April 19, 2011: Almost a Full Moon

Tonight we played some selections mostly acquired at recent Record Shows. After the promised Gong, we took a detour into Bardo Pond before dabbling with the post-punk sounds of perfectly named band, Half Man Half Biscuit,  these two tracks both feature a burst of vocals in a crescending calamity of rock and roll, if I may be so bold.

Karl Pilkington got very exited before discovering that the above moniker was a band name, not a medical condition

Then we had a set of very relaxed and ambient music. The Alexander Tucker is something I picked up a while ago and was a little turned off by the opening track. The album is now growing on me like a moss in a garden, slowly and pleasantly. Expect more form this album around full moons. 

Alexander Tucker, this moon is sad it should meet the one in the court of the Crimson King.

Ended things off with a track from Herbie Hancock, from the album Thrust. Picked that up at the Kingston show. The album features cover art that is pretty great. Note that Herbie is navigating his ornithopter with a musical keyboard. 

The only way to see Purple Machu Pichu.

Robot news featured the marketing web page from Borg manufacturer "Willow Garage" and their prototype PR2. I want to write an app for it that makes it form a band called Half Man Half iPhone.

PR2: "Drink the tea Agnes... relish those sensations that I cannot feel trapped in this metal shell."

Next week, expect prog... and the unexpected

Played List

Track - Artist - Album

Gong - Radio Gnome Invisible - Radio Gnome Invisible Pt. 1

Bardo Pond - Cracker Wrist - Bardo Pond

Half Man Half Biscuit - Dicki Davies Eyes - Dicki Davies Eyes (12-Inch)

Thin Lizzy - Don't Believe a Word - Johnny the Fox

Brian Eno - Under Stars - Apollo, Atmospheres and Soundtracks

Alexander Tucker - Spout of Light - Furrowed Brow

Pink Floyd - Grantchester Meadows - Ummagumma

Robert Fripp - The Zero of the Signified

Herbie Hancock - Spank A Lee - Thrust

April 12, 2011: Record Show Record Show

Courage to satire. Where is today's Zappa?

Precorded show featuring a selection of music I picked up on the weekend at two record shows, one in Ottawa and the other in Kingston.


I was fortunate to find probably the top two records on my wishlist: Zappa and the Mothers with "We're Only In It for the Money" and Gong's "Radio Gnome Invisible Pt 1". Unfortunately left the latter at home (it is living on my turntable). However, an unexpected score was Gong's LIve 1977 LP.

Prove this teapot DOESN'T exist.

 Some more new stuff for me including Magma, Thin Lizzy and Caravan are keeping me well fueled on my journey into the off-center music of the 1960s and 70s. I also picked up the new Bardo Pond from the Birdman and Eno's Apollo record.

Bardo Pond, it gets exactly that

Started things off with a robot track acquired by a friend at the K-town show, just for continuity reasons.

Sorry for the technical difficulty which I understand ensued in my last segment. You missed the pain of Supertramp's second album (which is actually pretty decent.) and Christopher Ward's 1978 attempt at yacht rock (which is pretty awful).

Robot News: Check out CBC's Spark show on robots on the down load or podcast

Played List
Artist - Track - Album

Jean-Jaques Perry- Robot Minuet - The Amazing New Electronic Pop Sound of Jean -Jaques Perry
Planet Gong - Floating Anarchy Live - Floatin'Anarchy
(The) Ventures in Space - Fear - Out of Limits / Penetration
Donovan - Wild Witch Lady - Cosmic Wheels

Caravan - Winter Wine - In the Land of Grey and Pink 

Magma - Gamma - Indedits
Bardo Pond - Don't Know About You - Bardo Pond


The Mothers - What's The Ugliest Part of Your Body - We're Only In It for the Money
The Mothers -  Absolutely Free - We're Only In It for the Money
The Mothers - Flower Punk - We're Only In It for the Money

Christopher Ward - Roll Like a Wheel - Spark of Desire

April 5, 2011: Robot Parade

If you send me a record in the mail, you may very well get a themed radio show out of it. Yes, even if it is a K-Tel disc of hits:

Non of the Songs on this have anything to do with robots.

Robots have been a pet project of mine ever since the year 2000 when I was involved in a one person show called Binary Opposition. I just googled it and most of the internet presence has vanished. But in an eleven-year old forum post, someone has quoted the show. I still think it is a good quote, though it has nothing to do with robots:

"Computer geeks know they're geeks, but that's okay, because they control the invisible world inside their computer. Classic geeks know they're geeks, but that's okay, because they control the invisible world the Dungeon Master creates for them. But drama geeks don't know they're geeks! They think they're so cool, with their devil sticks and their cat-in-the-hat-hats..." - Sandy Donaldson, Binary Opposition

I think the same is true today, though the Cat-in-the-hat-hat is replaced by the animal toque. Back to robots. I love the clunky old robots that shoot sparks from their mouths and can't really do anything. The Will Smith i-Robots do little for me. While it comes around about once a decade, I still think the robot genre is underused in sci-fi.

A Robot Threat that only stairs could foil.

As it is in music. I just hobbled the list below together off the top of my head. 

To somewhat contrast, out Robot News dealt with the Robot Opera.

While I played something from the same album, listeners were spared any "domo-origato"... this time.

Played List

 Artist - Track - Album

Gyorgy Ligeti - Requium for Soprano - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Bill Conti - Gonna Fly Now - Music Machine

Goblin - L'Alba Dei Morti Viveti - Zombi [soundtrack]

Gershon Kingsley's First Moog Quartet - Images - Gershon Kingsley's First Moog Quartet

Kraftwerk - The Robots - The Man Machine

Amon Duul II - Archie the Robot - Archie the Robot

They Might Be Giants - Robot Parade - No!

Kate Bush - Deeper Understanding - The Sensual World

Mahogany Frog - Sanchez Says... And Soon the Aces Will Ensue

Hawkwind - The Spirit of the Age - Quark Strangeness and Charm

Black Sabbath - Iron Man - Paranoid

Styxx - High Time - Kilroy Was Here