Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
July 11, 2008

Hosted by Greg Lyon on FRIDAYS at 2-4 pm
on WPVM Asheville (103.5 FM and www.wpvm.org)

This show is available for listening as an archive for one week after its airing at WPVM’s Archive Page (click on the STREAM button for this show–under the letter ‘G’)

Notes:

– Don Howland (of the Bassholes, Wooden Tit, and Gibson Bros.) showed up with his Cincinnati Reds t-shirt and a sack full of rock ‘n’ roll records from the underbelly of the underground, ready to spring them on the rest of the world during this here little radio show. Many of these discs were ones Don said he had always wanted to hear on the radio airwaves, and they were all over the place, from classic UK punk rock to swampy R&B, from Columbus OH garage rock to French femme art-rock to NYC no wave. It was all a blast. Here are some things I learned…

– I need to track down a bunch of those 7-inch 45s on High Water Records, the label started by Dr. David Evans, ethnomusicologist (Delta blues expert) at Memphis State University. I had the Jessie Mae Hemphill LP, but Don brought a superb R&B blues-boogie thing by the Fieldstones. There’s an interesting piece on the Fieldstones and High Water Records in general in the superb online ‘zine, Perfect Sound Forever.

– We played several tracks related to Jim Shepard (Vertical Slit, V-3), and I learned that while both Jim and Don grew up in Columbus, Don didn’t know him until around the time punk broke. Jim had already been playing out in the Columbus area, thus making him truly proto-punk, kinda analogous to Pere Ubu in Cleveland.

– Some other drum and guitar duos before the White Stripes: Doo Rag, Flat Duo Jets, and the Bassholes (with Don Howland, of course).

– Bassholes will be recording later this summer for a release on Columbus Discount Records, which is evidently a collective involving folks from Times New Viking.

– When asked what his favorite band off all time is, Don will reply, "Chain Gang."

– Today’s picture is of the Beast 7", about which I completely forgot to ask Don. There’s precious little about them on the old internet, but Don wrote back to let me know that they were led by Bryan Gregory, original guitarist for the Cramps, and were rumored to be practicing satanists (some sites–here’s one–dispute this).

Background Music: Gabor Szabo - His Great Hits (Impulse!)

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