Category Archives: IRN

Extraordinary Music

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Thirty years ago when I first caught sight of the cover I knew this was going to be a record I would like. Little did I know then it would be a release that I would instantly adore and over the years I would herald it as groundbreaking. At any given opportunity I would reference it as having a lasting profound impact on me. I would consistently include it in my “Best of Lists”. Sometimes, for no other reason than I thought it was perfectly brilliant, I’d slip it into a set if I was doing live radio or if I was deejaying in a club, I’d take the crowd to a pulsing rhythmic high and then hold them in a state of near climax as blended in its open bars, knowing only full well the crashing, thunderous crescendo of guitars would send everyone into ecstasy. Yes, the sleeve did catch my attention, back then Vaughan Oliver’s graphic’s for the 4AD label were the must-haves for every record snob on the planet. This one was all the more exceptional perhaps because of Juergen Teller’s alluring, erotic photos on the front and back. But for me, I didn’t get giddy with excitement over the cool 4AD covers, no, for me the music had to be as good, if not better than the precious covers. Lollita, the 3 track 12” EP by A. R. Kane was a landmark. The duo of Alex Ayuli and Rudy Tambala made music that came along just at the right time. It was like nothing else. Which probably explains why not everyone, not even die-hard 4AD aficionados treated it with the same reverence as I. There was another titillating facet to Lollita that fascinated me – the lyrics. Was he saying, “Winkie girl” or could it be, “Wicked girl”? Did he really say, “Love to go on down and kiss your curls”? It really didn’t matter, the more I played it the bigger the mystery. And, did I play it! My copy is still if not in pristine condition, it sounds fine, the cover is a little grubby around the corners though. What an absolute thrill then when I opened up my inbox the other day to discover a new track, Thinking About You, from an outfit named, Jübl. The name was intriguing, but it was the sound…that sound. Could it be a close relation of A. R. Kane? With a little closer inspection, I discovered that Jübl is Rudy Tambala, (one half of A. R. Kane) who has been performing and recording with Maggie Tambala and Andy Taylor since 2015. Their debut EP is titled, Thinking Sweet has just been released. In the next edition of Life Elsewhere I’ll play Thinking About You from Jübl and follow that up with, Lollita. I promise, not only are you in for a treat, you’ll learn why I have been raving on about A. R. Kane for so long and why I’m now excited to hear the new music from Rudy as he move forward with Jübl.
Also in the show, my interview with Australian author, Elizabeth Tan about her beautifully complex debut novel, Rubik. A new release arrived just as this show was being edited that sounded just right to almost work as a soundtrack to Elizabeth’s extraordinary work. From London, it’s a new female talent who goes by the moniker, Grand Pax. The song is titled, Destroyer and it’s available on the Blue Flowers imprint. Enjoy!

Life Elsewhere is now available at NPR One & iTunes

Sundays 12 noon ET at The Source WMNF HD3
Sundays 10.00am ET at WNRM The Root
Mondays 5.00pm PT & Wednesdays 2.00pm PT at NWCZ Radio
Thursdays 6.00pm ET at Internet Radio Network
Fridays at 9.00pm GMT on Cornucopia Radio

If you miss any editions of Life Elsewhere, go here then go to the Listen On-Demand panel, choose the date of a show and click play.

Life Elsewhere Music airs:
Sundays 11.00am ET at WNRM The Root
Mondays at 6.00pm & Wednesdays at 3.00pm Pacific Time on NWCZ Radio
Fridays at 10.00am Eastern Time on IRN
Cornucopia Radio airs Life Elsewhere Music throughout each week
You can hear all the volumes over at Mixcloud
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Funny, With A Message

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When Katie Met Cassidy and Blown are two new, clever-funny novels. Both are very much set in the present, each book reels off timely iconic observations and pop-culture references without a hint of self-consciousness. Their fast-pasted comedic well-constructed narratives with believable characters draw the reader in, while almost slyly revealing a deeper, thought-provoking message. In When Katie Met Cassidy, Camille Perri proudly writes about, as she says, “her queerness” without preaching, pontificating or even pandering. She knows the LGBTQ community inside out and she takes the reader into what is most likely for many, a mysterious scary world. Perri devises a simple love story for the plot. There’s Katie, born and raised in Kentucky, now an aspiring, late- twenties lawyer in New York. She’s a good girl, a people pleaser and a rule follower.  Katie finds herself sitting in a disoriented haze across a boardroom table from another a lawyer in a sharply tailored man’s suit, who on first look Katie mistakes for a man. This is native New Yorker, Cassidy, a confident, beautiful woman who seems to break all the rules Katie has tried so hard to follow. A hot passionate love story unfolds between two women, yet Camille Perri skillfully avoids cliches and stylized caricatures. Instead, her message is, no matter what your gender or sexual preference, when you’re in love you share the same emotions as anyone else in love. It’s a straightforward notion, but even in this modern age, there are still too many amongst us who would rather call it a love that dare not speak its name.

With five comic novels, all with one-word titles: Raw, Baked, Moist, Delicious and Salty (recently adapted into a major motion picture, titled Gun Shy, starring Antonio Banderas), Mark Haskell Smith excels at cooking up a supremely weird atmosphere and spicing it up with equally weird sex and violence. With Blown, his latest novel, Mark Haskell Smith goes all out with a wildly entertaining satire of corporate greed, sexual desire, and crime in the global financial services industry. Exceptionally funny, ribald and sharp-eyed, Blown starts as a simple case of embezzlement and explodes into a fatal high-stakes gamble for money and the pursuit of happiness. With his trade-mark knack of creating a cast of believable if not eccentric characters, in realistic but extraordinary circumstances, Smith gives his quizzical take on greed and human frailty. All the while the reader cannot stop laughing.

Make sure not to miss Norman B’s spirited interviews with two keenly talented and engaging authors on the next edition of Life Elsewhere.

Life Elsewhere is now available at NPR One & iTunes

Sundays 12 noon ET at The Source WMNF HD3  
Mondays 5.00pm PT & Wednesdays 2.00pm PT at NWCZ Radio
Thursdays 6.00pm ET at Internet Radio Network
Fridays at 9.00pm GMT on Cornucopia Radio

If you miss any editions of Life Elsewhere, go here then go to the Listen On-Demand panel, choose the date of a show and click play.

Life Elsewhere Music airs:
Mondays at 6.00pm & Wednesdays at 3.00pm Pacific Time on NWCZ Radio
Fridays at 10.00am Eastern Time on IRN
Cornucopia Radio airs Life Elsewhere Music throughout each week
You can hear all the volumes over at Mixcloud
Make a Donation Button

The Misunderstood Affliction + Two Songs You May Have Missed

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Julie Rehmeyer was so sick she sometimes couldn’t turn over in bed. The top specialists in the world were powerless to help, and scientific research on her disease was at a near standstill. She was running out of money. And she was all alone, with no one to care for her. This is the beginning of her powerful and emotive memoir, Through The Shadowlands – A Science Writer’s Odyssey Into An Illness Science Doesn’t Understand. As an MIT-trained mathematician, Julie was determined to find a solution to her illness. She had exhausted all reasonable ideas, so she turned to an unreasonable one. Leaving behind everything she owned, Rehmeyer drove to the desert, testing the theory that mold in her home and belongings were making her sick. Julie Rehmeyer felt as though she were going to the desert to die. What was her affliction and why is it so misunderstood? Julie Rehmeyer talks candidly with Norman B about her inspiring memoir, next on Life Elsewhere.

Sunken
Chloé Leone

Plus, in this edition, we bring you two deliciously cool songs you may have missed. Two acts out of London, Sunken and Chloé Leone we enthusiastically played on the show one year ago. Twelve months later we are still raving and believe both songs stand up to the test of time and sound as fresh now as they did when first released. Take a listen, then do yourself a favor and check out their latest releases.

Life Elsewhere is now available at NPR One & iTunes

Sundays 12 noon ET at The Source WMNF HD3  
Mondays 5.00pm PT & Wednesdays 2.00pm PT at NWCZ Radio
Thursdays 6.00pm ET at Internet Radio Network
Fridays at 9.00pm GMT on Cornucopia Radio

If you miss any editions of Life Elsewhere, go here then go to the Listen On-Demand panel, choose the date of a show and click play.

Life Elsewhere Music airs:
Mondays at 6.00pm & Wednesdays at 3.00pm Pacific Time on NWCZ Radio
Fridays at 10.00am Eastern Time on IRN
Cornucopia Radio airs Life Elsewhere Music throughout each week
You can hear all the volumes over at Mixcloud
Make a Donation Button

Women In Politics & A New Beguiling Voice

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While yet another major celebrity is accused of sexual misconduct, the President’s alleged scandalous peccadilloes although continually in the news have so far not impeded his standing. This leads to the question why politicians (of all parties) enable such a misogynistic climate. Our conversation with Lucia Graves from last year provides some answers to an unsettling question.

As Donald Trump loomed behind her in the 2nd Presidential debate, Hillary Clinton says her “skin crawled”. In her new book, What Happened, she reveals her most detailed comments about what happened during one of the campaign’s more memorable moments. Clinton calls this an attempt to “pull back the curtain” on her losing bid for the presidency. “This is not okay, I thought,” Recalls Clinton in her book. “It was the second presidential debate and Donald Trump was looming behind me. Two days before, the world heard him brag about groping women. Now we were on a small stage and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. It was incredibly uncomfortable. He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled. It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, ‘Well, what would you do?’ Do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren’t repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye and say loudly and clearly, ‘Back up, you creep. Get away from me. I know you love to intimidate women, but you can’t intimidate me, so back up.” The peculiar and disturbing performance by Trump was ridiculed on Saturday Night Live, where the soundtrack to Jaws was used to empathize Trump’s predatory stalking of the first woman to run for the office of President in the United States. The publication of Clinton’s book drew attention again on Trump’s deplorable behavior, in turn, this led us to ask Lucia Graves back to Life Elsewhere to explore the state of Women In Politics. Lucia, an accomplished writer for The Guardian last spoke with us about her must-read article on The Most Dangerous Company Most People Have Never Heard Of.

On first listen, you’ll know you have to hear it again. How Much Is Enough? is one of those rare songs that immediately captures your attention. Is it the plaintive, almost fragile voice? Yes, but you quickly realize the singer’s voice has depth and power as she clearly annunciates the song’s title. Could it be the delicate guitar coda? Yes, but the bridge with the unexpected jazz-like bass also prompts another listen. And, as you listen yet again, an inevitable round of trainspotting will result in the reverent acknowledgment of a long-established and acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter. A name, Montreal-based, Dana Gavanski easily mentions in her interview for Life Elsewhere. This is her first time chatting for a broadcast as she innocently asks, “What do you want to know?” of the first question. Dana’s unassuming honesty in the conversation is beguiling almost at odds with the complexity and maturity of her music. Her new beautiful single, How Much Is Enough?, taken from her debut EP, Spring Demos, available on Fox Food Records.    

Life Elsewhere is now available at NPR One & iTunes

Sundays 12 noon ET at The Source WMNF HD3  
Mondays 5.00pm PT & Wednesdays 2.00pm PT at NWCZ Radio
Thursdays 6.00pm ET at Internet Radio Network
Fridays at 9.00pm GMT on Cornucopia Radio

If you miss any editions of Life Elsewhere, go here then go to the Listen On-Demand panel, choose the date of a show and click play.

Life Elsewhere Music airs:
Mondays at 6.00pm & Wednesdays at 3.00pm Pacific Time on NWCZ Radio
Fridays at 10.00am Eastern Time on IRN
Cornucopia Radio airs Life Elsewhere Music throughout each week
You can hear all the volumes over at Mixcloud
Make a Donation Button

ALT-AMERICA: THE RISE OF THE RADICAL RIGHT IN THE AGE OF TRUMP

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Donald Trump’s victorious campaign for the US presidency shocked the world, the seemingly sudden national prominence of white supremacists, xenophobes, militia leaders, and mysterious “alt-right” figures mystifies many. But the American extreme right has been growing steadily in number and influence since the 1990s with the rise of patriot militias. Following 9/11, conspiracy theorists found fresh life; and in virulent reaction to the first black US president, militant racists have come out of the woodwork. Nurtured by a powerful right-wing media sector in radio, TV, and online, the far right, Tea Party movement conservatives and Republican activists found common ground. Figures such as Stephen Bannon, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Alex Jones, once rightly dismissed as cranks, now haunt the reports of mainstream journalism. Investigative reporter David Neiwert has been tracking extremists for more than two decades. In his latest book, Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, Neiwert provides a deeply researched and authoritative report on the growth of fascism and far-right terrorism, the violence of which in the last decade has surpassed anything inspired by Islamist or other ideologies in the United States. David Neiwert joins Norman B for the next edition of Life Elsewhere to talk about his years of reportage, including the most in-depth investigation of Trump’s ties to the far right.

Also in the program, new music from Copenhagen-based singer-songwriter, Ellis May. About her song, Father she says this, “Father is the most personal work I have done. It’s about loss. It’s about carrying on. It’s about acceptance, and about how accepting things will move you forward, and get you through hard times and push you onto your own path.” Listen carefully and make sure you let us know what you think. Write to normanb@lifeelsewhere.co

 

Life Elsewhere is now available at NPR One & iTunes

Sundays 12 noon ET at The Source WMNF HD3  
Mondays 5.00pm PT & Wednesdays 2.00pm PT at NWCZ Radio
Thursdays 6.00pm ET at Internet Radio Network
Fridays at 9.00pm GMT on Cornucopia Radio

If you miss any editions of Life Elsewhere, go here then go to the Listen On-Demand panel, choose the date of a show and click play.

Life Elsewhere Music airs:
Mondays at 6.00pm & Wednesdays at 3.00pm Pacific Time on NWCZ Radio
Fridays at 10.00am Eastern Time on IRN
Cornucopia Radio airs Life Elsewhere Music throughout each week
You can hear all the volumes over at Mixcloud
Make a Donation Button

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