Tonight on the radio

Tonight on Sunglasses After Dark, I should (in theory) be hosting an interview with Springman Records artists the Phenomenauts. Now, Joebot Twopointoh has lost his phone, and even though I’ve left him a message, he hasn’t gotten back to me yet.

There’s also the possibility that since the band is now headlining this tour (as Left Alone dropped off to open the Bouncing Souls tour), they might be playing at the Granada while the show’s going on. Soooo… I may have to wander down to the venue and do it all tape-recorder style and broadcast that instead.

Either way, I intend to have some space-age rockabilly interview goodness for you all tonight. The interview will probably end up archived here at some point, but if you’d like to hear it (as well as some other truly awesome garage / rockabilly / punk), you can tune in tonight via KJHK 90.7FM at midnight central standard time. The request line is always open at 785-864-4747. Hope to hear from you all.

Earth Is the Best
I Am Robot” (live)
Rocket Roll” (live)

Many musicians started their careers with music lessons so don’t feel like they’re only for children.

Random rocking

You would do yourself well to check out the following bands:

* the Rolling Blackouts – Think what would happen if the Hives listened to a lot more Motorhead. Black Is Beautiful was a clearance bin find the other day, and it’s been locked in the car stereo ever since. Seriously loud, fun, rock ‘n’ roll.
Download “Hung Up On the Hang Ups

* the PeacocksIn Without Knocking kicks most of the current crop of rockabilly revivalists right in the fucking junk. These guys don’t fuck around with the whole demon / evil / glam trappings of bands like Nekromantix. It’s slimmed down, rockabilly rock ‘n’ roll, with some punk speed and sneer. Then again, rockabilly’s always had a bit of a sneer. It was punk when “punk” still meant “prison bitch.” Anyhow, the Peacocks prove once again that bands from the Scandanavian area do our music better than we do.
Download “Warning

* Left Alone – Sure, they sound an awful lot like Rancid, but all the good parts. They certainly like their Farfisa, and have an undeniable Elvis Costello influence, and that’s fucking great. It’s punk rock that makes me want to sing, dance, and pretend I’m at the coolest party ever. Dead American Radio is their newest release, and I’m an awful person not having purchased it yet. That will be remedied come payday… you all should do the same.
Download “Done Wrong

Podcast moved

The RSJ podcast has moved to its own little section of the internet. It has its own page over at Podomatic. I’ve decided to save myself bandwidth and just set up that Podomatic page for my podcast. I’ll still post to it over here, but if you have iTunes or something, you can subscribe directly through the Podomatic page.

This week is rocka to psycho… billy. Last week’s was all the Fourth of July punk stuff. Upcoming? Celebrities who think they can sing, songs about drinking, songs that are filthy… I’m keeping this oddball and unusual. Granted, it will never compete with Houseplant Picture Studio in terms of esoterica, but I hope to present some interesting tunes for you all. Until I figure out a good place to put the link on this main page, I’ll just mirror the posts here.

From Rocka to Psycho: The Billies
Hillbilly music begat country begat rockabilly begat rock and roll begat punk rock begat psychobilly. Or something like that. It twists and turns, that ropckabilly music does. It sometimes sounds like country, it sometimes sounds like punk rock, it sometimes sounds like old-time rock ‘n’ roll.

This ought to give you some sense of a timeline, from when rockabilly first popped its head out of the hills in the mid-50s, all the way up to today. The music has made some leaps to where it’s played at the speed of metal, and gone all the way back to its roots.

Track list:
Roy Orbison – Oooby Dooby
Charlie Feathers – Frankie & Johnny
Carl Perkins – Put Your Cat Clothes On
Dwight Pullen – Sunglasses After Dark
The Riptides – Machine Gun
Charlie Feathers – Can’t Hardly Stand It
Gene Savage – Big Machine
The Meteors – Slow Down You Grave Robbing Bastard
Batmobile – Sex Starved
The Cramps – All Women Are Bad
Stray Cats – Sexy And 17
Reverend Horton Heat – Baddest Of The Bad
Nekromantix – I’m a Hellcat
Mad Sin – Saturday Night
The Amazing Crowns – Invitation To Alienation
The Peacocks – How Do You Know?
7 Shot Screamers – Vampire
The Phenomenauts – The Year 2000
HorrorPops – Where They Wander

Bonus tracks from the Cramps:
Goo Goo Muck
Human Fly