October 19, 2009 - What's New???

This week's show almost didn't happen. As we know, the show starts at 7:30pm. John called me at 7:45 to tell me that he was circling the parking lot looking for a place to park and was about to give up and head home. Fortunately for all of us, he did one more lap and found a spot. But from where he was parked, he had no idea how to get to the radio station. He found his way and was on the air around 8pm.


John had forgotten to bring his usual opener (The Radio Song by Des & Nicola Coffield)so he went back in time and played the song that opened the show for most of its' first year (The Boxer by Carbon Leaf). Since he was so late, he jumped right into the Charlotte Hatherley interview, which was pretty good. Then at 9pm it was time for Donohue's Music Den!


After spotlighting Bob Nyswonger last week, and doing 60's 70's & 80's themes in the last few weeks it was time to come back to the present. So this week I decided to go with music that I had picked up in the last month or so. Most of it was brand new, but there were a couple things that were a little older, including one that went all the way back to 1980! John started us off with Lou Luca's ONniversary and then I followed with these:


D.L. Byron - Listen To The Heartbeat from the album This Day And Age
The Offbeat - She Can Make The Sun Shine from the ep To The Rescue
The Resonars - Sister Sally from That Evil Drone
Jason Falkner - Emotion Machine from All Quiet On The Noise Floor
Coconut Records - Microphone from Davy
Dreaming In Stereo - Misery Loves Companies from Dreaming In Stereo

Chris Church - Bombast, Verbatim from The Heartbreaks You Embrace
George Cunningham - The Upturned Face from Stumblingham
The Black Hollies - Run With Me Run from Softly Towards The Light
Grant-Lee Phillips - Violet from Little Moon
Jon Auer - Pop Music For The Future from the split ep Two For The Money
Cheap Star - Not My Friend from the split ep Two For The Money


I need to thank Johnny B. Irizarry for reminding me that Listen To The Heartbeat existed. It is one of his all time favorite songs and has finally been released on cd. I hadn't heard the song in at least 25 years, but as soon as I heard the song again, I was transported back to 1980 and being 14 years old again. Thanks John!

The George Cunningham track is from 2005 and I was planning on buying it back then. For whatever reason, I never did and didn't get it until a few weeks ago. Very good record! The rest of the material is from 2009 (with one from 2008) and at least half of what I chose was originally recommended to me by Bruce Brodeen from Not Lame records. If you are a power pop fan and have never checked out Not Lame, you don't know what you are missing. Check em out at www.notlame.com.


It's still too early in the week to figure out what I'll be doing next week, but I'm sure it will be interesting and most of it will be stuff that John has never heard before. I do know that I will be playing a brand new, unreleased song by John Irizarry. The first time I heard the song I knew I was going to have to play it on the show. Hopefully you'll like it as much as me. Tune in next Monday to give it a listen.

October 12, 2009 - Bob Nyswonger.....Come On Down!

This week on Independents Uncovered we went back to the same musical well that gave us our best show back in April. Back in April, the guest was Chris Arduser. This time it was his longtime bandmate Bob Nyswonger. For those that don't know who Bob is, shame on you! The fact that Bob Nyswonger isn't a household name shows one of the things that is wrong with the music industry. Bob is an outstanding bassist and a talented songwriter and I chose tonight to show as much of that as I could.

Bob has been or is still a member of The Raisins, The Graveblankets, The Bears, Psychodots, Bucket and Tickled Pink. If you are from the Cincinnati area you probably know every one of those bands. But if you aren't, you probably have never heard of any of them, except maybe The Bears. John interviewed Bob several weeks ago and the interview was the centerpiece of this week's show. During the interview these songs were played:


Tickled Pink - Alright, Already (from their soon to be released debut cd)
Bob Nyswonger - Catherine The Great
Bob Nyswonger - Interlude
Bob Nyswonger - Water Song (all from his solo debut Deposition)
Psychodots - Don't Bury Me (from the Official Bootleg live cd)
Tickled Pink - Standing 8 (also from the new Tickled Pink cd)


At 9pm, after the interview ended, Donohue's Music Den began with the ONniversary Theme. You may remember this as the song Lou Luca put together for my 1st anniversary show back in May (which John played about 5 TIMES that night). Lou did a great job taking the basic music from the Adrian Belew/Bears song ON and writing his own lyrics about the show. Great stuff! Thanks again Lou!


After the opening theme, the last hour of the show was used to showcase songs that Bob has written for all of the bands he has been in. Bob said that he had never heard a full hour of his songs on the radio before. I'm glad we were able to do this and I'm glad he was able to listen to the entire show. During my segment these songs were played:

The Raisins - A Little Discipline (from their lone studio album)
Psychodots - Sad Little Monkeys (from the 1st Psychodots cd)
Bucket - Trust (great version of the song from their most recent cd Hunch Dancer)
The Bears - We Never Close (from the latest Bears cd Eureka!)
The Bears - Caveman (from Car Caught Fire)
Bam Powell - Possum In The City (from the 2000 release Bam Powell & The Troublemakers and featuring a reunited Raisins)
Psychodots - More To Life (from Awkwardsville)
The Bears - Rabbit Manor
The Bears - Robobo's Beef (both from the 2nd Bears album Rise & Shine)
Psychodots - Copy Machine (from On The Grid)


There were so many great songs that didn't get played because we ran out of time, including Let Us Prey and The Bottom Line from The Raisins, Bed Of Nails and You Will Never Be Satisfied from Psychodots, Neighbors and Victory By Attrition from Bucket and When She Moves and Veneer from The Bears.


If you enjoyed what you heard, please support Bob Nyswoner (and Chris Arduser and Rob Fetters and Bam Powell and independent music in general). Many of the things that I played can be purchased at cdbaby.com or artist-shop.com or even itunes. If you missed the interview, David Ash will be posting it on the Psychodots Google Group as a download. Thanks a lot Dave! And thanks again Bob and have a great birthday!!


Next week John will be interviewing Charlotte Hatherley who played in Ash for many years before going solo. During my segment, I will be playing some new music from Jason Falkner, The Offbeat, Chris Church, Josh Fix, Coconut Records and a few others. It should be another good one.

October 5, 2009 - Murray Attaway and a trip back to the 60's!

Murray Attaway was the guest on this installment of Independents Uncovered. For those that don't know, Murray Attaway was the lead singer of Guadalcanal Diary. I was a big Guadalcanal Diary fan back in the late 80's and I found the interview to be very interesting. We even found out that Guadalcanal Diary may be reforming for a few shows in 2010. Who know? Maybe that will lead to something more!

However, the best thing about the interview was that Murray Attaway gave John ELEVEN unreleased songs to play! In the mid-90's he recorded a solo album for Geffen Records. The album has never been released and Geffen owns the masters so there is a good chance it will never see the light of day. This could have been the only chance to hear these songs, and I was very impressed with them. They were all quite good! When I get the song listing from John, I will post it here!


For my section of the show, I had originally planned to continue the Murray Attaway theme by playing songs off his first solo album as well as some lesser known Guadalcanal Diary songs. However, since all of my songs from the previous week had gone unused, John decided to use those instead. That meant that instead of Guadalcanal Diary/Murray Attaway songs from the 80's & 90's we were going to go all the way back to the 60's. Several weeks ago I had done garage rock from the 80's. I had followed that up with power pop from the 70's, so it only seemed logical to continue the trip in the "way back machine" and go for garage rock from the 60's. The majority of songs that I chose came from the many different "Nuggets" compilations from Rhino records. Here is what we played:


The Outsiders - Time Won't Let Me
The Syndicate Of Sound - Little Girl
The Blues Magoos - (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet
Status Quo - Pictures Of Matchstick Men
The Move - I Can Hear The Grass Grow
Marmalade - I See The Rain
Davy Jones & The Lower Third - You've Got A Habit Of leaving
Lyme & Cybelle - Follow Me
The Beau Brummels - Just A Little
The Merry-Go-Round - Live
Love - Alone Again Or
Paul Revere & The Raiders - Just Like Me
The Mothers Of Invention - Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance

There were an additional four songs that I had tried to play, but for whatever reason, they never made it. Those four were:


The Knickerbockers - Lies
The Music Machine - Talk Talk
The Cyrkle - Red Rubber Ball
The Grass Roots - Let's Live For Today


John's guest next week will be Bob Nyswonger. Bad Bob is a talented songwriter and an amazing musician. He is the bassist for many of my favorite bands, including The Raisins, The Bears, The Graveblankets, Psychodots, Bucket and Tickled Pink! I will be playing several Nyswonger penned tunes on next week's show (and maybe even some he didn't write). I'm definitely looking forward to this interview and who knows? Maybe we'll get an extra treat and get a track or two from the soon to be released Tickled Pink record. See you next week!

September 28, 2009 - BUMPED!

If anyone tuned in to hear Donohue's Music Den tonight and was wondering what happened, you're not alone! John was late getting to the studio and started the show 45 minutes late. He started his interview right away and the interview was still going at 10pm when the next dj came in for their show. John was done and that meant that there was NO TIME for me!

I had planned to play some classic 60's garage rock. I guess that will have to wait for a future show. Hopefully John will be able to manage his time better in future weeks. Next week's guest will be Murray Attaway, former leader of Guadalcanal Diary. Then on October 12th, John will be interviewing legendary bassist Bob Nyswonger. Bob has played in The Bears, Psychodots, Bucket, Tickled Pink, The Raisins and many others. I'm definitely looking forward to these two interviews. Hopefully I'll actually get on the air next week! See ya then!

September 21, 2009 - Dennis Diken Interview plus The Baseball Project et al

Monday night's show turned out to be a pretty good one. John's guest for the evening was Dennis Diken. As most of you should know, Dennis is the drummer in The Smithereens. He is also a noted rock historian and seems to be a really great guy! Next week he will be releasing his first solo album. The album is called Late Music and it is credited to Dennis Diken with Bell Sound. The interview was quite good and John played five songs off his new record. Here is what he played:


Dennis Diken with Bell Sound - The Sun's Gonna Shine In The Morning
Dennis Diken with Bell Sound - Standing In That Line
Dennis Diken with Bell Sound - Tell All The Fools
Dennis Diken with Bell Sound - Let Me Fall Into Your Arms
Dennis Diken with Bell Sound - I've Been Away (which John played twice)


This week's theme for Donohue's Music Den was The Baseball Project and related bands. The Baseball Project consists of Steve Wynn, Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck and Linda Pitmon. They have one cd of baseball themed music out called Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails and have just recorded the follow-up which will be released early next year. The Baseball Project, The Minus 5 and The Steve Wynn IV are currently out on the road (with all four members being the same in each band). They are playing The Bowery Ballroom in NYC on Wednesday night and are at Iota's In Arlington Va. on Friday night.


I was planning on going to the NYC show and was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I blew out my knee on the softball field over the weekend and will be unable to stand all night at the Bowery. I'm sure it will be a great show and I'm very upset that I'm missing it. Hopefully John will be able to check them out at Iota's on Friday.


To celebrate the music of these four talented musicians, I sent John music from The Baseball Project, The Minus 5, The Young Fresh Fellows, The Dream Syndicate and Steve Wynn (with and without The Miracle Three). I also could have sent Gutterball, Danny & Dusty, The Suspects, Tuatara, REM and many others, but I had to cut it somewhere. By the end of the evening we had played 12 songs. Here they are:



The Minus 5 - Shut Them Out
Steve Wynn - Why
The Baseball Project - The Yankee Flipper
The Baseball Project - The Ballad Of Mike Keckich And Fritz Peterson
Young Fresh Fellows - Go Pilots Go
The Minus 5 - Popsycle Shoppe
The Dream Syndicate - Let It Rain
The Baseball Project - The Death Of Big Ed Delahanty
Steve Wynn - That's Why I Wear Black
The Minus 5 - Ghost Tarts Of Stockholm
Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3 - California Style
The Baseball Project - Sometimes I Dream Of Willie Mays


There were a couple other songs I wanted to play (particularly some more Young Fresh Fellows) but John had some trouble with the music I send and didn't get all of it. On next week's show John will be spotlighting the Detroit Power Pop scene. Should be a good show. Since I am unable to get to most of my music (because of my injury) I will most likely revisit a theme that I have used before. Which one will it be?? Hmmm.....tune in to find out!

September 14, 2009 - Bobby Guida Tribute and 70's Power Pop

I got a little sidetracked this week and forgot that I had never written this thing. So here goes, better late than never....

For this week's show, I decided to go back to the 70's. In the early 90's Rhino Records released a 9-cd series called DIY. There were discs covering UK Punk, UK Pop, American Power Pop and the New York, Boston and Los Angeles music scenes from the mid-70's to the early 80's. These discs have been out of print for many years, but if you can find them, check them out.


In addition to these, we also paid tribute to Bobby Guida, who passed away back in March. There was a memorial concert for him on Sunday in Brooklyn and John Campbell decided that we should also do something to honor him. His good friend (and frequent Independents Uncovered visitor) Lou Luca called in to tell us a little about Bobby and we played several songs from the album Let's Go To Huntin': The Return Of The Otis Brothers. The Otis Brothers was the name of the band that he had with Pat Conte and they specialized in recording old blues songs, and they did it very well. The playlist for Monday was as follows:


The Otis Brothers - Forty-Four
The Otis Brothers - Relax Your Mind
The Otis Brothers - Ezekial's Wheel
The Otis Brothers - Bald Headed



Holly And The Italians - Tell That Girl To Shut Up
Bram Tchaikovsky - Girl Of My Dreams
The Nerves - Hanging On The Telephone
Piper - Can't Wait
The Cars - You're All I Got Tonight (demo)
Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love?
The Skids - Into The Valley
The Jags - Back Of My Hand (I've Got Your Number)


Next Wednesday I'm off to the Bowery Ballroom to see The Steve Wynn IV, The Minus 5 and The Baseball Project (in this instance all three bands have the same 4 members). It should be a very good show and John may be going to see them next Friday in Virginia. Since we may both be seeing them, I think it is a good week to play music from the collective that includes Steve Wynn, Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck and Linda Pitmon. In addition, John will be interviewing Dennis Diken, the Smithereens drummer(who I saw play with The Minus 5 several years ago) and will be playing songs from "Late Music" the brand new album by Dennis Diken With Bell Sound. It should be a great show. Hopefully you can tune in!

August 31, 2009 - Brought To You By The Letter F!

Back in January, for the first show of the year, I chose artists that begin with the letter A. This week I chose to continue that with the Letter F! What happened to letters B-E? I'll probably get around to them at some point, but this time I decided to go with F.


Last week I was having major computer problems and was not able to listen to the show. Those problems seem to be solved, but last night there were phone problems. At first I couldn't dial in to the station. The reason for that was because John had received a call earlier in the evening and had forgotten to hang up when it was over. Once he hung up the phone I was able to call in, but we had a lousy connection. It sounded like I was speaking from underneath a waterfall. Oh well, it seems to be something different every week.


John's guest was Ed Neenan from E Joseph and the Phantom Hearts. He brought his guitar into the studio and played several songs live in the studio. He sounded great! I definitely want to hear more of his music. John accompanied him (badly) on shaker. I think John was listening to a different song while "shaking". Because Ed was so great to listen to and because of the phone problems, I didn't get on the air until 9:45pm. John felt like running late, since it is most likely the last week he'll be able to go past 10pm, so we didn't say goodnight until 11pm. That allowed us to play sixteen of the eighteen songs that I had chosen for the show. Here is what was played:


Rob Fetters - I Don't Fit
Firewater - The Song That Saved My Life
Fossil - Moon
The Figgs - The Trench
Frisbie - Lather
Fury In The Slaughterhouse - Dead Before I Was Born
Foxboro Hot Tubs - Ruby Room
Jennifer Foster - Charlie
The Fame - Get On The Beat
Francine - Set Of Dune
Mike Ford - Late Of October
Fatima Mansions - The Loyaliser
The Forty-Fives - Backstage At Juanita's
Jason Falkner - I Live
Four Eyes - Take It
The Feelies - The Final Word


John eventually found the "Donohue Theme" and played it between Fetters and Firewater. The only songs that I had chosen that didn't get played were What's The Point by Josh Fix and Cold Night by Folk Implosion. Without John realizing it, I managed to sneak in some "non-indie" music with The Foxboro Hot Tubs. For those of you that don't know who they are, they are actually Green Day using a garage rock alter-ego they created last year. I also heard some nice, positive feedback from Kevin Tapee, Lou Luca and Evil Demented Bunny. I'm glad they liked what I was playing.


Next Monday is Labor Day so there will be no show. We will be back on the air on September 14th. School will be in full swing by then, which means Mark Zito will probably be back on the air at 10pm, which means the show will not be running late anymore. I will scale back on the number of songs I send each week and hopefully John will give me more than 10 minutes each week. I guess we'll have to wait and see how everything works out. See you on the 14th!