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ALONE With 3D

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I’m everybody’s Uncle Marty with you on The Award Winning 3D RadioActivity, at our 533rd gathering of the sensibly separated faithful’s QUARANTUNES.  Please remember the fact that as long as we are together, You Are Not ALONE! 😎

Download or click to play here:
https://archive.org/download/The3dRadioactivity/3dradio_20200503-AloneWith3D.mp3

We have been practicing physical distancing by staying ALONE with you this time, as we pray that this health crisis will STOP soon, so we will haltingly play QUARANTUNES which feature that that inaction verb or noun on our next assemblage.  It could be cease, desist, or discontinuation while it also might refer to a door blockage, bus, or truck break point.  Tell me your suggestions by sending email, or with a message on our Facebook page which has links to the archives of all the earlier episodes and graphics in the photo section.  Look for us on Denver’s MileHiRadio, Theacidflashback.com,  http://www.villageconnectionmagazine.com/ Long Island, New York,  TuneIn and InternetFM dot com, because the best FM radio is now on the Internet.

Until we meet again, Keep Rockin’ On!

…Uncle Marty

“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”

…Marilyn Monroe

Song Of The Day – “Fair Weather Fans” by The Baseball Project

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Whether you’re a baseball fan or not, The Baseball Project is a home run of an album! Featuring members of Dream Syndicate (Steve Wynn), REM (Peter Buck), The Minus 5 and The Young Fresh Fellows (Scott McCaughey) and Golden Smog (Linda Pitmon), this collective has released two albums of baseball-centric tunes with guests that include Craig Finn (The Hold Steady) and Steve Berlin (Los Lobos). Musically they sound like everybody from Rockpile to Graham Parker & The Rumour to Think Lizzy (especially on this tune) to the groups that they each hail from. I’m told by those who have seen them in action that they are capable of hitting the ball out of the park from the time they take the stage all the way to the 9th inning of their shows. OK, enough of the baseball talk…let’s talk music…The Baseball Project totally rock!

Song Of The Day – “Stay Away From Downtown” by Redd Kross

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Redd-KrossGreat power pop artists: Raspberries, Sweet, Cheap Trick, Big Star, The Cars, The Knack, Rockpile, Let’s Active, The dBs, Squeeze, Nick Lowe, The Smithereens, Marshall Crenshaw, Matthew Sweet, Guided By Voices, Fountains Of Wayne, The Minus Five, Apples In Stereo…REDD KROSS!

How is it that some of the catchiest power pop ever committed to vinyl has gone so unnoticed by so many for so long?

Such is the case of Redd Kross’ latest album Researching The Blues, which was released last year to little fanfare and even less sales. Great albums should get noticed, and while there were plenty of write-ups that accompanied Redd Kross’ first album in a decade, the record barely made a dent on the imagination of the American music-buying public.

Red Cross (their original name) formed out of the ashes of late ‘70s West Coast band The Tourists, and has had a long, storied career with numerous lineup changes and two constant members, brothers and pop culture savants, Jeff and Steve McDonald. The group’s debut album, Born Innocent, had a cover of a Charles Manson song, and odes to Linda Blair, Jim and Tammy Faye Baker and Tatum O’Neal.

Shortly after its release, the group was threatened by a lawsuit from The American Red Cross, so they changed their name to Redd Kross in tribute to actor/comedian Redd Foxx. Their name really had nothing to do with The American Red Cross in the first place; rather it was a reference to Linda Blair’s masturbation scene from the movie The Exorcist.

Their 1984 album Teen Babes From Monsanto was an all-covers affair, including versions of “Deuce” by Kiss, “Citadel” by The Rolling Stones and “Saviour Machine” by David Bowie, and their cover of “Sunshine Day” by The Brady Bunch was featured in the movie Desperate Teenage Lovedolls.

In 1987, the group released their masterwork, Neurotica which included odes to childhood cartoons and even a song about breakfast cereals (“Frosted Flake”). The album should have been a huge hit, however their RCA distributed record label, Big Time Records, was having financial difficulties that led to its demise, leaving the record shipwrecked without a significant audience.

Another covers collection called Alien Sleestaks From Brazil followed under the group moniker Tater Totz, including a version of The Beatles’ “I’ve Just Seen A Face” (with Danny Bonaduce on vocals), Yoko Ono’s “Don’t Worry Kyoko,” “The Rolling Stones’ “Sing This All Together,” and a medley of “Give Peace A Chance” by John Lennon fused with “We Will Rock You” by Queen.

They signed with Atlantic Records in 1990 and released the album Third Eye and toured to support it with Pearl Jam member Jack Irons on drums. Two more independent albums followed during the 1990s, Phaseshifter (1993) and Show World (1997), for which they toured incessantly to support resulting in marginal sales and shrugged shoulders.

The band went dormant after the Show World tour for nine years until 2006 when the Neurotica lineup of Jeff McDonald, Steven McDonald, Robert Hecker and Roy McDonald reunited for a series of one-off shows and festival dates.

While fans of the group rejoiced upon hearing of their reunion shows, no new music was offered up until last year’s stellar new album Researching The Blues. The album was actually recorded back in 2007 while the group was just beginning to play shows after their hiatus, but wasn’t released until February of 2012.

The tight and energetic collection oozes with hooky songs including today’s sticky-sweet Song Of The Day, the McCartney-esque “Meet Frankenstein,” “The New Temptations” that could have fit comfortably on Cheap Trick’s In Color, “Uglier,” a co-write by Steve McDonald and his wife Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Gos, and the Byrdsy “Winter Blues” and “Dracula’s Daughter.”

Some of the group’s poppiest material can be found on this sticky platter, yet once again, the American public has chosen to ignore this great group and album.

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Waters Part” by Let’s Active

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 They were one of the finest purveyors of Power Pop during the 1980s, helmed by one of the era’s most in-demand producers. Let’s Active formed in 1980 in Winston-Salem North Carolina and consisted of Mitch Easter on guitar and vocals, Faye Hunter on bass and Sara Romweber on drums. Mitch Easter’s fame as a producer for REM (their first three records), Pavement, Marshall Crenshaw, Suzanne Vega, Pylon and The Bongos pretty much overshadowed his band which is a shame since they recorded an EP and three wonderful albums full of well-written catchy songs. They were also a novelty on stage because it was such a rarity to see a group with a female bass player and drummer rock out with such abandon. Easter got his start as a member of Sneakers, a group he formed with his childhood friend Chris Stamey who went on to form The dB’s. Around this time, Easter set up his own Drive-In Studios in the garage of his parent’s house and began recording, along with co-producer and fellow recording artist Don Dixon, the first records by Let’s Active and REM. The original lineup of Let’s Active released an EP called “Afoot” in 1983 and then broke up after they toured behind their first full length album “Cypress” in 1984. The second Let’s Active album, “Big Plans For Everybody” (1986), was pretty much a solo effort by Easter and the final record, “Every Dog Has Its Day” (1988) featured a totally different band lineup. Easter has never turned back to his Let’s Active material over the years and seldom performs in public.

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “That Time Is Gone” by The db’s

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Like manna from the heavens, the Gods of rock ‘n’ roll have bestowed upon us a brand new album from The db’s, their first in 25 years, called “Falling Off The Sky.” Writing concise jangly pop tunes with hooks that grab you and keep you coming back is not an easy feat, yet these veterans make it seem easy. This album is no different; it is stuffed to the brim with great songs performed to power pop perfection by guys who have been doing this for a lifetime. With the exception of their last studio album, The db’s always were, and still are Peter Holsapple on guitar and keyboards, Gene Holder on bass, Chris Stamey on guitars and Will Rigby on drums, with an assist by power pop producer extraordinaire Mitch Easter on guitars. On this record, it’s like the last 25 years never happened, and that’s a good thing! Not only that, but after a few spins the hooks begin to grab you…and they don’t let go! Here’s a live version of the album’s lead track.

The 3D RadioActivity One-der Show

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This time on The Award Winning 3D RadioActivity, we are playing one-hit wonders, which is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.  Some are the result of novelty songs during fads.  More commonly, however, these are serious-minded musicians who struggled to continue their success after their popularity waned.  Because they are popular for only a brief time, their hits often have nostalgic value and are featured on era-centric compilations and soundtracks to period films.  While normal in any era of pop music, most are common during reigns of entire genres that do not last for more than a few years, such as disco, new wave and grunge.  Though the term is sometimes used in a derogatory manner, some fans often have a great passion for these songs and the artists who created them. Some one-hit wonder artists have embraced this following openly, while others distance themselves from their hit in an attempt to craft successful songs with different sounds, or embark on new careers as songwriters.

The 3D RadioActivity One-der Show

The VH One list of the top 100 One Hit Wonders was a good starting point for this show, however more than half of the tunes they listed didn’t meet the 3D standards.  I looked at the Rolling Stone Magazine list and also consulted the Joel Whitburn book to confirm that every song on this show made it into the top 100, and that the artist did not have any others that made it over the century mark, or the bubbling under charts which are songs that did not reach the three digit area.  Some of these are very popular artists had lots of success on those listings while only managing to climb to the hallowed place once.  We did a lot of homework to make sure that this show would be up to temperature.  Sit back and enjoy, With 29 songs and over 102 minutes of music, there is plenty of One-der to go around.

…Uncle Marty

“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”
— Marilyn Monroe