Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
February 8, 2008

Hosted by Greg Lyon on FRIDAYS at 2-4 pm
on WPVM Asheville (103.5 FM and www.wpvm.org)

This show is available for listening as an archive for one week after its airing at WPVM’s Archive Page (click on the STREAM button for this show–under the letter ‘G’)

Notes:

– Hell yes! By far the most satisfying radio show I’ve had in months–perhaps since I started spinning at WPVM. Shaina sat in for one last training session, and she really helped out the show, as she has done for the last month. Thanks, Shaina! Look for her doing her own show sometime soon.

– The Brigitte Fontaine cut that Shaina picked from the Bearded Ladies compilation (put together by Jane Weaver) was so outstanding, I had to look into getting it. It turns out that the album this is from is Fontaine’s 1971 LP, Comme à la Radio, her second, and the backing band is the Art Ensemble of Chicago, who were living in Paris at the time. How cool is that?

– If I want to get a phone call of praise, playing "My Own Private P. Swayze" by the Male Nurse always does the trick. Who wouldn’t love a song about a 24-inch Patrick Swayze who lives under the bed, a "perfectly formed little man" who wears an Elvis jumpsuit and is in trouble if he grows. The track was so loved by BBC DJ John Peel that he assigned it #32 in his 1998 Festive 50. This Scottish band, which counted Ben Wallers of the Country Teasers (and The Rebel, as a solo artist) as a member, to my knowledge never produced an album, although they did record two Peel Sessions. This song’s tune is a slower (and more humorous) riff on The Fall’s "My New House".

– I am now the proud owner of an original Metal Box by Public Image Ltd. It was worth every penny. There’s something exhilarating about opening up the box (and mine has some nice oxidation) and trying to get the records out; it makes you work for the thrill. And then the sound–45 rpm just sounds better. I’m kinda glad some asshole stole my CD of Second Edition years ago. And the locked groove… I never knew it existed, but it’s astoundingly beautiful.

– And then… the set of music surrounding the Italian Futurists. First I played examples of reconstructed noise intoners (intonarumori), performed by Daniele Lombardi in 1978: the gorgogliatore (gurgler), the ronzatore (buzzer), the ululatore (howler), and the crepitatore (crackler). These recordings are compiled on a fantastic CD called Musica Futurista: The Art of Noises (Salon Records). Then I played Adam & the Ants’ homage to the Italian Futurists, "Animals and Men" and a song by an Italian post-punk band, Art Fleury, who often incorporated industrial noises. Next came a poem by Wyndham Lewis, the founder of Vorticism (the British response to Futurism), from a collection called Futurism & Dada Reviewed (Sub Rosa). This blended into the Italian poetry of F.T. Marinetti, the founder of Italian Futurism with piano accompaniment by Aldo Giuntini, recorded in 1931. David Bowie ended the set because I felt like it. The photo takes you to one site about futurist music. Here’s another, and yet another.

Background Music: Don Cherry - Orient (1972, reissued on vinyl by Abraxas)

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