Do you remember Velocity Girl, a 90s grungy power pop that had its day on Sub Pop? Well, it turns out the drummer of that band Jim Spellman has a No 1 Song now. At least, that’s the title and the feel of that song, as we know charts don’t matter these days. And Spellman’s new band is called Julie Ocean, named after an Undertones tune (he switch over to the front with his guitar and microphone). This show also brings two new names to the Lighthouse – Bellafea and the Wood Brothers. Bellafea comes from Chapel Hill, NC and delivers an angular guitar tone with great female vocals. The Wood Brothers is that dude from Medeski Martin and Wood on bass and his brother on guitar. Now, if you listen to this show regularly, you probably know I can’t stand the MMW trio, but the Wood Brothers pleasantly surprised me. In other news, looks like The Faces had a session where they decided to reunite for a world tour and a new record. Ian McLagan reports on his page that this is very likely to happen. He also had a nice album earlier this year that went a bit under the radar and I saw his excellent performance in Chicago this summer, so we check out that new album called Never Say Never.
Mick Farren – I Want a Drink;
Kamo Sutra – FreeZderi;
Trotsky Icepick – Say Goodnight;
Velvet Elvis – Back It Up;
The Undertones – Julie Ocean;
Julie Ocean – No 1 Song;
Velocity Girl – Sorry Again;
Faces – Flying;
Ian McLagan – My Irish Rose;
Wood Brothers – Glad;
Wood Brothers – Make Me Down A Pallet On Your Floor;
Uzi – Collection;
All The Saints – Regal Regalia;
Bellafea – Bones to Pick;
Husker Du – Somewhere;
Robert Gordon – Someday Someway;
Jason And The Scorchers – Harvest Moon.
This show brings two lo-fi premieres. We have George Reeves from Oregon and Satan’s Youth Ministries from Alabama. Can you name your band in Alabama like that and get away? Apparently so. A hi-fi premiere is Swedish band La Fleur Fatale, a band that will be touring USA next year on the same bill as the rejuvenated Electric Prunes. Also, we’re checking out the newest album for the Electric Six called Flashy. Flashy and flamboyant as usual!
After Mickey Waller dying earlier this year, we’re seeing another great british drummer leaving this ugly planet. I’m sure you heard it already, Mitch Mitchell, legendary drummer of Jimi Hendrix Experience died on November 12 in his hotel room in Portland OR. We dedicate this show to him and a large portion of this show we go through some of the stuff that he recorded. The rest of the show is filled with some new stuff. Some of the new ladies on the rock’n’roll scene close the show this time. We have Jessica Lea Mayfield from Ohio and two duets, furious blues duet The Pack A.D. from Canada and an acoustic duet from Stroudsburg PA, Friday Night Parking Lots. Good old Yugo-rock band from Rijeka, Fit is back with a live record, so we check that out as well. Mark Lanegan has a new EP too. Warren Zevon’s second, selftitled album from 1976 received recently a deluxe treatment with a great new remastered sound and an extra disc of rarities and alternate takes. We compare the newly revealed alternate take of Poor Poor Pitiful Me with an early demo that came out on last year’s Preludes.
The new name in today’s show is Peter and The Pets, a band from Antwerp in Belgium, a band clearly influenced by all the coolest 80s underground, which us at the Lighthouse hold so dearly to our hearts. Another name is The War on Drugs from Philadelphia. They are an interesting version of post modernist approach to rock, but with heavy influences in 60s rock. So, creativity and modernity with a careful eye on the past. We appreciate that rare approach here at the Little Lighthouse. Nils, the KLSU Funkpreacher is back with his band of ten years, Funkdienst. New Orleans keyboardist Quintron is also back with a new album called Too Thirsty For Love. From my brief visit to Zagreb, I bring you the newly mastered recordings by Kamo Sutra, who are about to package them up into a brand new CD. Elvis Costello also had a very good album earlier this week, which took us some time to present. But it’s a really good one. It’s entitled Momofuku, after the Japanese inventor of instant soups! And that’s all for today, folks!
After two shows when we reviewed some of the older “material”, in this show we have a chance to hear some of the hottest new releases of the current moment. Â Gentleman Jesse from Atlanta, GA and Judge Bone from Finland rock the (Light)house hard for the first time. Brimstone Howl, exciting new band from Nebraska (of all places) has a new album called We Come And Peace. They’ve been around for awhile, but we have them at this show for the first time (mark the calendars!). Eagles of Death Metal have a brand new album called Heart On and while it’s not surpassing the previous one, it’s still very exciting. Lucinda Williams has a new record called Little Honey and it’s probably the most electrified LP she ever recorded. And Little Lighthouse appreciates electricity more than anything else. On the other hand, Holly Golightly has gone acoustic on her new album with The Brokeoffs and that’s cool with us too. And, last but not the least – The Replacements put out the final four of their re-issues, fully equipped with cool bonus track, three of which we sample today.
In the past several months, three great soul musicians left this ugly world. We say goodbye to Levi Stubbs, Isaac Hayes and Norman Whitfield. Levi Stubbs was an unforgettable baritone in The Four Tops. Desperate drama of The Four Tops classics Reach Out, Standing In The Shadows Of Love would be impossible without his strong interpretation. The Four Tops formula of success was created when Stubbs forces his natural baritone into higher ranges, creating a sense of urgency and drama. The best example is perhaps Bernadette, which is now considered one of the artistic heights of the entire Motown catalog. Another Motown giant, Norman Whitfield also left us earlier this fall. He is best known for his work with The Temptations. In his hands, Temptations achieved psychedelic artistic heights when Whitfield penned amazing hit Papa Was A Rolling Stone. But Whitfield’s best known song is perhaps I Heard It Through The Grapevine, a classic he wrote originally for Gladys Knight, but Marvin Gaye’s version is the one that you’d probably think of first. Isaac Hayes, the black Moses from Memphis started as a songwriter in the sixties. He wrote such soul staples as Soul Man and Hold On, I’m Coming for Sam and Dave. In the late sixties, Hayes launched an acclaimed interpretative career, recording lps such as Hot Buttered Soul and earning an Oscar for his soundtrack for Shaft. Rock’n’roll will be forever in debt to this golden trio!
This one is an insane episode! I was fiddling around with my turntable and I wanted to play a show entirely consisted of my old 45s. While I was making the show – the motor on the turntable died! You can actually hear that moment in the show! Then, I finished the show with a fixed turntable sometime later, but you get to hear it right away. I guess, the only real premier in this show is the 7″ I dug out in Cleveland of an old new wave experimental outfit called the Modern Art Studio. But I went through horrors making this show watching my turntable die and that’s what makes this one interesting – I guess!
Today’s episode concentrates on (more or less) new Australian rock’n’roll scene. We introduce a new band called Empty State and we wonder if Empty State and Mona Lisa Overdrive are stems for a brand new, exciting rock scene in the land of kangaroos?! We also check out new albums for the well established Aussies The Drones and You Am I plus a new recording off of Paul Kelly’s A-Z project. Then we crash land into the good old US of A and we check out the new Rodney Crowell’s album Sex and Gasoline.
Today’s episode is filled with new music. Hard working musician from Massachusetts, 
Here we are in another episode of The Little Lighthouse. We open up with a brand new song for legendary Husker Du drummer Grant Hart, which he posted to his myspace page. It’s great to see him back and perhaps this means that the new album is also in plans. New York’s traditionalists Endless Boogie, named after a Johnny Lee Hooker classic LP, debut at today’s show. The Moondoggies from Seattle WA also debut. Both bands are proof that rock’n’roll is here to stay. A cool compilation record came out this year – it’s called Thank You Friends and it chronicles the Memphis recording studio and label Ardent through a series of amazing and rare tracks. So, we check that out too in today’s show.