January 25, 2011: Two Two-Packs of Not Wooden, Non-Roosters

NB: Not a "Two-Pack", just a couple of Mexican wood roosters.

Years ago, after a long night, friends and I happened upon a TV shopping channel presentation of a truly wondrous product. It was a wooden rooster ornament, green with bright colouring... but that's not all! You get a two-pack! The implication being that while there are the obvious individual purchases, the six-pack for parties, family size (the dozen-pack) and mega-roosters for corporate events (24-pack), the two-pack offers maximum and exclusive value.

We didn't buy a pack, but I played a two-pack of two-plays from Os Mutantes and Jonas Reinhardt to start off the program this week. 

Lots of fun music, including Heart, Savatage and High Places. 

Robot News should give you nightmares.

Set List

Brazilian Mutants: Os Mutantes

Artist - Track - Album

Os Mutantes - Dom Quioxte - Mutantes

Os Mutantes - Nao va ser Perder Por Ai - Mutantes

Jonas Reindhart - Mumma Deed Family Clone - Powers of Audition

Jonas Reindhart - Atomic Bomb Living - Powers of Audition

High Places - Namer - High Places

Robot News

Telenoid R1

Telenoid R1 and spawn, like "...that horrific baby from Eraserhead" ... the robot

La Otracina - Inner Mind Journey - Blood Moon Riders

Jack Rose - When Tailgate Drops, Bullshit Stops - Luck in the Valley

Joni Mitchell - The Gallery - Clouds

Song for New Moms 

Heart - Dreamboat Annie (Reprise) - Dreamboat Annie

Hawkwind - Hall of the Mountain Grill - Hall of the Mountain Grill

(Good Song that Rocks)

A step up from math-binder-doodle art?

Bad Song that Rocks

Savatage - Hall of the Mountain King - Hall of the Mountain King

January 18, 2011: Mark the Occasion

The day "before" the broadcast was both Martin Luther King Day (US) and the birthday of Art (Universe). We marked the day by playing some great moog music and otherwise inspired work, including a whole side of Terry Riley... oh! that rainbow! 

Make up own caption.

I also couldn't let the occasion pass without providing some content for other Canadian Bloggers, hence the Belafonte, the Mayfield and the Hancock.

The Robot News was genuinely alarming, check out the full video of P.W. Singer's talk at the Dangerous Ideas Festival here.

I also mentioned the recent Kepler discovery of a rocky exo-planet. This is huge (figuratively) as was this other discovery of a MEARTH which is also huge (literally). We are closing the gap to finding evidence of extra-terrestrial life, possibly the only entities who can save us from the coming robot revolution.

The Kepler Team, which includes a tall Latvian-Canadian,
found this rock in space (artist's rendering). 
Way too hot for us, but at least we could stand on it.

Quite a day!

Set List

Artist - Track - Album

Look Over Yonder - Harry Belafonte - Swing Dat Hammer

Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air - A Rainbow in Curved Air

Gershon Kingsley -  Miracles - The First Moog Quartet

Robot News

P.W. Singer - Wired for War [talk] - Dangerous Ideas Festival

Song for New Moms:

Curtis Mayfield - We Gotta have Peace - Roots

Honey in the Bee Box - Sun Ra & his Arkestra [Crystals] - Interplanetary Melodies Vol. 1

Songs for Astronomers

Spaceship Lullaby - Sun Ra & his Arkestra [Nu Sounds] - Interplanetary Melodies Vol. 1

Islaja -  Dadahuulet - Keraaminen Pää

Herbie Hancock - Promise of the Sun - The Prisoner

Terry Riley - Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band - A Rainbow in Curved Air

January 10, 2011: Rock and Roll Animals

Lou Reed's Rock and Roll Animal is one of the first records I bought. It is scratchy and old but it just doesn't matter. It is a great live record and took up a chunk of our time. Worth it! I realized half way in that this show figured a great deal of releases from the Holy Mountain label, and why not? 

I also subjected listeners to the perhaps tortuous pseudo-prog-syth cheese of Saga! Saga. A combination of my love of Precambrian Icelandic literature... and album covers led me to give these German-loved Canadians more than a chance. At least this tune had some robot vocals.

Pretty proud of the Song for New Moms this week. 

Set List

Artist - Track - Album

Lou Reed - Intro/Sweet Jane - Rock n' Roll Animal

Lords of Falconry - Marisol - Lords of Falconry

Residual Echoes - California - California

Bad Song that 'Rocks":

Saga - See them Smile - Images at Twilight

Robot News:

Consumer Electronic Show 'Bots

Murata Boy

Song for New Moms:

Donovan - Children Believe in Love - Slow Down World

Juana Molina -  - Son - Desordenado

Marissa Nadler - The Whole is Wide - Little Hells

Moon Duo - Winter - [Single]

Mahogany Frog - Springtime for Canadian Youth - Mahogany Frog On Blue

Islaja - Uni pollona olemisesta - Palaa Aurinkoon

January 4, 2011: Volumes of Music, Played at Volume

Feeling the need to reset after assaulting listeners with the DEEP HURTING of last week's holiday special, this week featured longer tracks of excellent music.

One of Canada's Quest[s] for Fire

I am going to stop apologizing about the possible inappropriateness of my "Songs for New Moms" selections. While I forgot about Funkadelic's jarring and poetic intro, I maintain that Maggot Brain is soothing.

Robot "News" turned out to be a quite old piece from a satirical news provider. Guess I'm out of the running for a Peabody this year. 

This Week's Playlist

Artist - Track - Album

Quest for Fire - The Greatest Hits By God- Lights from Paradise

Sun Araw - Conga Mind - On Patrol

Oneida - The Human Factor - Rated O

Robot News

Songs for New Moms

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain - Maggot Brain

The Soft Machine - Hibou, Anemone and Bear - Volume 2

Wooden Shjips - Dance California (Radio Edit) - Volume 1

Easy Star All Stars - Exit Music (for a Dub) - Radiodread

December 28, 2010: Holiday Special, Bad Songs that Rock

OK I promise to do this only once a year. 

 

As good as Hagar gets... he certainly gets worse!

That said, I think truly terrible music or any art, facilitates the peeling back of the layers of the piece to discern the existence (or lack thereof) a passion or even talent, which would otherwise be drowned out by the quality of the work.

This was the holiday special. It was "special".  I played music that was remarkably bad or remarkably good... considering.

For realsies

No robot news this week... even robots need a holiday.

The Playlist

Artist - Track - Album

Daniel Higgs - Hoofprints on the Ceiling of Your Mind - Say God

Clyde Gilmour - Introduction - Gilmour's Album

PDQ Bach - Oratorio "The Seasonings" - The Wurst of PDQ Bach

The Brothers in Law - The RCMP - Oh! Oh! Canada

Loggins & Messina - Watching the River Run - Full Sail

John Cougar Melloncamp - Weakest Moments - American Fool

The Box - What We Shall Believe - All the Time, All the Time, All the Time...

Roger Whittaker - High - In Kenya: A Musical Safari

Kaliber - History - Metal Meltdown Vol. 1

Anvil - March of the Crabs - Metal on Metal

Sammy Hagar - Heavy Metal - Heavy Metal [The Original  Motion Picture Soundtrack]

Barbara Streisand - Jingle Bells? - A Christmas Album

Neil Diamond - Soggy Pretzels - Hot August Night

December 21, 2010: Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse Freak-Out

The Moon and Winter

It was tremendous fun to accumulate songs about the moon. Unfortunately, the clouds covered the spectacle in Kingston, but I have it on good authority that the moon was eclipsed by the Earth and the it was the longest night of 2010. 

Apparently one was supposed to be able to see the stars behind the Moon while in full eclipse.

The show was a spectrum of early prog, classic psych, curios, comedy, folk, ambiance and heaviness. Dulcimer sounds of Jean Ritchie along with a trove of youtube videos were an exiting discovery in preparing for the show. Also joyful was re-discovering the Tom Waits, Phillip Glass and Baraka  (see below), a sample of a very small collection of music that got Tree through the 1990's.

Many excellent powers on this Album

I was a Platonic Ideal of Restraint in not playing Duran Duran and Gowan, but I couldn't help slowing down the Police and mixing it up with some Sly and Robbie.

The Playlist

Artist - Track - Album

Brian Eno -  Slow Ice, Old Moon - Small Craft on a Milk Sea

Twilight Time - The Harmonicats - Peg 'O My Heart

Pink Floyd - Speak to Me/Breathe - The Dark Side of the Moon

King Crimson - Moonchild - Court of the Crimson King

Genesis - Dancing with the Moonlit Knight - Selling England by the Pound

Song for New Moms:

Jose Feliciano -California Dreamin'  - Feliciano!

Bond Arrives in Rio and Boat Chase - John Barry - Moonraker [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack ]

Blow up the Moon - Bob Odenkirk (C.S. Lewis Jr.) and David Cross - Mr Show, The Complete Third Season

Moon River - Jean Jacques Perry and Gershon Kingsley - Kaleidoscopic Vibrations: Spotlight on the Moog

Robot News:

 



Robot Made from Crashed Bomber - Daily Mail

Henry Mancini - The Moon of Manakoora - Music of Hawaii

Tom Waits - Black Wings - Bone Machine 

Jean Richie - Wintergrace

The Sword - Lament for Aurochs - Age of Winters

Brian Eno and David Byrne - Moonlight in Glory - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Fursaxa - Poplar Moon - Mycorrhizae Realm 

Walking on the Moon - Sly & Robbie / The [slowed down] Police - Regatta Modatta/ de Blanc

Phillip Glass and Allen Ginsberg - from Iron Horse - Hydrogen Jukebox

Micheal Kamen - Days and Nights in Kyoto - Brazil [The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

"Rainbow Voice" - David Hykes & The Harmonic Choir- Baraka [The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

Nick Drake - Pink Moon - Pink Moon

His Name is Alive - Blue Moon - Mouth by Mouth

The Moon was Yellow - Marty Gold and his Orchestra - Soundpower! Music To The Limits Of Audibility

Pink Floyd - The Great Gig in the Sky - The Dark Side of the Moon

Pink Floyd - Eclipse / Brain Damage - The Dark Side of the Moon