radio free mount airy

Crack The Sky, Recher Theatre

The ageless phemomenon known as Crack The Sky keeps rocking. Tonight Jane and I got right up front for the early show and were treated to the new (old) line up, featuring John Palumbo, Rick Witkowski, Joe D'Amico, Joe Macre, Bobby Hird, and Glenn Workman. Paul Newman helped out on acoustic during "Ice." It was great seeing Joe D'Amico and Joe Macre back with the band. It's been like thirty years now since we've seen the two Joes live? Seems like only yesterday.

This is the first show we've been to in a couple of years when we didn't either grab a setlist off the stage or copy down the tracks played. But among the great tunes we heard were Rangers At Midnight, Ice, A Sea Epic, Hold On, Surf City, a couple of tracks from the new album "The Sale" including Patriot, and a cool Beatles medly with encore Hot Razors In My Heart to close. The clasic Crack songs (from the first two albums) sounded much closer to the originals with Joe and Joe back in the lineup. John went crowd surfing right over our heads during the encore.

John surrepititiously stuffed a water bottle in his pants towards the end of the show and sang a few bars before giving up and pulling it out to the amazement and great humor of us there right up front.

There are more photos from the show on our flickr site.

Taunton Blues

Saturday, February 9, 2008, 2200, 5110//7415. L1qu1d B1ble Beater, followed by pissed off Liquid Radio. At 2300, Dacron Pants For ''Bob'' with Pastor Pants, Deacon Pants, and Rev. Krackerpants. Rev. Krackerpants will preach at your house, and at the Winterfest, with Panties on his head. Rev. Pantihead says praise ''Bob'' and pass the weather report. 47 and clear in Mount Airy. 20 and partly cloudy in Monticello. 74 and clear in New Orleans. 28 and light snow showers in Halifax. 44 and clear in Columbus. 71 and clear in Odessa. 79, partly cloudy in Key West. -11 with light snow (-24C) in Medicine Hat, Alberta. SIO 333/433.

• The Who - Rael (with inner loop) - The Who Sell Out (Decca DL 74950 stereo)
• 2008-0209-intro
• They Might Be Giants - Chess Piece Face - They Might Be Giants (1986)
• Odgen Edsl - Thank God Im A Rich Kid
• Atomic Rooster - Vug - Death Walks Behind You (1970)
• Chester Thompson - PowerHouse - The Best of Black Jazz Records 1971-1976
• George Harrison - Thanks For The Pepperonni - All Things Must Pass
• Moody Blues - Legend Of A Mind - This Is The Moody Blues
• 2003-1205-pjl drinking game
• I can't find the bunny!
• Frank Zappa - Duodenum - Lumpy Gravy
• Crack The Sky - Bennie and the Jets - Dogs From Japan
• Buffalo - Suzie Sunshine - Dead Forever (1972)
• Rolling Stones - Out Of Time - Singles Collection The London Years
• Pirates Anthem

[198]

Maria Juanita

Our third anniversary show was warmly received from all kinds of great listeners on the shortwave and inetrnet bands tonight. This one went off at 2200 UTC on Saturday, September 22, 2007, on WBCQ 7.415 MHz. Friends and listeners from Oklahoma, Texas, Ontario, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana, Indiana, Maryland and Minnesota all checked in with kind words. Our show was sandwiched by cool creepy theramin music from The Day The Earth Stood Still. Also, in a flashback to our first show in 2004, we were on 7415 a few minutes early today.

• Intro: Monkey Boy, Al, Tasers, Jay, Pink Boyz Radio
• Les Claypool Frog Brigade - Buzzards of Green Hill - Pueple Onion
• Theme from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. season 3
• Frank Zappa - My Guitar - Trick or Treat (Vinyl)
• Tammy Faye - 123 the devil's after me
• Pink Floyd - 19.20 - Apples & Oranges - Dawn Of The Piper (Rev. A)
• The Three Stooges - Swinging the alphabet
• George Carlin - Asshole, Jackoff, Scumbag - A Place For My Stuff
• Ramblin' Jimmie Dolan - Wine,Women and Pink Elephants
• Co-Pilot Bob's Flying Hiway - Charter Boat Chum War
• National Lampoon - Monolithic Oil
• Callahan Brothers - Somebody's Been Using That Thang
• Batman - Radio Spot - Batman Toys
• Buddy Meredith - Flop Top Beer
• Morning Dew - No More - Monsters Of The Midwest Vol. 1

[171]

Crack The Sky, Recher Theatre, July 21, 2007

Another great evening with Crack The Sky! Paul Newman opened with a energetic acoustic set including The Weight, Uncle John's Band, Helpless, Hollywood Boulevard, and Radiohead's "Karma Police."

Here is the CTS set list:

• Safety In Numbers
• White Music
• Hold On
• Nuclear Apathy
• From The Greenhouse
• Go
• Wet Teenager
• Maybe I Can Fool Everybody Tonight
• Lighten Up McGraw
• A Sea Epic
• Zoom
• Hot Razors In My Heart
• A Night On The Town (With Snow White)
• Flashlight
• She's A Dancer
• Surf City (with Mind Baby, I Don't Have A Tie, and Skin Deep, and the William Tell Overture)
• Ice
• I Am The Walrus

More photos at our Flickr site.

Kracker Radio, Bozo Radio, Commander Bunny relay

Sunday, November 12, 2006, 1532, 6850. Bozo radio, Jay Smilkstein audio clips mixed with The Cramps "Human Fly." Little Bobby the homer-sexual. Kracker Radio in morse at 1534. Monkeyboy song at 1535. "This is a special transmission by Commander Bunny...from the headquarters of the Rodent Revolution" at 1539. Disparaging comments about Al Fansome at 1541. "WBNY Radio Bunny, Monkey, Monkey, big stoopid monkey, You are all big stoopid monkeys" at 1542. "Detachable Penis" at 1558.

At 1631, faded back in again with some of the Canadian hosers.

At 1659, "attention...check your tire rpessure..."

SIO 222.

A Letter Home

This, our seventy first show, was recored live on Wednesday, December 28, 2005, at 0221 UTC, webcast on our internet radio station, and recorded for future exploitation on other media, including WBCQ. Power to the people, man. Hi Mikey. Hi Tim.

• A nice song by Blonde Venus
• "Organic beans, thirty nine dollars a pound"
• Theme from The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
• The Precious Brothers - Roadhouse - The Precious Brothers
• Frank Zappa - Duoudenum - Lumpy Gravy
• John Palumbo - Dancing At The White House
  

• John Palumbo - A Letter Home
  
• Eric Burdon & The Animals - Sky Pilot
  
• Wannabees and oughtabees, shoulda beens and coulda' beens
  
• Dogboy - Sniper In McDonalds
  
• Little Roger & the Goosebumps - Stairway To Gilligan
  
• Theme from Hawaii Five-O
  
• Chester Chicken - You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Chicken
  
• The Precious Brothers - Gasoline - The Precious Brothers
  
• 1966 LSD Documentary - The Scene (excerpt)
  
• Fugs - Kill For Peace
  
• The Who - I'm Free - Tommy Demos
  
• Allman Brothers Band - Jessica
  

A Christmas Story

[The following was posted to the Crack The Sky bulletin board by Dr. Palumbo in 2001, and is reposted here for your amusement.]

A Christmas Story

(As told to JP by Tom Waits)

By John Palumbo

It was a nickle till midnight, and I was making my way through Pennsylvania in a 1971 refrigerator white 3 speed on-the-column Lark, Studebaker Lark complete with baby blue vivyl interior,resplendent with mono am single speaker Delco sound system mounted-on-the-dash 3 inch speaker to handle those midrange frequencies. George Jones was singing somethin about how his heart was playing bongos cause a girl named Collette ran of with his best friend, Earl. My eyes burned from the intermittent flash of white eyes comin at me like Indians of the rise back when men carried guns and anything that wore a skirt was fair game, unless of course, she was a China gal...ya kinda stayed away from them, cause you never knew if they were gonna start screamin that high pitch, Miles Davis, atonal crap of an excuse they called language.

I reached for my Chesterfield's and the pack was flatter than Stevie Nicks on a good day..empty. Road signs popped up over the hill...WELCOME TO NAZARETH, HOME OF MARIO AND MICHAEL ANDRETTI. I figured it was an Italian kinda place, but in amongst all that spaghetti and female facial hair they had to have smokes. The LARK rumbled into a place by the name of Ray's Gas and Go, and Ray limped out of the little shack he used to keep warm in between dr cars, wearin a red plaid jacket and WWI pilot cap that flapped in the icey December Pennsylvania wind. "Fill er up?" he rasped.

"Yeah...Ethyl for my sweetheart, and twenty of your finest Chesterfield's for myself," came my retort. "You here to see the child, I s'pose," said the old guy.

"You talkin to me, sport?" I meandered tryin to get my window to crank back up. "The miracle. Folks been comin for weeks now. Shit it's 'en when they have them damn races!" he offered.

"Well, uh, I was kinda just passin through on my way to Oblivion. You know..a pleasure trip?" I said. Ray came around to my side and leaned his frozen body on the LARK. "Watch the paint, pop," I warned. "You look like life has passed you some wooden nickles, son, " cracked Ray as I offered him one of the new Chesterfield's.

"I've had my share," I groaned. "Then maybe you need to see the baby," he puffed. "If you're talkin about the kid I read about in Playboy last month, no thanks. I never was much of a relgious man, if ya get my drift," I said with a smirk.

And just then, a mighty roar erupted, kinda like Oprah after a good meal. And Ray's head started to swell in a Donny Osmond/Donny Trump sort of way. I went for the gas pedal and startd to churn latex when what to my tiny eyes did appear, but the head of a snake in my rear view mirror.

The former Ray, it seems, had become an anaconda of a gas station tycoon, and his huge, terracotta skinned, green monster head was munching away at me and the LARK. HE caught the bumper with a nip and pulled it - along with my "Jim Morrison Live" sticker - clean off. I jammed the LARK into 2nd, swerved around a Mario Andretti-dressed-as-Santa stand up, caught some clean asphalt,and shot out of Ray's with more zest than a twelve year old takin his first peek at dad's stash of Hustlers. *

Well, now it's kinda roundin 3 in the cold am, and I quit checkin the rear view about 20 clicks back for any giant snakemen. Some guy named Judas Priest was screamin through the radio, so tried tunin in maybe a Dolly Parton Christmas specal or somethin akin, when around the next bend a sign rose up to say 'Hi'. WELCOME TO BETHLEHEM PENNSYLVANIA...A NICE PLACE TO LIVE AND WORK.

I checked the fuel and the smoke situation. Both were pretty slender, so I nosed the bumper-free LARK into a neon lit titty bar by the name of "Rose's Dolls and Drinks". Enough siicone in there to start my own Teflon cookware ensemble. "Hi cowboy, I'm Candy...buy me a drink?" said what looked like a 12 year old with cans the size of my ex-wife's famous holiday pork rolls.

"Na, darlin...just fill me up a glass with ice, coke, and Mr. John Walker, and hold the ice and the coke," I rambled. Candy shook back over to the other side of the bar when all of a sudden the place got Pallidan quiet. A hush fell like Jerry Ford gettin off AF1 in the snow. Lookin up, kinda ready ta see my old friend, Ray...I was surprised by the entrance of three Arab lookin characters standing akimbo at the door. "Can I help yous with somethin?" asked a sagging Rose. "You come now, " said one a the 7-11 jockeys.

"Not with you, Ace," smirked Rose. "You come now...you come now!!!" chimed in the other two. Rose snapped her fingers and out of nowhere chunked up two heafty lookin beef boys with a tatoo for every occasion and arms the size of my last alimony check. As the boys went for the wise men, a harp sounded out. I lit another smoke cause this sounded kinda serious, and didn't want ta end up in some no-smokin afterlife joint without one last good drag.

A white light filled the place which sent all the dancers runnin cause they don't take to bright lights,ya know...ruins the ambience', if you'll pardon my French. Anyway, the 3 Arabs are on their knees, Rose is grabbin all the cash out of the register, all the married customers are takin off just in case this gets TV time, and me...I'm waitin for what's next. Well, the white light and the harp go on for what seemed to be way too long, so I get up and am makin like a Canadian hockey player and gettin the puck outta there, when in walks a couple a street folk right from the bowels of Santa Monica. Movin my head out of the stench area, I manged a "pardon me", and tried to brush past the sorry pair, when the guy opens his pie hole and asks me if I knew of anyplace in town where him and his old lady could get a room for the night.

"Sorry, Chuck, I'm new in town, but you could ask old Rose over there, she looks like she's made a few trips around the block," I said. Just then Rose yells out..."Not in my place, you bum...get the hell out of here!" Now, I'm not what ya would call a sensitive guy or, you know, in touch with my feminine side. Hell last time I tried that my feminine side slapped me in the face and called a cab! But I was feelin low for Chuck and his gal, and...well ta make a long story short, I told them they could spend the night in the LARK. I know, I know, keep your nose outta other folks messes, my old man used to say. Course he got shot by a way-overreactive-jealous husband on one of his milk runs.

Anyhow...they thank me and intro themselves and start yappin about this or that, and I finally hve ta tell both of em to pipe down or the deal is off! Well, Chuck who's name turns out to be Joe, and his gal are all snuggled up in the back seat. I'm finishin off another smoke, and listening to Loretta Lynn sing about being a woman who needs a good man, when Joe's chick let's out a sceam that brought back memories of the time I lit my cousin Francis' pet cat on fire.

"What the hell is she on?" I yelled back to Joe, when he held up a beautiful baby boy, all bloody and stinkin the sit out of the LARK. "Behold the King of Kings," said Joe as he went to hand me the kid. "I'll pass, but you can ask him if he knows of a carwash close by," I smiled. And that night, there musta been a couple hundred folks lined up outside the LARK just to get a look at this kid. Well, I dropped Joe and his chick and their kid off back in Nazareth. I figured if the little guy was special as all the networks were sayin, that maybe he could clean up what havoc Ray had reaped on the citezenry there. Me? well, I caught me a fresh pack a Chesterfield's and made my way south to Miami. Fell in with a Cuban gal named Rita, butwent by Cher and rode out that winter in style.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT...JP

Crack The Sky, Recher Theater, November 26, 2005

A most excellent time at the first Crack The Sky show we've been able to attend in almost two years. Paul Newman opened and played (in no particular order) Needle and the Damage Done, Old Man, Back Porch, Mean Mr. Mustard/Polyethene Pam, Grasshopper, Nobody Home (Pink Floyd), Nature's Way (Spirit).

Another fantastic Crack The Sky show, topping out at around three hours. Not only did I manage to grab a setlist, I was also invited on stage by JP during Walrus! Here is the setlist.

• Nuclear Apathy
• From The Greenhouse
• All Fly Away
• Zoom
• All American Boy
• White Music
• Hold On
• Skin Deep
• Ice
• Acoustic Set (JP, Rick, Bobby)
  • We Want Mine
  • Living With The Lights On
  • A Night On The Town (With Snow White) (Rick Solo)
  • Animal Skins
  • Louisiana (the Randy Newman song with JP solo on keys)
• Flashlight
• I Don't Have A Tie
• Lighten Up McGraw
• A Sea Epic
• Wet Teenager
• She's A Dancer
• Surf City
• Hot Razors
• I Am The Walrus

Crack The Sky 6/26/04 Concert Photos, Part 2

Crack The Sky 6/26/04 Concert Photos

All Fly Away

Crack The Sky, Criminal Records, 1983, and never released on CD. Here's a spiffy quality vinyl rip from my archives.

Your golden bombs go off
Your military struts its stuff
You buy and sell and waiting for the big one

Tales that the money's gone
Keep 'em ignorant and stripped of song
Feed the fire, Peace remains the thin one

Oh no, you'll see they'll be crying in your streets
When the Dancer, the Teacher, the Writer...all fly away
the Players, the Painters

I see you black and white
Computerized and very right
Guns on every door and every window

You're the picture of security
Keep 'em, ignorant and you're worry free
No one hears the music at Ground Zero

Hey hey, my my, Crack The Sky will never die

We just finished a weekend with Crack The Sky, our first weekend consisting of two shows. Friday night an acoustical "unplugged and unzipped" event gave us a view of the band not often seen, hosted by 98 Rock's Sara Fleisher.

Paul Newman opened with a great set including Neil Young's "Needle and the Damage Done" and "Hey Hey My My" (including the title of this article), Little Feat's "Willin'", and the Kinks' "Celluloid Heroes" ("..You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard.."). Paul made my evening by playing his own "Back Porch" from the album Paul Newman and the Crunch, and the lost Crack The Sky song called "Grasshopper".

The highlights of the unplugged show included John's acoustic version of "Nuclear Apathy" and Rick's "A Night on the Town (With Snow White) to start the Crack The Sky set, a ZZ Top version of "Living With The Lights On", a spiffy jazz version of "Surf City", and the first ever known live versions of "Animal Skins", "All Fly Away" (from World In Motion I), "Sleep", and "Play On".

The setlist, courtesy of Rev Deb, was:

Nuclear Apathy (JP solo)
A Night on the Town (with Snow White)
Livin' with the Lights on (ala ZZ Top's LaGrange)
All Fly Away
Animal Skins
She's a Dancer
Lighten Up McGraw
Ice
Invaders from Mars
Sleep
Long Nights (w/JP on piano, and Glenn on guitar!)
I wanna be John Lennon
Surf City (swing version)
Robots for Ronnie
Rangers at Midnight
I don't have a tie
From the Greenhouse
Play on
Hot Razors

Encore

I am the Walrus

For the electric show we made sure we were as close to the stage as possible, first of all to get a good view of the band, and second, to escape the drunken assholes who always seem to gather within the first twenty feet surrounding the stage and detract from the experience.

Black Madonna, featuring Ian Palumbo on drums, offered up a nice performance to open

The setlist for the electric show follows:

From The Greenhouse
White Music
Nuclear Apathy
All Fly Away
Zoom
All American Boy
Skin Deep
Rangers At Midnight
John Lennon (inclduing A Day In the Life)
Wet Teenager
Living With The Lights On (ZZ Top version)
Ice
Lighten Up McGraw
Coconuts
She's A Dancer (including jazzy version)
Hold On
Surf City
Hot Razors

Encore

Play On
I Am The Walrus

For our efforts, we were able to catch John's guitar pick following Zoom, and we grabbed our first concert setlist!

There have been a lot of tweaks and tweezes of the band's big library, including the ZZ Top-esque "Living with the Lights On" and the jazzy versions of "Surf City", which we heard on both nights. I believe the "She's A Dancer" performed last night was the cleanest, tightest and closest to the LP version ever performed. Bobby joined lead lyrics in "Coconuts".

A most enjoyable weekend. Happy birthday Max!

Crack The Sky, Recher Theater, March 6, 2004

Black Madonna opened.

Thanks to Paisley for the complete set list in order.

• Go
  
• White Music
  
• Greenhouse
  
• Flashlight
  
• Zoom
  
• All American Boy
  
• Skin Deep
  
• I Want To Be John Lennon
  
• Betty and the Jets (with Benny and the Jest at the end)
  
• Ice
  
• Lighten Up McGraw
  
• I Don't Have a Tie
  
• Sea Epic
  
• Fat Man
  
• Coconuts
  
• Wet Teenager
  
• She's a Dancer
  
• Hold On/Surf City (with a Beatles medley incliding Day Tripper, Strawberry Fields Forever, You Can't Do That, I Feel Fine, Back In the USSR, In the End)
  
• Hot Razors
  
• I Am The Walrus (with Ian Palumbo on lead drums)
  

This was my eleventh Crack The Sky Show!

• Painter's Mill Star Theatre, Owings Mills, Maryland, March 27, 2981
  
• Hammerjacks, Baltimore, Maryland, March 25, 1988
  
• Hammerjacks, Baltimore, Maryland, June 24, 1989
  
• Recher Theater, Towson, Maryland, November 25, 2000
  
• Hyperlight Artist Center, Abberdeen, Maryland, February 10, 2001
  
• 8:30 Club, Washington, DC, March 2, 2001
  
• Recher Theater, Towson, Maryland, November 24, 2001
  
• Thunder Dome, Baltimore, Maryland, Maryland, June 21, 2002
  
• Thunder Dome, Baltimore, Maryland, Maryland, November 30, 2002
  
• Recher Theater, Towson, Maryland, May 31, 2003
  
• Recher Theater, Towson, Maryland, March 6, 2004
  

Crack the Sky, Recher Theater

Another fantastic Saturday evening from Crack the Sky. Here's the May 31, 2003 set list courtesy of Dan the Man:

Go
White Music
Nuclear Apathy
From the Greenhouse
Flashlight
Zoom
All American Boy
Skin Deep
Wet Teenager
Maybe I can Fool Everybody Tonight
I Don't Have A Tie
Sea Epic
Coconuts
USA (with some Hey Jude thrown in)
Ice
She's A Dancer
Hold On/Surf City with Day Tripper, Strawberry Fields, You Can't Do That, I Feel Fine, Back in the USSR, The End
Hot Razors In My Heart
encore: I Am The Walrus

New year's eve

WBCQ's shortwave signal has faded away for the time being, and the pirate bands are clear, so we're channel surfing web feeds. This is twice in the past week we've had a Crack The Sky conceptual continuity moment.

Scott's playing some very interesting music tonight on wbcq.com's internet stream. This is definitely not WBCQ's console feed, unless Brother X has taken over the station and is spinning non-stop progressive music. I just heard "Safety In Numbers" by Crack The Sky, and now something called "Once upon the sea of blissful" by a band called Shpongle. Then, another weird Shpongle song, and some unattributed vintage dance music that makes us think we're getting ready to hear Dieter say "Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance!"

Then, we heard "Skindiver" by Crack The Sky. Now, I know the album this comes from has never been released on CD. I ripped this off of vinyl a while back, and I've shared some CDs and tunes with Scott, so I think I know where this particular tune might have come from. I can even hear the pops during the fade out. Thanks, buddy. Hearing our favorite band on the 'net made our evening.

Timtron plays Crack the Sky

This is a true Conceptual Continuity moment. It is very rare when my musical tastes and my hobby intersect so perfectly. I just finished posting pictures we took at Crack The Sky's recent performance at the Thunder Dome in Baltimore on November 23.

And, on the Radio Timtron Worldwide show this afteroon, Timtron played Crack The Sky's "Ice" (0158 UTC on Sunday, December 29, 2002), on 7415 KHz shortwave worldwide via WBCQ.

Timtron's weekly radio show is by far our favorite. There's always something cool to listen to. If we ever chose to make our own radio show, it would be very close to Tim's both in spirit and in content. He is the best.

Crack the Sky at Thunder Dome

It's that time of the year. For four years straight, we've made the pilgrimage to Crack The Sky's annual Saturday-after-Thanksgiving show. This time it was at the Thunder Dome, the same venue we caught the band at their last show back in the summer. And as usual, the band did not disappoint. We made it to our regular location, left of center stage in front of Rick Witkowski's monitor, and settled down for a great show.

The first opening band was an odd local band called Sustained in Jade. The second opening band was Voicebox, who also opened for CTS at their last Thunder Dome show.

The Crack the Sky set list was as follows: Sleep, White Music, From the Greenhouse, Zoom, All American Boy, Skin Deep, Rangers at Mignight, I don't have a tie, A Sea Epic, Go, Ice, Coconuts, USA, Hold On, Surf City, Day Tripper, Strawberry Fields Forever, You can't do that, I feel fine, Back in the USSR, The End, Hot Razors, and Walrus/Flashlight. The last few tunes we transcribed from the setlist on the stage -- we had to cut out a bit early this time and missed the end, bummer! I hope I got the tune list right (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Zoom has morphed; there are new pieces to the song, some more guitar and improvisation, that we hadn't ever heard before. Danny Palumbo introduced the band. Carey played Bassman's guitar through the first few tunes. Paul helped out with acoustic at the start of the show. No backup singers this time -- the boys had to do their own backup, and they did fine. Brenda was passing around for signature the coolest scrapbooks I've ever seen, to be given to Bassman's family -- that was very touching, well done. Thunder Dome was packed. I hated to have to cut out early. Good to see the crowd there, and those of you who missed it, see you next time!

Update (December 4, 2002, 5:30pm):

Here are some photos from the show, via bghd's post on the bulletin board.

Here are more photos from the show at the opening band's site.

Check out Brenda's very cool pictures from the show on the CTS Archives site.