ZenTrout News Radio, Episode 1: No more blues/The audio you are about to enjoy is extremely hot

Hello! Today I am launching meltmaster's patented ZenTrout News Radio. This is my imaginary radio station, and I wish that you join me there! A strictly eclectic selection of the predictable and not-so-predictable. An hour of quality music. Expected post-punk and new-wave, New Zealand droning, fuzz guitar country (gleaned from the WFMU blog), and some other sweet-and-sour tidbits. I have provided both a .zip of the individual audio files as well as a streaming podcast version on my meltmaster "Raw from Selection" podomatic account. You can listen here (as well as to past episodes):

ZenTrout News Radio, Episode 1: ZenTrout News Radio, Epis...

Raw From Selection

or download here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/iydmmmunemi/ZTN RADIO 1.zip

Playlist:

1. ZTN Radio Bumper
2. 4 out of 5 Doctors - Anna with Antennae
3. The Church - Happy Hunting Ground
4. Last Man in Europe - A Certain Bridge
5. John Cale - Hanky Panky Nohow (Drone Mix)
6. 5'NIZZA (?) - Anthem of the Soviet Union (1977)
7. Carl Butler - Wonder Drug
8. Charlie Louvin - Cash on the Barrelhead
9. David Kilgour - Time to Run
10. Jose Carreras - Vesti La Giubba- Pagliacci, Leoncavallo
11. Roy Montgomery - Kafka was Correct
12. Roy Montgomery - The Small Sleeper (For Jack)
13. Anita Bryant - Six Boys and Seven Girls
14. Eyeless in Gaza - The Eyes of Beautiful Losers
15. Mary Jane Girls - All Night Long
16. Link Wray and his Ray Men - Missing Link
17. The Maori Hi-Five - Goody Goody
18. Josh White - No More Blues

Crossposted at ZenTrout News, home of meltmaster

I Shall Be Released

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/the-band/concerts/winterland-november-25-1976.html

Crying Like A Fire In The Sun

I Find No One Waiting

His Eyes Were Filled With Victory

No More for Now

Seems like no-one's actually reading this, so there's not much point posting. All the old links still work as far as I know, so feel free to explore & download. If anyone is reading, let me know and I may pick up the posts again.

A pack of Newports

http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/concerts/venues/newport-jazz-festival.html

Liver Damage

This sounds like possibly the creme de la creme of bootlegs. Thank you, internet.

http://stadiumstudios.blogspot.com/2009/08/rolling-stones-liver-than-youll-ever-be.html

With the Beetles

I've been working on a solo acoustic guitar album. This isn't it: this is just the demo I recorded yesterday so that I can hear what the songs I've been working on sound like. So, there are lots of errors, some squonky notes, some hesitations and stumbles, and a couple distorted moments from being overly casual with the microphone levels. Also, most the songs run a little longer than is reasonable, due to the fact that I'm wandering around improvising a bit too much and trying to find my way back to the main motifs.

But, all in all I'm pretty happy with how this is sounding, and I feel like sharing it with my friends, and asking for feedback. Let me know what you think: too droney? Not droney enough? Too new age? Too melancholy? Overly pretty? Not pretty at all? Lack of catchy melodies? Not enough rhythm? Etc, etc, etc. I'll probably disregard your suggestions, but that doesn't mean I don't want to hear them. Because I very much do.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/uimdzlmtymi/Ero Gray- With the Beetles Solo Guitar Demo 11-09-09.zip

Watch Us Fall

Great gloomy 80s psych. Definitely a glam crash, not the pop Bunnymen of the mid-to-late 80s, nor the crisp post-punk Bunnymen of Crocodiles, this is a twitchier, sobbier, drunker and stoneder collection of dour imagery, full of late-night collapses and horror flashes, a world in which all that was ever good in the world is lost forever and nothing that remains is worth saving. (Which is more or less how I remember most of the 1980s, actually). The band sounds driven, though, and the songs are beautiful.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/2oygjjujywn/Echo & The Bunnymen- Heaven Up Here.zip

Hot Links

Lower far right column now has a long list of great blogs to get/read about/be inspired by music from, in the event you find this one insufficient.

New Style

A blog critic (okay, it's my best friend) kept telling me that the white-text-on-blue-background made this blog difficult to read. So I changed the look & feel a bit.

Do you love it? Hate it? Anything badly wrong or damaged? Let me know.

Cuddly Toys, formerly "Raped."

The story of (Irish!) Cuddly Toys just seems to get stranger and stranger the more you look into it. They formed originally as the punk band, "Raped," in 1977. (Although some would argue that since they didn't form in 1976 or before, they weren't a real punk band.) They changed the name to "Cuddly Toys" shortly thereafter, for obvious reasons (presaging Steve Albini's similarly ill-fated band "Rapeman" by several years.) Their first EP was "Pretty Paedophiles." Ahem. It seems like just another band crassly, cynically, reprehensibly seeking publicity. Which would make sense, given the climate of those early punk years. But nevermind: somehow their first hit, "Madmen," was penned by none other than both David Bowie and Marc Bolan. I don't know the story behind this collab, but it's pretty remarkable. (The poster of the youtube video apocryphally states that the band found old bootlegs of unfinished T. Rex and Bowie songs.) Marc Bolan died shortly thereafter. The band friendly-ed up its image with glam gloss and a stellar groove with the release of this album "Guillotine Theatre." (Honesly, I don't know if "Pretty Paedophiles" by "Raped" is available--I'm afraid to look for it.)

Anyhow, the musical result is pretty interesting; they represent a nexus of some past and present major preoccupations of mine in guitar/rock built music: Punk Rock, Glam Rock, and the post-punk thereafter. They sound like a punk rock band with a serious glam influence. Not surprising. Glam had a huge influence on early punk--see New York Dolls--(which was mostly stripped, to its detriment, IMO, in hardcore.) The influences don't quite gel, and the move past punk isn't as paradigm-shifting as it is in Devoto's Magazine. But Cuddly Toys deserve a place in the post-punk pantheon, and also will provide a good springboard for future post-punk posts on punk on this blog.

There's more Diamond Dog Bowie in this than anything else. The Marc Bolan influence is there too...I have to say I can't really listen to whole albums of Marc Bolan. I certainly love a T. Rex song sprinkled in a mix here and there. And there's probably lots of bands that are much better than Cuddly Toys. I'll have to post the ones I know in the future, such as Virgin Prunes, The Sound, Sad Lovers and Giants, UK Decay, Danse Society, Wolfgang Press, Teardrop, not to mention some Brazilian and Svensk shit I got. (And Ero hinted at some Bunny-action.) But this is a good place to start. I feel good about it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?hnmmn5fkefj

RAPED? It's a raped-based economy.


Who are YOUR favorite post-punk bands? Marilyn Roxie has a kick-ass list here.

Safety Woman

An old friend (whose music is on one of the mixes posted this summer, under the artist name 'Phaedrider') sent me this the other day. Apparently he's been doing some circuit-bending, and video editing. Good combination.

Songs of Joy and Praises

Among my all-time favorite reggae albums. This was mixed by Lee Perry (tho only intermittently in dub style), and the musicians include Sly Dunbar and Ernest Ranglin; but the real heart of the Congos is the singers, whose shimmering, gorgeous harmonies make every song a spine-tingler.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ucmzwkjyzoz/The Congos - Heart of the Congos - 1977.zip