Played two tracks from Pat Martino's 2003 album, "Think Tank." Pat is a walking medical miracle.
In 1980, Martino underwent surgery as the result of a nearly fatal brain aneurysm. The surgery left him with amnesia, leaving him, among other things, without some memory of the guitar and his musical career. With the help of friends, computers, and his old recordings, he made a recovery,[1] and learned to play the guitar again. wikipedia link
Want to know my thought process behind this month's "Alloy Recommendation"? The 2012 Frisell gem, "Solos: the Jazz Sessions." Please checkout my blog post, here.
- A track from one of my favorite albums got some air time today, "New Grass" from Talk Talk's 1991 album Laughing Stock. This was their last album released as Talk Talk and how it, and its predecessor, the equally terrific, Spirit of Eden, were recorded is a bit of baffler to me. Happily, I think they (Talk Talk) fell through some record company cracks and while no one was looking created two minimal music classics. If you want to read the backstory, the wiki has some good info here and [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laughing_Stock_(album).
In 1990, Talk Talk signed a two-album contract with Polydor Records. They released Laughing Stock on Polydor's Verve Records imprint in 1991. By this time, Webb had left the group and Talk Talk had morphed into what was essentially a brand name for the studio recordings of Hollis and Friese-Greene, along with a bevy of session studio players (including long-term Talk Talk drummer Harris). Laughing Stock crystallised the experimental sound the band started with Spirit of Eden (which has been retroactively categorised as "post-rock" by some critics). Laughing Stock peaked at No. 26 in the UK Albums Chart. wikipedia link
Talk Talk's influence upon musicians has exceeded the band's visibility among the general public. Along with the band Slint, Talk Talk are credited with inventing post-rock in their last two albums, Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock.[19] Sigur Rós has played Talk Talk songs before their shows. wikipedia link
I played Yes' version of the Paul Simon tune, "America" on today broadcast. I am a huge fan of the full version of this song--the 10-plus minute version, not the 4-minute spliced-together-short version. Let's face it, if you have the choice between margarine and butter, don't you REALLY want to go with the butter! Well, go with the full (butter...and better) version of this classic and skip the empty calorie short version.
I found this video clip over at Planet Mellotron, a site that was intrumental in providing background info for my "Mellotron-y Goodness" themed show. It's a clip of Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman in the studio duing the recording of "Going for the One" and features Rick using anatomical references to explain his feeling about the track he is listening to--classic (and subtle-ish) British humor (not TOTALLY safe for work).
- Over the holidays I took another deep dive into the bottomless rabbit hole known as XTC. It was a happy and fruitful deep dive. I played one of my favorite XTC tracks, "River of Orchids" from their 1999 album Apple Venus Volume 1. While circumnavigating my XTC rabbit hole, I found this excellent video:
and this one:
and this podcast:
and this radio show:
That's all I've got (so far) for this week. Enjoy!