I generally label the first part of the monthly new release series the “friends of the show” broadcast. Looking at tonight’s folder of tunes, though, the sequel actually has more artists of that sort than part one had.

As always, there’s  lengthy set recapping a ton of wonderful Rum Bar Records release. Let’s face it, thanks to their generosity and the sherr number of great records they put out every month they fit the “best friend” category. But a large portion of the show includes a number of other submitted tracks by the likes of Shortwaves, Joe Normal, mp clarke, The Rockerati, and The chrisVandalay Project. And a thumbs up to the always prolific Friends of Cesar Romero for putting out not one but three new releases this past month!

There’s also some great tracks from veteran artists this month. The Black Watch just released their 25th album. 25! And this one’s a double! The Reds, Pinks and Purples contnue their jangle pop snark with The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed. There’s a four album set by Hallelujah The Hills, and the returns of The Untamed Youth and Dropkick Murphys.

What is your fave new release?

For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

It may be our nation’s birthday, but that’s not stopping The Ledge from their usual routine of every first Friday of the month. Yes, once again we have a two part new release series, and this week’s first episode is primarily “friends of the show”. Artists that regularly send us tracks (Numb Surprise), along with labels that alway keep us in the loop (Big Stir Records), along with a ton of artists who so nicely provided us with singles or full-length releases.

But we also had to break our usual format with this news from the Numero Group – “The rumors are true. On January 30, 1985, Hüsker Dü recorded a peak high performance to 24 track tape at Minneapolis’s First Avenue club in front of their hometown massive. This performance was supposed to come out as a live album later that year, but the band’s rapid upward trajectory caused priorities to shift. The tapes were shelved – thought to be possibly lost in the same 2011 house fire that consumed a precious portion of the Hüsker Dü archive. Nearly 40 years later, these tapes have been rescued from the abyss, and we’ve tasked the team at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio on the transferring and Beau Sorensen at Tiny Telephone for the mixdowns.” 

Yes, all five of the preview tracks are included, as are a couple of highlights from the recent covers compilation from The Feelies.

For more info, including setlists, head to htttp://scotthudson.blogspot.com

As it is the last Friday of the second quarter of the year, it’s time to once again take a look back at the highlights of the last three months. Like usual, there’s a wonderful mix of all kinds of great music, from veteran bands (The Minus 5, The Waterboys, Swans) to brand new bands (Psychic Pigs, The Burgers). There’s free bandcamp faves (Friends of Cesar Romero, Vista Blue), our usual mix of Rum Bar Records bands, and multi-disc concept albums (David Lowery, The Waterboys). There’s some good old fashioned rock ‘n roll, garage rock, punk, and even some indescribible multi-genre bands that I like to call “garage-prog”. 

What new albums have you been jamming?

For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

Full disclosure here, and it’s sort of controversial. I’ve never been a Beach Boys fan. It’s just never really worked for me. As a kid, it just seemed to be a parent’s version of what rock and roll is supposed to be. The fact they had a song called “Be True To Your School” was enough evidence for me to not buy that Endless Summer collection that came out around the same time as I was discovering The Ramones and Sex Pistols.

That’s not to say that I don’t have respect for the band, especially Brian Wilson, who passed away on June 11. The fact that so many of my favorite bands revered Wilson (including the Ramones) gave me some new insight. In fact, I always have said that I love the bands influenced by The Beach Boys more than the actual band.

Plus, I have developed an appreciation for Pet Sunds, although I’m still not prepared to call it the greatest album ever. But I pulled it out after hearing the news of Brian’s death, and I also played the version of Smile that came out in 2011. That may be my favorite album by them, but is it because of the legends behind the creation?

So tonight’s show consists primarily of Beach Boys covers. Yes, the first track is not a cover. It’s Pavid Vermin’s wonderful (and truthful) track “The Beach Boys Never Surfed”. And, yes, I do include Redd Kross’s cover of Charles Manson’s “Cease to Exist”, which was recorded by the band (with rewritten lyrics) as “Never Learn Not To Love”. Not to mention that the Melvins’ NSFW rewrite of “I Get Around” is probably mroe parody than tribute. It’s still a fun version, though!

For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

Believe it or not, there are rules when it comes to what you hear on The Ledge. One of my main rules is that when the new release show is split into two separate shows there is a cutoff date for the material. That deadline is showtime of the first episode. Any material that is sent my way after that is set aside for the next month’s series.

But there’s no real rules in rock and roll, as proven when I got an email from Rum Bar head honcho Malibu Lou just a fwe hours before this broadcast. Attached to the correspondance was the upcoming new single by The Dogmatics! Hold the presses, kids, as this is a track that has to be fast-tracked. And what a backstory.

The new song, “You’ve Got What I Want”, is the opening blast from a new full-length coming out on July 18. But it’s 96 seconds of fury that dates back to the band’s earliest rehearsals. Leader Jerry Lehane had attended a show by 80s Boston legends The Outlets, and rushed to the infamous Thayer Street rehearsal loft to write this ferocious rocker. Why they waited almost 45 years to record this classic makes no sense to me, but better late than ever!

Of course, there’s plenty of other Rum Bar new releases aired this week, along with new material from Rum Bar associates Beebe Gallini and Brad Marino. There’s a wonderful new single by The New Barbarians, and I’m always happy when fellow Real Punk Radio DJ Greg Lonesome has a new Intrusive Thoughts track. 

There’s plenty of other highlights this week, and as always I want to know what your favorites are. What records are you looking at adding to your collection?

For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

The first half of the monthly new release series is always dominated by “friends of the show”, and this month it’s no different. Tonight’s episode features are good friends Numb Surprise, the latest Rob Moss split 7″ cover collaboration (this time with Arthur Alexander), the return of Swansea Sound, and many others. Take note of the wonderful comeback tune by Handsome Dick Manitoba, as it features our pals Torpedohead as his band!. 

The concluding half hour or so of tonight’s broadcast features double shots of some great new albums. Alien Nosejob, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, and Wyldlife are represnted with their new records, and we have a sneak peak at what should be a future favorite album from Superchunk!

For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

Tonight’s show features the debut of a new theme. It’s a format that I’ve long considered trying out, and this week seemed like the perfect opportunity. Quite often, new albums that I’ve come across have included songs with a famous person in the title. Most are tributes to said person, but there are also plenty of these types of tunes that just utilize a name for a song that has nothing to do with that character.

So here we have over two hours of these types of songs. They’re priarily new or recently released, but there are four segments devoted to individual artists. First off, we have The Replacements, along with a variety of songs devoted to members of the band. Then at the end we have lengthy sections full of songs about Joe Strummer and Joey Ramone.

I can see this format being utilized every few months. Just like the cover songs episodes, I’ll set up a folder that I’ll toss whatever songs I come across that would work for such a show. What do you think? Is this a worthy idea?

For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

At first glance, the latest installment of the cover song series is no different than any previous episode. Behind the scenes, though, serendipity is at play here.

Like usual, I had quitely filled my “covers” folder over the last few months. A few weeks ago, I had accumulated enough tracks to schedule the show. I could have done it at the end of April, or last week. Next week even. Or I could have held it over until June. But no, I was determed in do on May 23.

Then on my usual record store run last Friday I found a number of great Minneapolis garage rock records from the 50s and 60s. Most were compilatons, but I also found a Sundazed Music reissue of The Gestures’ self-titled album from 1966. Hailing from Mankato, MN, they had a hit in 1964 with “Run, Run, Run”, their debut single. I picked up this reissue, and loved it!

Fast forward to yesterday as I was looking at the various new releases for the week. I was excited to see that Beebe Gallini had a new record out called Begged, Borrowed and Stealed! Even better was the fact that not only is this a record of nothing but covers but one of their selections is that tune by The Gestures!!! So for this week’s feature record of the week I have a whole set of tunes from this great record.

And as if that wasn’t eneough serendipity for one week, I also came across a covers record by Australin ska-punkers The Resignators, which includes a cover of “Teenage Kicks”!!! I swear the universe set up both of these acts to release these records just for me to air them this week!

Due to all this good fortune, I decided to not dump any of the other tracks I had initially picked for this week’s broadcast. So this is a supersized episode with over a half hour of overtime! I hope you love all of these tunes. Please let me know what you liked the most!

For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

This episode started off with a simple search for a Mother’s Day song. I just wanted to check out what songs I had about moms. But I noticed something quite off. I also had quite a few songs whose title included a much longer word that included the word mother. Like a whole plethora of songs that a polite person like myself would never, ever knowingly type in a show description like this.

So that’s what we have tonight. 39 songs whose titles involves a certain expletive. It’s quite a fun show, but if you are NOT a fan of profranity you may want to wait for next week’s show. I won’t take it personally. 

For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com

This may be the 666th episode of The Ledge, but there’s nothing evil about the music played tonight. It’s actually nothing but joyful noise, 38 blasts that prove that rock and roll is as strong as ever. And once again, we traverse the world for quality sounds. Besides the usual lineup of Americans, there’s not one but two fabulous bands from France, along with other European artists. There’s the usual handful of Australians.  

There’s also a plethora of veterans still pumping out records you need to hear. Muck and the Mires have been releasing garage rock for over 25 years. The Rabies reunited after 40 years for one of the great surprises of the years. Former Soft Boys guitarist Kimberly Rew returns. Personlity Cult may be much younger, but they consist of members of Ledge favorites Mind Spiders and Paint Fumes (plus many other bands).

What’s your favorite new release? 

For more info, including setlists, head to http://scotthudson.blogspot.com