Build It

Today I rode my bike to the radio station and did my weekly show...and then I stuck around to pull cables and hook up gear for five hours. We have a new and very cool new Live Room for bands and talk shows and I'm psyched at the prospect of producing live bands in-house again, especially with a new studio to work with!

Before the music, there is work to be done:



Up behind this tiny door are a bunch of cables that need to be re-routed. I pity the sad bastard who gets stuck doing that job...



Actually, it was kinda fun, getting all boxy and tangly...


Well, fun to watch, anyway.

Man, am I done yet? Nope.

How about I set up the mixer and hook it to the PC?
I actually enjoy doing that sort of thing:

Of course, it wouldn't be good radio without good music...here's this week's playlist:

The New Breakfast Snob, Saturday April 4 2009:

Astronauts of Antiquity- Breakthrough
Jazzy and way, way hip...one of my favorite new bands.

Alan Parsons Project- Breakdown
Looking at our studio-in-progress gave me a warm fuzzy feeling for audio production- Alan Parsons personifies production. We will all obey!

Azzdine w/ Bill Laswell - Britou
Electronic Moroccan roll with long-distance overdubs by legendary bassist Bill Laswell. I love this!

Bob Marley & the Wailers- Positive Vibration
When this is done, I'm gonna chill with Marley's ghost. Lively up!

Led Zeppelin- Boogie With Stu
Physical Graffiti still sounds really, really good...Jimmy Page produced this and he aced it.

Bad Haggis- Nimble Attitude
I have a caller who likes this band at least as much as I do...and I like them a lot, bagpipes and all.

Stephen Luke- Long Way Home
Luke's debut CD is one of the best 1972 rock albums of 2009...it's remarkably solid and addictive. Nice understated production by Kelly Richey, who also adds sizzling guitar playing.

Jen Foster- Broken
Foster's voice can cheer you up or break you down, it all depends on what she's saying. Very good stuff...The Underdogs? Who? Research required.

The Beatles- Oh, Darling
George Martin was no slouch in the studio. Know who he is, right?

Norine Braun- Jen Suis Desolee
I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Now hush up and let me listen to the guitar solo. It rocks.

Trey Green- My Girlfriend
I used to date the girl in this song.

Chrissy Coughlin- Log
Cool, blue and true...from NYC.

Billy David Band-Hate
Billy is against hate. It's a good thing to oppose.

Ross Phazor- Someday
The band name was inspired by an ELO album cover and a cheap microphone. I liked this song enough to *snip* the profanity out for airplay.

Screaming Daisies- Bees
This band will conquer the world any day now.

Garbage- Temptation Waits
Wow...is Shirley Manson really a robot? Terminate me, please!

Sexsha Brayne- Armageddon a Go-Go
Fire! Disease! Scorpions with human faces! Lots of bad shit!

Damien Dempsey- Dublin Town
One of Ireland's best and near the top of my "wanna see live" list.

Richard Thompson- Dad's Gonna Kill Me
One of Ireland's best. The man plays guitar like no one else...absolutely flabbergasting!

The Kinks- Complicated Life
I'm mocking myself by playing this. Haha.

Anouschka- Venice Beach
This song has some negative things to say about the music business...I, on the other hand, have nothing but good things to say about this Swedish-American singer/songwriter/guitarist...man, I wanna play in her band.

Trench Town Oddities- I Will Never Let You Fall
Nice harmonies and hooks from Canada, not Jamaica.

Joan As Policewoman- Furious
I first heard this excellent band on our station...very thoughtful and intricate stuff that sounds easy but isn't.

Dare Dukes- Bakersfield
If you live anywhere near Savannah, you should keep your eyes and ears open for Dare Dukes. If you don't live there, check him out anyway. You'll be glad you did.

Carrie Rodriguez- She Ain't Me
No one is...Carrie is unique. I've been hooked since the first listen.

Jon Prophet - As Good As Your Yesterday
Dude, sometimes you just have to play bass through a Rat Pedal for three minutes.
Ah, that felt good, didn't it?

Lisa Maxwell- Harmonic Rock/Out Of Sight
Actually, three minutes of loud distortion isn't enough. Have six more-and like it. I did!

Southern Backtones- Forever
The guitar hook has a nice Pixies-esque sound to it, really catchy tune from this excellent Houston band.

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I ran out of time long before I ran out of music -there's always next week!

Fun Buckets

Everybody should have one of these:

It's hard to be depressed when you have a bucket of bells to play with.

Ooooo...shiny and jingly!

But it's not all fun and games. The room pictured below is full of mallets and hammers and somebody could get hurt if they aren't careful- this is me beating some caution into Terry, my studio intern:




This is the view from where I was set up. I didn't know it at the time of this pic, but I was getting ready to experience a state of utterly bucket-less panic...the inputs on the University recorder weren't compatible with the outputs of this mixer! No compute.

On discovering this problem, I had two thoughts:

1) This really sucks. We can't do this.

2) I'm doing a radio interview tomorrow night and I picked up the audio recorder tonight. It has the adapter I need and it's in my jacket pocket. Problem solved.

Okay, I had a third thought:

3) Whew. That was close.

Oh, dammit. I had lots and lots of thoughts.

4) I would love to have a gong in my living room.

So anyway, we recorded the musical sounds made by these objects and the people who bang on them. I've had worse evenings:



BTW,telecommuting rocks! I'm so far ahead on my day job that I can stay up late blogging tonight and sleep late tomorrow...my job is mainly collecting data from a steady stream of emails and pasting it into Excel, fixing the format errors, and then sending it to HQ at day's end. It's harder than it sounds and twice as exciting, but I get to do it from home and the boss has already asked me if I am interested in being her assistant, which would be a huuuge pay raise. It's a hard job, but I've done it before, so I know I can do it again. I said yes.

5) Bells ...I can hear bells.

A Musical Weekend

Saturday night I parked my car on Broad Street. It drew a large crowd and a thundering ovation. That's my Volvo, center stage! I had to hold my camera way above my head to take this, so pardon the blurosity.

Oh. No one cares about my car. They came to see bands...would y'all please sit down? I can't see the stage. Thanks.

Hey! That's Fallentown's own Now Sleepyhead playing...I like that band and I enjoyed doing sound for them this weekend. They had their CD release party Saturday, drawing a good crowd. Some of NS's songs are mellow and haunting, almost ambient...others are loud and pounding, full of howling guitar noises. They switch instruments a lot too, which I enjoy. During an ethereal acoustic song, the audience actually sat down and gently swayed along...I can't recall the last time that I saw a crowd sitting on the floor at a rock show...fallen on the floor, sure...but sitting?

Times certainly have changed since I was a punk rocker. One of the opening acts- a hippie with a guitar- actually asked the audience to "please be quiet and pay attention, I am going to play some songs"...I expected boos and heckling, but the patchouli goblins obeyed, sitting down and talking in hushed whispers. WTF?

Now Sleepyhead, playing a lullabye:

Now Sleepyhead rocking:



And here they are last week,performing live in the studio at the radio station...they asked me to dim the lights, which made it difficult for the listening audience to see them, but they sounded really good. Talented band, they are.



The club that they played at occupies the first floor of the building and the radio station occupies the second floor, which is very convenient for me...there's a lot of "hurry up and wait" when you do club sound and it's nice to have a quiet, semi-private place I can dash off to when the urge strike me.

Sunday brought another show, this one featuring North Carolina's Dylan Gilbert. He's a one-man show- techno/acoustic/space-folk, I called it. Dylan liked that...he's very talented and a helluva nice guy too...go see him if you can!

All told, I did sound for eight bands/acts over the weekend and it looks like I'll be picking up some more much-needed paying work in the future- the owner told me that I was the best soundman they'd ever had (the bands were very complimentary as well) and asked if I would be available in the future...exactly what I wanted to hear.
They are willing to spend a little money improving the sound, so I'll be acting as a professional consultant as well. I need to keep moving in this direction, it's starting to take off without me doing much at all...with some effort, I might succeed in whatever it is I'm doing. As my beloved Whim has been trying to tell me, things are looking up!

It feels good to be working on my own again. I still have the day job, but having some fun, extra cash helps a lot, even if means working 7 days (or nights) a week, which it will...but there is more to life than live bands and studio recording- there is also live radio! As usual, I had an excellent time on-air Saturday afternoon, feeling calm, groovy and totally at peace with my world. I had a lot more callers than usual and that's always a good feeling. Made me feel wanted, ya know?

THE NEW BREAKFAST SNOB, JULY 26, 2008:

Jethro Tull- Sunshine Day
Ten Years After- Let the Sky Fall
Atomic Rooster- Ear in the Snow
Jimi Hendrix- Gypsy Eyes
Soft Machine- Why Am I So Short?/So Boot If At All
Moody Blues- Dear Diary
Daevid Allen & Robert Wyatt - Memories
David Lindley- You Never Knew Her
Chris Spedding- Breakout
Soft Boys- You'll Have To Go Sideways
Cursive- The Martyr
Stranglers- Nice and Sleazy
Cranberries- Close To You
Richard Thompson- Keep Your Distance
Calpurnia- Ragtop
Nick Drake- Cello Song
Wire- Surgeon's Girl
Steve Hillage - Wait One Moment
The Frames- Sideways Down
Jethro Tull- Living In The Past
Supertramp- Sister Moonshine
Horsehead- Walk it Off
Bruce Cockburn- Lovers in a Dangerous Time
Mommas & Poppas- I Call Your Name
Mitch Aitch Price- Until The Real Thing Comes Along
Leo Kottke- The Other Day (Near Santa Cruz)
Garbage- Androgny
Danielle Dax- T.N.K.
John Cale & Brian Eno- Spinning Away
Damien Dempsey- Negative Vibes

Don't touch that dial.

Stylin'

Me in Montana's Paradise Valley during my Rock Star days, circa 1990. Check out the shirt and matching boots! Stylish, eh?I'm holding my mother's cat, Goofy, and my mom and her lunatic ex-BF are in the background. My brother has the car, which is still running today.

In more recent news, I just got a call from a newish coffeehouse that is becoming one of Richmond's most happening indie music venues.
They need a soundman.
I need money.
We talk tonight.

Ideally, they'll let me design and install/upgrade the PA system (and hopefully lease some gear from me)...I'd like to hang some acoustic baffles from the ceiling and in the corners, which would make the metal box -I mean the concert room-sound much better. With luck, it could go full-time and would get me out of the office world...at worst, I'll pick up some extra cash by working nights. I might not be able to blog much though...if I am not around, don't worry, I'm just workin'...

On Being Incorrect

(Delay on new PC, must post...still on old beast)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the things that I lost when my PC crashed was the outline and a few sketchy chapters of an aborted book. I was attempting to examine life using the language of sound as a symbol system...my basic premise was that each individual contains a recording studio within themselves and that the skills, equipment and techniques used to record audio all have counterparts in both the real and philosophical worlds- for example:

Click Track: In recording, a 'click track' is essentially a metronome. It is used to keep musicians playing at a consistent tempo. It steadies the musician-an erratic click track will derail them.

In the real world, we have a number of different 'click tracks' and they tend to play at different tempos: family, art, work, love- these are all 'click tracks'. By deciding which tempo gets assigned to which track, we set our priorities in life.


On a philosophical level, a 'click track' could be viewed as passion or faith. For example, I cannot prove that John Bonham used a click track while Led Zeppelin were recording Physical Graffiti, but my passion for sound causes me to take it as faith that he did- in a way ,this parallels an individual's faith in their religion, the believer accepting as faith the unprovable 'fact' that the Divine Click Track is there and on-time.

-------------

That's a very abbreviated, informal version.

After a few chapters of stuff like that, I bogged down and could go no further and eventually I gave up. When my PC died, I wasn't especially upset over losing my roughs, the whole thing had dead-ended.

Until.

I had a breakthrough.
My approach was incorrect on a very basic level.

We are not 'recording studios'. We are sound itself.
We are waves and energy. Electrical, physical energy.
We are, in the jargon of audio, the source.
The world around us is the recording studio and each person is continually recording their own concept album, a process which invariably requires a lifetime to complete.

Here is a quick look at how I look at working with sound :

The idea is to get the source (usually music) to the destination ( usually a set of speakers, in my case it is sometimes a radio transmitter) as quickly and cleanly as possible. To do this, one must understand signal flow, which is the path that the sound takes as it travels from source to destination.
Sometimes there are obstacles, but there are tools available for dealing with problems as they arise- or preventing them altogether( a chapter about EQ, Compression, Gates and Dynamic Processing to follow)
Once you are comfortable with your signal flow, you can experiment with echo, delay and other Time-Based FX. Usually, you won't need them, but it's fun to know how they work anyway.

If a problem persists, trace the source carefully through every stage of it's signal flow. Do not take any component for granted as 'working', test them all. Eventually, you will find the stage where the sound stops or breaks down.
Once it is identified, you address it by applying whatever repair or replacement is needed.
If the broken element adds nothing, remove it entirely and continue without it.

It's my feeling that this basic audio approach can be applied to real-life situations with very effective results.
For example, I've been dealt a huge number of setbacks over the last several months, any one of which would have, in the past, been a trigger for me to drink and self-punish instead of fixing my signal flow.
Fuck. That.

I'm tracing my path and removing the junk that doesn't work.
My PC crash isn't so much a tragic loss as it is a vital step in the cleansing of my signal flow. If I can learn to accept the loss of things that are precious to me, I should, as a result, be able to let go of things that aren't precious (or even healthy) to me.

If something isn't perfect the first time, record it again and again until it sounds right. It's quite a bit of work, but it's worth it.

After all, it's the song of a lifetime.

Sound Off

Converting LPs to MP3s , Rube Goldberg style. Don't laugh- it works!



************************************************************

There was an angry post here.

A good friend was able to shift my mood so dramatically that I felt compelled to retract it...instead of complaining about what is wrong, we are gonna fix it.
We.
I'm not as alone as I thought I was. I have been alone for so long that I have forgotten how to be any other way ; I had resigned myself to the fact that there is no hope for change and that no one will ever care...or so I thought.

I'm wrong about stuff sometimes, y'know?
So. Cool.

I'll save my anger for politics. I'm smiling and don't have time for it now.

Later.

Known Issues

Fuckity. After all that work it turned out that there was a major malfunction in our broadcast signal. We broadcast in mono, which is supposed to be a combination of the stereo signal from the CD, record etc. For three years this was the case and all was well.

But the new console was acting strangely and only sending the 'left' channel to the airwaves- in other words, if you are playing a stereo recording of two guitarists- one in the left speaker and the other in the right- the listener would only hear one of the players... in a stereo record of a piano solo, the listener only hears the left hand, the right hand is very faint...there are a lot of technical and musical reasons why this is a major problem.
To me, anyway.
It didn't seem like a big deal to most of the people I talked to, but for the kind of records I play it's a show-killer. Try listening to a two- guitar band like Television, Soft Boys, Quicksilver, the Clash or XTC with one of the guitars barely audible...it sucks.

The station email that went out pretty much said: " yeah, we know it's a problem and we are gonna order a new part and devise a plan to install that part", which sounds like a good idea except that our little station tends to do things by forming committees, having meetings, using the Dry Erase board etc; this is a good way for accomplishing some goals, but not , in my opinion, the best approach for dealing with critical issues effecting our actual live, real-time signal.

So I listened to my buddy Buzzy's show yesterday (he plays a lot of cool old 60's guitar rock that I dig) and I kept wondering "where are the guitar solos? " , "isn't there a second vocal on this song?" etc etc...it was hard to listen to. We have been bragging about our new studio and it doesn't even work right...fuck.

I know how to operate gear. I can coax great audio out of bad crap and I'm a master of unorthodox 'work-arounds', but I'm no electrician. Our new console requires electrical skills to change the internal settings (there are no knobs and such as are found on a recording console) , so we would have to wait until we got the part and then find time for one of our skilled volunteers to wire the thing into the circuit...who knows how long that could take? The email indicated that we might have to temporarily broadcast from the old studio...WTF?
I have two shows in the next two days and I want the music to sound right...crap.

Wait.

I thought about it for a while and then did a simple test at home using my own gear...aha I thought, I can fix our problem in ten minutes...probably need to visit Radio Shack first.
Other than the Shack trip, my plan was pretty damn easy: a stereo-to-mono conversion is a simple matter and we were relying on a hugely expensive and complicated electronic device to do it when a four-dollar gee-gaw could serve the same function, only better...duh.

So this morning when I got to the station I brought a couple of widgets with me so that I could test my theory, Radio Shack being closed at 7am and all...I was right. My idea worked. I found a few more widgets at the station and corrected about half of the equipment before I ran out of parts.
I did this during my show. Between songs. I had a LOT of coffee.

Before long, the coffee wanted to leave my body... I put on a lengthy song and skipped to the loo...fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
Something in here smells really, really baaaaad.
When I lifted the toilet lid, I saw that the bowl was full of shit. Judging from the toxic, choking fumes, I think it had started to ferment. Oh man...yuk.

As soon as the next DJ arrived, I found a plunger under the sink , gritted my teeth and cleared the mess out of the bowl . No fun.
A few minutes later, I saw a note left by yesterday's DJ- from 3PM! He noted that someone had left "poop" in the toilet and that he would try to fix it if he could find a plunger. Apparently he couldn't find it since that shit was still there. According to the note, the fecal cauldron had been stewing since at least yesterday afternoon...ugh. ugh. ugh.

The plunger was in plain sight under the sink but some devious motherfucker had built a cabinet around the plunger, after which they installed doors on the cabinet and shut them, making the plunger impossible to access.
Unless, that is, you understand cabinets and how to open them. As I said, I know how to operate gear, including hinges, doors and plungers...after I was done with opening the door and clearing the drain, I got to thinking about how many adults must have seen that mess of shit and walked away, thinking " someone else will do this"- I mean, the station is a busy place and that stuff had been there since yesterday- somebody had to pee at some point...did they not see the corn on the re-cob?

Anyway... after that, I drove to Radio Shack and bought parts. During my first trip, I was so agitated that I purchased the wrong items and had to return to the Shack and swap them out...this took longer than the ten minutes I had anticipated, but in the end it all worked just like I thought it would. No more missing guitars, no more dropped high notes...much better now!

I was composing an mail when my friend Liz dropped by the office to do pick something up...I'm not sure she understood much of what I said, but she could tell that I was pretty excited that my improvised repair worked out, so she bought me a cup of coffee, nodded a few times and smiled, which was nice. She also offered me a muffin, but my unexpected morning toilette had put me off of my appetite.

Tomorrow night I'll be guest-hosting my friend Will's show, which is a bit twangy and always good fun. It'll be a switch from what I usually play- and a switch from what Will plays as well.
I've got a few choice musical morsels to share and the listener will hear BOTH guitarists, boy howdy!
7PM - 9PM Eastern, if you wanna interlisten.

Now for some rest. Ah.

Don't Just Do Something, Stand There

I wish I had a comfortable and well-equipped place where I could set up a group of musicians and record them. It would also be pretty cool if I had a way of getting that recording onto the public airwaves.

Hmmm...well, I have a radio show already and I just finished re-wiring the music studio at the radio station, so that much is taken care of- I even have a pair of enthusiastic volunteer trainees, so it's now become a classroom as well as a studio, which is good because I'd like for other DJs to have live music skills too.

So, cool. I gots me some students to put the learnin' on.
I can get them to do all the stuff that I don't want to do (which is everything) and I get to take all the credit.
Awesome!
(Actually, I really like one of my vols. The other one is this guy.)

Next step: find a band.

Over the last few years, I've become increasingly enchanted by Celtic and Irish music in all it's forms, but I know shamefully little about it- it would be great if I could find a group of musicians who not only played such music, but were also well-versed in it's lore and traditions- enter my real-life friend Schlep!

Schlep put me in contact with a band called Poisoned Dwarf, a group which fit my needs exactly. If you like this sort of thing, check out their website (that means you, Sling), you will find that they are quite good and also have a great attitude towards the music they perform. I think it will be a great session. (Props to Schlep for the tip!)

Beyond my personal interest in the music, there is also a practical reason for me wanting to host an Irish folk group: the variety of instruments!
They have strings ( bowed and plucked), woodwinds, percussion, pipes and voices- this gives me a chance to demonstrate different microphones and proper mic techniques to my assistants.
I love teaching mic technique. I really do.

What a great deal: The band gets a free studio recording with guaranteed radio play and promotion, I get exactly the kind of group I need in order to teach my 'class' and I get to produce a kick-ass radio programme for my own show. As a bonus, I get to learn about music at the same time that I'm imparting my voluminous sonic wisdom to my volunteers. Tradition and technology, the cycle of preserving and sharing knowledge... man, it's pretty fuckin' Zen if you ask me. Even the terms used while recording reflect this: signal flow; balance; unity gain;harmonics;equalization...ahhh, I love it!

And ya know what?
Nobody was gonna fix that studio for me.
A band wasn't just going to magically appear.
My friends aren't gonna learn about sound by just looking at quiescent audio gear.
I have to do these things myself and I'm glad I'm doing them because it beats the hell out of sitting around and feeling sorry for myself.

Today it has been 30 months since my last alcoholic drink. In that time I've lost my grandmother, my cousin and three jobs; I wrecked my car, went on bad dates and have suffered almost every form of rejection that a man can suffer and I still haven't had a drink! That may not sound like much to you, but it means everything to me.

So, if you are imbibing an adult beverage at the moment, have an extra one for me. My drinking days are done, but I'm not done toasting: here's to making stuff happen!

*clink*

Job!

I start a new job on Friday. I just found out a few minutes ago and I really wish my grandmother was still alive so that I could call her and tell her. She'd be very happy.

It looks to be a good one. This isn't a union state, so the pay isn't all that great, but it's a very good place for me to gain experience and meet the 'right' people. I'll be starting as a stagehand; my background in audio was a big factor in hiring me- I need some training before working the front-of-house and monitor mixers, that being my long-term objective. This is my chance to get that training. Stage work is hard and is not glamorous- it's long hours as well... for example, if the show is from 8pm-11pm, the crew is there from, say, 11 am to 3am...it's been 15 years since I did this for a living, so I'll have to adjust. It'll be easy, I think, or at least worth it. Plus, I like sound. A lot.

Here are some dates on my new work schedule as well as a site that describes my new place of employment:

March 1- The Wailers
March 7- Neville Bros.
March 10- Little Feat
March 18- Willie Nelson...Willie Nel-

Willie Nelson! Wow.
No shit? I'll be helping Willie? My karma seems to be improving...I have been worried about that lately.

April 4- Jorma Kaukonen- Jorma, late of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, is one of my all-time guitar heroes, ever. No kidding. I have huge love for this man's music.

April 15- Pat Benatar- She's from Richmond, y'know?

Oh yeah- I might have to take time off to be a roadie for the Doobie Bros. this spring... I wasn't sure if that offer was real or not, but it came from the same source as this job, I start this job Friday morning, so the Doobies may well be true...I do have good roadie skills so I'm ready if they are.


Anyway, this will be interesting.

Blue Man Grope

I feel your pain and it's starting to hurt, so wouldja just get better already?

I had eight and a half hours of airtime this weekend- three two-hour shows as DJ and one show as engineer/producer. I was so impressed with myself that I took my own picture so that you, the reader, could admire me as much as I admire myself. Actually, I was trying to examine the sunburn on my scalp but I won't post those pics... suffice it say that next time I go for a drive with the sunroof open I will wear a hat.

Anyway, six hours of music is about seventy-five songs- plus the 30 minutes I picked up from the 6am DJ who overslept- usually I post and narrate my playlists, but this is 75 fucking songs- who the hell would read that? Better yet, who would write it?

Me. But without the details this week.

First, Zendo Soundsystem. DJ Ras-Bob usually mixes it up with modern flavor, but my groove music collection tends towards the WayBack Machine and the Mothership Connection- (and a few cuts from South Park):

Cameo- Word Up
Funkadelic- Freek of the Week
Talking Heads- I Zimbra
Curtis Mayfield- Little Child Runnin' Wild
Master P- Kenny's Dead
Average White Band- Schoolboy Crush
Papa John Creach - Enjoy
Red Hot Chili Peppers-If You Want Me To Stay
Funkadelic- I'll Stay
Steve Hillage-Unzipping the Zype
Parliament- Big Bang Theory
Little Feat- Spanish Moon
Big Brother & the Holding Co.- Funkie Jim
Tower of Power- I Gotta Groove
Grace Jones- Inspiration
P-Funk All-Stars- Funky Kind( Knock it Down)
Isaac "Chef" Hayes- Simultaneous
Marvin Gaye- Come Get To This
Troublefunk- Woman of Principle
Kool & the Gang- She's a Bad Mama Jama
Rick James & Ike Turner- Love Gravy
Ray Manzarek- Begin The World Again
Stevie Wonder- Superstitious
George Clinton - Kredit Kard
Chris Spedding- Breakout
James Brown-Living in America

Saturday I spent four hours in gridlock and barely made it to the station in time to host Songs From the Big Hair, our weekly 1980's show. I had the pleasure of being assisted by my "trainee" Fontaine, who added some fresh air to my stale records. I used the air-quotes because Fontaine has been a DJ at another station for many, many years- in fact, she trained me as her summer substitute over a decade ago... by the end of the program she was running the show while my assistant Eric and I set up the studio for our musical guest - the wonderful Lauren Kendall - who played four fantastic songs on keyboard, voice and cello accompanied by her man Blake on percussion. Not only did they sound great, they also came prepared with gear and good-natured humor that helped soothe my white-knuckled nerves. Kudos to musicians who carry microphones with them- special thanks to L&B for the cables and to Fontaine for the tunes!

Big Hair:

Danielle Dax- Inky Bloaters
Gary Numan- Engineers
King Crimson- Model Man
Fleshtones- Girl From Baltimore
Opal- Magick Power
Crack The Sky- Lost in America
Dead Kennedys - Viva Las Vegas
Bad Brains- Re-Ignition
Sonic Youth- Hotwire my Heart
Siouxsie and the Banshees- Arabian Knights
XTC- Wake Up
Tom Tom Club -Genius of Love
Mission of Burma- That's When I Reach For My Revolver
King Crimson- Elephant Talk
X- White Girl
Tupelo Chain Sex- The Revolution Will Be Televised
Snakefinger- Kill the Great Raven
Talking Heads- The Great Curve
The Soft Boys - I Got the Hots
Keith Le Blanc - But Whitey/Einstein
The Cramps - Garbageman
The Blasters - I'm Shakin'
Pere Ubu - We Have the Technology
Magazine - The Honeymoon Killers
The Fall - Copped It
Pixies - Tony's Theme
Dream Syndicate - That's What You Always Say
Run DMC - Mary, Mary
Udokotela Shange Namajaha - Awungilobolele

By the time I was finished with Lauren's show I was exhausted and starving, having not had a chance to eat all day, so I said fuck the diet- I got myself some fried chicken and went home, did bongs and watched the Sci-Fi channel. Maybe it was the weed, but does Sci-Fi's original programming consist entirely of monsters eating bikini models? I didn't even notice when one movie ended and the next one began- all I know is that if you hike in the rain-forest wearing a g-string you will be eaten by dinosaurs.

I wanted to dream about the g-string models-sans dinos- but I barely had time to sleep at all before I had to rush back down to the studio at 6:30am to fill in for he-who-shall-not-be-named, who had * ahem* overslept.
Then, of course, my own weekly show.

The New Breakfast Snob:

Raput & The Sepuy- Up, up and away
The Scramblers- Mister Hot Rod
Circle Makers- Circles
Eleanor McCovey- Whisper and a Prayer
Victor Banana- Stall Genie-Gooseneck Hollow
King Crimson- Thrak
West of Eden- Hide and Seek
Rosemary Woods- Everywhere I Go
Clann an Drumma- Visedail
Velvet Underground- Sunday Morning
Fiona Joyce- Cry Over You
Siobhan Skates- Short a Penny
The Kinks- Village Green Preservation Society
Grace Slick & Paul Kantner- Ballad of the Chrome Nun
Loreena McKennitt- Caravansrai
Claanad- Why Worry?
Briege Murphy- The Sea
The Stranglers- Midnight Summer Dream
Marianne Faithfull- Witch's Song
Pentangle- Springtime Promises
Jethro Tull- Fat Man
Jefferson Airplane- Rock Me Baby
Little Feat- Fat Man in the Bathtub
Slick & Kantner- Fat
Captain Beefheart- This is the Day
PrettyThings- Goodbye/Going Downhill
Graham Central Station- Ole Smokey
10 CC- Sand in my Face
Mike Watt- Against the 70's
Tom Verlaine- Always
King Crimson- Ladies of the Road
PJ Harvey- Workin' For the Man
Can- Soup


Now for my next trick: some serious nap inaction.

Vinyl Is For Giving

My selection of vinyl may have some pops and scratches , but it will never give away my name or email and it will never turn me over to the FBI for sharing it with the world.
Vinyl is permissive.
Vinyl is forgiving.

This weekend's first show, Songs From The Big Hair (the 80's ):

The Damned- Street of Dreams
Derek Sunshine sez: "The Damned are like a real-life Spinal Tap. They changed image with whatever they thought was cool- punk, goth, metal...whatever". Well, I'll be...

XTC- This World Over
Great post-apocalyptic ballad about a father and son visiting a crater.

Snakefinger- Kill the Great Raven (Live)
"You can call me Phil. Or Snake. Either one." Snakefinger said that to me after his only Richmond show. Then we got stoned for hours. A month later he was dead.

George Clinton- Airbound
Let's put this Clinton in the White House. The Mothership Connection is funkadelicious and peaceafied.

Scorpions- Every Minute, Every Day
Back in high school, if you had told me that one day I would be playing this album on the radio,
I would have said: "What? I can't hear you! I'm in the backseat and you have the fucking Scorpions blasting my ears out!"

Motorhead-I'm the Doctor
"You'll feel better if you take these little pills/I'll give you sixty bottles/I believe in overkill..."

Danielle Dax- White Knuckle Ride
"Crazy little Charlie took a trip on an airplane/With his hands full of triggers as he flew into the sun..."

King Crimson- Heartbeat
One of my old bands once opened up for Adrian Belew's 'Bears'. Belew wouldn't deign to speak to us, but their bass player did. We gave him a tape. After the show, we were loading our van and the window of his tour bus opened. Our tape came whizzing out and landed on the sidewalk. It was depressing.

Talking Heads- Born Under Punches
But hey, I can't hold a grudge that long. Belew is all over this album.

The Kinks- Catch Me Now, I'm Falling
I saw this tour. I was in 9th grade. Awesome.

Pere Ubu- Ice Cream Truck
Disgruntled Mid-West anti-pop.

Golden Palominos- Omaha
Is that what's-his-face from REM? Is that the drummer from David Letterman's old band? I dunno.

Magazine- The Great Man's Secrets
Psst...c'mere. I have something I wanna tell you.

Adrian Belew- The Momur
Dude. See how magnanimous I am? Bask in my benevolent forgiveness, you fuckin' twanger.

Coffin Break- Diane
These guys used to play in Richmond quite often. They were always too loud, but I liked them anyway. Scary song.

Robyn Hitchcock- Slipping in the Midnight Fish
Yeah, I know I recently played this on my other show, but I really get a subversive, perverse thrill from it. Indulge me, eh? This is one of several songs from today's list that features sardines. I'll send a bag of money to whomever finds them all.

Lou Reed - Turn Off The Light
Yeah, I know I play a lot of Lou Reed. I can't help it. It's an addiction.

Crack The Sky- Big Money
I am the dogs of war, I am the cocaine whores
Who eat the life from you, I am your wildest dream...
Big Money will set you free

Asia- Ten seconds of hell for which Messrs. Howe, Wetton and Palmer will never be forgiven

I saw this band in concert and watched in amazement as a group of hippies stood up in the front row, gave the band the finger and stormed out. The show was that bad. It really was.
A few years later, I was telling my new hippie roommate about that concert- he told me that it was he who had flipped the bird. He was also dating my high school GF at the time. Small world. Too fucking small.



Grace Jones- Everybody Hold Still
To me, this is a Sly and Robbie album that Grace Jones sings on.

Mother Gong- The Upwardly Mobile Song
Robots and Yuppies. Spot the difference.


Tom Verlaine- Postcards From Waterloo
Tom was in Television, not on television.



Opal- Revelation
What a cool album. Remember the Dream Syndicate?

Wire- Ahead
Geez, I like Wire. I suppose I can forgive them for helping spawn 'house' music. Maybe.

Replacements- Black Diamond
It's a Kiss cover.

Elvis Costello- Watch Your Step
Too late. My foot is in it.

The English Beat- Sugar and Stress
Were you a rocker or a mod or both? I walked both worlds and still do. It's a tight wire.

The Stranglers- It's a Small World
Yes, it is.

My Bloody Valentine- Lose My Breath
This pre-emo CD has really fuzzy album art. It sounds blurry too. I thought I'd enjoy hearing it again, but it really annoyed me. Ah, well.

Tom Waits- 16 Shells from a 30.06
"I'm gonna whittle you into kindlin'"



That's all for Saturday.

Sunday morning I got up at 6am and did another show.
I've been doing a dawn show every Sunday for eight months. I must be nuts.


The New Breakfast Snob:

Funkadelic- Freak of the Week
Shit! Goddamn! Get off your ass and jam!
Fuck. Can't play that song...I'll play this one instead.

Tranquility Bass- 5 Miles High
I don't know much about these guys . It sounds like they smoke lots of indoor weed.



Larry Graham- The Jam
"My name is Larry, Larry Graham, but you can call me...b'rooombapboommmp"
Jumpin' jaysus! It's like looking at Tom Jones with a 'Fro and a P-Bass, ya know what I mean?


The Who - Postcards
Postcards are a running theme this weekend. I am having a lovely time and I do wish you were here.

Steeleye Span- The Lowlands of Holland
Postcards from Europe are a running theme this weekend.

Damien Dempsey- The Jar Song
"That's the way they came..."

The Flaming Groovies- She's Falling Apart
The Groovies get trippy and sad. On the original Kama Sutra vinyl.
Mmmm...Kama Sutra vinyl. That should be good for a few google hits.

Hot Tuna- The Highway Song
This, to me, is a feel-good song. It's raining, but who cares?

Fairport Convention- Genesis Hall
Look, I've already 'fessed up about this stuff...

10 CC- You've Got a Cold
10 CC were a really clever band. Is that an Arp sneezing?

Talking Heads- Memories Can't Wait
Hear all that stuff? That sound? That's Brian Eno. Fear of Music is my favorite Heads album

Fiona Joyce-The Juggler
Usually you can judge a CD by the cover, but this song is the exception. Terrible cover art, but a beautiful song about a dude who can't keep his balls aloft.

Grin- You're the Weight
"Wanna sink my boat in your ocean..." What is that all about?

Alan Parsons Project- I Wouldn't Wanna Be Like You
This guy is the real brain behind Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side...Ampex+Parsons= Midas.

Curtis Mayfield- No Thing (The Cocaine Song)
"I'm so glad that I'm set free"
When I was a kid, I didn't know what this song was about. Now I do. I really do.

Lou Reed- Babyface
Oh my. That's not a happy song, is it?

Robert Fripp-Chicago
I would like a deep-dish pizza stuffed with Frippertronics. That would be my perfect meal.

The Stranglers- Tank
This should be used in Army recruiting ads..."drive your very own tank"
It never goes out of style.

Cream - World of Pain
Have you ever dropped acid and stared at the cover of Disraeli Gears? Whew...it's an eyeful of mind-candy.

The Kinks- Last of the Steam-Powered Trains
I can relate to the defiant obsolescence expressed in this song. I played it from the original vinyl, which is in glorious Monophonic.

Quicksilver Messenger Service- Pride of Man
Pickin' up on yesterday's thread of nuclear holocaust.

Captain Beefheart- Rock and Roll's Evil Doll
Scorpio.

Can- Mother Upduff
Another European postcard- a travelogue really. Considerable time is spent in Italy.

Crack the Sky- Maybe I Can Fool Everybody Tonight
"The last place I want perspiration odor is under my arms."

Be Bop Deluxe- Ships in the Night
"Without love, I am a desert". Camels live in deserts.

Jethro Tull- Thick as a Brick
Your what is in the where? How did it get there? Yuck.

Clannad- Love and Affection
Is that too much to ask for? A timeless question.

Jefferson Airplane- Wooden Ships
The line about the purple berries always reminds me of the balloon girl from the original Willie Wonka movie. What exactly did the Oompa-Loompas do with her?

Well, that's what I did this weekend. It's pouring rain this morning so I'm staying inside and taking a nap. I talked to my grannie and she sounds pretty good, so I can rest a little easier.
It's been a good weekend.
I hope you all had a good one too.

Security

I wonder what would happen if you tried to carry this aboard an airplane? I'd wager that you would miss your flight. I forget exactly what it is , but I do know that it's a harmless device, some sort of audio relay/processor. But how could you prove that to an over-zealous TSA security guard? You'd hear dogs barking and the sinister snapping of latex gloves.

I know what the object below is. It's my Boss BR-8 Digital Recording Studio. If I ever forget what it is, all I need do is look at it. It's labelled in print that isn't as blurry as this pic:

I also know what will happen if you try to bring this object on-board an airliner as carry-on luggage.
In fall of 2002, I flew to Chicago to visit my brother. Due to illness, I hadn't been able to play guitar for nearly two years and I was thinking I'd start again while I was on vacation, so I brought my portable studio. I was quite aware of the post 9/11 airport hell, but I figured, what the heck, I'll just stand in line with everyone that has a laptop. My device is pretty much the same size and shape as a laptop and is in a laptop case. It's got writing on it that explains what it is.

I reached the checkpoint and unzipped my bag. The guards went silent , save for the quiet gasp of the middle-aged woman who was checking bags.

"What...is...that?" , she asked, drawing her hands back involuntarily, as if afraid to touch it.

"It's a portable recording studio. You use it to record music. See, you plug a microphone in here,
and an instrument here and record just like on a cassette deck."
I helpfully pointed to the inputs that were labeled "mic/vocal" and "guitar/bass".

"That..is not a tape deck"

"No, see, it uses computer discs, it has a Zip drive."
I may as well have said that it was a remote control device for piloting 757's.

The red-coated woman used her radio, requested assistance. She waved a burly male guard over. The man escorted me aside and opened my suitcase, checked the contents.
He examined my shoes and waved a wand over me. He didn't seem frightened of me, nor did he act mean or abusive.
He just seemed bored. I had dull luggage and my shoes were less than thrilling.

He then escorted me back to the checkpoint where there were a half-dozen TSA guards and -get this- a soldier in full uniform , complete with assault rifle. They were all looking at my BR-8, except the soldier, who was instructing me to stand back.

Hoo.Boy.

I was afraid of being marched off, searched and interrogated, possibly deported or even covertly executed. The rest of the passengers were looking at me with suspicion...why do they have that guy standing over there, under guard?, I could feel them wondering.

Suddenly I heard one of the guards speak up. It was a youngish black man with his hair in neatl- arranged cornrows and wearing a necktie. He , unlike the other TSA personnel, looked competent. He was my savior.

"Hey. I know what that is. I have one at home. It's for music."

Ohhhh....whewwww....Ok...went the other guards. They conferred briefly, the young kid nodding a few times, pointing at my device. The soldier beckoned me forward.

I made my flight with five minutes to spare.

My BR-8 hasn't worked properly since that day.

Getting in Tone

My first true love was bright orange and had an insatiable appetite for 9 volt batteries.

Like myself, I considered that device to be indestructible- but it wasn't.

During a crappy club gig , one of the pitchers of beer that we were being paid with spilled onto my DS-1 pedal, drowning it, and it finally died. On stage.

If you know your EQ settings, you can look at the pic here and see what kind of music I was playing at the time. That heavy sound is impossible to get using a clean Fender Twin, but we went ahead and played anyway,
bringing the tempo down a bit and playing a set of what I
have since termed "Folk-Metal".
Because the songs were all originals, the audience didn't know that the tunes were not played the same way as we rehearsed them, but I sure did.

Without the safety net of my Boss buddy, I had to be very careful with my chords and notes. I learned a lot in that 45 minutes, and it was useful, if a bit humiliating.

It changed my whole approach to music. Before my pedal died, it would never have occurred to me to write a song that didn't use distortion throughout- everything was fast, furious and screaming loud.

I was very young and in a phase of punk rock rebellion against the Grateful Dead.

Earlier that year,I had been to a Dead concert stone sober and it was a musically traumatic experience.

As a kid, I'd seen dozens of Dead shows and I was tripping balls every time, but a few years had passed; I'd given up acid and switched to guitar as my drug of choice -I hadn't moved on to booze and cocaine yet.
No one had any weed that summer, so my pal Stick and I went to the show with no smoke. Stick was dosed on acid, but I was sober and fully aware- a terrible state to be in, considering where I was.

Holy shit...are they tuning up on stage or are they playing a song?, I wondered, listening to some wet, noodly envelope-filtered guitar blippage and erratic cymbal-tapping.

It must be a song, people are wiggle-dancing, I decided, looking around me. Stick was tripping so his opinion was useless.

Bob Weir started singing...oh, hell, they are playing Gloria and the crowd is going noodleshit crazy... "G-O-L-R-I-A"...

Golria? Did he just spell Golria? That sounds like a monster that Godzilla would fight: Godzilla vs. Golria, the Space Tyrant...maybe I imagined that he spelled that, here it comes around again...

"G-O-L-R-I-A", followed by twenty minutes of blappy, meandering guitar masturbation.

Yes, I know Garcia was a great player, but by this point in his sad life he was held in place by nothing and you could hear that emptiness. It wasn't until years later that I myself reached the place where Jerry was then.
Today, I understand.
Back then, I just wanted to go home and break my Dead records.

Fuck. Either they suck so bad that they can't play Gloria, or they are fucking up on purpose because they can- after all, who would notice?
The drugged audience was the Dead's safety net.

That was to be my last Dead show. A few years later, the Dead tours became the province of tragedy; audiences crushed to death, Garcia's ugly demise; things I wish had never happened. I did enjoy those earlier days and I hated to see it end like that.

In any case, after I was forced to play without my own safety net, I started paying more attention to what I was doing musically. I discovered the 'OFF' button on my FX and noticed that having some 'OFF' made the 'ON' really stand up and be heard.

Holy dualistic dynamics, Batman! I was onto something.

So when the old pedal died, I went looking for something more. Something with range and power. A weapon.

I did find what I needed, but I found it for the wrong reasons. I found it because I was angry and bitter , feeling betrayed by my childhood hero.

Jerry, I thought, you have chosen to suck and I hate you for it.

Today, those thoughts shame me.

The utter lack of empathy and compassion that I felt made it almost inevitable that I would fall into some serious traps- the same ones that Garcia fell into.
It doesn't matter how smart or talented you are, if you follow your demons instead of your dreams you will always succeed in catching them.
They catch you too, but they don't break your fall- they just break you.
If you let them.

I was changing my music, it was maturing and growing, but I was not. I was disintegrating slowly, a process visible through a time-lapse lens, but not in real-time. Eventually, I was wholly undone and by then it was nearly too late.

But I returned. When I did, I found my weapon waiting for me, only it wasn't a weapon any longer. The violence and the ability to hurt had left, making me wonder if they were ever really there- they were- and all that was left was my tone.
As complex and exciting as space travel and as simple and satisfying as a stack of really good buttery flapjacks. Tone!

I doubt if I'll ever perform live again, I don't have that drive anymore. It was powerful and I used it as best I could, but it never really worked out and after I returned to the world of the living, I found that words had become my main passion and my guitar playing had become less important...I mean, I had surgery on my left arm and couldn't even play for two years- I almost sold everything! It's a minor miracle of that I can even tie my shoes, much less play power chords.
But I can.

Funny thing is, now that I no longer care about being a hot-shot guitarist rocking some shithole club scene and I play only for myself, I play better than I ever have before.
It sounds good to me.
I have tone.
I've always had it.

The settings didn't alway match the music, just as my actions in life didn't always match my best interests, but the potential was always there. Still is.

Now, the sounds I need are only a few buttons away. Whatever my mood, I can find the tone that suits it, but I almost never record it anymore. I just check in with it to make sure it's still there, much in the way that good friends keep in touch between infrequent visits.

I have to wonder what would have happened to me if I found myself in Jerry Garcia's sandals? Would I have been able to give everyone everything that they expected from me and still hold on to myself? I doubt it.

Who wants to be worshipped?

Jerry didn't and he was. It killed him.

I did and I wasn't and it almost killed me.

Mistakes were made.

Today I want warmth. I want love and I want tone.

I don't need an audience. This isn't a concert.

This is a serenade.

Saved By The Bell

The robots have taken control of the station. In the movies there's always a kid genius who hacks into the network and saves the day at the last minute. Where is that kid now? I ain't him.

Band De Soleil- Woman on the Floor
This song is twelve minutes long, which makes it a great one for playing when things are breaking down.
Michelle Malone makes her guitar weep in the language of wah and I wish I could play this song louder but I'm busy troubleshooting...I'm forced to call outside help and that is not something I am used to doing or enjoy much. A phone call is made and order is restored during D. Bigay's drum solo. Anyway, I'm listening to it now because I missed it on Sunday.

Replacements - Kick Your Door Down
Having to deal with misbehaving computers at 6:30 am pisses me off and makes me wanna play my punk rock records. "Your radio is playing way too loud and it don't sound like me!"
Goddammit, it should sound like me! Turn that shit UP.

The Kinks- This is Where I Belong
I need this song to help get me back in the here. It's not long enough. Close.

Pretty Things- Passion of Love
This isn't even the song I wanted to play. I wanted to play Not Givin' In...fuck, this new song sounds like the Pretties circa 1965- not 2000ish. I liked them best in 1968-1971.

Jefferson Airplane- Feel So Good
This is from an Airplane LP but it's really just Hot Tuna in disguise. Go, Jorma, go!

Television- Friction
Many years ago, the bar I worked at had enough musicians employed to form a cover band for the X-mas party. One of the other guitarists chose this song- I was just a beginner and the guy gave me a copy of the LP Marquee Moon. I was advised to listen. I did. I still have that LP. Just played it...
"I start to spin the tale/ you complain of my dick -shun/
You give me friction/F-R-I-C-T-I-O-N"
(thank you Billy- wherever you are)

Lou Reed - Nowhere at All
I'm still in a sour mood and need this sort of song to settle me down by pumping me up- I goddamn love Lou Reed..."somebody's got to help me".

Damien Dempsey- Marching Season
Am I the only American who knows who this guy is? He's fookin' great and if you have an 8am mad-on at the world, then this is the perfect song for you. Honk!

Jethro Tull- Acres Wild
Today I skipped work and got a copy of my birth certificate, which is required to obtain a passport, which I will need if I ever want to see what Ian Anderson is singing about. And I do.

Clannad- Struggle
Isn't it a struggle? Of course it is. So what? Play on.

Fairport Convention- Walk Awhile
Tomorrow my car goes into the garage for inspection and a (hopefully) minor repair.

The Stranglers- Who Wants the World?
Fuck, I don't know. I live inside my head.

Manzanera/Eno/801 Live- Miss Shapiro/ You Really Got Me
One of the best unknown live albums ever.Brian Eno singing the Kinks...this came out before that Van Halen silliness.

Gentle Giant- As Old As You're Young
Are you as old as you seem? You are? Excellent.

Genesis- Lilywhite Lilith
"The chamber was in confusion.." are the first words to this song- it's what I thought of when I walked into the studio this morning- took me a while to get it cued, but the fade segued perfectly into the chanting at the beginning of the next song, an accident of fortune, or something more?

Loreena McKinnett- The Mystic's Dream
Gorgeous. Calms me down, gotta make some announcements...let's pick up the pace.

Chris Spedding- Breakout
"When the music breakout..." Doin' the slow-pogo (slogo) around the booth, don't wanna make the record skip..."we've been psychedelicized/ we've had our booties re-fried"

Joe Strummer- Get Down Moses
This is on CD so I can jump up and down as much as I want to, which is a lot.

Hawkwind- D Rider
Whoa...I can still feel the acid I took back in 1984...this album was old then. Being able to play this on the air is a truly sublime thrill for me.

Can - Dizzy Dizzy
Yeah, back to my theme of spontaneous disorientation...man, I just can't quite click. My clever ad libs turn to gibberish- luckily, it all makes sense in the context of Can.

Steve Hillage- Unidentified Flying Being
Gong- I Never Glid Before
Steve's a saucer nut and Gong have an entire mythology of their own, complete with Pot-Head Pixies and Teapot Taxis so pretty much anything I say about them sounds crazy...in a very good way. Steve Hillage was THE Gong guitarist...Alan Holdsworth might've been the better player, but Hillage had the sound. I'll take the sound.

Klaatu- Calling Occupants...
What the hell made me play this? I remember someone telling me this band was the Beatles in disguise...turns out it was some studio hacks from Canada. I think that Captain and Tennille or maybe the Carpenters (or both?) covered this song. No matter who played it, it's annoying the shit out of me.

Blue Oyster Cult- Kick Out The Jams
Dammit, this is more like it! Sure wish I still had my MC5 vinyl.

Be-Bop Deluxe- No Train to Heaven
Bill Nelson is so, like, totally underrated...he's tried all sorts of styles- even wearing makeup like Bowie- but nothing hides the fact that he's a guitar nut at heart. Dude likes to solo- as well he should.

Bob Dylan- Long Distance Operator
PJ Harvey- Send His Love To me
You either get this or you don't. I'm hoping that you do.

Talking Heads- Paper
I think this song is about my friend X's new dog and his attempts at house-breaking it.
"don't think I can get it- on the paper/ don't think I can fit it - on the paper"
Dude. Some things they pass right through.

Anyway, my show was a mess and I left feeling all scrambled,it was only 9AM, but it set my tone, so to speak...I was in a jumbled funk all day. I played guitar, tried to blog, took a long walk...nothing helped. It was just one of those long, useless days.

This feeling carried over into this morning. I just couldn't function at all.

I could barely manage to call in sick.

When I hung up, I felt better. I really do think my (paying) job is very bad for my mental health...hanging in for now...anyway, I didn't want to waste today. Yesterday was bad enough.

One of the good/bad things about being a (unpaid) DJ/Programmer is having to review CD's. We get a LOT of CDs at the station and someone has to listen to them, evaluate the songs and make suggestions (if any) on what to play. Sometimes this is great fun and sometimes it is sheer torture, but it needs doing.

I think I'm the only DJ we have that delves into Celtic music, so I wound up with a stack of "Celtic Journeys" CD's in my box. Hmmm...stock photography on the covers, looks like it's being marketed to New Age Soccer Moms, this doesn't look like it's going to make my goat float, if you know what I mean.

Surprisingly, I was able to find at least one decent song on each CD- except the one called "An Instrumental Journey" , which, were it a screenplay, would likely be written by Alan Smithee. In the UK, an elevator is referred to as a "lift". That CD is "lift" music. Ugh.

One CD featured a song called Cry Over You by Fiona Joyce, whom I had never heard of
before. It's the last track on the last CD I reviewed and it made the whole ordeal worthwhile.
Ms. Joyce is a beautiful singer and this song is a heart-breaker for sure, but what really turned me on- what made me save the song as a .wav file and not as an mp3- was the sound of the cymbals, the uncredited drummer's touch on the bell of the cymbal is captured perfectly, changing just so , following the words...a drum machine can't do that.

Beautiful.

It was worth listening to four hours of Druid Muzak to get to that bell. That bell was ringing for me.
I needed it and there it was.

Magic.