Klen House Radio #10

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!

Klen House Radio #09

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 - ?

Don't look directly into its eyes, just go here.

Klen House Radio #08

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!

Dig the crazy kids right here.