Air Modern

Reader Bryan Chandler sends me the following message:

Check out my historical Blog of Fresh Air Progressive Rock Program on WKSU BEFORE terry gross stole the name…

I strongly advise that you drop what you’re doing a go visit his amazing blog. He has compiled an amazing array of  interviews with artists from the golden age of when Prog rock collided with New Wave. Some highlights:

• Peter Hammill
• Laurie Anderson
• Bob Mothersbaugh of DEVO
• Ralf Hutter of Kraftwerk

and many, many more!

Go there now. 

Some Brian Eno Demo Fragments from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

  I have upped a small bundle of early demo versions of songs that eventually made it to MLITBOG. Eno played these on the radio in an interview (worth listening to in itself) during the period he and Byrne were recording it.
Some songs are early sketches of songs that appeared on the album and in the interview he alludes to the song that would become ‘America is Waiting’ (he was calling the stripped down instrumental “Garbage Disco‘, at the time) was recorded by him prior to the Byrne collaboration idea.

Obviously there was no need to include these on the  latest reissue, as they are simply the skeletal workings of the actual songs.

But not to get your hopes up, kids, it’s but three really small excerpts, but I thought you’d find them interesting, nonetheless.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=L4IKEEE5

I also have the remix contest source files, if anybody is interested.
If you are handy with GarageBand or any other similar, multitrack music app., you can roll your own remixes of A Secret Life or Help Me Somebody.

Negativland

Over the Edge Vol. 4: Dick Vaughn’s Moribund Music of the Seventies
Seeland Records

Fabulously overblown re-issue of the formerly cassette-only Over the Edge series entry Dick Vaughn’s Moribund Music of the Seventies, presenting Richard Lyon’s titular soul-less radio personality character in his many failed attempts at radio stardom. The first disc unveils an insidious change to KPFA’s programming to a bland, middle of the road music and canned news segment format called The California Superstation. the horrified and clueless call-ins are priceless, as is Lyon’s portrayal of a huckster who is totally oblivious to his own vapidity. Done in ‘air-check’ style, all songs - horrid though they are - have been culled out of the mix, leaving Dick’s IDs and commercials alone.
Side two, titled Dick Vaughn’s Moribund Music of the Seventies, documents Dick’s failed countdown show to highlight some of the low points of Seventies music. All this is wrapped around some befuddled call-ins (not included on the original issue), an assessment of Dick Vaughn’s pathology by a radio psychiatrist (Dr. Oslo Norway) and some relatively recent updates on the death of Dick Vaughn from Negativland’s 1993 concerts.

Dick 1: The California Superstation
Dick 2: Moribund Music of the Seventies

For more Negativland mayhem, be sure to visit Carnival of Headaches. He’s got the excellent OTE Time Zones Exchange Project, as well as lots of other goodies.

Kill Ugly Radio Presents: Stranger Than Fiction

Around 1980 I discovered that, late Thursday nights, some DJ was playing strange, alien music. My appetite was whetted by Devo, Pink Floyd and strange bands I had read about in Heavy Metal magazine (having nothing to do with the genre of music that would later take its name) and I wanted more. The discovery of KBOO’s Stranger than Fiction completely opened the door to new, exciting music for me, and I’ve never looked back. The hosts of STF - the enigmatic Mr. B and Equinox - played a combination of New Wave, skinny-tie pop, novelty music (Barnes and Barnes, Bonzo Dog Band, etc.) and lots of acts that straddled Prog and Post-Punk (Gabriel, Fripp, Hammill). Thier show was like a complete education in alternative music and it really saved me in those lost years of being a weird, alien-feeling teenager, even if it meant that my friends would never let me play my mix-tapes at parties.

Eventually, Mr. B and Equinox expanded the program to handle early and late shifts, Mr. B starting at 1:00 AM, playing mostly newly released import singles and Equinox taking over duties at 3:00, playing lots of ambient music, prog and space rock until morning. I used to go home from school on Thursdays and go right to sleep so that I could stay up all night drawing comics while the show was on. I even taped a lot of it, but the tapes sound horrid now. As the eighties gave way to rock video, STF’s programming went a little too mainstream for my tastes and I was getting into hardcore punk by then. I don’t even recall when they finally went off the air.

the tracks I chose for this mix were songs that were either played often on their show, or played once and really made an impression on me.

I dedicate this mix to all late night DJs out there, playing new, weird music for alienated kids.

Playlist:

1. Godley & Creme - Freeze Frame
2. XTC - Senses Working Overtime
3. Lene Lovich - Lucky Number
4. The Normal - tvod
5. Robert Fripp - Disengage
6. Fad Gadget - Ricky’s Hand
7. Karel Fialka - The Eyes Have It
8. The Fabulous Poodles - Mirror Star
9. Gary Numan - I Dream Of Wires
10. Robert Palmer - I Dream Of Wires
11. The The - This is the Day
12. Peter Hammill - Now More Than Ever
13. The Silicone Teens - Memphis Tennessee
14. Fred Frith - Dancing In The Street
15. Hawaiian Pups - Baby Judy
16. Midnight Oil - Tin Legs and Tin Mines
17. Public Image Ltd. - Pied Piper
18. M - Pop Muzik
19. Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
20. Boomtown Rats - Whitehall 1212
21. The Psychedelic Furs - Pulse
22. Laurie Anderson - Sharkey`s Day
23. Morgan Fisher, et. al. - Excerpt from Miniatures

Download (90 mins. 82 megs.)