DJ Mike Show #161 – 10/31/2020: Interviews with Will Harris of mylittlebrother and Brad Brooks!

DJ Mike Lidskin spent ten years at a National Public Radio station in Chicago, returned to California in 1997 and created Twirl Radio, and now hosts 30 hours of programming a month at Woody Radio. His two shows, “The Show With No Name” and “The Saturday Thing”, feature 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 the DJ Mike Shows live on Tuesday nights at 8:00 p.m. PST and Saturdays at 10:00 a.m. PST at Woody Radio, http://www.woodyradio.com.

THIS WEEK’S GUESTS:
The big Halloween Saturday Thing, on Woody Radio. Ok, well it wasn’t really specifically a Halloween show. But it did happen on the morning/afternoon of October 31st, so I guess we get to call it the Halloween show.

But honestly, nothing spooky happened on the show. Far from it–I got to meet a couple of really great musicians for the first time, and talk about their fine new records.

First up was Will Harris of the English band mylittlebrother. Big Stir Records discovered the band at roughly the same time that mylittlebrother discovered Big Stir. Funny how that worked out. The new album, “Howl”, appropriately named for a release date so close to Halloween, is excellent. Featuring Will’s charming vocals and great song writing, and tight ensemble playing from the band, most of the songs seem like something I should have heard before. It’s not that the album is derivative in any way; it’s more that a lot of these songs are instant classics.

I learned that the band is based in Cumbria–tucked into the far northwest corner of England, axe throwing distance from Scotland. It’s a very green land, where it gets dark at 3:30 p.m. in the winter, but stays light past 11:00 p.m. in the summer. So we had a lively chat about music, geography, and food. (Really, what else is there?) More info at https://bigstirrecords.com/mylittlebrother.

Later on, a simple phone call to Oakland, California, just two area codes away from me, brought in Brad Brooks. He’s been tearing up our Woody Radio airwaves with his new album, “God Save The City”. It’s by turns fiery and soulful, and in fact, some of the songs have been described by Brad as “Soul N Roll”. I think we have a new genre on our hands.

It took several years to get this album made, and finally out to the public in the middle of a pandemic, no less. But it’s an urgent, vital record, with an inspiring story behind the urgency, and I’ll let Brad tell you the details when you listen to the interview. Also–you’ll hear about the true story behind his song “Lee Marvin’s Uzi”, and his brand new single with Wayne Kramer (yes, you read that right!). And finally–among the many shining lights in Brad’s band is Andrew Griffin, the mastermind of one of my longtime favorite bands, Felsen. Andrew plays drums on several tracks, and co-wrote some of the songs. We had a spirited chat about, well, everything! More info–including some stuff we didn’t cover in the interview: https://bradbrooksmusic.com/

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