Tuesday, October 1
Wire Mountain is the latest release from Texas singer-songwriter Will Johnson. Johnson is a founding member of the band Centro-Matic as well as of the chamber country band South San Gabriel. We’ll hear music from Wire Mountain plus from South San Gabriel’s Not Until The Operation’s Through, a concept album about an ailing cat and the characters he meets as he tries to make sense of his life and illness.
Wednesday, October 2
Released October 2, 1984, Let It Be was the final album that Minneapolis, Minnesota band The Replacements recorded for its hometown imprint Twin/Tone. The album captures the quartet’s untamable spirit, careening between speaker-slashing punk (“We’re Coming Out,” “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out”) and moody meditations on sexuality (“Androgynous”), adolescence (“Sixteen Blue”) and loneliness (“Answering Machine”). For good measure, the band recorded KISS’s “Black Diamond” and invited REM’s Peter Buck to play lead guitar on the tune “I Will Dare.” We’ll hear selections this album as well as music from Nirvana’s 1991 LP, Nevermind.
Thursday, October 3
Released in 1989, Cosmic Thing became a comeback album for the B-52’s. Having lost original guitarist Ricky Wilson to AIDS a few years earlier, the band streamlined its sound and enjoyed major radio success with hits such as “Love Shack” and “Roam.” We’ll hear selections from that landmark recording as well as music from Mike Moondrops, On Fuwa Fuwa Music, featuring David Lord, Miki Masuda and Ben Snook as well as Will Erickson.
Friday, October 4
It’s Our New Month, New Music feature with selections from the latest by Twin Cities, Charlie Parr, Old Crow Medicine Show and others.
Saturday, October 5
After firing founding guitarist Bob Stinson in 1986, the remaining members of The Replacements (Stinson’s brother Tommy, Paul Westerberg and Chris Mars) set about making an album in Memphis, Tennessee. Released in 1987, Pleased To Meet Me is both a continuation of the group’s cheeky, punk rock roots and a departure from it. With sensitive, refined material such as “Skyway,” “Can’t Hardly Wait” and “Nightclub Jitters” rubbing elbows with angry, unapologetic numbers such as “I.O.U.” and “Shooting Dirty Pool,” the record proved that The Replacements had lost none of their attitude with Stinson’ departure. Listen for music from that release on this episode as well as music from the soundtrack to the 1996 film Open Season, which featured new compositions from Westerberg and also included his 1996 tribute to Bob Stinson, “Good Day.”
Monday, October 7
We’ll remember legendary drummer Ginger Baker, who died Sunday at age 80 after a lengthy illness. Baker is perhaps best known as the drummer for Cream, featuring Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton. But he was a versatile player who favored jazz and whose musical life saw him collaborating with African music legend Fela Kuti, post-punk icons Public Image Ltd., and space rock outfit Hawkwind. We’ll hear selections from throughout Baker’s career on this episode, including his work with Masters of Reality.
Tuesday, October 8
Released in September, 1990, All Shook Down stands as the final studio album from The Replacements. While the record only features all four members on a handful of tracks and paints a bleak portrait of a band on the verge of collapse, it nevertheless maintains the outfit’s undeniable spark via songs such as “Attitude,” “My Little Problem” and “When It Began.” Frontman Paul Westerberg also turned in two career highs via the ballads “Sadly Beautiful” and “The Last.” We’ll hear selections from this recording as well as music from Westerberg’s 1996 LP Eventually, which found him meditating on loneliness (“Once Around The Weekend”), parenthood (“MamaDaddyDid”) and the passing of time (“Century”).
