My little brother is in town visiting, and he is the sound designer for the Boston Ballet, and on Wednesday night (I think) we got obliterated on gin and had something of a musical duel; each taking turns on the stereo, me playing some of the weirder stuff I listen to and him playing bits of classical music. Honestly, it was fucking ace. As a DJ set it would have absolutely delighted me anyway, even if everyone else ended up fucking off, but nevertheless, that evening was what music fandom is really about for me.
So this podcast isn’t really a recreation by any means (we are far, far too sober and nothing like argumentative enough for starters) but I thought it would be nice to do a podcast along those lines. Personally, it’s maybe not even as classical as I might personally have liked it to be, but never mind, I really like it.
And, as usual, there is a correction to be made. We describe the them tune to Star Trek Deep Space Nine as Theme for the Common Man, and apparently it isn’t that at all. What it is is heavily, heavily borrowed from Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. So the bit of classical music Ben describes hearing before we play that song must actually have been Fanfare for the Common Man, which only reminded him of the Deep Space Nine theme without actually being it. Whoops. Next time research before talking!
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01. Mozart – Requiem in D Minor (02.40)
02. Yann Tiersen – La Lettre d’Explication (16.18)
03. The Flaming Lips – Watching the Planets (23.33)
04. Theme to Star Trek – Deep Space Nine (28.47)
05. Les T̻tes Raides РManuela (38.49)
06. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – The Proposition #1 (49.13)
07. The Books – S is for Everysing (52.29)
08. Nico Muhly – The Only Tune (64.00)
I managed to miss last week’s Fresh Air show because… well I somehow failed to realise that the bloody station was back on the air, which is spectacularly dumb. This week I present Toad and Ruth’s Toad and Ruth Show With Toad and a Little Bit Less Ruth Than Usual, or indeed any Ruth at all because the lovely herself can’t make it tonight, so you will be treated to the wonderful pleasure of listening to me burble on to myself about tunes and stuff and stuff and some tunes and then probably some more stuff just to cap it off.
01. Langhorne Slim – I Love You, But Goodbye
02. Saint Etienne – Nothing Can Stop Us Now
03. The Left Banke – Evening Gown
04. Bettye Swann – Don’t Look Back
05. Lee Dorsey – My Old Car
06. The Scottish Enlightenment – All Homemade Things
07. Super Adventure Club – Hip Hop Hot Pot Pot Noodle
08. Sam Amidon – Fiddle Mayhem (Toad Session)
09. The Shaggs – What Are Parents
10. Nico Muhly – The Only Tune
11. Phil & the Osophers – Uses of a Man
12. David Tattersall – The Old Family
13. Grandaddy – Fuck the Valley Fudge
14. Elvis Perkins in Dearland – I Heard Your Voice in Dresden
15. Songdog – Obediah’s Waltz
Next week we have the splendid Loch Lomond live in session, and to tide you over until then the videos from Mammoeth’s session on the show are below the jump. The tracklisting for tonight’s show will appear below live as we go along, and feel free to heckle in the comments.
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It’s been a little quiet recently because, as I explained on the Monday post, I have been down in London for the last few days. Whilst there I took my parents to see Nico Muhly at the Roundhouse. Nico Muhly is apparently something of a bright young thing as far as the world of classical music is concerned, and of course with my rather less than encyclopaedic knowledge of that particular field of music, I am no position to argue. He was certainly a charming compere for the evening, and came across as a genuinely warm and witty guy. What drew me along to this, however, was not Mr. Muhly himself but Sam Amidon, who was also on the bill.
Essentially, there were six parts to the evening’s performance. Before the interval Muhly performed a Philip Glass piece on the piano, which was absolutely gorgeous, then the Britten Symphonia played a piece by Muhly himself, and then Muhly conducted Britten Symphonia in accompanying Sam Amidon singing three American folk songs. After the break there was something else by Muhly, followed by a twenty minute piece which butchered American folk classic The Only Tune, chopping it up with not just classical parts but also samples and electronic noise performed by Valgeir Sigurðsson (the head of Amidon and Muhly’s record label, Bedroom Community). Finally, Muhly conducted Britten Symphonia playing a Steve Reich piece called City Life. Read the rest of this entry »
