"If you wanna say something then I'd rather you text me..."

So I am a little late posting these this month. My apologies.



Catnip Mouse - July 2013




WOXY Users - July 2013

"Once it was a pretty coat, but now it's torn to pieces by the cat..."

Another month, another set of playlists.

Catnip Mouse - June 2013




WOXY Users - June 2013

Playin' with my friends

Today I am sharing two playlists compiled during the month of April 2013. The monthly playlists that I compile are called "Catnip Mouse," in honor of my favorite online comic, Savage Chickens. The other is a collaborative effort by a group of former WOXY listeners, and is very much in the spirit of WOXY. Each member of the group selects up to five of their favorite new releases.

Catnip Mouse - April 2013
WOXY users - April 2013

"I've got the big beat, I hear the sound..."

Adding yet another to the blog roll - this one from an old friend who recently found himself jobless after WOXY.com went silent.

Check out Mike Taylor's Big Beat for a well written, informed and entertaining musical viewpoint.

"Things are never quite the way they seem..."

WOXY
Back to the Future Playlist
Saturday, 11 October, 2003

8 a.m.
Thompson Twins – “Lies”
The Go Betweens – “Karen”
The Connells – “Fun & Games”
Poi Dog Pondering – “Jackass Ginger”
Hot House Flowers – “Don’t Go”
Tom Robinson Band – “2-4-6-8 Motorway”
Happy Mondays – “Kinky Afro”
The Cure – “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”
Gary Clail – “Human Nature”
Felt w/ Liz Frasier – “Primitive Painters”
Dumptruck – “Back Where I Belong”
Matthew Sweet – “We’re the Same”
Deee-Lite – “Groove is in the Heart”
David Sylvian – “Red Guitar”
The Pogues – “Dirty Old Town”

9 a.m.
John Hiatt – “Thing Called Love”
Royal Crescent Mob – “Love Rollercoaster”
The Cramps – “Surfin’ Dead”
Television – “Friction”
Pete Shelley – “Homosapien”
Nick Cave – “Deanna”
Love & Rockets – “Haunted When the Minutes Drag”
Gang of Four – “I Love a Man in a Uniform”
Falco – “Rock Me Amadeus”
Edie Brickell – “What I Am”
Circle Jerks – “American Heavy Metal Weekend”
Duran Duran – “Planet Earth”
808 State – “Moses”

10 a.m.
Squeeze – “Take Me I’m Yours”
Talking Heads – “Cities”
Terence Trent D’arby – “She Kissed Me”
Pet Shop Boys – “Suburbia”
Golden Palominos – “Clustering Train”
Flesh for Lulu – “Postcards from Paradise”
Enigma – “Sadeness”
Soho – “Hippie Chick”
(open for request)
The Police – “The Bed’s Too Big Without You”
Stray Cats – “Rock this Town”
The Cucumbers – “My Boyfriend”
Us 3 – “Cantaloop”
(open for request)

Although The Record Store was primarily known first and foremost as a place to buy music and music-related ephemera, we also did a brisk side business selling jewelry and smoking paraphernalia. There were plenty of regulars who never bought music from us at all, but were there each week to buy pipe screens, rolling papers, or one-hitters. Because of the quasi-illegal nature of the paraphernalia side of the business, we were forced to stop selling the harder-core head items like bongs, but we sold whatever we could while still staying on the right side of the law. This included cleanse kits.

The first cleanse kits we carried were “Quick Flush” herbal teas. Even though kits cost nearly $20 a box and users had to drink a couple of quarts of the stuff for it to work, we sold out each and every weekend. In a blue collar steel-and-auto manufacturing city where alcohol and recreational drug use was about the only fun to be had, I guess selling out of piss-test helpers wasn’t all that surprising.

While the herbal teas remained popular, we soon expanded our trade to include vials of a synthetic compound that could be mixed with urine to mask THC, and shampoo kits that stripped the THC out of hair. The teas were most popular with those who knew they were going to have to take a drug test – usually those in the process of job hunting. The chemical vials were most popular with assembly-line workers, who could be pulled from the line for a test at a moments notice. Users were instructed to keep the vials with them at all times – preferably someplace warm, like the front pocket of jeans or inside a bra. This is because the synthetic compound needed to be the same body temperature as urine in order to work.

You are probably wondering by this time why I’m banging on at such length about drug test kits when this post is supposed to be about my old WOXY play lists, and I can only say that the first thing that leapt out at me about this play list was Gang of Four’s “I Love a Man in a Uniform” which reminded me of the inordinate number of military personnel who came into the store in search of those cleanse kits. By far the most requested items for the soldiers and flyboys were the shampoo cleanse-kits. One of them once told me that it was because the government rarely bothered with piss-tests for personnel who had already completed basic training – instead, the U.S. military preferred the hair-strand test for our boys in uniform. I do not know how things are in today’s military, but back then soldiers were tested each time they had been away on leave.

And since most soldiers had their heads shaved during basic and kept it close cropped throughout their tenure in the armed forces, the shampoos we sold were rarely ever used above the shoulders. Mostly, as I was nervously informed by a worried flyboy, hair would be plucked from the legs, arms or – wait for it – the groin area. Ouch. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the chemicals in the shampoo kits tended to burn the, erm, more “sensitive areas” upon which they were applied. Such were the lengths our boys went through in order to serve their country.

Anyway, I couldn’t find a decent video of Gang of Four, so instead I give you another military-inspired song from the 80’s:


Stan Ridgway’s “Camouflage”

"An ocean storm can be still risen by a woman's lips..."

WOXY
Back to the Future Playlist
Saturday, 4 October, 2003

8 a.m.
David Bowie – “DJ”
Fred Schneider – “Monster”
Guadalcanal Diary – “Always Saturday”
Kate Bush – “Babooshka”
Peter Murphy – “Line Between the Devil’s Teeth”
Camper Van Beethoven – “The History of Utah”
X-Ray Spex – “Oh Bondage Up Yours”
Was (Not Was) – “I Feel Better Than James Brown”
Urban Dance Squad – “Deeper Shade of Soul”
PiL – “The Body”
M – “Pop Muzik”
Depeche Mode – “Shake the Disease”
Jerry Harrison – “Rev It Up”
The Ramones – “We’re a Happy Family”
(left blank for request)

9 a.m.
Elvis Costello – “Everyday I Write the Book”
Laurie Anderson – “Language is a Virus”
Let’s Active – “Fell”
Talking Heads – “Television Man”
Young Fresh Fellows – “Amy Grant”
The Pretenders – “Precious”
Charlatans – “White Shirt”
Soul Asylum – “Cartoon”
Firehose – “Sometimes”
Wolfgang Press – “A Girl Like You”
Jesus Jones – “Move Mountains”
The Fall – “Cruiser’s Creek”
The Police – “Driven to Tears”
The Buzzcocks – “Ever Fallen In Love?”

10 a.m.
Sinead O’Connor – “Jerusalem”
Echo & the Bunnymen – “The Cutter”
The Cult – “Revolution”
Ministry – “Work for Love”
XTC – “No Thugs in Our House”
Winter Hours – “Roadside Flowers”
U2 – “Gloria”
Tom Tom Club – “The Man With the 4-way Hips”
Special AKA – “Free Nelson Mandela”
The Clash – “White Riot”
The Replacements – “Here Comes a Regular”

No other band deserved to make the “big time” more than Winter Hours, but like so many others during the heyday of college radio, they got gobbled up and spit out by one of the majors.

Winter Hours originally formed in the early 1980’s and paid their dues playing in clubs up and down the east coast while trying to scrape together the money for demos. They first came across my radar sometime around ’85-‘86 when I stumbled across the Churches EP while flipping through the racks at Renaissance Music. I knew nothing about the band but was willing to take a chance on them based on their song titles and album sleeve artwork. I was blown away from the first listen, and actively sought out everything that came out afterwards.

The band released a couple of EPs and one LP for Link Records – not the U.K. punk label but the American one, which also released albums by The Godfathers, Full Fathom Five and O Positive. When I began working at WWSU I remember how excited I was the day the Wait Til the Morning EP landed on our doorstep. With the sublime “Hyacinth Girl,” I just knew the band would be huge. How could they not, with a song like that?

Their first full-length LP (released on Link), Leaving Time, remains one of my all-time favorites, and that is really saying something – coming from someone who has quite an extensive collection. With each listen I fall in love all over again.

The band signed with Chrysalis and released the self-titled Winter Hours, an album I felt wasn’t a patch on Leaving Time but was still very good. The single “Roadside Flowers” carried the album and could have taken the band to the next level, but Chrysalis had recently been made a public company and was still trying to adjust to a new playing field – they just didn’t have a clue. The label had no idea of how to market the band, they didn’t they recognize the band’s potential, and they looked upon college radio as a “fad” rather than a viable way to get the band’s music heard. Link had done what they could and knew college radio, but they didn’t have the money to really push the band. Chrysalis had the money but disdained college radio and the entire “alternative/modern rock” phenomenon. They were too busy pushing the likes of Pat Benetar, Slaughter and Huey Lewis & the News. That same mindset hurt them when Geffen unleashed Nirvana on the unsuspecting public a few years later and Chrysalis, like most of the majors, scrambled to play catch-up.

If there is one event that I look back on with abject regret, it is that I had the chance to see Winter Hours live at Bogarts (playing with Christmas) and I didn’t go. I had tickets but the weather was really bad and I figured that the show would be cancelled so I didn’t attempt the long drive in the snow and ice. I cannot count the number of times I have looked back on that decision and kicked myself for not going. I thought there would be other chances. How wrong could I have been?

This video of Winter Hours performing "Wait til the Morning" isn't the best of quality, but the song is stellar. Check it out. Likewise for more information on the band visit their tribute page.



Lead singer Joseph Marques died 28 June, 2003 at the age of 40. The beauty of his voice and lyrics will never be forgotten by those of us who loved the band.

"Our nations need new heroes, time to sing a new war song..."

WOXY
Back to the Future playlist
Saturday, 27 September 2003

8 a.m.
Fishbone – “Party at Ground Zero”
Concrete Blonde – “Still in Hollywood”
Graham Parker – “Temporary Beauty”
E.M.F. – “Unbelievable”
John Wesley Harding – “The Devil in Me”
The Replacements – “Waitress in the Sky”
Hindu Love Gods – “Raspberry Beret”
Lightning Seeds – “Pure”
Nick Lowe – “Cruel to be Kind”
Patti Smith – “Because the Night”
Beastie Boys – “Fight for Your Right”
The Church – “Reptile”
Wire – “Eardrum Buzz”
Jimmy Cliff – “The Harder They Come”
Lou Reed – “Sally Can’t Dance”

9 a.m.
Michael Penn – “No Myth”
Peter Gabriel – “Biko”
Stan Ridgway & Stewart Copeland – “Don’t Box Me In”
Material Issue – “Diane”
The Damned – “Alone Again Or”
Sam Phillips – “Standing Still”
The Waterboys – “This is the Sea”
The Stooges – “I Wanna Be Your Dog”
REM – “Don’t Go Back to Rockville”
Midnight Oil – “Best of Both Worlds”
The Godfathers – “Cold Turkey”
Stone Roses – “Elephant Stone”
Tom Waits – “16 Shells from a 30-6”
Kirsty MacColl – “Caroline”

10 a.m.
Boomtown Rats – “I Don’t Like Mondays”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Fight Like a Brave”
Morrissey – “Everyday is like Sunday”
Art of Noise – “Close to the Edit”
The Stranglers – “Always the Sun”
The Sisters of Mercy – “This Corrosion”
Throwing Muses – “Dizzy”
A House – “Call Me Blue”
Brian Ritchie – “Sun Ra – Man From Outer Space”
Martha & the Muffins – “Echo Beach”
Bauhaus – “She’s in Parties”
Buzzcocks – “Orgasm Addict”
Josie Cotton – “Johnny Are You Queer?”
Joe Jackson – “Is She Really Going Out With Him?”
They Might be Giants – “Particle Man”

After 9/11 happened I worried that I’d never hear Fishbone’s wonderful “Party at Ground Zero” on the radio again, especially when the knee-jerk reaction of the corporate bullyboys at Clear Channel was to ban a bunch of songs with “questionable” lyrics and other non-CC stations followed their lead. Not that anyone at Clear Channel had a clue about Fishbone, evidenced by it’s omission in the “questionable” list, but I thought that certainly a title like “Party at Ground Zero” would find it’s way to the chopping block.

So imagine my elation when, a few months after those planes hit the World Trade Center, I heard Barb spin the tune while I was driving in my car on a cold, grey November day. WOXY had always had a healthy rebellious streak, and although they always adhered to FCC law they weren’t afraid to do their own thing, and playing “Party at Ground Zero” was testament to that. It’s difficult to describe just how much of a weight I felt had lifted when I heard that song on the radio. The U.S. government was in full war-mode paranoia with civil liberties being snatched away with each passing day, and in cities and towns across the country our newspapers, TV programs and radio stations were jumping on the censorship bandwagon before the white soot in New York had even settled. I thanked my lucky stars that there were still independent stations out there willing to take risks, and that one of them was the little station out of Oxford known as WOXY.

for your listening and viewing pleasure, I give you Fishbone:


I’m so proud to have worked at WOXY, even though my stint was merely a blink in time. This year marks their 25th anniversary; they no longer broadcast over the air but are still flyin’ the flannel via the magic of internet radio. And they still play "Party at Ground Zero!"

Tune in!

"I belong to the Blank Generation and I can take it or leave it each time..."

WOXY
Back to the Future playlist
Saturday, 20 September 2003

8 a.m.
Madness – “One Step Beyond”
Julian Cope – “Charlotte Anne”
Love & Rockets – “It Could Be Sunshine”
Neds Atomic Dustbin – “Grey Cell Green”
The Buck Pets – “A Little Murder”
Toad the Wet Sprocket – “Walk On the Ocean”
Wire Train – “Chamber of Hellos”
B-52s – “Private Idaho”
Tracey Chapman – “For My Lover”
Dukes of Stratosphear – “25 O’Clock”
Eurythmics – “When Tomorrow Comes”
Gene Loves Jezebel – “Desire”
Big Star – “September Gurls”
Adrian Belew – “Big Electric Cat”

9 a.m.
The Modern Lovers – “Roadrunner”
Klark Kent – “Don’t Care”
Golden Palominos – “Boy (Go)”
Husker Du – “Sorry Somehow”
10,000 Maniacs – “Like the Weather”
Living Colour – “Glamour Boys”
Richard Hell & the Voidoids – “Blank Generation”
Stereo MC’s – “Connected”
The Cure – “Killing an Arab”
The Chameleons – “Tears”
A Split Second – “Parallax View”
The Jam – “Start”
Holly & the Italians – “Tell that Girl to Shut Up”
The Nails – “88 Lines About 44 Women”
Beat Farmers – “Happy Boy”
Translator – “Everywhere That I’m Not”

10 a.m.
Grandmaster Flash – “White Lines”
Madder Rose – “Swim”
Michelle Shocked – “Anchorage”
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper – “Jesus at McDonalds”
New York Dolls – “Personality Crisis”
Rockpile – “Teacher Teacher”
Pere Ubu – “Final Solution”
The Jazz Butcher – “The Devil is My Friend”
The The – “Infected”
Jesus & Mary Chain – “April Skies”
The Smiths – “Headmaster Ritual”
The Dead Milkmen – “Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance to Anything)”
The Connells – “Fun & Games”
The Call – “I Don’t Wanna”
Killing Jokes – “Eighties”

One of the greatest things about creating my own show was the ability to put songs on the air that would normally never get heard. I tried to intersperse the lesser-known songs with those that listeners would recognize, and it was always a thrill for me whenever someone rang me up at the station with a fun request or a compliment on how they were digging the tunes.

The listeners who took the time to phone in were a welcome distraction and usually had some awesome musical suggestions. They made my time on-air seem less like a job and more like a party. Knowing that folks were tuning in – even at the ungodly hour of 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning - kept me on my toes to make my breaks as interesting as possible and I tried to give callers shout-outs on the air because for whatever reason, people like to hear their names on the radio. As more listeners learned about the show and tuned in, I began to leave gaps open in the playlist for their requests. Those will be evident in later posts.

This playlist is full of favorites for me: “Big Electric Cat,” “Roadrunner,” “Blank Generation” and “The Devil is My Friend” are just a few that I could probably put on an endless loop and never get tired of hearing.

Check out Richard Hell & the Voidoids:

"Things are going great, and they're only getting better..."

In May 2003 I got an email from old college buddy and current WOXY program director Mike Taylor, asking me if I would be interested in creating a Saturday morning program on WOXY to showcase the music we played as students during those halcyon days at WWSU.

“Hey -if you are interested in an air shift on 97X, and you think you will indeed still be living in the area for a while - let me know. there is a show i've been considering trying to get off the ground here, but needs to have a host with a serious knowledge of modern rock, particularly pre-Nirvana, whom I haven't run across with the desire to take it on. hope things are well -mike”

Of course I was interested! Several emails and phone calls later I was training in the studio with Mike, Sledge, Barb and Shiv, and then boom, I was on the air. I kept copies of all my Back to the Future programs and will be posting them as time allows.

My shift began at 6 a.m. with two hours of regular programming, and Back to the Future ran from 8 a.m. - 11 a.m.

WOXY
Back to the Future
6 September, 2003

8 a.m.
XTC – “Senses Working Overtime”
Berlin – “The Metro”
The Dbs – “Spy in the House of Love”
Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “Relax”
This Picture – “Naked Rain”
Yaz – “Don’t Go”
Richard Thompson – “Valerie”
The Clash – “Ivan Meets GI Joe”
Stan Ridgway – “I Wanna Be a Boss”
The Beautiful South – “Rotterdam”
The Pursuit of Happiness – “I’m an Adult Now”
Thomas Dolby – “She Blinded Me with Science”
Blondie – “Denis”
Suzanne Vega – “Left of Center”
Too Much Joy – “Long Haired Guys From England”

9 a.m.
Timbuk 3 – “The Future’s So Bright (I Gotta Wear Shades)”
Meat Puppets – “Sam”
Don Dixon – “Praying Mantis”
Pop Will Eat Itself – “Can U Dig It?”Big Audio Dynamite – “The Bottom Line”
BoDeans – “Angels”
Lloyd Cole – “Lost Weekend”
Tones on Tail – “Go!”
Yello – “O Yeah”
Time Zone – “World Destruction”
Guadalcanal Diary – “Watusi Rodeo”
Ian Dury – “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”
The Pretenders – “Stop Your Sobbing”
Let’s Active – “Every Word Means No”
Black Flag – “TV Party”
De La Soul – “Me, Myself & I”
Hoodoo Gurus – “I Want You Back”

10 a.m.
The Vapors – “Turning Japanese”
Soup Dragons – “I’m Free”
Adam & the Ants – “Antmusic”
Belle Stars – “Sign of the Times”
English Beat – “Mirror in the Bathroom”
Fine Young Cannibals – “Suspicious Minds”
INXS – “I Send a Message”
The Kings – “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide”
Depeche Mode – “Flexible”
Oingo Boingo – “Dead Man’s Party”
Plimsouls – “A Million Miles Away”
Shriekback – “Nemesis”
Elvis Hitler – “Green Haze”
The Housemartins – “Happy Hour”
The Shamen – “Ebeneezer Goode”

"It ain't whatcha do it's the way thatcha do it..."

Had another training session at WOXY yesterday and I think I am finally getting a feel for the equipment and process.

Now if I can just find my voice again...

"The past is your present, the future is mine..."

Had my first training session at WOXY this week. Boy, production sure has changed since I was last on the air in 2004! Whereas before I had to physically pull CDs from the library to play, cue them up, check the outcue notes (the way the song ends) and do my best to make seamless segues, now it's all done via a computer program.

In some ways it is a lot easier now - I can fiddle around with the intros and outcues and can preview them beforehand - something I certainly couldn't do back in the day, and it's pretty handy. It's also nice that all the music is in one large database, so there's no pulling CDs for the show and no filing them away afterwards. I have only ever known the hands-on method, so this new (to me) software is very nice.

But in other ways it is a little more daunting. I'm something of a perfectionist, and I'll admit that I am more than a tad bit worried that I'll waste scads of time messing around with the song order and segueways ad infinitum. Add to that a library as large as WOXY's and you can maybe see my dilemma.

Holy crap!

"and the radio man says 'it is a beautiful night out there'..."

I've added Matt Sledge 97 to my blogroll. He's WOXY-licious. Check it out.

"Even though it's complicated, we've got time to start again..."

It looks like I will be resurrecting "Back to the Future" at WOXY.com sometime this summer! Yippee!

"Beware of being the roller, when there's nothing left to roll..."

WWSU Playlist
23 November 1988

FIRST HOUR
K Peter Schilling – “Major Tom”
H Torn Pockets – “Just the Boys”
TOTW Art of Noise – “Kiss”
H Sharkbait – “Break a Bone”
DC Negativland – “Perfect Scrambled Eggs”
M Corpses as Bed Mates – “Venus Handcuffs”
H Skinny Puppy – “Testure”
PM REC Krackhouse – “Kennelration Generation”
H Rapeman – “Log Bass”
H Diamanda Galas – “Maladiction”
K Dementia Precox – “Maladie D’Esprit”
DC New Salem Witchhunters – “Quinn the Eskimo”
LS Woodpecker – “Bowl of Water”

SECOND HOUR
K Leather Nun – “Gimme Gimme Gimme”
H Borghesia – “Naked, Uniformed, Dead”
TOTW In Tua Nua – “All I Wanted”
M Human Hands – “Lurk”
DC Dole – “A Day”
H Laibach – “One After 909”
K Stan Ridgway – “Camouflage”
LS Timelords – “Doctorin’ the Tardis”
PM REC – “Bongwater – “Pornography”
H Alice Donut – “Lisa’s Father”
M Ben Vaughan – “Darlene”
DC Butthole Surfers – “Boiled Dove”
M Frank Tovey – “New Jerusalem”

THIRD HOUR
K Robyn Hitchcock – “Acid Bird”
H KMFDM – “King Kong Dub Rubber Mix”
TOTW The Fall – “New Big Prinz”
DC The Residents – “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”
H AC Temple – “Weekend”
M A Split Second – “Scandinavian Belly Dance”
H Keith Levene – “If 6 Was 9”
PM REC Savage Republic – “Viva Rock & Roll”
LS Circus 13 – “Under the Library”
DC Voice Farm – “Mamma Made Me Do It”
H Ministry – “Deity”
K Treat Her Right – “I Think She Likes Me”
H Shel Silverstein – “The Great Smoke Off”

I’m certain that Shel Silverstein was not on our playlist, but a little deviation from the list isn’t always a bad thing, is it?

I first remember hearing "The Great Smoke Off" in the late 1970’s, probably ’78 or ’79, definitely when I was a geeky junior high kid. I was a big fan of the Dr. Demento show, which was a syndicated program that aired Sunday evenings on a tiny little college radio station in Oxford known as WOXY. Because the signal was weak and difficult to find on the dial (this was before digital tuning) I kept the station permanently tuned in on the radio in my bedroom, and Dad helped me string extra antenna wire around the room for better reception. The station played punk and new wave during the day, opening my world to Talking Heads, The Police, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Blondie, Television, Devo and many more.

Anyway, the Dr. Demento show was designed to fit into a two-hour programming block with ad breaks, but at the time the station didn’t really air commercials – there were public service announcements for the military, and underwriting by SDS Pizza in Oxford, but the station could never fill all the slots. There was usually between 10-15 minutes left at the end of the show that the DJ had to fill, and seven times out of ten he’d play “The Great Smoke Off.”
I’m sure one of the reasons he chose this song was because it was over ten minutes long, and I’m sure another reason was because it fit loosely into the category of “humor.” That the song is a poem about a couple of stoners trying to out smoke each other is perhaps a third reason the student DJ would choose it to fill up the rest of the hour. Whatever the case, this poem is a far cry from the wonderful children's books he's written, like A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends and The Giving Tree.

See for yourself:

The Great Smoke Off
In the laid back California town of sunny San Rafael
Lived a girl named Pearly Sweetcake, you prob’ly knew her well.
She’d been stoned fifteen of her eighteen years and the story was widely told
That she could smoke 'em faster than anyone could roll.
Her legend finally reached New York, that Grove Street walk-up flat
Where dwelt The Calistoga Kid, a beatnik from the past
With long browned lightnin’ fingers he takes a cultured toke
And says, “Hell, I can roll ‘em faster, Jim, than any chick can smoke!”

So a note gets sent to San Rafael, “For the Championship of the World
The Kid demands a smoke off!” "Well, bring him on!" says Pearl,
"I'll grind his fingers off his hands, he'll roll until he drops!"
Says Calistog, "I'll smoke that twist till she blows up and pops!”
So they rent out Yankee Stadium and the word is quickly spread
"Come one, come all, who walk or crawl, price – just two lids a head
And from every town and hamlet, over land and sea they speed
The world's greatest dopers, with the Worlds greatest weed
Hashishers from Morocco, hemp smokers from Peru
And the Shamnicks from Bagun who puff the deadly Pugaroo
And those who call it Light of Life and those that call it boo.

See the dealers and their ladies wearing turquoise, lace, and leather
See the narcos and the closet smokers puffin’ all together
From the teenies who smoke legal to the ones who've done some time
To the old man who smoked “reefer” back before it was a crime
And the grand old house that Ruth built is filled with the smoke and cries
Of fifty thousand screaming heads all stoned out of their minds.
And they play the national anthem and the crowd lets out a roar
As the spotlight hits The Kid and Pearl, ready for their smokin' war
At a table piled up high with grass, as high as a mountain peak
Just tops and buds of the rarest flowers, not one stem, branch or seed.

Maui Wowie, Panama Red and Acapulco Gold.
Kif from East Afghanistan and rare Alaskan Cold.
Sticks from Thailand, Ganja from the Islands, and Bangkok's Bloomin' Best.
And some of that wet imported shit that capsized off Key West.
Oaxacan tops and Kenya Bhang and Riviera Fleurs.
And that rare Manhatten Silver that grows down in the New York sewers.
And there's bubblin’ ice cold lemonade and sweet grapes by the bunches.
And there's Hershey’s bars, and Oreos, ‘case anybody gets the munchies.
And the Calistoga Kid, he sneers, and Pearly, she just grins.
And the drums roll low and the crowd yells “GO!” and the world’s first Smoke Off begins.

Kid flicks his magic fingers once and ZAP! that first joint’s rolled.
Pearl takes one drag with her mighty lungs and WOOSH! that roach is cold.
Then The Kid he rolls his Super Bomb that’d paralyze a moose.
And Pearley takes one super hit and SLURP! that bomb’ defused.
Then he rolls three in just ten seconds and she smokes 'em up in nine,
And everybody sits back and says, "This just might take some time."
See the blur of flyin’ fingers, see the red coal burnin’ bright
As the night turns into mornin’ and the mornin’ fades to night
And the autumn turns to summer and a whole damn year is gone
But the two still sit on that roach-filled stage, smokin' and rollin' on
With tremblin’ hands he rolls his jays with fingers blue and stiff
She coughs and stares with bloodshot gaze, and puffs through blistered lips.
And as she reaches out her hand for another stick of gold
The Kid he gasps, "Goddamn it, bitch, there's nothin' left to roll!"
"Nothin’ left to roll?", screams Pearl, "Is this some twisted joke?”
“I didn't come here to fuck around, man, I come here to SMOKE!"
And she reaches 'cross the table And grabs his bony sleeves
And she crumbles his body between her hands like dried and brittle leaves
Flickin' out his teeth and bones like useless stems and seeds
And then she rolls him in a Zig Zag and lights him like a roach.
And the fastest man with the fastest hands goes up in a puff of smoke.

In the laid-back California town of sunny San Rafael
Lives a girl named Pearly Sweetcake, you prob’ly know her well.
She’s been stoned twenty-one of her twenty-four years, and the story’s widely told.
How she still can smoke them faster than anyone can roll
While off in New York City on a street that has no name.
There's the hands of the Calistoga Kid in the Viper Hall of Fame
And underneath his fingers there's a little golden scroll
That says, Beware of Bein’ the Roller
When There's Nothin’ Left to Roll.

"C'mon and take me to the place where it's alright..."

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Lab Partners should be HUGE.

I'm not just saying it because I'm friends with them, I'm saying it as a fan and as a music lover. They really are the best kept secret in town. The band is so tight and the songs are stellar. They continually knock me out each and every time I have seen them - and I've been seeing them for close to ten years now!

Arrived at SGH last night and the first person I ran into was TC, holding court at the bar. We hugged for eternities and sat ourselves down for a good chinwag catch-up since we last saw each other a few months ago. Spied Dennis as well (he produced Daystar) and had a natter. He told me he was filling in on guitar and was rather nervous, but he had no reason to be - he was excellent! His lovely wife (and my old WWSU chum) Kattie showed up and there were more hugs for eternities. When we get together there are always so many laughs.

It's times like this that make me really miss the great scene we had in Dayton.

TC introduced me to a mate of his named Eric who was pretty cool and as we talked we realized how many of the same people we knew. But then Dayton's like that - small city with a tight scene. It's always been inclusive rather than exclusive. It's like this: if he is a friend of a friend, then he is my friend too. And so I was pleased to gain a new friend in Eric last night.

And it was good to see so many other friends there last night too - several WOXY folks turned up for the show and there were more hugs and laughter.

High point of the night for me was that Lab Partners closed the show with Magnify! Fucking ACE!

I felt a little sorry for Spectrum though - by the time they came on several folks (who'd come only to see Lab Partners) had bailed and they played to a crowd of around 20. The ballroom seemed a bit cavernous and it had to be disheartening for them to weave their textured grooves to so few. Still, those who were there seemed to enjoy themselves - I know I did - and ultimately that's what matters most.

What I want to know though - how does Pete Kember stay so ageless? That bastard doesn't look any older than he did as a nipper in Spacemen3.

"Now I can remember like it was only yesterday..."

iPod gave me a Back to the Future flashback this morning during my commute:

When I Write the Book – Nick Lowe
Super-Tuff - XTC
Unsatisfied - The Replacements
Deny – The Clash
Chemical Warfare – The Dead Kennedys
Farandole – Love Sculpture
A Question of Time – Depeche Mode

I miss doing Back to the Future on WOXY…

"It's about time we begin it, to turn the world around..."

WOXY, The Future of Rock & Roll, has entered the blogoshpere today by unveiling The Futurist, a blog that includes indie rock news, recaps of Lounge Act performances, MP3s, giveaways and a whole lot more.

Read the blog, listen to the best damned station on the planet, and fall in love all over again.

"It's not the future that I can see..."

iPod decided that this morning would be "Back to the Future" morning during my snowy commute. How does it know I used to do Back to The Future Saturdays at WOXY? This morning my commute included:
Billy Bragg “Must I Paint You a Picture?”
Dukes of Stratosphear “Pale & Precious”
U2 “Running to Stand Still”
Translator “Everywhere That I’m Not”
Screaming Trees “Winter Song”
Winter Hours “Wait Til The Morning”
The Feelies “The Good Earth”
The Replacements “I Will Dare”
Dave Edmunds "I Hear You Knockin"
and
Nick Drake “Fly”