[image=left]http://www.alternativenation.net/gallery/files/9/9/4/campfreddy80grey.gif[/image]It was a simple plan, fly off to LA for a week to chill and enjoy the sun, but as Sun Tsu once said: “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.”
The LA sun has turned into one of the worst storms in recent LA history, rain heavier than I’ve seen even in Scotland for a few years. So instead of chilling out, I find myself heading for the headquarters of the current rising star of independent music radio,
Indie 103.1 FM.
Alongside regular shows hosted by names like ex Sex Pistol Steve Jones, Rob Zombie, The Crystal Method, Henry Rollins and LA Radio legend TK, Indie 103.1 FM is also the 6pm to 8pm Saturday night home of the band of misfits known as
Camp Freddy.
Camp Freddy have been wowing crowds for a few years now, an all star covers band featuring Dave Navarro, Billy Morrison, Matt Sorum, Donovan Leitch and Chris Chaney as their mainstay, and a whole host of celebs guesting on vocals at various gigs. Anyone from classic movie bad guy Michael Wincott, to rock royalty like Ronnie Wood make appearances onstage with the band and the gigs are always guaranteed to be a hell of a party.
The radio show runs the same way: Dave, Billy and Donovan getting their two hours every saturday night to goof around on air with an assortment of guests coming in to liven things up.
There’s no standard recipe for the show. Anything can happen from impromptu jam sessions and karaoke sing-a-longs to picking random numbers from the escort ads in the LA Weekly and talking to the girls live on air. The mix of music on the show is just as eclectic. Although it’s mostly rock and metal, don’t be surprised to hear John Denver or Abba slipping in there too.
It’s nice to listen to a show where the hosts are not super slick professional radio superstars, where not every track flows seamlessly into the next, where things occasionally go wrong, but where, most importantly, everyone has a good time and is left with a smile on their faces.
If you’re not in LA to get the live FM broadcast, or you can’t stay awake long enough to deal with the transatlantic time difference and listen to the simultaneous online broadcast from the station’s website, you can catch a repeat of the show in the UK on Monday nights at 11pm thanks to
Total Rock Radio. If you can't get it together to do any of those, then in the near future you'll be able to download past shows from Dave Navarro’s
Panic Channel website.
Enjoy!
www.campfreddy.net www.indie1031.fm www.totalrock.com
