BROADCAST #52
AIR DATE: 12-25-07

Fanatics! It’s been a great year, has it not? I think we got some great music over the wall and hopefully you will all be around for 2008 as Engineer X and I take our show to even greater heights. I have been gathering lots of music from all corners and next year is going to be great. There will be some pre-tapes as I will be out and about all over the place and I am sorry about that but it’s the nature of my business. As we did this year, Engineer X and I plan no repeat shows and the pre-tapes are going to be interesting, challenging and worth your while. I will be back at the end of this year and we will be back promptly on Tuesday night 01-01-08. I am sorry I didn’t get to finish all the notes, I have been on this film set quite a bit. I think it’s almost done and hopefully you get some use out of it. Do everything responsibly this holiday season and 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.

Trouble Funk - All Aboard Ya'll: From the P.A. Classics Vol. 1 CD. All aboard! This is later period TF. It’s not my favorite era of the band. For awhile, the band was releasing some blink-and-you-miss-them CD like this series, of which there are three, I believe. At least, that’s all I have been able to find so far. I get them more to build the library and to document DC music as best I can. I just went looking around and I can’t find this one for a reasonable price and unless you really need to hear every single note this band ever played, I don’t suggest you drop any major bucks on it. The best Trouble Funk stuff I think is the 2CD set you can get from my website. One of the greatest bands I have ever heard and why they didn’t take over the world with this beat, I will never understand.

AIDS Wolf - We Multiply / The Lovvers LP

Billy Idol - Here Comes Santa Claus: From the Happy Holidays CD. One of the CDs I have been waiting all year to play. Like a landmine it sat waiting for tonight. I have no idea what the impetus for this album was. Perhaps Billy Idol was overcome with goodwill towards mankind and he really wanted to let it show? I have no idea. It’s a Christmas album and so many people have made them it’s not funny. I went through a lot of them looking for tracks that would work for this show and so many of the albums play it so straight. The Sinatra one is good because he sings so damn well but it’s really serious with choirs and all. This one is so unlikely and that it’s so straight ahead, makes it verge on the perverted. I bet you there are some serious Christmas song collectors out there who could provide us with some of the most deranged Christmas music there is but I am not that Fanatic. I am not much a fan of that holiday so the only Christmas records I have are the few I got either because I am so curious, like in the case of this one and another one we’re going to listen to later on in the show that is too cool to pass up.

Patton Oswalt - My Christmas Memory: From the very excellent Feelin' Kinda Patton album. We have played this cut before but it’s too perfect not to throw into the mix and besides, it’s clean for radio and for a modern comedy album, that’s pretty rare. I saw Patton at the Troubadour earlier this year and all I can say is that I am glad I was sitting down because if I were standing, I would have keeled over from laughing. I was weak by the time he was done. If you want to go all the way with Patton on this particular album, there’s the unedited 2CD version called 222, which is all two hours and 22 minutes of the show that Feelin’ was edited down from. I have them both so I am always prepared. You can find it at Chunklet and there’s no postage if you order before the year is out! Patton is one of the funniest people alive. http://www.chunklet.com/

John Cale - Child's Christmas In Wales / Paris 1919
Rev. A. W. Nix - Begin A New Life On Christmas Day Pt. 1: Complete Rec. Works

Tralala - Everybody Christmastime: From the Falala-La-La... With Tralala CD. I don’t think we have played this band for awhile, perhaps since last Christmas. I hope they are still together. I just went to their site and it looks like they have stopped playing. That’s too bad. They were cool. Girls up front singing and boys in the back grinding out the music. I never saw them live but I like the records. If you liked this song, then you will most likely dig what they do. There seems to be a lot of copies available on the Amazons.

The Melvins – Black Santa: From The Bootlicker CD, the 2nd in the trilogy with The Maggot and The Crybaby on either side. The way to check this batch ‘o tunes out in my opinion is to whack all three into one file and let it rip on your stereo without having to get up or change CDs. One of the most amazing things about The Melvins to me is the fact that Buzzo and Co. seem to be able to morph themselves into so many shapes, it’s hard to recognize them sometimes. I know some of their albums slightly loose their fans at times and I am in no way a Melvins expert but there’s none of their albums that I have heard that weren’t worth the ride. I remember I got this album when it came out and it didn’t grab me the first couple of listens but it was more a matter of my ears getting used to it. I came back to this album recently and it really got me. Definitely worth checking out, it’s heavy as hell.

Mark Mothersbaugh - I Don't Have A Christmas Tree (Soylent Night): From the Joyeux Mutato CD. Another one of the records I have been waiting all year to play. I forget when I got this one but I was aiming at this broadcast.

Bootsy Collins - Merry Christmas Baby: From the Christmas Is 4 Ever CD. This is the CD I was talking about earlier on in the notes. This is the perfect person to make a Christmas album! I had no idea this album existed until one night I was looking up Bootsy releases to see if there were any re-issues of anything and I came upon this and knew that eventually we would be doing this show. It’s Bootsy! You know it’s going to be amazing. The density on this track is incredible. He’s got so much low end frequency goodness happening on this album, it’s worth checking out just to watch your speakers flap! Who’d y’all come to hear?!

Black Ace - Christmas Time Blues / I'm The Boss Card In Your Hand

The Raymond Scott Quintette - Christmas Night In Harlem: From the Microphone Music CD. We have not played any Scott stuff for some time. Scott was one of the great composers and innovators in the last century. Thankfully Irwin Chusid and others like Mark Mothersbaugh have kept the man’s memory alive and the CDs of his work keep coming out, really great stuff. If you want a great introduction to the man and his machines, you might want to check out the Manhattan Research Inc. CD set. http://raymondscott.com/

The Ronettes - Frosty The Snowman: I pulled this from the Phil Spector Back To Mono box set I got many years ago. The Ronettes were made famous by the classic sound of producer and courtroom attendant Phil Spector. I think it’s really cool to hear The Ronettes sing almost anything and this song will do nicely. Also, it’s interesting to hear more of that Spector Wall-Of-Sound.

XBXRX – Track 1: From the Clear EP. We had to throw in some XBXRX for our last show of the year. I just got the band’s new record called Sounds. I have not played it yet but it’s on the stack. If you want vinyl of this one, you better move quickly. There’s 500 made, and 200 are in two different colored vinyl, the rest are black. You can go here for information: http://www.importantrecords.com/. I think this is one of the bands that are saving music from itself and all pretenders to the throne. I hope that someone wrecks that throne while they’re at it.

Charlie Parker - White Christmas: From The Complete Live Performances On Savoy set. This is my favorite Parker release. It’s radio broadcasts recorded 1947 - 1950 from the Royal Roost on 52nd St, hosted by Symphony Sid, who Hubert Selby referenced as, “Oh Sid, that junkie!” Sid’s broadcasts are sheer magic to me. His voice is a portal to a different time. The all night, all frantic one as he was known, he would broadcast from the Roost at insane hours and captured some of the most incredible performances ever. The Parker recordings are incendiary. I like the Parker Dial recordings and some of the Verve stuff but it’s the bootlegs and the Roost recordings I come back to the most. Parker was a monster player. As far as man-meets-instrument, he was as good as anyone ever. If you can find this set, this is totally worth it. Some of the line-ups Parker had were ridiculous. If I could go back in time, this is one of the times I would like to go to immediately.

The Greedies - A Merry Jingle: Taken from The Boys Are Back In Town, a best-of Lizzy CD that has a 2nd CD with some rare tracks, this being one of them. This was Phil Lynott along with Cook and Jones of The Pistols along with others including Chris Spedding and Gary Moore. They were also known as the Greedy Bastards, the concept being they would get together and play Lizzy and Pistols songs to make a quick buck. If you think about just the three main members, you want an album of that like right now. The only recorded history of them release wise is this, which for such potential is a let down. I really gotta ask Jonsey about this band and get him to give me the story. When and if I get additional information on this group from Mr. Jones, I will update this entry.

Deerhoof - Xmas Trees / Halfbird

The Fall - No Xmas For John Quays: From the Complete Fall Peel Sessions 6CD set. If you had to get just one Fall release, this might be the one. It’s a lot of Fall but it’s one of the best box sets ever made and it is a staggering overview of one of the best bands of all time. I looked all over the place for a reference about this John Quays fellow and got some information from Fall Fanatic Dan that I thought was interesting but was along the lines I was thinking anyway FFD says that it’s a reference to “junkies”. A great Fall song nonetheless. It’s been a great year of playing The Fall almost every week. I hope you enjoyed it.

Jim Gillette - Never Say Never: From the Proud To Be Loud CD. You’re welcome. This is the lump of coal in your stocking. I remember on the 10-30-07 broadcast, I promised to bring in a track from this album. Mr. Gillette was in that force of nature known as Nitro. Of course we have to follow the man into his solo career. I did a little research on the man and he married Lita Ford! WTF!!!!!!!! “Went to a party last Saturday night . . .” They had a son in 1997. Out Fucking Rageous!

Various Artists - Râga Bairagi Bhairavî: From The Music Of Islam, Vol. 13 - Music Of Lahore, Pakistan CD. I figured this would be a great way to end the year of broadcasts. As I told you earlier, as you read this, I am in Islamabad Pakistan at the moment. This jam is over 24 minutes long and fits the spirit of this show, to do what we want and shrug the normal restraints that broadcasts put on themselves. Isn’t this a beautiful piece of work?!

Until 2008 Fanatics!!!