rfg #39 - "Smiling baby on the ceiling"

Up until late Sunday, this show was going to be mostly blues-related, but since I wasn't feeling in a blues mode, I shelved that program and came up with this one, featuring plenty of music from one of the old guard in electronic music: Underworld.

Based on their regular lengthy songs, Underworld easily took up half the show — including their songs from Trainspotting and Batman & Robin — along with the recent discovery within the station archives of the soundtrack to the film Breaking and Entering, whom they wrote along with Lebanese composer Gabriel Yared, a man I should dig up more music for a future episode.

The rest of the show fell into place quite quickly, although relying on the obituaries can appear to be an instant tribute that approaches distastefulness. Still, Neal Hefti's theme to the original (yet very campy) Batman television series is one of those unlikeliest of gems that will never go away. And the Four Tops' Levi Stubbs wasn't someone that immediately struck a chord, but then you listen to Bernadette, as heard in the background during this scene in Madhouse, or just Stubbs himself as the voice of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors, and you realize what a powerful voice he had. And as referred to on air, during one of my fill-ins for Shake a Tail Feather, I played their song from Shaft Goes to Africa.

Wire and Crystal Castles provided an unconventional theme as they both had recently cancelled shows in the Vancouver area; I would have fit The Breeders in but time didn't permit. And further in concert tie-ins, I had tickets to give away to Wednesday's sold-out show by Dengue Fever, but no takers. It's a shame; from what songs of theirs I spun during my Asian themed show, their Cambodian songs should sound delightfully exotic. Maybe I should have landed tickets myself...

Otherwise, Mr. Walker called during the early part of the show, indicating that he wouldn't be able to appear tonight after he recovered from surgery. He was relaying some graphic details about the procedure as a segment ended, hence the brief silence towards the first third of the show as I quickly wrapped up the call and prepared one of his older shows for rebroadcast. To conclude all the campy Batman antics — and to soothe the way to the Jazz Show — I wanted to find a quality version of Count Basie's defining take on Hefti's Li'l Darling, but I settled for the The Ray Brown Trio's version, which has a nice languid feel to close the ceremonies.

That's mostly it, save for the playlist, which follows.