Episode 40

     This morning’s show began in a much more straightforward rock vein than normal. I spent a good portion of the last week listening to things that I don’t normally have queued up in the stereo. And thus it was that I found myself really digging into the R.E.M. albums I rarely listen to (like many people, I’m partial to Murmur and Reckoning) and putting myself back in the sound world of Mitch Easter (the producer of both albums and the leader of Let’s Active). The songs that followed them just sort of flowed from there. Indeed, most of the show seems to be the result of my digging in the crates—pulling out Cibo Matto, the Blue Nile, Magazine, Blur, the Associates, some Detroit techno, etc.
     There are, to be sure, some new things sprinkled in the sequence. There’s an obligatory, non-single track from Thom Yorke’s The Eraser (released last week). There is, as well, a track from the newest release by Asobi Seksu, a band that many reviewers have described as trying to keep alive the “shoegazing” sound associated with My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Lush and Slowdive, among others. Alongside those items is at least one curiosity. The recent reissue of Robert Fripp’s Exposure includes all of the vocals done by Daryl Hall during the initial sessions for the album. Pressures from both Fripp’s label and Hall’s management resulted in all but two of them being re-recorded with different singers for the first release of the album. While I don’t want to be critical of the other singers (Terre Roche and Peter Hamill), it is nonetheless a revelation to hear the “lost” tunes—like the alternate take included below—as Fripp (and Hall) originally intended them. (And, yes, it is that Daryl Hall, the vocalist and keyboardist of Hall & Oates fame.)
     I can’t think of anything else to write, and rather than strain further to devise a clever sign-off, I’ll just leave you with a playlist to ponder....

• 12:00–1:00 a.m.:
• R.E.M., “Leave,” New Adventures in Hi-Fi, Warner Brothers
• Let’s Active, “Still Dark Out,” Big Plans for Everybody, IRS
• The Jesus and Mary Chain, “Just Like Honey,” Psychocandy, Blanco y Negro
• Badly Drawn Boy, “Another Pearl,” The Hour of Bewilderbeast, XL
• American Analog Set, “Play Hurt,” Set Free, Arts and Crafts
• Rhythim Is Rhythim, “Strings of Life (Piano Mix),” House Music All Night Long (The Best of House Music, Vol. 3), Profile
• Robert Fripp, “Mary,” Exposure (Expanded Edition), Discipline
• Gillian Welch, “I Made a Lovers Prayer,” Soul Journey, Acony
• Neko Case, “Deep Red Bells,” Blacklisted, Bloodshot
• Modest Mouse, “The Good Times Are Killing Me,” Good News for People Who Love Bad News, Epic
• Jim O’Rourke, “Fuzzy Sun,” Halfway to a Threeway EP, Drag City
• Cibo Matto, “Clouds,” Stereo Type A, Warner Brothers

• 1:00–2:00 a.m.:
• Scott Walker, “Dealer,” Climate of Hunter, Virgin
• New Order, “Leave Me Alone,” Power, Corruption and Lies, Qwest
• Andrea Echeverri, “Baby Blues,” Andrea Echeverri, Nacional
• The Blue Nile, “Automobile Noise,” A Walk Across the Rooftops, Linn
• Magazine, “Permafrost,” Secondhand Daylight, Caroline
• Mojave 3, “You Said It Before,” Puzzles Like You, 4AD
• World Party, “You’re a Hurricane, I’m a Caravan,” Dumbing Up, Seaview
• Jeff Buckley, “Grace,” Live at Sin-é (Legacy Edition), Columbia
• Sigmatropic, “Introduction (‘On Stage: 2’),” Sixteen Haiku and Other Stories, Thirsty Ear
• Herbert, “The Final Meal of Stacey Lawton,” Plat du Jour, Accidental
• Lush, “Laura,” Spooky, 4AD
• Sing-Sing, “Command,” The Joy of Sing-Sing, Manifesto

• 2:00–3:00 a.m.:
• The Associates, “Q Quarters,” Fourth Drawer Down, Beggars Banquet
• Beth Orton, “Don’t Need a Reason,” Trailer Park, Dedicated
• Blur, “Death of a Party,” Blur, Virgin
• Asobi Seksu, “Lions and Tigers,” Citrus, Friendly Fire
• Murcof, “Rostro,” Remembranza, Leaf
• Thom Yorke, “And It Rained All Night,” The Eraser, XL
• Sarah Dougher, “Drunk #1,” Day One, K
• Red House Painters, “Smokey,” Old Ramon, Sub Pop
• Rose Melberg, “Constant and True,” Cast Away the Clouds, Double Agent
• Bark Psychosis, “Eyes & Smiles,” Hex, Caroline