This show starts of with Jonly Bonly – a new band out of Austin, lead by Jason Smith who used to be a lead guitarist in OBN IIIs. Dreamsalon from Seattle are back in our show. Exactly one year ago we introduced them with their previous album, and now the new one Soft Stab is out. John Schooley teamed up with Walter Daniels who played with many – 68 Comeback and Oblivians are just some of the names. Chook Race from Australia took those REM jangly guitars and reincarnated that lost sound on a new record About Time. Jeremy Morris from Lemon Clocks is back with another band called simply The Jeremy Band. And in the end we pay another homage to Kim Fowley.
John Paul Jones – On The Road;
The Tunes – Crowded Heart;
Jonly Bonly – Total Control;
OBN IIIs – Stick and move;
Dreamsalon – Lick;
Dreamsalon – Don’t Feel Like Walkin’;
John Schooley and Walter Daniels – All Around Man;
Magic Sam Blues Band – You Belong To Me (Blues Alphabet);
McGuinness Flint – When I’m Dead And Gone;
REM – Life and How To Live It;
Chook Race – Tables Turned;
Jeremy Bond – Home;
Radio Birdman – You’re Gonna Miss Me;
The Psykicks – Down The Drain;
Danny And The Darleans – Fleures Du Mal (Live in CLE);
Mick Collins and Danny Kroha – Welcome To The Cemetery Club;
Kim Fowley – California Gypsy Man.
Some interesting stuff today. Erotic Biljan and his Heretics from Zagreb have a new single called Discgrace and we check it out. Also, Plastic Pals out of Sweden have a new single Riding With Elvis commemorating 80th birthday of Elvis Presley, which happened on January 8th. Also, out of Sweden, we have a new garage rock band The Vanjas. From Puerto Rico, we have Los Vigilantes singing in Spanish. Volume two of Jackie DeShannon tunes performed by other artists is out and we hear some rare acetates that she made as demos back in the day. We dedicate today’s show to one of the most original and interesting rock songwriters and organizers, one and only Kim Fowley who passed away last week.
Sonny Vincent is back with no less than two new records. One is with his new band called Spite – it features also Glen Matlock, Steve Mackay and Rat Scabies – all star line up, and that’s how it sounds too. He also has a solo record called Cyanide Consomme. Great work indeed. Eamon McGrath finally gathered his three-song downloads into a full blown LP called Exile. We play a new rocking version of the title track. He also has an updated bandcamp website with a TON of great rare demos. We pick some in our show today. There’s a tribute out there to Bruce Springsteen’s album Born in the USA. We feature Trampled By Turtles from Duluth, MN. Another new band today is Zig Zags from LA. We say goodbye to Joe Cocker and Jimmy Ruffin.
Today’s show is dedicated mainly to my favorite reissues this year. The two comps I enjoyed the most were Mojo’s Heavy Nuggets III and Numero Group’s Warfaring Strangers Darkscorch Canticles, as a roadmap to the new band on some cool underground hard rock from the seventies. There were some excellent power pop reissues as well. Anyway, dive into today’s show for a complete list. Also, about a third of today’s show is dedicated to songs from some cool albums which did not make our top 20 albums, but were still cool enough to mention. This concludes our year end review, and we go back to our regularly irregular programming starting next week.
Nowadays, singles and eps come out in various different forms. The old vinyl and CD, but it also can be a download, a video… So, it’s not easy to navigate through this mess. So, all singles and short albums up to four songs are what I call “short form”. Todays list compiles a list of my favorite singles this year. The second half of the show is dedicated to some of the albums that I liked last year, but that somehow did not end up on the top 20 last week. Happy new year everyone!
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.
Friends, a couple of new things this time. King Khan has a new band called Gris Gris and we hear a tune from their new record Murder Burgers. The Shivas are also back with a new record called You Know What To Do. We introduce Groovy Uncle from Britain, Ivory Deville from LA, and a new band from Partibrejker Cane, called Å krtice. They rock – we rock!
December 2 and December 3 of 2014 were two devastating days for rock’n’roll. We lost two true greats, Bobby Keys and Ian McLagan. McLagan started in Small Faces, continued with Faces had some amazing solo records, toured with his Bump Band. Bobby Keys played saxophone and greatly contributed to the golden period of The Rolling Stones – their Sticky Fingers and Exile of Main Street. Ian and Bobby crossed paths several times, on Faces, Ian’s solo records and the most recently actually in Cleveland – for the Rolling Stones tribute organized by the rock hall. This show is dedicated to the two of them. Their sounds are part of the very fabric of rock’n’roll. Thanks comrades!
This time, we review some of the best live performances in Cleveland in the past year. We have a segment called Live in Cleveland every week in which we feature some of the recent or historical field recordings from the live shows in this town. Today, we review all the shows from the past year and feature some tunes that we did not play yet at The Little Lighthouse. This how is dedicated to the bands who play their hearts out often in front of the sparse audience and to the live halls that persistently keep Cleveland as one of the most important stops on every band’s itineraries. Beachland, Now That’s Class, Happy Dog – you all rock!
We have a couple of new things today. Miss Destiny from Australia are three ladies and one dude: Harriet Hudson, Harriet Stewart, Annie Llewellyn and Brett Bevege. Also from Australia, in Perth, Night Signals have a new EP called Animals. The new single they have on Hozac is on our program today. Rich Hopkins has a new album with his Luminarios, called Tombstone, two years after his great effort Buried Treasures. Also, check out John Murry playing on of his new songs live in Cleveland. We hope to be a soundtrack of your Thanksgiving holiday this year!