North of the Sunset

http://www.archive.org/details/NorthOfTheSunset

Welcome to Episode 13 of Doc Rockavoy's Indy Music Garage! It's been a strange week weather and otherwise, so I thought I'd play some jazz and reggae/ska/dub records. I enjoyed peeling into this side of my record collection that I don't listen to often. After having lived in Philadelphia for ten years, there's a lot of Afro-Carribbean music crosscurrenting through that music scene in so many ways, it's almost a civic duty as a Philadelphian to have this stuff in your record collection. It's good medicine for where I live.

Some highlights on the show are Charles Mingus, one of America's greatest composers, as well Linton Kwesi Johnson, the writer, poet, and music activist. I decided to throw something from the first English Beat album, which was very good.

Still no podcast microphone......!

The playlist for today, in order, is: Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, The Lounge Lizards, Sonny Rollins, Oscar Peterson Trio, Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Miles Davis, Linton Kwesi Johnson, The Flames (guess who they really are!), The English Beat, LKJ, The Melodians, Harry Belafonte, Pete Fountain, Miles Davis, and Stan Getz Quartet (live).

Thanks for tuning in!

Cheers,

Doc Rockavoy

Volcano Trash

http://www.archive.org/details/VolcanoTrash

Welcome to Episode 12 of Doc Rockavoy's Indy Music Garage! In trying to rotate some new material into the podcast for today, I included some of the "scum punk" and "trash punk" records in my collection, records I don't usually listen to, but have archival value as documents of the underground music scene. For example, I included Fear for this episode, but didn't like them at all in the early 1980s and never went to their shows. All my friends thought they were "sell-outs," and they tended to attract all the jocks and other goons that had just been introduced to punk rock. I felt the same way about Black Flag and other big bands like the Dead Kennedy's. I like those bands, but their shows had too much violence, so I tended to listen to the more musical or political bands in the punk underground.

I included a couple of tracks from some Philly bands, The Dead Milkmen and the Serial Killers. Also, there's a song by Spacemen 3 and my friend Eric LaValle gave me that album, which was on Bomp Records on clear vinyl. I couldn't resist to put on "Strutter" off the Kiss Alive! album, kind of a period piece.

I still don't have a podcast microphone, and probably won't get one anytime soon!

The playlist for today is: M.I.A., Beefeater, Fear, S.N.F.U., Embrace, The FU's, Gray Matter, Die Kreuzen, Turbonegro, Live Skull, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Magazine, The Dead Milkmen, Serial Killers, Spacemen 3, The Velvet Underground, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Unrest, Kiss, Rocket From the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Skull Defekts, The Lemonheads, Husker Du, Fugazi, The Smiths, The High Back Chairs, Slant 6, Lucero, Band of Susans, and Swervedriver.

Thanks for tuning in, and enjoy!

Cheers,

Doc Rockavoy

Me, Willie, My Dog, Thalia, My Cat, and Twangy Guitars

http://www.archive.org/details/MeWillieMyDogThaliaMyCatAndTwangyGuitars

Welcome to Episode 11 of Doc Rockavoy's Indy Music Garage! I've missed a couple of weeks lately, mostly just working on my house during the weekends while Tab and Spence are away. It has been a little boring with them away, so I've tried to keep myself busy. A couple of weeks ago, my dad sent me a package with a bunch of Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard 7" 45s, so I put a couple on for today. The show has a lot of twangy guitar music, jangly, distorted, ringing, and just plain "twangy." Maybe it's because I've been talking to my dog and cat for the last 8 weeks, primarily, and need to get out more often.



There's a track by an old Philly band, The Strapping Fieldhands, since I had their old single. There's also a track by my band, Zombie vs. Shark, called "Cold Machine," which will appear on a split single next fall with one of our Norman band friends. It's the final mix, and the masters should be back soon.


The playlist for today is: Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, The Astronauts, Strapping Fieldhands, Come, Baker Street Irregulars, The Detroit Cobras, Volcano Suns, Zombie vs. Shark, Chris Brokaw, Mazzy Star, The Smiths, Fire Party, Scream, Tom Waits, Trouble Funk, Beastie Boys, Q and not U, The Cult, TSOL, Flying Saucer Attack, My Bloody Valentime, Flying Saucer Attack, Bardo Pond, and Lungfish.


Above is an old photo of Willie playing with my old band, Dona Sonora.

Thanks for tuning in, and see you next week!

Cheers,

Doc Rockavoy

Guitars May Bring the Sun

http://www.archive.org/details/GuitarsMayBringTheSun

Welcome to Episode 10 of Doc Rockavoy's Indy Garage! This spring, the whole country seems to be inundated by late, wintry weather: rain, tornadoes, May snow, and just torrentially intense weather. I decided to call up the guitar gods and see if some high-energy garage rock and rhythmic underground music may bring the sun. I'm not feeling very editorial today, so I'll brief and hope the sun and warm weather may come out where you're at.

I still don't have a microphone, and like it very much!

The playlist today, in order, is: Zen Guerilla, The Dragons, The Swirlies, Built to Spill, SSD, The Teen Idles, Government Issue, Toxic Reasons, The Straw Dogs, Wayne Kramer, Come, The Dream Syndicate, Zen Guerilla, The Hot Snakes, Reptile House, The Cramps, The Dirtbombs, Thee Hypnotics, French Toast, Bad Religion, Rocket From the Crypt, The Fall, Scream, Red C, Jawbox, The Make-Up, Lungfish, 18th Dye, The Minutemen, Mazzy Star, TSOL, and The Police.

Thanks for tuning in, and see you next week!

Cheers,

Doc Rockavoy

The Ides of May and Other Emotions

http://www.archive.org/details/TheIdesOfMayAndOtherEmotions

Welcome to Episode 9 of Doc Rockavoy's Indy Music Garage! This is one of my shorter shows, at about 65 minutes of music. The spring has been quite busy, and I've been away from home, I think, too much. For a middle-aged guy at 42, traveling seems to have taken its toll on me the last several weeks, as I've been to Norman to record new material with my band and play the Norman Music Festival, and gave the alumni lecture in the history department at UC Santa Cruz. Those trips were back to back, with short stops at home, and I've traveled alone. Too much time alone in my mind. At least when I go on tour with my band next week, I'll be with my best friends!

Traveling and being away from my wife and son is pretty hard, and I guess one of the things I realized while I was away, and now they are away, is that primarily I'm a dad and someone's husband, and not a book editor, writer, or guitarist. I would not have thought about that 5 years ago; now no matter how rewarding writing or music is, both are only OK, but hanging out with Tabby and Spencer is what I look forward to the most. I guess these longings and waiting for your family to come home is probably what most people do in their 40s, however, it's all quite new to me.

Well, enough of that, and I still don't have podcast microphone, which is just as well!

The playlist today is, in order: The Doors, Mark Lanegan, Flying Saucer Attack, The MC5, Debris', Jimi Hendrix, Lungfish, Swervedriver, El Dorado, The Pupils, Soccer Team, Zombie vs. Shark, Rites of Spring, Television, The Dream Syndicate, The Smiths, Lungfish.

Enjoy the show, and I'll be back in two weeks after the tour!

Cheers,

Doc Rockavoy

Spring Squall

http://www.archive.org/details/SpringSquall

Welcome to Episode 8 of Doc Rockavoy's Indy Music Garage! I decided to play lots of long play, psychedelic and space rock. Spring is coming too slowly and I thought a squall of feedbacky guitars and ephemeral space rock would bring forth warmer weather. I'm short for words today, so right to the playlist. There's alot of Flying Saucer Attack, one of my favorite bands.

The highlights of the show is a track by The Gardes that I really like, who are from Ponca City, Oklahoma and whose album, for me, is one of the best albums beginning to end I've ever listened to. Another highlight is the band Spain, from Los Angeles. Their first album was really cool, and Evan Hartzell, a friend and drummer I've played with, is on the kit. The last highlight is "Let My Children Hear Music," from my band, Zombie vs. Shark. It's an instrumental of utopian sound named after the great Charles Mingus album.

The show is a whopping 135 minutes! The playlist, in order: Flying Saucer Attack, Lungfish, Killing Joke, My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, Jimi Hendrix, Bardo Pond, Swervedriver, Come, Portishead, Spain, The Gardes, Roy Montgomery, Zombie vs. Shark, My Bloody Valentine, Flying Saucer Attack, Low, Chris Brokaw, Experimental Audio Research, Lungfish, Flying Saucer Attack, Bardo Pond, Flying Saucer Attack.

The Hard Stuff, Hedonism, Mopeyness, and You

http://www.archive.org/details/TheHardStuffHedonismMopinessAndYou

Welcome to Episode 7 of Doc Rockavoy's Indy Music Garage! Spring has finally arrived with warm temperatures, and it's rock and roll season for the next couple of months, with Norman Music Festival 4 set for late April. For today's episode, we have a bunch of awesome OKC/Norman bands from its huge and radical garage rock music scene, who will play NMF 4 this year. This is the hard stuff, as Brother Wayne Kramer would call it, so give it a listen.

I decided to mix in some hedonistic 70s rock and psychedelia to pay homage to our ancestors of tripped out noise rock, and to always remember we walk in their footsteps. A little modesty about what we call "new music" is always in order. There is also some pop and mopey English new wave music in there, like the Cure, U2, and The Smiths. I love discordant and atonal guitar playing, and some of it is noisier than you think. Outside of Captain Sensible and Brian Baker, the guitarists Johnny Marr, Robert Smith, and John McGeogh (who eventually played in P.I.L.) are some of my favorites for their original approach to rock/pop.

One of the highlights on the show is the band Pee, from San Francisco. My grade school friend Jim Stanley's band from the early 1990s. Jim and I were really influenced by all this stuff. When I recorded the albums today, it was funny to see that The Go Go's, Cure, Siouxsie and Banshees, and Psychedelic Furs albums were mastered "hot" to take up almost all bandwith. These albums rock!

The line-up for today, in order: Glister, Shitty/Awesome, The Pretty Black Chains, Zombie vs. Shark, Psychotic Reaction, Junebug Spade, Klipspringer, The Boom Bang, Debris', Big Star, Sweet, Grand Funk Railroad, The Kaleidescope, Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, The Smiths, The Go Go's, The Psychedelic Furs, The Cure, U2, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Police, Tommy Keene, REM, Pee, Lush, The Moon and the Melodies, Calexico, and Mazzy Star.

Thanks for tuning in!

Cheers,

Doc Rockavoy