BBC RADIO 6
Henry Rollins in for Iggy Pop
27 January 2017
Hello BBC Radio 6 listener and fellow music fan. Here we are, back together again as I do my best to fill in for the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of Rock and Roll, Iggy Pop. I hope you dug last week’s show. I think we have yet another tremendous batch of tracks for you.
This show rolls out on Friday night, right? Easily the best night of the week. At that time, you might getting ready to get out and hit the streets and this is the soundtrack that plays in the background as you make your plans. I think the streets of cities in England are some of the best in the world for walking around at night.
Right now as I write this, it’s Saturday night, January 21st in Los Angeles. I am listening to a Joy Division bootleg called Die Kalten Winde Des Winters. It’s from January 15, 1980, in Koln, Germany. It’s a 2LP set and while it’s not the best quality, it’s still really cool. If you are a fan of JD bootleg albums, you have probably noticed that they keep coming out but they are usually the same shows over and over. Leeds, Preston, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, etc. This record, for some reason, rarely turns up. It sounds like the band is playing along through a steady whine of feedback. I don’t know what it is. This is the one show I have not seen pressed and re-pressed every few years. It could be because of all the extra noise. Of all the JD bootlegs I have ever heard, this is one of the harder going sonically but it’s still interesting enough to put on. I met the great music writer Jon Savage weeks ago. We spoke briefly about Joy Division. He said something that he got from actually being there, and that I got from listening to a lot of records. He said that they were one band in the studio and quite another live. I agree. Obviously, in the studio, when the band was working with Martin Hannett, it’s going to be quite a different thing. The studio work was tremendous and live it was, at least from what I can gather by just listening, one of the most intense bands ever.
I don’t hang out with people all that much but I spend a lot of time listening to music, so not only is the music my friend but so are the records. I don’t think you can ever have too many. If I am off the road, that’s probably what I’m doing on a weekend night, checking out the tunes. It never gets old and it never doesn’t make sense.
I try to listen to minimum five records every day, or at least five things—cassettes, CDs and singles count as well. That’s a lot of listening and often impossible to do when I am on the road but I try. My tour of about thirteen months ended five days ago. It’s not easy to be here. I would much rather be on the bus with a show waiting miles down the road. When I am here, I try to get a lot of listening done.
In case you have ever checked out the other times I have been on Radio 6 and wondered if there was any concept behind the assemblage, there is. Here is an explanation. When I put together tracks for a radio show, I basically make it for one person. Like when you make someone a mix tape and you agonize over each track, the order, etc. This is what I do and it often takes a lot of time. The person in my mind I am making the show for is alone in a room in a town or city where he or she doesn’t feel all that welcome or accepted. The locals might not understand but the music does, it always does. As the songs play, everything gets better. Never take your records for granted. Treat them with care and they shall do the same for you. As Sun Ra once said, “Be careful, the music is listening.”
We start out the show with Sister Midnight from The Idiot, for at least two reasons. It is a perfect night time song and let’s not forget whose show this is. Earlier tonight, I listened to The Idiot, a pressing out of New Zealand that I found weeks ago. Last year, I saw Iggy play four times in three countries. To hear him and the band totally pull off Mass Production was amazing.
There are no tracks on our show that you can’t find out more about online. That being said, let’s highlight a few of them because not only is music great to listen to, it’s also great to talk about.
There are a lot of albums by Gary Wilson and in my opinion, they are all worth checking out. If you dig tonight’s GW track, the album it came from, You Think You Really Know Me is a good place to start. An original is really expensive but the folks at Feeding Tube Records have put out a great sounding reissue that’s totally worth it. What a cool label!
As did last week, we listened to a track from the yet to be released album by Crystal Fairy, featuring the Melvins teaming up with Teresa Suarez, aka Terri Gender Bender. The album is out later this year on Ipecac Recordings and it’s really great. Thanks again to press person Monica who let us have the tracks. We were very fortunate to get these to you. http://ipecac.com
Also, I have to put a word in for Soccer Team. The band was, at its core, Melissa Quinley and Ryan Nelson. Now the band has been fleshed out by Dennis Kane on drums and Jason Hutto on second guitar. Just my opinion, there is not one bad song in the bunch. Ryan is a brilliant songwriter. The new-ish album, Real Lessons in Cynicism, is the excellent follow up to the ‘Volunteered’ Civility and Professionalism album. Tonight, we rock a song from their three song 7”. All of these records are on the mighty Dischord label, owned and operated by Ian MacKaye. Oh, I have to add this. Jason Hutto is in a really cool band called The Aquarium, they also have records on Dischord.
No way can I let you go without talking about Alex Cameron. One extraordinarily talented musician. He’s out of Australia. He has made records with George Nicholas and John Hassell under the name Seekae that are excellent. Their album The Worry is a great place to start. In 2014, Alex released Jumping the Shark. It’s a concept album about a has-been plotting a comeback. It’s is SO good. Secretly Canadian has re-issued it. If you like the track from the album we play tonight, the rest of the record is as great. The videos are not to be missed.
Tonight’s show was put together over several days in backstage areas of venues in at least a few countries. It was played over and over again, changes were made and after several drafts, it was done. BBC Radio 6 listener, I never phone it in.
Thanks to Adam Dineen for engineering and producing the show. Thanks to Radio 6 for letting me in the building. I can’t explain how cool it is for me to do a BBC Radio show! To fill in for the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of Rock and Roll is a rare honor that is not lost on me. Thanks for listening. Below are all the tracks.
01. Iggy Pop - Sister Midnight / The Idiot
02. Alternative TV - Action Time Vision / The Image Has Cracked
03. Magic Michael – Millionaire / single
04. Prince Jammy - Jammy’s No Fool / Prince Jammy vs. Crucial Bunny
05. Glaxo Babies - Who Killed Bruce Lee / Dreams Interrupted
06. Kraftwerk - Das Modell / Die Mensch Maschine
07. The Meters - He Bite Me / Good Old Funky Music
08. Gary Wilson – I Wanna Lose Control / You Think You Really Know Me
09. David Bowie - V-2 Schneider / Heroes
10. Ronnie Dee - Action Packed / Rockin’ Bones
11. The MC5 - Looking At You (single version) / The Big Bang!
12. Fats Waller - You Run Your Mouth, I’ll Run My Business / Last Years (1940-1943)
13. The Cravats – Precinct / Small Wonder Punk Singles Collection
14. Roky Erickson - The Interpreter / Gremlins Have Pictures
15. Walter Steding – Hound Dog / Walter Steding
16. Miles Davis - Black Satin / On the Corner
17. Miriam Makeba – Oxgam / Live At Bern’s Salonger, Stockholm, Sweden, 1966
18. Birthday Party - Little Doll – 11-06-81 Eindhoven Holland
19. Crystal Fairy – Chiseler / Crystal Fairy
20. Tim Presley - Underwater Rain / The Wink
21. Cluster – Marzipan / Zuckerzeit
22. Alex Cameron – Mongrel / Jumping the Shark
23. Lost Sounds - Throw Away / Black Wave
24. Lowtide – Held / Lowtide
25. Soccer Team - Letter To Saint Thomas Aquinas / 3 song 7”
26. Damaged Bug - Horse Egg 2 / The Tarot of Personal Experience
27. Nico - The Sphinx / The Drama of Exile
28. Meatbodies – Rotten / single
29. Devo - Be Stiff / B Stiff EP
30. X Ray Spex - I Can’t Do Anything / Germ Free Adolescents
31. Ludus – My Cherry Is In Sherry / The Seduction
32. Buzzcocks - Airwaves Dream / Singles Going Steady
