The Final Broadcast of Passing Through

At about 11:30 PM last night I received the call: The Wednesday morning 6-10 am DJs on KXLU would no longer be continuing their show. The Wednesday drive-time slot, starting next week, will be mine. I am moving out of the graveyard shift! I have been waiting a log time for this, but my schedule has forced me to turn down the 6-10 shift on other weekdays. To have a day that works is the most exciting feeling in the world!

As I have been blathering about for the past few weeks or so, my passion for DJing has really been rekindled lately, and this is the pinnacle. I have been so excited that I have been buying records as if I were a character on Sex In The City, and if by records I meant shoes. Fabulous!

So, this news left only one loose string: my final 2-6am broadcast...and the big finish that I promised after the very first song that I ever played on KXLU. It has been a pleasure (though, admittedly, sometimes an exhausting one). I will miss my graveyard shift companions, and hope that they can stay up long enough to follow me to 6-10. I will especially miss playing songs with curses in them!

Well, enough of that, here is the final Passing Through set list with commentary:

1) Jonah Ray - Courtney Love Truth or Dare
An amazing true story about playing truth or dare with Courtney Love by Jonah Ray off of his comedy 7" "This Crazy Mixed Up Plumbing". Seriously, a comedy 7"...how pretentious is that? That's why I love him...sigh.

2) Abe Vigoda - Don't Lie *
3) Captain Ahab - Health/Foot Village Mash Up
I saw this spray painted record for sale at Family. It didn't say what was on it. I actually thought it was just a split 12" with Captain Ahab, Foot Village, Health and Jason Forrest as all that belied what was on the record was their names spray painted over and over. Well, it turns out that one side is a Foot Village remix by Jason Forrest that I will save for another posting, but the A side is the above mentioned mash up from the mad geniuses (the complaint "the word genius is thrown around so easily" is thrown around so easily don't you think?) at Deathbomb Arc. This remix might be better than the Crystal Castles remix of Health. It flies out of the gate and absolutely pummels you for the duration of the record. This is exactly the kind of track that makes you pissed off that you thumbed your nose at electronic music for so many years just because you hated glow sticks and grown men with pacifiers. Dear God is this record good!

4) Portishead - Machine Gun
I'm really trying to get the beats matched up between this track and the above Captain Ahab. I have a sneaking suspicion that this might be the perfect transition. Both songs are so hard and intense, but where the mash-up brings an energy that is almost destructive in its force, Machine Gun is dark and brooding. This track is the cherry on top of what may well be the best album Portishead has ever released.

5) Boris - Farewll
See the theme?

6) Kasio Antaxia - Traveling To Space +
Request from Derrik

7) Sonic Youth - Kool Thing
8) Curtis Mayfield - Move on Up
Keeping the theme going!

9) Primal Scream - Movin on Up (live)
Woo hoo!

10) Public Image Limited - Rise
This is my favorite track off of "Album". I think this record is underrated. David Scott Stone, who was in the studio with Damian prior to my show told me, and allmusic.com confirms that the guitarist on this record was Steve Vai. What the fuck, right?

11) Bruce Springsteen - Dream Baby Dream (Suicide Cover)
That's right. You didn't just momentarily forget how to read and start replacing the now jumbled codes of letters with crazy thoughts...that really does say Bruce Springsteen covering Suicide. Thank you is due to Danny Gabai for turning me on to this. UK Label BLAST First is releasing a series of 10"s of bands attempting to cover Suicide. This is the first tasting, and wow! The B side includes a rare live performance of Dream Baby Dream by Suicide and a really great cover of Mr. Ray by Beat The Devil (which will definitely see some play on future broadcasts). Anyhow, if you are like me, then you grew up in New Jersey. In that case you are legally obligated to worship Springsteen. If you are also like me, you left New Jersey and are, to say the least, hesitant to listen to anything New Jersey tells you about culture or taste. Yet there is just something about The Boss that is so...likeable. He seems...really...kind of...cool. Just look at his cameo in High Fidelity. "I want to hang out with that guy" you think to yourself right up until the point when New Jersey starts drunkenly screaming the lyrics to "Born In The USA" while you watch in horror as flecks of pizza crust fall from New Jersey's mouth all over New Jersey's sweatshirt and you just want to scream "put your fucking hat on forward, lose some weight and stop playing beer pong, you are an adult!" but New Jersey is much bigger than you, so you just keep your mouth shut. You turn your back on the boss and his legions of mutated man-children. Then he goes and covers suicide...and it all comes rushing back to you...this guy is okay! Pick up this record, it's limited to 4000 and you will be a happier person for owning it (unless you believe that all possession is theft, in which case you probably won't be happier).

12) Suicide - Cheree
13) Stone Roses - Fools Gold +
Request from "Average Listener" who refused to give her name. Probably in Witness Protection

14) Do Dada - Dance *
15) Heaven 17 - At The Height of The Fighting +
I'm so sorry, I forgot who made this request

16) The Shivers - Beauty +
Request by Tara. These guys played in my friend James's living room on Saturday and were amazing. James was also kind enough to let me DJ after the bands were finished. It should be mentioned that the second time that I ever DJed was a New Years party at James's house. We have all come a long way since that night! Peter and the Wolf also played as did my friends Petecia and Frankie of Fawnhawk. All in all an amazing night!

17) Harry Nilsson - It's Not Easy Bein' Me
Wow, I've played this song many times, but never actually blogged about it. Perhaps you remember the movie, Popeye, staring Robin Williams and Shelly Duvall (who was clearly born to play Olive Oyl. What you may not recall is the soundtrack. Mostly, because it wasn't that spectacular (with the notable exception of "He Needs Me")...until you hear the demos. It seems that Robert Altman recruited Harry Nilsson to write all of the music, who in turn brought on Van Dyke Parks to arrange all of the music. You can get hold of the demos and they are amazing! Thank you to Autumn DeWilde for making me aware of this record!

18) Inara George - Dirty White
Half of The Bird and The Bee and one third of The Living Sisters (Becky Stark, Eleni Mandell, Inara George), this is Inara's solo record. It is breathtaking and..oh...completely arranged by her Godfather, Van Dyke Parks.

19) Ikettes - Trouble's On My Mind
20) Edgar Allen and The Poes - Panic Button
21) Nite Hawks - Chicken Grabber

Hip Hop Collaboration Time:
22) Quasimoto - Come on Feet
Collaboration between Madlib and Quasimoto (aka Madlib)

23) Jaylib - The Red
Collaboration between Madlib and J Dilla

24) Madvillian - Money Folder
Collaboration between Madlib and MF Doom

25) Danger Doom - Basket Case
Collaboration between MF Doom and Danger Mouse

26) El P - Delorean
El P featuring Aesop Rock

27) Blackstar - Definition
Collaboration between Mos Def and Talib Kweli

28) Handsome Boy Modeling School - Holy Calamity
Collaboration between Dan The Automator and Prince Paul

29) Cold Cut - More Beats and Pieces
Matt Black and Jonathan More

End Hip Hop Collaboration set

30) Nirvana - The Man Who Sold The World +
Request from the wonderful Mel Yiasemide who wrote the Best of LA Weekly article on KXLU and talked about my show. Read the article by clicking here

31) David Bowie - Cygnet Committee
Early Bowie. This song clearly shows Bowie about to move out of his early adoration and emulation of Bob Dylan. It is an early hint of what was to come with Ziggy Stardust and songs like Five Years and Rock 'n Roll Suicide. It's on the Space Oddity album, which is really a collection of singles and EPs released early in Bowie's career.

32) Lou Reed - Sad Song
33) War On Drugs - Taking The Farm
34) Neutral Milk Hotel - Gardenhead
35) Modern Lovers - Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste
Only performed live. This song was always performed by Jonathan Richman singing with zero musical accompaniment. Often he would finish the song in tears. It is so stark and jarring yet beautiful. Galaxy 500's DVD is named after their cover of this song.

36) Velvet Underground - Black Angel Death Song
From the discovered acetate of the original and, subsequently, rejected version of Velvet Underground and Nico.

37) ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - A Perfect Teenhood
They just wrecked their van touring, but should hopefully still be here to play the Echoplex on March 17. See you there?

38) Divo - Uncontrollable Urge +
Request by Ludlow

39) Lush - De-Luxe +
Request by Ludlow

40) Animal Collective - My Girls *
41) Prefuse 73 - The End of Biters International
42) Triangle - Ride My Bike
43) Liquid Liquid - Optimo *
44) Hello - Back In The New York Groove
45) Black Dice - Things Will Never Be The Same
46) Syd Barrett - No Good Trying
47) David Bowie - Red Money
This is the big finish to my show that I promised after the first song I ever played on KXLU. During the recording of Station to Station, Bowie moved to LA and was under such constant drug influence, he became convinced that the Devil was living in his swimming pool. In the meantime, Iggy Pop was in a hospital trying to kick heroin with no regular visitors other than Bowie. Bowie struck a deal, if Iggy could kick heroin, he could join Bowie's band as the guitarist to tour Europe in support of Station to Station. During the trip, the two decided to move as far from LA as possible and decided on Berlin. Bowie decided to quit making music and instead would only produce Iggy's first solo record, The Idiot.

Recording in Cologne with producer Tony Visconte, Bowie became so inspired he decided to record his own album after all, adding Brian Eno to the mix of collaborators. Though Low was technically released first, The Idiot is often considered the first album of "The Berlin Period" as it was begun first and was the reason they were in the studio to begin with.

The first song on The Idiot is Sister Midnight. Two years later would mark the end of the Berlin Period with Bowie's 1979 release, Lodger. The very last song on Lodger is Red Money. Red Money is the same song as Sister Midnight. Bowie reused the instrumental tracks and re-recorded the vocals with new words and melodies (except the fact that the middle of both songs is each singer, respectively, singing "can you hear me at all" repeatedly).

The very first song I ever played on my show was Sister Midnight with the express intention of bookending my show the same way that the Berlin period was bookended: with this one song made two.

Well, that's all for Passing Through. The name of the show was a reference to the idea that between 2-6am the majority of people listening would be on crazy road trips seeking good music at the bottom of the dial which fades in and out of range as they pass through each new town and city. The name doesn't really make sense in the same way from 6-10am. I think it will be retired. I will keep you updated as I come up with a new name.

Thanks for reading and listening. Please listen in while you wake up/drive to work/work on Wednesday Mornings from 6-10 am.

WOO HOO!!!!

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