Cherry output on CD. Finally, it’s all on CD and readily available. This album, along with Symphony For Improvisers and Complete Communion are back in the world and are great. I don’t know if any of you were buying up those really cool CDs that were coming out on the Magnetic label many years ago. They were a “gray label” outfit in Europe who were releasing a lot of radio broadcasts of Jazz groups. I found some amazing CDs on this label. From Calloway to Dolphy to Cherry, there’s a ton of cool stuff. Here’s a short list of releases: http://www.jazzdiscography.com/Labels/magnetic.htm. In 1992, I found a pair of CDs of Cherry called Live At Montmartre Vols. I & II. Smokin’. If you have checked out Ornette Coleman, you no doubt have heard Don Cherry. When I was working on these notes over the weekend, I was in a deep Cherry / Ornette jag, easy to do. I reckon you need all three of the Cherry albums to make your life better.

Scott Walker - A Lover Loves: From Walker’s new album, The Drift. What a deep and intense mofo this guy is. I have most of his records and dig them but it’s this album and the one that came before, Tilt. When you hear tracks from Scott’s earlier releases, it’s mind-blowing, some of the lyrics are, you can’t believe what you’re hearing. It’s pretty obvious that Brian Ferry and David Bowie checked out this guy. Anyway, none of those records prepare you for Tilt and The Drift. These records are trembling with intensity. When I listen to them, I find it incredible that this guy is more interesting and deep than ever. I had not thought of Scott Walker’s music for quite awhile. I had Scott 1-4 CDs but had not checked out these two or even Climate Of Hunter, that was a happy discovery to make as well. I believe we played the track Cossacks Are on our show when The Drift came out months ago.

The Channels – Mayday: From the Waiting For The Next End Of The World CD. A solid band on the Dischord label. This is their 2nd release. There’s a six-songer called Open that came out on Desoto a while back. You have J Robbins from Jawbox on guitar, Janet Morgan on bass and Darren Zentek on drums. I don’t know anything more about the band besides I am really liking this record.

The Leopards – Forget It: I bought this CD Nouvelle Vague: Pocket Raindrops Vol. 1 on Creeping Bent because it had an Alan Vega track on it that I had not heard before. I went through the CD once and really liked this one track by The Leopards. I can’t seem to find anything about the band but I think this track is really cool. I have seen listings for some of their singles but can’t find out anything about them besides one description of their album They Tried Staying Calm that says they are carrying the torch of Link Wray. So far, so good.

The Clash – What’s My Name: From the 1st Clash album. You know how when you hear a certain song, it sometimes nails down a time and place? I know you have had that thing happen to you when you hear a song and you just have to stop what you’re doing and have to take a moment to trip out on something from your back pages. This happens to me a lot with music. It’s like a door opens and I go right back to that time. This is one of those songs. I know it’s less than two minutes but when I hear those opening strains of guitar, it hits me. In fact, the entire first Clash album does that to me. Like many of you Fanatics, I played this album almost to the point of wearing it out when I got it. I never really missed the band when they broke up. I reckoned they did their thing and it was time to go onwards, they had given us enough amazing music, fair enough. But when Joe Strummer passed away, I felt a hand on my throat. I remember driving my car a day or so after Strummer passed away and being stuck at an intersection and hearing a Clash song coming through an outside PA system at a gas station, it was strange. Anyway this was our show tonight, hope you liked it.