BROADCAST #18
AIR DATE: 05-01-07

Fanatics! We are back live. It was a good run of shows last week at the Silent Movie Theater and thanks to any and all who showed up and for all the cheering when I mentioned our show here. I am still fairly convinced that about ten people are listening to this thing so it’s always great to hear that some people are into it. It feels like it’s been awhile since I have been at the station even though it’s only been a couple of weeks. I have been very busy as of late and you may notice some of the notes for the show are a bit short but I hope they of are if use to you. I have a good show for next week that I think you will like so please tune in if you can. Thanks for listening and 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.

Forgotten Rebels - Surfin' On Heroin: I forget the first time I heard this song but I really liked it. I mentioned it in an interview I was doing in Canada and the woman who was taking me through the press day sent the Surfin' On Heroin CD by The Forgotten Rebels to me as a gift. This was / is a Canadian Punk band. From the looks of it, they are still going strong 30 years on. It’s cool music. I don’t know much about Canadian Punk Rock. I only know the bands I played with really but these guys seem pretty good.

The Fall - Last Orders: From the Short Circuit Live At The Electric Circus album. The Electric Circus was a venue in Manchester UK and at one point, a few bands were recorded for the release this compilation album. Tonight, we’re going to check out three tracks from it. The Fall have two tracks on this album, the one we played tonight and Stepping Out. They’re both great but I picked Last Orders, because it’s a bit of a rarity. The Fall site says that it has only been released in two versions, both live. There’s the version you heard tonight, recorded 10-02-77 and another 12-23-77 @ Civic Centre, Stretford, Manchester UK. Short Circuit was a 10” release on a few different colors of vinyl. I know of black, blue and orange and have heard that there’s a yellow vinyl promo pressing although I have never seen it. There’s a pressing that was done in Greece that is on 12”. Many years ago in Switzerland, I found a CD of the album and that’s what we’re using tonight although you can find this track on the Psykick Dancehall comp., the Live At The Witch Trials CD and the Early Fall 77-79 album. I have not seen Short Circuit around for awhile but you may have some luck on the internet. On this track, The Fall are in fine form and Mark E Smith, is intense as hell. I really like early Fall stuff although I don’t play it as much as later and newer material by the band. For all the Fall information you can handle, you can find it here: http://www.visi.com/fall/

Alan Vega & The Silver Apples – Silver Monk Time: From the Monks tribute album Silver Monk Time. I bought this CD for two reasons. This song is one of them. The other one we’ll play later in the year. The Monks were true originators and some consider their album Black Monk Time to be one of the most important pre-Punk albums of all time. The Monks were American G.I.’s stationed in Germany, they started playing in 1964. Perhaps it was their isolation that lead them to be so unique. There’s really nothing like them and if you can get your hands on a copy of BMT, do it.

Joy Division - At A Later Date: Another track from the Short Circuit Live At The Electric Circus album. It is a song of theirs that I am not all that familiar with. The studio version is from the Warsaw Demo recorded 07-18-77. I have a bootleg CD of the Warsaw stuff but have not played it in awhile. I better get on that. It’s interesting to hear Ian Curtis singing really hard as he does on this track.

The Hawnay Troof – People Talk: From the Dollar And Deed CD. Engineer X had an extra copy of a radio clean version of this album that he gave me which has come in very handy. The other day, Mr. Troof himself, Vice Cooler, sent me some old XBXRX vinyl and their new album so we’ll be listening to some of that in the weeks upcoming. I love both bands and I think VC is a brilliant musician and artist. When people say, “Music sucks now!” I just think of bands like this and know that music is just fine, and to add, I think the state of music is really great right now and it’s getting better and better as the major label is getting what they so richly deserve and bands are getting closer and closer to the audience. We’re off the cotton farm and it’s getting better and better all the time.

The Buzzcocks – Time’s Up: yet another track from the Short Circuit album. This is a bit a treat because you get Pete Shelley singing a song that was done back when Howard Devoto was the vocalist. There are recordings of Shelley singing material that Devoto did here and there, the band’s live at the Roxy Club recording has versions of Time’s Up, Friends Of Mine and Boredom, if only they played Breakdown that night, they would have done the entire Spiral Scratch EP with a Shelley vocal. Anyway, we’ll put this album back on the shelf for now. This is not the easiest release to find in any form. The CD version might be harder to find than the vinyl at this point. Happy Hunting.

The Damned – Smash It Up Pts. 1-4: From the Smash It Up CD single released in 2004. I have wanted to play all four parts of this song on our show for quite some time. I know that an 8 minute minute span of music is a bit much for some shows but we Fanatics can do it because we’re, well Fanatics and we can go long. When I first heard the single version Smash It Up Pt. 2 in 1979, it immediately became one of my favorite songs. When the Machine Gun Etiquette album soon after, we got to hear Smash It Up Part 1 and then with this CD single, we get to hear all 4 parts, the last two parts, I had never heard before this release. They could have been out on bootlegs but I never heard them. On the CD single, you get a single track with all four tracks glued together so we get 4 slices of Captain Sensible goodness.

Jimi Hendrix - I Don't Live Today: I have a few versions of this Royal Albert Hall show, 02-24-69. I was on an interesting Hendrix website that said their favorite version of this show was on the Evening With the Jimi Hendrix Experience 2CD set on Purple Haze records. I managed to find one online and have only checked it out once. Seems pretty cool. I usually don’t listen much to this era of Hendrix because I burned out on it a little years ago but I have gone back to it because there’s so much enthusiasm in his playing at this stage and it’s so raw and manic. It’s before the he was feeling the weight of things that made his playing heavier. I have been listening to the Are You Experienced? album a lot lately. At this point, it’s ingrained in my mind but it’s good to hear it outside my head now and then. I like live version of the early stuff with the Redding / Mitchell line-up because it’s so small band making big noise stuff.

Mahavishnu Orchestra – Dawn: From the Inner Mounting Flame album. I had never heard this band until I heard Greg Ginn play the band’s Birds Of Fire album now and then. I had never heard music like that before and I thought it was really interesting. What is the most interesting part of the band, besides the ridiculous level of playing is the guitarist John McLaughlin and his connection to Jimi Hendrix. I think that Hendrix was heading in the direction of what this band was doing. I know the two of them were friends and I have heard the bootlegs of them jamming and McLaughlin holds his own with Hendrix. I will always wonder what Hendrix would have done with another three years, it’s one of my frustrations with listening to his work. I think Hendrix would have invented Fusion or something close to it, at least something close to what this band was doing or perhaps what Miles got into around this time. Anyway, this is a great album as well as Birds and the Trident Sessions is worth checking out as well I think.

Right Quintette - The Rain Song: From Lost Sounds: Blacks And The Birth Of The Recording Industry CD. I bought this because of the title. This is a really amazing piece of work, this compilation. It pulls from private collections and archives. This is bascially the audio companion to Tim Brooks book of the same name. I got them at the same time and have not had the chance to read much of the book yet but I am loving the music. This collection documents some of the earliest recordings made by African Americans and it’s amazing that any of this music survived at all. For many years I have been fascinated by the roots of American music via Africa. The further back you go, you hear almost everything that’s being done today. I know nothing about the Right Quintette because I have not checked the book out and have no time at the moment but I will. For now, check out this great piece of work.

Mad Season - Lifeless Dead: From the Above album. I wonder what you think of this track. I really like this album. It’s the last real project that Alice In Chains vocalist Layne Staley did before he suffered a heroin overdose that took his life 04-05-02. Mad Season were an assemblage of Seattle based musicians with Layne out front which is why I got the recoed. Anything with his voice on it is interesting to me. It’s too bad he couldn’t stay around longer, he was such a great singer.

Andrew Hill – Limbo: I wish I could have jumped on this sooner but last week’s show was pre-taped and this was the first time I play something from Andrew Hill, a giant in the Jazz world, who just passed away on the 20th of last month after a long bout with lung cancer. He was 75 years old. Many years ago someone who used to work at my office lent me his Black Fire album and I became a fan immediately. The track we’re playing tonight is from the Compulsion album, which for a long time had been out of print and only available on CD as part of a box set on the Mosaic label, that too was out of print. Happily, the album is out as a single CD and readily available. Hill was a brilliant and innovative player who was ahead of the curve all the way. If you liked what you heard here tonight, you might want to check out the Black Fire album as well as the amazing Point Of Departure album that features Eric Dolphy and Tony Williams.

New York Dolls - Gimme Luv & Turn On The Light: From the brand new and very very good One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This album. It must be an interesting and strange ride to have been in The New York Dolls. The only original members left are David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain. Johnny Thunders, Arthur Kane, Billy Murcia and Jerry Nolan are all dead. That’s so heavy to me. Many of the band’s peers are dead as well. David and Syl are true survivors. David is one of the more charismatic people I have ever encountered. I only met him last year and it was a big deal for me. He was not a let down in any way. The album is good, too, I thought it would be. I think David and Syl know what’s lame and what to stay away from. As many of you Fanatics know, the band’s original drummer, Billy Murcia died on the band’s first tour of Europe and is not on the first album, that’s Jerry Nolan playing. If you want to hear the line-up with Murcia drumming, you can check out The Mercer Street Sessions, recorded in the summer of 1972, which has been released as Lipstick Killers. There’s another demo session with Nolan called A Hard Night’s Day. Both were produced by Marty Thau, who is an interesting character who gets different report card scores depending on who you ask. I imagine most of you Fanatics have checked out the Dolls but if you haven’t, they are one of those bands who launched a bunch of others and should be checked out.

Epsilons - I Don't Know: From their self titled CD. You might remember that we played a track from this band a few broadcasts called Fever To Kill. What a rippin’ band this is. I heard there’s a new album coming out or it is out. I have been very busy with things and am not up on all the new releases so there very well could be a new album by the band that I don’t know about. If there is one, I will find it as soon as I can and bring it on the show. I liked this album the first time I heard it and have played it a lot since I got it.

Deadboy And The Elephantmen - Ancient Man: From the We Are Night Sky album. Dax Riggs, when are you going to make another record!? I am very interested in anything this guy’s going to do next. I think this was one of the best albums of last year and can’t wait for the next installment. This was a Heidi find. She got a copy and played and didn’t move until the record was over. She lent the CD to me and I was a fan immediately. I hope they get out this summer and get some shows happening. I know the line-up has changed from this album to what’s happening in the band now and that makes it all the more interesting to me. Come on, Dax!

Early Man - Death Is The Answer To My Prayers: From the Fuck You If You're Talking To Me EP. I first heard this band while listening to a Steve Jones broadcast on Indie 103. I asked Engineer X if he could find out what band it was and X came back with the info. I found out there’s two versions of the song, one on this EP and then another on the Closing In album. Jones plays the ablum version so we’re going to keep it a little different with an earlier Early Man track, boy, do I crack myself up. I don’t know much about the band besides that it’s two Penticostal youths who were thrown out of their families for playing this music and that Matt Sweeny works with them which means it’s going to rock. I think both releases are good, with Closing In being the best one so far, can’t wait for the next installment. Music is really good right now.

Deerhoof - A Town Test Site: From the Koalamagic live album. This is a strange record made up of live tracks from different years and I am not all that sure on its legitmacy. I guess it’s one of their records but I am not 100% sure. It looked interesting so I got it. What a cool band. I figured you would dig hearing something that wasn’t on their new album Friend Opportunity, which we have played two tracks from now. This is a band I am still learning about and have not heard all their albums. Engineer X says that all of them are good so that’s encouraging.