The Ledge (mp3)

During the process of putting together tonight’s look back at the first three months of 2024 I suddenly realized that just by looking through the January and February releases I already had more than enough tunes for a two hour show. That’s without even taking a look at a jampacked March!  Obviously, that means I had to cut out quite a few fave songs for tonight’s show. My s...

This is another of those shows inspired primarily by what I’ve been listening to around the house. But it’s not just records this time, as the inspiration is coming from all sorts of media forms. The first main set, for instance, was inspired by the “Great Plains” section of Steven H. Gardner’s excellent Another Tuneless Racket: Punk and New Wave In the Seventies, Vol...

Ten inch records are the forgotten treasures of my library. They’re housed in a little side section of my entertainment center, and most are rarely touched. This is why a couple of weeks ago I decided to have a marathon listening session of those very records.  These sort of releases generally form a handful of different types of material. They can be extended singles filled with previo...

This week’s continuation of last week’s new release episode features, once again, no drop off in quality. There’s plenty of great new music from both relatively new artists and longtime veterans. I mean, who could have guessed that we’d still have vital tunes from two of America’s first punk bands, T.S.O.L. and Nervous Eaters? Let alone the return of The Bevis Frond,...

Once again, the monthly new release show has to be expanded into a two-part extravaganza. 2023 is seriously shaping up to be a wonderful year for new music, as evidence not only by tonight’s show but all of our new release broadcasts so far this year. As always, we have some tracks by “friends” of the show (Rob Moss, Dave Strong, Robbie Quine, Friends of Cesar Romero and others),...

As I’ve said before, I have a folder on one of my laptops that I keep around just to acccumulate cover tunes for episodes like this one. Once that folder is full, it’s time to broadcast! This version of that theme includes sets devoted to primarily new versions of songs by The Clash, The Undertones, The Rolling Stones, and MC5. There’s also one-offs of tracks by a wide variety of...

Anti-love songs is a rock and roll specialty. From the very beginning of the genre, writers with a poison pen have created a plethora of material that is not exactly Hallmark card material. Tonight’s show celebrates tracks of this time, highlighted by a number of more recent tracks of that sort. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for oldies, as there are garage rockers from t...

This may be the second part of this month’s new release series, but there is no letdown in quality. Once again, there’s an intriguing mix of styles, ages, and even home locations. There are brand new acclaimed artists such as Liquid Mike and Sprints. There’s the returns of veterans such as Paul Collins Beat, J. Robbins, and Sham 69. There’s also the usual trademark of quali...

Once again the music gods have bestowed so much great new tracks that the monthly new release show must be expanded into two episodes. That is a great sign for 2024, and especially so because not only is there quality and quantity, but there’s a great mix of classic artists and brand new acts. There’s 18 year old Owen Adamcik’s plan for a new EP every month this year. There are L...

The “odds and ends” series is an opportunity for me to mix all kinds of material. This week’s version mixes a bunch of new releases with a ton of material I’ve been playing around the house in recent weeks. There’s also a tribute to Mary Weiss, the leader of The Shangri-Las who passed away a few days ago. Otherwise, there’s classics by The Clash, X, The Birthday...

1979 was an important year for rock and roll, but it was a bigger year for my musical journey. This was the year that the real obsession with buying records began. I had a job. I had a car. And I had put together a pretty awesome sound system in my bedroom. This was the first year I was buying new music AS it was coming out. I was no longer saving up for a record I read about in Creem Magazine. I...

Two weeks ago, I counted down my 40 favorite records of 2023. This week’s broadcast is a showcase for 35 other records that just barely missed the cut. There’s no letdown of quality, though, as each and every one of these picks could have easily made my main list. But combining the two shows, you now have my official list of the 75 best albums of the year. Think of these shows as a mas...

It may be a new year, but there’s no change to the first episode of each and every month. Once again, I present to you over two hours of brand new music. Ok, there are a handful of tracks that actually came out a few months ago, but these are new discoveries for me. So in my convoluted set of self-created rules, they’re still new releases to me.  But as always, this show features...

Choosing my favorite records of the year is always a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s great fun for a music nerd like me to revisit the hundreds of releases I’ve checked out the last twelve months. But it’s also frustrating trying to thin down those picks into a list that truly represents the past year. Many records that initially seemed a lock are suddenly eclipsed by n...

Every year I spend the last few weeks of the year searching for new holiday songs for The Ledge’s annual Chirstmas special. Inevitably, every year I find more than enough songs to fill over two hours of broadcast time. This is the perfect soundtrack for this year’s festivities. A little bit of punk, a lot of power pop. Some veteran acts return with new tunes (Brinsley Scwarz, The Sensi...

It’s the time of year for everybody to unveil their various lists of the best records of the year, so here is the unveiling of the first part of my lists. This week’s show features a countdown of my 20 favorite reissues, box sets, live albums, compilations, and tribute albums of 2023. Look for a similar countdown of my 40 favorite new albums of the year in two weeks. But that doesn&#82...

Two weeks ago, I put together a show centered around seven different tribute records celebrating The Replacements. A couple of days after that episode was released I was contacted by a fan who noted that I had missed a couple of these sorts of records. After a bit of scrambing, I discovered that indeed I forgot all about some great fan-based compilatons. Yes, that’s the beauty of tonight&#82...

It may be the final new release episode of the year, but there’s no drop in quality. As always, there’s the usual mix of punk, indie, power pop, alternative, and other genres. There’s a Rum Bar Records segment, along with new tunes from our friends at Big Stir Records. There are veteran returns and newbie introductions. There’s something here for everyone with an inquisitiv...

As one of those lunatics who tends to collect anything and everything asoociated with artists I love, it’s probably no surprise that I have quite a few tribute albums devoted to The Replacements. When Let the Bad Times Roll (a Tribute to The Replacements) was released earlier this month, I did a deep dive in my archives and discovered that I actually owned seven of these types of r...

This week’s episode is a little peek into the day to day picks I make to get through my day. A few old favorites (ok, quite a few), some fantastic discoveries at the used record store, and some fabulous new vinyl reissues. The main highlight this week is the brand new reissue of Twin/Tone’s Big Hits of Mid-America, Vol. 3. Long out of print, Back Groove Records has just put o...

The second part of this month’s new release series is admittedly dominated by cover tunes. Great bands such as Superchunk, The Feelies, Cruzados, The Routes, Hayley and the Crushers and the Rick White Archive are featured remaking classics by The Cure, The Minutemen, Buzzcocks, and others.  But the main focus of the covers blasted on tonight’s show is the brand new tribute album t...

Once again, there’s so much great music being released each and every week that this month’s new release show is a two-part extravaganza! Part one is admittedly heavy on the power pop – Uni Boys, The Speedways, The Len Price 3, and many others. There’s also twin blasts from rock and roll buddies Geoff Palmer and Brad Marino, along with tracks from their friends in the Rum B...

It’s become a Halloween tradition for this show to celebrate the holiday with over two hours of spooky music. As it is the ultimate rock and roll holiday, it’s never hard to find enough new tunes to fill a show, and this year is no exception. This is a show that should be the soundtrack to your Halloween party, or give the trick or treaters a real treat by blasting this at your front d...

A few days ago, power pop expert S.W. Lauden reached out to me to see if I’d be interested in helping promote his new book, Remember The Lightning – A Guitar Pop Journal, Vol. 2. Duh, of course as a big fan of Lauden’s writing I was honored at the request. But I had a better idea. I asked him if he’d like to take over the show for a couple of sets. So tonight’s episod...

This week’s episode may be a sequel to last week’s new release broadcast, but unlike what usually happens in the film industry there’s no drop in quality. Just like last week, there’s plenty of power pop, Americana, garage rock, punk, and so much more! Plus, I snuck in a couple tracks from the brand new Uni Boys album, which came out today! As for the “52 weeks of Tee...