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Category Archives: Captain Beefheart

Fanfare for a New Mixtape

A show based on William’s finest ever mixtape? Of course! The title of the show and the mixtape is Fanfare for a New Mixtape, with a nod to Igor Stravinsky. Boom!

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The Magic Band and Captain Beefheart

Cristy is already sick tonight, so I may as well dedicate our two-hour radio show to the memories and music of Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.

Ah.

The Magic Band and their sometime singer.

The Magic Band and their sometime singer.

 

Fanfare for the Speeding Bullet: Experimental Vocal Music

Mutatis Mutandis by Herbert Brun.

Mutatis Mutandis by Herbert Brun.

As a sub for Fanfare for the Speeding Bullet, the avant-garde show, I had it in mind to do an entirely a capella show focusing on experimental music for voice. I really wondered what two hours of anticommunicative voices would feel like. People talking to you who did not want anything from you. Halfway through, the usual host, who was supposed to be taking the night off, showed up and hovered nervously. Perhaps to Jason I was playing the wrong avant garde music. But isn’t that the point?

I include the complete playlist below and reconstruct the broadcast as well.

PART ONE

01 Central Park Transverse Vocal 1    0:43    Henry Flynn
Slender Fungus    3:36    Tones On Tail
Breaking Up Immediately Recognizable Units of Significance Is Hard to Do    4:27    William DeFotis
Universal Drainage    1:24    Phil Minton
That’s Halloween    1:47    Duplex Planet
Zweiter Teil    3:13    Kurt Schwitters
Dritter Teil    2:43    Kurt Schwitters
FIDDLE    0:05
My, I’m Large    3:58    The Bobs
Anselm_Berrigan    5:55    Anselm Berrigan
Maledetto    14:33    Kenneth Gaburo
The Flow of (u)    23:01    Kenneth Gaburo

PART  TWO

Lifting Leeks    2:44    Phil MintonShadowSong (1979)    5:10    Joan La Barbara
Three Lies    3:01    Phil Minton
Dialogue ”Lonnie Cooks Quail”    0:22    Dialogue with Glen Fitzgerald
Todor Todorka :trad.Bulgarian    3:11    Amasong
Unfortunate    0:14    Exene Cervenka
Erin (1980)    6:56    Joan La Barbara
Circlesong Two    4:14    Bobby McFerrin
Son Of Byford    0:27    Run-D.M.C.
Josquin: Petite Camusette    1:02    The Hillard Ensemble
01 Emergency    3:41    Sweet Honey In The Rock
02 Our Side Won    5:10    Sweet Honey In The Rock
03 Ode to the International Debt    3:16    Sweet Honey In The Rock
04 Are My Hands Clean_    2:56    Sweet Honey In The Rock
Well    2:08    Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
Ballad    2:15    Phil Minton
Dough Song 1    0:47    Phil Minton
Dialogue ”Acid Propaganda”    0:59    Dialogue with Lily Tomlin, Alan Alda & Ben Stiller
Gil    1:22    Don Van Vliet
Dough Song 13    0:35    Phil Minton
ENOUGH    0:02
Wafflehead    4:04    Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
Whole Lotta Love    3:26    The Bobs

Rock Instrumentals

Rock music without singing? Wait. What? The point? You mean like, surf? No? Early 1970s 12-minute jams with the verses cut out? No? Well? Listen as William attempts to answer these questions from Cristy. And then she throws him off the mike and takes over with the Rock Inbox.

Sing no evil.

Sing no evil.

Stump the Rock Geeks

A pledge drive show during which we claim we can play any requested song, and give away a copy of Ripped, by Greg Kot. Success..?

Well, the station is still on the air.

Just try it!

Just try it!

25 True Things About Me

MC Willy G PhD ABD
MC Willy G PhD ABD

1. I was born in a cross-fire hurricane.

2. If I were a swan, I’d be gone.

3. I wish I were a Kellogg’s cornflake. I’d rather be a hammer than a nail.

4. I need a dumptruck to unload my head.

5. Superman or Green Lantern ain’t got nothing on me.

6. I’m gonna fly my freak flag high.

7. I’m a snow-covered mountain in an empty room.

8. I should pour through the keyhole or evaporate completely.

9. I have tried marijuana. I get nervous every time: There will come a knocking at the door.

10. I am a man who will fight for your honor.

11. I’d like to be under the sea.

12. When I was an astronaut, an asteroid ht the earth and prematurely ended my career.

13. My tissue is rotting where the rats chew my bones. My eye socket’s empty. I’m a space invader, I’ll be a rock-and-rolling bitch for you. This film is a saddening bore, because I wrote it ten times or more. I’d like to be a gallery and put you all inside my show.

14. I live above a grocer’s store owned by an Austrian. He often calls me down for tea. He jokes about his broken English, tries to be a friend to me. But for all my years of reading conversation, I stand without a word to say.

15. My death waits there among the leaves.

16. I’ve got an electric guitar and half a bottle of warm beer. I’ve got some funny ideas about what sounds good.

17. I may be hungry but I sure ain’t weird.

18. Eight miles out of Memphis and I got no spare.

19. I’ve got a crystal ball, a divining rod, a magnifying glass and a pack of dogs.

20. The north side of my town faced east, and the east was facing south.

21. Memories of it still keep calling and calling, but forget it all, I know I will.

22. My wheels never touched the road.

23. It’s awfully considerate of you to think of me here, and I’m much obliged to you for making it clear that I’m not here. I’ve been looking all over the place for a place for me, but it ain’t anywhere. It just ain’t anywhere.

24. I’m a Citizens for Boysenberry Jam fan.

25. If I were a better man, I’d understand the spaces between friends.

Songs That Name Their Bands

Cristy and I have had five radio shows so far, and we’re hitting our stride.

January 3: Power pop
January 10: Worst guitar solos ever
January 17: Covers
January 24: Songs less than two minutes in length

Although Cristy and I had to resort to sound-collage, we were able to use almost everybody’s suggestions for the radio show featuring songs that refer to their bands by name. Except for Zach’s, and he wins the Golden Geek of the Week Award for naming a song I had never heard of and couldn’t find: “Black ’47.” Scott listened online and said the music was “baaaad,” and, as much as I relish arguing with Scott, I have a nagging suspicion that he may have a point. Beefheart’s “The Blimp” (suggested by Mark E. Nslin) caused a bit of on-air friction between the two hosts. Even 15 seconds of “Iron Maiden” by Iron Maiden was way too much for me.

Suggestions are welcome. Here’s what we have so far.

* SONGS THAT NAME THEIR OWN BANDS

Monochrome Set
Jocko Homo (Are We Not Men?)
Give it to the Soft Boys
Big Country
Talk Talk
Have a Cigar
Belle & Sebastian/My Wandering Days Are Over
In the Court of the Crimson King
Red Hot Chili Peppers [song off the first album]
Clash City Rockers
Black Sabbath
Chaka Khan
Mommy, What’s a Funkadelic? (does it really say the word?)
Killer Queen
They Might be Giants
Wang Chung
Who Are You?
Wonder Boy
Show Biz Kids

This show is now online.