BROADCAST #37
AIR DATE: 09-11-07

Here’s the notes Fanatics! I hope you enjoyed the show tonight. Next week is our great Hendrix show, I hope you get a chance to check it out. I will be back with you live on November 13th. Until then, please enjoy all the pre taped shows Engineer X and I worked hard all summer putting together. There’s some really cool ones coming up that I think you will like. After the notes for tonight’s show, I put in the most recent news letter that has all the upcoming tour dates. See you on the road. 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.

Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect Device: From the No Thanks! The '70s Punk box set on Rhino. I know it’s lame that I don’t at least have the Inflammable Material album and had to pull this track off a comp. I know. I used to see them when they would come through DC. The first time they were really cool and the 2nd time, they acted like they were doing the audience a really big favor by playing for us and the whole show turned into a bummer. I can’t believe I just used that word. Anyway, after that show I sold all my SLF records and never looked back. I really like this song though. Actually, this band had a whole bunch of great songs. I ran into the bass player a little while ago and he was very cool to me. Perhaps some day I’ll check their records out again. Did you notice that I used the word “bummer”?

Slayer – Warzone: From God Hates Us All. I play this album often. I think it’s my favorite album of theirs.

Public Enemy – Fight The Power: I bet you’ve heard this one before but what the hell, it’s a tough day for the great America and this is the perfect way to start it off. 9-11 is an occasion to pause and reflect, no doubt but not to take your eye off the ball. Since the attacks, our civil rights have been disintegrating in front of us and the US Government has used this occasion over and over to justify everything from illegal wiretapping to an illegal war. If we don’t fight them here, there will be no America left and that’s why we must acknowledge the enemy within and deal with it.

Thin Lizzy – We Will Be Strong: From the Chinatown album, a track we have played before but I thought that it was a good one for tonight, considering what the anniversary is. A lot of people know Thin Lizzy for a few songs but the truth is that they have a lot of great songs. One of the things about being a Lizzy Fanatic that is hard to deal with is of course, the passing of Phil Lynott, the bands bass player and leader. It was a long time ago but all the same, it still hits hard. There’s been many articles written about the man and the band that you can find online and you will see, there’s a lot of sadness to be found. Phil went out pretty hard. I never met the man, we gave each other the nod once in passing many years ago in London.

UK Subs - Warhead (single version): A single from the band’s 2nd album, Brand New Age. It was great to see The UK Subs play in London a few weeks ago. They did this song at soundcheck. Many of the UK Subs singles were released in limited edition runs of colored vinyl. This single, released in February 0f 1980 was pressed up in a strange shade of brown. After that, it was released in black. What’s interesting to me at least is that it’s usually harder to find the black vinyl copies of the Subs singles. This one included. All the pressings of this single I know of are the brown vinyl, the black, an A-label promo in black, a pressing out of France, one out of Germany that has an alternate sleeve with a great live shot of the band and I know of an acetate that exists in private collection that I have actually seen. The band re-recorded this song for the album so the version you are hearing is an alt. version from the album. I usually go with the single version of a song if it’s different to the album version of the song as it’s often closer to what the band was thinking as far as what the song was supposed to be. Sometimes when a band makes an album, the circumstances of the overall dictates the way a song is recorded so I pay close attention to a version of a song that didn’t have to be recorded along with a dozen others. The single version is a little faster and I like the vocal a little better. The album version is great as well of course. If you go to the Subs site, you will see that the Garratt / Harper / Davies / Slack line-up will be playing shows together for the first time in 26 years. That would be worth checking out. I don’t know how many they will do.

Jah Lion - Soldier And Police War: From the 3CD Lee Scratch Perry Arkology set. There’s a lot of Perry stuff out there and there have been many of these multi-CD packages that try rein in some of the seemingly inexhaustible number of songs that Perry was involved with at some level. I have picked up a few of these over the years, and am always amazed at how much great stuff there is to be found on them. I was thinking of playing Junior Murvin’s Police & Thieves but went for this track because Jah Lion riffs off the same lyric and I thought that perhaps some of you had not heard this track before, the Murvin song, although great, you have no doubt bumped into more than once, at least via the great version found on the first Clash album. One online bio of Jah Lion says that he recorded under different names over the years and realized his best success with Perry with an album called Columbia Colly released in 1976, that tonight’s track is on. I have just tracked that album down and will check it out and bring in some tracks for our show. I have read on multiple sites stating that Jah Lion, also know as Jah Lloyd, was killed in 1999 but I can’t find any information the actual incident. If anyone knows something, let me know if you can.

Crisis - Back In The USSR: From the Holocaust Hymns album. I am glad they put this out. Before this CD comp. was released, the only release you could find of this band was a 2CD set called We Are All Jews And Germans and it’s really hard to find. I bought the band’s singles when they came into Yesterday & Today Records many years ago. In those days, it was almost impossible to get any information about bands so I would get singles because the band looked cool or the titles of the songs looked interesting but much of the time, I didn’t know much or anything about the band. Such was the case with Crisis. All I knew was that I liked the band, they were very serious and heavy. I remember getting their Hymns Of Faith album when it came out and really liking it as well. My favorite song of theirs is Frustration, which I think I will find a way to play again this year. We’ve played it a couple of times before but perhaps once more won’t hurt. Lyrically, Crisis was never far from war and politics, pretty grim stuff but very good. I am glad their music is out again. http://apoprecords.com/crisis/

Lightnin' Hopkins - Please Settle In Vietnam: From the Po' Lightnin' album on Arhoolie. This album utilizes outtakes and grabs songs from different sessions across the massive Arhoolie catalog. On the Arhoolie site, the writer makes a good observation when he notes that sometimes the people playing with Lightnin’ don’t always lock in with him and the results can be somewhat compromised. Lightnin’ recorded so much that I guess he couldn’t always get the people he wanted to record with him. I have a lot of his records, he’s always good but sometimes the way he’s recorded isn’t always as good as he is. The Arhoolie stuff all pretty great though. I like his take on Vietnam. It’s so simple and on target. He rarely missed, he was a great player.

Alan Vega - WARRIOR! FIGHT FOR YA LIFE!!!!: Another track from Vega’s new album Station. One of the great things about being able to bring in music to Indie to play on the air is that I get to keep the voice of Vega heard year after year. I know that I am not the only one playing the man but I am glad to be one of them. Vega is a true artist and he’s been making music and art for decades and he shows no signs of slowing down. In case you didn’t know, Alan Vega is the vocal half of the band Suicide, one of those bands who died for your sins.

The Ruts - Secret Soldiers: From the Grin And Bear It album. This album was released after the band’s vocalist Malcolm Owen died in July of 1980 and is comprised of radio sessions, singles and live cuts. It gives you an idea as to what the band’s 2nd album, the follow-up to The Crack would have perhaps sounded like. This track was recorded for John Peel’s radio show on the BBC 02-11-80. Had they not done this radio session, who knows if this song would have been recorded at all. Thankfully, the band also recorded another new song in this session, a great one called Demolition Dancing which we will be getting for sure.

The Clash - Straight To Hell: From the Combat Rock album. This is one of the Clash albums I got years after it came out. When it was released I was really broke and not getting many albums. I heard the singles on the radio a lot but had never heard the rest of the album until years later. This was one of the standout tracks on the album to me. I never really understood this album. They had released a double album and then a triple album and then this one. For awhile I thought that the label had a word with them and told them to get serious and make a single album, make it simple and crack it wide open in America. I have no idea what the story was behind Combat Rock but it was less adventurous and ambitious than the previous Sandinista! album but in a lot of ways, a much stronger statement. Sandinista! is cool but it’s all over the place and seems at times like they threw in everything they could think of to somehow cover six sides of vinyl with music like that was the mission more than they had so much music it had to come out. I think Strummer really gets something happening on Straight To Hell vocally. I was playing it tonight as I was listening down to all these songs and this was the song that made me just have to stop and listen.

Sort Sol – Conflict: From the Under En Sort Sol album. This is the first album the band made after they changed their name from The Sods and changed their direction into a more complex and pop mode. This album has a lot of the older sound of their previous incarnation. I have sometimes wondered if the band were going to carry on as The Sods when they made this album and the idea to change the name came almost as an afterthought determined by how the album turned out. By the way, Sort Sol is from Denmark. Denmark isn’t nowhere, not every single band plays there but they’re up on all things in the music world. That being said, they do enjoy some separation from the continent of Europe and all the noise and population and the band’s music reflects it somehow. I don’t know exactly how but there’s something really different about Sort Sol that I have always found very interesting and I think their geographic location has to be a part of that. One of the downsides of the band’s catalog is that none of it is pressed in America and you have to hunt for their music on the information highway. I try and play this band fairly often because I want them to have some kind of presence on the radio, as old as some of these songs are. They are mysterious in a way, that’s another thing I like about them.

Bad Brains - The Man Won't Annoy Ya: From the life’s path altering Black Dots album. Joel, Fanatic From Ohio and recent guest on our show, like thousands of others, has a birthday today. I am sure for the last few years, has made things interesting when wanting to celebrate. In any case, he wrote me and asked if we could play this song tonight and I figured it was the least we could do for the guy. Many years before the Black Dots album was released, the session, taped at Inner Ear Studios in August of 1979, was passed around DC on cassette. A lot of the copies were generated from a copy vocalist HR gave me that year. I remember listening to the songs over and over, wondering how the hell a band could be so good. We went to see them every chance we could and thankfully, saw them quite a bit around the time of these sessions. I feel very fortunate to be where I was when I was and wouldn’t trade the time/place I enjoyed for hardly anything. Thankfully, the record is now easy to find and should be heard at least once through by any Fanatic who likes this show. I will always wonder what would have happened had the band released this tape as an album in 1979. No use in rear-view commenting, we have the music to dig now and that’s the important part. Be aware though of the time the work was recorded and try and think of anything out there that came close. Right. That’s why I wonder what would have happened if the world had an all black band kick an almost all white genre of music in the ass so hard it wouldn’t have known what hit it. Happy Birthday, Joel!

The Dils - Class War: From the Dangerhouse Volume One CD. Didn’t we play The Dils recently, I think we did. No problem. The band was basically Chip and Tony Kinman and they didn’t have this band for long before they broke up and went onto other projects like Rand And File and Blackbird which were nothing like The Dils. It’s the first two Dils singles that really interest me. The first single, I Hate The Rich / You’re Not Blank on What? Records and the 198 Seconds Of The Dils single that had Class War and Mr. Big. Their 3rd single Made In Canada didn’t do it for me as much.

Early Man - War Eagle: From the Closing In album. I like this band. I like how they sound and I like their story. I have written about them before, Mike Conte on guitars, vocals and Adam Bennati on drums from Columbus OH, kicked out of their Pentacostalist homes for the music they loved so they stuck to the music and here they are now. I’m in. Can’t wait for the next album.

Hawkwind – Warriors: From the Warrior On The Edge Of Time album, released in 1975. Not the easiest Hawkwind album to find and not all that cheap when you do, worth the price I think. If I have my facts straight, this is the last album featuring Lemmy and the last album of theirs I checked out more than once. All of their stuff before Lemmy, during Lemmy and up to Lemmy’s departure is all great. That would be about 1970 to 1975. Two of my favorite albums of theirs are In Search Of Space and Space Ritual. It was Dez Cadena who turned me onto this band.

Joe Lally - Pick A War: From 2006’s There To Here album on Dischord. Ian MacKaye produced this album and produced Joe’s new album which is all done and will hopefully be out in November of this year. I don’t have a title on that one yet but when I get it, so shall you. In case you didn’t know, Joe was the bass player in the band Fugazi who got around a little. As far as releasing albums post Fugazi, it’s Ian and Joe who have been most prolific with Ian releasing two albums with his band The Evens and Joe coming out with his second one very soon. Guy Picciotto has been busy producing bands and drummer Brendan Canty has been working on soundtracks. Industrious lads all of them. For information on all things Dischord, this is the address: http://www.dischord.com/

Killing Joke – Wardance: From the first and self-titled Killing Joke album, released in summer 1980. I have not heard all of their albums. I have a few of them and this so far is my favorite one. The album was remastered and a few extra tracks were added in 2005 so that version is probably easy to get a hold of. This was one of the heaviest of the Post Punk bands. The band’s vocalist, Jaz Coleman is one intense man. We played a show with them many years ago in England and Jaz was out of his mind onstage, it was great. Killing Joke is one of the bands that proved that the initial Punk Rock explosion lead to something. I have said this many times, it’s the Post Punk stuff from the UK that is some of the best music of the late 70’s early 80’s. Killing Joke wouldn’t have happened in 1977 I don’t think. The band were too smart, too edgy and heavy to have come from the initial Punk explosion, the band’s music is too evolved coming from an intellectual point of view. Also one thing that has always fascinated me about this first album is that you hear the beginnings of, I don’t know what you want to call it, “80’s Rock” in their music, the use of synths and the treatments on the drums and vocals is all there and it is precursor to what was to be so pervasive in England in just several months after the album was released. These guys were definitely ahead of their time and there’s no way this album wasn’t and influence on a lot of 80’s bands. This album is a textbook for a lot of other bands, I don’t even have to name them, you listen to this album and it will make sense to you. This album has some amazing guitar work on it, for that alone it’s a must hear.

The Lurkers - Total War: From the Fulham Fallout album released in 1978. Great debut album by one of my favorite bands of all time, produced by Mick Glossop who also produced The Crack for The Ruts. There is a primitive magnificence about The Lurkers. The stripped down drumming of Manic Esso smashes the songs home. His lack of swing is one of the trademarks of the band’s sound, he just clubs his way through the song, it’s great. Their vocalist, Howard Wall, epitomized the disenfranchised sideliner, the sound of his voice captures the feeling perfectly. I once read a review that called them, “the poor man’s Ramones” and I can see why someone would say that but I think they stand on their own. Both of their albums, this one and God’s Lonely Men are excellent. The band released a lot of singles around both albums and they’re great as well. Both albums have been released on CD by Captain Oi and are loaded with single tracks and demos. There is also a BBC sessions CD and a CD of their singles, all good stuff. After touring on the 2nd album, things were not working as well as the band wanted and they broke up. They reformed in different line-ups and carried on but none of the line-ups had Howard Wall so I tuned out after trying to like them with the new singer but couldn’t do it.

The Fall – War: From the Behind The Counter CD single. This was one of two CD singles that fell a week apart. This one was released on 12-13-93 and had Behind The Counter / War & Cab Driver. On 12-20-93 a CD single with M5 / Happy Holiday & Behind The Counter (Remix) was released. A few months later, the Middle Class Revolt album was released and had some of the songs from these singles in slightly different versions. Don’t believe me? Go here: http://www.visi.com/fall/

Discharge – Realities Of War: From the Discharge Singles CD. Truer words could not have been written. Whatever it takes to get back on track. Discharge is one of the greatest protest bands of all time. It’s interesting to see how many people are into these guys. I saw the band play about 25 years ago and they were great. I am still listening to their records, especially the early singles.

Iggy & The Stooges - Search And Destroy: I don’t know if we have played many tracks from the Raw Power album, where tonight’s track was taken from. It’s perhaps that tracks from this album get played so often on radio shows that I tend to work around it. Doesn’t mean it’s not a great album, it’s amazing. For those who are fans of the first two Stooges albums, this one is different. For this album, the band’s 3rd, there was a line up change, the bass player Dave Alexander was fired and the band’s guitar player Ron Asheton moved to bass and James Williamson joined the band in the guitar slot. The addition of Williamson changed the band’s sound totally. The band went from the spare and somewhat spaced out sound to a incredibly aggressive, blazing monster. There’s not a second on this album that doesn’t kill. I think I am preaching to the perverted here, I am sure you Fanatics know this album inside and out.

Bob Dylan - Masters Of War: From The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album released in 1963. This was Dylan’s 2nd album. Not bad for a youngster, you think?! I can’t print the lyrics here but they are found on the internet and you can see how damn on target Dylan is and how the song is so right now.

THIS IS THE NEWSLETTER THAT WAS SENT OUT TODAY:
Hello! This is a short newsletter to tell you about my tour that starts in a few days. I have a bunch of speaking dates lined up for North America starting Friday, September 14th and ending November 10th. The dates are listed at the bottom of this letter. The name of the tour is “Provoked”. Why did I use that word to name the tour? For the sake of ad mats and all, these tours have to be called something so I thought of what my state of mind is at this time and “Provoked” fits very well. I do a lot of interviews and fairly often, the interviewers tell me that I am “provocative” in what I say. I don’t agree at all. We are in a war in Iraq that has at best, questionable origins, we watch elected officials lie under oath, (I could go on and on) and I’m provocative? Little old me? I think not. I am, however, quite provoked. To be succinct, they have gotten my attention.
There is a new tour manager. His name is Ward. Good guy. Our new merch guy is named Angel and hopefully he will be able to answer merch questions you may have. Tim is back behind the wheel of the bus so all should go smoothly and safely show to show. I get a lot of letters asking if there will be an opportunity to meet me after the show. I am flattered that anyone is interested. The answer is yes, of course. Post show, I go to the bus and hang out in front of it and meet anyone who is there, sign stuff, do photos, talk, whatever else.
I have gotten letters expressing frustration that I am not going to be in their particular town as I have on previous tours. Again, thanks for thinking of me. Tours are not always easy to put together and sometimes places get left out only because there was no way to route that particular place into the schedule or there was not any availability. I will do my best to get to all those places this tour will miss later on in 2008. I have a feeling this tour may extend itself all the way until the end of next year.
Note to you Europeans, Australians and other happening places outside of North America: I will be getting out there in early 2008. European dates are booked and will be posted soon and we’re working on Australia and other places.
I have a new book back from the printer. It’s Vol. 2 of Fanatic!. It is comprised of all the broadcast notes from my radio show Harmony In My Head (Harmonyinmyhead.com) on Indie 103.1 FM in Los Angeles. Some of you are familiar with the show and may have checked out the previous volume of the book. Fanatic! Vol. 2 just came back from the printer and will be on the bus with us, making its debut on this tour. It won’t be available from the site until after Thanksgiving.
What else to tell you? I have some good stories for this tour and am looking forward to hitting the road. I thank you for all the kind and enthusiastic letters you sent about the upcoming dates.
Speaking of dates, here’s all the shows, I hope I have not made any mistakes with dates or locations. I hope to see you out there. Thanks for reading this. --Henry

SEPTEMBER 2007
14. Flagstaff AZ - Orpheum Theater
15. Tempe AZ – Marquee Theater
16. Albq. NM – Sunshine Theater
18. Dallas TX - Lakewood Theatre
19. Austin TX - La Zona Rosa
20. Houston TX – The Meridian
21. New Orleans LA - HOB
23. Orlando FL – HOB
24. Tampa, FL Tampa Bay – Performing Arts Center
25. West Palm Beach, FL Carefree – The Theatre
26. West Palm Beach, FL Carefree – The Theatre
27. Atlanta GA – The Roxy Theater
28. Charlotte NC – Amos’ Southend
29. Richmond VA – The Canal Club
30. Norfolk VA – Norva Theater
OCTOBER 2007
01. Alexandria VA (DC area) – Birchmere Theater
02. Alexandria VA (DC area) – Birchmere Theater
04. Sayreville NJ – Starland Theater
05. Albany NY – Hart Theater
06. Glenside PA – Keswick Theater
07. Boston, MA Berklee Performance Cent.
09. Buffalo NY – Town Ballroom
10. Cincinnati OH – Taft Theater
11. Cleveland OH – HOB
12. Toronto Ontario, Canada – Convocation Hall (University of Toronto)
13. Ann Arbor MI – Michigan Theater
15. Minneapolis MN – First Ave.
16. Milwaukee WI - Eagles Ballroom
17. Madison WI - Barrymore Theatre
19. Chicago IL – Vic Theater
20. St. Louis MO – The Pageant
21. Lawrence KS - Liberty Theatre
23. Denver CO – Paramount Theater
24. Salt Lake City UT – The Depot
26. Bellingham WA – The Nightlight
27. Spokane WA – The Big Easy
28. Calgary, Alberta Canada – Jack Singer Concert Hall
29. Edmonton, Alberta Canada – Francis Winspear Centre
30. Vancouver, BC Canada – Centre For Performing Arts
31. Seattle WA – Moore Theater
November 2007
01. Portland OR - Aladdin Theatre
02. Reno NV – Stoney’s
03. Chico CA – El Ray Theater
04. Sacramento CA - The Crest Theatre
05. Santa Cruz CA – Rio Theater
06. San Francisco CA – Herbst Theater
08. San Diego CA – 4th & B
09. Las Vegas NV - HOB