The Way Podcast 11/1/2012: Simon & Garfunkel "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme" MONO MIX, plus rare Cyrkle Tracks

On tonight's show I played my vintage, rare vinyl record of Simon & Garfunkel's majestic 1966 folk-pop LP Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, in it's original mono format. The mix is significantly different from the more circulated stereo mix, the complexity of the instrumentation is more noticeable, the vocal harmonies are tighter and the bass levels are higher. All in all, it makes for a much better listening experience in my opinion, yet another record that benefits from that "punchiness" that only mono sound can provide. I played the entirety of the album, and I think most of you will be impressed with the sound quality as the vinyl copy I found is exceptionally clean.

I played some rare singles and B-Sides from the soft-pop group The Cyrkle after I finished playing the Simon & Garfunkel record. Not sure if any of these off-album singles had any chart success or if they were intended for a follow-up record to Neon but they are great songs. The link is below to stream the podcast, or right-click on the link and hit "save as..." to download as an .mp3. Enjoy.

The Way 11/1/2012

The Way Podcast: 10/26/2012 Return To Form; Jangle, Bubblegum, Garage and Psych

Tonight's episode was a welcome return to the original format of the show, playing my favorite obscurities from the Psychedelic Pop era of the 1960s. Tonight's set leaned heavily on jangly bubblegum acts like the Monkees' Headquarters (presented here in mono sourced from original vinyl), Every Mother's Son and early Grass Roots, Chicago garage-popsters like New Colony Six and the Cryan' Shames, and more psych oriented stuff from the Five American's Progressions. Links to download and stream the podcast are below the pics. Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

The Way Podcast, Oct. 4th: The Clash Mk. II; Out Of Control

In 1984, the newly reformed line-up of the Clash embarked on the now legendary "Out Of Control" tour. Gone was Mick Jones, the excessive stoned grooves, the arty electronic-dance-rock they had begun to pioneer. Strummer and co. vowed to get back to basics and play Punk Rock music.  The band featured two new guitar players, Nick Sheppard on lead and Vince White on rhythm. The Clash's most technically skilled drummer to date Pete Howard had replaced Terry Chimes in 1983 and remained in the group after the firing of Mick Jones. Although many dismissed this version of the Clash as a shell of the former line-up, the Clash Mk. II were a fantastic band in their own right. Strummer kept his promise to rid the band's sound of excess,  they played blazing fast, razor sharp Punk, with a somewhat "post-apocalyptic" edge that only the Reagan/Thatcher reign in the mid 80s could inspire.

The Clash Mk. II

On the show I play songs from the Clash II's early demos recorded in Winter of '83, tunes from their live tour in 1984 all the way to their only album statement, the vastly underrated electro-punk freakshow Cut the Crap (1985). No Mick? No problem. Listen here: The Way: October 4th

The Way Podcast 9/13: The Hired Hand OST Cut W/ Film Dialogue + Alex Cox's Straight To Hell OST Mash-Up

On this week's episode of the Way I explore Peter Fonda's directorial debut The Hired Hand (1971), a hallucinatory Western starring the aforementioned Fonda and the legendary Warren Oates, who gives one of his best ever performances. The two play best friends who give up their drifter ways to head back to Harry Colling's (Fonda) family ranch, which he had abandoned years ago. Although the story and acting are quite fine, it's the hypnotic cinematography and the haunting, hallucinatory film score composed by Bruce Langhorne that make the movie something special. The twisting, kaleidoscopic visuals coupled with the sparse score move the film along at a drifitng, stream-of-consciousness pace that is very striking. On the podcast, I play a mash-up of dialogue from the film played along side Langhorne's magnificent score.

The second half of the show is another western mash-up of dialogue of soundtrack and dialogue this time from Alex Cox's notorious 1987 cult western Straight to Hell. The film is almost the polar opposite of something like The Hired Hand. Gritty, plot-less, endlessly violent and noisy as hell, Straight to Hell was the result of director Alex Cox and his punk-rock buddies Joe Strummer, Elvis Costello, the Pogues, and others hanging out on old film sets in the desert in the south of Spain and shooting what has to be one of the most bizarre, yet entertaining movies I've ever seen. The soundtrack is excellent as well, think Ennio Morricone gone Punk. Major contributions from a group called Pray For Rain, who do soundtrack work exclusively, in particular for Cox's movies. The Pogues, Joe Strummer, Zander Schloss and Elvis Costello also contribute to the soundtrack as well. The mash-up was done improv, on the fly so the result is much like the movie, chaotic and noisy. Hope you enjoy it all the same though. The link to stream the episode is below, and you can right click and hit it "save as" to download as a .mp3.

The Way: September 13th, 2012

The Way Podcast: August 23rd, 2012; Outlaw Pop/Rock

On tonight's episode of the Way I play some of my favorite songs about "outlaws" (still on an Old West kick apparently). Songs range from the Byrd's "Pretty Boy Floyd" to Dylan's "Drifter's Escape", the Bobby Fuller Four's classic crime anthem "I Fought The Law" and Old West-Retropop from Harper's Bizarre. A rare Monkees outtake is also included with Michael Nesmith's somber country-rock ballad "Nine Times Blue". The music here is mostly acoustic and has a distinct rustic and pastoral quality. Most of the tunes were recorded from the early to mid sixties and not all are explicity about outlaws, but most of lyrics and music suggest characters, experiences and stories from dusty old Southwestern towns. Click the link below to listen to stream the podcast or right-click the link and press "save link as..." to download it in .mp3 format to your computer. The show starts in at about the 3 minute mark. Enjoy:

The Way: August 23rd

The Way Podcast: 8/16; The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Mash-Up/Joe Strummer's "Walker"

In keeping with the theme of last week's show, this week I explore the ultimate Western soundtrack, Ennio Morricone's iconic score for Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly but with a new twist. Instead of relying on the original theatrical trailers for dialogue to superimpose on to the music, I used the actual film for the source of all the dialogue and sound effects. I basically mixed the entire set live on the fly so there are some moments where there is some clashing audio, but I'm mostly pleased with the result. The mash-up took up about the first half-hour of the show and the rest of the show I played tracks from Joe Strummer's soundtrack for Alex Cox's '87 Neo-Western Walker. Strummer's soundtrack is rustic and melancholy and often very pretty, clearly influenced by Dylan's soundtrack for Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The show is a bit different from what I've done in the past, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless, it was a fun challenge for me. Listen to the stream by clicking the link below and right click and hit "Save As" to download it. Enjoy!

The Way, August 16th

The Way Podcast: August 10th; Art-Western Soundtracks

Probably one of my favorite shows I've done recently, and one of the more "conceptual" shows I've attempted, this week's episode was dedicated to my some of my favorite Western movie scores from the 60s and 70s. I interspersed each set of three film scores with bits of dialouge from the original theatrical trailers from the movies and try to give some background on the songs being played and what kind of scenes the songs were used in. The movies chosen were "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid", with a score from Burt Bacharach, "Once Upon A Time In The West", with a score from Ennio Morricone and my personal favorite movie and score, "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid", with a beautiful soundtrack from Bob Dylan. The link to stream the podcast is below, enjoy!

The Way: August 10th, 2012