Progressive with Katie Puckrik

A small sampling of my wayward musical tastes has washed up on the shores of BBC Radio 6 in a show I put together called Progressive (originally broadcast Sunday noon, 24 March 2012).

Art rock, baroque pop, freak folk, psychedelic soul -- whatever you call it, it's all progressive: music that's ahead of its time and out of this world. Over the years, progressive artists from King Crimson to Love to Curved Air to Kraftwerk to Funkadelic have collectively twisted our melons into one giant Salvador Dali melting clock. This hour-long platter party places today's alt fave raves in the context of their musical forebears, including Yes, Spirit, and early Eno.

Listen, pray thee, as I banish musical snobbery and celebrate the unalloyed joy of outsider pop, matchmaking current indie selections with the sometimes intimidating, other times unfairly mocked art-sounds of yore.

Also, Alison Goldfrapp joins me to reveal her dark prog rock past, as well as offering tips on interpretive dancing to King Crimson.

To listen, click on the following video:

Music Played

YES -- Going for the One

TAME IMPALA -- Apocalypse Dreams

MIDLAKE -- Roscoe

SPIRIT -- Life Has Just Begun

FUNKADELIC -- Groovallegiance

DUNGEN -- Svart Är Himlen

BRIAN ENO -- Needles in the Camel's Eye

TV ON THE RADIO -- Staring at the Sun

GOLDFRAPP -- Eat Yourself

KING CRIMSON -- Frame by Frame

KRISTEEN YOUNG -- I'll Get You Back

MATTHEW SWEET & SUSANNA HOFFS -- I've Seen All Good People/Your Move


I first saw Kristeen Young a few years ago at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. She's a wild hybrid of Maria Callas, Kate Bush and Nina Hagen. She pounds the bejeepers out of her keyboard and transfixes the audience with her strange beauty and abrasive pop songs. Or is that the other way around?



Top image from the front cover of "The 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" by Spirit

Ren Moroccan Rose Otto Sugar Body Polish

Moroccan Rose Otto Sugar Body Polish by Ren is my all-time favorite skincare product. And calling it a "product" doesn't do it justice, because it's really a nirvana playground for your skin.

Not only does it do what it's supposed to do really well -- polish your body -- but even the very experience of slathering it on transports you out of your shower into a decadent festival of rose petals and dessert and lusciously soft skin seemingly on loan from some mythical super-baby.

David Bowie: Be My Wife

Low by David Bowie is one of my desert island albums. It's the ultimate expression of my favorite combination of moods: uplifting and melancholic.

"Be My Wife", from Low's poppier first half, always moves me. While the music chugs along determinedly, Bowie's voice is sad, resigned to loss. The contrast between the vigor of the track and his relinquishment of hope can make me cry.

Stanley Dorfman directed the video (as well as the iconic video for "Heroes"), and the restraint of both director and performer, set against the yearning of the song, creates a powerful effect. Bowie's jaded clown face is hard to watch. His defeated movements are heartbreaking. It's perfect.

"Sometimes you get so lonely."

My First TV Job: a Brief Montage

On the occasion of British network Channel 4's 30th birthday today, a brief compendium of their groundbreaking and gut-busting programming has been assembled for YouTube. From 1991-93 I was a host on The Word, the Roman circus of a live, late night pop culture free-for-all. A few of my key looks and bludgeoning double entendres are featured in the above video.

Shiseido Lacquer Rouge Lip Gloss

As a compulsive lipstick/lip gloss fanatic, I barely need an excuse to add another tube of pigment to my hoard. But if forced to supply one, I can muster up something vaguely plausible: "Sure, I have an orange-red gloss and a red-orange gloss, but I've never seen this exact shade of flamingo pink-ish, corally orange-red gloss. It will be mine!"

Okay, so maybe my excuses need a little work in the plausibility department.

But in the case of Shiseido's new Lacquer Rouge gloss, there is a compelling justification to acquire it. It's a technological marvel, a hybrid between a gloss, stain and lipstick -- intensely pigmented -- that goes on slick and shiny, then morphs into a satiny, line-smoothing lip color. Once it "satin-ifies", it wears almost as long as a matte formulation, but without the dry feeling and inevitable lip puckering.