09/07/2024
Lots of indie in this week's new music, from BITE! to Wake the Nations, Orchards, Indor Foxes, plus new singles from Los Lonely Boys, Childish Gambino, Sweet, Ghost Party, A Short Walk to Pluto, Vulfmon, Body Count, Gacharic Spin (think Band-Maid with a keyboard player) and much more. Enjoy!
ALBUM SHOW NOTES
JonoJono is a curious hybrid honing the smooth rides and synth sounds of RnB with a sheer use of electric distortion from Grunge / Metal in his music. This Florida born, Houston, TX raised singer/guitarist/producer has equally strong musical influences from the likes of Kurt Cobain, Erykah Badu, James Hetfield, & Frank Ocean (along with his uprising counterparts in the early LA group "Odd Future"), which makes his definition of Indie music own no limitations.
For once the Spotify Biography (quoted above) is pretty accurate. JonoJono is really a mix of many styles, without it becomming a mess. I rather enjoy his new album "I'm cool... I guess" and will be playing this album on this week's show.
The Album Show will plays on Thursdays at 9am and 9pm Pacific Standard Time.
RFC 2428
For those of you who stay away from Spotify the current week's additions will be played on Wednesdays. This is a change from prior programming: what we're going to do going forward is just play the music added this week only. Every other day will be the usual rotation, but we set aside Wednesdays for just the new additions for the week. This week that's 45 songs, which we will play in the same order that they're in on the Spotify playlist of the same name up at the top of this post. So if you tune in at just about any time on Wedmesday you will hear the whole playlist.
10 at 10
One last programming note: Every Saturday at 10pm and again on Sunday at 10am and 10pm we will feature our show "10 at 10", where we play 10 (and sometimes 11 or even 12!) songs from a year we pick at random. Again, all times are PST. I usually don't give you any heads up about what I'm going to play, but this week is different and I'm going to tell you right off the top that I'm going to play songs from the year 1985.
The reason for this is that its rare that I get to tell you a story about the very first song you hear on this week's playlist - featuring the guitar of a man named Ryan Hedgecock. Back in 1985 I was working at what we used to call a Record Store, although at that moment in time most of our sales were CDs, which had by then been around for a couple of years. It was the Warehouse Records on Westwood Boulevard, about 1/2 mile south of UCLA where I was a student. The store was slowly (and then very rapidly) converting from a music store into a video rental outlet, which was the new craze (VHS Tapes) and quickly outpacing record sales. I didn't work there very long (I found a better paying job) but what I want to tell you about is one of my co-workers, The previously mentionened Ryan Hedgecock.
We weren't friends, just co-workers. I made fun of his taste in music and he made fun of mine. I liked jazz and prog rock while he was into country and rockabilly. I tried to turn him on to Todd Rundgren and he tried to turn me on to The Blasters - we both failed, but we picked up a few things from each other and both kept on trying to introduce each other to music the other hadn't heard. I soaked up a lot more than he did I think, because I was still so new to the world of music beyond the town where I grew up (save for jazz, which I had a LOT of exposure to as a kid). He was a guitarist and had his own band and would sometimes have a guitar with him. I heard him play and he played stuff like I had never heard before; a mix of pop, rockabilly and country that was very different from the standard rock guitar I could play at the time. I don't think my playing impressed him very much but he impressed me. I was still learning the instrument and it would be another two years before I co-founded ASK (my L.A Band) but he was on the scene right then and had been for a couple of years. In fact, his band had an indie deal (and a couple of self-released albums before that) and he would sometimes be away from work recording it.
I never met any other members of his band, and half the time I couldn't remember the name of it.
He came into work the day the album was released, bought a copy of the record on vinyl, and promptly quit his job. His band was a big deal in Los Angeles and they were getting some big gigs. I never saw him again. I quit not long after that.
I also bought a copy of the album, and I liked it. But the band didn't hit big until their next album, and by then Ryan had left the band. I have no idea what happened to him after that. His picture is on the first album, and not on the next one so you can probably figure out which one he is. I understand he lives in New York now, still doing his country/rockabilly/pop thing. I haven't spoken to him since 1985, and he'd at best remember me as the scrawny kid with the long hair who could talk classical with the customers and the unnatural affection for Suzanne Vega's first album. More likely he wouldn't remember me at all. I don't think of him very often - expect when I'm revisiting 1985, like this week.
The band went on to big things, and there's a good chance that if you're my age you've heard them. I'm not going to tell you who they are - you need to tune into the show - but the very first sound you will hear is Ryan's guitar. They became more pop after that release and the lead singer eventually went her own way - as she was probably always destined to do. But 1985 was their first big release and I'm going to play my favorite song from that album to start off this week's 10 at 10, and I hope you tune in.
As always, you can go to https://global.citrus3.com:2020/public/radiofreecalifornia to listen to the station, and there is an imbed below. And did you know the station is available as an app? It's only for Google Play (sorry iphone users - Apples terms and conditions were too restrictive for me) but you can listen on your phone at your convenience too.
New music and only new music. Rock, Pop, Metal, Indie, Alternative, R&B, even Jazz and some truly out there stuff. Artists with 50 followers next to artists with 50 Million. Unsigned and major label artists. Nothing more than 1 year old. Enjoy!
