On July 4th, my wife Brenda and I watched the new documentary Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That's The Weight Of The World, currently streaming on HBO. The film was directed by Questlove, and it's an enormously satisfying account of the EWF story. Earth, Wind & Fire is an act I didn't appreciate when I was a teenager, but Brenda made me a fan. I love those records now, and I'm happy to say we were able to see the band perform in concert on two separate occasions. I don't know if I would have gotten around to digging Earth, Wind & Fire without Brenda's influence.
This weekly radio show is built upon the foundation of sharing the love for music, of playing records we all know and also helping listeners--our friends--discover sounds they don't know. Songs and/or artists, new and old--there is so much great stuff out there, and there will always be a treasure trove of unfamiliar but fantastic works just waiting for us to notice.
Once we find them, we have the chance to fall in love with them.
And the experience of discovery is reciprocal. In doing this show, and even just in normal discourse with friends and other fans, Dana and I encounter fresh rockin' pop revelations all of the time. Even putting aside the vast array of airplay submissions sent our way by artists and their publicists, there is such a wonderful supply of THERE! out there. A recent Only Three Lads podcast introduced me to the music of the Blue Herons, and further informed me that Blue Herons singer Gretchen DeVault was also in the Icicles. And I love the Icicles! That compelled me to buy the current Blue Herons album Demon Slayer, to pull out my trusty CD copy of the Icicles' A Hundred Patterns, and to include a track from each in this week's playlist.
A hundred patterns. The ongoing pattern of a pop music community sustains us. We'll keep on trying to do our part in contributing to the patterns. This is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on another Sunday night in Syracuse this week.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream, and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO.
You can read all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO). You can follow Carl's daily blog at Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do).
TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.
Carl's new book Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is available! Read about it here. Autographed copies of Carl's previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) are available here, and you can still get Carl's previous previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
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