Saturday, May 1, 2010

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20, April 2010

Aspiring teenage surf guitarist Neil Young tops the charts with a totally bitchin' instrumental, followed by Prince at his most convincingly political ("We don't give a damn/we just wanna jam...fightin' war is such a fuckin' bore!"), Syd Barrett inviting you into a roomful of musical tunes, obscure post-punks Prag Vec sharing their nic fits, Gilberto Gil's take on a split Brazilian personality in living stereo, an unexpectedly sublime psychedelic instrumental from a band mostly known for novelty songs about Snoopy, another bit of genius from Junko Suzuki and Cyclub, and Mark E. Smith exhibiting middle-aged pride in his own inimitable way.

Somebody out there is digging the early no-commercial-potential work of Frank Zappa, putting not one, not two, but three ear-challenging tracks from the Mothers Of Invention on our charts. Maureen Tucker hitches her seminal thump to Sonic Youth as they take off together on "Chase", the Firesign Theatre serve up some vintage paranoia, Leonard Cohen covers a heartbreaking French Resistance ballad that sounds like he could have written it himself (while his own writing is represented by a gusto-filled version of "First We Take Manhattan" by R.E.M.), Joe Strummer shows us his wistful side, Yma Sumac does her thing all over you, Marlene Dietrich does Dylan (X-tal used to use this song as their walk-on music when they toured Germany in the 90s), Judy Collins offers another bleak one from her jarring art-song album In My Life (check this one out---it will change your idea of Judy Collins forever), and the Impact All-Stars serve a bit of audio theatre depicting two highly opinionated recording engineers debating about the proper way to create a dub mix.

We put up the music, but it is you the listener who create these charts. and what you come up with each month is endlessly fascinating. Thank you, and keep listening!

1. The Squires - The Sultan - Neil Young Archives Vol. 1: 1963-1972
2. Prince - Partyup - Dirty Mind
3. Pink Floyd - Bike - The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
4. Prag Vec - Cigarettes - Wolf
5. Gilberto Gil - 2001 - Cerebro Eletronico
6. The Royal Guardsmen - OM - The Return Of The Red Baron
7. Cyclub - Let's Go On A Journey - Science Future
8. The Fall - 50 Year Old Man - Imperial Wax Solvent
9. The Mothers Of Invention - Dwarf Nebula Processional March & Dwarf Nebula - Weasels Ripped My Flesh
10. Moe Tucker - Chase - Life In Exile After Abdication
11. Firesign Theatre - Waiting for the Electrician - Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him
12. The Mothers Of Invention - King Kong - Uncle Meat
13. Leonard Cohen - The Partisan - The Essential Leonard Cohen
14. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Willesden To Cricklewood - Rock Art and the X-Ray Style
15. Yma Sumac - Gopher - Mambo!
16. R.E.M. - First We Take Manhattan - I'm Your Fan
17. The Mothers Of Invention - What's The Ugliest Part Of Your Body? - We're Only In It For The Money
18. Marlene Dietrich - Die Antwort weiss ganz allein der Wind - The Essential Marlene Dietrich
19. Judy Collins - Liverpool Lullaby - In My Life
20. Impact All Stars - Ordinary Version Chapter 3 - Forward The Bass: Dub From Randy's 1972-1975

2 comments:

IanSchultz said...

Speaking of the Fall, I've seen them twice last week, I might see them tonight, I don't know yet

Anonymous said...

You can never have enough Fall in your life.