On Air

Captain Phil's Planet playlist for 06/18/2020

ArtistTitleAlbum (* = New Release)
Leslie MandokiSessions In The VillageHungarian Pictures*
Leslie MandokiLiving in the GapMandoki Soulmates*
Leslie Mandoki & Ian AndersonWe Say Thank YouWe Say Thank You*
Ian Anderson & Cady Colemanflute duet in spaceflute duet in space
The Devil's StaircaseRoom 101The Devil's Staircase*
The Devil's StaircaseRule 34The Devil's Staircase*
Flying ColorsThe Loss InsideThird Degree*
The EnidFandAerie Faeri Nonsense

Captain Phil talks with Leslie Mandoki in the 3pm hour about his work with Ian Anderson, and the COVID 19 song We Say Thank You for all the first responders #WeSayThankYou
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqXbuWo_jRA

Then in the 4pm hour there's more! Progs answer to Buckaroo Banzai Luis Nasser will be zooming in to talk about The Devils Staircase which you can climb right here

https://thedevilsstaircase.bandcamp.com/releases

Tune in this Thursday at 3pm for intergalactic awesomeness, peace and love from Germany, Chicago and West Coxsackie as well as Stony Brook by turning the dial to 90.1fm WUSB or stream it at www.wusb.fm

PS And yes it is pledge time for WUSB if you can help a station out they'd truly appreciate it. Send me a copy of your paid pledge form and I'll send you a CD!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqXbuWo_jRA

Leslie Mandoki
Mandoki Soulmates (https://mandoki-soulmates.com/)
Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson Joins Leslie Mandoki for #WeSayThankYou to Our First Responders

“We all thank the brave, hardworking front-line medics and care workers around the world. Leslie managed to put into the lyrics’ references to the police, grocery clerks, supermarket workers too. I would like to add those essential worker folks who it was impossible to squeeze into a three-minute song
To all, we say, thank you.”
--Ian Anderson on singing and playing flute on Leslie Mandoki’s “WeSayThankYou."

Los Angeles, CA - As the world continues to be consumed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson sings and plays flute with Mandoki Soulmates mastermind and leader Leslie Mandoki. Mandoki has found inspiration and a new spark of hope amidst the chaos. He has penned a powerful new song in appreciation for the heroes who have emerged in this global crisis, the nurses, doctors, and other health care providers as well as the grocery store clerks and food delivery personnel who have stepped up to serve their communities. The new song, entitled simply “#WeSayThankYou,” expresses so clearly the feelings of gratitude many of us have felt in these troubled times.
Mandoki explains, “As an artist, I feel it is my duty to contemplate ideas for a better world. Now, like so many of us, I suddenly have the time. Let us grab this uncommon moment of pause together and take a new approach to the problems of the world. And let’s take a hard look at who this crisis is casting in a heroic light, and who comes out the villain.”

Leslie will be donating the royalties from the sales, syncs, and airplay of “#WeSayThankYou“ to a To-Be-Announced Charity.

“#WeSayThankYou” was written in the context of Leslie’s own isolation in Germany, where his doctor wife, Eva, is a first contact physician.

Ian and Leslie have worked together for over 20 years on various collaborations with his jazz-rock band Soulmates featuring the good and great of classic rock and jazz. Mandoki’s Soulmates toured North America in 2018. (https://mandoki-soulmates.com/)
####

VIDEOS
Ian Anderson & Leslie Mandoki #WeSayThankYou
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Y6XFZw7Hk
https://vimeo.com/411003930/33f2967ae8

The Devil's Staircase (https://www.facebook.com/fractalprog)

Want to hear what Fractal Geometry, Chaos and Non-linear physics sound like when the mathematics becomes music? Climb the Devil's Staircase...

The Devil's Staircase is an international group of musicians who play rock inspired by math and science. But they don't play math rock.

Ideas from nonlinear dynamics, fractals, cellular automata, and astronomy inspire compositional forms, but don't tell the band what to do.

Members: Luis Nasser, Tim McCaskey, Aaron Geller, Mattias Olsson, Ramsés Luna, and Edgar Arrellín.

Luz de Riada (https://www.facebook.com/luzderiadamx/)

Luz de Riada
Banda de fusión contemporánea de Ciudad de México.
Creada en 2010 por Ramsés Luna ex-miembro de Cabezas de Cera. Debuta discográficamente en 2011 con el inicio de su trilogía "Cuentos y Fábulas"; dicha trilogía culmina este 2016 con el álbum "FINAL,". A lo largo de estos años Luz de Riada ha evolucionado en diversas alineaciones involucrando a varios músicos a su paso, realizando conciertos en foros y festivales en
México, Chile y Argentina. En 2014 es becario de IBERMÚSICAS con el Programa al Fomento a la Música Iberoamericana para la realización de su gira sudamericana, con presentaciones didácticas en escuelas y salas de conciertos, concluyendo con el
concierto de celebración por el 201 aniversario de la Independencia de México en la Embajada de México en Buenos Aires, Argentina. En 2014 Luz de Riada es galardonado por el Festival brasileño Luz de Cinema como autor del mejor sound track con la banda sonora de la película MIXTECO NOW del director Edson Jair."

Sonus Umbra (https://www.facebook.com/sonusumbra/)

Roey Ben-Yoseph - Lead Vocals, Percussion.
Rich Poston - Electric Guitar, Keyboards.
Steve Royce - Flute, Keyboards, Vocals.
Tim McCaskey - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals.
Bill Harrison - Drums, Percussion.
Andy Tillotson - Drums, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals.
Luis Nasser - Bass, remainder.

The past is but prologue.

Back in the early 90's, three science students from the national university in Mexico City, Andres Aullet, Ricardo Gómez and Luis Nasser got together to form a band called RADIO SILENCE. From 1991 to 1994, the band played on, gaining a large cult following and a reputation for intense, unpredictable live performances. Inevitably, the band broke up, but the music and the meme lingered on.

In 1995, Nasser and Gómez moved to the East Coast of the USA under the pretense of pursuing scientific doctoral degrees, but all they really wanted was to find other players and continue what RADIO SILENCE had started. Two fruitless years later the search was abandoned and the two drifted apart; Nasser sulked in his apartment and alternated between writing music and working on his dissertation, while Gomez jammed and played with a number of different bands, ranging from punk rock to Spanish baroque troupes (which included the stretchy pants and full peacock garb).

In 1997, Nasser auditioned for a Baltimore-based band KURGAN'S BANE, led by guitarist Pete Laramee and his brother, drummer Jeff Laramee; a crisp, crunchy hard rock band of exceptional musicianship that had parted ways with their bassist and were on the eve of recording their debut album "Search from Sea to Sea". These sessions resulted in a a good friendship between Nasser and John Grant of Secret Sound studios in Baltimore, and the later discovery of a vast network of websites promoting underground prog rock made him curious to find out what the internet crowd might think of the material performed by RADIO SILENCE, back in the smoggy, boozy daze of Mexico City.

Nasser and Grant set upon the task of embellishing a demo of original material recorded on 8-track tascam tape machine for release. During the course of this project, Nasser invited Gómez and Aullet back to the fold, and the end result was a disc called "Laughter In The Dark" which, to everyone's astonishment, earned rave reviews, sold out in months, and inked the band a record deal with the now defunct indie label "Moonchild Records".

Nasser's musical chemistry with Jeff Laramee made his addition to the band as a full member in 1998 inevitable, and certain unfortunate legalities forced the band to re-name itself as SONUS UMBRA, which in pig latin roughly means "Shadows Made Of Sound". Since then, they have released three more critically acclaimed albums: "Snapshots From Limbo" in 2000, "Spiritual Vertigo" in 2003 and "Digging For Zeros" in 2005.

SONUS UMBRA went on indefinite hiatus due to the stress of continued existence in spite of vast geographical limitations: Gómez returned to Mexico City in 2000 where he is professor of mathematics at the National University. Nasser is a professor of physics at Columbia, Chicago and remains committed to recording and performing with his main band MIGHT COULD. Aullet is coding furiously in Sandy Point Idaho and Laramee remained steadfast in Baltimore, drumming with Pete Laramee and running a warehouse with his unusual gifts as both stunt fork-lift driver and a master of depraved English.

Working intermittently with his close MIGHT COULD bandmate Andy Tillotson, he and Nasser wrote music that eventually became "Winter Soulstice". The process began in late 2008 and concluded in April, 2013. A new incarnation of the band was formed with some of the most accomplished veteran musicians of the Chicago rock music scene, and in August 2013 released the first new album in 8 years. This was followed by tours of the East coast, the Midwest and a performance at the Terra Incognita Festival in Quebec in 2014.

New work has begun on the band's sixth studio album, in preparation for an appearance at the 12th anniversary of the Rites of Spring festival - marking the return after 11 years of the band to that stage.

In the slightly twisted words of Neil Peart:

Shadows on the road behind.
Shadows on the road ahead.
Nothing can stop us now.