I\u2019m still astonished how quickly this week\u2019s show came together. And what a great show it is!<\/p>\n
Hey, I\u2019m like you. I\u2019ve got a job, I\u2019ve got a life. I\u2019m a busy guy. But I\u2019ve got a to-do list as long as my arm and every day I chip away at it. A quick email here, a phone call here, and slowly but surely things get done. But when I\u2019m in this mode I don\u2019t often see the forest for the trees. Or is it the trees for the forest? I can never remember how that goes. Anyway, my point is that sometimes I\u2019m so caught up in the minutea of producing a show that I lose sight of the big picture.<\/p>\n
In the last couple of weeks I learned that Karsh Kale<\/a>, Tim Sk\u00f6ld<\/a>, Ogre<\/a> and HoodooEngine<\/a> had released or were about to release new albums. I dig them all so I do what I do sent out the emails and made the phone calls. There were other musicians, labels and festivals I wanted to feature on the show as well but they didn\u2019t happen due to availability and time constraints and before I knew it, this week\u2019s show had been distilled into a gem of greatness.<\/p>\n I discovered Karsh Kale right about the same time I discovered the Asian Massive<\/a> (or Asian Underground) scene. Over the years I watched the careers of Karsh Kale, Asian Dub Foundation<\/a> and others grow over the years and it\u2019s a wonder that I haven\u2019t had someone like Karsh on the show earlier. Karsh has released six albums<\/a> and recorded and performed with everyone from Zakir Hussain<\/a> to Yoko Ono<\/a>. Karsh\u2019s latest album, Cinema<\/a><\/i>, is his most ambitious album to date. It\u2019s big, bold and melodramatic, and Karsh\u2019s experience scoring films has had an impact on the scope of Cinema<\/i>.<\/p>\n Tim Sk\u00f6ld was another surprise! Before I knew it, one night after work I found myself in front of a microphone talking to Tim about his long career, from his rock roots in bands like Kingpin<\/a> and Shotgun Messiah<\/a> and then later playing with the likes of KMFDM<\/a> and Marilyn Manson<\/a>. Tim also released a solo album<\/a> back in 1996 and 15 years later he\u2019s followed it up with Anomie<\/a><\/i>, due out May 10th. Tim was great to talk with and I found that he\u2019s as much an agent provocateur in person as he is in his music. I also had some great questions to ask him from folks like Jeremy and Royb0t<\/a> from Twitter and Facebook.<\/p>\n Ogre\u2019s is set to release a second album with ohGr called unDeveloped<\/i> that also due to be released May 10th. Ogre and Skinny Puppy<\/a> have scored the post apocalyptic soundtrack to our lives for nearly 30 years. While Skinny Puppy was my introduction into industrial music, there\u2019s industrial music and then there\u2019s Skinny Puppy. They\u2019re in their own category and to call them industrial is kind of limiting. I was curious to see what directions Ogre would explore through ohGr and to be honest, I didn\u2019t like unDeveloped<\/i> at first. As Ogre mentions during our chat, people rarely give music full attention because they\u2019re usually multitasking while they\u2019re listening to<\/i> music. I was doing the same thing with unDeveloped<\/i> but one night while I was going out for a run I listened to unDeveloped<\/i> and without being aware of it I found myself lost in the album and now I think it\u2019s one of my favorite album of 2011.<\/p>\n Once I finally realized that Tim and Ogre were going to be guests on this week\u2019s show I knew I had to include Hoodoo Engine. I\u2019ve wanted to play tracks from their EgoWhore<\/a><\/i> album since it was released in 2010 but it was just one of those scheduling things. Hoodoo Engine would be perfect for today\u2019s show and to top it off, they\u2019re gearing up to release their new album, Murder the World<\/i>, and it\u2019s more wretched and evil than EgoWhore<\/i>, if such a thing is even possible. The core of Hoodoo Engine is Marz233<\/a>, James Curcio and Johann Ess. Just to be above board, both James and I are on the Alterati Network<\/a>, but I\u2019ve known James long before Alterati when I interviewed him about his book, Join My Cult<\/a><\/i>. While you anxiously wait for the release of Murder the World<\/i> you can watch Clark<\/a><\/i>, a gonzo mockumentary reality show art film surrounding the struggles of an independent artist in a capitalist world.<\/p>\n Oh, special thanks to tricil<\/a> for providing the incidental music during my interviews with Tim and Hoodoo Engine. While I was putting together today\u2019s show I realized that I didn\u2019t have any instrumental music from either of them and went on Twitter and asked if anyone had some tracks I could use for music beds. tricil stepped responded in minutes and generously let me use his tracks \u201crcc3\u201d and \u201cconserve destroy.\u201d There are links to download those two tracks below.<\/p>\n Enjoy the show. I\u2019m going to shut up and go outside and get some sunshine. But I\u2019ll still be listening to today\u2019s show on my earbuds. Joins us again next week for a live set<\/a> from the lads from Matta<\/a>. Or will they be our guest DJs<\/a>? See you then!<\/p>\n Photo Credit: \u00a9Aqua Libra<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n