DJ RJ's ModCast

[2010-03-08] Idols

DJ RJ — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:19:59 +0000

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.

[right-click here to download]

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

[2010-03-01] Music to Scrub Your Kitchen To

DJ RJ — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:53:06 +0000

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.

[click this link to download]

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

[2010-02-22] Because Some Mornings Pizzicato Five is Better Than Coffee

DJ RJ — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:45:32 +0000

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.

download link

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

[2010-02-01] Chroma

DJ RJ — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:51:57 +0000

One of the greatest influences on my sense of identity and how I relate to art I both enjoy and create has been Derek Jarman. There used to be a video rental in this town that was the only place I could rent his films (until I started collecting them on DVD, that is), and of the “great directors” have stuff in all sorts of the categories that Liberty Street Video would put arrange their videos, while others only had things in one or two sections. Jarman was a “one or two sections” director, much like another one of my favourite (though not nearly as influential) directors, John Waters. All of John Waters’ films at Liberty Street you could find under “cult” (this was also the only place I’ve ever seen legit copies of Multiple Maniacs and Mondo Trasho available for rent); Derek Jarman’s films were placed either under “Foreign – UK & Ireland” or under “Queer Interest”, and that, I think, sums up his film career as a director in as few words as possible while still making it clear that there may be more to it.

Derek Jarman is what happens when painters are given a Super 8 camera by a friend and get it in their head that they can make feature-length films; and I mean this as a great compliment. The first film of his that I ever saw was Jubilee, and the experience had this paradoxical quality of both opening my eyes to “Punk” in a way I’d never fathomed before, and at the same time summing up my own thoughts on history and culture in a way that I could make sense out of.

As I noted, he was a painter before he started making films, and most child psychologists tend to agree that when a child is drawing any kind of picture, they’re drawing an unconscious self-portrait in allegory. There’s this innocent quality to many of his films, and at the same time, you get the feeling that even when he’s giving us biographical film-portraits of famopus figures passed, that this is an intensely personal look at Jarman’s own self.

His creative process danced freely between careful planning and spontaneous improvisation. Jubilee was both filmed and written over the course of two weeks, the majority of the script was sparse, save for a few monologues that Jarman had to use, but every pre-production choice in casting, every second of editing, was all very meticulous and the whole project took roughly a year and a half to complete, for example. His creative process was also heavily influenced by those who worked with him, and he was just as likely to take script ideas from a cameraman, or costuming and set ideas from an actor as he was to use his own.

Had an AIDS-related death not come to him in 1994, Derek Jarman would have had a sixty-eighth birthday yesterday, 31 January — but I’d rather not dwell on sadness, but instead celebrate his life.

You see, Jarman also did a handful of music videos in his time, and so that’s part of what’s populating things this week — the other part is music from four of his films (Jubilee, Caravaggio, Edward II and The Garden). Just to keep things sounding interesting, I threw in a couple of covers to fill things out.

[download link]

2010-02-01
Sexgang – At Your Own Risk
Suzi Pinns – Rule Britannia
Carter USM – Panic
The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
Pet Shop Boys – Rent
Marc Almond – Tenderness Is a Weakness
Marianne Faithful – Broken English
Annie Lennox – Every Time We Say Good-bye
Simon Fisher-Tuirner – All Roads Lead to Rome
Suzi Pinns – Jerusalem
Chumbawamba – Song for Derek Jarman
The Garden – Think Pink (originally from FUNNY FACE)

[2010-01-25] Oooh sha la la la ooh…

DJ RJ — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:19:43 +0000

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?

[download link]

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

[2009-12-28] A Taste of Garage

DJ RJ — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 06:59:09 +0000

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).

right-click (on a PC) or double-click (on a Mac) to download

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

[2009-12-21] It’s a Festivus Miracle!

DJ RJ — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:59:44 +0000

I actually compiled this cast a couple of days ago so that I wouldn’t have to worry about selecting some Yultide Cheer at the last moment.

download

2009-12-21
The Soulful Strings – The Little Drummer Boy
The Pipettes – White Christmas
James Brown – Merry Christmas, I Love You
Eartha Kitt – I’m Gettin’ Nuttin’ For Christmas
The Del Vetts – I Want A Boy For Christmas
The Waitresses – Christmas Wrapping
Eleanor Rigby – Kiss Me Quickly (It’s Christmas)
Danielle Dax – Blue Christmas
Dexys Midnight Runners – Merry Christmas Everybody
Marc Bolan – Christmas Bop
Shonen Knife – Space Christmas
The Jacobites – Teenage Christmas
The Kinks – Father Christmas
The Dead Milkmen – All I Want For Christmas Is a Job
Marc Almond – Christmas In Vegas
Klaus Nomi – Silent Night
Tiny Tim – The Christmas Song
Mae West – My New Year’s Resolution

[2009-12-14] No, really! I’m not backdating this!

DJ RJ — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:11:14 +0000

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.

download link

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

2009-12-07

DJ RJ — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:31:23 +0000

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

2009-11-30

DJ RJ — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:59:03 +0000

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