Radio KBwD is on the air

This is one of those KBwD’s where we admit that we may have been asleep at the switch. Either that or possibly an instance where we have “grown in office”.

Anyway, we weren’t oblivious to the fact that this artist made some great music, it’s just that on 2nd listen (in a manner of over-the-decades speaking) to songs like “Tiny Dancer”, “The Border Song”, “Someone saved my life tonight”, “Country Comfort”, and “Take me to the Pilot”, we realized that, hey… this guy is good… really, really good. (And when this guy says that one of his albums was expressly influenced by The Band, that’ll readjust your perspective some)

Ladies and Gentlemen, without any further ado, from Great Britain, it’s Elton John performing “Burn down the Mission”

Radio KBwD is on the air

We we're saving this song for the back half of a covers competition but then realized that the original was simply atrocious so we went with the sequel exclusively (sorry, Bob) for this week's KBwD feature.


That peculiar West Coast trait of turning vocal harmonies a' la The Beach Boys and The Mamas and the Papas into massive hooks is certainly on display here.


Ladies and Gentlemen, from Los Angeles, California, it's The Byrds performing, "All I Really Want to Do".
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KBwD is (back?) on the Air

Our last installment of KBwD stated we weren’t going to just keep throwing you over to a YouTube clip of questionable audio and video quality as it was the lazy, easy way out. Well….. got news for you all. After heating up a turkey pot pie in the microwave this evening for dinner, we’re all about the lazy and easy.

Actually, the sound in this clip is very good and the selection for the cut was inspired by hearing it on random play on our iPod. You know the band but you may not be familiar with the tune which is a highly underrated pop gem and one our favorite songs by one of our favorite bands.

Ladies and Gentlemen…. The Doors…. performing a paeon to good old-fashioned, family-values desire and lust, Wishful Sinful. Enjoy!

P.S. Try singing along in your best Robert Goulet voice. It so works.

Radio KBwD - Christmas tunes edition

One last Christmas Eve installment, we think. By the way, it appears that people are catching on to the BwD method of Christmas shopping… though we didn’t have our cameras with us to prove it, trust us, BevMo was packed today. It seems this year, more than others, America needs a stiff one.

Alright, KBwD takes a trip to the ‘hood and if you can make it past the demented elf at the beginning, you will be treated to Run-D.M.C’s Christmas in Hollis which samples some Motown, the exact song and artist we will try to track down and present later.



And don’t forget about the A Christmas Story marathon starting at 8 tonight on TBS. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Radio KBwD is on the air

No long-winded intro for this installment of Radio KBwD – it’s been way too long of a week.

Ladies and Gentlemen: it’s The Mamas and the Papas performing “Creeque Alley”.

Radio KBwD is on the air

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If you've been tuning into KBwD for any length of time you know we trend towards rootsier, basic North American fare (heck, even when we do some Elvis Costello, it's a cover of a George Jones classic) but we really like this song from the British electronica duo Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker that comprise Zero 7.

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(Warning: massive hook in the chorus around 1:20)

(Warning Pt. II: you can skip the commercial after 5 seconds. Sorry.)

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Here they are doing "Destiny".

Radio KBwD is on the air

Since we missed our weekly installment of Radio KBwD last Friday, we're making up for it with a mid-week two-fer today. That and the fact that our featured band added dates to their summer/fall tour and will be at The BellyUp Tavern in Solana Beach in September. Color us stoked.

We've featured these guys before and may have even played one of the two songs before as well but you will quickly get over it as these guys rock.

We last saw them at the El Rey Theatre up in L.A. about 3-4 years ago as part of a dinner show. Balcony seats, good food, great music and a pretty girl on our arm. It doesn't get any better.

Ladies and Gentlemen from Tucson, AZ and that wild and remote, wind-swept desert corner of your mind, it's Calexico performing El Picador (w/Mariachi Luz de Luna) and The Ride Pt. 2 in London, England.

Radio KBwD is on the air

We were having so much Earth Day fun yesterday, we never got around to our KBwD feature that usually runs on Friday afternoon/evening.


We'll probably be stretching this out and treating you to some Earth Weekend fun but having said all that, let's get right to it.


Ladies and Gentlemen, from Woking, Surrey, England it's The Jam performing, "A Town Called Malice".

Radio KBwD is on the air (the covers edition)

Hearing the first song below on the radio the other day sprung an idea in our mind. First Friday of every month, we will do a covers edition of Radio KBwD where we play a song by the original artist first and then follow it up with what we feel is a worthy cover of that song and let you all decide which you like better in the comment(s) section.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, from St. Albans, England, it's The Zombies performing "She's Not There".









And now, from San Francisco, California, it's Santana.




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OK. Who ya got?

Radio KBwD

We'll take a break from our grainy live videos for our KBwD feature and hook you all up with a highly-stylized, PBS membership drive quality clip of our favorite border band, Calexico, performing Love's "Alone Again Or."
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Ladies and Gentleman, Calexico...

Radio KBwD is on the air

Our latest and possibly last installment of Radio KBwD features of The Who, the band that will be playing at halftime of the Super Bowl on Sunday. It’s a pretty recent clip, so it gives us a hint at the look, sound and feel of the band we will all be watching. If the following is any indication, we’re in for a good show.

Ladies and Gentlemen: live from the Royal Albert Hall, it’s The Who performing “The Real Me”.

Radio KBwD is on the air

A confluence of circumstances dictated this latest KBwD installment. The song makes an appearance in John Hughes' Sixteen Candles which we saw part of last week and is covered by Neil Young in the most fuzzy and grungy manner possible on his excellent Ragged Glory album and which provided the antidote for KT’s tunes of encouragement for these bleak times.

Though they didn’t write the tune, they made it their own by turning it into a modest hit in the summer of ’64. Ladies and Gentlemen, from San Gabriel, California it’s the Premiers performing their “live” studio hit, "Farmer John".

Operational pause

Growing up in the 70s and attending California public schools, Thursday afternoon meant one thing and one thing only: Movies!

It was the lesson plan equivalent of mailing it in for the teachers and gave us kids an opportunity to unwind after a stressful 3-1/2 days with Disney shorts, though, unfortunately, also that stupid French flick about a red balloon.

But this is Friday afternoon and where the heck is Radio KBwD? you are saying. Well, we weren't pressed for time yesterday and we're working on something for KBwD for a little later.

In the meantime chill out to this feel-good feature on the real unemployment rate in the country.

Radio KBwD is on the air

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This will be a little bit out of our swim lane but good music is good music, right?

Yeah, we'll take the hit as we don't think we've ever featured anything on Radio KBwD that would be classified as boomer-tastic Adult Contemporary but we're sure none of you have any problem with sweet, swayin', slow-tempo ballads.

So, throw on your No. 17 Philip Rivers jersey, kick back on the couch and pour yourself and your lady a cold one but if she says "No can do", don't be blaming us.


Ladies and Gentlemen, from her Soldier of Love album, it's Sade performing "In Another Time".






H/T: Megan

Radio KBwD is on the air

Folks, we’ve featured these guys a couple of times before but couldn’t resist throwing them up there for another KBwD feature because of the quality of the audio and video.

We realize other parts of the nation are still digging themselves out of snow drifts but after this weekend’s expected Pacific storm, we here in Southern California are looking forward to spring… and then, summer.

What better way to get one’s mind right for backyard cookouts with greasy ribs, baked beans and ice-cold beer in metal cans than these guys?

Ladies and Gentlemen: from the great state of North Carolina via the Roots’N Blues‘N BBQ Festival of Columbia, Missouri, it’s Southern Culture on the Skids performing “Too Much Pork”.

Radio KBwD is on the air

About 24 hrs. later than our usual Friday afternoon Radio KBwD time slot so we hope it was worth the wait.

Inspired by our previous post, Ladies and Gentlemen: it's Dire Straits getting their swing on with "Badges, Posters, Stickers and T-shirts".
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Radio KBwD is on the Air

This band is a repeat from one of our first KBwD features. Another discovered-by-accident find (or, if “by chance”… aren’t they all?). Their mix of C&W, mariachi and Ennio Morricone feeds our Border/Spaghetti Western jones. This clip was taken from right here in town at Canes down in South Mission Beach and it is a more scaled-back and subdued version of one of favorite songs from these guys.

Ladies and Gentleman, from Tucson, Arizona…. please welcome, Calexico performing “The Ride, Pt. II”

Radio KBwD is on the air

We’re flying back in from our snow-mobile trip tomorrow but we wanted to keep our weekly kick-off-the-weekend Friday Radio KBwD series rolling.

Ladies and Gentlemen: from Saginaw, Michigan via Motown it’s Stevland Hardaway Judkins performing “I Was Made To Love Her”



''Like a sweet magnolia tree, my love blossomed tenderly, my life grew sweeter through the years''

Radio KBwD is on the air (Special Edition)

When we went with Elton John as a our featured artist for our weekly Radio KBwD installment back on Friday, it was due in large part to the fact that he had pulled off a trifecta this summer. In addition to playing at Rush's wedding, he cheezed off the international Left by refusing to participate in an Israel boycott by performing in Tel Aviv and just last week at a concert in Arizona, he essentially told musicians and artists who were boycotting Arizona to pound sand.

We won't pretend to know what John's politics are and frankly we don't care because the man is doing an awful lot right by angering the right people.

With that in mind, we thought a little bit about it over the weekend and decided we should have some fun with this.

Beers with Demo is declaring this coming week as Sir Elton John Week for all he's done in flipping the bird to the left and, of course, making great music.

With that in mind, over the next week, we'll be posting videos of our favorite Elton John songs. If you have a blog, please join in the fun and post some of your own. If you are a reader/commenter, chime in with suggestions.

We'll be more than happy to link to blogs that take up the cause. Having said all that, let's get to it. Here's the man on a BBC special back in 1970 performing, "Take Me to the Pilot".

Radio KBwD is on the Air: Special Edition.

We’re continuing our special edition of Radio KBwD in order to feature some of our favorite cuts from The Who, who have been chosen to perform at half-time of the Super Bowl, and of which you may not be familiar.

“I suppose I like this least of all the stuff”, wrote Townshend. “It suffered from being the first thing we did after Tommy, and also from being recorded a few too many times. We did it once at my home studio, then at IBC where we normally worked then with Kit Lambert producing. Then Kit had a tooth pulled, breaking his jaw, and we did it ourselves. The results are impressive. It sounded great in the mosquito-ridden swamp I made it up in, Florida at three in the morning drunk out of my brain with Tom Wright and John Wolf. But that’s always where the trouble starts, in the swamp. The alligator turned into an elephant and finally stampeded itself to death on stages around England."

Uhhh…. sure, Pete.

Off of their compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, here’s the lads performing “The Seeker”