And so we did. Music is by Whistlepunk and Mark and Steve Beckner with Alan Young. Mark, Steve and Alan were recorded live at LiveMix Studio at the same time that we shot the host segments, and this may be the only time in the history of RFC that the show's host introduced a band "live" with them in the room.
For the host segments, a last-minute schedule SNAFU meant that Kitty Killton could not reprise her role as "Celeste the Zombie Supermodel," so we had to have a vocal stand-in to explain her absence. Liz McCormick, Brian Young and Mel Larch return as studio zombies and Rudy reverted to his "Count Rudolph" identity.
The episode truly captured the Halloween spirit...in April.
Animation is vintage Amiga work by Frank Panucci, and this is also the only episode where a musical guest had to be pressed into running camera because we had too many people on screen at the same time.
From April, 2009 comes episode 64 of RFC "Radio Free Charleston Horror Theater Part Three." You can find parts one and two HERE. After the video you will find the original, fake production notes from April Fool's Day, and after that, the real production notes. As always, the links may stink.
When RFC Is 64: Sir Paul McCartney, Peter Buck and Pixar Come To Radio Free Charleston!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Who would’ve thought that Radio Free Charleston would ever land a Beatle? Well, in the latest episode of RFC, we not only managed to lure Sir Paul McCartney to LiveMix Studio, but we also snared R.E.M’s axeman, Peter Buck, and animation fromPixar Studios, plugging their upcoming summer blockbuster, “Up.”
Radio Free Charleston 64 is ONLINE NOW! Follow the jump for all the dirt on what has to be our biggest show ever!
It turns out that the Former Beatle has discovered the YouTube, and became a fan of the show after he saw the video I created for our Beatles tribute episode in the Fall of 2007. This was for the song “Requiem For Pepperland” by Stephen Beckner and Go Van Gogh. Now, it also turns out that while Sir Paul was gracious enough to fly in and perform for RFC at his own expense, he would not allow us to use any of his songs, since he has to protect his publishing rights. Instead, as a way of returning the favor to Stephen Beckner, he agreed to perform a cover of Stephen’s old Go Van Gogh hit, “Shut Up, I Love You.”
Needless to say, Stephen would have been deeply honored, had I remembered to invite him to the taping. Paul was an incrediblly humble down-to-Earth guy, and he promised to come back to the show as soon as he learns the words to the Whistlepunk song, “Knee Deep In Wine.”
John Lasseter at PIXAR has apparently been following PopCult since the days when Melanie Larch and I were the animation critics for The Charleston Gazette. I was floored a few weeks ago when he called and offered us two minutes of never-before-seen footage from the upcoming Disney/Pixar film, “Up.” You can tell this is going to be a huge hit, and yes, that is Lady GaGa introducing our animation this time. Who else would go out in public dressed like that?
Opening up the show is Peter Buck, guitarist extraordinaire for R.E.M. and a famed music producer, too. One little known fact about Peter is that he is a huge fan of Baroque Ukelele music from sixteenth-century Britain. We have him here on RFC, playing a rare seven-string Balsamic Ukelele, performing the madrigal, “Whistle O’er The Epistle In Yon Thistle.” Who knew Peter had such a lovely falsetto?
Over the end credits, Peter pulls out his regular guitar and treats us to a rousing version of “Jimmy Crack Corn.”
That’s it for episode 64 of Radio Free Charleston. While it’s our biggest show yet, we know we’re going to keep topping it!
RFC 64: The Real Production Notes
April 2, 2009 by rudy panucci
Radio Free Charleston 64 is online now, but then, you probably knew that. And, if you’re particularly astute, you may have noticed that the production notes posted here yesterday were part of an elaborate April Fool’s Day joke. In fact, our sixty-fourth episode does not feature Paul McCartney, Peter Buck, or Pixar. It’s part 3 of last year’s Halloween extravaganza, “Radio Free Charleston Horror Theatre”.
Count Rudolph returns as your host and this time the show emanates entirely from LiveMix Studio. Our musical guests are Whistlepunk and Mark Beckner and Alan Young ofHitchcock Circus, with Stephen Beckner. The animation is a golden oldie by Frank Panucci.
Our cast of zombies includes Liz McCormick, Melanie Larch, and Brian Young, with a special performance by Alan Young as hyp-mo-tized zombie chow.
We recorded Whistlepunk (Spencer Elliott, Dan Jordan, and Brian Young) at LiveMix in February. Stripped back down to a power trio, this band (the first-ever musical guests on the Radio Free Charleston web show) is back in full fighting trim. They electrified the party-goers at LiveMix as you can see in the video for the song “Lost”, which was briefly heard in the end credits of Radio Free Charleston’s Halloween 2007 show.
Among the partying dancers in the video you’ll see Julie McMillian, Anne-Marie Elliott, and Whistlepunk’s former lead singer, Karen Allen (appearing on RFC for the third week in a row). In addition to being a killer performance, this is a great example of the magical vibe that can only be experienced at a LiveMix Studio party. The place was jumpin’ that night, and we got tons of great material to use on RFC.
Our animation this time is “TIMROD”, a film created by Frank Panucci back in the early, early days of CGI animation. This cartoon was created using two Trigonometry Calculators wired to an Etch-A-Sketch, powered by a Russet potato. Actually, Frank did this on a primitive Amiga computer, which had less computing power than many cell phones have today. We were lucky that Frank managed to stumble across this lost classic on an old VHS cassette.
Our next musical guests, who close out the show, are old friends of Radio Free Charleston, dating back to the radio version almost two decades ago. Stephen and Mark Beckner were half of Go Van Gogh and Alan Young was in a variety of bands and is also the longtime brother of RFC Big Shot, Brian Young. Mark and Alan are currently based in Nashville and are both in the band Hitchcock Circus (coincidentally, Hitchcock Circus will be performing as a full band at LiveMix Studio on May 30). Stephen Beckner can be seen popping up all over Radio Free Charleston, most recently in Episode 63, just last week.
As a special treat for this Halloween/April Fool’s Day episode, Mark re-worked the song “Ballet Dancer,” from his old band, The Tunesmiths, into “Zombie Dancer.” Mark and 
Stephen were also good sports, participating in the “sketch” while I introduced their song.Alan was even more of a trouper, allowing himself to become zombie food in the animation introduction. That sequence also features camera work by none other than Stephen Beckner. If there’s one thing we know at Radio Free Charleston, it’s how to overwork and exploit our volunteer talent.
Stephen were also good sports, participating in the “sketch” while I introduced their song.Alan was even more of a trouper, allowing himself to become zombie food in the animation introduction. That sequence also features camera work by none other than Stephen Beckner. If there’s one thing we know at Radio Free Charleston, it’s how to overwork and exploit our volunteer talent.
Speaking of overworked and exploited volunteer talent, we must once again praise our crew of zombies, Radio Free Charleston Big Shots Melanie Larch andBrian Young reprise their roles from last October as does the ultra-talented Capitol High student Liz McCormick, who does double-duty as “Suzie” the RFC script girl. Liz will be performing in “The Thistledown Faeries: A Polar Adventure” at the Cultural Center this Friday night.
Sadly, a last minute scheduling conflict prevented Radio Free Charleston’s Official Barista, Chelsea Cook, from reprising her role as Celeste, the Zombie Supermodel (who eats people’s brains and makes herself throw up). We did find a creative way to explain her absence. We were also unable to connect with Charleston’s master of underground cinema, Scott Elkins, who we had planned to include in this episode.
You can also check out Scott and Chelsea’s creation, Kitty Killton, right here. Since we have unused material written for Chelsea and Scott, don’t be surprised if there’s a Part 4 of Radio Free Charleston Horror Theatre.
Maybe we’ll do it for the 4th of July.There you go. That’s the true story of Episode 64 of Radio Free Charleston. We feel really sorry for anyone who clicked over to watch Radio Free Charleston expecting Paul McCartney and Peter Buck and Pixar. We’re not apologizing. We just feel really sorry for you
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Elvis Capone says:
Lar lar pants on far. I thought the little robot guy was Paul McCartney until you said different. Now I feel like a befuddled chump. A “befump”, if you will.Steve Beckner says:
I didn’t even notice Mark had his hood up the whole time.
