radio loways april 2014

maryah marimotto and marta sainz

radio loways

1. green onions – booker t and the mgs
2. candy’s room – perfect pussy (cover of bruce springsteen)
3. khlolapurase kudasathrivasi – ilaiyaraaja
4. usual dosage – unwound
5. black steel – tricky
6. throwdown (stupid – doc’ dub mix) – spark d
7. sisters – a tribe called red (featuring northern voice)
8. cry – mars
9. andiwillhe – laura cetilia
10. my sweet lord/today is a killer – nina simone
11. improvisation – marta sainz, alexander markvart, antonia funes, maryah marimotto
12. p.c.a.  – action patrol
13. hall of the mountain king – the who
14. dodó e zezé – tom zé
15. invokation  – horseback

the songs that took my attention in april of 2014. listen, won’t you?

unhelpful notes

i’ve always had a soft spot for green onions. i first heard it on the american graffiti soundtrack album that my parents had. for some reason when i was a kid i used to pull that record out and listen to it frequently. i think i liked the ambiance of it. old timey, a.m.-radio-ey, late night-y etc.

unwound can easily make the claim for being one of the all time greatest bands of all time for me. when i first heard them something just clicked and made perfect sense. at the time i felt like they were this missing link bridge between sonic youth and fugazi. i now feel like they occupy a totally different space that is completely their own. the only time that they came to town when i was aware of them and they were still active was one winter night when i was doing sound for a community theatre production of a christmas carol. i was so sad that one of the performances was the same night as unwound at the fireside bowl. in honor, i listened to them on headphones while i ran the soundboard that night. a friend of mine once said that unwound would eventually be like the velvet underground in that at the time no one really listened to them, but everyone who did would form bands.

i love public enemy. but as far as i’m concerned, tricky’s version of black steel is the definitive version. kind of like jimi hendrix’s version of all along the watchtower is the definitive version. an amazing song and amazing that it was a hit. cuz it’s kind of a weird record. i originally bought this album when it came out from one of those old timey mail order record clubs, columbia or bmg or something like that.

true story, there was a time when i wasn’t into nina simone! what was wrong with me? what a fucking fool i was. of course i was younger then and only into the noisier things in life. but when i finally got around to hearing mississippi goddam,  i was blown away. such intensity, anger, feeling, truth, etc. after that i got more and more into her as i got older. i’m a believer.

action patrol was from richmond virginia if i’m not mistaken. the singer moved to chicago and formed a band called service anxiety. a band that was criminally overlooked and fell through the cracks. they. were. amazing. my first band played with them once or twice. they recorded one record that they never put out. why? why? both action patrol and service anxiety feature ridiculously long and political lyrics that are crammed into tiny short spazz songs. also, complete your thesis!

don’t you love the who when they were kids? i do! before all the rock opera nonsense of the seventies. yes, please!

unwound

 

 

 

 

improvised music is the new newness

lately. i’ve been into the band. new ideas. new modes. it’s nice. i thought i woulda been more bummed that the rories stopped. but by the end, it was feeling like too much. too much responsibility. too much being in charge. not enough being part of a group. don’t get me wrong. i loved it. it was fun. but i think it had run its course and now we’re on to the next thing. the rories had been moving in that direction anyways. freeform. open-ended. improvised. and that seems to be what this new group is. open ended. we’re working on it. figuring it out. figuring out how to play with each other. what to play with each other. what musics. what instruments.

which is fun for me. playing new things like drums. trying to figure out how they work. sleigh bells – a christmas present from h’s sister. the sleigh bells rule. a keyboard that’s been sitting in my closet for years. now i’m playing all these things. and anything i can get my hands on. like a melodica. i wish i still had my harmonica. i wonder where that got off to. and yes i’m still playing my guitar also. it’s a nice feeling to be trying new things, making new sounds (new for me) and learning to interact musically with new people.

it can be frustrating. some nights. when we’re off. not coherent. but that’s the nature of it. and it seems like we’re getting more comfortable with each other and the music and it’ll continue to improve.

we still don’t have a name yet. some terrible ideas have been thrown around. maybe i’ll write them down later. we’ll see.