This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, was split halfway between garage rock bangers and psyched out dreamers with a sprinkling of Rhythm and Blues. For some reason most of the songs from this episode weren't on Spotify, so if you came to the website to find a particular tune be sure to peep the playlist at the bottom!
Towards the beginning of the show you heard a Japanese band The Youngers (ザ・ヤンガーズ ) perform their super fuzzy and bass thumping song I Don't Want To Let You Go. Although there's a bunch of information readily available on the web in Japanese, it appears that the group hasn't received too much coverage in English. Through the modern technical wizardry that is Google Translate, I have found that the band was similar to what we consider a modern boy band or at least something similar to a pop rock group such as The Monkees. Rather than forming naturally, the band was scouted by a "Jazz Cafe" or "Music Cafe" in Shinjuku City named La Seine. At the time there were several venues in and around Tokyo that served as hangout spots where you could eat and drink while listening to live "GS" (garage sound) bands that played beat, garage, and psych standards, as well as, western influenced originals.
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| Ichiro Tominaga on Comedy Manga Dojo Digest |
The Youngers was composed of 6 lads from around Japan, with the youngest member, vocalist Yoichi Suzuki (17) acting as a songwriter for their debut song My Love, My Love. Multiple sources claim that the group had an active fan club that was 2,000 members strong before they had even released their first single. Supposedly, their fan group was managed by Ichiro Tominaga (富永一朗), who was an early manga artist and well-known television personality.
As expected, The Youngers' most active fan base were among middle and high school aged girls and according to a poll conducted by the Tokyo radio station Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, the group was ranked the 8th most popular GS band. Like most other pop rock groups, the band eventually lost popularity as they got older and after briefly changing their sound to a more mature pop/adult contemporary sound, they called it quits. Various members continued to play music, however, they never seemed to achieve the same popularity as The Youngers.
If you happen to follow KUCR on Instagram, which you definitely should, then you probably saw a post featuring a CGI rendering of the Hippie Love mascot along with a Googie style KUCR sign. Well, I based that model off an old sign that used to sit in the parking lot of the Riverside Plaza during the 1960s. There's not much to add besides that but I thought it'd be fun to make a higher resolution version of the Instagram post available. Enjoy!
Well folks, that's about it for this episode's rundown! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR
88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST. If you can't catch the show live there's now a convenient way to listen via the KUCR archive. Unfortunately, due to copyright laws, each episode can only stay online for a few weeks, so you have a limited time to listen before they're gone. Better than nothing, I say! Just follow the link and search for Hippie Love Turbo or click on the "All Shows" drop-down menu.
You can also
listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In.
You can check out this week's playlist below:
Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2 - I Wanna Come Back
The Countdowns - Cover Of Night
The Bells Of Rhymny - She’ll Be Back
Hot Coffee - Some Day You Will Die
The Youngers - I Don't Want To Let You Go
Casey Jones and His The Governors - Don't Ha Ha
Twin-Dells - Love 'Em And Leave 'Em
Thomas Hammond - Turn That Frown Up Side Down
The Rites - Hour Girl
Chris And Craig - Isha
Wilde Things - My Life Is Black
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