"Stay Positive" - the Hold Steady

"The Sunny Side of the Street" - the Pogues

Sounds like our long national nightmare is over, guys.

Live performances this decade by Sixto Rodriguez, the cult folk-rock figure from Detroit, are very rare. So it might behoove lovers of trenchant lyrics and raw, mind-bending folkadelia to tune in to Detroit public radio station WDET Friday at 8:25 am Pacific and check out how the creator of the classic Cold Fact LP (reissued in August by Seattle’s Light in the Attic Records) is holding up in the new millennium. A tight band consisting of Jim Diamond (Dirtbombs, White Stripes), Matthew Smith (the Go), Bobby Emmett (the Sights) and Dave Shettler (the Sights) 
will back Rodriguez for this on-air action.

Driving North past the bus stop on Rainier Ave. under the I-90 overpass, I saw a man yawning. He was seated, waiting for the bus. It was one of those all consuming yawns. He was a hefty Asian chef with silver slicked back hair. His head was tilted back, eyes were closed, and his apron was still on.

Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen” was playing on the radio in my car. “Just like the white winged dove sings a song, sounds like she’s singing / Ooo baby... ooo, said ooo.”

As I drove by the bus stop, the man’s yawn coincided exactly with the end of the song’s fourth of fifth verse. Stevie sings a long “oooooaaaaaaahhh”. The timing of the yawn perfectly matched the singing and the mouth movement of the “oooooaaaaaaahhh”. The guy couldn’t have tried to match it any more perfectly.

A hemisphere of realization came over me and I knew I was alive. Too much alignment was there for the instant to have occurred by chance.

Seven that’s: That song on that radio station, during that part, driving by that well lit bus stop? That man sitting there, happening to yawn at that moment, with identical mouth movements and duration to the singing of that of the part in the song?

It may have only lasted for three seconds, but it cracked me on the head.

Sometimes the littlest things have the largest resonance.

It may have only lasted for three seconds, but for those three seconds, it spun the earth.

Mauricio Kagel was a trickster, inventor, and filmmaker always attuned to the theatrical elements of music making. He not only understood that all performance is theater, but in his films and scores Kagel magnified tiny, interstitial musical elements into grand gestures (e.g., the madhouse cackling in the Improvisation ajoutée for organist and two assistants).

Unlike Kagel's better-known peers and colleagues including Pierre Boulez-who back in 1954 told him to ditch Buenos Aires and come to Europe-Kagel remains comparatively unknown in the U.S. Many of his works require custom-made instruments or unusual (and thus in America impractical) configurations. The duo Zwei Akte calls for a harpist and reed virtuoso equipped with sopranino (not soprano), alto, and baritone saxophones.

Kagel helped pioneer electronic music; by having performers record custom-made tapes to perform Transición II (1958-59), he helped establish the tape recorder as a musical instrument and legitimate component of chamber music. Kagel also fashioned outsize and at times prankish musical schemes. His hefty Exotica for "extra-European instruments" remains gorgeously difficult listening while Tactil deploys long throbbing tines and louche guitar strums in a sideways homage to Jobim & company.

By the late 1970s, Kagel had consolidated his avant garde tactics with more traditional techniques, and masterfully so; in the sheaf of pieces from 1981's Sankt-Bach Passion to Auftakte, sechshändig of 1996 and after, Kagel commingles the new and the old seamlessly.

To listen, UbuWeb is an excellent place to start and check The Avant Garde Project too.

Tonight on Flotation Device, I'll air Transición II and several other works in tribute to Kagel along with Annea Lockwood's World Rhythms, perhaps the first piece to layer unprocessed field recordings live.

Catch the on-line stream or tune in to KBCS 91.3 FM from 10 pm to midnight.

This week’s Data Breaker focuses on disc jockey Alex Ruder and KEXP’s Decibel-scented Audioasis show, which happens Sat. Sept. 20 at 6 pm. Please check it out—the radio program, I mean, but I wouldn’t object to you reading the column, either.

You can glean more about the music Ruder’s into by tuning in to KEXP 90.3FM tonight at 9, as he subs for DJ Riz. Ruder’s aesthetics range far and deep, and I can’t think of any one else at the station I’d rather hear fill those legendary shoes than young Alex (translation: his tastes closely mirror mine).

I was mildly hung over from the Stranger’s Genius Award party Saturday night, but this low-key, high-friction funk nugget efficiently brushed away the brain cobwebs and alleviated the pain. Mr. Horn, I want to thank you fa lettin me be mice elf agin.

James Pants on XLR8R TV

A friend in Costa Mesa, California recently tipped me off to Klaus to the Edge, a program on WestAddRadio in San Francisco that focuses on krautrock, prog, and heavy psych. Hosts AC and Allan (of the wonderful Aquarius Records) mix intriguing obscurities with sweet cuts by well-known cult acts. They also have a blog. The programmers’ knowledge runs deep and wide. You might like a lot of what they spin.

Klaus to the Edge airs live every third Wednesday 9-11 pm at 93.7FM and at westaddradio.com. Tune in, burn on, and flop out.

Whatever the case, I was pleasantly surprised this morning to hear Richards play the Bug’s “Skeng”—at 8:50 in the bloody morning. Nothing like some menacing, punishing dancehall/dubstep to get the blood flowing properly in the A.M.

John: Please continue to spin extreme cuts like “Skeng” [see video below] in prime time. Because, when you get right down to it, your show should be all about pleasing Dave Segal.

The Bug—featuring Warrior Queen and led by mad bass commando Kevin Martin—play the Decibel Festival Sun. Sept. 28. Start looking for a chest protector now.

If you missed it, Matmos, Wobbly, J Lesser came by the Hollow Earth Radio studio on a fine sunny Sunday a week ago and played two amazing sets with a funny and revealing interview in the middle a day prior to their packed show at Seattle's The Triple Door.

This was mostly electronic music improvisation at it's finest starting off with a wonderful interpretation of Robert Ashley's "The Backyard". The textures were thick and pleasant, with bits of humor, guitar, percussion and more...

We will be re-airing their performance this Wednesday evening, July 16th at 9 pm PST and again on Thursday July 17th at 10 am PST in place of 'Canned Fruit'; a weekly show of adventurous listening spanning the entire century of recordings, the entire globe and all genres, focusing on the timeless, funny, and cutting edge.

Hollow Earth Radio is live streaming internet radio from Seattle that sounds great no matter where in the world you may be. You can listen by going to hollowearthradio.com and click "listen now" and choose your preferred player.

Read Eric Grandy's review of the Triple Door show here.

Do You Want to be in a Jug Band?

KEXP’s Greg Vandy is looking for people to be in a Roadhouse Jug Band that will perform on the air. So if you play jug, string bass, mouth harp, washboard, tissue paper & comb, or some other homemade instrument such as the cereal box, get in on the action.

To apply, send an e-mail by May 31st to jugband(at)kexp.org with your name, phone number, preferred jug band instrument(s), and why you think you would be a good for the band. And attach or link to an audio sample of you playing this jug band instrument.

Selected applicants will audition live on Vandy’s KEXP Roadhouse Show (Wednesdays from 6PM to 9PM) in June. Homemade instruments are not necessary.

Also in the mix: Frank Rothkamm, electronic music pioneer (and Dr. Who sound guru) Daphne Oram, Pea Soup, a lovely feedback piece by Nicolas Collins, and Catherine Christer Hennix, who was a student of the legendary La Monte Young in the 1970s.

Catch the on-line stream or tune in to KBCS 91.3 FM from 10 pm to midnight.

After celebrating the launch of the second year of the Free Yr Radio campaign at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, TX, in March, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS) announced today details about this year's Free Yr Radio program--including some of the bands slated to perform in the upcoming concert series as well as this year's partner radio stations. Created in 2007 by Toyota Yaris and Urban Outfitters, the Free Yr Radio campaign equips its partner independent radio stations with tools to increase exposure and listener support through various promotional activities--including the free station-hosted concerts.

This year's concert series will consist of 10 shows, from May through October. Each concert will be hosted by a partner independent radio station. Although each show is free, concert-goers must present an invite upon entry. Invites can be printed at www.FreeYrRadio.com prior to each concert.

Seattle's installment (being hosted by, of course, KEXP) is July 23 with live music from No Age and Mudhoney. More details to be announced soon.