Wow. Simply. Wow.

Over the weekend, Jenny and I did a Half Price Books run. (Prior to enjoying an awesome Red Lobster meal). One of the vinyl albums I came away with was a long hidden guilty pleasure album. Katrina & The Waves
Well, not the album, per say, being I'd never actually heard the entire thing. Their debut. In america. They put out 2 albums prior to the album that contained their lone US hit 'walking on sunshine'. (And yes, it all hit me a week ago, when i heard Stephanie Miller play it as a bumper song on her morning leftie show, to buy the album).

What can I say but, WOW. I always had a feeling that under that hit song that there was a great band. And I was right.
Wanna know why?
That's because the main songwriter - who by looking and reading the album cover I thought was a woman with a name in the 70s was given to many males, (in the 60s in reality being all the Kims I knew of in the 70s were at least 17 or 18 years old) Kimberley, is an amazing songwriter. He, he, was with The Soft Boys orginally. Yes, the Robyn Hitchcock band. Nuf said. Grand band there. Stupendiously excellent songwriting. Kimberley was responsible for most of it.
They put out a few more albums into the early 90s and I'd love to hear them. If they are anywhere as creative as the aformentioned album, they gotta be great.

And as always, expect to hear some Katrina & the Waves plus The Soft Boys, written by Kimberley on BZT #438.

Cheers.

(btw, I did get a bunch of other supergroovy albums too so...)

Few cool things happened/happening recently.

Starting by buying the neededs last night, I went to work on a new batch of my award winning (literally, twice) Quicksand Smoked Chili.
I put the crock on low for 10 hours before I split for work this morning and came home to a beauty thing. After the final 'mix' it was perfect. I ended up having 3 bowls worth. Methinks it's the best I've made yet. There used to be a recipe for it somewhere on the forum. Of course, the forum is as dead tits up as a murderraped nun. (she probably deserved it dressing the seductive way she did). Anyway, my taste buds are happy campers. I SO wish I could email every single one of you who read this a bowl. Of Chili, that is. I think you'd agree, chili don't get any better.

Also, I've started re-reading the A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon.
Blind Melon bio book by Greg Prato. And naturally, I'm sitting here with a nice mellow vodka/chili buzz listening to the Kingsway Studios Soup Demos CD. All I can do is silently shake my head at the loss of Shannon Hoon. I know damn good and well Blind Melon would have been making amazing albums all the way through til now. Gracefully aging. But, Shannon is gone. Hard to believe he died in 1995. But, if yer gonna od on coke, what better year then the one Jerry Garcia died in. Ahhh. Daaamn.
I believe you will hear a Blind Melon set on BZT #436 coming Saturday Feb. 4. I hope.

Marc Phillips has a real cool Vinyl Anachronist article this time out on Perfect Sound Forever. A website I've been following for what seems like forever. Check out the other articles on this bimonthly issue. Really good stuff if your into music. Be sure to click on 'Articles' at the bottom of the page to get the main TOC.

That's all for me this outing. I think I'm gonna have one last small bowl before it gets too cold in it's storage containers in the fridge.

Hope yr well. Thanks for reading.

(10:15am) - I'm sitting here looking right out of the patio door and watching the first snow of the season. When I first got up & went out it was barely coming down and I figured it was a fluke. It'd never stick being it's 35 degrees. But, as the half hour passed, it's only gotten more intense and is actually sticking to the ground and I heard on the radio that they're talking some serious accumulation by the end of the day. But, being the amateur meteorologist I am, I doubt it considering what I see on the national radar. But still, in the next 2 hours this could turn out to be the 1st significant snowfall of the season. Something I track every year. Why? Dunno. I'm just weird like that.
On top of all that, I'm realizing at this moment how much I appreciate the accidental place my pc desk ended up when Jenny and I moved into this place. The peripheral when looking at the pc screen is kinda stunning. As the grass is slowly disappearing into a bed of white, I digress on the snow subject.

So far I've gotten a couple emails about my lone auralranger blast on BZT #423. Thanks. Sometimes, a cat like me just needs to spend an entire day just playing. Like a kid in the basement with a room full of toys. My toys being a wall of records and another 2 walls full of CDs. And of course a pc where my friends shoot their requests at me from.

I just put 'Undertow' by Tool on the turntable next to me and turn it up a bit. Yes...

Back to the show. What else really is there for me to say about it. It was a giant that James Dean, if he were in his 40s nowadays - and alive of course - would probably smile at. (someone got that reference, right?)
Sorry about the Leo Sayer. Still a guilty pleasure song for me. And when I find the album it came off of you will sometime in the future, 'Too Much Heaven' by the Bee Gees, which is what I almost said on the show before I sidetracked my line of conversation to never return.

Wrapping this sandwich up, I emailed our friend Brad just now and he said, 40 miles east of where we are that it's only raining. And here, the ground is almost covered the to the grass tips already. Amazing what difference 40 miles makes. Or 35 or what the hell ever it is. I'm gonna go flip the Tool vinyl to side B and go hang upsidedown on my new machine.

Prost.

=

(addendum) Looking further west, i.e. out into the northern Pacific, I'll say to the northern half of the U.S., prepare for some monsterous storming, be it snow or rain. There are 2 major systems coming our way beyond what's hitting us up here right now. Today is Wednesday and I expect, from what I'm seeing, this to last up to and probably through the weekend. Batten down the hatches in other words.

=

Goddamn does Tool sound amazing on vinyl!
Op, I just saw a Junco bird. Sure sign winter is a comin' fast. Look at 'em.

Juncos are really cool.

=

Over the past weekend I listened to A Prairie Home Companion twice. At 5pm live and the following replay Sunday. Garrison had a buttload of different musicians on, but there was one that really leapt out at me. Garrison too apparently due to his astounded comments about the song 'Avalon' this duo played. The duo was Storyhill and I'm really digging what I'm hearing by them. Apparently they've been around for quite some time. At least a decade. There is a 'listen now' link on the page I linked above. Check out the samples, see/hear if they move you like they do me. I bought their latest CD 'Shade of the Trees', full price thank you, and I plan on doing a couple tracks on the next BZT show. If it makes it here in time. If not, next show.

I ran this by our resident musicologist friend Lew Shiner and he basically said he's not a big fan of such a simplistic music of just 2 voices and 2 (maybe) acoustic guitars, but, he did think the lyrics were cool and the vocal harmonies especially. I agree completely. I can hardly wait for the CD to get here so I can sit with headphones and a drink and dig the whole thing in it's entirety. These cats may quickly become another major favorite in the same category as CSN & Fleet Foxes. Really.

Also, be prepared to get bombarded with Sammy Hagar and soon Tom Petty music. I just finished reading Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock & it was cool as hell. Plus, I have Conversations With Tom Petty on the way. You know me and my musician bios. Remember the month I was reading Shakey about Neil Young. Hehheh. Yep. Same thing coming.

As for BZT #422, I have no idea when it's going to be recorded. Let alone who will host. It could be just me again. We have non-showlike folks visiting this weekend, so, it could be Monday before it's recorded. Not like any of you are on top of it that much regarding listening the moment the BZT Insider email is sent. Which reminds me, if you want to be on the BZT insider email list, listen to a show and catch the email addy I give at the end of every show. Or better yet, go to the shows page and click on the contact us thing second from the right of the page now and give us a note. We love to get emails at the show. We'll even read them on the show if ya want us to. Really. No shittin'.

Got one last drink about to be in me. Prost to you. Thanks for listening.

*

Woke up late, stayed up late. The 2nd shifter's ideal. That's why we do it. Fits the internal clock of some folks. Especially your hosts of this little underground site/show.
I sat outside a bit this morning and thought about what I want to do with this space. Since the show is still underground being the 'system' still deems this kind of internet radio to not qualify as 'promotion', as in, it's not good enough in a promotional sense for the artists being played, I can't really discuss the exact music we play (although I have proof we generate actual sales of the artists within, possibly moreso than commercial broadcast radio does). So, I got to do something here. I'm surely not going to discuss any world affairs whatsoever. You get plenty of that elsewhere, I'm quite sure. So, in between shows, if I feel my fingers can actually put up with the pain of longevic (adj: able to type for a long time) typing, I just feel like going elsewhere beyond what I do in my daily writing books, which is mostly personal things that concern no one but myself. 'Cept for some of the things I think may be enjoyed outside of my own little writing world. So, I will now toss out the thing I just wrote moments ago. I guess this is part 2 of what I read on BZT #421.


----------------------------------

Houses On High

Deep Autumn falls in.
The Maples & Ash are the
first to get naked.
The bold Oaks take
their time as usual.
A bit more modest,
perhaps.

Forty nine degree
fingers chilled, pained,
yet determined see
the revealing sight
above high on Ash.

When the camoflage
of full Summer foliage
falls to the ground,
all the homes which
were hidden stand
bold & strong way
up in the trees.

Then we see where
all the neighborhood
Squirrels have been
living for the years.

Such carefully built homes
big dark balls of leaves,
show up all around above.

What a feat of archetucture.
Pefectly balanced between
two branches, one wonders
where the front door is
and if at night they
are sharp enough to have
made it so they can
close it tight against
the winter winds.

A pond Duck laughs
out loud at the
lone observer.
"Quaaakquakquakquakquak!"
Come on, it's not that funny.

--------------------------------------


11:38am - I've been thinking about going through all of my volumes of 'poems' and collecting everything that is Nature related and making a book out of them. I've got plenty. As usual, I'm always thinking of ways to get beyond my own little world of writing in print. Actual print that other people can hold in their hands and read. Instead of on a computer screen. Surely all my thought and aspirations toward this goal are probably out of reach. But, it can't hurt to try. Apparently. Just my immediate thoughts.
I have the J&J Juke playing all the Jazz Music on random play. I've really got to load up all the Jazz CDs I've recently acquired. Open it up a bit. Ok, time to go force some food into my face. Get my shit together for 8 hours of behind the headset mic, repeating what total strangers have to say. Ah, 'Koko' by Charlie Parker. Now THAT'S music to get ya off yer ass and moving.


*

It's a Just Jeff show this week. Jenny is way up in the northwoods soaking in that pure silence and mindblowing star display. I hope. So, not a whole lot of yakcontent, but the music turned out to fall together very nicely. Methinks, you'll like.

Yeah, I felt the urge to start up the BS again and spiff things up a bit. All the old BSOTD content is long gone. Never to return. Since none of my previous words could be used to convict me of war crimes, I don't have a problem not looking back but only looking forward here. I generally plan to keep it concise here on RadioWords. If we get an email that is of interest, I may post that with the emailers ok.

There is a bit of yakco now that I think about it. I did read my latest writing bit, concerning a time I wasn't looking forward to with the oncoming Autumn/Winter.

Enjoy & Salud,

Listen: BZT #421

JAB