Amazing Songs & Other Delights #83 – The 4th anniversary edition by Raquel & The Astro Travellers @ mixcloud

My 4th anniversary radio show is now available on mixcloud.

This year, the anniversary programme is a little different than usual. Trials and tribulations didn’t allow for the several costumary purpose composed pieces, aside from mine and Francisco Silva’s Lucid One.

The lyrics of Lucid One have my poem 80 as starting point, adapted to song by Francisco’s chatgpt, then, on a second round of singing the song, by him. It was a very interesting creative experience. Francisco and I also both this very different impromptu versions of Suede’s The Asphalt World.

You can read more about the show, the Astro Travellers, my “band” contributions and it’s creative process here. The lyrics of Lucid One and poem 80 are below, along with the show tracklist.

Lucid One lyrics
Sleepless nights, stuck in motion
Elevators fade, no clear emotion
Crex crex crex — the artach calls
Lucid tiles in echo halls

The megaphone speaks, louder than books
Slogans win where no one looks
Moral weight too hard to lift
We float inside this aimless drift

The empire of futility
Masqueraded as ability
Symbols fail, the noise gets loud
We vanish slowly in the crowd

Resperidone, the new tea brew

Quiet minds in static view
Fork in the road, by the sea we stand
Bathymetry traced in soul and sand

Invisible paths, the labyrinth sings
We mistook noise for gravity’s rings
You want the house still, free of harm
But the woman bangs the pots — her charm

The empire of futility
Attired in nobility
Mirrors turn, the spiral grows
Stagnant waters, no one knows
(Francisco Silva & Raquel Pinheiro)

poem 80
sleepless nights,
stuck
perpetual movement
fading through the elevator
crex crex crex crex makes the artach
hearth and home
lucid tiles echoing
the megaphone is easier than read serious books
slogans are easier than moral inventory.
the empire of futility
disguised as art, intellectualism
the sound mirrors, a spiral
a stagnant pool of nothingness
resperidone, the new chamomile
there’s a road with a fork
for you and me by the sea
bathymetry of the soul
invisible pathways
labyrinth, the song
mistaken noise for gravity
symbols for substance
brought us here
you want the house quiet
but a woman bangs the pots
monks don’t worry about money
terror dreams, rage
somatic overload
the lucid one in a house of somnambulists
fog can’t be fought, what it erases
is watched
don’t go back to sleep
the messiness of desire
recycle, renewal, redemption
like a benediction
all the plants are watered
(Raquel Pinheiro)

Tracklist:
01: Francisco Silva & Raquel Pinheiro – When Joe Came By
02: Raquel Pinheiro – Loss
03: Pixies – Hey (Manuel Carvalho)
04: Sérgio Rocha – Seclusões (excerpt)
05: Francisco Silva & Raquel Pinheiro – Lucid One
06: digei de bairro – MG B GT (pre-master)
07: Suki Waterhouse – Supersad (António Cunha)
08: Boxmonsters – Holligans
09: Francisco Silva – The Asphalt World (acoustic excerpt)
10: Talking Heads – Burning Down the House (Raquel Pinheiro)
11: caroline – Tell Me I Never New That feat. Caroline Polachek (Paulo Navarro)
12: Raquel Pinheiro – The Asphalt World
13: Oh Bobby – Sweet Peace
14: Lyn Collins – Think (About It) (Matt Hutchison)
15: Ned Swarbrick – Mr. O’Brien (mix 1.1)
16: João Diogo Zagalo – Lotar n.º 4
17: Boxmonsters – Car Crash
18: Raquel Pinheiro – December: Death
19: American Music Club – Why Don’t You Stay (Rui Pimenta)

All shows on mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/infoyeye/|www.mixcloud.com/MondoBizarreMagazine

Amazing Songs & Other Delights #83 – The 4th anniversary edition by Raquel & The Astro Travellers @ Yé Yé radio , Monday 14th

Maren Devine – Flower Cake

My radio show Amazing Songs & Other Delights turned. The 4th anniversary edition airs Monday 14th, 3-4:10pm (gmt+1) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).

This year, the anniversary programme is a little different than usual. Trials and tribulations didn’t allow for the several costumary purpose composed pieces, aside from mine and Francisco Silva’s Lucid One. The lyrics of Lucid One have my poem 80 as starting point, adapted to song by Francisco’s chatgpt, then, on a second round of singing the song, by him. It was a very interesting creative experience.

My Loss and December: Death, Sérgio Rocha’s Seclusões (excerpt), digei de bairro’s MG B GT (pre-master), Ned Swarbrick’s Mr. O’Brien (mix 1.1), João Diogo Zagalo’ Lotar n.º 4 and Boxmonsters’ Holligans and Car Crash fall under that umbrella.

I picked two songs composed on purpose for previous anniversary editions. Mine and Francisco’s When Joe Came By, from the 1st anniversary edition, and Sweet Peace, by Bill Rivers and I, from last year’s anniversary show, here on Oh Bobby (Bill Rivers & Simon Wayward) version, from their album Swim The Universe.

There’s the usual assortment of songs, another round of surprises, picked for me by a few friends.

Because the songs represent me, because I may like them… Because…

Manuel Carvalho picked The Pixies’ Hey; António Cunha Suki Waterhouse’s Supersad, Paulo Navarro caroline’sTell Me I Never New That (feat. Caroline Polachek), Matt Hutchison Lyn Collins’ Think (About It) and Rui Pimenta Why Don’t You Stay by American Music Club.

As for both Francisco’s instrumental acoustic version of The Asphalt World and my soft instrumental electric stripped down version of The Asphalt World. Francisco thought it a odd choice for me to plays as far as Suede’s covers go, and sent me an impromptu short version of it.

At 0:55 it’s most likely the world’s shortest version of The Asphalt World. Mine runs past 10 minutes. It’s a one go, raw, unfiltered, no effects, aside from a little vibrato arm, and my micro jack amp distortion, no solos, also impromptu, played on a kitchen bench, purely for the joy of it version. Most of what seems effects, it’s my fretting fingers.

Lucid One lyrics
Sleepless nights, stuck in motion
Elevators fade, no clear emotion
Crex crex crex — the artach calls
Lucid tiles in echo halls

The megaphone speaks, louder than books
Slogans win where no one looks
Moral weight too hard to lift
We float inside this aimless drift

The empire of futility
Masqueraded as ability
Symbols fail, the noise gets loud
We vanish slowly in the crowd

Resperidone, the new tea brew

Quiet minds in static view
Fork in the road, by the sea we stand
Bathymetry traced in soul and sand

Invisible paths, the labyrinth sings
We mistook noise for gravity’s rings
You want the house still, free of harm
But the woman bangs the pots — her charm

The empire of futility
Attired in nobility
Mirrors turn, the spiral grows
Stagnant waters, no one knows
(Francisco Silva & Raquel Pinheiro)

Poem #80
poem 80
sleepless nights,
stuck
perpetual movement
fading through the elevator
crex crex crex crex makes the artach
hearth and home
lucid tiles echoing
the megaphone is easier than read serious books
slogans are easier than moral inventory.
the empire of futility
disguised as art, intellectualism
the sound mirrors, a spiral
a stagnant pool of nothingness
resperidone, the new chamomile
there’s a road with a fork
for you and me by the sea
bathymetry of the soul
invisible pathways
labyrinth, the song
mistaken noise for gravity
symbols for substance
brought us here
you want the house quiet
but a woman bangs the pots
monks don’t worry about money
terror dreams, rage
somatic overload
the lucid one in a house of somnambulists
fog can’t be fought, what it erases
is watched
don’t go back to sleep
the messiness of desire
recycle, renewal, redemption
like a benediction
all the plants are watered
(Raquel Pinheiro)

Tracklist:
01: Francisco Silva & Raquel Pinheiro – When Joe Came By
02: Raquel Pinheiro – Loss
03: Pixies – Hey (Manuel Carvalho)
04: Sérgio Rocha – Seclusões (excerpt)
05: Francisco Silva & Raquel Pinheiro – Lucid One
06: digei de bairro – MG B GT (pre-master)
07: Suki Waterhouse – Supersad (António Cunha)
08: Boxmonsters – Holligans
09: Francisco Silva – The Asphalt World (acoustic excerpt)
10: Talking Heads – Burning Down the House (Raquel Pinheiro)
11: caroline – Tell Me I Never New That feat. Caroline Polachek (Paulo Navarro)
12: Raquel Pinheiro – The Asphalt World
13: Oh Bobby – Sweet Peace – (*)
14: Lyn Collins – Think (About It) (Matt Hutchison)
15: Ned Swarbrick – Mr. O’Brien (mix 1.1)
16: João Diogo Zagalo – Lotar n.º 4
17: Boxmonsters – Car Crash
18: Raquel Pinheiro – December: Death
19: American Music Club – Why Don’t You Stay (Rui Pimenta)

All previous shows on mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/infoyeye/playlists/amazing-songs-other-delights|www.mixcloud.com/MondoBizarreMagazine

The Reading List – Francisco Silva

The second Reading List comprises reading choices by my friend, at times co-songwriter, and fellow avid reader Francisco Silva. Francisco laid to rest his old (pun intended) music composition Old Jerusalem and has been taking off in new directions with The June Carriers and Velho Homem. In Francisco’s own words.

Some of my musical reading material.

Warren Ellis – Nina Simone’s Gum: A Memoir of Things Lost and Found is a picaresque story of the amulet engendered by Warren Ellis as an excuse to digress about music, creativity, humanity, etc.

Whyndam Wallace – Lee, Myself & I: Inside The Very Special World Of Lee Hazlewood is Lee Hazlewood’s life story as retold by his former manager, journalist Wyndham Wallace.

Bruce Adams – You’re With Stupid, the Chicago scene and the Kranky label by the quill of one of its founders, Bruce Adams.

Various – Rock Rendez Vous the photos of the iconic Lisbon club (and the portrait of an era).Rob Young – Electric Eden a detailed and multifaceted story of British folk music and its context.

Harold F. Eggers – My years with Townes van Zandt: Music, Genius and Rage” – the uncanny account of Harold F. Eggers’ time as road manager to Townes van Zandt in his prime and beyond it – an assignment that only a Vietnam veteran could tackle.

Ian Preece – Listening to the Wind: Encounters with 21st Century Independent Record Labels. Interviews and profiling of some of the most interesting (obscure?) independent record labels of our time: Light In The Attic, Thrill Jockey, International Anthem, Touch, Sublime Frequencies, Temporary Residence, Important, Paradise of Bachelors, Scissor Tail, among others.

… and two extraordinary graphic novels: the hitherto rare Storyville by Frank Santoro and the amazing Rusty Brown (but it could also be the just as beautiful – if not more so – Jimmy Corrigan) by Chris Ware.

Amazing Songs & Other Delights #63 – The Say Hello, Wave Goodbye edition by Raquel Pinheiro @ Yé Yé Radio, Monday 8th.

Old Jerusalem – Breeding angels – drawing by Francisco Silva

My Amazing Songs & Other Delights #63 – The Say Hello, Wave Goodbye edition is tomorrow Monday, 8th, 3-4pm (gmt+1) on Yé Yé Radio: yeyeradio.com (or on the app).

The title comes from the Soft Cell song of the same name, here on a cover by David Gray. The meaning refers to saying hello to something new, goodbye to an old, beloved one. In this case, the old beloved one is Old Jerusalem that Francisco Silva is retiring with a last concert on the 20th, at Socorro here in Porto. Old Jerusalem’s farewell includes Breeding angels, a demos album that contains Red sun over the interstate – that is also on this week’s programme –  a song I have the previledge of known, and often sing on my own home, for a couple of years.

If Francisco is retiring Old Jerusalem, he is bringing, given birth, to The June Carriers that release their debut album Equanimity on the 10th.
And now, beginnings and endings, and metting, and journeys, and the same thing, that yet is, but isn’t, become even more interesting.

My track Big Bang, that opens the show, has the exact same guitar line as The June Carriers’s Pastoral Epigraph, that closes the show. It is a travel from the The Big Bang, from the ends, or beginnings, of The Universe to Earth. The guitar, of course, is played be Francisco on both instrumentals. As for the why and how Francisco’s guitar line ended up on my track, on both tracks, that is for another day.

What my Big Bang and Then June Carriers’ Pastoral Epigraph shows is how the exact same guitar line, although easily recognisable, can feel so different depending of its surrounding, of the musical ambience and creation. Of how two people compose differently with the same guitar line (or any other same musical bit). Other than knowing I was going to use his guitar line, Francisco had no say, nor knew, what I was going to do with it. I didn’t have a clue how he was going to use it on what become The June Carriers’ first album.

The Maze at my favourite local park in colour © Raquel Pinheiro

My 16 choices for this The Say Hello, Wave Goodbye edition are all about travel, journeys, inner and outer, out in space, on our planet, far from home, standing  still. The Modern Lovers’
Dodge Veg o-matic is probably the best going nowhere song ever. Bartleby, the immovable, “I prefer not to” scrivener of Henry Melville’s tale as his very fixed ideais regarding is life, his views, doing, moving, changing in ways others find normal is not for him.

Some journeys don’t end well. Like in the Erlkönig a Schubert lieder, with lyrics by Goethe, in which a father rides madly through the night, on horseback, with his son, whistle the Erlking is enticing the child, that tries  to draw dad’s attention. The lieder ends with the blunt “In seinen Armen das Kind war tod” (roughly “in your arms the child is dead”.

The Maze at my favourite local park in black and white © Raquel Pinheiro

Others have twist and turns. Diferentes in perspective, depending where we find ourselves. My photos of the maze from my favourite local park are taken from inside it and I know my way around it because I know from where the whole maze can be seen. However, on a foggy day, I may, and still get lost in it. The colour and black and photo illustrate the same thing seen in two different ways.

Tracklist:
01 – Raquel Pinheiro – Big Bang (radio edit)
02 – Old Jerusalem – Red sun over the interstate
03 – Franz Schubert – Erlkönig (Op. 1, D. 328 – Wer reitet so spät sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau)
04 – The Modern Lovers – Dodge Veg o-matic
05 – Bernard Butler – Camber Sands
06 – The Fugs – Bartleby The Scrivener
07 – Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
08 – David Gray – Say Hello, Wave Goodbye (Soft Cell cover)
09 – The Beatles – Drive My Car
10 – The Clash – Lost In The Supermarket
11 – Kings of Leon – Going Nowhere (live in Nashville)
12 – Siouxie & The Banshees – The Passenger (Iggy Pop cover)
13 – The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) (2011 remaster)
14 – Aaron Copland – Going to Heaven! (Emily Dickinson poem, sung by Sanford Sylvan)
15 – Little Eve – The Loco-Motion (remaster)
16 – The June Carriers – Pastoral Epigraph

All previous shows on mixcloud: www.mixcloud.com/infoyeye/ | www.mixcloud.com/MondoBizarreMagazine

The June Carriers – Equanimity – painting by Susan Lindsey