I just ran across this session and had to include it tonight. I've been hearing about Explosions In The Sky and haven't really spent too much time with their music. This session (actually two sessions) were recorded at the BBC for the John Peel Program and are a wonderful introduction to this band, if you aren't already familiar with them.

The tracks for tonight - the first two recorded on February 11, 2004 and the third track recorded in 2002 are:

1. Memorial
2. The Only Moment We Were Alone
3. The Moon Is Down

This just might possibly put a different spin on the week.

So March 14th 1984 had a lot to do with Super Tuesday, which the previous day was (which just so happened was also yesterday in 2012).

The big winners were Gary Hart and Walter Mondale, with Hart picking up 171 delegates to Mondale's 161. Hart was confident he would go the distance. Not going the distance was George McGovern who, as promised he would do so if he didn't win first or second place in Massachusetts, dropped out of the race on this Wednesday morning. All the pundits agreed, the horse race was underway.

In other news: Atlantic City New Jersey Mayor Michael Matthews was recalled in a special election that took place the day before.

Convicted murderer James "Cowboy" Autry was put to death at 12:01 on this day in Texas. The first of what would be four executions to take place in Texas for the month of March.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams was shot and wounded by an unknown attempted assassin. Adams was recovering from the ordeal.

On Capitol Hill this day - The Senate Appropriations Committee proposed expanding funding for our excursions in Latin America. First was increased funding for CIA and their covert war in Nicaragua and the second was tripled spending on Military aid to El Salvador. Both funding increases were asked for by the Reagan White House.

And a ceasfire in Beirut Lebanon was appearing to take hold, however shaky it seemed.

And that's how the day went, this March 14th in 1984 as reported on The CBS World News Roundup.

The world spun oddly, this February 28th in 1981.

While Prime Minister Thatcher and President Reagan exchanged toasts and cordialities at a dinner hosted by the British Embassy in Washington, the rest of the world was going off on its own direction.

The Soviet newspaper Pravda labeled lies over reports from the State Department claiming Russia was sending arms to El Salvador. Had they known. . .

Meanwhile earlier, President Reagan asked for funds to reactivate two WW2 era Battleships, based on information the Soviet Navy was stepping up warship production. This, hot on the heels of Reagan presiding over additional government budget cuts to the tune of $10-13 Billion. A budget and Tax cut battle were heating up.

In the rest of the world - An Islamic Peace Mission landed in Tehran to try and settle the 6 month old Iran-Iraq War. Three British Missionaries were released from captivity by the Iranians. John and Audrey Coleman and Mrs. Gene Wadell were glad to be home. Still, there were more to worry about. Speaking of hostages, the Basque Separatists ETA released hostages snatched from the consuls of Austria, El Salvador and Uruguay after 8 days of captivity.

Domestically - violence was threatening to loom between Vietnamese and American Shrimp fishermen in the Texas Gulf Coast. The Vietnamese were reported to be stocking up on arms for protection and the Americans were seen at various KKK meetings, espousing the virtues of immigrant bashing. The Shrimp had no opinion one way or the other, and no doubt preferred they just went away.

And so went this rather skewed February 28, 1981 as reported on the CBS World News Roundup.

August 4, 1978 - Unemployment was up to 6.2% - an increase from 5.7% in June. And in direct contrast to today's drop of over 500 points, the Stock Market was going nutty with a dramatic rise of over 23 points during the week (in 1978 dollars, that was a big deal). President Carter was on the road selling his proposal to reform the Civil Service System. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance was on the road to the Middle East again, trying to keep the on-again/off-again peace talks going. Texas was getting deluged and there was flooding all over the state. In the UK, former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe was arrested on attempted murder charges. Something about Male models. Things were heating up big-time between Vietnam and Cambodia with skirmishes and fire fights heading into all-out war. And to top it all off, Southern California builders were going into hysterics over a shortage of cement.

On some days they just scratched for news. But this was what was going on this particular August 4th, via the CBS World News Roundup with Dallas Townsend.

Still in the 90's tonight. Texas are an alternative band from Glasgow who have been together since 1986. They have released a number of albums and have achieved a huge following throughout Europe and have enjoyed multi-platinum sales on some of their work.

Not tonight's however. Mothers Heaven was hoping to cash in on the success of their first studio album, but it failed to materialize when it was released in 1991, even though there are many fine songs in this collection. One of those songs, which I'm featuring tonight, is the title track (Mothers Heaven) from the album and it perfectly illustrates what the great attraction is to this band. Lead singer Sharleen Spiteri is the chief vocal driving force of Texas. Hers is a very strong, very engaging voice, coupled with excellent production. This album by all intents and purposes should have been a huge commercial success, but it wasn't at the time. Their lucky streak with successful albums would have to come later. Strangely, they don't have a very big following in the States.

So tonights track constitutes early Texas at the time of their second album. Twenty years later they are still together, having resumed after a one year hiatus. They are currently on tour throughout Europe, taking advantage of the Festival season.

Check out their site if you get the chance and read up on them and see what they're up to. Never hurts.

(The Red Crayola - left the earth plane a very long time ago)

(if it didn't suck out there, believe me I wouldn't be asking)

For months I've been playing examples of 60's psyche by way of the UK, with occasional nods to other parts of Europe, but never actually paying any sort of attention to what was that hotbed of hardcore psychedelia, Texas. Yes, Texas, where much is strange now but back at the dawning of the Psychedelic era there was almost as much insanity going on as there was in the Bay Area of San Francisco.

Most of it had to do with a small record company, International Artists run by Leland Rogers (brother of Kenny Rogers . . seriously!). International Artists was the home of such bands as 13th Floor Elevators, Bubble Puppy, Moving Sidewalks, Endle St. Cloud and several others.

Red Crayola began in 1966 and consisted of art school students Mayo Thompson, Frederick Barthelme and Steve Cunningham. Their first album Parable of Arable Land, released in 1967 features a number of label mates joining in, including Roky Erickson from 13th Floor Elevators playing organ on tonight's track, Hurricane Fighter Plane. The album was a milestone in the lexicon of psychedelic free-form/noise rock and probably the first to go to such extremes on vinyl so early on.

Needless to say, Parable Of Arable Land wasn't a commercial success, but it did pave the way for a lot of bands who were familiar with them to stretch their own abilities and embrace free-form. The album has since gone on to legend status and the band (or at least the Mayo Thompson portion of it) is still together, performing as Red Krayola (a spelling of their name they adopted back in 1968 but made official in the 1980's).

The Red Crayola had no pretenses about being musically proficient. Mayo Thompson was a visual artist and the music sort of came along for the ride. But that it was so drenched in experimentation and electronic manipulation it actually took the psych form to new places. And that said something about what the possibilities were if you let things achieve a certain level of madness and just let the tape machines run.

(To some . . .)

Note: This is a repost from March, but considering the recent developments in Texas it seems apropos today

With the recent fracas over School Textbooks in Texas, I was reminded how much of an ongoing story this is and how people, many of them either gullible or ignorant, react violently to fear being fed them. And how that fear is exploited and blown out of proportion for so many reasons, most all of them self-serving and usually under the guise of "populist causes".

Case in point: In the early 1970's there was a rash of protests, most from small communities throughout the U.S. that the school systems of the country, part of some vast government conspiracy, were turning school age children into horrible little Communists by subjecting them to "subversive textbooks". The protests, for the most part fueled by groups claiming to be Evangelicals (and some with ties to the John Birch Society), passed around leaflets with examples of the "obscene material"supposedly being taught in the K-12 system. The truth of the matter was, all the leaflets contained material nowhere to be found in any of the books in question and that this was another attempt by the Religious Right to disrupt the educational system in America.

On December 12, 1974, NPR ran, as part of their series "Options In Education" a documentary called "Censoring Textbooks: Is West Virginia the Tip Of The Iceberg?" In a word - yes.

Unidentified parent: “Now if the Board of Education comes over and tries to close us down or tries to put pressure on us, then I’ll fight. I’ll fight . . they can’t have my daughter. I have one daughter and I’ll fight ‘em to my death. And she’s goin’ to school where I want her to go to school. She’s gonna do what I tell her to do, not what some Board of Education or some government tells her to do. That’s my right. That’s our responsibility. You raise corn, but you train children.

Further evidence ignorance isn't bliss. But that was 1974. How much has it changed? According to a recent installment of To The Point, the Texas Board of Education is under almost exactly the same level of Screaming Nameless Fear as West Virginia was 36 years ago. In short, nothing has changed - only the names and faces. The ignorance is still without bliss.

As a bonus, I am running the To The Point broadcast from February of this year as a way of showing the similarities, despite years, of the controversy. Special thanks to KCRW and Public Radio International.

(The Shoes of Billy Sol Estes - no doubt the Alligator had other plans.)

(Note: A repost from 2009 because Corruption, Fraud and Bribery are just so damned timeless)

What had to be one of the biggest scandals of the 1960's centered around one Billy Sol Estes whose influence and fraud wandered through many high places in Washington, allegedly all the way up to the office of Lyndon Johnson. Estes was the subject of a Senate Sub-committee investigation on political corruption which led to a startling number of discoveries and an even more startling number of "suicides" in the process. Although Estes was convicted of fraud and corruption charges and sentenced to prison, his conviction was overturned by a Supreme Court decision that ruled the massive amount of publicity the investigation garnered made a fair trial impossible.

Still, the allegations were serious enough about LBJ to force Kennedy to consider dropping him as running mate in 1964. And he probably would have, had fate not intervened.

On July 2, 1962, at the height of the investigation, ABC's long-running Sunday talk show Issues and Answers featured a dialogue between Texas Attorney General Will Wilson and Senator Edmund Muskie, who was a member of the Senate Subcommittee investigating the Estes scandal.

(Sen. Sam Irvin (left) - Bill Sol Estes (right))