Everything you ever wanted to know about Neighborhood Weekly Radio (but were afraid to ask)

By Henry Lipput

I had the pleasure of interviewing Mitch Lynch and Mark Harvie (you know them as your friends and mine Mitch and Mark of Neighborhood Weekly Radio; their show is on most Friday evenings at 5) by email. I asked them how they met, their backgrounds in radio, how the station and their show got started, where they are now, and what they think (and hope) the future of the station will be. (No Cheez-its or alcohol/beer were harmed during the conducting of this interview.)

PURE POP 4 NOW PEOPLE: Mitch is from New Jersey and Mark is from Maine: How did you guys meet?

MITCH: In the neighborhood!  When we moved to Maine in 2011, our daughters were in the same grade and played together in the neighborhood, and we would get together for typical social occasions.

MARK: Mitch and his family relocated to Maine for work (and to escape the swamps of Jersey) about 12 years ago.  The neighborhood was very boring until that happened. I think the first time we met was a Halloween party at our house and Mitch just never left…

PURE POP: How did Neighborhood Weekly Radio come to be?

MITCH: I had a thought of doing some sort of podcast/show about music and connections, etc., based on what Mark and I would chat about at get-togethers. We were at my bar while I was discussing it, and Mark was interested in doing it too.  Together, we evolved it from a podcast (where you can't legally stream/play copyrighted material) to an actual Internet radio station, through Live365.  Live365 is the only platform that pays all royalties, etc., for music we play.

MARK: It was definitely music that connected us before everything else (oh, and beer). I didn’t know a lot of people (other than my wife) who loved The Smithereens, The Clarks, Connells, Jayhawks, and on and on. We invented a series of musical games which mostly consisted of one of us having to play a song that somehow connected (sonically, lyrically, thematically?) to the song the other was playing.  Mitch had the crazy idea that there could be other crazy people who might find us (or at least our musical choices) entertaining.  And here we are…goofing off on the air, three years later…

PURE POP: Did each of you have experience in radio?

MITCH: Mark had experience. I had more experience in the technical side of things since I've been playing music and recording for a while.  I had mixers and mics and the knowledge of how to hook things up. 

MARK: I did the college radio thing between 1981 to 1983.  What a great time to have access to albums that were not being heard anywhere else (at least in Maine).  I became a huge fan of Elvis Costello, R.E.M., The Beat (both of them), The Clash, and the Boston underground scene (Lyres, O Positive, Cavedogs, Big Dipper, Dumptruck, Chain Link Fence, Bebe Buelle).  I also did basketball play-by-play on the college station for two years and was able to land an overnight DJ gig at a big top 40 station and did that for about a year while I was still in school.  

PURE POP: What has changed since you started doing the show?

MITCH: We are poorer? I think, for me, the biggest change was when we started interviewing bands/artists/labels to bring a new dynamic to the show.  We have had a chance to meet so many people, even if just through Twitter or email.  It's been cool to promote music we love that doesn't always get the attention of radio or other outlets.

MARK: Well, we don’t have to spend as much money on music as we did when we started. While we each owned enough music to start the station, one of the major components was finding and playing new music or obscure music that we didn’t know yet.  That got pretty expensive. Now, we are a bit on the radar with some of our favorite labels and are provided with so much free music we almost can’t get to it all.  A great problem to have.  Also, I feel like our laidback style has helped us develop into better than average interviewers. I work very hard not to talk over our guests. Mitch is kind of a given…

PURE POP: In the last year or so you’ve added other shows and DJs to NWR. How do you decide who to bring to the station?

MITCH: Some people were folks I've known for years, and that I know had interesting musical tastes and have good personalities.  Others we have met after starting the station (Chip is a great example) and organically it happened.  I think Mark reached out to Chip?  And then Chip recommended Alan?  And also Tom?  It was all Chip's work!

MARK: Our first (Cam) was an early listener and someone I knew.  He brought a whole new batch of listeners with a hard rock focus, but he had a great pop sensibility as well.  Beth was also a listener. I am pretty sure that I was a fan of hers before she became one of ours.  It was a no-brainer to ask her to join us and, wow, she played a very important role in our growth and we miss having her on!

By the way, Twitter has been our connection to most of our DJ’s, listeners, labels, and artists.  We started playing The Hangabouts and when Chip was between DJ gigs, we were one of the stations he contacted and again – No-Brainer! He’s connected us to a couple of other DJs (Alan and Tom). 

We were also lucky enough to connect with Wally Salem early on (pretty sure it was the SUPER 8’s cover of “Serious Drugs” and, again, Twitter).  You and Wally have been around since the start and to have two guys with such musical knowledge show interest in what we do has meant a lot to us.

PURE POP: What’s next for Neighborhood Weekly Radio?

MITCH: Prison. One of us is going to jail and it ain’t gonna be me!  Something about inappropriate use of NFTs…

Mark touches on a lot of the things we are looking to do as far as video content, editing shows quicker, diversity, etc.  I do hope we can interview folks in person at some point. Till then, we need to upgrade the studio equipment to do better zoom/video interviews.  I’m also thinking of new shows with more of a podcast format (no music) that can be recorded and played multiple times a week.  These shows would discuss music in general, books, current events, whatever.  I also want to get more station IDs recorded to promote the shows/DJs we currently have. Most of our IDs are older before we had other DJs, so would be good to promote all the shows.

And, as we have said, you have to spend money to lose money. Hopefully we can lose a little less :-)

MARK: We hope to continue to add programming, especially live shows.  I’d like to see some diversity.  Without meaning to do so, we have become an “older white guys playing indie pop” station.  We certainly miss the class that Beth brought to the station and would also welcome other musical genres (we had a jam band show and a hard rock show at one point and I think a soul/R&B show would be great).

In addition to that, we have some ideas for multi-media shows (we will need a good makeup person) that we can add to our YouTube channel (cooking, “How to” - with a comic twist, etc.).

Eventually, we hope to have enough Patreon members to be able to afford studio space that would be more conducive to live music and easier for guests to join us live. We know we need to improve our production turnaround time to be offering a Patreon product that stands out from the crowd.

Catch the signal The Radio Field is sending

 By Henry Lipput

The Radio Field is the latest project from Lars Schmidt of Subterfuge and “Clover” is the taster single from Simple, a 4-song EP out this Friday (September 30^th) on the Subjangle label.

What does a musician do when he lives in a country that’s experiencing its second lockdown at the end of 2020? Schmidt has said it only takes enough boredom and a musical instrument to create something good. So with the shops closed, he mail ordered a Rickenbacker 12-string and in a couple of days three songs were written. And later, when it was possible, he went to the studio with some friends to record the guitar, drums, and backing vocals.

The result of Schmidt’s back-to-the-roots bedroom band’s efforts is the Simple EP with half of it the joyful jangle of “Clover” and “Years Ago” and another half the melancholy melodies of “The Wait” and “Congratulations” (a cover of a song from Strange Magic, a one-man band from New Mexico).

A word to the wise: Subjangle only manufactures about 125 CDs of any given release and these have been known to sell out within 48 hours (some have already been sold through a pre-order campaign.)  

The enduring influence of the Nerk Twins

 By Henry Lipput

Wonderful albums by Caleb Nichols and The Vague Ideas reflect the enduring influence of Paul McCartney and John Lennon.

Ramon, Caleb Nichols

On Ramon (Kill Rock Stars) the names have been changed to protect the broken-hearted as well as those who break hearts. We have Ramon, Jerome, Mr. Mustard, and Captain Custard in a gay love story.

Drawing on both McCartney and Lennon’s lyrical ideas as well as McCartney’s (and his own) history, Nichols creates a gay love story that he has called #QueeringtheBeatles. Nichols is both gay and a Beatles fan; in the Elliot Smith-influenced opener “Listen to the Beatles” he tells of coming home from Middle School, putting on headphones, and listening to the Beatles as a means of escape.

(A side note: At first listen Ramon was something I could identify with, not because I’m a gay Beatles fan, but because my best friend was. He was the first person I knew who not only had bootlegs, but vinyl bootlegs.)

Ramon is not only the album’s title but also the last name Paul McCartney took when The Beatles had their first real gig in 1960 as the backing band for Johnny Gentle on a tour of Scotland. And when you separate the word into Ram and on, it’s a song on Paul and Linda McCartney’s 1971 RAM album. On “Ramon,” Nichols borrows the line “Ramon, give your heart to somebody soon” from RAM’s “Ram On.” Nichol’s take is just as lovely and melancholy as McCartney’s.

The album’s centerpiece is the love story between a Mr. Mustard and Captain Custard. It doesn’t go well and on “Captain Custard” he moves out because his lover is not called Mean Mr. Mustard for nothing. The instrumental “Mustard’s Blues” recalls McCartney’s “Let Me Roll It” and the neatly six-minute “From a Hole in the Road” (or is it a hole in the heart?) with its repeated line “I’ve been dreaming you” and then “I still dream of you” becomes a mantra and a hope that dreams can come true.

Whether the story ends on a positive note is up to the listener but based on the final song on Ramon (and my new favorite Christmas song), “I Fell in Love On Xmas Day,” it appears to be resolved.

By the way, Nichols has just released a two-song EP, Double Mantasy (Kill Rock Stars), with covers of McCartney’s “Waterfalls (featuring Rogue Wave)” and Lennon’s “Watching the Wheels” (listen to this one all the way through for its chilling ending). Here’s the video for “Waterfalls” with John kissing a crying Paul.

New York Letters, The Vague Ideas

New York Letters (Trouserphonic) is a unique idea by US-based musician and writer Mare Rozzelle and set during the period John Lennon lived in New York between 1971 and 1980. Originally conceived as a stage play, Rozzelle asked UK-based songwriter and musician Glenn Prangnell to write the music for songs that took the form of letters and messages both to and from Lennon. Rozelle used the Hunter Davies “The John Lennon Letters,” Cynthia Lennon’s book, and books by John and Yoko’s assistants, as well as the many television shows he was on to gain insight into John’s conversational style.

The songs on New York Letters lift licks and sounds from Lennon’s work during this period. It’s like the songs that Neil Innes wrote for The Rutles but without the jokes (although “Always Good to Hear from You [Letter from Mimi]” is funny with its swipe at Paul and a tune like the “granny music” John detested.)

The album begins with the rocking “NYC (Letter to Julia)” following his primal scream therapy and sounding like an outtake from Walls and Bridges or Milk and Honey. The snarky “Nixon’s Listening (Letter to Tricky Dicky)” is a response to that president’s attempt to throw Lennon out of the country and tap his phone because of John's political activities.

With a sound that fittingly recalls Double Fantasy’s  “I’m Losing You,” “Bread and Jam (Letter to Julian)” has John writing to his young son who lives with his mother across the ocean: “I know you can’t be happy that I’m so far away/But someday soon I’m gonna send for you/And I promise you can come and stay.”

The amazing “Revolution 9”- inspired “Prelude to the Lost Weekend” is Prangnell’s look at Lennon’s state-of-mind as he leaves Yoko and goes to California to drink and hang out with folks like Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon, and Ringo Starr. The Macca-like, bouncy and piano-based “Something’ll Happen (Letter from Paul)” is his hope for a reunion, not of the greatest band in the world, but a friendship (I love the line “Talk about us/We thought it was heaven/Riding the bus in search of B7”).

The last two songs on the album are the saddest as well as the most beautiful. “When You Turn Five (Lullaby for Sean)” is the future that neither of them will see together. And “No More Crying (Message to Paul)” is a love song to McCartney; it’s his version of “Here Today” and even begins with the same chord. “It’s only me, Paul” the lyric goes, a remark that McCartney has said would happen when he and John argued during the Fab times.

When it comes to Jeremy Porter and the Tucos every night is the night

 By Henry Lipput

If you’ve read more than a few of my reviews on this blog you’ll notice there’s not a lot of straight up rock and roll in the mix. What tends to attract my ears and pen and paper is melodic pop and more than a bit of jangle.

One of the exceptions is my review last year of Candy Coated Cannonball, the album by Jeremy Porter and the Tucos. In the review I wrote: “Jeremy Porter and the Tucos is one of the best rock and roll trios I’ve heard since Ben Folds Five released their debut album more than 20 years ago.”

And now they’re back with a new 7’ single that, as David Letterman was fond of saying, blows the roof off the dump. It’s available only from their website as a preorder from GTG Records and at shows. (You can find out about the dates for the band’s Fall tour here.)

“Tonight is Not the Night” b/w “DTW” is pressed on limited-edition red vinyl and comes with great cover art by Kentucky's Nick Walters, a hand-screened insert, and a download card. Recorded during the Candy Coated Cannonball sessions, “Tonight is Not the Night” is nowhere near a left-over but a worthy addition to the band’s greatest hits.

Speaking of greatest hits, if you like what you hear you need to check out Jeremy Porter and the Tucos 3-CD career retrospective Bottled Regrets: The First Ten Years on Bandcamp. 

Tamar Berk’s “Alone Tonight” Video Premiere

 By Henry Lipput

Singer-songwriters can be a serious bunch and Tamar Berk is no exception. On her second solo album Start at the End (Bandcamp) released earlier this year (and a strong follow-up to 2021's The Restless Dreams of Youth -- no sophomore slump for Berk), she once again writes honestly about adult relationships.

Berk describes her new single and video, “Alone Tonight,” as “a song about those moments when you are very aware that you are not going to be good company.” As a child she was content to be alone for hours, making fake radio shows on her cassette player and setting up her toys as an adoring audience.

It’s that sense of youthful abandon that makes the “Alone Tonight” video so delightful. Berk isn’t the first musician to make a video that doesn’t adhere to the song’s message so we have a dancing-around-the-living-room moment and it’s infectious.