Boston Radio Great Steve LeVeille Taken Off the Air

I am what they call a Night Owl. My natural sleep/wake cycle is such that I am usually up until 2:00 or 3:00 AM, and regularly sleep in until 11:00 AM or noon. As such, I have over the years become a fan of overnight talk radio on the AM dial. Not the pre-packaged and often pre-recorded syndicated talk radio "product" that is foisted upon us by the networks, but good, old-fashioned, hometown talk radio done live in the studio of the station broadcasting it; authentic, off-the-cuff, spontaneous radio that has, for the large part, sadly disappeared from the airwaves.

I've listened to WBZ 1030AM out of Boston for as long as I can remember. WBZ was the last outpost for non-syndicated overnight talk. I was introduced to Bostonian legends like Larry Glick and Norm Nathan as a youngster when I would spend the night at my grandmother's house: she fell asleep nightly listening to WBZ. After I graduated college, I found myself listening to those same programs: Norm Nathan until his passing, Bob Raleigh until his retirement, Jordan Rich on the weekends, and Steve LeVeille.

Steve LeVeille took over WBZ's overnight (midnight to 5:00 AM) slot in 1999, and for the past decade he has presented the most enjoyable late-night radio program found on the dial. While echoes of LeVeille's predecessors can certainly be heard in his broadcasts, he had a signature style all his own. The Steve LeVeille Broadcast was a nightly mix of thoughtful debate on current events (both those local to Boston and those affecting the entire country...or the entire world) and general lighthearted fun that often slipped into outright silliness, as when he would have Mel Simons in the guest chair conducting his Audio Clip Trivia Quiz. The revered LeVeille-Hagopian Polls (cofounded with WBZ writer/producer Garo Hagopian) got to the heart of issues affecting listeners, asking such soul-searching questions as "paper or plastic?", "red, white, or blue?", or "soda, cola or pop?", and listeners waited for the tell-tale siren indicating a Deviation Alert: someone had made the first non-offered choice!

Though I never met the man, and never called into his program, I felt certain common bonds with LeVeille. Being a life-long Phillies fan, I could easily identify with his yearly frustration with his beloved Red Sox -- and found myself swept up in the joy of the Bosox finally winning the World Series in 2004. Like me, Steve was flabbergasted that each winter's snowstorms brought on a rush to the grocery stores to stock up on milk and bread, as if everyone should hunker down and subsist on French Toast until the storm passes. When he campaigned to change that tradition to one where we should run out before a storm and stock up on Marshmallow Fluff instead, I jumped on that bandwagon.

What made his radio program work so well was Steve's inherent understanding of his role: while so many who enter the talk radio field model themselves after the Limbaughs, Sterns, Larry Kings, and others who shine the spotlight mainly on themselves, Steve LeVeille knew from Day One that he was not the star of his show. He was merely our Master of Ceremonies whose job it was to guide us through whatever may ensue in each night's five-hour block; the callers were the stars. He gave everyone the ability to speak their piece, and while he certainly let his opinions on things be known, he always did so as an aside while trying to get at the reasons the callers felt as they did. He never belittled anyone for their stances, although he did not suffer fools long. If you couldn't explain why you felt as you did, or, worse yet, rambled on without getting to a point, you were done. But, every caller was treated well by Steve, whether they were weekly regulars or one-time callers, and his easy, conversational approach made even the most nervous first-time-caller-long-time-listeners a bit more confident.

Steve LeVeille is no longer on the air. As LeVeille himself noted in an interview with the Boston Herald, he was laid off without warning after he completed his December 29th show. After a decade, The Steve LeVeille Broadcast is suddenly no more, with barely a statement from WBZ, and without the opportunity to say "goodbye." Sadly, it has been replaced on WBZ by something called Overnight America - another soulless, syndicated, cookie-cutter piece of network talk radio product. And to say that LeVeille's many fans in the "38 states and all the best provinces of Canada" that WBZ's signal reaches are upset is an understatement.

A "Bring Back Steve LeVeille" campaign has been initiated by several of his fans; I quickly added my name to this petition. If you were a fan of Steve's, I urge you to join the chorus of voices asking for his return. If you never listened to The Steve LeVeille Broadcast, but understand that losing one of the last of a dying breed of true radio personalities only means a greater influence of CRaP (Corporate Radio Product) and hate that as much as I do, I urge you to sign the petition. If and when Steve returns, you can hear him on WBZ's website, which offers streaming live audio, and perhaps find yourself becoming a fan.

I, for one, sure hope WBZ listens to those who have been listening to WBZ for so many years. We miss you, Steve!

R.I.P. Ron Asheton, 7/17/48 - 1/6/09

Just learned that former Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton was found dead in his home yesterday. He was just 60 years old. I have not seen a reported cause of death yet.

In Asheton's memory, here's footage of the Stooges at the Cincinnati Pop Festival in 1970.

The Dickies at the 941 Club 1/3/09

Great time last night at The 941 Theater in Philadelphia, PA to see Van Nuys, CA's greatest contribution to punk rock, The Dickies. Absolutely had a great friggin' time - a little hole-in-the-wall BYOB venue on Front Street, about 250 - 300 people, a "stage" that was little more than plywood on cinderblocks raised about a foot off the ground: this is how to see a punk show! Heck, you had to go "backstage" to find the restrooms, fercrissake!

I am learning that it takes a little longer for my 42 year old body to recover from the crowd crush and the decibel level (ears are still ringing, dogs still barking from standing on a concrete floor for hours), but the fun was worth it. Am I showing my age by saying I'm kinda glad PA has the smoking ban nowadays because at least I side-stepped the traditional morning-after hack-a-lung-a-thon?

This was a four-band show; unfortunately, we got there a little late and missed the first band, The Trakes.

We arrived just as Philadelphia's own The SlotCars took the stage. Now, I've been to enough shows in my life to know that opening bands are always a gamble, and home-town opening bands can sometimes be double jeopardy. The SlotCars came through, though, with a fine set. All of the expected spaces on the punk band bingo card could be checked off: song about the band itself? Check. Instrumental with vocal interjection from the bass player? Check. Surf-styled tune? Check. Nifty cover? Check. This, however, was not just "punk rock by the numbers." The band had an energy and a personality that took their minimal guitar/bass/drum basement band vibe to another level or two higher, and they score bonus points for having a wicked sense of humor about themselves, the Scene (with a capital S), and their local fans. Follow the link to their MySpace page and listen to "SlotCars Theme" and their cover of "Little Deuce Coupe", and enjoy!

Kitty and the Kowalskis from New York were up next. Following the "chick singer and three guys" band formula and blasting out a melodic-punk sound with more than a little resemblance at times to Tex & the Horseheads (check out "Mr. Wrong" and "I Love You Baby But I Hate Your Friends" on the Kowalski's MySpace page), they played one helluva set. Good to know that I'm not the only one feeling my age: Kitty called herself out for trying to play a punk show in a sweater and declared herself to be a "child of the sixties".

So, two-fer-two on the opening bands - a great start to the 2009 concert year! (Based on what I've heard on their MySpace page, the Trakes would've been right there, too.) But my friends and I - and by self-admission, the opening bands - were really there for only one reason: to see The Dickies!

I'd only seen the Dickies live once before, at Fiend Fest in Asbury Park, NJ in 2003. They put on a great show then, but as part of the packaged tour with several other bands, their set was truncated. Last night, the spotlight was all theirs, and they did not disappoint! Over the course of roughly an hour and a half or so, we got a virtual Dickies' jukebox. They roared out of the gates with "Rosemary," and gave us everything from the early classics ("Give it Back", "You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)", "Manny, Moe & Jack") to their best known hyper-speed covers ("Nights in White Satin", "Paranoid") to prime examples of their newer material ("My Pop the Cop"). The almost non-existent stage created an environment of band and fans becoming almost one, resulting in Leonard Grave Phillips allowing the crowd to become his call-and-response partners on "I'm OK You're OK" and "Got it at the Store", and we basically sang "Gigantor" for him!

The band did two encores - first encore included a hysterical sing-along on Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World", and the second closed the night out as any Dickies show should be closed: with their turbo-fast slam through of the "Banana Splits Theme".

Hung around a bit after the show and got to talk with both Stan Lee and Leonard - and yes, for those who asked, every Dickies record I own is now autographed.

All in all a great night, a lot of fun, and a heck of a way to celebrate my birthday and kick off a new year of shows. Visit my online album of pics I took throughout the night - forgive the quality, I only had my cell-phone camera with me. If any of you were also at the show, please leave a comment with your review.

Last Minute Substitute Concert

Woo hoo! My birthday celebrations are saved!

As you read in an earlier post, plans to catch the Damned three times this week were made irrelevant when Dave Vanian came down with the flu. My birthday is Tuesday, so seeing the Damned tonight in NJ and tomorrow in Philly was to be my way of celebrating.

A buddy called me up today and asked whether I still had tomorrow free. I did, and now plans to go to Philadelphia are back on...the Dickies are playing!

Ironically, the last time I saw the Dickies, they were part of the Fiend Fest lineup with the Damned. I'm taking the records to get signed (fingers crossed), and will have the full report here on Sunday...assuming the Canceled Concert Curse is broken...

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a Happy, Health and Prosperous 2009!

Um, That's Not a Word...

Economic times are tough for everyone, but perhaps the used car dealership in Mechanicsburg, PA where I spotted this attempt at advertising a drop in price should invest some of their dwindling profits in a dictionary...

They Canceled the Whole Damned Tour!

Life in a Bungalow is reporting a full cancellation of the Damned's US East Coast leg of their tour in support of their wonderful new album, So, Who's Paranoid? (buy here!)

I was going to be at the Washington, DC show last night, the Asbury Park, NJ show on Friday, and the Philadelphia, PA show on Saturday, so I am greatly disappointed -- this was how I was going to be ringing in the new year and celebrating my birthday!

As yet unconfirmed reports are that Dave Vanian has the flu. If true, here's hoping he gets well soon. The flu is no fun!

As of this point in time, the Damned's website, Official Damned.com, is only announcing last night's DC show, today's planned NYC mini-show, and tonight's Poughkeepsie, NY show as canceled; the NJ and Philly shows are still being advertised. Perhaps a glimmer of hope?

Rock This Town

OK, another check mark on my Life Experience list. Sitting here last night, just a few minutes after midnight, doing some online work and just about ready to close up shop and hit the sack.

At about 12:04 ET, there was a low rumble that quickly got louder and louder, like a train passing by right next to my window. Given that I was on the second floor and the nearest train tracks are several miles away, that couldn't be!

As the rumble continued, the house began shaking. My mind raced - what in Blue Hell is going on here? Some sort of explosion nearby? A couple of large trucks colliding on Columbia Avenue? No, neither of these could be the case either, as the rumbling and shaking was lasting too long.

And then it stopped, just as abruptly as it started. Was that a frickin' earthquake? In Lancaster, PA? In December?

Since I was online at the time, I immediately went to the local TV station's news website. WGAL-TV, channel 8, broadcasts from a building about a block or so west of my home. If I felt this shaking, then anyone there felt must have felt it, too - or so I thought. Then again, our local news is infamous for being a bit slow on the story, and more than a bit lax in their depth of coverage. Their website had nothing, and neither was there any information on their television broadcast.

I also immediately posted status updates on both Facebook and Twitter, basically asking if anyone else had experienced this. Had to make sure I wasn't going cuckoo, y'know! Not a lot of people on Facebook at that time, but Twitter absolutely came to life. For the next hour, several fellow local Twitterers and I exchanged info.

Relatively quickly, the links to the U.S. Geological Survey website started coming in, verifying that indeed, a 3.3 magnitude quake had hit us. Centered in Landisville, PA (a little less than 10 miles from where I am), the quake registered as far south as Maryland, as far west as Carlisle, PA, and as far east as Philadelphia - a huge region. This morning, I noticed the magnitude has been upped to a 3.4.

Once we knew what it was, and once the initial excitement on Twitter settled down, conversation turned to the fact that no news media was reporting anything - nothing at all! I stayed online for about an hour, and by the time I called it a night, there was still nothing on the local news, and precious little info online outside of the USGS site.

Got up this morning and did a cursory check around the house -- no damage, nothing fell over, no new cracks in the walls or ceilings. Definitely a case of the bark being greater than the bite, thankfully. To my knowledge, though, that's the first earthquake I've ever experienced. The whole thing lasted maybe 30 seconds at most, but while it was happening, it sure seemed to be occurring in slow motion.

Thank you to all my fellow Twitterers for being on the ball last night, and for picking up the slack where the news media failed.

The Gateway: 10 Records from My Pre-Punk Days

Mike E. over at the wonderful Strange Reaction (if you don't read it regularly, you must!) posted his Top 10 Pre-Punk Albums. The parameters he defined and challenged others to base their own lists on, were as follows:
"These were the albums I had as I was starting to get into punk, my gateway crap. You have had the same albums, hell, you may hate them all – that’s OK, I hate some of them now. Leave some comments; list your top ten pre-punk albums/singles/EP’s."

OK, Mike, I'm up for the task. I can't call it a "Top Ten" because they are in no particular order here, but these were definitely the earliest seeds of a collection that now numbers almost 3000 titles, and were the records that most greatly informed my later musical tastes:

1. Violent Femmes by Violent Femmes, 1982

Had this record before just about anyone else I knew, and played it until the grooves wore smooth. Still my favorite album, start to finish, of all time, but oh how powerful this was to the 15-year-old me! Makes me laugh to see how retro-chic this LP became over the years. Everyone and their uncle sings along with "Blister in the Sun" nowadays; in its time, this record couldn't get the time of day from most people!

2. Beauty & the Beat by the Go-go's, 1981

People forget how huge this record was in '81. People also forget the newsworthiness of an all-girl band who played their own instruments having a hit record (and somewhere, the Runaways were undoubtedly gnashing their teeth!) Sure it's a naive pop record. Still, the freewheeling exuberance comes through even 27 years (!) later. To this day I have a crush on Jane Wiedlin...

3. Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam & the Ants, 1980

Yes, I was a sucker for Antmusic. Still love the quirky, angular sounds of this record, although it doesn't see nearly the level of airplay in my home that it did all those years ago. Nowadays, I prefer the earlier, much darker Dirk Wears White Sox, but for years "Antmusic" was my favorite song.

4. "Mexican Radio" single by Wall of Voodoo, 1982

I once heard Wall of Voodoo referred to as "the thinking man's Devo," and while the backhanded slap at the Spudboys is unnecessary, the spirit of the description is fitting. I remember grabbing this single the day after I heard the song - it sounded like nothing else I had heard to that point, and I loved it! Over the years, I have come to appreciate much of WoV's other work more greatly, but I guess I'll always wish I was in Tijuana eating barbecued iguana...

5. "Money" single by the Flying Lizards, 1979

The record that put New Wave on my musical radar! In 1979, the local Top 40 station, WLAN, was an AM station (remember those days, kids?) that I used to pull in with a hand-me-down AM-only radio that just barely made the scratchy signal audible. Each Friday, listeners would phone in their votes for best songs of the week, and the DJ would count down the Top 5. One week, this made the Top 5 by votes, but the DJ refused to play the record because "that's not even music!" I needed to have the record immediately, and thus began my hatred of commercial radio.

6. Freedom of Choice by Devo, 1980

"Whip it, whip it good!" On one of those VH1 specials where a bunch of irrelevant D-list celebs give their opinions on stuff, someone (forget who) said that Devo were ahead of their time then, and that record is still ahead of it's time even today! Yeah, I can go with that. For as much as Devo can come off as a novelty band, this record showed them capable of creating a cohesive album that flows start to finish. Still one of the best records in my collection.

7. The Beat - various artists, 1982

A K-tel Records New Wave collection? It happened! The cult-like as-seen-on-TV K-tel Records was infamous throughout the 1970s for their slap-together compilations of whatever was popular on the radio that month. Their heyday was steeped in disco, which made it astounding when the TV ads for this one started up: Bow Wow Wow? Thompson Twins? Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark? The Waitresses? Heck, half the albums playing list hadn't been touched by commercial radio yet. Even Duran Duran was unknown when this came out, with their scandalous "Girls on Film" tucked away in its grooves. Today it plays like New Wave retro jukebox, but at the time it introduced many a young waver to bands before their time.

8. "Valley Girl" single by Frank and Moon Zappa, 1981

You had to be there, I guess, but this was hysterically wonderful when it first came out. I knew girls who talked like this - and knew more who suddenly began talking like this once this record hit the shelves. Definitely dated and really just a novelty record, the thing rocks surprisingly hard when you dig past the surface.

9. Alive II by Kiss, 1977

I was in 4th grade, and my greatest ambition at the time was to join the Kiss Army. This was prime Kiss - too heavy for the glam crowd, too glam for the metal crowd; too metal for the punk crowd, but undeniably awesome. They were in some ways the sonic offspring of the MC5 and the Dictators, but they went a decidedly different direction than the punk rock family tree, finally ending up as just another metal band. Without them, though, I would never have appreciated the power of loud, hard, bowl-you-over music, and may never have made the side-step to punk rock.

10. Rarities by the Beatles, 1980

Just prior to my entry to the worlds of New Wave and Punk Rock, I was a Beatles fan. I believe, no matter what genre ends up being your music of choice, your path has to have gone through Beatleville at some point. In 1980, as a 13-year-old with a paper route, I wasn't buying records willy-nilly just yet. But, I knew I wanted the Beatles represented. This was the perfect choice for the blossoming counter-culturalist in me, for it was a Beatles record with versions of the songs that most people didn't know. When I hit the height of my Punk Rock days, I purged this record from my collection - no self-respecting punk would own a Beatles record, right? Wrong! I finally replaced the album some time ago, and hearing it again years later put a smile on my face.

So, there is my list of 10 "gateway" records into the musical world universe I now inhabit. How about you? What were the 10 records that started you on your musical journey?

Eartha Kitt 1/17/27 - 12/25/08

The world lost a great entertainer on Christmas Day. Eartha Kitt passed away at the age of 81 yesterday after a battle with colon cancer.

With a distinctive voice that made her instantly recognizable, Kitt made her motion-picture debut in 1948 and continued performing on a regular basis up through her stage show earlier this year - six decades!

Kitt was well-known for the holiday hit "Santa Baby", and was the best of the three actresses (Lee Merriweather and Julie Newmar being the other two) to portray Catwoman to Adam West's Batman in the '60s. Oh, that growl!

The video below, with Kitt performing "I Want to Be Evil", is a prime example of her style and talent. She will be greatly missed.