Category: Uncategorized (Page 74 of 757)

From September, 2009, we have the 83rd episode of Radio Free Charleston. In this episode you’ll find then-new music by Mother Nang as well as footage from a Tuesday Open Mic at Sam’s Uptown Cafe by James Vernon Brown, Sierra Ferrell and Patrick Stephens. We also have a Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie. This restored episode had been offline for close to a decade before I managed to re-upload it in 2022.

This is one of the earliest videos that was posted featuring Chareston’s own Sierra Ferrell, who has gone on to great acclaim, signed to Rounder Records and touring all over the world. Over the last couple of years Sierra’s become the crown princess of traditional country music. It’s a kick, going back to this old video (even before Sierra’s stint with 600 lbs of Sin) to hear her and James doing a Citizen Cope tune.

This show also has a plug for our Great Guitar Giveaway, a contest (now long over with) that we did in conjunction with Route 60 Music.

Headlining the show is Mother Nang, old friends of mine, seen here in a psychedelic video for their song “The Painter.” We recorded this at the much-missed LiveMix Studio, where I got to direct using LiveMix’s Video Toaster. I handled the post-production and inserted the painterly psychedelica back here at Stately Radio Free Charleston Manor.

You can find the original production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
May 17, 2024

It’s the first episode after the big milestone, as Mel Larch returns with a brand-new MIRRORBALL! You can hear this and more cool music Friday on The AIR.

The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear our shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

Friday at 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch devotes her hour of Disco to a random assortment of classic dance tracks from the golden age of Disco. This time around she focuses on some of the lesser-known Disco hits, although we do have one mega-hit ringer, Amii Stewart’s “Knock On Wood” appears in a rare club mix.

You’ll also hear Cookie Monster, from his days binging on cookies while hanging out at Paradise Garage.

It’s a tasty collection of Disco goodies, to kick off MIRRORBALL”s second hundred episodes. Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 101

Rokotto “Boogie On Up”
Montreal Sound “Music”
Amii Stewart “Knock On Wood”
Black Star “Black Star”
Brenda Harris “Freakin’ Freak”
Cookie Monster & The Girls “C Is For Cookie (Larry Levan Mix)”
Grace Jones “That’s The Trouble”
Morning, Noon & Night “Bite Your Granny”
Patrick Adams & Phreek “Everybody Loves A Good 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, it’s encore time on the Big Electric Cat time as Sydney Fileen delivers a special mixtape edition of her show that presents a time capsule of the year 1980, one of the key years in the history of New Wave Music. This show originally aired in September, 2022.

Over the course of two hours you will hear such artists as The Police, Gary Numan, The Beat, Talking Heads, The B 52s, DEVO and more, all with music released in 1980. 1980 was the year when we vowed to whip it, at least once in a lifetime.

This is musical history at its most fun, so check out this playlist…

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat 096

1980

Ultravox “Vienna”
Jim Carroll Band “People Who Died.”
Siouxsie & The Banshees “Paradise Place”
DEVO “Whip It”
Talking Heads “Once In A Lifetime”
Kate Bush “Violin”
Joe Jackson “Mad At You”
Gary Numan “I Dream of Wires”
Lene Lovich “The Night”
Units “Warm Moving Bodies”
The B 52s “The Devil’s In My Car”
The Cars “Gimme Some Slack”
The Beat (English) “Twist and Crawl”
The Clash “Somebody Got Murdered”
Adam and The Ants “Dog Eat Dog”
The Buggles “Kid Dynamo”
Martha and The Muffins “Echo Beach”
Spizz Energy “Where’s Captain Kirk”
Oingo Boingo “I’m So Bad”
Mi-Sex “A Loser”
The Plasmatics “I Want You Baby”
The Ramones “Do You Remember Rock’n’Roll Radio”
The Pretenders “Tattooed Love Boys”
Quincy “Roamin’ Catholic”
Split Enz “What’s The Matter With You”
Elvis Costello “5 Gears In Reverse”
Berlin “City Lights”
The Vapors “Spring Collection”
Toyah “Vision”
Models “Two People Per Square Kilometer”
Joy Division “Isolation”
Echo and The Bunnymen “Stars are Stars”

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.

The PopCult Comix Bookshelf

Blessed Be
by Rick Altergott
Fantagraphics
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1683967781
$24.99

Blessed Be is the first long-from work by cartoonist Rick Altergott, and it’s an absolute gem.  The story stars Doofus, the short, chubby loser with a page-boy haircut and straw boater who was originally featured in short gag back-up comic strips in magazines like HATE and Eightball back in the 1990s.

Originally Blessed Be was serialized in black-and-white in the anthology comic, Raisin Pie, which Altergott split with his wife, cartoonist Ariel Bordreaux, but the story was left unfinished. Since the last issue of Raisin Pie was published in 2007, Altergott has extensively re-written and re-drawn and colored the much-expanded story, and the result is an incredible comic book story, with distinctly adult themes. He’s also incorporated some of the work he did for VICE in recent years, too.

The result is a 150+ page story that grabs you and makes you want to finish it in one sitting.

While Doofus and his dim-witted sidekick, Henry Hotchkiss are the stars of the story, the real main character is the fictional seaside town of Flowertown USA and its mix of bizarre characters and people who are struggling to be normal. There’s lots of drugs, sex and violence involved, and even more biting satire and social commentary. Blessed Be manages to occupy a space somewhere between Archie Comics and the worlds of Charles Bukowski, Todd Solondz and Timothy Leary, with a nod to crime stories and slapstick comedy along the way.

He’s populated Flowertown with a surreal collection of characters: Naked net fishermen who dominate the beach and speak in their own unidentifiable language; A secret society that pulls the strings of power in the town…and has as their secret a most unexpected characteristic; A teen drug-dealer, hellbent on revenge; Denizens and patrons of “Big Disgusting Burger Inc.”; Someone who leaves Chick Tracts all over town; and of course, Doofus and Henry.

Altergott’s art is an almagam of some very impressive influences.  He manages to maintain his own style, while showing nods to Mad Magazine‘s iconic artists like Jack Davis, Mort Drucker and Wally Wood. His storytelling, layout and pacing are terrific and the coloring on this work is spectacular.

The story is filled with nudity, both male and female, and adult themes and drug use. The violence is not gory, but as placed in the story it’s shocking. While the art might make you think that this is simply a light-hearted comedy, it’s actually a pretty intense drama and definitely not for children or for pearl-clutchers of any age.

Having said this, I think I enjoyed Blessed Be more than any new work I’ve read so far this year.

Let’s quote from the publisher’s blurb…

Altergott’s farcical earnest cast of smalltown bums, outlaws, hippies, bikers, and babes — with names like Father John Beggarweed, Stink Hair Stu, Rubberneck Nelson, Muttonchop O’Rourke, et. al. — intertwine in a web of crime and mystery involving satanic ritual, religious tracts curiously popping up around town, naked fishermen, and psychedelic drugs, driving the narrative to ever-greater depths of hilarity (even though none of his characters are in on the jokes). Blessed Be reads like an R-rated Mad magazine parody of Our Town written by John Waters and drawn by Mort Drucker and Wally Wood. Altergott both skewers and celebrates an eerie realm of ’70s men’s magazines and small-town conservatism. A cult favorite since the 1990s amongst intellectuals and philistines alike for his impeccably crafted brand of lowbrow humor, cartoonist Rick Altergott has never crafted a full-length graphic novel — until now.

Blessed Be can be ordered from any bookseller using the ISBN code above, or you can purchase it directly from the publisher.

It’s not officially Summer yet, but we’re getting there. The days are getting longer. The weather is getting hotter and more humid. If you go riding your bike, please be careful. And…there is still plenty of STUFF TO DO in Charleston and all over the Mountain State and beyond as we still wonder whatever happened to that lovely spring weather we never got.

First up, in honor of Mental Health Awareness month we’re leaving West Virginia. Not for good, and I don’t mean I’m personally leaving, but there is a very cool show this coming at Natalie’s in Columbus (at 945 King Avenue) Starting at 7 PM, it’s an uplifting night of great music plus information and resources to help those struggling with mental health. Featuring performances by Columbus-area musicians Brian Clash, Glare, John Estep’s Breaking Badfinger, Colin Gawel & Friends and Electro Cult Circus remembering the music of bands and musicians impacted by suicide. This benefit concert will raise funds for mental health and suicide awareness agencies.

John Estep, of course, is a longtime friend and this is a very special show. For more details go HERE.

Live Music is on tap at Taylor Books. There is no cover charge, and shows start at 7:30 PM.  Friday it’s Chet Lowther. Saturday Ty McClanahan takes the stage at the beloved bookstore/cafe/art gallery.

Continue reading

Tuesday is once again “New Show Day” on The AIR.  As such, we have new episodes of  Radio Free Charleston and The Swing Shift for you. 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.  

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

Radio Free Charleston is both a wonderful music-filled episode of the show AND a special vintage concert from 1977, plugged in to help your humble radio host and blogger deal with Myasthenia Gravis and a big magazine deadline at the same time.

A little more than our first hour is our usual collection of cool local, independent and brand-new music. We open with brand new music from Clowhole! I’ve had this for a while, but just got cleared to share it with all of you. “Aqua” is the first single from their upcoming, thirty-years-in-the-making, debut album.

One top of that, we also have the RFC debut of Ginger Wixx, who has been lighting up the local music scene for a couple of years. Her debut EP hit all the major streaming services last Friday.

We also have a couple of great indie tracks from our Chicago connection, new music local and independent bands and tracks from the vast RFC archives. And that’s all in the first hour (with a little overrun).

For our second and third hours, we go back to 1977, in Wheeling, for a concert by Emerson, Lake and Palmer that was recorded for national radio. After being bootlegged for years, we bring (most of) it to you so that your blogger can squeeze out a little more time for paying work. It’s a killer concert with all their major hits.

The links in the first hour of the playlist will take you to the pages where you can learn more about each artist and buy their music or find out where to see them (where available)…

RFC V5 176

Clownhole “Aqua”
Ginger Wixx “Super Mean”
Brett Ratner “Caribbean Street Fest”
John Bunkley “I’m Just A Fugitive”
Massing “Stay Inside (Rejuiced)”
Messer Chups “Dark Side of Paradise”
The Settlement “Be Yourself”
Scott Collins “Killer Crush”
The Dread Crew of Oddwood “Locomotive Death”
Unmanned “Aliens”
The Ghosts of Now “Ode To Billie Davis”
BobaFlex “I’m Glad You’re Dead”
Crack The Sky “Sea Epic”
Mother Nang “Fade”
The Science Fair Explosion“Cosmic Girl”

Plus Emerson, Lake and Palmer in Wheeling, WV from 1977.

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 special mixtape collection of Django Reinhardt, from his years in Rome in the late 40/early 50s. It’s amazing guitar-based Swing with a style that is still being emulated today. Check out the playlist…

The Swing Shift 159
Django Reinhardt

“Night and Day”
“Honeysuckle Rose”
“I’ll Never Be The Same”
“Sweet Georgia Brown”
“Swing ’39”
“What Is This Thing Called Love”
“Tchakovsky’s Starry Night”
“My Blue Heaven”
“After You’ve Gone”
“Swing 42”
“I Got Rhythm”
“The Peanut Vendor”
“Stormy Weather”
“Blue Skies”
“St. Louis Blues”
“Minor Swing”

 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.

We continue our month of digital abstracts. As I mentioned last week, with my Myasthenia Gravis flaring up, I am retreating from producing physical art for the time being. I will be filling this space for the month of May with digital abstracts, rather than try to finish some of my existing sketches and studies while I have impaired hands.

This week’s piece is another exercise in distorting refracted and reflected images and playing with color compostion.  I was going for a psychedelic vibe without using the traditional psychedelic color palette. I have a feeling the next two weeks will also be variations on this theme.

With any luck my fingers will come back to life in time for me to bring you some real world art in June.

To see it bigger try clicking HERE.

Over in radioland, Monday at 2 PM on The AIR, we bring you encores of a recent episode of Psychedelic Shack, and then at 3 PM a recent 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.

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. 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. All times listed are Eastern, so if you’re in another timezone, adjust accordingly.

At 8 PM you can hear an hour of standup from Ali Wong on a recent episode of The Comedy Vault.

Tonight at 9 PM for the Monday Marathon We bring you ten hours of Live and Local music, because we’re going to shake up our schedule in July, and that show might get shunted off to a different timeslot.

I haven’t run out of puns for this holiday yet.

This time we bring you a B-movie bit of Film Noir called “The Mugger.” It Stars Kent Smith,  Nan Martin and James Franciscus. In this 1958 thriller a police psychiatrist attempts to find a mugger obsessed with the need to seek out lonely women and slash their faces.

If they had called it “The Slasher,” you wouldn’t be seeing it here.

Happy Mugger’s Day to all who celebrate!

Above you see the 82nd episode of Radio Free Charleston. This one was called “I Love NY Shirt” and featured a sweet country tune by Jonathan Glen Wood, two songs from the CYAC musical, “The Blob” and some very disturbing short films.

We also had a plug for the Great Guitar Giveaway, which we did in conjunction with Route 60 Music (thanks again to Paul Calicoat for making that happen). The contest is long over, so don’t bother entering.  This show debuted in September, 2009, and was offline until I restored it a couple of years ago.

You can find the full production notes HERE.

The PopCulteer
May 10, 2024

Between outside work, allergy attacks and Myasthenia Gravis, I have been slacking off with reviews for the past few months. I really need to catch up to things, so today I’m going to write five short reviews of cool things that have made their way into my collection over the past several weeks.

These are not detailed reviews, and I’m using photos from elsewhere on the web, rather that drag out the portable studio and camera and spend half the night taking pictures. This is for the sake of expediency, and so that I can tell you about these really cool things while there’s still a remote chance you can get your hands on them. We have some action figures, some comics, a fashion doll and a paperback novel to tell you about.

Forbidden Zone – Paperback Book
By Joshua Millican

This is a novelization of one of my favorite movies of all time. It’s a heartwarming tale about family love, schoolkids on a grand adventure and good triumphing over evil.

That is true, but it’s also a psychotronic delight starring Hervé Villechaize and Suzie Tyrell as the tyrannical rulers of the sixth dimension, which is accessible by a portal located in the basement of the Hercules family.  The movie is filled with surreal characters and bizarre settings. You’ll see Danny Elfman of Oingo Boingo as Satan (his brother directed the movie) and lots and lots of lovely young women running around wearing only white panties, knee socks and tap shoes. It’s not really for kids. It’s like a Max Fleischer cartoon come to life.

I just got this book in Thursday, so I can’t do a full-blown review. Soon I will have time to read this paperback novel, but for now, here’s the publicity blurb:

If you’re a loner, beware.
Abused and misunderstood, beware.
Proud and lustful, beware.
Dregs and druggies and transgressive artists, beware.
If you’re on your own, you might end up in the FORBIDDEN ZONE!

Experience the bizarre and musical tale of a girl who travels to another world through a gateway in her family’s basement. Follow the dysfunctional Hercules Family into the erotic and hellish catacombs of the Sixth Dimension. Meet the sinister and scintillating residents of the Forbidden Zone and party down with the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo!

Richard Elfman’s transgressive cult sensation is now a novel, oozing with sex, mayhem, and body horror. This irreverent reimagining isn’t for the faint of heart—or the easily offended!

To stress it again, this is for adults. You can order your own copy now from Vinegar Syndrome.

Longbox Heroes Collection Action Figures

These are safe for kids.  These are action figures of some of the top independent comic book characters of the 80s and 90s, in the scale and format of DC Super Powers figures (originally from Kenner, now in a new series from McFarlane Toys). Longbox Heroes Collection is a retro styled 4.5” Comic Book Action Figures line.

Two years in the making, Fresh Monkey Fiction and Big Bad Toy Store take on independent comic book icons.  The Longbox Heroes Collection™ is the toy line that fans have been waiting for and features a selection of action figures based on some of the biggest names in creator-owned comic books heroes (and villians) including: Madman™ created by Mike Allred, The Goon™ created by Eric Powell, The Tick™ created by Ben Edlund, Mr. Monster™ created by Michael T. Gilbert, Cassie Hack™ created by Tim Seeley, Grendel™ created by Matt Wagner, and The Rocketeer™ created by Dave Stevens. Along with all-new characters The Black Phantom™* and the army-building Onslaught Trooper™* inspired by “The Rocketeer Jet-Pack Adventures” collection of stories.​

Each figure has been designed and sculpted by toy industry veteran and historian Jason Geyer aka ToyOtter Toys . These retro styled action figures have been uniquely created to have the look and feel of the classic Super Powers action figures of the 1980’s, along with playable articulation fans expect and deserve.

These were sold as a pre-order that took quite some time to come to fruition,  but they look fantastic and are in stock now, individually or as a set, at BBTS.

 SMASH! 

Over four years ago I wrote about a great one-shot comic book published by Rebellion/reasury of British Comics called SMASH!. I loved the retro/anglo stories, which offered new takes on classic UK comic book strips from the 1960s and 70s.

Originally solicited in the UK last year, a new three-issue mini-series version of SMASH! finally arrived in my hands a few weeks ago, and it’s another absolute treat.

Written by renowned artist/writer Paul Grist (Kane, Jack Staff), this fast-paced action-adventure mini-series features the very best and the most outlandish heroes, superheroes, and anti-heroes that British comics can offer. Two very different 1960s secret agents – Jane Bond and The Steel Claw – face mechanical menaces Robot Archie and the murderous AI Max from The Thirteenth Floor, and villainous anti-hero The Spider spars with supernatural avenger Cursitor Doom.

The series features new stories with great art from Tom Foster (Judge Dredd), Anna Morozova (Lowborn High) and Jimmy Broxton (Hope), and stunning covers by Andy Clarke (Batman and Robin). The story spans sixty years, involving the key characters, many of whom starred in the great IPC comics in the late 1960s.

Any decent comic book shop should be able to order this for you, or you could check online sources or be all fancy and order it directly from the UK.

MEGO DC 50th Anniversary Figures Wave 3

Punching all the nostalgia buttons, last year MEGO released near-exact replicas of the original DC MEGO World’s Greatest Superhero figures, in replica packaging, but on a vastly-improved new body. The line was a huge success and they continued it with a second wave, consisting mostly of villains, later in the year.

Now that all of the original male DC figures from MEGO have been released, they are still going with a new wave of eight figures, available now from online retailers like Absolutely Retro, and these are all gems.  No longer obligated to copy the weird cost-cutting quirks of the original Worlds Greatest Superheroes, MEGO has crafted some truly impressive eight-inch action figures with awesome headsculpts and really nice costume detail.

In this assortment they took on Dr. Fate, Deadman, Firestorm, Nightwing, Red Tornado, Bizarro, Two-Face and Brainiac. They look spectacular and are a great addition to anybody’s MEGO superhero collection.

Monster High Outta Fright Operetta Doll

Okay, this is one that I bought for my beautiful wife, Mel.  Her favorite character from the Monster High line was Operetta, the daughter of The Phantom of the Opera. Rather than opera, her musical kicks come from Rockabilly, but she still has the scarred face and mask, but she also has a smoking hot sense of hot-rod style.

This is the first version of Operetta that Mattel has released since they revived the Monster High line, and you have to join the Monster High Fang Club (it’s only ten bucks for a year) at Mattel Creations to get her, but it’s well worth it, since the deluxe collectors figure is only fifty dollars, which isn’t much for a limited run from Mattel Creations.

Here’s what they say on the website:

Straight from her concert in the catacombs comes the first exclusive Fang Club Member doll of 2024. Catch the hottest music act in Monster High – the new Operetta doll. Based on the fan-favorite G1 character, this singing phantom takes the stage in a 1950s-inspired spiderweb dress and vinyl record overskirt. She comes with her rockabilly pet spider Memphis Longlegs and a guitar handbag to complete her retro look.

• MONSTER HIGH™ OUTTA FRIGHT OPERETTA™ Doll
• 10.5 inches tall with 10 points of articulation
• Wears a spiderweb dress with a vinyl record overskirt and piano key shoes
• Her hot rod red high-top hair style is crowned by her pet spider Memphis Longlegs
• Rocks her look with a neck scarf, dice earrings, and a guitar handbag
• Premium Packaging with music notes and Outta Fright logo
• Includes Certificate of Authenticity

And those are five cool things that have taken up residence in Stately Radio Free Charleston Manor over the last few weeks. This has been this week’s PopCulteer. Check back every day for fresh content, even when your humble blogger is a bit under the weather.

Mothers Day happens this weekend, and for those of you who celebrate, go knock yourself out (just don’t go knock your mother out…that would be bad), for the rest of us, there is still plenty of STUFF TO DO in Charleston and all over the Mountain State and beyond as we wonder whatever happened to that lovely spring weather we never got.

As I have been copying and pasting of late, this a good time to remind you that THIS IS NOT A COMPLETE LIST OF EVENTS.  It’s just a starting point, so don’t expect anything comprehensive, and if you feel strongly about me leaving anything out, feel free to mention it in the comments.

We’re giving an extra plug to The Broken Relics, from Ohio, who make their Charleston debut this Friday at Sam’s Uptown Cafe.  I’ve been playing their songs on Radio Free Charleston for a few months, and if the Myasthenia Gravis allows, I’ll be there. You should go too.