Afternoon offense

Life just got a lot brighter for people with nothing to do on a weekday afternoon, because KGPC's latest schedule shows that they will be broadcasting a different archived episode of Pop Offensive  every weekday at 3pm. This is an ideal way to catch up on episodes that you've missed--even better than just streaming them directly from the Pop Offensive Archives, as this way you can entertain the illusion that they are taking place live. So why not--before heading off to your job as a carnival ride operator, strip show barker, blackmail photographer, or run-of-the-mill shadowy drifter--get your pop on.

A miniature offense

On last week's Pop Offensive, we conducted an experiment in scale and learned that, like Ant-Man, a very short song can be just as powerful as one of average length. That's right, for the better part of two hours, I played nothing but songs that were two minutes or less in length. If you listen to the show, I think that, like me, you will be surprised by the diversity and quality of these tiny blasts of pop goodness, and impressed by the number of iconic artists that were behind them. So why not take a minute to stream the episode from the Pop Offensive Archives and bask in the brevity?

Ironically, time is something that's in short supply for me these days, so I will be uploading the playlist for the episode onto the Pop Offensive Facebook Page sometime this weekend.

Embrace the Offense

I don't mind telling you that I had a pretty turbulent week last week. Fortunately I had Pop Offensive to help me blow off some steam. And now, you do too, thanks to the miracle of streaming technology. You can also check out the full playlist from the Pop Offensive Facebook page is you need proof that it really happened.

An offense relived

Last week's Pop Offensive has now been archived for your streaming pleasure. Dig in!

It's TONIGHT!

For four and a half years now, Pop Offensive has been bringing you the best in catchy, danceable and uplifting music from around the globe and across the decades. I mean, where else can you hear ABBA and the Dave Clark Five rubbing elbows with the Buzzcocks and the Gap Band? Now it's time to celebrate the show's 50th episode, which I will be doing tonight, October 30th, with a deluxe three hour show cock-a-block with music, special guests, and ribald tomfoolery. What do I ask in return, you might wonder? Only that you listen, which you can do by streaming the show live from the kgpc969.org website starting at 6pm Pacific this evening. Be there or B₂

Start the day right with POP OFFENSIVE!

That's right, tonight sees the airing of a brand new episode of Pop Offensive on KGPC (live streaming at 7pm Pacific from kgpc969.org).  But that's not the only news that's fit to print in Pop Offensive land.

For starters, there's the fact that, for the next few months, KGPC is going to be streaming episodes of Pop Offensive at 9am every weekday morning. That means that you can have power pop with your Sugar Pops, drum loops with your fruit loops, ABBA with your avocado toast and... well, it was a good conceit when it started. Anyway, yay! Amirite?

The other news is that October's episode of Pop Offensive will be it's 50th (!!!!), a landmark that I will be celebrating with a deluxe three hour episode stuffed full of music, guests and shenanigans. To accommodate it's girth, this episode will air at a special date and time: Tuesday, October 30th at 6pm. Please mark it on your calendar, because I might get too busy to remind you.

And if you want to hear more about either of these items, just tune into tonight's show , because I'll probably be talking about them.

Pop Offensive is TONIGHT!

Yes, that's right; just when you thought your legs had stopped jitterbugging uncontrollably from my last episode, here I am to start you frugging anew with another collection of catchy and danceable tunes from around the world and throughout pop music history. It all starts at 7pm tonight, Wednesday August 15, streaming live from kgpc969.org. BE THERE!

Pop Offensive: All this and Kylie, too

I know I've said it before, but this time it's true. (After all, why would I lie to you -- wait, did I say would?) Wednesday's Pop Offensive was by far the most at once wildly eclectic and compulsively danceable episode yet. We literally played it all. From The Fall to the 5th Dimension, from the activist South African pop of Juluka to the apocalyptic polka pop of Israel's Teapacks, from a France Gall cover sung by a Japanese porn star to a breathy tribute to Wham's Andrew Ridgley. And, of course, we played Kylie Minogue. Why? Because Pop Offensive is one place where you never have to pretend that you don't like Kylie Minogue. I mean, seriously, dude. Everybody likes Kylie Minogue. What the hell is your problem?

Anyway, you can now stream the episode from the Pop Offensive Archives, so tuck in. And if you want to see videos of almost every song I played, check out the Pop Offensive Facebook Page.

An aerial offensive

When you listen to Pop Offensive, you get a lot more than a selection of some of the most catchy and danceable pop music from around the globe and across the decades. You also get to hear me laugh at my own awful puns (because, if I don't, who will?) and make up outrageous lies about popular performers (which is to say that, no, P!nk does not have to stand on a highwire in order to sing properly.) Sound exciting? OF COURSE IT DOES! So check out the archived version of last Wednesday's episode, which can now be streamed from http://www.kgpc969.org/pop-offensive You--or I, at least--will be glad you did.

Pop Offensive - You're covered with it!

I ask you, what’s better than a good cover version? A good original song is the obvious answer. But don’t tell that to the two dozen or so artists featured on this Wednesday’s Pop Offensive, each of whom present us with their own take—whether reverent, sarcastic, or indifferent—on another artist’s song. The result is what you might call two hours of inspired unoriginality. But whatever you call it, what is indisputable is that it is streaming live from KGPC969.org on Wednesday, April 18th at 7pm Pacific. If you can’t listen yourself, have a proxy do it for you.

Get offended.

Last Wednesday, I returned from yet another calamitous illness to deliver a Pop Offensive of almost unprecedented intensity, sending the internet into a frenzy of head bobbing, toe tapping, hip swiveling, and rump shaking. It was part of a recurring survival narrative that has become part of the fabric of Pop Offensive itself. If you don’t believe me, just stream the archived version of the show, which has just been uploaded to the Pop Offensive Archives.

Wednesday! POP OFFENSIVE returns.

These past few days have seen me mainlining vitamins in an attempt to avoid becoming sick and postponing yet another episode of Pop Offensive because I have the immune system of a baby. So far things are looking good, meaning that I am as ashen and rundown-looking as usual, so chances are I will be back at the microphone on Wednesday evening and presenting you with another episode of this fine, fine program. This episode will have no theme, which means that the playlist will be at the mercy of hazard. Despite that, I guaranty that, if you listen, you will hear a lot of things that you have never heard before, as well as a lot of things that you would never have thought you wanted to hear until you heard them. How could this be, you ask? Well, because pop music has powers beyond our comprehension--and, on some level, we are all its slaves.

Listen to episode 44 of Pop Offensive this Wednesday, March 21st, at 7pm Pacific, streaming live from kgpc969.org. As we say in the East Bay, you'll be hella glad you did.

Pop Offensiv är fantastisk!

I think last week's survey of Scandinavian pop was one of the best episodes of Pop Offensive yet -- and certainly the best one since I took over the show a few months ago. And now it's available for streaming from the Pop Offensive Archives. Why wouldn't you want to listen to it? Is it because you don't have the complete playlist to read along with it? Well, here's that, too, just posted over on Pop Offensive's Facebook page.

Charm offensive

Last Wednesday's Pop Offensive saw me settling even further into my role as solo host. I feel my confidence growing and, as it grows, my power. Soon you will all be eating out of my hand like the sheep--or, dare I say, "sheeple--that you are. You will be but pawns in my game. MARK MY WORD!

Sorry, must be the eggnog talking. What I meant to say is that last week's Pop Offensive is now available for streaming from KGPC's Pop Offensive Archives. Also, if you'd like to see the playlist, you will find it here, on the Pop Offensive Facebook Page.

Lastly, I want to let you all know that, as KGPC will be closed during the week before Christmas, there will not be a new Pop Offensive until January 17th. As consolation, we will be returning with a Scandinavian Pop Spectacular!

In the meantime, you might want to take advantage of the gap to scan the archives and catch up on episodes that you've missed. It's just good sense.

Wednesday! POP OFFENSIVE returns!

It's been a couple months now since I took on solo hosting duties of Pop Offensive, and I dare say that I'm settling into the role quite well. Not that any of you should give a rat's ass about that, because, at the end of the day, Pop Offensive, is all about the music. The music and, second to that, my heroic efforts week after week to make my ego secondary to the task of finding and playing a unique array of unusual pop nuggets from around the globe. How do I do it, you ask? Why not dial in to kgpc969.org at 7pm PT this Wednesday, November 15, and stream the show live for your edification. There will be a test.

A Petty Offense

The spirit of the late Tom Petty hung heavily over last Wendnesday's Pop Offensive. Not only was Petty one of America's most iconic rock stars, but he was also one of it's greatest pop songwriters. He had a gift for stripping a song down to it's barest elements, and then letting that song stand or fall on the basis of its melody, arrangement, and performance alone. There are few examples of a Tom Petty song that is over-embellished to any degree or even a second too long. May he rest in peace.

Alongside paying misty-eyed tribute to Mr. P, we rolled out another show filled with percolating pop prizes, including a suite of tunes from Poland, an amusing story of a Eurovision songstress who absolutely despised the number two placing song she was charged with singing, and the debut of my long awaited Friday's Best Pop Song Ever podcast.

Per usual, the episode can be streamed in its entirety from KGPC's Pop Offensive Archives. And if my mush-mouthed delivery garbled any ot the song titles or artists' names beyond recognition, you can read the full playlist here. Enjoy!

An offense divided

Because I haven't posted a recap of last Wednesday's Pop Offensive until now, you may not know that my co-host of three years, Jeff Heyman, has left the show (that is unless you actually listened to the show--in which case, yay you!) Jeff is leaving Pop Offensive for the greener pastures of Alameda Community Radio, where he will be producing and hosting a punk-themed show called Outcastes Revisted. Hopefully it goes without saying that our split is an amicable one and I wish Jeff the best in this and all his future endeavors. As for me, I will be carrying the Pop Offensive banner by my lonesome starting with the next episode on September 20th.

And hey, if you want to hear it all from the horse's mouth, along with a lot of smokin' tunes (it was a really great show), just head over to the Pop Offensive Archives and stream that sucker. And if you can't hear us back announcing the songs over your own wailed lamentations, avail yourself of the playlist here.

WEDNESDAY! POP OFFENSIVE returns!

That's right, babies. This Wednesday, August 16th, is the third Wednesday of the month--which means that, if you tune into http://kgpc969.org at 7pm Pacific time, you'll hear a percolating parade of catchy, danceable pop tunes from around the globe. K-pop, J-pop, Europop, Turkopop, we don't care! We play it all! So grab your ticket and ride. Because, as the O'Jays say, "If you miss it, I feel sorry, sorry for you..."

Punk Offensive?

I'm going to call Wednesday's all-punk episode of Pop Offensive an unqualified success. Jeff Heyman and I, along with our old friend Matt Harvey, had a great time reminiscing about the old days--police raids, broken jaws, and all--hopefully without stultifying our audience. If we did, they had the playlist of wall-to-wall punk classics to rouse them from their torpor. Check it out for yourself by downloading the archived version of the episode from the KGPC website. And if you can't hear the song titles over all that guitar distortion, you can read the full playlist here on the Pop Offensive Facebook Page.

Oh, and by the way, the book is called Please Don't Be Waiting For Me and you can buy it here

An Offense from the past

Last Wednesday's Pop Offensive was dedicated to the sounds of 1970s top 40 radio, a little experiment in time travel so successful that all of our 21st century technology started to fail us. If not for a last minute intervention by our station manager, Katherine, I would have had to make a desperate plea for someone with an 8 track player to come to our rescue. Of course, if you listened to the show, you know all that already.

However, if you didn't listen, you missed out on all that drama, as well as a pretty great selection of classic pop tunes from the era of Nixon, Ford and Carter. The Ohio Players, Looking Glass, Earth Wind and Fire, The Osmonds, you name it--they were all there in all their satiny, elephant flared finery. Of course, the episode is now available from the Pop Offensive archives, so there's no need to take your own life just yet. And if you need another reason to live, check out the Pop Offensive Facebook Page, where, in addition to a bunch of swell videos of the songs I played, you will find the complete playlist.