March 23, 2009 - On the road!

The roadtrip began on Saturday. I started out by driving to Durham, NC to see Arrogance @40! Great show! It was a 3 hour show including intermission. The first set was Arrogance playing with the "special guests" and the second set was just Arrogance. Since I didn't discover the band until after they had broken up, I didn't thinkI would ever get to hear these songs live, so it was great to be able to see the band!

On Sunday it was off to Jacksonville, Fl for an evening hanging out with the Luca family. Lou made a delicious dinner and told me that it hadn't rained in 3 weeks. Right after saying that, it started to rain. It rained for practically all of my 4 hour drive from Jacksonville to Sarasota this morning. It rained a little bit during the game, but it wasn't too bad. The Cincinnati Reds beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0. Very well played game! I've got several more games to go to, then it's back to Jacksonville for a few more days, then (hopefully) up to Fairfax to do the show in the studio next week. We'll see how that works.

I had no theme for this week's show. We were supposed to be playing leftover songs from last week. Instead, it was a couple leftovers and a couple things that were played last week. Here is what was played:

The Baseball Project - Blood Diamond
The BB's - A Chance
Arrogance - We Live To Play
Arrogance - Slaughtered Elves
Pete Holsapple & Chris Stamey - Here Without You
Let's Active - Every Word Means No
The db's - Bad Reputation

I didn't get to do the show by the pool because other (louder) people showed up right before I went on the air. Oh well. maybe next time. The vacation now continues. See you next week!

March 16, 2009 - Arrogance at 40!

Action packed show tonight. Tonight's interview, The Young Rebel Goombahs, were on in the second hour, so that meant I got the 8:00pm hour tonight. That meant that instead of my usual 35-40 minutes, I actually got an hour of air time, which meant more talking and MORE MUSIC!

John started off my segment by playing A Chance, by The BB's, which was a pleasant surprise. After that, we played tribute to Lou Luca's friend Bobby Guida. Bobby passed away last week very suddenly. I had the good fortune to meet him last December and he was a great guy. I'm very happy to have met him. He and Lou were very good friends and like Lou, he was a musician. Unfortunately, Bobby and Lou recorded very little together. One of the things they did record was a cover of Buddy Holly's Well All Right. I am very honored to be able to play this song and to dedicate the show to the memory of Bobby Guida!

I will be travelling to Durham, North Carolina on Saturday to see Arrogance at the Carolia Theater. Arrogance was one of the biggest bands in North Carolina but they never managed to break through to a national audience. They broke up in 1983 after a fourteen year career. This show is their 40th anniversary reunion concert, reuiniting Don Dixon, Robert Kirkland, Marty Stout, Scott Davison and Rod Abernathy. They will be joined on stage by Parthenon Huxley, Mitch Easter, Pete Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Dave Adams, Debra DeMilo and original Arrogance members Mike Greer and Jimmy Glasgow.

Last week's show was centered on last week's concert, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, so it made sense that this week's show would be based around this week's concert, Arrogance. I went all the way back to their 1st single in 1970 and also featured some of the other artists who will be performing. Next week's show will probably cover the songs that did not get played this week. Here is what I played:

The BB's - A Chance
Bobby Guida and Lou Luca - Well All Right
Arrogance - Black Death
Don Dixon - Bad Reputation
The db's - Love Is For Lovers
Arrogance - We Live To Play
Arrogance - Slaughtered Elves
Arrogance - Praying Mantis
Let's Active - Route 67
Don Dixon- Jean Harlow's Return

John sent Don Dixon am email about the show and he actually tuned in. I hope he liked what he heard. I'm really looking forward to the show on Saturday. I've seen Dixon three times as a solo artist and I've seen Pete Holsapple with The Continental Drifters and Steve Wynn, but have never seen any of the other artists on the bill. It should be a great show and since I didn't discover Arrogance until long after they broke up, I can't believe I'm actually getting a chance to see them. Very cool!

Here is a youtube link to a local tv piece that was done on them when they broke up in 1983: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY_oknteNA8

Here is the band website: www.arrogancerocks.com

And finally, this is Don Dixon's website: www.dondixonmusic.com

Next Monday I will be in Sarasota, Florida. I'll be down there for spring training and will be looking forward to warm weather, baseball and doing next weeks show poolside. Till then.....

March 9, 2009 - preview of the T.S.O.O.L./Cocktail Slippers concert

Sunday was my birthday and on Monday's show John sang "Happy Birthday" to me Marilyn Monroe style. Fortunately no one was hurt during that stunt, except maybe for a couple eardrums.

On Thursday, I'm going to the Bowery Ballroom with Lizzie Bratko, Frank Buquicchio and Rudy Garcia. We're going to see Swedish band The Soundtrack Of Our Lives(T.S.O.O.L.). Opening for them is Cocktail Slippers, who are an all-girl band from Oslo, Norway. I knew nothing about this band until last week when I found out they were opening. What I read about them were that they sounded like what would happen if The Shangri-La's were backed by The Runaways or if The Go-Go's were backed by The Stooges. That sounded pretty interesting to me.

So, in honor of the upcoming concert, I decided to play music from both of those bands plus two other Swedish bands, Union Carbide Productions and Caesars. Union Carbide Productions was a band from the late 80's-early 90's that was heavily influenced by the Stooges. When they broke up, half of the band, singer Ebbot Lundberg and the two guitarists, Bjorn Olsson and Ian Persson formed The Soundtrack Of Our Lives. Caesars is a band that is also known as Caesars Palace AND Twelve Caesars in different parts of the world. Their latest album was produced by Ebbot Lundberg, so that made them a worthy addition to this weeks show. The music played was:

Caesars - Down Down Down
Union Carbide Productions - Anytime
Cocktail Slippers - St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
T.S.O.O.L - Firmament Vacation
T.S.O.O.L - Mind The Gap
Cocktail Slippers - Hey
T.S.O.O.L - Legend In His Own Mind

I'm really looking forward to the concert. The Soundtrack Of Our Lives are one of the best live acts I've seen. I've seen them three times before, but Frank, Liz and Rudy have never seen them and I'm anxious to hear what they think of them.

Next week's show will have another concert feel, to go with the Arrogance concert that I am going to on March 21st. Time to start planning for next week's show...

March 2 2009 - 1st Anniversary of Independents Uncovered

On March 3, 2008 Independents Uncovered debuted on George Mason Unversity radio. Now one year later, the show is going strong and celebrating its' first anniversary. I was not part of the first show. I listened to that first show, but had nothing to do with it, other than give John feedback on it. After about a month of me telling John what was missing from his show, he asked me to do a segment on the air. I had no interest in doing that and politely turned him down. But John persisted and finally wore me down and on May 19th I made my debut on the show. Who knew that by March of 2009 that I would be such an integral part of the show.

To help celebrate the anniversary, John asked several artists to send along anniversary/birthday greetings. I will leave it up to John to mention on his page everyone that helped make this weeks show such a success.

For my segment this week, I decided to pick songs that I had wanted to play on previous shows, but for whatever reason, did not get played. In addition, John asked my friend Lou Luca if he would be interested in sending in a birthday wish. Lou agreed and sent in his "Campbell's Show" song. Both John and I are honored to be immortalized in song by Lou. Thanks Lou!!

So anyway, here is what I played this week:
The Minus 5 - I’m Not Bitter
Lou Luca - Campbell’s Show
The BB’s - A Chance
The Chills - Heavenly Pop Hit
Loud Family - A Horse With No Name
Sprengjuhöllin - Taktlaus
California Guitar Trio - Ghost Riders On The Storm



As usual, the show ended too soon, but was a lot of fun to do. Ron Cianciaruso has threatened to write a song for my 1st anniversay. I wonder what he'll come up with? And finally....after a year, it's time to say goodbye to the old logo at the top of the page and say hello to the BRAND NEW Independents Uncovered logo.

Happy Anniversary Johnny! May you have many more and I hope I'm along for the ride!