Hey, y’all! Hope you’re doing your best. It’s Tuesday again, and we’re back on the air this week! Read on down to learn more about what we’re playing tonight on datafruits.fm!
Talkie Time : The Man Called X - The Silver Scarab / Worth Her Weight In Gold
(This program originally aired April 9, 2024.)
Herbert Marshall, otherwise known as The Man Called X. Look at this suave, suave motherfucker.
From 2023 to 2024 on this show, we had an end-of-the-month sequential listen-through of the entirety of Cloak And Dagger, the 1950 radio play documenting the exploits of the brave OSS agents who took the fight and the tricks to the Nazi scum in the second world war.
Now I’m not saying I don’t clearly have a history with spy story bullshit; hell, I illustrated a comic series about it at one point. We all know that this cat sure does love her goofy spy thrillers, and just because our listenthrough of Cloak And Dagger is well over a year and a half in the past doesn’t mean I don’t have a shitton of other international men of mystery to share with you.
On that note, “The Man Called X” is our Talkie Time selection this evening, starring British radio heartthrob Herbert Marshall as one Ken Thurston, a very mysterious man doing mysterious things for mysterious government agencies–the former of which is as suave and debonair as you’d think and the latter two of which being as questionably legal and/or moral as one might expect.
What’s not a mystery (or a violation of international law and treaty, for that matter) are the two shows we’ll be playing this evening–namely, “The Silver Scarab”, which originally aired June 19, 1947, and “Worth Her Weight In Gold”, originally aired on September 5, 1948. Grab your techno-future-spy-gadgets and your British-To-English dictionary and come join us.
The Jazz Program : Midori : ファースト♥ (First) (2005), セカンド♥ (Second) (2007), あらためまして、はじめまして、ミドリです。(Hello Everyone, Nice To Meet You, We Are Midori) (2008)
queen
If you’ve listened to this show at all in the past checks notes ever, you’ll know that we take the definition of jazz reeeeeal fast and loose ‘round these parts. We’ve played everything from DJ Spooky to Last Exit on the program at some point, and we’ll be pushing that envelope even further into the weird this evening with Osaka’s own whirlwhind of cutesy, zany violence: Midori.
Fronted by vocalist, DJ, and chaos elemental Mariko Gotō – seen to the left over there in the teddy bear outfit and occasionally seen taking her panties off onstage and throwing them at the audience – Midori draws two of its founding members and a lot of its sound from noise-punk act Usagi., and whooooooo BUDDY does it show. The quartet’s entire discography is filled with the kind of barely coherent, whiplash-inducing, and extremely danceable arrangements that would make the cats from Naked City take a powder.
We’ve got three of their records for you this evening, starting with their conveniently named debut EP and subsequently released LP–the names of which translate to First and Second, respectively– on the GYUUNE CASSETTE label. After that, it’s their first major-label release on Sony Music in 2008, the title of which translates roughly to Hello Everyone, Nice To Meet You, We Are Midori.
It’ll be a helluva show this evening; we’ll see you there. Bring some bandages. You’ll probably need ’em.
That’s all for this week! Thank you so much for reading, and I do hope you enjoy tonight’s show.
Speaking of which: if you’re reading this the day of, and you can make it in tonight, you should come hang out in the chat with us on Datafruits! We’ve got a good crowd of folks in the chat every week, and whether you have a suggestion for a future show or just want to hang out and chat with fellow jazz enjoyers, you’re welcome here with us.
You’re all amazing and don’t let anyone tell you that you’re not. Stay safe out there, and I’ll see you back again next week. Same time, same station: on datafruits dot fm..