Yeah I was just joking with the Little Bit Of Soul, althought I'd say it has plenty of soul of the teenage variety. I think they had a good singer. I saw Dirty Water on "blue eyed soul" compilation a while back. I thought that was interesting. Why is R. Dean Taylor not soul? Pardon my ignorance. I'm definitely new to the whole thing. I hope that question doesn't open up a "what is and isn't soul" can of worms. I never really liked that kind of thing.

Try Benny Speltman's Fortune Teller, A lot of bands in the 60's covered it or The Right Track by Billy Butler. As For A Little Bit Of Soul it wasn't really a Soul Record as such. R. Dean Taylor's Ghost in My House again not really Soul track even though it was on the Motown Label. Funny thing is a lot of Garage Tracks have ended up being played on the Northern Soul scene like The Human Beinz - Nobody But Me and The Outsiders - Time Won't Let Me.

Did you ever listen to the National Lampoon Radio Hour? Those ran for only a year (around '73 or so) but were rerun on one local station throughout the '70s. I wish I could find archives of those old shows! I'm sure they have to exist somewhere, but I haven't been able to dig any up at all. Anyone?

I love radio, too. Obviously 98% of it sucks ass today, but I still love the medium. Hell, I majored in broadcasting, so that should tell you something. When we first started podcasting, we called the podcast "GaragePunk.com Pirate Radio," which a couple of people took exception to considering the careful nature of what we decided we could and could not play. Anyway, back then I always thought it would be cool if someone could take our podcasts and actually broadcast them over the airwaves somehow, in the spirit of Radio Caroline, Radio Sutch, Swinging Radio England and other '60s offshore pirates. Anyone own a yacht? Haha...

Hur hur hur...cool...of course I used to also love listening to ye olde Radio Luxembourg back in the mid to late 70s, in my dad's car in the drive cos the wireless in the house couldn't get a decent reception, used to be great listening for all these new records by all the groups of the day, like Sweet, Slade and erm things like Hello, cos I vividly remember hearing their 'Another School Day' and it just summed up what I felt too Oh No, Another Day, Another School Day-ay-ay Oh No......that was also the first time I ever heard the 'Stones' Goat's Head Soup thumper 'Star Star' aired on radio, best song on an otherwise fairly boring LP...certainly not a patch on their earlier stuff. Yeah UTM Ed Gnu-Sonic, doncha just love it eh ha ha...cheers for now - Lenny

Was Eastwood playin' em? ... Wait "GNU-Sonic" I get it.

I really, really (etc.) LOVED Dr. Demento back in the late 70's to early 80's!!

Man! Laying in bed with the covers over my noggin' - listening and waiting for the weekly "Top 10"... it was magical!!

"Stuck inna Pagoda with Trisha Toyota"
"I'm looking over my dead dog Rover"

All the Spike Jones stuff...

I love Radio!

"KGNU"!!!

The Wildebeests would LOVE that!!!

I remember listening to WCBS-FM in New York, but by that time the station was just like any other mediocre Oldies station, and no one ever really stood out to me on air.
WFMU's "Music to Spazz By" and "Teenage Wasteland" are both great shows, "Three Chord Monty" is good too. I didn't really hear about that station till I was packing shit up and moving to Colorado 5 years ago, but it's the oldest freeform station in the country and 100% listener supported.
There's a show out here that broadcasts on the University of Colorado station (1190 AM Boulder) "The Lunch Hour With Jonny Trash". The show features mainly classic punk rock stuff, and most of it people are very familiar with, but it's still really cool to turn the radio on and hear the Buzzcocks or Television...
"Route 78 West" is a great show that specializes in rare country/honky tonk. One of the hosts has a large collection of rare 78s and records alot of good shows that come through town. "Honky Tonk Heroes" on KGNU (88.5 FM & 1390 AM Boulder/Denver) is another good show that plays alot of obscure and popular country/honky tonk/hillbilly music.

I think it's gotta be an independent station nowadays.

When I was growing up in the early 80s, there was a great show on national French radio station France Inter called "Intersidéral". The host DJ was Philippe Manoeuvre and his show was devoted to loud rock'n'roll and science fiction. I remember he would play bands like Radio Birdman. I also remember Screamin Jay Hawkins live in the studio, fantastic! That was on every weekday night from 10 to midnight (I would listen to it in my bed with headphones)!

Growing up? Shit, I don't know... I guess for music it would've been Johnny Rabbit on KXOK in St. Louis, who played a great mix of '50s & '60s rock'n'roll and in the style of our favorite '60s jocks. Aside from that, the Saturday Morning Comedy Show on KMOX (both of these AM stations) was a favorite. The only FM show that really made an impact on me was a show called "Freeform" that was on KWK in the early '80s. I still have a tape of that show laying around somewhere, too. That was the first time I ever heard a lot of the first wave of punk and new wave that was coming out in the late '70s/early '80s. I think I was about 16 or so when I first heard it and it changed my life forever (had to be exposed to it at some point, though, I guess).

Hey Michael...of course I agree most of the time radio is cak, but now n again here in UK there is something that you can stand to listen to...fer example that twat Mark lamarr on Radio 2 does a great show playing real obscure 60s punk garage rock n roll beat n even early psych stuff. Also here in Scotland we have Vic Galloway who at least plays some stuff by new and old groups / artists, and most importantly plays records and demos from unsigned groups etc etc...but hey, I'm sure even back in the biggest heyday of them all (60s) not all the stations were playing great stuff, you always have to wade thru the excrement to find the wee gems, and that's true no matter when and where y'are...even the late great John Peel used to play loadsa shite in between the good great and just plain weeeeee-yaaaaaaard. Stomp stomp stomp yer pal Lenny - 'Beests (and The Thanes of course)

I miss John Peel :-( I only really listen to internet radio stations now as they aren't restricted in what they can play. My favourite is Mod Radio UK - http://www.modradiouk.net and not just because I do a show for the station ;-)

I love radio. I always have...

Now granted, I'm an old fart and still remember when radio was fun! Now a-days (for the most part) radio had been cloned and spread around the country (I am a dirty Amurikan, y'all and can't comment on radio 'round the world - though I bet the next statement would apply to wherever you find your bad self). I remember being struck - after moving to Tennessee from So Cal that the radio here sounds eggzackly the same as on the west coast, i.e. BORING and uninspired!

So... what were some of y'all's favorite radio shows whilst growing up?
Are there shows on now where you live that live up to the glory that radio once was, and could be if good radio was allowed... even encouraged?

Speak (or, type)!

We Just have State run liquor stores here in Washington. You can buy beer and wine and the supermarket (or corner store) if you are over 21 (the legal drinking age here in the USA) any day of the week (except between 2-6 a.m.) but the Wa. St Liquor Control Board runs the sale of hard alcohol in this state. Now if you go to California you can buy booze at the Supermarket. It varies from state to state here in the US. The Legal Drinking Age though is 21 (which also makes it the age you have to be to play clubs too!) It kinda sucks, but I kinda understand.

Now when I was younger it used to be that Idaho had a legal drinking age of 18 (as Canada still does) but that was like 300 miles away from were I live in Seattle (and Canada was only about 75 miles!) so we used to head up there to get ripped. Now it different and I am 40 and no longer drink. Sigh!

It seems pretty harsh to tax things like forgien/imported beer that high, but I guess Governments are the same all over the world. Just be glad you aren't in a country where alchohol is illegal.

What this all has to do with songwriting, I am not sure, but still its interesting.

Well its not exactly illegal, but the Swedish government has strict controls on the sale of alchohol, (Have you heard of the Systembolaget?) its to do with the tax and also regulating what is sold to swedish people, the price of Danish & English beer is extremely expensive. So if you buy cheap beer from Denmark (its about a third to half the price) no money goes to swedish tax, if we were to bring it on to the premises of a venue/club then they would be breaking the law and so get a large fine or closed down. So they freak out a bit about it. And yes its a great topic for a song, ie Black Gold on our forthcomming LP, just thought I'd crow-bar in a bit of promotoin.

Why is Danish beer illegal in Sweden? I liked Carlsberg (even though I no longer drink). Some really fun and good songs have been written the way you describe (if you can remember them when you sober up).

Fill me in on why the Swedish government doesn't like Danish beer though (sounds like a good topic for a song!)?

Our method is simple but works: set up gear, durms, guitar & bass, buy one crate of contraband strong Danish beer (illegal in Sweden), preferably Carlsberg Black Gold, it seems to work the best. Then start playing whatever comes into your head, usually raucous r'n'r after about 5 cans. It might not be the best r'n'r in the world but after 10 cans who cares. Listen to our song black gold that was written on the stuff.

Let us know how you get on ......

For those who have a facebook profile, there is a Surf Music group too : Check it out !

I've seen that 33 1/3 around, but I was more interested in something that would say alot about their earlier exploits.... their US tour and the reason(s) they were banned for 4 years. Not that I don't think "Face to Face", "Something Else..." and "The Village Green..." are great albums, but I don't want something that's just gonna focus on the group post '66.

I just saw a new book called Ray Davies: I'm Not Like Everybody Else, but it looked a little too academic for my taste. I know of a couple of other recent titles as well that I haven't yet read--The Kinks by Neville Marten and Jeff Hudson, and The Kinks: All Day and All of the Night by Doug Hinman, which is basically a day-to-day chronicle of their band-related activities. Ray's semi-novelistic X-Ray is pretty entertaining. I've also read John Savage's bio and John Mendelssohn's amusing "Kink Kronikles," both of which are long out of print.

Thanks for those links!

I agree with the others about the song Rock N' Roll Traitor. Top toon!

You're right, I forgot. Rock N' Roll Traitor is a good song too...

I bought Rise to the Occassion EP of the cut out bin many years ago. I liked it, but only really because of the Take A Chance cover, in retrospect. you better go back and listen to "rock n roll traitor" again... that song fucking rips!!!

In short, powerful bursts!