[audio:http://www.jukeboxheart.com/fmbroadcasts/20110120/wzbc-201120.mp3]

The humble 45: Once a majestic barometer of a newly defined and organized youth culture that set the paradigm for generations to come, now reduced to cheap craftware for applications such as the one shown above. I admit. I’ve decorated with 45s in the past. Once, for the fabled Fast Forward record shop in Providence RI, I created a fabulous mobile made of discarded and abstractly painted 45s that swirled around the store for years.

Last year, 2010, was the 60th anniversary of the 45. That new technology and rock and roll music, born almost simultaneously, became a single world-shaking phenomenon; upstart labels broke into the market, giving us the first wave of truly indpendent record labels, predating the punk explosion by almost 25 years, while major labels tried to outfox each other and win market share. Sound familiar?

To mark this significant anniversary, Jukebox Heart has featured nothing but 7″ vinyl recordings for this entire program. WZBC’s No Commercial Potential, a block of programming on WZBC of which Jukebox Heart is a proud part, is no stranger to the 7″ single. And while the 7″ 45 was a natural medium for the two-and-a-half minute top 40 pop tune, the format presents a few interesting constraints to artists working within the NCP-esque genres. I think it makes for an interesting stylistic shift, and I think you will be able to detect it while listening.

So, Jukebox Heart dug deep in the personal stacks and those in the WZBC library to create this mix spanning the entire No Commercial Potential era, from 1979 through 2011.

There were two Featured Labels in this installment of Jukebox Heart:

We played a multitude of tracks from The Touch Sevens series. Several are out pf print now, but click on the link to the page in the Touch shop where these are sold and you will see many of them featuring, of course, the photography and design of Jon Wozencroft.

n5MD, from its humble beginnings as the world’s first indepenedent label to feature Mini-Discs as its main format (n5MD is an acronym for “no 5s! Mini Discs!”), managed to rebound wonderfully when Sony pulled the plug on that format. Now they are one of the most prolific US electronica imprints with artists such as the wonderful Lights Out Asia, Subtractive Lad and many others, with a catalog featuring more than 80 bautifully designed high quality recordings. Early on, they released a series called “SE7EN” of seven 7-inch singles all designed to appear as a complete set. Tracks from each of those were featured here.

In addition you will find a few extroadinarily rare recordings here, such as the legendary “I Am Strange Now” from Italy’s mysterious Plath, and an early single on the Independent Projects label featuring a pre-Savage Republic Bruce Licher incarnation known as The Bridge.

Playlist

Asmus Tietchens “Schrit Um Schrit” (Die Stadt)
Fennesz-Jeck-Matthews “Jeck Plays Matthews” from Amoroso (Touch)
Chris Watson “3M” from Oceanus Pacificus (Touch)
Oren Ambarchi “Bleeding Shadow” from Destinationless Desire (Touch)
Kapotte Muziek “Korperlaute” (Korm Platics)
White “Go On With The Gong” (Swill Children)
Bozidar Brazda “Taste” (Wet West Eat East)
Plath “I Am Strange Now” (Plath)
Phonophobia “Feed Me” (Avantgarage)
The Bridge “Assault on Base 4” (Independent Projects)
Casio Casino “Sun 4597”
Bovine Over Sussex W “Near Mint” (Oska)
Blurt “The Fish Needs A Bike” (Armageddon)
Blurt “My Mother Was A friend of the Enemy of the People” (Test Records)
Loess “Nomon” (n5MD)
JVox “Sunshine” (n5MD)
Proemm “Standard Naming Convention” (n5MD)
Damiak “Enojon” (N5md)
Spark “Missed opportunities” (n5MD)
Hood “Winter Will Set You Back” (Misplaced Music)
Piano Magic “What does Not destroy Me”
Casiotone for The Painfully Alone “STSNC Instrumentals” (PIAPTK)
The The “Cold Spell Ahead” (Some Bizarre)
The The “controversial subject” (4AD)
The Fast Set “Junction One” (Axis)
Out on Bklue Six “Johnny/Magadon Sunday” (Hungry Room)
P. Children “Social Life” (SSS)
Meteorites “Milkman (Version)” (EFA)
Peter Plate “History Comes Around Like Snipers On A Rooftop” (Kill Rock Stars)
Nun “Margine” (Private Pressing)
Area C “Track With A Knife” (Trensmat)
Bee Queen “Summer Rain” (Drone Records)
A Mouse Orchestra “A Lump In Your Throat” (Robot)
Avenue Vendome “Analog Robot Cartographic Program”
Barbez “Mexico City Impression” (Important)
Fennesz “A Shadow Passes By” from Transition (Touch)
Jim O’Rourke “Despite The Water Supply Part 1” (Touch)
Mika Vainio “Behind the radiators” from Behind the Radiators (Touch)
AER “Headphones” (Touch)