eBay Finds! Othermothers SCOTS

While the Comboland Radio library is somewhat impressive (to people who are into the regional rock music scene… maybe 5 people?) there are still items on my musical “want list”. eBay is still the primary spot for finding the obscure music I am looking for, however I have discovered a couple of non-eBay sites for vinyl and CDs.



Recent non-eBay finds include a 45 by Greensboro’s Othermothers. This pre-dates their Making Waves released EP “No Place Like Home” by about a year. I also found a SS (still sealed) copy of the lone recording by Th’ Cigaretz. I have two copies already that are both complete (including lyric sheet) and in VG++++ to M- condition. Still the price was low, right around $30, and a still sealed copy of that LP is next to impossible to find. The last time I saw a Cigz LP on eBay the bidding went well over a hundred bucks.

Another tough to find item is the Monkees tribute CD “Hear No Evil”. It features two killer tracks from Comboland artists, Mitch Easter’s take on “Valleri” and Peter Holsapple with “You Just May Be The One”.

One item I have been seeking for quite a while is the first EP from Southern Culture On The Skids. Every time I find one the bidding gets WAY too rich for my blood! Hey! The economy has been tough on me too! So imagine my surprise when the bidding on a very nice VG++++ to M- copy ended with only 2 bidders, with me taking the EP for $12.51!!! Usually you can’t get one for under $150.



One I missed out on was the 4 song “Happy Eggs” 7” EP which went for over $180! If anyone has a copy they would like to part with… or let me borrow to digitize… feel free to email me!

Tunes from all of my recent finds will soon be playing on Comboland Radio.

Peter Holsapple, and The dB's

Some good news from the dB’s messageboard! The band is close to releasing a long awaited CD, and Peter Holsapple HAS released a new CD!

Just over a year ago Peter started contributing to the “Radio Free Song Club” (as a radio guy I’m not sure I like that name…)(insert idiotic smiley face here). The project features a group of songwriters with a monthly deadline to create a song for the podcast they produce. Peter has decided to release his contributions on a CD which is available here. “Songs From The Radio Free Song Club” is only $10, a paltry sum for great tunes from a wonderful songwriter. Also available is his 1997 solo release “Out Of My Way”. This is a fine CD at a great price. Several tunes from this CD are featured on Comboland Radio, and I'll put a few from the new CD in rotation when it arrives to the remote outpost which houses Comboland Radio.

Support your favorite musicians by BUYING something from them today!

Woods, Mitch, Ghost Town Revelry, American Idol?!?

I have asked on several occasions for folks to suggest/guide me to bands/artists/CDs I might have missed for Comboland Radio. I have gotten a few… but just a few. Sometimes from the bands themselves, which is cool. Most of the stuff I find I stumble across myself. Such is the case with most of the new additions to Comboland Radio this week.

It is fun to run across something I didn’t know about with some of the early Comboland pioneers featured. Such is the case with “For The Love Of Todd”, a tribute to Todd Rundgren released in 1993 on Third Lock Records out of Charlotte. It it’s North Carolina connection it didn’t surprise me that 5 of the tunes were from true Comboland artists. There is Don Dixon, Parthenon Huxley, Jamie Hoover… also Bill Lloyd and other artists from out of the Comboland region. (There are a couple of real dogs on here to be sure… In my opinion… but not by those listed in this blog.) To me, however, the 2 standout tracks are from Mitch Easter and The Woods. It is still amazing to me that Mitch didn’t release his first solo album, Dynamico, until 2007. His take on “International Feel” gives a glimpse, sonically, of what would come 14 years later. What a great tune to kick off the CD. Hey… the P. Hux, Jamie and Dixon tunes are strong too!!! So we are through 13 tracks after Dixon… the CD leaves me a little… ah… man I hate to criticize because I probably couldn’t do much better… and not all bad either. Then Track 18 hits… “Slut”. Man! If I had never heard of The Woods at this point in my life I would have been trying to find more songs by this band! This song alone makes it worth buying the CD. Jack’s vocals are fantastic; David’s guitar work is sensational. The feel of the song is just rockin’! I’m sticking the Mitch and Woods tunes in my Hot rotation for a few weeks, and the Dixon, P. Hux and Jamie tunes will be in the mix too. The CD is available on eBay for $3.95… if you are interested.

Congratulations to Nod Norkus! As far as I can tell he was the 500th person to “Like” Comboland Radio on Facebook. Of course today it says it’s back down to 499 and 2 of personal friends like it less… although I have the same amount of friends. Dang Facebook! Nevertheless Nod receives all of the glory associated with being the first #500 Woo Hoo!!!! He also posted a link to a band from Charlotte he plays drums for “Ghost Town Revelry”. Some good tunes here!!! The released their 2nd album at the end of 2010, “Phasmatis Apparatus”. Listen for them on Comboland Radio.

There are a few American Idol contestants from North Carolina head to Hollywood with their “golden tickets” (if you are an Idol fan you know what I’m talkin’ about). One of them is from Wilmington and has some Comboland connections. James Ethan Clark has a tune on iTunes, “The Vines of My Heart”. It was recorded at Chris Stamey’s Modern Recording Studios, produced by Ivan Howard of The Rosebuds. Singer/Songwriter, Django Haskins played lead electric, Joe Hall of Hammer No More The Fingers played background electric, Jeff Crawford of Mandolin Orange played bass, and Matt McCaughan of The Rosebuds played drums. James Ethan Clark wrote the lyrics and music to the song, and played acoustic, ahythm guitar, and piano and also did the three part harmonies heard in the song. Listen for it on Comboland Radio.

Back to Mitch… One of the music blogs I frequent featured a post about a quasi-supergroup (that according to Wikipedia) “The Orange Humble Band”. I am still trying to familiarize myself with particulars but Mitch is a member, along with Jamie Hoover. I have 2 of their CDs, “Assorted Creams” and Humblin’ (Across America). I’ll stick a few tunes in the mix at Comboland Radio. Give it a listen.

Sparkleberries, Mollybond, X-Teens Club Mix!!

Another off-season with the day job that is SO busy it leaves little time for Comboland Radio. But I have added a couple of things:
The Sparkleberries - "Architect Of Woe" (Love it!!) and "Skylight"
Mollybond - "Change" and "Friday Night"
David Dixon - "Whisper"

Of course I am also playing cuts from the most recent SCOTS release "Kudzu Ranch" and the new Superchunk tunes too... along with LOTS of other great music new and ancient. Check it out!

I have a bit of Comboland Radio email to catch up on too but if you have an artist/band suggestion please do let me know.



A recent eBay find!!!! In the early 80's it seemed like every artist/band had a 12 inch club/dance remix. One I missed way back then was from the X-Teens self-titled LP on Dolphin Records. I don't remember it, never had it, but did find it on eBay. It features 4 songs total with a 6 minute version of "Hard Is A Love Departing" on one side (the "club" side), and 3 songs on the "radio side". They are "Tonight, Tonight", "Nothing Left To Say" and "Baby John". I'm not sure this record had ever been played! It is super clean and needed little in the way of audio restoration in the transfer to my digital library. I'm gonna stick the Club Mix into the hot rotation for a few weeks so listen up!

Comboland Holiday Music!

You can hear Christmas Music from many of your Comboland favorites on Comboland Radio! The dB's, Southern Culture On The Skids, Arrogance, The Olympic Ass-Kickin' Team, selections from Holly Raleigh Christmas and more are playing right now!

For live Comboland music during the holidays check out one of these great shows!

An email from The dB's website states:
"The dB's will play a brief Christmas set at Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC, on Thursday, Dec. 16 as part of Trekky Records Christmas at the Cradle 2010 A Benefit for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society featuring as The dB's: Peter, Chris, Will, Mitch." This sounds like a fun show!

SCOTS has several shows during late December. The 16th they're in Charleston at The Charleston Pourhouse, 17th in Wilmington NC at The Soapbox, the 18th at the Berkley Cafe in Raleigh, and New Years Eve in Charlottesville at The Jefferson Theater! Man!!! That will be some rockin' New Years Eve!

Christmas night Terry Anderson will again celebrate his birthday with his pals in The Olympic Ass-Kickin' Team at The Pourhouse in Raleigh. I missed last years as the world's biggest OAK Team fan, my wife, was quite sick. We WILL be at this show and you should be to. By Christmas night you'll need a break from relatives anyway.

And New Years Eve the place to be in The Triangle is The Cat's Cradle for Arrogance! What a great way to bring in 2011!!! And there is no telling what sort of surprises the boys will have in store for us! Get your tickets in advance so you don't miss out!

I'm sure there are TONS of other shows! Email me and I'll spread the word.

Holla Band, Fast Annie, Remembering David...

Today is the 3rd anniversary of the passing of David Enloe. So it was about 3 years ago I started to dig out all of my old vinyl to listen to. I got to hear all of my favorite bands, think about old friends and get inspired to share it all with the world. I regret not having enough time to adequately spend on Comboland Radio but I do what I can in hope one day I'll have time to do more. I do still occasionally add more music. Tune in now and you will hear two new additions, "The Holla Band" and "Fast Annie".

The Holla Band played around a bunch as I remember hearing the name, but I don't think I ever saw them. That is a shame as I can tell by the LP, release on Moonlight Records in early '82, I would have enjoyed them. The LP I found was in very good shape and required very little cleanup. There is a very small Facebook group devoted to Holla but it appears not to have been visited much lately. Matt Barrett has some photos on his site devoted to NC music. And one of the former members has a page with the band on it as well. The tunes sound great on Comboland Radio.



"Fast Annie" featured ex arrogance member Mike Greer, was produced and engineered by arrogance member Don Dixon and was recorded where Don did much of his recording and producing, Reflection Sound Studios. Released on Chelsea records the LP has a couple of tunes that fit well on Comboland Radio, both written by Greer, "Laugh At The World" and "My Baby's Alright". They are playing now on Comboland Radio.

Robert Kirkland is involved with a couple of new projects I hope to track down and add soon. I have some unanswered messages to catch up on too. Maybe this weekend...

Tonight is a sort of celebration of David's life as the Comboland Radio staff (Missie and I) are going to see some live music. SCOTS is playing out here on the OBX. So we get a little taste of home, and maybe a piece of fried chicken.

Free Music Blogs

What do Chris Stamey, Let's Active, The Killer Whales, The X-Teens, and The Woods Have in common? Several things of course... but one you may not be aware of. Then again.... All of these artists, along with thousands of others, have their works "featured" on music blogs where you can download the for free! Sounds great right?!? I'm not too sure.

It's a fairly recent phenomenon that seems to have exploded in the past few years. Literally thousands of blogs have cropped up that "feature" mostly out of print recordings and most of these sites allow you to download the entire recording for free. Are you looking for a copy of the hard to find "Precision Auto" 7 inch by Superchunk? It's available... for free... you just have to know where to look. You don't need Limewire, Bit Torrent or anything except a browser and some rudimentary knowledge of file extraction and mp3 files. Some have complete artwork ready for you to print out just in case you want to make your own CD.

I'll be honest. I don't know how I feel about these blogs. On one hand some of this stuff is never going to be re-released in any form. These bloggers aren't making any money themselves. Most seem to be passionate fans of a specific genre of music. Most have a policy of removing a link of the artist objects or if the material is re-released. In fact I pointed out to one blogger that the "Van DeLecki's" "Letters From the Desk of Count S.Van Delecki" was still commercially available and he quickly removed the download link and replaced it with a link to the page on CD Baby where you can buy the CD. However it does seem to me that the artists are still getting ripped off.

I do know that Terry Anderson and Jack Cornell had been working on a Woods box set but that seems to have stalled. Terry said something to effect of "why should I spend the money to put it out when it's already out there for free"? Specifically "It's Like This" is on one of these blogs, despite the fact that Twin Tone will still make you a copy on a custom CD for $15. Also floating around is The Wood's "Lost Album". Never released the "free" copy's quality is not great, but the songs sure are. I, for one, would have plopped down the cash for the box set JUST to hear decent copies of these songs. I don't think it's happening. Is it because of these blogs? Are blogs like this preventing artists from making some of their pasts works available to their fans?

I tried my hand at legally selling music on The Comboland Radio website. For 2 years I had all but one of the Arrogance recordings available. We sold a few downloads, but it cost twice the dollar amount we sold to host the website and pay the fees for the "shopping cart" and to accept PayPal. NOT a good business model! I was surprised too. But after thinking about it all of the fans we have seen at the shows in recent years probably had the stuff already. Not everybody felt the need to replace their vinyl with the digital downloads... although they do sound good. Also I shouldn't have sold individual songs. For the same amount of storage space and inventory items I should have tried harder to get some of the other bands to sell some of their out of print stuff there too. Still I'm not sure it would have ever broken even.

I guess I could put the Arrogance stuff up on a blog of my own! I guess I could put ALL of the vinyl have I digitized for Comboland Radio up on a blog somewhere!! (It's quite a bit!) Hell I could put up the all of out of print CDs I have too!!! I could... but I can't. I was a suspected music bootlegger in the 80's. While working at Reflection Sound Studios the studio recorded 4 live R.E.M. shows. OF COURSE a few copies were circulated by the staff. However copies of 2 of the shows got to the outside world. It wasn't nefarious... it didn't involve me... and it was an innocent mistake. However I DID hear about it and several people were/are convinced I bootlegged the tapes. I didn't, but I felt horrible. R.E.M wasn't this huge band yet. I had seen them many times in clubs and dives in the south. I had friends who were working with them. I wouldn't have done anything to take money out of any of their pockets. I still feel the same way.(By the way... I still have my tapes. I check the R.E.M. bootleg list every now and then and as of yet the 2 shows I have are not listed anywhere.)

For what it's worth Comboland Radio is a "legal" Internet broadcast and pays all of the music licensing fees through Live365 (although I would be GREATLY surprised if ANY of the artists ever receive a penny of what I pay in... but that is a another blog for another time).

Again... I don't really know how I feel about these blogs... but they are in great abundance and cover every form of music imaginable. I would be interested in your point of view. If the musicians and artists are against this type of "sharing" then I would have to side with them. Just know that no matter what "the man" does to prevent the sharing of music on the Internet people will figure out a different way to do it.

With all of that said I have just transferred 2 albums to digital, both with Triangle ties, that will start playing legally on Comboland Radio later this week.