Friday, December 24, 2021

Record Roulette Club with DJ Henry


One of my New Year's resolutions for 2022 will be to spend more time listening to podcasts and online radio shows. I'll have plenty of opportunities to make good on this endeavor since I've got a half decade's worth of episodes of Record Roulette Club to dig into. It seems like everyone's got a radio show or podcast these days, and they're all competing for your time and attention. Where do you even start? Well, I highly recommend Record Roulette Club with DJ Henry. I will go as far as to proclaim it essential listening! DJ Henry is Dan Henry aka Rock Bottom from the legendary Dummies. He co-hosted a really great radio show with Travis Ramin called Jazzed Up and Bonkers that I reviewed a few years back. Record Roulette Club has a very similar "Dr. Demento meets the Underground Garage" feel to it, but with more rock and less talk. DJ Henry describes the show as "Kind of like taking your parents' record collection and getting drunk in a Radio Shack." If that doesn't make you want to listen, nothing will! This music-based program plays a great mix of garage rock, punk, R & B/soul, girl groups, and rock and roll oldies with a heavy lean into the '60s. DJ Henry is super smooth behind the mic and very reminiscent of a disc jockey of yore. But as I said, this program is about the tunes first and foremost (along with lots of amusing sound clips that are creatively worked into each set of songs). The track selection mixes obvious classics with plenty of lesser-known and/or overlooked treasures and the occasional oddball novelty song. The latest episode, #150, features artists as varied as The Shangri-Las, the Ramones, La Lupe, Bobby Fuller Four, The Remains, The Rolling Stones, Descendents, Mary Wells, Dick Jordan, Garland Jeffreys, Harry Belafonte, and The Lyrics. That may seem a little all over the place, but it totally works! If you can listen to any episode of this program and not discover at least one great song you never knew existed, you are truly an encyclopedia of popular music! If you're looking for something cool to listen to while you're working, walking, cooking, exercising, or drinking, consider Record Roulette Club!

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