Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Rock & Art & Gender
+ Artist Ryan Wilks & Gender Treason + Poet Jen Harris
+ Ryan will paint the radio show!
1. “Main Title Instrumental – It’s Showtime Folks”
from: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to All That Jazz / 1980
[WMM’s theme song]
2. Sufjan Stevens – “The Vivian Girls Are Visited In The Night By Saint Dargarius And His Squadron Of Benevolent Butterflies”
from: The Avalanche: Outtakes And Extras From The Illinois Album / Asthmatic Kitty / July 11, 2006
[Sufjan Stevens references outsider artist, Henry Joseph Darger, Jr. Born April 12, 1892 – and died, April 13, 1973, He was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a hospital custodian in Chicago, Illinois. He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story. A press release on the Asthmatic Kitty website reported that the Illinois album was supposed to be a double record (with somewhere near 50 songs), but the idea was eventually scrapped. After the success of the album, Stevens returned to his analog 8-track recorder in late 2005 and began the process of finishing 21 of the previously abandoned songs, which would eventually become The Avalanche. Stevens has stated during interviews that although he doesn’t like The Avalanche as much as Illinois, he felt it was important to release the songs in light of the success of his most recent album. He has also said that he decided to release the album in order to buy time until his next “The 50 States” project,” release.]
3. Laurie Anderson – “Cartoon Song [Live Album Version]”
from: United States Live / Warner Bros. / 1984 (Recorded February 7 – 10, 1983)
[3rd album release by avant-garde artist, composer, musician and film director, Laurie Anderson, born June 5, 1947, whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting, Anderson pursued a variety of performance art projects in New York during the 1970s, making particular use of language, technology, and visual imagery. Released as a 5-record boxed set (later reissued, slightly truncated, on four CDs), the album was recorded at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City in February 1983. United States was Anderson’s magnum opus performance-art piece featuring musical numbers, spoken word pieces, and animated vignettes about life in the United States. Segments ranged from humorous, such as “Yankee See,” which gently chided Anderson’s record label, Warner Bros. Records, for signing her in the first place, to the apocalyptic anthem “O Superman,” which had been an unexpected Top 10 hit for Anderson on the UK music charts in 1981. Originally, United States was presented over the course of two nights, running some eight hours. The United States Live box set is a truncated rendering of the performance, omitting many segments that were solely of a visual nature. Among the songs performed on the album was “Language is a Virus (from Outer Space),” a pop-like song based upon a phrase attributed to William S. Burroughs. Anderson later performed a modified arrangement of the song in her 1986 concert film Home of the Brave. Although Anderson has since created numerous other major performance pieces (i.e. Moby-Dick, Stories from the Nerve Bible, Happiness, The End of the Moon), United States Live remains, to date, the only serious attempt at producing anything approaching a full-length recording of any of these performances, although her previous album Big Science and her segment of the compilation You’re the Guy I Want to Share My Money With consisted of studio-recorded excerpts from United States.]
4. David Bowie – “Sound and Vision 2013”
from: Sound and Vision 2013 – Single / Parlophone Records / October 4, 2013
[A 2013 remix that was commissioned for Sony Xperia Z smartphone advertising campaign. The new mix by Sonjay Prabhakar utilized the original lead vocals and Mary Hopkin’s backing vocal with a new piano part by Rob Gentry. Parlophone Records digital download released on 7 October 2013. Originally “Sound and Vision” is a song and single by David Bowie which appeared on the album Low in 1977. The song is notable for juxtaposing an uplifting guitar and synthesizer-led instrumental track with Bowie’s withdrawn lyrics. In keeping with the minimalist approach of Low, co-producer Visconti and Bowie originally recorded the track as an instrumental, bar the backing vocal (performed by Visconti’s wife, Mary Hopkin). Bowie then recorded his vocal after the rest of the band had left the studio, before trimming verses off the lyric, and leaving a relatively lengthy instrumental intro on the finished song. Selected as a first single from the album, “Sound and Vision.”]
5. Herbie Hancock – “The Jungle Line (feat. Leonard Cohen)”
from: River: The Joni Letters / The Verve Music Group / September 25, 2007
[A tribute album, featuring covers of songs originally written and performed by singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. It is Hancock’s 47th studio album. Hancock is a longtime friend of Mitchell’s, and both he and saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who plays throughout the album, had previously collaborated with Mitchell on her 1979 album Mingus, and both continued to work with her on occasion ever since. Guest vocalists on River include Leonard Cohen, Tina Turner, Norah Jones, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza and Mitchell herself. In 2008 The album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Jazz Album at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. The Album of the Year award surprised the music world; Hancock had faced competition from major-selling artists Kanye West, Foo Fighters, Amy Winehouse, and Vince Gill. River was only the second jazz album to win Album of the Year in the award’s history, the first being Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz and João Gilberto in 1965. It peaked at #5 on the Billboard 200 after enjoying a huge post-Grammy sales boost.]
10:13 – Underwriting
6. Le Tigre – “My Art”
from: Feminist Sweepstakes / Le Tigre Records / October 16, 2001
[Le Tigre is an American electroclash band from the United States, formed by Kathleen Hanna (formerly of Bikini Kill) and Johanna Fateman in 1998 in New York City. It also featured Sadie Benning from 1998 until 2001 and JD Samson for the rest of the group’s run. Le Tigre is known for its left-wing sociopolitical lyrics, dealing with issues of feminism and the LGBT community. Feminist Sweepstakes is the second studio album and the first album to feature JD Samson as a member of the band. She had previously worked with the band as a roadie and the operator of Benning’s slide show during live performances in support of their first record.]
7. Schmekel – “Gay Shame”
from: The Whale That Ate Jonah / Schmekel / October 29, 2013
[Schmekel is an all-transgender, Jewish folk punk band from Brooklyn, NY, known for their humor. Lucian Kahn on guitar & vocals, Ricky Riot on keyboards & vocals, Nogga Schwartz on bass guitar, Simcha Halpert-Hanson on drums. Active from 2010 to 2014. They have been compared to Pansy Division, Tribe 8, Frank Zappa, Mel Brooks and Tom Lehrer. The Forward cites Schmekel as an example of the cultural movement “Queer Yiddishkeit.” More info at: http://www.transjews.com]
8. ANOHNI – “Why Did You Separate Me from the Earth?”
from: HOPELESSNESS / Secretly Canadian / May 6, 2016
[ANOHNI is formerly known as Antony Hegarty or Antony, is an English-born American singer, composer, and visual artist. She is best known as the lead singer of the band Antony and the Johnsons. Anohni was born in 1970 in the city of Chichester, England. Her family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States in 1981. In 1990, she moved to Manhattan, New York to study at New York University, where she founded the performance art collective Blacklips with Johanna Constantine. Entering a musical career, she began performing with an ensemble of NYC musicians as Antony and the Johnsons. Their first album, Antony and the Johnsons, was released in 2000 on David Tibet’s label Durtro. Their second album, I Am a Bird Now (2005), was a commercial and critical success, earning Anohni the Mercury Music Prize. In 2016, Anohni became the second openly transgender person nominated for an Academy Award; she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, along with J. Ralph, for the song “Manta Ray” in the film Racing Extinction.]
9. Ivory Black – “A Good Answer”
from: Ready Get Set EP / Independent / June 23, 2015
[Singer, songwriter, rock & roller, Ivory Black was born in 1986 in Peoria Illinois. Given up for adoption at the age of four, it was difficult to find trust in people after living with eight different foster families, running away at 15, moving from Indiana to Oklahoma, Ivory eventually ended up in Seattle. In 2011, after a friend sent a plane ticket, Ivory landed in the Kansas City.]
10:30 – Interview with Ryan Wilks
Ryan Wilks is a Kansas City based artist who’s work centralizes on gender issues, femininity and sexuality. His upcoming exhibition: “Gender Treason,” opens July 1, at 6:00 PM, at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center, 2012 Baltimore Ave, in Kansas City’s Crossroads Art District.
“Gender Treason” is a year long project involving the documentation of 12 queer persons living in Kansas City who were interviewed, photographed, recorded, transcribed, and painted in oils. The aspiration of this project is to reshape the perception of queer people in Kansas City in a constructive and powerful way. More information at: http://www.wilkspainting.com
We just heard Ivory Black who is part of this exhibition.
10:45
10. The Velvet Underground – “I’ll Be Your Mirror (Mono Version)”
from: The Velvet Underground & Nico (45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) / Universal Records / 2012 [Orig. March 12, 1967]
[The Velvet Underground & Nico is the debut album by American rock band the Velvet Underground and vocal collaborator Nico, released in March 1967 by Verve Records. Recorded in 1966 during Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia event tour, The Velvet Underground & Nico would gain attention for its experimental performance sensibilities, as well as the focus on controversial subject matter expressed in many of its songs including drug abuse, prostitution, sadism and masochism and sexual deviancy. In 1982, musician Brian Eno famously stated that while The Velvet Underground & Nico initially only sold 30,000 copies, “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.” Though it was a commercial failure upon release and was almost completely ignored by critics at the time, the record has since become one of the most influential and critically acclaimed rock albums in history, appearing at number thirteen on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time as well as being added to the 2006 National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress. “I’ll Be Your Mirror” is a song by The Velvet Underground. It appeared on their 1967 debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico. It also surfaced as a single a year earlier with “All Tomorrow’s Parties” in 1966. Lou Reed wrote the song for Nico, who provides lead vocals. Inspiration for the song apparently came about after Nico approached Reed after a show in 1965 saying, “Oh Lou, I’ll be your mirror.” The song was a favorite of Reed’s and The Velvet Underground & Nico engineer, Norman Dolph.]
11. Lou Reed and John Cale – “Images”
from: Songs For Drella / Sire – Warner Bros. / 1990
[Dedicated to the memory of Andy Warhol, their mentor, who had died unexpectedly in 1987. Drella was a nickname for Warhol coined by Warhol Superstar Ondine, a contraction of Dracula and Cinderella, used by Warhol’s crowd. The song cycle focuses on Warhol’s interpersonal relations and experiences, with songs falling roughly into three categories: Warhol’s first-person perspective (which makes up the vast majority of the album), third-person narratives chronicling events and affairs, and first-person commentaries on Warhol by Reed and Cale themselves. The songs on the album are, to some extent, in chronological order.]
12. Britta Phillips – “Ingrid Superstar”
from: Luck Or Magic / Double Feature Records / April 29, 2016
[Britta Phillips was born June 11, 1963. She is a singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, actor, and voice actor. Phillips’ music career spans more than 30 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s as the singing voice of the title character of the animated television series Jem. She has also been a member of the bands Luna and as one half of the duo Dean & Britta, both with her husband Dean Wareham. For a few years, on and off, Phillips has been working on Luck Or Magic, her solo debut, which started off as a collaboration with the late dance producer Scott Hardkiss. The album finally comes out this week. It’s got five originals and five covers. The closing original track, “Ingrid Superstar,” named after the former Andy Warhol superstar who disappeared in 1984 and has not been found. It’s a fitting reminder of Britta’s connection to Warhol, particularly on Dean & Britta’s 2009 release 13 Most Beautiful Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests. “In addition to her talents as a film comedienne, Ingrid Superstar also wrote short poems and prose pieces, which were occasionally published, and sometimes gave public readings from her Trip Book. Warhol thought ‘her poems were good, really good, half poetry and half comedy.’ In later years, Ingrid Von Scheven fell on hard times, struggling with a drug problem and eventually ending up in Kingston, New York, where she worked in sweater factory. She disappeared one day in December 1986, after leaving her apartment to buy cigarettes. although the Kingston police announced ‘there’s a clear possibility of foul play and we are intensifying our investigation,’ she was never found. She was forty-two years old at the time of her disappearance.”]
10:57
13. Le1f – “Wut”
from: Hey – EP / Terrible Records / March 7, 2014
[Khalif Diouf, known by his stage name Le1f, is an American rapper and producer from New York City. He runs the hip hop label Camp & Street, a subsidiary of Greedhead Music. As a gay rapper he’s garnered attention for his unique and subversive musical and performance styles. Following a series of well-received mixtapes and EPs, his debut studio album Riot Boi was released in November 2015. Hey is the label debut EP by Le1f. The EP also marks the first official hip hop release for Terrible Records, aside from Solange’s 2013 single “Looks Good with Trouble” that featured Kendrick Lamar. “Ask a gay question/ Here’s a black answer” is a line hidden in the opening track of big indie label debut.]
11:00 – Interview with Jen Harris
Kansas City based poet & spoken word artist, Jen Harris, joined us to talk about her Kickstarter campaign to support the release of her debut spoken word album, Flaunting Her Mediocrity, (due out Fall 2016), and planning her 2016 solo cross-country tour: Multiple Personalities.
Earlier this year her first book of poetry, SLAMMED was published through Prospero’s Books and Spartan Press as part of the POP POETRY series.
Jen Harris is co-owner of Createful Studios LLC, & founder of KC’s PoUnd SLAM now called Kansas City Poetry Slam.
Jen Harris is the recipient of the 2015 UMKC Jim Wanser Pride Award for outstanding LGBT community activism in Kansas City. Additionally, she is the recipient of the 2015 & 2014 Pitch Magazine Top 3 Poets in Kansas City award, and the 2009 ACP Kansas Journalist of the Year. More info at: http://www.facebook.com/poetjenharris.
Jen Harris has a new book, SLAMMED. More info at: https://www.facebook.com/poetjenharris and http://www.poetjenharris.com
11:15
14. Pieta Brown – “Painter’s Hands”
from: Paradise Outlaw / Red House Records / September 30, 2014
[Recorded at Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon’s studio April Base, Paradise Outlaw was another new spin on the ethereal folk sound Brown has crafted over six albums. Pieta Brown was born in 1973 in Iowa City, Iowa. Her early upbringing was in Iowa. There, Brown was exposed to traditional and rural folk music through her father, singer songwriter Greg Brown. Brown spent her childhood living in 17 different residences between Iowa and Alabama. While living with her mother in Alabama, Brown began writing poetry and composing instrumental songs on piano. As a musician and singer-songwriter she has released five albums and four EPs. Collaborator Bo Ramsey produced her 2002 debut record, Pieta Brown and co-produced her 2005 album In the Cool, which was named one of the year’s best by Amazon. Her next album Remember The Sun was released in 2007 and was cited as one of the year’s best in a The Wall Street Journal article. After the release of her next album, One and All, Brown joined Mark Knopfler’s North American tour, had a string of performance dates with John Prine, participated in a full orchestral show with Brandi Carlile, and embarked on her own performance tour in Australia. Brown’s 2009 EP, Shimmer was produced by Don Was after hearing her on his car radio in a live solo performance. In addition to Mark Knopfler, John Prine and Brandi Carlile, Brown has shared stages with JJ Cale, Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson, Ani DiFranco, Calexico, Neko Case, Mason Jennings, Shawn Mullins, Carrie Rodriguez and Jim Lauderdale. She has performed at festivals throughout North America including Bonnaroo, Mountain Jam, Edmonton Folk Music Festival and more. Her national radio credits include performances on eTown and Mountain Stage. Brown is married to guitarist and producer, Bo Ramsey.]
15. Rufus Wainwright – “The Art Teacher”
from: Want Two / Geffen Records / November 16, 2004
[4th album from American-Canadian singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright. Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. His parents divorced when he was three, and he lived with his mother in Montreal for most of his youth. Want Two is, according to Wainwright, the darker sibling of 2003’s Want One – its subject matter concerned with “the world we live in” after Want One’s focus on the intensely personal. Antony Hegarty of 2005 Mercury Prize winners Antony and the Johnsons sings lead vocal alongside Wainwright on “Old Whore’s Diet”. ]
16. Janelle Monáe Feat. Prince – “Givin Em What They Love”
from: The Electric Lady / Bad Boy Records / September 10, 2013
[Janelle Monáe moved from Kansas City, Kansas to New York to study theatre at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Her original plan was to pursue a career on Broadway, but she soon changed her mind and returned to music. After moving to Atlanta, GA, where she met OutKast’s Big Boi, Monáe founded the Wondaland Arts Society with like-minded young artists and made appearances on Outcast’s Idlewild, where Janelle is featured on the songs “Call The Law” and “In Your Dreams”. In 2007, Monáe released her first solo work, titled Metropolis. A few months later she was signed to Sean “Diddy” Combs’ label, Bad Boy Records.]
17. Kristie Stremel – “Orlando (Keep Dancing)”
rom: Orlando (Keep Dancing) – Single / Stremeltone / June 16, 2016
[Written by: Kristie Stremel and Recorded and Mixed by Paul Malinowski at Massive Sound. Mastered by John Hobson. Kristie Stremel on vocals & guitar, Anna Cook on cello & backround vocals, Ryan McCall on piano & background vocals. Described as “Joan Jett & Tom Petty’s love child,” and armed with her guitar, fueled by coffee, and over 75 published songs, singer, songwriter, producer, rock & roll mom, Kristie Stremel has had a very busy year. In October, 2013 Kristie and her partner, Lori Isabell, welcomed their adopted baby son, Charlie, into their family. In April 2014 Kristie released her 6th solo record, and the 9th full-length release of her musical career of over 20 years. Released on her own label, Stremeltone, it was Kristie’s first self-produced album. Stremeltone Records, was created in her home in Lawrence. The last track, “It’s Enough” was released early, as a video, featuring photos of couples in partnerships, relationships, marriages, unions, families. The video was Kristie’s response the the KS House of Representatives passing HD 2453 allowing business the right to refuse service to LGBT customers. The bill eventually died in the Kansas Senate. ]
11:43 – Underwriting
11:45
18. Television Personalities – “Lichtenstein Painting”
from: Mummy Your Not Watching Me / Fire Records / 1981
[2nd album from The Television Personalities, an English post-punk band formed in 1978. The band was led through several incarnations by singer-songwriter Dan Treacy, its only constant member.] [Roy Fox Lichtenstein was born October 27, 1923 and died September 29, 1997. He was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the basic premise of pop art through parody. Favoring the comic strip as his main inspiration, Lichtenstein produced hard-edged, precise compositions that documented while it parodied often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was heavily influenced by both popular advertising and the comic book style. He described pop art as “not ‘American’ painting but actually industrial painting.” His paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City.]
19. Mission of Burma – “Max Ernst”
from: Signals, Calls and Marches / Matador / (August 1981) Remastered by by Matador in 2008
[American post-punk band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1979. The band was formed by Roger Miller (guitar), Clint Conley (bass), Peter Prescott (drums) and Martin Swope (tape manipulator/sound engineer). Miller, Conley and Prescott share singing and songwriting duties. In early years the band’s recordings were all released on the small Boston-based record label Ace of Hearts. Despite initial success, Mission of Burma disbanded in 1983 due to Miller’s development of tinnitus caused by the volume of the band’s live performances. The band released only one album in its original lineup, Vs.. Mission of Burma reformed in 2002, with Bob Weston replacing Swope, and has since recorded three more albums, ONoffON, The Obliterati, and The Sound The Speed The Light. Mission of Burma played The Middle of The Map Fest. Friday April 6, 20121.] [Max Ernst was born April 2, 1891 and died April 1 1976. He was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism.]
20. Talking Heads – “Artists Only [Live]”
from: The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads [Live] / Sire / March 24, 1982
[The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is a double live album by Talking Heads, originally released in 1982. The first disc featured the original quartet in recordings from 1977 and 1979, and the second disc the expanded ten-piece lineup that toured in 1980 and 1981. The album contains live versions of songs that appear on Talking Heads: 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light. The cassette edition of the album included “Cities” as a bonus track not included on the vinyl edition – this track has been included on the subsequent CD release. The title of the album is a reference both to the group’s preference for having no expressed definite article within the band name (as opposed to “The Talking Heads”) and to David Byrne’s minimalist introductions to songs. The album opens with one such introduction: “The name of this song is New Feeling. That’s what it’s about.” Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.[3] The band comprised David Byrne (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Frantz (drums), Tina Weymouth (bass), and Jerry Harrison (keyboards, guitar). Former art school students who became involved in the 1970s New York punk scene, Talking Heads integrated elements of punk, art rock, funk, dance, and world music with avant-garde sensibilities and the anxious stage persona of singer Byrne, helping to pioneer new wave music. The group produced several commercial hits and a number of multimedia projects throughout its career, and often collaborated with other artists, such as musician Brian Eno and director Jonathan Demme.]
21. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003
[orig. 1957]
During the entire live, two-hour broadcast, Ryan Wilks painted an oil portrait of Mark.
Next week, June 29, .
Our Script/Playlist is a cut and paste of information.
Sources for notes: artist’s websites, bios, wikipedia.org
Wednesday MidDay Medley in on the web:
www.WednesdayMidDayMedley.org,
http://www.facebook.com/WednesdayMidDayMedleyon90.1FM,
http://www.kkfi.org
Show #635
Wednesday MidDay Medley 