The April 27th show was called "Songs I Bet You Never Heard" . I'm sure some have heard some of these songs, but what I was going after was songs and artists that are severely underplayed/underappreciated. I even wanted to do a few obscure songs from well known artists.
Now, some would say most of the stuff I play on any show is stuff no one's ever heard. True, to a point, but I was looking to go beyond even that.
I started off with the late 70's experimental San Francisco band Tuxedomoon and their song The Stranger. The Residents seem to get all th SF art band hype, but Tuxedomoon are interesting in their own right. They are a hard band to define - thier songs pick up influences from all over, they call themselves gothic post-punk experimentalism. But there are classical and jazz influences here and even some funk thrown in (they do a cover of I Heard It Through The Grapevine).
Henry Flynt is an interesting cat. He's played with the Velvet Underground and Yoko Ono; he's a philosopher
and artist (below: Spirit World Painting #1); and for our purposes-- an excellent fiddle player. We did a cut off Backporch Hillbilly Blues Vol 1 called White Lightening that showcases his wild man avant garde fiddling.I'm not going to describe every song and artist played, just try and touch on some of the more interesting ones.
I discovered the band Torrez doing one of my On The Town gigs. I loved their sound and the haunting vocals of Kim Torrez. The song Lush Twilight is a great example of this under-rated band. I always wondered what became of them- so I did some research and found that one of the main members- Sydney Alexis - is now Alexis Hotel-- and Tiger Saw covered one of their songs on my most recent OTT show. Boston can be a small world sometimes.
Speaking of Tiger Saw- Heather from Tiger Saw asked me to play the song Arizona by Rooftop Suicide Club. The New Bedford band's song has become one of my new favorites.
What's Bob Dylan doing here? Well, I bet you just don't hear much from Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid- a very cool, atmospheric album, that was kind of ahead of it's time. Also, Dylan instrumentals are rare too.
Humanwine is a band to watch out for. Another local Boston band, they revel in the same kind of Eastern European cabaret type atmosphere that the Dresden Dolls. A little more political, perhaps.
I had a request for Fink-- who I had never heard of, but knew the Canadian label Ninja Tune, from Kid Koala and Mr Scruff. I was expecting the DJ thing that Ninja is know for and was surprised to hear a bluesy, stripped down, acoustic sound, but with just a touch of the Ninja influence-- good stuff.
The last 2 bands I played were bands I found through Bazooka Joe's excellent Small World Podcasts, which I highly recommend ( An interview with Joe is coming soon). Pistolera and The Luz Mob. Pistolera is at the forefront of the NYC based Latin alternative movement and Luz Mob does some great instrumental stylings, that mix jazz, hip hop and a very urban Latin beat.
Check out all the artist on here-- I only had time to go over a few, but it would be nice to see all these artists get more recognition. And keep scouring those used record bins for more gems and let me know what you find.
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