Tonight I will be watching one of my favorite movies for the first time in decades: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. I still recall the first time I saw it during its theatrical run back in 1984, which, considering the number of films I've seenover the decades and the fact that with each passing year my brain more and more resembles Swiss cheese, is no mean feat. The film is silly but smart, gloriously funny, and part of it is set in New Jersey. I ordered the DVD from Netflix because the Buckaroo end credits music by Michael Boddicker recently made its way to the surface of my aforementioned brain, and that proved to be the inspiration for the tunes heard in this program's opening set. After a thematically appropriate track from Stereolab to start, Boddicker's whistling synths flowed quite nicely into a favorite from Vampire Weekend's latest. Then it was a nice contrast to the toy piano(?) that opens the DeVotchKa song, and the strings that close that one made a fine segue to the arrangement that kicks off the title track to Patrick Wolf's disc. The forward momentum of that one never fails to bring up an old Bay City Rollers song, which then offered an opportunity to play Nick Lowe's note-perfect tongue-in-cheek imitation of their sound attached to what sounds like a diary entry by a Rollers fan c. 1975. Finally, we heard Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 looking back to the same time period, although the focus is on a different crew of different music fans.

This set got off to a forlorn start with a trio of late '50s- early '60s-influenced pop gems by She & Him (from the brand new disc), Willy DeVille (covering a John Hiatt song) and Findlay Brown, and the descending hook in that last one recalls John Barry's instrumental theme to Midnight Cowboy. The lonesome Western feel of that tune led to Kathryn Williams covering Lee Hazlewood on a song that tells a very similar story to the Kris Kristofferson track that followed, and we finished with five variations on love gone bad with covers by Rosanne Cash, John Doe & the Sadies, Exene Cervenka, Cat Power and Frank Black.

The energy quotient shifted to a different level in this next section, beginning with the Pretenders sounding real fine from their new live disc into some basic guitar-driven rock and roll from the Soft Pack followed by Four Volts. Those newly minted Hall-Of-Famers the Stooges doing what they do best brought on Sonic Youth ripping through a recent favorite, and then we heard Art Brut discovering the Replacements, who followed with one of their own before Ike Reilly mixing and matching images in his own special way closed it out.

This program finished up with Lucky Dog Radio's annual March Madness-inspired set of tunes to help you get ready for the Big Dance and finish off those brackets (so you can rip them up with everybody else by the end of the Tournament's first weekend). So we heard some good advice for all the teams from Steve Forbert, a perfect choice from Madness, a flurry of dancing tunes from assorted folks, a particular favorite of mine from Haruomi Hosono and Cheech & Chong to wrap it all up with a nice neat bow.

The complete playlist follows.

NELSON RIDDLE ORCHESTRA . . . . . Route 66 Theme (opening theme) . . . . . Route 66 and Other Great TV Themes/More Hit TV Themes
STEREOLAB . . . . . International Coloring Contest . . . . . Mars Audiac Quintet
MICHAEL BODDICKER . . . . . End Credits . . . . . The Adventures of Buckeroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
VAMPIRE WEEKEND . . . . . White Sky . . . . . Contra
DEVOTCHKA . . . . .The Clockwise Witness . . . . . A Mad and Faithful Telling
PATRICK WOLF . . . . . The Magic Position . . . . . The Magic Position
BAY CITY ROLLERS . . . . . Saturday Night . . . . . The Definitive Collection
NICK LOWE . . . . . Rollers Show . . . . . Jesus of Cool
ROBYN HITCHCOCK & THE VENUS 3 . . . . . Saturday Groovers . . . . . Goodnight Oslo

SHE & HIM . . . . . Thieves . . . . . Volume Two
WILLY DEVILLE . . . . . That Is The Way To Make A Broken Heart . . . . . Live in Berlin
FINDLAY BROWN . . . . . Teardrops Lost In The Rain . . . . . Love Will Find You
JOHN BARRY . . . . . Midnight Cowboy . . . . . Midnight Cowboy: Original Motion Picture Score
KATHRYN WILLIAMS . . . . . Easy & Me . . . . . Total Lee! The Songs of Lee Hazlewood
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON . . . . . Me And Bobby McGee . . . . . Me and Bobby McGee
ROSANNE CASH . . . . . I’m Moving On . . . . . The List
JOHN DOE & THE SADIES . . . . . A Fool Such As I . . . . . Country Club
EXENE CERVENKA . . . . . Sound Of Coming Down . . . . . Somewhere Gone
CAT POWER . . . . . A Woman Left Lonely . . . . . Jukebox - Deluxe Edition
FRANK BLACK . . . . . Dark End Of The Street . . . . . Honeycomb

THE PRETENDERS . . . . . Precious . . . . . Pretenders: Live In London
THE SOFT PACK . . . . . Answer To Yourself . . . . . The Soft Pack
FOUR VOLTS . . . . . Hat Trick . . . . . Triple Your Work Force
IGGY AND THE STOOGES . . . . . Search And Destroy . . . . . Raw Power (2 CD Legacy Edition)
SONIC YOUTH . . . . . Sacred Trickster . . . . . The Eternal
ART BRUT . . . . . The Replacements . . . . . Art Brut vs. Satan
THE REPLACEMENTS . . . . . Seen Your Video . . . . . Let It Be
IKE REILLY . . . . . The Reformed Church Of The Assault Rifle Band . . . . . Hard Luck Stories

STEVE FORBERT . . . . . You Cannot Win If You Do Not Play . . . . . Alive on Arrival
MADNESS . . . . . Madness . . . . . Complete Madness
BUNNY WAILER . . . . . Dancing Shoes . . . . . Bunny Wailer Sings the Wailers
THE RAY BRYANT COMBO . . . . . The Madison Time . . . . . Hairspray: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
FRED ASTAIRE . . . . . Shall We Dance . . . . . Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers At RKO: Motion Picture Soundtrack Anthology
DEL SHANNON . . . . . Do You Want To Dance . . . . . Del Shannon - Greatest Hits
CHRIS MONTEZ . . . . . Let’s Dance . . . . . Animal House: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Enhanced CD]
HARUOMI HOSONO . . . . . Sports Men . . . . . Philharmony
CHEECH & CHONG . . . . . Basketball Jones . . . . . Greatest Hits

Here's another one from Nick Lowe (along with Elvis Costello and James Burton)

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