Temposphere, KFAI 11/07/09

Tonight’s episode of the Temposphere program on KFAI found us wandering through a familiar terrain of Afrobeat, Reggae, Samba and Salsa while taking a diversion into what I’m now calling “smoky folk”. Lots of new music (Havana Cultura Band, Shawn Lee & Clutchy Hopkins, Mayra Andrade) was leavened with a strong base of classics (Tim Hardin, Erykah Badu, Jimmy McGriff, and all too briefly The Love Unlimited Orchestra – full track next time!). If you missed the show during its live broadcast all is forgiven – you still have a decadent two weeks to enjoy it via MP3 stream (even better than live because you can deploy the pause function when necessary) available at the KFAI archives. Playlists available both there and here by clicking through.

Image is from Vintage Poster.

Cruel Gun Story (1964)

Cruel Gun Story (part of the marvelous Nikkatsu Noir set from Eclipse) is a pitch dark heist caper that builds to crescendos of violence that rival the nonstop mayhem of Dashiell Hammett’s demented, apocalyptic story Nightmare Town. Joe Shishido is the hard as nails ringleader of a group of misfits who commandeer a truck full of racetrack money. It seems to be a foolproof plan to get rich but things of course go terribly wrong …

Global Beat, KFAI 10/28/09

On today’s show I featured brand new tracks from Mayra Andrade and Bebel Gilberto as well as recent and vintage cuts from Freddie McGregor, Milton Nascimento, Beto Villares and Puerto Plata. If you missed the show nao faz mal! It’s available for streaming for two weeks at the KFAI site, here. The complete playlist is posted there and here, after the break.

image is from All Things Amazing.

Alex Steinweiss

The record album, when it was invented by George Avakian in the 1940s, was literally an album of 4 or 5 78 RPM singles. Avakian, an employee of Columbia Records, came upon the idea as a way of mining Columbia’s archives for reissues. Alex Steinweiss, another young Columbia staffer, became the first record cover designer. His simple and memorable graphics for Columbia and other labels over the next decades have been compiled into a grand volume to be issued next month by Taschen. If you don’t have $500 to spare for the book you can browse through all 422 pages here.

LP Covers: Global Tour part 4

There are a finite number of LPs in existence on the planet Earth. But as anyone who has started down the slippery slope of record accumulation knows, for all practical purposes the number is infinite.

The LP covers (with a few EPs mixed in) pictured here arrive from all over, including reliable sources like Loronix, Global Groove, LP Cover Lover, Drillpop, and various eBay auctions.

(related posts: Record Covers: Global Tour, LP Covers: Global Tour part 2, LP Covers: Global Tour part 3, Asian Pop Record Covers, 78 RPM Record Labels, 78 RPM Record Labels part 2, Vintage Jazz Record Covers, More Vintage Jazz Record Covers, BYG Actuel Jazz LP Covers, Brazilian LP Covers, More Brazilian LP Covers, Reggae 45s, Reggae 45s Part 2, LP Cover Bonanza)

Gainsbourg and Birkin by Tony Frank

Tony Frank became a photographer for Serge Gainsbourg in 1968 and worked with him continually through the years, creating the iconic cover for Histoire de Melody Nelson (with a red-wigged Jane Birkin) and capturing the Gainsbourg famille in many candid and unseen shots now gathered in a book (currently available only in France).

photos via The World of Kane.

Python @ 40

Monty Python’s Flying Circus made its debut on the BBC on October 5, 1969. Say no more.

KFAI Fall Pledge Drive 2009

You can help keep independent radio alive! Just click here.

Image is from the vintage photography site Shorpy.

LP Covers: Global Tour part 3

Images are from various locales including eBay auctions and such lovely sites as Loronix, Music From The Third Floor, LP Cover Lover, This Isn’t Happiness and others (if I’ve missed you let me know!).

(related posts: Record Covers: Global Tour, LP Covers: Global Tour part 2, Asian Pop Record Covers, 78 RPM Record Labels, 78 RPM Record Labels part 2, Vintage Jazz Record Covers, More Vintage Jazz Record Covers, BYG Actuel Jazz LP Covers, Brazilian LP Covers, More Brazilian LP Covers, Reggae 45s, Reggae 45s Part 2, LP Cover Bonanza)

20 Shots: A Canterbury Tale (1944)

“I’ll believe that when I see a halo around my head.”