Email:
Twitter: @metalpostcard1
Website: Metal Postcard on Bandcamp
My previous session guests:
Biography:
Sean Hocking is the founder and owner of Metal Postcard Records and based in Sydney
As regular listeners will know, I have played a lot of Asian underground music and did so, especially so, when there was that short and fruitful flowering of art, culture and music from the PRC in the early 20teens. Unfortunately Xi has put the lid on thought, art and music coming out of cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hong Kong . The same has happened in Cambodia with the Hun Sen regime, and so the list goes on throughout the region.
So ... mid-2022 was a good time to put "Ring of Fire" to bed (and that annoying jingle as some listeners have told me!) and I welcome you to the "Bottom of the Pops" show a weekly spotify podcast I produce and a newsletter too. Don't worry ... what you hear on Dandelion essentially stays the same as the old show, underground music of all genres from around the world mostly new but some older tunes as well and as the late Donald Rumsfeld once told us ... it is all about the "Unknown Unknowns!"
Here's a little more background on my Peel listening and some of the things I like.
An avid Peel listener from the late 70's onwards where he discovered the true breadth of music available between 10:00pm and midnight for many years. Metal Postcard Records follows the Peel/Tony Wilson philosophy of play it, release it, and don't worry about other people's opinions too much; they all come round eventually, or maybe not, but does it really matter. No!
My first DJ experience aged 15 was being asked by older schoolboy Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins/Bella Union) to play a sixth form dance in the dim distant days of Dexy's Midnight Runners and a three-piece Cure. Since then I have played Sydney warehouses, West Sussex fields, Brooklyn Bars, Cambodian restaurants, Vietnamese Riverbanks, Portland Dive Bars and record stores, Hong Kong rooftops and too many empty houses with dodgy fuse boxes to mention.
Mentioning favourite recordings would be pointless as they change from day to day but I can tell you that amongst my favourite gigs has been Black Flag at the Lyceum in 1980 something, The Cramps on their Psychedelic Jungle tour, The Triffids final Sydney concert at the Paddington Town Hall, Julian Cope's main stage sunset set Glastonbury in 1987, any Ed Kuepper performance over the last 30 years, Konono No.1 in New York in the early 2000's and The Stone Roses at Spike Island was, without a doubt, a great day out.
Oh ... and the three times I was lucky enough to catch Melbourne's Morning After Girls who should all be considered for sainthood ...
Because I'm updating this little bio in 2022 I can also add Sydney's marvellous Party Dozen who I have seen a number of times over the past few years but the frisson of their first gig after nigh on 2 years Covid lockdown at a pub on the Paramatta Road was a joy for both the band and the small audience. One of the few bands that actually have that X Factor raw power! I was also privileged to see the late great Justin Townes Earle only a few months before he took his own life, he came across as such a beautiful human being even now a couple of years later I find myself thinking of him daily and wishing I'd jumped on stage to give him a huge hug. Regular listeners of the show will also know i'm a big Chats fan and again i consider mysef very fortunate to have seen them in a room a few years back that could only hold 100 people ... way too much fun for one evening!
The launch party for the Cambodian Space Project's debut single (2012) on Metal Postcard Records in Phnom Penh was a revelation as the band was joined on stage by various musical survivors of the Pol Pot genocide who sang and played their hearts out for hours on end. Couldn't remember feeling such musical joy... Well not since Peel played The Dodgems' ‘Lord Lucan Is Missing' for the first time."
A listener (DJ lano) made my day with this comment on Mixcloud ... "When I was 16 John Peel was my 'go to' man for new music. Now aged almost 46, you - Sean - are the person I most look forward to listening to. Many thanks for another top selection!"
Blush ! Blush! Blush!
Tracklistings and listen again to the previous shows:
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