Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full show, and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to join.

We made it: what started as a ten-minute conversation and became a six episode mini-series finally reaches it conclusion, with the 1978 release of Arthur Russell’s Kiss Me Again. Jeremy and Tim conclude the genealogy of this epic track, detailing it’s recording, dry runs in the club, how the record was sold to the punky Sire Records, and how the Arthur came to put together the players. Friend of the show Nicky Siano gets an extensive mention as the record's co-producer, and his club the Gallery plays host to its first outings. Tim and Jeremy compare notes on how Nicky’s aesthetic differed from David Mancuso’s, share the story of how Arthur came to begin dancing at the Gallery, and explore his queerness both in contact with the dance floor and with his friend and mentor Allen Ginsberg.
Elsewhere in the episode the guys ruminate on soft rock, spend a bit longer talking minimalism, and detail Arthur’s ill-fated trip to Italy to join Le Orme…

Tracklist:
Nirosta Steel - Lost in Music
Arthur Russell - Don’t Forget About Me
Allen Ginsberg - CIA Dope Calypso
Le Orme - Canzone D’Amore
Arthur Russell - Oh Fernanda Why
Barbara Pennington - Twenty Four Hours a Day
Desmond Child and Rouge - The Night was Not

We’ve finally made it - the pivotal Post Punk year of 1979. Well, sort of. It wouldn’t be LITM without a little extra detail, so Jeremy and Tim cue up our arrival with a couple of tracks from ’78 for good measure. They talk Tom Robinson Band, Undertones and the Only Ones, exploring ‘dole queue rock’, everydayness and the limits of politically self-conscious music of the period. Later in the show they tuck into a couple of indie disco staples to examine emergent New Wave, de-masculination, Manchester and the Iron Lady. Finally, for the first time on the show, the guys spend time on perhaps the most iconic post punkers of all: Joy Division. 

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Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk
Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:
Tom Robinson Band - Winter of ’79
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks 
The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet
Blondie - Heart of Glass
Machine - There But for the Grace of God Go I
The Cure - Boys Don’t Cry
Joy Division - Disorder

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, plus dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

We continue our mini-series on Arthur Russell by turning to his mid-70s pop and folk work. Starting in the famous Poet’s Building in 1975, Tim and Jeremy explore life in the East Village, in particular the area’s poetry scene. They discuss the aesthetics of setting spoken word to music, stop by Ginsberg, and drop in some Tibetan Buddhist classes. Elsewhere in the episode we hear about a number of recording sessions at the Columbia Records studio, get haunted by the spectre of Dylan, and speculate on whether Arthur could have been the fourth Talking Head. Tim shares some demos from Arthur’s short-lived band the Flying Hearts, a version of Psycho Killer with punchy cello that didn’t make the final cut, and some Laraaji-ish keyboard noodlings.

www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk
Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
Produced by Matt Huxley.

Books:
Philippe Bourgeois - In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio

Tracklist:
Arthur Russell - Barefoot in New York
William Carlos Williams - The Red Wheelbarrow
Bright and Early - Apple to the Orange
Arthur Russell - Nobody Wants a Lonely Heart
Arthur Russell - I Couldn’t Say it to Your Face
Arthur Russell - Reach One (with Two Fender Rhodes)
Talking Heads - The Girls Want to be with the Girls
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (acoustic version)
The Flying Hearts - Ballad of the Lights
The Flying Hearts - What’s It Like

In this episode we return to the Mudd Club, NYC’s ‘intense laboratory’ of cinema, performance, dance and music. We hear about how this new kind of club fused these various media in novel ways, both as a day-to-day scene hang out spot and a site of never-ending unusual parties (‘Rock’n’Roll Funeral Ball Extravaganza’ anyone?). Tim and Jeremy detail the movement of artists into the East Village in the late 70s, the Fluxus inspiration for the Club’s goings on, and throw a little light on another less well-remembered venue, Club 57.

Elsewhere in the episode the guys talk about The Cure, Lou Reed, retromania and cable TV, whilst also spending a moment on the legacy of Anita Sarko, a much-loved DJ on the scene.

Produced by Matt Huxley.
Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.
Loveisthemessagepod.co.uk.

Tracklist:
Shrapnel - Combat Love
Policeband - Mono
The Cure - Killing an Arab
Lou Reed - Vicious
Bobby Freeman - Betty Lou Got a New Pair of Shoes

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, plus dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

We’re back on the tail of Arthur Russell this week, paying close attention to his piece Instrumentals. A large ensemble composition comprised of multiple musical cells and first premiered at The Kitchen while he was music director, this work expresses Arthur’s proximity to NYC’s post minimalist scene. Jeremy and Tim discuss the works of several of the more prominent composers of that world, including Steve Reich, La Monte Young and Philip Glass, discussing the merits and failures of minimalism and how Arthur’s music aligned and diverged. Elsewhere they spend time on Arthur’s close friend and collaborator Peter Gordon, spend a moment unpacking Postmodernism, attempt to give a very potted account of just and equal temperaments, and give the stage to Memphis rockers Big Star.

www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk
Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:
Arthur Russell - Hey! How Does Everybody Know
Captain Beefheart - Dachau Blues
Arthur Russell - Instrumentals (Live at the Kitchen)
La Monte Young - The Well-Tuned Piano
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
Henry Flynt & Nova'Billy — Amphetamine Rhapsody