TURKEY FOLLIES: Thursday was Thanksgiving, but that didn't stop me from doing my DJ duties. The holiday edition of Titicut Follies included a Thanksgiving set, an experimental funk-punk set, and a set of country-music covers from around the world. (More specifically: from Thailand, Mexico, Zimbabwe, and China, in that order.)

Ray Davies: Thanksgiving Day
William S. Burroughs: A Thanksgiving Prayer
Firesign Theater: Temporarily Humboldt County
John D. Loudermilk: The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian
Charlie Rich: Feel Like Going Home
Steve Earle: Copperhead Road
June Tabor & The Oysterband: Dark Eyed Sailor
The Gift of Gab & The Blind Boys of Alabama: Demons
The Band: Ophelia
Candi Staton: When Hearts Grow Cold
Randy Newman: A Wedding in Cherokee County
Mark Knopfler & The Chieftains: The Lily of the West
The Battlefield Band: One Miner's Life/The Image of God
The Red Clay Ramblers: Keep the Home Fires Burning
The Roches: The Largest Elizabeth in the World
Delta 5: Mind Your Own Business
Gang of Four: He'd Send in the Army
The Pop Group: Thief of Fire
Prince: Kiss
Richard Thompson: Kiss
Pairote: Tee Makhuea Pok (Your Cheatin' Heart)
Mingo Saldivar: Rueda De Fuego (Ring of Fire)
The Bhundu Boys: My Best Friend
The Clear Wind Band: Gei Wo Yi Ge Wen (Give Me a Kiss)
David Allan Coe: A Sad Country Song
Johnny Paycheck: (Pardon Me) I've Got Someone To Kill
Merle Haggard: White Line Fever
Elvis Costello: A Good Year for the Roses
Willie Nelson: Sentimental Journey
The Four King Sisters: San Fernando Valley
Bob Dylan: The Man In Me
Charlie Rich: River, Stay Away From My Door
Etta James: I've Got Dreams to Remember
Al Green: Jesus Is Waiting
Ann Peebles: I Can't Stand the Rain
Tammy Wynette: Woman to Woman
Aretha Franklin: I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Loved You)
The Robins: Smokey Joe's Café
Sippie Wallace: Woman Be Wise
Ray Charles: What'd I Say
The Kinks: Brainwashed
Big Star: Til the End of the Day
The Saints: (I'm) Stranded
Shonen Knife: Butterfly Boy
Bob Dylan: Wigwam

Due to travel plans, Titicut Follies will be on hiatus for the next two weeks. I will, however, guest-host the next edition of bluegrass show, which starts at 10 a.m. Saturday. Tune in.

posted by Jesse 9:30 PM

. . .

BONUS PLAYLIST: Saturday I sat in for the last half-hour of Bill Monroe for Breakfast and the first hour of The Down Home Show. Here's the combined all-country playlist:

Doc Watson: The Last Thing On My Mind
Eastern Heritage: Catch the Wind
Merle Travis: I Am a Pilgrim
Steve Earle & The Del McCoury Band: Harlan Man
Hazel Dickens: Coal Tattoo
Robbie Fulks: When I See an Elephant Fly
Carl Story: I Saw the Light
The Stanley Brothers: Pretty Polly
Sir Douglas Quintet: (Is Anybody Going To) San Antone
Billy Joe Shaver: Black Rose
BeauSoleil: Valerie
Dolly Parton & Asleep at the Wheel: Billy Dale
Phil Ochs: Gas Station Women
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen: Wine Do Yer Stuff
Jim Ford: Big Mouth USA
The Flying Burrito Brothers: Break My Mind
Loretta Lynn: Just to Satisfy (The Weakness in a Man)
Ray Charles: All I Ever Need Is You
Johnny Cash: West Canterbury Subdivision Blues
The Everly Brothers: Mama Tried
Merle Haggard: The Fugitive
Cowboy Copas: Feelin' Low
Kirsty MacColl: There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis
Freakwater: Gravity
Sammi Smith: Kentucky
Kris Kristofferson: If You Don't Like Hank Williams
Millie Jackson: Anybody That Don't Like Millie Jackson
Percy Sledge: Behind Closed Doors

That isn't the same recording of Ford's "Big Mouth USA" that I played on Titicut Follies a few weeks ago.

posted by Jesse 10:14 PM

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SELF-PROMOTION: I have a brief article on the Reason site today titled "Republicans Seek Bailout." (Reader reaction: " I...guess that was supposed to be funny...") And my review of Tom Frank's The Wrecking Crew, originally published in the December Reason, is now online as well (as is a brief follow-up at Hit & Run).

posted by Jesse 3:18 PM

. . .

THREE REGGAE SONGS, THREE SONGS IN FRENCH, AND A CARTOON WRITTEN BY MANATEES: Here is the playlist from yesterday's radio show:

Dixie Hummingbirds: Nobody's Fault
Clarence Carter: The Road of Love
Gil Scott-Heron: Johannesburg
Macy Gray: Boo
Esther Phillips: Home is Where the Hatred Is
Travis Wammack: You Better Move On
Jorge Ben: Ponta de Lanca Africano (Umababarauma)
Toots and the Maytals: Take Me Home, Country Roads
Steve Earle: Johnny Too Bad
Desmond Dekker: Israelites
Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot: Bonnie and Clyde
Maurice Chevalier: Toi et Moi
Edith Piaf: La Vie En Rose
Noel Coward: Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Monty Python: Sit On My Face
Elizabeth Cook & The Jordanaires: Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah
R. Crumb and His Cheap Suit Serenaders: Make My Cot Where the Cot-Cot-Cotton Grows
Jerry Garcia & David Grisman: Teddy Bear Picnic
Kamikaze Ground Crew: Teddy Bear Picnic
Ricky Skaggs & The Chieftains: Wabash Cannonball
The Waterboys: And a Bang on the Ear
Boiled in Lead: Bring It Round
The Pogues: The Old Main Drag
June Tabor: Beat the Retreat
The Beatles: Blackbird
Merle Haggard: The Day the Rains Came
Merle Haggard: Wishing All These Old Things Were New
Alejandro Escovedo & Kelly Hogan: Pale Blue Eyes
Frankel: Pass Out
Nick Drake: Cello Song
Jim Ford: 36 Inches High
Los Lobos: Down Where the Drunkards Roll
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Sylvia's Mother
Ray Charles: Going Down Slow
The Kinks: Sitting On My Sofa
Elaine Brown: The End of Silence
Buena Vista Social Club: Chan Chan
Family Guy: Rock Lobster
The B-52s: Rock Lobster
Social Distortion: Ring of Fire
Jelly Roll Morton: Someday Sweetheart
Wilmoth Houdini: I Need a Man
Jackson 5: I Want You Back
Lyn Collins: Things Got to Get Better
Sesame Street: Me Lost Me Cookie at the Disco
Willie Hightower: Walk a Mile in My Shoes
Bob Dylan: Wigwam

posted by Jesse 11:38 AM

. . .

SELF-PROMOTION: My tribute to the late Bruce Conner, published in the October issue of Reason, is now online.

Also, a 25-minute version of the documentary Talking Butts, which I helped make a few years ago, is up at reason.tv. You can call this the "Paul Feine cut," to distinguish it from the 13-minute "Bretigne Shaffer cut" that's posted on Google video. The 45-minute version -- I guess we'd call that one the "Paul Fein/Mark Toscani cut" -- isn't online. There is no "Jesse Walker cut," which is why, even though I'm credited as the lead director, I feel more like a hired hand than an author. Forget what you read in Cahiers; editors are the true auteurs.

At any rate, I think I like the 25-minute cut best. Dig in:

posted by Jesse 10:54 AM

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ANOTHER THURSDAY, ANOTHER RADIO SHOW: Yesterday's program included a Miriam Makeba tribute, a set about smoking, and a preview of last night's excellent Eugene Chadbourne show at the Kerrytown Concert House:

Pigmeat Markham: Here Comes the Judge
Stacy Lane: Funky Little Train
Beck: Sexx Laws
Joe Tex: Men Are Gettin' Scarce
Wilson Pickett: Stagger Lee
Deep Throat: She's Got to Have It
Pee Wee Ellis: Chicken
Lou Donaldson: Who's Makin' Love
Candi Staton: Running Out of Love
Larry Jon Wilson: Friday Night Fight at Al's
k.d. lang: Big Boned Gal
Marshall Crenshaw: Cynical Girl
Johnny Cash: Sold Out of Flag Poles
Miriam Makeba: Pata Pata
Peter Tosh: Mama Africa
The Manhattan Brothers: Baby Ntsoare
The Ink Spots: Christopher Columbus
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: Strange Things Happening Every Day
The Showmen: 39-21-46
Alvin Youngblood Hart: Nelly Was a Lady
The Kinks: Harry Rag
Jerry Reed: Another Puff
Tex Williams: Smoke Smoke Smoke (That Cigarette)
Eugene Chadbourne: Medley in C
Willie Nelson: Always on My Mind
The Band: Daniel and the Sacred Heart
Clarinet Thing: Primitive Southern Brass Band Piece
Re-Birth Brass Band: Chameleon
Country Joe and the Fish: I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die
Fairport Convention: Gone, Gone, Gone
The Washington Squares: He Was a Friend of Mine
Rose Maddox: Silver Threads and Golden Needles
Linda Rondstadt: Silver Threads and Golden Needles
Leo Kottke: Eight Miles High
Blueground Undergrass: Wichita Lineman
Ray Charles: Wichita Lineman
Percy Sledge: Blue Water
Madness: In the Middle of the Night
The Beach Boys: Vegetables
Average White Band: Cut the Cake
Roxy Music: Street Life
New York Dolls: Trash
The Clash: I'm So Bored with the USA
The Buzzcocks: Orgasm Addict
Elvis Presley: Wearin' That Loved On Look
Bob Dylan: Wigwam

posted by Jesse 10:26 AM

. . .

TIPS FOR REPUBLICANS: For those who came in late, the sole reason for the disarray of the GOP is apparently either

(a) that damn Palin woman and her barefoot fans, or

(b) those latte-sipping moderates who keep criticizing the People's Tribune.

Expel your base or retreat into an echo chamber: If those choices seem dispiriting, Republicans can take heart. They're the same false alternatives that the Democrats allegedly faced four years ago. Then a politician who hadn't fallen behind the bipartisan Iraq war -- but, unlike Howard Dean, actually wanted to be president -- came out of nowhere to beat his party's establishment and take the White House.

There's a lesson there. If I were a Republican, I'd ignore the inane Palin debate and start looking around for a politician who had the good sense to break with the bipartisan consensus and oppose the bailout bill before it passed. Then I'd start planning an insurgency.

(cross-posted at Hit & Run)

posted by Jesse 9:46 AM

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POST-ELECTION RADIO SHOW: The first half hour consisted of election-related records, then we went in other directions.

The Knitters: The New World
Utah Phillips: Candidacy
The Blasters: Common Man
The Kinks: Salvation Road
Firesign Theater: I Think We're All Bozos On This Bus (excerpt)
Booker T. and the MGs: Sun King
Parliament: Chocolate City
The Who: Won't Get Fooled Again
The Waco Brothers: Baba O'Riley
Merle Haggard: Garbage Man
Tom T. Hall: Homecoming
The Flatlanders: Bhagavan Decreed
Don Walser & The Kronos Quartet: Rose Marie
Bobby Womack: Copper Kettle
Van Morrison: What Am I Living For?
Ernie K-Doe: Mother-In-Law
Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis: Georgia On My Mind
Susan Tedeschi: Sweet Forgiveness
Irma Thomas: Cry On
Prince: On the Couch
The Meters: Cissy Strut
Brother Jack McDuff: Grease Monkey
Letta M'Bulu: What's Wrong With Groovin'?
Joe Tex: Skinny Legs and All
Ry Cooder: 3 Cool Cats
Ani DiFranco: Red Letter Year Reprise
Steve Allen & Slim Gaillard: Little Red Riding Hood
Harry "The Hipster" Gibson: Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine?
William S. Burroughs & Gus Van Sant: The Hipster Bebop Junkie
Rufus featuring Chaka Khan: Tell Me Something Good
Charlie Rich: Memphis and Arkansas Bridge
Bobby Gentry: Ode to Billie Joe
Bob Dylan & The Band: Clothes Line Saga
Los Lobos: When the Circus Comes to Town
Buddy Miller: Does My Ring Burn Your Finger?
BeauSoleil: La Ville Des Manteau
Camper Van Beethoven: O Death
The Handsome Family: Blackwatertown
Wilmoth Houdini: No Mo' Bench and Board
Louis Armstrong: Muskrat Ramble
Billie Holiday: Big Stuff
Erskine Hawkins: Don't Cry Baby
Randy Newman: Back On My Feet Again
Billy Joe Shaver: Low Down Freedom
Dolly Parton: Down From Dover
Bob Dylan: Wigwam

posted by Jesse 10:07 PM

. . .

SELF-PROMOTION: I published a Halloween column at Reason Online Friday, titled "Satan's Faces" and subtitled "The many lives of Lucifer." Also, December's print edition of Reason is now out; it includes my lengthy (and largely negative) review of Tom Frank's The Wrecking Crew.

posted by Jesse 10:34 PM

. . .

CELEBRATION OF FEAR: I have posted a podcast of my Halloween radio show (and put up last week's program as well). Here, meanwhile, is the playlist:

Black Sabbath: Sweet Leaf
Beck: Satan Was Way Cool
Presage: Project Lucifer
John Todd: Explaining the Illuminati (excerpt)
Iannis Xenakis: Pithoprakta (mixed with Todd)
Bob Dylan: When You Gonna Wake Up
Rage of the Sage: Satan Is Real
The Louvin Brothers: Satan Is Real
Tony Joe White: They Caught the Devil and Put Him in Jail in Eudora, Arkansas
Charlie Daniels: The Devil Went Down to Georgia
National Geographic: Exorcism
John Cale: Paris 1919
The Kinks: Wicked Annabella
Larry Jon Wilson: Sheldon Church Yard
Blind Boys of Alabama: Way Down in the Hole
The Bonzo Dog Band: Monster Mash
Mr. Show: Monster Parties, Fact or Fiction?
Jerry Lee Lewis: Haunted House
Mark Snow: The X Files Theme
Unsolved Mysteries: The Extraterrestrial Conspiracy (excerpt)
Robert Anton Wilson/Golden Horde: Little UFO
Firesign Theatre: Everything You Know Is Wrong (excerpt)
Carl Stalling: Anxiety Montage
The Black Mass: The Outsider
Robert Johnson: Hellhound on My Trail
MC 900 Foot Jesus: The City Sleeps
Richard Hell and the Voidoids: Destiny Street
George Putnam: Perversion for Profit (excerpt)
Hoppus the Caveman: '70s Porn Music (mixed with Putnam)
The Waterboys: The Stolen Child
Robert S. McGee: Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged (excerpt)
Beck: Satan Gave Me a Taco
The Rudy Schwartz Project: Yodelin' Satan
Lowell Blanchard and the Valley Trio: Jesus Hits Like an Atom Bomb
Blind Boys of Alabama: Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb
Uncle Tupelo: Atomic Power
William S. Burroughs: Ah Pook the Destroyer/Brion Gysin's All-Purpose Bedtime Story
Johnny Cash: God's Gonna Cut You Down

Bits of the Xenakis piece appeared throughout the program, not just during John Todd's anti-Illuminist rant, but it would be tedious to list all its appearances. "The Outsider," an adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story, originally aired on KPFA-FM's The Black Mass in 1965; it's the one extended spoken piece that I played in full.

posted by Jesse 10:26 PM

. . .