Read:My:Back

Factory Direct [WFMU Playlist 8.31.09]

[Click here to listen with your preferred media player]

24 Carat Black - "I Begin to Weep" - Gone: The Promises of Yesterday *
The Pernice Brothers - "Conscience Clean (I Went to Spain)" - Live a Little
Gabor Szabo - "Spellbinder" - The Present [OST] *
Laughing Clowns - "Theme from 'Mad Flies, Mad Flies'" - History of Rock 'n' Roll Volume 1
Big Star - "Watch the Sunrise" - #1 Record/Radio City [Whoops, blew that segue.]
Moon Duo - "Love on the Sea" - 12" * [Wooden Shjips related]
Malaria! - "Thrash Me" - Compiled
Sloan - "Money City Maniacs" - A-Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005

Sugar - "The Act we Act" - Copper Blue
K-Solo - "Everybody Knows Me" - Tell the World my Name * [Re-issue, 1990]
Jonathan Kane - "Thank You Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin" - Jet Ear Party 2xLP *
Galaxie 500 - "Cheese and Onions" - Rutles Highway Revisited [compilation]
Jeffrey & Jack Lewis - "Don't be Upset" - City & Eastern Songs
Variations - "Waiting for the Pope" - Nador
Public Image Ltd. - "Careering" - Second Edition
Dalek - "Bricks Crumble" - Abandoned Language 2xLP
The Units - "High Pressure Days" - History of the Units: The Early Years (1977-1983) *

Replacements - "September Gurls (Live)"
Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto - "Girl From Ipanema" - Getz/Gilberto
Debris - "Witness" - Static Disposal
Poison Idea - "The Temple" - War All the Time
Konono No1 - "Paradiso" - Congotronics
Scornflakes - "Live at City Gardens 12.29.84" - Scorn in the USA

Rock-a-Teens - "Cherry Red Compilation" - Cry
Leadbelly - "Pretty Flower in Your Backyard" - Absolutely the Best
The Cathie Trio - "I'd Rather Have Jesus" - Hymns of Faith and Trust
Matt Krefting - "I Hear you Calling" - I Couldn't Love You More * [Bill Fay cover]
Friends Of Dean Martinez - "Tennessee Waltz" - On the Shore
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - "Jersey Girl" - Live 1975-1985 [Tom Waits cover]
Final - "Green" - Reading All the Right Signals Wrong *

 

Image/Song Incrongruity of the Week

Seen: John Tormey in Ghost Dog, 1999. Jim Jarmusch, director.
Heard: "Transform" by Luke Hess. Lou Z., DJ.

Falafel Tournament [WFMU Playlist 8.24.09]

[Click here to listen with your preferred media player]

Lou Reed - "Halloween Parade" - New York
William S. Fischer - "There's a Light that Shines" - Circles
To Rococo Rot & I-Sound - "For a Moment" - Music is a Hungry Ghost
Spectre feat. Plagiat of Seelenfresser - "Voices in my Head" - Internal Dynasty *
Anne Karin Tonset & Harald Gundhaus - "Sautrall" - Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair: A Selection Of Norwegian Folk Jazz 1971-1977 * [compilation]
Joy Division - "Shadowplay" - Unknown Pleasures
Cold Cave - "Cursed by the Cross" - Cremations * [Retrospective of recent recordings]
Eddie Kendricks - "My People... Hold On" - Stand Up and Be Counted 2xLP [compilation]
B.A.L.L. - "Favorite Day" - Period: Another American Lie

Killing Joke - "Love Like Blood" - 7"
Jesu - "You Wear Their Masks" - Lifeline
Entrance - "Pretty Baby" - Prayer of Death [a.k.a. The Entrance Band]
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - "Say Goodbye to the Littlegirl Tree" - The Firstborn is Dead
Johnny Cash - "The Mercy Seat" - American III: Solitary Man [Nick Cave cover]
Carla Bozulich - "Steal Away" - Evangelista
Snatch - "Shopping for Clothes" - Shopping for Clothes
Bob Marley - "400 Years" - Best Rarities
Lee "Scratch" Perry and Ari Up - "Chase the Devil Dub" - Return From Planet Dub 2xCD

Kingface - "One Truth" - Kingface [Discography CD]
Sweet - "The 6-Teens" - Desolation Boulevard
The Tom Robinson Band - "Long Hot Summer" - Power in the Darkness 2xLP
Black Sabbath - "Megalomania" - Sabotaged: Live at the Spectrum 8.6.75
Oneida - "Saturday" - Rated O 3xCD *
Zola Jesus - "Sink the Dynasty" - The Spoils *
Peter Walker - "Rainy Day Raga" - Rainy Day Raga * [Re-issue.]
Pisces - "Children Kiss Your Mother Goodnight" - A Lovely Sight * [Re-issue, 1969]

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - "Good Cop Bad Cop" - Savvy Show Stoppers
Robert Wyatt - "The Internationale" - Rarities
Junior Wells - "Little by Little" - Savage Kick Vol. 7 [compilation]
Kim Fowley - "Back on the Road to Nowhere" - Hotel Insomnia
John Miles - "Stranger in the City"
Kitty Kallen - "Someday"
Made in Sweden - "Lay Lady Lay" - Snakes in a Hole

Image/Song Incongruity of the Week

Seen: Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe in 12 Monkeys, 1995. Terry Gilliam, director.
Heard: "Subliminal Message", by Kurt Vile. Benjamen Walker, DJ.

Treasure Trove of 80s/90s WPRB Station IDs

I started slimming down my collection of WPRB aircheck tapes years ago, but would often fall victim to the common dilemma of keeping a whole 90 minute tape for the sake of one good song or bit of transitional banter with another DJ. Mercifully, with MP3 encoding now a routine practice in my own home, I'm able to salvage the good bits and unload boxes of moldy old cassettes without guilt. (Several years ago, during The Great Materialist Freakout of My Early Thirties, I unrepentantly filled a large trash bag with such cassettes, only to be awakened by a homeless man loudly fishing them all out of my trash at four in the morning. As I watched him sling the heavy bag of tapes over his shoulder and disappear down the street, I wondered what he thought he could really get in exchange for them. Where did those soundtracks to a thousand of my Saturday nights end up? Hopefully with someone who really likes the Angry Samoans, Gaunt, and Lydia Lunch!)

Anyhow, as I've been plowing through the airchecks, I've taken extra care to encode every station ID I come across. These pre-recorded spots were not only the result of hastily absorbed production skills (there was no ProTools back then... Everything was either mixed live or cut on actual tape), but also regular harbingers of the station's humor and irreverent aesthetic. More importantly, they were terrific tools for transitioning between songs that would otherwise be jarring to hear back-to-back. I remember being genuinely shocked—and a little bit disappointed—when I arrived at WFMU and discovered that pre-recorded IDs were almost universally frowned upon by the airstaff.

Since I'm a glutton for preserving this kind of audio detritus (but also recognizing that they aren't really interesting enough to warrant individual blog posts), here are a bunch of WPRB station IDs for your aural appreciation. Most of these were originally played in-studio by way of a now-mythologized device called a cart machine. Carts—a pile of which are seen above courtesy of mauradotcom—were the pinnacle of stone age broadcast technology. Any radio geek old enough to remember FCC licenses being required by law is likely to get frothed up at the mere mention of carts, so use discretion when bringing them up in mixed company. That is, unless you're in the mood for an earful about other stimulating technologies such as... the bulk eraser.

Artificial Livestock

Christie Whitman

We're All Gonna Die

Greg Norton/Husker Du

Ladies First

Oob-a-Keep

We Rule

Princess Leia

Rules the Wasteland

Sid Vicious

Skywalker

Stick With Us

Positive Influence

Spare Parts [WFMU Playlist 8.17.09]

[Click here to listen with your preferred media player]

John Carpenter & the Coup de Villes - "The Pork Chop Express" - Big Trouble in Little China [soundtrack]
Blackbird - "Howl [Extended]" - 12"
Oakley Hall - "Take My Hands, We're Free" - I'll Follow You
Slovenly - "TFIF" - 7"
Charity Bailey - "Wake Up" - More Music Time and Stories Sung by Charity Bailey
Yusef Lateef - "Love Theme from 'Spartacus'" - Eastern Sounds
Franklin Bruno - "Shooting Past Me" - Local Currency [singles comp]
Cindy Lee Berryhill - "Ballad of a Garage Band" - Who's Gonna Save the World?
Einstürzende Neubauten - "Youme & Meyou" - Perpetuum Mobile

Moondog - "Up Broadway" - The Story of Moondog [p.e.s.t.o.]
Hudson-Styrene - "East Side Story" - A Monster and the Devil
The Cryin' Shames - "Please Stay" - Spacelines: Sonic Sounds for Subterraneans -- A DJ Selection by Sonic Boom [compilation]
Michael Franti & Spearhead - "Oh My God" - ...And All the Pieces Matter: Five Years of Music from The Wire [compilation]
The Chills - "Pink Frost" - Kaleidescope World
Umbrella Men - "Get Out on the Road" - Umbrella Men
Alton Ellis & the Soul Vendors - "Whipping the Prince"
Matt Krefting - "It's Gonna be Easy" - I Couldn't Love You More
The 39 Clocks - "Shake the Hippie" - Pain it Dark [re-issue, 1981]
Jeffrey Lee Pierce - "Love Circus" - Wildweed
Lee Hazlewood - "Suddenly Tennessee" - For Every Solution There's a Problem

Gina V. D'Orio - "My Anchor" - Sailor Songs [Grab it in the Free Music Archive!]
Emily - "Song of Decision" - Women Blue: 16 Lost Femvox Classics [compilation]
Kyuss - "Thumb" - Blues for the Red Sun
Blues Control - "Good Morning" - Local Flavor
Ros Sereysothea - "I'm 16" - Cambodian Rocks [compilation]
Johnny Hallyday - "Mal" - Pop a Paris Vol. 1 [compilation]
Koaste - "Out on the Streets" - Brighton Hip Hop Festival 2005 [Woodstock 40th Anniversary. Wait, what?]
The Streets - "See if they Salute" - MP3
The Fleshtones - "Theme From "The Vindicators"" - Up Front EP

Tito Puente - "Cuando te Vea" - Dance Mania 2xCD
Machito y Su Orquestra - "Soy Salsero" - Latins from Manhattan
Third Bass - "Wordz Of Wizdom" - The Cactus Album
Negative Trend - "Meat House (Alt. version with Rik L Rik on vocals)" - 78-79 Collection
Yahowa 13 - "Treat You So Right" - Magnificence in the Memory
Kraftwerk - "Trans-Europe Express" - Trans-Europe Express
The Fat Boys - "Jailhouse Rap" - The Fat Boys
Arling & Cameron - "Walk That Way" - Hi-Fi Underground

John Zorn's Spillane

After playing an excerpt from John Zorn's excellent Spillane album during last week's radio program, I went digging for some background information on the landmark 1986 release. Spillane has been a staple of my radio programs for a long time, having been introduced to it way back when I first started helming the Sunday overnight shift at WPRB, circa 1992. A fellow DJ convinced me that the album's title track was a great selection to drop into the mix between 4 and 5 AM, mostly because it was long enough to enable an exhausted DJ to run down the hall and grab a cold and rejuvenating shower. (Which was often exactly the kick I needed to make it through until the 6 AM host came in to relieve me. I must confess that I sometimes leaned on Prince's "Lady Cab Driver" for the same purpose.)

I'm far from any kind of expert on Zorn's massive arsenal of releases, but I can totally appreciate Spillane''s Allmusic entry, which calls the album "a fine introduction to the composer's vast body of work." I'd always understood it to have been an aural interpretation of Mickey Spillane's lauded detective fiction novels, and that is true to an extent. However, this excerpt from some previously unseen (by me) John Zorn documentary goes into further and more tantalizing detail. There's lots of great, 80s-era NYC iconography to be observed, some brief but informative interviews with folks like Christian Marclay and Ikue Mori, and monologues of Zorn himself during which he wears punk band t-shirts of ascending hilarity. Butthole Surfers---->Agnostic Front—nice! 

The clip is only about eight minutes long, and here's a link to watch part two (which is even shorter.) Does anyone have any details on this documentary? There doesn't seem to be any more of it online, so I'm imagining these videos might be Zorn-specific selections from some broader work that examines the downtown art and music scenes of the mid 80s. I'm definitely interested in seeing the whole thing, so please give a holler if you know any further details!

8.19.09 Update: R:M:B reader Matt emailed me to express his suspicion that these excerpts were originally from a Sonic Youth/John Zorn mini-documentary called "Put Blood In The Music", circa 1989. A quick referral to YouTube confirms this... In fact, I just watched the Sonic Youth excerpts [part one | part two], and they're equally great. Thanks, Matt!

Meet Zack: A Real American Hero

While on assignment for The Awl, writer Abram Sauer attended an anti-healthcare reform tea party in North Dakota, where he encountered a gentleman named Zack. In Sauer's words:

I met Zack after walking over to ask him if he had to make two trips to bring his sign and his enormous balls to the event or if he was able to do it in just one trip. Zack was the only counter-protester at the entire event. He stood in plain sight, not fifty feet from the tea-folk, at least one of whom was openly armed. He asked where all these patriots and small-government champions of freedom were during the last eight years. Zack works at a store in Grand Forks and probably faces many of the very protesters regularly. [Full article here.]

A fantastic point, and one I'm glad someone's finally made with some real brevity and precision. Angry people of America: Where have you been?

It's apparent that the so-called "coastal elites" have finally captured the reigns from those we once defined ourselves against. We're the patriotic family values crowd now, whereas social conservatives have re-cast themselves as the radicals and revolutionaries. "Hippies", of a sort. Who saw that coming?

The lunatic fringe aside, I'm hopeful that the tea parties and town hall shouters represent little more than the customary rumblings associated with any such transitional period. People are scared, pissed off, and worried, and The Government is an easy and obvious target to focus their anxieties upon. But perhaps the anti-reform crowd is most frightened by the coming abandonment of their long-cherished fuck-you-I've-got-mine ideology. With 47 million Americans lacking health care, it's quite apparent that their system has failed with spectacular efficiency. (I happen to think that even if only ONE million Americans were uninsured, it would qualify as a crisis demanding immediate legislation. Trying to comprehend 47 million is simply impossible.) But above all, I take issue with what I suspect may be the deeper motives behind these protests. Although I admire their take-it-to-the-streets style of activism, the movement's apparent contentedness with the last eight years reveals more about its core values than any sputtering, ill-informed tirade ever will.

Thusly, I'm sending this one out to Zack.

Holmes has earned it.

College and Community Radio Jukebox

Via MTS and the HerJazz Media Empire comes word of this basic but very cool college and community radio jukebox. Aside from the retro-clickable interface that allows you to dial up a boatload of non-commercial media providers, there's also a map that allows you to sort stations with filters like "college", "pirate", "internet", and "NPR-ish". Rounding out the excellence is a user-maintained database with basic information on each station. The general vibe is vastly more personable than iTunes radio, and is highly recommended for fans of independent and alternative media.

Check it out here.

Image/Song Incongruity of the Week

Seen: Unknown in Wargames, 1983. John Badham, director.
Heard: "Seventh World" by The Sleepers. Jason Sigal, DJ.