Tag Archives: WPIX-FM

Black Slacks

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Well it’s a pretty cold Thursday. But I enjoyed it. Been an Ian Dury & the Blockheads day. Spent some time wandering around Hoboken and listening to New Boots and Panties on the iPod. Also downloaded a few rockabilly tracks and several disco tracks since if you’re on my gift list, burned CD’s is what you’ll be getting.

It’s been fun. Some Link Wray, Robert Gordon, Bill Justis, Eddie Cochran and Sweet Gene Vincent on the rockabilly side. France Joli, Alicia Bridges, KC & the Sunshine Band and the Trammps on the disco side.

All promising a good time, some songs that I heard the other night at the McSwells Christmas party, some songs that I last heard on WPIX-FM at the end of the 1970’s. I enjoyed playing them all, loud this afternoon.

Last night was quite nice. Warm and cozy. Bill made it home in time to catch the Simpsons episode which featured Lisa on a bus.

Bill is currently driving me crazy since he has a Droid now and is texting like mad while riding the 126 bus.

It was one of my favorite episodes it involved Homer and Lisa breaking into the Isis exhibit at the Springfield Museum. It’s all about taking stupid risks. One of my favorites.

Bill hoped that Lawn Hors d’œuvre would be on but it wasn’t. I decided to show him something that I recorded the other night, Voices of the People with Howard Zinn. Oh it was as good as expected, as powerful too. Bill definitely was into it. Several actors that he admires were in it, Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman, Viggo Mortensen and Jasmine Guy to name but a few.

I recorded it, so it wound up being about 90 minutes rather than the 2 hours originally broadcast. Blip-verts! Bill went to bed soon after that and I of course stayed up and watched most of Craig Ferguson. I also started a Facebook group for Hoboken Daily News. An attempt to bolster their spirits since they’re a bit afraid now that 7 Eleven opened up across the street from them.

Slept soundly after that. Woke up and started the downloading. Walked around listening to Ian Dury, stopped by the Guitar Bar and picked up some mail from Jim for the post office. I was mailing some holiday cards so it was a nice thing to do.

I stopped by Hoboken Daily News and told the proprietor Andy about the Facebook group and he was thrilled even though he didn’t know what Facebook was. I took some more pictures and posted them to the Facebook group. Bought some CD’s at CVS for the burning I continue to do.

Came home and while burning some reggae CD’s for my nephew Earl I decided to watch Synecdoche, New York. It’s written by Charlie Kaufman who also wrote Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. Charlie Kaufman also directed. It’s really quite a movie.

Unnerving and unsettling and also very engrossing.

It’s funny, I’ve been told I look like Phillip Seymour Hoffman and since I also look like by brother Frank quite a bit, it’s safe to say that if A=B, and B=C, then A=C. The funny part and by funny I mean strange, was the fact that so much of the first part of the film reminded me of Frank and his current ailments.

Great cast including Catherine Keener, Dianne Weist, Samantha Morton, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Michelle Williams to name but a few. I definitely intend on seeing it again there is a lot involved in watching it and I probably missed some of it since I was also burning CD’s. It has so many layers involved, I highly recommend it!

12.17.09 Hoboken Daily News 010

Singin’ In The Rain

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Well I am home again, first official 3 day weekend. I’m presently listening to a version of Singin’ In The Rain by a Brooklyn band called Just Water. It’s a song I had as a 45 that I bought after hearing the song a few times on the old WPIX- FM back in the late 1970’s.

It’s more of a power pop song, you could imagine Cheap Trick singing it, or maybe Shoes. I’ve been looking for it online for a while, since finding songs online was the thing to do. Found it on iTunes oddly enough even though I could swear it wasn’t there a few months ago.

Still, for $0.99 I couldn’t resist. I’m sure when I originally bought it, it was more than $0.99. It was an independent record then and reading about it today, I found that it was picked up by Stiff Records back in the day.

I used to love Stiff Records and would buy the compilations of their artists and sometimes artists that weren’t on Stiff. Music by John Cooper Clarke, A. More, The Modettes etc. Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Lene Lovich were all on Stiff at one point, as was Madness. But I never really liked Madness once they left 2 Tone Records.

That’s the type of music geek I was. I would search out record labels. I guess that’s how it’s always been for music geeks. If you liked a certain type of Soul and R&B, then buying Atlantic, Motown or Stax among others, you probably couldn’t do wrong.

With Punk, New Wave and Post Punk, it was almost the same but sometimes you could get a real stinker. Those were the days when there was lot’s of spending cash, and $40.00 spent in a record store would have you coming home with a few albums and singles.

I’d ride the Path or the bus home and just look at the album covers, anxious to play what was inside. I’m the guy who would trek up Rochelle Avenue, boom box resting in the crook of my arm on Friday nights, buying whatever I could get at Sam Goody or Alexanders where most of the albums were on sale for $4.99.

My brothers and sister were all possessive about their music so it wouldn’t be surprising to find 2 or 3 copies of Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones, or anything by the Beatles. My father couldn’t understand it and once stopped me from getting the Stones Some Girls album with the original artwork (which they got sued over and forced to change) for myself since my brother Brian had a copy.

Yes, I hate to say it but I was Shattered.

It was also around the time where I would go to St. Marks Sounds and buy countless import 45’s at $5.00 a pop. Special versions, different mixes, posters, colored vinyl always made money leave my pocket and wind up in the register of the British woman with the red hair, or the dread locked brother who managed the bag check. I was in awe of that woman for some reason. I think I had a weakness for strong, judgmental women.

Around the corner from St. Marks Sounds was Free Being, which I mentioned last week. That was a dreary store but also had great selections. Sounds is still around I think, Free Being isn’t. St. Marks Place is a shopping mall these days and you probably wouldn’t see Prince walking down the street (like I did), or the Rolling Stones shooting a video on the 4th of July weekend in St. Marks Bar & Grill.

I also downloaded for free from Popdose today, The Inmates covering Dirty Water, another song from my WPIX FM listening days, as well as 2 versions of Peter Gabriel, Steam which was way after WPIX-FM went to ‘love songs, nothing but love songs’.

I recommend checking out and subscribing to Popdose. Every night I get interesting articles about pop culture and occasional free downloads.

http://popdose.com/