Peakecast Episode Seven
Uploaded to Facebook by Shaking Ray Levi
In this episode of the Thomas Peake Memorial Podcast, we offer up a "regular shift" -- Thomas doing a 90-minute Atmospherics block on June 5th, 1992. Atmospherics is the name of a programming block on WREK that airs right after midnight every weeknight, offering up ambient and electronic sounds -- in the parlance of Thomas, "mutant space blues, resonating stones, exotic foreign acoustic music". It started as a weekly specialty show in the late 80s (hosted by Dan Leithauser) and then expanded to the nightly block. You can hear the care and enthusiasm that Thomas put into all of his on-air time, and also you can hear him stepping aside to let the trainees ("dummy ops") run the board for bit.
This tape comes to us courtesy of Dena Peake; Thomas had recorded this show for some reason. It does have some of his favorites on it, including Neil B. Rolnick, to whom Thomas would dedicate an entire Sunday Special a year later.
If you haven't already heard about the Beautify the Beltline project being conducted on October 9, 2010, in memory of Thomas, please email us for more info.
Playlist:
"Loopy" by Neil B. Rolnick from album "Solos"
"Among Icebergs" by Jay Greinke
"Rain" by The Judgment of Paris
"Evening Song" by The Guo Brothers and Shung Tian
-- voice break
"Fortune" by Felt from album "Crumbling Antiseptic Beauty"
"Bydlo (Mussogorsky)" by Tamita (?)
"Canopy" by Kit Watkins
-- voice break (with dummy op, apparently)
"Voyager" by Jay Scott Perry (?)
"The Wind and All This Noise" by Lonely Universe
"Agua e Vinho" by Egberto Gismonti
-- voice break (dummy op, still learning)
"Playing The Bridge For Heaven" by C. W. Vrtacek
"Rosindo El Post" (?) by Arawi, The Contemporary Orchestra of Native Instruments
"As the Bell Rings the Maypole Spins" by Dead Can Dance from album "Aion"
"Roots III" by Wagner Tiso
"Miss Noble" by Nicholas Blanton from album "Ways Upon Bells"
-- voice break, with a different dummy op
"The Hole To Heaven" by Randy Greif from compilation Dry Lungs II
"Ballerinas of Manaus" by Monochrome Bleu from compilation Dry Lungs II
"More Dust" (Herbert Brun) by Cincinnati Percussion Group from a box set on Opus One Records
Peakecast Episode Six
Uploaded to Facebook by Michael Russell Courtesy of Lovette Russell
Almost exactly 20 years ago, on July 22nd, 1990, Thomas did a WREK "Sunday Special" on Guitar Roberts, aka Loren Mazzacane Connors (see Wikipedia entry and his website). Thomas loved his sparse, atmospheric, bluesy meanderings, and listening to this makes for a serene and contemplative experience.
In a nice coincidence, old friends Andrew Burnes and Neel Murgai played with Connors just last month. Andrew and Neel also hosted specialty shows on WREK, and in fact one of our future PeakeCast episodes will be of Thomas substituting for Andrew on his Strung Out guitar show ...
Thomas contributes a minimum of chatter to this one. Playlist is transcribed below. Enjoy!
"TB Blues" (Jimmie Rodgers) from album Blues Master 2
"Kath's Blues" from the Pushin' up Daisies 7" EP (1982)
Prelude #1 from album In Pittsburgh (1996)
"Excerpt from Part 2" from album Solo Acoustic Guitar, Volume 6 (1980)
Wee Wee Hours (Chuck Berry)
"Little Tree" (feat. Kath Bloom) from the Pushin' Up Daisies 7" EP (1982)
"Blues #5, #6 and #7" from Blues: The Dark Paintings Of Mark Rothko (1990)
"Haunted House" (Lonnie Johnson) feat. Suzanne Languille
"Burdened Blues" feat. Suzanne Languille
"Fallen Son"
"Trouble In Mind"
"Excerpt from Part 1" from Unaccompanied Acoustic Guitar Improvisations, Volume 8
"Horses Blues"
"In Pittsburgh"
"Blues Master"
"Loren's Blues" from the Pushin' Up Daisies 7" EP (1982)
"Lay My Burden Down" (feat. Kath Bloom) from the Pushin' Up Daisies 7" EP (1982)
Peakecast Episode Five
Uploaded to Facebook by Karmen Nale Thornton
This episode is a Sunday Special that Thomas Peake recorded at WREK on August 25, 1991. The show features the music of Television as a band and Tom Verlaine solo. This was another show digitized from the archives of Thomas, graciously lent to the project by Dena Peake. You can also download the PDF scan of the original playlist sheet for your informational pleasure. Co-host was Greg Edwards.
As always, we are the lookout for any recordings that can be discovered of the last great Brother Peake. If you find any of these recordings, please let us know at submit@peakecast.org. Also, please leave us any feedback or comments on the shows. This project exists to be of service to those who knew, loved, were fans of and miss Thomas Peake. Let us know how we're doing and how we can be of service to you. And don't forget the Peake Foundation!
Peakecast Episode Four
This episode is a Sunday Special that Thomas Peake recorded at WREK on December 22, 1991. The show features the music of Joe Baiza - solo, in Saccharine Trust but focusing on Universal Congress Of. This was digitized from the archives of Thomas himself, graciously lent to the project by Dena Peake.
As always, we are the lookout for any recordings that can be discovered of the last great Brother Peake. If you find any of these recordings, please let us know at submit@peakecast.org. Also, please leave us any feedback or comments on the shows. This project exists to be of service to those who knew, loved, were fans of and miss Thomas Peake. Let us know how we're doing and how we can be of service to you. And don't forget the Peake Foundation!
Peakecast Episode Three
Photo by Elisabeth McKnight
This episode is one of Personality Crisis that Thomas Peake and Arthur Davis did at WREK on December 10, 1995. This was a fill-in episode with them covering for Jon Kincaid. Amusingly in the introduction they have no idea where Jon is or why they are filling in, but they cover nonetheless. This was digitized as the first of many shows to come from the archives of Thomas himself, lent to the project by Dena Peake.
As always, we are the lookout for any recordings that can be discovered of the last great Brother Peake. If you find any of these recordings, please let us know at submit@peakecast.org. Also, please leave us any feedback or comments on the shows. This project exists to be of service to those who knew, loved, were fans of and miss Thomas Peake. Let us know how we're doing and how we can be of service to you. And don't forget the Peake Foundation!
Update: Here are scans of the sheet that was included with the cassette, which is the playlist itself and a flyer for the 1995 Shaking Ray Levis Snake Oil Festival.
December 10, 1995 - An Episode of Personality Crisis [ 1:36:11 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadPeakecast Episode Two
Photo by Kini Roland
This episode is a Sunday Special that Thomas did at WREK on September 3, 2000 in honor of the life and music of Witt Mills, who had died in a kayaking accident not long before. Thomas was joined in the studio by Shane Pringle, Tony Gordon and Brendan Digel. This included a lot of music that would later end up on the compilation Dust Collection Agency (still in print and available at that link.)
We continue to scour the Peake-osphere for tapes, CDs and any other representation of the man in audio form. Dena Peake has graciously lent a treasure trove of cassettes to the project and we'll be publishing those over the course of the coming year. If you find any of these recordings, please let us know at submit@peakecast.org. Also, please leave us any feedback or comments on the shows. This project exists to be of service to those who knew, loved, were fans of and miss Thomas Peake. Let us know how we're doing and how we can be of service to you. And don't forget the Peake Foundation!
Update: We also have a scan of the original playlist online as well.
Peakecast Episode One
This is an hour that Thomas did on the air for the WREK for the alumni weekend on July 18, 2004. This weekend was a celebration to commemorate the move from the old studios in the colosseum to the new space in the Georgia Tech student center. This show is notable in that it more or less contains Thomas' mission statement about his approach to music. This was unearthed by Dave Slusher and Chris Campbell from an MP3 archive of the weekend.