Self Help Radio 082914: Indiepop A To Z # 45

Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes

Oh man, forty-five installments of this & I'm only in the letter J.  I might finish the Js next time around - when will that be?  Probably the end of the year.  For now, enjoy all the bands I thought were important or influential or just plain indiepoppy enough to fit between the Jakpot & the Jigsaws (those bands included).

I should say a big thank you to the people at TweeNet whose list of bands forms the basic skeleton of this series.  If I just stuck to what they consider indiepop, I'd be nearly done now.  Alas, I am contrary.

The show is available now at the Self Help Radio website.  Pay attention to password info, if you're going to listen.  The songs I played - in glorious alphabetical order - are below.

Thanks for listening!

(part one)

"Turning Point" The Jakpot _Turning Point EP_
"Not Happy" Jale _Dreamcake_
"Town Called Malice" The Jam _The Gift_

"I Heart Labrador Records" Jam On Bread _A Railcard Adventure_
"Puppet Girl" Wendy James _Now Ain't The Time For Your Tears_
"Skullduggery" James _Stutter_
"Oh, Grateful" James Dean Driving Experience _Clearlake Revisited_
"Vote For Love" Jamie Wednesday _Vote For Love_

"It's A Fine Day" Jane _It's A Fine Day_
"Mourning Glass" Jane From Occupied Europe _Coloursound_
"Sanitized" Jane Pow _Love It Be It!/State_
"Love Has Flown" The Januaries _The Januaries_
"Cut Me Deep" Jasmine Minks _Another Age_

"Looking For Lot 49" The Jazz Butcher _Fishcotheque_

(part two)

"Nothing At All" Jazzateers _Jazzateers_
"Elemental" The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience _The Size Of Food_
"Before I Know" Jenka _Be_
"Driving Into The Sun" The Jeremiahs _Driving Into The Sun EP_

"Ordinary Sleep" Jessamine _Jessamine_
"The Rain Fell Down" Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes _The Rain Fell Down 7"_
"Just Another Fashion Band" The Jessica Fletchers _What Happened To The?_
"Flowers" Jesterbells _Rain Keeps Falling EP 7"_
"Just Like Honey" The Jesus & Mary Chain _Psychocandy_

"Sister Dream" Jesus Couldn't Drum _Ruttling Orange Peel & Blind Lemon Pie_
"Suicide" The Jesus Trip _You Can't Be Loved Forever, Vol. 1_
"Wenn Deutschland Traumt" Jetzt! _Liebe In Grossen Stadten Kassette_
"Snap Me Up" Jim Jiminee _Welcome To Hawaii_
"Camouflage" The Jigsaws _Camouflage 7"_

Which Indiepop A To Z # 45?

Who knows why anyone does anything?  Why a radio show at all?  Isn't radio dying?  What about this thing called "indiepop" (which yesterday I referred to as "obscure")?  Who pays attention?  Does anyone really want to listen to what I think it is?  & in alphabetical order?  What the hell?

So, "whither indiepop a to z number 45" indeed.

I just think it's good music.  I listen to it a lot.  Some of my favorite bands are either square in the genre definition (like the Lucksmiths) or influenced it (like the Smiths).

& it's nice to have a radio show now to share all the silly music I have - indiepop or otherwise.

& by the way - Self Help Radio is on tomorrow morning from 7 to 9am at 88.1 fm on the dial & online at wrfl dot fm.  Yes, it'll be archived at some point in the day.  What, with all this music, do you think I have time to do anything else?

Did this have too many questions in it?  Will anyone answer them?  Or were they rhetorical?  Have I done this before?  Why can't I remember if I did or not?

Preface To Indiepop A To Z # 45: Keep Going, Keep Going

I've had a leisurely week - it's warm & unbearably humid in Lexington so, except for the requisite evening dog walks, I've been inside - so I've had a chance to listen to entire albums by the subjects of this installment of the "indiepop a to z" series.  It's been fun - it's such a diverse & interesting genre of music, one that for the most part is more obscure now than even when it was the opposite of punk in the mid-1980s.

Well, maybe not the opposite of punk - the do-it-your-own-damn-self aesthetic was there.  Among other things.  I'm not in the mood to theorize right now - & anyway, I'm reading Jon Savage's Sex Pistols book right now, so it's probably muddling up my thinking.

I'm in the letter J at this point, & it's the tenth letter of the alphabet.  If it takes forty-five shows to make it to J, where will I be at the twentieth letter of the alphabet (the letter T, right)?  & if I only do three of these shows a year, it'll happen well over a decade from now.  Will there even be radio then?  Will I even be alive?

Oh well.  Keep going, keep going.  The letter J.  Lots of good stuff.  I'll show you on Friday!

This Is One Of Those Times

…when you find something that would've been perfect for last week's show.

So you show it anyway.

Woke Up Early One Morning Blues, Episode Fourteen

Victoria Spivey

As mentioned previously, this was the last episode of my little blues show - at least for a while.  Lots of folks - students, mainly - return to Lexington for school in the Fall & of course they deserve a place at the student radio station.  I feel lucky I got to keep my Friday morning!  I can only imagine everyone else wanted to sleep in &/or had an eight o'clock class.

My last show featured some Texas blues greats, with an especial set on Texas blues women, & a few obscure tunes as well.  It may be because I am Texan that I love Texas blues so much - but I am surely not the only one.  It could be the subject of an entire ongoing radio program - & probably has.

This final Woke Up Early One Morning Blues (I'm glad no one complained about the clunky name!) is available now at the Self Help Radio website.  Pay attention to username/password information.  The Texas-flavored songs I played are below.

Thanks to everyone who listened this summer!

"Bull-Doze Blues" Henry Thomas _Texas Worried Blues (Complete Recorded Works 1927-1929)_
"Falling Rain Blues" Lonnie Johnson _Lonnie Johnson Vol. 1 (1925-1926)_
"Booster Blues" Blind Lemon Jefferson _The Best Of Blind Lemon Jefferson_

"Motherless Children Have A Hard Time" Blind Willie Johnson _Dark Was The Night  (1927-1930)_
"Texas Blues" Willie Reed _Let Me Tell You About The Blues Texas (The Evolution Of Texas Blues)_
"You'll Like My Loving" Otis Harris _The Male Blues Singers Vol. 1_
"Cryin' For You Blues" Sammy Hill _Texas Blues_
"Kentucky Blues" Little Hat Jones _Tex-Arkana-Louisiana Country 1929-1933_

"Big Houston Blues" Victoria Spivey _Victoria Spivey Vol. 1 1926-1927_
"Deep Water Blues" Hociel Thomas _Louis Armstrong & The Blues Singers_
"Doggone My Good Luck Soul" Hattie Hudson _Texas Girls (1926 - 1929)_
"Penitentiary" Bessie Tucker _I Can't Be Satisfied, Vol. 1_
"Shake It Down" Lillian Glinn _Lillian Glinn 1927-1929_

"Ground Hog Blues" Ramblin' Thomas _The Voice Of The Blues: Bottleneck Guitar Masterpieces_
"Blue Goose Blues" Jesse "Babyface" Thomas _Blues From The Western States 1927-1949_
"Lone Wolf Blues" Buddy Woods _Texas Slide Guitars 1930-1938_