Rudy Panucci On Pop Culture

RFC 67: The Convenience Of Solace

Radio Free Charleston Episode 67, “Earth To Eros Shirt,” is online now! This edition of our show features our first “rerun” musical segment, plus new music from A Place Of Solace, A new trailer for Butch Maier’s film, “The Bride And The Grooms,” and the phenomenal young Bradley Wilkerson Sings! The afore-mentioned rerun segment is the animated music video for “Requiem For Pepperland” by Go Van Gogh, brought back by popular demand. This is our special “deadline crunch” show, as I try to maintain a weekly schedule through April in the face of major-league scheduling adversity.

Host segments for RFC 67 were shot in The Convenience Store on Summers Street in Charleston. We want to thank Scott Shapiro for letting us barge in unannounced just a couple of days after he said it would be okay to shoot segments in the store. If you haven’t checked it out yet, The Convenience Store is well-stocked with the essentials of life–food, drink, supplies for the tobacco-addicted–but they have a bit more. The Convenience Store is also an art gallery, displaying new works by the cutting edge of Charleston’s art scene. Plus they sell CDs by local musicians and underground T-shirts and jewelry. The place is great. It’s got the vibe of a 1970s head shop, only they sell Mexican Coca Cola (made with real sugar) instead of black light posters depicting positions from the Kama Sutra.

What can I say about Bradley Wilkerson? Once you hear him sing, you’ll forget all about that British lady who looks like Benny Hill. He is the new “Awesome Talent Of The Century!” Soon we’ll have booking information so you can bring Young Bradley to your favorite venue.

For the first time in our 67 episodes, we are re-running a music video. Go Van Gogh’s “Requiem For Pepperland” originally ran on our Beatles tribute show, episode 28. Despite being designed and animated by yours truly in only four days in October 2007, it’s proven to be quite popular. It’s on YouTube, where it’s garnered more than 1,200 hits, but lately I’ve had a few folks ask me to run it on the show again. That’s one reason we’re re-presenting this music video.

Another is that it’s a good way to plug this weekend’s Beatles tribute concerts by Classical Mystery Tour and The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra. You can catch that show at The Clay Center Friday and Saturday, and Beatle freaks should go so it’ll tide them over while they’re waiting for the re-mastered Beatles CDs this fall.

One more reason is that this video also counts as our animation this week.

Finally, we’re bringing back this video because, as I mentioned earlier, I am in a major time-crunch, and it was easier to re-use an old video than it would be to edit one of the dozens of great local performances that I have sitting around on various hard drives. In the coming weeks we will be bringing you previously-unseen performances by The Spurgie Hankins Band, Shindig, Blue Million, Joseph Henry, John Radcliff, The Feast Of Stephen and many others. Just as soon as we find the time to edit them. We’ve shot a ton of stuff over the last two years that we still haven’t used yet.

In the meantime, check out “Pepperland,” and read the original production notes here.

Butch Maier’s film, “The Bride And The Grooms,” comes to The Park Place Stadium Cinemas for a one-week run starting this Friday. Maier himself will be there Friday at 7:15 PM to meet fans, a Q & A session will follow the screening that night. Butch has graciously allowed us to use the third of three trailers for the film in this episode of RFC, this one featuring music by Empire Drift.

We’ve been running trailers for this project for some time, and it’ll be great to finally get to see it on the big screen. What we’ve seen in the trailers looks sweet and classy, so I’ve got my hopes up. How about we all get out and support a local filmmaker this weekend?

Headlining and closing the show this time around we have A Place Of Solace. We recorded this song almost exactly a year ago at the Empty Glass, and it captures APOS in top form, treating us to a song off of their newest release. “My hastily-scralwed notes tell me it’s called “You Will,” but I’m betting it has a different title.

I wish we could get to see this Huntington-based powerhouse in Charleston more often. Their progressive amalgam of metal, punk, and art-rock is unlike anything else in town, The band is still playing in the Huntington area, and has a show May 1 at Musician’s Paradise in Hamlin at 9 PM.

When we shot this video, RFC Big Shot Melanie Larch was unavailable, so camera chores on this shoot were handled by yours truly and George Arbogast.

A side note: The first time I saw Earth To Eros, the band whose shirt I’m wearing in the show, they were on the same bill with A Place Of Solace at The Sound Factory. Earth To Eros is currently in recording mode, but as soon as we can line it up, we’re going to have them on RFC. This sort of makes it full circle, because I wore an A Place Of Solace shirt on the show before I had them on as performers. I found the E2E shirt at Route 60 Music in Barboursville, which is why eagle-eyed viewers may spot a Route 60 button on my hat during the show. Barry the bass player for Earth To Eros works there, and Radio Free Charleston will be teaming up with West Virginia’s stringed-instrument Mecca in the coming weeks to give away a guitar. Stay tuned to PopCult and Radio Free Charleston for details.

In this episode of RFC you will also get to see a snippet of an “interview” I conducted with Scott, from The Convenience Store. While we were just screwing around and going for cheap laughs, I hope it does explain a bit about why I don’t interview the performers on the show. I prefer to let the music speak for itself. Also, I hate doing live interviews, and it’s my show, so there. Scott was a good sport, letting us come in and shoot in his store, and the interview bit was actually his idea. Say “hi” from RFC when you stop in to check out the place.

That’s it for this edition of RFC. Next week we’re probably going to feature Jeff Ellis and Marcie Bullock, but that could change. You’ll just have to come back and see. And don’t forget to check out a new installment of “The PopCulteer” every Friday, here at PopCult.

2 Comments

  1. Longtime Listener

    What is this, five shows in five weeks?

    Damned good stuff, Rudy. Why this isn’t on the front page of The Gazz every week is beyond me.

  2. Elvis Capone

    This isn’t the first night that dad has wandered off. I think he’s at the Olive Garden trying to buy Pixy Stix again. I’ll call you back.

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