RFC Production Notes: Episode 24

The 24th episode of Radio Free Charleston is online now!  This was sort of the “getting back on the horse” episode after the long summer delay. With music from In Formation and Seven Minutes To Midnight, a bit of animation from Frank Panucci, and “Cooking With The Atrocity” by the folks at Crowza TV, this is our strong statement that we’re back. Oh, and I’m topless for most of the show. I was so eager to get this show to you, the viewing public, that it’s chock full o’ mistakes!  The details are below.  This is also the first episode of RFC that was rejected by your esteemed Gazz editor.  A few extra bleeps later, and all is fine with the world.

You can still go watch Episode 23 of Radio Free Charleston, featuring the reunion of The Feast Of Stephen, but that was a departure show that was entirely taped back on May 12.  It was a great show, but this latest episode is the first one where we get back into our groove (or rut, if you prefer) with our normal format.

First off, we have several corrections.  Deadline haste caused me to mangle the songwriting credit for the song by Seven Minutes Till Midnight (I also spelled “Midnight” wrong in the end credits and onscreen, too.  It was 4:30 in the morning when I did the on-screen graphics, sorry.  At least I got their MySpace address correct during the video–Thank God for “copy and paste”).  The actual credits for the song “The One In Two” are: Lyrics by Edward Shade, Music by Edward Shade and Roy Graley.  Never mind these paragraphs, I fixed some of the mistakes when I had to go back and re-bleep “Cooking With The Atrocity.”

On top of that, when I tried to fix the spelling of “Midnight” where it was screwed up onscreen, I accidently put “Seven Minutes To Midnight” on screen instead of “Seven Minutes Till Midnight.”  I’m pretty sure I say “Seven Minutes To Midnight”  on screen a couple of times, too. My mortification knows no bounds.  We’ll find a way to make it up to those guys as soon as possible. 

 Haste makes waste, people.  I’m telling you.

Also, due to my sloppy handwriting, I refer to Craig Boyd from In Formation as “Chris” during the show. This is what happens when your first two locations for host segments don’t pan out, and you don’t have time to print out a script, relying instead on shorthand notes that you scribbled on the back of an index card with a Sharpie.  Sorry, Craig.

That’s sort of the hallmark for this show: It features more on-screen mistakes and bleeping than any other episode to date. That it still rocks is a testament to the powerful stuff contained within. I hope the bands realize that I only make these sort of mistakes with the bands that I really, really like.

To kick off the notes on a personal level:  I thought it would be really interesting if I did the show without my trademark hat.  I’ve never made any secret of the fact that the hat is there to cover my baldness, but I’m secure enough that I don’t obsess over being seen hatless.  It’s a running joke with me. I also decided to grow a goatee for episode 24.  Remember, this show was supposed to be online during the fourth week of June, before the summer took an extended turn down “emotional rollercoaster” boulevard.  I thought I’d grow this goofy little goatee for a week and then shave it off.  I plan to shave it tonight, two months after originally intended.

Also, I decided to wear the Las Vegas long-sleeved T that I grabbed for two bucks at Steve and Barry’s.  Over that, I wore a silverish shirt that was a couple more bucks at Gabriel Brothers (we do have such a huge wardrobe budget here at RFC).

So that’s why I look like the fat, Vegas lounge version of Anton Levay in this episode. Yes, it’s “interesting”  in a Chinese curse sort of way. It was sort of fitting for what was probably the most uncomfortable host segment shoot we ever did.  Not only was I feeling naked without my hat, but there was also yelling at camera persons, keys locked in cars, rain, and traffic noise to deal with.  We shot the host segments Sunday afternoon, and the show was edited, mistakes and all, within 12 hours. Encoding, converting, and uploading is what takes so long, which is why it won’t be posted until Tuesday.  Starting with the next episode, a day will be shaved off of that process as we migrate to a new computer.

Enough about me and my horrible screen presence, though, the real stars of the show are the musical guests and the filmmakers.

In Formation is a band of incredible young musicians who sprang forth out of Riverside High.  I first caught these guys as a two piece opening for The No Pants Players, and instantly asked them on the show.  They wanted to wait until they were at full strength as a four piece, so we held off a few months.  In July, they contacted me about shooting some songs for them at The Labelle Theater, for them to use to enter an American Idol contest.  I don’t personally do contests, but I don’t mind helping other people who wish to enter them, and I was interested in seeing how a video shot at the Labelle would look, so I said “yes.”

The end result is the song “Memories,” which we included in this episode of Radio Free Charleston.  In Formation is Curtis Chittendon, Shane Durham, Luke White, and Craig Boyd and they will be performing at Appalachian Power Park on Thursday August 9 at 6 PM.  These guys are amazing musicians and they write some incredible original songs, plus it’s “buck night” so you can catch the band and a ball game for a dollar.  At some point in the future, we’re going to bring In Formation into LiveMix Studio for a more elaborate video shoot.

Seven Minutes Till Midnight is another amazing young local band with top-notch songwriting and musical ability, and we brought them into LiveMix a few weeks ago with way cool results.Edward Shade, Roy Graley, Justin James and Thomas Martin deliver a brand of alternative rock that I’ve described as “The Dave Matthews Band with balls.”  We taped a couple of their songs.  “The One In Two” is in this episode, and their other song is being saved for a special episode of RFC that we’re planning for October.

Again I have to apologize to the band for mangling their name in the on-screen graphics and verbally, and for messing up the songwriting credits.  I’ve always been extra-sensitive about getting names and credits correct on this show, and it seems like I keep finding new and innovative ways of screwing them up.  You can catch Seven Minutes Till Midnight August 25 at the Labelle Theater as part of Summerfest. They’ll also be playing September 15 at The Sound Factory.

Frank Panucci delivers another bit of CGI animated shtuff with “Crowd”.  It’s so cool to have an animator in the family.  One of these days Frank will finish his movie, “Reperkussionz” and the world will stand still and admire his animatory skills. We use up the last chunk of Frank’s film “Pralines Linger” during the end credits.

IWA East Coast Wrestling is back in action Wednesday night at the South Charleston Community Center.  This plucky indy wrestling fed has had a summer nearly as trying as RFC’s, and it’s great to see them back in action.  IWA EC is the home of the 108 Dragons, the denizens of Crowza.com, and the creators of Crowza TV.  In this episode of RFC we bring you “Cooking With The Atrocity,” the aborted cooking show produced for Crowza TV.  It’s pretty bleeping funny.

You’ll see such legendary IWA East Coast Super-Duper Mega Stars as Crowza, Woody Numbers, and The Juggulator as well as The Atrocity and the mysterious GOO.  You know it’s going to be a great cooking show when Ninja are involved.  I’m shocked that Food Network hasn’t snapped up this show yet.

There you have it: we’re back in the saddle, even if we nearly fell out a few times.  Our next episode will feature Joe Slack and The Amazing Delores, and if everything works out, Jesse The Jackhammer will make an appearance. Also, we have plans to shoot host segments at a very special location, and I’m betting that I write a script this time. Tends to go more smoothly when I have the time to do that