Diego's Umbrella at the Mezzanine, May 30, 2009

Local Gypsy punks featuring violinist Jason Kleinberg, who we used to see playing with Rico Bell's Snakehandlers on a regular basis (back when Rico still lived in San Francisco). This was filmed when they opened for Sila & The Afro-Funk Experience last May. Davis Jones also shot the intro where we see the boys psyching themselves up for the gig backstage. You used to call yourselves WHAT, again?

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: March 2010

Our new playlist is up and running (finally!), and about 95% complete. The last month of broadcasting was a random shuffle, and the charts are a combination of old and new stuff.

The brilliant, energetic and foxy Subtonix just can't stay out of the top 20, taking the number 1 spot with their awesome Screamers cover. We also say goodbye to great songs from PiL, Lavern Baker, and Joe Strummer from the old playlist, as well as Jonathan Mann's excellent tribute to Paul Krugman. (Google the Youtube video; it's a charmer.)

The Deletist CD is something we actually picked up at the Raincoats/Viv Albertine show at the Mezzanine last year, where the artist responsible for the infamous comic book Bitter Pie was selling her wares. (And like many people who make dark, disturbing art, she turns out to be really nice in real life.) Turns out she's in this murky, rumbling, electronic-flavored band. We picked a track with her chanting sternly "We don't believe the media!" over and over, and this is the second time it's shown up in the charts. Must be striking a chord with the folks.

We have more return appearances of old playlist highlights by the Clash, John Cooper Clarke, ESG, the Bonzos, the Temptations, Eddie Izzard, Bert Jansch, and the Animals. And we welcome new tracks from Curtis Mayfield (and why are we still needing to point out that we gotta have peace? Hello?), Yoko Ono (more words of wisdom), 60s Japanese beat group the Mops ("But I don't care of them/so I am just a mops!!!"), Bongwater ("What keeps you going? Great radio!"), and X-tal (a track from their final German release that is destined to be included in a new Ear Candle compilation really soon).

Last but not least is an old favorite from lesser known 60s San Francisco band the Serpent Power, a classic psychedelic tale of a nightmarish bad trip of a train ride with a twist at the end. We found out bandleader David Meltzer is alive and well and focusing on his poetry in the East Bay. We dropped him a line and he came back with a very gracious and appreciative reply. Good guy, good song.

After nearly six years of this, it's astonishing that there is still so much great music out there to hunt down, dust off and share with you all. Hope you are digging it. Keep giving us your feedback, and by all means, keep listening!

1. Subtonix - Vertigo - Tarantism
2. Public Image Ltd. - Rise - Compact Disc
3. LaVern Baker - Jim Dandy - Soul on Fire: The Best of LaVern Baker
4. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Bhindi Bhagee - Global A Go-Go
5. Jonathan Mann - Hey Paul Krugman - Song A Day
6. Deletist - Blakelok - Relive
7. Curtis Mayfield - We Got To Have Peace - Roots
8. The Clash - Police On My Back - Sandinista!
9. Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - Healing - Between My Head And The Sky
10. The Mops - I'm Just A Mops - Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire And Beyond
11. Bongwater - Great Radio - The Power of Pussy
12. John Cooper Clarke - Beasley Street - Snap, Crackle & Bop
13. ESG - Get Funky - A South Bronx Story
14. Bonzo Dog Band - Rhinocratic Oaths - The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse
15. The Temptations - Masterpiece - Psychedelic Soul
16. Eddie Izzard - Great Escape - Dress To Kill
17. X-tal - I Was A Teenage Christian - The Conqueror Worm
18. Bert Jansch - Courting Blues - Bert Jansch
19. The Animals - Baby Let Me Take You Home [Mono] - Absolute Animals 1964-1968
20. Serpent Power - Endless Tunnel - Serpent Power

How's this for a paragraph?

If Catholic Cult Leaders want the family of nations to continue to let them fill the coffers of their Fake Country with money extorted from ignorant peasants with fairy tales of eternal lakes of fire, then the very minimum they need to do is perp-walk every child rapist, every child rape enabler and every child rape co-conspirator out of the Vatican and every other child rapist safe house in the world.

More where this came from at Driftglass.

Don't blame others, don't be a victim

I liked seeing this. From the April 2010 issue of Mojo:

Coming to adulthood in the '70s "Me Decade", Peter Gabriel was on board as various '60s cults and psychological self-therapies went mainstream, notably EST (Erhard Seminars Training), of which he still remains an enthusiast.

"Anyone with an open mind wanting to explore the world was drawn to that movement. There were fairly scary adventures that could change lives. Last year I met Werner Erhard [born John Paul Rosenberg, the former salesman who created the EST course]; many people feel negatively about him, but I enjoyed him enormously. The whole system he set up felt like a hard-sell American organization but if you didn't have a year to spend in an ashram yet still wanted to shake up your life a bit, you could go for a couple of weekends and get severely challenged.

"It taught me all sorts of things, of which one was to be responsible for your life and who you are---don't blame others, don't be a victim. I'd been doing that. The analogy is of a boat in dangerous water: would you rather be in the hold bitching about the captain or standing at the helm with the power to change direction? you can only get to that position if you're prepared to take responsibility. It's very logical but very hard sometimes---I can't always stay in that place but I know life works better when you're there.

"The other thing is to be authentic about who you are, how you feel, and what's going on...It's about being real. We spend so much of our lives not actually being who we are but who we imagine we ought to be."

Several years ago, I overcame my media-induced reservations and completed the "Curriculum For Living" at Landmark Education, the current version of what used to be called EST, and I found it to be very useful and life-enhancing, and well worth the psychic and financial challenge for anyone who has the nerve to try it. Gabriel's description is spot on as far as I'm concerned. Quite a pleasant surprise to see such a glowing endorsement from a somewhat hip source.

The Coo Coo Ca Choos cover the Granite Countertops (before they existed!) at Eagle Pizza in 2007

I watched this again for the first time in quite a while.

If you find this amusing, you should see what they do with the Stevie Wonder catalog.

Thank you friends

Alex Chilton at the I-Beam, 1985, photo by J Neo Marvin



The Box Tops. Big Star. The Cramps (producing most of their best records). Panther Burns. A minefield of stubbornly haphazard solo releases (caveat emptor). A very weird, interesting and hard to find collaboration with Alan Vega from the 90s that I'm still trying to find again. Alex Chilton cut a crazy, individualistic zigzag swathe through music and did exactly what he wanted to do. We had already planned to end our new playlist with Big Star's "Thank You Friends" (a wonderfully ambiguous song: is he sincerely thanking his friends or spewing the most subtle acid sarcasm at some false friends who let him down? It works equally well both ways); now it sounds extra poignant. 59 is way too young to go.

Outside The Dial

Hey, check out Outside The Dial, an online station from Valparaiso, Indiana. They play a high energy mixture of indie, garage punk, and RRRAAAAWWWWWKK, and they just added our own Granite Countertops to their mix. Thanks for spreading the word!

We've got love, we've got music, we've got beauty

Congratulations to San Francisco's Sila and his former band The Afro-Funk Experience, for winning the NAACP Image Award for world music this year!

Here's a great performance we shot by Sila and his new band at the Sea Of Dreams New Year's Eve party at the end of last year.

Here come the painbirds

This really sucks. The world is so full of people who are nothing but useless wastes of skin who do nothing but bring harm to others, and we never hear about them getting depressed and killing themselves. No, it's only the sensitive souls with something to offer the world but don't have the strength to face the frustrations and injustices of life that end up doing themselves in.

Here's a tip, people: if you ever get that feeling that you would be better off dead and the world would be better off without you, you're probably one of those people the world needs more of. Why should you die when the Cheneys, Roves, and Limbaughs of the world continue to draw breath? This is why the world is in the shape it's in.

Check out The Bell Boys on the Haight in San Francisco!

This young band came down from Portland, Oregon for a Saturday night gig and played outdoors on Haight St. the next day. We ran into them there on our Sunday stroll and couldn't resist capturing them. Such characters, and such nice music.

So you keep croaking at every microphone you see

Various Cheneys continue to inflict themselves on the public via our compliant media, to the point where we had to write a whole song about it. The delightful Rachel Maddow mocks them here in one of her best segments ever. Thanks for the snark, Rachel.

You wanna see her, oh yeah!

That great video we linked to earlier of Sandie Shaw doing "Hand In Glove" has been pulled from YouTube, apparently at the request of Sandie herself. This is disappointing because we were just telling some friends to go to the Ear Candle blog and check it out. Oh well.

We can only hope that the reason this fun, rocking and sexy performance has been taken away from us is that Sandie Shaw and/or her management are working on a DVD compilation of her greatest moments that will include this one, and it will be available soon. Right? RIGHT?

Hey, stop peering out that Overton window for a second and look over here

Once again, Dennis Kucinich steps up and says what most of his colleagues are too chicken to:



When I was a child, I lived in a country that was committed to wading through a pointless bloody quagmire that was being fought for vague reasons that made no sense. (And yes, "fighting for freedom", then and now, qualifies as one of those.) And here we are again. Why exactly are the Democrats still trying to eke an "honorable victory" out of Bush's half-assed imperialist adventures? Is everybody so afraid that Dick Cheney will glare at them that they can't use the common sense they were born with? Give me a break.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: February 2010

1. The Mountain Goats - Psalms 40:2 - The Life Of The World To Come
2. Lou Reed (featuring Ornette Coleman) - Guilty - The Raven
3. CAN - Yoo Doo Right - Monster Movie
4. Them - Mystic Eyes - The Story Of Them featuring Van Morrison
5. Moe Tucker - Work - Life In Exile After Abdication
6. Eleventh Dream Day - The Raft - El Moodio
7. Dengue Fever - Sleepwalking Through The Mekong - Escape From Dragon House
8. Cornelius - New Music Machine - Fantasma
9. Mink DeVille - Slow Drain - Le Chat Bleu
10. Little My - Ohio - Grain
11. Incredible String Band - The Half-Remarkable Question - Wee Tam
12. The Gossip - Listen Up! - Standing In The Way Of Control
13. Tinariwen - Afours Afours - The Radio Tisdas Sessions
14. Fatal Microbes - Violence Grows - Rip It Up And Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984
15. Fairport Convention - Genesis Hall - Unhalfbricking
16. Sonic Youth - Within You Without You - Daydream Nation
17. John Lennon - Bring on the Lucie (Freda People) - Mind Games
18. Jeffrey Lewis - I Ain't Thick, It's Just A Trick - 12 Crass Songs
19. The Fall - A Figure Walks - Dragnet
20. Eric Burdon & War - You're No Stranger - Eric Burdon declares "War"

No Justice For The Poor

Another song from the elusive Mighty Ballistics Hi-Power:

Yeah, she's a cool chick, baby

There was a time when admitting you actually liked Yoko Ono was an invitation to ridicule or worse. It was hard enough in the 70s to find other kids who liked Captain Beefheart, but HER? That (insert sexist and/or racist insult of your choice) who (supposedly) broke up the Beatles? How can you take that screeching seriously when you could be listening to GOOD rock music like...Ten Years After or the Steve Miller Band? So, as a 15 year old, I wore out my copies of Fly and Approximately Infinite Universe, but couldn't share them with anyone, because in the 70s, nobody got it. So, many decades later, it was a rewarding sight to see Oakland's sumptuous Fox Theater packed with people of all ages who had come to check out one of this year's Noise Pop Festival's most prestigious bills, headlined by a charming 70-something woman who happens to have put out one of the best albums of 2009.

We arrived in the middle of an opening set by Deerhoof (my third time seeing them, Davis's first) just as they were powering through a cover of "Pinhead" by the Ramones. Deerhoof, I must admit, were a band it took me a while to warm to when I first saw them, with their odd mixture of sugary cuteness and prog-rock chops. But after a long, creative career filled with nutty humor, otherworldly melodies and mad precision, it's impossible to deny their absolute mastery at what they do. Watching Satomi Matsuzaki and her bandmates bounce back and forth in perfectly synchronized pogo/bunnyhops while drummer Greg Saunier flings his whole body at his drumkit is a live rock experience like no other. They seemed to pull a lot of songs from their classic Milk Man album as well as new material and a few more astonishing covers: "Hitch-Hike" by LiliPut and, as an encore, an uncanny rendition of Canned Heat's "Going Up The Country" with Satomi on drums.

At the end of the set, we discovered that we had been given the wrong seats and, rather than high up in the balcony, we were supposed to be down on the main floor, only a few rows from the front. What a difference. Davis went up to ask if we could give Yoko a copy of What Is Truth? so she can hear the Content Providers' cover of "Kite Song". (One of my favorite songs at 15 that none of my peers could appreciate then) She was told to wait after the set was done and one of the road crew would accept it and pass it on. We did this later, after the show, and sure enough, a roadie happily took it. Hope you enjoy it, Yoko.

We settled in while a montage of Yoko Ono's life played on the screen, from cute little kid to mischievous performance artist to collaborator with unbelievably famous guy to grieving widow to elder stateswoman of philosophy, activism, and New York art. When it ended, various band members came on: the three members of ingenious Japanese band Cornelius, ex-Cibo Matto musical director Yuka Honda, and, a dead ringer for both of his parents at the same time, Sean Lennon, followed by the lady herself, who was immediately engulfed in rapturous cheers.

An eerie, hushed acapella verse of "Walking On Thin Ice" B-side "It Happened" led right into the grinding, exuberant "Waiting For The D-Train", as loud, clattering and thrilling as riding a New York subway for the first time. Smiling sweetly and letting out her unique yodel/warble/cry while the band rocked ferociously, Yoko looked and sounded joyful. The world had finally caught up with her, but she wasn't replicating her past; it was fresh.

Constantly switching instruments and musical styles, the new Plastic Ono Band added all their diverse talents to a surprise-filled set of new and old material. "Walking On Thin Ice" sounded as it should, with Sean pumping out the disco bass line; "Will I" replaced the ticking clock accompaniment of the recorded version with a web of delicate acoustic fingerpicking; "Calling", one of the best songs on the new album, was hypnotic, psychedelic and exciting.

Sean introduced "one of my favorite songs by my mom", "Death Of Samantha", by recalling their recent New York show where they were joined by former Ono collaborators Eric Clapton and Klaus Voormann, and admitting it was a bit intimidating to share the stage with said old rock stars. (Wonder if anyone from Elephant's Memory, who did such a great job on Approximately Infinite Universe, was there.) But when the song began, Sean's piercing lead guitar made it clear he could easily leave boring old Clapton in the dust. A brilliant angst-ridden torch song with the repeated lyric "People say I'm coooool......yeah, I'm a cooooool chick, baby", it's a mystery why "Death Of Samantha" is not on regular rotation on "classic rock" stations everywhere.

Yoko reminisced about the making of the Fly album and how excited John Lennon was when the track "Mindtrain" was recorded while everybody else blanched at the idea of a 17-minute track. That night's version was a bit more condensed, but captured the essence of the original with its crunching train rhythms and Yoko gleefully repeating "Dub dub! Dub dub!" ad infinitum. If John had been here, he'd have been grinning ear to ear.

The set went through everything from abstract sound improvisations to smooth electronic pop to aggressive guitar music, all wedded to Yoko Ono's quirky voice and childlike Zen wisdom. And then there were the encores.

First, Deerhoof joined in for "Don't Worry Kyoko". Then a whole gang of guest artists, including the excellent Petra Haden, joined in for a spontaneous "Give Peace A Chance", prefaced by Yoko's explanation of how those seemingly random verses were originally written: by taking today's paper (and it has to be today's, that's the rule) and pulling out key words and sticking them in after "Everybody's talking about....." Giving various guests different sheets of paper and cueing them when it was "their" verse, it ended up being kind of a shambles, but it didn't matter much, because all that really matters is that chorus, right? "All we are saying..." So people, are we ready to give it a chance yet? Or are we still waiting for that D-train?

You don't have to understand a single word to know he means it, maaan

Not one to let a little stroke-induced aphasia hold him back, Chris Knox (along with his band The Nothing) belts it out at St. Jerome's Laneway Music Festival in Auckland, New Zealand. What a trouper. And what an unstoppable rock and roll spirit. Truly inspirational.

Under construction

We're working on a fresh new playlist for Ear Candle Radio, which hopefully won't take more than a month to finish off. You can look forward to lively sets for getting on the good foot and letting go, a set for these high pressure days, musical debates on the value of belief, a trip to Tuva, Cambodia, Afghanistan and elsewhere with Frank Sinatra, and many more crazy ideas and surprising music.

In the meantime, the station is set to random shuffle. You might catch some new additions among the firm favorites that have graced our airwaves the past couple years. And while we're at it, if you have something utterly amazing that we just have to hear, the time has never been better to drop us a line. We are, as we mentioned, assembling a new playlist as we speak. There's a chance you may have just what we are looking for.

Fear, Inc.

"We're all so secure/when you play with our fear" (Lyrics added to our cover of "At Last I Am Free" from 2003...not written by Chic)

So, are we a nation of cowering wimps now? Or are we just playacting because we've been told that's the patriotic thing to be? A thought-provoking article we found while reading Mick Farren's blog. Check it out. And stop that sniveling! (SLAP)

Here's an instrumental meditation on the subject:
FEAR, by the Experimental Bunnies

(A track from Music From The Integrity Tone Scale. To find out more about the scale that inspired the album, take a stroll over here.)

Happy Valentine's Day

A salute to all the happy odd couples out there:

Crashing Into The Future is now up on iTunes (our official announcement)

The rooster crows, the tiger roars, and something rocking this way comes.

Our newest band on Ear Candle Productions, the Granite Countertops, have unleashed their 12-song debut album, CRASHING INTO THE FUTURE.

The Granite Countertops are dark, whimsical, tender existential action heroes J Neo Marvin and Davis Jones, plus honored guests Matthew Grasso, Lizzie Borden, Junko Suzuki, Mark Parsons, and Stephen Abbate. The music ranges from noisy motivational dance tunes and flamenco/raga/trip-hop protest to populist cowbell rock, conflict-habituated jazz-dub, dissonant garage love ballads and trenchant chatty dronefests. 10 new original numbers, plus two covers of songs by Robert Wyatt and Donovan. It's a sonic pocket zeitgeist for 2010, and we can't wait for you to hear it.

Tantalizing previews and buy buttons can be found here.

And song lyrics and detailed song credits can be found here.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: January 2010

1. Subtonix - Vertigo - Tarantism
2. The Mountain Goats - Prana Ferox - Sweden
3. Bob Dylan - Suze (The Cough Song) - The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 : Rare And Unreleased, 1961-1991
4. The Temptations - Masterpiece - Psychedelic Soul
5. Suicide - I Remember - Suicide
6. Them - Mystic Eyes - The Story Of Them featuring Van Morrison
7. Peter Jefferies - White Prole - Electricity
8. The Rutles - Nevertheless - The Rutles
9. CAN - Yoo Doo Right - Monster Movie
10. The Raincoats - Balloon - Moving
11. The Stooges - I Got A Right - Rough Trade Shops Rock And Roll
12. Richard & Linda Thompson - The Great Valerio - I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
13. LaVel Moore - The World Is Changing - Eccentric Soul: The Young Disciples
14. Judy Nylon - Others - Pal Judy
15. The Impressions - Soulful Love - The Young Mods' Forgotten Story
16. The Fall - A Lot Of Wind - The Complete Peel Sessions 1978-2004
17. Deletist - Blakelok - Relive
18. Leonard Cohen - Stories Of The Street - Songs of Leonard Cohen
19. Alan Price - O Lucky Man! - O Lucky Man!
20. Big City Orchestra - Beggettle - Reach For The Moon

Dan Quayle is a vampire

If you have to point out depressing facts that are hard to take, do it with sarcasm and a smile like Max Keiser:

Squares for nihilism

Cenk Uygur and Jonathan Kim talk about the new documentary Waiting For Armageddon. If you are wondering why certain segments of our population are so adamant about not getting anything constructive done to fix this broken country, well...after all, if God is about to destroy the world, shouldn't we be helping him along? But of course, anyone who calls him or herself a Christian is mainstream by default, while all Muslims without exception are malicious terrorists, right?



You have been following Fred Clark of Slacktivist and his devastating weekly critiques of the best-selling Left Behind books, haven't you? This is some crazy, dangerous shit and sensible people (that includes you sensible Christians out there---we know you exist!) need to stand up and stop this evil, demented movement.

Here's one we made earlier

A particularly good lineup of the J Neo Marvin and the Content Providers crashing through "Happy Fun Ball" at the Brainwash in 2005. Lending their skills to Neo and Davis here are Carvell Wallace on guitar, Ron Guensche on bass and Jeremy Hanberry on dumbek. This configuration lasted for one or two gigs, but could have conquered the world if they had stayed together.

Integrity...what a concept!

Contrary to common perception, the poor of the world are mostly quite honest, even though they have far more justification for stealing.

Read the rest at the link. The fact that these people's mentality seems incomprehensible to the average American does not speak well for us. Is it possible to learn a thing or two as the hard times continue? Not likely, with our media in charge. (And they are in charge. Don't kid yourself.)

A-one, and a-two, and a...

Way back in the beginnings of YouTube, I recall stumbling on this classic video. But considering the copyright issues involved, I thought this would have been pulled ages ago. Well, I'm pleased to discover it's BACK!



Being "of a certain age", I actually remember watching Lawrence Welk at my grandparents' house as a kid on weekends. I must say they sound better now than they did then.

Colossal Youth

Combing around YouTube looking for something interesting, I see our friend Ian has his own channel and look what he's dug up.



A fine band, those Young Marble Giants were. Nice to see them again.

I feel a movement coming on

There's something foul clogging our system that needs to be expelled and flushed. A new Constitutional amendment would go a long way towards correcting the damage our transparently corrupt Supreme Court has just set into motion. I'd like to see this campaign pick up some real momentum and have America start living up to its own myth for a change.



The right wing in America has become highly skilled at selling false populism as a cover for policies that are destructive to the very people that buy into their rhetoric. I can't wait to hear their "proof" that complete corporate control of the electoral process will give the American people more freedom. We'll probably see commercials with Fortune 500 CEOs driving pickup trucks or something to show how authentic they are. Whatever.

A salute to the good people of Maryland for spearheading this crucial proposal. Let's stand behind it.

The best single of 2000

10 years ago I was thoroughly smitten with a local band called the Subtonix. Here they are at South Of Market bike messenger bar the Tempest doing their single, "Trophy". I know it's way too dark and the sound is wonky (you can't hear the sax for the first few seconds), but their blazing, audacious brilliance is not a bit diminished. I'm glad to see this online. I'm pretty sure I was at this show.



They used to go onstage smeared in fake blood and wearing dresses made of garbage bags and play the catchiest, most uninhibited reverb-slathered gothy post-punk with catchy sax riffs, spooky keyboards and whooping vocals. Plus, they were all really nice people, which never hurts. Several of them have gone on to become more well-known: yes, that's Jenny Hoyston, later of Erase Errata, on guitar. And the sax player is Jessie Evans, who then fronted the Vanishing for a few years and went on to become a star in Berlin. On lead vocals and bass is Jessy Montaigne, who moved to Portland and now leads the Magick Daggers. Drummer Cookie Tuff is doing some sort of burlesque performance art thing, and I don't know what happened to Adrienne the keyboard player. Hope she's doing well and being creative somewhere.

Can it be that an entire decade has passed since the Subtonix walked the earth? Glad I didn't miss it.

The place I made the purchase no longer exists

One of my favorite Fall songs, "Wings", a stompy potboiler about time travel, entropy, and the butterfly effect, is mimed by a young Mark E. Smith (with first wife/guitarist Brix standing by and pretending to be sullen) while the rest of the Fall hoist a few at the pub and ignore the camera. Top stuff.

Rowland around in that stuff

We have not yet officially observed the passing of ex-Birthday Party guitarist Rowland Howard. Sorry to see you go; you were one of the true originals.



This looks to be a fascinating movie, a glimpse into one of the most feral, wild bands of all time toiling in the studio. Here they are, playing against their own "madman" stereotype, caught being deeply focused on their art and perfecting all the subtle details. (What? You didn't know there were subtle details? Listen harder.) Hearing Howard's guitar all by itself is a revelation; the trebly, rubbery noises and haunting harmonics are so integral to the Birthday Party sound that you don't always notice the difference they made, until you hear them starkly naked as they are here.

Gotta pull out that Wings Of Desire DVD again.

The sun shines out of our behinds

Tonight I feel like taking a moment to bask in the sheer awesomeness of Sandie Shaw:



Morrissey fans would probably be appalled at me for saying so, but wouldn't it have been great if the Smiths had taken the plunge and recruited Sandie as their full-time lead singer? This version is 20 times better than the original as far as I'm concerned. (I can haz flamewar?)

We really appreciate all of you out there who click the thumbs up button to put

these artists on the top twenty. We don't vote and we are always pleased with results. That there is even a top twenty is a function of you all making your mark on this station. J Neo is devoted to keeping you all freshly entertained, and always open to hearing new music from all over the world. No guarantee he will think you are a match, but he is really great about pointing someone to their own genre. We don't play anything formula or status quo, and are pleasantly surprised when one of ours goes mainstream. Means our ideas are getting out there and that is a good thing.

Music is the most powerful medium for change. It can really inspire and move folks and people who make music where we come from inspire to cause movement on the other side. The space between order and chaos makes for a sweet ride, if in balance.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: December 2009

Primal epics top our chart this month! The Stooges' full-length version of "Ann" from 1969 is one of the most beautifully devastating rock and roll experiences to have been unearthed in the last decade. For 40 years, we knew this song as a brief, Doors-esque ballad of passionate submission, but now that we have the complete version we get a complete noise-catharsis with the late Ron Asheton's guitar leading the way to white light bliss. The mood of intense smoochiness continues with the Seeds' full-length version of "Up In Her Room". Oh yes, things are getting steamy here.

Richard Thompson's jaunty call to arms interrupts our reverie. "We're poisoned by the greedy who plunder on the needy." Still relevant, still kicks ass.

The Magnetic Fields bring back the romance with an enticing invitation, but throw in some subtle jabs at intolerance with the mumbled line "we got beat up just for holding hands". High time to do away with the ignorance of yesterday, we say. Jumping San Francisco girls Von Iva deliver one of their more low-key numbers, a sultry ode to a green-eyed lover. Then the Tall Dwarfs concoct an amusing collage of a distorted Jimmy Page quote that speaks the truth for many of us. (Time to note that a new Tall Dwarfs album is being worked on; despite Chris Knox's stroke, he is expressing himself with non-verbal vocals and according to what we're told on his blog, the results are amazing.) A classic from Sparklehorse, "Painbirds", goes out to all of our friends who struggle with their health.

Next up is a new San Francisco band, Society Of Rockets, who J Neo Marvin discovered when they shared a bill with the Conspiracy Of Beards. Harmonious, ecstatic Brian Wilson/Arthur Lee/Zombies pop. More, please. Then comes REM's 90s rant about America, "Ignoreland". So, is that us? Does it have to be?

The Mekons' Tom Greenhalgh offers up a wistful ballad about celebrity from his limited edition solo project, with his own children singing along poignantly. The awesome New Orleans singer Irma Thomas smolders on an irresistible soul love song, Gina Birch from the Raincoats (as The Hangovers) asserts herself admirably, obscure Santa Cruz banjo virtuoso George Stavis lets the sound unfold, and Dengue Fever show us the consequences of passive-aggressive behavior.

Cibo Matto make us feel like we're in New York with their vivid, surreal rap. Burning Spear chants down Babylon, the Pogues give you some more details of what Burning Spear is talking about, and Chumbawamba remind us that we have to take everything we hear with a grain of salt.

Bringing up the rear...what's that smell? Cab Calloway and the Wild Magnolias both seem to have the same thing on their minds. Be sure to have your card handy if anyone asks.

1. The Stooges - Ann (Full Version) - The Stooges
2. The Seeds - Up in Her Room [Long Version] - A Web of Sound
3. Richard Thompson - The New St. George - Henry the Human Fly
4. The Magnetic Fields - Take Ecstasy With Me - Holiday
5. Von Iva - Emerald Eyes - Girls On Film
6. Tall Dwarfs - Seduced By Rock And Roll - The Sky Above, The Mud Below
7. Sparklehorse - Painbirds - Good Morning Spider
8. Society of Rockets - I Am A Battery - Future Factory
9. R.E.M. - Ignoreland - Automatic For The People
10. King Tommy's Velvet Runway - Hello Star - Dance On The Volcano
11. Irma Thomas - Take A Look - Time Is on My Side
12. The Hangovers - I'm Glad I'm Me Today - Slow Dirty Tears
13. George Stavis - Winterland Doldrums - Labyrinths
14. Dengue Fever - Sober Driver - Venus On Earth
15. Cibo Matto - Sci Fi Wasabi - Stereo Type A
16. Burning Spear - No More War - Man In The Hills/Dry And Heavy
17. The Pogues - The Band Played Waltzing Matilda - Rum, Sodomy & The Lash
18. Chumbawamba - Everything You Know Is Wrong - Un
19. Cab Calloway - Reefer Man - The Hi-De-Ho Man: 1930-1933
20. The Wild Magnolias - Smoke My Peace Pipe (Smoke It Right) - The Wild Magnolias