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!
Artist | Track | Album
Maxi Dunn | How Was I To Know | Welcome To Soonville
McPherson Grant | Big Picture People | Song
Curtis Mayfield | Superfly | The Very Best Of Curtis Mayfield
Lannie Flowers | Don’t Make Me Wait | Single release
Astral Drive | Wishing I Could Change The World | Astral Drive
The Imperial Sound | Get Along! | The New AM
The Cherry Bluestorms | Out | Whirligig!
Sparklejet interview
Sparklejet | Let’s Behind That Place | Beyond The Beyond
Victor Sotelo | Desperately Tired Of White Noise | Homeland Insecurities
Sparklejet | The World Before Longitude | Single release
Sparklejet | Somewhere Along The Way | Phonovella
Sparklejet | Glimpser | Phonovella
Spygenius | Godfearing | Pacéphale
The Miss Alans | Mata Hari’s Butt | Remnants
William Duke | Caroline And The Silver Screen | Quatro
Addison Love | Wee & Nancy Lee | Thoughts On Lunch
Duncan Faure | Man Of A Thousand Dreams | Pronounced “Four-Uh”
Lisa Mychols | Endless Daydream | Sugar
THIS WEEK’S GUEST:
Only eight days in, and September has turned into a rather amazing month for the show. This week, the Fresno power trio Sparklejet drove up Highway 99 and made Twirl Radio their first Sacramento stop. Victor Sotelo, Wade Krause, and Chris Estep spent well over an hour with me, in an unstructured (my fault), free-ranging conversation. We heard some great examples of their music from the past decade or so, and talked about how it all come together.
This visit was particularly auspicious for a few reasons. It was the first time they’d been to Sacramento in over a decade, and that night was to be their first show at the venerable tavern, Old Ironsides, in over 20 years. And–Victor had recently released his first solo record, “Homeland Insecurities”–and it is a good one. Every bit as good as the Sparklejet releases–just different.
Sparklejet is a seriously hard-rocking band. They’re both studious and reckless. They put much care and effort into their songs, and they perform them with reckless abandon. I like to think of them as “intellectual hard rock”. They’re not afraid to try new things. I liked talking with these guys–as important as their music is, they never take themselves too seriously, so we were able to have a light-hearted chat about serious topics. They even brought along a few tracks to play for the show. I think you need to get to know them a little better.
Check out their discography at https://sparklejet.bandcamp.com/.
