A Token Of My Machine

No.156, aired February 1, 2012. Played the opening Chapters of an audiobook of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, accompanied by instrumental music by Webern, Korsrud, Buckethead, and Les Georges Leningrad, and interrupted by songs with time-related lyrical themes.

Frank Zapp’s A Token Of My Extreme was thrown in merely because it references a “machine” – and turned out to provide the most stunning correspondence with The Time Machine, performing something like a psychoanalysis of H.G.Wells’ text, in which the time machine becomes an object of fetish for the circle of late-nineteenth century gentlemen viewing it.

Some people think
That if they go too far
They’ll never get back
To where the rest of
Them are
I might be crazy
But there’s one thing
I know
You might be surprised
At what you find
When ya go!
- Frank Zappa, A Token Of My Extreme

“We all saw the lever turn. I am absolutely certain there was no trickery. There was a breath of wind, and the lamp flame jumped. One of the candles on the mantel was blown out, and the little machine suddenly swung round, became indistinct, was seen as a ghost for a second perhaps, as an eddy of faintly glittering brass and ivory; and it was gone—vanished! Save for the lamp the table was bare.”
- H.G. Wells, The Time Machine

If you been
Mod-o-fied,
It’s an illusion,
An yer in between
Don’t you be
Tarot-fied,
It’s just a lot of nothin’,
So what can it mean?
- Frank Zappa, A Token Of My Extreme

Part 1

1. Three Little Pieces For Cello & Piano, op.11, no.2 – Anton Webern
2. Xs & Os – John Korsrud
3. One Tooth Of The Time Train – Buckethead
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
5. Part Of The Season – Long Time Comin’
6. Three Little Pieces For Cello & Piano, op.11, no.1 – Anton Webern
7. Shape Of Things To Come – Diodes
8. Glurp For 14 Musicians – John Korsrud
9. Blower – Voivod

Part 2

1. Girl On The Grass - John Korsrud
2. Eight Hours A Day – Northwest Passage
3. Three Little Pieces For Cello & Piano, op.11, no.3 – Anton Webern
4. Arc Of The Pendulum – Buckethead
5. Time Damage – Diodes
6. The Future For Less – Les Georges Leningrad
7. A Token Of My Extreme – Frank Zappa
8. Zippy Pinhead – John Korsrud

Rats & Scum & Bagetelles

No. 142, aired October 12, 2011. This was a primer episode for the Nomeansno concert at the Distrikt (Oct 14) and Napalm Death at the Exchange (Oct 19). During Tony Oxley's The Advocate a passage from the opening chapter of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake was read on air.

Part 1

1. Six Bagetelles For String Quartet, Op.9, No.1 - Anton Webern
2. No Sex - Nomeansno
3. Six Bagetelles For String Quartet, Op.9, No.5 - Anton Webern
4. It's Catching Up - Nomeansno
5. Six Bagetelles For String Quartet, Op.9, No.2 - Anton Webern
6. Teresa, Give Me That Knife - Nomeansno
7. Six Bagetelles For String Quartet, Op.9, No.3 - Anton Webern
8. Brother Rat - Nomeansno
9. Six Bagetelles For String Quartet, Op.9, No.6 - Anton Webern
10. What Slayde Says - Nomeansno
11. Six Bagetelles For String Quartet, Op.9, No.4 - Anton Webern
12. Oh No! Bruno! - Nomeansno

Part 2

1. Scum - Napalm Death
2. I've Got A Gun - Nomeansno
3. Life? - Napalm Death
4. The Advocate, For Strings And Percussion - Tony Oxley
5. Control - Napalm Death
6. Angel And Devils - Nomeansno
7. M.A.D. - Napalm Death
8. Naval Aviation In Art? - Frank Zappa
9. The Hawk Killed The Punk - Nomeansno
10. Disappear - Nomeansno

Saturday Night Punks & Funk

No.132, aired August 3, 2011. This episode commemorates my Saturday Night of live entertainment. Unfortunately, SNFU called in sick to their concert, but the remaining four bands on the bill were all great. I picked up bargain-price CDs by Regina’s Royal Red Brigade and Red Dear’s Kroovy Rookers. I will have to pick up CDs by the Delinquents and Clusterfucks at a later date.

Then, on my stumble home down Albert St., I heard somewhere a band playing Neil Young’s Down By The River, with a Pink Floyd song, Comfortably Numb I think, mixed in. I located the venue and was treated to an amazing funky set of originals & covers by the Root In Fluents on a patio under the lights. An exquisite finish to my night out!

Also read some poetry by J.H. Prynne.

Part 1

1. Frozen Eyes – The Root In Fluents
2. Five Songs, Op.3, IV – Anton Webern
3. Search The City – Royal Red Brigade
4. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
5. Nights Like This – Kroovy Rookers
6. Five Songs, Op.3, I – Anton Webern
7. Down By The River – Neil Young -- The Numbers – J.H. Prynne
8. Five Songs, Op.3, II – Anton Webern
9. Beguiled Ambiguity – The Root In Fluents
10. Five Songs, Op.3, III – Anton Webern

Part 2

1. Mystic Voyage – The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble -- A Night Square – J.H. Prynne
2. Blackout City Nights – Royal Red Brigade
3. Five Songs, Op.3, V – Anton Webern
4. Electrocutie – The Root In Fluents
5. Derf - The Last Electro-Acoustic Space Jazz & Percussion Ensemble -- A Night Square (con’t) / Day Light Songs – J.H. Prynne
6. Breakin’ At Twelve – The Root In Fluents
7. No More Boring Crap – Kroovy Rookers
8. Room For Rent – Lungbutter
9. Here Comes The Judge – Kroovy Rookers

Nomeansno - with a Vengence

No.103, aired December 29, 2010. No theme, except correcting the woeful lack of Nomeansno played on this program over the past 12 months with four tracks by Nomeansno at their violent jazz-punk-apocalyptic best from Dance Of The Headless Bourgeoisie. Also featured a live reading from Keston Sutherland’s Antifreeze.

Part 1

1. Entflieht auf leichen Kahnen, op.2 – Anton Webern
2. Safesurfer – Julian Cope -- Slits In Three Odes 1 – Keston Sutherland
3. Five Songs, Op.3, II – Anton Webern
4. The Rape – Nomeansno
5. Five Songs, Op.3, I – Anton Webern
6. The World Wasn’t Built In A Day – Nomeansno
7. Partner – Lungbutter

Part 2

1. Five Songs, Op.3, III – Anton Webern
2. Give Me The Push – Nomeansno
3. Zacotic – Jon Ballantyne -- Slits In Three Odes 2-7 – Keston Sutherland
4. Fast Money Blessing – King Cobb Steelie -- A Bang Covers Me / Sex Crater – Keston Sutherland
5. Five Songs, Op.3, IV – Anton Webern
6. I’m An Asshole – Nomeansno
7. Five Songs, Op.3, V – Anton Webern
8. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
9. Moanin’ At Midnight – Howlin’ Wolf
10. Midnight Show – The Horribles

Dead Poets Dug Up

Episode no. 69 took us back into the 20th Century Zeitgeist, featuring a digging up of the dead in recordings from the Poetry Speaks audio anthology of famous poets reading from their work. Aired April 7, 2010.

Part 1

1. Four Pieces For Violin And Piano, Op.7, I.Sehr langsam – Anton Webern -- The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost
2. The Gravedigger – SNFU
3. Naval Aviation in Art? – Frank Zappa
4. Four Pieces For Violin And Piano, Op.7, II.Rasch – Anton Webern -- The Oven Bird – Robert Frost
5. Messiah Ward – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds -- Nothing Gold Can Stay – Robert Frost
6. Four Pieces For Violin And Piano, Op.7, III.Sehr langsam - Anton Webern -- Cool Tombs – Carl Sandburg
7. A Coffin Named Desire – Forbidden Dimension
8. Four Pieces For Violin And Piano, Op.7, IV.Bewegt – Anton Webern -- Grass – Carl Sandburg
9. Everything Is Alive – Beef Terminal -- Hugh Selwyn Mauberly II, IV, and V – Ezra Pound
10. Martian Gravedigger – Forbidden Dimension

Part 2

1. Five Movements For String Quartet, Op.5, IV.Sehr langsam – Anton Webern -- Not Ideas About The Thing But The Thing Itself – Wallace Stevens
2. Death Was Too Kind – Subhumans
3. Five Movements For String Quartet, Op.5, I.Heftig bewegt – Anton Webern -- The Red Wheelbarrow – William Carlos Williams
4. Five Movements For String Quartet, Op.5, II.Sehr langsam – Anton Webern -- XLV from The Cantos – Ezra Pound
5. Five Movements For String Quartet, Op.5, IV.Sehr langsam – Anton Webern
6. III Meditation – Pericardium
7. The Dead Speak From Beyond – Pericardium
8. II Meditation – Pericardium -- The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock – T.S. Eliot
9. Fifty-two Incorporated – Tinkertoy -- The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock (continued)
10. Five Movements For String Quartet, Op.5, V.In zarter Bewegung – Anton Webern -- The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock (continued)
11. Cemetary – Headstones

Forbidden Dimension

Episode #47, aired November 4, 2009. This was a sort of second Halloween episode featuring ghoulish garage-rock from Calgary's Forbidden Dimension and some coffin-&-grave themed poems by Emily Dickinson read to some early orchestral works by Anton Webern. The "J" numbers correspond to the numbering of Dickinson's poems in the Thomas H. Johnson edition.

Part 1
1. Sechs Stucke op. 6, 1 - Anton Webern / London Symphony Orchestra -- J670.
2. Bloodshack - Forbidden Dimension
3. Naval Aviation in Art? - Frank Zappa
4. Sechs Stucke op. 6, 2 - Anton Webern / London Symphony Orchestra -- J943
5. A Coffin Named Desire - Forbidden Dimension
6. Sechs Stucke op. 6, 3 - Anton Webern / London Symphony Orchestra -- J280
7. Invisible Dimension - Forbidden Dimension -- J754
8. Sechs Stucke op. 6, 4 - Anton Webern / London Symphony Orchestra -- J712 + J1046
9. Big Black Hearse - Forbidden Dimension
10. Sechs Stucke op. 6, 5 - Anton Webern / London Symphony Orchestra -- J258
11. Don't Happy, Be Worry - Eugene Chadbourne

Part 2
1. Ochre Ringlet - Eugene Chadbourne
2. Standing At The Edge Of The World - Sheavy
3. Change Has Come (Albert Ayler) - Eugene Chadbourne -- J465
4. Moments of Silence - Sheavy -- J949
5. High Midnight - Forbidden Dimension
6. Sechs Stucke op. 6, 1 - Anton Webern / London Symphony Orchestra -- J721
7. Sailin' On - Bad Brains