October 25, 2010 - Still Stuck In The 80's

Last week I decided to go back to my high school years and the early 80's music scene. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed some of that stuff, cheesy synths and all! It brought me back to a much more innocent time (at least for me). John enjoyed last week's selections so we decided to do it again this week.


John had an in-studio guest scheduled, but they had to cancel. Instead of going guest-free again, he replayed his interview with Luka Bloom from last year. Even without a guest, John did have company in the studio. Sammy was visiting from Mexico and joined John as a quiet observer. I did manage to convince her to wave to the webcam, just to prove she was there.


With an interview that was only about 20 minutes long, John got to play more songs than he usually does and my segment ran for a little over an hour. John brought in his Loverboy compilation "Big Ones" but we didn't play anything from that cd. Instead we played these songs:


R.E.M. - Gardening At Night
Split Enz - History Never Repeats
Squeeze - In Quintessence
Tony Carey - I Won't Be Home Tonight
Planet P - Why Me
The Jam - Start!
The Plimsouls - A Million Miles Away
The Vapors - Turning Japanese
Streets - If Love Should Go
Spys - Don't Run My Life
Prism - Don't Let Him Know
King Crimson - Frame By Frame
Martin Briley - The Salt In My Tears


Some of the music I played brought back memories. The first REM ep, Chronic Town changed music for me in 1982. Tony Carey & Planet P reminded me of my good friend Kirsten. The Plimsouls made me remember the time I almost saw them live. The Prism song (which was co-written by Bryan Adams)reminded me of the time I saw Bryan Adams open for The Kinks in a blizzard and all I remember of Bryan Adams is how bad he was. And then hearing Lonely Nights and Jealousy on the radio and realizing he did have talent.


Then there was The Vapors Turning Japanese. This song led to way too many masturbation jokes. John had to explain to Sammy what the song meant. Turning Japanese wasn't the first hit song with a hidden meaning (Yummy, Yummt, Yummy, anyone?) and it wasn't even the biggest "masterbation hit". That honor may belong to Cyndi Lauper's She Bop. But regardless of the subject matter, Turning Japanese was a great new wave/power pop song and although The Vapors had some great songs, this is the one they will always be known for.


I still have a dozen songs left it looks like we'll be staying in the early 80's for another week. It's been a lot of fun going back in time and hearing some of these songs again for the first time in years! Next week will give us The Tubes, Utopia, The Bongos, Icehouse, Donnie Iris and a few others.

October 18, 2010 - Back To School Days

Last week the phone lines were working again and we had a show that sounded very good (and almost professional). This week I called in and the phones weren't working again. John eventually got it to work but all I could hear was static, so we went back to the old cell phone routine. Oh well!!


Back in August I thought it would be fun to do a "back to school" show once classes started up at GMU. Those plans were sidetracked by a couple missed shows and some special request themes. But I knew I would eventually get "back to school". It's too bad that it took to midterns to get there.


My original thought was to go back to my college years (1984-1988). My musical tastes expanded greatly in college and I discovered a lot of great music that I had missed and also found some great new music. But then I thought that my High School years (1980-1984) were much more exciting musically. The launch of MTV just before my sophomore year was huge and MTV in their early days played a lot of power pop, which is when I first started to dicover it.


Disco was dying. MTV was playing some great music. Commercial Radio was still playing good music. WNEW, WLIR, WDHA WPIX and then WAPP all played great stuff. Even WPLJ was still good back then. As much as I love music from the 60's and early 70's, it was pretty cool to be a teenager in the early 80's. But as you would expect, my musical tastes never quite matched up with most people. When everyone else in my school was listening to Van Halen, AC/DC and Rush, I was listening to Squeeze, XTC and Icehouse. But in high school my tastes really started to expand.


Before I got started on my trip back in time, I had to play a brand new song from my friends Al & Carl and their band Yes Mistress. The song, Noir has a great late 60's vibe to it and I really dig the song. Check em out at Reverbnation! After Noir, I managed to fit in 17 songs from my high school years. Here's what I played:


Yes Mistress - Noir
Randy California -Rude Reaction
Triumph - Petite Etude
Box Of Frogs - Back Where I Started
Chilliwack - My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)
The Sherbs - We Ride Tonight
The Plimsouls - Everyday Things
Marshall Crenshaw - There She Goes Again
The Vapors - Jimmie Jones
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
Shoes - She Satisfies
The Producers - A Cetain Kind Of Girl
The Monroes - What Do All The People Know
Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes - Why
The Motels - Mission Of Mercy
Spinal Tap (Listen To The) Flower People
Joe Jackson - Memphis
The Police - I Burn For You


I've got more than enough music left over for another show, so next week we'll stay in the 80's. Some of the things that you may hear next week could include Tony Carey, Streets, Planet P, Spys REM, Prism, Utopia and many others. I hope you can tune in next week!

October 11, 2010 - The Phone Lines Are Working Again!

The last two weeks were dedicated to the women. Thirty Five songs from some amazingly talented musicians. After the last two weeks, I decided to go in a different direction. But before I even went on the air, something "magical" happened, that hasn't happened in awhile. And all it took was a working phone line.


For the last couple months, the phone lines at the radio station haven't been working and my segments have been done with John holding his cellphone up to the microphone. Each week I would call in hoping the phones would work but nothing would happen. Then I would call his cell and we'd go from there. This time, however, it actually worked. After weeks of sounding like I was coming out of a broken am radio, it was nice to actually be HEARD for a change.


I had no real theme for this week, but I did go with themed blocks of music. The first block of 3 songs were all brand new. The second block was all live. The third block contained re-recording of songs by the original artists. The 4th block came from classic "bar bands" and the final block was whatever I had time for before the next segment.


John had guests live in the studio at 9:15 so I came on at exactly 8:00 for what may have been the first time ever. A Cat Called Cricket(John's guests) showed up a little before 9:00 and by 9:15 I was done and they were ready to go. I got through 15 of the 18 tracks I sent for the week. The remaining three will be used sometime in November, but here are the 15 that were played:


The Posies - Plastic Paperbacks
The Baseball Project - The Way It's Gonna Be
The Posies - So Caroline
Todd Rundgren - Hodja (Live)
Joe Jackson Band - One More Time (Live)
Split Enz - Years Go By (Live)
Ray Davies w/The Crouch End Festival Choir - Waterloo Sunset

Cracker - The World Is Mine
Squeeze - Is That Love
The Morells - The Man Who Has Everything
NRBQ - Little Floater
The Skeletons - Very Last Day
The Offbeat - When You Got Love
Crosley - Automatic
The Graveblankets - Bad Decisions


For next week's show, I think I'll go back to high school. I was still listening to commercial radio back then, but commercial radio was a lot better back then. I'll be covering the years 1980-1984 and playing a bunch of things I was listening to then. Some tracks I haven't heard in many years. Some I still listen to regularly. I'll try and stay away from some of the bigger hits and stick to some that could be considered "forgotten gems". This should be fun figuring out what to play.

October 4, 2010 - The Ladies Are Still Rockin...

The month of September is over, but John decided to extend "women in music" month for one more week. That meant one final show dedicated to music from some very talented women.


I posted on my facebook page some of the artists that I would be playing and my sister Julie requested Tom Cat Goodbye from Laura Nyro. Unfortunately I didn't have a digital version of that song to play. I hope Julie was ok with the song I chose. In addition to Julie, we also had regular listeners Lou, Ron and Sammy plus the return of long-time listeners Barbara & Liz, who have been missing lately for various reasons. Great to have you both back and thank you to everyone who listened!

Anyway, once again, John had no guest. That meant more airtime for me and more great music to play. I tried to cover all the bases and the music spanned the years 1968-2010. There were a couple songs that John didn't like. There was one that Lou didn't like. There was one that got Barbara singing along and there was one that Liz thought was Suzi Quatro, not realizing that this version was the original and Suzi's was the cover. Here's what was played on the show:

Neko Case - People Got A Lotta Nerve
The Graveblankets (Bridget Otto) - Less Blue
Concrete Blonde (Johnette Napolitano) - Probably Will
Laura Nyro - Eli's Coming
Karla Bonoff - If He's Ever Near
Robert Fripp (Terre Roche) - Mary
Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Baby Blue
Buckingham Nicks (Stevie Nicks) - Crying In The Night
Grace Slick - Seasons
Richard & Linda Thompson - Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed
Alison Faith Levy - Monkey Bars
Hedwig & The Angry Inch (Miriam Shor) - Random Number Generation
Julia Greenberg - Pitiful You
Ann Klein - Just The Gardener
The Heaters (Theresa Robertson) - I've Never Been In Love
Mary Timony Band - Sharpshooter
Steve Morse & Sarah Spencer - Far Gone Now


I had sent John 35 songs, figuring that would be enough for three weeks of shows. But two weeks without guests meant more time for me and all 35 were played in tweo weeks. That leaves me nothing left for next week, so it's time to go in a different direction. I'm not sure what direction that will be yet. I guess you'll have to tune in next week to find out....or at least read it here!

At least now I know that this blog doesn't go entirely unread. Thank you Lizzie Bratko for reading the blog and for checking out all the music that is mentioned in it. I'm glad it serves some purpose.