Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Playlist for 8-6-10, featuring some tunes by Konrad and Parasites of the Western World

I tried something a little bit new this past week...instead of doing a 'theme' or playing an album in its entirety, I played 5 cuts from 2 different albums, in hopes of showcasing some artists while maintaining variety within the playlist.

Seemed to work good...everybody I talked to liked the two records I played sections from, and now the show is yours to download by way of podcast.

The first artist featured was Konrad, a man from Boise, Idaho who concocted a bizarre synth-pop record in the mid-80's. Topics range from how he is a music scientist from the future concocting tunes in a lab, how aliens will never come to earth (again) because people are too stupid, and how his girlfriend likes to buy things which stimulate her mind...it's a pretty wild, low-fidelity ride. His track 'My Girl' has popped up quite frequently on the program, and I was glad to finally get a hold of the entire album. After tracking down 'Konrad' (not his real name), I found him to be a definitely eccentric character, but also really friendly and interesting. Hopefully, once I find time, I will have him as a guest on the program. Also, as if that's all not strange enough, check out the metallic-looking album cover:
Secondly, I featured five tunes by Parasites of the Western World. These two guys were apparently some dudes from Oregon who, in the late '70's, attempted to bring their favorite influence to a home recording. What came out sounds much more like Chrome and Pere Ubu than Rush, and I don't mean that in a condescending way at all. Actually, what probably happened was they realized they couldn't recreate the sounds and moods of Rush right off the bat, and morphed their project into something much stranger. I will say right now, this is one of THE coolest records I've ever heard...and not just one of the coolest 'strange' records I've ever found. Definitely worth a spin. And, here's the VERY nondescript album cover:

Playlist (I'm typing these out from now on, because I don't like how my new web browser copies and pastes):

Billy R. Couvson - Ching Chong China
White Coffee - Voodoo
Konrad - People
Konrad - It's Only a Matrix
Konrad - Alien
Konrad - My Girl Likes to Buy
Konrad - One Way Motorcycle Ride
Parasites of the Western World - You Must be Joe King
Parasites of the Western World - Alienending
Parasites of the Western World - Mo
Parasites of the Western World - Accessories
Parasites of the Western World - God or Just a Slow Breeze
Wild Man Fischer with Smegma - Breakfast with Bananas
Beat of the Earth - This is an Artistic Statement, Pt. 1
Henry Flynt and the Insurrections - Go down
Tommy Jay and Mike Rep - Box Boy
Joint Effort - Stay High!
Residents - Almost Perfect
Residents - We Stole this Riff
Relatively Clean Rivers - Babylon
Bruce Haack - Supernova
C.A. Quintet - Cold Spider

Both the featured artists have had their albums since reissued, so I'd feel bad about putting up a free download...Parasites have their shit on CD Baby as an mp3 download, and I can't find the Konrad link right now, but you can hear a few mp3's here.

3 comments:

PhotoUnique said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
PhotoUnique said...

First of all, I can't thank you enough for taking the time and trouble to feature our music on your show. It's always an honor when someone not only takes an interest in our work but goes the extra mile and shares it with others. I only have one small complaint and that is in your write up you somehow got the idea that we were Rush fans. With all due respect to R and their many many fans, Terry and I weren't really into their music at all. We were influenced at that time mainly by German bands like Neu, Faust, and Can. Also we hailed from Oregon rather than Ohio. Thanks again for your interest in what we did so long ago. Best of luck to you!

Bizarro Jerry said...

It has been changed, my friend. I think whatever review I initially read for your record had stated Rush was a big influence, which I didn't see really, but I rolled with it. Neu, Faust and Can makes a lot more sense. Were you guys into Chrome at all? That stuff strikes me as kind of similar to what you were doing back then. Also, great job on the album, it kicks ass and I still play it on WIDR pretty regularly even though I don't do this show anymore.