Powerful Music On RFC 151 With Buddy Black, Prank Monkey And Karma To Burn

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We are back into the thick of things with Radio Free Charleston 151, "The Tom McGees Shirt," our first all-new episode of 2012! In this show, you will find music by Buddy Black, Johnny Compton with Prank Monkey and Karma To Burn We also get a preview of Danny Boyd's graphic novel project, "Carbon." Host segments were shot on a beautiful, windless, Sunday morning at Haddad Riverfront park. Our show is named after Charleston's punk/ska band, The Tom McGees, and we have news about an upcoming show by them.

Our first musical guest is Canadian punk rocker Buddy Black. Black is such a huge fan of the Danny Boyd's classic West Virginia Horror movie, "Chillers," that he's recorded a tribute EP devoted to film. A few weeks ago he visited Charleston to film two music videos from the EP, and we are proud to bring you one this week. "Xipe," directed by Curtis Baskerville, and filmed in Dunbar and Institute is a beautifully-crafted, catchy punk rock gem. The video, a production of The Paradise Film Institute, is a terrific showcase for the WVSU talent involved. We'll be bringing you the second video from Buddy Black's "Chillers" EP in a few weeks, and you can find out more about Buddy Black here.

[caption id="attachment_7649" align="alignleft" width="220" caption="Kitty Killton at Dr. Sketchy's"][/caption]

We take a moment this episode to give you the lowdown on stuff going on next weekend here in town. Friday March 16 you can catch this week's shirt-namesake band, The Tom McGee's, at The Blue Parrot. Our cameras might just be on hand to record the Ska madness of one of Charleston's most fun bands. Cool name, too.

On March 18th, Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art Burlesque Figure drawing class celebrates one year in Charleston with a night of classic pin up poses at Kanawha Players Theater. The models that night will be Bellarosa and RFC's own Kitty Killton! It's hard to believe it's been a year already.

For our animation this week I have taken a performance by Johnny Compton and Prank Monkey, and I've digitally-assaulted each frame so that the video looks like an oil painting come to life. This is something I've been wanting to try for a long time, and during the RFC hiatus, I acquired the programs that will allow me to do more projects like this in the future. The song is a moving instrumental, one that Johnny Compton plays to salute fallen friends and loved ones. This week we feature Johnny with Jamie Skeen and Mike Vandergriff performing "Until We Meet Again."

Karma To Burn, the legendary metal gods from Morgantown, return to The Sound Factory on March 23, along with John Lancaster, Linework and Lo Pan. We were lucky enough to catch them doing a couple of numbers during Mission Coalition last September. Those numbers are 19 and 36, and they closing out this show. I got to hang out with the guys in the band a little during Mission Coalition. They're great guys, and very humble, considering that they have a massive worldwide following, routinely playing to tens of thousands of people in Europe. For some reason, they've remained underappreciated in their home state. We hope to rectify that a bit by including them here in the show. We're very lucky to have had the chance to capture them with our cameras.

Special thanks this week go out to Curtis Baskerville and Buddy Black for letting us have access to their killer video; James Vernon Brown for providing the audio mix for Prank Monkey (look for an entire episode of RFC devoted James' video work in April); Johnny Compton for letting me experiment on the video of his song; Roadblock for putting on Mission Coalition; and finally Steve Clever Siders, Charleston's king of the open mic, for stepping in to help run camera on the Karma To Burn videos.

Check PopCult for our regular features, and come back in one week for yet another music and art packed show. And don't forget, you can catch The Tom McGees this Friday at The Blue Parrot.