At the very least, something you've not heard...

Well, this is either a very good iea or a very stupid one......I've had a LOT more of the latter in my
day, so we'll see, but for the next two days, I'm really going to go "out there" for some music that I guarentee 99.9% of you are not familiar with. Again, maybe more "interesting" than "good", but I think most of us can find a gem or two here, I have.

Here is the story....in the mid 1990's, WOXY ("97X, the Future of Rock N Roll", yes, the same one featured in the film "Rain Man" when Dustin Hoffman's character repeatedly chants the slogan),from Oxford Ohio was truly a fantasic rock radio station. They took chances, played stuff both classic and unfamilar, and a small crowd of us in south/central Ohio were VERY lucky to recieve this gift......I'll bet that people in the huge music centers of our nation never did have a station as great. They had a segment called "Lounge Acts", in which
bands performed live in their studio, I have close 200 discs of these performances (that's not what I'm doing HERE), but I learned about great bands such as Viva La Fox, High Violets, Heartless Bastards, Mommy and Daddy, and MANY more from the Lounge Acts shows.....(KEXP had a similar series of live performances as well and I have many of those too, Sleater Kinney once even appeared).....

So sometime in the early 00's WOXY went worldwide on the internet.....it was great, for a variety of
reasons, namely that their playlists remained unparalled and also that "special" feeling that, while rock fans around the world were listening to this and heaping priase, I PERSONALLY knew them back when they were a station with maybe (being generous) a 50 mile range.

WOXY is gone now, they couldn't make a go of it. The've been gone for a few years now, I still have my hundreds of "Lounge Acts" discs that I listen to on occasion (I've used them in some of my "mega-posts" I know I used the Fiery Furnaces set when I did that band, perhaps the Kills as well and some others).......but another fine show that they featured was "WOXY Unsigned", which was exactly what it sounds like.....unsigned bands sent in their tapes, and one night a week, these were made into a VERY listenable, enjoyable show. There are 14 discs here, it is the COMPLETE series, for what that is worth, a doubt there is more than a band or three you are familar with. Well, I feel like I've been getting a little too mainstream of late anyway (Heart? Joe Jackson? Love em, one point of my blog is to put TOTALLY unknown acts on the same level with Heart and Joe Jackson)......so, I am going to do seven discs today, another seven tomorrow......

The musical styles run the gammut, just about anything we could fit into the "alt-rock" niche, which
was huge. Volume 1 features acts like The Purs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (whom eventually WOULD be signed), The Saturday Nights (very good), Cat-A-Tac and others. Volume 2 gives us the fine Love Is Chemicals, Swank, Gingerbread Patriots......you get the idea, you're going to have to LISTEN to decide whether you like these or not. There is a bit of repeat/overlap from disc to disc (obviously these were not intended to ever become actual CD's, they are radio shows, but they never met the BigMan, did they?)

Many of these bands, of course, have (now 15 or so years later) become signed, released indy albums, perhaps done well on local levels, maybe some have even become small time legends.....and of course many have likely faded into obscurity. Personally, I love this kind of thing, I hope these two posts o not come across as too self-centered if you do not share my admiration

I WANT  COMMENTS ON THESE.....PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE....if you love them, WHY? What are some tracks you were surprised by and liked? If you HATE THEM, tell me so I won't do something like this again......I just thought the the TOTAL obscurity factor of them was soemthing that I wanted to throw out there today, just showing that in the rock n roll universe, there is a place for Love Is Chemicals RIGHT NEXT TO, say, Radiohead....I know how clunky that came out, but MAYBE you get my point. PLEASE listen to AT LEAST one of these and PLEASE comment, I have NEVER been more interested in recieving comments than I am for this set in particular. Thanks and rock on.

VOLUME 1-01 DJ/02 MIKE FERRARO-Song For Friendship/03 COMEG-For the Rest Of Your
Life/05 SCI-FI LOVESTORY-Satellite/06 THE SUBJECTS-Lonely You/07 DJ/08 THE SATURDAY NIGHTS-Julianna Convince Me/09 CAT-A-TAC-Devil/10 PRESTON CLARKE-Thankless Job/11 CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH-Cigarettes/12 DJ/13 WAKE THE BEAR-Honey Grubbing Me/14 MARK ENGLE-MeltingInto Space/15 THE PURRS-She's Gone/16 DJ/17 JUPITER CRASH-No Happy/18 INSTIGA-Retas/19 DJ/20 NOBLE TRUTH-Trials and Rehabiliations/21 BRICE WOODALL-Bombs Away Today

VOLUME 2-01 /02 BRICE WOODALL-Bombs Away Today/03 THE VINYLTONES-Motorcycle/04 THE HOURLY RADIO-Fear of Standing Upright/05 GINGERBREAD PATRIOTS-The Gravity of It/06 DJ/07 LOVE IS CHEMICALS-Everyone Is In On It/08 MARK ENGLE-Reaching Out/09 MIKE FERRARRO-Sweetheart You're Feeling Blue/10 COMEG-24/11 DJ/12 THE SATURDAY NIGHTS-Stranded/13 THE ZERO POINTS/14 SOUTHERN BACKTONES-Forever/15 SWANK-How Do We Do/16 DJ/17 PRESTON CLARKE-Fine To Drive/18 WAKE THE BEAR-The Myth/19 SCI-FI LOVESTORY-Fog/20 DJ

VOLUME  3-01 DJ/02 SWANK-How Do We Do/03 LATE NITE DRIVERS-What I Think/04
MONUMENTS-Landmine/05 NOBLE TRUTHS-Trials & Rehabilitations/06 DJ/07 LOVE IS CHEMICALS-A Portrait of Your Post-Apocalyptic Son/08 INSTIGA-Fim Do Dia/09 RIP SPENCER-Yr Atomic Blues/10 MAY OR MAY NOT-Plight of the Navigator/11 DJ/12 THE SATURDAY NIGHTS-Juliana Convince Me/13 JOHN EVANS BAND-Quicksand/15 DJ/16 FEMURS-Plastic Swords/17 THE INVISIBLE CITIES-Instaglo/18 THE VINYLTONES-Motorcycle/19 DJ/20 CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH!-In This Home On Ice

VOLUME 4-01 DJ/02 THE INVISIBE CITIES-Instaglo/03 DAVID LEVIN-Demolition Boy/05 LEJEUNE-Moon-Shy City/06 CAT-A-TAC-Gloom/07 DJ/08 FINEST DEAREST-Sleep Until the Weekend/09 COAL PALACE KINGS-Stoneytown/10 FEMURS-Peter Wolf/11 COMEG-For the Rest of Your Life/13 GINGERBREAD PATRIOTS-The Gravity Of It/14 CRAIG LYONS-Improvise/15 DJ/16 SADIE MAE GLUTZ-NewEscape Route/17 LOVE IS CHEMICALS-Aquamarine/18 JUPITER CRASH-Metro/19 DJ/20 MONUMENTS-Worlds/21 GUV-Firestorm

VOLUME 5-01 DJ/02 JEFF CAUDILL-Never Been High/03 MARK ENGEL-Melting Into Space/04 FAIRMONT GIRLS-Queen For a Day/05 SHE'S YOUR SISTER-Gravity/06 DJ/07 SWANK-Meteor/08 SADIE MAE GLUTZ-Brighter Than the Sun/09 SALVA ME-Chemically Infected/10 RIP SPENCER-Yr Atomic Blues/11 DJ/12  THE BOSCH-The Movie Director/13 THE HOURLY RADIO-Closer/14 FINEST DEAREST-Idaho/15 MIKE FERRARO-Son For Friendship/16 DJ/17 PRESTON CLARKE-Thankless Job/18 LORENZO GOETZ-Jesus Elephant

VOLUME 6-01 DJ/02 FINEST DEAREST-Pacemaker/03 AEROPLANE PANT-The Air Went Pink/04 GUV-Firestorm/05 DJ/06 THE VIRGINS-Dimestore Daisy/07 BETTY BY ALONE-Candle Lights/08 BUDDY-More of the Shame/09 DJ/10 WHAT FOUR-Optomist's Nightmare/11 BRICE WOODALL-Ghosts/12 THE SATURDAY NIGHTS-Stranded/13 CRACKPOT-Honey Well/14 DJ/15 TODY CASTILLO-Don't Leave the Country/16 JOHN EVANS BAND-Quicksand/17 SOUTHERN BACKTONES-Forever/19 LATE NITE TRUCKERS For Once

VOLUME 7-01 DJ/02 THE BOSCH-Metronome/03 THE ZERO POINTS-Coattails/04
AEROPLANE PAGENT-The Air Went Pink/05 THE INVISIBLE CITIES-Bumper Cars/06 DJ/07 RED DAHILA-Coward/08 DAVID LEVIN-Demolition Boy/09 WAKE THE BEAR-Honey Grubbing Me/10 JEFF CAUDILL-Favorite Version of Your Life/11 DJ/12 SHE'S YOUR SISTER-Gravity/13 THE GO STATION-Hold On/14 MIKE K-Pretty Sure/15 DJ/16 COAL PALACE KINGS-Stoneytown/17 MOONSHINE SWAY-Chelsea/18 BUDDY-Salt Point

OK, there are seven discs of unknown "greats", give me your feedback, positive or negative.....I want for my blog to be something different, I want bar bands to send my their demos to post alongside the other great (but more famous) music I try to bring to the rest of you......some pretty good stuff among the number of tracks featured toay, The Saturday Nights, Love Is Chemicals, Zero Points......who jumped out at you?  And, if noone did, say so. I HOPE that this generates a good response, really I do, because it will tell me that the people who read this blog are at least WILLING to take a chance on something different. And you can't argue, it is THAT.

Hope you're having a fine Thanksgiving Day weekend, mine has been good so far, Wedensday Night 2 hours to Lima to see my current/recent fave bar band SAMAX, whom I've spoken about before and who AGAIN promised me some me MP3's to share with you, they turned in another fantastic set, and dedicated their encore of "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" to my family making the trip to see them (it's my fave that they do, beleive it or not cutting Zeppelin's version to the bone)......Thursday a nice time at dinner with some of my wife's family and got to meet yet another new addition, my grand-niece Harper who is just adorable.......Friday night my son Grant had his season opener on the court for his high school team, they were beaten, but Grant played well with six points and 4 rebounds......today, just kicking back with Ohio State/Michigan action, and in a while, going with Carla and Grant to cut down a Christmas tree, and bring it home to decorate, maybe get the rest of the house done tomorrow (after the Vikings game of course.....) family has always meant so much to me, and in light of the events of the past year (and past 2 months especially) I once again realize how much they mean to me.

If any of you would like to share what you're doing this weekend and what you are thankful for,I for one would LOVE to hear it!