PopCult Rudy Panucci on Pop Culture

The fifty-eighth edition of Radio Free Charleston is online now! This episode features music from Lonely Town and Marcie Bullock, icy animation from Frank Panucci and a quick look at the CYAC production of “Lincoln” an original opera, opening in town this weekend. Our live music was recorded at The Blue Parrot and at Sam’s Uptown Cafe, both Capitol Street institutions.

Full details on how we put this show together are on the other side of the “Read More.”

Host segments were shot Monday night on Summers Street, just hours before the big nasty snowstorm came and messed up everybody’s week. You can see that it was bitterly cold. My breath is visible in many shots. I also kept frantically reaching to stick my free hand into my pockets, which is what I’m doing in those shots. No matter how much it looks like it, I was not fighting a wedgie. It’s the pockets, seriously. I would have edited it out otherwise.

We open the show with the promo clip for The Contemporary Youth Arts Company production of “Lincoln” which I filmed and edited Monday night, and which you can see, along with the full details on when you can see the show, right here. We’re hoping to record a couple of numbers from the show for inclusion in a future episode of RFC, but the weather is playing havoc with our schedules. I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime you should consider bundling yourself up and heading out to catch this show.

Our first musical guest this week is Lonely Town. This is basically the excellent Mark Bates and The Vacancies, with the addition of the also excellent Jonathan Glen Wood. You’ve seen Mark and Jonathan on the show before performing solo, and you’ve seen Mark with The Vacancies as well. As they have all been friends for some time, (in fact, I first met Jonathan at a Vacancies show in South Charleston) they decided to join forces and change their name.

We caught one of their first shows as Lonely Town at The Blue Parrot, and there is a story behind the shoot. First of all, Melanie Larch(seen right), our resident diva and RFC Big Shot, persevered through the shoot even though she was waylaid by a nasty stomach bug that had her making regular trips to ride the porcelain pony in the ladies room. Mel insisted on finishing the taping session. For this, Mel gets trooper points, which she needed because of something else she did on this show later.

The band was impressive, with tight harmonies and arrangements. The guys were at the top of their game. It’s also apparent from the tape that Lonely Town has the tallest fan-base in Charleston! It was an amazing sight watching as, one after another amazingly tall persons walked in just to hear the band……and then stood directly in front of our hard camera.  Listen to the music. It’s no wonder the place was packed. The band performs the song from which they took their name, “Lonely Town.”

Our animation this time is “Ice Drift” by me brudder Frank. It’s supposed to be relaxing, which it may well be if you haven’t had any recent run-ins with black ice.  Made my blood pressure go up, just watching it. Please note that this IS only animation, and not documentary footage of someone driving down Bridge Road this week.

Headlining this week’s show is the incredible Marcie Bullock. You may remember my review of Marcie’s CD which coincidentally appeared in the print Gazz on the day that we recorded Marcie, backed by Steve Himes, Chris Allen and Chris Hudson, at Sam’s Uptown Cafe. It was our first time recording at one of Charleston’s hot spots, and it won’t be the last. Maybe next time we’ll see if we can get them to turn on some lights.

Marcie performs her song, “Left Unsaid,” and you can get a taste of how powerful her voice is. She sounds sort of like if Ann Wilson and Aretha Franklin had a child. You should make it a point to catch this awesome force of nature live.  Marcie’s based in Huntington, but we need to get her performing in Charleston more. She’d be a natural at The Empty Glass.

Melanie was so impressed with Marcie that she swiped my copy of her CD. Which is why my introduction to her song seems a little choppy. Since Mel had the CD, I had to ask her the song title, and she gave me the wrong title. I didn’t catch the mistake until I was editing the show. This sort of evened out the brownie points Mel earned for shooting Lonely Town while sick.

Anyway, that is the story behind Radio Free Charleston episode 58. The weather is upsetting our plans, so I’m not sure if we’ll be back in one week or two, but keep checking PopCult and our MySpace page for all the latest info. In the coming weeks we’ll be featuring new music from John Radcliff, Joseph Henry, Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen and Flare Baroshi. We’re also going to try and bring you a couple of numbers from “Lincoln” and I’m working on a special Go Van Gogh surprise, but it’s still in the early planning stages.

The weather is horrible. You should stay home and watch this show over and over.