HARMONY IN MY HEAD

BROADCAST #35
AIR DATE: 08-29-06

Hello Fanatics! For tonight’s show I tried to make you what basically amounts to a really cool mix tape. I am not here to really nail down a more well researched and eclectic set but I think we have some great music here. As many of you know, I am on tour and Engineer X and I have been putting together these shows to play while I’m away. I know you have heard a lot of these songs before but like I said, they’re great ones and I really hope you dug tonight’s show. Thanks for listening.
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.

999 – Feelin’ Alright With The Crew: An impossibly cool song. Ian turned me onto this one. I never had 999 records back in the day. Ian did and I would listen to his. I don’t know why I never got them. The band are form the UK but used to play in America quite often. I think I saw them in DC at least twice, perhaps three times. We went to shows as often as we could. I always thought these guys were a good band but was never inspired to get their records and as far as I could remember, they never played this song. Like I said, they were really good and they had a lot of fans in DC. They had this song they used to encore with called Boiler, that was really cool. I went to shows for a lot of reasons in those days. One of the main reasons was to be part of something. It was a great time, those shows and they helped to combat the loneliness I felt at the time. This song always reminds me of rolling with Ian in his car. This song made a lot of his mix tapes. A few years ago, I got their early records 999, Separates and a collection of their singles. Really like those records now.

Chuck Dukowski Sextet - My War: From the new Eat My Life album. Chuck’s wife, the very powerful Laura does the vocals and it’s very intense. It’s one hell of a song no matter who sings it. The sax also adds chaos to the already intense wall of sound.

The Fall – Rainmaster: From 1995’s Cerebral Caustic album. You already know what I’m going to say. It’s a great album. The new re-release has some really worthwhile extra tracks. You get the corresponding Peel session and some alternate mixes of tracks. I do believe we visited this album earlier in the year. This is another one of those records, which to me, is one of a two album phase of The Fall. CC and the one that came in summer 1996, The Light User Syndrome, seem to be in the same vein. Light User has one of my favorite Fall moments, Das Vulture Ans Ein Nutter-Wain. Have you heard, there’s a great unofficial website for the band. I don’t know if I have ever listed it in the broadcast notes before. If I haven’t I should: http://www.visi.com/fall/.

Parliament – Chocolate City: I know we have played this song a couple of times over the years and yes, I like Parliament a lot more than to just play this one song but I thought it would sound good right here. From the album of the same name. Recently remastered and sounding great. Parliament, Funkadelic and George Clinton are blessings upon us all.

Boozoo Chavis – Paper In My Shoe: This is the first Boo Zoo I ever heard. It was a gift from a girl I knew who thought I would like it. I heard it and was a fan immediately. I went out and found all the records of his I could. I don’t know much about Zydeco and don’t have many records from the genre. There’s something in Boozoo’s music that is quite buoyant and happy. This track, recorded in 1955 was quite a hit for Mr. Chavis. This track can be found on The Lake Charles Atomic Bomb album. Boozoo passed away a few years ago at 70. There’s a nice write up on the man here: http://www.bluesworld.com/BooZoo.html

The Damned – Problem Child: From the 2nd Damned album, Music for Pleasure. While it’s not the greatest album the band ever made, and as you know, they made some GREAT ones, it’s not nearly as bad as the band made it to be in interviews after its release. This is one of the better songs on it. If pull up the notes from Broadcast #07 from this year, when my very special guest was none other than Damned Drummer Rat Scabies, you’ll find a short write-up on MFP. At some point, I think this is one of those records we might have to spotlight and give the treatment to. You know what? Come to think of it, we gotta do that. I’ll start working on that soon. Get ready for that but in the mean time, check this track out and if you get the chance, check out the entire record. It’s really cool.

The Adverts – Safety In Numbers (BBC version): One of my favorite bands doing one of their best songs. I picked the BBC Radio version for tonight because there’s a chance some of you Fanatics might not have heard it. The original single, Safety In Numbers/ We Who Wait was released in October of 1977 on Anchor Records, their second single for the label. As many of Fanatics know, I have gone on a bit about this band in other broadcasts. This particular single was one of the first ones I ever bought from Yesterday & Today Records. The record store, which for decades was located on Rockville Pike in Rockville MD, (great name for a town, perfect place for a record store) closed its doors in September of 2002 but is alive and well online and owner Skip Groff has a few tons of vintage vinyl over there. http://yesterdayandtodayrecords.com/ will take you there. I remember when Ian and I got this single back to his place and played it. It was one of the best moments I have ever had as listener. We rolled the dice on a single by a band we had read about in a book on Punk Rock and it was great. That was so cool to me. Soon after the release of this single, the band went on to release one of the best albums of Punk Rock: Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts. Now THAT’S an album. But back to the track to we heard tonight. The Adverts fortunately did a lot of radio sessions with the BBC. The Wonders Don’t Care: Radio Sessions CD features 18 tracks and is a fantastic record for Adverts Fanatics. If you are a fan of this band, there’s a slight chance you have not checked this CD and the 14 track CD that comprises all their singles, which is also really great. One of the truly good bands from the UK’s classic first wave of Punk Rock bands. Here’s a cool bio I found: http://punkmodpop.free.fr/adverts_pic.htm.

Wire – Strange: From an album that launched a 1000 ships at least. One of the most important, some say THE most important post-Punk recordings ever, Pink Flag. Oh, don’t worry, we’re going to play this album all the way through later in the year. I’m just whetting your appetite a little with this sonic morsel. A lot of bands have covered Wire. The band’s classic song 12XU has been covered by at least The Bad Brains and Minor Threat and perhaps countless hardcore bands all over the world. R.E.M. did a great version of Strange many years ago. More than a few bands have covered Ex-Lion Tamer. All from the Pink Flag. So tonight, we check out yet another track from this album.
Did you check out the limited edition Wire box set that has Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, 154 and two CDs of live material??? There’s only 1000 of them and you can only get it from Wire’s website. I don’t know how fast it’s moving out the door but stuff in such a limited run never lasts all that long and it’s definitely worth it as the remastering is great. The live material is great, as is the booklet and packaging and months from now when you’re on EBay trying to prize it from the jaws of the vultures, you will wish you got it in a more civilized manner! Explanation and ordering info: http://www.posteverything.com/artists/release.php?id=14235 And also, a well-written bio on the band can be found here. http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/bio/index.jsp?pid=6041

X Ray Spex - I Am A Cliché: I am and will always be a fan of the b-side. The magic non-LP track where the band lets it all hang out and often plays what they really want to play even more than the A-side that gets the promo stamp and all the attention! I Am A Cliché was not included on the must have LP of X Ray Spex album Germ Free Adolescents. That’s a great album from start to finish. This song was the b-side of the band’s most well-known track Oh! Bondage, Up Yours!. Neither track were included on the LP. Almost 30 years later, the band’s music hasn’t lost a bit of speed. Recommended listening. Punk rock with saxophone and some of the best singers the genre ever had. You already know this! Here’s the address of a pretty cool site that has info on a lot of bands and a brief but informative write up on X Ray Spex. http://punkmodpop.free.fr/

Cramps – Sunglasses After Dark: No! He’s not playing another song by The Cramps! Another killer track off the Songs The Lord Taught Us album. I have written enough about this band and I know almost all of you Fanatics have this album so there’s nothing for me to add besides that if you don’t have it, you should.

Dillinger – Ragnampiza: I believe we have listened to this track before but what the hell. I first heard this over at Ian’s house about 23 years ago. I was a fan immediately. I looked all over for a copy of this single for quite some time before I found one. Dillinger’s best known song / album is probably Cocaine In My Brain, which is great. Ragnampiza is now on a best-of called The Ultimate Collection. It’s a good introduction to this hard toasting Dub veteran. One of my favorite albums of his is 3 Piece Suit, which I picked up in London many years ago. If you ever see a copy of his album Bionic Dread, check it out, it’s great but really hard to find.

Deadboy And The Elephantmen - Kissed By Lightning: Another great track from the We Are Night Sky album. Our sometime guest and one-woman riot squad Heidi May recommended this album to me. I played it and it knocked me out. We got the band to play on the IFC show this year and were so glad to have them on. The singer and frontman, Dax is a very talented young man who I think will make some great music. He’s one to keep your eye on, for sure. If you liked this song, the rest of the album is as great. This is easily one of my favorite records of the year along with the new Evens record Get Evens, which comes out in November.

Gladys Knight and the Pips – Operator: This is early Gladys. I used to listen to her on the radio all the time growing up when she and the Pips were making those amazing singles. Years later, I looked at her records and saw this CD of very early recordings with songs like Come See About Me and I had to check it out and I was richly rewarded for my curiosity. What a voice! I’ve got two CDs of this early stuff, both titled letter Full Of Tears. One is on Relic, a great label that has put out a ton of Doo Wop stuff and the other is on Collectables and differs by one track I think. I have had mixed results with records on Collectables. They have put out some good records but some are from bad vinyl so when I saw a version on Relic, which is an outstanding label, I went right for it. If you like Gladys Knight and
want to hear her a little more raw and personal, go for these recordings.

Generation X - Day By Day: Nothing you haven’t heard before but it sounds good so what the hell, let’s rock! I love this band and the part I love the most is the guitar work of Bob “Derwood” Andrews. Great tone and attack. The first album is such a energy shot. I don’t know how long it would have taken to get me into the band’s 2nd album Valley Of the Dolls if I had not been in a band with Mike Hampton of SOA, Manifesto and One Last Wish fame. He would play this one pretty often when we would hang out in his room and it grew on me after a few listens. There’s some interesting arrangements and some very ambitious song crafting on the record. I don’t know how this record was received. I have never been able to find reviews or comments about the record. I am sure people hold the first album up as the one. I listen that one still. Tonight’s song was taken from the 1st album which has just been remastered with extra tracks and is worth checking out. If you ever locate a good condition LP of this album, snag it because that’s the best way to check out this band. A pretty cool Generation X site: http://www.nemsworld.com/genx/

Thin Lizzy – Warriors: From the Jail Break album. If you’ve never heard a Thin Lizzy album all the way through, this might be a good album to start with. At this point, it’s unnecessary to detail the rise and fall of the band’s charismatic frontman Phil Lynott as we all know the story or if not, can easily look it up. The song Warriors is about Jimi Hendrix, who was a hero to Mr. Lynott. I have played this album so many times I can’t even give you a ballpark figure. I have taken this album on tour with me in some form since the early 90’s. Even having played it on tour I would play it first thing upon returning from a tour as I unpacked. It became a ritual I did for years. There’s nothing rare about the track, it’s just really good and so that’s why we’re playing it tonight.

Iggy Pop – Caesar: No one plays this one on the radio, do they? This is the last track from Iggy’s American Caesar album. I think this is an interesting track. It breaks way out of the normal rock format. Iggy Pop just does what he wants and that’s one of the reasons he’s one of my heroes and also the King of Rock and Roll. I have never met anyone like this guy. I saw him play five times this year and he just killed it every night. I can’t say enough good things about those shows. He’s the man.

Embrace - Dance of Days: I think we’ve played this one before. Embrace has always interested me as a band and also as a phase of Ian MacKaye’s lyrical work. This is Ian’s post-Minor Threat, pre-Fugazi band. I never saw them play and I don’t think they did many shows. I have two live tapes that are really blazing. Also in this band is Michael Hampton on guitar. I played with him many years ago. He’s always interested me as a player, especially the sounds he gets. I never got the full story on this band from Ian, which also makes them more interesting to me because there’s a lot of questions I still have. For a lot of Ian and Dischord Fanatics, this is often the record they have not heard yet and it merits checking out definitely. It’s nothing like Minor Threat or Fugazi, which makes it even more interesting. Sometimes, when I listen to it, I wonder if lyrically, it was Ian trying to make sense of the first half of the 80’s and the DC scene. Like I said, if you’ve never checked this one out, you should. http://www.dischord.com/main.shtml

High on Fire – Baghdad: The Art Of Self Defense a fire breathing beast this album is. One of my favorites. Matt Pike is a crushing riff master of the highest order. You already remember him from the legendary band Sleep. Not a bad record from that band. You need them all. Count me as old and in the way, what are the kids calling it these days, Doom Metal, Stoner Rock? I don’t know but I like it and there’s some bands out there coming from this corner throwing down some of the hardest jams these days. When someone says that music sucks now or some such bullshit, just think of this band, Sunn, Om and others who are just murdering it and I know that music is alive and well.

The Middle Class - Out Of Vogue / You Belong / Situations / Insurgence: Our EP of the week is The Middle Class Out Of Vogue EP on Joke records in 1978. I think I picked this one up in 1979 when it eventually drifted across America and into Yesterday & Today Records in Rockville MD. What a great record. An assault on 7”. The first time I heard the record I didn’t know what to make of it as I had never heard anything like it. I remember putting it on tape and playing it a lot, just trying to get my head around it. This is a classic slice of SoCal Hardcore. I remember when the band’s bass player Mike Patton (different Mike) did a session with the Minutemen. I think some of the songs came out on the Minutemen’s Joy EP. I have a tape of the sessions somewhere, I should check to see if there’s any unreleased tracks on that one. Anyway, Middle Class released an EP and an LP after this first release and both are good but have drawn comparisons to Gang Of Four and The Joy Division, where the first record, there’s nothing like that anywhere.

Mahalia Jackson - Nobody Knows The Trouble I've Seen: I first heard Mahalia Jackson when Michael Stipe gave me a tape of her music. I have been a fan ever since. I don’t know much about this Gospel giant, but over the years, I have bought some records and play them occasionally. This track is from a 3CD package called How I Got Over. It’s really great and my favorite Mahalia set.

The Last Words - Animal World: The Last Words were from New Zealand. I bought this single out of curiosity. A stack of copies washed up at Yesterday & Today Records and I went past them in the bin so many times, I figured I should check it out. It’s a great one. The b-side, No Music In The World Today is as good. As far as I know, there’s no CD of any of their music anywhere and if you ever see any of their singles on the Remand label and the price is right, grab ‘em because they are not too easy to find. This single came out on the Rough Trade label and is a bit easier to find. Now and then you see their album turn up. I like it. It’s not like Animal World but it has some good songs on it. Another one of their rare singles is Animal World / Every Schoolboy’s Dream released on the Wizard label out of Australia in February of 1979. It’s pressed on blue vinyl and has no picture sleeve.

Lucifer - On Your Mark: A little Hail Satan rock from the East Coast. I have played this band before. I actually got some cool letters from one of the band members, thanking me for playing their music from their satanic world of darkness. I don’t know if you’re going to be able to find this one all that easily, I have not seen it around for quite some time. You’ll just have to keep listening to this show as we will play more of this album as we go