Interview with Nick Jasenovec

Below is the interview with Nick Jasenovec, the writer/director of the film Paper Heart staring Charlene Yi and Michael Cera. The reason this interview took place during my Coachella wrap up episode is because Zach Condon of Beirut created an original song for the soundtrack of Paper Heart. The interview focuses on the music of the film as well as the LA comedy community including Nick's place in the Judd Apatow family as well as the LA underground comedy scene as exemplified by Garage Comedy.

Click below to hear the interview:

Stream Nick Interview

As discussed in the interview above, here is the trailer for Paper Hearts. Tell your friends!

Paper Heart (2009) Trailer

The Becky Stark Episode

Becky Stark backstage at Botanique in Brussels
From Lavender Diamond/Decemberists tour 2007
Picture by me

Wow! Yesterday's show was more fun than I've had in ages. Especially considering how sick I am and how easy it would have been to sleep in. Instead, I drank NyQuil at 9pm and tried to get a full night's sleep. I still haven't adjusted to my new time slot so I must have hit the snooze button 8 times or so.

The real excitement was having my first in studio guest at the new time slot (Marnie was over the phone). Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond, The Decemberists (who's album was released on Tuesday), The Living Sisters (who's record will be out soon, but you can hear some songs here along with parts of Becky's interview) and the LA Women's Choir was my guest. She performed with an acoustic guitar (which can also be streamed above).

Special thanks to Becky for guest DJing the final hour (and then some). For some reason I played a lot of covers today. Let's play a game and count them in the commentary. Here's the playlist:

1) Eumir Deodato - Also Sprach Zarathustra
Cover #1 Richard Strauss
I had thought about making this the opening theme to the show. It's great to wake up to at 6am; it's 9 minutes long, so I have the time to set myself up at the booth; it has the magical combination of Rhodes and congas; but there has been something odd about it. I couldn't quite escape comparing it to "A 5th of Beethoven" from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in my mind. I had a feeling it would only be a matter of time before someone who knew more then I did would call me out about this track. Then it happened: I got a call from my father this morning saying that back in the 70s this song was played to death and anyone who actually knew shit about music back then grew to despise it. Oops.

2) Desmond Dekker - Get Up Edina
3) Stiff Little Fingers - Doesn't Make It All Right
Cover #2 The Specials

4) Specials - Concrete Jungle
5) Wall of Voodoo - Ring of Fire +
Cover #3 Johnny Cash
That's right, Wall of Voodoo did more than just "Mexican Radio"! Thanks again to Ludlow at FedEx for the request.

6) Black Angels - Deer-Ree-Shee
Come on, psych rock with sitars? Of course I'm going to play that! Of course, Black Angels aren't close to the first band to drag a sitar into psych, nor will they be the last.
Dig! Brian Jonestown Massacre @ The Viper Room


7) Galaxy 500 - Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste
Cover #4 The Modern Lovers

8) Old Dirty Bastard - Shimmy Shimmy Ya (Instrumental)
9) Mr. Chop - Zoid
10) Abe Vigoda - Wild Heart *
Cover #5 Stevie Nicks

11) Bruce Springsteen - Dream Baby Dream
Cover #6 Suicide
I've already written about this song and how much I love it. You can click here if you want to read it.

12) Next Door Neighbors - Cultural Revolution *
Holy crap, it took a few listens to get in to, but I am now in love with these guys! Quirky minimalist beats hugged by synthesizers and topped off by a meek voice that knows the exact right places to crack. This is the soundtrack to the girlfriend you once had who wanted to stay in every night and do things like knit or make bread from scratch.

13) Jeffrey Lewis - I Ain't Thick It's Just A Trick
Cover #7 Crass
This was my first ever attempt to edit out the curses on a track live by sitting with my finger on the volume and sliding it down over every swear. It's not easy.

14) Mount Eerie - In Moonlight
15) Mynah Birds - Big Time
Okay, here's the story behind this band: The band's singer who went by the name Big Jimmy was skipping out on weekend training in the U.S. Naval Reserve and decided to bail completely and fled to Toronto. He links up with Nick St. Nicholas (later of Steppenwolf) and forms The Mynah Birds. They decide that they want to be on the Motown label (this was 1966). Eventually, the guitarist doesn't like how Motown treats the band so he quits and is replaced by another unknown Canadian named Neil Young. I should also clarify, Big Jimmy would later change his name to Rick James. What I'm saying is, this song is Neil Young and Rick James in a band together on Motown years before Rick James would see any success with the label. Their manager pocketed the Motown advance so they fired him. To retaliate, he reports Big Jimmy to the Navy as a deserter and Rick James went back to the boats.

16) Wavves - I'm Bored *
17) MI AMI - The Man In Your House *
18) Sunset - Loveshines II *
19) The Raincoats - In Love +
If I had been intentionally doing a covers theme, I would have played their cover of Lola. I think I'm going to see if I can do a whole 4 hour show of nothing but covers at some point.

20) Velvet Underground - Lady Godiva's Operation
21) Mars - Hellen Fordsdale *
22) Brother - Track 5
23) Fourtet - No More Mosquitos
24) Broadcast - Come On Let's Go
25) Pram - The Owl Service
26) Serge Gainsbourg - Pauvre Lola
27) Dent May - I'm An Alcoholic *
28) Beirut - The Akara *
29) Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place
30) Beach Boys - Never Learn Not To Love You
Cover #8 Charles Manson...yes, that Charles Manson. The original song was called Cease To Exist. This is from back in the days when Manson was working on his record with Dennis Wilson.

31) The Books - Lost and Safe
32) Caliphone - Michigan Girls
33) Charles Spearin - Vanessa
This song gets the award this week for biggest response. I even got emails asking who this was. A song created around the natural melody of a deaf woman speaking. Absolutely beautiful!

34) Mum - Cosmic Singalong +

And then Becky arrived! Becky picked almost all of the rest of the songs and talked about each of the many projects she was working on, with the glaring omission of Lavender Diamond - but rest assured, there is more Lavender Diamond to come...we just ran out of time. Audio available for streaming on the blog post above.

35) Crypticize - Cosmic Sing-a-long ++
Chris Cohen, formerly of Deerhoof, is in this band along with Nedelle Torrisi and Michael Carreira. Here's the video for this song:
Cryptacize: Cosmic Sing-a-long

36) Trio Bulgaria - ??? ++
37) Dolly Parton - Wildflowers ++
38) Living Sisters - How Are You Doing++
39) Living Sisters - Ferris Wheel ++
The Living Sisters are Becky Stark, Inara George (The Bird and The Bee & Solo) and Eleni Mendell (Solo) singing the most lush three part harmonies Los Angeles has heard in decades. It's a project of love for the three who each have successful careers, either solo or with other bands, and may be my favorite thing that any of them do. They finally decided to make a record together. It is currently unreleased, but that should change soon. Enjoy the recordings above.

40) Harper Simon - The Audit ++
See Harper with Becky at Largo on March 31.

41) Entrance - Grim Reaper Blues ++
42) The Decemberists - The Wanting Comes in Waves ++
43) The Decemberists - Isn't It A Lovely Night ++
44) The Decemberists - Hazards of Love ++
As you probably know by now, Becky is one of the lead vocalists on the new Decemberists rock opera, Hazards of Love which was released earlier this week. I can't explain the plot as well as she does in the stream above.

45) Colin Meloy - Oh No
Cover #9 Lavender Diamond.
The Decemberists/Lavender Diamond connection has to be credited to Laurel Sterns who was with the Decemberists at Capitol records and is now with their management firm. Laurel had her own record label, Cold Sweat Records who put out the first Lavender Diamond recording, a split 7" with The Queens of Sheeba (with Devendra Banhart). She then played Lavender Diamond for the Decemberists which turned into a support slot on their US and then European tour (see photo at the top of this posting). Between tours Colin would sing Oh No to his newborn son at night. In the meantime, Rough Trade Records needed a B side for "Open Your Heart" so Colin agreed to cover it as a favor. Unfortunately, the record can only be found in the UK. Colin Meloy has a masterful ear for covers, by the way. His cover of Joanna Newsom's "Bridges and Balloons" is what convinced me to like his music.

46) Lavender Diamond - Rise In The Springtime +
Peter Choyce request

47) Becky Stark - Oh My Beautiful World +++
48) Becky Stark - Ocean and Ground +++

Well, that was it. I hope everyone can listen in next week and I hope you enjoy the recordings.

* KXLU New Add
+ Request
++ Becky Stark Pick
+++ Performed Live in Studio

The Very First 6-10am Set List and Commentary

Sorry this is coming a day late. So much going on, I had no time to write this out yesterday.

I am really excited about the new time slot as well as the new show concept, which you can read about in my last entry. I barely got any sleep on top of everything because Trail of Dead was in town playing the Echoplex on Tuesday night. I wound up hanging out with all of them until about 1am and watching Conrad wring the sweat out of his shirt as if he had been thrown in a pool with his clothes on. The show was good. The sound was a bit weird in the room, but the energy was high. Mostly, I was happy because they played "A Perfect Teenhood" intercut with Patty Smith's version of Gloria, which is my favorite song to watch them play (with the exception of the time that the power cut off in the middle of Caterwaul when we were at Sasquatch Festival and Jason got the entire crowd to chant the song until the power came back on...amazing!).

Anyway, going to bed at 1am and setting my alarm clock for 4:30 was no fun especially since my sleep was filled with nightmares about the show. Kind of sad to admit this, but I still get stage fright. My dreams were about turntables not working, playing the wrong tracks, dead air and every conceivable problem a radio show can have. By the end of the dream I was so frustrated that I trashed the studio (maybe being around Trail rubbed off on me somehow).

Okay, so by the time I got to the station for real, things went significantly better. The highlight, of course was my interview with Marnie Stern, which I will post shortly. Everyone needs to come out on Wednesday to see her at the Echo. Anyway, here is the set list and commentary:

1) Iron Maiden - Aces High
Thanks to Dustin Sussman (Link) for helping me narrow down the perfect Maiden song for 6am. After I played this I went on air and claimed that the new Wednesday 6-10 slot is called "Maiden Voyage: Eddie, Set, Go!" 4 hours a week of Iron Maiden Songs, Iron Maiden covers, Iron Maiden side projects and Iron Maiden news. To me, this is funny.

2) Eumir Deodato - Also Sprach Zarathustra
A Rhodes-heavy '70s Jazz fusion version of the song by Richard Strauss. Prominently featured in the film "Being There" with Peter Sellers.

3) Olivia Tremor Control - Memories of Jacqueline 1906
4) Abe Vigoda - Don't Lie
5) Liars - Sailing To Byzantium
6) Andrew Bird - Not a Robot But A Ghost *
This track sounds like Radiohead. I love it.

7) The Bran Flakes - Stumble Out Of Bed *
Seriously? Sampling 9-5 by Dolly Parton? I feel awkward about how much I enjoy this song.

8) Madlib/Beat Konducta - No More Time *
9) Odd Nosdam - Top Rank *
10) Amon Tobin - Chomp Samba
11) Squarepusher - Love Will Tear Us Apart
12) Kid 606 - Catstep/My Kitten/Catnap
Remember when Kid 606 was the craziest most innovative DJ you had ever heard? Every track made you pull your car over and say "what the fuck?" like it was the first time your parents ever heard "A Day In The Life"? What happened? Why is he putting out mediocre Techno albums now like Pretty Girls Make Raves? I miss IDM Kid 606.

13) Trail of Dead - Bells of Creation
14) Animal Collective - Everyone Whistling
From the oft overlooked album, Spirit They've Gone Spirit They've Vanished.

15) Fuck Buttons - Ribs Out
16) MI AMI - The Man In Your House *
17) Little Teeth - Between My Ears
I love this band so much! More people need to buy this record. Grating, moody and pretty at the same time.

18) Geraldine Fibbers - Lilybelle
Speaking of moody pretty music...

19) Dent May - The Girls in the Square
20) Pterodactyl - First Daze
Former members of Ex-Models. Also, Zach and Matt played a few shows as Marnie's backing band.

21) Melt Banana - Picnic in Panic
22) Lightning Bolt - Ride The Sky
23) Dan Deacon - Get Older
This is not a new add, but mark my words it will be soon. If KXLU doesn't add this record you, listener/reader, should riot. This album will wind up on so many best of lists come December. It sounds like the missing link between Animal Collective albums where they discover warmth. This record is a big deal.

24) The Mae Shi - I Get (Almost) Everything I Want
25) Glenn Branca - Lesson No 1 *
26) Surf City - Records of a Flagpole Skater *
Played at the recommendation of Milk Man Miles. That dude is on top of it! Listen to his show before mine at 2-6am (my old slot).

27) BlackBlack - Skulls
I got more calls asking who did this song than any other song I played all morning. This song is so pretty. The effect of the gentle yet disaffected vocals of Diva intertwined with Alex (AKA Clark Schädelkopf) pushing The Misfits' words like "And the blood drains down like devils rain, We'll bathe tonight" is so wonderfully eerie yet totally engaging. I never play this song without having it stuck in my head for at least 3 hours.

28) Bauhaus - Antonin Artaud
Kind of a cheap follow-up song as Diva and Lola from the above BlackBlack incarnation are the daughters of Kevin from Bauhaus. On the other hand, this is my favorite Bauhaus song and I play it all the time so it was going to show up on the program at some point, might as well put it next to BlackBlack.

29) Flesh Eaters - Digging My Grave
30) 999 - Homicide
31) Marnie Stern - The Crippled Jazzer

Interview with Marnie Stern:
I will post the interview on my blog shortly. Highlights include:
-Missing a strip club because they were stuck in line for fast food. Apparently, at this very special strip club exists a stripper named Blondie who "crushes beer cans in her boobs and her butt".
-Marnie explaining how she feels 30 years older while smoking Capri cigarettes and is becoming the eccentric elderly rock 'n roll aunt at the family picnic.
-Marnie's likes and dislikes about travel...okay, just dislikes.

Listen to the interview and then come out on Wednesday to see her play at the Echo.

32) Marnie Stern - Shea Stadium
33) Marnie Stern - Healer
34) Wavves - Sun Opening My Eyes *
35) Man Man - Top Drawer
36) Belle and Sebastian - Me and The Major
Live at Barbican thanks to Zoe Davis

37) Arthur Russell - Love is Overtaking Me
38) Yes Please - Love Probe *
39) Beach House - Wedding Bells
40) Lavender Diamond - When You Wake For Certain
Becky Stark will be guest DJing on my show soon. More details to come.

41) New Order - Blue Monday +
This was a request. I was asked to play a song for a friend of the caller at CAA. I figured, since the song Blue Monday is rumored to be about the bombing of the Falkland Islands, a largely senseless and violent war. I imagine that this is a comparable experience to working at CAA.

42) !!! - Take Ecstasy With Me
43) Liquid Liquid - Optimo *

* KXLU New Add
+ Request

Okay, that's it for this week's show. Hope you enjoyed it! Hope we see you tonight at The Little Joy for this

What Does The Title "Fanfare For The Playing Man" Mean?

Decor determines gestures: we will build passionate houses
-Situationist International Slogan

My new radio show, running on KXLU 88.9 is called "Fanfare For The Playing Man". While I enjoy saying it, it also has a very personal meaning for me.

The "Fanfare" portion is an obvious reference to composer Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man". The immediate point of this reference is to create a sense of celebration for each of us. My show, as opposed to Copland's composition, is a celebration of an urban existence: isolated while perpetually surrounded. The use of Copland also creates a uniquely American experience, separating itself from the very French Situationst International reference found in the term "playing man".

To the Situationists, the city is designed around the working man. Each structure makes human capitol more efficient, from roads, to bus stops to cramped apartment complexes, every aspect of the city is made to accommodate work. Some artists of the movement decided to design cities of their own, not to cradle the working man, rather modeled for the playing man.

It is for this reason that modern graffiti and skateboarding are still two activities that are kindred spirits to the Situationist movement in France in the late 50s. The two activities take a city, designed for work, and rob it of its seriousness; they transform pre-laid objects of work into platforms for play.

It is this concept that guides my show during drive-time. To transform a morning commute, the cattle march to the office, into a time of play is all I can hope to do while celebrating each anonymous individual.

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!!!!

* KXLU new add
+ Request

Today I Didn't Even Have To Use My A.K.: I Got To Say It Was A Good Show

I have to say, last night's show felt really good. I did the whole 2-6am show and drank less than 1 energy drink. The music seemed right and I never struggled too much to figure out what I was going to play next (which is always a concern considering I have absolutely no clue what I am going to play when I walk into the studio. Free form radio!) Here is my set list and some thoughts. Hope you enjoy!

1) Chicago Transit Authority - Free Form Guitar
My mother, having not had a record player for many years now, decided to give me all of her records. There were some amazing items in the collection, especially in the way of Beatles albums and a 12 record set of hits from the 50s. The real fun, however was digging through the less than stellar albums searching for buried gems. Enter Chicago. On Chicago's first album from 1969, the band was still using the longer handle, Chicago Transit Authority. Free Form Guitar is 7 minutes of guitar feedback noise (yes it's a Hendrix rip off, but still...Chicago?). Anyway, if you are interested in finding other Chicago gems, my advice is don't bother.

2) Harvey Milk - Death Goes To The Winner
Let's face it, if you see a band from Athens, Georgia with the name Milk in their name, buy the fucking record! This track, aside from being fantastic in it's own right pays homage to The Velvet Underground's "Waiting For The Man" as well as The Beatles' "A Day In The Life".

3) M. Ward (ft. Lucinda Williams) - Oh Lonesome Me *
4) Andrew Bird - Masterswarm *
5) Mike Bones - A Fool For Everyone *
6) Cornelius - Fit Song (Books Remix)
7) Odd Nosdam - Top Rank *
8) Themselves (Featuring Aesop Rock, Busdriver, Why?, cLOUDDEAD and more) - Mix Tape
Themselves (Doseone and Jel) are putting out a mix tape with all of the above artists contributing. The best news, though, is that this is the first time since Ten (That I can think of, but I might be wrong, anyway, it has been a few years) that cLOUDDEAD has worked together as a whole. Here's a link to an excerpt of the mix tape thanks to pitchfork CLICK HERE enjoy!

9) cLOUDDEAD - Bike (1)
If you don't own cLOUDDEAD's first, self titled, album all of your hip hop listening has been prelude to this. Played, of course, out of excitement for the Themselves mix tape.

10) Charles Spearin - Vanessa *
Broken Social Scene's Charles Spearin released his album "The Happiness Project" which is him interviewing various people around his neighborhood about the nature of happiness and then mapping the notes that are produced by their natural speaking voices and using them as melodies for beautifully crafted songs. Vanessa is the best of these, featuring Vanessa, a successful recipient of a cochlear implant discusses being deaf for 30 years and then beginning to hear.

11) Abe Vigoda - Don't Lie *
Track 1 off of the new EP, Reviver, on Dean Spunt's PPM label. This EP miraculously bests their last album, Skeletons, which was already an impressive achievement last year.

12) Jarvis Cocker - Cunts Are Still Running The World
13) Vibrarians - Red Light *
14) Death - Let The World Turn
Newly added to the Pantheon of Black Rock, Death's proto-punk by way of Detroit album "For The Whole World To See" finally got released by Drag City this year. I'll let Danny Gabai tell you more about it: HOTLANTIS You should be reading his blog anyway. One bowl of Danny's blog contains 12 times the fiber as one bowl of your cereal.

15) Red Stars Theory - Rustin *
New music from Jeremiah from Modest Mouse and James from 764-hero

16)Galaxy 500 - Blue Thunder (Peel Session)
17)Bardo Pond - Isle
I'll be perfectly honest, I only played this because it is 11 minutes long and I had to go to the bathroom like I've never had to in my life. That's the ugly truth of DJing solo!

Okay, I decided to invent a game - play one song by any band and follow it with another band who's name shared a word with the previous band (The does not count if you are playing at home). Someday I'll try a longer version of this game linking each song and see how long I can go. Sounds fun.
18) In Waves - Your Favorite Storm +
19) Wavves - So Bored
20) Mr. Scruff - Donkey Ride *
21) Mr. Chop - Zoid
22) Fuck Buttons - Ribs Out
23) Holy Fuck - Korock
24) Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes *
25) Animal (from the muppets) - Conversation with Kermit
Ha! Thank you You Tube

26) Dent May and his Magnificent Ukulele - I'm An Alcoholic *
27) Tiny Tim - Tip Toe Through The Tulips
28) Beirut - La Llorna Is Overtaking Me *
30) Nick Drake - Fly
What if I said I was playing the Nick Drake song, but then just played the Sugar Ray song?

31) Bonny Prince Billy - A King At Night

At this point I had so successfully brought the mood down so far I decided to drop the bottom out and go into a roots music/delta blues set of field recordings

32) Bessie Jones & The Georgia Sea Island Singers - O Day
From the Goodbye Babylon compilation...get it, you will thank me later.

33) Lead Belly - Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Alan and John Lomax recording for the Library of Congress. Best cover Nirvana ever did!

34) Blind Willie McTell - Lord Send Me An Angel
The White Stripes covered this song on a 7" with You're Pretty Good Looking as the B side.

35) Jelly Roll Morton - Dirty Dozen
Another field recording by Alan Lomax from 1938. How many recordings from the 30's can you think of that open with the line "You dirty mother fucker, you old cock sucker"? I can only think of 1 and between 2-6am the FCC lets me play it!

36) Skip James - Devil Got My Woman
From Ghost World soundtrack.

37) Robert Johnson - Crossroad Blues
That's all for the Roots Music/Delta Blues Field Recording set

38) Mi Ami - Echononecho *
39) Raekwon - Wisdom Body +
40) Madlib - Never Front *
41) Sporto Kontes - Tower
42) Add N To (X) - P.P. Machine
43) New Order - Ceremony
44) Liquid Liquid - Optimo
45) !!! - Me and Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard
46) ELO - Overature
This is off of ELO's first record and is the best song that Black Sabbath never wrote. Jeff Lynne is a genius, and I'm not afraid to say it!

* KXLU new add
+ request

Well, that's the show. Listen in next week and call in with requests - 310-338-KXLU (5958). The station also does instant messenger at the IM address KXLUdj. If you don't get KXLU on the radio, you can listen on www.kxlu.com.

TTFN