Atlantis

No.264, aired June 18, 2014, featuring the epic “Atlantis” by Sun Ra and a live reading of the final section of Hart Crane’s epic The Bridge, also titled “Atlantis.”

Final episode to air on Regina’s CJTR 91.3 FM. 264 hours. Good-bye CJTR – thank you for supporting my kooky side-show - it’s been a shit-ton of thrills.

Part 1

1. This Is The End – SNFU
2. Sound Baffle – King Cobb Steelie
3. Loser At Life / Loser At Death – SNFU
4. My American Master – King Cobb Steelie
5. Disappear – Nomeansno
6. Atlantis – Sun Ra

Part 2

1. Atlantis (continued) – Sun Ra
2. Get Away – DOA
3. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
4. I’m An Asshole – Nomeansno
5. Yucatan – Sun Ra
6. Fight – GWAR
7. Canadian Customs – Frank Zappa
8. Eat Steel – GWAR
9. Moanin’ At Midnight – Howlin’ Wolf

Woom Toom!

No.263, aired June 11, 2014.

A slightly grim second-last episode. I didn’t take good notes but I’m pretty sure I played more of the book of Ezekiel. Theme turned out to be the interplay of birth and death. If I had planned it ahead of time I would have included GWAR’s Womb With A View – “so your womb can become the tomb of my dead baby.” But that’s OK because Nomeansno’s Body Bag has “Is it a womb or is it a tomb – or is it something completely different?” Also note accidental inclusion of the band Dayglo Abortions and two tracks from the Butthole Surfers’ album Abortion Locust Technician. All further proof that the id is a better DJ than the ego. Let the tomb of this program be the womb of another.

Part 1

1. Quiz Nut – Emetics
2. Argh Fuck Kill – Dayglo Abortions
3. Rad – Emetics
4. Live In Walthamstow, March 10, 1995 (con’t) – Descension
5. Bedtime Story – Dayglo Abortions
6. Live In Walthamstow, March 10, 1995 (con’t) – Descension
7. Human Canonball – Butthole Surfers
8. Live In Walthamstow, March 10, 1995 (con’t) – Descension
9. O-Men – Butthole Surfers

Part 2

1. Rains On Ptolemy – Emetics
2. Death To The Sickoids – Subhumans
3. Blasters (featuring Eddie Hazel) – Bootsy’s New Rubber Band
4. Run To Ruin – Emetics
5. Beatle Bones N’ Smokin’ Stones – Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
6. Pattie’s Hearst – Emetics
7. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
8. Good Nite Eddie – Bootsy’s New Rubber Band
9. Body Bag – Nomeansno
10. Bikini Window – Forbidden Dimension
11. Pissed Off ... With Good Reason - Subhumans

We Will Fall

No.262, aired June 4, 2014, with Ezekiel Chs.25-30.

“And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.”  Ezekiel 29:5

Part 1

1. Live At Leeds March 3, 1995 – Descension
2. The Prisoner – D.O.A.
3. Live At Leeds March 3, 1995 (con’t) – Descension
4. We Will Fall – Stooges
5. Live At Leeds March 3, 1995 (con’t) – Descension
6. D.O.A. - D.O.A.

Part 2

1. Live At Leeds March 3, 1995 (con’t) – Descension
2. I Saw An X-Ray Of A Girl Passing Gas – Butthole Surfers
3. Live At Leeds March 3, 1995 (con’t) – Descension
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
5. Live At Leeds March 3, 1995 (con’t) – Descension
6. Liar For Hire – D.O.A.
7. Invisible Dimension – Forbidden Dimension

Punk Emetics Descension

No.261, aired May 14, 2014.

This was a fun one. Liberal use of the Emetics Minute Album (60+ concrete music experiments, each one minute long), along with Off! and Xenakis, enabled me to make the first half sound like a punk rock version of Zappa’s Lather album. Part 2 featured Descension, a British noiz-assault-improv band I have heard whispers and legends about for years, but only recently acquired in CD form. Plus poetry galore! Readings in the first half of Regina poet Aleks McHugh. The second half featured more from YELLOW FIELD #NINE, collated by Edric Mesmer. Texts by Lori Anderson Moseman and Kaie Kellough. As Out To Lunch is wont to say, what more could you want?

1. Meander – Emetics
2. Toxic Box – Off!
3. Mesh Up – Emetics
4. Man From Nowhere – Off!
5. Kraanerg (con’t) – Iannis Xenakis -- Bicycle View / Utilitarian Donuts – Aleksandra McHugh
6. Jet Black Girls – Off!
7. Merman Ozone – Emetics
8. Kraanerg (con’t) – Iannis Xenakis -- We Can Be Together - Aleksandra McHugh
9. Remix Rebirth – Emetics
10. King Kong Brigade – Off!
11. Oklahomo Sapiens – Emetics
12. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
13. Pussy See You – Emetics
14. This Is A Riot – Farrell Brothers
15. Quiz Nut – Emetics
16. Vap Dist, 1 – John Korsrud -- Redlining – Aleksandra McHugh
17. Rad – Emetics
18. Show Me – American Flame Whip

Part 2

1. Live At Leeds March 3, 1995, Set 2, Part 2 – Descension -- gust through sailcloth ... gust thru Khien / jib wench ... between two winds – Lori Anderson Moseman
2. Pharoah Overlord – Mangrove -- gust thru thread count ... gust thru propeller blades / between teeth ... between bedrooms / ghost between rubble ... ghost between neutrons - Lori Anderson Moseman -- Jalopy – Kaie Kellough
3. The Watcher – Motorhead
4. The Sinister Urge - Rockadoras

YELLOW FIELD #NINE

No.260, aired May 7, 2014. Readings from YELLOW FIELD #NINE, collated by Edric Mesmer. Texts by Orchid Tierney, David Peter Clark, Ann Vickery, David Greenslade, Giles Goodland.

Part 1

1. cuatro en el cuarto cuarto / Ron Donson – Guerrilla Funk Monster
2. Bonsai Joop 4 / Bonsai Angelo 5 – Bik Bent Braam -- sprachbund 1 & 2 – Orchid Tierney // 2 – The Beginning Of Energy / 3 – The Beginning Of Ambition / 4 – Desire For Exterior World / 5 – Separation From Innocence / 6 – Artificial Individuality – David Peter Clark
3. Torture – King Khan & The Shrines
4. What’s Happenin’ – Swing Machine -- Blush / I Knew A Woman – Ann Vickery

Part 2

1. Tell It Like It Is – JTQ -- Sunday, Blood Sunday – Ann Vickery
2. One Last Chance – Knucklehead
3. Bonsai Michiel 4 / Bonsai Wilbert 4 – Bik Bent Braam -- Theses On The History Of Philosophy / Let Us Now Be Rovers – Ann Vickery // Drop It And Stay There / Frequent Pigment / Opportunity Clock / Chad Valley / Trophy – David Greenslade   
4. Don’t Tread On Me – Wednesday Night Heroes
5. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
6. Details @ 5 / Red Bird Wishes – Hylozoists -- Sandhopper / Ant / Pondskater – Giles Goodland
7. Sailing - Ripcordz

MATERIALS Action

No. 259, aired April 30, 2014. Final episode to feature readings from MATERIALS #3:[February 2014], published in Cambridge, UK, edited by David Grundy & Lisa Jeschke. Texts by Frederick Farryl Goodwin, Ryan Drobran, Justin Katko, and Martin Hackett.

Part 1

1. Wrong – Off!
2. Kraanerg – Iannis Xenakis
3. Mange Avec Tes Doigts – Les Georges Leningrad
4. Kraanerg (con’t) – Iannis Xenakis -- Porno Start t s (3) / Kerouac Baccarat: La Collection Bijoux (2) / The Deacon Of Despair – Frederick Farryl Goodwin
5. Borrow And Bomb – Off!
6. Kraanerg (con’t) – Iannis Xenakis -- from Caissons – Ryan Drobran
7. Scissorhands – Les Georges Leningrad
8. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
9. Powerstrike – Bluebeard
10. The Future For Less – Les Georges Leningrad -- Abendphantasie (Holderlin) / Neue Welt (Holderlin) / Des Morgens (Holderlin) – Justin Katko

Part 2

1. Selling Point – Bluebeard
2. Detals@5 – Hylozoists -- Sick Overgiven – Justin Katko
3. Robbin A Bank – Hot Live Guys
4. Kraanerg (con’t) – Iannis Xenakis -- Sick Overgiven (con’t) – Justin Katko
5. Over You – Dead By Down
6. Kraanerg (con’t) – Iannis Xenakis -- from 4 Texts – Martin Hackett
7. No Competition – Insaniacs
8. Kraanerg (con’t) – Iannis Xenakis -- from 4 Texts (con’t) – Martin Hackett
9. Midnight Show – The Horribles

MATERIALS Escapade

No.258, aired April 23, 2014. More and more readings from MATERIALS #3:[February 2014], published in Cambridge, UK, edited by David Grundy & Lisa Jeschke. Texts by Luke Roberts, Caitlin Doherty, Will Stuart, Ian Heames, Frances Kruk, Frederick Farryl Goodwin

Part 1

1. Farmer Hair – Guerrilla Funk Monster -- Detached Preface – Luke Roberts
2. Spring Rhapsody, no.4 – Jean Coulthard -- Detached Preface (con’t) – Luke Roberts
3. Try – Disgruntled
4. Foolish Man – Guerrilla Funk Monster
5. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
6. Transformation 2 – Escapade -- For The Party Reversing – Luke Roberts // Frauen-Werk-Stadt – Caitlin Doherty // [untitled] – Will Stuart // Misuse Of The Network - Ian Heames
7. Rise Above – Riot 99

Part 2

1. Poor Boy – Guerrilla Funk Monster -- Thirsty – Frances Kruk
2. Vaginal Itch – Shrimp
3. Because Because Because – Escapade -- Thirsty (con’t) – Frances Kruk // Hamlet (5) [B Side] / Hawk In The Rain - Frederick Farryl Goodwin
4. Show Me On The Doll – Shrimp
5. Madam, Your Grave Is Ready – Forbidden Dimension
6. March Of The Crabs - Anvil

Godspeed! You Black MATERIALS

No.257, aired April 16, 2014, with more readings from MATERIALS #3:[February 2014], published in Cambridge, UK, edited by David Grundy & Lisa Jeschke. Texts by Jessica Laser, Verity Spott, William Rowe, and Michael Tencer.

Part 1

1. Opposing Walls – AIDS Wolf
2. Media Control – Emergency!
3. Love Nest / Woman Coming – James ‘Blood’ Ulmer -- Defense / Mosaic – Jessica Laser // Beauty And Health - Verity Spott
4. Drunken Skinhead – The Prowlers
5. Channel One – James ‘Blood’ Ulmer -- caring curse / Drinks For Mere Rodent / Accident Remover – Verity Spott
6. Within You – The Generatorz

Part 2

1. Panty Mind Song – AIDS Wolf
2. Static – Godspeed! You Black Emporer -- Incisions – William Rowe // Another Little Poem – Verity Spott // Holiday In New York / internal memorandum / NOW RIGHT NOW / Poem About The Sun – Michael Tencer
3. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
4. Vampire King – AIDS Wolf

Vishnu & The Magic MATERIALS

No.256, aired April 9, 2014, featuring readings from MATERIALS #3:[February 2014], published in Cambridge, UK, edited by David Grundy & Lisa Jeschke. Texts by Tobias Hunter, Ian Heames, Tom Allen, Martin Hackett & Michael Tencer.

Part 1

1. Bathrooom Laughter – Pissed Jeans
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Two Hearts In Wax – Forbidden Dimension
4. Girl On The Grass – John Korsrud -- ekko – Tobias Hunter
5. Tall, Dark & Gruesome – Forbidden Dimension
6. Glurp (for 14 Musicians) – John Korsrud -- ekko (continued) – Tobias Hunter // Orca Plaintiffs – Ian Heames
7. Romanticize Me – Pissed Jeans
8. X’s & O’s – John Korsrud

Part 2

1. Vishnu & The Magic Elixir – Acid Mothers Temple & The Drowning Paraiso UFO -- Diversion To The Knowledge Of The Damned – Tom Allen // 5 Texts – Martin Hackett // [untitled] / [untitled] / [untitled] / [untitled] – Michael Tencer
2. Pardon My Ghoulish Laughter – Forbidden Dimension

Tramps’ Dregs - The “A” List

No.255, aired April 2, 2014.

The price of used CDs at Tramps in Regina has been falling for years - they likely haven’t added to their stock in more than a decade. The result is a well-picked-over, but still sizeable musical collection of mainly two types: (1) artists no one has ever heard of, and (2) famous artists who no one likes anymore. Well, it seems Tramps is finally saying good-bye to CDs, dumping them at $1 a piece. So I took part of a lunch hour to have one more look through the stacks for covers that suggest imagination, hard-core intensity, or anything out of the mundane. I gave myself 10 minutes and a roughly $10 budget and started at the beginning of the alphabet, and ended up with 15 CDs – all “A”s. While the clerk was cutting open the plastic shells with a metal shears (the security “key” having long been disposed of, CD’s being essentially worthless), I checked out the “Z”s, and found 2 more, which the clerk threw in for free – thanks man. So, a radio show devoted to Tramps’ Dregs then – a good prospect, I thought, maybe even two shows ...

But a depressing exercise. I ended up with a pile of mostly 1990s rock CDs. The 1990s indie rock world was great at cover art, but Gawd, so many grey, depressing Sonic Youth imitators and bored suburban post-punks. It turns me off rock music, it really does. I love electric guitars, I was musically weened on them, for so many years I lived with them, on them – rock as the staff of life. But after subjecting my ears to this pile (and others, in the past, because I’ve done this to myself before), I feel like I never want to hear a friggin electric guitar riff again – the rock of life has become the stone slab that seals my soul in its tomb.

I’m feeling better now – having just listend to Iancu Dumitrescu’s Plutonian Frenzy, and followed that up with some sublimely violent Napalm Death.

But what to do with this 17-CD pile? This is the DJ’s challenge. Take a pile of rubble, and find the gold inside. But here’s the catch: There is no gold. It is all rubble – mediocre music-industry crud. Also, it is all gold – or at least each recording represents a moment when somebody thought they were doing something brilliant enough to capture on tape & share with the world, difficult as it is to believe in some cases.

The problem is that the recording industry, in creating the CD format (a variation & continuation of the LP-record format), encourages artists to create sellable (familiar, predictable) units of 35 – 65 minute duration. For many rock bands, even ones who can put on a decent live show, the result is too often bland, unfunky mush. There may be moments of redemption & vivid colour – but the sound of recorded rock music in the digital age is so grey & uniform, after ten minutes it quickly becomes depressing. How, then, how to extract the brillance? How to detourne music industry’s horribleness, and hear the actuality of human creativity behind it?

The good news is that the 17 CDs were not all rock - I was especially thankful for the world-jazz of Ron Allen, who I mistakenly called Ron James on air. So the challenge was to make the rock tracks (the best I can find in that particular pile) sound as brilliant as they did to the people who originally created them, and the audiences at their concerts – by offsetting them with what non-rock and spoken-word elements I can find.

So here are the results - all of them by Arists starting with an “A” with the exception of Negativeland’s Over The Edge Vol.7: Time Zones Exchange Project, which I found on a previous excursion at Tramps, and haven’t used on my program until now. Most of the spoken-word bits you hear are from “The Piddle Diddle Report” from that collection of prepared broadcasts. For me, Negativeland’s satiric radio play transformed this hour from a bargain-basement radio hour to a pleasantly bizzaro listening experience. The Time Zones Exchange Project also had its own occasional musical accompanyment – so in places that music blended (or didn’t blend) with the music I was playing from a different CD, and there is one patch on Part 2 where Negativeland was left to play by itself.

Part 1

1. Chinese Roulette – AIDS Wolf

2. Medication – Alice Donut

3. Fully Loaded – Action Swingers

4. The Yellow Bridge – Alice Donut

5. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa

6. Cry For Persia – Ron Allen

7. Jure Crache – Amnesie

8. UFO – Action Swingers

9. Bonaparte’s Retreat/Arkansas Soldier – Jimmy Arnold

10. Skicap! – Action Swingers

Part 2

1. Prototype – Andre’s Last Chance

2. Manifestation of the Disease- Acrid

3. Going To Be – Ron Allen

4. 55 Seconds – Acrid

5. The Piddle Diddle Report – Negativeland

6. Southern Comfort – Jimmy Arnold

7. Self-Destructo-Man – Aversion

8. Instrumental – Action Swingers

9. Psychobabble – Aversion

10. The Past – Ron Allen

11. We Multiply – AIDS Wolf

12. Pas De Leurs – Amnesie

13. Air Traffic Control – Tristan Psionic

Happy Death-Day, Oderous Urungus!

No.254, aired March 26, 2014. GWAR special, with readings from the Book of Isaiah (KJV), Ezra Pound & Beowulf (trans. Michael Alexander).

David Brockie, AKA Oderous Urungus, exhiled member of the Scumdogs of the Universe & lead bellower for the band of murdurous aliens known as GWAR, died Sunday March 23rd at age 50 (in the case of the earthling Brockie) or 43-billion-something (in the case of Oderous Urungus). 

For the uninitiated, GWAR is a costumed, monstrous, satirical heavy-metal band known for their wild stage-shows at which effigies are murdered & blood & other fluids are routinely spilled into the audience. I previously blogged about two of my four GWAR concerts in Regina and Winnipeg
(scroll to 5th post down).

GWAR is not the work of a solo artist genius directing hierlings – it is a multi-media collaboration involving many musicians, artists, and constume and set designers, film-makers, stage-hands, and not to mention recording engineers & mixers & marketers & everyone else up the art-industry chain which is in turn fed by many other industries stretching back to the BIG BANG BOOM. However, when I, as writer with a taste for the EPIC, think about GWAR, which I often do, I am mostly thinking about the artistic vision present in the lyrics & vocals of Brockie in his Oderous personna. He is the only constant member through the band’s history, and for me, the contributor whose contribution is what most makes the band worth commenting on.

I said in the program that GWAR is dead – which may not be exactly true. I read in one of the online tributes that GWAR may go on in memory of Brockie – which is fine by me – but of course it will not be the same. Brockie gave the project its epic focus, its horrifying clarity. GWAR did not create “literary” metal, as did Iron Maiden & Rush, for example. No, GWAR is an epic original, with deep roots in Homer, Shakespeare, Dante, The Bible, and every other bloody book in the sad yet vibrant history of human literature. Although there are many subtle examples in GWAR lyrics that could demonstrate that Oderous is a well-read monster, what actually matters is that Brockie’s ability to plug into what is REAL in the secular & religious canons allows him to take great creative RISKS in art-life unthinkable to lesser bands, and to invoke a historical gravitas unavailable to other shock-rockers & glam-rockers.

One commentator quoted Brockie in the week of his passing answering a question on the meaning of life, saying that the meaning of life is death. Nothing uncanny or remarkable here, I’m afraid. Looking for Oderous Urungus talking about death is like looking for a needle in a needlestack. If he was not talking about death, then he was probably talking about birth or sex, and often all three. His lyrics are incessently material – base. When he talks about religion, it is bloody wooden crosses and lusting priests. When he talks about war, it is all about the soldier killing, raping & being killed. When he talks about philosophy – he doesn’t talk about philosophy – he talks about human life reduced to its true essence, which is the fragile, breathing, bleeding, dying body itself.

I have much more to say about GWAR – all in time – but for now I feel inclined to comment on a couple of the songs played in this episode, those that some folks may be inclined to call “offensive,” as it were.

In a pair of songs (2 of a trio from the America Must Be Destroyed album), GWAR looks at life from the perspective of a rock star. What is actually disturbing in this pair – Rock N Roll Never Felt So Good and The Road Behind – is the directness & honesty of their performance. Where Frank Zappa combines ernest (if slightly ridiculous) lyrics with a mocking delivery, Brockie delivers horrifying content with a songwriter’s sincerity – he means every word – and in doing so reveals a general condition of falseness in rock music.

If either song were removed from its GWAR context & played on radio (and they sound very much like they could be hit rock songs from the late 70s/early 80s) it might come off as humourless and homicidal, truly horrible. But in the GWAR context they are hilarious send-ups of the rock and roll industry.

Rock N Roll Never Felt So Good is a GWAR original, but it is a also obviously a KISS song, or at least as close as you can get without being KISS. On the album, it arrives in the wake of mostly thrash metal, with some lounge jazz & rock & other sounds mixed in. The sudden incursion of radio-friendly rock is jarring. In GWAR’s typically heavier songs, the mechanized violence of metal becomes comedic ritual mass-murder. In the case of KISS’s glam rock, the violence implied in the music becomes a single violent assault. Go ahead and read the lyrics if you’re curious. In the first posted version of this essay, I mistakenly implied thtat these are Brockie's lyrics - in fact, according to wikipedia, Michael Bishop (Beefcake the Mighty on bass & vocals) was the sole credited songwriter, and therefore the lyricist.

The brutal acts depicted perfectly suit their musical context. Anyone with ears can hear the disconnect between the lyrical content of typical rock songs (school-boy crushes, innocent good-times) and their musical context, not to mention the actual excesses of rock-stars lives. GWAR shows us what is lurking behind rock spectacle – the domination and brutality of modern industry. Note that the images, when combined, are nonsensical – the protagonist first notices his victim’s age and clothing, and later that she is quadraplegic, and even later that her limbs are made of wood. Actually, these images describe the state of the stadium rock audience – immobile and passive in their numbered seats. The debaucherous acts range from conventional – “I laid a line of coke on her tits” – to homoerotic – “I need the taste of dick on my lips” – to bizarre – “I fucked her asshole with a piece of frozen shit.” The last of these could be a description of what bands like KISS are selling their audiences – moments of life fixed into frozen form and sold as shitty, predicable product. What is important is that the violent lyrics are sung in a way that is convincing as a hit rock song – there is no dissociation between the words & music. To demonstrate the point, at the very end of the song Oderous assumes his announcer personna, and asks “how you feelin’ now, baby?”, then the band plays a short metal lick from their Hell-O album – so the song is clearly framed as a rock side-show. (Side note: one of the particularities of 1980s media censorship is that far more explicit content could appear graphically in music videos than could be sung in words on record or printed on a lyric sheet – think of Motley Crue’s bondage videos, which displayed far more of their lived experience than any of their lyrics).

The next song on the album, The Road Behind, continues the rock star theme in ballad form. Again, Oderous sounds frighteningly sincere & plausible. But instead of ridiculous rock-star sentiment, GWAR shows us a spoiled, drug-addicted monster. And again, the imagery works at different registers, from plausible – “signed a million-dollar contract / I puked on every page” – to exagerrated – “slaughtered half the crew cause they ate my deli tray” – to rockstar bullshit combined with GWAR fantasy -

Well there you have it baby
I'm just a sensitive guy
Y'know I snuffed a million planets
But I still find time to cry
 
- all sung with the same affected sincerity. GWAR's homicidal lyrics dramatize the distance between music industry stars and their audience, who are reduced to lifeless corpses in endless revenue chains. Some phrases, “homicidal rage,” “you were a road-kill baby” – could be used in everyday rockstar situations, but in this context the death metaphors are resurrected & made literal.

GWAR’s bloody corpus of recorded events is indeed an epic poem of our time, and it will require a writer’s lifetime to understand & articulate its import. Stay tuned.

Part 1

1. Happy Death-Day - GWAR
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Time For Death - GWAR
4. From The Eastern Gate I: Ceremonial Music – Alexina Louie (comp.) / Erica Goodman (harp) -- Isaiah Ch.34
5. The Salaminizer - GWAR
6. From The Eastern Gate: Haiku I – Alexina Louie (comp.) / Erica Goodman (harp)
7. Ham On The Bone - GWAR
8. From The Eastern Gate II: On Permanence – Alexina Louie (comp.) / Erica Goodman (harp) -- Sestina: Alt Aforte - Ezra Pound
9. Rock ‘N’ Roll Never Felt So Good - GWAR
10. From The Eastern Gate: Haiku II – Alexina Louie (comp.) / Erica Goodman (harp)
11. The Road Behind - GWAR

Part 2

1. From The Eastern Gate III: Birds At The Mountain Temple – Alexina Louie (comp.) / Erica Goodman (harp) – Beowulf
2. You Can’t Kill Terror - GWAR
3. From The Eastern Gate: Haiku II – Alexina Louie (comp.) / Erica Goodman (harp)
4. Go To Hell - GWAR
5. From The Eastern Gate IV: The Mandarins – Alexina Louie (comp.) / Erica Goodman (harp)
6. Damnation Under God - GWAR
7. Song of Nymphs III: Ritual – Marjan Mozetich (comp.) / Erica Goodman (harp)
8. Sick of You - GWAR

The Defense Secretary's Rite Of Spring

No.253, aired March 19, 2014. Annual “Rite of Spring” episode, featuring Donald Rumsfeld’s audiobook Known and Unknown: A Memoir (Sentinel, 2011). Not a terribly revealing book. I was a bit surprised at how distant, in his own account, the Defense Secretary seemed from the President’s office, and in particular, Vice-President Dick Cheney, during the Iraq invasion.

An interesting moment comes at page.422 of the print version, when Rumsfeld writes: “My concerns about Iraq went beyond Saddam’s support of terrorism or any involvement with AL-Qaeda.” So long out of office, and with the invasion a full decade past, and in a format that will reach a relatively small population, Rumsfeld applies the precise propaganda techniques that were used to justify the invasion in 2003. He makes an association between Iraq and terrorism, implying a connection, but is careful not to say that there is an actual connection. Has he internalized this technique to the point that he doesn’t know he is doing it? Or is he still in political mode, so long after the fact?

Part 1

1. Part I: The Adoration Of The Earth (Introduction) – Igor Stravinsky (comp.) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
2. Gloryhounds – Royal Red Brigade
3. Young Girl’s Dances – Igor Stravinsky (comp.) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
4. Pray For Darkness – Cancer Bats
5. Mock Abduction – Igor Stravinsky (comp.) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
6. Herr Noit – Lederhosen Lucil
7. Round Dances – Igor Stravinsky (comp.) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
8. Dress To Kill - Royal Red Brigade
9. Games Of Rival Tribes / Wise Elder’s Procession / Adoration Of The Earth / Dance Of The Earth – Igor Stravinsky (comp.) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Part 2

1. Part II: The Sacrifice (Introduction) – Igor Stravinsky (comp.) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
2. Lashed Out & Gashed - Pericardium
3. Mystic Circles / Glorification – Igor Stravinsky (comp.) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
4. Throwing The Fight – Sailboats Are White
5. Summoning The Ancients – Igor Stravinsky (comp.) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
6. The Fourth Finger Of My Left Hand – Sailboats Are White
7. Ancients’ Ritual – Igor Stravinsky (comp.) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra
8. Bodies - Pericardium
9. Sacrificial Dance – Igor Stravinsky (comp.) / Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Anxious Dub Monster

No.252, aired March 12, 2014. Dub poetry by Toronto’s Lillian Allen + bits of an audiobook  abbreviation of Gary Zukav’s The Seat of the Soul.

Part 1

1. Anxious For A Revolution – Lillian Allen
2. Dueti (for 2 vioins) No.21 – Luciano Berio
3  Robot Dub Jam – Guerilla Funk Monster
4. Dueti (for 2 vioins) No.16 – Luciano Berio
5. When All Is Said And Done – Napalm Death
6. Dueti (for 2 vioins) No.17 – Luciano Berio
7. Collectivize – Lillian Allen
8. Comp.114(+108A) – Anthony Braxton
9. Totalities – Lillian Allen
10. Nothing To Say – Guerilla Funk Monster

Part 2

1. Dueti (for 2 vioins) Nos.18-20 – Luciano Berio
2. Burgundy / Ani Could Sing – Guerilla Funk Monster
3. Black Voice – Lillian Allen
4. Comp.115 – Anthony Braxton
5. Anxiety – Lillian Allen
6. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
7. Lowlife (Cryptic Slaughter cover) – Napalm Death

Metalstorm

No.251, aired March 5, 2014.

This episode's genesis begins with an urge to play Avram’s Metalstorm. I selected a passage from the fourth Night from William Blake’s Four Zoas, where Los, the prophet of Eternity in the form of a blacksmith, is rebuilding the fallen world out of the smashed body of Urizen, the god of reason. Out of these deathly metal remains, the deeply flawed modern world is fashioned with limits placed on death & chaos. In terms of a single life, a child destroys her own imagination in order to gain acceptance in the fallen “adult” world, and for a time relinquishes her right to reshape reality (the fall of Tharmas, in Blakean terms). Into this void rises the rule of Urizen, corresponding to the  school system, where abstract ideas reign over material existence. When in early adulthood we realize scholastic notions of grammar and geometry have little direct relevance to our survival, Urizen’s empire declines, and we are left in a state of chaos until we can successfully enter the real world of jobs and money. Los’s activities in the fourth Night are humanity’s efforts to create something out of whatever remains of our imaginations, whatever is not utterly destroyed during our adolescence.

But how do I relate Blake’s use of metal to heavy metal music, you ask? Well, Los’s activities in the Fourth Night relate to our imaginative efforts to recreate life out of the fallen world of markets & money. We shore up our own existence, and only then look for a reason to live. The fact that “survival” and “living” are somehow separate activities is a particularly modern problem – a merely philosophical quandary (“existentialism”) to some, and a practical-theoretical question to some others (“Marxists”). But in any event, Heavy Metal music is an attempt to divert the purpose of capitalist machinery to unify the principles of survival and life-force. It puts the buzz of engines to therapeutic use, and adds a scream of protest.

And Ana-Maria Avram is doing something parallel with Metalstorm, a piece of computer assisted music that seems to conjur up a heavy metal pastoral, generating the “metal flies” referenced in GWAR’s Metal Metal Land. A dystopic swamp where gigantic contraptions emerge to breed with ominous high-voltage stormclouds descending.

A small correction: I said Exciter was from the late-1980s – in fact, the band was formed in 1978, with Heavy Metal Maniac released in 1983, which means these Ottawa headbangers anteceded (and are said to have influenced) the first generation of west coast thrash (Metallica, Slayer, Death Angel, etc).

Part 1

1. Moments Of Silence – Sheavy
2. Heavy Metal Maniac – Exciter
3. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
4. The Iron Giant – Hylozoists
5. Iron Dogs – Exciter
6. Bipolar – Metallic Taste of  Blood
7. Is Your Metal Heavy? – Muscle Bitches
8. Fountains Of The Forgotten – Buckethead

Part 2

1. Metal Metal Land – GWAR
2. Metalstorm I – Ana-Maria Avaram
3. One Tooth For The Time Train – Buckethead
4. The Metal – Tenacious D

Ezekiel, Eunoia, Enion

No.250, aired February 26, 2014. Audiobook was Ezekiel chs.22-25. In the second half, read more passages from Eunioa and The Four Zoas (see episode no.249 below).

Part 1

1. Bubble Up – Muscle Bitches
2. Clearly Invisible – Simply Saucer
3. Asscrack Bathmat – Muscle Bitches
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
5. Takin’ You Down – Simply Saucer
6. All The Way To Outer Space – Secret Saucer

Part 2

1. Skulls In The Closet – Les Georges Leningrad
2. The Sicilian Clan / You Will Be Shot – John Zorn
3. Sleek Answer – Les Georges Leningrad
4. Disintegrator – Secret Saucer
5. Scissorhands – Les Georges Leningrad
6. Mole Machine – Simply Saucer
7. Sailing - Ripcordz

The Legendary Spectacle of Helen & Enion

No.249, aired February 19, 2014. During instramental tracks, short exerpts from the following three books were read in rotation:

William Blake – Vala, Or The Four Zoas, Night The First
Guy Debord – Society Of The Spectacle, nos.26-39.
Christian Bok – Eunoia, ch. “e”

Not to place a superfluous weir across the free-flow of the listener’s own thoughts, but there’s a fairly obvious theme of separation happening here. In Society of the Spectacle, Debord provides an update to Karl Marx’s observations in the 1850s & 60s on the separation of the worker from the product of labour (commodities). For Debord, writing in the 1950s, the entire world appears as a continuous flow of commodities, with the conditions of their production concealed behind the smooth, illusory sheen of market values, so our separation from reality becomes a general condition. William Blake, anticipating Marx a half-century earlier (c.1800), writes of humanity’s power to shape material existence (Tharmas) separating from our desired vision of the world (Enion). Apart from each other, Tharmas becomes a greedy spectre struggling for existence (in other words, a modern worker), and Enion becomes an aged, vagrant earth-goddess, representing nature devoid of imagination. Bok’s Eunoia separates the five English vowels each into their chapters. Chapter E tells the tale of Helen’s escapades in Troy, separated from her native Greece – for further thots, see my amazonian Eunoia review.

Part 1

1. Dueti (for 2 vioins) No.8 – Luciano Berio
2. Losing My Religion – Kleins96
3. Dueti (for 2 vioins) No.9 – Luciano Berio
4. Stoup-Stained Graves – Rehashed
5. Dueti (for 2 vioins) Nos.10-15 – Luciano Berio
6. Bars – Point Break
7. Mary Jane – William Tell & The Marksmen
8. Go Home Grosep – Kleins96 -- (with some unplanned web audio mixed in)
9. Venture 91-200 – Secret Saucer
10. Fuck My Life – Rehashed

Part 2

1. Right Here Right Now – Ripcordz
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Derive 2 – Pierre Boulez

White Lung - Young Lions - Last Chance - Exit Plexit

No.248, aired February 12, 2014.

I twice on air said that this is “part 2” of a “2 part” – this is confusing – sorry. The two “parts” itemized below are, as always, the two 28-minute halves of my 1-hour program, separated by a 2-minute break for ads. But this is also “Part 2” in the sense that it is a sequal to the February 5 episode – and that’s what I meant by “This is Part 2.” Audiobook was ch.19-21 of the Book of Ezekiel. Also included readings from Ben Donoghue's Mycelium, a chap-book I found at Ditch Records in Victoria, BC c.2001.

Part 1

1. Dueti (for 2 vioins) No.4 – Luciano Berio
2. Hylozoists – Hylozoists
3. Hard To Cry – The Northwest Company
4. Dueti (for 2 vioins) No.5 – Luciano Berio
5. Wild Failure – White Lung
6. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
7. Live In Frankfurt, 1986, pt.4 – Last Exit
8. Dueti (for 2 vioins) No.6 – Luciano Berio
9. Viva La Rat – White Lung
10. Live In Frankfurt, 1986, pt.3 – Last Exit
11. Get Away From It All – The Northwest Company

Part 2

1. Devil’s Speedway – D.O.A.
2. Dueti (for 2 vioins) No.7 – Luciano Berio
3. New Realms Of Vibration – Hylozoists
4. Last Chance – D.O.A.
5. Live In Frankfurt, 1986, pt.5 – Last Exit
6. California Hardcore Last Chance – D.O.A.
7. The Iron Chef – Hylozoists
8. Sleep Creep – White Lung
9. Exit Plexit – Simply Saucer

Soft Sounds For The Dungeon Of The Damned

No.247, aired February 5, 2014.

Apocalyptic Episode with Ch.16-19 – from the Book of Ezekiel. I like to imagine a fifth guy on stage with Last Exit – a wild-eyed Hebrew prophet with a long white beard. But does he stand protectively behind the mic stand, eyes closed, channeling the wrathful oracles of Yahweh, or does he roam the stage, mic in hand, like an old-school fire-and-brimstone preacher?

Part 1

1. Soft Flesh For The Dungeon OF The Damned – B-Monster
2. Wild Whiskey - Comets On Fire
3. Live In Frankfurt, 1986, pt.1 – Last Exit
4. Hellfire Black Piranha - B-Monster
5. Spastic Torture - Static Eyesore
6. Just Cos You Got The Power – Motorhead
7. Good Morning Trouble - B-Monster

Part 2

1. Brotherhood of the Harvest - Comets On Fire
2. Take My Life ... Please - Dog Eat Dogma
3. Live In Frankfurt, 1986, pt.2 – Last Exit
4. Teufelskind - Dog Eat Dogma
5. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
6. The One To Sing The Blues – Motorhead
7. March Of The Crabs - Anvil

The Sword & The Famine & The Noisome Beast

No.246, aired January 29, 2014. Audiobook was Ezekiel Ch.11-15. Poetry in Part 2 was from jwcurry’s PWOOERMMSS (1cent no.401, 2013) & FOUND (1cent no.402, 2013 - individual poets listed below), and Ben Donoghue’s Mycelium (Hungry Ghost – Gaki Press, 2000).

Part 1

1. La Carcasse – IKS
2. Pride Assassin – Napalm Death
3. La Poursuite-survie,Lot Quot Dien – IKS
4. Ghetto Child – James ‘Blood’ Ulmer
5. Glas Synthetique – IKS
6. The Silence Is Deafening – Napalm Death
7. No Escape From The Blues - James ‘Blood’ Ulmer
8. Carte Postale – IKS

Part 2

1. Diet – Bluebeard
2. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
3. Torture – GWAR
4. Grandad – Fond Of Tigers -- poems from 1cent eds.401 & 402, by Rachel Zavitz, Yosa Buson (trans.David Aylward), P.Cob, Judith Copithorne, Gerry Gilbert, Hans Jewinski, jwcurry, Randall Brock, Wharton Hood, Ki no Tsurayuki, Marshall Hryciuk, Nicholas Power (from Tsurayuki) / Mycelium – Ben Donoghue
5. Second To None – Bluebeard – Mycelium (con’t)
6. Invisible Dimension – Forbidden Dimension

Open Penis Cup - Drink The Orange Air - Defilement For Your Ears

No.245, pre-recorded on January 15, 2014, aired January 22, 2014. Featuring several short tracks from THF Drenching’s Cup Penis Open Penis Cup – for information on how to acquire the entire masterpiece (CD + sexy artwork) direct from its producer  - go to http://www.councilofdrent.com/cuppenisopenpeniscup.html. 

Part 1 also included a reading of Norma Kassirer’s Little Marlborough At The Seashore.

Part 2 included some passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and poems by David Appelbaum.

Part 1

1. Seven Kinder Dach Lieder 5 – THF Drenching
2. Straight Jacket – Stiffed
3. Seven Kinder Dach Lieder 6 – THF Drenching
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
5. Who Wants To Fuck Me? – FPG
6. Seven Kinder Dach Lieder 7 – THF Drenching
7. We Like To Fight – Threat From Outer Space
8. Alright – Spiderbite
9. Squeeze – James Rolfe (comp.) / Continuum Contemporary Music -- Little Marlborough At The Seashore – Norma Kassirer
10. 1920 – The Grates

Part 2

1. Fetes de la Faim – James Rolfe (comp.) / Continuum Contemporary Music
2. Desert Flowers – IKS
3. Trampoline – The Grates
4. Live In A box – Spiderbait
5. Maxime (mon judge) – IKS -- Time-keeper / Sisyphus / Afterword,late / In paint(ing) / Cadmus / Climbers – David Appelbaum
6. I Wanna Die – Brutal Knights
7. Madam, Your Grave Is Ready – Forbidden Dimension

Civilization Zero

No.244, aired January 15, 2014. First half featured the last part of the first disc of Frank Zappa’s Civilization Phase III. The second half had live interpretations of sound poetry scores published in jwcurry’s INDUSTRIAL SABOTAGE No.63: MESSAGIO AMOR SOME MORE, one of 100 copies prepared in conjunction with MESSAGIO GALORE take V, 13 April 2008, PLUS more poems from Yellowfield No.8.

Part 1

1. “Someplace Else Right Now” / Get A Life / “A Kayak (On Snow)” – Frank Zappa
2. Mutiny Disease – Sailboats Are White
3. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
4. It’s Exactly Four Seconds From Here To The Door, I’ll Give You Two - Sailboats Are White
5. “A Kayak (On Snow)” / N-Lite – Frank Zappa
6. What It’s Like – Stiffed

Part 2

1. Pardon My Ghoulish Laughter – Forbidden Dimension
2. 0 + 2 = 1 – Nomeansno
3. Devil Syndrome – Bill Laswell -- KARAWANE – Hugo Ball / Artikulationen – Franz Mon / Scomposizione I – Luigi Gallini [poems from Industrial Sabotage No.63]
4. The Valley Of The Blind – Nomeansno
5. Touching Cloth – Duboniks -- from Passing Moments – Jaime Robles / from Of Beings Alone (The Eigenface) – Lissa Wolsak [poems from Yellowfield No.8]
6. Loveletter – Forbidden Dimension

Civilization Ooze

No.243, aired January 1, 2014, still celebrating the solstice season with most of the first disc of Frank Zappa’s Civilization Phase III, an album recorded in a very dark place ...

Part 1

1. “This Is Phase III” – Frank Zappa
2. Happy New Year – Moral Panic
3. Put A Motor In Yourself – Frank Zappa
4. Kaos Rex - Dog Eat Dogma
5. “Oh-Uhm” – Frank Zappa
6. Everytime I Start To Ooze – Nomeansno
7. Naval Aviation In Art? - Frank Zappa
8. They Made Me Eat It / Regan At Bitburg / “A Very Nice Body” / Navanax / “How The Pigs’ Music Works” – Frank Zappa
9. Oblivious – Dog Eat Dogma

Part 2

1. Circle With Tangents, No.2 – John Beckwith
2. The Fall – Nomeansno
3. Xmas Values / “Dark Water!” / Amnerika / “Have You Ever Heard Their Band?” / Religious Superstition / “Saliva Can Only Take So Much” / Buffalo Voice / “Someplace Else Right Now” – Frank Zappa
4. Air Traffic Control – Tristan Psionic