Self Help Radio 010725: A Peculiar Show

(original image from Gooble Maps)

Let it be known I'm not terribly happy with my terrible Photoshop job above. It's just that I don't have the time to do any better. There is a town in Missouri called Peculiar & the sign was from Google Maps & I think I like the idea - next 2 hours instead of next 2 exits - but I wish I had the time - not to mention the skill - to do a better job. Sorry about that.

Apologies all around! It's 2025! Perhaps we'll have less energy to get anything done as the year wears on! Whee! Radio will be so fun!

Anyway. The show. You can listen at the KBOO website. You can listen at the Self Help Radio website. You need the username SHR & password selfhelp at the latter. Everything that happened on the show is mentioned below. Yeah, it's all pretty peculiar.

So it goes.

A Peculiar Self Help Radio Show

"Peculiar" Chewy Marble _Chewy Marble_

"Peculiar" Twerps _Twerps_

"Peculiar" The Slackers _Peculiar_

introduction & definitions - featuring the Definition-O-Tron 3000

"Life Is So Peculiar (with Louis Armstrong)" Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five _Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five_

"A Most Peculiar Man" Simon & Garfunkel _Sounds Of Silence_

"Ain't That Peculiar" Bettye Swann _Don't You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me?_

"How Lucky You Are (aka Miss Peculiar) (Demo)" David Bowie _Divine Symmetry_

"It's Not Peculiar" Hüsker Dü _Warehouse: Songs & Stories_

interview with Ron Wilson, winner of the Most Peculiar Person In Portland 2024 contest

"Peculiar Guy" Lee Hazlewood _Trouble Is A Lonesome Town_

"Most Peculiar Girl" Larry & Lynda _Most Peculiar Girl_

"Peculiar Girl" The Feelings _Darla 100_

"Friends Peculiar" April March _In Cinerama_

"Peculiar, Missouri" Willi Carlisle _Peculiar, Missouri_

interview with Carter James, runner-up for the Most Peculiar Person In Portland 2024 contest

"Funny Peculiar (feat. Cathy Davey)" The Divine Comedy _Foreverland_

"Funny Peculiar" The Hollow Men _Twisted_

"A Peculiar Noise Called 'Train Director'" The Olivia Tremor Control _Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume 1_ 

"My Own Peculiar Way" Timi Yuro _Today_

"Something Peculiar" Julianna Raye _Something Peculiar_

the etymology of peculiar

"Peculiar Situation" The Hollies _For Certain Because..._

"Peculiar Hole In The Sky" The Valentines _The Sound Of The Valentines_

"Two Peculiar People" Weather _Piccadilly Sunshine Volumes 1-10 (A Compendium Of Rare Pop Curios From The British Psychedelic Era)_

"I Never Thought It Peculiar" The Monkees _Changes_

"A Peculiar Hallelujah" Papercuts _You Can Have What You Want_

"Old Peculiar" Vomit Launch _Dogeared_

conclusion & goodbye

"Peculiar Man" The Gaylads _Understanding_

"Peculiar Number" The Abyssinians _Forward_

"(I Know My Baby Loves Me) In Her Own Peculiar Way" Leon McAuliffe _Take It Away Leon: 1946 Big Band Sides, 1947-48 Live & Majestic Recordings_

Whither A Peculiar Show?

(This seems mean. Image from here.)

From nearly the very beginning of Self Help Radio I have not been entirely content having shows about things. I liked also to have shows about words & phrases. This is one of them.

Why peculiar? Is that a word used to describe me at one time? Perhaps - but certainly not from many of the people growing up. Too many syllables. They were content with "weird."

Nothing peculiar led me to make a show with the theme being the word peculiar. I'm pretty sure it's because of a song I'll play tonight that I discovered & really loved. It made me go down a rabbit hole of songs featuring the word peculiar. That's usually how these themes come about. I wish I had a better story!

Tonight! Midnight to 2am on 90.7fm & kboo dot fm! The first Self Help Radio of 2025! Peculiar but in a way not peculiar!

Preface To Peculiar: Is This Show Peculiar?

The image above is the Peanuts strip from January 9, 1963. It was scanned by me from the Fantagraphics collection. I chose it because, well, it uses the word peculiar. & the word peculiar is the theme of this week's show.

Which is the first show of 2025. It's not an auspicious sign of the creativity of the program this year.

But the question is asked - is this show peculiar? Or - hold on - is it trying to be peculiar? After all, there are plenty of people who like to say "I'm so weird!" but they're not really weird. Maybe Self Help Radio really wants to be peculiar but really isn't. It may be painfully normal. Or just bland.

What do I think? I think I've been doing this show so long I have no idea what I'm doing. So I let it be the show is wants to be. Or what it is in spite of what it wants to be. Anyway. The comic above is awesome. That's the only reason to look at this.

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: George Reeves' Birthday

(image from the Wikipedia)

George Reeves - the most famous actor to play Superman until the movie in 1978 - was born on January 5, 1914 - over 110 years ago! With the new Superman movie coming this summer - as well as the new documentary about Christopher Reeve on Netflix - it seemed a good time to talk about the beloved superhero & play musical reports about the comic sensation.

Tomorrow, Sunday, January 5, on 91.1+107.1fm in Portland, online everywhere - maybe even Smallville, Kansas - at xray dot fm.

This Week In Self Help December 29 + 31

(from Poorly Drawn Lines, of course)

Boy, 2024 ended poorly. One of the worst endings of any year since 2016-2019. & to make matters worse my voice was the last voice on KBOO in 2024. I'm sure that means the station is cursed now or something. To add insult to injury, I did other shows at the end of the year too.

The Dickenbock Report celebrated the cello on International Cello Day. Not with pieces written for the cello, but with songs about the cello. Still wanna listen? Really? You can do so at the XRAY website or at the Self Help Radio website. Remember: username SHR + password selfhelp.

Self Help Radio continued the neverending Indiepop A To Z series. Episode 76. Still near the beginning of the letter S. You can listen to that show at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website. Remember: username SHR + password selfhelp.

Speaking of not finishing something, I spent the month on the show Corporate Standardized Programming paying tribute to artists we lost in 2024. I made it to the middle of October. That show is appended to the Self Help Radio recording on the KBOO website, but if you'd like to hear it as a self-contained show, you can do that at the Self Help Radio website. Remember: username SHR + password selfhelp.

Finally - I played music I like to dance two on the last two hours of 2024 on KBOO. The file is currently on the KBOO website - the link is right here - but since it's not the regularly scheduled show, I suspect the programmers will delete that soon enough. But if you'd like to have a New Year's Eve dance party any time of the year, you can of course listen at the Self Help Radio website. & remember: username SHR + password selfhelp.

That's how 2024 ended! I don't imagine 2025 will be any better & in fact I think it will be much, much worse but let's keep having fun on the radio, okay?

End-Of-The-Year Accounting

(original image here)

This is a boring & self-serving blog entry so feel free to stop reading right here. I actually took the time this year to keep track of all the radio I did. I'm not 100% sure it's completely accurate but it's as close as I can get. Off by a show here or an hour there probably. This is the grand total of radio I did in 2024:

193 radio shows. 98 of them live in the studio, 95 of them recorded, for a total of 295.5 hours.
(That's like 12 days of radio!)

Currently I have three shows - which I had at the beginning of the year, too, though on different stations & at least one in a different format. I ended the year with two shows in a three-hour block so perhaps they should be counted as the same show. I am not doing that tho!

This year there were:

53 episodes of Self Help Radio

52 episodes of The Dickenbock Report

51 episodes of Corporate Standardized Programming

Two episodes of Self Help Radio were repeated - the show started 2024 on Freeform Portland & is now on KBOO, but twice this year I repeated a Freeform Portland episode on KBOO. As well, one of the episodes (the one on Election Day) wasn't really an episode of Self Help Radio - it was just me playing music because I was a little too worried about the election - & it turns out my fears were justified!

One episode of The Dickenbock Report was subbed by my friend Mark. I didn't count it toward my hours on the radio but I did count it as one of my radio shows, since he gave me the recorded airbreaks & the song list & I put the show together.

Both Self Help Radio & the Dickenbock Report are theme-based but I have (in case you didn't know) repeated old SHR themes for the Dickenbock Report. Having said that, I did explore on both shows 71 unique themes this year (including four shows that were tributes to a particular artist). In addition, for both Self Help Radio & the Dickenbock Report I did two shows each about a particular year (1988+1924 respectively). For Self Help Radio, I had four episodes of Howard Gently in honor of my dear friend Russell, three Indiepop A To Z episodes, an anniversary episode where I repeat a theme (for this year, 1971), the annual birthday episode for my wife, & my end-of-the-year favorites episode.

Below I'll list all the unique themes but there's one more stat that brings the number up to 193 - shows I subbed! I subbed 37 shows this year. Mostly on KBOO, but I did a couple of XRAY & I made a fundraiser show for Freeform Portland.

Okay. The last thing. The original themes I explored this year. I alphabetized them & I indicated which ones were for the Dickenbock Report by marking them with an asterisk (*). Here you go:

The Alphabet, Arrested, Badgers*, Barns*, Belgium*, Brooms
Can't Wait, Catastrophe, Cellos*, Chaos, Chefs*, Cocktails*, Corvettes*

Dandelions, Death Valley, Delirium, Drain, Eagles, Eiffel Tower*

Falling In Love (Valentine's Day show of the year), Fudge*, Guts

Helicopters, Hiking*, Hitchhiking, Hobos, Irish Things*

Kaleidoscopes, Kazoos*, Kiss & Make Up*

Lemonade*, Libraries*, Lucy*, Loneliness

Macaroni*, Magnets, Mangos, Miami*, Newspapers*, 1924*, 1988

One More, Oysters, Pandas, Paradise, Parasites, Providence, Purpose

Quiet*, Rotten, SOS*, Sandwiches*, Scarecrows (Halloween show of the year)

Shotgun, Small Town, Skirts*, Spirals, Squirrels*, A Steady Show, Suitcases

Sunglasses, Superheroes*, Sweaters*, Telescopes, Tired, Typewriters*

& Unicorns

The artists I paid tribute to this year were Ennio Morricone, Cole Porter, & Paul Simon (on their birthdays) & John Lennon (on the anniversary of his death).

You can listen if you want to any or all these shows over at the Self Help Radio website you know.

Is that it? I think so. It's the most radio I think I've ever done in a year & while it almost certainly wasn't all that good I had a good time doing it. Eventually someone will realize how ridiculous it is that I am allowed to do it & put a stop to it but until then... I'll keep having fun.

Self Help Radio 123124: Indiepop A To Z # 76

(all images from Discogs)

For the last Self Help Radio episode of 2024 - happening on the last day of 2024 - I present the 76th installment of the Indiepop A To Z series. In the letter S - Sedgemorons to Sharesprings. I have nothing to add to this - lots of indiepop in alphabetical order. What you might expect.

Listen to the show either at the KBOO website or at the Self Help Radio website. For the latter, use the username SHR & the password selfhelp. The list of songs is below. I really hope I didn't screw up with alphabetizing. The ghost of my third grade teacher would haunt me well into February. Enjoy & happy new year!

(Please remember most of the previous episodes are archived at the Self Help Radio website. Maybe find them on the page where I list all the themes I've explored.)

Self Help Radio Indiepop A To Z # 76

"Drop Dead Darling" The Sedgemorons _Drop Dead Darling_

"Why Now Girl?" The Sedgwicks _September EP_

"Nothing Lasts Forever" See Venus _Hard Times For Dreamers_

"Hold Me" Sekiden _Sound Instincts_

"Pamela" Robert Sekula _Under The Bridge 2_

"Som Pa Film" Semester _Debut EP_

"Learning French" Send No Flowers _Learning French_

"Beautiful Morning" Sensation _Burger Habit_

"Go To Work" Sensible Jerseys _Two-Way Radio_

"Heartbeats" September Girls _Cursing The Sea_

"Something Better" Septembers _Something Better_

"The Sweetest" Serenaide _The Other End Of The Receiver_

"Come Back Kitty Cat" The Serenas _Winter's Mist_

"Here Come The Popes Part 3" Sergeant Buzfuz _High Slang_

"The Sun, A Small Star" The Servants _Reserved_

"Clever, Charming" The Service Economy _Hey! Where'd The Summer Go?_

"Heaven's Spell" 7 Roberts _Heaven's Spell_

"Sisters Are Forever" Sexy Kids _Sisters Are Forever_

"I Know You Well" Shack _I Know You Well_

"My Pal Foot Foot" The Shaggs _The Shaggs_

"We Will Rise" The Shaky Hands _The Shaky Hands_

"Hyper" Shallow Soundwave _A Chance To Shine: A Dorian Records Compilation_

"Real Tears" Shame _The Sound Of Leamington Spa Volume 8_

"Something About You" The Shamen _Scared To Get Happy (A Story Of Indie-Pop 1980-1989)_

"Pearls In Vinegar" Shampoo Tears _Pearls In Vinegar_

"Give Him A Great Big Kiss" The Shangri-Las _The Best Of The Shangri-Las_

"Call You On The Telephone" Sarah Shannon _Sarah Shannon_

"Do You Know" The Shapiros _The Shapiros_

"Fix Your Eyes On" Sharesprings _Popkiss Single_

Whither Indiepop A To Z # 76?

(image of The Sedgemorons from here)

Many years ago - seventy five episodes ago, at least - I began a series called "Indiepop A To Z." No one wanted me to do this. No one has ever really mentioned to me that they enjoy it. It's just been a personal exploration of a small subgenre of popular music that mostly noone knows anything about - the genre I meant not the shows, although that is true too, since of course very few if any people know about my dumb show.

When I started I didn't really think I'd finish it. I still might not. But I've made it to the letter S, & in fact the show tonight will start with the band pictured above, The Sedgemorons, who were from the southwest of England. Where it will end will depend upon how much I yap in-between the sets. But it's absolutely certain I'll still be playing bands/artists whose names begin with the letter S. I do agonize a bit over choices. I mostly make the list myself.

In any event, that's all you need to know, really. The last Self Help Radio of 2024 is on the last day of 2024. It's happening tonight at midnight on 90.7fm in Portland & online all over the world - even in the southwest of England! - at kboo dot fm.

Preface To Indiepop A To Z # 76: Three Times A Year

Here's a picture of my cat Bluto, with a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Ziggy Bowie. Bluto is often twee but on this day was feeling a little glam. I said to him, "You're supposed to be modeling my 'indiepop a to z' blog post! You should be twee!" He just stared at me & said, "I'm an alligator. I'm a mama-papa coming for you."

This is my reminder that I return to my Indiepop A To Z series three times a year, at the ends of April, August, & December. Since it's the end of December, I will be returning to the series this week. I am currently in the letter S where I suspect I will be for a very long time. I am beginning with The Sedgemorons & who knows where I'll end.

In the early days I didn't schedule this project with such regularity. It seems I started doing it thrice a year in 2011. I first started doing it on the show Ear Candy in Austin until the host, Jennifer, said to me, "Will this ever be finished? It's boring!" At which point I would do it when either I subbed her show without her or, later, after I left KOOP, on my own show. I think the indiepop scene is somewhat more subdued these days - or else there's just so much music out there now that it's impossible - or very difficult - to keep up. So though I try to be as comprehensive as I can, I am sure I am leaving some artist or bad out.

These are things I tried to explain to Bluto Bowie. But instead he told me, "Keep your mouth shut. You're squawkin' like a pink monkey bird!" Then he went to see if there was any kibble around in the places I normally leave it for him.

Maybe he'll be more agreeable tomorrow.

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: International Cello Day

(image from the Wikipedia)

December 29 is International Cello Day. Dick Dickenbock, being a big fan of music, loves to showcase musical instruments on his show. Especially big musical instruments. He sometimes dreams of having big musical instruments fight each other on the show! Cello vs. Tuba! But he'll settle for a show talking about & playing musical reports about the cello.

That's tomorrow, Sunday, from noon to 1pm, on 91.1+107.1fm in Portland, & online everywhere at xray dot fm. Hydraulophone vs Double Contrabass! Now that would be a match-up!

This Week In Self Help (December 22 + 24)

(found somewhere on Tumblr)

This was a week when I only did two radio shows but three of my shows aired. & two of those shows are back-to-back so it's almost like I only did one show & that was my Christmas gift to Portland this week.

XRAY superfan & former deejay Mark sat if for The Dickenbock Report on Sunday. He did a kind of holiday show but his spin was clever & a little subversive. You can listen to that show on the XRAY website & also on the Self Help Radio website (where the username is SHR & the password is selfhelp).

Self Help Radio featured my year-end collection of some of my favorite music of 2024. You can listen to that show on the KBOO website & also on the Self Help Radio website (where the username is SHR & the password is selfhelp).

This week's episode of Corporate Standardized Programming continued my vain attempt to celebrate those we lost in 2024. I have just finished September! That show is at the end of the KBOO file above or you can listen to it as a one-hour show on the Self Help Radio website (where the username is SHR & the password is selfhelp).

Only a few more shows in 2024! I'll probably screw them up.

Self Help Radio 122424: Gary's Favorite Music 2024

(images from Discogs & Bandcamp)

Here it is! A collection of two hours of some - but not all - of my favorite music of the year. I know I missed something. I always miss something. I tell myself I'll keep better records, find ways to remind myself, but then a year passes & I do my best to gather what I liked most. Here it is! Oh. I already said that.

It's not in any order except in the order that I thought would sound best. I don't really make top ten lists. I am not as rigid as that. What I like depends on my mood & my place in life. There are bands I thought I'd love forever that - even though I still love them in a way - I don't listen to at all anymore. I think I just like listening to new music a lot & it has changed my relationship to the old music in my life. I need to think more on this.

You should go listen to the show! It's available both on the KBOO web page & on the Self Help Radio web page. On the Self Help Radio page use the username SHR & password selfhelp to access. It was all music plus me talking. The playlist is below.

Happy holidays to all!

Gary's Favorite Music 2024

"DIY SOS" Crumbs _You're Just Jealous_

"JAMCOD" The Jesus & Mary Chain _Glasgow Eyes_

"Company Culture" Lambrini Girls _Company Culture_

"Stepping Across" Close Lobsters _Stepping Across_

"California Highway 99" The Softies _The Bed I Made_

"Where Are You?" The Chameleons _Where Are You?_

"Coast" Kim Deal _Nobody Loves You More_

"Alone" The Cure _Songs Of A Lost World_

"Woke Up & No Feet" Anastasia Coope _Darning Woman_

"You Will Always Be Alone In Your Mind" 36? _Finding Love/Having Autism_

"Lamplighter" Memorials _Memorial Waterslides_

"Pop Single" The Bug Club _On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System_

"Stella The Begonia" Rubblebucket _Year Of The Banana_

"Gramme Friday (Live)" The Fall _Grotesque (After The Gramme) (Live)_

"A Taste Of Money" House Of All _Continuum_

"Sark E Myth" Momus _Yikes!_

"Techno Blank" Neon Kittens _RadioSickMusic_

"R&D" Dom Sensitive _Leather Trim_

"Toxic Energy" Swansea Sound _Toxic Energy_

"The World Was Round" BMX Bandits _Dreamers On The Run_

"Look Alive!" Jetstream Pony _Under The Bridge 2_

"You & Me & The Sea" The Proctors _Snowdrops & Hot Air Balloons_

"Different Tune" Lunchbox _Pop & Circumstance_

"The Order Of The Seasons" Los Campesinos! _All Hell_

"Bo's New Haircut" The Cords _Bo's New Haircut_

"Not Look Down" The Big However _Static Caravan_

"Dreamboat" Itchy & The Nits _The Worst Of Itchy & The Nits_

"My White Bicycle" Robyn Hitchcock _1967: Vacations In The Past_

"La Rockette" Organi _Babylonia_

Whither Gary's Favorite Music 2024

(original logo here)

It's that time of year when you see "best of" lists everywhere. I've expressed my dislikes for such lists before, usually around this time of year, on the blog & on the radio. No need to go over that again. I did have a curious thought just now - when I was a teenager it was considered extremely cool to like music that most people didn't even know about. It was common to think that was the "best" music out there. What might've happened if the world suddenly flipped upside down & those bands became big sellers, Grammy winners, household names? Was it just the thrill of being the only person who liked the music that made it the "best"? I hope someone has written something about this. It would be fun to know what psychological issues are at play.

Anyway, at this time of year I forego a "best of" list because I don't believe there's such a thing as "best." I find it weird that people need to represent their opinions that way. I find it extremely odd that media outlets will have groups of people vote on what's "best" & then present them under that term - so everyone involved didn't agree unanimously on the list? Does no one know what the word "best" means?

Me, I just present the stuff I've listened to most during the year. But I will admit that I have had to come to the hard conclusion that I don't really listen to music the way I used to. Part of it is that I make so many radio shows & listen to music for those shows. I don't often take the time to just listen to something as I might have when I was younger. Discovering music has become its own particular pleasure. But it & listening to music competes with other pleasures - reading, spending time with my wife, walking the dogs, consuming other media, cooking, eating, even sleeping. That's been another revelation - I seem to have slowed down somewhat. It takes longer to do the things I love which of course eats into that time. Perhaps it's part of growing old. I am grateful that I don't just listen to the same things over & over like many people my age - but there's no judgement if that's the case for you. I completely understand.

With that said - I'm on the radio tonight on KBOO from 12 midnight to 2am playing a lot of - but not all of - my favorite music of the year. I don't keep a running list & I listen to a lot of music so I'm sure to have forgotten something. But I'll do my best to represent the stuff I returned to in my listening. That's on 90.7fm in Portland & online everywhere at kboo dot fm.

Preface To Gary's Favorite Music 2024: Criticism

(Norman Rockwell, The Art Critic {1955} found here)

Critics in general have terrible reputation. In my opinion (which by the way is not a phrase most critics use) probably half of them desire no more than to turn a witty phrase or deliver a withering observation. Critics in general seem to me (another little qualification that critics hardly ever add) a joyless bunch whose self-satisfaction masks some issues they have tried to cover up with positioning themselves as arbiters of taste. Some critics are in fact clever. Some are insightful. But I have found most of them to be no better or worse than your friend who doesn't like something because "it sucks."

It took me some time to realize that there's no objective best or worst when it comes to matters of opinion. I had a friend - who really, really wished he could have been a critic that people would listen to - who got mad at certain critics because he didn't feel the way they did but also they were in newspapers so more people heard their opinion instead of his. People are strangely threatened by someone not liking the things they hold dear. The cure for that is to not think of the things you like as "the best" but to understand that there are many reasons for people to like things & it's fine if they don't like what you like. Honestly, more people than not don't like much of the music I like, & it affects me not at all. I would assume the fact that I mostly don't like what they like has never troubled them, either.

One of the things I often say - & I am sorry because I have discussed this many times before, most recently on the blog here - is that the only thing that can be said about an opinion is how informed it is. If I ask you about an artist & you tell me, "That guy sucks" but I ask another person & they know much more about the artist, I am probably going to take that person's opinion more seriously. Both opinions are equally valid - you like what you like - but an informed opinion has always been more helpful to me than an uninformed one. I myself have been surprised when people have taken an uninformed opinion by me as seriously as they have. One good friend of mine I discovered never listened to Talking Heads' last album because I told him I didn't like it much. I wish I had said "But I fucking love the song Blind!" Ooops.

The role of critics in my life - the ones I like to read - has not been to either justify my opinion or to influence my opinion but to give me context for their opinion. We may end up disagreeing - I enjoy this one fellow online who does videos about Star Trek but we disagree about a lot - it also helps that he's funny - but I feel more confident learning about someone's opinion if they can tell me more about that opinion.

Which is a long-winded way of saying I don't do year-end best-of lists on Self Help Radio, just spend a couple of hours playing some of the music I listened to a lot this year. I call them my favorites & that seems to me to be to be the fairest way to describe that - after all, if there truly were an objective "best of," then by definition wouldn't everyone's list be the same?

Think on that. More tomorrow.

Coming Up Tomorrow On The Dickenbock Report: Mark's Show

(photo of Mark unavailable at press time)

Tonight is the Dickenbock Report staff & crew's holiday party. If it's like our other holiday parties, no one will be be sober &/or dressed enough to do the show tomorrow. We've called in professional radio show sub Mark to helm the program. He has promised some holidays tunes & more.

Listen to Mark's show noon to 1pm on 91.1+107.1fm in Portland & online at xray dot fm everywhere. Standard restrictions apply. Void where prohibited by law.