A pleasant sounding retro paisley pop episode today fits the November gloom. We start off with Left Outsides, a duet from London with Mark Nicholas and Alison Cotton. Then we check out The BellTowers from Orlando, FL. A new band that grew out of The Steppes, The Laissez Fairs contribute with the new single and so does the legendary Clientele who we are happy to see back. Also out in UK, from the Medway area, we have Theatre Royal and on the other side of the Earth, in New Zealand, we check out Lamp of the Universe. Stateside, Sally Crewe teams up with Doug Gillard and over in New Jersey we check out psychedelic sounds of Garcia Peoples.
Yardbrids – Heart Full Of Soul;
The Left Outsides – November on my Mind;
The BellTowers – Sunshine Nursery Rhymes;
Electric Prunes – Bangles;
The Laissez Fairs – Crown Plaza;
The Laissez Fairs – 10,000 Tomorrows;
Theatre Royal – Callow;
Part-Time Lover – Kelly Cruise Kelly;
Shocking Blue – Out of Sight Out of Mind;
Leigh Gregory – In These Days;
The Clientele – Orpheus Beach;
Sally Crewe – Where the Fox Runs;
Doug Gillard – Come Out And Show Me;
Strawberry Alarm Clock – Incense and Peppermints;
The Sonic Dawn – Sun Drifter;
Honey Radar – Wind-Up Man;
Lamp of the Universe – The Eastern Run;
Garcia Peoples – Wasted Time;
Levitation Room – Mr. Polydactyl Cat.
Today we introduce several interesting relatively new names on the female songwriting scene. Katie Von Schleicher comes from Brooklyn and Esmé Patterson is from Denver, CO. Nicole Atkins from New Jersey is particularly interesting because she teamed up with Tommy Stinson of The Replacements and Bash & Pop for her upcoming new album. Tommy is also out touring with Chip Roberts as The Cowboys In The Campfire. They stopped by at Cleveland’s Blue Arrow Records and played a few new tunes. We hear one of them today. Talking about Cleveland, Matthew Wascowich is back with his Scarcity of Tanks. They have a new album called Garford Mute, inspired by growing up, and it contains a stellar line up of Pere Ubu and Terminal Lovers bands, plus Doug Gillard and the legendary Steve Mackay, the Stooges sax player with his posthumous appearance. We also check out the new music Left Lane Cruiser and and introduce two new heavy bands, ’68 from Atlanta and Gorilla from UK.
When Mick Jagger was in his late forties he recorded Primitive Cool and Steel Wheels. Certainly not the highest point of his career. But, it seems that the generation of musicians who are in their late forties these days are growing up a bit slower, putting better and better records as the time goes by. Examples are many – Nick Saloman from Bevis Frond, Matthew Smith from Outrageous Cherry, Rich Hopkins… The heroes of this story, Doug Gillard and John Petkovic are in that group.
Every musical outlet out there has a year-end list. Little Lighthouse is not an exception, although the order should be understood conditionally. It does not rely on objective measurements, it simply compiles feeling towards albums that preoccupied my attention through 2014. Number one is Sweet Apple. Yours truly marginally participated in making of that record, and perhaps there’s a strong bias towards it for me. You would be right about that. But this particular record is a fun collection of songs without much pretension. What more can you ask from an LP? OBN IIIs and Liquor Store are great new bands which made ambitiously sounding records that rock. They even bring out a long forgotten idiom of hard rock, back into the modern rock’n’roll dictionary and it made me realize how much that sound is missed in the music world today. Together with some important reissues, these two albums mark the revival of that lost musical genre. Those two records are so rich with sounds and ideas that live performances of these two bands must be stripped down to a skeleton. Outragous Cherry has an astonishing return, with one of their best records ever. First Base and Strungs go back to the basic three chords and short songs – a formula that oh so often works great. Lydia Lunch calls out the ghost of Jeffrey Lee Pierce like no other artist before. Doug Gillard attempted to make a good easy listening record and ended up with a timeless masterpiece which will be remembered well in his opus. Billy Childs makes a loving tribute to Laura Nyro which borders madness and saccharine. Who’d have thought those two “lands” share a border? Kelley Mickwee and Haden Triplets show interesting ways to keep bluegrass alive and it trips my mind how most folks out there think negatively of this wonderful Haden Triplets record. Bonnie Prince Billy takes some old songs and brings in a new life to them with an incredibly focused interpretation… and so on. All the best in 2015, actually 2014 wasn’t that bad musically as it may appear on the surface.
We have two new heavy rock albums to start off today. Hush or Howl by Black Pistol Fire of Toronto and Austin and Get Pure by Mount Carmel from Columbus. Thee Melomen come from Zagreb, and they are basically Backstreet Brats re-branded. Pridjevi are from around there as well – studio trio which consists of Nina Romić, Dino Santaleza and Ivana Picek. Sally Crewe from Austin TX has a new ep with a cover of XTC’s Making Plans for Nigel. Doug Gillard is a guest guitar hero on it. The Hold Steady are back with the new record. For those who like mellower sounds, we have Kevin Kane from Toronto with his charming cover of Simon And Garfunkel’s Cathy and Allysen Callery re-imagines Gordon Lighfoot’s Sundown.
Doug Gillard has a new record out called Parade On and we check out the new single. His old band-mate from Death of Samantha, John Petkovic and his new band with J Mascis, Sweet Apple, finally have their long-awaited second record out, and we check out one track from it. Holly Golightly and her Brokeoffs are back with another LP, All Her Fault. Luther Dickinson of The North Mississippi Allstars also has a new record called Rock’n’roll Blues. Dex Romweber from Flat Duo Jets returned with Images 13 plus there’s a recent reissue of the back catalogue on Third Man Records. We introduce three new names. Little Murders from Australia and Lydia Loveless from Columbus. Muck and The Mires come from Boston.
Today’s show is dedicated to Clarence Clemons, the original saxophonist of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. We start with three E Street songs in which I think Clarence particularly shined. We also have new albums for the Serbian band Eva Braun and college rock legends The Silos. Their new album is an unusually shiny summer deal and it’s call Florizona – obviously a name that connects Florida and Arizona. Talking about Arizona, Howe Gelb also has a new album called Snarl Some Piano. It’s mostly a piano record, and we check it out today as well. We hear, Tommy Stinson is about to finish up recording the new record and some of the songs that will appear on this album were beautifully showcased on Minnesota Public Radio. The one that I picked for today has a part co-written with Paul Westerberg. And finally, we introduce a new name at the Little Lighthouse, his name is Frederick Squire and he has a new single with Kate Maki. The last song on the playlist is an old underground hit for the Cleveland band Death of Samantha. They had a brief reunion last weekend when Doug Gillard, their original guitarist, returned to town.
As you probably know by now, every Thursday, Zagreb radio staion