Adam F organized a benefit for WCRS at Carabar, coming up this Friday, January 6. Admission, as always, is free, and a portion of the bar goes to WCRS LP-FM, your community radio station. Come out and hear your new favorite local band. Five to choose from and the music starts at 9:30, sharp. No lyin'.

CLOSET MIX (ex-members of Log, Great Plains, and Vena Cava) 9:30
HOUNDSTOOTH BINDLES (Americana murderballads) 10:30
THE FRANCIS BACON BAND (they are real good) 11:30
DAY CREEPER (loud couch rock) 12:30
SEX TIDE (hermetic/erotic dirge masters) 1:30

J. Rhodes and Scott Shelton are at it again. Another Ocean Ghosts work, entitled Die On Top will have its official release at the Rumba Cafe on Saturday, March 19. Also on the bill are Bum Wealthy, Wicked Lung & Wookalar, Elephant Bones, and DJ George Brazil. You can download Die On Top at OceanGhosts.com. I also dropped two tunes from it into my expanded podcast from yesterday. There's also some more interesting music from the free music archive. Find the new and improved hour-long podcast at the WCRS website.

Below are some bits of tonight's radio show that you can download and take with you for free, courtesy of the artists and IODA Promonet. I also wanted to let you know about The Evolution Control Co's show at Wild Goose Creative, happening tonight, doors at 8 p.m. Read more about it at The Fuse Factory's website. Also there's a happy hour show, 6-9 p.m. tomorrow at Rumba Cafe, just a couple doors down from Wild Goose, featuring Total Foxx and You're So Bossy.

Yeah, I'm starting to do the radio shows again with regularity, Thursdays and Fridays on WCRS at 6 p.m., but the day/time is likely to change once we go to a 24 hour schedule. Anyhoo...See all those links on the side of the blog under "Subscribe and Share"? That's the easiest way to keep track of my show. Don't be scared. Click on one of 'em until you find one you like. They all pretty much do the same thing.

And now...the freebies:

Withered Hand
"New Dawn" (mp3)
from "Good News"
(Absolutely Kosher)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
More On This Album



Typhoon
"The Honest Truth" (mp3)
from "A New Kind of House"
(Tender Loving Empire)

More On This Album



Brown Recluse
"Impressions of a City Morning" (mp3)
from "Evening Tapestry"
(Slumberland Records)

More On This Album



Black Francis
"Bad News" (mp3)
from "The Golem"
(The Bureau)

More On This Album

I've had a busy week. Three interviews, one session at Electraplay, and last-minute planning for Independents' Day. The interviews can be heard on this week's show. A play list of the show is here, and you can download it by clicking on this link. The first segment is with Sue Harshe of Fort Shame, pictured to the left. Fort Shame is playing tonight at the Treehouse, and they are re-releasing, sort of, their e.p., entitled The EP.

Before I move on to the next paragraph, let me repeat in case you missed it. Download the show here.

Mark Himmel, formerly of the Slide Machine, has been playing out about town with his new project, The Compressions since last Winter. In February, he began recording Stomping Ground, which will have its formal release this Saturday at Independents' Day. Gay Street stage, 8 p.m. Don't miss it. Himmel has been composing and recording his own music for a relatively short period of time, but he already possesses a sense of melody, lyrical finesse, and attention to detail that other folks struggle for decades to attain. Listen to this record, buy it again when it comes out on vinyl, and crank it.

Again, let me repeat it in case you're the kind of person who skims blog posts. Download the show here.

Another project that has been a year or more in the making is Miles Curtiss' (a.k.a Marvin the Robot) The Loveiathan. Packaged as a capsule-shaped usb thumb drive, The Loveiathan comes packed with mp3s and videos of some of the songs. The "stalker edition" of the album also includes the raw tracks, if you think you can remix it and do a better job than Miles. Check out Chris Deville's piece on Marvin in yesterday's Columbus Alive

The Marvin the Robot release show is also happening tonight, at Kobo, with Mors Ontologica and Jellyhearts.

And lest you forget, you can download my chat with Miles and a few tracks from The Loveiathan here.

Finally, I thought I'd post the schedule for Independents' Day one last time. It's been so well-received over at the Friendship Farm. I'm helping out at the Gay Street stage all day tomorrow. Stop by and say hello. We still need volunteers, for mundane but really necessary things like parking and such. If you can help out write Erin Corrigan at erin [at] aero313 [dot] com.

Gay Street Stage
12:00 Karate Coyote
1:00 Miss Molly
2:00 Wet Darlings
3:00 Alwood Sisters
4:00 Derek DiCenzo
5:00 Town Monster
6:00 Way Yes
7:00 Ghost Shirt
8:00 Compressions
9:15 Kopaz

Pearl Alley Stage
12:30 Illogic and Ill Poetic
1:30 Big Nasty
2:30 Lydia Loveless
3:30 Flotation Walls
4:30 All Eyes Path
5:30 Sleepers Awake
6:30 Super Desserts
7:30 Liquid Crystal Project
8:30 Phantods
9:45 Shin Tower Music

Kobo stage
12:15 Old Worlds
1:15 Saturday Giant
2:15 The 3rd with Stalley
3:15 Moon High
4:15 Ease the Medic
5:15 Holiday Mary
6:15 Blastronauts
7:15 New City Gypsy

Listening Lamp Stage
12:45 Los Funkitos
1:45 Salty Caramels
2:45 Jim Volk
3:45 Spruce Campbells
4:45 Mind Fish
5:45 Bullet Proof Tiger
6:45 Stucco Jones

Okay...Maybe re-branding the radio show was a huge mistake. Like Kyle says...new Coke.

And I figure I got this website and it's still linked to several other places on the web, so I ought to post reviews and mp3s and what-not here.

So that's what I'm gonna do.

I have a working turntable! I repeat: I have a working turntable. To celebrate I made an mp3 out of side 1, track 1 of the first record I ever bought.

Somewhere around 1993, I committed the tragic error of selling off my vinyl collection. I saved a couple records, Desolation Boulevard being one of them.

So this connecting-a-turntable-to-a-computer thing actually works:

Sweet - Ballroom Blitz

Brooklyn's Action Painters are in town tomorrow night at the Treehouse with friends of pat radio Ghost Shirt. Check out this slice of power-pop entitled "Supermarket" from Action Painters' forthcoming lp. Nice churning guitars and bouncy synth line here.

Action Painters - Supermarket

Hear a live performance by openers Ghost Shirt and learn more about the band right here.

Everything you need to know about this week's pat radio is at this link below. It will air next week on WCRS after the passage of time has sucked all the vitality out of it:

http://www.wcrsfm.org/node/263

There's new stuff from Bozniaks, who play Cafe Bourbon Street on Friday. There's a few other shows hyped as well: Bird & Flower / Jordan O'Jordan / Dane Terry at Surly Girl on Friday. Ladybug Transistor and Super Desserts tonight at the Treehouse. Via Audio, Spd Gvnr, and Bicentennial Bear at Treehouse on Saturday.

I'm goin' campin'. See ya.

I need to recharge the local rock and pop batteries. I'm open to any ideas from scenesters as to who I should have as guests on the second quarter of '09.

Until then, I offer this feeble attempt to ride the coattails of South by Southwest. If you follow the link, it may also be your first visit to the lovely WCRS website, as this mp3 is hosted there:

http://www.wcrsfm.org/node/240

Play List:
Black Owls - Mrs. Someday
Rev KM Williams & The Amazing - Tell The Truth
Rachel Goodrich - Little Brass Bear
Scram C Baby - King Bolo
Say Hi - Northwestern Girls
Ratas del Vaticano - Tema de las ratas
Pretty & Nice - Tora Tora Tora
Pre - Popping Showers
BO-PEEP - B-Level Motion
Ponytail - Sky Drool
Plouen Catximbes - La Blanca
Micachu - Golden Phone
Pato Fu - Nada Original
Peelander-Z - Ninja-High Schooool
Bad Sports - All The Time
Bam Bam - Por favor no vuelvas a nacer
Black Lips - O Katrina!

I guess promises were made to be broken. No new podcast this week either. I promise great things soon, though.

Like last week, I did submit a show to WCRS. This week it's all excerpts from the various live sessions I've done over the past year. Music from Paper Airplane, The Umbrella Men, Bird and Flower, Jerry DeCicca, and Lydia Loveless. So if you're near a radio at 6 p.m. tonight, tune to WCRS (102.1 near Easton. 98.3 near Marblecliff/Grandview) and enjoy.

Dispatch Obit

I'm doing another happy hour at the Tip Top Kitchen and Cocktails. It's on February 21, from 6 p.m. to about 10. From 6-9 p.m., I'll be "spinning" the mp3s, both local and international. Then at 9 p.m. we'll break the seal on the new Rosehips album and listen to it in its entirety.

A week after the happy hour, on March 1, the Rosehips cd release party is taking place at Carabar. The entire line-up is Rosehips, Dayton band Moon High, The Lindsay, and Mors Ontologica. Killer!

Here's a great interview with Cassie of Rosehips from the awesome midwest music blog, People with Animal Heads. While you're there, bookmark Christopher Animalhead's most excellent blog.

I always neglect my own blog...I've posted this just about everywhere else. I'm doing a happy hour at the Tip Top with the good people of Columbus Underground. It's co-sponsored by the equally good folks at What The Rock?!.

I'll be giving away 3 $20 gift certificates to What The Rock?!, and I'll have a pair of tickets to give away to the Times New Viking show at the Wexner this Friday.

See you there.

If you live in Columbus, Ohio you can now listen to pat radio on your FM radio. Simply Living's radio voice, WCRS has graciously given me an hour on Wednesday evenings to replay my podcasts.

WCRS is on two frequencies in town, 102.1 in the Northeast corner of the county, and 98.3 near campus, Clintonville and surrounding areas.

For my inaugural broadcast, I'm rerunning program 96, the one with Sarah Asher on it. I promise some new material for the second show. Please tune in and please support Simply Living and WCRS.

Lessons learned from the first pat radio happy hour at the Tip Top:

1. Bring a sign or a banner. Most of the folks who came Thursday night were regulars who were stopping in for a bite to eat or some drinks. I needed a sign behind me indicating who I was and what I was doing there.

2. Never attempt to do a dj set remotely via the internet. I kept losing the Tip Top's wireless connection. On my to-do list is to finish copying my mp3 collection over to my external hard drive, so I can bring it all with me next time.

3. The pot roast at the Tip Top is to die for.

Thanks to Chuck and the staff of the Tip Top. Thanks also to Kyle at Lost Weekend Records, Ron at Used Kids, and Chris and John of the Columbus Alive. (I gave away the extra copy of "Swinging Sounds" that you gave me.)

We will do it again. Oh yes...we will.

I stopped into Wholly Craft! last night to hear Bird and Flower, the Proper Nouns, and Heavy Mole. What a neat little shop and what a cool place to hear music. And it was an early show. I love early shows! If you've never been to Wholly Craft, tonight is a perfect opportunity to do so. They're having a midnight madness sale. Details cut and pasted directly from Wholly Craft's myspace:

Midnight Madness Sale!!
Saturday December 8th, 8pm-12am

Our biggest holiday event is back this year and better than ever!
Here’s what to expect:
Crazy blue light specials every ½ hour!
Free Holiday Food and Drink!
Free Gift Wrapping!
Door Prizes!
* PLUS 10% of all proceeds benefit the Ohio AIDS Coalition!