New Music from The Dread Crew of Oddwood and Sierra Ferrell Headline RFC, While Raymond Scott Makes The Swing Shift a Powerhouse!

Tuesday is always a great day to tune into The AIR  and today we prove it again with a new episode of Radio Free Charleston AND a new edition of The Swing Shift, too!

To listen to The AIR, you simply have to point your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay here, and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page. That’s particularly significant this week because we are wrapping up our week-long celebration of ten years since The AIR officially became the internet radio station of PopCult!

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with boatloads of replays throughout the week.

Radio Free Charleston offers up a great new hour of local and independent music in its first hour, then we bring you what might be the last episode of Radio Free Charleston International that we haven’t recycled into Volume Five of our show yet.

The show opens with the one-two punch of brand-new singles by The Dread Crew of Oddwood and Sierra Ferrell.  The Dread Crew are a gang of Pirates who play “Heavy Mahogany” music, which is sort of like Heavy Metal, only played on wooden instruments. Sierra, of course, is Charleston’s multiple Grammy-winning pride and joy, currently wowing audiences all around the world.

The Dread Crew of Oddwood, who are based in California, sailed into The Empty Glass thirteen years ago, and I’ve been a fan ever since.  We recorded them for the RFC video show then, and it’s always great to have new music from them.  Interestingly enough, “Rust & Glory,” the new single (from an upcoming EP) is not on their 2024 album, which was called…”Rust & Glory.”

I first met Sierra seventeen years ago, when we recorded her at an open mic at Sam’s Uptown Cafe and brought you video from that in PopCult and on RFC. Sierra’s new single will be released in November as a Zoetrope single, which you can pre-order at the link in our playlist.

Our first hour includes a set of Country-leaning music and also a set of songs about Zombies, so you know we’re still flying that Free Format flag.

For our second and third hours we go back more than eight years for what, I think, is the last episode of RFC International that hasn’t been recycled yet. It’s a wild mix of some of my favorite music with no discernable theme.

Check out this playlist, with links to the artist’s page in the first hour…

RFC V5 285

hour one
The Dread Crew of Oddwood “Rust & Glory”
Sierra Ferrell “Pair of Dice”
Ringo Starr “Long Long Road”
Todd Burge & Larry Groce “Things Are Mighty Different (outtake demo)”
The BrotherSisters “Days They Go”
Hardy Mums “Pitching Woo”
William Matheny “If I Were A River”
Messer Chups “Electric Zombierella”
Guy Parker, Dirt Reynolds, Mark Shambles, Sea Monster, Steve Sleaze “Zombies”
The Renfields “Ramones Zombie Massacre”
mediogres “Zombie Activist”
The Dollyrots “Rather Be A Zombie”
Hellblinki “Zombie Jamboree”
Corduroy Brown “Familiar Faces”
Aaron Fisher “Rolling Stone”

hour two
Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello “The Lovers That Never Were”
Gary Brooker “No More Fear of Flying”
DEVO “Somewhere With DEVO”
The Aquabats “Sequence Erase/Giant Robot-Birdhead”
Polysics “Code 4”
The Dickies “My Pop The Cop”
The Units “High Pressure Days”
Oingo Boingo “Insanity”
The Stranglers “Unbroken”

hour three
Procol Harum “Conquistador”
Wall of Voodoo “This Business Of Love”
Ultravox “The Voice”
Transvision Vamp “The Only One (extended mix)”
King Crimson “21st Century Schizoid Man”
Madness “Can’t Touch Us Now”
Thomas Dolby “Evil Twin Brother”
Lo Faber “Those Damn Kids”
The Beat “Twist and Crawl”
Postmodern Jukebox “Who Can It Be Now”
Slade “Look Wot You Dun”
The The “Angels of Deception”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Tuesday at 10 AM and 10 PM on The AIR, with replays Wednesday at 9 AM,  Thursday at 2 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight, Sunday at 8 PM and  Monday at 11 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Now you can also hear a different classic episode of RFC every weekday at 5 PM, and we bring you a marathon all night long Saturday night/Sunday morning.

I’m also going to  embed a low-fi, mono version of this show right in this post, right here so you can listen on demand.

After RFC, stick around for encores of last week’s episodes of  MIRRORBALL at 1 PM and Curtain Call at 2 PM.

At 3 PM this week The Swing Shift brings you the first of two episodes featuring the music of Raymond Scott, both with his Quintette and with his Orchestra.  Scott, of course, composed many of the melodies that were adapted by Carl Stalling for use in the classic Looney Tunes shorts, but he was also one of the most successful bandleaders of the late Big Band era.

You may not recognize his song titles, but you’ll definitely recognize the tunes.  Check out the playlist…

The Swing Shift 184

Raymond Scott Part One

Raymond Scott, His Quintette and His Orchestra
“Power House”
“Huckleberry Duck”
“Caterpillar Creep”
“The Quintette Plays Carmen”
“Four Beat Shuffle”
“The Girl At The Typewriter”
“Tallahassee”
“Copyright 1950”
“Eagle Beak”
“Business Men’s Bounce”
“Siberian Sleigh Ride”
“Just a Gigolo”
“Keep Cool Fool”
“Two Guitars”
“When The Cootie Left The Duke”
“On The Jersey Side”
“Blues My Girl Friends Taught”
“Manhattan Minuet”
“Three Little Words”

 You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM, Thursday at 9 AM,  Friday at 10 AM and 8 PM and Saturday afternoon, only on The AIR . You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursdays and Sundays.