Episode 43

     Alright, maybe last week it was just the heat. Putting this week’s episode together and getting to the studio was much easier this time out. Of course, choosing which songs to play was, as always, a study in the minutiae of timing, transitions, and strategy. Where to start? Where to end? How to create a sense of flow and/or drama?
     There are some wonderfully fortuitous things that the selection of songs I devised allowed me to do. Take the first hour of the show, for example. While the tracks by Syd Barrett and Love are obviously there in tribute to performers who recently died—Barrett a couple of weeks ago and Arthur Lee, the singer and one of the main songwriters of Love, at the end of last week—the latter track was the beginning of set focused on oblique anti-war, anti-government and anti-capitalist tunes that just worked together. Immediately following that set is one whose conceit, as silly as it may seem on screen, was one that just came together when I realized that, without trying, I had picked three songs by artists with basically the same first name. It helps, of course, that I love all three of the source albums. (There is a bit of cheating here, though: both Buitrago and Zazou rely on other vocalists—Andrea Echeverri and Barbara Louise Gogan, respectively.)
     Similar things are at work in the second and third hours. A set focused mostly on songs that rely on synths and drum machines (Depeche Mode through Mark Eitzel) ends with a cover. The subtle connector between that set and the next? The Nick Cave tune is also a cover. And, oddly, writing down the label information for the Sing-Sing tune reminded me that I hadn’t played anything from Kate Bush’s recent album since late last year. In addition, throughout the show, there are as usual places where the sounds at the end of one song made it really clear what the next one should be. When things go this well, I could almost regret my imminent departure from the airwaves. Almost.
     This episode has its share of new material and choice older material. Where the former is concerned, expect to hear more from Héctor Buitrago, Lady and Bird, and Scritti Politti as we inch closer to the show’s finale. Where the latter is concerned, more and more of my CDs stand unfiled in piles on the floor of my living room, affording me a visual guide to what I haven’t played on the air. When September ends, I think I’m going to have a massive shelving job to do. Anyone who wants to volunteer to help is more than welcome....

• 12:00–1:00 a.m.:
• Múm, “Weeping Rock, Rock,” Summer Make Good, Fat Cat
• Komeda, “Flabbergast,” What Makes It Go?, Minty Fresh
• Robert Wyatt, “Sea Song,” Rock Bottom, Thirsty Ear
• Syd Barrett, “Dark Globe,” The Madcap Laughs, Capitol
• Love, “The Red Telephone,” Forever Changes, Elektra
• The Police, “Invisible Sun,” Ghost in the Machine, A&M
• Gang of Four, “Of the Instant,” Songs of the Free, Warner Brothers
• Héctor Lavoe, “El Todopoderoso,” La Voz, Fania
• Héctor Buitrago, “Ooohhhh,” Conector, Nacional
• Hector Zazou, “Sahara Blue (Brussels),” Sahara Blue, Tristar
• Do Make Say Think, “The Landlord Is Dead,” Goodbye Enemy Airship The Landlord Is Dead, Constellation

• 1:00–2:00 a.m.:
• Jane Siberry, “Goodbye,” The Walking, Reprise
• Depeche Mode, “Love, in Itself,” Construction Time Again, Sire
• Scritti Politti, “The Boom Boom Bap,” White Bread Black Beer, Nonesuch/Rough Trade
• Mark Eitzel, “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?,” Music for Courage and Confidence, New West
• Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “The Carnival Is Over,” Kicking Against the Pricks, Mute
• The Lilac Time, “Wait and See,” And Love for All, Fontana
• Donald Fagen, “Mary Shut the Garden Door,” Morph the Cat, Reprise
• Vinny Miller, “Bagged and Tagged,” On the Block, 4AD
• Common, “Jimi Was a Rock Star,” Electric Circus, MCA
• Sing-Sing, “Unseen,” Sing-Sing and I, Aerial
• Doves, “Firesuite,” Lost Souls, Astralwerks

• 2:00–3:00 a.m.:
• The Pogues, “Dirty Old Town,” Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, WEA
• Low, “Bright,” Transmission EP, Vernon Yard
• Stina Nordenstam, “Crime,” And She Closed Her Eyes, East West
• A.R.Kane, “Suicide Kiss,” Sixty Nine, One Little Indian
• Nick Drake, “Parasite,” Pink Moon, Hannibal
• Lady and Bird, “Run in the Morning Sun,” Lady and Bird, Yellow Tangerine
• Neko Case & Her Boyfriends, “Porchlight,” Furnace Room Lullaby, Bloodshot
• Suzanne Vega, “Thin Man,” Nine Objects of Desire, A&M
• Dead Can Dance, “Advent,” Spleen and Ideal, 4AD
• Kate Bush, “Nocturn,” Aerial, Columbia
• Vetiver, “No One Word,” To Find Me Gone, Dicristina
• Robin Guthrie, “Monument,” Continental, Darla