DJ RJ's ModCast

I like when I have a theme, and yesterday, I came up with a great theme — my idols. By that, i mean the musicians who have shaped my life and my creative process in certain ways that I can see, even when others can’t.

This, of course, implies “favourite artists of all time, ever”, but doesn’t necessarily imply “current top-X favourites” — nor does it imply that these are my favourite songs by these artists, as concern for time (I try to keep these casts under an hour) and flow/matching (not necessarily “beatmatching” — I’m also sure those of you who are well up on your muso trivia as I am have caught that I’ll make little in-jokes with song order, some jokes more obvious than others, I’m sure). For example, I tend not to listen to so much Queen these days, as I can get fairly weepy (having your favourite person in the world die when you’re ten can affect you), and even so, I rarely listen to “God Save the Queen” — but making it a closer to an opening of “Star-Spangled Bologna” just struck me as incredibly amusing.

2010-03-08
The Evolution Control Committee – The Star Spangled Bologna
Marc Bolan – Dandy In the Underworld
Daucus Karota – Raw Power
Iggy & The Stooges – Gimmie Danger
Gavin Friday – Man of Misfortune
DEVO – Be Stiff
Dexys Midnight Runners – Soul Finger
Rufus Wainwright – Greek Song
Danielle Dax – Fizzing Human Bomb
Japan – Talking Drum
The Who – Armenia City In the Sky
Cat Stevens – Lovely City (When Do You Laugh?)
David Bowie – London Bye Ta-Ta
Secret Affair – Only Madmen Laugh
Prince & the Revolution – America
Marc Almond – Brilliant Creatures
Queen – God Save the Queen

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Don’t judge me! You have no right to judge me!

I will argue this in the simplest way possible — it is well-established among people who study these things that suedeheads listened to glam rock, Slade was at one time promoted as a Skinhead band, and anybody who fails to see the musical evolution from The Who’s “My Generation” to Vox Pop’s “Just Like Your Mom” is only fooling themselves.

That said, is there anything better to scrub down a kitchen during the waning of your annual winter depression than Glam & Punk Rock? No, no, there really isn’t. You can try and argue with me, but you’ll be wrong. How do i know? It’s my podcast, and I said so. So :-p

Be glad I didn’t break out the Guns N’ Roses this week (as I could have easily reasoned their inclusion in this week’s cast — I’ve already included The Germs and Vox Pop, and Vox Pop included Don Bolles’ then-girlfriend Mary “Dinah Cancar” Simms, who not only briefly dated Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue, but who is also included in the thank-yous on Appetite For Destruction, along with her and Bolles’ later band, 45 Grave), and be glad I spared you the Rozz Williams (which I have been listening to a lot of this week, for some reason I can’t figure out — and who’s music I’d be able to reason into here not only because 45 Grave gets on nod on Christian Death’s first album, only Theatre of Pain, but also because Don Bolles is featured in the last known photo taken of Rozz Williams), and be glad I spared you This Is Where the Fish Lives (which is my own noise project, and which I would have reasoned into this by pointing out that I once slept on Don Bolles’ couch) — no, this is punk rock and glam at its … well, maybe not at its finest, but at its loudest, its most enthusiastic, and its least intelligent, or (as much as I love Marc Bolan) at least its least comprehensible.

2010-03-01
Slade – Get Down, Get With It
MC5 – Kick Out the Jams
The Stooges – T.V. Eye
Jayne County – Everyone’s An Asshole But Me
Sweet – Wig Wam Bam
Stiv Bators – Swingin’ A-Go-Go
Pansy Division – On Any Other Day (<-- and be glad I spared you all "Bill & Ted's Homosexual Adventure", because the last thing I need is somebody e-mailing me, telling me that they got fired for listening to this at work)
The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
The Germs - Forming
Vox Pop - Just Like Your Mom
New York Dolls - Trash
Cuddly Toys - You Keep Me Hangin' On
Raped - Moving Target
Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Love Comes In Spurts
Rocket From the Tombs - Sonic Reducer
Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missle F1-11
T Rex - Funky London Childhood

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If you missed me this month, I apologise. I seriously contemplated putting together a Valentine’s Day music cast, but most of this month, I’ve been struggling with allergies and other tasty shit, and while I did manage to get myself out of the apartment for Saturday, 13 February for Bloody Valentine’s Day at The Elbow Room, I wound up leaving earlier than my friends because even though it’s my apartment that I’m allergic to (or more accurately, something *in* said — I have tests coming up to determine what, but I’ve still made better cleaning efforts in the meantime), allergies can be exhausting.

This week, I start on a quirky downbeat and then immediately switch tones with some upbeat poppy stuff, because I’ve discovered that while I’m feeling like absolute hell, perky upbeat music actually has a sort of placebo effect on my mood. It doesn’t make everything completely better, but it helps some and I’m able to get things done.

 
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2010-02-22
Dusty Springfield – The Windmills of Your Mind
Christian Death – Haloes
QYPTHONE – Monturno No 5
The Revillos – Motorbike Beat
Stereo Total – Comme Un Garcon
Jet – Nothing To Do With Us
The Plastics – Top Secret Man
Mari Wilson – Ecstasy
Style Council – A Solid Bond In Your Heart
Blondie – Dreaming
The Moderns – Got To Have Pop
The Direct Hits – Soul Shoes
The Mo-Dettes – White Mouse Disco
Flamin’ Groovies – Shgake Some Action
Giddle & Boyd – Going Steady with Peggy Moffitt
Pizzicato Five – Goodbye Baby and Amen

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There is a very good reason that I haven’t uploading anything in a few weeks, and why this week’s cast may be best described as… well, “not Mod”. A very good reason, but not one I’m going to extrapolate on here because, frankly, if you don’t know, you don’t need to know. But it makes me feel better, and only four or five people seem to listen to this with any sort of regularity, it seems — and “five” is me being an egotist.

Think about it though: what could be more Modern than electronic music?

2010-01-25
The Buggles – Living In the Plastic Age
Fad Gadget – Speak To Me
Tuxedomoon – Desire
Shriekback – Beatles’ Zebra Crossing
Yoko Ono – Wlking On Thin Ice
Silicon Teens – Sun Flight
Stereo Total – Dans le Parc
Sylvester – Band of Gold
Colourbox – You Keep Me Hangin’ On
DEVO – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Berlin – The Metro
Vicious Pink – My Private Tokyo
Japan – Life In Tokyo

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As much as it shames me to admit this, there isn’t really any excuse for this to be as late as it is, but it is. There are a few reasons I could use, but honestly, it just feels like a cop-out, as perfectly valid as those reasons appear on paper, were they to come from another.

I decided to do something different withthis one, and so it’s all instrumentals and minimal-voice pieces.

Also, I have no excuse for uploading 30 November’s cast again last week. I just fixed that.

 
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2009-12-14
Pizzicato 5 – Trailer Music
Japan – Voices Raised In Welcome, Hands Held In Prayer
Brian Eno – Here Come the Warm Jets
The Tape-beatles – Grave Implications
The Evolution Control Committee – Hurdy Gurdy Men
The Monochrome Set – The Etcetera Stroll
Style Council – Our Favourite Shop
Jean-Jacques Perrey – Soul City
Pierre Henry – Teen Tonic
Booker T & the MG’s – Mo’ Onions
Giddle & Boyd – Going Steady With Peggy Moffit
Les Cappiccino – Move Move Move
QYPTHONE – Tension Attention, Please / Modernica In the House
Pizzicato 5 – Readymade FM

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Tired. Going to bed.

2009-11-30
The Kinks – Dewdicated Follower of Fashion
Cyrkle – Penny Arcade
Donovan – Season of the Witch
The Beau Brummels – Laugh Laugh
Marc Almond & Gene Pitney – Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart
Fosca – The Agony Without the Ecstasy
Gavin Friday – Next
Jacques Brel – Jacky
David Bowie – Amsterdam
Gitane DeMone – Gloomy Sunday
Segue
Dali’s Car – Create & Melt
Japan – European Son
Jobriath – World Without End
Marc Bolan - Dandy In the Underworld

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