Month: February 2014 (Page 1 of 5)

Good lord, this weekend is packed with way the heck too many events for one person to attend. You’d better fire up your backyard cloning machine so you don’t miss anything.

Friday

Free Music includes Cousin Larry at Bruno’s on Leon Sullivan Way, starting at 9 PM. Before that, at 7:30 PM at Taylor Books you can hear Cadyn Valencia and Dina Hornbaker. We just caught Dina last night for the first time and were mightily impressed. Look for her on a future episode of RFC. Both of these shows are free of charge.

Later, for the price of admission, there is music all over town.

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The PopCulteer
February 28, 2014

Charleston is on the verge of getting an exciting new addition to our diverse and vital music scene. Roots Town Radio is a new low-power FM radio station which hopes to begin broadcasting, and also streaming on the internet, later this summer or fall.

The brainchild of Burr Beard, a key player in the local music scene as the administrator of FOOTMAD, and his partner, Dawn Wells, Roots Town Radio will operate as a non-profit, and will feature a mix of American Roots music, including Alt-country, Blues, Folk, Bluegrass, Jazz, Celtic, and select tracks of Classic Country and Southern Rock. The station will feature local volunteer DJs and showcase local musicians and fill the airwaves with styles of music not normally found on commercial radio.

The low-power license means that the broadcast reach of what will be WXDB, 95.7 will be about 50,000 people in and around Charleston, but with internet streaming, the audience is limited only by internet access.

There is an IndieGoGo campaign, with about a month left, up and running. The goal is to raise $10,000 to help with the start-up costs for Roots Town Radio. You can check out the Roots Town Radio campaign here. There are a variety of levels to contribute, and the dividends will be terrific. Having a local broadcast outlet will elevate the local music scene to new heights.

I’ve been trying to shine an international spotlight on Charleston and West Virginia music for eight years with almost two hundred episodes of Radio Free Charleston, but despite very generous coverage in The Charleston Gazette, Radio Free Charleston has managed to fly under most people’s radar by being an internet-only entitiy.

Roots Town Radio, with a daily broadcast presence, will really draw in the community and be a constant reminder that Charleston has a diverse and enormous pool of talented creative people making music, and can compete with any city in America in terms of sheer musical power.

We have the musicians, now we need to build the audience. With Roots Town Radio we can make local music a daily part of life in Charleston. This could be the missing piece in the puzzle to establish Charleston as a vital music city, and not just a place that makes the news for misery and licorice water.

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The PopCult Bookshelf will return next week. This week we are buried under deadlines. But since you aren’t, here’s what you can get into tonight…

Comedy

Improv games at KP

At 7 PM the Free Improv Games return to Kanawha Players Theater, 309 Beauregard Street, on Charleston’s Historic East End. There is no charge, and the games run until 9 PM.

At 9 PM you can head over to Mojo’s in South Charleston, behind the Mound, for their weekly comedy open mic, hosted tonight by RFC guest, Annie Lane.  This show is also cover-free.

Music

Third Eye Cabaret has a huge night planned, and is charging five bucks to get in this week. Bare Bones will be there, as will Ritchie Collins Three-o, Dina Hornbaker and Lovejoy and the Killjoys. Rumor has it that the RFC crew might just be there to capture some of the fun. 3EC takes place at The Cellar, 8 Capitol Street in Downtown Charleston. The show kicks off at 8 PM.

Around the corner at The Boulevard Tavern, Ryan Wright hosts an open mic starting at 9:30 PM.

New Country Rehab

At 10 PM The Empty Glass plays host to Canadian roots-rockers, New Country Rehab. Five bucks gets you in the door to hear this critically-acclaimed, up-and-coming quartet who manage to draw comparisons to Arcade Fire, The Avett Brothers and lady Antebellum.

This week The RFC MINI SHOW brings you two songs from our old friends, Frenchy and The Punk. Samantha and Scott were last seen on RFC 194, with a cool new holiday song.

This week we’re going back to the same November 2013 session at The Empty Glass to revisit two songs that Frenchy and The Punk performed previously on Radio Free Charleston, only with new performances, “Birthday Fanfare” and “Yes, I’m French.”

The reason we’re bringing you these songs now is that Frenchy and The Punk have begun a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to record and produce their new album. In addition to being the first on your block to hear their new music, you can kick in extra bucks for other rewards, like artwork, plush bats and guitars and, if you really want to chip in big, a house show.

Movie Night at Taylor Books

At 7 PM Wednesday night, Taylor Books brings you their monthly free movie night. From their event page, “This month we will be screening Elena a movie from Russia with English subtitles. We wanted to get our share of Russian culture, with the Olympics happening this month, and share that experience with you. Come enjoy a $1 off beer, wine or one of our specialty hot drinks and a snack.”

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We are about two weeks away from JoeLanta, the toy convention devoted to the original action figure, the 12″ GI Joe. I am honored to be invited back as a panelist this year, and I’m even more excited that the convention has spread to two days and is sharing space with The Great Atlanta Toy Convention.

Both shows come together on March 14 – 16, with them being open to the general public on Saturday and Sunday, March 15 and 16 at The Marriott Century Center, 2000 Century Blvd. NE, Atlanta.  Admission is only six bucks a day, or ten for the weekend. That gets you into both shows. Toys of ALL SORTS will be available for purchase and/or oogling. That is if you aren’t springing for a “Commander’s Package” (which gets you all kinds of bonuses and perks, including a limited edition action figure and early access to the dealer rooms). Either way, it’s a bargain. This is going to be a toy collector’s nirvana.

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This week’s art is a digital painting that is an attempt to combine harsh angles and artificial constructs with organic-looking components to create something that looks sorta weird and hopefully interesting. Click to enlarge.

Check PopCult later Monday morning for the newest RFC MINI SHOW, starring Frenchy and The Punk, with details on how you can get involved in their new Kickstarter project.

Last week we lost Bob Casale, one of the guitarists for DEVO. In his memory, we bring you an entire DEVO concert from 1980, when the band was in its prime. So take off your energy dome and place it over your heart while you listen to the most relevant band of their time, DEVO.

Radio Free Charleston’s sixty-first episode, “SHINDIG Shirt” is back online almost exactly five years after it was originally posted. In this episode, we feature three triumphant returns from musical acts who got their start in the Charleston area, then moved away, before the draw of their hometown brought them back for return engagements.

Our musical guests are John Radcliff, back in town for a visit after moving to Parkersburg; SHINDIG, direct from Louisville: plus a special treat from the RFC archives: Brian Diller performing at the Empty Glass in the early 1990s, after he moved to Nashville.

We did film this episode in 3D, by the way.

We also have animation from Frank Panucci, and a message from author, Brian J. Hatcher. You may have seen Brian in the PopCulteer Friday starring in his new webshow with Kevin Pauley, The Reel Deal. I told ya he’d been on RFC before (he was on episode 24, too). Read the original production notes here.

The PopCulteer
February 21 2014

Kevin Pauley and Brian Hatcher are both friends of PopCult, both are currently in The No Pants Players, both have appeared on Radio Free Charleston (Kevin way back on our first episode), and both are extremely well-versed film aficionados. It’s always fun talking movies with either of them, and now they are pooling their extensive knowledge of film into a terrific new webshow.

The Reel Deal features Kevin and Brian expousing about movies, and the show, which debuted earlier this week, is a movie lover’s dream. In the first episode the boys discuss Steven Spielberg’s classic, “Jaws” for twenty four minutes. Anyone who knows Kevin already knows that this is his favorite movie of all time. It is a pivotal film in the history of cinema and Kevin and Brian elucidate on its finer points and discuss the risks that the movie took and the many innovations surrounding this classic motion picture.

Kevin Pauley

The Reel Deal is sort of like a Film Appreciation class, except you can stay awake during it. In future installments Kev and Brian will tackle other classic movies as well as current releases and other film-related topics. They’ve already released a “Reel Deal Short Take” about the trailer for “Guardians of The Galaxy.”

Brian Hatcher

I wouldn’t mind seeing an episode that would include a re-enactment of Kevin and Brian at Slyce Pizza at 2 AM reacting to a midnight screening of “Green Lantern,” but I fear it may be too traumatic for them.

You can follow The Reel Deal at their Facebook Page and subscribe to their YouTube channel so you don’t miss an episode. You can also join in on the conversation, either on YouTube or on Facebook, so you can agree wholeheartedly or pick a fight if you are so inclined.

As a bonus for PopCult readers, we’re bringing you the first episode and the first Short Take below.

Keep checking PopCult for more updates on The Reel Deal and also all our regular features like the RFC Flashback, Radio Free Charleston, The RFC MINI SHOW, The PopCult Toybox, The PopCult Bookshelf and Monday Morning Art.