PopCult Rudy Panucci on Pop Culture

RFC 99 "Porkchop shirt" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

Above you see the bright, shiny new episode of Radio Free Charleston.
Our 99th show is called “Porkchop Shirt,” in honor of Eamon Hardiman’s
new horror epic (available now on DVD).

This is an extra-long show, with music from Highway Jones, OVADA and HARRAH, plus a visit from IWA East Coast Heavyweight Champion contender, Chris Hero, a short film by Murfmeef and some really cute, but disgusting animation.

RFC 99 01This is an important show for us, since it’s the first episode produced since my “Innerview” with Sandy Wells, and it’s the last “regular” show before our huge 100th episode gala.

Host segments were shot at Daniel Boone Park on the riverbank near the Craik-Patton house. I have to admit that I was totally unaware of this location. It was chosen by RFC Big Shot Melanie Larch, who also runs camera on the show and provides much needed moral support.  We shot the host segments with our new toy, the Kodak Zi8, a “flip”-type camera that shoots full High Definition video and gets amazing audio. You’ll be seeing a lot more from it in future shows.

RFC 99 02The first bit of joy in RFC 99 is “Creed Parody,” by MURFMEEF.  We’ve been playing Murfmeef on the show for a few episodes now, and this time we get a double-dose. Murfmeef also assembled the video for OVADA that pops up later in the show.

This video is actual, for-real footage of that real guy from Creed. It’s labeled as a parody to avoid us getting sued by the record company. For real. I’m not making this up…..much.

RFC 99 03Our first musical guest is Highway Jones, with “I Won’t Share You With Another Man.” We recorded them a couple of months ago at The Boulevard Tavern, and brought you a song by them on episode 91. These guys have just released their third full-length CD, “Unclean” and it’s an amazing collection of new tunes.

RFC 99 04As for this video–unfortunately the Highway Jones recording session was one of the things affected by the catastrophic spate of January hard-drive crashes that afflicted Radio Free Charleston.  We lost two camera angles. However, we still had the main head-on camera and the board audio, so I cheated with some still photos and other video tricks.  We are definitely going to track down Highway Jones and record them for the show again in the future.

RFC 99 06We also have a visit from Chris Hero (I wore his shirt way back on episode six). Chris is returning to IWA East Coast to take on the champ, Roderick Strong, on May 12. You’ll also get to see Balls Mahoney, Mad Man Pondo, The Murder Junkies and all your IWA EC favorites at the rec center in Nitro. Check the IWA EC website for all the info.

RFC 99 07Our animation intro this time is by Chelsea Cook, who has previously appeared on the show as Kitty Killton and Celeste, the Zombie Supermodel. Chelsea’s also our official barista.

If everything goes according to plan, Chelsea will play a large part in our big 100th episode.

RFC 99 05The animation she introduces is probably the most disturbing thing we’ve had on the show. “My Girlfriend’s Baby” was created by Frank Panucci using the Xtranormal website. It’s the cartoon that just won’t go away.  As sick and twisted as this may seem,  I can assure you that we have some stuff from Frank way worse than this coming up.

RFC 99 09Our next musical number is “The Electric God” by OVADA. We’ve had this song on the show before, but that was a live performance, recorded at The Empty Glass back on episode 77.

RFC 99 08This version is a studio demo with a video assembled out of stock footage by none other than Murfmeef (who has just joined OVADA on drums, or so I am told).  It’s way-cool and has almost as many mushroom clouds as the Three Bodies video we had back on episode 3!

I’m going to take a moment here to address a couple of wardrobe points. First, the namesake T-shirt of this episode is from the movie “Porkchop,” which you can order at the Razor Sharp Productions website. I think you can also find it at The Empty Glass. Eamon Hardiman is currently hard at work on the script for “Zombie Babies.” You can check out his earlier films and buy stuff so you can help finance this touching, socially-relevant cinematic project.

Also, you may notice that a couple of new fedoras have joined the show lately.  These have come from The Salvage Yard, in the Charleston Town Center. It’s a cool place for hats jewelry T-shirts and other cool retro wear. They are now the official haberdasher of RFC.

RFC 99 11

RFC 99 10Playing us out this time around is HARRAH. This is the incredible Lee Harrah’s band that will perform all his most memorable numbers from his days with Seether, Stone Ka Tet, The Ghosts Of Now, and others.  Lee is still the voice of WATT 4, but this band is where he digs out some of the heavier stuff from his metal closet.  You’ll get to see the first song we recorded with the Kodak Zi8, “Alaska Looks Like Arizona,” written by his frmer Ghosts Of Now (and current Scrap Iron Pickers) bassist, Jason “Roadblock” Robinson.  It’s a killer performance of a fantastic song.

Thats it for this show. Our next episode is the milestone 100th show, and you can look for it in three weeks.  Until then, keep checking PopCult and “like” us on our Facebook fan page.