Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: April 2009

The recently passed country legend Porter Wagoner tops this month's charts with his haunting, almost-psychedelic ballad of empathy for the mentally ill. Neo used to watch the Porter Wagoner TV show as a child (for those of you who don't know, this was the guy who discovered Dolly Parton) and he says, frankly, he didn't know he had one like this in him. We found this song on a compilation of some of (the late) Lux Interior and Ivy Rorshach's favorite songs; those Cramps had impeccable taste. (Again, while we're on the subject: Ivy, when you recover from your grief, we would love to hear you do a solo album of Link Wray-style instrumentals. We'd play it constantly!)

Other new acquisitions rear their heads on this month's chart. When our pal Matthew Grasso came to stay with us recently, he brought another CD of his music we hadn't heard before, and this piece by one of his instructors at the SF Conservatory Of Music stood out; it's a neat little piece which Matthew executes with his usual subtlety and skill. We also have a classic from the jive-talking jazz wizard Slim Gaillard, the hard-to-find first single by New Zealand's romantic Verlaines, and a great extended comedy routine from Eddie Izzard where he illustrates a very important point: Never. Heckle. Eddie. Izzard.

Of course, longtime Ear Candle Radio listeners know how much we love Arthur Lee, and this month we're happy to see him represented, not only by a coolly sinister track from Forever Changes, but by some of his lesser-known later gems: a long, delicious acid-guitar freakout from Love and a bouncy, crunchy philosophical ballad from his first solo album. Another one of our heroes, Yoko Ono, contributes a blasting punk-thrash anti-war number with Sean Lennon on guitar; an old friend, Angel Corpus-Christi, covers Robert De Niro and banters with Alan Vega; MC5 tear the roof off with one of our favorite Fred Sonic Smith songs; and Lavel Moore gives us a heartfelt statement from the newest installment of the Eccentric Soul Series. This volume, The Young Disciples, compiles records made by an East St. Louis youth organization that reached out to at-risk youth in the ghetto four decades ago by teaching them music and coaching them to make passionate soul records. We sure could use more programs like that today!

As always, it's our listeners and their feedback that keep us enthusiastic about our radio station. Thank you all, and keep listening!

1. Porter Wagoner - The Rubber Room - The Rubber Room
2. Arthur Lee - Everybody's Gotta Live - Vindicator
3. Slim Gaillard - Chicken Rhythm - Vout For Voutoreenees
4. Matthew Grasso - Raguette (Bogdanovic) - Music For The Extended 7-String Guitar
5. Love - Love Is More Than Words (or Better Late Than Never) - Out Here
6. Brian Eno & John Cale - Spinning Away - Wrong Way Up
7. Yoko Ono/IMA - Warzone - Rising
8. Eleventh Dream Day - The Raft - El Moodio
9. The Pastels - Kitted Out - Truckload Of Trouble
10. Bush Tetras - Funky (Instrumental) - Boom in the Night
11. The Verlaines - Death and the Maiden - Juvenilia
12. The Rutles - Blue Suede Schubert - The Rutles
13. MC5 - Over And Over - The Big Bang! Best Of The MC5
14. Love - A House Is Not A Motel - Forever Changes
15. LaVel Moore - The World Is Changing - Eccentric Soul: The Young Disciples
16. Eddie Izzard - Great Escape - Dress To Kill
17. Angel Corpus Christi - Theme From Taxi Driver/NY NY - I Love New York
18. Robert Wyatt - Gharbzadegi - Old Rottenhat
19. The Music Magicians - Convertibles And Headbands - The American Song-poem Anthology: Do You Know The Difference Between Big Wood And Brush
20. The Minutemen - Mr. Robot's Holy Orders - Double Nickels on the Dime