Show #14 July 25, 2009

It's Jennifer's turn!


Jennifer- The Rubinoos Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About
What I Want- The Donkeys Television Anarchy
I Want You Back- Hoodoo Gurus Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From The '80s Underground
Good Times- Jack Lee Jack Lee's Greatest Hits Vol. 1
I Gave My Punk Jacket To Rickie- Mary Monday And The Bitches I Gave My Punk Jacket To Rickie 7"
Can't Get You On My Mind- Adam Schmitt World So Bright
Yellow Spot- The Freshies The Very Best Of
Not Enough Girls (In The World)- Milk 'N' Cookies Milk 'N' Cookies
^Precious To Me- Phil Seymour Phil Seymour
Shot by Both Sides- Magazine DIY The Modern World: UK Punk II (1977-78)
I Can Only Dream- Protex I Can Only Dream 7''
Whisper/Touch- Code Blue Code Blue
She Doesn't Love Me- Cramp She Doesn't Love Me 7"
Girls Like Me- Bonnie Hayes With The Wild Combo Valley Girl: More Music From The Soundtrack
*Stupid Einstein- The Three O'Clock Sixteen Tambourines
*Tell Me When It's Over- The Dream Syndicate Tell Me When It's Over: The Best of
*The Real World- The Bangles The Real World
*I Look Around- Rain Parade Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From The '80s Underground
Sun Shine Through- Dipsomaniacs Freakin Eureka
When I Met the Girl- Big Kid When I Met The Girl
Crazy Kids- Jook Different Class
>Let There Be Rock- Blue Ash No More No Less
Better Be Good- The Real Kids Real Kids
Young and Dumb- Rubber City Rebels Rubber City Rebels
Letter From An Occupant- The New Pornographers Mass Romantic
Giving Me That Look In Your Eyes- The Fans Giving Me That Look In Your Eyes 7"
Wouldn't I- The Tremblers Twice Nightly
Going Underground- The Jam Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From The '80s Underground
I'm Shakin'- The Sunnyboys The Sunnyboys
Too Much Kissing- Senseless Things Postcard C.V.
Blackout- The Pods It's A Bummer About Bourbie EP

^Power Pop Peak: #22 Billboard Hot 100 1/24/81

*SacroSet: The Paisley Underground

>Power Pop Prototype: 1973

When I was a kid, it was always a given that I would go to college, but until my senior year in high school the details were sketchy. Before then I was more focused on rock & roll, girlfriends, dodging bullies, playing in a band, etc. and while I yearned to get out of Duxbury, Mass with every fiber of my being, I hadn't thought much about exactly where I would be spending the next two to four years. What did I want to do with my life? I found it hard to imagine a career in my aforementioned pursuits; not talented enough to be a rock star or, for that matter, a professional boyfriend (gigolo?) and though my skills were prodigious, it's also unlikely the client base of junior and senior high school geeks for my bully dodging consultancy would provide a living wage. Furthermore, neither my father (teacher/vice-principal) nor mother's (dietician) professions held any interest for me. About the only thing I knew is that I wanted to go to a school in my beloved Boston.

I grew up listening to The Rock of Boston WBCN (recently deceased- RIP- though it had been on life support the last 15 years or so) but by high school my tastes were much more specialized than its broad AOR playlist. Duxbury is about 30 miles south of Boston, outside the signal range of the MIT, Harvard and BC college radio stations. Yet, with 3000 watts, Emerson College's WERS came in just fine. WERS had an eclectic array of folk, jazz, reggae and r&b programs during the day but at night its as yet unnamed show played punk rock, post punk, power pop and Boston rock- all the music I loved at the time. My favorite DJ on the station was Ed Slota- the guy simply had the greatest music taste. Slota was a rockstar to me and my small circle of friends- so many of the bands we grew to love over the years we first heard on his show.

It may sound stupid to choose an institution of higher learning based on a three hour weekly radio show (that was eventually called "Niteklub" after the first Specials album came out in 1979) by a guy who graduated the year before I even got there, but that's what I did. By December of my freshman year I was hosting my own Monday evening Niteklub show and Ed Slota even dropped by the station one night and he was very cool. He still is by the sound of it- Ed currently hosts a show called "Citibeat" on UMass Dartmouth station WUMD and I found this link to a show he guest hosted in 2005 on the Brown University station
http://www.bsrlive.com/archives/playlist.php?p=1976. (Hearing the second song, "Part Time Punks" by The Television Personalities, took me right back to 1980, up in my bedroom listening to Ed Slota on WERS.)

Working at WERS got me on the guest list at clubs all over town and when fellow WERS DJ Dave Mindich gave me his old fake ID I was good to go. I got to meet several of my favorite bands like X, The Gun Club, The UK Subs, and The Neighborhoods. Some of the nicest people I met though were the guys in The Three O'Clock (pictured above), who lead off tonight's SacroSet. The band's Michael Quercio may have tossed off "Paisley Underground" as an in-joke but it came to represent an entire genre of music. Here's what Wikipedia says

"The term was most likely first coined at an early morning post-show conversation at Los Angeles' Pantry (24 hour restaurant) between Michael Quercio (The Three O'Clock), Tom Betts (a friend, who was wearing a navy blue button-down shirt with paisley cuffs that night), and Karl Precoda (Dream Syndicate). It was intended as a reaction against what had become an intensely violent hardcore Los Angeles punk scene at the time, and was a reference to "peace and love" inspired rock of the 1960s."

The Three O'Clock put out a couple of great records and despite a very pop sound on vinyl, really rocked live. What's more, they didn't make an 18 year old college radio DJ feel like an idiot when he asked stupid questions in an interview. They were huge music fans, just like me, and it was a pleasure meeting them. The Three O'Clock were later "discovered" by Prince, on whom they had a considerable influence. Prince's 1985 album Around the World in a Day, featuring the hit "Raspberry Beret," was his first foray into psychedelia and he named his record label Paisley Park Records. Prince also wrote the song "Manic Monday" for the Bangles, another of the artists featured in tonight's SacroSet.

I was lucky to see many of the Paisley Underground bands live and include a mid-80's Dream Syndicate show at The Rat as one of my all-time favorites. As hardcore was getting more and more infantile, I think the Paisley Underground put rock and roll back on track.

Here's the link to listen to the first hour of tonight's show (or right click and "Save Target As" to download): http://thmm.com/ksvy/showarchive/public/2009-07-25__20_59_57.mp3

And here's hour two: http://thmm.com/ksvy/showarchive/public/2009-07-25__21_59_57.mp3

If you have any problems with the links, this is the page they came from: http://thmm.com/ksvy/?page_id=29