First of all, let me say hi to all the listeners from Kragujevac. There is a brand new radio station over there called Radio Centar 987 and starting from today, they will broadcast The Little Lighthouse every Thursday from 10pm (Central European Time). Kragujevac, welcome to the show! Today we have three new albums. We don’t have English bands on the show as often as some other shows and podcasts, but today we have two of them. British Sea Power is a name that brings Brit pop associations, but their sound somewhat stiffer over all, especially on the opening song of their new album called Valhalla Dancehall. London band Singing Loins however is as far from the Brit pop as you can be (which is a compliment of course!) and they have a new album too called Stuff. Third new album for this week is The Innocent Ones by the legendary New York outsider Willie Nile. We also represent one new band today. Their name is The Plastic Pals and they come from Sweden. Apparently, they belong to a movement called paisley vikings, and the syntagm sounds great and brings great associations, but I wish I knew more of the bands from the movement.
Devin Hill – Run Like Hell;
Happy Birthday – I Want to Stay (I Run Away);
British Sea Power – Who’s In Control;
Rolling Stones – (Walkin’ Thu A) Sleepy City;
The Parting Gifts – Sleepy City;
Green On Red – Rainy Days And Mondays;
The Slummers – Last One Out;
The Plastic Pals – She’s Going Back;
The Singing Loins – Where’s My Machine Gun;
The Singing Loins – The Topless Twins Of Allhallows-On-Sea;
Willie Nile – Topless Amateur;
Willie Nile – Old Men Sleeping On The Bowery;
Tim Lee 3 – Salty Tears;
The Sports – When You Walk In The Room;
Beachwood Sparks – Sister Rose;
Siluete – Uhvati vetar;
Sid Selvidge – Try And Catch The Wind;
Peter Isaacson – Catch The Wind;
Bill Fox – The Story Of You.
Today we have two obituaries. Jazz vibraphonist from Zagreb, BoÅ¡ko Petrović, better known as B. P, died on January 10. The Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty died on January 4. He is best known for his hit singles Stuck In The Middle and Baker Street, but he actually had a pretty consistently good songbook through the entire recording career. We pay tributes to B.P. and Gerry in today’s show. Bubblegum Lemonade is a new Scottish band that’s out to continue their countryman Rafferty’s work. They, however, roughly belong to the new 80s revival, with sound that’s resembles what once was on The Creation label or Paisley Underground, even a good dose of shoegaze. Jump Back Jake from Memphis are here again with yet another ep. Tim Lee has a new double LP called Raucous Americanus – the first truly (and literally) big record for 2011. Gentleman Jesse has yet another new 45. Kyle Thomas’ band Happy Birthday (he’s also in King Tuff) has an LP that came out quite a few months ago, but I only got it now. It’s a really phenomenal record with great pop tunes. Thomas’ proves again that he’s a very talented songwriter.
Exactly 10 years ago, on this day, I broadcasted the very first The Little Lighthouse. At the time, it was a two-hour radio show on college radio station KLSU. With the second show, on January 27th, The Little Lighthouse also got a website and became one of the first podcasts ever on Internet, before the evil corporation Apple even coined the term, before the first mp3 players became a household item. But more importantly, this show became a vent for me to enjoy and understand new and old music in a new, exciting way. Starting with today’s show, and further in 2011, I will try to recall highlights of the first season as it was unrolling. I am alsoo very happy to announce that The Little Lighthouse will from now on be syndicated at another radio station, in addition to Radio SC in Zagreb: it’s the brand new radio station in Kragujevac, Serbia called 
Every year about this time, The Little Lighthouse puts together a list of best albums that we rocked out at the show in the past year. This year is no exception. 2010 was quite exciting as far as the new albums go. I’d say that at least top 10 of the albums are modern classics, with all ingredients that a really big rock’n’roll record should have. I think it’s not so surprising that Sweet Apple with Love And Desperation took the number one. I was fortunate enough to see this album coming out of John’s sketches and forming into a full blown LP. But, even without that part, this record reminds us what a true rock record should be, without twists and frills. The real thing. The we also have Eamon McGrath as a surprising new songwriting talent and also Harlan T Bobo establishing himself as probably the greatest on in past 10 years. The rest of the list follows here:
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.
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…
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!
UK label Acid Jazz has started re-issuing rare ep records and demos of the garage rock legends from England. In today’s show we represent two of those eps, both dealing with the past of Small Faces – Ian McLagan’s Muleskinners and Steve Marriot’s early solo work. Another cool reissue is the legendary Gibson Bros. LP from 1986 Build A Raft together with a busload of extras. Loretta Lynn has a new tribute album that gathered a mottle crew of artists. Logically, the tribute’s title is Coal Miner’s Daughter. Our good friends from the early days of the show, San Francisco duet ing, is back after a few years of silence with a luxurious CD/DVD release of Dial which is a musical that in parts deals with a loss of Mark Smotroff’s life partner Jack. John Wesley Coleman, a singer-songwriter from Austin is busy lately with putting out albums quite frequently. This time we listen to a track from his latest album Bad Lady Goes To Jail. And we also have one brand new band today, they are very loud and their name is Bottle Up And Go. So let’s go!