Plateprat med Ian Nagoski

If someone offers to buy you a drink, what do you order?
scotch

Describe yourself using at least five words.
raunchy, old furball with the best intentions

If you were to choose a pseudonym or artist name, what would it be?
The Yowler

If you ever wrote an autobiography, what would the title be?
Random Evasive Tactics

Which song do you put on to get people dancing?
"Welcome Aboard” by the Love Unlimited Orchestra

What’s your relationship with libraries?
Libraries are just about my favorite places on earth. I’ve worked in several. They’re where I’m happiest. And had some very memorable makeout sessions in them as a young person.

What are your five favorite albums?
Langen Praja - Music of Mangkunegaran Solo 1 on the King World Music Library

Ornette Coleman - Dancing in Your Head

Harley Gaber - The Winds Rise in the North

Éliane Radigue - Trilogie de la Mort

Susan Alcorn - And I Await the Resurrection of the Pedal Steel Guitar

What are your five favorite songs?
The Okeh Laughing Record

“Paralyzed” - The Legendary Stardust Cowboy

“Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” by Blind Willie Johnson

“No Depression in Heaven” by the Carter Family

“Son binocle” from Erik Satie’s Trois Valses distinguées du précieux dégouté

What have you been listening to lately?
Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite + Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night and On the Beach.

Is there an album you think is underrated?

The first few Stanky and His Pennsylvania Coal Miners albums are as good as the first few Ramones records, I think. I like the one with the pink cover and “Who Likes Pierogis?” on it the best.

Is there a classic album you've never quite connected with?
A smart friend really loves Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, but it hasn’t happened for me.

What are your three favorite album covers?

The only record I ever bought simply because of its cover was Caroliner Rainbow Stewed Angel Skins' I’m Armed With Quarts of Blood. The jacket of my cover was thickly covered in dirt and grit and bits of broken trash.
Fantastic record. All the Caroliner covers are great.

All the covers of the Stella polka label out of Hillside, New Jersey are very good. See the above mentioned Stanky and the Coal Miners.

Another great one is Polksa Muzyka i Śpiew by Bernie Witkowskiego
I’m not a big cover guy.

Do you collect records – and if so, why?
Accumulate more than collect. Because I’m interested in what’s on them and what experiences I can have from them.

What’s the biggest difference between when you started collecting and how it is today?
Back then new stuff cost a fortune and old stuff was cheap.
Now old stuff costs too much and new stuff is free.

Favorite physical record store?
Anyplace that is an un-curated accumulation of heaving mounds of stuff in good condition.

What was the last record you bought?
Juan Liscano’s 1949-53 Venezuelan field recordings issued by the Library of Congress.

What’s the best record purchase you’ve ever made?
A couple boxes of Greek 78s I knew nothing about that included Marika Papagika’s 1919 performance of the “Smyrneiko Minore.”

Which three records are currently at the top of your wantlist?
I’m told there’s an early 20s disc of sneezing. I need that.

Martha Tilton’s “The Happy Bird” with “Miserlou” on the flip on Coral would be fun to find.
The early Kesarbai Kerkar discs on Broadcast

In your opinion, what’s the greatest guitar solo ever recorded?
Gun to my head: the one-note solo on “I’m a Hog for You, Baby” by the Coasters

But I love the outro of Neil Young’s “Vampire Blues.”

but…. “Maggot Brain,” “Machine Gun,”

“Boogie Uproar” by Clarence Gatemouth Brown,

“Slow Death” by the Flamin’ Groovies, Keiji Haino… tough to pick.

What’s your favorite song in a language or dialect other than your own?
c’mon… One? Alright, call it a tie: Marika Papagika’s July 1919 Columbia recording of the “Smyrneiko Minore.” And the early takes (2 especially) of Zabelle Panosian’s “Groung.”

Who’s your favorite lyricist of all time?
I’m gonna agree with Richard Thompson here and say “anon.”

What’s your favorite movie or TV series?
movie: either Dog Day Afternoon

or Louis Malle’s God’s Country. I can’t decide.

show: Rocky and Bullwinkle

What kind of setup do you use to play music at home?
$200 Audio Technica turntable. 70s Pioneer amp (could use an upgrade). Klipsch Heresey II speakers my dad gave me 30 years ago. Middle-of-the-road LP cartridge and stylus. Fancy 78 cartridge and stylii.

If you were to create a mixtape or Spotify playlist to celebrate love, which three songs would you include?
“Message of Love” by the Pretenders

“A Heart Needs a Home” by Richard and Linda Thompson

“All for You” by Eupheme Cooper

Which three albums have had the most influence or inspiration on you in the past three years?
I recently got hip to Martin Koenig’s late 60s field recordings from Romania, Bulgaria, etc. Those are fantastic.

All the stuff the Arab Music Archiving and Research Foundation have done.

Rosco Gordon’s 50s stuff.

Are there any music books you’d recommend, and what makes them stand out to you?
I love Gail Holst-Warhaft's two books on lamentation:

A Cue for Passion: Grief and Its Political Uses
Dangerous Voices: Women's Laments and Greek Literature

They get straight to the core of how people react musically and creatively to the strongest feelings.
Beautifully written research and deeply touching.

Which novel has left a lasting impression on you, and why?
A Life Full of Holes by Larbi Layachi

It’s about an honest man. It’s made entirely of what people actually say and do without saying how they feel. It’s easy to see who everyone is by how they behave.

What non-fiction book would you suggest, and what makes it worth reading?
The erotic folklorist Gershon Legman’s anthology of Limericks.
Filthy and hilarious. Great for first dates.

Or Masha Gessen’s The Future is History which is an account of how power structures meet personal experiences across generations. Either or both.

What’s your favorite quote ?
Blaster Al Ackerman said he was advised by Frederick Brown to “Always try to be lucky enough to work in a despised medium.”

If you could assemble your dream band, with musicians from any time, who would you choose?
Joseph Hammer (tapes), Eric Dolphy (reeds), Udi Hrant (oud), Abdul Karim Khan (voice), Susan Alcorn (pedal steel)

What’s a memorable music moment that stands out to you?
I’ve had very powerful experiences listening to cicadas. One time in particular. Summer near a creek in a wooded area. The sound was coming from every side. Overwhelming.

Which concert will you never forget?
Pharaoh Sanders playing Coltrane’s “Olé” for 75 minutes.

If you could travel anywhere to experience music, where would it be?
The Mangkunegaran court in Solo, Java

What’s your dream job now, and how did it compare to your dream job when you were 13?
Then it was probably professor or artists or something.
Now it’s layabout / flaneur.

Is there a music genre you wish you had explored more or gotten to know better?
I remain inexcusably stupid about south and central American musics.

How old were you when you "discovered" music, and what made you fall in love with it?
The family lore is that I learned to count to four listening to my mother give piano lessons. It was a very musical house. By the time I was 11 or 12, I was fully ensnared by music as an identity. It was reliable transportation out of my feelings. An elsewhere.

What kind of music did you listen to during your teenage years?
whatever I could get my hands on, but the identification-journey of adolescence involved a whole lot of arty, loud guitar rock of the Sonic Youth / Spacemen 3 / Dinosaur Jr / My Bloody Valentine / Hüsker Dü / Mudhoney type.

Has your taste in music evolved over time?
Sure. I’ve gotten better at listening and smarter about who I’m listening to.
I’m at the age now where I get that Martha & The Vandellas – Watchout! is better than anything Lou Reed ever did, and I wasted a lot of time…

Which album can you still listen to when you're tired of music?
the Satie piano stuff.

If you had a time machine, which musical decade would you travel to?
Records are a good enough time machine for me.

Who do you think is the best-dressed musician?
James Blood Ulmer

Foto: Marek Lazarski, CC BY-SA 4.0,

Do you consider yourself vain?
ha ha ha. No.

Would you be willing to show us a tattoo?
I feel like the only person left who has none.


What excites you?
That’s between me and my internet service provider. har har

What are you afraid of?
Going deaf, the police, chronic pain, and insecurity for my children.

Have you had any interesting dreams lately? What were they about?
just manifestations of anxieties. Not that interesting.

What’s your favorite food?
hearts and livers

What’s your favorite vehicle or mode of transportation?
trains

Foto: Bruce1ee, CC BY-SA 2.0 Drew Jacksich

If you were to describe yourself as a car, which model would you be?
I like those Mercedes 190Es

What’s your life philosophy?
harmlessness

Do you have a relationship with religion?
It’s an interestingly elaborate work-around.

If there is a God, what do you think He would say to you when you meet?
just laughing

What would you want Him to say? I’m sorry

Is there anything that annoys you?
the lack of ubiquity of the application of the right-of-way rules at four-way stop signs.

Is there something you regret?
I’ve been unkind and didn’t apologize.

What is your relationship with music journalism? How do you keep yourself updated on music?
I was a big reader of music magazines as a teenager. I lost interest in my 20s.

Are there people who have influenced your taste in music?
hundreds of them, starting with my family. “Tragedy begins at home,” as The Bats sang.

Who is your role model, or a mentor from whom you’ve learned something special?
Blaster Al Ackerman. Good guy. Funny as hell.

What inspires you? How big it all is.

What’s your favorite instrument? bagpipes

What’s your favorite record label?
Best catalog: ESP-Disk (a few clunkers). Best sound: Stax. Best spirit: Folkways (especially the ethnic and scientific series).

What’s the best or most beautiful song for a funeral?
“I’m Bad I’m Nationwide” by ZZ Top.

Is there a musician or band that you think has received far too little attention?
everyone between about 300,000 BCE to about 1200 CE and everyone poor person after that.

Is there something you’d like to ask yourself?
“So now that 4-track cassette recording has become fashionable with a new generation, do you think there'll be a big revival of the electronic music you released between 1999 and 2003 using the Tascam 424?
Those pieces stand in such stark contrast with the wave of digital laptopism of the time.”
To which I would then answer, “no.”

Who do you think I should have the next record chat with?
I don’t know her, but the Swedish singer Sofia Jernberg seems like an interesting person.

Foto: Hreinn Gudlaugsson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons