KCRW Broadcast #178 for Saturday, August 25, 2012

See also: Henry Rollins: The Column! Subterranean 
Homesick Blues

Fanatics! I hope you dug last week's pledge drive madness. We try to make our meager two hours as fun as possible. We prepped the show for weeks and put quite a bit of effort into it. To be honest, I don't know what the reaction is, that is to say, are we doing something that is actually enjoyed or perhaps just wasting our time? When the two hours is over and we are walking out of there, I must admit to you, that I feel a certain amount of anger or at least anti-climax. In any case, I hope you dug the show.

So, this week, we are back to “normal” so to speak. Tonight, this being the last Saturday of the summer in my thinking, at least. Perhaps not on the calendar but once it's September, school's in and the Halloween candy is in the drugstore, that says summer is over to me. Like in the last few seconds of an insect's life, when its wings move frenetically, we blow out this last summer show and prepare for fall with a great burst of vitality.

We have a lot of Dischord and Teenbeat label music in our show tonight. Those are two great summer listening labels for me. As perhaps some of you do, I put away some records when the seasons change. Tonight is a bit of the changing of the guard, if you will for some of our bands. Of course, we will visit with them again when things warm up next year.

As Fanatic Corinne noted in her letter a few days ago, August 21 was Joe Strummer's birthday and we salute the great Mr. Strummer with one of his songs in our second hour.

I am sure you are familiar with most if not all of our great artists tonight, so I will not burden you with any explanation beyond if you like what you heard, you will certainly dig more of their work, so go boldly into these catalogs.

If you will notice, we saved our most poetic and conceptual element for the last songs of the evening. We finish the night with the Rites of Spring EP, which when it was released in 1986, I believe it was, or at least that's when I heard it, was in extremely heavy rotation that fall and to this day, it's a great farewell wave to this season. Rites of Spring mutated into Happy Go Licky, an equally amazing unit and that's where we will end our show, with two of their more excellent songs.

I wanted to take a moment to tell you about what we are doing in September. I have built all five shows for this month. Yes, there are five Saturdays in September and I thought it best that we make these shows as incredible as possible. Here's the concept:

September 01 – Week #01: We say hello to September and rock the great autumn mix and get conceptual in hour #2 with One Last Wish's album 1986 in its entirety.

September 08 – Week #02: In honor of the passing of Jimi Hendrix in September of 1970, we will start our Hendrix Marathon. Hour 1 is Are You Experienced in mono. It sounds incredible. Hour 2 is bands from Washington state, where I will be performing that night.

September 15 – Week #03: This show is going to rip!!! In hour 1, we rock Axis: Bold As Love in mono in then in hour 2, we debut the new Dinosaur Jr. album I Bet On Sky in its entirety. It will be released the following Tuesday but we get it first! Do not miss this show.

September 22 – Week #04: We start our show with Hendrix's Electric Lady Land album but dig this, we will be playing alternate takes and mixes of the songs with the exception of two tracks I couldn't find alts of. So, it will be a different take on this classic double album. A couple of songs had to be omitted for time's sake but we will still get a lot of the album played in alt form. Hour 2 is a great mix of all kinds of stuff, including a track that Ty Segall sent me a few days ago that I think you're going to like.

September 29 – Week #05: Our first hour will be some of my favorite Jimi tracks from across his catalog, none of the tracks from earlier in the month, of course. I think you're going to dig this hour. Hour 2 will be that thing we do so well, the mix.

October is going to be SO great. Prepare for a serious hour of rare and unreleased Cramps material!

SO STOKED DEPT.: Get ready for the release of the Rites of Spring Demos 10″ on Dischord. I have been waiting for this once to come out since I first heard these tracks in 1984.

Can't wait to go live! Until then, keep listening and STAY FANATIC!!! –Henry

Henry can be reached at: Henryontheradio@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter @henryrollins.

Read Henry's tracklist below.

Hour 1

01. Wire – 12XU / Pink Flag

02. The Adverts – My Place / Singles Collection

03. Charlie Harper – Talk Is Cheap / Diminished Responsibility

04. Buzzcocks – Whatever Happened To / Singles Going Steady

05. Generation X – No No No / (B-side To Ready Steady Go)

06. The Damned – Sick Of Being Sick / Damned Damned Damned CD xtra

07. Tel Aviv – I Have Met A Writer / The Shape Of Fiction

08. Soccer Team – Solid Ring Fighters / “Volunteered” Civility & Professionalism

09. Air Miami – Pucker / All Virgos Are Mad

10. Embrace – Dance of Days / Embrace

11. Rain – Rivers / La Vache Qui Rit

12. The Jesus & Mary Chain – Lowlife / The Power Of Negative Thinking

13. EL Guapo – Underground / Fake French

14. DEVO – Blockhead / Duty Now For The Future

15. Roxy Music – Both Ends Burning / Siren

Hour 2

01. Misfits – Hybrid Moments / Static Age

02. Iggy Pop & James Williamson – Consolation Prizes / Kill City

03. Würm – I'm Dead / The Blasting Concept: An SST Compilation

04. Minutemen – Case Closed / Bean Spill

05. The Fall – Psycho Mafia / Early Singles

06. The MC5 – Looking At You (original single vers.) / The Big Bang!

07. The Saints – Private Affair / Eternally Yours

08. Cramps – Green Fuz / Psychedelic Jungle

09. Frank Zappa – WPLJ / Burnt Weeny Sandwich

10. Joe Strummer – Trash City / Permanent Record

11. Dinosaur Jr – Repulsion / Dinosaur

12. Rites Of Spring – All Through A Life / All Through A Life EP

13. Rites Of Spring – Hidden Wheel / All Through A Life EP

14. Rites Of Spring In – Silence/Words Away / All Through A Life EP

15. Rites Of Spring In – Patience / All Through A Life EP

16. Happy Go Licky – Pastel Blue Eyes / Happy Go Licky Will Play

17. Happy Go Licky – Ansol / Happy Go Licky Will Play

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