Wednesday, January 29, 2014

DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE RADIO #30

Action, time and vision take center stage in the 30th edition of Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio, a bi-weekly music podcast featuring only good music from the past fifty years. This week we debut some new material from MANE, HOUSEHOLD, PAMPERS, ROACHCLIP and GROWTH, as well as "catalog" tracks from spectacular bands like The Sperm Wails, Cheater Slicks, Angst, Modern Lovers, Methodishca Tune (pictured), Animals & Men, Johnny Hash and much more. I can't imagine that you wouldn't like it.

Download Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #30.
Stream or download Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #30 at Soundcloud.
Subscribe to the show in iTunes.

Track listing:

ANGST - Neil Armstrong
PAMPERS - Eruptions
LEAVING TRAINS - Cigarette Motel
LA PESTE - Don't Wanna Die In My Sleep Tonite
JOHN HOVORKA - The Price of the Truth
ANIMALS & MEN - Don't Misbehave In The New Age
GROWTH - Turn
MANE - Bloostone
STEPPING TALK - Health and Safety
METHODISHCA TUNE - Leisuretime
THE MINDERS - Sally
THE LIMES - Rusty Old Clock
CHEATER SLICKS - Feel Free (demo)
JOHNNY HASH - Pink Lunchbox
BLUE - G'me More
ATILA - TV
A-FRAMES - Test Tube Baby
ROACHCLIP - Government Phone
MODERN LOVERS - Wake Up Sleepyheads (live)
DOLLY MIXTURE - How Come You're Such A Hit With The Boys, Jane?
HOUSEHOLD - Calculations
SPERM WAILS - The Golden Age of the Casual 

Past Shows:
Dynamite Hemorrhage #29    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #28    (playlist)

Dynamite Hemorrhage #27    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #26    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #25    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #24    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #23    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #22    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #21    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #20    (playlist)

Sunday, January 12, 2014

DYNAMITE HEMORRHAGE RADIO #29

Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio returns in 2014 with a show so packed with hits that we had to exceed our 1-hour cutoff a little, so we hope you'll forgive the extra 7 or 8 minutes here. We think it's well worth your while to finish all 68 minutes, or else how would you be able to fully ingest outstanding new material from Octapgrape, the Ausmuteants (pictured here), Warm White, Veronica Falls, Blank Realm and Violent Change? Or "library" material from The Fall, The Middle Class, Electric Manchakou, Boss Hog and Stiff Legged Sheep, among others? Take a listen and let us know what you think - and if you feel like giving it a rating in iTunes, we'd be quite obliged.

Download Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #29.
Stream Dynamite Hemorrhage Radio #29 on Soundcloud.
Subscribe to the show on iTunes.


Track listing:
BUNNYBRAINS - On The Floor Again
SALLY SKULL - The Running Kind
AUSMUTEANTS - Kicked In The Head
MIDDLE CLASS - Out of Vogue
ELECTRIC MANCHAKOU - She Said
THE SLEAZE - Splotch (On Something Clean)
STIFF LEGGED SHEEP - 19,000,000th Nervous Breakdown  (apologies for a verbal mistake on this one; they relocated to SF in the late 1980s, not late 90s)
COUNTER INTUITS - Sense of Urgency
WIRE - Outdoor Miner
CONTACT - Fascinated By Time
THE FALL - Tempo House
VIOLENT CHANGE - Word Around Town
VERONICA FALLS - Perpetual Motion
WARM WHITE - Wear My Clothes
BLANK REALM - Falling Down The Stairs
GAZE - So Early To Tell
BOSS HOG - Pete Shore
DEVIL DOGS - Twist and Burn
INHALANTS - Kolchak, The Night Stalker
OCTAGRAPE - Real Light

Past Shows:
Dynamite Hemorrhage #28    (playlist)

Dynamite Hemorrhage #27    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #26    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #25    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #24    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #23    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #22    (playlist)
Dynamite Hemorrhage #21    (playlist)

Monday, January 6, 2014

BOOK REVIEW: "STRANGE REBELS: 1979 AND THE BIRTH OF THE 21ST CENTURY" by Christian Caryl

Historical inflection points only appear in historical rear-view mirrors, so while you might think you're currently living through the most boring year on record, you really never know, do you? 1979 certainly seemed like a nadir at the time, especially in the United States. I remember the term "malaise" being thrown around, and recall that the chances of then-President Carter being elected for a second term being about nil. (Note: he wasn't). The US may have been a glum global actor at the time, but was still an international prime mover, in the throes of the Cold War and learning to deal with international shame and humiliation vis-a-vis the taking of American hostages by Iranian students. Elsewhere, important inflections were proliferating in 1979 that profoundly impact the world we live in today – sometimes almost by chance, as it turns out. Christian Caryl's admirable book does some strong historical reconstruction that helps us to see this pivotal year in context by grabbing hold and wrestling to the ground five key storylines.

First is the aforementioned rise of what we now call Islamic fundamentalism in Iran. After decades of kleptocrats and dictatorial quasi-democracies, the middle eastern religious world of Islamic belief was beaten down and left for permanently battered, while religion itself was still a driving force in middle eastern families and communities. Most pundits and observers of global events had little inkling of the holy groundswell that was taking place in Iran (and to a lesser extent, in other Islamic countries like Egypt) in the mid-1970s. Caryl describes the rule of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, and how he and other 50s, 60s and 70s leaders in the Islamic world saw themselves as near-secular modernizers of Islam, in the vein of Turkey's Kemal Atatürk. This is an engrossing story, told over multiple brisk chapters, since we all know what happened in 1979 to turn that completely on its head: the return of Ayatollah Khomeini from exile in Paris, the people's revolution, the immense groundswell of suppressed, messianic Islamic religious fervor, and the storming of the US embassy and the taking of the American hostages as retaliation for years of propping up the Shah. The world is still living today with a radicalized, religious, theocratic Iran and all the challenges this presents to the West and to secular peoples within the Middle East.

Similarly and somewhat in parallel, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan awakened the self-determination and religious fervor of non-Communists and fundamentalists there, and the backlash to this blip on the Cold War radar helped to hasten not only the fall of the Soviet system but the rise of the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden and the islamic jihadi movement. Yes, it happened in 1979. On the other side of the world, both literally and metaphorically, Margaret Thatcher was leading her own revolution in the UK, turning aside decades of liberal labor-pandering and sclerotic public services with a conservative, free-market ideology that had never truly been tested in actual governance before. 1979 was the year that Maggie truly consolidated her hold on power in England, and over the course of the next decade helped to remake that country while proving that there were viable alternatives to social democratic rule in Europe and elsewhere.

The year also saw the selection of a Catholic pope from Poland, and in it a direct challenge to the Soviet Union's crushing vice-grip hold on Eastern Europe's hearts and minds. Pope John Paul II traveled in 1979 to his native country, and set up an abstract ideological power struggle between freedom and tyranny that resonated for millions around the world. The book has a great chapter about how the trip was almost blocked entirely by Moscow, and their lack of success in doing so said a great deal about just how much the USSR was swayed by public opinion and pressure from the west (to say nothing of loathing from people in its eastern bloc).

Finally, when we take stock of our world in 2014 – a Communist-free, market-centric world, one that happens to be riven with tremendous upheaval in the Islamic world, there's one other huge transformation that started in 1979, and that's the modernization of China under Deng Xiaoping. I thought this would be my least favorite and the least convincing of the 5 stories, and as it turns out it was by far the most interesting, relevant and impactful upon the largest number of people. Caryl essentially tells the story of China from World War II through Mao's famines, the Cultural Revolution, the Gang of Four and Mao's death. The huge vacuum that was filled upon his passing was filled by Deng, a small, unassuming man who nonetheless had some pretty radical ideas about how to merge Chinese Communism with western capitalism. The wholesale transformation of China's south, and later the entire country, began on his watch and due to his initiative. It lifted millions out of poverty and what was effectively indentured servitude, and gave rise to the fastest path to broad societal wealth ever seen in any nation. He may have still been a brutal, people-suppressing Commie thug on many levels, but his impact on his people's and the world's well-being was enormous.

In my country, Jimmy Carter bided his time before he was booted out of office, encouraged us to turn the heat down and wear sweaters, and we watched disco die its final horrible and deserved death. Nice to have a mellow year while much of the rest of the planet was knocking the trajectory of history off its axis.