Twirl Radio #873 – Victor Erwin, The Bobbleheads, Stephen “Spaz” Schnee

After ten years at a National Public Radio station in Chicago, Mike Lidskin returned to California in 1997 and created Twirl Radio, a weekly two hour radio program which features the finest independent music and artists from the rock era. Mike’s on a mission to not “just spin rock music, but to educate listeners about this vital art form.” Indeed, he doesn’t just announce the songs, but gives histories about some of the artists, the albums, and the songs themselves.

You can catch Twirl live each Saturday afternoon, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM PST on Sacramento’s Voice, KUBU 96.5 FM, and archived right here, as well as at http://www.twirlradio.com. If you haven’t headed into your Saturday night with an earful of Twirl, you’re doing it wrong!

Bellygunner | Kilobyte | Machine Gun Built For Two
JonEmery and the Unconventionals | If You Think You’re Heartbroken | Wrecked

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS:
If last week’s show was one for the books, this week’s was one for the ages. 3 sets of guests–all live, in the Sacramento studio. And thanks to my friend Bill Fuller (The Long Hair Detectorists Guild), who was off this week, I got to expand to a full 4 hours! And we seriously needed every minute of it, because the action was nonstop. There was some overlap between the guests, where they were all in the room at the same time–just like the TV talk shows of old. I’ve never done a show quite like this before.

Victor Erwin was visiting California, all the way from Texas. He was doing advance work and making arrangements for a West Coast leg of the Spyderpop artists summer tour, going to venues up and down the state of California, meeting with the right people, in person. That’s how you do it–ensure that the artists have the right room to present their songs to discerning music fans. Which artists are we talking about? None other than Bill Lloyd, Lannie Flowers, Danny Wilkerson, and Chris Church, that’s who! We spent the first hour talking about that, Vic’s musical influences, and everything else under the sun. We even heard a track from his band The Re-Used Electrics. For more Spyderpop goings-on, check out spyderpop.com.

In the second hour, we focused on John Ashfield and Rob Harford of San Francisco band The Bobbleheads. These guys are the guitar attack of their infectiously upbeat, rockin’ live sound. That live sound translates well to record, as heard on their new one, Myths And Fables. We got some insight into their songwriting and recording process, and just what it takes to be a Bobblehead. Later on, they played DJ, and brought some of their favorite songs to share on the air. Be sure to check these guys out here in the Sacramento area–they’ll be bringing the fun to the third annual Twirl Radio Pop Fest on Sunday, May 26th, at the Blue Note Brewing Company in Woodland, CA. It’ll be an all ages free show starting at 1:00 p.m. You really don’t want to miss them live. thebobbleheads.com

We then spent over an hour hanging out with legendary music journalist Stephen “Spaz” Schnee. When I found out about all this musical greatness that was going to cross paths in Sacramento, I simply had to make sure Stephen was there to experience it too. He lives in Sacramento now, and it would be musical malpractice if he wasn’t there for all this epicness. And as has become a semi-regular tradition, he brought along some new music (some truly new, others, new-to-me). We not only heard some music, but we talked, philosophized, and reflected about music and the state of modern day music. Check out some of his various ventures: reviews and interviews (Discussions Magazine http://www.discussionsmagazine.com/) and videos (But Is It Power Pop? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6PYvSUdruFW2-ZrAIbni5g)

After all that, I had a little bit of quiet time to wrap up the show. So we enjoyed it, but sure weren’t quiet about it, as we wrapped up with some new and new-ish music. All in all, a fun, wild musical ride. Enjoy the show!

LISTEN TO ARCHIVED TWIRLCASTS HERE!