Too much coffee!!! Playlist 4/29/09

Early Sasha Baron Cohen video as part of a Levi's campaign from about 8 years ago. Click here for Super Greg's website, you won't be disappointed!

Hey everyone.  Here is my playlist from today's show.  I don't have too much to talk about, even though I am completely wired on the fake coffee that allows me to stay conscious starting at 4:30 am.  I would write things as I think them, but instead I find myself saying them out-loud to anyone near me who will listen until they stare at me like a dog being shown a card trick and then slowly back away.  For example, "I want to write a comedy sketch about lawyers preparing a wrongful death suit against Willie Wonka"...it's thoughts like these that kept me out of the ivy leagues. 

Oh, my set of songs that are frequently sampled in Hip Hop seemed to go over like hotcakes, so I'll tell you where you have heard some of the samples:

Liquid Liquid's "Cavern" was the primary sample in Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines".  Liquid Liquid's label, 99 Records eventually went bust trying to sue for royalties (which they never received) for use of this sample as well as ESG's UFO (which I played later).  99 records tells the story best here

The Mohawks' "The Champ" is one of the most widely sampled songs and also inspired the "duh duh duh" section of Onyx's opus, "Slam".  Cold Cut also used it in their seminal "More Beats and Pieces".  Other people to use it include Slick Rick, De La Soul, Hammer, DJ Shadow, KRS-One etc.

Bob James' "Take Me To Mardi Gras" is another omnipresent sample.  Probably best known from either" Hold it Now" by the Beastie Boys, "Rock The Bells" by LL Cool J or Run DMC's "Peter Piper".  It is friggin' everywhere; even Massive Attack sampled this one!  Credit is due to Jason Smith and his blog (click here) for revealing this gem in its original form.

Edwin Birdsong's "Cola Bottle Baby" is immediately recognized as Daft Punk's "Harder Better Faster Stronger" and then again as some unlistenable piece of shit by Kanye West.  Dustin Sussman turned me on to this one.

Freddie Scott's "You Got What I Need" is by no means new to this show, but here we are again.  Thank you Biz Markie for making this famous on Just A Friend!

As mentioned earlier ESG's UFO is everywhere from "Sure Shot" by the Beastie Boys to "Night of the Living Baseheads" by Public Enemy.  Often it was sped up from 33 1/3 to 45 when sampled, but there you have it.

Finally:  one of the samples that started it all, "Trans Euro Express" by Kraftwerk dropped krautrock to the South Bronx at the very start of hip hop.  That's why today if you fall asleep on the 5 train and wake up in the middle of the night alone and far from home l have to do is start talking about Florian and no one will fuck with you.  Seriously, try it.  This sample is most famous as "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa, who's name uses so many a's I think he might be partly Scandanavian...wait...he's definitely not.

Okay, now I'll just jump to the setlist. 

Barr - Complete Consumption of Us Both
Fuck Buttons - Bright Tomorrow
Dungen - Satt Att Se
The Coat Hangers - Time Passing *
Dsico - 70s Classic Hits
!!! - Take Ecstacy With Me
Tarentel - Geneva, Switzerland (track 6) *
Jackie-O Motherfucker - Hey! Mr. Sky
Earth - Rise To Glory
A Tribe Called Quest - Verses From The Abstract +
Hi Red Center - Littlest Giant *
Handglops - The First Party *
Swan Lake - Spanish Gold 2044 *
Sunset Rubdown - Stadiums and Shrines II
Big Whup - Yaaaay! *
Chain and the Gang - Chain Gang Theme *
Aphex Twin - Taking Control
Squarepusher - F-Train
Micachu - Eat Your Heart *
Liquid Liquid - Cavern
The Mohawks - The Champ
Bob James - Take Me To Mardi Gras
Edwin Birdsong - Cola Bottle Baby
Freddie Scott - You Got What I Need
Breakwater - Release The Beast
ESG - UFO
Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express
Child Bite - Never-Ending Mountain Slammer
Kittens For Christian - Under The Covers
Wavves - So Bored *
Au - Are Animals
Pretty Things - Mr. Evasion (Credit must be given to Danny Gabai for turning me onto this track!!!)
Love - Seven & Seven Is
Death - Rock
The Sonics - Strychnine
Dan Deacon - Build Voice *
Black Dice - Earings Plus Interest *
New Order - Procession
Belle and Sebastian - Electronic Renaissance
The Nextdoor Neighbors - Greener *
David Byrne with Brian Eno - Wanted For Life
The Muslims (Now Called Soft Pack) - Walking With Jesus *
Apples In Stereo - Shine In Your Mind
The Olivia Tremor Control - Memories of Jacqueline 1906
A Certain Ratio - Do the Du (Peel Session version)
Fellini - Rock Europeu
Jacques Brel - Jef
Adanowsky - Estoy Mal (Now Playing)

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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

Make Way For Ducklings: Playlist and Commentary April 1, 2009

ducks

Today's show was great, and if doing the show wasn't cool enough, I left the studio only to find a duck and her ducklings! It was so adorable my ear started bleeding! I took some video of them on my computer and have started and finished this posting with clips of it. Good luck reading and not thinking about ducks. I realize that I'm completely upstaging my show with these guys, but come on...

For some odd reason, the blog has decided to double space today. I can't figure out how to fix it. That seems to be my only real problem today, so all in all I figure, I win.

Here is the playlist from today's show:

1) I Blame Bill - Darth Vader on Ukelele

2) ??? - Sur End A

This is a guy who I met at a house party and gave me his CD after he played. He's really quite magical to watch and has a bizarre infectious laugh that is a part of his singing. I believe his name is Marc.

3) Corridor - Barrkks *

New music on Manimal Vinyl. I like the music but am not quite so crazy about the vocals. I'm interested to see where these guys go.

4) Indian Jewelry - Lost My Sight

5) Tones On Tail - Go!

6) Brimstone Howl - We Came In Peace

7) The Stalkers - In Your Street Today

Thanks to DJ Short Shorts for turning me on to these guys. Unfortunately, I was too sick to see them play on Saturday.

8) Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect Device +

9) Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You

10) Strange Boys - They're Building Death Camps *

11) Foot Village - Protective Nourishment +

It's kind of weird to have an Asian girl screaming "I put pee-pee in your coke". I had completely forgotten how much mileage a 9 year old can get with the words "me Chinese, me play joke..." Thank you Foot Village for bringing it all back home. By the way, if you don't know, Foot Village is an all drum three piece band that includes Josh from Friends Forever (hence the next song) and our own International Voice of Reason. They rule, so come see them on the 11th at the KXLU Fundrazor show.

12) Friends Forever - Win

13) Chain and the Gang - Chain Gang Theme (I See Progress) *

New band starring Ian Svenonius and anyone who has ever walked into the K Records office.

14) So Many Wizards - I'm Just Like You *

15) The Nextdoor Neighbors - The Werewolf Song *

16) David Byrne and Brian Eno - Wanted For Life

17) Dan Deacon - Of The Mountains *

What did I tell you two weeks ago? This was a guaranteed new add for KXLU! Anyway, this would be a heavy competitor for album of the year if Animal Collective hadn't gone and released the best album since Kid A. Seriously, 2009 is turning out to be the best musical year ever. Every bands new album is leaving all of their past albums miles behind: Animal Collective, Abe Vigoda, Dan Deacon, Crystal Antlers; and it's only April!

18) Mi Ami - The Man In Your House *+

19) Crystal Antlers - Andrew *

20) Lansing-Dreiden - Dividing Island

They only sound like their from Detroit in the 70's. They are actually contemporary and in New York.

21) Death - Rock

Okay, they actually are from Detroit in the 70's. Check out the best music article I've seen in a long long time in the New York Times CLICK HERE

22) Wavves - Sun Opens My Eyes *

23) Harry Belefonte - Matilda

What? I needed a palette cleanser.

24) Funkadelic - Back In Our Minds

25) Bob James - Take Me To Mardi Gras

I cannot say it better than Jason Smith. CLICK HERE

26) DJ Shadow - Fixed Income

27) Religious Girls - (Rough Mixes Track Four)

Okay, this band used to be called Destroy Tokyo. I discovered them because I saw the spine of their CD and I liked the colors so I pulled it out. I then saw that they were called Destroy Tokyo so I figured I was into that. I then listened to the EP and liked it so much that I made the song Necklace my Myspace song for about 3 months. Then I found out that they changed their name to Religious Girls (which grabs me way less than Destroy Tokyo, but that's just me) and that they were playing Pehrspace. I don't know that I have been as blown away by a relatively unknown band as hard as I was them. They are amazing and need to be discovered by everyone! I convinced Sean Carlson to add them to last years Fuck Yeah Festival line up, but something got screwed up and they wound up not being able to play. If they don't play this year I'm breaking legs! See this band and thank me later!

28) Darker My Love - The Rule of Queen Tsago *

29) Abe Vigoda - Don't Lie *

30) Fucked Up - No Epiphany (No Age Remix) *

Wow! Congratulations to Randy and Dean for putting together a great remix!

31) Little Richard - Goodnight Irene

Okay, I am currently revisiting Little Richard and am pissed that I didn't do it sooner. This man is out of his gourd and his records are so amazing. Far be it from me to pass up a Leadbelly cover!

32) Jeremy Jay - Gallop *

33) Smog - I Break Horses

34) New Order - Procession

35) Belle and Sebastian - Electric Renaissance

36) Beta Band - Dry The Rain

37) Captain Ahab - Health/Foot Village Mash-Up

I have already ranted and raved about this remix from my last 2-6 am show 3 weeks ago. This song still floors me every time!.

38) Portishead - Machine Gun

39) ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - Fields of Coal

40) Adanowsky - Estoy Mal

Damn it! Song cut off right before the end due to a computer glitch. I guess that just means I'll have to play it a bunch more times to make up for this injustice! Adanowsky is Adan Jodorowsky, Alejandro Jodorowski's amazingly talented son. Feel free to have a nature vs. nurture conversation about how Adan became so amazing. Is it the genetics of having a father who's films have started full scale riots or perhaps it is from being surrounded by midgets, amputees, mimes and James Brown at various points throughout his life. Either way the guy is amazing and our friends at Skinny Directors are directing his newest video. I will be sure to have them come on the show and explain the debauchery that enseud for themselves when the video is close to release.

41) Black Sabbath - War Pigs (Live) +

Request from Jake and Marc

42) Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart *

43) Velvet Underground - Sister Ray

44) Suicide - Mr. Ray

Maybe I should have finished my Ray set with a wholesome comedy routine from TVs Ray Romano. Oh well...The Chinese use the same word for crisis as they do opportunity, so I guess I really screwed that one up!

Talk later!

Josh

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...and now, more ducklings!!!

Ducks 2

Becky Stark Interview and Songs

As promised, here are the audio files of some of the talking, songs and performance from my time with Becky Stark on KXLU. Just click the links to stream the audio. I sincerely hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I did being part of it.

Part 1: The Living Sisters

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.

The Living Sisters w/ Becky Stark Interview

Part 2: The Decemberists

Here is Becky discussing her work on the new Decemberists Rock Opera, Hazards of Love.

How this collaboration came to be is described in my posting below, "The Becky Stark Episode".

Decemberists

Part 3: Becky Stark Performs Oh My Beautiful World

This was recorded live at KXLU 3.25.09

Oh My Beautiful World (Accoustic)

Part 4: Becky Stark Performs Ocean and Ground

This was recorded live at KXLU 3.25.09

Ocean And Ground (Accoustic)

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.

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Becky Stark is Performing and Guest DJing my broadcast tomorrow

I'm very excited about my show tomorrow. Becky Stark from Lavender Diamond, the new Decemberists album, The Living Sisters (with Eleni Mendell and Inara George) and countless other projects will be in the studio with me. She is bringing records to play and an acoustic guitar...also to play. Hope you can tune in.

88.9 KXLU - Wednesdays 6-10am.

My Interview with Marnie Stern on KXLU

Here it is as promised! The interview and some songs from Marnie Stern.

Just click the link below and prepare yourself for wonderful.

Marnie Stern Interview 3.18.09 1

You had better come see her at the Echo on Wednesday 3.25.09 Click here to buy tickets.