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.

Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
January 9, 2009

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

You can listen to the most recent program by going to the Archives Page at WPVM, or by accessing the MP3 stream directly here (available early Saturday morning after airing through the next Friday and then gone gone gone).

Notes:

– I would have played a whole show of Ron Asheton, featuring music from Destroy All Monsters, The New Order, New Race, and other projects, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Too damned saddening. So I played some of my favorites from the first two Stooges albums and called it a day on the tribute. I never got to see the reunited Stooges, but at least I saw Asheton play at Warsaw in Brooklyn in 2002 with Scott Morgan’s Powertrane, playing alongside guitarist Deniz Tek from Radio Birdman. That show kinda sucked–Warsaw had the worst acoustics of any venue I’ve ever been to, and I wasn’t that into Powertrane’s vibe–but the moment that Asheton stepped onto the stage, I could tell this guy was every bit the guitar monster I had hoped he was. I can’t imagine the musical universe–certainly not the one in my head–without Fun House, which is my favorite rock album of all time, hands down. Lots of great musicians spawn weak-assed mimics, epigones, pygmy shadows of the original. I never heard anybody ever say, "Hey, he’s trying to sound like Ron Asheton." That would be as banal as saying, "Hey, he’s trying to rock." Technically, I guess most people think James Williamson was a better guitarist, but I’ll take Ron Asheton’s legacy over James Williamson’s anyday. Thank you, Ron Asheton. Thank you very much for your gargantuan contribution to the music world and its blissful destruction.

– The new AFCGT (A Frames + Climax Golden Twins) 10-inch struck me as an instant classic, while the first CD they did never really hit me. I have a feeling this one is going to stay on the turntable at home for a long while. I don’t know how this amalgamation of two great bands works exactly, but I’m assuming that Min Yee of the A Frames is playing bass. It sure sounds like him. It’s all instrumental, and it’s all dope.

– I’ve been listening to a lot (well ALL) of the 1968-1972 Bob Marley, working my way through the 3 box sets, Grooving Kingston 12, Fy-ah Fy-ah, and Man to Man. I’ve never been much of a Marley fan, but that just proved that I was (and still am) a reggae moron. I was judging him by the hits from the Island period–and mainly by his frat-boy fans, to be honest. But I’ve discovered that the stuff he recorded with Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry is pretty uniformly superlative. It’s so nice to discover something monumental, even if it has been staring me in the face for decades.

Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
January 2, 2009

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

You can listen to the most recent program by going to the Archives Page at WPVM, or by accessing the MP3 stream directly here (available for one week starting early Saturday morning and then gone gone gone).

Notes:

– Time to ring in the New Year (and a new Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball–see pic) and wring out the old year in music! This year I asked Justin Farrar to bring in a pile of his favorites to play alongside mine, and we took up an extra hour of airtime to barely get through what we wanted. We didn’t play our faves in any particular order, but we did strive to save the heavy hitters for last.

– We started with a couple of favorite 7"s, moved on to some more poppy stuff, then hit the minimal techno and electronic (mostly Justin there), followed by a set of reissues, then a pile of garage rock (mostly Greg there), and then the grand finale.

– Jennifer Cardini would also be on my list if I hadn’t listened to it all the way through for the first time on New Year’s Eve. It really is incredible. Justin thinks I’m about to get the minimal techno bug. He’s probably right. We also agreed thoroughly on the TK Webb CD; it’s a great rock record, killer songwriting and production–a rarity nowadays.

–Now for the lists, followed by the show playlist…

Greg’s Top 10 New Albums of 2008

1. Alan and Richard Bishop – The Brothers Unconnected (Abduction)
2. Gunslingers – No More Invention (World in Sound)
3. The Fall – Imperial Wax Solvent (Sanctuary)
4. The Rebel – Northern Rocks Bear Weird Vegetable (Sacred Bones)
5. Don Cavalli – Cryland (Everloving)
6. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Dig! Lazarus Dig! (Anti-)
7. Eddy Current Suppression Ring – Primary Colours (Goner)
8. Scorch Trio – Brolt! (Rune Grammophon)
9. Nothing People – Anonymous (S-S)
10. TK Webb & The Visions – Ancestor (Kemado)

Honorable Mention:
Viva L’American Deathray Music – Sangre Libre (Sangre Libre)
Kasai All-Stars – In the 7th Moon, the Chief Turned Into a Swimming Fish and Ate the Head of His Enemy by Magic (Crammed Disc)
Half Man Half Biscuit – CSI: Ambleside (Phantom)
Krysmopompas – Heute Schlafen – Morgen Aufwachen (S-S)
Einstürzende Neubauten – The Jewels (Potomak)
Cheveu – Cheveu (S-S)
Ty Segall – Ty Segall (Castle Face)
Fire Room – Broken Music (Atavistic)
Kurt Vile – Constant Hitmaker (Gulcher)
The USA Is a Monster – Space Programs (Load)
Country Teasers/Ezee Tiger – WOAR/WOR (Holy Mountain)
Love Is All – A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night (What’s Your Rapture?)
Singer – Unhistories (Drag City)
Bill Dixon – 17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur (AUM Fidelity)

Justin’s Tops of 2008 Lists

Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
December 26, 2008

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

You can listen to the most recent program by going to the Archives Page at WPVM, or by accessing the MP3 stream directly here (available for one week starting early Saturday morning and then gone gone gone).

Notes:

– The Rhino Records compilation, Rockin’ Bones: 1950s Punk & Rockabilly had been on my wish list for ages and ages, and I finally scored when that puppy appeared under the Christmas tree this time around, along with saxophonist Glenn Spearman’s last recording and Jessie Mae Hemphill’s Get Right Blues. So there you have it: post-Christmas booty show, just add water.

– I felt like featuring two of my all-time favorite classical CDs today (I rarely play ’straight’ classical music at all), namely pianist Alfred Brendel playing Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage, particularly the piece from the first, Swiss year (Première Année: Suisse) called "Orage" (Thunderstorm), and also the solo flute piece by Debussy called "Syrinx," as played by Roger Bourdin and taken from the unsparingly beautiful recording of Debussy sonatas from the 60s on Philips featuring Arthur Grumiaux (violin) and Maurice Gendron (cello), among others.

– The new Animals & Men collection on Mississippi Records is a must-buy if you like early Rough Trade-era (late 70s/early 80s) DIY British stuff. I kept imagining Young Marble Giants playing Bo Diddley for some reason, and probably not a very good reason at that. But there you go.