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.

Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
December 19, 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:

– New pile of wax from S-S Records out of Sacramento, California. S-S is run by Scott Soriano (thus the name–what were you thinking?), who also spends time putting together what I think is the best zine going right now, Z-Gun. Check it out. As for the label, he’s been gathering garage and post-punk from all over the globe, and this week I featured a double record from a Berlin band called Krysmopompas, which evidently is a reference from some movie sci-fi movie called Kamikaze 1989 that Rainer Werner Fassbinder acted in from the early 80s. The band sounds to me like a cross between the Hamburg-based band Blumfeld, 18th Dye (also German, and they have a new album I haven’t yet heard), and a slew of Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave) bands. Right up my alley.

– I’ve also been listening a bunch to one of the new Messthetics CDs (#106), which focuses on the Manchester post-punk scene of the late-70s and early 80s. It’s pretty great all the way through, so if you like The Fall, Joy Divison, and bands considerably weirder and DIY than that, you should be good to go.

Background Music: Christmas with Chet Atkins – RCA (1961)

Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
December 12, 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:

– My most exciting world music haul in, well, forever culminated this week when a shipment of records I acquired on ebay arrived from Paris. I had a saved search on ebay for this Nimba de N’Zerekore record (see pic) from Guinea for probably about 6 years, and I was NEVER notified that it was for sale–until last month. And suddenly there were two copies from the same seller. I snatched both of them, along with some other great stuff, all of which I managed to play today. So why did I want this particular record so badly? It was one of the few records from The Wire magazine’s 100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening) (also see here and here and the supplement here) from issue #175 (Sept. 1998) that I had not yet listened to, and although I think most lists like that are useless, this one proved incredibly fruitful for a very long time of very satisfied listening by expanding my core into unchartered territory. As for this 1980 entry, the list once again did not disappoint. This album rocks and swings hard, very very hard, and all the way through. Those Fred Flintstone outfits they have on are stylin’; you just know that seeing this band live was a party. I plan to play the whole album on the air one track at a time over the coming weeks.

– I’m very much looking forward to the upcoming Codona box set, which will comprise all 3 of the original Codona records. Codona was Collin Walcott (tabla, sitar, dulcimer, sanza), Don Cherry (tpt, p, hunter’s guitar), and Nana Vasconcelos (percussion). I only have the first one, and it smokes.

– Can somebody please give me the entire Ocora Records catalog for my birthday and/or Christmas? Pretty please? Best world label ever? Definitely in the running.

– The embarrassment of riches at the station this year in African music continued with the addition of a seriously funky-ass new compilation from yet another West African band, the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou, from Benin. I’ll be playing this for weeks on end, so be prepared.

– TWO new Ben Wallers creatures this week, and they couldn’t have come at a better time. I desperately needed some rock records to buff up the annual Top 20 of what has been a rather lackluster year in rock. The Rebel is his solo project, and the new one is a live set recorded at WFMU, with a band (so it’s not really solo now is it?), available on vinyl only. The Country Teasers is Sir Ben’s most notorious band project, and we have a new and stuffed LP side (10 tracks!) of a split backed with music from a San Francisco band called Ezee Tiger–also on vinyl only. Yes, I’m happy.

Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
December 5, 2008

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

Notes:

– Justin Farrar was back in the co-pilot chair today, and I’m gonna agree with his assessment that this was our best show together–and I’m generally pleased as punch at the results when he shows up with his sack of musical smack. Justin’s contributions today were the smokin’ moog groove in the Fred Wesley and the JBs, the Jamaican jam by Rags and Riches, the flat-out weird Two Prong (we think that’s their name–it’s a VERY cryptic CD) and their insert photo of a hitchhiking hippy carrying a "James Taylor or Bust" sign, Hungarian freaks Galloping Coroners, the killer bass & drums duet who call themselves Eloe Omoe, The Move and their "Brontosaurus," the new old-time Appalachian music of Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers (see his blog Strawberry Flats for a recap of his trip up to Virginia to see these nuts), and Souled American–a band he’s been pushin’ on me for a while, with good reason.

– My contributions included a few inspired choices: Vancouver agit-prop post-punks U-J3RK5 and their "Naum Gabo"; the new Mississippi Records collection of UK Fall cum Young Marble Giants post-punkers Animals and Men (I REALLY love that song "Don’t Misbehave in the New Age"); French (yes, FRENCH–go figure) seered speed-garage-psych band Gunslingers (definitely one of my faves of the year); the sick Albert Ayler/Henry Vestine bagpipes/electric guitar duet from Ayler’s The Last Album (1969), which was not his last album, albeit close; Alfred G. Karnes’ beautiful and modern-sounding (as Justin pointed out) mountain gospel from the classic July 1927 Bristol, TN recordings (where Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family were also discovered); and the 1909 black gospel Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, from a killer collection called Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1891-1922. Justin got a great idea for a book to be titled Soft Rock: Whites and the Death of the Record Industry, starring Paul Davis and Leo Sayer. I’m sure he’s gonna get right on that–look for it next year in a bookstore near you.

Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
November 28, 2008

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

Notes:

– I was heavy on the heavy rock today, with the early 70s American rockers Bang (from Florida) and Sir Lord Baltimore (from Brooklyn), more modern head-banging from Lima Peru’s La Ira de Dios, and the utterly neglected gem of a hardcore record by NY’s Action Swingers, Decimation Blvd. (1993).

– I had a satisfying Dutch back-to-back with the all-lady early punk band, The Nixe, followed by something from The Ex’s Turn album, which I believe is my favorite by them, and that’s saying something. Terrie Ex from The Ex made a second appearance at the end of the show with a recent album of duet material with the great Dutch free jazz/improv drummer, Han Bennink, who at the age of 66 can still drum your ass into the dirt.