The last Little Lighthouse for 2010 is dedicated to wonderful rock musicians and rock personalities that left us in the past year. We have a practice at the show where we give small tributes whenever someone leaves this ugly world we live in, but we missed to pay a proper tribute to Andy Hummel, bass player of Big Star who had died in the summer while the show was on the break. We correct this omission now with two Big Star songs that Andy wrote. Of course, Alex Chilton from Big Star also died this year, which leaves the drummer Jody Stephens as the only surviving original member of this amazing band. Then we go on and pay tribute, one by one, to the other great musicians who died this year: Bobby Charles, Jay Reatard, Mark Linkous, Kenny Gethway, Captain Beefheart, Ari Up, Solomon Burke, Vic Chesnutt, Predrag Ivanovic and two rock’n’roll sidemen: Malcolm McLaren and Billy Ruane. To all of them, rest in peace and to all of us – happy new 2011.
Bobby Charles – Laura Lee;
Jay Reatard – Before I Was Caught;
Big Star – Way Out West;
Big Star – The India Song;
Alex Chilton – All Of The Time;
Sparklehorse – Hammering the Cramps;
Monstrous – Abby;
Captain Beefheart – Gimme Dat Harp Boy;
Jay Reatard – Oh, It’s Such A Shame;
Monstrous – Thumbsucker;
Sex Pistols – Pretty Vacant;
The Slits – So Tough;
Jay Reatard – Searching For You;
Solomon Burke – Home in your Heart (aka Find Me a Home);
Tommy McLain – Before I Grow Too Old;
Vic Chasnutt – When I Ran Off And Left Her;
Alex Chilton – I Remember Mama;
Varsity Drag – Billy Ruane;
Vic Chesnutt – Shippin’ Out;
Vokalni Kvartet Predraga Ivanovica – Niko ne zna moj bol;
Captain Beefheart – There Ain’t No Santa Claus On The Evenin’ Stage.
Sad news came on December 17th this year. Don Van Vilet, better known as Captain Beefheart passed away after a long battle with various kinds of complications due to multiple sclerosis. This disease was also one of the reasons for his withdrawal from rock’n’roll scene and the whole world for the most part in the eighties. In those “retirement” days, he lived alone in a desert, mainly concentrating on painting. But before that, Captain redefined rock’n’roll, blues and avant-grade music the way nobody saw it coming. Recently, radio show Down on The Corner (Dole na uglu) pronounced Captain Beefheart as the greatest American blues rocker. You may think that this is an odd title in company of more conventional blues rockers that we know. But still – when you think about it harder, Beefheart took the good old blues format and stuck to it, but he also took it where the idiom never went before. And it will remain in that place. Bands like Endless Boogie, Black Keys, Dirtbombs, Mark Lanegan, Electric Six, Gori Usssi Winnetou… know where that place is and they call us from there every now and then. But now it’s time to say goodbye to Don Van Vilet, Captain, blues rocker, painter and magician…
One of my favorite rock’n’roll genres is paisley underground where a bunch of 80s bands revisited the sound of the 60s. I keep hearing and reading lately how there are new bands that embrace these bands as huge influences. Basically, we have bands that revisit the 80s bands who revisited the 60s sound. I think that’s wonderful! Today we represent three such bands, two of which are brand new. We have Brooklyn ladies The Girls At Dawn and The Parties from San Diego for the first time at the show. Third band is not a stranger to us, it’s La Fleur Fatale from Sweden. In the mix, we also hear some classic paisley recordings. Talking about paisley-power-pop, Paul Collins from The Nerves and The (US) Beat is back with a new record. Two excellent records that came out earlier this year, but we never got a chance to play them are here also: Nobunny with First Blood and Demon’s Claws with Defrosting. And Kurt Vile’s War on Drugs are also here with a new record, although with Vile out of the band for this particular release…
The Little Lighthouse introduces a new show today: PMS: Poetry Music Scene Chicago. The founders, based out of Chicago, will present contemporary poetry and music from Chicago and beyond. Some of the featured artists (poets and musicians) are brand new on the scene, others are already established. Our goal is to create an open forum and event space where artists will be welcome to present their ideas and experiment with their art form. The first podcast will feature the three founding members—Dubravka Juraga, Snezana Žabić and Philip Lisiecki. They will be reading their own poems, and will be presenting music by various bands. Come, listen in and tell us what you think.
Today’s show is mix and match. We have three new albums for three wonderful ladies and the rest of the show is mostly 80s vinyl records I got/renewed recently. Juliana Hatfield has a new solo album, mostly lo-fi and acoustic. There’s a song about Evan Dando on it. And since we know It’s About Time was for her, we play both songs today. Shannon McNally from Memphis has a new album out called Western Ballad. I was lucky to see her live in Chicago and it was awesome. Anna McCue is the new name in the Little Lighthouse. She’s from Nashvlle TN (but born in Australia) and has already 7 albums out. The newest addition to the roster is Broken Promise Land.
Today we have a special dedicated to one LP album. In fact, I will try to make this somewhat of a series whenever I stumble on an LP that sounds great and that I found sitting somewhere completely forgotten in a bargain bin of a record store. This is precisely what we have now. Peter Isaacson Sings is a completely strange folk album that gathers songs by Dylan, Donovan, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchel and others covered by some mysterious singer. On the record that I have, the mysterious singer is Peter Isaacson. On a different release that people mention here and there on the Internet, his name is Greg Lee. In any case, we have no clue who that person is and what is his real name, but he has a very beautiful voice and guitar style, all recorded what appears to be a single microphone. His voice is somewhere between Gordon Lightfoot at its weakest places and Sid Selvidge at its best parts. I am completely fascinated by this beautiful and mysterious record, and in this show we will hear nearly all cuts from it, along with the originals not just for comparison sake, but also because it makes one really rich playlist!