I admit up front that this is a very dense, verbal show. What the Firesign Theatre did with humor and imagination had a profound effect on my thinking and writing. What I wanted to do tonight was take what is a little known work by the group, their final Columbia lp, In the Next World You're on Your Own, and create a conceptual context for a lingering listen, using earlier materials to set the stage (and provide overlapping connections). That context is a form of psychedelia. But this trip goes beyond humor. It's social comment, American history, a future of Cops-like tv shows, insane game shows, a baseball game, the Academy Awards, and media terrorism. The phrase "Eat flaming death, fascist media pigs!" comes from here. Be part of the future, and listen closely.
Produced and engineered by dj bennett (chillroom@killradio.org)
With special thanks to Greg Bishop, Mark Dolnick, Rich Garibaldi, the Firesign itself, my live listeners, and to killradio and radio4all.net. The Vietnam War has been over for 40 years tonight. Comments hoped for. Its terrific to hear you laugh.
The Chill Room, 29 March 2013 at 10:00pm PST on killradio.org
192k, 130 minutes, an environmental trip with the Firesign Theatre
Set list (overlapping and somewhat incomplete): Firesign Theatre (FST: Phil Austin, Peter Bergman, David Ossman, Philip Proctor) recordings from 1968 to 1976, in collage. FST-Temporarily Humboldt County / Nurse With Wound-Echo Poeme Sequence No. 2 / Gil Melle-The Andromeda Strain / Led Zeppelin-D'yer Ma'ker / FST-Station Break (45 from 1969) / BBC Dreams Doc (Delia Derbyshire)-Seas / Patsy Cline-You made Me Love You / Wax Tailor-Que Sera Sera / FST-Le Trente-Huit Cunegonde / Die Trip Computer Die-The Iron Dream / Camouflage Danse-Mad Love (excerpt) / Pink Floyd-Chapter 24 (mono mix) / David Essex-Rock On (7" at 33rpm) / Grindhouse-Zombie Attack (March 1985 performance at Pyramid Club NYC, written and directed by your dj) / FST-Ralph Spoilsport Yes I Will Yes / 4 Tops-Bernadette / Bill Withers-Use Me / Loo & Placido-Safari Love / ToTom-Make It in the Morning / FST-Police Street / SRC-In the Hall of the Mountain King / Van Dyke Parks-Come to the Sunshine / Traktor Carpenters / FST-We've Lost Our Big Kabloona
Change returns success, going and coming without error. Action brings good fortune. Sunset, sunrise.