BROADCAST #10
AIR DATE: 02-28-06

Here’s the notes from the show tonight. I hope you enjoyed the music. If you wanted to follow up on the Pure Hell CD, the site info is listed in the annotation for the song we played tonight. I will be back next week with more great music and hopefully the wonderful Heidi will make her first appearance on the show since 2004. I think we’ll have some interesting stories to tell. We have to go to the Independent Spirit Awards this Saturday and that should be fuel for the fire. Anyway Fanatics, thanks for listening and I’ll be back next week. --Henry

An archive of the 2005 – 2006 shows can be found here: http://www.rollins-archive.com/. Sightings – Two thoughts: From the Sightings album. You can go to the Load Records site to gt more info on these guys. I have three of their records and think they’re great. Engineer X turned me onto these guys. X is a solid brother and a righteous sonic Jihadist. Many times you will see his fist in the air as he praises the almighty.

Captain Beefheart - The Dust Blows Forward 'N The Dust Blows Back: From the Trout Mask Replica album. Some people can’t get to Beefheart. That says a lot. You know how we are, we judge people all the time. We ask people what they think of this band or that movie and from their opinions, we form opinions about them. You mention Captain Beefheart to someone and if they say something along the lines of, “I heard one of his records and thought it was bullshit,” there’s some invite lists you start removing this person from almost immediately. Trout Mask is perhaps the most challenging of the Beefheart catalog but if you’re new to his music, this is an interesting introduction. There’s so many amazing moments on this record, it could be taught as a course. The Captain’s band, they don’t call them The Magic Band for nothing as you will see. What you might think is some random sounds coming off these guys is actually very highly practiced, focused and disciplined work. These were serious artists. The track we heard tonight, I’m not going to type it out again, is one of my favorite moments on the record. “So I took off my clothes and felt free . . . felt the wind blowing up . . . me.” Earth is a lucky planet to have Beefheart choose to bring his music to it. I am sure he had some options.

Eater - No Brains: From the classic and only proper album the band ever had, The Album on The Label Records. Eater were one of the first wave punk bands from England. One of the things that gave them dubious disctinction was their age. They were all in their very early teens. They got a label deal and shows with not all that many songs. One way or another, they managed to get it together and make some great singles and a great album. If you check out The Eater Chrinicles on Anagram, you get all the tracks and some extra cuts as well. Andy Blade, the band’s singer released an interesting autobiography last year that talks about the early days of Punk Rock in England and Eater’s short but eventful life. Andy was one of those guys who was really there and knew everybody so his anecdotes are really cool. The book is called The Secret Life of a Teenage Punk Rocker: The Andy Blade Chronicles on Cherry Red. Andy showed up at my last London show, it was good to see him. Eater info: http://www.punk77.co.uk/

The Fall - Smile: What, you thought we weren’t going to play The Fall? You know better. This track is off one of my absolute favorite Fall albums, 1983’s Perverted By Language. That’s a hard choice to make, your favorite Fall album, there’s so many great ones. For me, Perverted is one of the big ones. The band was at an all time peak of excellence, lyrically Mark E. Smith was in incredible form. I just found a Japanese version of this album. I was a little let down by the mastering, a little tinny. There’s always something going on with Fall albums and thankfully the hosts at the Fall website doesn’t let anything get by them. The new expanded version of this album, recently released in 2005 features the original mix of the album. The 1998 Castle Communications version is a newer mix. I didn’t know the album had been remixed. I can’t find any information on that but I’ll ask around and see what I can find. If you go to the Fall site and check out the album discography section, you’ll see how many subtle differences there are with edits and mixes of songs. The vinyl and CD versions of the 1988 Fall album I Am Kurious, Oranj contain different versions of the songs. There’s a lot of this with The Fall. Makes it very interesting. I guess I am going to have to sit down tonight and listen to both mixes of Perverted By Language and see what differences I can make out. Fanatic is as Fanatic does! The Fall site address: http://www.visi.com/fall/

Fontaine Toups - Sister: Another track from The Fontaine Toups album. This is the only one there is as far as I know. I hope she/they make another one.

UK Subs – She’s Not There / Kicks / Victim / Same Thing: One of my favorite UK singles of all time and easily my favorite UK Subs single. This came out in November of 1979.  I got this record as soon as it came out. This was a great time for the UK Subs. They had released their first album Another Kind Of Blues and some great singles around it. Not a bad song in the bunch. The band had to follow up, pretty hard to top the Another Kind Of Blues album, the Stranglehold and Tomorrow’s Girls singles. Some of the best records I have ever heard. So, with fan anticipation at an all time high, they release the Zombies mid-sixties classic She’s Not There, backed with three monster originals: Kicks, Victim and one of my top three favorite UK Subs song Same Thing. Subs bass player Paul Slack does the vocals on She’s Not There, which is a dry and melodic counterpoint to Subs singer Charlie Harper’s coarser style. The single, as all UK Subs singles do, came out in limited edition green vinyl. Here’s all the variants of this single I have been able to get verification on:

She's Not There / Victim / Kicks / Same Thing – GEMS14
Green vinyl, pushout center
Green vinyl, A–label promo, pushout center
Black vinyl, A–label promo, solid center
Black vinyl, White label test pressing
Acetate 7”

In the following year, the band released their 2nd album, Brand New Age. What a follow-up! Again, no bad songs. The band did Kicks again for the album. The UK Subs were a very popular band in our small music scene in Washington DC. I was in Black Flag by the time they played in DC but I heard the show was completely insane, people going nuts and the band really ripping it up. Black Flag played with the Subs, December 1981 in Leeds England. Cool guys, great show.
     1979 – ‘80 was a great time for punk rock music. Our scene in DC was full of good bands and great shows. Some of the best times I ever had. The Subs were a major part of my listening  back then. Since those days, I have checked out a lot of different music and it’s been great but there’s a few bands whose music never doesn’t sound good to me. The UK Subs are one of those bands. Great site alert!: Check out Nick Garratt’s massive band biography. Go to the site and check out “The Early Years” section: http://www.newredarchives.com/bands/uksubs/

Miles - It’s About That Time: From the newly released six CD Miles Davis Cellar Door Sessions 1970. Part of these sessions, from a four night stand December 16 – 19 came out on the Miles album Live Evil many years ago. I am sometimes in the right place at the right time and know a guy with the hook up and I have had this set for about two and a half years on CDR. I didn’t make copies for anyone besides my old friend Mick Geyer because he was dying and wanted to hear them before he headed out. He did hear them and he loved them. I love the later Miles right up until the 1975 retirement. Those electric albums are amazing. Damn, pretty much from start to finish, Miles Davis is amazing. There’s not enough accolades that can be heaped on the man. If you look at all the line-ups he had over the DECADES, it reads like a who’s who list of top shelf, staggering, legends in their own right players. Those of you who know, KNOW. Those of you who don’t, you really owe yourself to not go to jail or get hit by a car so you can dive in to the deep end of the Miles Davis canon. Hats off to Columbia Records who for the last several years has been releasing the most thourough and well considered box sets chronicaling the different line-ups of Miles. These usually come with hours of previously unreleased stuff. This is the latest installment. The ’65 – ’68 box set is . . . it’s as good as music could possibly get. Wayne Shorter on sax?!!!! Also, all the box sets have been re-packaged so they’re way more affordable. The originals were really pricey but now it’s almost nice priced. I say get them all. Of any single American musician who can be tagged with “genius” it would be Miles. At least no one would argue the point and get anywhere. He is simply that good. He is. The bands he had, like I said, THE line-ups of all time. Mandatory listening.

John Cale – Turn The Lights On:  From the new Black Acetate album. As you know, Cale was a member of the Velvet Underground and left after the 2nd album. He went onto make some amazing solo work and produce some great records as well. He produced some of Nico’s best work as well as the first Stooges album. Cale does a lot of music. He’s always popping up on movie soundtracks. I lose track of him, even though I am a fan. I don’t have a lot of those soundtrack CDs and I should check them out as they make me curious. Have I seen this guy do some great shows. He has blown my mind live. I have seen him on his own and with a band and it’s always great. I like it best when he’s on his own without the band. It’s one of those things that’s so intense, it becomes much more than a show, it’s a part of your life. Some of his shows have been like chapters for me. I have not checked in with Cale since Walking On Locusts, which had too much back up vocal stuff going on for me and I didn’t listen to it too many times. I have not checked out that album that came after, Hobo Sapiens yet. I was at the record store the other night and saw Black Acetate and knew it was time to get into it with Cale again and I like this one a lot more. He’s still brilliant and intense. I don’t know where he gets it from. I met him about ten years ago. Really intense guy. He was amazing onstage that night. I would go a great distance to see him play. He’s definitely not for everyone. I don’t know many people who have his records.

Jimi Hendrix – Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? + Drifter’s Escape: It must be pretty cool being Bob Dylan. It must be cool to be listened to by more people than read Dylan Thomas. It can’t be all that bad to have written the Blonde On Blonde album. It all must be pretty damn cool. Easily one of the coolest things about being Bob Dylan is knowing that Jimi Hendrix loved your music and paide tribute to it by doing amazing versions of your songs. That’s gotta be pretty good. Yes. I am absolutely sure of this. When asked about the recorded evidence of Hendrix’s enthusiasm towards Dylan’s music, some people can recall how much they like Jimi’s version of Like A Rolling Stone from the Moneterey Pop Festival. Some people can even go as far as saying they like his version of All Along The Watch Tower from the Electric Ladyland album but a lot of people don’t know it’s a Dylan song to begin with. So, those are the two that you have heard plenty of times and as cool as they would sound at any time, let’s listen to something else. Two other great Dylan songs were recorded by Hendrix. I don’t hear these get mentioned often so they’re perfect for the show. So, from the BBC Session CD we get Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window, an early Dylan song, which I’ve only been able to find on the Biograph box set. I know it was a single with Highway 61 Revisited on the flip side but don’t know if it came out on a gretest hits type of thing. Pardon my Dlylan knowledge deficit. Cool song when either of them do it. Now with Drifter’s Escape, there’s two different mixes. One you can find on the South Saturn Delta album and the other you can find on the long out of print Loose Ends album. We’re going to go with the Loose Ends version for a couple of reasons. This version has more vocal in the mix and less tamborine at the top and of course, it’s a bit harder to get a hold of so if you already have the South Saturn Delta version, now you have another.
Lyrics to Can You: http://bobdylan.com/songs/crawl.html
Breakdown of versions of Can You: http://www.emplive.org/explore/hendrix_dylan/crawl.asp
Serious Can You single page: http://www.searchingforagem.com/1966Crawl.htm
Lyrics to Drifter’s: http://bobdylan.com/songs/drifters.html

Pure Hell – I Feel Bad: Breaking News Fanatics!!!! The myth is true! There was a Pure Hell album. As many of you know, Pure Hell, the all black Philadelphia punk band released the single No Rules / These Boots Were Made for Walking many years ago. Ian and I were told many years ago that there was a full album recorded by the band in 1978. It became our Maltese flacon if you will. I thought I was close to it a few years ago and then the lead vanised. Last week I get an e-mail from Mike at Welfare Records telling me that he got the tape and just put out. He had heard that I played the single and asked if I wanted one. It showed up today. I have only played it once and it’s nuts! Its called Noise Addiction and it’s a 2 disc pack. One CD and DVD of the band! I have not checked the DVD yet but will ASAP. It’s available right now. http://www.welfarerecords.net/. Is the site. Please check out this record. It’s really cool. I can’t believe this record really exists!

X Ray Spex – Genetic Engineering (John Peel Session): I bet most of you have heard of X Ray Spex. Not much to check out music wise. Some great singles and one great album and that was it. Fronted by punk rock chick supreme Poly Styrene, they were on front line of the London punk rock scene with the best of them. Their album Germ Free Adolescents is a must have I think. It’s come out a few different times. There’s a two CD version called Anthology and it’s got the album and some extra tracks. There’s a newer single disc version that has the album and the John Peel Sessions, which aren’t included on the Anthology version. The one with the Peel tracks is a little pricey but worth it to me because I had never heard a clean copy of those tracks. They sound great. Tonight we’ll hear the Peel version of an album track called Gentic Engineering recorded 03-06-78. Their most well known song is called Oh Bondage Up Yours! and it’s great but all their songs are about that great I reckon. 

Raymond Scott – And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon:  From The Unexpected album. I got this CD the other day and have been playing a lot. I know we have been listening to a lot of Raymond Scott, well, twice before but listen to this! There’s another track before this one called And The Cow Jumped Over The Moon that’s equally as out of here. I programmed the player to play them in a row. Perfection.

Tuff Monks – After The Fireworks: This is an interesting line-up. You have Birthday Party members Nick Cave on vocals, Mick Harvey on piano and Rowland S. Howard on guitar. From the Go Betweens you have Grant McLennen and Robert Forster on guitars with Lindy Morrison on drums. The result is the one off recording session that gives us this one song. Pretty cool. I remember when it came out as a single on Mushroom many years ago. I ran into Nick Cave somewhere, London perhaps and told him how much I loved the song and he winced saying it wasn’t the final vocal. It sounds great and is probably only the perfectionist in him that made him feel that way. The only way to find it on CD as far as I know is a cool CD on Miising Link called Drunk On The Pope’s Blood that has this track, its remix b-side as well as the Dunk On The Pope’s Blood live stuff from the original 12” as well as some cool outtakes, one of them being the Prayers On Fire song Ho Ho with Nick Cave on vocals instead of Rowland. I think originally it was part of a box set or something. Let me look and see if it’s around. Ok, I can find the vinyl version of Pope’s Blood on Gemm.com but not the CD. Worth it if you ever see it as most of these tracks, I think this is the only way to get them on CD. The CD version comes in at about 4 and a half minutes and the single version about two minutes less. Tonight we heard the version off the CD. I will have to sit and give the shorter version a listen and try and figure out the edit points.

The Shadows – Midnight: Perhaps not of one of their most well known tracks like Apache but my personal favorite. I don’t know much about The Shadows. I don’t have a whole lot of instrumental rock albums. Some compilations but not 25 Ventures albums or anything. I got turned onto The Shadows by, and this is hard to believe but Tony Iommi. Tony plays guitar in a band, I always forget the name, oh yes, Black Sabbath. >From what I’ve read, he’s been with them for some time. I hope his career in music works out. I asked him once what he had listened to growing up and this was the first band he mentioned. Perhaps you can hear the influence. I can’t. My ears are a little worn out from listening to Black Sabbath.

The Ramones – Blitzkreig Bop: Check out the Ramones playing in front of a partially filled club in Boston 05-12-76! This is from the Blitzkrieg ’76 boot LP. It’s pretty easy to find and sounds great all the way through.

Parlet – Play Me Or Trade Me: From the album of the same name. One of George Clinton’s many projects. Their three records aren’t all that easy to find but there’s a best of that’s pretty good. One of the cool things about these P-Funk/Parliament split off profects is everyone can play their asses off and even if some of the songs are a little thrown together in the studio, the playing is insane and worth checking out. I bet there’s someone on the planet with every Clinton and Clinton related release. That must be one insane discography. I remember once when we were hanging out with him, we were firing questions at him about different recording sessions and his answers came without hesitation. He know when they recorded what, what the outtakes were, where they ended up, etc. It was pretty amazing. I had him sign my Hydralic Pump 12” on Hump records and he couldn’t believe I had a copy.

The Weirdos – Solitary Confinement: Can’t go too long without checking in with the Weirdos. On the first ever broadcast of this show, I played a song of theirs called Life Of Crime, which is one of the all time great ones. Tonight, another great song from their second single. Solitary was the flip side of the We’ve Got The Neutron Bomb single. These guys were at the forefront of the LA punk music scene and one of the best by far. Dix and John Denney on guitar and vocals really put out a sound you can’t forget. Great lyrics and absolutely killer playing and songwriting. Two CDs to check out Weird World Vols. 1 & 2 will set you right up. This was an amaxing time for music in the clubs of LA. Germs, Black Randy, X, Screamers. I know people from those days and said they went to every show, that you didn’t dare miss a single night. When you hear these bands, you understand why. John Denney’s voice still blows me away.
Quick bio by J Denney: http://punkandoi.free.fr/weirdos_biography.htm.

The Sparks of Rythm – Women Women Women: One of the groups on the Apollo Records comp. from the Golden Age of Doo Wops series. I don’t know anything about this band as I only have them on this series but I like this song. 

Experience Unlimited - EU Freeze: This was my favorite single of 1985. A great 12” out of Washington DC. As far as I know, this version of the song has never been on CD. Last time we had the show going, we listened to EU doing Da Butt, which is a great one but this is my favorite EU track. Some more of that great DC Go Go.

Dee Dee King – Funky Man: Before Dee Dee made the amazing Standing In The Spotlight album as his rapper alter-ego Dee Dee King, he gave us a hint of what was to come with the Funky Man 12” on Rock Hotel Records. You don’t hear this one very often, there’s probably a few reasons for that. After you hear this, you might have one or two of your own. It’s perhaps not Dee Dee’s strongest effort but it’s interesting and he wrote so many great songs, he’s allowed some room to move.