Podcast 2020.11 These Go To 11

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 of the parodies in this episode are genre parodies, but most are parodies of artists doing unexpected covers.

  • Bruce Springstone – (Meet The) Flintstones – Bruce Springsteen sings the theme song of the Flintstones
  • Gary Panter & Jay Cotton – God Save The Queen – Alvin & The Chipmunks sing the Sex Pistols
  • Dylan Hears a Who – Green Eggs and Ham – Bob Dylan sings Dr. Suess
  • Mac Sabbath – Pair-a-Buns – Ronald McDonald and the McDonaldland characters sing Black Sabbath
  • Dread Zeppelin – Black Dog – Reggae Led Zeppelin sung by Elvis
  • The Beatnix – Stairway To Heaven – “Stairway to Heaven” as sung by Beatlemania-era Beatles
  • Peter Sellers – She Loves You – Dr. Strangelove sings the Beatles
  • Beatallica – Ktulu (He’s So Heavy) – Metallica sings the Beatles
  • The Zombeatles – Brain – Zombies sing the Beatles
  • The Rutles – Cheese and Onions – A Rutles song so close to the Beatles that it was credited to the Beatles on a bootleg
  • The Barron Knights – Call Up The Groups – The Barron Knights Parody the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Searchers, Freddie and the Dreamers and the Dave Clark Five in 1964
  • Flight of the Conchords – Bowie – The Flight of the Conchords pay homage to David Bowie
  • Richard Cheese – Another Brick in the Wall – Another Brick in the Wall done as a lounge song
  • MC Hawking – The Mighty Stephen Hawking – Stephen Hawking as a gangsta rapper
  • Okilly Dokilly – White Wine Spritzer – Death metal performed by (several) Ned Flanders
  • The Jimi Homeless Experience – Are You Homeless? – Jimi Hendrix advocates for the homeless
  • Spinal Tap – (Listen to the) Flower People – Spinal Tap as a 1960s folk rock band
  • Robin Williams – Elmer Fudd Sings Bruce Springsteen

Podcast 2020.10 Bad Apples

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

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Podcast 2020.09 Number 9

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

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Podcast 2020.08 Flatten The Curve

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

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Podcast 2020.07 The Walls Move In A Little Tighter

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

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Podcast 2020.06 Social Distancing Can’t Be Wrong

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)

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Podcast 2020.05 The Corona 714

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

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Podcast 2020.04 The Other Side of the Dark Waters

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

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Podcast 2020.03 Somebody’s Controlling The Vibes

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

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Podcast 2020.02 Listen for the Color of the Sky

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

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