Flashlite #151 – The Best of 2011 – pt 2

Mikal CroninIt’s the end of 2011 and it’s time to assess the damage. It’s the part two of the Top 30 albums of 2011 at the Little Lighthouse. It was a lean year when it comes to really big earth shattering albums, but it was also a year with a lot of good records. The champion for this year is Mikal Cronin and his debut record. The rest of the list goes something like this…


01 Mikal Cronin
02 Cute Lepers - Adventure Time
03 Susie Hug - Tucson Moonshine
04 True Sons of Thunder - Spoonful of Seedy Dudes
05 Hayvanlar Alemi - Guarana Superpower
06 King Louie's Missing Monuments - Painted White
07 Jack Oblivian - Rat City
08 Disciplina Kicme - Uf!
09 One Hundred Dollars - Songs of Man
10 Happy Birthday
11 Mr. Ron Jetson - The Return of The Sleeping Policemen
12 Thee Oh Sees - Carrion Crawler The Dream
13 John Paul Keith - The Man That Time Forgot
14 Booker T. Jones - The Road From Memphis
15 The Barrarecudas - Nocturnal Missions
16 North Mississippi Allstars - Keys To The Kingdom
16 Mama Rosin with Hipbone Slim and the Kneetremblers - Louisiana Sun
17 Sonny And The Sunsets - Hit After Hit
18 Bubblegum Lemonade - Sophomore Release
19 Lucinda Williams - Blessed
20 Black Keys - El Camino
21 Jerusalem and the Starbaskets - Dost
22 Tim Lee 3 - Raucous Americanus
23 Dead Rock West - Bright Morning Stars
24 Israel Nash Gripka - Barn Doors And Concrete Floors
25 Bo Keys - Got To Get Back
26 The Frictions - Halogen Sky
27 Danny & the Champions of the World - Hearts and Arrows
28 John Hiatt - Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns
29 The Walkabouts - Travels in Dustland
30 Wild Flag

The Barreracudas – Baby Baby Baby;
Booker T. Jones – Representing Memphis (Featuring Matt Berninger & Sharon Jones);
John Paul Keith – Never Could Say No;
Thee Oh Sees – Crushed Grass;
Mr Ron Jetson – Magnificient Joe;
Happy Birthday – Subliminal Message;
One Hundred Dollars – Ties That Bind;
Disciplina Kicme – Sta je to sto drzi dabas tvoju paznju;
Jack Oblivian – Kidnapper;
King Louie’s Missing Monuments – Girl of the Nite;
Hayvanlar Alemi – Hayalgucu Sporkulubu;
True Sons of Thunder – Crawlin;
Susie Hug – Flinch;
Cute Lepers – Head Over Heels;
Mikal Cronin – Get Along;
Mikal Cronin – The Way Things Go.

Poetry Music Scene Chicago #3

Poetry Music ScenePMS Issue three, edited by Dubravka Juraga and Snezana Zabic, brings you four Chicago poets, Nicolas Garcia, Tasha Marren, Luis Urrea, and Paul Martinez Pompa, and music by local bands Island, Tiny Manatee, The Embraceables, The Pralines, Hannah Frank Trio, The Injured Parties, as well as New York’s own Rebel Diaz (transplants from Chicago).

For poets and musicians out there: send us your poems and songs dealing with the state of things in the US and worldwide. We plan to pack at least one of our upcoming issues with political material. Speak up in your poems and songs and send them to chicagopms@gmail.com.

DOWNLOAD: pms3.ogg

1 Nick Garcia “Blue Island Bums”
2 Rebel Diaz “99%”
3 Pompa “Carbon Copy”
4 Island “Corporate Welfare”
5 Tasha Marren “April” “Ptarmigan” “Replica”
6 The Pralines “Raphael”
7 Nick Garcia “Daley’s Indios”
8 Tiny Manatee “Immigrant Law”
9 Paul Martinez Pompa “Bullet”
10 The Embraceables “Wanna Copy”
11 Tasha Marren “Mother Cycle”
12 Hannah Frank Trio “Pitch Black Eyes”
13 Luis Urrea “Valley of the Palms”
14 The Injured Parties “American Comfort”

Flashlite #150 – The Best of 2011 – pt 1

The Best of 2011It’s the end of 2011 and it’s time to assess the damage. I prepared the list of 30 best new albums in this year, also a separate list of best short forms (singles, eps, downloads…) and reissues. We will cover this in our next three shows. We begin today with the best albums, positions from 30 to 16. Top 15 will be presented in our next show. So, start today and find out which one is the best album next week.

Wild Flag – Electric Band;
The Walkabouts – My Diviner;
John Hiatt – Damn This Town;
Danny & the Champions of the World – Heart & Arrow;
The Frictions – Cut And Run;
The Bo-Keys – Catch This Teardrop (feat. Percy Wiggins);
Isreal Nash Gripka – Four Winds;
Dead Rock West – Tell the Angles;
Tim Lee 3 – Long Way Home;
Jerusalem and The Starbaskets – Chocolate Covered Every Berry;
The Black Keys – Run Right Back;
Lucinda Williams – Blessed;
Bubblegum Lemonade – We Could Send Emails;
Sonny and the Sunsets – Home and Exile;
Mama Rosin together with Hipbone Slim and the Kneetremblers – Louisiana Sun;
North Mississippi Allstars – This A’Way.

Flashlite #149

Twilight SingersFolks, one of the weirdest episodes ever here at the Little Lighthouse… There is a whole bunch of reissues these days with live music. So, we started off with the new live reissues of Lou Reed, Rolling Stones and Giant Sand. Twilight Singers have a new live album out, so we check out that as well. Our good friend Damien Youth reissued his studio album Sunfield on vinyl. It’s a lovely double LP. And then we played the new band for Chris Eckman from Walkabouts, called The Frictions, which he put together over in Ljubljana where he lives these days. They played a cover of Suicide, so “naturally”, the rest of the songs were about suicide as an act, not as a band. So, very happy ending today… Check it out, but don’t do it.

Kursaal Flyers – Friday On My Mind;
Lou Reed – Vicious;
The Twilight Singers – Teenage Wristband;
The Rolling Stones – Happy;
Giant Sand – Lester Lampshade;
Damien Youth – Thorough The Eyes of Molly;
Hic et Nunc – Got My Mojo Working;
The Walkabouts – Thin of the Air;
The Frictions – Ghost Rider;
Suicide – Ghost Rider;
Buldozer – Najpogodnije mjesto;
Dax Riggs – Living is Suicide;
The Replacements – The Ledge;
David Bowie – Rock’n’roll Suicide;
Wednesday Week – Suicide.

Flashlite #148

Keef HartleyToday’s show goes out to the two blues musicians which we lost within one single week (not in the same day as I said in the show). First Keef Hartley went away, English drummer who has worked in the late 60s with several different bands, most notably his own Keef Hartley band. Then Hubert Sumlin, the legendary Chicago blues pioneer left as well. It’s sad to see them go, so we remember their work in today’s show.

Besides these tributes, we also have new albums for John Hiatt, Black Keys and The Love Me Nots. Pow Wows from New York City and Black Bananas from the Los Angeles scene are for the first time at the Little Lighthouse.

Byrds – She Don’t Care About Time;
John Hiatt – Detroit Made;
Pow Wows – Do The Splash;
Jerusalem and the Starbaskets – First Cigarette in the Rain;
John Paul Keith – Somebody Ought To Write A Song About You;
The V-Roys – Sooner or Later;
Amy LaVere – You Can’t Keep Me;
Bobby Charles – Keep Cookin’ Mama;
Black Bananas and Kurt Vile – Before They Make Me Run;
The Rolling Stones – Before They Make Me Run
Keef Hartley Band – Leavin’ Trunk;
Hubert Sumlin – My Guitar and Me;
The Black Keys – Little Black Submarines;
The Shazam – Rollercoaster;
The Mark Lanegan Band – The Gravedigger’s Song;
The Love Me Nots – The Girl Lights Up.

Flashlite #147 – Vinyl Junkyard 2

Jericho GoToday’s show is dedicated to the 80s new wave scene from Georgia and the South of the USA. Everything is peculiar in the South, so is the new wave scene. The direct inspiration for today’s show is the LP called Jericho Go, a compilation record that was put together jointly by The DB Records in the US and the Stiff Records in UK. Now, it can only be found in rare used records bins in these two countries, and it’s probably not an easy task. Still, it’s an obscure, but a cherished item in my record collection. This show brings every single song from that LP and the rest of the time is filled with some other related tunes either by other Southern new wave bands or related acts from a different era. I hope you will enjoy the second installment of the Vinyl Junkyard.

DOWNLOAD: 1 2

Zeitgeist – Blue Eyes;
Guadalcanal Diary – Ghost on The Road;
Guadalcanal Diary – Carying The Torch;
Love Tractor – Neon Lights;
The Buzz of Delight – In Summer;
Matthew Sweet – Superdeformed;
Oh Ok – Choukoutien;
Pylon – Percaution;
REM – Crazy;
Kevin Dunn – 20000 Years In Singh Singh;
The Windbreakers – Nation of Two;
Tim Lee 3 – Bullets in the Barn;
Bobby Sutliff – Time Machine;
The Swimming Pool Q’s – Overheated;
Fetchin Bones – So Brilliant.