Showing posts with label indie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indie. Show all posts

Saturday, July 18, 2020

3 Chords & the Truth: Push back

“Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you."

-- Flannery O'Connor

That goes double in these times of fascists, cranks, the plague and a radically deviant conception of "freedom" and "liberty."

If 3 Chords & the Truth has to turn into some sort of Resistance podcast, so be it. This thing -- meaning America -- has gotten out of hand, and we'll be lucky to live through it.

We'll have to hope and pray that we get lucky. While we're waiting to see, the Big Show will have some great music to salve your soul just a bit.

Push back like hell, my friends.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Saturday, July 11, 2020

3 Chords & the Truth: Same old song


It's the same old song. Second verse, same as the first.

And here we are in Coronavirusland -- right back where we started in March.

In March.

Apart from "We live in f***ed-up times in a f***ed-up country," I really don't know what to say. Rather, I don't know what to say that's any different from what other rational believers in science are saying right now.

We here at 3 Chords & the Truth got nothin' . . . except the music. And the music is exceptionally good.

One hopes it's so good that it'll make you feel a little bit better for a while. I would say "make you forget," but that's a bit of a stretch -- even for the Big Show.


But that's just the same old song, isn't it?

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.



Saturday, June 27, 2020

3 Chords & the Truth: Whatever works


How are you getting by this week in this time of disease and woe?

Me, I've found that the best method for coping is . . . whatever works.

A big part of "whatever works," we at the Big Show hope, is the Big Show itself. A weekly dose of good music helps a lot when you're afraid to turn on the news for fear of what fresh hell awaits.

But while you're listening to the program -- listening to the finest in recorded music from the vast 3 Chords & the Truth library -- might I suggest sitting in a comfy chair with a refreshing libation. It might just be the shot in the liver you need.

PERHAPS A Skyball would do the tri . . . tri . . . hic . . . trick.

This classic 1960s bit of alcoholic nostalgia is sort of like a spruced-up highball, only made with vodka, lemon juice and lemonade. And I'm sure it's healthier than sitting on the stoop with a Lieutenant Dan cigar and muttering the F-word a lot.

Like I said, whatever works.

Of course, if you happen to be under 21 -- or if you just don't like booze -- I'm sure a nice refreshing glass of no-octane lemonade would work just fine, too.

Listen to me, I was pre-med in college. Wait, I was a journalism major.

Hell, what's the difference?

Good music and good libations -- that will help you get through this time of pandemic and pan-idiots. And helping you get through it all is our special mission on 3 Chords & the Truth.

S'alright? S'alright.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Saturday, June 20, 2020

3 Chords & the Truth: Doing what we can


First, the pandemic. Then, the reckoning.

Hell of a spring you're having, America.

Amid a double-barreled storm -- a double-barreled world of hurt -- what then are we to do? The answer is both complicated and really simple. Being a simple sort, I'll stick to the latter with this episode of 3 Chords & the Truth.

Now, the envelope, please. And the answer is . . . what we can.

We do what we can. That's certainly what we're doing here on the Big Show -- what we can. It involves (one hopes) not being dumb, not saying dumb things (at least not extraordinarily dumb, which seems the fashion for American society today) and playing the best music available here in the Apocalypse Bunker.

MANY MIGHT know that better as "the studio."

That pretty much sums up this week's show -- playing good music to soothe your soul and not saying or doing anything extraordinarily dumb. Don't worry, we'll still have plenty of the ordinarily dumb.

Just ask my wife.

I suppose that's all there is to be said -- he says as the smartphone and iPad keep dinging and lighting up with the latest Fresh Hell Alerts. (Would it be appropriate to change the alert tone to something more appropriate to these times . . . like an air-raid siren?)

Ponder that after you rebalance yourself by listening to the show.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Friday, June 12, 2020

3 Chords & the Truth: No. 1 in the heart of . . . something


When life has become a slog and the world around you is in turmoil, sometimes you just need to self-medicate . . . with music.

This may or may not preclude self-medicating with other things. It's that kind of year.

This week on the Big Show, we're self-medicating with a lot of hit records -- and records that, in your Mighty Favog's humble opinion, should have been hit records. Or bigger hit records.

It beats crawling into a dark corner with a bottle. Which, again, may or may not preclude also crawling into a dark corner with a bottle. Because 2020.

But for right now, you can try coping by listening to the hits and shoulda-been-hits on this here edition of 3 Chords & the Truth.

I guess that covers it. So give it a listen and escape the suck for a while.

That is all.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Saturday, June 21, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: The hits from coast to coast


I was an American teen-ager in the 1970s, therefore American Top 40 was appointment listening.

In Baton Rouge, we got it on WIBR radio. I was a WLCS kind of guy, but Casey Kasem counting down the hits every Sunday afternoon would have me winging it down to the other side of the AM dial to see what was No. 1 on the Billboard charts this week.

Casey Kasem died a week ago today at 82, and this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is a tribute to the man and to the show he co-created in 1970 -- and which he hosted for decades.

Mine was his radio generation. Back in the day, Kasem and the late Dick Clark were America's DJs. Now they're both gone, and untold millions of the children of rock 'n' roll find ourselves slightly adrift at the loss of these pop-culture giants.

THIS WEEK on the Big Show, we're doing what we do, just doing it Casey Kasem style. Just like it was on AT40 in the show's heyday -- only in our own quirky way.

This one's for Casey. This one's also for all those American kids now of a certain age who remember radio when it was relevant. Who remember when radio was an event.

Rest in peace, sir. At long last, you have reached the stars.

Love, a grateful generation with its feet still on the ground.

IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Saturday, June 14, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: Mo' stacks o' wax


This is all you need to know about this week's 3 Chords & the Truth.

Stacks of albums. Stacks of albums just in to the studios of the Big Show here in Omaha, by God, Neb.

Stacks of stuff. New stuff. A lot of stuff that never made it to compact disc or digital download. A lot of stuff you'll hear only on 3 Chords & the Truth.

IF YOU like music and hate to be pigeonholed, this is where you need to be. This is seriously where you need to be.

That's what you need to know about the show. This is what we do week in and week out, and we do it well. So there you go.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all.  Be there. Aloha.


Friday, June 06, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: Yes, it's on the exam


OK, all you hipsters and hepcats and cool cats and rockers and freaks and punks and longhairs . . . your Mighty Favog has a question for you.

This question will be on the exam -- this question is the exam -- and the answer can be found on 3 Chords & the Truth.

Ready? Cool.
How do you put together Azure Ray, John Fred, Dale and Grace, Jerry Butler, Jefferson Airplane, Men at Work, The B-52's, Feist, The Mindbenders, Harry Connick, Jr., Leon Redbone, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Art Garfunkel, Ian Gomm, Michael Nesmith, The Doobie Brothers -- among other stuff -- and not end up with a musical hot mess?
BEGIN answering whenever you're ready. Feel free to use the Big Show as a reference tool . . . you will have 90 minutes.

On the test, spelling will count against your grade, and I will know whether or not you listened to the program from the detail in your answer. Don't expect a passing grade if you say "It's magic!" -- although your professor and proprietor will be flattered.

Finally, you have been given multiple ways to access the relevant podcast, 3 Chords & the Truth, so not being able to listen will not be accepted as an excuse. That is all.


Oh . . . except for this.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Saturday, April 12, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: Awaiting hope

We've all been crucified, and we all need a resurrection, don't we?

Outside, we want people to think we're Disneyland. Inside, we're an abandoned warehouse district. You probably don't want to know what's inside the warehouse now.

It's coming up on Holy Week, the most stark, dark, horrifying and awe-inspiring week on the Christian calendar. That's the context of this week's episode of 3 Chords & the Truth.

WE ALL get crucified. We're all as good as dead. We all need a resurrection. Or a Resurrection . . . which is where this week leads. And we're exploring the subject, in a manner of speaking, on the Big Show.

It's something to think about. Music to reflect by. Time to put on the brakes and consider the point of the journey.

Maybe this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth will succeed in that and still manage to be plenty entertaining. Maybe not . . . but my money's on entertaining. Trust me -- I once worked in Catholic radio. If nothing else, I've learned how not to do this stuff.

SO JOIN ME this week in stopping, listening and considering. And have a blessed Holy Week and a joyous Easter.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Thursday, March 27, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: Freeform saves


I'd like to think that God hates both sin . . . and corporate radio. Which, of course, is in the business of devouring souls.

Corporate radio and souls is kind of like Hitler and the Sudetenland -- you can't assimilate just one. And after sucking the soul out of radio, outfits like Clear Channel have their eyes on. . . .

You figure it out.

But this isn't about Clear Channel or any others among the corporate media soul-suckers. This is about the Big Show -- 3 Chords & the Truth. You see, here is where radio has taken refuge from the corporate invaders.

Here is where freeform lives.

Here is where somebody puts a little thought into what goes into your ears, because "here" is where your Mighty Favog loves your ears like he does his own. OK, that sounded a little creepy, but you know what I mean.

LET ME be perfectly clear: 3 Chords & the Truth good. Corporate radio bad.

You're going to hear something new to you on the Big Show. You're going to experience true musical diversity. You will not experience crap. This is where radio has taken refuge from the corporate and cultural storm.

We live in a world where people now pay to have others "curate" music mixes for them -- another case of folks paying through the rear for things that once were free and plentiful. Music curators? Really?

I am old enough to remember what we used to call that -- FM radio. Pull up a chair, relax for 90 minutes and get yourself curated for free . . . right here. 3 Chords & the Truth is freeform FM radio, only on the Internet.

Don't get taken. Don't get soul-sucked. Do listen to the Big Show, which will help to fend off that other stuff.

IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Saturday, March 15, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: Stand by me



"I'll take Boogedy Boogedy Boogedy Boogedy Boogedy Boogedy Shoop for $1,200, Alex."

Alrighty, Favog. Here's the answer for $1,200: "Although The Marcels technically put the 'bomp bomp ba bomp, ba bomp ba bomp bomp' into popular music, you would be "Searchin'" from "Spanish Harlem" to "Kansas City" to find anyone who could make a "Jailhouse Rock" more than this songwriting duo."

"Who are Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller?"

"That's right! But you lose."

"HUH???"

"Our new sponsors are Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Favog."

"I thought it was 3 Chords & the Truth."


"We USED to be sponsored by the Big Show. Tough break."

"Oh, yeah? Meet me behind Smokey Joe's Cafe in an hour and tell me that to my face. I'll open up a can of Rama Lama Ding Dong on yo' ass."

DON'T end up like Alex. Play it straight, stay on my good side and listen to this week's excellent adventure that we lovingly call the Big Show.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Saturday, March 08, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: Don't let it go

Dit dot dit, dit dot dit dit ditta ditta! Dit dot dit, dit dot dit dit ditta ditta! Doodle oop! Doodle doodle doodle oop! Milly Freezmaz is te ta te ta ta!

And Theo Cloirk Alfred Thompseen is de do do do de da da da! That because is Milly Freezmaz wickedly talented as Adele Dazeem!
-- John  Travolta
What's all the fuss about?

Well, I guess it's about the Big Show, and apparently Hollywood is pretty excited about it.

Why is that? Well, I guess you'll have to listen to find out.

BE FOREWARNED, though. If you do, you won't be able to let it go. And if we're lucky, the attention will do for 3 Chords & the Truth what it did for Adele Dazeem . . .er, Idina Menzel.

It's Theo Cloirk Alfred Thompseen 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there.  Aloha.


Friday, February 28, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: A fool for music


Let me tell you about this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth before I succumb to sleep deprivation.

It's good. Right tasty, in fact.

 
Let me tell you something else -- it starts out with tractor punk, then moves into disco and doo-wop and '60s pop. And then the Big Show gets interesting.

THAT IS ALL. Except that there may be a little something in there from one fool to another. And if you aren't already a fool for the happeningest musical spot on the Internets . . . what the hell is wrong with you?

I pity the fool who ain't a fool for this here podcast.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

(thud)
 

Friday, February 21, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: Beats shoveling a giant Icee


This edition of the Big Show didn't turn out too badly, considering right beforehand I was shoveling the World's Largest Icee out of our driveway before it could freeze over tonight.

The World's Biggest Icee is what you get when it snows hard when it's above freezing. A major case of This Sucks is what you get when you're shoveling slush.

Let's just say this week's 3 Chords & the Truth is a big improvement over that. I mean, what would you rather do? Shovel tons of a flavorless, melting slushie spilled across the landscape by a meteorological 3-year-old, or sit in a warm diner, listening to the best jukebox in the world?

HEY, KID! If you don't know what a jukebox is . . . come on in and get educated. The coffee's fine and the music's better.

Yep, come on in to the Big Show. It beats the hell out of the alternative.

Especially when the alternative is shoveling slush in February. (Really, the show's exceptional this week. And every week. But especially this week.)

IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, February 08, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: The canon of Pete


This edition of the Big Show starts with a big set -- which is just a small portion of the Canon of Pete.

And the canon of the late Pete Seeger is a big part of the lexicon of American popular music . . . and American folk music . . . and American protest music.

Or, to be succinct, American music.

Period.


I knew that first long set would be good. What I wasn't prepared for was how good it is in the actual listening. I mean, you know, but then you hear what you've pieced together and . . . you know.

NOW, there's lots of other good stuff on 3 Chords & the Truth this go around, but I think I'll just let you listen to find out what that might be.

I prefer not to think of the Big Show as just a music program on the Internets. I prefer to think of it as what it really is -- and what radio ought to be, once was and rarely is anymore -- and that is an adventure.

I think Peter Seeger would have approved of that.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: Music, Magic and Martinis


Remember when radio could set a mood, even when that wasn't its overt aim?

Remember when listening to the radio in the night, in the dark, could transport you across town . . . or across the continent?

Remember the magic? Remember the variety? 

Remember classy music, grown-ups behind the microphone and a world that wasn't quite your own but nevertheless held this mysterious allure, whether you could admit it back in the day or not?

Remember back in the day?

Your Mighty Favog does, for he is old . . . ish. And 3 Chords & the Truth does, too, this week, for we at the Big Show are in a mood.

YES, we love our rock 'n' roll here, and our country, too, but sometimes . . . sometimes we really miss this stuff. In the '60s and '70s, folks my age thought this was "old people's music."

Now, it's kind of like a security blanket, realizing as we do that we are today's "old people." It's also memories, magic and music in the night, wafting through the airwaves from across town or across the country.

You can't put that in an iPod or a smart phone, though, by God, this week 3 Chords & the Truth is gonna try. Being that's the only option we have these days.

MAYBE this episode of the Big Show should be called "Music, Magic and Martinis in the Night." Whatever you call it, just call it a fine listening experience.

Especially with a martini in the night.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Friday, January 17, 2014

3 Chords & the Truth: Favog! Favog!



Omaha! Omaha!

That's all we've been hearing lately, thanks to the buzz, the meme and the hype over Peyton Manning's favorite snap-count indicator.

The Broncos' quarterback has started something, and it ain't in "Denver! Denver!"

It's in "Omaha! Omaha!"  The city 3 Chords & the Truth calls Home! Home!

I WONDER whether the Denver chamber of commerce is as Pissed! Pissed! as ours is Pleased! Pleased!

Mr. Berman, we're ready for our close-up.

On its face, this has nothing to do with this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth, which is as good a music show as Archie's baby boy is a pro quarterback. Except. . . .

The Big Show -- especially this week, being we're all rejuvenated after a post-holiday break -- is so bleedin' good, I think it's only reasonable that Peyton (contra "Omaha! Omaha!") ought to be checking to "Favog! Favog!"

YOU SAY I'm an egomaniac. I say I'd be saving the Denver QB two precious syllables every time. That could be the difference between a touchdown and a delay of game penalty. Think about it.

And while you're thinking about the wisdom of my words, why don't you download this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth? I guarantee you'll be just as blown away as the average defensive coordinator trying to figure out how to stop Peyton Manning on a Sunday afternoon.

Tune in to Omaha! Omaha! when it's Music! Music! you love, because that's where you'll find little ol' me and the Big Show.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha! Aloha!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

3 Chords & the Truth: It's a party!



I'm just gonna say it. I'm just gonna put it out there . . . the heck with modesty.

This year's yuletide edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is the most fun you can have at a Christmas party without bare butts and photocopiers being in the mix.

And the Big Show is a party -- every week, yes, but especially for every year's Christmas edition. This year is no exception. Great music, great times, great program.

By the way, don't ask about the big smudge on the office Xerox machine. Trust me on this one.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Alo-ho-ho-ho-ha.

And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Friday, December 13, 2013

3 Chords & the Truth: Hat trick


 
Fedoras: Is there anything they can't do?

If you could boil down the latest edition of 3 Chords & the Truth to a single, pithy sentence, that might be it. And right about . . . now . . . you're saying "HUH?"

Let's just say that on the Big Show this week, there's a lot of stuff dating to back when men wore hats. Hell, there's even a song on the program about "When Everyone Wore Hats." Music sure was good when hats were way cool.

Speaking of way cool, French pop music from the '50s and '60s may have been equaled from time to time, but never bested. Yeah, we have some of that this week, too.

Just listen to the gol dang show, will 'ya? In your heart, you know I'm right.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.


Thursday, November 28, 2013

3 Chords & the Truth: Save the last wing for me


Happy . . . Thanks . . . giving . . . from . . . W . . . K . . . R . . . P!

Or 3 Chords & the Truth. Whatever.

And as God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

And as God is my witness, when the fambly starts to bug the crud out of you this long weekend, you will have a place to escape and chill with some fine music.

That place would be the Big Show. Naturally.

Just stay the hell out of the parking lot when you make your musical escape. The gobblers are hitting the pavement like sacks of wet cement. Oh, the humanity!

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.