Recap of KXLU show July 16, 2008

Well, it's official, my show is now on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.  Yesterday's show was the first one ever on this day and I was so excited that I couldn’t fall asleep for my much necessary pre-show nap.  I spent all of Wednesday as a zombie, but it was well worth it.  It is a very different transition now moving off of Psychotechnics rather than coming off of Metal Storm.  Mopi's show is great, of course.  I think I need theme music like hers.  Obviously, I will miss Peter Choice helping me close out my shows.  Anyway, Wednesday is the new Friday, so don't bother showing up to work on Thursday.

There were some real stand out songs this show that I am excited to talk about, so let's get started:

Song #2: Thurston Moore - Creemsikkle.  This is off of the Deathbomb Arc label's limited edition Thrash Sabbatical record set.  This particular taster's menu consists of Thurston Moore, Kevin Shields, Barrabarracuda and Men Who Can’t Love.  Now, I know what you are thinking, I thought it too, “Kevin Shields? From My Bloody Valentine? With Thurston Moore?  Golly!”  Like an idiot, I voiced this excitement on the air.  Then I did some research and found out that, no, this Kevin Shields is actually Eva Aguila who is also in a really cool project called Caldera Lakes which works with softer sounds for their noisescapes.  Kevin Shields is also worth a listen, and I recommend the track 12806.  It sounds like band sound checking their drums in a high school gymnasium that is being pulled through a storm on Jupiter.  Okay, back to Thurston: This is a beautifully powerful noise experiment that plays with dynamic on every level.  The piece moves from single notes to unidentifiable depth and from ear damagingly loud to gentle without causing any real sense of audio fatigue.  It is only available on the vinyl version of Trash Sabbatical but can be downloaded from certain websites like Other Music.  Unfortunately, the vinyl version of the album is sold out.

Song #3: Silver Rockets – Holding On.  Silver Rockets is the new project of Mercury Rev and Longwave alumni Paul Dillon.  I saw Paul play solo at Little Radio this weekend and he gave me his new 7” with the songs Retreat and Holding On. Holding on immediately grabbed me.  It is gentle and very warm and then flushes out to a wide-open field of violins, guitar, feedback, piano and everything else that could be thrown out.  It reminds me of Blue Thunder by Galaxie 500 but with vocals more forefront.  This is a really great new track and I’m really excited to hear more as it comes. 

Song #4: The War On Drugs – A Needle In Your Eye #16.  I can’t stop playing this band.  The washed out tracks, the organ, the vocals…  Lately, any time anyone asks me about brand new bands that I am excited about I immediately respond, The Gang and The War On Drugs.  There is something classic about Adam Granduciel’s vocals that I can’t quite put my finger on.  All I know is this: this is road music and that is exactly what my show was supposed to be about though I quickly seem to have abandoned.  Their song “Taking The Farm” has the road trip pop sensibility of Lindsay Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” yet the low fi country understanding of The Flying Burrito Brothers, all while blanketed by a wave of Psych Rock a la early Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.  I think that might be the oddest description of a band ever.  Well, it’s really, really good.  The album is out on Secretly Canadian.

Song #17: Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog – Party Intellectuals.  Marc Ribot’s resume is completely out of hand: First working with John Zorn in 1984 and then with Tom Waits as the guitarist on Rain Dogs, he has worked with Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull, Medeski Martin and Wood (Chris Wood is also the drummer for Ribot’s project, Shrek from 1998), Harry Shearer, Rob Wasserman, Foetus, Cibo Matto and the list goes on.  Party Intellectuals sounds like a Mothers of Invention song after playing Atari and listening to old school hip-hop.  This is what happens when you put Santana’s Abraxas in the microwave. 

Song #18: Bunny Brains – (I’m In The) Bucket (Keith).  The only way to describe this track is bestial.  I find it hard to believe the vocals were performed standing up.  Everything on this track is loud and nauseous and perfect.  Coming out pretty early in Matador’s history, Bunny Brains seems a good fit with Matador founder Gerard Cosloy’s old band with G.G. Allin.  The Big difference, of course, is that Bunny Brains’ music is actually good.  Anyway, over 40 people have been in and out of this band, revolving around Dan Bunny.  He also made friends with Devendra Banhart and appears on the Cripple Crow album (which is why I played Devendra directly after).  It seems that it was a conversation with Dan Bunny that led to Devendra’s song  “Little Boys”.

Songs #37 / #38:  Broadcast – Come On Let’s Go / Pram – The Owl Service.  Both of these bands are amazing and both share drummer Steve Perkins.  Broadcast has a deep groovy lounge sound that might draw images from Antonioni’s “Blow Up” or maybe an old James Bond movie.  Then comes the cut and paste beat backdrop that creates a more psychedelic, but no less warm, feel of Pram.  It struck me, while listening to these songs before my show that they really owe quite a debt to one man…Serge Gainsbourg.  I followed up Broadcast and Pram with Gainsbourg’s Pauvre Lola.  Just for good measure, I followed that up with Genesis P. Orridge’s (of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV fame) cover of Gainsbourg’s Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus (I Love You…Me Neither).  Je T’Aime was originally written for and recorded with his girlfriend, Brigit Bardot, but was never released for fear of revealing the relationship to Bardot’s husband.  Instead, the song was re-recorded with his future wife, Jane Birkin.  Below are videos of Gainsbourg and Bardot doing Bonnie and Clyde as well as videos of Gainsbourg and Birkin set to the music of Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus just to give perspective on the talent of Serge Gainsbourg and evidence that he is the luckiest man in the world.

Serge Gainsbourg & B. Bardot - Bonnie & Clyde (Good Version)

Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg - Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus

Songs #46 / 47: Marnie Stern - Put All Your Eggs In One Basket And Then Watch That Basket / Hella - Welcome To The Jungle Baby, You’re Gunna Live.  Not only are these two songs the longest song titles that I have played on my show, this pairing represents another shared drummer.  Hella drummer, Zach Hill is also Marnie’s drummer on her first record on Kill Rock Stars, In Advance of The Broken Arm.  Zach has also finished recording with Marnie for her follow up album, from which she will be premiering some of the songs on my show.  This song is one of the brightest and shiniest on her record.  It is just joyful and poppy from beginning to end.  Marnie’s album is one of the best, most bombastic, most mind blowingly talented records of 2007.  The way Roy Lichtenstein made comic images legitimate high art; Marnie uses the generally trite technique of guitar taping and creates something beautiful, artistic and nuanced.  I followed Put All Your Eggs… with Hella’s Welcome To The Jungle… but this version is acoustic.  Wow.  It’s extremely odd to hear that kind of bombastic paying on an acoustic guitar and a drum with no snares (is he playing with his hands? How did he get his sound so soft?).  The Acoustics EP is definitely a spectacle to behold.

Okay, I hope you enjoyed the show and the blog.  Next week, Matt Gangi of Gangi will be joining me and playing a bit.  Here is the complete playlist:


Microstoria – Endless Summer NAMM

Thurston Moore – Creemsikkle

Silver Rockets – Holding On

The War On Drugs – A Needle In Your Eye #16

Jesus + Mary Chain – Moe Tucker (Live)

Velvet Underground – New Age (Live)

Darker My Love – Heelium Heels

The Chap – Caution Me

Black Angels – Deer-Ree-Shee

Brian Jonestown Massacre – The Devil May Care

Mad Villian – Enter…Hot Curry

Bombay The Hard Way – My Guru

Dungen – Festival
Octopus Project – Bees Been Strugglin’

Four Tet – No More Mosquitos

Leila – Mettle

Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog – Party Intellectuals

Bunny Brains – (I’m In The) Bucket (Keith)

Devendra Banhart – When They Come

Bonnie “Prince” Billy – So Everyone

Songs: Ohia – This Time Anything Finite At All

Brian Eno – By This River

Jim O’Rourke – Movin On The Way Down

Devon Williams – A Truce

Gangi – Ground

Fleet Foxes – Ragged Wood

Rainbow Arabia – Omar K

Wooden Shjips – Cloud Over Earthquake

Abe Vigoda – The Garden

The Gang – There’s A Beach At The End Of Penny Lane

Frank Black and The Catholics – Bullet

Violent Fems – Country Death Song

Echo & The Bunnymen – Do It Clean (Live)

Spiritualized – Soul On Fire

Twink – What The Dickens

Flying Lotus – Roberta Flack

Broadcast – Come On Let Us Go

Pram – The Owl Service

Serge Gainsbourg – Pauvre Lola

Genesis P. Orridge - Je T’aime

Glen Branca – Lesson No. 2

Gang of Four – Ether

Spinto Band – Japan Is An Island

Page France – Junkyard
Spoon – Anything You Want

Marnie Stern – Put All Your Eggs In One Basket And Then Watch That Basket

Hella – Welcome To The Jungle Baby, You’re Gunna Live