MMMCCC

https://www.wuvt.vt.edu/playlists/set/29941





my first RADIOTHON show for WUVT: 

MMMCCC
(magic, monsters, myths, conspiracies, creeps, & cryptids)

Time		Artist	Track	Album
09:04:13		Kate Bush	How To Be Invisable	Aerial
09:09:43		R.E.M.	Man on the Moon	Automatic for the People
09:19:21		The Cure	Lullaby	Disintigration
09:21:19		The Waterboys	Corn Circles	Dream Harder
09:26:27		Bob Marley & The Wailers	Babylon System	Survival
09:32:06		The Police	Synchronicity I	Synchronicity
09:35:14		David Bowie	Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)	Scary Monsters
09:40:18		The Police	Synchronicity II	Synchronicity
09:48:37		The B-52's	Planet Claire	The B-52's
09:53:10		A Flock of Seagulls	I Ran	A Flock of Seagulls
09:58:09		Pixies	Motorway To Roswell	Trompe Le Monde
10:04:24		Led Zeppelin	Immigrant Song	Led Zeppelin III
10:07:05		PJ Harvey	Meet Ze Monsta	To Bring You My Love
10:10:06		Blue Öyster Cult	Godzilla	Spectres
10:17:25		You All Everybody	I Am The Smoke	Lockedown
10:22:33		Cream	Tales of Brave Ulysses	Disraeli Gears
10:25:12		This Mortal Coil	Song to the Siren	It'll End in Tears
10:29:06		XTC	Mermaid Smiled	Skylarking
10:33:41		Concrete Blonde	Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)	Bloodletting
10:39:12		Warren Zevon	Werewolves Of London	Excitable Boy
10:42:26		Edgar Winter Group	Frankenstein	They Only Come Out At Night
10:49:00		Nina Hagen	Alptraum	Unbehagen
10:55:45		The Soft Boys	Only The Stones Remain	Underwater Moonlight
10:58:33		Spinal Tap	Stonehenge	This is Spinal Tap
11:06:19		Radiohead	Burn The Witch	Moon Shaped Pool
11:09:51		Beck	Chemtrails	Modern Guilt
11:16:42		Stevie Wonder	Superstition	Talking Book
11:21:13		Prince	Dear Mr. Man	Musicology
11:25:15		Madonna	Illuminati	Rebel Heart
11:36:49		Sinéad O'Connor	Troy (Pulsedriver remix)	Dark Trance Vs. Neo Goth
11:37:06		W&W	Bigfoot	Amsterdam Music Festival 2014
11:40:12		Basto & Natasha Bedingfield	Unicorn	single
11:43:39		DJ Dado	X-Files Theme	Pure Moods
11:49:47		Fleetwood Mac	Rhiannon	Fleetwood Mac
11:53:51		The Fall	C.R.E.E.P.	The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall
11:56:46		Super Furry Animals	Chupacabras	Radiator
11:59:33		Radiohead	Creep	Pablo Honey

afterlife

followup to my cycle of life show, 

songs about the afterlife:

https://www.wuvt.vt.edu/playlists/set/29067

Time		Artist	Track	Album
09:05:06		Elton John	Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding	Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
09:12:02		Robyn Hitchcock	Where Do You Go When You Die?	Storefront Hitchcock
09:19:08		T. Rex	Cosmic Dancer	Electric Warrior
09:23:35		Aerosmith	Dream On	Pandora's Box
09:28:00		Led Zeppelin	Stairway to Heaven	Led Zeppelin IV
09:36:03		Bob Dylan	Knockin' On Heaven's Door	Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
09:38:50		Tin Machine	Heaven's In Here	Tin Machine
09:48:34		Van Morrison	Inarticulate Speech of the Heart No. 1	Inarticulate Speech of the Heart
09:49:23		Neville Marriner, Academy of St Martin in the Fields	Requiem K. 626: Introitus / Dies Irae / Rex Tremendae Majestatis / Confutatis / Lacrymosa	Amadeus
10:01:30		The Beatles	Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows	Love
10:04:30		The Beatles	Helter Skelter	The Beatles (White Album)
10:09:01		The Beatles	Across The Universe	Let It Be
10:12:34		The Beatles	Good Night	The Beatles (White Album)
10:18:41		The Mekons	Heaven And Back	Rock 'n' Roll
10:22:04		Bad Brains	Return To Heaven	I Against I
10:25:25		The Clash	Up In Heaven (Not Only Here)	Sandinista!
10:29:53		INXS	All The Voices	The Swing
10:35:56		The Armoires	Playing With The Lights	Incidental Lightshow
10:44:48		Lou Reed	Heavenly Arms	The Blue Mask
10:49:34		David Bowie	Blackstar	Blackstar
11:01:07		Pink Floyd	Lucifer Sam	The Piper At the Gates of Dawn
11:04:17		Squirrel Nut Zippers	Hell	Hot
11:07:15		Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians	Serpent At The Gates Of Wisdom	Respect
11:11:24		Sting	Saint Augustine In Hell	Ten Summoner's Tales
11:18:07		Genesis	In Limbo	In The Beginning
11:21:40		Roxy Music	The End Of The Line	Siren
11:26:43		case/lang/veirs	Atomic Number	case/lang/veirs
11:29:35		New Order	Dreams Never End	Movement
11:32:42		Stevie Wonder	Higher Ground	Innervisions
11:36:30		The Smiths	Asleep	Louder Than Bombs
11:40:27		Simple Minds	The Big Sleep	New Gold Dream
11:47:23		Simon & Garfunkel	El Condor Pasa (If I Could)	Bridge Over Troubled Water
11:50:23		Van Morrison	Into The Mystic	Moondance
11:53:47		Frank Zappa	Blessed Relief	The Grand Wazoo

cradle to the grave

songs about the cycle of life.  




https://www.wuvt.vt.edu/playlists/set/29062

Time		Artist	Track	Album
12:02:02		The Godfathers	Birth, School, Work, Death	Birth, School, Work, Death
12:05:44		Hüsker Dü	These Important Years	Warehouse: Songs and Stories
12:09:31		Talking Heads	Once in a Lifetime	Remain in Light
12:15:38		Archie Roach	A Child Was Born Here	Looking For Butter Boy
12:19:54		The Lovin' Spoonful	Daydream	Daydream
12:22:08		Joni Mitchell	Little Green	Blue
12:25:31		The Smiths	The Hand that Rocks the Cradle	The Smiths
12:30:02		Harry Chapin	Cats In The Cradle	Verities & Balderdash
12:33:41		Cat Stevens	Father & Son	Tea for the Tillerman
12:37:20		Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young	Teach Your Children	Déjà Vu
12:40:08		David Bowie	Kooks	Hunky Dory
12:42:53		Billy Joel	Vienna	The Stranger
12:48:09		Bob Dylan	Forever Young	Planet Waves
12:53:09		Peter, Paul, & Mary	Puff, The Magic Dragon	Moving
12:56:04		The Beach Boys	Wouldn't It Be Nice	Pet Sounds
12:58:28		Tom Waits	I Don't Wanna Grow Up	Bone Machine
13:01:56		R.E.M.	Catapult	Murmur
13:05:48		U2	Stories for Boys	Boy
13:08:40		The Strokes	Someday	Is This It?
13:11:51		The Who	My Generation	Who's Better, Who's Best
13:16:50		The Clash	Lost In The Supermarket	London Calling
13:20:34		Bruce Springsteen	Growin' Up	Greetings From Asbury Park
13:23:41		The Undertones	Teenage Kicks	The Undertones
13:26:10		David Bowie	Teenage Wildlife	Scary Monsters
13:32:43		Sonic Youth	Teenage Riot	Daydream Nation
13:39:28		The Who	Baba O'Reilly	Who's Next
13:46:36		Warren Austin	Don't Throw Your Young Life Away	Young Life
13:50:58		The Smiths	Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now	Hatful Of Hollow
13:54:30		The Pretenders	Middle of the Road	Learning To Crawl
14:00:17		The Byrds	Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)	Turn! Turn! Turn!
14:04:05		Simon & Garfunkel	A Hazy Shade Of Winter	Bookends
14:06:23		David Bowie	Changes	Hunky Dory
14:09:55		Neil Young	Old Man	Harvest
14:14:35		Grateful Dead	Touch Of Grey	In The Dark
14:20:21		The Beatles	When I'm Sixty-Four	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
14:22:58		Elvis Costello And The Attractions	Battered Old Bird	Blood & Chocolate
14:28:48		Pulp	Help The Aged	This Is Hardcore
14:33:12		Arcade Fire	In the Backseat	Funeral
14:39:17		Frank Sinatra	My Way	Sinatra
14:46:17		Laura Nyro	And When I Die	The First Songs
14:48:37		George Harrison	All Things Must Pass	All Things Must Pass
14:51:54		The The	Love Is Stronger Than Death	Dusk
14:56:18		Sufjan Stevens	Death With Dignity	Carrie & Lowell

incidental lightshow

The Armoires reveal a great big musical world with the haunting heartfelt harmonic convergence of this eclectic power pop diary.   Originally brought together as part of a Talking Heads cover band that never happened, lead singers Rex Broome and Christina Bulbenko began to work on songs that Rex had written over the years.  This 'coffee house' duo expanded when Christina's son Ian began helping them record a demo.  As the sessions progressed, the band gained confidence; but after their first public performance, Ian was killed in a car accident.  In the aftermath of the tragedy, the band decided to continue with the recordings in his memory with Christina's daughter Larysa contributing viola and vocals; her bandmate Sean Barillas from symphonic metal band Mantis (referenced in "Playing With The Lights") on drums; multi-instrumentalist Nate Myer adding guitar, bass, keys, drums, and vocals; plus Derek Hanna and Clifford Ulrich who played with Rex in Skates & Rays (who get name dropped in "Doubtful Sound") on drums and on bass (and vocals) respectively.  Three of the songs ("Fort Ashby", "Unhaunted", and "Norma Corona, What Have You Done?") retain performances by Ian on drums.  Christina plays keyboards and Rex plays guitar, harmonica, and mandolin.  Recording took place at Burbank Music Academy Sound Studio, Causality Studios in North Hollywood, Roundhouse Recording in Encino (where producer Glen Laughlin sat in on guitar and bass), and "at home" in Burbank.  Much of the final mix for 'Incidental Lightshow' was done in Toronto by Alan Fraser.  

The Armoires have developed a network of likeminded musicians in the Burbank area with their monthly showcase “Big Stir: Power Pop and More” at the California Institute of Abnormalarts in North Hollywood, featuring some of the folks that helped to create their debut album and who share their genre defying mindset.  Christina considers: “We didn’t know how to start, and we didn’t know if we could go on after losing Ian.  In the end we had to. And now we’ve found ourselves welcomed into this beautiful community of amazing musicians and songwriters who get what we were trying to do all along. We’re flabbergasted, humbled, and happy to be home.”


The myriad musical styles in this mellifluous wardrobe run the gamut through Americana, sunshine pop, garage, throwback psychedelia, blue eyed soul, surf rock, new wave, shoegaze, and country.  Sometimes within a song. 'Incidental Lightshow' gets its title from the emotional centerpiece of the album, "Playing With The Lights", a touching tribute to Ian and the synchronous signs that the band experienced after his passing.  Mysterious dancing lights and mantis appearances leading to the question:  "Are you laughing in the stars and playing with the lights?".  Christina helped to compose the lyrics and Nate contributed the song's exploratory bridge.  

Each song has an emotional resonance that ties a thread through the entire album.  What are obviously very personal references seem somehow universal.  Although the lines are often blurred with alternately poignant and priceless phrases, there is a sense of a grieving process.  There is denial ("No one is to blame because no one is responsible at all") in the new wave powerpop of "Responsible", anger ("Violent revolution on behalf of the non-famous people!") in the surf rock complaints of "Norma Corona, What Have You Done?", bargaining ("Hearts might heal, but you can’t unbreak a home") in the domestic drama of "What You Don't Wish For", sadness ("Doesn’t get much lower than the waterline at Doubtful Sound") lurking under the surface of a doomed romance (or perhaps a new musical venture?) with a Mustang-less Sally, and acceptance ("Sometimes you feel like you get what you’re wishing for; sometimes you don’t even know") in the fleeting pop of the sweet album closer "Double Blades".       

Rex reveals:  “Our songs are stories.  Whether they’re dreamlike or straightforward, they always revolve around some kind of narrative, and above all, characters. The way Christina and I trade off lead vocals and come together for harmonies really allows us to bring those characters to life. There’s so much untapped potential in that male/female vocal approach. For all the classic duets in pop music, you don’t hear it much in bands. The New Pornographers are a big inspiration. Fleetwood Mac and X, as different as they are, both did it brilliantly. Those bands dig into multiple perspectives within a single song, and do it magically. That’s the starting point for The Armoires.”

In case you don't know, an armoire is a type of fancy cabinet with lots of drawers and compartments.  The songs themselves are thick with metaphors and layers of meaning that reveal more with each listen.  Although you can look too deep.  Is the "Wire Girl" an art piece, an old sketch, or a dilapidated ship?  I originally thought "Newberry Spectacle" was a reference to the matching glasses that Rex and Christina wear (instead of some kind of art contest?), or that Norma Corona might be a reference to the murdered Mexican activist.  I still like to think that the crass countrified capitulation of  "Live And Direct" could be subtitled "The Chronicles of Ventura".  And that line "he can't keep it up, she can't keep it down" is too perfect.  


The first time I ever heard of an armoire was in the famous "Soup Nazi" episode of 'Seinfeld'.  As with the many wonderful recipes that the titular character had stashed away in his armoire, you'll be amazed at the variety of musical flavors; and like armoire-stealing "street toughs" Bob and Ray, you'll be intrigued by the gorgeous inlay and insist on taking it home for yourself.  And that's all there is to it.  





http://www.thearmoires.com/

lyrics









"Fort Ashby" opens the album with a flood of childhood memories of the Mineral Country Fair in West Virginia.  


Out-of-tune piano, cylinder gramophone
Katydids, calliopes, big machines that buzz and groan
Down at the County Fair
There’s music in the air
It’s like a Tom Waits tune but with a different singer
It’s a great big world and it seems to me (it’s coming back to me)
It’s much bigger and it’s so much smaller than it
Ever used to be
In my grandma and grandfather’s backyard
They built a forty-foot slide
All I remember is the light
There’s a funhouse called Star Warz, it’s spelled with a “z”
Copyright infringement, it’s all coming back to me
Here comes a big bass drum
To rock my skeleton
There’s candy in the air, it’s slipping through my fingers
It’s a great big world and it seems to me
It’s much bigger and it’s so much smaller than it
Ever used to be
Now they tell me that it’s monster trucks and
Tractor pulls in the night
All I remember is the light
Put me in the moonwalk, I can’t even stand
Take me to the stage to see Daddy in a country band
Some kid who’s half my size
She won the livestock prize
She had a little lamb
And then the lamb got bigger
It’s a great big world and it seems to me
It’s much bigger and it’s so much smaller than it
Ever used to be
Got my baby beside me going eastbound
On a cross-country flight
All I can think of is the light
It’s coming back to me…





"Unhaunted" describes someone obsessed with the memory of a departed love.  


Empty house on my street with the doors chained up tight
And a window with candles that burn late at night
Children quicken their pace as they walk on by
From all the stories they’ve heard and they’re too young to die
And I miss her so badly I wish I were there
To see the spectral lights and feel the chill in the air
Empty bottle of wine and nobody to toast
I’m so jealous of other people’s ghosts
When I want her to haunt me she leaves me alone
No creaking floor, no flickering flame
Black candelabra and black cat bone
No disembodied voice to breathe my name
Got a box with a lock of her hair that I saved
And a bag filled with dirt that I took from her grave
Halloween once again and I’m here by myself
While her ghost is out haunting somebody else
When I want her to haunt me she leaves me alone
No creaking floor, no flickering flame
Black candelabra and black cat bone
No disembodied voice to breathe my name
Unhaunted
She’s leaving me
Unhaunted
Don’t want to be
Unhaunted
And she had such faith in the world beyond
But I’m truly afraid that she’s truly gone
She won’t come to me as some tender wraith
In a column of vapor with her face
When I want her to haunt me she leaves me alone
No creaking floor, no flickering flame
Black candelabra and black cat bone
No disembodied voice to breathe my name
It’s November the First under a hangover sky
She’s bound to leave me unhaunted whatever I try
All my breaking and entering won’t raise the dead
And I’ll still be unhaunted tonight in her bed
All the leaves on the ground blow around in the wind
Like a family of rodents relieved of their skin
Halloween on a dirt road, 1983
I believed it was real, it could happen to me




The careening groove of "Caterwaul" could fuel a rave.  


Come down, catercorner
Carry me across the square
Come down, catastrophic
Crushed and quite beyond repair
Come down, calla lilies
Cold and lovely in a vase
Come down, cantilever
Can you lever me in place?
But if it’s not your time
You can’t make it your time
If it’s not your time
Come down, cat o’ nine tails
Count again, it’s more like ten
Come down, catatonic
Cannot wake her up again
And if it’s not her time
You can’t make it her time
Can’t make it her time
Come down, Cosa Nostra
Clarity and Claritin
Come down, catalytic
Car exhaust to do you in
Come down, cantaloupe and
Honey, do it while you can
Come down, caterwaul and
Honey can I be your man?
And if it’s not your time
You can’t make it your time
If it’s not your time
Caterwaul, catewaul, caterwaul












'Incidental Lightshow'
full album:



Fort Ashby
Caterwaul
Responsible
Unhaunted
What You Don't Wish For
Playing With The Lights
Wire Girl
Doubtful Sound
Live And Direct
Newberry Spectacle
Norma Corona, What Have You Done?
Double Blades








Velvet Ties interview: