Separated By Wax

Paul Marion on “Records”

pmarion — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 03:13:27 +0000

“We called those round things records when I was growing up. For Christmas, I was the lucky recipient of a TEAC CD Recorder with Turntable/Cassette Player. A nice machine. I thought it would be fun to make my own discs of select LPs and cassette tapes that have been mothballed ever since the family went the route of CDs and then digital music file downloads. I weeded out the album collection several years ago, but held on to about 75 that . . .”

Continue reading at RichardHowe.com.

Episode 2 – The ORANGE Episode

Philip Marion — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:07:36 +0000

Listen to Episode 2 (38:27)

Download:

Episode Two features the following songs:

BOB DYLAN AND THE BAND

Orange Juice Blues (The Basement Tapes, 1975)

THE FALL

Kurious Oranj (I Am Kurious Oranj, 1988)

FRANK ZAPPA / MOTHERS

Son of Orange County (Roxy & Elsewhere, 1974)

FRANK ZAPPA / MOTHERS OF INVENTION

Orange County Lumber Truck (Weasels Ripped My Flesh, 1970)

JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION

Orange (Orange, 1994)

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND HIS MAGIC BAND

Orange Claw Hammer (Trout Mask Replica, 1969)

MF DOOM

Orange Blossoms (Special Herbs Box Set: 0-9, 2006)

Separated By Wax encourages you to support your local record stores whenever possible.

Episode 1 – Nina Hagen & Frank Zappa

Philip Marion — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 19:58:05 +0000

Listen to Episode 1 (38:53)

Download:

Although they never performed together Nina Hagen and Frank Zappa have many similarities that we can start to reconnect here. Both artists were highly controversial and commanded a love/hate response from the media of their times. Their careers (70′s and 80′s), managers (Bennett Glotzer), and choice of venues (The Mudd Club) even overlap. Nina said she taught herself to sing listening to Janis Joplin and Tina Turner – two artists that Frank knew well. Tina even appeared without credit on Zappa’s album Overnight Sensation along with a few of the Ikettes. Both artists were social commentators on subjects as diverse as politics, religion, UFOs, youth culture, and animal rights and were branded as “anti-establishment”. Although Nina’s song “Don’t Kill the Animals” was a hit in 1986, less well known is Zappa’s love of animals. Frank had pets of at least 4 species and was sponsoring an Echidna in the Los Angeles Zoo. One of his final requests before his death was that, in lieu of flowers, mourners contribute to the Jacques Cousteau Society. Their differences are as great as their similarities however, the most notable being Hagen’s embrace of multiple religions and Zappa’s complete disdain for them. Both artists were often known to perform cover songs that were very different from the originals. Hagen’s include “My Way”, Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky”, and two songs featured here – the Tubes’ “White Punks on Dope” (as “TV Glotzer”) and the traditional spiritual “Hold Me.” Zappa drew from all his influences, leaning heavily on doo-wop and soul. Some of his cover songs include Little Richard’s “Directly From My Heart to You” and The Four Deuces’ “W-P-L-J” as well as Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and the Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post” among countless others. Zappa didn’t always sing in his own songs and many of his works are instrumental. However, if he did choose to sing in another language other than English, it was always German. “Sofa #1″ from this episode features a fine example. Nina, when not singing in German, was most likely to choose English (and occasionally Hindi).

Episode One features the following songs:

NINA HAGEN

New York, New York (Fearless, 1984)

Hold Me (Nina Hagen, 1989)

TV Glotzer (Nina Hagen Band, 1978)

Antiworld (Nunsexmonkrock, 1982)

FRANK ZAPPA

Mudd Club (Buffalo, 2007 (recorded Live 1980), also on You Are What You Is, 1981)

The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing (Buffalo, 2007 (recorded Live 1980), also on You Are What You Is, 1981)

I’m The Slime (Zappa in New York, 1978, also on Overnight Sensation, 1973)

Sofa #1 (One Size Fits All, 1975)

Separated By Wax encourages you to support your local record stores whenever possible.

Record Stores

pmarion — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 22:23:46 +0000

Presented here is a partial list of record stores that in some way have materially contributed to Separated By Wax. This is by no means the complete provenance of my current collection. Special thanks also goes to the Amvets, the Goodwill stores, the Salvation Army stores…and many more places that either aren’t around anymore or that I’ve forgotten for now.

Record Surplus (Los Angeles CA)

Rockaway Records (Los Angeles CA)

Lou’s Records (Encinitas CA)

Amoeba Music (Los Angeles & San Francisco CA)

M-Theory Music (San Diego CA)

Off the Record (San Diego CA)

Freakbeat Records (Sherman Oaks CA)

Rhino Records (Clarement CA)

Rasputin Music (San Francisco CA)

Backside Records (Los Angeles and Burbank, CA)

Jackpot Records (Portland OR)

Everyday Music (Portland OR)