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!