Author: Rudy Panucci (Page 85 of 125)

This week we head back to April, 2008, for “IWA East Coast Shirt,” the forty-first video edition of Radio Free Charleston. This music-packed show featured A Place Of Solace, Holden Caulfield, and from Nashville, special guests The Coal Men, who crashed at Stately Radio Free Charleston Manor one night after performing at The Empty Glass.

We also had an announcement from The Concept, and a short burst of animation from my brother Frank.  I hosted from Davis Park, using a real microphone for the first time on the show. It made a difference, and that ten-dollar mic that I bought at Sun Electronics back in the early 1990s is still part of the RFC production arsenal.

I’m not sure about The Coal Men, but every other group on this show, and Sun Electronics too, have either broken up or fallen off the face of the Earth.  Read the original production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
August 25, 2023

Your PopCulteer is hitting the road again this weekend (August is a bit of a minefield of important anniversaries) for a mini-trip to celebrate my ninth wedding anniversary. Because of that I’m rushing to complete a few PopCult posts (including a big video for Sunday) and don’t have a lot of time for our Friday column.  Sydney Fileen has come to my rescue with a brand-new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat, premiering this afternoon on The AIR, but first we have a couple of brief and sad wrestling notes.

With the sad news of the passing of legendary wrestler, Terry Funk, after years of failing health,  on Wednesday, wrestling fans were stunned by the awful news that Windham Rotunda, known to WWE fans as “Bray Wyatt” unexpectedly passed away at the age of 36 the next day.

Wyatt was considered one of the most creative minds in wrestling, and had been off TV battling a severe case of COVID since February. It was said to be “life and career threatening,” but he was recently reported to be well on the way to recovery and was expected to return to WWE television shortly.  Reports are that he suffered a heart attack Thursday. I was a fan of his work and even reviewed his action figure back in 2020. He brought a fresh sense of macabre surrealism to the ring, and fans were eagerly awaiting what he would do next.

PopCult’s condolences go out to the friends and family of Funk and Rotunda/Wyatt. The wrestling world was far more entertaining thanks to their efforts.

Party Out Of Bounds On The AIR

On a less somber note we have to tell you about a new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. The AIR is PopCult’s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player at the top right column of this blog.

At 2 PM, we bring you a encore of a cool, random episode of Mel Larch’s Disco Showcase, MIRRORBALL, from March of 2021. Here’s the playlist:

MIRRORBALL 047

ABBA “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme”
Kool And The Gang “Fresh”
A Taste of Honey “Boogie Oogie Oogie”
El Coco “Cocomotion”
Peaches and Herb “Freeway”
Amii Stewart “Knock On Wood”
Carol Douglas “Doctor’s Orders”
Chic “Dance, Dance, Dance”
Donna Summer “Hot Stuff”
Ubass “My Disco”
The Jacksons “Dancin’ Machine”
Vicki Sue Robinson “Turn The Beat Around”
Van McCoy “The Hustle”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays throughout the following week, Saturday at 9 PM, Sunday at 11 PM, Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM.

At 3 PM, Sydney Fileen graces us with special mixtape-style new episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat. This week Sydney delves deep into the history of Athens Georgia’s brightest party lights, The B-52s.

This plucky band from Athens didn’t reach their greatest US success until well after the end of The New Wave era, but throughout the early 1980s they carried the torch for New Wave Funky Weirdness internationally, with major chart success in Australia and the UK. With a ringing endorsement from none other than John Lennon, the B-52s appeared in Paul Simon’s movie, “One Trick Pony,” and on American television programs like Guiding Light, Saturday Night Live and others.

Sydney has assembled a collection of tracks from the B-52s first four albums and a couple of singles, and she winds up with a live version of their biggest post-New Wave hit, just to keep everybody happy.

Check out the playlist…

Big Electric Cat 107
The B-52s

“Rock Lobster”
“Planet Claire”
“52 Girls”
“Dance This Mess Around”
“There’s A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon)”
“Downtown”
“Party Out Of Bounds”
“Give Me Back My Man”
“Private Idaho”
“Devil In My Car”
“Stobe Light”
“Mesopotamia”
“Thorw That Beat In The Garbage Can”
“Nip It In The Bud”
“Legal Tender”
“Whammy Kiss”
“Song For A Future Generation”
“Butterbean”
“Queen of Las Vegas”
“Big Bird”
“Summer of Love”
“Girl From Ipanema Goes To Greenland”
“Housework”
“Wig”
“Ain’t It A Shame”
“Communicate”
“Love Shack (live)”

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon,  Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Classic episodes can be heard Sunday morning at 10 AM.

That’s what’s new on The AIR Friday, and that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back for our regular features every day. Sunday we’re posting our video of the JoeLanta/PowerCon Mega Road Trip.

We have a bunch of stuff to tell you about all over West Virginia this week as we skid into the last full weekend of August. Your humble blogger and his lovely wife will be absconding to an undisclosed location to celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary, but there’s all kinds of cool things going on for you folks to enjoy while we’re gone.

Live Music is back at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Friday it’s Ty McClanahan. Gary Hays entertains the crowd at Charleston’s beloved Bookstore/Coffee Shop/Art Gallery.

Magically Ordinary will bring their family-friendly magic show to Mountain Roots Community Theater in Quincy on Sunday. The show runs from 2 PM to 5 PM and tickets are $12, or $10 for kids and seniors. The show will be interpreted in ASL. Magician, Matt Neely find way to make the ordinary magical and delights audiences of all ages.

The World Famous Empty Glass Cafe has some great stuff this weekend to tell you about.  Thursday at 5:30 PM, Swingstein and Robin return with Swing for a good cause.  Friday Tim Courts plays during happy hour.  Later on Friday Guns For Hire bring their Southern Blues-based Rock to the Glass from Paintsville, KY.  Saturday at 10 PM, The East End Ghouls put on their back-to-school show, which you and see more about below, and of note, your PopCulteer’s imaginary daughter, Kitty Killton will be on hand.  Sunday at 10 PM it’s time for Empty Glass Got Talent. Next Monday it’s Open Mic Night with Unmanned at 7 PM.

Please remember that the pandemic is not over yet. It’s still a going concern with the ‘rona surging again. And now there are seasonal allergies, the flu, heatstroke,typhoons, tycoons, Tyke Hunt, Ty Beanie Babies and other damned good reasons to be careful. Many people who have very good reasons are still wearing masks, and many of us, understandably, are still nervous about being in crowds, masked or not. Be kind and understanding  while you’re out.

If you’re up for going out, here are a few suggestions for the weekend, roughly in order, with a couple of Festivals and Kin Ship Goods two-day ninth anniversary celebration listed first…

Continue reading

Wednesday afternoon The AIR brings you new episodes of Curtain Call and Beatles Blast.  You can tune in at the website, or if you’re on a laptop or desktop, you could just stay right here and  listen to the convenient embedded radio player lurking elsewhere on this page.

At 2 PM (EDT) Beatles Blast brings you a mixtape tribute to Abbey Road, with cover versions of every song on that classic album, some of them twice. It’s a wild mix of veteran prog-rockers, 1960s legends, alternative rock icons, and a few people you probably never heard of before. Heck, we even have three keyboardists who spent time in YES.

The hour kicks off with the entire album recreated via covers, and then we end with four bonus versions by folks like The Surpremes, Nick Cave and Chumbawumba.

Check out the playlist…

Beatles Blast 098

“Come Together” Durga McBroom, Jackie Lomax & Snowy White
“Something” Charles Jones & Sonny Landreth
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” Roger Joseph Manning Jr.
“Oh! Darling ” Eric Dover & Carmine Appice
“Octopus’s Garden” Matt Axton & Brian Auger
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” Arthur Brown & Steve Stevens
“Here Comes The Sun’ Ron Bumblefoot Thal
“Because’ Rebecca Pidgeon & Patrick Moraz
“You Never Give Me Your Money” Graham Bonnet & Rick Wakeman
“Sun King” James Booth & The Return, Albert Lee & Geoff Downes
‘Mean Mr. Mustard” Jack Russell
‘Polythene Pam” Matthew Sweet
“She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” Adam Gaynor & Paul Shaffer
“Golden Slumbers” Terry Reid
“Carry That Weight” Gregg Bissonette
‘The End” Frank Dimino & Steve Hillage
“Her Majesty” Gary Wilson
“Come Together” The Supremes
“Something” Martha Reeves
“Here Comes The Sun” “Nick Cave
“Her Majesty” Chumbawumba

Beatles Blast can be heard every Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays Thursday at 11 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday afternoon.

At 3 PM (EDT) on Curtain Call, Mel Larch presents a  collection of performances from new musicals, and closes the show with a couple of tunes played in tribute to Inga Swenson and the composer, Tom Jones, both of whom recently passed away. .

The show opens with another new track from the current revival of Sweeny Todd.

Following that, Mel tells you about four interesting new musicals that are either newly-staged, or still in the concept phase. You’ll hear samples of Mayflies: A New Musical, Relapse The Musical Concept Album, Cupid’s Daughters a Mythical Musical and Beasties: A Sci-Fi Rock Opera. Mel tells you a little bit about each show, and then wraps up with a couple of songs from 110 In The Shade.

Check out the playlist…

Curtain Call 135

“Not While I’m Around” from Sweeney Todd (2023)

“Looking Back,” “Running On Empty,” “Jigsaw” from Mayflies: A New Musical

“Wasteland,” “Flush,” “Serenity” from Relapse The Musical Concept Album

“Brightest Love,” “Long Dark Road,” “Run to You” from Cupid’s Daughters a Mythical Musical

“Forever Girl,” “Stand Up And Be Counted,” “Even The Cool Succumb,” “You’ve Gotta Understand” from Beasties: A Sci-Fi Rock Opera

“Love Don’t Turn Around,” “Simple Little Things” featuring Inga Swenson from 110 In The Shade 

Curtain Call can be heard on The AIR Wednesday at 3 PM, with replays Thursday at 8 AM, Friday at 10 AM, Saturday at 8 PM and Monday at 9 AM. A six-hour marathon of classic episodes can be heard Sunday evening starting at 6 PM, and an all-night marathon of Curtain Call episodes can be heard Wednesday nights, beginning at Midnight.

Also on The AIR, Wednesday at 11 PM,  The Comedy Vault  presents an encore episode featuring Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner’s 2,000 Year-old Man.

We are somewhat back to normal for Tuesday on The AIR and that means it’s time for a new  Radio Free Charleston and a new edition of The Swing Shift. 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.  

You can hear Radio Free Charleston Tuesdays at 10 AM and 10 PM, with tons of replays throughout the week.  This week we have a new hour loaded with great stuff, and another dip back into the Radio Free Charleston archives for a show loaded with curious gems and jarring transitions.

Our first sixty minutes features new tunes from Alabaster Boxer, Jim Lange, Jerks, Golden, Bearings, The Hives, The struts ad Speedsuit.

Our second and third hours revive another free-format free-for-all with a mix of everything from The Residents to Paul McCartney, with contributions from Matt Berry, King Crimson, Kate Bush, Be Bop Deluxe and more along the way.

Check out the playlist below to see all the goodies we have in store. In the first hour live links will take you to the local and indie artist’s pages so you can find out more about them, buy their music and find out where to see them perform live…

RFC V5 143

hour one
Alabaster Boxer “West Virginia Heat”
Jim Lange “Ride The Bus”
Joe Jackson “Is She Really going Out With Him”
Kim Wilde “Hey Mister Heartache”
Jackie Lomax “New Day”
Three’s Company Blues “Island of Despair”
Farnsworth “No Friend To Man”
Jerks “King of Anxiety”
Golden “Defeated”
Bearings “I Want To Heal”
The Hives “Crash Into The Weekend”
The Breeders “Bang On”
The Struts “Too Good At Raising Hell”
Speedsuit “Winter”
Emmalea Deal & The Hot Mess “Rosie (live)”

hour two

The Struts “Primadonna Like Me”
Matt Berry “Mr. Green Genes”
The Nice “Little Arabella”
The Winstons “Golden Brown”
Peter Hamill “On Deaf Ears”
Kate Bush ‘Leave It Open”
Roine Stolt “Six Thirty Wake-Up”
The Beatles “Revolution 1”
The Kinks “The Last of The Steam-Powered Trains”
10CC “Under Your Thumb”
Nazareth “Beggers Day/Rose In The Heather”
The Doors “The Unknown Soldier”
Be Bop Deluxe “Sister Seagull”
Paul MacCartney “Who Cares”

hour three
The Residents “Still Needy”
Sonic Elements tribute to Yes featuring Marisol Koss and Tony Kaye “Yours Is No Disgrace”
Thumper Monkey “Make Me Young”
Adam Rabin “The Badger Flies At Dawn”
King Crimson “Sleepless”
Renaissance “Mother Russia”
New Nektar “Intermezzo 1”

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,  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 we offer up a brand-new episode of The Swing Shift. This time it’s a solid hour of great Swing tunes from some of the lesser-known Swing  artistes. There are a few recognizable names in this episode, and several bands we’ve played in the past, but I decided to let these musicians step out of the shadows of big name Swing artists.

Except for Herb Albert. I was just impressed that he was even able to Swing.

Just check out this seemingly random playlist…

The Swing Shift 147

Pepper and the Jellies “Some of These Days”
Jennifer Wharton “Big Long Slidin’ Thing”
Queen Bee and the Honeylovers “Dr. Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic”
Bayou Moonshiners “Big Time Woman”
Renee Zellwiger “Get Happy”
Herb Albert “South of the Border”
Adrian Raso “Eric The Baker”
Swing Valley Band “Silent George”
Juke Baritone “Old Joe”
Giorgio Cuscito “Just Squeeze Me”
Gypsy Jazz Trio “I Got You (I Feel Good)”
Vintage Gramola “Maria”
Harp Bazaar “My Heart Belongs To Daddy”
O Sister “Do Not You Agree With Me”

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 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 Thursday and Sunday evenings.

I didn’t go full-tilt Hopper this week, but in this acrylic and water color on textured paper piece I do attempt to employ some of his light and shadow technique.

The story behind this piece is that, on my July trip to Chicago, while I was biding my time sitting on a bench in Giddings Plaza in Lincoln Square (while Mrs. PopCulteer was shopping in stores that sell stuff with strong fragrances), I noticed a young lady sitting on the bench opposite me across the park furiously drawing or writing in a journal. From the movements of her hand and arm I assumed that she was drawing.

She may have been drawing me, or she may have been drawing whatever was behind me, or something altogether different. I don’t know because I don’t want to be the creepy old man who goes up to young women to ask, “Hey, what you doin’?”

Besides, it’s possible she was drawing  stick figures of me with knives and bombs and fighter jets killing me, so it was best not to find out.

While I didn’t want to be creepy enough to bother her in person, I was creepy enough to be sitting in the park taking reference photos for this latest stretch of Monday Morning Art, and she happened to turn up in several of the pictures. So I sort of conglomerized them into one, got the composition I was happy with, and came up with this painting. It’s really more of a study for a future painting, but my fingers were cooperating pretty well on this one.  I’m particularly happy with the tree branches and their shadows.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Over in radioland, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you a brand-new episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM a brand-new edition of Herman Linte’s weekly showcase of the Progressive Rock of the past half-century, Prognosis.  You can listen to The AIR at the website, or on the embedded radio player elsewhere on this page.

For the first time in months, I have playlists for these shows.  At 2 PM Nigel Pye brings you an hour of Psychedelic Shack, and this week he has some more contemporary mind-expanding aura chex mix for you, along with some vintage goodies. Check out the playlist…

Psychedelic Shack 080

The American Dream “Storm”
Blur “Goodbye Albert”
Apokalipsa “Ta Duda”
Brown Spirits “Who’s At The Door?”
Utopia (Germany) “What You Gonna Do?”
Stackridge “Teatime”
The Siegel-Schwall Band “I Don’t Want You To Be My Girl”
King gizzard & The Lizard Wizard “Dragon”
The Knickerbockers “High On Love”

Psychedelic Shack can be heard every Monday at 2 PM, with replays Tuesday at 9 AM, Wednesday at 10 PM, Friday at 1 PM,  and Saturday at 9 AM.

At 3 PM Herman Linte takes over with a two-hour mixtape edition of Prognosis.  This episode is a stiched-together live music experience that blends live recordings of several great prog bands, and this time Herman stretches the definition a little to include proggier tunes by The Who, Ultravox and Zappa Plays Zappa.  Check out the playlist…

Prognosis 107
Live Prog

Gentle Giant “The Runaway Experience”
PFM “Alta Loma Five Til Nine Medley”
Dream Theater “The Big Medley”
John Wetton “Open Your Eyes”
Ultravox “The Voice”
The League of Gentlmen “Inductive Resonance”
Jethro Tull “Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of A New Day”
Zappa Plays Zappa “Inca Roads”
Marillion “The Leavers”
The Who with Orchestra “Love Reign O’er Me”

You can hear Prognosis on The AIR Monday at 3 PM, with replays Tuesday at 7 AM, Wednesday at 8 PM, Thursday at Noon, and Saturday at 10 AM. You can hear two classic episodes of the show Sunday at 2 PM.

At 8 PM you can hear an encore of last Wednesday’s episode of The Comedy Vault, which featured more wild stuff from National Lampoon.

Monday at 9 PM the Monday Marathon presents ten hours of classic episodes of Mel Larch’s musical theater showcase, Curtain Call. .

Okay. I have to ‘fess up here. I’d planned to run the video of last weekend’s epic roadtrip here, but I was so worn out from the trip that I did not get it edited in time.

I want to do a good job on it, and I was just too lethargic to finish it this week. I’m shooting for next week now.

So instead, today we will commemorate the 1940 assassination of Leon Trotsky by bringing you The Stranglers and their song that mentions it, “No More Heroes.”

Radio Free Charleston headed into a bold new direction with episode 40 of the show. This episode featured a slick new opening, new regular features and a fresh, upbeat attitude, as we undertook a major revamp to bring you the best local music, comedy, film and animation that West Virginia had to offer.

Of course, it was all a load of hooey. This was our first April Fool’s episode and nobody fell for it, but it was loads of fun.

Aside from the “new regular features” that would never be seen again (thanks for being a good sport, Eamon), and the presence of the frightening and mis-colored Radio Free Charleston toupee, this was a great show with music from Paul Calicoat (filmed at Route 60 Music) and Joe Slack (filmed behind the Kanawha County Public Library). Plus The No Pants Players returned with a hilarious April Fool’s Day Message, Award-winning filmmaker Eamon Hardiman did indeed grace us with the first of one installment of “Eamon In The Street,” and our animation this episode features Jerry “The King” Lawler in animated outtakes from his then- recent PopCult interview.

It was during the filming of the host segments in Huntington (while wearing a “Charleston” shirt and claiming that the different locales were in Kanawha County) that your PopCulteer’s trusty ride, the Cutlass Supreme, blew its cooling system, which limited us shooting in a three-block radius near Pullman Square. Had we been able to shoot the original gags that we’d planned, which were in extrememely poor taste, chances are that your humble host would have been lynched and strung-up, Mussolini-style, from one of the tasteful streetlights in the downtown Huntington area.

You can find the original production notes HERE.

And have a happy April Fool’s Day. Your shoe’s untied.

The PopCulteer
August 18, 2023

We have a couple of cool things to tell you about this week while we are still recovering from our epic road trip.

I Wish The Gods Were Dead

First, it’s a Kickstarter note on a very short campaign that wraps up in about a week.

I’ve been telling you about Anthony Stokes’ comics for over a year now. He’s one of the most exciting young storytellers to turn up on the scene, and hot on the heels of his excellent Tap or Die comic he has a new project, a fantasy Manga-style comic book called I Wish The Gods Were Dead.

Here’s how Stokes describes the series:

How far would you go to avenge a loved one?

After stumbling upon a powerful ancient relic, an overlord enslaves humanity using giant animals as overseers. After her brother is killed, Shyanne becomes humanity’s last hope. She regularly battles with giant monsters, rarely coming out unscathed.

Insurmountable odds be damned Shyanne is ready to risk it all to get revenge and save humanity in the process.

Fans of Berserk and Attack On Titan will love I Wish The Gods Were Dead. It’s a must read for manga fans.

I’m interested to see how Stokes works with a more fantastic setting. Joining Stokes on this series is artist Andrea Virnicchi.

Stokes has quickly established himself as a major creative force on the comics scene, and it’s a treat to get to watch as he broadens his scope and grows as a storyteller, taking on new genre and building grand new mythologies.

Once again, this book was already fully-funded before I had a chance to tell you about it. If you want to see another great project from Stokes, Kick in while you can.

Go Back To 1978 On MIRRORBALL

Mel Larch’s Disco Showcase, MIRRORBALL, returns Friday.  At 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch devotes the full hour of MIRRORBALL to the Disco Hits of 1978, one of the peak years of classic dance music.  The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

Basking in in the glow of the previous year’s Saturday Night Fever, Disco burst out of the clubs and into the mainstream as dance beats took over the top 40 and could be heard everywhere! The country may be been in the midst of the great malaise, but people put on their boogie shoes and danced away from their problems as the seventies wound down. Get ready for a full hour of Disco: 1978.

It’s a killer time capsule of primo Disco tunes from forty-five years ago. Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 081

A Taste of Honey “Boogie Oogie Oogie”
Chaka Khan “Some Love”
Musique “Keep On Jumpin'”
Sylvester “Disco Heat”
Chic “I Want Your Love”
Dan Hartman “Instant Replay”
Village People “Sodom and Gomorrah”
The Jacksons “Blame It On The Boogie”
Average White Band “Same Feeling, Different Song”
Andy Gibb “Shadow Dancing”
Peaches and Herb “Shake Your Groove Thing”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays throughout the following week Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM and a mini-marathon Saturday nights at 9 PM

At 3 PM we bring you an encore of a classic episode of Sydney’s Big Electric Cat that was the second of two shows that presented music by by prominent New Wave musicians in the years well after the New Wave boom of the 1980s went bust.

Here’s the playlist…

BEC 051

Elvis Costello and The Imposters “Mr. And Mrs. Hush” (2018)
Blondie “Love Level” (2017)
“Glen Matlock “I Couldn’t Give A Damn” (2018)
Garland Jeffires “Streetwise” (2011)
The Stranglers “Relentless” (2006)
Hugh Cornwell “Delightful Nightmare” (2008)
Hazel O’Connor “Good Morning Heartache” (2017)
Adam Ant “Punkyounggirl” (2013)
Suicidal Tendancies “Ain’t Messin’ Around” (2018)
The Damned “Daily Liar” (2018)
OMD “Metroland” (2013)
The Go Gos “Stuck In My Car (2001)
Paul Weller “Satellite Kid” (2017)
Killing Joke “New Jeruselem” (2015)
Dexys “I’m Always Going To Love You” (2012)
a-ha “Giving Up The Ghost” (2015)
Cyndi Lauper “Mother Earth” (2010)
The B 52s “Eyes Wide Open” (2008)
Bad Manners “Shape I’m In” (2013)
The English Beat with Dave Wakeling “Every Time You Told Me” (2018)
Annie Lennox “Mood Indigo” (2014)
Ultravox “Brilliant” (2012)

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon, Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Two classic episodes can also be heard every Sunday, starting at 10 AM.

And that is this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content.

It’s another rare RFC premiere on a Thursday on The AIR  as we deliver unto you a brand-new episode of Radio Free Charleston, which should have been ready two days ago for our normal timeslot, but wasn’t because your humble blogger was, as they say in the big city, plumb tuckered out after making an almost 1,200-mile roadtrip in five days, hitting two major toy shows that were over 500 miles apart, and being old.

But, we simply delayed the show two days, so this Thursday on The AIR that means it’s time for a new  Radio Free Charleston.  

Thursday at 2 PM and 8 PM you simply have to take your cursor over and point it at the website, or you could just stay right here and  listen to the cool embedded player found elsewhere on this page, and you get three full hours of Radio Free Charleston loaded with cool new local music and cool new independent music and two hours of really interesting recycled RFC International from June, 2019..

Kicking off this slightly-delayed edition of our show is a new song from Jerks, which is not the title track of their new album, “This Is Fun,” but it’s damned close.

The rest of our first hour is loaded with new music from Aristotle Jones, Matt Mullins & The Bringdowns, Foz Rotten, Jonny Strykes, Blur, Jack Hues, The Fusion Syndicate, and the RFC debut of Alabaster Boxer.

Plus we also have a set of music in our first hour that probably isn’t safe for work. It’s really good stuff, but you might not want to mess around and play it loud, for fear of “finding out.”

Our second and third hours bring back a couple of hours of freeform radio insanity from 2019, via an old RFC International.  This episode marked the recent departures of both Dr. John and the alleged leader of The Residents, and also manages to veer off into Two-Tone Ska, Solo Beatles, pseudo-progressive and New Wave territory. It’s just me having fun playing whatever I felt like. I think this might be the last of the 2019 episodes of RFC International that I’ve recycled into our new three-hour format, but we have quite a few from earlier, in case I get in a pinch.

This week your PopCulteer was just too wiped out to do a full three-hour show.

Check out the playlist below to see all the goodies we have in store. Live links for the first hour of the playlist will take you to the artist’s pages so you can find out more about them, buy their music and find out where to see them perform live…

hour one
Jerks “This Is Fine”
Alabaster Boxer “Build You An Ocean”
The Cleverlys “She’s Not There”
Matt Mullins and The Bringdowns “Appalachain Highway”
Aristotle Jones “Streets of Osage”
Frank Sinatra “Michael and Peter”
Verdeant (Chloe Florence) “Reckless (Demo)”
Foz Rotten “From The Top”
Jonny Strykes “Gimme A Sign”
Buni Muni “Kids Are Dead”
Blur “Far Away Island”
Jack Hues “Since 2017”
The Fusion Syndicate “Io”
Galen and Paul “Esmeralda”

hour two
Dr. John “Such A Night”
Adrian Belew “Wait To Worry”
Harry Nilsson “1941”
Tom Robinson Band “2-4-6-8 Motorway”
The Planet Smashers “Can’t Stop”
The Skints “The Island”
The Aquabats “Doing Science”
The Specials “Embarrassed By You”
Russkaja “No One Is Illegal”
The Beat “Civilisation”
Madness “Prospects”
The Selector “Too Much Pressure”
The English Beat “Here We Go Love”
John Lennon “Instant Karma”
Wings “Give Ireland Back To The Irish”
Ringo Starr “In My Car”
George Harrison “Fish On The Sand”

hour three
The Residents “Voodoo Doll”
Andy Samberg “You Can’t Catch Me”
Uriah Heep “Easy Livin’”
Monochrome Set “Boom Boom”
Claypool Lennon Delirium “Boriska”
Marynox Bend “Avadnor”
Betty “Old Me”
Ventura Lane “Spacecrawl”
Matt Berry “Hey Little Girl”
The Police “Invisible Sun”
Shriekback “And Everything Like That”
The Clash “Version Pardner”

You can hear this episode of Radio Free Charleston Thursday at 2 PM and 8 PM, Friday at 9 AM, Saturday at Noon and Midnight,  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.