Here’s the playlist for August 6, 2010. I dedicated a set to Dutch jazz giant, Willem Breuker, who passed away last week. Stay tuned for comments later. I’m out of town on August 13, but I’ll be back with a new show on August 20. Stay tuned!

Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
July 30, 2010

Hosted by Greg Lyon on FRIDAYS at 2-5 pm
on Asheville Free Media (http://AshevilleFM.org)

You can listen to the most recent program by going to this show’s landing page on the Asheville FM website, or by accessing the MP3 stream directly here (available from early Saturday morning after airing through the next Friday and then gone gone gone).

Notes:

– The first two sets today were focused on the piano, and that allowed for a lot more classical than I usually play on the radio (that’s not an apology), although only one track was "classical" classical : a fugue by Bach (played by Sokolov). I really liked the piece entitled "Alien Heart," by the New York-based post-minimalist composer Elodie Lauten. It’s from a recent 2CD collection of her early-to-mid 1980s Piano Works. I’ve also been listening a lot to the 100 Transcendental Studies of the English composer Kaikhosru Sorabji (1892-1988), who was of Indian Zoroastrian (Parsi) ancestry. Only the first half or so (43 out of 100) of these Studies have been made available on CD so far, in a series on Bis Records and played by Fredrik Ullén. I hope the rest of them come out at some point soon.

– Trombonist Grachan Moncur III’s "Space Spy" (1969) is some seriously tension-laden minimalist avant-garde jazz, centered on a single three-note piano chord repeated over and over by Dave Burrell, with the unfailingly excellent Andrew Cyrille on drums quietly circling the proceeding like a menacing buzzard. I also started the show with new music with Andrew Cyrille (thank god he’s still at it) at the kit, on a CD by Steve Colson.

– Wreck Small Speakers on Expensive Stereos, a band from Dunedin, New Zealand (1980-1986), featuring Michael Morley (later of The Dead C) and Richard Ram (later of nothing that I know of), have been wrecking the speakers on my stereo pretty consistently now for a few weeks. I rediscovered the 1993 collection, River Falling Love (Ajax Records), and it’s going to make me scour the planet in search of their entire output–I’m sure in vain. It might even get me to re-listen to my pile of Dead C albums. Continuing the unintentional minimal/intense theme, at times they remind me a lot of Young Marble Giants, particularly when Denise Roughan (then of Look Blue, Go Purple, and later of The 3Ds and Ghost Club) provided guest vocals on the song "Rain;" I guess I’ll have to play that one in the coming weeks.

– Analog Africa continues to be, in my estimation, the most consistent African reissue label. Afro-Beat Airways: West African Shock Waves (Ghana & Togo 1972-1978) is the 8th and newest release. It makes me happy.

From Discovery’s “How It’s Made”, we have the story of vinyl pressing in two parts. Go straight to Part 2 if you like action films:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Wanna take it to the next level? Check out the project “How Vinyl Records Are Made-And How to Pirate (Copy) A Vinyl Record” from the site DO IT: Projects, Plans and How-Tos (Get Up and Do Something). This is where I found the videos above (courtesy of my friend Dan Ruccia).

Asheville FM (Asheville Free Media) has been up and running for 10 months now! It’s going very well. Check out the site at http://ashevillefm.org. It’s taken me this long to get things going at the station to the point where I can spend some time on this blog. But now is the time! Don’t be surprised if the look of the blog changes over the next few weeks–and not just the out-of-date headers.

“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” is on Fridays 2-5pm. You can always hear the most recent show using this DIRECT LINK. You can also go the schedule page, find my show under Friday, and click on ‘Listen’. Playlists are on the Asheville FM website under my show’s page. I will be posting them here as well–along with my usual commentaries.

OK, some music content: I must admit that I’m excited about the upcoming Grinderman 2 record. They just sent me the first single, “Heathen Child,” and it… will likely grow on me. The video trailers for the album, though, are pretty darned interesting, so I’ll try to embed them (never done that before!):

“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” will soon be back be broadcasting again. I am currently involved in building a new radio station called Asheville Free Media (AshevilleFM.org). What is AshevilleFM? “Asheville Free Media is a volunteer-based, grassroots community radio station created by Friends of Community Radio, a non-profit entity. Our goal is to add to and reflect the rich stew of arts, culture and community involvement that is Asheville. We want to hear music, news, and the unusual all produced right here in our neck of the woods. We want to hear sounds from around the world, discerned and distilled just for us by our neighbors. We want to help make connections between diverse groups and support the local economy of ideas.”

We’re planning to go live on August 13, in times for Harvest Records’ Transfigurations music festival. Keep an eye on the AshevilleFM website for updates on fundraisers, construction progress (including pictures), our needs list, and general jubilation. As one of my radio buddies, the great Jesse Junior, put it at the construction party, “This is actually going to happen!” Yes indeed, it is actually going to happen.

The picture is of AshevilleFM’s broadcast console, which used to be the console at WMFO in Boston, Tufts University Radio, a great freeform station. You can read my AshevilleFM blog post on this if you’re interested.