Radio Part 2

Well, I certainly haven't been maintaining my blog. The last month and a half in school, work, life in general has kept me pretty busy. I hope I haven't lost the two or so followers that I do have (my mom would probably read my blog but I think she can't get past seeing the computer as an electronic game of solitaire).
The basic broadcasting course at Bellevue College is done. In that time, I managed to get the support of my teacher after nailing my mock broadcast final. She said she would help me prepare an audition tape and recommend me to KBCS. Good. The networking angle paid off. I ran into my initial correspondent at the station who suggested I take this course a couple of days ago. I told her about the success I had in the course and she said she would be a sponsor of sorts with my program. Awesome! Now the new humps.
Wednesday was the last day of the quarter at school. I was in the lab trying to make a model of what my show would be like as well as the audition tape. An audition tape in radio is basically just the talking parts. Coming in and out of songs, bandnotes, station ID's etc. My idea and my teachers suggestion, was to do an hour long blueprint of the show and then edit the audition tape out of that. While recording the show, she had pointed out to me that I hold syllables for strange periods of time, my cadence is awkward and and my vocal tones don't always illustrate my emotions. I don't disagree with that. Anyone who knows me knows how I talk. I didn't think this would be too much of a problem since I was aiming to get an evening show at such a small station. Have you heard some of the DJ's on KBCS? Part of the beauty of community radio is that the DJ's just sound like people in the community. I understand her wanting me to sound professional for a first impression, even though I still feel the music is the selling point. So with precious little time before the campus closes down for winter break I start doing just vocal takes, making sure I pay attention to my delivery. After several takes I end up with a satisfactory audition tape. However, since the my time is overdue, I have to leave the model show down there. Stuck on the Vox Pro with no way to get it until January. It was a good show too! My objective in the selections is to keep everything old. I discovered recently that Chris Martin of Kinski has a program at the station devoted to out sounds that is a little too close to my initial idea but a lot of what he plays is modern. My show will be all oldies for the most part. It will also remain closer to a rock core and experimental aspects found within that context (eg. not as much noise or modern composition). Soon, I will be writing my proposal to the program director and seeing if we can meet in person. The fact that it's the holiday season is working in my favor, since he may not have time to meet with me until the new year, maybe I can get my show back by that point.
I'm also happy to say that I left the class with a more positive feeling about it at the end of the quarter. Some of those kids are really nice and we ended up being very supportive of each other. I got a chance to tutor some of them on the board and I was able to lend some records to them for their mock broadcasts. My instructor has been very nurturing of my talents but she seems to want to direct me towards a more conventional type of broadcaster. I've been encouraged to take the advance classes which is a lot more technical work, as well as writing copy for news. I might do it in the spring. First things first. I want my show.

A Tribute to Bruce Roehrs

Fuck! This guy is one of the best music writers in the world today! This take no shit skin has a column in Maximum RocknRoll that I read first thing when I pick up an issue! I was turned on to this rough and tumble journalist by a good friend who praised him for his unconventional style and enthusiasm of a teenage boy who discovers punk rock for the first time! His column kicks ass! Roehrs cuts to the chase and gives you the straight dirt on the bands origin and highlights his favorite lyrics on every release! Check this excerpt:

"Holy shit! Grave Mistake Records and WASTED TIME have upped the ante for all you punks and skins! The new WASTED TIME 'Futility' LP is a fucking scorching indictment of our society delivered with a one-two punch that very few punk bands can muster. "

This is a good example of how Roehrs gets right down to the shit and slaps you in the face with a record review that makes you wanna hear it right away, even if your not a connoisseur of punk or oi! Pontificating on the finer and more minute details of a record are all well and good (most writers do this) but this guy is intent on stressing the importance of each record with an urgency that leaves no room for the hogwash! Every music writer sheltered behind their cozy desk analyzing music like metaphysics needs to take a page from this urban dwelling scum rocker! At the heart of it all, great music should get you this excited! It should make you want to shout out to the world what a fucking impact the music makes on you! Don't hide behind too much critical assessment, cut to the bone! I write this loving homage in hopes that every one of you punks and skins (and everyone) will check this guy out! While my writings bear no influence from Mr. Roehrs, he certainly has my highest fucking admiration! Until next time, I'll see you fucks at the bar!

Marillion-Misplaced Childhood

Wow! This is motherfucking awful! I picked this up at Goodwill because I had never heard Marillion and for some reason I was expecting some silly fantasy metal concept record. Maybe something along the Manowar lines but not quite as tough. Boy was I wrong. What we have here is a wretched slab of a post-prog concept album that is drenched in very warm synth pads and triggered electronic drums. The singer sounds like a neutered Peter Gabriel. Though the record seemed somewhat laughable at first, perhaps as a room clearer when you need to end a party, the joke soon wore off and this record became incredibley difficult to listen to. These guys make Dream Theatre and Spock's Beard seem tough by comparison. Who on Earth listens to this? I'll tell you. The super annoying variety of ponytailed guys who used to come in to the record store and talk your ear off at great lengths if you somehow let it slip that you liked Frank Zappa or something that guitar store/gear geeks worship for it's technical abilities (aka, the parts of music that have no soul). We called them time vampires. Thankfully we live in the age of internet forums and blogs where these peolpe can talk amongst themselves, listening to Marillion in the privacy of their own homes, far away from my threshold of hearing.

RATING: 1/10

ZZ Top-Fandango

This is a perfect album. I post this so I can illustrate what I feel to be a perfect 10. The record should not have a single throwaway track. It should also have a sense of continuity that makes you want to listen from start to finish every time. The record should also possess a timeless quality that will not just serve as a period piece but will sound cool from the time it was made onward through the ages. For example, ZZ Top's crowning achievement, "Fandango"
Side One is all the way live, demonstrating ZZ Top's outstanding stage show. ZZ Top are just as tight as Lynyrd Skynyrd or other "southern rock" contemporaries but stripped down to a trio. After the hard rockin', hard drinkin' opener "Thunderbird", an incredibley gritty version of "Jailhouse Rock" manages to rise above the assosciation that song has with the ridiculous Elvis Presley version (in a brief unrelated note, I often joke that Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock" movie is the inspiration for those choregraphed dance numbers in Fillipino prisons). Side one closes with the outstanding "Backdoor Medley". This is where the party REALLY gets started. Frank Beard lays down a relentless shuffle on the drums that supports a series of bombastic guitar solos, lightspeed mumbling vocals and some outstanding dialouge. Example: He thinks he's real bad. He thinks he's badder than Shaft, Superfly, James Bond and Kung Fu put together. But I've got news for him. They don't call me the Texas heartbreaker and homewrecker for nothin'! I see now that it doesn't look as good in print as it sounds on wax but it's truly some of the finest stage banter you'll ever hear on a live record.
Side Two is all studio tracks and each and every one of them rank as some of the very best in ZZ Top's repertoire. "Nasty Dogs and Funky Kings" kicks it off proper with one of Billy Gibbons' tastiest licks. How tastey? Well the Melvins decided to cover this song if that's any indication. The next track "Blue Jean Blues" is one that I grew to love over time. It's the only slow number on the record and I used to think it felt out of place but it actually serves as a delightful pause. It's a moody, dreary, druggy blues number that relaxes you a bit and then BAM! "Balinese"! This is a party song. The song is literally about partying. A tale of men and women coming together to drink whiskey and dance all night, that's set to one of Beards funkiest beats and the superb guitar tones that are found all over this record. If you've ever seen the movie Dazed & Confused, this song was brilliantly used in the scene when everyone arrives at the kegger. The next track is "Mexican Blackbird", a laid back, swaggering rocker about cruising down to Mexico to pick up a hooker. Grab one of them brews and drive that old Chrysler down to Mexico boy! "I Heard it on the X" is a tribute to the music they grew up on and influenced their sound, mainly country, blues, rockabilly. All influence are found here in a very original marriage that's amped up and very unique. The record closes with the classic cut and the hit song from the record "Tush". No sense in going in to this one, it speaks for itself.
So there you have it. A top notch record from a top notch band. One of the best qualities in a band and I think one of the highest compliments you can pay a band is that they don't sound like anyone else. Nobody sounds quite like ZZ Top and when I get the urge to hear them, I can accept no substitutes.

RATING: 10/10

P.S. I have love in my heart for many types of music but unlike you, I never got over rock.

Radio Part 1

I'm now three weeks into the basic broadcasting course at Bellevue College. Why? After a good run DJing at the Lava Lounge (which I still love with a fiery passion) I decided radio would be the next logical step. While I was born well after the golden age of radio, it still meant a lot to me growing up. Especially college/community radio. It was a free means of discovering a world of new music. KBOO out of Portland used to run a real hip hop show when I was just ten years old and all commercial radio would touch was MC Hammer and Salt n' Pepa. KUFO, the album oriented rock station, turned me on to Black Sabbath, Rush and other arena rock staples that were too abrasive to fit into my parents record collection. Late night classic rock radio would present classic records in their entirety, presenting the hits in context with the misses, long jams and experimental workouts that were common place in a time before I was born. Thus starting the love affair I've maintained with radio despite the horrible shape it's been in most of my life.
Upon moving to Seattle, better community radio was avaliable. This was shortly before KCMU, the UW radio station, was bought out by billionaire Paul Allen and became what those in the Seattle area now know as KEXP. While I didn't care for about 90% of what I heard on KEXP, the format was still amazing to me. Abandoning the perpetual cycle of radio hits that would repeat ad nauseam on FM radio, DJ's were allowed the freedom to play records because they actually thought they were good and needed to be heard. I may be repulsed by the music of the Long Winters or Pedro the Lion but at least I was able to figure that out for free on the radio. In addition to the eclectic mid day DJ's, there were amazing specialty shows highlighting specific genres and themes. The other community supported radio station in Seattle at that time (and currently) was KBCS in Bellevue. Between the two, there were many oppourtunities to enjoy long blocks of old country, gospel, multiple regions of world music, avant garde composition and improv, jazz, techno, blues and reggae.
It was around this time that I became more aware of a DJ across the pond by the name of John Peel. Serving for decades on Britains publicly funded broadcasting system, John Peel never compromised his taste and was constantly on the look out for exciting music to share with the public. He would astutely listen to thousands of records that came his way and played a major part in breaking some of the most important artists of our time, not only by playing their records but by hosting countless in studio live performances (many of which were released under the moniker "the Peel Sessions"). Peel's integrity and good intuitions were a constant in his entire career, helping out bands from T Rex to Gang of Four to Napalm Death to Nirvana and many more in between (one of his last sessions was with sunn 0)))!!! How's that for not growing soft in old age?). John Peel seemed to me the ultimate role model of what one could do with access to airwaves.
Now back to modern times. When I got the job at the Lava Lounge, I was replacing someone on a funk and soul night. This was music I loved and had no problem filling that spot. As time went by, I extended my playlists to incorporated all manner of music that would fit the feel of good vibes assosciated with funk and soul. Jazz, rock, disco, tropicalia, pop were all intertwined in the sets without ever disturbing the soulful sounds. One of my major loves in music was one that was not too bar friendly and therefore never became a dominant on any of my DJ nights. In a word, PSYCHEDELIA. All manner of experimental rock, prog, meditative works relying on repetition, meandering works that never repeat. Other worldly soundscapes imagined in the post acid age. This is the kind of music I would like to bring to the radio. The problem I have with the term is that it seems to apply strictly to an experience related to drugs and that is not always the case. However, this would ultimately be how it is marketed and radio is a market place (this is drilled in my head every day in class). Proposing the idea for the show is something I've been kicking around in my head for months. I know there is an interest in this music in Seattle. There's a huge trend in reissuing obscure psych nuggets from yesteryears. When I worked at the record store, I saw hundreds come and go and people were buying them. There's an actual audience that could be tapped and there is nowhere in Seattle's radio market that represents these records. Now how do I convince a program director this?
When the idea of my radio show became an aspiration instead of just an idea, a friend of mine put me in touch with one of the program directors at KBCS. She was helpful and encouraging but recommended that since I had no prior radio experience, I should take the basic broadcasting course. So I enrolled. I figured initially that I would be more involved with the KBCS staff and I would have a chance to network and meet students that may share my visions. Oh how wrong I was. Aside from the technical end, the bulk of the curriculum is aimed strictly at commercial radio in the post Telecommuniacations Act of 1996 age. Everyone in the class is interested in sports radio or other Clear Channel dreck and I feel like the only student who genuinely loves music and wants to preserve radio as a means of hearing exciting new sounds. I'm already becoming a target for jokes in class discussions. Also, my instructor has no affiliation with the college station. She works for KOMO news radio. It's a struggle to want to excel in this class but I'm still determined to chase this dream and this is a small step in doing so.
Soon, I will begin proposing my show to KBCS. I'd heard recntly that they are cutting programming and DJ's are losing their shows (including the woman I had talked to about getting on the station). So maybe I go to KEXP with the idea. It will be considerabley more difficult given the popularity of the station but I do know more people on staff there and who you know is crucial. Maybe I'll go to pirate radio where people can only hear me in a one mile radius but at least I'll have my freedom. These are the things I fall asleep thinking about these days and I will surely be writing more on the subject.
In closing, I leave you with some inspirational words and keen observations by Neal Peart.

Begin the day
With a friendly voice
A companion, unobtrusive
Plays that song thats so elusive
And the magic music makes your morning mood

Off on your way
Hit the open road
There is magic at your fingers
For the spirit ever lingers
Undemanding contact
In your happy solitude

Invisible airwaves
Crackle with life
Bright antennae bristle
With the energy
Emotional feedback
On a timeless wavelength
Bearing a gift beyond price ---
Almost free...

All this machinery
Making modern music
Can still be open-hearted
Not so coldly charted
Its really just a question
Of your honesty

One likes to believe
In the freedom of music
But glittering prizes
And endless compromises
Shatter the illusion
Of integrity

For the words of the profits
Are written on the studio wall,
Concert hall ---
Echoes with the sounds...
Of salesmen.

A list of good albums to listen to while stoned

Lovin' Spoonful-Daydream
Deep Purple-In Rock
Perrey & Kingsley-The In Sound From Way Out
Charles Manson-Lie
Serge Gainsbourg-Histoire de Melody Nelson
Melvins-Eggnog
Steely Dan-Countdown to Ecstasy (seriously)
Wu Tang Clan-Enter the 36 Chambers
Public Image Ltd.-Second Edition
Severed Heads-City Slab Horror
Ken Nordine-Best of the Word Jazz
Byrds-Notorious Byrd Brothers
Broadcast-Noise Made by People
Funkadelic-Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow
Monty Python-Previous Record
Sleep-Jerusalem
Terry Riley-A Rainbow in Curved Air
Sly & the Family Stone-There's a Riot Goin' On
Black Sabbath-Sabotage
Herbie Hancock-Sextant
Modern Lovers-Modern Lovers
Estradasphere-Buck Fever
Ananda Shankar-The Man and his Music
Kinks-Arthur
Tiny Tim-God Bless Tiny Tim

VA-An Anthology of Chinese Experimental Music

Hot damn! A sprawling four CD collection of experimental music from China may seem a bit overwhelming and in some respects, it is. With the exception of Torturing Nurse (who I'm only familiar with because my friends did a split CD with them) I am unfamiliar with every artist on this compilation. That's a lot of names to keep track of and further delve into. The liner notes do a great job of offering brief bios, gear lists and instruments used, personel and short statements made by the artists regarding intent or or musical statement. A good jump off point if you wish to pursue the artists further. If you have an interest in discovering the non academic side of China's experimental community, say hello to 49 exceptional artists! If you don't feel the need to dig that deep, this album is perfect for an overall primer. After all, China is fucking huge and not nearly as regarded in experimental music as Japan, who has given the world such name recognizable exports as Merzbow and Massona. I was recommended this collection from a good friend who had sold me on it because of how eclectic the different acts were. After listening to disc one, it seemed a bit laptop dominant but as the hours passed, I could hear the diversity. In addition to the laptop workouts, which range from minimal digital soundscapes to terrorizing glitch and harsh noise, you will find delightful electro-acoustic tapestries, old school tape noise, borderline industrial and some very tasty audio collage work. A personal favorite is Tats Lau on disc 3, a short but adventurous jaunt through pre recorded voice, fairly untreated drum machines playing what sounds like a pre-programmed reggae patch and a whirlpool of strings and electronics. One of the more prolific figures represented in the set seems to be Li Chin Sung, who also performs under the moniker of Dickson Dee, DJ Dee and PNF (this project also has a track on the compilation). The Li Chin Sung track kicks off the first disc with a dark ambient workout colored by high end digital signals. Creepy stuff. Liner notes reveal that he has collaborated with the likes of Otomo Yoshide and Keiji Haino, as well as having released a disc in the states on Tzadik.
It's difficult to go into too many specifics here. At the end of the week I'd spent listening to this, one disc at a time, it ultimately serves as a giant snapshot of a musical community in a giant country. Each song is unique as well as being part of a whole body of work that is vast, beautiful and ugly. I am impressed, enlightened and entertained by this collection and it will be revisited in the future with much enjoyment.

RATING: 7/10