Radio Free Charleston 195, “Powdered Toast Man Shirt,” is our first full-length show of 2014, and it’s fairly epic. We have music from Spencer Elliott, Cemeterry Schultz, Sign of The Fig, WATT 4 and Crystal Bright and The Silver Hands. There’s also two animated shorts by Jake Fertig, and a trailer for a screening of the classic movie, “Metropolis” at the Clay Center Electric Sky Theater.

Image1Host segments were shot in front of The Clay Center, while our musical performances were recorded all over town, at Unity Church, Kanawha Players Theater, The Blue Parrot, The Empty Glass and also in an undisclosed Downtown Charleston alley.

Our titular shirt stars John K’s Powdered Toast Man, one of the supporting characters from his classic Ren and Stimpy cartoons. The shirt is actually a design called “Powdered Toast Crunch,” but the star is PTM, hence the name of this episode.

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A fully-restored version of Fritz Lang’s classic film, “Metropolis” is coming to the The Electric Sky Theater at The Clay Center on February 7 and 8 at 7 PM.Before we get into the music this week we bring you Devon Nuckles’ trailer for this event. ‘Metropolis” screens at The Electric Sky Theater this Friday and Saturday at 7 PM, and it’s only six bucks to get in. What’s even cooler is that this now being billed as the beginning of “The Science Fiction Film Series.”

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Our first musical guest, appearing via a music video I created with him last summer, is Spencer Elliott. Spencer is an old friend of RFC. He was on the radio version of the show almost twenty-five years ago, and as a member of Whistlepunk appeared on our very first video episode. Spencer is currently once again a member of the legendary Mother Nang, but he also has developed an amazing fingerstyle guitar technique, and that’s what we feature here with his composition, “First Flight.”

I’m hoping to hook up with Spencer again soon so we can capture more of his incredible performances.

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Jake Fertig and Vandalia Studios bring us two “Deep Space Microsodes” of “The Flocking,” his series of animated cartoons featuring chicken protaganists. You can expect to see more of Jake and “The Flocking” in future episodes of RFC.

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Cemeterry Schultz is a terrific singer/songwriter of the punk/folk variety who writes great songs about subjects ranging from love to apocalyptic science-fiction scenarios. We just met Cemeterry at the Project Biscotti post-punk post-Christmas show where we recorded this performance. Chances are you will be seeing Cemeterry on the RFC MINI SHOW very soon.

Project Biscotti has been putting on great shows at Kanawha Players Theater for weeks now, and they are well worth checking out. We hope to bring you the Biscotti crew proper soon on RFC, and plan on returning to record at KP again if the weather, water and schedule cooperates.

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Image7Sign of The Fig makes clandestine music. Their performances are on a “need to know” basis. The performance you see in this episode of RFC was recorded in an undisclosed alley. The entire event is art of some sort. It’s also pretty cool. This is the music of cryptic messages and secret handshakes, and I’ve probably told you too much about it already.

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The song we bring you by WATT 4 is actually five years old. We recorded this early in 2009 at The Blue Parrot. Recently, vocalist Lee Harrah rejoined the band, so this line-up is current. The band is rehearsing and working on new material, but aren’t ready to schedule any shows yet. This version of their song, “Empty” is newly remixed and remastered into High Definition widescreen. As we approach episode 200, we might just slip in a few more remastered clips from our early shows.

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Playing us out this week is the amazing Crystal Bright and The Silver Hands, who were the subject of our most recent RFC MINI SHOW. We were lucky enough to record Crystal and her Hands last May, and it’s cool to end our show with this spooky waltz, “Skeleton Woman.” You can purchase Crystal’s music at her website, as well you should. It’s all great!

That’s it for our first show of 2014.To be honest, it’s a bit sloppy. The host segments were shot and the show edited during Super Bowl Sunday (my team wasn’t playing, so I figured I’d do something productive). Still, even with my contributions a bit rough around the edges, it’s a killer show with incredible music and animation. We continue our drive to episode 200, and we will still be sprinkling MINI SHOWs in between, so strap in, it’s going to be a great year for RFC.