Episode 101 of RFC

RFC 101 "Viewmaster Shirt" from Rudy Panucci on Vimeo.

Start The Second Hundred RFCs with Josh Buskirk, Gypsy Nomads, ButtonFlies and More
June 7, 2010 by rudy panucci 

Above you see the 101st episode of Radio Free Charleston, “Viewmaster Shirt.” This episode of our show includes music from Josh Buskirk, The Gypsy Nomads and The ButtonFlies, plus a sequel from MURFMEEF and a trailer for the film,“Toxic Soup.”

Our host segments were shot on a warm, windy Saturday afternoon in front of the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse on Virginia Street, for absolutely no reason other than the fact that we hadn’t shot there yet.  We’re still so wiped out from the big double-sized 100th episode that we didn’t put a lot of thought into our host location this time.

The music and film on the show is top-notch, though, so don’t think we’re slacking.

We kick the show off with a trailer for the film “Toxic Soup.”  Steve Fesenmaier wrote about the film, ““Toxic Soup” is a worthy successor to Mimi Pickering’s landmark film, “Chemical Valley,” returning this time to the connections between the chemical industry in West Virginia and the 1984 Bhopal Disaster, plus a whole lot more. It explores the disasterous effects of all the thousands of chemicals invented and used since WWII to make teflon in Parkersburg, and much more.”  You can read Steve’s full article over at the WV Film Blog, here at the Gazette. We are glad to help bring some attention to this compelling documentary, and we’ll let you know when the next local screenings happen.

Our first musical guest is our old friend Josh Buskirk. We’ve been featuring Josh on the show since episode 18, when we caught him at John Radcliff’s house in our “Radio Free Parkersburg” episode.  This time around, for the first time on RFC, you get to hear Josh sing!  Instead of just getting to listen to Josh’s virtuoso guitar playing, you’ll get to hear him sing his arrangement of the traditional “Deep River Blues.”

We recorded this tune at Taylor Books, and we hope to see Josh playing in Charleston more often.

MURFMEEF returns with a fleshed-out, more fully-realized version of his deeply moving song, “My Mouth Is full….”MURFMEEF has been racking up an amazing number of hits on his YouTube page lately, thanks to works of genius like this.

The Gypsy Nomads are a punk cabaret act who hail from New York City.  A few weeks ago they opened for The Hellblinki Sextet at The Empty Glass, and though we hadn’t planned to record both bands, I couldn’t resist whipping out the Zi8 to grab at least one song by this great band.

“Yes I’m French” is an autobiographical song about singer, Samantha Stephenson and her adventures growing up French, in New Jersey.  With her musical partner, Scott Helland, the two delivered an incredible set, and you can be sure that we’ll be on hand with multiple cameras the next time they come through town. I’ll also let you know when their upcoming DVD is released, right here in PopCult.

Closing out the show we have our old friends, The ButtonFlies. Working as a duo on this song, we caught them doing “Lil’ Birdie,” which you saw performed by the entire band back onRFC  63. This was recorded the night of Eamond Hardiman’s “Porkchop” DVD release party at The Empty Glass, and in honor of the event, Andrea is wearing a porkchop bikini.  If Dave was indulging in any pork-based undergarments, he wasn’t telling anybody.

That’s it for the behind-the-scenes notes on RFC 101.  Be warned that our next show will be our third “show without words.”  Look for it in a week or two.