Radio is a 1993 album by John Zorn's band Naked City, the fourth in the band's catalogue. It was the first record to be completely composed by Zorn himself.
Tracklist
- "Asylum" (1:56)
- "Sunset Surfer" (3:23)
- "Party Girl" (2:33)
- "The Outsider" (2:28)
- "Triggerfingers" (3:31)
- "Terkmani Teepee" – 3:57
- "Sex Fiend" (3:31)
- "Razorwire" (5:28)
- "The Bitter and the Sweet" (4:48)
- "Krazy Kat" (1:51)
- "The Vault" (4:44)
- "Metaltov" (2:07)
- "Poisonhead" (1:10)
- "Bone Orchard" (3:59)
- "I Die Screaming" (2:20)
- "Pistol Whipping" (0:57)
- "Skatekey" (1:25)
- "Shock Corridor" (1:05)
- "American Psycho" (6:09)
Personnel:
- John Zorn: Alto Sax
- Bill Frisell: Guitar
- Wayne Horvitz: Keyboards
- Fred Frith: Bass
- Joey Baron: Drums
- Yamatsuka Eye (Boredoms): Vocals
Pistol Whipping:
- Alliterative Title: "Sunset Surfer", "Krazy Kat" and "Terkmani Teepee".
- Avant-Garde Music: Like most of Zorn's albums.
- Broken Record: "Krazy Kat" has a sound halfway in that sounds as if the CD is stuck.
- Careful with That Axe: The long scream during "The Vault", "Poisonhead", "I Die Screaming", "Pistol Whipping", "Shock Corridor" and "American Psycho".
- Classical Music: "The Bitter And The Sweet" is a haunting combination between a Lonely Piano Piece, Jazz sax solos and dark guitar sounds.
- Country Music: "Krazy Kat" has a small moment that sounds like cowboy music.
- Death Metal: At various moments harsh electric guitar sounds can be heard, most notably in "The Vault", "Pistol Whipping" and "Shock Corridor".
- Death Song: The instrumental "I Die Screaming".
- Deliberately Monochrome: The black-and-white cover.
- Design Student's Orgasm: The album cover is a photo by renowned artist Man Ray.
- Epic Rocking: The longest track is the 6:09 "American Psycho".
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "I Die Screaming" has a lot of screaming.
- Everything Is an Instrument: "American Psycho" features grunts, a belch, choking sounds, underwater bubbling sounds,...
- Genre-Busting and Genre Roulette: Like all of Zorn's albums.
- Heavy Metal: All over the album at unexpected moments.
- Indecipherable Lyrics: The lyrics of "Poisonhead" are drowned out by the screaming and wild, chaotic music.
- Instrumentals: All tracks are instrumental, save for some screaming
- Intentionally Awkward Title: "Sex Fiend" and "I Die Screaming".
- Jazz: There is a lot of frenetic saxophone work.
- Miniscule Rocking: "Asylum", "Krazy Kat", "Poisonhead", "Skatekey" and "Shock Corridor" are under two minutes long. "Pistol Whipping" is only 0:57 long.
- Mood Whiplash: It's not an album fit for relaxing...
- Non-Appearing Title: No track carries the album title.
- One-Word Title: The album title "Radio". "Asylum", "Triggerfingers", "Razorwire", "Metaltov", "Poisonhead" and "Skatekey".
- Punbased Title: "Metal Tov", which is a pun on the Jewish phrase "mazzel tov" note . The track combines klezmer and Heavy Metal.
- Record Producer: John Zorn.
- Rock & Roll: "Party Girl" sounds like an oldschool Rock & Roll record.
- Shout-Out:
- The liner notes provide a list of influences on the album's music. Among the names mentioned are Charles Mingus, Little Feat, Ruins, Booker T And The MGs, Colin Wilson, Ennio Morricone, Albert King, Chuck Brown, Orchestra Baobab, The Accüsed, The Meters, Tony Williams' Lifetime, Anton Webern, Sammy Cahn, Frank Sinatra, Morton Feldman, Carl Stalling, Igor Stravinsky, The Melvins, Beatmasters, Septic Death, Abe Schwartz, Ivo Papasov, Naftule Brandwein, Repulsion, Led Zeppelin, Bernard Herrmann, Santana, Extreme Noise Terror, Conway Twitty, Agnostic Front, Siege, Ornette Coleman, Corrosion of Conformity, Massacre, Quincy Jones, Sam Fuller, Funkadelic, Carcass, Liberace, Jan Hammer, Eddie Blackwell, Charlie Haden, Mick Harris, Carole King, Red Garland, Boredoms, Jerry Reed, SPK and Roger Williams.
- Three tracks are named Krazy Kat, Shock Corridor and American Psycho
- Stop and Go: "American Psycho" has a few moments where all music and noise stops for a few seconds, then comes back crashing in.
- Surf Rock: "Sunset Surfer" is a laidback surf instrumental. Other songs also have traces of this style.
