The PopCulteer
May 5, 2023

Your PopCulteer is celebrating Cinco de Mayo by writing this column on Thursday afternoon so he can not worry about writing it when he’ll be resting up to go see The Velvet Brothers at The Red Carpet.

Also, before we go any further, remember that the first Friday of the month is “Bandcamp Friday,” which means that Bandcamp does not take a cut from any sales at their website. All the money goes to the artist. So if you want to support local and independent music, this is the day to do it.

Meanwhile, Friday afternoon we offer up new episodes of MIRRORBALL and 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, Mel Larch uncorks a new MIRRORBALL! This is the one that we presented as a sneak preview last monday.  For those of you who missed it, it’s the third anniversary show for MIRRORBALL, and it’s the 75th episode, so Mel decided to present classic Disco songs that came out in 1975.

We told you all about that HERE, but if you’re too lazy to click, here’s the playlist again…

MIRRORBALL 075

Van McCoy “The Hustle”
Brass Construction “Movin’”
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes “Don’t Leave Me This Way”
Gloria Gaynor “Never Can Say Goodbye”
KC & The Sunshine Band “That’s The Way (I Like It)”
Barry White “What Am I Gonna Do With You”
The Blackbyrds “Walking In Rhythm”
Gary Tom’s Empire “7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Blow Your Whistle”
Tavares “It Only Takes A Minute”
Salsoul Orchestra “Tangerine”
Silver Convention “Save Me”
MFSB “Sexy”
Hot Chocolate “You Sexy Thing”
The Bee Gees “Jive Talkin’”

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 once again salutes the proud women who infiltrated New Wave music and made sure that it didn’t turn into yet another old boy’s club. Every song in this week’s show is spearheaded by feminine creativity, and it kicks off with newly-minted Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Kate Bush.

As Sydney explains in the show, the artists making up this show are a mix of huge mega-stars and New Wave Women whose stars did not get to shine quite so brightly. Sydney also explains that our friends at Haversham Recording Institute have been tied up doing international media support for some kind of big shindig happening over London way, and that’s why we didn’t have any new programs from them in April.

Check out the playlist…

BEC 103

Kate Bush “Sat In Your Lap”
Pretenders “Mystery Achievement”
Plasmatics “Monkey Suit”
The Selecter “They Make Me Mad”
The Creatures “A Strutting Rooster”
Debbie Harry “Chrome”
Go-Gos “Lust To Love”
Angela Werner “Ausgeflippt”
Mobiles “Long Time”
Renaissance “Camera, Camera”
28th Day “Pages Turn”
RAF “Stop Her On Sight”
Threshold “Believe In Me”
Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”
Joan Jett “Crimson and Clover”
Unit 5 “Mental State”
Laurie Anderson “From The AIR”
Kim Wilde “Tuning In, Tuning Out”
Toyah “War Boys”
Rachel Sweet “Who Does Lisa Like”
Tracey Ullman “Breakaway”
Berlin “Sex”
Missing Persons “It Ain’t None Of Your Business”
Marianne Faithfull “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan”
Inker & Hamilton “Innocent”
Kirsty MacColl “A New England”
Hazel O’Connor “Top of The Wheel”
Velvet Monkey “You’re Not There”
Lene Lovich “Joan”

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. I’m gonna go see The Velvets tonight!