Radio Free Charleston's 73rd episode, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Movie Shirt" is online now. This episode, shot around downtown Charleston with street art in the background, features music from OVADA and The Limbs, plus a Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie, and The First Great Guitar Giveaway, in conjunction with Route 60 Music.
In the background of this show, you will see part of the "Coming And Going" art installation by Mark Wolfe, and "Celebrate," by Amy Williams with Chris Dutch. Mark's work features life-sized black-and-white photos of some of Charleston's most notable people (and one schlub you can see at Taylor Books). "Celebrate" is an evolution of Amy's "Press 2 For Spanish" street work from last year, expanded now to include Italian and Arabic. You'll see those peeking over my shoulder and around my back in the host segments for this pre-FestivAll show.
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Radio Free Charleston's seventy-second episode, "Sulu Nation Shirt," is online now! Watch it quick, they don't seem to have much of a shelf life these days. This episode features music from The Scrap Iron Pickers and Whitechapel District. We also have a guest appearance by The Chemical Valley Rollergirls, who coincidentally enough are holding tryouts June 30 at Skateland in Campbell's Creek, where we shot our host segments this time.
We are driving to episode 75, in just three weeks. We'll celebrate our third anniversary with a star-studded show featuring great music and shocking cameos. You can also check out our archives. Every day this month I'm reposting an entire classic episode of the show right here in PopCult. You can finally expose yourself to what some folks are calling "Charleston's best-kept secret."
We shot our host bits in Campbell's Creek Monday night at Skateland, the home base for The Chemical Valley Rollergirls. It was great hanging out with the rollergirls and filming some of their practice session. Keep reading PopCult for details on where you can catch the hellcats on wheels in action. Or you can check their website for info about their tryouts.
Radio Free Charleston number 71, "Golden age Batman Shirt" is online now! This episode of your local music, film, animation and weirdness program includes new music from WATT4, vintage music from Hitchock Circus, a Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie, and a special appearance from IWA East Coast's Mad Man Pondo and a friend.
We conclude "Mark Beckner Month with two songs from his band, Hitchcock Circus, who you can see at LiveMix Studio this Saturday. This is a homecoming for Mark, who was a regular on the old RFC radio show.
WATT4 was recorded just last week at The Blue Parrot, and Pondo's "friend" is Oderus Urungus, the lead singer and mastermind behind GWAR. You can see Oderus wrestle for IWA East Coast next month. Details are found in the blog here at MySpace.
The seventieth episode of Radio Free Charleston,"Holy Hand Grenade Of Antioch Shirt" is online now!
This edition of your local music, film, animation and art webcast is jam-packed with music and other short bits of coolness. The music is from Barebones, the accapella group who debuted on RFC just a few weeks ago, plus we continue "Mark Beckner Month" with a couple of performances that feature Mark one solo, and one supporting his brother Stephen while jamming on an old Go Van Gogh tune.
As if the music weren't enough, we also have a 100-second art show, this time showcasing the work of Leia Bell, a promo clip for "Viva le Vaudeville," and the debut of "A Plant Ro Duction Mini Movie."
Radio Free Charleston's very special sixty-ninth episode is online now! This is a departure episode for us, as we present an edited version of Timothy Rock's 1992 documentary, "Go Van Gogh: The Sad Truth."
This film depicts the aura, the bubble of success that surrounded this almost-mythic band. It stars Go Van Gogh, themselves, Johnny Rock, Tim Rock, Stephen Beckner and Mark Beckner.
It's the kick-off of "Mark Beckner Month" here on Radio Free Charleston, as we celebrate the pending return to the Charleston area of Mark's Nashville-based band, Hitchcock Circus. Hitchcock Circus will be playing at LiveMix Studio on May 30--their first gig in town since 1995.
Every episode of RFC in May will feature Mark in some manner or another.
"Go Van Gogh: The Sad Truth" (which I believe inspired Al Gore to make "An Inconvenient Truth," the copycat) uses interviews with the band to show just exactly how great they thought they were. It's safe to say that no other band in the history of Charleston ever achieved the level of greatness that Go Van Gogh thought they had. Two complete songs are heard in this edited version of the documentary: "I Can't Sleep At Night," written by Tim and Johnny Rock and Jason Ashworth, and "Born 2 Late," written by Mark Beckner. Aside from the music and interviews with the band, the film also presents interviews with "friends" of the band, to show the perspective of folks who weren't necessarily drinking the Go Van Gogh Kool Aid. Needless to say, a splendid time is guaranteed for all.
Okay, so it's really a mockumentary, completely tongue-in-cheek. It's still a blast, even if the guys were in on the joke. Hey, we can't all be Jesco.
Radio Free Charleston 68, "Axiom Starliner Shirt," is online now! This episode of your favorite local music, animation and film show features music from Jeff Ellis and Marcie Bullock. We also have the first edition of The Radio Free Charleston Financial Report, as well as the debut of the cutest li'l cute cartoon show in the history of cuteness, "Cuticles."
Host segments for this show were shot late Sunday evening in the parking lot at the Nitro Marketplace shopping center. "Why there?" You ask? I honestly have no idea. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The green ball cap seemed like a good idea, too, but it sure looks stupid on screen. The shirt is from the movie, "Wall-E."
Radio Free Charleston Episode 67, "Earth To Eros Shirt," is online now! This edition of our show features our first "rerun" musical segment, plus new music from A Place Of Solace, A new trailer for Butch Maier's film, "The Bride And The Grooms," and the phenomenal young Bradley Wilkerson Sings! The afore-mentioned rerun segment is the animated music video for "Requiem For Pepperland" by Go Van Gogh, brought back by popular demand. This is our special "deadline crunch" show, as I try to maintain a weekly schedule through April in the face of major-league scheduling adversity.
Host segments for RFC 67 were shot in The Convenience Store on Summers Street in Charleston. We want to thank Scott Shapiro for letting us barge in unannounced just a couple of days after he said it would be okay to shoot segments in the store. If you haven't checked it out yet, The Convenience Store is well-stocked with the essentials of life--food, drink, supplies for the tobacco-addicted--but they have a bit more. The Convenience Store is also an art gallery, displaying new works by the cutting edge of Charleston's art scene. Plus they sell CDs by local musicians and underground T-shirts and jewelry. The place is great. It's got the vibe of a 1970s heaed shop, only they sell Mexican Coca Cola (made with real sugar) instead of black light posters depicting positions from the Kama Sutra.
Radio Free Charleston's sixty-sixth episode, "Yankees Jersey," is online now. This installment of the longest-running local music and animation show at TheGazz.com features a song from the CYAC musical "Norman Rockwell's American Paradise," written by Dan Kehde and Mark Scarpelli, plus a tune from Electro Biscuit, a band consisting of Kai Haynes, Greg Wegmann and RFC Big Shot Brian Young, who coincidentally happen to be the owners of LiveMix Studio, Charleston's coolest intimate venue and the home base of Radio Free Charleston.
We'll also see the exciting debut of Charleston's newest teen sensation, Young Bradley Wilkerson! That's him to the left of this text.
Our animation features a glimpse into the evil mirror universe, as we see how the Anti-Rudy would introduce a song on the evil version of Radio Free Charleston.
Radio Free Charleston 65, "Give Peace A Chance Shirt," is online now! This episode showcases two songs performed by Bare Bones, an acapella group consisting of Bill Kimmons, Becky Kimmons, and Mark Davis. We also present the short film "FOOTLUCY," starring the late Joe McComas. Plus, there's animation by Wallace Padillo.
Radio Free Charleston 64 is online now, but then, you probably knew that. And, if you're particularly astute, you may have noticed that the production notes posted here yesterday were part of an elaborate April Fool's Day joke. In fact, our sixty-fourth episode does not feature Paul McCartney, Peter Buck, or Pixar. It's part 3 of last year's Halloween extravaganza, "Radio Free Charleston Horror Theatre".
Count Rudolph returns as your host and this time the show emanates entirely from LiveMix Studio. Our musical guests are Whistlepunk and Mark Beckner and Alan Young of Hitchcock Circus, with Stephen Beckner. The animation is a golden oldie by Frank Panucci. Our cast of zombies includes Liz McCormick, Melanie Larch, and Brian Young, with a special performance by Alan Young as hyp-mo-tized zombie chow.
The latest edition of Radio Free Charleston, "Bauhaus Shirt", is online now! This is yet another music-packed episode, featuring new tunes from Stephen Beckner, The Buttonflies, and returning for a second week in a row Tofujitsu. We also have a five-second appearance from WVU Mountaineer Football's all-time leading scorer, Pat McAfee and by popular demand, the return of vintage beer commercial animation.
Host segments were shot in an undisclosed location in the hills surrounding Charleston. There are reports that this undisclosed location bears an uncanny resemblance to the deck behind Sean Richardson and Karen Allen's house, but we are sworn to secrecy. Also, it was raining that day.
Radio Free Charleston episode 62 is online now! This installment features music from Tofujitsu (That's Sean Richardson and Karen Allen) and The Bible Beaters. We also have a new trailer for Butch Maier's "The Bride & The Grooms," which will be playing at Park Place Stadium Cinema in April. Our animation is vintage stuff, with a cow rescuing two ducks from a racial stereotype.
Host segments were shot Monday afternoon in the sweltering heat of Summer's Street right before Mel and I crashed a Shouts And Hollers meeting. This show is called "Action Comics Shirt," after the coolest shirt I've found in quite a while.
Radio Free Charleston's sixty-first episode, "SHINDIG Shirt" is online now! In this episode, we feature three triumphant returns from musical acts who got their start in the Charleston area, then moved away, before the draw of their hometown brought them back for return engagements. The cool thing is that I didn't realize this theme until after I dropped off the show at the Gazz office. It wasn't on purpose. It was some kind of karmic kismet-certainly more impressive thematically than the running gag about 3D that I thought tied the show together.
We did film this episode in 3D, by the way.
Our musical guests are John Radcliff, back in town for a visit after moving to Parkersburg; SHINDIG, direct from Louisville: plus a special treat from the RFC archives: Brian Diller performing at the Empty Glass in the early 1990s, after he moved to Nashville.
We also have animation from Frank Panucci, and a message from author, Brian J. Hatcher. You may have seen Brian in the Gazette-Mail last Saturday, or at this slideshow, smokin' his damn pipe.
The sixtieth episode of Radio Free Charleston, our post-Valentine's Day valentine to Taylor Books, is online now. The music, host segments, and 60 second art show were all recorded at Taylor Books and/or the Cafe and Annex Gallery. The music was recorded on consecutive nights in January, and the rest just last Monday evening.
Our music this week is from Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen, Joseph Henry and John Radcliff. The "60 Second Art Show features a quick look at the work of Taylor Book's Annex Gallery regulars Eric Pardue and Charles Jupiter Hamilton. Our animation this time is by the mystery man known as P-Dox.
RFC is the legendary Charleston, West Virginia radio show, transformed into a new videocast, hosted at The Gazz.com.
You can watch our latest episode right here. and visit Gazz TV. for our archived programs.
Rudy Panucci is the producer and host of RFC, and he's also the author of the PopCult blog at The Gazz. You should read PopCult regularly, as it will eventually reveal all the secrets of the universe. Also, you can read about comic books, movies, Radio Free Charleston, music, toys and whatever the hell else He feels like writing about. Rudy gots him some carte blanche.
Rudy is a freelance writer who has been published in Non Sport Update, The Charleston Gazette, Toy Trader Magazine, Baby Boomer Collectibles, Record Collector, The Gazz, United Airlines in-flight magazine, Anything But Monday, The New England Journal Of Medicine, Cracked Magazine, and at Mastercollector.com. He was the editor and contributing writer/artist for Coda, West Virginia's first nationally-published comic book. Rudy has also been a disc jockey, program director, photographer, speechwriter, painter, record producer, concert promoter, cartoonist, television producer, shaman, caregiver, musician, and astronaut. He is older than he looks, so don't be fooled. If you see him in the wild, do not approach him as his nature is unpredictable, and he may lash out with his fearsome claws. No wait, that's the badger we were thinking of. It's okay to go up and talk to Rudy.
Radio Free Charleston is interested in contacting and showcasing cool independent musicians, animators, and filmmakers based in, or at least aware of West Virginia. Our show presents an eclectic range of musical talent, from punk to pop to Celtic to blues and beyond. Check out our second episode, "RVD Shirt" in our Videos Section here at MySpace. You can find a higher resolution version of this as well as a selection of our other shows at The Gazz.com.
Until now, that is. We are proud to announce the launch of the RFC TV Archives, which will re-present our classic episodes, one every Friday, with expanded production notes and updates on the performers who contribute to the show. 
