Well here we are, another year come and gone. It was a shitty year for most things, but one thing that didn't disappoint was the music scene, which delivered several out-of-the-park albums, so I thought for our last show of the year we'd go through 2012 and have a platter of some of the best tracks, right here at Klen House. My love of Swans is old hat by now, their album Soundtracks for the Blind among my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, album of all time, but it bears repeating that this year's offering The Seer is mind-blowingly good, album of the year easily. Goat's "Goathead" is precisely what I imagined Jimi Hendrix sounded like when I was a kid before I actually heard his work. I was eventually disappointed by Jimi, but Goat fries like no other, one of the most cracked guitarlines I've heard in a long time. Cate le Bon reminds me a bit of a modern-day Nico, something that could easily fall into obnoxious hipster irrelevance but she skirts the line quite well, think Nico singing one of John Cale's better albums, Paris 1919 perhaps. Howlin' Rain's newest album has a serious Guns 'n Roses vibe for me, their later, pompously epic stuff like Use Your Illusion or Chinese Democracy, really it's the album Democracy should have been, gloriously huge and screaming toward the stratosphere. Keep freaky, listeners, and see you next year.
1. Swans - Avatar (from The Seer)
2. Goat - Goathead (from World Music)
3. Cate le Bon - Cyrk (from Cyrk)
4. Hexvessel - Woods to Conjure (from No Holier Temple)
5. Ergo Phizmiz - Ophelia (from Eleven Songs)
-Commercial: Vitalis-
6. Howlin' Rain - Phantom in the Valley (from The Russian Wilds)
7. Red River Dialect - Appleseed (from Allupontheway)
8. Matthew Dear - Earthforms (from Beams)
9. Gold Motel - Cold Shoulders (from Gold Motel)
10. Would You Be My Love - Ty Segall (from Twins)
Got two addendums today, a couple amazing songs that didn't make the show because they were too damn long. Up first is Epizootics! from the always incredible Scott Walker's new album Bish Bosch, which is most certainly on my top 10 list for this year...
And second is a mammoth slice of proggy goodness from Motorpsycho from their new album The Death-Defying Uniform. Prepare yourself for the void!
You'd never expect it, but sometimes even Klen House can relax and enjoy the holidays. So in the spirit of giving, we're here to offer up a veritable Santa's bag worth of tunes, with all your Christmas favorites...C-3P0, H. P. Lovecraft, Daleks, and Mister Magoo are pulling the sleigh, and of course Steve Austin himself is filling in as St. Nick. Nothing else to say, except that I played the hell out of that Six Million Dollar Man album when I was a kid. Enjoy!
1. The Six Million Dollar Man - The Kris Kringle Caper, part 1
2. C-3P0 - Christmas in the Stars
3. The Sonics - Don't Believe in Christmas
4. The Six Million Dollar Man - The Kris Kringle Caper, part 2
5. The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society - I Saw Mommy Kissing Yog-Sothoth
6. Gary Ferrier - Ringo Deer
7. The Six Million Dollar Man - The Kris Kringle Caper, part 3
8. The Go-Go's - I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With a Dalek
9. Jim Backus & Daws Butler - I Was a Teenage Reindeer
10. Akim & The Teddy Vann Production Company - Santa Claus is a Black Man
11. The Six Million Dollar Man - The Kris Kringle Caper, part 4
Acoustic guitars (and one acoustic piano) are the theme of the day here at Klen House, a week to indulge my inner folkie and let my politely freaky flag fly. We start off with the semi-title-track from Anaïs Mitchell's wonderful folk opera Hadestown, a retelling of the myth of Orpheus & Eurydice with Depression-era folk tunes. It's good stuff! The Incredible String Band's 'Painting Box' is another of my favorite tunes, a great slice of 60s slightly-psyche folk rock that worms its way into your head and doesn't let go. I've mentioned on several occasions my love of Michael Gira's band Swans, but he does a pretty killer solo act too, firm and commanding with one of the best voices in music today. Last but not least is a cut from poet Ian Silva, gently British-styled folk which deserves more love than it gets.
1. Anaïs Mitchell - Way Down Hadestown
2. David Morris - Shay
3. Gary Higgins - Cuckoo
4. The Incredible String Band - Painting Box
-Commercial: QT Quik Tan-
5. John Cale - The Endless Pain of Fortune
6. Michael Gira - Oxygen
7. Ian Silva - Adam's Dream (Liebestraum Blues)
Peace, love, and sandlewood right here!
It doesn't look like Hadestown is touring, but Anaïs Mitchell is putting out an album of ballads!
David Morris' band Red River Dialect has a bandcamp. Did you forget? Here it is!
Michael Gira's Young God Records has everything you could ever want in the entire universe.
Ian Silva's album is available here for free! Why the hell not?
For our addendum today, dig The Incredible String Band...
Lots of compilation tracks this week, starting off with Daniel Miller (he of Mute Records) and Boyd Rice (he of Sassy and SS uniforms) throwing down some samples and beats that genuinely chilled me when I was a child, and was among the first of many stupid things that probably gave me whatever psychoses I have today. Everyone knows Karp, and if you don't you should, about the only thing on K Records that was ever cool (outside of about half of Beck's One Foot in The Grave). Antonio Contador comes to us straight from Headphonica Records, a label that I keep feeling I should try to get to put out one of my albums, but I'm too self-conscious about that old stuff anyway. Snagga Puss is amazing, the backing track is Dancehall reggae like any other, but Snagga himself sounds approximately 387 years old, wheezing out his lines like he could drop dead at any second. It's a moment that everyone should listen to at least once. And 'He Needs Me', Shelley Duvall's lovely song from the Popeye soundtrack? Well, that's nearly perfection, right there.
1. Daniel Miller & Boyd Rice - Cleanliness and Order
2. Karp - Connect 5
3. Mitches Blue Standard - Stop Staring at Me
4. Antonio Contador - Crazy in Love
-Commercial: Palm Springs-
5. Matthew Friedberger - Greyhound
6. Snagga Puss - Defend It
7. Wicked Witch - X Rated
8. Shelley Duvall - He Needs Me
Download the show before Snagga Puss bites the dust! Headphonica puts out Antonio Contador, Ergo Phizmiz...me, someday? Thrill Jockey has been putting out Matt Friedberger's music for a while.
And here's a pretty awesome addendum... Matt Friedberger performing at the Luminary Center for the Arts in St. Louis. He still looks like a dweeb.
It's getting to the point, 23 episodes in, that I'm forgetting what song I've used previously, so hopefully I don't run into any repeats. Though of course since Rapidshare deletes my files so quickly it hardly matters...anyone know any good free filehosting sites out there?
1. Eagle Twin - Lorca (Adan)
2. The Beach Boys - He Gives Speeches
-Commercial: Loes Corduroy-
3. Bis - School Disco
4. BS2000 - Sick for a Reason
5. Cornelius - Magoo Opening
6. The Beta Band - Dog's Got a Bone
Beware of faulty meat, just enjoy Klen House here!
Bis is apparently still going strong, check them out in Glasgow!
I've also started a new blog, The Rest is Silence, discussing music, literature, all that jazz. Check it out! Current topic: comics?
An addendum for this week, my favorite song by The Beta Band. This one's for Scotland.
It's a quiet day, it's raining, and the pundits have finally stopped arguing; it's time for a glass of wine (or perhaps Miles Davis' Bitches Brew?) and these fine tunes playing on your hi-fi system. Celebrate the election (or the lack thereof, at least) with Jared Emerson-Johnson's Busby Berkeley-inspired meditation on war, as well as Ergo Phizmiz's love letter to David Cameron and Nick Clegg. J. J. Burnel took time out with The Stranglers to cut a rad solo album, extremely cold and European, and 'Freddie Laker' is by far the best cut of the lot. A couple soundtrack pieces here as well: Lydia's theme from Caligula is pure late 70s cheese, absolutely ludicrous and fantastic because of it. The Black Angels was an awful 1970 bikersploitation movie, and despite you thinking that could lead to some badass tunes, 'The Cigarettes Song' is among the wimpiest songs I've ever heard.
1. Savaging Spires - When The Devil Says You're Dead
2. J. J. Burnel - Freddy Laker (Concorde and Airbus)
3. Jared Emerson-Johnson - Good For You (Good For Me)
-Commercial: Maclean's
4. Lydia - We Are One (Dance Version)
5. Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Big Baby
6. Ergo Phizmiz - Dear Mr. Cameron, Dear Mrs. Clegg
7. The Black Angels - Cigarettes Song
Enjoy the cool sounds here.
Savaging Spires single is available for just a couple bucks here!
Shadowy Men's unofficial site is still being updated. Pick up the LP of Savvy Show Stoppers!
Don't forget Ergo Phizmiz!
And for our addendum, enjoy the sounds of Savaging Spires if you haven't already.
I've made if safe to sunny L.A., so now's the time to celebrate. Porno Porkchop is a perverse, semi-guilty pleasure, a drums/acoustic guitar/acoustic bass setup that reminds me of a much more profane, filthy Violent Femmes (and I mean that in the best way possible, of course). Praxis was, at this recording, a supergroup consisting of Bill Laswell, Buckethead, John Zorn, Bootsy Collins, Yamatsuka Eye, and god knows who else, making hellacious clatter before settling into the creepy dub that Laswell and Zorn would master with Mick Harris in Pain Killer. Splodgenessabounds was a bizarre hanger-on in the London oi punk scene, but to my ears they have a kind of goofy vaudeville revue sound that seems totally out of place among the too-serious oi kids.
1. Porno Porkchop - Sgt. Squishy
2. Praxis - Cold Rolled/Iron Dub
3. Splodgenessabounds - I've Got Lots of Famous People Living Under the Floorboards of
My Humble Abode
4. Voltaire - Cannibal Buffet
-Commercial: Rockefeller for governor-
5. Disque 9 - The Vision The Gift & The Question
6. 23 Skidoo - Quiet Pillage
7. Gary Higgins - Cuckoo
8. Riyou Kinugasa - Life is Beautiful
Life is beautiful when you listen to Klen House right here.
The guy from Porno Porkchop has, you guessed it, a bandcamp.
Not much info on Disque 9's creepy collage, but you can find their album on Amazon, surprisingly.
And for the addendum this week, let's all clap hands and sing along to Metro City Ransom:
At the risk of sounding repetitive, Spookey Ruben is another unheard pop maverick, and you should all drop whatever it is you're doing right now, because Spookey's music is guaranteed to be better and I can pretty much say without worry of being proven wrong that none of you have ever heard of him until now. Canadian tunesmith Spookey put out one album on TVT, the very, very good Modes of Transportation, Vol. 1 before giving up on major labels forever. He's put out 3 albums and a handful of EPs since, and each and every one of them is wonderful, combining the best of Grand Royal Records with XTC, a dollop of prog and a very bizarre sense of humor. The prog in this set comes from the title track to his most recent album, Mechanical Royalty, a 15-minute behemoth that would make Robert Fripp grimace with jealousy, whereas we kick off with 'My Female Friends', up there with the previously-mentioned 'Food & War' by Ergo Phizmiz as one of my favorite songs ever.
1. My Female Friends
2. Don't Take Your Dog to the Park
3. Growing Up is Over?
4. Kubla Khan
-Commercial: Ultrabright Toothpaste-
5. Mechanical Royalty
I wish I had more female friends. If you do too, click here and enjoy!
Spookey's got a tumblr where he posits philosophical musings. Fun!
He puts out his stuff through Hi-Hat Recordings these days.
And you can get all his albums off of his bandcamp as well!
Our addendum today is Spookey's video for his first single, 'These Days are Old'. It's a great song, and if you go far enough back on the comments you can see a comment I made like a year ago making fun of his totally 90s braids!
This week I bring you a mix for the whole family, starting with (who else but) The Young Fresh Fellows, a band that inhabits that same sphere of snotty rock and roll that Billy Childish and The Soft Boys do; while it's no longer cool to wander around Seattle with Nirvana blasting in your ears, if you got the Fellows in there you'll be just fine. Von LMO, like the earlier-played Boris Police Band, was another one of those fixtures of the New York No Wave scene that everyone forgets about, stylistically similar to The Contortions, and everyone loves them, right? And finally let's not forget the Rick Potts Band, from the other end of the country at the same time The Contortions and 8-Eyed Spy and all them were terrorizing NYC. If I ever get a 'real' radio show, I'll put this song at the end of every episode, like Rodney did with The Porpoise Song (another great track there, by the way).
1. The Young Fresh Fellows - Rock'n'Roll Pest Control
2. Schmuel! - Ebony Concerto
3. The Rick Potts Band - Platform Swimfins
4. The Real Pros - Teenage Queen
-Commercial: Fairy Liquid-
5. Von LMO - Crash Landing '88
6. Æther Technicians - One of These
7. Scumtron - Locomotive 3D
8. What Capitalism Was - A Windy Sea
Enjoy my junk, here!
Schmuel, along with many others, can be found for free at Headphonica!
The voice of 'Keven' in Locomotive 3D now makes video games here!
And new for the show, introducing The Klen House Addendum...too busy for the whole show? Check out a choice cut from your friend and mine, YouTube. Sometimes it'll be a different mix (like this time), sometimes it'll be something totally different...
Has Autumn officially started yet? It still gets too sticky and disgusting for me, and yet now I plan to make a pilgrimage down to the hottest and stickiest of all place, Los Angeles itself. We start with one of my new obsessions, the oh-so-aptly-named GOAT. The best way to describe them is that they are what you expected Jimi Hendrix to sound like before you finally heard him, polyrhythmic and funky, screaming psychedelic guitar flourishes, and echo-y, intense vocals sing/chanting God knows what. Isabelle Adjani is one of my admitted actress crushes; she absolutely made Posession the work of wonder that it is, though it's only recently that I discovered she had put out an album. It's goofy, catchy, kind of Abba-esque, a must for anyone who digs on French pop (and everyone should, really). Steel Leg is Keith and Jah Wobble of the ever-loved Public Image, Ltd. cutting an EP of noisy, experimental dub reggae with punk movie director Don Letts...it's mostly forgettable, but I have a special fondness for this one, so here it is.
1. Goat - Goathead
2. This Heat - S.P.Q.R.
3. Roy Ayers - Ebony Blaze
-Commercial: Pan Am
4. Isabelle Adjani - Ohio
5. Steel Leg - Haile Unlikely by The Electric Dread
6. Shizuo - Blondo
It's a perfect Fall soundtrack, right here!
Grab the Goat album here! Wait...they're Swedish? Even better!
This week starts out with a track from Gareth Williams' post-This Heat collaboration, Flaming Tunes, a clattery slice of avant-catchiness that proves that Charles Hayward wasn't the only member of Heat to be able to skew pop music. Lost Sounds features the late, great Jay Reatard on guitar, and Marc Almond sings lead on Coil's take on Soft Cell's take on Gloria Jones' seminal soul slice 'Tainted Love'. Coil slows Soft Cell's dancefloor beat down to a dirge, and it's amazing that a simple tempo change makes it's goofy sexy lyrics much more uncomfortable and disturbing. Red River Dialect is a new find; delicate acoustic guitars, slight psychedelic shading, and wistful vocals brings to mind the British Folk Revival I have such love for, without the overt hippie trappings that the 'Freak Folk' banner hoisted upon the scene in recent years.
1. Gareth Williams & Marie Currie - Beguiling the Hours
2. Lost Sounds - I'm Not a Machine
3. Coil - Tainted Love
4. Dog Shredder - Battle 07
-Commercial: Typhoo-
5. Dymaxion - Chase Scene W/ Transistor Radio
6. John Zorn - Igneous Ejaculation
7. Nora Dean - Night Food
8. Red River Dialect - Dependence
9. Black Mountain - No Satisfaction (Campfire Mix)
Enjoy the creamy sounds here.
Red River Dialect's Bandcamp page has 'Dependence' as well as a lot of other glorious cuts! Dog Shredder's got one too! Even I have a Bandcamp somewhere!
Marie Currie still maintains the Flaming Tunes official site, where the album was just released on glorious vinyl!
Ye gods...where to even start? I discovered Ergo Phizmiz thanks to the Music for Maniacs blog when the ever-wonderful Mr. Fab put up a download of the album Nose Points in Different Directions, and was very impressed by the opening number 'Pangolin', which seemed to be some sort of drill'n'bass song put together with samples of Jew's harp, accordion, banjo, and the like, though I didn't really give it much thought past that at the time. It wasn't until later when I discovered both his 15-hour-long album The Faust Cycle and a one-man-band rendition of Bon Jovi's 'Livin' On a Prayer', complete with a modified teapot in the rhythm section, that I started to seriously take notice. What I found was mindblowing: a one-man pop kaleidoscope, spinning out radioplays, operas, audio collage, children's music, Syd-Barrett-inspired pop, accordion-led takes of stupid radio hits from the late 90s, all being churned out at the seeming rate of an album or performance every month. The well is endless and it's neigh-perfect, it's only because I try and limit my shows to 30 minutes or so that I can't give examples of some of Ergo's more out-there works, and hopefully this taste (admittedly of his more pop-oriented stuff) will get you troweling the depths of the Free Music Archive for more. Of special note is 'Food & War', which has to be among my favorite songs now, featuring a rhythm section of handclaps, a malfunctioning cuckoo clock, and a bike horn over just some of the best 60s-style acoustic pop as you could imagine. Go listen!
1. Pangolin
2. Food & War
3. Livin' On a Prayer
4. Celia (Live)
-Commercial: Dippity-Do-
5. Music for an Underground Circus
6. Feel Yr Dzeez
7. The International Birdie Song
Prepare to let Ergo fondle your mind here!
Ergo's official website is here.
You can find hundreds of his songs for free at the Free Music Archive! Ergo's blog is a great source of info on his many, many current projects.
His YouTube channel has a few songs and alternate versions that don't seem to be available elsewhere.
Finally managed to tear myself away from the new Swans album The Seer long enough to post some tunes. I consider myself monstrously lucky to have gotten a copy of game Theory's Lolita Nation on eBay for about $25 since their cheapest album right now is going for about double that, and Lolita is the one everybody wants. It's great, fractured 80s pop music, a must for anyone who likes the stranger side of synth and boomy drums. I've written before of my love of Text, but it bears repeating; that they only made one album and one EP is a travesty, especially since the EP is maddeningly difficult to find. So, nice guy I am, I offer you listeners a tune from it.
1. Chefs - Food
2. Flux Information Sciences - Flux Summer
3. Game Theory - We Love You, Carol & Alison
4. The Go! Team - Did You Feel It Too?
-Commercial: Midas Muffler-
5. Text - Sailor
6. Naked City - Party Girl
7. Matthew Friedberger - Shirley
Stay away from Mara, and listen to these sounds here!
Game Theory's Scott Miller has a music blog (and a book!) that you can check out here!
Flux Information Sciences have made nearly their whole catalog available here for free!
Matt Friedberger puts out like a record every month, get them all here!
And hell, go get the new Swans album here, it's my album of the year so far!
This week we have some contemplative acoustic stuff before the commercial, leading off with my newest discovery, the kickoff track from an apparently-unnamed EP by The Haxan Cloak. Deep stuff, slow and moody with gorgeous cello work, a nice compliment to David Tibet's cover of the ever-loved Blue Oyster Cult's 'This Ain't The Summer of Love' from his sort of bizarre remake album Crooked Crosses For the Nodding God, which contains redone versions of the entire tracklisting of the uncomfortably-close-to-being-racist Swastikas For Noddy. On the other side it's all poppy punk, ending with an amazing rendition of The Dream Syndicate's 'Tell Me When It's Over'. My uncle used to drum for a lot of LA punk bands, and when I was a kid I would see fliers from shows his groups played with the Syndicate, but it wasn't until the last few years that I realized how absolutely amazing they were. Check it out!
1. The Haxan Cloak - Horses Hung
2. Current 93 - The Summer Past
3. David Sandström - The Colour of His Shoes
-Commercial: Plymouth Barracuda-
4. Cardiacs - As Cold As Can Be In An English Sea
5. Fingerprintz - Yes Eyes
6. The Dream Syndicate - Tell Me When It's Over (live)
Sway this way right here!
The Haxan Cloak's tumblr is full of creepy stuff for the whole deranged family.
Sort of a thematic split this time, starting with the first half of the set, long, heavily proggy pieces, and the second half is a lot of world-influenced stuff. Of special note is What Capitalism Was, a project of John Catfish. From this specific album, he did a variety of Phillip Glass songs on accordion, and damned if I don't admit that I prefer some of them to the originals, the tone is gorgeous and fits Glass' drone-y tendencies perfectly.
1. Horseback - The Invisible Mountain
2. Omar Rodriguez - Regenbogen Stelen Van Prostituees
-Commercial: Beanz Meanz Heinz-
3. Raya Brass Band - Djevadov Čoček
4. What Capitalism Was - Japura River
5. Foetus - Mon Agonie Douce
6. Greta Morgan - Summer House
As always, enjoy the cool, refreshing sounds right here.
Yes, every song by Raya Brass Band is that good, get the rest here!
Dig John Catfish's accordion songs, all for free!
Greta Morgan's got a tumblr where she mostly posts pictures of organs. Cool!
A couple side projects in this week, with the likes of BEAK> featuring Portishead's Geoff Barrow making some absolutely wonderful krauty, proggy, jammy junk with Billy Fuller and Matt Williams, then slicing endless jams into bite-sized (comparatively) tidbits for you and me. Butter 08 is Cibo Matto with the drummer from the Blues Explosion, and I have to say that their sole album is way better than anything either of those bands ever put out (well, anything the Explosion put out anyway), evoking some kind of nervous early 70s trip after the promise of the 60s turned to shambles a la There's a Riot Goin' On, though through the lens of 90s slacker culture that Grand Royal Records was known for. As far as I can tell, The Yetians made exactly one song, the aptly-named "Yeti" on the soundtrack for the movie of the same name, though a quick Google search does bring up a profile of someone named Ye Tian as well. Erratic Operator is straight out of my teenhood, included on a strange, disturbing tape I got from a Wisconsin-based Interzone Records, if it weren't for that I might be posting a bunch of AM radio hits every week instead of the sludge I offer you now. And I'll leave you with this: That picture up there is a Swedish dish called Surströmming, and I found it though an image search for the word 'stinky'. Another picture simply offered the words 'Stinky Woman,' which is totally going to be my next authentic blues revivalist band.
1. BEAK> - Backwell
2. The Rick Potts Band - Platform Swimfins
3. Butter 08 - 9MM
-Commercial: Madison Motors-
4. Amps for Christ - Prince Charlie Stuart
5. The Yetians - Yeti
6. Erratic Operator - Trap?
7. Voltaire - Dia De Los Muertos
I can't give you any Stinky Woman, but check out this stuff here!
It's with a heavy heart that I put up a Artist Spotlight on the incomparable Bill Doss, who passed away just two days ago on the 31st of July. I first heard Doss' band, The Olivia Tremor Control, when I was 18 or 19, I remember picking up a copy of their first album, Music for the Unrealized Film Script 'Dusk at Cubist Castle'and being unable to listen to it past the first track, so blown away was I by its magnificence that I just replayed it over and over a good 12 or 13 times. The OTC had that special something, that straddling of pop and experimental tendencies, that so few artists are able to get across reliably, and even though they only put out two albums (with a third apparently in the works when this mess happened) they are two of the absolute best albums of my generation; I can still listen to Dusk and its followup Black Foliage and be absolutely astounded that these incredible sounds were initially made on 4-track tape recorders. I met Bill once, and even then only for about 25 seconds after a show, but it was such a wonderful experience to me, and one that I won't soon forget. Hopefully this show will make all of you who haven't heard Bill's music rush out and buy it, and I tried to include some curiosities for those who already have the records. Rest well Bill, you earned it.
1. Love Athena
2. The Sylvan Screen
3. Sun at Night
4. I'm Not Feeling Human (Peel Session)
-Commercial: Menthol Fresh Consulate-
5. California Demise 3 (NPR Session)
6. Digging to China
7. Queen Misery
8. Courtyard
9. Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining)
You know the jolly show must go on, right here!
Check out the definitive editions of Bill's records at the Chunklet Store, thanks to the always wonderful Henry H. Owings!
William Cullen Hart, the John to Bill's Paul, also runs a record label at Cloud Recordings, where you can buy CDs as well as Will's absolutely stunning paintings.
And finally, if you have the funds to spare, consider making a donation to Nuci's Space, a nonprofit health and resource center dedicated to assisting musicians in staying emotionally and physically well.
This week we have a dangerously funky spread for you, because sometimes the fever takes you, and the fever makes you move your hips. The main attraction is the monstrous 'Vera's Back' by Wicked Witch, 12 minutes of mind-melting power, though admittedly unrepresentative of the Witch's output as a whole, since everything else in their rather small oeuvre is much more strange and experimental, so naturally if you dug the bizarre (and if not, why are you here) go check their stuff out ASAP. We also close with the absolute beast called 'Inferno No Corridor' from the Itchy-O Marching Band, which is one of those brain shakes that doesn't let go, a huge wall of percussion that bludgeons the listener into absolute submission. If you like your funk to be dangerous and unhinged, the second half of this show will be your messiah.
1. Lewis Furey - Hustler's Tango
2. Prof. Y.S. and his B.B. Band - Ewele Aya
3. Jad Fair - XXOO
4. Wicked Witch - Vera's Back
-Commercial: ABC-TV's Lolita-
5. Idiot Flesh - Twitch
6. Itchy-O - Inferno No Corridor
Don't be like the Slovenly Trio, get the file here!
Also, go check out Itchy-O here, their CD is only like 10 bucks and is amazing!
A little late this week, but it's worth it; we start off with definitive proof that Krautrock is alive and well in The Emperor Machine's 'The TV Extra Band', a tremendous dose of motorik beauty that has been surpassed in the last decade by only Klingklang's 'Heavydale' (another song I'll have to slap up here one of these days). We also have forgotten the Captain-Kirk-espousing Spizz doing some righteous early 80s proggy-punk fusion, a genre that should really be more popular than it is, because it's always cool. Follow this with 'Black Enuff' by The Pharaohs, a jazz/funk/r'n'b collective featuring Maurice White, later of Earth, Wind, and Fire of all things, as well as someone doing the best 'grandpaw' impression I've ever heard in a funk song. And of course, I couldn't finish this post without mentioning my not-so-secret love: song-poems, a phenom where hard-up session musicians advertised in the back of magazines for foolish poets with fame on the brain; we poets gave the musicians some lyrics (and more than a little hard-earned dough), and they put our weird scribblings to bland music. I had put up Ramsey Kearney performing John Trubee's absolutely unreal 'Peace and Love (Blind Man's Penis)' before, while 'Rat-a-tat, America' isn't quite as transcendental, it has a charming '70s fascist quality that the whole family can enjoy.
1. The Emperor Machine - The TV Extra Band
2. Harry Nilsson and Shelley Duvall - He Needs Me (demo)
3. Athletico Spizz 80 - New Species
4. Billy Childish and the Blackhands - Underneath the Mango Tree
-Commercial: Best fertilizer-
5. Boris Policeband - Tow Away
6. The Pharaohs - Black Enuff
7. Dick Kent - Rat-a-Tat, America!
8. Bongwater - Reaganation
9. Psychic TV - ?
This week's radio show is celebratory, why not? Belly up to the pig and have a slice of Klen House. I'll admit wholeheartedly that the entire reason I've even heard of Dog Shredder is because there's a song on their Brass Tactics ep called 'Battle Toads' which the Nintendo nerd in me found endlessly amusing. And lo and behold, it's a pretty rad song, too, reminding me of one of those math rock bands wound up tighter and tighter and tighter, just short of snapping before you let it all explode at once! Also included is Karp's seminal treatise about ding-dong ditching, featuring bass by Jared Warren, late of Big Business and the Melvins. Rounding out the set we have David Hess' hilariously inappropriate song from the Last House on the Left soundtrack, and finally what could possibly be the best song ever put to tape, 'Oh, My Favorite!' the Strangulated Beatoffs, one of those songs that seems like spoiling the fun if I say anything about it at all.
1. Ethyl Meatplow - Suck
2. Dog Shredder - Battle Toads
3. Karp - Bastards of Disguise
-Commercial: Martini-
4. Kendra Smith - Maggots
5. John Zorn - N. Y. Flat Top Box
6. David Hess - Water Music/Sadie & Krug
7. Cotton Mather - Homefront Cameo
8. Strangulated Beatoffs - Oh, My Favorite!
And now for something slightly different: Once a month or so (or really whenever I think about it/feel like it) I want to do a little artist spotlight, give recognition to artists that should be a whole hell of a lot more popular than I am. Our first spotlight is going to be David Sandström, a prolific genius of a man who seems to have slipped under the radar; while everyone knows about seminal Swedes Refused (for which David was a drummer, natch) the man has put out smash hit after smash hit since that band's breakup (and hopefully he will continue now that they've at least temporarily reformed). The smorgasbord offered today is focusing on his ethereal/experimental work as a solo artist and with the band TEXT, kicking off with one of my all-time favorite songs, it's a crime that more people haven't heard 'Sound is Compressed; Words Rebel and Hiss' (and some that have have only heard the awkwardly-edited single version, one must hear its 11-minute bestial glory). Hopefully this will send you legions rushing to the record store, or Amazon, or iTunes, or whatever, but until then, dig it.
1. Sound is Compressed; Words Rebel and Hiss
2. Promise
3. David
-Commercial: Revlon Natural Wonder-
4. Those Kids are Gone
5. Degernäs
Since I'm too poor to have a Pro Rapidshare account, it looks like the earlier episodes are getting deleted after about a month or so. If there's something you just gotta hear, send me a comment here or an email: huskerradio at yahoo dot com, and I'll try and reupload the file, or something.
1. The High Level Ranters - La Russe/The Winshield's Hornpipe/Jane's Fancy/Da Road to Houll
2. Big Dumb Face - Space Adventure
3. Idiot Flesh - Housewife
-Commercial: Lively Companion-
4. GS Screamer - Bowser the Shredder
5. Donna Summer & Barbra Streisand - No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)
A melange of sight and sound, too extreme for the human eye, here!
Another week, another edition of Klen House Radio, this time featuring France Gall's incredible 'Çet Air-La', a song that I was convinced I would use as the opening credit sequence for a movie when I was in high school and had much, much worse taste in movies. The song still kicks ass though, natch.
1. Nobuo Uematsu, arr. Derek Oren, Jeremy Robson - Cantata for Dancing: Mors Ego Sum Mortis
2. The Lovin' Spoonful - Pow!
3. Hawkwind - Quark, Strangeness, and Charm -Commercial: Weetabix-
What better way to begin your day than with the smooth dulcet tones of Klen House Radio? I profess a deep, sickly, bordering-on-uncomfortable love of Happy End's 1971 album "Kazemachi Roman", showing that the Japanese at the dawn of the 70s could be as big of dirty hippies as we Northern Californians ever could. My brother once euphoniously referred to the band as "Japanese Andrew Bird" though I confess I never saw the connection, outside of their use of acoustic guitars. Also included is an early rendition of The Fiery Furnaces' 'Bright Blue Eyes' labelled as 'Sweden' on the tape. Dig it.
1. Cranky - Party 4u (Holy Night Mix)
2. The Piranhas - tom Hark
3. Happy End - Soraio no Crayon
4. Grace Jones - Bullshit
-Commercial: Dutch 7-Up
5. Boyd Rice and Daniel Miller - Cleanliness and Order
This week kicks off with admittedly one of my favorite songs ever, Scott Walker's awesome 4-minute retelling of Igmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal. It's epic as hell, weepy, emotional, features a sarcastic Death, what more do you need? Besides that we have a Japanese clone of the theme from Hawaii Five-0, a bunch of dour Germans doing reggae, and The Moog Cookbook doing what it does best.
1. Scott Walker - The Seventh Seal
2. Jaques Dutronc - Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi
3. Nomeansno - Big Dick
-Commercial: Stimorrol gum
4. Masafumi Takada - Gene's Rock-a-bye
5. Faust - The Sad Skinhead
6. Paul Pendja Ensemble - Ngo Mebou Melane
7. The Moog Cookbook - Black Hole Sun
This week's episode of Klen Housey Radio is heavy on ska, despite that not being my intention when compiling it. Sometimes providence just intervenes, and apparently providence demands two-tone and saxophone in this case. Who am I to argue?
Good evening folks, and welcome to Klen House Radio, severe, sensational teenage sounds for somewhat warped minds. With any luck I'll post a half hour show every week, and as time goes on they'll probably be put together a bit cleaner. Till then, keep the single malts to a minimum, cats.
Any requests, questions, etc send to huskerradio at yahoo dot com. Or just post a comment here, natch.
This week's installment:
1. Replikants - Reaching Music Through People Program
2. Rocket From the Crypt - Born in '69
3. Nobuo Uematsu - Vamo' alla Flamenco
4. Serge Gainsbourg - Shu Be Du Loo Ba
-Commercial: Jerry's Disco-
5. The Basement Boys - Casanova Jump
6. Ramsey Kearney and John Trubee - Peace & Love (Blind Man's Penis)
7. Francois Hardy - J'ai Jete Mon Coeur
8. Tommy Tallarico - Tarantella Neapoletana/Funiculi Funicula
9. Scott Walker - Mathilde
