BROADCAST #51
AIR DATE: 12-18-07

Hello again Fanatics! Not sure whether I would be off the set in time to make this broadcast, Engineer X and I went in last Saturday and pre-taped this one to make sure the music would get played, which of course, is always the most important part of our show. So tonight, you get the two of us doing our best to be live and that will have to work. Now, onto what you really came for. Tonight is the last of our all covers broadcasts for this year. You remember, we have done one every three months. I don’t know if I can keep this series up into 2008. I will do my best to keep scouring for interesting covers and perhaps will be able to put something together later. I think you’re going to like tonight’s show. I went far and wide for this one. I think the Nick Cave / Gallon Dunk cut is nice, Dax’s contribution is a monster, hell, they’re all neat-o. I hope you enjoy the show and I wish we could be live on this night and I hope this humble effort to rock your world will be suitable. Please tune in if at all possible for next week’s Christmas-based broadcast that will be somewhat like our Halloween broadcast, some naughty, some nice, you know how we do it. Until next week, STAY FANATIC!!! --Henry

E-Mail for Henry: Henryontheradio@AOL.com

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.

Dax Riggs - Wall Of Death: I can’t stop playing this We Sing Of Only Blood Or Love album. The first time I heard this song was many years ago when I was living in Silverlake. I had a roommate who played her records loud and often. She had, for the most part, great taste in music. The Joan Armatrading marathons could get intense but what are you going to do. One of the albums she played fairly often was a Richard Thompson album called Shoot Out The Lights. It’s a good one and Richard Thompson is one amazing guitar player. This was one of the songs on the album and it really stood out to me as the lyric was really arresting and also my roommate sang it as she paced around the awful house we rented. My roommate eventually shot herself in the head. I am sure this album had nothing to do with it. Maybe it was my tie? Hello!

Meat Puppets - Tumblin' Tumbleweeds: From the first The Meat Puppets album, it’s self-titled. The original was written by Bob Nolan in the 30’s. That’s about all I know about the song. What’s more interesting to me is how many cover songs the Meat Puppets had at the ready, or at least ready enough. I saw the band many times and almost every night they would change their set, sometimes radically. I heard everything from Black Flag covers to Michael Jackson. I think it was in 1984, we were touring with them and they had all these cassettes of themselves playing tons of covers. On that tour they were covering another Nolan song, Cool Water. In 1985, I saw them and the Minutemen play together in San Diego. They covered Little Wing and it was one of the greatest live concert moments I have ever seen.

Y Pants - Off The Hook: From the Y Pants 4 track EP also found on their CD album. The Y Pants do justice to this Rolling Stones song found on their album Rolling Stones: Now! which is not my favorite era of the Stones. It’s when Jagger was wearing nice sweaters. The Pants made an interesting choice here.

Deborah Harry & Iggy Pop - Well Did You Evah!: From the Red Hot + Blue Cole Porter CD. Releases like this one are very useful to me. They come in perfect for broadcasts such as the one we’re rockin’ to tonight. It’s so cool to hear Debbie and Iggy improving on stuff and having fun. If you look around, I think they’re in old issues of Punk Magazine, there are some really cool pictures of these two from back in the day. Sinatra was all over the Porter catalog and why not. If you can sing your ass off, Cole Porter songs are there for you to really show people what you’ve got. I played a live version of Sinatra doing In The Still Of The Night last year, remember? Look him up, chances are you have heard a great deal of his work performed. Stuff like I Get A Kick Out Of You, timeless stuff.

Rondelles - Like A Prayer: From the Shined Nickels And Loose Change CD which is a collection of the band’s singles, comp. tracks and six songs previously unreleased. I found out about this band way after the fact, no surprises there but once I heard them, I checked out all their records and really like them. I hate the term “girl rock” or whatever name gets put on females of any age who make music. It’s always a bit of a burn in my opinion and besides that, not all the members were gals but still, if there is more than two women in a band, it’s “girl band” or something. Lame. Anyway, this is a really cool comp. of tracks that would tricky and time consuming to get in all the various forms and we like unreleased songs coming to light on this show. This is a very cool and catchy cover of one of Madonna’s bigger songs, I think you know it by now.

J. Mascis & The Fog - Cyborg Kids: From the I Love Guitar Wolf... Very Much album, which is a tribute to the Japanese three piece assault unit. I bought this album because of the Mascis cut. I am not a big fan of the Guitar Wolf. They’re cool and the music is well meant and all but to me it’s very rudimentary music recorded at high levels of volume onto tape so it distorts. When you really listen to the tunes, it’s nothing you have not heard before. The presentation is great though. So far for me, the best thing about GW is that J. Mascis & The Fog covered one of their songs.

The Ramones - Surf City: From the Acid Eaters album. I know we don’t play much later period Ramones stuff. There’s some great stuff on some of those later albums but it’s those early ones that are the nearest to my heart. This is The Ramones covering the great Jan And Dean song from 1963. It’s not the most original thought but I don’t think he got enough credit—Joey could sing his ass off. He was really good and no one, I mean, no one sounded like him anywhere. A little info on the song: it sounds like a Beach Boys song because basically, it is a Brian Wilson composition. Dean Torrrence contributed to the song although his contribution is not often mentioned. Great tune and great when The Ramones do it!

Cramps - I Can't Hardly Stand It: This Feathers/Chastain/Huffman composition is easily found on the Bad Music For Bad People CD on IRS records. I will always be sorry that this band signed to IRS. Such a cool band, such an uncool label. I don’t think The Cramps have anything good to say about their time with IRS, quite the opposite is true. The band’s catalog was better cared for in the UK, the singles were better looking and overall, the band was paid more respect. Here, they were on the same label that brought you such crap as The American Girls and other stuff that crowded the remainder bins. At least all the stuff is in print and thankfully, there’s a lot of great bootlegs of the band out there. One of the greatest live bands of all time, especially with Bryan Gregory on guitar. The Kidd Congo line-up wins as well but that earlier line up was one of the more visually arresting sights.

Sex Pistols - Somethin' Else: From the Flogging A Dead Horse comp. CD. I remember when we first heard Sid Vicious tackle this Eddie Cochran cover and thought how damn cool it sounded. Sid was a very good singer it seems to me. I never heard him do much solo wise besides this song and My Way, which he rips up as well. I remember when Sid died, it was all very sad. Someone I know still has Sid’s room key from the Chelsea Hotel.

Charles De Goal - A Question Of Degree: From the Etat Général CD. I first heard this guy on the So Young But So Cold CD and went from there. This is the only record of his that I have and it’s ok but not blowing my mind or anything. It’s interesting that Mssr. De Goal chose this 1979 Wire A-side to cover. It’s a great song, of course but curious nonetheless.

The Fall - I'm a Mummy: From the 1997 Levitate album. I have never heard the original by Bob McFadden & Dor released in 1959. Dor is actually Rod McKuen, which may bring a great deal of excitement to some people. It’s interesting where MES draws his inspiration from. I didn’t just pull this information out of my Karl Rove! I got it here: http://www.visi.com/fall/

PJ Harvey - Ballad Of The Soldier's Wife: from the September Songs: The Music Of Kurt Weill. Records like this are perfect for our show. Amazing artists covering the work of amazing artists, we’ll take it. Weill had a very turbulent and eventful early life, having to leave Germany with the rise of Nazism. He eventually ended up in America and worked vigorously until his death in 1950. For quite awhile, there were so many of these tribute albums coming out, that’s how flush with money the major label industry was, now not so much. Some of these records were pretty good. I ended up getting a lot of them as many times, they had a band or two on them that I had to have the song of. They have come in very handy for our covers broadcasts. As well, we’ll take Ms. Harvey singing just about anything on this show.

Gun Club - The Fire of Love: Gun Club’s version of the great Jody Reynolds song can be found on the band’s 2nd album, Miami. This one originally came out on the Animal label, headed up by Chris Stein of Blondie. Miami is one of the more interesting 2nd albums I have ever heard and warrants repeated listening. It’s one of those albums I came back to after spending a lot of time with the band’s later albums that I became so captivated with. I think The Gun Club was one of those bands that got better as they went albeit, after a great start with their first album, incidentally called The Fire Of Love, it was their Mother Juno and Pastoral Hide And Seek albums all the way to Lucky Jim, held some of their best work. So, it was a great trip to go backwards through the catalog to Miami and The Las Vegas Story. As far as this song, I don’t believe I have ever heard the original but I have also heard the MC5 do the song as well.

The Sods - Ghost Rider: I think I have played pretty much every track from the Minutes To Go album but this one so we might as well. We have listened to The Sods and what they called themselves next when they took the music in a slightly more pop direction, Sort Sol. You know who masterminded the original version of this song, that’s right Fanatics, Suicide. The first Suicide album got a full airing on this show last year and for good reason. It’s one of the best debut albums by any band ever. As well, this Sods album, hard to find as it is should be checked out all the way through. Frequent listeners to our show are at this point, very familiar with this music. There are a few albums I would love to do a limited run of.

Doctor Mix And The Remix - No Fun (single B side remix): From the Wall Of Noise CD. Eric Debris, post Metal Urbain, did electronic covers of songs. We have played this band before. This is the version of No Fun that we have not played yet on our show. The other version is the one I used to put on my mix tapes so this other version is great to throw in tonight. This is a great CD and worth it alone for the version of Sister Ray. Originally, this single was released on the great Rough Trade label out of the UK. I always thought that was one of the best indie labels of all time. If you look at their massive catalog, you will see so many bands you love in their roster. It was very brave for this label to release the Metal Urbain stuff as well as the Doc Mix stuff. French Electro-Punk on a UK label?! Nice. I first heard this in 1979 I think and it’s not lost anything over the years. If anything, it’s more impressive with time, the sound of the guitars and the grating rhythm box is brilliant.

Jimi Hendrix - I'm A Man: From The Jimi Hendrix Story box set. You probably know this song as Mannish Boy. Did Bo Diddley write it? Muddy? Either, both, I’m sure it’s all going to work out in the end. This box set could have been so good if the host wouldn’t talk over the music. This box set is from back in the day when there was not a great deal of care of taken of the great Hendrix catalog and it seemed that almost anyone could make a Hendrix record. What is most frustrating about this set is that there’s so much cool stuff on here, if the guy would shut his mouth, then we would be in Hendrix Heaven. The estate should do something.

Nick Cave & Gallon Drunk - The Big Hurt: A few weeks ago when I was on tour, I was searching the internet for Nick Cave tracks that may have been avoiding me by taking cover in film soundtracks and tribute albums. My search paid off in the form of this Scott Walker cover performed by Nick Cave and Gallon Drunk that’s found on the Mojo film soundtrack CD. That’s one of the great things about soundtracks, you find stuff like this. The song was written by Wayne Shanklin and was a hit for his wife, Toni Fisher in 1959. Scott Walker put it on his first solo album years later, that’s the version that perhaps had more relevance to Mr. Cave, who is at least a fan of Scott Walker’s work. I had difficulty finding this one as it’s about ten years old. That would be about Boatman’s Call era for Mr. Cave. I remember in 1997, Nick and I were at the BBC and we were talking about this album and he said he didn’t know what to do next as he had finally made the album he always wanted to make. Let’s see, a handful of amazing albums later, I think he’s hanging in there rather well. Next year we have a Bad Seeds album to look forward to and hopefully another Grinderman album.

Rowland S. Howard - White Wedding: Making a perfect tie in, Nick’s old bandmate, Rowland S. shows up with a track from his Teenage Snuff Film album. I love this record and his cover of this Billy Idol song is appropriate and a very Rowland thing to do. The song is about heroin and Mr. Howard has at least checked out that particular substance at least once. We have played tracks Rowland has participated in many times on our show. He’s one of my favorite guitar players of all time. If you think of all the albums he’s one, it’s pretty damn impressive, his output. Between his formidable contribution to some band called The Birthday Party to all the work with Crime And The City Solution and These Immortal Souls plus the work with Nikki Sudden and other stuff, he has put in a monster body of work.

St. Vitus - Thirsty And Miserable: From Born Too Late. After the great vocalist Scotty Reager left Vitus, he was replaced by one of the great Scot, DC area monster muthafucka Scott “Wino” Weinrich. Wino you might know from this show and also by the fact that he’s on a ton of great albums with his different outfits like The Obsessed, Hidden Hand and Spirit Caravan and also that he gets the big respect wherever he goes. He plays a mean guitar, can write consistently great songs, decade after decade and has some of the best lyrics ever. He’s the whole deal as they say. He did a stretch out in LA with the mighty Vitus. It was interesting to see him with them. I saw them play at least twice, perhaps more. It was a long times ago. This song, as you probably already know was penned by Dez Cadena and was performed originally by Black Flag, a band from the beaches near Los Angeles International Airport, not far from Vitus actually, that’s pretty cool.

The Jesus & Mary Chain - Reverberation (Doubt): From Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye, a tribute to Roky Erickson and The Thirteenth Elevators. We have utilized this CD before on our covers broadcasts and since we like Roky and The J&MC, this is a perfect track for our show tonight. It’s been a rough ride for Roky but thanks to his brother Sumner and others, Roky has come back to the world of music and is once again onstage. It’s great to get mail from people who tell me they just came back from seeing Roky play. That’s the way it should be. There’s a lot of early J&MC stuff we have not gotten to yet that we need to get to, a lot of it is on vinyl and I have to swap it onto CD. If only Indie 103.1 would get a turntable, we could make this show even better.

The Melvins – Poison: From the Singles 1-12 CD set. Not easy to find, this one. I am sure many of you Fanatics will remember hearing a version of this song on Wayne Kramer’s solo album, The Hard Stuff with The Melvins as his backing band. Only appropriate that they would do a version for themselves. This song can be found on the MC5’s 3rd album, High Time. It’s my personal favorite of their three official albums with the first one, Kick Out The Jams, coming in at a close 2nd.

Instant Automatons – And Then He Hit Me: Remember a few weeks ago when we listened to the Automatons do People Laugh At Me. Tonight’s track is available for free by going to the Automatons site. They have put up about 4 CDs worth of material up there for you to download for free. I pulled tonight’s track from a batch of songs they have grouped together as collection called Blues Masters Of The Humber Delta. In this version of the Crystals classic, the poor bastard gets taken down to the station by the local authorities and hit. Let’s just hope it’s just a song. For all that free music, here’s the address: http://www.instant-automatons.com/ia.asp

James White - Let's Get Lost: From the Medium Cool – A Chet Baker Tribute album. James gave me this when I was living in NYC many years ago. I don’t have much Chet Baker but I like some of it. Most of what I know about him was from the Let’s Get Lost documentary. I think it’s cool that there were more than one person basically saying he was a motherfucker. I always thought he was a good singer. James White, also known as James Chance is back in the record stores. Many years ago, I put out a good number of his records on the Infinite Zero label. They eventually went out of print when the label folded but thankfully other labels have stepped in and put this very amazing catalog back in print. I was thinking about James and the Gun Club earlier today as I have released records by both and it occurred to me that these records are like wards of the state in a way, they are always looking for a home and they find shelter for some years in one place and then they move to another place and so on. It’s not like anyone makes a ton of money from these records, you put them out because you believe in them and want them to be accessible to people who are interested in checking them out. I am glad both catalogs are getting looked after.

Matador – Stop! In The Name Of Love: The German all female band Matador take on the classic Diana Ross & The Supremes track. Matador had Gudrun Gut from Malaria in the band. I met Matador in 1987 I think, when we played in Berlin. I was told that that the band had a member of Malaria in it and I asked them and that’s how I met Gudrun. I was a Malaria fan from earlier in the 80’s. Matador is extremely German and very Berlin Wall-era Berlin. When the wall came down, it was a good thing, of course but Berlin changed. It lost something that I can’t really put my finger on. I guess it became just another city in Germany. I am glad I got to go there so many times when the wall was up. When I listen to Matador, Malaria, Die Haut and Neubauten, it reminds me of those days. I wish Matador’s first album, A Touch Beyond Canned Love was back in print. It has never been released on CD. I should put that one onto CDR and bring in some of the tracks. They don’t sound anything like this track, I think you Fanatics might dig the music.

Glenn Danzig – Hand Of Doom: From the Blackacidevil album. I know this one was not met with the most open arms by Danzig fans. I quite liked it for a few reasons. I think it was different for GD, it was obviously something he wanted to do and it shows that the man does what he wants, knowing full well that it could be met with some resistance. In this thrilling episode, Mr. D takes on the Sabbath song from the Paranoid album and does it proud.