HARMONY IN MY HEAD

BROADCAST #38
AIR DATE: 09-19-06

OK, you Fanatics! Here’s the rundown on what we heard tonight. Last Friday night I was in NYC NY on a mostly sleep-free mission to help out Ian Svenonius of The Nation Of Ulysses and Make-Up fame on a TV show pilot he’s working on with the people at Vice Magazine called Soft Focus. It’s much like that Inside The Actor’s Studio show. It’s Ian and a guest basically. He asked me if I would be one the guests and I said yes. It was shot in a small theater at the Guggenheim at 89th and 5th. They shot two episodes. I was one guest and Ian MacKaye was the other. It was great for me because I got to hang out with Ian. He came up from DC with Amy Even. They gave me a finished copy of the new Evens record Get Evens and it looks great. It was a great time listening to the two Ian’s engaging in front of an enthusiastic audience. Ian M. had everyone laughing a lot of the time. As an added bonus, Vivien G., from the DC scene, now a full time New Yorker came to the show as well as Bert Q of Untouchables and Manifesto fame. DC was in the house backstage. So great to see all these people.
     I love New York. It’s one of my favorite places to be. I was there a total of 30 hours. Not a great deal of sleep but I got a little walking around done and ate some good food and just got to be in NYC for a New York minute.
     I think we had a good show tonight as the below play list will attest to. I started work on another one as soon as this one was done. I worked on it a good part of Saturday night after I got back from NYC because I was so inspired by Friday night, I figured I should set it to music. Of course, I do hope you enjoyed tonight’s selections and tune in again next week. Stay Fanatic, you Fanatics!   --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.

Wolf Eyes - Human Animal: As bad as things are in America and the world, and no matter what the happy bullshit liars will have you believe, things ARE really bad in America and the world, there are good things, many good things happening. One of them is the release of a new album by Wolf Eyes. The new one is called Human Animal and it’s great. If their previous release on Subpop, Burned Mind was a shock and awe assault, Human Animal is a exercise in psy-ops. It’s not, by any stretch of the imagination, more subdued or in any way restrained but it does sound like the lads are branching out into other textures and aspects of sound. Human has a lot of space and control—they’re not doing every single thing with sledgehammers and flamethrowers. The two records would have made a great double album. Taken on its own, Human is a great progression from Burned Mind and makes me anxious to hear what’s next.

The Fix – Vengeance / In This Town: This single, if you ever see it for sale, is a lot of money. Thankfully, the label that released it over two decades ago, Touch & Go, has seen fit to release it, the band’s follow up single, the Jan’s Room EP and all the other stuff they could find of the band all on one CD. It’s called At The Speed Of Twisted Thought . . . due out 10-10-06. This seems to be one of those bands that a lot of hardcore fans like but never saw. I would be one of them. I never met them but liked the music. Releasing these two singles and more tracks on one CD for a good price is the right thing to do. I wish all rare music was this readily available. It’s why I put out the Negative Trend EP. If you want to hear some belligerent hardcore music before it became a money maker, this is the record for you. http://www.tgrec.com/.

I Need You – Positions: From the Teenbeat 20 year commemorative CD. There’s no information on this group and I don’t think they show up on any other Teenbeat record. Sounds pretty cool.

J. Mascis – Let’s Go To Church: As far as I know, this track is only available on the Dutch version of the More Light album as a 2nd CD that also has a track called Riptide Swim Sideways. I was looking around the internet to see if there were any different versions of this record, perhaps out of Japan and came upon this one. Two Mascis titles I had not heard of?! Unheard of! (Hey, is this thing on?) So I got a copy and brought it right into the show. Riptide is cool but it’s an instrumental and I figured we would be better off with J’s voice.

The Fall – Prole Art Threat: Last week, when the mighty Mars Volta had finished tracking their songs for my show on IFC, Cedric, Omar and I were talking about music and the topic of The Fall came up as I was explaining that we came close to having them play on the show. Cedric remarked that one of his favorite Fall songs was Prole Art Threat. It’s a great one and it’s found on the Slates 10” released on Rough Trade in 1981. It’s a raucous live recording, bristling with snarling intensity of a young Mark E Smith. Whoa, a music writer just crept into me. Anyway, this recording and another live one, A Part Of America Therein from 1982, are both on one CD and easy to locate. You can read all about these records and really, your life will change, if you just go to the Unofficial Fall Site for your Fall information needs: http://www.visi.com/fall/

Coyle And Sharpe – Child Maniacs Destroy A Home: Coyle and Sharpe were two live-on-the-street assault artists who dressed in suits and ties and with their tape recorder, talk to people on the street and pose the most outrageous propositions to innocent people walking by. They offered surgery in the back of their station wagon, opportunities for people to jump into pits of fire, etc. They cut two albums for Warner Brothers: The Insane (But Hilarious) Minds of Coyle And Sharpe and The Absurd Imposters. They are long out of print as far as I know but really cool if you find them. The track you heard tonight was from The Insane album. I put out a compilation of theirs years ago called On The Loose which is really good if you can find it and if you go to their site, you can find info on a new release that I have not seen or heard yet called These 2 Men Are Imposters. Ok, I just checked it out and it looks like the On The Loose CD is included on there. It says I was a co-producer of the album along with Mal Sharpe’s daughter, Jennifer. Not true. Jennifer played me versions of the record and I may have made a few comments but all the work was hers. Anyway, these two were great comedians, innovators and improvisers. Mal’s still around but Mr. Coyle left the coil some years ago. Here’s their site address: http://www.coyleandsharpe.com/

Andrew Hill – Legacy: Andrew Hill is one of those great Jazz piano players who, in the opinion of many Fanatics, never got the recognition he deserved. I got turned onto him years ago when someone lent me his Black Fire album on Blue Note. I was a Fanatic immediately. He played with a lot of people in his career like Johnny Griffin who is on all those amazing Riverside recordings of Monk, he played with Clifford Jordan and two of my favorites: trumpeter Kenny Dorham and sax man Hank Mobley. His album Point Of Departure features Eric Dolphy. I took this track from The Complete Blue Note Andrew Hill Sessions (1963-66) box set. The album it’s originally from, Compulsion!, which is very hard to find and a bit pricey when you do but most of his catalog is in print. I went online to see if there may have been a Japanese release on CD and wasn’t able to find one and message boards were saying that it might come out on CD soon. The Mosaic box was a limited edition of 5000 and is long out of print, if you want to pursue it, you can probably find a copy online somewhere. If you liked this track, Black Fire and Point Of Departure are a great place to start.

Om – At Giza (excerpt): I couldn’t resist. I didn’t play the entire track, not because I don’t think you Fanatics don’t have the attention span but since the album only has two tracks, I don’t want to play half the band’s music on the album, I want you to be infuriated that you didn’t get to hear the whole piece and be so frustrated by that, you get the record ASAP. Om is Al Cisneros and Chris Haikus, who, in a previous life were 2/3 of a band called Sleep. You need their albums Sleep’s Holy Mountain and Dopesmoker now. If you liked this excerpt, the rest of the album is great as is their first effort, Variations On A Theme.

Bobby Byrd - I Need Help (I Can't Do It Alone) Pts. 1 & 2: Many of Fanatics you know who Bobby Byrd is and many more know him as the voice that responds to James Brown’s on songs like Sex Machine. The first time I heard that song, I was more curious about who this guy “Bud” was that JB kept yelling out to and then I found out that he was actually saying “Byrd,” as in Bobby Byrd. I always thought he had a great job being up there with James Brown. Anyway, Bobby Byrd did a lot of recording with the JBs, that’s The Godfather’s band, and there are some really great tracks. On a lot of the tracks, JB is on there with him as he is on this one. There’s a great best-of CD called Bobby Byrd Got Soul on Polydor that’s worth checking out if you like what you heard tonight. If you’re a James Brown Fanatic and somehow have not heard the albums of some of his sidemen, you should. Maceo and Fred Wesley have released some serious albums with the JB’s backing them up and a lot of the time, JB is there either on vocal or keyboard. Hard to find but worth it is the Maceo album called Us!!.

Meat Puppets - In A Car / Big House / Dolphin Field / Out In The Gardener / Foreign Lawns: The In A Car EP from 1981 was my first exposure to the Meat Puppets and is also our EP of the week. What a crazy record. I was lucky enough to see this era of their progression. It was at the Whiskey in 1981 I believe. One of the more amazing bands I have ever seen. We toured with them in 1984. They had so many songs they could play, sometimes the set would be almost if not completely different every night. They would do Black Flag songs, ZZ Top, Hank Williams, seemingly no song or genre was out of their reach. In 1985, I went down to San Diego with The Minutemen to see them play with the Meat Puppets. The Meat Puppets were on that night and that was the night when I saw them play Hendrix’s Little Wing and when Curt hit the big guitar part at the end, it was one of the greatest moments I have ever seen onstage in my life. This EP isn’t even a hint of what was to come from this band.

The Afflicted – Piggy People: It’s been awhile since I’ve played The Afflicted. The Afflicted is basically one guy named Steve Hall. I don’t know anything about him and don’t know anyone who knows him. I don’t know where he is or if he’s still alive. All the records are out of print and hard to find. They’re all really out there and cool. I was able to find a listing for a 4 song CD he did under his own name called Here I Am, which apparently is religious music, what he went onto after his last band, The Accursed.

Scott Walker – Six: From the Climate Of Hunter album. We’ve listened to Scott Walker a few times on this show, you remember we played Cossacks Are from the newly released The Drift album. I don’t know a lot about him but like his records, whenever I listen to them I come to the conclusion that a lot of other people have listened to them too. At least David Bowie, Bryan Ferry and Nick Cave. Many years ago, a girl I was going out with gave me Scott 2 and Scott 3 and they tripped me out. Some incredibly brutal and funny lyrics crooned against full orchestration. His last two albums, Tilt and The Drift are minimalist masterpieces and are more intense than his previous work. I don’t know much about the guy. He’s one of those artists I listen to now and then but not all that often. It’s very intense stuff and demands your attention, especially his last two albums. Here’s a site with info: http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Concert/2698/

The Adverts - No Time To Be 21: The Adverts’ album Crossing The Red Sea is one of the classics as far as the first wave of punk rock goes. This track was a single from the album. The b-side, equally as good is New Day Dawning. We have played The Adverts a lot on this show so I don’t know what more I can about them besides that you should check them out if you have not already. TV Smith, the band’s songwriter and frontman has made many records since the Adverts broke up and has just released his first book of journal entries called Getting There: The Punk Rock Tour Diaries Volume One. He just sent me a copy and I have been reading parts of it and it’s great. I went to his site page, http://www.tvsmith.com/ and can’t find any info on it so I don’t know when it’s going to be released. I’ll write the man and see if he can shed some light on this. OK, TV just wrote me back: Just what you need when you come off the road...a book about being on the road! Hope you enjoy it, I guess you will recognise a lot of the stuff in there. It's officially out on October 4th, the day I start the tour here with Dead Men Walking, but it's actually already on Amazon:
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1845491289/026-9427646-4854025?v=glance&n=266239&s=books&v=glance

US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1845491289/ref=sr_11_1/002-6693590-0612835?ie=UTF8
Well, now you know!

Brian Wilson – Smart Girls: From the Sweeter Insanity bootleg which is, in at least in part, comprised of a solo album he turned in to Warner Brothers in the 80’s and from how the story goes, Mo Ostin gave to album the finger. There’s a few Brian bootlegs I have come across over the years in Japan, Sweet Insanity and Come Back, Brian! are the other ones I have found. I know, this track isn’t all that great but it sho ‘nuff is insane and perfect for our show.

Trio – Boom Boom (Bum Bum): A lot of people remember Trio for one song Da Da Da. Well, they had other ones, you know. This was a single of their and the band did it in German and English. I had never heard the German version until one day, while hanging out in Ian’s room, he played it and it blew me away because I had the other version and never knew that there was another. I prefer the German version for two reasons: I like the mix better and I think it’s cool to hear them sing in their native tongue. Back when I had about 30 CDs to my name, this was one of them. I found it really cheap in Germany on tour and I played it a lot. I have not heard this record in awhile so it was cool to dust this one off.

The Cellos – Juicy Crocodile: From their best-of CD Rang Tang Ding Dong. I think in the past, we have heard them play Rang Tang Ding Dong (I Am The Japanese Sandman.) It’s novelty Doo Wop, which I have a have a soft spot for. The song sounds like a lift of Stranded In The Jungle but that’s ok, there was a lot of that going on in those days.

Captain Beefheart - Hey Garland, I Dig Your Tweed Coat: From the Ice Cream For Crow album. I chose this song because I have been reading Alfred Jarry’s Exploits And Opinions Of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician which has proven to be one of the better reads in my short life. I lack the skill to really explain the book to you but if you cracked it open and read from any page inside, you could very easily come to the conclusion that Jarry took a lot of drugs and was easily out of his mind. He sure liked absinthe, that’s known. The book is about the exploits of Dr. Faustroll as he takes Rene-Isadore Panmuphle on a boat ride on dry land and visits one hallucinatory location after another. They are accompanied by Bosse-De-Nagge, the dog-faced baboon, who has had his butt cheeks sewn to his face which are occasionally employed to lubricate parts of the boat. The baboon’s entire vocabulary consists of, “Ha-Ha,” which he continues to say, even after he’s been shot in the face. It’s one of the best books I have ever read. I have read Jarry’s Ubu plays but not the novels so I recently started in. Anyway, I have been tripping on that baboon and in this song, The Captain mentions one so I figured we had better throw this song on the pile.