Merry Christmas!

Be sure to get this week's podcast here

It's Christmas - a season for looking back, and emptying your wallets, all in the name of joy, giving, and selfishness. Or, if you prefer, crass commercialism. Myself, I enjoy this time of year - being with friends and family, and just the joyous feeling you get with the new fallen snow, and the happiness in kids' faces when they see the jolly fat man in the red suit. And, it's in that spirit I present to you this years Christmas podcast! While I try to stick to Alternative 80's music, I do tend to stretch that boundary a bit for the Christmas podcast - but not too much.

So, without further ado - Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Get this week's podcast here

This edition's track listing:

1. Pet Shop Boys - It Doesn't Often Snow on Christmas 

2. The Three Wise men (aka XTC) - Thanks For Christmas

3. The Flaming Lips - Christmas at The Zoo 

4. Timbuk 3 - All I Want For Christmas

5. The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping 

6. Alison Moyet -The Coventry Carol 

7. The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York

8. Dave Edmunds - Run Run Rudolph 

9. Billy Idol - Merry Christmas Baby

10. Devo - Merry Something to You 

11. Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas?  

12. Lisi - My Silent Night 

13. Blondie featuring Fab Five Freddie - Yuletide Throwdown (Christmas Rapture)

14. Christina - Things Fall Apart 

15. The Superions - Fruitcake

16. Prince - Another Lonely Christmas

17. Cocteau Twins - Winter Wonderland

18. U2 - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

19. Yello - Jingle Bells (Santa Club Mix)

20. Just, well, listen.... :)

Once again, a very Mery Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! See you again in 2011. And if you missed it, be sure to get this podcast here

Week of 9/12/2010 - Would You Like To Play A Game?

Reagan. Gorbachev. Mutual Assured Destruction. Cold War. Холо́дная война́, Wolverines - all phrases that were a large part of living in the 80's. The cold war was very prevalent in the thoughts and minds of most of us, and artists used their medium to let their thoughts about nuclear war be heard. In this week's podcast, I put together a group of songs that show exactly how people were feeling at the time. Some dark and thought provoking, others kind of have fun with a dark subject. If you don't already have it, get this week's podcast here.

I thought I'd share the reasoning for a couple of my picks, in the off chance you weren't aware certain songs were indeed war related.

Bullet The Blue Sky by U2 The song was originally written about the United States' military intervention during the 1980s in the El Salvador Civil War. Bono was thinking of Ronald Reagan as he sang "This guy comes up to me / His face red like a rose on a thorn bush / Like all the colors of a royal flush / And he's peeling off those dollar bills / Slapping them down."

One Of Our Submarines by Thomas Dolby Great job expressing the paranoid feelings of the time.

Russians by Sting Not so much about war, as it was about the rhetoric that was tossed around by the East and West.

M.A.D. by Sigue Sigue Sputnik Actually, I really don't need to explain this one, do I?

Of course, the entire podcast isn't about The Cold War, oh no no no! There's other goodness in there - you have to check it out! One band I stumbled across recently, is Sideway Look. With Brian Smith on vocals, this band out of Scotland delivers a big guitar sound that reminds me of Simple Minds or Big Country. They have a great sound, and I'll be playing more of them in the future. Sadly their stuff is out of print, but well worth the effort to try and find.

This week's Track listing:

1. Sideway Look - Knowing You From Today

2. My Bloody Valentine - Slow

3. The Flirts - Jukebox (Don't Put Another)

4. Sigue Sigue Sputnik - M.A.D.

5. Sting - Russians

6. U2 - Bullet The Blue Sky

7. Ultravox - Dancing With Tears In My Eyes

8. Adam Ant - P.O.E.

9. Sisters of Mercy - Dominion / Mother Russia

10. The Police - Bombs Away

11. Thomas Dolby - One Of Our Submarines

12. Modern English - Pillow Lips

13. Roxy Music - True To Life

14. Oingo Boingo - Pain

Hope everyone enjoys this weeks' podcast. Be sure to check out the Facebook fan page here. From there you can check out videos, as well as post your request. You can also call the request line at:(508) 809-4192 and get your request in as well, or just drop us an e-mail to surfingtrucker@gmail.com

Week of 9/12/2010 - The Devolution Revolution has begun!

Its time for yet another Alternative 80's podcast - and this week I tried to put in a little Something For Everyone. Hope y'all enjoy it - you can find it right here.

Well - they're back. After a 20-year drought, Devo has returned with their first new release since "Smooth Noodle Maps" back in 1990."Something For Everyone" is not one of those thrown-together attempts at recapturing the glory of an aging bands' heyday; but rather a great-sounding CD that stands on it's own merits and is every bit as good and fresh-sounding as their earlier releases. Mixing fun with practicality (and faith in their fan base), the band came up with the Devo Song Study, a revolutionary decision that left the final tracklist in the hands of the fans.

The one song that didn't make it was a power ballad called "No Place Like Home," which fans felt didn't seem at home on the album.

That disappointed Jerry Casale, who told Billboard he had hoped that after 30 years of detached irony, they might be allowed one chance to be serious.

"It was kind of sad," he said. "I thought if anything, DEVO, being 'mature' now, would be allowed to take off the tongue-in-cheek pose and do a really sad power ballad."

Excepting the one song, the members of DEVO are happy with the fan choices and found it interesting that they preferred blue be the color of the group's trademark Jello mold hats and suggested a picture of the woman eating a piece of candy in the shape of a DEVO hat be the cover art.

This week's podcast features music from Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys, Humans Sexual Response,  Devo, Art of Noise - plus many more.


This week's track listing:

1.Sugarcubes - Birthday

2. Yazoo - Situation

3. Devo - Freedom of Choice

4. Devo - Don't Shoot (I'm a Man)

5. Human Sexual Response - Public Alley 909

6. Love & Rockets - No New Tale To Tell

7. Siouxsie & The Banshees - The Killing Jar

8. Yello - Domingo

9. Depeche Mode - Master and Servant (Black & Blue mix)

10. Art of Noise - Backbeat

11. Kraftwerk - It's More Fun To Compute

12. Pet Shop Boys - West End Girls

13. EBN - OZN - AEIOU Sometimes Y

14. The Glove - Punish Me With Kisses

15. Siouxsie & The Banshees - Staring Back / Return (unavailable)

Hope everyone enjoys this weeks' podcast. Be sure to check out the Facebook fan page here. From there you can check out videos, as well as post your request. You can also call the request line at: (508) 809-4192 and get your request in as well, or just drop us an e-mail to surfingtrucker@gmail.com

Week of 8/29/2010 - I Need Something To Change Your Mind

Oops - a few podcasts have gone bye without me posting a write-up and links onto this blog, and I apologize. This week's podcast is waiting for you right here.

This week's podcast features "Mind" by Talking Heads, off of their "Fear of Music" CD. Fear of Music received favorable reviews from critics. Praise centered on its unconventional rhythms and front man David Byrne's lyrical performances. The record is often considered one of the best Talking Heads releases. It has been featured in several publications' lists of the best albums of all time. Channel 4 named the record at number 76 in its 2005 countdown of The 100 Greatest Albums. In 2006, it was remastered and reissued with four bonus tracks. It also remains as one my all-time favorite albums.

Greetings to our friends from the north! This weeks' podcast opens with Rational Youth, a Canadian band originally formed in 1981 in Montreal, Quebec, by synthesizer wizards Tracy Howe and Bill Vorn, both of whom idolized the German synthpop pioneers Kraftwerk. "Holiday in Bangkok" is the first track to greet you. Get this weeks' podcast here.

This week's podcast feature bands like The Police, FGTH, Thomas Leer, Talking Heads - and a bunch more. Check out the entire track listing here:

This weeks' track listing:

1. Rational Youth - Holiday in Bankok

2. Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Welcome to the Pleasuredome  

3. Mi-Sex - It Only Hurts When I'm Laughing

4. Was (Not Was) - Dad, I'm in Jail

5. King - Alone Without You

6. Boys Don't Cry - I Wanna Be A Cowboy 

7. The Police - So Lonely

8. Talking Heads - Mind

9. Big Audio Dynamite - B.A.D.

10. Thomas Leer - Searcher

11. B-52s - 52 Girls 

12. Art of Noise - Beatbox (Unique, Original version)

13. Arcadia - Goodbye is Forever (12" mix)

Hope everyone enjoys this weeks' podcast. Be sure to check out the Facebook fan page here. From there you can check out videos, as well as post your request. You can also call the request line at: (508) 809-4192 and get your request in as well, or just drop us an e-mail to surfingtrucker@gmail.com