Well, this is exciting.

A small facelift

We just updated our homepage and made a few changes. We kept the listening stations for the X-tal archives but the links for our most recent releases go directly to the iTunes pages. We encourage our friends to follow the links and explore the music. Every time you preview a song, we get a few pennies in our coffers, which helps us survive in this brutal capitalist world.

And of course, we'd love it if you bought an mp3 or a CD. The music still sounds good. Check out that new Experimental Bunnies album.

Wanna balance the budget?

It's not hard. Really, it's not.

Thank you, John Darnielle

The Mountain Goats have never been known for agitprop, but John's always been a conscious guy, and a remake of this classic anthem has never been more timely. (Hat-tip to Truculent & Unreliable for helping put this one out there.)

Power In A Union from JD on Vimeo.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20, February 2011

A lot of songs carried over from the previous month's top 20, but pole-vaulting to the top is something new and beautiful:

The number one song on this month's chart is unique in that it features no humans contributing to the music. And by that we don't mean it is a heavily-sequenced piece of electronica. Oh no, the Thai Elephant Orchestra is exactly what it says it is: original music composed and performed by actual elephants (lovingly assisted by their pet humans).



More empathy for the animal kingdom follows with the late Ari Up delivering the title track of the final Slits album, Trapped Animal. Donovan returns with his impression of Sunset Strip life circa 1966, Brighter Shades deliver the sound of young Baltimore, Tom Verlaine and Sonic Youth give us two extremes of exploratory New York guitar music, and Neil Young woos a beautiful dancer.

Some rare gems surface this month: Portland's Neo Boys offer up some reassuring words from their extremely out of print Crumbling Myths EP, Modmach (led by ex-Unit and current Winston Tong collaborator LX Rudis) serve up a tense, circular depiction of stress and escapism featuring some mad guitar from MX-80's Bruce Anderson, Northern California guitar virtuoso (and firm friend of the Ear Candle posse) Matthew Grasso offers up an original composition that pirouettes intricately around a single note, and Linda Smith shows up with another one of her calm, deliberately paced homemade pop masterworks.

We hear from spoken word guru Ken Nordine, lost genius songwriter Elliott Smith, the mighty Dirtbombs of Detroit, a cool instrumental from Chuck Berry, an evergreen psychedelic ballad by the Troggs, a trippy post-punk drone-rant from Public Image Ltd, Patti Smith and her snakecharming post-Coltrane clarinet, a lovelorn patient by the name of Gregory, and Brian Wilson surfin' with Gershwin.

Thank you dear comrades, and keep listening!

1. Thai Elephant Orchestra - Gentle Monsoon - Water Music
2. The Slits - Trapped Animal - Trapped Animal
3. Donovan - The Trip - Sunshine Superman
4. Brighter Shades - There's Nothing, Stranger - You Shine So Bright
5. Tom Verlaine - Days On The Mountain - Words From The Front
6. Sonic Youth - Silver Wax Lips - Silver Session
7. Neil Young - When You Dance I Can Really Love - After The Goldrush
8. Neo Boys - Nothing to Fear - Crumbling Myths
9. Modmach - Security - Modmach
10. Matthew Grasso - Contemplation On The Corpse - Past Present Future
11. Linda Smith - I'll Never See You Again - Nothing Else Matters
12. Ken Nordine - Reaching into In - The Best of Word Jazz, Vol. 1
13. Elliott Smith - Bled White - XO
14. The Dirtbombs - Start The Party - Dangerous Magical Noise
15. Chuck Berry - Deep Feeling (Instrumental) - After School Session
16. The Troggs - Love Is All Around - The Troggs' Greatest Hits
17. Public Image Ltd. - Flowers of Romance - The Flowers Of Romance
18. Patti Smith - Higher Learning - Land (1975-2002)
19. Gregory Isaacs - Love Is Overdue - Reggae Mix
20. Brian Wilson - They Can't Take That Away From Me - Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin

Ch-ch-ch-changes

We are busy moving earcandleproductions.com, noodlebrain.com, and jneomarvin.com to a new server and the sites are temporarily offline. Please be patient while we make our move. We'll be back up in 24-48 hours and gradually adding improvements both bold and subtle. Watch this space for announcements. We're looking forward to the changes.

UPDATE: Well, that was fast! As of 8:00 AM Sunday, we are back again! Good morning!

Get your shoes on, Mr. President

Liliputmania!

Jenny Woolworth's excellent interview with the great Swiss post-punk band LiliPut can be found here, here, and here.

Some videos for your pleasure:

Solidarity is a beautiful thing

UPDATE: Those bold freedom-fighters of the "tea party" respond:



Compare and contrast.

Happy birthday Yoko Ono!

Even Paul gets into bringing the noise here. We would have bumped "The Long And Winding Road" in favor of some of this lively jam if it had been up to us.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20, January 2011

Two great ladies of the stage appear twice on our charts, so let's raise a glass to Patti Smith and Terese Taylor. Julie London's impeccable lounge take on a bubblegum classic returns to our charts. (Hat tip to Johnny Ray Houston for first turning J Neo on to this great cover) Iggy Pop shows up with a portrait of industrial drudgery from his weirdest album ever, The Velvet Underground give us a sublime instrumental that was first unearthed in the 80s, Tom Verlaine stretches out, and the Slits unleash a boisterous number from their final album. (What a shame that "World Of Grownups" was never recorded!)

Troubled founding Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green released a highly underrated instrumental album shortly after he first went around the bend, and the track "Hidden Depth" holds the number 8 spot here--very much in keeping with the Experimental Bunnies spirit, we're thinking. Paul Kantner's first solo album got a lot of stick from some Jefferson Airplane fans, but when it's good, it's really good, and "Have You Seen The Stars Tonight" is as good as awestruck San Francisco acid-folk gets--certainly miles above anything else to come out under the dreaded "Jefferson Starship" name. The mighty voice of Mark Lanegan calls out for the all-too-rare Pacific Northwest sunshine, Ken Nordine guides us through the plumbing, and the late great Gregory Isaacs croons sweetly.

The Fall offer up the mysterious, haunting "Riddler!" (possibly the definitive mission statement of Mark E. Smith), Donovan witnesses the innocent decadence of a more innocent time, Brighter Shades from Baltimore toss off some superior pop-punk, Public Image go psychedelic and quasi-Arabic, Brian Wilson reimagines Gershwin for the California girls and boys, and the Mountain Goats wrap it up with a supernatural vignette: "When the ghost of your father starts pushing you around/how are gonna make him stop?/I took down all of the crosses/I let him set up shop!"

We listened hard to our dry run of the new playlist last weekend, and realized there is some room for change. We're back on random shuffle while we rework some bits, add and subtract here and there, and record our back-announcements. See you with the new version soon, and keep listening!

1. Patti Smith Group - Pumping (My Heart) - Radio Ethiopia
2. Julie London - Yummy, Yummy, Yummy - Yummy, Yummy, Yummy
3. Iggy Pop - Life Of Work - Zombie Birdhouse
4. The Velvet Underground - Ride Into The Sun [Instrumental] - Another View
5. Tom Verlaine - Days On The Mountain - Words From The Front
6. Terese Taylor - Chief Letters - The Clothes We Wore Before We Were Married
7. The Slits - Trapped Animal - Trapped Animal
8. Peter Green - Hidden Depth - The End Of The Game
9. Paul Kantner - Have You Seen The Stars Tonight - Blows Against The Empire
10. Mark Lanegan - El Sol - Whiskey For The Holy Ghost
11. Ken Nordine - Down the Drain - The Best of Word Jazz, Vol. 1
12. Gregory Isaacs - Love Is Overdue - Reggae Mix
13. The Fall - Riddler! - Bend Sinister
14. Donovan - The Trip - Sunshine Superman
15. Brighter Shades - There's Nothing, Stranger - You Shine So Bright
16. Terese Taylor - Goats For Daddy - The Cryingness Of Your Crying When You Cry
17. Public Image Ltd. - Flowers of Romance - The Flowers Of Romance
18. Patti Smith - Higher Learning - Land (1975-2002)
19. Brian Wilson - They Can't Take That Away From Me - Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin
20. The Mountain Goats - Cao Dai Blowout - New Asian Cinema

Egypt

A quick video of this afternoon's demo in support of Egyptian democracy:

Now playing

Sneak preview of new Ear Candle Radio playlist playing this weekend starting tonight!

No DJ banter yet. We'll be out in the field, perhaps near YOU, soon, recording back announcements. Maybe we'll even ask you to say a few words, you never know.

This time around, I found some great public domain sound clips that we'll be judiciously sprinkling among the music. Everything from history to current events to comedy to just plain weirdness. All part of our never-ending quest to keep it fresh.

I love your solitude, I love your pride

Since the Conspiracy Of Beards are hard at work on a very difficult and haunting new arrangement of "Joan Of Arc", I was drawn to this gut-wrenchingly beautiful essay about "the patron saint of blasphemy" from Tiger Beatdown. It dispels some myths, illuminates the enormity of the hate crime committed against this formidable character, and makes me think (not to say anything glib about Leonard Cohen and his genius) a very different song could have been written about her.

Doctor Dark

The sad passing of Captain Beefheart needs to be noted here. At 15, Trout Mask Replica seized my consciousness and made my isolated life better. I never tried to make music like the Captain (that's a gift that only comes once in a century at least), but his fierce independence was always a model. Like Syd Barrett, he retreated from music early; unlike Syd he moved on to a happy successful life as a painter, with a wife who by all accounts was a true partner. At least he lived a full life before the MS got him.

Notorious as a difficult, capricious bandleader who was both unreliable and a control freak, Don Van Vliet got a lot of criticism from ex-bandmates. At the same time, his unorthodox mind and methods resulted in music like no other. He was the weird old master who abused his students yet left them with skills and insights that few ever gain. A complicated story.

Drummer, transcriber/co-arranger/musical enabler John "Drumbo" French pays tribute here. It's a moving testimonial.

Style and substance

Amanda nails it here. As I once said cynically about one of the crap jobs in my past, "It's not what you're doing, it's what you look like you're doing!" For me that was a glib, sardonic joke. For others, it's a way of life.

Help out a good guy in need

Roy Edroso of Alicublog, one of the smartest, funniest writers on the Internet, is going through a bad patch.Here's a place set up to help him out. If you can spare any donations, do so.

Update: Apparently the response has been overwhelming, and Roy is extremely grateful. We look forward to the resumption of his indispensable commentary.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: December 2010

As we see off 2010 and set a place at our table for 2011, may the road rise for all of our listeners. We could be wrong, we could be right, but PiL's blazingly righteous benediction from the mid-80s is just the thing we need to set a precedent for a better year to come.

A brief bit of hard won wisdom from Gil Scott-Heron is followed by Donovan's 100% scientifically accurate presentation of how astronauts deal with their bodily functions in a weightless environment and World Domination Enterprises' pounding indictment of industrial poison. The Magnetic Fields invite us to walk a lonely road, Faust go exploring the world of inner space, the Dirtbombs bring the party, Baka Beyond take the party to the jungle, and Huun-Huur-Tu find entire universes in their own well-trained throats.

The Experimental Bunnies express uncertainty on a track from the score for Noodle Brain Productions' television show on the Integrity Tone Scale. Nick Drake shows up with one of his sweetest songs in a brief career full of sweet ones, Funkadelic offer one of their greatest should-have-been-hits, Chumbawamba lift their voices on a rollicking vintage anti-sweatshop ballad, Sly Stone and company find the world-weariness in Doris Day's signature tune, and Arthur Lee croons one of his fine late-period melodious gnomic numbers before yielding the floor to an unbelievable guitar freakout by the little-known Gary Rowles.

Following that, we had Muddy Waters' molten lament "Standing Around Cryin'" (listen to that harmonica!), the first movement of Missa Luba, Mark E. Smith riding one of the Fall's most titanic-sounding soundscapes, the late great Vivian Stanshall accosting passers-by about their shirts, and Bill Callahan's deep rumbling voice finding new corners in a Chris Knox song on the Stroke benefit compilation.

And that's a wrap for 2010. Keep listening; an all-new playlist is on the way!

1. Public Image Ltd. - Rise - Public Image Ltd. - Greatest Hits So Far
2. Gil Scott-Heron - On Coming From A Broken Home (Part. 2) - I'm New Here
3. Donovan - Intergalactic Laxative - Cosmic Wheels
4. World Domination Enterprises - Asbestos Lead Asbestos (Heavy Pollution Mix) - Love from the Lead City
5. The Magnetic Fields - Walk A Lonely Road - Realism
6. Faust - So Far - Faust/So Far
7. The Dirtbombs - The Thing - Ultraglide In Black
8. Baka Beyond - Booma Lena - The Meeting Pool
9. Huun-Huur-Tu - Oske Cherde - Sixty Horses In My Herd
10. The Experimental Bunnies - Uncertainty - Music For The Integrity Tone Scale
11. Nick Drake - Cello Song - Five Leaves Left
12. Funkadelic - Can You Get To That - Maggot Brain
13. Chumbawamba - Poverty Knock - English Rebel Songs 1381-1984
14. Sly & The Family Stone - Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) - Fresh
15. Love - Love Is More Than Words (or Better Late Than Never) - Out Here
16. Muddy Waters - Standing Around Cryin' - The Chess Story 1947-197
17. Les Troubadours Du Roi Baudouin - Kyrie - Missa Luba
18. The Fall - Gross Chapel -- British Grenadiers - Bend Sinister
19. Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - Shirt - Tadpoles
20. Bill Callahan - Lapse - Stroke: Songs For Chris Knox

The Process!

A preview of the next Experimental Bunnies album, BUNNIES ON FIRE. We found this incredibly inspired improvisation that was captured on video, edited out about 8 minutes of fumbling, and ended up with a 26-minute track. Enjoy with the intoxicants of your choice.

Driftglass on "no labels"

This is a thing of beauty.

Time to build a house in Purgatory

Hawaii/New York punk blues raconteur Rob K's Purgatory Home Companion is finally being released! An epic adventure through Dante's imaginary universe employing collaged musical fragments from scores of artists from all over, this is something you're going to have to really sit down and devote some time to.

Our own Experimental Bunnies can be heard on the track "Time To Pay", which samples extensively from a xylophone/acoustic guitar/brushed drums jam that will also appear on the third Bunnies album as "How To Build a House". We are thrilled with what Rob and co-producer Mark Abramson did with our music and honored to have played a part in this ambitious project.



The entire album can be found here.

On first listen, if there is a "hit" on the album, it has to be the swaggering Stones-esque "Bardot Hotel" (whose title punningly combines the lovely French icon with the Tibetan word for the state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth). Which is a convenient excuse to repost the excellent live performance of the song we taped at An Undisclosed Location many moons ago. Enjoy:

And the youth they go "oh, oh, ohhhhh!"

My year old post on the Mighty Ballistics Hi-Power seems to have generated some action. May this wonderfully elusive band (or at least their still-timely 80s recordings) resurface at last! We need their music.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20, November 2010

Sometimes the best thing to do in the face of opposition is to take all the insults thrown at you, embrace them, and shove them back in your detractors' faces, as Yoko did on this 70s track that tops our charts this month. Don't let them kill your spirit! Number two is a flashback to our childhoods with some infectious Peanuts cartoon music, then at number three Winston Tong and Tuxedomoon deliver a classic 80s hit that gets under your skin. Paula Fraser and Tarnation take an obscure 60s nugget and make it lilt, Ken Nordine gives us some twisted words of encouragement, Isaac Hayes tells it like it is, our own Experimental Bunnies (with a guest appearance by Baltimore guitarist/producer Trevor Simpson) let their psychedelic melodies unfurl.

International space pirates Cyclub invite us on a journey, the Beatles drop a classic from the BBC Sessions, Vivian Stanshall returns with a sprawling number from his just-reissued '70s solo debut, the Aislers Set give us a seasonal instrumental, Little Richard shouts about freedom on his late 60s hit, the Bonzos roll out the noises, Olatunji leads a slightly premature happy new year singalong, and the Who give us one of their all-time quirkiest songs, a Kinks/Small Faces influenced Cockney pop tune about greyhound racing that the band are apparently still embarrassed about, but really, it's no more absurd than Tommy.

We were e-mailed by a young Russian band named Put who asked very nicely for airplay, and we obliged by adding our number 16 track this month. We have no idea what they're singing (though the title offers a slight clue...any Russian speakers out there?) but it's a catchy tune. A track from the first Parliament album (penned by Baltimore cult heroine Ruth Copeland) cries out to a deity that doesn't seem to have much to say in response. An early New Order track swells with post-Joy Division dread, Matthew Grasso's Nada Brahma Ensemble ascends with an extended 25-string guitar raga jam, and the Fall bring it home with an epic anthem to defiant middle age.

Thanks for tuning in and submitting your ratings. Have a smashing December, and keep listening!

1. Yoko Ono - Yes, I'm A Witch - Onobox (A Story)
2. Vince Guaraldi - It's Your Dog Charlie Brown - Oh, Good Grief!
3. Tuxedomoon - No Tears - Desire
4. Tarnation - Little Black Egg - Mirador
5. Ken Nordine - You're Getting Better - The Best of Word Jazz, Vol. 1
6. Isaac Hayes - Soulsville - Shaft
7. The Experimental Bunnies - Waiting For A Bad Idea To Die - Biology And Physics
8. Cyclub - Let's Go On A Journey - Science Future
9. The Beatles - Soldier Of Love - Live At The BBC [Disc 1]
10. Vivian Stanshall - Strange Tongues - Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead
11. The Aislers Set - Christmas Song - The Last Match
12. Little Richard - Freedom Blues - The Rill Thing
13. Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - My Brother Makes the Noises for the Talkies - Gorilla
14. Babatunde Olatunji - Odun De! Odun De! (Happy New Year) - Drums of Passion
15. The Who - Dogs - 30 Years Of Maximum R&B
16. Put - About Pot, Jerk And Sorrow - Dirty and beauty
17. Parliament - Oh Lord, Why Lord/Prayer - Osmium
18. New Order - Truth - Movement
19. Nada Brahma Music Ensemble - Miyan Ying - The Five Deadly Talas
20. The Fall - 50 Year Old Man - Imperial Wax Solvent

"We celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, not J. Edgar Hoover Day"

Why doesn't Doghouse Riley have a column in, say, the New York Times as opposed to the brain-dead hacks they employ now? Maybe, as with the mighty Rude Pundit, it's down to the naughty words factor. I suspect though that it has more to do with having the bad manners to point at the incontinent elephant relieving itself in the middle of the dinner party and describe it with the most cutting, shaming prose the English language has to offer. In other words, the man is hopelessly overqualified. Thank providence for the internet.

Hit the North(west)!

This was the most inspiring punk documentary I've seen in quite a while. It made me want to be 21 again. Great footage of Wipers, Neo Boys (who apparently shared my good taste in Patti Smith poems), Sado-Nation, Smegma, and half a dozen early punk and post-punk bands I missed at the time because I was one state away. See the trailer here, then seek out the movie. It's already on Netflix.



Random thoughts:
1) When will Kill Rock Stars take their wondrous archive-releasing powers to their own back yard and put out a comprehensive Neo Boys anthology?
2) I didn't know John Shirley used to be in Sado-Nation. Wow. And quite the frontman as a youth, too.
3) Did Lo-Tek ever release anything? Loved them.
4) WHY does Jello Biafra get so much face time in a film about PORTLAND? Not to downgrade his contributions, but I'm really sick of seeing him propped up as the be-all and end-all of punk rock.
5) Late 1970s Portland sure was full of bands who sounded like the early Fall.
6) Why did the original camera crew that filmed the Rats zoom in on every member BUT Toody Cole? Reflexive resentment for female bass players? It's not as if she's hard on the eyes.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: October 2010

Our October charts are topped by Sam Cooke's awesome civil rights anthem and last testament, which, as Substance McG states in the comments, should be heard by everyone on the planet.

Bonzo Dog alumnus Roger Ruskin Spear weighs in with a mostly instrumental track from one of his hard-to-find solo albums, followed by a rare Public Image track that was bootlegged by departing founder Keith Levine shortly after the band played a brilliant set at the Galleria Design Center in SF. (J Neo Marvin remembers looking down on the stage from several floors above. You could move around all over the place.) More Bonzo goodness follows with their first-ever single, followed by a tender ballad from the waggish James Murphy, one of the finest lyricists of the last decade who we know we'll be hearing more from even if LCD Soundsystem has called it quits.

Continuing down the list we have Ken Nordine with his word jazz fable of epiphany and conformity, a rare, ragged post-punk premonition from New York's False Prophets, a piece of behavior modification hypnosis from the two wackos who gave us Non and Mute, a thought-provoking catchy number from our favorite ex-Chumbawamba member, a spring-loaded song of longing from Corin Tucker's very welcome solo comeback, a poignant ode to air travel from Australia's wondrous Cannanes, and a real oddity: a 70s Brian Wilson production featuring his first wife singing what was originally one of his brother Dennis's sleaziest songs and distilling the core of sweetness inside. Makes you wish all three Wilson brothers were around today to bring out the best in each other.

A flamenco-delic instrumental from a dude we originally met on Myspace (A.J. In Evolution, we're not tired of your tune yet!) is followed by a gem from left field: Slovenian post-industrial satirical totalitarians Laibach bring out the megalomania in the Beatles' swan song. Next we revive an odd '90s collaboration between Ear Candle favorite Alan Vega, Ben Vaughn, and the late great Alex Chilton that offered yet another rough & ready setting for those sensuous Vega pipes. Lou Barlow comes through with what may be his alltime finest moment (a strummy, eerie sound collage tucked in at the end of the second Dinosaur, Jr. album), Neil Young tears your heart out with the pointless finality of death, Jimmy Smith and Booker T give us lessons on how to caress your organ correctly, and Bill Callahan lends his sonorous baritone to the cause of keeping the great Chris Knox's music alive.

We have received complaints from some regular listeners about Live365's new website design, saying it has become almost impossible for non-VIP listeners to rate songs because of stuck pop-ups on certain operating systems. We think this sucks, and we sympathize. If you encounter this problem, refreshing the page may help. Also, this does not seem to happen if you invest in a VIP membership with Live 365, so consider that. We are not into the hard sell, but every time a VIP listener tunes in to our station, we get a bit of change deducted from our monthly fee. So, if you are doing well in these tough economic times, please consider taking the plunge. If it's beyond your means, yes of course we still love you. Just as long as you keep listening!

1. Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come - Portrait Of A Legend 1951-1964
2. Roger Ruskin Spear - My Goodness How (Or The Revolutionary New Concrete Mixer Show) - Unusual
3. Public Image Limited - Lou Reed, Pts 1 and 2 (Where Are You?) - Commercial Zone
4. Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - My Brother Makes The Noises For The Talkies - Gorilla
5. LCD Soundsystem - New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down - Sound Of Silver
6. Ken Nordine - Flibberty Jib - The Best of Word Jazz, Vol. 1
7. False Prophets - Baghdad Stomp - False Prophets
8. Boyd Rice & Daniel Miller - Cleanliness And Order - Darker Skratcher
9. Danbert Nobacon - Christopher Marlowe - The Library Book of the World
10. The Corin Tucker Band - Half A World Away - 1,000 Years
11. The Cannanes - Marching Song - Cannanes
12. American Spring - Fallin' in Love - Spring
13. A.J. In Evolution (Aka A.J. Fritscher) - A Trip In Barcelona - A Work In Progress
14. Laibach - I Me Mine - Let It Be
15. Ben Vaughn - Alan Vega - Alex Chilton - Do Not Do Not - Cubist Blues
16. Dinosaur Jr. - Poledo - You're Living All Over Me
17. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Carmichael - Greendale
18. Jimmy Smith - The Champ - The Definitive Jimmy Smith
19. Booker T. & the M.G.'s - Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window/I Want You (She's So Heavy) - McLemore Avenue
20. Bill Callahan - Lapse - Stroke: Songs For Chris Knox

One small step towards making NPR bearable

Best take I've read on the Juan Williams flap. This guy has been insufferable on the radio for years; now he gets to thrive in his own chosen environment. We don't have to listen to him in the car anymore. And the Right gets something new to whine about. Everybody wins!

Dread More Than Dead

I would so like this to be a hoax, but I know it isn't.

We are devastated to hear about the sudden, unexpected passing of the Slits' Ari Up. A one-of-a-kind character. She will not be replaceable. So much energy and attitude, and such a role model for retaining your youth in middle age. I know it's true, but I still can't accept it.

We shot this in San Francisco at the first tour of the reunited Slits. A great song that didn't make it to what I guess will be their last album. I'll remember her like this.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: September 2010

At the end of the 70s, soon after Lee Scratch Perry cut the haunting Heart Of The Congos at his Black Ark Studio only to be ditched by his newest discoveries, the Congos themselves, stories have long circulated about a couple of African singers who found their way to Jamaica and showed up at Scratch's doorstep, looking for a break. Scratch, who was not in the best of shape and ready to heed any omen he could perceive, proclaimed he had found the "real" Congos, since they hailed from what was then known as Zaire but before and after is referred to as the Democratic Republic Of The Congo. The new allies set about recording an album together, while Scratch's increasing eccentricity and various hangers-on continued to propel the Black Ark into chaos. The tracks that were cut have been both hard to find and usually disparaged as being not very good, a testimony to Scratch's delusional state at the time. Well, our Ear Candle Radio research team managed to find a disc of these rare recordings, and we are here to say that the naysayers need to clean out their ears because this music is incredible. Sweet yet shrill West African vocal stylings coupled with the wobbly, echoing Black Ark jungle of sound. Kalo Kawongolo and Seke Molenga, together with Lee Scratch Perry at the peak of his powers, created a lost masterpiece that is finally surfacing, and our listeners have put it at number one this month! (Our listeners have impeccable taste.)

Another underrated gem, the Television Personalities' mournful anti-war rant "A Sense Of Belonging", made it to number 2, a reminder of how it felt to be a conscious human being in the 80s, when the media and the right had learned from their past experience with Vietnam and first mastered the art of making mass dissent invisible unless it was convenient for them. (See also, the 2000s)

Following that, we get funky with James Brown and cool like that with the Digable Planets on their hits from the 60s and 90s. Then comes a Portland, Oregon songwriter named Cheralee Dillon (who we discovered through our friend Celine Keller) squeezing some love from the little yellow lemon in her heart. A track from one of the last good (and weirdest) Beach Boys albums, "Solar System" is a quirky gem that J Neo Marvin once saw Alex Chilton cover in the 80s.

Yet another unfairly disparaged (this time by the band themselves!) album is the Pretty Things' Emotions, which was inappropriately tampered with by their record label and producer and festooned with orchestral arrangements the band hated. In spite of that, it's a smart, snappy mid-60s pop record full of great songs, including "Children", a foot-stomper with lyrics that decry the way innocent kids are led astray by the system. Keeping with the theme of children perhaps, this track leaves out the strings and horns and replaces them with kazoos! One wonders who was responsible, the producer on a creative roll calling for the top session kazooists in London to lay down a track, or the Pretty Things making fun of the whole process? What matters is that this is top stuff. After you have digested the first two Pretty Things albums and S.F. Sorrow, check out Emotions. You'll be glad you did.

Deerhoof do their inimitable twee-prog thing next, followed by Bo Diddley with a sweet, raucous tribute to his dearest darling and X-tal grinding through their swan song. "What Now?" Sergio Mendes pops in unexpectedly with a bit of psychedelic lounge music, then Os Mutantes at their silliest mug their way through a song about a Latin musician making it big in America that is said to be a parody of Sergio Mendes, but in fact it sounds a lot more like Santana to our ears. The Holy Sisters Of The Gaga Dada make their boundaries clear in "Mr. Mr.", Marc Bolan and Tyrannosaurus Rex (with the much-missed John Peel making a cameo appearance) spread some goofy mysticism from their debut album, the great Ken Nordine gives us a fable about a series of tall poppies who start out bold and get cut down to size by their jealous peers who rob us all of the power of the flibberty-jib.

A Kirtan cover of "Within You Without You", recorded at the temple at Harbin Hot Springs, features Harbin's jack-of-all-trades Peter B leading the singing and the late multi-instrumentalist (and highly talented and nice guy...much missed) Jeff Palmer playing the dilruba part. Spooky Swedish traditionalists Garmarna do an instrumental tribute to skulls, the Firesign Theatre give us a hilarious Hitchcockian nightmare, Le Tigre combat tall poppy syndrome ("The things you tried to kill/I've found a way to grow"), and the Velvet Underground invite us to Coney Island. "Like a sister and brother we'll cling to each other when they find out their parents are mad." Sometimes it be that way.

Thank you listeners for another great chart. Keep tuning in to Ear Candle Radio!

1. Kalo Kawongolo / Seke Molenga - Masanga - African Roots
2. Television Personalities - A Sense Of Belonging - Yes Darling, But Is It Art?
3. James Brown - Mother Popcorn - Star Time
4. Digable Planets - Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) - A New Refutation Of Time And Space
5. Cheralee Dillon - Little Yellow Lemon - Citron
6. The Beach Boys - Solar System - Beach Boys Love You
7. The Pretty Things - Children - Emotions
8. Deerhoof - My Purple Past - Offend Maggie
9. Bo Diddley - Dearest Darling - His Best: The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection
10. X-tal - What Now? - More Fun
11. Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Crystal Illusions - Crystal Illusions
12. Os Mutantes - Cantor De Mambo - Everything Is Possible!: The Best Of Os Mutantes
13. The Holy Sisters Of The Gaga Dada - Mr. Mr. - Let's Get Acquainted
14. Tyrannosaurus Rex - Frowning Atahuallpa (My Inca Love) - My People Were Fair And Had Sky In Their Hair... But Now They're Content To Wear Stars In Their Brows
15. Ken Nordine - Flibberty Jib - The Best of Word Jazz, Vol. 1
16. The Harbin Kirtan Band (featuring Jeff Palmer) - Within You Without You - Live From Planet Harbin
17. Garmarna - Skallen (Cranium) - Vittrad
18. Firesign Theatre - Waiting for the Electrician - Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him
19. Le Tigre - Tell You Now - This Island
20. The Velvet Underground - Coney Island Steeplechase - Another View

Tastes like chicken

How to turn your stomach...toward something better? The more innocuously shapeless a chunk of flesh looks on your plate, the more disgusting it probably is once you get to know it. Better to not be so squeamish and face your naked lunch honestly, perhaps.

Arthur Lee: the wilderness years

Felt like posting some rare Arthur Lee footage, and found these two performances from 1990, well after the dying days of the original run of Love lineups, but still before his highly suspicious arrest and jail term, and his subsequent glorious 21st century revival, sudden decline and exit from this plane. This was a time when Arthur was ignored, taken for granted and thought of as a has-been, knocking around L.A. clubs with various pickup bands. His astounding voice, wryly witty lyrics, and total commitment to self-expression never faltered, even in these dark days.

One of his greatest solo songs: "Everybody's gotta live/and everybody's gonna die!" If rock and roll is an art form that finds the most stunning and illuminating ways to speak the most obvious truths, this song is one of the best examples.



This song is new to me. "Somebody's Watching You": not the Sly Stone song, but equally paranoid. Hard-living African-American hippie geniuses do have to keep looking over their shoulders, after all.



I'm not really certain what Lee's spiritual beliefs were, but the final punchline, "God is watching you" does not sound the least bit comforting here, which is part of what makes this song is so appealing, I think. A very complex guy, Arthur Lee. We miss him.

Here comes the argument

I used to get caught up in this kind of discussion all the time. Brilliantly rendered.

Number 3!

"Mark Time", a track by X-tal, from the Ear Candle retrospective album, Who Owns Our Dreams?, has just leaped to the number 3 spot on the charts on North Fork Sound. North Fork Sound is an excellent online radio station run by our old acquaintance Howard Thompson. Thanks for playing our music, Howard!

The lights and the sound

A nice clip of Alan Vega's visual art retrospective in Lyon, France. Belated congratulations to the great man for getting recognition for his work.



Plus, a snippet of a great, passionate improv version of "Cherie" at Hurrah in 1980.



These clips and many, many more can be found on the Live-at-Hurrah video archive. What an incredible time capsule of New York. Check it out.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20, August 2010

Oh, what a month.

Hip-hop academic DJ Spooky recently supervised an ear-tickling mix of reggae gems from the Trojan label to celebrate their anniversary and a particular highlight of that collection tops our charts: An a capella mix of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer harmonizing sweetly and spookily on the eerie Lee Scratch Perry collaboration "Mr. Brown". Is Mr. Brown controlled by remote? Calling Duppy Conqueror!

There's a new album by 90s New York indie stalwarts Versus; it's loud, brash and tuneful, and we picked one of bassist Fontaine Toups' featured numbers for the station, where it has already shot up to the number two spot. Behind that we have the spiritual Celtic drone of the Incredible String Band, the harsh, dubby post-punk protest of World Domination Enterprises, an exquisite jewel from the Tall Dwarfs (keep sending your love to Chris Knox!), exuberant catchy gibberish from the Plugz, a brief burst from the Minutemen with more ideas than most bands muster on an entire album, a track from one of our favorite dub albums ever courtesy of the late great Mikey Dread, and an incendiary love song from the mighty Flesh Eaters.

An exciting new Portland band, Explode Into Colors, bring forth rhythms that pin you against the wall in a track from the bonus CD of an issue of Yeti, which if you don't know what it is, you should: it's a nice, thick bound book/fanzine courtesy of Mike McGonigal, former editor of Chemical Imbalance, ably assisted by Steve Connell of Puncture and Verse Chorus press fame. They've got a new issue out; get it!

Behind that, there's Centry And The Music Family with their heavy dub version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the Bonzos with Vivian Stanshall's first installment of the mad soap opera he would keep coming back to for the rest of his life, X-tal caught improvising at a practice and stumbling on something gorgeous, the Skatalites stretching out (heavy dub content on this chart; the summer sun must be affecting our listeners!), the Poison Girls at their caustic best (no one else will ever rhyme "Ethiopia" and "utopia" with as much bitter, ironic truth), the Conspiracy Of Beards winning the ladies' hearts and teaching the men to be gentlemen in New York last year, Van Morrison gasping through a bad case of survivor's guilt at the dawn of his solo career in the 60s, Jefferson Airplane lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen offering a breathtaking melancholy folk ballad that shows he's more than a mere jammer, the Zombies giving voice to the optimism we struggle to maintain against all odds (as in fact they were themselves at the time), and dear Yoko, supported by an all-star, mostly-Japanese Plastic Ono Band, reminding us how to love.

This station is a tonic for its creators and a gift to our listeners. Listen, vote on the songs you hear, and give us your feedback!

1. The Wailers - Mr. Brown (DJ Spooky remix) - Creation Rebel
2. Versus - Into Blue - On the Ones and Threes
3. Incredible String Band - The Circle Is Unbroken - The Big Huge
4. World Domination Enterprises - Asbestos Lead Asbestos (Heavy Pollution Mix) - Love from the Lead City
5. Tall Dwarfs - Open Wide Your Pretty Mouths - The Sky Above, The Mud Below
6. The Plugz - Wordless - Electrify Me
7. Minutemen - Straight Jacket - The Punch Line
8. Mikey Dread - Fast Forward Dub - At The Control Dubwise
9. The Flesh Eaters - Tightrope On Fire - Forever Came Today
10. Explode Into Colors - Paper (Hot Sax Version) - Yeti 7
11. Centry Meets The Music Family - Release The Chains - Dub Revolution
12. Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band - Rawlinson End - Let's Make Up and Be Friendly
13. X-tal - Slow Fidelity - Who Owns Our Dreams
14. The Skatalites - Middle East Dub - Skatalites Meet King Tubby
15. Poison Girls - Price Of Grain - Poisonous
16. Conspiracy of Beards - Lady Midnight - Live at Highline Ballroom, NYC
17. Van Morrison - T.B. Sheets - T.B. Sheets
18. Jorma Kaukonen - Genesis - Quah
19. The Zombies - This Will Be Our Year - Odessey and Oracle
20. Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - Calling - Between My Head And The Sky