What you'll hear:
Sep 20, 2021
Smashin' Transistors 84: You might as well live
What you'll hear:
Sep 2, 2021
Smashin' Transistors 83: Take Your Shirt Off And Throw It In The Pool
The pool is where I've been spending a lot of my limited free time since. I attempted to work on this episode a few times poolside but someone would always ask me if I was recording a podcast. And is a true-crime podcast.
"Maybe true crimes against music" I've replied winkingly.
I also told someone I am doing a podcast where I am breaking down the Monkees Pool It album, dedicating an episode to every song on the album. But that would mean I'd have to listen to the whole album. I heard it enough at a place I was working when it came out. The people in charge of the stereo were really into that and Aerosmith's Permanent Vacation. I lived my true crimes against music already, man!
The thing is though, I am hanging out at the pool to be in the pool. Y'know, being like Mick Jagger in the jam Summer Romance or something. Not working on a podcast. For those who were on the edge of their seat waiting for the next Smashin' Transistors transmission, I apologize if you completely fell off the chair waiting.
Jesse Floyd – Satan’s Wife
Jul 21, 2021
Smashin' Transistors 82: How To Start The Next Dance Craze?
"Wait. People still line dance?"
"Yes," I was informed. "And now they do it to Kid Rock."
That killed whatever idea I had for trying to get a new dance craze starting right then and there.
What You'll Hear:
Jun 20, 2021
Smashin' Transistors 81: Dankness on The Edge Of Town
What you'll hear
May 28, 2021
Smashin' Transistors 80: Weather and Wonder and Wondering Whether

One summer weekend in northern Michigan years ago, I ate breakfast at a Bob Seger themed diner. Pretty much just a few Seger album covers framed and on the wall and a poster signed by Alto Reed. The menu items did not have any Seeg related puns. Just regular breakfast item names.
They missed the boat on not naming something Kat-ham-du.
What you'll hear.
Apr 25, 2021
Smashin' Transistors 79: Churlishness Prevalent
I have not worked in a retail setting in over twenty years. I kept good with continuing out of it. Well, until late 2020 that is. Not by choice and hopefully it is just temporary but bills gotta get paid, y'know. I forgot how churlish the general public can be. The pandemic seems to make the off-their-rocker types get even more cross. I am sure this episode of Smashin' Transistors would get them complaining.
Apr 6, 2021
Smashin' Transistors 78: Blanketed In Yellow Dust
The Gordons – Right On Time
Mar 12, 2021
Smashin' Transistors: (Apostrophe) 77
There was a spell there towards the end of the last century, that if you wanted to prove how punk rock your attitude was, you would suffix whatever the name of the project was with a "'77."
It quickly became a running joke with some friends I hung out with. Taco Bell '77. Camel Lights '77. I'll be there around seven '77. I don't get paid til Friday '77 and so on.
It cracked us up for a couple months.
It was not a running joke with everyone I hung out with though. One evening, I was hanging out with some other group of friends. They were starting a band and were looking for a name.
"Dude! You should call yourself Apostrophe 77!" I blurted out. From the looks on their faces, you could tell they thought it was brilliant. "Yes, that's perfect. That's when punk rock really started. If people see our name on a flier, they'll know we play punk rock!"
"Yeah, that the joke, man. It lets people know you are (air quotes) PUNK FREAKIN' ROCK, BRO!"
"So, wait," one of them said in a puzzled tone "You weren't serious?"
I think the band lasted a few practices and maybe a basement party. That's a standard punk rock story. They didn't use the name though.
There are no songs from '77 in episode 77 of the Smashin' Transistors fake radio show.
Pup The Unx!
What you'll hear:
Tilahun Gessesse – Alegntaye
Flying Saucer Attack – Present
Midnight Steppers – The Method Singer
Frankie Traandruppel – Hooray For The Frown
-words from your host-
Smarts – Cling Wrap
Pensioner – The Night
Boris – Furi
A Feast Of Snakes – Know Your Name
-words from your host-
Astute Palate – A Little Proof
Neil and Crazy Horse – Barstool Blues
The Lice – Daymare Town
Feeling Figures – Never in Time
-words from your host-
ISS - (Met)forming
Cathedral – Suicide Asteroid
Sex Tide – Scorpion
Chris Brokaw – The Heart of Human Trafficking
-words from your host-
Chronophage – Talking Android
Eat Girls – All The Lovers Are Gonna Leave and Die
Lavender Flu – Rake The Face
Angst – Somethings (I Can’t Get Used To)
-words from your host-
Feb 16, 2021
The Return of Bancroft Records
I'm elated, excited, stoked and jazzed to be reawakening my label Bancroft Records after a decade of it sleeping. The first in the pipeline is an LP from Zurich Cloud Motors.
Hailing from Providence, Rhode Island (and parts beyond), Zurich Cloud Motors whirl, rattle sway and sear. If you're a fan of the Swell Maps, the first few Roxy Music albums, the Scientists and Chrome, take that sound and then run a dulcet toned belt sander making harmony with it.
The album is getting its final touches done to it now but the band has already got a video for a song from it with "Worry About The Hubcaps Later."
Following a ton of cassette and digital releases now, this will be the first thing from the band to appear on vinyl. Look for it in the summer. While you wait for that, find previous Zurich Cloud Motors releases over at their Bandcamp page and check them out on Instagram.
Also out on Bancroft Records in 2021 is a new LP from Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones. This'll be the first album from this Wisconsin band since 2016's Stoning Josephine.
Hue Blanc's Joyless Ones. Photo by Dale Merrill. Shot at the SchwonkSoundStead in Port Huron, Michigan in 2017 |
Feb 9, 2021
Smashin' Transistors 76: Toque to Toboggan
Recently, the guy I worked with showed up in the shop with a wool cap on. Coming through the door he said "I tell ya, man. It sure was cold enough to get the toboggan out. I thought I misplaced it."
"The snow has already melted. What good is a toboggan without it?" I asked. He looked at me like I was loony. "For the cold, man!"
After a few hours of mental images of the ol' rock dog having the time of his life shooting down hills on a big wooden sled, I realized he was talking about his hat. You (and me) may know it as a toque.
What you'll hear: