Ork Records may not have become a household word during its 5-year tenure from 1975-1980, but it certainly help set the stage for several music revolutions that ended up sweeping the world. From its powerful first release by TELEVISION (“Little Johnny Jewel”), Ork Records culled many of the most innovative underground rock and pop bands from around New York City (and sometimes Memphis and the UK) to serve up a 45RPM stew that would ignite imaginations everywhere. The best of Ork was recently compiled and re-released by Chicago obscurity reissue label Numero Group, and the first CD of this astonishing 2-CD set is featured on this GE episode. Punk/DIY origins exploding, fellow music geeks!

SPEED THE PLOUGH is anything but speedy, having put out only 7 records in 27 years, but quality trumps quantity in their world.  The most recent release, Now, has several generations of band members contributing, and is arguably their most diverse record to date.  Hear the entirety of Now, along with snippets of an interview with keyboardist and co-founder John Baumgartner, on this Geek EmaNation Show podcast.  Slow and steady as she goes, fellow music geeks!

The 7″ vinyl record may seem like a relic to many, but just like 12″ LPs it is experiencing a Renaissance of sorts here in the second decade of the 21st Century.  Hear some exemplary releases in this format on Chicago’s terrific HoZac Records, along with some other oddities and surprises, on this large-holed episode of The Geek EmaNation Show.  Small can be mighty, fellow music geeks!

Fans of so-called “indie-rock” tend to swoon at the name FEELIES.  This legendary east-coast originated band provided the missing link between The VELVET UNDERGROUND/LOU REED/BRIAN ENO on one end and R.E.M./NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL/DECEMBERISTS on the other.  The latest instrumental album by FEELIES’ co-founder GLENN MERCER sounds like the perfect soundtrack to an imaginary road film, and incorporates all the depth, fun and surprise that the great FEELIES’ releases had in spades.  Hear interview snippets with Mr. MERCER spliced together with every cut from Incidental Hum, and then the entirety of the FEELIES’ classic Crazy Rhythms on this indie-rockerific show.  Original Geeks are the true OGs, fellow music geeks!

For the second year in a row, Polyvinyl Records sent a Tascam 4-track cassette recorder to 12 intriguing pop bands and performers and committed 2 songs from each band recorded with that technology to 12 7″ vinyl records.  Hear the results from 2015’s 4-Track Singles Series Volume 2 on this New Year’s edition of The Geek EmaNation Show hosted by The Rock’N’Roll Nurse.  Get nostalgic for the year just past, fellow music geeks!

TODD RUNDGREN’s 1980s and early ’90s records The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect, A Capella, Nearly Human, and 2nd Wind are not well known even among TR fans, but include some of his most intriguing work and most complex and accomplished vocal arranging.  Hear the vocal-only wonder that is A Capella and highlights from the other TR records released from 1982-91 on this gleefully obscure episode.  The deepest of the deep TODD cuts unearthed, fellow music geeks!

This week’s GE presents a few songs from TODD RUNDGREN’s 1975-76 solo albums Initiation and Faithful, and then presents his 1978 solo LP Hermit Of Mink Hollow and 1981 LP Healing in their entirety.  These aren’t TR’s most famous records, but definitely albums that deserve to be remembered.  Deep TODD for the masses, fellow music geeks!

1973-4 were crazy years for TODD RUNDGREN, producing records for the likes of BADFINGER, The NEW YORK DOLLS, FELIX CAVALIERE, GRAND FUNK, FANNY, HALL & OATES, and somewhere in the middle two pharmaceutical-fueled albums of his own:  A Wizard A True Star and Todd.  Hear the TODD classic known to fans as AWATS on vinyl in its entirety and then choice cuts from the 2xLP Todd as Geek EmaNation continues its obsession with all things Rundgren…

In these times of discord and division it’s good to take a deep breath of gratitude into our lungs, and that’s what this GE episode is all about.  The incredible and inspiring Miss Deena is flying in from Chicago just to play songs of joy and happiness with your host The Rock’N’Roll Nurse.  Fight fear with fun, fellow music geeks!

TODD RUNDGREN was a founding member of the band NAZZ which started in Philadelphia and released two notable LPs in the late 1960s.  When he left the band in 1969, RUNDGREN decided to pursue a career as a music engineer and producer and was given a chance to produce The BAND’s Stage Fright among other records.  The itch to write and record original music persisted, though, and in 1970 RUNDGREN released his first solo LP Runt.  Hear highlights of that album, his 2nd solo record The Ballad Of Todd Rundgren, and his 3rd solo release Something/Anything? (presented in its entirety) on the first of a series of TODD-centric GE shows.  Genius is hard to suppress, fellow music geeks!