BROADCAST #30
AIR DATE: 07-24-07

OK Fanatics! My eyes are aching from exhaustion and I have a few hours before I have to fly. I lost this file a few hours ago and thanks to the internet and Heidi, I now have the notes for our show tonight. Luckily she was at the office, found this on my computer and sent it to me out here in Beirut Lebanon. Thank you Heidi. Anyway, I have been here in Beirut for four days now and it’s been a good experience. I talked to a lot of people, interviewed a couple of people about life here and learned a lot. I still didn’t get to see all that I wanted so I have to come back another time at least. Tonight’s show is a great one, I think you’re going to like it. Hopefully some of you go to the site before the show so you can drag these notes off and check them as the show goes, that’s one of the advantages of the pre-taping. I hope you all liked that Tony Allen track, so great. I have a lot of stories to tell you about where I have been, I’ll be back on live next week so I will catch you all up. I will be at both San Francisco shows of Grinderman later in the week. Can’t wait!!! I will also be at Comicon on Thursday morning and most of the day Saturday. I will have to collapse one of these days. Anyway, next stop, San Diego via London. I hope you liked the show tonight Fanatics! Thanks for listening and get ready for next week, I have a great show all ready to go. Until we go live next week, STAY FANATIC!!! --Henry

PS: John Stabb from DC band GI was attacked and got his face rearranged the other day. He’s going to live but needs some financial help. If you feel like checking out the story and contributing, here’s the info: http://members.aol.com/johnstabbbenefit/. I sent in some bucks earlier today. He’s a really good guy and didn’t deserve to get attacked by five guys for just walking home from work.

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.

The Ramones Carbona Not Glue (03-31-77 CBGB’s): I got this on CDR from Casey Chaos from Amen. He hit me the other day with a stack of killer stuff and this show was in the stack. I don’t know if I have ever heard a live version of this song. You know, in September, the DVD of that Ramones show from 12-31-77 will be released by Rhino. That’s going to be a great one.

Tony Allen – Asiko: My favorite track from the Black Voices album. I have played this amazing album a few times now and it gets better and better. Tony Allen is the drummer in the project known as The Good, The Bad & The Queen along with Damon Albarn, Simon Tong and some guy named Paul Simonon. He also played with Fela and released some amazing records on his own. If you like Fela, Allen has some records that have the same feel and Fela’s on some of them. I think this is our 2nd visit to this album so far. It’s good all the way through so we’ll give it a rest for a little while and come back to it later in the year.

DEVO - S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain): From the Duty Now For The Future album. I know, we have been into this album a lot lately but what the hell? I play this album a lot in the hot weather and that’s perhaps why I am subjecting you to it so much right now. I was talking to a Fanatic at the Ramones thing the other night at Hollywood Forever and we got on the topic of this album and he agreed that Duty Now is perhaps the most DEVO of all their albums. If you don’t have this album and are looking to get it, look around for the version on Infinite Zero as it has the b-sides that the one on the Collectables label doesn’t.

Generation X - King Rocker: Back in the day, this song was the one that everyone had heard from Generation X’s 2nd album, Valley Of The Dolls. This was released as a single of course and the b-side is a cover of John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth. I don’t mind the Lennon version but the Generation X version, I can’t stand and never play, otherwise I would have played both sides of this single. I have never heard it but I have been told there is a BBC version of King Rocker that they cannot find. I have never seen this on any trading lists and I don’t know anyone who has a copy. If anyone out there can source this one, please, let the rest of us have at it. It very well could be that it doesn’t exist as I bet someone would have found it by now. I don’t have much in the way of press clippings and reviews of the Valley album so I don’t know what people in the UK thought of it when it came out. I didn’t really check it out much until I started hearing it a lot when I would hang out with Mike Hampton after band practice. I heard it a few times at his place and got a copy. People I know who like the band don’t usually mention any of their records past the first album and this single. I think there’s great stuff on the first three albums and all the corresponding singles.

The Raymond Scott Quintet - Egyptian Barn Dance: From the Microphone Music 2CD set. I think we can thank Irwin Chusid for the fact that there is so much music of Raymond Scott out there now. Many of you Fanatics no doubt remember only a few years ago when there was only one comprehensive CD of Scott’s amazing output called Reckless Nights & Turkish Twilights—Irwin put that together and I think in doing so, made sure that Scott’s work wouldn’t be forgotten. Irwin stayed on the case and now, there’s quite a few collections of Raymond Scott’s work and there is not a one I have found to be sub par. Irwin is really cool for making sure we didn’t lose sight of one of the true geniuses of the last century. I know Mark Mothersbaugh was a great help to the Scott Estate as well. We have talked about the man before, he is truly a legend and a visionary master. Tonight’s track is the first one I listened to from this album. I knew it was going to be great.

Eno & The Winkies - The Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch: Another song from the Peel Session 03-05-74 that I downloaded off the internet. The more often heard version of this song can be heard on the Here Come The Warm Jets album. I don’t know if there are any more Peel recordings made by Eno and I think I have played three of the four songs I have been able to find so far. It’s tempting to play Eno every week, there’s so many great songs.

MC5 - The Human Being Lawnmower: Another track from the Back In The U.S.A. album. The production really bugs me but the songs are so cool, I can get around the thin guitars and smallness of sound that only cheats this monster band out of what they could truly deliver. At some point, I really want to ask Brother Wayne Kramer about this album and the one they made after this one, High Time. I don’t know if anyone has sat down with him and really gone through the recording process of these two albums. I would be all ears for that.

Dinosaur Jr. - In A Jar: From the You’re Living All Over Me album released in 1987. Such a great record and a great song as well. I just felt like playing it. This album was recently remastered and it sounds much better than its digital predecessors. For me, vinyl is still the best way to check out this band.

The Fall - Pat-Trip Dispenser: I got this track from the 458489 B Sides 2CD set that has all The Fall’s great b-sides during their very prolific Beggars Banquet period. This song was released in 1984. Of all the music of The Fall, this is the period I listen to the least. There’s not a thing wrong with these records but they don’t seem to have the edge of the ones that came on either side of them. I don’t know what that’s about or if my take on this period is off the mark. I think it was a time of commercial success on The Fall’s terms and having Brix in the band perhaps pushed the band in a slightly more pop direction. I could be totally wrong on all this. In any case, this 2CD collection of The Fall is a real must-have. It’s in print and easy to locate. Here’s an address to get a whole lot of Fall info: http://www.visi.com/fall/

Roky Erickson & The Aliens – Sputnik: From The Evil One album. We listen to a lot of Roky on our show. For a long time, the Roky catalog was out of print but thankfully, it’s more or less back out there and if you have not checked out the man and his music, you owe yourself the trip. This is a good album to start with. More information on the man and his history and output can be found here: http://www.rokyerickson.net/

The Buzzcocks - No Reply: From Another Music In A Different Kitchen, the band’s debut album. There’s not a thing wrong with this one. Ian gave me this album for my 18th birthday I think it was. I like all the band’s albums they did on United Artists but this is my favorite. It is to me, a perfect album and one of the strongest and most promising debut albums I have ever heard. The use of guitars on AMIADK are amazing, there’s nothing in excess, it is a smart, lean and excellent mix of great songwriting, performance and production choices. There are a lot of Buzzcocks Fanatics who for some reason have never gone back this far with the band to check out this record and I think they’re missing out. I have not heard a lot of the albums they did after they broke up and reformed and the ones I have are ok but nothing on the level of this one.

The Sound – Missiles: From the Jeopardy album. I was looking up some band and The Sound was talked about as a strong Post Punk band. So, I got this record and I have played it only once so far and I like it pretty much and this is my favorite song from it. The band was fronted by Adrian Borland who made several solo albums after The Sound broke up but eventually killed himself in 1999. I have read some stuff on the band and the same thing keeps coming up: how come this band wasn’t much bigger? Just because I had not heard of them before doesn’t really mean much but it is interesting that after all this time, this is the first time I was aware of the band at all. I don’t think they ever toured in America, perhaps the albums never broke through. Apparently they did pretty well in Europe. You can find out a lot more about the band and the man here: http://www.brittleheaven.com/

Tralala - Blow-Off: From the Is That The Tralala album. Been some time since we checked in with this band. I was playing this album the other day and I thought that this song would sit in nicely with all the other stuff we have cooking here. I went to their site to see if there’s anything happening and it looks like it hasn’t been updated for quite some time. I don’t know them so I don’t know what their deal is, if they have broken up or what. I like this album and the self-titled first one as well. I think they could do more with their sound and get more out of themselves and that’s why I was hoping to see there was a new record in the offing. Four gals up front handling the singing and three guys in back handling everything else, that’s the band. They played here last year but I couldn’t go to the show for some reason. I don’t know how the show went. If you liked this song, you will most likely dig the rest of the album. http://www.tralalatheband.com/

http://www.tralalatheband.com/I had never heard more than two songs sung by Johnny Dollar, it was the song Action Packed and I thought it was really cool so I got this best-of called Mr. Action Packed to see if there were more good songs. There’s all kinds of cool songs on this thing. Apparently the recordings sat for decades and were recently discovered and released. I love stories like that. If you like the Rockabilly meets Rock thing, this is a great record.

David Bowie - TVC 15: From the Station To Station album, recorded right down the street from the Indie 103 Rok Mosk at a place called Cherokee Studios on Fairfax, right above Melrose. Nothing rare or eclectic about this song, it’s just really damn good. So is the album and to take it further, so are all the Bowie albums up to and including Scary Monsters. Past that one, there are good songs on many of the albums but for me at least none of them really knock me out like the older ones. I think my favorite post Monsters track is the version of Putting Out Fire he did for the Cat People soundtrack. The version he put on the Let’s Dance album does not rock me nearly as much. I saw Bowie live a couple of times and he was completely amazing.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Slowly Goes The Night: From the Tender Prey album. I love this one. It’s one of my favorite Bad Seeds album and this is one of my favorite songs from it. This album has The Mercy Seat, Deanna and Up Jumped The Devil, all of these are monster tracks. There’s no Bad Seeds album I don’t like but I play some more often than others. This is one of my more frequently visited ones. This one’s about twenty years old, I saw the band on this tour at least twice.

Danzig - Power Of Darkness: From the Danzig 5: Blackacidevil album. I don’t know how many of you Fanatics dig on the Danzig stuff. I have some of the albums, not all of them but I bet that the fact that this is my favorite one puts me in a very small group of like minded people. I thought this album took a lot of guts to put out. Some Danzig Fanatics HATED this one! These are very intense people. I think it’s just Glenn Danzig doing what he wants and not caring what anyone thinks. I admire that. I don’t know his motivation for changing his sound so radically, perhaps he was hearing different sounds in his head and wanted to work them out. I don’t know but in any case, this is an interesting version of the man. I saw Danzig twice, once in the 80’s and once in the 90’s and thought it was great both times. The last time I saw him, we were on the same bill at a festival. Two stages, both facing the same way, with bands alternating. We played, then down yonder, Danzig played. I ran down to see them. They rocked. About one song from the end of their set, the other stage started up—Sinead O’Connor. I walked to a point between the two stages and the mix of the two bands sounded insane. I told this story to Sinead a few week ago. She listened, her face did not change expression after I had finished, she said, “Ok,” and went back to whatever she was doing, I think it was sitting. Ok.

Kraftwerk – Nummern: From the Computerwelt album, which is basically the Computer World album but sung in German. As many of you Fanatics know, Kraftwerk has done quite a few albums in English and German. Personally, I prefer the German versions. I like the mixes better and think the songs sound really cool when they do them in their native language. This album was a very commercial sounding one compared to some of their other albums and for a lot of people, this was their first Kraftwerk record. Kraftwerk is one of those bands that started a lot of other bands and for that reason alone, they are worth checking out but besides that, their records are brilliant, I can listen to them over and over.

The Buttocks – BGS/GSG: From the Law And Order 1978-83 CD. This was one of those singles Skip had a pile of at Yesterday & Today Records so we all eventually got one. Really cool rippin’ Punk Rock with a crazy motherfucker fronting it, sounded good to me. I wish they would put out The Razors stuff on CD, they were another great German Punk Rock band from back then. There are three other songs that were on the 7” along with this one, we have to get to them all, they’re buts. I can’t believe I have not played you all Bonanza yet, that’s a great one!

Young Marble Giants - The Man Amplifier: From the Colossal Youth album. Yes, I know, very good, very influential, very . . . . You know my story, I only checked this band out fairly recently. I saw this record everywhere but no one I knew ever had a copy and I never heard any of their music until I got the album awhile ago out of curiosity and reading so many testimonials about the band. I have the single disco version of the album but I am hoping to find the new 3CD version that has all the singles and Peel tracks as well. The album is great and I can’t wait to hear the rest. I play catch up with a lot of music, I know. There was a stretch in the 1980’s when I had a lot of music interest but no money so it kept me out of the record stores. When you listen to this album, you hear what sounds like a blueprint for Indie music, great stuff. I am listening to this album all the time now.

Team Doyobi - Summit Melody: These guys again! The eight-bit lo-tech guys, Chris Gladwin and Alex Peverett are on the show again with a track from their album Choose Your Own Adventure. I can’t get much information on the band and only have two albums of theirs and have only had the chance to hear them one time through. I’ll know more soon.

Chuck Higgins - Aw-Aw Baby: From the Pachuko Hop CD. I think we have played a song of Mr. Higgins before called Broke. Higgins was a hard rocking sax player who didn’t seem to stray far from the honking, squealing R&B/Rock thing. It’s good stuff, his voice is strong and the tunes are simple but strong and live I bet this stuff really rocked. This isn’t anything you haven’t heard before but it’s really good at what it do!

Pere Ubu - Life Of Riley: From the Worlds In Collision album. This one always interested me in that it was somewhat, I don’t want to say commercial but that might be just the word. It’s not a bad thing, it’s still Pere Ubu but there’s a gloss to it that is not on earlier recordings. Perhaps it was what David Thomas was hearing at the time. I think their next album, My Life Story was on Imago, that was when I was on that label so for a short time, I was label mates with Pere Ubu! Thems were the days. This track was taken from the newly remastered and expanded version of the album. This is a great sounding LP if you can find a copy. Many years ago, I was in Auckland and went to Real Groovy Records and someone had just sold off a bunch of their Ubu vinyl and even though I had most of it, I got it again as the vinyl was in such good shape. I also found a good quality copy of a Sugar Cane Harris album and some great Joy Division bootlegs. I lucked out that day.