Hey hey! Welcome to the the very last Little Lighthouse for this summer. Radio SC, together with the college in Zagreb, are leaving for a collective summer vacation, and this program will also take a small break. In this show we have the brand new tunes for The New York Dolls and Petra Haden. Booker T. Jones recorded a brand new album with Drive By Truckers called Potato Hole. We check it out in this show. Chris Eckman of The Walkabouts also recorded a new album. It’s called The Last Side of The Mountain, it’s recorded in Slovenia and Steve Wynn is a guest on one tune.
Joe South – Clock Up on the Wall;
Utopia – Love In Action;
New York Dolls – Lonely So Long;
Willie Nile – Doomsday;
The Lemonheads – Fragile;
Wire – Fragile;
Petra Haden – Let Your Love Flow;
Booker T. Jones – Pound It Out;
Booker T. & The Mgs – Sunny;
Bobby Hebb – Sunny;
Nerve City – Junkyard;
Chris Eckman And Steve Wynn – The Same;
Bob Dylan – This Dream of You;
The Krayolas – Corrido Twelve Heads In A Bag;
The Know – Like Girls;
Suburban Lawns – Unable;
Piloti – Novo odelo;
Bill Fox – Way Way Down;
The Beach Boys – Don’t Worry, Baby;
After four-week break, The Little Lighthouse is finally back. But not for long. In two weeks Radio SC is taking a summer break with re-runs, so this show will resume when they return in September. But let’s see what we have on today! Dinosaur Jr are back with a new album called Farm and it’s a good one! I must admit, I did not expect too much, since it seemed to me that their reunion was motivated by anything but pure artistic inspiration. I guess I was wrong. Greg Koons, who we praised for his great LA on TV song, finally has a debut record out. It’s called Welcome to the Nowhere Motel and it represents him as already developed singer-songwriter with a nice rock edge. Another songwriter, Willie Nile, who wrote some of the most engaging lyrics about New York City, is also back. The new album is called House of a Thousand Guitars. And then we have one more singer-songwriter, Ray Mason, the hardest working man in rock’n’roll who puts out at least two records per year, is back again with the new record Like Bugs Chewing on Paper and this time it’s a solo deal. Predrag Delibasic, multi-instrumentalist from Perth, Australia recently recorded a demo and a single, and it’s filled with very approachable, danceable but imaginative instrumentals, played on weird instruments. We end things up today with two live bootlegs that I’ve recorded in Pittsburgh using my mp3-player: Ed fROMOHIO and Grant Hart – two legendary SST musicians who need no introduction.
Here we are at the new episode of The Little Lighthouse. Next three Thursdays will be a short break for The Little Lighthouse as I’m leaving for a small trip. We will pick up where we left in June. But, let’s see what we have today. Toady we introduce The Blackwater Fever, a new drum and guitar duet from Australia. We have a new Thee Oh Sees 45 and The Rats reissue. The Rats is an early eighties band for Fred and Toody Cole of Dead Moon. Also, check out an excellent 60s Yugo-beat from Bis-Bez! We have a new band Evil Cowards for Tyler Spencer of Electric Six and Dirty Shame. I saw Electric Six again, and they are still 100% fun. I also saw Mike Watt and his Missingmen playing live at The Grog Shop. It was a very playful show that saw Watt in an excellent mood. They played a lot of classic punk songs, several of which we revisit in this show in honor of old Watt. He has just recorded the new opera with Tony Maimone in New York City and it will hopefully come out very soon.
Two of the greatest 80s college rock bands are back with new albums and we check those out in this show. Sonic Youth with The Eternal and Lemonheads with Varshons. Varshons is completely consisted of covers and one leaked out before the album is actually out; Leonard Cohen’s That’s No Way to Say Goodbye. It’s a duet between Evan Dando and Liv Tyler. This is also a good chance to remind ourselves on how great Cohen is, so we check out two more songs that he wrote: So Long Marianne and First We Take Manhattan. Jack Oblivian has a new album too with his latest band The Tennessee Tearjerkers and it’s called The Disco Outlaw.
We begin today’s show with several rebellious songs to help with keeping the spirit of the Zagreb students that are protesting new tuition fees that were imposed on them. Second part of the show introduces new albums for Bob Dylan, Meat Puppets and Thee Oh Sees. Thee Oh Sees debuted last year with their album Master’s Bedroom… In today’s show we check out the new one, called Help, and a compilation of their re-recordings Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion, which came out a few months ago. New Dylan’s album Together Through Life is perhaps the most talked about record recently. Legendary Puppets out out the second album after their recent reunion and it’s cold Sewn Together. Through life?
Today’s show is dedicated to Duane Jarvis, singer, songwriter and session musician based in Los Angeles. He died from colon cancer on April 1st this year at only 51. Another dedication goes to the students of Zagreb who are protesting against new tuition fees over there. Buddy and Julie Miller are for the first time at The Little Lighthouse with their new album Written in Chalk. The Velvematics is a new power-pop name from Akron. Krayolas are back with a brand new album Long Leaf Pine. It’s my favorite album of the season, so look out, I’ll be reviewing it soon.
We have four new names in today’s show. Three represent straight forward garage rock. Elephant Bones are coming from my town, Cleveland. Their album Arms is a glamified deal with good lyrics and well informed with history of pop music. Bazooka Falcon are from New York, but sound more like they’re from Sweden. They have some of that rocking sound that we’ve heard from the Hellacopters and Hives. The third in the new line up is The Rain Bonnets, who I know very little about, but they sound like Iggy Pop with a good dose of humor. Greg Koons from Philadelphia also debuts at The Little Lighthouse. His song Los Angeles Looks Prettier on TV is a modern songwriting masterpiece. His tour-list is very extensive, so make sure if he’s visiting your town. Demon’s Claws from Montreal have a new 45 and we check it out today. And, finally – we have waited 30 years for their second lp, but only 5 for their fourth one – Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock and Joe Ely – The Flatlanders are together again.
Today we bring you two European bands with appreciation for the American sound. Mama Rosin come from Switzerland and play Cajun music. Waistcoats are from Netherlands and they put out one of the strongest garage rock eps this year. Stateside, Neil Young is back with new album Fork In The Road. Steve Earle has a Townes Van Zandt cover album and Mission of Burma has a live ep distributed online.
Today’s show brings a very special block dedicated to legendary keyboardist Augie Meyers, original member of Sir Douglas Quintet who is making a sensational comeback these days with The Krayolas. We also have a brand new CD for John Doe who joined with The Sadies, re-recording a selection of classical country songs. Indie rockers Superchunk are back with a new single and Cat Power covered Dylan on her new EP.
Today’s show is dedicated to one of the greatest songwriters ever – Jackie DeShannon. There is no particular reason for this celebration of her talent, I just felt like I needed some of her music. Back in the sixties it wasn’t so easy to be a female singer-songwriter. Somehow, musical industry at the time saw women either as performers or songwriters. So, women that wanted to do both at the same time had hard time breaking through these barriers. For example, Carole King had to wait for the entire decade to be over until she was given an opportunity to record her own songs properly. Jackie DeShannon was making albums and successful singles through the decade, but typically made hits with other people’s songs (Needles and Pins, What The World Needs Now). Her own songs she very often recorded just as simple acetate demos and passed over to other artists. These recordings are not easy to find these days, but some of these recordings surfaced. Today we have a concept where we play versions of Jackie’s demos and studio versions recorded by other artists that actually made charts. But most of all, it’s a chance to hear gorgeous Jackie’s tunes in her own inspired interpretation. Slight asperity of her voice is unmistakable and paired with her perfect songs, they stand as some of the most beautiful recordings laid on tape… umm acetate.