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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I’ve been shaking a cold and too congested to even think until earlier today. OK, I may have been coherent enough to draw penises, but if you’re a personal friend of mine, that makes total sense to you.

Hre’s this week’s set list, and tomorrow, i am heading down to Direct Hits for New Year’s Eve — where I will not be DJin or selling top-quality crap, but will instead be drinking of top-quality booze and wondering why more Mod men don’t at least admit that they’re bisexual (as I am often fated to wonder; but hey, it’s better than going to the “gay night” and being hit on by lesbians and The Straight Guy Hunting Down a “Cute Lesbian” for his “Curious” Girlfriend).

 
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2009-12-28
France Gall – Jazz A Go Go
Violent Femmes – Gone Daddy Gone
John’s Children – Come And Play With Me In the Garden
Jacques Dutronc – Et Moi, Et Moi, Et Moi
The Creation – Biff Bang Pow!
The Prisoners – A Taste of Pink
Radio Birdman – Burn My Eye
The Loons – Getting Better
The King Kongs – Leave Me Alone
The Love Me Nots – Heart On a Chain
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Deanna
DMZ – Rosalyn
Jefferson Airplane – Tobacco Road
The Solarflares – Hold On
Sharon Tandy – Daughter of the Sun
The Lipstick Killers – Hindu Gods of Love
Jayne County – I’m In Love With Dusty Springfield
Gate Ball – You Really Got Me

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To both listeners, if you’re hoping for Christmas music, I’m going to put that off until December 21 — in theory, I could do a new cast of Christmas music every week, and have it all different, but I want to save stuff for next year.

As for this week’s set, I know I don’t like to do any one band two weeks in a row, and i think I did that last week, too, but sometimes a set works best with a specific song or two, and it cannot be helped.

2009-12-07
Cat Stevens – Baby Get Your Head Screwed On
The Koobas – The First Cut Is the Deepest
P.P. Arnold – Angel of the Morning
Dexys Midnight Runners – My Life in England
The Kinks – Victoria
Brian Auger – Ellis Island
The Fall – Prole Art Threat
Nino Ferrer – les Blues Anti-Bourgeois
Blue Ox Babes – Yes Let’s
Manual Scan – Nothing Can Be Everything
The High Number – I’m the Face
The Jam – Down In the Tube Station At Midnight
The Inmates – Dirty Water
The Chords – The British Way of Life
Secret Affair – Streetlife Parade

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…at least that’s how it works out in my experiences. Yes, Communists and Socialists get laid more; I’m still not 100% on how that works out, but it’s totally true.

So I’ve got a new WordPress theme for the site and I’ve decided that the cast is going to be more ‘My Week in Music” — at least until I get bored with that concept. And hey, better start that now then two weeks ago, when it would have been a lot of Leonard Cohen and Rufus Wainwright. Unfortunately, only part of the cast really fits my last week in any specific way, and that is in two ways:

1) after an entire adolesence and young adulthood spent hating Morrissey, I’m starting to like Morrissey. Thankfully, I don’t see myself turning into one of those insane pod-persons who seem dead certain that Morrissey Can Do No Wrong, musically or otherwise, but the man’s not a terrible songwriter. Of course, as a singer myself, i have to admit that I like Morrissey better as a songwriter than as a singer.

2) I have new Docs. Made in England, Oxblood red, and sized UK6 (U$ Men’s 7) — technically I’m a UK5 wide, but try finding those. Anywhere. Little Boy’s section or otherwise.

 
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2009-11-23
Cat Stevens – Matthew & Son
Velvet Underground – European Son
David Bowie – London Bye Ta-Ta
Dexys Midnight Runners – T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia)
Television – (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For the Devil
Franz Ferdinand – Evil and a Heathen
Powder – Magical Jack
Neil’s Children – Getting Evil In the Playground
Morrissey – Suedehead
Segue
Madness – Nightboat To Cairo
The Coventry Automatics – Concrete Jungle
Symarip – These Boots Are Made For Walking (Stompin’)
Alexei Sayle & Radical Posture – Doctor Marten’s Boots

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OK, yes, I know I was going to post this yesterday, but eh, shit comes up. Actually, yesterday, I spent most of the day stressing out and goofing off to try and relieve some stress, and I didn’t even give the cats their wet food, cos that was just one more stressor in my life, and as much as i love doing this, so is this podcast.

Why so stressed? Because I’m having a book signing for my second novel (the first in what I’m calling “The Mod Stories”), and I’m just anticipating nothing going right. Why? It so rarely does. I mean, already, I can tell I’m in for a real doozy, cos only today, did Lindsay tell me that my name has been added to the poster 9and this event has been secured since January, and was supposed to happen in July, but hey, last minute scheduling conflicts are like the Father Dougal to my Father Ted).

That said, if you’re stuck in or (gods forbid) plan to be in the Ann Arbor / Ypsilanti, Michigan (U$A), area this Thursday, 27 August 2009, then come down to (or rather up to) The Heidelberg Club Above for Direct Hits, the area’s only Mod / Trad Skin / Retro night — in fact, it’s the only one I know of until you get to either Chicago or New York City. This month, the Big Event is “Bomb Pop Boutique” and will feature a gallery of local artists, a mini fashion show from The GetUp Vintage Clothing on State Street in Ann Arbor, and yours truly, hawking his second novel and selling his top-quality crap. All copies of the novel will come with a CD-R of next week’s Modcast (most of which I consider to be “themes” for various characters), a set of buttons for the novel, and a hand-written coupon for $4 off my first novel (e-mail me for details).

2009-08-25
The Tabe-beatles – All’s Right With the World
Nouvelle Vague – Come On Eileen
Brian Auger Trinity – In & Out
Mari Wilson - Beat the Beat
Prince – I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
The Singles – The Most Beautiful Girl
B-52s – Strobe Light
Art Brut – Direct Hit
The Chesterfield Kings – Outside Chance
Revillos – Voodoo
The Love Me Nots – Dark City
Van Morrison – Ro Ro Rosey
The Jam - English Rose
Style Council – Long Hot Summer (Club Mix)

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And now a treat! Two days in a row! This isn’t going to happen very often, in the future, but at the time being, it’s going to be something I’m doing for the next few weeks, while I upload my archive casts and set-lists from this summer at Direct Hits.

 
download link

2006.07.17
The Tape-beatles – Grave Implications
Pizzicato Five – 20th Century Girl
Rip Rig & Panic – Storm In the Reality Aslyum
Gavin Friday & Cillian Murphy – Sand
Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra – Some Velvet Morning
Twiggy – Beautiful Dreams
Don Fardon - I’m Alive
The Flaming Hands – I Belong to Nobody
The MC5 – I Can Only Give You Everything
The Spiders – Why Don’t You Love Me?
The Chesterfield Kings – 99th Floor
The Cigarettes – Valium World
Jonathan King – Let It All Hang Out
The Revillos – Where’s the Boy for Me?

Please note that the track by “The Spiders” is by the Amerikan group, not the Japanese one. The Spiders was also the first band of the artist who would later become known as Alice Cooper; The Spiders was a rhythm & blues band that I’d compare to The Rolling Stones or The Pretty Things.

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