At the top of the post you will find Radio Free Charleston number 132, “Ren and Stimpy Shirt.” This special pre-FestivALL episode includes music from Wiley Sonic, The Voodoo Katz, and The Poor Taters, plus belly dancing from Jennifer Brooke Swanson, and animation by yours truly.

Host segments were shot on a sunny Sunday morning on Charleston’s historic East End in front of Glen Brogan’s brand new mural on the side of the Bluegrass Kitchen. We’ve been fans of Glen’s for some time, even wearing one of his shirts back on episode 95 and it’s a kick to see his wonderful art in such a large format outdoors in front of God and everybody.

Our titular shirt this time features Ren and Stimpy, the cartoon creations of our pal, John Kricfalusi. It was Ren and Stimpy that brought Rudy Panucci and Melanie Larch to The Charleston Gazette two decades ago as the paper’s regular animation columnists.

Opening the show this week, we have a special treat from FestivALL 2009. We thought this video had been lost to multiple drive crashes, but recently discovered a backup file featuring the lovely Jennifer Brooke Swanson performing a special solo bellydance routine. This is an example of the type of eclectic and exotic entertainment available throughout Charleston during FestivALL, which kicks off this year on Friday.

Our first musical guest is Washington, DC’s Wiley Sonic, whom you first met last week. The guys sent us a video in advance of their Charleston debut at The Empty Glass. Our cameras were on hand to record that debut, so here they are again, performing their original song “D.B. Cooper.”

Our animation this time is a remastered, reformatted piece entitled “YingYANG,” animated and scored by Rudy Panucci. This cartoon was first seen in episode ( ) back in November, 2007.

Our next musical guest is The Voodoo Katz. This is another example of how cool FestivALL can be. We are re-presenting this clip from episode 104, newly mastered into hi-def, with slightly remixed audio. During FestivALL this year, you will have two chances to see The Voodoo Katz–Wednesday, June 22 as part of the Derek Kirk Memorial Show at Capitol Roasters and Friday, June 24 Live On The Levee with Bob Thompson. You can also catch Mark Davis and Deron Sodaro from the band performing as Voo Duo at the BGK Lounge, the newly expanded bar area of Bluegrass Kitchen, this Wednesday, June 15, from 7 to 9 PM.

Wrapping up the show, we have The Poor Taters. This is a special video, provided to us by our old pal Jerry Fugate, and it captures The Poor Taters, joined by Stan Bumgardner on fiddle, performing an impromptu version of The Beatles classic “Get Back” at an undisclosed location, which looks suspiciously like Amy Thomas’ back porch. You will be seeing The Poor Taters on Radio Free Charleston again in the near future and we’ll tell you much more about the band when we have them back on.

That’s about it for this episode of RFC. Next week, get ready for the first of our indeterminate number of episodes devoted to coverage of FestivALL 2011. We’re going to do these like we did last year, cinema verite’ style, with a special stream of consciousness editing motif. You can expect to see performances from the Charleston Light Opera Guild, the cast of “Saint Stephen’s Dream: A Space Opera,” The Contemporary Youth Arts Company, The Voodoo Katz, The Boatmen, 600 Pounds of Sin, Comparsa, Bob Thompson, WATT 4, The Kingfish Five, The East End Main Street Streetworks Auction, and all sorts of things that we don’t even know about yet. Keep checking PopCult for our incessant FestivALL 2011 coverage, beginning soon.