College Radio Show: WDCV 88.3 FM, November 1990

I just discovered MixCloud and uploaded one of my old college radio shows.

Featured artists include: Redd Kross, Bongwater, TAD, Mark Arm, Teenage Fanclub, Das Damen, Screaming Trees, Sister Double Happiness, Paleface, King Missile, Roky Erickson, Superchunk, Sun Ra, Three, Squirrel Bait and others.

WDCV 88.3, Dickinson College, November 1990, DJ Pete Bilderback by Pete Bilderback on Mixcloud

Do The Dead!

1985's Return Of The Living Dead impressed me, mostly for two reasons: it was a smartass zombie flick released when smartass horror films were rare and eerie things, and it had a great soundtrack.

During the 80s, both major and minor corporations were still reluctant to touch anything that remotely resembled 'punk rock,' even with the largest safety pin. Still, Return Of The Living Dead, a film presumably marketed to the same teenaged audience listening to stale Foreigner and Bob Seger records (keep in mind, this was before Bon Jovi hit it big with Slippery When Wet) pulsated with some mighty weird tunes. While semi-animated corpses slithered around the silver screen, The Damned, The Flesheaters, 45 Grave, T.S.O.L. and Roky Erickson (!) reverberated through the Showcase Cinema. Being about 16 or 17 years old at the time, I found the experience exhilarating. One very rarely encountered 'cool music' at the Mall in 1985. For example, I recall being stunned when Iggy Pop’s "Lust For Life" briefly arrived during Desperately Seeking Susan. Nowadays, the damned thing reclines in Royal Caribbean ads, but back then…

One of the best numbers on the Return Of The Living Dead Soundtrack, alongside Roky's "Burn The Flames" and 45 Grave's "Partytime," is The Cramps' looming "Surfin' Dead." It shambles along, the true Missing Link between the earlier voodoo vibes of Songs The Lord Taught Us, Psychedelic Jungle and Gravest Hits and the (very) slightly poppier garagifications of "Ultra Twist" and Flame Job. Switching the brains of the Rickety Rockabilly Corpse Of The Past and the Comic Book Rhythm Demon Of Later Years, "Surfin' Dead" is one of The Cramps' most perverse and hilarious creations.

Since Enigma Records released the Return Of The Living Dead Soundtrack, it makes sense that that many of the bands involved were affiliated with the label.* Roky Erickson, for example, released Don't Slander Me and Gremlins Have Pictures on Enigma's wild Pink Dust imprint. TSOL had their Revenge and then Hit & Run. The Cramps, Jet Black Berries (formerly New Math – dig They Walk Among You) SSQ and 45 Grave also exhumed material. Unfortunately, the word in the chat rooms is that Return Of The Living Dead, due to subsequent licensing problems, is no longer shown with its original soundtrack intact. A Shame, that.

Finally, I lent my copy of the Return Of The Living Dead soundtrack to a friend, a younger dude who liked Iron Maiden and Fates Warning. The LP was returned to me, a few weeks later, with an actual footprint stomped into the vinyl.

He was less impressed.

*In the interest of full-disclosure, I should mention that I worked for luxuriamusic.com, a few years back, which was then a division of Enigma Digital.

Roky Erickson Documentary

This looks interesting. Roky Erickson is a veteran of the psychedelic scene who is truly a survivor. Erickson has been to the dark places of the human psyche that few of us can even imagine. For years he was bedeviled by mental illness and drug problems. He was also a victim of Texas' draconian anti-drug laws. Rather than face a manditory sentence of 10 years in jail after having been busted with a single joint, Erickson pled insanity and spent several years being subjected to shock therapy and Thorazine treatments at a state hospital for the criminally insane. By all accounts that hospital stay did a great amount of psychic damage to the man.

The last I remember hearing about Erickson he had been arrested for stealing mail from the halfway house where he lived. But it seems since then, with the help of his brother, he has put his life back together. Erickson kicks off his first tour in many moons this Friday at Southpaw in Brooklyn.

Shout Factory recently released an exceptionally well-chosen Erickson anthology, which I highly recommend. This song, Bongwater's cover of one of my favorite Erickson tunes, comes from a 1990 Erickson tribute album.

You Don't Love Me Yet [right click to download]