radio playlist, 28 november 2009, ktru fm (rice university radio)

this heat / health & efficiency [health & efficiency ep/out of cold storage] on the this is/rer label.
bergendy / hétköznapi balladak [well hung] on the finders-keepers label.
aaron martin / shot tower [grass wounds] on the under the spire label.

dizzy gillespie / manteca theme [afro] on the norgran/verve label.
the barbecues / aaya lolo [ghana special] on the soundway label.
pierre bastien / aiguise l'aire de cette île [eggs air sister steel] on the in-poly-sons label.
richard youngs / all day monday and tuesday [under stellar stream] on the jagjaguwar label.
grouper / pale through [tsuki no seika, vol 1] on the root strata label.
kuupuu / sula [lumen tadhen] on the time-lag label.

lim ling and the silvertones / my unrequited love for you [singapore a-go-go] on the sublime frequencies label.
performing ferrets / howler monkey [no one told us] on the hyped 2 death label.
elfin saddle / temple daughter [ringing for the begin again] on the constellation label.
neu / cassetto [neu 2] on the gronland label.
cones / ran style [ice skating elephants] on the ikuissus label.
alastair galbraith / mrs. blucher [morse and gaudylight] on the emperor jones/trance syndicate label.
mcdonald and giles / flight of the ibis [mcdonald and giles] on the atlantic japan label.

fela kuti / water get no enemy [the best of the black president] on the kalakuta sunrise label.
samandtheplants / the eft [the eft] on the twisted nerve/finders keepers label.
ervena orgaeva / kotush [bardic divas: women's voices in central asia] on the smithsonian folkways label.
hattie hart / coldest stuff in town [memphis jamboree 1927-1936] on the yazoo label.
acid mothers temple and the melting paraiso u.f.o. / sorcerer's stone of the magi [lord of the underground: vishnu and magic elixir] on the alien8 label.
the open mind / magic potion [nuggets ii: original artyfacts from the british empire and beyond] on the rhino label.

bonnie prince billy / nomadic revery (all around) [i see a darkness] on the palace label.
songs of green pheasant / stars form birds [aerial days] on the fatcat label.
graham lambkin / copy copy [softly softly, copy copy] on the kye label.
the valerie project / dove, pearl, priest [the valerie project] on the drag city label.
watusi / oi gere [black rio 2] on the strut label.
abner jay / my mule [true story of abner jay] on the mississippi label.

cedric brooks / ethiopia [studio one rockers] on the soul jazz label.
om / cremation ghat i [god is good] on the drag city label.
velvet cactus society / can i borrow your baby [26 songs] on the shimmy disc label.
hu min-hong / dark sky [lao kou kou: 60s songs from taiwan] on the exoticaring label.
twinsistermoon / unseen seen [the hollow mountain] on the blackest rainbow label.
moniek darge / fairy tale [soundies] on the kye label.

methodishca tune / leisuretime [messthetics 107: diy london iii, '78-81] on the hyped 2 death label.
zelienople / all i want is calm [give it up] on the type label.
idea fire company / port lligat [lessons about history] on the spinny's disks label.
acre / untitled 3 [isolationist] on the isoundercore label.
sore & steal / echoes from a retromingent planet [many moons a go-go] on the lime stereo label.
es / les fleurs sont des bonnes auditrices [a love cycle] on the fonal label.
antonia leukers / bunny's dream [hasenlove] on the dekorder label.

discafric band / houiou djin nan zon aklumon [african scream contest] on the analog africa label.
shafiq husayn / the odd is c [shafiq en' a-free-ka] on the plug research label.
elder samuel patterson & the christian crusaders / this train [fire in my bones] on the tompkins square label.

man city lion / tid lom ta lai [thai pop spectacular] on the sublime frequencies label.

---------------

favorite segues: alastair galbraith -> mcdonald and giles; cedric brooks -> om.

notes: my penultimate set (well, penultimate full set, i mean) featured a palimpsest involving idea fire company, acre, sore & steal and es. it kind of worked and was especially interesting when the sore & steal and es tracks were brought into the mix. i am so happy that ktru is getting releases from graham lambkin's kye label. are we actually getting promo service from kye? if so, that is amazingly cool. i love that mcdonald and giles track so much it almost hurts.

palimpsest photo taken in galveston, texas.

old family photos

i recently acquired this beautiful photograph of my maternal grandmother as a young girl. it was given to me by my mother, who got it from her older sister. this photograph was taken in miskolc, hungary, before my grandmother emigrated, as a teenager, to the united states via ellis island. my mother is unable to identify the little girl with her.


i recently obtained this photograph of my maternal grandfather, too. he is the one who is seated on the left. this photo was taken in new york city, and, once again, my mother can't identify the other person in the photograph.

it's a little hard for me to grasp the fact that these photographs, as old as they are, depict relatives who are only separated from me by a single generation. both of my parents were the youngest children in their families (and my fathers family was very large indeed), so both of them were born when their mothers were older (nearing 40 in each case, i believe). and though i am an only child, my mother was herself approaching 40 when i was born. so i guess, in my family, generations take a little longer to, well, generate.


60 years ago today my parents (pictured above) were married--november 24, 1949. it's been 20 years since my father passed away, but the anniversary of this occasion still seems worth commemorating somehow.

ono's sales list 1965

so, as i've mentioned before, i used to have a really cool job, where i regularly got to handle some very cool things. when i came across something i especially loved (and i could sneak away from my desk for a moment), i'd carefully make a photocopy.

one such thing was yoko ono's conceptual sales list from 1965. as she mentions on her website, 200 copies were sent out to people who followed her work at the time. i guess i was processing the papers of one such individual, because i was holding what appeared to be an original copy.


while the sales list included some "real" items (e.g., copies of ono's grapefruit book), one has to wonder if anyone ever tried to purchase any of the more conceptual works. i for one would have given an eye tooth to see guaranteed-not-to-be-artificial pink snow fall and cover someone's town.


"underwear to make you high"...only for women.

radio playlist, 21 november 2009, ktru fm (rice university radio)

elise deshotel & the louisiana rhythmaires w/dewey balfa / la valse de bon baurche [cajun honky tonk: the khoury recordings - the early 50s] on the arhoolie label.
black forest / black sea / blackbird on a gray sky [black forest / black sea] on the last visible dog / secret eye label.
reiko + tori kudo / father [light] on the siwa label.

omar khorshid / rakset et fadaa [psych-funk 101] on the world psychedelic funk classics label.
paavoharju / tuoksu tarttuu meihin [laulu laakson kukista] on the fonal label.
vashti bunyan / winter is blue [some things just stick in your mind] on the dichristina label.
idea fire company / wunderwaffen [lessons about history] on the spinny's discs label.
23 skidoo / kongo do [urban gamelan] on the ronin label.
full blast / suzy [black hole] on the atavistic label.

los destellos / a patricia [the roots of chicha] on the barbes label.
lolitas / les cactus [fusee d'amour] on the new rose label.
hornet leg / i'm leaving you [ribbon of fear] on the k records label.
loosers / the cops protect you [otha goat head] on the open field label.
soul apollo with frederick clarke / chombo pa' la tienda [panama! 3!] on the soundway label.
the desperate bicycles / grief is very private [grief is very private 7"] on the refill label.
dong rong and the stylers / you are a heartless person [singapore a-go-go] on the sublime frequencies label.
arrington de dionyso / nama bersembunyi [malaikat dan singa] on the k label.
catalogue / stop stress/ultim arlene [pénétration] on the hat hut label.

area c / meeting mid-air [charmed birds vs. sorcery] on the students of decay label.
belbury poly / thorn [the willows] on the ghost box label.
the watersons / idumea [frost and fire] on the topic label.
phosphor / pt 2 [ii] on the potlatch label.
elm / fog water shroud [woven into light] on the blackest rainbow label.
mita stoicheva / trima bratya dyulgeri [song of the crooked dance: early bulgarian traditional music] on the yazoo label.
alan sondheim and myk freedman / track d [julu twine] on the porter label.

willie williams / keep on moving [studio one rub-a-dub] on the soul jazz label.
m. ashraf / pyar ka koee shola [the sound of wonder] on the finders keepers label.
broadcast / the book lovers [the book lovers ep] on the duophonic label.
rameses iii / no water, no moon [i could not love you more] on the type label.
rival consoles / indie is dead [helvetica] on the erased tapes label.
james polk & the brothers / power struggle [texas funk: black gold from the lone star state 1968-1975] on the jazzman/ now-again label.

chaan siang phin w/ mon siang phin / wasana gam par [molam: thai country groove from isan] on the sublime frequencies label.
amon düül ii / she came through the chimney [yeti] on the repertoire label.
os brazoes / tao longe de mim [os brazoes] on the rge/som livre label.
jean claude vannier / l'enfant assassin des mouches [l'enfant assassin des mouches] on the b-music/finders keepers label.
stellari string quartet / sterope [gocce stellari] on the emanem label.
stellar om source / the source pilot [rise in planes] on the black dirt label.
pulga / return to the forest of shoes [pulga loves you] on the fire museum label.

linda perhacs / chimacum rain [parallelograms] on the guerssen label.
damon and naomi / judah and the maccabees [damon and naomi with ghost] on the sub pop label.
alan courtis / part iii [antiguos dolmenes del paleolitico] on the sedimental label.
brian harnetty / i was interested in the story you just told me about the funeral [american winter] on the atavistic label.
p.m.7/jupiter / susie wong [shadow music of thailand] on the sublime frequencies label.

borbetomagus / concordat 5 [borbetomagus] on the agaric label.

---------------

favorite segues: i wasn't really in "the zone" until the third hour, so probably none. maybe, if pressed, i'd say linda perhacs -> damon and naomi. i seem to remember that one being a rather pretty transition. also it wasn't exactly a segue (more of a "blending"), but alan courtis' controlled feedback layered nicely with the brian harnetty piece.

notes: how i love my molam. i must somehow get my hands on thai country groove, volume 2. 23 skidoo's "kongo do" is even better than i remembered. i loved the raw, theatrical calypso piece from the panama 3! compilation on soundway; the label's highly detailed liner notes make it even more fun to listen to. finally, one can never go wrong with the watersons, especially their haunting version of "idumea."

a frolic through the nww list, part 1: the letter a

i had itunes on shuffle this afternoon and happened upon an odd little track by mama dada 1919. a quick google search revealed that mama dada 1919's only known release--a 1979 7" ep entitled slits, quick--held a place on the prestigious and legendary nurse with wound list.

since this was quite an obscurity, i started wondering just how many of the artists on the nurse with wound list i had in my itunes library. starting with the letter "a", i began to compile a playlist. delighted to find that i had almost all of the "a" artists already in itunes, i stopped there and did what i almost always do--i made a mix:

archaïa - le grand secret (archaïa 1977)
arcane v - abricot - suivi de danserie (marron dingue 1979)
agitation free - ala tul (malesch 1972)
pekka airaksinen - fos 2 (one point music 1972)
ash ra tempel - schizo (starring rosi 1973)
anal magic & rev. dwight frizzell - how to avoid simultaneity (black crack and the sole survivors, 1975, included as extra track cd reissue of beyond the black crack)
anima - how to dream (stürmischer himmel 1971)
archimedes badkar - thumb piano music (tre 1977)
älgarnas trädgård - viriditas (framtiden är ett svävande skepp, förankrat i forntiden 1972)
ame son - eclosion / marie aux quatre vents (catalyse 1970)
art zoyd - les fourmis (symphonie pour le jour où bruleront les cités 1976)
aksal maboul - tous les trucs qu'il y a là dehors (onze danses pour combattre la migraine 1977)
amon düül - eternal flow (eternal flow/paramechanical world single 1970, included as extra track on cd reissue of paradieswarts düül)
annexus quam - osmose i (osmose 1970)
arbete och fritid - knoga och knega (se upp för livet 1977)
alternative tv - vibing up the senile man (vibing up the senile man 1978)
albrecht/d. - instant life / instant love / instant death (abstract energy 1985)
amon düül ii - cerberus (yeti 1970)
alvaro - pallido sol (drinkin my own sperm 1977)
archaïa - mass confusa (archaïa 1977)
amm - what is there in uselessness to cause you distress (ammmusic 1966, extra track on cd reissue)

i'm just listening to it now and really enjoying it. it's just a hair over 80 minutes in length now, so when i properly mix it down, it will easily fit on a single cd-r for my (and hk's) car-listening pleasure.

i couldn't decide between two archaïa tracks--the lovably wacky (and slightly scary) "le grand secret" or the clearer nww antecedent, "mass confusa"--so i decided to include both.

beautiful vintage french pharmaceutical ads

i'm not sure about the ethics of picking things out of the trash at one's place of employment, so i'll refrain from telling you where i used to work. i will just say that it was a place where one could find very interesting things in the rubbish bin.

it's been years since i worked there. all of the amazing things (which can generally classified as ephemera) that i acquired (things that were given to me, things that i retrieved from the bin and photocopies of other wonderful things that weren't being discarded) have been sitting in a file box, untouched, for many moons. i recently started going through them and i'll be sharing some of my favorite bits and pieces here.

there are some truly collectible things there--an art multiples or two, for example. but i would never try to profit from these items. even if i were so inclined, i could never part with them anyway. it was a special time, working that job. those things mean a lot to me.


these two vintage french pharmaceutical advertisements, designed by noted french poster artist jacques auriac, were rescued from the rubbish bin. i didn't realize that the designs were signed when i originally found them. i just marvelled at their beauty. after a quick web search, i've found that there is at least one book and an one exhibition that showcase auriac's gorgeous graphic work.

they have been sitting folded up in one box or another for more than half a century, but i now think they're suitable for framing. the only drawback is that i can't frame both of them--they are on opposite sides of a single page.

i have no idea what magazine they came from. these are also not the full-size ads. my scanner is not large enough to accommodate the whole page. but i'm hoping i was able to capture the graphics' beauty reasonably well.

tv time with hk

i actually got hk to sit down with me for two and a half hours yesterday to watch some music-related stuff that i'd recently recorded/acquired.



first up, we watched "you're gonna miss me," a 2005 documentary about roky erickson, of course. while disjointed and far from perfect, it was certainly interesting, as it explores the roots of roky's (for lack of a better term) madness. in a way i wish there'd be a followup--"you're still gonna miss me" (or "you're gonna miss me, part ii")--to focus on the state of roky today. i can only assume that since he's been playing more (i remember him playing in austin at least twice during the six months we lived there in early 2009), that he is significantly better. i just saw roky play in houston this past summer, and he seemed rather unhappy to be onstage. perhaps he simply dislikes or has bad memories of houston. i truly hope that he is doing well these days.



next we watched kate bush's 1979 christmas special. i'd seen bits and pieces on youtube previously but never got to experience the full extravaganza before this. i read recently that kate bush was an early crush of richard youngs' (another of my longtime musical heroes). i don't know if he saw this programme as a 13-year-old lad, but if he did, there's no question why he (and zillions of others) fell in love with her. but i can't help but wonder if the show engendered negative reactions. i can't imagine it would have flown on this side of the pond. i'm still dying to see her "controversial" performance of "the man with the child in his eyes" on saturday night live, but i can't seem to find it anywhere.

i've loved kate bush since the first half of the 80s. one of my first jobs was as a shop clerk in a benetton store. my boss was the creative, hip sort (who somehow managed to make an asymmetrical haircut look cool), and she often played cassettes of hounds of love and the dreaming (which may have scared away customers) in the store. it sounds cheesy as hell but it was like i finally found music that spoke to me. i grew up listening to my mom's glen campbell and show tune records, then had a boyfriend who only let me listen to soft r&b and dan fogelberg. i'd been musically sheltered, and i was finally free. i finally traded in my top 40 radio station for whfs in washington, dc, which i suppose, back then, was still referred too as a "progressive" station. it pretty much changed my life. at this point in time i can't even imagine what my life would be like without my daily dose of music that's outside what's considered the "norm."

kate bush's 1979 christmas special is sublime. it's beautiful, it's theatrical, it's funny as hell to watch. she's so exquisite, so uniquely talented...can she really be real? hk's favorite part was a beautiful cover of roy harper's "another day" performed by kate and peter gabriel, so that's what i've linked here.

a very nice quality avi of the show is available at aesoteric sounds' blog:

kate bush - tv christmas special 1979

radio playlist, 14 november 2009, ktru fm (rice university radio)

milford graves / speaking to the spoken [stories] on the tzadik label.
os diagonais / nao vou chorar [black rio 2] on the strut label.

lightning bolt / rain on lake i'm swimming [earthly delights] on the load label.
factums / me sing [alien native] on the siltbreeze label.
circle / saturnus reality [katapult] on the no quarter label.
simply saucer / mole machine [cyborgs revisited] on the sonic unyon label.
sinn sisamouth & [ros] srei sothear / go-go dance [cambodian psych out] on the defective label.

philip jeck / box of lamb [surf] on the touch label.
michael pisaro / sculpture for the blind [hearing metal 1] on the editions wandelweiser label.
pumajaw / spangler [curiosity box] on the fire label.
gulev, sarlandjiev & goshev / gaida avasi [village music of yugoslavia] on the nonesuch explorer label.

y pants / magnetic attraction [y pants] on the periodic document label.
39 clocks / aspettando godot [zoned] on the de stijl label.
john baker / au printemps [the john baker tapes vol. 1] on the trunk label.
les loups noirs d'haiti / jet biguine [tumbele! biguine, afro & latin sounds from the french carribean, 1963-74] on the soundway label.

six organs of admittance / anesthesia [luminous night] on the drag city label.
noveller / under the color cave [colorful disturbances] on the divorce label.
pekka streng / olen erilainen [psychedelic phinland] on the love label.
starless and bible black / popty ping [shape of the shape] on the locust label.
the silver mount zion memorial orchestra & tra-la-la band / built then burnt (hurrah! hurrah!) [born into trouble as the sparks fly upward] on the constellation label.

het / rain [let's het] on the woof/ad hoc label.
nmperign / variation v [ommatidia] on the intransitive label.
lokai / salvador [transition] on the thrill jockey label.
pram / cumulus [iron lung] on the too pure label.

green blossoms / hana akari [whiskey leaves] on the digitalis label.
helado negro / deja [awe owe] on the asthmatic kitty label.
ouinsou corneille & black santiago / vinon so minsou [african scream contest] on the analog africa label.
un caddie renverse dans l'herbe / to realise any count [now there's a weird taste in my mouth] on the dekorder label.
lsd-march / sekai no shizukesa [under milk wood] on the important label.
wimple winch / save my soul [nuggets ii: original artyfacts from the british empire and beyond 1964-1969] on the rhino label.

pierre schaeffer / l'oiseau rai [l'oeuvre musicale] on the ina-grm label.
john davis / the truth about my mother [there's always tomorrow] on the students of decay label.
belf's rumanian orchestra / khosidl [klezmer music: early yiddish instrumental music, 1908-1927] on the arhoolie label.
grutronic / foam sweet foam [essex foam party] on the psi label.
phantom orchard / omni [orra] on the tzadik label.
ooioo / hewa hewa [armonica hewa] on the thrill jockey label.
little jr. jesse & his teardrop tears / funky stuff [texas funk: black gold from the lone star state 1968-1975] on the now-again label.
ken ellis / one minute in the life of ivan denisovich [miniatures] on the blueprint label.
vladislav delay / tunnelivisio [tummaa] on the leaf label.

mögel / hall mej hart [1978-1981] on the massproduktion label.
nomo / elijah [invisible cities] on the ubiquity label.
volcano the bear / shake your crow [the idea of wood] on the textile label.
lee & jimmy / rasta train [voodooism] on the pressure sounds label.
mulatu astatke / emnete [new york - addis - london: the story of ethno-jazz 1965-1975] on the strut label.
henry jacobs / cigarette yoga [the wide weird world of henry jacobs] on the important label.

richard youngs / broke up by night [under stellar stream] on the jagjaguwar label.

---------------

favorite segues: nmperign -> lokai -> pram; ooioo -> little jr. jesse & his teardrop tears

notes: the ken ellis piece is one of my all-time favorite short tracks to drop into sets (up there with dummy run's "f.d."). ooioo's "hewa hewa" packs a whole lot of fun into its one-and-a-half minute length. starless and bible black's instrumental, "popty ping," shamelessly wears its pentangle influence on its ruffled sleeve. former austinite sarah lipstate (noveller) has created a thing of true beauty in her piece "under the color cave" (from her new split lp with aidan baker).

many thanks to steviecat for turning me on to all-girl swedish post-punk group, mögel.

inspiration

comes from ones of my musical heroes, the great ivor cutler (1923-2006).

i saw my granny at the pictures biting all the buttons off the seats
and singing cockadoodledo, i threw my little yellow shoe
she started singing cockadoodledon't
ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-dum-dum
(1, 2, 3)

--from "cockadoodledon't" by the ivor cutler trio from the album ludo (1967)

radio cd review time

pretty excited about the three cd's i checked out at the radio station this morning:

v/a - "ghana special: modern highlife, afro-sounds & ghanian blues - 1968 81" (soundway)
the lickets - "they turned our desert into fire" (international corporation)
arrington de dionyso - "malaikat dan singa" (k).

i'll be writing up reviews of them shortly.

i'd be willing to bet that the soundway compilation is ace all the way through, as soundway's releases are always impeccably curated. and of course the hardback case-bound booklet is chockablock with gorgeous artist and record sleeve photos as well as great liner notes.

i haven't heard much by the lickets yet, but so far it sounds like lovely stuff.

and i'm quite taken by the arrington de dionyso. i was expecting more "breath of fire"-type experiments, but no. the experimentation is still there, but it's incorporated into more song-based pieces (a la old time relijun), sung entirely in indonesian. i've only dipped my toe in so far, but it sounds deeply groovy and deliciously intense.

here's the official video for "mani malaikat," just posted a week and a half ago. delicious.

down the garden path

i found this vintage photo buried beneath some cardboard in a thrift shop picture frame. it seemed like an appropriate image to start with. the beginning of a journey.

i find social networking sites to be strangely alienating. i enjoy sharing photos/videos/thoughts/etc. on sites like facebook, but i tend to (rather irrationally) take it personally if no one expresses any interest in them. here i have no expectations that anyone will ever look at anything i post. i'll just assume that no one ever will and be pleasantly surprised if someone ever does.

it will simply become my online scrapbook of things i love: e.g., pictures of various "treasures"/oddities that i've acquired in thrift shops; musings on the strange and wonderful music that makes my world go 'round; my radio show playlists; links to my favorite videos on youtube; and of course whatever else strikes my fancy.

it's by me, it's for me. and if anyone else wants to take a peek, well, that's fine, too.

just another tree falling in the forest...

thump. did you hear that? me either.