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Tony Pasquale and Terra Luna

Cape Cod Life  /  July 2019 / , ,

Writer: Rob Conery / Photographer: Josh Shortsleeve 

Tony Pasquale and Terra Luna

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Cape Cod Life  /  July 2019 / , ,

Writer: Rob Conery / Photographer: Josh Shortsleeve 

RADIO DAZE

Being the Renaissance man he is, Pasquale’s alter ego, Tony Scungilli, is the radio host of the Squid Jigger’s Blend on Wednesday mornings on WOMR in Provincetown. Described as “full tilt outermost mooncusser primitive chunka chunka featuring the sweetly fecund sounds of low tide surf guitar noir,” it is popular among the locals. Mornings are full of energy as he cheerfully mixes tracks from local bands with anything from Eddie Cochran and Frank Zappa to the 5.6.7.8’s.   

His vote for best Cape Cod band goes to the Incredible Casuals, a now defunct group that rocked the stages of local haunts back in the ’80s and ’90s. “I was an incredible casualty for a long time,” jokes Pasquale of their legendary run of shows, including the raucous Sunday afternoon happy hours at the Wellfleet Beachcomber.   

Pasquale also says he enjoys “any incarnation of a band with Steve ‘Woo Woo’ Wood,” who once was called the world’s loudest guitar player. Wood’s band the Greenheads are just one of the many eclectic and under-the-radar acts that occasionally play Terra Luna. He calls the all-girl band The Ticks “amazingly good fun” and says the Sacred Mounds “are not to be missed, ever. Incredible songwriting and musicianship—they are the closest to the restaurant’s neo-pagan true fine groove.”  

His show is beloved among the rabid following of the Outer Cape beach community—more than one person called it the soundtrack to their life—and there’s even a coffee named after him: Beanstock Coffee Roasters of Wellfleet began offering a special Squid Jigger’s Blend about five years ago. Local rocker Sarah Swain says, “Tony’s radio show is a Wednesday morning institution in our house.”  

Singer/songwriter Chandler Travis admits that the early morning radio show preempts the usual start of his day, but he approves of Pasquale’s subversive attempt to weave his brand of musical expression into the shared airwaves of diverse audiences. Travis still laughs at the time he was forced to get up at the unnatural hour (for a working musician) of 7 a.m. to appear on Pasquale’s show, and how he and his band the Catbirds “cursed him out thoroughly,” as chronicled in “Outermost Radio: The Film.”

Rob Conery

Rob Conery writes a weekly fishing column for Cape Cod Times. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, he splits time between a hobo camp in western Maine and his native Cape Cod where he has spent 45 consecutive summers walking distance to Lewis Bay. He has written many articles for Cape Cod LIFE including a recent piece on Cape Cod and Islands divers, and his novel Winterland is available on Strawberry Books.