The RFC MINI SHOW # 32

The RFC MINI SHOW starring Blue Million

August 4, 2014 by rudy panucci

This week The RFC MINI SHOW stars Charleston Rock Institutions, Blue Million. This is footage of Alan, Andy and Gary that we recorded in April, 2011 at The Empty Glass. Our crew that night included Johnny Rock, the drummer for the legendary RFC band, Go Van Gogh. You’ll see him in a couple of shots.

Blue Million was one of the original local bands featured on the radio version of Radio Free Charleston, and they are still going strong 25 years later. They still perform locally, most recently in June at Bruno’s, and we will keep you posted on their next shows in PopCult.

This episode of The RFC MINI SHOW features two songs from the band’s night at the Glass back in 2011, one of which has never been seen before.

PopCult Instant Video: Doctor Who Regenerated

Doctor Who Comes To Charleston

August 3, 2014 by rudy panucci

Ronn Smith as The Doctor

PopCult is proud to present the first look at Doctor Who: The Classic Series Regenerated. This is a locally-produced fan-film tribute to the long-running BBC science fiction series, particularly the era of the Fourth Doctor, who was portrayed by Tom Baker. You can check out the Facebook page for this projectHERE.

Just last weekend, scenes for Doctor Who: The Classic Series Regenerated were shot at The Clay Center, Spring Hill Cemetary, Dunbar’s Wine Cellar Park and other locations around the area.

The Dcotor and Sara Jane at Dunbar’s Wine Cellar Park, photo by Mark Wolfe Design

Doctor Who: The Classic Series Regenerated is the brainchild and labor of love of Ronn Smith, a life-long fan of The Doctor. In fact, the first time I met Ronn, several years ago at one of Dale Morton’s Halloween parties, he was dressed as The Fourth Doctor. You may have noticed our sneak peek at Ronn as The Doctor in this week’s Monday Morning Art. The plan is to recreate the look and feel of the original series while telling new adventures of The Fourth Doctor and Sara Jane, his companion.

The RFC MINI SHOW # 31

The RFC MINI SHOW starring The Diablo Blues Band

July 30, 2014 by rudy panucci

This week’s RFC MINI SHOW presents The Diablo Blues Band. Newly signed to Arm The Pit Records,

this band is a long-time Radio Free Charleston mainstay, newly reborn with a new vocalist and the addition of a great horn section. We’ve been bringing you great music from this band for over five years, and it’s great to see them revitalized with new energy and a new line up.

We recorded them at The Empty Glass last May performing two originals, “Loud Mouth Woman” and “How D’You Like Me Now?” The members of DBB are Johnny “Hurricane” Compton,John ” The Mud Cat” Chickogee, Tommy Fountaine, Jessica Lowe, Kevin Kidd, Terry Lowry, Billy Hambleton and Morris Hambleton.

You can catch The Diablo Blues Band August 10 at The Empty Glass, where they will be recording a live album, their debut onArm The Pit Records.

The RFC MINI SHOW # 30

The RFC MINI SHOW Starring Dina Hornbaker

July 21, 2014 by rudy panucci

This week the RFC MINI SHOW shines its spotlight on Dina Hornbaker, who made her Radio Free Charleston debut back on episode 196, last March. Dina is a very talented singer/songwriter who just moved back to Charleston last year and has become a star of the open mic scene in town.

This week’s RFC MINI SHOW brings you three songs performed by Dina just last week at the Early Open Mic at Taylor Books. The RFC Crew just happened to be there armed with cameras and we decided to snag Dina’s first three-song set before deadline duties forced us to make a hasty retreat.This was true guerilla filmmaking because we forgot to tell anyone we were recording and had to ask permission afterward.

You’ll hear Dina doing a Summertime song with nods to Sam Cooke and George Gershwin, as well as the song that she performed on RFC 196, “Mountain Mama.” We wrap up the show with a lovely song that does not yet have a title. We’d like to thank Dina for allowing us to bring you this terrific little work-in-progress.
The Taylor Books Early Open Mic is developing into quite an eclectic scene. Keep checking PopCult for details on when the next one is coming up. The video in this episode may seem a little blocky, but that’s entirely due to your producer/director/host screwing up something while rendering it. So pretend it was done on purpose.

The RFC MINI SHOW # 29

The RFC MINI SHOW starring InFormation

July 14, 2014 by rudy panucci

This week The RFC MINI SHOW dives into the vault for two songs by the terrific local band,InFormation. One of these performances has never been seen before. These were recorded in May, 2011 at The Blue Parrot.

InFormation is Curtis Chittendon, Shane Durham and Roy Graley, and we first had them on Radio Free Charleston (with an early line-up) seven years ago. They continue to impress the hell out of RFC host Rudy Panucci with their progressive alternative energy and great lyrics.
We will now quote freely from their website…

“InFormation is a 3 piece Rock ‘N’ Roll group from Charleston, WV. If you think that Rock ‘N’ Roll music may be dying off, you need to see an InFormation show and have your Rock ‘N’ Roll spirits re-lifted!InFormation brings everything you need for a Rock ‘N’ Roll show; mind melting guitar solos, killer guitar riffs, 9 string basses, 7 string basses, drum solos, catchy lyrics, and most of all a real good time.”

You can next catch the band Friday, July 18, at The Blue Parrot (where we recorded these tunes) with Deck of Fools (another great band that we’ve had on RFC). The show starts at 10 PM and the cover charge is only five bucks.

Episode 199 of RFC

RFC 199 Brings You FestivALL 2014

July 1, 2014 by rudy panucci

Despite some technical glitches, we are bringing you a half hour of coverage of Charleston’s just-concluded FestivALL 2014 in RFC 199. Radio Free Charleston looks at FestivALL with music from Todd Burge, The Bark O Loungers, QiET and The Company Stores, plus dance from Susan Angela Hughart and The Trillium Performance Arts Collective. Sprinkled throughout are many sights and sounds of FestivALL.

The RFC MINI SHOW # 28

The RFC MINI SHOW presents FestivALL ART PARADE 2014

June 23, 2014 by rudy panucci

This week we bring you the 2014 FestivALL Art Parade as our RFC MINI SHOW. With many of Charleston’s most creative persons marching in front of the city’s coolest bookstore/coffeehouse/art gallery, Taylor Books, the Art Parade signals the beginning of FestivALL.

You will hear Bill Kimmons introduce Peter Marshall, The Charleston Light Opera Guild, Camp Curtain Call, Jude Binder, Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School, The Chemical Valley Roller Girls, Kanawha Players, QiET and more.

This is the fifth year for the FestivALL Charleston Art Parade, and it was cool to see it return to its original route in time for FestivALL’s tenth year. Next week a full-length episode of Radio Free Charleston will bring you more sights and sounds from FestivALL.

The RFC MINI SHOW # 27

The RFC MINI SHOW with Jenna Brooke Swanson and MORE!

June 16, 2014 by rudy panucci

This week The RFC MINI SHOW gears up for FestivAll, y’know, when the city…Charleston in this case…becomes a work of art? FestivAll kicks off Friday, June 20 (with a couple of cool pre-FestivAll events thrown in for good measure). For this show we have dived back into our vaults for some Bellydancing by Jenna Brooke Swanson, who will return to Charleston to perform during the second weekend of FestivAll. You can see her and her bellydancing cohorts at the Riggs Corporation Stage, right in front of Taylor Books on Captiol Street on Saturday the 28th and Sunday the 20th, at 1 PM and 3 PM.

In these previously-unseen clips, you will see Jenna doing her sword dance solo, and teaming up with Susan Angela Hughart for a duet.

But before that, you will see a trailer for an epic movie that will premiere on Saturday the, June 21, at Rival Cards and Games in Kanawha City. “The Krusaders of The Kanawha Valley 2: The Banishment of The Bagheads” is a big-budget Hollywood extrazaganza with state-of-the art special effects and make-up. You won’t want to miss this epic motion picture.You can see it free at Rival Cards and Games at 10 PM on the 21st.

Keep reading PopCult for more info on the cool Stuff To Do during FestivAll.

PopCult Video: MEGO Meet Metal

MEGO MEET METAL

June 15, 2014 by rudy panucci

As promised in our MEGO Meet photo essay, here is MEGO MEET METAL,  a quick and sloppy collection of images from last week’sMEGO Meet at the Kruger Street Toy and Train Museum in Wheeling, set to metal-ish music from the YouTube library. It was the tenth annual convention for collectors of MEGO and MEGO-like action figures put on by The MEGO Museum.

MEGO was one of the top toy companies of the 1970s, and was instrumental in changing the toy business to one based primarily on licensed properties. MEGO made action figures and other toys based on Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, S.W.A.T., Happy Days, The Waltons and tons of other movies and TV shows. They also brought Micronauts to American kids. After ruling the toy industry in the early 1970s, MEGO had a reversal of fortune and found themselves out of business in the early 1980s.

But the MEGO action figures left a lasting impression among fans, collectors and customizers, and now there are several companies producing action figures in MEGO’s trademark 8-inch size. This video was shot entirely by Melanie Larch and edited by Rudy Panucci, and was just done for fun to show some of the cool stuff that was on display at MEGO Meet. If you check out last week’s photo essay (linked above) you will find links to many of the dealers and customizers whose work is shown here.

The RFC MINI SHOW #26

The RFC MINI SHOW with StychNTyme

June 9, 2014 by rudy panucci

This week The RFC MINI SHOW digs back into the vault to bring you footage of StychNTyme that was recorded last year at the ECMC Kick Cancer for Kids benefit show at The Eagles Club in Charleston.

StychNTyme performed a “farewell” concert last weekend in Charleston, so we decided to go back and revive this previously unseen footage. We’d shelved this because, shortly after this show, the band underwent a line-up change. In fact, their final concert featured guests Lee Harrah and Johnny Compton filling in on vocals and guitar.

Our intention was to recored StychNTyme again, when their line-up stabilized, but that didn’t happen, so we’re presenting these two killer songs to mark the passing of one of the area’s top metal bands. It’s actually cool that we wound up using this footage because the band was tight and the mix (courtesy of Brad Wood of Woodboys Music) was fantastic.