Show #154 October 22, 2016

Tonight is dedicated to Roxanne and the cast of Romeo and Juliet!

Roxanne- Dead End Kids Breakout 
Girls In This Town- The Connection Let It Rock 
Dumb it Down- Nick Piunti Trust Your Instincts 
Let You Down- The Wake Ups Wanna Meet 
Don't Walk Away- Warm Soda Symbolic Dream 
^Girl- Beck Girl 
*Girl- The CRY! The CRY! 
*Girl- The Boyfriends Lost Treasures 
Unlikely Places- The Posies Solid States 
Spill- Nushu Nevermind Lullaby 
The Sound Of The Suburbs- The Members At The Chelsea Nightclub 
*Girl- Cupid's Carnival Everything Is Love 
*Girl- Anouk Girl 
*Girl- The Records Smashes, Crashes and Near Misses 
Mistakes- The Lash Outs State of Excess 
Searching for a Thrill- 391 415 Music 
From Blown Speakers- The New Pornographers Electric Version 
*Girl- Robots in Disguise Get RID! 
*Girl- The Scientists The Scientists 
*Girl- Stereophonics Language. Sex. Violence. Other? 
Telephone Operator- The Leftovers Eager to Please 
Clam Up- The Signals Person To Person 
Something's Missing- The Chords This Is What They Want 
Just Drifting- Penetration Resolution 
We Make Pop Music- Art Brut Top of the Pops 
Quite Some Time- Nightman Don't You Know 
>Girl- T. Rex Electric Warrior 
>Girl- Davy Jones Girl 
>Girl- Prix Historix 
When I Wake Up Tomorrow- Cheap Trick Bang, Zoom, Crazy…Hello 
Hard Feeelings- The Early Hours Lights, Guitars, Action! 
Is There Someone Out There?- Z-Cars This Is Z-Cars 7" EP 
I'm in Love with a Girl- Big Star Radio City

^Power Pop Peak:  #100 Billboard Hot 100 7/4/05

*SacroSet:  Girl Songs

>Power Pop Prototype:  1971, 1971, 1977
 
This past summer was all Romeo and Juliet, nearly all the time.  In case you think I'm exaggerating, this We Players production started rehearsals at the Petaluma Adobe on June 30th where we performed four shows a week from August 12 to September 25th. We then moved down to Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga October 1, rehearsed five days straight and did twelve shows over the following two weeks with strike on October 17.  During the entire time I don't think we ever had more than four days in row off- which is why there was so long between episodes of ALL KINDSA GIRLS.  
 

Petaluma Adobe

It was an amazing experience all around- like a summer camp for acting.  Ava the director would start work on each scene by asking us several specific questions about our character and then challenge us to dig deeper.  One of my three roles, Potpan a Capulet servant, came out of a series of improvs which allowed me to build the character from scratch.  Unlike my other roles, Potpan doesn't have any lines, yet I felt closer to him than I did to the others.  It was very rewarding and I learned a lot. 

We Players produce "site specific" plays, meaning each show is set during the time of its location.  For Petaluma, this meant 1840's California.

Petaluma Costumes

Villa Montalvo, on the other hand, was built in 1912 by a former mayor of San Francisco named James Phelan who was one of California's first elected senators.

Villa Montalvo

Cowboys no more, the move to Saratoga required completely different costumes.

Montalvo Costumes

Beyond what we were wearing, the change in venue had a major impact on the show- every member of the cast felt it.  For example, in Petaluma I thought Juliet's suitor Paris was a total douche yet in Montalvo he seemed tragic- it really bothered me when he was killed.  I can't say exactly why I felt this way.  I asked Steve, the actor playing Paris about it and while he also noticed the change, it wasn't something he was consciously striving for.  It's an important lesson- as an actor you do your homework but you always have to be open to your surroundings.  A great example of this is the final Sunday matinee when after eight rainless months in a multi-year drought, it POURED.  (We never complain about rain in California but it couldn't wait ONE more day?  COME ON!!!)  We had 140 tickets sold and I was expecting 10 or 11 people to show yet about 75 brave souls said "rain be damned."  It was very inspiring and I'm proud to say we gave them a great show despite having to change a lot of the blocking on the fly to keep everyone from being rained on three hours straight.

Rainy Sunday Matinee

One of the cool things about the Montalvo run is that we got to stay in the artist residences on the property.  My roommate Claire and I were in The William H. Donner Foundation Studio 31.  Every residence is unique, designed by a team of architects and contemporary artists.  Ours was built specifically for writers, while other studios are for musicians, visual artists and dancers.

Studio 31

A long time ago I threw in the towel on looking cool while I sleep, opting instead for a sleep mask and earplugs.  It's a good thing too because the rising sun hit that frontward facing window in Studio 31 full-on.  (Over the two week's I noticed Clair's bed inching

across the floor like a reverse sun-dial as she tried to avoid the morning glare.)  There are hiking paths all over the property and one of my off days I spent three hours exploring them.  Lookout Point offers an amazing view of the entire valley, though the camera in my phone didn't do it justice so you'll just have to trust me on this.

It was hard on my family being away so long, especially Jaime, so I am also grateful to them for my We Players experience. 

Click the link below to stream this show, or to download, right click and "Save Link As:"
ALL KINDSA GIRLS SHOW #154  

Show #153 September 17, 2016

Time for...  Angelica!
 
Angelica- The Favourites Angelica 
Time- Richard Hell and The Voidoids Neon Boys/Richard Hell EP
Without Love- Descendents Hypercaffium Spazzinate 
Questions Questions- The Heats Have An Idea 
How We Gonna Do It?- The Scruffs Teenage Gurls 
Live In The Moment- Teenage Fanclub Here 
In Society- The Reactions Saturday's Gone Wild 
I Want A Girlfriend- The Miamis We Deliver: The Lost Band Of The CBGB Era (1974-1979) 
^5:15- The Who Quadrophenia 
Quiet Quiet Quiet- Dipsomaniacs The Life You're Faking 
She's Not Like All the Other Girls- Any Trouble Present Tense 
Never Be It- Cotton Mather Death Of The Cool 
Outerspace- The Krinkles 3 - The Mordorlorff Collection 
Parachute- The Greenberry Woods Big Money Item 
*5:45- The Deal Goodbye September 
*7:30- Pernice Brothers The World Won't End 
*11:59- Blondie Parallel Lines 
*12:51- The Strokes Room On Fire 
*2:29- Cherry Poppin' Daddies Skaboy JFK 
10:15 Saturday Night- The Cure Staring At The Sea: The Singles 
She's Trying To Poison Me- Brendan Benson You Were Right 
Titanic (My Over) Reaction- 999 999 
Get It Right First Time- The Jeremy Band Hit You With A Flower 
Give It Up- DM3 West Of Anywhere 
What I Did Today- Chris Von Sneidern 2-Cute 2-Be 4-Gotten 
>8:15- The Guess Who American Woman 
Is It Real- Ways Teen Line no. 5
Fall in Deep- Doug Powell More 
Hot Thing- Big Star Big Star Small World 
11:11- Rufus Wainwright Want One 

^Power Pop Peak:  #45 Billboard Hot 100 9/29/79

*SacroSet:  TimeSongs

>Power Pop Prototype:  1970

My Car

Fun show this week and it came out of a truly terrible day.  I love my car.  Back in the late 80's Phil, my boss at WMJX in Boston, gave me a ride in his Chrysler LeBaron convertible and I vowed that I would own a ragtop of my own one day.  When Jaime and I moved to California in 1993 our first major purchase was a 1988 white Mustang convertible which in 2006 was replaced with my current 2004 grey Chrysler Sebring.  This is the same car I took in to the Petaluma McLea's Tire and Auto a few weeks back for a 45 minute oil change and seven hours later was still sitting in the waiting room! (Three new tires, wheel alignment, diagnose a coolant leak, replace thermostat housing... oh and the freaking oil change I went in for in the first place!!!  I can't think of a LESS fun way to spend $1200.)  

My ordeal wasn't even over in one day as they ran out of time and rented me a car so I could come back.  Anyway, on the plus side this horror show gave me a lot of time to mess around on my computer and dig up the "TimeSongs" for this week's ALL KINDSA GIRLS.  I already had a bunch of them in my library and only had to go digging for Cherry Poppin Daddies' "2:29" (sorry for the cruddy sounding

.mp3, it was all I could find), The Guess Who's "8:15" (very cool song) and Rufus Wainwright's "11:11" (that lovable sleepyhead!)  I thought about including Gang of Four's "5.45" but it is listed in the British style with a period between the hour and minute rather than the American style colon.  Plus, I already had "5:45" by The Deal.  Along those lines I was very happy to see the colon in The Who's "5:15."  This single is from the 1979 American release of the Quadrophenia Soundtrack- it's an important distinction because on the original 1973 UK single it was listed as "5.15."

And if that's not confusing enough, according to Wikipedia the song is also sometimes written "5'15."  Don't believe me, here's the proof:

But wait, there's more!!  I also found this sheet music on-line where they decided "What the hell, let's throw a dash in there!"

COME ON- punctuation matters people!

ALL KINDSA GIRLS is on Saturday evening, so my goal was to play tonight's song by The Cure as close to its title time as possible.  Since the show was recorded earlier in the week it took some figuring. I'm happy to report I came within a minute-  "10:15 Saturday Night" aired Saturday 9/17/16 at 10:16PM Pacific Daylight time.  Not bad if I say so myself (and I just did).

I want to conclude with the lyrics of a song that is not

about a specific time but rather time itself.  I've written about Richard Hell a few times on this blog, about his influence on Punk Rock in the post for Show #54 and more recently in the ORK Records Show #145 post.  I have always loved his song "Time" which was recorded in 1980 with the third version of his band The Voidoids:

Time and time again I knew what I was doing and
Time and time again it just made things worse
It seems you see the most of what is really true when
You're stepping into your hearse

Only time can write a song that's really really real
The best a man can say is how its play on him does feel
And know he only knows as much as time to him reveals

And when I want to write a song that says it all at once
Like time sublimely silences the whys
I know that if I try I'm gonna to take a fall at once
And splatter there between my lies

Only time can write a song that's really really real
The best a man can say is how its play on him does feel
And know he only knows as much as time to him reveals

We are made of it and if we give submission
Among our chances there's a chance we can choose
And if uncertainty will give us that permission
Then it's impossible to lose

Only time can write a song that's really really real
The best a man can say is how its play on him does feel
And know he only knows as much as time to him reveals

Stream or download tonight's show here:
ALL KINDSA GIRLS SHOW# 153

Show #152 August 13, 2016

This one's for Holly... no question!

Holly (Would You Turn Me On?) All Time Low So Wrong, It's Right
Just Who Is The 5 O'Clock Hero? The Jam Direction, Reaction, Creation
Are You Receiving Me? XTC Fossil Fuel The XTC Singles 1977-92
Are We Gonna Be Alright? Ric Menck The Ballad Of Ric Menck
Are You Passionate? Groovie Ghoulies Go! Stories
^Can You Dig It? Mock Turtles Can You Dig It?
Can I Take The Car Tonight? Incredible Kidda Band Too Much, Too Little, Too Late!
Can't We Do Anything Right? Mike Viola and The Candy Butchers Falling Into Place
Do You Compute? Donnie Iris Do You Compute?
Do You Have to Go? Rooney Washed Away
Do You Wanna Get High? Weezer Weezer (White Album)
Does Anyone Know Where The March Is? Newtown Neurotics Punk Collection
Does She Talk? Matthew Sweet Girlfriend
Does It Matter As Much To You? The Innocents No Hit Wonders From Down-Under
How Do You Know? The Lyres How Do You Know 7"
How Do You Do? The Boomtown Rats A Tonic For The Troops
How Long Will It Take? The Plimsouls The Plimsouls... Plus
Is It Day Or Night? The Runaways The Runaways
Is There Anybody In My World? Little Murders Stop Plus Singles 1978-1986
Is This Real? Wipers Is This Real?
What Do I Get? Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady
What's With Terry? The Undertones Hypnotised
What If I Killed Your Boyfriend? Material Issue Telecommando Americano
Where's The Boy For Me? The Revillos Rev Up
Where's Bill Grundy Now? Television Personalities Where's Bill Grundy Now? EP
Where's Your Mom? Chixdiggit! Chixdiggit
>Who Are the Mystery Girls? New York Dolls Rock 'N Roll
Who's Your Boyfriend? Piper Piper
Who Will Save Rock and Roll? The Dictators D.F.F.D.
Who Loves Life More? Sloan Action Pact
Why Is It Always This Way? The Ramones Rocket To Russia
Why Can't I Be You? The Cure Why Can't I Be You?
Why Can't I? Liz Phair Liz Phair
Life On Mars? David Bowie Hunky Dory

^Power Pop Peak:  #18 UK Singles Chart 3/9/91

ALL SacroSets:  ? Songs

>Power Pop Prototype:  1974

540 Forest Ave, Brockton, Mass

I have always loved libraries.  My first was the West Branch of the Brockton Public Library on Forest Ave.  It was one of the few places I was allowed to ride my bike to by myself.  When I was in the third grade some fifth graders beat the crap out of me when I was coming home from the library (luckily without any books) yet within a week I was back going through the stacks.  When we moved to Duxbury, Mass I didn't get to the library as much.  They call it the Duxbury "Free" Library, which still strikes me as redundant because I've never heard of a "pay" library.  Wouldn't that just be a "bookstore?"  But I digress.  The Duxbury library was all the way across town from my house and it was right beside the Intermediate School and The High School so there was no way to enjoy the place without being hassled by douche bags from school.  (Yes, I'd taken a beating from school bullies in Brockton but that was pretty random since John F. Kennedy Elementary and the West Side Branch were about ten miles away from each other.)

128 St. George St, Duxbury, Mass

As much as I loved my library in Brockton, it couldn't hold a candle to the library I'd discover in college.  One of the reasons I chose to go to Emerson was its radio station, WERS.  Thanks to Cousin Rich, I had discovered college radio, "the left of the dial," in high school.  I listened to the evening Niteklub show on WERS and the famed Late Riser's Club on Massachusetts Institute of Technology station WTBS (later WMBR after they sold the call letters to Ted Turner).  I did pretty well in high school but math and science were not my strong suit so there was no way in hell I was going to get into MIT.  Emerson it was then.  The first day of school I took the shuttle from my Fensgate dorm down to 130 Beacon Street and climbed the stairs to the third floor, the WERS studios and, more importantly, the station record library!

130 Beacon St, Boston, Mass (corner left)

"Hollywood" Michael Shannon

The studios were at the front of the building, top left in the photo above, and were not air conditioned so on hot days the windows would be open and on the air you could clearly hear Beacon Street traffic in the background which I thought was incredibly cool.  This traffic noise was often referred to as "Live Traffic Reports" by DJ Michael Shannon called this traffic noise. (No, not the talented actor from HBO's Boardwalk Empire and the fantastic films 99 Homes, The Iceman and Take Shelter but another guy named Michael who had one of those difficult to pronounce eastern European names that is all consonants and chose "Shannon" because it sounded Irish and you can't go wrong with an Irish sounding name in Boston... until they find out you're not Irish.)  Anyway, at the back of the building was the record library, thousands of albums stored on floor to ceiling heavy steel racks with plywood shelving and bookcases of 7 inch singles in beaten up cardboard boxes.  Those first few months at school I spent many hours browsing the WERS record library though I was sheepish about pulling anything to listen to on the "preview station" (a turntable, 70's era receiver and the stankiest pair of headphones in the world).  That changed when I got my first

From "A"

shift in December- taking advantage of the regular Niteklub hosts leaving for Christmas break.  From then on I spent as much time as possible listening to music at WERS.  I started with the A's (the letter, but also the Philly Power Pop band) and worked my way through the alphabet listening to anything I hadn't heard

to "Z"

before.  It was awesome-  like getting a PHD in underground rock and roll!  I discovered so many great records, many of which I'd later find at stores like Nuggets, In Your Ear, Looney Tunes and Planet Records.  Yes, I probably could've gotten laid more my freshman year but I stand by my decision!!


After college I got a show on WMBR and did the same thing over the course of three years.  The WMBR library was even better than the one at WERS, going back to the 60's and with a ton of obscure rarities and old tapes of Boston bands.  (The WMBR music library had MUCH better security!)  Sad to say, WERS got rid of most of their vinyl records in the late 90's but on a return visit to WMBR ten years ago I was very happy to see that not only had they kept everything- the station had knocked down a wall next door doubling the size of their record library.  Those MIT people are wicked smart!

These days my personal record library grows by about 30-40 vinyl LP's a year, 10-15 CD's and a handful of seven inch singles.  On the other hand, my digital library probably grows by 20-30 albums per month and roughly the same number of singles.  I'm amassing more music than ever before, luckily I can listen to it in a lot more places on my phone and laptop.  

As I've said before, without my digital library, there is no way I could make ALL KINDSA GIRLS happen- there simply isn't enough time to create shows with vinyl and CD's.  Plus, just doing different sorts in iTunes gives me lots of ideas for shows like Show #151's "Head Over Heels" features and tonight's ? Songs.  Not only does iTunes inspire themes, it allows me to indulge all my OCD tendencies putting a

show together.  Case in point, I was listening to music on shuffle and The Lyres classic "How Do You Know?" (shown at the top of this post) came up- the original version on Sounds Interesting records- a Boston rock and roll classic!  This got me thinking about songs that ask questions, so I made an iTunes smart playlist looking for "?" in the name of a song.  This yielded 142 responses and from there I was down the rabbit hole...

• I decided all selections must include a question mark, which excluded great songs like "Do You Want Crying" by Katrina and The Waves and "What's Going Ahn" by Big Star.  Subsequently I discovered several instances of crappy tagging by record companies who left off the "?" in a song title which stopped me from considering "Can I Be Your Hero?" by Wreckless Eric and "Who's Gonna Tell Mary?" by The Moondogs.  Then there is Kiss' "Do You Love Me" which doesn't have a "?" on the vinyl LP but does on the CD- SLOPPY WORK PEOPLE!

• Seeing a pattern in ? Songs, I decided to go with sets of three songs, each beginning with the same word.

• I then felt these three song sets should be in alphabetical order, starting with Are?, Can?, Do?, Does?, How?, Is?, What?, Where?, Who?, and Why?  It kind of bugs me that I didn't get all the "5 W's" (Who, What, When, Where and Why?) or do them in this order but I was running out of time and already committed to the alphabetical order.

• I still wanted to do my Power Pop Peak (slot 9) and Power Pop Prototype (slot 25) so that meant finding a hit song that started with "Can?" and an older song starting with "Where?" or "Who?"  I had to fudge it a little on the Peak going with the Mock Turtles' "Can You Dig It?" which was only a hit in England, but "Who Are The Mystery Girls?" was an easy choice for the Prototype (though I had to bump it to slot 27).

• My goal for each show is to end with a song that is slower, more contemplative, perhaps even elegiac.  In my opinion, David Bowie's "Life On Mars?" was the perfect choice.  I LOVE that song!

  
Perhaps I've revealed too much and you now think I should be under a doctor's care, or perhaps serve as an OCD case study. On the other hand, you've got to admit it makes for a cool radio show so thanks for indulging me!

Stream/download the show below:
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #152