I recently watched In My Mind, a documentary about an interview with Patrick McGoohan conducted in 1983. I first saw The Prisoner many years ago and it has always stuck with me. 00:00 TMODM – Intro00:50 EarthOmen – Black Cloud Part I05:42 Thee U.F.O. – Floating Eye08:37 Spiral Wave Nomads – Ten Color Ritual16:15 The […]
As the summer winds down, I’ve been listening to a lot of psychedelia. This summer has been strange but good in a lot of ways. At the top of the list is that we celebrated my son’s first birthday. He seems to enjoy it when I sing Beatles songs (even if no one else does!). […]
With this episode of the Turn Me On, Dead Man podcast I’m back to recent garage/psych releases. Opening this set is “Earth on the Verge of Destruction” by The Uplifting Bell Ends, which put me in mind of The Day the Earth Stood Still. 00:00 TMODM – Intro00:53 The Uplifting Bell Ends – Earth on […]
This show is a departure from the usual recent garage rock and paychedelic releases because this episode is entirely made up of parodies done in character. The title of this episode is “These Go To 11” and that, of course, comes from the mock documentary This Is Spinal Tap, a parody heavy metal band. Some […]
While the music of this episode of Turn Me On, Dead Man is recent garage rock and psychedelic releases, 2020.10 Bad Apples is also a tribute to the demonstrations that have been going on the last several days in response to the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police. While it would be easy to assume that this event will not change anything, the public outcry has gone well beyond the usual response to events like this. Only time will tell if this represents any sort of turning point.
2020 continues to be a great year for garage rock and psychedelia. I did short interviews with most of the artists featured in this episode. I wanted to know how they were getting along in these strange times. Their responses are below.
00:00 TMODM – Intro
02:19 The Reverberations – Palm Reader
05:30 Lanes – 俳優 [Actor]
08:45 Dayshifters – Greg’s Song
12:51 Turtle Skull – Rabbit
16:50 Psychic Idols – Sheel of the Wizen
21:07 ToneTeeth – Liquid Lady
24:04 Holy Monitor – This Desert Land
27:57 Heavy Trip – Mind Leaf
35:57 Los Pebbles – One of These Days
39:45 The Silk RailRoad – 8 Sided Pyramid
48:44 Snakes Don’t Belong In Alaska – ทะเลทราย [Desert]
64:45 TMODM – Outro
I went out of order with the numbering of these podcasts because I wanted to revisit the “Bigger than Jesus” controversy that caused such a stir in 1966, and I thought Number 9 was appropriate for that. All of the tracks in this episode of Turn Me On, Dead Man were released in June, 2020 (or right at the end of May in the case of Fontanarosa), but we’re still fighting the same culture wars that emerged in the 1960s. Amid all the insanity of 2020, musically our current year continues to be an absorbing and exciting one.
00:00 TMODM – Intro
01:37 Fontanarosa – Dawn
03:40 Korto – Tempor
07:30 Shibumi Loop – Waiting for the Bus
12:38 Tia Carrera – Layback
19:50 The Daisy Heaves – Land of Nod
24:30 Ty Segall & Cory Hanson – She’s a Beam
29:35 Anthroprophh – Too Old
32:52 Centre El Muusa – Szolnok
38:54 Comacozer – Sun of Hyperion
57:53 TMODM – Outro
The COVID-19 pandemic goes on and we are all trying to come to terms with the new normal. This episode of the Turn Me On, Dead Man podcast opens and closes with tracks from the Burger Records compilation Quarantunes: Songs From Self-Isolation. Burger Records organized this ambitious undertaking to support its artists during the COVID-19 pandemic. The label is covering all the costs and all proceeds from Quarantunes will go directly to the artists. There’s also a track from another COVID-19 benefit album, CosmoPraesidium compilation by Eiderdown Records. All proceeds from this compilation will go to food banks in Washington state, California, and New York.
COVID-19 comes out in other ways in this podcast. Kikagaku Moyo released a track earlier this month called “Ouchi Time” (“Home Time”) that I take to be a response to stay-at-home orders. Other bands, like the Watchmakers, Flowers Must Die and CCR Headcleaner used this opportunity to release recordings from years past. I asked the artists how they were faring through this time, and I got some varied responses.
Like 2020.07, this podcast features audio from Apocalypse Now. This time we hear from Dennis Hopper’s unnamed character.
00:00 TMODM – Intro
00:52 Exploding Flowers – (There’s No Arms Around) The Isolationist
02:45 The Watchmakers – Illumination
07:10 The Haze Parade – P-ills
09:27 Sky Burrow Tales – Photons
16:02 TMODM – Little Man/Great Man
17:45 Prana Crafter – Cloud Ambassador
20:15 El Viaje De Los Antiguos – Capitulo 1
24:45 The Cove – Come Down Easy
30:01 Doug Tuttle – No, No, No, No
32:07 CCR Headcleaner – Unified (Dubified)
34:39 TMODM – Dialectics
36:33 Kikagaku Koyo – Ouchi Time
40:09 Tonstartssbandht – Olde Feelings
45:14 Flowers Must Die – Funki
54:05 O.S.H. – Let’s Try To Have Good Times
56:52 TMODM – Outro
An old friend texted me “Saigon. Shit. I’m still only in Saigon.” In these strange days it seems like we’re all Capt. Willard stuck in a room in Saigon waiting for a mission. This episode of the Turn Me On, Dead Man podcast is heavy on psychedelic freakouts, thinking about Apocalypse Now while putting it together.
00:00 TMODM – Intro
01:08 Oakacetator – Open Up Your Mind
04:59 Vince Cory – Death Birth of Time
12:08 Kundalini Genie – Can’t Get You Out Of My Mind
16:59 Psychic Ills – Never Learn Not To Love
20:42 TMODM – He’s Close, Man
22:09 Frozen Planet….1969 – 900 Mile Head Rush
32:30 Dark Fog – Revird Ysatnaf Eht/The Fantasy Driver
37:14 TMODM – We’ll Go Together
38:14 Heaven’s Gateway Drugs – Sweet ‘N Low (Dub Mix)
43:51 Long Slow Dissolve – Into Darkness
56:34 oz. – Is Risen
65:21 TMODM – Outro
This edition of Turn Me On, Dead Man focuses on social distancing, our new reality in this era of COVID-19. All of the tracks in this podcast were released from mid-March through early April in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the tracks address the isolation that has come about because of the stay-at-home orders issued by the government. The artists are from a variety of countries but most are under some sort of lockdown and facing a prolonged period of limited social engagement. Some of the artists are donating the proceeds from the sale of their music to charity. Some of the artists are using this time to explore their creativity, producing extended improvisational works. Given how quickly the COVID-19 has spread throughout the world, it’s impressive how much creative work is out there already. I asked the artists where they were and what sorts of restrictions had been placed on them.
00:00 TMODM – Intro
00:47 The Marshmen (fuguers cove) – Isolation
04:32 Dry Spells – Sunbeam
06:52 TMODM – Helping Others
07:45 Gods & Punks – Transparent Chains (Acoustic)
12:00 Wooden Corpses – A Journey’s End
16:34 TMODM – Isolation
17:07 The Janitors – Isolation
23:39 Sendelica – Shared Isolation
30:45 Kanoi – A Very Unusual Ghost (Mood #2)
39:43 TMODM – Marking the Days
40:19 Merlin Ball – Virus
43:44 Ray Kosmische – Spreads Virus, Stretches Health Services & Causes Many Deaths & Losses To Commerce On This Island (LP)
The music in this edition of the Turn Me On, Dead Man podcast doesn’t reflect the current state of our world. These are not songs about pandemics, quarantines or the end of the world. As a matter of fact, most of The Corona 714 is upbeat garage rock, some power pop, and of course, a psychedelic freak-out here and there. Perhaps this is because even though these are all recent releases, the corona virus has changed the world so rapidly. I wonder if “social distancing” will become the new normal, and if we’ll ever go back to interacting with each other the way we did in the world before COVID-19.
The drops in this edition of Turn Me On, Dead Man come from The Conet Project. My obsession with following the number of coronavirus cases, and continually checking to see if we have “flattened the curve” put me in mind of the odd numeric messages captured by The Conet Project.
00:00 TMODM – Ready Ready
02:19 Dogpile – Peripheral
06:01 Gavin Watts – Apple Scruffs (George Harrison)
09:11 The Hearses – Carrier Pigeons
12:11 The Psychedelic Suns – Hide From The Sun
16:43 TMODM – Crossing The Cosmic Void
17:55 Yellow Sunshine Explosion – Air
22:28 Black Heart Death Cult – Sonic Dhoom
26:35 Concrete City – Strange Bodies
30:17 “the band whose name is a symbol” – From Dusseldorf to Cologne
36:51 New Blue – “Now I Know”
38:42 Aunt Cynthia’s Cabin – Rider In The Desert Sun (Parts I & II)
45:02 TMODM – Trip Around The World
46:17 The Artakees – Rush
49:57 Kikagaku Moyo-幾何学模様 – Gypsy Davey
53:33 Jambattista – Walker
56:16 The Flower Machine – Through a London Window
58:57 TMODM – Counting Out
This episode of Turn Me On, Dead Man focuses on recent extended psychedelic tracks, heavy on improvisation. I asked the bands about their creative process, so check out their answers below. The drops in this episode come from Terrence Malick’s 1998 film Thin Red Line.
00:00 TMODM – The Other Side of the Dark Waters
00:33 Dark Fog – Black Candle/Eldnac Kcalb
10:00 Melt Plastic Group – Return Of The Turkey (Edit)
14:10 TMODM – This Great Evil
15:46 Dire Wolves – Deep Sunrise Energy
23:54 Elkhorn – Electric One (Part C)
29:28 TMODM – Each Like a Coal Drawn From the Fire
31:05 The Spacelords – Spaceflowers
44:30 Kanaan – Urgent Excursions To The Tundrasphere
58:42 TMODM – All Things Shining
Turn Me On, Dead Man podcast 2020.03 Somebody’s Controlling The Vibes on Mixcloud includes garage rock and psychedelic tracks released (or re-released) from late January to early February. The title of the podcast, as well as the breaks used throughout the hour, are from the outlaw biker/horror movie Werewolves On Wheels [1971].
00:00 TMODM – Intro
01:08 Capricorn One – Hey Garcon
04:57 Mouse – Electric Face
09:11 Ozo – Saturn
13:56 TMODM – The Truth
15:25 Lenny Kaye & The Fleshtones – Lost on Xandu
18:00 Crushing Yellow Sun – The Bomber
21:48 No Glitter – SUB
24:15 Van der Vous – Cuidad Del Sol
28:18 TMODM – Protect Us From Your Evil
29:32 Lemurian Folk Songs – Logos
37:55 Wolf Tape – Wreckage
41:01 Dead Sea Apes – Night Lands
54:19 TMODM – Outro
This edition of the Turn Me On, Dead Man podcast covers garage/psychedelic releases from January, 2020, and includes words of wisdom from Master Po. I was able to track down some of the artists, and I asked them who they would cite as their main influences, and what plans they had for the future. Their responses are below.
00:00 TMODM – Listen for the Color of the Sky
00:23 The Evil Fuzzheads – On My Mind
02:25 Helicon – In The End
05:59 Cobalt Grove – Solana
09:39 Yuri Gagarin – The Outskirts of Reality
18:02 TMODM – Young man, how is it that you do not?
19:21 The Trip Takers – You Are Not Me
22:00 Sula Bassana – Silver Smurfer
25:41 Black Satori – Lucy Lane
33:34 Technicolor Dream Smoke – Rumble
40:30 TMODM – Journeys
42:57 Paul Normal & The Puppets – Far Out Away
46:54 The Electric Myrrs – Inland Summer
53:20 King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Work This Time
59:51 Lichtpyramide – Festtagszug
62:08 TMODM – Ten Times Ten
It’s been almost three years since the release of Conspiracy A-Go-Go: 50 Years After the JFK Assassination and Who Breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel: A Tribute to Pussy Riot, but Turn Me On, Dead Man is back with another Creative Commons compilation. Without Borders: On Behalf of Refugees is a collection garage and psychedelic rock to raise consciousness about the plight of people who have been forcibly displaced.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that more than 65 million people are currently “forcibly displaced,” more even than at the end of World War II. Of this number 21.3 million are classified as refugees, those who have been forced to leave their country because of persecution, war or natural disaster. Those who are displaced within their own countries are classified as Internally Displaced Persons (IDP). In many cases IDPs are even worse off, as they are often trapped in war zones and cannot receive aid or protection from international organizations.
The reasons for this record number of forcibly displaced people are that intractable conflicts like Afghanistan have been ongoing for many years, more recent destructive conflicts, such as the war in Syria, are happening with greater frequency, and solutions for these increasing numbers have not kept pace with the flow of refugees. Added to this are people displaced by climate change and disaster. According to the UNHCR, “Displacement linked to climate change is not a future hypothetical – it’s a current reality.”
Many displaced people have been seeking refuge in wealthy countries, but the political rhetoric about refugees has gotten depressingly ugly in those countries. European countries are erecting barriers against refugees and in the recent Brexit and U.S. presidential elections, campaigns have openly expressed nativist xenophobia in opposing the admission of refugees. The fear is that this will elevate the risk of terrorist attacks, but this ignores that many refugees are fleeing terrorism themselves. Increasing barriers have led many refugees to make ever more dangerous routes to their destinations, with over 5000 migrant fatalities so far this year, as the pace of these tragedies continues to increase.
Fortunately, several organizations are working on behalf of displaced people, such as the American Refugee Committee, the International Rescue Committee and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), known as Doctors Without Borders in the English-speaking world. Links are provided below if you’d like to learn more about what these organizations do and to offer your support.
Many thanks to the bands who have contributed tracks to this compilation. All of the songs on Without Borders have been contributed by the artists under an Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivs Creative Commons license. Their music gives expression to an alternative vision of a better world.
Médecins Sans Frontières
www.msf.fr
Doctors Without Borders
doctorswithoutborders.org
American Refugee Committee
arcrelief.org
International Rescue Committee
rescue.org
All of these organization have received an A or A+ rating from Charity Watch charitywatch.org/top-rated-charities
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
unhcr.org
cover photo by Mikael Damkier through Dreamstime.com
