radio loways february 2014

sonny sharrock

1. a journey to reedham (7am) mix – squarepusher
2. ghosts – god destroyer
3. song of the one (i love) or love, my love – patty waters
4. secret agent man – devo
5. soy hija de puta – marrash
6. marbles – tindersticks
7. le crabe – françoise hardy
8. trocitos de madera – la yegros
9. hate, myth, muscle, etiquette – propagandhi
10. challenger – american music club
11. b-boys beware – two sisters
12. ketchak – john lurie
13. colores sin nombres – savath & savalas
14. i – perfect pussy
15. i can’t get no satisfaction trad gras och stenar
16. like water – pro era
17. many mansions – sonny sharrock

listen, won’t you?

unhelpful notes

squarepusher is one of my all time favorites. he’s one of the parts that got me into jazz a long time ago. this song is just perfect. just perfect.

i don’t know when i got into drones. and certainly i’m not into any and all drones. not all drones are created equal. and when you are making music out of essentially one note or chord or sound for a long duration the little things matter. texture is always thrown around when people talk about drones. but it’s pretty legit. instead of melody you have to focus on other things. i’m a sucker for warm fuzzy bliss tones and this one by god destroyer definitely fits the bill. beauty.

patty waters is someone i hadn’t heard about until i read the oral history of esp-disk. and then i was intrigued. not all of her songs are like this. but when she goes there, she goes there. and it’s awesome.

i can’t even begin to say how profoundly i was into devo in high school. so, so, so, so very into devo. it can not be overstated. i will share – some friends and i were in something called the “naked devo fanclub.” which essentially meant that we were into devo, in gym class together and had to take showers in the locker room. hence, naked. i also made a home made devo shirt with a sharpie. i was introduced to them from a tape of hardcore devo volume one that a friend gave me. it blew my mind. completely. i then sought out everything through shout after that. their early stuff is amazingly good. this is even earlier than early cuz it was when they were doing art-school sludge-fi sci-fi weirdocity.

marrash

i love all of tindersticks. i love his croon. their sound. it’s so good. i found out about them from a review in an old magazine called hypno. and the first album i got was their soundtrack to nenette et boni. all is good. but there’s something about this track that is so perfect. that repetitive guitar. the lo-fi-ness of the recording. slightly dirty and tinny. it’s equally heartbreaking and happy in sound. kind of like a “carefree white girl” summer haze photo of bare feet in grass or an old country house with curtains blowing in the wind or something. but it feels like impossible happiness with tragic soul crush on the wind. beauty.

françoise hardy is awesome. that is all. dig that crunch chord. that spare descending organ.

la yegros is from argentina. she makes new kinda weird cumbia. i’m a sucker for cumbia. this video is cool. i’d say three quarters of this album is awesome. and one quarter of this album is too npr for my taste.

i liked new school punk for a few minutes. propagandhi still do it for me. especially this album. simpler times back then y’know? suburban mix tape drives. yup.

who got me into american music club? ed brubaker. i wrote him a letter way back in the day when he was writing and drawing lowlife for fantagraphics. i mentioned that i was listening to nine inch nails and he said not to fall for their phony despair. they were the cure of my generation. he also said for real despair check out american music club. i did. it didn’t seem too despairy then. at least not musically. but boy howdy, lyrically. they grew on me. another crooner. i’m such a sucker.

when i first heard savath & savalas it was this record, apropa’t. i bought it sound unheard at the record store. mostly cuz it was in spanish. and brought it home. put it on. and sat on the floor and listened to the whole thing through. for real floored. doesn’t happen to often. but when it does, it’s righteous. the sound was perfect. the instrumentation was perfect. the vocals were perfect. perfect pop music. another example of what should be on top-40 radio.

once upon a time there was a band called shoppers. they ruled so hard that they broke up. this is the new band featuring the singer from shoppers and some like minded musicians. similar vibe. all awesome. this song gets me. she buries her vocals intentionally. is that a guitar? or is it keyboards. what the fuck? overwhelming barrage fuzz smear. hooky. i said that once upon a time i liked new school punk. i think this is in the same vein evolutionarily speaking. like this is a natural progression or something. prolly just cuz of the hooks. it’s the jam.

just so you know. this. this one right here. this is the best version of satisfaction. for a while i thought it was devo’s. but then i heard this. different ball game. we’re going on a trip. also, for as much as i fucking hate hippies. i certainly love hippy commune jams. why is that?

do i love sonny sharrock? yes. yes i do. was space ghost coast to coast my first exposure to sonny sharrock? yes, yes it was. although i didn’t know it at the time. beauty.

la yegros

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