December 14, 2009 - All Rob Fetters...All The Time!

This show was our last show of the year and I guess you could say we saved the best for last! Rob Fetters was the guest and we had so much great music to play that we stayed on an extra hour. That meant over two and a half hours of Rob Fetters!

For those that don't know, Rob Fetters is an amazing talent and one of my favorite musicians! He's been a member of The Raisins, The Bears and Psychodots and has released two solo albums. For his "day job" he does commercial music. He is the third and final member of Psychodots to be interviewed on the show. Chris Arduser was first up back in April. That was a live interview and is still probably the best one John has ever done. Bob Nyswonger was next when he appeared in October. And now we complete the 'dots trifecta with Rob Fetters. Both the Nyswonger and Fetters interviews were pre-recorded and edited but John has made the unedited interviews available through the various psychodots pages.


John started the interview about 8:15 and it ran for about an hour, along with three of his solo songs. Then I came on and for the next 100 minutes or so, played many songs highlighting the songwriting, singing or playing of Mr. Fetters. Here is a list of everything that was played.


Rob Fetters - Heaven
Rob Fetters - I Like Girls
Rob Fetters - Try
The Bears - Kiss It Goodbye
Psychodots - Who's Gonna Clean Up The Mess I Made
Raisins - Dr. Robert
Psychodots - My Red Truck
Raisins - Quarters
Psychodots - Jingle Bells Of The Cossacks
Psychodots - Christmas On The Isthmus
Rob Fetters - Retrofit
Rob Fetters - Salamander
Raisins - Interspecies Love
Psychodots - Stella
The Bears - Zelda Fitzgerald
Benj Clarke & Bill Brandenburgh - He's My Best Friend
Raisins - Perfect Crime
The Bears - Nobody Knows
Psychodots - Artichoke
Psychodots - Not A Pretty Face
Rob Fetters - Age Of Miracles
Raisins - Clive
The Bears - None Of The Above
Rob Fetters - Everything's Gonna Be Alright


When I first started putting my list together I had about 65 songs that I wanted to play. I managed to get that cut down to thirty. Of those 30, we got to play 24 of them. Not bad at all. I hope that the Fetters fans that were listening enjoyed the selection and I hope that everyone else who was listening liked what they heard and may want to check out more!


The six songs that we didn't have time for were:
The Bears - Aches And Pains
The Bears - Under The Volcano
Psychodots - Help Yourself
Psychodots - Joy And Madness
Rob Fetters - Career Move
Rob Fetters - Zero


In Addition, I would have liked to have played the Raisins song Porkopolis but since it is almost eleven minutes, I decided to play three shorter songs instead of this opus. Maybe John will let me play it some day.


This was our last show of the year which means that this is also my last blog of the year. The plan right now is to come back on January 11, 2010. If all goes well. I will be in the studio for that show, which will be one long Donohue's Music Den. I hope everyone has enjoyed listening and reading. Enjoy the holidays and we'll see you next year!

December 7, 2009 - Does Humor Belong In Music?

A couple weeks ago, I got a request from Ron Cianciaruso to play some Zappa on the show. John Campbell is not a Zappa fan so I've always had to try to sneak a Zappa song in at the end of a show when he wasn't paying attention. I've been able to do that twice. But for this week, he told me we should play three Zappa songs. The Zappa request I received all came from his 1974 album Apostrophe, so I limited myself to that album.


While trying to figure out what else I wanted to play, I kept going back to "comedy music" or at least songs that will make you smile. That made it a whole lot easier to narrow things down but still difficult to pick songs. I ended up choosing 3-song "mini suites" from Zappa, Moxy Fruvous and The Rutles. In addition to that, I chose individual songs from several acts. Then, in the middle of the show, John decided to play a song by the new band Third Of Never. It wasn't a "comedy song" but it was a damn good cover of Pete Townshend's Let My Love Open The Door. Here is what we played:



Frank Zappa - Saint Alfonzo's Pancake Breakfast
Frank Zappa - Father O'Blivion
Frank Zappa - Cosmik Debris
Moxy Fruvous - Kick In The Ass
Moxy Fruvous - The Greatest Man In America
Moxy Fruvous - I Love My Boss
The Rutles - Hold My Hand
The Rutles - Ouch!
The Rutles - Cheese And Onions
Third Of Never - Let My Love Open The Door
The Beat Farmers - Big Rock Candy Mountain
Guadalcanal Diary - Vista
The Dead Milkmen - Brat In The Frat
King Missile - Cheesecake Truck
Fountains Of Wayne - Laser Show


The one song that I wanted to play that didn't make it was Ducks On The Wall, from the 1974 Kinks album, A Soap Opera. When I saw Ray Davies last month, he teased the crowd by saying that he would be doing that song. Unfortunately, he didn't play it and neither did I.


From the feedback we received both during and after the show, it seemed like people enjoyed the comedy aspect of my segment. Third Of Never even posted on their facebook page that they were being played between Zappa and Guadalcanal. Cool stuff!


Next week is our last show of the year. We will be going out in style by completing the Psychodots trifecta. Rob Fetters will be the guest next week and practically the entire show will be devoted to Rob's music. After that show, we will be taking a few weeks off and won't return until January 11, 2010. Next week promises to be a great show and I'm looking forward to it.