Show #41 September 18, 2010

Marilyn is the Belle of our Ball...

Marilyn- The Popes Hi We're The Popes 
Atmosphere- Velvet Crush Teenage Symphonies To God 
What's In It For Me- Hoodoo Gurus Purity Of Essence 
Love In a Hurry- The Proof It's Safe 
Beautiful Amnesia- Visqueen Message To Garcia 
Spit It Out- Brendan Benson The Alternative To Love 
I've Got Rock- The Tweeds Perfect Fit 
Holding My Breath- Mad Turks Cafe Istanbul 
^Army- Ben Folds Five The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner 
Legal Tender Love- The Pop Go! 
Baby Snatcher- The Moondogs Imposter Single
Lookout- Cheap Trick Cheap Trick 
Best Chance- Big Star In Space 
After Hours- The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground 
*Living a Lie- The dB's Repercussion
*Perfect Light- Arrogance Mondo Montage 
*Shock Therapy- The Spongetones Beat and Torn 
*Co-star- Let's Active Cypress / Afoot
Little Boxes- Teenage Head Teenage Head
Baby You're A Fool- The Names Why Can't It Be 45
Long Goodbye- London Cowboys Animal Pleasure
Mass Romantic- The New Pornographers Mass Romantic
Step By Step- Poison Squirrel Step By Step 45
Modern Times- Code Blue Code Blue
>Ruby- Sneakers Sneakers
Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind- The Dickies Stukas Over Disneyland
Rock'n'Roll Millionaire- Blue Ash Front Page News
She- The Taxi Boys The Taxi Boys
You Can Borrow My Car- The Necessaries You Can Borrow My Car 7"
Love Affair- The Tearjerkers Love Affair 7''
Brighter Worlds- The Connells Welcome To Comboland

^Power Pop Peak: #17 Billboard Modern Rock Chart 6/1/99

*SacroSet: North Carolina Power Pop

>Power Pop Prototype: 1976

As I've said many times before, the late 70's/early 80's was an amazing time for music- I don't think I'll ever see another like it. Past SacroSets have documented scenes from that era in places like Seattle WA, Kansas City MO, Boston MA, Milwaukee WI and Davis CA as well as in states like Illinois and Ohio. For this week's show I headed down south to North Carolina.

Thanks in large part to world class universities in Winston-Salem (Wake Forest), Chapel Hill (UNC), Durham (Duke) and numerous other schools like Raleigh's NC State, culturally North Carolina seems to have a lot more going for it than its neighbors Virginia or South Carolina. Witness all the great Tar Heel State Power Pop I played tonight:

• The Popes, Arrogance and Sneakers from Chapel Hill;
• The dB's, Let's Active and Ben Folds Five from Winston-Salem;
• The Spongetones from Charlotte;
• The Connells from Raleigh.

Chris and Alex at CBGB in 1977

That is some serious Power Pop pedigree. While all the bands have a distinctly southern sound, my favorite The dB's, were also "flavored" by time spent in New York City. After Sneakers (tonight's Power Pop Prototype artist) broke up in 1977, Chris Stamey moved to NYC and started playing with Alex Chilton just as punk

rock was breaking on the stages of CBGB's and Max's Kansas City. Having already started independent label Car Records for the Sneakers EP, Stamey went on to put out some legendary records by Chris Bell of Big Star, Peter Holsapple (his soon to be bandmate in The dB's), as well as The dB's debut 7" "I Thought You Wanted To Know."

The dB's

I credit my best friend Frank for introducing me to The dB's with their second album, Repercussion, pictured above. Despite having helped craft the southern pop sound that REM subsequently used to make millions, The dB's couldn't get a record deal in the US. They signed with UK label Albion which did a cool thing by bundling Repercussion with a free cassette copy of the LP (you still see copies of the LP in record stores where the cassette creased the album cover). Frank heard or read something about The dB's and ponied up for Repercussion, one of the most perfect Power Pop records ever.

Allston, Mass

Frank played the record for me at his apartment in Allston, MA and I was as taken with The dB's as I was with his place.  Frank was living with three other guys from Duxbury who were working or in college. I was still in high school and had never known anyone who had their own place- it offered a level of freedom that blew my mind. They had a stereo in the living room that everyone used to play their records. In what I think was supposed to be a formal dining area there was a recessed buffet that had three large drawers all filled to the top with porn!  My friend Jim and I would take the Red Line all the way in to Park Street and the Green Line all the way out to Allston just to hang out there.


Even now, I think about how cool that place was. Yes it was filthy, roach ridden and robbed three times (once when Frank was sleeping in a bedroom) but I

16 Westland Ave,
post 1990's restoration

loved it. So much so that two and a half years later Frank and I got our own roachy railroad flat on Westland Ave in Boston, right around the corner from Symphony Hall.  They tried to rob us three times too, but luckily never got in. Some of my fondest memories are of hanging around with friends listening to/arguing about music in those crappy apartments.

You can download tonight's show here:
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #41