Love is the Message: Dance, Music and Counterculture

It's just Jem this week, mopping up the last suds of our post punk mini-series with a series of British bands who ripped it up and started again. We spend time with The Slits fantastic dub punk debut Cut, shouting out the production of the great Dennis Bovell on the way, then drive up the M1 to explore the rich pickings of that great musical city, Sheffield. With reference to an early Human League single, Jem unearths the imminent possibilities of the crumbling Fordist world. We hear two tracks from Public Image Ltd, before digging into one of our host’s favourites - the Raincoats - to explore feminist aesthetics, Maoist China and an unlikely meeting with Kurt Cobain. We round out the piece with two classics from the mighty Clash. Not a bad haul for one year.
We’ll be away for a few weeks on various summer excursions, but will be back soon after with more music, dance floors, sound systems and counterculture. Tune in, turn on, get down!
Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
https://www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk/
Produced by Matt Huxley

Tracklist:
The Slits - Typical Girls
The Slits - Adventures Close to Home
Human League - Empire State Human
Public Image Ltd - Death Disco
Public Image Ltd - Socialist
The Raincoats - Fairytale in the Supermarket
The Raincoats - Lola
The Clash - London Calling
The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket

Books:
Audrey Golden - Shouting Out Loud: Lives of the Raincoats
Frith & Horn - Art into Pop
Reynolds & Press - The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock’n’Roll

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full show, and dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod to join.

We made it: what started as a ten-minute conversation and became a six episode mini-series finally reaches it conclusion, with the 1978 release of Arthur Russell’s Kiss Me Again. Jeremy and Tim conclude the genealogy of this epic track, detailing it’s recording, dry runs in the club, how the record was sold to the punky Sire Records, and how the Arthur came to put together the players. Friend of the show Nicky Siano gets an extensive mention as the record's co-producer, and his club the Gallery plays host to its first outings. Tim and Jeremy compare notes on how Nicky’s aesthetic differed from David Mancuso’s, share the story of how Arthur came to begin dancing at the Gallery, and explore his queerness both in contact with the dance floor and with his friend and mentor Allen Ginsberg.
Elsewhere in the episode the guys ruminate on soft rock, spend a bit longer talking minimalism, and detail Arthur’s ill-fated trip to Italy to join Le Orme…

Tracklist:
Nirosta Steel - Lost in Music
Arthur Russell - Don’t Forget About Me
Allen Ginsberg - CIA Dope Calypso
Le Orme - Canzone D’Amore
Arthur Russell - Oh Fernanda Why
Barbara Pennington - Twenty Four Hours a Day
Desmond Child and Rouge - The Night was Not

We’ve finally made it - the pivotal Post Punk year of 1979. Well, sort of. It wouldn’t be LITM without a little extra detail, so Jeremy and Tim cue up our arrival with a couple of tracks from ’78 for good measure. They talk Tom Robinson Band, Undertones and the Only Ones, exploring ‘dole queue rock’, everydayness and the limits of politically self-conscious music of the period. Later in the show they tuck into a couple of indie disco staples to examine emergent New Wave, de-masculination, Manchester and the Iron Lady. Finally, for the first time on the show, the guys spend time on perhaps the most iconic post punkers of all: Joy Division. 

This is our last main feed episode for a little while - we'll be back in mid-August. Until then, why not become a Patron and explore our LITM Extra archive, featuring dozens of bonus shows?

Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk
Produced by Matt Huxley.

Tracklist:
Tom Robinson Band - Winter of ’79
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks 
The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet
Blondie - Heart of Glass
Machine - There But for the Grace of God Go I
The Cure - Boys Don’t Cry
Joy Division - Disorder

This is an excerpt from a patrons-only episode. To hear the full thing, plus dozens more like it, visit Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.

We continue our mini-series on Arthur Russell by turning to his mid-70s pop and folk work. Starting in the famous Poet’s Building in 1975, Tim and Jeremy explore life in the East Village, in particular the area’s poetry scene. They discuss the aesthetics of setting spoken word to music, stop by Ginsberg, and drop in some Tibetan Buddhist classes. Elsewhere in the episode we hear about a number of recording sessions at the Columbia Records studio, get haunted by the spectre of Dylan, and speculate on whether Arthur could have been the fourth Talking Head. Tim shares some demos from Arthur’s short-lived band the Flying Hearts, a version of Psycho Killer with punchy cello that didn’t make the final cut, and some Laraaji-ish keyboard noodlings.

www.loveisthemessagepod.co.uk
Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod
Produced by Matt Huxley.

Books:
Philippe Bourgeois - In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio

Tracklist:
Arthur Russell - Barefoot in New York
William Carlos Williams - The Red Wheelbarrow
Bright and Early - Apple to the Orange
Arthur Russell - Nobody Wants a Lonely Heart
Arthur Russell - I Couldn’t Say it to Your Face
Arthur Russell - Reach One (with Two Fender Rhodes)
Talking Heads - The Girls Want to be with the Girls
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (acoustic version)
The Flying Hearts - Ballad of the Lights
The Flying Hearts - What’s It Like

In this episode we return to the Mudd Club, NYC’s ‘intense laboratory’ of cinema, performance, dance and music. We hear about how this new kind of club fused these various media in novel ways, both as a day-to-day scene hang out spot and a site of never-ending unusual parties (‘Rock’n’Roll Funeral Ball Extravaganza’ anyone?). Tim and Jeremy detail the movement of artists into the East Village in the late 70s, the Fluxus inspiration for the Club’s goings on, and throw a little light on another less well-remembered venue, Club 57.

Elsewhere in the episode the guys talk about The Cure, Lou Reed, retromania and cable TV, whilst also spending a moment on the legacy of Anita Sarko, a much-loved DJ on the scene.

Produced by Matt Huxley.
Patreon.com/LoveMessagePod.
Loveisthemessagepod.co.uk.

Tracklist:
Shrapnel - Combat Love
Policeband - Mono
The Cure - Killing an Arab
Lou Reed - Vicious
Bobby Freeman - Betty Lou Got a New Pair of Shoes