A Season in Hell #144: Twice As Nice

Fun show tonight with special guest, local comedian Bert Divietri. This guy is off his rocker. He played some prank calls for us, and was an all around freak-a-zoid. I'll have him back for sure.

We were also graced with the presence of guitar maverick Eric McFadden. He owed me a favor. No, really, he did. That's the only way I can get anyone on my show anymore. It's just short of extortion. Anyway, Eric ROCKS! He told some great road stories from his recent tour with Eric Burdon and the Animals, as well as updates on T.E.N., featuring bassist Norwood Fisher (Fishbone) and drummer Thomas Pridgen (Mars Volta).

You really shouldn't waste your time on streaming this one here.
I would pass up on downloading this one here.
I don't recommend you click here to listen to all of my shows, or just scroll down. I wouldn't do it.

A Season in Hell with John Hell
Mondays 8-10PM
Radio Valencia, 87.9FM in SF
http://radiovalencia.fm

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Awkward: FIDLAR

A Men Stuck in Your Mind: The Felines
Short Stay: The Midnight Moan
Fine Fine Fine: The Mentalettes

Interview with Bert Divietri

Bullet/I'm Mad: Reverend Horton Heat
Caliente: Supersuckers

Interview with Bert Divietri

Get Out Of My Way: Mojo Nixon
So Long Baby, Goodbye: The Blasters

Joe Strummer: Cowboy Mouth
White Man In Hammersmith Palais: Eric McFadden

Interview with Eric McFadden

Police and Thieves: The Clash
Field of Bones: Eric McFadden

Interview with Eric McFadden

A Shot in the Dark: Whiskey Biscuit
Bottle Up & Go: The Monkeywrench

Interview with Eric McFadden

Cocaine Blues: Johnny Cash

A Season in Hell #143: My Musical Meanderings

No, my show is not genre specific. You've figured that out already, yes? Last week it's all jazz, the week before it's hard rock. This week I'm in the mood for PUNK! Fuck off!!!!

Why Punk? I don't have to tell you!

OK, I'll tell you. But I'm only telling you because I think deep down you'll understand. I'm willing to bare my soul to you. I'm willing to take the chance that you won't laugh at me, and ridicule me, or point and laugh.

sigh

I like Punk.

There, are you happy now?! Good.

I was born in 1970. I was raised on jazz and blues of the 50s and 60s, as well as the classic rock of the 70s. By the age of 8 I was into KISS. They were my first favorite band. At that age you're only allowed to have one favorite band. It's a law or something. When I was 10 I fell in love with the Beatles, but I felt sooooo bad for admitting to myself that I liked them more than I liked KISS. It was not the friendliest of break-ups. I'll admit, if there were cell phones back then, I would have texted the break up to KISS; I was so ashamed. By 12 I "discovered" Led Zeppelin. Oh damn, now what was I going to do? I still wonder where this KISS poster ended up?

All this time my dad is playing John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and every artist the Blues Brothers covered, in our home, as well as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. My sisters (6 and 7 years older than me) were playing the rock of the day (Eagles, Boston, Bob Segar) as well as playing American Bandstand every Saturday. I preferred Soul Train even at an early age.

I used to lay by my speakers with a tape recorder and pretend I was a DJ and back announce all of the songs I would play on the stereo. I wish I still had those tapes. I once hid a tape recorder on the stairs leading to our living room, and taped the family hanging out watching Saturday morning cartoons. I REALLY wish I had that tape today. I probably taped a Grateful Dead concert over it.

And then there's the Dead. I got into them around the same time I got into Zeppelin. I think it was the iconography. It looked so dark, weird and trippy. Like many others, I thought they would be a metal band. I was slightly disappointed when I found out they weren't. I was hungry for something more at this point in my musical journey. Having moved as much as we did (once a year between the ages of 5 and 15; three different states (four if you consider SoCal and NorCal two different states)) I found that I got bored very easily. Music needed to change to really move me.

The Grateful Dead really moved me. I won't get into it here, but their meanderings took me on some amazing journeys. What they didn't do for me however, was drive the teenage angst energy out of me. They mellowed me and made me want to shimmy and dance. I still love them. But I always need something more.

Here comes Punk.

I had always listened to The Clash and The Ramones, but really didn't have a penchant for the wider variety of Punk until I was about 14 and in high school. It was there that my friend Etienne and I started to listen to Metal together. Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Dio. As a matter of fact, my first "official" concert was November 30, 1984 at the Oakland-Alameda County Auditorium (where the Warriors play basketball) to see Dio (Last in Line) and Dokken (Tooth and Nail). I was 14. I wore my jean jacket. I was afraid the guy next to me, who asked us to save him a seat in exchange for smoking us out, would share a heroin-laced joint and I would be dead before the show even began.

My love for KISS helped for the easy transition to Metal, but it didn't last too long. I still really love Metal, but it was Punk that really spoke to me. Metal spoke of fantasy characters in a fantasy world. Punk was political! Politics was always spoken about in my home. My parents didn't shy away from their negative feelings towards Reagan. The Punk movement was political. I was drawn to it pretty easily.

Starting at KFJC in the fall of 1988 also helped. The Wave of the West is a bastion of musical knowledge; especially that of all-things-alternative. This was before alternative was a genre (thank you very much Nirvana). Punk didn't get me angry. It made me happy! It made me feel like I wasn't alone in my thoughts against the state. It made me feel like my generation wasn't as lost as many thought we were. And the lyrics were hilarious, inane, intense, intelligent, ridiculous.

Being a Deadhead and a Punk isn't as far apart as it would seem. If you like the Dead you pretty much are open to anything, considering how many people DETEST the Grateful Dead. The same could be said for Punk. Though I think more Deadheads like Punk, than Punk likes the Dead. It's all good.

There's not much difference in the spiral dancing of a Dead concert, and a mosh pit at a Punk show. Both are ways of sharing energy. Is one more aggressive? Perhaps, but all good-natured. Even at Punk shows, if you fall down, more often than not there's a hand there to pick you up and get you moving again.

If I've learned anything through my musical journeys, it's that life is all ONE. The mystical, magical ONE. Whether it's Punk, Funk or Junk the musical odyssey that takes us through life is all based on how open we are to the meanderings of the road. I'm truly blessed to have a diverse music library as I do. You're just as likely to find a Black Flag LP in my collection as a Johnny Cash (he's Punk as fuck, btw).

As for tonight's show, it's all punk. Why? I just told you why! Sheesh.

Enjoy.

jh

To stream this musical journey, click here.
To download this odyssey, click here.
To jump in the pit and hear all of my shows, go here, or just scroll down.

A Season in Hell with John Hell
Mondays 8-10PM
Radio Valencia, 87.9FM in SF
http://radiovalencia.fm

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Orgasm Addict: The Buzzcocks
Never Talk To You Again: Husker Du
Tension: Minutemen

Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy: Devo
Ex Lion Tamer: Wire
Elevation: Television
Search and Destroy: The Dictators

Gimme Danger: Iggy and the Stooges
Motor City is Burning: MC5

We Must Bleed: Germs
Six Pack: Black Flag
More Beer: Fear
Ain't Talkin' About Love: Minutemen
Wendy: Descendents

Peking Spring: Mission of Burma
Southern California: Flipper
Sonic Reducer: The Dead Boys
I Just Want To Make Love To You: Meat Puppets

Show Me The Way: Dinosaur Jr.
Goin' Up The Country: Three Stoned Men
Stars and Stripes of Corruption: Dead Kennedys
I Wanna Get Rid of you: Psychotic Pineapple

Out of our Tree: The Mummies
Glorious: Polkacide
Sweat Loaf: Butthole Surfers

I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement: Ramones
Career Opportunities: The Clash
Personality Crisis: New York Dolls
25 Minutes To Go: Johnny Cash

A Season in Hell #142: This Cat's Too Cool For You

It's good to be back. I haven't taken so many breaks in a good decade. I'm back in the groove after tonight's show.

After such hullabaloo from the Rock Fight 10 show, I needed a much deserved break. Also, I produced and hosted Comic Outpost TV for the SF comic store Comic Outpost, at Comic Con in San Diego. More on that coming soon. What an eyeopener that was.

My show has never been genre-specific. I plays what I wants to. But that's not saying that I can't focus on a specific genre from time to time. I've been collecting music (LPs, CDs, digital) since I was a wee lad, dating back to my first KISS records in the mid 1970s.

I have a rule when I shop for music: if I purchase three things or more, one MUST be from an International artist (reggae, dub, middle-eastern, etc.), one must be Jazz. By doing this I've realy grown a very well-rounded library. Tonight I was in the mood for Jazz. Most of the show is some tasty vinyl treats.

Get into it. Let your mind wander about this one.

Snap your fingers along with the streaming beat, here.
Download this toe tapping menagerie, here.
Listen to all of my cool stylings here, or just scroll down.

Enjoy.

jh

Up in Smoke: Cheech and Chong
Interstellar Overdrive: The Melvins

Sysyphus: Pink Floyd
Don't Box Me In: Stan Ridgeway/Stuart Copeland

Slop: Mingus
Back Home: Yusef Lateef
Sticks and Stones: Boogaloo Joe Jones

Radebe: Johnny Dyani
Investigation: Carl Holmes
Money in the Pocket: Cannonball Adderley

Darling Nikki: Sex Mob
Two Bass Hit: Miles Davis
Strangers in the Day: John Lurie
Mas Que Nada: Dizzy Gillespie

The Bump: George Freeman
21st Century Schizoid Man: King Crimson

Let's Loot The Supermarket: The Deviants

A Season in Hell #141: Best of 2013 So Far

This is my Best of 2013 So Far show. 

There has been some really steady quality music flowing out this year. Most of you who listen regularly to my show know that I'm into the garage, psych, metal thing. There's a lot of that in here. Take a look at the play list, and stream or download the show, and enjoy.

Not much else to say.

jh

Stream this delight, here.
Download this collection of puzzle pieces, here.
Listen to all of my previous shows on RV by clicking here, or just scroll down.

Do It: Rollins Band
She's In All Your Dreams: The Orwells
Am I Wrong: Mikal Cronin

Strawberries 1+2: Thee Oh Sees
Music to Walk Home By: Tame Impala
Flaming Creatures: HRVD

Ragdoll: Glitter Wizard
Oh Man: Spacin'
Bataille Sucre: Boris
Female Trouble: The Melvins

Into the Sun: Orchid
I Don't Remember You: Mudhoney
Valley of the Dolls: Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats

Boxing a Ghost: Mr. Thumb
Inside Us Is A Place: Kalrissian
Virginia Slims: Futurebirds

Punk (La vie antérieure): Deerhunter
Cockroach: Crocodiles
Feeling Good: Traffic (09-05-67 Konserthuse, Stockholm, Sweden)

All Tomorrows Parties: Velvet Underground (Scepter Studios, New York City NY, April 1966)
16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six: Tom Waits (Kninklijk Theater Carre, Amsterdam, NL  11-21-04)

A Season in Hell #140: Rock Fight 10!!!!

It only happen once every six months. And when it does, babies hide their children, drunks hide there malt liquor, men cry into their beer. I can only be talking about one thing: ROCK FIGHT!

It's that time again, ladies and gentlemen, when rock poster artist Rotten Ron Donovan and Radio DJ Stalwart, John Hell get together and lay down the massive pipe that is ROCK FIGHT!!!

Ron and I have what amounts to be the largest combined collection of live bootlegs anywhere this side of analog hill (unseen on Google Maps). Every six months in December and June we get together to see who's is bigger and badder.

Every track below is followed by the date/location and who chose the track; JH for me, and RD for Ron. As you'll see, I've clearly got him beat, 2-1. He was also more than an hour late, which is why the first chunk of music is from me.

Not only is the music full of top notch performances and excellent recording quality, but the smack talk between music blocks sets a new standard (high or low, you decide).

There's an interview with Limbomaniac's frontman/bassist, Butthouse in the fifth hour, too.

Get ready for some prime time, low down, face-to-face, bootleg MAYHEM!!!

IT'S ROCK FIGHT 10 BABY!!!!

Enjoy.

jh

If you would like to stream this testament to ROCK, go here.
If you would like to harness the power to rock on the go, download here.
If you care to listen to all of my pounding performances, go here, or scroll down.

A Season in Hell with John Hell
Mondays 8-10PM
Radio Valencia, 87.9FM in SF
http://radiovalencia.fm

Follow me on Twitter
Follow me on Facebook
Follow Radio Valencia on Twitter
Follow Radio Valencia on Facebook

Rock Fight: Cheech and Chong

Here I Am: Al Green (10-04-74 Midnight Special, Hollywood, CA)-JH
Natbush City Limits: Ike and Tina Turner (01-19-75 Soul Train)-JH

Stone Junkie: Curtis Mayfield (06-06-72 Radio City Music Hall, NYC, NY)-JH
Stevie Wonder: You Are The Sunshine Of My Life->Big Brother->Blowing In The Wind 
(03-04-73 Berkeley Community Theater, Berkelely, CA)-JH
Thank You: Sly and the Family Stone (10-09-70 Piknik Kasteel Groenveld Baarn, Netherlands)-JH

One Nation Under a Groove: P Funk (11-01-78 Howard Theater, Washington DC-JH

Country Road: Toots and the Maytals (04-22-1978 The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, Ontario)-JH
Midnight Ravers: Bob Marley (06-10-75 Quiet NIght Club, Chicago, IL)-JH
Let's Work: Prince (04-24-13 Late Show, DNA Lounge, SF, CA)-RD
You Got the Look: Prince (04-24-13 Late Show, DNA Lounge, SF, CA)-RD
Endorphin Machine: Prince (04-24-13 Late Show, DNA Lounge, SF, CA)-RD
She's Always in my Hair: Prince (04-24-13 Late Show, DNA Lounge, SF, CA)-RD

Cold Sweat: James Brown (08-26-68 Memorial Auditorium, Dallas, TX)-JH
Sex Machine: James Brown (03-18-71 Olympia Theater, Paris, France)-JH

Barracuda: Heart (06-17-13 West Palm Beach, FL)-RD
Bad Reputation: Joan Jett (08-08-81 Fireman's Memorial Park, Hempstead, NJ)-JH
Back in Black: AC/DC (02-27-81 Melbourne, AU)-RD

Waiting for the Bus/ Jesus Just Left Chicago: ZZ Top (04-19-80 Rockpalast, Grugenhalle Essen, Germany)-JH
Hot Line: Black Sabbath (1983???)-RD
Cherry Bomb: The Runaways (07-19-76 The Agora, Cleveland, OH)-JH
Monkey on my Back: Aerosmith (06-04-94 Donnington, England)-RD

Motor City Madhouse: Ted Nugent (05-23-81 Cobo Hall, Detroit, MI)-JH
On Top of the World: Cheap Trick (12-31-79 Fabulous Forum, Inglewood, CA-)JH

Boys are Back in Town: Thin Lizzy (05-14-76 Detroit, MI)-JH

The Phoenix: The Cult (03-16-12 Waterloo Records - SXSW, Austin, TX)-RD

The Rover / Sick Again: Led Zeppelin (05-30-77 Capitol Centre Landover, Maryland)-JH
In My Time of Dying: Led Zeppelin (03-19-75 Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC, Canada)-RD
Misty Mountain Hop: Led Zeppelin 08-11-79 Knebworth Festival Stevenage, UK-JH
Heartbreaker: Led Zeppelin: (12-06-96 Chatenay-Malabry, France-JH)

Hour Four:
Gimme Shelter: Rolling Stones (LA 1975)-RD
I'm Losing You: The Faces (04-05-73 Sundown Theater, London England)-JH

Shake!: The Time (02-03-91, Japan)-RD

My Adidas: Run DMC (1985 The Apollo Theater, NYC, NY)-JH
Time to get Ill: Beastie Boys (07-05-98 Werchter, Belgium)-JH
Rock Your Socks Off: Tenacious D (09-28-01 Higher Ground, Winooski, VT)-JH

Interview with Butthouse of Limbomaniacs

Porno: Limbomaniacs (09-01-90 I-Beam, SF, CA)-JH
Seven Nation Army: White Stripes (06-13-07 Maida Vale Studios, London, England)-JH

Hour six
Learn to Fly: Foo Fighters (2012 Buenos Aires)-RD
Hard to Handle: Black Crowes (10-19-99 Greek Theater, Los Angeles, CA)-JH

X-Offender: Blondie (09-21-77 Old Wardorf  San Francisco, CA)-RD
Jocko Homo: Devo (08-03-77 Mabuhay Gardens (The "Fab Mab"), San Francisco, C)-JH
Rock and Roll: Supersuckers (???? Ron has no clue when/where this show is from)

400 Bucks: Reverend Horton Heat (06-09-06 Wakarusa Music Festival, Lawrence, KS)-JH
Blitzkrieg Bop: The Ramones (05-21-76 The Club, Cambridge, MA)-JH
Join Together/Goin' Mobile: fIREHOSE (08-25-89 The Music Machine, Santa Monica, CA)-JH

School's Out: Alice Cooper (Bonnaroo, TN 06-09-12)-RD

Nothing to Lose:  Kiss (09-03-76 Richfield Stadium, Richfield, OH)-JH
Take a Letter Maria: Pleasure Barons (03-93 Vancouver, BC)-JH