Posts Tagged ‘Overnight America’

Death by Power Ballad: ZZ Top, “Rough Boy”

This long-distance dedication goes out to Jon Grayson, host of Overnight America, friend of Tha ‘Dose, and all-around cool guy and decent human being. Last time I represented this fine publication on Jon’s show, we engaged in a bit of banter about the power ballad arts, and he singled out one particular song as being the nadir of both the band that created the song, and of the genre in general.

His exact words, more or less, were, “I still point to a lot of those power ballads as ‘Songs that Any Given Band Should Never Have Recorded,’ and my favorite example of that is ZZ Top’s ‘Rough Boy.’” To bolster his point, Jon revealed that he comes from the “Jesus Just Left Chicago” school of ZZ Top fandom, hinting that something as ballady as “Rough Boy” is anathema to such a fan.

I concede that listeners who fly the flag for the band’s early blues/boogie/livestock-on-the-stage work may have a problem with the synthy slow burn of “Rough Boy.” Their vision of ZZ Top was a vision of blues-bustin’ rodeo escapees, chugging around the dusty back roads of Texas’ roadhouse circuit, soaked in mezcal, tuned in to border radio, and exhaling barbeque smoke. Their band is the one that started their recording career with a song called “Somebody Else Been Shakin’ Your Tree” (still my favorite Top track) and loaded albums like Deguello, El Loco, and Tres Hombres with odes to cheap sunglasses, tube snakes, tushes, and ejaculating on prostitutes. (more…)

Overnight America: 10/13/09

As you may recall, Popdose has been lucky enough to secure a weekly segment with Jon Grayson, the host of Overnight America, a wonderfully entertaining syndicated program featuring noteworthy guests, intelligent discussion, and above all, the prodigious talents of Jon Grayson himself. We’ve mostly restricted our promotion of this segment to our Twitter feed, but starting with this week’s call-in, we’re going to be a little less shy about trying to get you to listen to the program.

Each week a different member of the Popdose staff talks with Jon about four stories on the site. Sometimes they’re the most newsworthy, sometimes they’re chosen for their discussion value, and sometimes we just pick ‘em because we like ‘em. This week Rob Smith stepped up for the call, and during his segment he covered:

Jeff Giles’s latest editorial, in which former members of Chicago, Little Feat, and Asia give an inside perspective on what it’s like for an established musician to lose a high-profile gig;

Rob’s latest Death by Power Ballad, in which he imagines that Bon Jovi died in 1985;

Jon Cummings’s most recent Political Culture, which uses the best and worst of what liberals and conservatives believe about each other to open a dialogue;

last week’s You Again?, in which Jeff endures the new Lita Ford album;

and finally, Rob and Jon discuss the death of Popdose film columnist Lance Berry, who passed away on October 4.

If you aren’t in an Overnight America market, or you missed the show Monday night, good news — it’s all online for you to listen to right now. Click here for Rob’s segment as well as the rest of the show, which includes an interview with They Might Be Giants, an appearance by Wired editor Ted Greenwald, and a call from Max Brooks, author of The Zombie Survival Guide!

Screw TV on the Radio — Who’s Ready for Popdose on the Radio?

Up ’til now, you’ve been able to get Popdose in your browser, your RSS reader, your Twitter feed, and all over Facebook — but we all know that simply isn’t enough, so we’ve teamed up with radio host Jon Grayson to bring your favorite pop culture disseminators onto the radio dial.

Here’s the deal: Once a week, one of your faithful Popdose writers will be making an appearance on Overnight America with Jon Grayson, a weekly show broadcast out of KMOX in St. Louis, and syndicated in several cities. We’ll be chatting with Mr. Grayson about some of the most interesting stories to post at Popdose in the last week, and…well, our Overnight America debut — recorded with New Music Editor Ken Shane — is already on the books, and you can hear it in the show’s archives, so listen now!

Obviously, we’re all very excited about this new development for the site, and we hope you’ll be able to find us on your AM dial (see the list of Overnight America stations here) — or visit the show’s archives every Tuesday to hear our latest segment. And stay “tuned” (ugh) for more exciting news…we’ve got big plans!

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