August 24, 2009 - Children of Nuggets

There was no show last week because John was on vacation. That gave me two full weeks to put music together for this show. With two weeks, I should have had plenty of time to put something together, but as usual, I waited until the last minute. I was away for a good chunk of those two weeks and on Sunday afternoon I realized I was running out of time to put something together.


One of the things I had been listening to recently was a 4-disc rhino box set called Children of Nuggets. The original Nuggets was put together by Lenny Kaye to chronicle the garage rock and psychedelic music of the sixties. The original double album led to many more volumes in the 70's and 80's. Then as CD's took over, three cd's were released containing highlights from the original albums. In 1998, Rhino released a 4-disc Nuggets Box Set. In 2001 a 2nd 4-disc Nuggets set was released. Then in 2005, Children of Nuggets came out. This was a 4-disc set containing 100 tracks from the "second psychedelic era". The majority of songs from this set were from the ealy and mid-80's but it covered the years 1976-1994. If you are a fan of early 80's garage and psychedelic music, this set is a MUST HAVE! I narrowed the 100 tracks down to 18 and of those 18, we played 14. Here is what we played:


Primal Scream - Gentle Tuesday
Chris Stamey & The dB's - (I Thought You) Wanted To Know)
Nashville Ramblers - The Trains
The Bangs - Getting Out Of Hand
The Prisoners - Whenever I'm Gone
The Church - The Unguarded Moment
The Dream Syndicate - Tell Me When It's Over
Green On Red - Death And Angels
The Vipers - Cheated And Lied
The Plimsouls - Hypnotized
The Nerves - One Way Ticket
The Spongetones - She Goes Out With Everybody
The Times - I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape
The Lyres - Help You Ann


Next week is our last show of the summer. We're off the following week for Labor Day. The show has been extended to 10:30 for most of the summer but that all ends after next week's show. The Mark Zito show is back starting in September, which means that we will back to saying goodnight at 10pm. Losing that extra half hour will cut my segment down significantly, which means I start playing fewer songs again. I've got one more "long show" to plan. I wonder what it will be. Tune in on August 24th to find out!

August 10, 2009 - Happy Birthday Lou (and Rich)!!

I left for vacation last Thursday. I went to visit family in Indiana at Lake Wawasee.I had a great time while I was there. It was very relaxing hanging out on the lake with family and friends. On my way home, I stopped in Cleveland to see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and go to an Indians game. All in all it was a great trip, but it also meant that I might not be able to do the show on Monday night. Normally, I probably would have told John to do the show without me. But since August 10th happened to be the birthday of my two closest friends, I wanted to be on the air to wish them a happy birthday.


I've known Rich Tully since 1977. He was also on vacation this week. He was in Cape May, NJ and had no internet access, so he missed the show. I've only known Lou Luca since 2004, but I feel like I've known him forever. Lou got home from his birthday dinner in time to hear the final hour of the show and was also generous enough to give us a demo of a brand new song called Photograph to play that night. Now that we've heard the demo, I'm looking forward to playing the finished version when it is complete.


John's guest on the show was Jamie Hoover, who is a power pop legend as a member of The Spongetones. He is also a top notch producer, has released several solo albums and has played with Don Dixon, Marti Jones, The Smithereens, The Van Delecki's and many others. I thought the interview was one of John's better ones; right up there with the Don Dixon and Chris Arduser interviews. During the interview he played Other Girls, Skinny and Christmasland by The Spongetones and It's October, by Rebecca Rippy, which is from a project that Jamie is producing.


For my portion of the show, I tried to choose some more obscure versions of some well known songs by well known bands. Since we were playing Lou's demo version of Photograph, many of the songs that I chose were also demos. Here is the list:


XTC - The Mayor Of Simpleton (demo)
Marshall Crenshaw - Someday, Someway (demo)
Marshall Crenshaw - Cynical Girl
Robert Crenshaw - Everyone's In Love With You
Joe Jackson - Is She Really Going Out With Him (a capella)
XTC - Dear God (demo)
Lou Luca - Photograph (demo)
Squeeze - Is That Love (acoustic BBC session)
The BB's - Time Will Tell
Marshall Crenshaw - Someday, Someway (demo)
The Bears - Kiss It Goodbye (unreleased)
Adrian Belew - Oh Daddy (original version)
XTC - Senses Working Overtime (demo)
The Jam - The Butterfly Collector
Squeeze - Up The Junction (acoustic)
Marshall Crenshaw - Someday, Someway (demo)
Squeeze - Tempted (acoustic BBC session)
Dennis Diken With Bell Sound - Lost Bird


Yes, you are reading this correctly. Someday, Someway is John's favorite Marshall Crenshaw song so he played it THREE TIMES! Up The Junction was officially the last song of the show, but John played the final three songs before he packed up and left for the evening. The Dennis Diken song was from their brand new cd that John had just received and wanted to play something from it. In addition, Dennis Diken will be a guest on the show in late September.


I hope everyone enjoys the attached pictures this week. They were all taken on my trip. John will be on vacation again next week, so there will be no show (or blog). We will be back on August 24th with something (hopefully) interesting. And finally, one more time......Happy Birthday Louie and Rich!

August 3, 2009: 1990-1995

After last weeks show, John asked me what I had planned for this week. I told him that I hadn't decided yet. He then suggested that I pick the years 1990-1995 and pick some good music from that period, so that is what I did.


John's guest was once again, Richard X. Heyman, so to keep some continuity, I threw in a song off his Hey Man! disc along with a song by The Rooks, which RXH played on and co-produced. I had wanted to play some Jamie Hoover, who will be next week's guest, but John has all my Jamie Hoover cd's. Fortunately, John played Jack In The Box, from Jamie's solo debut Coupons, Questions, and Comments, earlier in the show.


I originally had about 50 songs which I pared down to 25. I then cut those 25 down to 18 and of those 18, 13 were played on the show. There was a little bit of everything. Some Cavedogs for the people who liked them last week. Some Non-Concrete Blonde Johnette Napolitano, some indie "supergroups" (The Setters & The Grays) and a little taste of the bizarre (Bongwater). Here is what was played, followed by the year it came from:


The Cavedogs - Leave Me Alone (1990)
The Rooks - Love Said To Me (1993)
Richard X. Heyman - Loud (1991)
The High Llamas - Put Yourself Down (1992)
The Candy Skins - Freedom Bus (1991)
Zumpano - The Party Rages On (1994)
Sam Phillips - Baby I Can't Please You (1994)
Bongwarter - Women Tied Up In Knots (1991)
The Merrymakers - Don't Tell Me (1995)
Pretty & Twisted - Billy (1995)
Vowel Movement - I Don't Wanna (1995)
The Setters - Helpless (1992)
The Grays - Very Best Years(1994)


I will be on vacation next weeek, but I will still be around to do the show. Next Monday is the birthday of two of my closest friends (you know who you are) and I hope to have a nice surprise or two in store for that show. Maybe a brand new, never before heard song by one of our regular contributors and also different versions of some well known songs. On top of that, John will be interviewing power pop LEGEND Jamie Hoover. It should be a great show!!