For those who wonder what I played at The Blue Arrow Records the other day, here’s the complete playlist. Mark * next to the song title means that people came by and asked about them or discussed the songs in one way or another.
Husker Du – Flip Your Wig;
Tony All – New Girl Old Story;
David Bowie – Queen Bitch;
Elektricni Orgazam – Citadel;*
Delfini – Gloria;
Godfathers – Birth School Work Death;*
True West – Lucifer Sam;*
Ducks Deluxe – Fireball;
Any Trouble – Growing Up;
Starry Eyed and Laughing – One Foot in the Boat;*
Eddie And The Hotrods – Do Anything You Want To Do;*
Nesalomivi – 95-52-95;*
John Paul Keith – Lookin’ For A Thrill;
King Tuff – Keep On Moving;
Lotion – Walk Away Renee;
The Barreracudas – Come On Come On;*
The Choir – I’d Rather You Leave Me;*
The Boys – Weekend;
Grant Hart – California Zephyr;
Gentleman Jesse – Black Hole;
Sarlo Akrobata – Mali covek;
Smrts – I Was Born With Torments;*
fIREHOSE – The Riddle of the Eighties;*
Rank And File – Golden Age;
House of Freaks – 40 Years;
The Replacements – I’ll Be You;*
The Steppes – The Real Time;
Mega City Four – Who Cares?;*
Shoes – Too Late;
Big Star – Daisy Glaze;*
American Music Club – Outside This Bar;
Tim Lee and Matt Piucci Gone Fishin’ – Charlie Jones;
Zeitgeist – Blue Eyes;
Gile i Vlada – Pobuna;
Paul Kelly – Leaps And Bounds;
Tav Falco – Endless Sleep;
House Of Freaks – Black Cat Bone;
The Golden Palominos – Diamond.
Today’s show is dedicated to all meteor observers in the occasion of the annual Perseid meteor shower that happened last weekend. We have a large block of songs about meteors, falling stars… We also have a new single for Bob Mould which represents his return to the his synthless past. Thee Oh Sees also have a new album, which is quite conventional in form. Whispering Pines is a new band also from Cali that we check out today. They are inspired by The Band. Another premier at the Little Lighthouse is the Cincinnati band Buffalo Killers.
Today we start with two Alicias. Actually, one Alicia and one Alicja. Alicia Gbur is a well known photographer from the Detroit area and a former member of Von Bondies. She also has a new band called Fawn. Their debut album Coastlines came out recently. Alicja Trout is also a multi-talented artist, but she’s from Memphis, TN. Her new band River City Tanlines has a new album Coast To Coast. Susanna Hoffs, from The Bangles has a new solo record out and it has a sweet retro sound, produced by Mitchell Froom. Amy Allison joined forces with David Scott of the Pearlfishers for their new album together called Turn Like The World Does. Bob Mould’s Sugar had put out reissues of nearly their entire catalog, including some live recording that are out for the first time.
Today we begin with the ladies. Treasa Levasseur is a new name at the Little Lighthouse from Canada. Her new album Broad is a strong blues/soul offering. Rumer is a British singer with an exotic background. Her new album Boys Don’t Cry is an exquisite selection of intricate covers from the history of fine rock’n’roll songwriting. Parlor Snakes is a French and American new band, lead by Eugénie Alquezar and we have them for the first time today. Then we have some interesting new anthologies, one for Epic Soundtracks and the other one for R. Stevie Moore. Then we dwell deep into South and we check out the new traditional offerings from two Southern super-trios: South Memphis String Band and a nameless trio of the Louisiana musicians Wayne Toups, Steve Riley and Wilson Savoy.
Unfortunately, today we say goodbye to two great rock musicians who died recently. First of all, Tim Mooney who was in American Music Club passed away on June 15th. Then, most recently, Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord also passed away a month later, on July 16th. We remember them both today. Lil’ Band O’ Gold are also back with a new record after 12 years, this time dedicated to the good old Fats Domino. Redd Kross are back rocking their heads off with the new record called Researching The Blues. Luther Dickinson is quite busy recently. First he prepared a collection of live recordings that he and his brother recorded with his father Jim Dickinson shortly before his death. Also, there’s a new band for Luther himself, a supergroup The Wandering that consists of Shannon McNally, Amy LaVere, Valerie June and Sharde Thomas. Kevn Kinney is also busy. After his great solo record earlier this year, he also reformed his old band Drivin n’ Cryin’. Kelly Hogan, who we know from Jody Grind and as a backup singer for  is also back. She has a new record I Like To Keep Myself in Pain. And let us not forget Turf War – a new band from Atlanta, live in CLE!
On July 12, 50 years ago, The Rolling Stones had their firs gig at the Marequee Club in London. It’s not news to say the Stones are one of the most influential rock’n’roll bands ever. So, in honor of their 50th anniversary, we will review some of the most interesting covers of The Rolling Sones songs. I think that the choice is not entirely obvious, so you may have fun staying with us.
I definitely prefer Bob Welch’s era of Fleetwood Mac to the saccharine post-hippie Buckingham era that followed and which brought the some of the best selling (and most covered by indie hipsters albums) in pop/rock. Sadly, we say goodbye to Bob Welch, the architect of Mac sound after Peter Green left the band. He committed suicide on June 7, this year, following an excruciating pain from the spinal surgery he had three months earlier. On the lighter side, we also have some cool new albums that we check out. Chelle Rose from Nashville TN has a new one out called Ghost of Browder Holler, produced by Ray Wylie Hubbard (what a great season for him this year!). Folk rock lady Shawn Colvin, who we remember as a background vocalist on Suzanne Vega’s song Luka, has a new album as well. It’s called All Fall Down. Talking about folk and country, Sonny and the Sunsets made a new album in this vain called Longtime Companion. He even took a picture with a cowboy hat. But don’t expect him to pull Jonathan Richman on you. He’s in it for real. And, brothers Villanueva are back with their band Hacienda and the new record Shakedown, once again a collaboration with Dan Auerbach.
In today’s edition of the vinyl Junkyard we have two great albums from 1967, which was probably one of the greatest years for rock’n’roll ever. Still, you won’t hear much today about either of them. We start with Jonathan and Leigh and their record Third and Main. The title and cover allude to New York City and Greenwich Village. While the young couple Jonathan and Leigh definitely lived and played music over there at the time, they are actually from Dayton OH. The record was made for a sizable advance and put out by Vanguard Records. Some of the musicians that played on it later on helped Van Morrison to make his legendary Astral Weeks and you may notice that. But Third and Main was a flop and Jonathan and Leigh went back to Dayton, never recording anything together again. The second record in today’s edition of the Vinyl Junkyard is The Magic Garden by the vocal group The Fifth Dimension. The record is arranged, produced and composed by none other than Jimmy Webb. The record deals with some of the concerns that young adults and a little older adults had at the time. There is a lot of light drug references and other stuff that may be unexpected. Unlike Third and Main, The Magic Garden was successful in terms of sales. I think that both albums are very interesting and we should definitely pay respect to them.
PMS Issue 4, edited and hosted by Dubravka Juraga and Snezana Zabic, brings five Chicago poets and music from around the world. We didn’t get enough of Paul Martinez Pompa last time, so we not only brought him back, but also invited two of his talented students, Anahi Gante and Ky Ford, to read their poems. We are equally happy that
Today’s show is part of our Vinyl Junkyard series. We take one lp and we play it almost in its entirety with some associations that I get when I think about this record. Today’s record is a very special one in my little world. It’s a 1967 compilation record by Fontana records and it came out from what I know only in Netherlands, Israel and Yugoslavia. The lp contains 13 covers of the psych pop hits of the day, twelve of them by the uncredited studio musicians and two originals by Spencer Davis Group and Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich who were a part of Fontana records roster in Europe. The LP is interesting because even though it’s a clearly psych exploitation record, and even though the musicians are anonymous, all the songs are actually very well played, most of them quite faithful to the originals and in some cases maybe even better. You judge yourself. In any case, the record was very important for me, I grew up with it and whenever I hear songs from this record, actually these covers seem more familiar to me than the originals. They are so deeply carved in my memory.