HARMONY IN MY HEAD

BROADCAST #22
AIR DATE: 05-23-06

Alright Fanatics! Here’s what we heard tonight. A little of this and little of that and all good. We have some interesting shows in the weeks coming, I hope you’re able to listen in. If you miss out on the show and want to hear it later, there’s information for that below. I hope you liked the show and please tune in next week if you can. Thanks. Henry
For you Europeans, Australians and New Zealand Fanatics, there is a re-broadcast time of Friday mornings, 0200 – 0400 hrs. West coast time so you all can check out the show and not have to set your alarms to too rude an hour. If you want to download this show, http://www.rollins-archive.com/ is the place to go for that.

CRASS – Punk Is Dead: From The Feeding Of The 5000 album. I never listened to CRASS much the first time around because I didn’t understand them very much and after going to England and experiencing what a pain in the ass their fans were, I left them be. I came back around later and gave it another shot and liked them. Their label put out some great record by bands like The Apostles and The Poison Girls. The original Anarcho Punks. I think most or all of their catalog is in print. I have some of it, not nearly all.

Captain Beefheart – Bat Chain Puller: From the album Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller). Captain Beefheart was almost done with music when he released this stunning album. Some say that this is the man’s finest work. Personally, I think there’s solid gold throughout the Beefheart canon. After the release of Shiny Beast, there would be two more Beefheart releases, 1980’s Doc At The Radar Station and 1982’s Ice Cream For Crow. Doc might be my most played Beefheart record. You might want to start with this one and work your way backwards. When someone mentions Beefheart, they usually mention his album Trout Mask Replica, which is great and shouldn’t be missed but it’s not the only great album he made so you would definitely do yourself a favor by checking out the other albums as well. Fanatics who listen to this show most likely are well-versed in all things Captain but if you aren’t, you have a real treat ahead of you.

Olympic Death Squad –Show Your Age: From Olympic Death Squad’s one and only release on Teenbeat, a label I mention now and then. Teenbeat’s founder is Mark Robinson of Unrest. I think this was MR’s solo release after the demise of the band. He gave it to me many years ago and I have played it many many times. It’s a quiet and cool/smart/strange pop record, which is what Mark does really well. My kind of thing all the way. http://www.teenbeatrecords.com/

The UK Subs – Keep On Running EP: Keep On Running, Perfect Girl, Ice Age, Party In Paris (French Version). Another great EP by the UK Subs. This record was released in two versions. A two song blue vinyl 7” with Keep On Running and Perfect Girl and then this black vinyl 4 track EP. Ice Age is sometimes my favorite Subs song and sometimes Same Thing is.

Funkadelic – Mommy, What’s A Funkadelic?: Funkadelic’s first of three albums for the Westbound label. The first self-titled album was released in 1970 and was followed up quickly with Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow and Maggot Brain. By now, you all know the legend of George Clinton and the discography that not many will ever really get a handle on. I remember once hanging out with George and asking him questions about what song was recorded when and he had answers for every question. I was asking mostly about Parliament tracks but he was on it with what seemed to be total recall. These early Funkadelic records are not to be missed, especially now that they’ve been remastered with extra tracks. George Clinton is a mad genius right up there with Duke Ellington and Lee Scratch Perry. I am sure I am telling you something you already know.

Pure Hell – Noise Addiction: From the CD of the same name. We played songs from this record earlier this year. This was one of those urban legend records. For years, we had heard that this all black punk band from Philadelphia had an album in a closet somewhere. Previously, all we knew of them was the single with No Rules and These Boots Were Made For Walking. The good folks at Welfare Records put this out and we should support projects like this one because it is really hard to get records like these over the wall. I bought a few of these to pass out to people. Please check this out.
http://www.welfarerecords.net/.

The Fall – Sleep Debt Snatches: Released 04-27-87. From the There’s A Ghost In My House 12”/CD on Beggars Banquet. There’s a CD set you need. The Beggars Banquet B-Sides 2CD set of The Fall. The Beggars era of The Fall was one of the band’s most prolific and successful periods. I think there were five studio albums, a live album and a ton of b-sides. Like many of you Fanatics, I often prefer the b-side to the a-side. We should do a show sometime made up of cool b-sides. I’ll get on that. There is a great CD of all The Fall’s a-sides from this era as well. It’s a great trio of CDs to get into and I have done all of them in one listen more than once. Please visit the very informative unofficial Fall site often! http://www.visi.com/fall/.

Black Ace – I Am The Black Ace: From the I’m The Boss Card In Your Hand album on Arhoolie. I bought this one at the Tower Records in the East Village of NYC many years ago just because I thought the title was cool. It’s a good album anyway. Black Ace is B.K. (Babe Karo) Turner and he played a National steel guitar. I did a little recon on that and found that he played a Squareneck Style 2 tricone. There was a website with a history of the National steel and they listed him as playing this one. The liner notes of the album tell of his service in WWII to come back and pick cotton and also work as a janitor.

Charlie Parker – Groovin’ High: From the Symphony Sid radio sessions from the Royal Roost. In this track, you hear a very young Miles Davis on trumpet. Many of you Fanatics have seen some of the famous pictures of Miles standing onstage with Bird and if you notice, there’s a trace of fear in his eyes. He’s really trying to hang in there, knowing he’s on the bandstand with one of the greatest of all time. Parker was an absolute monster player. He did everything to the extreme. There’s a great book written about him called Bird Lives written by Dial Records boss Ross Russell. I read it about 14 years ago and I couldn’t put it down. What a maniac! In that time, I have bought every Parker recording I have ever seen and am amazed over and over at his playing. My favorite stuff of his is on the Bird’s Eyes bootleg CD series, I don’t know if they’re still around anymore and the Royal Roost sessions on Savoy Live Performances box set which I have had in different versions for a long time and this collection is the best sounding one in the bunch. Hubert Selby Jr. the great writer used to tell me about seeing these shows. He remembered Symphony Sid and all of it. Whenever I listen to these tracks I wonder if he was at any of these shows. He had great jazz stories.

Iggy Pop – Eggs On Plate: From 1981’s Party album. Recently re-issued with extra tracks on Buddha. I always thought Iggy’s 80’s era recordings were really interesting. I hope someday, someone, with the blessings of the man himself, is permitted to write THE book on Iggy. I want to know about that decade. Iggy lived really hard in those days. I always liked the Party, New Values and Soldier albums. I met him the first time a little while after Party came out. They played the song Bang Bang all the time on the radio in LA. I remember when we would play at the 688 Club in Atlanta and Iggy’s set list was written on the wall from his one week stand there. I remember the song Eggs On Plate was written on the wall. I went online and looked around for a picture and managed to find a picture of the wall and you can see that song 15 on the wall is Eggs. That was a great place to play. Someone on the site says I played there in a pair of gold sparkle underpants. Uhh, no! Stop lying! Here’s where I found that picture.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=51270939

Scott Walker – Cossacks Are: From the forthcoming album, The Drift. If any of you Fanatics were as blown away at Walker’s last album Tilt as I was, then you’re going to love this one. The instrumentation is spare and the whole thing sounds live as if the musicians are following Scott Walker down his very dark path of intensity. Walker’s almost trembling voice ripples with power and control as he is completely enmeshed with the music yet at the same time, hovering above it like someone who just left their body. Imagine Nick Cave wandering through a musical soundscape created by George Crumb. After decades of recording and composing, these last two may be his most intense and gripping work ever.

Gyogry Ligeti - Presto: From the Chamber Concert for 13 Instruments, this is part 4 of the piece. You can fit all I know about Ligeti into a thimble. Thanks to the guy who works on our computers at the company, Matt, I am getting acquainted with a lot of composers and groups I never would have checked out like The Arditti Quartet, The Gagliano Trio and composers like Ligeti, Finnissy and Mosko. So far, it’s been really interesting. I knew a little about avant classical or whatever one calls this. I have some George Crumb and Iannis Xanakis, which we have listened to on this show.

The Mad - I Hate Music: From the We Love Noize. The actual single will run you way too much money. I saw this great New York band for two sets in one night at a place in DC called Madam’s Organ. The singer, Screaming Mad George had a great stage presence. He was all over the place, an amazing jacket with extra arms sewn on that were attached to his real arms by strings so he looked like he had six arms or something. It was a long time ago. The music was good and luckily I got the singles a long time ago before they became so collectable. Some of the most insane lyrics ever. Screaming Mad George is a serious effects guy now. You can check him out. http://www.smgfx.com/.

Miles Davis - Honky Tonk: From the monster album Get Up With It. A long time ago, some of you Fanatics might remember us listening to a track called Rated X from this album. Miles is always in the present tense to me. He passed away when we were making The End Of Silence album and Sim Cain took it really hard as Miles is his favorite musician. From the beginning to the retirement in the 70’s, I don’t think there’s a record Miles made that’s not worth checking out. Now that Columbia is releasing the entire sessions of these records, it’s a great opportunity to hear all that great music, Miles and his insane line-ups. Some of the best Jazz musicians of the last century played with Miles at some point. There’s a lot of great bootlegs out there as well. I keep finding live shows I have heard before. Hear it all before you shuffle off.

Velillahil Mesriku Vel Magrib Feeynema Tuvellu Fesemme Vechullah: This is from volume 14 of the Music of Islam box set. Sufi music from Turkey. This is one of the more amazing box sets I have ever heard. It’s a lot of music but really worth it.

Discharge - They Declare It: I think this was the first Discharge single I ever heard. 1980 I think it was. I stuck with them for awhile as a fan but then dropped off because I joined a band and immediately became broke and couldn’t buy records very often. I had to catch up with them later. We played with them in 1982 and they were really good.

Black Randy – Sperm Bank Baby: One of the great LA bands of the first wave of punk rock. Black Randy and the Metro Squad were around the same time as the Weirdos, the Screamers, X, the Germs. It was a great scene full of amazing bands. I was not in LA for it so like most people, I heard the records and wished I could have seen these bands. I know some people who were around for all this, people like Brendan Mullen who has a steel trap memory. He said it was shows all the time and you didn’t dare miss any moment of it. Back before the whole thing got big, there were great scenes in almost every major city in America. When things broke open, they were still great, just different. Many Fanatics I have met have their own version of this story. I had some of the best times in my life where I grew up in DC when the shows were small and things were just getting warmed up. You didn’t know what it was going to be and that made things very exciting. Anyway, yes, Black Randy, you can get all the songs on one CD called Pass The Dust, I Think I’m Bowie, which might be one of the best album titles of all time. Not a bad song in the bunch.

Glen Branca – Structure: From the The Ascension album. This is the only Branca record I’ve ever had. I had some Branca’s other albums. I don’t know if I still have them. This is the one I got many years ago. I liked the idea of the wall of guitars. I was told that live it was really crushing. I think Diamanda Galas introduced me to him once when we were in San Francisco many years ago. I don’t know what he’s doing now. I had not heard this record in years so when I saw it was on CD, I grabbed it so we could play it on the show.