Children of Misery: 2020 Sounds & Visuals

 

Didn’t get around to doing the annual summer mixes until year’s end, so they’re fairly indicative of what I was listening to. Only did two this time (a road trippin’ theme never felt right for obvious reasons): bbq and cruisin' jams.

Lots of stuff from the cutting room floor was in constant rotation. Listened to a ton of Nikki Giovanni and Audre Lorde. Plenty of ha has from Jay Jurden Y’all, Who the Hell is Dwayne Kennedy? & Weakness is the Brand. Open Mike Eagle lived my (and I’m sure many others’) dream by interviewing Prince Paul for an entire season of podcast eps. Was also great to learn about Toshi Reagon’s love of Octavia. And I’m always a sucker for fresh Mike Davis content, so this trillbilly chat was a treat.

The best thing I saw—not just in 2020, but in a while—is a generation of youths have a collective lightbulb moment about our carceral culture. Fucked up, f’sure, but happy they have a better sense of how off-course the ship is and where they need to steer it towards.

Otherwise, I didn’t see much worth writing about. We didn’t have the pandemic experience of tucking in and learning new skills or some shit. The main things I ‘watched’ were listenable (and, quite often, tried & true) videos that I would turn on as comfort listening while doing chores. So, loads of Desus & Mero (only the occasional wormhole detour) and talking to myself あっきーさん. john powell & bell hooks came correct. Ocean Vuong is ridiculously talented—and he’s sharing a stage w/ Jacqueline Woodson. Sophia Leung ftw. Btw, I still think Problem Areas season 1 should be required viewing for anyone that comes with that Defund the Police = socialism shit. And thank the content gods for giving us druncle ‘Kiss on the ‘gram.

Screentime generally meant family time, so we had lots of アルプスの少女ハイジ, しまじろうのわお, Molly of Denali, Dr. スランプ, 忍者ハットリくん, ドラえもん, テラスハウス, Hilda, ハイキュー!!, SLAM DUNK, Harvey Girls Forever!, はたらく細胞, からかい上手の高木さん. We exported びじゅチューン！ clips (all of Inoue Ryo’s work is highly amusing) to our constant delight.

Liner Notes v.3 Blahcast

Found these in a box. And, yes, that's Cats & Ozzy

Liner Notes v.3

Coming home from +DRAWING+MODEL+MUSIC+BEER+ last night I got the news. I pulled into a bar to watch the telecast. Felt helpful to experience the moment of surprise and shock with others -- in addition to the discomfort of being around misplaced enthusiasm.

I woke up today listening to my usual line-up of Monday morning podcasts: WTF, MMPC, the Bugle. Most aren't necessarily political, but I still inexplicably wanted them to speak to the recent turn of events. Of course, all were recorded prior to Sunday night. Not sure what I would have expected anyway.

I feel sheepish talking about the pod/blahcast. But I'll get over it.

I finally gave it a name: "Liner Notes." And, like my blahg, I'm calling it a blahcast. I'm still talking about chunes that I'm digging. And I aim to whittle down the playlist so I can get more in-depth about a small handful of songs. But I had a backlog of material from the entire month of April, so I burned through tracks on this one. There's some +DRAWING+-related material from the "Hi Lo Hi" night. There's also some wordy rappinghood courtesy of Monch and Gab. And there was even time for Paul McCartney's ukulele jam "Ram On."

Listen in: it's a new day, same as yesterday.

I'm Active

Feelin' SWAG

March 2011: Side A

I love pawdcasting. Spin tracks. Chat onna mic. Spin more tracks. Praise. I love it. A much-needed break from studying.

Still a few technical glitches. Unfortunately, my mixer can't push the mic volume higher. And I recorded this while Thee B was sleeping (or at least trying to), so I couldn't go Fisticuffs up in the crib. That probably resulted in some self-consciousness and sounding scattered, but no matter. This is too much fun!

Drop a few lines, let me know what you think. And, as promised, a link dump!

* 1972 Kinks documentary (via Dangerous Minds)

* Uh, that Ponytail jawn was "Easy Peasy."

* Thee Mike B's Heaven 17 post.

Ride My Pony

not your ordinary podcast

liners: febrA 2011

It's been roughly 10 years since I've done radio. There have been a few rewinds -- those sessions for East Village Radio in its early days, and the behind-the-scenes work for WNYC -- but I've been absent behind the mic for a while.

Man, I have missed it.

There's talk talk on the second edition of the still unnamed sound journal/podcast thing. Oh, technology! In case you don't remember, it's a biweekly digest of chunes on rotation in these parts -- this time, songs from the first half of February. Don't worry: no Valentines schmaltz. It feels more natural to chat a little, listen a little, then move on. Still a bit longer than expected (25 minutes), but enough for a short commute, right?

Please, send comments, questions, etc. I want to hear your thoughts on what you like, don't like, suggestions for a title... I know, the vocals are way Too Low. I pinky promise to get it right next time, aight?

And for the record: Animal Collective's "My Girls." And The World of Arthur Russell on Soul Jazz.

Be A Good Sport

For a couple weeks in January this is what I was digging.

I go batty writing all day, so I'm starting a biweekly(-ish) mix series. I'm listening to new music all the time, but the ones that stick in my craw often come up through research. Plus, figured this would be a way to journal what I'm actually liking over the course of the year -- something that never really comes across whenever it comes time to do year-end lists, which usually focuses on new music only.

No guarantees or structures. Sometimes it will be a buncha tunes. Sometimes it will be one tune. I'll try to do this every two weeks or so. Keep the work manageable for me and the blends digestible for y'all.

The first one comes with liner notes, which can also be found in the "Lyrics" field. iPhone users should be able to see this automatically.

Anyway, let me know what you think!

Floyd Cramer "On the Rebound"
* I stopped seeing a lot of films in the theaters, thinking I'll wait 'til the disc hits the public library shelves. It's like a socialist new music Tuesday. I kid. Glad I waited for "An Education." Hey, there's the wedding crasher! Liked Carey Mulligan, but the story is a bit light. Then again the film kicks off with this country-soul instrumental. What more can I say?

Hosono Haruomi "Sportsmen" & YMO "Rap Phenomena"
* I am really kicking myself for not picking up all those YMO LPs back in the day. Can't have it all, right? The country version of "Sports Men" above is pretty bizarre.

Burial "Raver" & Kode9 "9 Samurai"
* Preparing for an interview with producer Kode9, I checked out his Hyperdub label's catalog. As usual, I'm behind the times and hadn't known about Mercury Prize-winning artist Burial and the whole mystery behind his identity. All of which is less interesting than this intensely moody and weird music. I really liked Kode9's 2009 single "Black Sun." Weird, bending synths and skittering beats. These two tracks put it in context.

Killer Mike "Burn"
* Hearty raps over peak-tweaking Funkadelic breaks. I loved Funkadelic when I was in high school, though most of it went over my head. Lovely to be able to revisit it.

Nigel Godrich "Bass Battle"
* More library action. Wish I saw Scott Pilgrim in a theater, though. Love this "battle" b/c it sounded like it was fun to record. Really into Scott's Bad Brains-ish lick.

Japandroids "1297 Heavenward Grand Prix"
* The Mountain got into this group, so I had to give in. Noisy, poppy, good beats.

Daedelus "Femme Fatale"
* Disco askew. Eghk.

PJ Harvey "The Words that Maketh Murder"
* Patti Smith hearts this. Now it's hard for me to tell if I like this song b/c it makes me want to dance in my kitchen, or if I like this b/c it makes me think of Patti Smith dancing in her kitchen.