BROADCAST #18
AIR DATE: 04-25-06
Here’s the notes from tonight’s show. I thought we played some good music tonight. I had a good hearing it all while we were in the studio and I hope you liked it as well.
     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 for listening and I’ll get back to you as soon as I find out about that Mark e Smith interview-special on an upcoming broadcast. Until next week, hang in there!
     --Henry

Flin Flon – Darlings: The long wait is over and the new Flin Flon album is out. It’s called Dixie and I think it’s really good. It’s a little short as far as length and tracks but it’s a good one nonetheless. Flin Flon is one of the many outlets of Mark Robinson of Unrest, Grenadine, Olympic Death Squad, etc. As you know, I am a big fan of Mark and his label Teenbeat and play of the artists on this show. For me, Teenbeat, Dischord, Touch & Go and other energetic and innovative labels are going to save music. Whoa! http://www.teenbeatrecords.com/.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – From Her To Eternity (Peel version): Here’s what I’ve got for info on this session: The band recorded at BBC Studios in Maida Vale, Studio 5 on 03-28-84. Three songs recorded: Saint Huck, I Put A Spell On You, From Her To Eternity. First airdate was 04-09-84. I remember Cave telling me in 1984 about that session and how the engineer wouldn’t let him pop the “p” in the word “put” that occurs in the first line of I Put A Spell On You. He thought it was a good way to do it and the engineer wouldn’t allow him to do it! Nick said they actually argued about it and the guy just wouldn’t let it happen. From what I have read on the internet, this made the band less than enthused about the entire session. Perhaps this is why the band never released the tracks as CD extras or on the B-Sides & Rarities box set. Well, you know how we do it here, Fanatics. If we got, you shall hear it.

Les Tambours de Brazza – Yooka: From the criminally out of print Ahaando album. I don’t know anything about this band besides they started in 1991 and they are from the Congo. I think they live in Belgium now. I was hanging out with Melvin Gibbs in NYC last week and he played me this CD. It killed me. Melvin is into all kinds of amazing music. I looked all over on the internet and managed to find a copy. It seems to be unavailable at the moment. For those you didn’t hear the show tonight, the music of Les Tambours de Brazza is thundering percussion and incredible vocals. These guys land on it like a ton of bricks.

The Red Cross EP – Cover Band, Annette’s Got the Hits, I Hate My School, Clorox Girls, S&M Party, Standin’ In Front of Poseur: An entire EP. Just like we did with the great UK Subs She’s Not There EP, we do it again with the first ever Red Cross release. Greg Hetson and later Circle Jerk on guitar, Ron Reyes, aka Chavo Pederast who sang on Black Flag’s Jealous Again EP on drums and the Red Cross founders Steve and Jeff McDonald on bass and guitar respectively. I saw these guys play a few times over the years and they were so cool. I remember once they played a cover of the Dolls’ Puss n’ Boots and some idiots in the audience weren’t into it because it wasn’t punk enough for them or something. These morons were yelling shit at them and Steve and Jeff were doing Kiss raps back at them. What the brothers didn’t know was we were all spreading out around these bone heads and getting ready to pound them had they rushed the stage.

Nation of Ulysses - Spectra Sonic Sound: From the 13 Point Program To Destroy America album on Dischord. These guys were great. Another great DC group. One city, so many great bands. How do they do it? Two studio albums and one live album and the band stopped. Nation members Ian Svenonius, James Canty and Steve Gamboa went on to form The Make-Up. Both bands--great records. The Nation stuff is total adrenaline. http://www.dischord.com/main.shtml.

Germs – Caught In My Eye: 2nd single by the Germs. I heard the Germs movie is finally happening. One of the great bands of the last century. The power of this band cannot be under mentioned. You can get the MIA CD on Slash that has the singles and the album stuff with cool cuts from an EP that was release after singer Darby Crash’s untimely end in 1980.

Max Roach & Hasaan – Hope So Elmo: From the Max Roach And The Legendary Hasaan album released in 1964 on Atlantic. This album is the only release featuring Hasaan Ibn Ali on piano. There is talk of another session he did with different players that for some reason wasn’t released. This guy should have done more recording, that’s for sure. He’s a fascinating player. Hasaan’s playing reminds me some of the playing of the very great NYC pianist Matthew Shipp. Jazz piano has turned to be one of the more amazing things in music for me. I love piano music. Bud Powell, Monk, Art Tatum, Ahmad Jamal, James P Johnson, Willie “The Lion” Smith, McCoy Tyner, just to name a few. Jamal has blown me away the times I’ve seen him. The Elmo referenced in the tune is pianist Elmo Hope.

Julee Cruise – I Float Alone: From the  album. Around the time David Lynch’s Twin Peaks was happening, he and composer Angelo Badalamenti did some really cool music. Julee Cruise got people’s attention with the song Mysteries of Love on the Blue Velvet soundtrack. That lead to a couple of albums, Floating Into The Night and The Voice of Love. I like them both but I connected with Floating a lot when it came out and it remains my favorite. I’ve hung out with Lynch and he’s a very intense and amazing man. It was one of the great experiences of my life. I haven’t seen any of that Twin Peaks stuff since it came out but I remember watching it on video between tours. My roommate would tape it for me. Lynch is still making great films as far as I’m concerned. I wish he would do more music.

Blue Bob – Rollin’ Down (To My House): Lyrics some instruments by David Lynch, vocals and everything else by John Neff. Once time David Lynch told me, “Sometimes I feel like a record producer trapped in the body of a movie director.” He loves music. I think he should do music all the time. More Lynch stuff out there the better.
http://www.lynchnet.com/bluebob/.

Empire – New Emotion: From the Expensive Sound album. Empire was Bob “Derwood” Andrews and Mark Laff after they left Generation X. The album didn’t take off and the band played only a few shows before moving onto other things. This was a big album where I come from. We thought it was great. The album and some unreleased tracks were recently released on CD and is worth checking out if you like this song. It’s nothing like Generation X. It’s a lot quieter than the more rockin’ Generation X stuff but this album still burns quite well. http://home.earthlink.net/~rubbercheese1/.

Hawkwind – Sonic Attack: From the Space Ritual V.2 album. I saw this at the record store the other day. I had seen this on vinyl years ago but for some reason never checked it out. I have had the Space Ritual album for years and it’s my favorite Hawkwind album. Space Ritual was recorded live at the Liverpool Stadium 12-12-72 and the Brixton Sundown 12-30-72. V.2 album material was only recorded at the Brixton show. I reckon it’s all the versions they tossed in favor of the ones they used for Space Ritual. I like both records but Space Ritual is the one and that version of Sonic Attack is the one anyone who knows the song is probably most familiar with but this version is cool too.

Einsturzende Neubauten – Sehn Sucht: From the Halber Mensch album. My favorite albums of EN are the first three, Kollaps, Drawings of Outpatient OT and Halber Mensch. Sehn Sucht to me is one of the band’s best efforts. One of my favorite vocals ever. The first time I saw the band play, in Pasadena at Perkins Palace, it was one of the most insane shows I have ever seen. I have a tape of it. The band started a fire onstage and you can hear people yelling as they ran by the mic. I wish they all could be California girls—on fire. I kinda like the unofficial homepage better than the official one. The addresses to both are below. To appreciate the music more, you might want to check out how they made the music, especially on the first two albums.
Unofficial: http://neubauten.synth.no/
Official: http://www.neubauten.org/

Unrest – Cath Carroll: single edit + acoustic version: The first version is from the Perfect Teeth CD on Teenbeat and the other is from the not so easy to find Cath Carroll promo CD on 4AD. I know I am playing a lot of Unrest at the moment. I am listening to a lot of Unrest at the moment, that might have something to do with it. It is a test of a Fanatic’s intensity and discipline to track down all the different releases of this band. There’s a few unofficial discographies out there but then if you search here and there, you keep finding compilation singles and albums they’re on. So, between the search and the fact that I just like the band, we’re checking out some more Unrest. You can always check out the Teenbeat website for more info on the band and all the other cool records and artists on the label: http://www.teenbeatrecords.com/

The Fall - Middle Class Revolt: From the new 2CD version of The Fall’s Middle Class Revolt album. Originally released in May 1994. On this re-issue, you get the album, all the singles which featured alternate mixes and edits of album tracks and unreleased songs. You also get the corresponding Peel Sessions which I don’t mind as it gives one a bit of context with which to consider the album tracks. To top it off, you get some mixes of Middle Class Revolt and Surmount All Obstacles. None of them are anything to write home about but still cool to have. Here’s that unofficial Fall website address again: http://www.visi.com/fall/. 

Huun Huur Tu – Prayer / Ancestors: This is from their album Live 1. This came in the other day. I ordered it from Amazon weeks ago. I played it a few times over the weekend and figured you all would like it. If you go to their website, you’ll see that they are doing shows here and there. I am hoping to see them play in Chico CA this autumn if I’m not busy somewhere else. I really want to hear this stuff live.

TV Smith – Good Times Are Back: From TV’s new album Misinformation Overload. I am listening to it right now. It sounds good. I think he’s got two of the Die Toten Hosen guys on there, which beefs up the sound a little. TV always inspires me because he’s been making music for over thirty years now. Many of you know him from a band he was in years ago called The Adverts. We did one of those outdoor shindigs many years ago opening for Die Toten Hosen. Between songs, all we heard was “Ho–SEN! Ho–SEN!” So I introduced our drummer “Sim Hosen” to them and thanked them for chanting his name. They didn’t like that very much but you know what? Fuck them. We murdered that fuckin’ stage. We stuck around and watched Hosen play. Uh huh. Nice sweaters.

Suicide – Cool As Ice: From the 1/2 Alive album. The 1st Suicide album should be in everyone’s collection I think. Alan Vega and on vocals and Martin Rev on synth for 30 years. Alan Vega as you know, does a lot of solo work and gets a lot of airplay on this show. He’s one of the all time greats and one of my favorite people to be around. You hang out around Vega for an hour and you never want to sleep again. Whatever you do, you want to do it harder. He’s inspiration on two legs.

Pheeroan Aklaff – Alligator and Kangaroo: I was in Ireland the other day and Road Manager Mike and I were catching a ride to the show with our pal John and he had this CD playing. I asked about it and he told me who it was. I had never heard the name. There’s a lot of jazz names I have never heard of. Anyway, I managed to track down the CD and it’s really great. “Personnel: Pheeroan Aklaff (drums), John Stubblefield (tenor saxophone), Carlos Ward (alto saxophone), Sonny Sharrock (electric guitar), Kenny Davis (electric & acoustic bass). Recorded at Quadrosonic Studios, New York in August, 1989,” says the internet. I don’t know anything of the man’s work besides the Sonny Sharrock albums he’s on I guess. I wrote him a letter and told him were going to listen to him tonight and that his record is great. He’s on Sonny’s album Seize The Rainbow with Melvin Gibbs!
http://www.aklaff.com/.

Generation X – No No No (withdrawn single version): This is the version that was the b-side of the Wild Youth single and then withdrawn. It’s a hard record to find and I don’t know how many made it out into the world. As far as I know, this version has never been released on any of the recent re-releases and compilations. It sounds pretty cool. The version that most of you Fanatics are familiar with is the one that was the b-side of the Ready Steady Go single. This version was also for some reason left off the re-issues of the first two Generation X albums.

Romania – We’re On The Radio: From their Remodel album on Teenbeat. James Nobel and Jonathan Cook make somewhat derivative but good pop music. It’s been an interesting time digging through the Teenbeat catalog as of late.