mlat62: Explorateur
[Seattle, USA. January 31st, 2012] Valerie Calano, a staple and catalyst of Seattle's re-burgeoning psychedelic rock scene, joins us as "Explorateur" for the second podcast entry this year. She is a resident at the Prog! DJ night and co-produces the Distortions (psych) DJ night with writer Dave Segal. We surveyed her musical upbringing, discussed her DJing experience, and caught a slice of her musical vision.
How would you explain the genesis of your musical passions, and what significant occurrences have lead you to where you are today?
Like a lot of people, I was really influenced by the music my parents played. I heard a lot of classic rock growing up, and Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and The Doors were some of the first psychedelic artists I came to know well. In high school I went to a lot of punk shows, and I obsessively listened to college radio, which provided a solid education in independent music and labels. When I moved to Athens, GA in the late ‘90s to attend college, the Elephant 6 scene was thriving. Seeing The Olivia Tremor Control play for the first time was a pretty significant experience for me. The way they (and their extended family of bands) blended psychedelic, pop, and experimental music was unlike anything I’d heard before, and influenced the music I sought out from that point on. File sharing networks came along a couple of years after that, and so it was down the (psychedelic) rabbit hole from there.
It’s my understanding that you curated a radio show while living in England. What led you to that?
I was studying there and found out the student radio station was looking for volunteers. I had never DJ’d or worked at a radio station, but I was confident that the awesomeness of my musical taste would make up for my lack of experience and put me on the fast track to getting on the air. Honestly, I think I was probably selected more for my foreign accent than I was for the collection of CDs and mp3s that I had brought to England with me. Whatever it was, I was thrilled to have my own show and subject the university population to whatever random selection of songs I felt like playing each week. I also played a lot of music from Athens to cope with the feelings of homesickness that would come up.
You currently live in Seattle. What sorts of outlets here give you the opportunities to express yourself musically?
Since I completely lack any natural music talent to be able to create my own music, I love to DJ as much as possible. Fortunately, there are great places in Seattle that will let me bring my records and play lots of weird stuff. One of these spots is the Living Room on Capitol Hill, which has top DJs almost every weekday night, spinning techno, electro, bass music, and prog (the psych night run by the Portable Shrines collective ended last year, but it was a highlight of the Living Room’s DJ schedule). I’ve been doing a prog night there bimonthly for over a year while also spinning semi-regularly for the Valmont’s Pad monthly, which allows me to play a weird blend of sleazy lounge, dirty funk, library music, and cosmic disco. I’ve also been fortunate enough to DJ some events thrown by Portable Shrines, including its Escalator Fest in 2011. Portable Shrines has been crucial in fostering a psychedelic music scene in Seattle, booking lots of great local and touring acts and increasing awareness with consistently high standards. Veins and I have also started a psych night called Distortions that happens every second Tuesday at Linda’s Tavern. The first edition of it drew surprisingly well, and we have ambitious plans to host guest DJs from among the city’s most knowledgeable psych heads.
Of the music you curated, would you say that very little of it is contemporary? How do you feel about the psychedelic/rock that is produced today as compared to that of the wonders of yesteryear?
I didn’t intend for things to turn out this way, but about half of the tracks in the mix are contemporary and half originate from the late ’60s/early ’70s. The Spacemen 3 cut is in between those poles; it was released in 1987, but it’s a cover of a 1967 song by the Red Krayola. The contemporary bands obviously are inspired by the initial wave of psychedelic music and the spirit of the genre’s originators, but they aren’t engaging in sheer mimicry. In a way, today’s psychedelic musicians have it tougher. With over 40 years of this type of music out there, it’s never been harder to make psychedelia sound fresh. I think the newer artists in this mix—Applehead, Voice Of The Seven Woods, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Cloudland Canyon, Sun Araw, and High Wolf—have risen to the challenge. The music is just as transcendent and disorienting (if not more so) than that of their forebears.
On that note, could you finish by talking a little bit about the selections you made for this podcast?
I knew it would be too daunting within the compressed timespan of this podcast to attempt an overview of the wide expanse of music that falls under the umbrella of “psychedelic.” Instead I offer a selection of tracks that move me in some way and are great examples of different styles: the funkiness of Applehead, the monastic chants of People and Between, the dramatic psych-prog of Brainticket and Ramases, the Eastern-influenced Voice Of The Seven Woods and Vibracathedral Orchestra. Many of these tracks I’ve DJ’d out a lot and provoke strong responses from people. (I’ve never played that Voice Of The Seven Woods without having at least one person ask me what it is.)
I wanted to include “Cellophane Symphony” by Tommy James And The Shondells because when I first heard it via a DJ friend, it was a total “WTF?” moment. This track might be a surprise to those who only know James’ more pop-oriented radio hits. I ended with Spacemen 3’s cover of Red Krayola’s “Transparent Radiation,” which is off my favorite album from one of my favorite psych bands. It’s a nearly 10-minute suite that has an epic sweep to it. This seemed like the best possible conclusion to a mix that takes you into a lot of different mindsets and sonic destination points.
1. Right-click + save a copy of this podcast
2. Follow what we do via Facebook
3. Subscribe in iTunes / RSS
1. Alan Watts / The Time and Space Machine - Vision Om [5D]
2. Applehead - Apple Head [Pre-Cert]
3. Brainticket - Watchin' You [Lilith]
4. Voice Of The Seven Woods - The Fire In My Head [Twisted Nerve]
5. Vibracathedral Orchestra - A Mirrored Pyramid (For JS) / Es Inaceptable Para Mi [VHF]
6. Cloudland Canyon - Holy Canyon (Vanquish) [Tee Pee]
7. Sun Araw - Get Low [Not Not Fun]
8. High Wolf - Bizarre Moonlight [Sergent Massacre]
9. People - Shomyo Part 1 [Phoenix]
10. Between - Devotion [Wah-Wah]
11. Ramases - Life Child [Mexican Summer]
12. Tommy James And The Shondells - Cellophane Symphony [Roulette]
13. Spacemen 3 - Ecstasy Symphony / Transparent Radiation (Flashback) [Fire]
How would you explain the genesis of your musical passions, and what significant occurrences have lead you to where you are today?
Like a lot of people, I was really influenced by the music my parents played. I heard a lot of classic rock growing up, and Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and The Doors were some of the first psychedelic artists I came to know well. In high school I went to a lot of punk shows, and I obsessively listened to college radio, which provided a solid education in independent music and labels. When I moved to Athens, GA in the late ‘90s to attend college, the Elephant 6 scene was thriving. Seeing The Olivia Tremor Control play for the first time was a pretty significant experience for me. The way they (and their extended family of bands) blended psychedelic, pop, and experimental music was unlike anything I’d heard before, and influenced the music I sought out from that point on. File sharing networks came along a couple of years after that, and so it was down the (psychedelic) rabbit hole from there.
It’s my understanding that you curated a radio show while living in England. What led you to that?
I was studying there and found out the student radio station was looking for volunteers. I had never DJ’d or worked at a radio station, but I was confident that the awesomeness of my musical taste would make up for my lack of experience and put me on the fast track to getting on the air. Honestly, I think I was probably selected more for my foreign accent than I was for the collection of CDs and mp3s that I had brought to England with me. Whatever it was, I was thrilled to have my own show and subject the university population to whatever random selection of songs I felt like playing each week. I also played a lot of music from Athens to cope with the feelings of homesickness that would come up.
You currently live in Seattle. What sorts of outlets here give you the opportunities to express yourself musically?
Since I completely lack any natural music talent to be able to create my own music, I love to DJ as much as possible. Fortunately, there are great places in Seattle that will let me bring my records and play lots of weird stuff. One of these spots is the Living Room on Capitol Hill, which has top DJs almost every weekday night, spinning techno, electro, bass music, and prog (the psych night run by the Portable Shrines collective ended last year, but it was a highlight of the Living Room’s DJ schedule). I’ve been doing a prog night there bimonthly for over a year while also spinning semi-regularly for the Valmont’s Pad monthly, which allows me to play a weird blend of sleazy lounge, dirty funk, library music, and cosmic disco. I’ve also been fortunate enough to DJ some events thrown by Portable Shrines, including its Escalator Fest in 2011. Portable Shrines has been crucial in fostering a psychedelic music scene in Seattle, booking lots of great local and touring acts and increasing awareness with consistently high standards. Veins and I have also started a psych night called Distortions that happens every second Tuesday at Linda’s Tavern. The first edition of it drew surprisingly well, and we have ambitious plans to host guest DJs from among the city’s most knowledgeable psych heads.
Of the music you curated, would you say that very little of it is contemporary? How do you feel about the psychedelic/rock that is produced today as compared to that of the wonders of yesteryear?
I didn’t intend for things to turn out this way, but about half of the tracks in the mix are contemporary and half originate from the late ’60s/early ’70s. The Spacemen 3 cut is in between those poles; it was released in 1987, but it’s a cover of a 1967 song by the Red Krayola. The contemporary bands obviously are inspired by the initial wave of psychedelic music and the spirit of the genre’s originators, but they aren’t engaging in sheer mimicry. In a way, today’s psychedelic musicians have it tougher. With over 40 years of this type of music out there, it’s never been harder to make psychedelia sound fresh. I think the newer artists in this mix—Applehead, Voice Of The Seven Woods, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Cloudland Canyon, Sun Araw, and High Wolf—have risen to the challenge. The music is just as transcendent and disorienting (if not more so) than that of their forebears.
On that note, could you finish by talking a little bit about the selections you made for this podcast?
I knew it would be too daunting within the compressed timespan of this podcast to attempt an overview of the wide expanse of music that falls under the umbrella of “psychedelic.” Instead I offer a selection of tracks that move me in some way and are great examples of different styles: the funkiness of Applehead, the monastic chants of People and Between, the dramatic psych-prog of Brainticket and Ramases, the Eastern-influenced Voice Of The Seven Woods and Vibracathedral Orchestra. Many of these tracks I’ve DJ’d out a lot and provoke strong responses from people. (I’ve never played that Voice Of The Seven Woods without having at least one person ask me what it is.)
I wanted to include “Cellophane Symphony” by Tommy James And The Shondells because when I first heard it via a DJ friend, it was a total “WTF?” moment. This track might be a surprise to those who only know James’ more pop-oriented radio hits. I ended with Spacemen 3’s cover of Red Krayola’s “Transparent Radiation,” which is off my favorite album from one of my favorite psych bands. It’s a nearly 10-minute suite that has an epic sweep to it. This seemed like the best possible conclusion to a mix that takes you into a lot of different mindsets and sonic destination points.
1. Right-click + save a copy of this podcast
2. Follow what we do via Facebook
3. Subscribe in iTunes / RSS
1. Alan Watts / The Time and Space Machine - Vision Om [5D]
2. Applehead - Apple Head [Pre-Cert]
3. Brainticket - Watchin' You [Lilith]
4. Voice Of The Seven Woods - The Fire In My Head [Twisted Nerve]
5. Vibracathedral Orchestra - A Mirrored Pyramid (For JS) / Es Inaceptable Para Mi [VHF]
6. Cloudland Canyon - Holy Canyon (Vanquish) [Tee Pee]
7. Sun Araw - Get Low [Not Not Fun]
8. High Wolf - Bizarre Moonlight [Sergent Massacre]
9. People - Shomyo Part 1 [Phoenix]
10. Between - Devotion [Wah-Wah]
11. Ramases - Life Child [Mexican Summer]
12. Tommy James And The Shondells - Cellophane Symphony [Roulette]
13. Spacemen 3 - Ecstasy Symphony / Transparent Radiation (Flashback) [Fire]