BROADCAST #31
AIR DATE: 07-31-07

So Fanatics, here’s how it went down tonight. As always, I hope you liked the show. In about five hours, I have to get up and go to the airport. I am going to NYC for a couple of meetings and then coming right back here. It will be a sleepless but hopefully productive 48 hours. Basically, I am going there looking for work, so what else is new? I will have a night off in NYC, that I am looking forward to. What a city. I got some great CDs this week, Mingus and Dolphy, one of those killer 1964 shows I have never heard, some Karp albums, Vile Cherubs, Andrew Hill and some other great stuff, I’ll bring it all on. I could go on and on here about those Grinderman shows I saw in San Francisco but I will use some restraint. Damn, they were great. The song we heard tonight of theirs, was even better live, hell, it was all way better live. Seeing Nick Cave onstage with a Stratocaster is something I will never forget. Anyway, please tune in next week if you can, it’s going to be a great show. It’s so good to be back on the air, I really missed it. Until next week, you know the drill—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 Ruts - Dope For Guns: From The Crack album. Fanatics, I am in London UK as I write this and our show is tomorrow. We played this song at band practice on the first day but it didn’t make the cut, I don’t think Paul Fox was interested in playing it but before he came to practice, we played this one a couple times with a different guitar player. It was a fun one to do. I am getting more and more antsy about this show. I want to get out there and do it!

Sons Of Slum - What Goes Around (Must Come Around): From the Stax/Volt Singles ‘72-’75 box set. The Stax boxes are a lot of work. There is so much music to get through on them, you wonder how the hell they did all this. Not all of it is amazing but it’s all pretty cool and it’s through the box set that I picked up on the Sons Of Slum. I can’t find anything on them on the internet so far. I like the track though. There’s a ton of bands on Stax I have never heard of. Some real gems on this set. Like I said, it’s not Al Green but it’s all good enough.

Team Doyobi – Hottroche: From the Push Chairs for Grown Ups CD. I heard one track of theirs about 6 weeks ago on a compilation, you remember the track, Magic Johnson, right? Ok, I thought they were interesting to I checked out two of their albums, this one and one called Create Your Own Adventure. I think their music may be an acquired taste but I’ve acquired the taste so it sounds good to me. The Team is from the UK and make their particular brand of Electronic brain scrambling jams with primitive computer gear. There’s no information on their albums and not much on Gore’s Information Highway, which is kind of cool I think.

The Fall - It’s The New Thing: From the Early Singles CD. Isn’t this a great song? It’s the A-side of The Fall’s 2nd single, Various Times was the b-side and it was released on Step Forward in November of 1978. This song is featured on many Fall compilations so it’s no problem to get a hold of if you don’t have it. I like the early Fall material, MES is so frisky and senility hadn’t set in yet, that was at least two years off, so enjoy this track when MES was only 51 at 20-something! Here’s a good place to find some Fall info: http://www.visi.com/fall/

The Velvet Underground - I Heard Call My Name: From the White Light/White Heat album. Like a lot of people, this is my favorite VU album. This was the 2nd VU album, and the last one with John Cale. From what I’ve read, the combination of Cale and Lou Reed was not able to last too long. I don’t know the particulars of why Cale left but I think on may be able to draw conclusions from what both artists did after their time in the Velvets. Lou went for some really great Rock and Roll and Cale went way more into the Avant end of things as well as producing artists like Nico and The Stooges. I think this album captures Cale and Reed at maximum creative tension. It’s certainly one of the best and most original albums I have ever heard. I think at this point, we have played every song on this album except for Sister Ray and believe me, we’ll be getting to that one. The first two VU albums had a profound effect on the way I think about music. They are both amazing and ahead of their time.

The Dils - You're Not Blank: We played this song in 2004 from the What? Stuff CD comp. The Dils were Chip and Tony Kinman. I remember it was Ian who had this single first. I found a copy as soon as I heard Ian’s. The Dils started out in Carlsbad CA but moved up to San Francisco. I always thought they were from SF. They released three singles and that was it. I think more of their stuff was released after they broke up than when they were around. The Kinman brothers next formed Rank And File and then after that they formed a band called Blackbird. I heard some Rank And File many years ago but never checked out Blackbird. I once met one of the Dils many drummers, a Canadian fellow named Zippy Pinhead. I was shooting a TV show in Vancouver once and we were coming out of location and he came up and introduced himself. He lived next door to where we were shooting. I really like The Dils’ first two singles, this single that has I Hate The Rich on the flipside and their single on Dangerhouse that had the two songs Class War and Mr. Big. I don’t know too much about the band past I like the songs. They were over with by the time I arrived in California. Between the two Dangerhouse CD comps. you can find the two songs from their single on the label.

Grinderman - Honey Bee (Let's Fly To Mars): From the first, the only and the self-titled album by Grinderman. I don’t know about you Fanatics, but the more I play this one, the more I love it. It was not really a grower album for me. I heard it, I liked it but after the 3rd pass or so, I started to realize that what sounded at first like a cool rock band with brains rumbling and churning away was actually a sonic cornucopia of guitar greatness and brilliant dynamic shifts. There’s a lot to like about Grinderman. I like the overall of course but what’s working for me the most on this album is what’s happening with the guitars and violins. The sonic storm of this song is great but even greater that it share an album with a song like Grinderman and Electric Alice. Before we go any further, we should take a moment to talk about who Grinderman is. You have Nick Cave, Warren Ellis of The Bad Seeds and The Dirty Three, Martyn Casey from The Triffids and The Bad Seeds and all around what-cool-band-has-he-not-been-in Jim Sclavunos who is also a Bad Seed at the moment too. At present, it is 07-10-07 and I am writing these notes while sitting on an airplane en route to London Heathrow Airport. If I survive the next couple of weeks, I should be able to impart some worthwhile Grinderman reportage as I am planning to see them play twice at the end of this month. Until then, I will leave this annotation alone.

PJ Harvey - This Is Love: From the Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea album. I didn’t really get into this album the first time around. It wasn’t rough enough for me. I like it when PJ Harvey is a little more raw so this album, good as it was, was slightly singer songwriter for me. I gave myself a break from it so I could evolve a little and return to it. There are some artists, who, when I don’t dig their new recording immediately, I know the problem is with me. I know that she’s not going to make an album for the wrong reasons and I know she’s not going to make one that isn’t good so, I needed to grow a little. I came back to it recently and am liking it a lot more. This album was released in October in 2000. I really like her work because I always believe her.

Charlie Harper – Freaked: From The Best Of Charlie Harper & The Urban Dogs CD. This single was released on Ramkup on 08-01-81. I saw it for the first time in the summer of 1984. I was living on the floor of our British agent Paul when he was in Maida Vale. Black Flag had come to the end their European dates and Greg and I were staying longer to do some press and I saw this single in Paul’s collection. I guess this would be the 2nd solo single Charlie did after the one with Barmy London Army / Talk Is Cheap. August 1981, let’s think of where Charlie’s other band The UK Subs were at that point. They would be about a year into the new line-up featuring Alvin Gibbs on bass and Steve Roberts on drums. I guess it would be post Diminished Responsibility and pre Endangered Species, so perhaps Charlie had some time on his hands. It’s been a long time since I’ve played this one. Still sounds pretty cool. It’s 07-15-07 as I write this in my hot London hotel room. I will see Charlie tomorrow at the Islington Academy. Stoked!

Rapider Than Horsepower - I Can't Survive Without My Beatbox: From the This Is My Big Night CD. I guess I happened onto these guys by looking for information on Mae Shi. Both bands are featured on a split CD. I checked out their music online and they sounded insane so I had to check out a record of theirs so this was the one I picked out. I am still getting my head around it their sound. They are another one of those bands that again shows that music is just fine, thank you. It’s so great to know that there will always be good music no matter what you hear on mainstream radio and all those silly awards shows.

Alan Vega - Freedom's Smashed: From the new Station CD. Tell it, Vega! I am glad that it ever occurs to Alan Vega to stop doing his thing. When I hear this song, it makes me think of the last rebel in a post apocalyptic America broadcasting from a pirate radio station somewhere in the downtown quadrant. Vega seems to work outside of time and convention. Even though he collaborates with others like the Pan Sonic guys from time to time, his own stuff comes from Vega world and it’s easy to tell he’s not thinking radio play, crossover—he’s not having any of it, he only knows to stay true to himself.

Sunn 0))) - Sin Nanna: From the Black One album. I think I either wrote about or raved about seeing this band in July of this year at the El Ray Theater and how amazing the band was. Well, they were. It was more than music. The show was one of the greatest live spectacles I have ever witnessed. Mind ripping walls of sound that shuddered and shook. I heard wars past, present and future. I was taken to the depths of my core and brought back into the light and thrown back into psychic darkness again and again as these architects of truth morphed and melted the sound, its density and dynamic, with dangerous ease. It was 75 minutes of mind altering genius. I staggered out of the venue back to my car unable to think. I went back to my hovel, my mind an ancient ruin. I’ll never be the same. The albums are crushing, live the band is a completely different thing in its all encompassing, deafening euphoria. Atheists, your gods have arrived. They are Sunn 0))).

Thin Lizzy - Romeo And The Lonely Girl: From the band’s classic Jailbreak album. I think that when we listen to Lizzy, it’s always something from this album. It’s not like this is the only album of theirs that’s any good, they’re great in their own way but I was listening to this song earlier and I thought that it was right for tonight. I spend a long time putting these shows together and sometimes, for whatever reason, a song tells me it needs to be in the set and in it goes. Thin Lizzy is one of my favorite bands but sometimes hard to listen to when I think of Phil Lynott, the band’s bass player and frontman that he passed away over 20 years ago. I saw him on the street in London a couple of years before he died. We gave each other the nod, it was pretty cool. I have met Phil’s mother a few times over the years and she’s always so nice to me. Remember a few years ago on our show, we listened to a live version of this song that featured a completely different tempo?

Parliament – Breakdown: From the band’s early on Osmium album. I came up with the idea for a little bit of a concept set here, the next few songs have “break” or “breakdown” in the title. I know, it’s not much of a concept but when I listened to all the songs one after another, they sounded really good together so that was good enough for me. This is Parliament’s first album, released in 1970. This album is raw as hell and sounds nothing like what Parliament was sounding like years later. I am always astounded at the sheer output of George Clinton and his various groups. I guess it was a lot of inspiration and stimulation to get all of it happening. This is the era of the band I have heard the least of. I went backwards into this stuff as it became available on CD many years ago. The vinyl I never had back in the day. There’s a lot of R&B flavor on this album, the Funk was strong but the full-on thing was yet to come.

Eddie Cochran - Nervous Breakdown: From a cheap CD best-of I found many years ago on tour. I first heard Eddie Cochran when Ian bought a 2LP best-of thing many years ago. We listened to that one a lot. I eventually found a copy of the record but lost it somewhere. Ian perhaps got it after hearing Sid Vicious sing Somethin’ Else and My Way and got curious. I don’t know but I really liked the other songs on the album like Twenty Flight Rock and Cut Across Shorty, actually, all of it was pretty damn cool. Eddie Cochran is another one of those stories that ended all too soon. He was only 21 when he died in a car accident in England in 1960. What a drag. He probably had quit the career ahead of him. Early Rock and Roll suffered a lot of blows with men like Cochran and Holly checking out so early on.

Boozoo Chavis - Boozoo's Breakdown: From the Live! At The Habibi Temple, Lake Charles LA album. It’s been a long times we listened to Boozoo on our show and I don’t think we have ever played anything from this album so let’s do it! I have every Boozoo album I have been able to track down ever since I was given one of his albums as a gift many years ago. I loved his music immediately because it’s the real thing. It’s music for the sake of music. I was lucky enough to see him play once in the 90’s when I was in NYC. He and the band ripped it up and almost everybody was dancing. I guess we could put ol’ Boozoo in the Zydeco file if we have to throw the genre net around him but to me it’s just good music. Zydeco is a kind of music I don’t know much about and Boozoo’s records make up almost all of it that I have. I betcha the best way to get into this music is to see it live. The one show I saw was so great. I never went to the New Orleans Jazz Festival and I guess that’s the place I could have taken the crash course. Here’s some info on Boozoo: http://www.bluesworld.com/BooZoo.html

Romania - Breaking Communication: From the Remodel CD on Teenbeat. I have never been too sure as to how serious this band was. Romania, who were James Noble on vocals, guitar and bass plus Jonathan Cook on keyboards, always seemed to me to be two very intelligent young men who had more than a passing interest in 80’s Brit Pop music and decided to do craft their music with a slight wink and in doing so, achieved a really cool pop album that that revels in its foppish self awareness. Besides the fact that the songs are very well written and performed, there is an insistent humor happening throughout the album that is my favorite aspect of what they did. The CD is available right now from the good folks at Teenbeat: http://www.teenbeatrecords.com/

The Damned - Smash It Up (Peel Session): From the Sessions Of The Damned CD. This is taken from the 10-22-79 session. This version is cool because the band goes into Smash It Up Part 3 at the end. The Machine Gun Etiquette album came out in November of the same year. I don’t think bass player Algy Ward was in the band long after this session and it might be the last thing he did with the band. I think the new bass player Paul Gray was recruited in early 1980.

The Minutemen - The Anchor: From the What Makes A Man Start Fires? album. Such a great one. I remember the first night I saw the band play this one. I forget what club it was though. Black Flag toured with The Minutemen right after they made this album and by the time we got back, they had these songs so well worked in, the liver versions killed the studio versions but the album is still great.

Tirta Sari Ensemble Of Peliatan Village - Kapi Raja: From the Gamelan Gong Kebyar CD. About ten years ago, I bought a collection of gamelan music from Java because I was curious to see what the guys on the cover of the CD were doing. I played the record and became hooked on this music. I don’t know much about it, all I know is I have never heard anything like this in my life and it’s amazing. I really wish I could see a live performance of this music. There are a lot of recordings of gamelan music from Java. A lot from Bali as well. I prefer the Javanese, it’s stranger and more ambient than the more percussive Balinese version.

Larry & The Blue Notes - Night Of The Phantom: Back From The Grave Part 1 CD comp. A 1960’s Texas based garage rock group. The original title of this song was “Night Of The Sadist” and the band actually laid down the vocal using the word “sadist” but the record company didn’t dig it so they went back in and overdubbed the word “phantom”. Cool song but I don’t know anything else about the band.

Richard Berry & Etta James - Hey Henry (Tk. 6): Modern '54-'56: Yama Yama! In 1954 Etta James did a single with vocalist and songwriter Richard Berry called Roll With Me Henry, which was an answer to the Midnighters’ hit Work With Me Annie. The single was released in early 1955. They followed up with another single that summer and that was Hey Henry. This very cool collection gives you an alternate take of this song as well as a lot of other Berry favorites as well as a nice handful of unreleased tracks. This came out a couple of years ago on Ace out of the UK. Now THAT’S a label! Excellent stuff they release.