A Bad Call, Dear, Even Fiends Grin Hideously In Jest

Here's the tracklist for my latest podcast, "A Bad Call, Dear, Even Fiends Grin Hideously In Jest." It runs way longer than I would prefer, the ideal mix being less than 60 minutes, but it was necessary for the underlying conceit. Have fun!

1. A Certain Ratio "Thin Boys" Before they went all jungle funk, these shorts-sporting lads were a decent little Eno knock-off. Their first single in '79 featured this moody little number on the B side.
2. Big Black "Things To Do Today" Off the Heartbeat 7".
   
3. Crass "Beg Your Pardon"
4. The Dwarves "I'm In A Head" From the Toolin' For a Warm Teabag EP. Anything off that or Horror Stories is pure black magic.
5. The Ex "Stonestampers Song"
   
6. The Fitness "Chauffeur" Great Seattle synth-punk band that sadly released just one record, Call Me For Together. I must have a thing for songs about chauffeurs.
7. Gaza Strippers "Swan" Rick Sims' post-Didjits rawk band. These guys rule, and yet their records seem to be out of print. The "Woooo! Yeah!" on the chorus totally hooks me.
8. The Honeymoon Killers "Scootch Says" The Honeymoon Killers are one of a string of incestuous Manhattan sludgerock groups. Core member Jerry Teel has also been in Honeymoon Killers-alumni Christina's Boss Hog, as well as the Chrome Cranks which featured ex-Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert, who used to play drums in Jon Spencer's Pussy Galore, which also at one time included Christina, who is married to Spencer who is the other core member of Boss Hog. The track here features Spencer on guitar and drummer Russell Simins. When I saw the Honeymoon Killers, Jon had been replaced with guitarist Judah Bauer. Now Judah, Russell, and Jon are the Blues Explosion. Ya got that?
9. The Intelligence "Dating Cops" Have I mention that the Intelligence are one of the greatest bands ever? Well, they are, and until these guys stop ruling my world, I'm gonna take every opportunity to play their gospel for ya. This is off a split 7" with the Coachwhips.
   
10. Jack O' Fire "Joe McCarthy's Ghost " Rumor has it that blues-punk vet Tim Kerr wanted to play Garage Shock, a NW garage band festival sponsored by Estrus records, so he pulled together a bunch of buddies to do blues covers of old R&B and punk standards. The gimmick worked and Jack O' Fire went on to produce a mess o' wax. I saw their last show at a Blackout records in Chicago. The singer had a tiny amp propped up on a chair and would move seamlessly between his harp, moans, and microphone feedback. The results were insanely cool. This is a Minutemen cover.
11. Killdozer "Nasty" Of the many, many Killdozer covers, this one featuring a full electronic backing track behind a word-for-word reenactment of Janet's original. Priceless moment: hearing that Cookie Monster voice growl, "Miss Jackson if you're nasty."
12. Lyres "How Do You Know?" The old vibrato-saturated Lyres were the best. This is the original version of this tune, which isn't quite as awesome as the version on Lyres Lyres.
13. The Mummies "A Girl Like You" The undead kings of the early 90's lo-fi garage craze, these guys actually performed in full mummy regalia and rocked their fool heads (and bandages) off. Look 'em up on YouTube to see some of their insane live performances. This is off their Shitsville EP.
14. Naz Nomad & The Nightmares " Kicks" Off the soundtrack for a fictitious 60's psych-beat film, Give Daddy The Knife Cindy. Naz and company were really the Damned playing mainly covers like this Paul Revere & The Raiders hit. Dave Vanian is one cool cat vocalist.
15. Oblivians "Bad Man" I saw the Oblivians open for Jack O' Fire. They either lost or forgot their gear and used the JO'F's instruments. Another bass-less band, these guys would take turns drumming, singing, or playing guitar on each song, depending on who had the lead vocals.
16. Prefab Sprout "Farron" I haven't heard anything else by Prefab Sprout like this song, as in, this song is good and nothing else I've heard by Prefab Sprout is. A one-hit wonder in their own catalog.
17. ? & The Mysterions "96 Tears" These garage legends reformed in the late 90's and toured promoting a new album of material. I saw them live, and was horrified by the no-longer-young-at-all lead singer trotting around in his yellow lame' shirt unbuttoned to the navel with a blue bandana and a black cowboy hat. It was like he'd mugged a flag squad and hijacked the stage with a Holiday Inn lounge band. Awful, just awful.
18. Rancid Hell Spawn "Festering Pus" Casio, fuzz box, four-track recorder. Go.
19. Savage Republic "Next To Nothing" From Tragic Figures. When I first heard this I was a young, angst-ridden aspiring artist, and the words spoke to me.
    
20. Teengenerate "Kicked Out of the Webelos" Japanese garage/ noise terrorists, these guys came from a wave of other garage bands like Guitar Wolf and Jackie & The Cedrics.
21. Union Carbide Productions "Ring My Bell"
22. Volcano Suns "Jak" Drummer Peter Prescott's post-Mission Of Burma band, off their hard-to-find first album.
    
23. The Waterboys "A Pagan Place" More overwrought 80's music. I think I was turned on to these guys by a list of Bono's top 10 albums of 1982. They put out two pompous but decent LPs, then took a Celtic-flavored nosedive. One of the guys left and formed World Party, which is illustrative of the turn for suck they took.
    
24. X "I Don't Wanna Go Out" Not the famous X of L.A., this X hails from Australia. Off of their fabulous Aspirations LP.
25. Young Fresh Fellows "Power Mowers Theme" The YFF are NW fixtures and the starting point for Seattle celebrity Scott McCaughey. They were too goofy for me to love them, but their drummer Tad (not to be confused with the SubPop meatrock leviathan/band Tad), with his strangely low drum set (or oddly high throne, I dunno which), machine gun drum rolls, and this beat up pot suspended about four feet over his head, always made the show for me.
    
26. The Zeros "Wimp" The Zeros rerecorded and punched up most of their catalog, but the original slogged along with such indifference it can't be beat.