Wim Wenders had a movie called “Three American LPs”. Today’s show is about a different set of three American albums that came in 1984. It’s incredible that those are three consecutive releases by one label (SST), in one year and two of them came out as double albums on a same day. Yet, these three are probably the greatest albums of the American underground rock and in my personal opinion, quite possibly three best albums in the entire history of rock’n’roll. At least, such was the influence on the little old me. Today we hear three 20ish minute excerpts from each of those albums and then we explore some covers that other bands made as a tribute to the songs from these three albums. Actually, it’s really strange that there’s not more covers of the songs from this album, given how much they mean to many people who enjoyed exactly 40 years ago. We are listening to Meat Puppets II, Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The Dime and Husker Du’s Zen Arcade.
Minutemen – History Lesson Pt II
Minutemen – Viet Nam
Minutemen – Two Beads at the End
Minutemen – Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Truth
Minutemen – One Reporter’s Opinion
Minutemen – Retreat
Minutemen – Corona
Minutemen – The Glory of Man
Minutemen – The Roar of the Masses Could Be Farts
Minutemen – This Ain’t No Picnic
Minutemen – June 16th
Husker Du – Something I Learned Today
Husker Du – Never Talking To You Again
Husker Du – Chartered Trips
Husker Du – Somewhere
Husker Du – One Step At A Time
Husker Du – Pink Turns To Blue
Husker Du – Newest Industry
Husker Du – Monday Will Never Be The Same
Husker Du – Whatever
Meat Puppets – Lost
Meat Puppets – Plateau
Meat Puppets – We’re Here
Meat Puppets – Climbing
Meat Puppets – Oh Me
Meat Puppets – Lake of Fire
Meat Puppets – The Whistling Song
Minutemen – Lost
Jawbox – It’s Expected I’m Gone
Foofighters – Never Talking To You Again
Nirvana – Plateau
Nirvana – Lake of Fire
We reported earlier this year that Porcupine over in Minneapolis had recruited Greg Norton from Hüsker Dü as a bass player. Their new album is out and there’s a cover of a Hüsker Dü song Standing By The Sea among other really good originals. Tav Falco also has a new record out. Thalia Zedek is very productive this year. After an album with her new band E, there’s also a new one of her own. We introduce Dee Rangers from Sweden, Grip Weeds from New Jersey, Caddy from Norway and Warm Drag, a duet from Los Angeles. We pay a tribute to Tony Joe White who passed away on October 24th this year.
Today we start with the new music for the three ladies in California, Midnite Snaxxx. Guided By Voices has yet another album and we check out a track that closes it. Mia Dyson from Australia is back with the new record and so are the Londoners Jack Sandham and Wednesday Lyle who are together in Cowbell. Oslobodioci from Serbia have an interesting new cover of the Husker Du tune Sorry Somehow. Lemon Twigs are back with a new song that sounds like a Todd Rundgren song and Lemon Clocks are back with their new psychedelic doings. Lovely Bad Things are a new band for us, lead by Lauren Curtius and Beechwood from New York City closes the show with their new album.
We lost Grant Hart about a week ago. Grant Hart was a man who lived his life with curiosity of a wide-eyed kid. His poetic and abstract way of writing stood as a counterpoint to the calculated and equally strong songwriting of Bob Mould in Husker Du. His post Du records gave him an opportunity to further explore history, demons and angels, future of man kind. And some records were simply disarmingly beautiful collections of songs. Grant Hart was unrepeatable. This collection is a mixture of odd stuff he has been creating throughout the years and some are rare live recordings too. Maybe this is the kind of obituary he would put for himself, or maybe not. It’s a selection of tunes that I just needed to put together.
Today we have Julie Doiron from Canada returning to the playlist with her new band Julie and The Wrong Guys. Also from Canada, The Wasted Potential that we played some time ago through a series of contemporary Hüsker Dü covers are back with a new tune dedicated. The DTs come from Bellingham WA, and hail from Hidden Volume, the same label that also brought us Gorilla* and The Improbables this year. Katy Cole and her Last Daze keep putting out new songs and we are anticipating the new record with great hopes. And we also wait for the new Dream Syndicate record. Meanwhile they are putting occasional tracks from their upcoming album on Youtube. Derrick Anderson from Toledo, OH teamed up with The Bangles for his new single. We also check out Handsome Jack from Lockport, NY live in Cleveland. Brinsley Schwartz lost album It’s All Over Now is finally properly released, so we check that out too.
Today we start off with Sheer Mag from Philadelphia with their new, third EP. Then we go to Australia and check the new album for The Murlocs, lead by Ambrose Kenny Smith from King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard. Then we visit Moscow, Russia and their new quartet Nikola Tesla and Thee Coils. All Them Witches from Nashville have a new album called Lightning At The Door. Bob Mould from Hüsker Dü also has a new record, called Patch The Sky. We are still very excited by Lilly Hiatt’s new record Royal Blue, and she surprised us pleasantly with four previously unavailable songs. We pay respect to Keith Emerson and George Martin. And, we also have a special announcement, my sister Snežana Žabić has a new book out on Punctum – get it! There’s a lot of incriminating stories involving yours truly inside the book.
We start off today with a tribute to Husker Du. Two Canadian bands, Red Arms and Wasted Potential put their resources together and made a coll tribute to Husker Du. The whole thing is on their 
Today’s show is a part of our Vinyl Junkyard serial in which we dedicate time to one LP that I’ve found dirt cheap collecting dust in some bargain bin box. The one we grabbed today is a tribute to the Byrds, called Time Between. It came out on Communion records in 1989 and it collected the cream of the crop when it comes to the alternative rock scene of the day, covering Byrds exclusively the songs written by the main original Byrds: McGuinn, Clark, Crosby and Hillman. In my mind, the highlight of the record is Thin White Rope’s version of Everybody Has Been Burned, but nearly every song marks more than a decent attempt at revising the old Byrds sound. This LP, together with the Husker Du single covering Eight Miles High did a great job of turning the younger audience to Byrds. And I was one of them.
We start off today with Pond – a band from Australia with ties to Tame Impala. We continue with another song from the Pop Depression compilation album Pesme ispod pokrivaca, this time it’s ŽeneKese from Belgrade with their version of the Hüsker Dü classic Flexible Flier. Then we check out the new albums for Willie Nile and Queens of The Stone Age. We also have Neko Case as a guest singer on the new musical written by Stephen King, T Bone Burnett And John Mellencamp. Finally, we introduce the new duet from Belgium Iris and the Deadly Flowers, which consists of a 16 year old girl and her father.