Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
Carlos Jove.
Our local public radio station likes to continue the narrative of “driveway radio,” suggesting that the programming’s so good that you wind up sitting in your car until the segment’s over. And that’s a nice theory, though it doesn’t need to be limited to talk radio, that particular station, or, for that matter, parking your whip. Sometimes, you just wanna keep that ride going, the music’s so good.
For whatever reasons—fog, late-winter blues, life stuff—I’ve been happily punching a hole in the ozone layer in the last week. Two drives and three different KDHX shows locked up in beautiful synchronicity during the past week.
Last spring, St. Louis Magazine profiled Carlos Jove (aka Carlos G. Charles), the longtime KDHX programmer, who’s been serving up “Latin Hemispheres” on that station during the early hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. It’d been awhile since I last sampled the show, but with the need to blow off some steam last weekend, I took a drive around some funky, icy St. Louis neighborhoods with the soundtrack of “Latin Hemispheres” playing in the background. Not intending to spend that much time, an hour later it dawned on me that I oughta head home. You can share a something of the same experience, if you’d like, at least for the next couple weeks, as the episode streams at KDHX.org. Can tell you for a fact (well, strongly-held opinion) that the first hour’s a freakin’ winner, heavy on the electronica and tracks that’ll slowly draw you into a state of lovely, locked-in beauty.
On Tuesday night, a pair of shows did the trick, starting with Mark Hyken’s “Time Warp Radio.” Hyken seems tuned into his own frequency, as is, and his show, a meld of progressive and classic rock favorites, seems delightfully individualistic. At times, KSHE’s Klassics Show does a bit of this sorta programming, but does so with more ads and without Hyken’s idiosyncratic, between-cuts asides. The other night, he played early Scorpions, a track from the band that birthed BTO (Brave Belt) and then a lengthy, live, acoustic cut from Al Stewart. Calling him with a compliment about the latter, a Stewart/Peter White duet of the mid-’70s chestnut “Nostradamus,” Hyken seemed beyond amused that anyone would phone up the show. Well, sir, you deserved it. Here’s the playlist, if you wanna do some crate-digging (or Spotify scrolling). He took things out with a lengthy Boz Skaggs cut, of all things, and then...
Up came the next show, “Cure for Pain,” programmed by Nathaniel Farrell; it’s a program that I’ve enjoyed anytime I’ve come across.. Like on this night, as Farrell ably took up the weirdo music reins from Hyken and began his two-hour set with a cut from Roy Montgomery called “Weathering Mortality,” a duet with Emma Johnston. The track’s over 20 minutes long, a full-segment-plus in the world of KDHX’s quarter-hour blocks, and it was the kind of cut that sent me scampering into a day-long binge of Montgomery’s music. The song’s trance-y vibe made for perfect late-night drive music, only a couple of days after fog blanketed the City’s low, brick skyline. That fog—and only that—could’ve made the beginning of “Cure for Pain” any more magical. It was the kind of show intro that makes you snap to and listen, realizing after a single play of a single song that you’ve just been introduced an artist that you’ll listen to for a long time to come.
Programmers of the late evening/early morning: you’re doing the important work. Thank you. Keep it up. Please.
Worth a Read: Won’t go on too long about this, but the energy that was projected outward by fort gondo compound for the arts went well beyond the corner of Cherokee and Compton and well beyond the Cherokee Street arts scene that it undoubtedly midwifed into existence. My editor, Stefene Russell, wrote a lovely homage to the space, and its neighborly, complementary art gallery, beverly; if you didn’t see the piece, it ran on this same blog, just last Friday, and it does a splendid job of recapping many of the amazing things that took place in those spaces throughout our current century. And while it’s hard to believe that the little, influential rooms won’t be holding new events going forward, there’s nothing here but a hearty “thank you” to all involved in bringing life to them and the affiliated venues that arrived-and-left along the way (a list including Snowflake, Radio Cherokee, Typo, City Art Supply among many others)...
Earlier this week, the noted free-jazz drummer Charles “Bobo” Shaw transitioned from this life, after struggling with illness for the past couple of months. A member of the Black Artists Group and collaborator with a host of celebrated players over many decades of activity, Shaw’s time with us is nicely summarized by Dean Minderman at St. Louis Jazz Notes. There’s also a video making the rounds, shot by Tom Burnham and capturing Shaw on the kit, alongside pianist David Parker. You can watch “Scott Joplin Blues” here:
Worth a Listen: St. Louis cultural mainstay Chris King is well-known to Nashville music producer Lij Shaw, the two having spent well over two-decades creating music together in studio, live and even remote contexts. So it’s not a surprise that the two could sit down for an epic conversation about their multiple, changing projects. You can listen into exactly that kinda conversation during the most-recent Recording Studio Rock Stars podcast from Shaw. Early on, he says “we’ve got so much to talk about, dude” and two-hours later, they pretty much covered their combined history, which has run through through at least bands and as many long-standing projects, including the most-recent, Poetry Scores…
Multiple Adult Fur releases are now combined in one, easy-to-find location. In a Facebook post, the band notes: “Adult Fur, Adult Fur ii, and µ are all available in a single release on iTunes/Apple Music now. The track names are messed up bc Apple decided they can tell artists how to make their art, but whatever. It'll be on Spotify sometime soon, too.” Here’s a link to the Apple Music page, title accuracy notwithstanding.
Worth a View: Said early on that this page may have an occasional conflict-of-interest and here’s one: Brothers Lazaroff frequently play the Tick Tock Tavern. But they also do plenty of other stuff, including a healthy dose of video creation. They’ve got a new(ish) piece out, for the track “Cover for Our Heads,” directed by Chad Raines, from footage shot by Brian McClelland. It’s fun. And it’s here:
Not to qualify things too much, but your St. Louis cred is boosted considerably if you’ve ever lost yourself in Channel 9’s video archive on YouTube. Here’s a nice piece from 2008 on Oliver Sain, who passed in 2003. (Wow, that long?) The story, like a lot of pieces done by KETC’s “Living St. Louis,” gives a nice overview of the subject, with the suggestion that there’s much more to learn. Anyway, if you’re unfamiliar with Sain’s work, consider this video a nice jump-off point.
