It's the 30-Minute Music Hour. I'm Andy Moore. From Chicago, Illinois by way of Austin, by way of Honolulu this is Poi Dog Pondering. Perfect music Perfect music Lying by me In my bed Perfect music Talking to me In my head, lord In my head Perfect music Perfect music Lying by me In my bed Perfect music Talking to me In my head, lord In my head Go on boy Sing your song With your donkey jaw And your tambourine It's all right it's all right Go on, tell all the people Just livin' in a dream Posa il tuo capo Sul mio Seno Chiudi gli occhi e Riposati con il mio canto Perfect music Gonna comb my hair When I'm dead, lord When I'm dead Perfect music Talkin' to me In my head, lord In my head ( Andy applauding ) Thank you. Frank Orrall, everybody. That's who I'm speaking with. And you guys are just like your music. Big stars that are down to earth. It is so cool that you came up from Chicago to do this show. Thank you so much. It was very, very nice. Tell us what those two songs were. The first song we did was "Perfect Music." It's our first song on the new record. We just finished recording a new record. And then the second song was a song by a pretty obscure record of ours called Palm Fabric Orchestra, and that's called "Angelica Suspended." Beautiful. Now introduce the family here. Yes, I will. Starting with the admiral, Ron Hall on the bass. ( laughs ) Dag Juhlin on guitar. Ted Cho on guitar and mandolin. Susan Voelz on violin and vocals. And Dave Max Crawford on accordion and trumpet and xylophone. Whatever else nobody wants to play. The Poi Dog of the corner there. ( all laugh ) The journey from Honolulu to Austin to Chicago is sort of how I introduced you guys before you played. Talk about that round about trajectory. Yeah, we started out as street musicians. We spent a year playing on the street, and traveling, sleeping outdoors. And that kind of forged the band. Starting in Oahu and then traveling across the United States. It also made us to be able to play like this. You know, we can play like this on the street, with this sort of instrumentation. But then you can also take it to the stage. Anyways, that's just the back story to that. We ended up moving to Austin because it was a nice music town. And then also likewise, moving up to Chicago, because it's a good music town. And you've been there how long? For 15 years. That's really home now. It's a big scene. There's plenty to do. Yeah. Including doing a score for a silent movie? Yeah, we got a nice opportunity to do a score for Mario Peixoto's "Limite." It's like a 1930s silent film from Brazil, like a silent classic from Brazil that's barely gotten any play. And we had a really nice-- We did a live performance for it. Did you chart it? Yeah, and everyone kind of wrote pieces for it and charted it out. We've had a lot of nice opportunities, like with the Chicago Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Sinfonietta. Like with Susan and Max and Paul, they can really stretch out their string arranging and orchestral arrangements. You reinvented "Carmen," or something, didn't you? Yeah. In your free time. It was a high school play with a first grade orchestra. ( all laugh ) Well, let's hear some more music. Okay. Big constellation Hanging over my head A crooked and thorny starry crown Illumination Shine a light on my dreams The last time I wore wings I was only three The dead leaves of old life's longings Crackled under my feet But now the moonlight stalks me And the sun never lets me sleep Seems my dreams Will make a mockery out of me Try as I might Oh, blind as I am Oh-oh-oh I'm doing everything I'm doing all that I can Now the moonlight stalks me And the sun never lets me sleep Big constellation Shine a light on my dreams Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on down Out of your head now Into your heart Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on down Out of your head now Into your heart Standin' on a corner with your boots on Waitin' on your gamelan song Every time you try so hard It always turns out wrong Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on down Out of your head now And into your heart Slick black angel on the street Still wet behind the ears Tryin' to cut your teeth Heaven only holds the ones Who let it be Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on down Out of your head now And into your heart Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on down Out of your head now And into your heart An old slant six out on the freeway Heading way out west trying to lose our way Every time I lose myself I always wound up found Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on down Out of your head now And into your heart Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on down Out of your head now And into your heart Out of your head now And into your heart From the new record! See if I can get the reflection here, and get Max-- This is the new song. It's called "7". One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Ah, it was almost the seventh song. That would've been too freaky. Really, you know, for TV. But "7" is a beautiful looking package, and that's a great song. So many Poi Dog fans like the band because you guys are unpredictable from one record to the next, one project to the next, silent films, you know, and beyond. How would you describe where you want to go, where the band is going on "7"? I feel like, and this record, it just felt like we just-- One of the goals was we found, after so much experimenting, we found a lot of the songs that we had written hard to play acoustically live. Like, if you're at a dinner party, it was hard to just go like, hey, play me these songs from the record, because some songs were sample dependent, like maybe a harp, and that was the key feature of the song. So I think with this record, we're being very careful about, like we wanted to make a record that we could play if someone just went, "Would you play this off the record?" You know, if you're at a dinner party; then you can just do it. And then the other thing was that it's just like we felt like making a rock and soul record. And both of those things come out in that last song. Yeah.
director talking to studio
Okay, right here? This camera? All right.
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That's Steve, hard working director, keeping us in line.
Director
Thank you. - You're welcome. There is a house concert feel to the music, to be sure. Yeah. But that last one really did rock, too. So that's the deal, what you're saying. That someone asks you, come on over and play one, you can do it. - Yeah. Portable. - Which sounds like a weird thing. You should be able to do that all the time. But we've been experimenting so heavily lately, that it was, oh, let's just make a rock and roll record. And we were also very inspired. I mean, at least I was at a certain point, Tyrone Davis and the Small Faces, getting that kind of rock and roll energy back. You know, after going house and electronic, orchestral. Yeah, and silent films.
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Director
What are we going to hear next? - Let's play "God's G." All right. This one's called "God's Gallipoli." Okay. A couple more? Sure. What have we got left over there? "Rusted Weather"? Sloping Head bent to wind as always Slugging it out 'til the end The boxer Going over the top In god's gallipoli Set me up joe Body lean but mind obese Maple angel leaves once shifted in the trees When light was a truly wondrous thing But now they crackle under my feet Like the old life's longings of sailors once robust In buttons and coats now just blood and bone And teeth beneath me Grist for star dust The bone crushing rock of ages Cancer took the spring from my lover And gave us forever autumn No thoughtless smoke now no blind drink No idle lunches Dreaming of a whole 'nother world of things It's down to brass tacks And saline sacks And vincristin injections And early detections Take me in one swoop god Don't let me dwindle I watched the light leave My mother's bed-sick eyes She's so scared once gone I kissed her cheek And the cold of her skin Held on my lips It's hard to think so, man, this is how it ends Stretched out on a bed sheet Sorting through a wreckage of regrets I need something To take me over the top I need something Back in the ring now With no eye held high enough to see the prize Just head bend forward at hip into wind As always slugging it out 'til the end the boxer Going over the top In god's gallipoli You know the thing that haunts me the most Are all those crystalline moments Where adrenalin and light filled my belly and head And the moon winked as if to say yes And I ran in the cold night And sweated and it felt good And I ran in the cold night And sweated and it felt good And I could hit the nail on the head And drive that sucker home With our time. - Yeah? Do you think you could play two more? Sure. Give an inch, take a mile, right? What's that? Give an inch, take a mile. - ( laughs ) What are you looking at me for? Let's do "Rusted Weather." LET IT RAIN Do "Sticky"? No, no, that's a bad choice. "From This Moment On"? Okay, "Rusted Weather" and "From This Moment On." Okay. A little peek behind the curtain there. ( laughter ) You are so beautiful Like rusted weather Come on baby Rain on me I love your thunder I love your stormy weather I love your sunshine I love it all together This world is complicated I need you Baby Rain on me Rusted weather Come on baby Shine on me Tell me baby Whatever your heart desires It would please me, baby To set your soul on fire It's all right now Let it rain now Yeah, let it rain Let it rain Let it rain Let it rain Like two birds Flying In strong winds And rain Let it rain Let it rain Oh, let it rain Oh, let it rain Let it rain Oh, let it rain Let it rain Let it rain Let it rain Let it rain Oh, let it rain Let it rain Let it rain Let it rain Let it rain We'll do one more from the new record. Thanks. - Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having us. All right? One, two, three... If I pull you down Arm around your neck If you push your back Up against my chest With your breath in my ear And a palm upon my breast Are you sure? If you open your mouth And kiss me with your tongue If you open your shirt Open to a girl If you pull my dress Up over my head Are we sure? From this moment on Everything will change From this moment on Everything will change Your life has been a poem Written with a broken wrist I've watched you fall in love And i've seen you fall apart Seen you fall apart If I straddle your hips Push your hands against the wall I will know you now I will know you now Oh! From this moment on Everything will change From this moment on Everything will change From this moment on Everything will change Oh, from this moment on Your life is yours, again Your life is yours Your life is yours again Your life is yours Your life is yours again
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