BROADCAST #16
AIR DATE: 04-11-06

Hello Fanatics! Here’s what we heard tonight. Tonight’s list was the product of some jetlagging moments spent in the front lounge of the bus as Road Manager Mike and I sped madly across Europe recently. The Jeff Bridges track is a recent addition to the set as is explained below.
     It was great to be live on the air with you all last week. 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. Thanks again and here’s the below note I wrote some weeks ago in Germany.

Notes made while constructing this play list: I don’t know when I will be airing this set of songs. It’s 03-19-06. I am alone in the front lounge of a tour bus moving from Schorndorf to Berlin Germany. It’s 0217 hrs. I have done so much writing in the front lounges of moving busses. It’s one of my favorite places in the world to be. A few hours ago, I was onstage in Schorndorf Germany. What a great time that was. I hope I get to play there again. I have never been to that city before I don’t think. Definitely want to get back there again. As usual, this list will take me about a week to complete. I will probably get it finished somewhere in England.

Jeff Bridges - Van Gough In Hollywood: This just in, Fanatics. On Saturday I was interviewing Jeff Bridges for the IFC show and he gave me a song he just did for Tideland, a movie he’s doing with Terry Gilliam. I asked if I could play it on the show if I liked it and he said sure. So I played and I liked and now I’m playing it again and hope you like it too. Cool guy.

Nick Cave – I Put A Spell On You: From (as far as I know) a cassette only release called Dept. of Enjoyment given to NME subscribers. This came out in 1984. I didn’t see this on the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds b-sides and rarities set. Also, another thing, I have never seen a proper release of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 1984 Peel Sessions. Have you ever heard this session? Fanatics, it’s a great one! It’s I Put A Spell On You, From Her To Eternity and Saint Huck. I prefer this version of Spell to the Peel version. Nick told me once about doing the Peel version and the difficulty he had dealing with the BBC engineer doing the session. Nick liked to hit the “p” in the “put” of the song’s first line, which is also the title of the song. You hear him do it on the NME version but not on the BBC version as the engineer just wouldn’t let him! Apparently they got into a bit of an argument about it. I am thinking that we should perhaps roll that entire Peel Session of the Bad Seeds in a broadcast coming up soon just to get that one onto your hard drives.

Rites of Spring EP – All Through A Life, Hidden Wheel, In Silence / Worlds Away, Patience: This was the 2nd and last release by the Rites of Spring. This EP, along with their album End On End, are to me, two of the strongest releases in the mighty Dischord catalog. That’s saying a lot, I know. There are so many great records on Dischord, we could be here all night not only playing them and talking about them but also arguing about which ones are at the top of the heap. Well, it’s just my opinion but I have always thought the Rites of Spring were an amazing band. I remember when the band gave me their demo when I stopped by Dischord House in the middle of Black Flag tour in 1984. One of the things that immediately struck me about the band (Eddie Janney, Guy Picciotto, Brendan Canty and Mike Fellows) was the intensity of the lyrics and how they weren’t the standard frustrated youthful fare. There was something going on here. I played the demo all through the summer and it became my favorite listen. Several months later, they released the End on End LP. For me, it was a revelation. I made a tape of it and had it out with me on the road, playing it constantly. I never got to see the band play but I heard all about the shows and how intense they were, how everyone would sing along and how all the gear would get destroyed. I would have given anything to have been at one of those shows but I was on tour all the time and never got close to seeing them play. The band played only a few shows and at the end of their time as Rites, recorded this EP that we heard tonight. They gave me a copy of it on tape and I played it and played. I liked these songs even better than the ones on the album. Anyway, the band broke up. They re-formed with the same line up and changed the name to Happy Go Licky. They also changed the sound. Amazing band. One EP on their label Peterbilt and years later a CD’s worth of live material. They then broke up again and re-formed again with a slightly different line-up. They lost Mike Fellows and picked up Mike Hampton. They called this unit One Last Wish. Now this time, I was in luck. Black Flag had just broken up and I was in DC trying to figure out my next move and actually got to see OLW’s first show. A great moment in my life. Anyway, as we are playing EPs in their entirety, there’s no way we could leave out this one. It’s in print and included on the Rites album CD. It’s a very good deal that CD.

The Afflicted Man – Be Aware: Trying to acquire the Afflicted stuff can send you on quite the chase. I have all of it but it took awhile to find a couple of the records. The Afflicted Man is Steve Hall. He made a few way out records under the name The Afflicted of The Afflicted Man. After that he made some good but not as far out recordings under the name The Accursed. After that, apparently, he was on and off the street, found god and made some solo records and a couple of records under the name The Called. I just got a letter from Fanatic Nic in the UK and he told me about these records that apparently Steve Hall did. One called Here I Am, that’s under his own name and then another under the name The Called titled Dance 2000. If anyone has seen these albums or has any leads as to where Steve Hall is, please contact me as I really want to talk to him. Thanks.

Txsuma – Sagari-Ha: From the Hayashi Music of Noh Theater CD. In the mid-nineties, I picked this CD up somewhere as I was interested in hearing more music that I was hearing in old Japanese films like Throne of Blood. My search somehow lead me to Noh Theater music. I managed to find a few Noh collections but this is my favorite one. It’s very haunting and beautiful music. I don’t know anything about Noh Theater. This falls under the I don’t know about art but I know what I like category. I just like it. http://www.artelino.com/articles/noh_theater.asp.

David Thomas & Two Pale Boys– Numbers Man: From the 2004 album 18 Monkeys On A Dead Man’s Chest. David Thomas as you know was in Pere Ubu. I have seen some good Pere Ubu shows but my favorite moments seeing David Thomas onstage for me has been with his solo efforts. As well, the records he makes without Pere Ubu, who I guess are gone now, are really interesting and always worth checking out.

Unrest - Cherry Cherry (7” mix): This is from the BPM album on Teenbeat. I have not played this one awhile and thought this track would be cool to bring in. This is an early edition of Mark Robinson of Flin Flon and all around Teenbeat records fame. There’s a lot of Unrest stuff out there. You can find some of the catalog at Teenbeat. Cool and interesting pop music is what they do/did. http://www.teenbeatrecords.com/.

Michael Finnissy – Come Beat The Drums And Sound The Fifes: From his English Country-Music CD. I know a guy named Matt. He works on our computers at the office when they aren’t behaving. He is all over avant music. He is always suggesting bands and composers to me that I have never heard of and one day he lent me a stack of CDs for me to check out. The Arditti String Quartet, George Crumb, and among others, some work of Michael Finnissy. George Crumb I had some stuff of but all the others I had never heard of before. I listned to all of it and was amazed. I am not at all conversant in this kind of music but what I’ve gotten my head around so far is really something else.

Alan Vega & DJ Hell – Meet The Heat: From the NY Muscle album. I don’t know who DJ Hell is and the only reason I got this is because Alan Vega is on it. One of our Fanatics wrote in and told me that the album had two tracks featuring Mr. Vega. I didn’t know that. Alan does stuff all the time so it’s no surprise that he got a project or two around me. Anyway, this is a pretty cool track. Like I said, I don’t know who DJ Hell is but he has good taste in guest vocalists.

The Fall – A Lot Of Wind: From 1991’s Shift Work album. This album is in between two other great Fall albums, 1990’s Extricate and 1992’s Code: Selfish. There’s a slightly different version of this song on the Sinister Waltz album that according to the now unofficial Fall site has had a line removed. There’s also a Peel version that’s really cool but a little muddy so we’ll use this cleaner version for tonight. I must admit, I am still reeling a little from the fact that the Fall site is no longer THE Fall site. I thought they did such a great job. I have been to the “official” one and so far it’s not rockin’ me as hard as the “unofficial” one. I hope MES wasn’t mean to those guys, they put so much into that site. If anyone did that much on my behalf, I would be stunned. Many of you have been to that site and it’s amazing. Must have taken hundreds of hours and a lot of people pitching in. Anyway, another great song by The Fall. That Unnoficial site address: http://www.visi.com/fall/index.html.

Patsy Cline – Lonely Street: She was about 31 when she died in an plane crash. She never had a chance to realize the full potential of her talent. I have some best-ofs and the box set along with some live recordings. I read that she would sing with such power, they had to keep backing her away from the mic. Definitely worth checking out one of the many hits collection or the Patsy Cline Collection box set. I always liked the movie about her life Sweet Dreams with Jessica Lange and Ed Harris.

Stooges – Not Right: One of the great love songs of our time. From the first Stooges album called The Stooges. Recently re-released as a 2CD set with alternate versions and edits of the album tracks. Not a bad song on this one. I would watch them from the side of the stage every night on the Big Day Out tour hoping they would play this song and one night as I was thinking of how cool it would sound if the band played Not Right at that moment, Iggy yelled, “Stooges, Not Right!” and the band went into the song. That was a moment I’ll never forget. This is one of my favorite lyrics. It says so much with so little. There’s a genius to the first two Stooges albums that will keep music writers marveling until the end of time. Seeing the Stooges five times this year really changed me. Those shows were some of the most completely moving musical experiences I have ever had.

Einsturzende Neubauten – Wasserturm: Let’s stay in the ambient mode for a moment. This track is on the Drawings Of Out Patient OT album. Lydia Lunch turned me onto this record in late 1983. It blew my mind when I first heard it. The album was released a second time with an additional 12” that contained this track. Blixa once told me the lyric came from a dream he had. Towards the end of the piece, he mentions spaghetti. He told me in the dream he was hitting spaghetti with a hammer or something and music was coming out. The ambient sound you hear behind Blixa’s vocal is the EN guys playing a water tower. Tonight’s play is from the Potomak Records pressing of the record, which the Neubauten site says is the best sounding of all the masterings this album has gone through. The first two albums of theirs, Kollaps and OT are genius. Intense discography: http://www.fromthearchives.com/en/discography1.html.

Lightnin’ Hopkins – Ain’t It Crazy: Sounds kinda like the same breaks as Let Me Play with Your Poodle, another Lightnin’ classic. This is from the Tomato album Lightnin’!, which we have played before and yes, I have a lot of Mr. Hopkins I could have brought in but damn, this session is just so together, Lightnin’s having fun, the players are rockin’. It’s one of his best albums I think. I can’t recommend all Lightnin’ albums though. He’s always good enough but sometimes they throw a horn on the session or the players aren’t feeling him and sometimes, Lightnin’ is just not all that into it. Even then, it’s good but nothing like when you can hear him smiling at you through the speakers.

Rowland S Howard – Sleep Alone: The amazing Rowland S! The guitar god of Birthday Party, Crime and the City Solution, These Immortal Souls and Nikki Sudden fame. This is from his must-have album Teenage Snuff Film. I have stood in front of that hectic wall of sound a few times in my life at shows and it’s unforgettable. He’s a player’s player. Listen to the last three minutes of this song! Mr. Hendrix are you listening? You left one of your people behind!

The Rondelles – Pay Attention to Me: From their one album called The Fox. Another good band on the Teenbeat label. I don’t think they’re around anymore. I got this record some weeks ago in the last batch of stuff I ordered from the label. Pretty cool record I have been playing at the office often. It’s short but really cracks along. All the songs are good. http://www.teenbeatrecords.com/.

The Mark Of Cain – The Hammer: One of my favorite songs from Adelaide Australia’s TMOC. From their debut album Battlesick. A great one! TMOC are still out there killin’ it. Now and then you can find the US copy of Battlesick that I released years ago. Sounds great from start to finish. These guys are crushing where it counts—live.