BROADCAST #19
AIR DATE: 05-08-07

Here’s how it went down tonight Fanatics! A good show tonight. Thanks for listening, thanks for calling into Engineer X to ask him questions and for being interested in the stuff we played tonight. Remember all the shows coming up in the LA area, Dinosaur Jr. and the Meat Puppets are coming to the Troubadour, you can go to their website and get all the info on that. XBXRX coming to The Smell on the 20th. I forgot to mention that I was in DC over the weekend. I was only there for about half a day. I got in on Friday and then took off to Baltimore MD on Saturday to present Maxed Out at the Maryland Film Festival. Maxed Out, a great documentary by James Scurlock will be out on DVD on June 5th. It’s a great doc. on predatory lending practices of banks and credit card companies. It’s brutal and you can learn a thing or two. Anyway, I was asked to present a film there and I said I would if I could present Maxed Out and they worked it out and we did it. I met people afterwards and we talked about it. Some really cool people were at the event. I was hanging out with Ian the night before in DC and at one point, he played me a CD he had of the last Fugazi practice. They had recorded it multi track and Ian mixed it. It was all instrumental basically the band just jamming on ideas. It was so great to hear the four of them play music I had never heard before, very cool. There’s no intent to release it but I hope something gets done with it some day, like a film soundtrack or something. Also Ian played me a cool band called Karp and a track from Tony Allen’s album Black Voices. It was great and I can’t wait to hear the rest of it. He’s always got something interesting to play. It was a great visit and I wish I was still there but I have a ton of stuff I have to do here. I hope you check out the Buck Gooter site and check out their new album Woman President.

I got a list countries that our show is listened to and it made me very happy. We’re world wide! Check it out: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and Turkey. SO, until next week Fanatics ... 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.

Generation X - Your Generation / Day By Day: These two songs comprise the first Generation X single on Chrysalis and was released on 09-01-77. I reckon it’s two A-sides and it’s one hell of a first single for a band, both songs can be found on the band’s first album. For Me, Generation X is warm weather music. I listen to the first Generation X album a lot in the spring and summer. It’s how I remember the band when I was growing up in DC I associate their music with the DC-sauna summer months. This was one of my favorite albums and I still listen to it a lot.

Smart Went Crazy - Funny As In Funny Ha-Ha: From the Con Art album on Dischord. I never heard this band the first time around. I remember one of the crew members on tour with me had one of their albums and really liked it but for some reason I never checked them out. Becoming a fan of The Beauty Pill and seeing that they had Smart members in it, I asked Ian about them and he gave me this Con Art album. It’s great. This is the only album of theirs that I have heard. I’ll check out the other one at some point. It’s been a great discovery, The Beauty Pill and Smart Went Crazy stuff, these are really brilliant records and I am angry at myself for not getting into these bands sooner.

Christer Bladin – Wildkatze: From The In-Kraut Vol. 2 CD. I didn’t know that the 2nd volume of this had come out until Engineer X mentioned it. I didn’t even know about the first one until X put it in front of my snout and instructed me to check it out. Both volumes are amazing compilations of mid sixties to mid seventies hipster music from Germany and both records are worth checking out. Thanks to Stefan Kassel and Frank Jastfelder for compiling these CDs as no doubt many of these songs may never have seen the light of day otherwise. I have not had the chance to play Vol. 2 more than once as I just got it but I’ll bring in more tracks from it as we work through the year.

Third World War - Factory Canteen News: From the band’s 2nd and last album, Third World War 2. If you have the Chiswick-era Skrewdriver, check it out and see if you don’t come to the conclusion that Ian Stuart didn’t get his thing from TWW vocalist Terry Stamp. This is the first time we have played something off the band’s 2nd album. It’s really good although I still am liking the first one more. This record was released in 1972! Talk about doing it before everyone else was. I think this had to have been a record a lot of the older Oi guys heard. Ian MacKaye and I were talking about this band the other day and he thinks this is the band that Sham 69’s Jimmy Pursey got a lot of ideas from. Both albums are in print and worth checking out. Here’s a good link: http://www.stardomroad.com/third_world_war.html

Dinosaur Jr. - Blah: I went to the Dinosaur Jr. site and found a page that lists all the tracks the band has contributed to tribute and soundtracks. It was great to see that there were a several Dinosaur tracks I had not heard. I went online and found all the records and they came in. Tonight’s track is from the Melrose Place: The Music CD. Thankfully, it was only a dollar. Dinosaur Jr. is coming to Los Angeles for a three night stand at the Troubadour so you should get your tickets and get ready to rock!

James Carr - There Goes My Usta Be: from the Complete James Carr Vol. 1 CD. In the Otis Redding tradition of singing the pain away, James Carr did some really beautiful sides. He was never able to fully realize his potential due to the fact that he was bi-polar, a condition that made it almost impossible to tour and record with consistency. We have played Carr’s music before, a song called You’ve Got My Mind Messed Up, which is very intense and provides a window into the very real pain Carr endured. He passed away at age 58 in 2001.

Captain Beefheart - Beatle Bones 'n' Smokin' Stones: Tonight we listen to the version found on the Strictly Personal album. It’s quite different than the one found on the Mirror Man Sessions album that we played months ago on Broadcast #10. I like them both and figured that we have to get them both in before the year was out and this was the time to throw it into the mix. For more information on the song and the recording sessions the versions came from, check out the notes from Broadcast #10 that aired 03-06-07.

The Fall - The Man Whose Head Expanded: For our weekly Fall track, I usually stay away from the more well-known ones, figuring you’re tired of those already, as if you could get tired of The Fall but tonight we go to a single the band released a few months before the Perverted By Language album in June 1983. The b-side is Ludd Gang and both tracks can be found on the Perverted CD as extra tracks. Perverted By Language is one of my favorite Fall albums and if you have not checked that one out yet, you should. Here’s an address for Fall info: http://www.visi.com/fall/

Buck Gooter - Woman President: From the Woman President CD. Thanks Ian! Ian sent me this very cool CD by the two man powerhouse known as Buck Gooter. BG is Terry Turtle and Billy Brat and they come from Harrisonburg VA, from that killer VA mountain scene. Like the sign says, they are a “two piece noiz-rock freak out” and you should go to their site immediately and check it out and get yourself one of these very cool CDs. I wrote the lads last week and told them I was going to play this track and they were stoked. This is how to find them: http://www.littlegrillcollective.com/bg/

The Damned - Sick Of Being Sick / Stretcher Case Baby: The Damned’s 05-05-77 Peel Session. Remember a couple of weeks ago we played the entire first Peel Session of The Damned broadcast 11-30-76? How awesome was that?! I figured that since this 2nd session is so short, we might as well play both tracks. I got a letter from Brian James of The Damned last week and since then we have exchanged a few brief letters. He will be sending me his new album and when it comes, I’ll bring it in so we can check it out. Stretcher Case Baby is from the band’s 2nd album Music For Pleasure, an album the band didn’t like and was hammered by the critics. I remember there was a small record store in the suburbs that had the MFP album. I would go in there and look at it but couldn’t bring myself to buy it because it was expensive on import and it was a good chunk of a day’s pay. It was the only store I could find it. I finally bought it and really liked it and that’s perhaps one of the reasons the album is special to me. I also learned an important lesson that it’s always better to get the record than to eat. Word!

Brian Eno - King's Lead Hat: The weather’s warming up and you know what that means! Well, I can’t think you have a fucking clue as to what I mean and the exclamation point at the end of the sentence only makes that assumption all the more obvious and in a way crass and uncalled for. I am sorry. When the weather warms up, it’s Eno time for me. His albums are a good listen any time anyway but there’s something about the warm weather that just tells me it’s time to start listening to his records with great frequency. Tonight’s Eno selection is from the amazing Before And After Science album, recently remastered and a treat for your ears. It could be that one of Eno’s greatest achievements will be that he was able to make U2 albums somewhat listenable. I didn’t think anyone could do that. Just shows you how incredible this man is.

Iggy Pop – Curiosity: I don’t know if: From the New Values album. I really like this one. I have said this I don’t know how many times, I really want him to do another one of these albums where he’s smart and funny and the music stands up to that intellect he has. I also want The Stooges to make that dangerous album I know they have inside them. They’re going to do a lot of shows this summer and I am going to see as many as I can. I have seen them play once this year and I have to figure out how to get to more of those shows. This album is interesting in a lot of ways. It was produced by James Williamson of the Raw Power-era Stooges and Scott Thurston who played keyboards in the last Stooges tours also plays on the album. This one’s back in print and all good all the way through. I just got that book on Iggy called Open Up Bleed which I have yet to open up and read. Hey, I’m funny!

Manu Chao – Clandestino: From the Clandestino album. Manu Chao came to our studio the other day with his very impressive band, The Radio Bemba Sound System, to tape for the IFC show and they played for a solid two hours and it was a sight to behold. What a man! What a band! Manu seems to be huge all over the world but not here yet. I heard him this song on a compilation album last year and it was the best song on the whole thing so I asked if we could get him on the show and somehow it worked out. His performance on the IFC show will be his first ever appearance on American television. This is real rebel music and Manu plays all over the world all the time, he’s awesome.

Cedell Davis Keep On Snatchin' It Back: From The Horror Of It All CD. The late great music writer gave me a copy of Cedell’s Feel Like Doin’ Something Wrong album in 1992, thus introducing me to Cedell’s work. Cedell sounds like was brought back in a time machine from the 1930’s or something. There’s no guitar that sounds like THAT. One of the things that makes Cedell’s playing all his own is that he uses a knife handle on the neck which does a number on the strings. Cedell was struck with polio at 9 and was left partially paralyzed, which also has been a factor. He’s released a few records and I like them all. He’s the real thing and you should check him out if you have not already.

Jimi Hendrix - If 6 Was 9: From the Axis: Bold As Love album. Most of the time I listen to Jimi Hendrix, it’s the later period stuff, mainly 1970, the last year of his life. Not that the early stuff wasn’t good too, it’s just that I played the early stuff a lot growing up and kinda burned out on it a little. I am not trying to say that this was a sophomore slump album but it is in a way the young Hendrix trying a lot of bells and whistles on his 2nd outing. It reminds me of what The Clash did with the Give’em Enough Rope album, their 2nd. Axis is still a killing record but I don’t play it as often as I do the two records that came before and after it. To make things interesting, tonight we are listening the mono version that was re-issued on LP only a few years ago. This is a CDR copy lovingly made by the young lads in Mother Superior. Sounds good!

Clara Rockmore - Nocturne in C# Minor: From the Clara Rockmore's Lost Theremin Album CD. After seeing her in the Theremin - An Electronic Odyssey documentary and finding out from Mike Patton that she had made recordings on her own, I went after them. We have listened to her before on Broadcast #47 last year doing a piece called The Swan from her The Art Of The Theremin CD. I went searching for more and found this CD and now you too can share in the joy of listening again to Clara Rockmore, a top shelf musician.

Sightings - 45 On The Back: From the Sightings album. Thanks to the mercy that Engineer X has shown me over the years since we started this Sonic Jihad of ours on the FM years ago, I have learned a lot about music that I don’t know when or if I would have ever had the chance to hear otherwise. I love this band. To me, this is what it’s all about. It’s music made for all the right reasons, no reason at all, whatever. It’s just there destroying ear drums and blowing minds. I have three of their records, this one, Arrived In Gold and Absolutes. Arrived was the one that Engineer X loaned me, or gave it to me as a homework assignment really and I heard it once and that was it, I was in. I think with music like this, you make up your mind very quickly as to what you think. I don’t know if this kind of thing ever grows on you.

Art Tatum - Caravan: From the California Melodies CD. I don’t know how legit this album is but I always try to get anything with Art Tatum’s name on it. He was a monster piano player. I don’t know if he’s a Jazz or Classical pianist as there seems to be both in his playing. The stuff of his I like the best is his solo recordings although I really like the stuff he did with Slam Stewart on bass (you remember him from Slim Gaillard) and Tiny Grimes on guitar, Grimes, that guy played with everybody. You might want to check out the 20th Century Piano Genius 2CD set. It’s private recordings he did at two parties, you can hear his rings clicking on the keys. Sometimes when I listen to him, I think he’s got an extra hand or something. Really great stuff. I can’t remember how I got to this guy. It was a long time ago, perhaps it was reading about him and Fat Waller palling around at one point.

Tinariwen - Tamatant Tilay: Another track from the Aman Iman (Water Is Life) CD. This was worth the wait. I want to see the DVD about the band but I can’t find a copy. We have been listening to this band for quite awhile now. Toureg jams! Look them up and check them out if you liked what you heard. All three albums are tremendous if you like what you just heard. As soon as I heard them, I was hooked.

Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK: Are we really playing this?! This has to be a first for this song on our show. I don’t have the band’s classic Never Mind The Bollocks album but I do have the Flogging A Dead Horse CD that has all my favorite Sex Pistols songs, which were the b-sides. This was an A-side and what a great one, what an amazing song. One of the greatest vocal deliveries of all time. I used to play the Bollocks all the time when I got it but sold it later when I heard Steve Jones and Johnny Rotten slam Black Flag independently of each other. I asked Jones about it and he doesn’t remember and says he used to talk shit about people he didn’t know all the time for laughs, when he puts it that way, it is funny. Mr. Rotten is a different story, a man I admire still but, well, I am glad we didn’t meet up with him in those days because you would still be reading about that one to this day. In any case, what a band, what a song.

Gladys Knight And The Pips - One More Lonely Night: Gladys Knight is one of the moms I never met. I was raised on her voice. I used to listen to a lot of music on the radio back in when the FM was so great. Her singles were played all the time. It was only later that I heard her older stuff like what we heard tonight. I had only heard her 70’s stuff before this. I was in the Doo Wop section of Tower Records in NYC once and saw this collection Letter Full of Tears and had to check it out and now it’s my most played Gladys stuff.

The Planet The – Tennis: From the You Absorb My Vision CD. Engineer X turned me onto the label this band is on, 5 Rue Christine. I checked them out online and got the record because I liked what I heard. I played it twice in one night when I first got it. I never just play a few tracks from this one, I always put it on and let it do its thing. I have no idea what you call this music and that’s a good thing. I am looking forward to checking out their first record, Physical Angel which I have never heard. I ordered it recently and hopefully it shows up soon.