Flashlite #26

Orstralia 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.

Mission of Burma – Falling;
David Bowie – Andy Warhol;
David Bromberg – Holdup;
The Beatles – Savoy Truffle;
The Stems – Just Ain’t Engouh;
Mona Lisa Overdrive – No Way Out;
Empty State – Sunday;
Paul Kelly – I Wasted Time;
You Am I – Rosedale;
You Am I – Givin’ Up And Getting Fat;
The Drones – Nail It Down;
Todd Rundgren – Determination;
Little Feat – Easy To Slip;
The Figures – Easy To Slip;
T Bone Burnett – Talk Talk Talk;
Rodney Crowell – Truth Decay;
Jeff Beck Group – I Can’t Give Back the Love I Feel for You.

Flashlite #25

Ray Mason Today’s episode is filled with new music. Hard working musician from Massachusetts, Ray Mason, sent us the new Lonesome Brothers CD called The Last CD along with two of his older releases that we have missed. We check all that out in this show. The Heretics from Oslo in Norway also send us their new ep – five furious garage rock tracks. Cobra Verde form Cleveland also have a brand new album out. It was recorded nearly two years ago, but it’s finally out. It’s called Haven’t Slept All Year and it’s a candidate for the hottest release this year. New Jersey rockers The Successful Failures are here at the Little Lighthouse for the first time and we showcase them with their title song and one other song from their latest album called Ripe For Burning. Philadelphia band Love City also debuts at the show with an upcoming 7″ called Regretting. From Boise Idaho, we get to hear a new band called The Very Most and their Beach Boys influenced pop. We close the show with the spankin’ brand new album for the Georgia Satellites singer Dan Baird who has a new band called the Homemade Sin. And woah – that’s was a pretty long list for one show, huh?

The Reigning Sound – Uptight Tonight;
Cobra Verde – Riot in the Foodcourt;
The Heretics – Dipper Boy;
The Successful Failures – Successful Failures;
The Succesful Failures – All I Can Take;
Love City – Regretting;
Gun Club – Carry Home;
Pierced Arrows – Frankenstein;
Paul Revere and the Raiders – Free;
The Very Most – Good Fight Fighting;
Endless Boogie – Coming Down The Stairs;
Paul Westerberg – Knockin On Mine;
Lonesome Brothers – Fins On A Cadillac;
Ray Mason Band – I’m Not That Kind Of Guy;
Ray Mason – I’m Not That Kind of Guy;
The Woods – Battleship Chains;
Georgia Satellites – Battleship Chains;
Dan Baird & Homemade Sin – Damn Thing To Be Done;
Steely Dan – Reelin’ In The Years;
Stitches – Tip The Wink.

Flashlite #24

The Moondoggies 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.

Grant Hart – Anything;
Grant Hart – School Buses Are For Children;
Paul Westerberg – You’re My Girl;
Paul Westerberg – Everyone’s Stupid;
Paul Westerberg – What Do You Want;
Paul Westerberg – Never Coming Back;
David Bowie – Hang Onto Yourself;
Disciplina kicme – Ti znaÅ¡ da tvoja soba ima cetiri ugla;
John Lee Hooker – Endless Boogie, Parts 27 And 28;
Endless Boogie – Smoking Figs In The Yard;
The Moondoggies – ‘ol Blackbird;
Bassholes – Blackbird;
Don Nix – Miss Eleana;
Sid Selvidge – Miss Eleana;
Brinsley Schwartz – Ballad of a Has-been Beauty Queen;
Gaby Novak – Nisam nikada trazila nista vise od ljubavi;
Mary Wells – Bye Bye Baby.

Flashlite #23

Mickey Waller So, here we are again after a long hot summer break. Radio SC was down over the summer and now that they re-consolidated, The Little Lighthouse is back too. Today’s show is dedicated to Mickey Waller who died on April 29 2008, which we failed to acknowledge in our earlier shows. Waller was a drummer for Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck Group on their best albums. His distinct drumming style on those records helped define the true meaning of rock’n’roll – what ever that may be! Paul Westerberg surprised us this summer with an exceptional lp called 49:00… of your time life. The lp is as strange as the title. It’s just one mp3 track (almost) 49 minutes long, it came out in a year of Paul’s 49th birthday, it was available for sale for 49 hours, the price was 49 cents and it’s a mash-up of countless songs and snippets which sometimes even overlap each-other. A madhouse in one word. In this show we single out three minutes that sound “normal”. Giant Sand also has a new album called Provisions. Their boss, Howe Gelb, produced a new album for Kate Maki On  High who debuts in Little Lighthouse today. This is all really good stuff and we sample it all within the following playlist:

Alejandro Escovedo – Always A Friend;
Hen Gates And His House Rockers – Begin The Rock;
Paul Westerberg – Kentucky Riser;
The Replacements – Sixteen Blue;
Kate Maki – Forever Blue;
Kate Maki – Message Forgot;
Giant Sand – Without A Word;
Giant Sand – Down on Town (Love’s No Answer);
Sam Phillips – Little Plastic Life;

Sandy Denny – Crazy Lady Blues (BBC version);
Sandy Denny – Crazy Lady Blues;
Anna Egge – Crazy Lady Blues;
Mink DeVille – Jolene;
Mr Airplane Man – Not Living at All;
The Moaners – Stranger in China;
Jeff Beck – Shapes Of Things;
Rod Stewart – Cut Across Shorty;
Flee-Rekkers – Sunday Date.

Flashlite #22

Alejandro Escovedo The Baseball Project is a new “supergroup”, put together by Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Peter Buck (REM), Scott McCaughey (Minus 5) and Linda Pitmon (Zuzu’s Petals). They recorded a new album Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails completely dedicated to baseball. I know absolutely nothing about baseball, but I know a few things about rock’n’roll and this album definitely rocks. We check it out in this new edition of the Little Lighthouse. Also, Alejandro Escovedo is back with the second album after the horrible disease that nearly crushed him. This time, it seems, he is stronger than ever. His new album Real Animal is also a concept record, completely about his rock’n’roll experience – both as a fan of music and as an active participant. Filled with numerous musical and lyrical references and quotes, this record is a truly unique and heartfelt to the rock’n’roll lifestyle.

Julian Cope – I Gotta Walk;
All The Saints – Farmacia;
SCH – O-Deutsche;
Disciplin A Kitschme – Covek koji ne nosi sat;
Gary Glitter – Rock And Roll;
The Baseball Project – Ted Fucking Williams;
Steve Wynn – Here Comes The Miracle;

The Minus 5 – The Forgotten Fridays;
Tim Lee 3 – Untitled;
Jim Ford – Ramona;
Bob Dylan – to ramona;
Rank and File – Rank And File;
Alejandro Escovedo – Chip N’ Tony;
The Service Industry – Job of Quality;
The Birdinumnums – Little Libertine;
Jack of Heart – All Grey.

Flashlite #21

All The Saints We welcome you to a new epsode of The Little Lighthouse with several new interesting tunes. We have a brand new band from Atlanta GA, All The Saints with their own twist on psychedelic rock. The Service Industry were around for quite some time with their songs about survival in the working class, but this is their debut at the Little Lighthouse. Diplomats of Solid Sound is a new retro band from Iowa, drawing on soul and funk sound patterns from the golden era of 60s and 70s. Also, check out two new tunes that we dug out for you – one by Ray Mason and other by The Moaners.

Also, from now on, we will have two new bonuses (bonae?) per week, the usual Down on the Corner and a new one – Mystery Train, another good show prepared weekly by Zikica Simic.

The Fuzztones – Bad News Travels Fast;
Screaming Trees – Transfiguration;
Rain Parade – One Half Hour Ago;
Pink Floyd – Astronomy Domine;
All The Saints – Papering fix;
The Service Industry – They Fired Me;
Eddy Current Suppression Ring – which way to go;
King Khan and The Shrines – Sweet Tooth;

Diplomats of Solid Sound – Budget Fro;
Miss Alex White and the Red Orchestra – Submarine;
Tralala – Dark Things;
The BellRays – One Big Party;
Petula Clark – Dans Le Temps;
Voice Of The Beehive – I Say Nothing;
Madness – Burning The Boats;
Ray Mason – I Wanna Be A Holiday;
The Moaners – Raggedy Tune.

The Moaners – Blackwing Yalobusha

The MoanersSecond effort for the two rockinest ladies on contemporary music scene. The new album is stretching beyond the neo-blues genre, with “When We’re Dead And Gone” having a melody of a 60s girl group hit and a nod to blaxploitation in “Foxy Brown”. In addition, Melissa and Laura are capable of pulling the most exciting live show you can imagine. This was my favorite album in 2007, during the hiatus of the show.

Ray Mason Band

(Written long time ago for my old website) Ray Mason is from Haydenville, Massachusetts. This middle-aged gentleman has been around with his guitar for some twenty years now, and it looks like people in the local scene know him and respect him very much, as he was already an object of a tribute album. In his lengthy career, Mason left handful of cassette tapes in the eighties and five cd’s in last five years. He recently compiled his early cassette work on a cd called Square Crazy. That disc includes an interesting collection of great pop tunes with a twist, recalling NRBQ’s sense of humor. All those early tunes are recorded on a simple four track tape recorder, and the sound has a wonderful lo-fi charm. His two last regular issues came out in just a year span. One of them in early 2001 with a great rock’n’roll title When the Clown’s Work is Over. The other one came out in May 2002, Ten Dollar Man.

When the Clown’s Work is Over is full of nice guitar music and some of the songs are written in a righteous rock’n’roll style, and they’re worth of any Dylan’s, Young’s or Wynn’s tune. One can easily see how his style matured from his early tapes without dropping down in quality. My personal favorite is Up But So Loose which in just two minutes tell us a great rock story spiced up with a very creative riff. So you thought that the guitar rock is dead, huh?

Ten Dollar Man is the newest Ray Mason’s Work. He gathered his band again and recorded an album with just 10 songs, filling out just a small fraction of what can be fit on a cd, but all songs are really nice which makes up for the quantity. It’s a collection of tunes all enriched with a fine sense of humor. Similar usage of humor is also done by NRBQ. But what takes this issue a little bit farther is that there’s a special personal seal that all of the tunes carry. The album is very consistent in its quality through all 30 minutes of its lenght.

Mason also has a band Lonesome Brothers that he runs parallel to his solo career together with his friend Jim Armenti. Lonesome Brothers just came up with the new album called Swamptown Girl, which is a little more acoustic than Ray Masons’ solo work, but it’s still filled with cool songs. And what a suitable name for the band! Lonesome is probably the most frequently used name in country and brothers – well I guess Jim and Ray are some kind of creative brothers…

Website: www.raymason.com

Podcast made in Cleveland, Ohio. Syndicated by Prvi Prvi na Skali in Kragujevac, Serbia. Sponsored by Blue Arrow Records and Baby Next.