Episode 2: Would the Man In the Black Hat Kindly Be Seated?

Winter greetings from South Omaha and Grapefruit Records, here in the stinted and often bypassed heart land of America. We recorded this week’s episode using proper microphones rather than Gene Hackman’s The Conversation style phone tapping methods employed with charming results in our previous episode. If you notice a new flutter echo it’s because we read somewhere it was wise to use a microphone for each host. But if one talks louder than the other…. Next episode we plan to radio-econo with a single mic between us and see if that solves lingering vocal clarity issues. If only Mychal were less shy or Simon a little less desperate to connect with an audience this one mic idea might be easier to pull off. In any case, we will continue to cut our jib until you like it, so stick with us as we iron out the kinks, episode to episode, like Xeno’s arrow forever approaching but never piercing a vanishing target.

Like Rome, our show is divided into three parts. We call them “sets” to remind ourselves of a time when we were touring and performing music in front of live audiences. However, we’ve been informed that in radio parlance a set is actually a block of music between mic breaks so we’ve been using the term incorrectly. Rather than swapping horses in mid-stream, to circumvent or perhaps court confusion we shall consider all the blocks of music between mic breaks “chunks,” like our favorite comp on New Alliance from 1981. So, our first set has three chunks and the very loose theme of America at the moment. The would-be dictator has been deposed and we see a changing of the guard, so that’s good, but it’s still a very troubled place when a song about apartheid recorded in 1968 works to describe America in 2021. Let’s face it.

Our second set is an interview with and performance from our special guests, old friends Wim and Waldemar of Bingo Trappers, from Amsterdam. They join us via modern technology and a seven hour time difference to discuss their quarter century of writing perfect songs essential for road-tripping across America’s great expanses or bicycling over the canals of Holland. We love love love these men and their infectious music. And in our third and final set we feature a rotating theme of songs featuring some commonality. We call it Inherent Vibes. Last episode it was all songs from 7″ records, in this episode we’re spinning all cover tunes. And now, please sit back and enjoy this slightly slimmer, taut thriller that is episode two.

FIRST SET: A Part of America Herein
1. Bingo Trappers – “King In Exile” [Shrimper/Sing, Eunuchs!, 1997]
2. Bobby Darin – “Jingle Jangle Jungle” [Direction, 1968]
3. Ego Summit – “Illogical” [Old Age/No Age, 1997]
4. The Ronettes – “(The Best Part Of) Breakin’ Up” [Philles, 1964]
5. Hugh Masekela – “If There’s Anybody Out There” [UNI, 1969]
(Mic Break)
6. Sir Douglas Quintet – “Song Of Everything” [Smash, 1968]
7. Amiri Baraka – “I Love Music” [India Navigation, 1982]
8. Tom Troccoli’s Dog – “Orcanese Faretheewell” [SST, 1985]
9. Gilberto Gil – “Miserere Nóbis” [Phillips, 1968]
10. Vashti Bunyan – “Coldest Night Of The Year” [Dicristina, 2007]
11. Francisca Griffin – “My Wish” [CoCoMuse, 2019]
(Mic Break)
12. Felt – “Dismantled King Is Off The Throne” [Cherry Red, 1984]
13. Psychedelic Horseshit – “New Wave Hippies” [Siltbreeze, 2007]
14. Patrick Cowley – “Do It Any Way You Wanna” [Dark Entries, 2020]
15. The Fates – “No Romance” [Taboo/Finders Keepers, 1985/2014]
16. Diana Ross – “Didn’t You Know You’d Have To Cry Sometime?” [Motown, 1971]
17. John Davis & Dennis Callaci – “The Weight Of Joy” [Shrimper/Inundation, 2020]

SECOND SET: Security Questions with the Bingo Trappers
1. Interview Part One
2. “Amazer Amazer” live performance
3. “Rearranging The Light” live performance
4. Interview Part Two
5. “I Saw The Ghost Of Gram Parsons” live performance
6. “What’s The Score” live performance
All four performed songs are from the Bingo Trappers’ latest LP, “Giddy Wishes,” available at our Grapefruit web store! Please seek out the band’s entire discography and experience that extremely rare feat, a band who has not only never recorded a bad album but has never even made a less-than-fantastic one.

Below are videos from the Bingo Trappers’ set for this episode!

THIRD SET: Inherent Vibes – Cover Songs Edition
1. Purple Snow – “Down By The River” (Neil Young) [Saquarius/Now Again, 1969/2017]
2. Dump – “Girls + Boys” (Prince) [Shrimper, 2001]
3. Alex Chilton “Surfer Girl” (The Beach Boys) [Bootleg, 2016]
4. The Slits – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” (Marvin Gaye) [Island, 1979]
5. Barbara Keith – “All Along The Watchtower” (Bob Dylan) [Reprise, 1973]
(Mic Break)
6. Garbage & The Flowers – “You Ain’t Goin Nowhere” (Bob Dylan) [Paradise Daily, 2016]7. Psandwich – “Home Before The Snowfall” (Sixth Station) [Columbus Discount, 2011]
8. Condo Fucks – “With A Girl Like You” (The Troggs) [Matador, 2009]
9. The Troggs – “Good Vibrations” (The Beach Boys) [Pye, 1975]
10. Rosabella – “Ragazzino Senza Cuore” (Cat Stevens) [CGD, 1971]
(Mic Break)
11. Silicon Teens – “Let’s Dance” (Chris Montez) [Mute, 1979]
12. Mark & Suzann Farmer – “Dreams” (Fleetwood Mac) [MSJ, 1978]
13. The Heptones – “Sea Of Love” (Phil Phillips with The Twilights) [Studio One, 1968]
14. Townes Van Zandt – “Dead Flowers” (The Rolling Stones) [Omnivore, 2013]
(Mic Break)
15. Stop Having Children – Mr. Soul/Satisfaction (Buffalo Springfield/The Rolling Stones) [YouHadToBeThere, 2015]

We would like to thank James Schroeder for providing our theme song, Alex McManus (aka The Bruces) for use of several unreleased instrumentals as segue music, and Todd Fink and Jason Meyer for the outro echo chant from Joshua Tree. Thanks also to Allyson Gibbs for allowing us to use her artwork for our FTS logo.

Additional thanks to all of our friends far and wide who shared their voices for our FTS introduction, including: Noah Sterba, Sean Pratt, Megan Siebe, Frances Joyner, Liz Huffman, Donovan Quinn, Jeffrey Lewis, Ryan McKeever, Jerry David DeCicca, Robb Nordstrom, David Nance, Adam Ostrar, Sara Adkisson-Joyner, Zach LaGrou, Kevin Donahue, Brad Smith, George Peek, James Schroeder, William Thornton, Gillian Welch, Bill MacKay, Michael Krassner, Tim Kasher, David Rawlings and Ryan Jewell. And thanks to Chris Deden for curation and management of “the archive.”