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BLU
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Program
Profiles
Random
Groove
with
Francis Dutton
8:30pm - 10pm Mondays
People often ask me “what kind of music do you play on your radio show?” It’s a difficult question to answer… good music, like people, comes in all shapes, sizes, backgrounds and vintages.
I once described it as “music that’s been known to share a whisky with it’s grand-parents”. What I meant by this is, contemporary music that knows where it comes from (and knows a good whisky when it sees one, too.) *Plus* the “where it comes from” music as well…. we’ve been known to bring the wind-up gramophone to the studio, and play old 78s live to air.
I wouldn’t do this if there wasn’t a need for shows such as Random Groove to give airplay to so much music that would never otherwise see the light of day, contemporary *and* vintage. Even the larger community radio stations, not to mention Triple J, tend to focus on a certain “indy” sound, partly to justify their existence by claiming the “youth” market, as if anyone over 30 only listens to Ray Conniff. Not that I’ve anything against Ray…
I also try to make sure that nothing of value slips entirely off the radar… everyone’s so focused on the Next Big Thing. Nevertheless, it also needs to said that the last 15 or so years have seen so many interesting new artists coming on the scene it can get real hard to keep up. I only hope that Random Groove goes a little way to untangling the mess.
Hope you can catch the program sometime…
PS: If you want to give us a call at the studio during program times… the number is (02) 4782 2490.
KRISTIN HERSH AND BILLY O'CONNELL, November '07
I think my favourite Kristin Hersh quote (and there are many) would have to be “I never thought I’d be one of those lame-ass acoustic chicks”. Because whether she is swamping the room with an electric tsunami when fronting her thrash band 50 Foot Wave, or playing a solo acoustic gig here in Katoomba on very little sleep & a slight cold, there is nothing lame-ass about Kristin Hersh.
A mother of four boys, who was born in the Deep South and grew up on Rhode Island, Hersh been making records since the mid-eighties. First with her band Throwing Muses, then solo acoustic, and more recently with 50 Foot Wave, she is still as engaged as she was on day one… take a listen to the new track Slippershell at cashmusic.org (from late November) and you’ll see what I mean. Kristin, to my mind, is living proof that you can make intelligent music that’s emotionally “alive” at the same time. And she is capable of turning the darndest things (a death on a bus, a bizarre neighbor, the blind girl who wore coke-bottle glasses,) into the most uniquely beautiful music. If I worry about her at all, it’s that her muse will wind up burning her, rather than the other way round, if that makes any sense. But I somehow doubt it… this woman of slight stature and friendly nature is made of stronger stuff, and besides, she delights in what she does. It feeds her soul, and via her music, ours as well.
I talked to Kristin & her husband and manager, Billy O’Connell, at the end of September 2007, not long before Kristin played the Clarendon here in Katoomba. I need to apologize for two things: one, my completely neglecting to ask Kristin any objective questions, and two, the fact that the “interview” with Billy cuts in at the half-way mark. It’s all Billy’s fault actually… I was going to talk to him about the new cashmusic.org project, and he said “I’ll let Kristin explain…”. Then, with typical enthusiasm, he launched into a detailed explanation himself. In the end I just hit record anyway, but unfortunately I missed quite a bit of interesting stuff. He *did* send me an email by way of introduction to the project, and I’ve copied it here hereunder.
Thanks for listening -
Francis D., Nov. ‘07.
Kristin’s website is www.throwingmusic.com
Also, watch for www.cashmusic.org …launching any minute now.
Here’s Billy’s email:
CASHMusic.org is coming along very well. It will be centered around Creative Commons-licensed music and from there, it's up to the individual artists an their fans as to what else it will be. It will include subscription models, premiums offered in exchange for cash, dialog between artist and listener, tour promotion, lots of community and way more. We have a great team of smart people along for the ride and it's getting very exciting.
It looks like Kristin will offer a new, studio recording every month for the term of one year. She'll post to what it essentially a music blog, the following: an mp3 of the song, a lossless FLAC of the song, a bit of "making-of" video, lyrics and even her Pro Tools session files. She'll accept and reply to comments on the blog and encourage people to take the music and run with it -- Re-post her songs to their music blogs & file sharing or p2p services, burn CDs, remix the songs, make videos, paintings, whatever. Just please share what you do with us!
There's too much to talk about here...there's even a tour component that's gonna be pretty cool.
- Billy.
FRANCIS
DUTTON TALKS TO PHIL MORIARTY, January '07.
Phil
Moriarty is probably best known as one half of the legendary
Moriarty brothers (aka The Gadflys).
From his
first foray as a punk clarinettist in Canberra band The Slammers,
through a twenty year career co-fronting The Gadflys, to current
incarnation as The Great Muldavio in the notionally acclaimed
Eastern European Kabaret-Noir outfit Michelangelo & The
Black Sea Gentlemen, Philip Moriarty's musical path, though
not consciously avant garde or anti-idolist, has certainly been
unusual. The last couple of years have seen him working on a
solo album rehearsing with various forms of a collective known
as The Paris Brests, touring with Michelangelo (Mikel Simic,
formerly of Prik Harness,) and spasmodically pursuing a solo
career. In that time Moriarty’s songwriting has progressed in
startling ways, both in terms of observational clarity and breadth
of ambition, delivering satisfyingly on the promise of the Gadflys’
rootsy eclecticism.
“My stuff has never been easy to pigeon-hole, which is definitely not a marketing plus, but if had to try and define what I do then I would say that I apply a pop sensibility to arrangement, with all the freedom that it implies. Pop is not a dirty word for me I think it just means that song is paramount rather than being a slave to any purist agenda, be that folk, jazz, blues or anything else. I d like to say that I play Rock n Roll because I still find the original Rock ethos vibrant and exciting, and less musically elitist too, but I m not sure how much that comes through.”
Moriarty’s new album, “L’Esprit De L’Escalier” sees him turning a faintly amused eye to subjects such as city living for empowered losers in bi-polar epic Captain Midnight, or ruminating on various options for dying in a unique take on traditional blues number Go Down Ol’ Hannah, then pulling out a surf music operetta called Miser .
Phil made a special trip up to the Blue Mountains between gigs in Sydney to record this interview with Francis, plus play a few numbers from the new album in BLU FM’s Studio B recently.
RAINER
PTACEK… a brief introduction…
“ ..a rare individual, a musical genius, and one of the most spiritually-driven artists to record or perform.”
- Fred Mills, from his obituary of Rainer Ptacek, 1997
Rainer Ptacek (pron. “Rye-ner Tha-chek”)
was born in East Germany in 1951. In 1956, the family moved to Chicago, where
he grew up in a working-class neighborhood on the south side of the city. Having
entertained people in a courtyard in East Berlin by playing on an accordion at
age five, Rainer’s first “serious” instrument was the violin. However, by the
mid ‘60s he’d discovered the guitar, and was being influenced by the recordings
of blues musicians such as Robert Johnson & J.B.Lenoir. Then the Stones
turned up in 1969, with Keith Richards playing bottleneck.
In 1972, Rainer and some friends took a
drive to Colorado, and Rainer wound up staying on in Tucson, Arizona, where he
based himself for the rest of his life. While working in a guitar shop there,
he bought a 1934 National steel-bodied guitar, and within a short time had
developed a technique for playing minor & major chords without having to
re-tune. He also began a long-lasting friendship with Howe Gelb, and the pair
formed the band the Giant Sandworms with two others. Howe also introduced him
to his friend Patti Keating, whom Rainer soon married, the couple eventually
having three children together. Having toured with the Giant Sandworms, Rainer
decided to go solo, and shortly afterwards recorded a cassette, The Mush Mind
Blues. He also formed a band, Das Combo, to support him on stage & in the
studio, with Nick Augustine on bass, and a succession of notable drummers.
Over
the next fifteen years, Rainer continued to record, and tour both in the States
and the UK & Europe; solo, and with Howe Gelb in The Band of Blacky
Ranchette. His reputation continued to grow, particularly among fellow
musicians. (Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top was an early fan, and Robert Plant got him
over to the UK to record with him in 1993.) Yet Rainer himself was wary of
pushing his career too hard. “I don’t want anyone messing with my music,” he
said in one interview. But Tucson’s best-kept secret was beginning to gain a
wider audience.
Then, in 1996, on his way to work, Rainer suffered
a seizure, catapulting him off his bicycle and breaking a collar bone. Shortly afterwards,
he was found to have a tumor the size of a fist in his brain. Opting for radio-
and chemotherapy treatments, he began the arduous process of re-teaching himself
to play guitar. And yet, during the last year of his life, he managed to make
both live and studio albums that have been described as his finest work. In
addition, he played on his own tribute album, “The Inner Flame”, organized largely by Howe Gelb, featuring a string of
major musicians & songwriters, including Vic Chesnutt, Robert Plant &
Jimmy Page, P.J. Harvey, Evan Dando, Emmylou Harris &, Jonathan Richman,
amongst others. (There are now plans for an expanded re-release…. see interview
with Howe.)
With Rainer’s health again beginning to
deteriorate, Gelb flew back to Tucson in late ’97, where he eventually
suggested they go into the studio, if only to take their minds off other
things. There, they made the intense recordings that were to become his last
album, “The Farm”. Two weeks after he could finally record no more, Rainer
Ptacek died on November 12, 1997, aged 46.
To get hold of Rainer’s seven available albums, go to:
For more information, I suggest Community (Public) Radio KXCI’s tribute page:
http://www.kxci.org/rainer/press.htm
For information about Howe Gelb’s latest activities, particularly the continuing saga of what has become Giant Sand, go to:
cheers-
Francis D., (aged 46) January ’05.
(Many thanks to Howe Gelb for agreeing to talk to me about Rainer, to Patti Keating for suggesting I contact Howe, and thanks to BLU FM volunteers Narelle Pfeiffer, Tom Oriti & Brian McKellar for “technical support”.)