4/18/13 in a nutshell…
This week, let’s fast-forward to the Home Stretch. 2 weeks ago, due to the lack of a 5@5:05, we promised skassengers a 5×2@5:05 the following week, which we didn’t actually deliver last week. So this week, we decided that the whole Home Stretch (except for the Mutant Frogs bumpers and, of course, of course, “The End”) would be Japanese ska, or as we like to say around here, “Skapanese”, including the J-Lollipop unwrapped by Mie Nakao, whose version of “My Boy” manages to liberally reference that other Lollipop, the one by The Chordettes. In a then-future century, an outfit called The Dreamlets would do likewise, but this week we spun their “Nina”, inspired as we were by Sherwood B. Funn’s unplanned airing of Nina Hagen’s delightful “Flying Saucers”. Another Home Stretch highlight: a hat-trick of Runa Miyoshida goodies, one each from her first three Ska Flavor albums, albeit not in numerical order. But back to Sherwood… Imagine Herbie Hancock’s vocoderized voice scatting along with Grappelli and Reinhardt over spaciously chilled trip-hop beatz, and you’ve pretty much got the gist of “Star Scat”, a truly hallounginogenic confection from electro-swingers Caravan Palace. Don’t worry, you’re just hearing things… and I’m spinnin’em! While in Sherwood’s orbit, Shiina Ringo gave us a current weather report (“Rain’s a-comin’ down, rain’s a-comin’ deaaownn…”) while Weather Report gave us Wayne Shorter’s “When It Was Now”. Seriously, as I type this up, rain’s still a-comin’ deeaaoowwnnnn… let’s make it fly back up as we reverse the flow of time and back up into the “Ooh”… what a well-rounded selection of fine old ska goodies we have here, ranging from Clue J. to Stranger & Patsy, from The Dragonaires to The Upsetters. No real theme except, “Ooh, I like this one… and this one… and hold on, we haven’t heard that in a while!” Y’know… wingin’ it. Tune in… and stay tuned!
