Show #76 April 7, 2012

Tonight's show is dedicated to Pamela!

Pamela- Face Dancer About Face
Across The Street- Hundred Million Martians Marseille
Looking at You- MC5 Babes In Arms
Uh Oh (Here I Go Again)- The Rings Rhythm Method
Torn- Doug Powell Curiouser
Sister Havana- Urge Overkill Saturation
Standard Question- Phil Neal Standard Question 7"
Wake Me When It's Over- Battered Wives Cigarettes
^We're an American Band- Grand Funk Railroad The Anthology - Thirty Years of Funk 1969-1999
Ask for Jill- The dB's Repercussion
No Future- Craig Finn Clear Heart Full Eyes
Dance of the '80s- The Surf Out Of Step EP
Running On The Spot- The Jam Direction, Reaction, Creation
Don't Mistake Love- Radio City Class of '77
*40 Boys In 40 Nights- The Donnas Turn 21
*Doin' It For The Ladies- Paul Collins King Of Power Pop
*A Road Song- Fountains Of Wayne Sky Full Of Holes
*One For The Road- Travoltas Endless Summer
Made In Japan- The Outlets Whole New World
Our Town- Marshall Crenshaw Field Day
Fool- The Tearjerkers Fool 7"
Blue Light- Bloc Party Silent Alarm
City Of Sisterly Love- Jimmy Silva and The Goats Heidi
Cellophane's Girl- Runarounds Waiting For The Hurricane 
>Travelin' Band- Creedence Clearwater Revival Cosmo's Factory
Not What I Used To Be- The Laughing Dogs Meet Their Makers
Your Hands (Together)- The New Pornographers Together
Come Anytime- Hoodoo Gurus Ampology
Blood- The Wigs File Under: Pop Vocal
Take One More Look- The Infidels The Infidels x4
Danny Says- The Ramones End Of The Century

^Power Pop Peak: #1 Billboard Hot 100 7/28/73

*SacroSet: Rock and Roll Road Songs

>Power Pop Prototype: 1970

My wife Jaime and I have never thought of ourselves as "cruisers," in either the "gay hustler" or "trip on a big boat" senses of the word.  Past vacations that didn't involve visiting family back east have all been about finding the cool places a destination, usually a city, has to offer.  (Surprisingly these places often have record stores nearby!)  Nonetheless, last fall when cleaning for the hundredth time the truckloads of crap my kids have strewn about their rooms it dawned on me:  they have way too much, and with Christmas coming, more is on the way.  I pictured myself shoveling a whole new crop of crap throughout 2012.  Thus was the idea to give them an "experience" for Christmas born.

Jaime and I spent hours on the web looking at all different kinds of vacation options and a cruise kept coming up.  All meals and lodging are taken care of and you get to go to some places you haven't been before (in this case Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta).  So, on March 18th we set sail on the Carnaval Splendor (pictured above) out of Long Beach and it was a pretty incredible seven days.  The kids had their first exposure to great live comedy, age appropriate "nightclubs" and a raucous piano bar.  The "Las Vegas style" shows were pretty cheesy though- I'll never forget the medley where a kick line of six fake Joan Jetts miming/air guitaring to "I Love Rock And Roll" blends into "Rock And Roll All Night" with four dancers running through the aisles in these bizarre Kiss costumes that made them look like theme park characters.  Jaime and Nica say my earnest rendition of this song at live band karaoke the night before was far superior- I even threw in Paul Stanley's  "what!" and "put your hands together!" from the Kiss Alive version.  The best karaoke experience though was seeing Jack and Nica almost spontaneously combust with embarrassment while watching Jaime and I sing "I Got You Babe."

The ports were fun and while the kids were initially freaked out by the aggressive sales techniques at the open air markets, both Jack and Nica were haggling like pros by the end of the week.  We went snorkeling off Los Arcos Beach in Cabo San Lucas and horseback riding in the countryside outside Puerto Vallarta.  The latter included a chance to swim across a river with a horse, which was really cool.  Nica was content to stay with Jaime and I most of the time and was only a little out of sorts the day of the Hunger Games film premiere- she really took one for the team by missing it for the cruise.  Jack fell in with a group of Canadians from Kamloops, British Columbia the first day, so he was all set for the duration.  Jack ordered room service every chance he got and both kids often took advantage of the 24 hour pizza, ice cream, etc.  Everything they say about the gluttony on cruises is true- no judgement, I definitely include myself in this assessment.

I had a good feeling about the cruise even before we left thanks to a very memorable dinner our last night on shore.  We were staying with friends Brian and Wendy and when they asked where we wanted to go for dinner Jaime's immediate response was "wherever we might see famous people."  (I thought this myself , but was too "cool" to say it outloud- thanks Jaime!)  So, we drove over to Nobu in Malibu where on an earlier trip I had once seen David Carradine- that's right, Kwai Chang Caine himself!  As awesome as that was, my dad and I were huge fans of his TV show Kung Fu, it was small potatoes compared to that Saturday night with Brian and Wendy.

First, as we were walking in, Brian Grazer was leaving and passed right by us.  Pretty impressive, especially since he had just produced the Oscar telecast.  The kids were nonplussed, however, and admittedly the Oscars were boring as hell this year.

My friend Brian then noticed that Laura San Giacomo was having dinner a few tables over.  She is one of the sexiest women ever filmed in Sex, Lies and Videotape and "Just Shoot Me" was a fairly funny TV show.  Still, the kids had no idea who she was.




A little later on, Jack goes to the bathroom and when he comes out says "I think the guy who peed next to me might be someone famous."  So, for the next few minutes we've all got one eye on the men's room door.  It's a good thing I hadn't just taken swig of diet coke when it opened because the ensuing full on spit take would have been embarrassing.  I look over and dressed in white from head to toe (white open collar shirt, white pants, white loafers with no socks; screw the "Memorial Day" rule), with a deep tan and that instantly recognizable world famous haircut...... is Rod Stewart.

Wow.  Jaime is all a flutter but again the kids are "eh," so we go back to talking and eating our delicious dinner (sushi for everyone else, tempura for Nica and I).  After 20 minutes or so I see Jack jump in his chair a little and stare straight ahead with a slightly dazed smile on his face.  He says something I can't hear to Nica and she looks over at the outside door and immediately starts laughing.  When I ask her what she's laughing about she can't get the words out and just points toward the door, which is blocked from my view by a post. I lean back in my chair and see that I'm about three feet away from.... Robert Downey Jr.

Freaking Iron Man and Sherlock Homes- now the kids' minds are officially BLOWN.  They immediately started texting all their friends back in Sonoma.  Even Brian and Wendy are impressed but I'm guessing this is more for our benefit.  So, the great vacation started even before we got on the boat with a night we'll never forget at Nobu.

Click the links below to download this week's show (Right click and "Save Link As:")
Hour 1
Hour 2

Show #75 March 3, 2012

For Rita and the great Davy Jones!

Rita- Sorrows Love Too Late
Looking For The Good Times- The Monkees Listen To The Band
Let's Get Carried Away- Research Turtles Research Turtles
It's Alright- The Merrymakers Andrew's Store
Language School- Tours Language School 7"
Jackson- Craig Finn Clear Heart Full Eyes
More Songs About Chocolate and Girls- The Undertones Hypnotised
Cuddly Toy- The Monkees Listen To The Band
^I Want You- Savage Garden I Want You
Over And Over- Starz Starz
Accept Me- Dirty Looks Dirty Looks
*I Want You- Kiss Rock And Roll Over
*I Want You- The Proof It's Safe
*I Want You- Chris Von Sneidern Sight & Sound
*I Want You- The Krinkles 3 - The Mordorlorff Collection
*I Want You- The Moberlys Sexteen
*I Want You- Cheap Trick One On One
*I Want You- Hanoi Rocks Self Destruction Blues
*I Want You- Incredible Kidda Band Too Much, Too Little, Too Late
*I Want You- Joan Jett & The Blackhearts Greatest Hits
Takin' Her Back- Paul Warren & Explorer One Of The Kids
Show Her You Care- Strangeways! Powerpop!
Love To Love- The Monkees Listen To The Band
Erica's Word- Game Theory Tinkers To Evers To Chance
Feeling Bad- Nerf Herder How To Meet Girls
The Greatest Gift- Dogs Different
>I Want You- The Troggs Hit Single Anthology
Bright Eyes Darkened- Slobberbone Everything You Thought Was Right Was Wrong Today
Immortals- The Dots I Don't Wanna Dance (With You) 7"
Crestfallen- Pernice Brothers Overcome by Happiness
One Way World- Secret Affair Glory Boys & Behind Closed Doors
Plastic Girls- The Diodes Tired of Waking Up Tired
Let Me Go Now- The Shods Tippy
I Wanna Be Free- The Monkees Listen To The Band

^Power Pop Peak: #4 Billboard Hot 100 2/11/97

*SacroSet: "I Want You" Songs

>Power Pop Prototype: 1966

Virtual Music Database

As I've said before, one of the things I love about iTunes is its database functionality.  Sorry for the geek speak, but that's the best way to describe the input, index, sort and search functions of this powerful tool. Take the word of this former college radio DJ who would spend hours in the WERS record library preparing for each Niteklub or Metrowave show. It wasn't just pulling records; I'd needle drop on all that week's new releases, cull though older albums/singles and do research for music features (which without an Internet, mostly consisted of reading album liner notes and magazines).  Moving over to MIT public station WMBR after college presented an even more voluminous library of

Actual Music Database

albums, singles and a treasure trove of reel to reeltapes by legendary Boston bands.  WMBR also had a huge selection of 60's punk and psychedelic rock that I'd never had a chance to hear. As I was working full time by then, I'd often head over to the WMBR record library at 11:30 or so on a Saturday morning and not leave until 8pm when it was time to grab a slice of pizza and hit the clubs.

I would not trade my time in the WERS or WMBR record libraries for anything- it is the bedrock of my musical knowledge. That said, there is NO FREAKING WAY I could spend that much time working on a radio show today. It makes me smile just to imagine telling Jaime: "honey, I need to spend nine hours on Saturday researching discographies, refining music set nuances and perfecting slip-cue segue techniques for my two hour radio show so why don't you take up the slack with the chores, softball coaching, yard work, etc." I just showed this sentence to Jaime and she said "you mean you used to spend even MORE time working on your radio show than you do now?!?" (Oh darlin' if you only knew...) In any case, I think you can see where I'm coming from.

Which brings me back to iTunes. Combined with the power of the Internet, iTunes makes it possible to create a brand new episode of ALL KINDSA GIRLS every other week while keeping my marriage intact!  Tonight's program is a great example- up against a work deadline and stressing about the show, I remembered that an iTunes title sort I'd done a few weeks back revealed a ton of songs called "I Want You." A quick search of the iTunes store yielded a couple more, including the Troggs brilliant contribution which I first heard at WMBR, and boom! half the show is done.

Shortly before I went in to the studio to record the show I heard the sad news of Davy Jones' passing. I thought Cousin Rich was nuts when he started paying good money for original pressing Monkees albums back in the 80's but damn if he wasn't right again! The early Monkees records are great but it's the post Don Kirshner albums, where they became a "real" band, that I love. Mike has always been my favorite Monkee, but so far Davy Jones is the only one I've met and I'm happy to say he was a true gentleman. In the late 80's I was working at WMJX in Boston and our sister oldies station WMEX had Davy Jones in for an interview. It was hilarious to see so many of my female co-workers all a flutter in the presence of a still very handsome Mr. Jones. Some had watched The Monkees in its original TV run but far more had, like me, only seen that show in re-runs, his star status for us cemented by a guest appearance on the December 1971 episode of The Brady Bunch called "Getting Davy Jones:"

  


Seeing Marcia Brady, my own young lust object, lusting after Davy Jones made him that much cooler in my eyes. I especially love this picture- makes me wonder if the young Maureen McCormick is indeed "acting;" talk about "I Want You!" (I know it is way inappropriate, but man oh man is she hot!)

Anyway, I spent a good time lingering around the WMEX studio myself that day and had a great conversation walking Mr. Jones to the elevator. When I asked about the Monkees movie Head, a favorite of mine, he immediately launched into the dandruff song. I then had to ruin it by stupidly asking if he was still in touch with Frank Zappa (who had a mocking cameo in the movie). Davy Jones was probably half way through a string of eight radio interviews that day, but he still took the time to talk and joke around with me anyway. What a great guy- he will be missed.

Can't think of a better way to end this post than with a second photo of Davy and Maureen McCormick, together again at the TV Land Awards in 2003, both still cute as all get out.

Click the link below to stream this week's show, or to download right click and "Save Link As"
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #75