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  • The Ledge #604: Odds & Ends Again

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    The “odds and ends” series is an opportunity for me to mix all kinds of material. This week’s version mixes a bunch of new releases with a ton of material I’ve been playing around the house in recent weeks. There’s also a tribute to Mary Weiss, the leader of The Shangri-Las who passed away a few days ago. Otherwise, there’s classics by The Clash, X, The Birthday Party, and The Long Ryders, along with a new discovery of The Deviants, a great old band that for whatever reason I had never checked out.

    As for that little sound sample at the beginning of the show, I must thank my buddy Kevin for alerting me to a show called The Listener. I just can’t help but include oddly-placed discussions on The Replacements. 

    For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

     

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  • The Ledge #603: 1979 UK

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    1979 was an important year for rock and roll, but it was a bigger year for my musical journey. This was the year that the real obsession with buying records began. I had a job. I had a car. And I had put together a pretty awesome sound system in my bedroom.

    This was the first year I was buying new music AS it was coming out. I was no longer saving up for a record I read about in Creem Magazine. I was at the record store each and every week. In fact, this was the year I first started working at a record store, and you know I spent more money on music than I actually made at the store.

    So tonight’s celebration of the UK sounds of that year is truly a trip back in time. With a handful of exceptions, this was indeed a good portion of my playlist back then. London Calling. A Different Kind of Tension. Setting Sons. Cool For Cats. Labour of Lust. The list goes on and on of music I forced friends to endure whether they liked them or not.

    For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

     

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  • The Ledge #602: 2023 Runners Up

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    Two weeks ago, I counted down my 40 favorite records of 2023. This week’s broadcast is a showcase for 35 other records that just barely missed the cut. There’s no letdown of quality, though, as each and every one of these picks could have easily made my main list. But combining the two shows, you now have my official list of the 75 best albums of the year. Think of these shows as a master shopping list, as I’m sure that any fan of punk, indie, power pop, and garage rock can find a record or five worth owning from tonight’s show.

    For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

     

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  • The Ledge #601: New Releases

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    It may be a new year, but there’s no change to the first episode of each and every month. Once again, I present to you over two hours of brand new music. Ok, there are a handful of tracks that actually came out a few months ago, but these are new discoveries for me. So in my convoluted set of self-created rules, they’re still new releases to me. 

    But as always, this show features a great mix of punk, garage, indie rock, and power pop. There’s music from all over the world, and both brand new and veteran acts. Anybody with a hunger for new music should be able to find their own highlights.

    For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

     

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  • The Ledge #600: Hudson’s Best of 2023

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    Choosing my favorite records of the year is always a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s great fun for a music nerd like me to revisit the hundreds of releases I’ve checked out the last twelve months. But it’s also frustrating trying to thin down those picks into a list that truly represents the past year. Many records that initially seemed a lock are suddenly eclipsed by new records that I simply can’t ignore. Other albums that I had prematurely set aside have revealed themselves to be chock full of fabulous tunes that I can’t imagine living without. 

    Overall, this is another great year for music. I’ll never understand the mindset of people, especially those around my age, that complain how there’s no great bands or records these days. Sure, the pop charts are primarily filled with garbage, and one does have to spend more time than ever finding new artists. But the search has always been a great part of the fun of being a collector, and my main reason I’ve now put together 600 episodes of this show is to share my findings with others. I’m always thrilled when I hear that someone has bought a record due to my recommendation. So please let me know your thoughts on this countdown of my picks for the 40 best records of the year!

    Please head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com to read the countdown of these albums.

     

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  • The Ledge #599: Annual Christmas Extravaganza!

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    Every year I spend the last few weeks of the year searching for new holiday songs for The Ledge’s annual Chirstmas special. Inevitably, every year I find more than enough songs to fill over two hours of broadcast time. This is the perfect soundtrack for this year’s festivities. A little bit of punk, a lot of power pop. Some veteran acts return with new tunes (Brinsley Scwarz, The Sensible Gray Cells, The Dollyrots), mixed in with plenty of brand new discoveries whose future releases I’ll definitely be investigating. 

    Just because it’s a Christmas special doesn’t mean we’re ignoring the “52 Weeks Of Teenage Kicks” series. This week’s version is truly a Christmas present, as Dos Enchiritos is a collaboration between my friend of almost 50 years, Craig Stenseth, and a previous contributor, Brent Dowell. It’s a great version that I can honestly say is unlike any I’ve played the previous 50 weeks. 

    Obviously, next week will be the conclusion of this series, but I’m still in the hunt to round out the year with yet one more new take on the tune. Please contact me if you are looking at contributing!

    For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

     

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  • The Ledge #598: Best Reissues, Compilations, etc. of 2023

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    It’s the time of year for everybody to unveil their various lists of the best records of the year, so here is the unveiling of the first part of my lists. This week’s show features a countdown of my 20 favorite reissues, box sets, live albums, compilations, and tribute albums of 2023. Look for a similar countdown of my 40 favorite new albums of the year in two weeks.

    But that doesn’t mean we’re ignoring the “52 Weeks of Teenage Kicks” series. Once again, we’re opening and closing the show with covers of the classic. The opening version is by Superchunk leader Mac McCaughan, recorded live on May 16, 2015. The closing remake is by a Canadian band called 63 Monroe who released a couple of EP’s and singles back in the early 80’s.

    Like I do every week, however, I must again plead with y’all for more versions of “Teenage Kicks”. If you are a musician, or have any contact with artists that could record their own take on the classic, please contact me!

    To see the actual countdown, please head to https://scotthudson.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-ledge-598-best-reissues.html

     

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  • The Ledge #597: More Replacements Tributes

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    Two weeks ago, I put together a show centered around seven different tribute records celebrating The Replacements. A couple of days after that episode was released I was contacted by a fan who noted that I had missed a couple of these sorts of records. After a bit of scrambing, I discovered that indeed I forgot all about some great fan-based compilatons.

    Yes, that’s the beauty of tonight’s selections. These three records were unofficial collections of musicians that had come together via online fan boards. The first such set, Cover Me Impressed – Alt.Music.Replacements Tribute, is pretty self-explanatory collection of tunes compiled by a popular usenet group in 2002. The other two tributes, Bring Your Own Lampshade (2005) and Dead Man Fake: Bring Your Own Lampshade 2 (2009), came together through contributors on the wonderful Man Without Ties message board, and include both solo and band tracks written by Paul Westerberg. Highlighting both of those compilatons are tracks by our old friend Jeremy Porter. 

    Besides a handful of recently acquired tunes, the rest of tonight’s show features tracks from two fabulous new Cherry Red Records box sets, Looking For The Magic: American Power Pop In The Seventies and Into Tomorrow: The Spirit Of Mod 1983-2000. Cherry Red always excels at these types of compilations, and these two are no exception.

    As for this week’s “52 Weeks of Teenage Kicks”, I’ve again opened and closed my show with entries. The show commences with a version by the veteran Irish band The Frank and Walters, and closes with UK pop-punkers Busted. 

    Like I do every week, however, I must again plead with y’all for more versions of “Teenage Kicks”. If you are a musician, or have any contact with artists that could record their own take on the classic, please contact me!

    For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

     

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  • The Ledge #596: New Releases

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    It may be the final new release episode of the year, but there’s no drop in quality. As always, there’s the usual mix of punk, indie, power pop, alternative, and other genres. There’s a Rum Bar Records segment, along with new tunes from our friends at Big Stir Records. There are veteran returns and newbie introductions. There’s something here for everyone with an inquisitive desire for new music.

    As for this week’s “52 Weeks of Teenage Kicks”, once again we open and close the show with covers. The opening track is The Dead Brothers, a self-described mix of “gypsy folk, death blues, gothic country and dark roots” from Geneva. The closing cover is from The Patsys, a Columbus, Ohio garage rock band featuring former members of Gaunt, Action Family, and New Bomb Turks. 

    As I do every week, however, I must again plead with y’all for more versions of “Teenage Kicks”. If you are a musician, or have any contact with artists that could record their own take on the classic, please contact me!

    Fore more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

     

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  • The Ledge #595: Replacements Tribute Albums

    Posted on by theledge Comment

    As one of those lunatics who tends to collect anything and everything asoociated with artists I love, it’s probably no surprise that I have quite a few tribute albums devoted to The Replacements. When Let the Bad Times Roll (a Tribute to The Replacements) was released earlier this month, I did a deep dive in my archives and discovered that I actually owned seven of these types of records.

    With that in mind, it was a no-brainer to do a show devoted to nothing but Replacements tribute albums. The seven records represented tonight have been released throughout the last three decades, and include releases originating in Australi and Italy. There’s a few semi-big names but there are as many, if not more, bands whose career I know nothing about.

    I also made myself a challenge that I would try not to duplicate any songs…and I succeeded! There are 35 different Replacements tracks covered by 35 different artists. Ok, there is one artist who appears twice – Mikey Erg’s band, Ergs, covers “I’m in Trouble” while as a solo act he performs “Wake Up”

    Just because the overall theme revolves around The Replacements doesn’t mean that I’m ignoring the “52 Weeks of Teenage Kicks” series. In fact, you get a double dose of covers tonight to open and close the show. The first version is by an L.A. band called Kolars. They’re a duo that features a drummer that tap dances rhythms with her feet atop a bass drum while simultaneously playing a stand-up kit. The version that closes the show, Freddy Lynxx and the Jet Boys, is led by a Johnny Thunders fanatic who actually allowed his hero to choose his band’s name. 

    As I do every week, however, I must again plead with y’all for more versions of “Teenage Kicks”. If you are a musician, or have any contact with artists that could record their own take on the classic, please contact me!

    For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

     

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