HARMONY IN MY HEAD

BROADCAST #28
AIR DATE: 07-11-06

Hello Fanatics. Back on the air again. So good to be back. I hope you all liked the show tonight. I had to rock that Adam Carolla vs Ann Coulter track. Doubtless she heard the rest of it but she’s hard as a rock and anything rough that comes her way she can bounce it off her adams apple.
     I tried to keep the mix as challenging and compelling as I could without taking it too far out there. I have a great show for next week so please tune in and until then, keep your head down and stay Fanatic!
     --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.

Black Sabbath – Into The Void: From my favorite Sabbath album Master Of Reality. Released in 1971, I am sure it picked up many bad reviews. It’s hard to be one of the best bands in the world and invent a genre. A lot of people can handle it. It’s not surprising that music critics couldn’t handle it. They get it wrong all the time. Sabbath is proof that most music critics are not worth the food they’re fed. If someone has never really heard Sabbath past a song here or there, they should sit down with the first four albums. Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master Of Reality and Volume 4. It’s a crushing and life altering ride. Sabbath is one of those bands that draws the line in the sand. Like the Ramones or The Stooges. If you can’t get to Black Sabbath, if they’re not your cup of tea, you’re drinking herbal tea and the rest of us are done with you. Really. If you don’t like Sabbath, please stop listening to this show. You’re better off without us and we’re better off without you.

Velvet Underground – The Gift: From the amazing White Light/White Heat album. The ultimate love song. “Waldo Jeffers had reached his limit . . . “ This Cale-narrated noise fest details the lonely desire of one Waldo Jeffers who misses his gal Marsha so much he mails himself to her in a box. I think this will always be my favorite VU album. It’s just so completely unrelenting. It’s amazing that it came out at all. I wonder what the meetings at the record company were like when they handed the masters in for this one. This was the 2nd and last album was to make with The Velvet Underground. The legendary tension between Cale and Reed had reached its breaking point and Cale exited to make amazing records on his own and as a producer for other bands. He produced the first Stooges album, a masterpiece. His work with Nico is insane. The Velvet Underground were amazing and deserving of every accolade heaped upon them. Lou Reed went on to make many amazing records as well but it was Cale who was the monster visionary force in the band.

Nico – Janitor Of Lunacy: From The Cale produced Desert Shore album. If Cale was the most explosive of the VU, Nico was the most, damn . . . how the hell do you describe Nico?! Darkness and cold distance on two legs. The enchantress of the Abyss. I think only Cale could get the purity and unique force that was Nico onto tape. This album, The End and The Marble Index were done with Cale and they are some of the most intense and dangerous records I have ever heard. These albums make all the Cale and VU stuff tame in comparison. You want real Death Rock? It was Nico.

John Cale – A Midnight Rain Of Green Wrens At The World’s Tallest Building: From the Dream Interpretations: Inside The Dream Syndicate Vol. II album. One of a few very challenging recordings Mr. Cale made in the sixties that only became available recently. I don’t know if he ever considered releasing them then but thankfully they are available now. I have been able to find four CDs of the recordings which I’ll list at the bottom of this. There’s also a really cool vinyl box set of this stuff as well as a 3CD box of the Dream Interpretations material. The material might be at times, challenging to the listener but don’t be put off. It’s worth the trip. This is visionary stuff. On some of the recordings Velvet alums Sterling Morrison and early drummer Angus Maclise as well as Tony Conrad make appearances. I have had these CDs for a couple of years now and I listen to them fairly frequently. As you Fanatics know, Cale was the one in the VU who took things way out there. After he left the band, they were still great of course, but not nearly as noisy and chaotic. Cale took that with him when he left and that’s why I always checked out anything he did and caught him live whenever I could. I have seen him perform a few times and it’s always strong, strange and intense as hell. These recordings are at times noisy, droning and intensely introspective but like Cale—unique, confrontational and always intense. Worth every second of time spent checking them out. Here’s the list of the CDs:
Day Of Niagra : Inside The Dream Syndicate Vol. I
Dream Interpretations: Inside The Dream Syndicate Vol. II
Stainless Gamelan : Inside The Dream Syndicate Vol. III
Sun Blindness Music

Brian Eno – The Fat Lady Of Limbourg: From Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy album. Eno fascinates me. Over the last couple of decades I have come to the slowly derived conclusion that Eno’s impact on music is immeasurable. If you can get your head around all the things he’s accomplished, it’s really staggering. Roxy Music, his solo records, the records he’s produced from Bowie to DEVO to U2, his collaborations with the likes of Robert Fripp and Harold Budd—it’s incredible. I don’t know anything about the guy and I don’t remember reading any interviews he’s done but I would like to see what he has to say about working with David Bowie. Those are some amazing records. I remember when Bowie and Eno got together to make Bowie’s Outside album. I was living in NYC at the time and I bought the CD day of release. I played it a couple of times and it wasn’t bad but I was hoping for more. When either guy does something, you have very high expectations. I’ll have to give Outside another play soon and see how it sounds to me now. I don’t need much of an excuse to listen to Eno but with the back catalog recently remastered, I am all over these records again. I have been listening to Here Come The Warm Jets of course as well as Another Green World, Before And After Science and Apollo a lot lately.

DEVO – Too Much Paranoias: From the absolute must-have first DEVO album Are We Not Men? We Are DEVO! It’s safe to say that this is one of those albums that made me think differently about things. To this day, it’s still amazing. When the real book about music gets written, DEVO will be seen as one of the most pioneering and peerless bands of all time. I am a DEVO Fanatic, especially of all the pre-Warner Bros. and Warner Bros. material. As far as the Warners albums, the first one and the 2nd album Duty Now For The Future are perfect albums from start to finish.

Maleem Mahmoud Ghania & Pharaoh Sanders – Moussa Berkiyo / Koubaliy Beriah La' Foh: This is from The Trance Of Seven Colors album. I got this in NYC many years ago I think. I played it all the time. I have not played this album in awhile so I thought I would take it out and see if it still did it for me. It does. I have seen the mighty Pharoah play a few times. Sometimes he gets out there and kills it, sometimes he walks through it but it’s always good. His real first name is Farrell but Sun Ra dubbed him Pharoah and it stuck. Besides his own staggering albums, you can find Mr. Sanders on some serious Coltrane albums like Kulu Se Mama, Meditations, Live in Seattle and Ascension. Those are all confrontational albums that challenge the listener at every turn. Great stuff. The Trance Of Seven Colors is one of my more favorite Pharoah albums. Laswell had a great idea here. It’s one of those albums that if someone wasn’t thinking completely outside the box, as in box, what’s a box? This amazing album would never happened. This address has some information on the album.
http://www.mcdustsucker.de/discography/laswell/Records/blasrec_mahm_trance.html

The Fall – Bourgeois Town: This track is from The Fall’s Are You Are Missing Winner album. I must admit, this one let me down the first several listens but it grew on me and I listen to it fairly often. It was recently re-released with extra tracks and sounds good. There’s a limited ed. picture disc LP of this album that’s around but not all that easy to find at this point. This album was released on 11-05-01. I went on The Fall Unofficial Site and read this quote of Mark E Smith, “I mean, I wouldn't even shake hands with Sonic Youth, you know. And Henry Rollins is a bit of a lunatic. He gets up and gives a fucking lecture about how he wishes he was me." I don’t remember that lecture but all the same, I’m so glad to be in your thoughts, Mark! I’m just your fan, maaaaaan! That very informative website address: http://www.visi.com/fall/.

Flin Flon – Black Bear: From Flin Flon’s Black bear EP. I haven’t played this one in awhile. There’s nothing I can say about Flin Flon that I haven’t said before besides I play this band on this show quite often and here’s yet another Flin Flon track. Stand by your band!

The Minutemen – Joy / Black Sheep / More Joy: Otherwise known as the Joy EP. I was one of those lucky ones who got to see The Minutemen live many times. Ask anyone who was there. The Minutemen were one of the best live bands of all time. All releases are great and you should check them out if you have not already but live it was supreme. It’s hard for me to listen to this band. I am still angry and heartbroken about guitarist D Boon’s departure even though it’s been over twnty years now. It’s why I can’t stand to listen to the band all that often, I still get all mad about it. There’s a new 2 DVD doc. on the band called We Jam Econo - The Story of the Minutemen. I think I’m interviewed on it. I was sent one but I have not watched it and there’s a good chance I never will watch it. It’s a hard place to go back to. That was one funeral I couldn’t go to. Hopefully there’s some live stuff on it that you can check out. The Minutemen are one of those bands that you absolutely must check out.

Skip James – Catfish Blues: Skip James, the man who brought you I’m So Glad. I got into Skip James by reading about him in a book I think. It was 1984. I first found his album Devil Got My Woman and went from there. The only record of his I couldn’t recommend with confidence is his original 1931 recordings but only because the surface noise on the recordings is intense. Those of you who collect and listen to recordings from this era are used to that amount of noise on top of the music. Thankfully Skip recorded a lot of material after being “rediscovered” in the sixties. If you liked what you head tonight, the rest of his material stands up to this I think. That high, quavering voice of his always made me think he was like a rippling plume of smoke, almost ghost like. The version of Catfish Blues we heard tonight is from the Devil Got My Woman album.

Wurm – I’m Dead: Oh boy, what a song! Haven’t played this one in awhile and played it a few days and remembered why Chuck Dukowski is the man. Wurm is Dukowski’s band before he was in Black Flag. They were insane. They would get together and jam at SST sometimes and I would watch them go off. Dukowski on bass, Ed Danky on guitar and Lou Hinzo on drums. Black Flag at one time played a version of Wurm’s Modern Man. They reformed with a singer named Simon and put out an album on SST and it was cool but I liked it better when Ed and Chuck sang, although there was nothing wrong with Simon. I forget what year Ed overdosed but he did. I don’t know where Lou is, somewhere being crazy if he’s alive. These were intense people in intense times. You can sometimes find the Wurm single on SST that has this song, a version of the Chambers Brothers song Time Has Come Today and a fast rocker called We’re Off. You can find the EP on CD if you can ever get your hands on the very hard to find SST CD Seven Inch Wonders OF The World. One of those now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t SST put out years ago. This song can also be found on The Blasting Concept Vol. 1 CD on SST. When they were getting ready to record this single, I sat in on band practice and sang I’m Dead with them a few times and it actually sounded good a couple of times. We recorded it and I have never been able to track that tape down. Perhaps between Dukowski and I looking around, we can source it.
Dubious Achievement Dept.: SST might be the most poorly maintained great catalog of music in the Independent Music world. Saint Vitus, Stains, Saccharine Trust, Wurm to name only a few—so many records out of print. It has become interesting to collect all these strange and out of print compilation CDs that SST released over the years. Almost all of them have some gems contained on them. I don’t understand what the deal is over there. I have been told that the catalog is now online for download although I have never checked it out. The Great Box Set That Will Probably Never Be Dept.: Another thing that will always bug me about the SST catalog is that for Black Flag fans, there are tracks they will most likely never hear that they would no doubt blow them away if they did. There are outtakes from the Damaged album that are really cool. A version of Louie Louie, alt. versions of What I See and at least one other song I can’t remember. There’s alt versions of Rise Above, Depression, Can’t Decide. I know there’s alt. versions of I Gotta Run and then there’s the sessions we did with Chuck Biscuits that features the two guitar line-up. I have seen bootlegs of that one. I am sure there’s other stuff that I can’t remember. It was a long time ago and memories from that period holds no large amounts of happiness for me so they are hard to access. But—there is a cool box set of stuff that would be cool to hear. I have some of the tracks but I know if I played them on the show, Greg Ginn would sue me or something. I have a feeling those tracks will never be heard. It’s too bad, there’s some good stuff there.

Hafiz Kani Karaca - Hashr (The Banishment): Hafiz is the man behnd this show’s introduction. Before we wade into the Fanatic Fray, we have to get straight with the big guy. The track itself is from the very amazing Music Of Islam Box set on Celestial Harmonies. They put out some great recordings from all over the world. Their recordings from Cambodia are great. But this box set, it’s like 17 CDs or so and it took me a long time to get through it all just because of the sheer amount of material but it was worth it. (CD #10)

Frank Wright – No End: From the Your Prayer album on ESP. I think the album is out of print because all his tracks on the ESP label have been assembled onto a 2 CD complete recordings package. Yes it is indeed Ayler-esque. Wright and Ayler were friends. I think Wright’s work stands on its own. I don’t know his work past the ESP stuff. This is very free and confrontational music. If you are a fan of Albert Ayler, chances are you will dig Wright. If you like what you heard here and have never heard Albert Ayler, you should run and not walk to his work. Start with the ESP label stuff. Check the Spiritual Unity album.

The Cravats – I Hate The Universe: I have played The Cravats more than once. One of the great UK post punk bands. Most of their catalog is out of print. A couple of CD compilations have some of their singles but there’s no complete representation of their very mighty catalog of Dada Rock. The band’s singer-genius The Shend writes me now and then. Recently he’s been collecting all things Cravats and has been planning a 2CD release of all their stuff. He’s running into problems with the record companies who own the masters. We’re talking about masters that are very old and it’s not like The Cravats on CD is going to buy anyone a houseboat but still, the labels are apparently giving The Shend no end of grief. There are some label owners who definitely need to fall off the side of a cruise liner, trust me. A few weeks ago, I got a letter from John Esplen, the owner of Overground Records, who have released some of the coolest re-issues said that The Cravats catalog might be coming out on his label. Perfect place for the band. I hope this comes through. The Shend very kindly sent me the CDRs that will comprise the set and that’s why we get to listen to one of the best songs ever, I Hate The Universe. I can’t believe I have waited this long to play this one!

Lenny Bruce – Fat Boy: This is from one my favorite Lenny Bruce albums Thank You, Masked Man on Fantasy. This one only hit CD recently. I grew up listening to this record, not having much idea at to what I was listening to. I got it later on. There’s a great blink and you miss it reference Bruce throws in here. In the bit, Fat Boy, the redneck car dealer from Chatsworth CA says they have not played a Chaplin film in town for years and have been steadily watching films by D.W. Griffith, the man who brought you Birth Of A Nation, a film that glorifies the Ku Klux Klan. Lenny Bruce was the man. It’s interesting living in LA and driving past some of the spots he used to hang out in when he lived here. Every time I drive down to the station, I pass Cantor’s deli. He used to eat and hang out there.