Episode #17: Autumnal Spring

Playlist

1. Ramblin'- Jack Wilson Quartet
2. The Seasons Reverse- Gastr Del Sol
3. I'll Remember April- Bud Powell
4. Jacking the Ball- The Sea and Cake
5. Fleurette Africaine- Duke Ellington
6. Smoke Signals- Eddie Harris
7. The Credits: Outtakes from Terry's Movie- Leo Kottke
8. The Train and the River- Jimmy Giuffre Trio
9. Hermosa Summer- Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars
10. Black Horse- Gastr Del Sol
11. Sweet Rain- Gary Burton Quartet
12. TNT- Tortoise
13. Honeysuckle Rose- Dick McDonough
14. Blue Crystal Fire- Robbie Basho
15. Better Get Hit In Yo' Soul- Davey Graham
16. I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You- Lennie Tristano
17. Heart of Glass- The Bad Plus
18. The Workplace- Jim O'Rourke
19. Manha de Carnaval- Sandy Bull
20. Samba de Orfeo- John Fahey
21. This is My Story, This is My Song- Thelonious Monk

Download Episode #17!

Interplanetary Interlude #4: The World as Meditation

Ok, folks, a new official episode for real is coming. It requires some research, and I've been quite busy lately with my delusions and self-analysis and existential abysses opening up beneath me, with too much masturbation and bad food, with the dozen books I'm a quarter of the way through but still uncommitted to, and with THE ENDLESS NOTHING ON THE GODDAMN INTERNET (also all the cool stuff- yeah, my stuff is here, too: it's both). But until I get shit together, here's a bunch of songs with no thematic connection (actually that's not true: there's a thruline or two- can you pick them out?), only that they've provided what peace and joy I've had recently.  For those who think my voice is the worst part of these shows (as I do), this might be your favorite episode.

"The World as Meditation" is stolen from my favorite poet, Wallace Stevens. Laurie Anderson is a NYC-based performance artist (more on her soon), and "O Superman" might be the best pop song of the 80's (even better than anything off ZZ Top's Eliminator!). Muscles of Joy are a group of lasses from Glasgow (a Glasgow lass group). Tyrannosaurus Rex is the hippie precursor to the glam-rockin' gong-bangin' on-gettin'-it T. Rex. Tall Dwarfs are giant/tiny mythical creatures from New Zealand. Faust are Ger-men who sold their souls to a minor demon for the gift of perpetual but respectable obscurity. The Vertigo Swirl sound a lot like Captain Beefheart's Magic Band on this eponymous track, and I mean that as no slight. More Beefheart knockoffs please! (Oh, not you, Tom Waits. You just uh, carry on.)

Playlist

1. O Superman- Laurie Anderson
2. Interchangable Letterset- Muscles of Joy
3. She Was Born to Be My Unicorn- Tyrannosaurus Rex
4. Nothing's Going to Happen- Tall Dwarfs
5. Jennifer- Faust
6. The Vertigo Swirl- The Vertigo Swirl
7. Water Breaks Its Neck- Muscles of Joy

Beauty in Midwinter

One must have a mind of winter

To regard the frost and the boughs

Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time

To behold the junipers shagged with ice,

The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think 

Of any misery in the sound of the wind,

In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land

Full of the same wind

That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,

And, nothing himself, beholds

Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

-Wallace Stevens, "The Snow Man"

Experiment #1: Wallace Stevens + Can

In the mood for a highbrow mashup? Well, I've been fooling around with editing music lately, and I thought I'd share some of the more interesting results.  Here's a Wallace Stevens poem, "Tattoo," with an excerpt from Can's "Dead Pigeon Suite" (variation on "Vitamin C," from Ege Bamyasi). Interestingly, there's a song from Can's The Lost Tapes called "Evening All Day." Is this a reference to the line "It was evening all afternoon," from Stevens' great poem "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird?" Perhaps not, but I'm pleased by the coincidence.