New Digs
 It's
In The Fridge: Finding Cool Radio Now
In the introduction to 1993's Too Cool, we invited
readers to "dig this book as paper radio." The allusion
was to the inspirational role the medium once played: the voice
in the night, discovery channel and deliverer of musical epiphanies
from the ether.
Radio by and large chucked that role long ago. The idea of
an excitement-generating show, action-packed with boss sounds
and audio ephemera, is an antique notion. We're basically talking
Top 40 AM in its commercial heyday, from the late '50s to the
mid-'60s. You'd have to at least be in your late forties now
to have any real-time recollection of it.
And yet, such radio--upbeat and rockin', unburdened by the
cynicism and cruelty that today claim most dial positions--remains
an irresistible dream to many: to hear it, do it, somehow participate
in it.
You can still find cool radio. Both of the examples here stream
live online, and one is archived, so you can dig it whenever
you want.
In Los Angeles, Loyola-Marymount University's KXLU-FM hosts
The Bomb Shelter, Uncle Tim McDermott's weekly barrage
of R&B, ska, early rock 'n' roll, international Nuggets (plenty
of Italian, Japanese and South American garagers), surf, gal-groups
and '70s punk. The one-hour show wails wall-to-wall: brief intros
and a local calendar are the only interruptions to James Brown
and Jack McDuff, Los Straitjackets and a German cover of Napoleon
XIV. I don't think I've ever listened to the show without hearing
something utterly wild and new to me. Fridays, 8-9 pm PST. Access
through http://www.kxlu.com
or http://www.live365.com.
New Jersey's non-profit WFMU-FM offers Music To Spazz By.
More produced than The Bomb Shelter, Dave the Spazz's
program gives you a hit of what '60s shows like Mad Daddy's were
smoking: a bubbling cauldron of background noise, weird commercials
and fly-by-the-ear bites from old TV and films. At a manic musical
pace. On one recent show: Stooges, Hasil Adkins, Modern Lovers,
Marvin Rainwater, Little Killers, and the Electric Prunes demonstrating
the wonders of the Vox wah-wah pedal. Thursdays, 8-11 pm, EST.
Go to http://www.wfmu.org.
It's archived.
New to us: Someone just pulled our coat to Pull The String,
a show out of non-profit KSER-FM in Everett, Washington. Van
Ramsey's presentation is low-key, but the puddin's hot. What
we heard on a recent PTS: Buck Owens and Hank Penny, Deke Dickerson's
Ecco-fonics (a burnin' version of Leiber-Stoller's "Hatchet
Man"), Screamin' Jay and Cab Calloway. And a commercial
for AIP's great 1972 Frogs flick, starring Ray Milland.
Get strung. Saturdays, 2-4 pm, PST. http://www.kser.org.
The dearth of cool radio these days makes programs like these rare,
precious, almost heroic. On a good night, with the volume up, they'll
make your radio throw off steam. -- G.S.
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Dr. Demento
In 1970, mild-mannered record geek Barret Hansen became a
DJ at Pasadena, Calif.'s KPCC FM, with a half hour rock rarities
show. The audience response to the more humor-based records Hansen
played inspired an all-humor playlist and a new identity, and
he became Dr Demento. It caught on, big time and quickly, and
Dr. Demento became a syndicated radio superstar, playing a mix
of music so eclectic it defies description--except that it was
all funny. If there has ever been a practical example of Unified
Field Theory, it's the Dr. Demento playlist. Music of the 1910's
rubbed shoulders with whatever comedic music came out last week.
For many of us, especially those of us who came of age in the
'70s, the Demento show was our first exposure to Louis Jordan
and Frank Zappa, or to Jewish and Italian music. It was a broad
and eclectic look into what made Americans laugh, and it was
always loving and never ironic. The Doctor treated the Shaggs
with the same respect he accorded Frank Zappa, which was as important
a lesson as the music itself. The show is now coming into its
34th year, still a vital thing in most radio markets.--Skip Heller
More info: http://www.drdemento.com
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Keeping Cool in Tucson
It's good to feel this dumb. When we wrote about finding cool
radio a while back, we openly lamented its scarcity. Then word
began reaching us about groovy local programs that verily rocked.
In terms of presentation, few of them approach the table-pounding,
buzzer-laden shows of the golden age, but their music's right
in the pocket. Like Al Perry's Clambake, Tuesday nights
from midnight to 2 AM (Mountain time) on Tucson's KXCI-FM (93.1)
and at www.kxci.org (click
on "Listen Live"). What we heard on a recent Clambake:
Billy Ford & The Thunderbirds' "The Monster (Rock and
Roll)," selections from the Sam the Sham Turban Renewal
tribute and the Langley School's music project, Chris Gaffney,
Pere Ubu, a new cover of the Fugs' "Kill For Peace"
and the bossly bizarre "Mellow Yellow" by Senator
Bobby [Kennedy] & Senator [Everett] McKinley. Perry may
be better known for his band the Cattle ("We're a high-energy
punk version of Buck Owens And the Buckaroos"), but the
tasty little sucker that is Clambake makes him invaluable
as a cool-music gospel-spreader. --P.L.
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Fools Rush In, Rock Out Madly
"Opera music gives me the creeps
Rock and roll is all I crave
I can do the chicken dance to my grave"
Guided by the indomitable spirit of Tony "Chicken Baby"
Harris, Rex Doane's wooly mastodon Fool's Paradise is
back stomping on the airwaves with, in its host's words, "an
endless, sickening parade of recorded bop, slop and shlock"
all blended in "an effort to pistol-whip Lite FM."
Saturday nights (6- 8 pm, Eastern) over New Jersey's free-form
WFMU (91.1 FM in the New York area, online at www.wfmu.org),
sexy Rexy delivers on his promise to help wayward listeners "discover
raunchy records and their wigged-out flipsides you never thought
you wanted to hear." Among them: "Spookareno,"
"Miss Mushmouth," "Topless-A-Go-Go" and "Bongo
Washie Wado."
To call this the coolest radio show in the known luniverse would not
be out of hand. The long gone-a-roonie spirits of DJs like Mad Daddy,
Lord Fauntleroy and The Black Pope inspire the music choices and patter,
and, like Murray Kaufman said, this is without a doubt what's happening,
babycakes. Yeah, you can march with the square squad if you want, or
you can be here now. --P.L.
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“Meanwhile, the ‘workman’ on
the mike-boom slowly maneuvers the instrument in line with little
Sparkle’s head.”
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Little Steven's Underground Garage
Conveniently overground and accessible, the most prominent mainstream
rock ’n’ roll radio show (it’s on in dozens of markets
and via Sirius satellite radio) continues to do good work weekly.
E Street guitarist/Sopranos actor Steve Van Zandt spins the right stuff
-- mid-’60s garage and beat that doesn’t eschew names (Beatles,
Stones, DC5) in favor of esoterica, though there’s, thankfully,
far more of the latter than the former.
The show also makes it a point to promote newer flame-carriers and
puts the whole thang in historical perspective, which does an invaluable
service in turning younger listeners on to the Nuggets/Pebbles
cosmos at large. A few too many intra-song drop-ins sometimes (though
dialogue from Scorsese’s Mean Streets is a frequent and
welcome source), but that’s minor carping.
When has an accredited celeb used his pull to deliver such a good punch?
May the Garage always stay open. - S.Z.
Drive in now:
littlestevensundergroundgarage.com.
Red Hot in Cali
L.A. hepcat Allen "Charmin'" Larman hosts Sunday afternoon's
Red Hot, a roots-rich crockpot of cool and funny music that more
than lives up to its name. Here are cajun cats (Nathan Abshire), soul
men (Ted Taylor wailing "I'm Just a Crumb in the Breadbox of Your
Love"), Esther Phillips singing the Jagger-Richards songbook, slack-jawed
yokels serving up indecipherable rockabilly madness. All punctuated
by screams, sound bites (Elvis, a menacing Andy Griffith) and public-service
announcements (Barry White). My favorite recent coat-pull from Red
Hot: Phil Jones & The Lonely Ones' "Ballad of a Juvenile
Delinquent," a hard-to-believe work of art. --G.S.
Sundays, 2- 4 pm, PST/PDT. KCSN, 88.5 FM, Los Angeles. Online:
www.kcsn.org.
above: Charmin' Larman with top-eliminator guest.
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Hear Here: Vintage Cool Radio
We've touted some of these sources before, in our
TALK TALK chapter, but we
reprise 'em here as a service to newcomers who might want to
check out vintage Top 40 as it actually sounded.
DJ's on CD:
Mad Daddy, Wavy
Gravy: Atom Smashin' Zoomeratin' Mello Jello Radio Broadcasts
1958-64 : Cleveland's (and later New York's) Mad Daddy rhymes
his way through show intros, song dedications, station ID's and
commercials for razor blades and record stores ("Round sounds
and none of the square/ The Rendezvous, sonny: Buy your records
there!"). A document of an amazing talent.
Dewey Phillips, Red,
Hot & Blue: Live Broadcasts from 1952-54: The
first DJ to play Presley ("That's Allright, Mama,"
1954), Memphis' Dewey Phillips speed-raps a blue streak, exhorting
audiences "Let's wake up!!!" as he sings with, over
and through the raw blues he spins. Superhuman but definitely
of this earth.
Wolfman Jack, Howlin'
On Air: XERB Radio Broadcats from 1968-70: Still crazed after
all those years, Wolfie roars and cackles, breathes new life
into oldies and braves his way through phone calls (the best
part of this CD) and corny bits ("Wind-up Wolfman").
And, like Daddy and Dewey, spiels: "Just stack up that Country
Club [malt liquor] and enjoy yourself!"
(The
Aircheck Factory has an enormous inventory of radio airchecks
for sale.)
Online Action: Among numerous sites offering radio
airchecks online, we especially dig www.philaradio.com
(Philadelphia area) and www.reelradio.com
(national). --G.S.
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Cool Radio Then (1984-88)
Like we said, lots of folks have wanted to do cool
radio. Us included. Details on our vainglorious fun-run are available
by clicking on The Cool & The Crazy button below. --G.S.
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