R.I.P. Etta James

I fell in love with Etta James in my first year of University. I hear her cover of "I Just Wanna Make Love to You" and was completely hooked.

Her strong, sometimes sweet and sometimes raspy voice was never far from my head. I turned to her when I was sad, when I was happy and when I needed a song to motivate me to find the better path in life.

She tried hard, I believe. And I like to think she succeeded. She will forever be an imagine of impossible strength, and for that, I'll always have her in my heart.

This past weeks show started off as a tribute to Etta James and just sort of evolved from there. The show will be available for download next week. Keep your eyes here for the link when its available.

Set #1
Etta James	Mellow Fellow
Etta James	Stop the Wedding
Etta James	Seven Day Fool
Etta James	All I Could Do Was Cry
The Shockers	You Don't Love Me (music bed)
The Bristols	True True Lovin'
Electricsixties	A Simple Goodbye
The Omlettes	Run
The Apricot	Aristocratic Appitite
Set #2
Soul Unlimited	Little Joe (music bed)
Soul Unlimited	Something You God (music bed)
Amy Winehouse	Between the Cheats
The Epics	Cleo's back (music bed)
Night Train Review	Sometimes I wonder (music bed)
The Ronettes	Be My Baby
The chiffons	One Fine Day
The Crystals	And Then he Kissed Me
The cookies	Chains
The Honeys	Raindrops
The Shockers	Don't Bring Me Down (music bed)
The Shockers	You Better Run (music bed)
Nocturnals	You Make Me Feel So Good (music bed)
The Twilights	Needle in a Haystack

The Afterlife Invade!

Big thanks to The Afterlife for coming down in the cold to the UMFM station to join me on the show last night. We talked music, Winnipeg venues and other fun stuff on the show.

The Podcast is up and can be downloaded at the UMFM website.

Podcasts are up for a limited time, so download it while it's available.

Set #1
The Buzzcocks	I Can't Control Myself (Live July 21, 1978)
The Monks	I Hate You
The Afterlife	Ask Me Why, Colin
The Afterlife	Not Forever
The Afterlife	What Makes You So Sure Of Yourself?
T-Rex	Life's a Gas
Set #2
The ramones	timebomb
Del Shannon	Do You Wanna Dance?
Toots and the Maytals	Funcky Kingston
The Kinks	Autumn Almanac
The Replacements	Left of the Dial
Iggy Pop and the Stooges	Shake Appeal
The Beach boys	Please Let Me Wonder

Ray Charles Love Triangle

Oh Ray - where to start with you?

You turned gospel to the devils music. You worked in seedy clubs and spiked your vines a little too much. You loved.. a lot of women... at the same time.

The story of Ray Charles is a good one. Check out the movie Ray if you haven't yet. Better yet, get a good biography of the guy. The written story is more that engaging.

Opened the show up today with with the bizarre Ray Charles Love Triangle and I then let the music just flow from there. Ended the show with a preview of some of the acts that will be gracing the stage this year at Coachella 2012.

Set #1
Ray Charles with Poncho Sanchez	Mary Ann
Mary Ann Fisher	Put On My Shoes
The Raelettes	What's the Matter With You Baby?
The tokens	A-B-C 1-2-3
James Ray	We Got a Thing Going On
The Butlers	She Tried to Kiss Me
Art Neville	You Won't Do right
Chuck Wood	Seven Days Too Long
Set #2
The Fascinations	The Girls Are Out to Get You
Frank wilson	Do I Love You?
The Majestics	I Love Her (so Much It Hurts)
The Spinners	It's a Shame
Jimmy Cliff	Ruby Soho
Madness	Our House

Also, Podcasts have been updated! If you didn't catch last weeks show, you can download it and enjoy anytime HERE.

Much Love,

Penny Lane

Billy Be Childish... Billy Be Good

Was fantastic to be back in the booth, kicking of 2012 with a great episode of the show. This past weeks show was a tribute to none other than Billy Childish, a man who I am not afraid to profess my undying love to.

Billy Childish is prolific, amazing and mystifying. And it kills me, just kills me that he is not the most famous renaissance man of our time.

To help spread his bible, I decided to dedicate just about the whole first episodes of Punks in Parkas in 2012 to Billy Childish. 

Podcast should be up next week. Until then, here is the set list.

Check out Damaged Goods Records  for releases by the amazing Billy Childish.

NOTE: Billy Childish tracks are highlighted in red

Set #1
Thee Milkshakes	You Got Me Girl
Thee Mighty Caesers	Come into My Life
The Delmonas	Heard About Him
The Pop Rivets	Empty Sounds
Wild Billy Childish and the Buff Medways	Medway Wheelers
Thee Headcoatees	Louis Riel
Thee Headcoats Sect	My Dear Watson
Wild Billy Childish and the Musicians of the British Empire	We 4 Beatles of Liverpool Are
The Spartan Dreggs	Paelo Punk
Set #2
The Chatham Singers	You Say You Got The Wise Blud
Armitage Shanks	Did Punk Rock Make You a Millionaire?
Shockers	You Don't Love Me
Cheesmen	You Can't catch Me
Night Train Revue	Letter Song
The Shays	Brainwashed
The Haunted	1-2-5

Tonights Podcast is Up!

Wow, I am on the ball!

Had a great time doing the show tonight. The episode is available for download at the UMFM website

Episodes of the show are only available for a limited time, so get em while they are hot!

Lots of Northern Soul and some great Ska/Reggae on the show.. 

SET LIST

Set #1
Ronnie Love	Chills and Fever
Helene Smith	Pain in my Heart
Breanda Jones	Big Mistake
Velvettes	A Love so Deep Inside
Johnny Cool and the Count	Love Bounce
Sweet Somethings	He's My Soul Boy
Don and Ron	I'm So Sorry
The Majestics	I Love Her So Much it Hurts
The Ethics	I Want My Baby Back
SoulMasters	I'll be Waiting Here
Set #2
Disciples of Soul	That's the Way Love Go
Les Gendarmes	A Quoi Bon Pleurer (Tell it like it is)
Les Items	Foxy Lady
Les Monstres	Je Veux une Response
Jackie Mitto and the Soul Brothers	James Bond
Toots and the Maytalls	Louie Louie

Lenoon, Dobie Gray, Small Faces... Oh My!

What a week it has been...

First off, John Lennon was taken from us too early 31 years ago today. Tonight on the show, we'll play a few of my favorite tracks and think about the day the music world kind of stood still...

A northern soul and mod great was also lost to us this week. Dobie Gray, a soul great, died this Wednesday at the age of 71 one. I always loved Dobie Gray's smooth voice and wonderful delivery. Some of his songs were fantastic and full of amazing soul..

On the brighter side, The Small Faces are finally getting some much deserved recognition and are going to be introduced into the Rock and Roll hall of fame.

We'll discuss all this and more tonight on Punks in Parkas - tune in!

Ann Margret's Baked Beans

When I was a young teenager, in the middle of my high school career, I went through a horrible bought of insomnia brought on by depression. It was awful. I would go weeks where I would be lucky if I slept a total of five hours.

I spent many a night reading books and watching strange movies on late night TV. Living out in the country, we never had cable and my late night movie watching was kind of limited. On rare occasions, I was able to pass a VHS tape off to my Aunt and Uncle with a list of times and channels to record. Weeks later, I would get these VHS tapes back, full of these strange movies I found while reading the short movie descriptions in the back of the TV guide that we got delivered with the Winnipeg Free Press.

This is how I first seen many of the movies that I enjoy today - Quadrophina, Liztomania, Dr Strangelove and Breakfast at Tiffany's to name a few.

One movie I had my aunt record for me was The Who's Tommy. I was introduced to The Who at a young age - my dad enjoyed them greatly and my mom often told me how she loved the song "Boris The Spider,' so when I saw that there was movie created around their first Rock Opera, well, I had to see it.

I remember the first moment I watched the movie very clearly. It was late, very late and was probably a weekend. I usually stayed in my bedroom on weekdays, trying hard to get some sleep for school, but on weekends, I would camp out in our TV room, watching movies. I was in an insomniac daze while watching the movie and some moments blended into each other, but other scenes were crystal clear.

Of course, the scene that I kept thinking about the next day was the infamous "Break The Mirror" scene with Ann Margret. You've seen it, I know you have. She is wearing this incredible white knitted jump suit and is dancing around in a pristine white room. She is laying on the satin bed, flipping through the channels on the TV with her remote control, looking completely bored with what's on the TV. At the climax of the scene, she throws a champagne bottle at the TV, and it explodes. First with suds, second with baked beans and lastly, with chocolate.

It's amazing, it's is sexy, it's deranged and it was probably one of the most bizarre things I had seen at that time. The Who's Tommy quickly became one of my favorite movies.

I read today that Ken Russell, the director behind The Who's Tommy had passed away this past weekend. I often wondered about him and his mind frame. Was it him who decided to have Ann Margret roll around in that shit-colored mess? What made him even THINK of that?

Regardless - the movie is visually stunning and for that alone, it should be watched.

Thank you, Ken Russell...