Today is the time for the fifth edition of our occasional special called Vinyl Junkyard in which I represent one record that I’ve found laying lonesome in some dusty bargain bin for a ridiculously small amount of money, but that brings a lot of wonderful listening pleasure. Today’s record is put together back in 1978 by Beserkley Records, and indie label that employed at the time diverse bands such as The Modern Lovers, Earth Quake, Greg Kihn, Tyla Gang and The Rubinoos. One of the most precious releases by the Beserkley Records was a compilation record entitled Spitballs where all of the Beserkley roster joined forces and in ad hoc line ups recorded some of their favorite songs from the rock’n’roll past. The results are fun to listen and in this show, we will compare the covers with the original tunes.
Them – I Can Only Give You Everything;
Spitballs – I Can Only Give You Everything (Royse Adler of the Rubinoos);
Spitballs – Bad Moon Rising (Sean Tyla);
Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising;
The Bobby Fuller Four – Let Her Dance;
Spitballs – Let Her Dance (Gary Phillips of Earth Quake);
Spitballs – I Want Her So Bad (Tommy Dunbar of The Rubinoos);
Spitballs – Telstar;
The Tornados – Telstar;
The Temptations – Way Over There;
Spitballs – Way over there (Asa Brebner of the Modern Lovers);
Spitballs – Chapel of love (Jonathan Richman);
The Dixie Cups – Chapel of Love;
Wilson Pickett – Knock on wood;
Spitballs – Knock on wood (Sean Tyla and Jon Doukas of Earth Quake);
Spitballs – Just like me (Jon Rubin of the Rubinoos);
Paul Revere and The Raiders – Just Like Me;
The Who – Boris the Spider;
Spitballs – Boris the Spider (Rubinoos drummer Donn Spindt);
Spitballs – Feel so good (John Doukas of Earthquake);
The Move – Feel Too Good;
Spitballs – Batman;
Disciplina Kicme – Betmen.
Today we open up with our good friends Cheap Wine from Pesaro in Italy, one of the best Americana band outside America. We also represent the new album from the Australian singer songwriter Paul Kelly. Sarah Borges joined forces with Los Straitjackets for a cover of The Rolling Stones Let’s Spend The Night Together. Buddy Miller joined forces with Jim Lauderdale for a new album together. And Trixie Whitley visited Cleveland with her band and totally rocked the house. We hear a portion of her snow in Beachland in our segment Live in Cleveland.
New American rock was a musical label worth carrying in the late eighties. Being a part of that scene meant that you belong to the most innovative group of musicians on the scene, and that you possess a direct link to more traditional rock roots. One of the bands that proudly carried the “new American rock” label back in the day was The Sidewinders from Tucson, AZ.
Several new things today… John Wesley Coleman III has yet another record out this year, so when you add it all up together, it’s his forth this year: two solo, one duet and one with The Golden Boys (we 
Golden Boys are a five piece from Austin, Texas. The best known name in the band is John Wesley Coleman III, who is known in Austin and elsewhere not only as one of the Golden Boys, but also as a singer songwriter, stand up comedian and a trash poet. But, according to what I could find about the band, it seems that Matt Hoopengardner and Bryan Schmitz, on two guitars and main vocals, are the main driving forces behind the Golden Boys.
Today we say goodbye to Johnny Perez, who played drums in the early days of The Sir Douglas Quintet. We also play some very interesting reissues from many different heroes of this show. Tav Falco has reissued his debut album Beyond The Magnolia County recently, and the record cover includes a nice four sided description on the early history of the band from the insiders. Legendary first (and only) album by Memphis band Moloch also has a very nice high quality vinyl reissue. Beach Boys and Frank Zappa are reissuing their entire catalog and Velvet Underground’s debut from 1967 saw an extremely expanded 6 disc upgrade. Also there’s a new tribute to the same record, marking a nice 45 year anniversary. Other new stuff is Kurt Baker and his new record, as well as Austin’s Rosie Flores.
Hear us roar through an hour of music with the speed of light – from zesty hard-core punk to tearful country. You won’t even know what has got you. We start off with the brand new 7″ from the hard core masters from Raleigh, NC. Our old friends Double Negative are back with the thrid and fourth installment of their Hardcore Confusion series. We also introduce Modern Superstitions, a new band from Canada. Then there’s Brooklyn’s own rockers Nude Beach, who present themselves with an extremely accessible, yet uncompromising second album. Zappa’s guitarist Mike Keneally joins forces with XTC’s Andy Partridge for the new album. In the end, we shed a tear with the Sweethearts of The Rodeo.
Today we say goodbye to one of my personal heros. Tusta was a singer of a great punk band KUD Idijoti who put out a series of three excellent EPs back when I was just starting to be interested in the underground rock. For me, Idijoti was one of the most exciting things that happened musically worldwide, although they were just a small local Yugoslav band. Unfortunately, cancer took Tusta’s life sometime last week and it shook me deeply. As if a family member died, although I didn’t even know him personally. Today show is for Tusta. We hear some his music and we also check out some of the new music as well. Cowbell is a duet from England. Electric Six have a new live record, and they visited Cleveland. Along, they brought a new band from San Diego called Little Hurricane, also a duet. And we saw an interesting new Cleveland band, Dead Sweaters. Plus Dick Valentine has a new solo record. And The Legs, Eric Oblivian’s old band, has their recordings from 2000 finally out on a record.
Jesse Lee Smith is a fellow that hails from the Atlanta rock’n’roll scene that gave us many interesting garage rock bands in the past few years. One of the bands that started it all was the Ramones influenced quintet The Carbonas and Jesse played bass in it. He had a somewhat more complex vision on what his music should be, so he started a solo career with a rotating line up of musicians simply referred to as “his men”.
Today we review some parts of the blooming and booming new San Francisco rock’n’roll scene, lead by Ty Segall who has a new album out there called Twins. We also check out the wonderful cajuns from Switzerland, Mama Rosin, who made a new album in New York City with Jon Spencer and also have another ad-hoc project called Les Frères Souchet. Talking about the Francophone stuff, we have a new single for Perpignan’s Jack of Heart and including their potent cover of Gun Club’s For The Love of Ivy recorded live in Cleveland. We close the show with Amy Lavere and Shannon McNally with their new tour rehearsal tapes and with Lucy Kaplansky’s cover of The Beatles tune I’m Looking Through You.