Show #36 July 10, 2010

Dedicated to Renee...
and for Tommy, and Pete and Andy


Renee- Hoehn & Duren Blue Orange
I Will Dare- The Replacements Let It Be
Come And Take Me Tonight- Loaded Dice No Sweat
Call My Name- Dirty Angels Dirty Angels
Faded Portraits- Critical Mass It's What's Inside That Counts
Baby Baby- The Vibrators Pure Mania
You're What I'm Looking For- Rooney Eureka
All I Can Do- The Jolt You're Cold 7"
^I Think We're Alone Now- The Rubinoos Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About
Rock Problems- The Hold Steady Heaven Is Whenever
Hello Mr. Johnson- The Shades Shake Some Action Vol. 4
Every Minute- The Grip Weeds Infinite Soul: The Best of
My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms- Tuff Darts! Tuff Darts!
Baby Please Believe Me- Pete Holly & The Looks Baby Please... 45
*American Beat '84- The Fleshtones It's Super Rock Time!
*American Fun- The Stompers The Stompers
*American Kix- Candy Whatever Happened To Fun
*So American- The Mutants So American 45
Hideaway- The Finders Calling Dr. Powerpop
I Wanted To Tell You- Matthew Sweet Girlfriend
Well You Never...- Sex Beatles Well You Never 45
Hush Hush- The Plimsouls Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal
Grown Up Age- The Bureaucrats Feel The Pain 7"
The Coast Is Always Changing- Maximo Park A Certain Trigger
>All Of My Friends Were There- The Kinks The Village Green Preservation Society
Dream Girls- Modulators She's So Cynical 7"
Windy Beach- Battered Wives Cigarettes
Bechamel- Pernice Brothers Goodbye, Killer
Mustard Sally- Chino Mala Leche

^Power Pop Peak: #45 Billboard Hot 100 3/5/77

*SacroSet: America Songs

>Power Pop Prototype: 1968

For the most part I'm okay with growing older. It sucks having to get up during the night to go the bathroom and I'm no longer able to ride centrifugal force carnival rides like Tilt-O-Whirl and The Sizzler but generally I'm doing okay and as the punchline from the old joke about aging goes: "it's better than the alternative." Thanks to running and cycling I don't feel much different than I did fifteen or twenty years ago. I also still have most of my hair, so I've got that going for me.

At the same time, it's impossible not to feel old when so many of the singers and musicians you grew up with are dying. Drug and alcohol related deaths like Dee Dee Ramone's and Johnny Thunders' have been part of rock & roll from the beginning. But for me, things started changing with Joey Ramone's death in 2001. Even so, he'd been fighting cancer for seven years so it wasn't a shock. Joe Strummer's death the following year, however, was like a kick in the stomach- he is a hero of mine and, what made it even worse, was in the midst of a musical renaissance with his band the Mescaleros.

Maybe because All Kindsa Girls has me paying more attention, but 2010 already seems like a deadly year for musicians I like. The first three months of the year marked the passing of Jay Reatard (1/13/10), Doug Fieger (2/14/10) and Alex Chilton (3/17/10). Six weeks later we lost Will Owsley (4/30/10). When I was preparing this week's show my friend Brian sent an e-mail lamenting the death of original Kinks bass player Pete Quaife (6/23/10), which I noted with this week's Power Pop Prototype "All My Friends Were There" from the The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, his last record with the group. Then a day later I read that Memphis singer-songwriter Tommy Hoehn (6/24/10) is gone (that's his picture above and tonight's dedication song "Renee" is one of my favorites from his time playing with Van Duren). Now, when I finally get to this post I see another member of Big Star, bass player Andy Hummel (7/19/10), has died. That makes four Memphis musicians (Reatard, Chilton, Hoehn, Hummel) dead in 2010 and the year has over four months to go! WTF!!

When my wife Jaime gets into one of her dark moods she'll ask me "is this all there is to the second half of life- your body falls apart and people you love start dying?" Now I'm a "glass is half full" person but I see what she means; I guess death is going to be a much bigger part of our lives from here on out. Since we don't really have a say in the matter we're just going to have to accept it, but that doesn't mean we have to like it. I have to admit it was starting to get to me on this week's show though when after The Kinks I played Chino (featuring Alex Soria who killed himself on 12/13/04) and had Jim Carrol (heart attack, 9/11/09) cued up. I actually said something like "I promise no tributes to dead people next show," but as my friend Jeff once said, that sounds like "throwing a glove down before the Gods," so I take it back.

I loved the TV show Six Feet Under and one of the lines I remember most was Nate Fisher's response to the question "Why do people die?" He said: "To give life meaning." I think he's right- the ticking clock provides a sense of urgency. Otherwise death is just a cruel joke and I can't believe that. So, Rest In Peace Andy, Tommy and Pete- thanks for all the great music guys.

You can download Hour 1 of tonight's show here (Right click and "Save Target As"): http://sunfmtv.com/fm/showarchive/public/2010-07-10__20_59_57.mp3


And here is Hour 2: http://sunfmtv.com/fm/showarchive/public/2010-07-10__21_59_57.mp3