Lindsey Troy Post-Deap Vally, Rumi Koyama, and The Who - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Red Pontiac Potato"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM featured a ton of garage rock classics and a couple newer tunes by Christina Jean & The Howlers and Lindsey Troy.

You might remember Lindsey Troy from an interview I conducted with her band Deap Vally back in November of 2023. Now that Deap Vally has called it quits, Troy is going the solo route with an upcoming album she has recorded at home with vintage analogue equipment. So far she's released a couple singles: Love Is Deeper and I've Seen the Willow Trees, which you heard at the end of the show. Lyrically, both songs are reminiscent of confessional poetry and musically it's a strong departure from the hard hitting and straight forward blues influenced rock of Deap Vally. 

As for Christina Jean & The Howlers, you heard their song She Garbage, from their latest EP Get Trashed w/ The Howlers. The EP is full of buzzsaw fuzz and drippy reverb and overall, the band has a Cramps vibe, specifically around the Psychedelic Jungle era. It seems like they perform live quite often so if you like what you hear, check out their Instagram page and catch them live.

The first song of the night was The Kids Are Alright by The Who and although I typically lean towards the obscure side of rock, I go through stages in life where I listen to this song almost on repeat. I mentioned on the show that although there's a million covers of the song, I particularly like The Calamities' adaptation from their self-titled LP released in 1984 (In their home country France the album was also titled À Bride Abattue). The whole album is sweet pop-punk mix of covers and originals which is sometimes lumped in with the genre Twee-Pop. As time went on, the band became more polished and lost their punk-ish edge but if you're a fan of bands like Shonen Knife or The Shitbirds, you'll probably like their first release.

Rumi Koyama wearing an Endless Summer shirt in the 1969 film Me and My Siamese cat 

Towards the middle of the show you heard a song performed by Rumi Koyama named Watashino Inori. Koyama's music sounds like yé-yé at times with hints of GS music but most of her output consists of covers and sounds like the typical early '70s pop that dominated Japanese music charts at the time. From what I can tell through poorly auto-translated forums, YouTube comments, and various semi-dead leads, Koyama was poised to be the trifecta of a popular singer, actress, and model but for whatever reasons she only received moderate attention. According to her Wikipedia page, Koyama eventually left Japan for Los Angeles where she found a husband and left the entertainment business. There are very few clips from the movies she appeared in (including this scene where she sings The Supremes' You Keep Me Hangin' On, in the style of Vanilla Fudge's cover) but I've struggled to find full versions of her films. Maybe the clips are the full extent of her acting?  

Anywho that's it for this episode! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In.

Check out this week's playlist below:

  

The Bad Seeds - A Taste of The Same
The Others - I Can't Stand This Love, Goodbye
The Kandells - I Want You To Know
Blox - Hangin' Out
Rumi Koyama - Watashino Inori
The Pandas - Walk
Silk Winged Alliance - Flashback
Yanti Bersaudara - Pohon Kenari
The Ban - Bye Bye
The Tuesday Club - Only Human
Danny and The Counts - Ode To The Wind
The Arondies - All My Love
Phil and Harv - Darling

La Doña at Mucho Gusto Fest 2024!

On September 21st, downtown Riverside's North Park was alive with music, food, and good vibes as people from the I.E. and beyond gathered for the second annual Mucho Gusto Fest, a music festival that embraces civic engagement and music without borders. One of the headlining musical artists for the night was La Doña, a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter from San Fransisco that effortlessly floats within the genres of cumbia, reggaeton, hip-hop, and even mariachi. To hear my favorite songs by her, check out Cuando Se Van, Quién Me La Paga, Mal De Amor, and Dembow y Sexo.

Below you'll find La Doña's entire Mucho Gusto performance in a video that I produced for our good friends at KUCR!

Keep your eyes peeled for another upcoming video from Mucho Gusto featuring Frente Cumbiero, a band from Columbia that got the whole park dancing with their blend of electronic music, psych, and cumbia. 

I'm hoping to document more local events in the Inland Empire, so if that's something you're interested in, be sure to leave comments, share posts, and all that. It helps a lot! 

Additionally, let's also show our support for the folks that put together Mucho Gusto by following them on Instagram and by letting them know you are interested in attending, participating, or becoming a sponsor for next year's event.

The Mojo Men, Bum Trips and Hoedowns - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Fernbrake"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM had a ton of hard-hitting garage rock, both obscure and well known. There were some slower psych vibes towards the end of the show, but for the most part we kept the energy high. If you missed out on hearing the episode during its initial airing, you can still listen through the KUCR Archive. You'll have to hurry though, because episodes are only on the archive for a few weeks before they're gone! As always, you can also find this episode's playlist below but first, let's go over some of the topics I covered.

Towards the beginning of the show, you heard The Mojo Men's song She's My Baby and I mentioned that, early in the group's career, they had ties to Sly Stone as both a producer and songwriter. According to Ben Fong-Torres' book Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock & Roll, Stone recorded tracks with The Mojo Men during his time with Autumn Records and planned on using the name: "Sly and The Mojo Men." However, Stone was unsatisfied with the results and decided against releasing the tracks. 

In the liner notes for The Mojo Men: Whys Ain't Supposed To Be - The Autumn Sessions, Paul Curcio is quoted as saying: "Jim and I co-wrote a lot of songs with Sly. We'd hang around with him at his house, and he'd always tell us that he would never put his own group together until he could have the number one band in the world." It appears that The Mojo Men didn't live up to Stone's standards and there is no evidence that he ever performed live with the band, especially since he had taken a break from gigging during this time in order to focus on his work with Autumn. Despite this, Stone is described as a former member of band on several articles floating around the web.

Besides Stone parting ways with The Mojo Men, the group's original drummer, Dennis DeCarr, was booted over creative differences and was replaced by Jan Errico, who had just left another Autumn Records band, The Vejtables. According to Curcio, The Mojo Men had the chance to incorporate Grace Slick into the band, due to her being friends with several members, but Errico was deemed to have a wider range of talent, as well as, a nicer personality. As a testament to her talent, Errico sang and drummed simultaneously during her time with both The Mojo Men and The Vejtables, a feat which many musicians find difficult. If Jan's last name sounds familiar, it's because she is the cousin of Greg Errico, who was the first drummer for Sly and the Family Stone, adding another connection to Sly Stone.

Bit-A-Sweet (?) performs Out of Sight, Out of Mind in Blonde on a Bum Trip

 

As the show continued you heard The Bit-A-Sweet perform their song Out of Sight, Out of Mind which was featured in a strange low-budget film from 1968 named Blonde on a Bum Trip. The film is very rough around the edges, and features unusual narration, wobbly acting, and iffy audio. At its core Blonde on a Bum Trip has the occasional glimmer of charm but you really have to slog through some weird stuff to find it.

"He looked at what I was making and told me I had the color all wrong and to be more careful."

The movie focuses on the misadventures of Susan, a chemistry major that is convinced by her roommates to produce LSD for their enjoyment and profit, and how their reckless behavior led to the death of another young woman named Vanessa, as well as, the investigation that followed.

The villains of the story lounge during an impromptu investigation

If you want to understand the vibe of the movie without watching it, imagine sitting in a room with an acquaintance as they begin showing you home videos. Eventually the videos start having odd sexual encounters, drug use, and moral finger wagging. Bum Trip feels like a watered-down version of that scenario. Yikes!  

 Trying not to look at the camera while eating a sugar cube

 

Even trash film connoisseurs may struggle with the stilted audio, frequently missing dialogue, and long drawn-out scenes of half-naked people rolling around, but there is definitely some ironic humor to be found. If you can find a decent copy for cheap or free I'd say it's worth a casual viewing but, in my opinion, it's not something that's really worth seeking out.

And finally, we ended the show with The Mighty Hannibal's fuzzy and funky song Good Time. The Mighty Hannibal really hit his stride towards the end of the 60s and early 70s and it's a little surprising to me that he isn't recognized more. I mentioned another song by Hannibal named Hoedown that came out in 1983 that melds bluegrass, disco, and funk. It's super bizarre and according to the man himself, the song was a "big hit in the Netherlands." If you are interested in The Mighty Hannibal, I suggest you check out this archived article by Chad Radford for Creative Loafing. The article paints a vivid picture of Hannibal and features a funny anecdote about Hannibal interacting with Neil Diamond which I won't spoil here.

Anywho, that's it for this episode's blog post! Thanks for reading and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In.

Check out this week's playlist below:

  

The Painted Ship - Little White Lies
The Bit-A-Sweet - Out of Sight, Out of Mind
The Morticians - I Don't Understand
Los Monjes - No Te Burles Mas
The Cedars - I Don't Know Why
The Nickel Bag - The Woods

Christmas Radio Special #2 - 50s-70s Rock n Roll Novelty Songs

Hello holiday heads! This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, featured a bunch of rockin' Christmas tunes from around the world. While I might not be jolly old Saint Nick, I can still deliver some good tunes for your last-minute wrapping. As always, the show will stay up on the KUCR archives for a few weeks, so if you missed the show and want to listen on your own time, make sure to listen while you can. If you just want to hear the music, check out the playlist down below, but if you want a summary of what I talked about during the show... keep reading. Be sure to also check out last year's Christmas playlist, and if you are feeling crafty, feel free to print out a foldable box I created that's based off of an unusual robotic Santa toy from days gone by.

The Boys Next Door as seen in Teen Tempo

Towards the beginning of the show, you heard The Boys Next Door, a group from Indianapolis, perform their song The Wildest Christmas. The group was fairly popular in their local scene and also appeared as The Four Wheels on two singles, Central High Playmate, and Sneaky Little Sleeper. According to a blog named 60's Indiana Band Szene, the group's name change was without the groups knowledge and eventually it was changed back to The Boys Next Door. The label Sundazed Music compiled the band's complete discography back in 1999 in a self-titled release which appears to be out of print and proves to be difficult to find online. While researching the band I found an article that appeared in a magazine named Teen Tempo which covers a concert that the band put on from the rooftop of a newly opened department store named Dorothy's Woman's Apparel Shop. It's wild seeing a photo of band members standing on a pallet that's being hoisted up towards the roof via forklift. 

Rankin/Bass TV special inspired flyer paired with one of the show's misfit toys

Next up you heard The Galaxies cover of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and I mentioned that the character Rudolph was created by Robert L. May for a book that was sold at Montgomery Ward. However, the character was popularized by the song which came about a decade later and was penned by May's brother-in-law Johnny Marks. If you are interested in the history of the song, there is a great piece that aired on NPR's Here and Now where they interviewed May's daughter Barbara May Lewis and discussed how Montgomery Ward gave May the rights to the story without realizing how big it would eventually become. For a first-hand account, you can also check out this interview with Marks that was conducted by Ian Whitcomb in 1972.

As the show continued, you heard Mae West's Merry Christmas Baby from the album Wild Christmas which followed in the footsteps of her previous surprise hit album Way Out West. During this time, West was around 72 and, although they were fairly outdated at the time, the album features Christmas themed alterations of West's famous catchphrases. Unlike Way Out West, Wild Christmas was released through the small record label Dagonet Records rather than the major label Tower Records. As a throwback to her previous album, Wild Christmas includes a cover of The Beatles track From Me To You with some holiday lines added to the song's intro. 

Of course, we ended the show with a novelty country song by Charlie Stewart named Santa Claus Ain't a Hippie. Stewart was a very opinionated individual and his songs reflected his visions of what he felt was taboo at the time. Of course, nowadays it all comes off very hokey with songs about Stewart's disapproval of unions, Johnny Cash, and Fidel Castro but the songs are strange snapshots of their time.

And a ho ho ho 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 or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

Check out this week's playlist below:

  

The Quiet Jungle - Here Comes Santa Claus
Mae West - Merry Christmas Baby
Toni Wine - My Boyfriend's Coming Home For Christmas
Grace Hong - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
He 5 - Silent Night
Takeshi Terauchi and Blue Jeans - Blue Christmas

Tasmanian Devils and Stardust - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Taro"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, leaned more towards the psych side which is probably going to be the theme for the next few episodes. Like many people, I sometimes find myself gravitating towards certain musical genres for a given period of time before I get sick of it. Lately I've been checking out a lot of late 60s and early 70s fuzzed out stuff rather so these next few episodes will definitely be reflecting that.

Anywho, towards the beginning of the show you heard the buzzy little tune Baby by a band from West Palm Beach, Florida named The Tasmanians. The original release is fairly rare but you can find the track on a bunch of different compilations, some better than others. The version you heard came from Sixties Archives Vol. 4 Florida & New Mexico Punk and if you are ever interested in getting some compilations for your collection, you can't go wrong with the Sixties Archives!

As is the case with a lot of psych and garage bands, one of the best sources for information on the group is on Garage Hangover. However, on the show I focused more on the strange dog sized marsupial which shares a similar namesake with the band, the Tasmanian Devil. The Tasmanian Devil's breeding behavior is what initially caught my attention due to the fact that they often give birth to 20-30 pups with only around 40% surviving to maturity. They have relatively short lifespans with the oldest known Tasmanian Devil being Coolah, who was born and raised in the Children's Zoo in Fort Wayne, IN and died at age seven. 

Tasmanian Devils remind me of Master Splinter

Currently, the animals are facing extinction due to a fatal disease (Devil Facial Tumour Disease) which causes facial tumors and is one of the very few known forms of cancer which spreads in a contagious fashion. Conservation efforts are being led by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania and if you would like to learn more about these unusual creatures and possibly donate to their causes, head on over to their official website.

Towards the halfway point of the show, you heard The Stardusters play their cover of Ray Charles' What'd I Say. The group was made up of young teens from the sparsely populated Willisville and Cutler area of Illinois and according to a local newspaper article, the band was known for performing 3 times a week. The recording is a little rough around the edges which contributes to its charm with vocals provided by a young woman named Miss Darla Dean. There are a few other groups that share the Stardusters name including a latin rock band from the greater Houston area whose most popular single is Forever and a vocal group from the 1930s that was known for their appearances on The Vitalis Show, featuring George Jessel and his Celebrated Guests. 

While listening to The Stardusters I was reminded of a film I watched way back in 2007, and had long since forgotten, named Stardust. What I remember most about the film is its unusual tone which was a mix between campiness and self-seriousness with the unusual casting choices of Robert De Niro as a pirate with a secret love for dressing in women's clothing and Michelle Pfeiffer in the role of an ugly witch. The movie is based off a 1999 novel of the same name by Neil Gaiman who is probably best known for his comic book series Sandman which was later made into a critically acclaimed series on Netflix. While I can't say I'd really recommend Stardust because, frankly because I can't remember too much about it, but I would highly recommend Sandman for anyone that's slightly interested in Gaiman's work.

And finally, towards the end of the show I played a song by Maximus named A Better Mind and I mentioned that the group was headed by Jack Ross, who was an active session musician in Nashville. Ross was also married to a country music singer named Jeris Ross who gained some success with her version of the Gary Paxton song Pictures On Paper which features some unusual lyrics such as:

So what if he flirts a little with the girls where he works, as long as he's true to you, you better give that man a little slack.

Funny enough, there's another version of the song by Ronnie Dove which seems more sympathetic to the woman's perspective. On air I compared Pictures On Paper to Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man which caused some controversy during its debut for containing lyrics which feminists felt were misogynistic. 

If you happen to like vintage country western music my buddy Jed McDaniel has a show on Spotify named When Cringin' Leads to Cryin' which highlights music from the early days of country until around the 1970s. We used to talk a lot about old country records so I can attest for his taste. Back in the day Jed used to host a show on KUCR named Cryin' Time, so he's got a history with our humble station.

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 or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

Check out this week's playlist below:

  

The Jagged Edge - Gonna Find My Way
Tasmanians - Baby
The Stardusters - What'd I Say
The Bells Of Rhymny - She’ll Be Back
Maximus - A Better Mind
Sense Of Humor - Secret Thought
Stronghold - Big Man
Quiet Jungle - Too Much In Love
The Dawgs - I'm So Lonely
The Rangers - Akaku Akaku Heart Ga
Morning Disaster - Black Leather Books

Calling It Quits! Deap Vally Kicks Off Their Final Tour - Deap Vally Interview - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show

For the past 12 years the Southern California rock n roll duo Deap Vally has been performing fuzzy and hypnotic music for audiences around the world. Over that time, they’ve released 3 full length albums, several singles and EPs, and opened for artists such as: Marilyn Manson, Wolfmother, Blondie, and Garbage. Now Deap Vally kicks off their final tour as they also self-release their latest album SISTRIONIX 2.0, a re-recorded version of their first full length album which is currently out of print.

On November 2nd, the group stopped by KUCR to promote their previously unreleased cover of The Rolling Stones’ Ventilator Blues and newly re-recorded Baby I Call Hell. Below you will find my full interview with the band followed by a playlist of the songs which aired during the episode. The playlist includes recordings by L.A. Witch and Death Valley Girls who will both accompany Deap Vally on their Live for the Last Time Farewell Tour. 

 

If you'd like to catch the band during their final tour, the shows closest to Riverside will take place on November 11th at The Casbah in San Diego, November 12th at The Observatory in Santa Ana, and March 9th at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles.  

Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

 

  

Hall, Oats, and Rapid-Fire Rockabilly - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Cowpea"

On this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, I kept the talking to small rapid-fire tidbits rather than my normal rambling. Because of that, this post will just stick to the bullet points. But before we get into all that, I'd like to remind y'all that you can check out the latest episodes on the KUCR Archive page. All you have to do is click that little drop down menu and click on "Hippie Love Turbo." Intuitive, ain't it? Unfortunately, the episodes won't be there for long so listen while you can!

 Anywho, here's this episode's breakdown:

• After hearing Lee Cole's "Cool Baby" I mentioned that I found the song on the compilation Cool And The Crazy which was released in Germany in 1993. I questioned why rockabilly, or psychobilly for that matter, is popular in Germany. Check out this older Vice article that touches on the subject. What do you think?

• Later on, you heard The Devils play "The Devil Dance." The Devils eventually changed their name to The Bentleys and released one more single, "Now It's Gone." You can read a little more about the band here.

• Speaking of The Devils, the group was originally from Stroudsburg, PA, which happens to be the city where guitarist G. E. Smith grew up. Smith worked a ton with Hall & Oats and was featured on 5 of the band's top hits. However, if you're like me, you probably recognize him as the long-haired bandleader on Saturday Night Live, a position Smith left in 1995. There's a pretty extensive interview with Smith on The Television Academy's website where he goes over his career including his time with SNL. 

• Funny enough, I found another connection to Hall & Oats through The Loot. You heard their song "She's A Winner" which featured the guitar work of Caleb Quaye who, much like G.E. Smith, worked with Hall & Oats. It seems like Quaye and Smith might have worked together through Hall & Oats in 1979 but that's probably it. Besides Hall & Oats, Quaye is probably best known for his work with Elton John and their song "Thank You For All Your Loving"  which was written in the late '60s but remained unreleased until it appeared in the 2019 film Rocketman.

• As the show continued, I played The 'N Betweens' "Little Nightingale" and you heard me talk a bit about the band's history, most of which I found on a website named Brum Beat. The website covers various bands from the West Midlands and is worth poking around because it features fairly comprehensive biographies on some obscure groups, as well as, a few more popular artists.
  

And 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 or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

  

The Devils - The Devil Dance
The Groundhogs - Shake It
The Free - What Makes You
The Tidal Waves - Laugh
The Roks - Transparent Day
The Ripcords - Bus Stop
The Innkeepers - Wanted

The Youngers, Jazz Cafes and The Riverside Plaza - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Dandelion Greens"

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. 

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

Charlie Booth, Larry Williams, and A New Way To Listen To The Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Golden Lotus Banana"

Before we dive into this episode's summary, I'd like to tell y'all about a new feature on KUCR's website where you can listen to certain programs on demand. If you aren't able to tune into Hippie Love Turbo live then checking out the online archive is pretty much the only legal way to listen to the show. It's really simple and convenient! Just click the "All shows" drop-down menu and find "Hippie Love Turbo" or use the search function and you'll find some of the latest episodes that were played on air. Unfortunately, due to copyright issues, the episodes can only stay online for a limited time so be sure to listen while you can! 

Anyway, for this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, we bounced around genres a bit more than usual with songs ranging from rockabilly to psych. It was a ton of fun finding music for this episode and sometimes it feels good to mix things up!

The first song you heard on this episode was a single by Charlie Booth and The Blue Velvets named Gonna Find Some Lovin'. The flipside of the record, Fishin' Fits, is definitely the weaker track of the two but it still has some charm. Gonna Find Some Lovin' is one of the few Charlie Booth tracks that's easy to find due to its availability on compilations. For the most part, Booth's music is somewhat difficult to find and while Booth didn't release a lot of tracks using his own name, he did run a label named Golden Eagle which put out some rock, blues, and soul records from '62 to '68. Collectables, a reissue label from Pennsylvania, released a compilation featuring Golden Eagle artists, however, it focuses on the label's blue releases and skips some of Golden Eagle's rock releases such as Vance Charles and The Sonics, Thomas Hammond, Reed Williams, and The El Campo Jades. Hopefully, one day someone will get the rights to release Golden Eagle's complete discography.

Next up you heard Larry Williams perform Short Fat Fannie and I mentioned how Williams was an influence on many beat bands including The Beatles who recorded covers of Williams' tracks Dizzy Miss Lizzy, Slow Down, and Bad Boy. Williams is often compared to Little Richard due to their close friendship and how Williams saw a boost in promotion after Little Richard stepped away from music in the late 50s to begin preaching. Around this time Specialty Records began to polish Williams' image in hopes of generating the same success they had with Little Richard and in some ways, they achieved their goal. All Music has a general biography on Williams which dives into some of his problems with addiction and his struggles to stay relevant over the years. Towards the end of his life, Williams released a funk/disco album titled That Larry Williams that didn't quite live up to the hype of his earlier releases and featured a reworked version of his song Bony Maronie. 

Speaking of reworked songs, I also mentioned that the final artist on this episode, Big Maybelle, released a cover of Question Mark and the Mysterians' 96 Tears that successfully transitions the song into a soul banger. I'll definitely be adding it to a future episode, so keep a look out for that!

And 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. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

Louie and The Fat Men - Fat Man
Research 1-6-12 - I Don't Walk There No More
The Spirits - So Sad
The Solid State - Wait and See

Orgin of The Googly Eye - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "King Coconut"

On this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM I played The Nashville Teens' cover of the John D. Loudermilk song Google Eye which made me wonder about the term Googly Eye and where it came from. Before we get into that though, I'd like to point out that the song is actually referring to a fish, which I think is maybe a Rock Bass but to be honest I'm not too sure.

Anywho, when I first read the song's title, I thought of those little plastic pill shaped eyes that rattle around when you shake them. The kind of thing that you'd glue to puff balls or cardboard tubes as a child. If you are anything like me you've seen them throughout your life but you've never really thought about their origin and, disappointingly, as while researching Googly Eyes I found that their history is mostly lost to time.

From everything that I've read, the term Googly Eye comes from an American comic strip by Billy DeBeck named Barney Google and Snuffy Smith or rather a 1923 song named Barney Google (with the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes) that was preformed by Ernest Hare and Billy Jones and found inspiration from the comic strip. Over the years Barney and Snuffy have been seen in comics, live action films, as well as a few cartoon series. I also found that there is a type of doll that predates DeBeck's strip that are known as googly-eyed dolls. I don't know if the googly-eyed name was used during the initial production of the dolls or if the name became popular after DeBeck's comic strip because there appears to be conflicting accounts. 

However, as I continued my research, I found an even older example of "googly eyes" in the Los Angeles Herald from November 1906. The article reads:

Googly eyes, made by Henry Dusso at a young woman escorted by A. Ayllllo, 1409 South Main street, at Ord and New High streets, were the direct cause of a pair of black eyes which Pusso will wear when he appears in Police court this morning.

From everything that I've read, googly-eyed dolls came out around 1910 and even Kewpie dolls which could be considered a version of a googly-eyed doll, weren't conceived until 1909. The way the newspaper article uses the term "googly eyes" makes it appear as if the term was already used in normal conversation, so although it's the earliest use of the phrase that I could find it's most likely not the first time the words were used. If anyone can find an earlier usage of the term "googly eyes" I'd love to see it.

Besides talking about google eyes, I also mentioned how jeans from the 19th century are occasionally found in abandoned mines and how they can be sold at auction for some hefty prices. Of course, the reason I brought up blues jeans is because you heard a British band that's best known for their version of Hippy Hippy Shake, The Swinging Blue Jeans, play their song Make Me Know You're Mine.

And that's it for this episode! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Sundays at midnight, or on Mondays at 10pm PST. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In.

You can listen to this episode's playlist below:

 

The Aardvarks - I'm Higher Than I'm Down
Steve Carpenter - Am I Lost
The Pastels - Cause I Love You
Yvonne Přenosilová - When My Baby Cries

Raking the Moon? That's Cool - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Golden Berry"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM  started with a series of garage rock tunes that you could shake your hips to before we slowed things down with some moody psych tracks. It's those hills and valleys, highs and lows, that keep this show rocking.

While we were on one of those "hills" you heard The Street Cleaners perform one of my favorite garage rock classics, That's Cool, That's Trash. If you are like me, you are probably more familiar with the Kingsmen version of the song, however, The Street Cleaners are actually the originators of the song. Of course, like a lot of other "bands" The Street Cleaners were just one of many pseudonyms used by the writing duo P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. In fact, you might recognize another track by one of their "bands" The Fantastic Baggys titled Tell 'Em I'm Surfin' which was covered by Jan and Dean. 

The two songwriters started recording at a fairly young age with Sloan's first recording being sold while he was only 13. Though the two were both prolific, Sloan is more renowned due to his matured songwriting in the mid '60s with songs such as Eve of Destruction. If you are interested in reading more about Sloan and Barri check out this retrospective from NPR's Fresh Air and this LA Times article on Sloan's passing in 2015.

As the show continued you heard The Moon Rakers perform their Beatles-esque song You'll Come Back. Originally, the band was known as The Surfin' Classics, then The Classics, until they added another member that played a Wurlitzer piano, which was highly unusual for garage rock bands. The band's name comes from the 1955 Ian Flemming book Moonraker, however, nowadays people are more familiar with the 1979 film which came out during the resurgence of space themed science fiction caused by the popularity of Star Wars. Funny enough, the movie led to a novelization by Christopher Wood, titled: James Bond and Moonraker. So, if you are keeping track, there's 3 different works of fiction using the Moonraker name. The original novel, a movie based on the novel, and a novel based on the movie which is based on another novel. Funny stuff.

And quickly I'll mention that you heard Nancy Holloway perform Tu N'es Pas Venu which is a cover of a Wanda Jackson's Whirlpool. Although I said I'll play Jackson's version of the song in a future episode I thought it'd be a good idea to link to it now for those that don't feel like waiting around to hear it.

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. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

The Street Cleaners - That's Cool, That's Trash
The Implicits - Give Me Justice
The Valli Boys - Night Hawk
Sharks and Me - Busses
The Moon Rakers - You'll Come Back
The Baroques - Mary Jane
The Snap Shots - You Made A Big Mistake
Nancy Holloway - Tu N'es Pas Venu
Wayne Dailey - Pain And Sorrow

Japanese Garage Sounds, David Bowie and The Shadows Four! - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Salsify"

On this episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM  we drifted around the world of rock and roll in a vibrantly colored balloon. You heard freakbeat from Japan, garage from Canada and some psych from the UK. It was fun and I'm sure you loved it.

There were two Japanese songs on this episode with the first by The Dynamites, a group from a residential area in Tokyo named Asagaya. Originally the band performed at local clubs and US military bases as The Monsters before they changed their name sometime around 1967. According to various online sources, The Dynamites was one of several names presented to the group once they signed were signed to Victor Japan. The band was fairly short lived and ultimately only had one hit song, Tunnel Tengoku or Tunnel to Heaven, however, lead guitarist Fujio Yamaguchi continued his musical career for decades after The Dynamites' breakup. One of his more successful ventures was with a band named Teardrops which mostly played hard rock or southern blues influenced rock but also had a few tracks that flirted with reggae. There's a bunch of videos floating around with Yamaguchi playing guitar and singing at various clubs in Japan but this televised performance perfectly highlights his American influences and energetic playing style. If you can get a hold of it, there's a documentary about Yamaguchi's final performances named "皆殺しのバラード."

Additionally, lead singer Hiroshi Segawa, briefly sang in a band he helped form, named The New Dynamites, which doesn't appear to have released any recordings or at least any that I could find. However, I did manage to track down Segawa's solo album titled Pierrot which features an unusual mix between psych, country, and southern rock. The whole album feels like it could be on the soundtrack of some old American International Pictures film. The cover is also fairly bizarre with a blurry closeup of what appears to be Segawa in clown makeup. Strange stuff.

The other Japanese track you heard was Asamade Matani by The Mops with lyrics written by Yu Aku. During the show I mentioned the song was covered by Carmen Maki and how, much like Yamaguchi, Maki branched out to hard rock later in her career. If you want to check out how much Maki's work changed over the years, compare her sleepy pop songs like Town of Orphans to her late 70s work on the album Night Stalker which features Carmine Appice on drums and Earl Slick on guitar. More recently her song Tokiniwa Hahano Naikono Yoni appeared in Brad Pitt's Bullet Train (2022).

As the show continued you heard an obscure song by The Shadows Four named: I'm Begging You. There's hardly any information about the group online and what little I was able to find came from the liner notes of The New England Teen Scene, a garage rock compilation from 1983. According to the compilation, The Shadows Four were a house band for a venue named Shoreside 17 in Braintree, Massachusetts. I did find one tiny reference to Shoreside 17 in an old Melrose High School yearbook where a student mentions she'll never forget the venue before she explains how she likes to spend her free time going to dances and "Friendly's". As the liner notes continue it explains how the members of The Shadow Four also won the 1966 American Federation Award for musicians. Not sure what that means but it sure sounds fantastic. Good job guys!

Finally, towards the end of the show you heard You've Got a Habit Of Leaving by Davy Jones and The Lower Third. The original single omits the band's name but it reappears on various reissues. This Davy Jones, not to be confused with Davy Jones of The Monkees, eventually became known by a more famous name: David Bowie. In the year 2000, Bowie re-recorded You've Got a Habit Of Leaving with guitar work by a guitarist we mentioned earlier in this post, Earl Slick. For two decades the re-recording only existed in bootleg form until it saw an official release in 2021 on Bowie's posthumously released album Toy. I guess you could view the song as a bookend to Bowie's musical beginnings and his final works.

Anywho, 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. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

The Shifters - Well Alright
Tony and The Bandits - It's A Bit of Alright
Peppermint Circus - Keeping My Head Above Water
The Move - Cherry Blossom Clinic (Peel Session Version)

Carol Fran, Hound Dog Taylor, The Purple Barrier and Hippie Love Truck? Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Lotus Root"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM kicked off with a set of rhythm and blues and blues inspired rock. I don't dip my toes into the blues too much because I'm not much of an expert in that field but since rhythm and blues is the foundation of early rock and roll, I can always find a way to squeeze some into the show.

The first song of the night was a soul blues banger by Carol Fran titled I'm Gonna Try. Perhaps you know Carol Fran from her cover of Darrell Glenn's Crying In The Chapel, then again, you probably don't know Fran's version, as it was unfortunately overshadowed by Elvis' cover that was released soon after. Humorously, Fran eventually confronted Elvis over his use of Crying In The Chapel which lead to Elvis cutting her a hefty check right then and there. If you liked I'm Gonna Try, I'd suggest checking out more of Fran's early singles as they are some of her best works. Some of her greats include: Emmett Lee, Knock Knock, and One More Chance.

As the show continued, I dropped a few tidbits of info about various subjects but I didn't really get too in depth with anything. For example, I mentioned Hound Dog Taylor's extra fingers and how he may have removed one during a night of heavy drinking but upon reflection, I realize that shouldn't steal the spotlight from Taylor's interesting approaches to music and love of cheap guitars. There's a great article on Premier Guitar which explores Taylor's history and gets into some of the ways he achieved his signature sound.

After you heard The Turtles' Buzzsaw I talked about the differences between turtles and tortoises and how last year there was some hubbub about videos which depicted turtles and tortoises being "rescued" from various hazards which, when watched with a critical eye, appear to be total fabrications. You can read a little about the situation here and watch some video analysis by DanTheTurtleMan. In his videos, Dan explores some examples of these bizarre turtle abuse videos and how they often receive praise from uninformed viewers.

And finally, I spoke about The Purple Barrier, a group from Fulham, London, that eventually dropped the Purple from their name and unknowingly had a single recorded by session musicians while they were away on tour. According to the blog Cosmic Minds At Play, the phony tracks are on the Phillips singles for The Tide is Turning and A Place In Your Heart which have been hard to track down. Probably for a good reason.

That's 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. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

 

The Sound Track - Face the New Day
Mechanical Switch - Spongeman
The Beaux Jens - She Was Mine

The Dirt Merchants, Bradley's Barn and Other Obscure Garage Rock! - Hippie Love Turbo Radio Show - Code Word "Seakale"

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM featured a bunch of bands that aren't on Spotify so I had to dig a little deeper than usual to provide a playlist but luckily there are plenty of fine people on YouTube that are willing to share some of their collections.

Towards the beginning of the show, you heard The Dirt Merchants perform their song Do What You Wanta Do which appears as a B-side on their only release from 1966. The A-side is a song named I Found Another Girl which shares a lot of similarities to The Nightcrawlers' song The Little Black Egg. And by saying it shares a lot of similarities I mean, it's practically the same song, even down to the basslines with the differences coming from the lyrics and the chords used in the refrain. Perhaps someone was banking on the popularity of The Little Black Egg to rub off on The Dirt Merchants single, however, I would argue that the B-side is the stronger song of the two and would have made a better A-side. Unfortunately, both of the songs suffer from fairly generic lyrics along the lines of the typical "you did me wrong" song. If you are having a little déjà vu it might be because I recently wrote about The Little Black Egg on the episode Mizuna.

There were at least two different bands with The Dirt Merchants name and because there's little information on either band, it's easy to get them mixed up. The Dirt Merchants from this post appear to have been from Yazoo City, MS and featured Jack Phillips, Ricky Pettigrew (mislabeled R. Pettigraw on the single), John Brister, Kenny Waldop, and Charles Jackson. Jack Phillips, the singer of The Dirt Merchants (MS), continued to play music in various groups over the years with his most recent band being The Remnants until his passing on May 3, 2021. 

More information can be gleamed from the comment section of a Garage Hangover blog post about the Florida based Dirt Merchants. A commenter that identifies himself as Ricky Pettigrew's son states that The Dirt Merchants (MS) won a Battle of the Bands in New Orleans which awarded them a recording session at what he believes to have been Bradley's Barn. This is mostly likely how the band recorded their only single since it appears that they never had a record contract. Besides that, I haven't been able to find any other information on the group.

The name Bradley's Barn may be familiar to you because it's also the title of The Beau Brummels' fifth album which takes its name from the studio. It's a bit different from the band's earlier releases but it's worth listening to if you want to hear early releases in the country rock genre. There were a ton of great albums recorded at Bradley's Barn before it burned down in 1982 due to a florescent light's faulty electrical connection. Unfortunately many irreplaceable masters were completely destroyed in the fire. Eventually, I'd like the dive deeper into the history of Bradley's Barn, however, until then you can check out the Barn's official Facebook page.

Now I'll quickly go over some of the other topics I covered on this episode!

Following The Dirt Merchants, you heard a track by The Satans named Makin' Deals. There's a post on a blog named On The Flip-Side that makes a pretty solid argument that the group was probably just another studio project and that The Satans probably never existed in the true sense of a band. On The Flip-Side also makes a connection to biker exploitation soundtracks and points out how the B-side, Lines And Squares, swipes lyrics from an A.A. Milne poem with the same name. The poem features "satanic" lines such as: 

The sillies who tread on the lines of the street
Go back to their lairs,
And I say to them, "Bears,
Just look how I'm walking in all the squares!"

Later in the show you heard The Interns track I've Got Something To Say and I spoke a little about how the single suffered from mistakes during its production. Additionally, I touched on a little history of the band's hometown Uniontown, OH that's just outside of Akron, OH and is known for its proximity to a Superfund site.

That's about it for this episode! Be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this episode's playlist below:

 

The Catsanovas - I Want To Be Loved
The Dirt Merchants - Do What You Wanta Do
Half Pint And The Fifths - Orphan Boy
The Interns - I've Got Something To Say
The Madd, Inc. - I'll Be The One
Freedom Five - To Save My Soul
The Troyes - Rainbow Chaser
The Casuals Incorporated - I Realize
The Nite Watchmen - I'm Gonna Lose My Mind