The PopCulteer
October 12, 2012  

It’s a mixed bag of coolness this week, so let’s dive in, shall we?

Rockin’ Robin’s First Anniversary

One year ago, Rockin Robin’s Burgers and Shakes opened in Clendenin, and they’ve been a catering presence supporting the local music scene ever since. Saturday they’re putting on all-day outdoor show with music and contests, and with a beautiful Fall day predicted by the Mational Weather Service, it should be one of the highlights of a very cool weekend.

A Hot Dog Eating Contest kicks things off at Noon, while a Costume Contest will be judged at 5 PM. At 3 PM there will be a Pumpkin carving Contest.

The band line-up is:
Relative Obscurity 2-3 PM
Twist of Fate 3-4 PM
HarraH 4-5 PM
Pure Noxious 5-6 PM
In the Company of Wolves 6-7 PM
ROFS 7-8 PM
Information 8-9 PM

You can check out HarraH and In The Company of Wolves on RFC 168…

Check out InFormation on RFC 142…

Everything kicks off around Noon, and you can find Rockin Robins at 150 Elk River Rd, Clendenin. Basically, just drive up Rt. 119. When you get to the Clendenin Rite Aid, you have one more mile to go.

Big Daddy Needs Your Help, Quick!

Big Daddy is a rock group with a unique backstory. Captured while on a USO tour of Vietnam in 1959, they were held by the Viet Cong well after the end of the war, being released in a prisoner exchange in the early 1980s. They were a cover band who played all the rock ‘n’ roll hits of the day. When they were debriefed, the government liason asked what they needed to help acclimate themselves back to the life they’d been kept from for nearly a quarter century. The band asked for the sheet music for the hits of the day, so that they could get back on the road.

The problem was, they only knew how to play music in the style of the early days of rock.

Or so the story goes…Actually Big Daddy is a very clever comedy mash-up band who, using 1950s rock, do what Me First and the Gimme Gimmes do with punk, and what Richard Cheese does for lounge music. Big Daddy did it first, in fact, pre-dating the term “mash-up.”

Check out some of these classics…



Now, nearly twenty years after their last album, the guys in Big Daddy want to reunite to skewer the songs of the stage and screen. They’ve got a Kickstarter page, and with less than three days left, they are quite a bit away from their $35,000 goal. The incentives they offer are fantastic, and there’s no reason you shouldn’t drop everything and rosh over to their site to give them the last-minute surge that they need.

Do it for the kids!

In The Company Of Nang

Toonight at The Sound Factory, it’s a dynamic teaming of new Radio Free Charleston Friends, In The Company of Wolves, and old RFC buddies, Mother Nang. It’s a 21 and up show with a five-dollar cover, and it kicks off at 10 PM. You know you want to be there.

Toy Buzz: Captain Action Snags DC

Announced at The New York Comic Con, it’s big news from our friends at Captain Action Enterprises. They have snagged a license to produce Captain Action uniforms based on DC Comics characters. Longtime readers of PopCult know what a huge fan of this toy I am, and may remember my reviews of this year’s revival.

This DC news harkens back to the classic Captain Action toys of the 1960s, when Ideal produced a 12-inch action figure, who with outfits sold separately, could change into Superman, Batman, and Aquaman, along with Marvel’s Captain America and Spider-man and other heroes like Flash Gordon, The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger.

Thanks to Round 2 Corp. Captain Action returned to stores earlier this year with outfits that let him take the identities of Captain America and Spider-man. Any day now we can expect the second wave of product which includes his nemesis, Dr. Evil and outfits for Thor and Loki.

The first six deluxe Marvel outfits each contain an extra “build-a-costume” piece, which will give collectors an entire Hawkeye outfit, once they’re all released. Joe Ahearn from Captain Action Enterprises tells us that the first six DC outfits will each contain a piece of an Aquaman costume set. The first two DC outfits will be Superman and The Joker. Speculation is rampant that we might see the return of Captain Action’s sidekick, Action Boy, in time for Robin to be part of the DC line-up.

Mock-ups for the packaging of Batman and Superman were shown, and we borrowed the images from Action Figure Times, which has extensive coverage of the NYCC and more images from the Captain Action display, incuding early looks at the Captain Action Iron Man and Wolverine sets.

Weekend Around Charleston

There’s loads of stuff going on in town this weekend. On the free music front, Travis Vandal and Jay Hill will be at Taylor Books tonight at 7:30 PM; Marshall Petty will be at the Upstairs Lounge at Little India at 9 PM; also at 9 PM, local treasure, Spurgie Hankins will be at Bruno’s on Leon Sullivan Way; Saturday you can catch The Carpenter Ants from 4 to 8 PM at Oktoberwest on Charleston’s West Side; acoustic duo, The Band Wagon, will be at Bluegrass Kitchen Saturday at 7 PM; Taylor Books plays host to Brandon Criner and Ricky Terrell Saturday at 7:30 PM. Also, don’t forget the East End Bazaar, from 9 AM to 2 PM Saturday, with tons of vendors and music from The Rick Perdue Band.

In the land of the cover charges, tonight Time and Distance brings in Huntington’s Talk is Cheap and Party or Die to The Empty Glass for a killer triple bill. It kicks off at 10 PM and the cover is $7.

Theatrically this weekend you have your choice of the final weekend of Kanawha Players’ much-lauded production of “Evil Dead: The Musical” at the KP Theater Friday and Saturday at 8 PM (tickets are $16/$10), or at 7 PM on both days, plus 2 PM matinee on Sunday, you can see the Children’s Theater of Charleston’s production of Peter Pan, directed by Tara Phares-Pauley (Tickets are $12/$10).

That’s it for this week. Next week brings more Popcult, plus RFC 171, our “Best of Halloween” special and some other cool stuff at which you can gawk.