Another devastating blow to our blogroll

This has been a bad month for fans of good, funny, irreverent writing. This morning we discover that Doghouse Riley, the conscience of Indiana and one of the finest, most wickedly astute writers on the Internet, has suddenly passed away. A writer who should have been paid to air his views on every editorial page in America, who instead contributed his trenchant, wise observations on the blogosphere in his spare time, Doghouse will not be forgotten, and his strong voice will be kept alive by those who remember him. Condolences to the woman he sympathetically and amusingly referred to as "my poor wife"; her own sparks of wit and wisdom live on in his blog archives too. Go read his work again and get a good picture of what we lost.

No more Frozdick Family updates

Mick Farren, noted English eccentric and proprietor of the Doc 40 blog, has just left the building.

Top Of The Pops

Profuse thanks to Ear Candle Radio listeners who have already voted the Granite Countertops' "Rainy Night In Florida" to the top of our charts! It means a lot to see so much positive response so soon.

We want to make this little song the catalyst for a serious cultural shift. Not just through our donations, but through the song itself. We are making an extra effort to get this one widely heard and injected into the national conversation. You can get your own "Rainy Night" mp3 at iTunes or Amazon.

Rainy Night in Florida

Rainy Night In Florida, the new single by the Granite Countertops, is out. It's good, it's cheap (only 99 cents!), and 50% of all proceeds will be donated to The Trayvon Martin Foundation, so you know what to do!.

Now available at iTunes and other fine digital distributors.

Ear Candle Radio's Top 20: June 2013

Our charts are topped by a special remix of a Mecca Normal classic gifted to us by none other than Jean Smith herself, followed by a soulful tribute to the noble and beleaguered city of Baltimore. Further down, we have Lee Scratch Perry's wonderfully underrated African-Reggae experiment, some astonishing a capella from Bjork, a funny and dramatic Workdogs cut, a choice jam from the recent Wobble/Levene reunion, our own Dr. Spaceman and Content Providers, and much more. We love our listeners and their feedback. As of today, Ear Candle Radio is sitting pretty as the number 5 indie station on Live 365, and we are up to number 882 in the whole network, which consists of some 40,000 or so stations. Hallelujah and keep listening!

1. Mecca Normal - I Walk Alone 2013 - I Walk Alone by Mecca Normal 2013
2. JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound - Baltimore Is The New Brooklyn - Heavy Soul
3. Kalo Kawongolo / Seke Molenga - Guipimbu Gienu - African Roots
4. Bjork - Where Is The Line? - Medulla
5. Cibo Matto - Sugar Water - Viva! La Woman
6. Workdogs - Eulogy/Regrets - Workdogs In Hell
7. Jah Wobble & Keith Levene - Understand Dub - Yin & Yang
8. Dr. Spaceman - Good Intentions - Zwanzig Kilometer Stau
9. Dolly Mixture - Understanding - Demonstration Tapes
10. Tom Verlaine - Always - Dreamtime
11. Siouxsie And The Banshees - Icon - Join Hands
12. Roger Ruskin Spear - Make Yourself A Happiness Pie - Electric Shocks +
13. Raybeats - Tone Zone - Guitar Beat
14. Linda Perhacs - Parallelograms - Parallelograms
15. Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard - If Life Exists? - Em Are I
16. J Neo Marvin & The Content Providers - Running Up A Tab On The Universe - Slowly I Turned
17. George Faith - So Fine - To Be A Lover
18. The Flying Lizards - Postscript - The Secret Dub Life of the Flying Lizards
19. Blaims - Can't Sleep - Modoc Records Sampler, Vol. 1
20. Tom Verlaine - The Blue Robe - Dreamtime