Author Archives: Jon Sidel

TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Let me tell you / The truth is in the eyes ’cause the eyes don’t lie, amen / Remember, a smile is just a frown turned upside down my friend / So, hear me when I’m saying / Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes, yeah / They don’t tell the truth / Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof / (Beware) beware of the handshake / That hides the snake (can you dig it, can you dig it?)

Picked up Elly at the Burbank airport last night. Mom is 87 years old. I don’t believe you would know it? Family members have called her the “energizer bunny!” She came bounding off that plane ready to grab her bag and hit the canyon.

At 87, mom’s big news is she’s in love. Yep, I’m here to report love will keep ya young. Got a couple Sidels smiling.

Back to what feels like the longest and hottest weekend in history.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

I told you when I met you / I was crazy / Cry for us all, Beauty / Cry for Eddie in the corner / Thinking he’s nobody / And Jack behind his joker / And stone-cold Grace behind her fan / And me in my frightened silence / Thinking I don’t understand

I feel like I’m sleeping / Can you wake me? / You seem to have a broader sensibility / I’m just living on nerves and feelings / With a weak and a lazy mind / And coming to people’s parties / Fumbling deaf dumb and blind

Heading into the July 4th holiday weekend, a few things come to mind.

Let’s just be grateful for the cookies that we got. And happy for those who may have gotten a sweeter batch. There is always a sweeter cookie.

Long weekend always make me edgy. It stems from my days owning nightclubs and bars.

I’m happy to report some days it’s just enough to listen to a new song or see a dress created by my daughter or watch my boy throw a pitch. No matter what the prize.

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The Best of The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Inside every man / Lives the seed of a flower / If he looks within he finds beauty and power / Ring all the bells, sing and tell the people everywhere that the flower has come / Light up the sky with your prayers of gladness and rejoice for the darkness is gone / Throw off your fears let your heart beat freely at the sign that a new time is born

What’s the difference? If I was to guess it would be the little things in life? I don’t know, but I do like using a “question” as a muse for a playlist. Flipping through my crates, I came across my old Smiths albums. I remember hearing “What Difference Does It Make?” on Rodney on the ROQ. Thinking back it was a fascinating time in music.

The punk movement I adored as a teenager had essentially faded, replaced by new wave, which had it moments. California hardcore punk was still fun—and then there was this new music called rap. By this time I was a hip art student at UCLA. I found myself making blacklight graffiti paintings for the coolest underground nightclub in the Hollywood scene. The Rhythm Lounge played only rap and ’80s dance records (like Tyrone Bronson’s “Sticky Situation”).

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

And if the way I hold you, can’t compare to his caress / No words of consolation will make me miss you less / My darling, if this is goodbye, I just know I’m gonna cry / So run to him before you start crying, too

And make it easy on yourself / Make it easy on yourself / ‘Cause breaking up / Is so very hard to do / Oh baby, it’s so hard to do

The cold and gloom continues into this second week of June. Fuck this shit, we’re driving to the desert tomorrow for some much needed sunshine.

This week I’ve been dealing with deep personal issues. After some meditation I’ve come to the current conclusion my feelings are all connected to the impermanence of life. Sometimes old childhood scars can cause a pain or ache. If I take those feelings in stride, I can, “make it easy” on myself.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

For your pleasure / In our present state / Part false part true / Like anything

We present ourselves / The words we use tumble / All over your shoulder / Gravel hard and loose / There all night lying / With your dark horse hiding / Abhorring such extremes / You’re rubbing shoulders / With the stars at night / Shining so bright / Getting older

Oh man, once again music is here to save my soul. Forces have been at bay, fucking with me.

I’ve been edgy and depressed. Missed a couple of live shows and found it hard to keep my eyeballs on my desk. With growing pains all around, I managed to get to a turntable and spend a couple late night hours spinning some gems.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Never said I was a stool pigeon / I never said I was a diplomat / Everybody is under suspicion / But you don’t want to hear about that

‘Cause you tease, and you flirt / And you shine all the buttons on your green shirt / You can please yourself but somebody’s gonna get it

It’s pretty cold and gloomy for the the first week of summer, but we’re gonna act as if it’s here in our canyon.

With a playlist of records that’s gonna turn “green” into “gold,” let’s head into June and shed the gloom with classic song and brilliant new bands.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

My my my I’m so happy / We gonna join the band / We are gonna dance and sing in celebration / We’re in the promised land

Oh, there is a train that leaves the station / Heading for your destination / But the price you pay to nowhere has increased a dollar more / Yes, it has! / And if you walk you’re gonna get there / And though it takes a little longer / And when you see it in the distance you will wring your hands and moan

Yesterday was the son’s last day of 9th grade. Unlike his “idelic rock ‘n’ roll dad,” Jonah is not very sentimental.

Oh, that feeling of racing home to drop the needle on Alice Cooper, throwing on my favorite t-shirt, and heading to the school yards to party with my crew.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

I hear voices from the outside / All I wonder is if you care about me

Oh my God, I wish I could talk to you / And tell those things that I know by heart / Then I’ll get much closer and kiss your lips / You might think I’m fresh, but / If you please / Don’t take me wrong / All I want is that you get to want me / Don’t take me wrong

Been away from The Idelic Hour for a couple weeks. Our host TVD was on spring break.

Over here we’re gearing up for final exams as baseball season kicks into summer gear. All in all we’re looking forward to summer, bought a new beach umbrella, a big bottle of sun block, and just need to fix a few dings on Jonah’s surfboards.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

This is stranger than love for us, / Turning backwards to face the demon, / No excuse for a wasted life, / Lightly falling through a whisper of sky. / It’s the weight of the world, I know, as I’m struggling to be. / It’s the weight of the world, I know, as you were mine, and we will find

Spring is here. Yep, pretty much. Birds are chirping and I have to think kids in this canyon and the valleys below are falling in love. Well whatever a kid would call “the look of love” today.

Before I rocket to the 4th dimension for the weekend, here are a handful of new records mixed with a cherished stack of vinyl from what seems like yesterday, but in truth is now decades ago.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

I pity the country / I pity the state / And the mind of a man / Who thrives on hate / Small are the lives / Of cheats and of buyers / Of bigoted news press / Fascist town criers / Deception annoys me / Deception destroys me / The Bill of Rights throws me

In Laurel Canyon there is something to be said about sitting in one’s backyard meditating—the stillness and chirping of birds, the distant rumbling of construction. In LA someone is always tearing down or building up. This said, if I can find 10 or 15 minutes of peace and harmony with nature and the universe…

Well, I’m into it!

A couple days ago it was a quiet and beautiful morning. I looked up and there was a man high in a palm tree. Only in LA man, only in LA.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

LA is a great big freeway / Put a hundred down and buy a car / In a week, maybe two, they’ll make you a star / Weeks turn into years, how quick they pass / And all the stars that never were / Are parking cars and pumping gas

Forget that today is cold and wet in the canyon. This week started as Spring. Yes, and all the obvious accolades come to mind. Flowers blooming, baseball, and all things new. New songs, bands, art movements, and of course loves. I started a new Spotify playlist called Spring Fibre.

New, new, new. Find me something new! And may we put what’s new on a shiny pedestal and worship it?

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

I’m a shock trooper in a stooper / Yes I am. / I’m a Nazi shatze / You know I fight for fatherland. / I’m a shock trooper in a stupor / Yes I am. / I’m a Nazi shatz / You know I fight for fatherland. / Little German boy / Being pushed around. / Little German boy / In a German town. / Today your love, tomorrow the world!

Today my dad would have been 89 years old. I thought about him this week and this morning. As I say in the show, I don’t want The Idelic Hour to be an OB column, but I did feel the need to salute a friend’s dad, his rock ‘n’ roll journey, and epic label.

I believe I bought my first Sire record from Bleecker Bob’s at a rock convention at a seedy midtown NYC hotel in February 1977. “Blitzkrieg Bop/Havana Affair” fittingly came in a green sleeve. At the time I didn’t know what a green sleeve was, but I can honestly say this two sided record was the most crass, primal, and cool sounding band I had ever heard.

It wouldn’t take long before I came to know Sire (along with Stiff Records) as a badge of punk rock. Before that I never thought the “o-hole” (aka label) on a 45 could stand for something. It was a seed, a signpost, to what would become my life’s work.

First wave went from Ramones, Dead Boys, Saints, Undertones, Richard Hell’s “Blank Generation” to “Ca Plane Pour Moi!” Next came the ’80s and it was my turn to join in on the fun.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

I beg your pardon / I never promised you a rose garden / Along with the sunshine / There’s gotta be a little rain sometime / When you take you gotta give so live and let live or let go / Oh-whoa-whoa-whoa / I beg your pardon / I never promised you a rose garden

I beg your pardon. I believe it’s spring! It’s sunny out, but this morning was cold as fuck. Speaking for southern Californians, “we’ve had enough.” Spare us the fools and bring back our sunshine. After all it’s April fools—a little spare change and sunshine…be nice.

Last night I dragged Susan out on a frigid evening to attend the LA opening of King Pleasure, an art show/ experience of the work and life of the late Jean-Michel Basquiat. I’m grateful to have known Jean. Over the years, I’ve always had mixed feelings about “poor Jean,” and often used the “saga of Jean-Michel” as a reference to give artists advice.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Fake tales of San Francisco / Echo through the air / And there’s a few bored faces at the back, all / Wishing they weren’t there / And as the microphone squeaks / A young girl’s telephone beeps / Yeah, she’s dashing for the exit / Oh, she’s running to the streets outside / “Oh, you’ve saved me”, she screams down the line / “The band were fucking wank and I’m not having a nice time”

I’ve always loved a Brit singing about a destination he/she’s never been to. That crop of turn of the millennium UK dreamers (Alex Turner, Gomez, Badly Drawn Boy, Turin Brakes, Malcolm Middleton etc.) are an easy go-to on a cold, rainy afternoon.

This week will be remembered for an unmistakably “British” rain. Dark, moody, with a chill that you can feel through the floorboards.

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TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Well, I never paid the rent / And I never paid no telephone bill / And I ain’t never had a job / And I’m glad and I hope I never will / But my mom yesterday / She asked me how I was doin’ / I said I’m pretty good / But I don’t know if I’m gonna eat today / I don’t know if I’m gonna eat today / But I’m gonna try… / I’m gonna try, try, try… / I swear to God, I’m gonna try…

My perception of time is warped, or the world is spinning at a vicious rate. Likely both. Many of us seem to be hanging onto the rails for our lives. The view from this “ferris wheel” we’ll call “023,” is beautiful but treacherous. Personally, I try to be heathy but as the day gets long I look for treats.

I do often start the day with oatmeal. It warms my soul on cold winter mornings. So does a voice, or a line from a song.

This week’s Idelic Hour started with a crate of records I compiled a few weeks ago. Funny, most of those discs remain unchecked as I’ve opted to play an assortment of new releases mixed with an odd, a sod, and a nod to Dixi D, and fond memories of playing in bands.

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  • SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL INDIE SHOPS SINCE 2007


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