Re: For your Friday evening listening pleasure ...

Tomorrow night I'll have the privilege of being the guest host of KSER's newest program, "Party Out of Bounds." As you probably can guess from the title, it's an upbeat set of '80s pop and rock. The regular host, Janice Kayne, likes to mix in a few surf rock and other cool retro tunes.

This Friday, 22 August, at 8:30 PM Pacific time on KSER-FM. Tune in if you can!

The setlist from last Friday night:

"Party Out of Bounds" (live) - The B-52's
"The Party" - Gary Myrick & the Figures
"Party Weekend" - Joe "King" Carrasco & the Crowns
"Party-itis" - The Kings

"New Toy" - Lene Lovich
"Romance" - Payola$
"Midnight to Six Man" - The Pretty Things
"Gidget Goes to Hell" - Suburban Lawns

"I'm Falling" - Comsat Angels
"Soulful Dress" - Sugar Pie DeSanto
"When U Were Mine" - Prince
"Hero Takes a Fall" - The Bangles (for Debbi Peterson's birthday)

"The Time Warp" - The Rocky Horror Picture Show [soundtrack]
"I Do the Rock" - Tim Curry
"The Black Widow" - Link Wray
"Dressed to Kill" - Fashion

"Blue Jean" - David Bowie
"Change" - Tears for Fears (for Roland Orzabal's birthday)
"Pipeline" - Dick Dale & His Del-Tones with Stevie Ray Vaughan
"I Want Candy" - Bow Wow Wow (by request)

"Down Boys" - Warrant
"Memories Can't Wait" - Living Colour (for Vernon Reid's birthday)
"Round and Round" - Ratt (for bassist Juan Croucier's birthday)

"The Politics of Dancing" - Re-Flex
"Weapons of Love" - The Truth
"We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thang" - Heaven 17
"The Stand" - The Alarm

"Cuban Slide" - The Pretenders
"Life's a Gamble" - The Rads
"Last Time Around" - The Del-Vetts
"My Melancholy Blues" - Queen

Quite a few listeners called in to say they were enjoying the show. ("Are you playing Lene Lovich? I haven't heard that in ages!") One caller said the set took him straight back to his favorite bar in Minnesota during the early Eighties. ("I'd swear my feet are sticking to the floor!") And then there was the caller who requested the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.

Looks great, but...a TPer playing Warrant and Ratt?!!? Can we expect an all Journey/Styx/Toto set next week? Or was it for the Ozark Mountain Daredevils guy.

Hey, don't dis "Round and Round."

Delvin, you were subbing on an 80s-centered show, right? Why else play the Truth's "Weapons of Love?"

Yep, "Party Out of Bounds" is an '80s-centric program (with some '60 retro thrown in). And what's an '80s party without some hair metal?

We all have our quirks of taste. Say what you will about the hair metal scene, but it produced some really enjoyable singles, IMO. Give me a well-selected comp of '80s metal over a playlist of Pitchfork's best indie songs of the 2010s any day.

And speaking of quirks of taste, well, no one twisted my arm to play "Weapons of Love."

I really liked "Weapons" when it came out. I relistened to it for the first time in decades not long ago, and though it was a perfect example of a decent pop song being bludgeoned by stereotypical 80s production. Which, when I'm in the right mood, has its own charm, admittedly.

Same could be said of "The Politics of Dancing," but I was glad to include that one, too.

Next time I host that program, I'll be sure to solicit suggestions for the party.

Quote

And what's an '80s party without some hair metal?

One without fights, cheep beer in a can, kids asleep in parked camaros, def leppard t-shirts, mullets, and women with misspelled breast tatoos?


A list of p-fork indie songs doesn't exist.
A comp of hair bands and I'm killing myself.



Post Edited (08-25-14 19:27)

> A comp of hair bands and I'm killing myself.

So a party without hair metal is a party without a suicide, too?

Well, actually, that doesn't wash. I've been to at least one punk-centric party where someone got "dared" to slit her wrist. (She didn't do it.)

For me, this is another instance where personal associations have a lot to do with it. Hearing Styx, Journey, Toto et al brings up a lot of memories of high school, which I can do without.

But the hair metal of the mid/late '80s? That music reminds me of my last year or so of college, and the years that followed. Those were fun days for me. And yes, I'll admit, those fun days included a few parties where there were fights, mullets, cheap canned beer, Def Leppard t-shirts, kids falling asleep in Camaros parked outside ... I don't remember seeing any tattoos with misspellings, though, with the exception of my own. (Just kidding.)