Month: May 2014 (Page 4 of 4)

Mark Cline Bates hadn’t been on RFC since episode 58,in 2009, until we caught up with him again and featured his music on RFC 196. From that same recording session at The Empty Glass, we bring you two songs from Mark, “Bigger Things” and “Closer.” Mark’s next album is due out in October, and you can check out his website for news of his tour dates and you can also buy his previous CD.

In May, you can catch Mark in Man, at Keith’s Bar on the 9th at 9 PM , and in Sutton at Cafe Cimino on The 25th at 8 PM as part of the WV Hall Of Fame Garden fundraiser. In June Mark will perform as such exotic locations as Los Angeles and Venice Beach California, Columbia South Caroline, Chicago and Barboursville. You can also check out his recent Gazette interview for more news.

You may notice that this episode of the RFC MINI SHOW is number twenty-one, while our previous show was number nineteen. It recently came to our attention that, almost six months ago, we numbered two of our RFC MINI SHOWs as “seven.” We didn’t catch it, and nobody pointed it out to us, so we didn’t discover it until we were working on the RFC Archives. Rather than go back and re-number the previous thirteen shows, we’re just going to skip a number to get back on track. And of course, after we rendered the show as number twenty-one, we discovered that we also had two shows numbered “fifteen.” So expect next week’s RFC MINI SHOW to be number twenty-three.

Today’s art is a digital painting. It’s another abstract exercise in color and light that looks like it might be a refugee from a late 1950’s free-jazz album. As always, you can click the image to see it bigger.

Check PopCult in the morning for our latest RFC MINI SHOW, starring Mark Cline Bates.

Friday, May 9, The Ford Theater Reunion is coming to The Boulevard Tavern, right here in Charleston.

For details we go to their bio: “This neo-carnival rock n’ roll group, based out of Lexington, KY produce a sound that harkens back to a by-gone era of gypsy caravans and rail-riding hobos. This, married with blistering progressive rock technicality and heavy punk, is all brought together under multiple vocalists that are a study of compliment and contrast. It all manifests as an auditory spectacle that is both well-timed and well-executed. The result is compellingly jarring, featuring narrative lyrics and theatrically-matched music; all wrapped up in a deliriously raucous stage show.”

If you are a fan of Frenchy and The Punk, QiET  or Hellblinki, then you MUST come out to see this show.

This five-piece band that claims Clarinet, Accordian, and Banjo among its arsenal will share the stage with No Pretty Pictures starting at 10 PM. Our videos tonight will help you get acquainted with The Ford Theater Reunion’s beautiful noise. Above you see “Tea and Cakes.” Below is “The Ballad of Buffalo Jones.”

This is the first episode of Radio Free Charleston that was produced and posted independently of the Charleston Gazette. When it first went live in August, 2009, it was posted directly to MySpace.

And that’s why it’s being re-posted again, because MySpace turned out to be a bag of idjits.

This episode features music by Universes and OVADA, both recorded at The Empty Glass, plus a snippet of The Contemporary Youth Arts Company’s 2008 production, “Jack The Ripper,” featuring Ryan Hardiman who has done just under 300 local musical theater productions since.

Universes

The timing for bringing this show back from limbo couldn’t be better. Universes was a duo consisting of Jason Reese and Justin Gardner. After a while, Universes sort of faded away, and Jason joined the group, Farnsworth, which was another duo, this time with Chris Vance.

Farnsworth, has decided to change things up a bit, and they’ve brought in a new member–Justin Gardner. He makes his debut with the band tonight at The Boulevard Tavern. Farnsworth shares the bill with Silent Lions and My City at 10 PM. So it’s sort of like a reunion of Universes, or a supergroup, or a Rugby team or something.

SPECIAL UPDATE: In an even more stunning devclopment, it turns out that the new member of Farnsworth is NOT Justin Gardner, but is in fact just another guy named “Justin.” PLEASE UPDATE YOUR PERSONAL RADIO FREE CHARLESTON DATABASE AND SCORECARD ACCORDINGLY!”

Sadly, Ovada has not yet gotten back together, but we’re still hoping. Rad, Joseph, are you listening?

Our title shirt was from the band, Joy Division. Our location was on the East End of Charleston, and our “Fake Rudy” at the end was the one I was asked not to use when the show was hosted on the Gazette servers. The original production notes can be found HERE.

The PopCulteer
May 2, 2014

With so many things happening this week, and so much stuff to catch up with, we’re going to Take a moment to review the PopCult highlights.

Sunday night I posted the entire Kanawha Forum concert by The Terra Firma Ensemble. Monday saw our usual Monday Morning Art, this week once again featuring Paco Fish. We also posted the latest RFC MINI SHOW starring Jody Herndon.

Tuesday we updated you with the latest news from Captain Action and ReMEGO figures. Wednesday I posted an essay about a great new way to deal with telemarketers. Yesterday our Bookshelf featured covered the career of the late comic book great, Al Fieldstein. We also previewed this weekend’s Theater events and looked at what’s happening at The Blue Parrot.

Looking ahead to the weekend. Tomorrow will see a new RFC Flashback entry, reviving one of the “lost” episodes of Radio Free Charleston. Sunday we are running a featuring introducing you to The Ford Theater Reunion, who will be playing at The Boulevard Tavern next week.

And now that we’re all caught up, how about we look at some of the cool things happening in and around Charleston this weekend that we haven’t already covered yet?

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The PopCult Bookshelf

Al Fieldstein passed away Tuesday at the age of 88 at his home in Montana

Al Fieldstein passed away earlier this week, and in the PopCult Bookshelf this week we’re going to recommend a few collections of work that he edited, so you can understand why this little-heralded comic book creator deserves way more credit and acclaim than he received during his life.

Fieldstein is most famous for replacing Harvey Kurtzman as the editor of MAD, which he helped transition into Mad Magazine, and which he guided through it’s most successful years. When Kurtzman left MAD he took most of the creative crew with him. Fieldstein had to recruit new talent, and he did quite a job of it.

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There are two big shows this weekend at The Blue Parrot on Capitol Street in Charleston!

Friday night it’s Foz Rotten and His Dirty Scoundrels, Elephant In The Room and The Super Heroes with Special Guest Comedian Andy Frampton. You may remember Foz from our Halloween episodes and other editions of Radio Free Charleston. Elephant In The Room is the new group fronted by Donnie Smith, who has been seen on the latest full-length RFC, plus his own RFC MINI SHOW. The Super Heroes feature the talents of Steve Clever Siders, who has been involved with RFC on both sides of the camera.

The show kicks off Friday night at 10 PM, and it’s only five bucks to get in the door for a night of fun comedy and great music.

Saturday night a the Parrot, Faith of The Damned, Twist of Fate and Noise bring the hard rock to the stage. The show starts at 9 PM and a mere five bucks gets you in. Check out this Beach Shak video of Twist of Fate, and then gawk at the flyer below it.

There’s no shortage of live theater this weekend, as we have two classy productions heading into their second weekends, a flashy new musical opening and a High School dinner theater presentation of a stage version of a TV classic from the 1960s.

“Antigone”

The Ancient Greek tragedy continues its acclaimed run at the Alban Arts Center Theater in Saint Albans. This classic play can be seen Friday and Saturday at 8PM, with a Sunday Matinees at 2PM. Tickets are $15 for Adults and $10 for Students/Seniors. Tickets can be ordered online HERE.

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ART

The WVSU Spring 2014 Senior Exhibit Opening happens today at the WVSU Davis Art Building Gallery. From 6 PM to 8PM you can see the work of Sarah Copeland, Sarah Dennison, Dusty Stowers, and Anthony Young.

MUSIC FILM

Unitarian Universalist Congregation (520 Kanawha Blvd W, Charleston) will present the film “John Fahey: American Primitive Guitar and Blues” at 7:05 PM. Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who played the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument.

This film explores the evolution of his style, which has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of “American Primitivism,” a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the self-taught nature of the music and its minimalist style. He spent many of his later years in poverty and poor health, but enjoyed a minor career resurgence with a turn towards the more explicitly avant-garde, and created a series of abstract paintings during the last years of his life.

Fahey died in 2001 from complications from heart surgery. In 2003, he was ranked 35th in the Rolling Stone “The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” list.(lifted in part from Wikipedia)

COMEDY

Mojo’s Comedy Open Mic returns at Mojo’s Sportsbar in South Charleston, behind The Mound. The cover-free show kicks off at 9 PM, and tonight’s show includes Khalid Kalwar, Annie Lane, Chris Ryan Carrier, Ken Flippin and more. Hosted by everybody’s favorite comedy cue ball Patrick Felton.

An offer has been extended to any peformers scheduled for tonight’s canceled edition of Third Eye Cabaret, who will be welcome to perform for the Mojo’s crowd this evening.

VAUDEVILLE

Tonight at 10:30 PM, The Empty Glass plays host to the Karnevil Sideshow.A mere eight dollars admits you to the mighty wonders and thrills that this troupe has in store.

Let’s go to the PR, “Some claim vaudeville is dead, that the talkie and picture box killed the whole darned thing, and for nigh a century the throngs of humanity have been transposed from wild adventure seekers in search of entertainment, to a pair of eyes sitting complacently in the dark.

“Come out! Come out!” the Karnevil cries! Leave the safety of your couch! The awe of magic, the wonder of the sideshow, the splendor of the circus beckon to you once again.It calls to you, begs to entertain you in ways that dull screen in your den never can.We offer you the best of that, indulge your imagination and allow it to run wild as feats guaranteed to astound you are performed LIVE before your very eyes.

Vaudeville lives. You will be amazed…

Welcome to Karnevil.”

Check out this sample…