EPISODES 81 - 90

EPISODE 90: Bagpipers at the Gates of Dawn

Bagpipes are a sonorous and ceaseless instrument. Almost comically so. The traditional Scottish Bagpipe is the loudest unamplified instrument known to man. Decibel levels range upwards of 110, which puts them far closer to thunderclaps and power tools than pianos and oboes. And if the deafening sound doesn’t get you, then the constancy of its noise certainly will. The chanter of a bagpipe is open, which means that once a piper has used the blow stick to fill the bag, the instrument cannot (and will not) be silenced until all the air is released. The spectacular implacable multi-dimensional soundscapes made by a stand of pipes are typically more unleashed than controlled. In fact, it requires technical playing to create an allusion of articulation and tone accents. In essence, the player bends to the will of the instrument, not the other way around...its the anti-Theremin. The power seems to be a tempting inclusion to engorge the depths of songcraft, yet, there have been so few popular musical artists who have attempted to integrate bagpipes into their songs. Even fewer used bagpipes on a regular basis.

In today’s episode, we are going to explore the tenuous relationship between the sack and the song. To find the brave souls who marched into the mainstream with nothing but pipes, pride, provocations, and piercing pandemonium. We are going to lift the kilt on one of the world’s most maligned and misunderstood music-makers. So, take a deep breath and blow as hard as you can, squeeze your bag tightly, finger your chanter nimbly, and don’t stop until you or your audience passes out….because we are startin’ to tartan. Today, bagpipes in popular music.

Listen Here:

The Four Records Featured on this Episode:

Rufus Harley - Eight Miles High

Dorothy Ashby - Soul Vibrations

Vulcans - Dr Spock

William Loveday Intention - Hollis Brown

EPISODE 89: Non-Holiday Holiday Show

It’s that time of year again, where we get pretty sick of hearing about Christmas. For this, unbelievably, our fourth Christmas episode we are going to carry on the tradition of taking an episode to talk about some of the weirder, smaller stories that we’ve wanted to cover, but wouldn’t fit in with a full-length turntable talk. A veritable cornucopia of record oddities. So, sit back and get ready to have your stockings stuffed with some fascinating tales of rock star mishaps and vinyl vanities. Stoke your fire, spike your eggnog, and don your winter’s cap, cause you’re about to be visited by the ghost of music history’s past.

In this episode, we have stories about Fake American songs, the censorship roots of Mr Trololo, Monster Mash Assassinations, the man with vinyl vision, Disney's sci-fi glamband, computer programs on records, and Joe eating muffins with Vincent Price. Join us, won't you?

Listen Here:

The Four Records Featured on this Episode:

Billy Ward & the Dominoes - Christmas in Heaven

Harlem's Children Chorus - Black Christmas

The Fuzztones - Santa Claus

Pee Pee Dynamite - Groovy Christmas and New Year

Other Links for the Show:

Adriano Celentano - Prisencolinensinainciusol

Mr Trololo

Kempa's Article on Vinyl Data

Chris Sievey's Camoflauge

Chris Sievey's The Biz Game

Pete Shelley's XL-1

Thompson Twin Game

Halyx Documentary

Act with Vincent Price

AKG Lira Podcaster Essentials

EPISODE 88: Puppet Records

In the early 20th century, a puppet fervor slowly crept across the America, like rust on a Chevy Nova, as travelling shows made puppeteers into full fledge celebrities, particularly the self-proclaimed “America’s Puppet Master” Tony Sarg who was instrumental in creating visually appealing versions of classic children’s tales and bringing to life puppets in live action and animated films. Concurrently, ventriloquism acts were breaking from music halls and vaudeville shows to find superstardom led by duos of Arthur Prince and Sailor Jimmy, the Great Lester and Frank Byron Jr., and, of course, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. America got wood for talking wood.

The rise of radio, television, and film provided even broader platforms for puppeteers and ventriloquists to spread their infectious amusements. In a world before special effects, making inanimate objects come alive felt magical and more real than still nascent animation. It was children’s television that really embraced puppets as Howdy Doody and Burr Tillstrom's Kukla and Ollie were beamed directly into the impressionable minds of the baby boomers. Lambchop lovin’ Shari Lewis, sweater-clad Fred Rogers, and googly eyed Jim Henson all followed suit shortly after making themselves and their creations into international superstars.

At about the same nuclear age time frame, you couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a socially awkward (and probably sexually frustrated) kid unsuccessfully practicing throwing his voice with a shiny new Emmett Kelly or Mortimer Snerd dummy emulating their heroes like Jimmy Nelson, Bil Baird, and Paul Winchell. They would spend hours listening to instructional records on letter substitutions and tongue positioning. The craze permeated far and wide as even Miss America contestants chose ventriloquism for the talent portion of the show. We even got so lazy that we decided to let robots run our puppets as animatronics started popping up all over place like Disneyland, Showbiz Pizza, and Chuck E Cheese.

In this episode, we are going to stare into the cold dead eyes of the dummies. We are going to explore why and how adults mimicking mannerisms into lifeless masses became the preeminent evangelical apparatus. And how things went so far off the rails. So, dim the lights and focus the spotlight. Put on your duck tail tuxedo. Tip your top hat jauntily askew. Straighten your bowtie. Stick your hand up the bottom of your favorite inanimate object and throw your voice as far it goes. Join as we walk through the uncanny valley of the dolls. Just don’t let us see your lips move. Today, the wacky world of puppet records, you dummies.

Listen Here:

The Four Records Featured on this Episode:

Preacherman - Age of Individualism

Mahmoud Ahmed - Tezeta

RD Burman & Asha Bhosle -Duniya Mein Logon Ko

Penny & The Quarters - You and Me

Mentioned in the show:

Lil Markie

Let My Puppets Come (NSFW)

Little Nieto Cover

Special Thanks for their Puppetmastery Knowledge goes to:

Micah from the Music of Mind Control

Mike from PIAPTK

Ken Scott's Archivist

And LP Cover Lover who had lots of great Puppet Record Pics:

EPISODE 87: SATANIC FANATICS

SOUNDS OF THE OCCULT

Almost as long as humans have mastered the ability to record the environment around them, they have desired to record the world that is just beyond them. A perfectly logical endeavor, as all recorded music is somewhat supernatural, especially when cocaine and LSD are involved. Recorded sound is by its very nature taken from another place, a distant place, and thrust into a moment where it doesn’t belong and couldn’t exist without human manipulation. The technology that unlocks these past dimensions surely mustn't stop there...what other realms can be explored.

The auditory products that are made with an ear for the unknown are fascinating relics. Some believe what they are hearing are examples of mass delusion. Some believe that they are powers that should have never been unearthed. Some believe they are misunderstood manifestations of science. Is it the ungodly work of degenerate fiends or feigned evil of unenlightened opportunists? Either way, you’ll be left dismayed, disgusted, disturbed, delighted, and full of dread as we venture through darkened hallways of paranormal recordings, satanic priest rituals, spell incantations, occult rock, and pagan folk. So, light your black candle, dust off your grimoire, pour some blood in your skull goblets, evoke your antichrist, buff your crystal balls, and sacrifice ‘em if you got ‘em. Today, we explore the sounds of the occult and occultists.

Listen Here:

The Four Records Featured on this Episode:

Coven - Black Sabbath

Lucifer (Mort Garson) - Exorcism

Bonnie Stillwatter - Devil is People

Plus - Wrath: "Gemegemera"

Resources:

Medium: Paranormal Field Recordings and Compositions

Occult Voices – Paranormal Music, Recordings of unseen Intelligences 1905-2007

Thanks to Micah from WFMU's Music of Mind Control for helping us dig up some of this craziness.

Edison's Spirit Phone

Rosemary Brown

Gundella

Early use of the "Devil Horns" at a Coven Show. Suck it, Gene Simmons.

EPISODE 86: Musical History in Graphic Novels

In this episode we look at how graphic novels are pushing the boundaries of pop music history, bringing new perspectives and fans. Where life imitating art is just as possible as art imitating life. How like the inked pages themselves, the books color their stories to accentuate their ideas and themes. Lighter, darker, more intense, more fanciful, more realistic, more fantastical. Entire biographies or genres are carefully condensed into imaginative visions. Adaptations that leave lasting impressions that are not necessarily bound by what is real. So move back in your mother’s basement, fire up the Batmobile, and bring out the shoebox of old Zippy the Pinhead comics. In this episode, we explore the symbiotic relationship between music history myth-building and graphic novels.

Listen Here:

The Four Records Featured on this Episode:

Shelly Duvall - He Needs Me

The Coolies - Cook Book

The Fall - How I Wrote Elastic Man

The Clique - Superman

Some of the Graphic Novels mentioned in the episode:
Nick Cave - Mercy on Me
Hip Hop Family Tree
Paul is Dead
The Fifth Beatle
Baby's in Black
Johnny Cash - I See A Darkness
Cass Elliott - California Dreamin'
Robert Johnson - Love in Vain
Incantations of Daniel Johnston
Ramones - Gabba Gabba Hey
Glenn Gould - Life Off Tempo
Billie Holiday
Monk
Opera Adaptations
Tunes!
Theft
Fantagraphics
Z2 Comics

EPISODE 84: Experiential Microgenres:

Night Bus, Late-Night Grocery Run, & Pink Motel

Night Bus, Late Night Grocery Run, & Pink Motel are microgenres that represent their own experiential sound, where the songs are held together by the atmospheres they invoke rather than a specific set of rules or location in time and space. The music, primarily captured on singles, was created by private press or no name labels with dreams of making it big or at least making a few bucks. The mood of these micro-genres provides a faded snapshot of the 1980s with a depraved combination of the excess and frivolity of popular styles of the time: RnB, disco, funk, AOR, and synthpop.

Our episode today is being co-hosted by two cosmonauts of musical taxonomy, Candace and Micah, who launch themselves into the darkest recesses of the musical spectrum and bring back the fragments of unremembered sounds out of the oblivion. They explore musical trends that are mostly forgotten or intentionally pushed away from mass society for its own protection. They have worked diligently to find homes for the “square peg” music that certainly exists, but is, as of yet, unrecognized as a cohesive micro-genre. Music that is little known outside of the basement dwelling record trolls plastered to their discogs, mixclouds, and youtubes.

Listen here:

The Four Records Featured on this Episode:

Jack Adkins - American Sunset

Omega - Gyöngyhajú Lány

Jonathan Richman - That Summer Feeling

Lewis - I Thought The World of You

Episode Links:

Listen to Micah's show on WFMU, Music of Mind Control

Archives for WFMU shows hosted by Micah & Candace: Night Bus & Low Rent Grooves/Pink Motel

Wild Dreams Video

Spotify Mix

Preacherman and TJ Hustler

EPISODE 83: Institution Albums

Desert Island Recordings IX

There is an unproductive trope of there being a fine line between genius and madman. Constantly, we are encouraged to believe that the works of “artists in asylums” are somehow this perpetual motion machine where mental illness fuels creativity which, in turn, fractures the creator even more creating a cycle toward an inevitable dark end, where we are only left with the work to scrutinize or admire. The truth is a lot less dramatic, but no less sad. Social circumstances, interpersonal relationships, biology, substances, and societal expectations each play relevant roles in determining the well-being of every person: artist, genius, or just the poor soul sleeping on the street. Art and artist are separate. Just as a mental condition and person are separate. Influenced and interlaced, certainly, but we so often forget that works do not define the person, rather the person defines the work.

Many of us are captivated by albums that were created while the artists were in mental hospitals. They are rare artifacts that unfortunately end up defining the artist for their careers while giving an undue amount of weight to the condition of their mind rather than the beauty within it. The artistry that comes from the pain and confusion of confinement . . . in a hospital and in one’s mind. The records are snapshots of musicians on the brink that utilized songs to communicate their struggle or alleviate suffering. Today, we are exploring Institutional Albums by Roky Erickson, Skip Spence, and Daniel Johnston.

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The Records Featured on this Episode:

The Beach Boys - Johnny Carson

Songs: Ohia - Soul

Sources used for this episode include:

13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History by Paul Drummond

Eye Mind: The Saga of Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators, The Pioneers of Psychedelic Sound by Paul Drummond

Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost: Erin Osmon

EPISODE 82:
The Women Who Pioneered Experimental & Electronic Music

There is a long history of the unjust treatment of women musicians whose contributions were often overlooked, dismissed, or stolen. Sadly, it’s likely to be a long future as well. This is on the top of the extra effort and persistence that it took to establish themselves in a sexist business that is stacked against female creators and performers. In particular, the development of experimental and electronic music has been established on the skills of a number of women artists who made monumental and transformative contributions to forward-thinking, technology-minded music. Unfortunately, many of these artists remain far too obscure for their importance in progressing the genre. This episode is an examination of the unsung women who shaped the sounds during the formative years of electronic music.

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The Four Records Featured on this Episode:

Buffy Stainte Marie - God Is Alive, Magic is Afoot

Ruth White - Litany of Satan

Delia Derbyshire - Ziwzih Ziwzih OO-OO-OO

Laurie Anderson - Sharkey's Night